Some Big News!

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, I said last night that I was about to break some big news on the blog.  And that the news was NOT that I'm pregnant.  So get that out of your head.

But the news is that I got accepted to Teach Charlotte!  If you're not familiar with it, it's a program run by The New Teacher Project, the same organization that runs the teaching fellows programs in New York City, Chicago, Oakland/San Francisco, DC, and NOLA, among others.  Basically, they recruit what they consider to be highly-qualified, highly-motivated teachers and place them in high-need schools and subject areas.

I haven't been able to say anything about it because I wasn't sure if I was accepted yet or if I was going to take the offer.  I wasn't ready to tell my family and really embrace it.  But now I have, and I really can't remember the last time I was more excited or happy about something.

The program guarantees me a job with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools if I pass the Praxis test.  I have to take two of them on June 11, and if I fail either, I'm out.  I'm taking a general knowledge and a mild to moderate disabilities special education test because I'll be teaching special education classes.  Most likely, I'll be serving as a pull-out resource teacher, pulling kids out of class who need extra help because of learning disabilities.

I've always wanted to teach, and it's just never happened for me until now.  I can't wait to get started and I can't wait to meet my students.  I don't know what it will mean for my honeymoon, because I'll be a brand new teacher and may have to work.  Luckily, I have the most supportive fiance in the entire world (gag alert, but seriously) and he'd be behind me if I told him I wanted to join the traveling circus.  I'm more excited than anyone about the honeymoon, but we have insurance on it, and we can always postpone it if we have to.  This is more important, and this might be my only chance to do this.  No matter what, we're still getting married and we're still going to have an awesome wedding.

I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me around here, even though I'm going to be incredibly busy trying to study for the bar (yes, I'm still doing that too) and also doing this Teach Charlotte thing.  One reason I haven't been around much is that this has been on my mind since the application process started, and I haven't been able to talk about it.

So for all of my teacher friends that are readers over here on my little corner of the internet, I'll take all the advice you can give me!  About the Praxis, about teaching, about interviewing (I do still have to interview for my job) - anything!

Brain Fried

Here's the best I can do right now - a brain dump post.  So here's what is UP with me, yo.

• There are roughly 3840300929222 things that I absolutely did not learn in law school.  That someone apparently now thinks I should know.  I hate this.  It is muy stressful.  And it's not even remotely or mildly interesting or entertaining.  And sometimes makes me want to punch a schoolbus of tiny baby orphans.  

• I had to evict my cat.  Before you go crying all ASPCA on me, she's on the screen porch, with her cat tree, plenty of food and water, and plenty of visitation from me.  And her cat box, which she ignores, which is why she's there.  I decided that inappropriate peeing on my rugs (I think we're up to about 10 of them now that have been thrown out), my carpet that had to be replaced, the arm of my couch once, my bathtub, and now my bathroom sink - is not acceptable.  And then I put her outside and she went poo in my one of my crocs I have out there to wear when I'm goofing around the yard.  I told PB and he said, "Well, that's a croc of sh*t."  He was right.

• We had an epic lake party the other weekend that about took me a whole day to recover.  It was amazing.  Turns out when you make a huge batch of sangria including 16 bottles of $2 wine from Aldi, and people keep adding things like Triple Sec and mango rum (I think) to it, strange things will happen.  But we had a band, about 70 people, and some DELICIOUS cake.  Strawberry and orange.  I would post a pic but they're on PB's iPhone and not mine and he ain't here at the moment.

• I haven't cooked a real meal, actually done laundry, or seriously vacuumed my house in about two weeks.  I just clear out the cabinets and wear my Snuggie a lot.  Whoops.  Need to get better about that.
• I ordered some awesome things whilst tethered to my computer.  Por ejemplo - this dress for my rehearsal dinner.  Sequins, woop woop!  Also, these awesome bra tops from VS (bra tops are such an amazing invention):

Just looking for those pictures made me want every.  Single. Bra. Top.  Must close window.

Okay, that's it, all the words I can manage.  Not even a Ten on Tuesday at the moment.  Maybe next week.  Til next time!

Ten on Tuesday!

Taking a little study break (you don't want to know about the studying, it's terrible) - to do a photo edition of ToT! Though you do have to excuse the crummy iPhone pictures.  Can't get the nice camera to work.  Boooo.

As always, thanks to Chelsea for hosting!

This wonderful photo idea provided by Molly at Considering Campbells.

1.  Your favorite piece of furniture in your home.

This is a sideboard that my great, great grandfather made himself.  How cool is that?  It's really my favorite piece of furniture in the world, it's so unique.

