Half Day Off of Work

I took a half day off of work because of a doctor's appointment, so I thought I'd update everyone on what we're doing. What a great day to have off, too...it's almost 80 and beautiful outside!

We're heading to New Orleans in a little over a week. Cody, Jean (his mom), and I are spending the week of spring break in New Orleans. We are both excited to get away for awhile. It's been a long time since I was there. I was in college and we didn't really get to see many of the sights.

We've set a date for the wedding and booked the church and reception site. Who knew how expensive a wedding would be! We will be getting married at my church here in Overland Park. We priced several reception sites and I was astounded by how much it would cost. We finally decided on the VFW which was much more reasonably priced than anything else we looked at by far. We have been getting prices for photographers...WOW! This is one of the most important expenses (in my opinion) so I want a good photographer but they are asking for a lot. Cody and I have both had mild freak-outs over the costs, but we're getting it all figured out. We are thinking about taking a 4 day cruise for our honeymoon, then maybe staying an extra night or two in Miami. I feel good about the progress we've made in planning. We've only been engaged for a couple of weeks.

The plan has always been for us to buy a house this summer, but Susan just emailed me a listing that is too good of a deal to pass up. We are going to look at the house tonight with Brandilyn (Cody's cousin's wife--a real estate agent). I don't know what we'll do if we like it...we don't want to buy the first house we look at, but we also don't want to pass up a steal (if we like it) just to look around some more. I'm super excited to go look at the house!

Goin' to the Chapel...

...and we're gonna get MARRIED!

That's right...we're engaged! Last Wednesday night Cody came home with a dozen roses. He told me he heard somewhere that it didn't have to be Valentine's Day or my birthday to bring me flowers (and he said he didn't have to do anything wrong, either!). Did I mention I was running on the Gazelle in my sweatpants. Anyway, we went to put the roses in a vase but I had to cut the stems so that they would fit. I turned to the sink and was ready to cut when Cody said, "Hey, Mags..." I turned around and he was down on one knee holding out a ring and said, "Will you marry me?" After a little bit of stuttering (during which he later told me he was thinking say something, say something) I said yes (of course!) I also asked him if I was awake. I think I even made him pinch my hand. Then he went to his truck to get out the champagne that he had bought. After calling our parents, we went out to dinner at Carmen's Cafe (an Italian restaurant in Brookside). Of course I changed out of the sweatpants before dinner : )

Cody's biggest concern was surprising me...which he definitely did! Since we have been together for awhile and talking about getting married, he didn't want to propose in a way that tipped me off. I must say he certainly caught me off guard!

We are both so excited to get married! We will keep everyone posted with plans as we make them.

The Latest

It's been awhile since I got on to write anything. I am currently looking for a new job. I got my reading specialist license and am hoping to get a job as a reading teacher or coach. But for those of you who don't know, Kansas is cutting education funding tremendously...which means many districts are on a hiring freeze. Many positions that open because of retirement, etc will not be refilled and many places are actually cutting positions. This means larger class sizes, less supplies, etc. (I probably shouldn't get started on this rant!) I had a screening interview in Spring Hill last week and I have one in DeSoto this week. The Spring Hill interview went well. That's where I'm hoping to get a job since that's where I would like to move. I'm getting tired of living (and driving) in the city. If I don't end up getting a new job, the commute would be about 35-40 minutes...not wonderful, but doable.

Cody texted me on Friday to say that he had been nominated for the bank's leadership academy. This is a great honor since only 4 or 5 people are selected each year. He will be taking classes, etc. to further his leadership at the bank! Way to go Cody!

Yesterday morning I had to get up to go to an ESL class. As I was putting toothpaste on my toothbrush, it flicked a huge glob of toothpaste in my eye! My eyes have never burned so much! I yelled for Cody and he came into the bathroom thinking I had cut something shaving. He read the toothpaste label as I frantically flushed my eye with water. It was very red and hurt for several hours, but everything turned out okay.

That's all I have for now. I will try to do better at getting on and updating everyone with what's going on here.