Sonic for dinner and the NBA draft

What has happened to me that I’m watching the NBA draft?  It must be that there isn’t anything good on t.v.  I don’t know any of these players, I don’t even get how this draft thing works with trades and such.  I’m just curious as to who the Spurs will pick when it’s their turn. 

I have to give a shout out to my friend Andrew who inspired my dinner choice for tonight.  I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted and he keeps mentioning the Asiago Chicken sandwiches from Sonic.  So I headed out and picked up a combo with tots and a root beer.  I also added a caramel oreo shake which was quite good.  Now I’m fairly stuffed.  The sandwich was very good but I thought I’d ordered the club sandwich but there wasn’t any bacon. 

I’m going to keep this short and sweet for tonight.  Be on the lookup for my seven quick takes post tomorrow. 

Wedding, wedding, wedding stuff

I have to take a benadryl or sleeping pill to get to sleep lately.  I cannot seem to close my mind down and get wedding stuff out of my head.  I’m thinking about flowers, musicians, decorations, things to take, things to do, and so on.  I took my dress into a seamstress on Monday to have the sleeves altered.  It was a little more expensive than I anticipated, but she didn’t charge me a rush fee since I need it in two weeks and it was less than I paid for the dress.  I’ll be able to pick it up on July 4.  I’m leaving to go to Canyon on the 6th. 

I finally got an estimate from a florist in Amarillo and I thought it was a bit high.  I knew that wedding flowers would be expensive, but the bridal bouquet alone was going to be about $200.  I contacted a florist in Canyon and went a different route.  I gave them my budget up front and limited it to just the essentials.  We’ll see if they can come through for me. 

I’m still trying to find a flute player to play in the wedding.  Josh wrote a woodwind quintet piece and it’s crucial that I get a flute player.  I’m hoping the horn player that I got from WT will be able to get someone.  I thought having my wedding in the middle of band camp would allow me to have some options, but it’s more of a hindrance at this point.  Most people I’ve asked can’t play because of the concerts going on that day. 

I’m thinking about going to see The Fault in Our Stars tomorrow.  I need to make sure I have lots of tissues to take though.  I enjoyed the book when I read it, but the book itself made me cry.  I should be doing a lot of reading this summer, but I haven’t found anything that has really grabbed me.  I did read the latest Janet Evanovich book though.  It’s a quick and easy read and a summer tradition. 

7 Quick Takes Week 2

--- 1 ---

Spurs won the NBA finals!  I really thought that the last game would be tougher for them.  They didn’t get off to a very good start, but once I changed my shirt, they started playing better – not that I’m superstitious or anything.  Matt and I went to Academy Sports after the game on Sunday to get championship shirts.  We had to wait in line an hour and fifteen minutes before we got into the store.  On Wednesday we went to the Championship River Parade.  I got there a few hours early to get a good spot – which I did, but I wished I would have taken a blanket or some kind of cushion to sit on. 

 

--- 2 ---

So my last day of work was a week ago.  I spent all of Saturday being a complete slug.  I didn’t even change out of my pajamas all day.  I even talked Matt into going to the store for me just to get a can of cat food for Lucy who was out.  I haven’t done a whole lot this week though I’ve done some wedding stuff.  I still haven’t found a horn and flute player and I’m getting a little worried.  I’ll be sending out an all call to my band director friends soon. 

--- 3 ---

I spent most of Thursday driving all over town getting wedding stuff.  I went to two different Half Priced Books stores in search of an old book to use for my ring bearer’s book/pillow.  I went to two different Party City locations to get the plates, napkins, cups, and other things for the reception.  I went to Sam Moon to get some bling for my bridesmaids.  I had lunch at Panera.  I didn’t get home until almost 9:00.  I had a fairly raging headache by the time I got here, but took some headache medicine and ate dinner and it quickly subsided.   

--- 4 ---

Have I mentioned lately how much I love living in San Antonio?  Even though I had to drive all over town today, the traffic wasn’t really that bad.  I still smile when I drive by downtown and sometimes I still can’t believe I’ve lived here for almost three years now.   

--- 5 ---

We’ve gotten some new dinnerware sets as wedding presents and I think they are very nice, but I have one problem – the dinner plates don’t fit in my upper cabinets.  I don’t have room for a hutch to display them either.  I guess I’m going to have to find a place to put them in one of the bottom cabinets which is just weird for me.   

