No more music programs...no more school!

Well I am officially on vacationg for 2 weeks beginning today! I am so thankful for this time off. This kids were absolutely insane the last 2 weeks of school. The first grade music program is done and over with. I was really stressing out about the program because rather than the usual 5 days we get to practice on stage, they really only got 4 and I didn't have them practice the day of the program. In the end, they shocked me with the whole thing. They performed well for both the school and their parents without any major glitches. There was one little girl that threw up on the risers before we presented the program to the school, but we got her out and the show went on. Haha! The poor little girl was so nervous, her face looked like a ghost. I am SO relieved that it is over and hopefully that will be the last one that I have to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyways.

Things have definitely been interesting these last few weeks. A lot of our friends have found out that they are pregnant and will be adding new members to their families in the upcoming year. Kyle's brother and his wife Tonia are expecting a little on at the end of June/beginning of August. Libby and Jesse are expecting in August also. And I just found out that my half-sister, Hilary, is having twins in August. There must be something in the water! I feel like I should jump on the bandwagon and get pregnant too! Our time will come soon enough though.

I am really looking forward to the holidays. I have had so much fun spending time with my family and my nephew Chase. He is growing up so quickly-getting teeth and crawling already! It's crazy! It's also amazing how quickly you can fall in love with someone that you've only known a short time. He brings such happiness to our lives. I can't wait to see how much he grows in the next year.

Zeke and Tucker are good! Awnry, and LOVING the little bit of snow that we've gotten so far! They go crazy, running all over the yard, and wrestling. We gave Zeke his first squeaky toy the other day and he was completely and utterly confused and freaked out! He's so funny! He's opened up a lot to everyone and is totally comfortable at home now.

We wish everyone a happy holiday! Enjoy the time with family and friends!

Here's some of our latest pictures....

Officially a teenager again...

In May I began reading the Twilight series. I was tired of hearing everyone talk about this movie that was SO good. So Mom and I were at TJMaxx and I saw the book there and bought one. I had the book done in 3 days. I went back to TJMaxx and decided to just buy the rest of the series. I figured it would save me a trip since I liked the first book so much. Before I read the other books, I decided to go buy the movie, Twilight, since I hadn't seen it yet. Naturally, I fell in love with the movie and have watched it probably once a week since I got it. I read the other 3 books in about a week and a half. I literally could not put them down, and they are not short books. So when they showed the first previews for the second movie, New Moon back in May at an awards show, November 20th could not come soon enough. I told Kyle he didn't have a choice and that he was going to see it with me. We were going to wait til Monday to go and try to miss the rush of people, but I couldn't wait so we went Saturday afternoon with Amber and AJ. The movie.....AMAZING! I feel like a teenager in middle school again obsessed with NSYNC. It's crazy and a little embarassing, but I don't care. I'm debating asking my sister if she wants to go sometime this weekend and seeing it with me again. Pretty bad. Eclipse, the third book, comes out June 30th-Can't wait for that one either! So my advice is if you haven't seen or read the books-do it! They are equally amazing.

Other than Twilight being the love of my life right now, school is going good. We have about 2 1/2 weeks before the 1st grade program and I'm really beginning to stress out. This group of kids just really doesn't seem to care. I'm trying to get over this and realize that I can only do so much but it's hard.

I'm super excited about Thanksgiving and all the yummy food that I will get to eat with my wonderful family. Even more excited about doing some crazy shopping on Black Friday with my mom and sister, even though I really don't have money for anything. It's more the experience and spending time with the ones I love.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

The latest and not so greatest...

The last few weeks have been pretty mild. Nothing really exciting happening other than the fact that I've ended up spending the past few weekends pretty much by myself because Kyle's been hanging out with the guys and awfully lot. Oh well. It's good to have some alone time I guess.

I finished my 4th grad school class today. Only a year left! I can't wait. I've heard our next class is quite demanding and a challenge so I'm a little nervous about that, but oh well.

Work is going good. I have started working diligently on the first grade program. It's funny how quickly I forgot how hard and busy this time of year is with making sure everything is on schedule and flowing smoothly with the program. I'm really looking forward to December 10th, when it's all over.

I started tutoring another student, a 5th grade girl. It's a lot of fun. She's a really sweet girl. It's also nice to be making some quick, easy money.

