Something I am not a fan of...

This is odd what I am about to tell you... but it is true... and I had a whole thought process about it today. (Shows you how much time I have on my hands doesn't it!) I truly don't like "breaking in" new flip flops. I bought some new flip flops from Old Navy this year and I have been slowly breaking them out. Well I have come to discover that I don't like new flip flops. I like the way your feet just fit into worn in flip flops. I like the way all other new shoes feel. (Trust me - I am a shoeaholic!) But new flip flops don't seem to do it for me. This all came today as I was wearing a new yellow pair and they just weren't doing it for me.

On a different note... my baby sister is leaving tomorrow for her freshmen year at college! I can't believe it! She is growing up - she is 9 years younger then I am and I am so used to having her around all the time. I am not too sure what I am going to do when she isn't around anymore!!! It is going to be strange... but I hope that she has as much fun as I did when I was in college!

Thankful Thursday...

So I have so many wonderful things to be thankful for in my life... but today I am super thankful for something very particular....

pedicures... to be more specific SPA pedicures!!

Today I treaded myself to a spa pedicure let me tell you it was an hour of heaven. So worth every penny I spent on it. :-) The massage on my legs was AMAZING. So relaxing. Definitely put me in a great mood.

Thank you spa pedicure and the wonderful woman who gave it to me!

2 days...

I just have to get through 2 more days of school before I am on vacation!!!!!!! I am so excited! I can't wait. Now dont get me wrong I love my kids but man do I need a break!! :-)

Sigh...

That's all I got. I just need a break from everything and everyone for awhile. So sad its not going to happen... but that is really what I need.

New Month....

So its a new month and I have decided that at the beginning of every month I am going to set a goal. Hopefully I will be able to reach the goal at the end of every moth. I figure that since this is the first time I am going to try this that I should start off "easy". So this month my goal is to be working out 3 times a week. I used to be really good about going to the gym and working out. But then I hurt my knees and wasn't able to workout. Then I tore some ligaments in my ankle and I don't think it is fully heeled (even though it has been like 11 weeks) but I think its ok to start working out again. So even though I used to be really good about the whole exercise thing, there have been somethings that have gotten in the way. So I need to get back on track! So that is my goal for this month. Lets see how I do! :-)

Thankful Thursday...

Today I am very thankful for all the different experiences I have gone through in my life. Without them I would be a totally different person.

- If I hadn't moved around so many different times growing up I wouldn't have met all the wonderful people that I have.

- If I hadn't gone to an all girl high school I wouldn't have made some wonderful friends. I wouldn't be as confident in myself as I am. I think that going to an all girl school was the best thing for me.

- If I didn't go to DeSales for college I wouldn't of met the most amazing roomie ever! I also wouldn't have any of my super awesome friends. And who knows what I would be doing with my life.

- If I never worked in the corporate world I wouldn't know for sure that teaching is what I was meant to be doing.

- If I hadn't been in all the different schools that I was in I wouldn't know that all schools are the same and that the same BS goes on everywhere! LOL

- If I hadn't taken the chance to work in the school I am in now I wouldn't know how much I truly love working with special ed kids. And really feel as if it was my calling in life.

I am really thankful for all that I have been through... because I can't possibly imagine being a different person!

Just another manic monday...

So today I had a bad case of the Mondays! It was really bad, I just had no desire to go to work and be with the kids. Which is very odd for me, because I love my job and I love what I do. I very rarely have days that I don't want to be at work. Well today was one of them. And it is really tough to have one of those days and work with autistic kids!! Everything just seems that much worse. Luckily the day went quickly and the kids weren't that bad.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better!! :-P

Rain, Rain go away!

Haven't we had to deal with enough rain already this summer? Do we really have to deal with more??? Most of the time I don't mind too much that it is raining, but today I was not happy. Let me tell you why. I am on what we call bus crew at school. It's not nearly as cool as it sounds! ;-) I get to stand outside and make sure all 60 busses know where they are going and they have all their kids and whatnot. On sunny days its nice because I get to work on my tan while standing outside. But on rainy days its not so much fun. Today was REALLY not fun... it was raining so much today that my shoes got soaking wet. Not just wet, but makes the funny noises when you walk, wet!! I (stupidly) didn't bring another pair of shoes, so I had to deal with the soaking wet shoes all day. Not cool. That didn't make me very happy today. Soooo sad.

