Wednesday, December 29, 2010

What I loved about this year

Since this is the last Wednesday of 2010 instead of doing what I love about the week I'm going to do what I loved about this year. Honestly, this year was a rough year for me. I had some major heartbreaks but I got through them.  So what was awesome about 2010?

Block 2 with some awesome girls!  I don't think I could have gotten through Spring semester without these girls.

-Goo Goo Dolls Concert with Felicia! It was an awesome concert at Myrtle Beach.
- Tyro Extreme Missions Project.  Getting the opportunity to help remodel a house was so rewarding.
-Family beach vacation.  We didn't get to go last year so it was nice to be able to go again with all the family and friends we usually go with.
-App Football Games.  I had so much fun at the football games this year. It is going to be sad next year when I can't get student tickets anymore.


and finally....graduation!



Tuesday, December 28, 2010

I 'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

and I got one! This year was my first white Christmas.  It was actually my whole families first white Christmas as well.  The last time there was accumulating snow on Christmas was in the 1940's.  I was super excited about the snow. It's amazing how much I miss seeing snow since living in Boone.  We got about 5 or 6 inches by Sunday afternoon. Christmas evening was when the snow really started falling hard.  After a good supper at Grandma's we went home and watched Christmas movies.  My favorite Christmas movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas,  was on TV.  It was the perfect ending to a great white Christmas.

On Sunday the roads were covered in snow and ice so we didn't make it to church.  I went over to my cousin's house and we played her new Wii.  I really like the Wii and if I thought I'd have more time to play one then I'd probably get one myself. But I am hoping that I will soon have a full time teaching job where I won't have time to play games.  Me and Felicia also went sledding in my field and made a huge snowman.  The good thing about snow in Lexington is that you can normally play in it without freezing to death.  In Boone the wind chill factor would make it way to cold to want to play in.



For Christmas I got a new digital camera so I probably will start posting even more pictures while I'm seeing what all my camera can do.  It's a Canon Powershot SD1400. It has some neat features like red eye correction, video, slideshows and special effects. I also got some clothes, boots and vera bradley things. Our family had a great Christmas. Now to think of my New Year's resolutions....

Thursday, December 23, 2010

What I'm loving....Thursday

I was in Lenoir yesterday so I didn't get to post what I'm loving about Wednesday.  So I will do that today instead.  I went to Lenoir to see my friend Katie on Tuesday and came home this morning.  We had a lot of fun.  We went ice skating, shopping, baked a pound cake and played apples to apples with her family.  I loved ice skating so that is definately the first thing on my what I'm loving list.


We went ice skating at Appalachian Ski  Mountain.  I thought the rink was pretty small compared to the one I went to with my sister several years ago. It was super cold outside but we still had a lot of fun.  I asked a girl there who seemed to know what she was doing to teach me a few things.  She tried to teach me how to ice skate backwards.  I could do it but I looked pretty ridiculous.  I did learn how to spin and skate with one foot in the air though. I can't wait to go again.






The next thing I am loving is sausage dip.  My friend Felicia will make fun of me for that but that's alright.  I have some in the crockpot right now and I can't wait to go dig in.  For anyone who hasn't tried sausage dip let me know and I'll give you the recipe.  It is so good with some Tosito's scoops!


On the subject of food, I'm loving Tyro UMC Bbq!  My church's Methodist Men cook the best bbq.  We are about to eat some here in a little bit.  I can't wait for it either.


Well this was short but we are about to have Christmas with my immediately family.  My sister, Bradley and Carson will come over to eat and open presents.  For me it's like Christmas day so I better go get in there!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

What I'm loving Wednesday

It's Wednesday which means it's time to blog about what I'm loving this week.  Being out of college is making me loose track of days. It's been so nice so far to have a chance to relax.  Everyday I try to find a job opening and apply but right now there aren't too many open positions.  I will probably go back to National this week or next and start subbing until I find a full time job.  But for now, I am having some time to myself.  So now for what else I am loving....

I'm loving flannel pj's.  With these cold temperatures it's nice to get to put on warm and cozy pjs at the end of the day.

 
I'm loving that I'm COMPLETELY done with Christmas shopping!

 
I'm loving that I had an interview for a third grade position on Monday.  Even I don't get the jobs that I am interviewing for it is great practice.  I know God will give me the job that he has in store for me when the time is right.
I'm loving this new show called Chase. It comes on NBC on Wednesdays at 8pm. I highly recommend going to nbc.com and watching it.
 
 


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I just graduated!

It is so hard to believe that I am now an Appalachian graduate.  It feels like I just started at Appalachian and now I have already earned my Bachelors degree!  Graduation weekend was pretty interesting.  We got a hotel at the Broyhill Inn on Saturday night.  It snowed probably 4 inches before graduation that morning.  We watched out the window as they tried to scrape the roads but the snow was coming down so fast they could hardly keep it clear.  We finally got to graduation and dad dropped me off at the door.  It was a good thing because it was freezing.  The ceremony was nice and I'm very glad I attended.  It was great seeing the people who I became close to during my Appalachian journey.   After the ceremony I decided I would walk back to the car which was in Rivers Street Parking deck.  This is a nice walk from the convocation center which was not fun at all when the sidewalk was slippery, I wasn't wearing a coat and it was snowing.  So now that I'm no longer a student I changed my blog title from "Senior Year" to "After Appalachian."  Hopefully soon I'll be able to blog about a new job!



Friday, December 10, 2010

To-Read List

While I was at Target I today I ended up staying on the book aisle a little too long.  I ended up finding several books that I really want to read.  I hope now that I have a little extra time that I can read them all.  So here are the books that I want to read as soon as I get a chance and I added a review of each from amazon.


