Sleepover!

Last week when I was over at Bradford's house, Brooke asked if she could sleep over at my house. Since she had family in town, I promised that we could do it later that week after everyone was gone. This past Wednesday she got to come over. We started the evening by going to the restaurant of her choice. We brought our food home to eat at her request. The whole drive it was fun listening to Brooke just talk or ask questions or make statements. She is at a stage where she is very observant and soaks in tons of information. After we finished eating, my roommate was getting a few last things from the apartment, so she helped her take those things down. Then came the exciting part of the night...we built a fort. I have a 4 poster bed, so it made the perfect fort! At this point, I had to meet my photographer to get my picture cd, so we ran over to meet her in the Macy's parking lot. While we were there, Brooke got to pick out some cereal and pay for it. It was fun to challenge her by giving her the money and then asking if she had enough or not. She is a smart girl. Hopefully I will take learning opportunities like that to teach my own kids. Then I got to teach her how to pump gas. I let her do everything. I think that was her favorite part of the whole night because as we were leaving the next day she asked if we needed to buy more gas because she knew how to do it now.After getting back home, we got inside the fort, we watched Strawberry Shortcake on my computer. It was "berry" exciting. By the time the movie finished, it was bedtime and we were both wiped out. I don't know who was yawning more. I had to take her back early the next morning because Heidi had to go down to the hospital to see Logan at a certain time. I love their little family! Like I mentioned before, Tyler and Brooke are so sweet and well behaved. While I am over visiting, Brooke and Tyler will both just come up and hug me or cuddle with me or tell me they love me. I love them too!

1 Month to Go

In exactly one month from today, a lot of big things will be happening. (sidenote: I am so emotional lately. I cry over everything...like writing this blogpost. It's my mom's fault.) It will be the day that I have dreamed about my entire life. I will be marrying the perfect man for me. I will be giving up the name Broadhead that I have held so proudly my whole life and take on the name Barlow. I will have my own family. I will live in the East once again. I am basically starting a new life. I will live in a new place (Ohio), with a new name (Barlow), and a new family (Travis). But, I guess one thing that never changes is that my family will always be there and the the covenants I made will always be there. It is an exciting time that I am looking forward to.

We got our engagement pictures back so I will show you some ways that Travis is perfect for me. :)

He always makes me laugh.

He is crazy. If you look closely, in the background you can see a guy doing these stretches.

He is willing to do anything...even eat popcorn that I am holding in my teeth.He lets me cheer him up when he is sad. He is a good sport when it comes to taking pictures.He shares the same talent of having a "pregnant belly."Even though I think mine is better. :)He is sweet when he wants to be. He follows me anywhere I take him.

He is the one that introduced me to Buckle. That was his mistake!He puts up with my nonsense.Most of all, he Loves me!

"You Don't Do Anything."

Fairly often, Nathan and I go over to our cousin's house for dinner. He has three kids that I love to death. Tyler is 8, Brooke is 5 1/2 and Logan is just a month old. Tyler and Brooke are some of the most well behaved kids that I know (and that is saying a lot because I know a lot of kids!). They are very polite and they are very in tune with things socially.

Nathan and I stayed over a while after dinner and I was starting to get a headache so I told them that we had to go. They kept trying to stall us by jumping on our backs or playing with my hair. Finally I said, "ok, I really have to go. It is past my bedtime." Tyler then replied, "you don't have to go to bed. You don't do anything anymore." I laughed. Tyler knows that I am a teacher and that school is out, but what he doesn't realize is all that I need to get done in the next month.

So, here is what I did today.

5:30 Woke up with a migraine (like expected) took some medicine and went back to sleep
8:00 Got up and started stuffing invitations
10:30 Went to the post office and sent off a package and got stamps
10:45 Put stamps on all the stuffed invitations
11:15 Dropped off the stamped invitations at the Post Office
11:30 Went to Wal-Mart to print some more pictures for the rest of the invitations
12:00 Picked up my wedding dress
12:30 Ate Lunch at the Mall
1:00 Picked up the Photos from Wal-Mart
2:00 Unloaded my car from where I had to move out of my classroom
2:45 Stopped by management to schedule move-out/cleaning checks
3:00 Packed, Packed, and Packed some more
6:30 Stopped by Macy's to get a treat for FHE
7:00 FHE at the Church
8:30 Got back home and called Travis
9:00 Typing this lovely post
9:20 Throw in a load of laundry
9:30 Get Ready for bed

Then get ready for another day of not doing anything tomorrow! :) I love you Tyler!!

Rollercoaster of Emotions

Morning Class before Kindergarten GraduationAfternoon Class after Kindergarten Graduation

Today was filled with a million emotions. I blame it on my high stress levels and lack of sleep. I got to school early, as usual, and got to work right away by putting the kids' report cards in their cubbies, as well as a wedding announcement. Nathan came over last night to help me print the envelopes. (Thanks Nathan!!) After getting that done, I started getting other stuff done, but kept getting interrupted so I wasn't very effective.

