2012?

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I still write 2010 on important documents, checks, lesson plans, and everything else in between...and now you mean to tell me it's 2012? Time is flying by, or so it seems!

I am going to award myself "worst blogger ever" award...life is so busy! After work, going to the gym, convincing myself to make dinner even if it is only for myself, I just can't seem to want to sit in front of the computer... :)

So, here's a hasty recap of life...
We had a whirlwind of a December; I'm not sure I've ever felt so many emotions in one month. The month started off with the Angel tree drive I was in charge of at school...let's just I made good work of the Wal-Mart toy department in less than 2 hours one school day. I'm not sure I'm going to bite off an a project that big again with a school as small as ours, but Praise the Lord, we got it done! And I also realized that while guys may be eager to help in wrapping presents, they usually don't have a clue about what they're doing... I'm talking using several different sheets of wrapping paper, enough tape to bind a wound...hilarious! Definitely unwrapped several and then rewrapped them!

That was Thursday. That weekend, I was looking forward to de-stressing from the week and packing my bags because Brian was slated to be home for R &R for 2 weeks and I needed to get in gear for his arrival! That was until Saturday...
We lost 3 men from Brian's platoon to an IED blast, and let me tell you; it was the hardest week of my life. I'm not sure I've ever cried as much as I did that week; the heartache and sorrow I felt for those families (we knew several of them well) was almost too much to bear. To add on top of that, I was bound by confidentiality standards from the Army, so I had to keep it quiet until the details were sorted out. Thankfully, the Lord has provided some incredible friends here for me to talk to and cry on. Our Battalion's leadership here and overseas is wonderful, and they helped us navigate the week as well as possible. It was so difficult to go to work every day that week, feeling as if I wanted to do everything but at the time could do nothing...I don't like feeling useless, but that week demanded a lot of patience on all our parts. I haven't had to deal with death much in my life, thankfully. I still have all my grandparents, and death hasn't brushed our family the way is has some of my friends. It was such a surreal week; you realize your own life is so fragile, you have a difficult time accepting it actually happened, especially because it happened so far away from us all, and you worry about the ones left behind. It brings the reality of war, and daily life, into focus a little better. Your prayers and thoughts for Brian during this deployment are so appreciated and felt so deeply; He has provided for us in so many ways, keeping him safe and healthy.

The Lord knew we'd need each other after this; the week it happened I was only able to talk to Brian about it for about 10 minutes total, and if you know me, I wanted (and needed...) more time with him. So, praise the Lord, he came home for R &R! My principal is so understanding and let me take the entire last week off of work...God is so good! Our two weeks together were wonderful; we got to spend so much time together with our families and our friends, as well as by ourselves. And, the 2 weeks felt LONG! Praise the Lord! The "Army road" usually means missed holidays and special events, but we've been so blessed to have the last 2 Christmases together! We'll miss some other important landmarks this year, but you start to realize that one day on the calendar doesn't hold some secret power to make it more special than another; while something important or exciting might be happening/have happened on that day, you learn that any day of the year can be May 15 if you want it to be :)

Ok enough with the sappiness, onto resolutions! Haha, for once in my life I'm actually making some! I even wrote them down and framed them...getting serious here people! :) I'm a little chicken to admit them here (hello, what if I fail? haha!) but here goes...
Be more intentional in my friendships
Be more intentional with the Lord
Eat better...seriously, cooking for one is no fun! :)
Run a marathon (I swore I'd never do this, but suddenly after you get a few half-marathons under your belt, you begin to toy with the idea of a full...yes, I am deranged, I fully admit that)

I'm sure there's more, but they're downstairs and if I looked at them I might become depressed-ha!

And for the most exciting news of all time: I'm going to have a nephew! I seriously cannot wait for him to get here! Thankfully my sister-in-law, Lindsay, does not seem to mind the fact that I (gently) attack her belly every time I'm around her...she's seriously the cutest preggo woman you'll ever see. I probably need to back off lest I become the overbearing aunt...haha!

2012 also marks the fact that we've lived in El Paso for a full year now! And believe it or not, I actually like it here. I enjoy teaching, I LOVE my friends and my church, and the desert, while not home, feels like home for now. I don't want to wish this year away, but if July came tomorrow, I wouldn't be sad... :)
To add to my self-awarded bad-blogger title, I apologize for I feel this blog is all over the place...I'm out of practice! :) Happy January! Because let's not kid ourselves; I probably will forget to do this again until February :)

Busy Much?

So the past week and half have been...insane, to put it lightly. It has been a whirlwind of activity, all of which has been very fun and somewhat hectic. Some of this stems from my inability to say no to volunteer activities, but we'll get to that later...

I pretty much had ants in my pants last week because my ENTIRE family came to El Paso to visit me for Thanksgiving! (So very gracious of them to come over to Mexico El Paso.) I am the Christian Honor Society sponsor at school, and of course we sponsored the Thanksgiving food drive for families in the church, school, and community. The day they arrived just happened to be delivery day for the baskets, so they were able to come along and join the fun of delivering the boxes for members of the community, who just happened to live smack dab in the middle of the GHETTO. Seriously...I was glad I spoke Spanish because that was the only language being spoken. I told my students this was great practical application for my class and should encourage them to take notes and pay attention lest they end up in the ghetto again and need to talk their way out. But I digress...thankfully, my dad and Clay were there to go with us to the apartments, otherwise I would've left immediately (the students in CHS just happen to be all girls). While we were in this apartment complex, we watched someone get arrested (mind you, at 2:30 in the afternoon...?) and arrived at a door that had a very professional sticker that read "Police and authorities are not allowed to search your house unless the provide a search warrant"...just the place you want to be, right? The last food box we delivered was to a house that was literally a stone's throw from the border. Seriously, about 5 houses down was the FENCE. You know, the border fence. Creepy...I have an unspoken rule that there are certain places I will not drive/go to in El Paso...well, those rules were broken for Thanksgiving food baskets and the Lord kept us safe, so the day went well.

