One More Sleep...

...or one might call it a nap.  I am leaving for the airport in about 5 hours.  Call me crazy but I waited until the last minute to pack.  It might be because of all the Christmas celebrating I did last weekend and the preparing for my sub next week and preparing for a week of teaching the week I return from the trip.  Or maybe it was because I had other things that I felt were more important like spending time with an important person in my life.  Or maybe it was a combination of all of the above.  Whatever the reason, I am now almost packed.  It's tough to pack for 3 weeks when a lot of my time before and after the cruise will be spent in the air.  I'm not complaining one bit, but it's a challenge.  On shorter trips, I've been known to plan out my wardrobe for each day, but there was no way that my mind was able to even think about doing that this time.  The weather was also a challenge that kept me from packing early.  It is supposed to be colder (in my mind) since it is almost winter, but it hasn't been that cold.  So I was wearing most of the clothes that I needed to pack.  Oh well, I'm packed now and all good :)

I'm really excited about the whole experience of setting foot on another continent....actually I'll be setting foot on two other continents.  Besides Australia, I'll be adding Asia too.  We won't be in Asia too long but it'll be enough time to stay overnight.  I'm excited also about spending the time with my mom.  She is a good travel buddy.....we take care of each other.  She lets me do what I want to do and I let her do what she wants to do.  All in all, we are a good team!

I have been somewhat distracted this evening in the midst of packing by the terrible and horrible news from Connecticut.  My heart breaks for those families and friends of the innocent children and teachers who lost their lives and those who were in the midst of the chaos.  It hits way too close to home.  I want my students to be and feel safe in my classroom and not be afraid to come to school.  I want them to know that I will protect them when they walk in the door and that no one will hurt them or do them any wrong at all.  The fact that someone would do something so horrible to sweet children is so disturbing.  Pray for those families....it's going to be a long road ahead of them.  Pray for the children that lost their best friends, their friends that shared their snacks with them, were in their dance class, or on the same soccer team.  Pray for strength, comfort, and healing.  I know the Lord hears us and knows our hearts.  He wants us to trust Him that He's got this.

With all that being said, I'll blog when I can and update as time allows, and I'll be tweeting probably more often so follow me on twitter (@ka204).  So sit back and enjoy the ride!

Thankful

I can't believe it is already Thanksgiving.  This time last year I was in NYC watching the balloons being inflated and we were planning our attack for the next morning.  I feel like I just rang in the new year but I'm so thankful that I didn't.  I've had the week off this week which has allowed me time to reflect on thanksgiving and what I am thankful for.  Last year I took time each day during the month of November to blog about something I was thankful for many of which are the same this year....I have so much to be thankful for.  I wanted to take some time to blog about my thankfulness this year.

First and foremost, which I have blogged about before, year after year I feel like, I am thankful for a loving God!  I am thankful for His mercy and grace and thankful that He is always there.  I'm thankful for my relationship with Him.  I'm thankful for those times that I didn't think I would make it through the day this past year but I did because of the Lord's comfort and the strength He gave me.  The Lord has always been so faithful.

Another thing I am thankful for is my family.  When I say family I mean all of them....mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmother.  They all love me for who I am and accept everything about me.  My parents have given me more than I ever could have asked for in life and I am forever grateful for the experiences they have given me and the love they have shown me.  They have put me before themselves and worked so hard to give me a life better than they had growing up and I am blessed by their sacrifices.  My brother and sister in law have given me the cutest little niece :)  Of course I am also thankful for their friendship and memories we have as well as the niece!

How could I not write about how thankful I am that I get to spend my days with sweet children.  Ok, I won't lie, not all days are fine and dandy.  It's a tough job but I am honestly so blessed by the children that the Lord handpicked to be in my class.  No two days are alike in my life and I get to instill in my students a love of learning which I think is pretty cool and I'm pretty sure their parents like that too :)

I'm also thankful for my friends.  I've have several different groups of friends but all of them are very important to me and I love the stories about how God brought each one of them into my life.  Some of them I've known for 10+ years and some I've only known for a short time but they have each helped shape me and helped me become the woman I am today and I love the time I get to spend with all of them even if it's just a short time.  The memories I have of each one of them are pretty special!

