Mr. and Mrs. Pflugradt

This past Saturday one of my best friends got married! It was such a great weekend, celebrating with them and everyone else. I've been friends with this girl for forever, and it's so neat to see how God has worked in her life, and watch her marry the man God has created for her to spend her life with.

Here I am with the bride right before she walked down the aisle. I got to read scripture (1 John 4: 7-12, 19 and 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a)  I was so honored, and nervous, but mostly honored to read scripture!

Here is the flower girl! She was mine as well, wearing the same dress, but she is a lot bigger now! It was so much fun watching her, especially at the reception! She was dancing nonstop, just having the best time and being so cute.

I love this picture! We sat by the food (on purpose!ha!) and when they came out with their dinner I was just going to snap one quick picture, but then everyone started taking pictures, and it turned into a little photo op, it was funny.

Me and Clarke were reminiscing about when we got married. I can't believe it was over 2 years ago. Time just flies by so fast.

We had so much fun decorating their car! At the bridal luncheon we made plans to do the car, then we forgot to bring the stuff, so another friend ran by the store on the way to the reception. So glad it worked out, and I think it looked awesome.

Here they are cutting the cake.........

and leaving the reception! Overall, it was such a great occasion. So happy for you Rebecca, I love you!!

Hello Goodbye

Hello Asics!! So far running with you has been great, I'm hoping you'll get me ready for the marathon!

Goodbye Nikes. You've been so good to me, I'll always remember my first race with you!

waiting and praising you god

So here I am sitting by my phone, like a little school girl after her first date, waiting for that guy to call her. I keep checking, making sure it's working right, it's fully charged and ready to go. I can't even go to the bathroom without taking it with me. I am just waiting, trying to distract myself in any way possible but nothing is working.....

Friday afternoon I got a call for an interview at a school I had applied to well over a month ago. I had written it off because it had been so long. Yesterday morning I interviewed and it actually went well. It's the first time after an interview for an art teaching position that I think I might actually have a shot.

I'm praising God for that. I'm happy that at least things are going in the right direction. At least I'm getting better at this skill. I'm proud of myself for overcoming my fears and deciding what needed to change when I go interview. (My last interview before this one was horrible, totally bombed it.)

I'm praising God that there were 49 applicants for this position. 49!! I looked at the visitors log when I signed in, about 4 or 5 other people interviewed, I was the last. So that puts me in the top 5 or 6 out of 49. That's pretty good.

When I applied if I had known how many other people applied there is no way I would have thought I would even get selected for an interview. God is good, and I know it's because of him I got this far. So it makes me know, if God could make my resume stand out, out of that many others, than God can make me find favor with the principal. God can.

I also know he has a plan for my life, and this job may or may not be part of it. But, I really feel a ease about it all. Of course I want that call from HR offering me this job today. But I also want God's plan. If that means accepting the disappointment of not getting this job I'm okay with that. I will praise you God whatever your plan is. Whatever the outcome may be I know you are in control and I thank you for that. I want to look at the big picture, not just the here and now. So come what may God, I will praise you no matter what.

"Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. "

~Proverbs 19:21

Starting Summer in the OBX

Well summer is officially here. So this past Saturday we headed down to my favorite beach, The Outer Banks in North Carolina. It was the perfect way to start out the summer.

Here we are the first night before going out to dinner. One of Clarke's best friends invited us down, and there were two other couples there.

The first full day we packed up the car and went to one of the beaches that you can actually drive on. It was so much fun, I've never done this before. It was so nice to have everything you needed right there in the car too.

Me and Clarke took a walk down the beach and we found this pony! He was so cute, just standing there around all the people. He let us get pretty close too, it was really neat. The next day at the beach we saw dolphins, really close to the shore.

This is the cute beach house we stayed in. It was really nice and new. We spent most nights sitting out on that front porch.

Overall it was a great little 4 day trip. I can't wait to go back in a month with the girls!!

Job Search Updates and Thoughts

Okay, I've been meaning to write a post about the never ending job search so here goes............bullet style:

~I have no clue what I'll be doing next fall. People always ask me and I really don't know. I hate this.

~I have applied to several art teaching positions, got one interview, and still no offers. At first I was upset about this, but I'm starting to be okay with it.

~God has told me that I'm going to be a teacher. No he didn't speak to me in a big loud voice from heaven, but over the past 3.5 years he has made it clear that teaching is one of my callings in life. Because of this I'm praising him for a job as a teacher already.

~I am clinging to this verse: "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

~I used to fear wasted time. I feared that every year I wasn't a teacher I was wasting time that I could have been using being an actual teacher. But, I believe God uses every experience to help us become who he wants us to be and this past year is a great example of that.

~I get frustrated sometimes when I think about all the hard work I've put in to get my teaching license in the first place. My first student teaching placement was awful, yet I persevered and finished the program and still I'm not officially using it.

~Sometimes I don't care that I'm not officially using my license. I enjoy being an aide and I love working with special needs children. I am learning so much, and if I'm an aide again next year I will enjoy learning even more.

~I know God has called me to teaching, but sometimes I wonder if it's teaching art? If I love special ed so much maybe God has a future for me as a special ed teacher? There have been several days when I feel he is calling me to this.

