I was Jordan's girl...

Hey all- I have so much to blog about but one thing at a time right. So I was very excited to hear that New Kids were making a comeback- I loved them back in the day. I was such a dork, downloading all my old faves and TiVoing everything with their name in it. Thad was so happy for me when my friends from work and I bought our tickets to their concert. I don't think 13th row (side view) is that bad for $86. They played all of their old stuff- the average age was a 29 year old female. Enjoy my Jordan. Who were you????

fall weather in California

We had a beautiful "fall" weekend here in Los Angeles. Thad and I thrive on anything below 70 when we can wear sweatshirts and keep the windows open rather than the air conditioner. Saturday, we (thad) watched some college football on his beautiful new t.v- that will be a post in itself and I took Abby to her puppy kindergarten graduation. Yes, I'm obsessed!
Sunday we all went for a long run (we needed it!) in Santa Monica then came back to run some errands in our neighborhood. It was a perfect day to pick a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. God Bless California people, they try really hard to make it feel like fall.


So today Monday started like any other day for us. When I turned on the news this morning to check traffic and weather, they were reporting on a large brush fire about 15 miles away from us. Very common this time of year, still warm, no rain, and huge Santa Ana gusts of wind. Every October there is some sort of fire in the area and where I work in Simi Valley is a basic fire trap. So the day is moving nicely, again I'm aware of the fire from this morning but not thinking that we are right in the mist of it. Our principal called into my classroom this morning to say it would be an inside day due to the air quality and like most teachers you sometimes don't even leave your room to go to the bathroom. So... when I went to took my students to music class at 11:30 I saw that Armagedon was coming!





That last picture I took as I was pulling out of the parking lot. I was told to go home at 1:00 because the freeways were closing by the minute and I needed to get on the road. I'm home now, we live far from the fires but the smoke is creeping into our Sherman Oaks blue skies very quickly. I just pray that all the students and their homes in Simi Valley are safe. Crazy!

So fun...

Heading to Costa Rica

Finally.... check back in tomorrow for more pics. These are just us arriving. Sorry, I've kind of been in wedding "did that really happen" mode. I'm slowly starting to sift through pictures and organize a bit! More to come!

Some favorite pics...

I know it's about time to sit down and write out a whole long blog about our amazing wedding and then write another about our fabulous trip to Costa Rica! I will, I promise! But while you wait I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite pictures that our photographer just sent us. I have been having such a great time seeing everyone's photos, now if I can just upload them all to kodak would be nice. These are just a few sweet ones...





Don't know why the pics are so small... Stay tuned!

Happy 6 month birthday Abby!

I just wanted to give an update to anyone out there reading that our sweet baby girl is now 6 months! She's a whole 51 lbs. and we hope she'll slow down for a moment for us to enjoy this size! Some of her favorite things to do are: chew on her bones and toys, wrestle with her dad, sleep on the cold bathroom floor, and swim!!!! I am so excited that I have a pup that loves the water with me. She literally does canon balls into the pool. The best part is, after a day of swimming she pooped for days!




In other Abby news, yesterday she went in to get her womanhood snipped. I know it is the best things for her and us, I just was not ready for surgery. I am so glad that we waited until after the wedding/honeymoon to take care of this. I was a wreck yesterday as I was checking the box to please do anything to save her life. I dropped her off at 8:00 a.m. and picked her up at 5:00. There were a few things we had to do for her last night, most importantly make sure she doesn't jump and open up the incision. Oh and we were expecting her to be wearing a cone for a few days... nope they would rather your dog wear a t-shirt so they don't look strange to other dogs out on walks. Thad hates it. Today we had a very mellow day, she did not play with her toys, just watched the Olympics with me! However, tonight she was back in the trash can looking for scraps! Glad you're feeling better! We love you Abigail!

I like games like this!

Jesse and Kelly tagged me, so I guess it's my turn. How it works:
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and post their names, then goes to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the players blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers

Where were you 5 years ago?
How funny.. almost to the day. I was packing my life up to head out west to Los Angeles. My best friend Jen and her college buddy Gogger had already been driving for a week.