I am just hoping this rain stops soon!!

I want these shoes!

So I have my eyes on this pair of boots...

I have wanted them for a while but just haven't decided that I want to spend the money on them yet. But let me tell you if I got these boots I would wear them all the time. I think they are the best boots ever! Ok well maybe not ever but for right now they are my current want. I think that one day in the near future I am going to have to splurge and get the boots!

I just thought I would share my desire for them! ;-)

Things I want to do before I turn 30...

So I am not exactly where I thought I would be at the age of 26. Don't get me wrong I have done lots of really great things, but I had different visions of where I would be when I was younger. So I have decided to come up with a list of things that I want to accomplish before I turn 30. This is what I have come up with so far... I am sure that the list will grow!!

1. Go sky diving

2. Get a tattoo

3. Go to Alaska

4. Figure out what I really want to do with my life ( this one may not happen before 30!)

5. Go to see a movie by myself

6. Buy a pair of expensive shoes

7. Learn how to make an amazing margarita

8. Help my mom put all her recipes in a book so that I can keep them forever

9. Learn to ride a motorcycle

10. Take a girls trip to some tropical island

11. Go in a hot air balloon

12. Organize a Relay for Life in my town

13. Meet the man of my dreams and get married (it might be hard to meet George Clooney but I will somehow get this to happen!! :-P)

14. Learn to drive stick shift

15. Swim with dolphins

16. drive cross country

OK so that is all I can think of right now. I am sure that the list will keep growing though.

OK...

I am serious this time! I am really going to do this. I just wish that I lead a more exciting life LOL So lets see what has been going on. I seem to have more free time on my hands this summer. I think it is because the summer theatre program that I run for Middle Schoolers has been cancelled this year. That is rather upsetting ... but they didn't have enough people to join this year. Oh well. That just means I have my nights back! :-) I wish I could say that I have been filling them up with exciting events... but much to my dismay it hasn't been so exciting.

This weekend my sisters and I are dog sitting for friends of the family. Now we already have a Jack Russell Terrier, who is a lot of fun but crazy, so adding in another Terrier is always interesting! Well Max is sooo cute! He and Reily (my dog) get along really well and have lots of fun together. They have been going none stop all day. It has been really crazy but it is a lot of fun to watch them play. We can't walk the dogs at the same time because they will play instead of going out and doing their business. So we take them one at a time. Well when one of them leaves the house the other one starts to cry because their friend has left them! It is really cute. They won't leave each others side. I am not sure how they are going to deal tomorrow when we take Max home. But its great that they are little doggy friends!

That is really what has been going on here. I promise I will try to keep this up this time!!!

Thankful Thursday...

Which should not be confused with Thirsty Thursday!!

I figure I will follow the trend and make Thursday - Thankful Thursday. So here we go!

• The ladies I work with at school. They are wonderful people and make going to work that much more enjoyable.
• The fact that even in this economy I have a job that I love!
• Knowing that no matter what happens I have my family to turn to whenever I need them.
• Having friends that are my friends even after they know me. :-) 
• And being able to take afternoon naps on days like today!!!!

Been a long time!

Wow I havent written things in a very long time! I wish my life was a lot more entertaining - if my life was more entertaining then I would write more. So lets see what I can do....

I am getting ready to chop off 12 inches of hair - for locks of love. I have done this a couple of other times before. And every time I do it, i get really nervous! I know its only hair and it will grow back - but 12 inches that is a lot of hair!!!! I also know that I don't have to do this, but I feel as if  I can do it, I should. So I am going to. I will post some pictures of before and after on Thursday.

My baby sister is getting ready to graduate high school. I can't believe it!!! Its all just so crazy. She is going to be going off to college too... she is going to Mount Saint Vincent for RN in labor and delivery. I think that is so awesome. 

