...an angel's face is tricky to wear constantly...

well since there are no scheduled days off in march for school, we were lucky to get a snow day today. jim still had to go to work, of course.

the past few weeks have been busy but good. two saturdays ago, we had a nice lunch with cindy, allie, payal, laurie, and adam at the olive garden (gross restaurant, good company). cindy should be in for my birthday as well! i love those girls. they are super goofy. after lunch laurie, allie and adam came over to hang out for a little, and then my parents came over. the plan was to make tacos for dinner and andrew and carolyn were going to come look at wedding invitations that my parents could print for them. tacos were yummy and it was a fun, chill night. the next day jim had a hockey game and then we went to jason and courtney's for courtney's birthday. she made english muffin pizzas and we played scrabble. i forgot how fun that game is!

this past weekend we went to my cousin's place to hang out with my aunt and uncle, and my cousin's girlfriend was in from israel. jim and i made eggplant parm, pasta and salad for lunch, and everyone chowed down and enjoyed it. my aunt also made me a week's worth of carrot soup, lots of fudge, and lots of dried mangos. awesome. jim and i played bubble bobble on the arcade. also i had to explain the differences between an israeli wedding and a (secular) american wedding. apparently, in israel, they don't have bridesmaids or groomsmen. hopefully she will be in america to come to our wedding! i don't think she's ever been to an american wedding before. anyway later that night i went to work at a RU meet and the girls did really well. sunday jim had a hockey game, and then we stocked up on food for the snow day.

now i am trying to get wedding stuff done and clean the apartment, mostly the bedroom cause it's a disaster.

7 months to go!!!!

valentines weekend:
friday i was supposed to go to the firkenteeth in philly with arwen, but we opted to wait until next month. we had a short day at school but it was packed with parties. there was a staff breakfast, then the AM class had an ice cream party... something about eating ice cream at 9:30am that was odd. then we did crafts and games and it was just insane. we had about 20 min to recover before the PM class came in. luckily they were a lot calmer and we had a nice relaxing party. phew. then arwen and i went to lunch and burrito royale and happy hour at chevys. friday night my cousin came over and he brought us a 10.5% stout, which was intense. we watched the devils game and it was general fun times. also, jim bought me 5 sunflowers, instead of roses<3... and he brought home a huge container of olives, cheese and grape leaves. perfect! i bought him two new 22oz brews to try.

saturday we left around 9:30 to go to albany. it was very much a throwback to the earlier days of our relationship, when we used to go to albany several times during the hockey season, sometimes even staying overnight to see two games in a weekend. we got to the area around 12:30 to get our tickets and then headed off for lunch at a new brewpub i had discovered in troy. we did a sampler and i loved the cherry raspberry ale. the hefe was a little flat. jim liked the brown, and the stout was also very smooth for a 8.2%. the dunkel was so nasty, we didn't even finish it. we ordered lunch and a pint of our favorites. i tried to get a 22oz of the cherry raspberry but they ran out, so we got a pint glass and were on our way to the mall... there's not much to do in albany but that, haha. after the mall we parked by the arena and went to gillan's, where jim proceeded to kick my ass in air hockey and bubble boy hockey. so fun... gillians was where we spent new years eve in 2003. after that we got some chinese food, and headed into the game. it was strange to not cheer for the river rats.... the game was really fun and actually very close. the devils actually won, 7-4!!!!! i think out of all the lowell devils/river rats games we've seen, we've maybe seen them win 2 times. the game was fun and there were good fights and good goals. after the game we stopped by the albany pump station, which is the first microbrew that we ever went to.... so it's the originator of our microbrew obsession. i wanted to try the hefe but it was kicked, so i tried the pale ale which was nice and light. jim had another dunkel that he dubbed his favorite beer of the trip. they were kicking kegs left and right, so we got lucky we could try those. great success in albany! the ride home was long, but the trip was fantastic and a fun valentines day.

