The Countdown Begins....

Tomorrow morning marks the beginning of my fifth year of full time teaching.  It's amazing how fast the time has gone by.  I officially accepted the role of Literacy Department Chair (fancy speak for I'm in charge of the Reading and Language Arts departments), Wellness Champion (fancy speak for coordinating emotional and physical health initiatives on campus) along with all of my prior roles I've taken on over the past two year of work at Boca Ciega.  I am blessed to have the same class as the last two years so there is little to do in terms of figuring out what to teach and when, just minor tweaking of prior lessons. 

Being named Wellness Champion has helped me refocus on my weight loss and get fit goals.  I've lost 32 pounds but I'd like to lose another 16....it's getting more difficult the closer I get to my goal.  Today I planned out breakfast (mini wheats and a banana), lunch (tuna and grapes), and snacks (apple and peanut butter) for the week as well as preparing some flavored water via the Soda Stream so I have my water ready to go.  Everything has been measured out and placed into ziplocs for a quick grab and go in the morning.  Now to make sure I force myself to work out (I start Level 2 of 30 Day Shred tomorrow) and run at least two miles each day. 

I'm surprisingly not nervous or anxious about tomorrow.  My planning periods were moved to the middle and end of the day so I do have to get up much earlier this year which is fine.  My clothes are laid out and I'm ready to go at five....a....m....ugh.

Back to the Grind (and ridiculous amounts of stress!)

Well, Pat is still out of town :(  He won't be back for another two weeks.  It's definitely been hard and I miss him so much.  I'm at least thankful for the fact that I have Brutus here with me, although the more I talk to him the more he thinks I'm crazy. 

Today, I went back to school.  Initially I was stoked.  My classroom was pretty much set up, I have my first week of plans done, all sorts of good things...

...and then the principal threw me a curveball.  Our Language Arts department head recently accepted a AP position at another high school so our school needs a new one...and he wants me to be it.  Normally I'd be so grateful and excited but I've definitely bit off more than I can chew.

Between the job search, looking for a home loan, then, ya know...a house, grad school, and all the responsibilities I've taken on at work - I'm going to go crazy.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Pat and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary yesterday.  It was a pretty relaxed day.  I worked in the morning and while we promised not to buy gifts or even cards, Ohio State released its new t-shirt for the upcoming football season and well...if you know me...I couldn't help myself!  It got here today already.  Check it out!


After work, I spent the afternoon making banana bread and ziti for a neighbor wasn't doing well before taking a quick nap with Patrick and of course Brutus.  Then we headed out to Ceviche for dinner.  It's a quaint little place in downtown St. Pete.  The rest of the night was spent relaxing with Brutus.

I'm realizing I'm starting to get all emotional knowing Pat is heading out again for the next six weeks and there's been some craziness here and then I saw a quote that made me feel better - "All great changes are preceded by chaos"

Here's hoping that's the truth....

Organization Mania!

Happy 4th of July! 

Not much happening here since Pat is at work (6-6 shift in the ER and a storm is rolling through).  So...I spent the day doing homework, cooking, and organzing like a mad woman!  I've been playing around on Pinterest far too much.  So much that I've started trying recipes, making DIY things, and reading up on getting organized and budgeting.  Crazy, right?   Here's some of my attempts at DIY ideas...






I created a binder customized from home organization binders I saw on Pinterest.  So far it's really keeping me organized, but feeling completely overwhelmed.  I'm trying to create two other smaller binders for warrenties and manuals and then another for bills.  We really need to buckle down on our spending and hopefully this binder will help!  There's too much coming up in our immediate future for us to do anything else. 









For now I'm getting rid of old magazines that the horder in me refuses to let go.  (So I'll take them to school instead)  :)

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th!

My bad, Batman!

So I realized I haven't posted since November of LAST YEAR!  Holy smokes, Batman.  My bad.  So much has happened since then.  I'll try to fill in the blanks the best I can.

Pat spent 6 week in the Florida Keys from Thanksgiving to just past New Year's doing a rotation for school.  B and I stayed home and roughed out the holiday season on our own.  It was miserable but we do what we have to do.  We spent Christmas between Cleveland and Melbourne.  It always takes a lot out of us.  This year we were lucky to fly to Ohio so it wasn't as bad. 


January started my ultimately successful decision to finally get healthy.  I was tired of being stupid chubby.  As of today, I've lost 26 pounds :)  Now if I could get the remaining 17 pounds to go away I'd be happy.

Pat and I made a decision in March to officially say we're moving back to Columbus.  We're really excited about our decision and can't wait to get there.  Our lease is up at the end of February so it's Columbus or Bust!  I had to ::cough cough:: drop out of St. Leo's because of our decision so I'm back at UF and have only 1 class and my portfolio to finish and then I'll have my Masters!

