Christmas Day in GTMO

0615 The alarm goes off and Jonathan and I roll out of bed.
0625 People driving by look at us like we are crazy for being at a bus stop so early in the morning on Christmas day.
0630 We notice someone else at a nearby bus stop and begin not to feel quite as foolish.
0700 Begin cooking breakfast for the guys at Jonathan's apartment that just got off work.
0900 Catch the bus back to our hotel room.
0915 Fast asleep in bed.
1000-1500 Lay around watching movies and catching up on sleep.
1900 Begin making dinner with pans we borrowed from the kitchen in the main building.
1930 Enjoy our closest thing to a home-cooked meal we will get for Christmas.
2100 Put on the movie Elf and enjoy the last few hours of our first Christmas together.

For everyone back home, we miss you and hope your Christmas was just as relaxing as ours. We love you all and wish you a happy new year as well!

Love,
Jonathan and Emily Rupard

Merry Christmas from Jonathan and Emily Rupard

In front of the GTMO huge Christmas tree.

Out to dinner.

Well I am sitting in the hotel room and figured I could update this for those few of you that read. I also thought I would put up a few pictures. Jonathan went down to the company because they told him he had a lot of mail. So those of you that sent packages early he might have gotten some of them. The weather has been a little groggy until yesterday. We did get a little bit of rain on Jonathan's birthday but it wasn't too bad. We have been enjoying our time together; swimming, bowling, and just being together. Here are a few pictures to hold you over.

Just a shot of one of the bays.

Waiting on the ferry after seeing each other for the first time in months!!!

Let the countdown begin...

Well I am officially approved to go to Cuba!! YAY! 9 more days and I will not only be in 90 degree weather but I will also be seeeing my husband for the first time since August 15th!!!! SOOOOO excited. That is pretty much it for right now!

Two Week Notice

Well my title is inspired by the fact that hopefully if everything goes according to plans that I will be on a plane to Cuba in two weeks. I am so beyond excited. I have not seen my husband in 113 days! August 15th was the last time I felt his arms around me. I miss him so much and can't wait to spend the holidays with him. I will miss my family time but I will see them when I get back.

I have to finish up the rest of my Christmas shopping today since I will be leaving early. The past few weeks have been good. Thanksgiving was a great time with family. It was tough with Jonathan not being here and I didn't get to talk to him that day either. It was a good time anyways. Jack turned 2 the following Saturday which is still hard for me to believe. Seemed like just a few days ago I was driving up to Demorest to meet my precious nephew for the first time. Now he is 2 and I will be welcoming my second precious nephew into the world end of February. Looks like Josh and I will have to share our birthday celebration with one more, but I don't think we mind! ;)

Well, I got to go make my shopping list so I know what I need to get. Hope you all enjoy your weekend and I got to get going to I can get back before 4:00 to watch the football game.

Just a Dream

Well, once again it has been a while. So sorry. Well not a whole lot has happened. I have been trying to spend more of me weekends with family since volleyball ended. We had our volleyball banquet last night and it was great to see everybody again. I love all those girls and I am going to miss them so much next year. Well I will once again be busy in the Spring because I will be coaching the tennis team at the high school. It should be a lot of fun but I am really rusty so I better start working that out. lol.

Jonathan has started night shifts now. He works from 6pm-6am so most of the time I don't get to talk to him on the days that he has to work. I still get to talk to him on his days off, so not too bad. He makes it easier on me by making sure the times we do have to talk he reminds me how much he loves me and I get to see more and more why I love this man God sent to me.

My students are still keeping me on my toes. They are amazing kids, all in their own ways- even if they do drive me nuts sometimes. I am still trying to figure out how to reach a few and praying that God will show me how.

I am getting more and more excited about Christmas break coming up because it is looking like I will be spending it in Cuba and that makes it way easier right now to think I only have one more month before I get to see him and spend Christmas and New Years with him. I am sad that we won't be toether for Thanksgiving but I know I have a lot of awesome family to spend that time with as well. I am super excited!!!

