August 3, 2012

I had to take a break from my NY posts, 

because a year ago today something pretty awesome happened : )

I married the love of my life, my best friend...

& today we are still going strong, happier and more in love (who knew that could be possible!) than one year ago : )

I can't believe it has been a year!
Time sure flies when you're having fun!
Thank you, for being the best man for me. Thank you for being patient on the long days, understanding on the difficult days, fun on the adventurous days, spontaneous on the boring days, but mostly, for being loving every day. I never knew that I could be this happy or feel so loved. What fun we have had this past year, going on adventures and making memories. I can't wait for the years to come at the best place in the world, right by your side. No matter where life takes us I will always be home as long as I'm with you.

I love you Jeremy Kyle Thomas!
Thank you for making me your Mrs. : )

Too long.....

While being "home" (I think have 3 homes hahaha) we were able to see people that I haven't seen in SO long, at least since Christmas if not since we got married!

One of my best friends/sister, Sami <3

 

One of my dads <3

 

  

Another best friend, Rachel <3 

 

Another best friend, Meg <3

 

While we were home for Christmas we only had one week. It went by so fast and there wasn't enough time to see everyone that we wanted to. Having two weeks this time I thought it would be so much better. While we got to see pretty much everyone we wanted to, we still only got to spend a couple hours with friends, which is NEVER enough! Still, very thankful that we were able to squeeze some time in with these great people (plus others that I didn't snap pictures with : ) 

New York!

We were supposed to leave for New York Friday night after I got off of work, but I had worked two doubles at the beginning of the week so I got someone to cover my Friday afternoon shift and we took of on Thursday. Pretty much everyone knew about this except my parents. We got in and went to see Jeremy's family. After spending some time there we took of to go surprise my parents. I called them when we left and acted like we were just leaving South Carolina (I wanted to make sure they would be home so I casually asked what their plans were, etc). I wish I had my camera to take a picture of mom's face when we pulled in. She was very thankful that we saved her a night full of worrying about us driving! LOL Since we surprised them, we also crashed their date night hahaha So we took off to go to dinner and the drive-ins! 

Despicable Me 2 and White House Down!

While we were at the drive-ins my sister came into town and since Saturday was the Potsdam festival we woke up the next day at headed off to spend the day together! It was so much fun to just be with family, walking around familiar territory LOL While we were there I got to see one of my best friends/sister. We hung out for a while and then watched the parade, which she was in. It was our first time getting to see her perform and she did amazing!

 

 

 

Then, that night we hung out with my parents and watched their pastor, our friend and the man that married us, perform with his band. How many of you can say that the man that married them is in a band?! Pretty cool!!!! : )

 

Just a little heads up, I left my camera in South Carolina, so all of these pictures are coming from my phone and there aren't that many of them : ( And my awesome half-broken-not-sure-how-it's-still-working computer won't let me steal them from Facebook either so, the next few posts is all you get : ) 

4th of July in the South!

Just a visit from us Southerners to tell you how the South celebrates the 4th of July! : ) LOL Luckily, I was able to have the day off, so we spent the majority of the morning doing absolutely nothing. I got a bunch of my scrap booking done and Jeremy worked on his video game skills : ) For dinner we made a yummy homemade pizza...

 

 

 

We were going to go to the beach to watch fireworks but the weather here has been really rainy so we didn't really want to chance it, plus by the time we actually thought about doing it we figured parking would be insane. Then we were just going to go to the local fireworks but we soon found out that those had been cancelled due to the weather. I had heard about a firework show in Mount Pleasant (about 40 minutes from us) right in the bay where the USS Yorktown is anchored. They sold tickets for people to actually sit on the deck to watch the show! So, I got the bright idea that we should go to "my bridge" to watch the fireworks! You all remember my bridge, right? 

 

I have been wanting to walk it for a really long time, so what better time? Well, when we got there, found parking and walked towards the bridge, we realized that they had the pedestrian walkway closed during the fireworks. BUT, there was a path going underneath the bridge that a bunch of people were going to so we decided to go investigate. What do you know - there is a pier under my bridge! You can kinda see it in the picture above actually, on the right hand side. So, we found a seat (next year we will know to bring chairs!) and waited for the show to start!!!

Our perfect view, with the USS Yorktown in the distance...

All of the boats in the water....kinda hard to see, but there were a ton!

