Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas!

It's holiday time!  Let's talk about what's happened since October, shall we?

October saw the birth of my first niece, miss Kyleigh. She came in pretty early, so that was a little scary, but everything went well and she is just a normal little baby now.  She's super tiny, but she's perfectly healthy.  :)  Halloween was in October, too, but Jay and I didn't do anything for it.  We didn't carve a pumpkin, attend a party, or get dressed up.  We did, however, both go to work. :-/  School the following day was fun, though.  Those kids were so hopped up on sugar!  Also, I got the reject candy--which included Reese's peanut butter cups!!  What?!

November was, of course, Thanksgiving.  I had the entire week off from school, but I don't remember doing much relaxing.  My mom and I went out shopping on Black Friday, but we didn't get up super early; we went out at about noon, and it wasn't really very crazy.  It was a little busier than normal, but we weren't fighting people off or anything.  If we had, though, I'd have gone home: I don't play that game.  I also got to see my Brittany in November!  We went for pedicures, had lunch, went out for dinner, and just felt like old times.  :)  It was quite lovely.

This month, December, has been rather busy.  My mom, my sister, and my husband have birthdays this month (in that order), and, of course, there's Christmas--needless to say, I've done a lot of shopping between Thanksgiving and now.  My students finished their semester on Wednesday, and they took semester exams in all their classes.  I didn't get to write my semester exam because the whole district uses the same exams, so I was kind of nervous about that.  But it was out of my control, so why worry, right?  :)  I'm still enjoying teaching, and I still really enjoy working with my co-workers!

Somewhere in all this, Jay and I started really looking for a house.  Our lease is up in March (finally!), so we're ready to become homeowners... we're pretty sure.  We've done a lot of looking, and even made an offer.  We didn't end up buying the house upon which we made an offer, so we're still looking.  We've seen several houses and liked a few of them, but we've only made that one offer thus far.  Jay loves looking at and for houses, but I don't love it.  I just want to find the house, and then furnish and decorate it.  I'm already looking at couches and thinking about paint colors!  Pinterest, of course, has become like a crack of sorts--there are so many cool decorating and crafting ideas there!!  I show things to Jay all the time, but he's pretty sure we should have a house before I start planning how I decorate.   Gah.

Our Christmases were wonderful!  We got to continue the tradition of waking up early (like 6:15) with my parents and Katie's family at my parents' on Christmas morning (even though this year we celebrated on the 23rd because Katie and Jeff went to Houston to visit his family), and we also got to hang out with Jay's parents and sister and brother-in-law on Christmas eve.  We had a great time with our families, and it continued into today.  Since the Gregsons and the Shives had already done all their respective gift exchanging, neither family had any Christmas plans.  Jay's parents came to my parents' house, and we ate lunch together and then the boys watched The Town while the girls crafted.  I really enjoyed spending the last few days with my families.  :) 

Hopefully, your season has been wonderful as well.  Merry Christmas! 

Houses

There are so many houses for sale.

And there are so few houses that I/we want to purchase.

Life is in Full Swing

Well, I'm 9+ weeks into school this year, the Rangers are in the World Series, my dad's and Jay's and Jeff's and James's softball team (all one team) is in the playoffs for their league, it's cool out... life is good.  Minus the fact that I'm sick (again), and life is super good! 

Tonight, Jay's at the softball game, and I'm at home.  I'm not supposed to be outside in this weather with my stuffiness/sorethroatiness/coughiness.  *pout*  I'll let you in on a little secret, but you can't tell Jay: it's not that bad not being at the softball game.  I'm warm, and I have the DVR all to myself, and I read some of my current novel, and it's a pretty good night. 


