Miss Sarasota!

Wednesday night, I drove down to Sarasota to see my sister, Keleigh, participate in her high school's (also my alma mater) senior "pageant," Miss Sarasota. If I remember correctly, when I was a senior, they only had "Mr. Sarasota." Anyway...my sister WON the title of Miss Sarasota out of 16 girls! My entire family is SO proud of her courage as we know it took a lot for her to do that in front of her peers!
My family with "Miss Sarasota!"

(I look like a big frump...it had been a long day and my hair had lost it.)

Many girls sang, or danced, or played an instrument. Keleigh performed her original handbalancing talent! I know she's my sister, but her talent and strength is amazing. She has perfect form! She works so hard and it shows! I loved the leotard she picked to wear and the music went perfectly. Here are some pictures of her handbalancing!




What's so cool about Keleigh winning the title of Miss Sarasota, is that the next day (yesterday) was her 18th birthday! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in her classes yesterday-I'm sure she was glowing all day! She has every reason to, right? I'm looking forward to going back to Sarasota tomorrow to celebrate her birthday and my brother's birthday with the family.

Keleigh, if you're reading this, I'm SO incredibly proud of your courage! You are admired! I am so glad you have this special memory from your last few months of high school!

Miscellany Monday: Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I already blogged about my thoughts on Valentine's Day here so you're welcome to read there if you'd like, but for tonight's post, I'm linking up with Carissa with Miscellany Monday!

1. Field Trip day was a success! My students were well behaved for the most part, although I had to do a little monitoring of suspicious hand-holding during the symphony. Yes, I teach 5th grade, and yes, I have to deal with that stuff already. I know, I know, it's young. I was way too shy to even talk to my 5th grade crush, let alone try and hold his hand with my teacher sitting one row in front of me.

2. I got an unexpected Valentine surprise, also much unwanted, and much too early. It comes every month and isn't pleasant. 'Nuff said.

3. My close group of friends, Jessica, Audra, Bethany, Michelle, Elizabeth and Dayna and I all got together tonight at mine and Dayna's apartment for a home-cooked dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day as single women. :) We are all content with our lives so it wasn't a depressing get-together at all. We all enjoy each other's company anyway. Jessica made fettucini alfredo for dinner, I made a cake, and Audra brought bruschetta. It was all SO good! We definitely enjoyed our Valentine's Day plans!


4. I'm coming down with a cough which I really hope doesn't lead to anything more. My voice was definitely raspy today while teaching and I hate that. It just makes the day uncomfortable. I left school way earlier than usual today and it was nice! I came home and opened the blinds even! Normally it's already dark when I come home so there's no need to open the blinds. (In case you ever wondered about that.)

I'm wrapping it up here tonight. Happy Valentine's Day!

5 Things I Did or Said This Week in 5th Grade

1. "Mechanical pencils will be banned from our classroom if they're going to be played with. They're not a toy. Leave the lead inside of them and stop taking the eraser in and out."

2. Wrote 9 "gold tickets" for students who earned an A or B on their Elapsed Time Quiz! I was pleased that more students reached mastery than those that didn't. :)

3. Dealt with a student who passed out, just like that, in the middle of math. Buzzed the office 3 times to signal the emergency code, ran in the hall to find a teacher to help me monitor my class while I assisted the student and then evacuated my class outside. I was proud of my class for handling an emergency situation so well!

4. For the first time, wasn't able to hold in my laughter in the middle of teaching about something one of my students had done. His nametag was missing and I had asked him to look for it. Little did I know, 15 minutes later he was still looking for it, even though I had started our Science lesson. His desk was piled HIGH with papers, crumbled up and everywhere. While teaching, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him looking at other students smiling innocently about his mess, while holding the nametag he found in his hand. I started to say, "I'm not the least bit impressed with..." and then I broke. Laughing. Couldn't help it. He's one of my best behaved boys and is real sweet. He would never try and disrupt a lesson on purpose. So, we stopped, laughed for a few minutes, some students shared some folders to help his lack of organization and we moved on. These are the moments you do just have to laugh, and show the students that you, too, have a sense of humor and that life isn't always "business." :)

5. Read, repeated, read, repeated, and read, repeated again our class rule, "We listen when others are talking and wait for our turn to speak." That still hasn't clicked and it's February. Lovely.

It's a never a dull moment! Never!

Valentine's Day: My Thoughts

Disclaimer: This post reflects how I've always felt about the holiday, not just because I'm currently single. :) Seriously, I promise.

Valentine's Day, to me, is described with 3 C's. Chocolate, candy, and a card. For me, it doesn't need to be any more than this. Even when I dated my high-school boyfriend for 3 years, that's exactly what the holiday was for us. Simple and sweet. Nothing elaborate. Some would say it's because we were "just highschoolers" but even now, I still feel the same way. Here's why. All throughout the year, we should be showing those we love that we love them by doing simple things, showing simple acts of kindness and love toward them. It means more to me to be shown love on a random, ordinary day simply just because. That's just me.

I just don't expect my significant other to buy me a new jewlery item or other big gift just because it's Valentine's Day. Not that there is anything wrong with receiving or buying those gifts on Valentine's Day, it's just not how I view the holiday. When I dated Aaron for 3 years, I would always get him a gift bag of candy and a nice card..and that was it! It also probably had something to do with the fact that our "anniversary" and his birthday all were in February within close proximity to each other, so things needed to be spaced out. :) Ha!

Although I may currently be single (and perfectly content!) I don't have bitter feelings toward Valentine's Day, mostly because it's just a day that highlights what we should be doing all year long with those we love. I'm speaking to myself in this too. :) Valentine's Day will always just remain a simple holiday in my book, maybe when I'm dating/married a nice dinner will be enjoyed, too. Of course, my idea of Valentine's Day has also been modeled to me by my parents who also acknowledged the holiday with simple things, like flowers and a card. I remember as a kid on Valentine's Day, my mom would always have one of those festive plastic cups at our spot at the kitchen table with candy in it with a Valentine card. Simple, yet memorable. :)

This Valentine's Day, all my teacher friends (who are single!) will be enjoying our own dinner and having our own fun! My class and I will be on a field trip so that'll also make the day fun!

Fun Fact: My parents found out they were expecting me on Valentine's Day of 1986!

I hope that whatever way you choose to celebrate Valentine's Day brings you love! Happy Valentine's Day!

Milkshakes

Milkshakes are one of my favorite things, especially chocolate milkshakes. My love for them began as a young girl and they even carry a special memory with them, as weird as it may sound. My sophomore year of college, I worked at an insurance company and right down the street was a restaurant called The Soda Fountain which made amazing chocolate milkshakes. (Confession: I probably bought one every week.)

My dad makes really good milkshakes in my opinion. When I was a little girl, sometimes my dad would make them late at night, after I had already brushed my teeth and everything. You know, the whole, "it's too late for you to have sweets" thing we all heard as kids. Well, my precious dad would fill me up a Tupperware cup (remember the solid color ones?) of his chocolate milkshake and put in the fridge for me the next day. I remember waking up the next morning, opening the fridge, looking for a colorful Tupperware cup with a milkshake inside. Now you see why it's special. :)


To this day, I think it was so thoughtful he did that for me, because he knew how much I loved his chocolate milkshakes. And you know what's odd? I was always allowed to have the milkshake the next morning. ?? Why was I not allowed to have it at night, but yet I was able to have it with breakfast? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless they just didn't want me jacked up on sugar right before bed. Who knows. Anyway...not the point of the story. It's the little things like that kids remember when they grow into adults. :)

So...tonight at Walmart, I found one of the greatest inventions ever! Milkshakes in a cup!
All you have to do is add 1/3 cup of milk and stir, and you have a milkshake! Of course I add a straw too! I had one tonight and it was good! It was very rich so next time I might add more milk and pour it into another cup to lessen the richness of it. I think Walmart will see me buying more of these in the near future!

When I'm visiting my family-I usually always ask my dad to make a milkshake. Usually he gives in to me and makes one of his amazing, chocolate milkshakes. Sweet memories!

My Week!

It's Friday again! So glad! Aren't you?

Today seemed to be a pretty good day-my students weren't too crazy which is always appreciated! They had some rough days earlier this week, so it was about time they got their act together! It's never a dull moment. Never.

Yesterday after work, Dayna and I met up with our teacher friends Audra and Jessica to play tennis. Before we played, we met at Panera Bread for dinner-yum! It was so relaxing to sit and talk for a while! We didn't play an official game of tennis, it was all in fun. We did a lot of running after balls and watching them fly over the fence. That happened multiple times. :) I'm not competitive at all and sports, in my opinion, are meant to just be fun! We at least got some exercise and definitely had fun! (Would have taken pictures....but, you guessed it! No personal laptop yet! Hopefully after I get my tax return!)

Tonight, the same group had planned to go to downtown Lakeland's "First Friday" for dinner and to walk around. As we drove to find a parking spot, we knew it was going to be a long wait anywhere we went to eat downtown. So we made the decision to go to Red Elephant instead and it was so good! I love their boiled peanuts!! After dinner, we headed back downtown, got out, walked around and realized it wasn't for us. First Friday was featuring motorcylsists tonight-and it wasn't quite our crowd to hang out in. Ha! It was also nearing 10:00, so the shady people were making their way out about that time (afterall, aren't most downtown areas home of the shady people at dark)? We walked back to the car and decided we'd try again at the next First Friday. Maybe that one will be a bit more "family friendly." :)

I know I've said it before, but I consider myself BLESSED to have such a great group of true, genuine friends who share similiar passions and careers! We're all at the same stage of life and it just makes it so easy to relate. We can relate on the highs and lows this stage of life brings. I love it! I am so thankful to have met such a great group of friends upon moving here over the summer. I feel like I've known them much longer than a year!

I expect this weekend to be lowkey and to get some work done. I definitely don't need to be out shopping, as I'm trying to save for my trip to Colorado. However, my brother and sister both have a birthday this month so if I get bored, I guess I could always go shopping for their gifts!

What's a weekend without a little bit of shopping, anyway? :)