I cannot believe that December is almost over! It was a very busy month for us to say the least. Between work work work, Christmas shopping, some hard family times, some great family times, a Christmas tree, Christmas cards- okay you get the point & the list could fill this entire post. It was crazy busy!

Overall we have had a wonderful break so far- that last week of teaching was so long because we could taste Christmas break it was so close. I am trying to avoid thinking about work this week (other than on Wednesday which we have labeled our "work" day over break- we will literally be working around the clock to prepare for the next week- but then Thursday we will break again and put it off of our minds.)

Last week was busy but in a good way- I started off last saturday with a baby shower for my dear friend Katie and her baby girl Ella. I made the bunting in the background of this photo- I'll maybe share the DIY soon :) Cannot wait to snuggle with Ella when she arrives so soon!

Then we celebrated Christmas with my family & my brother-in-law's birthday. We also continued our annual tradition of going to see A Christmas Story & (my personal favorite) It's A Wonderful Life at our local vintage theater The Naro.

We packed our bags, said goodbye to Scuttle & our Christmas Tree and headed west to celebrate Jesus' birth with Josh's family.

After a wonderful Christmas visiting family, we headed south toward Atlanta to celebrate another birth- our nephew Edmund Michael Searcy. My heart melted- he was the cutest. Congratulations Kaitlin & Steven.

We came back home last night and we were greeted with purrs and kitty snuggles from Scuttle. It has been a good break so far and we are looking forward to a week of relaxing at home. My plan this week is to:

1. Begin our 2014 travel plans including a trip to FL to visit our favorite friends Dan & Ally and a European backpacking trip this summer (I am SO ecstatic!) 

2. Cook REAL food. Like the kind you get raw ingredients for- the kind of food I would make if I didn't work sixty hours a week. (also I am excited because I'll be testing some recipes from this cookbook I received as a Christmas gift!)

3. This sort of goes along with #2 but I am going to try my hand at re-creating this delicious meal I thoroughly enjoy/crave/dream about at a favorite local joint The Handsome Biscuit. 

4. Continue and maybe even finish A Brave New World.

5. Thrift. I miss thrifting. 

Any fun plans for the new year? 

a little break

meowzer...

Happy post-Thanksgiving Caturday... remember to shop small businesses today to support your home town!

xoxo,
Ally & Scuttle

meowzer...

an ode to my favorites

I promise this post will not be as depressing as the last few...

Here are five favorite things I am super grateful for today & everyday.

1. My husband. Not sure if I would have survived thus far without Josh here to support me and love me and care for me during this tough season of learning, long hours, and sheer exhaustion. He has totally 100% held my hand the whole way, let me lean on him for comfort & support, and provided me with words of wisdom during my roughest of days. I am so blessed to work along side him.

eating dinner in my favorite place in the world... Paris.

2. My home. I love this sweet little tiny apartment in Ghent. I love that we can walk places. I love that Josh lets me decorate & redecorate & then do it all again. I love the steam heat in the winter. I even love my tinier-than-an-itty-bitty-mouse bathroom. I love the way the sun shines in through the bedroom window in the winter. I love this tiny space we call home.

3. My cat. In all seriousness, I truly look forward to coming home to the little cuddle-bug at the end of an exhausting day.

4. Café Stella. Your mochas are to die for. Your cinnamon walnut coffee cake is the dreamiest. Your atmosphere is comforting. And your food rocks my world.

5. Band of Horses. My favorite band... this album has gotten me through many-a-days at Booker T... you rock.... literally.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving day... I made an apple pie. My momma made everything else. It was a good day full of love and hair brushing by Savannah.

an ode to my favorites

a filament of light

Today I am feeling the weight of the brokeness of the world. Last night Josh & I went out to dinner and were talking about our future and what direction we are heading. This kind of led into talking about the struggles we face at our job.

I often get angry with my students. I am constantly peeved by the lack of effort, the lack of focus, and the lack of value for education. It is beyond frustrating to see a good mind wasted into things that will only set them back in life.

