Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloweeeeen!

I hope everyone had a great one! I ended up being extremely disappointed at the fact that we had NO trick-or-treaters! Our neighbors made us feel better by showing up in a banana suit and actual white sheet with the eyes cut out. Probably one of the funniest things ever!!!

Nonetheless, I had a great weekend! I love spending time carving pumpkins and just doing all the fun holiday type things!!! Speaking of pumpkin carving:


 Meet Kyles way goofy looking pumpkin! I love it!

And this is mine! I messed up on some of the letters but luckily you can't tell in this picture! Hehe

Every year along with carving pumpkins comes pumpkin seeds. Oh YUM. My mom used to make them a certain way each year after carving our pumpkins and I just loved it. We would cook them up, then curl up and watch a movie or great TV. Sadly this year I had to do it alone :( which made me a little sad. Kyle didn't like the pumpkin seeds and apparently watching Hocus Pocus once last year was enough. Ugh, boys. So I think that added to the sadness a little bit. 

Starting up the yummy-ness and it smelled sooo good!
 
Gotta add a lot of butter if you want to make the seeds extra good!
Top them off with some salt and there ya' go! Soooo yummy!

I think the worst part about Halloween is the fact that I am going to have to take down all my decorations! I DON'T WANT TO! I love them... but I keep telling myself that it is ok because it's going to make room for all my Christmas decorating. Now THAT is where I go crazy!!! 
So to end the randomness, I will include a tribute to this year's decorations. Weird, I know. Bad blogging today, I know.










HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Just all smiles today!!!

Since working on my class Tuesday night, I have had the rest of the week off and I have been LOVING every single second of it. Its weird because when we first moved here and I didn't have a job, I just hated staying home and doing nothing but I think now since I actually have a job and worked for a couple months, I really enjoy it. There is no stress so I really can just lay back and relax. I don't think I have been this happy in a very long time. Things are finally falling into place and I love it! Not only that but it is finally starting to get pretty chilly which is just icing on top of the cake. To celebrate, I spent the day buying fun baking supplies and making chocolate chip cookies! Yum :)

So, since I have no classroom updates, I figured I would write a things-that-made-me-happy-today blog since that seems to be the theme of the day.

Fall scents that come from Bath and Body Works. I melt when I smell them all.... sigh :) You better believe that all my Fall candles were up and burnin' today!

Baking. I just LOVE baking.... I hate cooking but when it comes to baking I just light up! Pumpkin bread (my specialty) and spice muffins are next on my list. I probably wont be able to wait so I might be making them tomorrow! And since we will have an overload of sweets I am sure our neighbors will be getting a knock on their door!!!


Ok, so this didn't actually make me happy today since I refuse to watch it before November. BUT me realizing that the time is so close made me extremely giddy. Its a must watch AT LEAST 4 times between November and end of December! Movie perfection at its finest. Love, romance, and Christmas all in one movie?!?!? YES PLEASE!



All things Fall. Walking through stores and seeing the amazing colors, seeing all the great foods at Farmer's Markets and watching the leaves change at my apartment complex are all amazing smile-inducing things. 

Picking out the BEST pumpkin in a whole huge batch!!! The man at the booth probably thought I was insane today. You better believe that I got the two biggest and best pumpkins in the whole lot though! :)

HOCUS POCUS! Hands down, the BEST Halloween movie ever, ever, EVER made. Again, this didn't necessarily make me happy today but I saw that it is being aired Saturday. Do you realize how perfect that is?! Kyle and I will be carving our pumpkins that day and by the time the movie starts, I will have all the pumpkin seeds toasted so I can cuddle up, snack on them, and watch it! Oh I love this movie!



I think I might have to do more of these blogs! They are so fun :)


Anyhoo... expect more randomness because I don't actually start teaching until Tuesday (YAY!). Monday is going to be the longest day ever simply because I will be going through inservice and be SO anxious to have the classroom be MINE. Lets just hope the sub kept my room clean and organized!

TTFN!!!!!!!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

It's official!!!

Well I did it. I finally got a teaching job. What is crazy is the fact that it is my DREAM grade: KINDERGARTEN! This couldn't have come at a better time.

Before this, I was working at a bank. If I couldn't be teaching then I wanted to be doing something more in the business field. It made sense right? I loved being a manager at Bath and Body Works so I wanted to work at a place where I had the possibility of moving up in the company. I was ecstatic when I got this job. After having a mental breakdown about being broke, knowing that I would finally be making money was sooo relieving! Anyway, I went through training and it wasn't so bad. Everyone I worked with was AWESOME and I was having fun! Still, in the back of my mind I was upset that my degree wasn't being put to use. Not only that, but my paychecks weren't NEARLY as good as I thought they would be. Oh well, at least it was something.

My attitude completely changed once I got a lecture in front of a customer. Talk about embarrassing. Most people probably wouldn't care but I consider myself a very professional person when it comes to work. Needless to say, I was very upset. After that there was a manager change and all of a sudden they got much more anal. No matter what we did, it was never good enough. That is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to management. I got so unhappy with my job really quickly. You know the job isn't right when you absolutely dread going to work everyday, BUT I had to keep my mouth shut because it paid the bills and that is what mattered, right??? (curse being a grown-up).

The way things fell into place was unreal. I find out that the Kinder job I wanted a month before school started was STILL open! There was some sort of hiring freeze that kept the position open... what luck! Long story short, I got the job. I got the call while at the bank and almost peed my pants when I heard the voicemail after work!!! The next morning I went into the bank and handed in an immediate resignation letter. They were NOT happy and were actually really rude about it and made me cry (I am a wuss I know) but whatever. That just solidified my decision to leave them AND showed me what bad management I would be under.

Since then, I have been working my butt off at MY NEW CLASSROOM (I will never get tired of saying that). The sub that has been taking over left everything a mess. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. The kids are so behind and this really scares me because I have until the end of the semester to get them where they need to be which is going to be an extreme amount of work. On top of this, the classroom was disgusting. Dirt wise and set-up wise. Luckily Jenny (who is amaaazing) came to help! She was so great. Not only did she help me fix a lot of it all but she helped me with cute ideas for my kiddos. I love her.

So I thought I would share some pictures with ya'll. Don't judge me yet, my classroom isn't even CLOSE to being done!!!

Before:
This mess just bugs me!!! No organization WHATSOEVER! 

Really???



After(ish)
Not even close to done but its workable!


De-clutter AND an actual designated area for centers!


Somewhat ok with how it looks (Sorry for the blur... I only had my phone!)

Like I said, it isn't close to being done but at least its clean and moved around to where I can actually work. I am just going to be constantly working on making my classroom the best! That is why I wanted to start this blog. I have been obsessed with blog stalking ever since my best friend's friend started one (yes Monica, you) and I have been secretly wanting to do one myself but my life was just so boring! I had NO reason to but now I do and I am very excited about it! Lets just hope I can keep it up :)

I am new to this stuff so I don't know what I am doing. How do I even make my blog look remotely cute??? I may be in trouble.

-Ash