the most wasted of days is one without laughter: Well school started....

School has been going for 62 days. My last blog was the night before it all began. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. I can honestly say that I love teaching. I really enjoy the students in my classes. There are moments where I even feel like I have it all under control. These moments are few and far between. I don't think I have ever worked so hard in my life. I get up at 5:30 every morning and get to school by 6:30. I stay late after school. The first year of teaching is nuts! And just when you think you're getting used to the daily stuff, KTIP kicks in. KTIP is your internship year your first year of teaching in Kentucky. I have a committee of 3 other people (Ms. Faw-my resource teacher and fellow second grade teacher; Ms. Brown-my principal; and Ms. Ackerman-my university rep from Midway where I never attended). There are 3 cycles to KTIP. During each cycle, each person comes and observes. There is endless paperwork and lots of projects to be completed, in the correct format of course. I have completed my first cycle (PTL!!) and it went remarkably well. I am still in shock. Of course, that means I have to step it up even more for my second round!
Here's a few pictures from my classroom BEFORE school started. It looks much more worn in now!

Calendar math area

Table 3 and my beautiful windows that I've had to cover :(

My desk area. See my Ms. Mayo desk plate? Nathan got me that and a Mrs. Jackson for next year :)

With school being more than a full time job, I've had much less of a social life. However, I've squeezed a bit in. Often times by Friday night I'm so exhausted, I work at school until about 7 and then collapse at home. A night on the couch is a huge thrill in my life!!

Oh yeah and there's that wedding planning business!! We're getting down to about 7 months (when did that happen??). Nathan and I have started registering. We've been to Kohls with mom and we're hitting up Bed, Bath and Beyond tonight. Macy's will follow :) We took engagement photos and here's two of my favorites.

He always makes me laugh


see??

Here's a link to the album on Facebook

This is my entire 2011 photo album so scroll down a bit to see my selection of my favorite engagement photos. We really enjoyed taking our pictures. The only problem being the fact that it was 40 degrees and we were dressed for fall. It was freezing!! Our photographer was one of my sorority sisters in college and Nathan and I enjoyed working with her and her husband for our pictures. It got us even more excited for the wedding!! Check out Rebecca's website :)

In more recent social news, I avoided Halloween fairly well. I didn't dress up. My one Halloween activity was to go see Melissa die in Thriller downtown. She's so scary and so serious. How did I live with this?! Ekk!

Transy also played UK in an exhibition game. Melissa scored some AWESOME tickets and asked me to go with her! I almost wasn't able to go because my KTIP meeting was the next dang day, but through hard work, I got all my stuff done early!! We had a blast cheering for both teams at the game! I've never known so many people at a UK game!!

Melissa's shirt: We bleed Crimson and also a little BLUE

Last weekend was a fun one! We registered, like I said. We also journeyed out to Talon Winery. Melissa and I had bought a Groupon for Talon about a year ago. For $20, 4 people could enjoy wine tasting, receive 4 wine glasses, and a bottle of wine to take home. Melissa, Nathan, Tim and I enjoyed our trip to the vineyard.

That evening, was Nathan's niece's (my soon-to-be niece) one year birthday party. She is such a sweet baby and Nathan is so stinkin' sweet with her! He just adores her and you can tell she adores him! Here's the outfit he picked out for her!

Isn't that presh??

Other big news??? I hit my goal in Weight Watchers!! I am now a FREE lifetime member!!! Yeehaw!!!

Thursday night, I was also lucky to spend 2 1/2 hours talking to my baby brother in Italy!! I'm thankful for technology and Skype to allow us to talk for 2 1/2 hours internationally! It's remarkable.

In closing, a few more photos. Maybe I'll keep up better with this blog. Maybe and maybe not. Stay tuned to see!!