A Day in the Life of Instagram

I'm on a mission to make this apartment smell delicious. Today: apple crisp heated in a wittle bitty skillet.

I'm also on a mission to be healthy this summer. I'm too lazy to drive to gyms, so I do On Demand workouts at home, then eat spinach.

Before you feel too preached at, you should know I added popcorn chicken and ranch dressing after this picture was taken. But my heart was in the right place.

Then I attempted to fold clothes. Itchy just wanted to lay on them. Silly wiener dog.

Finally, I experimented with Pinterest recipes. This is a sausage and cheese calzone before the heat.

And after...

We've gone over this. I make fancy things now.

Pretend like it didn't spit up on the aluminum foil.

If you want to make it yourself, HERE IS THE RECIPE.

Always Waiting...

You know those people who tell you not to wish your life away waiting for the "next step"? They're talking to me. Sorry you had to sit through all those boring talks. I'm even sorrier that you'll have to sit through more because I'm not listening.

I have a pretty serious problem with not enjoying life where I am.

It started in high school. I couldn't wait to graduate and start college at UT. I spent most of my senior year filling out scholarship applications and obsessing over what I needed for college. I spent about three years of college actually enjoying life. I didn't want it to end. 

But then I started student teaching, which is one giant time of "preparing for the future." Not good for a girl who always wants the future to be here NOW. At UT, we spend our whole senior year doing a combination of practicums and student teaching in the typical sense. After that, we do a full year of interning. So I had two years of "You're not a real teacher yet, but you're going to work like you are and get paid nothing." I had never wanted the future to arrive so badly....until I met Chris.

 I wanted to marry him from day one. He proposed at the beginning of my first year of "real" teaching. After all that waiting for my first "real" classroom, I spent that whole year planning for my wedding. I couldn't wait for the school year to end so I could marry my sweetheart.

It finally did, and we got married. Then we (Chris really) started applying to physical therapy schools. We waited and waited to find out where we would be going. We waited almost a full year. We were so excited about moving to Nashville for physical therapy school.

We got to Nashville. It's been hard. When I was in grad school, it was hard, but it might be harder as a grad school wife. It's a lot of being alone and wishing you could help take some of the burden off your husband. Finals weeks are stressful on all of us. But all of it is worth it because Chris is SO GOOD as what he does and is going to have an amazing career once he graduates. We just have to wait.

And there it is again. More waiting. 

I'm currently waiting for 2014. Chris will graduate. We can get out of apartments. We can go on a vacation. Our real life can begin. Of course that's not true--our real life has begun. But that's what it feels like. 

This is not an inspirational blog post if that's what you thought it was going to be. Just thought I would share a glimpse into my life. I feel better when I remember that God is on my side, and His timing is perfect. Every single thing in my life has always happened in perfect timing, so I don't know why I bite my fingernails waiting for whatever I think I'm waiting for. 

I might be asking for you to not let me wish this time away. Remind me that I'm young, don't have children yet, and should at least try to stay up past 9:30. Or you can punch me when I start whining about the future. Totally your call.

When you don't have anything nice to say...

...don't blog.

Hopefully, life will be cheerier soon. Only 3 more days of school (with kids). Knoxville/Gatlinburg for our anniversary. Couple of lake weekends this summer. Woot.

I have very much enjoyed having my husband home so much right now. I'm a little bit dreading him starting summer school again. We enjoyed a wonderful, rare day of doing NOTHING today. We slept in, went grocery shopping together, watched a whole season of Scrubs, watched storms roll in from the porch.... Maybe not exactly how we would have spent our free day in college, but I love this old, married life we have built.

The longer you are married, the more alike you become...

Face Juggler App

Chris just found Friends on TV and voluntarily turned it. This is why I love him.

Crazy April

This month has been nutso.

Chris has been especially stressed out. He's had ~10 projects due in the past two weeks. As soon as he finished those, he began finals. He has five in the next three days. I know he (and I) would really appreciate some prayers.

April got ridiculously crazy at school for me too. I somehow ended up staying at school until 4:30 or 5:00 every night. (They stop paying me at 2:45...) We just finished TCAP week, and next week is SAT-10 for my second graders. I would also appreciate some prayer for sanity.

