Since I usually talk about my house, diy projects, baseball, etc., I figure I'd give a little life update. Well I guess those are all my life updates but I'll give you a few different ones for kicks. School wise, I just finished a semester of 18 credits...or hell if you will...and got straight A's! I took 18 credits the last two semesters but have never gotten straight As in college before so I was pretty proud of it. I worked my butt off the last two semesters and while the first one was definitely my hardest and most challenging, the one that just passed was also pretty difficult. One thing I realized was that I am REALLY good at connecting quotes from books/authors that I haven't read. Like really really good. Basically why I passed my classes with flying colors. Just saying.

So that puts me with only ONE more semester until I graduate! 4.5 years of college, not bad! I changed my major 3 times and took a few summers of summer school, so I would say that it pretty darn good. I can argue that I should've graduated this spring (2015) because all next semester is, is student teaching. So I won't even be at UNLV or on campus and will be full time at a school...but we won't go there. That is an argument ALL education majors will have once they reach this point. I'm not really sure if I'm going to start working as a teacher right after I graduate or wait until the next full school year. I guess it'll all depend on if I get the right offer from the right school. I've only heard horror stories when you start halfway through the year so I'm not rushing into anything. And then I will graduate in December if all goes well. My mother-in-law got a free cruise for us during graduation (we're becoming cruise veterans!), so I won't be walking (which was a little upsetting at first, but not totally) because Ryan made a good point: I'll be "walking" on a beach in Honduras, Belize, and somewhere else I can't remember right this second. I can't really be too upset with that. 

Click to read about the question I constantly get...kid related. 

Because I'm Missing My Man

I have one week until I see my man, so why not dedicate a whole post to that handsome stud. I thought I'd share a really fun shoot we did when we first got engaged. It was amazing and so fun. We went to a place just outside of Vegas at this old country/town type setting. I really wanted to do a paint war after some inspiration I found on Pinterest. I ordered the paint in bulk on a teacher's supplies website so it was super cheap and we pretty much used all of it during the shoot. I originally wanted wet paint, but figured powder would be better for pictures and not make us look like we jumped in a pool of rainbow goodness.

Excuse all the kissing pictures...what can I say, he's totally in love with me. (;

Xoxo

Cheers to everyone's summer being filled with sun, baseball, love, and slurpees! Happy week y'all!

New Business

I designed my husband's new business website today. It was hell. But it turned out awesome so check it out! I'm sure not many of you are investors, but if you know anyone, they can contact Ryan anytime!

http://www.redeemedpursuits.com

Appreciate it y'all!

xoxo

Teaching at Cheyenne High School

I realized that I never talk about teaching. Its going to be my profession after all yet I find no time to write about it and only time to complain about it to my fellow teacher friends. How cute. It all started last semester when I started teaching part time (for the education program at UNLV) at Silvestri Middle School. After subbing for about a year in all grades, I was determined NOT to teach in a middle school because those dang kids are mean. MEAN MEAN MEAN. And they are hormonal. TERRIBLE combination y'all. But after last semester where I logged over 120 hours of teaching, I realized that middle school is the sh***. The kids actually want to learn and aren't "too cool for school" just yet. Bless those little 7th grade hormonal-don't know who they are-hearts. 

This semester I was placed at Cheyenne High School which is about 1 million hours from my house. 45 minutes to be exact. It was a true struggle at first because I was not used to waking up that early...well since I went to high school. To be blunt, it's considered a ghetto school as well. The exact opposite from the middle school I was at prior. Its only been a few weeks and so far it isn't too bad. I could complain about A LOT of things but I won't because once you put something on the internet, its there forever. But I will say that I am learning a lot as a teacher and don't want to quit yet. So that's gotta be a good sign. 

It's all about the LOFT, 'bout the LOFT: Superheroes

Ok, ok, I'm no Meghan Trainor, but those play on words were awesome! 

Although its not nearly done, I wanted to share these super cool vintage superhero pieces I got from New Orleans! They arrived weeks ago and sat on our kitchen island forever until today. I know folks, I'm really on the ball with this. Feel free to compliment.

DC:

-Green Lantern 

-Wonder Woman

-Batman

-Superman

Marvel:

-Iron Man

-Thor

-The Incredible Hulk

-Spiderman

-Wolverine

-Captain America

I decided to separate the Marvel and DC heroes, mainly because I'm evil, but also because of the color pallets and number of tin pieces we had. We originally almost bought 12, but 2 of them were horizontal and we didn't want it to be all uneven and junks, so we settled on the 10 most important to the world. 

