Home for Christmas and my Wedding!

As of today this is the most consecutive time I've spend away from North Dakota in four months. It's so nice to be back where it is warm. For example, I've been to the gym three times and today was the first time I wore any outer wear and it was a light jacket.

Anyways so things that have happened since the last post...
-It warmed up to above 0 in Jamestown and it was awesome.
-My 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders had their Christmas program and it went really well! I was quite proud!
-Andrew moved his stuff in and we are still getting married! Haha I'm a terrible sport when it comes to moving so...
-I came back to ATL.
-I explained Hanukkah to my 4th graders. Sort of. I introduced them to the idea that there are other holidays than Christmas. One is called Hanukkah. They had never heard of it.

Here's part of what's been going on since I've been home. We've gotten a LOT of wedding stuff done! The hotel gift bags have been made and delivered, I got a pedicure, all of the wrappers on the bubbles have been popped, the programs have been printed and folded, tables arranged, the place cards have been printed and popped and alphabetized, the graham crackers have been placed into bags, the bridesmaids gifts are wrapped, the grooms gift is wrapped, the dresses are picked up, my hair trial was successful.... It's been a busy 5 days!

It's been nice to be home for Christmas! We already got to open a few gifts and I was so excited to get a pair of Uggs and some nice RayBans. I need both of those for ND since well it's really really cold there and the snow blindness when driving. Also I like to be stylish. As much as I can.

I'm getting so excited for the wedding! Especially now that a lot of the boring tasks are over... Also I'm super pumped for the honeymoon, we're going to Savannah! Can't wait!

Here's one of my favorite pics of a corgi for the holidays.

Here's another. 

I love me some Christmas corgis! 

OH! One last story... 

So my parents go to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and we've known for a while that Food Network star Alton Brown often attends there and Andrew is a huge fan... So today I'm with my parents at the 4:00 service in the sanctuary and it was packed so of course we were there early and I look at the pew in front of us and who is it, but Alton Brown! And I was like, no way, so I confirmed with my parents it was Alton, freaked out for a min, took a creeper pic with my phone, texted Andrew then contemplated talking to him. Right before service my dad had gone to Office Max to pick up the programs and had brought one in so Mom and I could look at it we decided I should get Alton to sign it for Andrew and so I felt super creepy but I went and asked him to sign it and he did! He was kind of quiet but I mean the man is in church with his family on Christmas Eve. I, luckily, did not launch into how my fiance also plays the saxophone and we love corgis and he loves how he responds to people on Twitter. Luckily I stopped at how Andrew has Good Eats on DVD and we watch the Thanksgiving episodes each year. Then, when leaving church, mom and I were behind him and his family leaving. They have a nice car. Surprise. 

So there's my story of fame and such. Merry Christmas, Andrew! When you come on Thursday I have a signed wedding program for you. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll post some good pics after the wedding and honeymoon! 

Big Snow

Well we had our first winter storm the past few days. It sort of started on Sunday. Actually Sunday was really pretty, the night before it had misted then all of the mist froze on the trees and everything was white and it wasn't too terribly cold. Very beautiful. Then Sunday evening it started to ice a little bit.
Anyways so Monday it was snowing and it didn't stop for a while here's some pictures...

It wasn't too bad. I still went to the gym in the morning and then didn't go anywhere until the department meeting in the evening. 

Then Tuesday came... and brought more snow... We were supposed to have an early out on Wednesday for professional development and they moved it to Tuesday thinking that most of the storm would hit Tuesday I guess? Whatever, I don't know... All I know is it was definitely enough snow to have cancelled Cobb for like a week. So then Tuesday night it kept storming and Wednesday there was a lot of wind and more snow. 

Here are some pictures from Wednesday. 

Notice how the streets really aren't cleared. 

Wednesday was worse. Actually I think the bottom pic is from Wednesday. It all runs together in my head. All the white. On Wednesday going between two schools La Fawnduh almost got stuck in a snow drift. It was awesome. Not. Anyways, after the storm was over last night they did clear the streets this morning and they were much better today. It was strange. We didn't go out a lot more than necessary because well who would?

In other news, I decorated my classroom for Christmas! 

Yep, my Christmas tree look pretty bare but my one at home doesn't so... 

Also, yes I did make those snowflakes out of popsicle sticks. I tried to hang them from the ceiling but it was too tall. Oops. This is the best decorating I've done all year so I'm pretty pleased. 

My third, fourth, and fifth graders have their Holiday program next Thursday so I'm like nervous/excited/ready for it to be over. I think I started them on it too early, but I'm new, I'm learning. 

Well there's the latest update with lots of pics! 

The Holiday's Are Here!!