I don't have much more to say... hopefully something funny will happen at school tomorrow so I can share the stories with you!

Embarrassed!

So imagine this if you will...

Its about 2:30 in the afternoon and they are calling the buses at the end of the school day when all of a sudden you hear, "Attention staff there is a silver honda civic license plate number XXX-XXX with a flat tire. You might want to go out and take care of that." 

Guess whose car it was? Go ahead I will give you one guess.... Ohhh thats right it was my car!!! Fabulous. Believe it or not I don't  know how to change a tire. I can pump my own gas and jump a car - both of which I learned in college. But change a tire that I can't do. And of course the ladies in my classroom don't know either. So what am I to do? I could call AAA but then I would never get home. AAA takes too long sometimes. So I guess that means that I have to find a guy at school who can change a tire. And I have to ask him to help me. Now I went to an all girl, catholic high school and I was taught to be an independent woman. So when I have to ask a guy to help me with something I should be able to do - I feel like a moron!! LOL So along with a friend of mine we found not 1 - not 2 - but 3 - YES 3 guys to change my tire. They were able to do it in about 5 minutes. They were really great about the whole thing too. They didn't make any comments about not being able to change my own tire... which is great of them. :-)

But let me tell you it was rather embarrassing to have to ask some guys at work to change your tire... so now I am determined to learn how to change a tire!!!!

I need to vent...

I would like to try and stay positive on this blog but I have something going on in my life that I really need to vent about... and this seems like a great place for me to vent! :-)

So a little background... I work in a special ed school. All the kids in the school are autistic. Because of this every classroom has to have a certain number of teachers in the classroom. There are 10 boys in my class and 6 teachers in the classroom. I am really lucky to work with some of the best ladies ever in my class. We all get along really well, we have fun together, we work as a great team and we genuinely like each other. One of the teachers that we worked with had to leave due to medical issues and we miss him dearly. But because he left we had to get another teacher. It took a long time for us to get a new person in the room. I would say a good 4-5 months. But we have been coping and dealing with it. Well finally they got us a new person. And he sucks! 

He started at the beginning of the month. When he started the gals and I decided that we were going to be positive about the whole situation and do whatever we could to help him adjust to being here. We did have some expectations of him though... we heard he had worked in another special  ed school for 5 years before and he had his masters. So we thought great its all going to be great he knows what he is doing and blah blah blah. Well as it turns out he has NO idea whatsoever as to what to do with these kids. He barely talks to the kids and we have the best kids on our class. He is a compulsive lier. He is weird... I mean I can deal with weird but he is beyond weird. He has a second job did I tell you that?? You want to know what it is??? He is a mortician. I know someone has to have that as a job... but really??? And he makes jokes about this stuff all the time. It is creepy. He can't come up with any ideas of his own. He wants us to come up with all the ideas. He can't think of anything and someone who has taught before should be able to come up with things! None of us like to be in a room alone with him and it is really taking a tole on us!!! It is so frustrating. 

I realize as I reread what I just wrote it makes me look like a jerk... but I am not I swear!!! There is so much more then what I wrote ( but I don't need to bore you that much). It is just really frustrating that this is all happening and I just needed to vent a little bit. 

There is one good thing that is coming out of all of this... us ladies have all bonded a lot and are really close now. And that is really good! I am so thankful for them!!! :-)

Well for those of you that stuck with me while I vented I appreciate it. Thanks for listening. :-)

Blessed...

OK I am really bad at keeping a blog! But I am really going to try from now on to keep up with this!

Anyways.... I have been thinking lately (usually a bad idea LOL) about how lucky I am. I have an amazing family that is there for me no matter what. We can sit around a dinner table and be there for hours just talking and laughing at stupid things. My sisters and I can spend a whole day together and have a great time... even if my youngest sister is 9 years younger than I am. My parents are best anyone can ask for. They have set a wonderful example for us. They are loving, caring, giving, funny, sweet, amusing, creative and so much more. Not everyone can say that they are that close to their family. Oh and I have the worlds cutest dog! He really completes the family.

