Chit-Chat

I honestly love my job as a teacher. It's not just my job as a teacher that I love, I truly love the school that I work at. I believe that the other teachers and administrators really keep the best interest of the students in mind when important decisions need to be made. They are also so friendly and kind. I have found a fantastic group of four women there that I have become very good friends with. We eat lunch together every day and refer to ourselves as "the lunch bunch." When one of us is stressed the others are always willing to help out and offer advice and support. When one of us has good news to share the others always rejoice with us.
We trust and support each other just like any good friends would. Our friendship doesn't end at work. We have all shared work and personal things with each other. We have helped each other through rough times and celebrated the good together.
Even on days when my students are perfect angels and everything has gone perfectly, I still look forward to lunch. It is a break from the day. It is time for me to unwind and have lunch with a group of fabulous women. Do you have a group of friends at work that make your work days better?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Do you find that you sometimes absolutely crave some alone time? I find myself wishing for some from time to time. Around here it is very difficult for me to have some alone time. Right now I really have been so busy that I have barely been at home until almost bedtime. Between work, tutoring after school, my night class, and errands that I have to run I am just busy, busy, busy. Then when I find myself at home there are always others around so no alone time.
On those rare occasions when I do happen to find myself at home alone for the day, I take full advantage of it. I am lazy and indulgent. I allow myself to get by with a few things that I normally would not do, especially around others. I can spend the whole day in my pajamas without anyone knowing. They are just so comfy! Who doesn't spend the day in pajamas occasionally? Then there is also the fact that if I have no plans of going anywhere and no fear of someone dropping by, I just may go all day without brushing my hair. When someone does pop up at the door unexpectedly I have to run for my brush before I can answer. The worst thing? I can spend the majority of the day in bed watching cartoons and reruns of shows like Project Runway while munching on a bag of Doritos, which will most likely end up empty by the end of the day. How do you spend those rare days alone when you manage to get one?

via: 1

Chit Chat

I feel like I am always playing catch up. I don't have enough time in the day (before the need for sleep conquers me) to get everything done that I want to do. I can barely fit in the time to get everything done that I need too, which leaves me no time for the things that I want to do. Sometimes I just feel like time is slipping away too quickly. Does this happen to any of you? What do you do?
Some of you may know that school just started back for me. We have been back to work for two weeks now and already my evenings are filling up with things that I need to do. Mondays after work I go to quilting, I have been going for around a year now to learn and have actually made two quilts now! Tuesdays I have a night class for my Master's degree, that I left for directly after work ends and then I make it home around 10:00 at night. Wednesdays and Thursdays I have already agreed to dedicated a couple of hours after work to tutor a student, who graduated last year, in his college math class. Soon I will also have to find time for tutoring after school for my current students and time for my team to have practices.
Hectic schedules like this are why I have to make sure I schedule little things to look forward to. It doesn't have to be something big just something that I can look forward too. This weekend I knew I was going to take time to use a purifying face mask and to paint my nails. I am planning on purchasing some tickets for a few things that I can look forward too like The Nutcracker. Last December, Tracy and I saw the ballet perform The Nutcracker and we absolutely loved it. We are already looking forward to this! In September I am planning a shopping trip with a few of my best friends. Scheduling time for these activities and others like reading the latest magazines that came in the mail for me, going to the library, grabbing lunch with friends are vital for me to not get stressed out. What kinds of things do you like to schedule that you can look forward too?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Seriously have you ever seen anything this cute?
I occasionally share pictures of Tiger on Instagram but let's be honest he deserves a little more spotlight on him. I had pets when I was younger, the first of which being a rooster that I promptly named Bradley, but I am not sure I ever fully understood the amount a person could love a pet until I received Tiger.

Tiger is a great companion. He is soft, warm, friendly, and loves everyone he meets.

Tiger is a little over 8 years old and I really cannot imagine life without him (I miss him like crazy when I go on vacation). I would have never imagined that I would willing get out of bed in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night, because my cat would want some treats, a door opened, or attention. There is no question that Tiger is spoiled and only receives the best.

Tell me about your pet(s).

