The Starting Line

OMG. I thought I was going to have a melt down today. In my grammar class another English Ed major told me that the sign up date for the Praxis content exam is March 24th (I believe). I told her I didn't know if I should take it, and she said if I was planning on graduating in Spring of 2010, then I should.

For those that don't know, I have to take as series of tests to become certified to teach. The content exam will test me in my specific major area: English. I don't know exactly what will be on it. I know for a fact literature questions, but I don't know if grammar will be on there, too.

I asked her how in the heck I would even go about studying for it, and she said they sell practice books and what not.

But my heart just sank. I hadn't even given thought to taking those tests yet, because I still don't feel like I will ever graduate any time soon. But, a year isn't that far away.

So now, on top of my regular classes which require a huge amount of work including (but not limited to) several online portfolios which include lesson plans which I think I am not very good at, yet, not to mention a wedding to finish planning for and my home life, but now I have to dedicate to studying for this test.

UGH!!!!!!!!

There is good news in my life, though. Last night Mike's mom called me to say she was at Walmart and in the Valentine's candy section found bags of M&Ms. Well, I should explain: Our wedding colors are white and green. We thought it would be really clever to give out M&Ms as one of our favors since both of our names start with M's making us the M&M's. They would come PRE-PERSONALIZED. Well, we were going to order special green and white ones from their website, but to do so was incredibly expensive, costing $60. That was way too much than I hoped to pay. So, we compromised and just decided to use the regular assorted colors.

Mike's mom swore up and down that around St. Patrick's day they would have bags of just green M&Ms, but neither Mike nor I have faith in this.

So, Mike's mom was at Walmart and in the Valentine's section there were bags of..........GREEN freaking M&Ms. Why? The bag are advertising that green is the "new color of love" with that sassy green female M&M. So, I went out today and bought 15 bags. I am sure I looked ridiculous, but I got my color.

We are going to wrap them in white tulle with a green bow and it is going to be awesome.


Yay for wedding stuff!!!

I also made a crap ton of phone calls today including calling the church's music director and made an appointment with her for two weeks from tomorrow AND I got Mike a tux fitting scheduled for Monday with a possible florist appointment for the same day.

There are less than 100 days to go, and so far so good- but I don't need to waste anymore time.

ALSO, as Ryan teased me, I said that our honeymoon was going to OFFICIALLY be for Europe, but unfortunately, Mike's work wouldn't give him enough time off to do that....so we are SERIOUSLY OFFICIALLY going to Vegas. We have bought our plane tickets, reserved our hotel room, and bought tickets for two shows including the Beatles' Love and Criss Angel's show Believe. So excited.

Mike comes home at midnight tonight, which will officially be Valentine's Day, so I am giving him his presents as soon as he steps in the door. I got him a bunch of stuff I think he will love. Mike got me a really sweet digital video camera. It is like...the size of a cellphone and it is waterproof...so you could film yourself in the ocean if you wanted to. I have been filming things left and right- I love it.

I went to Target today to get a few last minute items for V-Day. While I was there I saw something strange that had been marked down. They are sock cuffs...to be worn on your feet...they just don't have toes. I don't know when anyone would want to wear these, but I thought they were ridiculous and cute enough to buy. The shoes don't match, but here is a picture:

The Gas Light Fare

Mike and I went to our first appointment with our priest and then to Target to start our gift registry.

We were both very nervous about the meeting, but everything went very well. We were nervous he might say something about our living arrangement, but he didn't say anything. He filled out some forms with our personal information and then asked a series of questions such as are we related in any way, is anyone forcing us to get married, and does anyone in our families object our marriage. Some of them were really funny. But, we talked about a few minor details about the ceremony, but not much. We have to set up a series of other meetings to really get down to the nitty gritty. He gave us a book where we can select he readings and response song and the vows and what not. He also gave us "homework" and strongly encouraged us to write our wills, fill out the paperwork where you say what you want done to yourself if you can no longer make choices, and give one another power of attorney. He said that when we are married we will automatically have power of attorney, but he said he never know what can happen between now and the wedding date, and we should be prepared. I tried my best to take all of this seriously, but it was really scary. Then we signed some paperwork agreeing that we told the truth and we were on our way.



Target was amazing. I have waited to do this for longer than I have known Mike. I was always very jealous of the girls getting married who got to walk around the store with the big scanning gun. It was weird at times, because we didn't have the best game plan, so we were making choices on things like towels and what not trying to envision what we wanted out of our home. Because we weren't prepared, we didn't pick out an everyday use set of dishes or siverware. But, we had a blast. We were in there for about two hours, and it felt really weird leaving and all we bought were two Ginger Ales.

Signing up with Target:



First scan of the day, a pepper grinder:


Mike's first scan when I finally let him use it:



A job well done: