Eavesdropping and NINETEEN

Today I overheard two students discussing why leaves change color and when they learned this information (do you know why? It's a huge misconception with many people - that and seasons. I admit - I didn't know until I had to teach it.).

Student 1: We learned it last year in fourth grade.

Student 2: Fourth grade was a long time ago.

Student 1: Yeah, but you should still remember.

Student 2: But I don't even remember when I was three!

(Because I bet she was three after she was in fourth grade.... perfect logic!)

Love my kids. And by 'my kids' I mean my students. They become mine when they walk through my classroom door. I always meant to write down/remember funny morsels of wisdom/words from my kids, but until this year I have failed miserably. I've been better about it this year and it's definitely brightening up the year so far. When I have kids of my own someday, they will have no chance of not being embarrassed by their Mom. At least with my students, I don't bring up the funny things they say (um, to them that is... usually.). Future kids of my own - watch out. I will remember and use your words to make people laugh. Maybe even in front of you. It's cool though - everyone will just think you're as cute as can be.

Outfit.... we'll call it nineteen. I still have a bunch saved from the weekend. I need to start double posting these babies:

Shirt: Gap

Skirt: Forever 21

Tights: Walmart

Boots: Younkers

STDs (it weirds me out too) and EIGHTEEN

Nine months into our engagement = nine months into wedding researching online. I'm not going to lie. Even after nine months, every time I see posts about DIY STDs, I'm a bit taken aback. If you didn't know (which I sure didn't before our engagement), STD = Save the Date. It's a horrible acronym.

In related (but non-horrible) news, I officially ordered our save the date postcards today. According to Martha, The Knot, and all the other wedding experts, we're a bit late on these since we're at 5 months (as of tomorrow!) and the save the dates should be sent at 6 months before the wedding. Oh well, I believe our guests will be tickled pink to receive this postcard and then the invitations only a few months later. Right? Right. :)

I have about four outfits I still need to post from over the weekend, but this is what I wore today. We'll call it eighteen, even though chronologically it's really about twenty-three. I won't tell if you don't. I've been eager to wear these flowery tights I bought a few months ago and had yet to open.

Shirt: Old Navy

Cardigan: Gap

Belt: Forever 21

Skirt: Target

Tights: Target

Shoes: Target

When I was SEVENTEEN

I love Sinatra. We will definitely be playing him at our wedding reception. Both during dinner AND during dancing. "When I Was Seventeen" in particular reminds me of Mr. Big. Remember when he sang it to Carrie? Love it.

I was out of town for Thanksgiving and didn't have internet so I shall be making up for it this week. I mostly wore 30 for 30 outfits, but I did have another sweatpants day. Thanksgiving and the weekend were wonderful. Christopher and I went to his mom's for the holiday. She had just gotten back from a trip to London the day before, so instead of turkey we dined on prime rib. Everything was (way too) delicious. Best of all - even better than all the yummy food - was the fact that Christopher and my Goddaughter was in town! We celebrated Ava's one year birthday (a few weeks early, but most of us won't be able to get downstate for her birthday on the actual day). She couldn't be any cuter or smarter. In five months, Ava's going to be our flower girl. We were asked to be her Godparents the day after we got engaged, so we totally wanted her to be in the wedding. Nobody was certain if she'd be ready to walk down the aisle at the time... but whoa! She is fast! She'll only be a year and four months for our wedding, but she could run down the aisle if she decided to. Love her!!! I don't know about Ava, but Christopher and I were sure ready to celebrate her birthday:

On to the clothes. I absolutely love this dress. I don't know what took me so long to wear it! I cut the tags off of it the morning (last Wednesday) I wore it. I didn't add much to it; just accessories. Next time, I might wear a skirt over it.

Dress: Forever 21

Tights: Old Navy

Boots: Younkers

Earrings: Charlotte Russe

Headband: Made it myself! :)

Sweet SIXTEEN

So. I cheated. Kind of. Only a bit. AndIdidn'tmeanto! I swear! I don't think it counts. Really.

I had this outfit picked out last night. I knew it was going to snow, so I picked out thick tights, my favorite boots, and a snuggly turtleneck. The only problem with this advance planning is that I did not (physically) lay out the outfit when I (mentally) chose it. When I snoozed through an extra hour of sleep, I wasn't worried about being rushed - I had my outfit picked out!

And then I finally got out of bed and realized my turtleneck is in the washing machine, waiting to be dried. Shoot. So, uh, I compensated. This maroon turtleneck is the same exact as the gray one (except for that whole color thing... insignificant detail, promise!). Plus, I think the outfit would have been better with the original color. So that's not cheating. Pretend this shirt is gray. In fact, it IS gray. Maroon what?!  You crazy! :o)

Turtleneck: Target

Skirt: Forever 21

Tights: Walmart

Boots: Younkers

Necklace: Homemade :)

Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen...1 Top 3 Ways

I met my best friend in college. We were sophomores. We've basically been inseparable since the first night we hung out and HJ and I watched The Butterfly Effect in my dorm room. In typical best friend style, we have a billion and one memories in the decade (oops, six years - how did we collect so many memories in that short of time?) or so that we've been friends. The one thing we hadn't done together... and that HJ would get on my case about... was bowl.

