i'm moving!

Ok, not really...but kinda. I think I'm done using blogspot as my blogger, and I've moved to wordpress. You might be wondering why? Well, I'm finding it difficult to post pictures into my blog the way I want to here. I know it's dumb, but it's my reason. In any case, please be sure you follow me to my new blogging home!

It's finally fall!

Maybe it's the time change, but I keep getting up at the crack of dawn on the weekends! I find this hilarious since I have to force myself out of bed during the week, but I pop right up at 6am on Saturday. Ugh!

I AM quite excited that fall has decided to grace us with it's presence. I am loving the colors right now, not to mention the fact that I can wear jeans and sweaters now. Now if I could just get my early rising toosh to get out the door for that run...

Happy Saturday!!

pockets are amazing!

I was randomly thinking of how much I am totally digging dresses and skirts with pockets. I love the look of it! I feel like the pockets totally give off a casual vibe, and it's totally adorable. And then I thought, wouldn't it have been cool if my wedding dress had a pocket?? I can totally remember wishing I had my chapstick with me so many times on my wedding night, and that problem would have been solved if only I had a pocket!! So I googled it. And low and behold...wedding dresses with pockets!! GENIOUS!!


If I could have another dress, it would be this one (ok, it was really one of the first pics I found, but I fell in love). Not that I could afford this one with a price tag of $2500, but how cute are those pockets?? Plus, it totally reminds me of the $500 dress I wore on my special day, minus the pockets. :)
Oh, to be a bride again!! Such a fun experience!! I truly loved every minute of it...well, maybe every one except for paying for everything. :P

it never fails

Every time I try and take out my headphones, they become a ratty, knotted mess! Lately I've been trying to tie them up all nice and neat, but this morning before I headed out the door for a run, it took me 3 minutes to untie and un-knot them! Is there a secret that I don't know about?? If you have any idea, please share....because I'm about to throw my headphones out the window!!

Moving on...

I feel like I've hit a wall in my training. Basically, I don't want to walk/run more than 5 miles. I can do up to 5...but I think I've become a little lazy. It happens to all of us, right?? I have Disneyland coming up in about a month ( I think I'm more excited about the trip than the race) and I neeeeeeeed to get my booty in gear!! I've been averaging 15-18 miles a week, which is okay, but by now I should be doing more like 20ish. I've even been walking and running more often (5-6 days/week rather than 3-4), but I keep doing baby walks and runs (3-5 miles). Eh, it's better than nothing, right??

Next week I'll be better. :)

Today's workout: 3.4 miles
Yesterday's workout: 9.5 miles (thanks to my awesome walking pal!)

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm headed out camping, yet again. LOVE summer!

everyone has that part

of their body that they can never be satisfied with. For me, it's my thighs. I'm a petite person all over, but I've always felt self conscious about my thighs (while everyone else around me will continue to tell me I'm insane!). Anyway, I came across this ad today and I know Nike came out with these a LONG time ago, but I loved it nonetheless.The image may be too small to read, so here's the link to this ad as well as a few others that pinpoint areas of the body. Gotta love Nike!

my fourth weekend

Celebrating the fourth of July, that is!! It's been a great weekend full of friends, family, and fun. Oh, and the last "f" word...FOOD! Man, I ate A LOT of that!

Hubband and I began the weekend with a trip to the city and a lovely show...
This was the second time Hubband and I have seen this show; but the first time was MUCH better. As much as I adore the story behind Wicked, the cast the second time around was just not as good as the first. And Teal Wicks was not playing in this show(she is AMAZINGLY talented, and from Sacramento!), which was unfortunate, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. If you've never seen the show, you MUST. Hubband loves it almost as much as I do. We surprised my friend, Karie, this night with tickets to the show and a visit from the Tsukamoto's....& she loved it! Surprises are so fun!
Friday night was, again, a night of surprises. We surprised Karie, yet again, with a sushi dinner with friends and her mommy. The boyfriend totally knows how to pull one over on her! Oh yea, and all these surprises were in honor of her birthday!! She felt quite loved, which means our mission was a success!
Don't mind the huge knife in her hands...I swear she's loveable! LOL!

I began my holiday weekend with a local 5k, the Run for Independence. All the proceeds to this race benefits the Elk Grove Food Bank, and Karie's mom helps run the event. Earlier this year I told myself that I wanted to run an entire 5k without stopping. I was supposed to do that when I did the Nike 5k, but my hip was bugging me from an earlier running injury. So I decided to try and run this one. I didn't want to force myself to do it because I didn't want to risk getting injured again, but a high school friend of mine met up with me and we ran it together! It made the race go by so much faster, and we talked the whole time. In the end, I ran the entire thing without walking once, and I finished my 3.1 miles in 37 minutes. Pretty good in my book!!

