Yah for Snow!

So much SNOW!!! Richmond got hit hard this past weekend! I think here at my house we got 12 inches? And lucky me, no school tomorrow!! That never happens at private Catholic school but by the grace of God ( no pun intended) we are off tomorrow!! Sooo all that means is more catching up on sleep, movie watching, and relaxing. Tough life :) I wonder how many snow days I'll get in Southern California?

     Below is a snowy pic of something near and dear to my heart.The Crim Dell Bridge at William and Mary, where we got engaged!

So helpful..

My soon to be husband has suggested this romantic arrangement for our first dance.My initial reaction is no? but I love him anyways

Things I'm loving right now...

1. Vikki, from Real Housewives of Orange County, is showing her appreciation for her staff this week at her office. How you may ask? Fruit baskets? Catered lunch? Something better. She organized a surprise Botox and spray tanning party for her hard working employees. Seriously? Yes, in fact she's dead serious. Duh, its a beauty day as she calls it. I pretend to hate it but I'm not promising I won't apply for a job at her office when I move out there. You know, just to see what its like.

2. Tory Burch Revas. Yellow patent leather. Yes please.

3. Chocolate Milk. It's delicious. End of story

4. New Food Network show!  Mexican Made Easy. It's a must watch. Ok, its a must DVR since it comes on at 9:30 Saturday mornings but I hope to get some new fav recipes.

5. That, as of today, there are exactly 7 months until I get to do this.... Well, not exactly this because a certain bridesmaid said this would be her worst nightmare :)  Regardless, time is flying by and I seriously can't wait.

                    

Why I love love love my girlfriends....

We LOVE conga lines and do them often and at inappropriate times....

We lounge by the pool...

We lived,laughed, loved, cried and played together in college ALL the time...

 seriously every minute of everyday

They make me laugh... Lauras bach weekend in particular

We love the holidays!

Christmas 06 + Progress Street + Mariah Carey = epic

We've cheered on graduations....

And definitely done some weddings...

Bottom Line:  They are the best friends/sisters a gal could ask for....

Brainstormin' and dreamin'

When we move to California its a whole new, bright, clean slate. A new house/apt/townhouse? Who knows. All I do know, is that over the past few months and as we start to register for all our lovely gifts, I've been trying to think about what style I want to infuse our new pad with. Modern, country ( no thanks), beachy, romantic, so many options! I was perusing my new fav website and finally found something I loved!

The Hamptons house of writer Erica Berry in Somethings Gotta Give.... light, bright, clean, bay window, built ins, a closet to die for? A gal can dream right.

                                     

 As I started packing some stuff up today (to make the first of 2 moves in the next 7 months) I realized how much stuff I have. I packed up over 20 pairs of shoes and those were just the winter ones I don't wear on a regular basis. Soooo basically what Im saying is I need a closet that big and magnificent right?

Gal of the day!

I wanted to introduce you all  ( well the 2 people that read this) to my fab MOH, Katheryn Cooper Schilling. For the purposes of this blog, and in life, I call her Cookie. Story to be told at a different time. One thing I know for sure, she will HATE these pictures. hahaha

From the beginning.... well the oldest pic I have on my comp. We've been causing a ruckus together since we were in pull-ups. We even wore matching clothes almost everyday of preschool. NOT on purpose.

On our fantastic "backpacking" aka nice hotel trip through Europe. It was the best graduation present and there are countless stories to tell. They involve black socks, countrysides filled with sunflowers, padded bike shorts, the Italian police, a fabulous redition of " Born in the USA" upon landing in NYC and of course some Vino.

This picture was her idea. Her " signature face" as we refer to it. We lived together in Manhattan and contrary to popular belief it was one of my favorite years thus far. We wined, dined ( too much I think), biked through the burrows, shopped, got our first big girl jobs, worked way too hard and not hard enough, had a serious dance party habit,  laid in bed with a bag too many of mint milanos, turned over some new leaves and met some hot cops from Queens. Oh your names Vinny? This is your friend Mario? Shocker.Bottom line, when it came to picking a Maid of Honor I knew she was my gal. She keeps me laughing and never lets me beat myself up too much, except about my thinning hair which she gets a kick out of.

We've "been together" for over 20 years and have so many memories and stories I cant even begin to count.  Shes been my personal DJ when I've needed a beat, my motivational speaker when I get a little blue and the best type of friend a gal could ask for. I love her dearly and am slowly trying to convince her to leave the big city and move beachside with me in Cali. Its a work in progress :)  You remember the dance moves sista? August is fast approaching!

                                

Could I beeeee a worse blogger?

What do I do with some/most of  my free time? I love to watch cooking shows, anything on HGTV, lounge occasionaly but above all... Im obsessed with reading blogs.  There I said it. Im addicted. It's not just me, a certain roomie of mine is just as bad I swear :)  I have a running tab of 10-12 I check on a daily basis. Do I know all of the people personally? No.  Do I sometimes refer to them in conversation with said roomate like we know them? Yes. If I met them in public could I carry on a conversation based on their blogs and ask them pertinent questions about their life? Absolutely. I get sucked into reading for hours on end about peoples lives, jobs, anything.  We aren't creepy, just curious. Contrary to a J's personal beliefs it's just a hobby. He does fantasy footall, I do blogs. I call it even

 On a sidenote, Yah for my wedding bouquet!! We met with the florist the other day and picked out some gorg flowers, all white of course, except for these babies. They are black and white anemones. Im in L-O-V-E!  As for the other table arrangements (all 23 of them)  we picked something a little smaller. Think shiny mint julep cups with small white arrangements of peonies and lithianthus. I take back every negative thing I ever said about flowers. So much fun!

