Natural Disasters and Random Pictures

So Virginia has gone through almost all of the natural disasters possible in the last week! We started with a very random 5.9 earthquake on Tuesday. Talk about scary! It was really not a big deal and the people from California got a big laugh over our craziness, but feeling the ground move underneath you in a place where it never does is scary. I don't need to feel that ever again! Then we all braced ourselves for hurricane Irene which hit last night. She started out looking very scary and did cause some damage to a big part of the area, but we were pretty luck and never even lost power. Out of Irene came a tornado at Sandbridge that did some pretty bad damage to the beautiful rental houses down there and threatened to come through our area. Through all of this we have been smelling the smoke from a wildfire in the great dismal swamp for a while now. Hopefully we won't have any tsunamis or blizzards in the near future because this area needs a break!!!

Now on to the pictures! I heard recently that I haven't been getting pictures up a lot and I know it's been pretty bad. I did warn you in my last post that as my life gets crazier this year I will be posting less and less! Here are some random pictures from the last couple weeks to hold you over for a while :)

Tanner bowling for the first time - he loved it!

The shoes went great with her outfit!

Love the hands on the hips!

Our anniversary dinner in Atlantic City - look closely!

6 years of marriage

Nothing like a bunch of purple chips to help us celebrate!!!

Izabel likes to read to Tanner

and play Angry Birds with Daddy :)

Finally Finished!

I officially graduated from Virginia Tech with my Master of Science in Career and Technical Education on July 2, 2011 and my diploma came this week! I managed to keep straight As the entire time and graduate Summa Cum Laude. I am very excited to now have two degrees and be able to say I accomplished this goal. I treated myself to a new Coach bag, Noah is getting me the diploma frame I want from Tech, and my parents are getting me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet :)

It's official!

My new Coach bag...not quite as exciting as that piece of paper but still picture worthy :)

 So what does the future hold for this graduate? Well after a ton of paperwork is done I will receive a new teaching license from the state and a new contract with my new pay scale from the city. On August 8th I start working on my National Boards which is a certification process for teachers. It takes a year and includes a huge portfolio with videos of me teaching and lots of writing, and then a written test. It's pretty intense, but I've heard it's really worthwhile and it comes with a great stipend when I get it. 

Also, because I am evidently a crazy person, I will be starting my Ph.D. in Education on August 27th at ODU. For the fall semester I will be taking classes on Tuesday and Friday. I know Friday classes sound terrible, but I didn't have a choice. The classes I have to take each semester are chosen for me and they are only offered on one day! This degree is a process so I can't set an expected graduation date. I was told it takes a little over 2 years of course work and then however long it takes to complete the dissertation. It's a process and I'll complete it as quickly as I can, but it'll be a while. On a happier note, I am so thrilled to be back at ODU - I'm a Monarch and this is where I belong!

I have very mixed feelings about taking all this on while I already have so much going on in my professional life. I am the new instructional leader (department head) for my department at work and I am on the Board of Trustees for Virginia DECA. These are new roles in addition to being the DECA sponsor for Kecoughtan, hospitality chairperson, school store advisor, serving on the career academy committee and being the District 25 DECA advisor. 

I tell you all this to explain why I might not be blogging very much in the coming months! My travel schedule alone already has me in various parts of Virginia 4 weekends this year, Chicago in November, New York in March and Salt Lake City in April. It's going to be a fun, crazy, exhausting, rewarding, successful year so bear with me and try not to get offended when I get super stressed out! It's going to be a good ride and all so worthwhile in the end :) Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive so far and all of you who will be there for me through these next challenges!

Gymnastics

Izzy has been going to gymnastics for about 9 months now and she really enjoys it. She's come a long way and it's fun to watch her. It's definitely hard to get over to the gym each week since her class is right after work/naps but that's something we're going to have to get used to! It's hard for me to get pictures because the teams are usually all over the place so I was excited this week when the teams had the night off and I could snap a couple shots. Enjoy!

Lots of Updates!

For the past 2 1/2 weeks Noah's dad (Grandpa) and his sister Maria have been staying with us. It has been nice spending time with them and watching the kids get to know them both. It has also been nice having an extra adult around for outings with the kids! Noah took them to a Tides baseball game their first week here and we went to Water Country and the beach several times. Izabel got her hair cut in a salon for the first time and we took both kids to see Cars 2 which was their first movie! 

Such a big girl!

I know it's a bad picture but I only had my phone!

She looks so grown up now

Tanner likes to play memory

 We all went out to dinner with my parents, Candace, Matt and Drew to celebrate my graduation last weekend and this week we went to the zoo with Michelle and Blair! We've had a great time and have no intentions of slowing down even after they leave tomorrow. Stay tuned for lots more updates and enjoy the pictures of some of our recent events :)

Such great friends

They love playing together

I think we might be in trouble!

Tanner, Izabel and Blair looking at the chickens

Michelle and Blair

On the Rhino!

Tanner loves trains!

Ready for a train ride :)

The Beach!

Today we met up with my friend Ryan and her son Tripp at the beach. The kids had a great time playing in the sand (and throwing the sand) for most of the day! Unfortunately we all managed to get a sunburn but we had fun and it was so nice to catch up with a good friend :)

Izabel and Tripp were friends right away!

So cute!

Someone dug a big hole and left it for the kids to play in!

I'm pretty sure she was telling him that was her bucket :)

4th of July Flashback

I realized yesterday as I was getting the kids dressed in their 4th of July outfits that we have taken a family picture in our red, white, and blue every year since Tanner was born and they are all pretty much the same, but side by side they show just how much the kids have grown and changed over the last 3 years. I thought I'd put them together and post them instead of a bunch of pictures from our holiday...which wasn't too exciting this year but still nice!

And a picture of Izabel for 4th of July 2008!

Sugar and Spice!

It's official, I am going to have a niece! I am so excited for my sister Amy and brother-in-law Ray. They have been waiting so long to have a baby and they just found out they will be having a little girl. I already bought a little pink newborn outfit for her. I forgot just how little those things actually are! Baby Girl Myers will be joining our family sometime around November 9th (we are keeping our fingers crossed for the 11th) and we can't wait to meet her!!!