Sneak Peek ....

Wow! I have been so busy lately! I feel like I live at school - I'm seriously get there about 7:15 and stay til about 5-6 each night, not to mention I spend most of my Saturday's there. I know it will get better as the weeks go by, but man August and September are always crazy!

This post is going to be really short! I'm just posting some pictures of the finished classroom! Sorry for the phone quality pictures! I have such a great group of second graders - it's going to be a GOOD YEAR!
Ok ... here we go .....

My AR Goals Board - I just have to add their names :)

Getting Started ... Halfway There ... You Did It! ... and Look Who Got Their Dog bone (not pictured)

My door

Reading Genre's Posters from The Tattooed Teacher

Punctuation Posters - Freebie! and my AR Computer

Math Posters and AR Goals board

Daily 5 Posters, Reading Genres Posters, and my adorable first day of school picture frame!!

Character Trait Posters from Mrs. Pollard and my I Can Write Board from A Cupcake For the Teacher

Star Student Board

School News Board and all of my "teacher mess" on the shelves

Calendar Area

Classroom Library - Books are organized by AR level, and all my math "stuff"

My precious clipboard and bag of goodies from a sweet girl! This made the first day back even better :)

Well we are supposed to close on our new house in about 3 weeks! We shall see if the builder has it done by then! I hope so! I'm so ready to be in my own house! I. CAN'T. WAIT! Seriously! I don't want to jinx anything ... but here's a sneak peek ....

Ryle and I on the land before the slab was even poured in April! We signed the contract a few days before.

This was the progress as of Mother's Day

Not sure when this was taken ... my guess is June.

You will have to wait til closing for the rest .... :) 

Final Days

Well I am now in the final days of summer vacation! I start school on Monday. I wanted to enjoy my last week of summer, BUT I have too much to do in my classroom, soooo I've spent the last two days there from like 8:30-5! I'm excited and nervous about second grade all at the same time. I'm excited to start a new year and to get my class list. I'm nervous because I feel like I have no idea what I'm supposed to be teaching! I had my first grade routine down pat, but now I'm just lost! Luckily my coworkers are awesome and are helping me figure it all out!

It's been a busy summer with the house "mess", moving classrooms, my brother getting married, and vacation! I just want to say that I'm so glad my brother found someone that he can share his life with. Megan is the perfect match for William! They compliment each other so well.  Here are a few pics of the wedding! It was beautiful - HOT in July especially in Louisiana - but so pretty! So happy for them! Love you both :)

centerpiece

Her bouquet - pics of her dad and grandfather - LOVED THIS!

We were on the lake

Door to walk through

Hubby and I on rehearsal dinner night

Ruthie and Bryan

Mom and I

Couples

Signs for the road

He's so cute :) I love my hubby

Bride and groom

Her dress was amazing on her .... 

Where you sign the guest book

A sneak peek from the photographer - Unveiled Radiance - AMAZING PIC!!

Another sneak peek of the wedding!!

Crop Insurance Life

I love that I have the summers "off" - although I haven't had much off time since I've been getting ready to move to second grade. And lets be honest, all teachers LOVE getting their rooms ready! Organizing and decorating are my favorite parts! 

With some of my time off, I have been able to go to work with Ryle. He is a crop insurance adjuster ... yeah, I know, I had never heard of it either. But it's a real thing! In the past two weeks, I have traveled all over Arkansas and Louisiana. I love that he is self employed and that I can go with him some days. Shh! Don't tell him, but his job is boring! All he does is drive! Today we drove three hours to meet a farmer! Quality time with him is worth the long boring drive though and he loves his job because he isn't stuck inside all day.

Here are a few pictures in my few days as a crop insurance adjuster. Sorry for the bad quality phone pictures, but it's all I had! I got some lessons on how to tell when soybeans are mature, how to pull corn, how to identify crops in the field, and how to measure a field. Fun times!!

I asked how you know when it has beans in it ... well it has to be mature enough ... duh!

It was so HOT, but we got the field measured!

Pretty day to spend with the husband ...

On our way back from measuring field 

I love that my husband is from Transylvania!

My first sunflower field ... its so pretty!

Moving On Up ...

Ahh I'm so stinking excited to be able to say that I'm moving up to SECOND GRADE!

It's kind of bitter-sweet for me though! I seriously love my first grade ladies! I think we might have had the most fun out of all the teachers in the school! We get along so well and work together great! Here are some pictures of our crazy fun!

Us at Jessica's hubby's graduation day!

50s Dress Up Day

Yes we are those brave teachers that take 100 first graders swimming every year!

100th Day of School!

Unplanned Black Day!