They're here! The holiday season is here!

A lot has happened since my last post so I'll summarize a little bit...

I played a nice concert with the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony at the beginning of the month. It was a JFK remembrance concert and I enjoyed playing the rep a lot! Also the venue was neat, it was in the Energy Center of Bismarck State College that has a wall of windows and you can see out over the river, it is quite beautiful!

At the end of that week I went home for the first time since August! Also, it was my first time flying alone which was fine but awkward because the plane from Fargo to Minneapolis is really small so there's no good way to not be touching the person next to you and I don't like that. Just as a general rule, I don't touch people I don't know well. The Minneapolis airport has a really nice delta terminal where you can like order food or drinks off an ipad and they bring it to you, so I ordered some loose leaf orange green tea and it was brought to me and the wifi was free so I got caught up on my Grey's Anatomy and Parenthood from the night before then I just watched 30 Rock on netflix (my go-to). The flight from MSP to ATL was bigger and less awkward touching of strangers. Oh! And the best part of Minneapolis, I found a Chick-fil-A like as soon as I got off the plane. So since I had a few hour layover I stopped and got me a number one with a diet coke and there was no shame to be had. It was delicious!

Then I got home and that was fun! We had Chipotle for dinner (also very missed in the arctic circle). Then the next day I GOT TO GO SEE MY WEDDING DRESS!!!! This was super exciting because I love my dress and it had been in for like a month and I finally got to go see it and try it on! Also, it is mine, like that's the one I'll wear on December 28 all day long! (Or at least from like 9:30-5ish) I did love it as much in person as I remembered. AND I GET TO SEE IT AGAIN IN A WEEK!

Then we met with the wedding coordinator at JFBC and that was nice. I like her and will like working with her!

Then we got to go to Christopher's junior recital and he played so well! It was really nice and I'm glad I was able to go see him! Also, I finally got to meet Rachel which was good, I really like her! Also we got caught up with Christopher's teacher, Kay who has been teaching him for almost his whole trumpet career and has one of the best trumpet studios in Atlanta. She's a boss. (I hope you're reading Kay :) )

Then on Sunday I had both my hair and make up trial. The lady who is doing my make up brought her baby to our house and she was so cute! Babies that aren't mine are awesome. Then later that day I went to Trader Joe's and was overwhelmed by how many people were there! Uffdah. Uffdah is one of my favorite words I've learned here it's kind of like "Oh brother". For example, "It's snowing, and it's -14 degrees, and I'm running late for work and haven't plugged in my car, uffdah!" (This scenario was created by Andrew J. Allen, DMA) Fresh Market was surprisingly empty so it was a much more pleasurable shopping experience.

The next day I flew home and was so exhausted, it was quite a long weekend! Work on Tuesday was not super fun, even though I love my kids.

So then some time passed, you know usual stuff... We are finally finishing up wedding plans. I apologize if I awkwardly have contacted you in the past week asking if you are coming... I hate doing that but I need to finalize numbers. So, my apologies.

The Christmas program is coming up at school! My third, fourth, and fifth graders will be performing "Crazy Carols" on December 12th at 7pm! A week or so ago I was a little worried about them learning everything in time, but we will be just fine! We're even doing some motions to some of the songs, it will be cute.

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Andrew and I had a very nice one! We did a turkey (and by we I mean Andrew) and mashed cauliflower (Andrew again) and dressing (me) and pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing (Andrew). So mainly Andrew cooked and I watched the parade and dog show and looked pretty. Just kidding, I did help but it was ok during the week I do most of the cooking. Tonight we had a delicious leftovers soup with the carcass using an Alton Brown recipe. Alton Brown is Andrew's (non saxophone) hero. I like that he goes to JFBC and has two corgis and dresses well. Really I just like that he has two corgis. They're cardigans and are that like blue merle color. Really pretty.

Anyways, we had a really nice Thanksgiving! We got to watch the parade and the dog show and facetime with my parents and Christopher and then later with my Mobile family. After dinner we watched the Lady Gaga and the Muppets special. It was not that special. (Just being honest.)

On Friday we started moving stuff out of Andrew's apartment and into mine and took some stuff to goodwill. That evening we went to the new Mexican restaurant that is actually really good then watched the Holiday Dazzle Parade! There were 44 floats and they all are done up with Christmas lights with different themes or whatever. Well 4 out of the 44 were Duck Dynasty themed so... It's everywhere. I really like the one that was like the Griswold Family Christmas, it had a model of a house on a trailer and it was like flashing the lights as a man stood outside dressed like Uncle Eddie plugging and unplugging it. I was impressed. I don't know that it has won anything? Also the local vet had some doggies in the back of their truck and one was a corgi! Ah! I was so excited. So when Andrew and I are ready to adopt our corgi we can talk to that vet and find out where they got theirs. Then I was kind of sad because they have a corgi and I love them so much and it was real and I couldn't pet it :( Lame, I know.

