New Year, New Fun

Well here it is! 2012!!! 2012 is definitely going to have some competition because 2011 has been such an amazing year filled with lots of exciting adventures! Just a little recap of 2011 before we move into another exciting and fun-filled year! In 2011:
* I graduated College!
* I went out of the country for the first time and traveled Australia for two weeks
* My sister got married which led to me getting a brother :)
* I started my career as an educator
* I competed in my last cheerleading competition ever :(
* I became a Varsity Cheerleading coach

Those are just a few of the MAJORS, but through all the ups and downs, I am very happy to say that I had a great 2011.

New years always make me reflect on the past year and it really is a time to see how blessed I am. I am so thankful to be at this place in my life, surrounded by everyone that surrounds me. Sometimes I wonder if I am growing up too fast or experiencing too many things at once but I wouldn't change anything about the path I am on because I know that it is the right one :) I look forward to what 2012 has in store for me!!! 12 is my favorite number, so I am expecting big things!!

New Year's Resolution: To blog more. I picked this because it is one I have never done before, (I don't know how many times i've said I will work out more, I should know by now that never lasts) it is a very positive resolution, and it is also a very achievable resolution. Win, win right?! Why not record and share all the exciting things going on? I will be glad I did this one day!


Tomorrow is my last day of break and I am very upset about it. Now don't get me wrong, I am still very much in love with my Job but this break has just been TOO wonderful! I got to spend a lot of time with my family! On Christmas Eve, My sister and Jordan (Brother-in-law) had my family and Jordan's whole family over for christmas eve dinner! It was so fun to be able to share their first ever Christmas eve together with them! After, I stayed with them and we had a little Christmas Eve sleepover! Ya see, Sister and I have NEVER been apart on a Christmas eve so Bruhder (That is what I call Jordan) said I could stay! So the three of us snuggled up, watched the Santa Clause 2 (Katie and I's favorite christmas movie ever) and waited for Santa! It was perfect!

                                  Sister and I at her house on Christmas Eve

                 Sister and Bruhder's house all ready to serve Christmas Eve dinner! (And their first tree!)

                           Sister, Bruhder, and me on Christmas morning at my parents!

Another good thing about my break was my high school friends. I have been blessed with a wonderful group of friends from high school. A lot of people dread coming home and seeing their high school friends but our group is still all best friends and we make a point to get together every chance we can! I love all of my friends I met in college and all along the way, but there is just somethin' about my high school group that just makes me so happy! This year, along with a few other outings, we had a bonfire the night after Christmas and it was wonderful!

           Me, Bailey, and Victoria at the bonfire!

                                    Bailey and I at the bonfire!

Also, this break has been good for relaxing, something I don't get to do very often! I have been taking full advantage just laying around and not doing much of anything. The most exciting part of this is that I finally had time to catch up on my reading! I usually read every night but when I am teaching, I usually only fit one page in until I am fast asleep so I finally got to read the series "The Hunger Games". Let me tell you, if you haven't read these books yet, they are AWESOME. I read all three of the books in two days! The first movie comes out in March and I am very much looking forward to that!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Libby

Christmas cheer!

So my last post was all about starting my blog back and how I was going to be so much better about it, and finally, here I am 3 weeks later updating it! haha Maybe the new year will really put me into blogging gear!

Everything has been going so good, but there have been some changes! My roommate, Courtney, got a fantastic job offer in Washington D.C. and so she just moved up there last week! While I will miss her very much and I am sad to no longer have a roommate, I know she is going to do fabulous up there and have such a wonderful experience!

Things have been sooo busy with school! I am trying to get all my kids where they need to be before leaving for the holidays and grading paper after papers! It's funny to think that I LOVED grading papers when I was a teacher aid all through high school and now I dread it because there is SO much of it! But, as always, school is so great. It's getting to a point that when I am around my sister she has to say "alright, I've heard enough about how great Leon is, shut up!!" It truly is all I think about because everything about it makes me SO happy! Today I even played in a student vs. faculty basketball game. I have never played basketball a day in my life but I had SO much fun today! One of the things that I like MOST about Leon (I have to say most because I seriously like everything... haha) is the involvement. Not only with the faculty, but the students! Not only were there over 25 student participants, there was a BIG turnout. I was always very involved in everything in high school and always felt like I was the only one who cared about all the "high school" things and so to see these kids get into things and truly have a high school experience puts a huge smile on my face! I am truly exactly where God intended me to be!

