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!