An Amazing New School

Before our big move to Rhode Island this summer I was a teacher.  I was an overwhelmed, tired, and burnt out teacher.  I was so excited to move so I could stop teaching. 

This morning I went in and volunteered in Madison's 7th grade English class for two hours.  I found myself eating the words I recently muttered of "I WILL NEVER TEACH AGAIN". 

I loved the classroom.  I loved the atmosphere.  I loved sitting down in the library and conferencing one on one with several students about books they had recently read.  I loved being in the classroom and while the teacher was working with one table I noticed another table of three boys who seemed distracted.  I sat down with them and got them motivated to work.  We started their assignment together.  I gave each one of them individual attention.  I started to remember why I went into teaching.  I started to remember what my job had been like before it made me cold and angry and bitter. 

The middle school here in Rhode Island is like night and day from the one I worked at in Virginia.  I am so thankful that my Madison has been given the opportunity to go to this amazing school.

Guess what? I am going back next Friday to volunteer again.  I am also seriously considering taking a part-time or temporary teaching position for this great school system.

I Have a 7th Grader

This morning we were all up at 6 am.  I don't think Maddie and I have been up that early all summer.

{She has a quilt that matches...but insists on sleeping with this old Waverly comforter I used on my bed in college}

She got dressed in the new outfit she selected last night.

I made her a hot breakfast - scrambled eggs and a toasted bagel with veggie cream cheese.  My poor husband lucked out too and I made him an egg and cheese bagel sandwich to take to work.  I never get up and make him breakfast.

Then I made her pose for a photo with her dad.

Then I did her hair in a high pony tail like she asked.

Then I made her pose for photos in the yard.

Then I insisted I walk her to the bus stop.  Yes... you can see the bus stop from our front door.  However after reading the Jaycee Dugard book this summer... she is never walking to the bus stop alone.  Ever.  Never.  Ever. Ever.  I was happy when two twin boys arrived at the bus stop with their mom...and her huge camera.

She kept telling me to hide in a bush, to go back home, she was fine, etc...  I stood there until the bus came, she got on it, and the bus driver looked at me like I was nutso because I was still standing there after he waved and told me to have a nice day.

Then I came home and felt sick.  What if she didn't make it to school?  I had told her to text me when the bus pulled into school.  She didn't.  My husband tried to tell me she had no intention on ever doing it. 

So then I climbed into bed and watched Sunday's episode of True Blood...which by the way I am not sure if I am loving this season.

Then I played some Words with Friends.

Then I made myself a bagel... 1/2 with a slice of melted cheese and 1/2 with chunky peanut butter.  The cheese 1/2 was better.

I drank a diet wild cherry Pepsi.

I applied for a tutoring job on the Internet.

Here it is 10:35.... bored outta my mind.

But I have a house to finish unpacking because my parents will be here tomorrow for their first visit to Rhode Island.

I am hoping like crazy she loved it, she had a great day, and she met tons of awesome people.

A Super Fabulous Time Together

I am so glad I decided to make the drive to Rhode Island last to spend some time with my husband.  We had a super fabulous time together.    We spent 5 great nights in a beautiful hotel, spent time with my husband's family, shopping, eating great meals, and just spending quality time together with one another.  We explored our new town to be (as of August 1st we will be residents of Rhode Island).  I really learned to love our new town when we were there and I am so excited for our future.

As we approach the end of our first year of marriage (our anniversary is July 17, 2011) we looked at this trip almost like a second honeymoon...and to be honest it was way better than our honeymoon.  As I got into my car on Wednesday morning to drive the 9 hours back to Virginia to pick up Madison... I was filled with so much hope and excitement for our future.

Our first year of marriage has not been awful, but it certainly hasn't been all unicorns and rainbows either.  We have had our shares of ups and downs... We were both in jobs we were not happy with, we were dealing with the orchestrating of an upcoming move which at times did not go as smoothly has it should have, house-hunting, raising a pre-teen, and some other minor things that added a bit of stress to our relationship.

