Chris and I reached our 6 month anniversary mark on the first of this month. I can not believe that half a year has already went by. It still feels like yesterday that the doors opened and I walked down the aisle to the man of my dreams. This year has definitely been a huge learning experience and blessing to us all in one. In March I was blessed to find a job at a nearby school as the computer lab teacher for grades 3-8 and teachers assistant in the 3K classroom. The 3K teacher went on maternity leave at the beginning of April and from then own it was all mine. I taught 3K in the mornings until 12 and then headed to the lab for the rest of the day. I was constantly having to change my mind set of preschoolers to middle schooler. I was running planning lessons that were appropriate for three year olds, such as colors, number 1-10, tracing, gluing, lots of coloring, and finishing the letters of the alphabet and then turning around to teacher 8th graders how to do spreadsheets in Excel. It is a crazy thing bouncing around but I loved each and every minute of it. I was unsure if I was going to be asked to stay for the next school year but luckily I was asked the last couple of weeks to stay! I will be finishing out the maternity leave, while returning to assistant after the full time teacher returns and continuing to do the computer lab. I am excited and nervous at the same time about starting the school year. Yet I know I am extremely blessed for this job opportunity to be within my reach. Towards the end of the school year another blessing came our way when Chris got a position as a Design Engineer at a nearby company. He is still working on his degree so this opportunity is incredible for him. He was able to quit the fast food industry (which was definitely not heartbreaking) and is now literally in love with his new job. For the first month it was strickly a 40 hour a week job, but the last month as been a little more rough because now he is working Saturdays and between 65 and 70 hours a week. It has been tough on us not seeing each other as much but we are remembering to make time for each other first whenever possible. In the fall I will be starting my masters with an online program while Chris will also be going back to school and we both will be working full time jobs. I realize many people do this on a daily basis but for us its new. We are excited for what lies ahead of us but both know that time with each other could suffer if we dont take the time out of our soon to be hectic schedules to be with just one another. We are headed to Six Flags with Chris' parents at then end of this month to spend the night and then plan to take an overnight trip somewhere close by for our 8 year anniversary coming up August 4th. We have also made two big investments (in our eyes anyway) with a new XBOX and new laptop. Chris' laptop red ringed around the middle of June and lucky for him Target had them on sale. Such a good sale that not only Chris got a new one but my Daddy got one for Fathers Day. But also lucky for me a Kinect was included so at least half the time I can convince him to play Kinect with me instead of his shooting games. We also invested in the new laptop in the last week for me. I have had my laptop since my senior year of high school and honestly I killed it. I have went through 3 battery cords in the 5 years I have had the computer. Chris' computer is literally falling apart (You have to hold the screen to keep it from falling off) and with me starting a completely online graduate program in August a new computer was a must. With the upbringing I had I of course searched forever for a computer of a good price and quality along with my Daddys help I finally decided on a HP that I got at Sams and so far I love it! By September we are also hoping to make another purchase with a new (used) car for Chris. His truck has been in the shop probably 5 times since we got married and has no air. If you know my Chris you know that no air is not a good combination for him. 
Today we also celebrated our first Fourth of July together as a married couple. We had my in laws over to my parents house to swim and eat dinner and then headed to Chris' aunts to shoot fireworks. I went back to mom and dads to light some sparklers and shoot a few little fireworks with my family while Chris stayed back to see his family a little longer. Dad has lit a couple roman candle and one other 7 shot firework and then he set up to light another 7 shot firework. The first shot went off perfectly but then the container tipped over and headed straight at my leg. I started running, Dad was looking at me, Mom was looking at me, Emily was running full speed into the neighbors yard when the third shot went off in the complete opposite direction. Then the fourth shot headed in another direction straight at my parents. Mom went running towards me grabbing her lip. After it was finally done we all died our laughing while Emma held a flashlight up to Moms lip to see that it has received a slight burn from the firework. We were all scared to death to light the last 12 shot container and Mom and I both went as far away as possible while Emma argued with Dad about getting too close to light it. Luckily it went off fine and then we had so much fun with our favorite fireworks; Sparklers and Pop-Its. As we went inside the house to say good-night, my mothers 160 lb St. Bernard became so scare of all the commotion of the fireworks he high tailed it right into the house. So then we have to chase the poor dog outside where he sits looking pitiful like we just put him into a death chamber.
Chris and I are so blessed to both have parents and sisters that are there for us and mean so much to us. Through this summer we have tried to have several spend the night parties with our sisters that have turned into a great time for all four of us. We stay up playing games, now playing with our new XBOX 360 Kinect, watching old movies, pigging out, and now sleeping on the best investment ever, our new air mattress. Emma is starting July classes on Wednesday. My mom will be on vacation in two weeks and my dad will be taking vacation the first week in August. This has been a busy, wonderful, stressful, hard, loving, and unbelievable 6 months and I cant wait to experience even more in the next half of this year as a newlywed.