What are 5 things on your to do list for today?
I am going to pretend this is my list for tomorrow because today is already spoken for.
1. Go to the gym.
2. Go to Bed Bath and Beyond to use a few gift cards!!!
3. Go to Petco to get Abby her food.
4. Call the vet and schedule her "fixing".
5. Watch the Olympics and The Hills... I know it's silly but I love it.

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. Pretzels
2. Chocolate chip cookies
3. Hummus and pita chips
4. sliced apples and peanut butter
5. wheat thins

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off all of our bills.
2. Buy a house.. or 3.
3. Travel.
4. Have a huge Christmas and give gifts to everyone in your life that you would like to give to.
5. Start a school for children with physical disabilities.


What are five of your bad habits ?
1. Having no patience.
2. Being a control freak.. part of me can't help it. I'm an elementary teacher!
3. Nagging my poor husband!
4. Not wanting to clean the tub.
5. Eating too many cookies in one sitting!

What are five places you've lived?
1. Williston Park, NY
2. Mineola, NY
3. Slippery Rock, PA
4. Hermosa Beach, CA
5. Sherman Oaks, CA

What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. Standard Law Police store
2. TCBY
3. Lifeguard
4. Swimming teacher
5. 3rd grade teacher


Five people I tag.
Well... all the people I know on blogger have already been tagged so I will just read everyone elses!

Here's Abby!!!

March huh??? Has it really been that long????
Well I couldn't wait anymore and had to post some pictures of our new puppy. She is about 3 months old, a creamy yellow lab who I'm told will be about 75-85 pounds. Why can't they stay this size for a just a bit longer. She has grown so much just in the past two weeks.
She is a total puppy, chews everything but her chew toys, loves treats, does that cute little gallop, and goes to the bathroom every hour or so. We are such new parents, so proud of her and when Thad and I talk at the end of the night we talk about Abby. She is so fun!

This week I took her to the vet to give a urine sample because she is going way too many times in an hour and it came back that she does have a UTI- for all those girls out there you know annoying that can be! She will be starting her meds within the next day or two.

I have so many cute pics of her on my phone so if anyone would like to share with me how to get those pictures on to my computer I'd appreciate it.

And the next thing on the list is moving to our new place...

still here!

Today I am home sick, more bored than anything. I was able to catch up on some TIVO and call a few places that I normally can't during the day. But the majority of the day was spent on the couch in my jammies drinking orange juice with my tissues.

I thought I would just take a second to put my list down on blog. We're about 4 1/2 months away and it all is coming together. So exciting!!!! Over the weekend we went and bought our wedding rings. I think Thad was most looking forward to that and he's just been messing with me!!!! Booked our DJ and narrowed it down to 2 invitations.

I'm looking forward to my trip back to NY to pick up "THE DRESS", I feel like a big movie star when I say that. I get to see my friends and cousins and all of the babies that have been born this year. YEAH! I love spring break.

Happy Easter everyone, get your plaid out.

"God Bless You Jen"

I apologize if all of the posts seem to be geared towards the wedding but it's on my mind quite a bit, in a good way, I promise.

So last weekend, my Jen Malone flew in from NY for a weekend of good times. She was such a big help going on many wedding related errands with me all weekend. Thaddeus took the time off to go to San Diego with Brenden to watch a rugby tournament. During the day, we called Thad once to see if he was going to be home for dinner with us and he ended the conversation with her with "God Bless You Jen". Jen and I moved to CA together back in 2003 and we miss her very much. We would love a roommate again!

She got in late Friday night, on her plane was the 80's classic Cyndi Lauper (flying in for the Grammys). We woke up early Saturday and headed to do a quick cake tasting, it was 10:00 in the morning and red velvet didn't seem to appetizing but we were on a schedule and it was the only time we could fit it in.





On to Maravilla to give her a look, checked out the hotel for our guests, and then went to our first of two flowers appointments that day. The woman was great and really paid attention to everything I said, but she was a bit over our budget so we moved on.
Next we headed over to Yamaguchi flowers, a family owned flower company that grows everything they use on the property. They came highly recommended by our caterer and another bride that used them. I have to admit, I was initially not loving them because of the atmosphere. It was a run down building with ALOT of flowers everywhere and we had just came from someone's beautiful house where she had hundreds of pictures laid out for me to choose from. Yamaguchi man just wrote down chicken scratch as I impressed him and Jen with my new knowledge of flowers. After a few short minutes we loved him, his sister Susie, and their grandmother (that's all we met, there were many more) He made me a centerpiece of my colors to get a feel for a look that I liked and sent Jen and I home each with a bouquet of flowers. He came in right on budget without me even telling him what it was..... Needless to say we booked Yamaguchi man yesterday!!!