 

I'm kinda surprised they let them all be there! We actually think they even shut the bridge down for the fireworks, too, although i'm not sure how they could do that, but we never heard any traffic going over us the whole time and when the finale was going on and all of the smoke, i'm not sure how anyone driving on the bridge would have been able to see! I tried to take pictures of the fireworks but they didn't turn out very well, so I took 2 videos - but for some reason they won't upload to blogger : ( They did a really good job though! Comparable to NY I suppose : ) 

Speaking of NY, we will be there a week from tomorrow! YAY! 

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday! 

You probably won't hear from me again until after our trip!

Just for Dad : )

After skyping with my parents and being guilted for the fact that I never blog anymore, my excuse that I have nothing to blog about didn't really stand, since I do have an update! JEREMY GOT THE JOB!

He is officially going to be teaching 6th grade Math & Science at Buist Academy for Advanced Studies in downtown Charleston. We could not be more excited and thankful for this new opportunity. I already know that this coming school year will be a hundred times better than his last one. Kids have to test in order to get into this school and are actually there to learn, so the disciplinarian problems shouldn't be as bad. And I think just the fact that they are an "advanced studies" school says a lot about their reputation. 

 We will still be able to attend our church and I will still be able to work at the daycare! YAY! We are looking to move, since Jeremy has to be at school at 7:30 in the morning and we are about 40 minutes away. Traffic in the mornings can be a little crazy so we would like to be somewhere right in the middle for both of us. We went "shopping" this past weekend and think we have found our new home. The rent is cheaper than what we are paying now, although water is not included, but the VERY nice lady told us that if we wait until a bit closer to when we want to move (end of August) then the price should be even lower than what it is now, so we are going to wait and keep calling until it's just perfect! : ) Thank you all for your prayers and support through it all. I could not be prouder of Jeremy and his incredible attitude through the past couple of months. As hard as it was for me and us, I know it was 10x harder inside of him. 

Praise the Lord! 

We are so excited for our new adventure!!!

Other fun facts about our life right now:

- Jeremy's car is fixed. Huge blessing right there. This girl I work with babysits for the owner of a transmission shop. Long story short, he basically gave us a 50% discount on the price which meant he pretty much made no profit. He said, "sometimes you just have to help people". Everyone go to Holt's Transmission Service in Summerville, SC! : )

- I've been working like crazy! Now that summer has started i've been working about 3 doubles a week. Thankfully, still loving my job! I love my room the most, the infants, but have been working shifts in some of the other rooms as well.

- We will be going to NY in less than 2 weeks! We are very much looking forward to a vacation from this sauna we live in! It has been in the 90's lately, feeling like the 100's and raining constantly! 

- I have been bit by the crafty bug lately, so I have decided it's time to stop procrastinating with the dating/wedding scrapbooks! I finished our dating one, minus some details and am working on our wedding one now! Determined to get them done before we go to NY! I think I will add our first year of marriage to our dating book since it's not that full. As Jeremy said, it's because we didn't date that long! LOL I can't believe in a little over a month it will be our one year anniversary!!! Time sure flies when you're having fun! : ) 

Have a great week everybody!!!

Schoooooooool's OUT, for, the summer!

 

 Jeremy is finally done with his first year of teaching! What a relief, for him and for me! It was a long and trying year, especially these last few months after finding out that he wouldn't be there next year. Some days it was hard to find the motivation to actually go to work and care about what he did that day! I am so proud of him for finishing it out with a bang and never giving up on the kids that he taught. I know, whether on the surface or deep down, each one of them learned something from him this year. A few weeks ago we chaperoned the 8th grade prom and although we were ignored by all of the staff, it was so fun to see all of the kids come up and say hello to him : ) 

So, where are we at now?

Jeremy has had 4 interviews so far, has one today, one tomorrow and one that hasn't been set up yet. Two of the schools that he has interviewed with so far have let him know that they have gone in a different direction, but the one we really want is still an option, hopefully! And ultimately, the one the Lord has for us, is still out there. As I said from the very beginning, I have no doubts that we will have a teaching job come August, I am just not sure where it will be. That part can be scary some days. 

Other than that things are going well here. Summer is officially in full bloom and we are dying! LOL It's only 10am and Jeremy just took the trash out, which he regretted. We always thought being here last August that we knew what the worst was like, but I'm pretty sure we are about to have 3 months of it, versus one. Oh well - thank God for the ocean!!! I am still loving my job and have been able to pick up some extra hours here and there. I couldn't ask for better coworkers and bosses, although they really just all feel more like friends! Church is still a huge blessing to us along with our church family and all of the friends we have been able to make there. Jeremy is looking forward to his summer off. Enjoying the gym, video games and naps : ) He is really hoping that he will find out what August holds for him soon so that he can spend this time planning for it. We are also looking forward to getting up to NY in July for a nice two week visit. I think summer there will be a relief from summer here! It will have been 7 months since we have seen everyone but our parents. That's too long! 

