Thursday, August 26, 2010

You're My Good Feeling

Whew, what a busy week! Really glad tomorrow is Friday and I can have some R & R with the husband!

On Sunday, my sister and I saw Something Corporate. Now if you are a SoCo fan, you'll know it was always thought impossible to hear Konstantine live. Well we did and it was just as perfect as I could've imagined it! The show was awesome. So much great energy and a lot of "mature" fans, so it's wasn't super obnoxious :)





This week has been a little hectic at work doing really obnoxious test scanning (over and over and over because of a glitch). I'll tell you it feels a little more than a glitch when you have over 40 teachers with 30 something kids in them with tests in two subjects. Ahhh! I finally got to test some kids today and started getting excited about working with kiddos again.

On Saturday we may be getting our kitties out to finally be adopted. This week they have hit what seems like the terrible twos. They are full of energy and climb like little monkeys! Our house could use a break from the madness. They have to weigh two pounds so we're filling their bellies up :)



I book our weekend for Flagstaff! Katy, Allison, Jenn and I will be having a girls weekend up there. Very excited! And I will get to take my brother out because... Today he moved in to his dorm! It's so weird to think that I was his same age when I was up there for the first time. Sort of scary to be honest. I hope he likes it and does well!

Maxxing and relaxing and heading to bed! I loved going to bed so early!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Please Write My Folks and Throw Away My Keys

Good morning! I've been awake since 6:30 because today is a special day...it's Something Corporate concert day :) :) Something Corporate brings me back to college days and makes me so happy.

This weekend was nice and low-key. I guess I was saving up for tonight. On Friday I came home and cleaned because what's better than waking up on Saturday to a clean house? Some friends wanted to go out but these days I actually think about the next day and how much nicer it will be to wake up refreshed instead of slightly (or majorly) hungover. 

Yesterday we attempted to get Jonathan's air conditioning fixed and spent all morning waiting around for the diagnosis. He's going to have to take Monday off to get it fixed. Not convenient (or cheap) but a necessity right now in Arizona. I ended up going to Gap to use my Groupon (got some cute jeans!) and hung out at Barnes and Noble. I got a professional book that is relevant to my job right now. It stinks that you can't use the educator discount on professional books. I'm using it, although indirectly, in the class.

Today I'm going to do some yoga, go grocery shopping, and get ready for the week. It's going to be a busy one! 

Have a nice week :) 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Things I Learned This Week

  • Customer "service" is not what it used to be. 
  • Always ask to speak with someone higher up.
  • Crying works.
  • Middle school teachers do not allow a word in edgewise. 
  • My job is pretty dang cool.
  • Exercising with a friend is way better than alone.
  • Bloody mary's after exercising is okay. 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I Found Some Kinda Fairytale

Well today is it! It's "day-before-the-first-day-of-school eve." Today was spent shoe shopping (success!) and organizing. I wouldn't call myself the most organized person (no one would, actually) but I do enjoy being organized and I know how much stress it can take off your day-to-day living. I always like to get the week off to the right start because it makes such a difference. I actually enjoy Monday's most of the time because it sets the tone for the week. A few things I did that hopefully get they week (and school year) off to the right start:

  • Ironing: I'm a big fan of unwrinkled clothes :) By ironing on Sunday night, I know what I'm going to wear for the week and it takes away one more thing I need to do either right before bed or in the morning. 
  • Laundry: I had two loads of laundry that needed to be folded and put away. Every time I come upstairs it was staring me in the face. Now that it's out of my way, it takes the stress out of just looking at it and having it pile up more!
  • Lunches: I made lunches for Jonathan and I tonight. Saves a step in the morning and takes away an excuse to eat crappy at lunchtime. Fortunately it's pretty difficult in our profession to go out for lunch!
  • Exercise: I've been in a little funk with my transition into full time work again. Thus, we've been doing a lot of eating out and a lot of relaxing (read: not working out). I found Body by Bethenny (I love her) and I really liked her workout DVD. It's yoga plus weights (separate) and the yoga was challenging for me, yet doable. The weights target exactly what I want to target (arms) and I KNOW I'm going to feel it tomorrow. I'm looking forward to doing this DVD regularly. 
  • Quick Clean: You don't need to do a deep clean, but just de-cluttering and cleaning up will clear your mind! 
All these things will make it easier to come home and unwind, make dinner, and of course, do my exercise DVD :)

Tomorrow will be a pretty low-key day for me. Apparently I will be helping kids in the morning as far as finding where they need to go (I don't know if I'll be much of a help, I'm still lost in that building!) and then organizing the book room. The rest of the week will be training and getting ready for testing! 

How do you prepare for the week ahead? Have a super week! 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Go With Peace and Love

Happy Saturday! I enjoyed my day and I hope you did too. A lot of it was spent running around and getting things done with J. We got our DVR box back (now that we're a two income family, it's how we roll, hahah!) and fabric for bulletin boards, ate breakfast, and then J helped me in my classroom for a little bit. 