The kids started coming and the chaos began. Both classes were there, so I had about 50 kids. I had to hurry and get them into 2 lines and head to the back of the school where we were having our dance festival. It went pretty well, but the kids were restless during the other performances. We went back to class, the kids got their stuff, gave me a hug and said goodbye.

I did so good. I did not cry at all! I was officially done with my first year of teaching and I SURVIVED!! I was EXCITED! I was EXHAUSTED! I was ready to be DONE!! Then I went back into work mode to get everything ready for checkout. Everything was going great...until I went to turn my key in. Mr. Bowman said, "Are you ready to turn your key in?" He meant literally. I felt emotionally. As I handed him my keys, the tears began to roll done my face like they are right now. This was it. I was really done. I told him I didn't think it would be this hard. I thought I would be excited after how much work and stress this year has been. I thought I would feel relief. Instead, I felt sad and empty. These kids have been my life the last 9 months and I love them and will miss them. Mr. Bowman said it is only hard because of the work I have put in to the year and it is a good thing.

I made the long walk back down to my classroom trying to hid my tears. I took my last few belongings to my car and said bye to Harvest Elementary. I remember the moment I walked in to the school for my interview that I would teach there and it has been an amazing year. I could not have asked for a better Principal, better team, better parents or a better class. I am grateful for my time at Harvest Elementary. I will always remember the memories I made there.

The Count Downs Are On

I have so many count downs going on right now that I can't believe I can actually keep track of them. I think I am just so worn out and exhausted and ready to be done that I need to know to keep myself going. I imagine it is like running a race. If you stop and walk, it is harder to start running again and if the end is in sight it is easier to push till the end.

My school countdown is more like a "sprint to the end." I have 5 more days and I am trying my hardest to get everything done that I need to before the end of the year. I sure hope it happens! I need to enter report card grades, finish teaching and practice the graduation program, have field day, have graduation, do the dance festival, pack up my classroom, clean my classroom and check out by June 3rd.

My moving/seeing Travis again countdown is 22 days. I am not even attempting this stuff until the school stuff is done. I have to pack up my apartment and say bye to all of my sweet and amazing friends in Provo. I may just be putting that off because I hate goodbyes.

My getting married countdown is 44 days. Right now I am just jogging along with no stress. I still feel like it is far away. The big stuff is taken care of, so it is just the details I need to work out. I think because my life is so crazy, I am not too worried about if it all gets done or not. No big deal. My dad helped me realize that all that matters is that Travis and I are there together. Who cares about the cake or what color dresses people wear or what centerpieces are on the table? Just as long as we make those promises to each other, nothing else matters.

Then after all this stress and crazy schedules, Travis and I will have a nice relaxing cruise. I can't wait! That is in 45 days! :)

Self-Control

I am exercising great self control right now because I officially have the picture we are using for our announcement. I want to post it because I think it turned out really cute, but then there would be no surprise when you get our announcement.

Travis came into town for the weekend just so that we could take engagement pictures. We planned this months ago when we first got engaged because we had to buy a plane ticket. I figured the weather would be nice in the middle of May. As it got closer I began to get a little bit nervous because it has been raining for the past 3 weeks or so. With a lot of praying and a small miracle, the rain stopped on Saturday. It rained every day leading up to our pictures and it has been raining ever since.

We met up with our photographer, Aria, at Liberty park in Salt Lake City. We absolutely loved her! She had such good ideas and was easy to get along with. I am pretty sure that she and I could be great friends.

Since we have to mail our invitations pretty soon, she offered to upload some unedited images for us to choose from so she can edit it and get it back to us quicker. This is a pretty big deal for a photographer, so I am grateful for that! So, that means Travis and I got a sneak peak at some of the pictures and they are adorable!! I think they look great as they are! I can't wait to see the edited versions!

If you click on her name above, it will take you to her blog and you can see one of our pictures from the night. I highly recommend her!!

30 Days!!

I turned in my "Intent to Vacate Notice" today. It has to be turned in 30 days prior to moving out. Do you know what that means?!? I AM MOVING IN 30 DAYS!!!! What?!? 30 days?! How did that happen? I feel like I just moved in not too long ago and I am already moving out. I am excited to move out, but do you want to know why I am freaking out a little bit? The amount of things I need to do hit me like a ton of bricks. These are the things that need to be done...in the next 30 days...

• Finish end of year assessments for all my kids
  
• Assess EVERYTHING for the report card
• Plan and help the kids learn our graduation program
• Dance Festival
• Field Day
• Clean my Entire classroom
• Completely move out of my classroom...by the last day of school
• Completely pack and move out of my apartment
• Clean my apartment (I am clean, but remember I have a 2 year old child living with me)
• Say bye to all my friends
• Maybe eat and sleep some would be good

Those are just the necessary things. Don't forget that on top of that I am planning a wedding/luncheon in Washington DC/receptions in Oregon and Georgia/ and looking for a job and Travis is 1650 miles away. Call me crazy, but that cruise is looking better and better everyday! I just look forward to the day that I can just come home and have Travis there. It will be fabulous. Until then, wish me luck these next 30 days!