This Did Not Feel Like the First Day of Summer

Summer break: cookouts, days on the lake, late night fishing, floating the Mulberry, night riding on the 4-wheelers...
Except it never happens like that on the first day out, does it?

I've been sick the past several days, so my doctor had scheduled a CT scan for me at 8 this morning. Therefore, I got up early to get ready and drink this terrible, awful, chalky white mixture. I drank and drank and drank and asked Mom to pull over because it was about to travel back up the path it went down. It didn't, though, and we continued on our way.

Once we got there they had to get the IV in me, which took 4 different needles and about 15 minutes of them prodding INSIDE my arms in various locations. After they figured it out, I stood up only to nearly pass out. And my fears came true--right there in the ER with my mom and the nurse holding my hair and an IV sticking out of my arm, the chalky mixture met the trashcan. Pleasant scene. and smells.

We finally got the CT scan done and headed out to take care of business. First stop--flower shop. Holy cow, flowers are expensive. I don't even know how else to say it. Second stop--getting the candles and jars, which were super cheap and a nice alternative to the flowers. Third stop--stopping by Whitson Morgan to talk to our ol' buddy Patrick who is letting us use one of their fab vehicles for FREE for the day of the wedding. Since we are only having 1 attendant each, we didn't want to get a limo but still wanted something nice and fixed up. Patrick says he'll be looking for us a Jaguar that is large enough for all of us. Suuu-weet!! But we'll be happy with any of it since he's totally just letting us use it for the day.

Fourth stop--picking up invitations. Everything was perfect on them except one part, and I'm not even going to focus on it. I promised myself no tears on trivial things. The people we love will be there even if I am not in love with the invitations.

We also some exciting news!!! My friend Craig has been booked to DJ our wedding ever since we got engaged. If you know Craig, you know he is HILARIOUS!!! A few summers ago he randomly decided to teach a bunch of our friends how to swing dance, so we all got really into that and started swing dancing every Thursday night. Two of them ended up getting married after meeting at swing dance!!

Craig is nuts--in a fun way. He's the guy who will make your side hurt from laughing too hard. During the days he works on his baseball ministry in the Dominican Republic and at nights he is the lead singer for his new band Doo Froogly. They are sick! I love going to watch them!! But...last night Craig was also named as the first ever Arkansas CW star for the entire next year. What?! Our DJ is now a star?! It's true...

Craig is seriously the CW Star--watch this video!

I was kind of worried they would have him super busy, and he'd have to miss the big day. However, he sent me a message today saying he already gave his manager his schedule and that he's pumped about the wedding. Cash said it perfectly, "I hope he'll be able to DJ for all the autographs he'll be giving!" haha. Man, I'm getting so excited. We are going to have a blast at the reception!!! Yeah, when I think about that the invitations don't really seem to matter anymore.

On a completely different note: When we were meeting with the cake lady a few weeks ago, I asked for one layer of the wedding cake to be strawberry. My mom flipped, "What? You don't even like strawberry cake. You can't have that on wedding cake..." I haven't lived with my parents in 8 years. And my defense was that I didn't know I had to run it by her to try strawberry cake and like it. So it's been the running joke since then that "You can't like strawberry cake, because Mom didn't know you did." And what did she buy at the store today to help me feel better? Strawberry cake. I just took it out of the oven, and it is smelling like I need to go eat some.

So early shout out to the reception---I'll be married to my favorite person in the world, we're have a star for a DJ, and we'll be serving strawberry cake. What more could a girl ask for?? :)

XOXO...

Avery Jane

Welcome to Our World

Have you ever wondered, "Cash and Avery live so far apart. How in the world can that be fun?" No? You haven't? Well, I'll tell show you anyway.

When you have miles between you, your fiance, your sister and her family, your parents, and most of your friends, then you learn to be thankful that some geek invented picture messaging. Enjoy our thankful-for-geeks-inventing-picture-messaging moments...

