Finding Balances and Life Updates

Whether it be socially, financially, or even just daily, it is proving a difficult task to find balance in my life.

For instance: This has been the first time in two months I have even thought about posting to my blog. Obviously I'm not going to be condemned or even missed if I do not continue to make timely posts, but I took up this hobby and I would like to have time for it.

So here is a run down about what has been happening over the last couple months. Long story short, I have a job... sort of. All I really know is that until December I have a long term substitute job as a Special Education teacher. I have been working with K-2 students, and I am absolutely in love with this job. Yes I come home tired and achy on some most occasions, but the students I work with are so sweet and smart and tug on my heart strings. It will make me sad if come December I find out I will not be coming back for the rest of the school year at least.

Having this job has been wonderful! I have had the chance to work with and befriend some pretty incredible colleagues. I have somewhere to go when I wake up every morning, and I am able to be productive throughout the course of my day. I feel like a fully functioning adult now... in most areas.

There are some downsides, which is why my whole balancing act is becoming a chore. I come home after a productive day, and I am exhausted, so much that I am finding it a struggle to stay up past 10 p.m. (ok let's be honest... it's a struggle past 9 p.m.) This is the time where the hubby and I usually settle in to watch one of our shows together, and that had been a pretty regular thing until lately I have been giving the ol' "not tonight, I'm too tired" routine. I hate to be that way, but I am having trouble finding that... yep you guessed it... BALANCE.

The same problem hits me on the weekends. This is the area in the 7 days of the week where I actually have free time! (What in the heck is that?!) Because I see these two days of nothing to do, I automatically assume that I should book the hours up full with things Nate and I should do, people Nate and I should see, and spur of the moment errands Nate and I should run. I am finding myself feeling that since I am so tired during the week that I should make up for it on the weekends with doing ALL OF THE THINGS!!!!!1 I have recently learned that that is the absolute wrong thing to do. When ferociously scheduling numerous weekend activities, I am setting myself up to be even more at the mercy of exhaustion. I am slowly learning that I need to just sit back and relax on the weekends with maybe one or two fun things to do with the husband.

I guess I just need to keep moving forward in life and try to figure out what to balance with what. Life is all about trial and error, and I'd like to think I have time to figure something out.

And to end this post on a fun note, here are...

Other fun tidbits from the last two months:

• Nate and I purchased our first family pet: A ball python that Alice lovingly named Bouncy.
• I got new tags put on my new car.
• I got a library card... finally! (I had one as a kid, but who knows where that is)
• I made my first ever cheesecake.
• I bought a DLSR camera... to try out a different hobby.
• I have been putting together fun things with our wedding photos.

Mrs. Imparato

Priorities! Priorities? Priorities...

As I was doing my growing up, living life as a dependent/wanting to be an independent throughout my college years, I always heard a common theme coming from my family: "Where are your priorities?" I was a college freshman without a care in the world! Priorities? Pfffft! My priorities were go to class, make some spending money, and work on my new found relationship. Well, I had the making spending money part down pat with my awesome college job. I will say this now and forever, I LOVED my campus job! I loved the people I worked with and the job itself. I was truly lucky to be employed at Quik Cats. Going to class was something I was able to keep up with too, as long as my classes didn't begin before 8:00 a.m. As far as the relationship goes, that was a big priority for me which ended up biting me in my patootie. It led to my new boyfriend and eventual husband, but it also led to my priorities being out of whack, a lot of distractions, and what ended up to be the semester that would smash my GPA to pieces eliminating me from a chance of graduating with honors even though it was a year of A's and B's and two more years of straight A's. Anyway, why am I rambling on about my college priorities interests/mistakes? Because I am now graduated and in the very elaborate process of joining my husband as we make way to leave our parents and cleave to each other.

While I have been on the job hunt this summer since December, we have been budget planning and discussing future plans together. This discussion and planning has led us to a discussion on what our priorities are, and oh boy was I not ready for all that was in store. I know that this is all part of growing up and you may have the, "Well you should have thought about that before you got married" feelings, but married or single you must eventually part ways with the awesomeness that is the warm cushy support of your parents and attempt to make it on your own.

