Teacher Week '13: Let's Talk About Me!

It's Teacher Week! I believe this is the third year I've actually linked up. The first two would have been over at The Dalton Gang since this blog isn't quite a year old yet. Soon though! Anyway, some of you have been following me for a little while and know a decent bit about me. Still, I think it's fun to learn about each other's personal lives every once and a while. We spend so much time talking about school that it's nice to learn what we do when we're not "being a teacher".

So here are my 10 things:

Steven and I are a successful long distance relationship story. We met when he came to visit my college roomie (she was his show choir partner in high school) our sophomore year of college, but he lived in Richmond while I was in Macon, GA. So we "made it work" (to quote Tim Gunn) until I graduated in May 2006, then we got married about a month later. This summer marked our seven year anniversary, and I couldn't be happier with my choice!

I have the COOLEST little boy ever! Keagan will be 20 months this week, and he really is an awesome kid. His latest deal is to wear his fedora everywhere. Literally, he wakes up in the morning and puts it on. I call him my little blue eyes.

I was scared of dogs for most of my life, but about 3 years ago, these two sweethearts stole a place in my heart. I love my "boys", even though they're now at least twice the size we were planning on!

They were only 3-4 months old in this picture. Now John can rest his paws on my shoulders.

I've taught in the same school for 7 years but have held 3 different positions. The first year was 1st grade (while the school entered its final year as a primary school), then I taught 4th for five years. Last year, I became the reading specialist for grades 3-5 and love it! I miss having my own group of kids and getting to do all of the cute crafts, but not grading papers and being able to visit multiple classrooms is a lot of fun!

Possibly my FAVORITE class - my first group of 4th graders who are now about to enter their SOPHOMORE year...eek!!

My hubby and I decided to cancel DISH a while back (GASP!), so we are dependent upon the weather for good signals. Fortunately we get all of the main channels and can watch morning cartoons on PBS. The main thing we miss is Food Network, though.

I'm crazy about anything nautical, and we decorate with it a LOT! Keagan's room has sea animal decals, our living room has a painting and sea animal prints, one bathroom has seashells, another has a crab painting, and our guest room has pictures from Key West. It helps that Steven is as into it as I am. We could move to the beach tomorrow.

We actually painted these chairs ourselves (Steven drew it, and I painted in the lines), but we had to throw them out this year because they had rotted. I miss the chairs!

We're also obsessed with Christmas. We're those annoying people who start decorating before Thanksgiving (sometimes immediately after Halloween), but it's because we have SO much stuff and usually are traveling over Thanksgiving break.

We actually went into the woods to get this tree a few years ago when our old living room was open to the upstairs. The tree ended up being about 12 feet by the time we FINISHED chopping it down. SO fun!

My very best friend, Amanda (Teacher at the Wheel), lives in Atlanta, so we don't get to hang out enough...

Hanging out with Jesse at our alma mater - Mercer University!

...but I've started building a close relationship with these lovely ladies from our "life group" at church. 

Even though we've recently decided to go to a different church, we plan on staying close with these families. We all had kids around the same time, and it's always fun to get together with or without the kids!

This pic is actually missing two kids - we're a little behind on the quota!

I don't know if I'll be able to make the post tomorrow (Classroom Tour) because I don't plan on going up to school again until Thursday (got called in to the principal's office over the summer! No worries, we just have to plan for an in-service), but be sure to follow the party! I may do a double post later in the week to catch up!