You Really Want to Know Me

I came across an article called 50 Questions to Ask A Girl If You Really Want to Know Who She Is. I thought that I would answer these questions and see if you got to know me better. I would love if anyone reading this would also complete this article and leave the link below. I would love to read it. Do not forget to always be yourself becasue you were created to be wonderful. I think if we learn about other people then we make connections to them and find what we have in common.

1. What’s one thing that’s happened to you that has made you a stronger person? I think having to live alone has made me a stronger person. It has made me more independent and it has forced me to see the things that are important in life. I am getting better at balancing life and making sure no single thing takes over my life. 

2. What’s one thing that’s happened to you in your life that made you feel weak? I think I feel the weakest when someone close to me is struggling and there is nothing I can do to make it better. I want to help them all so they never struggle but that is not possible. There are some things that you cannot fix you can just be there to listen. 

3. Where is one place you feel most like yourself? My apartment has become my place where I feel like me. I am not putting on a show or trying to impress anyone. I am just able to relax and do things that make me happy and help me relax. I am able to do things on my own terms. 

4. Where is your favorite place to escape to? My favorite place to escape is often just to a room by myself. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the people around me so I need time to be by myself. 

5. Who do you think has had the largest influence on the person you are today? My mom has had the largest influence on the person I am today. My mom is a person who will always put others first. She will forgo things for herself to provide for others or to give us something we want. My mom is selfless and if I am half the mom she is I will have some lucky kids. 

6. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? I would change my weight in a heartbeat. It is something I have been uncomfortable with for a long time. In this past month, I have been actively trying to make positive changes. I have been trying to be careful of what I eat and make sure I am making an effort to be active every day. 

7. If you had one day left to live, what would you do first? I think I would want to make sure to tell all the people I care about how I feel. I would never want to leave the earth with someone I love unsure of how I feel about them.  

8. What decade do you feel you most belong in? I feel like I belong in the 1990s. This may be a weird decade to pick, but I liked that the world as a whole was less tense. I love that there was ease of communication and travel. I also like that everyone was not as connected as they are today. I think it is ridiculous to see how young children are already constantly on technology.

9. Who are you closest to in your family? Why? I think I am the closest to my mom. We have always been fairly close and I like spending time with her. It is nice to know that you always have someone in your corner who is also willing, to tell the truth. I am also close to my brother, but that relationship has gotten closer as we have gotten older. 

10. Who is the one person in this world that knows you best? I think my mom or my best friend, Karlee, know me the best. They are both pretty awesome and I know I can trust them both. Here is the link to Karlee's Blog.  

11. What is your favorite quality about your best friend? I think my favorite quality is that she just gets me. She can tell how I am feeling from a look or a text. She also can detect my sarcasm over text because she knows me that well. We think very similarly and are super alike, but somehow we can spend all of our time together and never get upset. 

12. When you were younger what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? From the time I was little until 8th grade I thought I was going to be a teacher. Then in high school, I looked into other careers, but ultimately came back to teaching and that is what I am doing now. 

13. If you could identify with one fictional character (from a book, show, or movie) who would it be? I cannot just pick one character. I think the reason I enjoy reading so much because I am always able to connect to at least one character. Reading is so enjoyable because I always find a little piece of myself in a character. I am willing to follow the story and always hope for the happy ending because that is what I would want. 

14. Do you easily accept compliments? Or do you hate compliments? I feel like I am in between these two. I really wish I could say I easily accept compliments and from some people, I can do this. Often times when I receive a compliment I worry that it is not genuine and why they are offering this compliment. It is probably something I should work on but there is always a small piece of self-doubt. 

15. Is your favorite attribute about yourself physical or non-physical? My favorite attribute about myself is my self-motivation and drive. When I am put my mind to something I will work hard to accomplish it. I am able to set a to-do list and complete it. I am very organized and am able to keep myself on track to get things done. 

16. What is your favorite physical attribute about yourself? My favorite physical attribute about myself is my eyes. I have blue eyes and I just think they are pretty. 

