She Wears a Red Sox Cap...

Wine and Love

2012-01-26T19:33:00.001-05:00

It's Thursday and time for a little wine and love :)

Wine

1. I failed at making time for blogging or reading this week. I don't like when that happens.

2. My blog has been spacing all my posts really weird and I don't like it.

3. I really wish I had normal sleeping ability and did not decide to think about five year olds, or anything else at 3:00 in the morning.

Love

1. This week was the 90th day of school, which means halfway through the year. This means mid-year assessment time which usually is a big fat wine. This year though I'm really proud of my kids and I'm having fun looking at all the progress they have made.

2. I am getting better at using my gift cards ever since I confessed to my ridiculous number that I hoard. Last week I got a free dinner and ice cream, free frozen yogurt on Sunday and a free dinner tonight. We will just not mention that tonight I forgot the paper and had to actually come home at the end of the meal to grab it (luckily the restaurant in 2 minutes away but still).

3. I ate well this week. Last night we went to dinner at my mom and dad's and my mom tried out a new delicious recipe. Then today, one of my student's mom's made me Vietnamese Egg Rolls for the Asian New Year. This is the second time this school year I have had authentic Chinese/Vietnamese food made for me, I could easily get used to this.

Maybe not the most eventful week, but a good one still. I'm looking forward to a weekend of relaxation in these parts! What are you guys up to?

Let It Snow- Cape Cod Style

2012-01-22T20:06:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago I was at the Cape running without a jacket on, and this weekend was a bit different.

This weekend some of my college roommates turned adult best friends came to visit. I had 5 roommates senior year of college and we now live in Massachusetts (me + Katie), Cincinnati (Ashley), Chicago (Gerry), New York (Cristina) and Linda (Washington DC). I feel lucky that since college I don't think one single year has gone by that I have not seen their lovely faces at least once for a reunion, football game, or wedding related activity. The last time we were all together was at my wedding :) Here we are with our whole college "group."

This weekend ended up being a reunion for only 4 of us, but we were all "together" via Skype on Saturday afternoon. The weekend was low key and relaxing. We were snowed in a bit on Saturday, I think we got about 10 inches of snow at the Cape!

Many great conversations were had, Dawson's Creek episodes watched and delicious food eaten. I love weekends.

Time to get back into gear for the week. We are doing lots of mid-year assessments at work this week, yikes! I'm just thankful that the Patriots are now going to the Superbowl so I can turn all activities into football related and win over my boys-boys once and for all. I'm going to be happy these boys turn everything into a race/competition when we have to put on snow gear for recess yet again tomorrow. First one to be ready for recess wins the Snow Superbowl! Ready... GO!

How often do you see friends from college? Do you live close to each other?

Secret Hoarders

2012-01-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your comments on my baby fears post. I'm glad to hear that #1- I am not alone and #2- people who are pregnant/have kids still have the same fears and manage to overcome. Wahoo. Someday I will be one of you. But not soon. For now, I will hold on to my sleep, among other things.

Let's shift gears a bit to talk about another one of my many issues. Ha, I kid, I have no issues. Other than maybe obsessive travel planning... oh and the fact that it snowed last night and it took my students a full 20 minutes just to get ready for recess today. Recess is supposed to be 15 minutes, but we all know I don't part with recess. So math it was. Sorry first grade teachers! I blame it on the parents who buy their child tie boots. Whoever invented (and purchased) those obviously hated teachers. The feeling is mutual oh boot-makers.

Anyway, back to hoarding. I am really not a hoarder. I kind of hate having a lot of stuff because when I do it means I have to clean/organize it, which I don't like. I just donated 3 + bags of clothes to Goodwill this weekend, hoarders don't do that, right? But there are a few things I definitely hoard. They are:

Gift cards

Tea

Ghirardelli Peppermint Chocolate

Fine, maybe I have some issues. The thing is I LOVE all three of these things. That is what makes me hoard them. The fear that one day I will really want a Ghiradelli chocolate and they will be gone, NOOOOOOOO. The gift card problem is particularly absurd. I have probably 3 Starbucks cards in that pile, but what do I do when I go get a passion tea for Eric and I on Sunday mornings? Obviously hand over my debit card. Apparently I think that one Sunday morning I am not going to have the $2 to pay for my tea and the gift card is going to come to the rescue? Wow Kelly.

Alright, spill the beans. What do YOU hoard?

Baby Fever or Baby Fears?

2012-01-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

As you probably know, I love kids. The last six years of teaching kids have brought me so much joy and laughter. Those children have made me so proud of their accomplishments and so happy for their happiness. However, those same children have also brought me stress, sleepless nights and challenges I sometimes felt I could never solve. In the next few years it will come time to have my own kids, and this really, truly scares me. Teaching is hard, and I know that being a parent will be so much harder. There are no vacations or long weekends from parenting. There is no saying goodbye to responsibilities at night, there are no lunch breaks. There is no saying goodbye at the end of a school year. From the minute I have that baby, there will be no break from being a mom for the rest of my life. I realize people take this plunge every minute somewhere on earth and that I am probably more prepared than some of those people to do this. But I still really, really fear it. There is a brief list of my baby related fears...

1. Sleep. I need it. I'm cranky and I get sick easily when I don't have it. Kids take it away. If it's not a crying and hungry infant, it's a sick and throwing up seven year old. If it isn't a "got in trouble at school today" fourth grader, it's a staying out way too late teenager.

2. Marriage. I once "joked" to Eric in a restaurant in Hawaii that kids ruin relationships, much to the evil eyes of the family next to us, oops. But in all honesty, Eric and I are really happy right now and I do worry that when we start losing sleep and having more responsibilities and less alone time, we will take it out on each other.

3. Work. I have had the pleasure of watching some wonderful teachers at my school become moms, and getting to know some already-mom teachers. I know it can be done and as far as full time jobs go, it's probably a good one to have with kids. But even still I worry about not being as good of a teacher, or as good of a mom. I worry about how I will react to dropping a baby off god-knows-where on my way to work. I worry even more about deciding not to work and surviving both financially and mentally as a stay-at-home mom.

4. Friends. I know it's unrealistic to expect to have as much time to devote to friends when you have kids and I'm okay with that. But I still worry, what if I can't maintain my friendships at all? What if my only friends become my kid's friend's moms? Or worse yet, what if I don't like any of my kid's friend's moms?

5. Kids. It goes without saying that the child itself is a huge fear of mine. Sure, I don't have any idea how to feed a baby, or really anything to do with a baby but I assume I will figure that out (aka ask my mom). I also don't really know what I'll do when my first grader's teacher calls, or my teenager lies to me. I truly believe I'd be able to figure out and manage all these "typical" situations, but what about the atypical? What if my child is born or acquires a real sickness? What if my child has a serious, serious behavior problem or autism or a delay? OR... what if my kid hates me? The possibilities are endless people...plus have I mentioned I am not good with throwing up? Kids always throw up... never in the toilet.

6. Tragedy. I'm not going to go here. I'm sure you can use your imagination. This scares me more than 1-5 put together.

I won't even get into my pregnancy fears.... but they definitely involve throwing up in the middle of teaching my students...

Wow, why do people do this again?

Anyone with me!?!

On Books

2012-01-15T13:40:00.005-05:00

One of my goals for 2012 is to read 40 books. My favorite, favorite part of my job is teaching kids to read. I love reading myself and I want my kids to love reading just as much. Here are some random thoughts I have on books and reading... Please chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

On love for books: Most who know me know that I am not a big movie person. I enjoy TV shows, but movies are often too long for my attention span. I like some, but I am definitely more of a book person. What I love about books is how much is left up to my own imagination. There have been so many times I have pictured a character looking 100% different than someone else has. I also love how much more you learn about a character by reading about their inner thoughts, which often cannot be portrayed in movies as well. Usually how much I like the characters = how much I like the book.

On love for talking about books: I love getting book recommendations from friends, and then discussing what we liked/didn't like about the book. This is why I love participating in our Blogger Book Club, and also why I'm obsessed with good reads. A lot of my friends enjoy reading books as much as I do. Last year two of my friends and I read The Help and Water for Elephants and then saw the movies together.

On e-readers: Since I first wrote my post on the Kindle Pros and Cons I now own a Kindle and am pretty much in love. The cons I wrote about, particularly about having yet another cord/thing I need to charge are still a problem, but for the most part I would say the Pros of the Kindle far outweigh the cons for me. Still, although I love my Kindle I really, really fear what e-readers will do to books. I am particularly nervous about children's books being taken over by the e-reader. I can't imagine in 10-15 years only reading books to kids on a big projector! I don't even want to imagine...

On classics: While I have come pretty far from my days of Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High and chick lit after chick lit title, I am still not a fan of "the classics." I have often wondered if this was because I was forced to read many of these so-called classics at a time in my life (middle school/high school) when I simply was not ready to understand or appreciate them. I know I should give them another chance now, but so far my small attempts have been unsuccessful. In some ways I blame these books for wasting precious time in high school that I could've been reading some of the great young adult books that I now realize are out there. All that work I do in kindergarten getting kids to love reading and bam... high school English teachers go and ruin it.

On bookstores: Yet another fear about e-readers and Amazon in general is how quickly they seem to be putting bookstores out of business. Noooo! I love bookstores. Seriously, Eric and I can easily spend an hour or two in a bookstore without any effort. I love looking through travel books, teaching books, kids books and books for me. Plus, what is better than the feel of a brand new book? The only way to make bookstores better for me would be if they happened to open a frozen yogurt shop inside instead of a coffee shop.

On book recommendations: The past few weeks I've read some good, mostly quick read books. I highly recommend The Midwive's Confession and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. I also really liked Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas and State of Wonder.

What are your thoughts on books? Have you read any good ones lately?

Kelly's Confessions

2012-01-11T19:12:00.001-05:00

One of the kiddos I tutor on Tuesdays is making his First Communion this year. Last week was his first experience with Catholic Confession. I enjoy talking to kids about what they say in confession (yeah I know it's supposed to be confidential, oops) because they always come up with the funniest things. This particular child had an awesome list that included stealing his own Halloween candy, bringing his "in class" work home to finish so he wouldn't have to do it during recess and pretending a video game was broken so his sister couldn't play it. I wish I had been more creative when I was in CCD- I think I just said I was mean to my brother and sister every time. I swear I was actually a pretty nice sister overall but frankly I was young and really didn't do *that* much wrong to speak of! I don't really do the Confession thing any more... but I do have some random blog-worthy Confessions for you...

1. I am a little obsessed with Siri, my iPhone personal assistant. Today on the way home from yoga, she helped me change my dinner reservations for this weekend, text my mom to tell her about that change and text Eric back about what the heck we were having for dinner tonight. All this without looking at my phone at all. Once, I told Siri I loved her. She said I was the wind beneath her wings.

2. If it was socially acceptable I would live in yoga pants, leggings, flip flops and Uggs for the rest of my life.

3. Eric can easily convince me to do things I don't want to do if he casually mentions this annoyance is close to one of my favorite restaurants and promises we can go there after. I'm easily manipulated.

4. Even though I am a kindergarten teacher who holds my students to high expectations, I am a terrible student myself. I constantly check my phone, write notes to people around me and get other work done while the teacher is talking. I know, I hate myself sometimes.

5. IBS is the best excuse to never eat a single salad again. I hate salad and luckily, so does my stomach! It seems to love delicious sour dough and/or french bread though... seriously IBS is not all bad.

Do you have any confessions for me today? My lips are sealed :)

How to Plan the Best Trip- Kelly Style

2012-01-08T18:58:00.001-05:00

If you know me at all, you know that I love a good trip. In my ideal world, I would probably go on 5 or 6 big trips a year. But alas, I do not have endless time and money. So when I plan a big trip, I really plan it. I think the trip planning obsession began with Eric and my fantastic Europe trip in 2006. Amber requested a post on how I plan a trip, so here it is :)

1. Decide on a general budget. Unless you already know where you want to go, you'll want to start with a budget. If your budget is $2000 it will be difficult to take a trip to China or even Europe because the airfare will cost close to or more than you want to spend on the whole trip. Also, decide what kind of things you want to spend money on. Are you okay with most of your budget going to airfare and then staying at hostels and eating Ramen noodles when you arrive? Would you prefer to go somewhere closer and then stay at a more luxury hotel or eat at nice restaurants? I also have some money saving tips and if you have no real budget at all, you can always be a tourist at home!

2. Decide where to go. For me this is the #1 hardest part. The problem is I love everything from small town Sedona to the big cities of Paris and London. I love the Irish countryside and the Hawaiian Islands. There are very few places in the world I don't want to visit. I do think it's important to determine what kind of vacation you want. Would you prefer to lay on the beaches at an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic or sprint around Rome taking in every possible ruin?

3. Talk to people you know. One of my favorite places on earth is Sedona and I found it because when I posted on my blog that I was going to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, I received multiple comments telling me to go to Sedona. When I first started planning my trip to Seattle and Vancouver this summer, I e-mailed my friend who lives in Seattle and talked to my friend who has been to Seattle multiple times. The people you know are the best source of information about how long you should stay, where you should stay and what you should do.

4. Get some travel books. I have to admit I love travel books, particularly the Eyewitness books because they show you lots of great pictures. You can take these out of the library or buy them, it's up to you. My dad just introduced me to Eyewitness Top 10 books which I really love because they narrow down the top 10 things to do in an area overall, and then by neighborhood etc.

5. Book Your Flight. Usually the first thing you need to do is book a flight to your location. I recommend checking out several different websites to get the best deal. Sometimes the airline's website has the best deal. Bing Travel offers a price predictor for certain flights where it tells you whether your flight is likely to go up in price or down if you wait. It can also be useful to check a few days before and after your approximate date of departure because flight prices can vary a lot just by day. I've also heard rumors that flight prices are cheapest on Tuesdays and most expensive on the weekend. It's also possible it's all a crap shoot!

6. Visit TripAdvisor. I truly love this website and credit it for most of the success I have when planning vacations. I always start by using TripAdvisor to plan where I will stay on my trip. It has fantastic hotel reviews from real people. They even have a specialty lodging section which means you can read reviews on houses or apartment for rent. This can be an awesome way to save money especially if you plan to stay in one place for at least a few nights. You can also use TripAdvisor to determine if you will need to rent a car, and there are forums where you can ask questions. Also, revisit TripAdvisor often when you are planning what you will actually do when you arrive on your trip.

7. Bring your Laptop or Smart Phone. As much as I enjoy planning trips, I have trouble planning every detail until I am really on the trip. I like to decide each day based on my mood what I will do that day. This is why I find it SO essential to have my computer or smart phone available so I can use TripAdvisor or regular google searches to get ideas for places I want to see, hikes or walks I want to go on, restaurants I want to eat at etc. I also love the Yelp app on my phone which allows me to search restaurants by my current location. This way I can see reviews of nearby restaurants and make educated decisions about where I want to eat.

Happy Trip Planning! Do you have any exciting trips planned in the near future? If not, what is one great trip you have done in the past?

Wine and Love

2012-01-05T06:48:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile since I last participated in Nora's Wine and Love. What better way to start off the first week of 2012? I'll tell you what made me need the glass of wine this week and what I loved. Feel free to play along too in the comments :)

Wine

1. Um, going back to work? Need I say more. It's been REALLY dark in the morning.

2. Cold. It was 7 degrees this morning on my way to work. Dislike.

3. Shutterfly sold me a calendar in November of 2011 for 2011... didn't realize this til yesterday because I gave it to Eric's mom for Christmas. REALLY SHUTTERFLY? Who wants a calendar for that year in NOVEMBER? Yes... being a detail person would be useful sometimes.

4. I have this thing where I like to get the super busyness over early in the week and just go to work and relax Thursday and Friday. That didn't happen this week because I have class today and tutoring tomorrow morning. Wah.

Clearly this week was pretty good overall though, as these are all minor complaints!

Love

1. Friends. This week I got to see Tiff for coffee/tea on Monday and Katie for pre-quilting class (hers, to clarify) dinner. I love when I get to see friends in the middle of the work week, though technically Monday was not a work day.

2. Yoga. I started towards my goal of 4 yoga classes this month by going to a class. It was awesome for a couple of reasons. #1- Caroline went with me! She was back in Boston mid-week and I got to benefit! #2- It was warm. See wines. #3- It was a class to music and the music was actually good, all Michael Jackson! I'm not a crazy fan of Michael Jackson but I enjoyed the Jackson Five and Michael mix as it was better than the weird yoga music they usually play :)

3. Reading. I told you I'm obsessed with reading lately? I finished Saving CeeCee Honeycutt last night and absolutely loved it. I just started Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, recommended by Lisa. I wish I could just hang out and read all day. Is that a choice?

4. Fine, the kiddos were pretty cute this week. I do love them. Really. I just wish I could teach them maybe... 2-3 hours per day? and then have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. Three day weekends wouldn't be bad either. Too much to ask?

What is your wine and love this week?

What Will 2012 Be?

2012-01-03T18:41:00.000-05:00

2011 was a great year, starting with Uncle Jessie and ending with fireworks on South Beach! In between, I had a lot of fun but what I didn't do was really meet too many of my "goals" for the year. I completed one out of four...oops!

The funny thing is, many of my goals for 2011 just aren't even on my radar anymore. Even the one goal I did complete, getting back into running, was done in a way I didn't think it would be. I thought I'd be conquering new distances and running lots of races. In reality, I only did one race and I didn't conquer any new distances. After awhile I decided I really just didn't care and what I did care about was being able to run in beautiful places without worrying about injuries and that is what I had.

That being said, this year I am not going to make too many full year goals. Instead I am going to focus on monthly goals, which are much better for my short attention span. I am a firm believer in smaller goals that are manageable. It is still possible to meet bigger goals this way, they just need to be divided up into goals that can reasonably be completed in a month. So here are my January goals:

1. Read 4 books. In 2011 I managed to read 35 books. This year I set the goal to read 40 books! I know this is going to be hard for me as I think I did A LOT of reading in 2011 to get to 35 books. In order to do this I need to read 3.3 books a month. Since I'm already halfway through a book I started on vacation, I am going to try to read 4 books this month.

2. Get to yoga 4 times. I know this seems like a small goal, but considering I haven't attended a yoga class since sometime last summer, this will be a lot for me. I hope I can do it!

3. Run outside at least once a week. I admit I am terrible at cold weather running and it's about this time every year that I take a long winter break from running. Not going to do that this year, especially with my new winter running gear compliments of Santa.

4. Donate 2 full bags of clothes to Good Will. Though I really very rarely shop I still seem to be overflowing 2 closets with clothes (true story). I really do not have room for my new Christmas clothes. I mean, I could MAKE room but that is a bad idea. Must stop the hoarding cycle now!

5. Clean the inside of my car. I have a bad habit of living out of my car. It is currently filled with tutoring stuff, shoes and coats/sweatshirts. Sure, occasionally having all this crap in my car comes in handy, but usually it's just something to move out of the way when I want people in my car. So let's clean it out.

6. Try something new. I'm not sure what yet, I'll let you know when I do it!

I know that's a lot of goals, but I feel like they are all manageable. Here's to hoping I do better with these month-long goals than I did with my 2011 goals!

What are your goals for this month or this year?

New Year's Miami Style

2012-01-02T11:14:00.001-05:00

As you may or may not have known, I spent the last week after Christmas soaking up the sun in Miami with my parents, brother and Eric. I was really looking forward to the vacation since December is a bit of a rough time in the world of teaching and I was fighting with a bad cough. Sadly, the vacation did not make it better (but Mucinex did!), but I did get in a lot of the relaxation I was craving so much.

Eric and I are usually big tourists when we travel, but most of this week was spent going for runs and walks, reading, eating amazing food and just enjoying the fact that Miami doesn't see the kind of winter that we do in Boston. We did enjoy a bit of what Miami has to offer though including seeing Million Dollar Quartet, which was really good! We also went on a fantastic sightseeing boat ride around Miami that helped us get a sense of where everything was, and of course see the beautiful oceanfront mansions of many famous people!

The views of the city of Miami from the boat were also beautiful.

Cities on the ocean will always have my heart. The best way to see them is from a boat.

Spending New Year's Eve in Miami was also wonderful. I mean, it's hard to beat eating outside and hanging out outside on December 31st when you are used to snowy cold. We started off our night by heading over to Smith and Wolensky for a drink at their waterfront bar. It's the perfect place to watch the sunset.

Every New Years South Beach closes down Ocean Blvd. and the restaurants put their tables outside on the street. My family and I walked down the street and found a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. We figured my parents balcony would be the best place to see the fireworks and we were definitely right! There was also a beach club next door to us that was celebrating the new year and they even had their own ball to drop. In college, one of my friends went to MIT and we used to watch the New Years and 4th of July fireworks in Boston from the roof of his dorm. This was great because you could have your own party, see the fireworks and not deal with the crowds. This was just like this except much closer, and gorgeous weather. Basically heaven.

While we waited for it to be midnight we decided to play Catch Phrase. If you don't know this game you really should, it's the best. We didn't have the real game with us, but we found a website to generate words for us and passed around Eric's phone. At midnight we had the best view of fireworks I have probably ever had...

I also really enjoyed having a camera that can actually capture fireworks. I only wished that Caroline was there! :)

Yesterday we headed home and now I've got a mess of a house (that's what happens when you have people over for Christmas and then leave the next day) and a long, long to do list before it's back to work tomorrow.

How did you spend your New Year's? Do you prefer to do something big or have a more low key night?

Top 11 in 2011

2011-12-31T16:36:00.001-05:00

Happy Last Day of 2011!

I have to say that after the years I got engaged (2008), bought a house (2009), and got married (2010), 2011 had a lot to live up to! It wasn't even close to as exciting as all those years, but it was still a great year nonetheless. I am hopeful that 2012 will be even better.

Here are my Top 11 Memories in no particular order:

1. Visiting Newport (Jan) and New Hampshire (August) with Eric's family :) In Newport, we explored the town with some wine and beer tasting, as well as some delicious restaurants. In New Hampshire, we enjoyed summer relaxation at it's finest and of course a beautiful boat ride to the Loon Sanctuary.

2. Celebrating my Dad's birthday in NYC! We spent a long weekend celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday and showing Eric New York City (he had never been!).

3. Year 2 of visiting Sedona! It was not any less amazing the second time. In 2012 we will bring new visitors to our favorite place :)

4. Celebrating Eric's cousin and my cousin getting married!

5. Discovering hidden gems at the Cape.

6. Reading 35 books! This was the year of reading for me, and I read about 35 books. I'm hoping next year to read just as many. One thing that made reading even more fun was chatting about books at Emily's blogger book club, and going to see books we loved turned into movies with my friends Sarah and Susanne :)

7. Running the Res with Eric. I was able to get back into running this year, which was basically my only goal for 2011 that I actually kept, oops :) I didn't meet any crazy distance goals this year and I only did one single race, but I learned that I don't care about any of that. All I really want is to be able to run in beautiful places whenever I feel like it. And that, I did.

8. Watching Caroline run the marathon! My sister, on the other hand, wants to conquer the crazy distances and that SHE did with 26.2 miles in Chicago. I had a blast watching her run and catching up with my friend Gerry who moved to Chicago this year.

9. Visiting my brother and sister's homes in Connecticut. My brother goes to school in CT and my sister moved their for her first job out of college this year. At the end of September, Eric and I joined my parents to go to Family Weekend at Jake's school. I got to see where both of my siblings live, tailgate a football game and enjoy the restaurants and frozen yogurt of their cities!

10. Katie's Quilting Class Days. Haha I know you are like sorry, WHAT? I'm sure those of you who read this blog often know my friend Katie. Well Katie and I have never lived super close to each other (since college when we lived in the same suite for 3 years) and this year she bought a house and moved even farther away. Don't get me wrong, it's maybe 40 minutes away so it's really not terrible but it's a bit too far for watching American Idol together let's just say. However, this year Katie also accepted a new job that involves her going relatively close to my house to get to it. Wahoo. Her sucky commute = my happiness :) I kid. But seriously, Katie has been taking quilting classes near my house and on those nights she comes over and we hang out and eat dinner together. We get to chat and pretend we still live in the same suite. Thank you Quilting Class.

11. Celebrating 5 year Reunion. This year was my 5 year College Reunion. I was a bit hesitant about the whole thing I have to admit, but like Vera Bradley bags and the color pink, it won me over in the end. I had a great time catching up with my college friends and thanking God I no longer live in those tiny dorm rooms :)

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year's Eve tonight :) I'll see you guys in 2012.

