6 Weeks

Wow.... I've been teaching for 6 weeks already! I can't believe it... It has gone by so quickly! It has been extremely overwhelming but so amazing at the same time! I love teaching so much, and I can't believe how much I enjoy being around my kids.

In other areas of my life, things have been a constant crazy. I am currently living in a house with my sister taking care of 5 dogs. I moved in Labor Day weekend, and we are still working on getting used to having so many dogs. Eldon is still living in Murfreesboro while he finishes up school. He will be done in December, but until then, we are doing the whole "long distance marriage" thing. It has definitely been rough, but since we did long distance for 3 years while we were dating, the fact that it's only a semester has been helping me get through it.

Now that I've gotten my school life a little more put together, I need to really start focusing on my health again. It has been a struggle settling into a routine, but I can't put it off anymore. I'm signed up to run a 5K on October 6th, and I have got to get my act together if I am going to be able to run it at all. My next clinic appointment is in November, and my goal for my lung function is 70%. That is a really tall order, and I need to put in a lot of effort, time, and energy into my health.

In other news, I just registered to do the Out Run CF virtual race again! It will be on November 22, and you can run any where and anytime you want! That's my kind of race. :) There is so much less pressure. If you are interested in participating, just click HERE.

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

One Week Down

Well, I finished my first week of teaching. I have never been so tired in my life! I am completely exhausted! That being said, I absolutely love it! It's definitely going to be a learning process. I already have some new ideas about how I'm going to do things differently this week. I'm excited to be teaching, but I was really glad to see the weekend. :)

In other news, Eldon went back to Murfreesboro leaving me here in Knoxville. We are going to be doing the long distance marriage thing until he graduates in December. I'm not excited about it, but we've had a lot of practice with long distance. Only 119 days until he gets to move back! :)

This was a short update, and I apologize, but life's a bit crazy and busy right now!

Happy Saturday!

Clinic Appointment Today

My clinic appointment was today, and I have to say that I was a little nervous about it due to the lack of exercise in my life lately. The good news is, I was wrong to be worried, because my lung function actually increased! In May, my lung function had fallen to 52%. It was extremely disappointing, but time had gotten away from me with all of the new stuff popping up in my life. The summer continued to follow the same pattern of being super busy, so I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to today. So, the results of my PFT today was..... drum roll.... 60%!!!!! I am back on track!

As I already mentioned, I have not been exercising like I should lately. I have a plan in place to fix that. I signed up for my first 5k run! It's a color run, so it will be a lot of fun, and it is October 6th. I figured that if I went ahead and signed up for one, I would have no choice but to train for it! To go along with that, my goal for my next appointment is 70%. 10% is a big jump, but I think I can pull it off if I really put everything I have into it! My next appointment is November 21st, so I have plenty of time to work on it.

Happy Wednesday!

The Beginning of Classroom Setup

Today was the first day that I have gotten to go into my classroom. I thought I had a good idea about what I wanted, but once I got in the room, it was much more difficult to visualize than I thought it would be. It's hard to start from scratch and to come up with a whole new idea for a classroom using very little past experience to get your ideas. Here are a few pictures of the classroom before we really got to rearranging everything:

It started to get a little bit easier once we started moving things around and getting a feel for where things worked well. Here are some of the pictures of the progress we made during the day.

That's how I left it today, but I'm going back tomorrow morning to work some more work in. I also made a nice list of things I need/want for the room. It's really hitting me that I actually have a classroom after searching for a teaching job for 2 years! I am so nervous and so excited about it!

Happy Monday, everyone!

It's been 2 months.... Oops!

Wow... It's been a couple months since I have posted anything! I apologize for that. Life has been very crazy. I have been gearing up for this school year and finally being a teacher. For those of you who don't know, I am going to be teaching 4th grade at my dream school in Knoxville this year. The craziness has come from the fact that I have been living about 2 1/2 hours away from Knoxville in Murfreesboro. That's where I went to college, and my husband is still going to school there. He won't be graduating with his degree in teaching until December. So there has been a lot of transitioning going on in my life. I have moved back in with my parents while Eldon has moved into a tiny one bedroom apartment in the Boro. We will be doing a little bit of long distance marriage which will be fun, but we had 3 years of long distance dating before we got married. We've had a lot of practice with it.

In teaching news, I went to a 2 day new teacher training Thursday and Friday of this week. It was long and very informational. I left feeling very excited and slightly overwhelmed, but I think that's to be expected when starting a new job with so many responsibilities. My classroom has been cleaned and is now cleared for me to go in. I will be going there Monday morning and finally start to set up my classroom! I am so excited about that! I've been waiting for it all summer! :)

With all of the stuff I have been doing this summer, I have to admit that I have not been doing everything I can to keep myself healthy. That being said, I have been a lot better than I used to be. Now that I am settled in again, I plan to pick my schedule back up. It's going to be hard with all of the things I will be doing, but I am going to pull it off! I'm hoping that my slacking doesn't hurt my lung function too much, but I will find out the damage this week. I have my clinic appointment Wednesday. We'll see how it goes, but no matter what the outcome of my PFT, I am still going to have the same attitude about what I need to do. The only person responsible for my health is me, and if I fail, I let a lot of people down. I have a lot to stay healthy for.

So that's just a brief update on life right now. There will be a lot more posts in the coming weeks, because there will be a lot of changes in my life.

Thanks for reading! :) Happy Saturday! Enjoy the Olympics!

One Whole Year!

Yesterday was our One Year Anniversary! It's so hard to believe it's already been a year. People warned me that the first year would be one of the most difficult, but I have been blessed by having the opportunity to marry my best friend. It has been an amazing year, and I wouldn't trade it for the world! It worked out really well that our anniversary fell on Memorial Day this year, because neither of us had to work, and Eldon didn't have his class. We got to spend a whole day together! That's a very rare thing for us, and it was wonderful! We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Cheddars and then to see The Avengers (which was a pretty great movie). Then we came home and ate our surprisingly good year old cake! :) It was a perfect day! I'm looking forward to the years to come with this amazing man!

2012 Great Strides Walk

Today was the Great Strides Walk in Knoxville, and it was amazing! It was definitely one of the biggest turnouts I've seen in awhile. There were a lot of team t-shirts, and it was so fun seeing everyone supporting those of us with CF. My team had a total of 25 people and 2 dogs! That's the most we've ever had! I felt so loved and supported!



Before the walk started, my family and I were recognized for continuing to participate in the Great Strides Walk every year and for putting in so much hard work into raising money. They informed us that in the last 7 years, we have raised over $50,000! That's only possible thanks to our very generous family and friends. And that's only a fraction of the years we have been participating. My parents started raising money the year I got diagnosed. That was 18 years ago! I'm so thankful to have parents who have instilled in me the importance of being involved with raising money and awareness for cystic fibrosis. In my mind, if I want to see a cure, you better believe I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen as soon as possible.

Kayla's Krusaders got to start the walk! Here we are getting ready to go.

Here are a couple of pictures of the actual walk.

As of right now, Kayla's Krusaders has raised a little over $7,000 with a little more expected to arrive late! I can't even begin to express how thankful I am that I have so many generous people in my life! Thank you to everyone who made a donation or bought a t-shirt! And thank you to everyone who came out to the walk to show their support. Here are a few more pictures of Kayla's Krusaders.