Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Photos!

So tomorrow is our first big photo shoot!  The big bad engagement shoot.

Aaaaannnd it is supposed to rain.  So our photographer is going to call us in the morning to check in about the weather and see if we need to reschedule.

I picked out some outfits,  although I think I am going to clash with FH because we forgot his black shoes out with his stuff...and of course the outfits that came together tonight were all ones with black...and he will be in brown.  Oh well!

Cross your fingers for LIGHT showers.!!

Monday, May 24, 2010

76 days...

I am SO exhausted.  And yet I can't sleep!

I am exhausted because.... WE ARE ALMOST DONE WITH INVITES!!!

My oldest sister/Matron of Honor came down to stay for the weekend, and helped FH and I power through some massive invite creation!

We....

  • Cut 200 strips of paper 1 inch wide and stamped them all (these wrap around the invite.
  • folded 150 Envelope thingers.
  • Cut out the bottom tap to fold up and create the envelope feel.
  • Punched half circles in all the envelopes to create the "pull here" area!
  • Taped all 150 envelopes including the super annoyingly-difficult bottom tabs thingers. (photo's after I mail them!)
  • punched out 200 circles to cover the back of the little wrap around strap thingies. (just to make it look cuter!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!!)
  • stuffed the 150 finished envelopes with invites and RSVP cards!
  • MOM (the amazing woman that she is) is doing all the calligraphy on the envelopes.  She made about 80 today.  Thank the lord for walmarts little shoulder heater thing, it kept her muscles from cramping up and added hours to her in-put!  Wowza!
the Hang-ups...
  • Leaving all of the envelope paper in the trunk of my car while it was in the shop all weekend... oops! (Solution: going to the paper store and buying more, we will return the extra!)
  • Forgot to purchase stamps while the post office was open... actually we still need to weigh the buggers and make sure they don't cost extra... if they do I may cry!  
  • Also, purchase stamps for the RSVPs...I'm pretty sure it is bad manners to send out a "mail-back" without a stamp...which we almost did because my MOH stuff 20+ envelopes before I realized she should stop!  SORRY Miss Em!
  • Entertaining a 5 yr old while making these suckers!

To top it off I completed a BUNCH of job applications on Saturday.  Thus it was a ridiculously constructive weekend, even if no blogging got done! Yay!!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Best news of the week:

You might know that song from the 50's :

"I'm in heaven, I get carried away.  I dream of him and me, and how it's gonna be."

Well I am in HEAVEN!!  *stop rolling your eyes*

The FH is graduated and back home!
**happy dance**

Praise and Hall-eh-la-Ja!

**Also, Denver Int'l Airport is still on my Naughty List.  FH had a layover there and was delayed for hours.  Turning his pick-up time from 11PM to 2 AM....!!!  I will have you know I am a dedicated substitute and taught music on 3 hours of sleep!

This is what I wanted to do:



Quote(s) of the week:

First Grader: "Teacher, you look just like the music teacher we had!"
Me: "That's because I WAS your music teacher!"

Me: "Any questions?"
Kindergartner: "Your hair is brown."
Me: "..."

78 Days

WOOOHOOO!!

Tonight my willing sweatshop factory workers were plied with homemade stroganoff AND homemade apple pie (didn't I say my MOH was awesome?).  Along with the yummy apple and Dubliner cheese salad (YUM!) with lettuce that is to DIE for. and also Garlic Bread.

The results were Fabulous:

Completed today:

  • Chopping of 200+ "color popping" thingers for the invites.
  • the taping on of the invites to the color poppers 
  • the deciding of how the sheebittygaegae these suckers were going to get all put together with the outside bit... UGH!
All in all I feel happy that at least those steps of the DIY invites are done.  I might hate them by the end of this weekend though, because it is now a war between finishing wedding stuff by the end of the month or working on job stuff...Who Will WIN????  

P.S. I am still full from this Thursdays Dinner.  yowza!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Giveaway!

Check out the fabulous giveaway at Dear Lillie

I love this dress in Navy with the red.  I'm seeing a fabulous fourth of July outfit!