My beautiful friend Leslie got married last Saturday!

I was so honored to be a part of her day! She fed me Mountain Dew and watermelon on my wedding day, so I brought her sugar free Red Bull on hers. I think we're even now.

It was so fun to make new friends with Leslie's other bridesmaids.

Since Leslie obviously picks great friends (ahem), any friend of Leslie's is a friend of mine!


Chris and I have finally organized our summer schedule. Looks like we have 2 weekends in Nashville total from now until August. That sounds alright to me! Lots of visits with family, a few special trips for just Chris and I, and a month-long clinical in Houston, Texas! It's busy times, but we are so excited. Pray for safe travels everywhere we go and that we are able to spend some quality time together while we are bumming off our sweet friends and family.

"When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy." -Psalm 94:19

Nuggets

I make Chick-Fil-A quality chicken nuggets. No lie.

That was so you would still have a reason to like me after all this complaining I'm about to do.


Teaching is hard.
I am an educator, mother, nurse, accountant, event coordinator, advertiser, cheerleader, nutritionist, counselor, interior designer, performer, dentist, tech support....the list could go on and on.

Most days, I feel really unqualified. In my totally biased opinion, I attended the best teacher preparation program in Tennessee. During my internship year, I did student teaching from 7:00-3:00 and attended class from 4:00-8:00. Every day. For one full year. At the same time, I also completed an action research project, which culminated in a 118 page paper. And I still feel completely unqualified to be a really great teacher.

Completely unrelated side note--it's getting a little annoying to work this hard all day and come home to news reports of how teachers are the problem with education. Dear media, Spend a day in my shoes.

New cities are hard.
I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how open to change you are, moving to a new city is hard.

This wasn't even a major change. I went to middle/high school in Murfreesboro. I'm kind of from this area. My parents still live here. But it's different now.

It's hard to explain how it's different. I had good friends when I was in high school. I kept busy playing for the most awesome softball team ever. But I don't really have anything here now. I go to work, and I come home. When I crave restaurants, I crave Downtown Grill & Brewery and Long's Drugstore. I get the urge to ride my bike down Cherokee and finish with a Mountain Dew Icee from Weigel's. Then I remember I'm not in Knoxville anymore.

Adjusting has been hard. And almost one year later, it's not any easier.


God is good.
I already know that after all this complaining, Chris is going to make me list the good things in my life. So here it goes.

God brought us here to teach us a lot about relying on Him for everything. Five days after I moved here, I got a job at the best school I've ever been a part of. Provision. Between my salary and Chris' tuition, it doesn't make sense that our budget consistently stays in the green. But it does. Provision. God led us to Itchy, who turned out to be the most perfect companion on all those lonely nights when Chris is studying. Provision.

Life is hard, but I feel good knowing a) they've been harder, and b) God promises to work everything out for my good anyway.


So let me know if you ever want to try my chicken nuggets.

Don’t Drive Dumb

By Chris O’Brien

That’s right, folks. I’ll be your guest blogger tonight- mostly because my wife’s commute involves driving in the opposite direction while pointing and laughing at the schmucks sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the opposite side of the median. I, on the other hand, have the joy of experiencing the daily aftermath of drivers who decide to explore the literal implications of the song “Jesus Take the Wheel”. 

The thing about this town that continues to shock me is how dangerous the drivers are. I don’t mean aggressive- I grew up in the DC metro area, where your commute is often more like a dogfight between WWI flying aces. No, in Nashville most of the drivers are very safe and courteous. A lethal minority of the population, however, chooses to leave their higher mental function behind when they slide behind the wheel of a 2,500 lb. killing machine. This post is designed to recognize the top three of Nashville’s finest geniuses, all experienced (by yours truly) on highways and byways right here in town. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the “Don’t Drive Dumb” Awards!!!

Honorable Mentions: 10% of drivers here have no idea what a blind spot is, or how how to check it for that matter. They prefer to procede with a Russian roulette approach to merging. An additional 50% of this town is unfamiliar with how to utilize headlights during rainy conditions.  

