Goodbye 2009!

Well hello there! I have been a total slacker and have neglected my blogging all month! New Year's Resolution #1- blog more!

Here is a run down of the month of December:

Week 1: Casey turned 28.
Week 2: Decorated for Christmas... sort of.
Week 3: Last week of school in 2009. Kids had a BLAST at our class Holiday party and I had a blast seeing how excited they got. Here is a video of the kiddos opening their gifts from me!




Week 4: Spent the day baking delicious Ginger Bread cookies with my friend Amanda's daughter Autumn and helped her make gifts for her family (Gingerbread cookies in a decorated back with the recipe!). Enjoyed days off, then headed to Longview on Christmas eve. Spent Christmas Eve with my mom and stepdad in Gilmer. Ate way too much, got way too many wonderful gifts. Got up on Christmas day and went to Daddy's in Longview. Spent the morning opening gifts (WAY too many) then went to Aunt Patti and Uncle Clayton's for Christmas Lunch/Dinner. After Christmas Lunch/Dinner headed out to Meme and Papaw's house to visit with them. Had a great time catching up and enjoyed listening to Daddy and Papaw play guitar and bass together. Went out with some high school friends on that Saturday night and had a blast!





Week 5: Spent the first half of the week with my family relaxing and shopping. Got adorable outfits for engagement pictures. Watched Up and Julie & Julia- obsessed with both. New Year's Resolution #2: COOK MORE!!! (and not easy boring stuff either- push my limits!)

Which brings us toooooooooooooooo: NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by. Seriously though - This year I have been to Los Angeles, North Dakota (and every state in between), had 4 jobs, became a teacher, absolutely LOVE being a teacher, got engaged to the love of my life and my best friend ever, and am now planning a wedding. Can you believe that all happened in ONE year? I cannot...

Okay so that was 2009... what will 2010 bring?

Yummy Soup!

Today my handsome hubby-to-be turned 28! We are getting so old! This morning we slept in until 10 and then did house work before Casey went to his weekly meeting with Pastor (he's learning Biblical Greek!). While Casey was gone I decided to clean out the refrigerator and pantry and found the acorn squash that we had bought for Thanksgiving but ended up not cooking so I decided to look for a recipe to use it up. I found a recipe on Allrecipes (one of my favorite sites!) for Acorn squash soup and spent the next 2 hours cooking it. It was not in vain because that was some of the best soup I have ever had! The flavor was so unique and had so many dimensions. If you're looking for a yummy way to use acorn squash here is the recipe:

ACORN SQUASH SOUP

Ingredients

• 1 small onion
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
• dash cayenne pepper
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 3 cups mashed cooked acorn squash
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, saute the onion and celery in butter. Stir in flour, bouillon, dill, curry and cayenne until blended. Gradually add broth and milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add the squash, salt and pepper; heat through.
2. In a blender, process the soup in batches until smooth. Pour into bowls; garnish with bacon.

The only thing I changed is the evaporated milk. I didn't have any so I just used about a 1/2 a cup of heavy cream and it turned out so creamy and decadent. Yum!

After the soup making, I cleaned up around the house and we went over to Casey's parents house for his birthday celebration. We had baked ziti - his favorite - and ice cream cake (his other favorite) and hung out with his family and watched football. Overall this has been a pretty nice weekend- and we're 90% done with Christmas shopping- yay!! Now if we could just get that darn tree decorated.....

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

IT SNOWED IN HOUSTON, TEXAS TODAY!!! Yes it's true, Houston, Texas, the hottest, muggiest, most gross weather having city in America, got snow ALL day long today. On Monday when the weather reports about Houston getting snow came out, I was thinking "Yeah, right- it never snows in Longview and Houston is WAY hotter!". The kids in my class kept assuring me that "On/In/At Friday it's going to snow!" Well today as we were doing morning circle and calendar, I looked outside and it was actually snowing! I could not believe my eyes. It was hard to see but the kids were so excited anyway. Since many of them had never seen snow before I decided that I would take it upon myself to let them go on a "mini-field trip" outside to play in the snow. So I bundled them up and instructed them that they could do whatever they wanted except scream and that if they screamed we would have to go inside immediately. Of course as soon as a snowflake hit their skin they all started screaming with excitement and I had to take them inside, but they really liked it. Later during the day when it started really coming down I took them out again and they really got to play in it and I didn't have to worry about them screaming because there were 3 other classes full of screaming kids outside too. The day was pretty chaotic with parents coming to pick their kids up early for fear that the roads would get too bad, but other than that it was a great Friday! Here are some pics of the kiddos in the snow while we were loading the buses and also one of Riley in the frosty grass!