After the parade we put up our Christmas tree and decorated the house a bit! It's nice to have a cheery house all decorated for Christmas :)

This Thursday, if the weather allows, I will go to Fargo to be affiliated with the Alumnae chapter of SAI there!! Then on Friday I'll head back to May-retta for a final dress fitting and some more wedding planning!! Yay more awkward air travel :)

Here is Andrew and me after our Thanksgiving meal. 

This was us being silly. My hair is really long. 

More silly. We're cute. 

The light is kind of weird but we're cute. 

And yes, we did use photobooth. I know how freshman year of college that is, but we live alone and if my Iphone had a timer, someone please fill me in. We should invest in a decent camera. With all of the money we have, hahahaha! Uffdah. Just kidding. GO COCKS! BEAT CLEMSON! 

All of the Jobs

So I sort of have five jobs now! My main job, of course is the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday elementary music job. Second, I play with the Bismarck Mandan Symphony (concert this Thursday!). Third, I teach flute lessons. I finally have a student! He's in the fifth grade and is a beginner and it's awesome to get to start someone with wonderful habits! We had our first lesson today and he's super malleable and was picking up on stuff quickly. I'm looking forward to our next one! And I recently added a fourth job or teaching woodwind methods at the University of Jamestown next semester. I'm so excited to be living in an area where there are few woodwinds and I get to teach what I love! And as I am typing this I remembered that I sub so that's job number five! Well, I think of it more like four and a half. I've only subbed three times and it's just not really reliable money, but it is nice when that extra cash shows up on my check!

It's a little bit of a crazy schedule, but isn't that just the life of a musician? I feel like I'm really living it by having a bajillion jobs that only like one of them pays a real salary hahahaha. At least one does!

Andrew and I have both been very blessed since moving here. A year ago I would not have believed that I would have been this happy teaching elementary school or that I would be playing in a professional symphony or teaching a college course! Or living in North Dakota but whatever hahahahaha. Life is funny sometimes.

Side note: I'm so proud of Andrew and hopefully in like 12 hours he'll officially be a doctor!!! Ahh!!!

Side Side Note: I'm sad I'm not in Columbia to celebrate (and visit with people). However, I'm alone in North Dakota and handling it well!!

Band Season

Here's a fair warning: It's about to get real nerdy up in here. I'm a little bit of a high school marching band jock. This has been on my mind today as many schools I know and love are competing at BOA Atlanta and South Carolina State competition is today and Grand Nats is coming up.

So here is where I'm coming from (if you don't know):
At Pope I did marching band every year and was a section leader twice and I loved almost every minute of it! We had some good shows and some not so good shows (dream catchers what a train wreck) and I made some of my very best life long friends in marching band! Amanda, Amanda, Colleen, Lindsay, etc. It was so much of what I did in high school and I'm totally ok with that because I loved it and I knew I wanted to be a high school band director and we were good so I enjoyed having the opportunity to see other great schools and to live what people all over the country dreamed of having in their school. I sort of knew how lucky we were but I didn't really know until I got to USC.

So over the summers during college I worked for other schools in Cobb at their band camps and loved the experience. I met wonderful colleagues and was blessed with the opportunity to work with some amazing programs. Hillgrove was special to me because they were the first school that I worked with other than Pope and I learned so much from the directors there. I love their style and just a really classy school. The past two years I've been fortunate enough to work with Harrison who is just an amazing program. They're going to Grand Nats this year and I am so going to buy the subscription and watch them.

Senior year I had the awesome opportunity to work with White Knoll and it took a lot of time but it was so worth it. It really showed me what it is like to be with a top-notch program all season. I enjoyed that experience very much and was really proud of all the students.

Basically, to sum it up, for a long time high school marching band was the easiest way for me to put my music ed skills to use and to get real experience teaching music. I also had some private students which helped me grow as a teacher as well.

So you may be thinking, what in the world is this doing on Elise's North Dakota blog? Well, I tell you, marching band is really different here and that's ok. However, this time of year, I really miss it. This year was my shortest marching band season ever... 2 weeks. 12 days of rehearsal. Who knows what next year will bring, but I feel very fortunate to have had the positive experiences I had with marching bands.

Maybe one day I will be working with a high school where I am the director or assistant director or even the middle school director who is on staff and helps. Who knows?! As for now I still love my kindergarten babies. I'm doing my best to teach them to keep a steady beat so one day when they go to high school they have a fighting chance in band. Or just like so they can succeed in life. Whatever.

