Make my Day

Have you ever heard one of those songs?  One of those songs that just makes the world stop?  One of those songs that just has a hold over you?  That can just completely change your mood, your day, your life?  For the past week, this song has been making my day...  "Your Love is a Song" by Switchfoot

Amazing, right?  This song has had a hold over me for about a week now, and I have yet to see an end in sight.  And I don't mind that at all.

On a lighter note, Thomas and I went to two new beaches today and we started a new collection of shells.  I'm too lazy to go take a picture of them right now, so I will try to do that tomorrow... they're really cool though!  The beaches were great!  The second one, which was called Ocean Park (nice name for a park that's right by the ocean... der) was probably my favorite so far.  Except for this one time when we were hanging out in the water, probably 15 feet from shore, and an entire school of fish (I SWEAR there were at least 50 fish) came jumping out of the water like 2 feet from us.  I screamed like a 15 year old girl!  And then Thomas decided we should get out of the water because who knows what scared them.  And can you guess why he was this worried?  Yep, that's right.  It's Shark Week, so of course, he was thinking shark.

So, today was my last official day of summer.  And it was a good day.

Random: Last night I watched "Beastly"... And I know what you're thinking, "What are you, 12?"  Well, yes, yes, apparently I am.  And I would like to say, it was not terrible.  Of course, I am a sucker for super cheesy and the Beauty and the Beast.  So, if you're not 12 also, you probably shouldn't waste your time.  However, Thomas and I went to see "Cowboys and Aliens" on Sunday, and it was a quality movie.  Lots of funny lines and scenes that make you (or maybe just me) jump.  And it was a good story.  Definitely not a bad way to spend two hours and 15 bucks.  Just thought you might like to know!  :)

Fine. Ok. Hi.

Well, obviously, I haven't blogged recently...  So now, I guess I feel guilty enough to sit down and write this up.  Acutally, I just had a blogging epiphany that spurred me over to blogger.  What I really need to do is sit down for five minutes a day and just write a short blog post.  Then, I would be able to blog more often because my posts would be so close together that I wouldn't have much to say.  But unfortunately, I was a history major... so that means that anytime I sit down to write or type anything, my brain jumps into essay mode.  Aka: must be no less than three paragraphs with seven to ten sentences per paragraph, constantly check spelling and grammar for correctness, use the thesaurus to find enormous words that mean the same thing as ordinary, everyday language but just sound more pompous... you get the idea.  And I believe this paragraph length is sufficient.

And j.s.y.k. (which means "just so you know", which I said so often at my previous job that we decided I needed a t-shirt that said "JSYK".  So, Carrie or Cassie, I hope you read this, and get a laugh from that)... Anyway, jsyk, Thomas and I watched "Top Gear" tonight (the British version), so I've still got their British accents and hilarious ways of explaining things stuck in my head.  So, if I say something that's a little off, just disregard.

Well, one of the main reasons I have not blogged recently is that I had band camp at my new school last week.  So from 8am to 5:30pm all last week, I was hanging out with 100 high school students in the 90+ degree heat under the blazing Florida sun...  And when I got home, I ate dinner and promptly fell asleep.  So, yeah.  The great thing was that the band kids and director are great!  And, being the assistant director and being brand new to the school, my main job was to just help out... well, and try to memorize over 100 names and faces immediately... hah!  (I maybe know about 25-30, and that's only when they're holding their instruments!  Oh well!)

So, the first day for teachers is on Wednesday (yikes!).  And of course, they start everyone off with a breakfast in the cafeteria on Wednesday morning.  Really?!  So I'm not even a high school student anymore and I still have to walk into the cafeteria on the first day and wonder who I'm going to sit with... boo.  And for those of you who don't know me... I don't make friends very easily.  I HATE walking into a room and having to find someone to sit with when I know pretty much no one.  You might as well make me run through said room in a gorilla costume because I wouldn't be any more nervous about that than just having to find someone to sit with.  So, yay.  At least we get the hardest part out of the way first... hopefully.  (Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that I don't even really know where the cafeteria is in my new school!  So I get to go to the front office first and ask where I'm going and how to get there... yippee!)  Anyway, enough with the downer mood... let's find something happy to talk about...

