Weekend!!!

Cleaning like a maniac before work today. 

Friends are coming over tomorrow!

We are having a very belated Christmas dinner (as our first date was cancelled due to Emily's ACTUAL Christmas dinner.)

Very excited about this. 

But, our house sucks.

I'm also working on my unit for student teaching,

and it's going to be based on black history month.

I am learning so much about inner city schools already. 

I asked them if they had anything specific they wanted to learn about, and their response was:

"not slavery or dead guys, that's all we ever learn about."

I had never thought of it this way. 

But it's true. 

So, I spent about 2 hours yesterday looking up still living black men and women who had done something important or were heros of some kind. I found a famous neurosurgeon, first black man in space, first woman pilot to fly a fighter jet (that just happened last year, by the way), and the first black primary dancer for the NYC ballet (who went on to start the Harlem ballet company), among many more.

I am so excited about getting to share some positive cultural messages with these kids. 

I'm finally getting a view on what it's going to be like to be a teacher.  After all of these years of classes, and theory, it's finally here.

And I can't remember the last time I was this excited about something. 

It's without a doubt what I was meant to be. 

Oh, and I picked up my bridesmaid dress yesterday!

It's so gorgeous. 

I can't wait to show amanda tomorrow night!

It's been a good weekend so far. 

Which I desperately needed.

Glad it's here.

♥

2010, and looking towards the future!

I love the "year in review" blog that Naomi did at Rockstar Diaries.

I decided I wanted to do one, although I'm sure mine won't be as eloquent or detailed as hers. 

Not much happened in January, other than the fact that I worked until midnight on new years eve. Lame. But, we had had a rough year in 2009, and Jamie and I both had extremely high hopes that this year would be better. 

In February, we went to Olive Garden (an old fave) for Valentine's Day.

In March, my cousin's son Jackson was born, and I had my bridal shower!

 We celebrated Jamie's 26th birthday in april, and I finished block I, which felt like a miracle.

May was the big one. I had my bachelorette party on the 15th, and became Mrs. Rutan on the 29th!

We celebrated with our honeymoon in June, and my parents got the latest member of our family, Dexter, who has grown a lot, and become so special to all of us!

Baby Dexter

Dexter now
 In July I chopped 7 inches off my hair, Jamie and I took an impromptu camping trip, and we lost his Nan.

In August, we took a "one last hurrah" trip to Chicago, and school started again.

In September, Jamie and I sang at his cousin Bradley's wedding, and worked to adjust to our crazy schedules.

We celebrated Halloween in October, (and by celebrated, I mean passed out candy.)

November held my 22nd birthday, for which I was called onstage at my favorite bar and serenaded, and also my very first visit to the ER. 

And in December, we celebrated our first married Christmas. 

It's been a year to remember. Granted, it's been hard, trying to juggle school and work, but there have been so many blessings. I am looking forward to next year, and praying that it is just as good. 

I wish the same for all of you, 

and I hope you have a happy new year!

♥

Christmas of 2010, continued...

I had a really great Christmas with my husband and family, 

even if I did have to work. I love Christmas.

I have been asking Jamie for a new reptile pet, preferably an iguana, for several months.

He has been adamantly against it. But..

 was okay with a fake one, that I found in my stocking Christmas morning.

 Minnie spent the morning cuddling with daddy,

 and getting a bone!

Emma just wanted to play with the wrapping stuff.

 Jamie got me this awesome cookbook!

We went to my parents after having Christmas together,

 And Jamie wore the sweater that I got for him!

 I got another place setting of my dishes!

 We then went to the Heidlebaugh family Christmas. 

 The adults did a white elephant exchange,

and Jamie won us a George Forman, which he was SUPER pumped about,

 and my mommy and I actually took a decent picture together. 

My husband got me this amazing and awesome camera

 I had my old one since i was 16, so it was time for an upgrade.

My new camera takes great close ups, 

like this one of my rings.

And I felt much better upon seeing my grandpa christmas eve. 

The rehab hospital has taken him back, and he is making great strides.

he is regaining strength in his right hand, and his speech is slowly but surely coming back. 

His Christmas present was a visit from my grandma and Daisy May, his lovable and completely spoiled dachshund.

How was your Christmas? I hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends, and made many memories they could look back on. 

♥

The Christmas of 2010

In reference to my last post...I'm trying.

Anyway, this past saturday, Jamie and I hosted the Rutan/Buckley Christmas.

It went really well, 

which I didn't really expect in all honesty. 

Last year I cried after they left.

seriously.

But, this year things went much better.

(and the big glass of wine I had right before everyone got there may have helped. Just saying.)

We had 5 more people this year than last.

It was crazy.

I made the ham, homemade mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, little smokies appetizers, and christmas punch.

It all tasted great, I was really proud of myself. 

 We had 15 people, and this is what we had to do to our great room to fit them all in for dinner.

 Shawn and Tami told everyone to wear red so we could take a family picture. This is how Shawn and Jamie dressed (completely coincidentally). You can tell they are brothers. 

 Richie brought his 14 week old puppy, who was the same size as my fully grown Minnie. 

