Thankful on Thursday

Today I am OH SO THANKFUL :-)

-I'm so thankful I got to spend time at the beach last week with my family and Melissa. It was a wonderful, relaxing time. It was so relaxing that we didn't take any pictures......so that's a mission failure....but really, it was a vacation success!

-I'm thankful I got to see my friend Ashley and her two AMAZING little boys today. We went to Hershey, PA to see Chocolate World and had a wonderful time.

-I'm thankful that my hubby was willing to drive with me to Hershey (3 hours there, almost 5 hours home) and hang out with all of us. He even had a GREAT time doing it. It was super fun to watch him play with Jacob, my favorite 3-year-old.

-I'm thankful that my Springwoods friends are still supporting me as I move to a new school. Amazing people, I tell you.

-I'm thankful for Shannon and her crossed fingers. I tell you, we're due for our finger (and toe) crossings to work out here some time in the near future.

-AH! I can't believe I almost forgot to be specifically thankful for one part of our beach trip. HOLY MOLY SPICY GUACAMOLE! I am so thankful for those peach daiquiris! Seriously, be jealous. My mom ROCKS a blender. Apparently, I have my Uncle David to thank for the recipe. Ultimately, I'm just glad those things existed.

-I'm thankful that this weekend I get to go hang out in Raleigh with good friends and go see Rascal Flatts. I cherish the opportunity to wear boots and sing along with thousands of strangers to great music. Ah....summer :-)

-I'm thankful that Christine wanted to hear (read) my list of thankfuls tonight. After the long drive home from PA, I considered not posting, but I knew I'd promised. And I feel SO much better after a good round of thankfuls!

I know it's the middle of summer, but I'm still gonna say it for all my non-teacher friends out there...HAPPY FRIDAY!

A Day in The Kitchen and News

I've spent most of my day today in my kitchen. Aren't summer days wonderful?! I just had to share.

First, I got brave and canned a few blueberries. I say brave because, while I have canned things recently with my mom, I have never been brave enough to try alone....I not only tried, I succeeded!

Then I moved on to some healthy cookies. That's right, I said healthy. There's no white flour, no white sugar in these bad boys. I have my friend Lauren to thank for the recipe. She's amazing and healthy and fit and some day I'm going to grow up and be like her. Granted, she's younger than I am. That's not the point.

And after that it was time to cook dinner. A summer favorite of mine was on the menu. Unlike the cookies, this is not the healthiest recipe in the world (when I grow up to be Lauren, I'll find a way to make it healthier) but it is YUMMY. Feast your eyes on tomato pie. It's a Paula Deen recipe, and surprisingly, has no butter in it. I know you're shocked, calm down. There's plenty of mayonnaise in it instead.

And I promised news in the title...so here it is. Remember how I mentioned that I'd either be teaching kindergarten or first grade? Today I was thrown a curve ball....I'll be teaching third grade next year. I've made it to "acceptance" and now I'm working on "excitement." I'll get there.

I'm quite excited about my plans for the next few days. I've been waiting all summer for this....stay tuned ;-)

New Beginnings

Today marks the end. And the beginning.

Today was my due date. Today is the last day on my calendar that is marked with baby reminders. After today, there are no more marked weeks on the sides and no more reminders of classes I no longer need. Granted, the formula samples keep showing up in the mail.....but that's not the point.

I thought that I'd be really sad today. But in a way, I'm happy. There's nothing I can do to change what happened. And starting today, every day won't be a reminder of what we've lost. Each day will simply be a part of our future. I'm glad for that.

On the topic of new beginnings, I'm thrilled to report to you that I have a teaching job for next year. I'll either be teaching Kindergarten or First Grade, which will be a fun (and I'm sure challenging) change for me. The Principal and AP were amazingly wonderful in my interview. I cannot imagine having found better people to work for. Seriously, I almost cried with how wonderful they were. And I want a lot of credit for the word ALMOST there.

The only huge downside to the new job was telling my new boyfriend, Travis and his mom that I wouldn't be able to take care of him after August. This kid is adorable and wonderful and I'm truly sad that there's not some time-bending way to do both jobs. But at least I get another glorious month with his cute 3 and 1/2 month old self.

