Christmas Survey

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? both, I like opening wrapped presents but using gift bags is way easier!
2. Tree: Real or artificial? real (mom, the pine scented candle never had the same effect)
3. When do you put up the tree? This was our first year with our own tree...it went up the first weekend in December.
4. When do you take the tree down? again, it's our first year...I'll get back to you on that :)
5. Do you like eggnog? in moderation
6. Favorite gift received as a child? a lot come to mind
7. Do you have a nativity scene? yes, the starter Willow Tree collection
8. Hardest person to buy for? my brother
9. Easiest person to buy for? Matt
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? none are coming to mind
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I love opening snail mail cards :)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When the calendar says December and I realize it's time to get going.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mom's Christmas morning egg casserole (I'm gonna miss it this year)
16. Lights: white or colored on the tree? we decided on colored this year
17. Favorite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland and Brad Paisley's Politically Correct Christmas
18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? A little of both.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We always had a beautiful angel that mom got at a craft fair...I wanted one but knew we'd never find one like it again. We have a tin star now.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Well...Matt and I will do our presents on the 22nd, then presents at his parents on Christmas Eve morning. Then presents down in Pennsylvania on Christmas day. Then Christmas with my family a week later.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? all the stupid drivers out shopping
23. What I love most about Christmas...Being together with family and remembering the reason for this glorious season.

That was fun :) This year I'm also enjoying having a classroom full of students that help get me in the Christmas spirit. We've been listening to Charlie Brown Christmas music on a daily basis and are looking forward to our classes upcoming Pancake Breakfast.

decorating for the season...

A few pictures from today...

Thanks to John and Amy for suggesting Home Depot for a tree that wouldn't cost our life savings.

My favorite Christmas decoration :)

I love when decorations I bought at totally different times fit together so perfectly :)

i have no life...

My husband just informed me that I have not updated my blog "in a coon's age" (what does that even mean?). When I told him I was just about to update he questioned what I even had to blog about...hence the title!

Well...despite what my wonderful husband thinks...I do have a life. It just most recently revolved around parent teacher conferences. Yesterday, after a full day of teaching I had a full evening of conferences. I left school at 7:30pm and had to be back at 7:30 this morning. I walked into school this morning feeling like I'd been run over by a Mac Truck, and I still had an entire day of conferencing ahead of me. Despite the fact that conferences drained every ounce of life out of me, it was very encouraging to have a few parents sing my praises after the start the year I've had.

Okay, okay, that isn't much of a life :) So I'll go back a few weekends to the wonderful girls weekend we had in Cortland. Back in August the RWC girls decided we needed an all girls weekend get-together. We started planning and were finally able to get together the first weekend in November. It was a true girls weekend...complete with late night talks, junk food and Salvation-Army shopping!
It was a much-needed weekend with amazing "faith-filled" friends :) We mentioned how amazing it was to be able to catch up on life and share all that God has been doing in our lives since we've left Roberts.
We attended Beth's church on Sunday and all left feeling encouraged and uplifted after a chance to worship together. What an amazing experience!

time for an update...

First off, I appreciate my faithful readers who have checked in on me for any updates. The wait is finally over!

The start of the school year has been harder than I expected...hence the lack of blogging. I'll try to do my best to catch you all up...

Being married is GREAT! I am reminded daily how blessed I am to call Matt my husband. Matt and I have been married 12 weeks and I just realized I never even posted pictures from our honeymoon.
MINI-GOLF! And the winner was....ME!

Matt thought he had this game in the bag...little did he know I had skills I didn't even know about!



We spent a day hiking in the Poconos, overlooking the Delaware River.

Another day was spent enjoying the roller coasters and water rides at Dorney Park.













This picture doesn't do justice to the crazy thunderstorm that came through the area one night during our stay. We lost electricity and heard the constant sound of fire engines in the local community. The lightning seemed to linger over our house for hours, with only a little bit of rain. It was insane!

This was the beautiful view from our back porch! Of course, just to say we did we took the ghetto row boat out on the water...










HA HA...classic!

There it is...a 3 month old update :) Thanks for staying faithful and checking in. I figure if I update one event at a time I'll do better at catching up now.

School Update

Many of you may have noticed that I haven't posted about school at all...why? Up until now I feel like I wouldn't have had much of anything good to say. The year was immediately off to a stressful start with one particular situation. Without going into much detail I can say that I have one student who has been inappropriately placed in my classroom and has therefore demanded a lot of attention and time. Unfortunately, when that happens it takes that attention and time away from my other 17 students.

