Sharing a little life update with y’all!
I feel like life has been so crazy and fast moving since I was last able to sit down and really hash out a blog post. Like everyone else in the world, the pandemic put so many things on pause. I thought that because I’d have extra time, I’d be able to focus more on my creativity and get more blogs and YouTube videos out, but that 100% wasn’t the case. When things started to get more real, my anxiety went through the roof. I had good and bad days and some days that I could mask my uncertainty behind productivity like packing and cleaning. No part of me wanted to sit down and write a blog post. I didn’t think there was a way for me to fully express how I felt in a way that was helpful or productive, so instead I turned to journaling and sharing my thoughts with myself.
Now that we’ve been dealing with the pandemic for two months, I’m finally getting to a more comfortable mental state, and I’m slowly starting to feel like me again. A lot of that has to do with the whirlwind of things that life threw at me in the middle of all this insanity. Shockingly, so many good things have come out of this pandemic, and I’m so excited to share all of it in today’s post.
I GOT ENGAGED!
On April 11, 2020, my now fiance asked me to be his wife. My exact response was awkward laughter and “OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD” before he finally coaxed a yes out of me, and then I promptly started crying. We’ve been engaged for about a month now, and I still look down at my ring in disbelief. I’m obsessed with my ring and everything it represents.
We’ve slowly stared planning everything, and we’re aiming for a September wedding next year. I filmed a full video of my friends and family reacting to our engagement, and we also share the story of how he proposed in the video.
I MOVED!
For those that didn’t know, my fiance (AH!) is in the military. We lived in Dayton, Ohio for the last year and a half while he attended grad school at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He received his diploma in March, but unfortunately, his graduation ceremony was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The Air Force as a whole has put a hold on people moving. My brother is actually in England with his family and was supposed to move in April, but now it’s been pushed back until August, which is such a shame, because I’m ready for them to get back to the US! But I digress… Because Kyle was in a unique situation in that he was at a base, but he didn’t actually have a job there, they had all of the AFIT graduates move, even though many moves were delayed by a few weeks, if they were going somewhere within the United States. For those moving overseas, they still aren’t able to leave.
We were supposed to leave Ohio on April 1, but we ended up not leaving until April 14 due to a lot of reasons. We ended up having to take two cars, so we drove separately for about 11-12 hours, stopping every 2 1/2 hours to gas up, stretch our legs, let Gunther out, and use the bathroom.
We are now living in Omaha, Nebraska, and it’s still freaking cold here, guys. I don’t think they got the memo that it’s spring yet. I mean, it’s almost mid-May, and it’s still in the 50s. It actually snowed during our first week here. We had one week of the temperatures being in the 70s, and now it’s just cold. It’s also really windy here. It’s kind of crazy.
We spent one week in a hotel when we first moved here, and we looked at 4-5 houses before we found one that ticked most of our boxes. The house was actually dirty when we moved in, and we had to hire a moving company to come clean it for us. Apparently, that’s common in Nebraska. People rent out their houses, but they don’t clean it thoroughly before the next people move in. It’s really strange and gross, and I’ll never understand. Once the cleaning company came through though, I was able to finally start falling in love with our place. We got permission to paint the walls, so we’ve dedicated a lot of time to painting the master bedroom and the office. We actually have a magnetic chalkboard wall in the office, and I’m seriously geeked about it.
I’m bummed that we haven’t been able to properly explore the area yet, but my headspace is actually a lot healthier than it was compared to when we moved from Louisiana to Ohio. I’m hopeful that I’m going to live my best life here in Nebraska once things are little safer with the virus.
I’M DONE WITH MY CLASSES!
As of a couple weeks ago, I’m officially done with all of my classes for my teaching certification. I’ve been working on getting my post-baccalaureate in elementary education for a little over a year now, and I got a passing grade on my last assignment, which was in Elementary Disciplinary Literacy. The only things I have left to do are take my content exam, which is the Praxis 5017, and do student teaching, which I’ll be completing in the fall.
I got my student teaching assignment while we were still living out of the hotel. It was such great news in what felt like such a transient time. I’ll be in a fifth grade classroom, which is completely out of my comfort zone. I’ve mostly worked with students in lower elementary grades, so I’m really excited and so, so nervous for this new challenge.
It still doesn’t feel real that I only have a couple more hurdles to jump before I’m able to call myself a teacher and also graduate from college again. I can’t wait to start my teaching career and to finally be doing something that I know will add value into the lives of others.
So those are all of the major life updates that have happened all within the past month. It’s been an absolute whirlwind, and I’m actually grateful that all of these things happened during this time of uncertainty. It’s really been helping me get through this pandemic and through my multiple quarantines so much, and I’m thankful for all of the positivity and well wishes that have been sent my way.
If you want to watch the video I filmed of my life updates while driving from Ohio to Nebraska, you can check out this video:
What have you been doing during the pandemic?