Chit Chat

Last week was my first week back to work after a long summer vacation and I am already feeling stressed. It just feels like there is so much to do and accomplish. Time seems to just be disappearing faster than it should. So on Friday, I decided that I need to calm down and relax. I have my plans made, everything scheduled, and there is no need worrying about things before they happen. Right?
Friday after work I set out to have some fun and to de-stress. I had a great time on Friday evening going shopping with some of my siblings. I only shopped for things on my must have list, but I had fun. Saturday I slept in. Hopefully after this week I will be use to my normal work schedule and the early mornings. Then I went out to the movies with one of my best friends. We watched 2 Guns. I thought it was an alright movie. It had a good deal of humorous parts and kept me laughing, just what I needed. I also had a great time hanging out with my friend. She has been super busy at work recently and hasn't had a lot of free time. So she probably need to de-stress too. Then I spent an hour on the phone talking to one of my best friends that lives in another city. We had been playing phone tag all week. It was good to talk to her and hear that she has good news her job was turned into a full time position, so she doesn't have to look for something else! On Sunday I spent some time watching reruns of Smallville, playing with the cats, and painting my nails.
I am also already planning some things for the future that will let me take a break from work and stress. If I buy tickets for things and go ahead and make plans now while I have the time- it just makes everything easier. Also, I then I have things to looks forward too. What do you do to de-stress? What are some of the things that you do when you need a break from work?

via: 1

Chit Chat

My birthday is in two days and I would be lying if I said I was not dreading its arrival. I have never really given much thought to celebrating birthdays or for that matter considered them special events. It has always seemed to me that having such grand expectations for a single day is setting yourself up for disappointment.

While I cannot classify myself as a fan of birthdays it is not because I fear getting older. Instead it is because birthdays have always a time of huge reflection for me. I can be very hard on myself. It is how I have always been. My expectations for myself are high and I am dissatisfied with many aspects of my life right now. The last few years have not been what I had hoped for or what I had planned on.

I am just not anywhere near where I want to be in life and I am really unhappy about it. I have always been a bit of a naïve dreamer. As a result right now I am a little confused on what expectations I should have for life and I am upset with myself for failing to forge forward with a plan on how to get there.

With that being said I realize that changes are not going to happen without some hustle and sacrifice on my part. I hope that this new year of my life leads to me making some decisions, to figuring out who I am, to perhaps more importantly figuring out who I am not, and to me finding ways to make the best of my personality and skills.

To start the year off right I think it is only fitting that I be a little more optimistic about my birthday. Please share with me your thoughts on birthdays and what you do to celebrate or to make yours a little more special.

via: 1

Chit Chat

One question I get asked all the time is "What made me decide to be a teacher?" I have always wanted to be a teacher. In the second grade I wrote my "What I Want to be When I Grow Up" paper on wanting to be a teacher and math has always been my favorite subject. I enjoy getting to help others understand things they are having difficulty with and I love watching people learn new things. It's just a perk that I am the one getting to teach them these new things. I also delight in watching my students problem solve their way through a difficult problem and seeing their triumph and satisfaction over mastering the skills and concepts.
One thing that gets to me though is that some people think teaching is an easy job- that anyone can do it and that the only reason anyone becomes a teacher is because they were not skilled enough to do anything else. I'm sure you've heard the saying that includes, "those who can't, teach." People who believe this do not understand what all a teacher has to do. On school days I am at work by 7:30 in the mornings and the final bell does not ring until 3:00.
During this time I work with anywhere from 16 to 25 kids at a time for a period of 50 minutes each. I am on my feet teaching, assisting, supporting my students as their mathematical knowledge grows. I work hard and I make my students work hard. I make them work from bell to bell. I make them think and problem solve. I make them explain how they arrived at their solutions and why they did what they did. I don't believe in giving my students free days or free time. I believe in giving them an education and the knowledge that will help them succeed in the future.
This does not include the time I spend planning and creating my activities. The time I spend grading papers with feedback and inputting grades into the system. This does not include the time I spend after school tutoring students and coaching activities. This does not include the time that I spend going to school activities to show my students support or the competitions that I take my teams too.
When I think back on my favorite teachers. They made me learn and they made me want to learn. They made me work hard and then they pushed me to work harder. I bet if you think about your favorite teachers, you will realize they were the same way. Right?

via: 1

Chit Chat

I love alone time and find it therapeutic. I consider myself a social person. I love interacting with people, I love going places and traveling, and I love talking but I need my fair share of alone time. Moments of solitude when I can focus on myself. Maybe it is a result of growing up in a large, noisy family but I have always found the moments when I only have myself for company to be sacred. I am going to admit to getting very irritable and cranky when life is increasingly busy and there always seems to be people around that days or even weeks pass before I have the ability to carve out a few moments of private time.

