Teaching

I have enjoyed having this week off of school.  In Cobb County, they have one week off after every 6 weeks in.  The school year goes from August 1- May 31 and they get an entire week off in September, in November for Thanksgiving, Christmas, February, and then Spring Break in April.  This is the first year they have used this schedule, and it has already been overturned for next year by the School Board (although I'm not sure why because the teachers and kids LOVE it!)  At the beginning of the week I had thoughts of "uh-oh...I need to be working.  Being on that consistent schedule has really been good for me."  By Friday now, though, I'm back to thinking not working isn't all that bad!  I mean I was able to hit FIVE gym classes this week!

It's also been a good week because Ryan is transitioning into a new job.  He has known for a while that the LandCare side of TruGreen is being sold.  Instead of waiting around to see what his fate would be when that happened, he has been job searching since early December.  Although he got many job interviews and they all went well and left him feeling very confident, none of them panned out.  We were facing the realistic situation of both of us being possibly unemployed. I mean there was even discussion of having to move back to Indiana since I actually still do have a job there.  I told him I can eat ramen noodles, but under no circumstances will I eat pork and beans!!!!  So we are very grateful for Ryan's new career that starts March 1st with HighGrove, another landscaping business.  Ryan didn't go into the office much this week since he knows he's leaving TruGreen, although he hasn't officially resigned yet.  So we got to spend some more time together than usual.

Getting back to the teaching gig... I have a lot to say about it.  I have both positive things to say, negative things to say, and indifferent things that I have observed that are neither positive nor negative, but rather just different than how things are done within the system I come from.

Let's talk about the neutral differences first:  kids can wear flip flops, kids can wear coats (which makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can bring bags to class (which also makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can chew gum, and kids can bring water bottles/juice bottles/Gatorade bottles to class and drink them at will.  These are things I have to catch myself about not reprimanding, because none of that was allowed at John Young.  Quite frankly, because these things are the norm, there really aren't any issues surrounding them.  All of the students walk on the right hand side of the hallway.  There are actually tiles down the middle of the hallways that are a different color than the rest of the tiles, and for the most part, all the kids stay on the right hand side of those tiles!  I almost feel like I'm breaking the rules if I'm walking on the left hand side of the hallway during my prep periods. 

That's all I'll say for now.  More to come!

Intruder?

Last night at 12:45am, I awoke to the sound of glass shattering.  All of the doors into this house have small glass window panes with hard wood floors underneath them.  So immediately I assume someone has smashed one of the panes in, unlocked the door, and entered the residence. 

I shake Ryan and tell him that I just heard glass SHATTER.  He says ok and appears to get ready to go check it out.  After 10 seconds, he still hasn't moved so I say "Ryan, did you  hear me?"  He assures me he did hear me, and then promptly pulls up the covers to go back to sleep.  So I say, "Ryan, aren't you supposed to protect me?"  He asks me to repeat that.  So again, I say, "Ryan, aren't you going to protect me?"

He responds with, "Courtney, I don't have time for the 10 question game.  Good God it's gotta be 3am.  Look, I am trying to SAVE this business, and maybe even GROW it.  I don't know what you want from me."  Clearly Ryan has no idea what I'm talking about, and is obviously in some state of sleep still.  I found that amusing, but none the less, it left me alone to deal with the intruder. 

So I get up, and start walking to the kitchen and as I'm walking I say, "Is everything ok?"  Grant responds from the kitchen, "What?"  So I repeat, "Is everything ok?"  Then Grant comes around the corner, slightly intoxicated, with a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other, and explains that he dropped a glass and he's sorry for waking me up.    WHEW!

Speaking of Grant, Ryan's cousin, he got a new job and left today to hit the road.  He's going to be traveling to MO and working there for 2 months and then to New Orleans for 3 months doing some type of construction.  Essentially, he is no longer our roommate.  He said the next time we see him will be at the wedding.  It was a little sad to see him go... but at least now if I hear glass shatter, I know it's not Grant!

Man to Man

On Saturday night Ryan and I went over to Stephanie and Jason's.  They cooked us dinner, we provided dessert, and then we played Phase 10 for the rest of the evening.  Believe it or not, this was the first time Jason and Ryan had ever met.  Here is how their conversation went:

Ryan said to Jason, "Man to man, do you think there's anything I need to know about Courtney?" 
J:  Well you know she doesn't cook. 
Ryan nods. 
J:  And you know she doesn't clean...
R:  Well, we're working on that.
J:  And she sleeps ALL THE TIME!
R:  Yeah... we're working on that too.
J:  And she has really bad gas.
R:  I know!
J:  Well as long as you know all of that and you're clear about what you're getting yourself into, that's pretty much it.

Case closed - they approve of each other =)

SNOW in GA!

Here is a picture of how much snow we had a few weeks ago.  This amount caused school to be closed for ONE WHOLE WEEK!

This is how much snow/sleet/hail that we are getting right now.  Everybody all together now, cross your fingers for NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!!!

Ryan turned 34!

One week ago, on Tuesday, January 25, Ryan turned 34.  For 6 weeks, he is FIVE years older than me =)

Here are cupcakes I made for his tennis match on Sunday:

Here is the cake I made him:  Count 'em - 34 candles!

Wedding Gown Weekend!

My mom and my cousin Leslie flew into Atlanta on Thursday. 

We went to my first bridal gown appointment that night at a place called Bel Fiore.  It was a smaller boutique, but the dresses and atmosphere were really nice.  The sales lady assigned to me was great too.  You could only choose 5 dresses at a time to try on, so after those 5 are up, they had a robe and flip flops (that both said "bride") to wear so the bride didn't have to get re-dressed before selecting more dresses. 

 
After trying on 14 dresses there, I had it narrowed down to one dress:

http://www.essensedesigns.com/dress-D1170

The next day we went to Bridals by Lori which is the bridal salon that the TLC show Say Yes To The Dress is filmed.  Although they weren't filming that day, I did get to meet Lori and I was star struck. 

I probably tried on 20 dresses here... my sales lady had to leave at one point because her next appointment arrived.  Upon leaving I had it narrowed down to one dress there:



http://watters.com/Product/WattersBrides/7073B/

The next place we went was called Bride Beautiful.  It was the least-nice of all the places we went.  I actually ended up falling in love with a dress there.  There is no link to this dress because, of course, it's bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the big day!  There was a slight snafu when I tried to actually purchase the dress... something about the designer didn't have any in stock, so they would have to contact the factory to see if one could be made and shipped in time.  Turns out it's all good.  Or so they say.  It should be in at the end of April.

Since I purchased a gown at Bride Beautiful I was able to cancel our fourth appointment for the following morning. 

Ryan made us family dinner that night.  We kicked Grant out of the house so that my mom and Leslie could each have a bedroom, but we invited him to come back for dinner.