Gown Town

image via san diego radio
I have been in 9 weddings.9. This means that I have 9 dresses in various shades and lengths somewhere between my house and my parents house. Every bride inevitably believes that she has chosen gowns that you will be able to use again in the future (we all know the cliche - "you can totally shorten it and wear it again right?) but of course they usually just end up hanging in the back of the closet. AJ and his morning crew at Star 94.1 is promoting Gown Town which collects dresses and gives them to girls to wear to their prom for free - no questions asked. This is a wonderful way to not only reuse an already existing dress but to help provide a beautiful dress to a girl that otherwise may not be able to go to the prom. If you're in the San Diego area check out this website for drop off locations April 26-Friday April 30. The actual even is on Saturday May 1 from 9-5 at the Carmel Mountain Plaza so bring your formal dresses and give excitement to a san diego student

A Bit of Perspective

This weekend was long and relaxing and exactly what I needed. After 4 days of headaches and stress and exhaustion, I took Friday off and it was amazing. My school is currently a battlefield between staff and administration and changes and stress and testing and I needed to just be away from it all for a day to gain some perspective. I feel awful for even complaining when I am so fortunate to have a job right now but I have come to realize that the stress from my job has entered into almost every aspect of my life and that needs to change.

I spent the weekend doing a lot of this,

plenty of this,

even more of this

made one of these

and even tried this from Heavenly Cupcakes downtown

While my dreams of supporting us while at home are larger than ever I am ready to go back tomorrow and continue to get my students ready for the state tests. I realize that I need to do what is the best for myself and my husband rather than trying to please everyone else and at the end of the day my family and health are what matter the most. I have a lot more praying to do over the next few months and I am back to work full force both at school and in other outside endeavors.

Housekeeping 101

I wish that my house could clean itself. I love the feeling of coming home after a long day of work to a clean house but it often seems like there are just not enough hours in the day. The reality is that maintaining a clean house takes a lot of work. In an effort to be more organized and remain sane while working crazy hours I am going to try a weekly cleaning schedule so that by the time I make it to Saturday my house is clean and I have time to relax. This would be for the actual cleaning not the putting away/doing the dishes/maintenance/ picking up/daily use type of this, this is for cleaning. I'm going to start it tomorrow and see how it goes

Monday: Kitchen

Tuesday: Bathroom, living room, bedroom

Wednesday: Laundry, office, dining room

Thursday: bathroom, car

Friday: dust, sweep, mop

Next weekend I will reevaluate and see how this worked. Added bonus to this week is that my husband is on his 5 days off at the end of the week and he is really good at cleaning and organizing. Any suggestions on maintaining sanity and a clean house while working 65+ hours per week? I'd love to hear what works for you

*image from http://images.esellerpro.com/2243/I/577/7/medscaleCool%20Coaster%20I%20DONT%20DO%20HOUSEWORK%20ON%20DAYS%20THAT%20END.JPG

Uninsultable

One prerequisite for teaching high school is to be 'unisultable' meaning nothing that a students says to you can hurt your feelings. This past weekend I went to Target to get a few things for Easter and of course came home with two bags of stuff for myself - one of which was a pair of new purple flats. I wore them on Wednesday and I heard 'Uh Ms. T what is going on with your shoes? I do NOT like those . . .can I borrow 5 dollars?" Apparently the best way to get some money is make a rude comment. I wore the shoes again today

Wedding Wednesday

I had a few wedding related things in my week so far. This past Sunday I attended what to do before I do put on by Simply Solis event planning. It was held at the Palm in downtown San Diego. I was invited by my sister in law as she knows my love of all things wedding/event planning. She is an amazing photographer who spoke at the event - she and her husband make up Tangerine Tree Photography and if you are getting married in the San Diego/Orange County I highly recommend them. When we got married in Rhode Island they were both members of our wedding party and took some of our pictures as well. Since then I have been in two other weddings that they have photographed. They have a unique approach to photography and work not just to capture memories but to tell each couple's love story. Stop by their blog to see some recent wedding and engagement photos. On Wednesday my wonderful friend Katy posted her engagement pictures. She is one of my oldest and dearest friends and is getting married this summer at the Hyatt Hotel on Goat Island in Newport Rhode Island, my home state. After she got engaged last May, Katy said there was one thing she knew she had to have for her wedding: photographer Carla Ten Eyck. Carla photographed my brother's wedding in 2007 and Katy loved her work and knew this was who she wanted. This past week she had her engagement shots taken by the lovely Carla herself and the result is amazing. Katy is naturally one of the most cheerful, gorgeous girls you will ever meet and while I have yet to meet Kyle, judging from the love captured in these shots I have confidence in him and welcome him to the family. These pictures are also special because they are taken in spots all around where I grew up and as I currently live 3000 miles away, it warms my heart to see people I love in a place that I adore

You will certainly be seeing more from Miss Carla after the wedding in June!

And to end, here are a few handmade wedding lovelies

This gorgeous white clutch is made by Koopdegrace and is perfect for holding all of your wedding day essentials

Splendid Things makes an adorable hand stitched wedding card Check out Glad Raggz for some original jewlery for bride or maids

Here is a lovely hairpiece that can be custom ordered in your colors from Jenny'streasuresforu

Do you have any items that you'd like to see featured? leave a comment or email me at modernhousewife@yahoo.com

Most Favorite Book Ever

We have mandatory silent reading every day at the end of second period - for 15 minutes before lunch. At the end of it one of my seniors came over and asked me what is my favorite book ever. He was done with the book he was reading and was looking for something else to read. His criteria: excitement and bad words. This made me stop to think: what is my favorite book ever? I have always loved to read - so much so that I don't generally read during the school year, with the exception of the books that I am teaching, because otherwise what is the only thing that I wasnt to do. I thought for a few minutes but I am sure that I missed about 100000 books - so many came to mind that I had to break them down into categories:

Favorite mystery: Where are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark

Favorite Cheesy Love Story: The Notebook

Favorite Guilty Pleasure: The Twilight Series

Favorite author/book to recommend to students: The Outsiders/ S.E. Hinton

Favorite Christian author/books: C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia, The Great Divorce, The Four Loves

My absolute favorite could read over and over never want to put down think that the characters are real LOVE is The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery

What is your most favorite book ever?