Back to school, back to school

I really need to be at the school working on my classroom right now, but I haven't written on this thing in a while so I decided to stop by for a quick hello before I go. :) The past couple weeks have been busy as expected....I have been to teaching workshops out the wazoo...some have been really good, some have been 'eh'. They all kind of start to sound the same after a while....I have gotten some really good ideas though. I have spent every available moment this week (mainly those few precious moments in between workshops and a few hours each evening) working on my classroom or buying stuff for my classroom, and I still have a lot more to go. Yes, it is indeed back-to-school-time for me.....overall, though, I am loving every minute of it! I have my list of students and I cannot wait to meet them. Wednesday night is "Meet the Teacher" (or in my case, "Meet the Students") so I will meet several of them then....I am so excited to see their precious faces! :) I will try to get some pictures of my classroom when it's finished and post them on here. I'm hoping to get the majority of it done today and tomorrow afternoon, but that's probably just wishful thinking! That's okay, as long as it's done by Wednesday I'm good to go. Alrighty, I better hop to it....hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! xoxo

busy busy busy

Summer is rapidly coming to an end, which is very bittersweet to me. I can actually count on one hand the number of days left before school starts in which I don't already have an obligation or something planned. I'm happy because I'm excited about setting up my classroom and meeting my students and everything....I'm a little bummed because I know it won't be long before I will be missing summer and longing for a vacation!

Last weekend we had a mini-vacay in San Antonio at the Westin La Cantera Resort with my wonderful fam. We had so much fun, and I don't think any of us wanted to leave! On Friday night we went to La Margarita in downtown SA for some delicious Mexican food and, of course, margaritas. On Saturday morning we got up for a wonderful breakfast and then everyone kind of did their own thing....Dad and Colby went golfing, Mom, Kami, Alli, and Donny went to the pool, and Sean and I went to Fiesta Texas. Yep, 25 yrs old and I'm still a roller coaster junkie :). We didn't get to do as much as we wanted because it was so crowded, but we still had a lot of fun. If you want small crowds and short lines, Saturday is definitely not the best day to go to an amusement park. Of course we knew that, but it was really our only option this time and I was still determined to get my roller coaster fix! Then we went back to the hotel and everyone met up in time for happy hour (or "happy time" as Mom likes to call it!). The floor we were staying on had a room with some yummy hors d'ouvres and wine and beer during happy hour. Afterwards, everyone went down to the pool and hot tub and lounged a little and had a great time cutting up and having fun. Then we got ready for dinner and ate at one of the restaurants at the resort, followed by a friendly game of shuffleboard which I think my Mom and Dad won pretty handily...I never knew they were such pros! On Sunday we got up and ate some breakfast, lounged around and watched a movie, and went down to the pool for a little bit while the guys played more golf. Then we went to one of my fave SA restaurants, Alamo Cafe, and afterward everyone went their separate ways to start the work week. Here are a few pictures...

I spent this whole week at a teaching workshop called Summer Writing Academy. It was pretty long, but I actually enjoyed it for the most part. I learned some great ideas for teaching writing and had fun getting to know a couple of the girls that will be on my team as well as a few from other schools in the district.

Last night we went to the Astros game with my father-in-law. We had great seats and the Astros won, so it was just an all-around good time!

Today I am going to make myself work out because I haven't in a while and I feel so "blah!" For the majority of today, though, we will be continuing to unpack our apartment. It is going so slow! Fitting the contents of a 3 bedroom house into a 1 bedroom apartment has been quite a challenge, but we're making progress little by little. We have a storage unit, but it has filled up rather quickly. I'm glad that this is only a short-term living arrangement. Hopefully (as long as God agrees that it's what he wants us to do!) we will be buying a house before the end of the year and moving in while I'm out of school over the holidays. But in the meantime....we've gotta get back to unpacking and setting this place up the way we want it for the next few months. Hopefully we will get a lot done today and tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to hang out with our friend Hayley (who is in town from San Francisco) and some other friends from college, so we are excited about that! Hope everyone has a great weekend! XOXO

Lazy Saturday

Today has been a nice lazy Saturday. Other than a quick jaunt on the treadmill this morning, I pretty much haven't done anything except meet my friend Katie at a place called Hungry's for lunch. The food was very yummy and I really enjoyed catching up with Katie. We haven't known each other for very long, but the few times that we have been able to get together we've gotten along great...she's just one of those people who is really easy to talk to and I love that. She will be teaching in Katy ISD next year as well, and she has plans to move out there within the next couple years - I can tell we're going to be great friends :)

So I was bad as usual and didn't take any pictures last weekend...not a single one! And there's not really a fun story to tell that sticks out in my mind particularly, although it was a very fun weekend. So in case anyone was eagerly awaiting the stories and pictures that I mentioned at the end of my last post (and I'm sure you all were....ha!), sorry to disappoint. I guess I'm just not that good at this blogging thing yet! I don't ever think to myself 'Hey, I should take some pictures right now to put on my blog! ' But I really should start doing that because I know it's a great way to record memories and share with family and friends....my whole purpose for starting this thing in the first place! Oh well, someday I'll learn...

