Back at it at school again. We started the 23rd and it was actually a really nice week last night to start. It wasn't too hot, and was relatively in the high 70's for most of the week so that was nice. There isn't any air conditioning in my part of the building so it's never a good idea when you start mixing junior high kids and heat, my room tends to smell. Bad. Other than that it has gone really well. It's definitely been hard getting back into the routine - I hate waking up at 6 A.M., but the days seem to just fly by now. Seems like sleep has turned into one of my favorite things (which I will post about soon. I've been wanting to do a "My Favorite Things" post for a while - now I just need to find time to get it done!) but it's definitely going to fly by I think and Christmas will be here before we know it! (YAY!)
Not much has been happening lately. I'm excited for Labor Day Weekend this weekend, not just because it's kind of the last weekend of Summer, but that means I can start putting out FALL decorations! I can't wait to get all my warm colors, Fall Yankee Candles, and pumpkin stuff out. I've really be itching to get it all out, and I told Josh I didn't care if it was 110 degrees on Monday I'm getting everything out! It's September so that gives me the go ahead to take down the beach scents and the red, whites and blues and get out the red, gold and oranges. I've even tried to talk Josh into making some chili but he says it just isn't chili weather yet (and he's right), but with the nice days we were having and the cool nights it was so tempting. Plus with Friday Night Football under way it just seems logical. I guess I'll have to wait a little bit longer for that. I'm actually going to make some of these that I saw on another blog: Jack O' Lanterns! I'm going to make a couple to put in the windows here, and then maybe two to take to school. It doesn't sound like it will cost me much, I just need to find all the material. So I'm hoping I can get to making some of those this weekend - that would just be great!
This past weekend Andy, Laura, and Kayden came down on Friday night so we kind of lounged around on Friday night and then Saturday we went to the Downtown Farmer's Market and then out to eat and then I had to stop by the mall and get a dress for my friend Nichole's wedding. It was pretty fun and nice to spend time with them all day. We were having some troubles with Tyson being extremely jealous whenever Josh or I would hold Kayden, and the first time they came down it was almost scary how crazy he was going:
But the more they come down here the calmer he is about it and he even kind of ignored me on Saturday when I was holding her! (Could have been because someone else had food.) But I got one good picture of her Sunday when we all went to Josh's family reunion, she looked so cute in her dress and bow:
Saturday night I went out for a girls night with my friend Danielle and our friend Brice and we had a blast, it was much needed from the stressful first week back, and I couldn't have asked for better friends to hang out with. So for the most part it was a successful weekend. Like I said, I'm ready for Fall and apparently the trees are getting ready too because our neighbor's tree is starting to lose a few of its leaves so that's always a good sign it's just around the corner. But before my garden goes away I wanted to post a picture of it at its fullest at the end of Summer:
With ISU rock:
Sending lots of prayers and well wishes to Grandpa and Brother - hope they are doing well and both on the fast road to recovery! <3
This past week I've been in my classroom getting ready for school which starts on Monday! I think last year I was more nervous/not sure about everything, but this year I'm still a little excited and still nervous but not as ready. I know I'm ready - like I have all classes and papers ready, but after this summer break it's going to be hard to go back. Definitely not ready to start working full time again and having to wake up early and all that, but I love Fall season and I'm not coaching anything this year until track so it's going to be so so so nice. Plus since Christopher is a senior this year it's going to be fun watching him play football, so I'm definitely ready for that.
Since I've been getting ready I thought I'd post some pictures of my room this year.
My full classroom with chairs:
My bulletin board! It's got Taytum, Tyson, Kayden, and brother on it.
My full desk! There's a frame on there with Kayden and Josh & Me, plus a new little plant.
Side wall. There was a gross sink there last year, and they took it out and put my filing cabinet over there and I put all the old JH track trophies they gave me over there. I think it's a cute little corner :)
This is the students' bulletin board. They bring in pictures and like to post them on the bulletin board and it's kind of their board. It has the activities, lunch menu, and all that good stuff on it.
Josh has been pretty sick, and since his birthday is tomorrow I'm hoping he starts feeling better. We had tickets to go to Darrius Rucker, but since he was sick he didn't go last night so I just went with friends. It was still a good time, but I know he was bummed because he really wanted to see him, but didn't want to risk staying sick. But he feels better today so I'm hoping we get to go to the fair tonight and then celebrate his birthday tomorrow!
Well...it's that time of year again. I can't believe my first summer went so fast - I already went back to my room today! I went in and did some bulletin boards, put things where I wanted them, and got a few things hung on the walls. I still need to go back tomorrow and finish hanging some things, but for teh most part I know where I want things/what I want to do so I shouldn't spend too much time there tomorrow. What stinks is that there is NO a/c in my room (or for most of the building, besides the library) so it was really hot today. And it's going to be really hot tomorrow. And Thursday. And Friday. And it's not suppose to cool off until next week! Hopefully it cools off before school actually starts (Aug. 23), because once you get the room filled with sweaty junior high kids, nothing good happens.
