It happened, it's over, and I couldn't be happier.

I graduated! Can you believe it? When I started this blog, I was still working on my undergraduate honors thesis and counting down the days until I applied and was accepted into Grad school.

Grad school was not easy, hell it wasn't anything near easy. The classes seemed repetitive, the assignments pointless at times, and my internship was more time consuming and emotion pulling then I could have imagined. However, I managed! I passed, I finished, and I walked across that stage with lots of joy!

Graduation is bittersweet because it marks the end of my college career (yay!) but also the end of a short distance friendship between myself and 4 awesome girls! These would be the girls that I traveled to conferences with, the girls that I watch get married, the girls that have been my rocks for the past three years.

Although we are all graduating and moving on with life, we will forever have a bond of friendship. (It just won't be as easy when we live in 5 different places. )

Moral of the Story: Keep your head on straight and work hard. They tell me it will pay off!

You win some, You lose some

I am devastated. My Florida Gators have lost a game. We didn't just lose, we were crushed. The tide rolled over. It's hard to say but I think this year will not be the same. We lost a lot of great players last year and I am not seeing the same passion form the players on the field. Although I love my Gators, I am hoping that this loss was not the beginning of many more.

However, I did travel to Alabama to see the game and the trip was pretty darn fun. I went with a really great friend and then one of her friends. The road trip was 10 hours each way and we had a blast. We jammed to 90's classics like N'Sync, Spice Girls, and TLC. We chatted about everything, and we laughed A LOT.

When we made it to Birmingham we ate, drank, took pictures, got ice cream, and laughed A LOT.

We went to the game and we tailgated, visited the stadium, took pictures, and laughed A LOT.

Then we left early because the Alabama fans are relentless and I can only take so many foul remarks before I punch someone.

We will now continue scheduled blogging....

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been busy. Very busy. Let's recap what has happened since August:

1. School started. It was fantastic and after the first introduction week I start to take over portions of the lessons. This was exciting and new and more time consuming then I had ever thought it could be. I went to school all day and then I went home and wrote lessons, practiced reading storybooks aloud, and tried to figure out how to help those students that weren't figuring it out. It was exhausting and I could not possibly give myself the 15 minutes needed to sit down and share the stories with you. Now that a month or so has past, I regret that choice because those stories were darn good and the details are quite as clear now.

2. A great friend married another great friend. The ceremony was beautiful and we had a fabulous time celebrating the beginning of their life together.

3. My friends and I had a Dexter themed dinner party to celebrate the new season. We made blood inspired dishes and it was awesome! Each dinner guest wore black because we were mourning the death of a character from the previous season. (No worries, I won't spoil the show if you aren't caught up.) I made a bag of blood spattered popcorn and served it in a super classy black trash bag. if you don't watch Dexter then please don't judge me. It makes sense if you do.

4. My sister turned 20! Holla!

That kinda catches us up to October. I am going to try to be better about making time for the blog. Seriously.

Movie Review

Remember when I told you I was so excited to see Eat, Pray, Love? I spaced out with this whole school starting business and never recapped the movie. Here I bring you my review:

I LOVED Eat, Pray, Love. I will not discuss in major detail the reasons for which I enjoyed this movie because I hate when people spoil a movie for me. However, I will say: Most of the movie is true to the book, Julia Roberts was fabulous, and the medicine man in Bali was the cutest old man I may have ever seen. Check out this clip of when Julia's character meets Ketut.

I really hate when Hollywood takes a book and butchers it to beyond recognition (a la Confessions of a Shopaholic) and puts the same title on the movie. It makes people less excited to read a book. Eat, Pray, Love did the exact opposite, my good friend and I went to see the movie and as we were walking out she said, "I think I might read the book because it seems like I would understand the movie better." That's an A+ Hollywood.

Moral of the story: See this movie! It will make you want to travel the world and have the experiences Elizabeth Gilbert did. or maybe that's just me.

Sometimes you just need a break...

I love my friends. Really I do. However, I am currently feeling like our friendship is not a great as it used to be. I am wondering if every friendship reaches a point where they question when the friendship broke down and if it will ever get better again. I have been having a rough few weeks with my friends and I just want to go back to the way things used to be.

I didn't really notice anything was wrong with my close group of friends until I was invited out with another group of friends. These second group of friends are not people I hangout with a lot and therefore we spent the time together catching up, laughing, and having a great time. I miss the times when my really close group of friends did that. Now all we do it gossip, talk about the crappy things going on in life, and discuss school. I think that we need a clean slate and a chance to laugh until we cry again.

