Thankful Thursday

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:14-16

There are so many things that I am thankful for...so many things that I want to praise God for!
*my relationship with God-it may have it's bumps and bruises but I am still thankful for the opportunity for the relationship.
*my family-ALL of my wonderful, amazing family.
*Drew-I could not be more thankful for a wonderful partner, lover, friend, counselor, helper, better half, husband. he has been there for me over the past year and I couldn't have done what I have been able to do without him
*my teaching career-as stressful and rough as it may be I am so thankful and grateful for the opportunity to reach these kids and have each of them reach me
*the luxuries of our apartment...it's small, it's noisy, the parking is not the best...but it's a home for us. our first home-our first place to call our own-together and it's wonderful! so many people have nothing and we are so blessed to have so much!

there are so many more, but mom is on her way and then we are heading to Anna's softball game!

What are you thankful for?

w.w.

the week to come

*Monday*
-19 days of school left
-Anna's softball game
-Must finish my unit plan

*Tuesday*
-18 days of school left
-Finish and print vocabulary test for Friday
-Grocery shopping with Drew

*Wednesday*
-17 days of school left
-Finish lesson plans for next week

*Thursday*
-16 days of school left
-Possibly a Diamond Jaxx game with Drew
-Survivor, CSI, and The Mentalist

*Friday*
-15 days of school left
-TCAP Dance Party at school
-My mom comes to visit!
-Possibly a Diamond Jaxx game with my mom and Drew

camp romance

This week on Kelly's Korner she is doing a how you met your husband post and I decided to join in. Drewby and I met at this place...
...this place is called Lakeshore-it's Holy Ground. It's the Memphis Conference Retreat Center and it's on Kentucky Lake near Camden/Paris, TN. In the summer of 2004 Drew was working on Activity staff and I was a camper/volunteer counselor. The spring of 2004 I actually spent some time with Drew...we went to dinner in Jackson when Rachael and I came up to go to a preview day for Lambuth. We had dinner and it was nice-but at the time I was in a relationship with another guy so it was just dinner with a friend who I didn't really know at the time. Then a few weeks later Rachael and I went to Lakeshore with our youth group for a youth conference retreat and Drew was there again-just "helping out" or "freeloading" as we like to call it at camp. We hung out but just as friends.

The details from the Summer are actually very long and detailed. I was in a relationship-of almost 2 years with another guy and Drew had "spies" to try and talk to me about him and what-not. One of my really good friends from Church in Memphis was on staff with Drew and he was using her to get to me as well, and then this friend was communicating with my Mom. Long and elaborate stories and connections so I will just hit the high notes in bulleted form...

*I counseled my first wilderness camp one of the very first weeks of camp-spent time with Drew b/c his job on staff required him to. However, the campers were trying to "set me up" with one of the other guy volunteer counselors...
*Talked on the phone with Drew quite a bit, but at this time just thought of him as a "big brother"
*Drew started to "flirt" and "get into my head to get me to break up with the other guy"
*I volunteer a week and counsel with Carmen, one of Drew's good girl-friends-we talk all week about Drew, unknown to me Carmen was telling Drew what we were talking about...
*I went to a wedding of one of the girls who worked with my youth group who had been on staff. Her husband had also been on staff so the wedding was filled with camp people, including Drew. I went to the wedding with Diana-the one on staff that i went to church with. We met for dinner before the wedding at Chilies and Drew was there with many other people, including Ben. Drew wanted to know how I felt about cussing and whatnot so Ben volunteered to check it out. When the boys walked up to the table, Ben just shot off a long string of cuss words-I don't remember my reaction but Drew says I just laughed and moved on.
*Still at the wedding: we tried to get a group of people up for a camp-out/slumber party at Sam's house-my mom wouldn't go for it, i wasn't happy. So we compromised and went to a movie. It was Diana, Rachael, Me, Drew, and J.D. we went to see the Notebook, almost got kicked out because we were making fun of it...
*Was an actual camper at Sr. High-apparently flirted with Drew-don't remember this. Things start to get rocky with other boy-this makes Drew "happy"
*One of the last weeks of camp i volunteer again...on my night off I break up with other said guy...with Drew and Daniel watching...oh boy!
*A few weeks later Drew and I officially start the whole dating process..."long distance". it's my senior year of high school and he is in school in Jackson, TN. we get to see each other maybe every other weekend...an amazingly difficult to start off a relationship, but it made our relationship that much stronger.

