Angelina at the Oscars

Well, the web was all abuzz yesterday from the Academy Awards. I admittedly saw ONE of the movies and knew going in that "The Artist" was going to win it all. It's a no-brainer- a black and white silent film with a foreign director? Pencil it in for Best Picture.

But enough of that. THIS... I can not resist sharing.

Was anyone as bugged with Angelina Jolie's leg as I was? Seriously? Is it necessary to flaunt the fact that your dress not only costs about as much as a half years college tuition, but also features a slit all the way up to your hip?

Seriously. WE GET IT. You're gorgeous, you're skinny, and you know it. And I guess you really want all of us to know it too.

I took to the internet today to read up on my Bachelor recaps (basically the best part of my Tuesday). Somehow, I stumbled upon the following picture. Let me just say, your welcome. Let this be a lesson to Angelina, if you've got it, perhaps flaunt it... but know that someone out there is gonna mock you for it.

Pick me up.

I'm glad that I have a blog. Because it allows me to hear responses and input from people who actually read, who know how I feel in certain circumstances, and who help make the days better. Thanks, blog friends! (AKA Britt and Callie!)

Not factoring in the fact that I kind of had a sap moment last night, I didn't have the best day today at school. Let's just say... as of today, 8th graders have gotten the best of me. It's just been a long week. Oh wait, it's MONDAY! Joking aside, I couldn't handle the fact that I have a full week to get through without having something to look forward to and so I decided to boost my spirits, and plan a little something.

Did I ever mention to you that Dusty and I are huge dorks? 

You read it here. 

We were recently driving to downtown MPLS when we drove past one of those state-of-the-art electronic billboards that was advertising "DISNEY ON ICE: Dare to Dream!" Coming to MN this Wednesday.

We both gasped. 

Dust and I are Disney fanatics. We have been to Disney on Ice twice in our relationship (I've been three times total!) 

The second cutest couple ever (first cutest couple pictured below)

Our first time at DOI- which also happened to be when we were babies (I think I look young...)

We have visited Disneyland together (on one of my favorite vacations to date- to California!), DisneyWorld (we considered it for our honeymoon!). 

Disneyland!!! May 2009

Downtown Disney- Orlando 2010

One of the first movies we ever watched together was Disney's Robin Hood (probably my favorite movie of all time) and we also have been working on expanding our Disney movie collection as of yet. I have recently purchased Beauty and the Beast, which in turn gave us a free ticket to see it in 3D, which you KNOW we took advantage of three weeks ago! I am kind of a closet Disney Princess fan and sometimes, I pretend that I AM one (Shh). 

So when I thought back to that billboard tonight, after a ho-hum episode of The Bachelor, and a reminder that tomorrow is another day that could go unexpected with the 8th graders, I purchased two tickets to see Disney on Ice this Friday at the Target Center. 

For me and Dust :) 

Amazing how an hour and a half show of cartoon characters on ice skates can instantly put me in a childish happy mood. Maybe I had to revert back to my young ways like I mentioned in my last post. I may not be a kid anymore but that doesn't mean I can't have my moments here and there. 

I will be sure to take pictures to add to my growing collection, if you couldn't tell, I kind of like to chronicle the magical moments that Disney has provided to me over the years. To remember the memories.

And to look at pictures of the best looking guy like.... ever.

Okay, my last statement was deceiving. Because although we might look like the happiest two people on earth, in the happiest place on earth... the truth is, we got in a MAJOR blow up fight right after this picture was taken. It was our second time at Disneyland in three days and we had just spend the entire day touring Hollywood AND getting stuck in major LA traffic. Dusty lost a battle with me across the way at California Adventure... I made him go on California Condors over the Hollywood Tower of Terror, thus proclaiming Dusty to "lose his manhood" on a lame fake glider tour ride that simulated flying over the California coast. I felt pretty bad. Dusty by this point was extremely hungry once we hopped over to Disneyland, we had a crappy seat for the fireworks, and all Dusty could talk about was buying a turkey leg. They were all out by park's closing. I preceded to burst into tears due to exhaustion, overemotions, and irritability and Dusty's mood did not change. That is, until we walked out of the park, noticing ONE VENDOR had ONE TURKEY LEG left. I bought it immediately and gave it to the crank next to me. We drove home to Dusty's mom's, went to bed, and got up the next morning at 5:30 a.m. to fly home. 

There goes the world's longest unnecessary caption award given to yours truly.

Suffice it to say, I am pretty excited for Friday!

Looking back on things

I know I've raved about being married and getting restless and just wanting the daily routine of living with Dusty, and sharing our lives together.

