New Years 2010

I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on my incredible 2009 year and set some goals for the upcoming 2010.

2009 was filled with some incredible moments and memories. I can't begin to explain how lucky I feel for my life, and the people that are in my life. I could not ask for a better family or better friends. They are the cornerstone of my life and without them, the day to day grind would never be the same. In fact, it would be downright impossible to get through without all of them.

2009 brought me to the ripe old age of 25. I was extremely nervous about turning 25, but so far it has started as one of the best years of my life. I am in a great place. I love my job. I love my home. I love planning my future with Andy. Not so bad for 25.

2009 also brought me a fabulous trip to Key West with my mom, dad and Andy. We had an INCREDIBLE time enjoying the warm sun, swimming in the oceans and pools, drinking frozen beverages by the water, experiencing a new place, and enjoying Duval St. One of my favorite trips I've ever taken.

2009 also brought me a beautiful new piece of jewelry. On October 2nd, Andy officially proposed to me and asked me to marry him. We have been very busy planning all the details and getting excited about our wedding and future together. We have never been more in-synch with each other. I am one lucky girl to have him as my best fried and future husband.

2009 brought me lots of fun with friends and family. Andy made his first trip to Altoona, PA for Christmas and got to spend time with my extended family. I was fortunate enough to travel with friends to several Virginia Tech games and even got to see the Cowboys play in Washington D.C. What a fantastic year!

2010...
Every year I try to set 2-3 goals for myself that are REALISTIC and attainable. I don't make ridiculous resolutions like "lose 30 lbs", "win the lottery" etc. Last year, my two goals were to work out more and tone up and to stop biting my nails........ SUCCESS!!! I've lost about 14 lbs. since I moved into my own home and I'm feeling more comfortable with myself. I also stopped biting my nails! No more acrylics, I have beautiful real nails to paint! So, here's to 2010...

1) I'd like to continue to workout on a regular basis and tone up before the wedding. Ideally, I would like to lose another 5-10 lbs throughout the year (particularly before July 31st!). I will also particularly focus on my abs and arms to tone them up and get some muscle!

2) Be nicer to everyone. Now that sounds strange, but lately I have noticed that I am wasting a lot of energy not particularly liking random people for no real good reason. Not that I have ever been outright rude to anyone, but I'd like to stop wasting my energy in a negative way, even if someone and I don't quite click for whatever reason, I would like to be positive, maybe compliment them on something and be friendly no matter what. I would love to put my pettiness aside sometimes and be a gracious, friendly person at all times!

3) Live in the moment. Enough said. I spend a lot of time planning, looking ahead, making plans for the future. For 2010, I'd like to slow down and just enjoy the time and place that I am in in the present moment.

Happy New Years!

Early Christmas Present!

A few days ago, a package arrived at our doorstep. It was addressed to both Andy and I. I love surprises so I couldn't even wait for him to get home from work, I opened it right up! Inside wasa beautiful box with a gorgeous gold star ornament on it and delicious cookies inside. After finding the note inside the box, I realized that the beautiful box of cookies was from some of our fabbbbulous flower girls and ring bearer! They were thanking us for inviting them to be in our wedding in July. So sweet! And they must know how much Andy and I looovvvvvve cookies! :) Merry early-Christmas!

The Blizzard of 2009

Thank You!

A BIG thank you to one of my fellow Hokie teachers Ashley for giving me some awesome ideas for how to create a personalized header! Now, she has been married for over a year so... maybe she can help plan the wedding too! :) Just kidding!

Thanks Ashley :)

Header

Happy Holidays!

So, I have noticed lately that I have some pretty creative and technically gifted friends & fellow teachers out there in the world of blogging. If you are one of those people with a BEAUTIFUL header at the top of your blog, with pictures and writing.... I'm talking about you!!! I absolutely LOVE some of the beautiful headers I have seen on some of your pages.

In the spirit of the holidays, I am hoping to made a nifty header with various Christmas photos. But I don't know how! I've googled and googled and can't seem to figure out this out (which is sooo frustrating for me, because I'm usually good at that kind of thing!)

