Happy New Year!

The kids came back to school today, and to celebrate the New Year, we had a countdown to noon!

We watched the ball drop and timed it to coincide with 12 in the afternoon.  I talked to the kids about the tradition adults have of kissing someone as the New Year begins, but because kids don't do that(!) I gave each of them a COOKIE to kiss as soon as the countdown was over.  They thought it was hilarious!  You can watch the video here: New Year's Cookie Kiss!

Then we looked at pictures of the celebration around the world.  In every country, we noticed the same thing: fireworks!! We read a book about New Year's Resolutions, and when the kids finished writing their own resolutions, they got to paint a fireworks scene.  

It was a fun day back! I've missed these little ones!

On being Mrs. Richardson... in Georgia

I see the last time I posted was before summer break... and now it's the end of July, and I'm already back at work. Let's recap what major events happened in this "break" time, shall we? We'll have to work in timeline format.

June 13: Last day of school at Spotswood! So sad. After we waved goodbye to the buses with our bubble blowers (Thanks, Mrs. Smith!) and before we headed into the library for the end of year luncheon, there may have been a pit stop in my classroom to let a couple tears flow.  It's hard to say goodbye to the students, staff and parents at Spotswood. Simply put, they are amazing and will hold a special place in my heart forever.

June 14: However, you don't have long to be pouty when you've got a Budget truck to load up! Thankfully my parents came on Saturday to help me finish packing and get the truck loaded and ready to go.

June 15: I MOVED to Georgia! And for the first 30 minutes had my shoulders up to my ears I was so tense about driving that truck. Turns out, I'm pretty okay at driving moving trucks... but I'd rather not do it again. David and I began unloading immediately (on my recommendation) when I arrived at our new house!

June 16: Since we still had the truck rented, we went to David's apartment to grab the last of his large furniture. We got everything unloaded and the truck returned.

June 17: David had to go to work, but I got a lot of unpacking done.

June 18: Did some more unpacking, then headed back to Virginia for our wedding! I made fan programs for our outdoor ceremony the entire ten-hour trip. Surprisingly, it made it go by faster. When we arrived at my apartment, we realized we packed an air mattress but forgot all bedding. We slept pretty terribly without pillows or blankets. (Remember, my house was "empty.")

June 19:  I say "empty" loosely, because we had to continue to pick up and pack those last few things that turned out to be enough to completely fill David's car and half fill my car. Hm... more than I intended, clearly. Then we had to clean the apartment and rush to Richmond to meet our officiant for some marriage counseling! We made it to my parent's house in Charlottesville around 11pm.

June 20: The last day to get things done for the wedding! We worked all day to make welcome bags for our guests, make and wrap the favors (Excellent job, David!), write cards, wrap gifts and finally get ready for our rehearsal.  I am quite pleased with how fun and entertaining the rehearsal and dinner were. We know some good people. :) I remember thinking at the dinner "this is weird, I've sat through so many of these as a guest, it kind of feels like I'm a guest at someone else's rehearsal" ... and then someone stands up to give you a toast and you realize "no! it's mine! hooray!" We had plans to enjoy a bonfire with some of the guests staying at the cottages with us, but the weather suggested otherwise. With all the rain, I began to get nervous how the weather would be the next day for the ceremony. We ended up staying up way past the time we should have, enjoying the company of good friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

June 21: YAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYYYYYYY! The day arrived! I woke up incredibly early because I was so excited. I did my nails (which I had been complaining about to David, saying I didn't have enough time to get them done, so he bought me THIS). Let me tell you, it's amazing and easy and I got a ton of compliments. 

Maria: "These look beautiful! Did you go get them done or did you do them yourself?"

Me: "What do you think?" 

Maria: "Well, I know you, so I think you did them yourself, but they look great!" 

Me: She knows me too well.

Then I went outside, looked at the beautiful views, and got started on the flowers! Which I also opted to do myself. Thank you, bloomsbythebox. Of course, these took a bit longer than I expected. (THANKS, MANDY AND ED for all your above and beyond exceptional help!)  Before I knew it everyone was there eager to get ready! And then I took too long doing that, too... So padre had to come make sure I hurried it along. 

Driving in the car from the cottage to the ceremony site and stepping out of the car was a genuine dream. come. true.  Everyone worked so hard (MAD PROPS TO YOU, MOM AND DAD) to make it exactly how I'd pictured, only way better.  I actually thought I'd fallen into a fairy tale.

And now I'm married to my Prince Charming!

Want to see more wedding photos? CLICK HERE.