Nothing lately has happened, the last of our summer has really died down. I'm looking forward to Josh's birthday (Aug. 21) because birthdays and Christmas are my favorite holidays. Other than that I'm just (im)patiently awaiting the Iowa State Fair! We always go a few nights, and then during the day to walk around and eat some things. I'm looking forward to (in no particular order):
-Cajun Chicken on a Stick
-Corndog
-Gyro
-Homemade Lemonade
-Rice Krispy Bar on a stick
-Strawberry Smoothies
-Footlong hotdog
I could go everyday to the fair if I had the money and people to go with me! Josh and I are going to the Darrius Rucker concert, he used to be the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish and now he's a country singer. I really like him so I'm pretty excited!
I went to Davenport the other day with Josh's mom to visit the baby. She's getting bigger and stayed away a lot more than the last time I saw her so that was fun. I don't want to wish away her baby days, but I can't wait until she starts smiling and being a little more active. And I hope they can move home next year so that during the summer I can spend many minutes with her :) Here are a few new pictures I got of her:
Open eyes!
She fell asleep on my chest for about an hour...it was pure heaven <3
So now I'm just getting ready for school to start again! The more I work, the more ready/excited I am to start again. I'm excited about seeing Christopher play his senior year of football and to see how my first year 8th graders fare in high school. Plus I'm already for my second year, so I'm hoping it goes by just as quickly as before! :)
So I thought Summer would make it easier to update, but actually the opposite is true! Seems like we're so busy until 9 P.M. every night and then when we come inside it's usually to eat, watch a little T.V., shower, and then head to bed. So I'll try to catch everyone up from the last post.
Over the 4th of July we went to our friends' house on the Lake of the Ozarks. It was so much fun! We had way too much fun. We all decided we needed to do it every fourth and make it an annual event. Here are just a few pictures, one of all the girls that went and one of all the boys, it was on the Saturday we were there when we all went out on the yacht boating.
Girls:
Boys:
Josh & I enjoying some fireworks :)
Then, Stacia, Virg, and myself went zorbing! It is this giant ball and you can ride it in it one of two ways: harassed inside of it and rolling upside down, or putting water it and sitting inside and sliding down. We chose the last one! They filled the inside with water and then we all sat in it and rolled down the hill. SO. MUCH. FUN! Would definitely do it again! Wish the boys could have gone, they would have loved doing it :)
The weekend after that was fundays, and it was the usual fun. It was really nice because my best friend Alex just got a job in Chicago and was leaving that Sunday so it was so, so, so nice to see her and spend more time with her before she left.
We went camping last weekend. It was pretty fun - I haven't stayed in a tent since I was younger, and Josh and I really only ended up sleeping in a tent the first night, the second night we slept in the bow of the boat - much more comfortable! We took the boat out Friday and Saturday and it was a really fun weekend - except for the big storm that came through Saturday night! Josh's mom had to call us at 3 A.M. to warn us and thankfully we got everything packed up and somewhere safe before the 60MPH winds and hail came through!
Now for the biggest news. On Sunday, July, 18, 2010, at 10:17 P.M. Kayden Nicole Meckley came into the world weighing 7lbs 15oz and 19inches long! Andy (Josh's brother) sent us a text on Sunday morning while we were packing up from camping saying she'd been in labor and was at the hospital. Once we got home we unpacked and he said baby should be there about 3 P.M. So we decided to leave and try to be there about 3:30 P.M. so we could see her and take tons of pictures and give her lots of lovies. It's a 2hr drive to see them so we all hopped in the car about 1:30 and drove to Davenport. She wasn't there yet when we got there so we waited in the waiting room. And we waited. And waited. And waited a little more. Finally at about 7:30 P.M. we couldn't wait anymore and had to come home :( I was pretty bummed, but I knew we had a lot of stuff to do and couldn't wait around all night. As you can see, we wouldn't have gotten to hold her until about 11:30 P.M. and then trying to drive home all night and then go to work in the morning would have been terrible, so I guess we'll just have to wait until Friday to go see her. But I'll take plenty of pictures and thankfully Andy has been great at sending us updates and pictures everyday of her. Here are a few of the ones we've gotten.
Here she is first born:
I think she looks like Josh...she has a round face, kind of his almond eyes, and his squishy nose :)
She got to go home today:
Snoozing at home <3
It's kind of crazy how much you can love someone you've just met, scary almost. But I feel like I just love her so, so much already. Can't wait to be the best Aunt I can be to her :)
So that's what we've been up to lately. Summer is almost over (I go back the 16th to work, kids come back the 23rd). And so much to still go one - we've got weddings, Josh's birthday, state fair, and more! This summer has just gone too fast, but I've loved every second of it!
...have been crazy! We've been crazy busy with trips, being outside, and having fun! It is now almost 9.30 and I'm updating, because otherwise it will not get done. That's what I love most about Summer - it's such a chore to even stay inside. I feel like we get enough inside weather the other 6 months out of the year, my June, July, and August are devoted to being outside. I've also been working at the pool from 9.30 AM - 4.00 PM and by the time I get home I usually have something to do or I take the dogs for a walk and make dinner. But anyway, here is a quick update, rewind two weeks back.