My friends have made my last three years in Gainesville some of the best times I will ever remember and I would hate to have this awkward period ruin what we experienced together since we met. Our group has a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks because one of us is getting married and I hope the festivities will be remembered as happy and fun and not a memory of catty fighting.

What do I do? Do I try to pretend that things that have been done and said are forgotten? Do I talk to them and hope it doesn't make things worse?

It's my last first day of school

Today was my very last, First day of School as a student. I started my internship today and it was fantastic! I love my teacher, my school, my third grade team, the principal, and I know I will love the kids. I didn't know what to expect for preplanning, but it was a lot of meetings thrown in between a few minutes to decorate the classroom or eat lunch. I loved every minute of it and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week brings!

This Friday is meet the teacher, where all the students and families come to school and they get to walk to the classroom, find their desk, meet the teacher, get the materials list, etc. I always looked forward to this as a child because its the first time you can see which of your friends are in your class! I am now looking forward to this as the teacher. I will get to meet families, meet the students that I will be teaching, and see all the handwork for the week paying off. I just have to figure out what I want to wear :)

Moral of the Story: This is gonna be a great semester and I am so excited to graduate in December with my Master's in Special Education...how crazy is that.

Spiders......are not my fortay.

I walked out of my house today and almost ran right into this guy!

I screamed a little scream, I almost cried, and then I sat my stuff down and took out my phone to catch him in the act.

I really, really, really hate spiders because they freak me out. They move so quick and have so many legs, I feel like you can never trust a spider.

I'm not sure what type of spider this is, but I do know that he is slowing creating a web of magic out side my front door. MY FRONT DOOR...the one I use like 5 times daily at least. I don't want to kill him because well I feel that death by human is unnecessary for this little guy because he really did nothing wrong except trespass on my front door. As of right now I will see how far he weaves his web and if I start t feel uneasy about him taking residence so close to my home I might have to evict him.


Moral of the story: If you have more than 2 legs, run faster than I, and get in my personal bubble..I might have to move.

Grad School continues

The entire point of creating this blog was to follow my journey from undergraduate to graduate student. I didn't do that. I posted a few times about school and my thesis and conferences, but the majority of posts are about my life. I am totally ok with that. I love grad school and I have enjoyed my experiences, but seeing as many of my experiences involve children (the special education major thing) I refrain from using thier pictures, faces, and personal stories even though they would make for fantastic stories.

Next Monday I start my full time internship. I am excited, ready, but still nervous. What if all of this practice shows me that I am not good at teaching..what if I can't meet the expectations of all of my students, what if I fail? Deep down, I don't think any of this will happen, but it could. It most certainly could and that is what makes me nervous.

I am no doubt going to slow down on posting (my god woman how could you be any slower??) but I am going to make a real effort to blog at least twice a week and to keep the posts interesting and worth while.

Hungry Hippos

I have not played this game in forever, but it kinda rocks. The kids I nanny recently accuried this gem and we have spent all morning eating marbles. I totally won, but since they are 3 and 7, I let them think they won.

Fantastic.
Moral of the Story: Games form my generation are far superior then the crap that kids play now. Hungry Hippos, Sorry, Connect 4..those are classic!

She's Baaaaacccckkkkk

Tomorrow is the day that I have dreaded for the past week. Number 2 will be back at work and can I say OMG..I have cherished the time without her.

Hopefully she returns a different child, but seeing as she was spoiled at Grandma's all week, I doubt it. I am going to put my game face on and teach the kids how to count to five because that is the number of days I have left :)


Moral of the Story: Friday is gonna be a good good day :)

Eat. Pray, Love

You may have heard of it. It's a little movie that comes out next week starring Julia Roberts that is based on a best selling novel. I really enjoyed the book and I am really looking forward to the movie.

I have heard people criticize the entire plot of the book because who can afford to take a whole year off and travel the world, but things were different when she took this deeply personal trip and her situation was nothing like most people can conceive. I think the journey was exciting, nerve racking, and incredibly brave. I hope that one day I can travel the world and have experience of my own that help me the way these experience helped her.

Check out the movie trailer here.


Moral of the story: Movies are never like books, I know. I can only hope that it doesn't massacre the story to be unrecognizable.

Nothing says Party like a Mullet

Business in the front and party in the back..nothing makes me think of the 80's like a Mullet. A decent mullet is hard to maintain, hard to keep trendy and most of all hard to not laugh at when you see when shopping at the mall. Check out this website for some famous mullets that you may have forgotten.

The point of this post was not to reminisce about of the the worst haircuts our generation has seen, it was to talk about my job AGAIN. This morning I strolled into their house and was greeting by two smiling faces, remember no number 2 this week!!! However, one of the smiley faces had an unfortunate mullet upon her head. Apparantly number 2 came across a pair of scissors before she left for Grandmas's and gave number 3 a new do. It's pretty amusing, but sad because number 3 is sooo cute but she can't pull off a mullet. No one can.

