So. Much. Happening.
(& so little time to blog it all!)

Wedding plans are coming along beautifully. We recently had an engagement session with our photographer, Andrew from Follan Photography, we've sent out our invitations & the RSVP's have begun trickling in already, enjoyed a kitchen tea shower thrown for me this past weekend, and are booked in for an upcoming pre-wedding counselling weekend. It's been full on, but it's great. Bring it on!

My weight has stalled spectacularly. I'm so frustrated, since trying on my wedding dress recently wasn't fun, and was more than a little snug. Imagine a fairly epic meltdown, which led to my newest decision: to try the Lite & Easy meals programme. I'm aiming for 10kg in 10 weeks. Yes, I'm that serious.

School is chugging along. There are one & a half weeks left of this term, and I am hanging out for the holidays. My class are lovely, but it's been such a stressful term - we're still in a temporary classroom, we're still getting by with hardly any resources, but we're getting there. Lately every afternoon has been filled with counselling sessions, learning support meetings, community service updates & training - I have some kids from very challenging backgrounds, as well as several with Asperger's, so I'm doing everything I can to make sure they're being looked after both socially and academically. To anyone who talks about teachers having easy days and leaving work at 3pm every day, I say PAH and also HAHAHA.

Oy, the colds. I've had two in the last eight weeks, and they're kicking my hiney. This past one has been particularly nasty - I feel mostly pretty good, with the exception of this awful chesty cough. I've had it for over a week now, and I still hock up a lung every couple of minutes. I'm hoping I'm on the tail end of it now, but I've stocked up on the multi-vitamins just in case.

I've been continuing to blog over at Weddingbee - come on over & check me out if you haven't already!

I think that's it? I am seriously exhausted, and really hoping that the next few weeks speed on by so I can have some recovery time and get ready for the next term. It's scary to think that next term is the last term I'll be called 'Miss S' - it'll be 'Mrs D' after that, which is incredibly weird. (But also, awesome.)

What's been happening in your life lately?

Yesterday, I had my hair & make-up done.

I must say, being made up is one of the most exciting aspects of wedding planning so far. I found our stylist, Jenny of Le Fabulous, a few months back & had a trial do then, but since we were having engagement pictures taken by Andrew of Follan Photography fame, I decided to splurge and have it done again.

The first time around, we went for natural and glowing coverage as well as a loose up-do. This time around? I wanted something different. Jenny gave me awesome curls & gorgeous smoky eyes - it was super dramatic. I went to pick Jase up from the station all dolled up, and he got into the car looking impressed with it, so that was a good sign!

The pre-wedding photo-shoot went well. We drove out to Galston and took pictures in this beautiful park, with a few different backdrops - and despite feeling incredibly awkward at the start, we started feeling more comfortable as time went on. The hair and make-up meant I felt okay from the shoulders up, but I'm still feeling super self conscious about my body and my weight. You see, the weight I had lost last year? Well, that is still fantastic - but I've been stuck at a huge plateau for the last few months and it hasn't budged since.

So, beautiful hair, make-up and talented photographer withstanding, I'm still terrified. I'm terrified of seeing the images and not liking what I see. I'm terrified that Jase won't like the pictures, that I won't look the way that I want to look, and worse: that I'll be too fixated on what size I look in the images to appreciate what the session was really for - time to spend with my love, enjoying each other's company in the lead-up to our wedding day. I really hope these nerves go away soon, especially before the wedding.

I'll be waiting nervously for the engagement pictures for the next few weeks, but in the meantime, here's a blurry, badly lit camera phone picture of us after the shoot. I love my little family.

I've always been a bit on the fence when it comes to whooga boots.

Having lived in London for three years, I'm no stranger to seeing them out and about on the streets - sometimes paired with interesting clothing choices in the dead of winter. As for me, well, as much as I loved the look of them, I never bought into the whole thing - particularly spending hundreds of pounds (or more, in Aussie dollars) for a pair of original Uggs. To be honest, I always thought that they were just a phase.

