My First Blog Award!!!!

I have been graciously awarded my first blog award from the lovely Ms. Jennifer at West Sac Honey. I am super honored! And super excited!!!! THANK YOU sooo much Jennifer!!! I know I still don't have a lot of followers but just to know that I am slowly making some connections with some of you out there really makes me happy. That was definitely one of the reasons I was attracted to blogging. The more I blog the more I love it!!!

So here are the rules:

Put the award on your blog

Thank the person who you received this from

Tell 7 interesting things about yourself

Nominate 7 bloggers

Ok so 7 interesting things about me (since I have only been blogging a short time you I guess most things about me will be interesting...well I hope anyway):

1.  My husband and I have been together since 2001 (we were 15 & 16 at the time) and met in our church youth group. We have actually known each other since 98 or 99. I always thought he was cute but that there was no way he could handle me. (You see he is a pretty quiet guy and I am loud and social and outgoing.) In a partner I need someone that can put me in my place and I just didn't think he could handle it. As we got to know each I realized that there was a side to him that I hadn't seen before and I started falling for him. He had liked me for a long time and so we started hanging out more and more and soon it all just happened. We got married on 7-7-07 and I couldn't be a more lucky girl (I think he's a pretty lucky guy as well...lol). Our relationship has been through a lot in the last 9 years but I know that he is my prince and is definitely the one person that I plan on spending the rest of my life with. 

(Our perfect little family!!)

2. I love love love to read. Since the time I could read (age 4-5) it has been something that I have loved. I love how reading provides a much needed escape from life sometimes. I love how it puts you into a different persons life in a different place and time. I love the lessons I have learned from the books I have read. I love the feeling of starting a new book. I love the feeling of the characters in a book becoming my friends and a part of my life. I love the feelings and emotions I get while I read. And I love the feeling of finishing a book (although that one is kind of bitter sweet). I mainly read more girly nonfiction but I will read anything if it catches my eye or gets a good recommendation from a friend.

3. I am 50% Italian, 25% Irish, and 25% German! 100% American. Because I am have olive skin, brown hair, and brown eyes people always ask me what my background is. I have gotten Persian, Armenian, Hawaiian, Hispanic, Italian, etc. My Dad is the Irish and German one. He is a big white guy with light brown hair and green eyes (We look nothing alike! In fact he coached me for most of my 12 year softball career and most people wouldn't even put me as his daughter until they saw us interact with each other.) My Mom is Italian and I definitely get my looks from her. 

(My parents, my 2 little sisters, my little brother, my husband and I on my Wedding Day)

(My Sister and I living it up 1989 style)

(Even at age 6 I had an attitude! lol)

4. I have a crazy obsession with the color PINK. I loved pink when I was a little girl. And I have pretty much loved it ever since (I did go through a small faze when I was into blue but it didn't last long). I am drawn to the color pink. and as time goes on I love it more and more. I can't help it! Pretty much if it comes in pink or has pink on it than thats the one I want. I am definitely more likely to "need" something if it is pink. Just to show you a taste of my pink obsession. Right now from where I am sitting at my desk I have a pink dell laptop, a pink mouse, a pink plastic water bottle, pink desk supplies (stapler, tape dispenser, etc), a pink coffee mug, a pink phone cover, a pink post-it dispenser with pink post-its, a pink frame, a pink clipboard, a pink  lanyard on my keys, a pink Juicy makeup bag, and a gray with pink design Juicy purse. My husbands only request when we were registering for wedding gifts was that if it was an item that was gonna be out all the time that it not be pink. He said that otherwise he didn't care. So we have stainless steal or black in our more neutral kitchen as far as the appliances and mini appliances that are on the counters all the time go.  However tucked away in the cabinets just waiting to be used we have a pink hand mixer, pink mixing bowls, pink mixing spoons, a pink can opener, a pink ice cream scoop, pink plastic cups and plates, a pink treats jar for our puppy, as well as other pink stuff that I can't remember right now. I definitely have an obsession!! 

5. I am a huge lover of the ocean/the beach, and marine mammals. When I was younger I wanted to work at Sea World and either be a Dolphin Trainer or a Whale Trainer.  I have always thought Marine Mammals were so pretty and so cool. I think I have always thought it would be amazing to live in the Ocean. The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite movies and Ariel is my favorite Disney Princess. I am just drawn to the ocean. It gives me a calm feeling when I am near  it and makes me happy. My husband is also a big fan and so our living room and family rooms are both decorated with a more beachy feel. The living room has a ocean white sand beach feel while the family room is more tropical. If I couldn't decorate in pink than the beach was a good second that my husband and I could both agree on.

6. I hate clutter and I am a clean freak. I am just one of those people that can't handle when things aren't clean and when everything isn't in its place. I am a stickler for putting things back where they go. Everything has its place and needs to go back to it when its done being used. I love to be organized and I love a clean home. And I try to go through closets, drawers, and other clutter collectors often so that I can trash or donate items that I no longer need. I married someone that is just as crazy about this one so that makes my life and job of keeping everything clean, clutter free, and neat a lot easier. I think we both grew up with those types of moms that kept everything and so we have both went in the completely opposite direction for how we like our living and working spaces.

