Never to late again!!

Never to late!!

Here are some more!!

Never to late!!

So this post is going to be of random images I have taken with my new camera since Christmas!! Enjoy!!

Get your creative juices flowing!!!

Ok so I love being creative. One aspect about teaching that I love is the ability to be creative and express myself in ways to show people my personality. Well in the past few months I have felt a void because I haven't been creative. Actually I have been very boring. When I went to Guatemala last year I came back with millions of pictures and the intent to scrapbook them. I started and then fund ran low and I couldn't develop all the pictures. Also life stepped in and gave me a reality check.

The other night I was getting on Matts nerves because I was bored out of my mind and I really wanted to do something but he was busy with that little electronic box of his. He said " You need a hobby!" So I thought and thought and I knew what I wanted to do but see what many of you may not know about me is that I tend to get carried away with things and I seem to not be able to stop. I was scared that if I started this hobby it would become very unhealthy!

Which leads into the reason of this post. If you read the post below I was looking back at old photos and decided that I was going to scrap our journey to this house. I want to be able to show our children that at one point in our life we had a really nice house. I am going to miss this place and I didn't want to forget it. If you are at all like me you know that pictures get taken and then stay on your computer FOREVER!! You don't do anything with them so it was pointless to take them in the first place. So I went out the other day and picked up a few things that I needed for this scrap book and began. The past few nights I have been really excited about my masterpeice! I love scraping and being creative. Well I again became obsessive and thought about what else I could do. So I started to make little notecards to send to people. My love language is gifts and things like that. I love little notes and fun things to make me smile. So I sat down on Friday night and created eight creative notecards for my frinds and family. I made three to thank the three people who are writing references for me. I did on for my mom, step mom, mother in law, sister in law, and my fiend Lisa. I felt so good after I was finished. I even stamped them and sent them out that night. My stupid self didn't take pictures. So this post is dedicated to finding a hobby and being creative. I will take some pictures of the book and post them.

This post is also a for me to vent a moment about my life. So my dearest husband gave me this AMAZING camera for my birthday and Christmas and I have fallen in love with photography. The sad part is there isn't much in my life to take pictures of. I know this investment was for our future whisenant clan but still I see this camera and I want to take pictures but I never seem ti find anything to document. So enough whinging and off to scrap some more pages!

how things have changed.....random thoughts of a school teacher

So as I sit here on my day off which I have to say was much needed I sit here and ponder on thoughts I haven't had time to think about. So on Friday we welcomed a new addition to the Millbrook clan. Her name is Caroline Elizabeth which makes me happy because Elizabeth is an amazing name I have to say. People with that name have amazing strong lives ahead of them! :) This new addition has brought on a flood of thoughts. I was sitting here thinking that I turn 24 this year which is really odd to me. Granted it is really far away since my birthday isn't until November but that doesnt erase the fact that 24 is coming this year. I never thought about how much I would have accomplished by 24 because I always thought about twenty or 18 never 24. The funny thing is that I have accomplished many things and 24 is a year that I hope brings many more. Welcoming this new addition has made me think about how a year seemed so long a few years ago and now it doesn't. A year is short and can bring many great things and many changes. I talked witha friend last night that I hadn't talked with in awhile and it made me think about those years that have flown by and how we have grown. It makes me think about the future and how God has ultimate control and I have non. :) With this bein an election year my heart and head has been filled with so many thoughts and worries for the future. Matt and I are excited about making better choices and setting goals for each other. I think that is really important for anybody is to have goals that are never ending. I turned twenty one and I thought it was all over. I had met EVERY goal I had set plus one. I thought there wasn't anything else to accomplish and I was wrong. I am excited and it makes me happy to think that I have many more things to do in my lifetime.

I feel that Matt and I have grown alot in the past few months because of this move. To think about that we will be married for three years in may is hard because we don't feel like newly weds. We are so comfortable with each other and we love each other so much. We fit so well together.

This move is approaching fast and I am scared and excited and very sad. I sat down on Saturday and printed out my lesson plan pages for the rest of the year. To a non teacher you probably have a blank look on your face but for a teacher this is a bitter sweet moment. You begin to freak out because that means the end it not far off which mean that test is not far off but it also means that a new year is approaching and teachers also live for the new year. We only get better because of the year we just had has taught us so many great things. This year def has and I have learned more htis year then the last. I am scared though because I want the new year to be exciting but I am scared I a shooting myself in the foot since I am not really excited to change schools.

Well I am sad that our house will no longer be ours. I never thought I would get like this about our house. I really thought it would be a move not a monumental thing. I have started to think the past few days about making a scrapbook of our first home together. I want our kids to know that at some point in our life we were stable and had a home that was nice. :) I don't know what the future holds and you never know wher eyou will end up but I know that I want to remember this house and this journey because I feel this is a HUGE chunk of our life. Since we are moving to VA and renting ANOTHER appartment I don't want us to forget about this place that has taught us so many great htings. YOU might not know how a house could teach you something but this one has. It has taught us about moeny, about gardening, about taking care of a puppy ( and how being on the third floor isn't always easy with a new puppy), how making time to spend together can get lost in a 2000 square foot home, how when you wear your spotted pjs while taking the dog out people think your parents live in the house, how fighting in the drive way might send the wrong message to your neighbors, how much we love laying around on saturdays in our own home, how completeing home improvement projects is a huge reward for the both of us :), how nice it is to have a laundry room on the same floor as your bedroom....so I could go on and I think I might have lost you in the second paragraph but I don't want to forget these memories. I want to remember them forever and I want to share them with our children because I love hearing about my parents and their past but they seemed to forget alot and I don't want that to happen.

