Graduation Gifts for Friends

This week is graduation week at The US Air Force Academy! It's a week I've been waiting for for FIVE years!

Tomorrow is commissioning, where the cadets have their cadet rank taken of of their shoulders and pin on 2nd Lieutenant. Wednesday is the actual graduation day, complete with 5+ hours inside Falcon Stadium and a performance by the Thunderbirds!

It'll be an exciting week for sure, and there won't be much downtime. Because of that, we got together with Dan's (and mine now) closest cadet friends to all celebrate and spend time together one last time before they all head off to different bases this summer.

Since I have gotten to know them so well over the years, I wanted to give them something personal as a "YAY, CONGRATS; YOU MADE IT THROUGH USAFA" gift. After much deliberation, I decided on making them a collage with photos of all of them together. I made four identical collages, one for Dan, one for Aaron, one for Lindsey, and one for Kaylon! I am so proud of all of their hard work, and they will be amazing officers in the Air Force for years to come.

These four have been together since they were in the same squadron at the USAFA Prep School from 2009 to 2010. They have an amazing friendship, and I'm super sad that we won't be near ANY of them after this week. I will miss them for sure, but we'll definitely visit!

• Have you ever been blessed with AMAZING friends at a base?
• Any tips for staying in touch regularly?

Another School Year Bites the Dust

Yesterday was my last day teaching at the school my heart will forever be with.

I spent my last two years teaching retained 8th graders. They came to us SUPER low. Our job is to get them up to grade level so they are ready for high school.

That wasn't the toughest part of the job, though. Loving on these kids and trying to get them where they need to be socially was.

Most of them threw out language like a sailor and didn't know how to be socially appropriate for their age.

Those kids are who my heart is with. Those are the kids I long to work with. Those are the kids who need help the most, and those are the ones who NEED it and DESERVE it the most.

I will be hard-pressed to find another school that fits me better, but maybe one day I will.

Because I am leaving to move to Ohio with my soon-to-be hubby, I wanted to make something special for my co-workers. They are amazing, and I will miss them a lot!

I had our awesome students come up with as many adjectives as they could think of to describe each staff member a few weeks ago. They knew it was a big secret for a gift for the staff members, so they kept their mouths shut for TWO FULL WEEKS. I was so impressed, and the adjectives they came up with were pretty stellar as well.

I blurred out the school name, but you get the idea.

That one is mine. My name changed ONE WEEK from today! Ahh!

• What was your favorite job ever?
• Do you hate leaving a job when you move too?

Honeymooning Isn't Good for Blogging

As my last post stated, I am getting married NEXT FRIDAY! We will be leaving shortly after for a long drive to drop our cats off with a family member. Then, we're heading to a friend's wedding in another state, and finally, we leave for our HONEYMOON!

After graduation from the Academy, fresh 2nd Lieutenants get 60 days free from all military duty, and we are definitely living it up during that time!

We'll be exploring many different European countries this summer (and even a special surprise - for one week, I have NO IDEA what we're doing or where we'll be, and I can't wait to see what my handsome man picked out for us!)

Due to being out of the country, I will not be blogging... but please don't leave me! I'll be back at the end of July and will be posting regularly again. Hang in there with me... and I MAY schedule some posts for this summer so I'm not just falling off the face of the earth.

• Have you ever been to Europe?
• What's your favorite place to visit?
• Where did you go on your honeymoon?

A Wife Next Week

Is this real life? My wedding is NEXT WEEK. Oh my gosh. I am thrilled, elated, and SOOOOO happy!

We have waited for five long years while Cadet Lovemuffin has been at the Air Force Academy.

You see, they are not allowed to have dependents (be married) while at the Academy... OR live off base!

We are SUPER excited to finally be "normal" soon. Living together will be amazing. Being able to call him my husband will be wonderful. Spending lots of quality time with him this summer will be fabulous.

I simply cannot wait to be his wife! Next Friday will be here before we know it!

Any last minute suggestions for not being overly anxious the night before? I want to be able to get a good night of sleep!

Making a Cookbook

Once upon a time, I wanted to make a recipe book. It was my senior year of college, and I tried. I really did. I used a plain white binder, Microsoft Word, and my cheap printer, which printed black as gray and really light colors.

That was in 2010.

Now, I REALLY want to make a nice one. I have so much on my plate right now with the end of the school year wrapping up, though. I am making the yearbook for my 8th graders and a big slide show (plus 30 copies on DVD) to be played at their ceremony. OH - and my wedding is a week after school gets out, so I'm crazy busy doing last minute planning for that too. I probably shouldn't even be spending time blogging. Oops.

That said, I have BIG PLANS for making this recipe book once we move to Ohio after our honeymoon and get unpacked. It may be mid-August before I actually get to begin, but I'm excited. I am planning what I want it to look like right now since I can't find any I LOVE on Etsy. I want a fabric covered binder with lots of categories inside with BIG tabs that make it easy to find what I want. I want to create a template for my recipes to be typed into so they are uniform. Maybe I'll even sell my creation in my Etsy shop if I like the finished product enough!

For now, though, I'll have to just daydream abut this recipe binder and continue organizing my recipes when I have a spare minute here and there.

• Have you ever made a recipe book?
• How did you do it?
• Or do you just keep your recipes stored on the computer?