Remembering 2012

2012 has been quite the year.  At the start, I was an ESOL teacher, lived with my parents, and had an awesome boyfriend.  Now on the last day of the year, I am a 1st grade teacher, I moved out of my parents' house, and I have an amazing husband.  I'd say 2012 was pretty great.  :]

In the spring I took up running (might have had something to do with the cool guy I was dating...) and ran 3 different 5k's between May and September.  It was great fun and I really enjoyed challenging my body like that.

My first 5k on Memorial Day.

I had three different positions this year.  After being displaced from my ESOL position, I worked as a parapro in a level one autism class for a few months.  I knew that it wasn't the place for me, though, so I was very excited when I was hired to teach first grade starting in October.  Great kids, great school...what more can you ask for?

The biggest thing that happened this year was, of course, getting married to my best friend, whom you all know as "Mr. Biz."  We got engaged on my birthday...it was simple and beautiful and just want I wanted.  Several months of wedding planning and a little bit of stress later, we got married on December 15th.  Once again, it was simple, beautiful, and exactly what I wanted.  I can't wait to share pictures once I get them.

Holding hands around the door before we were allowed to see each other.

After the wedding we spent a wonderful honeymoon outside of Asheville, NC.  We loved the solitude and relaxation that came with our little cabin (plus a great hot tub), and the opportunity to eat some delicious grub in Asheville. 

Hiking near our cabin in NC.

We are so happy to be married.  We've spent the rest of our Christmas break getting settled into our home and doing things like hanging up curtains, spending time with our families, and celebrating my man's birthday.  It has been great and wonderful, and I don't think I can come up with many more adjectives to describe our December.  :]

On New Years Day of 2012, I told Mr. Biz that "2012 is going to be our year."  I was definitely right.  So here's to 2013.  We're excited to face this next year together.

I am living.

Hi everyone. 

Yes, I am still alive.  Don't worry.

Photographic proof of my existence.

For some reason this whole "working, planning a wedding, and having a social life" thing has kept me pretty busy.  Who would've known.

So, to get you up to date:
-I am getting married in 68 days, or 9ish weeks.  And I have not sent out invitations yet.  Or booked a florist.  Oops.
-I have a new job.  I am now responsible for the learning of 21 precious first graders.  Yikes.
-I am slowly moving my stuff into our new home.  Can't wait for it officially to be my home in December...for now I spend most of my time here, but I still sleep at my parent's house.
-I am drinking a lot of grande nonfat salted caramel mochas (with whip).  Hooray to fall.

I'll probably see ya'll back on the blog in a few months.  ;]

Excuses, Excuses

Long time, no see.  It seems like it's been ages since I've visited the pages of my blog, but I have a very valid excuse:
SUMMER.
Yes folks, summer.  These last few weeks of summer I couldn't make myself sit down to write a new post.  It could have been the extreme heat that I feel if I'm not lying prostrate under the fan...but probably not.  Honestly, I was attempting to enjoy a lazy, fun summer because I knew that soon enough it would be back to reality.


And tomorrow?  Yep, back to reality.  Another school year starts.  The good news?  There are only 18 weeks of school until I am getting married!  Wahoo! 


In lieu of me typing more barely coherent sentences, here are some pictures and one-word captions.  Maybe they'll paint a picture of the past few weeks.

Hotdogs.

Brunch.

Boo.

Runner.

The end.

Bragging on Biz

Good afternoon fellow bloggies-


As I write this blog post we are a mere ten days away from the start of pre-planning.  To be honest, I've had a cruddy past couple days: I've been feeling very down about my current job situation and wondering just what I've been doing wrong.  But I'm not writing this post to linger on my career woes; I'm writing this post to brag on my fiance.

Many times I feel like my problems are silly or that I'm blowing them out of proportion, but Biz never makes me feel bad for sharing my feelings with him.  He encourages me to be open and honest with him, even when I think I might be burdening him with my issues. 

So while I'm not feeling that great about my job situation right now, I feel more than blessed to have a man like Mr. Biz in my life.  Praise God for bringing him into my life...Biz is a continual reminder of God's faithfulness. 

@ Niagara Falls

I know many of you ladies have an exceptional man in your life.  How about we all take some time this week to brag about them on our little corners of the internet?  If you want, you can even share then link to your blog post in the comments.  And then we can all thank God for the blessings He has given us.  :]

Beach Party Date Day

One reason Biz and I have been loving summer is because of the plethora of "date days."  "What is a date day," you ask?  Well, a date day is nothing more than a day spent doing date-type activities together.  We have gone to eat at new places, seen movies, watched sunsets, went people watching at the mall...all sorts of things! 

Today I decided to have an "at home" date day since we've been gone for a while (and also to save a little money on eating out).  After some pondering, a thought hit me at about midnight (as good thoughts generally do): let's have a beach party! 

Don't you love my crazy looking banner that I slaved over for approximately 30 seconds?