17. What is your favorite non-physical attribute about yourself? See question 15. 

18. Do you believe in love at first sight? I do not. I believe in physical attraction at first sight. I also believe that there are people who just click when they first meet. But I think that love is a choice you make every day. You work for it and you put in an effort to show the person how much you care. You want to stand beside them at their best to celebrate and at their worst to support. Nothing about that is easy or effortless. 

19. Do you believe in soul mates? I think that God knows the person you are going to marry. I think He is writing your story. I think He will bring the person into your life when it is time for you to meet.

20. How seriously do you take horoscopes? I do not take them seriously at all. I think that they are general statements that you could see in your life. 

21. Have you ever been in love? How many times? I am not sure if I have ever been in love. I have dated one guy before and we were best friends before we started dating. So I am not sure if the love was in a romantic way or more of a friendship way. 

22. What makes you fall in love with someone? I can honestly say any person that I have seriously liked it has happened as I have gotten to know them. I have learned more about their personality and seen the way they care about people. I am able to see the things that make them unique and that is how I start to begin liking someone. 

23. What does vulnerability mean to you? What has the ability to make you vulnerable? I think that vulnerability means being able to tell someone anything and not worry about being judged. It takes a lot to be able to be completely yourself with someone. I think in front of most people we are censoring ourselves to protect ourselves from judgment. 

24. What’s one thing you’re scared to ask a man, but really want to? I want to ask a man their honest opinion of my appearance. I think it would be interesting to hear an honest opinion from them. 

25. If you were a man for a day, what would be the first thing you do? I think it would just be interesting to see what guys talk about when they are hanging out in groups. I always think it would be interesting to see what they discuss and how deep their conversations get. 

26. What do you find most attractive about each sex? I just think the most unique thing about each person is their personalities. I think it is interesting to see what they are passionate about and what they think is important. 

27. What’s one thing you’d love to learn more about? I would love to be able to speak a foreign language fluently. I just think it would be fun and a great to be able to speak more than one language. 

28. What is something you’ve never done that you’ve always wanted to do? I always wished I could be more spontaneous. I know that is not just one thing, but I am a planner. Sometimes I see that people are able to be spontaneous and go do things. I wish I could be a little more like that sometimes. 

29. Why haven’t you done it yet? I think being spontaneous is scary. Especially for me. Like I said I am a planner. I like to know things and have a handle on what will happen and be ready for things. 

30. If money didn’t matter, what would your dream job be? I think I would want to do something in the nonprofit sector. Where I am volunteering my time and helping people. 

31. If you had off from work today, what would you do? Well, today I did have the day off since it is a weekend and I cleaned. If I had a day off I think I would like to take a day trip somewhere and explore something new. Or I would love if some of my friends could come over for a movie night and just to hang out.

32. What was the last thing that made you cry? Other than a sappy video online, it would probably be a couple of weeks ago. I moved out and being completely on my own in a new area was just overwhelming. I am a crier and it is the way I release emotions. There are times when I just know that I need to cry to let it all out. 

33. What was the last thing that made you laugh? It was probably one of my students. They are quite the crazy bunch, but I love them. I have a small class, but they have big personalities. 

34. What is your favorite memory? I think any memory with my family would be my favorite. Since I moved away from them I really appreciate the memories with them and the time we get to spend together now. 

35. What’s the last thing that REALLY embarrassed you? I am not sure what the last thing that really embarrassed me. I do not get embarrassed too easily. So I feel like when I do get embarrassed I brush it off and really try to forget about it. 

36. What is your biggest fear? My biggest fear is disappointing someone. I always want to make the people around proud and I never want someone to be disappointed in me. 

37. Do you have any regrets? What’s your biggest one? I think some of my biggest regrets are trying to hang on to people who did not want me in their life. I think that I sometimes tried to make relationships work when people had stopped caring or did not want to be friends. In the end, I probably ended up feeling more hurt than I should of. 

38. Have you ever broken a law? If you haven’t what is one law you’d love to break? I mean I guess I have technically broken the law when I have sped. So there you go. 

39. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Well, people always want juicy stories. I am not a super crazy person so my stories probably do not compare to other people's stories. This is also not something I am going to put on here so, you will just have to get to know me better. 

40. Would you have a conversation with a stranger? I would. How do you ever make a friend if you do not talk to a stranger? 

41. Would you tell a stranger they have toilet paper hanging from their shoe? Or their dress tucked into their underwear? (Or anything else that is embarrassing to be seen in public)? I would. I appreciate when people tell me those things. I always try to point them out. It minimizes the embarrassment if it gets cut off early. 

42. What’s your favorite joke? This is super lame. In high school volleyball, I always told Laffy Taffy jokes to break the tension. So probably some Laffy Taffy jokes. 

43. Are you a dog person or a cat person? I am a both person. I love cats and dogs. 

44. If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? A Koala probably because I have heard they sleep for like 22 hours a day. 

45. What’s one show, movie, or book, you’re embarrassed to admit you enjoy? I still watch the made for TV Disney Channel Movies. They have some on Netflix and sometimes I need a mindless night and will watch them. 

46. How do you think your parents would describe you as a child? I think they would describe me as hardheaded, stubborn, and probably a little bratty. At least that is how they would describe me when they think about me on my bad days. 

47. If you could go back to any age or time of your life, what age or time would it be? This is a hard question, I feel like when I think back I remember a lot of the good times that I would want to relieve. Some of the times I would like to go back to is my freshman year because I went to Germany for Spring Break. I would also love to go back to my senior year because it was just a fun time and I also went to London and Paris over Spring Break. I also think my junior year would be fun to relive because you were independent, but were not worried about as many things. Finally, I also think it would be fun to go back to a summer when I was in like middle school. My parents were both teachers so they did not have a normal work schedule all summer. So, it would be nice to go back to the time before my brother and I were working in the summer and just enjoy the family time. 

48. What’s something you believe in that not everyone else does? I believe in God. I am religious and not everyone is. 

49. What’s one thing you would say that makes you unique from other people? I am left-handed which is pretty unique. You also get a lot of fun questions when you are left-handed that make things interesting. 

50. What is one thing you feel your life is missing? I think right now I am missing having someone I am close to who lives close to me. I am getting there, but I moved to somewhere new and I did not know anyone. So, I am just trying to be open to new experiences and trying to make sure I hand out with people when I get the choice to.  

Back To School!

I start school Monday, which is crazy to say. I have been prepping my classroom all summer (pictures will come later). School has been crazy busy because they have been redoing part of the roof over my classroom. This caused quite the mess which is why pictures will come in a little bit after it all gets cleaned up. I cannot believe this summer went so quickly.

I am super excited to get started with my amazing little 2nd grade babies. I have got my classroom set up and lesson planned for the first two weeks. I am sure it will end up changing a lot as I see what we get done the first week. I am also coaching volleyball and that started this week. It has been a pretty crazy week. It has been nice getting to know some of older girls in volleyball.

On this wonderful last weekend before school starts, I am trying to relax as much as possible. So far today I have cleaned the bathroom, gone grocery shopping, and made lunch. I still want to make sure I vacuum and sweep my apartment. I am also going to try my hand at prepping my lunches for the week. So expect a post about that by next weekend at the latest. I am hoping I can go into the school year with a clean apartment.

If you do read my blog, please give me ideas of posts you would like to see and I will try to get those out to you.  

Da Crib (My Apartment)

Last month I began to move into my first apartment. It was a slow process because I was still working in my hometown. I would come up on the weekends and get things settled. It was kind of nice slowly moving because I was able to unpack the boxes as I brought them to the apartment. In this post, I will be sharing some photos from my apartment. This is also a collaboration post with my best friend Karlee. You can click here to see her post.  

I live in a five building apartment complex and there are eight apartments in each building. When you first walk into my apartment you see my living room. With the help of my amazing family, I was able to find a lot of the furniture for my apartment for a reasonable price. My couch and recliner are not what I thought I was going to get, but they are super comfortable. I make sure to keep blankets out because I like being able to bundle up. My amazing coffee table was made by my dad. I was able to find the table under my lamp and my TV stand at auctions for very affordable prices. My lamp was one my dad had around, he was able to spray paint the base for me so it is a color that I love. 

Right by the door, I use to come into my apartment is my TV stand. On the edge of the TV stand, I keep a little ceramic dish. This is an amazing dumping place so that I do not misplace things. In this dish, I keep my keys, sunglasses, and a pair of earphones. It is nice that as I am leaving I can grab what I need and go. 

My living room and kitchen are one big 

room. I love my kitchen! It is a pretty big kitchen for an apartment and I love that there is enough room to have a kitchen table over the tile and not on carpet. I got my beautiful kitchen table from another auction for an amazing price. I would highly recommend if you are looking for furniture to check out auctions for your wooden pieces. I was able to get solid wooden things at great prices. My kitchen table is large and I can expand it with two leaves. I love that I have a lot of cabinet space to store things in. I also have a dish washer! I never grew up with a dish washer, so it has been a nice luxury to my life. I have a little canvas over my kitchen sink. It is one I painted at college and it says Bless this Mess. It is a perfect sign for a kitchen. 

Next, is my bathroom. It is pretty basic, but I do enjoy the storage. It is also nice that I finally do not have to share a bathroom. This gives me the opportunity to leave some of my things out. I stuck with a blue theme in a lot of my apartment. I was able to find my shower curtain and my grandparents gave me the bath mat by my shower. 

The final room I have pictures of for you is my bedroom. I am including my closet with my bedroom which could probably be considered a room of its own. My amazing family was going to some garage sales and they found an antique bedroom set. The set is gorgeous and I love it. My head board is huge, but I like that it became my focus piece. I was able to buy a memory foam mattress. It was a little different adjusting to it, but now I love it. My mom would tell you that picking out a quilt/comforter was one of the hardest things about the move. I am very picky and I did not want to get something that I would get sick of. I found this quilt on clearance. I love the color and the ruffles add something to it without it being so over the top that I get sick of it. You may also notice the matching lamp to the one in my living room. I was able to have lamps in both places and if I need to I can put them in the same room as a set. I also was able to add a nice book shelf in my bedroom. It fits perfectly in the little space between the doorways. I love that I can have somewhere to put books and that it looks cute too. It was also the perfect space to hang up another canvas that I made. This one has Song of Solomon 4:6 on it which says, You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. This is the perfect daily reminder that I was wonderfully made. Finally, I have a huge walk in closet. This is nice because it is a great place to store things. My two dressers are on the smaller side, so it is nice to have a place to put clothes.

                       

I am also blessed to have a garage to use for my car and storage. I also have another small storage closet that I keep my linens and my craft supplies in. Now that I am living on my own there has been a lot to adjust to. I have gotten used to cooking all the meals and also keeping up with the cleaning. It has been nice though that I have a place that feels homey and I can relax in. If you have any decoration suggestions just let me know, I would love any help. 

Weekend with my Best Friend

Hello, everyone! I got to spend the weekend with my best friend Karlee. I was super excited because it had been about a month and a half since I had seen her. I went down and spent the weekend at her apartment. We were able to just talk, do a little teacher shopping, go to a baseball game, and even go to church together. It was a great weekend and it will always be one of my favorite ways to spend a few days. Well, this weekend was amazing, it was overall a pretty chill weekend. We just hung out and caught up. This was the best way to spend the weekend. The rest of this post will be giving you a little more information about Karlee and our friendship because I am sure there will be more posts about her.        

Flashback to when we met! Now I wish I could sit down and tell you that I do not remember not being friends with Karlee or that we met on the first day of Kindergarten, but that is not the case. We both ended up at the same college studying Early Childhood Education. She was a double major with Special Education and I was the minor version of that. We both ended up at this college after registering and being pretty sure we were going to go to different schools. I was very homesick even though I was not too far from home. I started going to my classes and one day I realized that a girl who lived across the hall from me was in one of my education classes. I am not very good at thinking of ways to start a conversation, so I kind of knocked on her open door and asked if there was any homework (anyone who knows me knows I already knew the answer to the question). Then I am not really sure how we got talking but in that first little bit of college, you can have a pretty long conversation with anybody as you share basic information. Well, I ended up sitting down and we talked until it was time to get dinner and she invited me to get dinner with the people she normally ate with. Now, I cannot give you some AHA moment of when we became close. It just kind of happened. I can tell you that I spent a ton of time hanging out in her little dorm room across the hall from mine (I think that may be one of my favorite places at college). We talked and hung out, it was all pretty chill. 

I can tell you though that I have never clicked with another person in the same way. We had many things in common and we looked at a lot of life in a similar way. We were able to spend all of our time together and not get sick of each other. Meeting Karlee helped my homesickness and I finally felt like I had someone I could talk to about it. We were able to talk about our high school experiences and families. It is great having a friend who you can tell anything too and you do not feel like they are going to hate you or judge you. We are close enough that it is also nice to have someone who thinks in a very similar way to you. She understands my kind of crazy and is able to roll with it. We did not live together our freshman year, but I spent more time in her dorm room than mine. Freshman year we got to know each other and went through good and bad things together. We cried and laughed together. We got to experience college together. And we even watched a whole lot of Reba on ABC Family. 

Now we no longer live together as I am starting my first year teaching and she is beginning her student teaching experience. I can say that texting and Facetiming will never make up for weekends we can see each other. I can also say that it is nice to have someone who is excited to hear anything that you are excited to tell them. It is nice to have someone you know is always praying for you and cheering you on in your corner. It is a friendship that seems like I have known her forever. I know it is a friendship that will last. One of the things I am most thankful in college is that I pretended not to know the homework, walked into your dorm room and never left.     

Karlee, since I know you will read this. I want to say thank you for getting me through college. Thank you for always being in my corner cheering me on. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for crying with me and laughing with me. Thank you for letting me complain, but also showing me the positives when I am only being negative. Thank you for dealing with me when I was crazy stressed out. I am so thankful that even though it was not our first choice we ended up in the same college across the hall from each other (I would like everyone to know that dorm was my very last choice). Looking back I know that God knew I would need a friend like you. I am so excited to hear about all of the amazing experiences you have during student teaching. I am excited that we can swap stories now. You are going to be such a blessing to those kids and schools. I cannot wait to see you again in two weeks!

Check out Karlee's blog: https://littlebitokarlee.blogspot.com/

 

"Adulting"

This past weekend I moved into my apartment (you will get another post with some pictures next month once I am fully settled there). The weekend was crazy and busy, but everything went really smoothly. I will not be living there full time until the end of the month because I am still working a little in my hometown. In this post, I wanted to tell you some of the things that I have found out are different when you become an adult. I have been "adulting" pretty hard as I have been preparing for moving and getting ready to start my teaching job.

Things that happen when you need to start "adulting":
1) You see fun things you want to buy and then you remember you now have to make sure you can buy boring things like rugs for your bathroom and food. This is still exciting to buy all these things, but I have become a lot more thoughtful with the things I am buying.
2) Keys!!! I used to think it was so weird that my parents had so many keys. Since I have finished college I have begun to acquire keys. I have keys for my car, parents' house, work, apartment, mailbox, etc. I also have to remember what doors all the various keys open.
3) Talking to people on the phone. I was getting my internet set up this weekend and I had to talk to various people on the phone about boring adult things.
4) Dealing with boring adult things like getting my insurance set up and making sure all my bases are covered.
5) Bills! Now I have to keep track of when things are due and I have to spend money on things I do not necessarily want to spend money on but I have to. Things like ant traps, insurances, and other bills that my parents always just made sure were taken care of.

