Life's A Dance

Let's finish up those Thankfuls! 13) I am thankful that Karl and I are on the same page about being Financially at Peace. As some of you know this summer Karl and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course and set out a plan to pay off our students loans, mortgage, and then start saving for our future. At first it was amazing because we paid off two cards within a month and cut those puppies up - it felt so good. Now we are 4-months in and we've been pretty lackadaisical about sticking to writing all our spending down, but thankfully we still have not gone over our budgeted amounts. Now that we don't have any more of my school to pay for hopefully we will start seeing more than what we have been. 14) I am thankful for the opportunity to work. So many people out there, especially teachers, are out trying to find work and are told there is none. I am so very thankful that I have been blessed with a job that I truly love and where I want to come to work to. I am thank...

Well it seems as though I have some catching up to do on things that I am thankful for . . . 3. I am so very thankful for my husband Karl. God definitely had us in mind to be together and I am so thankful that He has blessed me with such an amazing life partner. I absolutely love spending time with him and his heart. We ahve gone through rough times as well as amazing times, but I am thankful to say that I was able to experience both with him just in these 4 years that we have been together, 2.5 of which have been while we were married. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us. 4. I am very thankful for my family. I have always loved having a large family and I know this is in part due to the largeness of our family. I am definitely looking forward to my mom and step-dad moving closer to us. Now we just need to get dad and Mary out here . . . hmm . . . how can we accomplish that? 5. Staying within the realm of family, I am so very thankful for my in laws. Growin...

. . . today! That's probably my most favorite Winnie the Pooh song ever! Just fyi - in case you were wondering. And it is so windy outside. I can't believe all the sounds that are surrounding our house right now. I hope it quits before night time because I could see it being pretty scary late at night. Yes - I am 24 and still afraid of the dark. Oh well, what are you going to do? So, see if this has ever happened to you. I haven't felt really good the past two days and last night I felt like I slept so good - definitely a sign that something is going on. Well, I woke up this morning to Karl checking his phone and saying - it's 7:30!!! OMG! Talk about a mad dash going on! I called one of our aides and asked her to watch my kids for me while I was frantically getting ready. As we were running around I thought to myself Karl never checks his phone at night . So I asked him, "Why did you check your phone like that?" He said that he checked it earlier at one po...

Life as we know it has been crazy these days, to say the least! For one, I cannot believe that the second 6 weeks at school is just about to finish up (this Friday!). It seems like yesterday it was still summer time and I was frantically trying to get things ready for the school year - which I can still say I feel like 2 6 weeks into the school year! My kids are doing so great - such a great group of kiddos and parents! Having such great students and parents makes each day a great day, for sure! Update on Graduate School: I am OFFICIALLY graduating on December 16th at 4 pm! I put my order for my cap, gown, & HOOD!!! in the mail today and it should be here soon. Out of my two classes I only have 2 more assignments in the one class and then several in the other, but I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel! Looking back and reflecting over the past 2.5 years I can't believe I'm finishing up already. I remember the summer that we got married and how both Kar...

I know it has been long anticipated . . . Part 2 of our Honeymoon and other writing goodness. Honeymoon, Part 2 Anchorage is nice. A little more rundown than what I remembered it to be as a child – but honestly the only thing I really remember about it as a child was how busy the roads were and how much I loved going to Chuck E. Cheese with my friends that lived there. Anyway, we used our stop in Anchorage as an opportunity to just chill and enjoy the sites. We made sure and visited the Ulu Factory and purchased Ulu’s for ourselves as well as my Father-in-Law and Brother-in-Law. That was such a fun purchase for both my husband and myself. Some other places we visited included the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Alaska Zoo. Both were unique experiences in themselves. That night we turned in our van and packed up for our next adventure – the Alaskan Railroad! The next morning we awoke and got ready for the day. We had called to have a taxi come and pick us up and take ...

The past few times that I have begun to write I have had a “block” and just couldn’t think of what to write. Tonight is another one of those times. So, I decided to look back at my ideas from previous weeks and go from there. One thing that I know I can write a lot about is our honeymoon. I don’t think I have ever gotten a chance to share it with anyone before so . . . here goes. Wedding day: May 2nd, 2009. Every honeymoon begins with a wedding, right? We got married at my church home in Buffalo Gap, TX. We greatly enjoyed it – especially being “arrested” and taken away in a Sheriff squad car. I can officially say that I have ridden in the back of one and have been handcuffed. It was a lot of fun. Well, we got to the actual get-away car to find that my sister and his brother forgot to leave the keys. So, we made a call and then they were there with the keys. It was actually quite comical. We stayed in Abilene for the night at a beautiful hotel. The next day we drove to our rent hous...