With an oink oink here....

I wonder if they actually sell hazmat suits online. If I had a dollar for every child that has come up to me and said " Ms. Tretiak, I dont feel so good" I would have enough money for like 20 Diet Cokes. In my world Diet Coke is as good as gold. Actually if given a sack of gold versus a cold fountain "dc" I would seriously weigh my options. Who pays in gold these days anyways? Onto my original point, my sick kids! At one point we had 10 absent from my class! We have clorox wipes in each center, enough Purell to sanitize the entire modern world and tissues by the dozen. Between the swine flu, strep, and the common cold  ( all of which are going around the class) we are sending kids home left and right. Luckily ( knock on wood), my preemie immune system has been holding up swimmingly. Now, granted, my kids are getting smart. The healthy ones have caught on that we are airing on the side of caution these days. If one person has a stomach ache and asks to go to the nurse, 7 more all of a sudden fall ill right there on the spot. It's tough to weed out the ones that are actually sick from those that have "sympathy symptoms" as the hillarious nurse calls them. Swine flu or not we are pressing on...we have worksheets to finish, letters to sound out and patterns to make. All in a kindergarteners days work.... 
 

50 lil punkin's....

     Tomorrow we pack up 2 hospital size first aid kits, 1 epi pen, 11 inhalers 3 containers of Clorox and baby wipes, 5 mini tissue packs, 6 garbage bags, 50 kindergarteners, 4 teachers, one school bus and a partridge in a pear tree? Why not. Sounds like a three-ring circus to me but I couldn't be more excited!

                                          Our first field trip!!!

Chesterfield Berry Farm here we come! Brace yourselves, someone will fall off the tractor ride, someone will cry because they miss their mom, someone will cry because we tell them they cant get a pumpkin that weighs more than them and a few I’m sure will forget or loose their lunch/snack/minds. I love it! The kids are sooooo excited and have been waiting forever to go. We were supposed to go last week but it was freezing and soaking wet with the rain everyday, so it got postponed. One of my sweetest boys asked me on Monday... " Miss Tretiak, since we didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch does that mean we have to skip Halloween this year?" After I finished laughing I assured him that indeed we were going and that Halloween was still on the way. The look of relief on his face was priceless. Lucky for us, quite a few parents are meeting us at the patch to help relieve some of the pressure that comes with keeping up with 50 small children in a corn maze.
      To top it all off,  I had a mom yesterday pull me aside and ask if her son could sit up front with me because there was a pretty solid chance he would get  sick on the bus and loose his breakfast. Ummmm nope. No thanks, not interested! Luckily, I guess, the aide in the other class gets motion sick as well. She promised they could stick together in the front. Therefore, I will be in the back of the bus leading the riveting renditions of Yankee Doodle and the Hannah Montana theme song one of my girls suggested we sing on the ride. Why not right? I might even try to start a round robin version of Party in the USA and see how it goes..... Also, in the spirit of being on elementary school field trips again, I’m packing a pizza lunchable to eat at the picnic tomorrow. I am however replacing the Capri Sun from back in the day with a few Diet Cokes. Halloween Oreos? Double stuffed you say? Don't miiiind if I do. Im super excited, wish me luck!!! 

First of many to come...

After Jim set up the domain name, applied the background and answered the million formatting questions I obviously had, I think we are ready to roll! We / I ( Jim swears he will never post haha )  wanted to start this blog so our family and friends could keep up with us on this soon to be crazy life! We have a lot to come in the next year but it's all super exciting!
      Jim got an incredible job as an attorney in the corporate securities group at a firm in Newport Beach, CA. His start date is October of next year. That seems like a long way away, but in the meantime he has to graduate law school, take the bar course, take the actual bar exam and find us a place to live on the west coast ( with my help of course).. So needless to say, he's got a lot to do! I'm so incredibly proud of him and I know he's really really excited and ready to move on from school to this next phase.  As for me I'm loving working in Kindergarten at my alma mater. It's been fun, funny, exhausting, and really, there's NEVER a dull moment. I wish there was from time to time.
      When I'm not at school I'm wedding planning!!! :)  Yep, we got engaged Labor Day weekend and with the help of two wedding binders, a few good books,  countless magazines and one amazing momma I'm on my way! Jim actually is the more organized member of our duo, surprise surprise to those of you that know me. The excel spreadsheets he can whip up for me are amazing!!
      We've set the date for August 28th, 2010. So in the two months between the bar and his start date, we are going to pack, get married, move, honeymoon and unpack in our new place!! Sounds exhausting, exciting and (not to mention) challenging,  but we're ready! Now all Jim keeps asking is when we can go taste the food and cake!  I'll gladly let him tag along for that! He's been the best fiance ever, but I think I'm partial.

Soooooo.... that very long winded post should bring everyone up to date on what we're doing!  Keep checking back and Emily B. please add this to your long list of blogs you read daily :)