Book recommendations?

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going on vacation in a few weeks. My parents and taking my sister and me on a cruise to the Caribbean. We've been there numerous times, so we'll actually be spending a lot of time on the ship relaxing - exactly what I need! My sister and I usually play a game or two of Scrabble a day. (Yep - we're dorks like that!) I'm looking for some book recommendations, though, as we also do a lot of reading.

I tend to read a lot of "chick lit" books. I definitely don't want anything too "hard" (for lack of a better word). As you all know, I'm stressed, so I just want some easy reads. Any good books I should check out from the library?

Ah!!

Sometimes I hate being a female. Tonight I started to almost cry over the silliest thing! I think it's a combination of hormones, stress, and being tired. I cry really easily when I'm stressed out. I just feel stupid crying over ridiculous things!

Parent-teacher conferences are next week - that's a BIG part of my stress. We have to have report cards done by Monday to give to our principal. While the snow days we've had were nice, we are behind on things, including testing the students in reading. Conferences are Tuesday and Thursday night. Two nights out of my week taken up - more stress! I have a wedding Saturday, so that's taking up time. On Friday (we get off due to being at work for over 12 hours Tuesday and Thursday) I have to pack to leave on vacation on Sunday. Stress again! I am not a light packer. It's a big ordeal for me - a long list, many hours of work...

Unfortunately, I can't make it to a game night with some friends on Saturday. It's our first one, so I am super bummed about missing it. I already have 2 Saturdays taken up in April (Engaged Encounter and a harp job), so I'm worried I won't be able to go again!

I cannot wait until my vacation. I seriously need some time to sleep and relax. Between two jobs (teaching and harp) and planning the wedding, I'm honestly surprised I'm not crying more!

Weight loss :-(

I was doing really well with losing weight the past couple of months. I've kind of hit a standstill, though. Not a plateau in my weight loss so much, but in my mind. I guess I just got tired of it for a while! I really need to get back into the groove. I definitely want to be healthier, thinner, and more toned by my wedding in October.





I even got these cute new running shoes:

I plan to start the Couch to 5K program ( http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml )

Does anyone have any motivational tips to get me back in the health groove?

Also, any advice on taking up running?

Project Runway

My sister and I missed the Project Runway episode from last night, but caught it tonight. Christian Siriano was named the fan favorite. He cracks me up! This video is quite long (almost 10 minutes) but there are definitely some funny parts early on.

(Sorry - I can't figure out how to get the video actually in the post.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u74A7iehaQY

His favorite word is fierce. He often says "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna die" or something very similar to that. He blowdries his hair everyday and flat irons it. He definitely has a bit of an ego, but is really funny.

I can't wait to see his line on the season finale.

Cookie bouquet

A reader (from CA - I didn't know anyone in CA read my blog!) requested a picture of the cookie bouquet. I didn't actually get to see it. I ordered from Cookies By Design. They have a shop in St. Louis. The bouquet should have looked something like that. I only ordered 5 cookies, though, since we're both watching out weight!

Randomness...

Oops! I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted on here. Sometimes I forget since I post things on STLWed that are similiar to what I post on here.

- Today is another snow day!! This is our 4th this year. Considering it doesn't look that bad out, I was shocked to be called at 6 AM (while I was blow-drying my hair) to be told we don't have school. There's already a thin sheet of ice which is making it dangerous. We're supposed to get a mix of snow/freezing rain/ice throughout the day and some overnight. We're thinking we'll probably be off school again tomorrow. This means that we have lost 4 days of our 3 week spring break. If we're off tomorrow, we will be going an extra day at the end of the school year.

- We decided to change the bridesmaids' dresses from short to long. They are exactly the same style and color - just longer. The hope is that my sister and cousin can get the dress cut off after the wedding so they can wear it again.

- We hired a band for the reception! I'm very excited to be having the Charlie B. group. They will also be playing some of the songs that Fantasy plays. Fantasy is the same group with the addition of a female singer. My mom, sister, and I prefer male singers.

- I have also hired a trumpet for the ceremony. It will sound so great with the organ!

- This weekend is going to be great!! I actually have NOTHING on my calendar on Saturday and Sunday- no weddings to play at and no consultations with brides. It is extremely rare for me to get a whole weekend to myself! I'm supposed to go to a G&C night tomorrow night, but we'll see how the roads are. I'm excited to have today and this weekend to get caught up on some things - mainly cleaning. I hate to clean, but I have been putting it off because I've been so busy lately.

- I'm hungry! The bad thing about snow days is I get hungry because I'm not on my normal school schedule. It's so easy to just eat everything around the house!

Valentine's Day (revisited) and wedding planning update

For some reason, my photo is blurry. The tulips on the right are what my FI sent me at school for Valentine's Day. The hyacinth on the left is from my secret pal. Both are beautiful!

FI is in the kitchen right now cooking me a special (belated) Valentine's dinner. I offered to help, but he said no!

In regards to the wedding - this week I booked my trumpet player (only $70!) for the ceremony. I can't wait to walk down the aisle to Trumpet Voluntary with the trumpet and organ. It's so regal sounding! I also decided on a band and emailed to ask a contract to be sent to my dad.

