Winter Wonderland Wedding!

Some of my plans for my wedding reception have solidified in my mind as I've brainstormed and talked with family and friends. I'm excited to have an idea what it is all going to look like. I've decided to incorporate red and snowflakes together, hot chocolate and snowflake marshmallows and chocolate. We'll see how it all comes together. I can't reveal it all. It's still three months away. It'll be just in time to take advantage of holiday sales. The time will also work to my advantage to get some things made without too much craziness. Yay!!!!

. . . and yay for 2 days off for Fall Break!

I love my fiance!

Can I just tell you that I love my fiance, Kelly so much!!! We've both had a long week and have been so tired. Tonight, we just sat and talked while I folded laundry and put it away. We had some great conversations and learned some new things about each other. Sometimes it is so nice to just sit and relax and be able to talk about anything. We often have heavy things to talk about, but it's fun to just talk about whatever and have a light conversation that could lead and go anywhere. I didn't want him to leave.

I love him!

Fun School Moment!

I just love my students and my class this year!!! They are so much fun and I'm loving my teaching style and interactions with the kids. It's just working for me! I don't know if that makes sense. The last 2 days have been parent/teacher conferences. These are very long days for me and I am so exhausted, but I love talking with parents. They were so kind in saying that they kids are loving school and loving learning. What more could I love to hear as a teacher.

I have a small magnetic easel that I've opened up for the kids to use magnetic letters and create sentences on using correct capitalization and punctuation. I had 3 cute boys come over to me this morning all excited. They had written a sentence and wanted me to see it. It read, "We love Miss Jones do you?" I had to take a picture. Maybe I'll post it when I get it downloaded. I have to crop the kids out first, but it sure made me feel good!

HCG progress

Today is day 23 of HCG and 500 calories. I could be done today and moving on to the other phases, but I'm going to continue. I'd like to only do this once. You can go on the HCG up on 40 days. I don't know that I'll go that long, but we'll see how it goes. I'd like to at least go one more week. I've lost about 15 pounds. I'd like to lose more. It's been a bit frustrating because I'm not losing everyday, but that's kind of how my life goes as I've committed to this type of thing in the past and lost weight. It's always worth it, though. I know that sounds funny, since losing weight every single day is crazy, but on this diet, that's how it works and it's safe. If you want more info, ask me, or do some research. There's lots online.

I've been taking this new energy drink, Rush, that is really good, with no caffeine or bad stuff. It really helps. However, I don't know that it's always helping with weight loss. I'm not going to drink any more for at least a week and see if that helps.

Everyone at work is so kind and I had lots of compliments today with how I look. That always makes you feel good. There are several at work doing this same diet, so we can commiserate together and rejoice together.

New Day!

I don't know what it was about yesterday, but it was a long and tough day for whatever reason. There were no students. We had a half professional day. Friday, my classroom was painted, so all my things were in the center of the room and there wasn't anything on the walls. It's sure nice to have a newly painted room, but I spent the rest of yesterday putting everything back. I don't know what the deal was with my mood, but it kind of stunk. Poor Kelly. It wasn't so great by the time I saw him last night. He was a great sport, though, and helped me put everything back up on the walls. Maybe part of it was I knew this week was going to be a long one. Wednesday and Thursday are 12 hour days with parent/teacher conferences after school. I always love meeting with the parents and it always goes well, but it just takes something out of you to be on your A-game for quite that long.

Well, today is a new day, and I just love teaching!!! I didn't mind not having kids yesterday. Sometimes, it's rather nice to have a little break. However, the short weeks somehow end up being or feeling longer than the regular weeks. Today was great, though. It was so good to see my kids. I'm really enjoying our writing time. . . and for the first year, I started my science rotation with my own class on the day it was planned to start. You see, the first rotation is our own class and if it doesn't go right on schedule, that's okay. It's my time. However, I'm all about routines this year and being better about staying on my schedule, etc. So, yay for me! Also, Friday is a field trip, which are so much fun, but are very exhausting!!! We are going to Thanksgiving Point to Farm Country. It's fun because they also do something on plants, which we learn in 1st grade. They make wheat necklaces. They have a little tube on the necklace where they can put in dirt, water, and some seeds to grow some wheat, I think it is.

I came home from work today in a much better mood! Kelly already noticed when I called him. :)

Montana Trip - August 2009 - Meet Kelly's family for the first time!

HCG

Kelly and I started HCG on Sept 12th and I have been keeping up with it faithfully. I've lost over 10 pounds and feel so much better! I'm hoping to continue to lose and finally get to my original weight goal I had from when I was doing LA weight loss a few years ago. I lost over 50 pounds over a year or so. I completely changed my activity rate and lifestyle and eating habits. It's one of the best things I have ever done. Since Kelly and I have been dating, I have started back up with emotional eating with the roller coaster of dating. HCG is helping me to get over that and get back motivation, determination, and control over that part of my life. Health is so important and it is a priority in my life. This last week, I was on a plateau, but I seemed to have broken that the last few days. I'm so glad. All that I'm doing isn't worth it, if it's not having results. Yay for good health and healthy eating. I can't really exercise on HCG, and look forward to getting that back into my routine as well as having more food to choose from and being able to really good again and come up with healthy meals. Right now I can only eat certain foods and certain combinations.

Journals

This last month Kelly and I started writing in our journals on a daily basis. It has been the best thing. I wish we would have started sooner. We decided to use ldsjournal and I love the online journal. It's so fast and easy. Sometimes, I write myself an email if the internet is too slow and I'm away from my computer and then copy it into my journal. I've been successful at writing every single day since Sept. 6th. Yay for me and my posterity! Hopefully, I can keep it up!

School!

I'm still teaching 1st grade and loving it. Last year, I loved my kids, but had such a hard group. This year, I love my kids and am having such fun. They are really such a great group!!! I think my teaching is a little different this year with my experiences with Kelly and his kids and the thought of being a step-mom. My perspective has definitely changed and my teaching along with it for the good!

Today we were moved into a different classroom while our classroom was being painted. It's exciting to have newly painted walls, but a pain to get it ready and my room is a mess. Everything is off the walls and everything else is away from the walls stacked and piled on desks in the middle of my room. I am excited, though, because they decided to paint our window wall a green color. It will be nice to break up white walls only. It gives the room a little more character. Now I don't need to put up posters to cover up paint taken off from past occupants.

This next week includes a half day professional development, 2 evenings of parent/teacher conferences and a field trip to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It will be a long week, but a good week. I always enjoy meeting with parents, but they are such long days and I get exhausted.

I'm so glad I'm teaching this year!!! I'm truly having a delightful year and loving it. I'm also loving my team that I work with. This is our second year having the exact same team. I don't know that I'm so good as team leader, but they manage to put up with it and me. I imagine it's partly because they'd rather not be the team leader themselves. :) It's also been fun car pooling with the ladies. It's a great chance to talk about life and school, when we want, to and from school.

Getting Married!

I haven't blogged for a super long time! I've been so busy with school and life with my fiance and his kids and my family, etc. Kelly and I got engaged on July 17th, our 6 month anniversary and we are getting married on January 16th, 2010. Yay!!!

I'm really excited. It seems like so far away, but I know the time will go quickly, especially as I keep busy with school and the holiday season is coming fast!

We have also put in some offers on short sale houses. We haven't heard anything yet, but they definitely aren't short time frames. We know the Lord will help us find the house we can spend our life in with the right ward for us. I look forward to that. It'll be so exciting to have enough room for all my things and a place to put it all. Yay! I'm also exciting to decorate a place of my own.