Safe. Pure. Beneficial.

A few months ago, I met an awesome new friend, Mary. She teaches at one of the middle schools in my district and came to see me for some teacher-related business. Shortly thereafter, we became facebook friends. I had no idea what Arbonne was, but then I won a lipstick around Valentines day from her. And then, she invited me to come over and hear more about these products.

Arbonne is a health and wellness company from Switzerland who specializes in clean products. The company adheres to Europe's standards for ingredients, which eliminates 1200 of them. In the USA, only 10 of those ingredients are banned. (!!!) For me, it was no brainer... If I am going to try and eat clean, and eliminate GMOs and other chemicals from my food, why was I then going to put lotion all over my skin (our biggest organ) that could be making me sick?

By the time Mary and I crossed paths, I was already using some lotion that was handmade by one of my best friends, and wondering when I would have time to make more so I can keep my beauty regime clean. So, coming to know Arbonne happened for me at just the right time.

Safe, pure, beneficial products aside, there are a few other reasons why I just love this. First, launching a company with Arbonne will put me in new circles of people doing new kinds of work. I love teaching, but it's exhausting, and the last thing I want to do over summer break is more of it. So, I am hopeful that this new opportunity will not only bring great products into my home, but also put me in touch with amazing women (& also some cool dudes?) who can be new friends!

And while I know that the compensation I bring in from Arbonne is reliant on my work, I am hoping to create something that can afford me all the things in life I'm dreaming about, and if I'm being honest, I know that teaching never could.

So cheers to you, Mary. Thank you for welcoming me into a company who makes products I want in my home, and walking beside me on a journey I can't quite even imagine yet!

how to do a breakup #likeaboss

Yes, you heard that right. Currently living the breakup world. Luckily I'm super pissed so there's way less tears than last time, but anyways it still sucks. That being said, here are some tips for getting through it.

1. Make a kick-ass breakup playlist and spin it on repeat until you can't take it anymore. Here's a few from mine:

What Goes Around - Justin Timberlake

Forget You - CeeLo Green

Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse

Irreplaceable - Beyoncé

Fireball - Pitball (ha, I just like it)

Something in the Water - Carrie Underwood

F*ck You - Lily Allen

Elastic Heart - Sia

She's so strange. Good song though.

2. Make a secret board on Pinterest and pin all kinds of breakup things. You'll most certainly come across things like this that will cheer you up:

Here's the complete buzzfeed, which is pretty amazing.

3. Go order this book and read it cover to cover so you don't let the same shit happen again.

Let his words be gospel.

4. Clean up your social media. Delete him and his family from all platforms. No contact. For realsies.

5. Call your girlfriends and go out and get blitzed. Make sure you get some hot pictures of yourself in the process, too...but you probably won't and if you end up puking on your bedroom floor instead, hey, you didn't drunk dial, so we can call that a win.

6. Do the thing you love a lot. My thing is writing, so here you go. Actually, it's quite therapeutic.

7. Remove all the things from your house that will remind you of him. Then, clean the hell out of your apartment and then go buy new stuff to make yourself feel better. So far, I've got new sheets, a new decoration for my bathroom, and a Buddha statue.

8. Workout. And then do it some more. I'll be running a 5K in no time. And eat right. Except in the event of #4, in which case you can eat some pizza and a donut from Stans, provided you have enough energy to go get one.

9. Watch season 2 of Sex and the City.

10. And when you feel like crying, look at the funny things on that Pinterest board.

Seriously.

What's your strategy?

Sunday Skinny

It's summer, friends! I'm so excited! Tomorrow is Monday and I will be sleeping in till about 8 and then sipping coffee and writing even longer. I'm so happy!

Here's the skinny on my weekend!

Piqniq
Summer officially began for me yesterday when Hektor and I went to the Piqniq concert in Tinley. Here's the lineup:

I don't really listen to this music much when I'm by myself, but with Hektor I do! The Mowgli's are my fave for sure, but the others, Offspring included, were all fun.

But even better? Ry randomly spotted Hektor and I (who originally were planning to go alone) so we had a bunch of friends to hang out with!

 Love the Panozzo's, so glad we had a whole day together in the sun!

Random side note...now I see why one of my students, Ayden, drew me like this with the sunglasses:

 Anyways, a few more pics:

Ryan apparently had too much fun - luckily Marissa was there to take care of him:

(When I say take care... I mean, hold his beer?) :-)

Super fun day! Glad I've got this guy to show me new music!

Pinterest Project
Three summers ago I made a summer Shutterfly book and I loved it. Then last summer, I went to Europe, and then came home with hundreds of pics, and so it was overwhelming to think of making the book. This year, I'm going to make it as I go. It's called "Summer Love" and it's going to feature all my faves in these sunglasses:

Here's the front cover - will have pics all with friends and family in these glasses:

My niece is the first one to come for a visit (her first visit to Chicago!!!) and get the glasses. I told my sister to ask her what color she wants. I guess this was the exchange:

Stacey: Caitlyn, Auntie's buying you these sunglasses, what color?
Caitlyn: Really, Auntie?

and when I told Katie, she said, "You're dumb, but you're cute."

Why does no one like my styles? Important note: If I tell you I'm buying these for you, just pick a color and go along with it!

Book Review

This book really pissed me off. Main character, cheating on her fiancé. (Spoiler if you're reading it!) Then come to find out at the end that the fiancé was doing the same to her. Then, he is telling her, "We're perfect for each other, we're both the same, having meaningless sex with others on the side and it's okay!"