But when my mom told me today that this summer, her and my dad are remodeling the kitchen to fit in an island table for 3, I almost cried.

Because that means that come this summer, I won't live in my home anymore. I won't wake up everyday to see both my parents having devotions in the living room. I won't come home to "the beast" (Moses) everyday desperate for attention. Beau won't bother me with YouTube videos and I won't crawl into bed every night in my comfy room downstairs with my ten blankets and five pillows. 

Of course I'm beyond thrilled and excited to be getting married. Of course I am so incredibly excited to share my life with Dusty- but I can't help but wonder, where the time went to get me to this point? 

Where did my Saturday morning's watching Recess and Pepper Ann disappear to? What happened to my basketball practices in middle school that I HATED with a passion? When did I stop sporting the short bob haircut? When did Beau grow up? When did Carls move out? How in the world is it possible for me to be turning 23 next month? And since when did my paycheck come from being a teacher???!!

I always laughed at people who said "Life's too short" because it always seemed that the best moments in life were yet to pass me by. Now I'm looking back on a lifetime (so far) worth of memories and thinking about how it could be that some of my best moments have come and gone. And yet some of the best are still yet to come.

You'll have to excuse my sappy-ness. It's a Sunday night, it's a school night, I'm still not asleep at 11 pm, and I'm thoroughly disappointed that The Help didn't win Best Picture at the Oscars. 

If I have to grow up, if I really must grow up, then I better have a child someday, far down the road, who somehow could be this adorably cute. 

If I do say so myself.

Vday Faves

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE!!!

Okay, that's enough pink for one blog post. Like many other bloggers out there, I am not quite into the whole holiday/celebration/commercialization of the Valentine's Day holiday, however, it still is kinda fun to devote an entire day to the celebration of LOVE. Since Dusty has to work tonight (no big deal, trust me) we actually celebrated with a date last night. We are both kinda cheapskates and decided to go to this dinky restaurant in St. Paul called "Chris and Rob's Chicago Dogs." It's a Chi-town themed restaurant in the heart of the Twin Cities with cheap "authentic" Chicago Hot Dogs. I'm not a big Chicago dog person, but since Dusty is a big food-anything person, we went for it and got out of there spending less than $10!

We then traveled further into the city to one of my favorite restaurants- KINCAIDS. If you have ever been there you know they are famous for their steak and seafood. Needless to say, it's a pretty expensive place where we do NOT eat often. Dust and I actually went there on New Years Day for happy hour and a good friend of mine from high school was working. They had a limited promotion of handing out complimentary $20 off cards and we ended up helping ourselves to about SIX cards (confession: we also gave one away to some friends as a wedding gift, don't judge and don't tell). So one of the cards was used last night on dessert. Both of us delighted in some Chocolate Indulgence Cake and Coffee with a little Bailey's mixed in :)

Dustin indulging.

Me indulging!

Dusty got me a bamboo plant for Valentine's Day! I used to have one at my house in college but sadly, it died (I know what you're thinking: How do you KILL a bamboo plant? I'll tell you- you study abroad and put your roommate in charge of watering it, and they forget. The End). I got Dust a new pair of sweatpants, the first season of FAMILY MATTERS (!) and those sugar loaded frosting cookies from Target.

So in the spirit of the holiday- I've been thinking THEMES. What are your favorite Valentine's Day things? Movies? Books? Traditions? Do you think the holiday is kinda pointless, but secretly fun like I do? Here are my Vday FAVES:

MOVIE: My favorite Rom-Com- definitely Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It's been at the top of this category since about 5th grade.

Other notable favorites: Love Actually (even though it's more of a Christmas movie), My Best Friend's Wedding (another Julia gem), and Beauty and the Beast :)

BOOK: I loved Water for Elephants last year. I consider that to be a legit romance novel, with a little historical twist. I also love love LOVE The Notebook. Both books I got thru within a span of about 3 1/2 days. Loved them, loved them! Any good romance novel suggestions out there?

MEMORY: When my sister and I were little, my mom ALWAYS dyed our food red or pink on Valentine's Day. She dyed the milk in our cereal, our food that she packed in lunches, and whatever dinner creation she prepared at home. And she ALWAYS got us little treats. It was something to look forward to! She even got us presents this year (as I am blushing with embarassment typing away). I love my mom. She is a thoughtful woman, that one.

Hmm... now I am blanking on more themes. I'll have to maybe think of some later and add to the list. I'm feeling rather stupid that I work at a school and forgot to wear red or pink today! Foolish me! I am actually wearing blue and grey- how boring for a holiday like this one. I actually got an email last hour that singing candy-grams will be delivered to our classes today through out the next four hours. Now if that isn't something to look forward to, I don't know what is. As long as it looks something like this...

