A much needed break!

 I'm back!! After an enjoyable 2 week break, it is now time to get serious and back to work.  I can seriously say that I have enjoyed this break thoroughly.  B and I had a great time spending time with family, friends, each other, and even a little time away from each other (a whole 30ish hours, the longest we've ever been apart).  It wasn't until about two days ago that I even began to look/think about work stuff.  Since I don't have a lot of schoolish stuff to share, I will share a little photo montage of our break! :) 

To start off it all off, I have to share one of the things I am most excited about!  My brother asked me over the break if I would consider running a marathon or half marathon with him.  Running a marathon is always something that has been in the back of my mind, but never really taken seriously.  With my realizations that I need to take a little more time for myself over the break,  I decided that this would be something great for me to do for myself.  I always enjoyed running when I was younger (on my own terms that is), it was a way for me to just clear my mind, think, and where a lot of my creativeness is cultivated!   With all of this being said, I will be doing the Warrior Dash in March, a great ending to spring break, and the Color Run in May! :)  These are only 5k runs, but it will be my motivation to the half marathon I plan on doing hopefully in early summer.  I'm still trying to find a good one here in Texas.  So if you know of one, please share! :) I started my "pre-training" this week and I feel great, plus B really loves the rides in her jogging stroller.

These are my new shoes, they're in the process of being broken in!

.....and this here is my training schedule.  Not too shabby, very feasible for me and our hectic schedule.  I also don't want to overdue it, even if I did do a 30 minute walk each day this week instead of 20 minutes.

Ok, so now that I have that excitement out of the way, I will go back in retell the break in the order that it all happened! :)  Our first weekend of the break, a good friend came to visit.  We were nice and lazy, just what the Dr ordered for this overly exhausted mommy and teacher!  Later on in the weekend, we had our first family Christmas.  It was Christmas on my mom's side, it's always a good time catching up with everyone.  Since the family is so big, it is rare that we get so many of us in one place.  We were missing quite a few, but managed to get a pretty good picture with all of the grandkids and great grandkids that were present with our grandma! :)

Miss B and I before the gathering.

Most of the cousins and our sweet Grandma!

Since we got out of school the Friday before Christmas, it was like I blinked and it was CHRISTMAS eve!   As part of our tradition we went to Christmas Eve service at our church, only we ended up being a little late because I thought it started 30 minutes later than it really did.  Luckily, we were only 15 minutes late and still made it in time for two songs! :)  I didn't feel so bad though when our pastor's wife walked in late too because she too thought it started later! We stayed the night at my parent's house and woke up bright and early!

B basically has all of her favorites in this picture, baby, stroller, boots, and necklace that you can't see!

This kid was a PRO at unwrapping presents!

After Christmas, we headed up North to see more family and friends!  It was so nice to see several of my friends, especially my best friend Lindsey and one of my sweet friends, Kristen,  I hadn't seen her in almost a year!!! 

B, Lindsey, and I before we headed out to do a little clearance damage at Target!

I was beyond exhausted and ready to be home, but it didn't last long.  After an invite to Fort Worth for NYE, I decided to let my mom take B for the night and head back up north to ring in the new year with some of my favorites from my college years! It was a much needed night out for this momma, not to mention the fact that I got to see so many familiar faces that I have missed!

Claire and I before we headed out to see the Casey Donahew Band!

 

 

Getting home and actually staying home after NYE has been just as nice as it was seeing all of my friends and family over the break though.  B and I have been all kinds of lazy, well kinda.... we've slept in late, taken naps, reorganized the house, gone through closets, put new furniture together, had our walks, and I have even had a chance to break in my new pots and pans from Christmas!

Nutella and Banana Crepes and Saved By The Bell.... Just one of our yummy morning breakfasts

Homemade Broccoli and Cheddar soup!

Berklee playing peak-a-boo during our walk today!

Our break has been wonderful, I'm in denial that I only have one more day left.  However, I am ready to see some of my sweet kiddos, mingle with my awesome team, and be back into my daily routine.  Plus, this week can't be too bad.... Even thought it is technically a full week of work, two of the days I will be at SDE conference in Austin with my one of my favorite teammates, Diana! :) 

 I love when I get to be the student and bring back loads of info to my classroom and team!! The only pitfall is making the sub plans, oh well, beggars can't be choosers!   Looking ahead, I am kicking myself for not working on centers more over the break, but I am about to kick it into gear and get some of my literacy and math centers put together.  Until they are ready, I think I will have my kids review the centers from my winter holiday bundle since they are more winterish than holiday themed. 

Be looking out for an update early next week about how our week back is going! :)