2 Months to Go!

I'm really bad at updating this...sorry!

As the title says - 2 months until the wedding! This weekend we're working on finishing up all the invitations. I don't know how we would have gotten then all made without my parents who were here in January. Whie my parents were here I had 2 days off school and Erin had 1 day off work because of a freak snow storm we had - we have had CRAZY weather this year and are now looking at being in school until June 28th! This week I am also going in for my first dress fitting - very exciting!

Erin and I are planning to go look at houses next weekend. We were supposed to do it last weekend, then this weekend, but we've been too busy. Assuming we get all these invitations done and mailed out on Monday, we should have some time next weekend. Erin has found a lady who is going to rent out his condo and she is moving in in 2 weeks, so he's having to move his stuff into my little apartment. Hopefully we'll be able to find something we can afford that's a bit larger than my apt!

School has been very crazy with all the days off. We're finally kind of getting back into a routine, but we will have a week off Feb 19-23, so I'm sure the kids will get all crazy again. Erin and I are going back to KC during that time to finalize a bunch of wedding stuff. I know everyone says that your 1st year of teaching is your hardest, but I'm now convinced the hardest is your 2nd year because you end up volunteering for all these committees that you didn't have to do your 1st year.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Christmas and New Years

Well, I'm not sure how many of your heard from the news, but we had some CRAZY weather here in Seattle recently. 2 weeks ago we had a huge windstorm that left 1.5 million people without electricity. Erin and I somehow lucked out as everyone around both our apartments were without electricity for days, but we never lost it. We had 1 day off school because so many schools were without power. Then there came the rush on gas...so many gas stations didn't have power that the ones with power had HUGE lines. Then those gas stations started running out of gas. We ended up having to not drive my car for 2 days and just take Erin's because it still had gas. Many people were without power for almost a week! Pretty much it was a compelete mess!

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a great Christmas and New Years! Erin and I went down to California (right outside of LA in Orange County) over Christmas. We had a great time there. It was great to meet all of his extended family - I must say they are a bit wilder than my family, but all seem very nice. It included my first ever 9 holes of "real" golf. Check out my amazing golf swing:

On Tuesday Erin and I went down to San Diego. We went to Old Town and to Sea World. I think we saw almost all the shows you could at Sea World. Neither of us had been there since we were little, so we both had a great time, but agreed that we were pretty sure Sea World had changed a lot since we were little. Here's a picture of me touching a sting ray:

For New Years we were going to go down to Portland to spend it with Erin's sister, Erica, and Erica's boyfriend, Scott. We decided, however, that maybe we should just stay here and relax a bit more before work starts up again. Also, we're a little afraid of the traffic on Monday! So, I think we're just going to walk down to the point by my apartment and watch the Space Needle fireworks. That way there's no driving involved!!

Hope everyone is safe and having fun wherever you are!!

Class and Jobs

So, it's been awhile since I updated here. It started out that the beginning of the school year was crazy busy. Then some stuff started happening and I wanted to see how everything was going to turn out before I put an entry up.

So, first my class...this year is turning into a complete wild one in my classroom. I just have 2nd and 3rd grade this year, but I have some pretty tough kids (some have already been suspended.) The counselors are working with a few of my kids to try to figure out their behavior issues. Some of the kids seem to be getting better - but most days are rather tiring (that would be one way of putting it.) I am thinking that next year I will start to work on my Master's Degree. Down the road I'm considering being a college prof in a teacher ed program. First step is a Master's Degree, though, so I'll start working on that and see how it goes.

The year also started with me coaching with Swim Seattle (the club team that Erin is the head coach of.) There were a number of things that happened, but bottom line is the team will be closing in December. That meant Erin had to find a new full time job and rather quickly. This was quite stressful with the wedding and looking for a new place to live and everything else. He ended up getting a job with a company, Sylvia's Swimwear, that supplies swimsuits, equipment, and sweatsuits to teams in the Seattle area. In the end Swim Seattle closing in Dec may have been a blessing in disguise because Erin was already planning on leaving Swim Seattle at the end of the season - we kind of decided it would be nice for him to have a "regular" job so we could have nights and weekends together! This job with Sylvia's would not have been around this summer if he had waited until then to look for a job. Plus, it would have been really hard for him to leave the team. The team closing has been hard on him too, but I think he's doing better now that he has a job lined up.

At the beginning of the season we had a swim team get together and they did a little wedding skit with Erin and me - here's a picture:

Vacation

Hope your weekend is going well! We got back from vacation on Sunday night and now I'm frantically trying to get ready for school, which starts in a week and a half. It sounds like I should have plenty of time, but between teacher meetings and this last week we could only be in the school until 3 p.m. - it really feels like time is going quickly and I'm not getting enough done!

The vacation was great although we felt like we were really busy through the whole thing and didn't get quite enough time to just relax. We were trying to pack a lot in since we were traveling all the way to the East Coast and who knows when we'll do that again. We started in Charleston, SC and spent about a day and a half there - which was plenty since it was so hot and humid!! We toured the city, which we decided was the quintessential southern town (we really felt like we were almost in a different country it was so different than Seattle or Kansas City.)