Halloween Happiness

Well this week was very crazy. It was Red Ribbon week at school. This is the week where the kids can kind of dress up and there is a focus on staying drug free. Well I didn't particularly appreciate the fact that they did this the week before Halloween. The kids were already hyper. However, the week went by rather quickly. We had a very eventful Friday with testing, Book Character Parade, Cumulative Review, and Witches Brew. Needless to say by the time the kids left Friday I was EXHAUSTED.

Friday after work I drove up to my mother-in-laws house. We had planned on going to the corn maze but mother nature had different ideas because we got rained out. So we stayed in and watched movies.

Saturday morning my sister-in-law and I got up and drove to Hartwell for the Fall Festival at our school. My parents came by ith Jack and he wore his turtle costume. Some of my students were asking if Jack was my baby, well at least they asked instead of assuming. Haha. He looked very cute in his turtle outfit and he got to go fishing, played mini golf, threw the football through the hoops, picked a duck, and won bean bag toss. It was great. After the game playing we were all hungry so we headed to the hot dog hut for some lunch.

After we finished eating we headed back to my apartment to hang out and watch the game. Whil the game was certainly less than thrilling to watch, the company was wonderful. Jack was a lot of fun and had a great time with his new friend Ashley. I fixed tacos for dinner which we ate at half time. All in all great day with family.

Ashley and I watched a scary movie after the parentals and Jack went back to pop and meemaw's house. She was so funny to watch because she had never seen it before. We are going up to Helen today and going to church up there with Rena's family. So I must go get in the shower and get ready.

Jonathan finished third in his board competition on Saturday so pretty good considering he only had a week to study. He plans on going back in December.

Christmas in Cuba

Well it has certainly been a long time. I am sorry I am not very good at this but my sister is usually the only one that reads it anyway. Well as of late, volleyball is now over and I have much more time to dedicate to my work and I finally feel like I am getting organized which is wonderful!! I still have some planning to do this afternoon though.

We went on a field trip last Thursday to Denver Downs. The students all got to pick out small pumpkins, go through PART of the corn maze, feed the goats, and play in the hay barn. They had a blast and wore worn out by the end of the day. They were still tired on Friday. It was funny on the way back to school they saw a UHaul truck with a picture of a zebra on it. The kids thought that meant that the truck carried zebras to the zoo.

Yesterday I carved the pumpkin to go outside our apartment. I hated that Jonathan wasn't there because he is so artistic that he can do anything. I finally came up with a design but it took forever to do and I am honestly not sure it was worth all the time I put into it. It is done now though. I will try to put a picture up.

The biggest news I have gotten so far is that I will probably be getting the chance to spend Christmas break in Cuba with Jonathan. I am so excited that I am going to get to see him and spend our first Christmas and New Years together as a married couple. I am of course sad that I will be spending it away from the rest of our family for the first time but I am so happy about getting to see him, I miss him so much.

We have gotten yahoo messenger set up so that now we can see each other and that has made things a little easier now that I can physically see him every now and then instead of just talking to him. He goes on night shift soon and I am nervous about when we are going to be able to talk once that happens but we will figure it out like we always do- one day at a time.

I will try to do better about keeping this updated.

Long time no blog!

I know it has been over a month since my last post. I have been slacking big time!! It just has been crazy with the wedding, the short two weeks Jonathan was home, school, and volleyball. It is no excuse I know.

Well the wedding was great and the day flew by. I wish I could go back to that day so badly. I have gotten some of the photos printed out and put in two large photo albums. I only printed out 600 of the pictures but there were plenty more!! These are a few of my favorite down at the bottom. Anyways, the day went off well despite a couple musical mishaps. I got hitched to the man of my dreams and couldn't be happier about it.

My husband and I decided on Sunday to go to Six Flags since we aren't going on a real honeymoon until later when it will be easier to get time off and such. We decided we needed to do something fun after we got married. We slept until we woke up at the beautiful Ashford Manor where we spent our wedding night. We went and just had fun riding roller coasters and spending time together.

