September 4, 2016

Well, here we are in September and I haven't posted forever.  It's Labor Day Weekend and I finally had a moment to breathe and think about all the neglected sites I have....  Needless to say, there has just been a lot going on the past few months. I got married, did a lot of work at our newly bought house, and started school. 

The wedding went well and just as planned, the house is coming along (so far so good), and school has been busy, but about 1000 times better than last year.  I no longer fantasize about getting into a fender bender on my way to work just so I don't have to face the students or the drama.  In general, everything is the calmest and most drama free it has been in a long time. 

I still have (of course) managed to find time for walks and photography.  Below are a few select photos from the past few months.  I didn't include the Puerto Rico trip this time, though I may create a later post for that.  Don't be confused by the mixture of watermarks.  Some are from my dedicated photography page, while others are from the photo page I have with my mother and sister.

Tiara Rae Photography
Radian Photography (Click here)

Burst of red light at Zorinsky Lake before the sun disappeared.

Balloon drifting overhead during a walk.

Champion's Run Fireworks Show

Deer siblings sticking close together

Sunset on the prairie

Busy worker bee at twilight

Purple thistle bloom

Sunset on the lake

Hazy evening along the walking paths

Curious fawns at Standing Bear Lake

June 1, 2016

Well...it has been quite a long time since I last wrote here, but it was due to extreme busyness.  There's been a lot going on in my life recently, and the train isn't stopping anytime soon....

First and foremost, I survived my first year of teaching.  My 10-month nightmare is now over, and I'm relieved to be done with that school.  I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm fairly certain that my experience everywhere else will be significantly more positive.  Below shows my classroom.  The top is how I started and the bottom is how I left it....  Bye bye, first school.  Though it was rough at times, I'm very glad I had this experience.  Everywhere else will feel relaxed and organized by comparison.

Other than completing the school year, I also had a bridal shower, in which I got lots of supplies for our new house, which he is fully moved into, and I am partially moved into.  The past several days have involved tons of painting, landscaping, and other odds and ends.  The people who lived here before were very lazy with home maintenance, so they left plenty for us to do.  However, I'm very excited that we were able to find a good starter home in this crazy west Omaha market.

Finally, the two major things still coming up are a trip to Puerto Rico and our wedding.  The trip is in five days, which terrifies me because I've been so busy with everything else that I feel very unprepared.  I have hardly THOUGHT about it, to be honest.  I need to seriously start packing so I'm not caught off guard the day before the trip.

Anyway, here are some miscellaneous pics from the past month and a half...  There may be several Puerto Rico pictures on here before long.

Giant cottonwood in Walnut Grove Park in Millard, NE

Gigantic gnarled tree near 144th and Fort I found on a walk.

Platte River State Park waterfall

A balloon floating over Standing Bear Lake's nearby neighborhoods.

Flooded dock at Standing Bear after heavy rains

This tree gets flooded every time....

An example of the hail that hit Lance and I's cars during a May hailstorm at 3 a.m.

April 11, 2016

Well...it's been nearly 2 months since I last posted here.  Since that time, things have been pretty busy.  Parent-teacher conferences, spring break, the first three weeks of fourth quarter, house-hunting, dress fittings for the wedding, and on and on.  The thing that has been occupying the most of my time recently has been surviving my last quarter of school.  However, buying a house in Omaha closer to my fiancé's current job and my future district has also been time-consuming.  It's pretty unbelievable how competitive it is around here to buy a house....  We've put in two offers so far and failed because we've been up against 3-4 other couples who are able to offer more.  It blows, and maybe right now is just not the time...  I guess only time will tell...

Anyway, spring at my current school has been hard.  The lack of motivation and behavior in the students is getting worse and morale gets lower and lower in teachers. Only six more weeks in the school year and then teachers are FREE!

The photo opportunities have been limited over the past couple months, but below I have a few pics taken this spring.

Delphinium that I have potted and placed on my porch.  My attempt at trying to raise flowers and keep them alive....

April sunset over west Omaha...

April sunset and flowering trees that can be found everywhere in the city.

The trails around Standing Bear Lake. 

The Platte River back in early March when I was home in Grand Island for the week.  

Cranes making the flight from the river to the cornfields to feed early in the morning.

More cranes flying past the sunrise.

Goofy duck showing off at Stuhr Museum.

Torturing my dog...

The first bluebird I've ever seen in the wild.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to turn around for a better picture.

Teepee poles leaning against a tree for winter at Stuhr Museum.

February 20, 2016

Howdy!

