Thanksgiving and such.....

The last few weeks have been up and down. I was sick for about a week and lost my voice which obviously made it difficult to work with the kids and coach. It was interesting that's all I have to say. One of my kids today asked me, "B, I'm so glad you found your voice! Where did you find it?" It was really funny because she was really serious and concerned.
I went to Kurtz's house for Thanksgiving. She is living in Colorado now so here are some of the pictures from that trip! It was a lot of fun and it was SO nice to see a familiar face!

We were at this country type restaurant and it had this sign up! Of coarse I took a pic! (Mandy I thought you would like this!!)

There was a huge slide in the middle of the restaurant. Yes, I had to go down it. =)

Kurtz and I beginning our Thanksgiving day cooking. We were looking for all of the turkey's parts.....we couldn't find a few of them.....so we stuffed him anyways. Eventually we found everything after going in from a different angle...haha.

He's all tied up, stuffed, and ready to go!

Done turkey!!! and NO fires! =)

All of the food Kurtz and I made! It's all lined up ready to go!

We were proud.

Kurtz is feeling a little full after eating so much!

Colorado has Chick-Fil-A's so I was super excited about it!

Downtown Denver. A fun street all decorated.

Random chess boards in the middle of a street in downtown. There were a ton of them down the street.

Gotta love some moutains. It snowed while I was there. The moutains got a ton of snow while we got an inch or two. Just enough to have a snowball fight. =)

i am officially completely unpacked....

There are no more boxes in my room now. Everything I own is now fully unpacked. Over the weekend I picked up some furniture for my room. A lady from the church I am going to gave it away so I jumped on that deal real quick. I got a queen size bed, bookcase, night stand, and an armoire. I definitely lucked out. I put up some pictures on my finished room, as well as pictures of my living room with my new couch.

There aren't really many updates on my life. Work at the school is going well. This week I have parent teacher conferences so I am kind of excited for those because I will get to meet the kids' parents. I will have a lot of meetings, but I am looking forward to them.
Coaching is going well also. I am getting back into the compulsory mind set and learning all of the new beam and floor routines. Always a good time. I like working with the kids though and I think they are beginning to get use to my conditioning. =)

...pictures of sunsets all the way down the stairs...

Something on the side.....

Today I did a bar clinic for the optionals at the gym I have been going to lately. Last Thursday the owner asked me if I would like to start coaching because she is in need of another coach. So, I am now coaching level 5's three days a week. It will be just enough to keep me busy in the afternoons after I am done working at the school. I think it will be a good thing for me. I am excited because I will get to go to the meets with the girls and all of that jazz.

Everything else is pretty much the same. I have done more decorating in the house here and there. I am still working on getting furniture for my room. Work went a whole lot better this past week than the previous week so that was encouraging. Well, that's about everything here. I'll be posting more updates soon.

I do have to say congratulations to the Spartans! Go State! and the Titans!!!

Trip to Tacoma, Washington

I took a trip to Washington today. I went to Tacoma, Washington to visit a friend who coached at the same gym I went to in Tennessee when I was in highschool. It is about 2 hours straight up, so it wasn't too bad of a trip. We were going to go to Seattle, but it was raining pretty hard and decided not to go. Here are some pics along the way up though.

Entering Washington. It actually only took me about 2 minutes to cross into Washington from where I live.

A pretty tree. I love fall.

This one is for Abi. =) On my way to Tacoma, Washington.

...beautiful...

best part of last week.....
i took this picture on my way to work one morning about 2 seconds away from where i live...

Fall Activities

First I must start with a congratulations to my Spartans who beat the Wolverines this past Saturday. It was a great game. =)

This past weekend one of my coworkers had a pumpkin carving party. Pretty much everyone who came carved a pumpkin. I carved a pumpkin in celebration of the Spartans win on Saturday.

a few of the finished products...

here is a close up of mine. "S" for eyes, MSU for a nose, and a huge smile for a victory.
i'm a dork.....i know. =)

I had a very eventful day at work today. Besides the normal routine of kids acting out all over the place, at the end of the day right before the kids were about to leave we looked out our window and saw 20 feet flames about 10 feet away from us. The building right next to ours was on fire and it was right outside our classroom! It was unbelievable and very intense. We had to evacuate immediately and had kids everywhere. There were about fire trucks within a matter of a few minutes and the police had blocked off the busy street my school is on. This is all happening while we are trying to get kids on the bus and parents were trying to pick their kids up. Everyone in our school were safe and from my knowledge no one was injured. I don't know what caused the fire but I know it will be on the morning news! Overall it was like something you see in the movies.

Well, that is my eventful Monday....can't wait to see what Tuesday will bring. =) Actually I have a new student starting in the class tomorrow so that should be eventful....

just because........

Life is going pretty well out here. Work always keeps me on my toes. It has been a learning process as I figure out the most productive way to help some of these kids. Most of them are physically aggressive which can be intense, but that is okay because no one ever said this job is going to be easy. My living situation is coming along. I actually got a couch for free and now my living room is complete. Now I have to focus on my room as well as getting a dining room table. I enjoy the area I am living at because I have a great view of Mt. St. Helen's and Mt. Hood. Other than work I haven't been up to much lately. I have been a bit bored and am not sure what to do with all the free time I have. I did go take some pictures and now that some of the trees are changing I am going to start taking pictures of all the fall colors! =)

Well, that is about all right now. Here are a few pictures that I have taken recently.....