In summary: I'm a high school marching band jock. I miss it. Best of luck to all of those competing at BOA Atlanta finals tonight, or any other competition and I can't wait to see how Harrison does at Grand Nationals!

P.S. For the record, I still don't understand the point of "State". I'm glad Georgia didn't have one and I still don't really get the way SC does theirs but that's ok. A lot of people dislike BOA but I love it. We all have our thing. It really doesn't matter though because I teach elementary music and don't direct or make decisions for a marching band so my opinions are simply my opinions and that is all.

It's Cold

So it's been a long time since I posted and I swear I meant to like a million times. Well, not a million but at least like 5 or 6. Probably once a week. Anyways, here it is. 

I'm cold. Not currently because the heat in my apartment works well and my classroom is well heated (thankfully!) but I was when I went outside. 

Things have gotten a bit easier in my classroom until my CD player broke today. It was tragic. Fortunately I have speakers to hook up to my computer. Imma work on fixing it/replacing it/getting better at changing CD's on my computer. 

Here's what we've been up to in the past monthish:

-I went to Fargo a few times for a few different things. I enjoyed my trips to Target. 

-Andrew had a jazz band concert at VCSU and it was great!

-Andrew did his first faculty recital at VCSU and it was wonderful! I highly recommend that if you are at USC when he gives his next recital that you go.

-I made a cute message board that's now hanging in our living room.

-I've been regularly doing yoga.

-It snowed for a few hours (but didn't stick thank goodness). 

Tonight I got a hair cut and I was so excited because I was like constantly pinning my bangs back and now I feel cute again because well my hair is cute. Also, after the wedding I will be getting straight across bangs. Decided. This desire I have for straight across bangs becomes so much stronger every week when I watch New Girl. I love Zooey Deschanel. She's my woman crush. Did you know she's like 36? Girl looks good! I can't believe it! It's inspiring. 

I have an SAI meeting in Fargo tomorrow and I'm excited! I had a great time at the last one and am looking forward to getting to know those ladies even more tomorrow. 

Ok this was boring. I'll post more later. Bye! 

 

Life To Date

So I promised a post like a week ago and that didn't happen... Sorry!
A lot has happened and it's all been good but it has been keeping me very busy.
Let's back it up...
Thursday, September 19
My first SAI meeting as an alumnae! This was super exciting for a few reasons. So in case you didn't know let me back up even past Thursday September 19, 2013. In December of my freshman year I went to SAI recruitment (I think that's what we're allowed to call it these days? If not, sorry NEB!) and loved it! Before coming to college I'd already made up my mind that I would do a musical greek organization and was so glad to have our SAI chapter! Every girl I ever lived with in college was in SAI, almost all of my closest friends were in it and I had the honor of serving in many leadership positions including being President my senior year (which was fun and a great experience but I do not recommend being President during Student Teaching due to the fact that you're out of the building a lot and it's just complicated so sorry Theta Chi, I did the best I could!). I had the privilege of going to the 2012 National Convention where Theta Chi won the National Collegiate Chapter Achievement award which was amazing!!
Back to Thursday September 19... So when we first learned that we would be moving to ND I did a quick search to see if there were any SAI alumnae chapters in the state. I was not sure what to expect considering that South Carolina has none and both Furman and USC have huge chapters that are very successful (Furman has also won the National Collegiate Chapter Achievement Award). I was so excited to find out that there was an active alumnae chapter in Fargo! So I contacted the ladies and found out when they met and attended their first meeting. Now, Fargo is about an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and a half from Jamestown (depends on which part of Fargo I'm going to) and while that's kind of far for a Thursday, remember, I do not teach on Fridays! So no problem at all!
As soon as I arrived at the meeting I felt very at home right away! There was a salad potluck (I brought pasta salad) and the food was yummy. I had a nice time talking with all of the ladies. There were SAI's there ranging from a year older than me to 50 year members. I love seeing the ladies who have been in it for so many years. At the end of the meeting we had a memorial ceremony which (fortunately) I had not yet seen. The Fargo-Moorehead ladies lost two members this summer. Even though I did not know those women it was very touching to hear their stories and see how the sisters you have in SAI will care about you through to the end. Also I got to meet a woman who is only a year older than me and in a very similar situation of having a part time elementary music job, always thought she'd teach band... you know the rest. Also, the lady who hosted the meeting was so sweet and told me that my story was very similar to her's (though about band... ended up elementary... blah blah blah) and she is a flutist and really ended up enjoying elementary and did it until her retirement! All in all, a wonderful experience and it was very encouraging.

