Leaving on a Jet Plane

I have been on overdrive since Thursday. I am leaving Monday for my trip to Orlando. I am super excited to go, but I have so much to finish here at home before I leave. It all started Thursday. I had a meeting after school with the rest of the teachers going to Orlando. I had to drive all the way into town for the hour long meeting then drive all the way back to school. I didn’t leave work until after 6:00! I haven’t done that since my first semester of teaching. Getting sub plans ready for one day is hard enough. Planning for an entire week is torture!
Friday I started the day with an interview at Central Office for summer school. It lasted all of three minutes. We had a fun day on Friday, but again, I didn’t leave school until after 5:00. That’s soooo late for a Friday!! I usually am out by 3:45!
Today I woke up and went straight to school (about 9:00). I finished typing up my plans for each day and got everything ready. I hope I didn’t forget anything! My sub is teaching long multiplication. That is such a hard skill for fourth graders, and they usually get very frustrated. I am praying that this year they will ALL just “get it.” After I finished my plans, I came home and worked for a couple of hours on my graduate school homework. This class is much harder than my previous two. I have a 90% so far and that makes me nervous!
Bran went duck hunting this morning while I was tying up all my loose ends. He was ready for a nap when he got home. After I finished up my homework, we laid down and slept for almost three hours. It was lovely. We then went to his parents house to eat pizza and a cookie cake for Bran’s birthday. Our nephew Jaxon was there. He is two and is absolutely hilarious. After the party, we ran to TJ Maxx to return a dress I bought. I then bought a new bag to take as a carry-on, a new purse, dress, and Bran got a new hat and sweatshirt. We also had to make another stop to get a friend’s birthday gift. Our last stop was Hastings so Bran could rent a movie he wanted.
When we finally got home, I started laundry and cleaning. There is no way I can leave for Florida with my house a disaster. And it truly is a disaster. Ever since our bathroom renovation, I haven’t exactly gotten it all cleaned up and together.
Speaking of my bathrooms, they are almost done! In the master, I just need a rug and the trim put back up. In the hallway bath, I need trim and a mirror. So here are the pictures!
Master:




Hallway:


It makes me so happy that is SO close to being completely finished!!!!
So now it is almost midnight. I am about to take my weekly test for my class. Tomorrow, I will have to take my mid-term. I am nervous about that. After church, I am going to have to do all of my laundry, clean the entire house, bake an apple pie, buy groceries for Bran, and pack. *sigh* I guess I can always sleep on the plane! I just wish those progress reports would fill themselves out!

Winter Retreat

I am sitting in a hotel room at the beautiful lodge on Mt. Magazine. Bran is unfortunately is another room watching some MMA fights, but he should be back shortly. Since he’s gone, I thought I would post a few pictures I took today.

Here is the back of the lodge. Our room is waaaay to the right hand side of the picture.

Here is the amazing view. I’m so lucky to live in such a beautiful state. We are at Mt. Magazine because Brandon is participating in his mixed martial arts winter camp. He has gone to several different classes today and has basically been in training all day long. He is having a lot of fun. I, on the other hand, have been in my room doing homework and cat-napping. It has been very nice to get away for a little bit.


We got all gussied-up tonight for his banquet. I must say that all the guys clean up nicely! Bran will be in classes until late tomorrow afternoon, so I will be checking out of our room and heading back home. I have to go up to school to get some work done. It’s been a nice weekend away though!

Stomach Bug

Oh. My. Goodness. I don’t ever want to be my toilet’s best friend EVER again! Bran woke up sick yesterday morning. In the six years we have been together, I have never seen the man have anything more than a cold. I felt so bad for him.  I was able to go to work, but as soon as I got home, I was so sick. I won’t go into all the details, but for real, it’s been rough at my house! I had to take a sick day today. I was told I had a really good sub, thank you Jesus! However, I missed class picture day. That makes me so sad. I haven’t gotten sick since this morning, so I will venture off to work tomorrow. I just hope I get some energy soon. I feel so weak.

