Merry Christmas from the Gilmores!

Cheer All Around Christmas

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Being Mrs. Gilmore

And......we're married!  I am now officially Mrs. Gilmore.  It was a beautiful weekend, with a lot of wonderful family and friends in attendance.  I had a blast, and I hope everyone else did, too!  Here's my shutterfly photo book filled with the professional photographs by my friend (and photographer) Robert Dumler.  THANK YOU to all who were able to participate in our special day.  Now the adventure begins!

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TEN DAYS!

Ten days and counting until Operation Mrs. Gilmore!

I might be getting a smidge bit excited.

How time flies!

I feel like just yesterday I posted our engagement story, and now there are 16 days until the wedding.  16 days!  I cannot express how excited I am for this day to be here, and for our post-wedding life to begin.  I've had two wonderful wedding showers, a fabulous bachelorette party, and now I'm hunkering down for the final supposed pre-wedding craziness.  Everyone says I'll get bogged down with details and have SO MUCH TO DO.  So...if I really don't have that much to do, am I doing something wrong?

I do have a nice little to-do list, but it's totally nothing I can't handle.  Paint some vases, tie a few ribbons, get some stuff printed, plan day-of schedule, make lists of things to bring.  No big deal.  It seems like everyone makes wedding planning out to be this big, stressful, time-consuming thing.  Is it really?  Wedding planning advice newsletters continuously give suggestions like, "Manage your stress - take time to meditate," or "Designate one non-wedding night per week where you and your fiance hang out without talking about wedding stuff."  Part of me feels as if I've missed something.  I haven't felt stressed, I haven't been freaking out...I just want the day to be here.

The only thing I can honestly say I've gotten stressed about is the overall cost of things.  For example...
Unity Candle Set:  $30-50  (It's a flipping candle holder and three candles) 
Guestbook:  $25 and up  (It's a notebook with lined pages)
Cake cutting set:  $30-$60  (You don't see the handle or personalization in pictures, and you'll never use it again!)

Isn't the point of the wedding day to legally join two lives into one new family unit?  At the end of the day, regardless of the guestbook, candles, flowers, cutting set.....Chris and I will be married.  10 years from now, we wont care or remember what any of it looked like.  Okay, so you might ask why are we actually having a wedding, and I'll be completely honest.  I really really do want to wear a beautiful white dress, get all done up, and party with all of my family and friends.  So...bring it on!  Let's get married already!!!!!!

Enjoy a very select few pictures from my extremely awesome bachelorette party - a girl's weekend at the lake.  It was relaxing, laid back, and fun......my kind of party.

Engagement Photos

Even though Chris and I have been engaged since around Thanksgiving of 2010, we finally took our engagement photos on May 5, 2012.  Why did we wait so long?  Eh, why not?  (More pictures below)

Originally, my dear friend Shauna (http://www.sld-kc.com/) was going to be my photographer.  However, in December she told me that she and her husband were expecting their first child, and she was due within days of my June 23 wedding.  She and I both felt that having a photographer about to pop probably wasn't the greatest idea.  I am so incredibly happy for her and Andrew, and I know that baby Sophie is going to be a beautiful joy in all of our lives.  Now...what to do about a photographer?

So I'm sitting at a meeting, telling my friend Robert Dumler about my predicament.  He casually says, "You know that I've been a wedding photographer for about 10 years, right?"  Um, no, I didn't!  Robert has been a good friend of mine for several years.  He helps me plan the kickoff event for Kansas City Robotics, he's the head-ref for Kansas City's robotics competition, and he's simply an all around awesome guy.  Never, amid all of that, had he EVER mentioned wedding photography!  Problem solved - I have a photographer!  We decide that spring would be a pretty time for engagement photos, and settle on May 5.  Little did we know that "spring" would happen in February, and May 5 would feel more like July 5.  Oh well!  You can't see temperature in photos, right?!?

