What I am Thankful for!

So here are a few things that I am extremely thankful for!

• Brandon: My wonderful/amazing husband! I love spending time with him. I enjoy our little chats every night about our day and our future. I thank God for him every day and I don't know where I would be without him.
• Bella Rose: I love her more than any person should love a dog! She is my baby and I treat her like a real person.
• Amber: My sister/best friend! I love having a sister that I can talk to about ANYTHING and she completely understands me and always listens!
• Mom: I love my mom! I don't know where I would be without her. She is wonderful!
• The in-laws: I love the Tipton family!
• Dad: I love my dad! I enjoy hanging out with him and I love it when he brings me lunch to school!
• Granny: There is nothing like talking to my Granny! Gossiping about everything and everybody...I just love her!

Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's weekend was a fun yet tiring weekend. We began our weekend by heading to my dad's parents house Friday night. We started that way just as the snow was beginning to stick to the roads, and of course Brandon chose back roads to check everything out. We had a good time hanging out with family.

Saturday Amber and Andrew came over to hang out and brought Pizza Hut for lunch, yum! Of course the boys had to play video games so Amber and I took a trip to Wal-Mart. We decided to go to 131 Main for dinner, which of course was an excellent choice. We had a great time hanging out.

Sunday morning all four of us, Brandon, Amber, Andrew, and me, went to South Carolina to see my mom's parents. We met them at one of their favorite restaurants, that they eat at most days for lunch, along with our aunt, uncle, cousin, and his wife. We had such a great time hanging out with family. Of course I love seeing my grandparents because we don't get to see them often. I also love catching up/gossiping with my grandmother. She is such a wonderful lady and I love being around her. Of course we all spent most of the trip trying to talk my grandparents into moving to Lincolnton. On our way home from SC we ate dinner at PF Changs. Once again a wonderful choice for dinner. We finally ended our weekend about 9:30 Sunday night. We had such a great time catching up and hanging out with family.

Life as a Teacher

So I was sitting here tonight reading blogs, of course, and came across another teacher's blog. Reading this blog really made me think.

As most of you know, I teach 4th grade. Teaching is very rewarding, yet very draining. This week has been a rough, yet short week. We were out of school Monday and Tuesday and had a 2 hour delay Wednesday. On top of that we are supposed to get some kind of wintry mix tomorrow, Friday. Just imagine how excited we get as adults about snow. So imagine dealing with 23 9-10 year olds who have spent 4 days playing in it and expecting more. It has been rough to get students motivated and myself motivated. I have been so whiny and complaining with my co-workers about how hard this is and so on. I struggled to teach/work all day yesterday and today. It is super hard to get back into a schedule.

Then I began thinking...I am so fortunate to have my job. I teach 23 students every day. But more than that, they teach me so much. I learn so much about how life is so different for kids today than just a few years ago. So many children come in to school and just want to talk. In my mind I am thinking, "Why are you talking so much when you should be doing morning work", when I should be saying "Tell me more"! Life at home for children is so different today than when I was in elementary school.

I have a very rewarding job! I see students learn something new, and watch their eyes light up with excitement! I also do not have to work weekends, except Saturday snow make-up days. I have summers off, which I LOVE! There are many days throughout the school year we have off, holidays and workdays. So I am going to try my BEST to have a positive attitude every day. Instead of being "lazy", I am going to put forth my best effort. After all, not many people have the wonderful job that I do!!!!

My Husband!

So if you read my previous blog, you know that we have been car shopping. Saturday was the big day. I made an appointment with a car dealer at Hendrick's in Hickory. Brandon and I went with no intentions of buying. We got to the dealership and they had the car we wanted to test drive in the front, nice and clean! Of course we fell in love. We test drove the car and I let Brandon know, with my looks, that this was MY car! So we decided to proceed with getting a loan and all that mess.

As we sat making an offer on the car Saturday, I began to think of how proud I am of my husband. Brandon, if you know him, is not an extremely social person, especially with people he does not know. But I love him no matter what. We knew what we were willing to pay and decided we would not go a dime higher. Brandon was so stern in his offer and what he wanted. I am so proud of the man he is! Not only for putting his big boy pants on and know what he wanted, but just in every day life. He works extremely hard every day. He has many goals in life and strives every day to reach those goals. I am also proud of how much he is allowing God to lead his life and our marriage. We have prayed about a car for a few months, but nothing has happened. He told me Saturday morning that he prayed that God would lead us to a car that was dependable and affordable, and of course he did! I love him more than words can express. We have only been married about a year and a half and I fall in love with him more every day. I am so proud of the man he is and the man he is growing into daily!!!!

Car Shopping

So Brandon and I have decided that we want to buy a car. We definitely are going to buy a used car, but the problem is which car...??? We both have some thoughts as to what we would like to have. There are certain things we know we want in a car, but we just have to find it and in our price range. We have decided to choose a few cars and test drive them, trying to go in with an open mind. Brandon suggested the other day that we each choose 2 cars that we would like to drive.

