New School!

Today Kolby signed a contract to teach 9th grade English at a great high school nearby. He spent an insane first year of teaching at a middle school and is very excited to make the move. At the middle school, Kolby taught 6 different classes every day and had to prepare separate lesson plans for each of his classes: 7th grade English, 6th grade Gifted and Talented (GT) English, 7th grade GT English, 8th grade GT English, 7th grade Reading, and Study Skills. As the GT teacher he also was in charge of Odyssey of the Mind (OM), an extra-curricular creative competition that many of his GT kids were involved in. So, he has spent this past year working very hard writing each lesson plan from scratch, commuting 60 miles round-trip from Waco to ****, and staying after school most days to coach the OM teams. In spite of this very full plate, he has received RAVE reviews from the staff, parents, and kids at the school. He had 4 out of 5 of his OM teams make it to the State Competition and even had a team make it to the World Finals (he leaves this weekend to accompany them to Washington D.C.). Although he enjoyed his time there and is having to disappoint the MANY that have begged him to stay, the new position was too good to refuse.

Congrats, husband, on the new job!

A Year Ago Today

It was a year ago today that Kolby proposed to me. Actually, this exact time last year I was minutes away from getting engaged and had no idea it was coming. I love thinking about that day and I hope I'll always be able to remember it as well as I can right now.

The past year has been the best of my life with the obvious highlight being our beautiful wedding day and our fun first months of marriage, but also the time I got to spend wedding planning with my mom. We had the best time together doing all the shopping, trying on dress after dress, making fun decisions, bringing organization to a whole new level (even for us!), and getting everything together for what turned out to be the most perfect wedding I could ever have imagined. I will always treasure that time and am so grateful for the love and support of my parents, especially this year. Thanks mom & dad!

All Grown Up

My younger brother, Russell, is graduating from high school next week. He's been the "baby" of both sides of my family and something just doesn't seem right about him being old enough to leave home. Russell was definitely blessed with the looks in the family and has been cute his whole life (a feat for which Brad nor I can claim for ourselves). His natural charm and handsome smile even came close to making up for the fact that he had to introduce himself as "wussell webb" until 3rd grade.

Now he is a crazy high school senior getting ready to finally experience the college life for himself. He tried to fight off the family draw to Baylor but eventually came to his senses and realized that he bleeds green and gold just like the rest of us!

New Initiative for 25 Cloth

My brother's t-shirt company, 25 Cloth, just launched their new initiative for this quarter. The are partnering with an organization that helps children in developing countries who are born with club foot, a disability that is simple to fix but results in major disability if left untreated. This quarter, each t-shirt you buy provides the casting materials for one of these children.

To learn more, visit the website www.25cloth.com to see their new t-shirt designs and to make a purchase that will change the life of a child born with club foot.

Ho - Volta Region - Ghana - Africa

Kolby and I have officially booked our trip to Ghana! We are taking a three-week volunteer placement at Village Exchange Ghana, a small NGO that strives to "empower Ghana's disadvantaged women through poverty alleviation strategies and reproductive and sexual health programs". VEG's main instrument for poverty alleviation is micro-credit, which is my main interest and focus within my graduate study (M.S. Economics at Baylor) and is also the topic of my thesis. So I'll be working with the micro-credit efforts and Kolby will be working with youth-- teaching English, improving literacy, and aiding the reproductive and sexual health programs.

We will be leaving on July 27th and returning on August 16th. The VEG website is villageexchangeinternational.org if you want to check it out and learn more about the work they do in Ghana.