So this was the most disgusting post ever. I don’t know why I felt the need to write it. So sorry…

A Few Changes

Our bathrooms are soooooooooo close to being completed! The last little bits are actually up to us. We have to seal the grout, hang the curtain in the master, paint another coat in each bathroom, sand and paint the vanities, and install the trim. I am hoping to get most of that completed this weekend. We’ll see…. With my master courses starting this week and a big load of school stuff to complete, I am a busy girl. Thankfully we have Monday off for MLK day.

Here’s the masterpiece! I am so pleased with the way it turned out!!

Our contractor helped Bran install our new dining room light that Bran bought me for Christmas. It was a pain to install… However, it looks even better than I thought it would!! He is only charging me a homemade apple pie and a gallon of BlueBell ice cream for his electrical work.

This isn’t the best picture… but you get the idea! Our dining area just entered 2011. ha! Now we just have to patch the hole in our ceiling from the old fixture… Um… I will be googling that later!

In other news, I have some great opportunities coming up in
my career. I have been invited to a technology conference in Orlando with a few other people in my district at the end of this month. I’m super excited about that. Today I found out I will even get my own room! I know I will learn all about amazing ways to use technology in my classroom and make some new friends. I have to lead a parent meeting at my school when I get back. Hopefully that will go well!  Also, I got an email from our region’s co-op. I taught a class there last summer. I don’t know exactly what will eventually pan out, but I have some amazing opportunities with that connection. I hate to add more work to my already full plate, but it’s so hard to say no to things you love to do… Just pray that it will all work out!

Snow Day!!

I am so excited!! School is canceled tomorrow! It’s still snowing and the roads are extremely slick by what my friends on Facebook are saying. My wonderful, amazing, extraordinary husband went to the store to pick up a few things for me, and he said he was sliding on the roads. And that was a few hours ago! I love snow days!!

Hubs and I have been drinking some hot chocolate in celebration in one of my favorite wedding gifts.

I know that to people that live in the northern part of the country thinks this is a ridiculous amount of snow to cancel school for. However, in the south, this is a lot! haha!

Bran and I went up to visit my parents this weekend. My sister did my hair. It looks pretty wild…. It is copper with a big blond streak in the front. I spent some time with my little nephew Drew and my mom and I went shopping. She bought me a new shower curtain, shower rod, hangers, and bathmat. She's the best mom! I am so ready for my house to be in order…. Oh, I don’t think I’ve blogged about our house yet.

Well……… My house is completely crazy right now because we are remodeling the bathrooms! Here’s some pictures of what has been going on.

These are the only before pictures I have. The first pic is of our master bathroom with our grody shower. The second pic is of our hallway bathroom.

demolition

master bath ( I know, it’s small…)

hallway bath

new color in the hallway bath

New tile, light fixture, and countertop in the hallway bath. It’s getting there…

The master bath still has a long ways to go, so I will leave the majority of those pictures for another post. It is getting painted tomorrow. I am off to enjoy my night/day off!

Welcome 2011!

I am so excited for this year. I think it will be the best one yet for Bran and me. 2010 was a pretty good year as well though. I was trying to think of all of the highlights from last year…. paying off the truck, developing a financial plan with the hubs, starting my masters, beginning my third year teaching, and Bran won his two mma fights. I have also enjoyed playing with my little nephews Drew and Jaxon. They are both at an incredible age. God was awesome to us in 2010.
I have a few resolutions for this new year. However, I don’t feel like sharing all of them. The biggest is, of course, losing some weight. Since I will be in Hawaii in six months, I have some fantastic motivation. In fact, my friend Dara is coming to my house every morning at 6 am to do Zumba. I have also been working out after school with some other teachers. We have been doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. My other biggie is reading the Bible through in a year. Bran and I tried last year, but we failed. Hopefully we will do better this year!

To ring in the new year, some of my girlfriends came over to my house. I made some potato soup for dinner, then we went bowling. I hate bowling. Mostly because I am a terrible bowler and partly because it hurts my hand. But we had fun nonetheless. We came back to the house and indulged in some chocolate fondue, played Catchphrase, watched the ball drop, and had a dance party. It was great fun. God has blessed me with some truly special relationships. I am so grateful.

Good times… Good times…
And for good measure, here is a recent picture of Mason and me.

I hope God blesses each and everyone of you this new year!