Eat up, eat up

Yummy food. That was the theme of my weekend. If you know me, you know I love food.

Saturday:
Even though back to school week left me exhausted, I still woke up early. I went and helped freshmen move into the dorms at my alma mater, Flagler College.

The main building, is the former Ponce De Leon hotel. One of the girls' dorms (the main one when I went there) is housed in this building. Each room is completely different, because each room used to be a hotel room. Some of the dorm rooms even have fireplaces!

Total blast to the past for me! I helped many girls move in. The parents were all really grateful. I checked out all three of my old rooms. Memories hit me left and right, even though the rooms were different.

The yummy food aspect was not the food I ate for lunch in the Dining Hall, but just simply eating in my old dining hall:

You can pick your jaws up now. This beautiful place is where I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three years! Crazy right? When the alumni office director invited me for lunch, I immediately said yes!

Ah, memories. :)

Later that evening, J and I celebrated two years at the Melting Pot. I'm a bad blogger, I took no pictures. Wanted to enjoy the evening with J.

The food = AMAZING! So stuffed by the end of the night. Our favorite was definitely the bananas foster fondue. I read J the dessert options and the second I said "White chocolate!" he was in!

Sunday
Yesterday was my brother's 23rd birthday. Guys, when did my pipsqueak little brother turn 23?? The one who used to copy my every move? The one who you use to eat all my food? Scratch that.... the one who STILL eats my meal? He bought his very first car today... CRAAAZY!

J.P. loves Japanese food. So off to Wasabi we went! I love smothering my whole plate in shrimp sauce. It's just wonderful. Plus, it was my lunch today!!

That was my weekend. Hope you had great ones! If you are in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, stay safe and dry! It poured buckets here in Jacksonville.

Linking up for Weekend Update!

 

Woo! It's Friday!

Oh thank goodness, this week is finally over! It's been super long but great.

1. Survived my first week back in first grade and at a new school. Completely forgot how chatty firsties can be!

Source: someecards.com via Nancy on Pinterest

2. Survived Open House. My ELL parents were grateful for my mom and my non ELL parents seemed comfortable with the fact that their child is part of this class.

Source: someecards.com via Nilda on Pinterest

3. My two year anniversary was this week. Will be celebrating it tomorrow at the Melting Pot!

4. Will be helping out new freshman at my alma mater tomorrow. Love the good ol FC!

5. My school picture turned out great!

Hope you had a good week too! Hopefully I'll relax this weekend. Linking up Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog.

Hi Lalalists readers! I'm so pumped to be guest posting for Rachel. Her blog is always entertaining to read and she was one of the first bloggers to really embrace me. Plus, she has a great fashion sense (have you seen her Current Crush posts?)

I'm from Florida, and the current weather report includes some incarnation of a thunderstorm. It's been storming every day and it's been super humid every day. I'm ready for fall weather! Believe it or not, I actually do get a fall in the part of Florida I live in. Leaves even change colors! (Mind blown right?) So today, I'm going to share with you the pieces you will always catch me in.

fall by nilda-albino featuring straight leg jeans

I really feel like each of these pieces needs to be in a girl's wardrobe. You will always catch me with a fun scarf, especially when I wear a simple colored shirt. I live in my dark jeans; they go so well with fall colors. Finally, every girl needs a good pair of flat boots. I don't think I wore another pair last year!

There you have it. Nilda's fall essentials. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that this crazy summer weather doesn't extend itself into fall. I'll just cry if I can't enjoy some fall weather!

A shining light amongst the stress...

So I've been busy. Another long day today, and two more long days ahead. But as I was sitting here thinking "I cannot write another post about school!"  a better topic hit me:

I could talk about how it's been two fabulous years with this guy. Exactly two years ago today, J and I went on our first date: a Jaguars game. A Jaguars game that kept getting rain delayed due to a ridiculous summer storm. A Jaguars game that once it started, I got soaked because it was still raining. (Side note: The Jaguars will be playing in London the next four years. I will make it to one of those games. Somehow!)

We've done some pretty cool things together:

SKIING!!! My first time skiing was on our trip to Asheville in 2010. So much fun (and in the beginning, I was better than him!)

CRUISE! We had such a blast on our cruise. He even surprised me with a balcony upgrade.

