Back to School!

The first day of school was a success! It was crazy and hectic and scattered, but that's what I expected.  I honestly wasn't nervous like I thought I would be, and I can only attribute it to the fact that I have wanted to be in my own classroom for years and years...and the day finally arrived!

It's only Tuesday and I'm already beat.  Dead tired.  I would have gone to bed when I got home at 6:00 but I was afraid I would wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake forever...which happens to me fairly often now.  The little one is messing with my sleep habits! She's 33 weeks along as of yesterday and that is CRAZY to me! Approximately 7 weeks until we meet here, I have tears welling in my eyes as I think about it.  (Happy tears of course!)

We actually had our walk through yesterday! Talk about a long day.  I headed straight over to the house when I left work at 4:30.  I had to go by myself because Nathan and my dad had to work but Courtney met me up there.  She's no homebuilding expert, but she's good for moral support. :)  It took about an hour, and we're set to close on Friday! I'm not holding my breath...but at least I can get a little excited.  Since we officially did the walkthrough I feel more confident about it this time.  Keeping our fingers crossed!

Sorry I don't have any pictures, I didn't even get a picture of my first day of school :/

Hope everyone's having a good week, and congratulations teachers! You've made it through the first 2 days...only 179 to go ;)

Already slackin'

It's been a while since I've had a chance to write; I started inservices last week and have been working non-stop since then! I won't bore you with the lame details of what my first week as a  teacher looked like--just a bunch of sitting and listening...and sitting and listening...and sitting and listening. Ugh! But I did get a couple partial days this week to finish getting my class together.  What a job! Thankfully Nathan and my parents were able to help me as much as they could.  I can't do any heavy lifting so they took care of all of that. SO helpful! But my to do lists were/are never ending.

Making progress...slowly!

Nathan joined a soccer league this summer with some of his buddies.  They got into the competitive division which proved to be tougher than they thought, but they still had fun! Aside from the games being so late, I really enjoyed going to watch. :) Here's a few pictures from the night he had/got to play goalie.

I took a break from working in my class two weekends ago and enjoyed our first baby shower! My sisters and sweet friends Sydne and Noelle did an awesome job of putting it together.  It meant so much to me that everyone came to celebrate Emerson.  She got sooooo many cute outfits! I can't wait to dress her up.  We all enjoyed snacking and talking and taking pictures. It was a blast, and I'm so grateful to everyone who took time out of their weekend to be there.

Gift overload!

I sat through campus meetings on Monday and Tuesday and I have really enjoyed getting to know my team and other teachers at Camey.  I'm really excited about working with them this year! Today I worked my tail off from 7:45 this morning to get ready for Meet the Teacher Night! Wow...it was exhausting but it went way better than I expected. I loved getting to meet the kiddos and talk with their parents.  They all seem so eager to learn, it's exciting. :)

There's still some to do but this is what Meet the Teacher Night looked like!

An update on the house:  We are supposed to do our walk through on Monday.  But I'm not holding my breath because they've pushed it back about 5 times now.  We'll see...my hopes of having our house set up before baby gets here are becoming dimmer and dimmer--but as long as we have a house, I'm counting my blessings.

School starts on Monday, therefore I'm sure these posts are going to be even more few and far between.  I apologize...but there are only so many hours in a day and mine will be full of planning, teaching, trying to finalize our house, preparing for Emerson.  Holy cow...it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I'm sorry I haven't posted pictures of Emerson's 3D ultrasound! I'll hopefully figure out how to get them on here soon.  That was an experience...let's just say she seems like she's going to be stubborn like her momma.  Lol but after an hour we were finally able to get a decent picture of her face :)

We went to the doctor today, her heartbeat sounds great and measurements are right on track!
I can't believe she'll be here in less than 2 months! Wow....

Here's a couple shots of her from last week.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Last wedding of the summer/Our Anniversary

Last week we went to my first Rangers game of the summer! I've been wanting to go soooo bad but it's been too hot to go to the day games and Nathan usually works evenings so we just now got around to it. Nathan's old youth group was going and got a special rate on tickets so we took advantage of that. We picked a good one to go to, they ended up beating the Yankees 3-1!