Photo Organization and Storage

2011-12-30T07:29:00.001-05:00

As you may remember, after a summer of hard work tutoring I treated myself to a new camera. I definitely have loved every second of having it, and I realize that I don't even know 1/10th of what it can really do. When I bought my camera, the Best Buy salesman kept telling Eric how he'd definitely be buying me a new lens, flash or some other camera part for Christmas. Besides being annoying, this guy obviously did not know me at all. My first camera gift would obviously be CAMERA BAGS! Well, and also a beautiful pink camera strap. Sorry, but are new flashes pink? I thought not. Yes, I do need 2 bags. One big one for traveling and days when I need multiple things and one tiny one that literally only fits the camera that I can just put over my shoulder and go. I'll post a picture of the new bags in the near future, right now I don't think Eric would enjoy waking up to the sound of me taking photos of my camera bag with my phone. I know, he is so unreasonable :)

Now that it's easier for me to actually have my camera with me at times, I have a re-obsession with it. Specifically, I want to learn how to use it. I recently pinned 31 Days to a Better Photo and have slowly started to read through these blog posts and learn a little bit. My first exploration was with shutter speed...

Still have much, much more to learn about this one topic, but taking my camera off an automatic settings was the first step for me.

Another major goal I have during this break from work is to organize my photos a bit. Well, most importantly delete some. As of earlier this week I had 24,773 pictures that I have taken since I got my first digital camera Christmas 2002: 9 years ago! That is a LOT of pictures, and I know many of them could be deleted. I've already deleted about 1,000 pictures and many of those were completely dark, blurry or of something I clearly did not ever mean to take a picture of... like a table at a bar... or a wall? Since I started blogging I also have an absurd number of pictures of random food and God knows what else. I deleted many of these. I mean really, how many pictures of oatmeal and foam rolling does one really need to have? I still am not even close to done with this process. My next major target is to delete pictures that are of the exact same thing. Particularly since I got my new camera I have had a desire to take at least 7 photos of any given landscape, object, person etc. In the future, I plan to employ the tips in this article called, "Delete Ruthlessly," sent to me by another photo happy friend. At some point I will probably get to the point that I will need to store my photos somewhere other than right on my computer...but at least I can prolong this a bit.

So my question for you on this lovely Friday (man Friday always comes super fast when you don't have to work, huh?) is: Where on your computer do you store your photos? (or have you moved some off your computer?) Do you have them organized by date or do you have folders for different events/topics? Do you delete ruthlessly or are you guilty of possibly having a few blurry/all black/photos with heads cut off in your collection?

Highlights Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

So it's taken me awhile to actually go back and recap Christmas. All I can say is I've been trying to relax, sleep and do enough of nothing to get rid of what has now become about 3 weeks of a cough. However, it's actually getting WORSE again so now all bets are off. Let the drinking and staying up late begin! Haha... yeah right, like I'll make it past 8 tonight after I spent half of last night up reading because every time I lied down, I coughed. I did finish a great book though.

So here are my Christmas highlights:

Gingerbread House Decorating Competition 2011

Year 2 of Christmas Eve at my house

Christmas Day with my fam

I got several amazing presents and many were wrapped in amazing pink paper :)

After present opening + a delicious Christmas lunch, we headed over to my grandmothers to see my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Overall it was a relaxing day and successful Christmas. :) Plus Eric got me two new camera bags that have helped me fall in love with my camera all over again. I'll show you some pictures from this week in the next few days. I've gotta get my blogging mojo back!

How was your Christmas, if you celebrate? Otherwise, how was your long weekend?

Pre-Christmas Excitement

2011-12-17T10:06:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy another weekend has arrived :) I hope I can survive one more week of work next week before vacation. It seems like it should be easiest to survive the week before vacation but with children involved, it's the hardest week of the year! Way too much excitement all around. There are some exciting things to look forward to though- our winter concert is on Friday and I love listening to all the kids sing. Then, we will be sharing an awesome slideshow completed entirely by my amazing classroom assistant with the parents. She scanned in the kids drawing/writing about their family traditions and then she recorded their voices saying what they wrote.

Yesterday I had the following conversation with one of my girls. She LOVES fashion and always wears crazy outfits with even crazier accessories.

G: What are you doing after school today?

me: Actually, I'm going to a party for teachers.

G: Are you going to wear... that? (looks my outfit up and down)

me: haha, no I was going to go home and change first.

G: Oh good... you should wear a dress.

Haha. Nothing better than having your Friday casual outfits insulted by a 6 year old. I'm hoping when I wear my sparkly Uggs next Friday she will change her opinion on my wardrobe completely. She may even want to borrow them.

In other fun kid news, I had my annual (well second year in a row) Gingerbread Decorating Party for some of my former students. As always, I can't show pictures of the kids, but I took some others.

The Pre-Party Set Up:

Amazing Kiddo Creations:

Oh and of course, my husband the marshmallow gun master:

Good times. Even with an all out candy war, the clean up was still easy thanks to my mom's disposable table cloth and the help of the kids who basically found all the run away candy (let's hope).

Do you have any holiday season traditions?

The Grass is Greener in Your Office

2011-12-15T08:08:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, most people I knew (at least my age) were all in school. We went to school every day, we had vacations when most other school people did, and we never thought much about what else we could be doing because when you are a kid, you just go to school, that's what you do.

Now that I am an adult, the people I know have a lot more choices over how they spend their days. But this has brought about something new... the constant comparisons of my job to yours. Who has it harder? Who is paid what they should be? Who has more/better vacation time? Who has better hours? A few weeks ago Eric's family was over and in a room of just a few people- his dad wanted our vacation time, his brother wanted his dad's flex hours and Eric and I wanted a day where we could just shut the door to our office an send some personal e-mails :)

I love my job, I really do. Not every day, not even every week, but overall I love it. I love that moment when a child realizes he or she can *really* read. I love that moment when my kids clap because I just read them the best book or played a game they love. I love that moment when a parent tells me their child loves school. I love that moment about a month into school when I realize all the kids have made new friends already. I love that moment when kids have their first kindergarten play date and they can hardly focus all day they are so excited about it. I love that moment when I find or get a really great idea for a lesson and it really, really works. I love that I have a job where I get scheduled vacations after what I consider to be a reasonable amount of time. I love that I have a job where I can switch jobs in the summer to get a change of scenery. I love that I have a job with solid benefits, medical insurance, a retirement plan etc. I love that I have a secure job. There is even more I love.

Even still, there are things that sometimes I wish I could have...

I wish I didn't have to be "on" every minute at work. I wish I could make phone calls and get things done during "down time." I wish I could have flex time (aka work longer for 4 days to have the 5th off). I wish I could come in an hour late if I had a dentist appointment, or take a day off sick without getting out of bed to write multiple pages of plans. I wish I got paid like people do in the business world. I know they work more days than me, but even if you add to my salary for the summer months, I still would never make as much- even with 6 years of experience and a Master's degree.

You know what though? Who doesn't want to get paid more? Who doesn't want to work less or have an even more flexible schedule? Are there really people out there who feel like they don't work really hard at work? (I'm sure there are, but I don't know them).

Teachers get a lot of crap for various myths people have about our jobs. We "play" with kids all day. We have way too much time off. We are home at 3 every day. Eric, in particular, takes the brunt of many of the teacher jokes. He often hears "wait so, you get paid to play dodgeball all day in mesh shorts?" What is Eric's response to these clueless individuals (often teachers themselves!)?

You could've been a PE teacher too.

Oh yeah... we could've! I could've gone into business to make more money. I could leave my job right now for a job where I could read blogs all day. I could quit my job tomorrow and travel the world, living in hostels and taking on odd-jobs just to pay for my housing and food. I *could* do what I want, assuming I am willing to make the sacrifices to do it. But I'm not. And so... please take my complaints with a grain of salt as I will take yours. Sure, I will always have to pay absolutely absurd air fare to fly anywhere on school vacations week. But you know what? The grass is always greener on the other side. No one has the perfect job. If that job was out there, we would all do it.

So today, I will appreciate those kiddos in all their Christmas excitement glory. Well, make that tomorrow because today I'm home sick with a terrible cough. Haha. What do you appreciate about YOUR job?

Christmas Spirit + Giveaway Winner

2011-12-11T17:06:00.000-05:00

Thank you to all who entered my Shabby Apple dress giveaway. There were a total of 42 entries so I wrote them all out and got a number through random.org and the winner is...

#23 Blair from Wild and Precious!

Blair commented that she was asking Santa and obviously Santa + random.org are connected. Then again, what is Santa not connected to? For those who did not win, I know how you feel because I myself really want this dress too!

This weekend I finally realized Christmas is in two weeks! I've been enjoying our beautiful Christmas tree for two weeks now, so I know how quickly that time will go!

Saturday morning I went on a big shopping spree. I got to the mall when it opened at 8am, and was home by 11. I finished almost all my work people and both of the kids I tutor. I got my third grade boy the game Apples to Apples and I got my second grade boy two Fly Guy books.

When I got home I started on my project for the office staff at work. I always get the principal, two secretaries and nurse a little gift like chocolates. Last year I made them Mama Pea's Christmas cookie dough balls. This year I decided to make them note cards with my favorite photos from the past year. I ended up with 2 from Sedona, 2 from my favorite Cape Cod beach, 1 from a beautiful pond at the Cape and one from the reservoir near my house.

I really like the way they came out and I'm happy this year I will not be contributing to their holiday unhealthy eating :)

Now I'm focused on the family gifts. Eric's family is all doing a big trip to Sedona in February, so they are set. Caroline is also set thanks to her fabulous blog wish list, and the fact that I know her so well and planned to get her a couple of those things anyway. Ha. I think I plan to go the event gift route with the rest of the family but I'm still working out the details of that.

I ALSO finally told Eric what I want and I could not be more pumped about the amazing camera bag I am going to have in a couple of weeks. I'm having a second round of love for my camera right now because I discovered the greatness of using the action feature on kids who tend to make weird faces but then have this one second of awesome smile. Now I just hold down the button while my camera takes photo after photo and at least one of them gets the kid in the cutest smile possible. Seriously, this is why parents spend the big bucks on a DSLR camera even when they have more pressing day care payments to worry about.

How are you guys doing on your Christmas shopping? What is your favorite gift you have purchased and/or made for someone so far?

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway!

2011-12-06T19:40:00.001-05:00

So we all know about my love for dresses right? If it was warm enough I would seriously consider wearing a dress every day forever. I should probably move to Hawaii.

That's why I am so excited to bring you guys this fantastic giveaway from Shabby Apple. Have you heard of this company? They offer vintage inspired clothing- everything from dresses to skirts to fitness attire! They also have bathing suits and jewelry. Plus, they support bloggers which means I automatically love them.

Want to see some of their dresses that I want?

These make me wish we could go back to summer so I can buy and wear these beautiful dresses!

Lucky for you guys, Shabby Apple has offered to giveaway one of their beautiful dresses to one of YOU. I love this dress and I could totally see myself wearing it to a Christmas or New Year's party.

You can see it on the model here.

So how can you win this dress?! First, you have to be a US reader. Wah! I know, I'm so sorry to my Canadian friends. I do still love you! :)

1. You must like Shabby Apple on Facebook. Leave me a comment to let me know you do :)

2. Tweet about this giveaway and let me know you did.

3. While you are at it, follow Shabby Apple on Twitter for another entry.

This giveaway will end on Friday December 9th! I'll announce the winner this weekend.

Weekend Ups and Down

2011-12-05T20:43:00.001-05:00

Weekend Ups

1. Freaking delicious dinner on Friday night. I swear to God I just want to move into Il Casale. Or better yet... I could just hire them to be my personal chefs and cook dinner for me every night? Yes, yes, I will put that on my "when I win the lottery" list. The list is long friends.

2. Bruins Game! A few weeks ago my friend Becca messaged me to see if Eric and I want to go to a Bruins game with her. I haven't been to a game in a few years (read: since they have been good) so I was psyched. Plus I haven't seen Becca in way too long. We ended up having a great night, and the Bruins won!

3. Boston weather still hasn't realized it's December and I am loving every second of it. Eric and I went for a really long walk on Sunday and it literally changed my Sunday around. I swear no matter how exhausted and crappy I feel, a walk outside is always a good solution.

Weekend Downs

1. I slept crappy all weekend. Friday night I just had trouble sleeping for no apparent reason. Then Saturday I went to bed late and obviously still woke up at 7am. Why oh why? I really am just not good at losing sleep. Yes, hiring a night nurse for my future babies is on my "when I win the lottery" list too.

2. I had class on Saturday. God I hate class. I know it will be worth it when I reach Masters + 15 credits and get a pay raise. But until then, having class on Saturdays should be outlawed. Also on the outlaw list? Getting out of class 25 minutes late and classes on Mondays which I also have right now. Mental note to self: In the same way your 7th grade math teacher declared you "not a back of the room person," you are also not an in-class person, take only online classes from now on. PS. Eric is right, you do enjoy self torture.

Tell me the ups and downs of your weekend. Also, check back tomorrow for a giveaway! :)

Letters to Me

2011-11-30T21:15:00.001-05:00

On the way to work the other day, I heard Brad Paisley's Letter To Me and it gave me the idea for this blog post. You can see the lyrics here, or watch the music video. Basically, the song is a letter to his 17 year old self. I thought it might be fun to do a post with letters to myself at different ages. I hope you'll join in and write a letter to your younger self in the comments or on your own blog.

Dear 10 Year Old Self,

Do not... I repeat do not EVER think it's a good idea to systematically steal every single item from your enemy's backpack on a day when he has particular annoyed you. If you do, please think of a better way to do it than signing out and heading to the "bathroom" every five minutes for one whole afternoon. That is bound to raise red flags. Duh. I promise fifth grade will not last forever.

Dear Middle School Self,

That black binder with all the "cool kids" name on it won't matter in a few years so don't bother celebrating the day your name gets on it. Instead celebrate the life long friends you have made, the Spice Girls dances you have made up, the notes that have been passed, the 20 million hours on the phone, and the other luxuries of middle school. Oh and please resist the drama and speak to Tiff at 8th grade graduation, in fifteen years you won't remember what the argument was about, but you will be in each other's weddings.

Dear 17 Year Old Self,

You love life right now, and what's not to love? You've got amazing friends, decreased homework in the form of senior slump, the ever-amazing "free blocks" and seriously competitive bowling games. Be thankful for these simple pleasures every day. I know this sounds crazy but your parents borrowing "your" (aka their) car for one day will NOT be the end of the world.

Dear College Self,

You will not spend one single moment of your life contemplating what you should have been doing in college vs. what you did do. Guess what? It didn't matter at all that you left college the very first night you arrived to go visit a friend from high school. You still made best friends. In only a few short years what you did over the weekend, whether or not you went out or stayed in won't matter at all. What will matter is the meals enjoyed with friends, Boston traditions like ice skating and tree lighting, watching TV with roommates, and summer nights in the pool. Don't judge: quality guys can be found at bars, best friends may at first seem to be your opposite, just because someone is in a different phase than you, doesn't mean they are in the wrong one.

Dear First Year Teacher,

This is going to be a hard year and all the advice in the world is not going to change that. Kids are going to test you, parents are going to test you, your principal is going to test you. You will pass. You will question teaching. You will question yourself. You will spend almost every waking hour trying to figure out how to be a better teacher. You will become a better teacher. Remember, the first year of almost everything sucks. Marriage won't follow this pattern for you, so you have that to look forward to. That AND you will never ever be a first year teacher again.

Dear Wedding Planning Kelly,

aka Kelly "I f- hate weddings!",

Don't discuss the wedding on Sundays and/or after 8:00pm. Don't argue about things you don't care about. Please figure out a better way to record and edit your guest list. Don't let one single person tell you that you will miss wedding planning when it is over, you won't. The wedding will be worth it though.

What would you say to your younger self?

All I Want For Christmas...

2011-11-28T20:41:00.001-05:00

I don't know what my deal is but I really enjoy when bloggers that I read make their Christmas wish lists. Yes, I know we have everything we want and need, but it's fun to add to our own internal wish lists with the ideas of others. Who knows, you may even get an idea for someone you need to shop for by reading my list.

Special Note to Eric: I know you hate when I do this, I promise you get your own list and it's probably going to include camera bags. Yes, I need more than one. But didn't you tell me to get you two pairs of sneakers? I knew we were meant to be.

Long Sleeved Shirts

Due to my newfound obsession with sweater dresses, I need some long sleeve shirts to wear under them on cold days. I especially need black and white, since I already have this exact shirt in purple and blue. I highly recommend the JCrew Outlet since they have nice ones for reasonable prices, but I'm really not picky :)

Camera Strap

Totally copying Caroline here, I want this!

Running Tights

As always, I have high hopes of continuing to run in the winter. Most likely this running will happen on the treadmill but hey, it's still running. Sure the Lululemon ones would be fantastic, but I also saw some C9 ones that looked pretty nice at Target too.

Boots, Boots, Boots

I'm kind of loving boots right now. Caroline has these and I have boot envy. I previously though they could never be found again but I just found them on Zappos so now I want them.

Of course I always love gift cards to my favorite stores. Who doesn't really?

What do you want for Christmas this year? Share :)

Thankful for Family

2011-11-27T20:23:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone who celebrates had a great Thanksgiving weekend, or just a good weekend in general :) I have really enjoyed the past few weeks where I have blogged about the many things I am thankful for. I could easily do it for another month but with Thanksgiving behind us, I think I will finish up today with the number 1 thing that I am thankful for. My family. This includes my little-family, aka Eric and me, as well as my Mom, Dad, sister, brother, and all of Eric's family. I am very lucky to have all nine of these people constantly supporting me and making my life much more fun.

This weekend was a 4 1/2 day weekend for us so we had a lot of time for fun with family and friends. We started the weekend with an impromptu party with Eric's friends. My one condition of having the party was that Eric had to clean up for it and I came home on Wednesday to a sparkling clean house. I swear Eric has speed-ability when he really wants to get things done. I think it's the multi-tasker in me that always makes things take way longer than they should! We also made it look like we planned to have people over all along with our party snacks. I was baking brownies when I took this picture. Just call me impromptu party extraordinaire.

As always at my own get-togethers, I failed to take many pictures but I did capture this keeper of Eric and his friend Brian.

Fun facts about Brian: He is 31 and still drinks Keystone Light. Brian is partially responsible for Eric and my meeting + dating. Brian married us!

Thanksgiving Day was spent at Eric's parent's house. This is year 2 of us doing Thanksgiving at one house and Christmas at another and I continue to love the ease and lack of stress involved. There is something to be said for trying every ridiculous plan before getting married and then finally having a good plan once you do! Oh, and something else to be said for not hating each other at end of every holiday. I mean, what?

Fun facts about Libby the dog: She knows how to give hugs (see above). She is the first Poodle I have known without the ridiculous Poodle hair cut. When she goes for a "walk" she jumps the vast majority of the time.

Fun facts about Nana: She loves my used Vera Bradley bags. She (usually) refuses to smile for pictures. She gets mad at Eric if he does not smile in a picture.

A lovely brothers + cousin shot. Take note of Mike's new tattoo of Dribble.

Friday was spent at my parents house where I seriously failed to take pictures, except this ridiculous one of Caroline, Jake and Eric. Oops.

Saturday we said goodbye to Thanksgiving and got into the Christmas mode. Both families got together to get some Christmas trees.

Once the tree was safely in the house, I went into Boston for dinner with my family. Japanese food is always so eventful!

Then we all joined back together for a big game of Liars Poker, which I now declare the only form of Poker I like. Not sure if this was a made up game or not, but it was fun nonetheless.

The weekend ended today with my mom's fabulous brunch starring my favorite apple french toast.

The rest of the day was spent in super productivity mode. I crossed all but one item off my to do list, which is great because I have a super busy week ahead. I still have grand plans to blog though, so let's hope I do!

How was your weekend? What was the best thing you did?

Thoughts on Health

2011-11-20T16:56:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful for my health.

Yes, my stomach hates me as always. Yes, I have spent the past week semi-successfully fighting the cold that Eric and all of my students have. But in the grand scheme of things, these little problems are actually very, very small. Considering the number of germs I must be exposed to on a daily basis, my immune system does a pretty good job... and that's only on the little germs- colds, flus etc. God only knows what things I do that I don't even KNOW about that cause terrible long term illnesses. Oh sure, I obviously don't smoke, I eat healthy etc, but it seems like SO much causes cancer these days I can't even keep track of it all, let alone actually avoid all of these things. It can be overwhelming at times.

It's so overwhelming actually that I've spent the vast majority of my adult life ignoring most of the claims. I've done everything I need to to stay healthy in the short term. I eat healthy food because my stomach will immediately punish me if I do not. I exercise because my stomach and my mind will immediately punish me if I do not. I wash my hands because I will immediately get a cold if I do not. I get plenty of sleep because I will immediately get a cold/lose my mind if I do not. Fortunately for me, a lot of these "short term" solutions will also help me in the long term. But what about things that do not affect me in the short term? Especially claims that maybe are not 100% proven but certainly could be true?

I'm talking about things like taking a daily multi vitamin (which I used to not do because it immediately made my stomach feel terrible), avoiding BPA plastics, using aluminum free deodorant, limiting time with a cell phone attached to my head and along this same lines avoiding unnecessary XRays at places like the airport. This is the stuff I am not as good at. The funny thing is, if I had immediate stomach pain right after putting on deodorant, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, I would've given it up years ago.

Finally, at the old age of 27 I have decided it's time to get more serious about some of the long term health stuff. Recently, I've made some big changes that I hope will be better for me in the long term.

1. I've started taking a daily Multivitamin and Omega-3 supplements. As I mentioned earlier, I have not had good luck with Multivitamins, but I finally decided to splurge on a brand called Rainbow Light. Rainbow Light actually puts some natural stomach-helpers like ginger into their vitamins which helps me to avoid any pain or discomfort after taking them. I have been taking Rainbow Light Calcium/Magnesium pills for awhile with success and the transition to the Multivitamin has been very smooth. I've even been able to handle the version with Iron (not pictured above) because my last blood test revealed I was a little low in iron. Finally, I've had success recently taking one of the pills (it's 3 per day) in the early morning which is something I could never do even long before my stomach issues. If only I could somehow receive an insane discount on these ridiculously priced Vitamins, I would be singing my praises from the roof tops. Hmm, maybe they should give me free vitamins to sing their praises from the roof tops?

2. I have 100% given up deodorant with aluminum in it. Starting about a year ago I began using some of the natural deodorants on days when I knew I'd be home most of the time or at least not in a place where I was likely to sweat. I just feared that they would not work as well. Guess what? I've fully switched over and so far I haven't had any smelling problems... at least that I know about :) The only thing I haven't tried yet is hot yoga, we shall see how that goes!

On my agenda next in tackling my water cooler. You know the office water colorer? Eric and I actually have one of those at home because we like bottled water and don't like buying a million plastic bottles. It's cheaper and easier. My mom has been on me about how this is in fact NOT a good idea because the water bottles are probably filled with BPA (even though they claim they are not) and BPA is absolutely terrible for you. As always, I know she is right so I finally found a local company that will deliver in glass bottles. I'm sure it will be more expensive but I like that it's a family business so I'm willing to pay a little extra. I told Eric today that I am making it my mission of the week to set up this new company so, I'll keep you posted!

It's also probably possible to go broke on health... but then again what's the point of saving money if I don't make it to 30? Something to think about!

What are some things you do for your long term health?

Dribble

2011-11-15T19:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a sad day. We had to say goodbye to Eric's family dog: Dribble. Today I'm thankful for her for providing amusement, cuddles and love for the past seven years that I have known her.

Dribs in photos:

Three Day Weekends

2011-11-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love three day weekends. For me it just makes a huge difference to have that extra day as far as getting my mind off work and having enough time to get some things done but also just have fun :)

I missed a few days of posting what I'm thankful for, so to make up for it, I have quite a few things I am thankful for today.

I am thankful for Veterans.

I am thankful to have a busy life, full of great things.

Saturday was a pretty busy day, in a good way. In the morning, I headed to a town nearby to see one of my student's perform in a play. I've mentioned this particular girl many times, as this is her second year in my class. She did a great job remembering her lines and it was the perfect play for her because it was low key, but really cute.

After that I headed home and ate lunch with my mom and got our dining room hutch delivered. It's hard to get me excited about furniture, but I actually love the new hutch because now we can display some of the stuff we got for our wedding and it gives us more storage space which is always useful.

