We're Mc-Married!

Here are some pictures taken by friends. If you have any more photos we would love to see them! No, there will not be any name change, but I'm sure you all knew that.

Professional photos should be online in a couple days, but we'll be in Mexico so you'll have to wait.

The weather forcast is looking grim. I just had to rent a tent, folks.

Let's just hope there's no hail or tornados. I don't think a tent would work for that.

I am a saaad panda.

AWESOME! After yesterday, which was one of the worst days of my life (don't ask, but everything seemed to go wrong) I have been having a great day today! I love it when this happens.

I got a call from TFA saying that they had a contract ready to go for me! This makes me officially the first 2007 corps member with a placement. WOOHOO! No word yet on the grade level or the salary (grumble grumble) but the contract will be in the mail today and will likely include that stuff. The not-so-good news is that I will be teaching at a charter school, which I am iffy about, however it is cool because this school separates students by gender. They will have a third grade classroom of all girls and one of all boys. Isn't that perfect for me? Of course I would like to teach the girls but I don't think I would care if I were assigned to teach the males. It will be so interesting to be able to teach without worrying about the gender dynamics between students. I don't think I would even mind teaching the older kids if they were split by gender.

The school will be brand new construction and a brand new school so we might have some nicer classrooms but we will also be creating the school as we go along, which will be its own challenge.

Yay! Ms. D has a nice ring to it. I'm so excited (and flattered)!

Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Todd just purchased some apple hi-fi speakers for us (and boy were they pricey). We are able to justify the expense by using these speakers at the wedding reception. They are so lovely and the sound is so crisp and perfect that the only thing we are left to wonder is why we didn't buy them sooner?

Hurrah for speakers! Now I am sad that he gets to enjoy them all summer while I am in stuuupid Los Angeles.

It seems like karma is on my side today after last night's dress situation. I went bathing suit shopping in preparation for our honeymoon to Mexico and after scouring the mall I decided that it is impossible to find a one-piece bathing suit that is not
a) black/dark brown/navy blue
b) black and ugly-doesn't-begin-to-describe floral print
c) over $150

(And don't tell me to go for the tank-ini...I hate them. The way my body is shaped, the tank part always rides up and I spend most of my time tugging it down.)

Jcrew has a decent selection of colors and variety of one-piece suits, they are having a fantastic sale (50% off!) and I have a gift card, so I placed the order for 2 suits. It was a christmas miracle my friends, when my two gift cards, which should have been valued at $50 total ended up completely covering the cost of the two bathing suits plus shipping, approximately $97. Woohoo! I don't know if it was a mistake on the part of JCrew or what but I think I hit the lucky jackpot today.

My wedding dress needed a few minor alterations and a seamstress in Cincinnati was going to charge me $350 for them. My mom offered to do them for free.

I went into town April 14 so that she could look at the dress, pin it and get started on it with plenty of time before the wedding.

It is now a month later, May 12 and my mom has not begun working on the dress. In fact, even though the wedding is exactly 2 weeks away, my mom has a garage sale planned for next weekend. When I gently suggested that might not be the best idea since I would really like my dress to be done earlier than the night before the wedding, she snapped at me and said that she HAD to do a garage sale because she didn't do any last year and things are beginning to pile up.

Indeed. Clearing the junk out of your house via garage sale one week before your daughters wedding is probably more important than hemming her wedding dress.

I told her that it sounds like she'll probably be working on the dress the night before my wedding and she said, "yes, probably."

I want to cry.

So much for getting it cleaned and pressed before I wear it. I'll be lucky if it is even intact.

Time for a back-up plan? Maybe a new dress?

To say that I was dreading today would be an understatement. I had to do 6 presentations in a row at a local high school. It was going to be a long, challenging day.

When each classroom walked in, and individual students saw my name and agency on the board, they rolled their eyes at me, or made some kind of a verbal disapproval of me being in the classroom today.

However, within minutes of me beginning my presentation the students were all listening closely, eagerly raising their hands to participate. When the first activity ended a student in every classroom, male and female, said "That was so much fun! Can we do that tomorrow?" In the middle of the presentation I looked out at the students and every one of them was paying close attention, looking me directly in the eye, and really digesting what I was saying. I even got to do a little address to the males which I rarely get a chance to do. I told them that we needed more males to help end domestic violence - to speak up when their peers are being controlling and perpetuating violence, and in each classroom I saw a few boys perk their ears up, nodding, looking genuinely interested. I could see the lightbulbs going off over their heads.

I even had students(both male and female) come up to me afterward and thank me for coming or share a story about a friend. In one classroom I even had a female student disclose to the whole class about an abusive relationship she is currently in. I've had private disclosures in the past, but never a disclosure in front of the whole class. It was so powerful.

It was such a positive day. I'm sorry to be leaving this work, but I know that I am going in the right field for me. Every day next year won't be as
positive as today but I know that I will be an effective teacher.

If they made a lifetime movie about my life:

The Kim D Story: Love's Dark Purging

The Lesion That Love Made: Kim's Story

The Brutal Wheelchair of Kim D

Danielle Steel's Shameful Tumor

Overcoming My Stalking: A Promise to My Husband

Not Without My Expecting Sister: The Story of Kim

Want to make your own?
Go here: http://www.bredcrumbs.com/lifetime-movie-title-generator/

These pictures are from the St. Patrick's Day Parade in March (obviously). The parade lasted about 3 hours and it was quite boring. I did take highlights of the day parade, which included bagpipers in kilts, a giant float of the Hamilton County Sheriff - Sheriff Leis....or should I say Sheriff LIES? Of course, who could possibly begin to understand WHY Hamilton County Ohio owns a freaking TANK? Anybody want to guess? Is that standard for a county to own? It seems strange to me. Then, the highlight of the parade, the huge fleet of DeLorean cars. Oh, so very 1984.

Here are some old photos from this spring's Bock Fest. Cincinnati loves a parade and loves beer so what's better than a parade in honor of beer?

With only 25 days to go before W-day my mom reminded me of her plans to make me a white satin bag for me to carry at the wedding. The purpose of the bag, you ask? So that I can collect the cards filled with money or checks that people will be bringing to me. (!!!)

Todd suggested that she bedazzle a dollar sign on the bag, a la those cartoon bank robbers.

My mom told me about these plans months ago, and I put up a bit of a fight and hoped that she would forget about it.

The only thing tackier would be if I opened the cards, took out the cash and stuffed it down my dress into my bra. Yes, I think that Kate Williams would find that very amusing.

Anybody want to stage a robbery in order to get me out of carrying around that tacky tacky bag? You could even wear a Hamburgler mask and yell "robble robble."