Anyway, quick recap of last weekend: Friday - we swam, played water volleyball (which Kami, Dad, and I beat Mom, Sean, and Donny in - quite handily I might add), Kami and I went fishing with Donny and Sean (we didn't last long - it just wasn't that exciting to us and the gross bait didn't help matters either), and we had some delicious fajitas. Saturday - swam some more, Donny and Sean went fishing again (minus the girls this time), went to my grandparents' house for a fish fry (yum!), watched the fireworks at the park, played poker. Sunday - went to church, ate lunch, and packed up to head back to Houston. On the way back to H-town we stopped at Sonic and got a cherry limeade chiller (which is cherry limeade mixed with vanilla ice cream) and ahhh, I was in heaven! They are so good! Thursday I tried the strawberry limeade chiller and it was equally as good - I can't decide which I like better.

This week really flew by - I can't believe it's already the weekend again! Some highlights of the week: On Tuesday we went to our small group Bible study in Katy...we really enjoy that group. On Wednesday I met Sean and Kresta (my cousin John's lovely wife) downtown for lunch, and we randomly saw my dear friend Shannon, so she joined us as well! Wednesday night I joined Shannon and several other friends from Kappa at dinner - it was great catching up with them - I hadn't seen a couple of them since college! Thursday night we went to the Astros game with our friends Ryan & Amy, which was really fun - it was actually the first baseball game we've been to this year! Amy teaches 3rd grade in the school that I will be teaching at, and I am so excited - another person that I can already tell is going to be a great friend!

I guess that about sums it up for the week. Tonight we are going to dinner with our friends Ryan and Amanda. We are eating Thai food, which neither Sean nor I have ever tried before, so should be interesting! I've heard it's good though, so I'm not scared. :) And I will leave you with a picture that Kami took of Momsie and I before we left on Sunday. Thank you Kami - without you, this would just be another pictureless blog post.

25th birthday, etc.

I turned 25 on Friday, and I have decided I want to stay there. :) I like 25, it's a nice age - old enough to be an adult, but young enough to still be, well, young. So the plan is: I will still celebrate birthdays (because where's the fun in not celebrating birthdays!?), but I'm staying at age 25 for at least a few more years.

Ha, if only that worked! ;) And it's not that I'm saying anything above 25 or 30 or even 40 is "old" - it's just that anything beyond 25 is venturing out into the unknown for me. You see, for my entire life thus far, it has seemed like each year life has gotten better and better...and I fear that it can't stay like this forever....I feel like at some point, and I don't know when that point will be, I will reach my "peak" and things will start going downhill! :-0
But, God is so good and I will just continue to pray that He will continue to pour out the blessings. :)

It was a good birthday...after Sean got off work we left Houston for San Saba. Along the way we stopped at Coldstone and got their "birthday cake remix" creation, which is my absolute favorite. And the guy making it knew that it was my birthday, so he upgraded me to the "Love it" largest size which is easily big enough to feed 3 people. He thought he was just being nice and generous (and he was), but little did he know that I would eat the WHOLE thing. Anyway, then we met my parents in Killeen for dinner (thankfully we had 2 or 3 hours of driving time in between for my ice cream to settle), and afterward we all drove the rest of the way to San Saba. There waiting for me was a delicious German chocolate cake (my fave!) prepared by my wonderful parents... so I proceeded with my indulgences of the day and ate some of that. Probably about a 5,000 calorie day, but hey - it was my birthday, I obviously wasn't counting :)

Here is a picture of me with my German chocolate cake....

The next day we went to Brownwood for the Mahan reunion, which was enjoyable and also, let's see...interesting. Family reunions always are pretty interesting, aren't they? I hadn't been to one in a while, so it was Sean's first one to have the pleasure of attending...we had some fun and quite a few laughs. ;) But it really was a good time, and very nice to see some relatives I hadn't seen in years. The next day, we took my Dad to his golf tournament in Brady (which he and his partner won - yay!), Sean had to head back to Houston for work, and I went with my Mom to Dallas for Market to place some orders for Mbellishments. This was my first time to go to the Dallas Market - last year I went with my Mom and Kathy to the market in Las Vegas. We had a great time, but it was very tiring! Yesterday I hung out with my Mom at Mbellishments for awhile, went to the golf course and rode along with my Dad for awhile (Wednesday is their big golf day), and went to Digg's (the new restaurant in town) with Shi'Ann and our families. It was great catching up with Shi - we hadn't seen each other in a few months. It turned into quite a humorous experience as well - we came across a fellow who had had a little too much to drink and was very entertaining - sometimes you've just gotta sit back and laugh! And somehow Shi'Ann and I both ended up being named "Sharon" by the end of the night. I guess you had to be there. ;)

Sean is coming back to San Saba tonight after he gets off work, so I'm really excited about that! Donny and Kami are coming too. It's going to be such a fun weekend! Hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures to post after we get back to Houston on Sunday. Until then, Happy July 4th weekend everybody! :)

It's been awhile!