I am sure I will find more things and these are just the things that I have thought about in the first week. Even though there are all of the things about "adulting" can be fun too. I know have a space where I get to make decisions. I have a place where I can be independent and choose things. It is exciting to begin working on things for my classroom (it was weird not having to type future classroom). You can expect a post hopefully in the next week (fingers crossed) talking about the first day and a half that I spent in my classroom. If you have any "adulting" tips or tips about apartment living please let me know. I have found part of "adulting" is asking questions and letting people help you.

Dear Little Brother

Dear Little Brother, 

I can honestly say that I do not remember life without you. You came into my life when I was two and a half. When mom was pregnant everyone used to ask me if I wanted a brother or a sister. I can honestly say that I only ever gave one answer and that was a sister. At two and a half I wanted someone to play dress up with and have as a mini me. Then you came along and I was so excited the first time I got to meet you I happily announced that I was the big sister. Then three weeks later I told mom that maybe we could take you back because I really wanted a sister. I am so glad that my two and a half year old self did not have control over this.

Little Brother you have been a huge blessing. We fought and we yelled, sometimes it probably seemed like we barely liked each other. As we have grown up we have gotten closer and I am extremely thankful for that. We can joke around and we can have serious conversations. I love that you ask my opinions about your life.

Some people would say we are extremely alike and they may be right, but I have always thought we are the perfect balance and you have made my life better.

You were rugged, when I was a princess. Because of you I have tried to play street hockey, rolled around in the grass with a air soft gun, I have had countless light saber and nerf gun fights, I have tried to jump my bike on a homemade ramp. I will never forget these memories. You pulled me out of my princess world and I had fun.

You were fearless, when I worried. You pulled me out of my shell. You helped me try new things because when I was younger there is no way I could be out done by my little brother. As I got older I knew you would be there right by my side to catch me if I fell.

You were fun, when I was too serious. You have always known how to make me laugh. There have definitely been times in life where I have needed you to lighten the mood. No matter what mood I am in you have make me laugh.

You have been my shoulder to cry on. I know that you try to put on a front. I also know that when I have been crying you have been there to give me a hug. You try to fix my problems and if you cannot do that you listen.

Because of you I have been to more baseball games than I could ever count. I have spent countless hours in bleachers and lawn chairs cheering you on. I have cheered you on in your achievements and even cried tears of joy in your successes. I have also cried at your losses and wished there was something I could have done to change the outcome.

Oh Little Brother, I want you to have the best life ever. I want you to enjoy life and be happy. I want you to be successful and never truly want for anything. I know this may not always be able to happen, but I want you to know I am there no matter what. I am there to listen and give advice if you want. I am there to bounce ideas off. I hope we never drift apart. Any advice you give to me I know comes from a good place and I can trust you because you always tell me the truth.

Little Brother, now looking back I cannot imagine having a sister. I am so thankful for you. Even though you are younger than me I look up to you. You are so good at connecting with people, you make friends easily, you are smart, you can let go and have fun, you are athletic, you are a hard worker, and people love you. I am so proud of the person you have become.

I love you, Little Brother!

Love,
       Your Big Sister

Exciting News!!!

So, I know I have been M.I.A on here, but student teaching had been going well. I will post again soon and tell you all about my student teaching. But, I have news that is more exciting than anything I could say about student teaching. I have known for about a month, but things have been crazy.

I have a teaching position for next school year! I will be teaching some amazing second graders! It is so crazy! I have been dreaming of having my own classroom and it is finally real. When I first accepted the position it was exciting to know that I had a job, but it also did not feel completely real. This week the school has been sending me a few things to look at for next year. This makes it feel so much more real.

This summer I plan to post quite a bit as I am getting things ready for my classroom. That is so exciting to say!

That is all I have time to write tonight! If you have any advice/resources for a first year/second grade teacher please comment below. If you have any questions about student teaching please leave those in the comments to so I can answer them in my next post which will be coming this weekend.

I cannot wait to share more about student teaching and my first year of teaching with you.