Then, Eric and I headed up to Nashoba Valley Winery with his family to do our second annual wine tailgate.

We keep meaning to do it when it's warmer out, but a busy fall made this the first available weekend for everyone. On a positive note, the holiday spiced cranberry apply wine was available already and that is my favorite so I was happy. I also had like 4 jackets on... so I was pretty warm.

I am thankful for Shutterfly and TripAdvisor. Yes, I am aware of random combination of the two. I've spent the morning catching up on my DVR (does anyone else watch the new show Unforgettable? I love it), making Christmas cards and starting to plan our trip to Seattle/Vancouver for next summer. I love how easy Shutterfly makes it to create Christmas cards, photo books, calendars etc. I love that TripAdvisor feeds my need to read about every possible option for trips before I start formally planning. I'm right now just trying to narrow down where exactly we will go, besides Seattle and Vancouver. I'm thinking maybe a trip to San Juan islands, or Victoria or something else, but I'm not sure what makes sense, how long I need at each place etc. If you have any experience traveling in the Pacific Northwest I would appreciate any advice :) In the meantime, I will continue to play on TripAdvisor.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What did you do?

Adult Best Friends

2011-11-09T21:07:00.000-05:00

In middle school, my best friends and I passed notes in class and talked on the phone for hours every night.

In high school, my best friends and I played sports together, learned to drive together, got part-time jobs together and shared a limo to the prom.

In college, I lived with my best friends, eating dinner together at night, gathering together for nightly TV shows and watching out for each other on the weekends.

When I was a kid, I thought that adult best friends had it so easy. Adult best friends live next door to each other. Their kids play together. Since they are adults, they don't have rules about when they can and can't hang out. Easy.

In reality, I've seen that adult best friends have many more obstacles to overcome. We have work, school (often times work and school), maybe husbands, and it turns out we do not live next door to each other. We are lucky to live in the same state.

But I am still thankful for adult best friends. For our on-the-way-home-from-work phone calls. For our life update e-mails. For our g-chats and facebook comments. For our reunions for parties and weddings. For our dinners and drinks. For the fact that no matter how long it has been since we last saw each other, it's like no time has passed at all.

For the fact that on Tuesday morning no more than 20 minutes passed from my best friend sending a bad news e-mail that the other five (college roommates) had planned a reunion weekend to surround her with love :)

Not that I didn't love a passed note in history class complete with food code names for boys that we liked... cuz that was fun too.

Why do you love your adult best friends?

It's the Little Things

2011-11-08T20:47:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful for post it notes :)

At least once every few weeks one of my students will "forget" his or her backpack. I always find it slightly impressive that they walk out of their house without their backpack and usually joke about it with them for awhile. But in all reality, I am a kindergartner. This morning, I successfully walked right out of the house without my purse. In my defense, I did have my giant school/tutoring bag and my lunch so it's not like I was empty handed. But still.

Enter the new post it on my door:

I also use post it's a lot for "To Do" lists. Since I have a life planner and also a school planner, I find it easier to move to do lists around when they are post its. I am definitely a "To Do" list person. On days when I go to work without a plan for what I'll get done before the kids arrive, I am SO much less productive. I need a "To Do" lists. I guess you could say I'm thankful for "To Do" lists.

Do you love post it notes as much as I do?

What I've Been Reading Lately

2011-11-07T20:16:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful for books. I am thankful to the teachers who helped me learn how to read, and to the authors that wrote books that made want to keep reading. I am thankful that I still love reading (even after all my high school English teachers attempt to ruin it with terrible books!) and that I have many people in my life who enjoy talking about and recommending books.

In the spirit of that I have some book recommendations for all of you :) If by some chance you have some little ones in your life who enjoy reading books on a preschool/ kindergarten/first grade level, please check out Little Oink, Little Pea and Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal... so cute and pretty amusing too. But the rest of my book recommendations are for adults, I promise.

I got the idea to read this book from browsing Lisa and Nora's read books on GoodReads :) Both of them enjoyed it so I thought I would too. In this story, a husband and wife pass away and their children come to stay at their Bed and Breakfast for their funeral. While there, the "children" (grown adults) learn that mom and dad wrote letters to each other every week throughout their marriage. As you read the book you learn more about the marriage and also about their children. This was a very fast read and I enjoyed it a lot. I felt attached to the characters and wanted to know what would happen to them. Plus, it's just nice to finally read a story where the husband and wife actually like each other despite many ups and downs over the course of a long marriage.

My mom has been telling me to read this book for awhile but I kept forgetting to get it from her so finally I just took it out from the library on my Kindle. This book explores the many life changes caused by a scandal at a private boarding school in Vermont. I thought the story line was really good- and it should probably be required reading for all high school kids, seriously. However, I personally would've liked it better if she chose to focus on less characters overall- there were times when I was like wait WHO is this person? I know her point was to show just HOW many people were affected but I found myself caring less about the characters because I didn't know them as well. Still I thought it was a good book and I'd recommend it especially if you like Anita Shreve's writing style.

Okay yes, this is totally the 10 years later Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I didn't say I was recommending classics, did I? I just loved these books when I was in college (I was going to say high school but the first one came out when I was in early college, oops). I had read reviews that this book was depressing, and I can see where those reviews came from but I thought overall it was really happy, and more just realistic of how life changes and some serious things can happen when you are no longer in high school anymore. It was fun to see what happened to my favorite characters and in the end I thought it was quite uplifting :) If you were a fan of the original books, I definitely recommend checking out the 10 years later book.

Next up, I am about the start The Postmistress which is our blogger book club book this month. I'm a little nervous because I've been told the beginning is slow and I am bad at making it through slow beginnings. I will really try though.

Who has another book recommendation for me? What have you been reading lately?

Thankful for Weekends

2011-11-06T13:38:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. It's been a pretty relaxing weekend over here which was definitely due after the last few weekends of class and trips. I didn't have a chance to post what I was thankful for, but don't worry I've been thankful for something every day :)

Friday

On Friday I was very thankful for my first round of conferences being over. I had a great round of conferences. Parents were very accepting of suggestions that I made and very appreciative of the progress their children have made so far. If only every round of conferences could go that well, I may not mind them so much. Maybe. I celebrated conferences being over with a few friends after work and then by going to my favorite restaurant with Eric.

Saturday

All homeowners can relate to my Saturday morning. I open up the cupboard under the sink to grab a bag and some bad smelling, sticky, brown stuff is all over the bag I was about to grab. I immediately yell for Eric to come check it out and after pulling everything out from under the sink we realize the disposal has been leaking and it's destroyed all the tile under the sink AND it's still leaking. Begin internal freak out: Oh my god, I have to call the plumber on the weekend AGAIN and it's going to cost a million dollars and what if we need a whole new disposal and what are we going to do with all the stuff under the sink and it's going to cost a million dollars and CRAP I hate calling people especially on the weekends. Even Eric had a (much smaller) internal freak out thinking that he really doesn't know much about plumbing and what if he turns something and it ALL comes flying out at us.

Luckily the two of us calmed down enough to call Eric's dad, who was at our house within the hour and the two of them set out on Operation: Fix Disposal. Several hours but only $17 later, everything is fixed and I did not have to call a single person NOR did I have to shell out god-only-knows how much money. Oh, and most importantly, I don't have any nasty brown liquids coming out below my sink.

And that, my friends, is when I decided that I am thankful I married into a family where household problems are just another challenge to be solved :)

Sunday

Today I am thankful for the foods of fall. Sure, we've already had a big snow storm here, but technically we are still in fall and will be for awhile. Fall is my favorite season when it comes to food: squash, apples, pumpkin etc. This morning I cooked up a couple of delicious honeycrisp apples and enjoyed them on top of some pumpkin oatmeal. This combination gets old for me come springtime, but then I'm ready for it again when the cold fall air rolls back around.

What is your favorite season for food? Do you have someone in your family who is good at fixing things? (I hope so!)

Milky Ways and Mountains

2011-11-03T19:43:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not thankful for Milky Ways and mountains, well I suppose I am, but that's another post :)

Today I am thankful for kids.

I know, it doesn't happen every day, that's for sure! I kinda love my class this year, and not because they are easy, because they are definitely not. Every year seems to come with it's own new set of challenges :) But I just like these kids. They have some great personalities and even when they are being crazy (which they have been all week- thanks a lot whoever decided Halloween would be on a Monday), they are still pretty cute.

I have this one kid who is a small kid with a huge personality. Today he was trying to explain to me where a girl in our class lived and he actually said, "yeah she lives just right up the mountain from me." HAHAHA... there are no mountains in the town I teach in. There is maybe a hill... but he doesn't live near it. I seriously can't even picture any remote hill in his neighborhood so it must be something really small and yet he refers to it as the mountain. Amazing.

Same kid, the other day I'm working with him in a small group on the most boring skill ever... breaking sentences into words. I'm trying to make myself not want to cry while teaching so I was making up sentences about Halloween. I asked him what his favorite candy was so I could say "D's favorite candy is _____" He tells me that his favorite candy is Milky Way. I said, I love Milky Ways too. End of conversation. Move on to teach seriously boring lesson. Today... what does he bring me but a Milky Way?! This means he not only remembered that passing comment but ALSO gave ME one of his favorite candy. Probably the most delicious Milky Way I ever had.

Now if only I could find a way for kids to have less germs, we'd be smooth sailing.

Are you a kid person? Tell me a cute kid story. Ready... go!

Walks and Talks

2011-11-02T19:06:00.001-04:00

I'm already loving my thankful challenge because it's making me think several times a day, "oh I'm thankful for this, I could blog about it!" I had lots of ideas for today but one stood out as the best.

I am thankful for late afternoon walks with Eric. Sometimes it's a run, and I'm equally thankful for those, but today it was a nice long walk around our favorite reservoir in the area...

It's so nice after a long day of kiddos and conferences to just debrief the day with Eric and enjoy the nice scenery. Oh, and play with Instagram on my phone...

Ah, this might be almost as fun as getting my new fancy camera in the summer. Almost.

Do you ever take a break from running (if you run at all) to just go for a walk and soak in the scenery?

A Thankful November

2011-11-01T19:11:00.000-04:00

In honor of the month of Thanksgiving, I am going to challenge myself to tell you one thing I am thankful for every day. Some days I may have another blog topic and some days it might be super short, but hopefully (if all goes to plan) I will post every day. I hope many of them will be simple pleasures in honor of the fact that there are so many in life that often go completely unnoticed.

Today I am thankful for the beautiful sunrises I've had the pleasure of seeing on the way to work for the past two weeks.

The picture doesn't really do it justice (it turns out driving while taking a picture is maybe not the best... oops). Basically I come up over the hill and I look in front of me and I can see the Boston skyline with a beautiful sunrise behind it. You can kind of see the skyline in the picture on the right, just before the trees. Although this is my commute most mornings (except when I tutor), I usually miss the sunrise because I'm either too early or too late. However, the timing working well the past few weeks has made it okay that it is has been pitch black when I wake up :)

Tell me something you are thankful for today. Join me in this challenge if you want :) I know Canadians don't really celebrate Thanksgiving in November, but it's always good to be appreciative, right?

A Spooky Halloween

2011-10-30T19:40:00.000-04:00

It has been a very, very weird Halloween in good ol' Massachusetts.

It's October 30th. OCTOBER... not December, not January, not February, not even March. OCTOBER.

Yesterday started out like a normal October day. It was actually sunny and pretty cold. I had my class on teaching English Language Learners. It's 6 1/2 hours of class sitting in a windowless room, so even while I was checking the weather on my iPhone, I remained pretty oblivious. When I left class it was raining and I headed home to work out. After teaching for almost 6 years, I am seriously incapable of sitting for a day, which is good because according to Caroline it is not at all good for you.

My original Halloween plan was to meet some coworkers at a bar for a little bit and then head to my friend Sarah's house. Once the snow began and I drove to my friend's house to borrow a costume, I realized that I was pushing it even attending one party. It's really not normal to be worried about snow when celebrating Halloween. That's okay though- it ended up being much more relaxed just grabbing some food with Eric and then heading to Sarah's early.

I was an Oreo cookie- a costume made by my super talented friend for her daughter a couple of years ago. Amazing... especially for me who simply had to carry the costume in a bag, throw it over my head and I was good to go.

We headed home pretty early and thank goodness we did, the drive home was scary! The biggest problem was the trees down everywhere. However, when I went to bed last night, my yard was okay. Not so when I woke up this morning though. My favorite tree in my yard, a beautiful birch tree, was broken in two spots and other huge branches were down too.

So what did Eric and I do today? Went out in search of a chainsaw and spent the rest of the day doing damage control. Mainly Eric did this but I did shovel the walk way (can't have any Trick or Treaters slipping!) and move some branches to one pile. Eric mastered all things chainsaw.

Sigh. On a positive note, we still have power and hopefully still have school tomorrow (I'm not ready to start on the snow days in October). On a super positive note, we went to dinner with my parents at the best Italian restaurant ever. On super duper positive note, I get to wear pink pajamas to work tomorrow because my school is really weird and while the kids don't wear costumes to school, the teachers do...

I'll be Mercy Watson

Now if only I can make it through this week with Halloween on Monday... whoever decided Halloween would always be on October 31st rather than always be on a Friday or Saturday night was clearly not a teacher. Just sayin'

How was your weekend? Did you dress up for Halloween? What was the best costume you saw this weekend?

Highlights from a Connecticut Weekend

2011-10-23T20:58:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, Eric, my parents and I headed down to southern CT to visit Caroline and Jake. It was Jake's "Parent's Weekend" at school and even though he is now a junior in college, I haven't been down to visit yet. It was well past time. Plus, as you probably know, Caroline moved to that area in July and while I've been lucky enough to see her several times, I have not yet seen her apartment.

I really like to visualize where people live so that was a big focus of my weekend. I know how important my house is to my happiness and daily life, so I like to see where others live. My brother moved off campus this year and essentially lives in a frat house, though not officially. They have basically declared the entire bottom floor as the party space. It works quite well apparently...

He also has a sweet room to himself upstairs with a nice little lounge space outside. There is definitely something to be said for moving off campus. If you saw Ash and my room senior year, you'd understand my point. Eric had to take off the closet door so we could both have a dresser in the room, and we shared one desk... at college... true story.

On Saturday, we got a quick tour of Jake's campus and then we tailgated before the football game. There were a lot of bagels involved, as there should be for an early morning tailgate.

After the football game, it was time to head down to Caroline's apartment. I failed to take any pictures, but luckily there are plenty available on her blog :) Her apartment is beautiful and in typical Caroline fashion, the decorations are awesome. It was fun to just relax at her apartment for awhile, read her magazines and learn about awesome apps for my new iphone. My current obsession is Pandora which I realize is not new by any means but I never listen to music on my computer so I never had any need for it before. After putting it on my phone, I was able to enjoy the Tim McGraw channel at the hotel gym this morning.

Finally, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Fin where they have PINK sushi. Obviously I have a bias towards anything pink, but check out how cool this was:

This was actually my mom's order but it was pretty delicious. I also got some really good spring rolls and shrimp shumai. The only thing I got that I did not love was the miso baked eggplant, the miso sauce was a little much for me, but everything else was good. My parents have been raving about this restaurant for awhile now so we were excited to get to try it out.

This morning we met up again at Einstein Brothers bagels. Caroline introduced me to their bagels in Chicago and now I'm a little obsessed. I wouldn't say they are better than Panera, but they are a nice change every once in awhile. In addition to the great variety of bagels in the area, there was also no shortage of frozen yogurt. Why does it seem there is only a shortage of frozen yogurt right where I live?

Overall, a very successful and fun weekend. It's going to be a busy week with parent conferences and class on Saturday. If anyone has any brilliant ideas of what I should be for Halloween and/or can figure out a way for me to avoid dressing up, please let me know. Halloween is an awesome holiday for kids, and I LOVE giving out candy to the Trick or Treaters, but beyond that I could really do without it.

Tell me about...

*your college living experience- did you live on or off campus? how great was your place?

*your love for frozen yogurt- will you open a self serve fro yo place near me?

*do you like dressing up on Halloween?

A Complaint Free Day

2011-10-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

One of my personal goals at work this year was to be more positive (read: complain less). I'd say that goal was pretty good the first week and has gone steadily downhill from there. It seems each day Eric and I need a solid 30 minutes when we get home to just complain about all the ridiculousness that occurred at work that day. Yesterday I decided to take a step in the right direction as far as my goal and declare today a complaint free day. I should also mention that I am overall a very happy, positive person so I really just want to stop letting the stupid things of the day get in my way.

I knew it would be difficult. Any day it would be difficult but today would be especially hard. I had two meetings (one which I would be pulled out of my class for). I had parents coming in to do a special activity. The forecast called for cold, pouring rain to last all day (read: no recess all day, ah!). Oh, and I did not sleep well last night. Recipe for a day of no complaints? Probably not.

However, I did manage to last until about 2:30pm without one single complaint (at least that I noticed), at which point I decided since I already lost it, I might as well make up for all the complaints I had not yet uttered all day. Oops.

What did I learn on my no complaints quest?

1. You can say you are not going to complain today, you can tell everyone you know, but that will not stop the complaints from popping into your head. I complained SEVERAL times in my head before I finally let one out during a conversation with coworkers.

2. It's actually hard to know sometimes what is a complaint and what is simply an observation and/or informing someone of something. For example, I had a headache today (probably due to not sleeping). When I took some Advil someone asked me what was up, I said my head hurt... which COULD be a complaint, or it could simply be me just saying...

3. I actually think complaining is good sometimes- it helps you "vent" and sometimes it's a nice way to bond with people about things that you find mutually annoying :)

4. However, it's also kind of nice to try to go a day without complaining- it helps you to become more aware of how often you are doing it and hopefully work on becoming more positive overall.

Despite the fact that there were many things to complain about today, there were also some great things:

*I was super productive at work this morning before the kids arrived.

*I attempted a painting activity during our Pumpkin Math today and somehow it did not get everywhere or cause huge problems, wahoo.

*I always "complain" that dads never volunteer and today I had 5 parents come in, two of which were dads- yay! I also had another dad send me an e-mail volunteering to help with the next special activity. Dads just deal with kids in a different way than moms and it's fun to have both perspectives around.

*It was a very cold day of down pouring so Eric and I were not able to go for our planned run after school. But, I'm actually happy about this because I got my grocery shopping done and now I can run with Eric tomorrow- so yay.

*I rewarded myself for a so-so day with a delicious caramel brownie gelato from a really nice local gelato place that I don't get to go to nearly as often as I'd like because it closes at 6 every night :)

So overall, I'd say life is good!

How do you feel about complaining? Do you agree it has it's place sometimes...? Have you ever tried going a period of time without complaining?

You Gotta Try It: Boot Camp Edition

2011-10-13T20:22:00.001-04:00

One of the reasons (besides work always taking over my life) that I've been so busy lately is my two-time per week after work boot camp class. The work out was only 2 hours per week but it somehow occupied a lot more of my time!

As someone who LOVES to change up my work outs frequently, I loved boot camp. Despite trying hula hooping and jumping on a trampoline at a gym last year I had never before tried a boot camp class.

My boot camp was held outside at a park. Our "coach" runs a company in the Boston area so he has a lot of experience in this area. Every single class was different. The following is a list of some of the activities that we did.

Running: warm up, caravanning, uphill sprints etc

Step ups (usually involving really tall bleachers)

Jumping Jacks

Bear clawing/crab walking

source

Resistance bands: bicep curls, shoulder presses etc

source

Tricep dips on picnic benchesPush upsEndless squatsPartner/group games

All of this (and much more) was done in really cool ways. For example, we often rotated through stations so that as we were resting one muscle we were working another part of our body, always running in between each activity. Or, we would get a partner and while one partner was sprinting up a hill, the other was doing shoulder presses. One time we played a team game where one team wanted all of the cones to face down and the other wanted all the cones to face up. We had to run around trying to put all the cones they want our team wanted. The team that won got to pick what we did next.

I love this whole method of working out. We almost never fully rested, but we did have the opportunity to catch our breath as we did more muscle building activities and rest our muscles as we did some cardio. The hour totally flew by.

Sadly, boot camp is over for me since I needed to free up some afternoons for tutoring (and staying on top of my life). I'm looking forward to getting back to running with Eric and doing more of my own workouts, but I will miss it. I will probably do it again come spring when the weather is a bit nicer. If you ever have a chance to try a boot camp class, I highly recommend it.

Have you ever tried boot camp? What did you think? Are you the type of person who likes classes at the gym or do you prefer to work out solo?

The Sport of Marathon Spectating

2011-10-11T19:19:00.000-04:00

You may be laughing at the title of this post, but I'm not joking when I say that my legs were sore after WATCHING a marathon. No, I'm not in terrible shape, I never once had sore legs from two months of boot camp which often involved running up LOTS of hills!

Anyway, in case you missed the memo (aka me posting it EVERYWHERE) Caroline had a very successful first marathon!!! You can read about her experience on her blog, this post is all about my experience watching a marathon.

I'm no marathon watching rookie. My college was on the course of the Boston Marathon and "Marathon Monday" was easily one of the best days of the year. However, this was my first time watching a marathon that was NOT Boston!

My alarm went off bright and early, I debated what to wear for awhile, packed my purse, met "Team Caroline" at Starbucks and headed to Mile 4 to catch Caroline for the first time. I was lucky in that when of my friends from college just recently moved to Chicago and did all the work for me as far as figuring out the best places to watch from and how realistic it was to get from one to the other.

Gerry also made the AWESOME signs.

Mile 4 was pretty unsuccessful. We missed Caroline because she started earlier than we thought she was going to. We must have missed her by only a few minutes because we saw the pace group right behind her, but luckily we got a 10K text which told us she obviously passed us. Then we could head for Mile 11, which was only one street over for us!

Before Caroline reached Mile 11 I was starting to panic a little that we were trying to see her 4 times and what if we don't see her at all?!

This may have actually happened except for that Caroline picked US out and actually waved her hand in front of us to get our attention! We were all staring at the crowd trying to find her! At Mile 11 I ran with Caroline for a few minutes to take a picture and get a feel for how she was doing so far. She was still doing really well!

After I joined back up with the group, it was time for the crazy adventure of getting to Mile 17. We had to take the subway which was obviously packed. We couldn't even get on the first train and then we just barely fit on the second. Once we arrived at our stop, we still had a bit of a walk and after getting Caroline's half marathon text I was convinced we were not going to make it to Mile 17 before her. There was definitely some sprinting with purses and signs going on during that "walk." Luckily we made it in time to see a still smiling Caroline at Mile 17!

Also, Team Caroline grew at Mile 17 as Gerry's fiance joined the spectating as well as Caroline's college roommate Courtney!

The last place we wanted to see Caroline was at Mile 20, so we walked some more to get there, stopping on the way for some ice. My dad had the idea of cooling Caroline off with ice so we filled up a zip lock bag with ice ready for her to come by at Mile 20. Since we still had the rest of the giant bag of ice we bought at 711, we started just handed out ice to other marathoners. I should probably mention the temperature was in the upper 70s and possibly hotter in the sun so people were VERY appreciative.

I don't have a picture of Caroline at Mile 20, but she still looked awesome. I ran with her again just to make sure she felt awesome :) I don't think she really did, but I mean, who does at Mile 20? I asked her how she was doing and she said "ow!" haha, but luckily nothing in particular was hurting and I knew she was going to make it to Mile 26! Of course I launched into a quick motivational speech and then she was off!

Of course we took off walking again and headed for the finish line. There was really no way at all to see anyone crossing the finish line (or even close) unless you got there much earlier so we headed to our "meeting spot" with Caroline which was a big fountain. Other Chicago marathoners had told us that was a good spot to meet, but this year it was NOT because they fenced off the whole area and wouldn't let us in. Eventually we found Caroline and began a marathon photo taking session followed by a quest for bagels. Speaking of which, if you are lucky enough to live near an Einstein Bagels, please eat one for me.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and eating dinner. Of course I enjoyed one last night of self serve frozen yogurt...

I could easily live in our hotel room in Chicago for a long while. Walking distance to one of my favorite restaurants ever, Starbucks, Whole Foods AND more than one frozen yogurt shop... what more could I ask for? We had a great weekend in Chicago, Caroline did awesome and when it was time to say one final good night to the city of Chicago, I was really quite sad...

If you managed to read all of this post, I am impressed :) Have you ever been to Chicago? Have you ever been tired from watching a marathon?

