Before and After: Bulletin Board

This huge bulletin board has been hanging around my parents house.... since as far back as I can remember, which means since I was a teenager, because kids don't care about bulletin boards, teenage girls DO.

My sisters and I have used it in our rooms in the past, but it was looking pretty raggedy.  So I gave it a paint job face lift from this:

To this:

Now for the rest of the Bulletin Board Makeover...

I was all about finding a fabric or some contact paper that I (or my parental unit) had already purchased.  In fact, this project cost me ZERO dollars, because the primer, paint and contact paper I used were all just sitting around from old projects.  This contact paper was from... redoing my grandma's house I think??

Works for me!!

Sadly I cannot measure worth beans, but I had plenty of contact paper to fix my mistakes.

BEST TOOL EVER!  My pampered chef scraper/squeegy/picker-upper-thingy.  (I also keep one in my car for squeegy-ing my windows!)  It worked great for scraping the paper perfectly flat, no bubbles here!

Here is what the board looked in its final stages.

Now I have this fabulous, VASTLY improved Bulletin Board area.

I used it for staging much of my wedding stuff, (all those boxes, and TONS of stuff pined to the board eventually).  Now I am thinking about putting it back behind my desk to create a better work station.

Before:

After:

Story of the Day

I substituted this morning for one of the first grade teachers at my school. (Sidenote, a few students have asked if this teacher is my sister) My school does walk to read, which means students sometimes go to other teachers, or come to me from other classrooms for reading time. I apparently forgot to tell the reading kids who came IN the classroom that I was subbing for their reading teacher. I just figured they knew who I was because I teach them science.

First grader comes to sit down at the reading table for small group instruction.
Student looks at me, "You look just like Mrs. Rude!"

Me, " .... I AM Mrs. Rude...?"

Student, "Oh..."

Apparently Mrs. V and I look alike. hehe



The other entertainment of the day was a comedy of catching the fly that was flying around. It finally got "cup caught" when it landed on a child, whose intrepid neighbor slammed a cup over it, onto the poor boy. The fly then went into a container with a caught daddy-long-legs spider. Gotta love teaching about spiders!!

Choosing a wedding photographer

Okay I know my posts are all over the place topic wise this week, but who cares?  NOT ME!

I was thinking today, while browsing my wedding photographers blog, about how we ended up using Jerome for our pictures.

Ours was not a nice journey.  But it is a good example of not being a "YES" person.  In fact I am rarely, if ever, a Yes person.  Even my Mother will attest to that fact.  (sorry mom!)

My In-laws have had a family photographer that they have used for every event, senior portraits, family photo's, and weddings.  Needless to say, I was encouraged to meet with the photographer, and even bribed with "contributions" toward that area of the budget, if we went with this photographer.

Unfortunately for my in-laws (sorry Netty!!!) I have been following Jerome's wedding blog for some time now.  Jerome was my boss a few years back, when I attempted to work an hour away from home as a crepe chef.  A yummy job with a horrible commute.   Luckily when I quit, Jerome remained friendly towards me!  Because the kid has got some serious camera skills.  I knew from working with him that he was a hard worker, and spent TONS of time editing photo's from his weddings.  I knew from his blog, that his style was what I wanted in photo's.

When I met with my in-laws photographer, their photo's were unedited, and they had no RECENT (nothing since the 90's!!!) wedding prints/albums/etc. to show me!  Nothing said "WOW" to me, which I felt horrible about.

Compromise people.    I told my poor hubby that we needed to compromise.  We went with his pastor, my photographer.  This was not an easy decision, lots of conversation went into it.  I hope my MIL still loves me!  (Ok, I KNOW she does!)  Also... our pictures are AWESOME (even though it rained hehe).

Choosing a photographer advice:

1. Find a style
2. Find a price point (or a really nice friend who does wedding photography... :D)
3. Find a photographer
4. STICK TO YOUR GUNS!

Story of the Day

Technically this story is from yesterday, but I still wanted to share it.

