Baby-palooza...

After LOTS of waiting...I am now the proud aunt of the CUTEST BABY EVER! I can't believe she is finally here. How exciting! I can't wait to see her more soon, especially once she's out of the hospital. What a good end to the week!

Aqua & Red...

I never posted pictures of churches...couldn't get it to work! Oh well. We still haven't made any progress in that area. It's hard to get things done from this side of the state. I may have to make a trip to the West side soon so we can actually have a wedding. :)
We have made a few decisions about the color palette of our wedding that's helping me focus a little bit. I think we're going to use Aqua & Red as our wedding colors. I'm sort of surprised by that because I would've expected more "earth tones" from me. I think we'll use aqua as the primary color (bridesmaids dresses, candles at the reception, etc.) and red will be designated for flowers and a few other details. I saw this combination on Martha Stewart's website and something about it grabbed me. I think it will be pretty & the fiancé seems to like it too. If I can, I'll post pictures of decorative items as we get them. I think IKEA may be a helpful store for decorating our reception. I love that store!
We still have a LOT of planning to do...cake, flowers, dj, caterer, etc. For some reason I haven't been stressing out about it. A little stress could probably be helpful in motivating me to get stuff done. But for now it all feels pretty far off!

Where Should We Get Married?

Last weekend, we looked at several churches to get married at. We still haven't decided on one, but we really need to get on that. We did book a reception venue...St. Cecelia's downtown and I'm excited about that! So now we have a reception venue, a photographer, and I have my dress. Some of the major things are checked off the list. Also, we are now two weeks into our 6 week long pre-marriage classes. They've been good so far.
It was fun going to look at churches downtown. We have lots of beautiful choices (assuming our date is still open)! Pictures to follow...

Miscellaneous

First things first, kids are FUNNY. I taught first grade today (I've been doing a lot of that lately) and the kids were cracking me up all day. It wasn't just the things they said, but they have great comic delivery without even knowing it. It's enough to make my job better than most. During Writer's Workshop today, one of the cutest little boys came up to me (and by the way, first graders are TINY...I think he barely reached my knees) to tell me that he remembered to check to make sure that all his sentences had a "pyramid" at the end. During math time, we were learning about the nickel. I asked if anyone knew who's face was on the nickel and one little girl gave it her best effort...George Clooney. You can't make that stuff up. Tomorrow I'll be teaching fourth grade and I'm sure those kids will come up with something funny to say.
Now I just want to take a minute to address the wedding industry and their ridiculous pricing. Shouldn't one be able to get married...with a cake, and pictures, and flowers, etc. and still hope to purchase, let's say, a car or a house in the distant future? Apparently not! I just want someone to take decent pictures of our wedding...not for thousands of dollars and not someone who will make us do cheesy poses. What I've found so far?...Impossible. Also, the idea of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a dress that I will wear ONCE makes me crazy. I'm going to have to do some more investigating because I just refuse to spend our life savings on ONE day (even if it is a really important one)!

Sisters!

I finally put my clothes away! It's one of those things that I have to force myself to do. When I do laundry, often times I just live out of the laundry basket until it's time to do laundry again. It's a time saver, right? Well, I think I would have gone on living out of boxes if I hadn't put my foot down and decided to actually hang up all of my clothes today. It actually feels pretty good to have boxes put away, even though it was a hassle to do it! I feel a lot more settled in my little apartment. The Boyfriend moved on Saturday and has been getting settled since then, but he has to work and I'm still on summer vacation (bored out of my mind!), so I've been volunteering for chores to do while he's at the office. Today I washed all the dishes since his past roommates were slobs and left them pretty gross. I lined the cupboards, did some laundry, ran an errand to Meijer for him, and made dinner. I felt fairly productive.
I also had an interview this morning that was AWFUL. Let's just say that I went into it thinking it would be for an elementary position and it WASN'T! I have practically no experience with middle schoolers so my mind was blank for answering questions related to middle school. Yikes. It kind of makes me wonder why they wanted to interview me for that position, even though I have the necessary endorsement. All my experience has been K-5! Anyways...that's all over now...Sigh of relief.
I'm super excited because on Thursday, I get to see my sisters for lunch!!! Yay, they're my favorites. It will be fun. It's rare that the three of us get together. I think there will be a little baby shower planning going on after lunch (shhh). :)

The time has come...

