november/december update!
ok last i posted was our hockey weekend. let's see what else happened....
the 15th, we went down to south jersey for jim's cousin's going away party, since he is going into the navy. it was a nice little party and i got to play with the doggies. now two of his cousins are in the navy, and one is in the army. rough. all of them seem to be in good spirits. we follow the army's cousin's myspace, and it seems like he's having a crazy time being stationed in germany.
the next week we had 1:30 closings so we were able to get a lot of stuff done around the classroom. on the 20th we went to the devils game and they won! they have been playing really well without brodeur. i don't know what happened that weekend since there is nothing marked on the calendar, haha.
i was really looking forward to thanksgiving week. we had a nice little HH after school, and then thanksgiving, me, jim and his mom took the trek to queens for thanksgiving. it was an awesome time as usual. i really have the most amazing family. the first thing my aunt says to jim's mom was "you look more like his sister than his mom!" and that made her day. my uncle was able to get my cousin on the webcam since she was in new orleans. we were able to have her at the dinner table via webcam. it was great chatting with my cousins and eating a ton of food. we also played scattegories which is becoming a family gathering tradition.
friday im going to assume that we had a nice relaxing day off together... oh wait, jim went to sears on black friday and got a gps. saturday we met with a photographer and then went into the city with my parents. we went to wo hop for dinner and it was so yummy. then we walked around chinatown so i could find a new asian print bag. midway through our journey, jim disappears from us and i got freaked out that the chinese mafia had kidnapped him, haha. but he had just run down the street to get me a stalk of bamboo... awwhh. i love him. we were able to find a bag, which i bought and it fell apart the next week. apparently the bag quality in chinatown/toronto is much better than chinatown/NYC. we ended the night with my dad running around to find a place to go to the bathroom since the egg roll didn't agree with him... it was really funny. the next day we had a little lunch with jimbo's mom, along with jason and courtney.
the next week i started teaching assist, which is different from last year since i have 11 kids instead of 6. lucky, they seem to all be good kids and are a lot calmer and more agreeable to doing the work. so far. i don't want to jinx it! thursday we had our holiday party, which consisted of guessing at baby pictures, drinking wine coolers with dana, laughing my ass off with arwen and tara, and a sudden stop to christmas music to play 'baby got back.' saturday i worked a birthday party and then headed up to danah's. she cut a significant amount of hair but she assured me it would be long again by september (my hair grows fast!). she layered it so it's shorter in the front and longer in the back. it looks cute. then we hung out and drank coronas and watched one of her vampire shows which she is really into.
the next week was work, rugym, work, rugym, work, assist, work assist, work, happy hour at tara and erik's! it was so much fun. there was a ton of food and i drank lots of cranberry sam. i love my co workers. tara even put on the devils game and my co workers got to see the devils fan side of me, haha. they were surprised by my loudness. a great time was had by all and i hope tara and erik do more happy hours. so fun.
saturday was andrew's surprise party, so most of the day was spent trying to get him out of the house so carolyn could come in and prepare. originally we thought that he'd go with jim and scott to the brewery in cherry hill, because carolyn and i were "dress shopping," but he backed out at the last minute to study for his ARE exams. so then plan B was that carolyn's brother was going to call andrew to go shopping for carolyn's mom's xmas gift. (a chainsaw) but luckily, andrew showed an interest in a happy hour at triumph. so jim went to andrew's, and then they met scott at triumph.... carolyn scrambled with her mom and brother to get everything ready, and people started showing up around 6:30. since scott wanted to be there during the surprise, he had jenn call him, pretending to be throwing up. that way they were able to get to the apartment before andrew. jim called me as they were leaving the bar, and then about 20 min later, to tell me andrew had stopped to pee. haha. by then, it was almost 8. then he called me and started screaming, "he's coming he's coming!!!" and we shut off all the lights and got really quiet. andrew unlocked the door and stepped in and we all screamed "surprise!!!!" he kind of stood there in shock, then said, "what are you doing here?" then he said "i know you and you and you...." and pointing to everyone. so he had no idea. the night continued on and it was a sweet party. carolyn gets mad credit for pulling it off.
the next day we had another surprise party, one for jim's grandpa's 80th. this wasn't so elaborately planned. jim's aunt had told nana and pop that it was an engagement party for us, so when they showed up, we shouted surprise! and nana was very confused, but pop was happy. i spent a lot of the party playing with kristen and kate. the food was soooo yummy, really excellent italian food. jim's cousin erik was ridiciously goofy and cracking us up the whole time. at one point he took the entire tray of desserts and put it in front of him and pretended to dig in. later on, when he got sick (we think he was hung over), we told kate he ate too much dessert. after the party, we went back to aunt gayle's and uncle tom, uncle robert, and pop drank themselves silly. jim's cousins, none of whom are drinking age, started getting money from the uncles to bring them more liquor. then they started sharing with the uncles and pop... and the night just kept getting crazier. there was ass smacking, crotch grabbing, boob grabbing, hahaha. it was a really entertaining night.