I had to go back to work that week but Jonathan came and visited my kids at school and met my volleyball team and stayed for our practice. I took Thursday and Friday off. Thursday we had some important errands to run all over the place. Friday afternoon we left for Jacksonville where I had to take Jonathan. We got there okay without much trouble. We checked into our hotel and walked into a room where the bed was unmade, used towels on the bathroom floor, and old coffee in the coffee maker. So quite obviously, we walked right back out and asked for another room. Luckily it was not much trouble for her to give us another room that was actually clean. We went shopping becaues Jonathan wanted a Georgia hat to take down to Cuba with him so we went and found one. Then we went and had dinner at Chili's. We had to get up early Saturday morning to get him to the navy base in Jacksonville where he was leaving from. Once he got all checked in we hung out in the lobby for a while before he actually had to board the plane. It was the shortest few hours in my life. It was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I didn't want to let go of him because I had convinced myself if I didn't let go he wouldn't have to leave. It makes me tear up just thinking about that horrible moment!

School is going pretty well. It will be a challenging year with the students I have but I already love them so much. They are much more well behaved than the group I had last year. I just got a new student yesterday and she seems real sweet as well. I am excited to see about all the things the kids will learn and do this year. Please do keep them in your prayers because some of them are facing larger than life situations at home. It breaks my heart!

Coaching volleyball has been so much fun and I am so glad I have the opportunity to do it. The girls are great and it has been a learning experience each step of the way. It keeps me super busy which is good right now for me. It will keep me busy enough to where I won't think too much about how far away my husband is. The girls have played well and have already improved so much. They have done pretty well. We have beaten teams we should have beaten for the most part. We had a close one last week I think they could have pulled out but they did well. Coaching is definitely the next best thing to getting out there and playing again. It is a totally different kind of rush though when you see the girls do what you know they are capable of doing. It is a lot of fun!

Jonathan is doing well. He misses home and just like anybody else looks forward to his days off when he can relax and rest. He doesn't always have the same days off though. Last week he had Saturday off and it was great because I could talk to him a lot. This week he doesn't have today or Sunday off so that stinks! He does get to call me most every night but it isn't always for very long. I miss him like crazy. I have good days and bad days but God has already been really faithful in giving me strength to get me through each day with a purpose. I appreciate everybody's thoughts and prayers though.

Here are the pictures I promised...

He's Coming Home!

Well sorry it has been a long while but I have been overwhelmed with school and wedding stuff. I have worked three 11-hour days at school this week and I am quite burned out. It has been an interesting and frustrating week at school. I am working with being at peace with certain things. I got to meet most of my students Wednesday night at orientation. I still haven't met two of them. This year will be good but I have no doubt it will present challenges and obstacles of its own different from last year.

Even though I am exhausted I am excited because Jonathan is coming home today. He will get here late tonight and I couldn't be more excited!!! I am sad it is only for a little while but I will definitely take what I can get. We have a busy weekend ahead of us. On Saturday we are eating lunch with his mom's family, then we are heading to Athens to get him fitted for his tux. Then we will probably eat with my parents and get dad to take a few pictures to use for the reception.

Jonathan has to go back Saturday night to his mom's to go to church with them and eat with more of his family. I will be at Winterville Sunday morning where they are having their shower Sunday afternoon. Jonathan and I are going to meet back up later that day to drive to the airport to pick up his dad and Karen. We are going to eat dinner with them on the way back to their house. Then after spending a little bit of time there we will head back towards my apartment. Then Monday is the first day of school. So I need to find some energy from somewhere to get through this weekend and next week.

Pictures from Europe

Dad and I enjoying the beautiful view from the western most point in Europe. It was absolutely gorgeous and I did not want to leave that place!

Mom and dad LOVED the huge flowers! They were quite jealous that theirs never grew to be this big! Haha, this was outside the Pena Palace in Portugal.

Well I figured out how to upload pictures so I thought I would upload a few real quickly. This is me in front of court 17 at Wimbledon.

Getting Closer

Well yesterday I went to do a trial run with my hair do with Cassidy, the girl that is doing my hair for my wedding. It looked good and if I can ever figure out how to put pictures up on here I will put a picture of it up. I have not showered yet this morning so it is still a lot of curls going everywhere.

I am about to shower and get ready to go to a shower, not mine. My good friend and old roomie Bray is getting married in September and I have a shower for her today in Athens. So I am looking forward to seeing her! I haven't seen her in so long. I get to see her two weeks in a row! Melanie and Bray are both throwing me a shower next week, it will be my first one! YAY! I am excited that everything is getting close. It makes me nervous that everything is not ready but I know I have done all I can do right now.

