Creating Yourself

When you're little, you watch Disney movies and picture your life in a way that resembles those movies. You know, the beautiful prince swoops in and well, there you have it. You fall in love in college, get married right after, and then live happily ever after in a house with a puppy and a picket fence.


Some people live this. I, did not.

Thankfully in my 20's, I read a little book called He's Just Not That Into You. I swear, I wish I would have read that book YEARS before I finally did. It's been my mantra, as sucky as it is, ever since.

That book helped me see that most guys weren't into me. (And now, finally, I'm totally okay with that.) I remember sitting at a bar, drunk with Katie and Jamie, saying, "No, Katie! He's coming back! He just went to a get a drink!" Luckily Katie had read the book too, and dragged me out of that bar before I made a bigger ass out of myself.

Anyways....back to the point...

So I'm not exactly where I thought I would be. You know, at 31 I was thinking I'd be married and have a house by now. But, that's okay.

I did get some stuff done in the past 10 years. Here's a few of them that I'm most thankful for....

I've racked up a list of amazing friends who are like family I got to hand select. I love all of these girls so much, and can't wait for the epic day when we're all in the same room together!

Heather, Jamie, Holls....circa 1999ish
Holls, remember when we used to wear matching shirts? : )

Katie & Holls....NYC Trip

Anita and I creating fun on an ordinary Saturday

Liz in 2011 at EX Promotion

Another bonus of skipping the get-married-right-out-of-college is a great career. You can't put a price tag on the amazing relationships and experiences I've come to have because of a career in education. (Well, you can. 2 degrees = $40K. Waiting to win the lotto to pay that off!)

Best boss....no contest : )

Awesome kiddos!

Donna and Petie

Can't complain when work = bowling!

Over the past 10 years, not only have I been able to work with amazing people, but I've also come to know myself and what I want....and what I don't want. I've got to live alone and be okay with time to myself. Sure, there's been days (weeks and months even) when I wasn't sure I made the right decisions and was pretty lonely, but it all led me to where I am now. And where is that? 

Moving. Again.

So as I go through all my stuff, once again, and say prayers that one day I figure out where i'm going to plant roots, I am going to remind myself that all of this stuff....this whole journey....happened for a reason and led me to this new place (back to Bucktown!) for some reason maybe I can't even understand yet.

So, to any of my friends out there who may be feeling the, "I'm ___ years old and still single" thing and dwelling on it (like I did for so long....), I say, don't sweat it. Instead, look at all that you got to do because you didn't get hitched right away. I mean, we're going to live to be, what....90 or 100 if we're lucky? There are so many years ahead of us for all that!

Breaking Rules

Now that it's summer and I have waaaay more time to myself, I've been working on my blogging. Part of that work is finding great blogs to follow. I obviously love reading my friends' blogs, but I also enjoy blogs about teaching and health and fitness. Today I found AM Literacy Learning Log and a great post about the kinds of rules to break for kids.




How often is it that expectations are imposed on teachers by local, state, or federal administration that impede our teaching? Thanks to an amazing program at Arizona State University, I know what I stand for as far as my instruction goes. I hope that anyone who walks into my classroom will know what this is by looking around and talking to me.

Now, not to be some kind of rebel or anything, but there are some things I stand for, and I will not budge on. What rules will I break for kids? Here's a few....

• I'll plan my instruction around standards. I'm using the basal readers when it fits my long term plan. Not every day.
• My kids will read their Just Right books with a pen and composition notebook, even though they have a MacBook. I get distracted with the Internet, and I'm 31! Can you imagine a 7th grader's attention span?
• I'm not going to overkill my instruction with testing. When I need it as a means to collect data on student progress, yes.  Testing Is Not Teaching 

• I will trade in all the cutesy posters from the teacher store for anchor charts I make with my students. 
• I'm not doing AR. Kids want to read a book that doesn't have a quiz? Go ahead. Let's do Reader's Workshop instead.
• I will give up one or two class periods a week for sustained silent reading. How can I expect students to make reading a priority if I don't show them I will?

Maybe there is more than this to come, but for now, that's all I have. I am a teacher and I work for my students.

What do you stand for?

Permission to...

