Sunday, December 21, 2008
I LOVE Christmas Time!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
silly gym observations
In other news, all of my NH friends are in my thoughts as they're working through this latest ice storm. I was feeling kind of sad that CT winters are kind of uneventful on the shore, but I don't feel so bad after this. some of them have been without power since Thursday! At least everyone is safe, but if there's anything that I can do for any of you, please let me know. We have plenty of warm beds and we love visitors!
In wedding news, we officially have a church! The Congregational Church in North Haven! The minister is this sweet, goofy kind of guy and the church is a quintessential New England protestant church. It's kind of small, but it'll be so nice to see it full of familiar faces! Can't wait. And...I'm becoming an eBay bride. I ordered some jewelry off of ebay the other day for very cheap. They should come in this week and if they look nice I may have to go crazy with other stuff! And it cost me about a fraction of the price it would have cost me to get them at a store. Can't wait to see them...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Fate is Funny...
Now for the whole fate is funny thing. For those of you who don't know, my sister Kiersten is my maid of honor. Another FYI...we've had to change the date of the wedding from June to July. Kiersten is in the process of wrapping up her master's program in OT, a pretty awesome accomplishment. Because this is such an intensive program, leading up to their graduation they have a ton of fun events that they do to relax. She found out the other day that her graduation is on the Sat. that the wedding was supposed to be on! If that isn't someone up there watching out for us then I don't know what is. I've always been a firm believer that everything works out for a reason. When I blew my knee out in high school and had to back off of my gymnastics season, I started to coach a bit...sucked then, but what do I do now?? I teach and coach. Fate? Now there's this. As an older sister I've always felt a bit guilty that I overshadowed Kiersten's accomplishments....not on purpose of course, but when you do them first it always seems like a bigger deal. I would have felt awful if my wedding had conflicted with Kiersten's big day. Now we can celebrate all of her wonderfulness and then look forward to a celebration next weekend, too. Wooh!
In other news, school is pretty awesome. I feel so at home in this place already it's crazy! And we just found out that one of my co-workers is pregnant! This makes me happy because it means I'll have a little one to play with, but when he/she is screaming or smelly I can simply hand them back to mom or dad :) Also, we just put up our tree at home! I love Xmas and part of the reason is for all of the decorating and music that go along with it (yeah, the family thing is fun too). I have also recently discovered that TransSiberian Orchestra turns me into a grading machine! I sat down with a stack of papers that was practically to the moon, turned on my Xmas tree lights, put on TSO....and transformed! I got through my correcting faster than I ever have before. It was great. I recommend trying it if you're stuck for motivation. Alright, I've killed enough time here. Hope that everyone has a merry xmas!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
1.89 ?!?
And in other (less exaggerated) news, I am currently defrosting after a pretty intense faculty football game. At our high school today we had a bunch of homecoming activities. The kiddos sold some food in the commons as a fundraiser for various clubs and sports and then that's followed by the faculty football game and the powder puff game. The faculty game is against our neighbor town rival, East Haven. When I agreed to play I knew that it could get rough, but I'm a toughie. I had so much fun! I got hit a few times and got in some cheap hits on the other team too! What I wasn't expected was the amount of kids that stayed to watch their teachers attempt to be athletic! The bleachers were about half full, but when I say half full I mean very half full. The kids were all close together and sardined in there. So cool! It was a lot of fun and a great way for the newbie teacher to get to know some people and to have some fun. Now I'm just eagerly awaiting turkey day and getting to see the whole family. Wooh!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Phew
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Ever feel like screaming?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A quick observation
On the wedding front I have officially picked out bridesmaids dresses....and changed my colors (again!). We're now going with a deep purple color....and the dresses are stunning. We all went to Davids Bridal the other day (minus A because she's in NH and I didn't want to inconvenience her too much) and picked out the dresses and everyone like the same one. So things are turning out a bit different than I imagined, but still working out awesome. An I'm officially the queen of indecision...no doubt about that.
And a catch-up on the housing situation. It's the end of October and I'm STILL AT THE CAMPGROUND!!! We had found that place in Cheshire only to move in and find it to be incredibly loud. I could hear the guy next door go to the bathroom! Gross! Needless to say, we moved out (and sacrificed our security deposit...crapola!) and found a new place in North Branford. We move in there at the end of the month and whether that's good or bad, we'll be there...because we have no where else to be :) No really, it'll be awesome and I know that Keith's happy because there's a man room downstairs that's already wired for surround sound. Anyhoo, I'll post some pics next time when I finally have a real roof that is non-mobile over my head...bye!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Home is Where the Heart Is....
Monday, September 15, 2008
A quick catch up
- 8 period days are strange! I have been used to block scheduling (3 90-min. classes that meet for half a year). Now I teach 5 50-min classes a day plus have a duty. I have been exhausted! But I'm getting used to it and am starting to feel like I can actually teach something in 50 minutes.
- CT pays their teachers really well...enough said!
- The kids do really well with free time. When they have open periods they can pretty much go where they'd like. You would think this would lead to chaos, but no one really misbehaves terribly.