I am definitely excited to see what year 2 has in store for us.  We only have three + weeks until we are reunited again for good...and in the middle of that we get to meet up again for a fabulous wedding (which I am doing the baking for...more to come about that soon).

The countdown is on to our big move.

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part Two

Sunday morning we slept in and then spent most of the morning hooked on the Casey Anthony trial. Then we drove to pick up my mother-in-law.  We took her to lunch at one of her favorite places, Chili's.  Then we hit Kohl's and Home Goods.

After dropping her back at home we headed to get some ice cream at a place called Gray's.  It was fabulous.  I had peanut butter cup and Chris had coffee Oreo.  They had cows behind the place in a small pasture.  We will definitely be going back and taking Madison.

On Monday (4th of July)...we were once again hooked on the Casey Anthony trial and got a late start.  We decided to head to Providence for the day to go shopping at a big shopping center there called Providence Place Mall. I looked it up on my iPhone and saw they had a Crate & Barrel so I was super excited to go.  We got a little bit lost getting there, but eventually found it.  We went to a fabulous place for lunch called Joe's.

We saved Crate & Barrel for last...and wouldn't you know when we got there it was the only store in the entire shopping center that was closed for the holiday.  I was a little annoyed. 

This mall had the weirdest thing... I have never seen anything like this before.  You pay for your parking before you get in your car and leave the garage.  Does anyone else have this where they live?

After leaving the mall we headed to my father-in-law's house.  We watched TV, hung out, and ordered carryout for dinner.  I really enjoyed getting to know my father-in-law a little bit better and listening to some of his funny stories. 

Chris had to get up on Tuesday morning to go to work... although I was on vacation... he wasn't.  Tuesday was the first day his new boss was reporting to work as well as his new team, so he had to go.  I slept in, straightened up the hotel suite, and watched some TV.  I planned on running to the grocery store for him and going to a few stores as well as meeting him for lunch, but was super happy when he texted to say his new boss agreed to let him leave at 11:30.  I was ready and waiting when he got home...and we headed into Newport for the afternoon.

Newport is such a beautiful area.  We found parking and had a tasty lunch at a placed called The Red Parrot.  Afterwards we added some more money to our parking meter and walked around for a bit.  We stopped for a Del's Frozen Lemonade...YUMMY!!

Afterwards we headed to the Christmas Tree Shop where for just $22 I picked up tons of home decor stuff for our new bathroom. 

Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up some items for Chris for the week as he is still in the hotel.  Imagine my surprise when I saw these on the cake aisle!! Score!! I picked them up for $1.99 and cannot wait to make some sort of banana cupcake in them.

To finish up our fabulous time together we spent Tuesday evening in bed watching a prison show called Hard Time and eating this tasty ice cream treats.

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part One

My husband has been in Rhode Island working since mid-June. When I realized Madison was going to go with my parents for a 4th of July beach vacation... I decided to make the drive to Rhode Island to spend several days with my husband.

I left early Friday morning (around 6 AM). For the most part the ride was fine...there were a ton of tolls and lots of bathroom stops (I pee all the time). Connecticut was the worst. The traffic there was ridiculous. I finally arrived around 3 PM.

After showering and relaxing for a bit we headed to a nearby restaurant for an appetizer and drinks. I had two of the margarita specials...

Afterwards we headed to the liquor store to pick up some more drinks and I was able to find this -

I have been wanting to try this forever. It was pretty strong, but good.

We headed to the next town over for our nephew's 17th birthday get together with my husband's family. A lot of his family lives around here and we were able to spend some time with my in-laws and two of my husband's brothers.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Tito's for a yummy Mexican lunch. We ate there in April when we visited and really enjoyed it.

After lunch we used a Groupon and headed to Newport Vineyards. We got to tour the small vineyard. We also got to taste 5 different wines. We went with the Rising Tide, Pinot Grigio, Great White, Bellevue Blush, and the Pinot Noir. We left with a bottle of the Bellevue Blush.