There's not really a whole lot more that's new. Just looking forward to the New Moon premiere. Kyle and I are going with AJ and Amber to see it the Monday after it comes out. I can't wait! Kyle doesn't really share my enthusiasm but I don't care.

I'm getting excited about the holiday season. Everyone is starting to put out Christmas decorations already! I love this time of year-most of all the happy atmosphere and moods that almost everyone gets in. I'm definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner first though. MMMmmm....

Take care for now...

Brandy

Wow! Did October fly by?!

So it's definitely been too long since I last posted. A lot has been going on.


We'll start with my car. I ended up getting it back within 9 days of the accident. It also ended up being close to $4000 in damage rather than the original price they quoted us at. Some of the interior "mechanical stuff" under the hood that I'm sure is extremely important was dented and damaged so they had to replace it. The car has been running good since we've got it back. They did a good job. This picture shows most of the damage. There was a hoofprint on the side and "juices" on the passenger side as well.
We went to the Kenny Chesney concert with Brandon, Tonia, Jessica, and Lauren. It was his final show of the tour and was AWESOME! We have seen him 2 times at Verizon, but this one was at Lucas Oil. Kyle and I had never been there. The place is huge and very impressive. It was an interesting night. We went to Champs for dinner with everyone before the concert where I discovered my new favorite drink-a lemon martini. We left and went to find our seats and were one short, so we ended up getting new seats. We went from the noseblead section which happened to be insanely loud, to the front section straight back from the stage. They were great seats! He had 4 good opening acts which included some guy that sings about fried chicken on a Friday night (I can't ever remember his name), Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, and Sugarland. None of us knew that Kenny was taking time off, so we were surprised when he stayed out on stage for about an extra hour because he didn't want it all to end. It was by far the best Kenny concert we've been to and ended with a very emotional closing song that he could barely get out because he was in tears. Very sweet!

I went wedding dress and bridesmaids dress shopping with my best friend Jackie who is getting married next summer. I had a blast! It's so much more fun when it's your best friend and you don't have to stress and worry about all the wedding stuff anymore. I had a blast and realized that she is going to be an absolutely stunning bride. She looked amazing in every dress she tried on, but ended up making a final decision. I can't wait to see Alex's reaction when he sees her that day!


I went to the Covered Bridge Festival with my parents, Sara, and Chase. It was so much fun. I remember going a few times as a kid and hating it. It's definitely more fun when you're older. It was definitely a little colder than I would have liked, but it was good to spend time with my favorite people and spend money that I really probably shouldn't have, but oh well. They are memories!


A few weeks ago we had Matt and Lindsey Delp's wedding. It was a TON of fun since there was an open bar for everyone all night at the reception. It made for a very interesting night. Congrats to them. They had a beautiful wedding! It's so easy to reflect on your own and realize how quick it truly does go by. It seems like ours was just yesterday and we've been married 4 months now. CRAZY!


And this past week I have been fighting what I'm guessing was H1N1. I have not felt so sick in a long time. My body felt like a truck had driven over it! More than once. On Monday we had at least 120 kids absent and 10 teachers. One of my music classes only had 8 kids in it! It was crazy how small some of the classes were. It's kind of scary that there are this many problems this early in the year. I ended up taking Wednesday off just to catch up on rest. It was my first sick day that I've taken since I got my job at Hershey. It will be my only sick day too. I've got to save my days for whenever we get pregnant. Luckily for me today and Monday are our Fall Break, so I get a few extra days to catch up on rest. I'm definitely glad we have a short break. I was hoping to go somewhere, but it just didn't happen this year. Maybe next year.


Other than that, I think we are finally starting to slow down. I love the fall season! I wish the weather would have been nicer a little longer this year, but it's Indiana. We don't always get what we want. I'm getting excited for the holiday season and spending them with Chase. It's so fun now that we have someone young in the family to spoil. I'm sure he will fit right in for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners! I CAN'T WAIT! I better stop now. Here's some pictures from our latest happenings.

