Nashville Getaway

Over the weekend Michael, Sara, Kiefer and I all took a trip to Nashville together.  The special occasion was in celebration of our friend Craig's wedding that Saturday.  The weather was beautiful the entire time, and to make it better we were able to hang out in a different town as two married couples!  We celebrated our friend's marriage, caught up with some old friends, and spent the evening in downtown.  It wasn't a long get away, but it was fun and memorable which is what counts!

Moving Day

The move to Henderson went very well!  We were able to load the truck up in under a few hours, the drive was safe, and the unloading... well the unloading was not so fun.  The rain held off just long enough for us to travel to Henderson, but as soon as we started to unload it decided to pour rain the entire time.  As a matter of fact it stopped raining as soon as we dropped the U-Haul off.  Other than that we were able to transition to the new apartment fairly well.

Loading up the U-Haul

Moving on a Wednesday was some what unconventional because Michael had to go back to work the following day, but that allowed me to spend the next few days unpacking and settling in.  We've been in this new apartment for a few weeks now and love it!  Even though it is a tad smaller in square footage, it feels so at home!  Everything about this new place is wonderful and I'm glad to know that we are staying in the same town whenever we decide to move again.

Happy One Year Anniversary!

One year ago today I walked down the aisle and said "I do" to my other half.  I had no idea what God had in store for us, nor all the blessings that would come from this amazing relationship.  In a blink of an eye our wedding day was over and a year has already passed.  Michael and I have been together for over three years now, yet it seems like we've known each other our entire lives.

We celebrated this special occasion a day early by going on a great date that was topped with dinner at Red Lobster (my first time eating there and it was fantastic).  The night was spent with some family and friends sitting around a fire pit, cooking smores, and hanging out.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate the day.

God definitely knew what He was doing when He put us together, we really are made for each other!  Through thick and thin we've been there for one another, and I know that no matter what comes our way we'll be able to overcome.

Good News Comes in Twos

Short, sweet, and to the point is tonight's post.  As the title says, Good News Comes in Twos, and that is exactly what happened today!  I received an email a few days ago stating I needed to go to the music office to pick up an award; I would have known this if I was in Recital Assembly, but thankfully do not have to take that class again.  I swung by the office before leaving campus and found out that I'd received the Charles E. Simons Alumni Scholarship for musicianship/excellence!  I now have enough scholarships to afford the majority, if not all of my last semester of college.

The second good news was finding out my first Student Teaching placement.  I've been patiently waiting to hear from Teacher Ed. Services about this for weeks, and this evening I actually got a voice mail from the band director himself!  The placement is a little drive away from Henderson, but I'm not complaining because the program I'll be working with is amazing and one of the top band programs in the state of Kentucky!  This particular director also worked with my high school band program multiple times when I was in it.

God is so good and his blessings are bountiful!

One more thing - two more days until our one year wedding anniversary!  Time flies by when you're having fun!

Right Around the Corner

The date for our move is right around the corner and I can't wait!  It's bitter sweet to be moving but I'm very excited to start a new leaf near family.  We'll be moving to our new apartment on May 14th, then spending the next few weeks unpacking (which is always fun).  I kind of know how to get around this new town from all of the visits to see Michael when we were dating, but figuring out all of the back roads through town will be an adventure.  Leaving a place you call home is always tough even when it seems easy to pack up; making a new place your home always takes time.

Moving Onward!

I was planning on posting this yesterday before I realized how long that post was getting, so here is some more good news today!  As mentioned previously, there have been some ups and downs over the past year; one of those "downs" being that me and my husband have been stuck where we're at.  What I mean is we've been stuck in this small town with nothing to do, thirty minutes away from anything "fun" other than a Wal-Mart, hours away from family, and unable to do anything about the situation because of my classes on campus.  Over the past few months we started thinking of the future and what we could do to change it for the better; let me just say that God is good!