So here are some things we have discussed that we need and slash or want:

1. A House:
This is kind of a necessity right? Single or married, you need a place to live that is not under your parents' roof if you claim you want to be independent. Face it though, houses are expensive if you have certain needs for your living arrangement such as three bedrooms, two full baths, a two car garage, etc. Plus it comes with huge monetary risks as does any purchase worth thousands of dollars. But then again for an apartment of the same standards minus the garage you are paying the same or more just for rent than you would on a mortgage, utilities, and taxes for a house. This process is both confusing to me and frustrating.

2. A Car:
My 1997 Honda Accord is puttering around on over 300,000 miles, with a giant gash in the windshield. It's time for a newer car. Something in the 2000's please!

3. An International Trip:
This one is a want, yes. I would like to travel with my husband to Europe. Can you blame me? It's Europe! He has been twice. I make my first trek out of the country for our Honeymoon. I have not been one who has traveled far and wide even within the country. I can probably count on my two hands the number of states I have been to, which I realize is more than a lot of people, and I should be lucky I have had the experiences I have had, and I am thankful for them. I just want more. The world is such a beautiful place and I just want to roam.

4. Debt:
We are both coming into this marriage with debt on our shoulders. This is a priority because we need to get it under control and pay it off so we can afford to make it on our own with our own place and things.

5. Believe it or not the reproduction talk has happened:
Go figure... you are not married one day then the next you are and suddenly... BAM! A wave of hormones overcomes you as you start to see everyone you went to school with become married also and have started families and you think to yourself, "I want to bring a little me into the world." Nothing is set in stone yet, we are not a go for project littleimparato by any means! It was just a consideration I never thought I would have, but have recently considered the idea and have not totally been horrified by it... Awww look at me, I'm growing up. But this is where these priorities really come into play. Everything listed above definitely needs to be taken care of before bringing a child into our world. I want to be financially stable and have taken care of my dreams before committing my life to a person who will need me to be a strong example of what it is like to have your "priorities" and then your priorities.

Let's face the facts, everyone is going to make a mistake, have much different priorities than one another, choose the hard way even though parental voices are strongly urging the easy way, but that is how we grow and learn. I could have went off to college with the priorities my family had for me, but then I would not have had the opportunity to grow and appreciate my family even more, and I definitely would not have landed here with the man of my dreams as we face our future together.

Mrs. Imparato

Hard Truths... About Me

Today I write about some hard truths about myself. I am forcing myself to write this, so I may be able to take a good look and change the things about myself that are bothering me. These views are strictly from me about me, I do not project them on to anyone else.

I have always been super hard and judgmental when it comes to... me. This is one of my biggest faults in life. I am super horrible to myself, not in any sort of physical way, but emotionally and verbally. I am super critical of my (wait for it...) appearance. Embarrassingly enough I fall into the category of one of those people who spend their whole lives looking in a mirror and hating the way they look. "I'm so fat," "I look hideous," and "blec!" are all repeat phrases in my self-description arsenal. I can't say who or what is to blame for this kind of thinking that has consumed my brain for my young adult life, all I know is it has to stop.

The one thing that bothers me more than this thinking itself is the fact that I can say all of these things about myself, yet I do absolutely nothing about it. Diet?... No. Exercise?... No. Whatever I can try to fix how I feel about myself I do not try. I sit here and try to blame everyone else for it, when the problem seriously is with myself. I blame my husband for not making me go on walks with him or not exercising at all with me. I blame him for giving into my googly eyes when I want to buy some sweet treat at the store or go out for some sort of dessert. I think he is the absolute worst because he will not do it for me, but in all reality he is the smart one here and I need to start listening to him.

Sure, he doesn't do these things for me and he doesn't always try and motivate me, because the only one who can motivate me to change my ways is... well, me. I need to learn how to say no to the extra cookie and yes to a cup of water instead. I need to learn to say no to sleeping in or the extra nap and yes to the mile walk around the block. If I really have a problem with myself, I need to make the change on my own. The only results that will be worth it are the results of my own hard work and dedication.

Once I get the ball rolling on how to change these bad habits I've picked up, then I can work on my self confidence. I need to get these negative thoughts out of my head and replace them with positive ones. If I go through life always criticizing myself, I am just giving others permission to do so too. If I only see myself in this poisonous light, that is how I will come across to others and I will not be very successful in life. If instead I look at myself in a positive manner, others will see me that way. My attitude will rub off on others and I will appear more confident and successful.

All of this thinking has been manifesting itself over my 23 years of existence, but the thing I am able to realize... I can do something about it. All I need to do is get in the right mindset and get going. Nothing great was accomplished from not starting somewhere.

