Summer is flying by!!

I can't believe there are only 25 days left until the wedding!!  It's already the end of June!  SO much has happened in the past month, and I am really looking forward to July!

First thing, good news!  I officially have a job in Del Rio for the next school year.  Del Rio High School called me and offered me a job I just couldn't say no to.  I am going to be teaching Geometry and Algebra to 10th graders at the high school.  I went last week and signed all the paperwork and took a picture for my new id badge!  Then, I went and met the assistant principal and the librarian to get copies of the textbooks for my classes next year.  Both were very nice, and I enjoyed meeting them.  I feel really good about this decision to work at the high school, and I am looking forward to getting started in August.  I will have about a week after I get home from the honeymoon to finish unpacking, and then I have to be at school for inservice.  Since I'm new to the district, I will have two weeks of training and inservice.  This will be good, though, because I will have more chances to get to the school and get my classroom set up and get ready for the classes.  I'm also looking forward to meeting all the other people who are going to be working there!  The place is huge, so I will need to know somebody!

Second, I have officially moved all of my stuff to Del Rio.  I hired some people in Del Rio to unload my huge truck of stuff, and then Travis, my dad, and I all moved the furniture around into the right places.  So the skeleton of the house is in place.  Now all that is left to do is unload all the boxes (currently filling up the garage) into all the correct places, and we will be set.  I'm excited that we got as much done as we did!!  Travis has also finished building the fence, so he's excited to move on to all the other little projects around the house that he wants to complete.

Then, I spent a fabulous weekend in Colorado with Travis and his family.  We stayed in Silverthorne, Colorado, but drove around to different places each day for different things.  We went hiking, shopped in Breckenridge and Vail, and ate lots of good food cooked by the family!  Travis and I also spent a day driving out to Colorado Springs to see the Air Force Academy, which was so much fun and awesome to see.  We also visited the Garden of the Gods before we came back for dinner.

Tomorrow, I have my bridal portraits!!  I can't wait!  This weekend, I am going with Travis to Portland, Oregon for one of his friend's weddings.  Then, it will only be a few more weeks until the wedding!!

Wedding plans are coming along very well.  All the big things are taken care of...now, we are just putting the finishing touches on our projects and paying the final deposits.  We are starting to cook and freeze food for the week of the wedding and preparing for all our guests to arrive.  My mom has lists (and lists...) of things to do, and we are checking things off, one by one.  It's going to be a great wedding!  Don't worry, I'm savoring every moment.  But...I am still so excited for everything to happen!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  Happy 4th of July this weekend!!

25 days left to go... 

Fence Progress

This will be the last post today, I promise!  I just had so much to catch up on, and finally had a chance to sit down and share!  It's been a little busy around here lately!

While I am working on my house, Travis has been working on the fence at our house in Del Rio.  He is making a lot of progress and is almost done!!  Here are some shots of what he has been doing:

He's done some welding for the metal frame of the fence, and then he built the trench to mold the cement around the base.  He had some help pouring the cement, but then he drilled in every single board by himself.  Now he is in the process of painting the fence with a sealant to keep it from rotting too quickly.  What amazing work!!

Time to pack...

Since school is over, now I have time to focus on the next major project: packing my house and moving to Del Rio.  I am packing everything up this weekend, and then moving it all to Del Rio later in June.  In the meantime, I will be living in Houston so my mom and I can finish up the wedding planning!  Right now, my house is full of boxes that are being carefully and neatly stacked in the closets and garage so that I can continue showing my house:

There are boxes everywhere!! And yes, there is furniture in the closet.  I can't wait to be in our new house in Del Rio!  I am living out of suitcases and travel bags for the next two months, and my house is full of boxes!  And, I'm grateful for the fact that I will be moving every three years.  I have accumulated so much junk just living here the past few years; I have made a trip to Goodwill almost every day with more bags of donations!  I have also sold at least 100 books!

My garage is a disaster at the moment, but when my relator showed it today, she said it was okay because "you can still see all the space."  Haha...

And here is my charming ball of joy and fur who was "helping" us all weekend.  Actually, he was pretty amused by all the packing material, and I was constantly pulling him out of bags.  He always gets really nervous when I start packing my suitcase, because it usually means he is alone for the weekend, but he is not sure what to think about my packing of all these boxes!  He's a little confused, which is possibly why he looks so angry in the picture...

 

My dad has been in town helping me to pack this weekend: he packed the entire kitchen and would build boxes for me on command!  We went out to the Oasis for lunch one afternoon for one last hurrah in Austin.  It was a beautiful day, and all the umbrellas kept us nice and cool on the patio.  Notice how incredibly low the lake is...not good for all the boaters this summer!

So, this week, I am working the volleyball camp at school in the mornings and continuing to pack my stuff in the afternoon.  I have a meeting with my relator and other last minute things to do in Austin, and then I am heading to Houston on Thursday!  And, great news!  My dress has arrived in the store, and I have my first fitting on Thursday of this week!  Whoo hoo!  I know it's going to be too big, because I have lost some weight since I tried it on in January, so hopefully the alterations won't take too long.  I can't wait!!

