Hello, 2014

Just going to be honest... I feel like the only reason I crank out a blog post is in the event that Facebook/Instragram collapses and my pictures disappear.  I love this space but I've learned that I now have big girl responsibilities and priorities.  Therefore, the blog takes a backseat.  But every once in a blue moon, I'll show up on your news feed.  Today is one of those days! :)

 

--When we last "met," one of my best friends had just gotten married.  Since that time, we've enjoyed seeing the teasers from her photographer... this is one of my absolute favorites!

 

--I celebrated my first holiday in the classroom... Halloween.  If you need further hints on my costume I shall only wish that "may the odds be ever in your favor."
;)

--I learned that Momma jokes are alive and well in the youth today.

--I befriended a donkey every afternoon in the Fall when I checked the mail.  And yes, it really is that beautiful in our neck of the woods!

--We celebrated Thanksgiving... one of my favorite days of the year!

--KY saw it's fair amount of snow before Christmas ever made an appearance.  As a first-year teacher, I live for and love every single one of my snow days!

--We prettied up the indoors and outdoors for the holidays.  If it isn't obvious, I have a thing for traditional decor... pine cones, holly berries, burlap, popcorn garland, red/gold colors, etc.  Old habits die hard!

--I created a fun, yet oh-so cheesy, Rudolph poem for my 4th graders.  It focused on reviewing our behavioral procedures after Thanksgiving break.

--I watched my favorite little girl cheer in her first Jr Pro basketball game... then I wondered how in the world she grew up so darn fast.

--Hubs and I took our unofficial official portrait for 2013.  God bless self-timers on cameras and stubborn wives!

--We celebrated our 2 year engage-versary.  And I wished that Boone was still that little ball of wrinkles.

--I baked for hours in preparation for Christmas... and that night I caught the stomach bug.  I knew my luck would run out considering I didn't even have a headcold during my first semester as a teacher.  This bug stuck around nearly 4 days and finally made it's way out just in time for Christmas Day.

The bad part of the story is that I was unable to enjoy all the food that comes along with Christmas but the good news is that I was able to wear skinny jeans on Christmas... as seen below.  Ya win some, ya lose some.

--The weekend after Christmas, we road-tripped a few hours North to spend the weekend with our friends.  The reality is that the boys went duck hunting and the girls slept-in and chatted it up.  We watched the UK vs. UL basketball game then proceeded to enjoy our own basketball game.  Our friends have their own arcade game and we fell in love.

--Finally, we said good-bye to 2013 with our annual NYE party.  We added in several Minute to Win It games this year.  It was a blast and took us all the way to midnight!

And here we are, nearly a week into 2014.  I am more than happy to say good-bye to the roller coaster of 2013 and hello to the endless possibilities of 2014.  I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us... :)

thoughts and musings

It's Friday and this is my first blog post of the week.

They call me an overachiever for a reason, my friends.

Truthfully, we really haven't been up to a whole lot around our neck of the woods recently.  And I'm totally happy with that.  The only downside is that it doesn't give me a whole heck of write about on the blog.  But I'll take that over the stresses of the school year any day.  I do have several DIY projects on my mind and my birthday is right around the corner... so stay tuned, folks :)

Today, we'll play our normal game of "catch-up" with some of my random thoughts and musings included along the way...

First of all, a belated Father's Day wish to my Daddy.  He's one of a kind and I'm so very thankful for him!

I have often wondered to myself whether it is frowned upon to join my preschoolers during naptime.  It is so very tempting!

Housewife problem... the ring of grease left in the washer after cleaning your husband's work clothes.  The man literally looks like he has rolled around in grease every day.  Thank the Lord for bleach, vinegar, and Magic Erasers... my secret for making the ring disappear.

My cousins are the cutest... but they are growing up way too fast!  Lily got herself a Topper Girl dress and Gracyn decided to photobomb by climbing on a nearby table.

She starts Kindergarten in the Fall and found the perfect backpack for the occasion.  I cannot believe she is about to start school!

Sunsets are the prettiest here in KY.  I admit that I crouched in our wheat to get this... and it was worth it.

I'm not sure what took me so long to hop aboard the "I Need Coffee" train every day.  Enter the Starbucks Mocha Light Frappe.  100 calories.  Not too strong.  Happy girl!

