Whew! And funny things first graders say.

Today was that kind of day.  I came home from work and climbed into bed, wearing my dress and cardigan and all, and slept for about 30 minutes.  I dragged myself out when Gus woke me up, figuring I should at least put on some comfy clothes.  Then I went into the kitchen, grabbed a tube of the pre made cookie dough out of the fridge, found a spoon, and sat on the couch to eat.  Now I’m sitting outside on the back patio, watching the hubs power wash things {he loves his power washer}.  The weather in Dallas this week has been PERFECT.  We are in that short time of year when it’s cool in the mornings and just right in the evenings.  Fall is on its way!

Work is still going great, besides my naps and cookie dough break in the afternoons.  I am learning SO MUCH.  I just with my brain could soak it all up and remember it forever.  It’s hard to be hit with so much information and great ideas, all day every day.  I am so lucky to be where I am.  It sounds silly, but I know this is what I am supposed to be doing.  I am loving my kids and even when they take 20 minutes to pack up their bags and walk down the hall, leaving only 4.5 minutes for recess, I still love ‘em.  Funny things they have said to me this week:

* Do you think an entire pee wee football team would be strong enough to lift a small car, like a Mini Cooper?

* How old are you? {I told them to guess} 23?  {I said YUP, that is exactly right}

* {After chapel, one girl pointed to the large metal cross hanging over the alter} Is that the real cross? {Me: What do you mean? Is that cross real? Yeah, it’s a real cross.}  No, I mean the real cross.  The one that Jesus died on.  {Oh. No. Not that one}

They make me laugh everyday.  I love their hugs and when they want to hold my hand when we walk down the hall.  And sometimes, even the crazy boys who are never paying attention, ever, run up to give you a hug and tell you that first grade is really fun.  And they’re right. It is really fun.

Chopped

I have this thing where I grow my hair out, forever and ever, then get sick of it and chop it off.  It is usually a quite drastic cut, and then I regret it about 20 minutes after I leave the salon, and thus spend the next 6-9 months growing it out again.  I haven’t done the drastic haircut in over a year now, which means for the past 18+ months, I’ve just been growing and growing it out.

Well I reached that point where I couldn’t stand it anymore.  When it gets super long, I spend 90% of the time with it pulled back into a ponytail or some sort of bun/wrap deal, just to get it all out of the way.  I was starting to feel like I was drowning in hair, and like it only looked good if I spent a good hour on it before work, so basically like never.  Thus, I knew it was time for a change.... but not my usual drastic cut.  Last time I did the cut, I wanted to look like LC in this photo (my stylist totally FAILED  to capture my vision that time):

This time, I just wanted to get rid of the length and go for something lighter and fresh, that I could still wear up or down and style lots of ways.  Here’s how it came out, before and after (before pic is blurry because it was first thing yesterday morning and I was looking rough)

Only four people at work today noticed the change.  And two of them are my BFF’s that I see all the time, so I knew they would notice!  So I guess it wasn’t really that big of a change at all. NONE of my kiddos noticed.  Oh well.  I’m loving it and have zero regret {so far} on the new do.  And these days, anything that saves me some blow-drying time is totally okay in my book!

so long sweet summer

Time did that thing it always does: fly. And here I am staring fall in the face, while still sweating in the 100 degree temps.  This weekend was a good chance to stop and put things on hold for a bit and I really tried not to worry about all the work I need to do for my classroom (we have parent night on Thursday, eek), all the reading I need to do for grad school (yeah, that started back up this week) and all the ‘stuff’ I always feel like I need to be doing (keeping the house clean, laundry, eating a halfway decent meal).  Mark and I went separate ways for the long weekend - he went to visit college friends at the lake, while I stayed home and hosted college friends who were visiting Dallas.  Two of my best girlfriends stayed with me for a night, and we got to all get ready for the night together {just like in the DG house}, catching up while we curled our hair and did our makeup, wondering aloud who would get married next, have kids next, or just stay the same.  On Saturday, we got to meet baby Hadley, and then watch the Texas game together on a {hot} patio.  But the best part was when we all stayed up until one in the morning, sipping wine, eating bon bons (literally) and just being together.  Times with friends like that are harder to come by these days, when we all live in different cities and have to, you know, go to work every day.

Now I have the Sunday Blues on a Monday night, anxious about a paper I need to write for grad school and a presentation I need to put together for parent night, and it reminds me of the same anxieties I would have at UT, when I was juggling classes and jobs and the social calendar of a college student.  It’s not that I’m worried I won’t get it all accomplished - I know it will all get done - but I still have that little nagging feeling that I should be reading or studying right now, not watching a game on TV or going out to dinner with Mark.  If I’m awake, I should be being productive, right?  At least folding some laundry or unloading the dishwasher?  But I tell myself it can wait until tomorrow.  For now, it’s all on hold.

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!