BUSY has a new meaning

Oh my goodness am I busy these days! I feel like I haven't been on facebook or the blogging world in weeks! I honestly don't think it's going to get any better until this summer rolls around. I am loving my first graders at Teutopolis! I wish I could get a job there. The school district is amazing and all of the kids are just so well behaved I'm amazed at them, truly. If Jared would go for it, I would send my kids there until High School, because we would want them to play sports at Effingham.. but the curriculum at T-town is just amazing. Its my dream to get a job at a school like the one I'm at now! Speaking of jobs... holy cow it's time for me to apply to some already! I had a seminar up at EIU today and they were talking about applying for jobs already. I never thought I would be doing this until the summer, but sure enough when I looked online the applications are due in February for most of the positions! I found 2 or 3 positions that are within 45 minutes of Effingham. So, I'm very excited about that! I am going to be busy trying to get all of my paperwork lined up and sent out within the next 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

Noah is one!

Saturday we celebrated Noah's first birthday party! I can't believe a year has gone by since he was born! It literally seems like a week ago we were at the hospital patiently waiting his arrival! It has been a great first year and his aunt Randi and uncle Jared have loved spending time with him! For his birthday I decided to get him practical things since he has every toy and piece of clothing imaginable! So, we got him juice, yogurt melts, his special baby shampoo (which I didn't realize was $5 !!) some bubble bath for sensitive skin, some cute new paci's, and a C.D. of baby songs (mom will love this, haha). Here are some pictures from the little guy's big day! Jen is just too creative! His party was adorable!

She made all the cupcakes... 4 different flavors

Picky little Noah wouldn't touch his cake... no surpirse here!

Loved the theme!!

Always has his tongue out!

Student teaching has begun!

Is it really that time of my life already!? It seems like just yesterday I was starting classes at Eastern! Just 3 semesters later and I'm already student teaching! I'm enjoying it so far, although it's only been 2 days into it. I am really glad I'm in T-Town. I think they have a really good school district and all of the staff is so welcoming! The first graders in my room are so sweet! They are going to be a good bunch of kids. I'm ready for the challenge of this semester! Only 15 and a half weeks till I'm done :) Yes, I have a countdown already. I even wrote it in my big lesson planner for each week. If there is only 15 and a half weeks of student teaching then that means there are only 18 weeks till the wedding! WOW! I remember when it was like 60 or 70 some weeks! Anyway, I want to bring my camera into the classroom and take some picture of the classroom set up. My teacher has been known for being an outstanding teacher and I can already see that after two days! Her room looks amazing, hardly any wall space is showing at all! You know you're a good teacher when the teacher says it's time to pack up and go home and the kids say AWW!! No! :) I am looking forward to this experience. We shall see if I have any time to blog about it, ha ha!

10 Christmas's

Wow, I've been such a slacker with my blog lately! Christmas came and went. I can't believe how fast everything went! We were very blessed at Christmas this year! I think we totalled up how many Christmas's we went to and it was 10 all together. That is a lot of family and a lot of gifts! We had a great time at all of them! We both got very nice gifts this year! I can't even begin to name all of the stuff we got! I am really glad that we finally got our recliner though :) It looks really nice in our living room, and kind of completes it. It was so fun to be around Noah this year at Christmas. I know that it will get more and more fun as he gets older. This year he was just starting to rip at the paper. I'm sure next year he will be tearing into all of his gifts! We had quite the adventure taking him down to Georgia this year. Mom rented an RV and we all piled in and headed down to see mom's family. We had a very good time down there visiting people we don't ever get to see! I am glad the holiday craziness is over, however. It feels nice to get into a routine and I love having my house back to normal. The Christmas tree was just taking up too much room!
Here are a few pictures from just 3 of our Christmas's. I forgot my camera at some of the earlier ones and then I realized it was dead when I did bring it! So, I didn't get any of Jared's family Christmas's.. just a few of mine.

Here is Noah having fun with one of his gifts from Aunt Randi... a popper!

Here is a pic. of dad reading the Christmas story before opening presents... a Christmas tradition.

Family playing games at Donsbach's on Christmas day.

Poor baby was sleepin till we put him in his carseat. This is in the RV ready to head to Georgia!

