Friday, October 28, 2011

Definitely Unexpected!

Today was my last day at work. I'm starting my new job at a school for autism on Monday. I didn't realize how close I got to the kids in just 2 short months. It was hard to say bye and there were A LOT more tears than I thought. As I was walking out to my car and then later talking to Ben about it, I realized I have never had such a hard time saying bye to a group of kids. I then realized that these kids are special. They really need good teachers who care about them and they grow especially close to those teachers. I hope they know how much I love them!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Corolla, NC

The Waters invited us to stay in their parent's beach house in Corolla, NC this past weekend and of course we had to say yes! We had soo much fun relaxing, going down to the beach, eating, playing games, watching movies, etc.

We never got a picture of the whole group. The Larsen's and Bennett's are not in this picture.

The Tracy's, Ben and I trying to be artistic....

Ben was very proud of his heart.

Don't you just love that guy?



Just to make you jealous :)

You is to anyone who isn't enjoying a beautiful Fall where leaves change colors, jeans and a T-shirt get you through the day, and snow doesn't ruin your plans for a nice long season! (you = all my family and friends in Florida and Utah)

This is a tree right outside our house :)


I went on a field trip this week to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. You know it was beautiful when the crazy third graders I work with were running around saying," Mrs. Brockbank, it is so beautiful," or, "Mrs. Brockbank, come smell these flowers. They are amazing!" No joke...those words came out of their mouths. One girl told me, "Nature is just so wonderful."

Don't judge my attempt at taking a picture to show the pretty colors.
My picture does not do it justice!


This was a cool house made out of sticks we saw on the field trip :) The kids ran around inside picking their rooms!


Oct. 8th Wicked!!!

We went to see Wicked a couple weeks back but didn't have pictures to show until now so here they are! We went with the Vanhilles and everyone enjoyed it a ton!! Now I am trying to convince Ben that he wants to go to see Lion King in February. Duhhh...awesome Valentines Day gift don't a think?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Charlottesville, VA

This last weekend Ben and I decided we would head to Charlottesville, VA to go see Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home). Everyone ranted and raved about the Michie Tavern near Monticello so we figured we would give it a try. Look at the picture below. We waited in that line for an hour. The food did prove to be delicious but I think if I ever see that line again I probably won't wait.


After eating we headed to Monticello and apparently October is their busiest time of year because we bought a tour for many hours later. This gave us lots of time to look around. The weather was beautiful so we didn't mind too much. You can see the leaves starting to change :)

Can you imagine how big this tree must have been?!


Thomas Jefferson wrote A LOT! I think I remember them telling us he wrote over 20,000 letters in his lifetime. Ben decided if he had to write the way Thomas Jefferson did he probably wouldn't have even written 1.


After we had looked around at everything there was to see other than the tour of Thomas Jefferson's house we still had an hour and a half till our tour started. Ben decided to sweet talk the old lady in charge of getting the groups together and she let us slip into an earlier group. I was so embarrassed/annoyed that he was going to try to sneak in but his big white smile ended up paying off :)

Monticello

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fall is here!

A quick update on our lives...
Ben is doing well in school. He is taking an extra class for anesthesiology and so far is pretty excited about the class. Last week he learned how to do IV's and next week he'll be learning how to do intubations. He's learning stuff the other second years haven't been able to learn yet so he's feeling pretty good about the class.
My life is pretty much the same as it always is. I'm still working 2 jobs and trying to find a more permanent full-time job. I've not had any luck so far so my spirits have been down but something good will come along eventually.

Fall is here and so far I am sooo excited. The thing I love about it here is I know it will last more than a week :) The weather and surroundings are beautiful! Perfect time of year for people to come visit. HINT HINT!


I took some pictures the other day when I went frisbee golfing with Ben. I hadn't been to the park since the hurricane and I was surprised at all the big trees that had fallen over. The trees just fell over pulling the roots out of the ground on a ton of the trees!

I've been doing a good amount of crafts but I haven't taken pictures of any in a long time. My recently redone wall shows 3 of them. The window pane is the newest. The 2 pieces of art that are hanging were actually done quite a while ago :) I had way too much blue, green, and brown in our house so I am slowly but surely introducing some new colors!