What I'm Loving Wednesday

Taylor Swift: Red
Okay, I know. So not country and totally pop. But, if you've read my previous blogs, you know I live in Butterfly Rainbow Land. So, with that being known, you would have had to guess I was going to buy this album on the day it releases (on my phone on the way to work Monday morning). I've been listening to it since and have a few favorites already. My most favorite is the one here. Listen while you read the rest of the blog!

Committed Middle School Cheerleaders
Well, just like in high school, cheerleaders can never get the gym to practice, so we are forced into morning practices. I HATE waking up so early, but I'm always so proud of my girls by the end of practice. (and honestly, happy to get to do other things after school ends!) Middle school girls usually have no cheer skills - which was the case with my girls, but we've been practicing for about three weeks now and they're making so much progress! I have 12 girls and we just nailed 3 preps with each one cradling out of them - all in time to a floor cheer. SUCCESS! (Video/pics to come!)

An amazing team of teachers at my side

This is NOT the teacher's lounge.....

I really can't express enough how awesome the people I directly work with are. They are strict, but have fun with kids. They are clear about their expectations. They follow through with rewards and consequences. They take initiative to get stuff done for our team. They make power points to share that have awesome animations. And....we eat lunch together every day and have a hilarious time in the lounge. Even though some aspects of our school have changed, it's all good because my team rocks.

Carving pumpkins with my love
Alright well even though we live in the city, there's still plenty of places to get a pumpkin....you know, Walgreens, Jewel....the car wash/auto repair shop turned pumpkin patch in Wrigley? Hektor and I picked up some pumpkins on Sunday and the carving tools and went to town. This is the best pumpkin I ever carved (I'm pretty impatient) and Hektor's turned out even better. (His pattern was a 4 on the difficulty scale!) Good times....love the fall!

speaking of fall....
I'm Loving this Season and the Beautiful Weather
It was almost 80 degrees today - so beautiful! I wish I had gotten out of work prior to 5:00, but that's okay. So, in addition to the great temperature, the leaves have changed color and it smells so good outside. Love the leaves crunching under my feet and seeing kids in my friends' facebook pictures playing in their backyards.

and lastly...
College Football

I'm going to tell you a secret. I didn't really start to care so much about college football until I moved to Chicago, and really until I found the Alumni Association for ASU. (Don't judge me.) The thing is, I've met some great new friends watching games at Cubby and it's because of college football that I met Hektor. (Awwhhhh!) So, you can see where it has all started. But now...now I have it out for the Ducks. You see, Briese is always talking stuff about ASU and we never get to win against Oregon, so now I'm crossing my fingers that Oregon ends up in a game with the Florida Gators (Hektor's alma mater) and gets chomped. We'll get you one day, Oregon.....but until then, I'll listen to briese post "OOOOOOOOO" all over all my ASU pictures....


Have a good week friends!

Nashville

Hektor and I took a road trip last weekend to Nashville to see the Gators play at Vanderbilt. Super fun time....here's the top 5!

5 - Catching up with (Hektor's) long lost friends


We were invited to stay with one of Hektor's friends from Florida....Ken and Liz. Hektor hadn't seen him in ages or met his kids yet! Here we are with twins Will and Kate and big sister Caroline. Super cute kids, and such great friends to let us bum a room for the weekend!

4 - Downtown Nashville

We were hoping to make it to the bars after the game on Saturday, but it didn't happen after hours of tailgating and then watching the game. But....it was pretty sweet. Even at noon on Sunday, there was tons of live music - all country, my fave! Best was when these two were playing Pontoon by Little Big Town. Brought back memories from the lake house last summer.

3 - Meeting more of Hektor's Florida friends

Hektor had no idea that these friends were coming up from Atlanta and Jacksonville, so it was a huge surprise when he realized it on the drive down. Great to hear stories from college from a whole new group of friends!

2 - Gator Traditions

So after the game (Gators won!) all of the football team came over by the band and cheerleaders for....a school song I think? Anyways, it was pretty awesome. The Florida alum asked me if I liked my first game and I said, "Yeah, you've got some great traditions at your school," to which Hektor replied..."Yeah, like winning!"

1 - Hanging out with one of my favorites

So 7 hours down to Nashville, a whole day together tailgating, and 7 hours back on Sunday. All that being said, we did pretty good and didn't really get on each other's nerves until the last hour or so. Either way, there's no one else I'd rather hang out with for that much time. Thanks for taking me to a Gator game, Dud!

and one of the not-so-cool things we did on the trip....
ate at Fazoli's.

Remember Fazoli's? Seemed like a good idea at the time. Reminded me of all the times I went with Holls in high school. Well, I think it's best left in our past. It was alright, but I will definitely be okay not going there for another decade!

What I'm looking forward to now....
An ASU win tomorrow over Oregon that will not only be awesome for the Sun Devils, but keep the Gators in that second place rank on the BCS poll!