Saturday, September 21
I had my first concert with BMSO! It was really fun!
Andrew and I thought we'd drive out to Bismarck early-ish and do some shopping and see what Bismarck has to offer. Well we did all of it in like an hour and then were bored so we went to Target. Target is nice. Also we had great pizza at Fireflour Pizza. Highly recommend if you are in Bismarck (which you probs won't be and I understand). Basically we learned that if I have a 7pm call we can leave by like 2 and get there in time to have a nice dinner and do everything we want to do in Bismarck  for the day.
Earlier that day I went to an early morning yoga class at the arts center. Every first and third Saturday the arts center in Jamestown has a yoga class and it was awesome! It was nice and relaxing to do some 8:30 yoga among art. I will definitely be going back in October!

Sunday September 22
This evening I played on the Music Booster's Gift of Music fundraising concert. It was fun! I played Danse de la Chevre (a crowd favorite) and I enjoyed wearing heels, a full face of make up, and hearing a lot of other members from the community perform either on instruments or with their voice. Next year Andrew will be playing too or we'll do something together.

September 23-27
This week was good. I got a lot done at school and went to the gym Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday I did yoga (with the same lady from the arts center) and I can tell that even after those two classes I'm way more flexible so I will keep going back. Wednesday I just ran, my mile time keeps getting better! It's currently embarrassing so I will keep it to myself :) and Thursday I went to a buns, thighs, and abs class. Friday I just did the elliptical.
Also this week a lot of my fav TV shows came back! HIMYM, New Girl, Mindy Project, Modern Family, Parks and Rec, and Greys.
I felt like I could related to both Jess and Mindy (as I do every week) but especially when Jess woke up from her hang over and was like "Where are my tights?" Hahaha although I'm not hungover that is typically how I feel most mornings before school like, can someone please bring me my tights so I can go to school? I wear tights a lot. I sit on the floor a lot. In skirts. And dresses. I tie a lot of shoes. The first graders just can't tie shoes. The few who can love to tie everyone's shoes and it takes a really long time and I think sometimes they will untie their shoes just to retie them. We have a new rule in first grade music NO TOUCHING SHOE LACES! I make sure they are all tied when they walk through the door then if any come untied I fix them. I don't remember when I learned to tie my shoes but maybe it was first grade?

September 28
TODAY! This morning I went to the gym and then nearly had a heart attack during the USC game. I realized that I truly am a Carolina fan though. I always wondered if I was a true fan but today I realized I am. Around the end of the second quarter I looked at Andrew and said "This was supposed to be our year" and he reminded me that gamecock fans have been saying that every year since the start of the football program. That's when I realized I'm a real Carolina fan. Now I'm hoping for a LSU win over UGA, later Andrew and I are going to Oktoberfest at the fairgrounds in town, then we're going over to the high school band director's house for game night!

Should be fun!
Props if you made it all the way to the end. That's dedication.

Rainy Saturday

Today is a rainy Saturday and it is awesome. I have the sniffles but I am so hopeful it will not turn into a sinus infection because the soudafed (sp?) has been very helpful! Usually, for me at least, when it is a sinus infection the decongestant does nothing for me. Anyways, so I was bummed because I was super busy last week and didn't get to go to the gym since Monday and was so looking forward to going Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday (since next week will be busy too). However, I am enjoying lounging around in my yoga pants and carolina sweatshirt. Right now Animal Plant is on, it's really relaxing and I like learning about different breeds of dogs. It is a nice Saturday filler between football games.

I'm obsessed with dogs. Corgi's in particular. However, when the time is right for Andrew and I to finally adopt our adorable ball of fur we'll go to a shelter or try to rescue one and it'll be whatever is availible. One day however, I will get a corgi because Andrew moved us to North Dakota. It seemed fair to both of us at the time. Corgi's love the cold :) We do probs want to wait on a corgi until we have slightly older kids so it won't herd and nip a baby. It wouldn't do it to be mean but it is something to think about, it can't fight nature. So who know's what we'll actually get. I do like big dogs too. A golden retriever or a chocolate lab would be awesome.

Ok so I love food blogs and while I do not want to turn this into a food blog because I don't really create recipes but I do want to share some recipes I've made lately that have been awesome!

