Georgia is on my mind

Just some fun recap pictures from my visit to my BFF, Stephanie! How we survived two years without seeing each other and picked right up where we left off amazes me. She's a life long friend and I honestly do not know where I'd be without her! Also, her parents are amazing! Her mom, Lisa, writes a blog called "Writing in the Buff." You should check it out! I bet you will like it.

Steph's adorable dogs, McGee (the black one) and Chutsky (the reddish/tan one). They're so cute and cuddly!

Stephy & her boyfriend Brett. He is one FANTASTIC man and the way he adores my BFF makes me so happy. They'll be together forever.

Me & Stephy!



Blowing out the candles on her birthday cheesecake =)

Downtown Atlanta for Earth Day


Oh, and just because these three melt my heart...my nieces & nephew:

Easter Weekend Recap

Well, tonight would be the end of my spring break/Easter. But I still have tomorrow off from student teaching. Thank goodness because I am NOT ready to go back! But then again, 18 school days of student teaching left, graduation May 21st and then I am done! Tomorrow I have to go meet with the certification coordinator at school to apply for certification. I have to go register for my CST (Content Specialty Test) and see what she says tomorrow.

I spend Wednesday-Sunday (today) in Georgia, visiting my best friend Stephanie! You have heard me mention it many times on the blog. We met via facebook back when we first started college. I friended her, and thought it was interesting that someone from Georgia was going to a college in New York...that was a state school aka cheap for NY residents. I mean, I could understand if it was Cornell or NYU but New Paltz? We had Intermediate French II together and the spring semester of our freshmen year, our friendship evolved further. We lived together sophomore year, hung out a lot fall semester junior year before I went abroad and then really renewed our friendship while I was abroad/when I came back. The last time we saw each other was two years ago. I have missed her soooo much! So I was excited to go see her!

Wednesday, the day I left, was a bit of an annoyance. My flight from NY to Philadelphia was suppose to depart at 11:35. Umm, 11:15 rolls around and no flight attendant has been to the gate yet. Five minutes later, they announce it was delayed due to weather. Okay, that I can understand. Then they put us on the plane, all boarded, and then we sat there for 40 minutes. And the plane was TINY. That makes me nervous. Finally get to Philadelphia, and luckily my flight to Atlanta was also delayed due to weather. I think the weather just made me annoyed with the delays. I was SO excited to see Steph when I got off the plane! That night, her boyfriend Brett grilled a bunch of food, we hung out and then went to this bar Sweetwater's and sang karaoke. It was a lot of fun! Thursday we ended up going to the mall and did some shopping! Got a cute new bathing suit for the summer at Old Navy. Then we hung out with her friend Dianna (whose husband went to HS with one of my brothers...small world!) and watched "Couples Retreat." Friday, we saw Dianna's husband and his father play at an Earth Day festival and then made a white-peach sangria for the birthday party that night...Um, YEAH, SO SO GOOD! I think I drank most of it haha ;). However, the end of Friday night sucked because my ipod was either lost somepoint between Thursday and Friday...or it was stolen. I am leaning more towards stolen. And it really really pisses me off because it was a gift from my brother. I can replace it, its just the matter of fact of it being gone. Saturday was just a lazy day....Steph's grandpa took us to lunch and then the whole family out for dinner to Carraba's Italian Grill. It was SO SO SO good!

Overall, my visit was great! I love the South (I'm sitting here wearing my I heart ATL shirt) and honestly really wanna move there. I definitely need to go visit down there again. I am super excited for Steph to come visit in October!


Tomorrow is going to be a SUPER productive day! I plan on finally going to the bank (I'm saying finally because I've needed to go since March), get my car washed (my brakes/oil were done while I was away), have my certification meeting, go to Target. I really think I am going to make organizing my closet a project this summer. Yes, I am insane!

Well, off to unpack/get my laundry ready for the laundry fest I will do tomorrow! Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter with family and friends!

Five Question Friday!

I am in Georgia visiting my best friend Stephypants (which I shall blog about when I return). As she is cleaning up for the little shindig tonight, I am doing this Five Question Friday. So head on over here to link up!


1. What is your favorite Easter tradition?
I just like being with the family. We really don't have any Easter traditions but just being together and watching my nieces and nephew play over the last few years is good enough for me!