Pre-Marathon Chicago

2011-10-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

It's been a LOT of days since I blogged, probably the most days off since I started blogging 2 1/2 years ago. It was not a planned break or anything, I've just been super busy and when I did have down time I just really couldn't think of anything to blog about. Nothing like a little weekend trip to re-ignite the creativity!

This week Eric and I are in Chicago watching Caroline run the marathon! This is our third trip to Chicago in October (and we've never been in any other month). The first time we came it was to watch BC play Notre Dame, then we came to visit my college roommate Ash who went to med school here and now we are here for some marathon spectating. Luckily, one of my other college friends who is a marathoner herself lives in Chicago now and has totally taken control of our plans for tomorrow which include seeing Caroline at miles 4, 11, 17, 20 and the finish. I will be seriously impressed if we can pull this off.

Our trip yesterday involved a ridiculously great Big Bang Theory marathon on the plane (I love Jet Blue and their TVs), some also ridiculous traffic from the airport and some delicious Mexican food at a restaurant called Cantina 46. The night was finished off with a beautiful sunset.

Today was spent being a little bit touristy on a Chicago Foundation Architecture River Cruise. I got some amazing pictures of Chicago buildings...

Chicago is definitely a beautiful city. Today was my second time doing an Architecture River Cruise. I enjoy them, but if it was going to made with only me in mind I would request that there was a little less info about the Architecture. I enjoy learning as much as the next guy, but 90 minutes of straight lecture gets old. Today we probably just annoyed the others around us a bit by all chatting with each other while the lady was talking. Yes, teachers are the worst students. Teachers and businessmen/women as the case was today.

After that we headed over to Millennium Park to see "The Bean." Last time we were in Chicago we had a lot of fun at the bean, but today it was pretty crowded so we basically just took some pictures and then left. Okay fine, it was slightly more interesting than that when I decided to take a jumping picture in a dress... bad idea. Things got slightly worse than picture below...

Fortunately my underwear are basically like a bikini bottom so it's not as scandalous as it may first seem, but still pretty embarrassing. I held my dress down and did a very girly jump for all future pictures.

Obviously the future marathoner did NOT jump so I did not risk any future exposure :)

Look closely and you will see us in the picture below :)

Yes, I am still holding my dress down.

We finished the day with dinner at my favorite Chicago restaurant Rosebuds on Rush. Perfect carbo-loading for our favorite marathoner (and her crazy spectators). Tomorrow is going to be fantastic. I can't wait to hold up our awesome signs and try to sneak ice in Caroline's hat. It's going to be a great day!

Some Life Updates

2011-09-21T19:54:00.000-04:00

Hello all :) Glad some of you will try Eric's Amazing Turkey Quinoa Delight. I know I am very lucky to have a husband who cooks for me. Believe it or not, we have only started to eat together (and by that I mean the same thing) in the last 6 months or so. We used to both cook and then attempt to eat together if the timing worked out. We have different taste in food, but we are getting more in sync.

I thought now was as good a time as any for some life updates. No, I'm not having a baby, but Sneaker Teacher is, so you should go visit her blog to say Yay! My life updates are not as interesting, but just in case you are wondering what I've been up to lately...

1. Work. We are about halfway through our second full week of school. My class is not perfect, but they are not bad either. I think the best way to describe my class is really sweet girls and really boys-boys. I also have 2 students who don't speak a word of English and getting another one tomorrow, wahoo. While that does complicate things a bit, I feel more on top of everything than I ever did last year and for that I'm thankful. I've been getting to work early, but leaving early and not taking much home at all. It's wonderful. I also tried something new this year where I e-mailed every parent within the first week of school to tell them how AWESOME their child was doing. It's saved me lots of random e-mails and I'm hoping it started our "relationship" in a positive way. It didn't take that long and the time has more than paid for itself so far. The only crap thing about work so far this year is getting a cold. I freaking hate child germs sometimes.

2. Working out. I've started doing boot camp two times a week with several friends from work. We are doing it through a great company and it's a private (as in only people we know) session. I LOVE the boot camp format, it's been SO different every time and didn't from minute to minute. It's perfect for my total workout ADD and it's great for my body because I've been sore in new places every time. It's an amazing mix of strength and cardio and definitely kicking my butt, in a good way. Highly recommend trying a boot camp if you ever have a chance.

3. Life. Life = crazy at the moment. Seriously, is there a pause button? I need like 2 days to just do NOTHING so that I can kick this cold in the butt, but instead it seems like more and more things just keep popping up to do. But, they are all good things. I'm especially excited about my cousin's wedding this weekend, wahoo! Maybe sometime at the end of October I can finally relax? Or not, I'm sure things will come up then too. I think life would be perfect if I had 3 days weekends and I could fill 2 days with fun social events and have one day completely off... yes, let's change the world to 4 day work weeks and 3 day weekends...

What is going on in your life these days?

Eric's Amazing Turkey Quinoa Delight

2011-09-20T21:45:00.001-04:00

Last week Eric invented my new favorite dinner (also an amazing leftover lunch). I never would've guessed how great the combination of quinoa and tomato sauce is, but I guess that must be why people love Mama Pea's Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna, which I still need to try.

As you probably know, Eric is the real cook in our house. If I am interested in a recipe at all, it means it probably has no more than 5 ingredients and the less steps involved the better. Eric adds spice this, ingredient that... I like as simple as possible. This recipe is much more representative of my style of cooking than his and that's why I decided it was blog worthy. After all, who doesn't appreciate an easy, quick recipe? But if you are in the mood for a more complicated recipe, I highly recommend Eric's Sweet Potato Risotto!

I'll call this Eric's Amazing Turkey Quinoa Delight

*Vegetarians Note: I took this for lunch without any turkey and it was still amazing and filling, so the turkey is definitely not a necessity in my mind

Ingredients: ground turkey, quinoa, eggplant (+ any other veggies you want), tomato sauce, olive oil

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions (1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water, boil and simmer until water is gone). Eric likes to boil quinoa in chicken broth which I do agree really adds something.

2. Cut eggplant and roast in the oven on 400 for about 15-20 minutes. Eric also "seasons" the eggplant. Do whatever you want here, this is why I'm not the cook.

3. Saute ground turkey in tomato sauce on the stove until fully cooked.

4. Mix all together, and enjoy :)

Oh, I forgot to mention, this is a super ugly meal... but that will not affect the taste at all, I promise!

Yum.

What is your favorite quinoa dish?

Give Me Back My Summer Weekends

2011-09-18T11:20:00.001-04:00

It's September 18th, meaning that it is not even technically the end of summer and I already I would do anything to have a summer weekend back. I mean, I hate to be picky, because all weekends are good. However, this weekend I was reminded of just how exhausted I am after a full week of kindergarten. Of course it doesn't help that one of my *darling* parents this year decided to send her son to school with a temperature TWICE and now me, and the two others who work in my classroom are all sick. Hopefully if I rest a lot today I'll be able to fight this off, but I swear I spend a good portion of the months from September to June fighting something!

Anyway, back to summer weekends, I love them.

Last Saturday night we went back to the restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner. They said there were no reservations available so we went early to catch a table in the bar area. We ended up with the best table we had ever had, perfection! Look at this view:

And this food!

And our waiter was SO nice. We told him we had our rehearsal there the year before, so he gave us a Happy Anniversary dessert. I should also mention this dessert was heavenly.

And Cape Cod sunsets...

Fall weekends are good too, when they involve tailgating...

Unfortunately BC did not come through for us yesterday, but it was still fun. It's only Sunday and I'm already looking forward to next weekend. My cousin is getting married, wahoo :)

Now time to spend today doing as little as possible until it's time to go see Katie's new house!

What did you do this weekend? What is your favorite thing about summer weekends?

Turning Off the Perfectionist

2011-09-13T19:12:00.000-04:00

Whew! How is it ONLY Tuesday?! I've survived 2 full days with the kids and all I can say is, I am SO exhausted. Training kindergartners (and their parents) to understand the concept of schools requires at least 10 hours of sleep a night and since I keep waking up at 4 am thinking about all that I need to do, I'm lucky if I get 7!

Growing up I was not a perfectionist at all. Just ask my mom. I drove her insane with my careless cross outs on my homework, and my absolute refusal to recopy something just because there were a couple of mistakes on it. I was not the kid who practiced piano for hours, or cried if I didn't get the answer right in class. Nope, not me.

Then, I started teaching. Suddenly the overwhelming need for perfection took over. Except when 21 5-year-olds and their equally unpredictable parents are involved, there is absolutely no such thing.

Never ever will I have the perfect class. Never ever will all the parents be satisfied. Never ever will all the children learn to read without any bumps. Never ever will every kid skip into the classroom in delight to be there. Never ever will every kid being a good sport during math games, or a good listener during lessons. Never ever will every lesson go as planned or every faculty meeting be productive.

I know this. I do. But in my mind, I still strive for it. I still think, maybe if I take the time to check in with every parent in the first week of school then maybe they will not all bombard me at Curriculum Night wondering how little Johnny is doing. I still think, maybe if I get to school a little earlier then I can make a visual for this activity and no one will ask "what are we doing again?" right after I just explained it. I still think that maybe if I revamp my beginning of the year letter for the sixth time maybe I can prevent all the ridiculous questions.

This may sound irrational to you, but when you consider what parents, principals and the general public actually expect of teachers, it's really quite rational. Nobody can get hurt and/or upset and everyone must reach grade level and if they are already beyond, don't even think about boring them. You get the gist.

So, here is how I plan to quell the perfectionist in me this school year. All of these ideas could be used to tame any perfectionism in you, even if you aren't crazy enough to teach the five-year-olds.

1. Delegate. This year I plan to use my special education aide better. I'm going to meet with her once a week during what used to be a pretty silly consult time and tell her all the plans for the next week and what I want her to do. She's a certified teacher so I can really rely on her to do more planning. If I am going to have kids in my class that demand tons of differentiation, I should use the support I am given the best I possibly can.

2. Prioritize. On Monday mornings I am going to set goals for the week. I'm thinking 3. Then, that is going to my major priority, anything else that gets done is just a bonus :)

3. Say No. Self explanatory. I'm going to do it. Every time I do, I'm going to celebrate.

4. Leave the work, at work. I always hear about the greatness of not taking work home, but I never really considered it. Frankly there are some tedious tasks that I would just rather do in front of the TV rather than staying at work an extra hour to do it. However, recently my best friend Katie mentioned that she was trying not to take any work home this year and I started to consider it more seriously. I still think there will be times that I will do work at home, especially during report card and conference time. But last year I was at a point where I was constantly taking work home. This year my goal is to leave work at work at least 3 nights a week, and hopefully more.

Are you are perfectionist (at least in some areas of life)? How do you tame the perfectionist in you?

Wine and Love

2011-09-08T20:59:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, happy almost end of the week :) I had lots of blog topic ideas for this week, but then I got sucked into the world of kindergarten and I'm reemerging with only enough brain power to do a Wine and Love post, but that's okay- I like these! Thanks Nora for hosting as always...

Pass the Wine Please

1. School started this week. I'm already annoyed at the frustrating level of flexibility I am supposed to exhibit on a minute by minute basis. Most notably, I cannot tolerate parents who do not inform me of the name their child is called ahead of time and then insist I change all 20+ places their name appears in the classroom.

2. Although I prefer teaching to the boring act of tutoring all day and driving between a million places, my body seems to disagree. I slept soundly 99% of the time in the summer, bam the school year starts and I'm back to my unnecessary 4 am internal clock wake ups. Why, oh why?

So Much Love

1. On Sunday Eric and I went into Boston to take a harbor cruise and eat a delicious North End dinner. Other than learning that I should not ever get on any moving object without ginger gum, it was a good time :)

2. Though I had to Labor on Labor Day, it was made up for by my mom's delicious brunch after. I want Caroline to come home every weekend so we can have brunch every weekend :)

baked apple french toast

fruit salad

stuffing

roasted potatoes (by Eric)

yum!

3. Today I met half my class (the other half comes tomorrow, all together on Monday) and I really liked them. I know it probably won't last, especially with all 21 together on Monday but for now I am going to enjoy the honeymoon phase.

What are your wines and loves this week?

My Favorite Things- Wedding Style

2011-09-04T22:02:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone is having a great long weekend :) Mine has been busy, but good so far. Tomorrow I am tutoring in the morning (I know, "labor" on Labor Day, what is that?!) and then headed to brunch at my parents house to celebrate Caroline visiting us for the weekend, yay! I figured now was as good as any to post some pictures of the wedding Eric was in on Friday, particularly since Eric is watching some kind of Star Wars marathon right now. I should pay attention since Star Wars is a huge interest of a lot of my kindergarten boys... but I prefer to bond with them about something I actually understand, like baseball...

Consider yourself warned, I took well over 300 pictures at this wedding. I promise I will not post them all, just a few favorites. And, for those of you planning weddings- a few wedding details :)

First off, can I just say if you are not a particularly religious person (aka don't plan to get married at a church, by a rabbi etc), I highly recommend having someone you know marry you. Eric's dad was the officiant at this wedding and it really is just the way to go. I could write a novel on this, but I'll resist. You get to write your own ceremony, you get to talk to someone you know, love and trust during your wedding ceremony, and *most importantly* you don't have some random dude in all your photos.

Apparently this is not allowed in all states/countries which I think is a real bummer. We can add this to the list of laws/rules that annoy me. I'll tell you the other ones later.

The wedding took place at a beautiful barn so even though it's still technically summer, there was an autumn feel to it...

The food at this wedding was also amazing. There was a pasta buffet, I don't even know what I got but it had to be the best food I've had at a wedding. Eric said his butternut squash raviolis were also amazing. There was also a meat station which I didn't visit, but I'm sure was good. As someone who has eaten straight bread at more than one wedding because there is nothing I can eat, I have to say, I freakin LOVE buffets. I didn't have one at my own wedding so I don't really know anything about them other than, I love attending weddings with them. That is all.

In typical small-world fashion, one of my friends from work (who used to work at my school as an aide and now teaches kindergarten in a nearby town) is also friends with the bride from childhood so we got to see each other. Love when things like this happen.

I actually was hoping to hang out with her even more but for some reason the whole night went by SO fast that before I knew it, it was over.

Of the close to 400 photos taken on Friday night, only 4 have me in them, so I might as well post them all right?

Me and Eric's mom after she pulled a me at my wedding and changed into shorts. If you are going to take a break from the party to bring the grandmothers home, you might as well benefit right?

Me and Erin, Josh's girlfriend... future sister in law? Boy I hope Josh doesn't read this blog, there is already been enough talk about his future wedding ring this summer. Erin would appreciate a good awkward moment though, if I did decide to bring it up again :)

Me and Eric's dad- there were some serious issues trying to take this photo. New wedding rule, all photos must be taken before 11pm. Maybe it should be 9 if I am involved.

Other fun details of this wedding included a photo booth and a sausage stand for some food on the way out. I'll have to post our photo booth pictures as they are hilarious, we started out in the first picture with Eric, me and his brother Mike, but by the last picture I think there were like 8 of us in there. It's cool for the bride and groom too because it prints one set of pictures for me and one for the bride and groom to go in a scrapbook.

Overall great wedding and a lot of fun. I'm back to loving weddings mode :) Tell me your favorite part of weddings and/or something awesome you saw at a wedding once!

At weddings I love: short but personal ceremonies, cake and/or ice cream sundaes, beautiful flowers, great music, dressed up friends and family, dancing, cocktails, photo booths, programs especially ones that explain how you know the bridal party (this also goes for wedding websites that do the same thing), out of town bags with water and snacks, flip flops, donation to a meaningful charity in lieu of favors, and basically any personal touches that are important to the bride and groom :)

Ready for the Long Weekend?

2011-09-01T17:25:00.001-04:00

Thanks for all of your interesting responses to my post "Does Confident Improve With Age?" I was actually happy to know that others feel that in some cases it hasn't :)

Last night Eric and I headed to his cousin's rehearsal dinner. He is getting married tomorrow night, very excited! Of course the rehearsal dinner provided lots of opportunities to use the new camera...

I also took about 20 pictures of Eric's other cousin's son, who I love, but unfortunately you'll have to be facebook friends with me to see them- I don't like to put kids on the blog without talking to their parents about it first. Maybe I'll remember to tomorrow night and you'll get to see the ring bearer in action. When I first started dating Eric, he was not even a year old and now he's going into 3rd grade next week. Kids make time fly I tell you.

Have I mentioned yet that I have two students in my incoming K class who were born while I was setting up my first classroom? I'm obsessed with things like this.

Anyway, we've got a long weekend coming up (Canada has this too right?) and I thought you might want some book recommendations. I've been on a mystery kick lately so here are three mysteries I recommend...

Last week I tweeted that I needed a new book and I wanted a mystery. Nora came to rescue immediately with this fabulous recommendation. I was basically glued to this book from the minute I downloaded it. It's about a girl who's dad is killed and mom disappeared when she was little. It switches between telling the story of that night and present times where the family is trying to figure out if the man who was arrested is the right guy. I really liked all the characters and it was the type of book I just could not put down.

I've been a huge fan of Lisa Gardner books this year (I think I've read all the Detective DD Warren books now). They take place in Boston, and they are impossible to put down. This book was about a police officer who has supposedly killed her husband in self defense, but many of the facts don't add up. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a new twist would come in. This book was definitely more far fetched than the other two, but not in a crazy way.

I've been meaning to read this book and watch this movie forever, but finally got around to it this summer. Both the book and the movie were good, but I obviously read the book first and therefore think it was a bit better :) Yet another suspenseful book about a girl found murdered and the mystery of who did it. Like the other three books, they give you a suspect at the beginning and it keeps you guessing throughout the book, did he do it, or did he not?!

Does anyone have any good mystery recommendations? I don't know how I'm going to go back to normal books now after being on the edge of my seat the past month! What are your plans for the weekend?

Does Confidence Improve With Age?

2011-08-31T09:53:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to see the movie The Help with two of my friends. I didn't like it better than the book, but for a book turned movie, it was very good. Abilene's attempt to instill confidence in Elizabeth's poor daughter with the lines "you is kind, you is smart, you is important" got me to thinking about confidence.

When I'm teaching kids, the number 1 way I develop their confidence is to build their independence. I wish I had a video of the day a girl in my summer school class put up a chair by herself with no help. To her, it was more exciting than winning the lottery or even extra recess. When a child proves to themselves they can do something, there is no greater confidence booster.

I remember being told more than once by people older than me that we gain confidence as we get older. Certainly in some areas of my life, I have absolutely gained confidence. In others though, I disagree with this statement. Here is a brief list of times I have exhibited confidence:

*I have a friend that I have gone to school with since kindergarten. Our paths really crossed in high school when I started dating one of his friends. Somehow I found out that he did not like me, for reasons I cannot remember now. What I do remember was my reaction, which was to make it my personal mission in life to get him "on my side." I made a serious effort to get to know him better, and he ended up being one of my best friends in college. I showed confidence in my belief that if he knew me better, he would like me.

Okay fine, this picture makes it look like he still doesn't like me, but I am dressed as a 50s housewife and he is a ?, so who knows really!

*In July 2004, I got on a plane and traveled to the other side of the world by myself. I showed confidence in my belief that I could do it on my own.

*In college, I had the same roommate all 4 years, still one of my best friends. Ash is a very smart and beautiful girl and many BC boys had crushes on her. A couple of times, they were turned down by her, and then decided I was the next best thing. Yeah... no amount of Keystone Lights can make that seem like a good idea :) (funny story now though!) I showed confidence in my belief that I am better than that.

*In September 2007 some crazy person put 22-year-old me in charge of 21 kindergarten kids. I showed confidence in my belief that I could keep them safe, make them love school, and maybe even teach them to read.

*In April 2009 I started a blog. I showed confidence in my belief that someone, somewhere might actually care to read my stories.

Would I still do all of these things? Well, I'm sure I wouldn't get on a plane and move to Australia :) Experience improves our confidence as we get older. I have already jumped on that plane to Australia, I know I can do it and don't need to do it again to prove it to myself. I have already survived that first year of teaching and 4 years after it, I know I am a good teacher. By the time you reach your mid/late twenties, you've had people criticize you, you've failed many times, and hopefully you've come out stronger on the other end.

But, circumstance may also lower our confidence. In college, my confidence was tested weekly in many different ways. I was constantly put in situations that were unfamiliar, and forced to take new risks. I would still say my confidence continues to be tested on at-least a weekly basis, but now it's very often at work in very similar ways. Therefore, 90% of the time, it involves having confidence in myself as a teacher. I think when we "grow up" we have to really force ourselves to not get too comfortable :) That's especially hard for me because I am not a big risk taker, and I love comfort. Also, with my dearest husband- risks now involve much scarier things like helicopters with no doors...

Tell me about a time you showed confidence :) Do you think your confidence has improved with age?

End of Summer Cape Adventures

2011-08-27T08:34:00.000-04:00

Officially home from the Cape and preparing to be hit by Hurricane Irene tomorrow morning. Okay, fine... my version of "preparation" is actually having flashlights (I realized earlier this year we lived in our house for over 2 years without a single flashlight, oops), doing our weekly grocery shopping trip (no, we did not stock up, we just bought a normal weeks worth of food) and charging my Kindle... if by chance we do lose power, I need something to entertain myself :) I wonder if 3G works in a hurricane...

I have to admit that weather forecasters to me are a bit like the boy who cried wolf. They have overreacted so many times that I now generally believe they will be wrong. We did bring in our furniture at the Cape though, just in case :)

This week though, there was no sign of any hurricane :)

Beautiful running trail around Hathaway Pond...

Kite Surfers at the Beach...

Kayaking on Martha's Vineyard...

Salt Pond, Eastham

Cape Cod National Seashore, Coast Guard Beach

Cape Cod National Seashore, Marconi Beach

I don't think any time is ever long enough at the Cape.

Just like no summer is ever long enough...

If you could only go one place for vacation for the rest of your life, where would you go?

Are You a Planner?

2011-08-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

I am a planner :) I'm also pretty go-with-the-flow as long as said change of plans does not affect my sleep in any way! But I really enjoy planning. When I read the book The Happiness Project the author talked a lot about how research has shown that a lot of the excitement and happiness that comes from things comes from the act of looking forward to them. Wahoo, that means the planners among us may be happier because we look forward to things AND enjoy them when they come (as long as you are not always, always looking to the next thing that is!).

Being the planner that I am, I really enjoy using a paper planner as my calendar. I love to write notes to myself in the margins and writing in huge letters trips or events I am super excited for. When Amber wrote last year about the Erin Condren life planner, I knew I had to have one. But, they are not the cheapest things ever and I already had a planner that was going to last me until August 2011, so I kept that one. However, as soon as the 2011-2012 life planners came out, I was ready to order one!

It took me quite awhile to decide which planner I wanted, but I finally decided to go with the one where you can put 6 of your own pictures on the front. It's a little more expensive but I figured it would make me happy when I am sitting in faculty meetings, and that's worth a few extra dollars :)

My planner arrived a couple of weeks later, and I swear opening it was like opening a present. The box was decorated, and the planner was wrapped in purple tissue paper. The planner itself? Beautiful...

I have only used it for a little over a week now but here are the top 10 things like about it...

1. I love the pictures on the front.

2. The planner is filled with great quotes.

3. I like the tabs for each month, it helps me flip to any given time pretty easily.

4. I like how each day is divided into morning, day, night.

5. I like how each week has a spot for goals and a to do list. You can see my to do list for vacation week is quite intense... haha, okay fine it's a "to NOT do" list

6. I like the zip pocket and the folder "keep it together" at the back of the planner. I stick checks I get from tutoring in my planner until I get to the bank and I need some kind of folder to hold them because I can't be losing those :)

7. Each planner comes with several free gift labels with your name on them, which is a nice bonus.

8. The overall planner is made well. I have a feeling it will last a long time even though I use it a lot and throw it into different bags and stacks of notebooks all day long.

9. It comes with fun stickers that you can add to important days. This is something I can see myself doing when I'm bored at a professional development training or something (cuz those are always so fascinating). I have put a few in already though...

10. Finally, I just love all the colors- they are bright and fun, but I think still look professional enough that I won't mind having my planner in my hand while talking to my boss.

I also have a couple of small complaints, although they are probably things I will get used to soon. The first is, if you look at the picture above, the spiral binding in the middle is really large, which means that if I want to write what I need to do on Wednesday, I have to fold back the whole page otherwise the binding gets in the way of my hand trying to write. Since I really like to be able to look at the whole week at once, this just annoys me a little sometimes. Also, the calendar itself focuses more on monthly blocks (as you can tell by the tabs) which means that at the end of the month you may not see a whole week on one page because the monthly calendar is in the middle. You can see what I mean below...

