Faith

 I've been struggling to write this post for a long time.  Almost a month.  And before that I had another one I started to write but just couldn't find words.  I don't know if I will find them for this one.. but I'm going to try.

2013 was a year of so many ups and downs.  I couldn't have been more happy to see 2014.   Not that that magical midnight hour changed anything, or erased anything, but it was a fresh start of sorts.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still struggling every single day.  More so this past week than before I think.

I know most everyone knows, but in case they don't; Krysten passed away on December 18th after a long and hard fight with cystic fibrosis her entire life, but especially this year.  She is still the biggest fighter I know.

She came into my life and just was this positive burst of energy that I will never forget.  She found goodness in everything and everyone, and I learned so much from her in such a short period of time.  I'm forever grateful that my brother brought her into our lives.  She is the sister I never had, and I love her so so much.

I know that she is an angel in heaven and is dancing up there having a great time.  I know that she is now breathing easy and is watching over every single one of her family and friends.   I keep telling myself this over and over, but it still just doesn't make it easier on my heart. This week has been an especially tough one, I'm not sure why.  I guess the busyness of the holidays has passed, and now I' m stuck with my own thoughts.  I'm in tears writing this, but I have faith that she is ok and loving life in heaven.

I'm so thankful for the memories we have together.  I don't have as many as a lot of her friends and family, but it's enough and I will always cherish them.  I will never forget the week we spent in Hatteras, camping trips, weekly family dinners, and all of her wonderful wedding events.  I printed pics from all of them and put them in frames all around my house.  Such fun times :)

Coming back to faith, in honor of her I am having it tattooed on my wrist along with the CF ribbon and a butterfly.  I've been thinking of what to get for her since last April, and it finally came to me the day she passed.  I can't wait to get it and look down and see "her" all the time.

I love you sister, forever and always.  I will never forget you.  As hard as this is on us here on earth, we all know that you are in a better place and are breathing easy.

Late summer happenings

I know I know.. I was better at blogging when I had stuff to talk about or people to update "all in one place."  Now.. life got in the way again.

My new job has been treating me well.  I'm not going to lie though.. it's tough being a first year teacher and learning all these things I didn't learn in college.  ALT-MSA is going to be my demise this year.  Hahaha.  For everyone who complains about regular MSA, at least it's only 2 weeks.  ALT is now through the end of February!  Yay me.   But I'm having fun so far and do really enjoy working with my kiddos.  Plus, I love actually getting paychecks.

Patrick and Krysten's big wedding was Labor Day weekend.  It was a lot of fun but I have no pictures to share.  I for once didn't take any and let the photographers do their job :)  I trust them, they were my wedding photogs!!  Love Daniel and Kate.. they are both truly talented at what they do.

It was hot that day.  And when I say hot, I mean HOT and HUMID.  Yuck.  Of course, it couldn't be one of the many beautiful non humid days we've had in the past month.  Because of this, Krysten had trouble with her breathing and didn't make it much past the ceremony.  Bummer :(  But, it was still a very memorable day.

The day after the wedding they headed to Hatteras for 2 weeks.  Lucky ducks!  We ended up going to the state fair that day with my mom and cousin Lisa.  Never been before but it was fun!

This past weekend was our 3 year wedding anniversary.  We went to the Maryland Seafood Festival and ate lots of yummy food and sat in the sun listening to the bands all day.  It was a great day.  It's the first actual anniversary day we've had that we've been able to see each other for more than a couple hours.  The last two I've had night classes and haven't gotten home until 8 or so.  Then a quick dinner.  So this was nice we had a great time.

Other then that I'm just on "baby watch."  My best friend is due to have her baby any day and I feel like I'm constantly checking my phone.  Every time I hear my text go off I get excited hoping it's time!  Haha better to be me than her I guess, she's miserable (sorry Sarah!).  Hope to meet Miss Grace soon..  It's like I'm an aunt all over again :)

Happenings in my Life..

It's been a pretty busy past month. 

We had Krysten's bridal shower last week.  It went really well and everything turned out great.  Couldn't have done it without the awesome help from everyone.  We also had her bachelorette party that night.  We had a sundae bar and watched Magic Mike :)  It was a lot of fun!  Pictures to come in another post. 

Dusty and I also just went away for a long weekend with our camper for the first time.. finally!  We went down to Janes Island State Park on the southern Eastern Shore of MD.  It was awesome and we had an awesome view of the marina and bay.  Pictures to come of that as well. 