DIY chalkboards look best on a shelf near the front door.  I made this one out of an old cabinet door from a local thrift shop.  Chalkboard paint is one of the best investments I've ever made.

How is it that Pandora always knows what song to play at the right moment?  This came on the other night while I was finishing up my workout... just what I needed to push through.

And, finally, I marked another item off my Summer Bucket List... I made my first batch of homemade ice cream over the weekend.  I was quite impressed.  Absolutely delicious!

 

Here's to a good weekend, friends! :)

this and that

I haven't left the building just yet... but I hope you didn't hold your breath waiting for a post.  I don't have a good reason for the lack of blogging other than the fact that I started working again. 

 

I found a great summer job where I'll be working at a private Christian school.  I'm an instructional aide for (mostly) Kindergarteners.  Some days are exhausting.  Most days are a challenge.  Every day is interesting.  It will be a wonderful experience for me this summer.  Now that the first week of that is in the books, I'm hoping to get back in a routine.  Oh yes, I love routine. ;)

 

Let's catch up, shall we?!

 

Nathan and I made a big move.  From AT&T to Bluegrass Cellular, that is.  If you couldn't tell already, we live in the boondocks.  AT&T does not cut it in the boondocks.  After several months of getting things in line, we were finally able to switch over.  I learned that cell phone contracts seem to require signing in blood and giving over your first-born child.  But we now finally have service... for $10 cheaper a month than AT&T.  Isn't that what really matters?

 

I got a pretty little piece of paper in the mail last week that has me yet another step closer to being a certified teacher.  The next step?  I will finally receive my teaching certificate.  So surreal.  Job update?  I have a couple serious prospects and interviews coming up.  Pray that I don't totally blow them and, more importantly, that God leads me to the one where I belong.

The boating adventures are in full force for the summer.  We took a floating detour by "Paradise" a week ago.  If you're not from the area, Paradise is the name of our local TVA plant.  I may be crazy but it was neat to drive by the cranes, coal barges, etc. and see the beginning stages of where our electricity comes from.  Oh, and the weather wasn't too bad either.  ;)

I had a serious craving for chocolate oatmeal cookies last week so before 10:00 on Friday (my day off), I had to satisfy this craving.  My momma's recipe is tried and true.  Yummy.  Not healthy.  Who cares?!

I saw this little gem as drawn by Lily a few days ago.  "No Boys Allowed."  Let's hope this state of mind sticks around for 15 more years.

Wanna know the only thing that KY summer thunderstorms are good for?  Crazy clouds and beautiful pictures.  The Lord sure is quite the artist.

That wraps it up, friends.  Here's to a fabulous Monday!

what i'm saying is...

... I have a new obsession with my curling iron, baby powder, and a good headband.  This is me last week on DAY 3 of unwashed hair.  And an amen to that!

... I have the cutest cousins in this world.  This is Miss Priss on Friday afternoon while her Mommy was helping me with wedding flowers.  She was obsessed with the flowers and pretended to be an indian for a while.  I don't know how a 4-year-old can have such personality ;)

Oh yeah, and she painted this last week and titled it "An Elephant Eating Blueberries." 

... I have found a new obsession with cooking.  With all the craziness of school, work, and wedding planning, it seems to be my outlet these days.  Over the weekend I made PW's His/Her Burgers, Crockpot Buffalo BBQ Chicken, and my Mom's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.  I can without a doubt say that nobody can touch her cookies... mine were good, but they're not Mom's :)

... I cannot believe how fast this wedding is approaching!  I am so ready to be labeled as an "old married woman" ;)

Here's our final guest book that I made over the weekend.  Easy as pie... thanks Pinterest!

Here are the adorable invites for my Bridal Shower coming up next week with my WKU co-workers.  I am so excited and know that it will be beyond adorable :)

... I AM SO HAPPY TO BE BLOGGING AGAIN!  Last week was beyond chaotic, y'all.  I intended to blog so many times and literally just did not have a second to sit down and do it.  I am making myself stay nearly a week ahead on assignments so that I'm not worrying about school when I'm on my honeymoon.  Therefore, I completed about 2 weeks worth of work last week.  However, as busy as it was, I had the most amazing field experience last Wednesday.  I have been blessed with a wonderful Kindergarten class this semester!  The students are sweet as pie and my teacher is amazing at what she does.  I was ready to go back the second I left last week!  I can't wait to spend the next few months learning about these students :)

What have you guys been up to?!?  I hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend!

it's meeee

I'm back, y'all!  I took a brief, unexpected hiatus.  I needed to get all my ducks in a row for when school starts back this coming Monday.  All the necessary papers have been printed, books have been ordered, and binders have been beautified!  Am I the only one out there who puts in time to have pretty dividers and the absolute perfect font for my cover sheet?  Ok, don't answer that ;)  It's hard to believe my senior year of college is upon me.  What an amazing experience WKU has given me!  On to other things...