2.  Your favorite thing on your wall.

It's a pen, ink and watercolor of Lafayette Square where PB and I got engaged.  It was an awesome Christmas present from my stepmom!

3.  Your bed as it looks right now. 

Yep, it contains PB since he was at work all night.  Beauty of it is, I can go in there, turn on lights, take pictures, cover him in shaving cream - he'd never know.  

4.  Your pantry.

Lots of delicious snack foods in there.  Very necessary for bar study.  Mmmm.

5.  Your favorite piece of jewelry. 

You knew I'd say my engagement ring, right?

6.  Your favorite book.

Don't know that I would call it my all-time favorite - but definitely the best book I've read in awhile.  Original, fast-paced and exciting.  Not so much thinking but not mindless either.  Definitely the perfect contrast to bar study.

7.  Your most comfortable shirt.

I pretty much have every color of these tank tops from Target.  They're loose, comfortable, and perfect for hot summer weather.

8.  Your messiest room.

Probably the living room right now because I just have bar study stuff, random snack packaging, and randomness in general sitting around while I study.  

9.  Your house shoes.

I don't generally wear them in summer.  And if I do get them out, Peg just thinks they're awesome chew toys.  So I'm not so big on the house shoes thing.

10.  Yourself.

Me and one of my favorite things: a big ol' plate of raw oysters.  Mmmmm.

Wine & Love!

I'm linking up with Nora again this week for her weekly installment of Wine and Love.  Go link up and tell us what's got you reaching into the wine fridge and what you're in love with this week.

First of all, what's got me wanting to reach for an extra large bottle of muscadine wine (loving that stuff so much lately): 


*Graduation, graduation, graduation.  "Have you picked up your robes yet?  Well, why not?  OH MY GOD, there are only TWO days left, what if something is wrong with them? What if they don't have them?  OMG."  Also, some lady at the law school has been pestering everyone for pictures for a photo slideshow and "stories of relatives that travelled a long way to get here or why your graduation is so significant for your family."  That's indicating to me that this is going to be a RULL LONG event.  Maybe there's a place for a wine water bottle amongst those giant robes...

*Really, that is the only thing on my wine radar right now.  Not too shabby this week.  Normally I can find a whole myriad of other things to complain about!  Probably it's just due to all of my bad attitude being consumed in an anti-graduation fog, I'll have a longer list next week, bahaha.

And now, what's got me wanting to do cartwheels and clap my hands excitedly like a seal this week:


*Y'all.  The wedding is LESS than four months away.  I'm so, so excited about that fact!

*Planning a bachelorette beach weekend with all of my best girlfriends.  It's going to be so much fun and I'm SO going to need a beach trip come August.

*Finally having a chance to lay out at the lake and get some real sun - I hate it when I'm pasty, I'm not one of those people who can pull off white skin.  I don't look delicate and Snow White-ish, I just look ill.  So yay for correcting that!

*Weenie hammock time.

*Pegs and PB love each other.  I think PB might be a little obsessed.

*I decided I deserved a present for finishing all of my exams, so that meant Target dresses!

*And speaking of Target - got these fabulous shoes too!  They make maxi dresses just about the perfect length and they are so comfy!

*This delicious recipe that Rachel inspired me to make with one of her menu Monday posts and BOY was it delicious.  Thank goodness there are leftovers!

*Dropping a whole egg on the floor when I was making scrambled eggs for breakfast would have made it onto the wine list, but when you have a weenie dog hanging around for easy clean-up, it goes on the love list!

Oh, Graduation

I wrote a whole angst-ridden post about how I hate graduation, why that is, and why I'm ready for it to be over.  It made me feel better.  But I decided it won't make you feel better, and that it wasn't going to do anything for my let's-improve-my-attitude-which-has-been-terrible-as-of-late campaign.  I decided to readjust.

So let's sum up how I feel about law school, and how I feel about graduation like this:

That should be sufficient.

I'm glad it's over.  I was not a big fan of law school.  I'm not a huge fan of lawyering in general most of the time.  I'm not excited about graduation.  I should be.  I'm trying to adjust my attitude and just be happy that it's over and polite to everyone with their billion questions about it.  And that sums up why I will be very pleased when this coming Saturday is over and done with!

Happy Mama's Day!

Happy Mama's Day to all of the moms out there.  And especially to mine!

I'll be spending the day going to church to watch the kids' choir perform (LOVE those days at church), going to a family Mother's Day cookout, and heading to the lake for some boat riding and dock-sitting. 