Thursday night we attended Stacy and Sterling's rehearsal dinner.  We were one of the first people to show up (shocking I know) and while we were waiting for everyone else a cute little puppy made itself at home on my lap.  People started coming in and they thought I had brought her with me! Lol anyways we enjoyed a delicious barbeque dinner and some fun wedding games.  They have dated for such a long time that everyone was thrilled that the big day was almost here.

The beautiful bride to be!

 Friday was the day of the wedding.  We met up at the church to help decorate and get ready.  I got to see her put her dress on, she looked stunning! We finished getting our own dresses on and then it was time for the ceremony.  They got married at a beautiful chapel in the colony, they exchanged their vows in front of a wall of windows.  Absolutely gorgeous! After the ceremony we partied it up in the reception hall, Nathan spun me around the dance floor which is getting a little more difficult to do--my balance is getting worse, especially when I'm in heels. But we had a great time! Somehow I missed them cutting the cake, one of my favorite parts! But it was incredibly delicious :)  It was an awesome evening, Congratulations Archer's!

Saturday morning Courtney and I headed to our friend Katie Carley's baby shower.  She's due to have a sweet little girl in the middle of September.  I can't wait for our girls to be friends :)

All the preggo ladies 

On Monday, Nathan and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! I honestly cannot believe that it has already been two years.  Time is passing us by too quickly! It is bizarre to me how much has changed in the past year of our life together and I know that this year is going to be a year of change as well.

In the past year we moved from College Station back to Lewisville so that Nathan could take a job in Plano. We both miss College Station but know that it was a good decision to move, and we do our best to visit every so often.  I started my own job search and thankfully God provided a part time job for me.  I started my tutoring gig in February and was employed there until the middle of May.  In February we also found out we were expecting! That was one surreal day.  I will always remember the look on Nathan's face, pure joy, shock, and bewilderment! :) We started the process of buying our own house (we should be closing right before school starts...that's a story for another post!) and took many trips to check on the progress while it was being built.  I found out the day after my birthday that I got a job! I was freaking out because I couldn't get one, and now I'm freaking out because I have one! Lol but my fear and anxiety is far outweighed by my excitement to get started.  We found out in June that we are having a little girl! By far the best thing that has happened to us this past year.  We are so excited to welcome baby Emerson in October! (It's fast approaching!!)

Our life together has experienced a lot...A LOT of change this year and I am so grateful that we have been able to rely on each other through it all.  Nathan, I'm blessed to have you as my partner in this life! Two years seem to have eclipsed us in the blink of an eye! I love you and am so very blessed to call you mine.

In honor of our second anniversary I've decided to post a few of my favorite pictures of us throughout our relationship.  Here's a look back on some classic Nate and Al :)

The very beginning, almost seven years ago

Look at how little Tuck Tuck was! 

He could not have caught me more by surprise :)

Engagement picture

July 29, 2011
One of our first pictures as Mr. and Mrs.

Honeymoon!

The day Nathan got his Aggie Ring

Last Summer in College Station

I've found my dancing partner for life! (Which is unfortunate for him, because I really stink at dancing!)

Baby E announcement :)

Dang flash almost ruined our picture! This was at our anniversary dinner.  

Sorry that I just inundated you with pictures, but sometimes it's fun to go down memory lane.  I hope you all have had a great week.  Enjoy your weekend and stay tuned for pictures from our 3D ultrasound we're having next week! I can't wait!

7 months and counting!

I feel like I'm so behind! That NY blog really took it out of me...it doesn't take much these days.

Here's a sweet picture of Tuck Tuck.  He has been such a snuggle bug since we've been back from NY.  I don't ever want to leave him for that long again!

Last Wednesday I had another check up, baby girl looks good and is growing right on track! Praise the Lord :) We're officially seven months along as of yesterday! Here's a picture of the baby bump today.

She's getting so big! 