I haven’t really felt the urge to write much more about Alaska. Maybe that will come back to me after a while. For the life of me I don’t really have much on my mind that I really want to write about. Well, that just ended when I looked at a poster that we have at our house – it’s one of our engagement pictures. So, I have the urge to write about the story of my husband and I. Well, where do I start? It all begins in the small town of Brownwood, TX. It was there that I met my husband, although that is not one-hundred percent true. I actually met him in Mullen which is outside of Brownwood. Before we go there, though, I must begin with a little background. All my life I had tried with all my might to find someone to like me – to have a relationship with. I was, in a word, a boy chaser. To my frustration, though, I never seemed to have boys chase me back. However, this all seemed to change when I went to college. I’m not sure what happened but it seemed that once I entered college thi...

If you can believe it . . . our little Kiana girl is going to be two years old tomorrow! I for one can't believe that this little girl has been ours for nearly that long. I remember back to when we first got her. Even though we didn't get her until November, I still want to share the story f when we first got her. Karl and I just bought our house a few months prior (wow - 2 years of owning a house?) and I finally talked him into allowing us to get a dog that we could train to be a guard dog - boy did we pick the wrong dog for that ! Anyway, we were all set to go and really had our hearts set on getting a female puppy of a larger dog. If it was a German Shepherd it would be even better since that is Karl's favorite kind of dog. So we go to the pound and . . . I wanted to cry. Talk about a sad, sad place. It's so loud and smelly. I feel bad for those poor dogs! So we figure out where to go to look at the dogs and start walking around - oh my, such sweet dogs were e...

I’m taking a short break from talking about Alaska today in hopes of sharing my perspective on something that is now called Patriot’s Day: September 11th. I found myself being wrapped up in the remembering of this day this year. Although I do not know any individuals that were directly impacted this day in 2001 I still feel remorse for this day. I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago when the DJs were challenging their listeners to do something of importance for anyone on Patriot’s Day – to show them love and appreciation. I heard them mentioning something about thanking your local officials, including police officers and fire fighters. Right then a thought came to me – HUGE and vivid. I began writing to my principal with this plan that I had for my school. I am so glad that my school has jumped on board with this, especially with such short notice. We’re not doing the plans large scale this year but hope to do so next year. Each grade level “adopted” a fire station and all of ou...

Typed from written Journal Entry: I thought I’d change it up a bit and try writing in journal form tonight. I am also curious to see the difference in length of writing for both writing formats. Dr. Semingson suggested incorporating pictures into our journal writings/posts. I don’t have any pics from growing up – they are all at my dad’s house in Michigan – but I can start adding new pics from Alaska, especially when it comes time to talk about our honeymoon adventures there. Today I want to start by talking about earthquakes. I want to preface this “talk” with a story from when I moved to Texas. Not long into the start of my 7th grade year we practice emergency drills. I remember one of my teachers talking about what to do in case of an emergency: crouch down with your head near a wall and cover your head. I remember thinking that getting near a wall wouldn’t be the safest thing in the world but I didn’t argue – I didn’t know what that emergency drill was for. Now that I’m olde...

What a restful, productive weekend! I am so thankful for the three day weekend and all that we were able to accomplish. Friday night was our school's homecoming so we had some of the ladies that I work with come over with their families for some hamburgres and hot dogs. We had a good time of talking, laughing, and just enjoying each others' company. After dinner we went to the game and watched our team get destroyed. Poor boys. I feel bad for them - they work so hard. Saturday morning Karl left to go to Mertzon to work with his dad out at the ranch. I stayed in town mainly because I did not feel 100% well and to help out with a volleyball game. I didn't get to do so though because Sharon's van did not get fixed as we had planned so I didn't get the Oldsmobile back. So that night Karl came back into town to pick me up and we went back out to Mertzon. Sunday Karl went back out to work at the Ranch and I stayed at his parents. Throughout Saturday and Sunday I got 5...

Oh Alaska, I have been so happy to keep writing about this beautiful place. I have loved every minute of it. Let’s see what I can come up with today. Another favorite place of mine that my sister, Dad, and I would always go to was: Alaska Land [now it’s called Pioneer Park – not sure why they changed the name]. We used to go over there at least once a month or so. Back then it was the coolest place ever, besides Santa Claus’s House, which I’ll share more about later. Alaska Land had a putt putt course that was really neat. There were little shops that had, you guessed it, ICE CREAM! We obviously always had some ice cream and that made the day even more great! But the best part of Alaska Land was the . . . TRAIN! There was a little train station with a museum in it that told about this train and how influential it used to be for the community. After you went through the museum you could get onto the train and it would take you all around Alaska Land. At one point it takes you up, to ...

Feelings: All night last night I was talking with my husband and family about this writing assignment and how I have just enjoyed every minute of it. I had my husband read what I have written so far and he said he laughed when he read some parts because he remembered me telling the story or remembered being there for it. Today I am going to look back on my list of things I said I wanted to write about and start from there. I love thinking back to the school I attended in Alaska. My dad was stationed at the local Air Force base, Eielson AFB, outside of Fairbanks and I went to school on the base at Anderson/Pennell Elementary. I believe the name changed the year before I moved to California and then it was just Anderson. I had the most wonderful teachers and the most wonderful memories from that school. I think back to my experience there and want to incorporate those things I did then into my classroom now. I have not yet been successful in these endeavors but I hope to one day be ab...