the Hawks!

These lil guys and girls are the Hawks:) they're the team Ryan's coaching and I'm helping him with. Alot of these kids go to the school i work at, so it is pretty neat getting the chance out of school to get to know them. They play so hard, and have impressed us so much by yheir perseverance! I love having the afternoons playing soccer with them. I'm so proud of my husband's coaching too! He's a great coach!

Peyton Manning Gamboa

I miss him.

Favorite quotes from the first week of school...

3rd Graders:

"Are you London Tipton from that Disney Show?!"

"No, I'm Ms. Kristine Brandenberger."

"No, you're LONDON TIPTON!!!!!! and you're just pretending not to be, so you can live a normal life!!!"

"No....I'm not her...but...*thinks about it.* YAY ME!!!"

"you ARE LONDON Tipton!!!!! Its London Tipton!!!!! AAAAAHHH!!!!"

***

"Are you a cheerleader?"

"No...I'm one of your teachers."

"you ARE?! Are you in High school?"

"No...I'm done with highschool."

"Are you in college?"

"No, I'm done with college."

"You ARE?! how old ARE you!?!"

"guess."

"hmm...15?"

*sigh*

***

Cristal: I'm tired of training...just give me the gives and let me teach 'em stuff! I'll teach 'em what they needa know!"

hahahah....ok, now for the Kindergarteners:

"Ok, boys and girls, what is round?"

"A Circle."

"Good! What do we see in the classroom that's round?"

"My Teacher!!!!!!!!!!" (who was sitting at the next table)

"Your teacher?"

"yeah, her head is SO round!"

a child's faith...

my sweet little man, clark, asked Jesus into his heart this month. Praise God for this new life in Christ!:)

After a great first day of work...

i thought today would be interesting after i was driving happily to school my first day of work and a cop pulled me over. turns out there needed to be a license plate in front of my car. anyways, after that i happily went back to driving to work and got there, and started a wonderful day of training! can't wait to start on my own!

the kids were wonderful and the teachers and staff were so welcoming. I am really impressed with the Storm Lake public school...they are very concerned with each individual child's needs-and there are 749 children in the school. I wouldn't have a problem sending my kids to this school.

I went out today and bought some new flats, which i'm in love with:) I went to the one place to shop in town, The Buckle, and bought them. Kinda pricey, but i needed them so we got them:) I'm really quite excited to have some new shoes.

I filled out the paperwork for health insurance, which is one of the best benefits of the job. It's fully paid for me, with a 25 dollar co-pay...its excellent for our budget! We're pretty happy with that blessing.

I got home from this wonderfully filled day, and found the surprise of flowers and a funny certificate that melted my heart when i saw it:) Ryan made it out for me, which made me laugh, and I covered him in hugs and kisses:). on the side is a note that says, "Don't worry about dinner. I'm taking care of it. Love, Ryan." Isn't he just great?:)

To top it off, I received letters from the sweet sweet kids from the Vinnitsa Orphanage in Ukraine. Letters that told me they missed me, loved me, and wanted to see me and my husband soon. Needless to say, i burst into happy tears, and my heart was about to jump right out with happiness. My husband can testify that I have missed the smiling faces alot this past summer.

Well, thatz a little bit about my day. started off kinda weird, but ended in a great way. Tonite is date night with Ryan-i always look forward to our date night each week! Off to spend the rest of the evening with him!

closeup view...hahah, he makes me smile:)

It fell into my lap.

I wasn't expecting it.

I didn't apply for it.

I was just enjoying substituting whenever it was needed.

But God provides...

Today i got offered a full time job.

Was interviewed and offered a job on the spot.

To be an English Language Learning Instructor for all the grades at school.

Teaching phonics, visual phonics, and instructional reading.

They told me they have been watching me and that I was a perfect fit.

That my resume was the most interesting they've ever read!

That they were prepared to offer me a job for whenever I was available.

I start full time on Monday!!!!!

God is Amazing. Ryan and I prayed for provision.

This job has benefits that we needed.

We prayed for guidance for a way to get to know families.

God opened a door through the public school system.

We're stepping right through it.

Ashley's 14!!!!

(photo of the shoes Ryan and I got her for her bday!:))

My lil sister Ashley is 14!!! I can't believe she's already 14. In the busyness of the week, I didn't get the chance to blog about her until today. I wish i could be there to celebrate this week. She's in HIGH SCHOOL. how weird is that? She's always been my miracle baby sister, the one I prayed for for five years until God blessed our family with her. She's one of my best friends, and the best little sister I could ask for. I love our dates and our talks and the nights we get to stay up late together. Miss you ashley, and I can't wait to see you when you come visit me!

feeling more like home...

wow. am i actually going to say it? yes, i am...weirdly enough, Storm Lake is beginning to feel like home. Living with my husband and seeing him as my own family is becoming more real to me, and I can't even imagine life without him. My apartment here is feeling more and more cozy, and welcoming to come home to, and the town is starting to grow on me. weird huh?

this past week was a welcome change to the past couple weeks. I spent most of my time at a girl, Sarah's, house. She just had triplets and needed help keeping the newborns happy, feeding them, and changing their lil poop catchers. i spent about 3 and 1/2 days over there just hanging out with her, talking, watching tv, and holding 6 month old triplets. so cute.

I also spent the week subbing for the first time at the elementary school. There is a brand new HUGE elementary school with like 700 kids (and constantly growing), and there are like 8 kindergarten classrooms with like 23 kids each. I spent a day with the kindergarten class, and that was a blast! i got a bunch of hugs, and had fun playing learning games, and practicing handwriting, and reading a bunch of stories. another day, i spent at the preschool classroom subbing with special needs children. some were autistic, some had behavioral problems, down syndrome, etc. i had never worked with special needs kids, so that was a different experience, but enjoyable as well. I'm excited to keep this subbing thing going. Right now, I'm subbing for TA's (IA's here in iowa, Instructional Assistants), but Ryan and I have thought about me getting a substitute teacher authorization, so i can actually substitute teach. that'd be awesome:) we're working on getting that worked out.

it's been a good week, and more to come next week. Today was great, we rested this morning, since it felt like we had been on the go most of last week. We bought a bed!!! yay!!! We've been sleeping on a twin size mattress, which has been cozy and nice and all, but haha, we're ready to move on to a bigger and better, off the floor bed. We got a great cozy queen, so we're pumped to get it in on tuesday. after that we took a nice long bike ride. it was weird cuz we ended up riding on a hughway with cars that didn't quite know what to do with bikers on the side of the road. When I saw three horses grazing, and couldn't see any buildings or the lake, i realized we had left Storm Lake and were on our way elsewhere. Dirt rodes, horses, crop fields, and dust, we went WAY out of Stormlake.

After all that, we took a nice relaxing night to see the movie Julia and Julia...its been an amazingly wonderful day with Ryan...i love thinking I have the rest of my life with this boy!

Kindergarteners like to talk alot...

Today was my first day as an Instructional Assistant at the Storm Lake Public School. The three elementary schools are all in one big brand new school building. It's huge and really really nice. I wouldn't haven't a problem sending my kids to that school, its a really good one. I had a GREAT time with the kindergarten class, and left there already feeling attached to the kids. That one class room totally reflected how sad the poverty level is here. Some of those kids came to school with toes sticking out of their tiny shoes, worn down and way to small, shirts filthy, and some kids go to school in all their brand name clothing. It was kinda sad to see that, but it was cool to be a part of their lives at least this one day. The kids left today with huge hugs for me, and asking me if I would be back tomorrow. I hope I get another call to sub tomorrow morning, I'd love it!