Brutus celebrated his 5th birthday in May (the 26th to be exact) and we celebrated our anniversary a little early because of a busy summer schedule.  We went to Hollywood Studios for the day and it was so much fun.  We hit every ride we wanted to plus waited in line for a picture with some of our favorite characters.



June 2nd Mom and Dad came down with some friends to celebrate our anniversary with a gift to the Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw concert.  It was an amazing, yet very long concert!  It was fun to spend the weekend with rents.




School let out in June but Pat's still doing rotations.  His pysch rotation was my favorite to hear about.  His current E.R. rotation, not so much.  I can't stomach hearing about stapling people's heads back together.  Blah.  He's off to Cleveland next Friday for his LAST rotation!!!  Woo Hoo!  From there it's on to getting ready for his national test.

3 weeks ago today actually I had LANAP (laser gum surgery).  It was ridiculously expensive but it appears to be healing nicely and I go back on the 23rd to have an actual teeth cleaning. 

As for right now....I'm finishing up summer school with the kids, two classes at UF and dreading Pat leaving me for another 6 weeks.  Pat's prepping for his last rotation and B is just lounging like always.  Promise it won't be so long next time friends!

The Good, the Bad, and the Undecided

Well, it's official.  I'm getting old.  The big 2-7 was a week and a half ago.  It was a great day filled with surprises and a nice dinner out with the hubby.  The kids across the hall were pretty stealthy and filled my classroom door and surrounding wall with giant birthday cards.  It was incredibly sweet.  I came home after tutoring there were a dozen red roses and two bottles of wine on the table and Pat was dressed and ready to go get dinner at Gigi's where on Wednesdays they have 1/2 off bottles of wine!  Winning!  When we got home there was one more surprise...an ice cream cake from Coldstone!!



News came that Pat's third rotation was cancelled and rescheduled for internal medicine in the Keys.  I'm slightly jealous....ok, I'm beyond irked.  On top of that, we won't be decorating for the holidays which makes me as grumpy as him not being home for six weeks.  I always get "north-sick" around this time of the year and I love decorating but not this year. :( 

In other news, I've decided to drop out (I hate that choice of words) of the UF Teacher Leadership Master's Program and start my Master's degree in Educational Leadership at St. Leo's.  I'm looking forward to getting started and working my way up to administration (dad was always right!).


Finally, yesterday was the 7th anniversary of Pat and I meeting at the Ohio State at Purdue football game.  We had some fun picking on each other....until Purdue won....again.  He's quite the sore loser.  Regardless, we took some fun photos with the helmets from the wedding and another at half time.  You can tell who was up at halftime ;)



All in all, it's the same as always, crazy, busy, lots of unknowns and tons of things to do, both fun and not.  Here's to surviving the holiday season...solo.

A Day to Ourselves....Kind of...

Pat and I hit the links today at Largo Golf Course.  We used our $15 Groupon for two rounds of golf, a golf cart, and two hot dogs at the turn.  We were excited to have a day to ourselves when we got there but quickly realized the course was packed (it was 67 and breezy out today) and we were paired up with an older couple who actually ended up being pretty fun to golf with.  Overall, we did pretty well for not playing in awhile...

Check out some of the boys on the course today (they were EVERYWHERE!!)  <3



"Excuse me, but I mustache you a question"

Today Pat, Brutus, and I took some time to get into the Halloween spirit and carve our pumpkin!  Last Sunday, Pat and I stopped at the church down the street that was selling pumpkins.  After what seemed like forever of perusing hundreds of pumpkins we returned home with our pick of the litter. 
So, after narrowing down our carving options to frankenstein, a skeleton, or the incognito jack-o-lantern face, we went with the good ol' jack-o-lantern face.  Pat wasn't necessarily thrilled at first with our choice of getting the stencil onto the pumpkin.  He went right to work though.  We had to tape the stencil to the pumpkin and then make little marks in the pumpkin to actually transfer the image to the pumpkin.  Brutus was pretty interested with the entire operation.


In the end, the pumpkin looks pretty amazing!  Pat did a fantastic job!  I've name it, "Excuse me, but I mustache you a question".
As for the seeds, I've never really had pumpkin seeds before (of course Mom always made them, but I never actually ate them).  But today, I decided to try a few flavors and actually try them.  I made regular salted seeds, Italian flavored seeds, and cinnamon sugar seeds.  They all turned out pretty scrumptious if I do say so myself! 
With the cooler weather and getting a breather in our busy schedule to carve a pumpkin it's beginning to feel like fall around here.    <3

It's been forever and a day...

