So much to blog...so little time

My life has changed...plain and simple!  I am now half adult and half college student.  It is busy, busy, busy to live two lives.  here are some updates...

this past weekend my friends took me out to celebrate my 22nd birthday.  now i am officially 22 years old. they took me to dinner, ice cream and a concert, and they all wore yellow (my favorite color).  they know my favorites things and love me well.  

for the past week and this week i am in a middle school and absolutely loving every minute of it.  the school is something else, but the students are the most precious humans to me!  i have fallen in love with their awkwardness and insanity.  could i maybe want to be a 7th grade math teacher now?!?!

my bike is sick.  last friday jess and i heard adventure calling our names.  we headed out to farragut for a ride.  we didn't really know where we were going, but we were going to make it...and we barely made it.  lost doesn't even describe our state at some points in the ride.  we quickly learned how to put my chain back on my bike after it fell off during one point.  long story short the ride ended with two flat tires, 12 mosquito bites, and waiting on the side of the road for jess as she found her way back to the car miraculously.  i love riding with jess.  tomorrow might be the first ride i take without her....already having separation anxiety....

looking forward to the weekend already.  going home to spend some time with my family and puppy!

life with laura

just a picture to illustrate what my life is like with my roommate laura

believe it or not here are the curtains that i made!

holy cow! i have so much to write about that i could not think of a title that would work.  my life has been a total whirlwind the past week.  i will start off by talking about one of my new hobbies.  i got a road bike! i am loving this new exercise.  i road yesterday in 90 degree weather, and i usually hate to even walk outside in that kind of heat.  i love biking.  i went on four rides last week.  i think i may love it so much because of the people i get to ride with, jess and my dad.  they are more experienced and in way better shape. they absolutely wear me out, but i love it.  i am learning a lot...who knew there was a science to biking?  here is a picture of my bike, but mine is all black. i have two favorite things about it: #1 is that it says handmade in the usa, i feel so american as i ride and #2 it has a speedometer that tells you all this stuff about how fast and how many miles, but the best part is that it tells you the temperature, i love informing everyone on the temp about every 3 minutes...

this past weekend i have started another new hobby.  if you remember i recently posted how i was going to sew curtains with my meme.  well the project began this weekend.  i am in love with sewing.  the curtains are still under construction, but hopefully by this weekend they will be hanging in my room.  the sweetest part about this new hobby happened yesterday.  my family came over for lunch at my parent's house.  before my uncle and cousin left they gave me the best gift ever.  uncle david came walking in with a sewing machine and told me that since i am learning how to sew he wanted me to have my aunt's sewing machine.  we all lost it  and hugged like crazy as we looked at the machine and remembered my aunt.  this sewing machine will be a gift that i will forever cherish.

today was another big day! it was my first day of inservice at HVA.  i am falling in love with this school.  i wish i could write about every little detail.  here are a couple of the things i love so far:

1. PTSA- they gave us coffee mugs that gets us free coffee everyday

2. Staff Polo- my mentor teacher purchased a HVA staff polo for me today.  i won't be the most stylish thing that hit HVA, but i don't mind.

3. Tardy Sweeps-  when i get to write up kids that have taken a little too long to get to class.  my mean side and teacher face will be revealed!

4. My mentor teacher-  goodness, i am the luckiest intern at that school.

5. Familiar faces-  the school is full of teachers and administrators from Central (where i have spent a majority of my time the past 3 years), classmates from college, my cousin that i haven't seen since i was 7 years old, and new friends!

6.  all the opportunities to get involved at the school

7.  number one belief statement is--Relationships are the foundation of ALL we do. this is the main reason i went into teaching.

i really feel like this school was made for me to be a part of during my internship.  a place for me to learn from the best!  God's hand in bringing me to this place during this part of my life is so evident everyday that i am there!!

i could probably ramble on but 6:00 am comes early!!

driving 85

i am driving 85...thank you john mayer

slumber party in our very own hotel room

my display

nat's display

the hotel...we were tourists

Buford Hwy...aww Buf

tourists

hitting the road

natalie's artistic side

this past weekend was a whirlwind.  it all started Wednesday night with a bacherlorette party for my friend caroline phillips (now fortenberry).  thursday we had a bridesmaid dinner at sullivans.  sooo goooood.  friday was the rehearsal dinner.  after the dinner about 10 girls spent the night at my house in maryville before the big day.  it was so fun to spend the night with caroline one last time at my house.  we woke up the next day, ate breakfast, and started working!  we spent all day tying bows, arranging flowers, making centerpieces and fixing desserts.  it was quite a day.  after everything was ready to go we headed home to get ready for the ceremony.  the night was filled with laughter, tears, dessert and dancing!! 

after the wedding i came home to quickly book a hotel reservation for natalie and i before falling asleep.  when sunday morning came we were hitting the road to atlanta!!  nat has been wanting to go to atlanta all summer, so we decided to pack out bags and go.  this was a trip of firsts.  it was the first time i drove out of the state of tennessee and the first time i checked into a hotel by myself.  i feel like i am more grown up.  it was a fun trip.  we shopped for teacher clothes, and the best part about it was that it was tax free weekend!! woo hoo!! 

Can it really be true?

as of today, i am finished with summer school for the rest of my life....unless i go back to school one day.  i don't see that moment coming anytime soon, so for now i am going to celebrate today as the last day i will ever anxiously sit through a lecture on a warm, sunny, summer day!!

also today...

i awoke early this morning to arrive at the fountain city panera at 7:45.  this usually isn't too bad, but this morning i had to drive from maryville on about 5 hours of sleep time.  it was a two coffee morning.  jess and i met with abbie and haley.  we are studying the book of luke.  today we did something really cool.  at least i think so.  last week we read chapter 6.  this chapter instructs on how to love and even pray for those who mistreat us, lie to us, etc.  this chapter was hard for us all to hear and apply to our lives.  we decided that we had a lot of things we needed to let go of if we were to truly obey and love our enemies.  today we each brought in a rock and with a sharpie. we all wrote the things in our life that we wanted to release out of our hands and give it to Jesus.  after much thought and a lot of writing we drove down to a pond to through our rocks.  it was a relief for us to physically...in a way...let go and give our worries, fears, enemies to Jesus. 

golly, i love those girls!!

WAAHOO!!!!

Here are more photos from the treacherous hike Hallie, Jess and I took last Saturday.  Thanks Hallie for the pictures.  You can check this sweet girl out at http://halliescreations.blogspot.com

self-timer, large rocks, on the top of a mountain takes much skill

i love her

WE DID IT!!!

always ready for a photo shoot

and i love her too

This past weekend my mom, uncle, cousin and i headed out for another east tennessee adventure.  we ziplined through the mountains!! i loved it and highly recommend taking some time with friends to go. here are two pictures from the zipline.  i will post a video from the day in the near future.

in both of these pictures it looks as if we are posing for the camera.  in reality we had no clue what was going on and were just hanging on for dear life.  right before this picture was taken my guide told me that my trolley was broken.  that was great to hear right before you step off of a super high platform...