At school, my kids are writing their first official narrative for me.  It's been a long time in the making.  I'm excited about it, and kind of nervous.  We've spent a long time setting this up and developing the events, so I really hope that's evident in their narratives.  *fingers crossed!*

In other news, I'M AN AUNT!  Yeah, yeah, yeah: that's "old" news.  Kyleigh was born October 2, but I've been busy and unable to blog about it.  Anyway, she's super cute and I'm really excited!  I have all the excitement of a child in my life without any of the diapers.  :)  WOO!

Of course, Kyleigh arrived early, and I have a theory as to why (Jay's mom helped me develop it!): Katie and Kyleigh conspired for an early arrival because I hadn't been working on the quilt I promised.  Yep.  They did it to catch me off guard.  Well how about this: it's finished!  Yowza!  Diana and I spent twelve hours on it on Saturday--yes, you read that correctly: TWELVE HOURS.  Then, I went back Sunday to finish it up.  It's finished.  It's adorable.  It's wonderful.  I never would have finished it without Diana's help,as much as she may try to deny it. 

Eventually, I'll post a picture of the quilt, but not yet--Katie hasn't even seen it yet!  But trust me: when you finally get to see it, you'll be floored.  It's that awesome.

Whelp, that's all I've got for right now.  I'll try to keep my fingers ready to type out the next exciting adventures in my life.  :)

My, my, how time does fly!

I've decided to not even apologize for not posting in close to two months.  Things happen, I get busy, this blog becomes a non-priority.

Anyway.  School is going really well!  My kids are curious, and sweet, and chatty (which sometimes makes me crazy!), and they even--hold on, let me catch my breath here because I can barely believe what I'm about to say.  They even... ask me for homework!  It's pretty fantastic!  I'm sure that we're just in our "honeymoon phase," but I would love for this to continue.  So... kids, if you've somehow stumbled upon this blog... keep up the good work!  Every day is different, but I also sort of know what to expect?  Monday starts the sixth week of school.  Amazing, right?!  Gah.  It's gone by so quickly, and before I know it, they'll be visiting my room as seventh graders.  Well... some of them will; I'm sure a few will hope they don't have to see me ever again after this year. 

Want to see what my room looked like when I inherited it?  Feast your eyes on what are probably far more pictures than you ever thought necessary!

Standing at the door, looking to the left

Standing at the door, looking between left and straight ahead (like diagonally?)

Standing at the door, looking straight ahead

After I took down some of the stuff left in my room and unloaded some of the stuff I brought in, this is what it looked like:

Still day 1, looking sharply to the left

Still day 1, looking "diagonally" at the room

Still day 1, looking straight ahead when standing at the door; and I have a desk!!

Then I went home, and came back the next day.  This is how it looked after a little bit of work (I forgot to take progress pictures before I started working)

Beginning of Day 2

Beginning of Day 2

Beginning of Day 2

Beginning of Day 2, standing by the cabinet in the corner

Day 2, standing at the cabinet in the corner and looking at the door (obviously)

After that, it just got a bit neater and I wrote on the board.  I'll try to remember to take some pictures of what it looks like now, because it's still a little different.  It's working out well.  :)

Let's see.  What else has happened since last I wrote?  We went to Illinois, we hung out with some friends, we saw a few movies, we messed up and cleaned up our apartment, we did normal (boring) things.  Pretty uneventful. 

Oh wait.  Except for one thing.

WE WENT TO THE JOURNEY AND FOREIGNER CONCERT LAST NIGHT!!!!!

I absolutely loved the concert... the traffic, on the other hand, I did not enjoy.  The concert started at seven, and we sat in traffic so long that we didn't get to the venue until eight!  There were so many people at the concert and trying to get in, we were just waiting and waiting and waiting.  Unfortunately, we waited so long that we missed all of Night Ranger.  I was sort of okay with that, though, because the only song of theirs I know is "Sister Christian," and it's not really the best song in the history of the world, you know? 

