Oh, The Places I Want To Go

If you know me at all, you were probably super nervous about how absurdly long this post might be when you read the title. I'm not really going to tell you ALL the places I want to go… because that could make up an entire blog topic, not just 1 post. Instead just some upcoming trips I'm considering. I'd love to get any thoughts you have, so chime in!

 

LA/San Diego

Technically I've been to LA and even San Diego once in college, but my priorities were a bit different back then and I'd like to go back and see something besides the inside of a Mexican bar. Ahem. Here are a few things I think it would be cool to see in SoCal:

1. A west coast sunset. I've seen this before, but it never gets old. 

2. Beautiful beaches. I did see Venice Beach last time and I'd like to see it again. I have not seen any beaches in San Diego, and I'm sure they are gorgeous. 

3. Hollywood. I don't know what there is to see, but I'm curious. 

4. Disneyland. Just for a day. I want a picture of Eric, Mickey and me. 

5. Wineries. There are some in between LA and San Diego? Perfect. 

6. Weather. I would go to LA/San Diego in February. I know that's not exactly the best weather, but I got a tan in LA in January, so I have high hopes that it will at least be better than Boston. 

 

Austin/San Antonio

I've been obsessed with a trip to Austin every since 2002, when I was obsessed with the song by Blake Shelton, Austin. My interest in San Antonio goes back even longer when my brother was obsessed with Davy Crockett. I'll admit though, I don't have a solid handle on what I want to see in both places. But here are some ideas: 

1. The Riverwalk. It looks cool, no? 

2. The Alamo. See above, re: Davy Crockett. 

3. Pearl Brewery. I just found out about this when doing research a few days ago, but I think we all know I love a good brewery. 

3. Barton Springs Pool. Another recent discovery, but after the trip to Yellowstone I love geysers. 

4. University of Texas. I like seeing random colleges and buying their sweatshirts. I really want to confuse my gym about what college I actually attended. 

Washington DC

The major draw of DC other than the million things to do is that I actually have friends who live in DC, who I could see. So that's a bonus. I haven't been there since 2001 when I went with my mom to look at colleges. I haven't done any of the tourist stuff since I was in 5th grade. I'll probably defer to Eric on this trip since he has gone a couple of times with his middle schoolers and knows the touristy things to do. I love tourism. Also potentially we could drive to DC. I know that sounds absurd (or totally normal if you are Canadian)- well particularly for me because I complain about even driving 3 hours. However, I could stop a lot on the way, in CT, in NY and even visit Philadelphia, where I've never actually been. So… that's another added bonus. Flights are pretty cheap too if I go that route. 

PS. If we go to DC, it would probably be in April rather than February. 

So… put in your vote? California? Texas? DC? Somehow get rich and go to all three?! 

Currently

Stole this from Amber and loved it :) 

Currently...

feeling stressed about work but happy about life :) 

reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King, it's 849 pages- maybe not my best idea for the month of conferences and report cards, I think I am currently 2% through

longing for a trip! (when am I not longing for a trip?) and for the day we can go back to the Cape regularly again

laughing at the hilarious things my husband says/does and the hilarious things my students say/do, I don't need to long to laugh in my life at all! 

crying about writing report cards 

looking forward to some fun this week, a possible Cape trip on the horizon and a family trip in December! 

journaling never… when I was little I kept awesome journals but ever since I started working I haven't been able to keep one up, I just tell Eric or my friends/family anything I would write in a journal at this point

celebrating swimming laps for an hour straight last night and somehow not being sore today! amazing! 

eating nothing at the moment, but my new favorite lunch right now is mashed sweet potato and avocado sandwiches, seriously- so good! 

running about two to three times per week, I need another 5K to look forward to

hoping my parent/teacher conferences go well, the first ones of the year are always scary because I never know what to expect! 

anticipating meeting Katie's baby! my best friend is in labor RIGHT NOW and I'm blogging to distract myself from freaking out haha (only because she's been in labor for like multiple days at this point!)

planning to visit Katie and new baby tomorrow, assuming he comes by then! 

drinking warm tea again, hello fall!

missing all my funny and cute kiddos from last year, and my college roommate who I once told we never get earthquakes in Boston, of course she called me out on that today after our minor earthquake last night (which I didn't feel because I was driving home from swimming)

listening to the TV in the background, Eric is watching one of his crazy shows… maybe listening is the wrong word, I'm not really listening...

making to do lists! It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks. I'll be a happy girl come November 1st! 

 

Just for fun, answer a couple of these in the comments section! 

Crabby Moods to Happy Moods

I have a student this year who is moody. I shouldn't start with that. I actually love this kid. He is super funny, very cute and such a nice friend to his classmates. He could be a model student and friend. Except… all of a sudden he will get in a bad mood and suddenly he is whiny, frustrated (aka pushing everyone around who gets in his way or interrupts what he wants) and very difficult to get through to. 

 

In a way though, isn't this what we are all like? At least, this is absolutely what I'm like. What separates me and most of my other students from him is that we have all learned to hide our moods from most people, and my little "moody friend" has not. Well, and that he tends to yell out super dramatic statements like "School is stupid. I am NEVER coming to school again!" when angry. It's hard to keep a straight face when kids say things like this. Sorry bud, about 1 month down and 13 years to go… just before graduating high school...

