I Still Loved It...

So, we saw Twilight last night. I went with my husband Casey and my best friend Laura. Laura has read Twilight and part of New Moon and Casey has not read any of them. Needless to say, Casey was a little bored.

Going into the movie, I had really low expectations. I knew that it was a low budget film, and I knew that movies are rarely anything like the book and never quite what you had imagined. Because of this, I liked the movie a lot.

Laura on the other hand said that she thought it was going to be really good because it was such a big deal. She did not know that it was low budget, and so she did not like it nearly as much. She thought it was awkward, cheesy, and said it didn't flow very well.

I do agree with the awkward cheesiness at times. When Edward picked Bella up and started running up the mountain and climbing the trees, I gotta tell you I laughed out loud pretty hard. There were a couple other parts portrayed that I thought were extremely funny after having read the book.

All that said, I still loved it, and I think I am going to go see it again (maybe even by myself so I can really enjoy it, haha)! I also can't wait for the next movie to come out in 11 months! Woo hoo!

Yay for Twilight!


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Mine & Casey's next free night is Friday, February 6th. We are booked solid for the next two weeks. It is practically insane. And it is all disciple now's fault. Don't get me wrong, we both love disciple now, but it takes up our life for a while. For the past 4 or 5 Saturdays (Casey's one day off) Casey has been working for several hours calling kids for Dnow. I wish I could help more with Dnow, but to be honest, it takes all of me to stay afloat as a first year teacher. I had no idea how exhausted I would be after work. I don't even do any work at home. I just try to get as much done at school until I am mentally exhausted and full and then I go home. I feel like a bum at home because I just feel like crashing. I don't feel sleepy, just mentally tired. Kiddos take a lot out of you...they don't even realize that following the rules would help me tremendously. I feel bad for the teachers I had in middle school. Bless their hearts.

Here is our schedule for this week:

Today-3 services at CLife (I only went to the 11 o'clock, but Casey went to all 3 like usual); Casey is decorating for Dnow starting as soon as the 4:3o service is over...I bet he gets home around 9.
Mondays-Casey is home for about one hour after work until he leaves for his youth CG in Forney. He gets home around 9:15 and we go to sleep at 1o:30
Tuesdays-We have our CG. We leave our house around 6:30 and get home about 9. I also have a two hour meeting after school once a month on Tuesday.
Wednesdays-Casey stays at church all day until after Momentum. He usually gets home around 9:30. I go to this sometimes.
Thursday-This Thursday we have our Dnow kickoff! We are having a Hypnotist come to the church-always really funny. (Thursdays are usually our first free night of the week, but not this time!) Casey will probably not get home until really late (maybe 1am) because they spend this night putting all the kids into houses for Dnow.
Friday-DNOW starts! Chaos begins :) Also, this is Casey's 26th birthday, but we won't be able to celebrate for about another week.
Saturday-DNOW all day
Sunday-last day of DNOW; 3 services; Super Bowl Sunday
Monday-youth CG in Forney again
Tuesday-our CG from 630-9
Wednesday-Momentum, Casey home around 9
Thursday-FIRST FREE NIGHT! OUT TO EAT WITH CASEY'S FAMILY FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!
Friday-SECOND FREE NIGHT! WOO HOO! I am taking Casey out for his birthday (it's a surprise where...he doesn't know and he won't read my blog til then cuz he's so busy! haha!:)

We love Disciple Now! It is super fun! It is also super tiring, and I can't wait for it to be over! :)

Twilight Tonight!

I'm seeing Twilight tonight and I am super excited! I am pretty sure I will reread the first book after this movie :)

I am trying not to get my hopes up because I know there is no way to make a movie anywhere as good as your imagination can make a book that you are reading. The characters won't be like I imagined, and I know that this was a low budget film and cannot possibly be as good as the book. Nevertheless, I am very excited to see it!

Meet the Cullens!

Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, Edward, Carlisle, Alice, and Jasper.

Alice, Emmett, Bella, Edward, Rosalie, and Jasper

Presidential Respect

The past week and a half my students and I have talked a lot about Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr....

