I love a fresh start

I just love new beginnings.  As a teacher, I get two new starts each year - one in August and one in January.  They are chances to dream big; to hope and plan for better; to make changes and start over.  Every January me (and 3 million of my closest friends here in the United States) decide to make a change in health.  This year is no different in my home.  We are eating right and making healthy changes to our lifestyle. 

Today is day 1 of said health regiment, and I'm feeling good.  Ate exactly what I was supossed to eat today and am in my PJs at 8:30 blogging and working (in no particular order). 

Aside from the health changes, I have high hopes for other areas of my life I want to work on - hubs and I need to sit down this weekend and hammer out our family goals for the year, but my individual ones are:

• drink 60 ozs of water each day
• give up pop {I can hardly believe I just typed that}
• learn to cook and bake
• grow in my faith {actually pay attention in church rather than watching the cute babies in front of me}
• try my hand at running and complete one road race
• spend more time at home - not running here, there, and everywhere
• do all busy-work at school outside of student-time {I'm always checking email or jotting down a lesson I want to teach next week, or putting mail in student mail boxes, etc}  If it's something I can do without students there, I want to do it then.

That's quite the list - but managable I think.  :)

What are your resolutions for 2012?

8 months...

...is a long time without a post.  This is really pathetic.  But here's the deal, I was locked out of my own blog.  It was tied to an email address I no longer use and had frankly been too lazy to change and/or back up like blogger recommends.  Add that to the time dilemma that occurs in my life - and that'd be how and why 8 months has passed since my last post. 

So, after much research, I figured out how to get back into my blog and exported it to a new blogger log-in.  While I was going through all the trouble, I figured a name-change and face lift couldn't hurt, and wah-la!  Here we are, back in business.

In an effort to get caught up, here is a very incomplete list of what our family has been up to the last 8 months:

• I got a new job - still teaching 5th grade, but in a new school district and a brand new school (I'll share the adventures of that soon!)
• Kaitlyn entered 5th grade and is at a Middle School
• Kevin has put many hours into getting his studio in order and has only some finishing touches left.
• Riley (our 6-year-old boxer) continues to be dumb.
• We took a 10 day trip to Yellowstone with my parents, sister, and her family - perhaps that will be the topic of another post?
• We celebrated the following holidays: Mothers Day, our 1st wedding anniversary, Fathers Day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Years (essentially ALL of the US Holidays are listed here since it's been so long - oopsie daisy!)
• I continue to work on organizing our home and purging the unnecessary items we seem to attract around here - I plan to do a little weekly project and post some updates in the new year
• Kevin bought me his business a new Nikon camera that I like to fiddle around with - when he lets me, of course.  ((sigh))
• Platinum (the high school dance team I coach with my sister) won the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Competition for the 3rd straight year in jazz and for the first time ever in pom - SO amazing!
• Platinum also was awarded the American School Spirit Award by Universal Dance Association - to see the announcement, go here!  We will be featured on ESPN in February from Orlando, FL at Nationals!
• We have spent the past 6 months seeing a fertility specialist - without success.  (I plan to blog more about this soon - I know I have benefited SO much from hearing other women's stories, and pray my story will help someone too)
• I did not accomplish even 1/2 of my 2011 goals - perhaps I'll just recycle those to 2012?

I think that's about it - plenty of excitement has been had and there is still plenty to come!  I hope the 3 people who read this blog are happy about my return!

I will post more tomorrow - after all, it is one of my resolutions from 2011 :)

Easter Part 1

We had such a great day yesterday!  We spent the entire day with Kevin's family and it was so much fun!

My Mother-in-Law took us girls to an American Girl Fashion Show.  The girls got all dressed up and brought their dolls with them. 

We enjoyed a muffin, fruit cup, and lemonade.  And the girls had a great time looking at all the fun things they could win in the raffle.

Kaitlyn especially loved spending time with her cousins which she rarely gets to see since they live out of town.

After the fashion show, we headed back to Kevin's parent's home and enjoyed a night of fun with family.  We had delicious ham, mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole, baked beans, and dinner rolls.  And for dessert, we had the most amazing chocolate cake and ice cream!  YUM!

This little beauty was attached to me for the last 24 hours.  We had so much fun playing, snuggling, and laughing!  She also kinda likes Uncle Kevin :)

And after dinner, the kids enjoyed hunting Grandma & Grandpa's yard for eggs which were filled with yummy candy!

Once all the eggs were found, they spread them out on the floor and took turns trading eggs and candy.

This morning, we got up and headed to church and now we're just lounging around the house until we need to pack up and head back home for Easter Part 2 this afternoon with my family.

I hope you're all enjoying a relaxing day with family as we celebrate the miracle of Jesus today.

Lots of Love :)

A Diva Doesn't Like Dirt...

Happy as a lark - obviously because she had a stylish outfit and some brand new, shiny, pink socks and shoes. What Diva wouldn't enjoy such a morning?!

{my cousin's children also play soccer in the same league - such a fun little circus!}

In the end, she took one look at the ball and burst into tears. When I asked her why she didn't want to play she simply said "the ball is icky and it will make my socks dirty". Well, Maicey, I can't say I disagree with you! So, she spent the rest of the game sitting on my lap with an extremely cross look on her face.

All in a day's work of a Diva.

Way Back Whensday :)

Reading Goal

So, as a teacher my students have nightly homework and one thing they are required to do every single night is read for 20-30 minutes.  I've decided I'm going to take up that assignment as well.  I'm going to carve out 20-30 minutes per night for some quality reading for fun.  Not reading a school book, not reading a blog, not working on grad school - reading for fun.  We'll see how this goes!

Over my spring break, I did a really great job of this!  And I noticed I was much more calm and nice to be around {lets just pretend this is solely because of the reading and forget about the fact that I wasn't working that week...}  In any event, in the past month I've read this little gem:

And this:



I loved every single second of both of them!  I couldn't put them down!  Heart of the Matter I started reading at the beginning of February on a weekend trip, and I finished it before I got home.  I LOVED IT.  Love the One You're With I read over Spring Break.  I really enjoy Emily Giffin as an author.  Her plot lines are great and she has a way of pulling her reader in with her words - I just felt like I was living in both of these books.  Highly recommended. 

My friend Jenny has quite the list of books she's read this year, which many of those are on my wish list as well!  What are you reading and loving?

So What Sunday

So what if:

• It's 9:00 and I'm ready for bed
• I am 2 months from graduating from my masters program and have "senior-itis" badly {senior-itis = disease in which you don't feel like doing ANY of the things assigned to you.}
• This week is conferences and I'm not really looking forward to the long hours
• My 2011 goals are not exactly getting checked off - maybe summer will help that out?
• I am SICK & TIRED of the weather right now - seriously, it's spring - I'm tired of wearing my winter coat.
• For the first time in my life, my REAL nails are actually acceptable for sight.  {I've had acrylic nails for most of my adult life and recently ripped them all off and have been nursing them back to health}
• I cannot think of one more thing to write tonight.

Good night :)