7. One of my secret desires in life is to be either a talk show host or to host a travel show. Well I guess its not so secret anymore...lol But nonetheless I think it would be soooo much fun to be able to call one of those my job. As a talk show host I would love to talk girl stuff and interview celebrities and important people every day.  I would be able to make people happy and feel good about themselves. I love to talk and I just can't imagine a job that would fit me better. Well except that of being a travel show host. I LOVE to travel. My Dad is afraid of flying so as a kid we pretty much stayed in the US. But I have big dreams of traveling all over the world. And I am so envious of the people that get to travel to amazing places, eat amazing food, and stay at even more amazing hotels. I would love to go to all these amazing places and share them with people from all walks of life.  And once again I would be able to use my love of talking!!!! (Ok I think I have used amazing a little too much on this one..lol)

Anyways I hope that the info I shared with help you to get to know me better. With that being said I nominate: 

Kristine from Confessions of a Teacher's Life 

Alexandra from HRH Collection

Kate Gene from Kate Gene (A Beauty Blog) 

Caroline from Coeur De La

Mayra from Life is Bananas 

Suzanne from Steece's Pieces 

Caitlin from Candyfloss and Persie 

YAY for Friday!!!!

Despite the crazy amount of rain, this week has been a pretty good one. Monday was a wonderful day off. I spent most of it on the couch cuddling with the hubby and the puppy while watching movies and catching up on shows that we Tivo to watch together. I decided that I don't mind the rain nearly as much when I can be listening to it from a warm and cozy place inside. We watched the Disney Pixar movie "Up", which was super cute. Although it made me cry at the beginning (I am a super sappy person and I cry VERY easily), it had a really cute story line and even my husband (who is picky when it comes to animated movies) liked it and said it was better than he expected it to be.

Unfortunately it was back to work Tuesday. The rain definitely makes the job of being a teacher MUCH harder. The rain makes the kids very stir crazy and gives them cabin fever like no other. Our school has no place for the kids to be during breaks or lunch time so they stay in our classrooms. I never realized how much the break helps my sanity until I didn't have them. They are always nosier, messier, and less likely to follow directions when its raining. AND because of the storms our internet server was down some of the week leaving us with no access to our gradebook or attendance or any other online stuff. (I know that sounds like no big deal but we are spoiled and all those fancy online things make life sooo much easier!) With all of that being said, if it had to be a week of rain this was a good week for it to be. This week was only 4 days long AND its finals week so it ended up that 3 of the 4 days were shortened days. The shortened weeks are sooo much happier because they seem to go by soooo much faster.

 

Last nights Best Friend/Moms date was super fun and filled with lots of laughs. It was funny being out with our moms. As my mom drove with Julie's mom in the passenger seat and Julie and I sat and talked and messed around in the back seat I felt like I was 15 again. One of the funniest parts of the night was trying to get to our car from the restaurant we ate dinner at. We had parked a couple of parking lots from the restaurant because we had missed the parking lot for the restaurant and with all the one-way streets in downtown it was easier just to walk a little more. Of course it wasn't raining at all when we first parked and it actually looked like it was clearing up a little so we left the umbrellas in the car. Well sure enough the minute we needed to go to the car so we could go to the play it was POURING outside. And not only was it pouring but it had gotten quite windy so the rain was coming in sideways. We power walked to the car and amidst all the chaos a lot of laughing took place. I hadn't laughed that hard in a while.

I know now your probably wondering how the play was?! All in all I wouldn't say it was my favorite musical/play that I have ever seen, but it was definitely good and definitely worth seeing if you like Disney as much as I do! The story is quite different than the movie. (The songs are in different parts then the movie and some of the characters and scenes are changed a lot.) But as long as you are ready for that it is really enjoyable. The actors (especially the ones playing Mary and Bert) were fantastic and the way that they add some of that Mary Poppins-like magic is really neat. And the very end of the play is super cute!

Well its time for my lunch and movie date with one of my besties. (She's a co-worker of mine that I am really close with and the students like to call her that as a joke becuase they see us around the school so much together..lol) Thanks to the shortened day we are picking up Thai from this yummy place by my work and then heading over to her house to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic. (She hasn't seen this movie and she is a DEFINITELY a shopaholic so I'm excited to watch it with her because I know she will totally love it as much as I did. I have never watched a movie that has made me have such a desire to go shopping...lol)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Play Time!!!!

Tonight I am going to see "Mary Poppins" at the Ahmanson. I am going with my Best Friend Julie and our Moms. We have never done anything just the 4 of us (although we have talked about it like a million times but we always have trouble actually making the plans) so I think it will be a really fun and special night. I am super excited to finally be seeing this play. I have been wanting to see it for over 2 years now.

I am a huge fan of musicals and plays. I love love love going to see them. They are one of those simple things that just make me happy.

To date I have seen:

Wicked & The Little Mermaid

(Saw them both in New York on Broadway with their original cast.)

 

The Lion King, The Producers, Dirty Dancing, & Fiddler on the Roof 

(Saw all of these at the Pantages)

 

Of course I have seen smaller productions of others but these were what I would consider professional productions and from what I remember they were all AMAZING!

Anyway thats it for today. My break is over and I have to get back to work.

Happy 2010!!!!

So I unintentionally took a month vacation from writing on here. Life got a little more than busy and unfortunately keeping up with my blog falls a little low on the priority list especially since I have only been keeping this blog for a short time. I don't really like the idea of resolutions but I do think setting goals are important. And I think the beginning of a new year is as good of a time as any to start setting new goals for yourself or even to evaluate where you are on achieving the goals you have already set for yourself.

I have this poster in my classroom and I think it really explains exactly why goals are sooooo important!

I don't have this one but I like it too!

 Some of the goals I have for this year (or plan to continue this year) are:

-To continue to live a healthier lifestyle (this includes working out 5 days a week and following weight watchers).

-To change my teaching credential from a preliminary one to a clear California credential.

-To write on here AT LEAST once a week this year. 

-To focus on the important things in life as well as the important things in life and to not worry so much about the things that don't matter.

-To surround myself with positivity and positive people and to continue to be active and involved.

Wishing you all a happy and blessed 2010! CHEERS!!!