An UN-wedding update! (mostly...)

So, I have had a request from the Scheel family to give an update. I haven't updated in awhile because I feel like we haven't been up to anything exciting. We have spent a lot of time on wedding stuff, but I would hate to bore you with the details. SO...here is what ELSE we have been doing!

I am finishing up my last week at the Westonka Pool where I have supervised their swimming lessons this summer. After that, I will start getting my office ready at Wayzata West Middle School and I have a few days of training before the wedding. I am really looking forward to going back to Wayzata. I have packed up all my office stuff and have it all ready to go!

Nick has been busy with work. He has not had to travel too much this summer which I have appreciated. Last week, he had to go to Chicago for a few days, but I don't think he travels again until after the big day, so that's GREAT for me! :)

Tonight, one of my Michigan friends, Sam Thorpe drove through on her way back to MI from her internship on the West coast. She couldn't stay long, but it was SO FUN to have dinner with her! It made me miss all my Michigan friends. So, Michigan friends, if you are reading this, I love you and miss you!!!

Our summer softball season is coming to a close. This Friday is our last game. We have done okay this season and had a lot of fun with our friends! Fall ball starts August 19 so we don't get any time off in between. It's a great excuse to get together with our friends every Friday so I can't complain too much!!!

We have also made time to go out to Lake Waconia near our house for a few fishing trips. We haven't had much luck, but it has been nice to get out of the house and enjoy some time together. Last time we went, I had my nose stuck in a book most of the time, but I did manage to catch one [little teeny] sunfish.

Oh yeah - I did something exciting! This is somewhat wedding related, though...My bff Sheila and my sister LeeAnn threw me an AWESOME bachelorette party!!! We did a pedal pub in downtown Minneapolis and then went out dancing until the wee hours. It was SO much fun! The pedal pub is basically a bar on wheels and you have to pedal the thing around. Of course you have a driver that steers you around, and you bring your own beverages or food or whatever. It was a BLAST! Here are a few photos (courtesy of Kelsey Sparks)...

before we pedaled

At the bar with my girls! :) Aren't our shirts ADORABLE?! Thanks Sheila! I think LeeAnn and I look alike in this picture, too. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Pedaling!!!

Warrior Dash 2011

All the Cambridge-Isanti girls

Today, I survived Warrior Dash 2011 with my besties Kelsey and Diana and some other fantastic Cambridge and UW-RF friends! It was a 3.2 mile "run" at Afton Alps (ski/snowboard hill). Our "obstacles" were:

• Junkyard cars (had to climb over)
• Typhoon (big water jets)
• Over and under barricades 4' (with barbed wire)
• Across a cargo net
• Over a cargo net
• Through a dark tunnel
• Over a vertical wall
• Over up and down planks
• Down a massive slip and slide
• Through fire
• And through a mud pit, under barbed wire

The hills were honestly worse than the obstacles! You should have seen them! But it was a GREAT time! Don't we look like we're having fun!?!

Kelsey and I after we crossed the finish line

"I'm so muddy." "Me too." "No way!"

Nick finally kissed me when I was a little cleaned off...

But this is as close as he would get!

Journal of the last 10 days

Tuesday, July 5: I learn that there is a 1.0 counseling position open at my previous school (Wayzata West Middle School-WWMS) due to an unexpected resignation.

Thursday, July 7: WWMS position posted. I apply immediately.

Still July 7: I am offered a .8 position at another school. I tell them I need to think about it because I may have the opportunity to go back to WWMS at 1.0.

Still July 7, an hour later: They counter offer with a 1.0 position. I say I still need to think about it because they don't know what the other .2 will be and can't define it until the state is up and running.

Monday, July 11: I call WWMS and tell them my dilema. I am offered an interview on Thursday, July 14 at 8 am.

Tuesday, July 12: Principal from other school calls. I call back. We never connect.

Wednesday, July 13, 9:15 am: Principal from other school calls. I answer. She needs to know an answer by 10 am. I call WWMS. They say nice things to me and encourage me to interview Thursday. I feel stuck. I verbally accept .8 at other school but cannot accept .2 until it is more clearly defined.

Thursday, July 14, 8 am: Interview at Wayzata. Goes well. Feeling stressed to the max.

Still July 14, 8 pm: Text from friend on interview committee which seems like a good sign, but still very nervous. Can't read into these things too much.

