One Month to Go and Annoyed...

I can't belive that it is only one month until my wedding. I also can't believe that today makes 5 years that my father has been a state police. Crazy how fast time moves in some ways but in others seems to crawl. Though lately I believe it has been flying by since we are trying to get the house ready to live in by the wedding. We have been working on it what seems like night and day. We are working on sheetrock, and plumbing mostly right now. This past weekend we worked on some vinyl siding to help shelter part of the outside from the rain.

Well on to the wedding...we met with our priest for the last time last night. I felt so tired from fighting with him when we left. I mean I don't expect for the wedding to go on without a hitch but it has been such a pain that I don't think I deserve any other hitch besides him. He is nice enough but is like everything we want and ask him then his answer is that well I can't absolutely forbid you buuuuuttt it is really perferred that you do not. Then when we would press farther since he can't forbid us ...he would find something to read and support his opinion and pretty much say ok so I guess you won't be doing that. Or he would ask what we would think and pretty much ignore whatever we said. It was mostly petty things but things that girls and guys dream and imagine in weddings. Such as no flower petals put on the floor due to cleanup...I am like if we use fake petals really it is not a big deal. Obviously this man does not like to clean...or is afraid someone will have to bend over and pick up maybe 20 fake rose petals...really is it that much of an inconvenience? He wants both Andrew and I to process and even though it was obvious that Andrew did not like the idea he really pressed that he should. Also, the entrance processional...we would like just music but he pushed for a hymn and then gave us an example of a program where they chose just music. I believe he wants to push us to his side and then convinces himself that we got there all on our own. And just some of the things that were said seemed like he was talking down to us like we were stupid...such as don't nail the bows to the pews...oh really ...I thought I would bring nails from our new house to use...I mean really do I look that dumb. By the end, I was really pissed. I was thinking we could just move the wedding outside of the church and have the circuit court clerk marry us because she will be in attendance anyway. Then what would he say to that? I guess he could see that he had pushed us away and not pulled us in. I just feel that he makes such judgements of me...of us withouting even knowing us except for the 30 seconds of questions at the beginning of our session. Ok, well enough ranting for now.

Graduation from W&M, and my new job

Well it is definitely time for an update. I have lots of lesson planning to work on though so this will just be a short one for now. Last week was my last time student teaching and the emotions were high. I had notes from students, a cake, and one even came back and cried telling me that I couldn't leave her. Then this past weekend I had graduation. It went pretty well overall but could have been a lot better as well.  But in the end, I am happy to be done with school for a while. It was wet which really kinda bit and some outside events were cancelled. Over graduation weekend, Andrew and I crossed the Crim Dell Bridge together for the first time. It was something that he had wanted to do but I had wanted pictures so would not let him in the past. The legend is that if you cross the bridge with someone then the two of you will get married and stay that way for your whole life...something to that extent and if you cross alone then you will remain alone. So Andrew and I crossed the bridge together for the first time. I think he was pretty excited and we took pictures. 

So here are some of the pictures that we took:

Andrew also got excited because this made him think of a prelude to the wedding and how we will be taking so many pictures there together. 

So I graduated from The College of William and Mary on Sunday. That overall was the best day of graduation weekend except for the fact that mom locked everyone out of the van while it was still running behind the Hall. I was at a couple points only about 3 feet away from Sandra Day O'Conner and I heard Tom Brokaw speak live so both of those facts were pretty awesome. Plus my 4 years of hard work paid off with a diploma (though it is written in Latin and I can't actually read it) and Latin Honors of Magna Cum Laude. 

Then on Monday, I started working at Middlesex Public Schools at St. Clare Walker Middle School. I really like all the staff and the students, but I am afraid I will not be the maker of miracles as the school hopes. I will be working in small groups with a total of 84 students. The principal really wants all of these students to pass (as do I) but I only have 9 to 10 days to work with them. Thus without saying more, I guess I better get back to lesson planning.