And my friends! They are some kind of wonderful. It doesn't matter what we are doing we have a great time. We could just sit around someone's house and talk for hours and still have a great time. I am not sure what I would do without my friends in my life.

My job. I LOVE my job. I work with autistic kids. Even though there are days I just want to pull all my hair out and want to walk right out that door, they are still amazing kids. They are loving and caring (when they aren't beating the sh*t out of you) and funny and just SO cute! I also LOVE the women I work with in the classroom. We make a great team and have so much fun together. I think without them I would have definitely pulled out all my hair by now! ;-) But I really love going to work everyday. 

When I put this all into perspective I really don't have the right to complain about the little things. All the big things in my life are amazing.

Lent

So tomorrow starts lent. Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about what I was going to give up. I believe that if you are going to give up something it should be something that is going to be hard for you and its not just to make you healthier. Same thing goes for if you are going to do something extra. I don't think saying that for lent I am going to go to the gym every day is really a sacrifice... I mean I know I should be going to the gym every day. So I have done lots of thinking...

I thought about chocolate ( I love chocolate all kinds) but I haven't been eating a lot of it lately so not really a sacrifice. I thought about other junk food, but again I don't eat enough of it to really say I should give it up. Then I thought about if there was something extra I could do every day. I couldn't think of anything creative to do there. So I thought some more what is something that I eat or drink everyday that would be hard for me to give up for lent. I thought.... and I thought some more... Diet Coke. I drink a lot of Diet Coke. Its my source of caffeine. I love it- the way it tastes, the bubbles, the sound the can makes when you open it up - everything I love everything about it. So I thought again there had to be something else that I had every day that I could give up. I found nothing. So with much hesitation I am giving up Diet Coke for lent. So as I sit here and write this I am drinking my last Diet Coke for the next 40 days. 

So I ask you all to pray for me that I make it through the next 40 days without any Diet Coke. This is going to be hard!!!! 

Old Maid

Old Maid - A woman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying.

Since when is 26 beyond the conventional age for marrying?? Any ideas? I personally don't think that 26 is old. But according to my parents when they were my age they were already married and had a baby on the way. And Patrice where are you in your life?You don't even have a boy in your life right now. If I hear that one more time I will freak out. Now I know that my parents really are only looking out for my happiness - but I have never said I was unhappy where I am in my life. Did I think I would be married with a kid at this age when I was younger? Sure, but I'm not and that is ok. 

But beyond all this where do my parents expect me to meet a guy? I am pretty sure I am not going to meet the love of my life at a bar. I know that some people meet the loves of their lives on online dating sites but that isn't really for me. Oh and you are also supposed to meet people through your friends. Yeah, that doesn't work so well. So I tell this all to my parents and they go on to name friends of mine that they think I should go after. I have been friends with these people for YEARS! It's not going to happen. 

So what is a girl to do to get her parents off her back? 

I am a follower...

So I have decided that I should be just like everyone else and start a blog. Unlike everyone else's blog mine is about nothing in particular. I'm not a newlywed - not even close to marriage for that matter. I am also not a new mom, but I am sure that you figured that one out. ;-) I am just a 26 year old trying to figure out what I am doing with my life. 

So I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. I am working at a special ed school for autistic kids. I absolutely LOVE my job. I work with some of the best ladies in the world!! And the kids are pretty cute as well. I have an amazing family ( I know that everyone says this but mine is really amazing). My parents have been married for 30 years and haven shown me what love really is. I have two younger sisters. Erin is 24 and Jacquie is 17. They are two of the best sisters anyone could ever ask for. We always have a great time together. I also have a really cute Jack Russell Terrier named Reily. My friends are best. I don't get to see all of them as much as I would like to because they are all over the world! But when we do get together we have a really great time. 

A few of my loves in life:

• SHOES - I have an obsession with shoes - its not good :-)
  
• Getting my nails done
• Margaritas
• The Biggest Loser, Law and Order, ER and NCIS
• Baking
• Cooking
• Laughing and making other people laugh
• The spring and summer
• Chocolate - dark, milk, white it doesn't matter I love it all!

Well I guess that is all for now, but don't worry I will be back to tell you

more about me later!

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