Mrs. Imparato

Even looking back on old pictures, I can tell I have already come a long way.

From the top picture to this one I have lost 43 pounds.

Why Am I Blogging?

For those of you wondering to yourselves, "What is this blog, why am I reading it, and why is it being written?" this post is for you. I myself have wondered this very thing too. After a couple of weeks playing around with this new venture, I will come clean.

First of all I would like to make the statement that under no circumstances do I believe just because I am married that I know more than I did or am a more well rounded person than I was before I was married. I have just chosen to have an overall blog theme that is now showcasing what experiences myself, my husband, my children (step and potential future), and/or all of us share. Not everything is going to be about being married or filled with mushy love stuff. This blog was started after our nuptials took place ergo the reasoning for my blog title. Most blogs I see out there have a solid theme such as weight loss, teaching ideas, or everything you need to know about having a baby. My blog is just going to be filled with my own thoughts and life experiences.

The second point I would like to make is that I am not blogging for other people. I am not looking for approval of what I am doing. I am not looking for justification on whether or not this is a good idea. I am doing this for me. If people do end up liking what I have to say then that is terrific! I am glad other people can take pleasure in these life experiences. I had a heart to heart with myself a few weeks ago as Nate went off to his barbershop quartet practice. I noticed that he is actually pursuing hobbies outside of our marriage which is fantastic! He is doing something he loves for himself. I took a hard look at myself and discovered that outside from Netflix I had no real hobby. This concerned me a lot, so I started tossing around things that I could start doing for myself that could be fun. This is when I turned to blogging, and I am glad I did. Ever since I have started, I have enjoyed it so much. This came as a shock to me at first because the idea of writing during my school days never interested me in the slightest! So, this is solely something for me to enjoy doing for myself and I am very glad I chose this. I will also be looking for other outlets of creativity of course, but this is a good start.

These are the two main reasons for sharing my happenings online. You may like it, you may not and that is fine with me. I am not here to judge others or try to make people think one way or another. I am not here to offer up some life altering teachings. I am here to share my thoughts and opinions and my real life experiences so I can look at them and learn, and if you happen to learn something too, I am glad. (Of course that could very well just be the teacher inside me!)

Mrs. Imparato

Chronicles of Our Honeymoon: Part IV

Monday Evening June 30

After an afternoon of epic napping and recovering from the night before, we cleaned ourselves up and were feeling well enough to head to dinner. Don’t worry we meant no more drinking--just food and water or soda from now on. We arrived at the restaurant a little early, so we decided to step on the beach for a while and play a game of gigantic chess. We shared the same fun thought of how it reminded us of Wizard’s Chess. It was a very noble battle to the finish, but I was eventually checkmated into a corner and could not escape.

We went into the restaurant for dinner and were seated outside with a beautiful beach/ocean view and a lovely breeze. We both tried some mahi mahi for the first time and it was pretty alright, not the best fish we had ever eaten, but not horrible. Let’s face it, not everything we tried was going to be an A+. After dinner we shared a nice walk along the beach and wading into the water to look at the tiny ecosystems around.

As we were headed back towards the resort area, we noticed an outside dance party going on outside, so we stuck around to watch. It was really fun to watch. They played some kids games and there were professional dancers, then came the adult games. This was a nice and fun way to end our day.

Tuesday July 1

This morning we arose fairly early to catch a bus for our free trip to the Mayan city of Tulum. It was going to be a hot and sunny day, so we lathered up the SPF 50 and off we went.

First stop: Lapis Silver Factory and Jewelry Shop

As you can imagine, I was in heaven surrounded by all of the pretty bobbles that sparkled and shined as they called out one by one, “buy me… buy me!” My husband was less than thrilled at stopping here. First we had the chance to watch as they melted down the silver to shape different pieces, then we were taken into the gigantic show room. We were not prepared for this at all. Our tour group was broken out into individual couples/groups and given an employee to guide us around the show room as they tried to make every sale imaginable. Now I am very impressionable and like a fair amount of the things I see. I slowly start to notice Nate checking out of this (what seems to be never-ending) showcase. I pull him aside and we have a little squabble about what we are really doing here and he agrees to purchase something at no more than 50 dollars. We decide on a bracelet for 35. There everyone is happy! Now we are out of there and off to Tulum!

