Where did November go?

Guys, my lesson plans are blowing my mind right now. Why? Because of the date on them: Lesson Plans Week of December 3rd. DECEMBER 3rd! What in the world? How on earth is it already December? Crazy!

But I must say, I'm extremely excited that it's December. Just like a lot of other people, this my absolute favorite time of the year. I'll even post a cheesy Christmas pic to prove it to ya.

Adorable right? My mom used to make us take these every other year until my junior year of high school. My mother is the queen of Christmas and I'm pretty sure she is exactly where I get my love of the season from. I mean, look at her Christmas tree:

Yep she's definitely where I get my love of Christmas from. I love Christmas music (my kids' thinking music at school last week was from the Nutcracker!). I love anything peppermint. I love baking. I love spending time with my family and giving them gifts. In fact, I kind wish I could them all their gifts right now, but I'll wait. :)

I'm really bummed that I had a massive headache all weekend and wasn't able to put up my Christmas tree with J. Hopefully we'll be able to do that tomorrow. I like going to his apartment and seeing the tree all lit up next to the window.

What's your favorite thing about December?

Rain, rain, go away

Normally, if I wake up and hear the pitter patter of raindrops on a Saturday, I get pumped! Why? Because it's a great excuse for being completely lazy on a weekend.

But today, I woke up and heard the rain and GROANED. I need to be motivated, not lazy. My room looks like a tornado blew through it. My laundry is piling up. I have a project that I want to have completed by Monday and J and I want to go Christmas shopping at the good mall (the one that is COMPLETELY outdoors). Oh and I need to go to the dry cleaners before they give away my comforter. Because apparently, I completely forgot that I had it dry cleaned two months ago. Oops.

But right now, all I'm doing is catching up on blogs and pinning more wedding things on Pinterest. Which is way more fun than anything up on my to-do list (except for Christmas shopping, nothing is EVER better than Christmas shopping).

Speaking of wedding plans, have I mentioned J and I have all the big things checked off? We have:

• our location 
• a photographer (Fox Fotography, go check them out!)
• a DJ
• a florist (the florist's proposal ideas matched exactly all the things I pinned on Pinterest. Pam read my mind!)
• my dress 
• and honeymoon!

July seems so far away, but I know that it's not. I mean today is December 1st!  Christmas break begins in 14 days! Where the heck did 2012 go??

Off to attempt to be motivated. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Public speaking is SO my thing...

Not really. I know, I know. I'm a teacher. I get up every morning and spend 8 hours speaking in front of 23 people. Here's the catch: those 23 people? They range in age from 6-8. They're sweet. Oh and they adore me. Cocky? Possibly, but it's true. Even when I goof up and stutter, they just smile and laugh in a not mean way. One of the many reasons I love working with firsties.

But tomorrow, I have to get up in front of the college class that comes to my school every week and talk. I have to be knowledgeable. I have to NOT speak a mile a minute (which is exactly how I talk. I'd do a video blog so you can witness it yourself, but no thanks.) I'm flattered that my standards coach thinks I'm good enough to present to them, but still I'm REALLY not looking forward to it.

Yep. That describes my feelings exactly. Anybody out there understand where I'm coming from?

Tomorrow's my Friday!

Ha. I love how I am about to write about my weekend, when my next weekend officially starts tomorrow at 3:10. Woot, woot. Bring on Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was pretty darn great. Kicked off the holdiay season by attending one of my favorite holiday traditions: Nights of Lights.

St. Augustine hangs a ton of lights all over its public grounds, and most of the businesses (includng my alma mater, Flagler College) do the same. They have this huge lighting ceremony, with a big band playing holiday tunes. We all count down and flash! The lights turn on! (The build up is a little lame, but the lights are beautiful!)

These are some of the trees in the plaza with their lights. J and I are going to go back to take our engagement photos there. I can't wait!

Afterwards, Flagler hosts an alumni reception. They serve holiday treats and I get to catch up with my old professors and college peeps. This year, everyone gushed over my ring. :)

Sunday was FOOTBALL! My Jaguars PLAYED their HEARTS OUT!  I mean check out this picture of my favorite player, Paul Posluzsny:

Source

Yep. That's blood streaming down his face. He got hit hard, but still kept playing. Didn't come out until the drive was over. That's HEART I tell ya! (Sidenote: He's pretty cute, so I hope that injury doesn't leave a scar or anything.)

