The wait!

OMG! I'm getting married. All the things to be done! Wait...I'm supposed to have free time to plan a wedding...I wasn't aware! I was in the process of trying to complete my master's degree in one year (which I did), and I was working as a graduate assistant at the University of Central Arkansas. I also worked at Bath & Body Works at night and on the weekends. Between homework and 2 jobs how was I supposed to plan a wedding?!?!?! Thinking back on the situation now I feel like laughing. At this point, I had no idea what being busy really meant.


Just an engagement pic I LOVE and wanted to be on here!!!


I had decided to save my hardest classes for my last semester of graduate school. Why? I don't know! Either way, that was my schedule and I had to deal with it!! It couldn't be that bad I thought, and it wasn't...at first! Toward the end of January I heard of a job opening in the Family and Consumer Sciences department at Cabot High School. My supervisors at UCA told me about this and were encouraging me to consider it. After all, what certified teacher is available to start teaching in the middle of a school year?!? Me...that's who (I had all online, Saturday and night classes)!! It all happened so fast. I heard about the job on Monday, sent in my application on Tuesday, interviewed Wednesday, was hired Thursday and was told to go up to the school to fill out paperwork on Friday.

Before I go on, I must tell you that nowhere in my mind was I prepared to be a teacher. Sure I had a Bachelor of Science in Education, but I thought this day was months away. What were my rules & routines going to be? What would I say when I first walked in the room to meet my students? Was I going to be strict?...and on and on! I didn't feel prepared, but I had the weekend to think about it so I wasn't too worried. I knew that when I showed up to school on Monday I would be fully prepared. What I was not prepared for was to walk into Cabot High School's office Friday, February 1, 2008, and be told that the substitute for my class called in sick and they needed me to start that day!!! WHAT?...OMG! I'm not prepared. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. What have I gotten myself into? OMG...OMG...OMG! The walk to my classroom (which I had never seen before) seemed like miles. I was a nervous wreck. The 8:00 bell had already rang and my students were waiting. MY students...how weird! I couldn't believe I had a classroom and students. This was all happening so fast! I walked in and the rest of the day was a blur!

You may be asking yourself "Why hadn't she already started preparing?" The answer is because I was in 15 hours of graduate school, still working as a graduate assistant and at Bath & Body Works and I didn't have the time! Oh, did I mention I was getting married in a little over 4 months!!! Throughout the rest of the semester I drove an hour to and from work, on Wednesdays went straight from teaching at Cabot to my statistics class at UCA that lasted from 6:00-9:00 and continued to do homework for my 15 hours of classes. Luckily my sister, Jessica, was planning my wedding and all I had to do was answer her questions: What songs? What flowers? etc. etc!!! Even though she was doing most of the planning I still had decisions to make! I was not planning to take on such a big responsibility (teaching at Cabot) and it was tough. I was tired and time was passing by way too fast.

Craig and I both graduated at the beginning of May! Just another milestone we were able to go through together! Craig missed my undergraduate graduation because UCA had an away series that weekend. It was nice to be able to share this day with him and get our diplomas on the same stage, on the same day!

After graduation with our diplomas! Right after this picture we jumped in the car,
drove to Jonesboro to get a picture made for the newspaper announcement! We had our
wedding shower the next day! :)

Back to Cabot... I had to reinterview for the position at Cabot because I was technically hired in as a long term sub. It took months for me to hear whether I was hired or not, and when did I get this answer...at the beginning of June! So what I'm saying is that Craig and I were less than one month away from getting married and we didn't know where we were going to live because we didn't know if I had a job or not. Luckily I was hired and we were able to find a duplex in Cabot to rent. There was no way we could think about buying a house right out of college and on such short notice. Before I knew it, it was the weekend before our wedding and guess what I was doing?!?! Sitting at Burns Park watching Craig play softball! At least I was writing thank you notes while I sat there, but still, there was so much more we both could have been doing! For example, moving into our new duplex!! We so were not prepared to move out of our apartments. We both had too much stuff, had barely began to pack and had to somehow combine two households into one and we had about 2 days to do it! We were moving in the middle of the week so our friends and family were all working so it was mostly just the two of us! We made trip after trip to Cabot and back just filling up each of our vehicles! It was exhausting! Luckily, my mom came up one day and helped unpack a few boxes! Late late Wednesday night we FINALLY got all of the boxes out of our old apartments and into the new one and we were headed to Harrisburg to get married that Saturday! So YAY for being moved out of our old apartments, but BOO that we were going to come home from our honeymoon to a duplex full of boxes! After that it was Thursday, decorate and try to hang out with some friends. Friday, decorate and rehearsal dinner. Saturday...WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!! A.K.A. The day I married my best friend and the 2nd best day of my life!! Second only to the day I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy!!!!!!!

After the rehearsal dinner!
The last time I saw Craig before I walked down the aisle!