Another thing that I am so thankful for is the opportunity to travel.  I have had the chance to see some pretty neat places and I feel fortunate that I have been able to experience the beauty of God's creation.  It is just so perfect and I'm blessed that I have been given the opportunity to explore all that I have been able to explore.

Lastly, I am thankful for my wonderful boyfriend.  I could go on and on about the MANY things I am thankful for about him and maybe one day I will, but for now, just know that I am thankful that the Lord brought him into my life and I appreciate him so much.

I have been greatly blessed and I have so much to be thankful for this year!  

baby k

Monday, July 16, 2012 my life was forever changed.  I became an aunt to the most precious chubby cheeked little girl :)  She's beautiful and I'm blessed that she is my first niece (assuming there will be more nieces or nephews along the way).  I knew her mommy (my sister in law) was going in Sunday night and being induced Monday morning.  I woke up to a string of texts and my mom asking if I was at the hospital.  Nope, I was still in bed.  I knew that I had time even after she was born because they would have to clean her up and such.  I didn't rush to get ready and actually took extra time because if I was going to be taking a picture with her, my hair needed to be fixed and I needed to have makeup on. She arrived a little before 1pm but we didn't get to hold her until around 5:30pm.  That was the longest wait ever.  They were able to reserve the only suite in the maternity area at the hospital and it's a good thing they did because there were a lot of us around and a normal sized room would have been packed otherwise.  After we got to meet baby K, we headed home to let the new parents get some rest.  I was back the next day though with my camera in my hand.  I took some pictures of the sweet girl and her parents.  I think hospital pictures are a must if you can get someone who knows what they are doing to come in.  I was honored that they let me intrude and get some pictures.  I am going over tomorrow to see that sweet chunky monkey and take her newborn photos.  I sure hope they turn out as good and actually even better than her hospital pictures.  I hope the lighting cooperates with me and the outdoor lighting will shine right in all their windows.  I'll post some of them in a few weeks but here are a few that I took at the hospital.

Love those cheeks!

Isn't she sweet?!?!

Aunt K with Baby K :)

Daddy's Little Girl

selfless

I guess I've always been a daddy's girl, but I've only really seen it in the past 5 years or so.  My dad is one of the most caring, loving, thoughtful, and selfless men I know.  He is constantly doing things for me and making sure that I have everything I could possibly need.  If I tell him I'm looking for something, he will look for whatever it is and most of the time, he will find it and get it to me within a few days.  This can work to my advantage and I know how blessed I am to have a dad that goes above and beyond.  He's the one that remembers to water my yard....I don't remember.  He's the one that will make sure I am up to date on my oil changes.  I'm pretty sure that if he wasn't checking on those oil changes, I know I wouldn't remember.  He checks on my house when I'm out of town.  He's my ride to and from the airport whenever I go anywhere as long as he's in town.  He's always thinking about the kids in my classroom and if he sees something that they might like or that I might be able to use in my classroom, he gets it for me.  He is such a generous man.  I'm not sure what I would do without him in my life.  

People tell me I'm spoiled......I tell them, "At least I'm not spoiled rotten."  

This might be one of my favorite pictures of my dad and me.  I have heard stories about how my dad would stay up with me at night and we would watch movies so that my mom could sleep. 

This is another picture that was taken this past Christmas when I had my parents over for brunch on Christmas Day.   

And this last picture is one of his favorites that I added to the card I made him on Shutterfly for Father's Day.  He's not in it, but I do agree that it's pretty darn cute!  Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes my hair is red in the picture.  It was reddish and turned strawberry blonde and still has some red under the blonde.  

I will always be Daddy's Little Girl and I am eternally grateful for his love and all he has ever done for me!  

old photos from old trips

With a summer that is not filled with extensive travel, comes projects around the house.  With projects around the house such as cleaning and organizing, comes finding old nostalgic items.  With nostalgia, comes reminiscing about good ole times.

As I was cleaning out/organizing drawers in my home office, I came across CD's of pictures from trips that I have taken in the past 10 years.  During the past 10 years my love of travel has grown.  It's neat to look back on those trips and see the different places I have been and "forgotten" about.  Even though they aren't as extreme as Alaska or New Zealand, they are still part of my experiences.  Looking at the pictures brought back memories of things that I had forgotten that I had done/seen.

