My Beautiful Shower

This past November, I was blessed beyond what I could imagine when I was given a shower by my bridesmaids: Danielle & Brenna ; My cousins: Penny  & Peggy ; My Aunt: Shawn; and My Mom's Best friend: Peggy.  I have been meaning to post pictures a lot sooner but have not made the time until now.  My day was absolutely perfect - starting off with family coming over to set up followed by 30+ women who have influenced my life coming over and showering me with their love and kindness.  Absolutely Amazing!

Just cheesin!

 My future Mother in Law - myself - and my mom!

 My sweet cousin Katie.

 Mom & I before the shower

 My sweet cousins - Peggy & Penny (Penny is who I lived with while student teaching)

 Best surprise/game ever - My hostesses decided to surprise me and go and ask Brett questions about our relationship (unknown to me!!) and I had to answer them in front of everyone one and see how many we got right!  There were only a few embarrassing questions - but a lot of sweet ones too!

 Beautiful Afghan blanket that Aunt Floris made for us.  I am so excited to have our first very own family heirloom.

 I loved reading (and re-reading) all of the sweet messages from the ladies.

 My college roommate, Abby, who drove up from Houston for my special day.

 My Bridesmaids (Minus Kim!) Danielle, Brenna, Rachel, Haylee, Abby

 Thankful to have this friend, Leigh in my life.

 All of the women who I am related to who were at my shower - ranging from aunts to 2nd cousins on both sides of the family :)

 My awesome friends who helped me celebrate - wow I am lucky!!

One of my oldest friends (since Kindergarten!!) and her Mom.

Brett & I are so grateful for the family & friends we have.  I cannot wait to use all of the goodies after we get married.  My shower was absolutely perfect - it went by way too fast.  I'm told that's how my wedding day will feel.  I don't want it to fly by!  I want to be able to stop, take in & soak up the memories that will be made on one of the best days of my life.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

I am officially a certified teacher in Texas!  WOO HOO!!!  It has been quite the journey, and I am glad to say that I can check this one off the list.  A year ago, I decided to take a leap of faith and completely change my career track.  Being a paralegal, while I learned a lot, wasn't exactly fulfilling me.  I wanted that more personal interaction/feel like I'm making a differences as opposed to either (A.) making money for big businesses or (B.) working with attorneys who pursued car wreck cases.  Not my cup of tea.  When I moved back from college, and while I was living in Fort Worth, I started volunteering at The WARM Place a grief support center for kids.  It was a fabulous experience where I was a facilitator and worked with other facilitators (all who have experienced some sort of grief loss) and we worked with kids of different age groups who have lost a parent also.  The reality is that more kids than we want go through some sort of traumatic loss in their life, and don't have the support system they need or the peers they can relate too.  The center is geared to help those kids learn to cope with what they are going through.  When I moved to Dallas, I couldn't just give up facilitating, so I found another grief support center - Journey of Hope.  Same type of place as WARM Place, but this place also caters to taking care of the adults who have also been affected by the loss.  My group is the Middle School Kids.  I hope that I'm making a difference in their life, even if I don't see the results right away - it's a long process.

So, after being in Dallas for a few months, I decided to pursue my alternative teacher certification.  After a few hurdles and a recommendation from a friend who went through the same program, I decided on Region 4, based out of Houston.  I spent the spring semester doing coursework and taking this ridiculously hard content test about grades: early childhood through 6th.  I spent countless Saturday's in front of the computer learning.  It was draining, but worth it.  This past semester, I student taught in a 2nd grade classroom.  I absolutely loved it!  I originally applied for 4th grade, but am so glad I was with these kiddos.  They really surprised me and weren't as baby as I thought they were going to be.  This past Friday was my last day in the class room, the time flew by, and these sweet kiddos got me this present:

It is a starter pack for my own classroom!  They filled it with goodies like: books for my library, highlighters, stickers, note cards, markers, scissors etc!!  I was so surprised and felt so blessed.  Wow, life is good.  I am planning on substitute teaching in the spring while applying everywhere for jobs in the fall.  I know I need to NOT BE ANXIOUS, and trust that God will provide and I will end up where I need to be.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself is the Rock eternal.  Isaiah 26:4.