So, one of the first things Andrew and I made one weekend was this super easy and tasty chicken!
Of course I had pinned this recipe a while ago. It's called "Man Pleasing Chicken" I enjoyed it too as a woman.
So easy, you just take some chicken thighs and cook them in a sauce made from dijon mustard, maple syrup, and rice wine vinegar. Here's the link to the blog, but I highly recommend. I served it over rice with a side salad. Heats up well in leftovers.
http://www.wittyinthecity.com/2011/08/man-pleasing-chicken/

Last week our church (Grace Episcopal) had a unity service where they combined the morning and evening services into one service in the afternoon followed by a potluck. So, we have a kitchenaid now (thanks Meme and Papa!) and I want to use it but don't want to have baked goods a lot and also we were sad about USC loosing to UGA :( so the normal response is to make cookies, right? Well it's totes fine if you give them away which we did!
This is another pinterest recipe which I really liked because it was easy and the clean up was easy as well! I enjoy cooking but HATE cleaning up which sometimes that alone will discourage me from baking.
They were "Perfect M&M Cookies" and that they were! I like how they had both mini chocolate chips AND mini m&m's. One batch made about 2 dozen but we had enough stuff to make a second batch so we did so we could enjoy some Saturday night and soothe the sadness that football brought us. Also, as new people at church we didn't want to bring something bad...
Here's the recipe!
http://picky-palate.com/2013/04/03/how-to-make-perfect-m-and-m-cookies/

Tonight, for this rainy Saturday and football evening we are going to make a long loved recipe, white turkey chili! We FINALLY found ground turkey in the grocery stores here. Walmart has it but I really don't feel comfortable buying meat from Walmart. Coborns has the Jenny-O tubes of 1 lb ground turkey and it's not my fave but I had gotten so used to substituting turkey for beef I was so upset when Coborns didn't have it the first few weeks we were here. I was distraught. Ok that was dramatic, I was very upset. Anyways, they've had it for a while now and I just buy one every time I go and if it's not going to be used that week I'm going to freeze it. ANYWAYS, I love this white turkey chili from SkinnyTaste. SkinnyTaste is one of my favorite food blogs! It is very indepth and a lot of the recipes are complicated but the lady who writes it always calculates the Weight Watchers points of her recipes which is nice, even if you don't do Weight Watchers the number of points helps you gauge how healthy the recipe may be. Usually her recipes have a lot of flavor from the spices she uses so the first few you do may be a little expensive but once you have the basic supplies they are not as expensive. I'd say that's the only reason I don't eat off of skinny taste constantly.
I actually halved this recipe and even with it halved I only use 1lb of turkey because well, who can afford 3 lbs of ground turkey? Plus Andrew and I will have to work to eat all 7 servings of this, much less 14!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/03/white-bean-turkey-chili-4-pts.html
And if you're keeping track, one cup is only 5 WW points! What a deal!
This heats up well too. I will probs have some for lunch on Monday :)

So, that's what's going on here... Next week is busy. Tuesday I'm going to Bismarck for BMSO rehearsal, Thursday I'm going to Fargo for my first SAI alumnae meeting (!!!), Friday I have BMSO but Andrew is going to come with me and we're going to get dinner and explore some (that rehearsal I only play on the last piece), then Saturday is the concert!

Here's to hoping these sniffles go away! At least before Tuesday but I'd love to go to HIIT class at the gym on Monday.

BTW, Go cocks! Beat Vandy!

ALSO if any teacher friends/vocalists have any recommendations for hot tea to soothe the throat please let me know! I get paid on Friday (finally!) and am going to place an order to Adagio and am looking for some herbal tea to keep at school/drink after school.

I Really Live Here

So I keep having these moments where it's like woah, I actually live here.
Here's a list of things that trigger this:
1) ND license plates
2) Getting a new driver's license and having my Georgia one taken away
3) When asked for my license (in a variety of situations) people not doing a double take at an out of state license
4) Paying rent
5) Getting bills
6) Cleaning the house (as in wow it's worth cleaning because I live here)
7) Doing laundry (because I need clean clothes because I live here)

There's more. Typically one a day or so moments where I'm like this is real.
Also I have these moments where I'm like wow I'm the adult in this situation. Weird.
(This is a really scattered post)
So I have some really hilarious kids I teach. As I post about my teaching adventures on here please do not critique my teaching style because well it's my first year and I have a degree and my principal is happy and my coworkers are happy and I'm doing the best I can for this literally being my first elementary experience.

I was really proud of my first graders today. We used rhythm sticks for the first time and no one hit anyone else with the rhythm sticks! We did a beat to Miss Mary Mack. It was precious. I was proud. They can be tough. Also in the same day as my first grade triumph I was on the floor talking to a kindergartener hiding under my desk while I could feel other kindergarten hands touching my legs and asking "What is this?" about my tights. Kindergarten hands are tiny and cute. And germy.

One of the girls I teach in Kindergarten at Roosevelt looks exactly like Michelle from Full House. I am just like wow I know exactly what you will look like when you grow up. She's also in a class with some other characters. There's another girl in that class that everyday asks me if we're going to make music. Adorable. Also when she says stuff she never "likes" it she only "LOVES" it. So today I wore my glasses and it was "Mrs. Naber I LOVE your glasses!" and when one says it then it's a chain reaction "I like your dress" "I like your shoes". Kindergarten makes you feel good about yourself.

