A Day in the Life...

Some of the things that happen in public schools never fail to amaze me. I am substituting and today a student, very first period of the day, completely falls off his rocker. I assigned a test for the students to take, which means a rather low key day...or so I thought. This student, we will just call him Bobby, decides that taking the test is not really what he wants to do today.

So, little Bobby takes his answer sheet, crumples it up into a ball and throws it at another student. This is where a rookie would have lost her cool and gone off on the kid. However, being a seasoned substituting vet, I knew that the best course of action would be to act like he was not doing anything out of the ordinary. Usually that works. Today, not so much.

So Bobby begins to crawl around on the floor like an animal making various animal noises and farting quite loud. He then crawls over to the teachers bookcase, retrieves a pack of balloons and begins eating them. Yes, eating them. I pull balloons out of his mouth only long enough for him to begin burping his ABCs. How graceful. I would ask him to leave and of course he wouldn't. That made sense and obviously this student was not into doing things that made sense.

Eventually after the behavior got more and more bizarre, I called in the SRO (school resource officer) and had him forcefully removed from the classroom.

So...if you know a teacher or a substitute teacher, thank him or her for going into the crazy fields every single day.

The Proposal of a Lifetime…

Yesterday began rather typically. Jared and I woke up pretty early and headed to the Waffle House for some yummy greasy goodness. We got back to the house and I got showered and ready to go for whatever adventures the day should bring us. As we are all ready Jared hands me an envelope, gives me a kiss, and tells me goodbye. Of course I was confused but I opened the envelope to find the first of my very special, very secret directions for my mission for the day.

My first mission was to go to the place where we had our very first date, Chylacas in Newnan. There I was to meet two informants that would give me my next directions. The informants, code name Principal and Rider, were my mom and dad. They gave me my next directions which told me to go to the park in Newnan and sit on the bench where he and I used to sit for hours and talk.

I got the park to meet my next informant, Zeus (Jared’s dad). He came up, gave me a big hug and an envelope directing me to the Waffle House where we had just had breakfast! I was directed to order a vanilla coke to go and to wait for my next informant, Explorer.

I pulled in to the Waffle House and saw Explorer, Roz, sitting there looking super cool wither sunglasses on. She came up and asked me my question that I had to answer to get my next envelope and I forgot what I was supposed to say. So, I ran back and got my prompt. Apparently while I was gone Roz told the waitress what was going on. I answered Explorer’s question and she gave me my next envelope that directed me to…Stone Mountain to meet Traveler!! As I was leaving Waffle House the whole restaurant was cheering and clapping because news had spread about the “mission” I was on.

I got to Stone Mountain to find my favorite scarf-wearing traveler, Annette. We took pictures in front of the mountain and had lots of hugs. I asked her the prompt and she gave me my next location but warned me not to get there before the specified time listed in the mission.

I didn’t quite know where the next location was considering all I had was an address, but I put it into my GPS and headed off. As I pulled into my location I realized (with much excitement) that I was at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta. The special note told me to go to the desk. At the desk I gave them my secret code name and they handed me a package with a room key and a room number.

I got into the room (which was INCREDIBLE!!!) to see a beautiful black evening gown laid out on the bed with a note telling me I had two hours to get dressed and ready to go and that “they” would come and pick me up. I was beaming! So, I primped and curled for two hours until I heard a knock on the door and opened it to reveal two of the cutest special agents, Jared’s friends Loyd and Taylor. They whisked me away in a black sedan to the super secret location.

As we pulled into the parking lot of the swan house in Atlanta I had no idea where it was but I felt like I was in a dream. As we neared the corner I could see Jared, in his suit looking so handsome, standing on the balcony waiting for me. As we got over to the destination I saw, standing beside the endless waterfall fountain, all of my family and all of Jared’s family. It was such a magical moment.

I climbed the stairs and found my prince charming with his most handsome smile waiting for me. He gave me a big kiss and said a few words then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes. We went down the stairs and joined our family for a champagne (or sparkling grape juice) toast. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much love.

But the night didn’t end there. We went to Canoe (my absolute most favorite restaurant in the whole world!!) and shared a remarkable meal in one of the best seats in the house overlooking the river. We then joined his friends at Atlanta Grill inside the Ritz for martinis.

The night came to a close with us going back to the hotel room to find rose petals in the shape of a heart, a bottle of champagne, and strawberries dipped in chocolate.

It was the most magical day of my life. I truly felt like a princess. I am the most blessed and fortunate woman ever. I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with Jared…..

If the proposal was this magical I can’t wait for the wedding!

The Little Things

I have always been a proponent of little things. No, no, no…get your mind out of the gutter. I am talking about the little things that your partner says and does within a relationship that express their love without making a grand gesture. It is these little things that keep my irrational, crazy bitch oh-my-god-he-doesn’t-love-me-anymore self tucked away nicely in the closet. These little things include the little kisses he plants on my forehead and the quick text messages that let me know I’m on his mind.


Along with those little things, there are also the unrelated things. These are the things he says and does that really don’t have anything to do with me but they scream “I love you Catherine” loud and clear. My current s/o does lots of these little unrelated things.