Thursday was a long, uncomfortable day as I faced a parent meeting followed by Open House. After being verbally abused by the parent I was feeling pretty down about my ability to teach and be effective in the classroom. I think God knew I was in desperate need of a pick-me-up after that. Later that night at Open House I was able to spend some time talking to a very supportive parent. He made it a point to let me know that he respects my opinion about his son and will support me in any way that he can. He spent a few minutes reminiscing about the days when teachers were respected by everyone, both students and parents. It's nice to know I have at least one set of parents supporting what I do!

I was also able to have an "awwww" moment while grading some spelling papers a few weeks back that I thought was worthy of sharing...
I had asked my students to write sentences using their weekly spelling words. Some of the words were "believe" and "kneel." A few students wrote sentences like "Everyone should believe in God," "I kneel each night to say my prayers." Even just those few sentences provided me with some insight into the lives of my children.

Despite the craziness and stress of the first month of school I have felt very blessed by the group of students I have in my class. They are caring, respectful and eager to learn.

I know this wasn't the most exciting blog...just wanted to share some of what's going on in my life. Thanks for reading!

Laura Kimberly

Baby Laura has arrived! Andrea went into the hospital about 2pm on Wednesday afternoon for "observation" but was told that the baby would most likely not show until late Thursday/early Friday. Laura had a different idea. I got the call at 12:45am that Andrea was in active labor. Laura arrived shortly after at 3:22am.


I was blessed with the chance to spend time with Andrea, Richie and baby Laura Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. Mom and I of course used this time to start spoiling Laura and found this perfect shirt for the day after she was born:

I am amazed by the miracle of this beautiful little baby girl. I never thought it was possible to love something so small so much. She is precious!

Congratulations Andrea and Richie! Laura is so blessed to have you as parents. You are in our thoughts and prayers!

Laura, you are so loved! Remember, God made you special and you are his precious child!

our grown-up furniture

Okay okay...I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post pictures of our new furniture. In my defense...we got the furniture the night before school started for a new year. It's true what they say...a first year teacher's year is INSANE (but that's for another blog).

And...since some people (ahem...Becca...) have been checking my blog every day for these pictures I guess I owe it to them to finally post.



I feel so grown-up lately...some may think it's because I just got married...but I think a lot has to do with the new furniture. There's something about this investment that makes me realize that I'm now an adult. Maybe it's the fact that I finally had to part with the hand-me-down couch and the $10 garage sale chair that had been with me for years.

The furniture will look slightly different when we can finally add the wooden legs. We decided it best to not fight with the hand screw driver and foot long screws when we didn't get the furniture till 8:00 on the night it arrived. Those will be added in time...

Thanks for looking!

NEW furniture :)

As grateful as we are for the hand-me-down furniture that has gotten us this far, Matt and I decided to step it up with some new furniture. We spent a few hours venturing around Henrietta on Friday and finally ended back at our starting place where we found this:


We got the couch and oversized chair (oversized = a normal sized chair + 3/4). It can easily fit 2 people comfortably. The online picture didn't allow us to show the color we actually got...it's more of a pearly neutral.

We'll be picking it all up on Wednesday...SO excited! :)

I'll be posting soon with some pictures of where we stayed for our honeymoon and hopefully some more wedding pics. Thanks for checking in :)

the best day of my life...

This weekend could not have been more perfect! Of course the crazy fun started Friday afternoon at rehearsal. The whole crew was together and the laughter and fun began. I think the best way to guarantee a good time for a wedding is to have Pete George as the best man. Words couldn't come close to explaining all his antics :)

Saturday morning I was wide awake at 6:30 and ready for the day to begin. The day started rather overcast but turned out to be the perfect weather day...sunny, not-to-hot with a slight breeze.
The girls and I enjoyed some bagels and fruit while taking turns getting our hair done. While sitting as Shannon put what felt like millions of curls in my hair I felt the first butterflies...not nerves...more excitement knowing that I was about to marry my best friend.

The ceremony was even more amazing than I could have hoped. I felt like everything...from the first song to the last prayer brought glory to God as we dedicated our lives to each other and Him. I even surprised myself with how little I cried. If first stepping out the door was any indication I thought I was going to be a blubbering fool...but I was able to gain composure better than most.

