Woo!

It's been snowing since 10 (not enough to acculumate, but still fun!) If it is going to be this cold, I want it to snow!

I also got an email from the director from the school in NC. I am going to have a phone interview with her tomorrow afternoon at 1. I am very hopeful about this job (and I want it REALLY bad.) So please be praying for me over the next 22 hours!!

Happy New Year!

2009 was a great year for us!

-We got married!
-J graduated with his MBA in August.
-I graduated last month.

Some huge milestones. We're hoping 2010 has 3 big milestones for us-
-move
-jobs for both of us!




Here are some Christmas pics!

J playing his new PS3 on his new LED tv. Pretty sure I've lost him forever. Haha

Christmas tree in Athens

And here's Tucker! So cute!

Christmas Time

So here it is! The first post from J :O

Once C got back from the Carolinas she was very tired of being on the road. However, the next day (Wednesday) she had to get back in the car to start our Christmas vacation. We got to Columbus Wednesday evening for supper. Then we opened family presents, which was fun. The next morning we woke up to see that Santa had brought us some fun toys (the tv was by far my favorite). Grannie and Granddaddy came over for Christmas Eve lunch and for presents. Later that afternoon we jumped back in the car and headed to Huntsville. Our Mexican Christmas was full of cheese, movies, and games. Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa had come again! Saturday morning we left for Kate Kate's house in Fulton. Her new house was a site to behold, and we had a good time visiting and exchanging gifts. After spending the night in Columbus Saturday night, we finally made it home Sunday night. Even though it was tiring, we had an amazing first Christmas!

Remember to keep praying for C's job. We are very anxious and hopeful.

If you are wondering...

J promised to updated the blog for the week... and I'm holding him to it. So that's why there has not been an update yet. :P

Sweet Caroline

Sorry, I didn't update earlier! I went to the Carolinas for an interview. It went really well. I like the area and the other teachers. I am supposed to hear something next week! Pray I hear good news! I am really excited about this opportunity!

I also had a phone interview with a school in Atlanta. I didn't get that job, but I am actually relieved because it wasn't something I knew I would enjoy.

John worked A LOT last week (almost 40 hours)! I was bored at home. Richard came to visit for a few days though.

We're off tomorrow to start our Christmases!

Columbus -> Athens -> Fulton -> back home! It will be another whirlwind trip!

Pomp and Circumstance

Only missing Amanda! We did it!

The ceremony was only an hour and a half, so it was not bad at all! And now I am a graduate!


Also this week:
Rob and Laura's wedding. I forgot my memory card, so I don't have pictures. :( Even though it stormed and poured rain, it was still beautiful.

I got 2 phone calls for interviews! One is in Atlanta. I applied for the job Thursday morning, and they called me Thursday afternoon! My phone interview is Tuesday. The other is for Harnett County Schools in North Carolina. They are supposed to call to setup the interview early this week! They just found my resume online and called me. We would be happy to move to either place, so pray that if one of these places is for us, God will show us! I just pray that this is God opening doors for us.

We are excited Christmas is coming up! Hopefully we can decide mid-week what our actual plans are!

Let It Snow!

I finished my last week of student teaching!!! Graduation in 5 days!!!!

John's interview didn't go as well as we thought it would, so now we are just praying God will show us what to do soon!

The important thing about this week was....


Snow at the Christmas parade!!!!

That's all for this week. Next week should be more exciting :)

From Dixon With Love

It was SO nice not to have school this week. Monday, John had the day off, so we went to the mall to buy a wedding gift and got new brake pads for my car. What a day! Haha. Tuesday, I spent the morning working on school work. I only had 4 assignments left. I finished 3! While John was at work Wednesday, I finished up! Now I only have to show up Monday-Friday this week, go to a meeting next week, and GRADUATE!!! (12 days!)

When J got off work Wednesday, we headed north. I drove because he was talking on the phone to a contact at the company he is interviewing with. Hopefully she gave him enough information to do well in his phone interview Tuesday. We had Thanksgivings with J's family, then headed to Tupelo. Thursday we had Thanksgiving with my family, then headed back to Ridgeland. J worked Friday and Saturday. He did get off work in time to see THE BULLDOGS BEAT THE TEAM UP NORTH!!!! Seriously, an awesome day. I changed our table to look more Christmas-y. Can't wait until Christmas- just not sure where or when it will be!!!


Our Christmas table!


