56

Well as of today I get to mark it down to 8 more weeks. This weekend is going to be a busy one as well as next week. This morning I am currently relaxing with Cash before I get in the shower and spend the first part of the day when one of my best friends, Amanda- who is in town from Orlando, Fl.

After hanging out with her I am headed back to parental territory for my Grandfathers 90th birthday celebration. He is such an amazing man and I am so thankful for the impact he has had on my life.

Sunday morning I am going to go see Jonathan's dad, Tim, for father's day. Then back through Athens to see my own dad on father's day. Then back up to Amanda's house that night because I will be working at camp next week to help them out for a week. I am excited to go back and visit and hoping that some of my favorite campers are there!! Well I gotta get up and going so I can start this busy weekend! I will update as I am able next week.

57

57 days to go, we are almost down to eight weeks!! The time has flown and I could not be more grateful!!

Yesterday, I finally got up the will power to go through some of my teaching supplies that I had to clear out of the classroom and divide into what I know I will take with me and what I know I will leave behind. I still have to go through all my books because I have so many and there are so many that I know I can do without. Well I decided to go ahead and bring the first load of things that Jonathan's mom, Rena, will house in her basement for us. Yay for having family with storage space!!! :) Well I also pulled aside a few books I thought Jack might enjoy and asked Laura if she wanted to keep them for me so that they could enjoy them while I am gone. So I took those over to the their house and hung out with Laura, Jack, and Sam for a while. Then Josh got home and we all went to dinner where Jack made a boot with his chip! Haha. "I made boot!" So after dinner I came over to Rena's house and hung out with the girls. Cash was really hyper and wanted to play with Poohgen, Ashley's pug. He was running all around the living room and I am sure was seeing stars after running straight into the legs of the table a few times!

Right now I am the only one up, watching the US play Slovenia. Right now they are losing- big shocker!! ;) Maybe they will get lucky again but I kind of doubt it! Oh well. Plans for today are just to hang out with family. It is going to be a busy weekend.

58

58 days to go!!

First sunburn of the summer!! YAY! That means the rest of the summer should be sunburn free!! Cash and I met Melanie and Melissa at the Cape residence and went swimming. Cash went swimming for the first time and seemed to really enjoy it. He kept going to the edge of the pool and whining to get in. He was soo cute. It was warm but fairly cloudy so it was a good day. It was fun to hang out with Melanie and Melissa and we got most of the dogs together for a party as well. Cash got to meet his new friends Baxter and Hudson. He also met Molly, and while Cash made the sincerest attempts to befriend her, Molly is not exactly sociable! :) We had fun catching up and making daquiris, virgin in case you are wondering.

On the exercise note, I have not been running the past two days because of the rain that has started each day about the time of day I desire to run. Nature is working against me! However, I have been doing a little better about what I am eating. I stocked up on fruits and veggies to snack on instead of junkie food. I know this is something Jonathan will help me with too when he is here. He has become hooked on rice down there in GTMO so I see a lot of different kinds of rice in our dinner future, which is fine by me!

Well it is hard to imagine that I have a mere two more months before I get to see my husband again. The last time I saw him was January 2nd. This past year has flown by and I could not be more grateful. Don't get me wrong some great things have happened over the past year and I know that without a doubt I have grown as an individual as well as grown as a couple. I am very excited to see what this next phase will hold for us. We are blessed to have a love like ours and even more blessed to have this wonderful opportunity to go on an adventure together in our first few years together. Well, that is all for now!

60 Days to Go!!

Well today was pretty laid back. I watched world cup games with Jonathan, via webcam of course. Cash had a few sucesses today as well as a few failures. We had a good day and Cash was kinda bummy today. He kept wanting to just sit with me on the couch.

As my hubby persisted, I started running today. Now don't get me wrong, he does not force me to do anything. He just knows it's important to me to stay in shape and I have told him so numerous times. So he has agreed to push me when he knows I get lazy. I am so glad too because I know I would get severely out of shape if let to my own laziness. I am glad he is willing to push me like that and not just back off when I start making excuses. I discovered something today while running, worship music is the best running music I have ever listened to. It made me feel really good while I was running and it made me push even harder because I felt like what I was doing, I was doing to make sure my body-His temple- stays fit and healthy. I still have a long way to go before I can truly say I feel in shape. I was only able to run about half a mile and I power walked half a mile. Pretty pitiful, I have never been a good runner but it is so good for you and makes you feel great afterwards. I just got to get that eating healthy thing down!! It is so hard when you are eating by yourself all the time. It is just sooo much easier to heat something up or do something real quick- which is definitely NOT healthy choices. So, if anybody has any good suggestions about quick easy meals for one don't be selfish and keep them to yourself...share with the world, or just me!! ;)

61 more days to go!