I teach science.  I'm kind of like a music teacher, but I come around to some of the classrooms at my school and teach science instead!  So sometimes during my teaching sessions we have school assemblies, as we did yesterday.   This assembly is where the story of the day comes from.

Time: 3:00PM
Location:  School Gymnasium
Event:  ASB elections.

After all of the ASB candidates had given their election speeches, the principal came on the microphone and asked the school to give all the CANDIDATES a big round of applause.

Second grader yells over the clapping to his neighbor, " CANADA'S?  Did she say CANADA'S?"
And then he proceeded to laugh hysterically over how funny Canada's was. He turned to me and said again, "What are Canada's????!!!?!?!"

Me, " I'll tell you later."  (smile)

Trying new things

So I am currently trying out the website Swagbucks.  I have heard about it before, but it was mentioned on one of the blogs I follow this past week.

If I understand the FAQs I've been reading, you earn swagbucks for doing things through their website.  Then you can cash in those swagbucks for prizes and other things in the "swag store".  When I read the blog, my mind thinks... FREE STUFF??? Say what?

So far I've been trying to remember to use it (you can add their tool bar for easy access), you can do searches through their website (pretend it's google) and then you earn more swagbucks.  I've been signed up for 4 days already and I'm at 100 swagbucks.  A $5 giftcard for 450 swagbucks...can you say hello Christmas?  Birthday?  Thank you presents?  Yes?  I thought so.  You also get swagbucks if your referrals earn swagbucks.  There are also bonus codes, if I catch any I'll be sure to pass the love on!

Give it a try, sign up here!

Changing your mind...sort of.

I am one of those people who really sees things in black and white.  So I usually am very set in how I think about things.  Rarely do I change an opinion, but occasionally it does happy.

As of this week, I am officially a Crocs lover.  But these are not the original bright colored clown shoe crocs.  NO, these babies are SOOO cute!  No clown shoes here folks.  Check them out!

(photo courtesy of Crocs.com)

These are the new Croc style, called Crocband flats.  I have NEVER owned crocs before (and I have never wanted to), so wearing these rubbery flats was a new experience.  

Let me give you a little background on how I ended up with these babies.  I was in desperate need of new white flats.  My previous white flats were some ridiculously old Payless white flats with NO support, ripping out sole linings, and honestly they were no longer white.  So before work one morning I was cruising through Zappo's white flats to see what styles were out there.  I clicked on this flat, but was turned off when I realized that the brand was Crocs.  Seriously 2 hours later I was at work and one of the other young gal teachers was wearing these shoes and I got really excited when I saw how cute they were on her, with pants.  She told me she really loved them because they were so comfy and she could put them in the washer with a load of clothes, so they stayed nice and white.  UM, LOVE IT!  A white flat that stays white!??!  SWEET!

Best purchase in a while.  I have not taken them off since I got home from work!   Hubby even said he was pretty skeptical of the whole Croc thing, but he said I should see if they come in a nice red color too!  And so, I change from a Crocs disliker, to a Crocband lover!   

Planning Ahead

As I read Centsational Girl's blog today one of her little reminders really popped out at me. (Mostly because we are only borrowing our house right now, and we WILL eventually have to give it back to it's owners and move back to my parents house).


The HOLIDAYS are coming up.  Hubby and I are SO unprepared this year.  With him starting a new job we are unsure of how much time he can take off over the holidays.  We have been planning on having a wedding reception back in MN where his parents and a ton of family and friends live.  Question being... how on earth are we going to get back there long enough to have one?   We are hoping to get this figured out soon, but seeing a remind to get your holiday travel plans figured out really worried me!



In other news... do I need to wear my wedding dress for a reception that is months AFTER the wedding.  I mean really, who keeps going to the gym AFTER their wedding?  (not me! *tisk tisk*)  Besides holding my shoulders back for my entire wedding day didn't go to well.  Gotta love them strapless dresses... SIKE!  Also... I have fully trained my MOH to put my into it, who in MN can do that?  :D

IN other planning ahead news... we are also trying to plan our honeymoon trip to Norway this coming summer....only we aren't sure how to take a month off of a job that doesn't give you paid vacation the first year...ummm?  We sure like being employed, we are sure NOT enjoying being worried about vacations!  Can't we be like Norwegians who get a whole month off a year?  Please?

