First Day of School

It’s the first day of school!

I haven’t been this excited {slash nervous} for the first day since I was in elementary school.  Today our little first graders come to school for our first day together.  Yesterday was Meet the Teacher, so I got to meet almost all of them and their parents, and I can tell we are going to have a great bunch.

For example, a conversation I had today with two little Firsties:

Me: So, what did you do this summer?

#1: I went to Orlando.  We went to four different places at Disney World: Downtown Disney, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Blizzard Beach.

Me: Wow, that sounds fun! What about you, {#2}?

#2: I went to Paris.  But we couldn’t go all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower because the elevators were broken.

Me. Oh. That’s a bummer!

Clearly, they had way cooler summers than I did! 

To celebrate my first First Day, here’s yours truly in first grade:

My mom made that dress :)

And, the First Day of School, through the years:

Heading off to second grade, sixth grade, senior year and college!

It’s a Party for Your Arm!

Friends!

Today I am doing my first ever link-up, and it’s a good one too :)  Earlier this summer I signed up for an “Arm Party” over at Much Love Illy (who is also hosting with Yellow Heart Art).  These ladies had a fun virtual chain letter of sorts that matched me up with a partner, and then we sent each other bracelets for a little “party on the arm” action.  I mean, how fun is that?!  I used to love chain letters when I was little, even though it took me eons to write out the letter 12 times and send it to 12 of my friends (hello, life before computers) and then I would have to wait weeks and weeks to get the 124 postcards, or whatever it promised.  This party was way simpler and way cooler!

First off, my partner Melinda blogs at life sans serif and is super cool.  Here’s why:

{pic from Melinda’s blog}

1. She lives in New Hampshire! That is so far away and so much cooler (literally) than Texas!  Melinda, is is 107 degrees over in NH?  I’m thinking not!

2. She has a cute, fun blog over at life sans serif, where she - wait for it - MAKES HER OWN FONTS!  This is probably the coolest thing ever.  And she is oh-so-clever with her Twitter handle, @melisansserif.  Did you see how she did that?  Fonts.. san serif.. melinda.. love it.

3. She put up with me and my missed deadlines for the bracelet swap. Bah! Melinda, I promise that in real life I am the most punctual person ever, but I really missed the boat with this one.  You see, Melinda told me that her favorite summer memories were her times at summer camp, especially archery and the ropes course.  So I scoured etsy one evening and found a very cute pink rope bracelet, that was all braided and funky and just very cool.  So I was like *Yes!* this is perfect for Melinda.  And I ordered it.  Then 10 days later, it still wasn’t here.  So I started to panic, thinking ok it’s got to be here tomorrow... and still, it didn’t come. Anyways, long story short, I didn’t even notice that I ordered from a shop that is in the United Kingdom and I guess the Olympics were slowing down the mail because it was not. making. it. to. me.  So I quickly found a new bracelet, with an arrow on it {archery for the win!} and zipped it over to Melinda, way past the deadline for this link-up.  You can see it over on her blog, here.  I also love this little arrow bracelet because it totally reminds me of Katniss in the Hunger Games.  And Melinda, I’m so sorry it was late!

4. Melinda rocks because she MADE my bracelet!  And got it to me days before the deadline.  Sigh.  What a winner.

She sent me this handmade bracelet, that is made of leather and lace.  She used my favorite colors {purple and blue} and even included my *other* favorite color: neon!  I like how this bracelet is thick and chunky.  It immediately reminded me of those very cool, nautical, rope bracelets that are popular (JCrew used to have some), which I love.

You can see here that it also has some little silver charms, like the A and “dream” token pictured here.  Fun detail!  I like to layer it up with some other leather/blinging bracelets that I have in my collection.

There you have it! And just for the record, I still haven’t gotten my British rope bracelet.  Once it did finally get here, it was sign-on-delivery and I’m never home when the mail comes, so it is sitting at the post office, just waiting for me to come sign for and pick it up.  Which means I would have to actually get to the post office before they close... which hasn’t happened yet!

Whew.  Thanks Melinda, for the fun swap and the awesome bracelet.  I hope to be blogging friends from across the country!  Check out our swap, and all the others, over at much love, illy and Yellow Heart Art today!

** good news **

Hi Friends!  Whew. Time is flying.  Like whoa.  So much for that little blip of unemployment.  That came and went.  I am now back to work at my school, only as an associate teacher.  It’s a new position at my school this year, and there are two other girls besides me working in this role.  We are each teaching in one of the three first grade classrooms, as a second teacher.  We are kind of like student teachers/interns/fellows... depending on what program you are used to seeing.  We are also all guinea pigs to this program at my school, so it’s definitely a learn as you go process!

So far, just one week into my new role, I L-O-V-E it. Obsessed. Thrilled. Uber excited. When I [finally] decided to chase my dream of being a teacher last Spring, I could have not have planned out a more perfect transition into my new career.  I am getting to learn from an awesome experienced teacher, be in the classroom full-time (and get paid), and be involved in all parts of the preparing, planning, teaching and assessing throughout the year.  And first grade is way fun. I thought I wanted a more “older young grade,” like 3rd of 4th grade, but this is so incredibly fun.  Everything in first grade is cute.  My lead teacher is basically my kindred spirit, because she gets a lot of her ideas from teaching blogs and Pinterest, she loves cute fonts and fun colors, and she is super organized.  And she trusts me and encourages me to offer my ideas, change the way she does things and run with new ideas and lessons.  Oh and, my official mentor at school this year is our new interim Lower School Head (who my friend Sara knows in real life too) and she is AWESOME.  Like probably my new most favorite person, ever.  It is a complete 180 degree change from my work life in the past year.  I feel super blessed and incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to learn and prepare for my life as a TEACHER.  I love it.

And on the subject of good news and life totally ROCKING, I also finished the last of my prerequisite classes in grad school this summer, so I only have nine (!! time is flying !!) more hours of content coursework left for my degree.  AND, I took one of my two state certification tests last weekend (the tougher of the two) and PASSED.  WOOO!  That was such a huge relief off my shoulders.  I start the fall semester in a couple weeks and the kids in my class will show up on Tuesday for Meet the Teacher!  Whoa.  It’s happening, like, for real.

{Un}Employment

Today is Day One of NOT HAVING A JOB!  {note: there will only be six days total}.  I am in limbo, in between two jobs, so I am sorta unemployed, right?  Right!

So I went grocery shopping, during the middle of the day, on a Wednesday.  Quite different then going on a Sunday afternoon, with the rest of the world.  I also vacuumed and cleaned the cat box.  Exciting, right?

For the third time, I am going to attempt to do Fat Mum Slim’s Photo a Day Challenge this month.  I think you should too.  I am planning on getting past at least one week.  Let’s see how I do!

Today’s photo is {outside}.  Well, it’s way to hot to be outside, so I snapped this one looking out into the front yard.  So yes, cheating slightly.  But look at my pretty lampshades!  From Target!  And the flag blowing in the wind!  America!  And my car parked out on the street because our back gate won’t open... And it’s gimp spare tire, since I got a flat a couple weeks ago and still haven’t gotten it fixed.

I’ll be spending the rest of the day watching the Olympics.  Unless it’s something boring like kayaking, in which case I will be watching Monday’s Bachelor Pad.  Oh and I did end up seeing the outcome of the women’s gymnastics before it aired last night.  Bah!  I logged into Instagram and forgot that I was following Jordyn Weiber, so as soon as I opened the app, there she was, flashing her gold medal.  Oh well, way to go USA!