I try to understand but my patience runs thin and my worldview is often skewed to how I grew up and my own experiences and environments.

Last night though, I reminded my myself in our conversation that I have to continually think about where my students are at and what they go home to. A good portion of my students leave school and go to houses- not homes. Many of them do not eat meals at night. Many are fatherless. Many are mothers themselves. They are surrounded by a culture that glorifies sex, drugs, gangs, and violence.**

I forget that the hour and a half I spend with them is just a blip in their daily lives.

I have been burdened with the brokeness of the world last night and today thinking about this and other things happening in my own life that just remind me that this world is not the way it was intended.

It should be different. The pain and brokeness is real and intense and it has only been intensified in my life since working at Booker T.

Confession: I love Blink 182. And their song "Stay Together for the Kids" has been ringing through my head today. "It's not right. It's not right"

Putting aside my own struggles and pressures in my job, today has been especially sad. The reality is sinking in and I have been left with a deep longing for something more for my students, my family, and my friends.

Glad to be reminded of this verse as I struggle with this:

10I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^a no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

So after a long frustrating day of being painfully aware of the brokeness that exists in and around me, I sat at my favorite coffee shop, read a favorite book (Brave New World), and reminded myself of something a dear friend told me. In a culture full of darkness, I am but a filament of light in their lives. Regardless if they realize it or I realize it, or if it changes anything, I am there and it is not total darkness. Some good exists.

a filament of light

back to the basics

After much needed rest & time off, I am ready to get back in the game at work. I was able to reflect a lot on my last post, my mental breakdown of Monday, and my whole approach to teaching in general.

It has been good. Thank you for all of the support after my last post- I did not intend for anyone to pity me about the situation, I am fully prepared for worse days in my life. It is nice to know though that I have so much support.

One of the biggest things you hear among teaching circles now-a-days is "up the rigor in your class." and "raise the ceiling." So that is exactly what I have done. My team and I make honors tests and give it to our "regular-ed" students. We continue to ask higher level questions and make higher-level activities. However, my students are struggling. They are struggling so badly and I think that is adding to both their frustration and my frustration. I continue to ask & think to myself, "Why aren't they getting it? It's such a simple assignment! Why are they failing my class assignments? They are in high school now, if they can;t do this simple task, how can they do real life?!" I realize how harsh this may sound- but when the majority of my students are failing, you have to stop at some point and assess.

My students can not analyze a photo or political cartoon or answer a simple question or write a complete sentence or read information and answer related questions or analyze a map.

So after a couple months of throwing information at them and hoping they can do the assignments like I listed above, I realized: I have to stop wishing & hoping and instead show them how to do something.

So tomorrow, I my students and I are working on answering questions by looking at the question mode. "How? What? When? Why? Where? When? Explain. Discuss. Identify." We are going to answer all of those related questions about making a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

I said back to basics didn't I?

back to the basics

man oh man.

So not be dramatic or anything, but Monday was probably one of the most stressful and worst days of my life. Here's the scoop.

It started when I woke up at 5:15am. (I mean does it ever look like it's going to be a bright & sunshiny day at that wake-up hour?)

I felt awful- head cold, congested, chest tight, head ache kind of thing. Now in normal people job that usually means a sick day. But for teachers there is so much prep work involved in trying to get a sub and then ensure the plans are all there etc. It is kind of a headache. Plus I had just spent the previous day slaving over my lesson prep for that day. So I mustered up some energy and drudged along to the school.

The moment we walked upstairs it began to get hotter and hotter and hotter. And then continuing on to our classrooms it got even hotter. I opened my door and BAM!- a waft of hot stagnate air hit me.

The heat had been turned on from last weeks shiver-fest in Virginia, but never got turned off for the heat-up over the weekend. Consequently, when the temperatures were in the upper 60's & 70's over the weekend, our rooms got no ventilation.

I should also note that our rooms have no windows (the 1970's was just not a good decade for building well... anything really) 

So now I was (still am) sick and had to stay in the hot, hot, humid room all day.