Second stop: Tulum

We were dropped off at a restaurant for lunch and a chance to put on some more sunscreen, and then were chauffeured off on a train to see the city. This was also an amazing experience! Again this is a time where I say, if you ever get the chance to experience any type of world history do so, you will not regret it. There is so much history attached to the Mayan city of Tulum that it would be difficult to explain it here, so I will share a few pictures of the main interesting highlights.

 This was a home. The two posts in the middle is where the doorway was.

The palace.

 A stone carving on a building of a baby hanging onto an umbilical cord. This was a sign of infinity.

Climbing down the stairs to the beach.

 Pretty blue ocean!

After our city tour we were able to swim for about an hour at the beautiful swimming beach. This was a treat since we weren’t able to swim at the beach at our resort. I did not want to get out of that ocean. After our swim it was time to catch the train back to our bus and head back to the resort.

We ordered some room service when we got back and then had a nap. That evening we decided to go for a night swim in the pool since we had a very hot day wandering around outdoors. That was a nice way to close down the evening.

Wednesday July 2

This was an early morning for us newlyweds. The night before we had decided to get up early and watch the sun rise over the ocean. 5:30 a.m. came around and up we arose to make our hike to the beach. It was too cloudy to actually see the sun peek over the ocean, but the colors of the sunrise were amazing!

After the sunrise it was off to the pool to claim our spot under a palapa, which was a bed covered by a canopy. Here we spent most of our morning relaxing and reading and enjoying the cool morning. Once we had had enough of that it was back to our room for an actual nap. (By this point in time of our honeymoon we were exhausted.) We then had to prepare for the evening because we had a nice romantic dinner planned.

We had booked a romantic dinner out on a private dock. We picked out our entire meal ahead of time and then just had to show up. When we arrived we were taken out to our own table and seated. As we walked into the area we noticed the music playing… “O Holy Night” Uhhhh. Are they aware it is the beginning of July? We just figured that was a little mix up with the music until another Christmas classic came on followed by another. Eventually we just asked them to shut off the music. Once that was taken care of, dinner was able to commence. We then proceeded to have what I think was the most delicious meal of the trip. We both had a Caesar salad, and filet mignon. We went our separate ways with dessert and Nate had a coconut passion fruit flan with mango sorbet and I had a banana almond tart with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. It was a lovely evening.

Thursday July 3

This was our last full day of our honeymoon. It was a bittersweet day. On one hand it would be nice to get home to our family and our own stuff, but on the other hand it would be a little sad headed back to reality. At any rate we were able to sleep in that morning and take our time getting ready. There was actually a small thunderstorm that was nice and reminded us of home. After that passed we went out by the golf course and had some lunch. Once we put our leftovers in the fridge back in our room, we headed out for a nice leisurely jungle walk around the resort. We enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells as we trekked through the jungle. We then went on a mission to find the flamingos that one of our resort pamphlets was boasting about.

We finally found them and snapped some pictures. After we had sat and relaxed and had a talk about if we had done everything we set out to do that week, we headed back to our room to get ready for the evenings festivities.

We were on a tram to the restaurant where we had our time-share breakfast. Our last night there we had booked two seats for the dinner buffet and the Mexican Fiesta. We thought this would be a lovely way to say goodbye… and it was. We enjoyed our last bit of authentic Mexican dinner and desserts accompanied by a mariachi band followed by an amazing showcase of talented dancers and performers. This truly was a wonderful way to end what turned out to be a fabulous honeymoon. After that it was back to our room to pack for the morning and get a good nights rest… We had a long day of traveling ahead of us.

Friday July 4

It was time to say goodbye to our lovely paradise, but not before one last trip to the beach to express our final farewells… and collect some beach souvenirs. (sand, shells, etc) As we were about to part I looked over and noticed a fish that had washed up on the beach like a miniature beached whale. My initial action was to pick him up and give him a toss back to the deep water, but Nate got after me telling me I would be all fishy. Next I tried to nudge him back with my feet. He seemed to get it and got caught in a wave and headed back out to the ocean, but abruptly turned and swam back toward me and got stuck in the sand again. So again I tried to push him back out, but the same thing happened. This fish was dumb! I was about to try for a third time when this giant wing came whizzing over my shoulder. A giant bird had swooped in and grabbed that poor fish. I guess one way or another he had a death wish. And with that excitement all packed into four minutes, it was time to depart for the airport.