1.  Room by Emma Donoghue-  In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time. 


2.  Never Let Me Go by .  All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own.


3. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.


4.  Waiting for "SUPERMAN": How We Can Save America's Failing Public School. 
The American public school system is in crisis, failing millions of students, producing as many drop-outs as graduates, and threatening our economic future. By 2020, the United States will have 123 million high-skill jobs to fill—and fewer than 50 million Americans qualified to fill them.
Educators, parents, political leaders, business people, and concerned citizens are determined to save our educational system. Waiting for "Superman" offers powerful insights from some of those at the leading edge of educational innovation, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Michelle Rhee, Geoffrey Canada, and more.
Waiting for "Superman" is an inspiring call for reform and includes special chapters that provide resources, ideas, and hands-on suggestions for improving the schools in your own community as well as throughout the nation. For parents, teachers, and concerned citizens alike, Waiting for "Superman" is an essential guide to the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing America’s schools.


5. Charlie St. Cloud: A Novel by Ben Sherwood.  Not even death can keep two brothers from meeting to play ball: it sounds like a sentimental TV movie, doesn't it? Actually, Sherwood's second novel (after The Man Who Ate the 747) is warmhearted but not maudlin, exploring the bonds between the living and the dead and the lengths to which we'll go for love. A secret jaunt to a Sox game ends in tragedy when Charlie St. Cloud, who isn't old enough for a driver's license, crashes the car he pinched from a neighbor. The hearts of Charlie and his younger brother, Sam, stop, but miraculously, Charlie is resuscitated. Thirteen years later, Charlie is 28 and working as the caretaker for the Marblehead cemetery where Sam is buried; he's also spending every evening playing catch with the ghost of 12-year-old Sam, who's putting off going to heaven for the game. Charlie's world gets shaken up, though, by feisty, beautiful Tess Carroll, a sailor who had plans to be one of the first women to circumnavigate the globe solo. They have a perfect date, and sparks fly. But then news comes that her boat is lost at sea, and Charlie, whose gift of seeing spirits has grown, realizes that her fading apparition is the result of a failing effort to rescue her. Sherwood tugs at readers' heartstrings throughout the novel, and the sentimentality mostly works. Charlie's final effort to save his lady love from ghostly oblivion strains credibility, of course, but isn't that the point of a tale about love triumphant?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

What I'm loving Wednesday

I'm loving how lucky I was to have such an awesome class during student teaching.  Today was my last day with them and it was hard to say goodbye.  They have been a lot of fun and I will miss them.  Not only did I enjoy teaching but I learned a lot from them.  Most importantly they taught me how to have fun while teaching.  I looked forward to teaching them everyday because I knew we would have fun.


I'm loving I saw snow this past weekend.  It wasn't much but it sure was pretty!



I'm loving the time I have to read what I choose to read now.  I really want to finish reading "Eat, Pray, Love" and then finish up "Crazy Love."








I'm loving friends who are always there for me no matter what.


















And finally, I'm loving that I'm going to Boone this weekend to GRADUATE!!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

First Snow

It's so funny that I'm excited to see the snow.  I left Boone saying "I don't care if I never see snow again."  Then I had friends calling me to tell me about the snow up there and it made me miss it.  Dianne called me around lunch today to rub it in how much snow Boone was getting.  Right after I hung the phone up with her it started snowing here!  So here is Sadie walking around in it.  I don't think she is a big fan of the snow.



22 days till Christmas now!  Our church, Tyro UMC,  is having Journey to Bethlehem tonight.  This is something our church started a couple years ago.  It's a live nativity set that displays the real Christmas story.  We have live animals and it all looks like you are really going through Bethlehem.  It's today and tomorrow from 6:30-9 so if you see this before then, go check it out.

I turned in my last assignment yesterday while my 5th graders were at book buddies.  It felt so good to know that I am now free of college work until I decide to go back for my Masters. When they came back from book buddies I had to do a happy dance with them. haha.  My supervisor even graded the assignments last night so I am officially done!  All I have to do now is show up to Tyro Monday-Wednesday of next week. I can't wait till graduation.  It looks like it's going to be snowing that day which I am kinda looking forward to as long as everyone can make it up the mountain alright.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

24 days till Christmas

An angel said to Joseph "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Not only is this a great Christmas verse but it should also take meaning in our everyday lives. The angel said "FEAR NOT" because Jesus came to save us of our sins. So no matter what trials we go through we should have no fear because the lord is always with us.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

25 days of Christmas

I have to admit that I go a little crazy over Christmas and probably not always for the right reasons.  I get caught up in the shopping, the cute Christmas movies and the overall glamor of Christmas. I don't think getting excited about the Christmas season is a bad thing at all but I think it's extremely important to always remember what we are celebrating. So this year my goal is to remember the reason for Christmas each day of December in a special way. God has brought me through so much this year and so for the first day of my 25 days of Christmas I pray in Thanksgiving for all that he has done for me and my family this year.  It's hard for me to see how anyone could live without him in their lives.  For those of you who are reading this and know what I'm talking about you I encourage you to "give this Christmas away....."

What I Love Wednesday

My roommate from App, Kaitlin, does a thing on her blog where on Wednesday's she blogs about the things she is loving that week.  It's kinda of way to get over the hump day blues.  I loved reading hers so much that I've decided to do it myself.  So here is what I'm loving this week:


Today starts DECEMBER, which means that all the best Christmas movies will start coming on T.V like:
 

I am loving that student teaching is wrapping up and I have more free time for simple things like baking cookies!


I am loving that I had a job interview this week and that I'm graduating in 11 days!



 I'm loving dinner parties with my best bud.


I'm loving that's it's finally cold enough to wear cute teacher sweaters.

and finally, I'm loving that App State football playoff's start Saturday!