what happened?
so, i'm getting ROCKED this school year and haven't had time to update!
to begin with, my room used to look something like:
well, w/o quite the mess... this pictures was taken in the middle of packing this giant POD:
which I FILLED. why is there so much junk needed to teach science? and this is after donating more than 1/2 the stuff in the room... but it was worth it. Look:
all the cabinets are custom-made (and seriously, who gets the chance to design an entire room & ask for everything they've ever wanted??), the new student lab desks have plumbing and electricity, and if you look closely, you can see the hanging computers above each lab station. yes, 6 multi-directional ceiling-mounted computers. and i wish i had pictures of the inside of my beautiful closet, but i don't. it's so well organized (again, custom designed!) that is has made many a woman jealous.

but with all the new toys, it's created a frenzied need for new lessons and adapted curriculum. (though it doesn't look like the kids are doing anything all that technologically advanced in the pictures, huh? most of the changes have happened in the 4th-6th grades & these photos are of 2nd & 3rd). i've also needed to spend countless hours learning new software and getting trained on some of my new equipment. all of this has basically killed my personal time at work, but to be honest, it's been a fair trade. i didn't expect to be learning this much and to be this engaged in my NINTH year of teaching. i thought i'd be pretty bored by now. but a whole new world has been opened to me, and the challenge has been fun.

of course, there have been outside-of-work things to keep me busy too. =)
this was a huge one:
if you look closely, you'll see a nice ring on the 4th finger of my left hand.
Dave & I got engaged in Oct in Williamsburg @ a dinner in a colonial tavern w/ his parents. it was a very sweet evening, as he surprised even his parents w/ the proposal. =)

so since then, there's been some craziness w/ the wedding planning. i am constantly amazed to think that every married woman has gone through all this stuff. putting together a wedding is not an easy task... so many decisions at every corner. but a couple things have prevented me from becoming the bridezilla that some of my friends thought that i'd become:
a) my wedding is in Houston, and i'm planning everything from LA
b) my budget is too small to give me too many options
c) i've been around too long to think that this day will be the "be all, end all" to everything. this day WILL be special, but it is just a day and i think that i'm lucky enough to be much more excited about my marriage to D than about what my cake will look like.

so i've taken a page out of D's book and have NOT been consumed by the planning. instead, i've been having more fun buying things like:
for our tree in D's apt:
it's these "home-y" things that have made me really look forward to marriage. doing these things together for the first time, and knowing that we'll get to do things like this again in the future...together.

so a belated Merry Christmas, with some old news, but a very happy one from me to you!