Wedding Website

Hey everyone!  Here's my first attempt at my wedding website.  There's not much information on there yet, but it's a start!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JenniferKinley&TravisDaniels

More information to come soon!

Another Volleyball Weekend!

I travelled to San Antonio this weekend to coach my Eclipse volleyball team in the MLK tournament.  We had a great time, and the team had some crucial bonding time that it really needed!

We played three matches on Saturday morning and three matches on Sunday morning.  Our record overall was 4 wins, 2 losses.  Because of our solid performance, we were placed in the Gold bracket, the highest bracket in the tournament!  There were about 32 teams in our age group, and only 12 made it to the gold bracket, so I was pretty proud of my team.  We played a match on Monday morning in the single elimination bracket, and unfortunately we lost.  BUT, we played a great game, and I saw my kids doing things I didn't know they could do!  It is a lot of fun to coach my 14s team, as they are much more competitive than the 12s.  They know how to play the game, and I enjoy the more advanced coaching that I get to do.

As for the team bonding, we spent some time with Captain Jack Sparrow as our waiter at the Magic Time Machine restaurant, and we invaded the lobby hotel and ate pizza and made t-shirts for our team.  The girls also had some fun swimming in the hotel pool.  There were about four other Eclipse teams staying in the same hotel, so no one seemed to mind the noise!

Overall, a fun, but busy weekend!

The Proposal

Well, 2009 is off to a great start so far!

The Proposal (I warn you, it's long.  I decided I could write as much as I wanted because you can choose how much you want to read!!)

On December 19, the last day of school before the holiday vacation, Travis came to school and managed to let all the office staff, my 8th period class, and about 15 other faculty members know that he was planning to propose to me that afternoon instead of just talking with my students (like we had planned!).  He came in the front office to check in, and then he asked the office staff for help with his plan.  They eagerly (with lots of screaming, I was told...) pitched in to help and came up with a plan to get me out of my room long enough for him to fill the kids in on the plan as well.  By the time one of the APs had walked him down to my room 15 minutes later, about half the school knew what was going on, and several teachers were waiting down a hallway near my room for me to leave so they could sneak in!  I, of course, had no idea this was going on and was eagerly waiting his arrival in my classroom.  The kids were going nuts, it was the day before a holiday, and I was ready to get to vacation!  When he finally came down to my room, I was a little confused why he was escorted down by an assistant principal, but was quickly distracted by a co-worker running in and begging for my help in an emergency.  I couldn't believe that she was asking me to leave the room after I had been waiting all day for him to get to school!  But, after making the kids promise to be nice to him, I left the room.

I was dragged next door and discovered that the "emergency" was a serious game of hangman that couldn't be solved.  I was a little upset, but started to play along; I couldn't quite figure out why this was important...  So I guessed "A".  The students who were running the game got excited because, yes, there was an A, but then they made me wait while they checked the dictionary to see where it was in the twenty letter word they had on the board.  When that happened, I was done; I couldn't wait another second to get back to my room, so I left.

My door was closed and locked (weird, I had left it open...), and when I finally got in the room, all my students were sitting at strict attention in their desks, and at least 20 teachers, secretaries, and the principal were sitting in my room.  Some thoughts that instantly went through my confused mind: Why on earth was Susan crying? Why are all these people here?  You know, I really didn't think Travis was going to be that interesting!  How did they know he was coming?  I was so throughly convinced that I wasn't getting proposed to (more stories about Travis' clever deceptions later), that I didn't even consider it as an option!

So, while my kids were being so quiet and attentive, Travis started his speech.  He was in his flight suit and started out by introducing himself and saying that I had asked him to come and talk to them about math (I had to have a good excuse, right??).  I settled down, convinced he was just going to say what we had planned.  So, his speech continued something like this....

"Well, guys, I was planning to talk to you about math, but I figured you guys have had enough of that for today.  And, Ms. Kinley told me that I could talk about anything that I wanted, as long as I didn't embarass her.  So, I have decided to completely ignore her request.  Ms. Kinley, would you please come to the front of the room?"

I couldn't believe it.  He called me up to the front of the room, took my hands, and got down on one knee, right there in front of everyone.  As soon as he did that, all the kids in the class yelled out "Will you marry me?" at the top of their lungs.  Everyone was laughing, crying, and generally being excited.  I was so overwhelmed and shocked that I couldn't believe it; I started shaking with excitement and couldn't stop smiling.  All of a sudden, Travis says, "wait, hold on a minute.  I forgot the ring!"  He had to get up and run over to my desk, dig the ring out of his bag, and come back to kneel down again.

I said yes!

It was just about the most wonderful thing ever.  All the little girls in my class swarmed around us, staring at me like I was the most amazing thing they had ever seen.  Teachers and staff kept streaming into the room, congratulating me and giving me hugs.  Students from my other classes were coming in to see what was happening; students I didn't know were stopping by to congratulate me! (For anyone who works in a school, we all know how fast news can travel!)  I couldn't believe it had happened and was so excited!  Needless to say, it was an amazing start to my vacation!

Travis and I were lucky enough to get to spend our entire two week vacation together, visiting our families in Houston and Dallas and then traveling to New York with my family.  It was an amazing time, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It was so hard to come back to Austin alone on Sunday!

So, now the planning and fun can all begin!!!  What a great way to spend the majority of the new year!!  And all my kids wanted to hear the story and see the ring again on Monday, so I got to relive all the excitement again at work.  I can't wait to see what the future will hold!

Happy New Year to everyone!