SPRING AND MI CASA

Well I am still crazy busy. It doesn't look like that will end any time soon, but I just needed to relax and let off a little steam before going back to my lesson planning. I just got back from spring break and I feel like it was the fastest week ever!! I am happy that it is spring. All the blooms and flowers make me happy. I am also in love with the sun and getting a tan.

I have a job for next year and that is really exciting. I go next Monday to spend a day at my future school and to get introduced to the staff. I am so excited but nervous. I will be done with full time student teaching in less than two weeks. In less than 1 month I graduate from college!!!! I graduate on Sunday and start a long term sub. position at my future school on Monday.

We have been building on the house so much. I am so happy that it at least is starting to look like a house. I have to say that I am really proud that I helped put every sheet of plywood on one side of the roof. That is like 64 sheets and that stuff is not light by any means. I am really proud even though that seems dorky. My hands are a mess though. I have sliced them open and have splitters. I even pinched a blood blister. Oh well they will heal and it as well worth it. I also got quite tan while working on the roof. Well I guess that is about it for now.

Here are some pictures of me working finishing up my side of the house in plywood:

My side finished with plywood:

A short update.

I have been so busy that I have not blogged in a while - so I thought it was time for at least a short update with a much longer one to come soon. So much has been going on. I have officially finished my last test in my undergraduate career and I am now student teaching. Some days student teaching is a blast and other's not so much so. We are working on the house and it is coming along slowly. We have the subfloor down and are starting to stand up walls. I am pretty excited to see if start to take shape. I am off from work this upcoming weekend so that I can help work on it. Andrew and I are trying to make some final decisions about the wedding which isn't easy either. I officially have a job for next year. I was so excited that I found one so easily. I will be teaching 8th grade math at a rural middle school. I will be teaching pre-algebra and algebra 1. Everyone there seems so supportive. I had one interview at W&M at education recruiting day. Then I had a second interview on a Monday and was offered the job on Friday of the same week.

So overall my life is really busy and hectic but I am excited in a lot of ways.

Pictures from our Engaged Encounter Retreat

This was the sunrise on Sunday morning.


Andrew and I taking a picture together even though we were frozen.

Just Andrew.

Just me in front of the Atlantic Ocean in January.

The hotel we were staying at on Virginia Beach.

A little of Everything...

I had not posted a blog in a while so I thought it was about time for an update. My computer had been at the tech. center for awhile. Andrew and I had to go to and Engaged Encounter retreat on the last weekend in January. I tried to go in thinking of the experience as a vacation since we were staying at an oceanfront hotel on Virginia Beach, but that is hard to do when you have almost every minute of your day dictated to you. Thus I was not really thinking that the weekend would be worth anything except torture from the ocean and indoor pools that I could not enjoy. In the end, even though the weekend was long with early mornings and late nights it was not as bad as I had expected. After all, Andrew and I were spending the entire weekend together. We learned a few new things about each other and our self. So that is important. I think it made us closer if that is possible.

I went and talked to a local florist about arrangements for the wedding. I know she does good work overall. I am still worried about the arrangements meeting my expectations. She sent me a proposal for the job and I accepted and sent her the deposit. I am having white and a two tone red rose with baby's breath for the bouquets. I am going to do silk flowers for the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. Then the arrangements for the church are real flowers.

This past weekend, Andrew and I moved some trees that were small out of the site where we are going to be building our house. The guy is supposed to be coming soon to start work on the footers. Plus we are getting the blueprints this week.

We have an education recruiting day here at College next week but I am seriously worried about getting a job after graduation. What if I can't find anything close to our house? I told Andrew that I guess I might have to work at Lowe's and substitute teach as much as I can to make money. But that really scares me. I really want a job even though a REAL job at teaching is scary in itself right now. Well that is enough for now.

Building!

Since my computer has been acting crappy for sometime, I have not blogged for a while. But I wanted to make a little update. Andrew and I are going to an Engaged Encounter at Virginia Beach this weekend. So I am not really sure what to think about that. We have known each other so long that in a way I think it is pointless. But I am trying to think about it as a vacation.

