Happy Tuesday Friends!

I have so much going on on this beautiful Tuesday so this post is going to be a bit random.

** Today my parents are celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary.  I am so thankful for them and the example they've set for my brother and I.  They've loved each other through good and bad.    They are two very special people and I wish them many more years together.

** I found this great idea on Pinterest.  Okay so I found lots of great on Pinterest, but this one is my latest favorite find.  Ironing fabric onto the wall.  It is so stinkin' easy!!!  I'm in awe of the possibilities that this just opened up.   My classroom walls may be covered with fabric now that I know this.  Yesterday I ironed this little goodbye above my door.

** I have a new nephew as of this morning.  Baby Will is here and he and Momma are doing well. He is absolutely adorable.  I cannot wait to meet him and love on him.

** Miranda and I are doing a long distance study of the book Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman.  We are three chapters in and I think I can safely say God using this book to draw both of us closer to Him. It is amazing how He is already working in this.

Miranda and I have never met.  We are blog friends.   I discovered her blog through a link up Kelly did one time for small business.  Miranda has been my blog designer and friend ever since.  We have really gotten to know each other over the past few weeks as we embarked on this study together.  It is amazing how similar our stories are.  We both seem to be struggling with the same things in our walk with God.  We had no idea, but God did.  He brought us together and led us to this study.

I'm working on a post about this study entitled..."I want to be like the prostitute".  Interesting huh?

**Since it is Tuesday, you need a tune.

Andrew and I looked like a couple of bobble heads Sunday morning at church.  The sermon was so good.  It hit me straight in the gut and we found ourselves nodding along with the pastor throughout the entire sermon.  We are doing a series called Playlist where we are studying the Psalms.  This past Sunday we found ourselves in Psalm 57.

There were a few things that weren't new to me, but like I said hit me right in the gut.
  - This life is not His chance to glorify me.  It's my chance to glorify Him.  I am here for Him.  he    is not here for me.

 - Like David, we should not measure by what other people would do when making a decision.  We should measure by what god would do.

- Death is a transition, not an end.

Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering, 

yet we considered him punished by God, 

    stricken by him, and afflicted. 

⁵ 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, 

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:4-5

Tuesday Tunes

Loving the Maxi

Maxi dresses seem to be so popular lately and I love them!  I have been envious of tall girls who could pull it off.  At only 5'3" I didn't think there was anyway I could do it.  So I did what any girl would do, I consulted twitter.  After some positive feedback I decided to finally just try one on.  Trying things on doesn't hurt anything....except my bank account.

I now own four maxi dresses!  I'm so in love with them.  They are so stinkin' comfortable and I'm thinking they are going to be great for school.  I sit on desk a lot while having discussions with my students.  I'm in the floor a lot doing science labs.  Shorter dresses are not always conducive to my work environment.

Here is one today that I can't wait to have an excuse to wear.  Can't wear it to school, but that's okay.

(Ignore the weird face I'm making)

I sent a pic of it to the husband to get his opinion.  He responded with "Yoko".  Not sure if that is good or bad.  That's how he and I shop together.  He says shopping with me is awful!  He hates standing in a women's clothing store while I try things on.  Guess I understand that.  But I like to get his opinion.  So I shop and text him pictures.  Works!

I've also decided I'm going to become the Queen of Cardigans.  I have so many sleeveless dresses and tops that I love but can't wear to school because they are sleeveless.  No more.  I'm just going to own a cardigan in every color of the rainbow and then some.

My wardrobe has grown quite a bit this summer.  I'm ready for school to start just so I have a place to go where I can dress up and wear cute clothes. I don't see the point in dressing up to sit at home.  I'm doing good if I'm out of pjs before the husband gets home from work.  It's been jeans and a tshirt all summer.  Ready to dress girly again.

Summer Work

If we are friends on facebook, I'm sure you are tired of hearing about and seeing all the things related to my classroom.  I've been a pretty busy girl lately.  Someone even asked the other day if I worked all summer.  It made me laugh.

I love my job.  I've wanted to teach ever since I can remember.  It is something I believe God has called me to do.  This upcoming year I'm going to be able to teach literacy for the first time and I have to say I have never been so excited about teaching.  I get absolutely giddy when I think about getting to read books, discuss them with my students, and instill a love for reading in my 7th graders.  As silly as it is, it brings tears to my eyes.  I'm THAT excited.

I do enjoy my summers.  Andrew is pretty adamant that summers are mine and I should take a break.  He doesn't ever want me to get burned out.  He understands that I need that time for me and he wants me to take full advantage of it.  But at the same time, he understands how much I love my job and that when I'm crafting for my classroom, it is fun for me.

That's what I've been doing. Crafting for my classroom.  I've decided pinterest is a drug and I need a major intervention.  There are so many amazing things that I have found that I want to make for my classroom.  I keep telling people at some point I have to stop and do the important stuff like lesson plans.

And I have done a little bit of those.  They are much more enjoyable when you can plan a lesson here and there and not feel like you HAVE to sit down and do it all at once.  That's why I work through summer.  I know August will be here before I know it and I don't want to wait until then to start trying to figure out what I'm teaching.

I haven't blogged a lot about it here because I have a teaching blog now.  I try to keep all classroom related things there.  I do plan to give you a quick tour of the classroom once it is finished.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to find that my room is going to be decked out in bright colors & owls.  There will be no doubt that I'm the crazy owl lady. :)

Chicken Rolls Ups

I woke up this morning in the mood to cook dinner.  That is such a rarity.  I almost didn't recognize the feeling.

I'm trying to do better about eating out and just spending in general.

After a few hours of working in my classroom (post about that coming soon), I ran into Wal-Mart and picked up things I needed for a recipe I pinned awhile back.

I found this recipe for chicken rolls up and thought it sounded perfect for me.  Chicken & cheese.  My two favorite foods.

It was super easy.  I improvised on the recipe a little.  I used what cheese I had at home which was shredded fiesta mix and shredded Italian mix.  I know they don't sound like they go together, but it was yummy.  I also put bacon bits on top instead of bread crumbs.

I just went back and looked at the recipe and realized I forgot the package of ranch.  Oops. Oh well!

Andrew said it was very good and I take that as the highest of compliments. :-)

I didn't take any pictures, but ours looked like the ones on the blog.

And for dessert....

Have you seen these?  They are SOOOO good!  And only 110 calories.  They have replaced CFA's cookies and cream milkshakes (510 calories) for me.  So yummy.  They also come in mint.  Those are Andrew's favs.

A Little Staycation

Andrew surprised my by taking Thursday and Friday off.  Since he was also off on Wednesday for the 4th, we've been able to enjoy 5 days together.  It has been really nice.

We played golf every morning.  I finally made some progress yesterday morning.  Fixed a big problem that has been very frustrating for me.  My ball goes straight now. :)

We took naps every day in the afternoon.  Oh how I love a good nap.


The husband helped me with some big projects in my classroom.  Thankful for that!

We did some shopping.

 My husband has the amazing ability to look at light bulbs for 30+ minutes.  Seriously, it's a light bulb.  Just pick one.

Are these not the most awesome golf pants ever?!?  I've decide I love golf clothes because you can seriously wear ANYTHING and it be normal.  Unfortunately though I could squeeze myself into these, there was no way I could move in them.  They are still at the store. :(

We have laughed with each other and at each other over the last few days.
We have just enjoyed each other while being bums.  It has been so nice.  We ended it perfectly tonight with some Casa Mexicana on our back patio.