~42~ Lame-O

It's probably no surprise to any of you, but I am pretty lame.  It's seriously been three weeks since my last post-and my efforts to get back in the blogging habit have failed.  Miserably.  

This past week I wrapped up round 2 of fall conferences, which went very well-but it definitely makes for a long and exhausting week.  Grad school is also going strong.  I'm currently taking a class about cultural and linguistic diversity in classrooms and how to best teach for those differences.  It's been a very interesting course so far and I am enjoying my learning.  It's hard to believe that after this week, it's already half over!

In addition, I've been eagerly getting ready for my Chicago trip next week.  I will be there from Wednesday evening to Friday evening taking in as much as I can about current math practices and resources to bring back and share with my schools and district.  I'm excited, but also a little nervous.  I just hope everything goes smoothly and that the NCTM conferences is everything that I expect/hope it to be. 

Aside from that, I have had some exciting things occur recently.  My cousin and good friend from high school both got engaged last month, and both have asked me to be a part of their weddings! I am so thrilled for them, and so excited to be included in their planning and festivities! I've never been a bridesmaid before (only a bride) and so this makes it even more exciting!  I have found that I really miss the planning and creative part that I loved so much during my own wedding planning, so to be back in the saddle feels good.  I have an AWESOME, but super secret project going on right now-which I will excitedly share once it goes live, but until then, it has to stay under wraps. 

Tomorrow, I promise to have a fresh new "Favorite Things" post.  

(*I have it all written, I just need to get pictures added before I publish it. *)

Until then, 

~40~ Where has the time gone??

 My dear blog followers, I hope that I haven't lost you over the past 2 months.  Honestly, where has the time gone?? It feels like just yesterday the bells were ringing on the last day of school and now here I am about finishing the 3rd week of the new school year.  Thank goodness for a long weekend to get caught up.  So much happened since my last post, and I will do my best to fill you in on all of the details.

*Our Anniversary*
When I left all of you, I was recapping our wedding in the week leading up to our anniversary, and then left you hanging.  For that, I apologize!  Jake and I had a wonderful and romantic first anniversary together-it will be hard to top.  We were still recovering from the expenses of a wedding, so we didn't plan anything extravagant like a trip, but I really couldn't have asked for anything better.  I had the day off and Jake took off work early.  I had planned our overnight accommodations with a suite at the Radisson (if you recall, that's also where we had our reception) and our next day activities, so I tasked Jake with making dinner arrangements.  After checking in and having a drink, we head off to dinner at a French restaurant downtown Des Moines that neither of us had been to, called Django.  I think I found my new favorite restaurant! We share a delicious fromage (cheese) and charcuterie (meat) platter with cheeses and meats from various countries.  Jake had a delicious pasta and I had beouf bourguignon along side a glass of pinot noir.  One of the cool things we learned about Django is that they let you BYOB without any corking fees.  We will definitely be taking advantage of that the next time we go.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed some complimentary drinks in the bar, our cake topper (which to our dismay did NOT taste good), and champagne that was given to us by Jake's dad on our wedding day.  We also opened each other's gifts.  I got Jake a new laptop to replace the dying one he had (he had no idea!), and Jake being the extremely thoughtful person that he is followed tradition-both old and new-and got me a crystal time piece to put on my desk at work, and a sterling silver heart pendant necklace, along with the artist's other work (paper).  The only downside to the evening was the lack of air control in our room, which made it uncomfortable to sleep, but the Radisson made up for it by refunding half of our room rate! Talk about great customer service!
The next day, we headed out to explore the Iowa Science Center since I had never been there.  We watched an Imax movie about the Hubble telescope, had fun playing around in the gift shop, and learned all about Mars.  It was no comparison to the MN Science Museum, but it was a fun day none-the-less.  Afterwards, we grabbed Zombie Burger to go and headed home.  A very successful 1st anniversary celebration indeed!

If you look REALLY closely, you can see my face!

Who's Rocket do you think flew better?

*A Superhero Birthday*
My BIL's birthday was in July, and I had seen a cake on Pinterest that was beyond perfect for him, so I gave it a whirl.  It was a Captain American theme using his shield for the cake design with an action figure cake topper.  I also designed a card to match, using the tri-fold shutter card template.