I'm going to miss teaching with them ... BUT the good news is that I only had to move right across the hall! I'm actually moving into my friend Cindy's old room ... she left last year to go teach at a private school. We miss her, but glad she likes her new school! This picture was us on her last official awards day:

Awards Day Fun 2012!

Anyway ... back to the subject at hand! I'm finally getting to move up to 2nd grade! I'm so stinking excited and nervous all at the same time. There have been and still are so many changes going on in the education field that it's overwhelming! It's a lot to take in. I think that this will be a great grade to teach and I'm ready for the change. The plus side is, I already know the group of kids moving up since I taught them last year. I don't know who is on my class list, but I think it's going to be a great year.

My husband is seriously the best thing in the world. I don't know how I got so lucky. He does EVERYTHING for me. I wouldn't make it without him. Ever since I found out I was able to move to the new grade, he has been helping me. We are almost moved out of my old classroom - just a few small things left to get. He painted my new room, helped me hang bulletin boards up, helped label my books according to AR reading level, and even helped me start decorating some of the bulletin boards. HE IS THE BEST! I don't know many husbands that would go help their wives decorate a classroom! Here are a few pictures of the progress so far! Enjoy :)

My grandmother made me some new curtains for my class!

See he's the best! Labeling my classroom library.

I LOVE the curtains! I'm keeping my owl theme and just adding stuff to it this year!

He did a great job!

My grandmother also made me a chevron cover for my computer! LOVE IT!

It's not a very good picture, but you get the idea. I'm adding Boho Birds to my theme this year!

That's all I have time for now ... we are heading to the ballpark to watch Ryle's cousins play some baseball! Oh I do want to show you how cute Ryle's granddaddy is! 

I could just hug him all day! He is adorable in that hat!

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen in that hat?! We love him so much! Have a great weekend!

House Business Part 1

Someone should have warned us how stressful it is to sell a house! Holy cow!

I don't want to ever have to sell another house ... NEVER! Maybe it's not so bad if it's just you, but every single time the house was shown, we had to take all three dogs out with us. Please keep in mind that Kullen is about 150 lbs!! It's such a pain to put him and the two little dogs in the back of a vehicle and then to drive around town anywhere from 30 minutes to an 1 1/2 hours! It was especially bad when it was raining because Kullen would whine when we didn't roll the windows down for him. Here's a picture of Kullen in the jeep - this was a good day for him, we even had the top off! He loves it!

Kullen is a Jeep Dog :)

I'm seriously going to miss my house. This was the first house Ryle and I shared as a married couple and I just love it here. I'm only moving because he wants to - he wants more land and to be farther out of the city. If it was up to me, we would stay here. I do love where we are moving to, but we've done so much work to our house to make it the way we wanted. I mean when we moved in the walls were covered in 80's wallpaper, or the 80's wood paneling, the cabinets were a nasty brown color, the floor was covered in the original carpet or linoleum floors, and the counter tops were all Formica. Not to mention, I live one minute from work right now - I could walk to school if I wanted to ... but I've never wanted to! Haha. 

Here are some pictures of the improvements! I wish I could show you before pictures but they are already packed in a box! Maybe once we get settled, I can update with before and after pictures - but that will be a while :)

New granite counter tops and tumbled stone back-splash

Hardwood floors and no more paneling!!

New tile in master shower - it used to be fake marble.

Well we hope the next couple that lives here will love it as much as we have over the past five years. We have made lots of happy memories in this house!

UPDATE - Oh my gosh! I totally forgot another horrible thing about selling my house. My mom reminded me after I posted this. We finally got tired of driving the dogs around, so we took them to my mom's backyard. Well one of her dogs busted out the back door while I was going to the backyard. Let's just say that Kullen was not going to have another dog growl at him! Baby girl is about 50 lbs and when she growled he attacked! He was NOT going to let go of her neck. It took several minutes to get them apart. And when we finally did, Baby Girl had a pretty big hole in her neck. Mom took her to the vet and they wouldn't stitch her up, because when they went in to do that, they noticed that Kullen did more damage farther down inside of her neck. Needless to say, she had to have a drain put in for a week before they could stick her up. She is better now and back to herself! But I bet she won't growl at Kullen anymore - and we didn't give her the chance! We drove them around for every showing after that! We decided it was better to drive around for an hour than to have dog fights! We are so excited that all the showings are over!

On Hold

It's been a while, I know ... but we have been super busy!

