Monday, May 21, 2012

I Love Laptops

Why? Because they allow me to lay in bed and be productive at the same time! That union makes me happy, just like Starbucks located inside Target (kudos to whoever thought of that genius idea!)

Anyways, it is almost 1:30 and I am still in bed. Yes I did sleep in until 10:30 (didn't fall asleep until almost 2am), but I have been productive for the last 3 hours thanks to the compact technology sitting on my lap. I have been sending emails, checking for new job postings, and starting different wedding documents.

We are under the 2 month mark and I definitely feel like it's Go time! I'm not stressed (yet), just staying busy and always having something to work on. There are times that it really hits me--I am getting married!!! It's not a panic feeling, but just so much excitement and joy and sometimes disbelief that this is reality and not just a dream. It hit me when I bought an airline ticket for August and wrote my name as Hannah Baughman. It hit me when I told my brother yesterday that his birthday was in 2 weeks, I would be officially graduated from college in 3 weeks and I would be a married woman in 8 weeks! It hit me today when I was working on the "script" for the ceremony and typed "Dave and Hannah walk down the aisle." Wow, I am so blessed that this is happening!

It also hit me when we finished the invitations and I took them to the Post Office. Invitations are a lot of work! But I am SO happy with how they turned out that it was definitely worth it.

After writing, finding the perfect font, designing, printing, punching flowers, gluing flowers, sewing flowers (my mom did that part), and then tying knots (Nate helped me!) so the thread wouldn't unravel--here is the finished product!

Close-up of the stitching and flowers.

As if sending out the invitations isn't exciting enough, getting RSVPs is even moreso! We send RSVP cards that people could mail or they had the option to respond on our website. We got 3 cards back at church yesterday and 2 responses online! So exciting!


Time to get back to my wedding tasks, but thanks to my laptop no need to get out of bed still :).

3 Movies in 1 Day

First of all, 3 movies in 1 day is not really anything too incredible if you know my family--we watch a lot of movies! We always have, and probably always will. It's something we really enjoy doing together. The guys watch chick flicks with mom and I, and us girls watch the action movies with them. My parents are continuously playing "name that actor and all the other movies they have been in" and only a few times do we have to go to IMDB to verify their answers. I have caught on and can join in the fun of saying who is who, who is or was married to who, and what other movie they were in with some other actor. And of course, we have our favorites. :)

We like to watch movies at home as well as in the theater. Growing up, we would often read the book once we heard a movie was being made and other times we didn't know there was a book until the screen said "based on the book by so and so" and mom would joke that we had to leave a go read the book. And we ALWAYS stay until the VERY end of the credits after the songs, location, the brand of film and cameras and then the speakers pop and the screen goes blue or black. We are almost always the only people left in the theater except for the employee cleaning up the popcorn. The ONE time we did not was when we saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 3". It was not a favorite of my moms and she got up as soon as the last scene ended. We all left and found out when we got home that there was a scene at the end of the credits (this was in the beginning of the "throw another scene at the end of the credits" fad that is now quite popular) and so we stay. But this extra scene is a newer reason for why we stay. The main reason we stay is because ALL those names, ALL those people who worked on that movie, they should get some credit too. And my mom always says "their moms would be so excited to see their kids' names up on that screen, and someday when my son's name is up there I am going to stand up before anyone leaves and tell them they all have to stay until they see my son's name."  Now that my brother is a film student, the chances of this happening are extremely likely. His cinematography knowledge is fun for us because it provides behind-the-scenes info and critiques on movies from a filmmaker's perspective.


So back to the title of this post...we like movies. A lot. My brother has gone to see "The Avengers" four times in theaters and I am the only one who has not seen it. Today my parents had a meeting after church so Michael and I went on a sibling date to see "The Avengers", which he was very willing to see yet again.

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2010/04/The-Avengers-2012-Movie-Poster2-600x888.jpg 

He rates it as the #1 movie he's ever seen. I liked it a lot but not my #1. I would however put it in the Top 10 for action movies. It had a good story, the acting was good, and it had some humor as well.

Then we came home and as is often the case at night, my family will watch a movie. Well we ate our dinner while we watched tonight so we started early. We have a lot from the library right now plus one from Netflix. My brother narrowed our choices down to two: "Made of Honor" and "Captain America" and then I had to decide. Normally chick flicks are the no-brainer choice for me, but after just seeing "The Avengers", I was in that kind of a mood. I was torn. So I flipped a coin--"Made of Honor" won. It was good. Funny and cute, and yes the couple that has no interest in each other whatsoever at the beginning does get married at the end. :) After that movie ended, the night was still young and so we watched "Captain America" as well. Also a good movie. I liked the story a lot--it didn't hurt that it was set in WWII time (one of my favorite time periods) and there was a love story. The only MARVEL movie I have yet to see is "The Hulk". I'm not sure it can top "Captain America." Green and angry just doesn't do it for me like an old-school gentleman and patriotism...but Mark Ruffalo is in it so I wonder if he will dance to "Thriller" like he did with Jennifer Garner in "13 Going on 30"? See...the name-that-actor-and-what-they-have-been-in game never ends. And thankfully, it doesn't have to, because movies keep on getting made, and we keep on watching!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Weekend in the Emerald City

Last weekend, I went back to Seattle for a shower for my roommate Esther. It was nice to be back "living" with my roommates and enjoying Seattle life. The weather was SO nice while I was there and I was able to soak in the sun in many ways.