Then the students came in, and it was every 10 seconds "it's hot." "it's too hot in here." "I can't concentrate." Many of my students could not stand it that they just up and walked out. You could say my stress levels were... high to quite high/out the roof, over the bay, and into the depths of the state above us.

It was a nightmare. And it was real. My patience was tested and I surely failed- tremendously. I got angry with my students. I do not know why I am so ashamed to type that on here. But let's just say a whole new Mrs. Henderson came out and looking back, I hated her.

After some refelction on the day and some good sleep Monday night, I went to school Tuesday and tried to be the Mrs. Henderson I wanted to be and was overly aware of my demeanor to the students and tried to push through the day. However, during the last block of the day when my voice had quickly deteriorated into a wimpy rasp, I knew I should probably plan for a break Wednesday.

So I am at home coughing, blowing my nose, drinking hot tea, taking medicine and trying to fight this thing before it gets worse.

Although I cannot stop thinking about how my students are doing- If the sub is competent or not. How I am going to play catch up when I get back. Just goes to show, no matter how mad the make me, I really do love my students- even the times I want to scream at them and when they drive me to be a mad woman.

Oh the life of a teacher.

Also, here's a little sneak peak of the Booker T. Washington yearbook... The best part?
We'll be right next to each other. Just like our rooms. Just like our life.

man oh man.

confession: dinner.

So I have about 100 times more respect for working moms (& dads!) than I ever have before. With my experience so far, I cannot comprehend how I would be able to have a family and do this. Now I know I am a first year teacher and that is a ton of work in and of itself, and I know it will "get easier as time goes on." Even still, it just seems insane to me that some women actually do it.

I have a lot more respect for my working mom for a specific reason: DINNER.

My mom is the bomb at cooking. She always made meals for us growing up- and she was juggling a full time job in the Navy.

Confession... I have made a real dinner twice since school has started.  [insert gasps & dirty stares]

Now we still have our freezer meals we make but we have been eating out A TON for the past two months.  Every day I keep telling myself that "I WILL make dinner tonight... yup, tonight is the night. Dinner on the table will happen." Then life hits me like a ton of bricks  ungraded papers, data binders, power-points, lesson plans, jammed copiers, oh the list goes on & you get the point. When all that stuff hits me, and it is all of a sudden 6:30, 7, 8:30... I do not have the energy or patience to make a meal. All I want to do is eat and call it a night.

This has really been beating me down lately. I feel like I am stretched so thin- I want to be good teacher but there is all this extra "stuff" absorbing my time, I want to be a good friend & sister & daughter & wife & cook but I am consumed with work 24/7.

I have to figure out a system. We really only need two meal-makings a week since we have left overs for days usually. The crock-pot is surprisingly not very useful in our home because we leave at 6 am and do not get back until late.

Meanwhile, I will continue to try and juggle it all and balance everything... it may just take a little while until I get this thing down to a science... until then? Chipotle, Panera, Jersey Mikes, frozen chicken nuggets, here we come.

confession: dinner.

nerve damage

As the school year goes on, my patience has run as thin as piece of chiffon fabric. At the beginning of the year, my students were the least of my problems. Working in an urban school surely has it's ups and downs in terms of the students. The student population is truly just different. The students have grown up in a completely different environment and you have to accept them as they are and not what you wish they would be.

So I admit at the beginning of the year I went in with this mindset. It worked for a while and slowly almost instantly the school began to drag on me. The work load of a teacher is absolutely insane- especially for a first year teacher teaching an AP class. The workload for an urban teacher is even more heavy. This week I realized that all of the stresses of my life that have been caused by my new job (not spending time with family or friends, thinking about how badly I want to sleep all the time, working dusk till dawn, spending money on school supplies, etc.) have also caused me to forget why I teach and how to be an effective teacher.