I won't post the countdown of the number of days until the wedding, because it really freaks my mom out, but it's close!! :-)

District Champs!

And, one final awesome thing that happened at school this year: my volleyball team tied for 1st place in the district!  It was very exciting, because it meant that the school finally got a banner for the volleyball team.  So, I am leaving my mark on the school by helping to earn the first volleyball team banner that will be displayed in the gym for several years to come!

My Last Day of School

Friday, June 5th, was the last day of classes for me in Austin!  It was really tough to say goodbye to my kids, but we had a great last day together.  We spent two hours in the cafeteria together signing yearbooks, and then all the kids in the school gathered in the gym for the talent show.  (My students are really talented, by the way!!)  My students wrote some really sweet things in the yearbook, and I know that I am truly blessed to have been able to work with them this year, despite the number of challenges we faced together.

The day before, I had all of my classes pose for pictures.  I took pictures of the whole class, and then I took pictures of the kids I had taught for two years in a row.  These kids are really special to me, and I will miss them!!  I am looking forward to coming back to Austin next year to watch my volleyball team play; I can't wait to see how much they improve in high school!  And, I have already had students email me to say they can't wait to see me again next year, and that I had better let them know when I am coming!

So, here is a little tribute to my students for this year:

My boys in this picture are the goofballs I have taught for the past two years.  They are crazy kids, but they are a lot of fun.  They all have great senses of humor and are almost mature, but are still kids at heart.  The blur behind my head is the kid who was a little late to the picture...

This was my first period class....every day this year...sometimes they were asleep, sometimes they were CRAZY.  They were 21 great reasons to get out of bed every morning. :-)

And, this is my goofy 4th period class (they would hate me for posting this pic, but I think it's hilarious).  I would say this was my hardest class to teach, but it was also the most rewarding.  It was also fun because we only had four boys in the class; sometimes when we had really girly conversations about the wedding, the boys would get so bored!!  Also, one of the girls might be on America's Got Talent next season!  How cool!

The girl in the Team Edward shirt is really about five inches taller than I am; she was excited to finally have to squat down in a picture!  And, notice the green dinosaur?  We did a white elephant gift exchange the last day of classes, and that was one of the coveted gifts.

And, my seventh period class, the class which witnessed and participated in Travis' wedding proposal!  These kids will always hold a special place in my heart.  Some of them had to work really hard to do well in this class, and I was so pleased with their determination and progress!

What a great group of kids to work with two years in a row!!

Moving right along!

Today is June 1, 2009, and this is my last official week as a teacher in Austin.  I just finished grading the last set of assignments I will give for the school year, and I have entered all the grades online.  Grades are due on Friday, and I am ready to turn them in now, minus the few kids who still have make-up work to do.  (Crazy! I've never been this on top of things!)  

I have packed my entire four years of teaching into 12 boxes (some huge, some small) and have them all stacked in my classroom, ready to move out on Thursday.  Lucky for me, I have 75 students who will have "nothing to do" on Thursday, so they are going to help clean my room, stack desks, and move all of my stuff to my car.

For the rest of the week, we just get to spend time with the kids in the classroom.  Tomorrow, we are taking the 8th grade on their picnic day, where, essentially, we spend the entire day at the park at the swimming pool, lounging around and celebrating the end of the school year.  Wednesday and Thursday will be filled with packing, moving, and completing the last of the make-up work, while also completing fun math projects that involve coloring. (Yes, my eighth graders love to color.  Apparently, it never gets old!)  Then, on Friday, the students have a half day, which involves two hours of yearbook signing and a talent show.  Then, at noon, all the students say goodbye to the teachers and leave the school, heading off to 9th grade!  We teachers stick around for lunch and meetings, and then we have to show up again on Monday, but the year will be finished!

I have loved teaching in Austin, and I am going to miss these kids that I have been teaching for the past few years.  I have watched them grow and change so much in the past two years, and I wish them all the best in high school.  I love the school where I have been working for the past four years, and I will certainly miss everyone there too.  It's time for things to change, though, so I am looking forward to what is coming next!

Only four more days until summer officially begins for me!  :o)

Laura's Wedding

This weekend, I flew to DC for one of my high school friend's weddings.  It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception.  Several of my friends from high school were there, and we had a great time catching up and enjoying the weekend together!  This was almost our entire core group of high school friends, and we haven't all been together like this in many years.  Three years ago, we got together in Santa Barbara for Sarah's wedding, but I haven't seen Desiree and Julie in 8 years!!  We will be together again in a few months at my wedding!

Desiree Pipkins, Sarah Nathan, JJ, the lovely bride Laura Watson Racine, 

Brittany Hall, Kavita Rao, and Kate McCormick!

Sarah Nathan, Kavita Rao, Desiree Pipkins, and Laura Stephenson

JJ, Brittany Hall (soon to be Clark), and Julie Steinberg

Outside the church where the ceremony happened