In My Happy Place

I would like to start off by saying this has been a pretty darn good week so far, all in all. I don't want to talk about school in this post, lest I get off the "pretty darn good" topic. All I will add about school to my post is that it was a 4-day week, meaning I'm off today, meaning that makes me very happy.

So what else is good? Well, Pioneer Woman, for one. I had heard random Facebook rumblings about my fellow friends trying out recipes and such, and I finally got curious enough to say, "What IS this Pioneer Woman everyone is talking about?" I googled it, and came upon this: www.thepioneerwoman.com. Oh. My. Goodness. This is a mecca for people who like to cook delicious, non-weird things. You may not know this about me, but I like to cook delicious, non-weird things! What a coincidence. I'm not going to lie to you and say her dishes are low-fat or necessarily healthy, but they sure are tasty. I made her homemade chicken and noodles last night, and I must say that both Melissa and boyfriend had happy, full tummies by the end of the meal. Looking forward to trying more recipes soon, as I bookmarked like 1000 of them the other night. Now if only someone wanted to be rich and buy me a bad-a KitchenAid mixer, that would really help me do some of the baking stuff. K thanks.

Continuing with the cooking theme... During the week I don't really have too much time/energy, so not much actual cooking gets done. So when I realized that I had a 3-day weekend this week and Tracy is off work for 2 days in a row (for the first time in a couple months!), I hit up the grocery store for some real food. No more bagged meals and pizza rolls for us, my friends. I got the stuff to make the chicken and noodles, but also got ingredients to make french toast (with cinnamon and vanilla and nutmeg...yummy), plus pot roast with red potatoes and carrots.... Aaaaahhhh it's going to be a good weekend. Be jealous you can't smell the wonderful smells that will be going down in my kitchen in the next few days.

There's a possible rumor going around via Tracy that we might consider going to Daytona Beach tomorrow on his first day off. Well that would be just swell, because it's in the 80s here, and I sure do like me some beach and adventure. Cross your fingers that this happens. If it doesn't, it's really no skin off my teeth either, because I also love me some laziness and football, but whatever.

We have no Halloween plans, which is plenty okay with me. Tracy and I both really kind of dislike Halloween, at least in terms of being adults and dressing up. We are excited about some cute little trick-or-treaters though! That should be fun.

When you leave out the school part, life in Florida is really quite grand. If I could just cook, play at the beach with Tracy, and relax, I just might die of happiness. Have a wonderful last weekend of October, and Happy Halloween!

Long Time No Blog

Oh jeez, where to start? It's been about two weeks since I've blogged, and lots has happened. I guess I'm gonna have to go with the old standby of a bulleted list to cover everything...

• I went to Oklahoma! It was awesome, but the visit felt so short. I don't even want to confess to you how much I ate in those few days, but it was a lot. Ok ok, so I had Freebirds, Jason's Deli, Taco Bueno, Uptown Subs (Enid), and Olive Garden. My belly was SO happy! Other happenings in Oklahoma included getting that pesky OPTE test out of the way, going on 6-mile walks with the parentals, getting new running shoes, and watching OU kick the poo out of Iowa State in the first shut-out of the season.
• Middle school has begun again for me, my friends. Only this is middle school like I never experienced. There are over 1000 kids and like 6 or 7 buildings at this middle school (as compared to about 200 kids and one hallway at my middle school). A few of the interesting situations I've encountered--- students kicking out the boards on a ramp to the portable (right in front of me, I might add), suspensions for everything from soliciting sex in the hallways to holding blades to people's wrists to trying to sell rock salt as cocaine, etc., enough wacko slang to make me feel decades older than these kids, and so many bad home situations it's not even funny. We're not in Norman anymore, Toto. It would be an understatement to say that this school is ROUGH. I've never experienced anything like this in my life, and Capitol Hill Elementary in OKC didn't hold a candle to this. Every day is interesting, however, and I do not sit down from the time I get there till the time I leave.
• My cooperating teacher is really nice. We even look a little alike, prompting at least one or two "Are you sisters?" comments a day. She's a great teacher, and I can tell she really cares. The only downside in all of this is that school is literally her life. Somehow she has gotten it into her head that the later she stays at school, the better she is as a teacher. Long after all the teachers have gone home, my teacher stays at school. On the nights that she doesn't have to go tutor at UF, she stays till 9 or 10 at night, no exaggeration. Then she's back at 8 the next morning. Because I have to do as the cooperating teacher does in student teaching, I've been staying till around 6 each night, doing nothing in particular. I understand being dedicated to your job, but I personally feel that this is a little obsessive. At some point you gotta go home, say hi to the guy you're with (she's engaged and put off having a fall wedding because she was too busy with school.... for real), and just not think about teaching for a few hours a day. There's more to life than work, and I think it takes a healthy balance for you to be good at anything, professional or personal.
• Speaking of work, my tutoring job is no more, unfortunately. I discovered that they were being paid MUCH more in federal funding than what I saw for tutoring (as in, they were getting 70% of what I made every hour), and they also wanted me to drive around to several surrounding towns for very little money and no gas compensation.... Quite frankly, I could not afford this job. I lost money doing it, and I've got to find something else. I'm hoping I can find a place that will let me work exclusively on the weekends, due to the fact that I now don't get done with student teaching until after 6 p.m.
• On a more positive note, other areas of life are going well. My GRE has been scheduled for December 10, and I'm still studying when I can find the time and energy.
• Tracy and I are commiserating over our utter lack of time off work, as the hospital makes him work some pretty bozo hours. He's working a 24-hour shift today (well, and tomorrow technically; he gets off at 6 a.m.), so I'll be bringing food up to the hospital for him this evening. 24-hour shift nights are our date nights! Haha, I bring a bag of Chick-Fil-A or Chipotle, we sit around in the little lounge area and eat and chat for a few minutes, and then he's back to work with his zillions of pagers. It does break up the looooong shifts though and lets us at least talk face-to-face instead of by text.
• Oh! And I may be joining something called the Junior Medical Guild, which is basically a social club for people who are girlfriends/wives of residents here. I guess a lot of people have my problem of moving to the area and not knowing anyone, so they have a little club thing that sends out invites to dinner, a book club, girls night, all kinds of stuff. I'm really excited about the opportunity to meet other people who are new to the area and want to check stuff out. I think that's all the updates I have now-- I'll try to get back on track with updating on at least a weekly basis so that I sort of remember the stuff that's happened. My brain is like spaghetti after these past two weeks. Enjoy your weekend, and BOOMER SOONER!

