TGIF!

It's finally Friday, and with Friday comes Sunday, and with Sunday comes my last day of training for training at work! I am so excited to be finished. Don't get me wrong, I am loving this new part of my job, but I miss the salon so much. The first 5 hours of my shift during training are spent working the floor, selling classes, helping people, which I like, but I miss being able to spend my whole day with puppies :) 

Last night (Thursday) my best friend, Lauren, dropped off her puppy, Penny, for the weekend. Yes, we are dogsitting! It's been really fun so far (except the crying during the night ;)) Guillermo has been having a TON of fun. (By the way, did you SEE the new pictures of him? SO cute.) They just tumble around the living room for hours, then get tired and lay down for a few minutes, gulp some water, and start all over. Considering we were getting worried about Guillermo's weight (he's 9.5 lbs and should be 8 lbs, haha!) I'm hoping all of this exercise will do him some good in that department! 

Also! I told you guys how I graduated last week, remember? Well, all of my grades are finally in, and not only did I get an A in the hardest class I had this quarter (with the hardest professor, ever) I also made the Dean's List. (!!!) AAANNNNDDD (drumroll, please!!) after slacking off Freshman and Sophomore years (and I do mean slacking off. I never went to class, and when I did, I either read a book or played on my computer the entire time) and then taking two and a half years to undo that damage, I reached my goal of graduating with a 3.0! (actually a 3.055 for the university and a 3.144 for the college!) I know I could have done MUCH better had I put the work in from the very beginning, but since it took me so long to realize my GPA was actually important to my life, I am really proud of this. I was convinced I wasn't going to make it, and when I saw that I did, I was SO happy. It's one of those achievements that you get super, SUPER excited about, but no one really understands just how proud you are of yourself. I might have to treat myself to something special this weekend :) 

I am so excited to have Saturday completely off tomorrow, and to get to spend the entire day with my boys and Penny. I think we'll go to the park, have lunch, and maybe do a little thrifting. CAN'T WAIT! 

Happy weekend, everyone!

xoxo S

Happy Tuesday!

First! Make sure you all catch my feature from this morning on Shawni from A Spoonful of Love here!

I am having a really great day, today! So far, I have just been at school, and I DO have class tonight, but I am still pretty chipper :) I just spent a good amount of time catching up on blogs and getting that infamous Google Reader bold number down to zero. It's one of my favorite things to be able to read excellent posts and "star" them to check out again, later! Especially when it comes to the 2398 vegan/vegetarian blogs I am subscribed to ;)

Here are just a few of the posts I have starred since I began using Google Reader. I am a huge fan of finding new recipes and trying things out, so that's mostly what they are:

I am really excited to try out the these three most recent of my starred posts: "How to make brown sugar," "Pumpkin pizza," and "zucchini and chickpea burgers!" I am lucky that Nick is so open to trying whatever I make, even if it's a bite or two. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking a lot about Sophie Kinsella and her Shopaholic series. Well, I finally finished it, and the final book was just as great as the previous five, and the end leave plenty of room for a seventh book, so I am really excited! After I finished that book, in about three days, I started on one of the other Madeline Wickham (Sophie Kinsella's pseudonym) books I own but haven't read: Sleeping Arrangements.

The book was pretty good, but not what I was expecting from SK. However, I would still recommend it :) 

Also: I am teaching The Crucible to my AA kids, as I said last week, and they are really struggling with it. However, this is the first time I have read it at all, and I am loving it. I think it's really eerie and perfect for the fall season - and it's really interesting! We are also watching the 2004 film version alongside it, to make sure that the kids are understanding what they are reading. 

Lastly - Petsmart called today to formally offer me the spot in.... their groom shop! It was between that and Pet Care, which is their umbrella term for the part of the store that deals with fish, birds, reptiles, etc. and while I would have accepted it graciously, I was really hoping for the groom shop position. This means I get to work with puppies - every day! I am SO excited, since animals would totally be my profession if I weren't teaching. Yay!! 

Hope you all have a lovely Tuesday, I am off to mail Jaelynn from Pardon My Ffrench a thank you package for sponsoring me this month! 

<3 S

Can I get a minute, please?!

Have you ever had the kind of day where you want to start scribbling in a journal right when you wake up and can't shake that flustered feeling? Have you had one of those days where anything and everything annoys you? And then you get to school for an 8 hour day with kids who have been taking standardized tests all week and don't want to listen/do any work for you whatsoever? Well. Today was THAT day for me. As you know, I have five bells of 11th grade english, straight through until lunch, then plan bell, then after school plan until 2:30. By the time lunch came around, I had a splitting headache and NO patience left. I gave FOUR Wednesday night schools today, totally skipping over detentions and warnings. I rarely give these... I mean rarely.

Apparently, Holly was feeling the same way because when I was walking towards the door to pick up a veggie sandwich from Subway, she told me to stay and that she would take me out to lunch. At first I though I was in trouble, but it turned out she needed a break, too. It was nice to get out of the building for thirty minutes!

Also, I finally finished Shopaholic and Baby today and began reading Mini Shopaholic! I am so excited and I have read 5% of the book on my Kindle already and it's so good! I am drinking it up. Sometimes, I get so discouraged about reading, but lately it has been such an escape for me. I snapped this picture quickly with my phone, today, during plan bell. (Yes, that IS the too-expensive Vera bag I said I wouldn't buy here, but I couldn't help myself! And I have promised myself [and Nick, for accountability purposes] that I won't have anymore splurges until I have to shop for Christmas presents!

