Tranquil Waters

I'm interrupting my study/school time to write you this post to tell you a new obsession.

This stinking $10 candle from Hobby Lobby smells absolutely wonderful! It is a breath of fresh air and it just illuminates my room (smell and the light the candle itself gives off!!!). It is making my studying much more enjoyable as I lay on my comfy bed with this candle burning and some oreos by my side. If I could put the smell of this delight-full-ness through the computer I would so we could enjoy the smell together! But seriously, what more could you ask for on a night like this?!

Happy Sunday! :)

Brittany

My Personal Timeline

City and State of Birth: Overland Park, KS

Graduation: May 2008 from Olathe East High School

Currently Live: Olathe, KS

My Personal Timeline

September 18, 1989: I was born in Overland Park, KS!

May 1991: My family moved to West Virginia

August 15, 1995: I started Kindergarten at Walnut Grove Elementary

 My Kindergarten teacher and I, Ms. Livingston

June 1999: My family took our first big vacation to San Francisco, CA

 My dad, brother, and I by the Golden Gate Bridge

My mom, brother, and I taking our first ride on a trolley!!

June 2001: I was a Royal Rookie and got to be the Kauffman Stadium Announcer for a day!

 The Royal Rookies got to meet Slugger, the Royals mascot

September 2002: My first acting role

August 2006: My parents 20th Wedding Anniversary and surprise trip to Hawaii!

We got to go to an authentic Luau and took this gorgeous picture right on the water!

 I took this beautiful, picturesque shot on Hawaii's "Big Island"

April 2007: Madrigal performance at the Music Educator's National Convention

 My entire choir in a beautiful cathedral in Milwaukee, WI

 The gorgeous cathedral we got to practice in before our big performance!!

 

May 2008: I graduated from Olathe East High School!

My class was HUGE with 521 graduates in 2008!!!

 My family and I right after I received my official diploma

August 2008: I started college and joined Kappa Kappa Gamma

My dorm room after I finished decorating!

 The first picture my pledge class took together!

  

Some things that are important to me: My faith, family, friends,  teaching, decorating, organizing, singing, blogging, and baking :) :)

Something that won't surprise you: I'm very energetic!

Something that might surprise you: I love to talk, but I enjoy listening more.

It was all Before 10 AM and Bite Sized Lessons

My friends are I are quickly understanding what it means to live in the "real world" with real early days and sometimes late nights. I have started work in the mornings and I have to be at the elementary school at 7:50 AM, and on the days that I am not working, I am leading an orientation class for freshman that starts at 7:30 AM. So much for sleeping in and laying around during the week, real life has set in! With this in mind, we decided that we wanted to get up today and make a nice breakfast and then go to the Farmers Market here in Manhattan! (Let me be the first to tell you, it is nothing like the KC one, but it was still a fun adventure!

My alarm clock started ringing at 8:15 AM and I got up and made this delightful spread for Cam.

Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and grapes. So nutritious :)

 The plates looked so cute with our green placemats (thanks Kayla) and my pretty flowers that are still fully in bloom from Cam!

After we finished the delightful breakfast, me, Cam, Kayla, Jordan, and Shelbi (my roomates and boyfriends minus Ethan :( ...) headed out to the Farmers Market! Although it was smaller than the KC one, it was still fun and we did make a few good finds, the first being...

  ...Some delightful peaches! (Do not be fooled, the rest of the fruit on these trays are from Dillions :) We haven't tried the peaches yet, but they were grown fresh so I am sure they are so good!

We also found a lady and her husband who sell this type of picture, but I will not go into details about that just yet becasue some people who are reading this have birthdays coming up and I don't want to give away the surprise! (Hint hint, Kimmy). Once I have given her the gift, I will show a picture of it because I was JUST OBSESSED WITH IT!!

We had a great time this morning, and amazingly enough, it was all before 10 AM! :) I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...enjoy it while it lasts!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

PS: We read the most adorable book in my Social Studies methods class this week...

The book talked about life skills through the use of baking cookies, every kids favorite thing! After reading the book as a class, we were instructed to make our own "Bite of Cookies" book to represent a few of the traits in our classroom someday. Here was my final result..

It was such a cute and fun idea and I would definitely be able to read this book and alter the requirements a little and use this in my classroom someday to build up respect and rapport with my students! So fun :)

2 Years!

Hello Everyone!

