I'm baaaack...

I love these as much as the next girl. BUT, seriously? 1lb. of peanut butter cups. Yeah, right. ;) Happy Sunday!

Picture Dump...

Well, I've been in school for six weeks now! Crazy to think that's the truth. My classroom got a little facelift in the last few weeks that aren't on my classroom tour, so I thought I'd show them here. I painted a rocking chair to be my teacher chair and added a white board next to my smart board and an alphabet/number line for my reading class.


My cutie brother moved away to college and as a family we went and bombarded his new dorm room. It's surprisingly great and for a hot second made me miss dorm life. ;)

Piper {finally!} got a hair cut, I'm embarrassed at how long it had been. but LB was sure glad she was home.
Speaking of dogs my mother in law got a new puppy. He is absolutely precious!!

And we celebrated my wonderful husband's 24th birthday. I hosted my first little birthday party at our house. It was wonderful if I do say so myself. Can't wait to see what the next 24 birthdays are like. :)
OU had their first game of the season (We won!) which means we had our first family watch party, I definitely forgot to take pictures-dang! But I made these, along with guacammus. Both were divine.

Happy Tuesday! BOOMER SOONER!!

I did it...

Well, I did it! I survived my first two days back at school. The first day- whoa. So heart heavy and emotional for me. I knew this school was a low income school. I knew that these kids were from the hood. People have been telling me that for ages. BUT, I had NO idea. You guys. Seriously, my heart was so heavy on Thursday. Friday however went much better, but I was emotionally drained.
I wasn't in so much shock on Friday, so of course it was much better. I was ready, confident, and I like to think I did a great job. I was asked by three different kids if I could adopt them. I was asked if I was a teenager-multiple times. I was told my room was like "paradise" and that it looked like "a movie." It's just so crazy to think that these kids live not even a mile from my house, but still we live in two completely different worlds. This year is going to be so good for me. It will force me to rely on God for my strength and to really strive to be a huge inspiration to these kids. I think that's what teaching is all about though. The amazing thing is our school is the best part of these kids day. If I can make a difference in their lives, I will have done my job.

In other news we did a Teacher flash mob on Friday for our assembly. We completely shocked the kids. It was classic. All these ghetto kids with SERIOUS rhythm watched their white teachers try and bust a move. Holy hilarity. It was priceless. I'll try and see if I can get some pictures. So funny!

Happy Monday!!

Classroom Tour...

This is mainly just for my memory, but I wanted to do a classroom tour of my room. This morning is our first day of school! I cannot believe the school year is already started! Here is my classroom before I left last night. My mom and I painted just about everything in the room. The purple walls, the grey cabinets, there was a lot to be done in here. But I am SO proud of the way it turned out. One day I'll have to do a before post, so you can know what I was working with! Lime green, teal, aqua- you name it-Yuck!

This is what you see when you very first walk in the door. My desk area...

Here is standing at my desk looking at the door that I come in at. All that storage that you see used to be a hot mess. I spent many a long day cleaning out those bad boys. I also painted the cabinets grey and with chalkboard paint with one of my favorite quotes.


This is the door the kids will come in at. It's just to the right of my door. Here's also a close up of the cutie curtains my mom and I made.
My only bulletin board...

And where all of the kids will put their work, divided by teachers last name...

Just to the right of the teacher drawers there is the sink area... and some art work that are picture definitions of some art vocabulary that we will be working on throughout the year...

The smart board and half of my desk...

And my desk area...
I added this random blanket chest thing I painted a few years ago to the side of my desk, it holds my printer and a few odds and ends, but my favorite is the picture of me and Dylan. It makes me smile every darn time I see it, so I figured if I was having a bad day, it would make it just a little bit better if I saw that. :)


AND my favorite part of my desk is this perfect pencil mug from my sweet friend Sarah. Crayola & Burlap. What could possibly make me happier?!...
It makes me happy and is the perfect match to my cute classroom wreath!

Here's to a great first day today! :)

Last day of summer...