Nathan gave me a late birthday present last week... tinted windows!  My old car had tinted windows so I was anxiously waiting but it was all worth it.  If you live in my area, I recommend Top Notch Tinting... we had a negative experience with another business at the beginning of the summer so I'm thankful we had such a great one with Top Notch!

Ain't she pretty?!

Nathan was off this weekend and we took full advantage of it.  I am so relieved to have crossed off so many things on my to-do list for the wedding!  Things are pretty well taken care of until the day comes upon us :)  We stayed in Saturday night while watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon and enjoying some Chicken Tortilla soup.  It's one of the staples around our house during the chilly months and I couldn't wait any longer to fix it!  Sunday afternoon we celebrated the baby shower for this beautiful girl and her husband.  Their due date is just 2 days before our wedding!  It's going to be a happy time of year :)

My sweet flower girl (cousin), Lily, started preschool yesterday.  Here's little miss sassy pants herself...

Her mommy says she just comes up with these poses on her own.  I can only imagine the laughs she'll bring to my face on our wedding day!  My friend, Kristen, just gave me the pictures she had of our wedding shower and I found this sweet one... makes my heart smile!  I cannot believe how fast she has grown.

One of the many things I have grown to love about waking up early to exercise is watching the sun rise on my commute.  I was greeted with this today and couldn't resist snapping a picture... it's the little things, am I right?

Have a great Wednesday!!!

lately... in iPhone pics

From now until October, my posts will probably be totally unorganized with no apparent theme.  It symbolizes my life right now ;)  All kidding aside, here are some pics from the past few days.

Remember the $12 table from Trees 'n Trends that I got last weekend?  My Nana gave me an old bucket that she picked up at a yard sale to sit on it for cookbook storage.  It is absolutely perfect... the picture doesn't do much justice.  There is an old picture of a farm on the front of it that I just adore.  Thankfully, it's big enough for all of the wonderful cookbooks that I was given from our shower and they're easily accessible.

Lily and Gracyn came by for a quick visit on Friday afternoon.  We sat outside the majority of the time since it was such a beautiful day!  Lily enjoyed gathering all the sticks into one pile and calling them her campfire.  This is a piece of tree bark that she peeled off and she was mighty proud of it!  I cannot believe how fast she has grown up.  She's such a little lady and such a wonderful big sister!  Gracyn just cracks up at the things she does and you can tell she is just so in love with her.  I can tell from my own experience that they will both be thankful to have a sister as they grow up.

I embarked upon another housewife-in-training adventure over the weekend.  I've noticed that most of our grocery expenses go straight to frozen meals for Nathan's lunch.  Well, I was fed up with it and did a little research to see if it was possible for me to start making them homemade.  Turns out... you totally can!  I made Nathan 26 meals -- 12 bagel pizzas, 7 turkey & cheese sandwiches, and 7 Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes. 

I spent about 2 hours for this process -- labeling bags, cleaning up, and all.  If my calculations are correct, I spent only 80 CENTS per meal and we saved at least $20 on our grocery bill.  If y'all are interested in learning more about this, let me know and I'll do a seperate post on it.

I made some overnight refrigerator oatmeal (via Pinterest) for myself on Sunday night in this pretty little coffee cup.  But, to tell you the truth, I was totally not a fan of it.  I think I'm going to experiment for myself rather than following the recipes out there.  It's a great concept but it needs some tweaking for my taste buds.

Finally, little sis started her first day of college today and I couldn't be more proud of her!  I made a little gift with all of the essentials ;)  I can't wait to hear all about her day this afternoon.  Y'all pray that it's a success for her!

There you have it... my life in a nutshell in pictures.  What did we really do before iPhones?!

Happy Tuesday!