Since it is the Holidays, I had to decorate my classroom a little bit! I would have liked to have done more but being a first year teacher and cheerleading coach, there is not too much extra time to think about decorating my room for Christmas... and my kids think I'm a little nuts! haha What I mean by that is that even though I am a high school teacher, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree of my elementary teacher family! I love to decorate my classroom and wear bows and talk to my senior like they are 5 sometimes but it is all In good fun! When I decorate my kids always say "You would do that". haha It cracks me up!! I like to think I am keeping them young ;) I am sure throughout the years I will accumulate more and more things but this year I made two door hangers! My sister, mom, and I are Pinterest junkies and decided to make the CUTEST burlap door hangers! We started off just playing around and then what do you know, we are selling them! My sister does the base painting, mom puts hem together, and then I add all the lettering!! Here are some pictures of some that we have done:

                                                        Santa hat on my classroom door!

                                                             Ornament on my white board!

                                      Some of the orders we have completed!!


We have had so much crafting and I am sure there will be much more over the break!! My cheerleaders go to FHSAA regionals next week and I have 2 Christmas parties so stay tuned for more updates on life with Libby, because I'm just lovin' it! :)

Startin back up!

So, I'm back. I absolutely LOVED blogging while in Australia and swore I would keep up with it and so I guess 6 months later.... here I am! It is crazy to think that has already been 6 MONTHS since my Australia visit! It seems like just yesterday I was graduating and over in the land down under. Time really does fly by!! Here is a little catch up on my life to brig us all up to speed!

One of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while is because I have been SO  busy! I am currently in my first year of teaching! I teach AP Psychology, intro to psychology, and world history at Leon High School here in Tallahassee. I cant say this enough, but I am SO LUCKY. I am absolutely enamored with Leon High school. The kids, the faculty, my cheerleaders, just everything. It is the perfect place for me and I seriously count my blessings every days because Leon High School is truly a blessing! Along with teaching, I am also the Varsity cheer coach and sponsor! My girls are perfect and they keep me laughing everyday.

Also, my sister got MARRIED in October!! It was a perfect, wonderful, beautiful wedding and everything was just perfect! I am so happy for her and it was such a fun time and I loved getting to see all my family! My new brother in law is the best. He really isn't just perfect for my sister, he is perfect for my whole family.

Now that I am a graduate and a working girl, I love trying new things! Since I am REALLY busy during the week (1st year of teaching is NOT easy!) I leave Wednesdays as "my time". I usually try out new recipes and cook dinner on Wednesdays!

If that wasn't enough going on, I am also living in my new apartment! (well, kinda new!) I live in a place called The Tennyson that is RIGHT downtown in Tallahassee and only 2 blocks from Leon! I lived here my freshmen year in college but now I feel like it is truly my first "grown up" living! So I am in the process of trying to fix this place up!

So there it is! My crazy, busy, wonderful life! Pretty much that is everything I will be blogging about. My meals, my designs, my job, my cheerleaders, my family... just about everything!

So besides being a "catch up" blog! I thought I would show you all some pictures of my "cottage style/ grown up" bedroom! It is definitely still a work in progress but here is what I have so far!!

My bed spread- Pottery barn!

Dad and I made my head board out of an old window and crown molding!

My Picture frame shutter I crackle painted for a "shabby chic" look!

This is the part that is still in progress. This is above my white distressed desk. I am going for that organized cluttered design but obviously I need pictures that fit and more "clutter". 

My bedside table! I found this table in Thomasville and am in love with it!! I need a bigger lamp... next paycheck maybe ;) 

So hopefully from here on out I will continue to blog!! Tonight my roommate and I are cooking for some friends so maybe I will let you know how that goes! 

xoxox- Libby 

Birthday in the land down under- part 1

G'day blog mates!!!! As some of you may or may not know, today is my birthday! Wahoo I am the big 22!! Since Australia is 12 hours ahead I am taking this time to milk my birthday to the fullest!! The way I see it is that I really have 36 hours of birthday fun! haha When I told dad this the only reason he agreed is because it was raining alllll day today :(. Earlier in the week Dad asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday and of course there was only one response: FISHING. Unfortunately due to the 30-35 knot winds and the rain this was out of the question and it is a shame too because this is the boat we were going out on:

But of course we still made the best of it! We had breakfast together and then I talked dad into getting a pedicure with me!! This was a WILD experience because dad always says "I don't want a pedicure I like my man feet" everytime I ask him to try it so seeing him get pampered was sooo funny! I almost lost it when they were scrubbing his feet with the pomus stone because he is super ticklish like me!! He may not tell you but I know he enjoyed it ;).

