tomorrow

tomorrow is my first day as a teacher!!

yay!

though my first day with my students isn't until wednesday as i don't have freshman.

but i have meetings and other fun!

i'm quite excited!

but not looking forward to getting up at 5am every morning.

but seriously it is almost september and fall wants to come to nj, which i don't approve, i want the summer weather to last a bit longer!

so my cat is loving my desk, and maybe soaking up some history. pretty much all afternoon and evening he has been napping like this, making it difficult to use my textbook. luckily i really didn't need it this afternoon.

so my first two days of orientation have gone well! the other new teachers are awesome and i'm excited about everything. my classes are all awesome sizes, and my overall first impressions of everything are good with the admin and our orientation. so i'm super excited for tuesday which is the first day for teachers and for freshman and then wednesday is the official first day of school!!

yay! and i really haven't been up to much else. so my life is kinda boring right now... but that will all be changing in a few days!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

today was my last day of summer.

tomorrow morning i'm up early and i head to school!!!!

it is the new teacher orientation tuesday, wednesday and thursday.

so i am excited to get started and know more so i can work on planning more and actually knowing more about the school and policies and such. and get to see what resources i have.

yay!

good weekend :)

saturday i met my best friend from high school for lunch. we had a great time catching up, as i last saw her when i was home at christmas. and then i went down to pennsylvania to see the boy. we had a good night, but we changed our plans as the weather was completely gross and neither of us were in the mood to go out with one of our summer coworkers. but sunday was great! i met up with becca and another good high school friend for brunch, and that was also fabulous. laughing about funny times in hs and just the fact that i am now teaching high school.

becca, me and suz

and then i've just been cleaning the room (almost done!) and doing what i can on lesson plans and notes! so the next week before school starts is going to be crazy! but i am sooo excited to finally be teaching!

YAY!!

any advice for a first year teacher?

fall into the gap

so can i mention how much i love the gap?

i've been a big gap fan for a long time, especially their jeans and sweaters.

and while sometimes they can be slightly out of my budget, but sale time i always manage to do well and pick up something. and sometimes it can be hit or miss in what i like, but i love the gap.

so with everyone raaaaving about their updated jeans line and being such a gap jeans fan and realizing i only have 1 pair of jeans and getting a 25% off your purchase if you use your gap card i decided to head to the gap with my mom this evening.

and i knew i was in trouble when the biiiiig signs in the window said - buy one get one free! sweaters, tshirts and long sleeve shirts! annnnd $20 off jeans!

and their fall collection is ammmmazing!

and i am sooo excited that i was able to get 2 pairs of gap jeans for the price of 1!

yes, the amazing gap curvy jeans which i LOVE came out to be $29.50 each. i was giddy in the store when buying them. yay for $20 off each pair and then an additional 25% off! and i was having a conversation with the guy at gap about the jeans because i was saying how excited i was to be getting them for nothing, and he asked if i'd worn them before. and i said yea, i love them. and we were taking about the changes.

and theeeen i also got 2 sweaters, which i'm quite excited about. and 2 of the henleys!

so i was really excited because i spent $120 and got 2 pairs of jeans, 2 sweaters and 2 henleys.

YAY!

and i'm also reading 2 amazing books right now. the first one is a history of ellis island. and as a person who studies immigration history, my dream job would be working at ellis island and it is one of my favorite places. the book is amazing so far and it makes me want to do research and be all scholarly.

and the second is firefly lane by kristen hannah. i am a huge kristen hannah fan, and this is my favorite of all of her books. i've cried through the last half, with my mom making fun of me. but wow. it is a story of a lifelong friendship between two women and growing up, love, and life. so if you are looking for a great end of summer read, i would recommend it. it came out last summer, but as i was only in the states for a few weeks and i couldn't find her books in ireland. and i went to the library today and put a bunch of my favorite authors books on request, but of course i'm like 40+ back for the new sophie kinsella and jennifer weiner books... so we'll see, i'll probably end up buying them before my name comes up on the list.

i'm super excited to see my best friend from high school tomorrow! i haven't seen her since christmas when we met up for lunch and last summer we met up for dinner when i was home. and then i'm headed to pennsylvania to see the boy, where we might head to philly, depending on the weather...

ohhh, and thanks for all the comments about the pictures the last few posts :) it is one of the reasons why i love hiking, the gorgeous scenery! and it really isn't that bad. it might sound like a lot but 10 miles isn't bad over 5-6 hours!

anyone up to anything fun this weekend?

visitor

the last two days have been fabulous!!

