Where did the summer go, Grad School, and WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT IS ONLY 93 DEGREES OUTSIDE?!

Life is rushing past at a pretty rapid speed these days. This week is my first full week back at school, which means (gasp!) I have to work tomorrow and I have to stay all the way until 4:00 each day. It's pretty brutal. But my new boss started yesterday, and I think she is going to be a great addition to our team. So with some new changes around school, it feels almost like a whole new job. Which is nice and refreshing.

My grad school classes start in a few weeks, which is also going to be an exciting new change. I'm still meeting every few weeks with the head of our Lower School, who is serving as a mentor to me this year. She is such a great resource and is going to be such a valuable contact for me this next year. I am both excited and nervous-slash-borderline-nauseous at the idea of getting in the classroom sometime soon to teach some real, full day classes. Hooray!

Let's make this a totally random blog post and bounce around a lot, shall we? If you live in Dallas or Texas or anywhere in the entire middle of the country, you know that it's pretty hot outside. And I pretty much hate the heat with a passion larger than life. Well, I do LOVE going to the pool, but otherwise, I'll stay out of the heat thankyouverymuch. Well, I am a bit of a weather bug and like obsessively watch the local news every day to find out what the weather is going to be like each day (see also: Pete Delkus is my old(er) man crush). So I have gotten pretty into this whole When Will We Break the Record Streak of Most 100+ Days In A Row and Overtake the Dreaded Summer of 1980 (for which I was not even alive). And you guys, we are going to tie the record tomorrow and break it on Saturday! I've been watching this countdown play out on the news every morning, evening and night for the past 2 weeks! It is so! exciting! Every seven day forecast since like July 4 has been sure that we'll beat this record and go down in the books as the longest, hottest, most horrible summer in Dallas EVER and I was going to tell my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids that I lived through it.

But then. Out of nowhere. Clouds! We haven't seen clouds around here since May and they just blew in out of nowhere today and bam. We haven't hit 100 degrees yet today and it's not looking good that we'll get there at all. ONE DAY SHY of tying the record. Whahhhhhaat? We've suffered through 109 degree days and we can't even set a record?

Tragic.

Ok. The cat is bugging me to feed him and I've got dinner plans across town, so I'll end this rant for now. But, since you've read this far, I will sneak in a little surprise wedding photo, for no reason at all.

Just before making our big entrance in the Grand Centennial Hall of Lindsay, Texas. Holla!

Lazy {Snow} Day

Up here in the burbs, we are getting some pretty decent snow today! We have about 4 inches stacked up on the fence and back patio chairs, and the entire yard and streets are covered in perfect white. Seeing as how this happens only about once a year, I've got the blinds on every window pulled up so we can watch it fall. It would be really nice if it all stuck around tonight and froze before the morning so I can get a day off, but I'm not counting on it. It seems as if down closer to Dallas there is virtually nothing on the ground, so my school's probably just fine. Oh well.

So I'm down two pounds this week! I was really excited to see that my week of eating well and working out did in fact make a difference. I am all set to keep with it this week, although I'm afraid I might have regained those two little pounds last night. We went out with some friends and drank wine, ate Italian food, and snacked on M&M's. I [reluctantly] calculated all the points I consumed this morning and will have to be better this week to make up for it. Some trips to the gym are in order!

We took the Christmas decorations down today and everything is boxed up in the attic..... except for the tree itself. It might stand around for another week or so, but at least some good progress was made today. We've got chili in the crock pot and football on TV. A perfect, snowy Sunday.

Oh hey there, Radar

Just trying to stay afloat here at the Kick Yer Boots HQ, thanks to Ms. Hermine. I really wanted to run errands at lunch, but instead we are calling in the troops to deliver lunch. Start building the ark!

It Rained on My Parade

Well, ok. Not on my parade exactly, but on our engagement pic day? Yes, it rained. Hard. And it was freeeeezing. And windy. And if you know me at all, you know I hate the wind with a passion. Sigh. We have to reschedule. For November. Isn't it cold in November?