2. Are you a "shower" or "long, hot bath" kind of person?

I'm a shower person...but I love to take long hot..and I mean STEAMING hot showers. I get antsy so I don't like sitting in a bathtub. Once in a blue moon, I'll take a whirlpool. Otherwise, I like my hot shower. And to me, a long shower is like 8-10 mins.

3. Can you parallel park and if so, when was the last time you did it?

Last time would be when I took my road test! I CANNOT parallel park to save my life. I really try to avoid it at all possible cause. I would rather walk an extra five minutes then parallel park. Plus, I'm not good at it!

4. What is your favorite Easter candy?

I always LOVE the bubble gum eggs (I'm not sure why) and Reese's peanut butter cups. I really only eat candy around holidays.

5. Easter: Do you go all out on the Easter Bunny or focus on the religious part of the Holiday?

I would say it is kind of a combination of the two. We like the candy aspect but over the years, my family has not been all gung-ho on the religious aspect of it. Don't get me wrong. We still pray, thank the Lord for his sacrifices and everything, but we're not all gung-ho about it as I think my mother would like to be!

Closet Disaster

Oh my word. My closet/bedroom currently looks like a war zone! The one thing I do not like about the weather changing each season is having to change clothes! It is such an arduous task. And I am the brilliant one who started it at 11pm tonight. Why? Well, I did need to navigate my suitcase out for my trip on Wednesday (I hate walking through airports with a duffel). Plus, I looked up the weather for Georgia, and it is suppose to be in the 80's this week!!

So this requires some digging out of the summer clothes. Inevitably, it was going to happen. But seriously, I think I have too many clothes. My problem is I wear my clothes so so so so so so so many times and just don't get rid of them. Hoarder? No. Get a lot of use outta my clothes? Yep! I know there's a shirt that I bought my freshmen year of college in there. Right now, there are clothes, a suitcase, empty coat hangers and my sanity (ha ha!) all over the floor of my bedroom. Why must packing be considered a difficult task?! Ahhh! I will attempt to put this mess away for tonight and pack tomorrow before I go to work. All that stands between me and Georgia is work tomorrow (11:30-5) and a 9:10 doctor's appt before my 11:35 flight from the airport that is five minutes from my house. Let's hope she is FAST because I gotta get to the airport by like no later than 10. If my brother Brian is still home when I get home, I'm gonna ask him to drop me off on his way to work (I know he has to be there at 1030).

And just a side note. Tonight at work, I was just sort of day dreaming. The front entrance of the restaurant I work at is outside (we're in the Lifestyle Village part of the mall) and it is across from Dick's Sporting Goods. I looked up at one point and there were two cars stopped that looked like they had a fender bender or something. Next thing I know, there is someone LYING in the road!! I am not sure if they just collapsed or they were hit. It's just horrible...a bunch of teenagers were just acting like morons right around it and if the person was hit, I hope that the person who hit them stayed. To hit someone with a car and then take off is just BEYOND wrong. I hope whoever it was in the road turns out to be okay!

Spring time is here!

I am super excited! I am finally on spring break! The seven weeks from February break until this Spring break were just torture, haha. I did have a spring break from my college, yet I was still going to student teaching so it wasn't that much of a break! Thursday was my last day of school since I had to attend a conference for student teaching on Friday. And now we have this whole week off! What's the best part? I don't go back until April 26th because the school I am in didn't use all their snow days so we have the day after Easter off too!

This past Friday I got inducted into the Education Honor Society at my school. My mom came to see me [I called this her early birthday present] since she never got to see me inducted into anything during college. It's a selective honor society...you have to have a combined gpa of at LEAST 3.5 or better between undergrad & grad! We're just a bunch of nerds.

Saturday was my mom's birthday. Happy belated birthday Mom! I do feel bad because I feel like she got shafted in a way for her birthday. She had originally planned to go with her friend to a wedding on her birthday but then decided not to. One of my brothers, Brian, and I both work at the same place so we were both working a double yesterday. My other brother Eric, I have no idea where he was. And my brother Mark & his wife Laurie were going to have her over for dinner last night...but my SIL has the flu! So no one took my poor mom out for her birthday! :( I did meet her at Kohl's after work and got some capris. But since I have Tuesday night off, I want to take her out to dinner [my treat of course!] to any place her heart desires. I do also have to go get the other half of her present tomorrow. I think I'm going to get her a spring Vera Bradley bag. Mother's Day is also FAST approaching so I gotta come up with something for her for that. I think I might get her a massage gift certificate, or do something pictures wise.