THE BEACH!!!  YAY!!!  So, Thomas and I have been to the beach three times in the last two weeks!  Yay!!!  And each time, we've been to a different beach!  Lol!  I think we're just going to go up and down the coast to try out all the nearby beaches to find our favorite!  We went to a really beautiful one on Saturday.  Here's a pic:

Isn't it gorgeous?!  The water was so blue!  Love it!

So I think we're going again tomorrow, on my last official day of summer!  I'm pretty sure the beach will be a weekly occurrence for us now!  Isn't that amazing?!  I'm stoked!

My washer and dryer arrived on time on Tuesday!  Thomas and I were just hanging out (Thomas was napping), when I heard a big truck in the parking lot.  So I ran to the window, and looked out... And it was the truck carrying our brand new washer and dryer on it!!!  I immediately ran back to the bed, "THOMAS!!! THOMAS!!!  Our washer and dryer are here!!!  GET UP!!!"  I was so excited!  I am so excited!  I no longer need quarters to do laundry.  And I can just throw a load in whenever I want.  And I only have to step out onto the patio to get to them!  YAY!!!  And Lo loves laundry time, because that means she gets to come out on the patio too!  Its all screened in, so she could really be out there by herself, but its too hot to leave the door open.  And I really don't want to take the risk of forgetting about her while she's out there and leaving her out in the heat.  So, when she hears the door opening, she comes running!  (That was a bit of a digression wasn't it?!)  Hm... reminds me of Beowulf...

Well, it is now 10:17 Eastern time, and I am going to bed!  Have I been random enough for this post?  Hm... not sure, so here's one more thing... hold on, I've gotta think of something random... oh, ok.  So, we have cable again, and I really have mixed feelings about it.  Because we have the cable, but not DVR, so Thomas' life once more revolves around what's on tv.  This week its "Shark Week"... which means the tv is on. period.

(And I just went through and proofread this post.  And there was a typo or something I wanted to change, but by the time I got to the bottom of the post, I forgot what it was.  And now I'm too tired to figure out what it was again.  Oh well, I guess.)

Is This For Real?!

Well hello there!  Thomas and I have been moving since Friday night, and we just got internet today!  Yay!!!  So, I guess this is update #1 on the move... with many more to come!  There is so much to tell, so much to be excited about, that it's going to take numerous posts to get it all in!  So, here are the first three things that are amazing about our new life!

#1 -

This is the view from the road we live on!  (And for those of you who aren't familiar with the Florida Space Coast, that is pretty much a huge ocean inlet.)  Need I say more?!  I mean really... we cannot leave our apartment without driving past this.  So basically..... AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

#2 - Our apartment is HUGE!  Literally, it is DOUBLE the size of our old apartment!  Yay!!!  We are getting all the furniture arranged, and we still have room for more!  It's incredible!

#3 - My new washer and dryer will be delivered on Tuesday!!!!!  Yay!  I'm pretty much completely head over heels with having my own washer and dryer!  No more treks to the laundry room.  No more quarters.  No more setting a timer on my phone so I remember to go get my laundry at the exact moment that it gets done.  YAY!!!

And since there are many more fabulous things about our new life, the list will just keep going!  Stay tuned...

Random:  Tomorrow we're going to the beach for the first time since we got here!!!

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Will There Be Enough Room?"