After the race, Hubband and I finally saw Toy Story 3 in 3-d.
I made the hubband watch the 2nd one last week so he would be ready for this one. As all the reviews stated, it was a great movie!! I totally cried at the end (yes, I'm one of THOSE people), but so worth it! You must check this movie out!

On the fourth, hubband and I slept in till almost 10 and then finally rolled outta bed. I made some yummy funfetti cupcakes and he finished putting together his famous bean dip, then we headed over the the in-laws for some pool and family time. All of hubbands cousins came over and brought their little ones, so there was a lot of fun to be had!

Zeke had a ton of fun with Hubband!

Zeke says, "I'm a tractor!! I'll pull you!"

Here's the cutie pie, Alaina, chewing her adorable fingers (before this pic, she was chewing on MY adorable fingers!)and we're spent! This is just how we roll.

How was your holiday weekend?? Hope you all enjoyed with family and friends as much as I did! Don't you just LOVE summer?? :)

i've been bitten.

by the baby bug! It's seriously on my mind all the time, and I feel like I'm close to ready for this new adventure.

Hubs and I have talked at length about starting to try for a little bean, but I have my worries. We're at a very good place in our lives; we own our home, have steady jobs (for the moment), and we're comfortable financially. Ideally, we planned to start trying late this summer, but I have 2 half marathons coming up this fall (September and October). I'm afraid that if I get pregnant before the races, I won't be able to complete them. So this has made me decide to wait a little longer. Tim and I also have a cruise scheduled for before the holidays, and I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to get on a ship with morning sickness either.

I know that there's never going to be a "perfect" time to have a child, and I know it's not something I can plan. I have sooo many doubts on whether or not I am truly ready. I feel almost selfish for thinking of myself so much...but I guess I just want to make sure I'm truly ready.

To any mommies out there: when did you realize you were ready for a little bean??

for trisha

As I mentioned before, I'm run/walking the Nike Women's Half Marathon this October in San Fran. It's going to be a great race, and I'm so excited to be doing it with my awesome walking and teaching friend! I've decided to begin raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for this event in honor of my sister-in-law, Trisha.

She passed away in May 2005 from AML (acute myeloid leukemia. Because of this, anything to help LLS is ok in my book. I'm running this race for her this year...and I'm going to give it my all. :) Check out my fundraising page!!

running for a cause, just because

Yesterday, a few of my teacher friends and I did a 5k race benefiting the local WEAVE organization. It was for a great cause and we all had a great time!! This was supposed to be the race where I ran the entire thing, but with my hip (IT band) outta whack for the last month, I was only able to run 2 miles of the 3.1. I still finished at 40 minutes, which is what I hoped for. Yay for meeting goals!!

Here are a few pics of the girls and me. I think we may have had more fun taking all these pics than we did running the race! LOL

We all finished with great times this day...go us!

My favorite picture of the day...man, look how high I jumped!

Because

He's just so cute. I heart him!

For Good

Ok, not really...but I am WICKED in LOVE with this musical!! (not the proper use of the word, but oh well!) If you haven't seen it, you are seriously missing out. I'm a huge musical theater fan, and Tim and I went last fall to see this show when it was in SF. AMAZING. PERIOD.

I have the soundtrack in my car at all times, and lately, I've been stuck on one song. Maybe it's because it's nearing the end of the school year and I'm getting all sentimental, but I love this song and all it's meaning.

Teaching Moment Tuesday: Monkey See, Monkey Do!

I'm not a parent yet, but I like to think that the children who come into my classroom are my "children". I know that my job is the teach them how to read, write, and do math, but I try and model respectable behavior and character traits also. I know this is something that EVERY mother says, but it's seriously amazing how much these kids pick up from just observation!!

It's coming close to the end of the year, and this is always the time when my kiddos go a little wild. This year, I have a great groups of kids, but even so, there have been a few more arguments, fights, and a LOT of tattling. It gets me crazy when I have to deal with tattling, and I'm sure a lost my cool a few times last week in the midst of recess drama. So today, I decided to lay low.

I was Miss Mellow-head today, making sure to keep my voice low and calm and not make a big deal out of things. My kids have become a bit more bossy lately, so today I've been reminding to not do so by saying, "kind words, kind voice." I can't stand when they argue with each other and say things in a rude manner!

So my Audrey was in charge of calendar jobs today; and man, she's a trip! But that's a whole different story. Anyway, she was going through all the calendar activities: singing the days of the week and months of the year, etc, and when she got to the place value chart, she chose a friend to help her. When Karla came up to write on the board, she made a mistake. Adam (who has been crazy bossy lately!) began yelling, "That is NOT right!! You don't know what you're doing!" And before I could even open my mouth, Audrey bends down right in front of Adam and very calmly says, "Adam, remember, kind words and kind voices!"

Oh how I love little ones!!

clouds do not equal summer

Hey all!
I've been MIA lately...have you missed me?? ;) I haven't had too much to blog about, or maybe it's because I haven't had much time to blog! I guess life has been a bit busy lately, not exciting, just busy.