*Weddings*
It wouldn't be summer without weddings and this year, we attended 2 in July.  One of them was for close friends and Jake was a groomsman in it.  It was a beautiful and very fun wedding.  It's the last for a while in our circle of friends, so we made sure to live it up.

*Grad School*
On the same day that we celebrated our 1 year anniversary, I also started my very first class in my Master's program, which ended in  the first week of August.  Not only did I get an A in the class, but I actually got 100%!! I was so relieved to know that I can be a teacher AND a student. This past Tuesday, I started my 2nd class in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment design.  So far, I am enjoying the program and finding that it fits my busy schedule well.  I'm hoping that I will continue to do well amidst the demands of teaching, tutoring, and of course crafting, without too much difficulty.

Well, I know that was a lot, but that pretty much catches you up on what went on the past couple of months.  I hope to do better in the coming months, but I can't guarantee anything.

Until then, 

~31~ Freedom!

Happy (almost) summer to all of you!!  I am now officially on day 8 of summer vacation, and so far I'm loving it!  At lot has happened since my last blog post, so I'll do my best to catch you all up to speed.

**New Toys!
When I got my Cuttlebug a few months ago, I bought a "Daisy Quilling Kit" to go with it.  I however, quickly learned that I needed another type of plate-to make the die cut work.  I finally got the C plate a couple of weeks ago and wasted no time trying it out.  My daisy didn't turn out quite as nice as the example, but with some more practice, I'm sure I'll get there.  :)
I also got a score-board, used for scoring my folds a lot more precisely than I had been able to do previously.  This particularly comes in handy when making my shutter-cards.

**Jake's Birthday
Jake celebrated his 28th birthday on Friday, May 25 and continued well into the weekend.  Since Friday was my last day of work (woo hoo!), I was able to leave early at 3 and meet up with Jake, who had the day off.  We then headed to the driving range so that Jake could hit some balls at the range with his new b-day present (which he actually got a couple months ago)-a Driver.  We followed that up with a round of putt-putt, which I sadly lost.

After that, we met up with some friends and went to a new, trendy burger joint downtown Des Moines, called Zombie Burger and Lab,  where they make a bunch of unique/gourmet burgers that all have zombie themed names. They also had some very creative and amazing adult shakes. It was a fun atmosphere and very delicious.  One of the coolest things they had was a huge bar with over 130 different beers and the option of getting a flight of beers for only $9!  They served this on a wooden paddle splattered with "blood" and circle cut outs for the glasses.  After dinner, we headed to a new bar called, "Woolys", where they had some amazing live music.

**New Job
Well, kind of.  At the end of the school year, I was given an opportunity to join the Urbandale chapter of the National Educator Association.  I was currently in the process of applying for an NEA/Public School scholarship for my masters degree, and it seemed like perfect timing.  I volunteered myself to be the treasurer, and was elected!  This will definitely be another way for me to be more involved in our district.  Last week, I met with the union president and got everything transferred over.

**School Supplies
Last Wednesday, after dinner at Red Robin for the conclusion of Jake's b-day celebrations, we stopped by OfficeMax so that I could get a few supplies for my upcoming graduate classes that start at the end of June.  I was only planning on getting a few things, but walked out with much more! The best purchase was a new laptop bag at a steal of a price, thanks to the clearance section.  I was wanting something larger to replace my work-issued one so that I could keep everything in one place-my laptop, binder, school books, pens, planner, etc.  I spent last night getting everything organized-something I oddly enough LOVE to do!  Jake called me Monica from "FRIENDS".

**Cupcakes!
Last Thursday was my last evening shift at the Y for at least the summer, and I promised my coworkers that I'd bring in some cupcakes as a peace offering for ditching them.  I made confetti cupcakes in both standard and mini sizes with my homemade buttercream frosting.  You can get the recipe HERE.  I normally just frost my cake with a knife, but saw a post on Pinterest that showed how to create professional looking frosting using piping bags and tips.


The tip that I used worked out very well for the mini cupcakes, but not as well for the larger ones.  I need to get a larger one for next time.  I also got to try out some silicone cupcake wrappers that I had gotten as a Christmas present.  They worked out very well!

We have lots of exciting things coming up in June, that I will be sure to blog about, so be on the look out.  I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer-even if it hasn't officially started yet. 

Until next time,