I thought since I find myself getting bored (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) throughout the weeks of summertime, I would blog about what I remember from these trips.  I know I won't get all the details correct or remember every single thing that I did on the trip, but pictures really are worth a thousand words.  These pictures are a great way for me to remember all the sweet times I had with my dear friends and family.

So, I'll start with Hawaii but will be leaving out quite a few details and mainly just sharing some fun pictures.  We went in July 2004.  I will say this.....when I graduated from college in May 2003, my mom told me that we were going to go on a trip to Hawaii the next summer.  My exact words that I will never forget were "I wanna be skinny."  Her exact words that I will never forget were, "Well, you have a year to do it."  I never looked back.  My close friends and those that have been around for a while, have seen me before, and seen me after.  They saw the transformation.  People I have met recently or haven't known for at least 9 years would never guess that I used to be 70 pounds heavier.  It's hard for me to believe too, but it is true.  So I guess Hawaii brought on that transformation, that change.  Maybe I'll blog about that later, but for now I'll just blog about my traveling.  

Hawaii was my first cruise.  We took a non-stop flight to get there that was about 8 hours and left on the cruise only a few hours later.  I would never suggest flying to your embarkation destination on the same day that your cruise leaves.  If anything would have happened with our flight to delay it, we might have missed our ship.  However, it was our first cruise and we didn't know.  The cruise was a 10 day cruise on NCL.  We spent time island hopping and then took 2 sea days to get to Fanning Island and 2 sea days to get back from Fanning Island after only spending maybe 10 hours there (if that).  Hawaii is beautiful!  It was perfect.  My favorite island was Maui.  I learned how to surf in Maui and had a blast.  We also went to a luau in Maui.  I also remember going snorkeling in Kauai.  That was one of my favorite snorkeling adventures.  I hate to say it was the best because the snorkeling in Alaska was one of my favorites too but it was a different experience.  While we were in Kauai after we had lunch we got to taste Hawaiian shaved ice.  It's basically shaved ice with vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the cup.  It was really good.  Fanning Island was a neat experience.  The locals there were so glad to see us.  I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a neat experience.  Let's see.....I remember making several different types of leis on the ship on our sea days.  Some people don't like sea days but I do, because they force you to relax.  You can't be in a hurry to leave the ship because there isn't a port...just  a big ocean.  I don't remember much more from the trip so I'll leave you with these pictures.

After arriving in Hawaii after our 8 hour flight.  I do remember sleeping most of the time, which is what I like to do on long flights.  

Fanning Island

With my mom after making ribbon leis.  

Palm Frond Weaving Class

At Sea

This is after we snorkeled in Kauai.  

Before we surfed they gave us rash guards and water shoes.  

I have proof that I really did surf.  The camera died shortly after this picture.  However, I think I have some video footage somewhere.  

This is on the beach at Maui close to where we went to a luau.  

Other trips that I will be blogging about in the days ahead are the following: (in no particular order)

*NYC at Christmas with 3 of my best friends
*Charleston with one of my best friends
*Canada/New England Cruise with my mom and grandmother.
*Europe with my brother and another good friend
*Any other traveling photos I come across that I feel need their own blog post.

I hope you have enjoyed my Hawaii trip in a nutshell.  Hopefully one day I'll go back there.  It's on my list of places I'd like to visit again someday.

a little planning

Our Itinerary 

With summer fast approaching, I know my mom and I will begin planning our Australia/New Zealand vacation.  I keep thinking about how I don't get a big vacation this summer but it's OK because I get a really big vacation in 7 months.  I'm certainly OK with that.

I've been looking at shore excursions a little bit and I get more and more excited each time I look at them.  We have booked a few excursions the other day.  In Dunedin, we booked an excursion to see the penguins....as soon as I saw the description, I knew that was the one we had to book!  In Tauranga (Rotorua), we are doing an excursion called Hell's Gate & Rotorua Highlights.  It includes going to Hell's Gate Geothermal Reserve.  The description of the excursion sounded interesting.  We shall see.  Then in Auckland, we are doing an excursion on the America's Cup yacht.  We've heard good things about it.  There are a few other ports that either don't have excursions available yet for us to book or we haven't decided which excursion to choose.