Wishin and Hopin

So a few months ago I helped my dad create a resume and apply for a new job within Tipmont that he was interested in and completely deserving of. I went to the Purdue women's volleyball game last Wednesday and found out that my dad got the job! I'm so excited for him because he totally deserves it, but can hear the uncertainty and nervousness in his voice when he talks about it. His new job is a higher position that has a lot more eyes watching him now and a lot more responsibility. I know he can do the job and perfectly because he's good at what he does and he's worked his tail off for this company, but it's a lot of new changes for him and I hope he can keep his head up. I know he can do it-I just hope he knows he can because I'm SO proud of him. He definitely deserves it and I hope it ends up being the right decision for him. I'm definitely hoping God has his back on this one.

My car is still in the shop getting fixed. It's been a week now since I killed Bambi (or his mom) on my way to work one morning and I still feel horrible. However, I can't help but be grateful for our car insurance because they are paying for every cent of the $2700 worth of damage that was done. I'm hoping we get a call tomorrow to get it. Right after we took it in, we thought something serious was going wrong with Kyle's truck, but found out his emergency brake had been shattered into pieces and that was only a $25 fix. Shocking! Car fixes are never that cheap, but it was and now it's running fine.

Work is starting to pick up. I've been stressing out about getting everything ready for interventions, creating the schedule (which has been a nightmare), and getting the actual interventions started. Yes, almost 9 weeks of school has gone by and we still have not started. Pathetic and frustrating! I'm starting auditions for the 1st grade Christmas program tomorrow during class. We'll see how that goes! I'm definitely not ready to be singing these songs in my head every Tuesday and Thursday night when I come home. It should be cute. The title is The Elves Impersonator. It's about an elf that thinks he's Elvis. I'm sure my mom will LOVE it. It's pretty cute.

IWU is going good, but it's becoming harder and harder to do my homework. I guess I better get my second wind of being all about school because we don't have a break until the week of Thanksgiving. Speaking of which, I can't wait for. Good food and time with family and friends. I'm hoping there's another annual trip to Edinburg or Michigan City with my shopping crew? What do you think Jack?

Have a great week!

NO MORE CLASS BLOGS!

So I am finally done with my technology class and no longer have to post to my blog for class, so I can make my blog completely personal. I have to admit that I am glad that I took the class so that I could get updated into the world of blogs. They are fun to keep and decorate. Which could be a bad thing for me. I wonder how many hours of my life I'll waste perfecting this?

Well the last 8-9 days have been a trainwreck for me really. 2 Saturdays ago, I backed into Kyle's truck pulling out of the garage (he was parked in the middle of the driveway where he is NOT supposed to be!), then on Thursday I got in a minor fender bender on my way to get my oil changed after work which resulted in a bent up hood, and then yesterday on my way to work I hit a deer, annihalating both the front of my car and the deer. Luckily, after all of this, insurance is paying for everything. I can't believe it. No wrecks or accidents in the 7 years I've had my license and now this all in a matter of 9 days. So my car is at the shop this week getting fixed and I'm using my old Honda that mom and dad so graciously allowed me to borrow. However, Kyle's truck is now making questionable noises, so we'll see where that takes us.

Other than that life is really about the same ole same ole. I started tutoring a little girl two days a week and I love it. She is so fun to work with and it's also nice to make some extra money. We still have not been able to meet with any kids yet this year and the first 9 weeks is almost over! It's so disappointing how much time we waste due to testing, but oh well. Hopefully we will be able to start mid week next week! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. So needless to say work is getting busier, and I'm finding myself having to chose a Christmas program for my 1st grade music classes this year! GRRRR.....

We also went to the Kenny Chesney concert at Lucas Oil Stadium a few weeks ago! It was a blast! By far the best Kenny concert I've been to. He had 4 great opening acts including Sugarland. I'll try to put some pics on. I haven't done that yet so we'll see how it goes.

Well, I have to admit I'm glad it's fall, because not only is it my favorite season, but that means all my favorite TV shows are back on-Grey's, Survivor, One Tree Hill, and The Hills! Not looking forward to this cold weather though. Enjoy the pretty colors while they here. They won't last for long! Take care!

1st Blog!

I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile now-since my best friend, Jackie, started one. Now I have an excuse to-for one of my grad. school courses. Hopefully this will be a fun way for everyone to stay updated on me & Kyle's lives. Enjoy!