a good irish friend of mine is is in states this summer on a J1 work visa, so i went into nyc on tuesday to visit her. our plan was to hang out for the day and try to see a broadway show. and so we had a fabulous time playing in the city and walking around central park and we didn't know what show we wanted to see and so we decided on in the heights - neither of us had heard anything about it. so asked at the box office, and it sounded good and it won a tony for best musical in 2008. we decided to try our luck at the lottery later that evening, but didn't win. but we still got tickets after that, and all i can say is wow! it was amazing! the dancing was incredible, the music was fun and catchy. and it was just overall really well done. so i totally recommend seeing it if you are in nyc! we had a great day talking, catching up on life and everything. we then caught a train back to jersey, as we were going hiking on wednesday!

as i knew karen throught the mountaineering club, it seemed perfect that we would hike while she was in the states. and also just to show her the difference between the two! so we decided to go to two of my favorite places, mt. tammany and sunfish pond. i hadn't hiked to either since summer 2003/2002. and i knew it would be a nice 10ish mile hike for the two. so we did my favorite mt. tammany first. and i just LOVE this hike. the views are gorgeous and if you just did tammany it would be like a 3 hour hike round trip. you go up the red dot trail, down the blue trail which connects to the appalachian trail for the last .5 down. we enjoyed ourselves, laughing about hiking in trees and it being HOT. and only having lunch, water, map and bugspray in our packs, instead of waterproofs, extra clothes and all the extra gear we would carry in ireland! so that was fun, when we got down to the blue/green trails intersected, we went up the green trail to sunfish pond and enjoyed hiking along the streams and up gradually until we got to sunfish pond. we enjoyed a late lunch along the side and sat on the rocks and enjoyed the view, then hikedthe 4.3 miles back downhill in a epic 1.5 hours. and then to continue showing karen my love of northwest nj, we went across the road (aka interstate 80) and showed karen the fabulous delaware river. which also gave us a great view of mt. tammany!

so it was a fun two days of seeing a great friend and getting to go to 2 of my favorite places, nyc and the delaware water gap!

view from top of tammany

karen and i

hiking up - delaware river

start of the hike!

nyc! my favorite place in central park

delaware river anf mt. tammany

rocks along sunfish pond

sunfish pond

camping

i forgot how much i love hiking.

i love just being in the woods (or the bogs in ireland) and just wandering through the mountains and rocks. and just being alive. being super sweaty and gross and loving the moment you get to where you are camping for the night and the feeling of taking off your 30 pound pack is the best thing ever.

the boy and i had a good time hiking this weekend. we planned to be gone for 2 nights, but we changed our plans after the first night and came home saturday afternoon. but it was still a lot of fun :)

we hiked 5.5 miles on friday afternoon, enjoying ourselves walking through the beautiful and quiet woods of northern nj. it was a good hike, despite it being gross outside, yay temperature in the 90s and super humid! we saw a bear, which isn't rare in the area. but it was his first time seeing one, so that was fun. we set up camp and made dinner and just relaxed, before heading to bed. though i've camped a ton of times, i usually don't have a sleeping pad, but it was pretty bad this time without one. so we decided at like 3am, when we were both up that we would just hike tomorrow and not do the second night. i would have been fine, but he was new to camping, so for next time we'll both get sleeping pads to make it better. so saturday we were up and out for our 10 miles to where we left his car. i got to show him two of my favorite places along the trail in nj - sunrise mountain and the culver fire tower. which both had gorgeous views. we hiked the 10 miles pretty quickly and we back at the car around 1.30. we then had to go back to get my car and then headed back to my house.

so while we weren't out as long as we planned, we still had fun, and now we know what to do for next time.

other than that i had a pretty quiet weekend. sunday went up to see some of my mom's family for the afternoon and enjoyed that, as i haven't seen them in a while. i'm looking forward to this week. one of my good friends from ireland is in the states for the summer, so we are going into nyc tomorrow and hopefully see a show and then wednesday we are going hiking in the gap. we are going to do my favorite mt. tammany and then sunfish pond, to make for a nice day hike. so i'm super excited to see her!

and todays plans include the library! yay books, continuing to clean the disaster that is my room and starting to lesson plan. whoooo!

yay for the appalachian trail!

view from culver's fire tower... my fav spot on the at in jersey

sunrise mountain, another favorite in nj.

the boy and i

i'm teaching high school, i'm not the student!

so i still love the state of nj. they are making it super fun for me and my school to get my nj teaching certificate. so i had to run up my substitute teaching certificate to the school as a backup, because i probably won'y have my teaching one in time. grrrrrrrrrrrr! i love how they are so rediculous! and it wasn't like i planned on teaching in nj - i only applied to 2 schools in the state and there was no way i was paying the $190 certificate fee if i didn't have to.

and omg, was it raining today!! like from alllll night to 4pm just constant rain :(

how did i live in ireland for 2 years?

