2010 :: In review.

Cue the typical 2010 reflection post.  I don't even care.  It's wonderful to go back and reflect upon all the exciting things that happened this year!  It was a huge and exciting year for D and I.

January

D and I started off the year right with "No-meat January."  Above are a few of the dishes we made.  January was a good month of eating healthy, working out, and wedding planning.

We also received and mailed out wedding celebration/announcements this month!  I was FINALLY offered a teaching job and in North Carolina!

February

D and I started house/apartment hunting in Raleigh this month.  I already started slacking on working out!  I did have my Bachelorette Party (which for some reason, I CAN NOT find pictures from!  Ladies, email them to me if you have them!).  Sadly, some of my lovlies did not get to come, but it ended up being a wonderful weekend in this little cabin...

 

March

This was the biggest and busiest month ever!

 On March 4, D and I got "married" at the court house.  He bought me a bouquet :) Quotations on married because we don't officially consider that our wedding day.

We spent a wonderful honeymoon week in Aruba and had our private ceremony on March 8.

And then literally the day we returned from our honeymoon, I trekked it up to Raleigh, our new home, in a packed full car with the kitties.  We roughed it in a cold house with no furniture for 2 weeks.  See above...the kitties curled up together on our trusty air mattress. 

 

Finally, I drove back down to Athens for the next two weekends to plan and participate in our wedding celebration on March 27.  What a month :)

April

D made his official move to NC!  And I got in a wreck and got a new car...

We had a crazy, unpacked house.  I was still loving life and my new job as a teacher.  I made some healthy goals I didn't follow through with, gave into a fad, and gave my two cents on quite a lot of subjects.

May

D and I went on our first camping trip in NC in May.  It was relaxing and wonderful...although we definitely left the sleeping bags at home.  Haha :)

We also celebrated D's birthday and spent our first weekend on the NC beaches. We finally joined the YMCA too!

June

Honestly, not much happened in June.  I was ready for school to get out, sad from not having enough money for anything.  We were still just getting to know Raleigh.  And so began the summer of no pay!

July

We continued to beach it up on weekends at the NC coast and celebrated the 4th of July at the Raleigh fairgrounds.

My sister came to visit me in Raleigh, we had friends visit us in Raleigh, and D and I braved it in the woods with his grandparents.

August

I celebrated my birthday with D in Roanoke, VA.  We started looking at houses, and I started getting my classroom ready for school!

September

We found our house and started getting things in motion!

October

CAPM got married in October and I ran my second 5k with my new friend JA.

November

D and I made some really delish meals, I finished my first puzzle (in a very long time!), and had lots of new developments on the work frontier.

December

This deserves a separate post in itself since I haven't updated in a bit, but the highlights include...

 Making pizza and having fun with friends back down in GA

 Our first white Christmas in GA since the 1880s!

 D's parents' barn...such a beautiful sight.

 Merry Christmas to me...I finally got my wedding tattoo :)  At this point is wasn't healed and my skin was irritated from the tape.  Already brainstorming my next one!

 Shared wonderful drinks and time and...

 ...bonfires with more friends in Athens

And I re-taught/learned how to crochet.  My grandma Wall would be proud.

Such a wonderful, exciting and fun year of many firsts.  I'm a lucky girl.  I can't wait to see what this next year brings.  I'll be updating my 101 in 1001 list soon!

Happy December.

Number 1 - when did December get here?  I remember the beginning of October I was thinking, "I'll be lucky if I make it to Christmas."  Well I guess I made it (almost).

Number 2 - December comes straight out of nowhere and then will be over in a flash. 

I'm sort of drawing a blank for a post idea.  I'm on my lunch breaking during this beginning teacher training program I'm in.  I'm doing this today and tomorrow I'm observing a couple teachers at another school.  It is a nice and much needed break from the students.  They have literally been driving me crazy this week.  It's unfortunate that every day that goes by, I am feeling more and more beat down there.  I can do it though.  Since I've been such a negative nancy lately and totally skipped out on any gratitude posts in November, I wanted to just list a few things that I do have to be happy and positive about!