Thanksgiving, Mom's Birthday, and Wedding Dress shopping Round 1!

Wow - I can't believe it's already Sunday and I've had 5 days off. It feels like this week and weekend flew by! Casey and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and we succeeded in cooking an entire meal without burning anything/burning the house down - yay! I was very proud of myself - one Thanksgiving at our place down - 60 more to go! Haha. Here are some pics of us cooking and the table, turkey, and my favorite part -DESSERT!!



Friday was my mom's 51st birthday and I was so excited when she said she wanted to go wedding dress shopping that day! I had never tried on a wedding dress until then and I was very excited to see what was out there. So Mom, Daddy, and I went to Princess Bridal in Old Town Spring for Round 1 of dress shopping. I was so surprised at how not picky I was - I tried on about 8 dresses and loved 4 of them. I really thought I would be sooooo picky and dissect every dress until I found "the one" but I liked most of them and would have been happy with any of them. Kelli met us there to see the final 4 and talked me into trying on a really different dress and I ended up liking it too. I obviously didn't buy one that day because I want to make sure and include all of my bridesmaids and Casey's mom as well, but at least I have an idea of what's out there now. If you're interested in seeing pics of the four I liked, email me (gmail address) and I will send you pics! I don't want Casey to accidentally stumble upon pictures because he really doesn't want to see me in a wedding dress until the day. :)

After dress shopping, Mom, Dad, Kelli, and I met Casey at Wunsche Bros. for some lunch and we had a great time hanging out and chatting. I had never eaten there and it was pretty good. Here are some pictures from lunch:


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That night we celebrated Mom and Casey's birthdays with gifts and cake - Casey and I got mom this handmade western cross and some other smaller things and Casey got his Xbox 360 from Daddy and I and some black Chuck Taylor's from my mom. Needless to say, after this weekend I need to get on the treadmill BIG TIME!

Today we went to Thomas and Carly Hudson's house for Harper Hudson's 2nd birthday party. It was an Elmo Dance Party theme with a live 6 foot Elmo and I cannot express how hilarious Harper's face was when Elmo walked in to the room. I love kid's birthday parties and we were so glad to be a part of Harper's 2nd! I wish I would've gotten pictures but Harper already had about 50 cameras going off so I didn't want to add to the chaos.

More later- Kelli and Andrew just arrived for Taco night!

Thankful for the Troops

As the holidays approach I am thinking about things that I am thankful for even more than ever. This week I had to comfort a very upset child and ended up making a cool class project out of it. Let me explain - one of my kids, Raven, is dealing with something very difficult right now. She just turned 6 and her mother is serving in Afghanistan right now. Raven is a very well adjusted, very bright child, but occasionally has a meltdown (rightfully so) because she misses her mother so much. On Wednesday Raven was particularly upset because we were talking about Thanksgiving and how we would be spending it. Most of the kids were saying "I'm going to my grandma's house with my mommy and daddy" or something along those lines and when I looked over at Raven she was visibly upset and soon started crying. I can't imagine how hard it is for her knowing that her mom is where she is and not coming home for a very long time. I decided to turn this into a special class project and on Thursday and Friday we made Thank You cards for Raven's mom to send to Afghanistan. This definitely cheered Raven up and Raven's grandmother (who she is currently living with) said that she was so excited that the whole class made cards for her mommy. I am sending the package on Monday, but I thought this one was particularly cute and that you might want to see it:




One of my kids Kendall did this one and yeah it's not perfectly spelled, but this is REALLY good for a kindergartner! Anyway, I hope that all of you are thinking about what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving and being especially thankful for your families. I know I am so thankful and feel so blessed that I have not one but TWO wonderful families this year (mine and Casey's).

Houston, we have a wedding date!!

And that wedding date is....

August 21st, 2010!

