Married Life

Today I've officially been married to the most loving guy for an entire month. Hehe. The wedding was perfect and it feels like it was just yesterday. Time has seriously just flown! We expected our lives to slow down after the wedding since we would no longer be driving back and forth from the suburbs to downtown Houston to see each other. Except life has not slowed down at all! It keeps getting crazier! I guess thats what happens when two busy bees marry each other. In the weeks since we have been married we have hosted my bestie and her boyfriend for Memorial Day weekend fun, decorated our adorbs home, celebrated my 24th birthday with friends and pizza, finished teaching 5th grade, and I took a trip to Atlanta. We've been learning a lot about each other in these past few weeks that we didn't know prior to living together and I'm sure we'll never stop learning about each other! Up next on our summer agenda is for me to finish summer grad classes (end of June), hopefully my parents will be visiting, lots of pool days, Albania mission trip, honeymoon, and then prepare for school again in August. We are so excited for our summer plans but it will go too fast. I plan to soak up each moment and some sun ;) maybe I'll get a tan! (or more freckles) Here is life lately via photos...

See ya 2014, Hello 2015!

As I enter 2015 I look back on 2014 and praise God for all the blessings and answered prayers. 2014 was (according to my hopes) the year of love, travel, coffee, and (almost) knitting. I fell in love with a wonderful man of God who became my fiancé! I traveled to Albania and Italy where I was able to spread the Word of God to some wonderful people I now call friends. Of course I drank a ton ton ton of coffee. However, I didn't quite get the knitting in too much. (Crochet all the way!) I am beyond blessed with all the change that came from the year 2014.

As I kicked off the new year with a 5 mile run I was thinking about my list of goals for 2015. We make goals each year and we dream and try to accomplish many of them but sometimes as the year comes in to full swing we get bogged down with the daily routine of life. So instead of just simply making a list of goals for 2015 I will be making an action plan to bring these goals to life. I will have weekly goals that will help me reach my bigger goals. I'm excited to enter this year of 2015 and to see how my life will change throughout this year. So much changed in the year of 2014 and I can't even imagine what will come of 2015 but I know God has a wonderful plan for my life so I will live it day to day taking in each and every moment.

2015 Goals: 

Spend more time in the Word

Become a more innovative teacher

Run half marathon

Run 5 smaller races

Travel

Become a wife- a really good one

Serve more in my local community 

Learn calligraphy

Complete 3 harder DIY projects

Blog more

Double the amount of photo sessions from last year

Stay fit

Firsts in Fifth

School has begun again. Fresh new planner, nice sharp crayons, and no crinkles on the folder corners yet.... Would you guess I'm a student or a teacher? I'm a total geek about fresh school supplies. I lived for the new planner every.single.year. Seriously? What 5th grader looked forward to a nice new planner? Yup. Me. Well now I get to pass out planners to my 5th graders! Where did time go I feel like I was just in 5th grade :)

The first week of school got off to a great start. I am beyond excited to be teaching 5th instead of 6th this year. I am working with a talented bunch of kiddos who make each day bright so far. My group of students this year are impressing me like crazy so far. They are great at pretty much everything I ask them to be great at. Granted, its only the second week of school... hopefully I won't regret these words! Just kidding, I won't. I know it is going to be a great year in room 511.

There is a noticeable difference between the 5th and 6th graders from day 1. This year, so far, I haven't been asked if I'm dating or married or accused of being 35. So far, so good.  Plus, setting up my classroom was not a nightmare like last year. I literally cried last year. I was so frustrated because the hopes in dreams I had in my mind of how cute it would look totally failed. This year my Mom helped me get my life together and decorate my classroom the right way. Yay for moms... and dads! My dad was the muscle behind the projects involving saws and other scary tools. Thanks Dad :)

Okay now don't scroll down thinking you're going to see one of those super matchy fancy pinterest classrooms you see a lot. Because lets face it... my children are great but super messy when they learn so I don't like to go overboard with the $$ on decorations. But its my own little corner of 5th grade heaven.  

Along with being back at teaching I started up grad school again last week. I was once so excited about being in grad school. I felt like I was once again working toward a goal. Now I've lost that feeling and it has been replaced with an overwhelming feeling of get.me.outta.here! I feel like its a lot to take on grad school and full time teaching among other things. But I will prevail because God will be my strength! Thanks for stopping by to catch an update. Stay tuned for more Firsts in Fifth!

Galveston Sunrise

A few weeks back {the man} and I took an early morning trip to Galveston to watch the sunrise over the water. Although it was really hard to wake up at 4 am it was totally worth it! It was overly windy and a bit chilly but the beauty of it all was amazing. We watched the sun come up over the water, took some pictures, then went to breakfast. It was one of those times where you sit and think about how memorable the experience was and how you'll never forget it. I love that Matthew loves to go on adventures for the photo opportunities with me. To say we both love photography would be an understatement. I shoot with a camera and he loves his iPhone. Literally can't go anywhere without turning my head to see him snapping a pic of something :) God went above and beyond with fulfilling my expectations with him. He knew every little desire of my heart for what I needed in a relationship and He brought me Matthew.