My biggest source of alone time is when I am commuting to and from work. I have a long drive to and from my office. I often think about all of the useful and productive activities I could do with that time if I wasn't stuck in my car but it recently became clear to me that these moments are important for my mental and spiritual well being. I use this time to gather my thoughts, to sort out the activities of my day, to plan important items for my to-do lists, to think about things that have been bothering me, and sometimes even to draft blog posts in my head. Surprisingly it is often during this time, alone in my car, that I can most clearly evaluate my life and obtain fresh perspectives.

On a slightly different note when I am at home and I find a rare day when I have nothing planned and no one to be around it is typically on those days that I love sleeping in, wearing my comfiest clothes (maybe even pajamas) all day, baking an extra special time-consuming dessert, and curling up under blankets with my cat to watch my favorite chick flicks for the possible millionth time. Those are the days when I truly relax.

Do you crave moments of solitude? When do you typically find moments to yourself? Is it something you plan for? What are your favorite things to do when alone?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. Even as a child I loved reading. Our parents always read to us as kids at bedtime. We would always snuggle together on mom and dad's bed and listen to the story. Afterwards we would go to our own beds to go to sleep. At school we had the AR Reading program where each book was worth so many points and after reading it you took a short quiz on the computer to obtain points. All through school I always had the highest amount of points each year. Yeah, I am a geek.
It is just so easy to get lost in a good book. I always have a stack of books by my bed that I want to read and even though I have that stack I will still buy new books! Tracy complains when I am reading because I won't talk to her or do anything else until I finish the book. I love books that I can just loose track of time with. That I can spend hours reading and then look up and wonder where all the time went. I love books that make me laugh out loud and books that leave me in anguish until I can find the time to keep reading to see what will happen next. You know the kind of books I am talking about, right? The kind that leave you wanting more once you have finished the very last page. What are your favorite books? Have you read any books that you think everyone should read? Give me recommendations please.
Here are a few of my thoughts on books:




via: 1, 2, 3, 4

Chit Chat

Vacation season is in full swing and I although I took my Summer vacation nearly two months ago getaways are still on my mind (it is so hard getting the salty air and sandy beaches off my mind). I would love to hear about your vacation plans for this year.

I have a confession to make. I have little pangs of jealousy when I read some of my favorite blogs and see all of the amazing adventures my fellow bloggers partake in. I have always had a huge case of wanderlust that has never been even close to satisfied. Growing up my family only took a handful of vacations. I cannot imagine that traveling with four young children was easy for my parents and the blur of memories I have for these vacations consist mostly of sibling arguments, being cooped and uncomfortable on long car rides, and disorganized chaos (unlike me my parents never seemed to be big planners when it came to these types of activities).

When I was in college my siblings and I decided we were going to take a trip together. I am certain our parents didn't think we would follow through but that year we packed up and headed to New York for a week. Since then we have taken numerous sibling vacations together. Whether we are exploring some place new or returning to an established favorite this tradition has easily created some of my most cherished memories.

I look forward to planning each upcoming trip, debating over a long list of places before finally choosing a destination, and then setting out to have some bonding time with my sisters and brother while trying new things. Perhaps what I find most impressive about these trips is that despite the four of us being so different and being so opinionated once we start our vacation we easily accept that each of us get to give input on the vacation. (Sure last vacation during one rainy afternoon I was out voted when we decided to see a movie and ended up watching Iron Man instead of The Great Gatsby, but I was okay with that). That is not to say that we do not sometimes still have a few arguments during the vacation (although last vacation to Florida I am proud to say not a single one) but it is always forgotten five minutes after it is over and we move on.

I still want to do so much traveling. I have never been out of the country and the list of places I want to visit is always growing. I hope that in the next few years I manage to arrange my life in a way that allows for some more amazing trips but until then I have to live little vicariously through some of you.

