Saturday Sentiments

Lately, I have been missing my mom. Now we all know how often I miss people, so this is a HUGE deal. So many things have been happening lately that have reminded me of how important family is, and how much they impact your daily lives.

As a graduation gift, I had asked my mom months prior to find me a Claddagh ring. They are beautiful, and have so much history and tradition behind them, that I thought it pertinent to have my mom find one for me. When graduation came, she surprised me by giving me my Grandmas, her mothers, ring. It was the best graduation present I could have received, meaning so much to me to receive it, and so much to my mom for passing it down.

Over the summer I found out that the jeweler that I typically go to for all of my jewelry needs was retiring. I needed the ring re-sized due to my abnormally small ring size. Having the work done on site was very important to me, as many companies send out their jewelry, and it becomes a very impersonal business. After months and months of waiting, I found a jeweler in Lawrence who does the work on site. I left it on Thursday, and picked it up on Friday.

Wearing the ring has made me think so much about things that my mom has taught me because her mother taught her. I spent my Friday night crocheting up a storm. This, Saturday morning I have spent both crocheting and sewing pillowcases with my new sewing machine. So many things have made this such a special Saturday, remembering the great women who have passed along their traditions, therefore making me the woman that I am today.

Look at that ring!!! (I may or may not be wearing it correctly, I can't remember.)
*It has now been correctly moved to the proper hand and placement. 

The whole reason I bought my sewing machine (a few weeks ago), was because I found a ginormous hole in the side of the quilt my mom made for me.

Let's take a look at that thing. I measured it out to be 16 INCHES LONG!!!!!! YES 16!!!!! The wonderful words of my other grandmother coming to mind "I am not fixing anymore holes in your blankie." Although the memory is of her referring to the blanket I had before this one, it still made me miss her. I am now a grown up who needs to sew the holes in her blanket herself....

....and so I did just that. :)

I sewed the entire perimeter as there was wear on all sides. I wound the bobbin to completion, and ran out of thread just before completing the entire perimeter.

I mean look how close I was....

With all of this crafting my Saturday was looking downright fabulous! And then.....I got a call from a strange number....announcing his presence outside my door. It was a flower delivery man, giving me flowers ordered by my wonderful boyfriend, just because.

If you can't read that note, it says: "I hope this makes you smiles as much as you make me smile." Yep, I think he is a keeper. He certainly does know how to make me smile. :) 

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

M

My children

So many times it is easy for me to focus on all of the bad things that I did during a day, or how my teaching wasn't up to the standards that I think it should be. Today was not that day.

I had a wonderful weekend, another post, and walked into school ready for the week. I had quite a bit to do, and felt like a chicken with my head cut off, as I ran around trying to organize everything in my room.

BUT, as soon as I saw my children, I knew that I had missed them. I missed their smiles. I missed their personalities. I missed the way they all talk with one another. I missed being their teacher. I missed being with them.

These were feelings that I had never had before. I have never experienced such joy at seeing children who I so often see through a more negative light. It was a wonderful feeling. The best feeling to start the day out with.

I was able to have such a fabulous day, although missing 5 of my little ducks was sad, it did make for a quieter, and calmer classroom. We all had fun together. Every student was able to have more attention. Attention they so often desperately need.

Later in the day, we had writing, and had just read a story about germs and how they make us sick. Our sentence revolved around such things being: "I see germs." Now I know we can't really see germs, and that was explained to them again, so we decided on drawing an illustration to go with the sentence that included a sink and our hands. Mind you, when we do writing, I do the writing of the sentence on my own paper in front of students, and then I draw a picture to correspond to the sentence. So I'm sitting in my chair, after having written my sentence already, I'm in the middle of drawing my picture including the hands, and then the sink. I lost it right before I took the picture. The kids laughed just as hard when they noticed it too....

Yes, that is my "happy face" sink. I, in no way, meant for this to happen. I was just trying to draw the bowl part of the sink, rather than just the perimeter. 

Some of the quotes from today:

"Miss Grant, you are a beautiful colorer." 

"Miss Grant, you make beautiful drawings."

"I love your beautiful jacket."

"Miss Grant, your hair is so beautiful today."

Anybody think they were sucking up? With all the hugs they gave me today, I don't think these kids are anything other than the sweetest little ducks! 

M

Introverted Weekend

Lately, my weekends have consisted of traveling to Roslindale, MA. Which for those of you who don't know, it's a city of Boston. That means I have to drive on 93 (an interstate that goes straight through Boston), at about 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. For those of you who don't know Mass traffic, that's a bad time. Mind you the first time I made the drive, it took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to drive a whole 10 miles. Yep, could have driven it faster on a tractor. That thought helped me get through the drive.

The drives haven't been terrible, and when it ends with seeing this face:

Who wouldn't want to make that drive??? 

This weekend we decided to finally take some time for ourselves. The previous 3 weekends were dedicated to doing things with other people, and we needed time to just be by ourselves and enjoy each other's company, and we did just that!!! 

Much of the weekend was planned on a whim, including a diner breakfast, a barbershop, a small town farmer's market, and a hike. Such a comfy, cozy, fall weekend. Just perfect!

We decided to take a hike in the Blue Hills Region, which confused me, because Blue Hill is a town in Maine, the town in which I was born. That town doesn't belong in Massachusetts. 

But, nevertheless, the hike was beautiful. The leaves were changing color, and falling all around. I'm not one to take a lot of photos, but I snapped these two of interesting things we saw along the way. 

Random rock that looked pretty ominous.

One of the many trails we followed.
 The "path less traveled" illustration anyone? 

The hike turned out to be a bit longer than we had originally planned, due to a lack of attention paid to what direction we were walking down the mountain.....The picture at the top is the "are we seriously lost?" face. 

After an hour in the wrong direction, and walking half way around the mountain, my hip popping out of joint, the soldier made me sit, while he got the car. Isn't that cute?? I was much happier not having to walk another mile....

While on the hike UP the mountain we snapped a pretty darn good picture of ourselves, if I do say so myself, we take some good selfies.

It turned out to be a wonderful weekend of snuggles and recuperating. I think we can go back to hanging around people again. :) 

M

Old-Fashioned Thoughts

Whilst talking with a friend about old-fashioned values and the traditions that have been lost as of recently, due to the internet or cell phones, we thought of multiple skills we don't want lost:

Sewing
Knitting/Crocheting
Cooking with a Pressure Cooker
Gardening

I'm sure there are multitudes more, but these are the ones that we so often find ourselves saying "if only we had the time to learn."

I read this article earlier in the day, and it makes me rethink my usage of social media and technology that much more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-d-anderson/teen-texting-the-ruin-of-romance_b_3763576.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

It is wonderful on so many levels, not just the "teen romance" level.

Worth a thought,
M

Topsfield Fair

Talk about stressful!!!

I have chaperoned field trips in the past, but they were all short ones. I have led trips for my after school program, but those all stayed on campus. I have taken kids multiple places, but never in such a large group, to such a large PUBLIC venue.

I started my day with one of my parents not showing up, so I scurried around to change all of my plans. All of the things I packed for each of my children had to be changed so that another parent could step in at the last minute.

Somehow, we made it on the bus and were on our way. I brought extra crackers, and bottles of water for each child, and boy did they come in handy!!!

We started off our morning by looking at giant pumpkins, and lots and lots of vegetables. We even answered a list of questions, earning all of the children lollipops. Needless to say, that was a highlight for the children. :) While we were eating the lollipops we saw an elephant walking into an arena. The children screamed with joy and begged to go see. We watched the "Beulah's Birthday Bash" in the arena, and all of the students wanted a chance to play with Beulah. It was so cute. Rather than playing with the elephant we went and fed all of the animals at the petting zoo.

If anyone needs to know how to make a quarter worth of the animal feed last between 15 and 20 students....just ask. (It's about 3 or 4 pellets per child.)  Considering most of the feed fell to the floor because the students screamed any time an animal came toward them to eat, it was good they weren't wasting it all. We headed back towards lunch and checked out a few more buildings like the "poultry" building.

I said to my children "We are going to go look at some chickens!" Super enthusiastically of course to keep them entertained, I might have included a little jig to jump start them along. One of my girls looks to me and starts whining "But I don't want to see these chickens, I want to see real chicken, like the kind you eat." I didn't want to completely ruin her day by telling her that live chickens and chicken nuggets are the same thing, only one is dead. She will find out eventually.....ruining her morning didn't seem like that time. :)

We headed over for lunch and enjoyed some time of just relaxing. Well, I might have enjoyed more of that time than the children, but it was definitely needed. After lunch it was only 45 minutes until we needed to be back on the bus, lunch was definitely a good point of the day! :)

With more walking around, looking at sheep, and cows, and pigs, and bunny rabbits, and horses and more sheep, the children were happy!

We headed over to the bathrooms for one last stop before the bus, and that's when the terrible hit. You never know how far your stomach can drop through you and the ground, then the moment you realize that you have truly lost a child. Your thoughts become all jumbled trying to remember the last time you saw the child. I retraced my steps. I remembered what she was wearing. I called her name in the bathroom. I talked to all of my parents who saw nothing as they had been attending to the children in the bathroom while I waited outside.

10 excruciating minutes passed between the time most of my students exited the bathroom, and the time that I called my principal to see if he knew anything. It was at that moment that I found out she had been turned in to "lost children" and another teacher had her going back to the bus. Little did I know a comment made my a random person mere moments before I knew my student was lost, about a girl in a "blue jumper", was actually a comment referring to my child, who had taken off her purple jacket, the only piece of closing I had seen her in all day. Knowing my child was finally safe, although not with me, was still terrifying. No one ever wants to think that they have lost a child.

When she was finally returned to me the only feelings I could have were that I was hurt and I missed her. I wasn't angry that she had wandered off as she explained. I was just scared, and that was a feeling we could both share.

We all crawled onto the bus and headed home. I had 21 students to take to the fair, and I, by the grace of God, had 21 to take home.

That was my field trip. I can say "1 and done" now right??? I lost a kid one time, and now I'm done forever right??? Let's hope!

M

One of THOSE posts....

So you may or may not have noticed that I haven't been posting recently and there is certainly a cause to such things that will be explained in due time.

For those of you who have been reading for some time, you know that I like posting the lighthearted stuff. I like being funny, and witty, and for those of you who know my humor it comes across very well.

This post will not be of that sort.

Last week I entered one of the worst weeks of my entire life. Probably the worst since any time during my parents divorce, and that was the hardest thing to date.

I know people say that the first year of teaching is the hardest, but God definitely tested how much I could handle. With the behavioral problems happening in my classroom, my frustration levels continued to grow. Between chairs being thrown around, children biting and being bitten, crayons and pencils thrown, screaming at the highest of decibels, my mind was not handling much more. Teaching became a dreaded task because I was waiting for the next outburst. For a first year teacher who has always relied on keeping students entertained with off the cuff activities, my mind was getting back logged. By Wednesday I was more fragile than fine china, causing a breakdown that probably scared my roommates as they had never experienced such emotion emitting from me.

 Feeling like a failure was at the top of my feelings list. I felt like I had failed my education. I felt like I had failed my professors. I felt like I had failed my colleagues. I felt like I had failed my students. Worst of all, I felt like I had failed myself and all of my dreams.

This was the fourth week of school and only the second full week. Not the best way to start the year.

I know I picked wonderful people to live with, and surround myself with, so that in a time of ultimate weakness I had people to support me and uplift me. I was able to spend the weekend with a dear friend who helped me to realize that I am not a failure, and that I am prepared. Her mom, a principal herself, listened to all of my woes, was flabbergasted at some of my stories and supported me non-stop. For their support I will be eternally grateful. As my weekend was filled with endless anxiety about returning to school, they never faltered in their belief in me and my abilities.

Through all of my anxiety and restlessness, I continued to pray and put my belief in God's promise to never give more than can be handled. Monday started off decently well, a few interruptions as per usual. I mean sitting on the floor with a child screaming "I want to hit ****!!!" over and over, and having him curl into the fetal position on your lap as you soothe him is a typical interruption right??? (Disclaimer: for those of you out there who wouldn't tolerate this behavior, please know that the way I handled the situation was what was needed to be done for that child, and is not done for all children, as they don't require such behavior from me.)

 Then 10:00 happened and I had to press the "911" button to page the office and have the counselor attend to the screaming child from earlier in the morning. By that afternoon the child was moved to another classroom. It broke my heart to hear him cry about leaving my room, but the new environment was going to be a much better fit for him.

That left two behavior cases in my room and two adults. Manageable. Throughout the afternoon the silences that ensued were magical. I felt a peace about the classroom. I was even able to breathe, AND think. As heartbroken as I felt by this move, I knew it was the right thing, and I allowed myself the chance to revel in this new change.

The wave of peace that I felt, could only have come from God as He took some of the load off my shoulders. So many times I don't think of how much He has taken from me, but then on days when my load has truly felt lightened I am able to see all of the things that I am blessed with. My, oh my, the wonderful things that I have been blessed with far outweigh the struggles that I may feel.

Thank you for reading through this post, as well as being patient with me through my short break from blogging.
M

Woes.

First year teacher problems...

I was always told that the first year of teaching would be overwhelming, but by going through Gordon I would at least have a general idea of what was going on.

Completing the first full week I truly understand the feeling of being overwhelmed. Does everything that I am going through seem like material I covered at some point? Yes. But that doesn't exactly help when in the situation...

With having my air conditioner taken out in the middle of one of the hottest days, a student not speaking English, and the other 24 complaining that they were hot, it began to take it's toll on me.

Now, I'm not saying I can't handle stress, but when two different children have full on tantrums including but not limited to them throwing themselves around, throwing light objects, and heavy objects such as chairs, it becomes a bit frustrating. Two days in a row of such behavior and all of my teaching responsibilities on top of it, makes for a very long week.

Praying for Friday was at the top of my to do list for the past few days, because it was the only relief I could look forward to. The weekend could not have come faster.

These types of days are the ones that make you wonder about your life choices. I do know that I have been trained well, and that I have the heart of a wonderful teacher, but the stress begins to amount to such a level that everything that could possibly be considered logic is gone. Feeling like a terrible teacher, and a failure in the 3rd week isn't the job description that I signed up for. I just wonder what it would have been like to teach in a different school system? What it would be like to teach at a school that actually has a set curriculum? What it would be like to teach students with different demographics?

So many questions and not enough time to ponder...But I think that is a good thing because I having a reminder that these students are precious, and I am lucky to be in their lives.

This gem of a picture tends to help on the rough days with the rough students:

                                  

Pray for my sanity,
M

Growing up sucks...

So this one time at school, I had to grow up. I had to learn about workman's comp.

I was dealing with a student who was not exactly having it with the directions of the classroom. While everyone was cleaning up the literacy centers he happened to be mopping my floors with his back. While doing such a thing he started screaming at an ear piercing level, and moved himself into a corner. With as much patience as I could muster, which we all know isn't a lot, I had him in an almost vertical position. As I supported most of his weight, he decided to pick up a rather heavy, metal chair, and drop it. Making it, of course, land on my open toe.

It hurt.

A lot.

Throughout the day it started to hurt even worse. It didn't look bad all day, or after school. But now, nine hours later, it looks like I took purple marker to it....

I had to learn about workman's comp, and the reporting within 24 hours, and going to the doctors. I opted out. It's a bruise. But the whole process is kind of scary.... Can't I go back to being a student where I know what is expected? 

Now I shall leave you with a much better picture of my niece: 

Isn't she cute??? 

Off to bed,

M

Oh Luke Bryan Shook It

So Saturday night included this view.

But not without a few ups and downs throughout the day.

While hiking the top of Cadillac, via the road, I was trying to track down the concert tickets I bought over a month before. I called the venue, the ticket distributing agency, the box office, the sponsoring company, and after numerous messages left, no one could help me.

So, feeling defeated, somehow the idea was thrown around that we google the company in which I bought the tickets from. So we did that, and we were connected with a wonderful woman who called around, left messages on people's phones, and within 30 minutes another woman called me. She emailed me the tickets, apologize profusely, and worked everything out for us.

5 Hours of phone calls later we were on our way to Luke Bryan!

Such a fun experience with such good friends! I mean who can take such great pictures, other than a best friend?

LOVE HER!!!

Such a wonderful time at home. Great friends, great family and beautiful sights could not have made for a better weekend. These are the times that I wish I could bottle up and keep forever and take them out and go through them again whenever I want. But it is pictures like these that can remind me. :)

M

Friends of Acadia, I mean, in Acadia

Whoa. I'm terrible. I was doing such a great job at keeping up with everything that was going on.

And then I went home.

I left last Friday, just after I posted the last blog. Luckily I was able to take two of my beautiful friends home with me. This was a huge step, because no one from Mass has ever been home with me. These two beauties decided to take on the challenge which is Maine, and I couldn't be happier that they came!!! It was amazing to have best friends from Gordon meeting best friends from home. As this was the first time that the worlds were converging I was a bit nervous, but clearly I have picked such wonderful friends because everyone loved each other. It was wonderful.

We were able to see parts of Acadia in an hour! Thank you Cadillac Road! They loved it!! We were able to take in the sights in such a fast time, and didn't have to deal with all of the tourists in Bar Harbor. Best of both worlds!! :)

Here are some of the pictures we took while on the mountain.

Then we took some more pictures including ourselves:

and then there was that one time that Robyn touched our butts....

One with all 5 of us, because Natalie also joined in on girls day! 

After an hour in the park we headed home to get ready for the Luke Bryan concert! Mind you that will have to wait for another blog post coming tomorrow! :) 

M

Rooftops

I want to shout it from the rooftops!

The soldier and I have made it official. Official official. It's on facebook. That's just how official it is.

The basics:

Age: 24
Occupation: Student, other than a soldier. :)
Eyes: blue
Good guy? Yes. Definitely.

Now some back story.

We have been out a few times, some dinners, a movie, meeting family, and drinks brought us to our 5th date which was a Red Sox Game. He got the tickets for his birthday a few months ago, and decided to bring me! We were able to take our first official picture, because who can actually go to a Red Sox Game and not take a picture???

Isn't he precious??? Yea, I think so too! :) 

We went to dinner before the game. Through a conversation about the pizza I ordered being bigger than we both thought, I said "Well any pizza can be a personal pizza if you just try hard enough." Needless to say I found myself with a double-dog dare to finish the pizza. We were late to the game, BUT I finished my pizza! He was impressed, I was stuffed, all was right with the world. :) 

We took a few more pictures that night, one that for many of you who know me, will perfectly describe our relationship. Mind you it also comes with a story. We took the train in, as finding parking would have been horrendous. There were a few different stops where we needed to switch trains. I have navigated the T successfully a few times, but being from Boston I thought he might do better. Well he didn't, we got on a train going in the proper direction. But it was the only train NOT going to the stop we needed. Through multiple jokes about my lack of navigational skills, I was associated to being a dictator. This was the face that I gave him when the jokes were remembered at the game:

Poor thing puts up with this face, he must be a keeper! :) 

Of course the obligatory pictures were taken with the field, but terrible lighting. 

And apparently our photographer didn't want to put any significant portion of the diamond in the picture....maybe we will stick to shameless selfies. ;) 

Now I will go back to the rooftop and continue to shout for joy!

M

Becoming Miss Grant

For the past few years I have been going into classrooms to practice different theories and philosophies of teaching, a way of getting more and more knowledge. I was always called Miss Grant in these classrooms, and found it a little odd, awkward, plain weird, but a tad bit endearing.

Who knew that being called "Teacher" 50 times in a day could make one want the odd-awkward-weird name back? I certainly didn't!!!

I found myself stressing this morning trying to finish all of the tedious projects that I needed to get done, like name cards, assigning seats for those who didn't show up for screening, and coloring things. When I was told that the students were about to arrive, stress came like a tsunami. Would my kids like me? Would they listen? Would they walk in a line? How was I going to get them from point A to point B?

I "calmly" walked outside, greeted the students, not remembering a single name. We said the pledge, and the other children began walking into the school. My class is the last in the line, making us the last to walk through the school. Walking in a straight line? Psh. I was lucky if 3 of them were in a proper line. We all got into the classroom and began the day.

Four bathroom and drink trips completed, three fire drills practiced, two books read, and one crying child later.....I was done. Parents picked the children up, I breathed, and found out. I'm still alive!

After walking back into the classroom without the children, I realized again that this is exactly where I need to be. I do love the children, I love working for them and with them. I love seeing them interact with me and with others in the classroom. I love seeing students begin to understand a new concept. I love watching students behave properly and rewarding them as such! This time is such a wonderful thing to be a witness to, and I couldn't imagine being elsewhere.

Off to go lesson plan! (With a bit of complaining mixed in, I mean who REALLY likes to write lesson plans?)
M

First Days as a Big Girl.

I believe I have been in my classroom for a week and a half with set up and such. So we have been well acquainted. The scariest part about  my classroom was actually bringing students into it. Talk about nerve racking. The questions: do you like it? Do you feel comfortable here? Can you learn here? All came flying into my head as the first child crossed the threshold.

I should preface that I have not had a classroom full of children in it yet, because this week is all about screening students. For those of you that don't know, screening is a process over several days that allows a teacher to have one on one time with each student to assess their abilities. We look at things like their ability to balance and move. Can they sing the alphabet. We ask them to count, identify their colors and pronounce words. It runs the gammet of abilities that they will need to be successful in kindergarten.

I have had the chance to meet 9 wonderful children! Oddly enough, 8 girls, and only 1 boy. He will definitely be my handful student. He originally didn't want to come to the classroom, and then promptly cried on the way back to his father when he was done. Of course this would happen at 9 in the morning on my first day of being a big kid.

The other girls have been marvelous and will all prove to be part of a wonderful and dynamic classroom.

Quote of the day:
Miss Grant: "Are you excited to come to school?"
Student: "Yea. I never learn though. I never been to school before."
Miss Grant: "That's okay! That is why you are going to come to school. We will learn together."
Student: "But I never gone to school before."

Well, next Tuesday, my dear, you will begin a brand new year of learning. I can't wait to teach these beauties!! :)
M

The Date...

Dun, dun, dun....

If you haven't read the first part explaining how I met an attractive soldier, scroll down and read it first.

I really mean it. You need to scroll down.

So the date:

When: August 16th at 5:00

Where: North Shore

The original plan was to see a movie at 7:30, grab a seafood dinner, and head to a beach to talk for awhile.

Two side notes:

Dinner after a 7:30 movie? Do we know how I eat? I would have been heading to my third dinner of the evening.

The beach was totally the soldiers idea. He admitted he is a hopeless romantic. My favorite!

Well, due to the schedule, all of the good restaurants he wanted to go to would have been closed by the time we could get there. As a true gentlemen would do, he was planning on coming and picking me up, thus making him drive 40 minutes from his place of residence. So I suggested a different sort of plan, one revolving around the North Shore.

Having lived in the area for four years I, naturally, picked out all of my favorite places to go! And because as any good girl knows, with a good smile you can get your way. I moved the time from 7:30 to 5, so that I didn't have to feel like a pig eating two dinners before the poor guy showed up.

Friday came, and as per usual, my natural feeling of wanting to faint due to nervousness showed up. I paced. I cleaned. I made sure everything looked perfect. I straightened my hair, adding enough product so that it wouldn't go off without supervision, did my make up, dressed in the outfit Robyn and I had decided on previously. I was ready.

And then... he sent me a text announcing his arrival to the premise. Little did he know, my balcony faces the parking lot, so I was able to see him pull into a parking spot in front of my building. Being a good roommate, she told me I needed to invite him up. So of course I looked out the window, watched his car, sent him a message to come up, and waited. I nearly fainted watching him walk out of his car. Noticing my nervousness, my roommate said she would open the door. He came up, she opened the door, I walked out, and I almost died. His pictures did not do him justice!!! He was beautiful!!!

We exchanged pleasantries and left the building. The drive was great, talking was easy. Even better, being silent was comfortable. :) This allowed dinner to go smoothly! Add in seafood, and it was wonderful!!!