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Top 8th Grade Moments

My future sister-in-law, Callie, called me today and asked me how 8th grade was going. I actually plan to inform all of YOU exactly how this crazy job came to be soon... but she encouraged me to blog about the funny moments because my response? "8th grade is just PEACHY." So I have compiled a list. No particular order really because every day is honestly a new adventure.

10. On my fourth day I found a piece of paper stuck to the wall with two "B" letters written back to back (I'm assuming this is a band symbol or maybe just some trend I am unaware of...?) Well, it was annoying there so I took it off, crumpled it up and threw it away. Didn't think anything of it. My last class of the day came along and a student asked me what happened to the paper. I told him it got tossed. "Well... you didn't TOUCH it, did you?!" Oh no.... "Um, no I didn't, why?" (My response). "Because __________ stuck that to the wall with his own SNOT!" 

I immediately b-line it to the bathroom to wash my hands, even though it had been hours. Too little, too late.

9. Being told on my second day that the way I talk is similar to that of a "motivational speaker" :) 

8. Anytime I see a middle school couple walking down the hall, I bite my cheek to keep from laughing. Nothing is more hysterical than a 5 foot 1 boy with his arm draped around the waist of a 5 foot 6 girl... wait, I take that back. The silent quick "side hug" before coming into class IS more hysterical.

7. I tweeted about this recently, but for whatever reason.. these kids call me "Miss M." Something about it just makes me smile. It makes me feel so much older than I am. 

6. Ironically, after that last one, on my first day, a student guessed my age to be at about 19.

5. No matter how long the hair on the guys, I can always tell when the ipod earbuds are in. There is no fooling me. This is part of why I enjoy being a younger teacher. I know what's up. I'm no idiot.

4. The kids asked me if I have any siblings. I answer yes, I do. A 20 year old sister and a 15 year old brother. I had probably... five, six 8th grade girls ask me to see a picture of said 15 year old brother, to which I quickly responded, "No."

3. Same group of girls asked for my brother's name because they wanted to friend him on Facebook (Again, I said no). Social Media, I swear, is the bane of my existence in being a teacher. I get friend requests ALL THE TIME from students, especially from the last school I was at. Really? I am not going to be your friend. You don't need to read my status updates, you don't need to know what I did last Friday night, and in turn, I don't need to know about your life. The things I catch myself hearing in the halls are PLENTY enough.

2. Flattering moment: I get about fifty compliments a day on my handwriting. "YOU HAVE THE COOLEST HANDWRITING MISS M!" "MISS M, write me a pass so I can save your handwriting on a piece of paper!!" A little weird, but I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy it. 

1. This is a classic, and something not unique to middle school in my experience. I have so many students absent who approach me the next day... "Did we do anything when I was gone?" I am so tempted every time to say, "No, we didn't do a THING. We were so upset about you being gone that we stopped everything we were doing and mourned your loss. It was a really really sad time. I'm so glad your back because now we can pick up where you left off." 

Or I could answer with my other favorite, "We had a big party and didn't learn anything. Sorry you missed it."

Things I want to do in 2012

I am a little... well, I already take that back, I am VERY late in hopping on the New Years Resolution bandwagon. Part of it was the crazy start I had to the new year... wrapping up my job and completely out of the blue starting a new one, but for whatever reason today I am inspired to think about things I want to accomplish this year, other than just to get hitched! In all honesty, I am starting to realize how big of a year this really is for me and the possibilities of what I could make of it just on my own in the way of "resolutions" is an exciting thought. So here is my list. In no random order. 

Join a gym {typical NY res}

Go scuba diving

Become a member of my church

Learn how to sew

Spend less money

Eat out less... cook/bake more {I am much more of a baker though...}

Finish "The Hunger Games" Trilogy

Own more Disney movies

Go rollerblading A LOT this summer

Pay off a significant amount of my student loans

Pray more

Go to at least one concert

Take at least one vacation

Cut my hair short {to be done AFTER the wedding}

Spend more time with my grandparents

Possibly go to grad school??? {This has been VERY recent}

Be more independent {HA}

Have my own classroom

Hang out with my sister more often

Stop drinking pop

That last one is going to be TOUGH. But I think so far I have a pretty good list going? Good thing I gave myself four weeks into the New Year to compile this starter list. What are your resolutions? I confess I got a lot of inspiration for the list from other bloggers. So I know good resolutions are out there. I like to write this out because it'll give me something to refer back to in a years time! CA-RAY-ZY (crazy) to think about how much will have already changed when we get to next February!!