I was a grump all day yesterday. Mark and I both took the day off from work and spent the weekend up in Muenster, where we were going to take our pics. The weather was perfect Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then come Monday morning, the temperature drops twenty degrees, it rains off and on for the entire day, and the sun decides to skedaddle. Not exactly the weather we're looking for to create those oh-so-perfect shots. So I moped around all day and cursed the skies. At one point my mom said to me "well let's not let this ruin our day," to which I grumpily replied "it already has! my day is ruined! ruuuuu-iiiiiiinnnn-eddd." (yeah, drama much?). My mom's response? "Well fine, but don't ruin our days too!" Mark got a good laugh out of that one.

Humph.

But we did make the most of our day in Muenster. First, we finally sat down with our florists and talked about what we wanted. Colors, flowers, linens, candles, sticks, lanterns, wood, iron, crystals.. we pretty much want it all! They are going to put together three sample budgets/levels of decor that they can do, and then we'll pick and choose from there. I'm excited to go back and see what they put together for us!

After leaving the florist, we decided that since we didn't have to go home and get all done up for our e-pics, we would road trip it to Denison to check out A-1 Rentals. We wanted to look at linens and try to pick out some colors. It didn't take both my mom and me long to realize that we of course LOVE the super-expensive, $30 each linens. Go figure!

So the weekend wasn't a total bust, but I am still bummed with-a-capital-B that we didn't get to take our pictures. For now, it's still on the To Do list.. and I'm sure ready to start crossing things off!

Rain = Sleepy

Oh Monday. You always come too quickly. I had a nice, lazy, rainy weekend and it was just what I needed. I babysat Friday night and since nothing was on TV, I browsed through their DVR list and ended up watching the pilot for Vampire Diaries on the CW. It was pretty fabulous. It was Gossip Girl meets Twilight meets True Blood. Lots of high school drama, some teen vampire crushes, and bloody attacks in the the forest. Pretty good mix! Vampires are so trendy right now, so I figured I'll stick with it a little longer. Oh and speaking of GG, how excited are we about the premiere tonight?!

Three hours later and $30 richer, I went to bed early Friday night. When I woke up Saturday morning I knew I needed to clean the apartment. We've been out of town for so many weekends that everything has gotten greatly neglected. I got on the ball and ended up filing away mail, dusting the ceiling fans, washing the bed skirt and scrubbing the bathtub -- all kinds of things I usually skip over. My mom called me three times that morning from the Muenster City Wide Garage Sale - she and my sister go tup at 7 AM to hit up the sales and called me hourly to report on all their good finds. We are stocking up on candles and class vases for the wedding and she apparently found a lot of loot. I need to get back up there soon to check it all out, and to meet with the florist.

Last week Mark and I met with Kristen, our fabulous WP/BFF, and the three of us worked out the dreaded budget. It's good to finally have some numbers though, so we can move forward with some sort of game plan. Next up on the list is hiring a DJ. Kristen pretty much already has us sold on a guy she knows, but we're going to meet with him next week to make sure he's what we're looking for and in our price range. My mom has really been on the ball lately - she's booked us with the cake guy in town and even got the piano player at church to put us on his calendar. Everyone keeps telling us to call them in the spring, but at least we know they've got us on their books!

Saturday night I went to a couples shower for a friend who's getting married in a few weeks. We watched football and sipped on champagne while the bride and groom opened heir gifts, then Mark and I snuck out early. Sunday morning I watched a lot of House Hunters and then met up with Christina for lunch at the Galleria. She talked me into her five must have items for fall, so we're hunting out the best deals on gray handbags and brown boots. I've been so good for the past few months and NOT SHOPPING, but I couldn't resist a good sale and a 30% off coupon from ATL. I went in for a shirt I knew they had marked down, but came out with an additional two sweaters and some little camis. I couldn't help myself! It had been too long. I'm back on my no shopping diet now though. And avoiding the malls...

I headed up to McKinney after lunch to go check out Mark's new u-verse and have pot roast for dinner (we love the crock pot!). I got there around 2:30 and by 3:00 the (brand new) cable was frozen and the internet was down. Six hours later it was still out, so I missed the MTV awards and Mark missed all the late day football. He called up AT&T and chewed them out pretty good, so they are apparently coming back over this evening to get it up and running again. You'd be surprised how dull a rainy evening can be with no cable or internet! We actually ended up watching Titanic on VHS.. Mark's idea! So it wasn't a total loss. And for someone who swears up and down he's only seen Titanic once in his entire life, he sure did know a lot of the lines by heart :)

The weekend came and went too fast, but we've once again got a pretty open schedule ahead of us this week. I love not traveling! We're home every weekend between now and mid-October. It's nice to know that things are going to slow down for a bit.

