The Simple Things in Life

As I sat by my computer today the screen saver caught my eye. I realized all of the pictures are of me and my sister. Often we choose to pick at each other and fight. But it is the times we are together that we have the most fun and the best memories are made. I am making a pact to not care about the small nit picky things in life, but rather the larger more simple things in life. Like the joy of having a sister to hang out with. I am going to try to think of fun things her and I can do together. I am also going to try to not care about the things in her life I do not agree with, and rather just be thankful that my life is perfect and exactly what I always dreamt it to be. If anyone has any fun suggestions we can go do let me know :)

A September to Remember

September was a crazy month. Wedding planning came to a hault, and student teaching rushed into my life full force. Jon and I are both loving student teaching. He is in a 1st grade at Evergreen and I am in a 2nd grade at Deer Park Elementary. I wish I could go observe him for a day because I think he is great with the kids.

In my classroom there is a lot of low income families. It really opened my eyes when I got there. I love those kids so much and cannot wait to go back each Monday. They teach me so much while testing my patience, but I love it. I have already been observed twice by my Supervisor who is also my Principal. She says I am doing great and that she has never seen a student teacher who can make it look so easy and like they have been doing it for years. That dfinitely made me excited! I absolutely love the school I am in and really hope to get a job there someday. The staff is amazing and so is my mentor teacher!

Right now in Science we have insects. The kids love them, but I on the other hand hate them! There is so much work to do with those stupid things. You have to feed them, give them new water (which is fruit or veggies), care for them, and throw away the nasty stinky ones that have died. It takes so much time! Even when you make the kids do it. I will be glad when we get our Butterflies and just have one class culture and not 23 individual containers!

As for wedding planning goes, there is not much yet. But next week I am sure I will start again. We get our engagement pictures done tomorrow so then we can make our save the dates and send them out! YAY! Another check off of the list :)

Hope everyone is doing well in school and student teaching!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Yesterday was a great day. First I met some OLD friends for coffee and lunch. We had an amazing time. I always love getting to catch up with high school friends. It seems that good friends will always stay the same and conversation is easy. I love having such great friends!

I also went dress shopping yesterday. It was very fun because it was my third time going. I found out some NEW things that I like and dislike and overall it was very productive. I think I may have found the one, but I have to look one more place first or I will always wonder.

As I was dress shopping a lady came in to have her last dress fitting. She looked great in the dress, but it was one of the top 3 dresses I liked. Although it was nice seeing it one someone and having it a perfect fit, I felt as though if I chose that dress it would almost be BORROWED. I would not feel like it was my dress... but that's ok because as I kept trying on the top 3 #2 was still my favorite :)

So now today I want to go to one last store to finalize my decision making, but I have to round someone up to go with me! I am sure Katie will go if she does not have work, but who knows what her schedule is. After today is over I get to head to the lake! I am so excited. It is a much needed relaxation period at the end of a long week! The lake is so gorgeous this time of year with its rolling waters, BLUE skies, and sunny beaches :)

27 Dresses

The other day I went to try on Wedding Dresses for the first time. I had a blast and cannot wait to find the one. One of my friends made the comment how she is going to be the girl off of 27 dresses because she has been in so many weddings, but never as the bride. I thought it was funny and almost said well that is not that bad, but then I realized I still want to be the one in a Wedding Dress :) The search continues, but now I know more of what I like.

So much planning

This summer I have tried to plan as much of our wedding as possible. It is so hard knowing I will be student teaching this fall and have no extra time for meeting with DJ's, Florists, etc., so I am gung ho on getting the majority of the planning done this summer. I know some might say I will have plenty of time during the year, but I plan on getting hired at a coffee stand and spending my nights and weekends there working to make some money. The lady told one of her workers she will be hiring in the fall because so many of her employees are leaving for college... so I already know she will be needing some extra help. Pray that I get it! I am almost ready to stop planning for a while but I just love checking things off! Those who went to school with me know I am not one to let projects sit there... and this is an exciting project! I have the ceremony site, reception site, center pieces, photographer, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, invitations, and food already picked out and reserved for the most part... now I need a cake, my dress, men's wear, bridesmaid shoes, gift registry, hotel room, transportation, musician for the wedding, and a DJ... man o man I guess I have more than I thought... and I know that is not all. Well, I guess I better be going to get ready for the day and head out to more stores!