friday we slept in, ran some errands and headed over to his mommy's house for a little gathering. we met the mom's new bf, who was very nice and friendly. we ate too much, watched the devils win, and killed a few bottles of wine. jim's cousin stopped by too, and he's very entertaining. after that we went next door to play with the girls, and the older cousins were there too for a sleepover. i took kate over to meet the new bf, which she was very nervous about. after that, then kristen had to go there too so i carried her in her feetie pjs, and of course everyone wanted to give her kisses and chocolate and juice, haha. after they had both had their goodnight kisses from all respective parties next door, i helped kate try to learn how to do a handstand. then the girls were showing me their cheerleading moves, and danced to high school musical 2. then we played hide and seek. then it was time to get the girls to start winding down so we could get them to bed. the three older cousins were chatting it up with jim, and then i was talking to one of them about how much they hated high school. it's weird because his 3 older cousins used to be sooo shy and never talk to us, but now they just yap away and tell us everything. it's great! overall, another successful and fun weekend<3.

other fun stuff....
*my mema's birthday was at my aunt and uncle's house and that was a lot of fun, as always, chillin with my cousins and family. my mema is so awesome, 87 years old and still going strong. i love her.
*i ordered my wedding dress!!!!!!!!! my mom and i went to the city and found THE dress. it was so much fun. we had a nice day and tried on lots of dresses and then we ate yummy falafels for lunch. rock on.
*we went to the city for my mom's birthday, and had vietnamese food. i had this veggie "cassorolle" which was more like a veggie hot pot, with tofu skin, fresh veggies, and clear noodles in brown sauce. my dad had this insane seafood hot pot. everyone else's food was also the good. jim was all fired up for  some reason, and he was very entertaining. my brother's girlfriend came too, so jim and i got to meet her for the first time. she's very sweet, and seems to fit in nicely with the family. the day ended with us getting cupcakes from crumbs, super yum.
*d's hockey game was at 7:15am on superbowl sunday. it was so cute to see the mini mites on ice. dylan complained about being tired and kept skating over to tim, but then he'd come out and score a goal. after the game, we went to white castle at 9am,which was gross and good at the same time. on the way back, i made jim stop because i saw a bunch of llamas and donkeys hanging out, so i needed to check them  out and take pictures. so random.
*superbowl party at scott and jenn's was the usual fun... drinking, food and laurie and i being silly. we didn't really care about the game or the commercials this year.

that's all folks...

i want to write more cause i want to remember. its already 2009. in a few months i will be 27 years old...aahhh.
some random stuff, not really resolutions, just stuff to work on:
keeping the dishes out of the sink!!
lots of hiking
plan and have a kickass wedding
not take things for granted and really appreciate all i have.

2009 has gotten off to a good start. i am settling back into my work/gymnastics/tutoring schedule. it has been really cold lately so jim and i have spent a lot of time cooking (keeps the apt warm!), and generally keeping warm inside. since the holidays, our weekends haven't been as busy, so we're able to spend more time with each other. :) plus wedding planning seems to be going along smoothly so far... we will probably book the photographer this week. but that's all in my other LJ.

this past weekend we went to philly with arwen and ronnie to see a phantoms/devils hockey game. it was a great game and arwen was hardcore philly to counteract our hardcore nj. afterwards we tried a new cheesesteak place and it was yum.

today we have off.... tomorrow obama is sworn in as president. so exciting!

good stuff coming up....
rutgers gymnastics home meets
my mema's birthday
superbowl!
wedding tasting
albany for valentines day!

apparently i am into making lots of lists.

( because i wrote a lotCollapse )

i read 68.5 books this year. i just finished my 69th book today so i don't know if i should count it. maybe i should cause it's 69. ha. but i far surpassed my original thought of 50 books. we'll see what 2009 brings.

i am going to try to do a december update tomorrow. so much stuff has been going on and i want to keep track of it, because it's  been so fun. 2008 really ended with an amazing month. i love all my friends and family that were part of it, and feel so lucky to have had such an awesome time. now it's less than 9 months until jimbo and i get married!

we have a place! we have a date! 09.26.09!!!!!!!!

well a lot has been going on...

