We moved!

Oh my goodness!

To start from the beginning, Bryan & I woke up Friday morning and started hauling furniture close to the street so by the time Mom arrived to College Station with the U-Haul we could start loading up. It was HOT. I now believe that water, Gatorade, AND Sonic drinks are all essential items for moving in a heat index of 115 degrees. Mom, Bryan & I were really starting to struggle with the heat during the afternoon.

We didn't fully appreciate how much time all of the "little" stuff could take to find a place for, or last minute cleaning. We didn't think we'd have a problem getting to Houston in plenty of time for our 5pm move-in, but it turned out that we barely made it by 6pm when the office closes! What a stressful drive!

By the time we arrived at our new apartment complex, signed our lease, and received our keys, Laura, Collin, Steven, Grady, Dad & Mom were there and ready to help us unload! Maybe I should clarify and say "unload" + carry everything up 3 flights of stairs...
They were AMAZING!! They worked so incredibly hard to help us move. I honestly don't think we could have done it without them.

Here is some documentation of the hot and sweaty business of moving:


Feeling exhausted, quite damp, and ready for pizza :)



Mom & Laura helped by starting to get the kitchen organized after making many trips up the stairs themselves. Plus Laura gave me my very first "teaching" gift!!! How cute is this basket of teaching goodies!?

The only real causality was my big toe. It is huge and swollen today. Otherwise I think it was mostly everyone was just tired! Bryan and I were a little sore this morning ... especially feet & knees :)


We're home, we're home!

We now live at Legacy Pines. Come and see us!

The never ending fourplex

Day 3 of Packing

We are exhausted and about to call it quits. We have a little time tomorrow to make final touch ups & pack the remaining "loose ends" before we need to leave for Houston. I can't believe how much stuff we have ... but I guess everyone says that when they move.

Bryan is amazing. He has been so helpful this week and worked long and hard without complaint. As a matter of fact he is doing the remaining paint touch ups right now while I take a break. What does that tell you? Yep, I know. He's a keeper :)

Goodwill never showed up yesterday after they asked us to have someone at the house all day for "whenever they could stop by." Which they never did. Now, instead, Twin Cities Mission is coming by tomorrow (hopefully before we leave). They seem MUCH more organized, thank goodness.

Looking back, I can't believe how enthused and excited we were on Monday. By tomorrow evening after we haul all of our stuff up to the 3rd floor (!!) we're going to wonder what we were so excited about! I'm sure we'll remember again on Saturday though. And definitely by next week when I start getting my classroom put together!!!

Many thanks ahead of time to all of the people who are giving us a hand tomorrow!!
For those that don't know, tomorrow is our official "move" day. We're allowed to start moving in by 5pm, which I feel is a little late, but at the same time maybe it won't be so hot.

Are you getting tired of reading about packing? Probably. Sorry. It's almost over though!! :)

Packing is no fun

Day 2 of Packing & Errands

Today is mostly packing. Our kitchen is nearly completely finished and a lot of headway has been made in the den.


Although I'm not sure it looks like it in the pictures :)

We've also completely packed up our clothes, except for a "weekly" bag for each of us which should last us until we can unpack in our new apartment this weekend.

The Goodwill truck is supposed to come by sometime soon to pick up a few things that couldn't fit into either of our cars.

Our plan for the rest of the day consists of finishing up the kitchen, den and office. We may be a little optimistic, but we only have until tomorrow evening to get everything ready for the uHaul. I also have a doctor's appointment and need to be working on PPR stuff (bleh) today which takes up time. Although maybe I should be grateful for small breaks in packing??

Note for anyone moving in the future: Home Depot boxes are pretty lousy. Stick with uHaul boxes!

Morning Accomplishments

What HAVEN'T we managed to get done this morning??!
We are feeling VERY accomplished.
So far this morning, we have:

- Figured out our new address
- Canceled Suddenlink for College Station
- Canceled College Station utilities
- Registered for utilities in Houston through Reliant Energy
- Changed our address through Compass Bank
- Transferred our State Farm rental insurance to our new place and faxed the confirmation to our new apartment complex
- Forwarded our mail at the Post Office
- Checked out Bryan's new digs for the month of August
- Dropped off clothing at Goodwill and scheduled a pick up time for the Entertainment Center for tomorrow morning
- Scheduled a U-Haul for Friday for our official moving day!

Now to keep packing :) Holy Moly this is really happening!

Cool side note: I ran into a student of mine from this past semester at the Post Office!! I love seeing my students! Plus I think he was a little excited to meet "Mr. Evans" :)

BIG Time Monday

In the course of the day today ....