Tomorrow we start back to school. Agh! That just seems so wrong. It's a 105+ degrees every stinkin day! AKA- playground duty is going to suck. I am SO excited/scared to death about this first week. Teachers go back tomorrow and the kids come on Thursday. This is the first year our school district is implementing the year round schooling. I think it's going to be a really great thing if I can just make it through the dead heat of summer. I got a new plan book & my Landsend monogrammed tote all cleared out, I'd say I'm halfway ready :)

I've been working so hard this last month trying to revamp my room. The previous art teacher was only there for one year, and I somewhat get the feeling she didn't have the intent to stay. There was hardly anything on the walls and the colors were all kinds of wrong. Needless to say it has given me TONS of things to work on, before it's ready for me.

I have two cutie windows in my room, so I've been busy sewing curtains with my mom.

I have been painting up a storm, chalkboard paint, wall paint, cabinet paint. You name it, I probably painted it. I also had to put my teacher handwriting to use to re-do the cabinets for the kids to put their work in the drawer of their teacher's name.

Thanks to Pinterest I've been inspired to do a million new things, but first on the list was a crayon wreath. (Along with every other teacher in America) I think it's most appropriate for me, being an art teacher-and it's darn cute if I do say so myself. Our theme this year is reach for the stars, so I'm not just star crazy. :)

Today I plan to finish my room and I'll snap some pictures to do a room tour. Happy Sunday!

Work-a-holics, Grill-a-holics...

I've been working so hard in my classroom trying to get it all organized and clean, I've hardly had any time to blog, but I do have lots to catch up on.

We celebrated my 24th birthday by redo-ing our garage. I enlisted the help of my super handy parents and we went to work! We took out cabinetry, plumbing, a closet and a stupid amount of wood paneling. It looks fabulous! My Mother in Law bought me a shelf for the garage, which was perfect. I will never be able to thank my parents enough for all of their help with all the millions of projects in my life. As if all of that wasn't big enough, Dylan's sister and brother in law gave us a new grill for our deck for our joint birthday present. It is amazing and we have been using it nearly every night!! Our first meal was Hawaiian chicken and asparagus. :) YUM!

Last weekend Dylan had a rare Saturday night off so we had our friends come over and grill out together. It was a blast! The only picture I remembered to take was my banana pudding. (One day I'll get better at that!) I used a new recipe and it was amazing! It definitely stepped up the banana pudding game!

Happy Monday!

hello again...

Where have I been?! It's hard to follow a post like my last one... and as much as I've wanted to blog, I've still got nothing.. My life is finally starting to calm down, for real this time. I accepted a new job and I have a serious feeling me and this old blog of mine are about to rekindle our love. :) At the end of this month I finish with my current job, and then school doesn't start at my next job until the end of JULY!! I finally have a small hint at a teacher's summer vacation. Hooray! Most of July I will spend organizing my new classroom and making it mine. If you know me at all, this is like music to my ears. I live for taking someone elses mess and turning it into something suited for me. Ha! But really, this new job could not be a bigger answer to prayer. I know I was meant for this. I am so excited for what this next school year will bring!

Now, whats been happening lately you might ask?

We went to Hawaii. O'ahu to be exact...

We visited the Dole Plantation...

Had a shave ice date (They don't say "shaved"- definitely weird)...


My family learned to surf, I sat out, they did so great!!...


Climbed to the top of Diamond Head...

Saw several blow holes. Amazing...

A luau at Paradise Cove...

and spent many a day just staring at the beauty. It's just plain magical.

and much more: near drowning, horseback riding on the beach, spear throwing at a luau, too many cocktails to count, wonderful beach reads, spam... I could go on and on. It was wonderful and I couldn't be more thankful to the people at Make a Wish to the absolutely wonderful trip we were given. That foundation has a serious soft spot in my heart. Vacation is a wonderful thing.

But boy, is it good to be home...

Sometimes God has a way of teaching you things through heartache. This past week has been one of those times. I went from my highest of highs to my lowest of lows.

And now, I'm trying to find some type of new normal. Which is proving to be much harder.

We went from finding out I was pregnant,to finding out we had an early miscarriage.

To say I'm heart broken would be an enormous understatement. We weren't trying to get pregnant, but things happen. I haven't felt that kind of joy in my whole entire life. I was proud I was pregnant. I wanted to shout from the mountains that this little squishy thing growing inside of me would call me mommy, and Dylan, daddy. We went to my first appt, everything looked good. Then bam. Not so good. It was over.

