this is a test for school

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B40UFgheEtQuLXJhcjJpU0VPVWc 

document

I got a new job

 

Sooooooooo.... I went on an interview, and this is what I wore, anyways- I hadn't been on a interview since I got hired at the middle school 8 years ago. I have to say I was a bit nervous. It did go well, they offered me a job................not the one I wanted..................

To make a very long story short, I went in politely stated that I have a good gig where I'm at and I don't want to leave for what you are offering. (I wanted something a bit less stressful...had a rough last year, kind of burnt out.) They said they would get back to me. 

Well they did.......while I was in the library bathroom trying to convince Olena to pee......over text message!

 

Have to say that is pretty much a first for me. And honestly, I dont really care how the message was delivered. I liked what it said ;)

Basically I am going to be a Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher that travels and see kids, one on one, in different schools around the county for half of the day. The other half I will be in the classroom teaching DHH students at the high school and American Sign Language to hearing high schoolers. And that is the easy part!! Moving was the hard part. Beside crying because I really honestly never thought I would actually leave where I was, no matter how many times I threaten, I had more stuff then seamed humanly possible! Moving was defiantly interesting....

A couple pictures of the load

Here's a picture of my beautiful huge room I left...

And the tiny, itsy bitsy, one I came to....

Well after a couple of long days and some elbow grease, and a helping had of an awesome file cabinet mover, this is what it looks like now.

Yeah, at the moment I am still not sure where everything went! There is a bit more to do, but my physical space is now workable. And that lowers my stress level ALOT! Now it is on to trying to figure out how exactly I am going to get to work by 6:50 am every morning!!

PS: I do want to say a big THANK YOU to my man Derick and my brother Brannon for helping move all the stuff from one place to the other. I don't believe I would have actually accomplished that if it weren't for them!

My new favorite picture!!

 

This is a picture of Derick and his sister after he came home from drill a couple of weeks ago. This is great picture of both of them. Yep....pretty much my two favorite people...

Seriously...the third time trying to get these pictures on here

 

We were super excited to have the cousin come and visit us!!! Derick's mom and two sisters were here too. We all had a blast! The kids just swam and swam. It felt so good having the house full. One night I walked out into the kitchen, when everyone had gone to bed and the lights were low, and the house felt full and warm. It doesnt normally feel like that when it is just the three of us. I am not sure why. Anyways, the kids played and the adults goals were to keep the kids entertained and fed. Here are some pictures from the weekend

Tiggy Tighe being a proud solderer

And the girls being Snow Whites

Can you tell it was dress up day?

So it was VBS at my parents church and Mom and Jimmylee graciously took all kids 4 kids (that were old enough) and a two extra (my friend Charleen's kids) with them on the first night....alone...and lived...I actually think they enjoyed it. I know the kids did.

TANK, awe poor TANK. At one point I wasn't sure if he was tired, mopy, or over stimulated because there was so much chaos happening all at one time. He has the hardest time watching people swim. Where there are 5 or 6 people swimming, he about had a heart attack.  I think he thinks the water is hurting them so he barks and runs around telling them to get out of the pool.

 

Well everyone is gone now and the house is quite again, but we can't wait to see them again. I know I can't. For some reason I really love when Derick's family is around.

My Revelation

I know I have been absent from the blogging world for a while now. I can tell you all the reasons but I kind of don't want to hash it out now. And I keep telling myself I need to catch up. I will catch up. Well I figured out that I will never catch up. There is just too much and I kind of don't want to. So I am just going to go. Just start where we are at, it is a much better place than where we were before anyways. I am not guaranteeing great success but just starting out slow and see where it goes from there.
I know, pretty deep for just talking about updating our blog....
~Whitney

Weekend With Grandma

This past weekend Derick, O'lena, and I headed to Jacksonville to visit his mom who is watching her grand-kids while their parents are in Italy...Yes, Italy! So jelly! Derick had drill so after dropping us off he headed to Camp Blanding and O'lena and I stayed to help grandma. (Though I think we might have been more of a hindrance than help. You know how cousins get when they get together.) It was also first trip back for TANK. (We got him from Jessica and the family, I will post more on him later.) This is a picture of the happy puppy in the car on the ride up. I know he doesn't look it, but he really is enjoying himself.

 This is my nephew Vance. He has gotten so big since I last saw him at the beginning of the year. TANK and him were best of buds by the end of the weekend. TANK would lick all the food off his face and Vance would poke and pull on him. It was cute....until TANK wouldn't leave him alone. 