Two weeks ago we bought a new boat! It was pretty exciting, even though we've only been out once so far on it. We got a friend of ours old boat and he bought a new boat. We got rid of the pontoon, but now it's nice because it has a closed bow and Josh and I have said that we're going to go out on a Friday night and stay the night on the lake with it. It's also nice because we can go down on a Friday after work and still get in a good four hours of boating, with the pontoon it would take about 45 minutes to get across the lake so we couldn't stay out too late because we had to get back in. We're pretty excited to get some use out of it this summer. There's the boat and then the closed bow section:
Then this past weekend we had a really fun filled weekend! Friday night we went out with our friends Bryce and Jill and what started as just a night to watch the ICubs turned into a whole night of fun! We had pretty good seats at the game, and even got a few good pictures of Ryne Sandberg!
Our seats:
Then we went down to this German resturant called Hessen House and got a few boots and played the boot game. In Germany they often drink beer out of a boot and they have this game where you can't let the boot touch the table, you can't let it splash you in the face, and you have to flick the boot before you pass it before you have to drink again. The four of us went through two "das boots" but it was more than enough! My whole head almost fit into the top of the boot, to give you an idea about how big the boot was and how much beer it could hold! The kicker (no pun intended) was that it could only be filled with German beer...so the first round was pretty decent, but the second boot was so hard to choke down! I wasn't drinking much, just a sip when it was my turn because I was driving home, but it was a lot of fun, we'll definitely be going back!
Bryce finished the first boot:
Then Saturday we got up bright and early (and Josh was definitely cussing the boot!) and headed to Davenport with some friends to visit Josh's brother and go out on the Mississippi River. It was a lot of fun too - it was so much different than a lake and the traffic was unreal! It was neat to see all the really cool houses on the River, and we got to see a tug boat pushing a barge! We really wanted to do the lock thing where you go in and the water flows out so that you can get down the river, but we couldn't figure it out and depending on how long we wanted to wait we could have been waiting for the water to fill up for an hour or so, just depends on where the water level is at. It was neat to see all the different scenery, and it was also nice to get away for a night. This weekend we're going down to the Ozarks with a group of friends for the 4th, the following weekend is Fundays and the weekend after that we're camping all weekend! So we're pretty full for the next few weekends, but that's what makes summer so awesome. :)
And the other night it stormed and then the clouds showed up and were all funky...so here's a neat picture of that:
You'd think with summer break here I'd be really good at updating, but I still suck! All last week I kept thinking, "I should try and update" but it seems like something always came up or I was doing something else! Last week was really my only week off between jobs, tomorrow I start the job for the pool and while it isn't hard work by any means, it is still a job that I have to be at and can't leisurely have the summer off. I asked Tim if I could have Mondays and Fridays off all summer but right now they are short staffed so hopefully once they hire some subs I can get my Mondays and Fridays off - that will be fantastic!
I suppose I owe everyone lots of pictures, so I will make good with that promise and post all the pictures I have from the week. We receieved our fridge last week and here's a before and after:
Our sad old fridge
Our new fun fridge!
It is really nice and I am in heaven being able to get cold ice water whenever I'd like! Definitely worth the money spent! :)
Also last week my flowers started to bloom and they look so pretty! I just happened to buy these random, pretty flowers last year (forgot the name of them) and they didn't stay bloomed for very long and I thought they were just annuals, so to my sweet surprise they came back this year AND they expanded! When I planted them they only had one flower, but now they have about five each!
Yesterday Josh got up early and headed down to Lake Rathbun with the boys to go boating all day so I got to sleep in and then I went garage saleing. I didn't really want anything, but I knew of a couple of friends who were selling their kid's baby clothes and I wanted to get a few things for baby Kayden to wear this winter since it seems I can only find summer stuff right now (and rightfully so). And did I ever! I found a lot of very cute, very nice, very NEW things and couldn't stop! Then I saw this amazing Eddie Bauer bassinet with khaki microfiber for sale and the lady said she only used it once with her new son and now he's outgrown it. So basically brand new for only $120!! I quickly called Jane and she snatched it up and we decided it can be used either at one of our houses, or Andy and Laura could use it whenever they're downstairs working. And on top of that in seven years I can use it for my own kids! So it's definitely going to get some good use :)
Here it is with some of the clothes I bought
All the other stuff I bought!
It was definitely exciting! Lots of stuff for winter/fall in the 3-6 month range so that was nice.
Saturday night was the annual Fireman's Ball. The guys didn't get back until close to midnight, so it was more of a girls night out! Had a lot of fun, especially with all the girls.
I also made a 2009 scrapbook from www.mixbook.com and I cannot wait for it to get here! They have such cute layouts and alls I had to do was drop in the pictures! I'm going to make this a yearly thing, making a book for every year with pictures, and I'm already planning on doing a 1st year baby book for Kayden. I'll have to post pictures of it when it gets here. And that was it this week...so to end this post a cute picture of Tyson trying to get the squeeky hot dog I bought for him :)
