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.