Monday, May 17, 2010

Bulletin Board Make-Over Part 1.. The paint!

Now, I am not a very crafty person.  Or rather, I don't tackle a lot of craft projects in general.

While planning our wedding for this coming summer, I was frustrated with a lack of a central location for all my information, my planning, my gathering etc. to be stored but visible and accessible at the same time.

This is when I noticed my large, unsightly bulletin board.  Sitting unobtrusively behind my desk, covered in... crud.  It has been a highly coveted room accessory, not for it's looks, but for it's functionality.  Doesn't every teenage girl need a 5 by 6 foot bulletin board?  Needless to say, I kept this bugger in my room.  And now I was finding myself eyeballing it's hideousness and planning....
Oh hey there you ugly thing, you!  Hmmm...

I knew I had some left over primer from painting the entire downstairs this fall...

So I got down to business.  Dusty business, luckily this primer is like shellack, you may feel slightly woozy after use, but you can primer ANYTHING.... see:

**note putting dollar novels under your painting projects is a great way to "recycle" them and to keep your edges off the painting tarp.

The board just had the frame tacked onto the bulletin board... no problem, Shellack it!

So... blah blah primer.  Done!

Then you go... white is boring, what colors could I do?  Oh, I only have one color of paint... Okay the kitchen wall color sounds good to me!...see:



Gorgeous!:


(Don't get distracted by other projects like I did... OH hello ugly little shelf thinger...I think you would look rockin' in blue too!)

ANYWAY... What to do about that ugly bulletin board center?  Well, this is actually my THIRD bulletin board re-do.  As a manager in college I re-did some boards at my workplace.  I covered one board with cloth (a pain in the prum-pum-boo, because I cannot measure)... and I did one in contact paper....hmmm

TO BE CONTINUED!...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

I wish

I wish that right now I could just sit down, watch the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice, and get all of my wedding planning and prep done in those 6 hours of movie.

:D  A girl can dream can't she?!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Thursday Dinner #4

This week we decided on Tacos.  Miss Em's boy brought some yummy margarita mix!  Miss Em and I gathered and shopped for everything else we needed.

As usually food was scrump-diddly-umptious!

But I have to tell you.

I am in love with cilantro!  Seriously, that stuff makes food taste so good.

Which is funny because my FH cannot stand cilantro anymore... apparently in China they put it in EVERYTHING and he got really sick of it while studying abroad there.

Still, cilantro, don't worry, I still eat you!

FH GRADUATES TOMORROW! I cannot think of a word good enough to describe how awesome that is and how happy I am.  Just boring words like happy.  What kind of teacher am I?

87 days

Have I already mentioned how fabulous my MOH and my Madre are?  Well, they are awesome.

They are my psuedo-fiance while mine is wrapping up his graduation (FRIDAY!).

Today we (as a team) added fifty million things to the CHECKED OFF portion of the stressfull all consuming, keeps you awake at night LIST.

Checked off today:

  • Visited reception site, counted tables and chairs and did a floor plan.
  • Did our order for:
    • Linens for the seating tables
    • Linens for the dessert buffet
    • Little plates for the desserts and cake
    • Champagne flutes
    • and extra 150 folding chairs.
    • Paper napkins for drinks and food.
    • green linen napkins for accent.
  • I also called and touched bases with our "DJ".  My BM/lil sis's Boy.  He is a "real" DJ (no really DJ Kruel or something like that?  He makes some sweet music actually.  He is providing the speakers, and other sound stuff, a microphone and such for our reception.  He also said as long as he gets to practice he is more than happy to run music for the ceremony.  (can you say UH-mazing!)
On the drawing board for the next "to-do's"...

Where to have the rehearsal dinner. (Ideas include, thai restaurants in the area, a close to the church indian restaurant, catering at a KTV place... FUN!)

Shoes shoes shoes???  Can I tell you how much I am not digging regular bridal shoes?  ew!