So when I get to the week of November 28th, I'll only be able to see 3 pages and then I'll have to turn a couple of pages to get to the rest of the week. I'm sure this is just something I'll have to get used to because I definitely live by life looking at the week to week schedule :) On the other hand, my old planner had all the monthly calendars at the front of the planner and so therefore I never used them.

The last thing I'm not used to yet is how big the planner is. It's measurements are 7" by 9" which is a little bigger than my old planner, but it's also a lot thicker. Again, I think I'll get used to this very quickly, but I was surprised by it at first.

Overall, I really like this planner and definitely recommend ordering it :) (In case it wasn't obvious by the fact that I said I waited a long time to buy this planner, I did not get this planner for free and was not in any way compensated for talking about it on my blog- I just had a lot of people ask me about it so I thought you may want to know)

Are you a planner? Do you use a paper planner?

A Short Trip to Martha's Vineyard

2011-08-24T09:47:00.001-04:00

Hola! I'm back from my trip within a trip and I have lots of fun pictures to show you. First though, a couple of "housekeeping" things- haha, I feel like such a teacher when I say that.

#1- One of my friends started a blog a few weeks ago and I just KEEP forgetting to tell you about it. Tiff and I have been friends since seventh grade, and we are now both teachers (she is a preschool special education teacher). She is blogging about her super healthy lifestyle, and some traveling... so, go check it out: Sun Run Fun.

#2- For any Boston readers out there, LUNA Chix is having a Walk/Run for Fun on Thursday September 8th at 6:30pm. It begins at Cambridge Common in Harvard Square. From there, everyone will split into groups of 10-20 women to either do a 2.7 mile run or a 1.5 mile walk. It costs $25 and your registration goes to The Breast Cancer Fund, and pays for your swag bag (including a tech t shirt), music, food etc :) There is even going to be a yoga-inspired cool down at the end. There is a very good chance I may do this if I can drag myself off my couch (it's the first day of school, so I might be dead haha). If you want more information or to register go to Team LUNA Chix Walk or Run For Fun.

So anyway, Martha's Vineyard. Since Amber has taught me so much about Canadian geography, it's time for all of you to learn a bit about Massachusetts geography.

So this week, I've been on vacation in Cape Cod. On Sunday, we took a drive up to Chatham (currently known for a high population of Great White Sharks) to see the Chatham Lighthouse. Chatham is all the way east on the map above, right before the Cape goes upward :)

The beach across the street was pretty awesome as well...

I then took Eric down some questionable roads to a place called Monomoy Wildlife Refuge. Fortunately, I've taken Eric enough random places that he knows to trust me even if we end up at a few dead ends at first. Luckily we found it because it was a huge stretch of beautiful shoreline with very few people on it.

On Monday, Eric and I took a ferry over to Martha's Vineyard which is one of the islands off the coast of the Cape If you are from the US, Martha's Vineyard may be familiar to you as a lot of celebrities have summer houses at the Vineyard and President Obama visits the Vineyard every summer and is there right now, in fact!

I learned while I was on the island one of the reasons why celebrities enjoy visiting this island (aside from the overall beauty). Apparently, the "cool thing" to do in the vineyard if you see a celebrity is to just say hi and then go back to minding your own business. It's considered not okay to bother them in any way. I am actually impressed a system like this works so well considering all the visitors who may not know this, but perhaps people are just too busy enjoying their own vacation to bother with a random movie star, who knows?

The ferry ride over is definitely part of the fun of getting to the islands, and when we arrived in Oak Bluffs I was already happy about sitting outside with the wind in my hair for the past hour. I was made a lot more happy by the delicious lobster pasta I ordered at lunch (Giordano's Restaurant).

After lunch, Eric and I did a bus tour of the whole island. I still haven't decided if I would recommend this tour to others. The tour guide was good and knew a lot about the island, plus it was a good way to see Aquinnah Cliffs without a car. However, it was hard to see most other attractions from the road, so I think if I was going to do it again I'd probably fork over more money to rent a car for the day. The cliffs were pretty worth it though...

On Monday night we ate some Mexican food at Sharky's and then we stayed at one of my friend's from work's house. Her parents have a beautiful house not far from Oak Bluffs and it was fun to catch up with her since I haven't seen her since school ended. We also greatly appreciated having a clean place to stay since hotels aren't really the best on Martha's Vineyard and yet still seem to cost an arm and a leg! Tuesday morning we woke up and caught the bus to Vineyard Haven for a kayak tour. Eric's mom bought us this tour for our anniversary, and it was really, really cool. We got to kayak for a few hours around a lagoon. It was beautiful weather and flat calm water. I do have pictures but they are on my other camera and the guide's waterproof camera so you'll have to wait for those.

After the kayak tour, we headed back to Oak Bluffs to relax for awhile before our ferry would take us back to the Cape :)

Overall, I really like Martha's Vineyard. I probably would never spend a ton of time there seeing as it's very, very expensive and seems silly to ever get a place when I have a free one at the Cape. However, I would like to visit in the winter sometime to see what it's like without as many tourists.

Have you ever been on a ferry to get some where? Do you think that is part of the fun of the trip? Have you ever been to Martha's Vineyard?

New Camera Obsession

2011-08-21T12:33:00.000-04:00

When I first started blogging (2 1/2 years ago!), I learned what a DSLR camera was. Turned out my dad had one long before that, but I had no idea. Even then, I still thought it sounded pretty silly to buy an expensive camera to take pictures of food. Don't get me wrong, I love my food pictures, but not that much.

Even as recently as last Christmas Eric asked me if I wanted him to get me a really nice camera and I still wasn't sold. By then, I had seen the amazing photos they can produce, especially from my friend Kathy who takes amazing pictures of her kids (her real kids and her students) with her fancy camera. But I was still worried I just wouldn't want to carry around a huge camera. I think I'm pretty good at getting pictures, but a lot of that is that I ALWAYS have my camera.

Finally something clicked this summer and I was like, wait...I want to take cool jumping shots! Seriously though, I just realized that I still have a working point and shoot camera which I can continue to keep in my purse for everyday instances. That doesn't mean I can't carry an awesome camera around as much as possible for trips and random other fun. Now was as good a time as any to get one, I've worked hard all summer and I have a nice week to play with my camera in a beautiful place. So last night I bought myself the Canon Rebel T3 :)

I then immediately put Eric to work to test out my action shots...

(Don't worry, I do eventually learn how to do it without blurriness, still more to learn though!)

God, it must be fun to have me as a wife :)

This morning Eric and I went to go play golf which I happily agreed to because I knew it meant more action shots....

Plus, I like golf in the right conditions. Par 3 course, fast, beautiful place and using only the 7 iron and putter. Oh I'm sorry, is that not normal?

Also my golf game likes the camera, since I got it in on 2 shots on the hole where Eric took the picture of me. Score.

After golf I had to head to the beach to get some beach shots on the new camera.

Did I mention I love action shots?

Ah, happy vacation to me!! I don't know why I bother traveling around the world. The best places ever are definitely right in good ol' Massachusetts.

What's your new obsession this weekend?

10 Questions

2011-08-17T17:41:00.001-04:00

I don't know about everyone else, but I really enjoy reading question and answer posts sometimes just to change it up and learn more about the bloggers I read. Caitlin started the 10 Personal Questions posts and Amberparticipated yesterday, so it's time for me to join. Plus I really like these questions.

What are you really good at? What are you really bad at?

I'm really good at: planning trips, staying organized (though it may not look clean!), teaching kindergarten/teaching kids to read, getting along well with most people, waking up early, having a sense of humor (can you be good at that? maybe I should say I'm good at laughing), writing (I hope),

I'm really bad at: keeping things clean/cleaning, fixing things, fitting things into spaces in the best way possible (for example loading the dishwasher so it holds the most amount of stuff), sleeping in places I'm not comfortable, sleeping late, exercises that require you to remember routines such as dancing classes, remembering things not essential to my existence (in my defense, I consider a wide variety of things essential to my existence).

Have you ever been in a car accident? What happened?

I've been in one or two minor accidents, only one while I was driving and it wasn't my fault (knock on wood). Even so, I still really fear car accidents and Eric says I am a very cautious driver :) (he doesn't mean it as a compliment but I'll take it as one).

Why did you attend your college?

My dad went to Boston College so I grew up going to football games, wearing sweatshirts etc. I looked at a lot of places but ultimately just thought BC was so beautiful and such a good school. In reality, BC is both a really amazing and a really frustrating place in many different ways. There were times when I wished I chose a different place but I think being 5 years out of college now I can say with certainty that if I could do it over again, I'd do the same thing. I made fantastic friends and was well prepared for my job, which is really what is important!

Describe your morning routine today.

6:00- Woke up and took a shower

6:20- Ate breakfast, read some blogs, caught up on e-mail

6:50- Drove to work to get some prep done and start interviewing for aide positions.

This is pretty typical of my routine most of the day (other than the interviews obviously). Sometimes I wake up earlier and I usually move a little quicker in the morning during the year. I sometimes work out in the morning too, so I guess it varies a bit. This summer I've been showering mid day because that is when I've been working out. But this morning I decided to shower in the AM because I was at the Sox game last night and I'd be interviewing with my principal and although she's not interviewing me, she may not like it if I was dirty :)

Have you ever snooped through someone else’s things? Did you find anything interesting?

Hmm... I know I have, but I can't think of anyone in particular or anything interesting I found.

What do you think happens when you die?

What really happens? I have no idea. But what I like to think happens? We go to Heaven and it's the best! It's always the perfect temperature and sunny. There is teleportation so you never miss anyone because you can go anywhere, anytime. You get to live near and/or with all the wonderful people you loved in your life (who are there already). You get to meet your great-great grandmother, chat with George Washington... really whatever you want to do. I mean still teach in Heaven, but my day will be much shorter, I'll just teach the kids whatever I want, and the kids and parents will all be lovely. You can eat whatever tastes good with no regard for what is good for you. You can exercise, but only if you want to- no obligation. All people are the best versions of themselves. No one worries about time because we have endless time. Ah... dreams.

Are you superstitious?

Not really, but I do knock on wood :)

Do people think you are younger or older than you actually are?

It depends. Most of my life people have always thought I was younger, and that still happens sometimes when people go by looks alone. However, I think when people learn I'm married, have a house etc- they sometimes think I am older. People at work often think I am older too because I work with a lot of people 3-4 years older than me, and I think most people just see me as the same age as them.

How did your parents’ relationship influence you?

1. I believe good, long-lasting marriages are possible.

2. I believe good, long-lasting marriages involve a lot of work and a lot of patience.

3. I will not tolerate someone who does not love me and treat me like they love me.

Plus, probably in many other ways as well.

What were the three happiest moments of your life?

I have been so lucky to have SO many happy moments in my life, I can't pick 3. So I did top 3 in the last 10 years since I was 17. This was STILL hard because the whole year of 17 was a great year for me, but luckily I couldn't remember anything in particular so we will just say it was a great year but not one of my top 3 moments!

1. Arriving home from Australia after being on the other side of the world for 5+ months- my family and friends greeted me at the airport :)

2. During Eric and my Euro-trip 4 years ago, Eric and I went to Italy. One night while we were there, Italy was playing in the final World Cup game and EVERYONE in Rome was inside watching the game. Except us. Eric and I roamed the streets of Rome, walking by ourselves around the Colosseum. It was a great moment and one of my favorite memories from that amazing trip.

3. My wedding ceremony (cliche, but very true) + sitting at my reception, by myself for a second, looking around the place and just knowing that everyone was there because they love me + Eric and support us. Also related to the wedding, I was really happy my entire honeymoon haha... I'm cheating, I know!

Answer 1 or more of these questions in the comments!

New York City: The Good and The Not-As-Good

2011-08-15T21:01:00.001-04:00

I'm hoping to finish up my trip to NYC in blog form today, so this post will be a mix of recommendations, tips and of course, my own experience in New York City. I hope you enjoy!

Things I Love About NYC

1. Food. Obviously I love food, and I also love convenient food. I love being able to walk to get my food. So when I'm staying in a hotel with Starbucks across the street, delicious frozen yogurt just steps from the front door, Whole Foods in the basement (not kidding), I am a very happy girl. Oh, and I should probably mention New York City clearly has some of the best restaurants out there. Some recommendations for special occasions? (If you are going to take these recommendations check prices first, I was celebrating with my family so this was out of the Kelly and Eric budget range).

Morimoto, home of the Iron Chef- Eric was psyched when he learned this was on our itinerary and the food was seriously delicious. I want some more lobster fritters right now...

or the striped bass special would be great as well...

But the best part of the restaurant? The bathrooms. I'm serious. I would seriously consider going into this restaurant just for a drink, JUST to try the bathroom. They have heated seats!!!! My mom and Eric thought they lost me in there but I was simply recovering from being freezing my whole meal. Oh, and taking a picture of how gorgeous the stall was...

Asiante- A very fancy restaurant, and a perfect place to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We had a gorgeous view of New York and perfect food. I got sea bass with potato noodles...

We got a taste of several desserts to celebrate- they were all good, but I only got a picture of the birthday cake :)

We also came back to this restaurant for an end of trip brunch on Sunday morning (and a change of pace from Starbucks haha). I got the best apple french toast, yum...

Trattoria Dell'Arte- amazing Italian food, perfect for a pre-theater meal :) I got my typical plain pasta, but I'm telling you, you can totally judge an Italian restaurant by this meal...

2. Views. But you already knew that if you read my post yesterday :)

3. Spending quality time with the fam. I love any opportunity to spend time with my awesome parents and siblings. New York gave us that opportunity this summer and so I love it for it :)

4. Historical Sights and Museums. No one could ever see there is not enough to do in New York City. I'm pretty sure you could spend an entire summer touring New York every day and you may not have even explored Manhattan fully. I definitely had to give in to the desire to do it all this weekend, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the stuff we did do!

5. Relaxing in the hotel. We had this awesome seat in our hotel room that I wanted to bring home with me. The view and time to read trashy magazines also added to the greatness. I used to hate celebrity gossip magazines but I've recently decided the ridiculousness of them is a total stress reliever for me. Random, I know.

6. Broadway Shows. I have mixed feelings about musicals in general. I love Glee, but some musicals are just a bit much for me. Granted I was in 13 years old, but what the heck even HAPPENED in Cats? Anyone? However, I saw Wicked this weekend and it was fantastic. As in, go see it now fantastic. Even Eric liked it and I would say he is much less of a musical person than I am. See it. Now.

If you need any extra incentive, they have a full bar and they serve the drinks in cool travel mugs that you get to keep.

Things I Do Not Love About NYC

1. The Crowds. No matter where you walk, you WILL be dodging people. There is no method to the madness and it's every man for himself. I probably have bruises just from walking around the city.

2. The Lines. Okay, so to be fair, this probably goes with the crowds, but it's more specific than that. The Empire State Building was seriously a joke when it came to lines. We must have waited in like 12 different lines and when we finally got on the elevator, it only took us up to the 80th floor. When my mom questioned why we were not at 86, Eric joked that they wanted us to wait in another line. Turned out, he was RIGHT! Luckily we avoided this line by walking up the 6 flights (which turned out to be more than 6 but anyways). The Statue of Liberty was another story. They dealt with the lines better, but they loved this crazy herding technique and all I can say is, it's a wonder there has not yet been a stampede! My tips? #1- I don't think the Empire State Building is a total must, I've heard better things about the Top of the Rock and apparently there are no crazy lines. I'll probably try it next time I am there. #2- I don't think you HAVE to actually go to the Statue of Liberty personally. Take one of the many boats that goes near it and you'll get a great view. I've read good things about the free Staten Island ferry and my parents did a great hop on hop off boat that went right by it too. If you really want to go to the island, just make sure you arrive at Battery Park early. The line was twice as long as we were leaving.

3. Ellis Island. Okay, so I don't actually "hate" Ellis Island, but it can't go on the love list either. I was pretty excited about going there but... maybe I was missing something? I just didn't find it that interesting at all... It's probably worth a stop if you are at the Statue of Liberty anyway, but I personally don't think you are missing much if you decide to skip it.

Tell me what you love and don't love about New York, or about your own city if you've never been to New York.

Views from New York City

2011-08-14T18:43:00.000-04:00

It's always hard to come home from a fun vacation. But when I have a short trip with spotty internet, it is fun to put all my pictures from the weekend on my computer at once and see the trip as a whole through my snapshots. The theme of this vacation was definitely "beautiful views." And so, I must share them with you...

From Hotel, of Central Park & The City...

From 10th Ave, of The High Line (park build above the road on an old railroad track)...

From 86th Floor Empire State Building, of Manhattan...

From Miss Liberty, of Statue of Liberty...

From Second Floor, Great Hall on Ellis Island

From Battery Park City, construction of One World Trade Center at Ground Zero

From Dad's Birthday Dinner Table, of wall of wine bottles...

From Fifth Avenue, of St. Patrick's Cathedral...

From Fifth Avenue, of Times Square...

From Balcony Seats, of Emerald City (Wicked)

Tomorrow I'll be back with some photos of me and my family in New York, and of course some views of the food :) Stay tuned!

How was your weekend? What is your favorite "view" in the world?

Bill from Guess Who... oh, I mean "Looking Forward"

2011-08-09T21:10:00.000-04:00

I love when Lisa does her Looking Forward posts, so here is mine :)

Today.... sucks, why do you think I decided to do a Looking Forward post? Lol. Seriously though, today was a rough day. I was at tutoring at 7:15 this morning and still there at 6:15 at night, that's never a good day especially in the summer. Plus I had a parent who was an hour late to pick up at summer school today. I totally understand things happen/communication troubles/emergencies etc. What I'm really pissed about is the program I work for, everyone just left- so I was responsible for hanging out unpaid for an hour when I was supposed to be at a meeting. I left my former summer program because I hated how disorganized it was, but now God is spiting me now because this is MUCH worse. I think from now on I will only work for myself in the summer. Lesson learned. Time to move forward!!!

On the positive side, I did get to tutor one of my all-time favorite kids today. She is going into fifth grade and I just love that age (to hang out with, I don't love the curriculum and psycho testing). I got her to start reading "Because of Winn Dixie" today, and we talked about how much we both love the game "Guess Who?" Seriously, do you remember that game? She refers to Bill as egghead. In case you don't memorize your Guess Who characters... here he is...

Ah, good memories.

This week... I am going to New York City with my family!!!! Wahoo! Eric has never been to NYC so I am going to do a lot of touristy things with him. Also, I haven't seen Caroline since she moved to Connecticut at the beginning of July, so that is really exciting too.

This month... I will spend a little over a week in Cape Cod, relaxing and truly enjoying the summer. This will be my first true vacation of the summer and I feel like I really, really, really deserve it. I can't wait to do fun touristy stuff and read a lot of books all week long :)

This year... I have so much to look forward to! In September, I have 2 weddings both of which are going to be fun. In October, I go to Chicago to watch Caroline run the marathon. In December, I go to Florida because winter in Boston is terrible haha. In June next year I have 3 weddings, and then in July I go to Seattle/Vancouver for Amber's wedding. Oh, and because I sometimes look forward to things other than trips (rarely), I also am excited about some of my future kiddos- lots of great siblings I've been looking forward to getting to know better. And, I can't wait to run another 5K with Eric in September and who knows what else the year will bring...

See? These posts just make me feel SO much more positive. What are you looking forward to?

Work for Love?

2011-08-08T20:29:00.001-04:00

This weekend was fantastic. We joined Eric's family and family friends for a weekend in New Hampshire. We go once a year, and I've now been 7 times... one time every summer Eric and I have been together :) It's a tradition!

We stopped on the way up at the Budweiser Brewery. It was my second time going, but I never mind doing a brewery again, I can always try new beers. This time I got a Shock Top Raspberry Wheat Ale that was delicious.

Once we arrived in NH for the weekend, it was basically a time of relaxation, drinking, eating, and hanging out with each other. Oh, I should throw in reading to that too- I finally finished Mystic River and I was SO curious who killed the girl, I couldn't put it down.

Oh and did I mention the boat? Boats are seriously my happy space. Specifically, I love sitting in the front seat of a boat, with my legs up and it's best if it's in a calm lake so I don't get seasick at all haha- very picky I know. But it's my happy place so I can be picky if I want to.

Ah zen at it's finest. Except maybe snorkeling with the manta rays. Man, why can't I just find zen in yoga class like a normal person!?

So, I was thinking... I'm busy this summer and I do sometimes find myself annoyed with how much I have to do even though teachers "don't work in the summer." On the other hand, I don't think it's a coincidence that my moments of zen happen in July and August. I am much MUCH less stressed out in the summer even with a busy work schedule.

Why? Mainly because although my summer jobs are boring, there is simply not as much pressure involved. At summer school my only goal is to keep the kids from moving backwards academically (thank God because I could never move these kids forward in only 2 days a week!). At tutoring, there is also much less pressure. All kids will make SOME progress with 1:1 tutoring, and most of them have not made a lot of progress before tutoring so basically any progress is appreciated by their parents. I do a lot of planning for tutoring, but if I slack a bit one day, it's not the same as having nothing to do with 21 kindergartners!

So the question is, why don't I become a reading specialist or something that would be more similar to my summer job? Because honestly I just don't love it. Sure, I LOVE teaching kids to read, especially kids where it may be a struggle. But I like the balance, it's fun to have some kids who LOVE reading, it's fun to throw in math and science and social skills. It's fun to take the kids to recess and dare I say, it's even fun to report progress to parents (when it's all good news of course). It's fun to have special days like pajama day. It's fun to go through the whole journey with the kids. So that's why I do it. But I do wonder if at some point, I'll stop caring about the fun and just want something a little bit... easier (read: less stressful).

I was talking to my best friend Katie about this tonight and we decided we are the same way about this. So, what about you guys? Would you do a job you love even if it was really hard? Do you do this now? Or would you rather do an easier but maybe more boring job and therefore have more energy for the rest of life? I go back and forth on this, so there is no right answer. I think many people find that at different times in their life they can tolerate different things at work :)

Wine and Love

2011-08-04T21:25:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Nora for bringing us yet another week of Wine and Love...

Wine

1. This week I wished I was the type of person/teacher who just said f-it in the summer, and enjoyed life instead of slowing torturing myself with one annoying summer job after another, always hoping somehow I will find that perfect balance between working too little and working too much. And that maybe, just once, I'll actually enjoy something I do in the summer while also making money.

2. Progress reports should not be required in summer school. They told me my job was only to make sure the kids don't regress, not necessarily to make progress (of course I thought they've make progress but frankly, that was before I saw the group, no one is actually independent enough for me to even find out if they've made progress). So, if that's my job, why am I being asked to report on their progress? I don't get paid enough for this.

Love

1. Nothing says summer to me like lobster so when my mom texted me the other night that she had extra lobster and would I like to come by and get some, I was immediately in a better mood.

2. I had a good week on the workout front. This morning Eric and I hit up the track and did some sprints and now I am nice and sore. Love it. In case you were wondering, no, I cannot keep up with Eric sprinting... his legs are much longer than mine haha.

3. Weeknight dinners out are the best. Eric and I went to dinner with Katie and Adam on Tuesday night this week and it was definitely the highlight of the week. It feels like a weekend to me when I'm drinking wine on a Tuesday.

I do like my job, but I find my "wines" are often about it. I disagree with the quote about finding something you love and you'll never work a day in your life. Work will always, no matter how much you love it, have things about it that are frustrating and just the fact that you have to do it will be annoying sometimes. Sometimes I think it's good though, it makes you appreciate the moments when you don't have to do anything and you can just enjoy time with wonderful people. That's my optimistic view on it anyway- must be because I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me!

Where to Eat: Cape Cod Edition

2011-08-03T19:28:00.000-04:00

Returning from oblivion to offer a post I've been meaning to write for awhile. This will probably be the first of a couple of editions, there are a LOT of good restaurants at the Cape- I can't cover them all in one post. Even if you never go to the Cape and/or live very far away, I hope you'll enjoy some of the yummy pictures of food :)

Inaho- Yarmouthport

Inaho tops my list of places to eat at the Cape because it really is just, THAT good. It's a Japanese restaurant on Route 6A in what likely used to be a house. I've featured pictures of my favorite dish, the eggplant miso yaki, many times on the blog. A couple of weeks ago I got a fantastic cod special pictured below. I don't think I've ever had even a just-okay meal at this restaurant, it's that good.