Having gone to a private school full of white people, this has been the very first time that I have really thought about the impact of Martin Luther King on our country. Now that I teach a very diverse group of students I can see the impact that it has made on them. They can see a potential for their lives that boys and girls like them could not see in the 5o's or 60's and before that. The fact that we just elected our first black president speaks volumes to them. Regardless of political party, electing the first black man as president, having his 2 little girls in the White House, one of them the same age as some of my students is very powerful. I just love that we are a step closer to showing them that they are capable of anything.

I had my kids right a paper tying in Martin Luther King Jr. and yesterday's inauguration. A lot of them wanted to read their papers out loud. I felt overcome with emotion when I read some of them. I think they really get how important Obama's election is, and most of them aren't even "for" him (or their parent's aren't).

While I had opposing feelings about Barack Obama before he was elected, I very much respect him because he is our president. I had a long talk with my students on voting day...we talked about how once a new president is elected, we don't have to agree with what he believes or what he does, but we should respect him because he is our president. Our leader.

Our 44th president.

TWILIGHT

New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn.

I love them all. I can't help it. I thought I would be an exception. What was I thinking? I was very wrong. Apparently, I am just like all the teenage girls out there. I am not past that. It does make me feel better to know that there are tons of grown women at my school that have read and are obsessed, too.

I started Twilight over the Christmas break, but only read about 40 pages because I was so busy. I had no idea what I was missing. I wasn't deep enough in the story yet, so I could still put it down.

Monday that I got back to school (January 5th), I started reading it again. I read like a madwoman those 5 nights after school until I finished on Friday (the 9th) afternoon. Then I read New Moon starting Friday (the 9th). I finished it on Sunday (11th) afternoon. I got Eclipse that same night and finished it on Wednesday (14th). I got Breaking Dawn on Wednesday night and finished it on Saturday (the 17th)--it was 800 pages, so that was quite the feat! I started reading Midnight Sun yesterday (the 18th) (it is the unofficial 5th book that is only online because it got leaked) and finished it today (19th).

Needless to say, my life has been full of nothing but Edward and Bella. Casey told me that he felt like he hadn't seen me in a while. I looked at him like he was crazy and said, "I have been sitting right next to you!" He replied by saying, "you're there, but you're not really IN THERE." I thought that was really funny.

It's not funny anymore. I told Casey that now that I am done reading I feel like my friends have died. Sometimes I feel like picking up one of the books and rereading just to know they are still there. But, because I am not a crazy person, I refuse to do that.

I think you all know that I am crazy though...based on this post.

I certainly feel crazy.

Back to School Jitters

This post will be a depressing post because.....................


I have to go back to school tomorrow. :(

I did not know I would be THIS bummed about having to go back. I really enjoyed my break, but I almost feel like I would be less sad if I had never had the break, haha. I just got use to sleeping in and having fun. I think that the main reason I am not looking forward to going back to school is because I have my evaluation this week. It is called PDAS, and the principal comes in and watches you teach for 45 minutes. My principal has made it very clear to all of us that she will be in there the entire 45 minutes. I just get so nervous to teach in front of adults...especially when they are writing down what you are doing. :( I don't get nervous at all when I am teaching the kids and the principal walks in unannounced, it is just something about knowing that she is coming in and evaluating me that makes me cringe.

Oh well.

Thus is adult life.

And I am an adult now,

unfortunately :)

Our 1st Anniversary!

Well, today is our very first wedding anniversary. We can't believe it has been a whole year already. It really has flown by! We have been given so many blessings in this past year. We have taken our first vacation together, experienced our first time to organize our own high school mission trip for the youth group, joined our first married CG (for people who don't go to cLife, that is short for community group, our in home Bible studies), made many new friends with other married couples, moved out of our first home (our lake view condo) and into our very first home which we own. We've also gotten our very first pet, a kitty named Winter.

While sometimes it is hard to adjust to living with a new person with different ways of doing things and unique quarks, we have had a lot of fun this first year of marriage. We have grown closer than we thought possible when we were just dating. We both feel very blessed to be given this gift from God. What a wonderful thing to get to spend your life with your very best friend.

