Five On Friday

Oh Friday. I'm so glad you're finally here!

[one] My husband has been home sick with the flu since Tuesday morning. I feel terrible for him! I've managed to avoid it so far--last night I started coughing, but I hope that's all that I'll see from this nasty illness. Usually I'm the FIRST one to catch these things!

[two] Being a teacher in the month of January is no fun. On top of kids coming back not remembering what they learned just two weeks ago, we have all kids of assessing to do. Reading assessments, math assessments, and more reading assessments, plus conferences for the end of the quarter and anything else that has to be done to satisfy the district. We have to fit this all in with at least three days off in January--plus we've already had one delay. 

[three] Speaking of delays and weather, I'm SO glad this polar vortex or whatever it's called is over. I finally walked out my door this morning without gloves and a hat and a scarf. Just my sweatshirt. I'm glad good ole' NC weather is back!

[four] This weekend is B-u-s-y with a capital B! Tomorrow we have a Time Warner Cable person coming over to do some things with our system and my cousin and her wife are having their reception. Sunday I have to take the kitty to the vet for a teeth cleaning and we're going to dinner for my uncle's birthday. Most weekends either end up crazy busy like this one or with nothing to do--is there not a happy medium?!

[five] I completely forgot to wash my hair and my face in the shower this morning. WHAT in the world is going on with me?! I had to employ my dry shampoo to do its dirty work (ha--see what I did there?!) to make my hair look at least a little bit decent for work today. It's currently up in a ponytail. I pretty much love Fridays around here...jeans, a tshirt, my school sweatshirt, and my hair thrown up in a ponytail is totally acceptable. Winning.

I hope you guys have a great weekend...stay warm!

Back to the Grind (plus some weekend shenanigans)...

Well, folks, it's over. Christmas break has come and gone and I went back to work today. I was actually pretty ready to go back...I was getting pretty bored. I gonna miss being able to sleep in every day and not have to worry about setting an alarm, but there's something about those sweet faces and those toothless grins...I love my job and wasn't sad about having to go back today! :)

Schools around here are delayed two hours tomorrow because of the record freezing temperatures. The windchill will feel like -5. I know that doesn't sound extreme to people in the north, but you have to remember that here in NC, we're used to it being around 50 degrees in the winter. Not 20. Kids don't have the proper clothing to be out in that type of weather! The school systems delayed to give the schools a chance to warm up and to make sure the buses are functioning properly--not to mention they gave the kids a break from having to stand at the bus stop at 6am! 2 hours and 2 degrees higher won't make much of a difference, but at least they'll have the sun on their side.

Husband and I went to see Anchorman 2 this weekend--it was pretty good, but definitely not as funny as the first one. We were talking about how we didn't know of any movies that we had seen where the sequel was better than the original--does anybody out there know of any?! I was really pleased with Anchorman 2 until the very end...there was an extra scene that I thought they could have left out and saved us about 10 minutes of our lives (if you've seen it you probably know what scene I'm talking about). It just didn't fit with the movie!

On Saturday, I took it upon myself to organize two of our closets and to rearrange our gym so that we could work out again (typical resolutions....duh). It took me about 2 1/2 hours, and I got 6 bags of clothes and shoes and three bags of trash out of the deal. Here's a look at my closet after. I didn't take a picture before because frankly, i'm embarrassed by how bad I had let it get!

Other than that, we pretty much took it easy this weekend. There was a lot of football, a lot of snuggling, some lesson planning, and a Sam's club run. 

 

Playing catch-up with my questions (I've been journaling, just not blogging)

January 4: The best part of today?

Cleaning out closets and going on a date with my husband. Mexican and Anchorman 2.

January 5: What was the last restaurant you went to?

We went to Lime (Mexican) for dinner last night.

January 6: 

Today was tough because ___________

My computer was being slow at work--first day back after break!

Five On Friday!

Five On Friday!

[one]

today is the last day of Christmas break...I go back to work on Monday. Our principal was nice enough to give us the workday off today, so I'm sitting here at home while everyone else is back at work already. This "break" hasn't really felt like a break because I've been so busy with the holidays...the last two days I've finally had time to do NOTHING during the day. It feels good, but believe it or not, I'm actually ready to go back. I miss my firsties! They make my heart full.

[two]

Can we talk about this weather for a minute? It's currently a chilly 29 degrees here in good ole' North Carolina. It was almost 60 yesterday. I'm gonna need mother nature to make her mind up about what it's going to feel like outside. If she decides that it's going to stay cold, I'd like to see some snow. We haven't seen a drop of the white stuff yet this year and i'm getting pretty sad. 