Been There, Done That, Got the Shirt to Prove It

Sooo I want to enter a 5k. This has been a goal of mine for awhile now, and while a small goal to all my marathon friends, it's plenty of running for me. I've been consistently running for about a month and a half now (minus a few days here and a few days there for my foot issues), and I'm getting close to where I would feel comfortable running that distance in a race. The beautiful thing about Florida is that I can run this race in November and it won't be all that cold! I need to wait till late October or early November so I have time to get used to new running shoes, which I'll finally be purchasing next week, as well as build up some endurance.

This may sound silly, but the true reason I want to run a 5k is for the shirt haha. Don't get me wrong; it has been motivating for me to have a goal to work toward, and I am challenged every run when I think about racing 3.1 miles. I haven't raced since high school, and the thought of racing now motivates me to work hard in my runs to get better. But really, some 5ks have super cool shirts! I'm sure greater people would run for a cause close to their hearts, or to be a healthier person, or to set a personal record. No, I'd like the shirt, please. There aren't many options here in Gainesville in the next few months, so I'm branching out a little and thinking about traveling somewhere fairly close to run. I think it would be a good way to see some of Florida and entertain myself on the weekends while Tracy is busy working. There are runs coming up in Jacksonville, Melbourne, and St. Augustine (my personal favorite place in Florida so far), and none of them are too far away.

In other news, I fly to Oklahoma in less than 8 days!!! Can't wait can't wait can't wait. I'm going to eat about 8000 meals in the four days that I'm there to make up for all the restaurants I miss, enjoy the cool weather, see my family, and watch some OU football in a land where nobody cares about the Gators. Pretty sure no one in the whole world is more excited than I am about next week.

Finally, I have only 2 days left of this placement! While I'm ready to move on, I will miss the kiddos. Today they told me that I need to marry Tim Tebow so that I can stay at their school (1. Yuck, 2. Not sure how that would keep me at the school). When I told them that I don't know Tebow, they promptly suggested that I become a cheerleader so I can meet him. I asked, "What if I already have a boyfriend?" and one of my students informed me that he would punch my boyfriend in the face. Look out, Tracy. You have an angry 8-year-old on your trail.

Life continues to go well, partially because of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Yeah, I had never tried one before last week, but I finally caved after hearing so many rave reviews. It WAS that good, and I'm now patiently waiting till Friday so that I can celebrate my last day of this placement with some coffee. Hope everyone's week is going splendidly and that you're all able to enjoy the amazing weather!

First Day of My Life

Life is just pretty darn good right now. I've had an amazing weekend, filled with football domination (which I got to watch with Tracy! A whole day of laziness together. Awesome), cooler weather, a really good run, and very little school-related stuff to do. I feel so much more refreshed; weekends make me a much more pleasant person to be around.

The only thing I really want to share today is an excellent song/video that most of you have probably heard, but it's a good one, so here you go...

First Day of My Life- Bright Eyes

Enjoy!