Obla dee Obla Da!

So this week has been one of those where the days seems incredibly long, but the week seems to have gone by quickly.  Perhaps it's because I have been at work a different schedule than normal, but Chance comes home already tomorrow from his week off in Austin!  A couple of exciting things have happened  this week.  The biggest hasn't arrived yet, BUT  is in transit!

The last couple of days, I collected my change and headed up to coinstar to exchange it for some gift cards.  No fees! weee!  So here was the plan.

Sure, there were some kinks along the way, like me thinking I froze the machine and would never get my money back, to having an old man help me pick up my fallen quarters and dimes, to a teenage boy waiting patiently (but with a very annoyed look) for me to finish up so he could get his $10 in change and go buy a new app for his phone. But after all the awkward coinstar moments, my amazon.com gift cards popped out of the machine in the amount of several hundred dollars.

And the plan worked!!  I spent $790 in change to purchase a new camera, lens & sd card.  I have been wanting a nice camera for a while to take photos of my work for both prints and quality images for my etsy and my blog, but just never really wanted to spend the cash.  I feel like I'm getting it for free!!  I had a professional photographer friend help me out on what to purchase for my specific needs.  It's nice to have the input from someone who is not trying to sell you something.  Although I'm sure I'll regret not taking a photography class in college.  ....history of photography counts right? :)  Here is a better view of the camera.  The Nikon D5100 16.2 MP with a lens upgrade to the 50 mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR FX.  Can't wait to get shootin'!

One last thing before I scoot off to sell snow cones.  I was so lucky to get to see my girlfriends again last night for dinner and custard!  I will miss them a lot when we move, but I am also excited about making new friendships!  Love these ladies.

Until next time my friends!

God is incredible!

Matt Chandler one year interview after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer

Still in awe at what God has done through this man and his seemingly horrific trial. God is so good!

August 1st

AUGUST FIRST!!!!

What on earth!? Where did the summer go??? It just always sneaks up on us, doesn't it? I really am not totally complaining, except that I haven't gone swimming one time yet!  I am feeling very odd during this end of summer time. Usually I am preparing stressing out about the next school year.  I usually try to start getting back into teaching routines like going to bed by 10/11 and getting up and moving by 7, but rarely does that work out.  Instead I tend to say "Forget this madness! I only have 2 more weeks to sleep in and you betcha I am gonna sleep in later than I ever have!"  Unfortunately (and fortunately) I will not be teaching this year, and so I have to figure out a way to get self motivated!

I usually am a very driven person, but if I get in a funk, I just piddle, stall and "waller" about until the next thing I know it's dinner time! I need a routine and a schedule to follow to be my most successful   I love checking things off a list!  As one way to help myself get motivated to go to bed decently and wake up decently, I have somehow been convinced to run (ya know or walk) a 5k with some girlfriends.  Honestly, I think I may have actually volunteered.  Who am I??  Chance and I jogged a few times in early summer to start getting fit, but ya know...Texas heat is a great excuse to not work out, since it's 95* all night and early morning long!  EXCUSES!

Living at home, I feel much safer to jog at the school track or in a neighborhood.  I just don't like going alone especially in early morning or late night, which are my only options with my snow cone runnin' schedule! So if I don't want to let my lovelies down for this hot chocolate run, then I must start getting in jogging shape.

While this morning was a total fail, since I woke up at 9, I  decided to spend a little time organizing my mess and spending some time listening to Matt Chandler.  If you haven't heard this man preach, you are missing out! God is using him in big ways and I feel so inspired after hearing each sermon.  The village church is definitely one of the things I will miss the most about Dallas. I've attended the highland village campus, the denton campus, and now the dallas campus during the last 10 years of my life.  It was one of my main reasons for not being willing to move. However, the Lord showed me that the church is everywhere and my heart feels led to find a new home church in our new city. And ya know podcast the ol' village sermons on a weekly basis :)

Off to work,  peddling snow cones to sugar lovin' people!

Fare the well!

P.s. sorry no pics! My phone camera is ghetto and I can't find my digital. Story if my life!

And here we go!!

Our "home" officially becomes our "house" today.  

The preparations are done and the floors are shiny! It's time to sell! 

We received our first offer last night and the house hits the market today. It's nice to be wanted before officially available! Nonetheless, the offer is a bit lower than we need, so we are moving forward with countering and then to see what others have to say! I am confident in getting more interested buyers and know that God will bring us the right offer at the right time.  The housing market in Texas is ridiculous and the houses are going up up up in price in days! We gotta get this bad boy sold so we can snag an Austin beaut!

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, while it's slow at the snow cone stand. I know, I know! Bad ashley! Write in your own blog, don't just read others'. Nonetheless, I find myself reading a few friends, family members and strangers' blogs and just really enjoying seeing into their lives! I hope I can stick with this one enough for someone to enjoy reading my random blurbs, as uninteresting as they may be! Judging by my one follower and 2 comments (thanks Jo and Brian!), I have a lot of work ahead of me to impress you people :-P

One quick little photo from this morning as I dabbled in a little art before work! Aaaand caught up in project runway.

Until next time! Fare the well!

Oh MY!  I know that I am a terrible blogger. Please forgive me!

This season of my life has felt very hectic and with lots of uncertainties.  Well, things are certain, but the means to achieving them are rather unclear.  I am a planner.  I like to make sure I know what the goal is, how to get there, and what bumps may pop up along the way.  I guess it is my teacher nature to try and have an escape route to any unplanned situation.  It's a characteristic I think is helpful in life, and as long as I don't get worked up when unforeseen stresses emerge, being a planner makes for happy experiences.  :)

However, in all my planning and calculating, during these last few months, as well as being loaded down with packing, cleaning, and vacuuming animal hair, I have neglected the blog as well as my craft.  My husband and I are moving to the great state capitol of Austin, Texas!  While living in Dallas or its 'burbs my entire life, it is strange to embark on a brand new city, to make brand new friends, and to ultimately start a brand new life!  I have closed the book on my full time teaching career (for now at least!) and am going to work on getting settled into a new home this fall.  I will then be constructing a legit art studio, and begin working full time in clay and watercolor!  I am very excited to get going doing what I love.  I also have a few little projects planned for illustrating books...but those are just little seeds of inspiration that will need to grow a bit before put into action.  I do hope to spend some time teaching art lessons or maybe subbing again.  I just won't be able to give up "kid time" completely!  I love those munchkins way too much.

Here are a few tidbits from our clean and staged house!

I have found that I am quite a homebody.  While I enjoy going out and about seeing friends or having delicious meals, I really find that I like planning fun times at home just as much!  So, I am excited to have the time to do just that once we arrive in Austin.

So, while selling our house, I have decided to move my animals (and myself) to my parents' house.  They live near my snow cone stand, where I drive to work each day, so it makes most sense to not have to deal with dirtying up an immaculately clean and staged house.  I arrived at my old abode 2 days ago and am loving it so far!  Some people would hate moving home to mom & dad's, but I just love it here so much!  

A few pictures of home. Including a mini work station I have made for temporary creating!  

Until next time! Farewell!

Easter weekend!

Composed of a little work and a little sick day puzzle. 

Naea

A few fun things from the naea conference. It was very exciting to get recharged about teaching and art making! Thanks to funky town fort worth for hosting!