Today was a very special day for me for a few reasons. Most importantly, today Cameron and I have been officially dating for two years!! (I say officially because we were pretty much together in July, but I made him wait a month and a half before he could ask me out!) We always like to do a little something for each other on this day, and this year I got the best gift EVER.

This summer I spent some time searching for a bookcase because my book collection/teacher supplies was beginning to multiply and I had no space for them all (the bright pink laundry basket just wasn't cutting it anymore). I looked around at Wal Mart and Target and found a few I liked, but none that really hit the spot. Finally, Cameron suggested he build me a bookcase for our anniversary. He said this would be a better option because then I could "custom make it" in a sense and have it be exactly what I wanted.

He worked long and hard during my recruitment week getting this bookshelf just perfect. I knew he was spending tons of hours on it, but he wouldn't let me see a sneak peek at all so I was anxiously waiting for today to roll around so I could see the finished product! And here it is....

It. Is. Perfect. It is the exact color I wanted, and it was measured perfectly to fit my tallest and widest of books. I could have NEVER found this perfect of a bookcase at any store, so I was so fortunate Cam made it for me!

See...isn't it just gorgeous!! I could rant and rave about it forever but I won't bore you, but I was excited to say the least! He even wrote a cute little note on the bottom of it and signed our anniversary date so I could always remember when it was made. Ahh, I'm just the luckiest girl ever to have a man that is sentimental AND good at constructing things!

I made him 52 Reasons I Appreciated Him (got the idea off of a blog thank you very much!) but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the final product, but it did look good! I also made him some magnets for his fridge and got him the Office Season 4 because we are avid watchers!
We decided to got to the ever famous Houlihans for drinks and dessert to celebrate!!

He got a Blue Moon. Gross to me, but he thought it was delicious!

I, on the other hand, got a glass of wine! :)

 We ordered the chocolate fondue and graham cracker S'mores and it was DELICIOUS!

Then this morning, these beautiful things showed up! 

They are gorgeous and have all my favorite colors in them, so they are now adding life and decoration to our kitchen table! 

 This is the one picture we snapped the WHOLE night. Oh well, he is precious and I love him! Happy 2 years Cam!!

On a lesser note, today was the last-first day of school as a student I will ever have, so of course us future teachers of America had to snap a quick pic before heading off to class!

I can't believe we are nearing the end of our college career!! Scary, but I will leave that post for a different night!

I hope you all have a great first week of school, and don't get toooo stressed out just yet!

Until then,

Brittany

Where I've Been

Hello Friends!

It is late and it has been a loooonnnnggggg day (I will explain in a minute why) but I just wanted to drop by quickly and say "hey" and tell you why I haven't been here in a while! I moved into my new house last week (The Penthouse is it's given name) and have spent the past four days preparing for what we in the sororities like to call

Formal Recruitment

Yes it is wonderful and great and full of excitment as in mere five day time span we will meet 700 plus girls, talk to them all, give house tours to some, show videos to some, preferene some, and then at the end of the week we will ask 50 girls to join our house! It is such an exciting time and so weird to think that I am officially old enough to consider this my last recruitment. Although the week can get long and stressful at times, we have our "sisters" to get us through it! Here are a few pictures from our first day of recruitment to capture the fun that Kappa is/has been for me! Have a great week and I will update again this weekend!

My fabulous senior pledge class!!!!!

 Former Middle 6 roomies! Some of my greatest memories in Kappa were in this room!

"The Box" roomies from last semester!!

 My "sister" at heart :)

My current roomies in "The Penthouse."

More good pictures from my last recruitment week to come, so stay tuned!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

The End is Here

Good Evening fellow bloggers!

Summer is officially over for me and I cannot believe it. I feel like just yesterday I was moving out of Kappa (for good...that feels so weird to say) and coming home for the summer to embark on a new summer job and some much needed relaxation. Looking back,  I do feel like I was able to accomplish a lot this summer. I started and completed a job that I loved, I decorated an entire room for under $200, and got to spend lots of quality time with my immediate family, extended family, and friends. My last few days home have been busy and fun filled!