Friday, July 15, 8:30 am: Call from Wayzata West Middle School. Offered the job! YAYAYAYAY! Accept the job! YAYAYAYAY! Call Nick. Proceed to make very uncomfortable phone calls to other school district to apologize profusely and rescind my verbal acceptance and resign from coaching position in other district. Experience feelings of guilt.

Still July 15, 9:30 am: Make celebratory calls to Lewis parents and Sykora parents.

Still July 15, 10:40 am: Writing blog post. Still in emotional fog. Potentially need a counselor to digest what has happened over the last 10 days. :)

In summary: I will be a full time (1.0) counselor at Wayzata West Middle School for the 2011-2012 academic year (and hopefully many more). I have resigned from coaching high school swimming so I can focus solely on my counseling career. I will continue to swim and coach as recreational activities only and very much look forward to working with my West kids and returning to an AMAZING staff! I will be ready to celebrate in a few hours! Until then, I will be relaxing and doing wedding things for the remainder of the day!

Shower Fun :)

Yesterday, my dear sister and my wingman (LeeAnn and Sheila) threw me a really fun shower at my mom's house. It was SO fun to have so many of the women I love (and little Alex) all together and all to myself for a couple hours!

The card I got from Kelsey was a really GREAT reminder of what all this "fuss" is about. And it nearly made me cry because I really do think that Nick is my perfect fit, and I am SO SO SO lucky to have him. Sheila made me the most beautiful and special scrapbook with our story in it, and LeeAnn got me a bridal handkerchief that I almost needed to use when looking through the scrap book. :) I am so grateful for friends and family and all that I have been blessed with. So thank you to everyone who came and thank you for all of your generous gifts, friendship, support and love.

Kelsey's card:

Somewhere between fittings, flowers, phone calls, and all of this wedding-planning craziness -- there are two people who are in love. And that love is the most important thing...

Because when your wedding finally comes, the most beautiful bouquet in the world (and it will be beautiful) won't compare to how you two look at each other when you say "I do."

There are so many details that go into planning your wedding (and I promise to notice them all!) but you can rest assured that it will be perfect. Because the two of you are perfect for each other.

 
Here are a few photos (Thank you Dad and Sherry) from the day:

Lea, Alex, Kelsey, Jana, Sheila, LeeAnn, Diana, Aubrey

Kristin, LeeAnn, Lori, Cathy, Diana & Aubrey, Jana, Kelsey, Lea & Alex, Sheila, Sherry

 

 

 The banner in the background says "Future Mrs. Sykora." 

Now it's hanging in my living room at home. 

I LOVE it, and I'm going to keep the Mrs. Sykora part for my office at school.

Alex is giving Aubrey the kissy face

Alex hugging Aubrey. He liked her fluffy dress. Aubrey thinks he will want to wear it when he is 4.

Alex just chillin'. So cute!!!

Update from New Orleans

Nick had to travel to New Orleans for a tradeshow this week, and I was lucky enough to get to come along for once! It has been a nice vacation from wedding planning and job searching although I haven't really done much sight-seeing. Just relaxing. Yesterday, I walked down to the French Quarter and went to some of the shops and lingered through all the street vendors before caving in and taking a nap by the pool. We enjoyed a really nice dinner with some of Nick's customers last night at Brennan's and I had my first-ever Banana's Foster. And it was A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. We took a stroll down Bourbon Street after dinner for some exciting people watching. Of course, I forgot my camera so I don't have any fun pictures to post.

Today, Nick is working again at the tradeshow, and I am planning another day at the pool since it will be 93 and sunny. We will go out again for dinner and tomorrow Nick will be able to spend a little more time with me. Yay for vacations! Even though we flew back and forth to see each other during our 9 month long-distance relationship, this was the first time we have ever flown together somewhere. Crazy.

In terms of wedding planning, things are going very well. We had most of our final meetings with vendors Friday before we flew out. We also got our marriage license (Yay!). We only ran into one complication. Our fabulous cupcake lady does not have the baker's license required for our reception site, so we are starting over on cake/cupcakes. Other than that, things are going smoothly and I am so excited that we are getting married in two months and one day! :) It's so exciting to see the RSVP's coming in already. Every time we get one, I get more and more excited not only to get married, but to see everyone! I'm especially looking forward to seeing some of my MI "family" and my out-of-state Lewis family that I haven't seen in YEARS!

