Update...

Wow... it has been FOREVER since I have blogged.  For those of you who don't know, I am working on completing my student teaching this semester for my teaching certification here in Texas... which is also one of the last steps in my Masters program.  I will be totally done with school at the end of this summer with a graduation date of August 6th!  Yea!!

This semester has brought on lots of changes & lots of added stress for me.

I started student teaching at a local high school at the end of January & am working on completing 14 weeks of (unpaid) student teaching.  Right now is week 7 & SPRING BREAK, so I'm thankful to be halfway through.  My mentor teacher is amazing & I am learning a ton from her on a daily basis; the students are great & I am reassured that I am choosing to teach high school for a reason.  They may be loud & obnoxious at times, but I certainly enjoy working with older children, I've learned.

Since I started teaching, the kids have been going to a great preschool that isn't too far from the school that I teach at.  Below is a picture of them on the first day of school...

They have enjoyed their school & their teachers, and have made a great set of new friends!

My days at the high school are exhausting, to say the least.  I am teaching 2 classes of Food Science, 2 classes of Lifetime Nutrition & Wellness, and will be taking over 2 classes of Professional Communications in the upcoming weeks.  

One of the first things I helped my mentor teacher do is organize each of the kitchen labs in the classroom....

 ...and make this board to help promote the classes that students can choose through the Family & Consumer Sciences program at the school.  They are choosing their schedule of classes for next year & since all of the Nutrition classes that are taught are electives, the teachers try hard to get students interested & signed up the year before.

We had some COLD weather down here in February & it actually snowed one day!  We got out of school & everything (it was pretty great!).  Here's a few pics of the kids playing in the snow in front of our house right after they got up on their "snow day".  Granted, this is NOTHING compared to the several feet of snow that both my parents & Justin's parents experienced this winter, but nonetheless, this is what a central Texas snow looks like...

Back to school...

Our Food Science class cooks almost every single day out of the week.  Right now, they're learning about yeast breads (we just finished a unit on quick breads) & will be making cinnamon rolls, pretzels & pizza once we get back from spring break.

Here are some of the yummy things they've gotten to make...

Homemade Pop Tarts

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Each group used different forms of fat to make their cookies & then we compared & evaluated them to see which tasted/looked better)

And we've made a ton of other things too:

Homemade ravioli, fondue, fruit salad, pancakes, crepes, muffins, biscuits, Whoopie Pies...

I'm having a great time at school but find myself spreading myself very thin.  

In addition to working on my student teaching, I'm still working part-time for my company that I've worked for the past 5+ years; that work usually gets done very early in the morning & very late at night.  I'm so blessed that my boss has let me keep my job throughout my student teaching.  She is amazing.

I'm still making gameday dresses, though I'm taking less orders now that I'm so busy.  I just bought a new embroidery machine & have made a few projects so far, but haven't had the time to dive in & play with it near the amount I'd like to.

In addition, I'm still being Mommy & wife to my awesome family.  Justin helps where he can --- grocery shopping, prepping for meals, etc.  And things have gotten super crazy since Austin has started tee-ball (more on that in a later post).

Nonetheless, I'm learning to balance it all.  I watched my Mom balance work, kids, home life, etc. for years, so I think I have had a pretty good mentor... and I think I'm handling it all OK.

Switching gears...

Kaylee is in a wedding here in Texas in mid-May.  Our neighbors are getting married & asked her to be their flower girl!  We went a few weekends ago & got her beautiful yellow dress for the big day -- she LOVES the dress!  She immediately said, "Mom... see my pretty dress!" and then started twirling in it!  SO CUTE!

Stay tuned for more posts from me.  Lots more to update you all on!!