My blogging mentor is this girl --------------------------------------------->

and I find that since she is my mentor and my BFF, I can copy her blog ideas and use them on mine. Not only will my followers like something different, her blog will get more traffic, cause you will WANT to read and follow her. She's hilarious and sarcastic, and you should totally go read her blog.

Now that I have that all out of the way, here's my first edition of Permission To blogs - some of the things I give myself permission to do, even though they may not be cool. Let me know what you think about the concept!

Permission to live in "Butterfly Rainbow Land"

You know when you have best friends and they know everything about you? Well it all started last week when I posted a pic from Draw Something on my facebook that I couldn't figure out. Of course, someone got it right away (it was John Lennon) but then all of the best friends got on the bandwagon saying how I don't know anything that isn't Mariah, Britney, Train, or Taylor Swift.

Maybe they're right, but I don't care. I LOVE Butterfly Rainbow Land!

Permission to walk the whole run I was planning on doing

Day two of summer break and I got up and did the running thing first thing. I was actually laying in bed (at 9am still!) and trying to talk myself out of going, but I wouldn't get out of bed until I was ready to put on the running clothes. So I did, and went outside right away, and ran a little, but then my mom called. So I just figured that I'd keep going and just walk instead and talk on the phone to my momma. Doesn't Dr. Oz say that walking is just as good? Oh well, I don't care. I had an hour walk today and talked on the phone and listened to iheartradio. Good enough for me! Now, if I only had a Golden Doodle to go with me, the walk would be perfect!

CUTEST DOG EVER!

Permission to confront you if you are mean or piss me off

You know, I used to be super passive, and maybe even a little passive aggressive. But one of the best things I learned from my friendship with Katie is that it's okay to bring things that bother us up. I love Katie because she will always tell you when you make her mad, but then it's like it never even happened. What I hate is having a friend unleash a seven year grudge list - that's not cool at all. This has happened to me a couple times and I didn't even REMEMBER half of the stuff that was brought up. I will not hold a grudge on you, but I will tell you if you make me mad. But then I'll be over it. Katie, thank you for making me more assertive! : )

Permission to try and find people in Chicago to love country as much as me, even though I'm having horrible luck thus far

Do you love country music? I need some friends who want to go to concerts here for country music. I asked Hektor if he'd do the Country MegaTicket (four concerts for $115) and he said....um, I might go to ONE with you. Courtney asked me if I wanted to go see a bunch of bands at Lalapalozza I've never heard of, and I siad, "Yeah! Will you go to a country concert with me?" That was a big no. So who out there like country? Let me know!

Just downloaded Eli Young Band's album and it's great. Current favorite song: On My Way....and if you want a great radio station for country music, I've been listening to WSIX in Nashville via the iheartradio app for weeks. Check it out!

Permission to be messy, but not dirty

If you saw my apartment right now, you may not like what you see. I've got papers and mail laying all over and some dishes in the sink and some laundry on the floor in my bedroom. My makeup is all over the bathroom and I need to unpack a bag of stuff I had at Hektor's this weekend. All that being said, I'm not dirty - there's a difference here. There's no food crusting on plates in my sink and even though there's some hair on the floor in my bathroom, it's pretty clean otherwise. I can't help it. I'm just a little messy but it's clean in this apartment! (Don't worry mom - it will be spick and span AND I'll put everything away before you come!)

Loving summer break. Running Walking and writing every day. I'm already working on blog ideas for tomorrow!

Until then......

Savor the moments....

If this weekend is any indication of how the summer will play out....then I won't be disappointed!

The color run was AMAZING! You definitely don't even need to be a runner to do it. Pretty much everyone can go and it's a good time. I ran most of it, but walked a little. I am attributing that to the six drinks I had at the Sox game Friday night, but either way.

Speaking of the Sox game, that was pretty awesome! A girl from work had tickets and when we got to the game, we found out they were in the third row! Such a fun time with friends from work. Good to hang out with some people I don't see that often!

And to end it all, we spent two days at the Sausage Fest in Wrigley. (Go ahead with your jokes!) Lots of bands, lots of food, and fun with friends.

And....best of all, it's Monday. I'm not at work. I've been up since 7, have done two loads of laundry, went for a 2 mile run, and now I'm parked on the couch watching Regis and Kelly with a cup of coffee. Hello summer vacation!