What I Want My Students to Know

Teaching is by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It is also the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Today, I had a couple of situations where I had to go out of my way, out of my job description, to get a student the help that he/she needed. I was thinking about this my whole (hour long if there's no traffic) drive home. 
I want my students (and their parent/guardian) to know that I am going to advocate for them.  I want to be known as a teacher who cares so immensely about her students.  I hope that my students know that I want what is best for them.  I hope they know that I love them. 
I pray for these students. I pray that they will know how cared for they are.  I pray that they will see Jesus through me. 
I find myself thinking about them when I'm doing things outside of school.  Do they have someone at home who can provide for them?  Did they get dinner tonight?  Did somebody pay the electric bill so they have A/C at their house? 
My heart is just so heavy with these thoughts lately. I hope that my students understand where I am coming from and why I am the way I am. I'm tough on my students because I care so much. 
I want my students to remember me as the teacher who made a difference in their lives. 

Life Lately (part 2)

What a crazy couple of months it has been since I have written. We have moved, unpacked (kinda...), got a new kitten, started the new school year, and had a hospital stay.  I am so thankful for everyone who helped us with the move! We are so blessed to have people who care about us in our lives. We still have some things in boxes, but I think I will get to those eventually  soon. :) Billy is the newest Abernathy. He is such a feisty little thing. He definitely knows how to get on our nerves, but he makes up for it by being extra cute. He is our indoor/outdoor kitty. Right now, he only hunts grasshoppers, but I'm hoping he will graduate to larger prey. 

I started back at Hutcheson JH this fall. It's amazing what a difference a year can make in terms of teaching experience. I learned so many different things last year and changed a lot of my procedures and how I run my classroom. It also helps that I don't have any "double block" classes. I had to get used to teaching everything I needed to cover in 45 minutes instead of 90 minutes. I love my students so much already. They are interested in learning and I can tell that they care about school. Last year, I did not love my job. I dreaded going to work every day. This year is such a different story. I love teaching, again! 

About a week ago, Thomas started complaining that his stomach hurt on the right side. He said he thought it might be appendicitis, but decided to wait and see if it got better. On Tuesday, he decided to make a doctors appointment. They couldn't seem him until Wednesday afternoon. When he went to the doctor, she told him to go ahead and go to the ER. (He calls me at this point and tells me that he is going to the ER. I'm in 7th period, trying not to panic) I decided to stay at school and get a little bit of grading done while he was still waiting to be seen by the doctor at the ER. When I got to the hospital, he had seen the doctor and had some blood work done. I went to get dinner and when I came back, they had just done a CT scan. The scan revealed that Thomas was right. It was appendicitis.

Wednesday night he had the appendectomy. I stayed the night at the hospital. The couch/bed/thing I slept on was not super comfy, but I was so glad that Thomas was okay. We got to go home Thursday evening. Everyone at Hutch was so great about helping me out with everything while I was out. I am so thankful to have an awesome team!!

Thomas is still recovering, but he is doing really well overall! Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes! 

Moving!

It has been a while since I have written. Since my last post, we have closed on our house, moved a few things in, and are getting ready to make the final move to the new house! We initially planned on tearing up the linoleum in the kitchen and staining the concrete ourselves, but it proved to be too tedious of a task for just us to do. We decided to hire a contractor to tear up the linoleum and do an acid stain. The first contractor I contacted seemed like a nice guy who would be able to do what we wanted, within our budget, and on time. This was definitely not the case. When I contacted him, he said he could start in about 2 weeks. 2 weeks later, he said he could start in about 2 weeks... You see why we changed contractors?! I ended up calling the guy who did my parents' remodel and we started the kitchen remodel last Thursday. When the linoleum was torn up, we found out that staining the concrete wasn't going to be the best option for us. We decided that tile would be better and would last longer. I found some awesome tile at Lowe's that looks kind of like stained concrete! Here is a picture from yesterday: 

We are just waiting to have the tile grouted and then we can finish moving everything! I am so happy that we are going to finally be in OUR home! 

One Year!

It has been a whole year since I married the love of my life! I honestly can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Everyone said it would go fast and it definitely did. We have had an amazing first year of marriage. Here a just a few pictures of our first year as husband and wife! <3

In the car, right after the ceremony!

Moody Gardens in Galveston

 Our tickets

 At a buddy wedding

 Same wedding, different picture

 Another buddy wedding

 Being goofy

Start of my big girl career

 Thomas graduated!!

 Happiness is being married to your best friend

 All the Abernathy animals

Fish pond where he proposed! We had to stop and take a picture last time we were in College Station. I am just so happy to be married to my best friend. There is absolutely nobody else I would want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you, bee! 