And now that all big decisions for the coming year have been made, I can truly relax and enjoy the rest of the summer.

B&B Trip

This is the story about two happy people on a mini-vacation.

Meet the characters: There's Andrew, the driver.

Then there's me, Ashley, the passenger.

We ventured off to the mountains of Virginia to a little B&B in Harrisonburg. We stayed in a cottage outside the actual B&B house. It was amazing, wonderful and supurb.

We arrived to champagne. Yum.

This was breakfast the first morning. I cannot express to you the yummy factor in words.

We spent some time driving Skyline Drive in Shenendoah National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL.

We hiked in our toesies. The shoes were quite the conversation starter. Normally the start sounded something like this: small child to parent, "Hey look at their feet!" Ashley to small child, "I know, they look like alien feet, huh?!"Parent, "How do you like those? I've read about them and seen people wearing them." Cue Andrew's turn to talk about the many wonderful attributes of Vibrams.

There were pretty flowers to be seen. I liked this one best.

There were rocks to jump from.

There were animals to watch. This is NOT zoomed in. She was literally outside the car window. Andrew stopped so I could take the picture.

There were more gorgeous mountain views.

And then we went to a winery. OMG. Seriously?! Amazing wine. The special of the day at Cave Ridge Winery was Sangria. Who are we to turn down a special?! It's also possible that we walked away with more than a case of wine. But there was a discount for a case! It was like getting wine for FREE. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

The view from the winery was amazing. All of the grapes for their wine are grown on site on the side of a mountain. Don't you want to just live there? I did.

We went out to dinner at the Joshua Wilton House. It's an Inn that specializes in local cusisine. They could actually tell you which local farm your meat came from. Super cool. And delicious. Seriously yummy.

There were baths in the HUGE bath tub.

And on our very last day of our vacation we hiked to a waterfall in Shenendoah National Park. It was 2.2 miles DOWN to the waterfall from trail head.

It was beautiful, I was happy, Andrew was running and jumping and leaping along the trail. I occasionally jogged down the path.

And then we started the UP part of this adventure. Note that both Andrew (picture taker) and I are on the trail. He's just ahead of me. Otherwise known as, STRAIGHT UP from where I was.

You will note that this is where the pictures of the happy couple on vacation end. The common picture taker (that'd be me) at this point in the journey became tired, sweaty and her fun hike to a waterfall turned into quite the workout. Don't get me wrong, it was fun in the end. I certainly felt like I'd accomplished something, but yeah, the time for pictures was complete. Andrew did take one picture of me finishing the trail. I assure you it will never be seen on the blog. It's just that "pretty." Andrew, in all of his Marine glory, finished the trail hopping from rock to rock, sprinting up hills for fun, and generally trying to make me feel better about gasping for air. ("Don't worry, I'm sure its the elevation that's getting you....")

It was a wonderful trip. A big THANK YOU to Nutty's grandparents for keeping him for us. He also enjoyed his vacation time at Disney World. (AKA My parents house...but Nutty thinks its Disney...)

Wisconsin Trip

We've been busy lately, traveling all over the place. First up was a trip to Wisconsin to visit Andrew's family. His mom's side of the family has a family reunion each year and this year we made it a priority to be there. We flew in late Friday night for this lovely day on Saturday. There was a picnic shelter. Please note that, while I did not take a picture of them, the most exciting thing in the picnic shelter was Wisconsin Brats. I ate brats. In Wisconsin. And OF COURSE I ate cheese. How dare you even wonder such a thing.

The siblings who were there. Ace's mom is the one in the middle in sunglasses :-)

All of the kids and grandkids. Pretty much all ages are accounted for.

Two of my personal favorite Eckerts.

Oh yes, there was cornhole. Please note the seriousness of the game.

Just a few pictures of New Glarus, the town where Andrew's mom lives. It's a Swiss town. They're very proud of that. The entire town is themed. No chain stores, no fast food joints. If it ain't Swiss, it ain't there!

We had a great time there, as usual. When we got home we almost immediately left for a B&B trip. That'll be my next post :-) Happy 4th of July!