                           (he might kill me for this picture as well..... hahah)

After getting pampered, there is really only one other thing to do in the rain...SHOP. Luckily I found the Cairns mall! I think dad knew about it but would always steer me in an opposite direction.... but none the less, I found it! I tried on a few things and it was fun to shop around but once again I only bought one thing, a Pandora charm! Here is the one I got to signify my Cairns leg of our Australian adventure:

I got the fish because of all the fish we saw on the reef and for the fact that if I couldn't fish on my birthday then I was going to "catch" one in some way! haha After we shopped we decided to have lunch and a few beers to celebrate!!!

                        (XXXX Gold is apparently what all the Queensland people drink (so our waitress told us the first day so dad and I are just blending into the local culture.... ;))

That is where we decided to cut off my Australian birthday, and tomorrow night we will pick back up to celebrate my American birthday! (Thursday night in Cairns is a much better night for live music and entertainment). To leave y'all, I will end on some pictures from the day:

                          The big 2-2...geez I'm gettin old! haha

                    Nothin better than starting the birthday off right with a fountain diet coke! (please take note that this is the biggest size they sell and it was $3, AND I hadn't had a fountain one in about 3 days so this is a big deal!! haha)

                    This is dad being silly and fighting off the wind...aka Mariya

                   When its raining in Cairns there is only one thing to make it better... ice cream. The lady at the shop knows us.... tragic or awesome? I'm going with awesome.

Keep your fingers crossed by some miracle the weather clears up either Thursday or Friday so we can go on our fishing adventure but the odds aren't in our favor :( Miss you all.... For those who are in Tally, Be ready to celebrate my birthday when I return, Kens/HCB style.

xoxoxox,
Libby

To my wonderful sister....

I know it is a day early (or even 2 days Tallahassee time) but I wanted to wish my sweet sister a Happy Birthday! For those of y'all that don't know, my sister and I have the same birthday but are 3 years apart! As cool as it might sound, we get in an argument about it just about every year!! haha I think this year my parents secretly thought that us being apart would be a good thing but to tell you the truth it is really weird being so far away from her on our special day! As much as we may bicker and steal each others clothes and make up, I am so blessed to have the relationship we do! My sister means the world to me and I know she will always be there for me no matter what! I feel so honored and cant wait to stand next to her this October on the biggest day of her life! So happy birthday sister, I love you!!!!!

                         Here we are last year at my 21st birthday waltz

                                          LOVE YOU SISTER!!

xoxo,
Libby

New Adventures!

Well today dad and I decided we would tackle the open road! I say tackle because the Aussies here drive on the left side of the road, and the cars are all set up so the driver sits on the right side of the car! It was quite the experience, but dad and I of course made the best of it. He drove first, and we drove from Cairns to Port Douglas which is about 65 miles north of Cairns! The trip up was beautiful! The road twisted and turned all along the coast and through the mountains of the rain-forest and it was alot of fun!! Port Douglas is alot like Cairns but less "rustic". There was a main drag nestled in between the beach and the boat docks with alot of shops and restaurants! I was so excited to actually see a beach!! There are alot of beaches north and south of Cairns, but none right here and Bondi was WAY to cold in Sydney, so it was really nice to be on one today! Unfortunately it was again VERY windy and pretty cloudy so we were only on the beach for a short second and the swim flag was red! But we had lunch and walked around all the shops and visited the boat docks! I drove on the way back and boy was it an experience! I felt like I was doing something wrong the whole time! Also, the blinker is on the right side of the wheel and on American cars it is on the left and so every time dad or I would go to turn the blinker on, the windshield wipers would shoot on! I got annoyed when dad kept doing it but then I quickly realized when it was my turn to drive that it was harder than it looked not to..... Dad started keeping count on who did it most and we made jokes the whole time so we had a ball! On the way back we stopped at a few "scenic" spots to take pictures and the  once we were back in Cairns we headed to dinner and now we are calling it a night! Here are some pictures from our day on the open road:

                        On the beach in Port Douglas

                      Dad looks buff in this picture ;)

               Didn't turn out too good hahah "captain and the first mate...AUSTRALIA"

 

                       The boat docks in Port Douglas

                   About to tackle the Aussie roadway!

