What A Morning!

I am now (unofficially) Mrs. Jenna Winter!  I still need to change my name, but I am really confused of where I should start.  I know I can research online how to do it, and I will, but right now i am exhausted!  Not because of my weekend... I had a good weekend!  But this morning has been tiring.  I woke up around 5:45, got my computer out of the office and brought it to the kitchen table.  I wanted to make sure I had it up and running by 6 am.  That is the time Kidd Kraddick's morning show normally starts.  I had no idea what time it would start today, but I wanted to be ready just in case with Kidd Nation streaming live.  I was heart-broken, like so many people in America were this weekend, when I heard that Kidd had passed away at his charity event.  His show has been a HUGE part of my morning life for the past almost 20 years.  I do not know what the future holds for the show, but I hope his legacy lives on through Kidd's Kids.  Turns out the live show was not starting until 7, but I got to listen to many sweet/sad/funny memories of past shows until then.  

Well... right before Chris and Laura left for work, I fell.  Bad.  I had gotten up to do who knows what, and when I went back to the kitchen table to sit down I somehow didn't lift my foot up high enough to step over the computer cord and totally tripped.  I went down so hard.  I landed on my left hip and elbow mostly, but I am sore ALL OVER right now!  Not to mention, when I tried to turn on the light over the kitchen table today I broke a chair!  I don't have to explain to anyone that knows me how short I am, so it probably wouldn't surprise you that I can't reach most light strings.  I stood on the chair like I normally do, and SNAP!  The chair leg broke!  

My day did get better, though.  It feels good to have a good cry every now and then, and that I did.  It was very sweet listening to all the stories of Kidd, and while he will be missed it sure does seem like he lived a full life!  I pray for his family- especially his daughter, Caroline, who you could tell had an extremely close relationship to her dad.  I also pray for his coworkers who spent a majority of their time with him that they will find peace during this time.  All I have to say is this- if you could lose weight from crying, I probably would have lost a good 5 or 6 pounds this morning!

Anyway... while I was listening I spent quite a while filling out some blitz cards and product catalogues with my information for my itWorks! business.  I plan on putting more effort into this business because I feel like I could be extremely successful with it if I just tried!  I wrote on 42 blitz cards (I wrote on the other 58 this weekend) and filled out 51 catalogues (I did about 30 of those this weekend) and I feel very accomplished!  I am writing my name, phone number, and website (http://jennawinter.myitworks.com) on each of these things.  That may not sound like a lot, but I promise you it is! My niece, Madilyn, is even walking around neighborhoods with me and leaving these cards on doorsteps to help me advertise my business.  I walked with her up and down this street in my neighborhood this past Saturday where she passed out 59 cards (woohoo).  I know many of these cards will just be thrown away, but if I could get any customers out of this it would be totally worth it!  It was so funny too... as we were walking Madi goes, "I just don't get it.  You are paying me $10 an hour to walk around with me and watch me walk up to front doors?!"  Well it sounds like I am being ripped off when she puts it that way, but I explained to her I am more-so paying her for her company because it would be really boring to walk around alone!  

After working on my itWorks! stuff, I downloaded all our honeymoon pictures. A big shout out "TY" to Chris' coworker, Mark, who gave us a sweet wedding gift of purchasing our honeymoon pictures.  We definitely couldn't have gotten so many beautiful pictures without his gift! After reviewing some of my wedding vendors online, I received a free shutterfly photo book!  So, after downloading the pictures, I set to work on the book.  I know I got it for free, but man!  It is a lot of work!  It took me like 2 hours to get everything the way I wanted, but it will be totally worth it.  Check it out here:  Honeymoon

Now that I have been on the computer for the past 5+ hours my eyes hurt!  I am going to take a nap, then set to work on coupons!  BTW... I will def put up some wedding pictures... just not sure when... I feel like my summer is almost over already!

My Best Friends Wedding

Oops... I wrote this FOREVER ago!  Nic and Ashley got married March 2!  I wrote this the next week... I guess it is time to post it!

Ok, so maybe not my best friend... But the title is definitely fitting! Nic and I go WAY back. We went to elementary school together, so I have known him since I was like 6. In seventh grade, he "asked me out". Kinda funny because we were 12! Where were we going to go? I actually told him I would think about it. I told him yes a couple days later. He was my middle school boyfriend, and part of high school. We remained friends even after we broke up. He was always there, always funny, and ALWAYS honest.  We kept in touch when we went away to different colleges, and even ended up working together a few years later! We were both first year teachers at the first school I worked at. My second year there, he actually worked in my classroom for part of the day as my inclusion support. Oh goodness, I couldn't have made it without him some of those days! It wa a tough group of kids! Great guy. We used to watch the movie "My Best Friends Wedding" together almost every weekend... So, therefore, the title is fitting!

