It's Been a While...

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, and I apologize for that. Things have been very crazy around here these last couple of weeks. As I mentioned in my last blog, we had a pretty big change take place about a week and a half ago. Lisa is no longer at Hillsboro School, which is a thirty-minute drive away from our house. She got a transfer to Chapman's Retreat Elementary School, which is a little over two miles from our house. It seems that the two principals are arguing over her right now, and while she's stuck in the middle of their little sparring match, I suppose the silver lining is, one could look at it as a nice ego boost that your new and former bosses are fighting for you. The change is nice, not only because it's almost an hour's difference in driving each day, but that is the elementary school where our children will be attending (no, none yet). So please pray for Lisa during this transition. She's going to be awesome!

I wanted to plug a band here, which I have never done before. The drummer for this band is the husband of a friend at school (one of our new teachers), and their sound is fantastic. The name of the band is SafetySuit, and you can check out their webpage at www.safetysuitmusic.com. You can also watch their first video (this first single is getting some great airtime all over the country) by going to the following address: http://video2.umrg.com/safetysuit/default.aspx?vid=01. The links I've tried to put in here aren't working, so I've added links to the side under our favorites. You can guy their CD in stores, or on iTunes. Please check them out.

I have been very busy working hard to lose weight. It's not a resolution of mine or anything, it's just something that I've really needed to do. I'll give you updates on how that's going once in a while, and here's the first. I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary, just exercising and watching what I eat (smaller portions). The Wii has helped immensely, and I honestly don't think I'd be losing what I am if not for the Wii Fit, which is like a home gym in a video game. There's yoga, strength training, aerobic training, and even some games on it. Anyway, since I started doing all of those things regularly about two months ago, I've lost fifteen pounds, which brings my weight loss to twenty-four pounds since we moved to Tennessee. I'm pretty proud of myself, but Wii still tells me I'm obese, so I have to keep working! I'm working toward a goal of moving down to the next level below "obese," and that's "overweight." I'm really looking forward to being overweight! :-)

Please pray for Lisa's brother, Ron, as he closes on his first house next Tuesday. Having just gone through this eight months ago, I know how stressful it can be, as do many of you!

Travis' girlfriend Amy's birthday was earlier this week, so be sure to call or e-mail her and wish her a happy birthday! She's a special person, what with having to put up with Travis and all. Happy birthday, Amy!

You know when you go on vacation, and you've always got this feeling that you've forgotten something? That's how I feel right now, because I was going to write more, and I know I had more to say, but I can't remember what it was now! Anyway, we hope that you're all happy and healthy, and enjoying the beautiful weather and blessings you're getting! We love you all.

End of Week 1

Today was the last day of the first week of school, and man, are we tired! Middle schoolers can sure take a lot out of you! I have three classes full of awesome sixth graders, and Lisa's quite busy with her eighth graders.

I created a new video, this one of Grace opening a present. You can view it on the sidebar; it's really cute.

There's nothing new going on, nothing other than a restful weekend where we plan on doing nothing but Lisa going to her master's class tomorrow. I'm currently watching the Tigers lose to the Orioles, and they are just so horrible right now. I'm not really feeling very positive about the Tigers chances of making the playoffs, but stranger things have happened.

We hope that all of our friends and family have a restful weekend as well. Enjoy the beautiful weather that you're hopefully getting. We're praying for you all, and we love you.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of the 2008-2009 school year, and it went well for us both. We had a half-day, so that made it even better. We're not yet used to getting up that much earlier after sleeping in all summer, but that'll come along.

I'm teaching language arts this year, which I believe I wrote before, but I'm just so happy to be doing so, I had to write it again! I taught math last year, but my degree is in Language & Literature, so this is right up my alley. Language Arts is double-blocked in our school this year, so we'll have 105 minutes with the kids, which is what we'll need to cover everything we have to cover. The great thing is, the language arts classes are very small (18-20 students), so we'll be able to do a lot with those small classes. Our sixth grade are a great group of kids, and we have a number of new teachers at our school who all seem great, so I really think it's going to be a great year. Lisa moved up from seventh grade to eighth grade at her school, so she could stay with her students that she had last year. They hired two new special education teachers, and they are both really nice, according to Lisa.

We had our first garage sale over the last two Saturdays, and did pretty well. We cleared out a lot of stuff and made some good money, and took the rest of what didn't sell out to Goodwill. I'll blog more about our plans with that money, since that's a whole separate - and huge - story.

I'm sorry we haven't blogged much over the last few weeks. There's not a lot new going on, so I suppose I could have blogged and told you all that. Everything's going well, though. We had our hottest day of the year last week, where it hit a little over 100 degrees. It's cooled off considerably, though, so now it's comfortable.

That's about all that's new on this front. We hope all of our friends are doing well, and we thank you for your continued prayers. We love you all!