so ready for may!

can't believe april is already over. the first half of the month went by fast, possibly because i was on spring break; but the last two weeks, omg. so slow. and i am ready for some warm weather and spring. and the end of school and connecticut for the summer. and may is going to be fabulous :) i'm in connecticut this weekend which i need desperately. i need a weekend with my best friend and the awesomeness of connecticut. and i've been told there will be some flip cup, so i'm ready. haha! and may will be awesome with connecticut this weekend, philly the next weekend, baltimore to see my little the 3rd weekend and then boston the 4th weekend in may. so 4 weeks of travel in a row, which i might be crazy for, but i'm getting to see some of my closest friends which i am excited for!

so one of my co-workers and i had a discussion today while on cafeteria duty about friends. she also grew up in the area where we both teach and while i went to maryland for college and ireland, she stayed in nj for college. we were talking about where our friends were from, almost all my good friends are from college with a few from high school and a few from other places. she said her friends were from high school, while a few of them were from college but they are further away. 3 of her good friends like in the area still so they see each other and can meet up easily. she said her college friends live near princeton/hoboken/central jersey and it is just too far. i laughed and was like my close friends live 1.5 hours away! so it got me thinking about friends and seeing them. like for me i don't mind driving to connecticut (about a 3.5 hour drive to amy's), yea i wish we lived closer, but it works. it would be nice to meet for dinner on a weeknight, but weekends away are fun too, and i take what i can get. so do your friends live near you or is it a bit of a travel situation? would you say your friends are from college/high school/work or other places?

so hopefully tomorrow will go fast! anyone have any good weekend plans?

where in the world.... sounio, greece

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

this week i'm back to greece. one of my co-workers who i have lunch with is retiring this year and her and her husband are going to greece & egypt next fall, so we've been talking a lot about greece and it makes me miss it. so here are some of my favs from a little day trip from athens to sounio, a gorgeous little place on the tip of the attica peninsula overlooking the aegean sea where there is the temple to poseidon. my sister and i had a fun afternoon frolicking about the temple and taking a ton of pictures. plus it was extremely gorgeous!

temple and the sea

temple of poseidon

me & poseidon

another view of the temple

so participate with where in the world wednesday and go over to Jess's blog - Classy in Philadelphia and share your link :)

shopping

it was a rough week. i generally had no energy and was just in a blah mood. i didn't have any fun weekend plans, so nothing to look forward to and just felt like i was going through the motions. which is something i hate, because i'm not that kinda person who just goes through the motions, but with school this week, not my best teaching.

lots have been going on personally and at work and i know that had an impact on my week.

monday afternoon i found out about a really bad car accident sunday night that killed someone i graduated high school with and seriously injured 2 others whom i also graduated with. i hadn't talked to these guys in about 7 years, but it is still a shock. so that had my week starting off in a sad mood.

and everything with work has me in limbo right now. i've mentioned a bit about the nj education issues right now, and well tuesday at the budget vote, our budget was voted down by the voters. so who knows how much money we need to cut, and where the money will be cut from. so for the next month i'm in limbo of will i have a job next year. as a first year teacher i'm first on the chopping block, and of the 5 of us hired this year, i'm the only one not to be let go yet, so just keeping my fingers crossed.

but still keeping a positive outlook on life. everything happens for a reason and so far everything has been going pretty fabulously. annnnd i have some sweet news. i will be returning to connecticut for the summmmmer! so excited. i'll be back up and an alternate director of a sailing camp, so pretty psyched for that. i get to be by all my connecticut loves and working at a camp and being outside all the time and on the water. and it will be a nice change from the school year. yay! i am sad about not going back to dc, because i LOVED last summer and the people i met and teaching but it just wouldn't have worked with my schedule. but connecticut! yay!

and summer is getting closer. so close. friday at work while lesson planning i had a minor freakout when i planned the rest of 4th quarter and realized there are 33 school days until finals. and i still have a ton to teach. but on that note i'm pretty much planned for the rest of the year which is nice.

and may is going to be awesome. i'm up in connecticut this weekend! and then the weekend after i think i'm going to a crew regatta in philly and seeing matt, then i'm down in maryland seeing little & glittle for a little zta family reunion, then i'm in boston watching one of my best friends graduate with her masters and seeing a few other philly friends, and then it is memorial day weekend (which i still need plans for) so crazy and a fabulous month.

and it was a quiet weekend, but i still had fun. like i said earlier i was exhausted, so i slept a lot, which hopefully helped. and i watched a ton of how i met your mother. and history channel. loved the "how the states were created" which was all about geography and how states were formed and it was incredibly interesting and now i'm watching the "history of us" which is also awesome. and i did a lot of shopping.

