Wedding Dress Shopping

For the last three weekends I have been looking at wedding dresses! I finally found THE DRESS! Here are some pictures of the dresses that I did NOT pick! Unless you are a lucky few, you will have to wait until the wedding day to see which one I picked!

Swamped with Schoolwork

Boy! It has been such a long time since I last updated this thing. I do have a GREAT excuse for it: I've been hella busy. I got a new position at work where I have been developing curriculum for a new 7th and 8th grade afterschool intervention program. It has been a lot of work, but inevitably I am working towards a life in administration so I really need to start giving my self extra responsibilities. I am very proud of the amount of work I have done however! I've have been working late every night and it was pretty nice getting home before it got dark today.

The new house is as wonderful as ever. I'm hating our cable company and looking into getting DISH network, but it happens. I've been too busy to keep the house clean. I'm a little obsessive about everything being put in its place, and let's just say that is not happening. Wedding plans are progressing. I don't have anything new to tell you since we're still paying off the reception hall and the wedding venue before we take another step. I'm going to start looking for dresses in January and I think once I find "the dress", our plans will speed up tremendously! Josh did tag along to go check out a couple of florists....so I'm glad he got involved in that aspect. My coworker Frankie is also going to be making my cake. She has an extraordinary talent at making decorative cakes and when I showed her a design of what I wanted she was really excited to work on it. It will be pretty simply but it will have a drape of fondante that goes from the top of the cake to the bottom diagonally. On top of the drape there will be yellow flowers. I promise the design of the cake is much prettier than I'm describing. I had a lot of fun sketching out the cake. We'll see how it ends up in June! Well that is all for now. I'll try to update within November but I guess we'll see with how school goes. I made sure to include picture of my sister Natalie, my mom, and Lun at the Obama rally that I went to on my Fall Break!

Wow!

I can't believe a whole month has past since a last blogged. Well I'm sad to say I don't have a lot of updates. Lindsey came over a couple of weekends ago and we celebrated her birthday. It was great seeing her. Since her move to Brazil, we seldom see each other. It is a little hard since we used to live only 7 minutes away from each other but we have talked on the phone a lot more recently. However, luckily since I moved to Avon I have been closer to her that I would be if I had stayed in my apartment. I'm going to be journeying up to Brazil this upcoming weekend for their popcorn festival.
I haven't done too much more planning for the wedding yet. I went to a bridal show at the Scottish Rite this past weekend, but there wasn't anything special. I may have found a DJ but I still need to look around. By December, I would like to have my DJ, my dress and maybe my florist picked. I'm also going to be starting my portfolio soon to renew my teaching liscense. My goal is to submit it by December, that way I can study for my graduate school testing next semester and take the test!
School has been coming along swimmingly. The kids are starting to get more respectful and I just completed my second observation with my principal where all good things were said and it was the first time I ever saw him write "No discipline problems" on the evaluation form. I must be doing something write. I'll leave you with some engagement picture....Ta Ta!

First Break....I called it!

On the first day of school, I was sitting with my team and I said "I bet by the time our first break comes from school, I'll be sick". Well, it looks like a jinxed myself. Last night, my mom came over and had dinner with Josh and I and hung out at the house for a little. As the night progressed, so did my symptoms. It started with a sore throat, which spiraled into my ears hurting, and finally turned into a runny nose. Damn those germ infested rugrats I like to call my students. You think by eighth grade they would learn how to wash their hands and blow their noses. Instead, I got to enjoy the day teaching as snot almost started running down my nose. I'm so congested...I just hate the first cold of the year, it's always the worst. Josh was kind enough to go out and get my some OJ on his way home from work, and I know he will nurse me back to help. Let's just hope that I don't get him sick. We tend to transfer our sicknesses to each other.