#jessandtombuyahouse

Yep... You read that right! We're buying a house! I haven't really posted much about it in case something fell through or we didn't end up getting this house, but everything seems to be progressing exactly how it should be! Praise the LORD!! I'll just give a little recap of how we found this house and a few other details. We knew that we didn't want to be in our rent house for more than a year. We didn't like the thought of paying so much to live in a house that wasn't ours. We love our house right now, but we wanted something that is ours. We wanted a place that we could paint and change the cabinet colors if we wanted. We also wanted to get out of Mansfield. Mansfield is great and will always be my home, but Tom and I are ready to make a home in another town.  I started talking with my Realtor friend, Brenda, at the beginning of the year. I told her the things we were looking for in a home and some places that we saw ourselves living. I began receiving links to homes for sale in Burleson, Midlothian, Waxahachie, and (yes...) some Mansfield. I would occasionally send Tom links to the houses I liked and he would tell me his opinion on them. Over Spring Break, my sister and I went with Brenda to look at four houses. Three of the houses were great and I liked things about all of them. The fourth house was terrible. I walked in and immediately walked out. That weekend, Tom and I were going to look at the three houses again, but never got around to it.  A couple of weeks passed and a house that I liked popped up in my email. I sent it to Tom and told him that it also had some land (something we both wanted). It was about 30 minutes away from where we are now. Both of us agreed that it was a location we were happy with. I set up an appointment with Brenda to see the house on April 6. As soon as we walked in the house, I knew it was a place I could see myself raising a family. Tom told me that he felt the same way. We walked through the house and fell in love. The next day we made an offer. By the end of the day, the sellers had accepted our offer and we started the loan process. Everything happened so incredibly fast! Our inspection was last Saturday. I was very concerned about this, just because I am a worrier. Everything was fine, though, and God reassured me that this is where we are supposed to be. Right now, we are in the "pending" stage. The mortgage company just ordered the appraisal and then we will continue with the extremely long loan process.  We will hopefully close the week after our first wedding anniversary!   I am so thankful for Brenda. She has been so helpful and selfless during this whole process. She has driven checks all over the place. She has set up appointments. She has answered all of our questions and made us feel completely at ease.  If you're on Instagram or Twitter follow me (@jessab12) and be looking for house pictures under the hashtag: #jessandtombuyahouse 

The field of wildflowers in our backyard! 

Meet Moxxi!

This is Moxxi! She came to be part of our family about 2 weeks ago. One of the assistant principals at school found her outside the school and decided to bring her inside and clean her up. I heard a rumor that there was a puppy in the school and immediately went in search of her! When I saw her, I could not believe how cute she was! I sent a picture to Thomas asking if he wanted a new dog. His response: "duh." 

A student had expressed interest in taking the unnamed puppy home, saying that her parents said it was okay. I told the teacher who was housing her that I would take the puppy if that fell through. After school, I saw the student who was going to take the puppy home and she told me that her mom said "nope!" I found a ribbon, tied it around the dogs neck and took her outside before loading her in my car.

When we got home, Barli was completely unsure about this new dog! The new puppy was afraid and didn't want to be away from me. Libby, needless to say, stayed WAY far away! When Thomas got home from work, we started brainstorming names for "Puppy Number 2." We settled on Moxxi.

The next morning, I took Moxxi to the vet to have her checked out and get her first set of shots. They told me she was about 12 weeks old and she weighed 16 pounds. She's been a part of our family for almost 3 weeks now. I think Barli is loving having someone to play with while we are at work. They always come inside when we get home and crash on the couch! I'm so glad that I brought home that sweet puppy <3 

Oceans

"Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)"

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine

I love this song, y'all! It has really comforted me recently. School has been rough, but I need to remember to rest in Christ!! 

Adios 2013!

Hey y'all! Happy 2014! I have a hard time grasping the fact that it is already 2014. 2013 absolutely flew by. I thought that I would post some highlights from 2013 so I won't forget them!

• In February Tom and I adopted Barli.
• On April 12 we celebrated our 7 year anniversary.
• On May 18 we got married and had a fabulous time celebrating with family and friends.
• In June I was hired to teach 8th grade math in Arlington.
• In July we were approved to rent a house in Mansfield.
• In August we moved into the house and Tom graduated from A&M.
• Later in August I started teaching!
• In September Tom started his job at Polk Mechanical.
• On September 11 Barli had her leg amputated.
• Throughout the fall we went to a few Texas A&M Football games (Rice, Vanderbilt, UTEP)
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Mansfield.
• Christmas day we ate lunch at an Asian buffet

We have been so incredibly blessed this year. We are so looking forward to see what 2014 has in store for us. I have absolutely loved having these 2 weeks off of work. I definitely needed to have this time to reflect on the first semester of school and what I need to do differently in order to be the most effective teacher I can be during the second semester. Teaching has been a completely different experience than I was expecting. Please continue to pray for me during this second semester. I appreciate it, y'all!