I used the photobooth on my computer and although this picture has the mirror affect, it really was the best shot of her new bangs. This picture in disguise might be best because I don't need anyone coming across it and telling the parents that number 2 drives me crazy 94% of the time.

Moral of the story: Your house should be scissor free from age Newborn to 18. You can never really trust those buggars.

Pretending to be an adult for a day

About four weeks ago I received a tiny red envelope in the mail that summoned me to jury duty. I was excited. I felt important, needed, and grown up.

Today was my day to show up for duty and I joyfully woke up, showered, ate breakfast, packed snacks, grabbed a book, and went downtown to the courthouse. I made it through security with only 1 snafoo with my belt and I proceeded to the fourth floor where I was given a sticker with my juror number.

I sat. and sat. and sat some more until they decided to begin 30 minutes late. We watched a snazzy video that I suspect was shown via VCR and created in the 80's (based on clothes and hair) about the importance of being a juror and the difference between a plaintiff and a defendant. (Hello Florida, we have Judge Judy now and we know these things...)

Then the honorable so and so came in, we were sworn in, and the process began to select jurors. The judge said he would first talk to anyone individually who felt they had a hardship and would be unable to serve on a jury. No one stood. He then informed us that they were only creating 1 jury and the case was expected to last 2 weeks. TWO FREAKING WEEKS! The judge then asked again if there were any hardships and 50% of the courtroom stood and started to form a line to speak with him. I debated my situation: stay in the courtroom and take my chance of being selected and miss out on two weeks of pay form nannying or talk to the judge and tell him I am a full time student working full time to pay tuition and I can't afford to serve for two weeks. I went with option B. The judge excused me from jury duty today, but I was warned that I will be summoned again in 8 to 12 weeks.

Moral of the Story: I don't think I like being an adult that much. Bring me finals, internships, and transcripts. You can keep your bills, jury duty, and taxes.

I'm done!

This is what I looked like two days ago when I was rushing to finish a paper and submit it before the due date. I did it and now I am done with this semester and I say thank goodness! The class I have had all summer has been annoying to say the least and I am glad to part ways with the professor and take a mini break before the Fall semester begins.

Moral of the story: Get your shit done early and have sanity.

The hazards of a real job

So remember my post a while back about my real paying job and then the post about how a usual day looks, I have to be honest with you, the majority of the crying, hitting and other headache inducing behavior comes from 1 of the 3 children. We shall call this child number 2. Number 2 enjoys spending the day giving me an ulcer by doing anything to child 1 and child 3. This includes: hitting, kicking, knocking over, breaking toys, punching, throwing toys, crying, more crying, and lastly more crying. This child takes pride in hurting others and always has a smirk on their face. I am thrilled to annouce that next week, Number 2 will be visiting Grandma, and I will have 5 glorious days of freedom. I am beyond thrilled to spend my days with number 1 and number 3 reading, watching tv, playing play dough instead of chasing, yelling and giving timeouts!

Moral of the story: Thank goodness for easy weeks. Take your time to breath and relax because being angry at work is not healthy.

It's my Birthday and I'll eat everything in sight...

I have been sticking to this weight watchers thing pretty clearly for the past few weeks and have seen the results in the lose of a few pounds. However, yesterday was my birthday (Happy 23rd to Me) and I ate everything in sight during the weekend and last night.

I drove to Daytona to spend the weekend with my mom, who also had a birthday this past weekend, and we ate out for every meal. EVERY MEAL! How am I supposed to work with that? Regardless of how many pounds I gained, the food was delicious and I loved everything about it. Friday night we ate at a brand new restaurant called, Vince Carter's, recently built by Vince Carter. He is not vain or anything...

The atmosphere of the restaurant was great and it is beautiful inside. This picture is one I found online because I fogrot my camera that night :( The restaurant has three different seating options: a sports bar, a dinign room, or a piano lounge. We opted for the dining room and it was fantastic. The seats were comfy, the music was pleasant, and the other tables felt far enough away that you didn't feel like you could reach over and grab their salt. The menu was just as diverse as the seating options and you cold order anything from burgers to lamb chops and anything in between. I chose a decadent pasta served with shrimp and scallops in a vodka sauce....delish. I would recocomd this restaurant to anyone visiting Daytona!

When I got back to Gainesville, my friends and I went to a Japanese steakhouse and did the hibachi grill. I love this! The food is always outstanding and we had an exceptional chef who made us laugh and pay attention the entire meal. Plus, I am not sure what they put in the white seafood sauce, but I cannot get enough of it! I pour that stuff on everything that touches my plate.