He got married on March 2nd in Arkansas, and Chris and I were invited! We decided to go, booked a room at the hotel they had reserved rooms at, and looked up directions on google maps. They got married at Ouachita Baptist University. My sister Kim went there, so I had been there before maybe once but totally did not remember the drive. Chris made the drive out there... I take that back, Chris drove the entire weekend! I was extremely grateful that he drove because I was so tired! I have so much going on at school and I am wearing myself out, so I was in no shape to drive to long distances! I tend to get tired while driving. I know that is not a good thing, but it is what it is. The drive was easy- long but pretty, high speed limits! We left Saturday morning about 7-ish and got there around 12:30. When we checked into the resort (on Degray Lake, I think it is a state park or something... It is RIDICIOUSLY beautiful)  the lady said we could check in early to a regular room or wait until 4:00 to get a lakeside view. We decided to go ahead and check in so we could get ready in time for the wedding that started at 2:00. We got ready quickly and saw Nic's mom, Janet, on the way out. I was surprised she wasn't ready yet, but didn't think too much of it. We headed to Walmart to get a couple things we needed then headed straight to the wedding chapel, which was about 25 miles away from the resort. As we were about to pull up, I couldn't get the thought of the mother of the groom not being ready so close to the start of the wedding, so I pulled out the invitation. It didn't start until 4:00! We had two options, either head back to the resort, hang out 20 minutes, then go back to the wedding OR find somewhere local hang out until it was time. We chose option 2. We found a little sports bar near by to get something to eat and have a couple drinks. On the way back to the wedding, I was so tired I fell asleep in the car. The wedding was beautiful. I was shocked there were so many people there I knew! The drive to the reception was another 20 minutes away, and again I fell asleep in the car! Needless to say, I didn't make it very long at the reception... Which sucks because I would have liked to spend more time catching up with everyone, but I was exhausted. 

We got to sleep in Sunday then get ready for the long ride back. Overall, it was a good weekend. Makes me even more excited about my wedding! And to Nic and Ashley, Chris and I wish you nothing but the best!

I Forgot I Had a Blog!

No, really... I forgot.  I haven't made a post in SO long that I just forgot!  I remembered about a week ago, and I've been trying to figure out what to share with everyone ever since.

I have been SO busy.  I know what you are thinking... wedding planning, right?  Not at all!  I have so many other things I need to do that I don't have much time to worry about the wedding!  Hopefully I will get to that soon.  I honestly have so much going on that I have 3 seperate to do lists going on right now.  I will break the rest of my post down according to my to do lists!

Wedding:  I already said I haven't worried much about the wedding.  I feel like I have most of the important stuff picked out.  Except flowers.  I haven't made a decision on flowers.  But, I have the venue... we do need to decide on what kind of food we want though.  I have designed a cake, picked a place to do it, and paid for it.  I picked my dress out a while ago and it already came in!  It fits almost perfectly... as long as I can lose a couple inches on my back (yes... my back) I don't think I will need to get it altered.  I have gotten my gifts for all my bridesmaids, my flower girl and ring bearer.  I have started picking out stuff to use for center pieces.  Chris and I already registered.  That was so much fun!  More for me than Chris, though.  We have dates set for a couple of the showers.  Save the dates have been sent (shout out to Pam Leach who took us out for a cold morning of pics to get the perfect save the date!).  I guess I will start thinking about invitations soon.  We met with our DJ last weekend to start thinking of songs.  Honestly, everything that is left are small details.  It makes me feel overwhelmed when I think about ALL of the small things, but I will take it one day at a time and get it done.  June will be here before I know it!

Home:  I have an actual to do list for things I need to do that don't fit into the wedding category and aren't work related.  I have been in the process of getting more organized upstairs in the living room that I sort of use as a craft room.  Chris calls it a crap room because of all my stuff!  We are still making pickles from time to time, but we don't have to as much because we have a decent stash built up already made.  I really need to do my taxes.  I have put it off because I need to get a copy of my return from last year (its on a computer that doesn't work at the moment), and I need to figure out all of my itworks! stuff.  Speaking of itworks!... I want to put more effort into it because I found out they are offering the G.O.O.D bonus again.  That stands for get out of debt!  If I make it to a certain point (which I am far from) I can get a $10,000 bonus to go towards paying off debt!  What an awesome company!  I went to an old friend's house last night to wrap her.  I had a really good time.  It was actually my second time this week to see her.  My 10 year high school reunion is coming up this year.  So, the class officers got together to start planning, and she was one of them.  It was really good to see everyone... I laughed a lot!  And we went to I Fratelli, which I don't go to often, so I really enjoyed that.  Their chips and dip are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I didn't think I would be planning my ten year reunion at the same time I was planning my wedding, but I also was voted class officer like 11 years ago!  I had no idea what I would be doing in 2013!  So, I got to see my friend, Lauren, again last night while I wrapped her.  I ended up staying longer than I meant to, which put me right in the middle of traffic (a SHUT DOWN highway) on my way home.  It made my trip home (which should have been 20 minutes) turn into a 2 hour trip!  I was so exhausted, I was almost falling asleep the whole way home!  I cried most of it too.  I just felt so helpless!  There was NOTHING I could do about the fact that I was traveling at 3 miles per hour! 

School:  This time of year is crazy busy!  I am getting ready for cheerleading tryouts right now.  Tryouts are next Wednesday.  We actually take every girl that tries out, but we still hold tryouts.  I am in the process of trying to get more girls to sign up!  We only have 4 that have turned in packets.  I am hoping for at least 12!  Wish me luck.  I also have taken on a HUGE task of filling in for our science department chair while she is out on maternity leave.  I was under the impression that all I was required to do was go to 2 district meetings that she would be unable to attend and bring back the info to the department. Saying I was wrong about that is an understatement!  I have had to miss a day and a half of school to go to trainings.  I have attended 4 meetings.  I had to plan out the planetarium field trip for the 8th graders.  I had to place our supply order for next year.  I am still in the process of getting the 8th grade teachers set on their station reviews for the STAAR test.  I was actually given a whole day off to work on this project.  It was greatly appreciated, but I still have a lot to do.  Next week is the last week of the 6 weeks, and I have a ton of kids failing.  That means I will have a ton of kids coming in to make up their grades.  I am helping out with Saturday School tomorrow for a teacher that is busy.  Oh well, at least I get paid for that!

Anyway, I'm going to do my best to make it through next week.  Hopefully I will get some sleep.  We are going to Arkansas for a good friends wedding next weekend.  Maybe I will get some ideas! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!