Next door happened to be a bakery. We got a few different things and some drinks. We sat and relaxed for a bit and enjoyed some treats. My husband says I am too picky when it comes to other people's baked goods... I cannot help it if the only thing I really loved was the baklava. I felt like the other choices - strawberry lemonade cupcake, peanut butter cookie, frosted sugar cookie, and chocolate iced brownie were nothing to write home about.

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Coddington Brewery for a great dinner and drinks. I had some sangria and fish and chips. Chris had India Pale Ale beer and the prime rib.

New Photos of Maddie By Our Wedding Photographer

My initial plan was to have our wedding photographer, Amy Sandoval Photography, take photos of the three of us outside of home before our big summer move to Rhode Island.

Well on the day she came, my husband was super sick and in bed.  So I had her just shoot Maddie.  I am so happy how they turned out.  Since my latest obsession is photos on canvas...I was excited to find a Groupon today for a 16x20 canvas {worth $124.95} from Picture it on Canvas - a place where I have ordered from before.  I just need to figure out which ones I want to order.

I also found this great tutorial from Blue Cricket Design by The Sassy Pepper on how to make your own photo canvases.  Check it out here. I am going to attempt to do this with some smaller photos to see how it turns out.

Here are some of my favorites -

Our New Home to Be w/ Photos

I tend to really freak out and stress out about things.  Things that my husband says I have no control over and shouldn't worry about.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't a nervous wreck that we wouldn't find a home in Rhode Island we could love as much as our current home in Virginia Beach.  Both homes are so different, but I am positive we will learn to love our new home as much as we love our current home.  It is far from perfect...but I think it will be great for our family.  We will make our home wherever the three of us are.

Here it is -



I didn't take a ton of photos...and this is all with the current people's things in it, so it is still hard for me to picture it with all of our things.  It is a ranch style home with a basement (unfinished...but not a dark and scary basement), three bedrooms, 1.5 baths (which is one of the negatives, but it will do), a garage, good sized bedrooms with good closets, a small deck off of the dining room, built in shelves in the hallway, and hardwood floors. 

Once we finally signed the papers for the house it was like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders.  I definitely have a sense of peace now about moving.  I am excited for the new professional opportunity for my husband.  I am excited for a fresh new start in a small town we will soon call our own.

Our House Hunting Trip/Vacation Part ONE

I have known pretty much since I met my husband we would eventually be relocating to Rhode Island with his company.

Well...the time has come.

We flew to Rhode Island this week to hunt for a house.  It was our # 1 mission of the week.

We arrived Monday after 2 flights and picked up our rental car.  Then we checked into our hotel - Ocean Cliff  in Newport.  It was gorgeous.  It was on the water.  To get there you had to drive through these hills that were lined with the most beautiful homes I have ever seen.  Pretty much most of what we saw of Newport was amazing.

The rest of the evening included driving all over the island looking at different ares as as well as 1 appointment to check out a house in an area called Island Park.  This house had one bathroom and it was upstairs.  No thank you.  Afterwards we got an email from a realtor that included two appointments for the next day.  She gave us the addresses so we quickly drove past both of them and decided from the outside we were interested.

After wards we stopped for dinner where I proceeded to LOSE it.  My husband ordered a sandwich.  He was on the phone with his mom when the waiter dropped it off.  I wasn't sure if it had mayonnaise on it or not.  So I asked the waiter for a side of mayonnaise for him.  My husband looked up and gave me a crazy/evil look.  I spent the next ten minutes sobbing.  I was a mess.  I guess all of my emotions dealing with the relocation, the fact that his company has made this process anything but easy for us, the entire day of traveling and then driving around in the rental car, etc... just caught up with me.   I hardly ever almost never cry in front of him.  I felt better once I was done.  After my cry fest I was able to eat my dinner.   Then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep for another day of house hunting.

{We ended up finding a home...that will be shared in a future post}