so my dad and i were running a few errands and i was driving... so we are at the drive thru at the bank. and as we are getting the envelope, she goes to me. driving with dad? did you just get your permit.... i burst out laughing and said, i'm 24. i've been driving for 8 years now.

it made both of us laugh pretty hard!

yay for being mistaken for a 16 year old, when i'm going to be teaching them in a few weeks!

and so as i've mentioned i'm in the process of cleaning out my room. and i'm a maajor saver. like i save everything. so it is quite a process and i'm trying to consolidate and not have as much stuff. so right now it looks as a tornado hit my room, but i'm doing a good job, i'm on like garbage bag 7 and 2 bags of clothes/shoes for donation. and tonight i had fun going through some stuff from college but more fun was my camp stuff.

i went to a girl scout camp for 6 summers and worked there for 3, so i have a lot of stuff. each summer i worked i had a staff manual, plus the end of the summer staff book with funny memories and camp love. plus countless song books, cookbooks and other random camp stuff. so it was fun to go through the 3 staff books and remember people and the funny stories and remember whens. i was good though, i finally got rid of the staff manuals but saved each weeks schedule and so i have a small folder for each summer. but i loved looking back and remembering. i had some of the best times of my life at camp. i made some of my best friends and camp was a huge part of who i was my jr/sr year of high school and freshman year of college. i miss singing around a campfire, waterfront hill, the craziness of the dining hall, counting trees, sitting on the porch, cookouts, nicknames, hiking, 1 &20, stargazing, homesickness, and being completely crazy. i miss camp.

backpacking summer 2002

the waterfront

the backpacking/canoeing program in 2003 - sunset over the trail

2002- 2nd year junior counselors at our campfire

but i am super excited to be camping this weekend :) the boy and i (i need to think of a better nickname) are hiking about 20 miles and enjoying the gorgeousness of the appalachian trail in new jersey!

hope everyone has a fabulous weekend :) any good plans?

hot, hot, hot

i can't believe i start work in two weeks! eeeek! trying to enjoy the next two weeks before i start my teacher orientation and then school! i'm excited, but at the same time i really need to sit down and start to look at my books and the curriculm and figure out what i want to do. any advice for a first year teacher on the first few days?

last week at the shore was pretty awesome :) i read 8 books in the 4 days, and it was fabulous. i loved sitting on the beach, hearing the surf and just soaking up the sun and just not worryint about anything.

i haven't been up to that much the last few days, but i am in the process of cleaning my room. like i haven't really lived at home in 6 years since i graduated from high school, sooo i have a lot of work to do. my goal is to get rid of a lot of things and just get organized. i also bought a desk, so i'm excited to put it together and get that set up! i'm moving around some furniture and like rediculously cleaning. i did the closet today! it was a scary place, but it now looking soooo much better!

i did have a good weekend though, sunday i went down to pennsylvania to see the boy :) he works part time at a local museum doing tours, so it was fun to see the house, that i hear so much about. and it is absolutely amazing! and then we just went to dinner and hung out. but i am sooooo excited for this weekend. we are going backpacking friday to sunday on the appalachian trail in nj!

and backpacking is one of my favorite things! so i am sooo excited, as i haven't been hiking since i left ireland! and it has been forever since i was on the AT and camped! and i finally got the excuse to buy a bunch of gear :) i think i was most excited though about the ny-nj appalachian trail guide and maps. i've loved this book since my first hike on the trail when i was 12, and now i own a copy! yay! and i've also bought a tent, a itty bitty camping stove, a water filter/purifier, and other random little things i needed. but i looove it. and i'm excited to share something i love to do so much with the boy. he is also pretty excited too :)

and summer has finally made its way up to nj! for the first day this summer (and apparently since april) it reached 90 here in nj! luckily for me it was warmer in dc than in nj, but i still can't believe it is almost halfway through august! eeeek!

so hope everyone is having a good week!

cause down the shore everything's alright

i'm at one of my favorite places in the world, the jersey shore :)

i'm with my brother and parents here until thursday and i'm planning to maximize the beach time as we are only here a few days. the weather looks to be good for the time we are here, yay! i only got like 2 hours yesterday, but today i was a little beach bum!

i have my huge stack of books and i'm ready to just read and lie out and take walks on the beach.

though there were millions of little baby jellyfish all along the waters edge. and i HATE jellyfish. they are only like the size of a dime, but they are clear and all squishy and omg, trying to walk though them to get to the water was soooooo gross! i was trying my best to not freak out, so hopefully it is better tomorrow.

