Honestly ... This is the time of my life

I never watched American Idol, so forgive me if you think this song is cheesy, but I recently heard it for the first time. It's amazing. It describes exactly how I've felt over pretty much the last year of my life ... there is not one part of the song that's doesn't reflect me ... a certain part of my life was so crappy for the longest time, and now I have something to be so happy and excited about - every single day. I feel so good about everything right now. Everything is coming together in a way I never thought possible. I wake up every morning happy and look forward to going to school, coming home, spending time with Chris, shooting weddings this summer, etc. We have so much in our future we're looking forward to...it's fun. And the part about the song that's my favorite its where it says "Finding my wings And all that I needed Was there all along ." Because it's true. I've known Chris for over 3 years, and its like he was right there all along, but it took us awhile to finally realize we were supposed to be together!

And of course, I CAN NOT wait until July 18th!

140 days to go!

Onto the lyrics..."Time of My Life" sung by David Cook

I’ve been waiting for my dreams

To turn into something

I could believe in

And looking for that

Magic rainbow

On the horizon

I couldn’t see it

Until I let go

Gave into love and

watched all the bitterness burn

Now I’m coming alive

Body and soul

And feelin’ my world start to turn

And I’ll taste every moment

And live it out loud I know this is the time,

This is the time

To be more than a name

Or a face in the crowd

I know this is the time

This is the time of my life

Time of my life

Holding onto things that vanished

Into the air

Left me in pieces

But now I’m rising from the ashes

Finding my wings

And all that I needed

Was there all along

Within my reach

As close as the beat of my heart

and I’ll taste every moment

And live it out loud I know this is the time,

This is the time to be

More than a name

Or a face in the crowd

I know this is the time

This is the time of my life

Time of my life

And I’m out on the edge of forever

Ready to run I’m keeping my feet on the ground

Arms open wide

Face to the sun I’ll taste every moment

And live it out loud I know this is the time,

This is the time to be

More than a name

Or a face in the crowd

I know this is the time

This is the time of my life

Time of my life

More than a name

Or a face in the crowd

This is the time
This is the time of my life.

Today's Fun Science Lesson

I am doing a dental health unit.
I wanted the kids to see what happens to their teeth when they drink soda, or if they don't brush their teeth on a regular basis.

Yesterday, I brought a hard boiled egg for each student. We talked about how the egg was like their teeth: white, smooth, hard outside, soft inside, and shiny. Then we put the eggs into cups of Coke overnight. I had them predict what would happen.

Today we took the eggs out of the cups of soda. They were stained brown, and covered in a gunky build up. I also had the kids smell the eggs. YUCK! I explained that this is what happens when we don't brush our teeth!



So, I brought toothbrushes and toothpaste and let the kids try to "brush" their giant egg "teeth." They were surprised at how hard it was to try remove the stains and build up! None of the students was able to get their "tooth" totally white again.


I cracked one egg "tooth" yesterday before putting it in soda. I told the students that this tooth as a cavity, and we would see what happens to a tooth with a cavity. The results were gross! I think this really nailed the point on the head for the kids about brushing their teeth and staying away from very sugary foods!


At the beginning of the lesson, we read a book about going to the dentist:

And we also made a chart of what helps our teeth, and what hurts them. Obviously, this was a lesson for generating ideas, not for proper spelling! LOL!

From A Student....Cute!

From a first grader in the class I'm student teaching:

Bella

My brother and his wife got a new puppy this weekend!
She is actually the sister of their other beagle!
Cuu-uute!

Tribute to Sweet Lola

Lola passed away yesterday.

She lived with my mom and I when she was a puppy because my brother and his wife were unable to keep her in their apartment because she whined when they went to work. So when she was 9 months old, they finally got her back in September.

This weekend they were both out of state (on separate trips) and Lola was hit by a car at the place she was being watched.

My heart breaks for my brother and his wife -

to be gone on vacation and something like this happens.

Here is a little photo tribute to Lola Beans:

{ FEB Blue Crew }

Not Sure If I Mentioned It . . .

(Please ignore this message if I have already posted it!)

I've been doing a Photo A Day for 2009.
I've been trying to keep up the best I can ;-)
Sometimes they are "nice" photos, sometimes they are "snapshots."
It'll be fun to look back at this project some day.

You can see the blog here:
http://dailysnap2009.blogspot.com/

I put a permanent link to it in my sidebar too!

Oops.

I've neglected this blog over the past week!
But for a good reason!

I started student teaching and I love it so far! I don't have any complaints (except for having to get up early now!) The kids are all great, and I've only had to send one 1st grader to principal's office so far. (LOL!) Throwing chairs around the room is not allowed. ;-)

Here is a peek into the classroom...

See The Heart?

I saw this idea on another wedding photographer's blog and decided to take my own! But instead, I used my engagement ring. Usually, the Bible passage used during the ceremony is in the background with the wedding bands.

But, I just wanted to play around today, and here's mine!
Pretty neat effect once you get the lighting/angle down :-)

copyright 2009 Kayla Richards

(I dont remember who the other photographer was now, or else I'd link to their blog and credit the photo idea)

I Obama'd Us

Projects

A V-Day Card ......

Um...

Are you freaking kidding me?

{ I Took My Own Shot of History }

Ok ok -- I know it was thru the TV screen, but I do like to take my own pictures of moments like this ... (and yes, I did take photos of Bush's farewell speech)

I love politics!
Even though I did not vote for Barack Obama, I am remaining optimistic that he will be able to achieve all he has spoken about ... I was going to type something political here, but I will let this post remain positive!

I think this is such a cute photo:

Found this sweet website

Website: http://iloveyoumorethanblank.blogspot.com/

Readers fill in the phrase:
I love you more than _________.

I've loved reading these over the past couple days!
I even submitted my own, for Chris to see!

We have an inside joke with Hannah Montana!
Guess which heart I submitted?
Yep, that was ALL ME!
Just had to save it so I can look back on this later on and have some giggles :-)

Fun, happy stuff!

In other news...

We met with our officiant today for the wedding.

He is absolutely great and we loved him!

Chris (who is the ever so shy, never wants to talk kind-of-person) told me at dinner tonight how he is actually excited about meeting with him to talk about stuff more. Yay :-)

David, our officiant, is actually a retired priest who left the Catholic Church to be able to marry. I think that its so cool he was able to marry and end up VERY happy in life -- and now look what he is doing --- making OTHERS so happy by marrying them. Marrying US!

So, its pretty cool how everything with the church end of the wedding ended up. I grew up in a very STRONG Catholic family -- on both my mom and dad's sides -- so my family was kind of freaked out that a "priest in a Catholic Church" will not be marrying us. However, neither Chris nor I are very religious - we are spiritual and we do believe in something "greater," but the Catholic Ceremony wouldn't really work for us and our beliefs.

Anyway -- onto the cool part --- the church we are getting married at used to be a Catholic Church (now turned into a wedding venue), and our officiant is a retired priest. So, all in all, we won't exactly be having the traditional Catholic ceremony, but it's still going to have lots of strong Catholic influences.

♥ { Valentine-ish } ♥

Some new pages of my friend's girls...
I ♥LOVE♥ the new love tickets from Making Memories!


♥ ♥ ♥