Well one car that we know we want to look at is an X3, so now we each choose 1! We have found a few online, but shopping online is very difficult. The other car of my choice is a Nissan Murano. I love these cars!!! I even know that I want a white one with tan interior and a sunroof. I think that we need an SUV so that we can have a family car. Not that we are wanting kids anytime soon, but we do need a family car. Our cars are both small and can not easily fit more than us.

Brandon on the other hand wants a Toyota Prius. Now I understand that these cars are fuel efficient, but it's not much bigger than my Jetta. So to me, this isn't the best choice for our "family car". Brandon thinks that buying this car would be an investment, especially because of gas prices.

So over the next few weeks/months we are going to be in search of a car. Hopefully this will be a peaceful/easy decision for us. To some people this may not be a huge decision, but for us, this is our first car purchase together. Please pray that we do not kill each other in this process!!!

Bella's Release

(by Brandon of course)

At this moment Bella Rose is sitting on the couch crying and whining. She's had 2 treats today, she's not hungry, nor does she need to go potty.

This cry is different. This cry involves her "favorite" pillow. Yep. She's a pillow addict. She loves to hump her pillow and get her release. Don't let me forget to mention that her mommy sometimes provides an assist with the pillow by holding the pillow in place while Bella lies on her back and does the deed.

At one point it had gotten so bad that we had 3 round pillows that were each her "favorite" and she would drag those pillows around the house hoping that one of use would help. We would hide these pillows under the bed and she would still be able to pull them out and jump on the bed with them. We had to throw those away and she's done pretty well since then until tonight.

Another thing with Bella's situation is that she knows when mommy and daddy are about to....you know. So she will run to find a pillow to get her's.

It's all fun and games sometimes but then again at times it's sort of gross too because she tends to pass gas when she is totally relaxed. She's also sh-arted before.

Needless to say, Bella's addicted, and she's cost us a few pillows. It's taken me 5 minutes to type this and she hasn't stopped crying yet.

Christmas Break

My Christmas break is slowly coming to an end...very sad. I enjoyed every single minute of being out of school and not having to stick to a schedule. I did not sleep late, but I did enjoy being lazy. I would not mind being a stay at home mom, but with no kids!

My Christmas break got started with an early dismissal from school! The kids left around 10:30. I tried to get myself prepared for my return after the break so I did not leave until around 11:30. I hated staying, but I know that when I walk into school tomorrow I will not have to stress about what I am going to be doing all day. I even went as far as putting all my books on my table open to the page where I would teach from. I don't ever do that!

Over the next few days I did not do very much. I did a little last minute Christmas shopping and met Brandon for lunch. I love being off work and being able to go to Huntersville to meet him! Along with shopping I did wrap a lot of presents. This year, along with tons of help from my family, we bought 3 kids, all from the same family, Christmas presents. I LOVED being able to help this family out. I enjoyed toy shopping all day and then coming home and looking at everything that was bought. It felt so good to know that on Christmas morning these kids would have so many gifts to open! I loved every minute of the shopping and wrapping gifts for this family.

Christmas Eve Brandon was home. Our tradition with his parents is to have Christmas Eve dinner. This year we had it at our house, since this was the first Christmas in our house. Brandon cooked a delicious dinner, he worked super hard. After we ate we exchanged gifts. His parents got us a new microwave, I was sooooo excited, and some money to put towards a dishwasher, we have one but it is super old. His sister got us the weekend subscription to the Charlotte Observer!!! I was super excited, but I felt old getting excited about these gifts.

Christmas morning Brandon and I woke up and had breakfast at our house with my mom. Mom had given us a tv for our bedroom a few months ago as our Christmas present. After breakfast we went with Brandon's family to Hudson, which is where his moms family lives. We had lunch up their and spent time with her family. We came back home and went with Amber and Andrew to my dads parents house. We stayed there for a while and then went to my moms house for Christmas Day dinner. Mom had made a wonderful dinner for us all. We had such a good time hanging out with my family. It's so nice to all be together. We had such a wonderful Christmas!

The day after Christmas we went shopping for new ornaments for next year! We had a wonderful relaxing weekend until the plumbing issues began. Saturday we had to move in with my mom due to plumbing problems. We didn't get moved back in our house until Tuesday night. It took a while to get all of our clothes moved back in and unpacked. I worked on taking down Christmas decorations most of the day Tuesday and Wednesday. We had our first New Year's party Thursday night. We really enjoyed hanging out and catching up with friends. Since then we have done nothing. Brandon got a new video game and he has played it since Friday. Amber and Andrew came over Friday and spent most of the day here so Andrew and Brandon could play Call of Duty!

I have really enjoyed being out of school for 2 weeks. The time has definitely flown by! It has been a very relaxing break. I loved being able to spend time with my wonderful husband and Bella! I am already counting down the days until the next break!