Also... my MOH sent out invites for my bridal shower, than is being held at HER madre's house (thank you Mama F!).  Way to go Miss Em!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Thursday Dinner #3

Thursday Dinner at Miss Em's house. A new tradition we started up, wherein we gather our friends from the area, invite them to dinner made by us (mostly Em), and then we hang out.

How did we choose Thursday? you ask.  Well, Tuesdays were a conflict between Glee (the girls) and Lost (the boys).  Mondays is Zumba night at the gym.  Wednesdays are one of the boys family dinner night.  So we choose Thursday.

For dinner this past Thursday evening.  Homemade meatballs, gravy (not homemade), Lingenberries, and boiled potatoes, OH and Asparagus, since it is in season...ish (that and I like it).  Miss Em and I were feeling inspired by our trip to Ikea.  :D

P.S. I have never made homemade meatballs before, so incase you want to try...

Meatballs:

  1. Chop up 1 reg. onion.  Saute in a pan with a scootch of oil (olive or canola or veggie) until clear-ish.
  2. Mix with ground beef (preferably the lean kind), some eggs, some bread crumbs, some salt, some pepper, and some milk.
  3. Bake these in the oven.  Put yummy brown gravy and some lingenberries on them!  
  4. ENJOY!
(okay I know I got a little sketchy on the details... I was dying of hunger!)

Miss Em notes: Swedish meatballs are normally cooked in a skillet, but skillet cooking tends to brown faster than it cooks.  So she cooks her swedish meatballs the italian way.  Also, run your onions under cold water before you chop = less crying action.  The more onion the better in her opinion!

Vistaprint

So, I have just completed my second order from vistaprint.  So far I haven't received either order.  BUT I will tell you this.  WHY IS SHIPPING SO EXPENSIVE????
Holy jeebas!

I ordered 500 postcards (our RSVP's), and they JUST got shipped because I choose the 21 day, $8 dollar option the first time around.   THAT is a LONG time!   But I am a cheapskate on a budget

Today I got bummed out for about five minutes by the fact that I haven't gotten many sub jobs since I finished my last long-term one.  Then I started planning ways to get the word out that I was available to sub again.  I recalled seeing in my last email update from vistaprint ("your order has shipped"), that they were having a deal on business cards.  250 for $3.99.   So I designed them, thinking how smart I was to find such a good deal.  And then I choked again on the shipping options.  Because I needed the business cards sooner than 21 days.  I choose the 7 days $13 dollar option.  This is still cruddy (and by cruddy I mean slow and expensive).  But I figure I won't get many jobs until after the WASL/new name "MSP" testing is done next week.

If you are looking to order in bulk for stuff online.  I HIGHLY recommend costco though!  When I needed double sided tape in bulk for my invites, I ordered ten rolls (the little dispenser guys) from costco on a Sunday and they arrived on Tuesday.  FREEEEE SHIPPING!!!!!!!  This made the cost of the tape way easier to handle (around $28 or so)


So.... mad props to Costco and Vistaprint...  my orders had better being freakin CUTE!

Trouble at the paper factory...

Invitation creations have come to a halt here in the invitation factory*.

I am out of lime green paper.  Why did you start making the invites if you didn't have enough paper? you ask.  Well... I THOUGHT I did...!  But it turn out I have a ton of regular printer paper in lime green, but no more card stock.   28h$gh!*#))!!!

That and I have still managed to NOT find any decent black linen-ee paper that doesn't have lines on it.  Dots would be fine...or anything not stripey... I might end up going with the black that looks a bit plaid-ish.  BUT I really don't know where to find lime green card stock again.  (In fact I have no idea where it came form the first time!)

* No really, my friend Chris complained that earning his home cooked meal by putting together my invites made him feel like he was in a sweatshop.  I told him sweatshops don't serve dinner and beer.  :D

Sunday, May 9, 2010

90 Days

ACK!

Something about those multiples of ten days.  They just make my brain fry a little bit.