Every bit of the reception provided endless memories. Even now I can only count 1 thing that I feel didn't go as planned...the cake! I ordered a 3-tier round carrot cake with pink ribbon. What we got: 4-tier rectangle carrot, white & chocolate cake with red flowers. HA HA...not even close! Regardless, I was still able to get it on Matt's nose :).

I could go on and on with everything that made it such a great day! God was and is with us as we enter into this journey. We are grateful for the blessing of each other and for all our family and friends who were able to celebrate with us, in person and in thought. Here's 2 of the pictures I've seen so far...I'll post more as I get them.

more Home Sweet Home

The red bedroom! As you can see...no matching comforter yet :)

Master bathroom...complete with washer and dryer (possibly one of my favorite parts of the new place!) Those who have never had to spend hours at the laundry mat on Saturday mornings can never fully understand the pathetic excitement behind having laundry facilities.
The comfy, cozy living room:



There it is...our first home!

10 more days...and counting :)

Home Sweet Home

I can finally say I feel settled into the new apartment. Therefore, I was able to take some photos today! Here is the kitchen (complete with a dishwasher!!!):

saying YES to God's call

For those that don't know, I have spent many summers at Delta Lake Bible Camp. My duties have ranged from lifeguard to Haven Program Director. Well this year after I was turned down for 2 summer teaching jobs I felt God's call for me to work at camp...as a senior high counselor. Now...being a 3rd grade teacher I was nervous about my ability to relate well to 11th and 12th graders. I never could have imagined all the memories and lessons the week could hold.
Day one proved interesting...I don't think my campers were so sure about what kind of fun a 3rd grade teacher could have (they later admitted to me that they thought I was going to be boring! HA) By day two we were into the swing of camp and having a blast! Our cabin was on team Lemon, Ice, Ice Baby...the most spirited team at camp! We beat out all other teams and won the ice cream party at the end of the week (that ended up being a mozzarella stick party since they served ice cream at dinner :).

The best part of the whole week was the way in which God was clearly working. With each service it was more evident that God was working in the lives of these teens. It was encouraging to see a group of teens so genuinely on fire for God. The speaker for the week was a crazy, loud Canadian, Dave Overholt. His messages are so uplifting and inspire a spirit of love. Wow...I'm having trouble putting all that happened into words. God is amazing! (That works :)

One of the best memories of the week was the morning my campers and I were able to go tubing on the lake at 6am. We were able to watch the sunrise on a day that later ended up being rainy and cold.
Of course there was the oreo cookie challenge. My cabin challenged Bethany's cabin to the oreo contest (sticking half an oreo cookie to your forehead and getting it into your mouth without the use of your hands). My girls won 14 oreos to 6!

Friday's at camp are usually unpredictable and crazy fun...this week was no different! After an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee (which Lemon Ice won) it was time for the mashed potato war! What could be more fun than garbage cans filled with 80 boxes of instant mashed potatoes...all made for the purpose of throwing at one another! In an effort to get cleaned up from the mess I decided to participate in the sling shot slip and slide...BIG mistake! I sat on the disk, had the inner tube tire pulled behind me and within a matter of seconds I felt the inner tube slip across my face and I was flat on my back only about 10 feet from the start of the slide. With what felt like a slowly forming bruise on my cheek and a ringing ear I decided to give it another chance...BIG mistake! Round two proved worse than round one. I sat on the disk, had the inner tube tire pulled behind me and within a matter of seconds the inner tube came untied from the post and snapped straight back and got me in the shoulder! Needless to say...I didn't go for round three. The 3 inch in diameter bruise appeared just 3 days later. Fortunately it didn't last long.

Okay...I should probably stop there. As you can tell it was an amazing week. I am so thankful God made his plans clear and that I said YES to his call. I learned so much from God, my beautiful campers and other great counselors.

My soon to be sister and I...another great blessing of the week...being able to work alongside her :)

Wedding Rap

This video is a little long but well worth the time! The lyrics are available by clicking on the "more" button to the right of the video screen. They're great! :)

Engagement Photos

My sister recently took our engagement photos...thought I'd share :)

I have time to blog!

So after many months as a blog stalker I have decided to delve into this adventure myself! With the fastly approaching wedding I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories and many pictures to share! Also, with my first year of teaching behind me I wish I had recorded so many of the great stories that come from 3rd graders...so I'll have wait to share those starting in the fall when I have my own class of students!

Enjoy!