- I work with some really amazing, younger-ish teachers. Not that I haven't before, but Branford is strange. I think that 75% of the staff is under the age of 35. Seriously. And we are all in one staff room and they all actually collaborate and work together. Really neat atmosphere.
- These same colleagues LOVE HAPPY HOUR! I think someone goes every day of the week and if you don't go on Fridays then you're a loser.
- But despite all of this, I miss Nashua! I miss having people know who I am and having kids come by and poke their heads in. I miss my friends from Nashua and hearing their stories and having them know things about me and having adjacent classroom buddies (my rooms don't connect to anyone).
In other news, Keith officially started his new job today. He's working at a company in Chesire as a software support technician. We'll see how he likes it, but for now I think he's just depressed that he's back at work. I plan to make him a yummy dinner to celebrate/cheer him up. Speaking of which...gotta get to that....
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Coming together
In other news, I officially have to start school next week! I have orientation and then the week after next I'll be really really starting. Kind of overwhelmed about that, but I'll post more when I have more to talk about. About the only new development on that front is that I met the new chemistry teacher. She's nice, but she's no Allison....
Campground living is still going wonderfully. We had a nice weekend here this weekend with all of the old campground folks around. We did some campfire drinking, played some cards, and just relaxed. We floated in the river for a good chunk of time on Sunday which is the ultimate lazy sunday activity. It pretty much involves tossing a tube in the river, tying yourself to an anchor so you don't get swept away, and closing your eyes. Heavenly! We're looking forward to a trip to NH this weekend for a wedding and possibly a brief trip to winnipesauke...more later.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Almost over...
On the wedding front things are going well. I still don't have a church to get married in yet (the church I had been at fell through....my fault), but we met with a photographer yesterday who was awesome! She just seemed like tons of fun and would put everyone there at ease. Plus she was reasonable priced. Good deal! Other than that, nothing much new. We went to our friends Adam and Courtney's wedding this past weekend. It was really nice and of course I was sure to take notes the entire time. I also got a chance to catch up with some old high school friends. I didn't realize how much I missed the company of some of those folks and it was great to catch up. We had a nice fire, some good drinks, and a nice late night visit to Denny's (yeah, kinda high school, but it was worth it). Welp, I have a Wii date that I should be getting to....bye!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Rain, Rain, Go Away....
Keith has been catching up on playing Beer Die, a drinking game made famous by the campground folks. He's been missing this terribly up in New Hampshire, so he's making up for lost time....
We've had lots of good campfires, too. The nice thing about the campground is that if you light a fire everyone comes and sits around it with you...lots of great chats. And usually s'mores are involved which is absolutly fantastic in my book!Keith has also developed the genius idea of turning the TV around from inside the camper and playing Wii outside. This is Keith and a couple of buddies bowling (plus its a decent shot of my camper a.k.a. my summer home)
And after all that hard work, my boys like to take naps. Must be a rough life, huh?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Settling In
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Puzzle Pieces
Along with all this excitment is the realization that I'm actually moving. Keith and I have made such great friends here over the past four years that NH really has become home. We're going to miss everyone so much! I was telling someone the other day that I'm finally to the point where I can go to the grocery store and see people I know (which is cool, but it means that I can't go looking too scrubby). We have some "old" friends back in CT, but it's going to be a strange adjustment.
Anyways, this week finds me out of school (wooh!) but packing up an apartment by myself...and I think Keith and I are packrats! We have so much junk! I've already filled about 5 big black garbage bags and am only about halfway done. Yipes! Guess I should probably go get back to that...
Friday, May 30, 2008
Some Decisions! Yeah!
We had to move the date up to July 11th because the whole month of June was already booked, but that's ok. I figure it'll give me a few more weeks to make sure we're all set and it's an easy date to remember (7-11). Keith will have no excuses for forgetting anniversaries. Hehe. AAAnnnnddd...I have finally picked a dress! After all those "this is the one's" I found the one. You'll all just have to wait to see it :) Now we just have to move back to CT and find jobs and we'll be all set....
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The First Hurdle....
Monday, May 5, 2008
Indecision
Thursday, April 17, 2008
First Post
We are currently working on planning a wedding and I just thought that I'd start up a blog so that I can remember this, but also so everyone else can keep up to date if they so choose. It's looking like life has some pretty major changes in store the next year and I'm not sure where we'll end up, so this way no matter where life takes us all of you lovely folks can know what's going on.
Keith and I got engaged the day before New Year's Eve on a pull off by Mt. Washington. I know, romanticaly, huh? Actually...it was. I didn't think it would be possible for Keith to surprise me as we'd been dating for 7 years, but when he told me to take some pictures and I turned around from that to find him on a knee...let's just say I was surprised. In fact, I believe the words "are you serious" crossed my lips (poor guy!) We're planning a June 27, 2009 wedding in CT (looks like reception will be at the Hawthorne Inn). That's about the only details I know for sure at this point. Dress shopping has been super fun already (but can't post pictures...dont want someone snooping) and we're working on figuring out our wedding party at this point. I do know that Kiersten (my sister) will be my maid of honor. Think that's about it for now, I'm sure there will be many more updates to come. Bye!