Holidays

The holidays were a success. You can read more about them on the Christmas pictures 2006 page. We got a lot of great stuff, mostly things off of our registry, which is great. I don't think we'll need anything by the time the wedding is over. Aunt Joyce gave us a whole bunch of Christmas decorations, which is exciting, and my mom gave us a bin full of fluffy bath towels, and also some holiday towels and kitchenware. She made me an apron with gingerbread men on it too that is really cute! We got 5 of the games we registered for, so we've been playing a lot of games on our week off. Its so nice that Eric works for a school and my boss works for a school so we both get holidays off. We don't get a lot of time together during semesters when he has work all day and class every night. I'm really enjoying getting to just hang out all day together. I'm also updating the Wedding Plans page now so go check it out!

Party

I had 6 out of the 8 bridesmaids over tonight, we went to Uncle Rick's so they could try on their dresses, shoes, and jewelry. It was really fun. Then we came back to the house and tied ribbons on 250+ bubbles. Amazingly, it only took 45 minutes! My girls are the best. Meanwhile, Eric was out with a few of his guy friends, and added a couple more groomsmen to the list. Only 192 days to go...which seems like a lot, until you think that its only 27 weeks from this Saturday...then it gets scary.

Half way

This weekend will be the halfway point for Montessori Training! Its going well, although I'm not thinking I want to work in a school right away...I really love my job and can't imagine leaving them, and Laura said when I start having kids (which will be a little while) I can bring the baby with me, so I don't have to worry about daycare. So I'm going to get certified but probably won't be teaching anytime soon.
Sam announced last month that she's pregnant, she was afraid I would kill her because she's due 6 weeks before the wedding and probably won't fit into her bridesmaids dress but I'm really excited for her. Today is the first day of her second trimester! She'll get to hear the heartbeat at her next appointment, so she's really excited about that.
Pioneer Club is going well at Church. I teach 8-12 year olds. I usually have 2 boys in my class, but yesterday I had 4 boys! Its really fun. I also lead the games at the end for all of the kids, which is fun too. We played a game a few weeks ago called Spinach where you ask someone a question like "what do you eat for breakfast" and the person has to answer "spinach" without smiling or laughing. The kids thought it was hilarious and are still playing it. Their favorite question for me is "What does Eric look like?" Spinach!!!

Photographer

We met with Mike Greer Photography, it is actually just Mike and his wife who run the business. We are really excited because they do everything we really wanted in a photographer, we can get then for nine hours with unlimited locations, unlimited digital pictures, they design the coffee table style scrapbooky kinda thing (you just have to see it), and they were very friendly and seemed very easy to work with. We don't want to rush into getting a deal with the first photographers we meet but our data is VERY popular and comming up soon. Check out his website and let us know what you think but we have a good feeling about them.

Time Flies

September just flew by!!! I've done 3 Montessori weekends, only 13 more to go! We've been learning the Montessori Philosophy, Child Development, and Everyday Living which is a section in a Montessori Classroom about cleaning, food preparation, and basic needs like zipping, tying, and sorting and stuff. I really like it but we only have one more day of that before we move on to Sensorial. This coming weekend I am one of the snack suppliers. There are 45 people to feed 4 times during the weekend, so I'm going to Costco this week. The drive isn't so bad anymore, its always worse going home because I just want to get home so the drive seems to drag on.
Saskia came in yesterday, she's staying for 2 weeeks. My mom's family was over last night for September birthdays, so it was a pretty crazy weekend.
David loves preschool, and I'm getting used to a much quieter house on the days he's not there. Kaylee still takes a morning nap so its a weird feeling to not be watching any kids. I get to help out with the laundry and other cleaning stuff though so I don't get bored.

Update

We are going to meet with a potential Photographer tomorrow night, I am excited to see what he has to show us. Time is getting a little bit short so I am a tiny bit nervous about finding a good Photographer, but this guy was open...In school news, I only need two more classes to finsih my CIS degree now, but one of them is offered at the same time as a class at Walsh =( It looks like it is going to take me a bit longer to finish my CIS degree than I had thought before, but that is OK. For the Winter Semester it looks like I am going to be taking Professional Communication and Interpersonal Communication. The Profession Communication is online thankfully =) but the Interpersonal Communication class is on Friday nights =/ At Walsh I'll be taking Business Information Technology Architecture on Tuesday nights and Software Engineering I on Wednesday nights. If everything goes right at Walsh I'll be done there after the Winter '08 semester, and depending on when they offer Data Structures again and if it is on a night that I don't have to be at Walsh. That's all for now!

Dresses

My mom and I picked up the bridesmaids dresses and my gown. Aunt Laura is letting us keep them in her closet, which is sooo nice because then I don't have to worry about keeping them safe.

Success

My first Montessori weekend was a success! It took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there, which really wasn't horrible. There are 42 people in the class, and only one of them is a guy. I'm the youngest person there out of everyone I've met so far, there are a lot of older people who already work at Montessoris and are just getting certified. There is another girl there that is 21, and she and I drove to the Lenawee County Fair on Saturday night after classes, just to get a break from sitting and studying and being around nuns all weekend.
The school year is coming up fast and I am looking forward to going back to work every day. This year will be a little different because David will be in preschool 2 days a week, so I will get a lot of one on one time with Kaylee, which I'm excited about. She's at such a fun age. She has enough hair for a little pony tail on the top of her head, and the other day I was even able to do pigtails.