I had a student who came back a week and a half ago from 10 days outside school suspension. She did all the work I assigned her to do while she was out, provided her with notes from the unit, and she only had to make up the test. This past Thursday & Friday, our school had "amnesty day," which is just a day for students to catch up on missing work. Now whether or not I agree with amnesty day is a whole different store (I do not... but so many kids are failing and our school is under sever watch by the district and the state) but none-the-less we were required to do so. I asked my student to make up her test while others were making up work or doing another assignment. She started arguing with me in front of the class and I was already on my last nerve for the morning, so I got angry. Told her I was going to write a referral. Called her home in the middle of class (no answer). She was angry and refused to do any work. I was angry and refused to deal with the situation. As I sat typing up her referral, she asked to go to the bathroom. And something clicked. I realized that I am dealing with the situation in a way I never imagined myself doing. I called the girl out of the room to have a chat.

It went really well. I told her where I was coming from, how something like that would make me angry, and she told me why she didn't want to take the test. She apologized- I apologized. It was in that moment that I realized I have let my patience run too thin- things that don't even involve my students have gotten so that I am constantly on my last nerve even at the start of the day. I cannot let myself be caught up in the madness that surrounds me or I will never be able to handle my students the way I have always intended. I want my students to know I care- so it stops with me threatening them or being annoyed at their constant lack of progress. Instead it starts with me talking to them. Being real with them. Showing them that I am a human too.

This week Josh & I volunteered to help out at a school carnival fundraiser. Josh was dunked for 45 minutes in a dunk tank and I hung out with students and ran a cupcake walk. It was so fun to see the students let loose and enjoy life- and they had a blast watching me dance to their favorite songs like The Wobble & Soulja Boy. Apparently I have over 100 likes on Instagram from a students video post of me dancing....

teachers can have fun too :)

enjoy the weekend!

nerve damage

happy...

National Cat Day

xoxo, 

Ally & Scuttle

happy...

just kitten

One thing you should know about me: I love cats. I always have, and always will. No one will ever convince me that there is a more suitable pet for all different lifestyles. Now before you go hating on cats, know that I also like dogs. Just not nearly as much as I like cats.

I will save my dog v. cat argument for another post but this fine Caturday, I would like to show you some of my favorite cat items I have stumbled upon via the internet.

enjoy & happy Caturday.

1. I included this little gem of a shirt because one of my favorite things are cats & one of my husbands favorite things is beer. Although I would never wear buy this, I thought it was pretty funny. Buy Here.

2. I found these super cute cards flapperdoodle, an Etsy shop that you can download some super cute cards for almost anything you can think of. I used her design for some bachlorette invites this summer & I absolutely loved how they turned out! These little cat cards are the perfect way to say hello- from both Scuttle & myself!

3. I have been swooning over two cat cases for my iPhone- I love the colors on this one, it is bold yet suttle all at once.

4. Confession: I actually own a pet food mat made by Diggity Dawg  and I love it! I was looking at her site and noticed this mustard yellow one and could not help but think how cute it would look in my home full of mustard yellow [side note: yellow is my favorite color, I do not wear it often because it washes me out, but I LOVE decorating with it!] Anyways, these pet food mats are great for kitties that like to splash in their water (*cough*cough*Scuttle!) They are wipeable and look super cute!

5. These little cat buttons are just adorable... I own a couple cat buttons that currently adorn my winter coat and I love adding a little flare to my wardrobe!

6. Currently, I cannot decide which cat shirt to get... this one by BurgerAndFriends is so catchy...

7.... But this one is just too funny...

8. Yet another cat iPhone case I just can't help but love... I mean the cat is the spitting image of Scuttle. Plus I love the artists inspiration for the design.

9. How cute would this ring look on my skinny, bony finger?

10. Last, but certainly not least, these little girls tights are just too much for me to handle. I mean come on, if I had a little girl I would order them in every size so she would have them continually as she grows.

just kitten

emotions & teaching

please note I do not want anyone to take pity on me for this post... I am just writing for sympathy to other urban teachers, to make others aware, and for my own personal record...

Working in an urban school is much harder than I thought it would be. I anticipated the school year to be tough. Josh worked at the school last year and I saw how exhausted he was every day and heard the dramatic stories and witnessed the defeat all last year. It was certainly hard for me to watch it happen.