Speaking of birthdays, I have to go to my brother's house at some point to give my niece Emma her birthday presents! Her birthday was April 4th and while I could've given them to her that weekend before, I didn't. I have no idea why but I didn't. I have never forgotten/not acknowledged one of my nieces or nephew's birthday. I think between school, student teaching, work and trying to maintain a social life, my brain is functioning on elsewhere!

I bought tickets to go see Taylor Swift at MSG in NYC four days after my birthday in November! I am so excited! I saw her perform at Nassau Coliseum last year in May and she put on an AWESOME concert! My best friend April and I had gone to see it. This year, I'm seeing it with my friend Shannon. I feel bad because April feels a little hurt I did not ask her before I bought the tickets but when I had mentioned to it, she said "I have no idea where I'll be." She's graduating Columbia in a few weeks with her Master's in Journalism and she has been applying for jobs all over the place. So I feel guilty for not including her but if I did not buy these tickets now and waited another month or two to buy them, they could be sold out! Oh well. There will always be more opportunities. :)

I really can't wait for it to be summer. I crave warm weather! I love having grown up on the South Shore with the beaches nearby and a pool in my backyard. When I was little, I was like a fish in water....never wanted to get out of the pool! I am excited when I make my work schedule I will ACTUALLY be able to go to the beach more often [as opposed to my old job schedule last year]. And the more I think about it, the more I realize how much of an awesome awesome summer it will be! Between graduating, trip to Atlantic City for a friend's birthday, starting the special education extension for my Master's, beach trips, late summer nights, and a week in Disney in August with Mark, SIL Laurie, nieces & nephew & my mom, it is going to be one fantastic fun-filled summer!!

Tomorrow will be a productive day. I plan to pack for my trip to Georgia on Wednesday, try to take my car to get washed (if not tomorrow then the week after), schedule a oil change for my mom [so so FAR overdue!], do some chores for my mom [yeah, so not looking forward to having to pay RENT soon] and working. Two more shifts and then it's playtime with the best friend!

Wednesday Love =)

it's that time of the week! link up with Jamie for What i love Wednesday!

I'm going to make this short and sweet because I'm tired and still have to finish grading projects (!) and do lesson plans for tomorrow!

#1 - I'm loving that this time next week I will be in Georgia! I am so beyond excited to see my best friend who I haven't seen in two years. I'm excited to be wearing summery clothes down there because it is still cold in New York!! I'm also loving that she will be visiting NY sometime in October! There is nothing like a best friend! :)

#2 -
I'm loving my third observation is OVER...and went MUCH better than last time. Yes, there are still things my supervisor picks on to see in each lesson...but they have to do that because there is no way they're gonna give you an absolute rave each time! How else could you grow as a teacher? I also loved my teacher letting me leave during study hall for the rest of the day to relax. He's really nice and constantly offers me constructive criticism/advice. :)

#3 - I am loving that as of tomorrow, I do not have to go back to my school for student teaching til April 26th!! :) We get the day after Easter off and I am SOOOOOOO excited. I am sleeping in that day for a bit (considering I have to meet my seminar advisor to go over resumes/stuff).

#4 - I am loving that in 5 weeks, 2 days I will have my Master's Degree! HOLLA! The lack of sleep will have paid off! :)

#5 - I'm also loving some of the cute things I have been eyeing while window shopping. Can't wait to do a little shopping for some clothes to take on my vacation. :) It'll also give me a chance to go clean out my closet and put my winter clothes away!

Well, short and sweet for this week. :) I'm tired and have what feels like 2569943 projects to grade. Adios!

How you know you're tired

When you fall asleep in the MIDDLE of writing your lesson plans and you wake up 40 minutes later with a GIGANTIC red imprint from your fists on your cheek and your glasses have fallen off.

I say it is time for spring break. My body is shot!

And yet, somehow I think I agreed to working a mid-shift at work the two days before I go away. Oy vey. Mas dinero para me.

I need to go sleep. I am not even sure what my lesson plan entails anymore and I am spent. The rest of the seating charts will have to wait until tomorrow.

Finally!

