Give and take

Today I am thankful for Internet service after a weeks without it, however I am not thankful for the idiot who put a giant pole with a giant satellite in the middle of my yard, so you could say that I have mixed emotions...

Yum!

Today I am thankful for an amazing breakfast on the go. Let me tell you, this one was all about being prepared the night before. I started by pulling a bag of banana chocolate chip muffins out of the freezer - I know, super hard. But they were ready for me this morning, and I needed that!

I also tried a new iced coffee idea, and it is amazing, probably my favorite homemade version yet, and I finally got to use the adorable travel cup that I got for Christmas from a very crafty friend! It definitely made my day!

So here's the easiest iced coffee recipe ever, thanks to my Keurig; I made two mugs of vanilla cafe expressions and poured them in a pitcher, I topped that off with a cup of coffee, stirred it all up and let it sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning I stirred it again and it was ready to go! Love it!

Just a book

Amazon just had a great clearance on their kindle books (which is a bit weird to me because clearance is usually what you do when you wan to move product off your shelves, and these books are clearly not taking up space on anyone's shelves...), I LOVE cheap kindle books because I have such a hard time picking out a new book. When the book only costs a couple of bucks I don't mind if I don't end up loving it. Anyway, long story short I picked out a couple, and yesterday I completely indulged.

I slept in and then stayed in bed for another hour reading, I ran errands and grabbed lunch, and read while I ate, and when I got home I stole a couple of hours on the couch reading. We went to our favorite annual fundraiser last night, and got home late, but I wasn't tired, so I stayed up reading, until 2:30 in the morning!

I haven't done that since I was in college, and I loved every minute of it. The book was great, but the best part f the entire experience was having to time to really enjoy a book, in a way that I haven't done in year. Yes, I still read often, but not like that, where I lose entire hours to the story, I love it, and if that makes me a complete nerd, then I guess I don't care, but I also know that there are more than a few people out there who know what I'm talking about!

Being treated like a professional

I'm a preschool teacher. I spend most of my day making messes, refereeing arguments, modeling appropriate behaviors, and cleaning up messes. I live in the land of boogers and milk mustaches, smeared marker and broken crayons, and the adults that I talk to are parents who privately think that I am nothing more than a glorified babysitter, even though I have a bachelors degree and routinely speak at education conferences.

So today I am thankful for professional development opportunities. Today I got to spend the day with other professional adults who understand my language, who are fluent in developmentally appropriate practice, literacy domains, and project work. These are women who not only understand what I REALLY do every day, but who value what I do everyday, and who inspire me to continue doing the work that I am doing even though it is not glamorous and prestigious.

I need this, I thrive on this, and I will go back to my classroom on Monday with more energy than I usually have on a Monday, and for that, it is worth it!

How I unwind

Some people gripe about having to cook dinner every night, I don't understand this, because personally I need that time to unwind. Making dinner is my transition from work to home, and it's something that I get to do all alone, in silence. When I cook I don't think about work, and I don't think about everything I have to get done after dinner, I just focus on what I'm doing.

So here's a picture of my space. It's not big, and it's not fancy, and at some point, down the road, when I find an extra million dollars, I might be able to have a kitchen that belongs in a magazine, but for now this is my space, and I love it because its comfortable. That is what I'm thankful for today!

A novel idea

The last couple of days have been just a bit stressful, so tonight I'm thankful for me time. Not that I've actually had any me time, but I'm definitely seeing how important it is, and therefore resolving to make more of it. I'm trying to remind myself that I don't need to respond to every text message and email as soon as I get it, I can put the paperwork down for the evening and just relax, because goodness knows that if I don't my brain will never wind down.

So right now I am sitting on the couch, watching tv, and doing my nails. I love me time.

Enough said

Today I am thankful for professional development, and the opportunity to spend the day talking to adults who take me seriously and view me as a professional, which is what I get to do tomorrow, thank goodness! Sometimes I need that!

Loving old memories

When I was little hockey was a big thing. My home town was home to one of the best college hockey teams in the nation and one of the best high school hockey teams in the state, so ice skating was just something we did, and we loved to go to hockey games.

Tonight I got to go to a hockey game, our local minor league team, and I am so glad that my sister went with me because the game wasn't very exciting, but we had a lot of fun reliving those memories! We talked about going to the games with our cousins, mooching candy from the college mascots, loving the action and the fights. It was like being back there!

Thank God for Girlfriends!