So I thought I knew what I was getting myself into.
However, urban education has literally been the most exhausting thing I have ever done. 

I am working on average 12 hours a day.
This obviously creates physical exhaustion that is unexplainable- plain and simple, the first thing I think about when I wake up is how much I will look forward to meeting my bed back again when I return. I absolutely hate that- but my early school day and late nights have driven me to that madness.

Physical exhaustion only adds to my overall exhaustion; My emotional exhaustion is the kind that literally drains me to my bones. Teaching is an emotionally exhausting job and working in an urban school only heightens the fact.

I am constantly giving and giving and giving attention to students- some of these students really do appreciate that. But it is especially emotionally exhausting to give and give and give to students who simply do not care and are not aware that you want them to succeed in life. All I want for my students is for them to acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed in life, so it really pulls yanks on my heart strings to see my students simply not care.

The majority of my students do not read or write on the level that they should be. They are heavily influenced by the culture that surrounds them- a culture that (in general) glorifies drugs, sex, and gang violence. I have volunteered to work in project neighborhoods before. I know the culture well- I know the values. Sadly, education and getting out of poverty is not always one of them. It is emotionally exhausting to see my students come to school with loads of real life issues on their shoulders- my students experience- and have experienced- things that no child should ever have to.

It breaks my heart and at the end of the day, in all honesty, I often feel defeated, my heart feels broken, and my soul is weary.

A dear friend of mine who I look up to so much asked me in the midst of my complaining if there was anything that was good about teaching- This made me stop in the midst of my heated ranting and truly think. Yes the majority of my day is pretty crappy and exhausting and if I hear "This is too much to write" about a single simple sentence one more time I may blow up- but her question made me realize that no matter how emotionally and physically exhausting my day is, I still have moments that make my heart warm again and I see God working. When a student has a light bulb turn on or smiles and tells me "Good Morning Mrs. Hendy," I remember that no, I will not have a Freedom Writers story, but this is my own story and I cling to the fact that no matter how weak I am- HE is strong. And HE is working.

I do not remind myself of this often enough. Hoping one day it will be second nature to do so...

Here is a picture of this week at school- Josh & I dressed up for "Throwback Thursday" for homecoming week...

I gathered up some of my hippie clothes, threw on a hair band & a Vietnam War" jacket, played a little Marvin Gay for my students and called it a day... Josh grabbed his normal clothes & labeled it "grunge 90's" ...

enjoy the weekend!

ally

emotions & teaching

playing catch up

Things have been busy around the Hendy household for the past two months. (note: that was an understatement... we've actually been the most busy a person can be.) With school started up, we are knee deep  underwater in work. It certainly has been a crazy start-up to our fiscal year.

To catch you all up, Josh & I are both teaching at the same high school this year. We work in the same department. In fact, we have rooms right next to each other. [insert a resounding "awwww"] I know, I know; adorable. It has actually been awesome to work so close to him, but we'll save that for another post. After all, we are just playing catch up.

The school we work at is tough. (yet again, a severe understatement.) It's ranked one of the "worst" in VA. But I do not like thinking of it that way- otherwise my day year is ruined. It is all about outlook. I prefer to view the high school as one of the biggest projects for VA public school. With endless paperwork, a tough student population, and logistical teaching "stuff," I am constantly writing sticky-note after sticky-note of how I need to play catch-up on work. And yet no matter how much I scratch off of my to-do list, there are always things being added. It can sometimes (mostly) feel like a daunting task. I still sometimes question myself on whether or not this is actually feasible for little ol' me. But we keep pushing through.

That is really all I have right now to catch you up on... It has been a crazy two months. And I forsee my future to be pretty insane until June 17.

More to come. Hope you enjoy the new design & look. Hoping to blog a lot about this year, DIYs, teaching, life, & cats- I want to document this crazy season because I often find in the business of it all, I forget to slow down & reflect.

playing catch up

Movie Monday: A Place Beyond the Pines

Direction. Every blog needs direction. You have wedding blogs, photography blogs, craft blogs, food blogs- pretty much there is a blog for everything.