So what? I love Amish people and may or may not have "Amish" as my religious preference on Facebook. What does my sister do? She illegally takes pictures of these little Amish girls playing at a local park, sends them to me, and says, "Hmmmm...reminds me of you." That may be because I told an entire comedy club in Destin, Florida that I was Amish back in 2008. I hope none of you were there.

 Cash was really excited to go turkey hunting with my family and me this Spring. While he was in San Antonio one weekend, he went and got all geared up. What does that entail? A new gun, camo'd, of course. A turkey hunting vest. A net. Ohhhhppp, and a slate turkey call since he had no idea how to call a turkey. Then he went and "set up on a turkey" by his niece's playset and let his brother take a picture. I was leaving a Jewish Seder when I noticed my phone was blowing up. Laughter. Could. Not. Subside.

 He really did get to go turkey hunting with us a few weeks later. And that slate call came in handy...AND...he actually got pretty good...AND...he even bought another call a couple of weeks ago. He actually can do it really well, and I can't even get a creak on it. Baaaaa.

Another one from the big sis: Braeson was SO HUNGRY yet SO SLEEPY. What is a kid to do? 

And, as of today, May 22, 2012, we have an official kindergarten graduate in our family!!!! Little Brae rocked the stage as you can obviously tell. He is too much like his grandpa, though. He asked his teacher for some harder math problems to work on over the summer. What? Do people not enjoy summers these days?? Where do students like this come from? Mine won't even do their work during the school year. They sure don't ask for homework over the summer! Someone give the kid a ticket to the swimming pool or something. He needs to get out more.

Speaking of summer break...this time tomorrow I'll be on mine!

Do you have moments when you receive a picture and just burst out into laughter at the most inopportune times?

XOXO...

Avery Jane

7 Weeks, 5 Days, and Counting

This weekend I was giddy about having less than eight weeks before the I Do's. Then I had to back it on up and rejoice that I only have 3 2 days of school left. And those are semester test days!!

Praise the Lord.

Cash is coming in this weekend, and I get to go back with him to Midland!!!! We've NEVER made that trip TOGETHER, so I'm stoked. Please put your name in the pot for bets on if we'll survive the 10 hour drive. haha.

We are actually stopping in Dallas for the night so that we can go shopping on Monday. I get to buy a whole new wardrobe for my new job, and I'm a little nervous. I don't know what to wear! By the way, y'all didn't help me out at all on the business outfits. It's okay if you still want to throw some ideas my way. ;)

Today I actually wanted to share some pictures. We took our engagement pictures 2 weekends ago, and I got to sift through them this weekend. After putting them on facebook, I've narrowed it down to our favorites and the facebook favorites. And will someone tell my fiance he does NOT look like a board? That's all he will say about the pictures, "I look like a board." Even if he does, it's the best durn looking board I've ever seen! Chat at y'all later...enjoy the picture fiesta!

See, he doesn't look like a board. He looks like...wait for it (holla, How I Met Your Mother)...wait for it...A HANDSOME GEOLOGIST!!! Okay. Cancel my trip to Midland next week. Cash might have just broken up with me. hahaha. Just kidding of course.

XOXO...

Avery Jane

Sunday Savings: How to Afford College

Has it really been {8} full years since I graduated from high school? Holy cow. And yet I still find myself sitting at my parents' house on a Sunday night with a bag of chips. Coming soon--how to mooch off your parents right before you get married. We are down to less than {8} weeks, y'all. Whoosh!!

I have read so many posts over the past week about little brothers/sisters/children/whomever graduating from high school. Then today I went back to the church I grew up in and got to watch some of my favorite kids celebrate in the graduation service. I am elated for the new beginnings in these young people's lives. And for them I also feel the nerves and anxiety that is bound to come with the ending of high school.

College was a unique experience for me as I took 18-21 hours every semester, so I was constantly studying and working on literature papers. Thank you, English professors. Yes, can you believe to have a degree in education I had to cram142 hours into 4 years? And to think--some people do that while playing sports or being in sorities/fraternities or worked or were in the band or whatever. I straight up went to school and still find myself complaining!