A walk to Fremont with Esther and Emily for Starbucks Frappucino Happy Hour!


So nice to be able to read what I want now--no more college required reading.

 I love being able to wear my Rainbows again!

Laying by the canal enjoying the nice weather and warmth.


Dislike Seattle gridlock traffic...but at least I could have my sunroof open and window down while I'm sitting on the city streets bumper to bumper.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Time Flies when...

...you are falling in love, at the beach, student teaching, getting engaged, graduating from college, and planning a wedding. Yep, all that has happened since my last post OVER A YEAR ago! But as you can see, slacking on my blog has been for several good reasons.

I had a very exciting, fun, and life-changing year. I met Nate (my now fiance) on March 26, 2011 at a volleyball tournament, which we returned to and won this year. We got to know each other long distance through letters, texts, phone calls, and visits every few weeks. After school ended in June, I returned to Cannon Beach for my second year. This summer I lived with my 3 great friends from the first summer: Jill, Katie, and Olivia. Being roommates with all of them was amazing and one of the best things about the summer. I was the supervisor teacher for the 4 and 5 year-olds, which came with a lot of challenges and joys. The kids were so precious and I enjoyed it a lot. In September, I got to spend 3 weeks at home before school started again. It was so nice to be close to Nate for longer than a weekend. We took a road trip to Montana to visit his parents and my brother as well as other fun hangouts in our neck of the woods such as boating and a demolition derby. Heading back to Seattle was hard to leave him but I had 3 amazing roommates awaiting me, which made it better. I was SO SO blessed to be able to live with Emily, Esther, and Janelle my last two quarters of college. Those girls are so beautiful, fun, loving, encouraging, and great to live with. We got along very well, and definitely the worst part about graduating a quarter early was cutting my time living with them short. Over Christmas break, both Esther and I got engaged. Very exciting to be sure! Winter quarter included lots of wedding plans, bridal magazines, and pinterest squeezed into my incredibly busy teaching schedule. I did my student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom with an amazing mentor teacher and 25 sweet students. I learned so much and survived the brand new Teacher's Performance Assessment (it took over 30 hours to complete!) I am going to be visiting the classroom this Friday and it will be a surprise for the students. I can't wait to see them!

So now I am living back at home. I have been exercising 6 days a week since mid-March (getting in wedding/honeymoon/bikini shape). Jillian Michaels exercises are great! She definitely kicks your butt and doesn't care one bit. I have also been working on wedding plans little by little including calling and meeting with vendors, making my invitations, and marriage counseling. I also applied to three different school districts for a teaching position for the fall. Praying that something opens up and I can find a good job.

The sun has finally come around and made it look like spring here in North Idaho. Nate and I had our engagement pictures taken on Sunday. It was so much fun. Our photographer is really great. I can't wait to see all of the pictures. Today I ate my lunch outside...so maybe 30 minutes...and I got burned! I seriously have the most pathetic skin ever.

Anyways, now that I am out of school and won't have a job until late August, I have lots of free time that I need to fill. Yes there is wedding stuff to do now, but it doesn't take all my time, and I need something for the month after our wedding when Nate is still working and I'm not. So...I want to start blogging more. I think it will be fun to write about my adventures as a new wife. I want to do a lot of cooking. I have probably over 20 Rachel Ray magazines plus dozens of pins on pinterest. I want to make an organized and categorized recipe book and then start trying out the delicious meals. I love food and would love to become more confident cooking and comfortable in the kitchen. I want to do more reading. I read the Hunger Games series recently in preparation of seeing the movie (SO GOOD) and it reminded me how much I used to love reading (before it was assigned in a syllabus and I had to write a paper on it). So I need to make a list, get some recommendations, and find them for my kindle or go to the library! I also want to try and be more crafty. I have so many cute ideas for the home and decor that are on my pinterest and I think I could do them if I just tried. I know once I start teaching I will get very busy again--I'm nervous about my first year and just getting everything established and organized--but this is a new chapter in my life, mmmm more like the next book in the series as its too many life-changing events for just a new chapter. Anyways, its a new part of my life and I want to try new things, find things I enjoy, find things that Nate and I enjoy, and figure out who I am as a wife and career woman. I can't believe I'm all grown up and done with school. Wow, time flies...