Officially Ours...

Ohio was great. J and I drove straight through on the 16th and made it to Ohio around 3am on Saturday. We got 5 hours of sleep and then headed to the bank to put our wedding bands in the safe deposit box and then to the house! We unlocked our home and it was amazing!!! We bought an air mattress and slept there the whole week. I even got to use my jacuzzi tub before we started deconstructing the bathroom!

House Progress:

Living Room- We started taking the border down in the living room. I thought this would be a good place to start because it is small, and only around the top of the wall. WRONG!!!! In the process I learned that there is new wallpaper (border in living room) and old wallpaper (ugly bathroom wallpaper). The border is not down, and we are going to end up having someone come in and finish the mess that I started!

Master Bathroom- Once I learned about old wallpaper and how easy (yet time consuming) it is to take down, we switched tasks. The master bathroom was stripped of wallpaper, stripped of adhesive, patched, primed and painted. Seems like a lot, but we still need to put on one more coat of paint. Color chosen? Soft Duckling.

Wedding Progress:

Cupcakes! The Freeman wedding will be different because it will have cupcakes instead of cake. We will still cut the cupcake, it will just be smaller and easier to shove in J's mouth...I can't wait! The bakery that we are going with is called Blake's Cafe & Cupcakery. Please read about the bakery on the website http://www.basketfanfare.com/option/home.asp The family that owns the cupcakery has an autistic son, and they donate proceeds from their business to help children with autism!

Dress! Bought, mine, paid for, so excited! I got my veil and my shoes as well.(Thanks Mom!) The dress is perfect and I can't WAIT to wear it on my wedding day! I have to reschedule my fitting because it conflicts with my Praxis tests that I have to take, but that's ok- it will all get done!!!!

That's all for now, I'm going to go eat some lunch.

One More Day...

One day of school stands between me and my house! I can't wait, we are leaving tomorrow as soon as I get out of work. The buses better be on time!!!! One of my co-workers is getting married on Saturday so we all put in some money to get him a card and a gift certificate. We have been the engaged people at work since he got here and I am going to miss having that in common with someone. Maybe Caroline will get engaged soon!! A bunch of students won't be in the building tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a smooth, quiet day. I'm hoping to put up a bunch of pictures of the trip to Ohio in the next week! Stay tuned...

Update!

I'm bad at blogging! I read my blog more than I write in it. Let's get an update as to what's going on.

Wedding:
I have my first fitting scheduled for the 24th of April. I am very excited, and very nervous! I haven't seen my dress since November, and I am looking forward to seeing it again! Invitations came in the mail last week. They are beautiful- not a single thing wrong with them! I was so relieved and excited. I sent one to my mom, she is working on something secret, but I was glad that she got to see an invitation now. I also brought one to work to show one of my co-workers. More about her later!

House:
The countdown is on! Friday afternoon we leave for Ohio and I can't wait!!!!! I still don't feel like a true homeowner because I've never actually been to my house. We want to move stuff, paint walls and buy furniture next week- I think it will be a blast! We packed a lot of breakables and decorations last night. I hope they all make it!

School:
The students are being testy, and the closer we get to the end of the school year the closer we get to me having to tell them that I'm leaving. Most of my co-workers don't even know yet. I think there is a meeting tomorrow where the list of staff (I'm told there is a list) not returning next year will be revealed. I'm interested to see how the meeting goes.

I have been talking a lot with one of the girls that I work with. She is really sweet and I've opened up to her about a lot of wedding stuff and house stuff. She has been so supportive and positive that it makes it hard for me to think of leaving her. I have even wrestled with sending her a wedding invitation. I know she probably won't come, but I want her to know that I really value her friendship and that I am thankful for everything she has done!

Time to pack up the cats! We are going on a trip. They need to get used to being in the car.

Update!

My wedding dress is here! I got a call from the bridal store on Friday and my dress came in. Now comes the task of juggling my hectic schedule and finding time to get home for a dress fitting in the next month. I am so excited, but a little nervous, to try my dress on again. I know what it looks like from the picture online, but I also know that the picture doesn't nearly do it justice. The other panic of "what happened to the gym??" has also set in. It was so easy to put off, and now I'm carefully planning every meal for the next couple of weeks and scheduling a time to work my butt off.

