Mr. and Mrs. Martin

Jeremy and Kellie got married! And that's pretty much what we have been up to for the last month. We have been busy celebrating with a bridal shower, bachelor party, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and the wedding! We are so excited for them, and I'm super excited to finally have a 'sister'. 

Bailey even had a loooong wedding weekend at the kennel. She crashed within minutes of us picking her up.

We also attended my cousin Joni's hooding ceremony in August, and she recently passed her boards! Yay! She is a Doctor of Nurse Practitioner  or something fancy like that. Here is a short clip of her ceremony in Brookings. Our family celebrated the following day in Sioux Falls. 

Derreck and Jeremy made another batch of beer. We will see how it turns out after it sits for 2 weeks. 

We are Back!

I have been going back and forth all summer as to whether I would keep up with our blog now that we are all moved back to South Dakota. At first I said no because we will see all of our readers on a monthly basis, but then I was reflecting back on my summer break and changed my mind. Not only is it for you to read and stay updated with our life, but it's also nice for me to go back and read what we have been up to. I can't count the times that I've went back and scrolled through my posts and forgot all about a weekend..or even a whole month. I have a terrible memory!

As I'm sitting here on our deck drinking coffee and getting ready to go into my new classroom, I'm trying to piece together our summer. Holy cow! We've been busy and I really wish I would have kept this thing updated all summer. 

Here is what I have documented on my phone..

The day I got home from CO, I took off for Sioux Falls to see my Grandma who was in the hospital. She is currently in the Platte Nursing Home. 

I was finally reunited with my little family.

An evening spent fishing at the Missouri River in June.

Nothing like 7 inches of rain the day we moved in.

Here is our new house!

I spent 2 days a week babysitting Andre and Leo. 

Met up with two high school classmates in Sioux Falls

Oh yeah, I got pink eye in both eyes. A teacher that gets pink eye during the summer?! 

Daryn came to visit!

Haley, Daryn and I had a great time at the golf tournament

Just a little laceration...

Dessert from CH Patisserie Yum!

My mom and Cheryl came to visit 

We spent a weekend in the Black Hills

Derreck and Derek in Deadwood

Twins game in Minneapolis with Haley and Trevor. Last year we lived 1,600 miles apart, now we only live 275! 

I got to meet baby Alese Van Metre. Maybe babies aren't so scary! She was soooo cute. 

And I ended my summer with a trip to CO with my mom, Cheryl, and Sam. 

Riding an elephant at the Renaissance Festival

REO Speedwagon and Chicago concert at Red Rocks

The kids waiting for me to get off my computer.

This is what I come home to everyday..damn dog!

I finally found out where I was teaching last week! I am teaching 1st Grade at Journey Elementary. It is only 2 miles from our house. I'm going to try and ride my bike to work as much as I can. This is my gigantic classroom. Before and After pictures to come! 

Enjoy your last few weeks of summer! We have yet to have a weekend in Sioux Falls with no visitors since we moved in in June. Our lives will continue to be a little crazy until the end of September!

Well Derreck has been in South Dakota for more than 2 weeks now so it's been pretty quiet around here. Here is what I've been up to:

So happy that Derek and Kate came for Easter! We hit up a Rockies game, went shopping at the Outlet Mall, and woke up at 4:00am to attend the Sunrise Service at Red Rocks. 

The Determan's were in town visiting family for the weekend so I met them downtown to go to another Rockies game on Sunday afternoon. It was so fun to see some Gregory people!

Check out how awesome my coworkers are! They put together this Colorado basket for me. 

I had good intentions to do some yard work this weekend, but yesterday was too windy and today is freezing so I spent most of my time watching a ridiculous amount of TV and browsing Pinterest. I also went to see the movie The Other Woman. Sooo funny!

And I will sign off with some quotes from my classroom: 

Me: "Today we are going to practice writing to a prompt."

Sydney: "What is a prompt?"

Zack: "It's a fancy thing where people wear sparkly dresses and tuxedos. Sometimes they even ride in a limo."

Two students won a Time with Teacher Raffle and I had to take them to a dinner and a movie after school. As we were eating, my phone rings. 

Me: "Do you want to talk to Mr. Martin?"

Zack: "Yes! I will answer!"

Zack: "Hello Mr. Martin. This is President Obama and I am having a corn dog with your wife."

Did you notice that both of these quotes are from Zack?! Don't tell anyone, but he's secretly my favorite student. 

A few people have been asking for pictures of our house. Here you go!

We have worked so hard to make our house a home. Thanks to everyone who has helped. Dillon, Tarell, Josey, and Brandi helped shingle. Tarell and Mike put all of the new windows in. Tim and Karen painted the whole living room and downstairs, cut down tree branches, and wired new lights and outlets in.