We will be starting back in school soon and I am trying to do my best to get everything ready so I have less to worry about once we get back. I have most of my bulletin boards started but I still have to put all my posters and everything back up on the walls.

Jonathan will be home in two weeks and I am more excited about that than anything! I read my sister's blog about anticipating Josh getting home and I wish I would have only had to go a week! It's ok though, I know she misses him! I am just excited that Jonathan will be home soon, even if it is only for a little while. I love him so much and can't wait to be his wife! Well I have to go get ready for Bray's shower.

Wedding Bells

Well it has yet again been a while but with good reason. Jonathan and I will be getting married in a month, August 15th. So I have been super busy getting everything together. Today I went and picked out the tuxedos for the guys. It was fun but I think the people were about ready to shoot me because I kept changing stuff on them! But in the end we got it all worked out.

I also got my wedding band purchased and it is going to get sent out to get sized tomorrow so hopefully that will all be done in about two weeks. It took me a while to find one that worked with my lovely engagement ring but this sweet old man help me find one that works well and looks lovely. I got Jonathan's ring ordered and it might be here as soon as the end of this week.

I am going Friday to do a trial run with my hair dresser and have a wedding shower on Saturday for my old roommate who is getting married in September. I am very excited about everything and it is all coming together very nicely. Continue to pray for Jonathan as he finishes his last two weeks of AIT in Missouri and gets ready to come home to the planning madness! lol. Pray that everything continues to work out well with all the wedding details.

Abroad

I know it has been a while but to my own credit I have been out of the country and working some. Last Friday I left with my parents for London and got back this Sunday afternoon. It was a very fun 9 days but also very tiring. We traveled around London on Saturday after arriving, despite being very fatigued. We went on a river cruise, rode the London Eye, and did some general driving around, well more like trying to figure out the bus system. On Sunday we left for Birmingham where dad's conference was. Sunday through Tuesdaywas mostly spend relaxing- for mom and myself anyways. Dad was busy going to meetings for his Rotary conference. Tuesday night we went down where they had an international food festival and spent the night on the town. Wednesday we left to go back to London and ending up going down to Wimbledon. We waited in line for about 2 hours but were able to watch about 3 hours of tennis. It was definitely a lot of fun. Thursday morning we traveled to Lisbon, Portugal where my aunt and uncle were waiting for us. Elizabeth and Bill spent the rest of the week showing us around castles, palaces, churches, and tons of beautiful places around Portugal. There were so many wonderful things to see. Saturday late afternoon we headed back to London for the night and left early Sunday morning to come back home. All in all a very fun and wonderful trip. It was definitely a once in a lifetime thing that I am so glad I had the chance to do.

On a totally different note Jonathan is now about half way into his AIT in Missouri. I am able to talk to him on a more regular basis which helps a lot. He got his placement today, Cuba. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet. I am trying my best to stay positive about it but we don't know yet if I will be able to go with him. We may not know until the end of the month if I will be able to go with him or not. So that is my prayer right now is that everything works out so that we can go together. We are praying for the best and that is all we can do right now.

What a wonderful weekend

So I have returned from my long journey to Missouri to see my handsome soldier graduate from BCT. Jonathan's dad, Tim, rode and helped drive some of the way. We had some bumps along the way that ended up putting us 3 hours off schedule on the drive up there. In Tennessee, about 3 hours into our 12 hour journey I got a flat. Well to shorten a very long story it took us a while to be able to even get the hub to the tire off, so that ended up costing us an hour. Then we were able to locate a Walmart ten minutes up the road that had a tire service. We had to wait about 20 minutes before they opened. Well after that, it took about 30 minutes to locate the tires I needed because they were labeled incorrectly. Anyways, so in the process of putting that tire on and having them all balanced we discovered several other issues at hand. Mainly that my alignment was off causing two of the other tires to wear down badly. In the end I had to get four new tires and sometime this week need to them aligned and a strut fixed. Well other than that and the crazy back roads the GPS took us down there were no other set backs. We finally got to Missouri around 7:30.

