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!!

UK basketball.  I'm a happy camper!

Roller coaster???

Nathan seems to hate the aquarium

new pencils

I've got my new pencils, new shoes, new dress and it's my first day of school tomorrow as a teacher...Lord, be with me. 

Passport take 1!

On June 26th, Nathan and I headed off to Wingate, NC with 15 youth and 4 other chaperones for Passport choices. We were both excited...me more so than Nathan. Passport is such a huge part of my life and has had such a profound impact on my life. I find my experiences with Passport very difficult to communicate to other people. I was so ready for Nathan to experience Passport and get to hang out with our super awesome youth group.

The week did not disappoint. The theme really connected with our group. They loved their choices and their leaders. The group got a lot closer and really experienced God in different ways. And Nathan experienced Passport and a part of me. We all rocked it out at the dance!! It was just a breathtaking week!! And exhausting. 

And as far as weight watchers and camp, I found a balance. I brought breakfast bagels and spray butter. Stocked up on fruit. Skipped the fruit snacks and cookies at lunch. For dinner, I was completely at the mercy of the cafeteria. And often very hungry. I would try to eat the main item (chicken fingers, pizza, chicken quesadilla,etc.) and then chow down on fruit. I ran one morning. Other than that, I would just sweat the pounds off (thank you, dance with no air conditioning). So after a 3 quesadilla night, trip to Cookout, and Cheerwine sherbet, I came out about even, if not down a little bit!!

All in all, a fabulous and successful week!!

Thanks for the fun Passport!!

June 16, 2011

Today has been a fun day...It is exactly a year until our wedding day!!  Woot woot!!  I'm so ready I could burst.  To celebrate today, Nathan and I went and met with a realtor and a mortgage person to discuss the possibility of buying our first house together (my first house! aaahhh!!!).  Both meetings went well and we are going to start seriously looking at the end of 2011.  A great way to celebrate our negative one year wedding anniversary.  The upcoming year is going to be absolutely crazy but I am excited.  A new job, wedding planning, house hunting, general life living...much excitement and much happiness :)

Half Marathon

This past weekend included a trip to Nashville.  Melissa and Betsey tackled a half marathon!! Along with about 30,000 other people.

Poor Melissa was sick as a dog but she made it 13.1 miles!!!

 Don't they look happy!?  Happy and tired!!  Our little runners :)

After the running, we all went home and rested.  Then we headed out to Satco which was fabulous as always. 

We headed downtown and got there right as a concert was getting out...so it was nuts!!  We found one place downtown that wasn't as packed.  

The Second Fiddle was not packed but I really enjoyed it.  We also met up with Lindsey :)

Very successful trip to Nashville...if only I hadn't come home sick :(

Wedding Website

Only advantage to being sick in bed all day on a Monday?  Getting a great start on a wedding website :) 

meredithandnathan.brides.com

Accomplishment

Today marks a big ol' accomplishment for me.  I had to stay home sick today (blah) but am starting to feel better after resting.  I did go out at 4 for my Weight Watchers weigh in....and boy am I glad I did.  I lost 3.8 pounds this week (a shock after being out of town) which was so exciting!!

I have also now lost a total of 50.8!  50.8!!  I absolutely cannot believe it!  I'm in my healthy weight range finally!!  Such an exciting weigh in day for me!  I wouldn't be surprised if I gained a bit next week after such a big loss but I am still excited!  

50 pounds!  So very exciting...I am still disappointed that I had 50 pounds that I needed to lose, but I'm proud of myself for getting back on track.  I'm healthier than I've ever been.  I work out about 5 times a week and am eating what I want but on a much healthier way.  I'm thankful for all the support I've gotten from my friends, family and fiancee!  

Life lately....

