it's official

I'll be teaching kindergarten at harvest christian academy next year!

one of the best things about moving around the last couple years is to see God's perfect plan for us come together. the way the Lord opened doors and moved mountains for us when we moved to chattanooga changed the way that i will trust him for the rest of my life. he is SO worthy of our trust! his plan is so perfect!



once again, this job was a total God-thing.
totally, completely God.
it's so fun to watch him move!
selfishly though, i'm really glad that it all happened in may this year instead of the end of july like last year :)

long story short, we emailed my resume - my totally non-christianese, public school resume - to a family friend's son, whom we have yet to meet, who ended up working at a ginormous church - harvest bible chapel - that has 2 schools. we didn't expect anything and kinda forgot all about it. i got a call from the principal a couple weeks later, asking me to apply! so in just a few days i filled out the application, sent it back, was asked in for an interview the next week, flew up to chicago for the first time, stayed with the superintendent, interviewed, taught centers to a kindergarten class and a rock lesson to 2/3rd graders, toured the schools, went out to eat with the principal and superintendent and their spouses, visited the church, met several families that go to the school, and felt really good about it all.

and then i heard nothing for 3 and a half weeks. ahhhh!

finally i heard that in those 3 weeks, they actually closed the school where i interviewed BUT they still had a kindergarten spot {my very favorite grade} open for me at the other campus!

i kept asking james 'why did they want to interview me? with 13,000 church members who already live in Illinois, why did they want to fly me up to interview? what did they see in just a resume? why did they go to all the trouble with me?' james finally said the obvious - it was just God!

so i'm completely thrilled to be back in kindergarten and excited to teach at a christian school for the first time!

and definitely excited to not be sending out resumes and making awkward phone calls all summer, begging for a job.

o happy day.

chattanooga loves

mountain biking and pretty trails





rembrandt's



pretty fall colors



driving across the bridge to work



downtown



wally's and their awesome home cooked meals that were just 2 blocks away from our house



$3 movies cause who really cares if they're a little bit older - they're $3!



joy and jason
and our pizza nights. and late night cookies. and sundays. and meeting for supper when i'm getting out of cooking. and visiting churches. and finding a church.
and introducing ourselves at church as "james, jessica, joy, and jason" because it just always made people smile.

and these sweet girls

i really can't say enough. just that we feel totally blessed with their sweet friendship.

cause only amazing friends volunteer for this



normal park



and the awesome girls that i got to work with. i couldn't have picked better girls. such a huge, amazing, ginormous blessing to walk into.




talking marriage with these guys

and laughing a lot.



a classy cici's pizza (cause you can't beat a $4 pizza buffet, although the classiness of this particular one did take out all the entertainment value...)

richmont



cute 2nd graders




the mountain views




and the view from my classroom



exploring



not having much apt to clean :)


lots of snow days




casey



and our adventures to the mountain opry



and did i mention the views?



but definitely the thing we loved the most and that we'll miss the most is the sweet friends we made.
because it's always the people that make the place.

one last look

so i should say, i moved so much stuff out of these pictures that james said it's not really a good representation of how we actually lived but, come on, when you live in 500 sq feet, there's just gonna be a miter saw hanging out in the living room with a bike or 2. we really loved our little apartment and have great memories of chattanooga!

and we're back

We've officially moved back to MS for the summer! I only cried for about 30 miles while leaving chattanooga and we're excited to spend lots of time with sweet family and friends before making the long treck to chicagoland at the end of july.

Yay for summer!

dinosaurs and beyond

so our 4th nine weeks exhibit is up and ready! we've been learning all about dinosaurs and beyond, soooo

welcome to our paleontology dig!


here's our dig sites all set up. we really did get to go dig for fossils this year, behind waffle house, no less. it was quite exciting.

our dinosaur timeline and the different landscapes with each. i felt like i was about 2 days ahead of the kids on learning these :)




travel journals! here's where we recorded all that we learned about dinosaurs

cave drawings

and brochures to inform people all about our human footprint and how to save the planet

in spanish, our 2nd graders have been writing comic strips in spanish! so impressive!

aren't these flowers pretty?! love the creativity here


even through the craziness and rush and work, i've really enjoyed our exhibits each nine weeks. it's so fun to see how excited and proud the kids are of their work and how much they love to show it off. i'm going to miss these second graders!