Everything has seemed to line up in place and all in good timing!  We decided that once I finish up my classes on campus and can start Student Teaching that we'd move closer to his family.  I was able to request my student teaching placements for the area near his family and will hopefully find out those placements within the next month.  We were also praying that he would be able to find a job in the new area soon so we could start looking for a place to live; God answered those prayers as well!  Just recently we got the phone call that he received a job in the area his parents reside, and that he would be able to start in a matter of three weeks.  This works out great because we also have the opportunity to go look at an apartment in that area this weekend.

Change is around the corner and I'm eager to see what the future holds.  I'm sad to be moving away from our current apartment because it finally feels like a "home" and we're close to my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and friends at MSU, but I'm ecstatic to start this new adventure in our lives and to see what happenings will come.

A Crazy Fun Spring

What a wonderful and crazy year it has been so far!  There have been so many things that have happened since my last post, which is why I haven't been able to post much.  I'll try to keep this post short, but I'm not making any promises, haha.

Western Kentucky had a snow/ice storm at the beginning of March, which we didn't think would be that bad until Michael's car decided to be cruel and fall apart.  The weather made it difficult to get our cars out of the parking lot, so we played it safe and stayed at home the first couple of days.  Side note - the last ice storm we had back in January was harsh on Mike's car...it took both front door handles.  We thought it would be a "great" idea to save money and just use a wire coat hanger to open the driver side door... Not a good idea.

What we didn't know was the hanger was putting stress on the lock mechanism for the door.  Well by the middle of the week Michael decided to take my car into work (hoo-rah for front wheel drive!) and I was going to take his to school later that day.  Long story short, I was able to get into his car, but when I tried to shut the door it wouldn't stay shut.  The lock mechanism had completely broke, causing his car to be in the shop for three weeks getting fixed while we borrowed his sister's car.  I'm so thankful for amazing family!  Without Sara I wouldn't have been able to go to class and run errands.

That was just one of the recent crazy happenings, there is more :).  I finished all of my hours for Extended Practicum a few weeks ago, which was bitter sweet.  I had such a great time at my last placement and learned so much.  I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to learn and teach under such a great band director and music teacher, and I hope to be as good as he is someday!  Middle school is definitely my favorite age group to teach.

I performed my senior recital this past Saturday, it was by far one of the most fun moments of my music career.  I didn't realize how fast college would pass by and now that it's almost over it's actually kind of sad.  The past four years have been a roller coaster of ups and downs; from struggling in certain areas of life to meeting the man of my dreams and starting a whole new life together with him.  I always thought it was going to be great to be done with the heavy practice schedule I adhered to, but now that it's over I'm actually sad that I won't be able to play wonderful music on a daily basis.  I am very happy that I was able to give one last great performance for my family and friends

Unlike most instrumentalist and vocalist, I am a percussionist (best instruments ever).  You may ask, so what?  Being a percussionist is amazing, but unfortunately I have never had the privilege of owning my own mallet instrument like a marimba (the instrument shown above) or vibraphone.  Not owning one of those instruments makes it very difficult to actually practice and play one of the major instruments in the percussion family.  When I first came to college I could barely play a mallet instrument, and over the past four years I've been able to become a better musician on almost every percussion instrument.  Now that summer is right around the corner and graduation is at the end of the year, I will only have the opportunity to play drum-set and other battery percussion because they are  more accessible than mallet instruments.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have studied under a great percussion professor and to have performed along side some of the best musicians and friends!  Without all of these wonderful people I wouldn't have come as far as I have.  Thank you everyone who has supported me throughout this amazing musical journey!

Along with my senior recital, I also donated over ten inches of hair to Locks of Love!  I haven't done this in a few years and decided that someone else could benefit from the mess of hair I didn't want anymore.

Well, that is all I have to say in this post without making it drag on.  It's good to be back in the blogging world!  With all of these events finished I'll finally have time to sit down and put effort into creating some good posts.

God is good!