34 Days and Counting! (More Interviews)

Wow, has life gotten crazy! And as life has gotten more and more crazy, so, I feel, have I. It's just pretty unbelievable that my wedding is only 34 days away! Seriously, you wait your whole life for this one day, which is now only 34 days away, and it's over so quickly! It's kind of sad if you think about it...

Anyway... Here are some things that have been going on:

More Interviews...

Ok, so one more interview, but I'm pretty over this interview thing. I keep getting these calls from these schools for interviews, some aren't even applicable for me. I've gotten calls from elementary schools, though I'm looking for middle school (I like that age of kids, and less lesson planning when it's for just one subject), and the other week, I got a call from a high school! I'm only certified 1-8th, though I'm looking for middle school and have passed my middle grades social studies exam, so I'm certified for that. 

I started that conversation by telling the vice principal that I'm only certified for 1-8th--he said they could see about getting me certified if they hired me. I then told him about my 3 week wedding and honeymoon--he said that was important for him to know, but they were still interested in interviewing me if I was interested, so I said sure! I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I don't get the job? And if they do offer it to me, I can still decide if it's something that I want or not. I am interested in teaching high school potentially, so... 

I went down to the school, and it really is a beautiful school! It's all indoors, very big, and they even have a culinary school, where the students actually cater business meetings and even weddings! That's pretty cool! The vice principal was very nice, but the interview had the feel of one of my "no" interviews. I feel like the only interview that I've had that I have felt was super successful was the charter school, which just got back to me and told me they hired someone else, after they hired me and I told them about the wedding... This one felt, well, shorter, I guess, and the questions weren't as detailed.

The school was very far away (about fifty minutes), but I really liked the school. I left knowing I probably didn't get it, and I was fine with that (I'm still planning on being a substitute teacher next year anyway) but then I had this really confusing dream where I got the job, and everything was great, and I loved the school, and I woke up kind of feeling like "Awe..." 

Anyway, we're going to watch Alien 4 now, so I'm just going to conclude this post and post again soon about the wedding another time. 

Jennifer's Wedding 5/27/17

On Saturday, May 27th, 2017, my good friend from my NAU teaching cohort, Jennifer married her love, Anthony in beautiful Sedona. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful place, and unlike any wedding I had ever been to before! To start, it was exceedingly small--smallest wedding I'd ever been to. Less than twenty guests in attendance!

It was exciting to get to go to her bachelorette party! It was my first one I've ever been to, so that was exciting! Unfortunately, I was super late and only got to experience the end of it. We got to check out the ceremony site together, then we went back to her friend's room and watched some of Rent.

Jennifer had told me that it's a thing for her and her best friend, Cathy, to watch Rent before her wedding because they did that at Cathy's wedding, and they were going to do it at Jennifer's wedding. I had told Jennifer that she should really see the final Broadway filmed version, so I bought it for her and gave it to her that night. It worked out because she hadn't been able to find her copy, so we ended up watching that. :) Also, Jennifer and I had kind of been planning to put on our own production of Rent once upon a time. It's interesting watching Rent as an adult. I hadn't seen it in years, and when I was younger, I would always just sing along and rock out to all the songs, however upon watching it as a "grown up," I'm watching these people sing about how they're not going to pay rent, and my mind says "You're adults... just pay the freaking rent! That's what we do." :/ lol, so that was an interesting new perspective.

Me, Jennifer, and Cathy watching Rent the night before Jennifer gets married! 

The next morning, I went over and helped do hair for Jennifer and several of her friends--that was a lot of fun! We also danced around to music, including La Vie Boheme.

Jennifer looked like Snow White in her cape hiding out so Anthony didn't see her. :) 

The ceremony site. 

That was the table we all got to write on our cards what we loved most about the bride and groom.

The bride walks up.

The groom walks up.

They had a really cool tree planting ceremony--Jennifer collected soil from each of the guests in a pot for their tree. 