Another awesome realization of the day? I have only SEVEN weeks of student teaching left! Yesterday, I applied for my teaching license, and I am SO excited. I have been working so hard for this for four and a half years and it's finally paying off!! Plus? Holly told me last week that I won't be teaching for the last two weeks of my placement because I have to spend that time catching students up on the work I assigned before I leave. I KNOW I shouldn't be excited about not teaching, but, really? This is exhausting, and I am doing it for free. I can't wait for the break. This will also allow me to observe some other awesome teachers in the building!

Today, amidst all of the chaos in every single one of my bells today, I got a phone calle from the manager of some gift shops in hospitals in Clifton for an interview! They are looking for someone who only needs a few hours, and I know they aren't open late. Since I have been hurting for cash lately, I have been applying to places left and right and I am SO relieved that it is paying off. I don't know what I'll do about FamVid, yet. Probably keep them for a while! Then, after school, I called PetsMart where they are looking for a bather in the grooming dept. I have been wanting to work at PetsMart for a while now because working with animals has been my backup plan for a while since the little worry that teaching might not work out entered my mind. They gave me an interview! So, tomorrow, after school I have two interviews right in a row! Wish me luck :)

Also, even though I want to look like that girl while drinking a nice, ice cold Coke, I have set this little goal for myself - no soda for a whole month. This is a short term goal I have set in the hopes of kicking the habit altogether, eventually. I know that my kidneys (oh, boy, have I been having a sore lower back lately) and my skin will thank me so much. Granted I only drink diet soda (regular usually makes me feel sick from all the sugar!) and usually only when I am out to eat, I still want to try to completely cut it out of my diet. So far, I have made it to day 4!

Basically, this is the longest nonsense post, ever, and I apologize. Hello; ramble much? Sorry, folks.

xoxo S

P.s. I have already started my Christmas list. :)

Saturday

I have a lot planned as far as Bloggin' Ladies in the next few weeks, and I can't wait to share with you guys!!

Yesterday was a busy day. I had school all day, and then work at night. The night ended up not so great because I went home before Nick, and my key wouldn't work in the door. So, of course, I got flustered and upset, and when I couldn't get a hold of Nick (he always keeps his phone on silent) I only got MORE upset. We ended up having to get Justin to let us in downstairs (this is at 2am) and I was SO tired this morning. Today, I had a meeting at work from 8-10am and then came back home to take a little nap. And now Nick is out picking Skyline up for lunch to eat while we watch this week's Hell's Kitchen!!

I posted on Twitter, in frustration, this week: Did you know vegetarians don't eat frozen pizza? #itstrue because I was at the grocery and couldn't find a SINGLE veg pizza option besides cheese! (boring.) THEN I laid eyes on THIS:

All I have to say is: OMGYUM. Please try it; it's delicious :) 

I wanted to share a few photos of the week: some posters I hung in my classroom on Thursday, and a picture of Guillermo and I :)

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, I'll be back tonight (after work) with another post (hopefully!) and tomorrow with Sunday Letters!

xoxo Stephanie

Back to school.... Again!

So, today is my first day back at school - MY school. It was so weird walking onto campus and being surrounded by people my own age for the first time in WEEKS! I miss it. I miss walking a half mile to class, I miss having to bring gloves and scarves for the walk, and I miss sitting in class and learning. Teaching is definitely not the same, obviously. On the walk to campus from Nick's old house (still a great place to park, and not too far away) it finally hit me that this is my last (potentially) quarter of college. I have every right to end my university journey in three short months, and it's so exciting to think about... Freedom! But - what will I do with my time? With no obligation to go to class, and therefore using that as a great excuse to work only part time, I will be obligated (with my diploma and degree in hand) to find a real, full time job. I am still not sure if teaching is right for me, and I probably won't be until I try it out for real, but whatever is in my future, I am super excited.

In other news, I signed up for a CD swap facilitated by the wonderful Mattie over at Oldema Vintage, and while I am a little more than behind on getting mine to it's new owner, I wanted to share with you a few of the songs on my probably-too-long playlist just waiting to be burnt to a CD!

This really is just a few! The whole thing is 35 songs in all, and it will probably have to be put onto two CDs. Haha! The swap instructions were to include a variety of songs from our libraries so that our CD swap pal can hopefully be introduced to a broader spectrum of new tunes. If anyone has any ideas of how to make a neat case for it (from scratch) feel free to leave them here! I am so excited to do this because it really gets me involved in the blogging community that I surround myself with daily. The women that I have met since I began blogging this past summer are all amazing, each and every one. It's so nice to have a friendly type of competition to keep me writing! P.S. This is my shout out to all of you who are stopping by every day - THANK YOU. You are so fantastic. Please, do not hesitate to comment! I will always reply :)

I JUST got home from school/tutoring/class/interview. Class was okay, it was great to see everyone, but it made me SOJEALOUS that there are people enjoying their placements. I hate that I am not liking my student teaching, I really wish this were the experience that was solidifying my passion/choice to become a teacher. It's just making an office job look like chocolate cake with chocolate icing with chocolate sprinkles (calorie free); a.k.a. FUN. The interview was not my favorite - a group type, and the job sounds less desirable than it did when I just knew that I needed a second job. We'll see how that goes.

I have pretty much nothing of interest to talk about other than that I plan to spend the REST of the evening grading papers with my puppy by my side. I want to take a nap, but we all know that there is no time for that. See you all tomorrow!

<3

S