If you have any advice to share on how to make a beautiful, personal header... I would greatly appreciate it :)

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season! Ho ho ho!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Every year I have a list a mile long of things to be thankful for. Here's a small sampling from this year's list :)

I am so thankful for...

• My incredible parents who words can't describe how amazing and supportive they have always been of me
• Andy and the exciting future that lies ahead of us
• Nittany, the sweetest and smartest puppy in the whole world
• My entire family. It's a big, fun, crazy bunch of people both near and far! And my soon to be in-laws!
  
• My job- despite the exhaustion, frustration, and stress that sometimes accompanies the job of a kindergarten teacher, it is rewarding, fun, interactive, and meaningful all the same
  
• Great TV to un-wind with on busy days
• My beautiful home that I am so fortunate to own
• Having enough money to support myself without struggling
  
• All the incredible memories I have of my first 25 years of life
• My fabbbbulous friends without whom I would be so bored and so lonely
• Stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut
• Starbucks coffee
  
• My L.L. bean slippers
• My car that I rely on every single day... even if the radio is a little tempermental

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you :) I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter where you are or who you're with. To you and yours!

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Mmmmmmmm!

Doesn't that title just make your mouth water?! While in grad school at Virginia Tech, I was student teaching in an awesome 2nd grade classroom with a fabulous teacher, Mrs. Gendron. She knew I would be traveling home to my family for Thanksgiving break, so she made me the most delicious cookies ever to take with me! Needless to say, I immediately got the recipe from her upon my return and now make them every Thanksgiving. They are PERFECT fallish, holiday cookies! Here's a look at this years batch and the recipe so you can enjoy them too!

Ingredients for Cookies:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract


Ingredients for Icing:
2 cups confectioner's sugar 3 tbs milk 1 tbs melted butter 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of softened butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract to mixture and beat until creamy.

4. Mix in dry ingredients.

5. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

6. Bake for 15-20 mins in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with a fork.

7. To make glaze icing: Combine confectioner's sugar, milk, 1 tbs melted butter, and 1 tsp vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.



Final, delicious product...

They look so good, I think I'll go eat one now!!! :)

Wedding Website!

Check it out! We are officially up & running! :)
http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/HeatherMcDonald&AndySaulitis

Engagement Photos

So I am facing a bit of a dilemma. I reeeeeally want to get engagement pictures, or professional pictures of some sort of Andy and I to use on the save-the-dates that we are tentatively hoping to send out in January. I reeeeeeally wanted our pictures to be taken outside in the beautiful fall weather with the leaves changing colors and the chill in the air. But alas, the leaves have already fallen and no such pictures have been taken. So I am stuck. Has anyone ever seen winter engagement photos? I can't exactly rely on the snow falling for a nice background. And I'm not the biggest fan of posed indoor photos. Just one more thing to add to my ever-increasing to-do list in the months to come!

1/2 Birthday

So, it is almost my official 1/2 birthday for the 2009 calendar year. As some of you may recall, I began this blog in honor of my 25th birthday on May 17th of this year. I was really anxious and a little sad about turning 25. I was reminiscing about some of the best times of my life... high school, childhood soccer teams, swim team, neighborhood friends, my college days. I felt like the ripe old age of *25* really was the farewell to all those amazing memories.

I am quite happy... in fact, THRILLED to admit that I was wrong. So far, the first half of my 25th year has been one of the best times in my life. I am truly happy to be where I am in life at this point. I am feeling confident about my work, taking on more responsibilities and being more of a leader in my school. I am all settled in my own home, am paying my own bills, and still have some fun spending money to enjoy. Andy and I recently got engaged and I could not be happier or more excited to spend the rest of my life with him. Wedding planning is so fun, even through the stressful moments, and I already feel like this time is going too quickly. I want to enjoy every second of the planning and engagement time before next summer. My friendships are as strong as ever and I know without a doubt the people who I can rely on through thick and thin. I love my family as much as ever and have all the support I need.

