Saying "bye" to 2009!

This has definitely been one of the roughest years of my life, but it has also been one of the best years.

I worked so very hard the past two years of college. I was on the Dean's list and the President's list all semesters. My life consisted of going to school, going home, working on school stuff, and going to bed. All of that studying and working paid off this past May when I graduated from LCU. I made the most of my student teaching assignments. I was at a GREAT school, with great teachers, and I was very blessed by everything that happened those 12 weeks at Cooper-West.

Summer came, and I was introduced to a guy that turned out to be the love of my life. The past 6 months have been the best of my life with Ben. I cannot wait until June 26th when I can actually call him my husband.

I worked hard, graduated, met my future husband, landed my first "real" job, lost my Gram, and now I'm planning a wedding.

The thing that hit me hardest this year was losing Gram. She was such an awesome lady, and losing someone unexpectedly is so hard. I think about her often, and I think about what she is doing in Heaven. She reminds me that life is short, and we have no guarantee of when we will go. One of my goals for this next year is to love people more. She inspired this goal because she loved anyone and everyone.

I honestly can't belive 2009 is over, but I am so ready for 2010! Bring it on!

Going to the chapel...

This is going to be a SUPER quick post! But, I wanted to share the news with everyone!! Ben and I are engaged! He proposed yesterday out in the snow...which was perfect! I will blog later about the whole proposal, but I don't have time to right now! The whole proposal process took over an hour...so I will give more details later! We are so excited, and are planning on getting married June 26th! So, be ready to read all about the wedding planning in the next few months...

Crazy Week

This past week was crazy! The last week of school was good, but a little chaotic. The kids were so hyped up! It was definitely time for a break! We went on a field trip to the movies on Tuesday, had The Polar Express day on Wednesday, and had our class party on Friday. I wasn't able to go to the party because Ben and I left Friday afternoon for San Angelo to go to his sister's wedding.

We had a blast at his sister's wedding! Everything went perfect! The wedding was great, the cake was great, the decor was great, and the couple looked great! I got to meet a lot of Ben's mom's side of the family, which was awesome. I took my camera to the wedding, but it was dead when I tried to turn it on. So, I am borrowing this snapshot of Ben and me from his Dad. This was taken right after the reception was over.

We came back to Snyder on Sunday afternoon. Before we left San Angelo, we went by a house to look at two dogs. Their owner passed away from Cancer earlier this month, and they needed a good place to live. Ben and I had talked about getting dogs before, but we found these girls and thought they might be for us. We brought them home with us Sunday evening, and they have been absolutely PERFECT!! They are labs that are 5 years old, and they are sisters! So..meet Choca (chocolate one) and Sophie (black one).

Fun Times

This month has already been full of so many fun times!

This week and next week, we are doing Christmas themed activities at school. I decided to turn this little nook in the corner of our room (that usually acts as our "home center") into a living room/library. I used some mini furniture that was already in our room, and I put up a class Christmas tree, and I made a "fireplace" for the kids to read by. This is how it all turned out. They LOVE to sit by the "fire" and read their books to each other! :)

I have also had the priviledge to lead an 8th grade girls bible study, or 180 group, this year. We meet at a "host home" and have dinner and do a bible study lesson. I lead this group with my friend Sarah, and I know that we both have laughed so hard every Wednesday night, and we have had so much fun getting to know these girls. We get to go watch them play their sports, listen to their band/choir concerts, and just hang out and talk about boys! I am so thankful that I get to hangout with these girls every week. They are all so unique and interesting. It is so fun to watch them all grow in their relationships with Christ.

We had our 180 Christmas party last night. We had dinner and then everyone brought a gift so we could do a fun exchange. A lot of my girls think that my brother, who is a sophomore in high school, is just too cute, so I thought it would be interesting to put a picture of my brother with my gift to see what would happen. The girls went crazy when they saw it! Here are some fun pictures from last night...

Kelsi loved the picture of Hunter that was attached to my gift!

Here she is pleading with someone not to "steal" her awesome gift....and her picture of my brother!

I am already excited about blogging next week! Next week is going to be CRAZY fun....class field trip to the movies, Polar Express day, Christmas parties, and Ben's sister is getting married next weekend. Many more pictures to come...

Stone Soup

This post is a little behind, but last Tuesday, we made our own version of Stone Soup. We read the book, and made a list of things we wanted to put in it. On Tuesday morning, we put all of our ingredients into my crockpot, and by lunch, we were able to have a big feast in our classroom. I also made us some grilled cheese sandwiches! We made some glittery feather headbands--a newer version of the Native American headbands they wore at the first Thanksgiving! :) We had so much fun. Here is one of the sweetest pictures of my kids. This was right before we ate our meal together, and we were praying to bless our food.