Back to School

School's back in session! It's been pretty busy around here for me, but luckily, not as busy as last year!

My school year has already started out much more organized and calm that it makes me really excited for the rest of the year. It's amazing the different 1 year of experience can make. At other jobs, you're the "new kid" for maybe a month or so until you become accustom to what your responsibilities are. Being a teacher, you're the "new kid" for a WHOLE YEAR! You don't get to teach the hopefuly same material until a full year later and hopefully you made notes or something about what you did the previous year because so much has happened between then and now that you may not even remember what you did those first few weeks. I'm not speaking from experience or anything (cough*cough)

Anyways, I did a lot of reorganizing my room and thinking through the way I want procedures to run in my classroom. Man, did my head hurt the first few days of going back, but it was worth it. The first day for students came and went and I knew what I wanted and was able to teach that. Now, I'm able to focus on ways to present my material in the best way and to make adjustments, instead of just doing exactly what the teacher book says. It's pretty fun :) Also, it's really fun to start out the year already knowing some of the students in the building. They may be 5th graders, but I know them! :)

I also started my Master's classes again. :p This will be my last semester with my cohort. After this, I'll have 4 or 5 additional classes to actually earn my degree. Hopefully, they won't take too long and I can bust them out within a year. We'll have to see how our little one effects that!

Scott also started school again! He's not too excited that he has classes every Mon-Thurs instead of just 2 days a week, but this should be a pretty good semester for him. One of his classes is actually on the basics of Auto-CAD, which he used to use all the time in the cabinet shop he worked for.

Well, that's where we are so far. Just work, school, and church callings for both of us. It keeps us pretty busy. I'm pretty excited for this Labor Day weekend coming up. Just so we can have some time together and maybe do a project. (My vote is for painting the walls in our soon to be little girl's room, but I'll be happy with an entryway bench and hooks :) )

4 Years

Yay! We've been married for 4 years now! It's kind of crazy actually.  I've tried to make it a habit to take a picture of us on our anniversary. Last year, I wasn't able to because Scott was in Idaho working and I was here getting my classroom together. This year wasn't much different. Scott worked all day (but at least in town) and I went and worked on my classroom. By the time dinner came around, we just grilled some burgers and and I grabbed my camera because I couldn't miss another anniversary picture. So here we are, not dressed up or doing anything special, just enjoying spending time together :)

Fire Pit Project

Scott and I have already started our first big house project. We want a fire pit area. It won't be finished this year but we've started it and Scott has an awesome vision for it.  We're going to dig out a sloping part of our yard, make their tiers with either flower beds or herbs or whatever I feel like planting, and then a flatten area with the pit and eventually even a gazebo with a smoke escape hole.

We have the bottom rock wall pretty close to done. We've collected all the rocks on drives we've taken.

Laying a bottom layer of cement

Placing rocks in the cement to be the foundation for the other rocks

Choosing rocks to create the second row. 

Scott placed the rocks before he mixed the mortar together.

My job was to follow behind Scott after he placed the rocks and used mortar to secure them and wipe off the face of the rock. I want a clean looking wall. It got old but it'll look good and clean when we get done!

It's a . . .

I know that I'm behind on what has been happening in our lives but July and the beginning of August have been pretty full or just time to relax from being so busy!

Anyways, Scott's parents came and visited for a couple of weeks at the end of July. We did a lot of things and had a lot of fun! :) One thing we did while they were here was to find out the gender of our baby! Yay! Only, it was an upsetting yet exciting event at the same time. Scott called me silly but I wanted to do somewhat of a gender reveal party and started planning it. My mother-in-law was a doll and helped me make cupcake ice cream cones with dairy free icing for the night, a first for me.

My appointment was scheduled for Friday afternoon so we were having a party/get together that evening. To my dismay, I received a phone call at 11am saying my doctor had been called out to deliver a baby and they needed to reschedule my appointment. :( NO!! I did everything I could try to find out that day but nothing worked. I ended up being rescheduled for Tuesday morning. That was a long wait after getting excited and anticipating finding out. Luckily, Tuesday morning came and we had our appointment.

Waiting at the doctor's office

We found out and then those that were able to, with the change of date, came over that evening for a fun get together. At 7:30 we decided to spill the beans. I had gotten a big balloon, filled it with confetti of a certain color, and then popped it for the confetti to go everywhere and show if we are having a boy or girl.

About to pop the balloon...

The confetti went everywhere!

It's a girl!! 

(And yes, that is pink pig confetti. I liked the color of pink on the pigs better than any of the other confetti choices.)

Fishin'

The Kenai River is higher than last year. Where Scott is standing was dry last year. Also, it's kind of between runs but we're having fun :) I get to fish this year! 

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

The Bump

Since I'm almost halfway through this pregnancy, I guess it's time to post a picture of the growing baby. This was taken on the 4th of July. 

First Baby Purchase!

Figure we can use it next July for either a boy or girl, just add a pair of shorts or a skirt :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pre