Turning 25 was a little scary... but so far, it has been nothing to be afraid of. I can only hope the next half of 25 is every bit as fantastic as the first half. I just hope to continue to try and live in the moment and enjoy 25 for all it's worth.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday of the year! Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July and St. Patrick's Day. But there is something so special and fun about Halloween. Maybe it's the sheer excitement and anxiety that takes over my classroom for an entire week as the kids envision candy goodies & fabulous costumes. I enjoy watching the kids get so excited and talk about their costumes for days! I love seeing the kids come to the door on Halloween night all dressed up and excited. I love doing the Monster Mash and dancing to Thriller. I love Halloween parties and pretending to be someone else for a night. And who doesn't love some delicious candy corn and carving jack-o-lanterns?! I hope everyone got all treats with few tricks and had a very happy Halloween!

Julie, Jenny and I

Leiderhosen

Lady Gaga, Billy Mays and I give it two thumbs up!

My Beautiful Bridesmaids

I have been friends with the same group of wonderful, fabulous, beautiful girls for what seems like a lifetime! I feel so lucky to have had the same solid group of friends from elementary school, middle school, and high school! My girlfriends know me better than I know myself sometimes. When Andy and I got engaged, I knew without a doubt that I wanted these girls standing up with me at the altar. I can not wait to celebrate with them throughout all the fun wedding and pre-wedding events!


Since my friends are so important to me and we are all so close, I wanted to formally ask them to be in my wedding in a special way. I scoured the internet for cute ideas. A lot of brides out there had been recommending a book called The Bridesmaid Guide by Kate Chenoweth. Since I am the first of our group to get married, most of my friends have no experience at being in a wedding party. I thought it would be cute to get each of my 5 bridesmaids a cute book of "to-do's" and a t-shirt for all our fun upcoming occasions! I found some really cute tank tops with rhinestone-studded bridesmaid written across the front. Each of my bridesmaids got a gift that included this:
For my maid of honor, I wanted to make sure and tailor her gift appropriately. So, I stuck with my theme and found a cute Maid of Honor book for her to reference and her own tank top with maid of honor written across the front. Here is what she received:
Here is a picture of all the girls' gift bags that I put together before asking them to be in our wedding party!

Last Friday, I met my roommate from college for drinks after work. She finally had the opportunity to see the ring in person and we got to gab about all things wedding :) I gave her a card that I had prepared and her gift bag, and she said yes! 1 bridesmaid was down... 4 bridesmaids and 1 maid of honor to go.

Following drinks, 3 of my best girlfriends came to meet me for dinner at Silverado, our favorite local restaurant. We have practically grown up at this restaurant so it was only fitting that this occasion be celebrated there! Upon their arrival, we ordered drinks and I presented them each with their gifts. They all said yes as well! 4 bridesmaids down, 1 more to go... plus my maid of honor! One of my other best friends came out to a local Hokie bar for the Virginia tech football game on Saturday, so I was able to ask her then. She said yes too! Boy was I glad to have all 5 of my bridesmaids agree to share in our big day :)

Colorful Colors

Help! I am just beginning the journey that is called wedding planning. And I am already stuck! I can't seem to settle on any one idea or concept. I want our wedding to be absolutely PERFECT... although I know perfection is not attainable. One of my first decisions that I want to settle is our color scheme for the big day. Andy and I have both decided that orange will be our dominant color, but I wanted to add in more colors for a bright, fun, festive summer affair. I have scoured the internet and wedding magazines for various schemes I like. Here are a few that I can't choose between. Let me know your thoughts on them!
I LOOOOVVVVEEEE the various shades for the bridesmaid dresses in this collage. In fact, I love them so much- here they are again!
The subtle shades of orange, pink, and bronze are breathtaking. And I LOVE the groomsmen's orange ties and corsages. But I also like a more bold scheme...
A lot of friends and family have chosen this floral scheme as their favorite for a summer wedding. If I were to use this as inspiration, I would include more orange aspects than the hot pink. Here's a similar scheme...
I love the bright flowers and colors included in the bouquets and on the wedding cake. I think the brightness on the tables and chairs is a little too much for me... But I do love the brightness this collage displays! Now to something totally different...
The celery green and soft orange are beautiful in this collage. I love the hue of the bridemaid dresses. Part of me thinks the green and orange scheme is serene and picturesque, while another part of me thinks it is too soft and dull for me and Andy.