(Quoted from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault)

Well, last night a had a nightmare... (Before I start this story, I must warn you that I have very random dreams that are very detailed and complicated and just totally weird me out sometimes, but I will give you the short version today)  So, I had this dream.  And to preface: my parents are coming to town on Saturday to help us load the 16 foot moving truck with all of our belongings.  So, in my dream, my mom and I were taking a walk while Thomas and my dad went to pick up the moving truck.  All was fine until we got back from our walk, and lo and behold... our moving truck was a fifteen passenger van!!!  So, I started crying hysterically, and the one line I remember from the dream was, "Our couch won't even fit in there!"  And the funny part is, we're not even that attached to our couch.  Just tonight actually, after I was telling that story to Thomas, we decided that if everything didn't fit, we would pitch the couch first.  But, before last night, I really hadn't worried about whether or not all of our stuff was going to fit into a 16 foot truck, but now...  I'm not so sure.  So, maybe we can all hope together that my dream is not indicative of how Saturday is going to go! (And this morning, when I was getting ready for work and planning out this blog post, somehow, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom popped into my head, and I am very excited about how it fits as a title.  I LOVED this book as a kid!)

So, only two more days!  Wow!  And I haven't gotten anything done yesterday or today, so now I'm feeling behind.  Yuck.  So, I should probably stop writing this post, which has no more interesting or uninteresting information to impart...  but...  It's nice to just sit down for a few minutes.

OOOHHH!  I should tell you the other interesting (HORRIBLE) part of my night.  Well, last night when Thomas and I were going to bed, a cicada decided that it enjoyed sitting on top of our air conditioner (we have a wall air conditioner in our bedroom, so the cicada was sitting on it on the outside).  He wasn't too loud, so we were both able to get to sleep alright.  But at 1:30 AM, he decided to have a stinkin' songfest!!!  And of course, I'm the light sleeper, so it woke me up right away, and it was immediately driving me NUTS!!!  So, I started banging on the air conditioner to make him go away.  However, apparently, Thomas was still asleep before this, so he got mad at me that I woke him up.  And I got mad at him because if I didn't get the bug off the air conditioner, I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.  So, we were both tired and angry, so we came out to the living room, and I turned on "Beauty and the Beast" (my go to Disney movie, and since I know it by heart, sometimes it helps me sleep) to try and drown out the noise.  But, it didn't work, and I was just frustrated that we were kicked out of our bed by a BUG.  So I went to bang on the air conditioner some more.  And... about 45 minutes later, I FINALLY WON!  So, I woke Thomas up again, and we went back to bed.  And the moral of the story is: cicadas are evil.  Lol.

So we just had a *great* night all around.  Yay.  Anyway, I should probably go now.  Ok.  Bye.

Random:  ONLY TWO MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!

Countdown Initiated

4 days to go!  4 days of work... 4 days to finish packing... 4 days to say goodbye... 4 days until we're "homeless"... 4 DAYS!!!

And of course, I'm FREAKING out!  I've got so much stuff packed, but there is so much to go.  I can't believe that I haven't woken up from this crazy dream yet!  I mean, in four days, Thomas and I will be packing our lives into a truck and moving to Florida!  Wow!

And in 7 days, we will be living in our new apartment!!!  Yay!!!  So, I don't think I've mentioned yet, but WE HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!  And its AWESOME!!!  Totally cool!  So, its almost twice the size of our current apartment!!!  It's in a complex that has a pool!!!  It has a DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!!  And washer and dryer hookups!!!  And a screened-in patio!!!  And a master suite!!!  And it is right across the road from the inter-coastal waterway!!!  And have I mentioned... its in FLORIDA!!!!!!  YAY!  Basically, its like everything I could ask for!  (Besides a mansion that has its own private beach, of course)  Can you tell I'm excited?!  It's gonna be awesome!

So, it's really crazy around here, but I'm really getting to enjoy the excitement too!  Yay!  Anyway, I should get back to either packing or writing lesson plans!  So, too-da-loo!

Random:  I don't think I mentioned that it is Thomas' and my wedding anniversary tomorrow!  Yay!  We've been married for three years now!  And boy, has it been amazing!  Getting married to my best friend was the best decision ever!