Saturday night we went to our favorite Mexican place, Casa Vega for dinner. We had the best time laughing and chatting while waiting for Thad to meet us there.

Sunday- we got up and only had a few simple things to look into. I took Jen to try on her bridesmaid dress, we looked at invitations, we went and got Leda's cupcakes which is our (Thad and I) favorite bakery. Then over a few glasses of wine we tackled the designing and the wording of our programs. So fun when you reach a point of "I don't care what it says as long as it prints!"




Monday- Jen and I, thinking we are big bad New Yorkers went to the fashion district downtown. Not a bad area, but it is VERY close to bad news as we found out. We were out looking for some silly items, ribbon in bulk, a different size vase, a headpiece for my hair trial this week, nothing really too important. We asked a policeman where a street was and he told us that we were headed to Skid Row. I think you can imagine what I am talking about, if not google Skid Row in LA, scary! We explained that we were parked there, he in a nice way said to get your car soon. We took his lead and headed to Beverly Hills for lunch. Yes two extremes. After lunch, we walked around for a bit and then I found my wedding shoes and bought them!!!! I can't show a picture of them because they are top secret like the dress!

All in all awesome weekend. We checked off many things on the list. I love you Jenny May, thanks for coming!

Stay tuned. Next post Thad and I registering at Crate and Barrel, Thad was very particular about the weight of his spoons!!!

thank goodness for other bloggers

So this whole week, I played a little mind game with myself to get through as Thad calls it "report card week". My report cards are due tomorrow morning to my principal and then they will be sent home in the afternoon. Usually, I am very organized and on top of my game. My computer program averages all the grades for me, all I have to do is just physically write them on the report card. Easy right, but not if you put it off for 10 weeks and never put the grades in. Yes, I let it get out of hand and never did it. So I had to old school it and punch hundreds of numbers into the calculator to get averages. I was not alone, my amazing fiance took my Math grades to work with him to do. So between calculating, writing comments, grading final tests that needed to be averaged, and preparing lesson plans for next week (why did my principal NEED my lesson plans for next week yesterday)... I JUST FINISHED! Every single night this week, from 5-10, I worked. UGH!

Back to my mind game. I would not let myself go on the internet and check email or check blogs until I was done. I knew even if I just sat down for a quick read, I would have convinced myself that tomorrow it will get done. So, I am enjoying every word of each blog right now. Thanks for keeping me motivated to keep on it!

P.S- I have already started entering the next quarters' grades into the computer so this glitch never happens again!

A wedding Saturday

Hello all! I know I haven't posted in a while. to be honest I don't have any pictures because my camera is on it's last leg- Boo! Going back almost a month, I had the most wonderful holiday break. Traveling to St.Louis to be with my future family was incredible. I love the traditions and all the visits we had. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone in Cardinal country for our surprise shower. We had the best time, I am still making sure that I tell everyone the WHOLE story- even that Flash was in on it!!!! Thanks you for your generosity, your creativity, and your lying ability. For Christmas pics, please see Jesse's blog, she does an amazing job of documenting and staying up to date.

So yesterday, Thad and I went out for what felt like a long day of work. We wanted to venture up to Camarillo to meet with our host at Maravilla, check out some hotels, restaurants, flowers, etc.... The day started at 7:00, according to our marathon training schedule, we needed to run 4 miles yesterday. Thad convinced me that the San Diego marathon in early June would be a great way for us to stay focused on something else other than the obvious, give us a chance to catch up after work on our runs and of course maybe lose a few lbs!

We pulled into Maravilla and I again got butterflies in my stomach. I love our venue, it is breathtaking. We met with Jo and went over some questions we had. She said we might be able to extend our wedding an extra hour which we are THRILLED about. We scheduled a meeting with our caterer for Feb. and found out that our tasting will be in late April. Then, I had planned to meet a florist from the area over at Maravilla so she could get a vision. I love that word, vision, it's so dramatic! Her name, Gloria was such a pleasure to meet with, she was honest with us and very upfront with me, which Thad loved. I shall be talking to her this week.