It's been over a month since my last post, which is mostly due to extreme busyness at the start of the semester.  Since I last wrote, classes in the new semester got rolling again, I applied for tons of jobs, interviewed for a job, GOT a job, and now my fiancé and I are looking for houses.

I won't be specific enough to say which school I currently work for or which one I am going to, but I will say that it's just been a very rough year at a school that isn't a good fit.  My personality is too nice, relaxed, and conflict-hating to work at a school with a plethora of discipline problems.  The first year of teaching is difficult no matter where you start your career, but this is an exceptionally hard school.  I was so overwhelmingly relieved to get in with district and school that I KNOW will be a little more relaxing on the discipline front.  Teenagers will be teenagers, but there is limit to what's acceptable.

Anyway, I had planned on leaving my current school job or no job, but it's really nice that I was able to get things out of the way so early in the hiring season.  Now that my contract is signed, my fiancé and I can start to figure out where we're going to live after we get married.  Geographically, we now have a goal and are even going to an open house tomorrow.

In terms of weather, there have been wild ups and downs since I last wrote.  It was a very cold and snowy January, and early February brought snow and a couple of snow days.  However, there has been a slow warm-up and I even went for a walk in athletic shorts yesterday.  It's been 70 degrees or a temperature close to it several days in a row.  All the snow is gone and everyone is starting to catch the spring bug...  It's just too bad that there is one full week of school and a half week+conferences left before Spring Break...

Well, I don't have much in the way of photos.  Between the cold and having so much to do, I haven't had much of a chance to get out and take pics.  The best I can do are a couple photos from a Valentine's Day trip to the zoo.

Welcome to 2016!

We've now entered the sixth year of this little blog.  This post is coming from mid-January, though it contains pictures from the beginning of the new year.

As Christmas break (sadly) drew to a close, my fiancé and I went to downtown Omaha to watch the family fireworks show.  It was incredibly cold, and we rushed back to our car only to have a crazy long wait to escape.  However, I did get a few cool pictures out of the deal, as shown below.

The following day, I made the trek to Lincoln to see a friend. It was the first time back in Lincoln since about July, so it was interesting driving by my old stomping grounds. I must admit, that sometimes I really miss living in Lincoln...  I spent six years of my life there, so on many levels it still feels much more like home than the Omaha area.

Anyway, following lunch, I continued on to Grand Island to see my family for a bit before attending my sixth and final Christmas celebration of the season at my grandparents' farm near Wood River.  It was relatively mild weather, so I went outside to try to snap a few shots.  Here are a few that I kept and edited.

Since taking these shots, life has been rather busy....  School started up again, which mean exhaustion has been commonplace.  The past couple days have been insanely cold (only 5 or so degrees as a high, with subzero windchills), so all I've done is hide out in my fiancés apartment and take unnecessarily long naps.... I think the cold will break tomorrow, but winter is nowhere near over yet....

Late December Snows

Well, we were lucky (if that's the way you think of it) to have a white Christmas this year, as well as another snow storm today.  The dusting we got before Christmas wasn't much, but it did give my fiancé, brother, sister, and me an opportunity to hit up Tornado Hill in Grand Island.   Needless to say, many foolhardy decisions were made.  I'm just now recovering from some of the bruises I received as a result of sled crashes on Christmas Eve.

Sledding at Tornado Hill

The railroad tracks at Genoa, Ne behind my grandparents' house

The holidays themselves weren't too horrible for travel, though there were some moments of ice or sleet.  The real traffic hazard was today (December 28) in which Omaha received about 3-4 inches of snow over the course of the day.   I ventured out briefly to take some pictures and walk around, and the roads were a bit slick and traction was difficult.  I only took the risk because I felt claustrophobic and bored at my apartment.  My fiancé was snowed in at his apartment, I was snowed in at mine, and my brother (roommate) is still back at my parents' house.  I used to live this way all the time with a long distance relationship and no roommate, but I'm not used to being 100% alone anymore.  I probably could have been productive and gotten some lesson planning done, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I still have a week until school starts and I'm trying to spend as little time as possible thinking about it.

Anyway, here's one photo below from my little excursion.  I was really hoping to catch some deer out and about, but all I saw were some fairly tame wild turkeys.

Mid-December

Well, it has been very hectic indeed recently...  It has been go, go, go ever since coming back from Thanksgiving break at school.  Kids are bouncing off the walls and I think both teachers and students alike are ready for Christmas.  With all of the action, it's been hard to do too much photography, though I was able to go downtown for a few pictures of the Christmas lights.

All in all, I'm hoping for some time to actually wedding plan and actually sleep coming up after break.  The wedding is close to six months away and much still needs to be done.  There has just been absolutely no time with the craziness at school...