the week after that was pretty easy, with friday having an early closing because of the weather. jim and i were supposed to go to philly for his birthday but the weather was awful. i felt bad that all we had done the day of his birthday was go holiday shopping, so i was looking forward to taking him to philly. so we ended up staying in and watching the devils game with a bottle of wine and a 6 pack. it's funny we buy each other alcohol to make the other one feel better. so we had a really fun night in. the next day we went up to my parents' house to meet with another photographer. after that, matt and jim were playing on the xbox so my mom said, let's go to david's bridal. and we did and it was lots of fun! after david's bridal, we went to dinner at a local place and it was good to celebrate jim's birthday and my parents' anniversary. after dinner we went to jeff and noel's for a holiday party. they rock. we had such a fun time hanging out with laurie, adam, and another cool chick tanya. the next day my parents came down and had dinner with jim's extended family. it actually went really well, no crotch grabbing or drunk cousins. i played with my buddies, kristen and kate. my mom lit the hanukah candles and kristen sang 'happy birthday', it was too cute.
monday we had our classroom holiday party, which went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone. the tuesday we had a 1:30 closing, and jim and i went to the devils game! we hung out with allie and steve and it was fun... steve coaches from his seat, so that was entertaining. the devils didn't even score a goal, so allie never got to hear the goal horn. boo.
wednesday was xmas eve... jim had to work, and he was sick, so he came home at 2pm and crashed. i went to melissa's to help with the kids and take care of the food while they went to church.it took us a half hour to get kristen dressed... she's a little terror. so i stayed and stirred the food, and erik showed up with the girl he's seeing. we watched mtv true life and chatted until the other guests started showing up. there was a good 30 people there. jim and i helped melissa set up and then enjoyed a few sams. we talked with the cousins most of the time. it was a nice yummy relaxing xmas eve with jim's family. there was also a visit from santa bubba, which was delightful as always. christmas day we just relaxed and then went to jim's mom's with jason and courtney for a nice dinner and present exchange. this year jim and i didn't get each other presents, mostly because neither of us had time and neither of us knew what we wanted. i kinda liked it better that way. the whole present thing is overrated. i mean the whole giving thing is good, but the materialistic stuff is too much. it's really our present to spend time with the family. kate and kristen came over for dessert and we sang happy birthday to jim. the next day we went shopping and it was crazy. we were able to get the rest of the presents for my family.
saturday we drove out to clinton for our usual gathering with jim's mom's best friend. we had a little brunch and we showed everyone the vacation pictures and gave details for the wedding. at 2:30 we were on our way to my parents' house to then go to long island for hanukah. we gave my brother a devils hoodie, my mom got lots of pumpkin soup, and my dad got homemade chocolate covered pretzels and a 6 pack of holy grail ale. nice. the ride out to LI was eh. when we got there, my cousin made her big announcement that she was engaged! so exciting! girl cousins rock. we had a nice dinner and i ate too many laktas. again, it was just a nice warm family event. we got back really late because we didn't really want to leave. the next day we had dinner at jason and courtney with jim and jason's cousins and gf's. the food was super yummy, but it was a chill night as compared to the last few days.
monday started my week of break, which i can't believe is almost over. monday i went to my parents' house and attempted to go dress shopping with my mom but everywhere was closed. boooo. by then i wasn't feeling great so i just watched the simpsons movie. theresa came over and we went out for a drink and some food at OTB. it was soo good to see her again. our friendship has been through so much since the 4th grade, we really just pick up where we left off. after a great dinner, i came home to see travis, his daughter (!!!!) and his fiancee getting in the car, so i ran over to meet them. i still can't believe travis is a dad. it seems like they are doing so well. hopefully we can meet them for dinner soon.
tuesday i cleaned cleaned cleaned cleaned. our apartment was all ready for new years eve! jim and cooked up a storm on wednesday. the final menu was: jalepeno poppers (handmade by jim), make your own hard or soft turkey tacos, with lettuce, pico, cheese, and sour cream as fixins; bean dip, cheese dip, salsa, chips, rice and beans, corn cake, and mint brownies for dessert. plus everyone brought a ton of beer. laurie and adam brought margarita mix and tequilla. it was an awesome party with awesome people. we played lots of guitar hero and bean game, and blokus was broken out. by the end of the night, some people were even playing dreidel. haha. we had a champange toast at midnight and i kissed my sweetie (we were the first of the couples to kiss in 2009!) the party continued and andrew poured water over me.it started to wind down around 2... adam and laurie crashed here and we had a nice relaxing day with them the next day. phew!
ok i am done typing.
