Home Sweet Home...was a long time ago.

I'm a wee bit behind here in the blogophere.
I'll ask you to forgive me as school has started and I am once again a workin' woman.
But let's catch up, shall we?

I got to visit the glorious state that I call "home" for two fabulous weeks in July.
My time there was filled with wonderful people [and babies--who are, of course, people themselves...but super adorable little people and therefore get special mention], trips to the pool, exhilarating hikes, tiring bike rides, breathtaking views, clean mountain air, sandy toes, What Not to Wear and relaxation.
It refreshed my soul.

Upon my slightly bittersweet return to Tulsa, I decided to fulfill a dream and got my own kitten :)
His name is Oliver [Ollie for short] and even though he wants to gnaw on my fingers and knock things over, he is precious and I'm entirely smitten.  Not that any of my Instagram followers would know...

Pretty quickly after that, the days started to fill up with teacher-y preparations and events.  Of course there was also time for friends, lunch dates, fireworks and drive-in movies :)

Then there was a random and rather spontaneous trip to Texas to return to my old stomping grounds [Teen Mania] to see the class of CCMers I met on the New York trip graduate, as well an excuse to go back to campus after six years aaaaand celebrate the ten year anniversary of CCM.  It was fun!

We started school [my fourth year of teaching--how nuts is that?!] on the 19th and this year is filled with all kinds of new adventures and even more surprisingly, some consistency!  I am at the same school and in the same grade level as last year and while that may sound like nothing to you, it's never happened to me before and I am grateful.  But to keep life interesting, there is a new classroom, a new position as lead teacher and an OSU intern for the first two weeks :)  I have a sweet bunch of kiddos this year and things are going swimmingly thus far.

Labor Day is around the corner and will launch one of a few upcoming trips this fall--St. Louis, then Columbia, Missouri just a few weekends later for Kaley and Bekah's half, hopefully an October jaunt to Arkansas with the lovely Chelsea, and fingers are crossed for a Fall Break adventure to Florida with my fabulous friend, Lauren.  

If that wasn't enough to stay busy, I begin training next week for my second half marathon, am staying involved at church with babies, singing, photography, small groups and running, and am filling my weekends with the pursuit of photography :)

Life is good and I am blessed to live it!