Hello.

Hello new job! And the 3 kids I had in my class today. All super adorable & well behaved. I need to do lots of over planning since it takes us about 2.5 seconds to finish something. It was awesome. So awesome that this happened.

Just kidding. This is what really happened.

Although, don’t be surprised if I fall asleep as soon as a I’m in the car. No worries, I’m not driving.

Hello amazing best friend who took me out to celebrate my new job. I laughed a lot & maybe cried a tear or two. What else do you do with best friends? Besides miss the 3rd part of your trio cuz she couldn't come :(

Hello adorable baby friend who I get to snuggle with on Sundays!! Yes, she’s smiling at me because she thinks I’m hysterical when I make strange faces. Whatever works!

Hello little girl that’s growing up too fast and starts kindergarten next week. NOT OK.

Hello cute new classroom that is the perfect size and quaintness. But you don’t have a corkboard & that hurts my feelings. And my thumbs from all the hammering I did to pretend I had a corkboard.

Hello plan book. I didn’t really miss you, not gonna lie. But it did feel great to tear out that old label and rip it to shreds.

Hello most delicious dollar I’ve ever spent.

Hello hot husband who takes naps in walmart. I love him, like for real want to pee myself when he does something silly. That’s what ya call a healthy marriage. Bladder issues from laughing too much. Don’t worry husband if you’re reading this, I won’t tell everyone you let me take a  pic of you in a pink cowgirl hat. OOPS!

Linking up with Lisa Leonard today!

A New Chapter.

Today, I head back to a day job. After a year of being able to sleep in and fill my days with anything I want and follow whatever pace I wanted, I am heading back to a “9-5” and to say that I’m thrilled is an overstatement. Let me explain. I want to be a stay at home mom. So badly I want to just be a mama. To love on babies that are my own. Not that I don’t mind showering my friends little ones and my sisters with tremendous amounts of love and attention, but I ‘m just ready to have the mom title. Most people that know me, completely see this. But my closest friends, those are the ones that have seen the tears and the hurt when I think about where my life is right now. It’s amazing. That’s what it is. I don’t want this to seem as a whoa is me type post. And I certainly don’t want you to think that I’m unhappy with my life. Completely not the case. My relationship with my husband is at the point that I’m speechless on a way to explain the level we are at. To finally understand what a God designed marriage is & then to actively seek one, is the stuff that makes your knees weak. Devotions and prayer time at night. Genuine kisses and smiles throughout the day. I can’t complain. My man has REALLY stepped it up in his husband role and I’m so proud of how hard he works. Which is why it’s time for me to do the same. I want my life to take a certain turn, but the situation we are in right now just wouldn’t be ideal for that to happen. So, I’m heading back into the classroom. I thought that opportunity would never come & to be quite honest I was hoping it never would, but God’s ways are not my own. And a wonderful Christian school posted a job opening. Under the encouragement of my dear friend and pastor’s wife, I applied. I interviewed. I got the job. It’s for kindergarten. The one grade I have admittedly refused to even consider. Yet here I am, excited to fill my days with runny noses and untied sneakers. I’m nervous. Not only because school starts in less than two weeks & I have no plans written or even have a clue what I’m supposed to be teaching, but because this is very new to me. Yes, I am a teacher. I taught in public school. This is bound to be very different. And I don’t want to let people down. Especially not the parents that are paying to send their children to me to provide a faith-based education. Am I wise enough? Do I know enough about the bible? Can I recite a thousand verses? Will I succeed? Of course those seeds of doubt are sneaking their way into my head. I’m reassured by the fact that this is exactly where God has placed me. He knows what lies ahead. This is simply one step in that end goal of being a stay at home mom. Those other steps I mentioned last week? One of them is something that I just don’t feel as though needs to be explained in detail on this public blog. Just know that something I’ve been doing & loving has become an even larger blessing my my life. An added bonus to my passion, you could claim. I also plan on continuing with my Thirty-One business through Christmas. I have had a lack of motivation to book parties or recruit these past few months & I feel as though before I throw in the towel, I need to attempt to at least have a successful Christmas season with the company. After that, we’ll see what happens. Another amazing new adventure is working for a close friend of mine. You might know her from the pictures you see around this blog. The professional ones that literally make you catch your breathe. She has asked me to help her with marketing and general assisting. Of course I agreed! I’m continuing to work with my friend Amanda as her virtual assistant and I just joined The Shine Project’s team as a volunteer.

If you’ve read to this point go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Thank you. And also maybe your eyes are glazing over and your wondering how I am going to maintain this life, this very busy life? With His grace. Seriously. Every single thing that I am taking on, has a special place in my heart and I think that when you have passion, you have tremendous power.

With all of these new jobs & GLOW & my husband & my family & my friends & my sleep, I might be missing a little from here at times. As much as I’d like to say I will keep up with posting, I simply can’t. And I won’t. I don’t want to write something just because I need to fill this space so you’ll keep coming back for more. Reaching the end of this particular “journey” is much more important to me than how many people follow me through gfc or how many subscribers I have.