Later on, J went to the football game (Go, Cards!) and I did some more running around...the fun kind. Got some cute tops, replaced some makeup, and some shower stuff. I didn't find any shoes :( Hopefully tomorrow. While shopping my car battery died (boo!) and Progressive came to save the day! It really took them about 15 minutes from when I called to come jump my car. Awesomeness! I went to get my battery checked and it was no bueno. I just missed my 2 year warranty by a few weeks so instead of a free battery, I had to pay $25, which isn't too bad. I FINALLY got my eyebrows waxed. After tomorrow I'll be ready for the new school year starting Monday! Yay!

I am very grateful for all the people that made my day fabulous, including, but not limited to, the Roadside service guy, the lady who put my car battery in, and the eyebrow groomer. That is all.

Enjoy your weekend and be grateful for those people that make our life wonderful in little ways :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I Won't Always Live Not Stopping

Hellllooooo!

Hope you had a great day because I did! I am currently watching the DBacks game with my feet propped up perfectly content. Our after work drink may have something to do with my content-ness (I was craving a bloody mary all day!).

Today I met my "team" at work. I have a weird position where not much really applies to me and I don't really have a "place" I belong so my team is three other specialists and myself. They are all super cool and I feel so lucky with my job. As a previous classroom teacher, I KNOW how much work it is to be a classroom teacher. This position is really a dream job (so far!) and I am glad I worked hard for my masters and paid my dues in the classroom!

Anyway, in other news, the kittens are doing great. They're healthy, eating and pooping on their own, and becoming social butterflies. They are a lot of work as far as giving them their medicine, feeding the separately, and that darn litter box, but we'll miss them when they're gone :( Please pay no mind to the terrible picture of me, but look at that cute kitten face. This kitten (Jackson) comes over the gate every night to come hang out with us. He's precious. I knew he was a trouble maker from the first day we met.

Well I've got a lot of beginning of the year stuff to print up so I better get cracking. I forgot to mention that Allison asked me to be in her wedding in May. So excited! This year's been full of high highs and low lows and a lot of the highs are babies and weddings! Yay!

Toodaloo!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

You're Everywhere

What a great weekend! We enjoyed getting out of the heat and into the beautiful Flagstaff. Allison, J and I went up for the Cardinals scrimmage and the Big Red Pour.

We left bright (dark) and early Saturday morning and got to Flagstaff where it was cloudy and looking like rain. The scrimmage was moved to the Dome because it did start to rain. Pour, actually. We were soaked while waiting to get inside but had a great time once we were there. After the practice we went back to the hotel, dried off, and got ready for lunch. I love Charley's so we ate a delicious meal there, watching the rain continue to come down. We decided to go to the second half of the beer fest and hope that the rain would let up. The weather was still pretty cold so we didn't exactly prepare (that's what packing at 4 a.m. will do) so we did some shopping for warmer clothes.

Our hotel had a free happy hour that we of course took advantage of. When it was time to walk downtown the sun came out. Yay!

The beer fest was okay...the different breweries were running out of beer and there ended up not being a whole lot of options. We watched a few songs by Michelle Branch, gave away our remaining beers on our passport, and hit up good ole Maloney's. We had drinks and good convo. At the end of the night my sandal broke so I proceeded to walk through the bar and to get a cab barefoot. Lovely. We woke up this morning for breakfast and headed back. I was still shoeless. Haha.

I love, love, love Flagstaff. It will always be a bittersweet place for me, more so now, but I hope one day, if we're not living there, we have a second home there. Hopefully the dogs will be able to come with us next time; our hotel we stayed at allows pets for no fee! Fabulous!

Excited for the week and planning and getting ready for the year!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Up the Stairs at Weatherford

Happy Sunday! I'm enjoying today since it's not actually feeling like a Sunday. I usually don't feel like I accomplish a lot on Sunday except waiting for Monday to roll around. I helped Jonathan in his classroom today and we ran some errands and had lunch out. The weather today is absolutely gorgeous though. Cloudy and on and off sprinkles. Love it!

Tomorrow is the big day: J begins the year with kids and I go back for "new" teacher stuff. I'm excited and nervous and all those feelings you get when you start a new job. We had a short orientation for paperwork and I was pleasantly surprised with the organization. Hopefully a step up from my last district!

It's also getting closer to that first paycheck. When you've gone almost a year and a half as a one income family, this day cannot come soon enough! We're thinking about each taking $500 out of our paychecks ($2000 total per month between the two of us) and then just using that towards mortgage and bills. Whatever is left over we can just roll into the next month. That sounds doable right now so I hope it works out! Does anyone have any budgeting tricks that work for them?

The kitties have a vet appointment Tuesday and I work at the restaurant a few days this week (almost the end!) and then we're heading up to Flagstaff! Not something we can really afford at this point but with Jonathan's love of the Cards and my love of the Flag, it's something we're looking forward to and we think is worth it :) We're probably only staying one night so it shouldn't be too bad!

Our book club met this week (what an interesting evening that was) and we decided as our next book to be the popular The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We reallllllly all enjoyed The Help and I highly recommend it. It was written so wonderfully and you immediately fall in love with the characters.

I'm going to get the house ready for the week. Nothing worse than starting the week with a messy house!  Back to reality tomorrow!!