3rd Place: To be fair, this driver had no control of this what happened while it was happening. As he merged onto the interstate towing a 2-axle trailer, one of the wheels rolled off as he veered right, and it kept on rolling. And rolling. And rolling- in a straight line- easily crossing the 100 yard median and rolling perpendicularly through 5 lanes of interstate traffic. I was able to watch (as I exited to go in the opposite direction, thankfully) as dozens of cars and trucks slammed on their brakes to avoid what would have been a comical gag in any theater. I can only assume it ended in a seven car pile-up. Really, all this guy had to do was check and see if there was a SINGLE lug nut left on his tire before leaving. 

2nd Place: On two separate instances, I have spent an hour on my 12 minute commute home because a pair of geniuses on 24 between 65 and 40 got into a very minor fender bender and then decided to take up HALF OF THE FAST LANE waiting for the police to arrive and inspect the “crash”. I can only imagine the conversation once he arrived went something like this: 

Police Officer: “Congratulations! Half an ounce of goof-off will buff those scratches right out! Now, unless either of you wants to call your lawyers to pursue malingering claims of neck injury, GET OUT OF THE ROAD. You’re blocking traffic from here to Louisville.”

(That's right. I picked a picture of a donkey blocking traffic. Kids, ask your parents to explain)

 

And the Grand Prize goes to:

(Keep in mind, this is a totally true story, which happened this afternoon and prompted the writing of this post...)

As I drove south on 65 through downtown, I saw in the distance a driver, stopped just past an exit ramp, with his reverse lights on. This is a common, albeit unsafe decision: when one retraces their steps after missing an exit to avoid the hassle of getting off one exit down and backtracking. As I pulled even with them, their lack of experience in the gear of reverse became painfully obvious. They started to back into the right lane, and at the point at which they slipped out of my rear-view, they were entirely into that lane. In Reverse. AT SIX O’CLOCK ON A WEEKDAY. 

...I don’t want to live on this planet anymore...

And there you have it! The winners of the first semi-annual Don’t Drive Dumb Awards!

Thank you all for participating. I'm sure the exponentially more entertaining and lovely Laura will be returning with a new post soon. And remember: DONT DRIVE DUMB!!!!!

Spring Break Blues

God decided that there would be no snow days this year. So I was pretty pumped about spring break 2K12. Then God decided that my spring break would plagued with illness and injuries. The last 6 days have been filled with fevers, antibiotics, and Chris practicing his new "wound care" skills on me. My principal already vetoed a re-do spring break.

I'm somewhere between suffering and perseverance on the Romans 5 scale.

So instead of ranting about how much my life sucks (again), I cleaned out my camera with some awesome pictures from the last few weeks.

We took a trip to Knoxville in February. Itchy always knows when he's getting left at Grandma's house and prefers to ride all the way to Murfreesboro like this. One of these days, we're going to actually give in and take him with us.

The view of downtown Knoxville from Mark and Spargo's balcony. Gaaaaahhhh I miss this city. I can smell Downtown Grill & Brewery just looking at this picture.

Chris and I went to our first concert in Nashville. The theme was "plaid."

The lovely Catherine Moe, Heather Mullins, and I hosted a bridal shower for our BFF Leslie. When you live with 7 girls in college, you become a champ at hosting showers.

The gorgeous spread of food...clearly the most important part of any shower. The only thing I contributed was ham and cheese sliders, which I totally stole from a co-worker of mine. 

My beautiful friends,college roomies, and 4/5 of my own bridesmaids. Heather, Leslie (almost) Woodall, Catherine, and Liz!

Just like when we were in college, Liz spends the night and we end up wearing almost identical outfits. Blue dresses and cowboy boots!

Literally took this picture 4 minutes ago. Itchy decided Chris and I were being lame, so he treated himself to a game of fetch. He launched that red thing down the hall, then ran after it as fast as he could. This is him returning it to...himself?

Two minutes later... he got hot and "cooled off" on the couch.

Pardon the inappropriateness. He's such a guy sometimes.

Well, there ya go. Today is the first day I've had vital signs since last Friday. I celebrated by making, not one, but two trips to the store today because that sneaky Redbox movie played hide and seek right before my first trip. I also made sausage balls and a fanciful dinner of fish, edamame, and garlic bread. I even did all the dishes afterward! I may live after all! 

Come on, summmmmatime.