(1) I found out that I passed the TExES Generalist EC-6 Test
(I'm allowed to teach!)
(2) I accepted a Pre-K teaching position at Klein ISD
(I have a job!)
(3) We signed a lease for an apartment in Houston
(We have a place to live!)
(4) Bryan made progress on his end for this big transition
(We won't have to live apart for very long!)


Today was HUGE. I think my heart is still pounding.
I had no idea today would look anything like this when I woke up.
The puzzle pieces are falling right into place!

WHOOP!!!
Many, many, many thanks for all of the prayers!
God is so good and always manages to provide.

Gone Fishing

As if everything else wasn't fun enough, on Sunday Ross, Ryan, & Josh came over when Laura & Collin had to leave. The boys did some serious jetskiing, tubing & wakeboarding.

Once we put the boat up, these boys ate a LOT ... and then pulled out the fishing poles!

Ross & Josh both managed to catch something and everyone else enjoyed trying.

Completely amazing weekend? YES!! It was considered a success by all.

Tubing with the future Powells

Another contributing factor to making this weekend awesome would be Laura & Collin visiting!!!

We talked and talked and talked. Bryan & Collin visited about whatever it is two goofy guys can talk about and Laura and I caught up on the job situation and their wedding plans. Then Saturday we spent the day on the lake!! Collin tried water skiing for the first time, but then EVERYONE gave tubing a try - Mom, Dad, Laura, Collin, Bryan & I.

There were many wipe outs :) Which just makes it that much more fun!

We also played latter golf, ate delicious food, messed around on the jetski, played Wii, and watched a lightening storm from the porch upstairs.



One last photo of Laura & Collin on the jetski is necessary. We're so proud of Laura for going at least once!

Ducks

This was a fabulous weekend by all standards!

It was awesome in part because of all the duck feeding we did! My parents have taken to feeding the ducks off of their dock lately, so as soon as we walk outside they come swarming if they're anywhere near the area.

In the top left photo you can see that there are TONS of ducks. The "Regulars" appear to consist of 3 white ducks and about 10 mallards.

My brother took this video of us feeding two ducks that thought they were too good for the lake water:

This was only the beginning - more to come!

28 years!

Saturday was my parent's 28th Anniversary!
In today's world, this is quite an accomplishment.
Thanks for setting us such a great example. Love you both!

Seahorses

The Evans' household has been a bit of a madhouse lately! Our lease expires on July 31, so we're trying to get everything packed up, put together & cleaned up so we aren't super rushed next week. I've been boxing and packing, and Bryan's been taking down our cute curtains and re-hanging the original 80's style vertical blinds on the sliding-glass doors, and fixing up the places where we hung things. I think we're on track to leave this place in better condition than how we found it! (Which really isn't that difficult.) A few last minute touch ups with paint and we're golden.

**A huge shout out goes to Mr. and Mrs. Burns for allowing us to use their College Station home for the month of August. We are so hugely relieved knowing that we have a place to stay next month!!**

More good news? There have been advances on the job front for me! I will wait until Monday to give the complete update (sorry guys) because that's when I'll let them know my decision, but I thought you may enjoy knowing that progress is being made :)
__________________________________________

In other news, thanks to the comedian Jim Gaffigan, I think seahorses are pretty awesome. If you've never looked these little creatures up, you may want to do a simple google search because they are so unique!!



Fun facts about seahorses:
- They range in size from less than an inch to an entire foot in length
- They tend to be monogamous (good for them!) and even court each other, aww
- The females lay their eggs in the MALE's pouch, which he fertilizes and carries for 2-4 weeks
- Then the MALE releases them into the sea
(A species where the male bears unborn young?!?)
- Depending on the specific species, they can have from 5 to 1500 offspring!
- Only about 0.5% of the offspring survive
- Seahorses tend to be inept swimmers because of their upright position
- They only change into those bright colors during "social" situations :)
- The Chinese believe strongly in their medicinal purposes

Don't they make a cute couple? :)

Baby, it's 3AM and I'm lonely

Bryan thought it would be very sexy if I learned to play bass guitar (his instrument of choice) so what did we do tonight? Developed one serious blister and conquered a song!!!

It's called 3AM by Matchbox 20, which has all of about 4 notes - very good beginner's song. (Note the title of the post; I'm not REALLY lonely.) Plus I can play a little tune that only happens on the E string. Yessir, I can :)

Was Bryan impressed? absolutely.
Was it sexy? I'll let the blister tell you that!



Rockin' out, folks! Just wait until I can handle 5 notes!!

Why hamsters?