Anyways, more stories to come.

So I have a new job too! I am a section flutist for the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra (BMSO) which is crazy because it's not like a youth orchestra that I am paying to be in, I'm being paid. Again, wow I'm an adult. Being an adult is cool. No I haven't had to pay too many bills yet so it does still feel cool. I am just a section flutist though so I don't play every piece but hopefully I'll get to play every concert (except the one on April 12, love you Lyndsey and Matt!)! This concert I'm playing on the Three Cornered Hat. However, I do need a piccolo soon so I'll be saving my pennies and Andrew did just buy a tenor so it's only fair. Which he did need the tenor. I'm glad he got a good deal on it so if anyone sees a piccolo for a good price, let me know! It'll be after Christmas before I could buy but I'm in the market!

This was a really scattered post but it doesn't matter. Deal with it.

Getting Settled

So I've been here for a while now. I've been meaning to post more but it's been really busy with work and getting everything situated...
I love my apartment. I love it. It's so safe and big and I love it. Totally no regrets on choosing to live alone until I get married. Zero. I love Andrew and I can't wait until we share this apartment but this is the first time in my whole life I've had my own bathroom. Enough said. Also I can keep it pretty tidy all by myself. I don't spend a ton of time here but I do only work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday so I have time to do some cleaning. Also, I don't get sad about Andrew not living here yet because between the two of us I'm the only one with cable/internet so he basically comes here after work and I get to be all domestic and cook dinner. It's nice to eat dinner together at a table, not an island in the kitchen, not a couch, a table. Feels so civilized.

Anyways, so during this long weekend I'm working really hard to get the apartment more fixed up. I'll post more pics when I get it how I want it. Today I got my desk and printer set up in the spare bedroom and the new bookcases are up and the books are in so it's looking more put together. Also, I put down a rug in there so that helps with the put-togetherness of the room. We have done a decent job of moving a lot of the boxes out of the dining room so I'm hoping to have all of that have a permanent home by Tuesday.

Since my last post I've officially started my job. I like it so far! Out of 4 days (three of which were shortened) I've only had one day where I felt defeated when I got home so for the first weekish not too bad! Yeah so here's the deal with my job, I'm part time (56%) and I work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and I go between three different schools. Here's my schedule (abbreviated):
Tuesday:
8:45-9:15 Roosevelt Kindergarten
9:15-9:45 Roosevelt Kindergarten
10:00-10:30 Lincoln First Grade (I think I'm def at Lincoln)
10:30-11:00 Lincoln Kindergarten (I think, may be first grade)
11:15-11:45 Washington 4th Grade
12:30-1 Washington First
1:00-1:30 Washington Second
1:30-2 Washington Kindergarten
2-2:30 Washington 3rd grade
2:30-3 Washington Fifth Grade

Wednesday and Thursday

8:45-9:15 Roosevelt Kindergarten

9:15-9:45 Roosevelt Kindergarten

10:05-10:35 Washington Fourth

11:00-11:30 Lincoln Kindergarten 

12:30-1 Washington First

1:00-1:30 Washington Second

1:30-2 Washington Kindergarten

2-2:30 Washington 3rd grade

2:30-3 Washington Fifth Grade

So I have very VERY short travel times between schools so I'm working on my efficiency of getting my stuff to my car and planning my escape from the classes. It's impacted a little bit how I run things in my classroom. I only have my own classroom at Washington so at Roosevelt on Tuesday and Thursday I use the music room but on Wednesday I use the computer lab except when there is testing then we are in the gym on the stage (which I did this Wednesday and was not bad). At Lincoln I get to use the music room all of the days. So for example, I choose not to use chairs in my room. I like it, my principal likes it (big decider) and it just works out but in the room at Roosevelt the teacher always has chairs set up and I don't want to leave her room with it all set weird and I don't have time to reset up her chairs so at Roosevelt we use chairs. I actually kind of like it because it gives me a chance to try out chairs vs. no chairs and compare/contrast so next year (or even in a month or two) if I decide I want to use chairs at Washington I have a reason to want chairs. 

Also since I'm only working three days a week I'm doing some subbing. Subs here make a lot more money than in SC so I'm like ok I can rearrange my schedule for that. Also it gives me the opportunity to help out the other music teachers in the district. I've already gotten to sub for high school band and it was really fun! 

All of the other music teachers in the district are really nice and I am enjoying working with them. Same for the teachers at my school. We only have like 20 teachers and paras and special ed teachers and stuff at my school due to it being a very small school. I like it though, I get to know all of them very well. 