My aunt and uncle recently got a new puppy, Max, a baby shit tzu! (Snickers was a shit tzu so we were so excited to go visit Max!) He was so little, energetic, and laid back and I wanted to take him home with me!

I also got to hang out with my cousins (Nick and Jack, six year old twins!) It was nice to see them and talk about them starting 1st grade this fall! (They are so excited and already know what teachers they want! So cute, I remember those days with the excitement of school beginning and what teachers we would get for the year!)

Nick is a little pistol, but still so cute :)

Jack is smart beyond his years in age, and very mature, and still a cute little bundle of joy :)

On Thursday I went to the T-Bones game with Cam's family and we had so much fun! AND, we won! (Even though Cam and I didn't get to see the ending, it was pretty eventful from what I hear!)

Cam and his older brother, Joshua

Cam's sister, Carmen, and I

Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market for once last time this summer! We got some fresh peaches, spices, tomatoes, and of course...

Canolis!! Joshua LOVED THEM!! :)

My mom and I had a day date today and went to the nail salon, lunch, and last minute shopping stuff before I leave tomorrow morning! It was a great last few days at home, but I can't wait to get to school tomorrow! I have a few days to get settled in, and then the much awaited dreaded Recruitment begins :( I'm sure I will have updates for you as soon as our Manhattan house gets internet!

Until then,

Brittany

Goodbye Hillcrest, Hello Classroom

Hello Friends!

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated this thing, it was a busy week! Yesterday was my last day of work at Hillcrest, and I am going to miss it so much! Being the teacher dork, nerd, cool kid that I am, I wanted to do something for the kids and my co-workers for the end of the summer.

I bought some suckers at the dollar store, (a cheap way to win any kid's heart)...

...and I wrote a little note to each kid highlighting what I loved about them, a summer memory, or what I was proud of him/her  for.  It was something that didn't take much time for me at all but I could tell by the kid's faces as they read their cards that they really appreciated the gesture. I will sincerely miss each and every one of these kids and their little quirks. (Like the kid who genuinely thinks he is a cat and purrs and licks his "paws." or the kid who dances to "Funky Town" in an incredibly disturbing, yet funny way).

Of course I had to write a note and give a sucker to my co-workders as well, because they deserved it after a long, tiring, but well worth it summer :)

This summer taught me so much about classroom management, discipline, working with a variety of personality types, teacher/parent interactions, and building relationships with kids. I learned so much from each and every one of my co-workers and they all had qualities that I envied. I feel much more equipped to interview for a teaching position now because I have real life experiences to back up my answers to some of the hard questions a principal will inevitably ask. This summer just made me that much more excited to be out in the teaching world and have my own classroom! Which brings me to my next point.

I am fortunate enough to have a mother who is already a teacher and can pass down many of her things to me! Beyond this, she works with other teachers who are constantly throwing things out and you know what they say...one person's trash is another person's treasure! I was so stoked when I got home from work and found these laying on the floor..

...beautiful blue, in perfect condition pocket charts!! Teachers use these things like they are going out of business and I now have these two thanks to my mom, and an apple pocket chart thanks to Cameron's mom and the gift card she gave me!! I was so stoked to find these alone, but wait...there was more.

TONS of children's books to add to my collection! Beyond this, some of them were hardbacks which I have grown to love because I would love to have a book line in my classroom someday like this one..

I found this on a blog I have started following called 4th Grade Frolics! This woman is so creative and fun, and I have gained so many great ideas for a classroom from her, so education people you should definitely check her out!

Sorry for that bunny track I just got off on, but I just think that book line is so stinking cute for a reading corner! Anyway, all the stuff that my mom brought home made me so excited to add them all to my collection!

As you can see, it was hard for me to contain my enthusiasm!! Basically books, pocket charts, labels, lamps, baskets, anything old that you don't want I would LOVE to take to incorporate in my classroom so don't throw ANYTHING OUT without asking me first ;-)

Stay tuned because I will be writing one last post in the next few days giving you a personal life update before I head to Manhattan for the start of school!! YAHOOOO SENIORSSSSS BABY!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

PS: Going along with the theme of "teaching" that I had in this post, I am thinking about eventually turning this blog strictly into a teaching blog that can be used as an outlet for parents, kids, co-workers, and fellow teachers to use! Thoughts about this? Your feedback is appreciated!!