[three]

My house DESPERATELY needs to be organized. I look at it and I cringe. I keep it clean, but that doesn't mean it still isn't cluttered. The main issue is our closets. Husband already lived here when we met, and I moved in with him about 3 years ago. Over those three years, we have accumulated so much stuff it isn't even funny--and a lot of the stuff is just things that we had before we met that we brought with us to the relationship. I'm talking things that sit in boxes in closets or on the floor in our gym. Things that could be easily given away or thrown out. One of our big goals this year is to get the house organized! I considered hiring someone to come help us but husband wasn't a fan of that idea....so, it's up to us. Wish us luck!

[four]

Is anybody else obsessed with the show Scandal? I've almost made it through two seasons in just over two weeks. I have a problem, and that problem is called Olivia Pope.

[five]

I've also procrastinated at finishing our gallery wall. I currently have two 8x10 frames sitting without pictures, ready to be hung up. I just haven't gotten around to printing any pictures. My excuse is that we have to paint and I will just have to take them back down when we paint, so why not wait?  Lazy much? Here's what it currently looks like (without the other 8x10's on the other side). It's coming along but i'm itching to get it finished!

January Goals

My husband and I sat down the other day and had a serious talk about our goals. What we wanted, when we wanted to accomplish them, and how we wanted to go about it. We haven't quite ironed out all of the details, but I think that writing down goals is a good place to start! Having goals that go month by month will be easier to achieve, I hope. Here are my January goals:

 Goals for Myself:

•  Begin working out again, at least 2 times a week.
• Spend NO money on clothes or frivolous things for myself.

Goals for Our Marriage/Us:

• Go on at least 2 date nights.
• Set a budget for the month and stick to it!
• Meal plan at least one week.

Goals for Our Home:

• Pick out paint for the living room.
• Paint the living room!
• Clean out/organize at least one closet.

I hope that by the end of the month all of these goals will be complete!!! :)

Question for today: Can People Change?

Yes, people can change--but only if they want to. I am an example of change!

New Year, New Marriage, New Adventures

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Well hello there! My name is Katie and I’m glad you've decided to join me in this blogging journey. I had a blog that I started while I was in college and in a bad relationship (to be used as an outlet), and I tried to continue it through my adulthood and my new relationship with my husband…but it didn't work out in my favor. I lost motivation and got caught up in life.

 However, 2014 is a new year. My husband and I will celebrate our first full year of marriage this year, I will turn 26, and I have finally found a job that I love. I hope to accomplish many personal goals this year—including keeping up with this little blog, losing some of the weight I gained back in the last year, and concentrating on some private goals that I have set for myself.

I want to make sure to document my life so I can look back and remember the things that we have accomplished. I am planning to take a picture to document every day this year. I tried to do this a few years ago, and I came quite close—I think I may have missed 40 or so days in total. To go along with the picture, I was also gifted a journal of 365 questions to answer. I’m hoping to include my pictures and my answers to these questions on the blog as well!

Before I go any further, I think there are some super important things you should know….

• I’m a first grade teacher in North Carolina. I’m teaching in the school system that I grew up in, and I think it’s really awesome to be able to give back to the people that gave me my education. I love the school that I teach at (I won’t reveal where it is for privacy sake), and my students. I think that this year I have finally found my niche and the place that I belong!
• I’m an extremely anxious and high strung person. I can be over emotional, stubborn, and irrational. Oops.
• My husband and I got married in September of last year—as of today, we've been married for 95 days! It was the best day of my life, and I hope to recap some of the memories here.
• We are the proud parents to two fluffy four-legged pets. Gatsby is our golden retriever and Scooter is our cat. No real kids yet, although we hope to have our first in the next few years
•  A few things that I enjoy:
• Reading, occasionally working out, college basketball, wine, the color pink, Kate Spade, anything chevron, college and NFL football, sparkles, The Walking Dead, coffee, champagne, Miley Cyrus, and generally anything that is uplifting.
• A few things that I do NOT enjoy:
• A dirty house, wrinkled covers, folding and putting away laundry, being cold, close-minded people, ranch dressing, the NBA, Twilight, traffic 

Please stick around for a while and I promise to share my life with you. I can’t promise that it will be extremely entertaining, funny, or witty, but I can promise that it will be mine. For now, I will leave you with my picture of the day and the answer from my Q&A journal.

January 1: What is Your Mission?

To be the best “me” I can be. To concentrate on my health and well-being this year.

January 1:

Breakfast with our favorite teenagers!