Graduated!

I am done with my ABA at OCC YAY!!! I finished Stress Management and The Bible with A's brining my final GPA to 3.849 which is still .011 away from Summa Cumme Laude, but that is ok, I can still try for that with my CIS degree. For that I have registered for two more classes this Fall at OCC. I'll be taking JSP and Internet Security on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I have tonight and then next week for the final at Walsh for my on campus class and the online class finishes on September the eleventh and I am excited for that be done. I am all registered and set for next semester at Walsh, I will be taking Business Process and System Engineering on Monday night and Information Systems Security online. I talked to the program director and I mapped out the next seven semesters so I should be all set to finish my Bachelors degree in the Spring of 2008!

Wedding rings

We went to Jared to look at some wedding bands and we ending up getting them already =) I never thought I would have ended up with mine, it is a white gold band with a brushed band in the middle, and in the middle of that band is 7 small diamonds. Yes, my ring is going to have diamonds, but it actually looks really nice, and I could not have gotten luckier with 7 stones. We also got Jasmine's ring, it is a white gold band with 5 round diamonds (bigger than mine, and if you add up the diamonds on her engagement ring she has more diamonds than I do, so it is ok) in the middle. They were able to customize it a bit to add in knifed edge to the band to match her engagement ring. They look awesome!

Fabric

On Thursday I went to JoAnn Fabrics with Eric's mom, Amanda, Anya, and Asia. We looked at dress patterns for the flower girls, and picked a style we liked, and then let Anya approve it and decide on the sleeveless version instead of with sleeves. Its simple, and should twirl nicely, which is very important to our flower girls. I'm glad they were able to help with some of the planning, since they haven't been able to be here for a lot of it.

Oriental Trading

My future sister in law Amanda is in town this week, and she brought an Oriental Trading catalogue that has all kinds of cute stuff for Wedding favors and stuff, and its all really cheap! We asked Anya to be a flower girl yesterday, we wanted to ask her in person so we had to wait a long time. We Asked Amy a few months ago. Eric's mom said she would make the dresses, so now we need to find an easy pattern. I just want something simple. Just a plain white sun dress, that twirls when they spin, and that they can hopefully wear again.

My First Montessori Weekend

This weekend is my first Montessori weekend! Something is going on in Adrian and every hotel in the area was completely booked, so they are renting little rooms on campus to us for $45 a night. Hopefully the drive won't be too bad. Mapquest says it should take about an hour and a half to get there. I don't like driving so far but at least I don't have to do it at night. I have to be there at 2pm on Friday for Orientation, then Saturday morning from 8-10 I will learn about the Montessori Philosophy, from 10-12 and then 1-5 I will have Everyday Living, which will have material presentations and hands-on practice sessions. Then on Sunday from 8-10 we have Philosophy, and from 10-1 Everyday Living, then I get to go home! The first few weekends will probably be less interesting since they are getting us into the whole Montessori thing, but later when it gets more in depth it should be more fun.

Hillside Forest

Today we went to Hillside Forest with my parents and Eric's mom overseeing and signed the purchase agreement. We're official now!

Adrian Dominican Montessori Teacher Education Institute

Today in the mail I received my letter of acceptance to the Adrian Dominican Montessori Teacher Education Institute!!!! I need to get my OCC transcripts sent over there, and get a bunch of books from the suggested reading list, and get 3 people to write letters of reference for me. Then I need to decide whether or not I'm going to do my student teaching this year or next year, I don't want to have too much going on this year with wedding plans and stuff. But I'm really excited I decided to do this!

Montessori

After talking to all of my go-to people, I decided to try to get into the Montessori program this year. I sent in the application last week and haven't heard back yet. I applied at the Adrian Dominican Montessori Teacher Education Institute in Adrian, Michigan. In this program, I go to Adrian every other weekend from Friday to Sunday and learn all about Montessori and teaching by Maria Montessori's philosophy. If I get accepted this year, my first weekend will be August 18th-20th, and my last weekend will be May 18th-20th, just in time for all of the wedding festivities to begin.

Condo

On Saturday, we made the first down payment on a condo in Farmington Hills. It is currently an apartment complex, but a condo company bought it. So if someone buys a condo, the person in the apartment is notified that when their lease is up, they have to move out. Then they tear down the inside and rebuild with all brand new stuff, that we get to pick. We get to choose types of flooring, cabinets, lighting, colors, everything. We are going back on Sunday to sign papers. We have a huge book to read before then about living there and legal stuff and mortgages.
It is a ranch condo on the upper level, and it is an end unit with a balcony that overlooks protected wetlands. There are 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
Some pictures of the model (with every upgrade imaginable so it won't look exactly like ours)

Planning

In some ways we are very far ahead in our planning...my dress has been bought, as well as the bridesmaids dresses, and bridesmaids shoes. We have the church, the reception hall, a videographer, and a caterer. But Eric has yet to ask his guys to be groomsmen, and we still need a photographer, among other small things. For those who don't know, or have forgotten, my maids of honor are Samantha and Janelle, my bridesmaids are Kana, Alex, Kelley, and Melissa, and my junior bridesmaids are Jaimie and Jenna.