May 5 was also special for Chris and I, as it was the third anniversary of our first date.  It was a lot of fun to "practice" taking pictures with Chris, knowing that our wedding is right around the corner.  I can't wait to take pictures with him again - this time for real!  Here's some of our favorites from our photo session!

Photos by Robert Dumler, taken at Unity Village, Lee's Summit, Missouri.

In what other profession...

I think this is an article that people should read, so I'm going to share it within my own blog. I also want to state that I truly love my job, and that I try to give as much of myself as I possibly can to my students in order to help them become successful. I hope that I make a difference in students lives, and I hope you all know that I am as dedicated to teaching as I feel I can possibly be.

This article comes from the Examiner, and can be accessed here: http://www.examiner.com/k-12-in-topeka/in-what-other-profession

In what other profession...
by David Reber

I’m going to step out of my usual third-person writing voice for a moment. As a parent I received a letter last week from the Kansas State Board of Education, informing me that my children’s school district had been placed on “improvement” status for failing to meet “adequate yearly progress” under the No Child Left Behind law.

I thought it ironic that our schools were judged inadequate by people who haven’t set foot in them, so I wrote a letter to my local newspaper. Predictably, my letter elicited a deluge of comments in the paper’s online forum. Many remarks came from armchair educators and anti-teacher, anti-public school evangelists quick to discredit anything I had to say under the rationale of “he’s a teacher.” What could a teacher possibly know about education?

Countless arguments used to denigrate public school teachers begin with the phrase “in what other profession….” and conclude with practically anything the anti-teacher pundits find offensive about public education. Due process and collective bargaining are favorite targets, as are the erroneous but tightly held beliefs that teachers are under-worked, over-paid (earning million-dollar pensions), and not accountable for anything.

In what other profession, indeed.

In what other profession are the licensed professionals considered the LEAST knowledgeable about the job? You seldom if ever hear “that guy couldn’t possibly know a thing about law enforcement – he’s a police officer”, or “she can’t be trusted talking about fire safety – she’s a firefighter.”

In what other profession is experience viewed as a liability rather than an asset? You won’t find a contractor advertising “choose me – I’ve never done this before”, and your doctor won’t recommend a surgeon on the basis of her “having very little experience with the procedure”.

In what other profession is the desire for competitive salary viewed as proof of callous indifference towards the job? You won’t hear many say “that lawyer charges a lot of money, she obviously doesn’t care about her clients”, or “that coach earns millions – clearly he doesn’t care about the team.”

But look around. You’ll find droves of armchair educators who summarily dismiss any statement about education when it comes from a teacher. Likewise, it’s easy to find politicians, pundits, and profiteers who refer to our veteran teachers as ineffective, overpriced "dead wood". Only the rookies could possibly be any good, or worth the food-stamp-eligible starting salaries we pay them.

And if teachers dare ask for a raise, this is taken by many as clear evidence that teachers don’t give a porcupine’s posterior about kids. In fact, some say if teachers really cared about their students they would insist on earning LESS money.

If that entire attitude weren’t bad enough, what other profession is legally held to PERFECTION by 2014? Are police required to eliminate all crime? Are firefighters required to eliminate all fires? Are doctors required to cure all patients? Are lawyers required to win all cases? Are coaches required to win all games? Of course they aren’t.

For no other profession do so many outsiders refuse to accept the realities of an imperfect world. Crime happens. Fire happens. Illness happens. As for lawyers and coaches, where there’s a winner there must also be a loser. People accept all these realities, until they apply to public education.

If a poverty-stricken, drug-addled meth-cooker burns down his house, suffers third degree burns, and then goes to jail; we don’t blame the police, fire department, doctors, and defense attorneys for his predicament. But if that kid doesn’t graduate high school, it’s clearly the teacher’s fault.

And if someone – anyone - tries to tell you otherwise; don’t listen. He must be a teacher.

Continue reading on Examiner.com In what other profession... - Topeka K-12 | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/k-12-in-topeka/in-what-other-profession#ixzz1l9NvKr7G