One Year Wedding Anniversary & Our Wedding Video!

Today's our ONE YEAR wedding anniversary! This year has truly flown by and I can't believe our big day was already one whole year ago. We're celebrating our anniversary in Florida and we're flooded with memories of what this day was like a year ago. We're reminiscing about everything - getting ready, traveling to the venue, our first look, taking photos before the rain came, the beautiful ceremony and all of our favorite moments thereafter. What an amazing day! Today has been an emotional day for sure - so many memories that bring back smile after smile, laugh after laugh, and of course, tears of happiness. 

Many people comment on the fact that I "can't let our wedding day go" and I think that's because Paulie and I have been together forever (since high school). I always dreamed about what our wedding day would be like and after living through it, I never thought it would be as stunning, spectacular, and dreamy as it was. This has been an incredible year of "firsts" and our journey together gets better and better.

Today I'm sharing our wedding video by the amazing Fairy Tale Studios - please check out their website!  David captures your story perfectly and you instantly fall in love over and over again when watching your big day on the screen. His work is breathtaking. If you live in the NY, CT, NJ region, be sure to check them out!

PS- We have celebrated on the 9th of each month and I always receive something special. Cards are my favorite! 

Rehearsal Dinner Memories - A Year Ago!

A year ago today was our rehearsal dinner and we're spending our one year wedding anniversary in Florida. I didn't think that being away from family and friends during this special time would be difficult, but it is! We want to be able to share in the excitement and "remember when's" with them, but instead, we keep reminiscing on our own!

I posted this picture on Facebook of me and my sister. Most of my rehearsal dinner memories include her because we were stuck together like glue that day. A few fun memories:

-Packing both of our cars in my garage, the last thing to pack: my dress!

-Arriving at the hotel and noticing our "Welcome Bags" behind the front desk!

-Carefully hanging my dress and veil in the suite... and then moving it because we were worried about the location!

-Quickly getting ready and trying on several dresses for the dinner. Our phones were ringing like crazy because we were kind of late!

-Carrying gift boxes downstairs as Rosie snapped a quick photo of us near the elevator! You can see the excitement dancing in our eyes and smiles- what a special photo! I love it! 

A Year Ago... Our Wedding Weekend!

A year ago today, I was driving in the car with my mom and soon-to-be husband. We drove from place to place to drop off wedding "stuff" and to review last minute details. We met with the florist, we visited with the DJ, we dropped off a bunch of "stuff" at our venue and at the hotel... and I was finally able to say, "whatever will be, will be." Everything was, pretty much, officially out of my hands. I felt a roller coaster of different emotions! Yes, I was relieved. But, I was also nervous, anxious, and excited at the very same time. 

Last night, I drove down to Westchester, NY with my husband and I took a similar ride with my mom today. The memories and emotions came roaring back to life. These next few days will be filled with phrases like, "Last year at this time, we were..." and we'll probably laugh and cry as we reminisce. Our wedding weekend was filled with the absolute best moments of our lives that we've experienced so far. 

And now I'll go stare at my gown for a little while... ;-)

Teachers: Sharpen Your Routines!

Another favorite blog that we've listed on our sidebar, "Blogs We Love", is Two Writing Teachers. During my second year of teaching, I nearly died and went to heaven when Amanda introduced me to this blog. Both bloggers, Stacey and Ruth, were teachers and shared their amazing ideas, specifically for teaching reading and writing. I used MANY of their ideas in my sixth grade classroom. Two Writing Teachers blog went from two teachers blogging to, just recently, six teachers blogging! This blog has been a "go-to" of mine for years and I still love coming back to read their posts, become inspired, and bring great teaching back into my classroom.

Starting on Monday, the ladies over at Two Writing Teachers blog have started a blog series called "Sharpen Your Workshop Routines." You HAVE to check out their posts! They each blogged about a different routine - and it doesn't matter what grade you teach - these routines apply across all grades and are so important to read. 

My favorite post was from Stacey about 5 Secrets to Great Meeting Areas. I remember her blogging about these secrets years ago, because I used many of her ideas! My meeting area (even in a sixth grade classroom!) has a HUGE rug to fit at least 25 sixth graders. I have to take a picture - and I will - when I get back into my classroom to show you how this meeting area truly is the focus of what my classroom is all about. We meet there every. single. day. for a mini lesson and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Please click over to read about Stacey's 5 Secrets to Great Meeting Areas and don't forget to check out the other awesome posts too! You won't be disappointed! 

Football Season is HERE!!!!

Sunday night was extra fun because football was on TV!! YAY!!!! Football season is finally here again! I didn't watch the entire game, but I certainly listened to it while working on baby shower stuff. This girl is ready for some football! I can't wait!

ALL TEACHERS MUST READ! {For a good laugh!}

Calling ALL teachers!!! One of our favorite blogs, Love, Teach, published a brand new post and YOU HAVE TO READ IT! 

I've blogged about Love, Teach before... click here to get some background information! 

Love, Teach has blogged about 10 Teaching Inventions I Wish Existed. I was absolutely hysterical reading it. PLEASE click over and read the entire post. I promise that you'll have a good laugh! 

Here are a few of my favorite inventions that she mentioned:

2) Silent Spray: "I’ve seen cute versions of this on Pinterest for pre-school age kiddos, but mine would be very serious. Sort of like Febreze except instead of working with smells it will work with sounds. A quick spray across the room and a hush just falls over everyone. Ahhhh."

4) A life-sized hamster wheel. "For that one angel we all have."

7) Food-multiplying wand. "If I’m starving during class and take out a granola bar during class, everyone wants one. It would be nice to turn one into 35 with a simple wave of my wand. Also, I could easily promise my classes cookies or mini quiches or whatever I felt like because I would only have to make one instead of a hundred and twenty.  

The wand would also come in handy when your coworker brings amazing leftovers from last night’s dinner at that new steakhouse in town and you accidentally packed yourself a bell pepper because you thought it was an apple in your early morning lunch-packing stupor."

8) A zipline that goes from my room to my parking space. "Because why not?"

Taylor Swift Visits Boston Children's Hospital

If you love Taylor Swift, here's just another reason why you will love her even more!  She visited Jordan Lee Nickerson who is sick in the hospital.  She brought her guitar and sang "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together" with little Jordan who sang along and danced with her.  What an incredible memory they will both have forever!

Sweet Snail Mail

I received a lot of really sweet "snail mail" this week. Because everything is extremely digital these days, receiving fun snail mail doesn't happen very often. I actually hate going to the mailbox because it's always filled with bills or annoying circulars! Does anyone feel the same way?!

This week we received a lot of sweet cards in the mail, most of which were for our one year wedding anniversary coming up. I also received a very sweet Thank You card from a parent/student that I had last year. There's nothing like a hand written thank you note! The note was a few paragraphs long and pulled at my heart strings. These little notes of appreciation go such a long way and it's notes like these that make my job worth it. This will definitely go into the "when you're having a bad day" box! :-)

I Will What I Want

Meet Misty Copeland, a 31 year old soloist with the American Ballet Theatre who was told at age 13 that she was "too tall" to become a ballet dancer.  Fast forward, and this girl has the muscles and grace that takes your breath away.  Under Armor's new ad campaign is focused on women who fight for what they want and don't take "no" for an answer.  

As a former dancer myself who was passionate about the art and the sport (yes...I said sport.  Watch the video below and you'll agree), I didn't have the feet or the body makeup to dance professionally.  I  still loved every second of it, and still do.  Check this video out, and by all means, share with your daughters.