See my dilemma?! If you happen to have a preference for one of these fabulous color schemes, pllllease let me know! I need all the help I can get! :)

Wedding Bells are Ringing!

Throughout the summer of 2009, I had been not-so-subtly hinting to Andy that I wanted to go wine tasting. I had never been and was dying to see what all the fun was about at a beautiful vineyard. Although Andy never got around to taking me wine tasting during the summer months, he more than made up for it. Andy decided to ask me if I wanted to go wine tasting one evening after work. Of course I jumped at the opportunity!

On an overcast Friday, Andy took me to Tarara Winery in Loudoun County, Virginia. Upon our arrival at the winery, we were greeted by a nice man named Dan. Dan told us that "first timers" usually take a walk around the vineyard grounds to see the beautiful landscape before wine tasting. I, not having a clue what a typical wine tasting experience included, went along and took a nice walk with Andy around a beautiful lake and took in the scenery. Right along the edge of the lake was a picnic set-up with cheese and crackers and a bottle of Merlot. We sat down and enjoyed the picnic. After an hour or so, we decided to head back to the main lodge for the real wine tasting experience. On the walk back, the sun all of a sudden appeared from behind the clouds for the first time that day. I wanted to take a picture of the beautiful lake and fall trees with the sun shining in the background and pulled out my camera (Let's face it, I wanted pictures of our wine tasting trip for the blog!). Andy of course said, "What are you going to take a picture of? There's nothing there" to which I responded, "It's pretty! Do you want to pose for the picture?". Andy of course said no, so I took the pretty picture of the lake and the sun anyway. As I turned around, Andy was down on one knee with the ring and, being so quick on his feet, asked if I wanted him to pose for me or PROpose to me before asking me to marry him. I of course got the word yes out before I started crying.

We then spent the next hour making the all important phone calls to friends and famy before returning to the lodge for a toast. Not such a bad first wine tasting experience. Let the wedding planning begin!

Hurricane Season Is OVER!

HOW 'BOUT DEM HOKIES?!

This past weekend, I traveled to my beloved Blacksburg, Virginia to watch my Virginia Tech Hokies take on the Miami Hurricanes in football. I was so looking forward to this trip because it had been over a year since I had been back to the 'burg. My former roommates at VT and I had been planning this trip for several months. We chose a great game, booked a hotel, bought our tickets, and got excited for our return as alum's!

My best friend Jenny and her boyfriend Kirk offered to drive me down eaaaaarly Saturday morning. We left NoVa at 5:30am and arrived in rainy Blacksburg around 9am. Plenty of time for tailgating and fun... even in the rain! We met up with our other two roommates from VT, Amy and Julie and their boyfriends. Several of our close friends at VT also came by the tailgate to visit. It was so great to see old friends and catch up in what we all called home for several years. I miss Blacksburg a lot. I wish I had really taken advantage of the short time I had there. But it is so nice to have great friends to go back with and visit.

Needless to say, the weather was not the most ideal for a day of tailgating and football. But we popped up our tent and enjoyed ourselves regardless. It was POURING throughout the duration of the game, but I have a feeling the Miami Hurricane fans were A LOT more wet and cold than we were :) The rain actually gave our football team a HUGE advantage, and with the rowdy Hokie crowd in full effect in ponchos, we pulled off a MAJOR upset! My #11 Hokies absolutely destroyed the #9 Miami Hurricanes. LET'S GO HOKIES!

I can't explain how great it was to be back with my Hokie family in my Hokie home for the weekend. I'm hoping I get another chance to get down there this year... but until then...

LET'S GO........... HOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mikaela!

Just wanted to take a moment and wish one of my bestest friends a very happy 26th birthday! I have been lucky enough to know Mikaela since 7th grade. We met in middle school and became best friends throughout high school, college and the real-world. Mikaela is one of the sweetest girls I know, and she is ALWAYS down for a drink or two :) She is a fabbbbbulous special ed teacher in a local high school, loves her Boston College Eagles, and loves to have fun with her friends. Here's a few pictures of Mikaela and I throughout the years, including some shots from her birthday celebrations in downtown Washington D.C. Hope your 26th year is a great one Mik!