Please keep praying for John's interview! I know we haven't stopped! :)

Another week

So I forgot to mention that on Nov. 10, we went to Whataburger. If you wore bright orange, you got a free burger! (We also got milkshakes... kids' size, of course.)

***Now back to our regularly scheduled program***

Monday night I cooked a roast and we went to Coldstone (and yes, I had a coupon!)

Tuesday night I made meatloaf from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. John was not sure he would like it... but it's wrapped in bacon. Who can say no to something wrapped in bacon?

It was delicious!!

Wednesday, we decorated for Christmas. It is a little early, but it was fun! We don't have many decorations, but here is our (little) tree!


Thursday night we went to a young couples Bible study. It is just starting, but we really like it.

Friday, I got home early. The students left at 1:35.. and so did I! I only have one more week of teaching left!!

Saturday, we enjoyed doing nothing. I did make a run to target (see coupon blog.)

Today, there was a soup fellowship meal after church. Thankfully, someone had made broccoli and cheese soup. Yummmm! After my usual nap, J and I made sausage balls. He couldn't remember if he liked them (um, seriously?!?!).

He was the roller.

All done!

I gave J one right out of the oven, and his reply was, "I want more." Oh, we were meant to be.

J has the day off tomorrow, so we are going to get my car new brake pads and go to a few stores to compare Coke product pricing, etc to get ready for J's upcoming phone interview. It is next (Dec. 1) Tuesday at 1. Please be praying for this!

Wednesday after J gets off work, we'll head to Columbus for dinner, then onto Tupelo. Thursday afternoon, we will head back home. I am hoping to finish all my assignments this week since I don't have school. I only have three left to do! I am 19 days away from graduation!!!

Ahem...

Black Jerseys!

Us at the game

We saw this truck on the way to Columbus from Atlanta.

Still no camera...

I really should look for my camera.. maybe another day.

I had a preliminary interview with a school in South Carolina today. I am not really that interested in it, but if that's all we get, we'll take it.

This big news is that John did well on his test Friday. He got an email today saying he did very well. He is working on setting up an official interview for Dec. 1. It will be a phone interview, and apparently just a preliminary interview. We thought we had already made it past this step! (We figure it's because they want to make sure he's a good candidate before they ask him to drive to ATL again.) We just keep praying this is the job for him!

It has been chilly here today. I am hoping it warms up soon!

Whirlwind week(end)!

I apologize in advance for no pictures. I cannot find the camera at the moment.

-Graduation in 26 days!!! (10 teaching days left!)

-Wednesday, John sent an email to the HR person he had an interview with about taking that assessment. He made up a story about how he would be close to Atlanta and Nashville Friday, so we could take the test. Thursday he got an email confirming the time for him to take the test in Alpharetta, Ga (outside ATL.) I rushed to get us a hotel room, left school early, and we headed to ATL! He took the test Friday morning while I hung out at a bookstore. He feels like he did really well, and he should hear from them sometime this week. The next step will be an official interview. Please pray this is the job for him!!

-I finally found a number for a job I was applying for in ATL and called them Friday. While all my information is not in yet, they seemed eager for me to get it all in to move the process along. We are praying this is God working everything out for us!

-After lunch Friday, we headed to Columbus for the weekend. We went to the game Saturday (and I must say we HATE Alabama fans), then back to Jackson today. We are pretty tired of traveling!

-I finished up my two full weeks of teaching at MSD. I still have 10 days left to teach, but I don't have to teach all day. I have most of my other work done, but still have a few things left to do. I plan on working on that next week while I don't have school.

Think that's all for this week... When I find my camera, I will post pictures!

What's better than apple pie? flat apple pie!

-Sophie got us a cookbook as a wedding present. It arrived this week (it just came out.) It is pretty amazing. I can't wait to try out some recipes. We did made Flat Apple Pie using the cookbook. We made 2 Friday. We have half a pie left... it's that good.


-John's phone interview went well. He made it to the next stage: the test. We aren't sure when that will be though. He will have to go to Atlanta or Nashville to take it. Hopefully we will know something soon! So keep praying!! I have found a couple of jobs to apply for in the area, so hopefully we can have work!

-I went on a field trip Wednesday to Greenville. We went to the Native American Days at the mounds there. It was interesting. The students got to play stickball, which they liked. One girl also peed in her pants. On the bus. Yeah....