I know I drive him crazy with my school talk and my dramaticness. Sometimes, he drives me crazy with all his quirks. But I've never had someone who is so entirely there for me. The man bought me a heavy duty pencil sharpener for my room (those things are not cheap!). Last night, when I pulled my back, he took care of me and let me borrow his nifty little clay heating pad. (Thing felt amazing, let me tell ya!)He pushes me to be better, not for him, but for myself.

I love him bunches, and am so glad that he is in my life. I really wouldn't want it any other way!

Heat pad is my bff...

HIMYM is one of my absolute favorite show. I'm watching "The Sexless Innkeeper" and it's making me laugh really hard. Which is a good and a bad thing. Good: helps me relax. Bad: aggravates my pulled back muscle.

Yep, I pulled my back on the first day of school. I leaned down to one of my kiddos and when I stood back PAIN CENTRAL. Even my students were like "Ms. Albino, you ok?" Thanks to J, I do have an amazing heating pad to use. J just keeps racking up the awesome boyfriend points. (Tomorrow is our two year anniversary! CRAAAAZZZZY!)

Besides the pulled muscle and the torrential downpour at dismissal, today was pretty fantastic. My ESOL parents were really happy to have a teacher who could understand them, and my non ESOL parents were pretty kick butt themselves. I met everyone's parents. THAT'S NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! I have 19 kids, 11 boys and 8 girls. Had to bust out my mean teacher voice a few times, but overall I think it will be a really fun group.

Hopefully tomorrow goes just as well. At least I'll have more than 20 minutes to prepare! If the rest of this week goes as smoothly then I'll be able to enjoy my weekend. :)

Have a great week everyone!

Whew... I'm alive I promise!

I'm exhausted and I haven't even had a group of students yet. As I've said before, I am at a new school this year. My first grade team is comprised of seven people: myself, two teachers who have been at my new school for awhile, and three teachers who have only taught first grade, and one brand new teacher. My team is great! But it's been overwhelming making sure I help all the new teachers as well as get ready for my own brand new experience of teaching mostly English language learners.

I know I made the right choice, but earlier today I broke down, thinking to myself that if I had just stayed at my old school life would be easier. I'd know what to expect come Monday. but I know in my heart I made the right choice. I knew it when I saw both my principal AND assistant principal moving boxes and cleaning up the rookie teacher's classroom. That kind of support is invaluable. Change is hard people!

So here are pictures of my new classroom:

I need to take my own advice. I'm as ready as I can be, so I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon/night watching some Pretty Little Liars, baking some brownies, and making sure my outfit's in place for tomorrow.

Sorry, I've fallen off the face of the planet! I hope to get into more of a routine once the first week is over. I hope everyone had fabulous weekends!

Dinosaurs, turtles, and space oh my!

First day of pre-planning done. And because of today, I've decided to institute a law. A school law. The law is that all first day of pre-planning must take place at a cool science museum.

Around these parts, the first day of pre-planning is full of BORING meetings. Meetings about expectations, meetings about data. Boring, boring, boring. But my new principal rocked our meeting today.

It kicked off with a scavenger hunt of the museum we were at, MOSH:

Source

It was a good way to get to know people. My team got extra points for coming in third, but I'm not really sure who won.

Skipping over the boring meetings (pretty sure no one wants to hear about skills block or math work). Lunch was catered by The Secret Garden cafe. The sandwiches from there are to die for. Mine came with a yummy pasta salad. (Sorry, no pictures, didn't want to weird my new teammates out with my blog habits!)

After lunch was the traditional THESE ARE THE RULES/PROCEDURES stick to them or die speech. It's that hardcore, I promise.

Finally the best part! Watching a cool star show at the largest single lens planetarium in the world. i mean, really, does a pre-planning day get any better than that?

I'm still overwhelmed, because there are a million things I don't know. Well not a million, but you get the idea. Plus, I have to get used to being in charge of a group of people. I'm going to be flexible but firm. Does 1:30 p.m. on Thursday work for our grade level meeting? sounds a lot more confident than So, what time would be best for you to meet? Thursday morning? This afternoon? Friday? 

I have to remind myself that I'm not a meek person, even if that's my instinct in new situations. I'm a good teacher and a knowledgeable one at that. My principal picked me for a reason, and she doesn't do things randomly.  Be firm but flexible.

I can do it!