Josh and I started planning out our vacations for the year. I think we are going to try to go back to West Baden Springs over fall break or The Grand Hotel. I would like to take another mini-trip to somewhere I haven't been yet. We'll either have a low key Spring Break and head to New York or Boston, or we'll hit Florida again. The biggest trip of the following year, of course, will be our Honeymoon. That should be fun to plan, but I have been looking around to get ideas. My only requirements are: Has to be outside the United States (unless it is Hawaii) and it has to be tropical and romantic. I would like to avoid a cruise, but it seems like that will be the most affordable. Oh well, everything will fall into place....I just need to get my passport renewed soon!! Okay...Ace of Cakes is on.....so I'm out like O.J.!

Week 3

We have now entered the third week of school and things are going along pretty darn well (if I do say so myself). I really feel that even having one year of teaching under my belt has made this year that much better. In my professional development group at school we are really trying to adopt and apply the idea that "everyday is a new day". It seems so simple, but even I am guilty of letting bad situations carry over to the next day. I feel that being able to use this in my classroom has really made a world of different. Our kids don't come from the best home lives so I believe it really helps them understand that their teachers care about them and are only trying to help when they redirect them in class. My inclusion class still is an everyday struggle. Some days it is great and our classroom discussion goes in directions that I didn't even know it could, and other days they are so chatty and I have to constantly redirect everyone in the classroom. However even my bad days this year and not even on the same wave length as my bad days last year and I feel really blessed that I seem to be doing something right this year.

The house is coming along. Although it was totally ready before we moved in, I'm still trying to get some decorative items in the house. I figure we'll be living here for a while so we have plenty of time to get everything settled. What is important is that everything is unpacked and organized. Josh and I are going camping sometime this weekend, and then we'll be off to Brazil to visit Miss Lindsey Burnett (my bestest and maid of honor). Our first morgage payment is due next week, which will really make me feel like an adult. We finally got some phones so that we can utilize our phone line. We discovered that if someone calls, the caller ID pops up on the television. I think I have made a decision on a photographer for the wedding. I will not reveal it all until I pay off the deposit and make sure that she even has a date available. I also may have found a musician to play the piano at my wedding (he was the accompianist in my high school choir and I adore him). Josh and I sampled our first wedding cake from Longs Bakery. It was yellow cake with white icing. It was decent, but the icing was a little sweet. I took the remainder of the cake into school today so that my team members can reap some of the perks of planning a wedding. We'll it's close to my bedtime, and my brand new laptop is about to run out of juice. As I type, Josh has fallen asleep next to me with little Sebastian cuddled up in his arms. My two favorite men, how I love them both!

School has taken over my life

I started school on last week on Monday with the kids. So far it is going great. A vast improvement from last year and I must say I'm very optimistic of what this year has in store for me (haha we just discussed the meaning of optimistic and pessimistic in class yesterday). I have smaller classes this year which makes it perfect for getting to know the students as well as pulling out great conversation from them. I feel I have very strong goals for the year to make myself a better teacher, and most is just to stay on top of things this year. It keeps me at school until 5 or 6 sometimes but at least I'm getting everything done.

I'm including some pictures of The Garrison, where I'm getting married next summer. Now my goal is to find a photographer for the wedding before September 1st. I hope I can do it!

The front of the Garrison

The porch where we will be getting married...let's hope it doesn't rain.

The ballroom where we will be having the reception....I love the large windows.

Summer coming to a close

With only one more full day of summer left, I can honestly look back and feel as if I have had a relaxing summer vacation. I closed on the house on Monday July 28, Josh and I moved in that Tuesday and we were completely unpacked by Friday. I find that as quite an achievement and I'm even more excited to finally start decorating now that I have everything situated. We won't be painting because the house was in perfect condition when we moved in, and I'm not the best painter in the world. Josh wants to do a faux wall using curtains in our guest room, which I think will look really cool, and will be much easier to accomplish than painting.
I put the first deposit down for our wedding/reception site today. Our official wedding date will be Friday June 26, 2009. I'm really excited about getting one of the million things that I need to get done, but it will all come together in the end. I will add pictures on my next update!