-I taught all classes this week. It was very tiring, but only one more week of that. Graduation is in 33 days! Woo hoo. (which means I'll be unemployed in 33 days.. what?)

-We also had our first paycheck in 4 months this week. Very exciting. It's not much, but it sure helps! It will pay for all our groceries this month anyway! And we will get another paycheck Friday.. wow. Sounds so great!

-We're hoping to go to the Alabama game this weekend. John might have to be at work Sunday morning though, so we'll see. He won't find out until next Friday what his schedule for the week of Thanksgiving is though, so our plans are still up in the air.

Quick Update!

Say a little prayer for John's phone interview. It's tomorrow at 3!

--Postponed until Wednesday afternoon.

Falling Back!

Ok, ok, you knew I was going to say it... I graduate next month!!! Woo!

This past week John worked 4 days. He had an interview with Frito Lay on Tuesday. He also got an email from a company he has been applying to for months saying they wanted a phone interview. So hopefully that will be sometime this week. Say a prayer for him, because he really wants this job! (But he would take the Frito Lay job if he had to :)) This week, he is working Monday-Thursday and Saturday. We aren't sure of his Thanksgiving schedule, but we are hoping we can make the rounds.

I finally had my phone interview on Friday. It was supposed to be last week, but they called late and canceled. This week, they called 45 minutes late. That sure does make them look good. We're not really interested in moving there anyway.

This week we decided to make a pumpkin pie (pie crusts and pumpkin were on sale, of course.) I also made a quiche. We did discover that we don't really have an appropriate pie pan, so our pie is a deep dish. :) Still tastes good though!



And our quiche is a little on the thin side because of the dish, but it was still good, even if the crust to quiche ratio needed to be changed.



We also went to a Halloween party on Friday night. We went under the impression we were going to UMC's party, but we didn't make it there. We ended up going to a house party, so we didn't really have much fun and left pretty early. But it was fun dressing up. And there was some good food!

Me and Courtney:


Ernie and Ernie:


Me and John:


Chris and Courtney:


The Prom Queen, The Doll, Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, Beth, The Jester, and both Ernies!


Saturday, we went to Dustin and Allison's to watch the game and eat. Frank and Tiffani came and brought Murphy. This is Murphy (white dog) meeting Sampson(basset hound who is afraid of chihuahuas). They were quick friends.



We ate chili, watched the dawgs win, and handed out candy to trick or treaters. There was also pumpkin coffee. And cupcakes. It was a good time! We are planning on having a Thanksgiving get together where we dress like Pilgrims. A tacky Christmas sweater party is also in the future. It's nice to have friends here.

I also discovered that one of my students (who just transferred to MSD) goes to our church. She doesn't know sign yet, but is learning. It's nice to know a little more about her so maybe I can teach her better.

I might have also started decorating for Christmas.......

Happy Halloween!

What a week!

This has been an awesome week!

Let's start with Monday:


Monday we went to the fair since it was $2 day! Since it had been raining so much, the fair was extended to Monday. They were running a special: $2 parking, $2 entrance, $2 corndogs. Kate Kate just happened to send us some money that we got on Monday, so we went. We ended up parking in the public library parking lot (even though the guard told us not to), so we didn't pay the parking fee. We each got a foot long corn dog and we shared an apple funnel cake (seen above) and a sweet tea. We tried to win a goldfish, but it wasn't our day. We mainly just walked around and people watched. It was so fun!

Tuesday

John got a call for a seasonal job at Barnes and Noble. It was just an interview, but it went well. I got an email from a lady in McAllen, TX wanting to set up an interview with me for a job there. Things were looking up!

Wednesday


I had signed up for a free $15 box of Edible Arrangements through a promotion. This is what we got! SO good!


Thursday

We did a little Christmas shopping.

Friday
John got a call about the seasonal job! Yay! My interview was postponed to next week, but I did speak with a lady in TX for a few minutes. We drove to Columbus for the weekend.

Saturday
Was game day!


Even though we didn't win, I can say that Florida and Tebow are so overrated! Go STATE! The game was awesome. The atmosphere was insane. What a great day!


Sunday
We headed back home early because John had orientation for his job. After 2.5 hours of orienting, he came home and we carved our pumpkin.

Cutting into the pumpkin:


J cleaning out the pumpkin:


Me carving the eyes:


The final product:


Overall, it has been a great week. I have 5 weeks left of student teaching. It has been challenging, but I really like it. I am learning more and more everyday.

