Apartments & Celebrities

We finally closed on our house Friday.  I'm living in an apartment until the end of the school year.  My cousin is living with me so I have a roomie.  We actually have furniture in the apartment.  It sure beats sleeping on the floor in an empty house.

The school year - that's the only thing left to do it.  May 31st feels like it is right around the corner and yet a lifetime away all at the same time.

I'm ready to live with my husband again.  We've been living in separate places for 3.5 months & quite frankly I'm over it.

I'm ready to start work at QES.  I'm ready to meet my new coworkers & see my new classroom.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to my friends at HG.  The woman teaching next door has become my best friend.  We do everything together.  When we wake up sick, we can email each other our lesson plans & know everything will be okay.  She's my soundboard for ideas, my encourager, & my field trip partner.  She's my friend.  I don't know how I will survive a school day without her, let alone a school year.  I pretty much start sobbing whenever I think about it.

I could spend hours writing about the people of HG.  They've become my family over the past six years.  God has blessed me immensely by allowing me to work for my principal.  She's pretty much the perfect boss.  She's also a friend.

I'm already planning trips back to visit.

Before I say goodbye though, my field trip partner and I are taking a group of students to California.  We leave in less than two weeks.  I am our official group photographer & videographer.  I'm going to do some interviews for the video & one of the questions I'm going to task is who they would like to see in LA.  I thought I was pretty set in my answer.  I want to see Adam Levine.  But every time someone tells their answer, I start changing my mind.  When I asked the husband, he said Jennifer Anniston.  HA! I would be completely stoked if I saw anyone from the cast of Friends.  Someone else said Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.  That would be pretty cool.  I'm pretty sure our students (and me) will be excited to see anyone famous.

So...Who would you want to see?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my very best friend.  I love you with all my heart, babe!

Miscellaneous Monday

Only eight more weekends.  Then I get to live with my husband again.  Not that I'm counting.  But I totally am.  I'm over this whole two houses thing.

This past weekend was a long one.  I left work at 11:00 on Thursday and headed toward House B. Along the way I stopped for what was my first and possibly last interview.  The school I was interviewing at had two openings in their elementary school.  I felt pretty good about it going in.  I knew that I was completely covered in prayers.  Everyone told me to just be myself and I tried my best to do that despite the little bit of nerves.  

This interview was so different from how I remember them.  The last time I interviewed I was fresh out of college and had no real teaching experience.  Going in with seven years of teaching experience changes the entire process.  I was interviewed by a panel of four people, all who seemed so incredibly nice.  It was a short interview - only about thirty minutes.  I sat down and just shared with these people about what I do...what I love.  I am so incredibly blessed to get to do what I love for a living.  I walked out of there feeling very good and pretty confident, but at the same time not wanting to get my hopes up.  It was my first interview and still very early in the year.  

The principal called me the very next day and offered me a position teaching 5th and 6th grade Math.  I was beyond thrilled.  I immediately began doing a happy dance.  

Andrew and I have been in awe all weekend over how quickly and easily this happened for me.  It is simply one more way in a long list of ways God has been in the details of this move.  

I'm a planner by nature so I've already started pinning tons of ideas and asking questions to every math teacher I know.  Hopefully they won't start hiding every time they see me.  I have a LOT of questions.

Saturday was spent shopping for a few little things for The Liberty Belle.  It was a rainy nasty day, but we still enjoyed spending the day together driving around and shopping.

Easter Sunday was a great day.  We went to church Sunday morning and heard a wonderful message.  It's a message I've heard before, but the reminder was so good and refreshing Sunday.  Too often I forget that the gospel is for me.  Though I have a relationship with Christ, I'm still a sinner and I still need the gospel daily.  

Christ is risen.  And if that isn't something to be joyous about then nothing is.

After church we drove to my Mommom's house for lunch with the fam.  It was so good.  I'm going to love living at House B and being only 45 minutes away from them.

The weather was so nice Sunday.  My parents, brother, and sister-in-law came out on a little Easter cruise with us.  It was the first real test run The Liberty Belle has had.  I had my camera with me all ready to document the day, but I left my SD card in my computer.  I'm so bad about that.  

We still haven't closed on House A so right now I'm sleeping on a mattress in the floor and living out of boxes.  I don't mind sleeping on the floor, but I HATE having my closet all packed up.  I'm seriously considering picking out five outfits and wearing the same thing every week.  I'll have a Monday outfit, a Tuesday outfit, and so forth.  The nerd in my wants to do it as an experiment and see how long it would take my students to notice.  I know I have a few girls who would figure it out.  

March Madness

Sweet Sixteen.

Elite Eight.

Final Four.

Brackets.

Seed.

March Madness.

