Surprising Friends is So Much Fun!

"Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."

Last weekend I had the great, great pleasure of hopping on a plane and flying up to Rochester, NY to surprise one of my very best friends in the world, Karen, at her surprise baby shower. One of her great friends there was kind enough to pick me up late Friday night when I arrived and let me stay at her house that evening. I even got to enjoy a lovely 7 mile run around their river/canal trailways on Saturday morning. I wish I could run in that cool, nice weather here in TX! Anyhow, I digress. Karen's husband, Chad, had done a fabulous job of keeping everything secret. On Saturday morning, the two of them and Karen's parents headed over to Kirsten's house for "brunch". Little did Karen know that a group of us were gathered to shower her with love and fun things for her new little one. I was so, so excited on Saturday morning I could hardly stand it! I had not seen Karen since our wedding, which was almost 4.5 years ago. That is way, way, way too long to go without seeing such a dear friend! When Karen walked in I could see her scan the faces and could tell it was taking her a minute to process what was going on and that I was there (because, really, who would expect their friend from 1/2 way across the country to be standing in their friend's back yard at a surprise baby shower??). The shower was a great success and it was fun to be a part of that special time in Karen and Chad's life. Then, I got to spend the rest of Saturday and almost all of Sunday with Karen, Chad and Karen's parents (who are super great people that I was so glad to see!). Chad gave me the "tour ala Rochester" and it was fun to see all the neat places they have there. I had no idea Rochester was so big! All in all, it was just fun to spend some good quality time hanging out with a friend that I miss terribly and wish could somehow live closer to me! It was hard to leave on Sunday evening, but I have high hopes that they will make their way back to the midwest someday and I will have a better chance of seeing them more regularly. In the meantime, video chat is a beautiful, beautiful thing!

The Baby Shower Crew

My journey home from Rochester was definitely an eventful one. A co-worker had warned me that I might have flight delays if I flew through Newark, because apparently they have lots of thunderstorms. Well, unfortunately she was right. My plane was delayed by almost 3 hours and I barely made my connecting flight to Austin (thankfully that flight was also delayed by almost 3 hours!). Needless to say, arriving in Austin at 1:15 a.m. on the first day of school was not ideal, but it was so completely worth it to be able to spend the weekend with Karen!

As for this first week of school, well, it was the first week of school (all you teacher friends out there will get my drift). It's kind of a hectic and yet at times boring week with code of conduct meetings, reviewing expectations, passing out textbooks, etc, etc. Finally by Thursday I felt like things were getting rolling. I have some pretty chatty freshman this year, so it will be a fun challenge to reign them in and keep them engaged and focused. The best part of this year is I only have to teach four classes and I get time to mentor teachers and write curriculum. It's still kind of weird to only teach 2 classes a day, rather than 3 or 4 like I've been used to, but I think I'm going to like it a lot!! Here are some pictures of my classroom...yes there is an elementary teacher deep down inside of me :)


My new, "Go Green" bulletin board






My 3rd floor bulletin board picture for this year...that's me with "House" (my awesome seniors last year named him)

A New School Year Already & Training Time...

Wow! How are we almost half way through August and about ready for another school year? It doesn't quite seem possible. Yesterday and today while I was doing bulletin boards and hanging posters at school I marveled at how it feels like just yesterday I was tearing everything down. I'm kind of a decorating freak at school, and love to get all my stuff up and ready. This year I put everything up super early because I have some extra trainings next week that will eat up a lot of my prep time. I had such fun picking out a new bulletin board set (this year's theme "Go Green!") and figuring out where I wanted to place all my posters. I'm such a NERD! I have to say I am by far the MOST excited about this school year than any other year in the past few years. For the first time in a long time I have an actual TEAM of science teachers to work with, I do NOT have to teach 7 blocks (only FOUR--YES FOUR!) AND I get to mentor a few really super cool and awesome new teachers. They have so much energy and motivation it is truly going to be a joy to mentor them and learn together with them. Plus, since I'm only teaching four blocks, I have four other blocks to mentor, do curriculum work, and just work on being a better teacher myself. It will be SO refreshing to have time to breathe. I won't hardly know what to do with myself not teaching 7 blocks and not having grad school work (wait, who am I kidding? I'll just make sure I'm busy with 5,000 other things--haha!). At any rate, I am super pumped for this school year! I'll take and post some pictures of my classroom soon.

In other news...I'm now in training for my first 1/2 marathon. I'm not a runner, I never thought I would be a runner, but a few old friends and co-workers have been inspiring over the last year and have made me realize that I CAN do it. I'm finishing up my fifth week of training and so far, so good. I've always tried to start running in the past, but got hung up on my hip hurting. This time I just kept pushing through it, stretching and icing it, and now it's virtually pain FREE! Yay! I'm up to six miles for my long runs, and still have 10 weeks of training to get ready for the 1/2 marathon. Plus, it's for a GREAT cause! The race is called "Chosen-Marathon for Adoption" and will help raise funds for Christian adoptions. Our team will raise funds for our church's newly established Abba fund which will give low interest loans and grants to families wishing to adopt. (So, look for opportunities to donate soon!) It's fun to be becoming a "runner", and know that I'm doing it for such a great cause. Unfortunately, my running partner hubby has injured himself (and he's the former runner!!), so I'm not sure if he'll be able to do the race with me, but he's been a great encourager and cheerleader in my journey so far. There are also a few others in our small group running, so race day is sure to be fun. Plus, running in October, in Texas, should be BEAUTIFUL!

That's our most exciting news for now, aside from the fact that everything in our house is finally falling into place after our summer of renovations. After tomorrow our entry way tile will be re-done and everything will be complete! I'll post some pictures of all the new finishing touches soon.

And since a post is not complete without some fun pictures...here are some recent pictures of our 'children' and of our adorable nieces--three of my favorite little girls on the planet!!!


This is how I found these two 'buddies' one morning. Justin had left for work and I had slept in...and apparently these two had as well. I love how Sierra is using Mozart for a pillow =)



Hailey swinging...this was the least blurry...she really was having a good time, I swear!



Abigail and McKayla swinging...I LOVE the hat =)



McKayla hanging out with me and all my fragile toys (who are sort of all hiding behind me)...she insisted they pose in the picture with us =)