Well Thursday morning we got up and got ready for the graduation. Just thinking about it gives me nervous butterflies, the same I had all morning that day. I am not sure why I was nervous, I just was. :) So the whole time of the ceremony and afterwards was absolutely dreadful because we had to sit there and just look at him and not be able to talk to him. Finally after they marched around to where all there stuff was we got to see him. I held onto him for like 2 minutes straight. It was just so great to finally be in his arms again! Thursday we spent the day with family and went around and saw different things around the base that they had done while training. I got to hold his hand all day!

Friday we also got to spend some time with him and we went to the museum that is on the base and that was pretty cool. All in all it was a wonderful two days that came to an end all to quickly. One of my favorite things was just seeing how happy he was to see us. It was wonderful to see how much he loves me in person again! It was funny, everytime we met any of the guys that were in his bunk they would all say that they had heard so much about me. It made me smile to know that he had talked about me so much. One of the guys knew who I was before Jonathan ever told him. He said he recognized me from the pictures, that I was the almighty Emily. That made me laugh and it also made me happy! I hated saying goodbye so soon. I wasn't ready to let him go! I miss so much already but he at least has his phone with him now so I have gotten to talk to him a lot! I will get to go up and spend July 4th weekend with him so that is less than a month away and then after that another month and he will be home for a little while. I love him so much and I am so glad that I got to spend that time with him.

Well I am going to try to get some wedding stuff done this week so stay posted on that. My dress and bridesmaid dresses have come in so that is exciting. They called me Friday to let me know and Jonathan teased that he would go pick it up for me! Haha. Anyways, I will update soon but that is all for now.

Home Stretch

Well I am in the home stretch with both school and seeing Jonathan! We have three more days of school left and I am so excited about all the fun stuff we have planned for the last week but also sad to see it all coming to an end. I am going to miss those rugrats more than I think I even realize right now. They make me crazy and make me laugh all within one minute. I love them all so much.

Well after today I am down to only 8 more days before going to see Jonathan! I am so excited that it is so close. I feel like this has been the longest two and a half months of my life! I got to talk to Jonathan a lot yesterday. They got their phones on Memorial Day so that was a nice treat I wasn't really expecting! I love him so much and I think this has strengthened our relationship more than I ever thought it would. I still picture saying goodbye to him like it was yesterday. Of course, it feels like a lot longer than that. I still can't believe I haven't seen him since March 19th. I am so proud of all that he has accomplished during this time and I can't wait to give him a huge hug!

I spent this past weekend with Jonathan's family in Helen, Ga. His mom's family had a big family reunion on Saturday and it was fun. I hung out with Ashley a lot, Jonathan's sister. It was good to see all that family again and I love them so much. His family up there just makes you feel so at home.

Today will be a fun week at school. Today we had bubbles and bubble gum. Tomorrow will be pizza and pop, Thursday we are makign ice cream sundaes, and Friday we are watching a movie and eating popcorn. I am stressing about their end of the year projects though. We were going to make place mats with pictures I have taken all throughout the year. So I am trying to order my prints online to print at the Walmart in Hartwell for me to pick up so I can get them before tomorrow. However, Walmart's website is not cooperating because it keeps saying under maintenance everytime I try to submit it. So please pray that all works out!

2 more weeks!

Well not counting today I only have two more weeks until I see Jonathan! I am so way beyond excited! It is so wonderful that it is getting so close but harder at the same time. I miss him so much. I just feel so imcomplete without him here. I have just felt like part of me has been missing the past two and a half months. It has been absolutely dreadful! I know I am my own person outside of Jonathan but I love him so much that he is already so much a part of me. It is just the strangest feeling to not have him here by my side and not even being able to talk to him everyday! I love him so much! Okay so I am sure you are tired of hearing about Jonathan!

I went online to look at some cakes and as soon as my awesome sister shows me how to put pictures up on here I will show you some of the ones I fell in love with. I am trying to find something for Jonathan's grooms cake if he decides he wants to have a grooms cake.

6 more days of school and I thankfully got everything worked out with my leave request without having to take "sick days" or taking days without pay. My superintendant has agreed to allow me to come in after post planning and make up the two days which is fine with me because I would probably have to do that anyways to finish getting everything packed away! Well, that is pretty much all for now!

16 More Days

Since today has come to a close I now only have to go 16 more days without seeing my fiance! I miss him so much. Jonathan was not able to call last week so of course I expected him to be able to do so yesterday, Sunday. Well 7:00pm came around and I still had not received a phone call. Needless to say last night was a very rough night for me! I wanted so desperately to just talk to him. Well he did not get to call yesterday but to my pleasant surprise he was able to call today. I almost missed it because I was still at work. It was after the kids had already left but I hadn't turned my phone off silent. Well luckily I was able to get to talk to him for a little while. It was definitely good and it will make getting through another week much easier.

Wedding details are starting to come together more and more. As of today, all my bridesmaids have ordered their dresses so another task checked off the list! YAY! I am going to start calling the flower and cake people this week to set up appointment soon. All of this is going to be so much easier when I can at least talk to Jonathan on a normal basis. I miss him so much. He was telling me today that his graduation will be at 8:00am Thursday and that will be the first time we see him. So basically I have to control myself the whole graduation and the whole time they do their marching thing. I don't know how I am going to keep from bursting! I can't wait to run and give him a hug and kiss!

Well we are in the second to last week of school so there is a lot going on at school, some of which we don't find out about until the day of! Nice huh? Well anyhow, the kids are ready for first grade and I am so proud when I think of how far they have come, all of them! Even my students that are struggling have accomplished so much!

Dilyn, my summer roomie, and I went running today. Dilyn is a friend of mine from Emmanuel. She plays soccer at Emmanuel. She is taking summer courses at Emmanuel so she is crashing with me for a couple months. It has been fun so far! I like having someone here when I get home because it is not as easy to be lonely! Well, that is all for now! My sister hinted it was time for a post so there it is!

Picking Strawberries

Well today we had our field trip for the year. We went to the strawberry patch in Canon, Ga. The kids got to pick their own strawberries straight from the patch. We also got to walk through a lot of the greenhouses they also have their, because we have been talking a lot about plants lately in science. The kids really enjoyed going through and looking at all the different plants and flowers. As we were leaving they surprised us and gave each student their very own tomato plant. We were very thankful for their generosity. We went to the park not too far away and ate our lunch and enjoyed the nice weather. We played at the park for a little while before venturing back to school. Overall the day left me very tired but glad that all the kids had fun.

There is a total of 12 more school days and as I find myself coming close to the end of the year I find myself facing a big challenge with some of my parents of students I strongly feel and know are not ready for first grade. I realize that no parent wants to hear that their child needs to repeat kindergarten but unfortunately a lot of my parents do not understand how much different kindergarten is now from what it used to be. A lot more is expected of our students at the end of the year and I would change that if I could, but I can't so I have to work my butt off to get them ready and when they are not ready- they are not ready. I hate saying it more than anyone because I feel like I have failed them in some way but I know there is only so much I can do. Please pray that my parents that need to see the light will indeed see th light.

On a brighter note I am only 24 more days away from finally seeing Jonathan! He is nearing the end of his training and I am so excited about getting to see him on June 4th. These past two months have been so hard but it will all be worth it in the end. I can't wait just to feel his hand in mine again! It is those simple little things that I miss the most!

Well wedding details are coming together. I got two of my girls all fitted for their dresses, 4 more to go! I am going to start tackling more seeing as how it is getting closer! Got to get my flowers and cakes part taken care of, or at least begin the process! Well that is the update for now and I promise I am going to start trying to get better about updating!

It's Been a While

Sorry, I have been pretty slack about updating my blog here! My sincerest apologies to everyone, aka my sister and mom! :) Well this weekend will be a very busy one! Friday, tomorrow, I have to leave right after work to go to Loganville for the rehearsal dinner for Jonathan's dad. Saturday morning and afternoon I will be at a coaching clinic in Atlanta for volleyball next year. I have to leave slightly early from that to leave for Tim and Karen's wedding back in Loganville. Then on Sunday I will hopefully get a chance to see my mom for a day late celebration of her birthday. Sunday night Dilyn will be moving some of her stuff in because she is going to stay with me while she takes summer classes at Emmanuel. YAY!