Hopefully we'll get some beautiful weather and an awesome boat ride like we did yesterday.

Hope you all have a splendid Mother's Day, whether you're a mom or just celebrating with yours! 

Ten on Tuesday!

I can't get my days straight this week...I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Tuesday, and today I'm not sure what it feels like.  But not Tuesday.  Oh exam week, how glad I am that I will NEVER ever have another one of you.

Muchas gracias as usual to Chelsea from Roots and Rings for hosting this little shindig!

1. What is the weather like in your city today?

Right now it's all sticky and muggy and cloudy and whatnot.  Ew.

2. Do you like the zoo?
I'm okay with the zoo, I suppose.  But sometimes it makes me sad to see the animals all caged up.  Also sometimes it smells like poop.

3. Do you eat coconut?
LOVE me some coconut.  Coconut cake is pretty much my favorite.  Also the new coconut M&Ms?  Amazing.

4. Have you ever hammered a nail? Are you good at it?
I have.  But it's not pretty.  PB will come take a hammer away from me if he catches me with one.

5. Does your family have a vacation destination that you visit often?
We go to Ocean Isle Beach just about every year.  This is the first year in awhile that I won't get to go.  Have I mentioned you should never go to law school and/or take the bar?  Bad idea.

6. How many pillows do you sleep with?
One under my head, my giant body pillow next to me, and I steal PB's to put on the other side if he's not there.  I have to build a nest.

7. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?Usually get the weenie dog up, put her collar on her and throw her outside to go bark at squirrels.  

8. Will you send your kids to summer camp?
No kids, gracias.  And they don't have summer camps for weenie dogs, as far as I know.  Y'all hear of one, you let me know.  I love summer camp though.  I know, I talk about it all the time, but if I didn't have to study for the bar and go try to get a boring lawyerpants job, you can bet I would be working at summer camp again.  It's just awesome.  Getting paid to hang out with kids and swim and fish and canoe?  Sign. Me. Up.

9. What do you put in your baked potatoes?
Usually just butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.  But one of my favorite things to do is go to Ruby Tuesday, get the salad bar and a baked potato and then take my potato up to the salad bar and load it up with salsa, ranch, cheese, and bacon bits.

10. Did you take swimming lessons as a kid?
Yes, but I don't remember a whole lot about them other than that I hated them.  Which is odd because I love to swim.  I just didn't like being told what to do, not being able to pretend to be Ariel, not being able to jump off the diving board 94 times an hour, and having to work.  It's called lazy, and it starts at a young age.  I have good technique though and I've taught swim lessons myself forever, so I'm all for them - I just had better things to do as a kid.

Royal Schmoyal

Okay, I am super tired of all this royal hootenanny, but I'm going to have to put my two cents in about it before we close this topic for good.  I sure as monkey nuts didn't get up at 5:00 to watch that mess, but you couldn't be ten feet from a TV for the next 48 hours without having it broadcasted into your head.  And needless to say, I have A Few Thoughts.

First.  I agree that Pippa looked hot.  This is a true statement.  However.  Has no one else noticed that Pippa and her tiny Lollipop Guild of flower girls were all wearing white?  Has no one remembered that only the bride wears white to the wedding?  I mean I'm not suggesting that they all should have been in Pepto pink, but white?  That's grounds for me snorting like a bull and taking a run at you if it's my wedding, I hate to say.

Further, my mom pointed this out and she was right.  Wills is bald, man.  Shouldn't there be someone in charge of The Royal Bald Spot?  A Royal Rogaine Wrangler?  Because this makes Wills less attractive. But I like Harry better anyway.

Speaking of Harry v. Wills, Harry's costume was also much cuter, don't you agree?  Will's had a little Mountie feel to me.  I'm sure it has some fantastic military significance or some such, but yeah, the navy looks much better.

And finally, because this is obviously an important topic, I liked Kate's dress alright.  However, did anyone else feel it made her boobs just look REAL STRANGE?  Because I did.  Sorry.  It's all I can see.

But overall, I will say that I did watch Ryan Secrest's special on the "Road to the Altar," as well as Ann Curry's Dateline on lovely wedding.  Perhaps my heart grew a few sizes, like the Grinch's, and I was able to partially appreciate it.  I know, you wouldn't think that from all of my snide comments above.  But who wants me to gush about what a Minnie McSkinny that Pippa is?  You know I had to nitpick, it's more fun that way!

I hope you all have enjoyed having your IQ go down about 10 points just from reading this post of intellectual significance.  Hope your weekend was lovely!