At least that's what it feels like since I've last posted.

Pat and I have been pretty busy since school started back up for each of us.  While nothing exciting has happened we've both been incredibly busy.  Pat started and finished his first rotation already at Planned Parenthood her in St. Pete.  The hours were different each day and he was always leaving herpes pamphlets on the counter so needless to say I'm glad he's done with the rotation!  Although they really seemed to enjoy having him there!  Check out the picture of the card they gave him on his last day.  He's moved on to family medicine in St. Pete and now feels the pain of having to get up while it's still dark out.


On my end, school is leaps and bounds better than last year.  The students are much better.  I only have about four that make me go crazy but with the new bell schedule it's eliminating a lot of the issues.  Tomorrow marks the opening of our new building on campus and it's beautiful.  I've moved rooms last week from the third floor to the first.  I'm not feeling as stressed out which may be why I've signed up for just about everything else this year.  Outside of teacher, I tutor now on Mondays and Wednesdays, work ABS (alternative bell schedule - 4 hour after school suspension) every Friday, I now lead the Student Literacy Team, and the University of Florida Inquiry Coach.  I'm still taking UF Master's classes and working on my ESOL endorsement too.



A few weeks ago Momma and Papa Beyer rolled through St. Pete for a weekend and we had fun.  Some Boilermaker chili made watching college football just perfect.  While Pat was working, the three of us headed to John's Pass and did some shopping and some wine tasting, but mostly some wine tasting. :)  It was a great weekend.


Just this past weekend Pat's parents came down to visit and surprised me with an early birthday get together complete with a birthday cake and singing.  I was a lucky girl and they gave me a gift, my new "beep beep"...you know one of those things that locks/unlocks your car for you.  :)


Brutus, well, he's doing just fine.  Although, he got bit by something this past week and looked a hot mess, covered in big bumps. Come to find out, he loves relaxing just as much as anyone else...


Overall, life is good...busy as ever, but still good.

New York to North Carolina...Road Trip!

It's been a long two weeks but Pat and I made it!  At the end of July (I can't even tell you what day it feels like it was so long ago) I drove over to Mom and Dad's to drop off Brutus.  He stayed with his grandma and grandpa for the trip since we couldn't take him with us.  He loves staying there.  Apparently mom dressed him up to keep him preoccupied.  Too funny.



I drove back to St. Pete and packed up for the big trip.  Pat finished his last exam of his didactic year (woo hoo!!) and after dinner we headed back to pack up the car.  We left bright and early for New York.  Our friend Erik was getting married and Pat was the best man.  We meet Erik in Gainesville a few years back.  It took us 19 hours but we finally made it to New York around 1 a.m.!  Friday we ran some errands before heading out to the rehearsal dinner which was delicious.  We headed over to Zach and Kelly's house to have a few drinks and play some cornhole before heading to the bar.  There we lost Dan, one of the groomsmen.  All that was left was a lonely can of Pabst where he was sitting.  After wrangling up the groomsmen we headed back to our hotel where we found Dan!  Apparently the allure of McDonald's and a ride home were pretty appealing.  Saturday was the wedding and the ceremony and reception were both beautiful.  Erik's family were so incredibly sweet and his friends were such a trip.  We had so much fun with them.  We had a riot at the reception playing the "pebble" game with the boys and dancing our butts off.  Unfortunately after the reception we couldn't hang out since we had to get up early and head off to North Carolina.


We were on the road by 8 the next morning and cruising down to Duck.  Pat's parents and sisters were already there.  We arrived safely by 7ish Sunday night and were happy to sit down and eat a meal with the family.  Elizabeth, Kim and Darren's daughter, has really gotten talkative and she's so inquisitive.  We spent the next few days laying out at the beach during the day, playing games at night, and eating delicious meals.  The boys went golfing on Thursday and the girls went shopping.  By Friday we couldn't believe how fast the week went.  We headed out for dinner our last night there.  After dinner we headed up to the upper most deck of the house to snap some pictures.  Early Saturday morning we headed out back to Mom and Dad's to pick up Brutus.  We spent the night hanging out with them and having a few drinks before heading to bed.  A quick but yummy breakfast at Mulligans was in order before we finally started our last leg of our journey. By Sunday afternoon we were home.




53 hours in a car total!  Don't get me wrong, I love road trips...but I love being home with my hubby and my pooch even more :)

Pretty as a Picture

When Pat's school held the golf outing and silent auction we ended up with so many prizes that some never received any bids.  Toward the end of the auction we opened up the bidding to a new starting minimum of $5 per item for all items left without bids.  There was a mad dash to certain items but I gravitated toward a photo shoot.  I scored a one for $40 on a river in Tampa and it was the quickest photo shoot I've ever been to.  Brutus almost jumped in the water which is unusual for him since he doesn't like to swim.  I know it's just Pat, Brutus, and I but I thought it would be something fun to do and get the whole "family" picture thing accomplished.  Today they sent us the proof for the picture we chose to have put on canvas and I think it turned out great.  I'm hoping for two minor touch ups and then once I give the final okay they'll print it!  Can't wait! 

