Kids are funny

When walking down the hall I overhear one of my students talking to another, and somehow I got sucked in...

D: That was my old classroom when I was in Miss S[uperhardname]'s class.

H: Really? I was in the next classroom with Mrs. B.

D: Yeah. Her name use to be Miss S[uperhardname] until she got married. Now she's Miss P___.

D: Hey Miss S, I have a question.

Me: Yes?

D: When you get married, what name are you going to pick?

Me: What do you mean...pick?

D: You know, like how Miss S[uperhardname] became Miss P___ when she got married. What name are you going to pick?

Me: (trying not to laugh) You know she didn't just pick the last name P___ right? She married Mr. P___ and that's how she became MRS. P____.

D: OH! I thought she just picked that name when she got married cuz it was earier to say.

I will not surrender

I feel like my engagement should be a happy, fun time but it's not starting out so well. We wanted a small, simple wedding. Nothing elaborate, nothing fancy, nothing expensive. Just simple, small, and about us. Unfortunately there are MANY stressors that are making this time less than awesome. Here they are for you in level of stress inducing power.

1. Girlfriend's family (specifically dad and step-mom)

They are not coming, are not talking to her at the moment after telling them we are engaged. Exact quote, "Don't you think I (dad) already have enough on my plate to not think about this?" When posting engaged as her Facebook status-another direct quote for your enjoyment, "Please delete all personal information. At least try to have a facade of dignity for the family." (I would like to state she did not delete anything)

2. My family (specifically my mom)

She want me to invite everyone in our family, people that I know including God-parents, God-siblings, friends from back home, friends from school, etc. I'm not talking about people that I don't know, don't care about. These are all people who love me, would be/are supportive of the wedding, and who I talk with on a regular basis. That just makes the wedding not "small" anymore.

3. COMBINE ONE AND TWO

Girlfriend's family is NOT coming except for her mom, brother and his fiance. My ENTIRE family wants to come. See the problem? Just rub it in her face that her family doesn't support us, won't acknowledge that we are getting married, and see me with everyone I have known my whole life happy and joking about. Telling my mom it was only going to be immediate family sent her in to a fit of tears, which made me cry, and now the whole thing just sucks all around. Realizing that I still need to tell the rest of my family that I'm engaged AND then tell them they're not invited...fun times all around.

4. Finding/Agreeing on a venue

Apparently if you want to get married at a bed a breakfast, you have to rent the entire place. Um, we don't need that many rooms and seriously need a courtyard/pretty area for 20 minutes. Why is it so effing difficult??? What I like, she doesn't. What she likes, I don't. We FINALLY agreed on 2 places that we like, one for the wedding (in front of a cool looking historic house with a garden in a park) and one for the reception/dinner (at the inn where we will stay and DON'T have to rent the entire place.)

5. Money

The smallest of the stressers because my parents are being VERY, and I mean VERY generous with helping us. Most of the stress is how I don't understand why it costs so much for so little. Girlfriend made a good point of suggesting we need to say we are having a "gathering" or a "dinner" instead of "wedding" and "reception" because it cuts the price and is more accurate to our needs. We don't want a prearranged dinner, we want our family to eat what they want and just a room for us to sit in without it being in the middle of random people. Too much to ask for? Apparently so. We have to get married within the area of DC to make it legal, and everything inside of DC costs a freaking arm and leg. Ridiculous.

Here is my engagement mantra: I will not surrender to make everyone else happy. This is our wedding. We will have the wedding we want, the way we want.

Change is good, right?