I don't like bowling.

I've never been a fan of bowling. I mean, it's okay... I always have fun with the people I go with, laughing and hanging out. But as far as the actual game of rolling a ball down a lane? It's just not my favorite.

HJ understood that I didn't like the game, so she dropped it... but then I bowled a few times with Christopher. We'd just started dating, and it was hard to turn down a cute boy's request to hang out. And then last year, Christopher's coworkers formed a bowling league. I got thrown into the mix by default. HJ has been teasing me without mercy about my supposed hate of the game, yet membership in a league.

Well, this weekend will go down in the books as the first time HJ and I bowled together. Christopher and his brother invited us. We accepted. You're welcome, best friend.

Trying to decide what to wear, I came up with a few new mixes:

Mix 1:

Mix 2:

Mix 3:

Maybe in a few years, I'll be TWELVE!

At the end of the day on Fridays, my class combines with the 7th and 8th grade class for 'Tutoring.' This is when students get extra help/instruction and have time to complete missing assignments. If they aren't missing anything and don't need any extra help, they play good ol' fashioned board games.

When I told one of my students that he would have to stay and finish a missing assignment, he yelled, "Come on!" Thinking in my head, Yeah, come on... if you had your work done, you could play board games.... I responded, "Come on? What does that mean?"

His reply, "Well... uh... well... when you get to be a kid, you'll understand."

Today's blogcast is brought to you in part by....Reverse Aging! Holla!

(Not that I need it... last year, no joke, a mom on a field trip told me to catch up with my teacher. She thought I was in eighth grade. And this was after she heard my students call me Miss L. What?!)

ELEVEN:11 is just a precious time

When Christopher and I decided to get a dog together, it was a big step for us. We'd been dating just short of a year. I was convinced I needed a dog to protect me because at that time I was living in a teeny tiny town, 30 miles past civilization. My only 'neighbors' were a tavern and a general store that closed at 7:00pm. Our obvious choice for a protective dog was a golden retriever. You know - the really ferocious breed that families with small children always get? Right.

We drove three hours (each way) to pick her out... on a school/work night. Love, I tell ya! I stayed at Christopher's house that night - it was late and we both wanted to be with our pup on her first night. Midway through the night she got up, spun around, and peed. On me. Christopher just watched, not knowing what exactly she was doing. When he figured it out, he burst out laughing. When I figured it out, well... I laughed too. It happened too fast to stop. One minute she's spinning around, all cute and puppy-like...the next second my knee is wet. Way to make an entrance into our little family, Telula! Is it weird that this is one of our fondest memories of Telula as a puppy? We've had her for just over two years now, but just thinking about Christopher watching her, uh, 'go' on me... it still makes me laugh. She turned out to be the best dog; she even goes to school with me. Cheers to Telula.

Telula made it into our engagement shots:

"Somebody call NINE...(and TEN?)

...one one.  Shawty fire burning on the dance floor. Whoa."

My little brother and I had a thing...for about a year...in which we would serenade each other with that very song line.  That and the first line of "Boom Boom Boom," by the Black Eyed Peas which goes, boom boom boom. Catchy. That reminds me of when he was really little and I taught him nice lyrics to "Big Pimpin'." For years, he thought the song talked about spam and cheese.

Christopher and I prefer to sing the song from "Knocked Up."  You know, the song they swing their hips to before she gets... knocked up? Sometimes when Christopher's really fired up, he likes to sing/ask me, "What do you want from me?!" in the tune of.... I'm not sure. An American Idol singer, I think.

I promise I still have hands.  It was cold:

EIGHT days a week

The last time Christopher and I were in Target together, we decided that we need all of the Beatles albums. I don't get sick of them. Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers explains how they became so good.  I had to read the book for a grad class and it was one that I actually loved. I would definitely recommend it. Turns out, I should be a hockey star since my birthday is so close to the first of the year. Well that and 10,000 hours of practice... but who knew?!

25 or SIX to four (and SEVEN)

I had school today.  This would not come as a surprise to most of the nation.  It's a Monday, right?  Well, around these here parts, most schools are closed.  Tis called Deer Day and it's the schools' way of saying, "Okay we know most of our students will not show up on opening day of hunting season, so let's just close the schools so they don't miss anything."  When my alarm rang at 5:00a.m. (and again and again in increments of 7 minutes until I finally rose out of bed 6:03......I told you I'm a procrastinator!), I was trying to keep my jealousy of those without school today at bay.  But, it was a good day.  And I like my outfit.