• Going home to see our families for Christmas - I haven't been back home since September!  
• Getting paid on December 21 instead of the 28th - MUCH needed for December AND I can hit up Target's after Christmas sale
• Having a husband AND one that does so much around the house and accepts (most of the time) my laziness
• Being in our new home at Christmastime - I love the pride D takes in taking care of it and the feeling I have of wanting to decorate it
• New friends and opportunities in Raleigh
• The fact that I DO have a job and got to move out of Georgia
• The trips and vacations I've had the opportunity to be a part of - as much as I complain about wanting/needing ANOTHER vacation, I am so lucky to have been able to visit and even live in some amazing places
• Reading - It's like I rediscovered a passion!  I adore going to the library and reading.  My recent reads list should be an upcoming post

I could go on but I won't for now :)

Neglect.

Remember all those wonderful posts I had lined up and was telling you about?  As you can see, they did not even happen :(  The holidays kill me from any type of productivity (that does not include putting up Christmas decorations).  Speaking of Christmas decor...

[Sorry for poor iphone quality...but LIGHTS!]

This is how D and I spent our Saturday following Thanksgiving.  And trust...I have been listening to 24/7  Christmas music (minus commercial time and boring chatter in the am...ugh HATE regular radio).  Since we're new homeowners, we don't own a tall ladder and such yet.  Next year, I'm considering rope lights along the top of the house or at least the top of the front porch.  We also have this mini fence down by the road that I'd like to light up.  Not sure if I'm into finding an extension cord that long though.

In a quick update to get my mind off stress (yes...middle schoolers are still making me a basketcase), I bought my first groupon a couple of weeks ago.  They had a $25 groupon to American Apparel for $50 worth of merchandise online!  Yay!  I couldn't say no.  Unfortunately they didn't allow the coupon to be used with lots of wonderful items like shoes and their California Select Vintage selection.  They had some shoes that I was really eying :(  Although it didn't note this on the coupon, apparently it was not eligible towards nail polishes either.  Bummer!  Here's what I ended up purchasing...

 [I've only been waiting forever to profess my political views via t-shirt!]

I got the asphalt color.  It was also buy 1 get 1 free where they send you a second surprise item.  I haven't gotten it yet, so I'm SUPER excited.  It felt like I was sort of getting this all for free :)

 

 [The Unisex Circle Scarf, $28]

 

I've seriously had my eye on this for a couple of years.  I got the coral colored (which I guess they have sold out of since it is no longer listed).  I opted for coral in an effort to dress up my gray, black, and brown winter wardrobe.  When I received the scarf (which was back ordered and somehow arrived before my shirts?!), I found that the coral just does not pair well with most pieces I have.  Maybe I am just in a wardrobe funk (which I am a little since I have not bought any un-thrifted clothing in forever), but HELP!  Would you even wear coral in the winter??  I did pair it with a navy summer dress (paired with tights and a jacket).  One of my students said I looked tacky.  It was a lot of prints and colors going on...  I'm going out to dinner with D and thinking of just pairing it with a simple white button down and black jeans (my go to outfit).

 

 [Polish in Hunter, $6]

 

I rounded out my order with a nice dark nail polish.  I'm flush on summer springy colors, so I am super excited to have a dark winter polish!  Yay for a couple new things! 

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Everyone always wants the bad news first.  I got an email today (finally) from the AP of the elementary school regarding the interview.  AP stated after talking to the principal about protocol of interviewing within county (especially mid-year), it was decided, as a respect to colleagues, that I should not be interviewed at this time.  It is totally and completely understandable but still felt like a tiny bit of a blow since I had gotten my hopes up.  No hard feelings though...it's pretty shitty to "steal" another teacher from a school and leave them high and dry.  If I did leave mid-year, I think there may always be a twinge of guilt and feeling of giving up.  I'm not a quitter! (Although I'd love to leave my one particular class of hellions in my dust).

