Checking off the Bucket List

Cross-country ski in the Alps? Check!

I went cross-country skiing today for the first time. Let me tell you...it's not as easy as it looks. We did two tracks: one 4 km and one 8 km. I did pretty well on the 4 km track. Just one little stumble! Then on the last part of our 8 km track, I took a really nasty fall. Like so bad that I'm hurting just laying here in bed. My knees are the size of baseballs and my forearms are burnt from sliding on ice.
BUT. It was a really cool experience. Will I do it again? Maybe. For now I'm just happy I can check this off my bucket list.

Personally I would rather go back and just walk through all of the tracks. There were so many beautiful things but I couldn't look very much. I had to focus on the track to stay upright. I'm laughing at myself now just thinking of how silly I must have looked. Especially on that last fall. It was a doozy.

Here are a few pictures from the day. There was no way I was going to risk bringing my camera so these are a bit grainy. Hopefully you can still see how beautiful it was today!

{Side note: I'd just like to say a quick thank you to my grandparents for buying me this iPod touch so many years ago. It's old, the battery life is terrible, and the photo quality is not the best. But man am I so happy to have it. It's great for those moments when I can't use my real camera, when I want to listen to music on runs or long flights, or when I need to look something up real fast in the city. Plus it lets me text my family and friends back home. So thanks, Nanny and Papa! Love y'all!}

Go Dawgs!!

This week has been crazy busy!

It was my last day of teaching for the semester yesterday.

Annnnd it was my birthday!!!!

But today.

Oh today is important.

It's the SEC Championship game.

Between my beloved Bulldawgs and Alabama.

At the end of the day I'm hoping for another win and to be able to say

Dawgs on Top!

Go dawgs!! Give me a win for my birthday!!

{my cute roommates and me}

Perks of Being a Teacher

So on Friday, we had a special guest: Kirk Cousins!

He was the quarterback for Michigan State in college and they played UGA last year in the Outback Bowl.
{sadly we lost}

He is now the back-up quarterback for the Washington Redskins.

He was in our school all week and came to talk to fourth grade yesterday morning.

I may have enjoyed it more than my kids.

It was pretty cool to hear about his life.

He is very well spoken and related life lessons to academic life.

For example, he talked about being coachable. He told the kids they needed to listen to their teachers and learn from their mistakes if they wanted to succeed.

I was definitely impressed.

Of course we had to get a picture with him after it was over.

The girls in my class were so jealous.

They even told me we were going to get married.

{Ha! I take a picture and they jump to us getting married. Perfect example of fourth grade minds for you right there.}

My kids asked him for an autograph at the end of the day. He signed his name and put "Proverbs 3:5-6" on each one. One of my girls came up and asked me what that meant. I was able to share the verse with her and explain it a little bit.

Such a perfect ending to my day.

Love it!

Pictures with NFL players is definitely a perk to being a teacher.

Proud Sister Moment

I just need to take a second a brag on my little brother. Callaway has officially been moved to the varsity football team. He has been playing JV and some varsity, but as of this week, no more JV!!

Which means Zeb and I don't have to drive home on Thursdays!

It was getting a little tiresome going home both Thursday and Friday nights to watch him play. So now it's just Fridays!

If you want to see a shot of him in action, click here. And here.

I love high school football. Really I love all football.

High school football just has a special place in my heart. I think it has something to do with the feel of a whole town rallying behind a team. There's just something so great about that.

It wouldn't surprise you then to know that Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite shows. If you haven't seen it, go to Netflix immediately and start watching. Tim Riggins is the man.

But I digress. Congrats, Cal! I'm so proud of you. Can't wait to watch you finish the season! Love you, bud!

Labor Day Recap

Wow it feels like forever since I've posted.

I've been super busy this week, although not with school.

This past weekend was such a great time of relaxing. I went home and did nothing. Love those weekends.

On Sunday, I went to the Braves game with the fam. Turns out it was also Bark in the Park day, so we got to see lots of cute pups!

Even though it rained, it was a great game and we won it in the bottom of the 9th inning. Go Bravos! The best part is we were under a roof so we didn't even get wet. Take that, you people with front row seats!
{It may look like Cal is missing, but he just avoids pictures. The blue shirt in the picture below is his body, fyi.}

I came back to Athens on Monday to hang out with Kristen. We just don't see enough of each other these days. We rented Twilight: Eclipse (don't judge) and were really enjoying ourselves until the TORNADO WARNING. What?! That came out of nowhere. Luckily, we survived.

After the ridiculous minor scare, we decided to go see another movie. So we hopped in the car, made a quick pit-stop at Menchie's (fab fro-yo), and headed to Carmike to see "Crazy, Stupid Love."

Oh.my.word. Y'all. Such a good movie. I could have watched it again right after it was over! I just love Ryan Gosling. It doesn't get much better than that.

Then the next day, after we were both done with classes, we headed back to Carmike to see "The Help". Another great movie! It was almost exactly like the book, which I absolutely loved. If you haven't read it, go check it out. Right now. Then go see the movie.

The cast was fantastic...in both movies. Obviously I love Emma Stone. She is just so quirky.

And while we're on the subject of movies, "Parent Trap" was on TV last night. I'm assuming you love this movie because who in their right minds wouldn't?! Of course I dropped everything I was doing (including an important paper due that night) to watch it. Don't worry, I finished the paper. Probably because I have EVERY line of the movie memorized (no lie). I found it's a lot easier to concentrate on other things when you know exactly what is coming next.

So now you're up to speed. I just got back from Bible study. We started the Daniel study by Beth Moore last week. I absolutely love her; she is the best. If you haven't done one of her studies, I highly recommend you hop to it. I've also done Esther and Revelation, Esther being my favorite.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden

Have you ever heard that saying? Know what it stands for?

If you guessed "GOLF" then you would be correct.

All of the men in my family love golf. 

They play all the time.

I think they're obsessed.

To prove this point, let me tell you what I just did.

I just finished uploading Zeb's golf swing to YouTube. So if you want to see him in action, click here. You can also check out his friend Will here.

I went with Callaway (my middle brother) yesterday to Cedar Lake Golf Club. I am not a very good golfer so I decided to just read on this trip. (Although if I had brought my golf shoes back from Athens, I probably would have played.)

This one landed right on the path.

Don't worry; he didn't really hit from here.

So relaxing.

I made sure to document Cal's best game ever. He shot an 86.

Not bad for a 14 year old.