However, I realize how blessed I was to never pay a dime for school. Even in graduate school I've yet to be out a penny. How did I do that?!

I was not valedictorian. I was actually 9th in my graduating class with a 3.9 GPA. I will say our valedictorian just graduated from law school last week, so that's making me feel quite good about my standings eight years later. :)

I did not receive an athletic scholarship or an academic challenge or worker's whatever they call it. And my most proud accomplishment--I never once had a student loan.

Guys and gals, I cannot stress enough how much you do NOT want to get a student loan. Please, please, please work or take less hours at a time or whatever you have to do in order to not get that student loan. I realize education is important and will always pay off. But do it without having to pay it back with interest. I beg of you.

So what did I do since my parents said they would not pay for our college? (True--they said while college is a great choice, it's a personal choice. And we had to learn to pay for it on our own.)

My JUNIOR and SENIOR years in high school I applied for every scholarship under the sun. I looked online, in the counselor's office, wherever I could think of. I actually did receive a scholarship my junior year for a speech I wrote for the local VFW. No one wanted to put in the work to write the speech, so I did it and won--and was sent on to the next level and won even more money. How hard was that? Not at all! And I met some neat people at some VFW meetings afterwards!

I hear my students always talking about playing football or basketball in college. That is great if you can. But maybe...MAYBE...one of them will make it that far. So don't bank on extra-curriculars to get you through. In fact Cash has told me multiple times that no way could he have played baseball at the level his brother did and have done geology at the same time. They both required so much work, so he concentrated on geology. But you know, he also got to play some major rugby then too. And to this day he's glad he had time with the Quins. Give yourself options. So you don't know what to do without sports? Play intramurals. Learn new sports. Have fun.

Anyway, a lot of that was beside the point. The point is work hard in academics. Yeah, yeah. I'm a teacher. I'm supposed to say that, right? Well, many MANY more people get school paid for through academics than they do athletics. And DO NOT WASTE IT YOUR FRESHMAN YEAR. For crying outloud, go to college to learn. Do not go there to party and throw away a free ride. Oh, that burns me.

Check with several colleges to compare their academic scholarships. The year I enetered UCA they took superscores on the ACT which bumped me into a full ride. The only things left to pay were books and food. That's all. I ended up finding a rehabilitation scholarship since I had scoliosis; it paid my books. And my food was paid for through private scholarships such as the Presidential Freedom Scholarship (found online), VFW scholarships, Top 10% of my class, etc.

But the BIGGEST scholarships I received were due to me being a minority. Each member of my mom's side of the family has our Chickasaw Indian card. While I got their base scholarships due to my academics, I also got several of their private scholarships. They even sent me money for clothes every year, a new laptop (which I still use to write these very blog posts!), paid my fees for various tests and graduation, etc.

On top of that I kept looking for scholarships while I was still in college. My junior and senior year I qualified for the Minority Teacher's Scholarship. It not only paid above and beyond my cap on scholarships (Arkansas has a law that you can only receive so much money in scholarships), it also gave me money to start my first classroom. Hello?! That is awesome.

So even if you're out of high school and don't qualify for many of those "freshman only" scholarships, do keep looking. I would see posters all over campus for scholarships pertaining to certain degrees. Also, I always got online and looked at my state's higher education website and found a plethora of scholarships I could have received. However, my cap was already met and there was no reason to apply. I ended up sending the applications to my cousins or my sister or whomever they seemed to fit.

Moving on to grad school, I kept getting the scholarships from the Chickasaws. That's been a bulk of it. But I knew I wanted to go to grad school, so I looked up what area schools paid for their teachers to go back to school and I applied there. My second year of teaching I landed a job at Alma, and they have reimbursed me for all of my hours I have taken. That's been HUGE since I've been going to our state's flagship university 45 miles away. Through these 2 means, I've been able to pay for school, books, and reimburse myself for gas throughout each semester.

