Not yet engaged...but soon

My boyfriend and I are currently planning our wedding. No, we're not engaged...yet. Nor do I have a ring on my finger. But, he has this "great idea" about our engagement, so I'm being as patient as a bride-to-be can be.
We haven't let our non-engagement stand in the way of our wedding planning, though. We plan to marry in May or June of next year. We'd like to either be married in a farm, or in a loft space in NYC or Brooklyn. We both understand how different those ideas are, but we both have two different sides of us that we'd like to nurture - our earthy, nature side, and our city, party side.
I have found a wedding gown that I am in love with, and I'm looking forward to ordering it to try it on! I have decided that I want my bouquet to be comprised of spider mums, my late grandmother's favorite flower.
Also, we have picked who we want in our wedding party. We have a caterer in mind, just in case the venue we pick doesn't have catering. Furthermore, we have ideas for wedding bands - both the rings, and the music! My boyfriend, Brian, and I love funk music, so we're planning on having a funk band at our wedding. We also have picked our funky wedding song - Darling, Darling, Darling by The Meters, a New Orleans funk band.
Although we can't book anything yet (it's bad luck!), we have our hypothetical wedding completely planned! We're so excited to become a family! Now, I just have to be patient....


Vocabulary

Wedding (noun) - the ceremony where two people pledge to love each other forever
Engagement (noun) - when a man asks a woman to marry him
Nurture (verb) - to pay attention to, or take care of
Gown (noun) - a dress for special occasions, most likely floor-length
Bouquet (noun) - many flowers tied together with ribbon, which the bridal party carries during the ceremony
Hypothetical (adj) - to assume, a pretend plan


Fill in the blanks!

1. After my boyfriend proposed to me, we had an _________________ party.
2. Its important to __________________ a baby to ensure that he or she grows up properly.
3. For my wedding, my _________________ is filled with red roses!
4. When I'm a senior in High School, I want my __________________ to look elegant.
5. Although we can't say definitely, it's our ____________________ plan to have 5 people in our wedding party.
6. My fiancee and I are having our _____________________ in June!



Now you try!
I am planning a big party, and I'm getting everything organized! Why don't you plan a [i]hypothetical[/i] party! It can be a birthday party, a party for a friend, or you can even start planning your own wedding!


Grammar Point
I used a lot of transitional words in my paragraph. Can you point out the transitional words?

Trip to MoMA

Picasso Etching at MoMA:




Today, I went with my boyfriend's family to the Museum of Modern Art (also called MoMA). MoMA is on 53rd street and 5th avenue in New York City. We have been looking forward to this trip for a while - Modern art is my favorite form of physical artwork. We went specifically to see the Tim Burton exhibit. Tim Burton is a popular movie director, who has directed films like "Edward Scissorhands" "Sweeny Todd," and "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Presented in the exhibit were some of the masks used in "Batman," sketches from some of his animated movies, as well as small films that he made when he was in college. His artwork was very weird, but being a fan of his movies, I appreciated a lot of the work.
We went to some other exhibits when we were there, including Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present. It was a piece of performance art. Marina was sitting in the middle of the atrium staring at another person, not moving. Also, there were naked people standing around, not moving. It was awkward to see this exhibit with my boyfriend's parents, but it was worth it.
Lastly, we went to the Picasso exhibit. Picasso was a very famous artist who lived in the early 19th century, known for his cubism. MoMA shows a collection of his etches. It was really interesting to see the progression of some of his works moving from normal to cubism.
We had a great day at MoMA, and I wished I could have seen more. I'm looking forward to going back when they have a Matisse exhibit!


Vocabulary
Modern (adj) - new, set in the present. In art, its a type of art that is different than classical painting and sketching.
Exhibit (noun) - area where art is shown
Animated (adj) - to put a drawing into motion, to make like a cartoon
Performance art (noun) - art that uses real people as the art, rather than a drawing or a painting
Atrium (noun) - area with a large opening, could be an open-air space with no ceiling in the middle of a building
Progression (verb) - movement from the beginning of something to its completion


Try it!
1. You can really see the ______________ from caterpiller to butterfly in our science class!
2. I just got a job to work for this artist! I'm going to do the chicken dance in front of people. She calls it _______________ _______.
3. Lets go see the new ______________ disney movie about talking zoo animals!
4. My mom bought a whole new wardrobe, its very ________________.
5. Its a sunny day out, so lets go sit in the ________________ and enjoy the sunshine!
6. We went to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur ________________ yesterday.


Grammar Point

Take a trip to a museum and write about the different types of art that you have seen! Remember to use the past tense when you're writing about something you did! Also, make sure you include who your favorite artists were at the museum, and use superlatives to show who you like the most and whose art is the best!

Hair

My hair is very fine and soft. Its a shade of coppery-blonde that I detest, but the people who look at me the most love. I used to dye it, but I've since stopped (too expensive). I also had very long hair until last December, when I got bored with it and chopped it to my chin. It had an awkward phase for longer than it looked good, but now I'm at an OK place again.
My mother's hair is dyed a sandy-almost-platinum blonde. I think her hair used to be a coppery-brunette. Her hair is relatively short, but she likes it to grow "long" sometimes (meaning to her ears). It still retained some of the curl she got from her perm-days in the late eighties, which gives it texture.
My father's hair was salt-and-pepper, but now its more salt. He styles it in different ways, and is proud of his changes, but I can never tell the difference between one hair style and another. Its thin, like mine, but he has a full head of it at 60. I think he has great genes.
My sister Christine's hair was also permed in the eighties, but since she keeps her hair longer than my mom's, she needs to use a straight-iron. Her hair is dark brown and thick. She currently has it at shoulder length. She gets her hair from her mother's side of the family. My sisters and I have different moms.
My other sister, Suzanne's hair is also like her mother's - dark and thick. She doesn't have much of a curl to it, although in the eighties she had one of the most drastic perms that I've ever seen. Sue oftentimes cuts her hair herself.
My boyfriend Brian's hair is dark and what I would call not thick. He has dark straight hair, and since we use the same shampoo, its very soft. I like it when its summertime and he grows his hair shaggy. But when he cuts it, he looks so handsome! His hair doesn't always cooperate, though; by the end of the evening, his hair is all disheveled. I still think he looks great!
I think that hair is an important part of how one looks. With the right hair, it can make someone pop out of the crowd. I'm looking forward to my hair growing longer so I can style it more often!


Vocabulary Words

Relatively (adj) - in comparison with something else
Salt-and-pepper (adj) - composed of a fine mixture of black with white
Shaggy (adj) - untidy; unkempt
Perm (noun) - Also called permanent wave. a wave or curl that is set into the hair by the application of a special chemical preparation and that remains for a number of months.
Curl (noun) - a coil or ringlet of hair (circle shape)
Thick (adj) - close together; closely packed thing (think: opposite of thin)



Use those words in a sentence!

1. My granddad has ____________________ type of hair
2. My mom went to the salon to get a ____________________. She said it will last for 6 months!
3. My niece has a singular ______________ coming down in the middle of her forehead! Let me tell you, her hair is not straight!
4. She was ______________ nice....a lot nicer than Denise!
5. The horse had a really _________________ mane!
6. My dog hasn't had a bath in months! He's a _________________ dog!



Grammar point

In this paragraph, I talked about my family's hair. Tell me about your family's hair!