--- 6 ---

I had to renew my library card this week.  It expired over a month ago, but they require people to renew it in person.  Since I had to head downtown for the river parade on Wednesday, I just parked in the library parking lot, renewed my card, and checked out a book to read.  I’m going to try to get some reading done this summer.  I set a goal of reading 52 books this year and I’m about 8 books behind at the moment.  Then again, I spent the last two weeks rereading the Harry Potter series.   

--- 7 ---

Matt and I need to find wedding rings soon.  Matt will be fairly easy – he just wants something simple.  My engagement ring is pretty unique which makes it more difficult to find something that works with it.  I think that will be our task on Monday. 

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Trying 7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

So this blog I read has been doing 7 quick takes posts almost every Friday and I have really enjoyed the format of it.  I thought I’d give it a try myself since I’ve been a very bad blogger lately.  But I’m full of excuses!  I have a wedding coming up!  I’ve been finishing school!  The NBA finals are on!   

--- 2 ---

Can you believe that I’ve become a basketball fan?  I was NEVER into sports until I met Matt and moved to San Antonio.  You cannot live here and not be a Spurs fan.  It’s infectious.  But I am and they are doing great in the finals.  They killed Miami in the last two games on Miami’s turf.  I think they might close it out on Sunday, but I think it will be a much tougher game – the Heat will be giving it everything they’ve got.  I think the Spurs are just a better team this year.   

--- 3 ---

Today was my last day of work for the school year.  Yay for summer break!  I actually finished early and am already home sitting on my couch.  Most of my friends up in the panhandle have been out for two weeks now.  I am looking forward to sleeping in, napping, watching tv, reading, and finalizing the wedding plans.   

--- 4 ---

My wedding is less than a month away now.  It’s coming much faster than I’m ready for.  Now that school’s out, I still have several things to get done.  I still need a flute and horn player for the service.  I need to order wedding flowers.  I need to finalize the rehearsal dinner list.  I need to figure out wedding attendant gifts.  I need to figure out all the reception stuff – decorations, food, etc.  I think I’ll get started on all of that tomorrow.  

--- 5 ---

The new dog Angie has been a very bad dog.  I think I’m going to have to totally baby proof the house.  Lately she has taken to tearing up books.  The first one was left out by me – my fault.  The second and third ones, however, she actually took off the shelf and chewed up.  Her chew toys last no more than five minutes before they are de-squeaked and unstuffed.  I have found something that she is afraid of though – bubble wrap.  If I pop the bubbles, she runs and hides.  This is the dog that tries to attack the vacuum cleaner and likes the hair dryer.   

--- 6 ---

I have lots of bubble wrap because Matt and I have been getting wedding presents!  We hadn’t really planned on doing a registry, but since so many people were asking us if we had one, I created one on Amazon and another on Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  We now have three sets of matching dishes!  We also have a new kitchen clock and a wedding photo frame.  We also have gift cards to Home Depot and Lowe’s that will probably get used this summer. 

--- 7 ---

Matt is taking me out to dinner tonight to celebrate my last day of work.  Not sure where we will go yet.  The thing about San Antonio is that there are LOTS of restaurants to choose from.  That’s why I’ve gained about 20 pounds since moving here.  I’m going to try to behave by only eating half of my dinner and saving the rest for lunch tomorrow. 

So what do you think about the quick takes format?  At least I can try to make sure I post something every Friday – maybe that will bring some life back to my blog.  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Just Stuff

I went up to Amarillo last weekend to get some wedding stuff done.  I picked out tuxedo stuff for Matt and the groomsmen.  I finally met with the music director and picked out all the music.  I was going to meet with the florist, but they weren’t available.  I booked a restaurant for the rehearsal dinner as well.  My friend Pam who is my maid of honor helped me with everything.  It was nice to be able to spend time with her.  I also got to see my dad and brother while there.  It rained every day that I was there.  I also had to drive through some pretty rough weather both up there and on the way back. 

I also got to eat Taco Villa (twice) and I picked up Donut Stop donuts to bring back home. 

This week has been just crazy at work.  I’m working nonstop all day on trying to find missing books, scanning in textbooks, and trying to wrap things up for the end of the year.  I still have two more weeks of work to get through.  On Monday we are having a Scrabble tournament for some of my students. 