June 22-July 1: 4:30am wakeup to make it to Dulles in time for our flight to the Dominican! (THANK YOU, MARIA AND NELS for waking up with us, giving us a ride and housing my car!) This was an excellent 8 days in paradise at the Excellence Punta Cana. (THANKS, MOM & DAD RICHARDSON!) It was absurd to be waited on hand and foot, and I felt just silly that these workers were doing everything for me.  We had no real-life problems or thoughts. It was a welcome break amid all the stress of moving and wedding planning, and a wonderful way to celebrate our marriage!  Well, except for the travel days. David was sick on the way out which made for a miserable flight and we both had food poisoning (?) or some other kind of incredibly unpleasant sickness on the way back.  The good thing about this is that we were really excited to be back home instead of still on vacation. Back in the good old U. S. of A. where you can understand the prices of items and read pharmacy directions in English. ;)

July 2: Worst travel day of my life. We drove back down to Georgia and I was pretty much incoherent and dry heaving the entire time.  But we made it!

July 3-6: Still recovering from being sick. Due to extreme lack of sleep, I was feeling anxious about anything and everything! So listen, if you ever go to the Dominican, use bottled water to brush your teeth. And visit a doctor beforehand and take various typical medicines with you! 

July 7: David got us free tickets to Six Flags through the "Salute to Heroes" program before we went on our honeymoon, so we used them when we thought I was better. Turns out, I was too paranoid to really go on the rides. We went on two and then had a nice time walking around. 

July 8 - 21: I got a few texts from coworkers saying they were working in their classrooms. Of course at this point I thought, "Hmmm, I'm not sure if I'm ready to be back in the classroom just yet!" But I went and am so glad I did. I had my work cut out for me. I own too much junk  stuff. Not only that, but going in so much over the summer helped me meet many of my new coworkers! They all seem amazing and I'm excited to be a part of their team.

Here's a sneak peek at how my room came together. I still need to do a few last minute touches.

Yes, that $40 spent on fabric was well worth every penny.

July 22: But let's be honest, I needed ONE REAL DAY OF NOTHING BUT SITTING AT HOME for summer break. So that's what I did on this day.

July 23: The contracted hours began! And so starts another year.

Hm. That was a really long one and I don't expect anyone actually read it all except for family members. (You guys better have! I'm shaking my fist at you if you didn't!) 

I'm here! I'm here! I didn't leave forever.

Hey, it's the first blog post of the new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. This year's winter break marked not only a two-week hiatus from school but also from a couple other aspects of my life:

-I didn't blog.

-I didn't wake up before 7:30! (That's 2.5 hours of sleeping in everyday.)

-I let myself go THREE DAYS IN A ROW without working out! (There's really no excuse for this one, I just wanted to feel like a rebel.)

-I didn't record what I ate. (For the first time in 6 years! Because when your sister gifts your boyfriend a dutch oven and Julia Child's cookbook for Christmas, you really can't pretend to record the calorie content in the buttery-laden meals. Plus there are so many goodies! So many gluten free goodies!)

-I stopped wearing the FIT! (For the first time in 2 years! I have to let the minor dent in my arm go away before that can go back on.)

-I didn't go on Skype. Well, until yesterday.  For almost every day of break, I got to go on in-person dates with David! To include our very first New Year's Eve together. Somehow, we've missed spending the last 6 of those with each other in person.

If you know me well at all, some of this will come as a shock to you.  If you don't know me that well, you may now think I'm a bit ...ehh, structured in my ways. Anyway, I can't rebel forever, so clearly those things were only during the break. Now you'll go back to getting regularly scheduled content from me and I'll go back to the routine of things.

I can't say that I'm ready to go back to school tomorrow, but I definitely miss the kiddos. I'm interested to see if anyone completed their homefun packet for a toy out of the toy chest! Santa left some good ones behind in the classroom ;)

Here are some of the highlights from my holiday season:

Pajama Day the Thursday before break in honor of Polar Express!

Melted snowman ornaments! Made with hot glue and lots of prep.

These turned out *SO* cute. I loved the individuality.

Blast from the past! Some of last year's girls came to say hi at the holiday dance.
I am dressed as a Christmas tree because I don't own a tacky sweater.
That won me a free pizza in the tacky sweater contest!

(David ate it for me but bought me a gluten free version.)

Um, REALLY excited about my new pans. Glad Padre captured this moment.

Also, David is more excited about that down comforter than he looks.

Snow-tubing at Wintergreen.... wearing FOUR layers for a surprisingly warm day.

Ended up sweaty, but way better than cold. Also, for a first-time tuber, we found out I'm really good.

Blue Georgia skies. Plus I was on the road a lot.

 New Year's Eve in Macon, Ga.

The ol' Cherry Blossom ball drop! Haha. So funny.

Puppies in my lap on the way home... for ten hours. 

This wasn't mandatory; I foolishly volunteered. But they're so cute!

NOT PICTURED are the rest of the family.  David and I spent this Christmas with my family, then stopped by to spend an after-Christmas Christmas with his family on the way to GA. Despite all this family time, I seem to only have photos of David and I.  And a lot of my feet, which I thought were hilarious to take photos of on the road.  Mandy hasn't yet sent out her pictures so I'm hoping this will guilt her into it.

I am extremely excited to move into winter topics in the classroom. I love all of the snow-related themes we work through! Anyway, what were some of your highlights? Any good resolutions? I skipped those this year... or maybe I'm still working on them....