Exhausted

I wish I could say I've been ooberly chipper and upbeat lately, but I'm not. I'm just exhausted. I feel like I'm always behind and needless to say school seems to be taking over. Thankfully, once 3:30pm on Friday rolls around, I'm home free for two weeks due to Christmas break! Ironically enough, being a teacher does have its perks.

I feel awful I haven't updated in two months! Last we spoke I mentioned grading papers and the fact that we just moved in to our house a month before. Since then, we've finally got bits and pieces of our house together, which I'm hoping to blog about over break so it'll give you something to look forward to and keep you coming back for more! ;-) I'm also hoping you're enjoying the new background for the holiday season! I wanted something festive that could put everyone in the holiday spirit. However, if I knew more about computers and XML I would have designed a template that has the real meaning of Christmas in it: the birth of Jesus! So if you find one please share it with me. Until Friday, have a blessed week!

Grading Papers

This pretty much sums up my night!

Tonight, I'm having to stop and spend at least a good hour and a half (minimum) of grading papers. I started grading a few tests, but became seriously distracted upon choosing to read some blogs instead. I know, shame on me. Bad teacher. It's the one thing I loathe about teaching,  yet it's what the Dept. of Education (state and national) consider to be the most relevant to charting and documenting student growth and achievement. Ergo, my hind parts will be sitting upon the same chair at my lovely dining room table until 8 o'clock. Until then, toodle-loo!

Grad School

I am sorry that I seemed to pick up there for a while and have now let you down. I can't believe half of October is already gone! Where is time going? In the time I have not posted, I have been working on the house, school, and my graduate school application. Today, actually just a mere fifteen minutes ago I submitted my application to Virginia Tech's Graduate School! I feel confident and proud of myself. This has been quite the process and I'm glad that this load is now off my shoulders. Please say a prayer if it's God's will that I be accepted. I received a confirmation email (already) that my application has been received and that I should hear something in roughly two weeks. Now starts the waiting and anxiety, but I know everything's in God's hands. In the  meantime I'm off to working on the house. Again, I promise to start posting some before/after pics in the next few days! Have a blessed weekend!

Happy Holidays?!

Yesterday was October 1st and stores are already out with their Christmas decorations. I would like to say that I haven't caved and listened to any Christmas music, or looked at some of our Christmas decorations, movies. etc. but the truth is, I have listened to Christmas music and I've even had an urge to watch a Christmas movie, too. In the process of moving, packing, and unpacking, we've sorted through some of our Christmas decorations and immediately all the nostalgia of Christmas memories the holidays bring hit me.

Now, with that being said, I am still digging and very much in love with Fall! I have waited 9 long months for it to begin! Perhaps I am bit biased, after all, it is my favorite season: the one I was born in, the season Adam and I began dating and married, too. It captivates me with its luscious golds, burgundies, browns, burnt oranges, and deep reds; the aroma of pot roasts, pumpkin and apple pies, and cinnamon scented candles grab me senseless. I'm like a cat around catnip! Okay, bad metaphor, but you get the idea. Having just bought our house and living here only 2+ weeks I am still in Fall mode for decorating, and I will keep those decorations up until Black Friday--a day reserved, not for shopping, but for decorating for Christmas, and trust me those decorations will last at least a month to a month and a half. So for now, step aside Christmas, it's Fall's time to shine!

For the love of...

Fall! Oh how delicious that word tastes in my mouth! I absolutely love fall, it is by far my most favorite season. [I may be slightly biased since my anniversary and birthday are in November.] Everything about fall screams out at me. I perhaps have a slight affinity with it. ;-)

If you haven't noticed, I haven't updated the blog in quite some time, but with Fall finally here, I felt a change would be good! So as the saying goes, out with the old, in with the new! I took down the 'ol spring/summer look and added a pie, an owl, some leaves, lots of plums and browns and voila, the blog had a makeover! I apologize for not posting pictures on the house, we were out of town last weekend and haven't had any time to really work on anything. The good news is that we've finally narrowed down a color for a our bedroom, so we hope to get to work on that this weekend! Anywho, I hope you're having a marvelous Tuesday! 

It's Official, We're Homeowners!

Last night, we had the hardest time falling to sleep. Adam and I were like little kids waiting for Christmas morning to arrive! We could hardly contain ourselves, in fact both of our nerves were practically shot this morning! And it took all I had to actually get up and go to work. My administration cleared it for me to come in late to school, provided that I had coverage if I didn't get back in time for my first class to start. I chose to come in so it wouldn't feel like I hadn't achieved anything during my planning and would have to stay late this evening, too.

So around 8:45am, I left the high school and drove to meet the hubbs, where we proceeded to go to the lawyer's office. There, approximately 50-70 pieces of paper and the jist of what they contained were handed for us to sign and sign away we did! 45-50 minutes later the sellers handed us our keys! So it's official, we're homeowners, and praise God from whom all blessings flow!

We're Finally Closing on Our 1st House!

Tomorrow is it! After patiently waiting  for three weeks, we finally get to close on our house! This is very exciting for us because it'll be our first house! After accepting the job at BHS, we started considering our options as to whether or not we should continue to rent or actually buy a house. After praying about it, and crunching some numbers, we figured that we had paid nearly $16,000 in rent over the past two years. The amount we were paying in rent per month was cheap in comparison to the cost of buying a house out on the eastern side of the state. Now that we've moved, the cost of living in this area is much much cheaper, so we knew that we could buy a house and pay monthly cheaper than what we were paying in rent. It was just a better and smarter decision.

So, needless to say, we are beyond thrilled that the Lord has opened the doors for this to happen! We never thought this day would come and it is still somewhat surreal that it actually is. We prayed that if it's God's will for us to live there, to be an example of His light, and to grow in the community where we'll be living, then we'd love to be there! It's by no means our "dream" home or where we'd even like to live for the next 10+ years, but it's an amazing "starter" home, it's actually more than what we'd hope for! I can't wait to upload pictures and let you all get a glimpse into our little world!