Happy Leap Day!

Or what's left of it! This month seemed to go really, really fast! I know that it's a "short" month, but it still seemed to fly by. I'm kinda hoping that the next 7 months don't go by as quickly because there's a lot that I want to do/get done between now and October (not all wedding-related things) and I would like to be able to sit back and enjoy some of them!

Back to the Leap Day thing: it's weird to think that people who are born on or get married on Leap Day only actually get to celebrate a "real" birthday or anniversary every 4 years. I know that each year still counts, but it would be weird to have a 16-year-old tell me that they're 4, or something like that. I wonder if they get asked the same questions whenever someone new discovers that they're a Leap Day baby?

So far, so good

5 days into Lent and I haven't had any pop/soda and I've only had fast food once, but that was just come Captain D's on Friday since I couldn't have meat & didn't feel like cooking or eating another tuna sub from Subway. I allow myself to get Captain  D's during Lent because I don't eat it very often (usually only once or twice during the whole of Lent) and since it's fish, I don't really enjoy it, haha!

I'm hoping that giving up fast food and pop/soda now will help me to at least cut it mostly out of my diet until after the wedding. Hopefully I won't really crave it after the next 35 days or so are over, anyways. That would be helpful, too!

Lent season

It's Lent time again. This year, I'm giving up pop/soda and fast food again. I'm hoping that once I make it through Lent without these things, it will make it easier for me to abstain from them until after the wedding, possibly even longer than that!

Broken car...

So, last night my tie rod breaks on my way home from Family Video (thankfully it's only a short distance from home!). But I couldn't get my car back home, so I had to have it towed to an auto shop. Well, that guy never got back with my Mom when she called his cell/sent him a text, so I called another shop first thing this morning.

When I heard back from him, he told me that when they looked at it, they discovered that not only was the tie rod busted, but also the ball joint (or something like that). So, that adds a few more $$ to my estimated total. When he called me back to tell me the estimate on the part (I guess they have to replace the whole arm? or something), he told me it would be $500 before tax for a used part and around $700 before tax for new...that doesn't include labor costs.

I guess that when Edith decides to be "sick", she goes all out! So, probably a good-sized chunk of my tax return will be going to that now. I really didn't need any help figuring out what to spend it on this year, I swear. But apparently someone thought they would give me a hand with that, haha!

Ohio Early Care & Education Conference 2012

I'm attending the OEC&E Conference this April. I'm excited to attend the workshops (unfortunately I can't attend all of the ones I was interested in because the times overlap) and hopefully come away from it knowing more than I did before (which should be easily accomplished because I'm planning to attend workshops on things I don't know much about yet). I'm really hoping that I can learn some new techniques for planning/classroom management so that I can feel more organized and prepared each day! Overall, this conference is going to be a good thing. I just hope that I've picked workshops that will pertain to my age/group.

Oh, and while I'm in Columbus for those 2 days, I plan on taking advantage of being in a big city! It won't be an "all business" trip!

Valentine's Day!

I was totally surprised by a beautiful bouquet of flowers at work today! I was totally not expecting them but they brightened up my day! Jake knows me so well! I didn't get a single rose, but I did get lilies, irises, carnations and daisies! Love it!

Don't wanna go back...

to work. I feel like the weekends are always too short lately. I wish that the work week was only 4 days long. That would be awesome! We technically have next Monday off, but we have a mandatory in-service training to attend from 8-2, so it's not a full, work-free day. And after that, I don't think we have another day off until May! Yikes! Thankfully I'm taking a mini-vacation down to Florida the 1st weekend of April for a friend's wedding, so I'll get a small break. It would be great if we had a 3-day weekend every month, though, to make the weeks a little easier to handle.

Bella Gourmet

That's the name of the company who's schpeel we had to sit through in order to get the 3 day/2 night hotel stay. We didn't actually get a meal, as I had thought we would, but we did get to taste some food that was prepared right in front of us. Jake and I ended up orderings some pots/pans & knives from them. We're hoping to get them in the next couple of weeks!

Presentation

Tomorrow's the day of the 90-minute cookware presentation that Jake and I have to sit through in order to get our vacation package. I've heard that they cook for you during the "show" so at least that's something. I'm just not looking forward to giving up an hour and a half of my evening on a work night. I like to come home and relax after work. But, at least we don't have to worry about making dinner that late.

Went pseudo-antiquing...

And found some cute stuff! We went to Casa Chic downtown so that Jake could show me the writing desk that he put on layaway there. While we were in the store, we decided to look around for some bird figurines to use for our cake topper and we found a set of really cute ones. Jake's mom is going to add a little bit of red to the breast of the "boy" since they're supposed to be robins. Other than that, they're perfect!



I also found this really cute basket to decorate for the flower girl. I'm going to get some pretty ribbon and some sort of fall decor (leaves, acorns, pinecones, etc) to put on the handle. Other than that, I think it looks really nice and it won't need too much decoration.

I was so glad that we found the birds because I was afraid that we would have to go to Hobby Lobby or something like that and end up spending a bunch of money just for the figurines. We got both birds and the basket for what I was expecting to pay just for the cake topper! I think that's a great deal!

I actually won something?

I got a call this past Wednesday (and Thursday) about having won a vacation package from Bella Bridal Network (I signed up for this at the Lima Bride on January 8th and forgot all about it). I found out that I have to sit through this 90-minute presentation on some cookware and then we get a 3-day, 2-night trip out of the deal. If we were going somewhere outside of the U.S., it would be an "all expenses paid" trip, but we're looking for something inside the States, so they would only cover the hotel (apparently it's illegal for them to offer "all expenses paid" trips in the U.S.?). But still, if we could have the hotel/cabin/whatever paid for, that would knock off a significant chunk of our honeymoon cost and we could afford to go somewhere a little nicer. So, I think we'll be sitting through the presentation on Tuesday so we can get some more info on the trip and where all they will let us go. :)