and yesterday i had a fun adventure with the nj department of education. i'm trying to get my maryland certificate transfered over and seriously, nj is the most annoying state to do anything with! i sent in my stuff almost a month ago, and i was calling today because their website still said incomplete, so i was wondering if it hadn't been recieved or what... so i called and last time it was a major pita, so i was prepared for it. so it took me 15 minutes to not get a busy signal, and then i was on hold for 55 minutes. so it is 4.50 and i was like i better get to talk to someone, as they close at 5. so at 4.53 it rings, yay! only for them to hang up on me. i was floored. and soooooo pissed. i just wasted the last hour when i could have been lying on the beach to have them hang up on me. luckily when i went online last night, i checked out their website and my application finaaaaaaaly says in process. i've been checking it multiple times every day the last 10 days. so hopefully that means i'll get my certificate soon!

this morning we went for a bike ride along the boardwalk, something we've done since i was little and tonight we are going to the boardwalk which should be fun. i'm just enjoying my beach time, and getting tan! and i haven't become a lobster yet! yay!

ohhh, and my little just became engaged! i am soooooo happy for her! her fiance is fabulous and they are in the process of buying a house and i wish them the best! yay!!!!

august?!?

so first off, omfg it is august already? this year is just totally flying by! and i don't know how i feel about that!

so being home is an adjustment, but one i am going to make for a few months. i don't want to live at home, but for right now that is the plan. my plan is to see how things are once i start working, but ultimately i want to move out around christmas. my parents want me to stay home longer and save but, i just don't see it working out well. i want my own place, i want to decorate and know that when i come home from work it will be quiet and neat, not my crazy fam, plus we only have 1 bathroom and it will be a 45 minute commute to school each day, so nooot looking forward to that.

but for now i'm going to enjoy the month i have left of summer. first day of school is september 1st!

eeeeek!

i'm quite excited about that though, but i have tons to be doing. i went up to the school the other day to fill out some paperwork and sign my contract! yay! now i'm just waiting on the stupid state of new jersey for my certificate. but the school said they would try to get it expedited, as they are sooo bloody slow and make the process so complicated!

so yea, just been cleaning and trying to get my room organized, but i want to completely get rid of a looot of stuff, as what i've done the last few days was just putting things into piles as i haven't really been home in 2 years. so just trying to make sense of the storage facility that my room had become.

but the boy came up to visit yesterday :) oh, and this is a new thing. we worked together in dc, so i've only known him for about 7 weeks. and one of the many things he did was to quickly met the fam. it was only a quick greet as my dad was heading off to work and my mom was in and out, and sister even stopped by to check him out. so we had a good day, despite the rain :( i attempted to take him to my favorite place in jersey, but the weather was crap. and we just drove around and hung out. though he is teaching me to drive stick... so that was funny. i didn't do as bad as i thought i would, but the 2 feet thing is haaard! i was sad to see him leave, but i'll see him again next weekend :)

aaannnd i turned 24 on thursday!

yay :)

didn't do anything much, but went out to dinner with my parents and talked to a lot of my friends. but in honor of gaining another year i like to look at the goals i set back in january and see how i've done and i think i've been pretty good so far this year.

of my goals

-be happy - omg yes, i feel like i haven't been this happy with my life in a while so hopefully this continues

-more healthy lifestyle - thiiis i could use some work on. i was good while in cork, but in conn and dc working redic hours i let this slide, but my goal for the fall is to do 3 5ks and a 10k and to run/bike on a regular basis.

-enjoy my last 3 months in ireland - those 3 months jan-march were a blast, between traveling and soaking up every second with friends, they were fabulous and i was sad to leave.

-travel as much as possible - well i went all over ireland with amy, spain, italy, dublin, and then some traveling in ct/boston and then dc/nyc. so i'd say i was good. hopefully i'll get to do a little more this fall and throw in a few weekend road trips to see friends.

-find a teaching job for september - YAY! though i was beginging to think this was a lost cause.

-find a fun summer job - check! i had the best 7 weeks in dc with my job and i missss it.

-start my "big girl" life - ummm, not yet... give me another month and possibly??

-keep in better touch with fam/friends - ummm, yeaa. though the last month of working redic hours has made it hard, i'm going to continue working on this and not let my emailing slide. though holly and i have been really good about letters.

-be more crafty - this needs some work. though i am excited to scrapbook now that i can!

- continue reading history books - kiiiinda. though i have a nice big stack of history books to read.

-edit thesis for journal publication - hahahaahahahaha, nooope.

-save money - yea, i've been pretty good with that, so just keep saving.

some things i'd like to add are:

-keep myself grounded in my first year of teaching

-read 75 books in 2009. i am at 34, the last two months i haven't read :(

-do 3 5ks and a 10k

- keep positive and continue loving life

so i'm off to the jersey shore on monday for a few days with my parents and i am sooo excited to sit by the beach and read for 4 days. and do absolutely nothing but read, enjoy the sun and take long walks on the beach. yay!