I love you very much, Casey. Thank you for a very memorable year.

Homeowner Update!

I guess it's about time for an update! My last update was Saturday, November 22nd and a lot has happened since then! We moved into our first house on November 25th (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and have had lots to do ever since! For a week we didn't have Internet, so I felt cut off from the outside world. It was okay though because we had a lot to keep us busy. I was so thankful that I had an ENTIRE WEEK off for Thanksgiving. Vacation days, in my opinion, are the #1 reason to be a teacher. I know that you should love kids and all that (and I do), but you just can't beat the vacation days with any other job. Casey and I debate our jobs a lot, and while his is super flexible during the day (he is able to leave and run errands if he needs to) and mine is not, he does not get near the days off that I do (duh!). Who else can say that they only have to work 180 days out of the year? I have 185 days OFF--that means I am off more days than I have to work :)

Anyway, back to the house. We had some pretty good help moving even though it was a weekday. Casey took off of work that day, and we also had both of our parents, Casey's grandmother, and Jeremiah help us move. We got EVERYTHING moved out of the condo and into the house in one day. Amazing. I thank Casey for being the "packing Nazi" for several weeks up to the move. Without him, nothing would have been in boxes. I absolutely despise packing.

The next day (Wednesday) Casey was as sick as a dog. He took off work that day, too. I was excited for him to be home with me until I realized that he wasn't going to be any fun! Thursday we went to both my mom and dad's sides of the family. Afterwards we drove to Austin and bought tickets for the A&M / UT game. I guess that has become a tradition for us! We have gone four out of the past five years. It's always a lot of fun, but it is MORE fun when the game is closer. This year was a little bit of a let down for me, but I know that Casey was excited to be in UT's new stadium. They added a section in the endzone. It holds a lot more people now. Of course, I still don't think it is cool as Kyle Field :)

Friday we slept in a little since we got home from Austin at 2:30 in the morning. We then went to have Thanksgiving with Casey's family at his grandmother's house (mom's side). We stayed over there for a while, but cut it a little short because Casey was sick again!! He had this stomach virus forever!

Saturday we did some more unpacking when Casey felt a little better. We also went with my mom and got a new washer and dryer at Lowe's. We went and saw the new James Bond movie that night. It was good, but not nearly as good as Casino Royale. I loved Casino Royale. And I really like this new James Bond. He is more rugged than the typical tall, dark, and handsome type.

Sunday I stayed home for the morning services while the new washer and dryer were delivered and hooked up. I went to the 4:30 service (we now have 3 services on Sunday! They are all the same, so that's nice when I want to sleep in:)!

Monday I went back to work. It was a hard day! I've learned that it is always really hard to go back to school after a vacation. I think the kids feel the same way. The rest of that week was typical. All work and no play. Ha ha. Thursday night we did get to go out with Charlie and Ginni! The came over and saw the new house, and then we went to eat at Snuffer's! Yum!

Finally the weekend came and Friday night Casey and I had dinner with his parents at Martinez! Yum, again! We also saw their newly painted house. It looks great! So great, it inspired us to go home and begin painting our furniture. We are painting two bookshelves and my old bedroom furniture. They are all pine and we are going to paint them black. I am excited to see how it all looks. So far we have only done one bookshelf...we have a LOT left to do. My bedroom furniture is made up of a LOT of pieces. Saturday we had the ELF BOWL all day. It is a football tournament that we put on for the youth group. It was awesome! We had 18 teams show up! It lasted from 9 to about 4:30. Last year's champs, the Rumble Bees, one it again! Protect the Hive! Today I stayed home again this morning to stay for the DirectTV guy to come and give us HD cable and DVR! This will be my first time EVER to have DVR. Casey told me he thought it would revolutionize my life (not his, just mine). I "tape" things ALL of the time! But I tape them on a VHS tape in my VCR. It is pretty outdated, I know. I am also really limited, too because the tapes are only 4 hours long, so if I am leaving 4 hours ahead of time my show won't tape! I am so excited about DVR!!! Yea!

Anyway, I will post some pictures later from our Thanksgiving week! Happy Sunday!