I wasn't ready for that to be over. I wasn't ready to not be pregnant. That's not what I wanted. I went from not wanting kids for several years, to accepting the fact that I was going to have one, to the heartache of losing something I never even would get to know. It's a weird feeling. It's hard and sad and more than anything I want my heart to catch up with my head.

I know that I'm going to be okay. I know that Dylan's okay. I know that we will move on and get pregnant and have a family one day. I know that there are bigger problems in this world and that this seems so small...

But, to me. This feels like my world has been shattered. I feel like I'm exhausted and I just want to fast forward life for a minute. I feel sad and broken. I feel loved and thankful that I have a family that is here for me. And I feel like I want my heart to catch up to my brain so I don't have to feel this way anymore.

I pride myself on being a strong girl. I can handle a lot of things. And I know, one day I'll be able to handle this too. But right now I feel so small.

I know God has big plans for us. Sometimes things need to fall apart so bigger things can fall together.

So right now I'll be thankful for my husband that loves me even when I'm a hot mess. That he goes out of his way to make my sappy self a smiley self and that he loves seeing me smile more than anything. I'm thankful for parents(& family) that go out of their way to make me feel loved, and understood. I'm thankful for friends that sent flowers to my house to make me smile.

I know God has a plan for our life, so my prayer right now is that I will continue to trust that His timing is far better than mine. I pray for strength and comfort and the ability to get past this little hurdle and be stronger than ever.

And in less than two months I will be here, soaking up the sun and being blessed with a week of stress free family fun... and NOW, I'll have a cocktail in hand. ;)

One of these days...

I will be back in the swing of blogging.

I'm not sure why I've been in such a rut lately. {and I'm not sure a "rut" is the appropriate word- seeing as how my "rut" has now lasted an eternity. oh well.}

Here's what is going on:

I mulched my heart out and painted our shutters my dad built us.
I may be partial, but I think they look pretty darn cute.

I started growing Basil and Parsley on my kitchen window sill. Both from the dollar spot at Super Target.

My best friend Megan found out she is PREGNANT!!

My sweet friend Erin (and her husband, Michael) welcomed their first baby into the world on Sunday March 6th. Amos Samuel, 9lb. 2 oz. and BOY is he a cutie! SO stinking precious I can't handle it. Dylan and I went and visited the growing family in the hospital on his first full day of being in the world. Here he is with his cute mommy.

This little guy is growing {and shedding} at the speed of light, and I'm trying desperately to keep up. I've decided dog hair will be the death of me. Almost certain.


Two of my favorite friends from Texas came to visit us. {No pictures yet, but I'll post some soon!}

I tried King{'s?} Cake for the first time in my life and I was disappointed to learn it was basically a donut? Delicious donut, but still a donut.

I finally got a gel manicure. HOLY fabulousness. I will never pay for a regular manicure again. 10 days without a chip or any sign of wear. Count me in.

...

I'm thinking that's all for now :)

Lambeau Buckingham...

Yesterday Lambeau had his first Vet visit. He was a star patient. He made so many new friends, and the Vet just kept telling us how healthy and great he looked. It made me feel much better about my status as a puppy mom. I worry we're doing it all wrong, but according to the Dr. we are doing a great job. :)

Valentine's 2011...

Happy Valentine's Day!!


My Valentine is working tonight, but I went up to the station and brought him dinner. His favorite, a cheeseburger. We ate dinner together and worked on his package for the 10:00 show. (So if you're in the area tune in and watch my Valentine too!)

He has a date planned for us on Friday & I am looking forward to a date out more than I can say! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day! It's teacher appreciation week this week and I'm looking forward to another fun day at work!

Blizzard 2011...

Let me just say that Oklahoma is wacked out of it's mind when it comes to weather. Which, happens to be one of the reasons I love it so much. I love that we get four seasons. I love each one for different reasons, but my favorite is probably snow. Which is probably the one that we get the least amount of.

This last Saturday, it was 76 degrees and beautiful here! Gorgeous. Today, it is 6.

We have gotten 12.2 inches of snow this storm system and from the looks of it, it's not going anywhere for a while.



Needless to say, we've been doing a lot of this...


And since our backyard looks like this...


Our dogs are forced to have this small space to um, "do there business" {which isn't confusing at all to a in process potty training puppy}...


Here's hoping tomorrow is another snowday. :)