For a little more budget Japanese food, I'd also recommend Misaki in Hyannis. There is no view here, but if you think you'll miss it, you can always order take out and then have a picnic on the beach!

Ocean House- Dennisport

Eric and I chose to have our rehearsal dinner at Ocean House so clearly we love the place. It's easily the best food in the area and the view of the ocean is a very lucky bonus. I've tried several different lobster dishes here including the lobster asparagus pizza, lobster pad thai and the full-on LOBSTER haha, all were amazing!

The Regatta- Cotuit

My parents have been talking about this restaurant for as long as I can remember. A few years ago, while I took pictures at Katie's wedding, they took my friends there for drinks and appetizers and then THEY started talking about how great it was. It was clearly time to try it. Eric and I joined my parents for dinner at The Regatta a few weeks ago and it definitely lived up to expectations. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Five Bays Bistro- Osterville

My parents describe this restaurant as New York in the Cape. It definitely has a great atmosphere. Some reviews have noted that it can get loud, but I teach kindergarten so I don't notice the kind of loudness other people do :) Like the other restaurants I mentioned, the food is amazing.

Spanky's Clam Shack- Hyannis

Spanky's is much more casual than all of the places I've recommended so far, but it definitely deserves to be on the list. It's in a great location right on the water near lots of boats. Not every table has a view, but if you get lucky you'll be able to see a lot of boats leaving and returning in the harbor. The cocktails and food are good, but it has more of a fried seafood menu than upscale food :) If fried food is not your thing, I highly recommend the Lobster Ceasar Salad. I've recommended that exact dish to a bunch of Eric's friends who were in the area for a wedding a few years ago and they not only loved it the first time, they went back when they were back at the Cape the next summer!

After you eat all this delicious food, you may feel the need to burn off some calories. Then, you should hit up the Shining Sea Bikeway or the Cape Cod Rail Trail- both beautiful places for a run, bike or rollerblade.

The Cape Cod Rail Trail is SO Cape Cod it even has it's own rotary, haha!

I challenge you to find a bike path with a more gorgeous view than Shining Sea Bikeway!

If anyone who actually comments has been to any of these restaurants, do let me know. Otherwise, tell me how you feel about recommending things to people. I have serious anxiety when it comes to recommendations. I'm always worried people are going to come back and be like "Kelly, that completely sucked." So, I only recommend something if I am like 90-100% sure it is THAT awesome. What about you, do you like making recommendations on places to visit, books, restaurants, movies etc?

Wine and Love, Friday Edition

2011-07-29T12:12:00.001-04:00

I'm a bit late to the party this week, but I just can't seem to get much other than work accomplished Monday-Thursday. I guess that is the price I may for my Fridays off. A price that is well worth it, I may add.

You must know the Wine and Love drill by now. If not, too bad :) I know you guys are all smart so you'll figure it out.

Wine

1. My kiddos are getting sick of tutoring right now and I really don't blame them. Tutoring is a good job, it pays well and you can see the kids make a lot of progress. Even though I try really hard to make it fun (and I think I do a better job than most), it's still extra work they don't want to be doing. Ideally, both I and all of them would be going away next week so everyone could take a break- but I decided to take my vacation in a few weeks so, they are just going to have to deal with me for a little while longer :)

2. I've finally started working on my wedding album (yes, 1 year later) and I was going through pictures on shutterfly (I decided to use that instead of my DVD because the DVD takes longer to load). Well, apparently I uploaded all my photographers pictures except for oh like 5 or 10 which are just randomly not there. WHY? I'm telling you this always, always happened during wedding planning to me. I'd put people on the guest list and they would disappear. I'd have someone's address and BAM it would be gone. I would think I confirmed with the hair person and then she would say, no, we never talked about this. Etc, etc. So happy wedding planning is over :)

3. Social events at the same time. Sure, there are times when it's sort of convenient to have two events at once, mainly when you don't really want to go to one haha. However, this Sunday I have my cousins bridal shower at the same time as one of my friends is having an ice cream sundae birthday party. I'm excited to see all my family at the shower and hang out at my grandmother's house, but I don't pass up ice cream sundae's easily. It should also be mentioned that this same friend had a similar birthday party when we were in elementary school and I may or may not have gotten sick from eating so many delightful treats back then. Hmm, maybe this two events conflict for a reason...

Love

1. I genuinely love all the kids I'm working with this summer- which of course makes it harder to torture them, but it does make the time more enjoyable. One of the kids I'm working with LOVES Red Sox stats. It's been a lot of fun to "have to" (for the job that is, haha) get back into all the details of the Sox that I haven't had time for the past couple of years. Last weekend our manager won his 1,000th game, one of our pitchers (Tim Wakefield) got his 2,000th strike out. This week David Ortiz hit his 1000th RBI, a grand slam! Also, Dustin Pedroia is currently in the midst of a 25 game hitting streak. Since I'm really not a math person, it's all a bit challenging for me but it's fun to try to keep up with him. Maybe you wouldn't understand unless you have also attempted to keep up with the Star Wars and Pokemon crazes- I do my best but I just have NO interest what-so-ever in those two topics of conversation haha.

2. Long weekends. I really just love them. What more can I say about that?

3. Beating a food rut- or at least trying. I have been in a total food rut for awhile, but not really in the mood to cook and try new recipes. Last weekend I ate at some really awesome restaurants at the Cape with my parents (I'll review them soon, I took a lot of pictures). Then, this week I got newly motivated to try new recipes and by try, I mean bookmark like 10 recipes from Eat Live Run and Peas and Thank You. So I WILL be trying them soon. I'm just happy that my motivation has returned.

How about you? What is your wine and love this week?

Who's Responsibility Is It? (aka The Happy Meal Make Over)

2011-07-26T21:01:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone :) I hope everyone is having a happy Tuesday. I had a happy, but busy Tuesday. I had work and tutoring and I spent the time in between at school organizing. I cleaned out all my desk drawers, and 4 cabinets. The only thing I really have left to tackle is a few shelves and a closet. When I first started teaching my closet was a scary place to enter- I don't think it had been cleaned in YEARS. I found an old typewriter among other random things in there. Luckily now everything in that closet is mine, so it won't be as hard to reorganize this time. Then I can deal with actually getting ready for the year. My goal is to have things done early this year because Eric and I are going to the Cape for a week at the end of August and I don't want to have to think about it then :)

Have you heard the latest news about the Happy Meal? It's getting a makeover!

The changes are:

1. The addition of apple slices to all happy meals.

2. The reduced portion of french fries.

3. Two additional choices for a drink including fat free chocolate milk and 1% low-fat white milk.

This new happy meal (if the child gets 1% milk) has 410 calories, 19 grams of fat and 560 milligrams of sodium. These changes come as a response to some cities banning toys from happy meals because they were concerned about the nutritional quality of a happy meal. McDonalds in general are trying to make some positive changes in their menu which you can read about in the article: Happy Meal Gets a Makeover.

As a healthy person, teacher and wife of a PE teacher- I have to say I am psyched about the big focus the US seems to be putting on reducing the problem of childhood obesity right now. It seems that thanks to Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver and others, people are actually trying to change things- which is wonderful. I see such differences in the snacks and lunches of students in my class- just today I had a student with grapes and almonds for a snack and another with chips.

I am not one of those people who feels that kids have to eat healthy ALL the time. I think childhood is a time for baked treats (think brownies, cookies and cake!), the occasional bag of cheesy doritos and I couldn't possibly mention childhood without the ever popular candy! But it's also an important time to instill good eating habits in children and provide them with healthy choices on a daily basis.

I think that changing the foods served in schools and improving the nutritional value of happy meals are good steps in the right direction. However, I think something that is going to be SO hard to change, but so important is the parental influence. Parents HAVE to set a good example. Sure, it's GREAT if a kid has a "healthier" happy meal, but if the parent gets a big mac with a super size french fries... where are we then? Sure, today the child is still better off, but what about when they become a teenager, or even an adult- they may not be able to make healthy choices for themselves.

Do you think that it is enough for parents to provide their children with "healthier" (sorry I still can't call a happy meal healthy) choices when they themselves may not be making healthy choices?

How do you think we can educate and encourage parents to make healthy choices for themselves and their whole family?

PS. We also have to stop cutting PE and recess if we want healthy kids, but that's a post for another day :)

Seven Links

2011-07-25T20:42:00.000-04:00

Last week Amber tagged me in the Seven Links post that has been going around in the blog world :)

I've found it fun to read this on other blogs because I got to read posts I hadn't read before, or revisit ones I had. So, I hope you will have some fun reading some of my old posts!

Most Beautiful Post: Never Gonna Feel Like This Again

This post is my summary of the reception part of my wedding. Obviously the pictures are beautiful, but also it's a beautiful memory of all the love that I felt on that day.

Most Popular Post: Blame It On The Boyfriend

I can't really figure out my stats lately (it keeps saying my most recent posts are the most popular, which I know is a lie) so I just picked a very popular post where I got a lot of comments. This was when I wrote about whether or not being in a relationship/marriage makes you gain weight :) Has it for you?

Most Controversial Post: The 25 Year Old Troublemaker

As it turns out, I do NOT have a very controversial blog. I really have not had any controversial posts, so I posted the one about getting in trouble for talking in spinning class. A few people did mention that they agree talking should not happen, so that's my controversy haha. Especially because I still maintain they are wrong :)

Most Helpful Post: Elliptical Challenge

Apparently I'm not that helpful on my blog because this one was hard. However, I did a fun Elliptical Challenge with some of my readers awhile ago and I think that was really helpful getting us through January 2009 :) So...yes. I am super unhelpful. Gotta work on that.

A Post Who's Success Surprised You: Do You Tell All?

This was my post about how much people tell in blogging and whether or not they've ever fought with someone about their blogging :)

A Post You Feel Did Not Get the Attention It Deserved: Just For Fun

Rookie blogger mistake, I should have given this post a better title than "Just For Fun" haha. Anyway, I didn't really have a post that I felt should've gotten more attention because I don't really think in that way about my blog. However, this post was the one I did with Eric about what constitutes "cheating" and I think a lot of people may not have read it since it was at the beginning of my blogging days. Sorry in advance that the spacing is terrible!

The Post You Are Most Proud Of: Officially a Sprint Triathlete

This one was easy! Completing a sprint tri, especially after hurting my knee was a huge accomplishment and I definitely hope to do it again sometime :)

That was fun :) If you have a blog, link us to your answer to one of these!

Kelly's Favorite Things

2011-07-22T09:50:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite things about blogging is getting ideas for new foods to eat, exercises to try, and things to do in general. That's why I especially like when Sues does her favorite things posts on We Are Not Martha. It's the perfect way to get new ideas for things to love. I decided today I'll do my own, and hopefully you'll get an idea or two. Enjoy :)

The Carrot and Grape Combination

Yes, I realize I just started with a pretty random one. I've been taking carrots and grapes to work for my morning snack and I just love this combination. First of all it's practical for me right now because both carrots and grapes can be out of the fridge for a few hours and I don't have access to one as I run around to different tutoring houses. Also, I love that it's very crunchy- something about eating crunchy foods makes me feel like I'm really eating something. Finally, the combination of the really sweet/sour grape with the less sweet carrots is just perfect. Plus, they are good for you.

Summer Country Music

I think I've now liked country music for about 12 years, so that's nothing new. But I do have some new songs I love including:

Take a Back Road, Rodney Atkins

Dirt Road Anthem, Jason Aldean

Without You, Keith Urban

Crazy Girl, Eli Young Band

If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away, Justin Moore

Barefoot Blue Jean Night, Jake Owen

Just a Kiss, Lady Antebellum

Knee Deep, Zac Brown Band

Seriously, all good. Download them all. If you don't like country, then reconsider that and download them all :)

Peter Christian's Honey Mustard

Remember a few weeks ago Eric and I went to one of my all time favorite restaurants in New London, NH? Well, they also happen to have the BEST honey mustard ever. I really don't even like mustard, but I somehow love this. I was really hoping to tell you guys you could buy it online (also cuz I need more) but sadly, they don't sell it online. So, obviously you need to make a trip to New Hampshire. And so do I.

Slimcados

Lol, the name cracks me up. Basically, it's a huge avocado with less fat than a normal avocado, fabulous. I love taste so when I'm not smearing honey mustard all over my sandwiches, I am spreading avocado across the bread. Yum.

Reading, Reading, Reading

Summer isn't all about teaching the kiddos how to read, it's also about catching up on my own reading. For a list of the books I have read and loved recently, visit my New Meaning of Summer Reading post.

Iphone Auto Correct

Truth be told, I don't have an iphone, but I can definitely appreciate a good laugh over the absolute HILARIOUS auto corrects that people have experienced. I was literally dying while I was reading the conversations on this website to Eric, it was hard to read I was laughing so hard. I will warn you, they aren't exactly G rated, but hilarious anyway! When I get an iphone the FIRST thing I am going to do is turn autocorrect OFF!

Erin Condren Life Planner

Okay fine, so I don't love this life planner yet because I haven't got it. But ever since Amber blogged about it last November, I've been waiting for the 2011-2012 life planner to come out (I had a new planner at the time) so I could get it. I just ordered mine last night and I could not be more excited for it to arrive in a couple of weeks. I'll show you it when it does :)

What are your favorite things right now? Please share!

Summer Lovin'

2011-07-17T18:43:00.001-04:00

Oh summer, how I love thee. This weekend has been busy and great. I don't mind busy weekends in the summer because I don't feel like I need to savor every second of down time!

Friday

On Thursday and Friday night Eric and I went out for delicious dinners- first with friends and then with my parents on Friday. We went to a place I've mentioned once before called Masa. Masa has two locations, one in the South End of Boston and one in Woburn. First of all they have cornbread, which I honestly could make a meal out of it- it's so good. Last time I got a cod dish, but this time I tried the Pan Roasted Cod with New England Chowder Salsa (I got on the side). It came with fingerling potatoes, lardons and chile broth.

I thought it was great again :)

Saturday

Saturday was Eric's grandmother's 80th birthday! Do you believe she had grandkids when she was in her late 40s? Amazing. Saturday morning I woke up in a Martha Stewart mode so I decided to make chocolate dipped strawberries and s'mores on a stick.

For some reason I get worried about bringing things to parties, maybe because most of what I can eat doesn't taste that awesome to everyone else. However, these were big hits and the only real concern I had bringing them was whether they would make it there in Eric's back seat, which they did!

The party took place in Eric's uncle and aunt's backyard. They had a tent and all went well :)

We got a whole family shot including Eric's grandmother and great uncle. Sorry to be a sketchball and blur out the little boy- I get really paranoid about putting kids up on my blog without asking their parents. He's a cute kid though- and I believe he is Eric's second cousin. I've made some effort to understand second cousins vs. cousins once removed, so assuming his mom is Eric's dad's cousin (which I think is the case) then I have it right :)

Finally, by far the best picture of the day was...

Good thing she is happily obvious to what is going on behind her :)

Sunday

In case we had not done enough this weekend, today Eric and I decided to go explore Concord and see some historical sites at the Minuteman Historical Park. We started with a quick history review multimedia presentation at the visitor center which was great. If you don't really know much about the Battles of Lexington and Concord and you are interested, there is some information on the Minuteman Historical Park's website. The park itself begins in Lincoln, and it includes a walking/bike riding trail that visits many of the sites. However, it's about 10 miles to walk if you go there and back and it was over 90 degrees today, so we just drove :)

One of my goals for this summer has been to explore Concord, mainly because I am tutoring a kiddo out there in the "country" and I figure why not? Of course, I tutor him at 7 am, so I'm not sure what brilliant things I think I am going to do at 8 am, but it's a really beautiful place: trees everywhere and lots of wildlife.

We packed ourselves some turkey sandwiches so we could have a picnic lunch, so we enjoyed that at our second stop which was Hartwell Tavern. This was the home of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell and it was also a successful farm and tavern where visitors would stop on their way to and from Boston :)

I don't think Eric would've enjoyed visiting this tavern as much as the people in the 1700s did...

Yeah, he can't stand up straight in this old tavern :) Let's just say Eric and I will not be buying an old historic home anytime soon! Also, at Hartwell Tavern we saw a great presentation called "Who were the Redcoats?"

(The building behind is a result of our crazy winter- don't let too much snow pile up on an old home!)

We skipped a few other historic homes along the way, so we'll have to go back to visit on a bit cooler of a day. Our last stop was at the Old North Bridge, official site of the battle of Concord :)

There is still a lot more I'd like to do in Concord: Walden Pond State Reservation and kayaking on the Concord River to name a few. I'll let you know when those happen.

For now, we are sitting around watching the first Harry Potter movie. Believe it or not, I haven't seen ANY of them and the excitement of the last one coming out is getting to Eric so he's decided he wants to watch all of them. I agreed as long as I can have my computer with me at all times, long movies are not my thing. I did love the first three books though, then they got a little too fantasy for my book taste :)

How was your weekend? Do you enjoy visiting historical sites? Are you into the Harry Potter movies?

A New Meaning of Summer Reading

2011-07-15T08:28:00.001-04:00

Remember when Summer Reading was a stack of really boring books that had to be completed during our much deserved time off? Yuck.

Now that I get to choose my own books for summer reading (books that do NOT suck), it's a lot more fun. I know a lot of my blog readers enjoy reading as much as I do so I have some book recommendations for you guys:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This book was definitely one of the top books I've read this year. It's about a girl from an Indian orphanage who is adopted by an American mom and Indian father (both living in the states) who can't have biological children. The book follows her struggle with understanding her Indian heritage, her birth parents etc. It also follows the struggle of her birth mom (in India) and adoptive mother and her grandmother (Dad's mom, also in India). It was a really great story, and I think most girls or moms who have gone through the teen years with their moms/daughters can probably relate to this story :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Okay, I realize I am seriously late to the party on this book. I actually took it out of the library last year and couldn't get into it at first- I must have had too much going on or something. I decided to give it another shot this year and I absolutely loved it this time. If you have somehow managed to not read this yet like I hadn't, you should read it now :)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

At first I was not sold on the interesting writing style of this book, and the fact that it is narrated by "Death." However, i was quickly won over by the amazing characters. Liesel, the little girl and her foster parents are all amazing, though at times quirky people. I also came to love Lisesel's best friend Rudy and Max, the Jewish man who hides in Liesel's basement (should've probably mentioned this book takes place in Nazi Germany). I could easily read another book featuring all of these people. I read this book pretty fast, but it's not an easy book to read, and the writing does make it confusing at times (which makes me thankful I read it in real-book form because I had to go back occasionally to check things). Personally, I felt the book had a positive message about what people are capable of and friendship/family, but it's not really a happy ending- so if you need that, this book may not be for you.

When I originally posted, I forgot one other book I read this summer so I'm adding it now :)

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This book is a true story (I think, don't hold me to that) about a homeless man and a wealthy art dealer who become friends. The story was good, but it did move a bit slow at times (probably because it is real). Also, it was quite a bit more religious than I expected it to me, which wasn't a problem for me but it's something to be aware of. Again, not exactly a super happy ending, but a good read all the same.

I am now reading Little Bee, so I'll let you know how that is when I'm done with it.

Have you read any good books lately? Please share!

Have you read any great books lately?

Burlington VT, Days 2 and 3

2011-07-13T21:32:00.001-04:00

Finally catching up on the rest of Eric and my 1 Year Anniversary Trip :) You can read about the first part here.

On Saturday morning, Eric and I decided to go rollerblading on the Burlington Bike Path. The view was amazing...

Both of us are comfortable on rollerblades, but the path was a bit more challenging than we expected...

We still managed to do a good amount of the path despite the obstacles, and it was definitely a good work out.

Next up, we hit a crepe placed called The Skinny Pancake for lunch. I was a little nervous because the reviews were not the best, but everything they said was totally wrong. The food came fast and it was amazing. I got the "Heart Breaker" which was a strawberry and banana crepe covered with Nutella. It was amazing and brought me back to my amazing crepe place in Australia called Pancakes on the Rocks (if you are ever in Sydney, go there).

Post-delicious crepe it was time for Eric to find his friend Champ. In case you are not familiar with Champ, he is an under water lake monster who lives in Lake Champlain. Eric visited Nessie in Loch Ness five years ago, so he is starting to reach his dream of swimming with all the lake monsters.

Even I put my feet in, it was too cold for me though!

In the afternoon, we stopped back at our hotel to get ready to visit the wineries. We stayed at Green Mountain Suites in South Burlington, which was about 10 minutes away from the downtown area. It was a pretty central location especially for exploring a bit outside of Burlington (where the breweries and wineries are) so that was great.

Overall, I really liked the hotel. It was all suites, so we got a bedroom and then separate living/kitchen area. I love having a full size fridge for water bottles and leftovers when on vacation! The other great things were free breakfast (and not a terrible one either), free internet and on weeknights they have a free dinner (only one choice but still) and free beer and wine from 5-7pm. Amazing! It's so funny to me how much MORE you get sometimes at a cheaper hotel. However, the one thing I did not love was the overall smell of the place haha- I really don't know what it was because everything seemed clean but particularly the stairways smelled terrible. Perhaps I am crazy but Eric agreed. Still probably worth staying here though because you can always open windows and there were so many other great things about it.

Enough about that, lets get to the wine! We started at Shelburne Vineyards which is about 20 minutes away from Burlington. All the wine was delicious and the girl who did our tasting was awesome. She's moving to Ireland next year to start her own business where she will lead people on writing tours of Ireland. Awesome? Yes.

After, we headed down the street to Charlotte Valley Winery to taste some more wine. Their view was beautiful...

The wine was good too, but the girl doing it was not as much fun, so we enjoyed our first winery a bit more :) They are both worth a visit though.

For dinner, we visited another Burlington eatery, L'Amante. I ordered a fish special which was delicious...

Plus they served hummus with their bread, which automatically makes me love them.

The last part of our trip happened on Sunday morning when we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way home. It's about 40 minutes outside of Burlington so it makes sense to go on the way up or back.

I expected the Ben and Jerry's to be one the major highlights of our trip, but it was actually a little disappointing. I mean, the sample of mint chocolate chunk was delicious, but there were WAY too many people on the tour (even though they have tours every 15 minutes I think!). It was also just kind of corny in general, and this is a kindergarten teacher saying this.... so it was probably super corny to the average person. Also the line to get ice cream after was insane and wasn't moving so we decided to just wait until we can go to a scoop shop our next ice cream. Oh well! Eric and I are always cranky on

Sundays leaving a fun weekend so maybe it was that :)

Overall, I liked Burlington. It's a great weekend trip from Boston. It's definitely a beautiful area and there was more to do than I even expected when I first booked it. However, I don't think I'll be back any time too soon. I have much higher expectations for a place I visit in the summer because I need it to be significantly better than a weekend at the Cape or in New Hampshire to be worth my while to return. Hawaii was that, but Vermont really wasn't for me. Glad we went though :)

What are some weekend trips you go on from your house? Are they awesome enough that you would recommend them to a visitor coming from out of state/out of your area?

The First Year

2011-07-12T14:54:00.001-04:00

Sorry about my weird blogging schedule recently. I've had a really hard time adjusting to my new schedule since I normally blog at night, but now get home later than usual most nights. However, I have a weird gap in the middle of the day most days so hopefully I can start blogging mid-day a little more frequently. Also, I am aware that I still have not blogged about the rest of my trip to Burlington, Vermont yet, but I couldn't let another day pass without saying:

It was Eric and my anniversary on July 10th :) Wahoo!

One of my friends once told me that the first year of everything sucks. Many times in my life this has been completely true. My first year of high school was rough. My first year of college was hard. Let's not even DISCUSS my first year of teaching! I still loved high school, and college, and teaching- just not the first year of any of them!

For me though, my first year of marriage was not one of those things. The first year of marriage was glorious :)

Here are some highlights of married life so far:

*An amazing honeymoon in Hawaii...

*Finishing a 5K together...

*Other fun trips...

But it wasn't all trips and finish lines. It was also just the day to day that continued to be as awesome as it was for the 5 years before we got married. Some of the day to day highlights were:

*Laughing. More than 13 times a day (apparently that's the amount the average person laughs- that person does not have Eric as a husband.... and probably doesn't teach kindergarten either).

*Went for walks and runs. Whether we just wandered around our neighborhood or ventured down to the res for a longer stroll, this was something we were more consistent about this year and it was the best.