This time every year college basketball takes over my TV.   Though I don't mind it, I haven't really been into it since 1994 when the Arkansas Razorbacks won the championship.  And let's be honest, I was 11 then so I'm not sure how into it I really was.  I just knew every one around me was really excited.  I was really just enjoying watching those games with my Daddy.

This year I decided it would be fun to make a bracket and have a nice friendly competition with the husband.  Of course I had no idea what I was doing.  He told me to make my bracket at espn.com and we could create a group.  We extended the competition to the Weaver fam.  

There are five of us.  The hubs and I plus Uncle Kevin, Andrew's brother Chris, and two nephews - Cody and Pryce.

My goal?  I don't want to be last and I don't want the husband to win, which right now he totally is.

I don't know that I've watched a college basketball game all year until this week.  I didn't really have a method in picking my teams.  I just went with the team name I liked best.  :)  They say that people who don't know anything about basketball normally do pretty well with their brackets.

I was really hoping my ignorance would work in my favor.  

It's fun watching games with the husband, especially when we have picked different teams to win that particular game.  

Oh my!  The trash talking has been intense.  

And humorous.  Remember I know nothing about this.

A friend of mine and her husband helped their three young daughters fill out brackets.  They are having fun cheering and competing as a family.  

I now have a new tradition I want to do with my family.  

The hubs and I have different teams winning the championship.  I'm the only one of our five that has Kansas winning this thing.  

Go Jayhawks!!

Lemon Cookies

I pinned this recipe for lemon cookies a while back.  The husband is a big fan of lemon.  I like it too, but not near as much as he does.

I finally got around to making them today.  They are so easy.  

Step One: Gather the ingredients.  1 Lemon Cake Mix, 1 Can of Lemon Frosting, 2 Large Eggs, and 1/2 Cup of Oil.

Step Two: Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Step Three: Mix the eggs and oil with the cake mix. 

Step Four: Once these ingredients are mixed, temporarily forget that you are grown adult and your grandmother has ALWAYS told you not to eat raw cookie dough with uncooked eggs and enjoy those beaters.

Step Five:  Roll the dough into balls.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Step Six: Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Step Seven: Allow cookies to cool. 

Step Eight: Sandwich cookies together with lemon icing in the middle.   

Step Nine: Enjoy!

Our Maiden Voyage

Yesterday afternoon I received this text from the husband...

We have not had a chance to take her out since we bought her.  Her...why are cars and boats and such always girls?  

We've been debating on a name for the boat since we bought it.  Who knew naming a boat would require so much thought.  I initially threw out The LB.  Then there was a debate on how to spell it.  

Last night while we were out on our maiden voyage, we finally decided on a name.

The Liberty Belle

Sitting at the marina 

My Captain

We were just a little excited.  

It was a beautiful evening.  I can't wait till it warms up and I can lay out with a good book.  Last night I was thankful for the enclosed cabin which blocked to cold lake wind.

We had the lake all to ourselves.  The husband kept calling it our own private lake.  It was nice.  I decided since we were the only boat on the water, it was the perfect time to practice my driving skills.  

It was such a fun outing.  The husband did a great job navigating and driving the boat.  

Interviewing & Some Last Minute Memories

The day after I wrote my last post about job hunting I received two phone calls from two different schools.  When I grabbed my phone to run and pick up some lunch I noticed I had two voicemails. One was from a school, QES, wanting to set up an interview.  They are interviewing for two different positions at the same time.  As soon as I heard the message I started crying.

The year I started working at HG, I cried every time someone called to set up an interview.  I really lost it when I was offered the job at HG.  Any insecurities I have fly out the window when someone wants to take the time to interview me.  I just feel incredibly blessed each and every time.

The other phone call was the elementary counselor from HSES.  HS is my first choice.  It is less than ten minutes from our rent house.  My high school band director who is still an amazing mentor and friend put me in contact with the counselor.  She is helping get in contact with the right people at HS.  She is amazing.  I felt like I was talking to an old friend.  It looks like they are going to have an opening that I consider to be the PERFECT job! This is the position I really want.

I'm gearing up for interviews and trusting that God has the perfect place for me.  I'm trying to prepare myself that His perfect place might not be my perfect place.  If that's the case it will be okay.  I know His ways are better than my own.

We spent our last night in House A Friday night.  I had these grand plans for how it would go but we were so tired by the time we got home that we pretty much just passed out.

Saturday morning came and I couldn't resist documenting our last morning of waking up in House A.

Our last day in House A was spent packing and making some last minute memories.  Lib & Lincoln enjoyed one last afternoon in their backyard.  We couldn't have asked for better weather for this.  It was an absolute beautiful day!

We fed the birds. 

 We posed for one last portrait.

There was lots of running around, wrestling, and one last game of fetch.

Our last picture in House A

The closer we got to the end of the day the more teary-eyed I became.  To be perfectly honest, I'm still not sure that it has completely sunk in that I no longer live there.