I’ve sent the wedding invitations out but still have to send a few more and also find some new addresses for returned ones.  We got our first wedding gift in the mail yesterday and it made me laugh.  It was a book titled “When Sinners Say ‘I Do’”  At first I thought it might have been from Matt’s mother, but it turns out that it was from my friend Bret who is a Baptist minister.  I’m not sure if I should be offended, amused, or just thankful.  I will certainly write a thank you note, but it may take me a while to figure out what to say.  It’s a very fundamentalist gift for a Catholic couple.  Perhaps it will yield some good information – I guess I should try to read it with an open mind.  I know that Bret does not appreciate the fact that I became a Catholic, but I’m happy with my choice.  If I hadn’t, I might never have met Matt or have the wonderful experiences that I did with St. Ann’s in Canyon.

Matt and I just got back from dinner.  We went to a new (to me) Mexican restaurant and the food was really good.  I could only eat half of it since I filled up on chips, queso, and a margarita.  Matt is going to watch the Pacers/Heat game.  Thankfully the Spurs made a comeback last night and played a much better game.  I think I might head upstairs and do some crafts.  I might call it an early night – I’m pretty exhausted from moving textbooks all over the place today.

Is school out yet?

It’s that time of year when the kids are getting antsy and hyper.  I’m ready for them to be done.  I have tons to do in my library, but it’s slow going at times.  I have to start my inventory tomorrow.  That means scanning all 8000+ books/av materials in the library.  I hope to get most of it done in the next three days.  I’m debating going up to the Panhandle this weekend.  I really need to be able to visit with Mary who is handling the music and talk to the florist about wedding flowers.

My wedding dress is on its way from China.  It is supposed to be here Thursday.  I hope it fits.  All my bridesmaids have gotten their dresses and they all said it fits.  The wedding is less than two months away.  Time seems to be going by really fast.  The invitations have been sent out and now it is a hurry up and wait moment. 

Life isn’t very exciting right now.  School is busy.  Spurs are playing but not as well as they should be at the moment.  I’m going to be heading to bed shortly.  I can’t watch the game when they are making dumb mistakes. 

My apologies for my absence

I haven’t intended to stay away from here – life has gotten busy as always.  So the last time I posted, I had my picture taken with Henry Winkler.  Life hasn’t been quite that exciting since then, but I’ve been doing stuff.  I had lots of testing going on at school.  I finally ordered my wedding dress which is supposed to be shipped around May 20.  My bridesmaids chose their dress and two have ordered them.  I just ordered my wedding invitations on Monday and they arrived on my doorstep today.  Guess that means I better get busy addressing them.  But now I’m waiting on my special purple calligraphy pen that I ordered.  Some of my librarian friends had a shower for me and another librarian who is having a baby this past weekend.  I’ve been watching Spurs games (sort of) and hoping that they keep up what they’ve done in the past two games.

I’ve been selling rosaries again.  I sold seven last week and have another one or two that might be bought this week.  So the little free time I find, I’ve been working on those. 

Josh called me about two weeks ago with some interesting news.  The first was that he and his girlfriend had broken up.  That wasn’t really surprising since it was a long distance thing.  He seemed ok about it.  The other news was that he had written a new piece of music that he said that he was dedicating to me.  It was a solo cello piece titled Five Characters from To Kill a Mockingbird.  The five movements focused on five characters from the book.  I thought that was really cool since it is one of my favorite books.  I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to hear it performed though.  It was going to be on Sunday evening and I had a band concert on Sunday afternoon.  Matt and I made it work and we made it during the intermission just before his piece was performed.  We had to drive back that night and didn’t get in until around 1:30 in the morning.  We had to come back since I had to deal with testing the next day. 

So life is still busy – lots of wedding stuff getting done and work is simply total chaos at the moment. 

What a week!

It’s been a long, exhausting week but very fruitful.  It started with the beginning of the state library convention.  I’ve been serving on the Local Arrangements Committee for the past year.  Even though that meant that I wouldn’t get to participate in any conference sessions and that I had to work most of the conference, it did have some great perks.  On Monday we had our last meeting and worked on getting things set up for the start of the convention on Tuesday.  Every day I had to go in early – leaving my house by 7:15, but luckily I had a parking pass to park inside the convention center.  I worked in the Placement Center which is where both job seekers and employers come to look for or post jobs and conduct some interviews during the conference.  We had some resume reviewers that came and visited with job seekers as well.  I ended up reviewing a few of the resumes as well. 

The first general session speaker was James Patterson which was very good.  The highlight of the conference for me, however, was hearing Henry Winkler.  I grew up with Happy Days and nobody was cooler than “The Fonz.”  His talk was very engaging and entertaining.  I discovered that being part of the Local Arrangements Committee gave me an even more impressive perk – we got to go down to the “green room” when he finished and had our pictures taken with him.