Now I'm transferring to somewhere in Texas, so I'm faced with a whole new set of challenges. What schools give me the most bang for my buck? Not to mention I'm hours away from anywhere except this tiny school--UTPB. I really thought I wanted to go there since it was so cheap and close, but the academia in me just couldn't sign the papers. Bottom line--don't go to the cheapest school just because it's the cheapest. Pay a little more (hopefully with a scholarship), invest more energy, and get a degree that will benefit you. That does NOT mean you have to go to Harvard or you can't go to a small school. It just means find the school that's going to be the best fit for you. UTPB did not seem to be the best fit for me when I really started looking.

What do you do if you are not Indian or any other minority? When your parents make too much money for pell grants? But they don't make enough to pay for your school? You work your tail off throughout high school. You take the ACT prep course. You apply for scholarships no one else is willing to apply for because it's only $500. Those $500 add up.

And when you get to college, get a part-time job. That is my biggest regret. I was too worried about coming home to see my family that I didn't want a job during the school year. It would've forced me to stay in Conway, make friends, and get paid. Can you believe I gave up that much money? I know, me either.

I understand this is a lengthy post tonight. But I just can't stress enough how bad student loans can be. Let your academics speak for you and work hard. It will definitely pay off. With that first paycheck you can go buy a new car---not repay that loan. Won't that be so much more fun?

Stay smart. Be savvy. Save money.

Avery Jane

Calling All Ladies!

Today I need your help!

The past four years I've been teaching public school as many of you know. While I try to dress for the job, often times that entails slacks and a polo or cardigan since I am constantly up and down and around. Or...as my dad says...I dress like an uppity teenager. And that has been just perfect for what I've done my entire professional career. Well, until now.

Now I'm trying to get a corporate job working with pretty high net worth individuals. That means I have to look and dress the part. Before interviews last Friday I was able to snag this outfit. Cash even helped me find a new purse! ha. I just didn't feel like my oversized Vera Bradley was going to work as I walked around in a business dress outfit in the downtown area.

And excuse my hair---this was the night before. Cash took the picture so I could get my dad's approval before my interviews. I was VERY NERVOUS, especially because it's a new environment altogether for me. My dad has much more experience in the corporate world, so I was really leaning on my 2 main guys for some help here.

Anyway, I felt confident with this outfit. I just need help, because I don't know where to shop?! How do you mix it up? I seriously don't want to wear black and midnight blue everyday. What do you ladies wear in the corporate world?? And one more question--how do you typically wear your hair? I've been able to get up late and throw it up for 4 years. I can't do that anymore, but I also find it hard to wear my hair down all day everyday. HELPPPP!!!!

Thanks ahead of time...and seriously give me some feedback here. Later!

XOXO...

Avery Jane

Now It's My Whole Life

Do you know that Brad Paisley song....Now you're my whole life, now you're my whole world...dah dah dah? Well, I was driving a quick 10 hours back home yesterday when it came on the radio. I started really listening to the words and thought how this entire weekend has been a reflection of that song.

Two years ago...
I knew one person that had ever lived in Midland, Texas, and I had not seen her since I was in 7th grade.

I was going into the summer after my 2nd year of teaching as a single lady ready to enjoy time with my friends.

I knew I wanted to go to graduate school, but I had not yet applied and was going to teach for the remainder of my life.

I had been in my "new" house for 6 months.

I knew geology meant something about the earth.


One year ago...
Cash was coming in on Memorial Day weekend for my birthday, then he was taking me to the airport in Dallas to go to the Middle East for the summer.

On June 9 I came face-to-face with the Devil and flew out of the Middle East within a few days.

We had been dating for about 4 months.

I was in graduate school looking to go to law school and ultimately land a career in politics.

Today...
Cash is coming in on Memorial Day weekend for my birthday, then he is taking me back with him to Dallas where we are getting his wedding band and some gifts for our attendants. Then we are going to Midland.