And with that, this has been the lovely saga of our honeymooning adventures. I can only hope that life has many more exciting adventures in store for our future together.

Mrs. Imparato

Chronicles of Our Honeymoon: Part II

Day 2: Saturday

As we arrived to check in the day before, we were enticed by the offer of a free breakfast buffet, a free massage, two free tickets to Tulum, and 10% off our entire room charges for just 50 minutes of our time. Now we knew what this was going to be, but we decided it would be worth it for the freebies we would be given and we scheduled a 10:30 sit down the next morning.

This brings us to day two of our honeymoon. We were able to enjoy a morning of sleeping in after a long day of traveling. Now it was off to have our free breakfast. We were whisked off on a tram to another end of our resort. We were bounced from one person to another until one of them took us up to another building where we were seated in a very cold and noisy room with no breakfast food in the grasp of any of our senses. A young very approachable lady is sat down with us and asks what we were told about today. We told her we were told of free breakfast and about 50 minutes of our time. She said, “Well breakfast will come later and we are required 90 minutes of your time.” There was the boom that we were waiting for. We get sucked in with the promises of free gifts, but we will have to sacrifice our morning to a time-share pitch.

After all was said and done: after the tour of the nice rooms, after the enticing exciting news of a Cirque du Soleil show coming to the resort, after finally getting our wonderful breakfast, it was now time to talk business. The young lady completely barking up the wrong tree here started drawing us a picture of everything we could have when we invested in this company. Keep in mind we told her several times: A. “We are a legal secretary and a teacher.” B. “We are newly weds on our honeymoon.” C. “We only get 2 weeks a year of vacation time.” D. “This is our first ever vacation and we do not know how often we plan on vacationing together in the future because again B. WE ARE NEWLY WEDS ON OUR HONEYMOON!” She proceeded to tell us that we would get two weeks every year for using all of the room that we would get, or we could break the room in half and have 4 WEEKS OF VACATION A YEAR! May I remind you of letters C and D??? Whatever… we move on from that and the fact that we can also trade our room for any other partnering company’s many hotels all over the world.

Does all of this sound too good to be true yet? Good because that is what we were thinking too and we were right. All of this (that we don’t even need) can be ours for the grand entrance cost of $68,000! Ahem… Letters A and B need to be addressed again along with the rest of the information you asked for at the beginning of this spiel.

After saying “no” for what seemed like the 70^th time of prices being whittled down to an amount we still couldn’t afford, they did something really dumb. They took the nice lady away and shuffled us on to a very scary woman. I mean this lady was giving me the heebie jeebies. Her skin was very leathery and wrinkly, the effects from what I assume are too many years with this particular job and location. She even talked to us like she was annoyed with us, which made her sound even scarier. She worked her magic sorcery and presented us with the final offer of $1,700. We contemplated for a fifth of a millisecond and said our final NO!

Well since they were not going to squeeze any money out of us, they shuffled us out the door and pointed in the direction, which we were to go and claim our free gifts. 3 hours later, we had everything we were promised. It wasn’t the most fun I ever had, but it wasn’t a horrible experience either. At least now I can say I have a better understanding of how the world of time-shares works.

Now what were we to do with the rest of our day? Go hang out by the pool of course! First we stopped in and had a bite to eat at a restaurant by the pool and had some delicious guacamole and some seafood ceviche complete with octopus. (The seafood lover in me is going to love this place) We had also arrived in time for happy hour, which means you get two drinks for the price of one, this new information will end up being our downfall on day three… stay tuned.

Mrs. Imparato

The Chronicles of Our Honeymoon: Part I

So in a land that has internet for $90 a week, I did not do any posting. I did however keep a word document preserving the details of our honeymoon... All "G" rated of course. Some of the adventures we had were culturally enlightening, others were romantic, and a minute fraction will go unremembered thanks to happy hour at the pool bar, but that is day 3. I will begin with Friday June 27, 2014.

Day 1

The day had finally arrived! It was time to leave for our honeymoon! I was so excited and ready for this moment ever since the night of our wedding when I had put my veil back on at the end of the night and proclaimed, “I’m never going to be a bride again!” Yes, this is true, and yes I am really happy to be married, but it was the realization that our special day had come to an end which made me sad on the inside. Shortly after I made my announcement I quickly realized we still had the honeymoon to look forward to, so that perked me up a lot.

