February- Hearts and Snowflakes

Today was my fifth snow day in a little over a week!  I have adapted to mastering the snow day solo.  Snow days in college were all about getting snowed in with as many friends as possible-junk food- movies- laughter.  I was sick for a couple of the snow days last week, but I did have my share of warm food, hot cocoa, and movie watching!  I have enjoyed my snow days and also look forward to warm weather.  But I am definitely not complaining.

Today I made Valentine's Cards for my 4th graders.  With the extra time, I did homemade ones and they turned out cute.  They are my spin on a vintage Valentine's Day cards- complete with vintage scrapbook paper, glued on pearls, and each student's initial hand written in calligraphy.  I noticed that part of the scrapbook paper had a little boy standing in front of a globe that says "I have the nicest teacher ever."  Oops!  That's probably a little strange to get FROM your teacher, but I didn't notice until later.  They'll love the card and their bags of candy (supplied by my sweet parents.)

Enjoying the rest of my snow day (and probably my last snow day for this year!)

Superbowl 2011

I'm not posting this for sympathy.  I'm just sharing.  It's the superbowl- and here at my house it's a superbowl party for one.  I bought single serving french bread pizza, a single serving dessert brownie bowl (living alone with a pan of brownies is dangerous) and Coke Zero, of course!  I randomly decided to go for the Steelers.  No reason, I just picked them.  One plus when it comes to watching the superbowl alone: I can fast forward boring parts of the game and get to commercials and halftime.  I got to Skype into my parent's superbowl party!  I wish I was there, but lovin' tonight anyway!

Go Steelers!!!!!!!!!!!

I gotta feelin'...haha

Wishing I had listened...

How many times do we think that in our lives?  Well, this is referring to the fact that my grandma tried to teach me how to sew yo-yos when I was little.  And I didn't learn.  I have always hated sewing.  My whole life.  I've hated it.   I think I still hate it but I want to like it.  As much as a DIY as I claim to be, I think sewing and a few lessons in tools would increase that claim!  I wish I could sew yo-yos and my own curtains and many other things.  There's so much you can do with yo-yos:

Well, thanks to etsy.com, and the fact that lots of people find sewing yo-yos easy and fun, I can just order them and make my own things!


Maybe this summer, my grandma and I can revisit that sewing lesson!

How Life Goes on After College

Turner Falls, My 24th Birthday August 7, 2010

Last summer, Jenn and I created a summertime bucket list.  We only got to about half of the things, thanks to the crazy stress I felt in searching for a job.  One thing on the bucket list was to go to Turner Falls.  We decided to save the trip for my birthday- and it was a complete Parkhurst only type of celebration.  (I'm an adopted sister!)  

Little did I know when this picture was snapped that an amazing turn of events in my job hunt would land me twenty miles down the road from Turner Falls.  Suddenly, I was trying to find a place to live and setting up a classroom in a little town called Ardmore, OK.  

House....check

This is my favorite part of my house- my built in bookshelf in the living room.  

Classroom...check

Don't worry- it has come a LONG way since this day.  Jessica came and helped me put my personal touches on the classroom!  Summer helped too!  It's definitely bright and cheerful and done on a first year's teacher budget.  I will upload a more recent shot soon!  Every other picture I have has one of my students smiling in the shot...imagine that!

Bottom line...I'm loving this new chapter of life.  I'm learning a lot- about life, about myself, about teaching, about 4th graders!  I surprisingly have fallen in love with this little town!  It's the perfect place for a first year teacher fresh out of college to land and bloom.  

I have made great friends here.

I work with fantastic people.

I love the library.

There is a Hobby Lobby.

Ardmore did Christmas big. : ) (Festival of Lights, TWO Christmas parades.)

Ten Star Pizza-Cafe Alley (a couple of my favorites!)

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So yeah, I'm happy here!