That was certainly the highlight of the conference for me.  He was very nice and was willing to take a picture with everyone that was in the room even though others were trying to hurry things up. 

So I made it through the conference, but haven’t caught up on sleep yet.  This morning I met my students at the school at 8:15.  We headed to their first Scrabble tournament.  My students did well – taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 8th places.  They all seemed to have fun as well.   So it was a successful weekend, but now I’m exhausted.  I’m going to do my Lumosity training shortly and then head to bed.  Matt and I have a bit of a rivalry going on with Lumosity.  There are two word games on there and I keep beating him.  He knows more words than I do, but I am a much faster typist.  Well, I better get playing so I can get to bed. 

A Trip to Houston

Today I played hooky from school and went to Houston.  Ok, I actually took a personal day with my principal’s permission, but I still took the day off.  I left around 8:30 this morning but had to stop at the bank first and fill up my tank with gas.  I got to Houston shortly before noon.  I was meeting Josh downtown in order to hear one of his pieces being performed.  He was selected earlier in the year to compose a piece for a special music project and received a commission for writing it.  His piece was performed four different times during the year and the last performance was today.  So I met him downtown to hear it.  Of course I thought it was amazing and by far the best piece.  (But, yes, I’m totally biased.)  I just thought his piece sounded more “time oriented” which was kind of the theme of the project with the performance taking place at a clock tower.  One of Matt’s friends that we have stayed with in Houston also came to hear it.  Matt didn’t go with me so I thought it was nice for Kristie to come.  She and her husband have been very hospitable to us. 

After the concert (6 pieces were performed), Josh and I went to the mall for lunch and shopping.  He bought me lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then he went clothes shopping.  He found some shirts, pants, and shoes.  I found two pairs of pants since I typically wear the same 4 every week (and jeans on Fridays).  I headed back at 5:00 which was not a great time in Houston traffic, but it wasn’t too bad.  It was slow for a while, but it kept moving at least.  I got in a little after 8:00. 

Matt and I got a surprise yesterday.  Matt’s mom sent him a card that said “Congratulations and best wishes to the two of you.”  Maybe all the prayers and intercessions we’ve been sending up are working.  I don’t know if this means she approves of me, the marriage or will even come to the wedding, but I guess we’ll take it as a hopeful sign.  That’s all we can do. 

Matt has been sick for a few days with the flu.  He went to the doctor on Thursday and got some medicine, but still tried to go back to work.  He ended up coming home after lunch and going to bed.  He did go in to work today although he probably should have stayed home.  You know he is sick if he is in bed before 10:00 – which is where he is at the moment. 

I’ll be headed there soon.  I’ve been playing the word games on Lumosity and I finally topped some of Matt’s scores.  I decided to quit while I was ahead.  I hadn’t blogged in a while so I figured I could tell you about my quick trip today.  Tomorrow I need to create a flyer for our upcoming Fiesta Concert.  I’m looking forward to sleeping in though. 

Lumosity + Grilling = Burnt Food

I got Matt a subscription to Lumosity for Valentine’s Day.  I actually got a family subscription so we’ve both been “working out” a little over a month now.  There’s a word game on there that he has become obsessed with.  It is compounded by the fact that I’ve surpassed his highest score.  He definitely has a bigger word knowledge, but I’m an extremely fast typist.  He’s slowed down because he doesn’t use the “enter” key, but uses the “click” button on his laptop.  In spite of that, he’s pretty fast.  So tonight he lit the grill and then put some hotdogs on it.  While waiting, he played his game.  And played it.  And burned the hotdogs to a crisp.  So now I’ve told him that he can’t grill and play Lumosity at the same time. 

It was a really busy day for me today.  I had to leave right after lunch to go to a meeting.  Matt and I ate at a hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant before the meeting.  After the meeting I had to run back to the school to set up a screen and projector for a meeting after school.  I then had to head up to a training session north of downtown.  Once I got home, I had to call Microsoft to resolve an issue with the Office program I installed almost a month ago.  I was able to purchase Office 2013 for only $10 through a deal with my school district, but once I installed the program, it wouldn’t let me activate it.  I finally called customer service.  It took about 30 minutes and they had to remotely uninstall and reinstall it.  It is working fine now at least. 

There’s not much else to report here.  I haven’t gotten much wedding planning done lately.  Matt and I have kept the house clean for a week now.  We have company coming in two weeks.  We went to see Divergent this weekend.  Next weekend we will probably see Bad Words.  It looks like it would be very funny.