*Made fun of ourselves. One of the best things about Eric is that he is fantastic at making fun of himself. The two of us really never get mad at each other about household duties, we just laugh about it. Same with 99% of other things that we do/say etc. It's a lot more fun to laugh than fight :)

*Talked about work. I feel really lucky that Eric and I are both teachers (well except maybe when it's time to pay bills haha). Not only do we have similar hours and vacations together, but I feel like we really understand what each other's day is like (even though Kindergarten and middle school PE are obviously a bit different!). We both love to share and appreciate hilarious kids stories and we fully understand each other's work frustrations. Eric has given me a lot of good advice about how to handle situations at work and I feel like we both have very similar philosophies about how to deal with children and coworkers.

*Supported each other. Okay, so Eric and I have some different interests sometimes. Like golf, which I do not love. Or yoga, which I don't think Eric will ever do. I'd rather be at work a million hours a day than clean or do really any housework at all and Eric would rather do yard work/cleaning/organizing/cooking etc than work a million hours a day. Even though we may not be exactly the same, I think we always try our hardest to support each other in our separate quests and interests. I am thankful for that.

So, overall our first year of marriage has been a blast :) Next year at this time I'll be in Canada celebrating Amber's wedding and I hope I'm saying the same thing about Year #2.

Do you believe that the first year of things often is not the best?

Exploring Vermont, Day 1

2011-07-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

We made it to Burlington, Vermont for our 1 Year Anniversary Trip. It's a little different than Hawaii (our honeymoon), but it will work :)

The drive up was about 3 1/2 hours. We stopped in New London, New Hampshire for my absolute favorite restaurant in the state of NH (and one of my top favorites ever): Peter Christian's Tavern. This place is near my childhood summer home and I have endless memories of it. Plus, they serve really tasty soups and sandwiches (and really good honey mustard that they sell to take home). Somehow I didn't take any pictures of our beautiful patio seat, but there is a good chance we'll be back on the way home so I'll have another opportunity.

Our first night we arrived, we checked out a place that had been recommended to me by a friend I used to work with (thank goodness for facebook) and it was rated the number 1 place to eat in Burlington on Tripadvisor- that's enough to convince me. It was called American Flatbread. Yes, it is a pizza place, but not just any pizza place- a pizza place that brews beers on site AND has only local ingredients (very Vermont). For beer I tried one of the house brews called Schoen Dorf... was probably one of the best beers I've ever had and it's actually kind of unfortunate that I can't get this beer anywhere else.

Mine was the top pizza- the "vegan" haha- It has tomato sauce, mushrooms and black beans- yum. The pizza was delicious and the service was great too. Plus the whole meal with drinks was $30 and I still have half that pizza in my fridge which I'll be having for lunch today.

Yesterday was our first full day and we had two major things on tap. #1- sailing on Lake Champlain. We made a reservation about a week ago with a company called Whistling Man Schooner Company which does 2 hour sails around the lake. There is also a big boat call The Spirit of Ethan Allen II that also does tours, the reviews were more mixed but I'm assuming if your goal is just to see Lake Champlain you'd be fine with either.

The day was flat calm, so there wasn't a lot of actual sailing happening, but as somehow who gets sick when it gets rough on boats, I really can't complain.

There were about 12 people on the boat, as well as a captain and first mate. Here is a look back at Burlington on the way out...

On the other side of the lake is New York State and the Adirondack mountains.

Life is good.

While on the boat, Eric also read up on "Champ" which is basically the Nessie (Loch Ness) of Lake Champlain. Eric enjoys underwater sea monsters and has a goal to swim in all the locations that are said to have them. So far, he has swam in Loch Ness and will hopefully swim in Lake Champlain before the weekend is over. A few more to go, I'm sure :)

Burlington Harbor has a break water (30 foot tall rock wall) to protect it. I think it's also pretty...

Post sailing adventure, Eric and I got soft serve and smoothies and headed back to our hotel to regroup. Next, it was time for adventure #2 of the day. The Magic Hat Brewery! Magic Hat is a favorite for Eric and his family so we were excited to visit the brewery.

It did not disappoint. It was really cool both inside and out.

Magic Hat just gave off a really awesome vibe. The people were really relaxed and seemed like people you could just befriend in a minute. Plus, they offered a free tour of the brewery, tons of samples AND Eric won a free pint glass for being able to tell what ingredients go into making all beers. Wahoo.

Finally, for dinner we headed back to Church Street (the main street in Burlington). We ate at a restaurant called Asiana Noodle House which served pretty good Japanese food. Although the real draw was the atmosphere. Church Street is fantastic for people watching and we had an awesome start up band from New Orleans playing next to us for most of dinner. They were great and lots of cute kids stopped to dance which added to the entertainment value.

Also, Eric found something very pink in his food...

Lol. It turned out to be a fish cake! I am really curious how it got to be so pink!

My college roommate was from Seattle Washington and one of the things she found fascinating about Boston (other than the fact that we did not have to bolt our shelves to our desks in case of earthquakes) was that we could very easily drive into several states in one day. Obviously in Washington State, this is a little more difficult. This post just proves this fact, as I spent Thursday in 3 states (MA, NH and VT) and then yesterday, I had a gorgeous view of the state of NY. Crazy!

Now I must go, time to wake up Eric so we can get free breakfast before our adventures today :) I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Dreaming in Red, White and Blue

2011-07-04T21:19:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th of July! :)

Eric and I were at the Cape this weekend enjoying the beautiful weather. Man I love summer. Can it be summer all the time?

My long weekend in pictures:

4th of July weekend is definitely one of the favorites of the year. Eric jokes (half seriously) that I am a terrible American and completely un-patriotic. I would not say that I blindly love the USA- I see our faults. Sometimes the USA reminds me of the middle school cool kids that act like they are better than everyone else, and what can I say, I love the underdog... which we are not, though once upon a time we were :) I don't have any illusions thinking we are the best country, or the only good country or that anyone can be anything here etc etc. But, I do actually love my country and here are some reasons...

1. I don't believe that equality has been reached by any means, but I do feel proud to live in a country where some of the people with the most power are "minorities" who may not have the same opportunities in every country in the world. I feel the same way about people who were born into seemingly nothing and have become some of the most successful people in our country. I love hardworking people and a good happy ending.

2. I love all the amazing cultures and religions you can find in the USA. As a white, Irish/Catholic person, I have had the opportunity to participate in a Jewish Seder, wear an Indian sari, make Chinese lanterns, celebrate St. Nicholas Day, and receive a Korean painting as a wedding present. I love that.

3. I love that I never once for any minute of my life felt limited in any way by where I live. It was always clear to me that I could be whatever it is I put my mind to as long as I was willing to work for it.

4. American food. No I don't mean burgers and fries. I mean I have been to probably about 10 countries and the food never compares to here. I know, you are probably wondering how I've been to Italy and can still say that. Sure, I love Italian food and obviously no where has Italy beat in this regard. But can you find good Japanese food? For overall diversity and greatness of food- I'll pick here any time. Just my opinion :)

What do you love about your country? How did you spend your long weekend? (I think all my readers are American or Canadian right- so it was either Canada Day or July 4th for you- if not, what did you do for the normal length weekend haha)

School Supplies Taking Over

2011-07-01T07:59:00.001-04:00

Each week it seems I discover something new about "full-time" tutoring. This week's discovery was how the STUFF takes over. I would say in general if you looked at the house as a whole, the only major clutter we've accumulated in 2 years is my tutoring stuff. However, it's always been relatively hidden... until, this week.

The kitchen table:

My desk:

The dining room table:

As you can see, basically every inch of table space in my house was covered with books, games and folders. Though it doesn't look like it, it is all very organized. Each kid has their own folder which has their notebook, strategy bookmarks, word lists and other papers I want them to use or do. Each kid also has their own zip lock bag filled with games. The books are more all over the place but that's because I tend to use the same books for kids who are at the same level.

Since I tutor at each child's house, their is really no where else to store my materials except at my own house. Yesterday though, things got even more crazy. I had to go by my school to collect materials for the summer school I will start working at on Tuesday. It's in my district but not at my school so I had to figure out what I'm going to do with the kids at least next week and bring all the stuff with me: binders, papers, pencils, colored pencils, whiteboards, sound cards, dot paints, scissors, glue and all the other materials it will require to teach struggling kindergartners to meet their IEP goals in six hours a week while also making it fun. Guess where this stuff went? My car.

I didn't take a picture, but let's just say both my house and car are being taken over by school supplies right now. Obviously a trip to Target was in order. Does anyone else have a serious obsession with storage containers? Because I do. My first two years teaching I bought SO many. Today, I kept it in control. One 3 drawer stand and a big plastic container.

The 3 door stand is currently in the dining room but will probably move to the office. Now it's REALLY organized- books in the bottom drawer, folders in the middle drawer and games in the top. Yay! Clean table space!!!

The big container will hold all my summer school supplies. I've been told I'll have to move classrooms a couple of times during the summer because the custodians will be cleaning each room. I figured the best bet was to have everything in a real big container. But to be honest, I haven't put it their yet. That's on Monday's agenda :)

What kind of clutter takes over your house or apartment? Do you like to get rid of it or are you a cluttered person?

It's almost 4th of July weekend! What are your plans!?

Down Time

2011-06-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

It's taken me something like a full week to have anything interesting worth blogging about. Seriously, life has been that boring lately haha. Nah, I'm kidding- life has been good, just very different than my usual. Here is what you have missed in Kelly-land.

1. I went to the Cape last weekend and went to the Darius Rucker concert. If you don't know Darius Rucker you should listen to Learn to Live and This. Caroline got me the tickets for my birthday so I got to go with 3 of my absolute favorite people in the universe...

That's me, Eric, Jake and Caroline :)

2. On Saturday Eric and I went on a harbor cruise in Hyannis. It was a beautiful, calm and sunny day to be on the water. What can I say other than it's heaven?

3. Earlier this week my sister and I visited my grandmother. I've been working on a family stories blog and she has obviously been my main source of information. She has so many awesome stories! I mean not only has she lived through so many world events, but she also raised 8 kids and helped raise 21 grandkids so you can only imagine. When we first arrived she was reading an old journal of hers and said I could borrow it, she was just checking to make sure she hadn't wrote anything terrible in it. Haha! This ended up being the coolest thing anyone has EVER let me borrow, definitely ever. I was literally engrossed in the book for HOURS last night. It follows her life from 1999 to 2005, so most that she writes about I remember (as a high school/college student) but of course her perspective is fascinating. Also she talks a lot about my grandfather, who passed away when I was 10. I can't even explain how lucky I feel to have something like this in my possession right now.

4. I am going to get a little philosophical here about summer and my thoughts on it. I obviously did not go into teaching for the summers off, especially since I don't really take the summer off haha. However, teaching during the school year is all-consuming for me and it sometimes does not leave me time for other things that are important to me. I feel very thankful to have this time to visit my grandmother or go to yoga in the middle of the afternoon. Of course I think it's important in life to be a hard worker, and be successful in your career. But I do wonder sometimes what we are missing by being one of the most hard-working, non-vacation taking country in the world. Should we really be proud of the amount of vacation we don't take? This summer I chose not to be proud of the amount of tutoring jobs I get or money I make. I choose to be proud of what I chose to do with my down-time. Hopefully I use the time to take care of myself and spend time with important people, because what else is life really?

What have you been up to lately? Do you take all your vacation days? Why or Why not?

Sitting on my Bum with a Piece of Coffee Cake

2011-06-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

Unlike teaching, where usually the overall day is good, or bad, or just fine... tutoring starts over every new kid I go to. So while this morning's little boy may have hid from me again (in his closet, no less), I still got a running, jumping hug from my afternoon kid. In everyone's defense, hiding boy has only known me for a week and hugging girl is my tutoring best bud- I worked with her for 2 years and she came to my wedding ceremony before she started going to a school where she'd get tutoring at school. Now I get to work with her again this summer. She still hates tutoring, but she loves me and I'll take that over running away and hiding every day. My new summer job title? Torture Enforcer- making sure children are tortured in the summer since 2007 :)

On a slightly less torturous note, today I was thinking about how I need some serious motivation to kick my butt into gear. I've been dragging myself to workout lately and letting any possible excuse deter me entirely. I know a lot of my lack of motivation has to do with my knee hurting again. So, this was #1 reason why I needed some motivation. #2 reason = tutoring. Not only is it a job that involves sitting (which is the opposite of my normal job) but sometimes (like this morning) kid's moms feel the need to bake delicious smelling coffee cake that I smell for an hour straight and then have to accept when they offer it to me at the end. Yum. So yeah, so many reasons to be more motivated about my workouts.

Then, BAM (hit by a bus), I read Amber's blog and she talks about daily mileand I'm like facebook for fitness? That's what I need to stay motivated. It will be cool to see graphs, or whatever they do of my daily workouts, and I can't get any graphs without actually working out. Yay! So far I have two friends- Amber and Morgan, so.... join daily mile and let's be friends. Then, if you don't see my workout for awhile you can send me threats and bribes, as in "we will not be friends anymore if you don't get off your bum" or "Kelly I promise you a nice, cold Bud Light if you get off your bum" etc. Ready, set, GO!

PS. I went to hot yoga today with Caroline so you don't have to start the threats... yet.

Perplexing Summer Days

2011-06-20T17:11:00.001-04:00

Today was my first official day of summer! Since my true schedule has not started up yet, I just had one kiddo to tutor. He was fun- we talked a lot of sports, mostly the Bruins, with a little '04 and '07 World Series thrown it- he was age 2 and 5 for those haha, crazy!

On my first official day of not stressing to the max about kindergartners, a few things confused me. Here is a brief list of things I find perplexing:

1. People who feel the need to broadcast their political and religious views on their car. I'm all for our college sticker or whatever and I do have an "invest in children" license plate (which i guess is a LITTLE political). However, today I saw someone with a huge JESUS license plate. I just don't get it...

2. Teachers who are against fun. Why did you go into this profession? After my brief work stint this morning I stopped by Eric's field day at work. The kids were having a BLAST. They were all contained and safe but they were seriously having the best time ever. Eric has told me some teachers complain about field day. Look, I get it's probably a long day and MAYBE requires a little more effort for you (though I imagine it's mainly Eric who it's more effort for!), but who cares? They are kids! Let them have some fun! I run into this at my own school sometimes. I get it, I do, kids are a handful when they are hyped up and excited. So don't do it every day. But occasionally, get your bum to bed early, get some coffee and let the kids have a little fun!

3. People who really care a LOT about which way toilet paper is put on. I recently heard a serious conversation about a woman who was actually ANGRY at her husband for putting the toilet paper on "the wrong way." I since learned that many people have a preference about whether the toilet paper is facing out or in. Do people really worry about this kind of crap?

4. Wives and girlfriends who "enjoy" catching their husband cheating on TV or the radio. Remember the TV show Cheaters? A Boston radio station does something similar where they call the husband/boyfriend and say that they won free flowers, who would they like to send them to and then BAM, they catch the guy cheating because he inevitably sends it to the other woman. I find myself feeling bad for the girl but then I think, WHAT!? If you are suspicious of your other half, why would you PUBLICLY catch them?! Then you have to deal with it publicly! Sure, I think it's important to know the truth and all, but must it be in such a dramatic fashion?

Do you find any of these things perplexing? or can you explain one of them to me? What do YOU find perplexing?

School's Out for Summer :)

2011-06-19T08:23:00.001-04:00

"Summer vacation is yucky." - one of my students

Much as I love above student, I have to disagree. I love summer vacation, even if I do tend to work for most of it :)

You may be wondering what I am up to this summer or you may just be assuming I sit on my bum for 2 months. If it's the second, you obviously do not know me at all. It's a money making time and I have bills to pay and trips to go on! haha. Here is a little summary of what I'm up to...

Work
Starting on Monday I'll be tutoring 8 kids: 4 kids going to first grade, 2 going to second grade, 1 going to third grade and 1 going to fifth grade. A few of these students I'll be working with once a week an some twice a week. I work Monday-Thursday, starting at 7:15am and ending between 5 and 6 each night. Every day I have at least an hour and a half off for lunch (including time getting from one place to another, but still a huge upgrade compared to my normal barely 30 minutes) and some days I have other breaks during the day. The reason why I start early and end lateish is because I'm working around cap schedules. Starting the day after the 4th I'll be adding two mornings a week at a summer school in my district. I'll have all the kindergartners recommended for summer school, two that I know already and one who is my student. It's only 5 kids but they all have a lot of needs and seemingly no attention spans, so we shall see how that goes. A lot of songs and games! I already put all my kindergarten cds on my ipod so I can bring that. I already realized the consequence of this will be I can't put my ipod on shuffle anymore. You can imagine my surprise at the gym last weekend when "Clean Up Robot" came on right after some hip hop song!

All other summers I have worked at a morning summer program Monday-Friday and only tutored 2 or 3 kids, so I have no idea what this schedule is going to be like. To me it looks MUCH easier than my school year schedule, but I know that driving around everywhere can get intense, not too mention the many different grade levels and needs I'll be thinking about. So we shall see :) I'm excited for the change of pace though. Also my ratio of kids this summer including summer school kids is: Boys 11 Girls: 4. Yikes! Cue the sports and adventure books!

Play
As usual, Eric and I will be spending a lot of time at the Cape this summer. I purposely loaded up my Monday-Thursday so we can leave for weekend trips on Thursday night and not sit in insane traffic (so we hope- we'll still have it on Sunday but oh well!). Our Cape summer fun begins next weekend with a Darius Rucker concert, thanks to an awesome birthday present from Caroline. We will also likely return to the Cape for the 4th of July.

Other exciting events include, our 1 year anniversary on July 10th! Still not 100% sure what we are doing yet, but leaning towards a trip to Burlington VT. Anyone have any hotel or things to do recommendations?

We will also probably spend a little time in New Hampshire and finally end that summer with a bang at Eric's cousin's wedding Labor Day weekend on the North Shore.

I'm excited for a little change of pace, a new schedule and some new challenges. What are YOU up to this summer?!

Wine and Love

2011-06-16T19:26:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone. I'll be doing wine and love again this week- what's made me grab the bottle and what do I love? Stop by Nora's blog to check out hers and see who else is participating!

Wine

1. Oh where oh where to begin? Just kidding :) It's the last week of school though and that just means absolute crazyness. The kids are losing it, and one in particular is giving me a lot of trouble. I love him and I know it's not his fault, but that doesn't make it any more fun. Especially when no. one. listens. to. me. about. this. child. Grrr! Anyway, I love him, I have tried my hardest and I know he'll be in good hands next year.

2. On a similar theme, the end of school is so stressful. Next year I really have to start buying presents for everybody earlier. I tried to start last weekend but I couldn't think of anything. Next year I will force myself to think of something. That has caused unnecessary stress this week.

Love

1. My first class of kindergartners (5 years ago!) are graduating elementary school and will be soon be middle schoolers. Sure, they were the prince and princesses of driving me to the wine, but I still love them. One of my absolute favorites from that year has stopped by a couple of times to discuss how sad she is. Today she also decided to re-enact the running hugs she used to give me when she was in kindergarten and first grade. Did I mention she is almost as tall as me now? Thank goodness she is a slim child or I would be in trouble!

2. Today was our end of the year concert, slideshow and picnic. It's a very crazy day but definitely one of my favorites. One of my little girls actually cried during the slideshow today. It was very sweet.

3. As you may have heard, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last night. I'm not going to rub it in at all since I know my blogging BFF Amber is a big Canucks fan. All I will say is, I am totally a bandwagon Bruins fan and I admit this about myself. But I am really happy for my friends who are really Bruins fans, who have really been watching even when they were not good. Also, yesterday should've been my cousins 27th birthday (he passed away from cancer 2 years ago) and HE was a big Bruins fan, so I'd like to think they won it for his birthday :)

4. I also love my new Kindle that Eric gave me for my birthday last week. His parents got me an amazong giftcard AND my students got me an amazon giftcard so I won't be paying for books for awhile! :) I also am reading a GREAT book that I think everyone should read called Secret Daughter. Fantastic book about a little girl who is born in India and brought to an orphanage by her mother because the family wanted a boy who would be more "helpful" (I'm simplifying the situation, the mom obviously did not support this). She is adopted by an American mom and Indian dad (now living in California). The story goes back and forth between her birth mom, her adopted mom, the daughter herself and some of the other characters in the story. I'm not sure how accurate it is to India, but it seems really good. I had to restrain myself today when one of my student's mom's was talking to me about how her son is spoiled (doesn't act like it at ALL in school) and she's like, in India boys are very valued and spoiled....I was about to be like OH YEA I was just reading about that and then I'm like... hmm, yeah maybe not an appropriate time to discuss your pleasure reading Kelly :) But anyway, I'm not done with it yet but I still think you should read it. That's my plug.

Time to go zone out for awhile in preparation of the crazyness that will be tomorrow! Right now I'm in denial that I have summer work starting on Monday. I'll let future Kelly worry about that :)

Testing

2011-06-16T18:48:00.000-04:00

Been having some issues with the blog this week and just wanted to make sure it would work before I wrote a whole post :)

Summer Work Outs

2011-06-13T19:51:00.001-04:00

Well hello everyone. Hope you are all well :) I've disappeared for a bit in end-of-the-year madness. Lots of hoops to jump through... at least that's what Eric calls it when I have to spend 20 minutes on the phone/attempting to send a grade report so I can get tuition reimbursement for a class that I was forced to take through the district and the superintendent gave me a grade for. WHY DOES HE NEED A GRADE REPORT WHEN HE GAVE ME THE GRADE? Wah.

Moving on, the kids are at all time worst behavior, but equally hilarious as always. Today, one of my students came back from being out sick for a week. His mom has had a rough week because multiple of her kids have been in the hospital with sickness and her husband has been away. During lunch, I talked to him about how great his behavior has been today. I kept mentioning how his mom was going to be so proud of him and he's a great big brother for being on his best behavior while his mom worries about his sister etc. Finally he looks at me and says, "yeah... I kinda just forgot to be bad today." If only he could've forgot every day...

I now interrupt this blog hiatus to discuss an important topic: summer workouts.

What do you guys do in the summer for work outs?

I am seriously debating what I want to do this summer. I am most likely going to join a gym, but I don't know which one. Here are my options:

1. Join the local YMCA. I used to be a member of this gym and I can get a summer membership for $99. I would have an option of two gyms locally, both with a pool. Also, I would have access to a Y at the Cape. The only bad thing about the Cape Y is that it's not super convenient and it doesn't open til 12 on Sundays... which is just dumb if you ask me.

2. Continue with my regular routine while at home (walking, running, biking outside, using treadmill and yoga videos on rainy days) and join a super convenient gym at the Cape, also $99 for 3 months.

3. Not join any gyms and save my money for yoga :) Obviously I would still do cardio outside and with the equipment I have in my house.

My major dilemma is just my overall ADD when it comes to working out. I always want to switch it up! Also I know you are probably thinking I am going to have endless spare time this summer so I should join all the gyms and get in ridiculous shape, but in fact I'm going to have a pretty similar time commitment to my summer work, just spread out differently throughout the week. More about that later :)

What are you planning to do for work outs this summer?

5 Years Later.

2011-06-05T20:28:00.000-04:00

Time is flying by lately, and somehow this weekend I found myself at my 5 year college reunion. Ah!

A few of my friends flew in/drove up on Friday night so we had a little low key BBQ at Katie's and then I headed home to prepare for a busy Saturday!

I started bright and early with a BC Alumi 5K. My knee bothered me after last week's 5K so I decided to walk it and luckily Gerry and Linda didn't mind doing that as well because otherwise I know I would've just become bored and started running.

We came in last place which was fantastic, conquers my fear of being last! Ironically, Gerry (maroon shirt and sunglasses) who has done 9 marathons and is FAST was the technical last place finisher... unless she is still running races at 100 years old, I'd say it's safe to say that will NEVER happen again!

After a short detour to Starbucks and the BC bookstore, we headed to the "Gold" (5 and 10 year) BBQ.

We had a good spot at the BBQ where people basically had to come to us if they wanted to talk to us. This helped me avoid awkward conversations with people I was never really friends with at all. Score one for me.

Also, I was surprised to see two of my bestest guy-friends from both high school and college there because I originally thought they couldn't come. I became friends with these two around the end of high school, when we got to college we all made new friends and then brought them all together to make a big group :) Lots of memories with these two, as I have known Dan (middle) since kindergarten... freshman year of college, me, Dan and Gerry would go to dinner at the dining hall at 5pm and not return for hours- just because we would be talking and laughing for that long. Matt (right) is one of those people I can not see for a year and feel like not a second has gone by. We both went to Australia the same semester and even though we were a plane ride away, we traveled around central Australia and New Zealand together at the end (with another of our friends who is also awesome).

