Painting and Shopping

The semester is winding down for grad school, so I have been busy with all the final projects. I am done with half of them, so that is a relief!

The trees have been beautiful here the past couple of weeks. Now, the leaves are on the ground. It is beginning to get cold, which can only mean one thing! Christmas is coming!

We spent yesterday shopping for Christmas stuff. (We also ended up with a cute Halloween decoration marked down!) We now only have 3 people to shop for (we had no luck finding something for 1 person... even after going to 5 stores!) So we are close to being done with others. So far we have no idea what to get each other though, There is still time, but after going shopping yesterday, neither of us has any desire to set foot in a mall again. We ended the night eat in Cameron Village and an early bedtime. You see, since we were both off work yesterday, we decided to go see J. Edgar at 12:01. We didn't get home until after 3 am. I still need some catch up sleep, and I slept 10 hours last night!

Today, we painted the laundry room. It is about time because the paint for the laundry was actually the first gallon we bought!!! Now our house is all painted! (Except closets, but we are so not going there. Khaki is just fine for closets!) We have out Young Marrieds' Thanksgiving tonight. I made sweet potatoes for the first time. Hope they are good! I also made a pumpkin cheesecake, but I know that will be good!

December 7 I will officially be done with this semester. Cannot wait! Next semester I am taking 2 classes on Monday nights. So I will be in class from 4-10. Going to be a long semester. At least they are both considered distance education, so my tuition was lower than this semester!

Laundry when we moved in

Laundry Today :)

Finally!

We finally have painters in the house!  This is pretty much the last day that we could have painters come, so I am glad they are here. After today, the laundry room will be the only one left to paint, and we are waiting to decide on cabinets before we do anything in there.

I passed my class with a B+. I had a 89.5, which apparently does not round up to 90. :( Oh well, it was a really rough class for me, and I struggled a lot. So I am just glad it is finished so I can continue forward. 8 more classes to go!

J's family is on the way here, so we will have a busy, fun weekend! Tuesday I have orientation at NCSU, then Wednesday it is back to work and my classes start. My summer is winding down fast. I will sure miss it!

We got Netflix (streaming) about a week and a half ago so we can watch Friday Night Lights. I have also enjoyed watching movies during the day. We are in the middle of season 2 of FNL. Seriously, one of the best shows ever. I really hope they make a movie!

We had a nice weekend trip to Virginia, which I will cover in another post. It was nice to get away, just the two of us.  It has been a crazy, busy summer- Caitlin and Brian's visit, a trip to MS, my parents' visit, a quick trip to KY and TX for a wedding, and now J's family visit. And 2 grad school classes. Next summer I shouldn't have to take any classes, and I am hoping for a real (more than 3 day) vacation with J!

First Day of Summer

We have been super busy lately!

In the house we have:

Installed the ceiling fan in our room. This took us a lot longer than planned! Since we don't have a ladder, we stood on a stool on the bed. We are still a little too short to put the canopy on, but we are hoping to try again when we aren't tired of trying!It is controlled by a remote, and the first one didn't work. Thankfully since we ordered 2 fans, we used the remote from the other one and it worked. Now we have to take the other one back, then we can put the other one up in the living room.

Painted the entryway (don't forget you can click a picture to see it better... I need to work on the opaqueness of the blog!)

before

after

I am hoping to get some pictures put up this week so it doesn't look so bare.

Painted the dining room

before

after

I am in LOVE with the color of the dining room! I can't wait to get everything else painted.

In other news...

J had a birthday! We celebrated Friday night with steak, baked potatoes, and cake (yellow with chocolate icing.) Saturday, J got up early and played golf with some friends, then we made ice cream with his new ice cream maker. It was delish!!! I think homemade ice cream might become a staple in our house!

Happy Birthday, J!

I have been busy working on my online class. In fact, this morning I have been working on a project that is due tomorrow (don't worry, it's almost complete.) I have 3 more forum discussions and 1 more project until I am finished with my first grad school class. My next one starts July 3, I believe. I am so glad I didn't take two at once. I would have been so overwhelmed especially at the end of the school year. I don't even want to think about taking two classes and working in the fall.

Today is my first day of summer, and I have a list of things I need to get done. Not all today though. Since we are having people visit us soon, we would like to get the house a little more put together. Caitlin and Brian will be here next week, so I need to get busy! I also need to get a library card here in our new town because I have been driving back to Lillington to get books. (I still need to take one back!)

My check engine light came on yesterday, so I need to take it to the shop... thankfully, it didn't come on during the school year!

We have had a few spiders (google wolf spiders to see what we have been dealing with- I can't look at them!) We had the bug man come and so far, we have seen fewer spiders. Hopefully we won't see any anymore!

Our neighborhood is coming along. There are 6 houses under construction right now. 2 are almost complete and are sold. 4 more were just started. None of them are next to us yet, and I hope it stays that way for a while! At least until school starts back. I want to be able to sleep in!

That is all I can think of for now... hopefully I can blog more regularly during the summer.

Spring is Here!

The past week has been amazing weather wise. Not too hot- not too cold. I could get used to this! Sadly, I know it will be short lived, and we will be in the 90s before we know it!