*kate turned 6 and we had a super fun time at her party. she got a guitar so she rocks out like hannah montana. i ran around with the kids most of the time. jim tortured his teenage cousins. good times.

*dylan turned 5. we went up to tim's place and there was a little family party. the kids (and 20 something year old kids!) went hiking in the woods and ended up in the back of an elementary school. we played touch football and dylan kicked everyone's butt. haha. he's a spunky little guy. we ate lots of food and tim made him what was supposed to be a hockey puck cake, which turned out to be purple. then dylan had a purple face after eating the cake. we got him a mini hockey game and a whoopie cushion. guess what his favorite present was....

*happy hour has been awesome. i love working with dana and she is so much fun in school and outside of school. we really get along and i feel a great friendship forming with her. i also love going out with my other co workers as they are tons of fun.

*two weekends ago was crazy fun. friday we had an awesome taco night with carolyn and andrew, which included lots of rice and beans, pumpkinhead, and me singing "la bamba" on guitar hero IV, among others. my parents came down saturday and we visited THE place! my dad even said it was a home run. it's perfect. even though we wanted to immediately put in a hold the date, we still went to visit a winery that i had found that does weddings. we did a wine tasting and it was yummy. the place itself was nice but too far away and again, the place we'd been to before was IT. after that we went out to round grill and ate a lot. then, i got devils tickets from the Y and we went to the game with my parents. devils won 6-1 but marty got hurt.... bad news for the devils. kate, mike and  melissa were there, so they drove us home from the train station but we stopped to meet their new puppy on the way. maggie is a golden retriever/sharpei mix, and she's super cute. the next day i worked a gymnastics birthday party, and then we went to scott and jenn's to watch the giants v the cowboys. this was a lot of fun and again, i did the vocals on guitar hero IV. it's like a super awesome kareoke.

*tuesday we voted. obama won. all is good with the world, and i can have my last name back, for 10.5 months at least. i still get asked if i'm related to sarah palin.

*thursday i had off and didn't have my car so i did a bunch of stuff around the apt. friday jim took off and we sent out for wilkes-barre, pa. on the way, we almost ate at arby's (phew, dodged a bullet there!), went to hickory run state park, drove around in the woods looking for the boulder field hike, found the hike, it was forever, and we had to turn around before we even got to boulder field. we went into wilkes-barre, where there is nothing to do, got our tix, ate at chili's cause there were no cool places to eat.... the hockey game was brutal, caruso giving up 4 goals in the first 10 min. WB's team has a penguin mascot named tux, who was awesome. we also sat two rows in front of chris terreri, former devils goalie. jim had chris autograph some cards, and then on the way out chris said "take it easy, guys." awesome. we couldn't get any more autographs since the bus was loading below street level, so we headed back, stopping at a little brewpub in tannersville, pa. it was a cute log cabin -ish place. they had the best orange unfiltered belgian wheat, it was yummmm. we got a mix and match six pack and a pint glass.

*friday we got up early to get my car, then i went to the Y for another bunch of devs tix. then we went to get my brother at his new place, promptly causing us to get lost in the ghetto. we picked him up and went to my parents' house for a quick hello. then we were off to super duper weenie in fairfield, ct. jim and matt both ate two hotdogs, while i enjoyed my veggie burger that smelled like a pb&j sandwich. then we went to southport brewing company, where we met joanne and her bf, matt. we had a couple of pints then headed off to the game. matt (brother) and jim watched the game and joanne and i caught up. it was so good to see her.... we have been friends on and off since roughly the 3rd grade! we had such a good time talking about all the stupid stuff we've done over the years. the game itself was great, but the lowell devils lost in OT. we dropped joanne off and headed back to NJ... we didn't get back to the apt until midnight, so for the first time in 5 years, we missed andrew's halloween party. very sad, but it was such a good time in CT.