After the BBQ, Cristina, Christina and I headed to the School of Education lunch. The Undergrad Dean is retiring this year and I seriously love him. He is the only reason why I was able to double major (it's required for ed majors) and study abroad. When I told him the Communication Department wouldn't let me do it, he laughed at me and said that I was in the School of Ed so he was in charge. He then went on to approve all sorts of things to make sure I could study abroad. He even let me do my science requirement on an island in Australia. I really appreciate the fact that he realized that studying abroad, not sticking to every silly rule, was going to make me a better teacher :)

Then we headed back to Katie's apartment to shower and get ready for the nighttime event. I looked cute for about 10 minutes until I realized I had to be outside and it was freezing cold, oh well!

The nighttime party was in the mods. The mods are the modular houses on campus that went up in the 1970s. They were supposed to be temporary housing but they are so loved by students, they haven't gotten rid of them yet. Many hilarious memories of our time living in Mod 11B senior year. Katie and Kelly from...

(freshman year of college, 2003) to...

(last night)

About 5 minutes after this picture was when I went back to my car, climbed in the back seat and did a complete wardrobe change :)

We spent the rest of the night relaxing in the back yards of the mods. I have to admit I didn't go out of my way to talk to a lot of people, but I did spend a lot of quality time with my college favorites.

Overall it was a lot of fun. I have no desire to be in college again, though it was fun once, but I do miss seeing everyone on such a regular basis. I'm also glad I managed to limit my awkward conversations. I am totally one of those people who sees someone I know and turns around to go hide. I swear I'm not antisocial, I have lots of friends- I just am not into the small, fake talk. If I really want to know what someone is up to these days but we are not and never really were friends, I'll just stalk them on facebook. Thankyouverymuch.

Have you been to your high school and/or college reunions? Did you have fun?

Wine and Love <3

2011-06-02T18:47:00.000-04:00

Back to Wine and Love by Nora this week. What has made me want to grab a bottle of wine and what do I love?

Wine

1. Unfortunately I think work is going to be on my wine list until it's over. The kids are checked out (read: way more annoying than usual) and I am stuck with 1 billion things to do. The summer will not provide a total break from work, but it will change things up a bit, which I think it necessary right now.

2. My stomach has been the WORST this week. I was getting pain all weekend and then starting Monday I was so nauseous I could barely focus on anything. I'm starting to feel a little better now, but I still have no idea what I could've done to piss off my stomach that much. IBS really sucks sometimes. Could someone please just tell me what not to eat? I promise I will not eat it.

Love

1. Long Weekends. I wish every weekend could be a long weekend. Not only did I have some quality time at the Cape and my 5K, but I even had time to get some work done on Monday and go to a friend's Memorial Day BBQ. I didn't actually get a picture with Sarah, even though it was her party, but I did get a good one with Susanne...

2. I don't know if this qualifies as "love," but I am very thankful to have my friends and family safe after the tornadoes in MA yesterday. We are NOT used to tornadoes in MA, and some very destructive ones touched down in the western area of the state. I'm thankful they had become mostly thunderstorms by the time they hit my side of the state. I'm not going to go all "it's the end of the world" on you, but what is UP with the weather lately?

3. Simple pleasures: sleeping well, strawberry popsicles, beautiful weather (other than the scary thunderstorms/tornadoes), getting to see baby chicks that just hatched (one of the kids I tutor has a nest right next to his swing set!), watching my almost first graders start to LOVE reading, and many more.

What is your wine and love this week? What are some simple pleasures you have enjoyed?

Great Hyannis Road Races 5K Race Report

2011-05-30T09:01:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I completed my third 5K (or fourth if you include the running portion of the sprint triathlon). My other 5Ks were My First 5K and the Red Bandana Run.

This race was a bit different than the others that I've run because typically I have people to go to the start with and someone watching me. This time Caroline was running the half, but it started 45 minutes after mine and I insisted that Eric not wake up early because there comes a point in running 5Ks that I think he probably doesn't need to watch anyone one :)

I ended up arriving at the race about 3 minutes before it was supposed to start. I didn't meant to be THAT late, but I couldn't find my Garmin at the last minute and then the parking lot was much more full than I thought it would be. Oh well, less time to get nervous.

Mile 1- no split times due to missing Garmin, oh well!

I started out feeling pretty good. My ankle started hurting out of the blue and I considered stopping to stretch it out a bit but it went away on it's own. Interestingly, I was looking back on my 5K from last September and I had the same problem with my ankles. So random. But anyways, the rest of the mile was great and I was really caught up in the whole "yay I can run" thing. Plus there were a lot of kids running this race which I thought was pretty awesome.

Mile 2

Okay so I didn't officially see the mile marker in between 1 and 2, so I spent a lot of 2 thinking "oh my god please tell me I've gone at least 1 mile" haha. But I still felt good. I went by the ocean at this point and I was thinking about how awesome it was to run in such a beautiful place.

Mile 3

I did see the end of mile 2 marker so I sped up a lot at the beginning of mile 3 thinking I only had 1 mile to go. Well 1 mile is pretty far considering most of my training runs were only about 2 miles. Oops. I struggled mentally a lot during this mile because I kept thinking I was closer to the finish than I was. Eventually I did make it though.

Overall Thoughts

I really wanted to beat 30 minutes and I crossed the finish line at 30.06 which in my mind is basically beating 30 because it definitely must have taken me at least 6 seconds if not longer to actually reach the starting point. I think my race bib had a chip in it, so I may know that for sure in a few days. Either way I got my first running medal...

Eric makes fun of me for my love of medals. I realize that regardless of whether you get a medal or not, you still accomplished something. I just feel like it's cool for a race to acknowledge that a 5K IS a big accomplishment for some people. I know "real" runners would scoff at getting a medal for a 5K, but we all have our strengths and weaknesses, right?

Unfortunately I think my training for this race was not so good. Mainly my decision to train on a trail near my house instead of a street. My WHOLE body hurts today in a way I never thought it could after just running 3 miles! This includes my pesky injuries: my knee and back. I have ice on them both as we speak and I'm really hoping they can recover from this quickly. I know my injuries get worse when I run on the street which is why I tried to avoid it, but obviously I should've built up and not just done it one day suddenly. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now :) I probably will be walking my 5K next weekend though...

After the race I headed home to watch Caroline running the half marathon! She was rocking it at Mile 7...

While I was waiting for Caroline, one of the runners yelled out, "She Wears a Red Sox Cap!" and said she loves my blog! AMAZING. By far the coolest part of the day. I felt just a tiny bit famous! I have no idea who it was though, so if you are reading, tell me who you are! :) She was FLYING past and looked awesome at mile 7 too! Thanks for making me feel famous :)

I hope everyone had a good weekend :)

Where I've Been

2011-05-28T10:23:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a whirlwind of a week with no spare time for blogging. Technically I probably should not be blogging now because I have a million end of the year reports to write, but after quickly busting out a few this morning I've lost my initial motivation and need a break from trying to phrase things nicely :)

Since I've done about a million things since I last wrote, I figure I'll just do a bullet post of some of the things you've missed...

-Last Saturday Eric and I went to a housewarming party for one of Eric's good friends who bought a house with his wife early this spring. They have done a ton of work to the house and it motivated me to put the finishing touches on our house this summer. We (and by we, I mean, almost entirely Eric and my mom) have done a lot to our house in two years. However, we still need some serious decorating in the hallway, "gym" room and guestroom. I'm thinking there will be at least one photo collage inspired by Amber. I just have to find some relatively cheap frames, any ideas?

-Last Sunday was the beginning of the celebrations for Caroline's college graduation. I really can't believe my younger sister graduated college this week! We went out for a family dinner at a place called Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse and Seafood. It's on the new waterfront area in South Boston. I can't believe how much this area has developed even since I was there last summer at Legal Test Kitchen. Back when I was little, we used to go to a restaurant called Jimmy's which was in this same location on Christmas Eve. The view was just as gorgeous as I remembered it, and Del Frisco's has done a fantastic job designing the restaurant so basically every table is a water view!

Del Frisco's was a seriously amazing restaurant. We sat down and about 10-15 minutes later, we noticed no waitress had come over. My dad just casually asked a guy walking by if he could find our waitress so we could order drinks. No sooner had he asked that we were suddenly surrounded by apologetic wait staff and managers who explained that our waitress that left because of a family emergency and they were SO sorry to keep us waiting. Even though I swear it couldn't have been more than 10 minutes or so, they insisted on buying us a full round of drinks AND giving us a bunch of free appetizers. Amazing! I'll wait 15 minutes any day for that! Plus the appetizers were awesome...

I wasn't quite as amazing as taking pictures of our entrees, but my salmon was delicious and everyone else really enjoyed their steaks and seafood. Del Frisco's is definitely the perfect kind of restaurant for a special occasion.

-Monday was Caroline's graduation day. The weather was the same as it had been for a few weeks, cold and rainy. Luckily, we scored a great seat inside for both ceremonies. That didn't stop me from wearing pants and a bright pink rain coat, but what can I say? it's been to be warm and comfortable than look amazing :)

And if you look really closely, you can see Caroline graduating...

I have to admit, graduations are not the most entertaining things ever- but luckily I had my brother's hilarious comments and funny e-mails from my classroom assistant who was teaching my kids for me ("K decided it would be fun to take a purple crayon and draw all over your rug. Needless to say, he WILL be writing you an apology note during choice time this afternoon." haha, oh 6 year olds!). In the end, I am quite proud of my sister for conquering the challenges of college. By this I don't really mean the academics, but the challenge of making new friends, creating a home away from home and taking risks to make things better when they were not going as she hoped they would.

-Immediately after graduation, I walked to the D line, hopped on the T and headed into Boston to meet my own college roommate who was visiting from Ohio this week. This began another whirlwind of days in which we ate at great restaurants (Picco and Trattoria Il Panino), cooked dinner, relaxed in front of the TV like we did in college and I continued to unfortunately, attend work haha. Somehow I did not take one single picture of us even when we went to Boston to meet up with Katie and Adam for one of the dinners. This is very unlike me so I must have been exhausted from all the excitement at this point.

-I am now at the Cape for the long weekend. I am exhausted and do not feel the best, so my agenda for the weekend includes as much relaxation as possible. I'm also running a 5K tomorrow. Plus I really need to write report cards and start some end of the year things. I have a love/hate relationship with May and June because I usually do a lot of fun things but it's also stressful because social obligations and work obligations seem to increase right at the same time.

What have you been up to the past week or so? What is on your agenda for this weekend?

How to Overcome Workout Obstacles

2011-05-22T09:44:00.000-04:00

Lately it seems everything is against me getting in a good workout 4-5 days a week. It's very frustrating. However, it's important my mental (and obviously physical) health to maintain a relatively normal workout schedule so... I must overcome obstacles. Here are some of the obstacles I have dealt with lately:

Time

I doubt there is anyone out there who doesn't struggle with the "time to workout" issue at some point in life. It's not that I really have NO spare time, because that's not true. But a lot of my spare time tends to be at night, when I don't have much energy to get in a good workout. For some reason, I mostly subscribe to the belief that once I eat dinner, I'm probably not going to get a work out in after. It seems obvious that I should then work out in the morning before I start my day. I have definitely gone through phases of doing that, but right now I can't seem to do that either. You see, I am most productive in the morning with everything. This means there is a lot demanding my time in the early morning. I tutor a child 2 days a week early in the morning, and the other three days I get to work as early as possible so I can get a lot done. I could potentially wake up even earlier so that I can workout and get work done in the morning, but I already go to bed by 9:30 every night and I'd really rather it not be earlier than that. Losing sleep is not an option for me either.

Sickness

I don't know if it's because I work with children or what, but I'm either sick or fighting sickness the majority of the winter. I am pretty good at letting this be an excuse for not working out, which it simply cannot be for the amount of the time that I feel not 100%.

Injury

If you read this blog you know that injury has interrupted my work outs more than once. This is probably my most frustrating obstacle.

Motivation

Then there are those days where none of the above excuses are relevant and yet.... you just don't wanna.

How I Beat My Own Excuses

1. I schedule my workout in my calendar. Although afternoons are not as productive for me, they do tend to fill up quickly with obligations (part of the reason why the mornings are more productive for me at work). If I schedule an afternoon work out in my calendar, I'm more likely to do it.

2. I schedule a work out date with Eric, or a friend. Then I'm more likely to do it.

3. I agree to do something quick. If I tell myself I will only do a yoga video for 20 minutes, I'm more likely to do it. And something is better than nothing.

4. I put on my work out clothes. Sometimes if i really don't want to work out I'll tell myself I'm just going to put on the clothes. But once I do, I'll probably at least do something!

5. If I'm sick or injured, I will often change my work out plan and expect less of myself, but not skip the work out completely. There are times when rest is the only option, but for the majority of the winter- it can't be! Walks and quick yoga videos are my go-to exercises when I don't REALLY feel like exercising.

6. Sign up for a race or challenge. When I couldn't run, I did an Elliptical Challenge and a Bike Challenge to try to motivate myself. Lately I've been signing up for races and I will be doing a 5K the next two weekends, which I really hope I'm ready for! I'd like to do a Yoga Challenge at some point, but my studio only does 30 day-in-a-row ones, which I've pretty much decided I'm never going to do. I need a little more flexibility in my challenges.

The past few weeks my motivation and time have been lacking, but I've been pretty good about fitting things in. The other day I go home from work and I was starving. But I decided instead of skipping my work out, I would bring my yoga mat downstairs and do a quick yoga video while my dinner was cooking. Sure, I didn't really get in the zen mode while I was listening for my water to boil in the next room, but at least I did something!

What workout obstacles do you most suffer from and how to do you overcome these obstacles?

Wine and Love

2011-05-19T20:22:00.001-04:00

It's time for another week of...

Nora is a genius for coming up with this. All week I think about what will be in "wine" and what will be in "love." Wine = makes me want a glass (or several) of wine. Also could be considered what I "whine" about :) Love = LOVE.

Wine

1. Probably the top annoying thing of this week was when I received an e-mail from a parent of one of my students on Monday night. I've been working with this student a lot on her reading this year and she's making good progress. She has grade level skills but hasn't quite put everything together yet. That day I had sent her home with a predictable reader to read to her parents to help boost her confidence and excitement about reading. Well, the e-mail detailed how she had read the story to her mom and her mom had shared with her how she was CLEARLY only reading from memorization and using the pictures and she refused to use such poor materials to teach her daughter. It when on to attack my methods of teaching reading and suggest that I try something different because what I am doing is OBVIOUSLY not working. Yea... so, what's a teacher to do? I updated all of her assessments, scheduled a meeting with the parents and our reading specialist. Then two of us with Masters Degrees in Reading explained to the parents what we are really doing, the value of "memorized" reading and using the pictures when you are FIVE and the actual progress she has made. They admitted to overreacting, which I appreciated, but CAN PEOPLE PLEASE THINK BEFORE THEY SEND E-MAILS? Thank you! Oh, and PS. adding in "you are a terrific teacher" does NOT make up for the fact that you just trashed my teaching skills for the last 4 paragraphs. Thanks again.

2. Work in general. One of my kids did some impressive math to figure out we had 20 more days of school today, but instead of being impressed I was freaked out... I have SO much to do in that time!!!

3. I really dislike when I can't sleep. Sleep at the beginning of this week was not good, probably due to wine #1. However, I am against sleeping problems. If I am going to dedicate my precious time to lying in bed, I expect sleep to come. Thank you.

Love

1. I came home today and Eric had a giant bag of fortune cookies he got from work. Wahoo!

I love fortune cookies and the last time Eric got me a bag of them, he and my brother accidentally got me the "dirty" ones- which were so dirty I actually just didn't GET them for awhile until I figured it out haha.

2. Summer is coming after 20 more days of work. Wahoo! I am really excited about the kids I am tutoring this summer. They all seem really awesome. Today I had to meet one of the kids and his mom for pizza. I was kinda nervous about it because I don't eat pizza and kids usually won't talk much the first time you meet them. But, his mom is nice and the kid plays hockey and loves the Red Sox so we had plenty to discuss. I had a tiny slice of pizza that probably was not enough to hurt my stomach but was enough to look like I was participating in the pizza eating :)

3. Caroline is graduating on Monday and I am a proud older sister. It seems like yesterday I was jumping on the table at my grandmothers house yelling, "yay! i have a sister!"

4. Eric. He gets to be on the love list this week even though technically he always is, obviously! He provides hilarious comic relief during extremely frustrating situations (see Wine #1). Also, he is just in general amusing. For example, during a debate last night about the okayness of wearing black shorts with a black shirt (I say no), Eric defended his position by saying his character in Tiger Woods golf wears black shorts a black shirt. THE CHARACTER HE CREATED. Awesome.

5. My college roommate is coming to stay with me next week, starting on Monday! Wahoo :)

6. Cheryl (aka Eric's mom aka my mother in law- I need a who's who on this blog, don't I?) brought me spring rolls tonight that look like the ones I'm obsessed with from Not Your Average Joes or possibly better because they have seaweed salad in them! I am SO excited to eat them for lunch tomorrow. This will be a big improvement over my lunch today which was supposed to be a peanut butter sandwich... til I forgot the peanut butter. Go me.

It's funny ALL week I though this week was kinda bad, but looking back I guess the good outweighed the bad (or perhaps I just really like food). I love Wine and Love. What's yours today?

Win a Tour of Fenway Park!

2011-05-17T19:09:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday and hopefully the weather is FAR better than it is here (cold and rainy, with no end in sight!). But a few weeks ago when I was at Fenway Park, it was sunny, sunny, sunny!

I'm excited to work with Tickets-for-Charity to bring you an chance to win a VIP tour of Fenway Park and lunch provided by Tickets-for-Charity!

Tickets-for-Charity is an organization that offers fans access to great live seats and unique VIP experiences while benefiting charitable causes in the process. If you want to buy tickets and benefit a great cause at the same time, all you have to do is visit the Tickets-for-Charity website. Here you can buy tickets at face-value plus a pre-determined donation amount.

Some important information to know includes:

1. 100% of ticket face value is remitted to the artist/team.

2. 100% of donation amount is distributed to TFC partner charities, featuring the artist-or team-aligned charity.

3. Fans pay the same or better price they're currently paying ticket brokers and scalpers, but now 100% of the benefit above face value supports charity!

4. TFC charges a per-ticket service fee to help maintain the platform and manage all Charitable Sale aspects, from fulfillment and customer service to donation funds distribution and reporting.

TFC has partnered with artists such as U2, James Taylor, Tim McGraw and sports teams like the Red Sox and Celtics!

TFC supports charities like Boys and Girls Clubs of American, Habitat for Humanity International and Feeding America!

Do you want a win a private VIP tour of Fenway Park and lunch on TFC? Of course you do! The tour will be during the day on May 25th. If you'd like to enter, please click here and enter your e-mail and my blog name in order to be entered. That's ALL you have to do! :) Good luck everyone!

*You must enter by Thursday May 19th at 6:00PM.

PS. I would appreciate if you would spread the word to your Boston friends!

On Living In My Hometown

2011-05-16T20:56:00.001-04:00

Today after work and a boring meeting, I had to go to the center of my town to run some errands. With the exception of visiting the library, bank and the best pharmacy ever- I almost never spend time in my actual town. I work in a different town, my friends live in nearby towns and I usually enjoy restaurants in other towns. But, try as I may to pretend it's not the case, I currently own a house in the town I grew up in.

Truth be told, that was not the plan. That was the opposite of the plan in fact. Growing up if you told me I would EVER live here after the age of 18 I probably would've laughed very hard. But, if you want to hear God laugh tell him your plans, right?

I guess you could call me a homebody... though I'm not sure if anyone would really describe me that way. I've lived here, went to college 25 minutes away, moved back here, moved to one of the bordering towns, and then moved back here again. The one notable deviation from my predictable "move back here" life has been my 6 month study abroad in Sydney experience. It was at this time that I said goodbye to everyone I knew, jumped on a plane by myself, and moved to Australia for 6 months. Did I handle it well? I think so. Was I perfectly capable of handling life on my own? Sure (if you call life in school life on my own, which is questionable). Somehow even at the time I knew that was going to be a brief exercise in proving to myself I was capable of being "Miss Independent" so that I wouldn't have to do it again. Not that I couldn't, but just that I realized, why? I mean sure, there is something to be said for being able to handle life on my own... but I was missing a lot here too.

About two and a half years ago now, Eric and I decided to start looking at buying a house. My first words to my real estate agent, "Eric and I are not super picky about the town. We know there are a lot of great towns around here. We'd like to be in the middle of our two jobs. Oh and forget about ____, I grew up there and I'm NOT moving back." She laughed, but respected my wishes and showed us houses in many of the neighboring towns.

Fast forward through way too many terrible houses (or okay houses that have such low ceilings Eric can't even stand up) and I find myself at a house that can only be described as ON A HIGHWAY.... not kidding. My mom and Eric were both with me and I was clearly getting fed up with the house buying process. "Okay, I realize it is on a highway, but it is a nice house and a good price" (obviously because it is on a highway!). On the way home from highway house, we decided to stop by one more open house in my hometown. I couldn't believe I was even giving a house in this town a chance, but I figured I wouldn't like the house since I had not loved so many others. Well, of course- we did love the house and that is the story of how I found myself living in my hometown.

Honestly, I have become quite skilled at not revealing this fact about myself. I'll try not to mention both where I am from and where I currently live now in the same conversation. I also have become the master at describing my house as "on the town line of my town and the town next to mine." Even Eric has adopted this philosophy after learning that the town next door creates more of a "oh, great for you guys" reaction than our town... with it's more "snobby" reputation.

Is it really that bad living in my hometown? No... it's actually fantastic. I'm a 7 minute commute from work. I'm 3 miles from my parents. 20 minutes from Fenway Park. I have tons of great tutoring opportunities 10-15 minutes away. I love love LOVE my house.

I very rarely even catch sight of anyone I know, and I tend to have a lot more awkward encounters in the town I teach in than I do here. I think I always worried that if I lived here, my whole life would feel like high school. In fact, my life feels not at all like high school (at times it could use a little more high school!). It feels like an every day, normal life, just like it has felt like in any other town I've ever lived. Today I drove past my high school and it felt so far away from my life... like someone I know went there instead of myself.

Life is crazy.

On a positive note, I did manage to secure a house on the opposite side of town, meaning I will not be talking my own kids to my elementary or middle school and am at least 16 years or more away from setting foot inside the high school. And if the next ten years are in any way as unpredictable as the last ten years have been, who knows if I'll ever be back there?

Yet somehow, far away from my high school life, I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes from back then... Turns out no where but who you're with that really matters.

How far away do you live from your hometown? Would you ever consider moving back? Do you think it's important to move away, at least temporarily, before coming back?

Wine and Love, Take 2

2011-05-12T21:16:00.000-04:00

I'm taking on Nora's Wine and Love again this week. I'll be telling you what is making me want to grab the bottle, and what I love this week :)

Wine

1. This week has been SO long. I feel like things that happened on Monday were months ago. I've felt the same way about several days this week. There were times when I got home and forgot to tell Eric something important because I felt like I had already told him (because whatever it was had happened in my mind at least a day earlier!). Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

2. I got my hair cut and highlighted today, which I am happy about but WHY does it have to be so expensive?

3. We did placement this week for our kindergarten kids into Grade 1. Placement is the worst. I would explain why but there is no point in boring you. Trust me, it's the worst.

4. I was going to put American Idol in the love category because I love this season. But I am mad about the results tonight so I'm going to sulk instead.

Love

1. We had our Teacher Appreciation Lunch yesterday which is one of the best parts of every year (other than the fact that it comes right before placement). Yesterday was my favorite one so far because one of my very talented mom's made a cake for the event...

See the above bookworm with curly brown hair and a pink scarf? That's me! Haha. I never thought the day would come where I would be on a cake. I'm telling you people, being a teacher is like being a celebrity. I promise not to take the Lindsay Lohan route.

2. I have lots of great things to look forward to right now. My sister is graduating college in a little over a week (I would look forward to this more if it did not involve her moving away but anyways!). My college roommate is coming to visit that same week. In early June I have my 5 year college reunion (seriously- how is that even POSSIBLE?) and I turn 27 in the same week. After that only a few more week until summer!

3. I got my observation over with.

4. Did I mention that cake tasted amazing too?

The week was kind of crap overall, but the cake really puts things in a more positive light.

What's your wine and love this week?