.
the 15th, we went down to south jersey for jim's cousin's going away party, since he is going into the navy. it was a nice little party and i got to play with the doggies. now two of his cousins are in the navy, and one is in the army. rough. all of them seem to be in good spirits. we follow the army's cousin's myspace, and it seems like he's having a crazy time being stationed in germany.
the next week we had 1:30 closings so we were able to get a lot of stuff done around the classroom. on the 20th we went to the devils game and they won! they have been playing really well without brodeur. i don't know what happened that weekend since there is nothing marked on the calendar, haha.
i was really looking forward to thanksgiving week. we had a nice little HH after school, and then thanksgiving, me, jim and his mom took the trek to queens for thanksgiving. it was an awesome time as usual. i really have the most amazing family. the first thing my aunt says to jim's mom was "you look more like his sister than his mom!" and that made her day. my uncle was able to get my cousin on the webcam since she was in new orleans. we were able to have her at the dinner table via webcam. it was great chatting with my cousins and eating a ton of food. we also played scattegories which is becoming a family gathering tradition.
friday im going to assume that we had a nice relaxing day off together... oh wait, jim went to sears on black friday and got a gps. saturday we met with a photographer and then went into the city with my parents. we went to wo hop for dinner and it was so yummy. then we walked around chinatown so i could find a new asian print bag. midway through our journey, jim disappears from us and i got freaked out that the chinese mafia had kidnapped him, haha. but he had just run down the street to get me a stalk of bamboo... awwhh. i love him. we were able to find a bag, which i bought and it fell apart the next week. apparently the bag quality in chinatown/toronto is much better than chinatown/NYC. we ended the night with my dad running around to find a place to go to the bathroom since the egg roll didn't agree with him... it was really funny. the next day we had a little lunch with jimbo's mom, along with jason and courtney.
the next week i started teaching assist, which is different from last year since i have 11 kids instead of 6. lucky, they seem to all be good kids and are a lot calmer and more agreeable to doing the work. so far. i don't want to jinx it! thursday we had our holiday party, which consisted of guessing at baby pictures, drinking wine coolers with dana, laughing my ass off with arwen and tara, and a sudden stop to christmas music to play 'baby got back.' saturday i worked a birthday party and then headed up to danah's. she cut a significant amount of hair but she assured me it would be long again by september (my hair grows fast!). she layered it so it's shorter in the front and longer in the back. it looks cute. then we hung out and drank coronas and watched one of her vampire shows which she is really into.
the next week was work, rugym, work, rugym, work, assist, work assist, work, happy hour at tara and erik's! it was so much fun. there was a ton of food and i drank lots of cranberry sam. i love my co workers. tara even put on the devils game and my co workers got to see the devils fan side of me, haha. they were surprised by my loudness. a great time was had by all and i hope tara and erik do more happy hours. so fun.
saturday was andrew's surprise party, so most of the day was spent trying to get him out of the house so carolyn could come in and prepare. originally we thought that he'd go with jim and scott to the brewery in cherry hill, because carolyn and i were "dress shopping," but he backed out at the last minute to study for his ARE exams. so then plan B was that carolyn's brother was going to call andrew to go shopping for carolyn's mom's xmas gift. (a chainsaw) but luckily, andrew showed an interest in a happy hour at triumph. so jim went to andrew's, and then they met scott at triumph.... carolyn scrambled with her mom and brother to get everything ready, and people started showing up around 6:30. since scott wanted to be there during the surprise, he had jenn call him, pretending to be throwing up. that way they were able to get to the apartment before andrew. jim called me as they were leaving the bar, and then about 20 min later, to tell me andrew had stopped to pee. haha. by then, it was almost 8. then he called me and started screaming, "he's coming he's coming!!!" and we shut off all the lights and got really quiet. andrew unlocked the door and stepped in and we all screamed "surprise!!!!" he kind of stood there in shock, then said, "what are you doing here?" then he said "i know you and you and you...." and pointing to everyone. so he had no idea. the night continued on and it was a sweet party. carolyn gets mad credit for pulling it off.
the next day we had another surprise party, one for jim's grandpa's 80th. this wasn't so elaborately planned. jim's aunt had told nana and pop that it was an engagement party for us, so when they showed up, we shouted surprise! and nana was very confused, but pop was happy. i spent a lot of the party playing with kristen and kate. the food was soooo yummy, really excellent italian food. jim's cousin erik was ridiciously goofy and cracking us up the whole time. at one point he took the entire tray of desserts and put it in front of him and pretended to dig in. later on, when he got sick (we think he was hung over), we told kate he ate too much dessert. after the party, we went back to aunt gayle's and uncle tom, uncle robert, and pop drank themselves silly. jim's cousins, none of whom are drinking age, started getting money from the uncles to bring them more liquor. then they started sharing with the uncles and pop... and the night just kept getting crazier. there was ass smacking, crotch grabbing, boob grabbing, hahaha. it was a really entertaining night.
