Wonderfulness

Life has been just spectacular lately! I am just one happy lucky girl!! The job is going great!! Mrs. Samuelson was having some early contractions so I took the class over on Tuesday! It has been great! Just the best opportunity I could have wished for!!

Wedding planning hasn't gotten too far but we did have an AMAZING engagement party!!! It was one of the best nights of my life! Other than that my life is just going 90 miles an hour but it a great way!!! Nothing new to report!! I do miss having friends lol! But I had a girls date today for Mooney's Wedding dress shopping which was super fun and exciting! She found an amazing gown that is going to knock everyones socks off!! I can't wait!! However hanging out with them reminded me that I should really get on the ball with my own wedding planning lol! It is like 140 days away lol.....

Anyways here are some pictures of the engagement party!! Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us! We are extremely lucky to have such great friends and family!! LOVE YALL

Bo and I at the end of the party! Oh hey we should probably take a picture together lol!
The Reese Clan
The Guilbeaux'sUncle Mike and Aunt Pam! They hosted an amazing party for us! We are forever grateful!

The Grooms men! All in coats in ties!! How great do they all look!!! Too bad it wont happen again till the wedding lol!

My Lovely bridesmaids!

Hello!!

I know I know!! I have been MIA for longer than a month! Life is just crazy but amazing right now!!

Student Teaching is going wonderfully! Things are really paving out and my hard work i feel is finally paying off! I had the opportunity to teach full time for 10 days these past two weeks due to an unfortunate incident but really it turned out for me to be one of the best experiences! It showed me and my school that I am a good teacher and that I can do this an be amazing at it! Everything is just falling into place! I also got my TExES scores back which I was flipping out about for no good reason because I got a 92% on the Generalist and a 94% on the PPR!!! So I am just flying high right now!!

All my other free time is spent working at Third Base, Wedding planning and spending time with Bo. So there really is no time for me to sit and blog much anymore :( But it is a good busy at least!! Anyways some of my friends think i have fell off the earth but here is me saying that I am alive just crazy right now lol! Gotta run now to one of Bo and I's pre marital counseling sessions (Which are also going well) So see yall next month lol ;)

Congratulations Ron and Rheannon!!!

Great news!! Rheannon and Ron are engaged!!! He proposed on Saturday!! I am so excited for the two of them!!! She is going to be a much better bride than me lol! It took me over a year and 1/2 to start collecting addresses and she got 1/2 of them in a day!! Amazing! But that is Rheannon! She is amazing and always on top of everything!! So Congratulations to Ron and Rheannon! I wish yall all the best!!!
Student Teaching is going great! I taught my first full math lesson on Monday besides having them sitting for too long it went great! Today I had my first frustration moment but we always learn from our mistakes! Reflection, Reflection Reflection I think we talked about it in every one of my education classes! It's all about learning from your experiences! My CT is going to be out Monday to take care of her Dad so she is trusting me to take over the class (with a sub in the room obviously). I am super excited! She said this will allow me to get a feel for running a class for the whole day without all the pressure of her being there. It will be a great time for some trial and error and TONS of Reflection lol! I would however like to ask that everyone send their prayers to my CT and her family! Her dad is very sick and I can not imagine the strength she has to do all that she is doing! So please send her your prayers and thoughts!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! To those ACL'ers Have fun! I will be at Third Base all weekend so stop by!!! Bo gets back from his 5 day conference in New York tomorrow!!! I have missed him so much but these trips are just such a great opportunity for him! He really loves his job and the directions it is taking him in!! Anyways!! Have a great one!!

Student Teaching/Vegas/ AHHH

Well the past week and 1/2 have just been CRAZY BUSY!!! Let me start off by saying that I absolutely LOVE teaching and am so excited to get my own classroom and just teach these students everyday!! Eanes is amazing! I love the students and the programs they are using there are wonderful! Of course I have been asking everyone about getting hired here and tips and pretty much everyone goes well.... it happens but it doesn't. Pretty much saying that it is going to be a struggle! So I am a fighter! I love this district and will do anything to stay there!

