National Hot Dog Day

For National Hot Dog Day, Mommy gave us each our own hot dog! I love hot dogs!

Summer Colorado Vacation

This past week, the hubby and I went to visit my parents for a week. We had a great time! We went to Estes Park, Red Rocks Park, Pikes Peak, and lots more.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Elk at Rocky Mountain National Park – we saw tons!

View from Pikes Peak – absolutely breathtaking!

This was also my hubby and I’s 4th anniversary! We spent our anniversary dinner at Casa Bonitas. It was my hubby’s first time. He was such a trooper and even went into Black Bart’s Cave with me. It was a fun experience!

Casa Bonitas!

If you were wondering if I had fallen off the face of the Earth or died, that’s where I’ve been!

Summer Goals Update

Half of the summer is gone! Can you believe that? I feel like it has flown past!! I start back at school in August. There’s so much to do in so little time! This is my motivation to focus and get stuff done. As for my goals, here is the update with each one:

1. RELAX!

I’ve probably been doing a little too much of this one. But I am accomplishing it! 🙂

2. Spend as much time as I can with my hubby and puppy

I have been loving all the extra time with my hubby. His new work schedule is odd, but it gives us lots of time to spend together (which I absolutely love!). Kevin and I have been spending lots of time together as well. This morning we went to the Dog Park just because. In fact, he is sleeping on my legs while I type this out! I love them both!

3.Exercise and lose weight (goal is to workout at least 5 days a week)

This one has gone to the back burner recently. I just got back yesterday from vacation and took today off to sleep in. I hope to get myself in the habit of either exercising when I wake up or going to the gym on the way home from school. We will see.

4. Have all my First Quarter materials entered into our Cloud

This one is about half way done. I am going to focus on this one this week.

5. All current materials I use made digital

This is one that is at 0% as I have not yet been back to my classroom. I plan on going tomorrow to bring home a bunch of stuff and organize and go through it. This stuff takes up too much of my classroom space (which is already VERY limited).

6. Clean and organize our second bedroom (aka storage)

This one was going great… until we had people over. We had to shove it all back in the room so there weren’t random boxes everywhere. This weekend my hubby is off and we might get some work done on it then.

7. Read at least one book a week

This one is going well. I have read several books since summer began. I just finished the third The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor Part 2 on Saturday. I just love The Walking Dead. Just amazing. I heat Daryl and all things Walking Dead. 🙂

8. Learn a new song on the piano and on the cello

Since I have been on vacation this one has fallen aside, but I am working on these!

9. Try one new recipe a week

This is probably my favorite goal that I made for myself. Last week I was on vacation so I couldn’t try any recipes, but the week before that I made these delicious Pretzel wrapped Cheese Hotdogs. They were delicious! You can find the recipe here. I am planning on making them this week again because my hubby loved them so much! This week I plan on making Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches. I’ll let you know how it comes out.

10. Create a Phonics program for my classroom

This one is complete! the only thing I have to do is create the Powerpoints and upload the documents. YEAH!!!

That is the update for this week. More to come!

When Motivation Hinders Achievement

I have set a list of goals for this summer. I have tons of “free” time to spend getting it done. However, recently my motivation has been very little. It doesn’t help that I have gotten addicted to started watching Veronica Mars. It’s a fantastic show, but I think I need to make better use of my time. Another “hinderance” to getting anything done is my husband’s new work schedule. He’s working 12 hour shifts – some days and some nights. Those days that he works nights I have to be quiet and cannot do things that would be loud because he has to sleep during the day. Last night Kevin had a rough time learning how to sleep without his daddy home. He was shaking and constantly looking around him. I guess that makes two of us struggling with this new schedule. I know it will all work out in the end but this first week has been rough.

So that leaves me to today. Today I have decided to write out everything I need to do (to complete my goals). Then I have divided it up into the months that I have for this summer – June, July, August. I hope this will help channel my focus and help me to be able to accomplish everything I need to get done.

Oh, on a side note I plan on posting some of my school ideas and other’s ideas and how I implement them in the classroom soon here.