Life is an Adventure Waiting to be Had

Four Months In

"God will open new doors"

Revelations 3:8

It's the fourth month into the year and blogger tells me I've only blogged TWICE. SAY WHAT? Seriously? Sad. I cannot even believe how fast time goes. It seems like yesterday I was standing in the doorway of my classroom knees shaking, full on anxiety attack to meet my first sixth grade student. I cannot believe my first year of teaching has almost come and gone. There is a saying that goes along the lines of this "don't be afraid of the time it will take you to do something because the time will pass anyways." The truth to this statement is both motivating and brings a little sadness with it. This past year has been filled with change. I cannot believe its been an entire year but as quoted the time sure does pass anyways. My first year teaching has been one filled with hope, inspiration, 78 different life journeys, a lot of tears, even more laughs, some wine, and a lot of coffee. From fireworks in the classroom to the sad reality of twelve year old drug involvement I wouldn't change a single moment of my first year of teaching. I have been forever changed by the lives of my 78 children. Yes, I call them MY children. Because truly that is what they are between the hours of 8 am and 4:30pm.

Along with a year full of teaching I have had many other changes in my life. God opened the doors for me to start grad school where I am pursing a masters in educational counseling. After two years of living the single life God brought me somebody to share all my crazy adventures with and I couldn't be happier! Along with the good comes the trials of this life. I lost my grandma along the way through this year's journey and that season of life still lingers. The sadness, tears, and unstoppable flowing thoughts of never getting to call her up again to tell her my crazy stories. I know she is in a much better place and I will see her again but that doesn't make it any less hard to lose a loved one.

I have been so blessed this past year of change and I cannot wait to see how life continues to turn out. I have a lot planned for this summer including keeping this here space updated on a regular basis. I hope that those of you who come along my little blog that I see as a safe haven stick around to hopefully be inspired.

Open Doors

via

Wow. God is great. Let me just let you in on what happened in my week. Actually lets narrow it down to about 36 hours in my week. I got into grad school and started in the same day... Let me back up a few steps to fill you in. Lately I have been feeling a bit purpose-less. I know you're probably thinking WHAT you moved away so you could be a teacher in Houston to help kids and you feel purposeless? Well, not entirely. I have always been working toward a goal in my life the biggest one being getting a career for the sole purpose of glorifying God by helping others. Yes, I do believe I am doing that with my career in teaching however, I feel that there is another purpose for me that has been on my heart for a while. Counseling. Time and time again my friends call me up and ask for my advice and then ask me when did you become so wise and where does your strength come from? God. Enough said. 

As I graduated with my undergrad in elementary education I thought to myself that I would like to go on to get my masters someday but I continued to think now is not the right time lets give it a few years. Then as I began my first year in teaching the topic of going to school to become a counselor kept coming up. So, I began looking around December for colleges I could attend and started to think about applying. I had narrowed it down to a school in the Houston area after being displeased by the lack of being able to get into contact with another school. The past two weeks I've been getting information on the school and planned out a time to take my GRE. 

As this week began one of my co-workers told me about the program she was about to start and I was interested in getting more information so I emailed the school and quickly received a response. They told me had I emailed a few days before I could have probably started this semester but not to worry I could start in August. Me, being the jump right in kinda girl, emailed back asking if there was ANY WAY POSSIBLE for me to begin this semester. (Which would have been Thursday night and I emailed this Wednesday night). Sure enough I received an email back Thursday morning with the response of "if you can get these things (app, transcript, registration, fees) to me by 10am today then your file might have a chance of getting reviewed and accepted today." Oh, did I mention I read this email at 930am while I was at work? Yep! So I scrambled and got all the items I need as fast as I could back to the college and was told I would know before class that night. Can you imagine my anxiousness all day?? Just before the end of the day I received and email with acceptance to the program! WOW.

After the initial "I'm so excited!" dance I thought whaaaaaaat did I just commit to? I didn't even fully think this through and analyze every aspect of the situation. Then I thought God clearly opened the door in that moment for a reason. HERES YOUR SIGN. I begin this new journey at the University of St. Thomas in Houston for my Masters of Education in school counseling with a heart filled with gratitude! I am so excited for all that is to come! 

Coffee + Teaching + More Coffee

Please forgive me for being MIA for the last few weeks. I have had no time for anything other than school. Which I love and am totally okay with. But I'm finally here with an update. Two weeks of teaching. I'm in LOVE. I love my kiddos and my school and everything about this career. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've wanted to cry already and questioned my choice. But ultimately I LOVE it. Did I mention I love it?? Okay enough enough.

Other than teaching I have been out a few times and have met some really awesome people. I attend church on Sunday nights at Lakewood (the mega church that used to be a basketball stadium). Its a young adult group where a bunch of awesome people come together for God. Whats cooler than that? Probably nothing. So what about Saturday you ask? Well... I pretty much sleep and watch One Tree Hill (reliving high school years). Oh and of course come up with awesome lessons to teach. DUH! Well enough with the words for now because I am kind of scatterbrained if you can't tell. Its past my bedtime. Here are some pics!

If you're thinking 'that girl doesn't really have a theme in her room'... well I kinda got over the whole everything matching because lets be real... that is not realistic unless I were to go buy everything new to match. I'll stick with the free stuff and have random colors. Plus I love it anyhow! Also, I think you can make an inference about how much coffee I drink based on the title of this post... see what I did there? Yep, I'm a Language Arts teacher. Expect to be asked to make inferences. OFTEN.