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Since Jeremy had to hand in his work computer and our computer is still not letting me upload pictures to blogger (I don't even know how it's still running!), I have to use my phone to upload pictures now LOL But I will try to be better at getting blog posts done. There just hasn't been that much going on lately : ) 

Have a good rest of the week everyone!!!

Seasons are changing...

Where to begin? 

I guess the day it all started.

The Friday before Jeremy's spring break he had a meeting with his administrators to find out how he had done this year and about his contract for next year. They told him that he had passed his evaluations throughout the year and met all of his requirements. They told him that he could work on his classroom management, but who doesn't have to work on that? Especially when it's your first year teaching and you're teaching 2 subjects. But, after all of those positive things, they told him that they were not going to be renewing his contract for the Fall. Their reason being was that he "did not fit the chemistry of the 8th grade team." UGH. Don't even get me started on that so called reason. 

So where do we go from here?
It took us both a little while to get over the initial blow and we didn't tell anyone other than our parents. His principal gave him an option of writing a resignation letter so that it would look better on his "record" than not getting a contract, so he did that. Then he emailed a guy from the district that he dealt with while being hired and asked to have a meeting with him. The guy told Jeremy that he really couldn't do anything and that he didn't specifically know of any open positions in the district, but that he could get put on the transfer list and get emails every week that list the open positions within the district. So he talked to his principal about getting put on the list and she told him that he couldn't get on the list since he wasn't getting a new contract. SO, Jeremy emailed that guy again asking what the deal was and the next day he got an email from his principal saying that he COULD get on the list with the form attached. This is her first year being a principal, so i'm not sure if she was being mean or if she really didn't know. I have mixed feelings towards her and the school right now lol The more we hear about things the happier we are that he is getting out of there. 

So, he is on the transfer list. So far there are a few possibilities for him to pursue. He has sent out his resume to every principal in our district and the district right next to us. He has also updated his application for the whole state of South Carolina and also submitted his application to the Charleston District. 

Then we got another surprise. He got a call one day from a principal from a district 3 hours away from us. We were kinda confused how he got Jeremy's name but once they got a hold of each other we found out that he had talked to this guy last year after Jeremy had accepted this position. So, apparently this guy has kept Jeremy's name this whole time and is still interested. So, Jeremy emailed him his resume and we are waiting for a Skype interview to get set up. 

Now a lot of you are probably wondering why we aren't jumping on this opportunity to move back to NY, but we just aren't ready for that. We don't really want to move 3 hours away either. Obviously, if it's the only card we are dealt we will take that as a sign from God and do it, but it's not OUR will. We absolutely love where we are, we love our church and our church family. We have really begun making good friends and I absolutely LOVE my job. (A little addition to the praises that I posted about when I told you all about my new job...on my first day of work, the girl whose place I was taking in the infant room came back for her job. So, if I wasn't there for my first day, the job wouldn't have even been there anymore!) So of course in my mind and how I think things should go, why would God allow me to get this job and have it totally be the working of His hands, if we were just going to have to leave in 3 months? Also, if I was who I was a year ago, I WOULD be jumping on this opportunity to move back to NY, or at least closer to our families. So, I am holding on to the fact that my heart has changed and with how me getting my job unfolded as a hope that this is where we are still meant to be. Obviously, we are willing to go wherever the Lord leads us and I will follow my husband wherever that may be, but our hearts are definitely here.

There were a few other things that this news impacted. 

When we got married and Jeremy got this job, we were accepted into this loan forgiveness program for teachers that took our loan payments from like $600/month to $60/month, which has obviously been a HUGE blessing. But if Jeremy isn't teaching, we don't get it anymore. (We aren't sure how it would be affected if he was to sub....)

Also, a praise....our lease is up this month in our apartment. Our only options were a 6, 9 or 12 month lease, 12 being the cheapest. But, since we don't really know what's going to happen, if we were to leave in August and break the lease, we would have to pay an extra month fee. We also could have rented month-to-month but it would have been over $100 more each month. So, we went and talked to the office about our predicament and they are going to let us a do a 3 month lease for the cheapest price as if we were renting for 12 months! Praise the Lord! 

SO! (how many times have I said that in this post? LOL) Prayers would definitely be appreciated in the upcoming couple of months for opportunities to come our way and for peace and guidance about decisions.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:11-13