Easy Chicken-Rice Casserole

This is a rockin' recipe that I stole from Mama A.   My family LOVES this casserole, and we are not big casserole folk, so you KNOW it is gonna be yummy.

Please note:  This is a casserole that I do not measure stuff out for.  It always ends up tasting good!

(photo courtesy of fredmeyer.com)

Pre-buy: A roaster chicken that is (preferably) on sale at your local market.  Mr. Meyers makes some yummy chicken.  Also I buy the aluminum "throw-away" loaf pans so that I can stick some in the freezer for later dinners.

1. Cook a Pot of Rice.
2. Put that rice in a bowl with the following:
3. The roaster chicken, but rip it up into small bite pieces!
4. um maybe 2 cans of  cream of chicken/mushrom/whatever you have in the pantry.
5. 2 small bags of shredded cheese, this is maybe ummm 4 or more cups?  (What, who doesn't like cheese? Also... cheese that was on sale, always a PLUS!)
6. Chopped up veggies.  Fresh always tastes better, but we don't care if they are frozen.  What veggies taste good you ask?  Umm Carrots, Broccoli, Corn, Peas...please feel free to get creative.  How much?...umm enough so that you have some color in every bite?  
7. Add some pepper and probably you don't need any salt because that cream of whatever you added will have tons of sodium.  (yum!)  Also, feel free to get creative and add more spices or onion, or whatever your family likes. (hot sauce?)

Mix that up, hopefully you have a huge bowl, it sometimes gets messy.  If you notice it looks too dry, or you think you need more cheese, JUST ADD IT.   Fill up some loaf pans, or a big casserole pan.  Make sure you mark on the freezer pans what the heck it is, and the date and how to cook it, and then put it in a freezer ziplock after tinfoiling it!  Cook unfrozen for...uh an hour??  at 350?? for frozen... more and hotter than that??  (I will tell you an hour at 350 for a full frozen loaf pan = a very frozen dinner 1 hr later...)  

For exhausted teachers who come home at the end of a fall day of teaching a classroom of rambunctious kiddos who would rather be outside playing, casserole full of veggie and meat and cheese that you can pop in the oven IS A GODSEND!

Friends Dinner - Chicken Cordon Bleu

Tonight was another Friends Dinner.  This is the new "official" title of our Thursday night dinners at Miss Em's house... because they are now on Sundays.  You know, football and all that jazz.

So it just becomes easier to refer to them as Friends Dinners, just in case the day of the week changes again.

This week the talented Miss Em (and my hottie hubby)  cooked up a storm.  (Literaly there were 4 pyrex casserole dishes, one deep dish electric skilled, one metal casserole dish and two pots... AND the mixer).  We enjoyed some yummy Chicken Cordon Bleu, pan seared in the electric skillet, then baked.  With whipped mashed garlic potatoes (in the mixer, SO fast and fun!)  and steamed asparagus.

But the real star of the show this week was the dessert.  Miss Em saw a jellO ad in one of hubby's Food Network mags and decided to whip (pun intended) it up.  Lemon-Raspberry Mousse scrumptiousness.  Of course I ate too many mashed potatoes to finish mine.  (Thanks Shane!)

(photo courtesy of kraft dot com)

(OMG Kraft website has 207 jellO recipes with nilla wafers in the them SAY WHAT!!)

In short I may have gained some weight after eating some of my sisters scrumptious cooking and then adding chicken with ham and cheese in the middle for dinner followed by that dessert!   Oh hey leftovers that came home with me... hehe!

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.!!

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!!!

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!

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!

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!...

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 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!

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

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 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!

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.

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!!!!)

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!

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?

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

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!