4th & Final Q&A Post: Answers to questions from my former students

Today's questions come from my former students- which may or may not be obvious when you read them. ;)

For a look at the previous Q&A posts, click on the links below:

Part 1: All about Marriage

Part 2: All about Blogging

Part 3: All about My Routines

Will you return to Austin in a couple of years?
I talked about this is the last post about my routines. I don't have a set time for returning to work, but would LOVE to return to Austin Elementary when and if I do! I had seven great years there and can't imagine teaching anywhere else.

Do you ever wish you lived in a different state?
Matt and I are both homebodies. Both of our families live here and I'm not sure either one of us would like being a plane flight away from them. We have friends who have lived in various places and we joked that we like the idea of living somewhere else (California?!) and even tossed out the idea of moving somewhere random when we first got married. But the truth is, it's just not us. We're too planned to be spontaneous and too set in our routines to change all of that for a new location. But we admire people who can and do (and secretly wish we had that in us!) ;)

What is the baby's name?
Nice try. :) My kids were slightly disappointed that I would not share the name. Especially after all 90 of them swore they would not tell anyone else. ;) To be honest, I never in a million years thought that we would keep the name a secret or be deciding on it even up until this point. The planner in me figured his name would be all over everything by this point. In fact, Matt and I have loved a certain name for a long time and always imagined it would be the name of our first son. But for whatever reason, actually being pregnant made that so much more real, and neither one of us could officially name the growing babe in my belly. So we have a backup name and said we would go to the hospital and look at him... to be sure. ;) But I think we're feeling more confident about the one we've loved for so long. In less than a month, you will all know!

What sports do you want your boy to play?
Love this question. :) Probably because Matt and I have legitimately talked about this and wondered/hoped that our little guy will love sports as much as we do. When I say that neither one of us know anything about music (band, orchestra, etc.) or theater, or horse-back riding, I'm not exaggerating. So if our little guy decides to participate in one of those activities, we will have a lot to learn! If we could choose, we would love for the little man to love baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf. We also love the idea of football, but know it's so dangerous, so I guess we'll cross that bridge as we get to it. But Matt would love to play golf with his son and we both love playing tennis and watching basketball and baseball. So we shall see! (Fingers crossed?!)

Why did you choose Clemson?
You mean other than because it's the greatest place on earth?! :) ...I had prayed a LOT my junior and senior years of high school for direction on where God wanted me to spend my college years. I had asked that he would make every college tour so clear- either a direct "yes" or "no" feeling when I visited. I looked at UGA, Furman, and Clemson. I didn't feel at all like Georgia was the right place for me (and that is no knock on UGA! It just wasn't right for me and that prayer was clearly answered when I visited). Furman and Clemson I loved (South Carolina seriously has the nicest people. You think that sounds strange until you visit and realize that everyone says hi to you and smiles as you pass by- seriously such nice people), but I wasn't sure that I wanted sure that I wanted to be at a smaller school like Furman. Clemson was about 4x larger than Furman and still half the size of UGA. It also had an amazing FCA ministry, which was the organization that both Matt and I were a part of in high school. In the end, God answered my prayer pretty clearly by opening up the door for an out of state scholarship to Clemson- a significant boost I needed in order to be able to attend! And then Matt ended up at Furman, so I got to know that school and those people pretty well too. ;)

Why did you choose to be a grammar and reading teacher?
I LOVE reading, and as nerdy as it sounds, I love grammar too. The idea of inspiring (or strongly attempting to inspire) kids to love reading as much as I do drove my passion for teaching the subject. On the first day of class every year, I would ask the kids to be completely honest and share a thumbs up, thumbs sideways, or thumbs down to show their level of interest in reading. And then I would share that my MAIN goal for the whole year was to get them to love reading a little bit more by the end of the year... and if I could help them to love it- even better. :) Every year, I would win some and lose some (and would check in throughout the year with the kids I knew were "thumbs down" kids to ask if I had won them yet ;) ), but would try my hardest to introduce a variety of books and authors that might spark their interest. Lastly, teaching reading, especially with my older 5th graders, was a chance to talk about life and make connections when we would meet to discuss the books. I loved those times and will miss those moments the most from my teaching days.


Well that's it! The end of the Q&A's. Hopefully you weren't bored to death by this little series ;) and got to know us a little bit more through the posts.

Here's what's coming up in the next couple of weeks:

The recipe for the 6-Cheese Chicken Florentine Pasta picture I shared on IG last week

The Nursery REVEAL!

Splurge vs. Save- What's worth the splurge

An update on the 10 Before Baby list

Another great giveaway

And weekly updates on #nelsendays2014

Don't forget to enter the R+F giveaway going on right now! You can read all about my favorite tanners and enter the giveaway here. If you have trouble entering for any reason, feel free to email me {notesftn@gmail.com} so I can help!