Last Year of School

I started school last Wednesday and am so excited because it is the last real quarter of school I have left. I know I still have 3 months of student teaching left starting in January but I am so ready to be done with homework!

I have been working and volunteering in a kindergarten class and I absolutely love it! I can't wait to have my own classroom full of kids. Hopefully it's not too far away!

Six Weeks

It has now been six weeks since John and I were married. A lot has happened since then and we have been incredibly busy and blessed.

I had to go straight back to school the Monday following our wedding so we were not able to go on a honeymoon right away. I finished my quarter at school and was pleased to find out that I had received straight A's again. I also had to take the WEST E test the weekend after John and I were married and received the scores 2 weeks ago that I had passed that also...thank goodness because I didn;t want to take that again!

John has not had to go to school since June so he has been working very hard and making sure that we are well provided for considering that I can only work during the weekends.

Unfortunately, 3 weeks ago, I found a lump in my right breast. I went to the doctor's straight away and she said that while it was probably a cyst, I still needed to have an ultra sound done. The ultra sound determined that it was actually a tumor, so I had to have a needle biopsy to find out if it were cancerous or not. This test turned out to be inconclusive so I ended up having to have it removed completely. This was fine by me since I no longer have to worry about it. I was very relieved, however, when I found out this week that the tumor was not cancerous at all.

This picture was taken a couple of days after surgery but the day before all of the bruising settled in. Thankfully, it is doing much better now and there is no bruising left. This surgery did take place 4 days before our honeymoon began but luckily did not really slow us down at all.

We left on our honeymoon last Monday to Victoria B.C. and it was absolutely amazing! We left on the Victoria Clipper from Seattle at 7:30 am.

We arrived in Victoria and checked into our hotel which was absolutely beautiful! Once we were settled in, we went on a Hop-On Hop-Off Bus tour which was a lot of fun. They gave us a tour of the city and told us the history of many of the buildings that we passed. We also went to the Wax Museum that day which was a great experience.

The next day, we went to the Royal B.C. Museum and got to tour the Treasures Exhibit, along with the rest of the museum. It was incredibly informative. That same day, we used the Hop-On Hop-Off tour bus to go to Craigdarroch Castle which was gorgeous! We also went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night and went to see a street performer. While we watched the street performer, I was called up as a volunteer and juggled fire...sort of:)

We also went on a carriage ride that night. It was so fun and very romantic!

On Wednesday we pampered ourselves and John got a massage while I got a facial. It was so much fun! If they weren't so expensive, I would get one once a week. That day we also went to the Butchart Gardens Illumination Tour. I don't think that I have ever seen anything so beautiful before. We got there early enough that we were able to see the whole garden during the day as well as lit up later in the evening. We had such an amazing time and were even fortunate enough to see a meteor shoot across the sky while we were sitting in the middle of the gardens.
On Thursday we went Zip lining in an area about 45 minutes outside of Victoria. We had so much fun getting to "zip"from tree to tree and picking up speed. At one point, we went on a 1000 ft stretch that was 150 ft above ground! We saw some amazing views and met some great people.

On Friday, before we left for home, we went whale watching and stumbled across 2 different pods. I think in all we saw about 25-30 whales. We even saw 3 jump straight out of the water so that all that was left of them in the water was their tales. It was a magnificent sight!


Once we got back from whale watching it was time to leave for home. On the way back home, our ferry came across a nuclear submarine being led out to sea by the Navy. It was quite a site and not one that I will soon forget!


We had such a great trip and did so many fun things that we can't wait to go back again sometime soon!

It has been the one of the busiest times in my life, but I wouldn't trade one minute of it! (except for maybe choosing the officiant that married us) Our wedding was absolutely amazing and didn't go exactly as planned but was still great! I'm just excited to see how the pictures turned out! Living with John is fantastic but is a little hard to get used to since I have only ever lived with my parents. He really is a fantastic guy though and I know we will be very happy!

I love being married!!!!!!

Last Night Home

Tonight is my last night at home as a Meredith. I will sleep in my bed tonight and when I leave tomorrow I will not be coming back to this house; the house I have grown up in. I will be returning to live with my new husband in an apartment.

It will be exciting to see where life takes us...

Nostalgic

It is funny that as my wedding day approaches, although I look to the future with my new husband, I also look to the past with fond memories. I have been remembering some very good times from my childhood and sometimes miss it very much. I miss not having any responsibility and not knowing what stress even meant. I miss getting summers off and not having to work or go to school. I miss just getting to play soccer and worry about school.

But then I think of the life I am getting to live and the places I am going and I get excited. I know everything has piled up lately and I have been completely overwhelmed, at times feeling like I am drowning in responsibility, but I can see the finish line. I am almost at the end now and just feel an overwhelming urge to be done for a while. After this weekend all I need to worry about is school and work and being the best wife I can be.