On June 9 we are having our wedding shower.

We will have been engaged for 3 months at that point.

I'm in my last 2 weeks of my teaching career and just had the interview of a lifetime on Friday. No politics. No government work. No teaching. I am stoked about the possibility looming in the air.

Graduate school hangs in the balance of my step in my career. Law school is a negative, co-chief.

I know numerous amounts of people in Midland. In fact Friday I had lunch with Cash's mom and her friend Christie so I wouldn't get psyched out for the interviews. Then before I went in for an interview, one of Cash's friends (okay, my friend now too b/c he's the bomb) met me downstairs to walk me up. The building was much more daunting than a schoolhouse. We had dinner with the same friend and his wife that evening. Saturday Cash's dad called and told him what he got his mom for Mother's Day--it was both mine and Cash's sister-in-law's birthstones to put on her bracelet. That made me feel so good, because I felt like it was my family too. I mean, I have felt that for awhile because they are all so welcoming. But that just really sealed the deal for me.

My house is on the market, and I can't wait to sell it. Don't get me wrong. I love that house!! But I just don't want the payment of 2 houses...I really want the payment of 1 house and 1 condo.

Now I can navigate the DFW airport like the back of my hand. I know every creak an airplane should or should not make. And I can get from Arkansas to Midland through either Dallas or Oklahoma City--almost without my GPS these days. If you must know--OKC is quicker but you do have to pay a total of $4.75 in tolls one way, and that infuriates me. However, this little town of Anson, Texas, has the coolest little roundabout around their courthouse. It's picture book perfect.

Not only do I know what a geologist is, I can also sort of explain what one does. :)

Life sure has changed in the past 2 years---and every bit of it is for the better. This weekend really showed me how much God placed all these things in my life, and why He did it when He did it. I could've never imagined this life for myself. In a million years!!! But God's story was much better than the one I tried to write. That's how it is for all of us though. You just have to be willing to give up the pen.

XOXO...

Avery Jane

What is this dripping from the sky??

I'm waiting for Cash to get off work. you know, since I just finished a 10 hour drive by myself why not blog first? In case you need a few reasons why I am sitting in West Texas with a pool out back and me all cooped up inside, here are a few:

1. Cash lives across the street from a junior high school. It is my day off work, and quite frankly just seeing kids walk home from school as I was pulling up made me glad it was my day off work.

2. The sky opened and God unleashed a little wet fury on Midland/Odessa today which is actually the answer to many, many prayers. We're in the middle of a drought out here, which has led to the decrease in watering to 2 hours per house per week and to the use of only 10,000 gallons of water per house per month. Water bills are about to get crazy. So glad we'll have a pool to keep full during this time. Ugh.

3. Because I came to town during the one time it has rained in the past 2 years, temperatures are much lower than they typically are in mid-May. For instance, last Spring Break I laid out by the pool everyday. Now I'm wondering what I'm going to do since I didn't bring a jacket.

Okay...my BFF Les just called, and she's about to head to Budapest, Hungary. And, well, I'm going to miss her. So later gators. See y'all after the weekend...

*WPS*

Avery Jane

Whoops

I lied.

Not like a Bobby-Petrino-lose-your-job kind of lie. Just a lie to the blog world. :/

I said the next time I see Cash I wouldn't be a teacher anymore.

When in fact...
The next time I see Cash I will still be a teacher. WHOOOOOHOOOO!!!! I got an e-mail on Monday about an interview in Midland/Odessa, and I had to do it before May 15...and it had to be in person. So darn the luck I have to drive to Midland tomorrow and interview Friday only to drive back home Sunday. What's a 10 hour drive for an interview when you get to see your fiance for the 2nd weekend in a row???

Everything in the world is making me the happiest person on earth right now. Praying the interviews keep coming (well, up to a point...then we'll actually want a job. ha) and the drive is safe. If you have nothing to do Thursday or Sunday, feel free to call and chat. I'll be bored to tears driving the backroads of Oklahoma and Texas. So for the love of my ex-boyfriend Pete, please call me. (Inside joke: I always tell my students, "For the love of Pete, please quit talking." So they started asking who was this Pete guy. And I told them it was an old flame.)

