2011

Isaiah 40:31
Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

It seems as though I spent a lot of my time in 2011 praying and learning to patiently wait on the Lord to hear my prayers. As the year came to a close, and the holidays arrived I had a very difficult time understanding why my prayers have not yet been answered. Today, as I reflect back on this year, I can see that the Lord has abundantly blessed me, and if He never gives me another single thing, He has done enough.

I chose 16 pictures to represent the best of 2011.
1. Celebrating Auburn's National Championship
2. Rejoicing in the promise of an eternal life with my love on a beautiful Easter Sunday.
3. Packing my car to go to the beach, and finding Reese in my trunk...he wanted to go so bad!
4. A GORGEOUS May day on the beach with my family. I'm quite certain that this is the view I will see when I look out the back window of my mansion in heaven:)
5. The twins graduated from preschool with an adorable and highly entertaining program.
6. Celebrating Memama's 80th Birthday with the entire Wiggins Family. We love her soooo much!
7. Reese FINALLY made it to the beach! He loved it!
8. Our sweet Josie joined the family!
9. I love spending my birthday weekend in Auburn! I turned 31 this year. .....how did that happen?
10. Pumpkin Carving Party with our boys and Josie!
11. Iron Bowl Party - Aren't these kids adorable? War Eagle!
12. Josie was once small enough to fit inside of a pumpkin!
13. Having an early Christmas with Brother, who always surprises us with the most thoughtful and creative gifts:)
14. Spending time Christmas shopping with my Davey:)
15. 2011- the year I got addicted to Pinterest.....this photo is from my first Pinterest Party.
16. Christmas 2011- Us with Riley Ann-I just thought this was a cute picture!

10 Things on Thursday

1. I hope I can come up with 10 things today.
2. The orange and blue is up and ready at our house.
3. I have a young little intern who makes me feel so old. She says things like "Yes ma'am" to me.
4. I get so discouraged by parents who get an attitude with us because they think their child has too much homework. I promise these kids don't have anything near the amount of homework we had growing up. ( maybe I am sounding old now:) I love my students and I take the responsibility of educating them very seriously.
5. I so love walking around campus and seeing the twins at school, or hearing their sweet little voices call my name when I'm in the lunchroom. I try terribly hard not to pick them up and kiss them all over every time, but that is hard to resist.
6. I'm still low carb, but may cheat a little this weekend!
7. I've been burning the fall candles for 2 weeks now.
8. Dave and I look forward to watching "How I Met Your Mother" every night before we go to sleep.
9. I've got an extra long weekend coming up!
10. I am on the way to Blue Mountain Beach tonight!

1O Things on Thursday

1. Even though it won't be cool enough for a while, I'm so disgusted that my new fall boots that I ordered 2 weeks ago still have not been delivered!
2. I am terribly excited about Friday night football in Straughn exactly 24 hours from now.
3. I love relaxing afternoons on Robin Road.
4. I have a great class this year. BIG class, but well behaved and precious.
5. Thank goodness for interns!! Grading 110 Math Tests today would have been impossible without her!!
6. I dislike the fact that starting back to school puts a kink in the amount of time I get to spend with Dave now. I miss our lunch dates the most!
7. I also miss my fading by the day tan.
8. I've been low carb for a month and a half, and still walking most nights.
9. I've lost 17 pounds!!!
10. I've deleted my Facebook page one week ago, and feel so fabulously FREE!!! It was not good for me, and I spend my time so much more wisely now:)
    

DONE!

I earned this sweet thing back in July, and life has been much nicer since. I've thoroughly enjoyed the extra time, and money that have come with it. It was definitely a long, hard road, and I'm thankful to Dave for being so patient and understanding. He had to listen to lots of crying and complaining, and had to eat out several nights a week.

I started the whole grad school thing with the mindset that I would settle for whatever grades I made as long as I passed. After I made A's in my first 2 classes, I really pushed myself to keep up my GPA. I had to give up lots of time that I would have much rather spent with my family to read, study, and write paper after paper. The Counseling Program is HARD, and I was in utter disbelief upon graduation time when I found out that graduate students are not even recognized for honors!?! So, just so someone knows, I did graduate with a 4.0! Thank goodness I am done with Troy!!