I think if we would have beaten the Texans, I would have cried. Straight up CRIED! Hopefully we get our second win this weekend. (Especially since I just made the last payment on my season tickets.) I need them to at least win two more games, so I don't feel like I completely blew a ton of money. )

One day down, one more to go. I'll be MIA this week. Heading up to Savannah to have Thanksgiving with J's family. Completely mind blowing, that next Thanksgiving I'll be MARRIED. :)

I'm thankful for many things this year, but one of those things is definitely this blog community that I became a part of. :) I hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Just another manic Thursday...

Yea, I changed the lyric. So sue me. :P

Today was crazy hectic. By hectic, I mean HECTIC!
 First I had a training with my principal. (Kinda boring since I already knew everything they taught us).

Then I grabbed lunch from the training center (seriously, their Waldorf chicken salad is the bomb! It's made by the same people in charge of our nasty school food!) and skedaddle my way back to school.

As I'm walking in, assistant principal yells at me to drop my stuff off and go open doors for her. Why? Because a preschooler is going bonkers and chucking chairs at his classmates. YES A PRESCHOOLER!

Then I had two meetings about kids in my class. After that, since I had a sub all day, I actually got to go to the work room and get grading done. Woot!

 Finally the day ended with me opening the door for my assistant principal again. This time she had to bring a student into the office who refused to get on his bus. But once he realized we were gonna call mama, he attempted to run after the bus in the middle of dismissal traffic. Like, I said HECTIC!

Plus the weather down here in Jacksonville is super gloomy. Cold and drizzly. I wouldn't mind this weather as much if I didn't have to deal with it every time I take a step out of my classroom. I also wouldn't mind it if I could just afford an endless amount of Starbucks peppermint white chocolate mochas.

Source: christmascup.tumblr.com via Maria on Pinterest

Mmm. Doesn't that picture totally make you want Starbucks now?

I hope everyone else had a better Thursday!

PS. I'd love you forever if you'd donate even one dollar to my DonorsChoose project. Click on HERE to find out how you can help!

Sundays are great...

when you have Monday off! There are many things about my job that make me happy, but the whole federal holiday off thing is definitely one of my favorites!

I've been slacking in the blog world. I miss all my blog friends! How are all of you??? After I finish lesson plans, I'm going to spend some time at my favorite Starbucks with my computer and catch up on everyone's posts. Girl scout honor!

So far this has been a great weekend:

• discovered Hart of Dixie on Netflix. It reminds me of Gilmore Girls. It's a little kooky, a little unbelievable but a definite escape.
• found my wedding dress! It's a style I never would of thought to try, but the minute I put it on it was perfect! Everyone ooh and aahed and I teared up. :)
• My college roommate came up to help me with my wedding dress search. I got to finally meet her second baby girl Aubrey. Aubrey is such a happy baby! I wish I lived closer to them. 
• J and I just relaxed today. Watched a couple football games (amazing how not into football I am when it's teams I could care less about!) and J surprised me. He bought all the ingredients to make his famous nachos. MMMMMMMM!
• My Donors Choose project got posted. I've already raised over 100 dollars to the purchase of listening center materials. If you want to help out, I'd love you forever. Head over to www.donorschoose.org/nalbino. 

Off to watch Revenge. Is it dorky that I am excited to watch it because I can sleep in tomorrow??? Such an old lady. 

Oof..

Boy was today a Monday. I normally don't complain about Mondays (yes, I'm a weirdo). But it was definitely a Monday. My kiddos were acting so silly and goofy and not following any of my directions. Thank goodness for left over candy. Oh and the fact that I only have them until 11:30 tomorrow.

My weekend was eh. J and I tried a new Mexican restaurant. At the time, I thought...ooo this is pretty good.  Saturday morning around 2 am... NEVER AGAIN! I had the worst stomachache ever all day Saturday. Completely bummed I missed my friend's surprise birthday dinner at the hamburger joint that doubles as a drag show venue! I did grab coffee with my friend Lauren, so that was a plus.

And..... I booked my wedding reception venue! We have a date. July 12, 2013. I'll be getting married at my childhood church and then partying it up at this gorgeous place:

Goregous right? One Ocean is the prettiest hotel on the beach and we are getting an incredible deal to have the reception.

J and I also booked our photographer and I'm going dress shopping this Saturday. It's still mind blowing to think that I'll be married this time next year, but I really can't wait!

Hope you all had fun weekends!