Then we went into downtown Camarillo to have lunch. We found a great little pub/brewery where we chatted and refueled. It's on our list as go to's while in town. After lunch we decided to walk through the cute downtown streets. I figured this is a good opportunity to find some local businesses. While walking, I spotted this really cute small shoe store, Sole Mates. I gave Thad the 2 seconds sign and headed in. I was greeted by two girls about my age that were just chatting behind the counter. I asked if they carried bridal shoes or anything white. They laughed at me, not the mean laugh, the kind where you think "oh my gosh, did she just ask that" they then explained that they are in the process of changing the store to a complete bridal shop featuring shoes, jewelry, veils, and wedding planning. The three of us immediately hit it off and Thad eventually came in to see what was taking so long. After a bit, they told me that they are looking to feature a bride and groom that is getting married in Camarillo to kick off their business. So... Meghan will be calling me this week to get together. Fun right!

After that it was, two more florists, a bakery, the hotel and Macy's to look for the groomsmen ties. We found one in the color scheme and bought the three that they had. I will be hitting some other Macy's to get the rest. By 7:00 last night, we were both done. We retired to the couch with Pride and Prejudice and yummy ice-cream.

The happiest place on earth!

Yesterday, we headed down to Anaheim to experience Disneyland at Christmas time. It was beautiful!!!!! We got there pretty early and were able to get a lot of the big rides done early, thanks to fast pass! Sunny skies with a slight chill in the air, perfect weather. The blogger will only download a few pictures at a time, so here are some of our favorites.





Oh and I promise we were wearing our Disney gear but when it got cold, it was time to bundle up!

Time flies when your busy....

Let's see.... last weekend, Thadddeus and I headed over to Bed Bath and Beyond to begin the registry process. Begin being the oppertive word because it was intense. We got up early figuring we would knock BBB out of the way before lunch and then head out and do some Christmas shopping.... WRONG! We sat with a bridal consultant for well over an hour discussing things we NEED to register for. How does her little checklist know what we NEED in our house. We looked at china patterns (very father of the bride when Nina and Annie are meeting Fraunk (Martin Short) for the first time) and learned all about the different types of pots and levels of cooking. She would not let up, my face told her I was a bit overwhelmed and our mouths told her that we eat mac and cheese and sandwiches. Finally, we broke away from her and were able to talk about our new knowledge. I brought my camera to take pictures but I never did, bummer. So picture us standing infront of the gigantic wall of gadgets deciding on a spatula, then move over to bedding with Thad laying his head on every pillow to check out it's coolness. About 4 1/2 hours later, two hungry cranky people walked out the store not even knowing what we put on our registry, we had been done at the toaster ovens 2 hours ago.

The week went good. Thad has been really busy at work and having to put in a lot of hours and it was my last week of school so it seems like everynight there was something. So now I'm done with school for about 3 weeks. Thad just left to help his buddy move and I'm stalling going to the gym. I love Saturdays.

What a weekend we kinda had...

I had big weekend plans, I pretty much had Saturday and Sunday fillled with things I wanted to get done. You see, I love lists. I love making them, referring to them and then checking them off as I go. Whether it be a Christmas list, a Target list, a wedding list or a 3rd grade list. Who doesn't love the feeling of a little organization!
The only thing on Thad's list was the Mizzou football game!

But that all changed when I woke up Saturday with the "crying, sweating, sleep all day, 24 hour stomach flu". Oh my, it gave me a run for my money. I have to say though I am marrying the best because boy did he take care of me. At one point, laying next to me, even though I smelled like a "sick person". Ah love.





So Sunday, I was feeling ok and I knew I wanted to check off a few things (haha). As you can see from above we got into the holiday spirit and did some decorating. I have to admit, I think I had the air conditioner on because it was a warm 75 degrees outside, and I'm wearing a fleece. In Los Angeles, you do whatever it takes to make it "feel" like Christmas.

I love our little house, but I love it even more the month of December. Our favorites..... Thad LOVES his nutcrackers and I love the plaid tree ornaments. I think it's so funny that a simple decoration brings me so much joy once a year!