Birthday, Bachelorette Party, and Wedding

Currently Listening Greatest Hits By Huey Lewis & The News see related

A lot has happened since I wrote last - Jimi and I gained an apartment, lost that apartment, got our engagement pictures taken, booked our honeymoon, he got a great job with the state, I'm still waiting on 3 schools to call, I've had 1 bridal shower, and next there are 2 on the way.  It's been major ups and downs, but we definitely have a lot to be happy about! 

Three days ago we thought we had pretty much secured an apartment here in Topeka - then we found out that we make too much money to live there!  The people at the complex conveniently left out a very important detail - that ALL of the apartments they have are Section 42.  So, since we didn't qualify for a lower monthly rent, we had to say goodbye to our $30 application fee (from each of us, since we're not married yet!) and start back at square one.  This all makes us sound like retards - but I promise you, we had talked about the possibility of us making too much money, and thought that even if that was the case, they could just increase our monthly rate and we could still stay there - that's what their sister apartment told us anyway!!  Oh, it was so frustrating.  So, Jimi and I spent all yesterday afternoon calling apartments from the phone book and the classifieds in the newspaper and after almost 25 calls, we came out with 3 possibilities.  I'm going to look in the paper again today...

In other news, Miranda just met with us Thursday to take our engagement pictures.  We were both a little worried that she was cutting it too close - but there was crazy weather here recently!  It was raining and freezing just a little over a week ago!  Anyway, she took over 100 pictures of us at Gage Park in only 30 minutes and had them loaded online the next day.  We're also getting a cd of all the pictures in the mail.  That will basically be our negatives, since they were all digital pix.  Now all I have to do is email our annoucement to the paper...

Like I said earlier, we were also able to book our honeymoon to Tampa.  Since Jimi got an awesome job with the state, he'll only be able to request off 1 day, so we're taking it June 7-10.  It will be like a long weekend trip, but it'll be nice to have some time to recover from the reception and fix up our apartment a little before we leave.  We're staying in the Embassy Suites close to Busch Gardens.  We've planned a day to the beach, a night for a nice dinner out, and a day for the amusement park (Jimi's excited about the free beer, haha). 

Well I hope everyone has a good weekend!  Until later, Andrea

Spring Break here I come!

Jimi and I are headed off to Wichita for the week!  My mom and brother are meeting us down there Wednesday so my mom can get some stuff done around the house.  When we come back it'll be fun trying to fit all of my bridal shower stuff in my room!  I just really need a classroom to put all of my filing cabinets, books, prizes, paper, and other random school supplies in.  I hope everyone else had/has a great spring break  :o)  Love, Andrea  

Currently Listening The Black Parade By My Chemical Romance see related

Apartment-Hunting

Today Jimi and I are going to get our first apartment tour in Topeka.  We're going to look at Villa West this afternoon.  We're both really excited about it - Jimi's brother and stepdad both work there and they have very reasonable prices for their two bedroom units.  We have two more tours at different apartment complexes tomorrow and then we'll start registering at Target tomorrow afternoon! 

I had my second interview with Shawnee Heights...it went well and they were impressed with the resume/transcript/test score/cover letter packet I made up for each person on the panel.  They grilled me a little bit, which was kind of humorous since I just got done working two months for their district.  The superintendent told me that they will have 14 positions available for this fall since they're going to all-day kindergarten.  I tried to make it clear that I wasn't really interested in kindergarten, though.  I'm betting it will be another month until they call me about a job offer since they still have to go to all of the Education Interview Days at the various colleges in Kansas.  Oh well, at least I have two more interviews set up.  They are for Gardner-Edgerton and Auburn-Washburn.  Both are scheduled for next week...wish me luck!

Second interview!

Last week I got a call from the Shawnee Heights school district.  I got a second interview for a teaching position!  On Feb. 28th I will be interviewed by a panel of about 6 people - 2 of whom I've already met.  The panel consists of the 4 elementary school principals, 1 superintendent, and the curriculum coordinator for the district.  I'm very happy about it, and although I'm a little nervous, I feel fairly confident because I now know 2 of the principals from student teaching at SHES and my long-term sub. position at Tecumseh South. 

In other news, I was able to go out with 2 of my good friends from Washburn last night!  It was so good to see them again and although the time went by far too quickly last night.  I feel much better about them living in KC, though.  I had this fear that we would grow apart, but I've realized that they're doing relatively the same things I am - 1 is planning her wedding and subbing and the other is working a temporary job at a prep school.  It was so great to catch up - I can't wait to have another girl's night! 

Tonight, Jimi and I are celebrating Valentine's Day early.  We're going out to eat tonight since Valentine's Day is on a week night and I'm usually pretty tired after teaching all day.  Our wedding planning is going well now.  After we contemplated Maine for our honeymoon we have since decided that it would be too expensive and we'd rather go some place a bit warmer.  I've done quite a lot of research and now we're leaning toward Florida, possibly Tampa.  We really want to go to Busch Gardens for a day - I love the fact that we both love theme parks so much!  Doing all of this research and seeing pictures of the beautiful beaches there is making me want summer so much! 

I'm really looking forward to this summer because I'll be able to get my future classroom ready, cook for Jimi, arrange our future place, tan, and catch up with friends!