Just a spoonful of sugar...

No idea why that's the title I came up with. Maybe because it's the song currently stuck in my head. I have no idea why THAT particular song is in my head. I do love Mary Poppins though.

You can tell this is going to be a random post can't you? I just felt like writing today. Stick with me!

Today was a LONG day. What made it long? My beyond boring WAY BEYOND boring workshop. I learned so much at my workshop last week. It was on the new standards for reading. I just figured that this workshop would be the same since it was about the new math standards.

I WAS WRONG. It was the most painful, boring, useless workshop ever. They didn't give us our standards and they had us work with high school standards. The only positive part of the whole day is that my old teammate and good friend Megan was there, as well as my old colleague Laura. Laura was there with a teacher from her school. She was really nice and just as bored as we were.

Only reason I am going back? I get paid if I go every day. $120 dollars a day to be exact. So even though it was bad, I'll stick it out.

On the bright side, my grandma came in to town. She lives in Puerto Rico. My mom's 60th birthday is Thursday, so my grandma came to surprise her. I wish I had a picture of my mom's face when she saw my grandma sitting on the couch.  We ended up going out to eat to celebrate her being here.

Love her! My grandpa couldn't join her because he is in the beginning stages of dementia and his doctor didn't think it'd be a good idea for him to fly. But he's here in spirit.

Oh! Paige at The Eloping Stethoscope wrote the SWEETEST things about me. Go check it out!
And, I really, REALLY want to win the Erin Condren giveaway over at About Fais! I can't bring myself to spend $50 on a planner, but I know I would use the heck of it!

See? Totally random post. Hope you all had a terrific Tuesday! Off to watch the Olympics. Please don't tell me who wins!

Smell the roses...

I normally don't post twice or let alone do two link up posts, but I really love Jessica's Smell the Roses task for this week. Thought about waiting until tomorrow to publish it, but I loved the challenge too much! Her challenge was to create a list of ten things you are thankful for. In the last week, I've really tried to focus on those good things. Here goes!

1.

My family. This is one of my favorite pictures of my entire extended family. Even though my mom, my dad, my brother and I have lived away from them almost my entire life, I'm still really thankful for them. All of them are always there when you need them.

2.

My pretty girl. She makes me laugh. Athena drives me crazy, but I know my life is much better having her as my pet.

3.

This guy. He has his moments and I have mine, but I adore him. He's always surprising me, like on our Atlanta trip.

4. I'm thankful that I have a job doing what I love. If I wasn't teaching, I'm not sure what else I would be doing. I'm very excited for this new school year at a school that seems fantastic.

5.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm thankful for the city that I live in. I'm close to the beach, we have an NFL team, it's huge but still feels like a small town, and it's close to a lot of other fun places. I'm glad that I grew up here. (16 year old me is rolling her eyes!)

6.  I'm thankful for my friends. Two of my closest friends live far away, but if I need them, I know they'll answer my call. I'm lucky enough that my best friend is someone who has known me for ages but still wants to hang out! Oh and I'm thankful for my CRES friends, the ones who didn't want me to leave, but supported my decision to do so.

7. The internet. It can be a curse at times, but it is something to be thankful. It makes staying in contact with said friends and family a lot easier. It's helped me better my teaching. Plus, without it I wouldn't have met all you amazing people who read my blog!

8. My parents (guess they're techinically under number one, but this is my list right?) now that I deal with kids on a daily basis, I can tell how hard it was for them to raise us right. My brother and I would not be the people we are without their sacrifices, love and support. I'm glad I got punished when I acted up. They taught me well. Oh and my brother. He's my best friend. For reals.

This picture is SUPER OLD and SUPER CHEESY but still one of my faves!

9.

This one is no where as deep as the others, but I'm so thankful that the Olympics are taking place the last two weeks of my summer vacation! This way, I can stay up late watching all the action and not have to wake up early the next day!

10. I'm thankful for books. I'm glad I have something that can take me completely out of this world when I need it. :) (I need to pick the new Emily Giffin book ASAP)

What are you thankful for? Go link up with Jessica!

Fun times in the ATL...

I can easily say this weekend was a great one! J and I headed up to Atlanta. We left Jacksonville at 8 a.m. on Friday. J made a pretty good driver:

So focused. So serious. 

We made  great time, until we hit an accident RIGHT outside of downtown Atlanta. Stinks, but we ended up getting to the hotel around 5:00 p.m. Our room was TINY but still fabulous. I especially loved that our pillows were marked:

I prefer soft pillows, so this worked out for me. The bed was comfy too. (Important factor right?)

That night, I bought tickets for us to go the Braves game. J is a huge Braves fan. I was bummed at missing the Opening Ceremony, but being at the exact location of the Opening Ceremony of the Centennial Games in 1996 (say THAT three times fast!) was pretty awesome.

Olympic rings logo right before you get to Turner Field

That would be the 1996 Olympic cauldron. You know, the one that Muhammad Ali lit? I was in total awe. I remember watching those Olympics as an 11 year old. SO NEAT!

The game? Oh that was pretty fun too. The Braves won (not going to say yay to that, I'm a Mets fan!) but I'm glad they did for J.

 I had my two favorite ballpark treats:

Chili cheese dog!

Ice cream in a helmet!

It's not a baseball game without those treats! The ice cream was the perfect treat on a hot and humid day.

The next day, J surprised me with tickets to both the Georgia Aquarium and the CNN Studios. He's really an amazing guy; I'm a lucky girl.