I, on the other hand, have been confronting myself with this big question: "What do I want my blog to be about?"

It really is a big question and I do not really know the answer quite yet. 

I know I want to share my life. I want to share what is true and what is real. 

I also want to share things that I love. 

Like simple recipes (I do not love to cook, but I love discovering a good recipe thats a "keeper!)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins... to die for.

& decorating tips... I love LOVE decorating. Whether it is a home or a party I love being in charge of decorations. 

Libby threw me a bridal shower and I will never ever forget it. I often think of it and remember how oh-so-loved I felt. She decorated it so well- and she also has a really lovely home!

I love crafts & DIYing <i just made that a word...

I DIYed my entire wedding... of course with the help of many friends & family.

Recently, I have also been loving movies. Josh & I really enjoy watching movies & thinking of the deeper issues and meanings of a movie. We have a membership to the movie rental store down the street; The Naro Expanded Cinema

Insert Movie Mondays. (I mean, who doesn't love alliteration?)

I am going to try and take a stab at this. I am by no means a movie critic, but I love a good film without the popcorn (I do not like popcorn. [Insert shocked, horror faces with scrunchy eyebrows... I know... I know....)

So here is my first Movie Monday.

A Place Beyond the Pines  Click on the link to view the full overview on IMBD

Directed by Derek Cianfrance ( director of Blue Valentine)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, & Eva Mendes

Josh & I saw this movie at the Naro cinema a few weeks ago. The Naro is such a sweet little gem in Norfolk- the people that work there absolutely LOVE movies. 

It is not your typical Regal Cinemas or anything... It is one theater showing one movie at a time. And they usually only show movies that you eiher 1) Have never heard of but always win Oscars & such and 2) Do not play in your standard theater at the mall.

They also sometimes play old favorites such as The Big Lebowski & The Princess Bride side note if you have never seen the Princess Bride, do yourself a favor & watch it.... it is a personal favorite.

Okay back to the movie under review... A Place Beyond the Pines was not what I expected it to be... I honestly thought it was going to be about how Ryan Goslings character becomes a father and starts to do crimes in order to support his new baby. Which is not usually my cup of tea kind of movie, but hey, Ryan Gosling is in it and that is reason enough to see a movie.

Although the movie starts like this, in a quick turn of events, it unravels such a grander theme. The film covers a period of 15-18 years. Ryans character, Luke, is a tough guy motorcycle star who makes his living traveling with a circus. His life is turned upside down when he discovers a past lover, Rowina, gave birth to his son. The first thirty minutes of the film depicts Luke trying to earn the affection of Rowina. In order to provide for his son, he begins to rob local banks using his motorcycle skills. Sadly, Luke dies within the first thirty minutes of the film. And then the film begins to star police officer Avery played by Bradley Cooper, who commits a big mistake in police action but is able to cover up his lies and use the incident to expose & climb the ranks in a shady police department. This event takes an obvious tole on his marriage, and will take an even more obvious tole on his son.

The plot thickens & escalates when two boys meet in a high school lunch room, unaware of how dangerously and sadly close their pasts are intertwined. 

The film is really all about relationships and how past sins and actions can catch up in real life. It exposes the deep wounds that time can often cover up, but only for so long. 

I highly recommend this film and I am going to definitely be watching it again when it comes to DVD at our local video store.

Movie Monday: A Place Beyond the Pines

cures for summer boredom

This morning I woke up and the first thing I thought of was what I needed to do today.

Then it hit me... I have absolutely nothing to do today.

side note: Then I noticed Scuttle cuddled up intertwined with his red fish on a string... and it made me giggle. 

 Last week was my fist official week off before graduation but between two bridal showers (one of which I was hosting), graduation, and finishing up those logistics, I had a million and one errands to run.

This week is different.
I am bored.

My only plans are helping plan a few things for my friends upcoming wedding in June and a beach day with a few of my favorite people on Wednesday.