*sunday we slept in, jim was super tired from all the driving. we went food shopping then to his mom's place to rake leaves. kate and kristen were with the puppy in the backyard, so i played with them all afternoon while jim ended up "mowing" the leaves. i love those girls. then we went to baja fresh for dinner and melissa talked up all the wedding stuff and about kate being a flower girl (which she is so excited about). then we headed off to the train station for the third hockey game of the weekend. my parents were already in their seats when jim and i got there. the game was fun but the devils are seriously depleated because of injury, so they lost 2-1. it was great spending more time with my parents :)

so to put it in perspective.... we saw three hockey games, in three days, in three different states. awesome!

i have been neglecting this journal. sorry.

we've been keeping busy.... i think we found a place for the wedding.  i am still deciding between these two places. but that's info on my wedding LJ.

my life has been school, gymnastics, wedding planning, and enjoying whatever free time we get. so far we've gone on two hikes this season; one in cheesequake state park, which was kind of wussy but still fun. the second one was in washington valley park, which was nice because it was partially along the water, and then in the woods. we found an awesome tarzan swing, literally a huge, flexible tree branch hanging from a tree, and played tarzan in the woods. awesome. that was this past weekend.

we helped jimbo's mom move into her new place. it's a nice little house, perfect for her and right next to melissa and the family. that move was quite an ordeal but it was worth it in the end. now she doesn't have to worry about gross people in her complex and bed bugs. we also helped jason and courtney move, well we helped them move the little stuff, so now everyone is settled in their respective habitat.

we went to a patriots game with tim and dylan, which was a double header that ended in fireworks. the NJ devil was there, and he stopped to sign dylan's  ticket stub and no one else's. cause dylan is the coolest. plus one of the guards gave dylan a baseball. we had fun dancing around on the grass and watching the game. amazingly we ran into them at a devils pre season game.. we had no idea they were coming! jim happened to look behind him on the escalator and saw tim and dylan. we had an awesome time even though the devils lost. it was entertaining to help tim shove popcorn down dylan's shirt... and then dylan did it right back. then a puck hit a player in his upper thigh area and jim goes "oooh right in the kiningie!" in true fat bastard/austin powers style... which dylan turned to tim and said, "dad, what's a kiningie?"

my brother turned 22 and we went to nyc to the dinosaur bbq grill. mooooo.

phil and eva's wedding was on sept 21st. it was so much fun... the ceremony itself was the whole church ceremony and it was bo-ring. there was some lady singing in polish, i think, and a lot of standing and sitting and kneeling (well no kneeling for jewish me). however phil couldn't wipe the smile off his face and eva looked gorgeous. halfway through the ceremony jim rolled his eyes and sighed and we both silently agreed that our ceremony was going to be short and sweet. after the ceremony we waited outside the church and  blew bubbles. phil and eva popped a bottle of champagne, and people just hung around since the reception wasn't for nearly another 2 hours. we hung out with jason and courtney, and chatted with a friend that jim has known since HS and also with jim's frosh year roommate. then we made our way over to t the reception and were greeted with champagne and strawberries. yum. the cocktail hour was insane.... there was this huge display of cheese and nuts (boo!), fruit, veggies, shrimp, oysters, etc. then they had like 5 different carving stations... and some of the yummiest eggplant parm evar. they also had a martini bar, where courtney and i got lots of yummy flavored martinis. we sat at a table with jason and courtney, along with another couple, who the guy had played on jim's hockey team. it was very entertaining, especially with the table of troublemakers right next to us. the reception was a lot of fun, and we danced through most of it. the food was really good as well, veggie lasagna! it was a really nice wedding, and i am so happy for phil and eva... they are quite the awesome!

the next weekend was carolyn's birthday and we went out to stuff yer face for the evening. they had shipyard pumpkinhead ale on tap! all the way from portland, maine. it was an awesome night out in new brunswick and it was great to chat it up with some people who i haven't seen in awhile. plus i got to hangout with my bff. and for the record, he did not drunk dial my mom.