Are We There Yet?!

Just kidding... but seriously.  This weekend was the official start of packing.  Thomas brought home about a bajillion boxes, and I got to it!  So, would you like to see my progress?!  Please say yes, because I would very much like to share!

Ta Da!!!  Lol.  I've packed quite a lot, but still have more to go!

So now, its time to start doing things like taking our desks apart because I have nowhere else to put the boxes that I pack!  It's pretty crazy.  However, I did have "help" in packing yesterday!

Once I started packing, Lolo decided that it was her job to be in my way just as much as she possibly could!  She's pretty good at it too!  Look at that dedication!

Also, I forgot to show you one of my other bday presents when I blogged about Thomas' the other day.  My mom, who is very skilled in the arts of sewing and embroidery, got/made me this for my birthday!

It's my teacher bag for school!  Isn't it totally cute?!  I love it.  Thanks Mom (and Dad)!

Anyway, I should probably go wake my napping hubby up so that we don't miss our Sunday afternoon movie!  We're going to see "The Green Lantern", and I'm so excited!  Normally, we would've gone to see this the week it came out, but we have been waiting a couple of weeks so that we can use our last free movie ticket!  So, now its time!  Yay!  "Speak the oath... because everybody knows the oath!  I pledge allegiance to a lantern... that I got from a dying purple alien..."

Can I Please Sleep Through This?

To say that the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster would be an extreme understatement.  But, I had it all under control... until yesterday.  And you may have noticed from yesterday's post that I was (ahem) in a slightly bad mood.  Yesterday just jumped on top of me and pounded me into the ground... and then kept going.  So many things shook my very fragile self control, and I just lost it.  You see, since this whole process started, I have been closer to God than I have been in a while.  This is taking so much faith and trust that I am constantly in prayer about something.  And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is God's plan for me and Thomas.  I have not had any doubt about that since the first moment we prayed about it after I was offered the job.  And along the way, God has so blatantly opened and shut doors that it is so clear that He is 100% shoving us down the right path.  I mean, He has just slammed a couple of doors for us, and He has thrown so many open and pretty much thrown us through the door.  He knows that we are trusting Him to lead us on our path, and He could not be anymore obvious unless He audibly spoke.  But yesterday, my confidence in all of that shattered.  The devil was absolutely determined to make me doubt what God is doing in our lives, and he succeeded.  Last night was a pretty low night.  But... the Lord is faithful, and He has not given up on me.  Today, I am just as stressed out, but I once again have no doubts about our path.  I wish that I could say that the devil couldn't get to me, but he did.  I am pretty weak in the faith area, so this experience is really growing me in that area.  And partly, I think I just really needed to cry.  Sometimes you just have to get it all out.  However, today I am extremely exhausted.  So, I think I'm going to start off my birthday by sleeping all day tomorrow!  :)

Ok, enough with the heavy!  I would like all of you to know that I have the absolute best husband in the world.  I don't care how awesome you think your husband is, mine is better... hands down!  ;)  Well, since we are going through this really sudden and expensive move, I told Thomas that we weren't going to celebrate my birthday with any presents right now.  But... he just couldn't help himself, so he found a very budget friendly way to get me a wonderful present!  Today, on my lunch break from an absolutely crazy day at work, he took me to Barnes & Noble and told me to pick out any journal I wanted.  (He knew I'd been wanting a beautiful journal for a while, but just hadn't gotten one yet.)  So, he managed to get me a wonderful birthday present on a very tight budget!  Awwwwww.

So here's my beautiful new journal!  Thanks honey!  I love you!

So, this is the start of the packing weekend.  Here we go!

Random: I watched "Wicker Park" two nights ago.  And it has been forever since I've seen that movie, but I have never forgotten how amazing it is.  It is a wonderful, yet annoying love story.  And it is a story about how you will never get over or forget "the one".  Watch it!