Life lately is fun.  Very fun!  My days consist of work which is fun and exhausting and overwhelming and exhilarating all at the same time!!  In the evenings, I spend time with friends, family or fiance.  I've been going to the gym 4-5 times a week which I'm loving!  I love going to classes: weight lifting, zumba and even kickboxing!!  I've also started training for a 5K.  I don't have a specific race in mind yet.  Weight Watchers is doing a Walk-It Challenge where they are encouraging members to train to walk 5K.  I can already walk 5K so I'm challenging myself to run/jog 5K.   I'm one week into it.  So far so good.  I'm using the Couch to 5K plan which I'm hoping will get me to where I need to be while not killing me!!  I also started taking a Spanish class...3 classes in and I'm still at "hola" but I'm practicing and understanding so far...lots of practice left!!

My days also consist of planning...planning for a wedding!!  We set a date: June 16, 2012.  Nathan and I are ready to begin our life as a married couple but this date will give us plenty of time to plan and relax.  Here's hoping that I'll have a teaching job for next year so I don't want to overwhelm myself with wedding planning, wedding and school year!  Whew.  I'm enjoying gathering information and reading several books to begin preparations.  Only 423 days left!!!

spring break

I am in love with spring break.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Nathan, my true love, but spring break...oh spring break.  So what if I have things I should be doing, I'm just gonna lay in bed or on the couch.  I'm going to lay here and read other people's blogs about wonderful beautiful things they are making and creating.  And I'm going to choose not to feel bad about it!  Whoo hoo spring break!!

April Showers

...but me and my boots are ready for MAY flowers!!

(Phoebe chewed on these but you get the picture!!)

And she's enjoying the boots box :)

Weekend wrap up (a little later)

And here is what I had originally planned for my weekend wrap up.  

It's a little later than planned but with good reason.

Now to get on with it....

Two fun meals.  

Chicken and noddles chicken helper.  Yummy and only 7 points for a cup and a LOT of flavor. Doesn't get much better than that!!

Until you see this next meal...

Gorton's Shrimp Scampi

Ok so a box of this is about 10 bucks.  Now it's on sale a lot so that's positive.  Also Gorton's will send you GOOD coupons if you sign up for their e-mails.  And there are 3 servings per box.  So enough about the cost. 

One serving is 6 shrimp and they take about 5 or 6 minutes to make on the stove.  The sauce is on the shrimp and is absolutely wonderful.  For 6 shrimp plus sauce, it is only 3 points or 120 calories as the box says.  I make a cup of brown rice for 4 points and mix it all up.  And Oh. My. Goodness, is it good!?!?!  Do yourself a favor and buy this shrimp.  It is absolutely fabulous.  Often you can get it for about 5-6 dollars a box.  Yum yum yum.

One other fun thing I bought at the grocery this week was this cute little bag of apples.

I was already planning on buying some Jazz apples if they were still on sale and the bag sold me for sure!!  Check these apples out if you've never had them.  Also, Pink Lady apples are the way to go as well!!  Both have been $1 per pound which is a great deal on apples.

Other news is that I'm still thrilled about the engagement!!  Can't wait to spend my life with that man!!

bling bling bling

My left ring finger has a lot of extra sparkle to it.  :)  Nathan and I are engaged!!  I am oh so excited.  I also had this long weekend wrap up post planned, pictures ready and everything but this bling trumps that post!!

Nathan and I had a good day Saturday.  We worked out that morning and watched UK win.  I took Nathan to Yamamoto which is one of his favorite restaurants.  We were watching old Grey's Anatomy episodes.  And here's where it happened. 

Nathan has this powerband bracelet thing that helps with your joints but it was bugging me last night.  So I asked (maybe told) him to take it off.  He went to take it off but then sets something on my leg.  I immediately knew what it was but I started FREAKING out!!  

He asked me to marry him and then asked if he could turn the lights on.  I did not answer the first question but told him not to turn the lights on.  I'm a slow processor sometimes.  Luckily, Nathan takes me in stride.  