And of course Sunday I'll be driving home, so I probably won't be helping you save any money. My best advice though? Get a vehicle with good gas mileage. :)

Have a good one!

*WPS*

Avery Jane

Ohhhh Weekend, Come Backkkk

Mondays stink. Mondays in which Cash leaves stink even more. But...the loneliness after he leaves is a good reminder of how wonderful it is to be with him.

We did SO MUCH this weekend, and the only picture I had was so dark that you couldn't even tell what it was. Engagement pictures coming soon though!

Friday night Cash and his parents met me at my house, and we went to Catfish Hole for dinner. It was a last option for rehearsal dinner, but we wanted to try it out just in case. While we were there, the superintendent from Ozark was sitting with his family in a sectioned off area. We waved at one another, and when I turned around I realized his sister was with him. His sister wrote a few books that were published not too long ago, and I had bought one for Cash's mom for Christmas; so it was neat to show her the author of the book I had given her.

After getting to my parents' house and the initial meeting of the parents (which went really well I might add..shoosh! ;) ), we stuffed ourselves with the 1,098,402 desserts my mom had made. My mom is seriously the greatest hostess, because she's always throwing food and drinks at you. And they're always super delicious.

The next morning she made us a huge breakfast (yes, we ate a ton this weekend), then we hit the road to Clarksville to check out some hotels and another spot for rehearsal dinner. After we got the rooms blocked off, we ate at the Pasta Grill. It was so so so so good, but we were worried the area would be a little small for rehearsal dinner. Apparently, the etiquette is you invite out of town guests. So if we added any of those guests into our count, we were going to spill out of the restaurant.

My parents ended up meeting us at Wiederkehr's for the tour and wine tasting. The tour? Notice we aren't writing home about it. The wine tasting? Now that was an adventure! My parents are very conservative Baptists (and I love that about them), so they just watched us and asked questions. We found several wines we liked, even one that was so good that we decided it shouldn't be an option so that people would not drink too much of it. I had bought Cash a bottle of it at Christmas time, but we never opened it up because it was about 5 bucks. However, when we tasted it Saturday we were all wondering why we hadn't yet discovered that little jewel.

After Wiederkehr's we had plenty of time to kill. We had eaten a big breakfast and big lunch, so we weren't quite ready to head to Rivertowne. We gave Cash's mom a tour of big ol' Ozark (pop. 3,500), the Arkansas River, and Aux Arc Park. My dad's uncle happened to be camping at the park, so we got to introduce them to some real Arkansas Hillbillies. Real ones.

For dinner we stopped in at Rivertowne BBQ, which I have mentioned many many times is my absolute favorite place to eat! Luckily, they are adding on 2 different rooms to be rented out for things like rehearsal dinners. Hopefully they will be done by mid-July, because it received a unanimous vote on the best place for July 13. I was thrilled---I love Rivertowne. In fact I told a co-worker today that the only exciting thing about today was that I was having Rivertowne leftovers for lunch.

When we got home, we took Cash and his mom over to meet some of our neighbors via 4-wheelers. Do you remember the story I told about my parents' neighbors who have a nephew that randomly works with Cash and are good friends of his parents? Well, we went over to see those neighbors. That story still amazes me.

So after we left the neighbors' house, we headed down to the Mulberry River to catch a glimpse at the water level. Apparently some backwoods yay-hoos decided to have themselves too good of a time, and one of them walked out to talk to my mom and Cash's mom who were sharing a 4-wheeler. He literally stumbled over and said, "I just have oneeee question. If you were on a bus full of lesbians, would you get off?" That happened. That really happened. Finally we got out of there, and I looked at Cash and said, "Can you seriously believe our MOMS were asked that?! hahahahaha" Funny afterwards---completely awkward in the meantime.

