Thanksgiving and pictures

Hey everyone! It's Brian.
It was great to see everyone at Thanksgiving. We look forward to catching most of you again at Christmas. Sorry if we don't update this often enough, things can get pretty busy around here at times.
Anyway, I thought I'd take the time to post some of the pics that we mentioned in our previous blog, mainly the podium and the flight. We never can seem to take the camera with us to all the important things. Anyway, we'll have more for you in a little while, so keep an eye out!

Catching Up

So, it's been a really long time since either one of us has posted, so here's what's happened:

1. We got to go to Six Flags over Georgia for FREE for Air Force day. Of course, we spent another $60 on Flash Passes. We got to ride almost immediately, and I got kinda sick throughout the day. Those crazy rollercoasters will do it.

2.A few weeks ago we built a podium for my classroom. Brian was a great help, and I stained it. It's a little lopsided, but it does its job.

3. I'm 25! Brian surprised on my birthday with a weekend in downtown Atlanta! We went to Agatha's, a dinner theatre we spotted last year while at DragonCon.
http://www.agathas.com/
It was great, especially right before my first concert.

4. Brian got to fly on an incentive flight. He rode on a cargo plane while they refueled a jet.

5. I survived my first concert. A few mishaps, but the important part is--IT'S OVER!

6. We got a new Simmons BeautyRest mattress. It's so much better than the fabulous donated, yet very old mattress we had. Very firm, and we don't roll towards the middle now;)

So...that full-time job thing...it's not gonna work out.

Just kiddding, guys. School starts really soon. July 26th-27th is new teacher orientation. July 30-Aug. 3 is all teachers, and then I have my students on Aug. 6th. Summer? What summer? For all the moms out there, here's a link to my school calendar:

http://www.peachschools.org/docs/2007-08%20calendar%20b.pdf

And here's the link to my school's website:

http://www.peachschools.org


Til later,
J

Passing of a New Friend

Sam was a good cat. We will miss him.

Company

Hey everyone! It's Brian.
Just figured I'd pop in and say hello since I haven't done that yet. Things are going great! Jeanette survived VBS with the 3-year olds, and work didn't kill me, so things are good. Oh, and we have a new addition to the family! Jeanette was getting bored at home by herself while I was at work, so today we went and got a cat. His name is Sam, he's a black and white tabby, and he's 10 weeks old. Anyway, here a few pics of the little guy. (And man is he little!) Enjoy!

New job!!! No not me!

My friends Bonnie and Nathan both got new jobs this week.

Bonnie will be teaching in Cy-Fair ISD in Houston, TX
Nathan will be teaching at Deer Park Middle School in Florida.

Congratulations, Y'all!

VBS FUN with the 3-yr olds aka THE MOST EXHAUSTING WEEK OF MY LIFE

This is what I see everyone morning. Doesn't look like much here, but it's great! I like seeing the countryside.



Cody--I want a kid just like him...someday. He's all boy but likes hugs, sucks his thumb and always wants to be held:) He thinks he's Evil Knevil; he justs throws himself to the ground with no fear.

Haley

Davin--What a singer! Very intelligent and can color inside the lines. Pretty impressive for a 3-yr old.

E.D.I.M.G.I.A.F.A.D.: Every day in Middle Georgia is Armed Forces Appreciation Day

Another view from the apartment

The Chaos

Haley again

Bryson--really cute, but I can never understand a word he says. Something tells me he's making fun of me. Stupid say, "What?"

Caleb--The strong, silent type. He says about 10 words a day but lets loose on the playground.

VBS Door

Left side of the room--Brian helped me put it together and draw.

Right side

Pictures

Newlywed Photos

So I finally sat down and got these pictures uploaded for SOME people that wouldn't leave me alone (Jim Styron). I promise that this is all I have for right now. My photographer is mailing me rough copies of the wedding next weekend. Remember, Mr. Miagi says, "Patience is a virtue." Oh wait, I think that was someone else;)




Brian blowing out his 25th birthday candles

Sponge Bob Cake lit

Sponge Bob Cake

Moving Truck---only 6 feet thanks to our familial moving crew!

Gaylord Texan Resort Entrance Sign

Gaylord Texan Resort Icon

Consider It Done Button!! AKA Whatever You Want Right Away Button!

Bueno?

Consider It Done Telephone

The Atrium: mostly manmade and all within the hotel itself

Store front

A stuffed cow--no really, a stuffed cow


Seal

Skylight

Us in front of the Alamo...or are we?

Who's got the long toes now?!

Room Service...why, yes, please!

Dinner at Ama Lur

Vows

I know pronounce you....

Wedding Flowers

We Did It!

Hey, Folks,

We dun got married! It was great fun and just a little stressful, but we had a great time seeing everyone. The only major fiasco was everybody leaving after they had consumed their cake and before we got all our pictures taken.

Oh, and that little incident with the minster forgetting to sign our marriage certificate. We got it taken care of, though.

We'll be in Texas on July 4-7th, if you're curious. And now Brian wants me to play his new Wii (early birthday gift), so more later.

P.S. The apartment is great. Life is great. And the sun is always shining here. Really. I mean alot. I am sweating just sitting here:)

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck

Have you ever known the joy of going to Six Flags? I remember when I went for the first time. I was 5 or 6, and my mom and dad took me. It was great. I had a short set on and tons of energy, and I was ready to go.