I did, however, feel kind of sad that we missed the first song Foreigner played ("Double Vision," in case you're wondering), but that was the only one we missed. We found a spot on the lawn, put down the blanket, and sat down to enjoy the fantasticness.  I was so excited and so happy and so full of... of everything.  Was that night better than our honeymoon?  Probably not.  Is it a close second?  Definitely yes.  I was just blown away.  Ahh.  I'm still a little high off it.

AND!  Jay got me a sweet! Foreigner concert tee.  LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

But now, it's 10:42, so it's time for bed. 

I hope you've enjoyed this brief update.  Good night!

Huzzah!

It's been about a month since the last update... pretty standard for me.  :-/ (?)

Anyway, the last entry was all about our anniversary and what crafty things I've done/been doing this summer. (yeah, I had to check what the last entry was, and I was surprised to find the craft entry! i guess i'd totally forgotten about it!)  Well, unfortunately, not much else has happened in the line of craftiness.  I'm still reading blogs about crafts and I still have ongoing projects, but I certainly don't have any progress that I find worthy of bragging about and/or taking pictures of... which I guess would just be a way of visually bragging--so I'm back to having nothing crafty to brag about.

Something I do have to brag about?  My freaking awesome car!  Some (most?  all?  none?) of you know that in March, Jay traded in his Toyota Corolla, began driving my Ford Focus (I love you, Irma!), and that we bought--and I get to drive!--a new Honda Insight (her name is Harley, in case you're curious).  We get awesome gas mileage--I'm talking 42+ mpg, people!--and, I found out today, I'm doing pretty well on oil change frequency, even for the insight.  Since purchasing Harley* at the very end of March, I've/we've driven 8,600 miles.  Today, after some important meetings (more on that later in the post!), Harley had her very first oil change.  Isn't that amazing??  8,600 miles between oil changes!  The service man at the dealer said that I was getting great usage out of my oil, that he usually has to change it around 7,000 or 7,500.  Why is it "around?" you ask, Why isn't it predictable like every other car?  Well, the Insight has a computer thingamajig (sorry if I'm losing you in the technical lingo here) that measures the oil life.  When the oil life gets below 20%, a little message is displayed saying that the oil needs service soon.  I have no idea how or why this is the appropriate time to change the oil, but I like that I don't have to keep up with it, that Harley will tell me when she needs new oil, just like when she told me her tires were low.  I <3 Harley.

Earlier this week (yesterday and Monday, in fact) I attended some staff development sessions.  Wait... does that mean?  Yes!  It means I got a job!  And not just any job--but a job I really really want!  I have been hired at Bowie Middle School as a sixth grade language arts teacher!!  I'm super excited because this is the school where I did my student teaching last year, so I already know the population, the administration, my co-workers, and tons of other important things!  I had such a wonderful experience last year that I couldn't be more excited to be a full-fledged member of the Bowie team.  :D  ...And yeah, getting a paycheck will be nice, too.  ;-) (student teachers are unpaid interns)  Today, in my important meetings, I signed my contract, I was introduced to some benefits options, and I picked up my school laptop.  Needless to say, it was a pretty good day.  Before today, I was unofficially-officially hired.  What I mean by that is this: the school was ready to hire me, but HR hadn't done the paperwork or had me come in to sign my part of it. 

So, knowing that I'd eventually get to the paperwork part of the process, my administrators and department chair enrolled me in staff development for yesterday and Monday.  We learned all about our new curriculum and how to implement it and tweak it and rock it.  I'm really happy to be a new teacher this year opposed to other years, because while I am new to teaching, everyone is new to teaching this curriculum--so we're in similarish boats and we'll learn together. 

I'm also really happy about my job assignment because I found out that 2/3 of my classes are honors classes!  SO EXCITED!!  Sure, this means I have to plan a regular and an honors lesson every day, but we're a sixth grade team, so we'll do it together.  :)  I'm looking forward to it.