Then we went to Surfside Beach (just south of Myrtle Beach.) Surfside Beach was great - the water was just the right temperature and we stayed at a great resort, but we decided Myrtle Beach is not so great, Erin described it as a redneck version of Vegas without the gambling. There was just a bit too much neon and airbrushed t-shirts! After that we went to the Outer Banks in NC and also had a great time on the beach there. I think we could have used a day or two more at both of the beaches to really be able to totally relax. In the Outer Banks we also visited Roanoke Island where the Lost Colony was and the site where the Wright Brothers flew for the first time.

From NC we drove up through VI and stopped to visit a cousin of mine in Charlestown, VI where we toured James Monroe's house and Thomas Jefferson's house. That same day we drove up to a town outside of D.C. where we stayed with cousin's of Erins. We toured D.C. for two days - went to all the monuments and to 4 Smithsonian museums (Natural History, American History, Air and Space, and Holocaust.) D.C. was great, but of course while we were there the whole London terrorist thing happened, so that was a bit unnerving.

After D.C. we went up to NYC and stayed with Erin's cousin. We had a great time there, except Erin's cousin's apartment had an infestation of cockroaches. It would have been one thing if the place was clean and his cousin was really apologetic about it, but the place was a complete mess and he never mentioned a thing about all the bugs crawling around!! Boston was our last stop on the east and, like Charleston, we just walked around the city - got to see a lot more of history. We flew back through Denver and spent a few days in Colorado with my cousins and my family, who were also out there.

So, all in all, it was a great vacation. We both decided, though, for our honneymoon in Maui we're just going to relax on the beach...no trying to fit all this stuff into a little bit of time. What was nice aobut this vacation is the only place we had to pay for lodging was in the Outer Banks, all the other places we stayed with either family, friends, or in Myrtle Beach Erin's mom was able to trade around their time share and get us a room at the resort. We also got to see so much that neither of us had ever seen.

Swim Team and Wedding Dress

My sister came into town over the 4th of July and we went wedding dress shopping. It was pretty laid back and we found the dress on the 1st day! It was less expensive than I thought it would be, so that's a good thing too!!

Oh, and on the topic of wedding - we have a wedding website - gotta have that!! It's www.erinandsuzanna.com. The password is: SuzandErin (it just has a password because apparently wedding supply people look at these websites and try to send you "wedding spam" stuff.)

My sister left on the 4th. Erin and I walked down a ways from my apartment and watched the fireworks over the bay. It was really nice because we had views of a number of different firewords shows, plus it was within walking distance, so we didn't have to deal with traffic.

Swim team just has a few weeks left - mostly of championship meets. We are getting pretty ready for it to be over. There are parts that we have really enjoyed and other parts that really stress us out!! The day after the season is over we leave for our 2 week vacation, which is MUCH needed.

ENGAGED!!

Well, Erin and I got engaged on Wednesday (sorry it's taken me a few days to get this post up, but things have just been crazy!!) He told me we were going to have a dinner on the beach. He had a cooler and when I looked inside the cooler there was a dozen roses and the ring. He tried to get down on one knee, but I was too embarrassed because there were so many people around, so he just kind of sat and asked me to marry him (I said YES, obviously.) Then a limo came and took us out to eat at Anthony's - a restaurant down on the waterfront where we had our first date.

Here's a picture of us right after her proposed (Erin's squinting into the sun...so he looks a bit odd :)!!)

And here's a picture of the ring. We went engagement ring shopping together a few weeks ago and we both really liked this one. Erin went back and bought it later - I love it!!


We've set the date for Saturday, April 7 (the day before Easter.) We know maybe it's a bit weird to have it the day before Easter, but that's the first weekend of my spring break, so then we can have a bit of a honneymoon and we're hopping it actually makes it easier for some people to travel. The wedding will be in Kansas City. Of course, you are all invited and I'll have to get updated addresses!!

We've already starting planning some stuff - lots of fun, but a bit overwhelming at the same time. Thursday was the last day of school, however, so that frees up a bit more of my time. Summer swim team is fully underway, though - we just had our first meet on Thursday.

I hope you all are having a great weekend!!

Field Trip!

My class took a field trip on Friday to the beach. It was a program through the Seattle Aquarium - it's free!! We went to the beach with scientists and they showed the kids all sorts of animal life in the tide pools. Erin was a chaperone for the trip - he did a great job with all of my wild kidos. Here's a picture of some of the kids looking at a moon snail laying eggs:


And here's a picture of one of the many starfish we saw - I had never seen them so big!!


Not much else too exciting. Erin and I start coaching the summer team next week, so my life will get much busier again.

Less than 6 weeks of school now...in some ways it seems hard to believe. Cally (my friend in Florida) only has 2 weeks left!! I've gotten 2 new kids over the past 2 weeks, so even though there is not a lot of school left things are still changing in my classroom.

Erin and I had a fun trip down to Oregon (although I wish Abby and I could have gotten together!!) Meeting his parents seem to go well and we stopped by Mt. Rainier National Park on our way back to Seattle - we got to walk in the snow a little up on the mountain. We also took a short, overnight trip across the bay to Port Orchard a couple weekends ago because Erin had a swim meet over there. It's a nice ferry ride over, so we had a good time.