I am so happy with where I am going but at times I can't help but look back and remember where I came from.

End of the Quarter!

John and I have finished our finals and ended spring quarter on a high note. For the 3rd quarter in a row, John and I have made the Dean's List. This means that we have made the year long Dean's List. We are both ecstatic about this as it seemed like an especially long and arduous 3 months. John was really stressed because he had a very full load but he was very successful.

Fortunately, we have our wedding to look forward to which is only 16 days from today. Our engagement party is also this weekend and I am so excited to get my family again! My Aunt and Uncle are so great for throwing it for us and I have 2 fantastic cousins that I am so thankful for!!!

We will get back from Oregon just in time to go back to school on Monday...

Done!

I am finally done with Spring Quarter and I couldn't feel better! This was a really tough quarter with work and the wedding planning needing to get done but I finally finished and am ecstatic! John and I are both done now but while he gets the rest of the summer off of school, I only have 10 days until I have to get back into it.

It is going to be a really busy time though. In just over a week is the engagement party that my fabulous aunt and uncle and two of my brides maids are throwing me. I am so excited to get to see my family and have John meet a lot of them for the first time. then in 23 days I will officially be married a I don't know how I could possibly be any happier. And while I don't get to go on a honeymoon right away because of school, I do get to go on one in August to Victoria, Canada. This is such a busy time in my life but I have to remember to sit back once in a while and just enjoy because I will never be going through this again. Sometimes I really have to remind myself of that when I am feeling overwhelmed and am ready to just throw in the towel. I don't think I could have gotten through all of this if it weren't my family and my future in-laws. Thanks guys!!

Irritation!

The final for my science class was to create a portfolio of work that we have done over the course of the last 6 months. I spent 6 or 7 hours putting this whole portfolio together so that it was ready for my presentation. I presented my portfolio to my teacher and in the end my teacher didn't even take it or look at it. I am highly irritated that I spent so much time on an assignment that no one even looked at! Thank goodness I only have one final to go; then I have a week and a half break until summer quarter starts!

Wedding Plans

Life is pretty crazy right now. As of today there are only 69 days until the wedding and it still feels like I have a million and two things to do. Fortunately, we got most of the boys out fits done. John's suit is completely done and looks fantastic on him. We also got shirts and ties for all of the boys. Anibal's suit needed to be re-altered because they didn't take the waist in enough. Ryan was just fitted for his yesterday and Jake, John's brother, was fitted for his a few days ago. Hopefully they will all be ready to pick up on May 9th. We just need to get shoes for them now.

I'm pretty much leaving the flowers in mom's capable hands. While I think that flowers are pretty, I in no way know what I am doing when it comes to picking them out or talking to florists. Luckily, between my mom and the florist that we are dealing with, I think that everything will look great.

My dress is currently being altered and will be ready for me to pick up on May1st. I'm so excited to see it on when it fits correctly!

I have now sent out just over half of the invitations. I hit a sticking point when it came to stamps and now have to wait until tomorrow to pick more up. The people who live close to me were fortunate enough to be given a hand delivered invitation that has a bow on it. If I were to send the invitations with bows, then each invitation would take 4 stamps to mail. My inner cheapness came out at this point and I decided that there was absolutely no way that I would be paying that much. So to fix it, I had to undo all of the bows that I had tied and turn them into just a strip of ribbon with a little embellishment on it. This took for ever because I had to re-cut all of the ribbon and hot glue it in place. At least I am done with the gluing process and it is just a matter of stamping at this point. Thank goodness!

There are many other details that I am trying to work out but I think I have done enough talking for one post!

4th File, 4th Photo

So I was reading Megan's blog and getting some insight into what it is like to become a mother when I got to her next post and saw that I had been tagged. I perused through my folder and was worried about what picture I would have to post but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was one that I absolutely love! It is not very often that our family gets a good picture of Anibal smiling but this just happens to be one where he is wearing a huge smile! It was taken on Christmas Day of 2007 when we were all gathered as a family. I love both of my brothers so much and I am so thankful for their love and support!

Suits!

Last weekend was a very exciting step in the right direction for our wedding. The boys finally got their suits ordered and two of them have even been fitted. As of right now, John and Anibal have both had their suits fitted just for them and are being altered as we speak. Unfortunately, they didn't have Ryan and Jacob's sizes in stock so they had to special order them. They will get fitted once their suits have arrived. This was also a monumental day because my mom finally met John's dad and my brothers finally met John's brother Jacob. Everyone seemed to get along really well and my mom really liked John's dad. Thank goodness! I love both my family and my new extended family and I'm so happy that they seemingly get along so well!

Pay Off Continues!!

So I found out about a week ago that I got straight A's and it really was a wonderful feeling. But I just found out yesterday that John got straight A's too! Between the two of us, that is nine 4.0's!!! It is one thing for me to do well but it makes it even better knowing that John did well also! I'm so proud of him!!!!