Here is our after picture once I finally said yes and allowed him to turn the lights.  Please forgive my tired and makeup free face.  I was ready to go to bed!!

We are super excited and I am still a bit shocked.  I'm ready to start planning which I know will be a fun and stressful process.  I'm going to try to not obsess and stress about every detail, but I'm not sure that is possible.  

Thanks to everyone who has given us well wishes.  I am feeling so loved and am excited to start this new chapter of our lives.  

I shoulda known that love was in the air when I woke up to this on my window Friday morning.

Weekend wrap up

After a fabulous weekend, just want to pause and reflect on a few small, but exciting things.  

Friday night, zumba with Lindsey and Melissa.  Super fun way to end the week.  Melissa and I went to Qdoba after and almost closed the place down.  So much fun!!

Saturday was time with Nathan.  Sigh.  I always enjoy myself with that boy.  He's so caring and so stinkin' funny.  Boy drives me nuts sometimes, but my goodness, every day that I spend with him feels like the best day ever.  It's hard to explain how caring and sweet he is with me.  He makes me laugh but also keeps me so calm when I start to freak out.  Balance I think is key to what makes us work.  

Sunday was one of those days.  Got up early for early church (8:30--who does that??) and then Sunday school.  Nathan was a trooper when I suggested going to early church so we could watch the noon UK game.  

UK FINALLY WON ON THE ROAD!!!  On the last game of the season!  For UT's senior night!!  What an amazing win!  

After the game, I tried on EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING IN MY CLOSET!!  This was not as much fun as it may sound.  It's nice that clothes are getting too big, BUT it's a shame to get rid of newer clothes.  But I am feeling lighter knowing that everything in my closet now fits and I like everything in there.  Some things won't fit after a while, but it's nice for now.  

Finished product

Ended up the weekend with a meal with Mom and Nathan.  We enjoyed ourselves.  Before dinner, Nathan and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to make an exchange and I saw this....

...and I knew I had to have it...especially when it was only TEN DOLLARS!!  Earlier that day, I had been thinking about how I wanted to make a pillow like this... While I realize this pillow is not the same, I still love it.  I have found a wonderful home for my new pillow in one of my favorite chairs :)

Yippee!!  Phoebe is also pleased with one of my new purchases.

Her first big bite took a huge chunk of feathers out.  Well at least she loves it and it was only three bucks.  

Came home later and got laundry done and my clothes re-hung in my closet.  Lots and lots done and a great start to the week.  

Until later, enjoy your week.

recipe fail

Wednesday night, I set out to make beef, potato and quinoa soup.  The recipe looked so tasty.  The recipe said that "if you like meat and potatoes this soup is for you."  I LOVE meat and potatoes and was curious about this quinoa business.  Quinoa is a grain that has bunches of amino acids and such.  

So here I go.  I've got all my ingredients and I'm rarin' to go.  After 2 hours of simmering on the stove, I was ready to eat!  I invited Nathan over to enjoy the soup.  

After the anticipation, this soup was a major disappointment.  It didn't taste bad but it also didn't taste much at all.  Major bummer.  

However, a much easier, cheaper and less time consuming meal was whole wheat pasta with alfredo sauce.  Major yum :)

rain

rain rain rain.  all it did today was rain.  fitting for the day we buried Buddy.  There were lots of funny and sweet stories told today.  Buddy was a farmer and the rain today is already turning the world green. 

Buddy was loved dearly by many people.  Pray for my family as well as the Quest Farm family. 

Winfred A.

My family was hit by sad and shocking news.  Tuesday night, my great uncle, Buddy was found dead.  He was 80 years old.  Here's where you can view his obituary.

Buddy has lived at Quest Farm for as long as I can remember.  Quest Farm is an amazing place in Scott County where adults with developmental disabilities can live, work, worship and grow together.  Buddy has been at every Williams' family gathering I remember.  Buddy called me Marilyn as long as I can remember as well.  Buddy was a wonderful man who always saw the good in things.  He was a wonderful brother to my dada and I know they both loved each other very much.  The world is a sadder place without Buddy but I am thankful for my time with him. 

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.  Love leaves a memory no one can steal." -Irish tombstone

RIP Buddy, or Winfred Awful as he was fondly known as.  You will be missed greatly.

He looks like he's got a secret doesn't he??  How handsome :)

quick note

One quick thing to note: laundry for the week is washed, dried, folded, hung and put up.  Woot woot!!

Crock Pot Chili for a sick weekend...

I've enjoyed my long weekend but have been under the weather.  Saturday I thought the perfect meal would be some crock pot chili from Skinny Taste.  I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while but Friday night I decided Saturday was the day.  I prepped the chili the night before and oh.my.goodness was it easy!?!  The anticipation was a killer though.  After getting the ingredients together Friday night, starting the crock pot Saturday morning and being home most of the day, I wouldn't have been able to handle it had the chili not been good.  Guess what though?  It was...fabulous!! 

One new fun thing I got to do was shred the chicken.   Yummy :)

 Now doesn't that look yummy??  Do yourself a favor and get out and make this chili!! Skinny Taste Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili.  Not to mention the fact that this is major low cal and mega fiber!  I've had two servings this weekend and still lost 1.4 pounds this week. 

Back to school tomorrow.  It was nice to have president's day off though.  Got a lot accomplished and some major rest :) Also got a cute new plant. 

Let's hope she'll make it.  I think I should name her...suggestions??

I'm outta here for now.  Off to bed before the rose ceremony on The Bachelor :)

the going is getting tough...

This week I have felt like munching.  No munching.  No munching.  No munching!!  I plan my snacks but I've wanted to munch beyond my daily points. 

As much as I want to snack extra, I keep trying to focus on how my pants fit better and my tops look better.  My body is loving being without those extra 36 pounds.  But boy oh boy.  This is when the going gets tough. 

As my shirt I had as a kid said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going to Grandma and Grandpa's house." 

slacker...

It's been weeks and weeks.  A problem has been mounting in my life.  I couldn't get ahead of the problem.  And my problem???

Laundry!!  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

It has been too many week!  How I've even found things to wear I honestly couldn't even tell you.  I always wash my clothes each week but rarely get around to folding them.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, here is what happens when you slack off major.

So Saturday I decided this problem will NOT defeat me.  I folded and folded and folded some more.  Phoebe was much less stressed.

She slept on.  And what did I do?  I folded and folded and folded some more.  Phoebe?  Well she moved seats and slept some more.

At the end of the day, however, I was the ultimate victor!!

YEEEEEEHAW!!!!

In other news, Nathan and I celebrated Valentine's day on Saturday night.  We got all dressed up and went out to Bellini's.  We were so lucky because we got a gift certificate for $25 for only $10 on restaurant.com.  And I had found 80% off of that so we got a $25 gift certificate for $2!!  WHAAAT?!?  Major woot!

Bellini's was hopping and we had to get a 9:00 reservation.  I took a nap beforehand.  I felt like a hipster eating dinner at 9 pm but I think I was faking it :)

We both had tortellini which was marvelous.  This is a picture (sorry for the bad quality) of the tortellini.  I've never had tortellini like this.  It was so good!!  We only got about 7 tortellinis and at first Nathan and I were not thrilled.  For $18 a plate, I expected more.  However, I was full and ended up giving my last one to Nathan.

And because I love a good deal, the meal was even better.  The sauce made it all worth it but the price was fabulous.  Two meals, one glass of wine, $10 gratuity and we only paid $30.  I was thrilled especially since the meals were so much.

My recommendation to you is this: go to www.restaurant.com and check out restaurants in your area.  Then follow couponcravings.com and they post restaurant.com discounts.

I love saving money.  I love eating good food.  And I love Nathan!!

bag lady

So how many bags must you have to be too many??