John has an interview for a real job on Tuesday with Frito Lay. As happy as we are that we will have some income, a real job would be great!

And here's a pumpkin or two for you!

Fall is here!

It almost seemed to skip fall and jump to winter. It has been pretty chilly! The wind has not helped anything. But in typical Mississippi fashion, it will be mid-70s again this week. :)

It has been a long week. My placement as MSD was finally decided Wednesday morning, but not after I spent a day in kindergarten. I was so glad to have high school back. It was a hard week since it felt like I was walking into another world. Language wise it was completely overwhelming, but I'll make it though and come out a better signer. I start teaching two classes tomorrow, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Thankfully, the students in those two classes are nice and are patient with me. I am not looking forward to teaching the middle school girls. Can you say HORMONAL? It is bad! I do enjoy Fridays though because the students leave at 1:30 :) I have to stay until at least 3 though, but I get lots of work done!

I have also started applying for jobs. It is zero fun. Most places do not accept a resume, so I have to type the same information over and over and over. Hopefully, a job will come out of it though. And a job in a place where John can work, too.

Richard came down this weekend. We went to Krispy Kreme! We also went to the Jackson Street Fall Festival in Ridgeland. It was very disappointing. Not much activity. Richard also introduced us to Farm Town on Facebook. We were both anti-applications on Facebook- until Friday. We are both addicted now. In 48 hours, we have both reached level 24 of 34.

Yesterday, I made Chicken Taco Pasta. I had found it as a healthy recipe using ground beef, but we had chicken thawed, so that's what we used. It was so good! Just pasta, chicken with taco seasoning, salsa, sour cream, and corn. Yummy!

Next weekend is the Florida-State game in Starkville, so we will probably head that way Friday.

Well, I need to go plow so I can move up another level in Farm Town!

Whew!

Another long, busy week!

I started MSD on Thursday. I haven't got my official placement yet because they are trying to move me from kindergarten to jr high/high school! I spent Thursday touring the campus and observing the history teacher. Since 9 wks test had just finished and the volleyball team was in SC, we just watched movies, so it wasn't too hard! Friday, I observed 2 teachers (mother and daughter). But again, the volleyball team was gone, so we just sat around most of the day.

Saturday, I woke up and finally felt better! We had bacon, eggs, and pancakes (leftover from last time we cooked them) while we watched The Bridge of Madison County. It was pretty good. We went to Wing Stop last night to watch some of the LSU/Florida game with Chris and Courtney and some other people. We didn't stay long, though.

The weather has been so cool here! It's been nice to keep the windows open. It's finally fall (well, until Tuesday.)

John went to play football with some people in Brandon. I have just been trying to do some homework so I don't have as much to do at the end. We also went to Rite Aid today. The cashier was not very nice though and one of my coupons didn't work. Ugh. Probably won't do much more shopping there.

Next weekend, Richard is coming down. Ridgeland has a Fall Festival we might go to. The Viking Cooking School is supposed to be putting on demonstrations, so I really want to go!

And... the kitties have been coming around some, except they are no longer kitties.

Long, Busy Weekend!

On Thursday after my last day at MMS, we headed to KY. Friday the boys played a little golf while momma and I (mainly her) worked on the cakes. I did manage to squeeze in a little Christmas shopping, too. Friday night we went to the rehearsal; it was so pretty with the moon out! Saturday, we went to Applebee's for a pancake breakfast, picked up the flower arrangements, and got a few other things. Caitlin also managed to lock her keys in her car... but anyway. We got to Kenlake about 2:35 and started getting ready. We had to finish the cakes and get everything ready for the guests to arrive. It was pretty crazy, but we had a good time!

Sunday, I came down with something and still have not been feeling a lot better. Monday, I had to be in Hattiesburg for meetings about student teaching. I managed to go to the clinic where the nice doctor and nurse stayed late to see me. I got some medicine, and am hoping I feel better soon.

I start student teaching at MSD on Thursday. Right now, I am placed in kindergarten, but I may get changed to high school science... either will be a challenge in different ways.

At the meeting, they talked a lot about how to apply for our teaching license and finding a job. I have a lot of work to do!

66 days until graduation - That's 2 months and a week.. wow! It's coming soon!!

Here is the bride's cake my talented mom made (well, I did put the cake topper in ;))


And here are the THREE groom's cakes: