Thankful

I didn't do much of a thankful post this year, but I am definitely thankful for four day weekends. I didn't take any photos on Thanksgiving Day, but I spent it with Caroline, so you can see her blog for way better photos than I would've taken anyways :) 

 

As I mentioned in my last post, my 10 year high school reunion was on Friday night. It was a lot of fun and good to see some old friends I had not seen in a very long time. And some friends I am lucky enough to see all the time...

Of course I stayed up a million years past my bedtime and paid for it in the morning, but I think in some ways I am much tougher than my high school/college self because I got myself up and went on an unplanned day trip with Eric on Saturday. We headed up to York/Ogunquit Maine to check out some possible houses to stay at in the summer with Eric's family. 

 

In between the search, we enjoyed some of the beautiful scenery in Southern Maine. I have to admit that before Eric and my last trip to Ogunquit, I only had a few (but all positive) experiences in Maine and I'm really looking forward to spending a week up there this summer and getting to know it better. It's kind of like a cool mix of Cape Cod and New Hampshire, with it's own unique twist and I am so lucky to live so close to so many beautiful places like this. 

Nubble Lighthouse, York. 

 Perkins Cove, Ogunquit

We ate dinner at a delicious restaurant in downtown Oguinquit called The Front Porch. Katie recommended it and it did not disappoint. Also, I think we found a house to rent next summer. So, success all around!

Today, it's all about productivity. I'm finishing up Christmas cards and getting some work done for class.

How was your Thanksgiving weekend (if it was Thanksgiving for you!) and what is your favorite place to go on a day trip from your home?  

 

 

 

 

 

High School. 10 Years Ago.

This Friday is my 10 year high school reunion. I'll spare you the "I can't believe it's really been 10 years speech" but believe me, I'm thinking it. 

 

I have had two reunions before this, my five year high school reunion and my 5 year college reunion, which was about a year and a half ago. Both I thought were going to be terrible for various reasons. Both were actually a lot of fun. So, I have low expectations for this one, with the understanding that it will probably (hopefully) exceed them. 

 

In no particular order, here are a bunch of things I thought in high school, that turned out to be wrong :) 

 

1.  It mattered a lot what I wrote under my picture in the yearbook It doesn't. t actually forgot what it said until my friend texted it to me yesterday. I now don't know what half of it means. But I know it was important to me at the time, and the people I referenced were important as well. I had a fear that if I wasn't friends with someone anymore I'd regret referencing them in my quote. Apparently I thought I was the type to have blow out fights with people. I'm not. 

 

2. It's going to be super hard to stay friends with my high school friends.  In fact, it's been quite easy with most people. Sure we don't see and talk even close to as much as we did in high school, but I still consider many of those people my friends. I listed 10 people, and of them 7 were at my wedding. Two of the three who were not I've talked to in one way or the other in the last 6 months. I still have a special place in my heart for all 10 of them. 

 

3. College will be the best 4 years of my life. Don't get me wrong, college was fun, however, like any time period in life there were many wonderful things about it and a few struggles as well. 

 

4. Time with family is not important. I've mentioned before that friends have always been a very important part of my life. In high school and the early years of college, I sacrificed a lot of time with my family to hang out with my friends (like many kids at this age do). I now value time with my family over pretty much everything. 

 

5. I knew everything. When you are 18, everyone wants to tell you that you don't know anything. I knew that was wrong, so I thought instead I knew everything. It turns out, they were wrong and I was wrong. There was a lot of great stuff I did know at 18. There was even some stuff I knew at 18, temporarily forgot, and had to learn again. I think I was a great friend-picker when I was 18 and I think I was a good friend to others during my high school years. But, of course I did not know everything and now I have learned- I still don't. Does anyone? 

 

What did you think in high school that turned out to be wrong? 

 

 

I know I knew everything. 

Music, Books and Looks of October/Goals for November

Well hello everyone, I am reemerging from a few days without internet. Yay! I have to admit over the weekend, I was TOTALLY not buying that Hurricane Sandy was going to be a big deal. Eric and I were at the Cape and I took this gorgeous picture of the calm before the storm...

As I always am when I am stupid enough to question God/nature, Sandy came back to bite me in the bum. I had no school on Monday or Tuesday, the wind was CRAZY on Monday night and we lost power around 6:00pm on Monday and it didn't return until 4:00am today. On Wednesday at work we all had parent conferences and some had Halloween activities as well. When I got to work on Wednesday at 6:40 am (which is a full 2 hours before the kids arrive), a LOT of teachers were already there. Everyone was freaking out because we all expected to have Monday and Tuesday to get things done. I have to admit I was feeling calmer because I totally snuck in the building on Tuesday to print out report cards and set up for conferences, mine started at 7:20 and I didn't want to be totally unprepared. Of course I hadn't showered, so I put on my nicest work dress to make up for it haha. I did shower at swimming the night before I swear!

Anyway, October! 

I did well with my goals: I read a long book (849 pages!), I went to swimming class and challenged myself with crazy drills, and I signed up for a grad class and technically started it this week except for the technical difficulties :) I did not go to yoga. Oops. 

Music

I don't have any new favorite songs at the moment, but I really like this kind of silly one right now: 

One More Drinking Song- Jerrod Niemann

 

Books

I only read 2 books this month, which is my lowest number in a long, long time. But I purposely didn't set a number goal because I knew I would have parent conferences and report cards to manage and plus I wanted to read a really long book. That, I did, so yay! 

Another fun, super light read by James Patterson. It was a quick read but I definitely enjoyed it. 

 

My friend Sarah recommended this book to me and I knew it would be the perfect book for me to read since I wanted to try something longer this month. I ended up convincing Eric to read it at the same time and we had a little healthy competition going during this book- whoever would get ahead would torture the other by telling them just enough to be annoying. Fun times. It was also fun because we could talk about the book as we were reading it. Basically the plot is about a guy named Jake, who ends up going back in time and trying to stop the JFK assassination. It has a side love story as well. I really liked it and my ONLY complaint about the book was that I really don't think it NEEDED to be that long. In my defense, I'm really not good with long books and movies, they always can be shorter is my philosophy. 

 

Miles

I did not accomplish any amazing miles this month. I did a 5K earlier in the month, which was fun. Since then I've just been running a couple of times a week whenever I can fit it in. I haven't biked at all, but my swimming has been pretty good. 

 

No amazing looks this month unless you count my attempt yesterday to not look like I didn't shower… and my ridiculous amount spent at the JCrew outlet earlier in the month. Oh boy!

 

Goals for November

1. Plank 2 Minutes, 30 Seconds. I started a challenge on Tina's blog last week where I am trying to take my plank time, which is currently 1 minute and make it much longer. I'm hoping for 2 minutes by the end of the challenge, which is in a couple of weeks and then by the end of November I'd like to be at 2 minutes 30 seconds. I made it to 1 minute, 30 seconds the other day so I think I can accomplish this goal!

2. Read 4 Books. I have a goal to read 50 books this year and I'm at 42, so that means I need at least 4 each month until the end of the year. 

3. Run a 5K once a week. Not a race, but just actually run 3 miles, sometimes I get lazy when I don't have a race to be ready for, oops. 

4. Blog once a week. Yes, I am aim low but that would be an improvement over this month. 

 

Any goals for this month? Books you recommend?