25.

So today is the big day.

I've officially crossed the quarter-century mark.

I've felt a multitude of things today...but mostly, I can't help but feel blessed.

Here's the thing. I am in such a good place, and only people who've known me for a while know exactly what I've been through on the road to here. I'm finally at a place where I'm not looking anxiously back over my shoulder. I look into the future and I feel great about what I see. And it feels so great to say that.

Today, I've enjoyed a variety of birthday wishes from many people.

Just before seven o'clock this morning, I got the phone call I always look forward to on my birthday. My parents began this tradition when I left for college. They call me (usually at a god-awful hour in the morning) and they...sing...sort of...in a really...unique...harmony...kind of. It's amazing, and it always makes my birthday start off with a bang. (Today we had the addition of having the Beatles sing to me before they did. All kinds of awesome.)

Shortly after, I got a text from one of my favorites, Shannon. Then another from Ginny a little while after.

I woke up to a smattering of birthday wishes on my facebook wall, which blossomed into a page full of friends and family showering me with love.

All throughout the school day, I was wished a happy birthday by different people I work with, and even was serenaded by a couple people--including the music teacher, who got my kids to sing along. It was pretty great.

And then, waiting for me in my mailbox at home, was a beautiful card from my grandparents in New York. Perfection!

So really, I'm in a really content place. I'm so happy at my job; I work with great people. And my heart is just overflowing with all the love that's been tossed my way today.

There's not much more to it than that. The school year is off to a great start, and I'm so over the moon to be able to watch my students from last year as they grow up. Things are great.

I'll try to check in again soon. Now that we're back into the swing of things at school, life will stay busy for a while, but I promise I'll do my best to come up for air. :)

Have a great night, and I'll talk to you again soon!

♥ Marlee

Lucky.

I'm so lucky.

Do you ever sit and think that?

Today, I totally felt that way.

Wanna hear about why?

Well, today, our county had the privilege of getting to hear the incredible Ron Clark speak. I was able to hear him speak once about 4 years ago at my senior Teaching Fellows Conference at ECU, and his presentation then has totally stuck with me all of this time. If anyone has ever heard him speak or read any of his books, you know that Ron Clark is one of the most passionate educators that exists in this world today. He never really intended to teach, but once he got a taste of it, he couldn't pull himself away. Hearing him speak leaves you feeling ready to take on the world...and after I left from hearing him speak today, I took a quick second to pop into my classroom.

I spent a few minutes cleaning up, just picking up minor things I'd left laying out. I straightened up my current thinking spot in the room (which changes daily, and sometimes multiple times within a day), and as I was getting ready to leave, I just kind of stood there and took in all of that space.

It's mine, guys.

It's kind of awesome, I know.

Anyway, I stood there, taking in my space, thinking about how school starts in exactly one week from today. And I thought about my job, and how I get to work with kids, and help them learn, and put them on a path to make something of themselves. I thought about how I get to lift them up and love on them, and maybe give a lot of them a place where they can feel valued and safe (for many of them, this is something they don't get at home). I thought about how I can't wait to meet my kids, and how I love them all already even without knowing what they look like.

That's a lot of thinking.

But above all, I was thinking about how lucky I am. I have such a passion for children, and I have such an incredible appetite for learning...and I get to teach kids every day at my job. I get to help them grow in so many ways; I get to develop great relationships with each of them that are unique. I teach them; they teach me. Life is good.

Life is so good, y'all.

So, as I walked out of school for the second time today, I walked out with happiness in my heart. I'm so lucky. And I can only hope that I'll always be able to appreciate that.

"Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life." ~Henry L. Doherty

♥ Marlee

Hamburg Song

This song just sums up every little bit of aching that's been coming and going in my heart lately.

Don't you just love when music can do that?

Enjoy, and I'll be back with a more thorough post in a day or so.

♥ Marlee

PS - Home safe, obviously. Just in case you were wondering. :)

Powerful Stuff.