~I am reminded of my favorite quote from my pastor "God would rather hurt your feelings than hurt your future." Right now my feelings are kinda hurt from all the rejection that is apart of job searching. But I know God has a specific job out there for me, and if it takes a lot of rejection to get there then so be it. Echoing what I said earlier, if God has called me to teach special ed then I won't be getting an art teaching position this fall. I'm okay with that because I want God's will for my future.

~So although I don't have any concrete answers about where my job search is going I know God is guiding me. He will show me where I need to be. In the mean time I am trusting, well trying to trust, most of the time trusting him.

bittersweetness

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of school. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I am so ready for a break. I've been counting down the days for awhile now and I've been looking forward to summer. But now that it's here, I can't help but feel a little sad.......

I can honestly say that I've truly enjoyed my job this past year. God knew exactly what he was doing when he put me here. I've grown so much as an educator. I've learned so much about special needs children. I didn't even realize how much I didn't know to begin with. I've learned about patience, compassion, and love. I've learned all the words to all the songs in High School Musical 2.....ha!

 I've gained so much confidence in myself this year. (When it comes to teaching this was always something I struggled with.) I've learned that I'm good at working with children with disabilities, and I love it. Really, I love them.

Not knowing where I will be next year is hard because I don't know if this is goodbye to my students or see you later. I know for some it is goodbye, and that's hard. They say your not suppose to get too attached to your students, but I have. It's hard not to when your not just teaching them, but are also taking care of almost all their needs.

Oh, I love them so much. I've enjoyed helping them learn and grow. I've loved seeing them walk better and with more confidence, say new words, make choices, really do anything new. Words can't describe my experience this past school year.

Tomorrow is going to be bittersweet. We all must move on, move forward. I don't know what the future holds for me next year, but I'm so thankful for this past year.

Stronger

I am loving this song right now.................

It speaks to my job search right now (more on that soon, I need to write a post about it.)

Until then enjoy...

the great outdoors

This past weekend we went camping with some friends from our bible study group. We were in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 15  minutes west of Charlottesville. It was beautiful out there, and luckily we had great weather. (It was really hot, but no rain which was in the forecast.)

We stayed up late hanging out around the campfire Friday and Saturday nights. We made great meals on the campfire too. I really think everything tastes better when made on a campfire.

On a side note I woke up really early Saturday morning and decided to do my run. I ran all through these little farms and saw some beautiful countryside, it reminded me why I love running. Although I got so into the views I got lost and had to call Clarke from a little gas station and have him come pick me up!

Saturday we went for a hike near Skyline Drive. We didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into, as it was over 30 minutes of going directly up this mountain. We were so happy when we got to the top. The view was worth it.

We had such a great time. We woke up early Sunday and made it back in time for church. Then I went home and crashed. So thankful for great friends and the great outdoors!

RCC Ladie's Tea

This past Saturday the women's ministry at my church hosted it's annual tea. I absolutely love this event. I always volunteer to be a table hostess, which means I'm in charge of getting tea for my table and other things, but my favorite part is decorating the table.

Here is my table. I made those tissue paper flowers for my friend's birdal shower, the one I posted about here. So I just decided to add those two white vases, and the centerpiece was done, easiest table ever.

Close up of the centerpiece. I got lots of compliments on the purple, I love it too.

My table during the tea. My mom, mother-in-law and sister-in-law always come.

Cheers! This was Ellie's first tea. Adorable.

I think I spent the majority of my Saturday in the church that day, between setting up and cleaning up. But, it's such a nice event and I love being apart of it. :)

Sunday Funday

I had a very busy, but fun day yesterday. I taught the preschool class at my church, then had lunch with the in-laws. After that I headed over to my favorite soon to be six year old's birthday party!

I just can't believe how big she's gotten. I have pictures of her from every birthday. Here we are at her first one:

This seems forever ago.

We had the hardest time getting this picture. And this still isn't the best, but it's all of us.

Here we are 2 years ago at her 4th birthday party.

I had a great time at her birthday party. Afterwards a bunch of us went to The Crazy Greek for dinner. (We had planned on going to the Greek festival, but by the time we got there they were sold out of everything!)

I went to bed early that night. Whew!

The Silver Bullets

Today was my first day of marathon training! It was awesome!

As I posted earlier, I'm on the silver team, we're the silver bullets. My coaches are so nice, in fact everyone is really nice.

I had to post this picture, here I am finishing my first training run. I met these two girls today, and we ran together this morning.  We decided to pose for our picture.

I am so pumped right now (so I decided to document, when I need a little pick me up later in the season!) It's so exciting, I'm loving this running community and the motivation and inspiration that comes from it.

June

Hello June, I know I'm a few days late, but I'm really excited about this month, so here we go......

Marathon training starts! I found out today I'm on the silver team, I got my training schedule, and I'm ready! Although, I'm a little nervous, and still sometimes wonder what I got myself into, I'm mostly excited and ready.

  

I'm ready to live in my favorite flip-flops.

I can't wait for a camping trip and a beach trip! One weekend in the mountains, the next to my favorite beach, the outer banks.

School gets out this month, and I'll start teaching art camp at All Fired Up. Although the last day of school will be bittersweet, I'm looking forward to starting my work day a lot later.

There are lots of fun events going on this month, one of my closest friend's wedding, the women's tea at my church, the greek festival and a sweet little girl's 6th birthday party!

June is going to be a great month!