about :: A is for Beautiful

My name is Courtney. I am married to a bea-U-tiful man named Jonathan. We live in North Carolina with the little girl, Julianna Valeigh, and our cat, Simon.

I was a middle school computer teacher for six and a half years. This year I've been trying working from home dabbling in a little web stuff and helping my father with his various investment sundries.

I love, love, love teaching. The hours, the social interaction, the regularity and predictibility of having a set schedule, and *ahhhhhhh* the summers... but mostly I want to be home with my daughter and the part-time hours I was working didn't quite mesh well with the part-time hours of childcare and preschool. So I'll be taking some time off from teaching until all of the child-birthing is done.

I started this website in April 2007. For a while I worked on my school's website with another teacher. But as far as personal sites go, before this one I had a more educational and not-so-fun website used mostly for my classes. I started my own blog on that site and then started using blogger to separate my classroom stuff from my personal life. As many people will say about blogging, I found it quite therapuetic to keep a live public journal. I transferred all of the archives from the other sites so you can read through my journey (and laugh - oh you will laugh - at the pathetic-ness of the things I used to write about). So everything goes back about three years beginning when I was 4 months pregnant, through when I started back to work, and all the way to today. In April 2007 I decided to start up this new place (A is for Beautiful) and I am very excited about what all I can do with it. I hope you like it!

I love chips and salsa, dark chocolate, the Food Network, and good commercials (especially those with catchy jingles). Read more about me here.

This website is dedicated to and named after my mother's mother, which you can read about in this post.

education

undergrad

I graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS degree in Business Management Information Systems. I was an accounting major for the first four years and kept thinking that was the perfect fit for me, but I absolutely hated the classes. I had always been a good student and when I made my first D my last semester, I decided it was past time to change my major. I was working part-time as a lab assistant for a computer class in the College of Management. Since I loved that so much I started thinking about teaching. Because of the major change I had to stay one last semester to take two last classes and so I replaced all of the other TAs and began teaching full-time while I finished up my classes. Needless to say, I now have a degree in Business, a minor in Accounting, a minor in Spanish and a NC teaching liscense.

possibility of grad school

I used to really hope to get a masters degree some day. I struggle with which program or even which degree would be the most beneficial. And now that I’m a mother, I am choosing to put that first anyway.

other coursework

However, the more I learn about the Internet, the more I realize I have to learn! I enjoy working with the web so much so I may take a few online courses along the way and see what happens.

family

jonathan

Jonathan and I met my sophomore year on the campus of NC State University. Although it was more than ten years ago now I remember it like it was yesterday. My roommate knew a few of his friends and somehow we met them as we were walking down the steps to the dining hall one night before dinner near the beginning of the school year. I quickly nicknamed him CTO and we went on our first date 12.19.97. We dated all throughout college, moved home, got jobs, and then got married on 10.19.02. For our five year anniversary this fall we’re going to spend some time in New York City. Jonathan is a dedicated, hard-working, and very giving husband. I wouldn’t trade him for the world.

julianna

Jules was thought about and planned for long before she was born. She arrived at 5:38 am on 03.25.06 weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces and with her bottom lip pooched all the way out to China. She was two days late, but it was a relatively easy pregnancy and for that I am thankful. Hopefully, she’ll have a little brother or a sister in a year or two. Julianna has made our lives more than we ever thought they could be. She brings us joy in new ways every day and she helps us find value in things we used to take for granted frequently.

simon

Simon was a stray cat that somehow climbed up in part of the car when we went for a visit at Jonathan’s dad’s. At the time, Jonathan was living in our house and I was living with my parents until we got married and he occasionally got a little lonely. He decided to keep the little orange kitty. Early on Simon loved to ride in the car. He would even make the 25 minute ride to my parent’s house to see me. One time he somehow got the Christmas stockings down off our mantel. He’s since grown out of those phases and now he mopes, moans, and grumbles about how much he has been neglected and abused since the little girl was born.

interests

web stuff

I love the internet and all things to do with it. It provides convenience and entertainment. I have had email since 1994 and now check my mail at least a dozen times a day. I cannot imagine life without my laptop or internet connection. The internet also meshes really well with education. I guess that’s how I got started with web design and once you really look at what’s out there you realize how much can be done. To me, one of the best parts is the documentation it involves. In the future I hope to continue learning, developing, and designing.

church

We were both raised attending church. We knew that when we got married we would want to find a church home of our own. It took us a long time to find a church that “felt right” and although we are still members of our home churches, we try to be active in our new church through both worship and service.

travel

I love the beach. Before we had the little girl we would go about every month or every other month to Myrtle Beach. I usually enjoy the perks of being a teacher and spend quite a bit of time there over the summer. I haven’t been too many places but I suppose I am luckier than many. In the future some of the places I hope to travel include the gulf coast, Spain, Australia, and Africa.

scrapbooking

There’s not a lot I can say about this since I haven’t made time for it in a while. Who has the time when chasing after a toddler?!

reading

I love to read! Mostly I just wish I had more time to choose which book to read myself instead of being handed one and then the pages forcefully turned even when I’ve not finished them! But seriously, I could spend hundreds of dollars in bookstores but I would need many more hours in each day to even crack the covers.

running

I’ve been on many weight-loss journeys throughout the years. Before Julianna was born I needed to lose about ten or fifteen pounds so I started running. My sister was training for a half-marathon at the time and she convinced my husband and I to join her on a few runs. I built my mileage up to about four miles and I was completely surprised by my ability to do that. Since I was pregnant I had awful morning sickness and after about three months, I quit running in favor of more entertaining things. Like eating. I picked it up again after Julianna was born and now it has become even a little fun. The high you get when you’ve finished a good run is unbeatable and I hope that I can make it a lifestyle.