Poll:

How many others will think of rodents every time they see a Kia?

Is that really the advertising edge they were going for?
How do hamsters make the car more appealing?
I just don't understand!

Thanks, Doc

Have you ever noticed that when you go to the doctor's office you spend about an hour doing nothing in ratio to the 5 minutes you actually see the doctor?

But I guess if you're at the point to where you need to see a doctor, you're willing to do it anyway! I finally broke down last week and scheduled an appointment with my ENT. Thank goodness he was able to fit me in today. I'm not sure how much longer I would have lasted and remained sane.

I had some fairly large sized polyps on my left side. Very unpleasant. However, he did what he could to get rid of some of it and I'm about to pick up an antibiotic from Walgreens to hopefully get rid of them completely. The good news is that this is first time I've had any problems since my last sinus surgery this past December.

Thank goodness for medical mercies!!

Plus I was able to get lots of reading done without any distractions at the doctor's office. I feel like I've got a pretty good grip on Preschool through 6th grade social studies now :)
Remember the Alamo! ... and all that other stuff.

Trivia Question: Does anyone know how Texas got its name?
(Hint: Indian Interaction)

Despicable Me

Last night and most of today have been incredibly productive. Bryan's been getting lots of work done for his job and I've been hard at the books to prepare for the Generalist EC-6 test on Wednesday. Bryan decided that since our brains were nearing capacity anyway, we should take a break and go see Despicable Me!

It was really cute. I especially enjoyed the little girls that were sitting right next to me. The littlest one kept saying "That's not nice!" to the Mr. Gru (the main character) and occasionally repeating phrases that the characters said. Too funny. I also enjoyed all of Bryan's chuckling. He says he's a grown up... but sometimes I'm not sure if either of us are :) I do think we were some of the only adults in there without children under 5... oh well! We liked it too!

I love College Station's movie prices. Since we went before 6pm it was only $3.50 each! I will sorely miss this should we move!

Eagle Court of Honor

After many, many, many years of camp-outs, merit badges, leadership roles and finally a big project, Blake Hermes earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Today was the celebration in honor of this huge and impressive achievement.

We first met at my Aunt Jana & Uncle Keith's house for visiting with family & close friends for lunch, and then went to the church for his Eagle Court of Honor. It was so cool to see how many people showed up to support Blake. Although I can't say everything all of the speaker's said today about Blake's leadership, courtesy, helpfulness, and sheer will to work, anyone who meets this boy knows he's someone special. I loved hearing so many people speak so highly of my cousin.

Our family was pretty involved with the occasion, too. My Mom said the prayer and the benediction, Grady (as a fellow Eagle Scout) was one of the ones to escort Blake in, Dad gave a speech & then was honored as a mentor (which was very cool), Bryan was the videographer & I was the photographer.




Check out these incredibly proud parents:

Then of course we had to have lots of photos of friends & family afterward!

Congratulations Blake. We are SO proud of you!!

Bryan Knows

Last night we stayed up pretty late while I finished another PPR activity and tried to finish composing another Letter of Interest and further correspondence with principals. Bryan was sweet enough to stay up with me reading over my shoulder because the more I got bleary eyed I started writing silly things like "you's can" or "McDouble' instead of "McDougle". (Oops!)

Once we finally felt that I was far enough to go to bed, I laid there thinking for what felt like forever, unable to sleep. Some point later, I'm not sure if Bryan still awake or already asleep and woke up, but he rolled over looked at his phone for a few minutes and quoted these verses to me:

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"
Philippians 4:34


Then Bryan said, "It's your job to sleep. It's God's job to figure everything out. Quit worrying." Sure enough - I fell asleep!

I know several others are right now worrying about financial security, employment, conflict, health or a family member. It's a nice reminder that there's a plan and we don't need to worry.

I'm about to head out for another day of training. Maybe it'll be fun too!

Classroom Management

Today I was required by my Alternative Certification Program to attend an all day training on the topic Classroom Management. Historically their training days have not been overly thrilling, but today went pretty well! I think they made a good call to coordinate our PPR activities (which are also about Classroom Management right now) with the training, because we were actually able to contribute more. Tomorrow we have another all day training (two in a row!?) on CPI. They told us to "dress comfortably".... I wonder what that means we're going to be doing??

Each day we get closer to August I can't help but get more and more crazy excited about my future classroom & students!! Now I just need the job! I am DETERMINED to be a good teacher! If hard work & will power are what it takes, it will happen.