 

Well last week, I felt like say "Life is stupid. I am NEVER doing life again!" Nah, not that dramatic. I was just in a little rut and/or crabby mood. I've mentioned before that fall is a rough time of year for me. Sure I love the pumpkins and beautiful leaves, but the beginning of the year is hard at work. My students need endless help and support and it's not usual for me to do work for several days straight without coming up for air. It often feels like there will be no end in sight, even though I know December will happen, and I'll get a vacation and this will go uphill from there. It's happened six times before so I know it will happen again. And yet… I was just in a super crabby mood. 

 

The weekend came around and I knew I needed a quick attitude adjustment. Since I subscribe to Amber's thoughts that happiness is a choice, I decided I had to do something and it wasn't going to be easy because I knew had (more) work to do as well. But just like that I looked for all the good in this weekend that I could… and of course, it ended up being a fabulous weekend. 

 

In case you want to share in my joy, here is what I loved about this weekend. 

 

1. A delicious Italian food dinner on Friday night with Eric, Caroline and Jimmy

2. A successful 5K race on Saturday morning with Caroline and Jimmy. Believe it or not, this was Caroline and my first time EVER running together… can you believe that? We did a great job telling each other stories and the 3 miles went by in a flash. The race we did was the Welles Remy Crowther race, which is the 9/11 hero that Erin's son Welles is named after, yay!

 

3. Eric and I did a little day trip (yes, what makes me happier than trips?) up to Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I spent way more than I normally do on some new clothes at the JCrew Outlet (love that place!) and then we headed to Redhook Brewery. This is probably our fourth or fifth time at this brewery and I love it every time. Our most recent visit was this summer to the Woodinville, Washington location. Memories! Finally, we walked around Portsmouth downtown and ate dinner a delicious pizza place called Flatbread Company. Happiness. 

When we got home, Eric and I decided to buy a new TV. It sounds impulsive but actually Eric has been trying to convince me for years, and has researched it pretty in depth. The TV he wanted was on sale, so I figured why not get his Christmas present early and have one less thing to worry about. The funniest part was that when we tried to buy it my credit card shut me off. I guess it looked suspicious that I spent close to $200 on clothes in one state and then decided to buy a TV in another. Definitely not my usual activity! But hey. Who says retail therapy is not real therapy? 

I guess that's also the difference between five-year-olds and me, I can snap myself out of a bad mood. 

 

What do you do when you need to be snapped out of a bad mood? 

 

Music, Books and Miles of September/Goals for October

The months continue to fly by! I still love this fun month recap from Lisa, so I'll do it again. I am skipping the looks because I don't have any interesting clothes at the moment :) 

 

Music

I might as well rename this section Kelly's Country Music Selections of the month. Country music obsession continues. It's been an 11+ year love affair, so I think it's here to stay. 

Wanted- Hunter Hayes

Time is Love- Josh Turner

Ronan- Taylor Swift- Last week Caroline and I were swimming and got to talking about Taylor Swift. I said that I don't have anything particularly against her, I even kind of like her but I've never particularly loved any of her songs. Only a few days later my cousin posted this video on her Facebook wall and I think I may have found my Taylor Swift love. Hard to listen to this song without tears, consider yourself warned. 

What If She's an Angel?- Tommy Shane Steiner- This is a major flashback song from 2002. I was reading Erin's post about song flashback and I started looking at what songs were popular in 2002 to give me ideas. Had some fun with that as you can imagine :)

 

Books

     

This was a good book- I really loved the characters. However, something about this author's writing style bothers me. I just felt like there was too much rambling in this book. Hard to explain!

 

           

I've been reading Jenna's blog on and off for the last three plus years, so I figured I would give her book a try. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It was a quick read, I think I read it in a day, and I don't do that often. 

   

This was our Blogger Book Club selection this month. I absolutely loved this book, loved the characters, loved the description of the time period they lived in… could never have lived back then and so thankful I didn't have to. I would've been one miserable housewife, I'll tell you that much. 

  

 The latest Rizzoli and Isles book met my expectations. It was crazy, they always are. 

This was my favorite book I read this month. I've been looking forward to reading this book for months ever since I read and loved Violets of March and Bungalow. It met and maybe exceeded my expectations and I think was my favorite book by Sarah Jio so far. I wish that she could write books faster because I love reading them :) 

 

Miles

Unfortunately I didn't accurately track my miles this month so I can't see if there was improvement over August. I would guess there was not since I was so much busier this month. However, on the fitness front I did finish my third triathlon (which I still have not done a recap of, blogger fail). I also continued to run because I am planning to do the Red Bandana 5K in a few weeks. 

 

As far as my goals in September, I did a pretty good job. I was able to keep up with reading and working out despite being back to real world living. I also had a goal to remain calm and positive. I'm not going to go crazy and say I managed this all the time, but I did try really hard to bring myself back to calm/positivity in difficult times. I had a tough time with the kiddos this month, but I've really tried to keep my attitude in check at all times. When I go into the day focused on the strengths of the kids in my class, rather than the struggles, I find the day goes a lot better for all of us. 

 

Goals for October

1. Read at least 1 long book. I've been flying through my books lately and I'm 3 books ahead on my goal to read 50 this year. I think this gives me some wiggle room to read a super long book this month. My friend gave me a recommendation so, I'll let you know if it happens! 

2. Challenge myself in swimming. I'm taking a stroke development class starting next Tuesday, so hopefully this will help :) 

3. Go to yoga… once. Seriously I need to aim low! 

4. Sign up for a masters class. I got a free voucher for a class last year because I had a student teacher. I am 3 credits away from Masters plus 15, so I need to sign up for (and take) a class. It's so hard to motivate myself to go back to school these days. I like my free time and pleasure reading so much. But I'm going to do it. Hold me to it! 

 

What are your goals for this month? Do you enjoy taking classes?