 So it was Tighe's birthday a little while back, and Grandma wanted to party. He is into Ninja Turtles right now, so Grandma and Natalie made him a Ninja Turtle cake, from scratch! It was awesome. Yes, Natale did the decorating. She is awesome! It was yummy!

Soooo, somehow Natalie got green dye on the underside of her nose from her master piece. I was teasing her about it and asked how in the world did she get dye on her nose. She replies, as serious as someone can be, "I don't know. My mom calls me a 'hot mess.' " I about died!! I laughed so hard. I am still giggling about it as I am writing!

Last, are the pictures of the party. The cousins ate turtle cake off turtle plates, opening turtle presents, all while dressed like a turtle! TURTLE POWER!!

So beside trying to kill one person, losing a baby, a couple of times (sorry Jess, we found him, each time...he's just so fast!,) and being inside the house the whole time because of the rain, all in all we had a great time. I am excited because they are all heading down this way very soon!!

Olena Learned to Swim

O'lena leaned how to swim this summer! I am super proud of her. She swims like a fish now! This video is from the beach week at FMBeach in June. She was kind of scooting around in the beginning of the week, but by the end this is what she was doing!

Things I need to remember about Olena

You know sometimes she drives me absolutely nuts, but something I absolutely love is that she bust into song about anything. She is a musical (broadway) star in the making! She also pick up a tune only hearing it twice! It is ridiculous but totally cool. :)

Olena's first FISH!!!

 

We went camping at Fish Eating Creek. Derick, O'lena, and I went on a hike and we came to a creek. O'lena hated every step until this happened. This was also her first time peeing in the woods. After which she wanted to again and again. I will post picture soon.  I hope.

Beautiful Sunday Morning

Even with Derick gone this weekend for OCS and I am alone with the kid again, it is amazing to reflect on how much my outlook on life is different! I am sitting here on my back porch with the kid swimming, dog chewing, and the roster crowing, working on my second to last master's class, with a perfect Florida morning and LOVING IT!! 6 months ago that would not be the case. I still cant get over how one person, aka my husband, has such a positive effect on my life. I have had a rough couple of years and I have come to realize how much I depend on him. He is my rock and my confidant. He is the one that I talk things out with and the one I rely on to help me solve problems. Sigh- he is my everything and life is so much better now that he is home...

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

O'lena's Spring Picture

This is O'lena's spring picture- Yes, I copy it and don't buy them out right. Anyways- the day she took this she took me step by step on how she was told to put her hand, tilt her head, and smile. What-do-you-know! It is exactly the way she described it! She looks so big and mature here. She normally doesn't look like that. Well, I guess the way I see her. Hope all is well-
~Whitney

Getting back to it....

So it has seem to have been a while since I have last update the blog…. I guess my excuse it that I just didn’t have the time. I would like to say that I didn’t have it because I was having the best time of my life. Well that is just not the reason. 2013 will have to go down as one of the worst years of my life and 2014 so far hasn’t been bad, just very very very eventful. There is no way that I will ever be able to make up all the things that have happen in the last year and a half so I am thinking that I will just start where I am at now. Well maybe just a little bit of catching up :)

Derick is home now! Whoot whoot!! Life has definitely changed AGAIN, but I am learning, and not very gracefully, that this is going to be the norm for a while. After his month and a half off, he is now back to work at FGCU.  A couple of weeks ago he began his drills for officer candidate school (OCS.) He is will be reporting to that once a month (ish) for the next 14 months (ish.) This is nice because it is only 3-5 days a month (just as his normal drills would have been,) the only that is not so good is his drive.  After he is complete with his training, he will have to go to school for whatever job he is going to be put into. That is going to be more of an extended period of time….yep, not looking forward to that, or even trying not to think about it.

O’lena is doing well. She turned 4 and has become a royal princess. She loves to play dress up and with her princess and Barbie dolls. She is starting to learn how to write her name and she recognized most of her letters. Right now she has really picked up an interest in the calendar. She is trying to put together how yesterday, tomorrow, and today relate and enjoy knowing when big events are going to happen.

As for me….I am feeling better (wasn’t doing so well there for a bit.) I have had several big things happen to me that I have never experienced before (stitches, dislocation of limbs,) but there will be more on that later. There are several things that are happening that I am excited about:  I just started back with my masters, got new callings at church, realized what I want to do with my job, and will be getting a new pet. Oh yeah and my husband is home!! And no, I am not pregnant…yes, we are trying….

Well that is about it for now. There is a lot more to write about but I am really procrastinating with getting my paper done as normal. I have to admit this does feel good. I am happy to be back.

~Whitney