For the first week and 2 days i was in Mrs. Oates room for 1/2 the day and my classroom the other 1/2. I rotated morning and afternoon so that i could see all aspects of both classrooms. It was absolutely fascinating for me! Mrs. Oates is an outstanding teacher! I see her style being very similar to mine. Controlled, step by step, and consistent! She is just great and i have already taken over 20 pages of notes just by observing how she works her classroom. Having my CT out this week has been sad but i have made it into a positive. I have learned so much and gotten to know the entire 1st grade team really well and see them teach! Its just unbelievable how much i feel i have learned from these amazing teachers in 7 days!! It makes me extremely excited to see what i will know by the end of the semester!!!

I did get to met my CT today!! She is amazing as well!! She kept saying how frazzled she felt from being away for 9 days but I still thought she did great! It was just amazing to see the students focus and drive to work hard while she was there! She has such a clam voice, I am really going to need to work on that lol! SO anyways! I love it more than anything! I am learning so much and can't wait to dive in and really get started! the sub let me help out a lot but I am just going to have to feel out my CT to see how things really go in her class lol! I am sending home my letter to the parents tomorrow!! Hopefully everyone will like it! The parents I've met so far have been great and don't seem concerned about me being there! I think this semester is just going to be amazing! Yes i am there from 7:15 till 5 but it is so worth it! Working at Third Base on the weekends is going to be the hard part! Who cares about a Sports Bar when your teaching the most precious students all week!

Ok so Vegas was AMAZING!!! Once we got Bo to his 5 dollar craps tables everyone was happy lol!! I can't wait to go back!! The one thing about Vegas is that it really lets you know that you don't have money lol! I consider myself pretty fortunate! But everything there is insanely expensive!!! 20 dollar cover, 50 dollars for 4 drinks, dinners it was just crazy! But we had a great time celebrating Alex's birthday!!!

After working all day Bo and I left Friday at 6pm and got to Vegas at 10pm (their time is 2 hours later than ours btw that was fun lol!) We stayed out until 3am which was more like 5am our time!! It was a long day!! Especially since i was at school at 7:10 that morning!! AHH So anyways! That night we just walked around a lot did some video poker just exploring! Saturday we actually woke up at like 9am! We went to Hoover dam, then shopping at the fashion show mall, then to Bo's cheap casino for his 5 dollar tables! Which was great!! He won a descent amount of money and taught us all how to pay craps!! That night we checked into our Hilton Sweet and it was very sweet lol! We got all dolled up for Alex's birthday night! We ate at Firefly a tapas place that was great! Then went to Crave which was a gay bar but super fun (except the 20 dollar cover lol) However the smoke there just killed me!! So Bo and I left and walked outside for some fresh air! When we were trying to find a cab we stumbled across the Planet Hollywood Hotel/Casino! We had walked through tons of hotel/casinos on Friday but i really liked PH just a really modern feel. While we were walking around we found a karaoke area! Very funny!! Then went back to the Hilton to play craps some more but they raised the tables so we just did some more video poker until about 2am. The next morning we packed up went to lunch at Red, White and Blue then flew home!! Very short but exhausting trip!! I can't wait to go back!!!

The group on Friday night after our 19 hour day!! Most of which for me was spent in heels OUCH!!

The Girls for Alex's Birthday dinner. They are hardcore and were taking shots at the Hotel before we left!! I could hardly drink the whole trip b/c i had so many dang allergies!!!

The boys! And yes Bo insisted on wearing his "Vegas" glasses the entire time lol!

Bo and I before going out

Us at Hoover Dam! We were the only ones who got our transformers jokes....nerds lol

Ryan actually took this picture!! It's amazing!!!

Bo itching to get to those craps tables!!

We just had a great time!!!