On another note, we got the building permit this week!! That means we will actually be able to start building really soon. I am so excited to have made that step even though a lot of things at first will depend on the weather. We got another floor plan in the mail today. It looks about like we want it to. We hired the guy to do the footers and to do the masonry work. Maybe things will actually get started. Well that is enough for now since I am sitting in a computer lab at school (my computer is still at IT) and I am really hungry.

My Random Life

Well I am still trying to get things together before school starts back. So Wednesday, I went out to pick up a suit so that I will have something professional to wear to interviews. So everything was going great. I found a perfect suit and some other nice dress clothes. Then we stopped and picked up professional binder for me to make my portfolio in for interviews. Finally we headed home. So on the way home, the car makes a noise like the cruise control kicked off and then died. So we were stuck in Hanover County beside the four lane road. Great! It was the first time I had been stuck beside the road. So dad had to take off work and come pick us up and call the wrecker service for the car. Then, Wednesday evening we got the first draft of the house plans. I was so excited! The good thing is that means we are now getting the building permit and we will be starting soon. The bad news of that was there were some things that will have to be changed.

So I spent yesterday evening helping dad break down the engine to get to the timing belt on the car. That was the problem and now we are trying to get parts to fix it. I busted my knuckles trying to get one of the bolts to break loose. So it was a cold long evening yesterday.

Today we met with the son of the man we are getting the trusses from for the house. That also had its ups and downs. The price is pretty good so we are happy for that. The trusses do not seem as strong as I would have hoped. The attic space is not quite the amount of space that we had hoped it would be. That is bad in a way but then maybe we will not put up a full set of stairs to get up there right now. So that has its ups and downs in itself. So the guy we met is 27 years old and asked Andrew and I how old we are. Then outside he asked what we did for fun. It was like he was asking us to be his friend in a round about way.

Well I guess that is enough for now. It looks like we may have the parts to fix the car. So it is going to be another long cold night of working.

Before School Starts Back

In some ways, things seem to be getting done but in others stuff just seems to be sitting in the same place. So lets see where to begin. I still have a little time before school goes back so I am trying to get a few things done and still take some time for myself. This past Saturday I took the Praxis II which for me is completely math content. I thought it was really hard compared to the practice ones that I had taken. So I am really worried about my score. I don't want to have to take it again. First, I don't want to have to worry about it again. Second, I don't want to have to pay for it again. That was a really big let down after this semester went so well. I got all A's even with three math classes, two of which were really hard.
As far as the house goes, we have now paid for the survey. We have gotten several estimates for the septic and footers. We have a guy drawing the blueprints for us. As soon as we get the floor plan from him then we can get the building permit to get things started. I will be happy to finally get to break ground. It all seems like hurrying up to wait for something else. We go Friday to see about signing a contract with the guy who is going to build the trusses for the roof. I hope to get the floor plans this week but that might be wishful thinking.
I am trying to get things together to start applying for jobs. I feel kinda behind about all this. I worry about getting a job with the way the economy is going. That is one reason that I am glad we are building instead of buying. That way if we do not have the money we do not have to worry about a mortgage payment. If we don't have the money then we just won't be able to do anything to the house for a period of time.
Over break I have bought some things I found on clearance for the wedding. I was glad to have found somethings. We bought table clothes and some decorations. I hope to get an appointment with the florist before I go back to school as well. I would like to know at least what she is going to charge us. I am still not sure what I will do about all of my bridesmaids. I want my aunt to be my matron of honor. I am going to have Crystal as one of my bridesmaids. I would like to ask a good friend at school to be one of my bridesmaids but I am not sure what she will be doing this summer. If she is around then I want to ask her. That still leaves me short one girl from the number of guys that Andrew wants to have in the wedding. I know who else I really want to ask but she is from where I use to live and I am not sure if she even plans to come to the wedding. If she did then I would not mind to ask, but I do not want to make her feel that she has to come. I guess I will just give it a little time and see.
Well, I guess I should get back to those job applications.