Last weekend (make that the weekend before last) Casey and I went to the Hill Country in search of the perfect venue. Thank God, we only had to go to 4 different places to find it! Next year on what would have been Nanny's (my grandmother) 89th birthday, we will become husband and wife at Vintage Villas on beautiful Lake Travis. We were so surprised that the place I thought would be the most expensive was actually the most reasonable. They also had the friendliest staff and were the only ones who mentioned that they wanted to work with our budget. If you know Casey and I you know that we basically refuse to pay sticker price for anything and I call myself the "haggling queen" because it seems like everywhere I go I try to get a bargain. We are just so excited that we found exactly what we wanted and that the price was right. So..... find a venue.. CHECK! It feels so good to check one of the biggest things off of my wedding planning list!

After touring three of the four venues we went and had lunch at The Oasis. If you have never been to or heard of the Oasis, you absolutely have to go. It is a huuuuuugge building on the side of a bluff overlooking Lake Travis and they have a restaurant as well as a venue for parties. Casey liked the pictures so we decided to check it out to see if it might be worth having our reception there. Although it was beautiful we kind of already had our hearts set on Vintage Villas so we decided to have a nice lunch there before heading back to Houston. I had seared tuna with black and white sesame seeds and Casey had the fajitas. Let me just tell you that I felt like I was eating a 5 star restaurant because the food was SO good! Casey's fajitas were cooked just right and I have never had a tuna steak that was as good as mine was. And the view... oh man... the view was to die for! You just don't find that many places in Texas like this. Casey and I both agreed that we felt like we were in Los Angeles because the terrain was so similar. Yay for the Hill Country!

Anyway, other than that we've just been trying to figure out little things like invitations, save the dates, etc. and enjoying the planning process. More updates to come!

Halloween

I surprisingly have not blogged since we got engaged (only two weeks ago but still!)and am very surprised. There is so much to blog about, but never enough time to blog!

I will just blog about Halloween really quick and then more later.

Halloween was a blast and our Halloween party was a hit! Everyone came in costume and we had a great time! I dressed as Wednesday Addams and Casey dressed as Pugsley- we looked so cute!

We're Engaged!!

Casey and I are engaged! Casey finally popped the question Saturday at his Aunt and Uncle's house. Here are the details and some pictures! I posted a video on Facebook as well. We are so excited!

The Proposal Story:

So every year Casey’s Aunt Jackie and Uncle Greg have a Pumpkin Carving party at their house. Halloween is my favorite time of year and Casey’s Godparents were in town from New York to visit so we all went over to his Aunt and Uncle’s house that night. I had told Casey a few weeks before that I didn’t want to carve the design on the pumpkin but that I would help out by opening the pumpkin and getting all the guts out (my favorite part), so I decided I would go ahead and get that over with so I could hang out with his cousins and other family the rest of the night. I started opening the pumpkin and when I finally got the top off it was all white and fluffy inside and I was really upset because I thought that it was moldy and we had bought a bad pumpkin. I thought it was really weird because it was so thick and it really looked like cotton and as I was showing it to Casey and his family, Casey reached down into the pumpkin and pulled some of the “mold” out. I jumped back and was frankly, very grossed out that he touched the “mold”, until I realized that it was fake spider webs and that he had somehow emptied the pumpkin and filled it with spider webs. Once I realized this I was kind of annoyed because Casey always plays jokes like this on me and I was thinking that this joke was really kind of mean because I really do LOVE getting the guts out of the pumpkin. So I started taking the cottony spider webs out and threw some of them at him and then when I reached back inside the pumpkin I felt something big at the bottom. I pulled it out and it was a ring box. I was kind of confused still because I could totally see Casey putting candy in a ring box as a joke- I don’t think I’ve ever been more surprised in my entire life. I opened the box and was literally stunned when I saw the ring- it was huge! I immediately started crying and finally someone in Casey’s family said, “Well? What do you say??” and I said “He hasn’t asked me anything!”. That got a bunch of laughs and then Casey finally said the 4 words I thought I’d never hear come out of his mouth – “Will you marry me?” I of course said YES! We are hoping for an October 2010 wedding and are going to look at venues in Austin on November 7^th. Here is the video that Casey was taking while I was opening the pumpkin, his dad has another longer video that I will post when he sends it to me. Thank you to everyone for the congrats- we are so excited to be getting married!