The last thing is my AHHH not only am I crazy busy but i found out today that do to a mis-communication on how funds were being transferred and when the stock would be sold I have lost $1,000 in my wedding budget! It was going to be a struggle to keep in under 10 thousand but now 9! I am just freaking out!! I know that it won't matter in the end! Its just hard not to obsess about the details! I just need to focus on what really matters that day! So deep breaths and pray that everything will turn out okay!!! I know this has been a long entry!! Hopefully I will be able to update more and then they won't be a book long lol! Have a great one!!!

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1.02.21

1.02.05

On hold

Well I didn't get much done on my "week off" lol! It was an emotion filled week that has left me feeling sick! (Does anyone else just get so nauseous when they are stressed and emotional! I do it to myself!) Great way to start student teaching! And to add to that my teacher will be out for my first week so i will be 1/2 in my class with a sub and 1/2 in another teachers classroom! I'm going to be positive about it! I will be able to get to know the students in my class and I will get to see another teachers style! After the week I have had I definitely understand taking a week off for family emergency's! btw- everyone in mine is fine :)

Bo and I are putting a hold on wedding planning for two weeks. Its stressful! Getting peoples addresses has almost driven me crazy! We still only have 1/4th of our guest lists addresses! In this email age no one mails anything and some of our friends didn't even know their street address! It's where the bills go! That's not a fun place lol! The Boys just want to be handed all their invitations lol! Not gonna work! Anyways it has taken over my life! So for my first two weeks of student teaching we are not going to talk wedding! We are just going to focus on work/school and our relationship! We are trying to find a new premarital counselor, the last one after two sessions pretty much told us we were set lol! Well of course we are! But we would like some more in depth discussions and insight! There is always room for improvement!

Anyways! Monday is the big day!!! I work all day Saturday but then have Sunday off to focus myself (and probably change my outfit 14 times lol)

btw- I put the playlist player at the bottom of the blog, if you want to listen to it while you read you have to scroll down to activate it! That's how it works for me but it seems it does different things for everyone lol! Just thought i would let yall know in case anyone else wanted to listen!

Football Fever!

The crazyness has begun! The first UT game was insane at Third Base! We rocked it though! I must say that i did kind of miss the madness that is serving during those intense games! We met capacity and it just was rowdy! I didn't take any pictures last year so I at least wanted some before we kicked off Football season! Amanda, Heather and I were on the patio and we all matched! It was pretty rockin! Then tonight was the Colorado vs. Colorado State game! We didn't think it would be busy and only scheduled three servers! Well good lord those people from Colorado like to drink!!! I made more tonight serving the Coloardo people! I had the entire Alumni group which was about 50 people! They were super fun though! They gave me a sticker to support their team! I was bummed about missing all of the UT games this year since the only time i can work is on the weekends! But I had a good time with the fans yesterday! So even though its not as much fun as Tailgating and going to the game! I still get to know what's going on and make money at the same time! Anyways I am super tired! Just ran my booty off for 8 hours but it was so worth it! Hopefully the combo of School during the week and Football madness on the weekends won't totally wear me down!!! Later gaters! Hook Em'

District Meeting!

This morning i attended our district orientation! EISD is the same as i remember! They have high expectations and are a great group of people! I am extremely excited to be working there this semester! I can't wait to get started and learn everything i can! Even after all these years of classes i feel like there is just so much more to learn! There is always room for growth!

They stressed building relationships the most! Not just with students, but with other teachers, principles, staff and the community! Westlake is like a small town and people talk and it is important to be well represented in that community! He even mentioned attending the WHS football games! How much do you think it would take for me to get Bo to go with me lol!!

Of course confidentiality is extremely important in my profession as well and they emphasised that strongly! Not only can you not use names but you can't say things that may lead people to think it may be a student! It is a tight nit community and if you say something in line at the store, or Post it on the Internet you can be severely punished for it! So as much as i Love to share my passion for teaching and the students, there of course will be a lot that i cannot!