Christopher and I drove to The Farm this weekend to visit my dad, attend mass at the church we're going to be married in (it's where my parents were married!), and for Christopher to get ready for hunting season with my dad.  Dad is a hunting finatic.  Chris is trying it out. The Farm is my family's homestead...as in when my dad's side of the family came to America from Sweden, this was their land and this is where the old farmhouse stood.  The current farmhouse is the second one built.  My dad has been fixing the house and the land up.  It's his weekend getaway and dream house.  I love it there.

So, Saturday's outfit was for bumming around the farm, going to church, and doing farm things like sit on wood stoves:

I learned how to do this bun on The Daybook

Day 7 - just another day at school

Ben Folds FIVE

Today was a half day.  It's like a reward for staying late for conferences yesterday.  I am using this mini-vacation afternoon to:
1. Nap.  I still feel like poo.
2. Write.  I have a 12-page paper for a grad class that is due tonight.  Have I started it?  Do you know me?  If yes, then you know I haven't started.  If you don't know me, now you know I am a procrastinator of the worst kind.

My school allows jeans on Fridays, but I had a conference after school so I chose not to wear jeans.  I took the tags off of this never-been-worn-skirt this morning, and I love it.  I really like the bow in the back.

"Step Four..."

"...I can give you more."  Any lyric gurus on this one?  Hint 1: Joey sang this line.  Hint 2: If you grew up in the late 80s / early 90s, they were probably your favorite (Jonathan was my ultimate fav).  I still love them.  In fact, I still have their entire set of Barbies and stage.  I could keep going... but...

I am le tired.

I made it through over 1/4 of the school year without getting sick.  But alas, all good things must come to an end.  I feel like a wreck.  So immediately after this post, I am heading to bed.  I stopped by Christopher's to pick up Telula.  He graciously had packed me a care package.  The contents?  2 KBCs (Pick Axe), 1 New Glarus (Road...Slush? I think?), and a bag of microwave popcorn.  I burst out laughing.  He usually thinks of things like... oh, I don't know... crazy stuff like homemade soup and throat drops.  We watched last week's missed episode of The Office (On Demand is amazing.  Seriously.) and now I'm home, dressed in pj's, longing for sleep.

I had parent-teacher conferences today, so I dressed for it. I want to bring attention to the fact that my top is not a top.  It is a dress, tucked into the skirt.  I've never tried that before.  You could say today is a big deal.  Or not. ;o) I liked how it turned out.

"Three more days...

...girl, you know I will be coming home to you, darling." Name the tune? Anyone? Actually, I'll make it harder. Name the artist. It was one of our theme songs when we were doing the long distance thing.  Three more days.... day three of the challenge.... and last week we celebrated our three year date-a-versary.  Three's a great number.

In other important news, I have the Cutest. Fiance. Ever.  (Shoot.  He hates "cute"...... Replace "Cutest" with "Hottest" and let's call it a day.)

Just the Two of Us

Today, I had teacher school to go to... as in, my class had a substitute teacher and I went back to college for the day and worked with other teachers.  That means it's a jeans day.  I thought about wearing a skirt; I wear skirts/dresses almost everyday.  Then I remembered the weird looks you get from other teachers if you dress too...dressy.  I guess it goes without saying that the few days you can dress down during the school year, you take advantage of them.  So, this is what I wore today:

And since this is a blog about LOVE and all things related, here is Christopher's favorite engagement picture:

Day One... easy peasy

lemon squeezy.  This is Christopher's favorite dress on me (or at least one of them).  I wore it today because we were planning on having dinner together... but then meetings and report cards and sub plans and a new student (etc...) forced me to stay late.  The soup will wait for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and I have a teacher's pet.  Can you spot her?  ;o)

Engagement Pictures

We got our engagement pictures back on Tuesday and we couldn't be happier.  We love them!  LOVE them!  Cody of CKUnlimited was our photographer and will also be for our wedding.

P.S. The beautiful red dress was my mom's.  She wore it in 1977 when she was crowned Memorial Day Queen.  Love.

The Story Begins...

Boy & Girl meet in college.
Boy likes Girl.
Girl plays it cool.
Several years pass.
Boy & Girl graduate from college.
Jobs move Boy & Girl far away.
Boy & Girl remain in touch.
Girl needs date to college roommate's wedding.
Girl asks Boy.
(she thinks he's fun & cute.) 
(...and he knows the couple.)
Boy accepts.
(he still likes Girl.)
Boy & Girl have fun at wedding.
Girl likes Boy.
Boy moves closer to Girl.
Girl moves closer to Boy.
Boy & Girl make memories.
Boy asks Girl to be his wife for the rest of his life.
Girl says YES.