Checked off the list this week:

  • Purchased favor candy.  (way faster/easier than the cute DIY idea I had)
  • put together 100 invites.... half way made them I mean...
  • Purchased a lifetime supply of tea lights.  (Any volunteers to light them all?)
And the best part?  FH graduates on FRIDAY!  

Plus I powered through 2 job applications this weekend.  We shall be employed!  We shall not live with parents!  We shall have health insurance and food! 

(If I say them like commandments do you think they will come true??)

Also, I got into ANOTHER fight tonight with the substitute call line/my cell phone.  I had no reception, so I didn't get the ONLY job that was posted tonight!  Lame-o!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Saturday Night

How to relax:

1 cup champagne
1/4 cup limonchello
crushed ice
raspberries

Mash up some raspberries in the crushed ice action, (this is my own interpretation... this leads to delicious raspberry flavor all throughout your drink!).  Mix the champagne and limonchello in a pitcher.  Put crushed raspberry ice into a flute or martini glass.  Pour yummy drink mix on top, put a few not crushed raspberries in.

Enjoy with a game of Settlers of Catan.

(P.S. I always lose at this game!)

Recipe from Food Networks talented Giada De Laurtentis!  YUM!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Pet Peeve

Okay I love blogs.  Number one reason:  Free reading.  I cannot afford books at the rate I read.

Major blogging pet peeve.  The Giveaways.  Don't get me wrong, I love free stuff opportunities like the rest of them.

BUT, I DON'T want to enter your giveaway 10 times.  Seriously?  Make them just one entry.  Please!

okay, thats all for now.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

pictures, and photos, and photographers Oh MY!

As of spring break (a while back while I was visiting FH and family)  we officially adopted our photographer for our wedding, Jerome Tso.

I say adopted because ... I feel like it?  But no really,  Jerome is awesome to work with.  And I know this because I used to work for him.  Remember that summer of the crepes?   Well, needless to say I learned my lesson on going back into food service (4 years in college was pah-lenty!).  But I stayed friends with the awesome Jerome Tso who is based out of Seattle.

Click the link to go see his wedding photos.  Or read his great blog.

His photo's are gorgeous, even thought FH will refuse to take any of "kissy" pictures!  I'm so excited to work with him, especially for our engagement session, which we will hopefully get set up for later this month!

Dinner by me

So, if you know me, and even if you know me as an acquaintance you might know that I do not cook much.  I prefer to eat and then do the dishes for the cook.

BUT, I wanted to let the world know (not that the world is reading...) that I made dinner.

Yes, I pre-prepared dinner on Sunday night for dinner on Monday.......


and no one wanted dinner Monday....

or Tuesday....


My enchiladas are just sitting in the fridge all ready to be cooked.  They are not feeling the love.

Poor enchiladas.  :(


(This is where, if I were good about pictures, I would post a pic of my enchiladas all sad and lonely in the fridge... but I don't have one... so... here. *yummy isn't it?*.. Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!!)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Top Secret Missions

Care Packages.

They are so fun to make and send to friends (and fiance's!)

I am thinking about getting one ready to send off tomorrow for my Boo.  This week is his dead week at school and next week is finals.  (AND THEN HE GRADUATEs! YAY!)

Now if I had been on the ball, I would have had one sent out last week so that he had it to get him through dead week.  But I didn't.... LUCKILY his dead week was actually not so killer (*whew*).

But he has some wicked finals coming up so I need to go and see what I can pull together to include.

Some History:
I have sent FH packages before.  While he was studying overseas in China (we were not dating at this point) and during several of his other "dead week/finals week" times.

In other funny related news FH and I have jointly made packages to send to camp friends after one camp season, years before we were dating.  Let me tell you,  making care packages is fun.

His China care package included such fabulous things as:

  • Cheese-its that were so smashed they were cheese-dust
  • a cheap frisbee that broke the first time he used it.
  • Lots of Gum. (China has icky gum apparently)
  • Butterfingers candy bars.  (his big craving)
  • Dehydrated Lefse (... it's a Norwegian thing)
  • a baggie of cinnamon and sugar (to go with the lefse.... but it leaked all over the package)
  • an assortment of random ISH that I gathered at the dollar store (dollar tree?)
  • THE MOST IMPORTANT PART:  a pic of us.  :D
Other packages have included things like pajama's, water bottles, socks, and treats to snack on.  I usually ruin the surprise by asking what the receiver REALLY wants.  (no one wants stuff they hate!)