They did have me worried about getting a job in the district! They hired about 68 new teachers this past year and not just 1st year teachers but people changing districts and very seasoned teachers. They said they had over 2,000 applications to choose from! The key now is to make myself marketable! I am thinking of adding a special ed component, but i don't know how to do that! I wish i would have done that like two years ago and just tacked it in with my normal coursework! We can just take the TExES exam and get the certification but i don't think i would be prepared for that! I only took one special ed class and it was just very basic! Another thing i wish i would have done is just work with students more! I know I have a lot of experience working with students but they said that they are obviously going to choose the people who have worked with kids more than the person who worked at Chili's through college....Well i still work at Third Base and let me tell ya I don't think they count drunk sports fans and children! Even if they act like it at times! lol!

I'm working on my intro letter to the Parents in my class! It's hard to put myself in their shoes and think about what i would want to know! How do i assure them that even though I'm a new teacher their students education will be top notch! I would be scared to hear that for two weeks the certified teacher is giving her class over to a new one! I've made it look more like a newsletter its pretty cute! I just want to start off on the right foot with these parents! Parents are key in the EISD community!

Well tonight Bo comes back!! I've missed him so much! Cooper will be happy to! He's been looking a little lonely! I don't play as well as Bo does! I've got to go be a good girl now and do some dishes woo!!

Oh btw!!! Does everyone like the upgrades! I got bored yesterday lol!! And i just want to say i am so happy that I've inspired some of my friends to start blogs!! I can't wait to read them all and keep in touch!

The calm before the storm

Today I got to fill out some fun paperwork that makes me an official EISD student teacher :) Then i took what I'm sure is an amazing photograph for my id tag lol! It just seems strange to be wearing a picture of myself everyday! All for safety though! ohhh and when I was at the Administration building i saw a picture of my cooperating teacher hanging in the hall! She was teacher of the year in 04!! I feel so lucky to be working with someone so talented! I will completely be a sponge this semester! Soak up everything i can!

This morning we had another meeting with our university mentor! We just talked in more detail about what was expected of us and our lessons! It is going to be a Crazy semester that is for sure! She said to expect to be at the school from 7am till 5pm everyday! She also said a general comment against working and how if we do work along with student teaching it was going to be difficult! But unfortunately I have to work! I put my availability only to Saturday all day and Sunday morning. That way I get a lot of time to work football games but then have Sunday night to get myself back in focus for the upcoming week! Football season is really the biggest time for us at Third Base so there is no way i am missing it! I am just going to be a tired girl! Oh yeah and that whole planning a wedding thing in there 2! LOL Fun Fun Fun!!

We have our big district orientation on Thursday then i am off till the 8th!! I just don't know what to do with myself until then!! I don't know if there is a way to prepare myself for the crazy 13 weeks that is student teaching or if u just have to run and jump! Hopefully I will find something constructive to do with my time!

Other than that not much is going on! Bo is at a conference in Dallas until late Thursday night!! He left Sunday morning for a kick off Golf Tournament, last night was the big opener, and today was the first all day activities! I am so proud of him! Sales and Bo just fit perfectly! It is really lonely being in the house by myself but on the positive side Cooper seems to be extra snuggly when dad's not around lol! Thats all i have for now kids!! TTYL

Good news and Sad news

First the good news!
We have launched the wedding website!!! http://boandstephanie.com/ It was actually pretty easy to create! I hope yall like it! Once we get more information about the actual day it will go on there! Plus we need to register eventually lol! Then we can post those there too! Makes it easy on everyone!

Now the sad news,
Rodney my parents cat and my baby boy got hit by a car Thursday night. Dad is the most heartbroken, Rodney was his man cat! He would follow dad around outside and they took man naps together. He was huge weighing in at 24 pounds and when he stretched out he was over 3 ft long! Just a monster of a cat! His heart was as big of his body! He was such a sweetheart! The biggest cuddle bug you would ever know! He was just so amazing! Now it is time to say good night to my Big Beautiful Baby Rodney you will be missed!