So as a recap, we started dating in August of 2004...got engaged in July of 2008...and got married in November of 2009. *The bridge where we got engaged...a reenactment during engagement photos...*one of my favorite wedding photos...11/21/2010

So I have decided that if i get kindergarten next year I want to sew several of these cute books for my classroom...

summer 2010 to-do list-part 1

So as the end of the year is quickly approaching and i have a bit of "free time" to surf blogs and find new "amazingly cute" ideas i figured i should compile them into a list so that when the summer does get here i can just start crossing projects off of my list...HA!!

*also a note: some of these projects are projects "to do when I get a kindergarten class for next year" which i won't actually know anything about where or what i will be teaching for next year until at least the middle of may...but a girl can hope-and PRAY-right?

*Project # 1-Bean Bag Numbers (and letters could be done in the same way...)*

*Project #2-Magnetic Meal Calendar*

*Project #3-Paper Coasters (GREAT GIFT IDEA!!)


*Project #4- Felt Flower Wreath


*Project #5-Tic-Tac-Toe Fabric Game...she did a heart/valentine's day theme-I will probably do a more generic theme!


*Project #5-Bottle Vases...so this would most likely just be for fun-or a gift-but they are ADORABLE!!!


*Project #6-"Crazy Crayons"

...the number of weeks left until SUMMER BREAK!!! I never would have thought that I would be counting down the days (or weeks) left of school...growing up I actually liked school, and I have ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher, but this year-my first year-has been full of so many different highs and lows that I am just dead tired and READY FOR A SUMMER BREAK!!!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, amazing, awesome HUSBAND!!!
Love you with all my heart!

1st attempt...

so i have made cakes before...lots but i have never actually decorated a cake...well a few weeks ago i found this guitar pan used to bake and i just had to have it and i got this bright idea to make drewby a guitar cake for his birthday...so mom and i got to planning! well tomorrow is drewby's birthday and we had his birthday dinner tonight so here is a before and an after picture...


clearly it's not perfect-my writing with icing needs LOTS of work but for my first time i am pretty proud!!

w.w. (almost wordless...)

such a tired dinosaur...

Happy Birthday George!

Easter Sunday

*Easter Sunday*

What if Jesus hadn't risen from the grave...Drewby and I went to church in Alamo with Tres and his family...the preacher at their church is really good and his sermon on Sunday morning was all based on the "what if" scenario of what if Jesus hadn't risen from the grave. His points were that if Jesus was still in the tomb, then are beliefs, our ministry, our everything is a lie...it's worthless and not good for anything... but the amazing thing is that HE DID RISE FROM THE GRAVE!!

I know that I don't post this often but there is just something about the fact that I have the next week off that makes me want to sit down and post...

drew and i are getting ready to go to sleep because we are going to get up and head to dyersburg in the morning and i absolutely love the fact that i am laying in bed, and my husband is all ready sound asleep next to me...i just absolutely love calling him my husband-i am beyond blessed and could not ask for a better husband-soul mate-partner-lover-confidont-helper-sounding board-best friend-and so many more things...God blessed me with this man at a time in my life where I could not see the truth and through His work through Drew I was finally able to see that and I could not thank Him enough!

Drew-I love you with all of my heart!

addicted to coupons...

so a few weeks ago I started to really think about coupons-I spent a while on-line printing off coupons and using them-and saving money at the same time!! So after that, I looked on-line for some kind of coupon organizer, I tried the plastic one from the dollar section in target but it just wasn't cutting it for me...so i looked on esty for a while and eventually found this coupon organizer...fell in love and ordered it!
...it was only like $15.00 with tax and shipping and it's handmade...got it in the mail less than a week later and started putting the pre-made labels (that came with it) on the dividers and then started loading my coupons.
Drew and I went to Kroger at the start of the week and I was ready...ready with my coupon organizer that had a handful of coupons in it...not loaded compared to this lady that I saw that had a 2 1/2 binder FULL of coupons, but i'm just getting started...drew laughed a little as i would thumb through my little system as we went down each isle but when it came time to check out his mouth dropped open...we saved almost $30 bucks---30 bucks on my first time shopping with coupons, he was impressed, and so was I!!!
I hope that as I collect coupons and add to my collection drew and i will be able to shop smarter and save money each time we need to head to the store...