Anthony holds the tree ready for planting.

Then, they planted the tree together. :) 

They then put our cards in a special box, along with a love letter that they each wrote for each other to be opened on their one year anniversary, at which point they will include another letter to be opened the following year, and so on. It's a beautiful idea! I love it! 

Jennifer reads her vows for Anthony.

Anthony reads his vows for Jennifer.

He then surprises everyone--especially the bride, by bursting into song! It was wonderful! 

The exchanging of rings.

First kiss as husband & wife! 

Bride & Groom's first dance as husband and wife--their song: My Wish. 

I love the dip!

All the girls at the wedding.

"Ooo"ing and "Aw"ing over the ring.

The guys at the wedding.

Josh & I with the bride & groom.

There was a beautiful brunch reception after the wedding that was delicious, followed by chocolate lava cake. It was a wonderful day!

The Worst Wedding Nightmare Yet!

I must have been the most hysterical in this one. In the ones in the past, when I'm about to get married and something is not right, I just calmly walk out into the audience and tell them to scrap it and go home and await a future invitation when everything is right. In this one, the wedding had already happened, I couldn't remember it, and it was during the reception.

So it's during the reception and I realize I can't remember if I performed or not during the ceremony like I'm supposed to. I start to freak out and I leave to see if I can go find the wedding coordinator. I can't find her, and I'm upset and freaking out. My guests start to freak out because I've left, and some of them leave. I start to ask my guests if I performed during the ceremony and no one will tell me. I try to find my mom to see if she will tell me, and she won't tell me either. I'm crying hysterically freaking out that I didn't perform during the ceremony. I tell everyone to get in the positions they would be for the start of the ceremony so we can do it again so I can perform, so what's left of the guests get in starting positions.

As I start to walk down the aisle, they're playing regular music, not what I'm supposed to be performing to, so exasperated, I tell them all to forget it.

Trying to salvage the wedding, my mom and aunts arrange for me to do the bouquet toss, and there's several girls who I don't know line up right under a very low awning (the wedding somehow got transferred to taking place at a church...). I'm worried that the bouquet is going to hit the awning. I do several fake out tosses, then throw my hand back and someone just takes it out of my hand before it can be thrown. I was very not happy.

Waking up, I felt very exhausted and panicked. Up until this moment, I had 100% confidence that I would have no trouble performing at my wedding. When performing on stage, I normally get some nervous excitement, but not since I was 14 and first starting out have I struggled with being worried that I can't perform when I go onstage. Even at 14, I still said my lines, although not in character and with a big, excited smile on my face that "I'm actually onstage!" I've always performed correctly, and now, I'm suddenly scared that I might not--what if I forget or flub the lines? What if I freak out? What if I can't even remember the ceremony and no one will tell me if I actually performed or not?

As you can see, it has been a traumatizing night.

Our Big Wedding Prep Vegas Adventure!

Thursday, June 1st, Josh and I headed down to Vegas to start to get things ready for the wedding! I can't believe we're less than two months out! I still feel like there's so much left to do!

We started the day picking up our marriage license--it was surprisingly easy. We had just filled out a form the day before online, and when we got down there, we showed our ID's, paid, signed a paper and there we have it! Our marriage license.

Hard to believe I've waited my whole life to get married and it's right around the corner! 

After the marriage license, we went and checked out the tuxedos for the guys! 

We got set up for our guys to get some nice tux's, so that was exciting! 

We then spent some time running around before we got to our ultimate destination--our venue! 

We got to try some potential dishes for dinner and do some cake tasting. :) 

I've always dreamed about the moment I would finally get to taste test for a wedding cake! It always seemed so exciting--and it was! It was really cool, and I think we chose some good cakes. I'm excited for our guests to try them! 

We finally met with the wedding coordinator and went over some of the finer details! 

It was an exciting day! 

We're getting so close! I still have so many things to get! So exciting! :)