Add in a superawesome chick trip to Mississippi with wonderful women, and that's what's happened in the past month.  Taa-daa!  :-D 

 

*Why in the world did I name a Honda Insight "Harley"?  First, you should know that I like to name things, especially things that seem intelligent--cars, computers, printers, iPods (the only apple product that I own--Jay has other apple products, but they're not mine), etc.  I couldn't just arbitrarily pick out a name for my new car, it had to feel right and seem appropriate.  When we bought the Insight, the model and color I wanted wasn't in stock where we bought it, so we had to get a loaner car from the dealer.  When we finally got our car and returned the loaner, I forgot to get my insurance card out of the loaner.  Our dealer guy (Curtis, btw) called and told me, so I pulled over at the next available place so he could bring the insurance card to me; as it would happen, the next available parking lot was that of a Harley dealership.  Jay and I looked around, and he suggested we name the car Harley.  I liked it.  And now that's her name.

Crafty things!

disclaimer: the layout of this entry is weird, and i'm tired of messing with it.  weird it stays.

At one point or another in the past, I've mentioned crafts that I was making/planned on making/made.  I think I even promised pictures.  Some of you (maybe?) have been just dying to know what I've done.... well, maybe just somewhat curious.  Either way, here's the proof that I've actually done stuff!

First up: flowers.  I learned how to make these cute flowers, but didn't know what to do with them.  I started out by following the directions from a website that Jay showed me.  Then, I thought I'd be a rebel and do it differently!  Really, I just didn't much care for the alternating petal patterns. 

So I stopped alternating petal patterns and decreased the amount of petals.They turned out pretty cute, I thought.

Then, I decided to go back to an even number of petals and still not alternate patterns, but put a fancier button in the middle.  What could I do with these flowers, though??

Put them on shirts?  Yes.  Put them on bags?  Yes.  Pretty cute, right?  I think so.  And then, genius struck!  I COULD MAKE MUMS OUT OF THEM!!  At the end of the summer, I will have participated in three weddings and attended another. And I would have attended a second/fifth wedding for the year, but I went to Houston with my family for my sister's wedding shower.  I got to thinking that this is Texas, and we wear mums to homecoming, and make mums for baby showers, but not many people (or any people?) make/wear "mums" for weddings.  Well, not any more!  I can make them!  See?

First wedding mum--work in progress

My very first wedding mum.  It's not complete in this picture (the ribbons are just placed), and the $5 is to show scale.  I also don't know how to take pictures, so this is the best I have of this... and other pictures--before and after this one--of different crafts are really not much better if at all; oh well.

Anyway, though.  I made this first one and was very pleased with it

"I did more thinking"

I did more thinking, and came up with this one here.  How does this one show that I did more thinking?  I'll tell you: look at the back!  See those white stitches?  Rip those suckers and then you have detached the ribbons (which are attached to their own piece of fabric), and can now wear the flower as a pin, or on a bag, or in your hair, or however else you like!  Sweet!  I like this one the best, I think, because the colors are so fun.  Oh, and all the wedding mums I made were coordinated to the bride's wedding colors.  Cause I'm that good.

The back

So, all the mums were made... what now?  Anything else I can do with this leftover fabric I have?  Do I really need  more flowers?  Yes!  I put stems on them and used white buttons in the center, and voila!  The beginnings of a wedding bouquet!  I showed them to my cousin who is getting married next year, and now I'm getting to make all the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres for her wedding!  It's a big task, but I'm really excited about it.  I'm learning how to make other fabric flowers as well, so her bouquets will be filled with different flowers of different colors.  They're going to be beautiful!

Headed in a different direction, I started a quilt for my sister's baby.  I took on a pretty difficult pattern, and I have pretty much zero experience with quilting.  Who does have experience quilting?  Jay's mom!  And she's being super fantastic and helping me with every step of the process... and there are a lot of steps just to make the front of the quilt... we haven't even talked about the back yet!  Yikes!  I've packed up my dining-room-turned-craft-room a few times and headed to her place so that we could make work on the baby quilt.  Is it finished yet?  Nope.  I haven't really put much effort into in a while.  I keep thinking that I have a long time to make it, but I guess there will be a baby shower before the baby is born, so I'll really need to get cracking on the quilting.  ...I better call Jay's mom and make a quilting date with her!