The puppy also pooped behind our Christmas tree.

Fully potty trained, my butt.

 semi-decent family picture. 

 Shawn and Tami got all of the men matching hat's and scarves, and the women matching scarves and gloves. The pictures turned out pretty cute.

Jamie and i in front of our tree. Love him.

I guess I should finally just blog about this.

My grandpa Blankenship has been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks.

It's just been a lot to process, I haven't felt like writing about it.

Long story short, his blood thinner made his blood too thin, which caused bleeding on his brain, which made him disoriented and confused.

They took him off the blood thinner, and drilled 4 holes in his head to drain the blood.

He was on the mend, and then because he was no longer on the blood thinner, his blood got too thick, and he had a stroke. 

The stroke affected his speech. He recognizes everyone, and can smile, but his brain is not telling his mouth what to say. It could be months before it comes back, it could be never.

This has been a nightmare for my family.

The last major sickness in the family was my dad, and he died 3 minutes later.

I know this is on all of their minds, all the time.

It's on mine. My grandpa is the closest link I have to my dad.

My grandma and uncles have essentially been taking turns living at the hospital. One of them stays all night with him every single night. 

My grandma is exhausted. They have been married 58 years. This is an unbelievable strain on her. 

She is very stressed about Christmas. Christmas and family gatherings are of utmost importance to her, and she is determined to still have Christmas.  So, to help her out, I went over last night, and we held up our annual tradition of making Christmas mice. 

I spent my entire evening over there yesterday, and we worked on them.

Or really, I worked on them while she dozed on the couch, but it was all the same to me, she's exhausted. 

They are my favorite Christmas treat to make, and they taste amazing. 

If you're interested, you just melt almond bark in a double broiler, dip a stemmed cherry in it, then lay it on it's side on wax paper. Stick a chocolate kiss to the front, get sliced almonds for ears, and then use red gel icing for eyes.

She is taking some of the mice to my grandpa today. 

Hope he likes them, they were always his favorite too.

I'm going to go spend the morning with him tomorrow. 

What a way to spend Christmas, huh?

In a hospital bed, unable to speak.

♥

Everyday Adventure, and Random Thursday Thoughts...

Our Washer broke last week.  

Seeing that it is 20 years old, and we bought it at a garage sale,

I'm not shocked.

But, I had already not done laundry for 2 weeks, because of the craziness of work and final projects.

So, our lovely little washer, decided to break the day I was going to do laundry.

Thanks for that.

Well, while we've been trying to figure out what to do about it.

I ran out of clothes. 

and Jamie ran out of clothes.

And we were out of clean towels. 

and using our last pair of clean sheets. 

So yesterday morning, I got fed up, and decided that we should go to the laundromat, and then buy a new washer this week. So, we took an everyday adventure to the laundromat!

You may think I'm kidding about the volume of laundry, but I have proof.  This is every dirty article of clothing in the house, and we took it all to the laundromat with us. 

It was ridiculous. 

When we got there, I had to run and pick up laundry detergent, because of course we forgot it. 

And then we put all the laundry in.

We took up ALL of these industrial washers, including the giant one on the end, PLUS one more, and an equal amount of dryers.

Again, ridiculous.

By the time we were done, Jamie had only 30 minutes to leave for work, which he was super grouchy about.  We ended up having an argument about his attitude, which he called and apologized about. 

Crazy morning.

________________________

I know in the blogging world, randomness is usually saved for "Totally Random Tuesday" (as can be seen here and here.) But, I'm an individual, and decided to do it today. Plus, I don't want to wait until Tuesday to share my thoughts. 

_________________________

Got my parent's Christmas Card today, and they used on of my wedding pictures on it! I thought it was really cute.

I love that Dex is on their card, when they teased me about my furry kids. haha

_________________________

Minnie has it made this winter.  Last year, Jamie had to shovel her a big flat spot for her to potty in, every time it snowed, so she doesn't drown in the snow.

This year, he took our screen off before the first big snow (not like we will be using it this winter) and made Minnie a "potty hut."

All we have to do is keep the "entrance" clear, and she's good to go.

She said "Thanks, Dad!" by licking him in the face 80 times.

Oh wait.

That's normal. 

Well, either way, I know she appreciates it. 

_________________________

I hate mandatory overtime. 

(That's such a stupid concept to me anyway. How can you REQUIRE someone to work overtime?)

Thanks SDI, for stealing my husband again, just when I was excited school was out so I could see him more.

But no.

He now has to work 3PM to 3AM until the end of the year.

Awesome. Back to falling asleep alone.

Grrrr.

So, because I haven't seen him at all this week, I took Asia Wok (the best Chinese food in town) out to him last night, and we ate dinner together! 

It was awesome.

I tried on his hard hat, and safety glasses. I think I'm going to start wearing them daily. Not. 

_________________________

Monday (yes, the day after that big snow) I was still required to drive to the east side of indy, to go to a meeting at my school for student teaching, because IPS only closes if it's a weather emergency. 

What should have taken me 30 minutes took me an hour and ten. 