In other news, (completely unrelated news) THIS makes me pee my pants laughing!

Monday, May 3, 2010

SUCCESS!!


We have a winner folks!  A couple of weeks ago my MOH (miss Em) and I ran across this number at the local mall.  

(This image is courtesy of the limited website!)

This is The Limited.  Unfortunately when I was looking for an image to put up here I ran across this.  
Do you see that?  That is the stamp of failure on our fault for not waiting to see when the dress would 
go on sale.  BUT, at least we have the dresses, so *shrugs* oh well.

The dress fits all of the things we were looking for:
  1. Black
  2. Simple
  3. Looks good on all three beauties!
  4. Affordable!!!
It sounds easy when you read the list, but in all honesty it was NOT!  When you are shopping for
only yourself you forget that other people have different styles, likes and dislikes from you. 
So even just narrowing the playing field was tough.  That and I seem to have a much easier time
 saying what I DON'T like, than what I DO like.  

At this point I would like to give a shout-out to lil' sis and Miss Em for trying on well over 30 dresses. 

Still in limbo....  Shoes?

96 days...

MY RIGHT ARM IS ONE BIG CRAMP!!!!

No seriously though!

I am adding to the "DONE" list:

  • 300+ invitations cut out.
  • 300+ envelopes with return address stickers on them
I will let you do the calculations (MY ARM IS TOO TIRED), each printed sheet had 2 invites on it, on which I had to make 6 cuts to "release" them from the page.    6 times (330 divided by 2) = big arm cramp.

And then I went and worked at my mom's school and printed the entire math and reading Washington State Grade Level Expectations for fourth grade, onto sentence strips.  

Anyway, FYI repetitive slicing motions and then writing for 2 hours straight will hurt you!

The girls day/night

The INFAMOUS bachelorette party.  Planning has commenced recently with renewed vigor.  We have a time lime set up, I've given my input to the MOH, Em.

I was inspired to do a fun "girls weekend" like the one I got to participate in when I was younger and my amazing older cousin B was getting married.  We went and camped in a mountain town, went river rafting and then did girly stuff for the whole weekend.  It was amazing and so fun for me and my younger sister who were in high school at the time.  The best part was the river rafting so.... I want an activity!

Since we want to stick around our area we are making a list of "activity" ideas:


  1. Pottery Painting (too spendy, and I seriously do this a lot anyway)
  2. Local Minor League Baseball Game (the Majors were OOT on our weekend, boo!)
  3. Kayaking on the waterfront
  4. Renting out a sailboat thinger with crew... (I'm still in the dark about this one)
  5. Going sky diving (ooo! This one sounds SO fun, but spendy!)
  6. Going parasailing! (and no we don't live in a warm area!)
  7. Hanging out at my MOH's parent's house on the lake.
And hopefully more ideas will follow!  Any contributions?

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Job search

Job search 2010.

This is my third year on the job market.  Now that sounds like I haven't been employed but I have been.  Being a teacher is tricky.  Jobs are usually only "open" for about half of the year.  Districts start hiring in the spring and usually finish up their hiring in October (although I did have one interview in December).

I hate interviewing.  Any takers?  Yeah, I can never seem to get the right combo of things working for me.

Want to know a secret?  I never did interview for my first teaching job!  ACK!  Okay I did interview with my district, but when my principal was short a teacher 4 days before school, someone told her to get me, so I started that day as a "substitute" to fill in the position.  Because I had such awesome recommendations (okay it was more about WHO wrote the recommendation) I was hired on soon after as the full time teacher.

