A-Recycling We Will Go...

Since my husband and I have moved into our new house, we have tried to be a little more "earth-conscious." We started recycling and making a compost for our garden. We have a lot less garbage now, and we feel like we have been doing more of our part.

Before Christmas, we bought this awesome recycling "organizer." It seemed like the perfect answer to our mess that is the entry way in the kitchen. It is nice and big, as you can see...

That is, until we (over)-filled it a bit!

We were very proud of our organizing-we even made labels for each drawer.

See?

Now it's to the recycling center we go, thanks to our new SUV. (I think the SUV and recycling organizer may be canceling each other out in the whole "Green" area, but that is beside the point!

We chose the snowiest day we could-when all the Tennessee snow started to fall, but we were determined to make our house look better and promised each other we would never let our recycling get that bad again.

We are now very proud of our recycling organizer once again, and have found that it makes recycling easier and our kitchen cleaner...

Ahhhhh, that's better. Now my house is in order!

Well, sort of.

Goals for 2010

I am with 3verthing 3mily on the whole goal setting thing, so here they are:

1. Read more (I'm going to set a goal of 5 books, we'll start small)

2. Loose weight (I'm not going to set an amount here for everyone to see)

3. Make more jewelry/crochet/cards/scrapbooks/etc.

4. Organize our spare room into a craft room/office I/husband can actually use

5. Blog regularly (let's go with at least once a week)

6. Learn more about my camera so that I can take better pictures

7. Read my Bible every day

8. Pay off our credit cards

9. Find a "permanent" job

10. Stay organized

P.S. I have added my jewelry blog to my blog list so that those of you that might be interested can look. I don't have much up yet, but hopefully, and if I reach goals #3 and #5, you will see more posts on there soon!

Here's to 2010, or "O"-10 as I like to call it!

Christmas in Colorado

I haven't been home to Colorado for Christmas in 2 years! It was great to be back again with my family and real snow. I also got the best Christmas present of all...I got to meet my niece, Isabella! She is 6 months old, and tons of fun! We enjoyed playing with her on her blanket, and chillin. She is a very happy, beautiful little girl!

We actually remembered to take our camera this time, so allow me to share the pictures of Christmas, 2009:

See how fun she is?!?!?

Snow in the backyard

Mom using the snowblower, or her winter toy!

Dad frying the turkey!!!

We just love her!

Merry Christmas from the family!

And once more, because you can't get enough of this girl!

Opportunity Knocks...

This year is not at all what I expected. I have finished student teaching and my Masters Degree, been a bum for a summer, and taught 1st grade for 5 months. I never thought I would finish the Masters program. I cried and cried when I first started, thinking I could not do it. As the year went on, and I fell in love with teaching all over again, I realized (with the help of my husband, family and friends) I can do anything for a year.

This summer stunk. Well, for me it did. For my brother and sister-in-law, it was a miracle-they adopted a baby girl in July, who I got to meet for the first time last week! For my friend, she added a fourth child to her family at the end of July. I had the opportunity to watch her kids the night before and see her newborn and hold him in the hospital. For me, personally, I looked for jobs. I slept in a lot, I cried a lot, and I looked for more jobs. I did toy with the idea of starting a jewelry making business, and started a jewelry blog that [surprise] I have not updated since the summer.

In August, I was offered a first grade interim position (the last blog I wrote explains it more thoroughly). I was ecstatic! I have enjoyed working with the first grade teachers at my school and getting to know my students. I did not expect any of what has happened in the past five months. Sam says I should write a book about it-1st graders come with great stories, and maybe I'll share them on here at a later time.

I've learned that in order to teach, you first have to love. There is no way I can teach these students what a noun or verb is, if I don't first teach them that I love them and that they are safe at school. Without love, nothing else matters. There is no need for anything else, if you don't have love. I also learned (once again, with thanks to my husband) that I am only here to plant seeds. I do not get to see them grow completely. I have heard this before, but the note my husband left me one morning hit HARD. God takes the seeds we plant and continues to take care of them as they grow. I have no idea why the teacher I interimed (yes, I made up that word) for decided not to retire, but I know that I was placed there, for that time and now it is time for me to let go.

Please don't let me fool you, I did not come to this reality easily. And I have a feeling it will be something I have to learn over and over and over and over...

Now, as we begin another year, I have another opportunity. I am the interim teacher for a third grade classroom. I will be there for the remainder of the year (as far as I know). I am looking forward to this opportunity with confidence, and a lot of fear. I know those seem to be conflicting emotions, but that is exactly how I feel. I have new students to meet, new curriculum to teach, and a wonderful group of teachers to work with. I also have the first 6 weeks planned out for me from the previous teacher, and this was the same time I soloed in third grade last year during my student teaching.