Please share the most amazing place you have ever visited. How many countries have you been to? Do you have any vacation traditions? Did your family travel a lot when you were little? What are your vacation plans for this year? And what place do you want to visit most?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Today, I want to talk about birthdays. In our family we have our birthday traditions. We always have a homemade family dinner. The dinner consists of favorite foods of the birthday girl or boy. When we were little Mom would always make the birthday dinners but now that my sisters and I are older we help with the dinner or completely make the dinner if it is Mom's birthday. For dessert we always have a store bought birthday cake because it is Dad's favorite. No matter whose birthday it is we buy a cake because Dad has a real sweet-tooth for those sugary icings. We, usually, almost always make a dessert too for the birthday girl or boy too. So in our family when it is your birthday not only do you receive presents, but you get to enjoy delicious homemade food and you don't have to lift a finger to make the meal or clean up. YAY!
You might be wondering why today of all days am I talking about birthday traditions? It's because my birthday is this week! I'm an Independence baby born on the 4th of July. While I'm not big on birthdays I do enjoy our birthday dinners and the fact that I won't have to help clean up this time! Since I am a July 4th baby, I tell everyone that the whole US celebrates my birthday, because why else do we have all those fireworks on the 4th of July?
How do you feel about birthdays and when is yours? Do you have any birthday traditions that you love?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Finding balance in life is something I am continuously struggling with. Long work days and 5 am wake up calls leaves me with little time to take care of myself properly and to do things that I enjoy. When the weekend rolls around I usually feel the need to cram it full of a week's worth of errands and trying to complete a never ending to-do list. Plus, now I am attempting to carve out time to job search and figure out my career plans.

To sum up I'm exhausted and I realize I need to make some changes. Maybe these changes will led to me being happier, healthier, and less stressed. Right now my plans include:

Paying attention to my health. I seldom get enough sleep and more often than not I end up depending on frozen pizzas or vegetarian chicken nuggets for dinner after getting home from work. I am determined to move up from my normal 4-5 hours of sleep to 7 hours nightly. I am also going to make a point of cooking a lot of the weekend so I have food for the rest of the week, no longer skipping breakfast, and making sure I eat fruits and/or veggies with every meal.

Prioritize and stop distractions. This includes setting priorities both at work and in my personal life, limiting the amount of items I allow on my to-do list, and find time to schedule things that are fun and that I love doing.

Focus on my mental health. I am going to starting disconnecting from my laptop, tv, and phone for a hour before bed so I can unwind. I am going to make time to read books I love and I am going to stop missing out on alone time. It would be great if I could stop putting so much pressure on myself.

I would love to hear how find balance in your life and any tips or suggestions you might have for me.

via: 1

Chit-Chat

Today I wanted to talk about siblings. Do you have any siblings? I have two sisters (one older and one younger) and a little brother. I could not imagine life without my brother and sisters. We are very close- always have been and always will be. As kids, my sisters and I always played together and then later we always took care of our little brother. For the first fifteen years of my life I shared a room with one sister or the other. Even now we spend lots of time together and when we can't be together to call, text, or facebook. While we are very close and I love my brothers and sisters so much there is also no one can make me as furious as a sibling can, maybe that is because they know all of the right buttons to push.
Even though they can make me absolutely livid at times we always forgive and forget. If you have siblings you definitely understand this, right? Maybe it is because we know they will be the first people to stand up for us when someone is bothering us? Of maybe it is because we know they will be the first people willing to help out no matter what? Or maybe it is just because we know they are still the people we can act like little kids with?

Source: 1

Chit-Chat

Over the weekend I kick-started a job search and I have to admit that it is extremely daunting and overwhelming. For those of you who do not know I work as an associate attorney in a small law firm. (Side note: Jessica is a high school math teacher.) Leaving my current job is a hard decision because there are certain aspects that I love, such as, meeting with clients, researching and writing briefs and appeals, my co-workers are the best, a semi-flexible work schedule as long as deadlines are met, and coming up with solutions for complicated and unique problems. While I like my current job I have realized it is time for a change as my job has no room for growth and as a result I lack the ability in this position to create a career where I will feel successful and fulfilled.

Having a great career doing something I enjoy has always been important to me. Even as children me and my sisters never played house, instead we always pretended to operate various businesses (sometimes a restaurant, sometimes an inn, sometimes fun boutiques). Right now I am uncertain if continuing to be an attorney is the best choice for me and I am completely lost at what career I should be pursuing. I am also a little uncertain about the job search process as applying to jobs is not something I have ever been required to do before. In college I did not have to interview for any of the jobs I had. My first job out of law school was offered to me by the attorney I interned under while in school and my current employer was introduced to me by a friend and after talking to her a couple times she offered me a position.

