Memorial Day Weekend

What an awesome weekend! Mick and I just returned from my sister's home in Southern California. We left Friday after I got off work and just got back here a bit ago. It was a fun-filled weekend.
Saturday we slept in a bit (something I treasure!) and played with my niece who gets smarter every time I see her. She is three and at the "why?" stage. After I finally got out of my pajamas, Mick went with me to the cemetery where my maternal grandparents are buried. My mom had asked us to go and put flowers on their graves. It was set up beautifully for Memorial Day with flags on the graves of everyone who served in the armed forces, and so my grandparents both had a flag. It was emotional, telling grandma all of the changes in my life since I last saw her. Meeting Mick and getting engaged, getting ready to move away. But that's all sad talk, let's move on... Then we went and met my best friend, Tabatha, and her husband Remy for Hangover 2 and sushi. It was a very fun night.

My wedding band.

Sunday we spent hours at the mall. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets then wandered around, mostly looking for a wedding band for me. We didn't really find anything that worked great with my engagement ring or that I just had to have. So we headed back to the house. Then I was whisked away by my sister BACK to the mall for a marathon shopping trip to find a dress for the engagement party she and my mom are throwing for me and Mick the weekend before we fly out to England. My sister is an awesome person to shop with. She grabs EVERYTHING and just makes you try it on, even if you don't like it. I ended up getting a very cute pink, satin dress that I never would have tried on if she hadn't made me. We also looked at wedding bands at Macy's and found one I liked. Then we had dinner at Taco Bell and headed back to the house where we found Mick and my brother in law playing a third round of The Lady Bug Game with my niece. She wanted to play more after, so I played a game with her. She's so, so smart and I want to spend as much time with her as I can before I leave.
This morning I drug Mick back to Macy's so he could see the ring. We ended up getting it. The photo on top is the one we ended up getting, more or less. I couldn't find a photo of it on Macy's site so I had to find a similar one somewhere else. The second is a photo of it with my engagement ring. I'm still working on figuring how to move photos in a post so be patient with me please!

My band and engagement ring.

After the jewelery store we headed back to the house for a shower and to pack up our stuff. When we walked in the door I got a big hug from my niece and she told me she was going to miss me when we left for Yuma. I told her we'd be back in a few weeks for five whole days, which made her very happy. I haven't had the heart yet to tell her that after that I won't see her until next spring. My sister's boss was having a Memorial Day BBQ so we headed over to their house for about a half hour to just say hello before we hit the road. We grabbed some lunch and off we went! After 6 hours, an accidental detour, spilling gas on my foot and making the car smell we made it home! Not quite ready to start the work week, but it's a busy week with appointments and packing and cleaning, so I might as well get it all started!
Hope you all had a great holiday weekend :)

5 shows a day, 180 days a year

I love the bit of time I have each morning from about 5:20am to 5:45 am. It's my time to eat breakfast, read/watch the news, and just think (and often freak out) about the day ahead- teaching 8th graders. Teaching middle school is a tough gig, especially two and half weeks from the last day of school. I stole the title for this entry from a fellow middle school teacher. "5 shows a day, 180 days a year." It's a grueling performance schedule. The apathy I see in these kids about their education, respect, behavior... pretty much everything, astounds me. I mean, yesterday, I literally engaged in the following conversation with a 13 year old.
"*student's name* you need to be following along."
"We're just reading a book. What did anyone ever learn from a book?"
I was literally speechless. But mostly I was sad for this kid.

Now don't get me wrong. A lot of these kids are fantastic. On more than one occasion I've asked a parent, "what did you do to get your child to be this way? I just want to know for when I have my own someday!" It's been a really difficult year for me. It started off pretty good, but then I went through some personal/health issues, and I tried really hard not to let it cut in with my job. I'm seeing now, though, that it probably did.That's okay though," 'e lives an' learns," as good old Del Boy would say (I'm making a reference to a British tv show. Google "Only Fools and Horses" if you want clarification). Teaching is a forgiving job, but I'm beginning to learn that a teacher isn't forgiven her mistakes for oh, ten months. And I'm not talking about the administration or anything, because they're normally really great at working with you and providing you with whatever resources you need. I'm talking about those moments where we see as teachers "oh, I shouldn't have done that...."

Moving on, though. Mick and I have an exciting adventure coming up in a few weeks. Apart from packing all my junk and throwing even more away (any of my local friends wear a size 9 shoe? I'm getting rid of loads, let me know!). We booked our trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. We're going to be spending one night in Williams, Arizona and then making the little trek up to Vegas. Mick is adamant about seeing the Grand Canyon before he leaves. He's been quoted numerous times saying "I can't spend 6 months in Arizona and not see the Grand Canyon!" Fair enough, darling. To be honest, though, I'm more excited about Vegas! We got a great deal on a room at the Luxor, and considering my nerd-tastic obsession with Egyptian history (even the Vegas cheesy take on it), it worked out very well!

We also have a mini-adventure this weekend. We're heading to my sister's in Ventura County for memorial day. She's taking me shopping for a dress for the engagement party and I'm taking family photos of she, her husband and my gorgeous niece, Ella. We leave tomorrow after work and I can't wait!

27 days until we go to England! Ohhh, I have so much to DO!

Up, up and away!

I've been "blogging" since before "blogging" was "blogging," but at a personal location over at opendiary.com. Now, however, since my life has begun to take some form of interesting, I decided to take it public. And global, seeing as how my life is now being extended into the global scene.
Numbers and days- this is what my life is driven by. Let's look at some of these numbers and days in the past few years and how they've brought me to today. Just the highlights mind you.
Spring 2004- Mick and I began speaking in a web forum.
Summer 2006- I bought a ticket to go see him in England.
November 2006- That all fell through.
October 29, 2010- Mick sent me a letter basically bringing everything back.
June 24, 2010- I flew to England and met Mick for the first time. What was meant to be a two week trip became a one month dream.
July 25- December 19, 2010- We spent a very difficult 5 months apart.
January 5, 2011- Mick came back with me to spend 6 months in America.
April 27, 2011- Mick asked me to marry him. I said yes.
May 17, 2011- My marriage visa was issued.

And that pretty much brings you up to speed. You'll learn more about Mick in the entries to come, and how we came to be. So here we are, engaged, in love, and 28 days from moving to England to start our lives. Twenty eight days. In twenty eight days I am moving to another country across the ocean, completely removed from everything I know and the people I hold most dear. I'm elated. I'm excited. I'm terrified and I'm sad. But mostly, I'm enthralled.

So this will by my place to come and deal with anything and everything. The trials and tribulations of fitting nearly 25 years into 3 suitcases, saying goodbye to my family, my spiritual spine. It will be where I come to vent my frustrations about being a newcomer in a country and learning the ins and outs. It will be where I tell you all about the life my other half and I will build.

I hope you're ready for an adventure, because I sure am.