To make a long story short, I taught my first year out, subbed this year and am now out there in the trenches fighting my way into my very own classroom!  (very vivid I know)  But in all actuality while I have loved being able to grow as a teacher, a professional and a nurturer (kindergarten!) I MISS having my own classroom, my own kiddo's and my own SPACE!  (and I think my basement could stand to lose a few HUNDRED children's books etc...)

ANYWAY, I started this post because  was trying to get my job application ball rolling by printing off applications for a few districts that still live in the dark ages and require you to submit paper and pen applications (SO OLD SCHOOL!).  When I discovered that... the new computer did not have adobe... how annoying!   So...maybe I will start applying tomorrow... if no one needs a substitute that is!

The end of an Era

Friday was my last day having a "real" job.  When you are a substitute a "real" job constitutes anything over a week, shoot even a week feels like a real job when you are subbing.  I like to categorize real jobs by whether or not I know all the kids names when I'm done.

I've been in this job since January now, and it was really hard to leave.  I've been teaching remediation reading and math in small groups for 2nd through 6th graders.  I loved the kids I was working with, and of course it is my amazing staff from last year (my first year of teaching) again.  And let me tell you, they are pretty stinkin' awesome!

So I was not only sad to leave because it was such a fun job, but I really needed the money.  That and who is able to answer their phone at 4 in the morning?  Unfortunately.... not me!

Dear subline,

Please call me with lots of jobs every night.... instead of in the morning!  Thanks!

~Me

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Giveaway!

Check out Dear Lillie for an amazing give-away.


I am hoping that I can win and get this:



















or this:


Wouldn't those be adorable for my wedding?  

Go check out their blog to enter their giveaway of $100 of products from their Etsy shop!

98 Days

Things checked off the list today:


  • PRINTED INVITES !!!!
  • Seriously though, that took FOREVER, and was very stressful, but now it is DONE!
The saddest part of the whole printing process was realizing that I COULD NOT get my RSVP cards to line up correctly (I'm printing double-sided to make post-cards).  So... I gave up and I will let Kinko's try it soon.  I know this is not part of the Money Saving Plan, but... it will now be part of the Sanity Saving Plan.  

Also, in other news, my ring is back from the jewelry store. (thank you Miss Em!)  Yes, I broke my ring... but it is back in one continuous circle of love again now! :D  Yay!

Thursday Dinner #2

Miss Em made some scrumdiddlyumptious dinner this past week for the crew.

Baked Chicken in salsa
Mexican Rice on the stovetop
Salad with Guac, carrots, cucumbers, olives, and cilantro (YUM!)
+
Brownies & Ice Cream

I can really only take credit for helping with the salad!

The most exciting part of dinner prep would have to be when we made the boys wash and cut up the lettuce.  I informed them that after they washed the lettuce they should put it into dishtowels and swing it around to get the water off.  Note to readers; DOUBLE UP YOUR DISH TOWELS!  Yes, the boys enjoyed spraying the lettuce water all over Miss Em's poor kitchen.

Thanks Miss Em for the cooking, the hot tub, the cable and the company!

99 days

Isn't it lovely how theknot.com knows that seeing a number like 99 days until your freaking wedding, will really put a fire under your buns?  Actually seeing that it was almost 100 really freaked me out first.  I mean, shucks, that is ridiculously soon!

Right?

Well, it feels soon!

Goals met today: (if I make this bold it will feel like more goals are met!)

  • White paper for printing Invites purchased!
  • Awesome Bridal Party gifts started!  (got inspired, but went in a totally different direction from this)
Special thanks to Mama A for her help today!

Goals met this week:

  • TONS of Bridal shower planning with my MOH.
  • Relaxing (oh wait...)
  • Brainstorming for the Bachelorette party "special event" continued (with input from the guy friends this week)
  • Paperwork for Wedding License picked up (okay i just happened to see it while at the auditors office this week for tabs, but hey, it's on the board of fabulousness bulletin board now!)  PS why is license spelt that way?  strange.
  • More missing addresses collected.
This is the party of the day where I say, YAY!  Things got done!

One more reason to celebrate May...

18 days (or so) until the FH returns!

Happy May Day to you!