But the biggest news of all..

I GOT A JOB!!! 

Last Wednesday was the day we were leaving to go away.  I knew I'd be getting calls that day for interviews, so we decided to wait until the afternoon to leave.  As soon as we left, I got one call to come in the following day, and an email to come in this coming week for interviews.  I set up both of them for this week.  Not 30 minutes later, I got a call from the main HR number and thought.. hmmmm? 

I've been in contact with someone in HR who isn't the main hiring person for special ed and I had just texted him about my interviews.  I had thought it was him calling me, and I thought that was odd since I was just texting him. 

Turns out it was the hiring person in HR offering me a job! 

I was shocked.  Literally in shock.  I didn't know what to say and just asked how long I had to decide.  I got off the phone and I said to Dusty that I got offered a job.  He was like "well take it!!!!"  So then I texted my contact in HR and he was super happy for me, then I called my mom and she said the same as Dusty.  So I immediately called HR back and took it!  I mean, I was going to take it but I needed a few minutes to process. 

I'll be working at a school with students who have special needs, and it's in the county I live in!! 

I am super stoked.  It's a decent starting salary, has health and retirement benefits, and I don't have to drive on the beltway!  I think I am most excited about health benefits.  We currently pay out of pocket for private insurance and it is terrible. 

I went online and accepted the offer, now I just need to go in this week to do fingerprints and sign the contract.  Then I start orientations next week :) 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the most patient person when it comes to stuff like this, and the past month of interviews has been a slow torture.  I'm so glad to have something finally!  Everyone has been telling me to be patient and a lot of schools don't hire until August (I did get the offer on the very last day of July).  Thanks for all the support everyone :) 

Someone is HOME :)

Yes, yes, the day finally came.

Krysten came home yesterday!

I went over there today and she seems to be doing really well.  She even went to 7 eleven with me because she wanted a slurpee.  It was really because I don't think she wanted to exercise but fine with me.  Patrick was sure as heck shocked to see her walk outside (he was in the front yard working on my camper with Dusty).

Making little steps each day so she doesn't overdo it but gains strength and weight :)

Laura

Disney World: Long with lots of pictures!

We had a BLAST.  It was definitely one of those non-relaxing vacations because we ran ran ran the entire time.  But we had so much fun that it was worth it.  It was also well worth it to get the dining plan.  We had one quick service, one sit down, and one snack a day.  It definitely saved us money and since we paid for it before we went, we don't have to worry about seeing all kinds of meal charges on our credit card statement. 

 

Early Saturday morning the 29th we were up and off to the airport for our 6:15am flight.  We had our luggage and were on the magical express to Disney by 9.  The bus dropped us off at The Caribbean Beach Resort and we checked in.  We travelled with Dusty's aunt, uncle, and little cousin and they weren't coming until Sunday so we asked if or rooms were close by each other.  They were not, but they quickly got that fixed.  Love the service at Disney!  Our room was ready, so off we went to Trinidad North (where our room was located).  We unpacked and relaxed a bit, then headed off to Epcot for the day. 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around the countries and had lunch, went to Innovations, The Land, The Living Seas, Imagination with Figment, and the Test Track.  We did more than we anticipated that day and by dinnertime we were exhausted.  We had dinner in the Mexico pavilion at the San Angel Inn.  It was very good.  We had hoped to watch the 9pm Illuminations show, but getting up at 3am wore us out so we headed back after dinner and went to bed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning (the 30th) we hung out at the resort and waited for Nick, Karen, and Luke to arrive.  We walked around a bit, almost had my hand taken off by a duck, and relaxed in the hammocks.  After they got there, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom.  We started off going to Adventureland and eventually made our way around the park.  We had dinner in the Crystal Palace so we didn't have to leave the park.  After dinner we did a few more rides then set up camp right in front of Cinderella Castle for the electrical parade and fireworks.  We were behind quite a few people for the parade, but were right in the front for fireworks.  As a bonus we got to see "Celebrate the Magic," a ten minute graphics show that was projected on the castle.  This show was AWESOME and probably one of the best parts of the trip!  After the show we went and did a few more rides since there were extra magic hours and it looked like a lot of people were heading out. 