I was just so mad that they thought this would be okay, that it underminded (is that the past tense of undermind?) monogamy. I mean, maybe we're not meant to be monogomous (research on that, anyone?) but still.... Not cool. This book was just okay, I'm actually surprised that I actually finished it, but I committed to summer reading and am also hoping to read all these before we go back to work:

I'm holding a book study on Daring Greatly over at BigTIme Literacy if you blog. It will be every Thursday in July!

What are you reading this summer?

How was your weekend? Hope it was fab!

Teacher Problems

I'm teaching a grad school class again. Definitely better the second time around! My rubrics are more clear (still not quite just right) and I already have all the presentations done from the first round, so it's much more efficient. But I still have the same old teacher problems that every other teacher has. Like grading.

I teach an eight week course. Over that time, I prepare students to write two big papers, two papers that are classic assignments for a class like mine: a case study and a thematic unit. This time, I broke the papers down into five parts each and assigned one part each week. I told my students that if they did them on time each week, they could submit them for feedback prior to getting the final grade.

Like 4 people consistently asked for feedback. #mindblown

So last Tuesday was week 7 and I'm now at home with 40 papers to grade (I've done like 15) and most of them I'm seeing for the first time. 15 minutes a paper, that's about 4 papers per hour. (Except when you regrade a paper you already graded, and you're sitting there thinking, "This sounds so familiar." Yes, #thathappened.) So I'm pretty much trapped here with all these papers and that's it. Except I also need to do laundry (but I have no quarters) and go grocery shopping.

I totally remember when I was teaching 4 sections of middle school writing and I'd have 80 five paragraph essays to do on a weekend. That's what I'm living this weekend. Luckily I 'found' time to blog about it, right?

Who else is grading their day away?

Friday Favorites

Yeah, it's Saturday, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it, right?

It has been a good week - no work, not really much to do, and now spring is in the air and summer is right around the corner. Here are a few of my favorites from the last week!

Okay well lets just start with the weather. The sun is out! Seriously it finally came out after days and days of stupid rain! Spring is here friends...I was woken by birds chirping today!

I learned to crochet this week, thanks to Laurie! As she said the other day, "Baby blanket, I'm going to make you my B@$*%!" Me too, baby blanket, me too. (Sister: Hoping to finish one for your Baby Boy!) and then I want to make this:

Let's see....what else?

Mom and Rob - thank you for our Christmas Gift! I just got awesome seats this week for two weeks from Tuesday. Two more sessions of grad school to teach and then celebrations on the 28th!

Modern Family is still hilarious. I'm currently in the middle of a very long binge watch session. Phil Dunphy - funniest character ever and here's a whole blog post all about funny shit he says. 

Oh, and here's more. You're welcome!

And the best? I won vintage scratch and sniff stickers!!!!!!!

What were you up to this week?

Ratings or Research?

I don't get it.

Last night as I was watching the coverage of the election, I saw a promo for Fox News this morning saying they were going to interview a guy who was saying that marriage is dead. Since one of my besties is a Marriage and Family Therapist, and because I'm on spring break, I thought this was something I should definitely tune in and see.

So there we were this morning, me, my laptop and coffee, and the news. I'm patiently waiting for this segment, and finally it comes on and the guy is being interviewed via Skype. As I'm listening, I'm wondering what his credentials are - oh, he's divorced and dating? Well that sounds like someone qualified to be ON THE NEWS.

Anita has her own therapy practice in Chicago and she has yet to be on the news. (I'm sure she's well on her way, but not yet!) But this guy who has no background in Marriage and Family Therapy is being interviewed.

Which got me to thinking - how concerned is the news with reporting real news and research vs. getting ratings? I mean, I tuned in for the same reason I'm sure many people did - for the shock value of the story. But then I hopped right onto Antia's facebook page to get her input:

See, I'm just so used to her preaching marriage and loving relationships and getting the knowledge we need to live those amazing relationships that I was just not feeling this guy and his blog post.

But, shout out to him for tweeting back to both Anita and I, and opening up the conversation.

If you want to read his blog, you can find it here. And, he's on twitter here.

And you definitely need to follow Anita! Here's her website, and here's her Twitter.

Go read his article. Thoughts?

another 4 years of mayor 1%

Umm... I'm sure you know. I'm not a fan of Rahm. They just called the election and he won.

Here's what's not cool about this election: The dollar has spoken. Rahm had millions and was able to control the narrative that was going on. He had the ability to post tons of attack ads on Chuy that were all over the media for the past four weeks. This is not democracy. What's it going to take to limit the donations to election campaigns? Same thing with our upcoming presidential race. How much of it is democracy and how much of it is the rich controlling our leaders to have their interests met?

Here's what is cool about what happened: Chuy Garcia, who doesn't have the financial resources that Rahm does worked so hard and garnered 46% of the vote with his limited resources. He forced our first runoff election in our city's history! He forced Rahm to get out and knock on doors and talk to people, and tone down his attitude. Hopefully, he's taught Rahm that he should listen to more people than just his friends making campaign donations. He showed all of us that grassroots organizing can be done, and we can really have an election that reflects a true voice of the people.

And, if you ask my dad, here's what he'd tell you about this election:

And so there you have it - another four years of Rahm dealing favors to his buddies...

What's your take on the runoff election?