10 Things Nobody Ever Tells You About Being Engaged

 

 10 things I've learned from being engaged. 

I could write a book on this, so it was hard to consolidate it down to 10!

 

 1. EVERYONE wants to see your ring.  Not all will ask to see it, but they will all stare at your hand until you show it to them.  It's weird and sweet all at the same time. 

 

 

2. Almost everyone wants to know when the date is (and when they should expect their invitation) and if you haven't set a date, they want to sit you down and set a date with you.  If you dodge the sit down then they will ask you every time they see you.  Which means if you work with them or see them often you will get asked A LOT!

 

 

3. Having a shiny new ring on your finger is pretty distracting!  Especially if you have a projector in your classroom - then, when you see your ring under the project you will stop your Math lesson and say "Look how pretty my ring is" or something like that for the hundredth time.  I teach first grade, so my kids are pretty excited about my shiny ring and love to look at it.  You will also find yourself playing with it and looking at it when you should be doing other things.  Lesson planning - why would I do that when I can sit here at stare at my ring?

 

 

4. People get so excited for you!  Some will literally squeal with excitement when you tell them and others will hug you and you will squeal out of pain from their grip.  Being engaged is fun, so enjoy their excitement (and your own of course)! 

 

 

5. You get A LOT of unsolicited advice.  Where you should or shouldn't have your wedding, who you should invite, where you should register, and a lot of other things.  So far, most of the unsolicited advice has not been good - some has been downright funny!

 

 

6. Friends and family LOVE to help - they want to be there to pick out your dress and other milestones and will offer plenty of advice if you want it!  This kind of advice is the good kind!

 

 

7. People treat your relationship different.  This is hard to explain, but people think you are actually serious about your relationship now. 

 

 

8. If you want to do something non-traditional (like have a private wedding or elope) your family and friends will hate it and be offended or love it and support you.  Either way they will love you again soon, so don't worry about it!   

 

 

9. Your future husband wants you to wear your ring everywhere you go.  Looking at feeder pigs - why, yes you should wear your ring!  Duck hunting - of course you should wear your ring! 

 

 

10. People will ask you when you are going to have kids ... seriously!  You will laugh and tell them one thing at a time and they will stare at you and wait for an answer.  It is awkward ...  You will have to walk away or tell you them you haven't thought about that yet. 

 

What have you learned from being engaged?   

Flat Aggie learns about calves and milking

I am very excited to share the last two adventures with Jan at My Barnyard View. 

 

Flat Aggie got to feed to calves!

He learned what the calves eat and even got to see a day old calf!

 

 

Flat Aggie also got to learn how to cows are milked! 

 He got to feed them and even helped muck out the barn! 

 

Thanks for the great adventures Jan! 

If you would like to learn more about Jan's family farm in Minesota please follow her blog and follow her on twitter. 

Flat Aggie visits a Hog Operation

Flat Aggie got the chance to visit the Windmann family in Missouri.  Here is what he had to say about his visit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to learn more about the Windmann's family farm and hogs (they are hog wild about farming!) follow Aaron's twitter account, follow Jo's twitter account, check out their blog The Bacon Blogger, or find them on facebook!

Flat Aggie visits the Midwest Dairy Expo

 

Check out Flat Aggie's very first adventure with dairy farmer Jan from My Barnyard View!  He went to the Midwest Dairy Expo with Jan and her husband.  He even got to meet a Princess!!

 

 

 

Then, Flat Aggie got to watch the Vikings game with Jan and her family - I think he is a fan now (how cute is the jersey Jan made him!)!

Wordless Wednesday ... Guess What?

Dad's Memorial

 We had a beautiful memorial/funeral for dad.  It was just what he would have wanted!  This may be tacky to post pictures, but I think it helps the healing process, so I am doing it.

 

Dad did not want a funeral, so we had a memorial instead.  Do you know the difference between a funeral and a memorial? A funeral has the body and a memorial does not.  Something you will never need to know unless a loved one dies.  Anyway, I think a memorial is for the loved ones left - a way to bring closure and a part of the healing process.  We settled on a simple open house.  Dad would not have wanted a big fuss, so we tried to keep things really simple. 

 

My dad served in the Navy in the Vietnam War, so we settled on a red, white, and blue theme.  

 We borrowed all the tables and chairs and linens from my school

(I've said this a million times, but my school is AMAZING!)

 This flag is from my dad's house and the ribbon is from a super amazing co-worker. 

 Paula did all the decorating - white flowers and leaves from a tree in her backyard (which is where we held the memorial) along with red and white ribbon were the centerpieces.

We had a few table full of pictures of dad.  The miss matched frames looked great!  From when he was a baby (luckily we found a box with a few pictures in his attic) all the way to current pictures.  The guests really enjoyed looking back at all of the pictures and remembering when they knew him. 

 

We also had food and dessert!  I didn't take pictures, but we served meatballs, mac and cheese bites, and simple things like that.  For dessert we had camo cupcakes and carrot cake cupcakes (his favorite).  The food was great and of course the dessert was great too!

 

Overall it was a great memorial and we couldn't have done it without the help of Paula, Stacey, Alicia, mom, and I am sure I am forgetting someone.  THANK YOU!! 

 



Flat Aggie

I am VERY EXCITED to show off Flat Aggie.  This I am running pretty late since life got in the way, but Flat Aggie is ready to go!

We made Flat Aggie last year but, I did it a little different this year.  We read Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown then I showed them a few of Flat Aggie's adventures from last year.  They got really excited and wanted to make their own.  Instead of making just one and have it get lost in the mail, we each made one but we had to make them look alike so they would look about the same in pictures. 

I didn't take any pictures as we made them, but we started at the feet and talked about what kind of footwear people that visit farms should wear and voted on the color, and all the way up.  I have a class full of girls this year, but we voted on making it a boy since it already kind of looked like a boy and the hair would be easier to make (aren't kids the cutest?).

We then made the envelopes and my amazing helper laminated them for us.  I spent the first part of my break cutting them out and now they are ready to go!

 

 

 



I am very excited about our Army of Aggies and all they will learn this year! 

 

My kids made a list of things they wanted Flat Aggie to learn about:

- how money is made (since money is made from cotton)

- how cottonseed oil is made

- learn about a cotton bale

(can you tell we are in the midst of our cotton unit)

- how cows are milked

- how ice cream is made

- lots of my kids want to learn everything about agriculture

 

If you were in my class, what would you want Flat Aggie to learn? 

Where would you want him to visit?