I'm totally counting down the days till the end of the year...15.5!!! Thank goodness. This week will consist of compiling grades and assessing my kiddos. I loathe report cards...truly. But, it must be done! And with the end of the year comes my favorite part...cleaning! No, I'm not being sarcastic. I love purging and tossing unnecessary things at the end of the year!!

I've also been busy with a home project that's has gotten bigger than I expected. I have committed to painting...all the baseboards, trim, and doors in my home. Crazy, right?? All the indoor trim looked fine, but it was painted a cream color that made it look old. So I decided that a crisp, new white would look great. And it does! But let me tell you, it's been quite the project. I think I've been doing well though, taking it slow and going room by room. It took me a week to do the master bath and part of the bedroom (I purposely skipped the baseboards that were behind big furniture pieces, to be done at a later time), the hallway, and 2 doors and 2 closet doors. I still have a LONG way to go, but it looks great! I'll post pics when I can. :)

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!! I loved having the extra day of to catch up on chores and sleep. But wasn't the weather kinds yucky today?? Warm and cloudy...so not summer weather. I wish Sacramento weather would make up it's mind already. Didn't you get the memo??It's June tomorrow...I need SUN!!

Here's to a great, short week!!

oh thank heaven!

My ugly PINK SLIP got rescinded today!!

WAH-freakin-HOO!!! I seriously screamed when my principal came in to tell me the good news.

So, I get to teach for another year. Thank God for that!
Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes, friends. Love you all, because it worked!!
:)

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the day when we recognize all our amazing mothers (which, in my opinion, really should be done EVERYDAY!). So here's to all you mommies out there: I hope you have an amazing mother's day! Sit back and relax, enjoy a day with your wonderful families, and know that you are beautiful inside and out. Happy day to all my mommy friends out there.

And to my own mother (even though she totally doesn't get on a computer to read this) you are the most amazing woman I know, and I am so blessed to have been raised by you.
Thank you for teaching me to be the strong woman that I've become. Thank you for instilling in me that education, above all else, is the most important. Thank you for allowing me to make mistakes, even when it brought tears to your eyes and tugs at your heart. Thank you for showing me that family will ALWAYS be there to pick you up if you fall. I LOVE YOU!! And I cannot wait to be a mommy someday so I can teach my child everything you've taught me.

Have a great Mother's day, friends!!

Dear Santa....in April.

Dear Santa,

I know it's SUPER early...but maybe you could chat with the birthday and anniversary fairy (aka: hubby!) and see if you can work something out. I promise to be SUPER good this year!!

After attending the Health Expo in Monterey this weekend, I got to check out some merchandise that I would LOVE to have, so I'm making a list so that I don't forget!!

1. A SweatyBand: These headbands are supposed to be fantastic at staying in place! They have a velvet lining on the back that hold it down better than the sports bands I have purchased at Target. I tried one on at the expo, and I loved it! But they didn't have the best selection of patterns, so I check out the website. Viola! Patterns galore!!

I really want a red and white polka dotted one...specifically to wear when I do Disneyland in September. Totally Minnie, right?!?

2. The Stick: My BFF bought one of these while at the expo, and it absolutely ROCKS!! It is great for relieving and massaging sore muscles. You run it right over your legs or back, and the rolling beads help to work it out. I've been using a tennis ball to do the same thing for my calfs, but the stick is way better for places like your quads.
3. A Handheld Water Bottle: Since I've started running, I think having a handheld bottle might be better than running with my waist pack. Although I'm comfortable with it, it's not necessary to have the bulky pack when I'm running short distances. I do, however, need water and my iPhone (because I track my runs with RunKeeper). This one seems to have a pocket big enough for my phone, but it's out of stock at Nike right now. Oh bummer.

4. A fun tank: You seriously have to check this site out for some awesome quotes on tanks!! This one is my favorite. But there's also another one that mentions Facebook as a motivation...so funny!!

5. A running skirt: because shorts ride up!! having the skirt (with shorts underneath) help alleviate the awkwardness of shorts up your crack. Love this!!
Thank you in advance, Santa (and hubby)!

Lots of love,

Big Sur Completed!

I had a fantastic weekend in Monterey! It was definitely what I needed after a stressful week; I haven't laughed like that in so long! I love my girls to pieces, and I thank my lucky stars that I have found people like them to lean on.

Race day was great!! The weather was beautiful and the gorgeous views got us through our 10.6 miles. The hills actually weren't as bad as I had thought; I made it through!! I think all the training I have been doing really paid off because I'm not that sore. Overall, it was a great weekend, and I'm really looking forward to my next race: 5K in June...and I'm determined to RUN the entire way!!

Here are some pics documenting our race day!

before the race begin...it was frreeeezing!

look at that gorgeous view!

I'm thinking that this needs to be an ANNUAL girls trip...anyone else interested? ;)