Weekend Getaway

John and I are leaving work early today to spend the weekend with friends at Smith Mountain Lake, in Roanoke, VA! We are so excited to have a chance to leave home for a few days, and go to the quiet mountains. I've been telling John that I really miss 'NY fall'. The leaves changing, chilly fall days, and so on. I'll get my dose of that this weekend, where it's much chillier than here. Pictures to come!

Hillsong Worship

My girlfriend Claire got me into Hillsong a few months back. I am totally in love with them! They are an amazing worship band, that approach worship from an angle I've never experienced before. I listen to their songs often, and everytime I listen to them, God shows me something new and brilliant. Some awesome Hillsong Songs:

* Hosanna
* From the Inside Out
* Lead Me To The Cross

Well Hello World...it's been a while...

(Big Sigh....)

Wow...the last few weeks have been crazy busy, preparing for school to start.

There are so many jobs that I think about, and think to myself, 'That would be fun...you'd just have to...' Or 'That would be easy, the only responsibility is to...' I think a lot of people think that way about teaching. 'Well, all you have to do is teach them'. Friends...you couldn't be more wrong. There are SO many responsibilities, and tall orders that us teachers face a million times a day.

Within the last few weeks, I went from a relaxed schedule, sleeping in, hanging out w/friends whenever to every minute of my day being accounted for, waking up early, staying at work late, not making home-cooked meals and more...sadly. I know that with everything, it's a season and it will change.

Although my life is hectic right now, in some ways I am really thankful for it. It keeps my mind off certain things, and helps me to be, and stay productive. I love the feeling of working hard at something, and seeing the fruit of my labor. And I am SO excited to say that even in just the first 4 days of school, I am already starting to see the fruit of my labor! Praise God for learning minds!

Turn, turn, turn

I feel like my life is similar to the lyrics of The Bryds song- Turn! Turn! Turn!

My summer is coming to a close, but also is the season of me not working full-time. In many ways, I'd lived in the lap of luxury, not working full-time for the last 10 months. It's been a great season of rest, relaxation, travel, and change. I would not have been able to do a lot of the things I have the last few months, if I had been working. I really hope this season that is ending will serve a great purpose: that I can start a fresh school year with a good attitude, and rested to the max! I am able to start working in my classroom pretty shortly, which I am excited about...but also a little nervous about starting work again. I've been so spoiled! To everything- turn, turn, turn...


To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time of war, a time of peace
A time of love, a time of hate
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

Story # 2

Now, I must say that when John and I went on our honeymoon to the Mayan Riviera (in between Cancun and Cozumel), we had a blast, and everything was perfect! I know that everything is perfect when you're on your honeymoon, but this was especially perfect. We stayed for a week and a half, at a 5 star resort, and were waited on hand and foot! I say all this because that experience is hard to beat...and we never will, which I'm totally cool with. Not only is it impossible to beat, it's also impossible not to compare other vacations to it. I struggled during this recent trip not comparing the food, the people, the resort, and everything with the resort we stayed at 4 years ago.

When we got to the hotel, it was as hot as all get out! I know it's the end of July in Mexico...but I mean it was H-O-T! And the reason it was so hot...was because there was NO AC!!!! Can you believe it?! I was fine with sweating my butt off at the pool and the beach, but when it came to my room, I wanted it to be refreshing, and relaxing. After one night of unbearable heat, we told our agent we wanted to change. After about 2 and a half hours of going back and forth with the hotel people, and our agent, we were finally switched to a different hotel.

We were told from the beginning that the hotel was the same in each respect, but it totally wasn't. It was much less nice, much less clean, and not to mention there were kids everywhere! (The hotel we booked originally was an adult only resort.) We figured that because it had AC, it would be fine. Well, after a few days, we started to get really frustrated with how much less nice the hotel was. We tried changing rooms to see if that would help, and tried different restaurants, but we just weren't feeling it. We paid for a certain vacation, resort, beach, and so on, and this hotel wasn't matching up.

We called the old hotel we were originally at, and they offered us a new room with an ocean view WITH AC! Well, it was a no brainer. We went back that day, and the rest of the vacation was awesome! We loved the resort from the beginning, but we loved it even more when it had working AC!

We got to play different water sports like water polo in the pool, water volleyball, water aerobics, and all sorts of fun stuff. It was exactly what we were paying for, and anticipating when we booked the vacation.

It wasn't as relaxing as we wanted it to be, but hey...with John and Leah...relaxing isn't always in the cards.

All in all, we had an awesome time...and had this beautiful scene for 8 days...not too shabby!

Story # 1

We left for Mexico last Monday, at an ungodly hour of 3am! We drove to Richmond, and flew to Philly.

As we were walking slowly to our gate in Philly, we heard that there was room on the next flight out to Cancun, but they were boarding in just a few minutes. Well, we mustered up the energy to run far, and fast through the airport. We got to the gate, and they had enough room, and they even got our luggage quick enough to transfer it to our new flight. We were SO excited that not only were we not going to have a 3 hr layover, but we were also going to be in Cancun by 12pm...yah!

Well, about every 30 min, the flight was delayed, and delayed, and then delayed some more. It was about 9am, and I started thinking that it was never going to board, and we'd be sitting in the airport far longer than the original 3 hr layover. I told John that we should try and get back on our original flight. I talked to the agent at the desk, and she told me there weren't any spots left, b/c we gave up our seats...oh crap! So, we went back to our seats figuring we'd wait another 3 hrs, and get to Cancun at night some time. Shortly after those thought went through our minds, the agent walked up to me and told me they had 2 FIRST CLASS tickets for us! We were stoked! Not only did they give us first class seats on an international flight, they also said they were going to try and get our luggage in time (meanwhile, boarding was in about 5 min). We said 'No problem' to the luggage, 'Just get us on the flight!' We boarded, and everything was smooooooth sailing to Cancun. We got there safely, AND our luggage was there! Hip hip hooray!

MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!