>It’s been awhile.

>Wow! It’s been almost three months since I updated last! Aaron graduated Basic Training at Leonard Wood in Missouri. I drove down there, stopping in St. Louis to visit family on the way. The morning after his graduation he flew to Ft. Huachuca in southeastern Arizona for AIT (Advanced Individual Training). He got a four-day pass for July 4th weekend so I flew out to see him since he couldn’t come home. We had an awesome time! Aaron will graduate AIT in June 2010.

Now we’re in for the long haul. While he does training in Arizona, I’ll be starting my second year teaching here in Illinois. I love my job and am very thankful to have it. I am excited that I will have only three preps; no one of the five students signed up for Spanish 4 because they’re taking AP classes and work co-op. I will have two sections each of Spanish 1, 2 and 3. I will have almost all the same kids plus whatever freshmen are brave enough to take my class. Haha. I hope my reputation as a stern but compassionate teacher precedes me.

I have done my share of traveling this summer, including spending two days in Indianapolis with Tanya and Dan. It was nice to get out of Peoria (again) and see a city I’ve never been to before. I had always driven around it on I-465, not actually through it.

And in other news, I have been working my butt off (literally) and lost 25 pounds since March! I have also been working on running and now can run two miles in about 20 minutes. I’m still kind of slow, but I think the hard work have paid off. It feels great!

Update on our “gazelle intensity”:

We’ve paid off:

My car ($1800)
BP gas card ($250)
Chase Mastercard ($500)
Kohl’s Charge ($700)
and… Victoria’s Secret ($275).

We have two credit cards left (total is about $5k) and then we’ll start to dig into the school loans! Thank you Dave Ramsey!

I love a man in uniform…

Back at the barracks