All the girls in the family (Georgia- Weason side of the family)

Noah watching everyone open presents in Georgia

Moving Home

Well, I did it! I finished the semester and moved everything home! Well, not everything, but mostly! I left all of my kitchen stuff (microwave, tupperwear, pots and pans... etc.) the T.V. and desk up at my apartment because I know I won't need those things so I want to leave them for the girls to keep using next semester. I got really lucky with my finals all being on Monday! That gives me a little extra time off before I go student teach.

After I loaded my car up, I parked it at the Mattoon exit and rode with Emily and Allison to Champaign for a little Christmas shopping. We had a lot of fun and got a ton of shopping done in a short amount of time. We left Champaign about 2:15 thinking we'd get back around 3:30... well we were way off on that timing. We found out there was a semi-accident and there was a dangerous chemical spill. So, when we were about 3 miles from Arcola we got completely stopped on the interstate and we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours before we got moving again. We did have quite an intertaining ride though! We saw this semi up ahead waving for everyone he passed to roll their windows down. Of course, no one would do it. So, after awhile he made a sign and stuck that out the window. We were really anxious to get up and see what the sign said, it said "Road Closed Ahead." When he showed us the sign we all started busting up laughing.. because we knew the road was closed! Then, a lot of cars got tired of waiting and decided to drive on the shoulder, meanwhile passing everyone who is just sitting there! So, the SUV in front of us got ticked and pulled in the shoulder and half in our lane so that no one else could pass. It was pretty funny as well. Later, I dared Allison to do a chinese fire drill around our car. For 2 bucks she said she'd do it. So she did, and then I handed back the 2 dollars, ha ha. Well, the van behind us had 2 younger guys in it and one of the guys did a chinese fire drill around our car! It was sooo funny. We were laughin so hard, and when we looked back at them, he showed us that he got a dollar for it, haha. Well that was almost the end of our adventures. We finally got off the exit in Arcola and then we had to wait for about half an hour there before we could get back on the high way. While waiting, we heard a honk behind us and when we turned around it was our semi friend again. This time he was dressed up as Santa! Wow, the stories from this trip won't be forgotten!
Needless to say, we finally made it home at 5:45. That was a long trip!

My last semester of college classes!

I can't believe this semester is a week short of being over with! It seems like this semester just flew by! It was a very stressful one, but I actually feel like I managed my stress very well this semester. Instead of letting all my projects get to me, I spaced them out. I made a list of everything I knew of that was due and put them in order of what was due first. This really helped me focus on one thing at a time! I ended up doing really well in all my classes. I overloaded myself in order to be able to student teach in the spring. Normally, a full time student is considered one who is taking between 12 - 18 credit hours, and I took 20 this semester. It was challenging, but I'm so glad to have it over with! I am expecting to get A's in all of my classes, except one that I'm just not sure of. I got a B on the mid-term and that was the only grade except for a big project I just turned in and won't know my grade until after finals are posted. I'm pretty proud of myself though! I had some pretty rough classes and a pretty rough semester! From this semester alone I have a total of 10 binders! Those are from classes and projects that I've done... that's a lot!
I'm really excited that I'll be student teaching in the Spring. I just hope it's not more work than this semester. I really really really need to get going on wedding planning! My next thing on the list to get done is get address of all our guests... so I'm just hoping I have time to get this wedding planned in the midst of working and teaching too!
Oh well, I'm sure it'll be a challenge, but I'm ready to be done! 5 months from today and I'll be an Eastern graduate! It'll be well worth it in the end!

Christmas is near!!!

Christmas time is coming up! I'm so excited! We have most of our gifts bought, just a few more to buy! I'm loving the Christmas season so far! The main reason is for pretty decorations and lots of business at work :) I love when we are busy and I can make some extra money waitressing! We're going to be very busy this holiday season! Lots of family to go see and spend time with, it's my favorite! Here are a few pictures of our new house with the few Christmas decorations we have... love it!

In the kitchen, let it snow!

In the living room, a wreath of berries

I love our new plate! It's adorable in the kitchen :)

Kitchen table decor, so pretty

annnnnnnnd, our first tree!