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