My parents went on vacation again so I house sat a couple of nights. Wednesday night my roommate from freshmen year, Sydne, came and stayed with me. Her and her husband are moving back to the area and I can't wait for them to be here! We worked on baby girl's bedding for her room.  It's going to be so cute when it's all done, but I'm no sewing expert so I'm afraid to work on it without her. (I know, it's silly) We took a break to go to Nathan's soccer game that night.  He played really well and it's a great work out for him! He was pooped when it was over.

Thursday we got to go to dinner with our friends, Martha Kate and Zac.  It's always good to see them, I hate that they live all the way in Alaska! Boooo.  Come back to Texas you guys, we miss you!!

Saturday I helped throw my friend Stacy's bachelorette party! It was 20's themed so we all had to dress up as flappers.  Kendall and I were in charge of the food so we spent the afternoon baking and preparing everything.  (and I must say...our cupcakes were SUPER delicious) We showed up and the other girls decorated everything so cute! Stacy loved it all.  We ended up going to dinner and then to karaoke! It was such a fun night, I'm so excited to celebrate with her this weekend at her actual wedding!!

My good friend, Kendall

Love you Stace!

The group at dinner

Yesterday I got to see my classroom for the first time! It's awesome to know I have my own class but it was completely overwhelming.  I have sooooo much to do, and not a lot of time to get it done in.  School starts in almost a month...ahhhh!! Here's a shot of my classroom....

Let's get to work! 

Hope everyone's having a good week :)

Babymoon in NYC!

(WARNING: THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY LONG POST WITH A LOT OF PICTURES)

Monday morning my mom dropped us off at the airport and we were New York bound! I’m a nervous flyer but everything went smoothly and we touched down that afternoon.  We took our first taxi to the hotel, which I thought was important for us to document…Nathan not so much.  It was expensive and New York is absolutely filled with crazy drivers who honk—a lot! 

We arrived at our humble abode and got unpacked.  The hotel was so nice! We stayed in the financial district which is located in Lower Manhattan actually right next to where the twin towers once were.  We freshened up and then headed out for food.  They pointed us in the direction of a local pizza place.  New York knows how to do pizza! We walked around for a bit and stopped by a neighborhood garden on the way back to the hotel.  It’s open to the public and neighbors sign up to volunteer to take care of it.  It was pretty neat! That was about the extent of any type of green space out there in the concrete jungle.  When we got back we walked around the hotel looking for the pool…until an employee told us that there was in fact no pool.  That was a big bummer because I planned on laying out during the day while Nathan was in his meetings.

View from our room

Tuesday Nathan started his conference.  He would come back every two hours or so with food for me.  He said he had to sneak it because he didn’t want his new friends to think he was eating two meals himself! Hahaha! Everyone in his group was from NY so he shared a little Texas swag with them.  They loved him! He thrives in those situations…we are complete opposites in that respect. 

That evening we hesitantly took the subway to Yankee Stadium, it actually turned out to be very convenient and much MUCH cheaper than a taxi.  We enjoyed a huge hot dog each and also were secretly pleased to see them lose to the Royals.  It started raining huuuuuge fat rain drops during the 5^th inning.  Everyone rushed out of their seats to find a place they could stay dry.  It didn’t last long so we all headed back to our seats…and not 5 minutes later it started again.  We decided we would just wait it out, and it actually felt nice because it was SO humid there! I was SHOCKED at how hot it was while we were there, there were days that it was hotter in NY than back home in Lewisville. Boooooo 

Wednesday we met up with Nathan’s new friends at a pub called Ulysses, which ended up being about 10 blocks from our hotel.  Everyone walks in NY, I got a lot of exercise while we were there! Nathan had a couple of beers with his new friends and then one sweet girl offered to take us into Chinatown for dinner.  She said she knew the best authentic Chinese food place in all of New York.  It was quite a trek from where we started but we got to see a lot of cool sights along the way!   She ended up taking us to Big Wong’s.  We had quite a spread, including duck, which was very interesting.  After dinner we walked to Little Italy to get dessert.  We had our first Cannolis!! They were to die for.  I was supposed to share them with Nathan buuuuut I ended up eating more than my fair share. 