I would love to know about your job. What kind of job do you have? Are you happy in your current job/field? How did you decide what kind of career you wanted? How did you find what you were passionate about? Is it something you just stumbled upon? Or are you still searching for the correct career path for yourself? What did you study in school and is it related to current position? Any job search tips to share?

via: 1

Chit-Chat

Hello! I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I spent the majority of the weekend catching up on some tv shows that I had on DVR and reading a new book. I also took some time to work on my online college class. Today I am bringing you our second Chit-Chat post, which is a new series on our blog were we will be telling you more about lives and personalities. If you didn't catch our first Chit-Chat post you can find it here.
Maybe you've noticed that I haven't been around much recently. When my school year ended (I'm a teacher) I immediately left to go on a beach vacation to Florida with Tracy and our little brother! I had never been to the beach before and I loved it. We went to the beach every day. I loved walking at the edge of the water in the soft, squishy sand as the waves came rolling over my feet. Sitting on the beach was so relaxing. The sound of the ocean waves meeting the sandy beach was so relaxing and the sight was just so beautiful! On our last day at the beach there was even a dolphin frolicking in the water not far from where we sat on the beach. If you check out our instagram you will see some of the photos we posted while gone. After the beach everyday we had other things planned to do like shopping (of course), the planetarium, an ocean cruise, and touring Sanibel and Captiva Islands. This was the perfect trip for me after a very stressful few weeks at work. If you are feeling stressed and over worked, I highly recommend heading off to the beach to rejuvenate.
When we got home, I had enough time to repack for a trip to Knoxville, TN. This was a school trip for my DI team to go to their globals competition. I along with one other brave teacher took a group of 9 kids to Knoxville for a week. This trip was definitely not like my Florida vacation. We were on the go from 8:00 am in the morning to 11:00 pm at night. Other than the competitions there were just so many things scheduled and planned and our kids wanted to do and see as many things as possible. The trip was a little stressful trying to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be at the right time, but we went with a great group of students and they had a blast. I was definitely happy to be back in my own bed at the end of that week though.
Now, I have officially been home a week from both of my trips and I believe I have just now recovered. I will definitely be back into the swing of things this week. Are you planning a trip for this summer or have you already been like I have?

Source: 1

Chit-Chat

You may have noticed some changes that have happened around here lately. Blogging is a hobby for us. We have this blog because it is a creative outlet for us, it allows us to connect with some amazing women, and provides us with a way to share some of the things we love. After a lot of discussion we decided that if we are to put as much time as we do into our blog we should take it a little more seriously. First, we have finally purchased our domain name. I really do not know what took us so long to make this transition other than we thought it would be a much more complicated process.

Much more exciting for us is the new blog design that we had installed right before we left for our sibling vacation. We had been working with a very talented blog designer for several months, however, after approximately four months of making little progress the process was beginning to get very stressful. We then stumbled across the super wonderful Laura of Sophie & Rory and after exchanging a few emails Laura designed everything we had asked for only it was so much better than we had imagined. I cannot sing Laura's praises enough. She was so nice, took into consideration all of our opinions, and answered every single question we had. If you are looking to spruce up your blog we highly recommend visiting Sophie & Rory.

Speaking of our blog design you have likely noticed the new navigation bar (and may have clicked the links) under our header. During the next week we plan to update the links with information.

Over the time we have been blogging we have realized the importance of opening up a little and interjecting our personalities into our blog. Blogging can appear very materialistic, but we want our readers to get to know the realistic aspects of our lives as well. That is were our new weekly Monday morning post Chit-Chat comes in. Each week either I or Jessica will be sharing some insight about ourselves, what has been happening in our lives, or just our thoughts on a particular matter. We also hope it will give us the opportunity to engage our readers in conversation and get to know all of you better as well.

Additionally, me and Jessica are going to test drive a new posting schedule. Each weekday there will be a morning and afternoon post. We will also be adding a Sunday post into the schedule.

This has been a long post and I hope you are still reading. We would love to know your thoughts on the changes happening on our blog and don't forget to check back later today for Jessica's post.

via: 1