Plus now I've got a very firmly grounded idea of how to actually logistically manage a classroom full of 20 very excited and squirrely youngsters :) Parents and my future principal will be thrilled, haha. Apparently positive expectations, engaging learning activities, a few broad rules and a planned procedure for every little thing are all it takes ... I guess I'll find out one way or the other!


In other news, we are still loving Netflix!!
It's taken a bit of a backseat in our fairly hectic schedules lately, but still, who can resist the 3 Ninjas? We have to decompress at some point, right?

Education Overload

Bryan and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately because of all the changes, decisions to be made, and uncertainty we have going on right now. Bryan's been handling it pretty well, but I've been feeling very stressed out.

Here's what's going on:
I'm currently taking a PPR class to meet my teacher certification requirements. It's been requiring me to dedicate about 30 hours a week simply to keep up with the reading, complete the activities, and study for the exams.

I'm studying for the Generalist EC-6 TExES exam (which I take next Wednesday, July 21st.) Passing this test is what will probably make the difference between me finding a teaching job for next year or not. I have thankfully already passed the Special Education EC-12 exam.

I am trying to keep track of all of the different school district's openings, writing letters of interest, and making contact with principals. (Thank you so much Lety for all of your help.)

I have also been interviewing, which although very positive, is also pretty stressful and nerve-wracking. I interviewed today with Klein's Director of Secondary Education and Director of Elementary Education. I really hope they were happy with me and will recommend me to principals in their district.

I feel SWAMPED with education stuff!!

We are also a little concerned about our upcoming move. Our lease is up on July 31st, but we don't know where we will move to yet.


Thankfully we have lots of friends and family that are devoted prayer warriors!!

We would really appreciate it if you could continue praying for us. Specifically:
- Patience and wisdom concerning the upcoming move
- That I pass the Generalist EC-6 exam and find a teaching position soon
- That Bryan & I maintain positive attitudes and remember how blessed we are instead of worrying


Okay - I'm done complaining!! Now I just gotta get back to it. Love you all!

A Shotgun Wedding Weekend

Saturday morning Bryan and I slept in which was huge. We both desperately needed the extra sleep. Then we drove to my parent's house on Lake Conroe and Dad took Bryan to the driving range. Apparently Bryan shows quite a bit of promise, which is more than anyone could ever say of me!

That evening Bryan and I drove to Tomball for Steven & Christy's wedding! They've been dating something like 7 years so they were quite ready to finally tie the knot. Steven is a friend of ours from A&M. The ceremony took place on Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 5:00pm in the chapel at Boy's and Girl's Country in Tomball.

Then we all drove about a mile down the road to Events, Etc. for their reception. The food and music were great. We didn't have any of the cake, but they looked pretty cutting it :) This was actually the 4th wedding we've attended since getting married ourselves. One of the really special parts of the whole thing was that their grandparents were celebrating their 50th (!) anniversary that day too and had the dance floor to themselves to dance to THEIR wedding song from a long time ago. It was really, really sweet and they could really dance!
Bryan and I mostly enjoyed the food, made casual conversation with strangers and did some boot-scooting. We had a lovely time.
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Watson!



After the wedding we drove back to my parent's house because the next day we had planned a date with my parent's new toy, the jetski. It is sooo much fun. Dad & Bryan are particularly fun to watch while they "shred those waves." :)

By the time it was too toasty outside, we settled in to see who would win the World Cup. I had the best intentions in the world, but sometime during the second half I fell asleep. So much for the exciting high scoring game everyone predicted!! Well done, Spain.

What's better than soccer? Birthday presents! On Bryan's birthday back in April my parents gave Bryan a shotgun case with the promise of a shotgun before dove season (September). After the game we went to Gander Mountain and they found one!! It's a Remington 870 pump 12 gauge. Bryan is VERY excited.




A final bit of happy news?
Dad was able to get Bryan & I great tickets for the Rush concert in September! They're playing at the Woodland's Pavillion the weekend after our 1st anniversary. Bryan loves this band and I hear him playing their songs on his bass most evenings :)
Thank you, Dad!

7 on 7

This afternoon I spent several hours watching my cousin Kyle play in the State Championship 7 on 7 Tournament with my Aunt Tricia and Uncle Dwayne. They were playing on the intramural fields at A&M. It was incredibly hot but also a lot of fun! Kyle plays quarter back. Following this style of football is a lot easier than following a regular football game too!

Plus I got to SIT (no offense 12th Man).

I have to admit I only made it through 4 1/2 games before I finally had to call it quits and find some A/C. Made me realllllly feel for those players!! I'm sure they were thankful they weren't wearing pads.

Bryan was super jealous that he went to work all day while I watched football.
These are to make him feel "better" about it :)