Viva Las Vegas!

Okay, so. Planning a wedding in less than six months when the wedding is 4 hours away from your current residence kind of sucks. Especially when your parents are divorced, your mom wants you to have what you want but can't afford extravagant, and your dad is being a butthole because he's male and doesn't understand. Add that to the fact that your fiancé is also male and doesn't like a lot of attention, and to the fact that your own personality is a tad high-strung, and you get a walking time-bomb of a bride-to-be. Now, I'm not gonna go all bridezilla on the asses of everyone involved in this wedding, but it's getting to be much more stressful than I thought it would be. So unfortunately, my dear, patient Shay and my sweet and wonderful mother are taking the brunt of this.

AND, unless I'm at school, working on school stuff, or sleeping, my brain is constantly on the whole wedding planning thing. So needless to say, I don't find much time to sit and write on the blog, and I apologize to my avid readers. But, I also don't want my blog to turn into my whole wedding planning diary, because frankly, a lot of you will enjoy the event, but probably don't care two bits about the planning process.

So anyway, I'll try to keep the planning details to myself, Shay, my family, and my bridal party. BUT, I did feel like I had to vent about how frustrated I've been. It's totally a rollercoaster of emotions.

But I will tell you this....if Shay and I are to completely fall off of the face of the earth for a long weekend, you can bet 'fiddy' bucks that we've run off to get married!!

I'm a "Snow Jam Baby!"

Today is my birthday!! I am 24 years old!! The weather is pretty sucky...was that way last year, too. BUT, at least there are no tornadoes tearing through the county this year!!

My dad and my grandma say I'm just destined to have bad weather on my birthday, though, because I was born during a snow storm. They called it the Snow Jam of '82 in ATL.

But anyway, thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes today! I appreciate them all! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Productivity

Can I just tell you how productive I have been today? It's almost not even funny.

First of all, I got my report cards done in time to pass them out today. And unless you work at Joanna-Woodson Elementary, you do not know the profundity of that statement. Let's just say it's a hard feat...especially when you don't get your report cards until after 11 AM (which happens to fall AFTER my planning period), and you still have to look through all of them to confirm grades, write down honor roll students, and stuff them in the envelopes. PLUS, you have to fill out a freakin' certificate for ALL of the honor roll students, stamp them with the principal's signature stamp, AND stamp a free admission ticket to a PC basketball game w/ the same stamp for each honor roll student. ALL of this WHILE STILL HAVING TO TEACH YOUR FULL LESSON PLANS!!

BUT...I got it done. My kids had a lot of independent work today. ;)

ALSO, I finished my rubric which I need for tomorrow, gave my list of topics to the librarian so she can pull the books we need for research tomorrow, AND took care of a student transfer.

PLUS, I even had to finish aforementioned lesson plans before 3:00 PM today!

NOT ONLY THAT, but I WALKED to the YMCA, rode the stationary bike for 10 minutes, walked/ran on the treadmill for 35 minutes, and then WALKED back home. (From the Y to my house, it is approximately 1 mile. Therefore, I walked the equivalent of 4 miles today and biked the equivalent of 2 miles. That's a lot of damn miles.)

OH BUT WAIT...I also went to Wal-Mart to buy supplies to make research folders, and sat down and made 13 out of the 20 I need for tomorrow. :-D The only reason I stopped is because A) I can ACTUALLY get to bed at 11:00 PM (my "normal" bedtime), and B) I ran out of tape. I have to finish tomorrow with my tape at school.

So yeah. Talk about one little productive biatch over here. Most of you who really know me ought to be damn proud!!

Oh, and PS--I had my mid-year evaluation conference with my principal this year (since I'm going through TEAM, and all) and I passed ALL 10 of the performance dimensions in ADEPT for first semester!! GO ME!!

FIRST POST OF THE NEW YEAR

Okay, so I admit it. My 50th post wasn't all that grand. But hey. I tried. It was better than Eric's 50th post. (Did you get the tongue-in-cheek-ness of that one?!)

But anyway, I'm going to be very random with this post. I have a few things I need to mention, but no one thing that I can elaborate on for very long. K, here goes.

My New Year's Resolution:

I will be at school every day between my self-set hours of 7:20 AM and 4:00 PM. I will use my planning and before and after school time wisely and work ahead. I will not talk myself into leaving before 4:00 PM, but when I do leave, I will take nothing home with me. I want to leave school work at school and enjoy my life during my home time.

On an unrelated, yet slightly similar note...we've set a date!! Shay and I will be getting married on June 3, 2006. Less than 5 months away!! It's, like, totally crazy--but I can't wait!! It will be a 6:00 PM ceremony on the beach, barefoot in the sand! It's going to be great!! (BTW--here's a picture his mom took of us at our wedding site when we went to check it out!)

With that said, I have made it a personal goal of mine to do the stereotypical thing and get into (hopefully a lot) better shape before the wedding! However, I had made this decision before the new year, so this is NOT my New Year's Resolution. Because I HATE it when people make that their resolution. Because we all know that lasts approximately 3.5 days, and then they give up, and spend the next 362.5 days in the year (or 363.5 days if it's a leap year) whining that they're too fat and that "next year, they'll really stick to it." The problem with that is, though, that they really have no motivation, other than the fact that the turn of the new year is like turning over a new leaf.

Well, I'm thinking of my "new leaf" as being turned over when I start my new life with Shay in June. And that really IS motivation to get into shape. Because I'm pretty sure we're going to Hawaii for our honeymoon, and I'm really sure I want to be able to wear a real two-piece bikini while we're there. (Not to mention the fact that I don't want to look like a beached beluga in my white dress...) I know it can be done!! Oh, and to show how dedicated I am to the process...I joined the Y yesterday!! AND THE TREADMILLS HAVE INDIVIDUAL TVS BUILT INTO THEM!!! That's what rocked my face off so when I used the treadmills at Fike. I can stay on those things for a full hour of Friends no sweat! (Well. With sweat. It would defeat the purpose otherwise.) So yeah, I'm stoked. Jane's been a member, and Taffi joined, too, so now I even have work-out partners!! :-D Yay for getting healthy!!

BUT THE BEST THING OF ALL ABOUT JANUARY IS...................

....drum roll, please........

MY BIRTHDAY IS NEXT FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!! :-D

Now, I LOVE my birthday (and most of my friends will say that's an understatement), but I'm kind of anxious about this one. My birthday has only fallen on a Friday twice before in my life. The first time, I turned 7. I had the chicken pox. The next time, I turned 13. Three days later, my dad moved out. So yeah. Whenever my birthday's been on a Friday, I haven't had that great of luck. I really hope I'm not jinxing myself for this year thinking that something bad is going to happen again. BUT, 7 and 13 are both superstitious numbers, too, but 24 is not. So maybe I'll be okay.

But just to be on the safe side, wear a helmet on Friday, woulda ya?!

PS--On Saturday night the 14th, I will be celebrating my birthday with friends in Greenville, SC. Don't know exact time, place, or location, but if you're in the area, please come out and join in on the fun.

PPS--Okay, Terence, are you satisfied?! :-D