A New Year

Happy New Year!!

I have not been very diligent in writing on this blog, but with a lot of encouragement and some serious soul searching, it’s time I start writing again. I’ll explain more of that later. For now, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and give you a little life update!

This weekend will mark nine months of marriage for this crazy couple, and we couldn’t be more thrilled for what the new year is going to bring! We have established a lot of routine mixed with a lot of spontaneity. Here are some of the things that we have enjoyed the past nine months... We play some type of game almost every night—nertz, sequence, battleship, and monopoly deal are some of our usuals. If we aren’t playing a game, then it’s likely that Kevin was watching a movie before I got home, so we finish that or start a new one! Without cable or Netflix, we rely solely on our personal collection or walk to the Redbox down the street.  We played a lot of tennis and sand volleyball in the summer/fall, but now we are both on city league teams for volleyball (me) and basketball (Kevin). Some of our favorite meals are jambalaya, chicken salads, brats, and pasta, but with that being said, we are excited to mix in a whole lot of new variety and try some new recipes this year! All in all, we are loving our life together and couldn’t imagine it any different. We are so content and pleased with the many gifts that God has given us, and we can do nothing more but praise Him for His blessings.

After a lovely Christmas vacation (that went by faster than Clark Girswold on a metal saucer), I stepped back into my festive 7^th grade classroom yesterday and faced three blocks of exhausted 12 & 13 year olds… After a sluggish day yesterday, and with today being the start of the second semester, I decided to liven things up a bit in my advisory and kick off the morning with 'The Interlude'  (if you’re not familiar with the song/dance, you need to familiarize yourself...)

                  Picture this:

 Twenty one 7^th graders at 8:10am standing in front of their desks (because Mrs. Andrews said they had to), while their crazy teacher is blaring music and is jumping and flailing her arms in a mix of sparkly twists, robot jabs and jersey shore fist pumps…. maybe you had to be there. or maybe you didn’t. besides my three loyal, straight ‘A,’ teacher pleasing students, who were participating with full fervor, the rest of my class half heartedly participated or observed out of pity for their beloved teacher. 

Christmas break changed my sweet seventh graders.

At the beginning of the year I made them repeat, “I’m not too cool,” about twenty thousand times, and they used to do the Interlude with me!! Now it’s because they’re almost eighth graders that they think that they are, in fact, "too cool."  Don’t worry... I’ll have them brainwashed again by the end of next week :) Needless to say, I love my students, I love my administrators, I love our building, and I love the people I teach with!

Kevin is still working hard as a logistics manager; he typically goes to bed around seven most nights and wakes up around 2:30 or 3:00 most mornings. He is very diligent about keeping his mind and body healthy, and I greatly admire his discipline! Now that Fourth Quarter and the Holiday Season is over, his schedule should improve a little bit, but his mornings will still be early. He has been with Target for almost 15 months now, so there is potential for a change of work centers with a little more ‘normal’ hours in the future (praying for that!). Kevin will also be starting his Masters Degree for Organizational Leadership later this month through Indiana Wesleyan University. He has such a passion for learning and leading, and it is so evident that he is excited to be a student again and simply learn.

Speaking of learning... I have been learning a lot. As a first year teacher, my first year as a wife, and it being the first week of the year, I feel like my world is constantly revolving and evolving, and it is by the grace of God that I have not flown off the handle from all this learning I've been doing. I have found myself trying to make sense of my life and my purpose a lot in this past year, and the growth that I have experienced has been exponential; I am not the same girl I was last January, nor am I the same girl I was walking down the aisle nine months ago. For this I am so grateful. I don't want to stay stagnant in my bad habits, tendencies, and attitudes. I want to change.  I am changing. 

Kevin and I have set forth a number of goals that we would like to achieve in the year 2014 that require us to be disciplined.  I am excited to share our plans, goals, and challenges with you as we change and learn throughout this new year.

I cannot wait to see how God moves in 2014… I'm pumped.