The Pay Off!!!

Those busy days have payed off because I just got my final grades and for the first time in my college career, I got straight A's! My GPA for this quarter was a 4.0! I didn't think this was possible at the beginning of the quarter because I had 5 classes but I proved myself wrong (thank goodness) and aced all of my classes. I can only be thankful for breaks between quarters because I was at the end of my rope with a long drop at the bottom.
Now I can look forward to next quarter which will hopefully be a little less busy since my wedding is getting so close. I was able to put wedding planning on the back burner last quarter but I do not have that luxury anymore since the wedding is only 3 1/2 months away.
In preparation for our impending marriage, John and I have gotten an apartment that is close to both of our families and to school. It's very exciting because it is a first for both of us. We get to move in on April 18th but only John will live there at first. I will move in with him once we are married. We'll see how it goes!

Busy Days

It seems like the days are just flying by right now. Between school, work, and wedding plans there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. To make sure that John and I stay in touch with our families, we have designated different nights of the week to different family members. Monday night is dinner with John's mom and family, Wednesday night is dinner with John's dad and family, and Saturday is spent with my family. What with my night classes and John's day classes, if it weren't for these weekly dinners, we would never get to see anyone and we would probably be very hungry. And just to make sure that John and I have some time alone, he and I have set aside Friday nights as our date night.
As you can see, we are extremely busy! Luckily, we just got our wedding invitations in yesterday so we have a while to work on them before we have to send them out. The invitations turned out beautifully, even better than I expected. Unfortunately, the ribbon that looks so great in the pictures, that I thought came pre-tied, is actually something that I have to do. And you would think that because it came with directions it would be really easy. Well you would be wrong. The directions tell you how to get the ribbon lined up evenly but the part that would actually be nice to have directions on is the part that it skips over. It very casually says just to tie a bow once you have the ribbon in place and expects that you can do this. Well, they just don't know who they are talking to because when I tried to tie a bow, it ended up sideways and looked nothing like the picture! Thank goodness for my mom who showed me how to do it right! Obviously, I have only done 1 so far because that one took me 15 minutes to do. Only 124 more to go...

The Dean's List!

This may not seem like such a big deal to some people, but to me, it is very exciting! I have always done alright in my classes but nothing ever really impressive. Since I have been dating John, he has inspired me to work harder and to not accept mediocrity on anything I do anymore. I have been working much harder and my grades have definitely improved over the last year. Well last quarter was a big change for both John and me because we both started going to new schools. He started going to the University of Washington and I started at Central Washington University. Unbelievably, I just found out that all of the hard work and countless hours we spent on homework and class has paid off and we BOTH made it on the Dean's List for our respective schools! YAY for us!

And as a side note, we found our invitations but they were definitely not from the Paper Zone!

Wedding Invitations

I have been having the hardest time finding the perfect wedding invitations for my wedding. I have looked at all of David's Bridals selection and none of them seem to fit. I have also looked at Costco and other online wedding invitation stores and nothing seems to be what I am looking for. I have ordered sample invitations from several different places and I haven't really liked any of them yet. I'm excited though because John and I are going to the Paper Zone this weekend in Tukwilla to look at more invitations. These invitations are going to be more difficult because we will have to make them ourselves but from the different ideas I have seen, I think we may have finally found the store! Hopefully this is it!!!

My True Color

Orange

You're a bold, confident orange. A warm, powerful color that indicates a strong, welcoming personality, orange is the mark of people who are social and extroverted by nature. Vibrant, with an upbeat attitude, you have a bright, inviting demeanor. Energetic and fun-loving, you're a real friend-magnet. Your easy charm and unassuming manner make you the sort of person people want to meet and get to know better. Well-rounded and fun to be around, you enjoy helping others, so it's no surprise that orange also symbolizes attraction. Orange is an extraordinary color — for an extraordinary person.

Food Tasting

So last weekend, I was able to go to my cousin Nick's wedding reception in Pasco, WA. The reception was beautiful and it was so nice to see everyone and to meet my cousin's new wife Cris and her wonderful family. It was especially fantastic to see my cousin Marcus whom I will not be seeing for quite some time.
While we were in Pasco, my parents and I went to do a food tasting for my wedding reception. I had no idea what to expect because obviously, I had never done one before. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and the overall atmosphere of the restaraunt. Everyone was so nice and were so willing to answer all of our questions... and there were a lot! And at the end of the food tasting, they packed all of the extra food and sent it home with us. Which of course we forgot at my grandparents house!

So the menu goes like this: Chicken Dijon
Beef Tips
Cheesy potatoes
Greek Salad
Italian Pasta Salad
Green Salad
Fruit Display

Hopefully even the pickiest eater can find something to eat!