Fishy Update!

The two Dalmatian Mollies have had babies!  There are at least six little ones (that we can count) swimming around in the tank!  Happiness!  Here's hoping they all survive!

Happy 1st Anniversary to Us!

Pat and I recently celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.  The past year has been full of ups and downs and the quite certainly the busiest and most stressful year of our lives.  While we couldn't afford a big get away to celebrate we opted out for a smaller get away.  

Saturday afternoon we dropped Brutus off at aVIP (a "cage free" boarding kennel).  Then we headed down to Clearwater Beach to check into our hotel.  Our room overlooked part of the Gulf...it was beautiful.

We headed down for dinner at Jimmy's Fish House which was right on the water too.  
 

After dinner we walked to the to the Tropics Party Boat for a sunset cruise.  Because of the weather forecast a lot of couples apparently had canceled but it ended up working out for us because it was a nice, fairly quiet, boat ride.    




We headed back to the hotel and relaxed the rest of the night.  The next morning we walked to breakfast and stopped at the beach for a moment. We decided we missed our pooch and checked out to go pick him up.  Once we got home, Brutus was happy to wear his dad's lei from the sunset cruise.

Finally, Sunday night after dinner we dug into the top layer of our wedding cake.  Pat was less than thrilled but he manned up and tried some of the cake.  It wasn't half as bad as either of us thought!  But...we still threw it out.

Happy 1st Anniversary to Us!

Tampa Bay Times Interview

Well, it wasn't much more than a simple mention of Dreams by Design Events, but a mention in the major newspaper nonetheless.

I found it on the main page of the Tampa Bay Times website and was happy that the reporter didn't make the bride out to be a huge penny pincher.   However, from the rash of comment that have already accumulated the general public isn't very happy about her method of paying for her wedding. 

I, on the other hand, have already received an email from another wedding vendor in the area looking to work with me when it comes to future events.  Fingers crossed that there are other events to come!

Step in the Right Direction

So it's no surprise that I'm a little O.C.D. when it comes to most things in life...  The older I get the more I want to use my powers for good!  I started Dreams by Design Events back in December in the hopes that before the value of education dropped so low that my pay was based off 8 hours of my students' school year that I could have a successful small business doing something I truly enjoy.  Boy was I wrong...the lovely Rick Scott passed the bill and teaching has taken a turn for the worst in Florida.  However, Dreams has taken a step in the right direction.  A friend of the family offered up some advice while I was in New York to take up Twitter.  I did so grudgingly and found an account named BuckforaBride.  This bride was looking for ways to do her dream wedding on a small budget so I started following her account and then she followed mine...  I eventually offered my services for free and she accepted.  It was nothing big to me until she emailed me saying the Tampa Bay Times would like me to attend her interview about being a frugal bride and using social media to get help.  YAY!  I went downtown today and met with both Yolanda, the bride, and Susan, the reporter.  It was great and I can't wait to attend the wedding and see this amazing wedding alllll put together!
  

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!  
Pat and I have had a great weekend so far spending time with Jeff & Ali, our friends from Gainesville.  They came down Saturday morning and we made our way to the Pas-a-Grille Beach in St. Petersburg.  It was a gorgeous day out and the beach wasn't over crowded.  I certainly waited too long to put any sunscreen on and am currently paying for it.  We came home, ordered some yummy pizza, and watched the UFC fight before crashing.  Sunday we headed to Channelside to grab lunch at by far the most interesting restaurant I've ever been to called Stumpf's.  It was a mix of horribly corny music, 70's inspired decor, and some type of pirate ship theme.  Then we headed over to one of the coolest places down there called Wet Willies which is basically an alcohol infused slushie station.  Pat and I split the most delicious Bahama Mama slushie.  Late last night, Pat and I were able to just lay on the couch and watch a movie...something we don't get to do too often anymore.  As for today, the actual 4th...we don't have any plans.  Pat is busy studying and I suppose I should find some work to do as well while I cuddle up with Brutus.  Looking forward to next weekend when we can get a little more beach and a little more time alone to ourselves for our anniversary weekend!


More Pictures as Promised!

Here are some more great pictures from my weekend in Buffalo via Momma Beyer!  :)  
 If you couldn't tell, I was miserable it was so cold, but Uncle Tom made me a fire!