blast from Halloween past

Halloween 1991....

Rainbow Brite was my favorite costume EVER!!!! My Aunt Melissa (Amanda J's mom) made it for my oldest cousin Jami and we have all worn it over the years, all the way down to Izzy!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! :-)

October 30th

happy birthday jeff!!!

i am so lucky to be able to call you my husband! you are my best friend and i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!!!

get your kleenex ready

how lucky am i?

today...out of the blue... jeff sent me these flowers, just to let me know he was proud of me for finishing school! i could go on for days on why, how much i love him, but i'll save that for another day...i told you i was a smitten britton!

:-)

handyman

a couple months ago i went to st. louis to visit my grandparents. (we had had several busy weeks in a row so jeff decided to stay home.) while i was gone jeff bought us a new flat screen tv to hang in our bedroom, something we had been wanting since we got married. he wanted it to be a surprise so he never mentioned it and when i got home that sunday night it was already in it's place :-)

fast-forward to last monday....i was having my 7th grade volleyball team over for dinner as a end-of-the-year party/ get together to reward them for working hard, etc. i was cleaning the house from top to bottom, like most people do before company comes over, when i had made it to our bedroom. well, you see, we have two pocket doors in our room, one to the bathroom and one to our closest (the tv hangs in between them). the door that goes to our closest it is rarely closed, simply because it is more convient to get in and out of that way. so....i go to shut the pocket door, with the intention of making the the room look BETTER, when i notice seven lovely holes have been drilled right through our closet door. remember that nice tv??? i guess when mr. britton drilled the holes to hang it up, he forgot to check what all he was drilling through....lets just say, the closet door may stay open for awhile! :-)

bittersweet

Today was my last day of Student Teaching... exciting because now I'm a "real" teacher, but sad because I have spent the last six weeks with 14 very unique students that I have become extremely attached to! I taught K-8 grade kids from all, and I do mean all, walks of life. Three of which were ESL (one from Vietnam, one from Ukraine, one from the Marshall Islands), one with a mother in prison, several from one-parent homes, many live in poverty, and these are all on the side of a Learning or Physical disability! 

I cried for about two hours when I got home my first day. These kids have lived through more struggles and hardships than I could ever imagine... and they are in elementary or middle school!!!

I could go on and on with funny stories, examples of how they taught me to be more grateful for what I have, etc... but maybe I'll save that for a day I can't think of anything to write.

BUT next time you pass by Hickory Hills, maybe on your way to church, or if you just happened to think of it...could you say a little prayer for Mrs. Sly's Special Ed class??? I know 14 students that could use a little help :-)

smitten

smitten- (according to Merriam Webster) to be captivated or taken by someone or something.

WARNING: the blogs you read on this page may not be the most eloquent or profound insights you have ever read.

I read the blogs daily and have often thought it would be fun to have my own, but have been entirely too busy and wondered who would actually want to read them???? Maybe no one, but I'll give it a try!

I actually think this first one will be the hardest...

Well, in the past six months I have-

1. Graduated from college
2. Gotten married :-)
3. Moved into my first home...Martha Stewart Wanna-be!
4. Been hired to teach and resigned within a month (see #4 for reasoning)
5. Been shocked to find that I was pregnant
6. Been terribly disappointed to have lost our baby
7. Completed 12 WONDERFUL weeks of student teaching!
8. Become an "official" licensed Special Ed. Teacher
9. Become a Sister-in-Law to one of the kindest people I know
10. Gained a WONDERFUL family (by getting married)
11. Gotten to be a Bridesmaid in the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen!
12. And many many more.
    

I am truly "smitten" with the life God has so graciously given me!