I showed him Gordon, because it is such a big part of who I am. Drove on 128 for the first time e moving back. Entering Liberty Tree Mall was a wonderful reminder of the life that I have lived. Like seeing an old friend. :) We saw the move We are the Millers. Such a funny movie for those who have a bit of a crude sense of humor. It was nice to see a movie that looked interesting to both of us, not just super exciting for one and not the other. The movie was reviewed over drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings. How the soldier had never been to a BWW, I have no idea, but I am proud to have had the opportunity to introduce him to it. :)

We headed to Singing Beach! Earlier in the evening I had told him of my plan, and he questioned why it was called "Singing" beach. I explained that the sand is a special mixture of particles that when stepped on in a certain way make a noise. He then of course asked me to make the noise. For those of you who have heard the sound, I don't think a human can truly make that sound accurately, am I right? Well the beach was not up for singing when we arrived, so of course I looked like a liar. But everyone who goes there knows that it will make the sound. I have made the sound numerous times, on many different occasions. I vow to make it work again!

The beach was beautiful nonetheless, the stars were out, people had bonfires, and it felt like a typical summer night! The smell of home added to the comfort felt all around. We talked for a few hours, getting to know each other. I probably asked closed to 100 questions throughout the night. Poor guy! I have to make sure he makes his PB&J sandwiches correctly!!!

He drove me back to Lawrence, and left with the promise of  "I'll text you." After a wonderful night, a girl can only assume that means waiting. Well I awoke the next morning to a text saying "I had a wonderful time last night! When can I see you again?"

Well my friends, we had date number two on Saturday. :)

I think I found a good one! :)

Stay tuned for more adventures.
M

That Thing Called Tinder.

So I downloaded the popular app Tinder on my ipod....

For all of you who do not know what Tinder is, a quick definition. It is an app that connects with your facebook profile and takes 5 pictures. You can pick which pictures, but these will be seen by other people and they will judge them. If they think that you are attractive, and anything you add to your profile intrigues them, then they can "like" you. If they don't see such things, then they can dismiss you and move on to the next. Because the app is connected to your facebook it also links with where you are and only shows you people within a certain mile radius. If two people like each other then they can message each other and start talking.

In a sense it feels like shopping for boys...awkward.

I "met" multiple people, some from around Gordon, which was really interesting. It was an experience that allowed me to see that the world can be viewed as big and small. I talked with people who knew friends of mine, or friends of friends. I talked with people who were in the graduate program at Gordon. I talked with people all over Massachusetts, all offering different types of conversation.

My favorites were those that opened the conversation with something other than "hey how's it going?" Answering with "good" was becoming boring. The best was probably "So how are we going to tell our kids we met?" Well sir, you certainly are original for Tinder.

But, even among all the others, one man certainly caught my eye....and it all started with his first picture. (For all of you who don't know....I like soldiers). If you can only guess his first picture was of him in uniform. Subsequent others were also in uniform. I melted. So, of course, I liked him, and we were matched! :) We started talking, and he said some of the cutest things! I melted even more. We talked for a little bit and then he asked for my number so that we could talk a little easier. It was from that first text that I knew that I was going to like this guy.

We started texting, and he was persistent! He asked when he could take a cute girl like me out. :) After a thinking of a good time, (balancing setting up my classroom with other obligations can be more challenging than I thought), we finally settled on a day and time to finally meet...

to be continued.....
M

Boots and Cowboys

The Cowboys were represented by none other than this beautiful man....

My dear dear friend Kayla and I went to see him this weekend.

But...the weekend started with a making of this beautiful bread:

2 LOAVES OF BANANA BREAD!!!! It was delicious. A bit sweeter than I expected or I am used to, but still delicious none the less.

That was what began my Friday morning. I then spent the day reading and packing to head down to Kayla's. I was lucky enough to have some alone time with her mama. It was nice to be welcomed into a home in which I visited for the first time only months previously. We talked about teaching things, life things, moving things and everything in between. I am so lucky to have had that time to spend with her.

Kayla and I spent much of our time just hanging out, bowling with our left hands, watching movies, eating ice cream. It was entertaining to say the least.

