Narratives, cowboy boots, open garage doors, Luke Bryan, and my matron of honor…

I am definitely the world’s worst blogger. I love to blog (mainly because I love going back and reading my posts months and years later), but I never think about it. My apologies to those who read this blog and find my posts incredibly and unnecessarily long.

I am sitting at my desk at work right now procrastinating grading childhood narrative essays. I had 85 to grade, and I am looking at a remaining stack of about 15. I have a headache and don’t feel like stubbling over any more misplaced quotation marks. Obviously, I should blog.

I can’t believe that I am starting my sixth full week of work. What?! I was getting ready this morning thinking about how at the end of this week we’ll be 1/6th of the way done with this school year. That seems like a lot in my head. Not that I’m counting down the weeks by any means, but having that first year under my belt will be very nice. I’m still loving my job and feeling continually blessed day after day for landing my first job at such an awesome school with awesome students.

I flew out to Arizona over Labor Day weekend and had such a good time with Jamie! These cross-country flights are going to kill me though. The two-hour time change really gets to you after working all day. The weekend included a tour of Ft. Huachuca, a new pair of cowboy boots thanks to my sweet fiance, an hour of horseback riding, watching a Bama victory at Buffalo Wild Wings, relaxing in his backyard eating a REALLY yummy dinner Jamie made, cleaning up a kitchen floor-full of bubbles from the dishwasher and DYING laughing, playing poker, playing pool, and really just enjoying every second we could together. I should really try to avoid anything cheesy on my blog, but weekends like this one make both of us REALLY excited to get married and be done with long distance and his first deployment. It’s bizarre how at times we cannot get over how we are the exact same person, but then two minutes later we laugh because we’re so different. I’m a lucky girl to be planning wedding and a marriage with my absolute best friend on the planet.

The comedy show of the weekend was coming back to Jamie’s from BWW and finding the garage door open. Jamie knew his roommate wasn’t there because his car was gone, so we freaked out about somebody being inside or finding things messed up. Of course we jumped to conclusions, but it’s kind of hard not too considering he only lives a few miles from the Mexico border. We slowly walk inside, and Jamie tells me to wait by the laundry room. I knew he was going to get his stinkin’ gun (which I am terrified of and he knows it). I poked my head out and saw him walking from room to room checking out everything. Of course no one was there and we were fine, but knowing that Jamie is trained on how to use his gun in that situation was very comforting. We laughed about it the rest of the night, but deep down I feel much better about having that gun in our home one day. “Protection only.”

The past weekend was spent in Tuscaloosa, and I’m so glad I was able to spend a much-needed weekend with my friends. We enjoyed the Luke Bryan concert at the Bama theater Friday night, and I ran around most of Saturday afternoon visiting different friends’ tailgates. I stayed with Bethy and Brittany, and Mary E stayed with us, too! I got to meet Ashley’s PRECIOUS adorable nephew Jackson and fell in love with the little man! Scarlet, if you are reading this, you have one adorable little boy! I also got to see Christy, MK, Abbie, and Whitney for about 20 minutes, and loved getting to see them! All in all, I would have loved to hung out with everyone in tuscaloosa a lot more, but one weekend is just not enough! That only means that I’ll DEFINITELY be back for the Florida game in three weeks, and I can’t wait! On Sunday we went to Church of the Highlands (which I miss more than is healthy) and officially asked my sister to be my Matron-of-Honor. Ask her to show you the super cute compilation of pictures I gave her… 🙂

I really need to get off this blog! I have another class that starts in 30 minutes and should probably try to grade some essays once and for all! Hope everyone reading this is doing well. If you are living in Madison, let me know!

Erica

***Check out this past week’s sermon about the movie Up! online at churchofthehighlands.com