Today I am thankful for friends, specifically the wonderful ladies that I work with, who not only have my back, always, but who also seem to know just what I need.

I left early yesterday with an awful migraine and woke up this morning to a text from one of these awesome girls offering to bring chocolate to get me through the day. When I got to work another handed me a bag of kryptonite, otherwise known as Starburst Jellybeans - just the red ones :) so while I may have had a red tongue and a sugar high all day, my girls got me through. Thank you ladies!!!!

Vacation time!

Today I am thankful for vacation time, and I think whoever introduced the use it or lose it policy is a genius!

I work at a community college, so my school follows the college's fiscal schedule, our contracts run July to June, and this year I have three personal days and 5 vacation days to use before the end of June, Which is making my spring very exciting.

Today, for example, I bought two tickets for the Vera Bradley outlet sale, which we will be attending on a Tuesday morning, because we can!!!! I am so pumped!

Amazing service!

Today I am thankful for amazing customer service. Something happened to me today that never, ever happens, ever. So here's the whole story.

Last Friday I went to the eye doctor for an exam and to order more contacts. For most people this is pretty routine, but of course, not for me. I got a trial pair for a new prescription, which I wore all day Saturday, until I couldn't stand the massive headache any more and took them out. I put them in this morning and couldn't see a thing out of one eye, which is a really bizarre feeling.

So, on my lunch break I ran to the eye doctor's office, I was hoping that the receptionist could look up my chart and give me a different trial. Instead, the doctor took me back, rechecked my prescription, checked the fit, and found me a new pair. And there were a ton of people in her office, so it's not like it was dead and she had all kinds of time.

I was beyond impressed. I didn't have an appointment, I hadn't even called before going in, but they still made time to make sure that everything was how it needed to be, and they fixed the problem. So today, I am thankful to amazing customer service! Thank you!

A bit ironic

Today I decided that I am super thankful for the quick drive that I have to and from work, it's less than 10 minutes and I love that I can go home on my lunch break, today I managed to get a ton of random tasks done during lunch - cleaned my tennis shoes AND dusted the blinds - I told you, random.

Bu at the moment I'm finding ironic that I'm thankful for my super short commute because, today of all days, I'm waiting on a train!

Lazy weekend

Saturday I did a whole lot of nothing, and the. I felt the need to carry that right into Sunday :) Sometimes we all just need that, so I don't feel bad a out my lazy weekend in the least.

Last night we had dinner with my family, and that is what I was grateful for on Sunday - the fact that my family is so close that we can see each other once a week and still feel close. It's like a party when all of us get together, we all have something to talk about and there is always plenty of food!

It was a great weekend, now I'm looking forward to the next one!

Whew...

Every time that I clean my house I say that I am so thankful that we have a tiny little house. So that is what I'm thankful for tonight. Especially since I had to vacuum. The vacuum cleaner is my nemesis. When we got married I told him that sweeping is the one domestic chore that I refuse to do (I blame this in my mother for making me do it for so many years), and he fully understands that is it his job, but he was busy tonight and the dust bunnies were taking over.

Ugh. I hate to sweep. But it's done, thank goodness!

Oops

In all of yesterday's holiday-ness I forgot to take the time to post what I am grateful for, but just because I didn't post it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about it. Because yesterday was valentines day I spent most of my day thinking about how grateful I am for my husband, and especially the fact that he is someone that I really, truly enjoy being with. I won't get all mushy on you, but not every girl can say that her husband always knows what to do to make her laugh. That is a very important quality!

Here's a picture of us from our trip to Nashville, my apologies on the awful quality, it was dark...

Thankful

This year for Lent, instead of giving something up, I've decided to really focus on what I have, and how lucky I am. I am going to try to post every day something that I am thankful or grateful for.

Today I am especially thankful for my home. I know that most people consider this to be pretty basic, of course I am thankful for my home as a place of shelter, but it goes a little deeper than that for me. My home is my place to just be. It is an extension of myself and the place where I feel most comfortable. It has taken some time to feel that way, and to get everything just how I want it, and of course I have a wish list, things I want to fix, add, change, buy, etc. but I am in love with my home, it is perfectly mine, and I am so grateful that I have a place to call mine, and a place where I can truly, honestly be me.

This is a picture from early this fall, when I thought I had finally finished the living room, it made me laugh to see how much I have changed since this was taken, but that is so true of my house. It is always changing and evolving, every tweak makes it more mine :)