The job search on the other hand has been somewhat disappointing. I did not get the job that I thought was absolutely perfect for me. They made an offer to another candidate. I wasn't as crushed as I thought I would be but I am starting to get slightly frustrated. Fortunately, there are still counselor jobs in the area to apply for and I have been getting interviews. I have interviewed with four districts now...I ended up turning down a third interview from one district after experiencing the hour and a half commute for the first two interviews. Wayzata ended up re-hiring the person that was already in the position which I completely understand and honestly makes the most sense. Orono hired someone else (I'm still convinced they passed up an excellent candidate...), and I haven't heard back from the school I interviewed with last Thursday. My interview Thursday was actually for a school social worker position, so I'm not anticipating being offered the position, but we'll see. I know people in the district and sometimes that makes all the difference.

Other than that, this summer I am the Mound-Westonka Aquatics Supervisor working closely with their summer red cross swimming program, and I am also lifeguarding and teaching some swimming lessons at Safari Island. This fall, I will be the head coach for the Mound-Westonka/Holy Family Girls Swim & Dive team, so I am starting to get more and more excited for that! I get to meet my team and parents Wednesday night - wish me luck! I would like to give a quick shout-out and thank you to my father for getting me so involved in swimming as a kid and teaching me how to teach swimming lessons and coach. If not for that, I would be completely unemployed. :)

That's all for now...hopefully I'll have better job-search news next time. :)

Job search update

Now that my applications and resumes have generated some interested and landed me a few interviews, I am starting to feel pretty good about the job search.

I interviewed with a really cool elementary school on Monday. There are students from 25 countries and 15 languages spoken in the school. They currently do not have a guidance counselor, so I would have the opportunity to build a program from the ground up. PROS: Amazingly interesting population, get to start my own program, really nice principal CONS: 45 miles away, probably 1:15 driving.

Today, I interviewed for a high school girls swim coach position. It sounds like it might be a really good fit (on my end at least), but they don't have a counselor position open in the district so I'm a little worried about that piece. They are hiring a social worker (which I applied for just in case...), but I'm not sure they are open to a counselor given the licensing differences. I also talked to a gentlemen in their community ed department who is hoping to hire the swim coach to manage swimming lessons and take over the swim club. Even all three of those positions wouldn't add up to full time, so I'm a little uncertain about it. Of course I WANT to do it. I love swimming and I know I would have a blast. However, I just worry about the full time employment part. I guess we will just have to see what happens... PROS: FUN FUN FUN. Love swimming, love team building, only 15-20 minutes from home  CONS: lots of nights and weekends, not really "steady" employment, not full time

HOWEVER, I am still really hopeful I will be able to find a school counseling position. Not only is it fairly early in the hiring season, I have a few good options. There is one high school position I am especially interested in (due to location and the high academic standards of the curriculum) and another district that currently has EIGHT open counseling positions. I called HR and they really do have eight positions - 7 retirements and one long term sub position. All of the schools in that district are about an hour away, but you better believe I will still apply. While we aren't ready to move any time REAL soon, I could survive commuting for at least a year. I did the Minneapolis thing, right?!

That's all for tonight! Just wanted to give a quick update!

Nick is "CUT OUT" to be a great husband...

Pun intended. You'll see.

Our big goal for the past month has been to work on our invitations. We are making them ourselves, but until yesterday, I was feeling alone in the task and communicating this semi-regularly with Nick. I'm sure he would use the word "nagging" to refer to my comments regarding invitation making. Anyway, he assured me repeatedly that he would help, and last night he followed through in a big way.

Not only did he design stellar maps, but he printed out ALL 166 sheets of paper necessary for our invitations. Then, he went above and beyond by cutting out every piece. You may not realize what a HUGE job it was so let me break it down for you...

Invitation (55 sheets of paper, 3 cuts/sheet) = 165 cuts
RSVP (28 sheets of paper, 3 cuts/sheet) = 84 cuts
Map/Directions (37 sheets of paper, 4 cuts/sheet) = 148 cuts
Reception info: (37 sheets of paper, 4 cuts/sheet) = 148 cuts
Other (9 sheets of paper, 4 cuts/sheet) = 36 cuts

Nick made a grand total of 581 cuts on that paper cutter last night. WHAT. A. GUY. So when you get your invitation in the mail, take time to appreciate him because I seriously don't think I can express my gratitude enough. And Nick, this is my public apology for "nagging." I love you!

Oh, did I tell you he also bought me Qdoba for dinner? Mmmmmm-yum.