for me to move on out of GR and onto Wixom. I've spent a few days at the beach, seen my friends off to various parts of the country, and now I'm ready to move. It will feel really good to get settled in my apartment and not have to wonder where that pair of shoes went or if I have those jeans here! All my stuff will be in one place. I have mixed feelings about moving. On one hand, I'm excited to have my apartment, to try a new place out, and to be near the boyfriend. On the other hand, I was hoping to have a steady teaching job by the time I moved. It will be a new experience, either way.
I'm thinking about training for another race (maybe just a 10K this time) just so that I have something to do. Training takes up time and I'll most likely have plenty of that. I need to stay occupied or I'll just drive myself crazy, like I've been doing the last couple of days with no job. That's one thing I've learned about myself: I need a goal/job/project to be working on at all times or I go crazy. I can handle approximately two vacation days and that's it. I never really thought that'd be true about me. I think it's just that I can really enjoy vacation after I've done some hard work to earn it!

Summer Lovin'

I am officially done working at the park for this summer and avoided going on the field trip today that would've lasted from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm with a bus full of kindergarteners-eighth graders. No thanks! Luckily, my best friend's wedding rehearsal got me out of that one.
It feels good to be done with my summer job and it's nice that now I can concentrate on relaxing, job searching, and interviewing! As I've been looking for jobs lately, I've been happily surprised by the postings I've seen. Not that the elementary postings are overwhelming, but I have seen SOME. That's enough to give me hope! I have an interview on Thursday that I'm excited about. It would be a fantastic district, from what I can tell. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!...

"Pressure Pushing Down on Me"...

I've known that I'm going to be moving on Sunday for a little while now. Why then, I ask you, have I not packed more than four boxes!? I must really like to work under a time line. There's really no other explanation other than my inherent laziness...so we'll go with me liking a deadline.
In reality, I find it difficult to pack while trying to maintain my everyday routine. Inevitably, anything that I decide to pack, I will end up needing with a desperation never seen before. Par example, my three whole punch. I hadn't used that baby in a good two months. The moment it found itself at the bottom of a tightly stuffed box, I suddenly HAD to three whole punch a stack of papers for work. Sigh. So any progress that I've made packing a box here or there is undone in an instant as I frantically search for white out, my 8th grade yearbook, mittens, the list could go on...
In the meantime, I will just have to accept that my neatly packed boxes are going to be ripped open at some point, my stacks of books will be shuffled around, and clothes I haven't worn in a year will be pulled out of their boxes before the Sunday move. I might have to accept my life as chaos for just a little while...

You Wixom, You lose some...

I headed back to Pontiac for my second interview today and I would say that it was less than average. I wonder what percentage of the population actually leaves an interview thinking, "Man, I rocked that...that job is SOOO mine"! I certainly wasn't left with that feeling this morning. Oh well. At least I (probably) found an apartment to live in. I do have to say that today left me feeling very much like a grown up, walking around in my cute BCBG suit and pointy toed heels, organizing my life...I only had to call my mom for help a couple of times! :)

Patience, Patience...

Perhaps I have been a little hasty in my annoyance with the job market, as I scored a second interview with the school in Pontiac. I'm not going to get my hopes up because then I'll start planning my classroom in frantic excitement...but I am writing this with a hint of happiness. Since I don't know a ton about the school, I don't feel super invested in getting a job there. But on the whole, I am super invested in getting ANY job. So this would be GOOD. Now I have to figure out what someone posing as a competent second grade teacher would say in a second interview...

Back in the day...

Whatever happened to the "Anne of Green Gables" days when you could so easily become the school teacher for the cute local one room school house?I went to a four year university, became certified to teach, and have worked with kids every summer, but I can't even find job postings for an elementary job! It doesn't seem fair. Even if I couldn't get a job, but at least saw postings in public schools, I would feel slightly encouraged. Just a little ranting...

On the Road Again...

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Pontiac bright and early for a job interview. While I'm there, I'm also going to check out some cheap-o apartments in Wixom. Let's hope for a new job and a cute new place to live. When I get back home, I start golf lessons in the evening. It's going to be a day filled with lots of new-ness. Wish me luck!

The More the Merrier...

Today at my cousin's baby shower, I was realizing how many of my family members have blogs and I was starting to feel left out. Since I'm going to be moving soon and I'm going to be experiencing many life changes, I thought that it would be fun to start documenting it all. Now I just need to get a camera that will take more than one picture before all the life is sucked out of the batteries, so I can add pictures. For now, you'll have to use your imagination: Picture a few shots of me rubbing my preggo sister's belly and me eating lots of desserts and you've summed up the major parts of the day...