I got to talk to Jonathan a good bit last Sunday which my mom will probably not be too happy about once she gets the cell phone bill but hopefully she will understand under the circumstances. I miss him so much. I have 35 more days until I get to see him! I am sooo excited about June 4th! I am so proud of him because he is doing so well! I wish I could just see him though!! I love him so much!! Well, I got to get ready for bed! Night!

Wow what a week

Well, it is not time for to get ready for church yet but I am wide awake, I figured I would take this time to update on my week.

I have been on Spring Break all week so I have been running around getting all kinds of stuff done. I babysat my nephew Jack Saturday night which was a lot of fun. I was also scheduled to babysit Jack Tuesday so I just hung out with Laura and Josh at their house until Tuesday. We went to church and I helped Laura keep the nursery. Sunday afternoon Laura had a couple of things to do in Commerce so made a trip to the outlets where I finally found a Easter dress for today! Monday Laura, Jack, and I hung out at the house that morning. Laura and Josh are talking about finishing their basement and Jonathan's dad, Tim, might do that for them so he came up with his dad, Papaw as I call him, and talked with them for a little while. I had to go my apartment and do a couple things that day and had a letter from Jonathan. :) Josh's dad, Travis, came Monday night to go with Josh and Laura Tuesday. We all went to Longhorn's and laughed as we bribed Jack with coke to say please!

Josh, Laura, Travis, and another friend of theirs left early Tuesday to go to the practice round of the masters. I kept Jack most of the day. He did great until around 5ish when he got sick! He was so pitiful. I think it was just a stomach bug, but bless his heart he couldn't keep anything down. I was naturally freaking out! But he was okay after a little while and did better after he slept a little bit.

Wednesday, once back in Athens at mom and dad's, I went to pick up my engagement ring that has been being sized! It is nice to finally have it again! My finger does not feel so lonely! Thursday my sister had a dentist appointment so she and Jack came with us to try on dresses at David's Bridal. I found my perfect dress for pretty cheap too! I was quite proud of myself. I also picked out the bridesmaid dresses. We met up with dad for lunch and then headed out to Bed, Bath, and Beyond where my matron of honor, Laura, was a huge help in helpig me register for everything we would need and more! We discovered I have an addiction for all things green and brown though! lol. I am going to the meeting for an intervention next week! ;)

Friday morning mom and I kept Jack for a little while and then went to lunch with Laura before tey headed back home to rest before they went to the Braves game. Then mom and I headed to Macy's and picked out all of my fine china, stemware, flatware, etc. We rewarded ourselves with a cookie and then headed home.

Saturday I decided to go spend some time with Jonathan's dad and sister. So I drove up to Karen's new house and met them there. Karen and Tim are getting married early May so we went to David's Bridal in Buford and got the dresses for Abbygale, Kaitlyn, and Ashley. It was really crowded in there of course on a Saturday and it was a lot of fun to people watch! :) Anyhow, we then went to this play called Crossroads that a church in Loganville puts on every year. It was outside, brrrr! I made Abbygale sit in my lap to keep my legs warm. Anyhow, it lasted until pretty late and we had missed dinner due to trying to get there on time so we all piled over to the nearest Waffle House and got a bite to eat before I headed back here to Athens. It was a lot harder being with all of them than I thought it would be, but it was good!

I am REALLY hoping I get to talk to Jon today!

December 12th

So an official date has been set! December 12th! Only about 250 days to go! It has made Jonathan being gone a little bit easier because I have something really exciting to look forward to when he does get home! I did get to talk to him very briefly last night and fill him in on the few wedding details! He is very excited! My theory is he planned this whole thing so he didn't have to be involved with all the wedding stuff grooms try to get out of but their brides never let them. He a sneaky man! lol. Jk! I know he would be here in a heartbeat if he could. I miss him so much but finally got my first letter from him on Monday. I am actually really exciting about writing him letters. I mean even my sister still loves to get the mail! ;) Just imagine how exciting when it is a heart felt letter from your future husband!

