An Engaging Vacation

Last week, Nick and I, along with his parents, took a trip up to Gatlinburg, TN.  We had a wonderful time enjoying all the touristy attractions there in Gatlinburg and nearby Pigeon Forge.  The Smokey Mountains were gorgeous!

                                          

We left on Thursday, and once we got checked into our hotel and had dinner we began walking "the strip" to check out the sights and sounds.  On Friday, we went to an entertaining dinner show about the Hatfields and McCoys.  The food was great and the show was a lot of fun.

Before heading out to walk around again that night, Nick turned on the first song we ever danced to together and asked me to dance with him in our hotel room.  In the middle of our dancing, Nick got down on one knee and proposed to me!  I, of course, burst into tears immediately.  I definitely said yes, and I am super excited to be marrying my best friend and soul mate!  My engagement ring was actually his grandmother's ring.  I am so honored that his mom has let Nick give me such a special piece of jewelry.

Currently, the ring is too small for my finger, so we will have to go get it resized.  Nick wanted to make sure I would have something shiny to wear until my real ring is ready, so we picked out a temporary ring.

The rest of our trip was so much fun!  We checked out a local cavern, went to the aquarium, saw another show at the Comedy Barn, went up into the space needle, ate A LOT of food, and walked around checking out as many of the shops as we could.

This was one of the best vacations I have ever taken!  Now it's time to get back into school mode.  And to let the wedding planning begin!

Time to Start Anew

I know it's been an extremely long time since I've blogged, but I think now is the perfect time to get back on track.  I desperately need to lose some weight and work on getting myself in better shape and more healthy.  It is also time for school to start back, which will hopefully help in putting me back on a more structured schedule.  I'm hoping that if I blog about what's going on in my life, I can hold myself to being more accountable in all things I want to work on.

So here are the things I hope to keep track of here:

• As I mentioned before, I need work on being more healthy.  A co-worker of mine has been eating primarily fruits, vegetables, and beans following the plan outlined in Eat to Live.  I have started reading this book and want to try to implement this into my life.  Hopefully adding a better diet to the exercise I've already been doing, I'll see some improvement in my weight and health.
• I'm starting my second year of teaching 7th grade science.  I'm hoping to grow in my profession and work on bringing more hands-on activities into my classroom.  I hope my students grow and learn so much in my class!
• Nick and I have been together for almost 2 years now, and we continue to fall more in love each day.  I want to make sure we continue to keep the excitement and fun in our relationship by trying new things and experiencing life together.

I'll leave it to that for now, but expect to share much more.