i've been wanting a bike since last summer and i finally got one! i get to pick her up next week!

i can't wait to go bike riding!

and i also went shopping with erin today... and found some shoes! yay! so with the pair i bought last week and the 4 i bought today, i think i'm good for a while. what can i say i love shoes!

yay shoes!!!

so i spent a ton of money this weekend... i also bought my first pair of skinny jeans and a top and a dress from h&m too. so must stop shopping! oh and watched a lot of hockey this week but my silly devils played horribly and lost to the flyers, so we are out of the playoffs.

how was your weekend?

where in the world.... chester river

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

this week i am at one of my favorite places - the chester river. i spent 4 glorious years on the chester river for crew practice. some days in the freezing cold and rain others in the sun, at 6am or 6pm seeing gorgeous sunrises and sunsets and meeting some of my best friends on this river. finding a sport i fell in love with and helping to make college something i loved so much. here are a few of my favs from senior year.

rowing in the casperson cup with my 8

my fav picture from senior year with my senior loves

taken after graduation - i love this shot of the river

about to push off the dock at practice

so participate with where in the world wednesday and go over to Jess's blog - Classy in Philadelphia and share your link :)

hockey

ugh, it is sunday night already. weekends go by waaaaaaay too fast! but this weekend was pretty quiet as weekends go for me. and the next month is going to be awesome and i'll be out of town most weekends so maybe a relaxing weekend is a good idea? i'll be in connecticut, maryland and boston different weekends in may! yay!

anyway i'm watching the devils - flyers hockey playoff game. it is game 3 and so far the series is tied 1-1. and this game is tied 2-2 so far at the 2nd intermission. i've always liked the devils - when i was little i would go to games with my dad (who is a big rangers fan) & grandfather. and i remember them winning the stanley cup in 1995 and then again in 2000 and most recently in 2003, when i was able to go to a playoff game. and then college i didn't really follow hockey and then in ireland, nooope. but now that i'm back i've watched enough games this year and wanted to go to a few, but it just didn't happen. but i've watched their 3 playoff games now, and they have been good! friday's game was intense - i watched it with matt, who is a flyers fan, and he played hockey and now coaches hockey. so that was fun. especially since the devils won! and it was a good game too. so goooo devils!
and the stanley cup ads that they keep showing on the playoffs are awesome - especially this one!

so it was a quiet weekend. went to matt's friday night and yesterday once i got home i didn't do anything. it was such a blah day, like no motivation. i did get some tests graded though, but uugh. i put on a movie and totally fell asleep at like 9.30. and today i ran a bunch of errands and attempted to find cute shoes, but failed. and then i went to panera and had a yummy dinner and did work for a few hours. i'm looking for cute brown & black shoes to wear to work. i found these at target, but they aren't exactly what i'm looking for. i'm trying to replace shoes i've had for years that died at the end of last summer, similar to these but more of a thong style than slip on (does that make sense? i'm horrible when it comes to describing shoes)

the ones i got at target today

i love a lot of the cute sandals but most seem to flip-floppy for what i think i can wear to school. and i'd rather not get yelled at for wearing too causal shoes.

i was also looking for some cute springy/summery skirts but again failed. i want some color and cute patterns. i love my black pencil skirts but i want color for the warm weather. any cute ideas? i love a lot of the jcrew ones, but i just can't spend $100 on a skirt.

but one thing i did get today was a body pillow, which i am super excited about... and just what i don't need when trying to get up at 5am. haha!

anyway, not much going on this week. the usual at school and it should be a good week. and then sunday i am with my zta sisters doing the susan g. komen race for the cure. zta has been a sponsor of race for the cure since 1992 and we participate in most of the races for the cures around the country. so i am excited to be doing the event with my sisters and there will be even more volunteering in different aspects of the day. i could use any support so if you are interested in donating here is my link - http://tinyurl.com/erinracecure

anyway, goooo devils! which is now going into overtime and i need to finish some notes on reconstruction for my sophomores.

how was your weekend?

where in the world.... santorini, greece

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

so i almost forgot it was wednesday until i saw jess's post this morning! so this week i'm in santorini, greece. or as i like to call it, the pants island. santorini is where lena goes in the sisterhood of the traveling pants. in april 2008 my sister and i went on an adventure to greece and santorini was absolutely gorgeous! it was a cute island, with the most amazing views, and great black sand beaches, which were sadly too cold to enjoy. but i saw one of the top 5 sunsets of my life in santorini. so for your viewing pleasure...