Before my sister's baby is born and before she has a baby shower thrown for her, though, my best friend is moving from Texas to Connecticut.  :(  She's going for school and it's going to be great for her; and now Jay & I have a real reason to visit Connecticut!  (I'm focusing on the positives--not on the fact that she moved away.)  I couldn't let her leave without giving her a gift for her new place in her new state.  A long long time ago (I'm talking middle school, folks), I started making a quilt for her for her birthday.  Yeah.  That never got finished.  So I was going to give it to her for Christmas.  Still didn't happen.  I have no idea where that less-than-half-finished project is anymore, so I was hesitant to start another quilt for her.  Would I finish it?  Did I have time?  Would it look like poop?  The answers, respectively, are yes, yes, and--surprisingly--no!  Awesome!  I make this quilt with no help except creative input.  (Picking out the fabric is a huge stressor for me.  Seriously.  I don't know why.)

Once the pattern and fabrics were chosen, I cut out my pieces, laid them in an order I thought looked good, and then got to work on pinning and sewing the top.  Fortunately, I found this great website that takes you through the quilting process from start to finish.  I learned about basting (which I'd never even heard of) and how to make my own binding tape.  I worked on the quilt right up to the day of her going away party, and pulled it out of the dryer right as Jay and I were leaving for the party.  It turned out nicely, if I do so say so myself.  Sure.  The lines aren't all perfectly straight, but is any quilt perfect?  (Okay.  Lots of quilts are probably perfect.  All the quilts that Jay's mom makes look pretty perfect to me!  And so do my aunt's.  Just give me time, y'all; my quilts will get better!)  And my favorite thing about the quilt is that no one did any part of this for me!  (Except helping choose fabrics, of course.)  I'm pretty proud of it, can you tell??

Quilt front

Quilt back

So, that's what's happened in my world of crafts.  :)

Also, can you believe I've updated this blog twice in two days?  Woo!

A Whole Year!

Can you believe it?  It's been a full year since Jay and I stood somewhat nervously at the altar of our church and exchanged vows to love, honor, and cherish each other for the rest of our lives!  This first year of marriage--which people say is the hardest?--has been fantastic!  We've not killed one another, or really even come close... I don't think.  Certainly we've had disagreements and even arguments, but we're in no way calling it quits--or even thinking about calling it quits!  I think we've learned things about each other, and learned how to live with each other as well.  It's been a great year of marriage.  :D

Right after breakfast at home.  Still kind of early for me.  ;)

To celebrate our first year of marriage, we went with the traditional gift route: paper.  So, we'll be going to the Journey & Foreigner concert in September(!!!!!!!  YESSSSS!!!!!), and now own stock in Disney.  And Jay also got a pretty sweet shirt out of the deal.




Annnd!  On Sunday morning (our actual anniversary), Jay made waffles, bacon, and fresh-squeezed orange juice!!  It was sooooo delicious!  For lunch, we had wedding cake (and not a top layer that had been frozen for a year, but a fresh cake that our bakery made for us; yeah, our bakery was awesome!) and glasses of milk, which we ate and drank using our china.  :)  I love using the china!  Dinner was wonderful, as well.  We went to Simply Fondue and had way too much food that was super delicious.

When dinner was over, we went to a super freaking awesome hotel room that my mom got a great deal on!  (It's good to have friends in high places!)  Seriously, this place was bigger than our apartment.  For realz.  It even had two bathrooms!  No one had to wait to go!

On Monday, we walked around downtown Fort Worth a bit, then ate at Pizzeria Uno, and it was also good!  All-in-all, it was a wonderful wonderful anniversary and year of marriage.  :D