Ryle and I decided to put all fertility treatments on hold. The stress and strain of trying to conceive was too much - mainly for me. He is always calm, cool, and collected and I am always stressed or worrying about something! I guess that's the difference of being raised in the country vs. the city. For now our philosophy will be "if it happens, it happens"! We are always praying that it will happen on it's own, but deep down I have a feeling that it will take IVF in order for us to have a baby. After 5 years of trying, at some point you just have to take a break. And that time for us is now.

We have spent so much money, time, and energy over these past five years worried about having a baby before we were 30 because in my mind that was something I thought I needed. But I'm happy with my life now. I have an amazing husband who would do anything for me. And of course I have my three "fur babies". I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. Anyway, we aren't thirty yet, but I needed a break. I'm sure he needed the break just as much as me. However, I don't think he would admit it - or if he did he would say he needed the break from "all my stressing and worrying".

Honestly, I'm in a much better place than I was two years ago. I can look at babies, pregnant women, etc. without having an emotional breakdown! Which is a huge improvement considering two years ago I had so many meltdowns - even at school! It was terrible, and I feel so bad for my class that year because they had to witness a few of those! Poor babies! I do still take my Metformin for the PCOS. I will more than likely continue to take it, at least until my doctor says that it's not necessary anymore.

Our life has taken a crazy turn in the past year. My brother Bryan was living with us while he saved money before buying his own house. He officially moved out at the end of April. And we are now in the process of selling our house! It went on the market at the beginning of April and we signed our contract on June 3rd! I was/am so excited, yet sad at the same time. But it turns out, we are going to move in with him for a month or so until we get a house. Payback time for brother, although he did live with us for like two years, but I promise we won't stay nearly that long! And if for some reason we don't move in with him, we will move in with my sister-in-law.

We spent the past two days packing up things that we don't use very often. My house is EMPTY! Almost everything I own is in a box ... makes me sad! I finally got my house almost complete and then we move! We just had granite counter tops installed and everything! But more about the "house business" later .... I also have some exciting "school business" to share :)

Here are a few recent pictures of us! Did I mention that it is summer and I absolutely LOVE my jeep! We've had the top off and now we have the doors off! I truly am a jeep girl :)

Jeep time while our house is being shown ...

My sis-in-law ... I love this girl!

Kullen thinks he is a lap dog ... he is sadly mistaken!

I love this man more than I can ever say ...

BlogLovin'

Well it has been a LONG time since my last post! I have a lot to update about, but that will have to come in a few days. For now I'm just letting you know that if you use Google Reader to follow all your blogs with, you need to switch over to BlogLovin' because as of July 1st, Google Reader is going away. I have no idea why, but you only have a couple days left. BlogLovin' will import all the blogs that you follow with a quick click of a button. It literally took me about 2 minutes to create a free account and import all of the blogs I read. All you have to do it click on the button on the right side of the page that has the blue plus sign :)

Promise to update on the fertility issue and other great news soon!

I'm alive!

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WOW! I can't believe my last post was August 13th! That was over a month ago! August and September are always so busy. That's the worst part of back to school. But I have a great group of 21 first graders. They wear me out, but make my days interesting :)

Well there's no news to report on our infertiltiy journey because we decided to stop trying for now. I am however, starting to finally have some what regular cycles on my own! It's the first time in like 5 years! Yikes! I'm also back on my Metformin to help with the cycles and weight loss. This time I asked for the extended release pill, it seems to not make me sick to my stomach like the normal one. So that's good news!

Still going strong with Crossfit - this is month 4 I think. I wake up 5 days a week at 5:30 am to workout. Let's just say by the time 3:00pm rolls around, this lady is ready to get on the couch with a book and do NOTHING!! But honestly, I feel better throughout the day if I get up and workout - makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

I'm so happy that my brother talked me into running Race For The Cure. That will be my workout for the day on September 29. If you would like to make a donation to the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure, just click on this link:
http://northeastlouisiana.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/WMR_NortheastLouisianaAffiliate?px=13382666&pg=personal&fr_id=2629

On top of doing my crossfit WOD each day, I also started a challenge called "Squat September". Oh man, what was I thinking?! On September 1, you do a certain number of squats - I started with 30. Then everyday for the whole month of September, you add 5 to your number. So today I had to do 115 squats and then do my 30 minute Crossfit WOD. My knees and legs are so sore! But I'm hoping that at the end of the month, I will be able to tell that I'm a little more toned in my legs and bottom! Haha! I also signed up for something called "The Whole Life Challenge". It's 8 weeks of strict eating and working out. So far so good. Luckily we kind of ate heathly everyday anyway, so it's not that big of a change! I have found out that I miss orange juice. I think I  miss that the most as of now - but it's only Day 4! So maybe this will help with the weight loss as well!

Hope everyone is doing well! Until next time ....