So this week, I decided would be a good time to nail down some of our summer vacation details. We decided last summer/fall that we wanted to take a trip to the NorthEast and we like cities a lot so we are going to do a little tour.

We are so beyond excited for this mid-summer excursion! We do not have much of an agenda, but the cities we are visting will prove to be thrilling I am sure. NYC, Boston, & Montreal, Canada, here we come!

Yesterday I decided to write down some things to do over the summer to help cure my boredom.... I am open to suggestions (please?)

1. Running/Ballet. I had a weid visit to the dentist yesterday that involved me fainting. If anything it just proved to me that I need to start taking care of myself. So I am going to start a running regimen and ballet work out. (i would LOVE some suggestions on how to go about doing this... I hate running.)

2. Craft. I have not been able to craft in so long so this summer is the summer of crafts.

3. Take Scuttle for walks. Josh laughed at me when he saw this on the list.... and maybe it is lame/weird/hysterical or whatever but I want him to get used to the outdoors.

4. I joined a French conversation group! I am nervous about this but I am SO rusty on my French and I do not want it to fade.

5. SEW. I have sewn before, but I want to continue working on my skills. So Josh's grandmother (a former wedding gown seamstress  is going to give me a few lessons and then I am just gonna take a stab at it. She also gave me an old sewing machine table so now I have two!

6. Build/Re-finish some furniture. Josh and I are going to work on this together. I cannot wait to spruce up the home with a few new pieces!


I am sure this summer will be filled with joy, laughter, & heat.
Any summer plans for you?

cures for summer boredom

my (almost) one year hiatus

One of my good best friends ally (shout out to her and dan on their engagement!) asked me what happened... why don't I blog anymore. I have heard this a lot this past year actually. My answer? I kept saying "I know, I know..." and honestly there is no excuse (Well this past spring semester I was student teaching and that was just crazy town working 60+ hours a week) 

But I do not really know what started the lingering silence on this blog. To be honest, I have not been really "talkative" the past year, not only on this blog, but in life in general. But I have realized how detrimental that has been for myself and my life.  So I have been slowly trying to break that silence in my life and this is a big step. More on the detrimental part when I figure it out for myself...

So for now let's play catch up, shall we? just a few "big" moments from the past year...

1. We got a kitten. Oh man, oh man. On July 24, 2011 I was not sure the day would ever come but Josh agreed and we got King Henry Scuttle Henderson IX. A little excessive on the name? Why yes. but if you know me, you know that I love cats. It took a while for Josh to like him but it happened. We are both smitten with Scuttle and he brings us a lot of joy... and anger... but mostly joy. 

2. I started and finished student teaching. It was hard. I cried. I laughed. I graded, graded, and graded. Man it made me want to go hug all my teachers from grade school. Teaching is really hard and there is so much time and effort put into it. Please let's all be aware that teachers really do put forth so much time and get so little in return. I am so thankful I was placed with such a wonderful mentor teacher. 

I am hoping that the getting on the nerves thing about learning means I was doing my job... 

3. I graduated from college! After a dramatic 20 minute walk/run around the Ted Constant Center Friday night asking everyone & anyone where I was supposed to be (a question in which no one seemed to know the answer to), a minor melt down that is was 6:10 and I needed to be in line by 6:15 (where that line was, was what I could not figure out), I found two hooligans running late themselves and I joined them on the long trek across campus to the Webb Center. Whew my feet were BURN-ING! I put on my really attractive gown (I am fairly certain 10 Ally's could fit inside), walked across the University seal whilst walking back to the Ted, turned my tassel, walked across the stage, and I graduated! I am so thankful my family was there to see this monumental moment in my life. 

(I got some photos done my Daytona to put in a scrapbook for my parents- it was a big deal for me to graduate because I am the first of their three children!)

Now what? Well Josh and I are going to take the summer off to relax and just be together. We are excited for a trip to New England and to visit with family and to just be home together with no worries to plan lessons or grade papers... at least not until September. Praying God will open and close doors for me this upcoming year. 

Thanks for reading... more to come. I promise.

my (almost) one year hiatus