I am already so excited about getting everything started! My mom, my sister, and I are going to try to go dress shopping next Friday. My mom is going to help me get my registry started next week while I am on Spring Break. I am afraid the people are going to think I am delusional if I don't get my engagement ring back before we go. I am going to walk in to register for wedding gifts sans my fiance and my engagement ring? Haha! The whole idea makes me laugh! Hopefully I will get my ring back next week! My finger is tired of being without it!

One week down!

Well, let's start off with the good news first- I got my contract renewed! SO YAY FOR THAT! I still have no idea what grade or really what school in our county I will be teaching but at least I know I have a job! That is more than enough right now!

On a lesser exciting note this week was SOOOO forever long! I finally got my first week done without Jonathan. I haven't talked to him since last Saturday when I talked to him for 6 min and 53 sec. Exciting huh? I know right! It was definitely the shortest 7 minutes of my life! I miss talking to him so crazy much. This whole thing would not be as difficult as it is if I got to talk to him at least! I am sorry, I think that is just crazy that you can only call people like once a week and apparently only get like an hour! RIDICULOUS! I have already made a mental note to talk to his drill sargent that this is just not going to cut it! ;) If only it were that easy! Anyhow, hopefully I will get to talk to him this weekend and that will get me through another week.

Well anyhow, this is the first weekend I intend to spend at my apartment in a looong time. I need to do some cleaning so badly it is sad! I am trying to get rid of some clothes I know I never wear or don't even like anymore. My mom got me a new comforter set for my birthday last weekend and I LOVE it, it looks great! I have to load the pictures and everything. Well, that is about it for now. Just keep praying for me while Jonathan is gone!

Leaving Stinks!

Well, Wednesday I took the day off and spent my last day with Jonathan for a while. I got to spend most of the day with him. His recruiter let me and his dad ride up to Atlanta with him to the hotel where he dropped Jonathan off. It was definitely one of the harder things I ever had to do. I love him so much and am absolutely thrilled that he has found something that he can do that allows him to be happy and proud. I know part of the reason he is doing all of this is for us, so that we can start our lives together next year. I am so proud of him but I already miss him like crazy. The worst part is not getting to talk to him. This is the first day I have gone without talking to him in a looooong time. I really hope I get to talk to him this weekend.

This time will definitely be a challenging time for us but also a time of growth for us. We will have to rely on God and really put our relationship in His hands. I am looking forward to writing each other and all that stuff. I ask that you keep the both of us in your prayers over the next few months.

Nervous

So our county has a board meeting tonight and I am very nervous about that. Apparently they are supposed to be talking about contract renewals tonight. As all of you know our economy is not in the greatest shape and even education is taking a huge blow. I am desperately hoping at least next year I will have a job waiting for me to return to. Now is just about the worst time to be a first year teacher. We have already heard about several other counties telling first year teachers not to expect to have a contract waiting for them! Please keep me in your prayers tonight as our board meets and makes very important decisions about next year. I do not think I have ever been this concerned about something. I love my job with everything I have and I put everything I have into this job and those kids.

On top of them talking about contract renewals they are also having to deal with a lot of angry parents and faculty members in our county that are upset about all ths shifting our board has already issued with the principals in ALL the elementary schools. I am very scared right now and totally in the hands of the Lord. I am counting on Him to protect me and watch over me right now. Please help me look to him right now!

Just Starting

Well just starting out on this thing! I enjoy reading my sister's and decided I wanted to try one of my own. I guess just the basics right now would be neccessary. I am in my first year of teaching which always provides for interesting stories. I have a class of 15 kindergarten students. I just recently got engaged to the love of my life, Jonathan. He makes me happier than I ever could have imagined. He is leaving soon to go to basic training in Missouri and I won't be able to talk to him so I am NOT excited about that!

My birthday was yesterday, I am now 23 years old. That doesn't look like a very high number but it sure seems like it to me. I had so many friends wish you me a happy birthday and I am so grateful for all the amazing people I have met in my life. My little kids, my students that is, sang to me. It was beautifully off key but very sweet! Jonathan came to see me at work and brought me a rose. He hung out with us for a little while and all the kids were really excited he was there. It was difficult making some of the understand what a fiance is. One of my little boys kept telling that he liked me new husband! Haha.

Anyhow, this will basically just be a place for me to post thoughts and stories. I will do my best to keep you updated on happenings! Thanks for reading!