Sunday we went to church, and to be honest I was most nervous about this part of the weekend. Since Cash and his parents are Lutheran, I was a little worried about the Baptist church I was taking them to. But of course all went well, and service didn't even last 2 full hours. ;)

The cake lady met us back at Wiederkehrs where we were having lunch, and she was on top of it! We were very pleased with the prices and designs of the cakes. I honestly had not had anything in mind for the wedding cake...just knew I wanted it simple. I was going to just let Cash talk to her yesterday. Well, in the time we spent with her we not only got Cash's cake ordered but also the wedding cake. And for an extremely great cost I might add!

We also got to go in the Weingarten and visit with one of the ladies in charge. She showed us pictures of it decorated, and it just relieved any anxiety I had been having. We opted for a dinner, which will be served by a full wait staff. The place is so unique that little decoration has to be done. And the bar area seriously is one of the neatest things I've seen. After visiting with her I felt everything was coming together perfectly and I couldn't be more excited about the wedding!!

Afterwards we met the photographer for engagement pictures. We took them in downtown Van Buren, so I felt pretty safe that no one I really knew would see us. Wrong! 1st period this morning a student said, "Miss K, I saw you and Cash taking pictures in Van Buren yesterday." Oh heavens. I pray it wasn't when he was trying to be Mr. Photogenic and dipping me over and laying a big one on me. Yes, my fiance who hates both pictures and PDA did this at multiple random times throughout the session. But, hey, no complaints here. ;)

When we got back to my parents' house, my mom had convinced his parents that she could teach them how to catch chicken chokers. Oh my stars. My initial thought was that they had finally encountered exactly what they thought they would find in Arkansas. But in the end it was Big Russ who was the sole catcher of a chicken choker. Things like this really happen in our lives.

This morning I was down in the dumps knowing they were about to leave. After breakfast Cash rode back with me to Alma just so we could hang out for another 30 minutes, and his parents picked him up there. They left right before I left for work, and the tears started streaming. Oh, how I hate when he leaves. But my friend gave me the neatest reminder this morning when I got to work: next time I see Cash I will no longer be a teacher. That and we'll get to spend 2 weeks together. Now that's something to get me through the next 3 weeks of teaching!! Hope y'all have a good one...

*WPS*

Avery Jane

Weekend Blues

I'm sitting here waiting for Cash and his parents to finally make it to Arkansas. To say I'm excited about the weekend is an understatement---I'm so pumped to look at venues for rehearsal dinner and for our parents to finally meet! Yesterday I said something about that, and a co-worker asked why they had never met. Hello, we live 600 miles apart!! Anyway, I couldn't be more excited for the weekend!

Plus, we took the 8th graders to a career fair today. It's actually interesting listening to the speakers---if the kids would just listen. Right now I'm put out with their behavior today. Plus, sweating through 90 degree heat and watching them act the way they did...uhhh...I'm just over it right now.

Although the kids might have been rotten today, I will say I have some of the best co-workers I could've ever asked for. It makes me so sad to think about leaving them in just 3 weeks!! I have 3 weeks left of being a teacher. I don't even know what to make of that right now.

Yesterday the school gave me a shower. Instead of gifts I would have to lug down to Texas, they showered us with gift cards and cash. I was blown away by the abundance of love--we are so, so blessed. My friend Kim came over from the high school and was writing all the gifts down for me when she turned and said, "You are having an amazing shower!!!" She was so right. I'm just blown away by the sweetness.

And one of our faculty members is the best cake lady in the area. She made a cake just for us--white with blue swirls all over it and some red roses on it. Her husband also made the money tree; he spray painted it navy and white. Seeing the colors on the table made me even more excited about the wedding; I'm so glad we picked the nautical look. It makes me more ready for Maine every day!

Two more hours...as much as I need a nap I guess I better pack instead. No Sunday Savings this week--forgive me as we are spending time with our parents! :) Hope y'all have a great weekend!!

*WPS*

Avery Jane