Somehow, this exuberance at the mention of Six Flags has changed in the last 20 years. I'm taking my kids to Six Flags today. The fun begins at 7AM on a SATURDAY. Why, why did I sign on for this?!! Six Flags is synonymous with "sunburn" and "dog tired" and "expense" and "having a student get in trouble with security."

Oh, how my innocence has been shattered. Who ever knew Six Flags was gonna be work?

The Poet Laureate of Longview

Kinda cheesy, but this is a little something I wrote (an ode, if you will) when Brian and I were first getting to know each other. Probably right after we met for the first time. Leave comments, if you like it. If you don't, keep it to yourself;) Haha! I love you, Brian.


Weightless

i always thought if I could just:
be thin enough,
make it to the gym one more time,
do another set of crunches,
i would be the me I always wanted...
i would be one of those girls.
when did that change?
oh, right...when you walked in.
love walked in,
and i now i walk without touching the ground...
i am finally weightless.

Our First Place

After much research (mostly on Brian's part) and driving and looking, we have found our first apartment together, Huntington Chase. It's midway between our workplaces and is nice and spacious. Our 3rd floor apartment has vaulted ceilings, 2B&2B, a great patio, plenty of storage, overhead lighting (yeah, I've waited a long time for this!), fitness center, tennis courts, sand volleyball, a car washing center, pool, and probably tons of other stuff I don't know yet. We're really excited, and Brian gets to move in around May 1st (not fair).

Click here to see a gallery of pictures:
http://www.huntingtonchaseapts.com/j/s/i/iFrame.jsp?p_usid=&p_poid=HEJJH1426F&p_pgid=43

50 DAYS!

Everything's Coming Up Roses

It's no secret that life is a series of ups and downs. I have had my share of both, not always completely believing that God is going to bring back up from the depths.

Flash back to the Fall 0f 2005 and then the Fall of 2006. Life was less than great those semesters. Then, Brian came into my life, and things started to change, slowly but surely.

God has continued to take care of me. Today I got a job as the head choral director of Peach County High School in Fort Valley, GA! And to think, I was 20 minutes late for my interview, too (I got lost--Surprise, Surprise!). It's a town of 8,500, and everybody was so friendly. Plus, Brian and I started looking at apartments today. There are some great, affordable places in Warner Robins. I can't wait to put down the deposit tomorrow;)

Everything's falling into place. Crazy that I don't trust Him sometimes, huh?

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

So, I'm leaving Thursday 'round 8:00pm to go see B. We both get to leave the Atlanta airport at 11pm and return to our respective quarters at 1am. We're both gonna be draggin'. Brian has Friday work, and I have a job interview at 8am with Peach HS's new principal and existing Asst. Principal Gray.

We are gonna be so tired. THEN... we have apartment appointments (say that 5 times fast).
Fri.
3:00
4:14

Sat.
9:00
10:15

And just think, Brian hasn't scheduled the other 3!!!!!!!

And if Peach doesn't work out, I have a teacher job convention to go to at 1:30 on Saturday.

Oh, yeah, we're gonna have fun. When did we become adults, anyway?

2 Months Today!

It's officially 2 months until the wedding! Everyone's gettin' revved up along with the happy couple. I took the wedding invitations to the post office today. Lemme tell ya, it took 20 minutes in line to check the accuracy of the postage and to ask the USPS to hand cancel our envelopes. I mean, L'view has the record for slowest post office of the US. For those of you that don't know, hand cancelling keeps your invitations looking pretty for your recipients. If you don't ask the USPS to do it to special letters, they will arrive looking crumpled, and really, who wants that after so much time has gone into preparing them?

Oh, and 9 days and counting til I visit Brian in GA. I finished the online app for Houston County School Systems tonight, and it was looooooooong. They are thorough in Middle Georgia. Hopefully, something will miraculously happen in the music department there. I'm told that they don't have many openings due to the fact that the music teachers are fabulous, the fine arts are strong, and the kids just keep enrolling.

I can always hope.

Meanwhile, Brian is still hobbling around his room. If you think of him, give him a ring. He's still spending alot of his time alone because getting out tires him.

April Fool's ;)

Did anyone else forget that today was April Fool's? Wow. Didn't remember til 6:30pm when my mind started to wander during the sermon at church.

Just to catch you up, my baby brother, Jim (he's not so much a baby anymore. 6'2''), graduated from UTI!! I wasn't there, but I heard that it was fabulous.

We had a small party for him Sunday night after church. I took pictures. It was fabulous.

On Friday at 6:00pm, my tension headache went away. *Surprise* My contest was finished. My Girls' Chorale made a 2 onstage and a 3 in sightreading (Bb is not an easy key to read, people!). I am really proud of their showing, and as a bonus, I didn't faint in the process. Smiles all around. It wasn't a Sweepstakes performance, but they have learned so much from a 1st year teacher in the last 7 months.

Now I get to choreograph their Grease medley and Razzle Dazzle from Chicago. Can anyone say "School is over?" Other than that, I will be cleaning up the choir room and compiling a "Choir Bible" for the future director; the one I inherited was seriously out of date.

Wedding in 60 days and counting. The invitations go out Monday at 1pm.

Things Brian Doesn't Eat

Chocolate
Cherries
Green stuff (peas, salad, green M & M's and gummy bears {ok, that part I made up})

Feel free to add your comments:) I'm sure I don't know everything he doesn't like.

How does she do it?

I'm no Mary Poppins. When the birds started singing outside my window, 10 minutes before I was supposed to get up, I wanted to grab a BB Gun, not throw open the window and sing them "A Spoon Full of Sugar."