Contrary to my usual habits, I was actually able to fall asleep at 9:00 p.m. Thursday night and sleep through the night to wake up at 3:55 a.m. Friday morning. Usually nothing of the sort happens. I am usually up and awake every 30 minutes like clockwork whenever something remotely exciting is happening the next day: Christmas, Disney World, our wedding, you name it. This was unheard of, but it really helped me become well rested for the day we had ahead of ourselves.

We made it out the door by 5:13 a.m. and arrived to the airport by 6:30. We were dropped off outside our airline terminal and a lovely man checked us in. We soon learned that he worked only on tips. Well we were traveling and I only had twenties on me, so that fella received a very nice tip from the Imparatos. We made it to both of our flights, and let me say, I have a love/hate relationship with flying. I love to fly! It is exciting! But it also scares the living bejesus out of me: the turbulence, the creepy feeling your body gets when the plane speeds up or slows down, and the loud random scary noises that the wings make when they are functioning perfectly fine. I am the most jumpy person you will ever meet when it comes to strange unpredictable noises.

Both flights went perfectly fine and we finally landed in Cancun at about 2 p.m. While on our flight to Cancun, we were informed of paperwork we were supposed to get as we boarded the flight. It turns out that no one received such paperwork and we would be forced to fill it out when we landed. When we landed we were given the form and were all set to fill it out when… oops it was all in Spanish.  Queue the utter confusion from all non-Spanish speakers/readers. Let me tell you, it helped a lot to have even the slightest bit of Spanish speaking knowledge, and to have a husband that speaks French. We finally figured out the form only to turn around and stare at what looked like a line for a ride a Disney World. That sucker appeared as if from nowhere in 2 minutes flat. Once we made it up to the front of the line, we were able to go through customs and get a stamp in our passports... only there wasn't a stamp, and I am very depressed about that! We were then able to collect our baggage that was waiting on us! All seemed awesome until we stepped up to the next line.

This line was interesting, you gave the worker your passport and you yourself had to push a tiny red button. The button would either light a green light that would let you pass right on through to head to your destination, or a red light would illuminate, making you have to stop and open up ALL of your bags, even if they were locked from the start of everything. I watched as Nate stepped up and lit a red light. I thought to myself, “Haha!” but was soon surprised myself as I too lit up a red light… bummer. We made it through the bag check and were free to go get our car!

The rental people were awesome. We were able to check in at the airport and were then taxied to the main office to collect our car. The man even took my baggage for me. The only downside is the two near-death experiences we had on our way to the main office. Our driver nearly side swiped another car merging onto the highway, and he almost smashed into a family leaving the rental shop as we arrived there. I can now see why everyone was shocked when we said we were getting a rental car and driving in Mexico! Blinkers are not even "just a suggestion" down here because I don’t think I once witnessed anyone use one. But after all of the excitement we arrived at our destination: Mayan Palace: Rivera Maya.

It is gorgeous here! It is like a tropical paradise. It smells like the rainforest exhibit at the Topeka Zoo. We were able to check right into our room, and decided to venture out for a swim. We peeked at the beach with its white sands and blue waters. I have never seen anything so beautiful! I am awestruck at this paradise. After our mini tour, we bounced back and forth ideas about what to do for dinner realizing we hadn’t had a meal since about 5:30 am. Finally we landed on just ordering room service because we were both too exhausted to go out anywhere. This was the best decision ever! We could dress how we wanted and were able to be completely comfortable. There was time to shower, and time to flip on the television. We watched some Spanish Simpsons, and flipped through some other Spanish shows until we happened upon the movie, “Leap Year.” Now, this may not be a big deal to other people, but this is “our movie.” It is the one we saw on our first date together, and the one we watch every year on our anniversary. We couldn’t have thought of a more amazing way to kick off our honeymoon. Of course it was in Spanish, but it didn’t matter, we know the script by heart.

Our dinner finally arrived and it was fabulous. Definitely a good decision and a great way to start off this unforgettable week. We finished the night watching “Friends” and playing cards, ending with Nate falling asleep to Spanish “Matrix.” What a busy day!