FINALLY! I feel like a "real" teacher in some sorts. This week has been my first "solo" week with my three eighth grade classes in my new placement. Wednesday-Friday we were in the computer lab creating menus because the unit we are doing is "En el restaurante." My co-op teacher wanted me to do this and seeing as he is my brother's friend, I'll do whatever he wants me to do with them. It was fun because who does not love a project when you get to be creative?! Only problem? "Senorita you didn't give us enough time to do this!" Um, three 40 min periods plus study halls and lunch isnt enough time? Took me 45 mins-hour to do my example one! And my cooperating teacher agreed three days was fair (plus this is all the time we had to complete it since we had three days in the computer lab). He said something along the lines of "They'll complain if you gave them three days, three weeks, or three months to do a project." That is totally true. Some of them came out really good! I'm having them present them and even saving some for Wednesday when my field supervisor comes to observe me.

That I am a little worried about. My second observation in my last school basically had made me feel I wasn't cut out to teach. Lovely, eh? But it also wasn't fair in the time frame he came. It'll be over a month since I was last observed so I think in that time frame, he will see some sort of improvement. Isn't it just darling that all the "labor" and work we go through during student teaching and it's a pass/fail grade?! Ahhhhh! FUNNY STUFF! :)

If any of you followers out there want to help me with something, it'd be greatly appreciated. My thesis I have to write as part of my masters is about "Attitudes Towards Teaching" and I did it comparing elementary teachers and secondary teachers. Originally, I wanted my sample size to be twenty teachers of each but that didn't happen. So I told my professor I changed it to ten each...she is pretty much okay with whatever I do, I guess I'm on her good side. :-D But, I still need a few more people to take surveys! If you are willing to help [doesn't matter if you're student teaching or not!], please leave me a comment and let me know if I can email ya a survey. You'd really be helping me out!!

I guess I am really tired. I sat here the last ten minutes watching a "no-no" wax hair removal product commercial on lifetime. And didn't realize it!

The other night my friends Shannon, Olivia and I made cupcakes for Shannon's boyfriend's birthday. His actual birthday was Wednesday but his party was last night [which I was going to go to but didn't....long story]. We made cookies n cream cupcakes which involved smashed-up Oreos! They were so yummy. And the second batch we made were our favorites....Chocolate Liquor Cupcakes! It involved cocoa powder, crushed chocolate bars, chocolate liquor in the batter, and a liquor icing. O..M..G....so delicious! We got the recipe from a cupcake cook-book my friend Shannon has. I want to find more fun recipes to make them!

I literally need a year to sort out my life. HAHA, just kidding not really. I cleaned my bedroom last week, aka had really needed to vacuum my carpet, and put some clothes away. Where am I this week? Stuff is back all over the floor. I think I will wait til when I am on spring break anyways to figure out how to clean it up. I figure by mid-April I really won't be wearing SWEATERS anymore....a girl can dream....so I'll put those away and take out all the summery stuff! :) Can't wait to be wear flipflops, shorts, tanks and dresses! I think I MAJORLY need to go shorts shopping though. Half of my jeans when I went down a size are now too loose! That is always a good thing but I don't want to be wearing GIGANTIC shorts from last summer this summer! :)

Time to go download some more Glee music before I hop in the shower to get ready for a double shift at work. I am working a double today, tomorrow 12-5, monday 5-9, and then doubles Saturday AND Sunday next week. But the good news is they hired another host and she'll be shadowing me next week on Sunday. So maybe it won't be doubles for the rest of the summer! Hopefully this one will last.

Have a wonderful weekend. :-D

Bad idea....

It was a bad idea to still be up at this time...when I have to be up at 5:30am to get ready for student teaching...and it is 1:14am right now. Best part? The chocolate liquer cupcakes my friends and I made tonight. I'll save that as an entry for sometime this weekend!

Time to go to bed! After tomorrow, 4 days of student teaching, 1 conference, and two days of tutoring/one day of class stand between me and SPRING BREAK!

Wednesday Love =)

Happy Hump Day, Y'all! It's Wednesday which means so much closer to the weekend! And it also means time for WILW with Jamie! :) Link up!

