Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

A year ago, as of yesterday, I married the most wonderful man I know :-) Last year this time, we were honeymooning in Hot Springs, NC in a quaint log cabin. Here we are a year later and this past weekend was interesting to say the least. We were on our way to Garth & Kristen Runion's wedding when a deer crossed onto the highway and ran into us. So the front right light on our car is gone and the hood is bent underneath itself. Needless to say this wasn't exactly what we had planned in our anniversary weekend. Despite my sour attitude, with the encouragement of our brother Luke, we continued to go on to the wedding.

At the wedding, I was able to catch up with some friends of mine from college and it changed my sour mood immediately! (Oh how I miss those wonderful friends of mine!) The wedding and reception were absolutely beautiful! Kristen was stunning and Garth was beaming! After the wedding, we drove north to Charlottesville and stayed the night there. The next day we slept in late and meandered around the city until we saw all we could on a last minute dime and then finally went home. We did not exchange gifts; although we did swap some sweet anniversary cards and Adam did find the disposable cameras from our wedding and we have taken some to get developed :-) It may not sound like the grandest anniversary weekend and it certainly wasn't if you consider the deer incident, however, despite that one minor detail, it was PERFECT and I loved nothing more than spending time with the man I love and cherish! God is always so good!

"Book of Eli" Review & Inspiration

I had the opportunity to watch, on the eve of my father's 61st birthday, the movie "The Book of Eli" starring Denzel Washington. It is perhaps the most inspiring movie I have seen in quite some time. While I do want to say what exactly inspired me, I don't want to give any spoilers away. However, I do feel that once you have seen the movie you'll probably see what made it inspiring.

I truly hope that everyone would consider watching this movie. It is most definitely NOT for children, however, it ultimately takes you out of the cookie cutter reality that many Christians have come to accept and helps bring a new sense of urgency in knowing God's word, spreading, and sharing His word -- something we ALL need!

"School's out for summer!" -Pink Floyd

Yippee! I am so very very thankful that I made it through my first year of teaching! I'm not sure I could even thank all the people that helped me get through this year, but to any of you who read this blog, thank you! Before I continue in my ramblings I would like to say that I ended up receiving a 79% pass rate on my SOLs, which was a little disappointing, but again this was only my first year and it can only get better! And I must say that while the SOLs do limit what the kids can learn, I'm glad I had some sort of a guide to follow. I'm not sure we would have covered or "touched base" on everything had I been able to do as I wish. I do think with more time and experience I'm sure I'll change my mind. I will say that I do hate how focused schools are on just one assessment, it's not fair to the kids, but that's life.

My last week of school went relatively well. I spent most of my time cleaning and organizing my classroom in preparation for this upcoming fall. As I was organizing and going about my business I found myself saying oh this would be great for next year, this would be a fun project, and oh I'm gonna handle this situation like this next year, so if my college adviser were to ever read this I hope she'd be proud of my "reflectiveness." While I'm not saying that I'm eager for school to start up again, I will say that I am looking forward to starting over and doing a better job! As a final note about school, I did return my contract to central office with my John Hancock signature saying I'll be coming back next year, so unless if Adam gets this freight train conductor job then my plans are to return with more gumption and ambition!

I know I said I was finished with school but I will say that I worked among some of the best teachers! I enjoyed getting to know all of my colleagues and I can truly say I've learned something from all of them! The relationship amongst the faculty and staff was encouraging and even upon getting ready to leave a group of us decided we'd go to the Courthouse Grille for lunch as one last "hurrah" you could say. And for those colleagues leaving us I wish nothing but the best of luck in their future! I hope it's filled with even better opportunities for them to succeed! So finally I leave with this parting quote from Pink Floyd, "School's out for summer!"

SOLs are history....no pun intended :-)

*My last post was supposed to be from this past April, but somehow I logged on to an old post that never quite got posted so that is why the date is wrong.

As most of you know, I am currently in my first year of teaching at Charles City High School. Well thankfully, with all praise to the Lord, the SOLs are history....no pun intended! I say that because 1) the course I teach is World History II and 2) my students were finally able to take their SOL tests after some much awaited technical problems were fixed! I'm still waiting for the final passage rate, but overall I'm just thankful to have this behind me! This year has been especially tough, but praise God in His mercy I've somehow made it through....well almost....we still have 15 more days of school until we're officially finished, but I'd say it's close enough to say done. And I am eager to see what all summer has in store!

I've already made a list of goals that I hope to accomplish, including finishing my Europe scrapbook, reading through several novels, starting and finishing our wedding scrapbook, visiting friends, visiting family, traveling, volunteering at the Holocaust Museum in Richmond, and starting and finishing the Insanity workout program. Finally, with fingers crossed, I will most definitely catch up on some much needed sleep, relaxation, and time with my wonderful husband!

As for tomorrow I've got a lesson I need to prepare so my 16 year olds don't get bored and into trouble ;-) So until summer officially arrives, you'll hear from me later!