Summer 2014 Goals

Although this is late, here are my goals for this summer:

1. RELAX!
2. Spend as much time as I can with my hubby and puppy
3. Exercise and lose weight (goal is to workout at least 5 days a week)
4. Have all my First Quarter materials entered into our Cloud
5. All current materials I use made digital
6. Clean and organize our second bedroom (aka storage)
7. Read at least one book a week
8. Learn a new song on the piano and on the cello
9. Try one new recipe a week
10. Create a Phonics program for my classroom

My goal is not to accomplish ALL of them (but that would be nice), but to accomplish as many as possible. My #1 goal this summer is to just RELAX. Anything else I get done is extra. 🙂

 

What about you? Do you have anything you would like to accomplish this summer?

School Outservice

This week is the outservice at school. The last day of school was Friday! I will miss my students but I’m glad for some “me” time (or “me and Kevin”). This summer I have A LOT of goals so I will be posting about those shortly. BUT, I have to make it through this week. We have our Tablet training Tuesday and Wednesday – though I’m not sure how tricky it is to use a tablet. Anyway, I will be posting at the end of this week or next week to give my goals for the summer. I am EXTREMELY excited for the summer and can’t wait to get things done relax. 🙂

 

Mother’s Day

Mother’s day used to be a day that I looked forward to. Then God started placing the desire for my husband and I to have a child. Then it got hard, especially when I had to take medicines and things weren’t working. Then I got pregnant. We were both so happy. Our friends were happy, our parents were happy, hey, even our dog was happy. But then our joy shattered when we went in for an ultrasound and were told we were going to have a miscarriage. It was the hardest thing that has ever happened to me. It was just as hard as losing my best friend of many years when my dog died. It was just as hard as when my now-husband broke up with me for 12 days. This coming Sunday will be my first Mother’s Day as a mother. Yet, I cannot celebrate it like everyone else. I cannot hug my child or go out and enjoy special time with my child. My child is now with his Heavenly Father. I know he is in good hands and I can take joy in that. It is so comforting to think that even though I will not ever see my child here on earth, I know I will see him one day in Heaven. Oh, how I yearn for that day! Not only do I get to see my Savior, but I get to see my child as well. So if you see me struggling this Mother’s Day (or any other) you will know why. It’s hard to not spend my Mother’s Day in the usual way. I have to spend it another way. I pray that the Lord gives strength to all those like me – who have lost a child and still live with the daily pain of it. 

Life as I Know It

Life has been CRAZY the last few weeks. My husband started his new job on Monday and we are both super excited about it. On Saturday we went to a friend’s wedding and then raced back to move to our new apartment. We are still working on moving out of the old place. It’s amazing how tiring a move can be if you move up to a third floor apartment.

This week is Spring Break for me so I have this time to work on a few goals:

1. Unpack the house
2. Finish moving out of the old apartment
3. Spend lots of time with Kevin
4. All the laundry done
5. April Lesson Plans Done
6. Beat the LEGO movie video game
7. Begin my new diet – Gluten Free and Dairy Free
8. Watch an entire season of a TV show (TBD)
9. Spend as much time with my husband as I can (because he is amazing!!!)
10. Figure out what to add to my math time at school
11. Update my classroom blog

Well those are the ones I plan on working on. Lord willing, I will keep you posted! Until later, au revoir!

New Bible Study – Made to Crave

I was just looking on Facebook and I came across a free Bible study from Proverbs31 Women. So I decided to join. We are just on the first day of the study, but it’s been great so far. We are reading the book Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. Chapter 1 was called “What’s Really Going on Here?”

Here are some thoughts from this chapter:

I love the idea that craving itself is not wrong – God made us to crave. Our sinful nature changes that God-driven craving to hurt us. I also love the comparison of Eve and Jesus. It shows that no matter how strong the craving is, if our focus is on God He will help us get through it. God’s Word will always help us through the trials in our lives.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this chapter and I cannot wait for the rest of the study!

What’s Been Up

As you may notice, it has been a REALLY long time since I last posted. This is due to a number of things:

• School starting (and all its chaos)
• My husband and I had a miscarriage
• Dealing with social anxiety
• Panic attacks
• Family in town
• and to top it all off – our apartment flood which was not handled appropriately (and loss of items)

Chaos and Depression pretty much sum up the last few months. It’s very despressing to read but I thought I should be honest about it. I am, Lord-willing, going to be throwing myself back here. One of my new year’s resolutions is to do things that scare me – be willing to step out of my comfort zone. Well, here’s to a new year and one that I am focusing on hoping in God because without Him life isn’t worth living.