Cedar Creek Eagles!

YAY!!! I'm at Cedar Creek Elementary!! First grade with Sarah Boltie!!

The Seminar went great! It was fun to see some people that i hadn't talked to in a while! We met our University Mentor and she was great too! They scared me today though!! I got a note saying that i hadn't cleared my tentatives which is everything you are supposed to have done prior to student teaching! Well i did it at the end of my summer session and i even had email contact with the director confirming it! Luckily i printed off the emails we had so when I went to the office they just said they made a mistake!! Scared me though! It makes me a little upset because now that is how my University Mentor is going to remember me! I will just have to wow her and make her forget about that incident!

Anyways! I am very happy with my placement!! I was kinda hoping for Kinder but First is a great age too! Thats when you work hard on mastering your reading skills!! We have meetings this coming Monday, Tuesday and Thursday then we don't start until September 8th! So it looks like i will have a week off to regain some focus! I am so excited to start this chapter! It is going to be a lot of work but its not work when its something you love! As we all know i adore teaching so i just can't wait to see what challenges i am going to be facing! i wish i could start right away!!!

Tonight Bo and I are going on the lake with some of his work friends! Do some wakeboarding and end with some Hula Hut yummyness!

Student Teaching-Random day with mom

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!! AHH its finally here! I Start student teaching and that is my last step towards Graduation!!! After 5 1/2 years i am SOOO DONE! lol! Tomorrow I should meet my university mentor, find out my school, grade level and teacher!! Along with all the fun stuff that comes with student teaching!! I am so excited to start this new chapter! I have a new car, new haircut, new clothes, and a new attitude! Should be off to a good start!!!

Last night as Bo and i were starting the movie "Definitely, maybe" (super cute btw everyone should rent it!) I get an unexpected knock on my door to find Mom! She unfortunately had to come in because uncle Doug is in the hospital but no worries he is set to make a full recovery! So Today we had a great little day together we went to lunch, Micheal's, garden ridge and then against Rheannon's wishes we went and looked at Davids Bridal and Alfred Angelo for Bridesmaids dresses! At both places i love the Pool for the Maids and the Clover for the House party! I just don't know which store to go with! Me being the bad bride just says take a vote and go with it lol! They are all going to want different styles so why not! I picked a color they can do the rest lol! I also got a beautiful dress from Davids Bridal! Its super nice and very sophisticated! Click here to see it! Its the silver, but in person it doesn't look as silver as it does on the web! Come to looking at the website all their colors look bad online! I promise pool and clover look great in person!

Anyways I need to get my Beauty sleep so i wake up super refreshed and ready to go!!!! Wish me LUCK!!!!

To Infiniti and Beyond

We did it! We found my dream car!!

It is a 2006 Infiniti G35! Bo's great credit allowed us to get amazing financing and of course his negotiation skills helped out when it came to the total price!It is beautiful! I can't wait to take everyone for a drive!!

Here is Bo and I after we went out for a long drive down 71!

An interior shot! Its just smooth! Everything about it is perfect! I love the way it drives and it has every option except for navigation which i don't need anyways! I've always been good with directions! All that is in my head i don't need TomTom telling me what to do lol!

The whole shopping for a new car experience was not for me! I can't handle the games that these dealerships play! I was so angry when we left Infiniti the first time! I really wanted the car but they just weren't playing with us! The car we were negotiating at that time had navigation which i didn't want anyways! But we went to lunch went back to acura and then they called us to come back and take a look at this one! This one was more beautiful than the one we test drove and has the sport package! But because it didn't have the navi they were able to budge on the price more! When we finally agreed i had to leave to go to work but Bo stayed behind and two hours later we were the proud owners of the Infiniti! This is Bo and I's first big purchase together! Which was exciting! We are now financially bound together lol!