the week after that was pretty easy, with friday having an early closing because of the weather. jim and i were supposed to go to philly for his birthday but the weather was awful. i felt bad that all we had done the day of his birthday was go holiday shopping, so i was looking forward to taking him to philly. so we ended up staying in and watching the devils game with a bottle of wine and a 6 pack. it's funny we buy each other alcohol to make the other one feel better. so we had a really fun night in. the next day we went up to my parents' house to meet with another photographer. after that, matt and jim were playing on the xbox so my mom said, let's go to david's bridal. and we did and it was lots of fun! after david's bridal, we went to dinner at a local place and it was good to celebrate jim's birthday and my parents' anniversary. after dinner we went to jeff and noel's for a holiday party. they rock. we had such a fun time hanging out with laurie, adam, and another cool chick tanya. the next day my parents came down and had dinner with jim's extended family. it actually went really well, no crotch grabbing or drunk cousins. i played with my buddies, kristen and kate. my mom lit the hanukah candles and kristen sang 'happy birthday', it was too cute.
monday we had our classroom holiday party, which went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone. the tuesday we had a 1:30 closing, and jim and i went to the devils game! we hung out with allie and steve and it was fun... steve coaches from his seat, so that was entertaining. the devils didn't even score a goal, so allie never got to hear the goal horn. boo.
wednesday was xmas eve... jim had to work, and he was sick, so he came home at 2pm and crashed. i went to melissa's to help with the kids and take care of the food while they went to church.it took us a half hour to get kristen dressed... she's a little terror. so i stayed and stirred the food, and erik showed up with the girl he's seeing. we watched mtv true life and chatted until the other guests started showing up. there was a good 30 people there. jim and i helped melissa set up and then enjoyed a few sams. we talked with the cousins most of the time. it was a nice yummy relaxing xmas eve with jim's family. there was also a visit from santa bubba, which was delightful as always. christmas day we just relaxed and then went to jim's mom's with jason and courtney for a nice dinner and present exchange. this year jim and i didn't get each other presents, mostly because neither of us had time and neither of us knew what we wanted. i kinda liked it better that way. the whole present thing is overrated. i mean the whole giving thing is good, but the materialistic stuff is too much. it's really our present to spend time with the family. kate and kristen came over for dessert and we sang happy birthday to jim. the next day we went shopping and it was crazy. we were able to get the rest of the presents for my family.
saturday we drove out to clinton for our usual gathering with jim's mom's best friend. we had a little brunch and we showed everyone the vacation pictures and gave details for the wedding. at 2:30 we were on our way to my parents' house to then go to long island for hanukah. we gave my brother a devils hoodie, my mom got lots of pumpkin soup, and my dad got homemade chocolate covered pretzels and a 6 pack of holy grail ale. nice. the ride out to LI was eh. when we got there, my cousin made her big announcement that she was engaged! so exciting! girl cousins rock. we had a nice dinner and i ate too many laktas. again, it was just a nice warm family event. we got back really late because we didn't really want to leave. the next day we had dinner at jason and courtney with jim and jason's cousins and gf's. the food was super yummy, but it was a chill night as compared to the last few days.
monday started my week of break, which i can't believe is almost over. monday i went to my parents' house and attempted to go dress shopping with my mom but everywhere was closed. boooo. by then i wasn't feeling great so i just watched the simpsons movie. theresa came over and we went out for a drink and some food at OTB. it was soo good to see her again. our friendship has been through so much since the 4th grade, we really just pick up where we left off. after a great dinner, i came home to see travis, his daughter (!!!!) and his fiancee getting in the car, so i ran over to meet them. i still can't believe travis is a dad. it seems like they are doing so well. hopefully we can meet them for dinner soon.
tuesday i cleaned cleaned cleaned cleaned. our apartment was all ready for new years eve! jim and cooked up a storm on wednesday. the final menu was: jalepeno poppers (handmade by jim), make your own hard or soft turkey tacos, with lettuce, pico, cheese, and sour cream as fixins; bean dip, cheese dip, salsa, chips, rice and beans, corn cake, and mint brownies for dessert. plus everyone brought a ton of beer. laurie and adam brought margarita mix and tequilla. it was an awesome party with awesome people. we played lots of guitar hero and bean game, and blokus was broken out. by the end of the night, some people were even playing dreidel. haha. we had a champange toast at midnight and i kissed my sweetie (we were the first of the couples to kiss in 2009!) the party continued and andrew poured water over me.it started to wind down around 2... adam and laurie crashed here and we had a nice relaxing day with them the next day. phew!
ok i am done typing.
.