on one of my days off, i went down to arwen's house for a repeat of mexican madness. unfortunately it was a lot smaller, and not as much food, but we still had fun. we need to start doing it like, once a month. i love chillin at arwen's place with her and ronnie. also, now they have a parrot  which is all kinds of entertaining.

last week was yom kippur and we went to my parents' house for dinner. it was small, with my family, jim, a friend of my brother, and the singers. my mom made so much food and it was all goodness.... matzah ball soup with my grandma's noodles, sweet potato mashed potatoes, spaghetti squash lasagna, turkey, brisket, wheat berries and veggies, yummmmmmmmmmmm. i was so stuffed. we took a bunch of food home and it was gone within two days. i wish i could cook like my mom.

im done typing.

well school has started... our school had so many classrooms added on that i go days without going down those new wings. it was good to see everyone (that i like) after the summer. pre k is going better than i expected. i really like the teacher im working with, she is like the pre school guru. she is fantastic with the kids and seems to know exactly what they need. the classes are 2.5 hours long, with one AM session and one PM session. we have a mix of special ed and "typicals" as the teacher calls them. the kids overall, are so good. they are very sweet and are smiley and fun. the day has been running pretty smoothly, as our routine gets easier as the kids learn how to play school. so far so good. i do miss being able to go to special with kids, and i miss my little angel so much. i am really trying to find out where she went.

other stuff....
*thursday we watched the first giants game at scott and jenn's. this included yuenglings, making fun of scott's brother all night, andrew throwing the cat toys at me, and the boys dissappearing into the bar room for expensive scotch. nice.

*friday jim's hockey team won the division title! it was a great game, even though jim got a game misconduct and was sitting in the box for the last 9 minutes, haha.

*we did the first official school year happy hour... it went really well. we had like 10 teachers there, and it was good fun.

*saturday it rained and rained and rained. still we went to get pizza for lunch, and met adam and laurie for baja fresh. they both got new jobs, yay! they came back to our place, and the night continued with massive amounts of youtube, and i realize i like guiness more than i thought.

*sunday was a cook a thon with a visit from jim's mom.

*gymnastics started this week, and it seems to be going ok. enrollment is pretty low, but for some reason i had a class of 9 preschoolers and then a class of 7 six to eight year olds. luckily they were kids ive had in the past so they knew how to behave in the class. still, they had to wait a long time for turns. i have been using the gym there on nights i work, but other nights i don't know if i can squeeze by the front desk. since i don't have a rutgers id (hence my alumni status) i technically shouldn't use the gym. but still, i am considered staff, part time. i have to find out how i can get a fit check card. i like the gym but it get really crowded. i wish i could go on days i don't work.

*i need to call places.

12 hours from now, i will be sitting in the HS for staff orienation for the 2008-09 school year. i am sad that i am not going back as a one on one aide for my little darling, who has sadly moved somewhere that i don't know where. i am sad that i am not going as a teacher. but still, i am glad at least i have a job and a new challenge. i will be working in the brand new integrated pre school program. the class will be 10 regular ed kids, and 6 with developmental delays. it's a half day program. i am trying to go into this situation positively, as when i found out where i was placed, i was so upset. i wanted to be in 2nd grade and resource with my little darling. but as my wise collegue said to me, and as i always believe, everything happens for a reason. so we will see what this year will bring.

some highlights over the past few weeks:
*the olympics were amazing. i love watching the gymnastics... so fantastic. there is a lot of controversy surrounding the chinese women, but the american women, and men, had a fantastic competition. nothing like 1996, but a close 2nd. i was so tired from staying up to watch the meets.

*jim went to phil's bachelor party on the 16th, and i went to arwen and ronnie's and had mexican mania! arwen and i had fresh strawberry margaritas, and an insane amount of food. i made rice and beans along with chicken quesadillas; arwen made about a ton of dips, bought like 5 different kinds of chips, made mexican cole slaw and corn cakes for dessert. good times. we need to do it again soon.

*free patriots tickets via the YMCA. woohoo!