College Day, Pumpkins, and more!

Okay so I have been a bad blogger lately. Things have been so busy and now that I have an iPhone I hardly ever get on my actual computer at home. So here are a few updates:

2 weeks ago my school had College Day and we got to wear College Tshirts and bring stuff from college to show the students. I think this is a great thing because it introduces the idea of college to so many students, some of whom may not even know what college is because their
parents didn't go. So of course I wore an SFA Alumni shirt and I even brought my cap, gown, and a picture from graduation. The kids loved hearing about "Essefay" and learning how to do the "Axe 'Em Jacks" sign! Luckily my librarian, next door teacher, and all 3 principals went to SFA so I wasn't the only one trying to indoctrinate them. Here are a few pictures from that day:




Yeah so maybe I brainwashed them, but so what?













Okay so on to Pumpkins!

Jessica, Chris, Casey, and I had our 3rd annual Chagla-Page/Wood pumpkin carving get together last Saturday and it was a blast as usual. Since Chris had to work from 3:00-5:00 we went to the pumpkin patch around noon and picked out our pumpkins. This year it was slim pickins at the pumpkin patch and Case and I were very upset that they didn't have hay bails and corn stalks for decorating. Here are some pics from the pumpkin patch:


After getting our pumpkins we headed back home and Jess and I went to get pedicures and did a little shopping. I found a really cute pair of winter boots at Kohls and even though I was trying to stay away from stilleto heels, these were too pretty to pass up.


After shopping and pedis, Jess and I picked up stuff for tacos and some southwestern eggrolls from Chilis- one of my biggest weaknesses. I am obsessed with those things! After getting home and devouring chips & salsa/queso and the eggrolls I cooked up some taco meat and we had dinner. I love taco night - it never gets old to me. After eating we started carving the pumpkins and put on some "scary" movies. Jessica doesn't like horror films so we watched Young Frankenstein & Shaun of the Dead- if you haven't checked these out you really need to they are both hilarious! Casey and I chose a Nightmare Before Christmas theme and I carved Jack Skellington and he carved the Oogie-Boogie. They turned out really cute!



Chris did a Scarecrow and Jess did a really awesome and complicated Haunted House scene- yet again she won for most difficult pumpkin pattern! I got done with my Jack-O-Lantern first so I took all of our pumpkin guts and separated the seeds from the goop and made some roasted pumpkin seeds with a twist. Jess and I had read an article in Redbook about making gourmet pumpkin seeds so I decided to experiment. I made three different kinds: Mexican inspired, Italian inspired, and Indian inspired. They were all pretty good except the curry ones were a little bitter.

To make a long story even longer - pumpkin night was a success! More later!

I survived Parent-Teacher Conferences...barely

So today was Parent Teacher conference day and boy was I nervous. So nervous in fact that I threw up twice before I got to school and once as I was walking in. Who knows if it was just nerves or maybe a touch of food poisoning, but it definitely was not fun being nauseous all day long.

Conferences went really well after I got in the swing of things and all of the parents seemed very receptive to my recommendations and concerns. Yay!

After leaving work I went directly to Half Price Books because today was the last day that they had an additional 20% off for teachers. Boy am I glad I went! I got about $100 worth of awesome best selling children's books for a total of $35- yay! I am most excited about the pristine hardback copy of "No, David!" by David Shannon that I found. David Shannon is by far my kids favorite author and is quickly becoming mine as well - his books are so cute! My class asks me to read that book to them literally every day about 3 times so I'm glad I now have my own copy and don't have to sneak next door to get Tiffany's copy. Yay for new books!

This evening I am working on lesson plans for my official Region IV observation tomorrow- I am super nervous so keep me in your prayers! Off to bed I go now!

N'Awlins: The Big Easy...

Last weekend Jessica, Kelli, and I set out for New Orleans for a nice girls weekend and it was A-mazing! Our friend Sarah Kunz was there for an engineering conference so we decided to piggy back off of her business trip! We stayed with her friend Mark who was a fantastic host and showed us a wonderful time in the Crescent City. Here are some pictures from touring around the French Quarter, our two nights on Bourbon Street, and our dinner out a the fabulous Jacques-Imos- so yummy!















We had a great time and I can't wait to go back!