Summer Days

Summer has been amazing so far. I got out early May from the University of Idaho and ever since then I have been on the look for a job. Well, no luck still. I have applied to many places and had a few interviews but no one ever calls back. It is so rude. Even if I don't get the job it would be nice to hear back from them to know they are not accepting me, rather than me wondering if they got my application or not. One daycare interviewed me and SAID they would call back. They never did so I called and left a message. They still did not call back. So I went in a dropped off a thank you note just letting them know I appreciated the interview and was looking forward to hearing back whether or not I got the job. Guess what... still no stinkin call. HOW RUDE. This is so irritating. I cannot even believe how ride some people are. If you say you are going to call, you should call!!!!!!!

Jon has a job though, so that is good. He is working for Avista again for his third summer and got a raise! It is amazing. He is making so much money. I wish I could get a job that paid half of what he is making! I am so proud of him, he is such a hard worker and his boss loves him.

The first weekend of summer was Anna's graduation from the University of Idaho. We all rode down to Idaho in a Limo. It was so much fun. My grandma brought doughnuts and cookies and sparkling cider. Then we rode back and the next day everyone came out to our house for her party. It was a busy weekend but very fun.

Then the following weekend was Memorial Day. Jon and I went to the lake with my family for Memorial Day weekend and went to the parade. It has become one of our traditions we have together. I love traditions! Jon and I look forward to the parade every year. It is a very small rinky dink parade that only lasts 10 minutes, but it is so fun to look through all of the booths at the locals crafts, foods, etc. This year was the first year Jon and I decided to spend money on anything. We bought some scone mix from a man who makes the mix himself from his grandma's recipe from germany. The sample was delicious so we had to buy some. We got a orange blueberry mix, sounds a little funky but it was so good.

The weekend after Memorial Day was Katie's Graduation Party. She had her party a weekend early so that she could attend her friends parties the following weekend. I helped my mom prepare dips, veggies, snacks, and drinks. It was a long morning but time with my mom is always fun. Then I went into town and picked up balloons, cake, and decorations. It was a hectic outing, but worth the look on Katie's face :) That night Jon and I went up to my uncles lake cabin because he had invited us out at Katie's party. So we went up, it is only 20 minutes from our house. It was so fun hanging out talking with my cousins and aunt and uncles. I cant wait to go back!

That following week I went to the lake with a friend and hung out for three days. It was so much fun but I missed Jon. It was well worth my tan though! Well, I burnt first, but now it is a tan!

The next weekend was Katie's actual graduation. Whhooooeeee! Busy busy. On friday I helped my Aunt with her daughters birthday party at the pool and then the next day I helped with her sons! They are twins and this year they wanted their own parties. Then on Saturday I went to Borders with my aunt to spend 500 dollars on books for her classroom! It was very fun picking out all of the great books I had learned about this year.

This weekend I am going to the lake with my family and enjoying doing nothing! I cannot wait. I guess I have not had much time to be having a job, but still... I would love to get one! Keep me in your prayers :) I promise I will not wait this long again to blog.

Engaged

On May 11th Jon proposed to me. It was probably the happiest I have been in my entire life! Here is the story of how it happened:

So last month was Jon and my two year and we told each other no presents, but I suprised him with Sho Gun dinner... he had never been and it was really fun so then he felt bad and said he was going to make it up this month for me and take me on a date May 11th (our two year one month)... so tonight I was all excited. We went outside and an old-fashioned limo car thing pulled up and I was so excited and told him he definitely made it up to me! So we cruised down twon to our reservations and he said that we were going to be really early so he asked the LImo driver to drop us off at River Front Park... so we got out and decided to go on the Gondola ride over the massively flowing river, it was gorgeous! Then on the ride back over the river he said it was really scary, but he would be ok cause he could spend the rest of his life with me and then got down on one knee and pulled out the ring and said the magic words... Will you Marry Me! of course I cried and then said yes and wrapped him in my arms and never wanted to let go... but then we had to get off once we got to the end of the ride haha. Then we went to Red Robin (its a thing of ours... whole other story) and neither of us could eat cause we were so nervous/excited/happy/ etc. THen the Limo driver picked us up in an Old Fashioned car... it was a 1933 Packard Super Eight Town Car... it was so cool! Then we just rode all the way home and it was a GORGEOUS drive home... the weather turned sunny right when we got downtown... it was perfect! GREAT NIGHT!

The Night was perfect and I cannot wait to start all of the planning. We have already started a little bit to make sure we get the place and date we want... and I am already a little stressed! Haha.

Jon and I heading out on our Date

After Jon Proposed

The Car We Rode Home In