Being the nerd that I am, I loved the CNN tour. We even got to see them filming some of the live shows. The CNN center is HUGE!

Like I said, HUGE! I took a picture of J riding North America's largest free standing escalator. The bottom two pictures are the newsrooms for CNN and HLN. Pretty impressive.

After that it was aquarium time. To get to the aquarium, we walked through Centennial Park.

Love the Olympics!

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world. They have quite the collection of animals, including whale sharks.

He was half the size of this huge glass window. Such a sight to take in! J and I saw lots of other neat things as well.

Like beluga whales! Baby beluga, oh baby beluga...

These photos just don't do them justice!

J was bummed we missed the piranha feeding. :) If you look carefully in the starfish pic, you'll see this eel hiding out. Instantly reminded me of Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid. You know, Ursula's henchmen?

Speaking of Disney, I found Dory! Best part was that I was NOT the only one singing "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"

Found some super cute river otters. One kept getting mad at the other for making him drop his rock.

I'm dying from the adorableness!

I'm so glad I got to go to both of these places. Like I said J = awesome boyfriend. Oh and on the way out spotted these two amazing shirts:

Like I said, AWESOME right?

Of course, the whole reason we went to Atlanta was to go to DCI Southeastern Championship. J is a drummer (it's not his main job but it's definitely his passion.) He was in a drum corps himself and loves to watch it. I had no idea what it was before I started dating him! I do like the shows though (even if I can't really tell why one particular show is better than the other.)

The group that won is the one on the bottom left corner, the one with the crazy horses. They're called the Blue Devils and they are a top corps. I didn't really get their show, because I was too distracted by the horse props. Why are there horses? Why are their outfits hanging on them? Are the horses supposed to be attacking each other? I'm so confused! <---the various thoughts running through my head the entire time.

My favorite show was by Santa Clara Vanguard. They had a starry night theme, as in Van Gogh. The color guard had different parts of the Starry Night painting on their outfits, and their flags also had different parts of the painting. At the end, their flags came together to recreate the painting. The music was beautiful too!

All in all a really fun day. We came home on Sunday and I relaxed and enjoyed some Olympics!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Linking up for YOLO Monday and Weekend Update!

What a week...

This started off as a very simple week. I took my cousin and his cousin (they're visiting from Puerto Rico) to the mall on Monday. Got some laminating and planning done. Quite boring really.

Then on Tuesday, I went to a training. Had no idea that when I got back from training I would discover some horrifying news. I am not going to go into detail, but it's news that shocked me to the core. Then Wednesday, the news got even worse. It's a terrible feeling when you realize you never knew a person you know?

So I'm definitely looking forward to this week's High Five for Friday. I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason and that we need to look at the positives in life. Here goes! (Sorry there are no pictures; it's been a really hectic week around here!)

1. I guest posted over at Embracing the Everyday. Ashley's one of the first bloggers I actually interacted with when I started this whole she bang. It was a no brainer sponsoring her!

2. In more blog news, I have 58 followers. My blog is a month old! Never thought that many people would be interested in what I have to say. It's a nice feeling.

3. I got to have dinner and cupcakes with my best friend Nichole.  We went to Mellow Mushroom and had Cami Cakes. Cami Cakes is my favorite cupcake place in Jacksonville. They're so light and fluffy!

4. I finished my first three days of school lesson plans. Once those are down pat, the rest of the week is easy peasy!

5. While you're reading this, I am on my way to Atlanta (or possibly already there!) J and I will be going to a Braves game, going to a Drum Corps International competition and walking around downtown. I'm excited to spend the weekend with him! Oh and bonus points to anyone who knows what Drum Corps is!

Glad to see I was still able to find some positives in this crazy week! Don't forget to link up with Lauren over at  From My Grey Desk!

This girl loves shoes...

Not going to lie I've been a bit distracted the last 24 hours, so I almost forgot about Current Crush. When I saw that Danielle had canceled it, I was a bit relieved. But when I saw that Ashley and Rachel (two bloggers who have really welcomed me with open arms) agreed to take it on, I knew I had to post something.

My inspiration comes from the outfit I am planning to wear to my training. The focal point of the outfit is an old pair of yellow Nine West flats. So I am currently crushing on:

Bright Flats by nilda-albino featuring royal blue flats

Royal blue flat / H&M leather flat, $12 / Forever 21 bow flat / Madewell patent flat / Pink ballet flat, $16

I just started searching for bright flats at Polyvore and these are my favorites that came up. My absolute favorites are the mint ones. I think bright flats have the power to add punch to any outfit, especially simple ones. What I am wearing today will be a white tee, blue linen croppped pants, silver necklace, and my bright yellow flats. I'll try and post a picture later if I can.

Don't forget to link with Ashley or Rachel for Current Crush. Which pair do you like best?

In shock...

I can't explain why I am so stunned, because I don't want to add to everything that's already been put out there. Nothing's happened directly to me, but my mind is still in shock from some news I received earlier today. If the news is true, then it breaks my heart. If it's not true, then I feel for that person, because his life will never be the same. Either way, I feel for one of the people involved, because she is one of my nearest and dearest friends and she doesn't deserve this.

If you could send general positive thoughts to my friend, I would really appreciate it. I'm still just in shock.

First time!

Guest posting that is. Today I am over at Embracing the Everyday. Ashley's an awesome blogger and there are moments where I feel like we are the same person, even though she's younger than me and is a cute little blonde instead of a cute little brunette.

Go over and check out my post about my favorite quote. I'll be back tomorrow! Hope everyone is having a terrific Tuesday.