She Is Love

Today was one of those days. Blew me over, literally. A) work never slowed down for a second and my To Do pile kept growing and growing. B) there was a wind advisory and it was quite blustery. AH. I hate the wind! But, I did find out today that I kind of like the wind when I'm running outside. Instead of blowing my hair all over the place and making it stick to my lips, it instead keeps me cool as I jog in the 80+ degree weather. Which is the best weather, everrrrr.

I have a reason for posting tonight. Do you have $1.49 to splurge on your new favorite song? Get on itunes and buy Parachute, VA's album. It's only two songs. One song, really - two versions. One regular, one acoustic. You'll want them both. The song is called She Is Love and you'll recognize it from the Nivea lotion commercial when the guy is kissing the girl's shoulders or something like that. The song is precious. MB, I think you will especially like it. Perfect late night tune to play as you climb into bed. Like right now :)

Christmas Vacay 2K8

As of twelve noon today I am officially on CHRISTMAS VACATION! The joys of working for a school. I was just as excited as the little kids today, counting down the minutes on the clock. We are getting new carpet in our offices over the holidays, so we had to pack up all our desks and filing cabinets and then move our computers, printer, scanners, etc. etc. etc into the chapel. It was more of a chore than I thought it was going to be. I hit up the Galleria on the way home, before it got too busy this evening. I grabbed a gift for Mark's parents - these adorable luggage tags at Brookstone -- that I thought would be fun for when we travel to China. I think they will make some good stocking stuffers. I still have two more gifts to buy, but they require a trip to Wal Mart, which will likely be INSANE this weekend. I might go first thing tomorrow morning, and hopefully beat the rush.

I put my tree up in my apartment the weekend after Thanksgiving. I love how the Christmas lights make everything feel so cozy. When I leave my place for a few hours, I always leave the tree plugged in so I can see it glowing right when I walk in the door. But then I always have this fear that it's going to catch fire while I'm gone and the complex will burn down and all my stuff will be destroyed. It's a fake tree. I am probably overreacting a tad.

It has been so foggy here all week. Yesterday they predicted "freezing fog," but it turned out it was too warm in the morning. I kind of wanted too see what this freezing fog was though. Is it like driving into sheets of ice? Instead we have mildly warm, slightly brown fog that's lingering everywhere. It's not too pretty. Although I can't help but think that the vampires are out and about in this weather. Twilight, anyone?

.5 Snow Days

This morning my school had a delayed arrival due to the "Artic Blast" that hit town last night and this morning. Every morning I leave my apartment to head for work at 7:08 (seriously, I have it down to the very minute) and get to my desk by about 7:25. I resisted getting out of bed until 6:25, waiting to watch the names of the schools that were closed or delayed scroll across the bottom of the TV screen on the morning news. I saw all our neighboring schools, but finally groaned and started brushing my teeth just shy of 6:30. As I prepared to walk out the door around seven, my boss called and said we weren't opening until 10:00. Awesome. So much for sleeping late. So I put on my PJ pants, and had the most productive extra two hours of my entire week. I wrapped all my remaining Christmas presents. I finally finished the calendar I have been working on in iPhoto for months and ordered it (express shipping) for my parent for Christmas. I unpacked my suitcases from this weekend. I did some shoulder exercises with my free weights (my weights instructor at the gym swears they are the easiest muscle to define). I watched the Today Show and Regis and Kelly and played with Gus. I emptied the dishwasher. If only work could start at 10:00 every day.

I had this zany idea to join a running class after the first of the year. My friend Laura inspired me because she is going to train for a half marathon and has signed up for a group that meets three times a week at five thirty in the morning to run. There's no way on earth I could do that. But I found a group that meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:15 and runs for an hour. They put you in a small pace group of people that run at the same speed as you and the trainers help you increase your distance and endurance. It's a "101 Class" for non-runners. I am trying to convince Mark to do it with me, and also myself to believe that I would actually willingly go run outside in January and February. It could be a good New Year's Resolution though.