There have been some changes this week in my home. Changes that some of you might be surprised to read about, while others may have had an inclination if they read between the lines. The relationship between Girlfriend and I changed. It has changed in a way that causes us to redefine who we are to each other and our relationship. I will probably continue to refer to her as "Girlfriend" in posts, although that name no longer fits who she is to me. I know, I know, many of you are wondering what happened, what caused this change, what events unfolded? Well we all know that change is good, life is not designed to remain stagnant, and we all wind up taking a journey with bumps, twists and turns we were not expecting. Girlfriend will remain a big part of my blogging and my life, and will probably be called "Girlfriend" for convenient reference but as of last night, she is my fiance. Had you concerned for a minute didn't I! I proposed last night with an amethyst ring (see pictures below) and caught her totally off guard. It started when she got home and she kept looking at me because I couldn't stop sweating. Like, sweating sweating. It was not cute. I gave her a scrapbook that had pictures of the past year and a half (including one that was taken the night we met) and a long letter. The letter explained how she has changed me for the better, how much I love her, and how I can't see my life without her. She got teary eyed, I got teary eyed, and I still could not stop sweating. Then I gave her a hollowed out book that had her ring hanging inside. She opened the book, her eyes got big, she looked at me, looked at the ring, looked at me, looked at the ring and said, "Ummm." I told her that this ring was what I could afford at the time, and that later down the road I would buy her a different one. She put it on, said something about loving the ring, not wanting something different. I told her that I loved her, and that I will continue to do things "just because" and to get use to it. She hugged me, we got up (we were sitting on the couch) and I told her to call her mom because she was expecting a call. Girlfriend asked what I meant and I told her that I had talked with her mom on Sunday (thus the short important conversation) and asked for her blessing/permission to give her daughter a ring. Girlfriend went outside, talked with her mom while I cooked, we ate dinner, got ice cream, shopped for accessories to wear to the Lady Gaga concert this weekend, and came home. The whole time we were running errands/hanging out she would occasionally look at me with a funny look and say nothing.

OK. Let's stop for a moment. Did you notice something odd? I don't know...something missing? Go back, read the story again, see if you catch it. Then check out the pictures and find out the answer to my question.

I F*CKING FORGOT TO ACTUALLY PROPOSE. Yeah. About that. I was so nervous that I serious forgot to say the words, "Will you marry me?" I realized this a couple hours later as we were going to bed. Laying down I said, "So, um, I kinda just realized something...and I don't know how this happened, but I totally forgot to actually ask you to marry me. Will you marry me?" Girlfriend BUSTED out laughing, told me she realized this hours ago, thus the funny looks, said she was confused at first if the ring was just a 1 1/2 year present or engagement ring but then when I told her to call her mom she figured it out. She was waiting on me to realize it. She then had the best answer, "I guess so, I've been wearing the ring for hours now." Worst. Proposal. Ever. But on the bright side we now have an awesome proposal story to retell. We then decided that it was a classic "us" situation where I do something awkward and she just waits patiently for me to realize it. My mom laughed for a good 5 minutes on the phone today when I told her and I just kept saying, "It's not that funny."

Go ahead and laugh, even I know it's that funny.

Deep breath, exhale

Tonight I had one of the most important, yet brief, conversations of my adult life. Look for an update later this week...

Cannot believe I'm sharing this

On Saturday I went to a football game. Note that I am not a football person. At. All. We only went because Girlfriend works at the university that was playing my Alma mater and we scored four free tickets to the game (including food) and brought along my best friend (former roommate who also went to the same school) and her husband to watch our boys play their first game of the season. About 4 minutes into the game I had a serious revelation. ALL throughout college (giving tours, doing orientation stuff, volunteer stuff, working on campus, etc.) you always had to wear khaki pants/shorts/skirts with a maroon shirt. I always thought they wanted us to wear khakis because they were neutral and looked somewhat professional with the shirts and everyone owns khakis. Um, yeah. No. People, our school colors were maroon and gold. Our shirts were always maroon. With khakis...maroon and gold. WOW. I processed this revelation out loud as it was occurring in my brain and here is what happened.

Former roommate: You just realized this?

Me: Yes!

FR: Like, just now.

Me: Uh, huh. I know, ten years too late.

FR: I can't believe they gave you a degree.

Me: Totally did, and it's a degree to teach!

I think I'm funny

Today we were talking about the moon. More specifically what they think they know, and what they are wondering so I can *hopefully* tailor some of my lessons to answer their questions/fix their knowledge to be scientifically accurate. Here is a snippet of how it went:

Child: I am wondering if anyone has explored the dark side and how they did it if it's so dark?

Me: That's a great question! {writing on chart paper} Has anyone explored the dark side of the moon? Maybe you're wondering how in the world, or rather how in the moon, we know so much?

[crickets]

Me: (still laughing at myself) How in the moon, get it? Ahh, at least I think I'm funny.