Oh so last week was weird. We got out of school early for heat hahahahaha! I mean it was insanely hot,  a lot of the elementary schools in Jamestown don't have central air conditioning. A lot of places in Jamestown don't have central air, including but not limited to my apartment (it's only downfall so far, which according to Andrew and my father who moved in all of my heavy stuff they would probs say the main downfall is that it is upstairs but I feel it's only downfall is the lack of central air). So last week school was out each day at 1pm and due to that I had some teachers forget to bring their kids to music so that happened and I was still exhausted but it was a good practice run of going from school to school. The week before school started on a Thursday and kindergarten hadn't started yet so I basically had a half day since as you can see half my day in Kindergarten. They're sweet at least. And sticky. But some of them give hugs and are cute! I had one girl keep raising her hand to ask me "if we were going to make music" that day. It was sweet. Also they LOVE when I play flute for them, like anything at all. The first day of school was Debussy's birthday so I played some Syrinx and had them listen then we talked about what the music sounded like to them. Some of them said it reminded them of the woods and so I told them some of the story of Syrinx (a very G rated version of Syrinx). Most of them couldn't wrap their brain around the whole half goat/half man thing. I tried to relate it to Mr. Tumnus (I know not the same, close enough) but then I learned which of my kids had all of the Chronicles of Narnia which was quite a few of them. I originally started off playing afternoon of a fawn but in each class someone said something about death and people dying and I didn't feel like crossing that bridge on the first day... rookie mistake... 

I'm still looking for some flute students, hopefully when school has been in for a few more weeks it'll be better. Andrew and I are both auditioning on Wednesday to be on the sub list for the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra (BMSO) so hopefully we'll get called some for that! 

We'll that's plenty for now! Happy Labor Day weekend! 

We're Here!

Well, everything on the way up here went according to plan!
Dad and I had a really great time on the way up here. On the first day we drove from Atlanta to Peru, Illinois. So that trip is from Atlanta through Nashville, through part of Kentucky, and most of Illinois. We made sure to stop at the last Chick Fil A along our route. I really enjoyed my #1 with a lemonade :) So the next day we went from Peru, Illinois to Fargo, ND. We went through Wisconsin and stopped in the Wisconsin Dells. Roadfood.com had referred us to a great restaurant to get Wisconsin Cheese Curds so we made sure to stop by the Dells. Little did we know that the Wisconsin Dells are the midwestern version of Gatlinburg. Seriously though, they had water parks and a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, and fudge shops galore! Also, we saw a plethora of bars, one of which had the tagline "Pour yourself a vacation". Classy! Anyways, we got the cheese curds and they were awesome. I mean, I like them a lot but I will not be like going out of my way to get them. It was like a new and improved mozzarella stick. Next, we stopped in Minneapolis and went to the mall of America! It was huge and overwhelming but so nice to get out and walk around! I was sure there was an Anthropologie in the the MoA however, I was wrong and my Dad was so nice that he let me go to the next closest one (still in Minneapolis). And, as always with Anthro, I left happy and depressed at the same time. Happy that I found a beautiful journal that I will so use, but depressed because the gorgeous clothes are not for part time teachers on a budget :( nor the gorgeous home furnishings.

However, after getting to touch all of the stuff I sent Andrew a bazillion links to things that would be lovely for Christmas haha (all under $30 I'm not crazy, I do love him and by a bazillion I think it was 4). Anyways, we made the trek from Minneapolis to Fargo which is not terrible and stayed the night in Fargo. 

The next day we drove from Fargo to Jamestown and stopped off in Valley City to see VCSU and were lucky enough to run into a few of Andrew's coworkers in the music building! They were super friendly and we got some very nice tours of the facilities which are quite lovely, I know Andrew will be very happy there! 

Then we made our way to Jamestown and of course, had to make our way to WalMart which makes me sad because I am a Target fan to the end but WalMart is what we have so I will learn to like it but I refuse to buy their meat. 

On Tuesday the truck came!! And finally after many days I have my apartment well put together and here are some pictures of the finished product! 

Living room:

$40 Couch, looking good in the living room

Andrew with Henri

Dining Room: boxes will be moved soon

Hallway

Kitchen

Kitchen and backdoor

KITCHENAID

cool nook in the hall

bathroom

bathroom

spare bedroom: soon to have more bookcases and less boxes!

still spare bedroom

spare bedroom closet

inside spare bedroom closet

other side spare bedroom closet

hall closet! 

my room

my room

my room

my closet

more of my closet

other side of my closet

coat closet at the top of the stairs

we used a lot of boxes... 

window at the top of the stairs