I hope to share more and have great stories from third grade to tell. I will be more diligent at keeping you up to date (I know you are sitting on the edge of your seats!)

What tomorrow holds...

The more I think about it, the more I realize how true it is. It seems so simple. We have no idea what tomorrow holds. This has been my motto for the whole summer. Some days it was a comfort, some days it was a concern. But every day it was true.

This has not been the summer I had expected. I had lots of sleepless nights, and if you know me, you know I can sleep. I have never had trouble sleeping, until this summer. I was so full of anxiety, stress and not-knowing. I was looking for a job, and hearing nothing. I was sad, unmotivated and bored. I didn't feel like myself. I was tired of talking about my job search and tired of saying "I don't have a job."

Well, my friends, I got a call yesterday morning, offering me a job-an interim in 1st grade. I am absolutely thrilled! I will get to work with the teachers I worked with last year during my internship and will be at a school I know and am already comfortable with. I was filled with joy yesterday, and felt like me again. I am just so excited to be able to use my degree and teach!

Now I am filled with anxiety, and it was hard to sleep last night, but it's a good thing now. I cannot wait to start setting up my classroom and to meet my students!

Being on the other side of tomorrow gives me a whole new perspective. I am so thankful that God is constant, especially when I am not.

I'm sure there will be more stories to follow-kids are funny that way, and I love to share!

It's been a while

I thought about waiting until the 31st to post, so it would actually be 2 months, and my OCD would be in check, but I have a little time now to fill you all in on what's been going on. (I know you are ALL on the edge of your seats!)

I don't really know how to summarize the last two months of my life. There may be one word: CRAZY! We have moved, I have changed internship placements (for a little while), we even had Spring Break in there (that's when I moved) and I've finished writing a thesis (for the most part). Now I just have final editing to do and wait until May to defend it. I started a new placement in my internship-now I am in 1st grade and I absolutely love it!

The most exciting part of the past two months is the news I received at 11:30 on some random weeknight-I was already asleep, Sam answered the phone and I heard him tell the caller I was in bed because I had to get up early for school the next day. Then Sam woke me up and put the phone on speakerphone. I heard my brother's voice (you know, the one who he and his wife are trying to adopt) and I woke up REAL quick! Shawn informed me that I was going to be an aunt!!! You can follow their story here. Their baby girl is due on July 8th and I CAN'T wait to meet her!

I will post pictures of the new house soon...and maybe I'll fill you in on my trip to WV this weekend...we'll see :)

P.S. Hilah-I did not see your title until after I had started writing this post!

Random Things

I've been putting off doing this for a while, because I wasn't sure if I could come up with enough, but here are random facts about me:

1. I was born in Delaware.

2. I claim I'm from Colorado, because it sounds a lot cooler than Delaware.

3. When I go to the bathroom at a restaurant, or other public place, and I have to go more than once (which is usually the case) I have to use the same stall I did the first time.

4. I always get gas from the Pilot station in front of the Starbucks I work at, and I always use pump 11.

5. I also know it is exactly 5.5 miles from pump 11 to my parking space in front of my townhouse.

6. I hate the sound of windshield wipers on the windshield when there is no rain.

7. I hate when people play with their gum.

8. I am constantly paranoid that my zipper is down on my pants.

9. I have seen the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (from the Cliffs of Moore, BEAUTIFUL!)

10. I have to flip through all of my presets on my radio in my car before deciding on a song.

11. My favorite snack is chips and salsa-and has been since High School.

12. I have been to 3 other countries besides the United States.

13. It takes a lot to make me mad, but when I get to that point, I can be really ugly.

14. I am Irish/Italian. (which may explain the above) 

15. I used to play the piano, flute and french horn. None of which I continue to play, and regret that I never kept up with any of them.

16. I love photography, and I learned how to develop my own black and white pictures when I was a senior in High School.

17. I have never broken a bone.

18. I had a sewing machine needle go through my index finger in 5th grade.

19. I prefer to drink water out of a plastic cup than a glass, unless I have a straw.

20. I rode the public bus to school in 5th and 6th grade.

21. I like decorative clocks.

22. My favorite flower is a gerber daisy.

23. Science was not my favorite subject in school, but I love teaching it to my 3rd graders!

24. I want to have 4 kids.

25. I love wearing scarves.