Once I was off of work we had a whirlwind of activity in my house, which was awesome because I'm alone most of the time now! Minus my fish, but they keep to themselves...
My parents and siblings did some major yard work for me as well as a "backyard beautification" project that is awesome! I have this trellis/arbor thing over my patio, and we laced burlap and another material through it so that the birds would stop defecating all over my porch...it looks lovely and it's working so far! I don't know how I haven't blogged about this yet, but my brother and sister-in-law are HAVING A BABY! I'm so excited!! But that dear babe kept Lindsay sick almost all week (and on top of that, she got the stomach bug...yuck-o) so poor Linds had a hard trip....next time will be better; she'll be healthy and there will be a baby to play with!

We went to Hueco Tanks, an awesome state park near us. We had to wait awhile because it rained. Whhhhhat? It was bizarre, but totally worth the wait because we had so much fun! We also celebrated Mom's birthday while they were here with a bit of hiking and plant education :)

After I they left and I shed my fair amount of pity tears (after a full house it gets LONELY around here!), I geared up for this week which was the finale of our Christmas children toy drive...yes, in charge of that one, too. We had to have all the gifts to the organization by Dec. 1, so we were crunched for time...I made quick work of Wal-Mart's toy department and can I just say--it is WAY easier to shop for boys (of all ages!) than it is for girls! Especially if those said girls aren't into princesses, because oh my gosh, that's all there is! And it's all sickeningly pink...yuck. I plan on giving my kids this book and this book , as well as a fair supply of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Roadl Dahl (as well as many others...I'm somewhat obsessed with kids books), and we'll have lots of adventures and leave the princess talk for the movies.

There were lots of other events thrown into the past few weeks but I'll spare you the details because they're not really all that exciting! I'm not hearing from Brian very often any more but from what he wrote last week, it sounds like they're doing well. He got promoted a few weeks ago too, so that was exciting!

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods! I said that phrase a few days ago and I got some strange looks... :)

San Antonio Trip!

Forgive me for my long absence...I don't have as much free time any more! Haha! And when I get home from work, well...If my body finds the couch/bed, it usually stays there!

The past 2 weeks have been incredibly busy--I feel like that is life's current tempo right now and for the next 6 weeks or so! School has been going well; I've had some change in my responsibilities, which I'm thankful for because it relieves some stress from my day. Although with letting go of a responsibility, I inevitably end up with another one! I've become the yearbook sponsor, so each week I am learning more and more about how to do this...mostly by guessing/brainstorming/trying to be creative, but if you have any suggestions, I'll gladly take them!

Last weekend, we got Veteran's Day off from school which worked perfectly with our plans to go to San Antonio for the half-marathon! Me and my friends Dana and Katie left at the crack of dawn Friday morning for the 8 hour trek to San Antonio...very boring drive, with very few opportunities to stop for gas. Texas is way too big. Seriously, when driving 8 hours through the South, you'd at least go through 2, maybe 3, states in 8 hours time! We definitely pulled over to pee on the side of the road...thanks a lot, Starbucks ;)

We had drop Dana's dogs off at her in-laws, who live on a ranch, complete with cattle and a Texas longhorn--so cool! Stuart's dad drove us around the ranch and I got the full tour--it was a lot of fun! After that we went to Dana's house and went out to eat with her family at a delicious Mexican restaurant--you know I never turn down Mexican! Afterwards we headed to downtown to our hotel and got settled as well as met up with our friend Michelle, who also ran the race with us. Saturady morning we headed to the expo at the Alamodome...I love race expos! It's an awesome place to try stuff (like food/drinks related to exercise/running) as well as see lots of neat gear. It's also very difficult to show shopping-restraint! We had lunch on the Riverwalk, which is beautiful! It reminded me of Europe; very pedestrian, with lots of restaurants dotted along the river. It was very picturesque and such a relaxing afternoon! After picking up Julie, another friend, from the airport, we  went back to the Riverwalk for dinner. It was super crowded but we got to eat at a delicious Italian restaurant and people-watch throughout dinner--such a fun time!

Sunday morning was the race; it was supposed to be sunny but instead it was a little damp and cloudy...which I was very thankful for! It's been awhile since I've run in humidity...it practically doesn't exist here, which is awesome for the hair, but a little hard on the lungs at first! The race was a lot of fun; lots of people and fun music every mile. At the mile 6/7 exchange, a band was playing "Living on a Prayer" and when we ran by the stage, they were on the chorus... "Oh, you're half way there, oh, you're living on a prayer"; we died in laughter because we really were halfway there to the finish line! Dana and I didn't train as well as wanted to for the race; LIFE got in the way...we have big plans for the spring though and we're going to dictate life a little better than we did this fall! We ended up finishing in 2:05, which isn't too far off of my PR! The course was very flat except for the last 0.2 miles, which were uphill! You ran uphill, rounded a corner, and had about 200 meters to the finish line...See, you should always run through your hills when training! Next time, I'll follow that advice...haha! We had to rush back and shower before we got kicked out of the hotel and then got in the car and headed home...it was a long drive back! We had to take a couple of stretch breaks and we killed a bag of Salt & Vinegar chips...our bodies were craving super salty foods!

We ran in honor of our husbands and had some awesome tanks made...It made me so proud to run for Brian! We had a few people comment on them, which was really cool! I'll leave you with some pictures from the weekend--I'm off to finish cleaning my house because my whole family is coming for Thanksgiving--SO PUMPED!

Our shirts!