Mrs. Imparato

Why My Hubby Deserves a Medal

Let the record state that I am the worst person in the world to travel with. Every crazy bone in my body decides to leak out of the woodwork and multiply by large quantities. I am very lucky Nate has already married me because there is no turning back now. ;)

Questions
My first form of crazy to show its lovely face is all of the questions that come spewing out of my mouth like a busted water pipe. Some of the questions are valid, most of them are redundant and unnecessary. They range from, "Did you pack enough underwear?" to "For the hundredth time, did you print off the directions?" It got so bad last night that he actually had to stop and tell me my questioning grenades were driving him mad. This is where I appreciate the open communication we share. When he is able to tell me his feelings I am able to pit a cork in my oxygen hole.

Neurotic List Making/Checking
I love lists! I love them so much I will make them even when I don't really need a hard copy of one just for the pure satisfaction of the feeling I get when I put a fresh ink line through an item. Oooo it's like a drug. Now take this love of list making and apply it to international travel... Yeah you get a crazy Kayleen writing down anything and everything she can think of to pack.

Now with travel it isn't enough for me to merely cross the items off my list this time. No! We are traveling out of the country!! Not only did I check everything off my list once, twice, and a third time, but I also proceeded to take everything out of my bags and physically look at it all again. You can never be too careful. I finally had to tell myself this morning, "If you don't have it packed by now, then it is a lost cause."

Time
I am rarely on time for any occasion. Yes, this is a fault of mine that I really need to work a lot on. I am falsely under the impression that I have all the time in the world to complete tasks. I have a horrible sense of time keeping in my head. When I thought I was awesome and took a ten minute shower it ended up being a 22 minute shower. We had a goal to leave the house by 5:00 and we made it out by 5:13. In my books I would consider that pretty good. We even had time to stop at good old Micky D's and get some sustenance and caffeine. Side note: the coffee there is pathetic and only filled halfway! We made it to our flight on time with 15 minutes to sit and wait to board.

We are now soaring above the clouds headed for Dallas. I'm casually trying to ignore the minute amount of turbulence that is vibrating through my body and attempting to relax and enjoy a nice airplane cup of coffee.

And to my husband I say, thanks for loving me in my good times and my freaking crazy times. ;)

Mrs. Imparato

How Do You Keep a Level Head???

It's been six months since I walked across that stage, shook hands with the Dean of my department, and took the empty cover that housed a letter talking about when I would get my diploma. It has been a wonderful six months of wedding planning, relaxing, working my part time retail job, and of course applying for any elementary teaching job within a 20-30 mile radius of Topeka. I have made jokes about how I can now put "Professional Application Filler" on my resume now, but now the joke seems to be over as I am seeing firework tents starting to go up marking the downhill slide that is summer slipping away, and with that, my chance at seeing "Mrs. Imparato" on a door frame outside a classroom.

I have watched numerous of my K-State colleges post their excitement of receiving their first job offers, pictures of their classroom keys, and pictures of their new classrooms. I am very happy for them, don't get me wrong, they have earned this. Trust me, an elementary education degree isn't all "Finger Painting 101," it is hard work. I am glad to see others able to use their degree, but at the same time I am thinking to myself, "Where is my phone call?" When will I get the phone call that will get me excited for this upcoming school year? When will I get the phone call that will take all this pressure off my shoulders? When will I get the phone call that will make me a teacher?

Yesterday I had to do complete a rather difficult task. I had to go to the apartment complex where Nate and I had applied to live, and put a stop to our application. They were all ready to give us a deal and get us moved into our first home town home together. This is a big deal for newly weds: "Our First Place!" This will not be the case for a while now, because even after some interviews, I still have not received my phone call that will give us the green light. Instead we have just lost $80 in nonrefundable application fees. Miss Sallie Mae has also come knocking on our door, reminding me that my degree cost me $450 a month for the next ten years.

So how am I keeping a cool relatively cool head while all of this is piling up? My family, my friends, and... my husband. He is remaining optimistic for me. He reminds me that I am qualified as anyone else seeking a teaching position in this area, there are just so many teachers looking for employment, which is true. I applied at a district which had two openings and received over 200 applications for those two openings. He also assures me that we will be okay and will figure out our living arrangements when the time is right. He reminds me what I already know but a lot of the time forget: whatever is going to happen, will happen. He truly is my support system. So in the words of Mr. Imparato last night, "Let's not worry about all of this right now, let's figure out what we are doing next week and when we get back we can form a plan of action." He is correct. So we will prepare for our Friday morning departure to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, and spend a week together without a care in the world, and when we return, we will conquer our future plans... together.