We did have a change in our itinerary that we were informed of last week.  Apparently Christchurch is not allowing any ships to dock there the remainder of the year, so we will be docking in Akaroa instead.  It's 75 kilometers from Christchurch and apparently the same types of excursions are available but since they never had available excursions shown from that port, I'm not sure what types of excursions will be available.  

We've also booked all of our airfare.  We've got a bunch of different legs of the trip BUT almost the whole time we will be in business or first class, thanks to many many air miles.  We have one flight that is no longer than 4 hours in coach, so I think I will probably manage just fine :)  We have several 10+ hour flights.  I've only been one flight that has been that long, so hopefully I'll be OK.  I can usually sleep on flights and it shouldn't be a problem seeing as how we will have lay down seats most of the time.  We skip a day in there on the way over and then on the way back, our day is like 48 hours long and seems like it's going to last forever.

We've got our hotel booked in Sydney.  Thanks to Capital One Rewards, we were able to book one night before leaving on the cruise using points.  To book the hotel after the cruise, we weren't able to use points but we wanted to stay at the same place, Shangri-La.  We also have to overnight in Shanghai on our way to Sydney.  My mom looked and looked for a good place and finally came up with a nice hotel that had good reviews so she was able to book that using Capital One Rewards.

So, things are coming together and I know it will be here before we know it.  Now if I can just manage to get through the next 4 days of school, then I'll be another year closer to retirement!!! :)  I really don't view teaching that way...I do love it, but it's been a tough year and I will be glad when it is over!

Happy New Year!

2011 was a wonderful year! I got to experience a lot of new places and go back to some old places. I checked off some things from my bucket list and added a few more places to my bucket list....ok well a lot more places. I thought I would do a short recap of the fun places I went and my favorite people that I got to experience these places with.

1. Vegas : I wanted to do something fun for my 30th birthday. I thought about going to Vegas the weekend I turned 30 but I thought it would be more fun to go nor NYE so me and 2 of my besties (and one of their husbands) made our way to Vegas. It wasn't my first Vegas experience but it was my first with friends. One of my dear friends lives in Vegas now so she got to join in the fun. We had a blast ringing in the new year in Vegas.

2. Italy : The planning started back in November 2010. One of my dear friends who also happens to live in Vegas wanted to do something fun for her 30th so Italy it was. We did a lot and made the most of our time.  We had a private tour guide to show us Vatican City, experienced true Italian cuisine, went to Wine School in Siena, saw some beautiful things in Florence, relaxed and hiked in Cinque Terre, saw the incredible Swiss Alps on the way to Zurich, and experienced the high prices in Switzerland.  The trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime!

3. Alaska : What an adventure! As you remember I got to share the experience with my mom. Those are some of the best memories I have with my mom.  I will remember that trip forever.  We saw parts of Alaska that a lot of people never experience.  It was beautiful!  The weather was wonderful compared to what we were hearing about back home.  We saw some neat wildlife including moose, bears, caribou, and a few reindeer :)  I could never list all that we did because they pretty much cram packed in everything into the 10 days we were on the tour.  I will say though that going to Denali was one of my absolute favorite parts of the trip.  It was gorgeous!  I would love to go back and it's definitely on my bucket list!

4. NYC : How could I leave out Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade adventure. One of my besties that was mentioned earlier endured the early morning cold weather to score a front row seat to see the parade. Another experience I will never forget for sure.  We also were among all the black friday shopping in NYC.  I would most certainly go back for this annual event even though we were up early for the parade. 

It was a wonderful year! I'm hoping 2012 is just as good and even better. Here are some goals for my year(I don't make resolutions)

1. Go somewhere that I have never been before.
2. Go somewhere that I have been before.
3. Leave the country for a vacation.
4. Take a trip with a friend or friends.
5.  Take full advantage of airmiles and travel rewards. 
6. Make the most of every opportunity I get to travel.

Hopefully I'll check off a few places from my bucket list.  I guess I need to post said bucket list so you can all hold me accountable. 

Thanks to all of you that encourage me to travel and go with me on all of my adventures.  Thank you for following along with me.....I feel loved! :)  I just want to make the most of life and experience as much as I can. 