Moral of the story: Treat yourself on your birthday. You might regret the steamed veggies and sweet potato later but you'll get over a few extra pounds added to your middle.

I have the best friends a girl could ask for

So today is the day before my birth. I thought it was any other day before my birth, but I was wrong. Today was a special day ebcause today was the day that I had my very first surprise party! My girls in Gianesville threw me a surprise birthday party and invited so many people that I love. The best part about the surprise is that I was truly surprised. I had NO idea, NO inclination, and they all did a fabulous job at telling lies and getting me to the party.
I had friends drive two hours from Daytona, friends that I have met in different ways around Gainesville, friends from school, and some great best friends there. Everyone made food, we drank mimosas, talked, listened to music, and ate fabulous cupcakes from Yum Cupcakery!

The girls even made me a hand created sign:



I could not have asked for a better birthday party and now I feel selfish that I planned a dinner for everyone to go out and celebrate my birth, but I am special enough for two celebration so I did not cancel!

Moral of the Story: It feels great to know that my sister and my friends cared enough about me to throw me a surprise party and lie behind my back for weeks.

Is it worth it???

Remember, not too long ago when I was super excited about my real paying job. Let's just say I am less excited today.

These kids are the best form of birthcontrol. They are driving me slowly into a state of total chaos. I knew that working 10 hours a day with three kids under the age of six would be stressful, but I had no idea. I think it strange that my major is elementary education and here I am complaining about children, but let's be real. Teaching is not babysitting. In my classroom I will read, talk about cool things like science and history, we will eat lunch, have recess (hopefully) and then they will get some homework and we will continue the processs throughout the year and they will become more educated, hopefully more socially responsible an din the end I will survive.

My current job goes a little something like this:

I arrive, kids eat breakfast, one kid throws oatmeal on the floor, dog eats eat, kid cries. then we play wit toys, fights ensue, more crying followed by arm biting and hair pulling. Dogs get involved, someone falls down, more crying and probably a time out or two.

We might go to the mall (indoor playground and it's like 200 degrees here) or the museum (free arts and crafts) but this usually involves a 45 minute period of time in which we get dressed, find shoes, grab toys that want to go, put on shoes, grab diapers, get snacks, more crying, probably a time out or two and then we leave.

Lunch involved three different sandwiches, a plethora of sides. I know I could make one lunch and call it done but that might result in more crying and probably a timeout or two.

Then we watch TV. I kid you not the only period of time when there is no crying and not a timeout unless kid one kicks kid two because kid three got too close to them on the couch.

Nap time for kid 3, Kid 2 gets a hour of quiet time, and kid 1 does his own thing. My FREE time and i shall cherish it daily.

Snack time is similar to breakfast and it usually results in a timeout or two.

Then more playing, more crying, more kicking, more biting, more hairpulling, resulting in a timeout or two.


That is my day Monday thru Friday from 8 to 5.

Moral of the Story: Bring on the diploma, I cannot wait to have a classroom where the kids know I am there to help them and not put them in timeout.

What happens in New Orleans was once in a lifetime

I am going to be very frank about this..New Orleans was not so much fun. The city itself was dirty, smelly, and overall very unimpressive.

New Orleans has some perks:

1. Open container law - Very handy when you are walking from bar to bar trying to find a place for your underage sister to get in.

2. Food choices aplenty - We never really had a hard time finding a place to eat since there were many many choices, but they all served the same food.

3. Sweet Aquarium - My friends and I went to the Audubon aquarium and it was pretty awesome :) We also visited the insectarium and the zoo.

If I had to choose a vacation spot tomorrow, New Orleans would not make the top 50. I really did not like the city or the people.

Moral of the Story: New Orleans is not for the faint of heart, those under the age of 18, those over the age of 25, or anyone who has morals.

Hard work pays off

Let me backtrack a little bit...

This is the third time I have attended this summer conference and every year there is an awards ceremony. I love awards and watching people win awards and this ceremony is no different. However, Florida has never won at this conference, mostly because they have never nominated themselves, but it has always been disappointing. Once I took over as President, I was determined to nominate Florida for at least one award and I worked my behind to have a successful year that was deserving of such an award.

Fast forward...

It paid off. We won! Not only did we win the award that I nominated my chapter for, The Local Excellence Award, but I won an award too :) My dear friends nominated me for Outstanding Leader and I won! I am beyond thrilled and little bit sad too. I feel as though I made such an impact in one short year, but now I have to graduate. I keep imagining what cold have been if I had gotten involved earlier and had more time.