At just about $10 a pop, it would've been stupid NOT to get them. Plus we always try to get some kind of art/thing (I use the word thing loosely) from the different places we visit. I can't remember the store we bought them from, but when I find it, I'll update the post because they have an online catalog you can pick a bunch of different vintage pieces from. Not only pictures either and at SUPER affordable prices! 

I just mainly arranged them by color. I didn't want all the yellows/greens/blues together but I made sure each side had 3 DC heroes so the fight would be even. ;) 

[LOFT] List still to do:

-Art

-Pillows

-Throw blanket

-Figure out how to make the dog kennel hidden/appealing to the eye

-Coffee table decor (books, flowers, vases, something???) Its currently empty. 

-New TV stand, or mount the TV on the wall. I haven't decided that just yet. 

Again, the loft is hardly finished. But at least the art is done. There is an American flag on the left side above the couch, but I didn't want to take a picture of it just yet because I haven't added pillows to the couch yet. The TV is on the opposite wall of that. The loft is pretty much the boy's area now, but I have to at least make it somewhat appealing and cute. SOMEWHAT. 

Boy, that dog cage is an eye-sore. Ugh. 

Now That's What I Call Loyal

So this week has pretty much been hell for me. To bring you in the loop a little, being an Education major means that there are less traditional "tests" (midterms and finals) and more research papers, large/heavy project expectations, and LOTS and LOTS of in-class presentations. I am beyond thankful that I only have 1 real in-class test, for English of course, but beyond stressed with all of the papers and projects that are due. On top of that, I'm teaching at a middle school on average 4 times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, which means lesson plans, good creative content, and not much sleep. So it's to no surprise that my body went into complete shock yesterday. I was bed ridden for at least 8 hours with the chills, heat sweats, headaches, and severe nauseous stomach pains. It could be all the turkey and bad food I ate over the long weekend (because I was on a 30-day diet challenge that I rocked btw, which ended on Thanksgiving conveniently - post on that soon) but I'd like to blame my school work as any student should. 

In honor of my sickness, I wanted to express my love for my dogs. To my absolute surprise, Homer, my youngest pup, stood by my side the ENTIRE day. Normally when Ryan gets home, or someone comes to the door, or Baxter, my oldest, runs outside because he saw something, Homer usually follows. But I think it's true when people say that dogs can sense when you are sad/sick because he didn't even blink an eye the whole day. He slept for hours with me, put his head on my lap, kept me warm, and cuddled with me when I was cold. He was there and I mean really there. I've never seen something so amazing and he may not know it, but I appreciate his loyalty and love. And that's the truth.

I think I understand, at least partly, the love people have for their kids. I'm in no place to say how much someone loves their own kids, or that dogs can equal that, but I really believe that the bond my dogs and I have, is something similar to those parents and their kids.

Why am I totally reading this post and thinking that I sound absolutely mad. lol oh well, what do you expect from me, good content?

So in all of this, I would like to thank my little baby. (Of course I love my oldest Bax, but he was acting normal, checking on me ever so ofter lol he's Ryan's child).

Ps. Bax is literally so black I can never get a good picture of him. LOL, ya that's his problem. He's thinking "I'm so black, y'all"

Thanksgiving When You're First Married

Is it just me, or does every semi-newlywed go through the whole "Who's house are we going to this time" conversation come Thanksgiving time? Last year, right after we got married in October, we split our Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays with both families, and it was a little exhausting. I mean I ate 2 Turkey dinners and probably gained 10 lbs in the process - go me. Thankfully, Ryan's family does a hug xmas party on Christmas Eve so we saw his family that day and didn't have to worry about going to my house. But we did split Christmas with my family (we don't do much than open presents anyways) and his family, too. But can't there be a happy balance without having to see both families?

I've gotten advice to switch every holiday between his family getting Christmas and mine Thanksgiving, or visa versa, but does that mean I don't see mine on Christmas at all? (Or whatever arrangement we have). I just can't imagine not seeing each other's family on the same holiday especially since they both live here. It doesn't seem fair in my opinion.

This year, we've decided to do the whole "split" thing again, but I'm thinking next year we sit down and figure something out. If we switch off between holidays, do we not see the other's families then? OR do we exhaust ourselves and go back and forth? I just don't know..

Anyways, HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL! We're off to my aunts for the main meal, then Ryan's parents house for dessert! Mmmm pumpkin pie..so good! Enjoy that delicious turkey or ham and give thanks for the love ones that surround you! Xoxo