2010

The year 2009 is coming to close and I'm thinking back to what a year it has been.

Run down of 2009:
Got a new car
Bonnie and I had some fabulous birthdays
Became a Mary Kay Consultant
Family had a great year (Palm Springs trip, Florida, Dallas with Mary Margaret, etc)
Micah Fullerton proposed and I said yes!
Started my 8th year of teaching (Yikes!)
Micah and I attended some fine Razorback football games
Found my wedding dress (2nd one I tried on!)
Fell off the blogging bandwagon, but jumped right back on when I had news!
Micah, Bonnie, and I had a fabulous Christmas card (Thanks Victoria!)
And much, much more.....

Isn't it funny how the year seems to drag on and on and then when we think back on it, we have such a hard time remembering what all went on?

I'm looking forward to 2010. Not only do I turn 20-10 this year, Micah and I are planning our future together. My New Year's decisons for this upcoming year are just that...decisions, not resolutions. I am going to simplify, organize, and eliminate all the extras in my life. I know that I cannot plan a wedding, look to a new life, and be a good teacher/fiancee/daughter/person if I don't get a hold on everything. Being a teacher, I crave routine. I do not do well with change. When I begin to feel stressed out, I shut down physically, emotionaly, everything.

Mary Margaret pointed out that after my "Did you miss me?" post, I didn't blog about anything until the night that Micah and I got engaged. =) I promise to do better in the future. =)

We haven't set a date for our fwedding, but we have made some great progress in the whole wedding planning thing. I have decided (with Micah) our colors (black, silver, celadon--with accents of red), found the dress (2nd one I tried on--more on that story later), and started planning our future life--Micah and I are focused on having a great wedding, but more importantly having a life together. We don't want to spend everything that we have on the wedding and then spend the rest of our life eating ramen noodles on paper plates. =)

I'm going to work tonight on cleaning and taking down Christmas decorations. I usually leave them up until Epiphany, but I figured with cleaning, it will just be easier to take them down now. So, when start back to school on Monday, January 4th (yikes!), the house is clean and ready for the new year.

I'm engaged!!!!

Last night/early this morning, Micah Cabe Fullerton asked me to be his wife. I, of course, said, "Yes!!!!!!".

When we figure out details, we will let everyone know. As of right now we are so, super excited! (As we totally should be) =)

Above is a picture of the ring. The one on my pinky finger is the wedding band that goes with the ring. I think he did a super fabulous, AMAZING job picking out the most beautiful ring!!!!!

Have you missed me?

I know, I know! I've been a terrible blogger. I love to check other people's blogs and I always note how often it's been since they've updated. I don't know why it's any of my business, but I do. I often would think, "There's no way I would let myself get behind in my blogging." Never say never!!!! (Also, I should take my own advice in what I tell my kids--"Be concerned about your own business") =) I haven't updated all summer long! It's now the 2nd week of school and I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. I have left everything to the imagination of my readers (all 1 or 2 of them?--maybe no readers!). Well, no longer I say to you! I'm back into my routine, slowly but surely tackling everyday obstacles that come my way.

First off, I had a wonderful, crazy, busy, travel-filled summer! I loved it, however, I'm glad to be back in my routine of school. I try to pack so much into my summer that I'm exhausted by the end of it. I did cross off a lot of stuff on my to do list. I'm still working on my office (used to be known as the office/craft room, but now it's just going to be an office) and guest room. In actuality, I didn't even really tackling those at all. I just let them sit all summer. I did get the guest bathroom done. It looks so good! I will be posting pictures soon (this week) so ya'll can see it. I worked on lesson plans, but we changed our class schedule, so I'm glad I didn't finish my lessons for the year because if I did, then I would have to change them all over again. Whew! So, the things I did cross off were great. I'll also be doing a list of books that I read over the summer. So many great ones!

I did a ton of traveling this summer. I went to Florida, Missouri, Fayetteville, El Dorado, and Dallas. Everytime I saw my new principal at the Primary school I was telling him that I just got back from one place and I'm leaving the next day for another place. Crazy! It was great times and I got to hang out with family and certain sweet man from El Dorado that I just can't help but be crazy about!

I also become an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay Cosmestics! That's right! Mary Margaret and I are not only real sisters, but now we're Mary Kay Consultant sisters. We traveled down to Dallas, Texas for Seminar and boy, did we learn a lot! That's a whole other post just to talk about. Loved it! Love Mary Kay! You should check out my Mary Kay website: http://www.marykay.com/jhui .

After my crazy summer, regular life seems kind of boring. =) I'm sure this year holds all sorts of exciting things to come my way. As for right now, I'm glad to be back into the routine!

To Do List for the Summer

At the beginning of the summer, I like to create a list of goals that I would like to accomplish by the time that summer is over. Some years I do really great and cross off everything, other years I don't do so well.

Well, today was my first official day of SUMMER BREAK, so here is my list of stuff that I would like to accomplish this summer. You will notice that there is a common theme.