So with all of that, thank you for following along on this thing I called life. I promise to keep you updated as often as I can & if you just can’t manage to live without me, follow along on twitter and instagram. (my twitter account is private for numerous reasons but don’t let that discourage you from requesting to follow. More than likely your name isn’t on the “need to be private” list)

GLOW gets wet!

What type of leader would I be if I didn’t plan the coolest summer events? A boring one. I’m anything but boring, so of course a trip to the beach was on the agenda for the summer of GLOW. Our original date got rained out. Wah. I might have sobbed a little when the final go ahead to cancel was given, but that day ended up being lots of fun with just a few of the girls. The day we rescheduled to ended up having a chance of rain too but this hip chick threw caution to the wind and said let’s go! I mean we are going to the beach. To swim. What’s a few sprinkles! We had 18 girls go! Some may call me crazy, but I call it AWESOME! Yea, I’m crazy like that. (ha, did ya catch that?) I’d try to explain everything that made that day so special, but sometimes I think pictures speak a thousand words. So, enjoy a thousand pictures, err pictures that speak words.

{Most of the pictures are straight from the camera. My time is slim pickins here & instead of editing pictures, I’d rather be thinking up other outrageous and fun things to do with these pretty little ladies!}

uhm.hm

So, take a guess at what just happened? Go ahead, you’ll never figure it out. Anyone? Remember when I told ya’ll that we put a new transmission in my car, less than a month ago? Yea. That little booger strikes again. Now she’s all out there sitting in my driveway waiting to shake like crazy when I turn her on. Don’t ask me anything else about it because I’m no car girl, but to give you an analogy. It feels like a lawn mower does right before it shuts up, I mean off. Like puttputtputt shakeshakeshake squeksqueksquek. She’s not on my good side. And yes, my car is a her. What other reason do I have for something that gives me so much trouble. Not sure what is causing it, but it’s got me all in a wad. A bad one. You see, LOTS of amazing things happened over the past week. Like going from feeling hopeless and stuck in my current situation, to getting 3 jobs. Yep, you read that right. THREE! One of them is essentially a bonus addition to a “job” I’ve already been doing for months. One is random & on the side for now. And the third, well that is an exciting new adventure that I thought would never happen again. I’ll go into detail this week. Pinky promise. But today I’ll spend trying to let those 3 positives, trump that nasty brat that’s parked in the doghouse driveway waiting for M to get home and deal with it. After the day I got to drive all around the earth with a broken transmission & 3 yr old in the backseat, I’m choosing to let her sit and wallow in her own misery until someone else deals with it. I think I ‘m done. The more I type, the more I sound like a lunatic. Talking about my car like she’s a person. Womp.

And since nothing is complete without a picture..

You’re welcome.

Dear Friday.

Dear Friday, Thanks for showing up! I wasn’t really anxious for you, but who can deny the excitement of what Friday means! Dear Hubby, you texted me from across the room & you used a hashtag. Yea. You’re cool like that. Dear Life, you are rocking my world this week. Seriously. Prayers are answered and God is quickly showing me exactly where I’m meant to be. It’s amazing. Dear Water with Cucumber, I love you. The headaches I get from trading out my iced coffees for you, not so much. Ahh the life of a coffee addict.

Dear Summer, you are flying by! Slow down puh-lease. We are already in August & it may be breaking my heart a little. Dear Friends having/with babies (1, 2, 3,  4, , etc.), you are all fueling my baby mama fever! Following you on facebook & instagram might be the wrong thing to do, but I just can’t stop. Luckily,  number 1 lets me love on her little itty-bitty anytime I want to! Dear Hubby, thanks for the new hat. You know me so stinkin well.

My Man.

Just want to say he’s sexy. Yep. That’s all.

Outfit

I’m a hat girl. You all know that. I’m also a flip-flop girl. And a jean shorts girl. And a basic tee girl. So does it surprise you that one of my typical summer outfits involves all of those things? No, no it shouldn’t. And it really shouldn’t surprise you when I made a very basic switch from day to night. It was my anniversary and the hubby said let’s go to dinner. But this lady had been rockin the hat all day and there was no way I was going in public without it, so I needed something instead of shorts to be appropriate for dinner.

Day to night .

Hat, Skirt, & Flip-Flops: Old Navy | Tee: Target | Shorts: Ann Taylor LOFT

How’d I do?

Day{s} at the Pool

We have this amazing ski resort just 20 minutes from us and up until this summer, we really thought all it offered was skiing.

We were wrong.

This place has a pool. Well actually 3 pools. And a diving board. And a slide.  And a playground. Yea, it’s pretty awesome. Except for now I want to be there every single day & that doesn’t go over well for a girl on a strict budget!