'The truth is there are a million steps, and we don't even know what the steps are, and worse, at any given moment we may not be willing or even able to take them; and still worse, they are different for you and me and they are always changing. I have come to believe the sooner we find this truth beautiful, the sooner we will fall in love with the God who keeps shaking things up, keeps changing the path, keeps rocking the boat to test our faith in Him, teaching us not to rely on easy answers, bullet points, magic mantras, or genies in lamps, but rather His guidance, His existence, His mercy, and His love.' - Donald Miller, Searching for God Knows What

Nostalgia

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. -George Eliot

Today was a nice ending to a great vacation. We headed back to Waynesville to spend some time with Emily and baby Andrew, which was great fun. Babies are pretty much the best, right? After spending a delightful few hours with her, we were able to meet up with Shannon and Andrew for a last visit. That was also a lot of fun, and it was nice to get to see them both one more time before we have to head back home.

After that visit, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and visit our homestead, Western Carolina University. Neither of us has been back since I graduated in 2008, and so much has changed about our campus. It's growing and old buildings have been torn down to make way for new ones, leaving our campus a jigsaw of old and new. Things are so different, but it still has that feel of home. My college days were pretty awesome.

So we got back to our hotel room just before dinner time and decided to just chill out. We've been watching tv, napping, and relaxing on this our last day of vacation. We'll check out tomorrow morning, and then I'm dropping Lesli off in Gastonia and heading back to Lillington. Life will have to resume, and while I'm sad to see our vacation come to an end, I'm so pumped on this new school year. Bring. It. On.

I'm signing off for tonight, and you probably won't hear much from me for a day or so, but take care and I'll talk to everyone soon!

Until next time,

♥ Marlee

Drum Circle

It's hard for me to really capture how awesome being a part of the drum circle tonight was. There's something so incredible and so sacred about people from all walks of life coming together with one singular goal: to make music. There were moments when we first sat down and I was taking it all in where the beauty of what was happening truly made tears come to my eyes. It's incredible, with all of the news of the riots in London, and the wars around the world, and people doing awful, awful things...in all of that, there still exists this incredible witness to the ability of people to just come together. It was joyous and uplifting to see.

Of course, it's just silly to go to a drum circle and sit or stand still.

So we danced. :)

Lesli and I made our way through the sea of people and were able to find some spots where we could just let it all out and have a good time. My legs and feet will be sore tomorrow, but it will be so worth it.

You might picture a specific kind of person in attendance at a drum circle held in the middle of downtown Asheville. You'd be wrong. There were men and women, young and old...we saw people with dreadlocks, people in khakis and polos, people in dresses and shorts and all things in between. It was like a cultural crossroads.

Anyway, I'm going to leave you with a video that Lesli recorded of the drum circle after we had first arrived. This was only into the first hour or so...by the time we left, the whole area was full of people, dancing and/or drumming. It was incredible. Enjoy the video and I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow after our last day in Waynesville.

♥ Marlee

"Music is an outburst of the soul." - Frederick Delius

PS - I'll fill you in on the other happenings of this evening in tomorrow's post. I'm still soaking in the energy from the drum circle for now.

Lazy day.

Hello, again!

Today I'm deciding to forego the vlog, simply because there hasn't been a ton of activity to report to you. We had to get up in time to get breakfast before it wasn't out anymore, so we did.

But we went back to bed when we came back. :) We've had a couple of pretty full days, so we are taking total advantage of this day where we don't have any major stuff going on during the day.

When we woke up, it was more or less time for lunch. (When I say we've had a lazy day, I mean it.) So we ate a little lunch in the hotel room, and then decided to hit up the pool again.

After some great time swimming, we laid out at the pool and followed that up with a bit of poolside reading. It was great to take a few moments to really just soak up being on vacation, especially since this will be my last vacation for a while.

After swimming, we decided to head back to the room and Lesli hopped in the shower. I was planning on showering right after her because I usually can't stand my hair to be unwashed after swimming, but in a crazy demonstration of its utter defiance of the odds, my hair turned out super cute and curly after it dried. So, I decided to opt out of showering for now, put a couple of clips in my hair, and I'm totally happy with it.