(in no particular order)
1. Clean out/Vacuum/Get car back in order I am notorious for having a cluttered car, well, cluttered everything. I was doing really well with my new car--not having it get messy, etc. I live in my car because I am always going and doing something. So, the car got messy.
2.Organize Craft Room (the front bedroom of my house) If I want to get my business underway, then I need to have my room that I can shut the door on everything. Right now I cut things out on top of my bed, I sew at my kitchen table, and I draw/paint/etc. on my couch. I need a room to keep all my things in and a place where I do all my stuff.
3.Organzie Guest Room Luckily, I don't have too many people coming over and wanting to stay in my guest room. (Mainly for the fact that they couldn't sleep on the bed right now because it is covered with stuff.) However, by the end of the summer I'm going to have people knocking down my doors to come stay at my house. I've never really decided on a decorating scheme in that room in all the time that I've lived in my house and this summer I have decided that it is going to be it. It shall be done.
4.Paint and finish redecorating the Guest Bathroom I decorated the guest bathroom with pink, black, and white. Very cute, very girly. I felt bad for Micah everytime he used that bathroom because it is so very girly. By the end of summer, girly it shall be no more. It will be gender neutral, but very fashionable. I'm painting the walls a deep blue--not navy, not bright turquoise. The part I've done so far looks awesome. I am really expecting to do a lot when I return from the beach.
5. Organzie Garage Micah has pointed out to me that my garage is technically a TWO car garage, but right now there is a spot for just Jennifer's car. I plan to change that.
6.Keep track of the books I read this summer I love to read. Have been doing it for forever. I even joked with my Momma that I could have saved a ton of money had they not taught me to read. I wouldn't have had to buy a TON of books. My Momma pointed out that I really would be good for much of anything if I didn't know how to read. She was correct in that point. So, I plan to keep track of what I read this summer. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised with the amazing amount of books I'll read. We will see.
7.DeClutter House I plan to just try to get rid of things that I'm not using anymore and give it to people that will find it useful. I just have too much stuff around me.
8.Lesson Plans for the Year I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have my lesson plans done for the year. I plan on working on them during the evenings at the beach. It would be wonderful to have them ready just to print off during the year. I may have to tweak them a little bit, but that's totally okay.
9.Calendars for the Year I like to let the parents know what is going on in our classes and calendars are a great way to do that. Problem is, the year gets so crazy that it's hard to create a calendar for each month and keep up with all the things you need to do just everyday. SO, I'm going to work on it now and have them ready. What's that you are thinking? I know, it's BRILLIANT!!!!
10.Spend time with Family and Micah During the school year, I can't leave during the week and weekends are filled with church, so that doesn't leave me much time to go spend with anyone else. Micah has to work throughout the summer, so I plan on going down there as much as I can. I also plan to spend time this summer up in Fayetteville with my family. I was lucky enough to go home over Memorial Day and my sister, Alex, was there. It was so good to see her. Out of all my sisters, I don't get to see her enough because she lives in Knoxville and it's just so hard to fly to Fayetteville or to drive there. So, I did get to see her some this summer and it was so good. My other sisters, Mary Margaret and Victoria, were there, but Mary lives in Fayetteville and Victoria is home from Tulsa for the summer, so I know I'll be able to see them easier than I will be able to see Alex.

This is what I have now. I may add more as the summer progresses. We will see.

I will keep you updated on this list as I go through the summer. Today, I am pleased to announce that I was able to cross off #1. I had my oil changed today and my car dealership washes the cars when they are done, so I knew that I wanted to get the car cleaned out and then after it was washed I could vacuum it. Well, I did clean out the stuff inside there, got the oil changed, vacuumed it, and wiped down the dashboards and stuff. It looks so good. I am very pleased that I was able to do something productive today!

Do you make summer goal lists? What are yours?

Summer Break!

my view in exactly one week

Today was my first full day of the most wonderful thing a teacher can say......"Summer Break".

This morning I was in Hot Springs for a wedding of one my good college friend's younger sister. They are like family. After I was up and moving around, I went outside to leave and I felt like the starfish character in Finding Nemo when they have the dirty fish tank and then they wake up the next morning and the tank is clean. She says, "The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the tank is clean....". The 'tank is clean' part did not really apply to me, but as I walked outside in the beautiful sunshine and blue sky, I was like, "The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the sky is blue!". Micah was like, "Get in the car."

Just kidding!

He was just as happy about the weather as I was!

The wedding was held at the Anthony Chapel in Garvan Woodland Gardens. It was a beautiful chapel. Earlier in the afternoon we went to the National Park Aquarium. It was cool to see all sorts of fish, turtles, lizards, and insects. I enjoyed it and the whole time I kept telling Micah about how my sister, Mary Margaret, would LOVE it! Next time I go back to Hot Springs I want to go to the Gangster Museum that we passed on the way to the Aquarium. I love learning about Al Capone and the all that kind of stuff. I was thinking what downtown Hot Springs must have been like in that time period. I'm going to have to search for some books about it.

Now, I'm onto to preparing a summer goal list, packing for Destin, and pretty much just relaxing and splitting my time between Conway, El Dorado, and Fayetteville!

I'm also going to use this summer as a time to really get my business up and running. Remember to contact me at jennifer@jennifermaxine.com if you would like something or have an idea of something you would want for yourself or a gift item!

I would love to create it for you!

Blog Giveaway Opportunity

There is a giveaway opportunity over at the blog for my new little endeavor! Go check it out here. I will list the place to find the master list of all the giveaways!!! There is so many awesome things to try and win! The master list is http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2.

The contests will be open until May 31st!!!!

Great Gift Ideas

Small Pails--colors, names, quotes can all be personalized to your specifications
Burp Rags--functional and stylish! (Machine washable and dryer friendly)
Large Pail--colors, names, quotes can all be personalized to your specifications

Great gift ideas for baby showers, birthdays, graduation, "just cause", and more!

Check it out at http://www.jennifermaxine.com/.