this time of the year...

So.... it's Christmas break. And I couldn't be happier. Other than the fact that I still have approximately 15 MILLION things that need to be done before we leave tomorrow. Like doing laundry (i'm not sure how two people can generate so much clothing that needs to be washed in one week, but whatever), and tidy the house, and clean out the car, and PACK, and load the presents, and put away the christmas tree, and you know all the other millions of things that I'm sure i'll find that i need to do before tomorrow morning.

but i'm excited. today it kinda started to feel like christmas to me. i went into town to pick up my wedding dress! drop off bags upon bags upon bags of stuff to the goodwill, picked up some picture frames for the parent's engagement pics, got coffee, listened to christmas music in the car... it was enjoyable. kinda a crazy day, but enjoyable.

and i can't wait to see both of our families. it's going to be great. and go by far to quickly. but it's still great.

and can i just tell you that i recieved possibly THE sweetest gift from one of the parents of a kid in my class? she crocheted jamie and i an afgan. yeah. a christmas afgan. i nearly cried. i have some really great parents in my class. :)

One more day

One more day and we are on our way home.

I think the hardest part of the year (at least the year to date) has been the three weeks since Thanksgiving. College was great, you get back, a week of classes, finals and done. It was the perfect schedule. But this? Yuck! The kids are ready to go, I'm ready to go, I can't start anything new, the kids don't want to do anything its just a battle. I have also discovered that adding to my list of people I don't like (mainly stupid people) I have a new category...stupid parents.

One class has been exceptionally good though, for the past week I've been teaching my World History girls Latin, and we have caroled to the elementary kids its been a good time, and something that I am definitively going to do again.

For anybody that is remotely interested in our schedule:
We leave tomorrow from a wrestling tournament hopefully about 12
We'll be in Arkansas till the 26th when we leave for Louisiana
We leave to head back to Arkansas on the 31st
I'm going to be in Oklahoma at a lake the 2nd and 3rd
And then the 4th we're headed back to Colorado.

Cheers, and happy Christmas.

Sore

I've been working out with a couple of friends for roughly a month now. We intend to keep it going for as long as possible. I'm not really working out for any reason other than I know that it's good for me and I LOVE how i feel after i work out.

We are doing this circuit work out. Basically, we have all of these different exercises and we start out with a high weight and only do 5-7 reps, then we lower the weight and do 10-15 reps, and then we lower the weight one more time and do 20-25 reps. And let me tell you it's hard! I'm constantly sore! But i love it! I know it's working and that makes me feel good as silly as it is. We are going to do a weight loss workout in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to that as well. It's fun. And I figure it can't hurt since I am, in fact, getting married in less than 6 months now!!! :)

a few random things...

1. i got a snow day today. it has been wonderful

2. i am making my first attempt at cooking a pot roast in the crock pot today. you can't really mess up something in the crock pot, right?

3. i use lysol antibacterial wipes all the time. i'm kinda of OCD about them actually. after i cook i ALWAYS wipe down the whole kitchen with them. always.

4. we have our christmas tree up. it's kind of a charlie brown tree. it's small. but it's a tree. which is something.

5. i have never seen this much snow in any winter in arkansas... ever.

6. i finished ALL christmas shopping and wrapping about 2 weeks before thanksgiving. amazing. i know. probably the only time in my whole life that it will actually happen.

7. only 7 more work days until christmas break. i can't wait.

8. when i was little, the one thing i looked forward to as being a teacher was grading papers. it's possibly the least favorite part about my job.

9. some of my co-workers might come to our wedding (which is in AR). they are pretty amazing.

10. jamie's birthday is on friday. last year on jamie's birthday, i was at a coffee shop working on a paper. he was their going on a date. with another girl. i like to remind him of this often because i think it's quite amusing. :)

Christmas

It doesn't feel like Christmas.

I've been trying to figure out why this is the last few weeks. We have the Christmas tree up and decorated. Shopping is done and presents are all wrapped and under the tree. We have snow. It's cold. I made Christmas cookies and candy yesterday. All you need right?

Wrong.

I think I've finally figured it out.

1. I've never experienced a Christmas time outside of Arkansas. Ever. In my life.

2. I don't have any of my friends around that I associate Christmas with.

and 3 (here's the big one)

I'm not near my family. And this is the one that I think gets me. I'm so used to being near my family and things that are familiar. As odd as this is one of the things I miss the most is the familiarity of Arkansas. I mean, when we were home for Thanksgiving I knew all the back roads to take and all the fun places to go and I saw more people at the mall that I knew in one day in AR than the whole time in CO. I miss that. I miss being comfortable. And I want it to feel like Christmas.