The Shopoff Showoff

For quite a while now, Patrick and I have been discussing the possibility of moving to Georgia for me to go to grad school. We both love the beautiful state of Georgia, the University of Georgia has an amazing Instructional Design and Development master's degree, and we figure that if we want to be adventurous and try something new, now is the time.

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to visit Georgia to check out grad schools there. We spent a day in Atlanta and checked out Georgia Tech before heading to Athens to check out UGA. It was a great weekend, despite a few transportation problems in the beginning(we missed our flight out of DFW and had to wait on standby).

We really enjoyed the time we spent in Athens. It's a very neat city. It's small(only about 100,000 people--I know some of you will laugh that I think 100,000 is small but when you are comparing to Dallas, it is) but because it is a college town, it is full of things to do. The downtown area is amazing--tons of restaurants, shops, and places to hang out. Even better than that, downtown is located across the street(literally) from the UGA campus. I would be able to walk there after class! Athens has also been voted the #1 College Music Town because of all of the live music. Every day of the week, there is music somewhere. We really enjoyed being there, but the logistics of both of us getting jobs in a smaller city cause a slight hesitation with moving there. We'll just keep praying and see where God takes us!

While in Georgia, we also got to spend time in Atlanta. While we enjoyed the tour at Georgia Tech, I just don't think that the program is exactly what I am looking for. In Atlanta, we were able to visit the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. It was pretty amazing! Part of it reminded me of the aquarium in Japan that we visited while we were there. These aquariums are just so large!! We also walked through Olympic Park and took pictures in front of the Coca Cola Museum before catching our flight home. Overall, the trip was a success. We had a great time, and though we don't know much more about where we will be in the next year, we do know that God will open up doors for us.

Georgia Tech Tower

Georgia Tech's Football Stadium in the midst of bustling downtown Atlanta

University of Georgia Arch -- pillars stand for wisdom, justice, and moderation

Herty Field -- home to the first collegiate football game held in the state of Georgia

View of Downtown Athens from campus

Because Georgia's mascot is Uga, the bulldog, there are 36 statues of painted bulldogs all over the city of Athens. Patrick and I were only able to find about 8. Here are a few.

(Puffy had to visit his Penguin cousins, of course!)

Olympic Park

Yep...that's right! We had a snowy Thanksgiving out in Lubbock and Amarillo. The worst of the snow was on our way home, which made for a long trip back. We had a great time visiting with family and celebrating my grandmother's 70th birthday! I wanted to share just a few pictures of the trip with you. I always look forward to the first snow of the year, and though it came earlier this year, I was still happy to see the white winter wonderland!

Well, it is my favorite time of year...Fall! The weather has been just gorgeous(a rarity in Texas), and we have been busy enjoying it as much as we can. I wanted to give an update over things that we have been up to over the past month or so. Here goes...

In the middle of October, we finally had the chance to go to the lake for the first time this year! Sadly, with all of the weddings and other happenings over the summer, we didn't make it out there even once. We decided to meet my family there to celebrate my sister's birthday. It was great to spend time with everybody! We made it out on the boat one windy afternoon, and even Kaiko got to enjoy the lake a little bit. I have a few pics from the weekend. There may be more later!

Fun on the Boat

Kaiko loved the boat!

The weekend before Halloween, we were invited to go to a pumpkin-carving party. I was excited because I haven't carved pumpkins in YEARS! It was a "competition" between couples. We didn't really pick a winner, but I do have to say that I think ours was among the best. Check it out!

Teamwork!

Competition Jack-o-lantern #1

Competition Jack-o-lantern #2

Competition Jack-o-lantern #3

Our Jack-o-lantern...clearly the best!

The day after Halloween as a teacher can be a miserable experience. Our first grade team decided that we didn't particularly want that experience this year, and we planned a field trip...errr, I mean "study trip" as Frisco likes to call them...for the day following Halloween. We figured that with the kids hyped up on sugar we can send them out to run and have a good time at the Dallas Arboretum...while learning, of course! We have been studying plants, and therefore, the Arboretum is a great place to do this. The kids had a great time, and better than that, the teachers were all able to keep their sanity! Because I had so many parent chaperones, I didn't even have a group of kiddos to keep up with. I was able to walk around taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful Fall day. What fun!

"Mr. Grumpkins" - a 715 pound carved pumpkin
Yes, it's really real!

We have welcomed a new member to the Shopoff family. We picked up Kaiko, a 4-year-old Shiba Inu, from a lady on Wednesday. We adopted her through a Shiba rescue, because we didn't want to get a brand new puppy.

She is a beautiful and sweet girl, and we just love her! She loves to go on walks and play with her squeaky toys. She is very well trained and knows her "sit", "down", "stay", and "heel". I think she is actually teaching Patrick and me! Patrick is hoping to start training her to be his running partner soon. We are very excited to have her, and we wanted to share a few pictures with you!

Awww...our cute little family!

Kaiko is quite the little princess in her bed

Smile!

What a great weekend we had! Patrick and I received tickets to the UT vs. TCU game, and so we headed off to Austin for the weekend. We were able to see some of Patrick's family and spend some time relaxing.

Of course, the highlight of the weekend was the football game! We have been waiting for so long for football season. There is nothing we enjoy more than this time of year when we can lounge around watching football and keeping up with how our fantasy football teams are doing.

The first half of the TCU game wasn't that much fun. We were really worried about losing, because the Longhorns didn't look that great. During the second half, the team finally woke up, and thankfully, we won! The final score was 34-13. The score looks a lot better than we expected it to when watching the first half.

We are looking forward to heading to Austin again in a few weeks for the UT vs. Kansas State game! Here are some highlights from the weekend.

Sporting our burnt orange

Construction on the stadium improvements

The largest HD screen in college football AKA "The Godzillatron"

Watching the defense at work

Well...school is about to start! I can't believe it! The summer seemed to fly by. You'd think that I got married, went on a honeymoon, moved, and started a new job or something...oh yeah, I did! hehe I am VERY excited about the year ahead, and I am looking forward to getting started with my new class of 1st graders.

Needless to say, I have spent countless hours over the past few weeks preparing my classroom. I decided to do some before and after shots of the room to show everybody the transformation that has been made. I do have to say that I couldn't have done it without the help of my mom and dad...it REALLY pays to have parents that are teachers. :c)

Let me tell you a little bit about my school. This is the fourth year that Isbell Elementary has been open. My principal is the principal that opened the school, and she is AMAZING! She is very high energy and passionate about what she does. This year our school theme is western, and our school is beginning to look like a genuine western town! It's very exciting!

Here are some before pictures of my classroom before I started to work...pretty dull and boring:





Here are some of the pictures of what it looks like now: