Ketchup

I have been totally M.I.A for the past two months- I blame that on two jobs and a whole lot of other stuff going on. I can honestly say that I have missed blogging SO much! Being a teacher has quite a few perks (being with awesome kids all day and then the added bonus of being "off" for the summer), so now that I am "off"- I fully intend to return to blogging!

So, for my first post back, I will catch you up on what has been going on in our crazy/busy life!

BEWARE- this is VERY picture heavy =)

At the end of March, we bought a new house and completely redid it... fun, but ohhh so tiring.

The kitchen before- all white EVERYTHING. Yuck. 

Den before- love our new fireplace =) 

Completely building a fence in the backyard from scratch. That's my man.  

Painting the kitchen- I think it is my favorite room in the house now =) 

Hubs cabinet shop in the garage- he completely redid ALL the cabinets and hardware. What a process. 

Painting the laundry room. I think I was tired.  

Painting the den. I was having fun with the long roller.  

Whoaaa disaster zone!

We definitely had some fun in the process. My dad is a nut.  

"Rolling back the floor" to reveal our new kitchen... 

AND WE'RE IN! First night =)

After we got settled in, I had my sweet 7th grade Civics class over for a visit (our new house is two blocks from the school)

LOVE THEM! Learned a lot from this crew- including a lot about Civics (good thing since I was teaching it huh?)

I attended an awesome bachelorette party in Nashville for THIS crazy girl:

Had a visit from our amazing best friends, Miley and Chris, in our new house. Chris was great and helped Pat finish the fence. 

Celebrated 24 years =)

And also celebrated 50 years of marriage with the Gmom and Gdad Ryan!

Talk about an awesome family! I am so lucky to be a part.

Shared our first Easter together...

Then after all that celebrating, tragedy struck. On April 27th, a series of tornadoes RAVAGED the South and destroyed much of the state of Alabama. We are SO thankful that our lives and homes were spared. Many did not receive that blessing. Hundreds of people died, including several SIX HUNDRED YARDS from my parent's home. Later, I will attach a poem that my mom wrote after the tragic day. Here are a couple of pictures from around our homes.

Our street. All we had was flooding and some trees down around the area. We hid in our closet after we lost power and heard the hail start pounding. This is what we saw when we came out. Little did we know that a few miles down the road homes were being destroyed and people were dying. 

This is about 1/3 of a mile from my parents house. Pictures and words can not even begin to capture the devastation in our area. 

Clothes and furniture and pictures and anything you can imagine were just strewn all over the area. 

A few days after the tornadoes, we celebrated a year of marriage with an awesome weekend at the Girls' Ranch in Springville (where we were married). With all the tragedy around, let's just say we were extra thankful for each other. 

I was a little hesitant about the year old cake-but I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty delish =) 

Hubs definitely agreed. He ate three pieces. haha. 

My present was a NEW CAR! Well, new to me anyway =)

I was soo excited! For those of you who know me, I got my first car (ol' Lex) for my 16th birthday. 8 years ago. It was already 7 years old when I got it. So that makes it 15 years old. It was a WONDERFUL car for me but it was just time for it to go. My first thought when seeing my new car was that I did not get to properly say goodbye to my Lex. My sweet husband drove me to say bye on our way to our anniversary dinner. 

Good times Lex! I'll miss you! Not your windows that won't roll down or the hotness since the air quit or the squealing sound you make when making sharp turns. 

Next, in mid May, we celebrated the wedding between some great friends in Ozark, Alabama. I was honored to be a part of the big day and Pat did the videoing.

SO much fun!

I had to say goodbye to my awesome kiddos at Floyd Elementary...

BUT I am moving on to new things. I can't reveal it quite yet- but let's just say I got a full time job at an awesome school with my own classroom! Yay for the awesome things to come!!

Went to the beach with the Ryan's for a week...

And now we are back! Ready to get back in the swing of things, babysit some awesome girls, decorate and prepare for having my own classroom in August, and hang out with Hubs. 

Hope you enjoyed the "ketchup" post haha- I'm coming back in full force!