The picture on the bottom left is where a lot of law and order shots are filmed! 

Food Food Food!

Thursday I hung out at the hotel and then headed to the garden area to sit in the shade and read. It’s located right in front of the freedom tower.  It was nice and relaxing! I headed back to the hotel when Nathan got done with his meetings.  

We had plans to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge but Nathan was exhausted so he laid down to take a “little” nap…2 and a half hours later I woke him up because baby was starving! It was getting dark so we decided to not venture too far from the hotel.  We found a little Italian restaurant to eat at and enjoyed a nice dinner together.  It’s so funny because no matter what we’re talking about our conversation always gets back to baby girl.  It’s crazy that this is our last vacation we’ll be taking just the two of us.  We have loved our almost two years of marriage together and it’s going to be interesting to see how our family dynamic changes, we are truly so excited to meet this little girl!

On Friday Nathan got done with his meetings early.  We met up with some of his friends and then decided we would head to Times Square.  Talk about one crazy place.  Woah! Lights and people and cars and noise and music and colors and smells…it was completely overwhelming. 

We decided to take a stroll down 5^th Avenue when I remembered that we HAD to go to FAO Schwarz and get a toy for baby.  Turns out it was on the opposite side of 5^th Avenue, we ended up walking a looooong way.  But it was totally worth it because we found the cutest teddy bear for her.  

We headed back towards Times Square to ride the subway home but decided to have dinner first.  We stumbled upon a little burger joint and it was delicious! When we left the restaurant it was pouring—not a fun experience! Our little umbrella just didn’t do so we proceeded to board the subway soaking wet. Oh well! Our night was made 100% better when we stopped at a little diner and got a Cannoli. Haha! If you can’t tell…I eat ALL the time.

Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to all week! We had the whole day to go explore.  We woke up and had breakfast at George’s.  We became big fans of George’s while we were there and they had the BEST breakfast.  

After I stuffed myself silly we walked off our meal on the way to the subway.  We got dropped off at the southern end of Central Park.  If you’ve never been there, it is a huge place! We were only able to see a small portion, but we did take the time to stop by the Central Park Zoo.  I’m not going to lie, it was kind of disappointing.  It was pretty, just very very small.  After the zoo I convinced Nathan to let us get a caricature done since we hadn’t gotten any other souvenirs.   We sat down for about 20 minutes while a man drew us, and when he turned it around it was horrible! I thought/seriously hoped he was joking…but he took our money and that was that.  Dumb!

After that debacle we walked down and saw the Balto statue.  I thought that was so cool because when I was growing up I watched that movie a thousand times! We also saw a puppeteer, the kids were eating him up! We took a lengthy stroll and when our stomach’s got the best of us we headed to The Plaza (that’s right people) for lunch.  They have a really really neat collection of shops in the lower level of the hotel.  We decided to eat at the Todd English Food Hall.  They make their pasta right in front of you so I had to have lasagna and Nathan ordered a brick oven pizza…YUM!

We got dessert at a little cupcake shop.  There weren’t any places to sit so we took our cupcakes outside and across the street to sit on some steps.  I looked over at Nathan and sitting right behind him was Eric Bana! He tried to be stealthy in a cap and sunglasses but it was most definitely him! So we had our celebrity sighting while we were there! 

We headed back to the hotel because we had made an appointment to tour the World Trade Center Memorial.  What an experience, it is beautiful and very surreal. There are two huge pools set where the actual buildings once stood.  The names of all the victims are engraved around the outside of the pools.  The Freedom Tower stands over them and lights up in red, white, and blue at night.  I think they did a great job with the memorial and it is a beautiful way to commemorate the lives of the ones we lost that day.  After the memorial we were both exhausted so we went back to the hotel and started to pack up all of our stuff.

We flew back on Sunday morning and arrived in DFW around lunch time. It was an awesome trip, I just really enjoyed being able to spend quality time with my boo.  It was a great babymoon!