I have this really bad habit of forgetting to bring wedding gifts to weddings. I always forget them in the car. Then I drive around with them for weeks after the wedding, waiting to run into the Newlyweds and deliver the gift. I went to a wedding the weekend before Thanksgiving and finally gave the bride the gift today. This after taking it to dinner with the bride's sister last night to give to her to pass along, and then FORGETTING THE GIFT AT THE RESTAURANT. I guess we were having too much fun and the bottle of wine was taking a little too much effect. I didn't remember until I drove down the icy tollway and was pulling into my garage. At that point I was not going back to retrieve it. So I made a second trip to Houston's at lunch today and then finally dropped off the gift at the bride's office this evening. It was a set of cookie trays and a big wooden rolling pin, and I added these cute Christmas Cookie Cutters to give it a cookie baking theme. Good thing I have her nine whole days to get those cookies together!

Ike

Word on the street is that Ike might hit Texas and if it hits just right, it will move directly up to Dallas. On the news, they are worried about flooding and massive amounts of rain but really, that sounds fantastic! I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ike moves right into Corpus Christi, in which case the "computer models" they keep speaking of say that DFW will get slammed with rain this weekend. Bring it on Ike! It will probably put a damper on our Grapefest plans, but oh well! We got some rain yesterday and today and it was fabulous. I am loving these 83 degree highs.

In other news, who thought that the VMA's were totally rigged to help Britney's comeback? I can't believe she won video of the year. LAME!

Blowing in the Wind

What's blowing in the wind you ask? Pollen. And grass. And pet dander. And who knows what else. It's making my life miserable. I have had allergies all of one time in my life. This week makes time number two. One day I'm so stuffed up, I can't breath out of my nose. The next day my skin is dry and whenever I scratch it, a nice red splotchy rash appears. And my most favorite, the past two days my eyes are red and itchy to the point that I want to take them out and scrape them, then pop them back in. I bought some Claritin, but I still only feel about fifty percent. So I can't do much other than wait for it all to blow away. Hopefully, Gus isn't part of the problem.

Blackout

Dallas has been having its share of severe weather lately. Wednesday night we had a torrential storm with the threat of tornadoes and hail for most of the area. Our plans to go to the Rangers Game that night were canceled, so we ended up meeting my parents for dinner instead. I went to bed early once we got home, but was awakened by the rain and thunder around 3:45 the next morning. I saw that the power was knocked out and when my alarm went off a few hours later, it was still out. So I took a shower by candlelight, didn't blow dry my hair and dressed in the dark. The elevators and gates at my apartment complex didn't work, so I had to venture into the pitch black parking garage with only a flashlight to lead me to my car. It was a little on the scary side. Almost every stoplight was out on my way into work and trees and limbs littered the roads. To top matters off, I spent the rest of the day on a ranch in East Texas with sixty fourth graders. Needless to say, it was not the best of days.

Lists

There are some important things to note today. Since I am at work with plenty to do, I am just going to list them out. Enjoy.

1. It snowed twice last week. This week, the predicted high is 89 degrees. Gotta love Texas weather!

2. I went to a wedding on Saturday night with Mark and some of his coworkers. His boss was there sans his wife, so he took the opportunity to drink a lot and ask everyone awkward questions. While a Brad Paisley song was playing, he asked me and Mark if this was going to be our song at our wedding. I just rolled with the punches and told him no, it wouldn't be. He then started referring to Mark as my fiance for the rest of the night and tried to get everyone at our table to place bets on who would get engaged first - Mark or another guy they work with. Meghan, another one of their co-workers who was sitting at our table then informed me they already had a pool going at their office for this very bet.

3. Morgan is coming to Dallas this weekend for St. Patrick's Day and some girlfriend catch up time. It promises to be an eventful weekend. Here's what happned last time she came in town:

Update: No Snow

Big surprise.

Today's high is 53 degrees and Pete Delkus, Chief Meteorologist Extraordinaire, said there wasn't even a chance of any flurries tonight.

So much for the short work week!

Snow Days

It's close to 70 degrees outside. The top story on the news for the past two mornings has been the "Artic Blast" that is coming to town tomorrow night. Everytime there is a chance of snow or ice around here, they call it an ARTIC BLAST. Watch out for the ARTIC BLAST. Better not drive during the ARTIC BLAST. School is canceled due to an ARTIC BLAST.

At least I hope that is the case later this week.

I could use a snow day. Then maybe we could play like these little snow dogs. I'll keep my fingers crossed!