Mrs. Imparato

The Things You Don't Get Told...

I am sitting in bed on day three of married bliss and I am still EXHAUSTED after this weekend's festivities blur. While trying to think of a good enough reason that will get my tired bum out of bed I started thinking about the wedding weekend and about all of the things nobody thought to tell me about having a wedding.

YOU WILL NOT EAT ANYTHING!
It's true... nothing will go into your mouth unless forced upon you by your nagging mother and bridesmaids saying, "You need to eat something so you don't pass out!" I think regardless of eating half a container of yogurt or not, if I am going to pass out, I will pass out. Luckily I did not do any fainting, except for when staged by my photographer.

So it was the Friday before the wedding, and it was hot, miserable, and super busy. I had stupidly scheduled my annual physical that morning at 8:30 am. Wasn't that a smart idea on my part? While our families are running around making sure everything is ready to go 30 miles away for the weekend, I gallivant off to my appointment. Two hours later I return to the house of packing madness and get swooped into the chaos immediately. Do you see where I'm going? It was busy! By the time we get packed up and ready to go it is 11:15 am.  We still have to drive to the venue and unload everything and decorate all before rehearsal at 6 pm. I am stressing a bit lot. Believe it or not, with the wonderful help of my bridal party, we actually pulled off getting all of the decorating finished in time to rehearse. As soon as we sit down for the dinner I happened to realize I hadn't eaten anything all day. This same sort of thing happened on the wedding day, I did not willingly eat because I felt sick to my stomach with stress, anxiety, and of course excitement. (Hello! I'm getting married!!!) I didn't really get to eat the wedding meal we were so ecstatic for because I was busy listening to toasts and smiling for the camera dozens of cameras. The only cake I ate was the overabundance of fondant that was shoved in my mouth by my loving husband and the crumb of cake that fell down in the front of my dress. Don't get me wrong, I sliced myself a nice piece to enjoy, but was pulled away by more pictures and mingling. So needless to say, the day after the wedding I was able to chow on delicious leftovers.

YOU WILL BE EXHAUSTED!
When it was all over and the last guest departed, we had work to do. Remember all of that decorating it took us hours to do the day before? It all had to come down that night, courtesy of the bride and groom and the awesome wedding party. That is the price you pay when booking at a venue that books numerous weddings in a weekend. You have to help clean up your mess so they can prepare for the next happy couple. It was all worth it though, because that day could not have been anymore wonderful if I wanted it to be. So after we struck our wedding set to the ground I retreated to the bedroom with my new husband and oh my gosh... it felt soooo good to just sit down. We had been running around and on our feet for probably a combined 24 hours that weekend. I slept like I hadn't slept in years that night, uncomfy hard bed and all. Sunday came and I thought that would be my big break when I could just sit and relax all day. I. Was. WRONG! You see the thing that happens when you have a wedding is that you have family that comes for that wedding, and your family wants to visit. Plus you need extra stomachs to help rid you of excess leftover wedding food. So all day Sunday we were back to mingling with family. I was so happy to get to see everyone and spend more time with them, but I was just so tired I probably couldn't recite the alphabet if someone asked me to. So when bedtime came Sunday night, I was so thrilled!

ALL OF THE STUFF!
There is stuff all around you when you plan a wedding: stuff that you buy to decorate with, stuff you buy and intend to decorate with, stuff to feed people, stuff you receive in the mail from other people, just all kinds of stuff. It gets to the point where you can't open doors or navigate through dark hallways without stubbing your toe on something. You have to travel up and down the stairs more times that you have in a month to bring all of the stuff up to get loaded. You will need at least 6 vehicles to transport everything. And when the wedding finally is over you think to yourself, "Hey! I don't need this stuff anymore, I can pawn it off on someone else, donate it, or just toss it!" Yes, we did all of those things, but somehow it still felt like we were leaving with more stuff than we came with! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN??? We still had to make numerous trips to load up vehicles. We had to use a new vehicle to store things in too. And I still cannot see our living room floor because it is covered in leftover wedding stuff. And because of the exhaustion you don't really have a care to give about cleaning it up right away. You just look at it and shrug because now you have to worry about packing up stuff for your honeymoon in three days.

All of these newly learned experiences aside, at the end of the day we had a more beautiful wedding than I could have dreamed and I was able to FINALLY marry the man of my dreams, and that is what matters most!

Mrs. Imparato