*the devils street team came to the Y and i met grant marshall, and did a 'lets go devils' chant with him. the NJ devil was there and used the gymnastics area to swing on the bars, and do front tucks off the springboard in full costume. we got lots of free devils stuff and autographs. it was cool to see grant marshall playing hockey with the kids and taking slapshots on one of the teen campers.

*the philadelphia zoo trip was so awesome. best zoo EVAR.

*the talent show went really well, the girls did great! the other camps had some good acts as well.

*the 23/24th was little kid birthday extravaganza. saturday we were down in cherry hill for a pirate themed first birthday. sunday was kristen's 2nd birthday, which included a cupcake birthday cake, an insane amount of pizza, 6 little girls running around the house (and me following close behind), and kate tying me up to the basement post with her scarf. love those kids.

*the trips for camp went really well, we had a good group of kids and we didn't lose anyone. going to the waterpark two days in a row was fun.

*my mom came down wednesday and we did wedding stuff. that's all on my wedding journal. yay! wedding!

*this long weekend went too fast. friday we hung out with my cousin, who is back from his summer in israel. niiice. saturday was a lazy day..at night we put a good dent in the bacardi. we also got the best jersey corn on the cob evar. sunday we helped jason and courtney move into the new place, and nerisca and eric came over later that day and we had a feast of smothered chicken, brown and wild rice with veggies, and steamed veggie medley. today we cleaned... the.entire.apartment. the bedroom is still a disaster area. we threw out like 3 garbage bags of stuff. hopefully this will make it easier to move out, which could be happening in june.

*jim got new glasses and he looks hot(ter).

yawn.

bah.

camp is bah. our campers are cute. nothing gets done unless one of our counselors plan it/do it/set it up. we are constantly yelling/disciplining kids from other camps. the  counselors are lazy. the camp coordinator is a moron. we're ready to throw in the towel. we win for most ghetto/unorganized camp evar. i would want to work at another camp, but to teach gymnastics in a camp and get paid what i get paid and get a free Y membership has me suckin it up.

weekend highlights
*going to a bbq at jim's uncle & aunt's place... i got to play with lucy doggie, eat lots of good food, and hang out with baby kaiden. we will be doing it again in a month for kaiden's birthday.
*hanging out with laurie and adam... we watched the mets game, played guitar hero, and had lots of blue moon. they are always good times.
* cooking lots of eggplant parm and having jimbo's mom over for dinner.

i went on an interview on thursday for an academic support position. i thought it went well but i didn't get a call back, probably because they were interviewing for 3 days... which means a lot of candidates. public education hates me. new career? at least i still have my contract for sept for my aide position. im thinking of seeing if the community college has a tutoring program i can work in, maybe to help in writing or in ESL. there's always gymnastics, which regardless of the shitiness of camp, i still love coaching and spotting and having the girls learn new skills.

last weekend:
*i did not go to jim's hockey game and felt bad. i will go this friday.
*saturday jim worked to help move his company to the new office (over 45 min away!) but he still has a job. *fingers crossed* boo bad housing market.
*saturday night we went to chili's for dinner~home of our first date. jason joined us and we had a good heart to heart. as much as he's a pain in my ass i still love my future brother-in-law.
*sunday we went to spend the day with my bro and my parents. since my parents were coming back from the poconos, my mom delegated my brother, jim, and i to cook dinner. we make a ton of churkey (chicken and turkey) lasagna and a yummy salad. then for leftovers for the week, we made like 15 chicken fajitas. yum. we also got a lot of wedding talk done, and of course my emotions got the best of me for several times. my parents rock... there's no other way about it. <3

now that jim and i have been carpooling, it's been interesting... i like him dropping me off and picking me up, but it gets boring at the Y. i work out for awhile but i get so sore between coaching and running around after the kids all day... plus i do all the conditioning they do, then i go to the gym for at least an hour. i wish i could take a class, the elliptical gets bo-ring. one of the camp coordinators (that i like!) teaches zumba... i want to do that! but it's at 7pm on mondays. jim gets me at 6. i get to the Y at 8am. not driving home to just drive back again.

done and done.