I gotta run to the grocery store! But i wanted to do a quick update to show off my new baby!!! I think i will call it Buzz Lightyear lol! To Infiniti and Beyond!!!

Wedding, HP and Cars!

Bo and I have been working hard on getting the wedding website ready to post!! Its pretty cool! He just needs to finalize his groomsmen before we surprise them by putting their names on the web lol! We have also made the Save-the-date magnets which we will be ordering soon! I finally feel like things are in the works! We have been engaged for so long now that the wedding seemed it would never come!! But here we are! We bought invitations today and are creating a website, looking at caterers! All sorts of fun!

Here comes my nerdy side! lol! I am so upset about the Harry Potter Film being pushed back from November 21st this year to July 17th next year! They say its due to a lot of factors like the writers strike and wanting their target audience to be on summer va-cay but seriously! A whole year! It comes just after they sent out the teaser trailer which looked awesome! I started re-reading (for like the 4th time lol) The 1/2 blooded prince and was almost done with it! Oh well looks like i will just be reading it again next year! I'm not sure how much of a great idea the whole move was! This will probably just push the other films back further and since there are no more books coming out the HP craze may diminish? I mean not for me and the other loyal fans but in general! Lets just be honest i will still be at the midnight premier! I will just be married then and it will be extra dorky! lol!

Bo and I started looking at cars today! My car is awesome but it has an expensive belt that is going to need to be replaced at the next service! So we are looking at a couple of options that would make more financial sense for us! We are looking at VW Passat/ Jetta, Acura TL, and some Infinity. Today we visited the Acura dealership and drove a TL and a TSX. I absolutely adore the TL we drove! It was more than what we were going for but it would make an amazing car that could last for many years! It was in great shape! Its pretty and drove really well! I can see myself in it! But i don't want to fall in Love with that one before i drive the others! I had a Passat for about a month when my car was getting fixed and i loved it! So its just gonna come down to price point i guess! We leave that in Bo's hands lol! He has a great sense for finance and especially buying cars! I trust that we will be able to find a car that will fulfill my needs with out going over my budget!

Gotta run! A group of us are going to the Salt Lick tonight! YUM!

I'm a Blogger now!

Everything in my life seems to be going 90 miles an hour and then all the sudden it stopped! For two weeks i have NOTHING TO DO! So i started a blog! I hope to share some of the exciting things going on with me!

The next couple of months should be very interesting!
1- I start Student Teaching August 21st! At that meeting i will find out the grade and school that I will be interning in! I know i will be in EISD which i am extremely exited about! I went there and had a great experience! Iwill learn more in those few months than i have the past 4 years! This is probably the only time i can't wait for summer to end!

2- Planning the wedding should be in Full Swing soon!!! We have an amazing photographer already! Check out his website! It just blew me away! http://www.rebelwithacamera.com/ We also have a great location in Westlake called House on the Hill! It has both outdoors and indoors areas and places for the wedding party to stay for the weekend! I also have picked out my dress! Its hiding in my closet! Hopefully Snoopy Bo won't go look! I just need to find a great alterations place because it doesnt fit perfectly yet! So far its looking like Lupe Cardenas, she has some great reviews online! Anyways more things will happen once we get the final budget! GRR lol!

3-Bo's Job has just been so great! He really has worked so hard and proven himself there! I can't wait to see what is instore for him!

4- Bo and I are cooking better for ourselves and working out together! Time to get in that wedding shape! Everyone says you are in the best shape when you get married! Well Since Bo and I have been together for 6 years!!!! We both were in much better shape senior year of high school! I guess that happens when you have Football and Hyline to keep you active lol! So we are getting ourselves back into shape if nothing else just to spend more quality time together!

Anyways Guys! I hope not to be totally boring and to keep you up to date with all the fun stuff that is going on with me! Stay Tuned!