changes.

there have a lot of changes in my life over the last few weeks.

-i moved into my apartment. been here a few days and have almost everything unpacked. woo hoo. i am really happy where i am at and the place i have. it has been a long time coming and happy it is finally here.

-boyfriend and i are no longer together. this has been a rough transition to make. but i have been praying a lot for strength. it's amazing how God comforts you and gives you what you need when you hit a rough patch in life. the week it happened, the band at church played an awesome new song. "go" by hillsong united. i have an awesome church. great people. great pastors. great sermons. overall, just an awesome place to be.

-mom is still out of work on medical leave. but she goes back to work one week from tomorrow. and she is improving every day :)

since i have moved out, my latest thing is couponing :) i know, i know. 25 years old and i am a couponer. but hey, it saves me money! so last night i spent some time looking at different websites and printing numerous coupons. extreme couponing here i come.

my 26th birthday (yikes) is this Saturday. do i have anything planned? nope, not at all. hopefully something will come up this week.

happy monday and start to a new week.

m.i.a.

i have been m.i.a. for quite some time. it has been a crazy few weeks/months. the most recent is that my mom was in the hospital. it was a long five days of visiting and camping out in her hospital room, but she has been home for almost 2 weeks and is improving with each new day.

i did some organizing of my mass amount of scrapbooking stuff. i am not done at all, but way closer. so i'm excited to get that all done and get working on some old pictures.

below are a few pictures from the last little while.

out for sisters 28th birthday dinner.

carolyn's baby shower for sweet baby james.

liz and i at carolyn's baby shower.

sushi for our one year anniversary. yum.

tulips. my fav.

this guy celebrated his 7th birthday. crazy to think i started babysitting him when he was just a few months old.

Easter egg hunt for the kids at church. we had one or two (more like 2,000) eggs. all which were stuffed by yours truly and some great friends.

eric and i on Easter.

rachel... a-z

A. Age: twenty five. (almost twenty six)

B. Bed size: ful.

C. Chore you dislike: cleaning the bathroom.

D. Dogs: well, my sister has one. aka. my neph-paw, charlie :) [a german short hair and chocolate lab mix]

E. Essential start to your day: shower.

F. Favorite color: pink and yellow.

G. Gold or silver: silver.

H. Height: 5.5

I. Instruments you play(ed): flute. 5th-11th grade.

J. Job title: preschool teacher.

K. Kids: eventually.

L. Live: life life with passion.

M. Mom’s name: deana.

N. Nicknames: rach. raquel. sis.

O. Overnight hospital stays: when i got my tubes in my ears when i was like 6.

P. Pet peeves: fake people. ugh. this is a big one.

Q. Quote from a movie: i think i'd miss you even if we never met. [the wedding date.]

S. Siblings: older sister, lindsey.

T. Time you wake up: 7:30ish.

U. Underwear: yes, on a daily basis.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: cooked carrotts and peas. yuck.

W. What makes you run late: hitting my snooze button because i don't want to get out of bed. [which happens on a daily basis.]

X. X-rays you’ve had: none that i can remember...probably when i was a kid.

Y. Yummy food you make: veggie lasagna.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: haven't been to a zoo in forever! so i'm not sure.

taken from ben & katie. their story is amazing.

ms. erica is giving away a vera bradley id pouch. i just bought a clutch in the same print :)

happy sunday.

never ending cycle of sickness.

i have heard that during your first year of teaching, you get sick quite often. and i am living up to that this year. i am sick yet again [second time in 4 weeks]. so i went to the doctor and have a sinus infection. and if it does not get better this time, i will have to have an x-ray because there may be a cyst in my sinus cavity which is causing me to get sick a lot. so i am praying that that is not the case! so for the next few days, i will be taking my antibiotics and hope they work.

i have parent-teacher conferences in 2 1/2 weeks. oh.boy. i have a confession- i am a big procrastinator. i have to complete 32 anecdotes for each child in my small group. so 32x8=256 anecdotes. now for my ell kids, they have an additional section. so that is an additional 12 anecdotes. i am almost done collecting the anecdotes but only have about 100 typed. so needless to say, i have a little bit of work still to do.

tonight will consist of

-cleaning.

-dinner.

-putting laundry away.

-perhaps some school work.

-going to bed early because the time change kicked my butt.

this is my newest purchase. one that i have wanted for quite some time and have worked very hard to get.

what.a.week.

i am glad that it is the weekend. this week was long and semi-stressful one. thursday, someone hit my car in the parking lot at work. [of course did not leave a note] but luckily just several large scratches and no dents. but still boggles my mind that people out there do not take responsibility for their actions. friday was just exhausting with the kids-do you ever have one of those nights that when you get into bed you just let out a big sigh? that was me last night. teaching 16 three and four years olds sure is exhausting some days. but before i collapsed into my bed last night, i scrapbooked with a friend and got my friend carolyn's wedding pages done. now i have to wait to do baby jimmy's page until he gets out of the hospital. he was born 2 months early but is making steady improvements. you can look at her blog to read about him and say a prayer for both.

this morning i woke up earlier than i would have liked. so i made myself a fancy [aka-not running out the door to get to school] breakfast.

french toast :)
...and this is who i had looking at me while i was eating. he is such a begger for people food.

this weekend will be filled with school stuff. anecdotes, small group planning and making about 100 of the cupcakes [with my cricut] below for our fundraiser. these are the invitations that i helped make. 600 total- i did half. so i'm glad i am only making 100 this time!

i hope you have a lovely weekend. it is supposed to rain all weekend, so i am hoping my new rain boots will come in the mail today so i can put them to good use :)

lovely weekend.

how did you spend your weekend? mine involved a few of the following.


teacher crafts likes these:
clipboards... every teacher needs one or two or twelve.

thank you cards made with help from the cricut.

it went from teacher crafts to teacher work....

working on anecdotes on the kids. conferences are [one] month from tomorrow. yikes!

...and ended with a lovely sunday afternoon.

and sunday afternoon was spent with bf. we went to not one, but two local coffee shops in town and had lunch and dessert [pictured above, a bowl of 3 different kinds of ice cream split between the two of us.]

i did some cleaning today in order to prep for my move and found a bunch of old middle and high school stuff. i found a letter my sister sent to me while i was at 5th grade camp. my favorite line was "tonight i am going to my friends birthday party. it is going to be so fun and the bomb, that means cool." haha.

here is hoping you have a wonderful monday and great start to your week.

thankful thursday.

what i am thankful for this thursday evening...

not one, but TWO snowdays this week :) i think my co-teacher put it best when she said we should keep this note on the parent board all week in hopes of another snow day. [i don't know if that will happen, but it's wishful thinking :) ]

a fun week with the kids. wednesday we made these beauties.... aka bird feeders. stale cheerios on pipe cleaners that we will hang from the trees next week.

february 23. one year ago today, bf and i went on our first date. :) :)

sweet baby james. born this morning at 6:32 am. i can't wait to meet him.

what are you thankful for this week?