When I got there, the meeting lasted 20 minutes, so we went upstairs to meet our mentor teachers, and mine was gone, on her first sick day in four years. Awesome. 

So, I drove home (it only took me 50 minutes that time).  What a lame morning. 

But, I did get to see the school, and get oriented with it. 

I will be in a fifth/sixth combined math classroom.

Oh man.

Talk about a challenge. 

Sixth graders and math.

But, I'm kind of excited about it, at the same time. It's going to be something new and fun.

Just wish I could meet my teacher, so I could stop worrying about that.

_________________________

My Ball State roommate Sarah got engaged this weekend!!

She and Jared have been together 6 years, (so it's about time!) 

She called me the other night to tell me about it, she is on cloud nine!

I am so excited and happy for her, he's a great guy. 

She told me her mom has already made a list of venues, lol.

And, I am going bridesmaid dress shopping with the lovely Amanda, for Amanda and Joe's wedding next year!

We are all going over Christmas break.

So Excited!!!

They are seriously the cutest couple ever, and I am so excited to be a part of their day!

_________________________

Well, I'm out of here.

Have to go clean my house. 

Yay....

♥

Christmas party!

Jamie's company Christmas party was last night!

I was so excited because for the first time, we got a room (they offer them at a discount for the night), which was so nice. 

We were able to get ready upstairs, and then just walk down.

I love the christmas party, because everyone is dressed to the nines, seriously. The women go ALL out, and most of the men do too. 

But..

It's still a bunch of steel mill workers in a fancy room with an open bar.

I'm sure you can imagine.

I enjoy getting dressed up a lot, and Jamie does too.  That's our favorite part. The food and bar is nice, though, and it's fun to just hang out, and have a good night. 

This year I wore the dress and shoes from my rehearsal dinner, and Jamie ended up wearing the suit he bought for it, as well. 

It was fun, and brought back memories.

Plus, it's my absolute favorite dress!

Dinner was great, and we had nice conversation with Dave and Lisa, both of whom work with Jamie.

Our room was gorgeous, and had an awesome view of the IRT.

I would have taken more pictures, but I forgot my camera, and we were stuck using cell phones for pictures the whole night.

It was so wonderful to just get to spend the evening with Jamie, and not worry about anything, just eat, drink, and be merry.  And then sleep in in the morning. 

♥

I need a vacation...seriously.

I got my Science unit turned in yesterday. 

74 pages, consisting of 17 lesson plans, that equal 46 hours, the papers and powerpoints that go with them, a two page table of contents, a four page introductory paper, and a cover sheet, all neatly inside of a purple binder.

It was due at 5 PM.

I laid it outside of his door at 4:53PM.

But, it's not entirely my fault, because i got there at 4PM to print, but my flash drive had gone crazy and MIXED ALL THE PAGES UP.

So, while having a minor panic attack in the library, I just had to print everything, and then find the table of contents, and use it to put everything in order. 

Needless to say, I was a bit stressed. 

And, I couldn't even be that excited, because last night and today I have to work on my benchmark. 

Which is a 12 page paper, due Sunday.

And, since Jamie's company Christmas party is Saturday night, I need to get as much of it done as possible.

I am excited for the Christmas party though, and our teeny tiny vacation of staying at that Hyatt afterwards.

And then, It's five wonderful weeks off, for Christmas!

Which, by the way, I am super excited for Christmas for the first time in a few years.

And then I start student teaching. And working full time.

Oh man. What did I get myself into.

I told Jamie that if I survive the next year and graduate, I want to go on another cruise. 

Which has me thinking about vacations.

Man, I want to go on one SO bad. 

So, I spent the last hour going through pictures of vacations that Jamie and I have gone on (instead of working on my benchmark, might I add).

I thought I would make myself feel better by sharing them.

Florida, 2008. 

Our first vacation together. We stayed with Jamie's grandma part of the time, and then camped on an island the other part. While it was fun, the being on an island with only what you brought was hard, because we were late to the peer, and the crazy mean psycho lady (don't get Jamie started on her, he STILL gets mad.) wouldn't let us bring everything we had packed, only what we could grab in 5 minutes. So, we took what we thought were the necessities, which did not include any warm blankets, seeing as we were in Florida. But, we found out the hard way, that it FREEZES on islands at night. So, we wrapped up in our towels, put on every article of clothing we had, and covered the bed with extra towels and clothes, and STILL froze out butts off. Hahaha, I think it's pretty funny looking back, but Jamie does not find it humorous. 

May 2010

Our next vacation was actually our honeymoon. Best, most amazing vacation ever. If I could go on a cruise every year for the rest of my life, I would do it. 

It was so wonderful.

(sorry there are so many, it's hard to choose a few favorites from 200 pictures.)

And last, in August of 2010, we took a weekend trip to Chicago. We took the train there and a bus back, so we rode the L all weekend, and felt like really city folks. =D

It was great. 

(To see more from this trip, go here.)

So there ya go, folks.

I want to go somewhere with my husband, and just get away from life for a while.

But for now, it's back to my benchmark.

Dang it.
Someday.

♥