Whoever said cooking was easy...lied

So I now understand why so many families don't cook full blown meals every day of the week.... unless your a rock star and I haven't exactly achieved rock star status yet, but here was my first attempt!!

While I was home over the weekend Andrew's mom gave me one of her cookbooks. It was a light eating cook book which took everyday favorite meals and made them low calorie and low fat. Andrew and I were so excited to try them that we immediately went through the book and marked all our pages of new recipes we wanted to try. The first one on the list, Andrews favorite .. Shepherd's Pie :)

So I gathered all my ingredients when I made my trip to the grocery store earlier this week so when I came home I was ready to start preparing the food. So 45 minutes later I am finally done cutting the carrots, onions and potatoes. Another 30 minutes later I am done cooking the meat, making gravy, and mashing the potatoes and everything is set in the pan. Finally after another 45 minutes dinner is out of the oven...whew finally light at the end of the tunnel!

However the final product looked pretty decent and tasted even better. If you want to try it check it out at Taste of Home- Shepherd's Pie... you wont be disappointed :)

I do understand though now why people choose to use more can goods and boxed items than making things completely from scratch but I can definitely taste the difference..

What a weekend

So we had a pretty eventful weekend at the Tucker house. Our plan was to originally just hang out at home and I was going to a friends bridal shower but oh did that change. At about 4pm on Friday Andrew and I decided to make the spontaneous trip home to Charlotte for the weekend. Before you ask no, we weren't worried the hurricane was going to blow our house away or anything but it never fails that for any storm that comes through ( snow, rain, tornadoes...) we LOOSE POWER and are usually the only ones in the entire county so in that aspect is the only time I absolutely hate our apartment complex. So we weighed are options and decided the gas and the 3 hour drive home were well worth spending the weekend with power.

So off we went and to say the least we had an amazing but super packed fun filled weekend! On Saturday it was Andrews nephews first middle school football games so we went and from the temperature and weather in Charlotte you wouldn't have even know that a hurricane was taking over the eastern part of the state. It was a hot and sticky 90+ degrees outside! In between the games I went to lunch with my parents and sister and it was nice. I felt like I haven't had the chance to see them all togetherr since the wedding!!!

After the games are done we got to go out to eat with Andrews whole family for his dad's birthday... we ate mexican ( our fave)! It was so nice to see them all together but Andrew and I laughed as we left as we were sure the whole resturant probably clapped when we left cause we were so loud, but what can I say we all love to talk!!

Then I went to my favorite place in all of Charlotte with Andrew, Cassandra, Dylan( my sister and her BF) and Andrews mom and sister... the new and improved TCBY. I remember when I was in high school my sister and I used to go every day while we were at the pool but then they closed. Well now they have opened back up in a few new locations with some amazing changes...

They are now one of the frozen yogurt bars and its by far the best and I have to go everytime I am home. I made to date my favorite creation and I will share in case you ever get the chance to go:

White Chocolate Mouse Yogurt

Chocolate Chips

Strawberries

= 

tasting just like White Choclate/ Choclate Covered Strawberries

Finally Sunday came and it was time for us to come home. We had such a great weekend with our family and it was much needed but it was time to come back home and get ready for our work week... We did discover that we have the busiest next few moths with tons of trip and it will start with our trip next weekend with my family

DIY.... on a budget :)

So now that we are really settled in with all our newleywed gifts we discovered that we own every kitchen gadet know to man. I mean seriously we could open a resturant!! But after all the cleaning and organizing I discovered that we had almost no home decor things. So when I talked to Andrew about it he said he loves bare walls cause we are saving money so I knew I had to do something quick but on a teacher and graduate student budget.. I had to be realistic!

 I began following the blog Frugal Home Ideas and this lady is a genius! She had so much fun stuff and I knew I could get some fun decor Ideas from here on a cheap budget and that would make Andrew and myself both satisfied.

So my first step was to figure out where in our house I wanted to start first and then I decided since when you walk in the front door the first thing you see is the living room, I would start there. We have a huge empty space on the wall above our futon that before looked like this...

I love the idea of three panel wall canvases and after looking online I realized this would cost about 75 - 150 dollars and that was not okay with me.  I searched some more on the DIY blogs and found this Crazy Easy Wall Art and I was in love instantly. 

So here is what you need:

Canvas ( I used 3 ) - 12.99

High quality acrylic paint: 10.99

Stamp: 2.99

and then you get this

I think for my first DIY project its a pretty decent result and can't wait to try out my next project soon!

A day of firsts....

So this week was a week of first... first week at my new job, first time I've been a teacher at Meet the Teacher, first day with students and then the dreaded first day of the semester for me. How ever Andrew did buy me flowers this week to help celebrate all my firsts :)

 It's amazing how I am so excited to be in a school and see my new students but then at the same time I am dreading the same process where I become the student. I have taken a lot of time to think lately and am trying to count my blessings, I am so grateful to have parents that are putting me through college and that I am going to have a wonderful education. There are so many people who don't get that opportunity.

I work at a private school now and that is what I hope my students will realize one day. Their parent's are paying more than I pay for college tuition for them to attend elementary school. But I will give it to them there is something to say about an education you pay for and that you will always get the best but just from the first day meeting them they are amazing well behaved children and I couldn't be more excited to work with them. The curriculum at my school is amazing. They work on a one+ program that educates students on review material for the grade level they are in and teaching the new material for the next grade. The schools whole focus is to provide the students with an outstanding eduction and the staff that I have met at Chesterbrook so far definitely holds up to those standards..

Teacher workdays were fun. Here is some before and after pictures from my classroom :)

The corner by the door before and after

Side by our Teacher Desks before and after

Social Studies Corner before and after

The Science corner before and after

Our classroom is awesome and the perfect size for our 19 students. Its such a great number and they get so much one on one time since there are two of us :) Tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to our weekend.

Welcome to my life

Well so many things have change for me this summer.. 

I got married. It's the most amazing thing, people ask me all the time if I feel different and I can't pin point a certain thing but all I know is I am so happy

We had the best wedding party in the world. I couldn't imagine anyone else with us that day and I love them all :)

We traveled to Jamaica for our honeymoon but my camera broke right before we left so all we have are lame phone pictures but amazing memories :) 

Our First Night :)

The Steel Drum Band.. it was awesome

Our Private Beach Cabana

Main Pool

The Private Pool at our Villa :)

We had a few more get aways this summer

 One Ohio to watch Andrews best friend get married in one of the most amazing museums.. The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. It was an old train station it was so fun to explore

Andrew and I touring the museum

Seth and Sara cutting the cake

The museum :)

And of course no summer is complete with out a few trips to the beach :)

I have also switched jobs. I was previous a manager at 

in Cary, NC and while I loved it I was ready to get back into something with kids. I will have to say I am signing back up for a membership there and if you are ever looking for an amazing spray tan or place to tan in general this is the place to go.

But with all that I am excited to start my new position in the 4th grade at Chesterbrook Academy :)

So that is my summer in a nutshell. I start teacher workdays Monday, Meet the Teacher Wednesday and we get our students on Thursday. I know my life is going to continue to change so I wanted to start this just to have a little space to be me :)