Not too much has been going on. We have been super busy between work, church activities, and school.

I am going to end up taking 2 summer classes. One starts on May 23 and goes through June 28. The next one starts July 3 and ends August 3. Both are online, so hopefully they won't be too bad. Time will tell!

J has been enjoying playing golf with friends. Last Saturday he went with 3 other guys from church. He hasn't played in a while, so his game is a little rough, but I know he will be doing well in no time! He sure swings his golf club around the house enough. (Now that we have high ceilings, he can actually swing in the house. Although he is not allowed to hit the carpet! He also has a putting green inside, too.)

I have 4.5 more weeks of teaching left before summer! I cannot wait! I plan on spending my summer doing school work, reading, swimming at a friend's house, and working on the house. Oh, and relaxing!

This weekend we are headed to the zipline for our anniversary. Then we are gonna do dinner and a movie. Dinner where? Not sure. What movie? No clue. But it will be fun! Then the next weekend is the beach and the next South Carolina. Whew!

Happy Belated Anniversary, NC!

During the somewhat of a blogging break, we hit our one year anniversary here in North Carolina. I haven't lived in the same place for that long since I was in high school! We can hardly believe we have been here a year.

I have officially applied for graduate school. My application is complete. Now I must wait! It is kind of nerve racking!

I have been pretty busy at work lately. February and March are when the majority of my IEP meetings are, so I have been working hard to get all the paperwork ready.

J has been super busy at work. If you are a member and qualify, they will do your taxes for free. So needless to say, J has been doing lots of taxes at work! Apparently, other branches call their branch the H&R Block. They have done the 3rd most in the state! We still need to file ours... but at the end of the day, J is tired of doing taxes! :)

Last Monday, Redbox had a code for a free rental (and they will again tomorrow!), so we got Dinner with Schmucks. While it made me want to beat up a character in the movie, it was pretty good. I don't think I would care to watch it again though. We plan on getting one tomorrow night, too.

Yesterday, we went to Raleigh to hang out with Anna and Danny. We ate at her apartment, then went to Umstead to walk around. We walked to the airport overlook, which is more like an on-look with trees blocking the view. It was nice to talk and get some fresh air, even if it was still a little chilly! After our walk/hike, we went to Fresh Berry. Amazing. They have 8 or 10 different flavors of frozen yogurt and a million toppings. You get whatever you want, then pay by ounce. Yesterday, we went a little overboard and spent almost $10! Here is a sample of the topping choices: Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, white chocolate chips, sprinkles, strawberries, raspberries, mango, and kiwi.

Here is my strawberry, raspberry, and tart frozen yogurt topped with kiwi, mango, strawberry, sprinkles, cinnamon toast crunch, and whipped cream. Oh, yeah!



If I get into grad school, I can see running over there for some frozen yogurt. (It is across the street from campus.)

We have also caught ourselves up on our daily Bible reading. We have been doing the one year plan together and keep getting a few days behind, then catching up all at once. Hopefully this week, we can do it DAILY so we don't have to keep reading 4 days at a time!


This week-

-I have 4 meetings this week, so I will stay pretty busy.
-We are hoping for some good news!
-I should get my complete GRE scores.. kinda scary since State already has them!


I will try to do better about updating :)

Christmas Break is Here!

Christmas break!! yay! I am very glad to be off for (almost) 2 weeks! One perk of being a teacher! :)

This past week was a bit crazy! I had a workshop in Raleigh on Monday. It was nothing special. A waste of time really, but it was something besides real work, so that was nice! Tuesday was Natalie's birthday, so I made cupcakes, and Charray and I headed to Fayetteville to celebrate with her. We picked up Marci, and ate at an Italian place before heading to Nat's apartment for cupcakes and presents.

Thursday we didn't have school! It snowed early in the morning, then turned to freezing rain. Wednesday night, they announced a two hour delay. Then Thursday morning at 7 they canceled school! J was supposed to go to Raleigh to take 2 more insurance tests. He left at 6:45, but got stuck here in town for 1.5 hours because of a wreck. He couldn't even turn around and come home. He just went to straight to work, and will reschedule the tests. Hopefully for some time next week. We also has J's office Christmas party. It was at a B&B in Dunn. It was fun fun, but short. The spinach artichoke dip was SO good!

Friday, we rented a Redbox and had some chili.

Saturday, we were about to go running outside, when it started sleeting! So we changed plans and went to the gym. Afterwards, we went to Food Lion and got stuff to a make white chocolate covered pretzels. Yummy!

Yesterday, we made it up to Cary for class again. It is pretty good. We are thinking about placing membership soon. Just wished we lived a little closer so we could be more involved.

Today, I taught the 7:45 class, then met with Natalie. Now I am just going to read until J comes home. We have finished all our shopping (our last gift should arrive tomorrow), so I am going to enjoy doing nothing. :)

We are leaving Thursday night for Mississippi and will get back sometime Monday... will be a quick trip!


Also, I have decided to get my master's in Curriculum & Instruction: New Literacies and Global Learning with a focus in K-12 Reading. I am taking the GRE on Jan 29 and hope to start at NCSU in June! I am planning on going part time (2 classes), so I will still work. If all goes according to plan, I will graduate in May '13!