On to the good!  The AP said that they really want to have me at this particular school and to PLEASE (she literally capitalized please) keep them in mind for next year!  Yay :)  It's good to know that higher ups have me in mind as a candidate for positions.  It's a really wonderful feeling.  AND in other fabulous news...

[Holy effing crap, I can not even wait]

I got our tickets to see Harry Potter!!!  I opted for the Sunday 1:00 show.  I know it'll still be crazy packed, but I thought it may be a little lighter than Friday or Saturday shows.  The Sunday 4:00 show at the IMAX in Raleigh is already sold out though.  Who cares about a line?!  I may even get there an hour early.  OMG.  For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past six months...

This is serious.  I am ridiculously excited!

I didn't think I had any "ugly" at first.  Then I got to thinking about school.  Can I please say how unpleasant some of the teachers are?!  There is one who is so rude and condescending towards me.  I'm not sure if it's because I am new, young, a female, or what.  I can't seem to win with this teacher.  They all seem to greatly dislike the administration (principal and assistance principals).  I don't understand why they stay at this school if they hate it there.  Then there is the other staff (front desk, custodial, etc.) who are just plan rude to you and act like anything you ask of them is an inconvenience.  I don't get it.  Is it me? 

To end on a positive Harry-themed note...how crazy/awesome is this...

[Wow.]

The little runner who could.

Remember back in October when I signed up for the Monster Dash?  Well I did it!

[You can't see my cat tail that I ended up with when I searched the Halloween store for 45 minutes...Pre-race]

Well my goal was to not come in last (which the goal quickly changed to finishing without walking).  I'm happy to say I met both goals :)  I don't know what the hell kind of shape I was in before.  It was effing hard to run the entire 5k!  JA and I came around the last corner and had the finish line in sight.  The clock was ticking.  JA gave me a push and said, "Come on, let's make it under 40."  I literally said, "I can't."  I cringe at those words now.  I honestly did not think I could speed up any faster.  I may have sped up a few milliseconds worth; I used all my energy left to cross the finish line.  I made it in at 40 minutes and 10 seconds.  I'm proud of it! We did it.  It was hot as hell at 2:30 with the sun beating down on us.  Next time, I'm going to finish in 39 minutes.  I also get to mark this off my 101 in 1001!

I'm still trying to figure out what D and I are doing for Thanksgiving holidays.  If we stay in Raleigh, JA and I are going to run the Turkey Trot 8k.  I want to stay in Raleigh just to run that :)

Update:  Official times found here stated I came in at 40:11 with a pace of 12:57.

Stress headaches.

You know things are bad when you get a stress headache on a day that you're giving students a test.  I really appreciate all the feedback from last week's post.  My head is a little clearer today (minus the stress headache that is haunting me).  I got advice from friends and family about what I should do/how I should handle the additional teaching opportunity.  Advice was pretty much unanimous that I should at least go for an interview.  Valid points were raised all around.  No harm can be done in an interview.  One of the main benefits (in my head) is that it'll allow me the opportunity to better gauge if that particular job is really a good fit for me.  We'll see. I still haven't had an interview/informal meeting, but keeping my fingers crossed for this week (and she has been in contact with me.

Since I haven't updated in a bit (I'm lucky if I can gather the energy to write one post per week), but I'm taking a bit of down time tonight (which should probably be used to plan but...for lack of a better phrase...fuck it) to schedule some posts for this week.

Let's take a MAJOR rewind to early October when my friend CAP (now, CAPM) got hitched in Athens.  Remember?  Well I finally uploaded my personal pics.  It really was such a wonderful time to reminisce with some people that were a large part of my life (and played a big part in me getting to where I am today).  It makes me wish that I could make it down to Athens more. 

[My long lost KD, now residing in the...interesting? state of Alabama]

[June 2011!  Next to get hitched!]

[Hungry and dreading the long trip home...but we had fun nonetheless]

[Small cakes adorned each table...adorable idea]

[AB to the left is my social worker role model/hero.  KD has a weird obsession with babies...I can not even relate]

[Since we had to jet out quickly, this is the only picture I got with the bride.  She was stunning though!]