Bridesmaids Dress Shopping

My sister Natalie (my MOH) One of my best friends and former roomie Erin

One of my best friends Lindsay

Courtney, my neice (well...soon-to-be neice)

Lindsey, my bestest friend and MOH

Things for the wedding are coming along swimmingly! I took my bridesmaids out two or three weeks ago and they picked out their dresses. I should be getting my dress altered sometime in March. I started addressing invitations already and plan to get them out in April. This Sunday I will be meeting with a possible florist and see what he has to offer for the wedding. I am still without DJ, and I should probably get a move on with that! I'll post the pictures of eveyone's dress selections, none of which are the right color!

Snow Days....Really?

Our wedding invites!
Getting ready for a snow ball to hit me!

Josh made his snow balls much faster than I could

Only picture I got of the both of us...it's hard taking a picture with gloves on

Oh I love Sebastian

I think he was ready to go back inside at this time

Look at my Eskimo kitty...he loves the snow

Our flying cat!!!...I promise that he wasn't as high up as he appears!

Taking his long trek home...

It is difficult to imagine that my school district actually had two snow days this week. On Wednesday, Josh had work off as well so we began our morning by playing in the snow with Sebastian. It was a lot of fun including snow angels and snow ball fights! The rest of the day was spent shoveling the driveway and watching movies. I was a little more productive today, and I cleaned the house and spent a couple of hours working out. I still need to work on my portfolio, but I still have like 4 or more hours before I go to sleep.

For a quick wedding update: I received my wedding invites in the mail. They came from the People's Republic of China. I will post pics below. Also this weekend I will be going to David's Bridal with the bridesmaids to look at bridesmaid dresses and watch Bride Wars. My co-worker also gave me these super cute table number holders that I will be utilizing. And....I think that is all I have for wedding updates....Enjoy the pictures from my days off!

Back in the Groove!

This will hopefully be a short blog...but who knows with me.
Today was Inauguration Day. My school was nice enough to allow us to watch footage all day with the kids if we wanted to. We did a lot of presidential activities and did watch the Inauguration and I think it was very educational for the kids. I was pretty excited about today. I have been a large supporter of Barack Obama since I saw him speak at the Democratic convention for the Kerry campaign. I'm pretty excited to see how things will change throughout his presidency. I just hope he leave behind a legacy and really accomplishes what he has set out to do.
Apart from the new President of the United States, this year has been going well thus far. I have planned a little more for the wedding. I should be getting the wedding invitations in a couple of weeks. They were a steal! I think they are pretty gorgeous and so CHEAP, which makes things so much better. I guess we will see what I get when the invites arrive, but I'm pretty excited about them. My wedding dress arrived over break...it came in two weeks (CRAZY!). It is hanging in the closet in the guest room now. Every now and then I like to go in there look at it...and kiss the packaging! I've only tried it on twice since I got it, so I'm doing pretty well! I found a florist during the bridal show this past weekend. She is super sweet and I will be meeting with her soon to see what she can do. I'm still in need of a DJ, but I'm sure I'll find one soon. I don't know if I mentioned that I found a photographer before but I did: Larry Gindhart. My awesome coworkers have really been helping out. Pepelea really got me excited today when she showed me these table card holders that are shaped like a bride and groom's torso. I told her....I'll use it! I think that is all I have to update for now. I can't believe I'm getting married in a little more than 5 MONTHS! Crazy. I'll try to update more...now...off to the restroom. Oh by the way....lost 3.5lbs so far for the year 2009!

A New Year: 2009

It is amazing to look back at 2008 and realize that it has passed so quickly. I was looking through my scrapbook for the year the other day and realized that Josh and I went to French Lick and Florida this year. It all seems so far away now. I thought that 2008 was a great year (minus financial woes). I bought a new house, I got engaged, and we went on some nice vacations.

Next year I have made a few resolutions. The first is the resolution I make every year....which is to lose weight. In 2008 I managed to gain about 10 lbs but this year I feel that things will go better. I have started my Jorge Cruise diet which really inspires me to do better and workout and eat right. I also want to make sure that I am reading more this year, so about a book a month. I want to spend a little less money than I'm spending now, and I just want to make sure I create lots of good memories this year.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh and I had our Engagement/ House-Warming/ Christmas party at the house. We had a lot of people show up and it was a lot of fun. I have finally gotten the house totally cleaned up since the party, but it was really worth it. There were a lot of good laughs and good company. I will leave you all with some pictures of the Party! I hope you enjoy them!

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!