The students have been in a weird mood lately. I don't know if it is spring fever, or pre-teen rebellion but they are just cranky and disrespectful. I need a crash course in teaching respect, because these kids don't have it! When we read stories about disrespectful people I get comments like, "That's mad rude!" but when we read stories about children who are punished for their poor behavior they say, "I'd kick their ass if they did that to me!". It's a no-win situation I feel.

Outside the world of weddings and houses J and I have been trying to spend more time together. We went to the grand opening of Old Navy a couple towns over from us, and then spent the afternoon on Saturday at the mall lazily browsing the new stores that have opened there just in time for spring. We also rented a dvd from RedBox last night. I really wanted to see Precious, but of course it wasn't available. So instead we watched The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was funny, a little difficult to follow (maybe because I was on the computer at the same time) but overall a good movie.

I gave up on cooking about the same time that I gave up on the gym. The problem is a lack of motivation, but I'm starting to get sick of the "normal" food that we eat all the time. This week we are going low key with meals. J and I made a giant fruit salad last night ($5 for raspberries??) and we are going to stick with lunch meats for our dinners.

An author that J and I both like is coming to Boston this Friday. I am excited because I've never heard him speak (but love his books) and J is excited because he has heard him speak (and loves his books) so we are going to head to the bookstore Friday night and maybe get something to eat afterwards. His new book "Bite Me" is really good. J has been reading it to me every night before bed. It is the BEST way to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it means that I hear 3 or 4 pages and then am asleep for the other 50 or 60 that J reads. I'm trying to catch up in my free time.

The weather is miserable, but this weekend is supposed to be nice. I'm excited to get outside again- the 70 degree day we had a few weeks ago was such a tease. Overall my mood is just very positive and excited. Things are really looking good!

Home Owners

It's official! We are homeowners! I am so excited and relieved and feel like the stress level in our apartment has dropped significantly. The papers made it to the bank, the money made it to the bank, we're good! So this week has been a week of celebration, and I want it to keep going!

The other night we went to the mall and after searching for months I finally found the wedding band that fits with my engagement ring. I was so relieved, I was so happy, I couldn't even put it into words. J got a band that matches and it is really nice. This weekend we have our marriage prep class in Waltham, so hopefully that goes well.

The weather has been gorgeous this week and I'm so excited to just enjoy it!

Signed, Sealed....Being Delivered

The contracts showed up on Saturday and J and I spent the evening reading through the pages, double checking the fine print and determining exactly what he had to do today. I just heard from him and everything is signed, notarized and on it's way back! I didn't know if I would have the patience to deal with this, but here we are a month later buying our house!!!!

We went to Home Depot yesterday and looked at paint. We found some colors that we like, I think the living room might be the first on my list of things to do. We also found a living room set at Macy's that we like and it matches the colors that we picked for the living room!

School is going smoothly today. I am much happier having 5 students as opposed to 8. It is just so much more manageable this way. I think the students can feel it, and I hope last period goes well. Last week when I tried to do this activity my coffee mug got smashed.

Going out to celebrate the closing tonight! Once again, I am THRILLED!!!!!

Changes

Things are getting pretty crazy at school! Three new students are joining our school on Monday and two of them are younger, so that impacts my classroom. No, they are not bumping my enrollment up to 10. They are actually splitting my class up and adding a new classroom. On top of that, the physical location of my classroom is changing. It's exciting, but it's stressful. I take for granted those long empty summer days when I can sit around and cut out borders and bulletin boards. Now I have to put a classroom together in a day! Staff are staying late tomorrow to set up our new spaces and I have a little bit of shopping to do for my new room. The students find out in about 20 minutes and I'm expecting mixed reactions. Cross your fingers and hope that this goes as smooth as possible!

In other news, I teach one more class today and then my students earned an incentive and we are having a snack/movie party! I'm pumped, they're pumped, YEAH!

Things are moving slowly with the house. Bank called yesterday and said everything looks in order. J has to wait for the contract to be mailed on Saturday. Which is too bad because my mom and aunts are coming up this weekend to go shopping. J will just have to join us once the mail comes! Closing is on Monday, let's hope it is smoother than the LAST closing we were supposed to have.

Pumped about April vacation. Trip to Ohio (again) to start doing things with OUR house! Too bad there are still about 25 school days until we go. I'm still really excited!