He loves my family. My family is beyond impossible. My mother is overbearing and overprotective. She is annoying and messy. My brother is goofy and nerdy, and my dad is mean and moody. I love them wildly. They have provided for me though all of the crap that has happened in my life. However, when new boyfriends enter the picture they often misunderstand my wonderful family. S/O is not one of those. He has embraced them whole heartedly. He plays board games and makes jokes with them. When I see him interacting with my family it makes my heart skip a beat and makes me know that he loves me unconditionally.

He goes to church with me. My faith is a very complex aspect of who I am and my boyfriend understands that. Even though I would never ask him to go to church with me, he goes every week he is in town. He goes and sits and sings and plays the part of the love of my life….probably because he is the love of my life. Tonight, while sitting at the dinner table (with my family!) the S/O asks what it takes to join the church. It took everything I had not to cry. I have always wanted a guy who would join the church and make that commitment to me. I don’t know if he will follow through with it, but just the thought makes me so incredibly happy.

So to every guy out there I’m just letting you know, it is the little things that keep your lady happy in that deep down, crazy in love kind of way.

Oh You Know You Want It...

Don't you just love it when something BIG is about to happen in your life and you have no control over it at all. I am a self professed control freak and I like being, well, in control. That being said, it drives me crazy when things happen to me or around me and I cant stick my big fat nosey behind into it.

Enter the boyfriend with.....the ring. My darling significant other and I have been dating for about seven months now and I know, without a doubt that he is my one. He makes me happier than any other guy I have ever been with and I could totally see myself with him from now until the end of time. So naturally I want the big sparkly rock. I wouldn’t have dared to bring it up on my own...that is like the crazy girl relationship death sentence. If you bring up the ring before he is ready then you just look desperate.

However, there comes a time in a girl's life when she starts getting the "I-wanna-husband" itch. This usually occurs around 23 (in the south that is). At this point said girl has umpteen million friends who are all getting engaged and married. Desperation only enters the picture when the girl's younger friends start getting the rock and she has yet to. Now, this is not making light of the marriage itself. For at this point the girl doesn’t just want the perfect ring, she wants the perfect man and the perfect marriage.

As I am nearing that itchy time in my life, I want my happy ending. Not wanting to bring it up first, I waited and waited and waited. So I waited a little more and eventually the boyfriend brought up the topic. I am very sure he regrets having brought it up because now I am driving him up the wall. Every single day I want to ask "sooooo....how’s that proposal thing coming along?" Anything I can do to help you with that? Anything I can do to speed this process along? Hell I even drove 800 miles in one weekend so I could make sure he had the ring. (Which we didn’t get, but that is a whole other story)

I have to give the bf props though...he has been very patient and is keeping me super excited about it. It is difficult for me because I want the experience to be super wonderful and grand. The way I can ensure that is well...to plan it myself. The only problem is I don’t want to plan it myself. I want him to do it. I want it to be a total and complete surprise but the kind of surprise that is perfect in every aspect. No pressure.

I guess my only option is to trust him and know that the perfect moment will be perfect as long as at the end of the night I get to be engaged to my sweetheart.

I Shall Edit No More

I know...it sounds scary. The problem I have with blogging is that I have so much crap that I would love to ramble on endlessly about and nothing to narrow me down. So I start each day with intentions of blogging and end up with about thirty topics and just too stinkin exhausted to actually write about any of them. I mean how can I choose with so many topics? What gets included?

My practice once was to type them all into word documents and then read and see which was most interesting and post that. That didnt work because I had fifty word documents with half a blog post and nothing actually posted.

So my new years resolution, if you want to call it that, is just to blog. I want to just put it out there, typo be damned and see how this thing goes. :)

Hi! My Name is Control Freak and I Have a Problem

I will be the first to admit that I am most definitely a control freak. I haven't always been this way, indeed, when I was just a wee one I would frolic and play with no worries. However, as the years have gone by I have found that I just can't help myself. I want to control things that are completely not up to me.

 

This is quite a conundrum for a full-time army girlfriend. The Army doesn't care if your girlfriend has control issues. In fact, they will most likely laugh at you if said information is presented.

 

So here I am wanting my boyfriend to come home and here I am alone for the third weekend in a row. I know this is just training for the case of an actual deployment but it still isn't fun to be so close and yet so far away.

 

So, in order to aid me in my lonesomeness I have: joined a gym, started knitting again, read some books, cleaned, did laundry, and the list goes on and on and on.

 

In the end, despite all the lonely nights and the minutes spent staring and willing the phone to ring, it is worth it just to see that smile.

Now Entering the Twilight Zone

So I am leaving the gym tonight and I get a call from my mom inviting me to the local Mexican place for dinner with the fam. Despite the fact that I smell like a broke hooker from the tropics I decide to go.

 

I walk in and immediately see a group of three people gathered around my mom just talking away. I then see the blue eyes and bleach blonde hair of the twin boys I babysat when I was young. Except now they are not three feet tall wiry little balls of energy. Now they are tall, thin, young men with stubble and adorable little smiles. I felt so stinkin old!

 

So I am sitting there, eating dinner and all of a sudden heavy metal Mexican music starts playing in the background. Various 80's hair band favorites are being blasted out, only in Spanish!

 

And if things aren't weird enough, in walks Katt Williams, the comedian. Now Mr. Williams smells strongly of smoke (yeah the funny kind). He is wearing jeans with some crazy flower print going up the side, a cape, and of course, a fuzzy feathered aussie hat.

 

I felt like any second I would look down and be naked and the aliens would be landing.

 

What is happening around here lately?