61 more days to go until I get to pick my hubby up in Jacksonville. YAY! This morning I went to First Baptist Church Hartwell and it was a good service. I had never visited there before but it reminded me a lot of my church at home. It made me want to go there more and get involved. There are a few teachers from school that go there and a few of my players from volleyball and tennis. I picked up lunch on the way home and spent the rest of the day watching World Cup and playing with Cash.

I was so proud of Cash, he came up and sat in front of me and whined, so hoping he was catching on, I took him out. Three out of the five times he did this he tinkled right when I put him down outside!!! SUPER excited about that. All of the accidents are not behind us but we are definitely getting there. Haha!! Looks like both of the former Giles girls are blogging about potty training!! :) Aren't we just wonderful!!

I am going to try to do better about blogging in these last few weeks. Jonathan and I both are eagerly counting down the days and very excited about all that lies ahead. Now we are to the stage that I have to start making a list of the things we definitely need to take with us and figuring out how we need to get things done.

2 Years Down

Well I have officially finished my second year of teaching and I must say I definitely feel like I knew more what I was doing this time around. I was by far much more organized than I was last year and that is always a plus!! Hopefully that organization will continue to grow over the years. Our last day of school was Friday and I must say it was little bittersweet knowing I would see students walk through THAT door for the last time, taking my kids to lunch for the last time, and seeing my bus kids off to their buses for the last time. I know I will have many more students to teach throughout my career but it was more sad than I thought it would be doing it all for the last time at Hartwell Elementary. I think I am destined to be even more emotional this week during our three days of post planning. I love all the wonderful teachers and friends I have made there these past two years. They already feel like a part of my family and some of them have seen me through a lot. They were there when my grandfather died, they were there to hear about the engagement, they were there to help me out when I was crazy getting stuff ready for the wedding, and they have been there to love on me and support me in this time away from Jonathan. They are all amazing people and the Lord blessed me tremendously the past two years to give me that family. I will never forget those people and will miss them all dearly.

Cash is doing pretty well. We had a scare a week ago when I took him to the vet for a vaccination. He had an allergic reaction to it and within ten minutes of me having it home his whole face was two times its normal size and he looked awful. He was absolutely pitiful. After rushing him back to the vet for a shot of benadryl and two small doses of benadryl later that night and the next morning he was back to his normal self and far less pitiful. It was definitely a freak out moment for me and Jonathan assured me I was doing everything I needed to do for him and it gave us a glimpse of what parenthood might be like for us. Me- freaking out, Jonathan- trying to calm me down...seems about right!! lol :) He is up to about 4 pounds now and he doesn't seem so small to me but I know it's because I am around him all the time. I know when I put him down outside in the grass it becomes VERY apparent how tiny he is!! lol.

Well we are down to 75 days, 11 more weeks until Jonathan gets home. I am oh so excited but also planning on living up my summer spending as much time as I can with family and friends. My sister, in particular, to my joy is planning on keeping me busy with my nephews this summer. I am very happy to spend as much time with them as I can because I am going to miss out on so much with them! My sweet lil Sam won't even know me when we get back! :( Well, I am talking to Jonathan now so I am going to go ahead and end this update, see you next time!!!

Here Comes Cash

So sorry that it has been a while, Laura! ;) Things have been super busy with school wrapping up and Cash coming. Last Saturday I went to McDonough, Ga. and picked up my sweet lil guy. He is a 2 months old miniature daschund that is choc and tan. He has the biggest ears I think is possible but that just makes him even cuter. I can't wait for daddy to get home and meet our sweet baby. He has done pretty welll so far. We have had very few accidents thus far, so good job for sweet little Cash! This past Saturday we went to the Marigold Festival with mom and dad and he had a lot of fun getting loved on by his mema and getting lots of "awwwws" and "he is so cute" statements from many of the festival attendees. Right now he is regularly sleeping in his kennel at night and while I am gone at work. This was difficult at first but he has gotten better. I can't wait to spend the summer with him.

The school year is quickly coming to an end. I have two more weeks to get my babies ready for first grade. I feel like this year has just flown by. It is going to be especially hard to let my little ones go this year because I will not be able to watch them grow next year. I am also going to miss all the sweet and wonderful people that have become part of my work family over the last two years. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with some amazing people that I will never forget.

Jonathan is at about 13 weeks, 90 days, as of right now. That seems like forever but I keep reminding myself that it is one less day than before. I know that this time has made us stronger in a lot of ways but it has also been difficult to really connect in ways. It is very hard to feel so distant from someone that is so close to your heart and not be able to do much to fix it. We are both ready for this time to be over and truly start our lives together. Christ has been so faithful to get us through this time and I know that we can get through anything with Him in our lives.