focus

This year is kind of big for Zach and me with school. This is his last year as he will be graduating in May (we are counting down the days!), and I was accepted into and started the Teacher Ed program and will do my student teaching next fall after Zach graduates and then I will be DONE in Dec. 2011.

These are my books this semester. I love them =)

I was so happy to be starting the Teacher Ed program that I had to take a pic of the screen on the first day and send it to Mom and Dad.

Since it is such a big year for us, we decided to really get organized. So, we took the bed out of the guest room (no one ever sleeps there anyway), and made an office for the both of us with two desks! We have already used it quite a bit and enjoy doing our work together in there.

The futon is still in there just in case we ever do have guests! (Dad and Mom - on Christmas Eve night Zach and I will take the futon and you guys can have our bed...don't worry.)

The Summer...

Well, summer is over and I didn't blog at ALL! So, I thought I'd do a rundown of our summer.

It started out with Zach heading to camp (of course), and me heading to Dallas to hang out with Van and Tatum for a few days while Mom and Dad were out of town.

Then, when I got back from Dallas, Zach and I headed to Branson for the weekend. This is us at the hotel before dinner one night. We're cute, huh?

We hung out with our niece, Brylee, a TON! Isn't she precious?!

We went to the lake with Zach's mom. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack one night---yummy!

Zach's mom, Kim, at Joe's. She's so much fun!

Audrey and I traveled to Dallas for a Michael Buble concert.

Audrey at the concert...

It was SOOOO good!

Audrey and I also ate at P.F. Chang's in Dallas. We had so much fun!

Then Zach headed off to Colorado for Youthquake for a week with about 75 students from our church.

While he was hiking the mountains in Colorado, I was relaxing on the beach in The Bahamas. I went with my sweet friend Wendy for a few days...all expenses paid! We had a great time!

While I was in The Bahamas, I got the news of my Papa Joe's death. He was 78 years old and is very much missed. I have been especially sad for my grandma, my mom and her siblings with the loss of their husband/father. I am so glad that they have each other. I love you, Pops!

The Sunday after Papa's funeral, most of my family joined us at Racine and we all went to lunch afterwards. It was so nice being out all together. After lunch, we went with Dawsyn to get her ears pierced. She ended up opting out...haha!

We then went BACK to Branson! This time it was for our church's staff retreat. This is most of the group at dinner. Fun was had by all!

This is my friend, Brooke. She is in our church youth group. This was at World's of Fun in Kansas City where we took about 60 kids on one hot Saturday before school started.

So, all of this plus I took 11 hours of SUMMER school...and made all A's! I love staying busy but I am glad that Fall is a calmer season for us.

Ugh

Too busy to write much.

Finals week is the only time that I wish I drank coffee.

Hopefully after this weekend I will have more energy!

Home!

I had a great weekend in Dallas visiting my family! Unfortunately, Zach wasn't able to go, but I think he enjoyed his weekend as well.

I got there not long after the kid's got out of school on Friday and took them to see Iron Man 2. It was actually pretty good, although I don't think Tatum really enjoyed it. There was a scene where a girl was in her bra and when I covered Van's eyes he just looked at me and goes, "I only watch it for the fighting". Which is probably true. We had a quick dinner and then took Van to his ping pong practice. We just hung out and had a good time visiting. Saturday we went to Van's soccer game and then Tatum and I went grocery shopping for Mom. Then we went and had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. It was fun but I think I should've just gone with the crabs! That night we roasted marshmallows in the fire pit outside and made s'mores. Then the kids and I got in the hot tub before bed. Sunday morning we got up bright and early and made Mom her favorite breakfast for Mother's Day--eggs benedict. She loved it (I think)! We went to church and then I headed home after lunch. All in all, it was such an enjoyable weekend just hanging out with my family. I hope my other, maybe 2, readers out there had a great weekend as well!

Van, after his soccer game (no, they didn't win).

Tatum, ready to eat crab legs at Joe's Crab Shack.

Saw this on the way home...I'm pretty sure he was in there!

Came home to our cute little front porch. Zach obviously did not water my plant while I was gone.

It was a success!

Well, the senior banquet went really well. Even though I had to re-inflate all 70 balloons that I had prepared the night before for the centerpieces! Luckily we had a lot of student help. All of the families made it, the decorations looked great, the food was yummy, and the speaker was terrific.

The speaker is one of Zach's favorite professors at OCC so it was really neat to hear him talk and hear his testimony. He talked mostly about what happens after you graduate from high school, and what a strong foundation you need to start your adult life. He said that 75% of Christians who go to state schools (or non-religious schools) end up losing their faith. He thinks that every church should pay for each of their seniors to attend at least one year of a bible college or Christian college just to have that solid start.

It really got me thinking about how I, kind of accidently, did that. And I am so thankful that I did. I got to thinking about how much that one year at ACU meant to me. Even though the main thing that lead me there was that I was broken hearted from a break-up and wanted to get away and that my father was offering to get me a new set of wheels if I decided to go that far away, I can look back on it now and realize that God had it totally worked out. I learned more about my faith in Christ and who God is as a father during those two semesters than I think I might have my entire life. To see adults praying in classrooms and no one afraid to talk about their faith was a wonderful and empowering experience for me as a young adult. So, thanks to Zach for breaking up with me and thanks to Mom and Dad for allowing me to take that journey down to Abilene. Oh, and thanks to my wonderful aunt and uncle who also were a great support and encouragement that year. And, I can't forget that while I attended ACU I met one of my very best friends, Mary Kate, who I am still close with and we talk several times a week, even though it's mainly through text messages ;-).

God has been so faithful to me since I graduated from high school four years ago (I know, why am I still in college?) and Zach and I have been so blessed. I see every day how big our God is and how intricately He is working in my life on the small and big things.

Pictures from the Graduation Banquet:

Trying to make a gymnasium look pretty...

OK, I know this picture looks kind of weird but its Zach's burnt palm and my smashed finger. I forgot to mention that as soon as I walked into the church yesterday that the heavy door got caught by the wind and my finger was still on it. It hurt super bad and today its all puffy and purple. Zach was helping out with the meal in the kitchen and accidently touched the rack in the oven. It was a pretty eventful day!

Here we go...

So, I guess I am going to start a blog. I hate updating my status on Facebook because I feel like there is always either too much or too little to say (and I don't like sharing it with all of my "friends"). So, I thought I might give this a try just for some people that like to keep up with Zach and me. Here we go...

Today is a lazy Saturday. We are both still in our PJ's. Zach is up to his neck in homework and I've been picking up the house and doing laundry...and I love it. I still have some homework to get to but I will most likely put that off till about midnight tonight.

Tomorrow will be busy because there is a graduation banquet at church for all of the seniors this year. It is going to be really nice. I am in charge of decorating so I'm excited to do that and use some of our wedding decorations again! They're having a guest speaker and a nice meal so it should be really enjoyable. Zach has been working on the senior video for the past month so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

I miss my family. Especially my sister (even though she is the one that I talk to the most). I'm going to try to go visit them next weekend so I hope it works out! And, Zach is going to try to come. That means that we don't get to stay Saturday night but it would still be a nice visit.

OK, hope I didn't bore anyone. Hopefully I can come up with some more interesting topics to blog about. =)