Currently, our dinner is cooking in the microwave, and then we move on to our first real plans for this day--the drum circle. Asheville has a culture all its own, and we have some time on our hands, so at the suggestion of Lesli's sister, we're heading downtown to take part in a well-loved tradition tonight. We'll head down in the next 45 minutes or so, and then just take our time exploring downtown and enjoy the evening. We're hoping to meet up with Shannon and Andrew again. :)

Anyway, not too much to report, really. I'm thoroughly enjoying my time out here in Asheville, and I'm looking forward to seeing Emily and baby Andrew tomorrow. It should be great fun.

I'll come at you again tomorrow after we settle back into the room for the night, so until then...

♥ Marlee

Shannon.

Today we had the privilege of spending some time with my dearest friend, Shannon. I haven't seen her in ages, and so it was a blast to get to spend time together and just hang out.

We ate some great food, watched the beginning of a not-so-great movie, and then just spent time being silly and attempting to make a vlog together. Alas, her computer was not cooperative, but I have a webcam that is generally very reliable, so we decided to relocate and do our vlog from the hotel room. (Longest sentence ever. My apologies.)

So, without further ado, here is the fantastic vlog featuring both myself and Shannon. Enjoy.

(And don't judge. We have too much fun with each other.)

Until tomorrow,

♥ Marlee

Biltmore!

Today, we spent the majority of the day at Biltmore, having fun and exploring. Here's a brief vlog about today's exciting events, and then I'll post a few of my favorite pictures from the day!

And now for a few pictures...

No really, it was this gorgeous. All. Day.

Lesli and I in front of the house. :)

There's a Tiffany exhibit (like the lamps) right now at Biltmore;

the gardens are arranged in tribute. Can you see the dragonfly? :)

Down at the farm, we made a few friends.

And, we watched the coolest blacksmith ever make this very beautiful leaf you see here. :)

There are many more pictures, and if you go here you can see them all. :)

Alrighty kids, it's getting late and we need to be up at a reasonable hour in the morning--can't miss the free breakfast! :)

I'm sure I'll have more to share about our fun tomorrow with Shannon, so until next time...

♥ Marlee

We're here!

Hey there, friends!

We've arrived in Asheville and I thought I'd post a super quick vlog about what we've done so far and what we plan to do while we're here. Many thanks again to my lovely parents for making this happen. It's pretty much the best birthday present I've ever gotten. :)

Enjoy the vlog, and expect more to come (including pictures!)--we're stoked to start our Asheville Adventure!

Until tomorrow,

♥ Marlee

So...yeah...

Hey there,

I've been MIA for far too long, and I apologize for that. I've been spending most of my waking moments in my classroom setting things up, and my other moments I've either been running around with friends or family, or being a slug and being just too lazy to post.

I did, however, want to let you know about something exciting that's coming my way next week.

My parents are pretty much the best ever, and they decided to do something really awesome for my upcoming 25th birthday. So next Tuesday, I'll have my bags in my car and be heading to Asheville for a 5-night stay at a hotel. But I won't be alone--the ever-wonderful Lesli will be accompanying me! I'm super excited.

Here are our big plans so far:

-Swim in the hotel pool...a lot.

-Biltmore Tour/Wine Tasting (heck yes)

-Getting together at some point with Lesli's sister, Hannah, and her boy, Michael

-Spending time with Shannon (!)

-Getting to see Emily and the baby (!)

-Generally being lazy and lounging around

Right?!? Sounds amazing, I know.

But I want to share with you guys as we're having our adventures, so I'm going to take my lappy and try to either post a blog, or upload a few vlogs while we're living it up in Ashevegas, k?

I promise, I won't disappear for a long time again. Promise!

Quickie birthday shout outs to the lovely Sara Yasin, who turns 25 tomorrow; Shannon turns 25 on the 14th!

We're getting old, guys. Crazy!

I'm off--talk soon!

♥ Marlee