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.