I can easily say without a shadow of a doubt that our favorite part of the weekend was seeing Scotty. We both enjoyed the show so much and realized how much we have matured because we didn't have the need to be tweening* the entire show. (Tweening: running up to his bus and screaming when he made an appearance). For being so young, Scotty clearly has country running through his veins because he acts much older!! He sounds and acts like a boy straight off a farm and that is a beautiful thing!

The weekend was a success and I was happy to conclude my first week in Lawrence with some very dear people. Here's to enjoying every second I can!

Happy Hump Day!
M

Unpacking

For those of you who don't know....I hate unpacking. I hate it with every fiber of my being. It is tedious. Annoying. Time-consuming. Repetitive. An organizational nightmare. If I was a millionaire I would pay someone to do it for me. I hate having to decide where things go, fitting my things around others as they moved in previous to my arrival. I hate finding things that I had forgotten about, therefore making me feel like I have way to much stuff for my own good. It is just a constant struggle.

So moving in on Saturday, and today being Tuesday, I still wasn't feeling settled and seriously lacking motivation. But after being woken up from a quick nap by the fed-ex man (sadly it was a package for my teacher roommate, not me), I put on some T-Swift, and got to work. Within an hour I had opened and cleaned out every tote. That means a full EIGHT totes had been dealt with!!! A dirty little secret from senior year.....I never unpacked 3 totes. So to have fully gone through all 8 totes is HUGE. Though one tote is still packed with winter clothes and extras of things we already have in the apartment. The last two totes that technically aren't unpacked are ready to go to MY classroom! So it is perfectly acceptable that they are still together.

Now what to do with the extra totes.....

My favorite part of unpacking though, was organizing my bookshelf. I built it yesterday and moved the books onto it when I woke up this morning. It looks fabulous! All of the books are organized by author's last name, and then within author's last name, by title. It is a wonderful thing! :) Pictures of the place will come once decorating has been accomplished.

With sun and clouds in the sky, have a fabulous night!
M

WELCOME BACK!!!

Oh hey there,

oh wait, I'm the one who has been away for.....ummmm 9 months, 19 days and a handful of hours....well if no one is counting neither shall I.

With some prompting from a very reliable and trustworthy friend, I have decided (but really she decided), that it will be a good idea to try and start the blog back up. This is due to the fact that, oh wait, like the past 4 years, I will again be away from home. 4 hours and 2 states, yea it's a little ways.

Well, my family made that trek this morning.....with a uhaul full of stuff. Now maybe I should clarify that it was a 5x8 foot trailer. I don't have that much stuff (though you shouldn't ask my stepmom of her opinion on the matter). With all of it, there was quite a bit of heavy stuff to carry up to the third floor of the apartment building I am moving into. It's almost as if I am moving back to college with having to move in with no elevator...well, it's okay, I don't have to move it for awhile!!!

So my location....I am in Lawrence this year, beginning a real-life, big girl, JOB!!! I am going to be a kindergarten teacher! :) The world can rejoice now because I have a job that will start paying off those loans. Woot! :)

I shall leave you with a funny tidbit from the day:

A few weeks back I was driving along the road and happened to see into a yard sale that was selling a BEAUTIFUL headboard and footboard. Now the beautiful part came under the nasty rose paint that needed to be cleaned and sanded off, and thennnnnn painted a cheerful yellow, but then it was pretty! :) So I of course brought said headboard and footboard with me, with a box spring and mattress to put within it. (The frame wouldn't have been very comfortable to sleep on, with the holes and hard wood, yea not so comfy). I dragged all of the contents up to the apartment, and started to assemble the multiple pieces. Daddy cut the mattress and box spring out of the packaging, and we started to pull it towards the bed. We lifted it up to place it in, and all of a sudden the bed frame shrank! I swear it was straight out of the "Honey, I Shrank the Kids"! Well, in actuality, bed frames were made an inch or two narrower and shorter in the 30's (when the frame was manufactured) than the size of beds made today. Go Figure! No one decided to give me the new bulletin on this one. Unfair.

So now I am sleeping on the floor with my headboard propped up....it looks legit. :)

Happy Sleeping,
M