Wow, has it really been this long since I posted last?? To be honest, I kind of forgot about the ol' blog for awhile. I guess it's just because after the move from San Diego I was in a totally different place and a totally different routine....actually I'm not in much of a routine at all....it has been something different pretty much every day for the last couple months...

I guess my biggest news to report since my last post is that, 2 or 3 weeks ago, I got a job teaching 4th grade language arts at a GREAT school in Katy ISD. It really is SUCH an answered prayer. I had been praying about it quite a bit every day. There were times that I felt so discouraged...As a matter of fact, the night before I found out I got the job was probably the most down I had felt in my whole job search. But lo and behold, the very next day God came through as He always does. Honestly, if I could have picked any teaching position I wanted, I would have picked 4th grade language arts. I think it's such a great age, and I love spelling, grammar, reading, writing, etc. I will also be teaching social studies to my homeroom...I love social studies, so I'm really excited about that too. I know that preparing my students for the TAKS test will be stressful at times, but I welcome the challenge. I think life would be boring if we never had anything to really challenge us.

Another big happening in our lives is that we signed a 6-month lease on an apartment in Katy, and we will be moving in in a couple weeks. We had originally planned to buy a house right away and skip the apartment thing, but we need to be all moved in somewhere before August (since that is going to be such a busy time for me with school starting and everything), and we decided we didn't want to rush the whole home-buying process. Sooo, we will be in an apartment for 6 months, and we will have plenty of time to find our "dream home" with as little stress as possible. Having a dog, it is going to be tough going from townhouse life with a backyard back to apartment life with no backyard, but I think we can handle it for 6 months. And our apartment has a garage so that will help to make the transition a little smoother.

In other news, I met my team yesterday (the 9 other 4th grade teachers I will be teaching with - yes, NINE...it's a big school!), and they are all so sweet and fun! I can tell it's going to be a great year! I'm so excited and ready for school to start, but I don't want to rush it too much because I know the rest of the summer is going to FLY by. I have several trainings and professional learning things I am going to be attending over the next few weeks, in addition to moving into our apartment. I think this afternoon I'm going to go to one of the teacher supply stores and start picking up a few things for my classroom...little by little, I'll get it all put together. The entire 4th grade is in portables, so that makes it a little more challenging to make my room look cute, but I'm determined to make it as nice as it can possibly be...it just might require a few more posters, etc. to cover up those lovely 70's-style brown paneled walls. ;)

Well I guess that's about all I have to report for now, but I promise to post a lot more frequently than once-every-2 months from here on out :)

So long San Diego!

Well this is it....today is the day we start the final journey (in Sean's truck this time) from San Diego back to TEXAS. It's bittersweet because we'll miss living in California, but we're so excited to be going back to our wonderful home state of Texas where we will be surrounded by family and friends. The past 11 or 12 days I've spent here in California have been busy and fun. We went to LA for both of the weekends, and I must say...I love LA. If we were to ever live in California again (which I'll admit is unlikely, but ya never know!) I would definitely want to live in LA. Not that San Diego isn't great... I just feel like I've had my fill of it now and could definitely move on to bigger and better things :). Anyway, we got to go to the Jimmy Kimmel show the first weekend we were there and then Jay Leno this past weekend. We got to sit in the front row at both shows and then had a fun-filled 3-second-long tv appearance sitting in the Mercedes convertible during the Miley Cyrus concert for the "Mercedes Outdoor Concert Series" on Jay Leno (I don't know how we got chosen to do that, just lucky I guess, but it was pretty fun!). We also went to Universal Studios, got to visit Chris (Sean's high school friend who lives in LA now) who took us on a tour of Warner Brothers (which is where he works), and we went out with my precious friend Olivia whom I absolutely love and will greatly miss my trips to LA to visit her. We also got to dine with several great friends here in San Diego while we were here. All in all, it was a great finale for our time in CA. Now it's time to pack up and head on to TX....we'll be spending the night in Las Cruces, NM tonight and then driving the rest of the way to San Saba tomorrow. Can't wait to see all of our loved ones in the Lone Star State. Texas, we're coming home! :)

I *heart* Mbellishments

I would like to issue a retraction to my last post. Namely, my comment about there being a lack of shopping in San Saba. To clarify, by "shopping" I meant mainly clothing. In no way did I intend to imply that there is a lack of home decor and gift shopping. In fact, my Mom and her friend Kathy own a fabulous shop on the square called Mbellishments. If you are ever in the thriving metropolis of San Saba, I recommend stopping by. It really is such a cute shop, and my Mom never ceases to amaze me with her creative ability to design beautiful displays. They do a great job keeping the store stocked with beautiful home decor - from simple, elegant styles to the latest trends. They also have jewelry and CUTE gift items. Okay, I'm sounding a little too much like a commercial now so I'll stop. Anyway Mom, I hope you can rest a little easier now that I have acknowledged that fabulous shopping DOES exist in San Saba. ;)