It seems like I was wrong though, because they're still here... & it looks like they're here to stay! Recently I was contacted by the lovely folks at Whooga Boots, to check out a pair of their newest designs.

I was sent a pair of Classic Tall Black Uggs that arrived in a gorgeous big box. To be fair while writing about my experience with the boots, I have clomped around in them for the past few days - despite it being 31 degrees in Sydney, again. (Where is this Autumn that's supposed to be here?) Suffice it to say that a few days later, I'm in love with them, and I may just be won over. While I'm still not sure about wearing them out in public, I thought the black colour would be less conspicuous than the usual chestnut colour.

They are so, so comfortable. I can't even describe how soft the special 'Thermofleece' lining is - it's so puffy! And, while I'm wearing them in warmer weather, my feet haven't had that nasty sweaty feeling that I've had from my old ones in the past. Apparently, this is due to the lining circulating air & also avoids smelly wafts coming from your feet at the end of the day. Best of all, they're stylish, well made, and rival nearly any boot I've seen for sale in stores.

My only gripe over the boots is one that I have with ANY calf-related footwear: and that is, they are very snug. I don't have giant calves, but they don't leave a lot of room for movement - I'm hoping that this is something that will stretch over time, because I'd love to wear them over jeans. As they are now, I'll struggle to get them on over leggings! That being said, I'm determined to break them in by winter.

The folks over at Whooga Boots have even been so kind as to offer a discount code for anyone interested in nabbing themselves a pair. Just enter the following code at the check-out to take advantage: 1592POSEAND

Happy ugg-ing & here's hoping the cold weather sets in soon so I can make more use of these puppies.

If you'd like a product to be trialled & reviewed on Breathe Gently, feel free to drop me a line: blog[at]breathegently.com

... & so little spare time to say it all.

I have so many things to chat about, things to share with you & even a few amazing reviews too. School work + wedding planning + life in general is going by at crazy speeds, and I'm barely keeping afloat.

Since it's Monday already (how did that happen!?) I'll leave you with one of my favourite mellow songs, by the musical genius that is The Cure. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

How quickly I've fallen back into the routines of teaching.

Wake up, hit school early for some early morning planning or marking, teach teach teach, a playground duty & some tears, a perfectly on task morning followed by a completely insane afternoon, with a little more marking and some professional development to round out the day. Rinse and repeat.

I'm not joking when I tell you that teaching this time around is leaving me exhausted. It's been almost a month that I've had my class of Year 1/2 kidlets, but honestly - it's kicking my butt. I've been spending many a recent weekend doing planning, or staying back after school to try and catch up on assessments.

I've been dealing with incredibly anxious parents who had seen their children get settled in one class, only to be picked up and moved into a brand new class several weeks into the school year. That's not an easy thing for kids to get used to, especially considering I have several little ones with Asperger's this year. Easing their minds and making sure the kids are responding okay has been hard work, and it continues to be hard work.

All the while, I'm doing my best to fit in with the rest of the staff. They're a small school and a tight-knit team, and being the outsider is always a bit hard to deal with. Thankfully, nearly all of the staff are helpful, kind and understanding - I'm not kidding when I say I've really lucked into this position. We're still without a classroom, so I'm teaching and making do in the old library space - and I'm still playing it by ear as to how long my position will last for. If all goes well, I'll be able to stay on for the rest of the year, which would be perfect.

For now though, I teach. I also sing and dance and monitor sports. I supervise and I mediate and I study. This whole teaching thing... it's non-stop, but I remember now why I love it.

Teaching has seen me disappear from the blog-world over the last fortnight. I never expected it to take so much out of me, yet here I am - drowning in programming, paperwork & staff meetings. I've already (yes, already!) succumbed to my first cold of the year, and am suffering most miserably: apparently working outside of schools for the past few years hasn't helped my weak little immune system, it's currently taking a bit of a beating.