Next on the wedding "to do" list - Save the Dates and transportation. Right now the plan is to send out the Save the Dates over my spring break which will be in March.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We're not celebrating today because FI has his Catholic class tonight. It's ok - I can use some quiet time. The kids were really wound up today because of the Valentine's party. FI is planning on cooking me dinner on Saturday to celebrate.

FI did send me some beautiful tulips in a really unique vase. It's kind of rectangular and red. I also got 3 roses from one of my students - so sweet!

Since we're not spending the day together, I wanted to surprise FI with something. Flowers would be too girlie for him so I sent him a small cookie bouquet.

It is REALLY wierd to think that next Valentine's Day, I can buy a card to my husband!

Cookies!

I'm a part of the Secret Pals group at my school. My Secret Pal gave me some beautiful flowers and chocolate covered strawberries today. Yum!! I was inspired to make cookies for my Secret Pal, as well as give her a few other little things for V-Day.

So, I went to Wal-Mart. It's always nuts there. I much prefer Target, but Wal-Mart was on the way home. I would prefer to make cookies from scratch, but really didn't have the time for it tonight. Plus, I thought it would be nice to make 2 batches, so I could give some to my sister (as thanks for going all over the area to go dress shopping with me), some to my parents, and some to my colleagues in 2nd grade. I bought the cake mix and a few other ingredients while at Wal-Mart.

The cookies didn't take long to mix together, but it took a while to bake them all. They turned out quite yummy! I used chocolate cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter (melted), 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1/4 c. packed brown sugar.

I think they would be really good with white chocolate chips. Unfortunately, I thought of this once I was home and it was too late.

I saved a few cookies for FI, but not too many. I sent him a small cookie "bouquet" that he should get tomorrow. Plus, we're both watching our weight, so we don't need many!

My dream dress!

I finally found the dress of my dreams on Saturday! I would describe it and put up a picture, but I don't want FI to find it. I'm so excited that it's exactly what I wanted. I am a bit sad that I won't get to go dress shopping anymore! My sister is happy, though, that I won't be hauling her all over St. Louis looking for a dress.

Hopefully this week I will be putting down a deposit with our band and booking a trumpeter for my ceremony. We're (well, my sister is designing them) also working on the Save the Dates so they can hopefully go out in early April at the latest.

Random things...

Tonight's post is some random bits...

- Google Reader- what a cool idea! Now I don't have to go through and check each blog to see if it's been updated. Very cool.

- I'm better! (well, mostly) My fever went away by Sunday morning. I'm still a bit stuffy and have a cough. However, I am tons better compared to about a week ago when I felt completely miserable.

- I think I might have found my dress! We're going a few more places this weekend, but there's a Lazaro dress I absolutely love. It's so sophisticated and elegant - just what I'm looking for (oops - ended with a preposition!)

- Tomorrow night is our first Girls' Night Out! I'm looking forward to spending time with some ladies I already know and meeting some new people.

Have a great weekend!

Still sick :-(

So, it's 9:30 pm on Saturday evening. I am STILL sick! It has now been 2.5 days that I have had a fever, sore throat, headache, and incredibly stuffy nose. This stinks! I'm getting antsy having been in the house so long! I'm worried that I'm still going to have a fever tomorrow night, and I'm going to have to start calling subs. Then, I'll have to go up to school at 6:30 am on Monday to make my sub plans. Definitely not fun!

Anyone know any good cures for a fever, etc.? I've tried Tylenol/Motrin, Theraflu caplets, throat spray, Tylenol severe cold (supposed to help with fever, sore throat, and stuffiness). I've been drinking lots of liquids and getting lots of rest. Not sure what else to try! I hope you all had a more interesting weekend than I did!

Update...

Update to the Engaged Encounter situation: I guess the whole "no refund" thing applies only to cancellations, not rescheduling. Thank goodness! Otherwise, there were going to be a lot of sick people there, because I am not going to be out $235 for something I can't control! We rescheduled for the second weekend in April. Thank goodness I do not have a wedding that weekend!

I hate being sick!!

Yesterday, I started feeling a little yucky. So, while my kiddos (students) were at recess, I asked the school nurse to take my temp. 98.1 Not a fever, she says. For me, that's slightly high - my temp is usually about 97.6. I was feeling a bit achy/shaky. By the time I got home 3 hours later, my temp had spiked up to 101.4!!! Yikes!! I took some Motrin and slept for a few hours. My temp went down to 99.4. Unfortunately, it's still at 99.4, which is almost 2 degrees high for me.

My throat is also pretty bad, and I'm coughing a lot. I sound horrible! Not so sure I'll be calling places today to get price quotes for wedding things!!

Thank goodness it's a snow day today so I don't have to go make sub plans. The worst thing is I am supposed to go to an Engaged Encounter this weekend. We have to be in Belleville (not exactly close to St. Charles) by 8:30 tomorrow morning! I looked at my sign-up and it says we will only get our money refunded if they can find another couple. Now, I'm sorry ....but that's BS. I cannot help it that I have a fever!! Do they want me to get everyone sick? Guess I can come and cough on all of them!! I'm going to be pretty ticked off if they won't just apply it to another weekend. It's not like I want to be sick, for goodness sakes! I'll let you know what they say...