Stay tuned for more fun this next year!  I'll see ya when I see ya! Hopefully sonner rather than later :)

Merry Christmas! (a little late)

Merry Christmas!  I know I'm a few days late but with lack of internet and a slow connection speed on my iPhone thanks to AT&T, I haven't been able to do much on my phone besides the basic call, text, check facebook, you know, the necessities :)

Christmas this year was good.  I stayed close to home and am still enjoying my break from school and family time.  We visited with Chase and Lauren a few days before Christmas and then on Christmas my parents came over for brunch.  It was nice and quiet and all in all it was a good time.  I am certainly blessed!

I already have down all my Christmas decorations (they were actually down after my parents left on Christmas day), and I'm already searching the internet to see what kind of travel deals I can find in the near future.  I need a plan...I need something to get me through my next semester of school besides sweet smiles for children that tell me "I love you more!"

So, it's Wednesday and we all know what that means.....Travel Zoo Top 20 Deals came out today.  I'll be searching those shortly to see what I can come up with.

Hopefully sometime soon, I'll get some holiday/winter pictures uploaded and onto facebook and a few here.  Internet will be installed on Friday at home.  I have gone long enough without internet and I need internet to fully utilize my Christmas present, therefore I caved and called Time Warner again and got a really good deal.

I'll let you know whenever I plan my next adventure.  Hopefully it will be sometime within the next few months.  We shall see!

day 29 & 30

I've been slacking a bit lately.  The day I got back from NYC I came down with a cold.  I don't know when the last time I have been sick is so I wasn't really sure how to manage.  I did manage though and now I'm getting back to normal.  I have challenged myself to blog about being thankful and I have been reminded that I have so much to be thankful for. 

So the last 2 things I want to blog about being thankful for are...

1.  My health:  I know I just wrote about being sick but seriously I am usually never sick.  I have lived a decently healthy life and I am thankful for that.  I can keep up with the best of them and for that I am grateful. 

2.  My Grandmother:  She is one of the greatest people that I know.  She never meets a stranger and always has a smile on her face.  I vividly remember spending school holidays, summer vacations, and sick days with her.  She would do what we wanted and did everything in her power to make sure we had a great time.  We made forts with her, cooked and baked, played on her computer, and she even put us to work numerous time.  Everyone loves Nanny.  She has always encouraged us and raised 3 wonderful daughters along with my grandfather that I never had the chance to meet.  I'm am eternally grateful for raising the best youngest daughter that she raised (which is also my mom :)) even if my mom did talk her into letting her eat ice-cream cones for breakfast morning after morning.  She means a lot to us all and I don't think we tell her that often enough!

day 28: traveling with my mom

You all know I love to travel.  I've already blogged about traveling and traveling with friends.  I thought now I should blog about how thankful I am to travel with my mom.  There are tons of people around me that tell me how great it is that I get to travel with my mom.  I know I've been blessed with a mom who loves to explore the world and she has passed that on to me.  I love that I get to go on trips with her and I don't have to share her with anyone.  I'm thankful that she wants me to travel with her.  I'm also thankful for those mornings that she doesn't make me get up really early and go gallavanting around town or around the cruise ship.  I know that sometimes I have to get up early to go places, but she lets me take my time getting ready and doesn't rush me.  She lets me see the things I want to see (and I let her see the things she wants to see).  Maybe that's why we make such a great pair.  I know it's a blessing to spend these years with my mom and I do cherish all the moments we get to spend seeing the world!

day 15: my brother

I know I already posted about being thankful for the rest of my family but I thought I'd dedicate this entire post to my thankfulness for my brother. We've grown up together getting along, fighting, making secret plans to catch Santa, business plans, plans to visit cool places and even spent a year together in college. Growing up people(teachers) were always surprised that we were related. We were very different. He's always been the outgoing one. Of course he gets his good looks from and and his smartness too :) One of my favorite memories of my brother is when we traveled through parts of Europe together with a friend of mine. We had a lot of fun and I will always remember that trip. I'll also always remember our Tiger Tunes experience at OBU. It was neat spending a year at college together. I always ask him for financial advise because he's part of the business world and knows way more about the business type stuff than I do. Anyways, I'm thankful that we can still be friends even though we are both adults and lead our own lives and don't see each other as much as we used to. He's an important part of my life and I hope he has a pretty great birthday!!!