Monday, Monday... can't help that day...

Mondays exhaust me. I suppose its because its the first day back after the weekend, or if its because Mondays are my "long" days - Monday, Wednesday & Friday actually are my long days. Teaching 7 different classes back to back takes its toll on my brain and in addition to being physically exhausted, I'm more mentally exhausted than anything else. I'm a bear on Mondays. Don't poke me.

All things wedding...

Our wedding is less than a month away... about 3 1/2 weeks to be more precise. I've learned alot about this business... like... invitations. There are a ton of websites and companies and people who put a lot of time and effort (and lets be honest), money, into designing websites that are so mainstream, so common that they are found on design sites where you can customize them by plugging in your own information and it spits out a digitized copy. This works for some people. I've never been a conventional sort of person, so I wasn't happy with anything I found online. I decided to give my design skills a shot. I found a design I liked and unfortunately, I can't link to it because I don't remember the site... However, I changed it enough to make it more "Brooke & Charlie." There were alot I tried and didn't use - some fun ones, like this: (please do not stalk me. This is not my real wedding date nor location).

I'll post my real invitation, response card & program after the wedding... I did most of the design work myself on all of them, and I have to give a shout out to my amazing printers - Xpress Printing & Design. They were amazing to work with and very affordable! I recommend using them for ALL of your printing needs!

Oh.. goodbye 20s... and hello... 30s??

This is it... the end of my 20s. It sure has been a fun ride!

The passage of time is a weird thing, decade to decade. The last time I turned and made this transition it was from 19 to 20... teens to "not"... now its twenties to thirties...

In my 20s, I moved four times (to Auburn, back to Phenix City, to Arizona, back to Phenix City), changed homes five times (Auburn, PC, Arizona, PC and my own home). I graduated from college, twice. I fell in love, fell out of love, met the love of my life and got engaged.

I've been a "mom" to three furry children - Hunter, Murphy & Dodger, a "mom" to my students, too many to count or name, but each precious in their own right. I've experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. My last two years of undergrad, all four years of graduate school. Starting my career teaching at Veritas... leaving Veritas and starting Trinity. Figuring out "me"... walking in step with Christ...

I've met some amazing people in my 20s... people who have become family to me... I wish I could name them but I would wind up forgetting someone and then I would feel guilty because I forgot them. I've traveled all over the United States - from New York to California, Florida, South Carolina, Montana, Arizona, and driving across the US - Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama... I've gone to Mexico, to England and Ireland and spent time walking where the great writers of Britain walked.

I've lost people that I cared deeply about, not to death but to the passage of time and distance and figuring out about toxic people and me. I think I learned how to really pray. To *not* pray for patience because God gives you trials to make you patient. To accept that things didn't happen in my time, but in God's time. I figured out it was okay to be angry with God, and to yell at him when I didn't understand. He's the big guy... He can handle it.

I watched a student come to know Christ. I danced, and laughed, and loved, and prayed. I stopped attending my "home" church, and finally after 8 years, found a new church home. I found my courage, my strength and my backbone.

I've been on two mission trips; one for a summer and one for a week. I learned how to stand up for me, to voice my opinion when its necessary and right. I learned that the right person or people won't leave. I know how to run a cash register, and write a short story. I can't remember everything I've done or said or been through.

I know I've hurt people. Sometimes I meant to... sometimes not. Sometimes it was the result of immaturity and a complete lack of understanding of what or how to do this thing called life. I regret that. I've made some really bad decisions about who to allow in my life. I was stolen from. I still don't like confrontation and I get really irritated easily. I became allergic to everything it seems like -- dust, dog hair, cat hair, birch trees, grass, and my skin cells. I had asthma. I went to the ER a few times.

So many memories. So much... life. How can you cram 10 years into a single blog post? You can't. But I know its been a fun ride. I'm having trouble embracing this whole "30" thing... I can't even say it without grimacing a little. But, I'm sure that the next 10 years will be just as much fun - and probably more - than my 20s were...

I am restless. I have itchy feet (not to be confused with cold feet) that crave to travel and wander about this earth. I miss the Grand Canyon tremendously, although, I don't understand why. Maybe it is the slower pace of life, the simplicity of the Earth combined with the immediate hustle of travel and tourist. I miss its quiet beauty, the splendor and richness of the colors of the soil and dirt. I miss doing something different, something that matters in a way that is unlike anything else. I miss the people, the friendly, but wary natives, co-workers who have come to the canyon to escape. I miss the darkness, the stars. I've never seen night like that. So expansive. So tremendous. It swallows you whole. I miss the heat, the humidity, the sleet and the snow. Who would have thought it could snow in the desert? I long to go back, to visit its edges, to stand in its grandeur, to see where the Green and Colorado rivers merge, to bask in the wondrous beauty of living, breathing earth.

This picture was taken on Saturday, November 5 at Callaway Gardens. It almost breaks my heart in its quiet, simple beauty, in the contentment I can see in the expressions... its like a moment, frozen in time. This is what love looks like.

Engagement Story

Well, Charlie and I are engaged! I'm so excited to be (finally) planning our wedding! Charlie proposed on Sunday, September 5 and we've set the date for January 28, 2012! Just a short FOUR months away! YIKES!!

So it went like this...

We had decided to go up to Callaway Gardens for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and so there weren't any balloons, but we had decided to go visit the Cason Chapel and the Discovery Center, because we were thinking about having our (hypothetical) ceremony & reception there. Jenny & Ricky Strickland, our friends, came with us. We had a nice lunch at the Mountain Creek Inn Restaurant and set off for the Chapel a short while later.

When we got to the chapel, there was an organ concert in progress. We all sat on the back row and eventually, well, I had to pee. (Side note: I drank like 5 glasses of water during lunch and my bladder is the size of a pea...). I whispered this to Charlie, and he was thinking oh crap, I've got to do this quick, fast, and in a hurry because to leave to let me potty & come back would have been awkward. So, he gets up and goes over to the organist and asks her if its okay (while she's taking a break) that he propose to his girlfriend.

Then, he calls me up on the stage to "take a picture"

This is our "before" pic...

Then, he turned me to him and kissed me, and said something about how he loved me and that he was so glad God brought us together (I really don't remember what he said...) and then, he got down on one knee, pulled out this truly gorgeous, perfect ring and asked me to marry him!

"Will you marry me?"

This is where he is attempting to put the ring on my middle finger, instead of my ring finger... :)

So happy! (Notice, I'm checking out my finger... while he's saying "yes! I got the girl!"

One of our "after" pictures!

I'm really excited about our big day! You can find out information & details on our wedding web page (Charlie thinks its dorky, but I don't care!) at: Charles & Brooke

See? This is our "before" shot....

I am really missing the Grand Canyon tonight. Something in its quietness and unsurpassing beauty... the stillness of the air calls to me tonight. The canyon was always a place to slow down and to be still. It's where I could see the hand of God in the creation laid out before me, in the people to come to my register and the coworkers who would become family. Being still, listening to the quiet. Sometimes, I forget that stillness, that slowness of pace.

I feel as if from the moment my feet hit the floor, I'm on the go, always moving, always thinking, always doing. Never just simply being. I forget to just simply be Brooke. Life moves at such a fast pace - at least in my world. There is a great difference in 12 kids and 17. It's just simply more. I don't know how principals of large schools do it - how they remain in the students lives but still able to do their jobs at the same time. This is my worry. I can feel myself distancing from the students, because I can't do both jobs - teacher and administrator - 100%. And that's unfair. But its a fast pace, all the time.

I long for the stillness of the canyon, the quiet evenings with stars that explode out of the sky. I long for the air, the smell, the pace of it all.