 

 

The next morning (July 1st) we headed out to the Animal Kingdom.  First up was the Safari ride through the jungle.  We saw a lot of animals and it was a really neat ride.  After that we went and did a few other things and had lunch.  After that we went and stood in line for the Kali River Rapids.  Kind of lame in my opinion for the line we stood in.  We did get soaked, which would have been fine except it started pouring about 30 minutes later and never stopped.  So we were soaked from that and then never got dry.  After that we went to the Birds of Flight show and it got cancelled, we walked around soaked until finally we decided the rain wasn't going to stop and we should just go back to the hotel and get dry, then head back to the Animal Kingdom where we had dinner at that night.  Dusty also took a walk in the rain to get me a poncho.  When we headed back to Animal Kingdom, it stopped raining for a short while so we were able to use fast passes we had gotten earlier for the Everest roller coaster.  Dinner that night was Yak and Yeti for Dusty and I, and Rainforest Café for Karen, Nick, and Luke.  We loved our dinner, and they said they did as well.  After dinner it was raining again, so we headed over to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping.  Of course, it stopped raining when we got there, but we still had a lot of fun.

 

 

On the 2nd, we headed out to Hollywood Studios (which I still call MGM hehe).  We had a late start since we were out later than expected the previous night.  We got our fast passes for Tower of Terror, and then went to the Indiana Jones show.  After that 3 of us went back to the Tower of Terror and Karen and Luke went to the Star Wars ride.  Just as we were getting off the ride, the skies opened up again.  We stood under something until we decided we better go grab some lunch.  We had a spectacular lunch with a very yummy cupcake for dessert.  It was an apple pie filling cupcake with apple buttercream.  Dusty even loved it and he isn't a fan of cupcakes.  After that we roamed around and took some pictures.  Then Luke and Nick headed back to rest at the hotel.  We decided to stay out and because today we had ponchos and not anywhere near as wet as the day prior.  We hung around Hollywood Studios for a couple hours and then headed to the Polynesian Resort for our dinner at 'Ohana.  This was an awesome dinner.  I'm so glad I made reservations here.  Just wish I would have been a little hungrier for it. Dusty and Nick were so full of meat they said they got the "meat sweats." LOL  After dinner we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom and rode some more rides we missed.  The park hopper passes were definitely the way to go. 

 

 

On the 3rd, which was our final full day here, we started off at Hollywood Studios again.  I wanted to get on the Rock'n Roller Coaster first thing before the line got long.  Karen and Luke headed over to the Toy Story ride with our cards to get fast passes.  Both were a lot of fun!  After that we had lunch and then Karen, Nick, and Luke headed out to Epcot.  Dusty and I wanted to see the Lights! Motors! Action stunt show!  It was awesome, even though we didn't get to see the last 10 minutes of it because of that pesky rain.  We then headed over to Epcot and did a few things we didn't get to when we were there the first day.  Dinner tonight was at The Coral Reef restaurant.  You have a nice underwater view of all the fish.  We all split up again after dinner, they did Soarin' and headed back to the hotel and we went and found a good place to watch the Illuminations fireworks show.



 It started raining while we were waiting.  Didn't think it would stop so we got up and went to a shop, came out and it looked to be clearing.  And the show went on!

 

 

 

On the 4th, we all decided to split up so we could get some things we wanted to see done, and Nick, Karen, and Luke could as well.  We went to the Magic Kingdom.  It was early yet and we got quite a few rides in before the lines started.  Then it started to get crowded!  Nick, Karen and Luke went to Animal Kingdom and were going to head over to us at lunch but they couldn't even get a bus to get there because we think the Magic Kingdom closed due to being at capacity.  So we ended up watching the midday parade with a funnel cake and then getting a late lunch before stopping on the way out in the candy store to use up 6 of our snacks from the meal plan.  We headed back to the hotel to get on the bus back to the airport.  We didn't think we'd get to say goodbye to Nick, Karen and Luke, but as luck would have it we met them at the airport and their gate was right next to ours.

 

 

 

The last day it didn't rain and was super hot.  We decided that all the rain during the week was actually quite nice.. haha.  It only kept us from a few things.. but eventually we got to do them.  I think if we would have had another day, we would have been at the pool due to exhaustion.  Our flight landed around 10 Thursday night, and on Friday I felt like a walking zombie.  I took a nap and didn't do anything I wanted to do except grocery shop.  I'm still catching up on laundry because we had a busy weekend full of 4th of July cookouts. 

 

Overall we had a fabulous vacation!  I'm so glad I got to experience Disney again as an adult before kids come along.  It was so much fun and just as exciting as I remember when I was a kid.