Well this is the end of a random post but I was in one of those moods to type and think...hope I didn't lose you as a reader!!

Odyssey of the Mind...Oh My!!!

So this weekend I had the great pleasure of being part of the judging team of Odyssey of the Mind. For many of you who aren't in the AG group of kids (joke) I will explain. OM is a program design to help children problem solve and to come up with a solution to a problem of their choice. When they solve the problem to go to compition and compete with schools all over and show their solution. Their solution can vary but they are judged on two areas. Style and general. I am a general judge which means I watch them and make sure they are within regulations but also be subjective when it comes to creativness and other aspects. Now I know you are knodding asleep as I type but to a big old dork like me I love this stuff!! I love watching children perform and problem solve. If I was staying in NC I would def start up an OM team at millbrook! I love the idea behind this program because it isn't for just smart AG children it is created for children who can problem solve and cooperate.

Well things have been great. We are just hanging around and waiting for the right buyer. We have shown it four times and no bite. We know the right family is out there we just hate the waiting game. We want someone to come get it!!

School is sad. I hate knowing I am leaving. It is hard to get excited to go out and and get things done I wont use but for a few months.

Ok I just pulled over my soap box and I am ready for my speech. As you read below I love DONORSCHOOSE!!! It is an amazing website for teachers to write "grants" and receive supplies for their room. Well I found out friday that those supplies are the property of WCPSS. I am so upset!!! I know I know people who know anything about grants you know that the itesm are the property of the organization not hte person. Well first of all I didn't knwo that about grants. What I did know was that if you read the website it states that depending on how the grant is written it depends on who the iteme belong to. I am so upset because if I knew this I wouldn't written all these grants because I knew I was leaving. I just hate that this is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

one of those days....

So today was one of those days where you don't want to get out of bed. Yesterday we celebrated a friends of ours on their baby. She is due on the tenth and we had a shower last night to celebrate. It was so much fun!! We played so many fun games and I laughed so hard!! It was so odd to think about her leaving to have a baby but its the way life is. It made me think about VA and our move and how sad its going to be. It really hit hard last night that I wouldn't be around these people anymore. That maybe if Matt and I get pregnant we wouldn't have these people around to celebrate with and these are the people that really have been there. I am scared that I wont have that in VA. Now if you know me at all you know I can make friends easily but I am scared that they wont be like the people I have here. Nancy said she would come visit but I said to her that she is going to forget about me. I will miss her and the gang and its going to be hard. I am sad right now thinking about it. Its going to be a test of faith and will. I really don't want to sound like I am complaing because I am not. I am just worried that when we get up there I will lose all that I have here.

I still am fighting this cold. I hate being sick!!! TheraFlue has been great though. I can't drink it again right now because it makes me sick but whe nI did it worked so well. I hope I wake up tomorrow feeling better!

So we took the dog to the dog park to let her run around! I love going because she seems so happy when she is there. She is running and running to her hearts content. She plays with other dogs and loves it!! Matt and I love going because we get to sit and talk with each other. Its like a date but not a mushy date! I love spending that time with him and our puppy. Today Matts friend DAvid was there wtih his family and their two dogs. Stella loved playing with them!! It was such a pretty day today. It is a cath 22 though because it was nice and warm but that makes you think the global warming!

germs germs germs go away

Ok so I have tried the past few weeks to stay away from sick people and not get sick. The past few days I have taken some pills in the morning to keep away the crud but this morning I woke up with the CRUD!!! I hate when you feel like this. My throat is burning my nose is running and I feel cruddy. I went this morning to walmart to get something to take and I found theraflue. THis stuff works. Its a tea like stuff you drink and you it sooths your throat. It really worked. I felt better but now I don't. Working with kids is like russian rullet with sickness. Luckily I have a strong immune system but this time it let down its guard.

Well this year is def the year of lessons. My parents this year are working me hard. Today I had another meeting and its frusteratiing because this child still reads at a first grade level but his parents don't want the to hear that he isn't growing. It worries me and its hard as a teacher to see a studne not succeed. I want so badly to make him grow but I can't.

Well we have shown our house twice and both time they say they love it but it wasn't the house for them. My thoughts are that you know what the features are and if you read the booklet you would know if it was for you or not. People amaze me sometimes. Its hard though because I spent last weekend with my father and he is a police office and he sees alot but his heart has become so hard to the world. He really seems sad all the time. I don't like seeing him like that. I think when we have grandkids he will def start to enjoy life a little more but I hope that it wont be to late.

So I am not a political person and I really hated politics until MAtt and I started dating. As the years go by I have learned more and more. It hard to belive what these people say. I am scared that this world is falling apart and that makes me scared. I think about this alot and it makes my stomach turn. I really wish that you could belive the delegates and see what they really stand for. The sad part is it really doesn't matter because when they get elected they wil no longer have a really say. I pray this country has a chance to get better!