Last Weekend

Haley and Kelly flew into Atlanta at midnight on Thursday.  It was supposed to be a surprise for me.  Ryan was going to go pick them up while I was asleep.  I ended up finding out ahead of time, and instead, I had to go to the airport at midnight while Ryan got to sleep!

I had to work the next day, so Haley and Kelly had to go pick up my dad and his girlfriend Teri at noon.  The funny part is, neither of the 4 of them have ever met!  As a result, the girls went prepared to the airport with signs:

They stopped by Papa's Pantry on the way home and I gave them all a tour.

The next day was our co-ed bridal shower.  Haley and Kelly were so bored they left at one point to go spray tanning.  They missed the presents being opened, and the cake cutting!  By the time they got back, the party was over.

It was a good thing we didn't have any plans on Sunday, because we woke up to the water heater exploding.  Ryan and my dad had the pleasure of working on that from 9am to 3pm-ish.  Three trips to Home Depot later, it was fixed.

After I took the girls back to teh airport for thie flight out Sunday night, I came back and we grilled out.  We got to use a new platter we receieved as a wedding gift.  When we first got it, Ryan said, "That's HUGE!  What are we going to put on  that?"  But, I think we filled it nicely =)

It's Official

I hired Reverend John Mashall today!  Which means, the wedding can actually take place now =)

And, don't judge a book by its cover ;)

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. 

Wedding Planning...

Being snowed in for one whole week with Ryan enabled us to get a lot accomplished!

Done

• Videographer
• Created and ordered favors
• Booked honeymoon
• Got registered at two different stores
• Have a violinist for the ceremony music
• Booked a pirate ship party for that night

Have leads on, but no final plans

• DJ
• photographer
• make up
• hair
• My mom and Leslie are coming down (not this weekend, but the next) to go bridal gown shopping with me!

Not done

• Get Ryan's wedding band
• Get an officiant or someone to marry us
• Pick out flowers
• Order a cake or cupcakes or something
• Write eHarmony about our amazing love story and be so convincing that they will want to pay for the wedding =)

My new job

Ryan's friend Adam, has a sister named Amy, who had a baby over the Christmas break.  She just happens to teach 8th grade special education math.  So I applied for the job, was offered the job, and accepted the job!

I will have one self-contained math class in which I am the teacher.  There are only four students in that class.  The rest of my day will consist of co-teaching with a general education mathematics teacher in his classroom.  I have no home room students, and the first two classes of the day are my preps.  So according to my calculations, I won't teach until around 11am daily.

The school's poverty level is similar to John Young...it's population consists of about 50% free and reduced lunch students.  So it's just below the federal level required in order to qualify as a Title I school.  The racial makeup is different than JYMS though.  This school, JJ Daniells, has about 50% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, and about 30% African American students. 

This position is a 9-10 week job, which basically takes me up to Spring Break; the first week in April.  The 2nd or 3rd week in April is when the Georgia CRCT's are administered.  This is like Indiana's ISTEP EXCEPT that 8th graders are in an "exit year", which means they HAVE to pass the CRCT in both  math and language arts in order to go on to the 9th grade.  Can you believe there is accountability here??????

I have mixed emotions about starting this job....
Pros
Meeting new people and possibly making friends!
Getting my foot in the door in a school system
Something to do and fill my time with
Cons
Can no longer work at Papa's Pantry
Have to get up early
Teaching 8th grade math again!

I am supposed to start on Wednesday.  But it is snowing here in GA and all the schools are already closed for tomorrow, Monday.  If the schools are closed again on Tuesday, then I can't start until Friday.  There are only certain days of the week that Cobb County will process new employees. 

*******

Some more pictures from when we were in St. Augustine.

This is the bay that Ryan proposed on, and is right across the street from where we're getting married.

Here is a picture outside the Lightner Museum.  Couples can get married on this bridge over the koi pond.  It was beautiful, but ultimately too small for what we were looking for.

And here is a picture of the two of us on New Year's Eve, before Ryan had proposed, but I wore the ring anyway =)

Wedding Info

The Wedding and brunch Reception will be Sunday morning, May 29, 2011 at the White Room in St. Augustine, FL.  The space consists of an indoor loft, and an outside rooftop.  Here are both halves of the indoor loft.

Here are two shots of the rooftop overlooking the bay

And here is what the facility looks like from the road.

If you would like to see more pictures and you have a facebook account, you can check out their page at:


http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/whiteroomstaugustine?v=wall

Unfortunately, all the indoor pictures on their site are of the ballroom, but that area is not the area we selected for our festivities.  The rooftop pictures are though!