                                 The view from our drive!

xoxoxox,
Libby

The Most unbelievable day...EVER

I don't even know how to put into words how AMAZING today was. I have never seen something as truly breathtaking as what I saw today. It is unreal to me to think that there are hundreds of miles of this natural wonder and I only explored a piece of it today! The great barrier reef is truly a sight to see.
Our day started bright and early, dad and I ate breakfast then loaded up on the boat called the "silverswift" at 8 am and were off to the reef by 8:30. There were about 30 people going out with us, so it wasn't too crowded which was really nice! Dad was reallly skeptical about going out today because the winds were.... brace yourself.... blowing 25 to 30 knots. Dad is BIG on wind and so he was really against going today but this was the best day seeing as the wind is projected to only pick up from here. I am glad I have dad to keep my head straight because I was like 25 to 30 knots?! Who cares, it will be fun I love big waves! Well big waves is what we got! At the end I will post a bunch of pictures but I don't think the pictures are going to do these waves justice. I am talking we went for an hour out to the reef in 6 to 8 feet waves, white caps everywhere. I am not exaggerating in the least bit when I say that 2/3 of our boat got sea sick. Everyone was out on the back deck with their little brown bags and dad and I were just laughin about it! This is where I met another girl who was laughing about it named Alex who is from Canada but lived in Destin for the past 3 summers and just moved to Sydney and we became good friends! After an hour of riding the waves, what I thought was great fun, we finally arrived at the reef!! The entire day we stopped at 3 different reef sights! The first sight was probably the sight we went the deepest, probably about 25-30 feet. The second sight was my favorite because we literally swam through caves of coral and it was the most unreal experience ever. These coral heads were 20-30 feet high and at least 15 feet across. I have truly never seen anything like it. Even dad goes "Not much impresses me, but I am truly impressed by this", and that says something! I was thinking it would be alot like the reefs in the keys but this was 20 times that. We saw all sorts of fish, large and small, with the most spectacular colors. We swam with turtles and saw all different species of coral and underwater life. The whole experience was just perfect! The diving, the reef, the crew, and all the members on board were all part of what made it great! Dad and I dove on our first dive with Kento, and it was his birthday! Then on our second dive we dove with Paul! All of the crew was so nice and helpful and really fun to experience everything with! Also, I owe a large part of this perfect day to all the people we met! Like I said I met a friend Alex who I layed out with and chatted with alot, as well as her brother Spencer and his friend! We also met a group of Aussies that sat across from us who kept making fun of me for my fruit loops! I love to eat cereal on the boat (its the perfect boast snack!) and these Aussies thought that was soooo funny and kept makin fun of me! We had a ball and it was truly an experience of a lifetime. It is something I will forever remember and I cant wait to take my kids to! We ended our wonderful day with burgers, beer, and ice cream on the Promenade listening to live music... truly doesn't get any better than that!! Here are some pictures, I am sure I will post more on facebook later but these are the best ones!

                   The view from the back of the boat on the way out

                        Dad and I on the first dive!!

                           The picture doesn't even do it justice! These coral heads were HUGE

                             Had to throw the chi omega up :)

          

              I know this isan't the best quality picture but I am swimming through caves of massive coral heads... UNREAL

                           We got to pet him too!

                      There were massive fish EVERYWHERE..... dad was pretty upset they wouldn't let him have his spear gun...

                     The view of the reef from the sun deck!

                       Dream come true!!!!

One thing I really loved about the reef encounter is that 6 dollars from everyones fee goes towards a program that works to preserve the reef! Even though I know dad is upset you cant fish or shoot anything...I think it is pretty cool that they are working to make sure this is something people can enjoy for a lifetime!!

xoxoxox,
Libby