#1 - I'm loving that this time, in two weeks, not only will I be on Spring Break from student teaching...but I will be in GEORGIA!!!! I have mentioned it a bunch of times but I am so beyond excited to go visit my BFF Stephanie!
Fall 2008

At our favorite place, Cuddies! (PS - I can't remember the last time my hair was THAT color)

Steph's Graduation - December 2009

Last time we saw each other...May 2009! :(

#2 - I'm loving my new placement for student teaching. I really am. Despite things going on in my personal life, I have a connection to these kids quicker than I did in my first placement. Maybe it helps some of them had my brother as their 5th grade teacher or as a coach, but I like it! Plus, today, tomorrow & Friday I'm in the computer lab with my three 8th grade classes, 7th grade has one more day in the computer lab for their presentations and Friday they have to present. SCORE for easy week. :)

#3 - I'm loving the deal I got this week on a Longchamp purse. I bid on it on ebay (always a risk!) and got it for like $68...I think it retails for around $149+. Estimated shipping is 4/11-4/12.

#4 - I'm loving that my niece Emma's birthday was Monday. She turned two. TWO! Where has time gone?! I remember her sister Sara (my goddaughter) calling me as I was getting ready for open house tours to tell me that "Mommy had the baby" in her 4 year old voice. Look how big Emma has gotten!


Easter 2009...only a few days old!

Most recent picture of her! God bless that little chunky monkey niece of mine!!

#5 - I'm loving that I graduate on May 21st with my MASTER'S DEGREE! I'll be 24 and have a Master's Degree...yay. Not only that, I will have survived student teaching and I will be going back for a SECOND master's degree! The program I'm in for my teaching degree basically has a lot of "inclusive" classes in the title of the class. Since that is the case, it is only an extra FOUR classes to get a Special Education degree. And to top it off, my school is offering this deal "take one summer class, get the second one 50% off"...so I'll be saving some $$! Big win in the long run!

#6 - Friends. They're always there no matter how crappy you feel your life is going, how stressed out you are feeling, when you need to vent. They are there for the laughs, hugs, strange times, good times, breakups, shopping trips, nights out, etc. Going through some personal things, it's wonderful to know these ladies are here no matter what! :)
Just a small preview of some of these important people!

Shannon & I

Olivia & I

April, Jeannette, me and Amanda


Allison & I

Amanda & I


Me & Heather

Pictures that speak the words....

Things can ONLY get better from here. Either I rectify my CRAPPY love life situation and fix what I broke that wasn't really broken....or I move on.

This completely explains what I am going through right now. I had to do this to see if we were meant to be.

Story of my LIFE.
Sometimes, you just have to smile; pretend everything's okay, hold back the tears and just walk away.
I couldn't agree more.

How do you know if you have made the right decision? It's when you picked the harder choice, yet your heart is at peace.





Broken. Want to be fixed. Don't know if it is possible.

I think I need to go think and go to bed. It's almost 11:30. I'm teaching my first day tomorrow in my second placement and I'm all sorts of nervous. Plus, I really don't feel in the right state of mind right now. At all.

Every little thing is going to be all right...

This is how I feel right now. Actually, I have felt like the smallest thing on Earth and like the world's worst person. I had been wrestling with a decision about an old flame....and I came to terms with it last night. Immediately following, I had this instant stab of regret.

Why? Why did I do it? What was wrong? He was different this time. He was changed....and made more of an effort. Was it hormones/PMS? [More than likely it was that or that is what is contributing to my feelings now]. He was clearly different and was thinking outside of the box from last time. So why did I squash it?

Clearly, I hurt him. I don't think he was expecting to hear it last night. And I consider him to be one of my good friends. And you're probably thinking, "Wow, you're just an evil person." I think I got scared. Like really scared. Things were going so well and we were taking it slow, yet I squashed it before anything really amounted. Literally, I cried myself to sleep silently last night fair chance. That was just mean of me.

He is angry at me, I know. And who says he does not have a right to be? He did say it would be awkward to see me because he will have feelings for em. But the more I thought about it and had thought I was over him, the more I question myself. He needs his time to "grieve"/be angry at me and throw darts, curse at me, refuse to see me [like this Fri...not going to his friend's party I was invited to outta respect for his friend b/c it's his birthday...and for him since I wanna respect his wishes].

But in the end, I hope every little thing is going to be all right. I want to talk to him. THIS week. But he needs his time apart from me. And I need to think and reaffirm my feelings to make sure this is what I want and not fabricated. Because in the end, we both have to be happy. That's all that matters.

Hopefully he'll talk to me sometime soon. I feel this clearly depicts how I feel right now:

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong -doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for being a part of my life

PRAYER:
May today there be peace within you. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing that you are a child of God. Let His presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, and to bask in the sun. It is there for each and every one of you. God Bless.

Just pray for me. Please.