So today we've had a lot of fun doing "beachy" things like listening to the Beach Boys Pandora station (fantastic), playing Bananagrams (because bananas remind me of the beach, duh), and playing that fun wiffle ball + scoop game (no idea what it's called).  Soon we're going to have a seafood dinner of tortilla crusted talapia and shrimp cocktail (yum yum!).  But I figured we needed a beachy drink to keep us cool during our outside activities (high of 95 ya'll!), so we put together this concoction.  Enjoy!

Virgin Strawberry Daiquiris (Kinda)

In a blender put half a bag of frozen strawberries (I'd guess about 10).

Add 1/4 cup of OJ.  We also considered using lemonade...I'm sure it's good, too!

Add 3/4 cup of diet lemon lime soda.  Or be really adventurous and get the full calorie kind, ohh!

Think about how gross your mixture looks so far, then blend.

 Pour into a glass and enjoy!  We made this twice to get two servings, and I added two teaspoons of sugar to mine to sweeten it up a bit.  It was still pretty tart even with the sugar. 

New York Part 1

Mr. Biz and I got back late Tuesday night from a quick little vacation to Western NY (no, not NYC) to visit my grandparents and other members of my dad's family.  It was a beautiful trip for many reasons, one of which was the weather.  The Atlanta area had record highs that hit triple digits while we enjoyed five days of breezy, high-of-82-degrees weather.  It was fantastic. 

Our flight got in around 11:30PM on Thursday, so we headed straight to bed when we got to my grandparent's house.  Friday morning found us up and at 'em...running time!  My grandparents live a little outside a super quaint village, that was great for a short run.  The only issue was running with a headwind.  I felt like whatever direction we picked, the wind was going against us!  After three miles I set up shop with my Kindle at Panera while Biz went a few more miles on his own.  A beautiful morning.

After our run and breakfast together, we met up with my parents and sisters for a short trip to Niagara Falls.  I hadn't seen the falls in 8ish years, so it was awesome for me, but I loved seeing Biz's reaction.  He had never seen them before and I could tell he was blown away.  But I'll write more about that part of our trip later (esp. since those pictures are in Canada with my youngest sister).

The only picture I took of the falls.  Kelley's pictures are much better. 

Saturday we had a fun surprise...my aunt and sisters threw us a shower!  They themed it after a couple of my favorite things: The Office and Moe's.  It was a lot of fun and the perfect couples shower (since it wasn't super girly).  I have a feeling that this next season of my life will continually remind me how blessed I am to have such loving and generous friends and family.

Sunday we drove to Ohio to visit my uncle's family.  Biz enjoyed talking running with my uncle, and I enjoyed getting to see three of my cousins.  Every year I have more and more fun hanging out with them.  DJ was 14 this year and he loved talking with Mr. Biz...especially when they discovered that they both have the same favorite car. 

Speaking of favorite car, on Monday Mr. Biz and I had date-day and we received this text message from my sisters:

Our dream mini...they even got the color right.  (Sidenote: we saw a mini this same color at Starbucks a couple weeks ago.  We both loved the color and then realized why: that's the color we're painting our living room/kitchen.  Duh.)  One day this car will be our reality...with different rims (Biz thinks they're ugly) and a turbo (so my man can drive fast).  If you know my future last name, then this car makes sense for us.  :]

That's all for today...don't want to overwhelm ya'll with our vacation details.  And anyways, this account is more so that I can look back and remember our first big vacation together.  Fun stuff!  Can't wait for December though...that's the big vacation: honeymoon!  :]



P.S.- I changed my blog header...what do ya'll think?

My Playlist for the shemoves ATL 5k

I spent a lot of time perfecting the timing of my running playlist for my race this past Saturday.  I ran with music for the first time a few weeks ago and I was amazed at the difference it made in my pace.  My thought is that the music distracted me and gave me something to think about other than the (loud) sound of my breathing.  So, just for fun, here is my latest running playlist (in the order I listened to them).

-Uprising by Muse
-Dog Days are Over by Florence & the Machine
-Another One Bites the Dust by Queen
-When Love Takes Over by David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland
-All These Things That I've Done by The Killers
-Marry You by Bruno Mars (I hit 2 miles at the beginning of this song.)
-Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
-Shake it Out by Florence & the Machine
-Dance Again by Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull (This was the last song I listened to as I was nearing the finish.)

There you have it...the playlist that helped me kick race butt this past weekend. 

I'm going to start using jog.fm to find some new songs.  When you get to the page you type in your mile pace, and it gives you a list of songs that have the right number of BPM to help you run at the correct pace.  I discovered that I should be running to Womanizer.  Awesome.  :]  And I bought a new song to go in my running playlist that I heard Saturday morning: Wavin' Flag by K'naan.  I got the Coca-Cola Celebration version because it is super upbeat and fun (it was the song from the 2010 World Cup commercials). 

What is your favorite song to run/bike/walk/exercise to?