gorgeous view coming into the island from the ferry

black sand beaches of perissa

pretty sunset over the caldera night 1

view of the caldera on the last day

favorite picture of greece

gorgeous sunset over oia

so participate with where in the world wednesday and go over to Jess's blog - Classy in Philadelphia and share your link :)

spring!

today it really hit me, spring is here! while it was chilly today, only like 55, the sun was mostly out and it turned out to be a great day! and i'm just really enjoying life. and loving that spring is here!

i had a great day teaching. my students were pretty good and into what we were doing. a few funny jokes and an idea for a project from my juniors. we were talking about the cuban missile crisis and i mentioned that khruschev contacted jfk, and a student jokes - email. i laughed and said, not quite. so he goes, oh yea, he totally facebooks him. so i respond nah, he tweeted him. they thought that was funny, and a few of them jokingly said what the conversation would have been like. so that gave me the idea for a small project i'm gonna have them deal with an international issue in the 1970/80s and have them pick their media (fbook/twitter/gchat.. whatever) and create a dialogue similar to the pride & prejudice one or the romeo & juliet one. it is something fun and i think they will enjoy. and my sophomores today created plans for reconstruction and how to bring the south back after the civil war, each class had some good ideas. so yay that all is going well. and my supervisor gave me my end of year evaluation and it was super positive! and my last observation last week also got a fabulous review. i must continue to saw how lucky i am that i am having a great first year teaching! so yay for that!

and after school today i timed at the track meet, which was a lot of fun. and it made me miss coaching, so hopefully next year i can assistant coach for something else because i really love sports and being involved. and i made a rocking dinner tonight. i absolutely love rice and every time i pull out the box i see a few recipes that look amazing, so i finally made one tonight. it was a simple stir-fry, but sooo good. some chicken, garlic, veggies (i went with peppers & peas), soy sauce and rice. next time i'm going to throw carrots in too.

and look how gorgeous and springy it is here! this was taken sunday when matt and i went hiking at one of my favorite places - the delaware water gap.

annnnd glee is on in 29 minutes!!!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! i listened to the soundtrack while driving home and singing out to my heart's content and i also had a great phone call with one of my best friends. and i think i decided what i want to do this summer, so right now life is pretty awesome! and thanks for all the comments about my trip it was a complete blast and i will be framing the family one, because it is rare for us all to be looking and smiling in a photo

anything you are excited about? or loving life?

historytastic!

so i can't believe it is already april 12th! i feel like it was just april 1st yesterday! maybe because i've been on spring break and traveling so it feels like last week didn't happen? but when writing down things on my calendar i realized how fast things are going this year. i'll be seeing taylor swift in a month! and the eagles/dixie chicks and keith urban in two. and that means there are only two more months of school. and 49 teaching days! craaaazy!

so last week was incredible! almost 90 for most of the week in virginia and going on a historytastic trip. what more could a girl want! so here is my trip in pictures. we went to see my sister at college, richmond, go to see my pen pal holly, monticello, longwood university, appomattox court house, fredricksburg/chancellorsville, dinner with my sister, arlington/dc and i got to see one of my summer friends mj!, and then gettysburg!

sissy and i at the virginia capital in richmond

fam also in richmond

a nice visit to see tjefferson at monticello! absolutely gorgeous!

awesome pic from the museum of the confederacy in richmond. also the confederate white house was INCREDIBLE!

a visit to longwood where zta was founded! (and where my mom went to college)

appomattox court house, va - the house where lee surrendered to grant to end the civil war!

stonewall jackson's arm. he was shot down the road at chancellorsville and his arm needed to be amputated. it was buried a few miles away. and he died a few days later from pneumonia and is buried in lexington, va.

the view of dc from arlington national cemetery.

my brother acting out a 1863 civil war photo from the devil's den in gettysburg...

cemetery ridge at gettysburg... the site of pickett's charge.

it was super civil war! and i can't wait to teach the civil war next year after everything i saw! which i need to wait a year, as i just graded the civil war tests yesterday.

and then matt and i went hiking at the gap yesterday and it was just gorgeous outside!

anyone else up to anything fun? any good adventures?

where in the world.... malaga, spain

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

so i'm actually travelling right now all over virginia while i'm on spring break, but this week i've decided to use some of my spain pictures from january 2009 when amy came to visit me. so we went to malaga, granada and madrid and i'm doing malaga this week. this cute little coast city was glorious and so much fun! amy and i had a few adventures eating, lots of drinking, frolicking along the med sea, playing in moorish forts and just general crazy in a great spanish city!

on the beach along the med. sea

picasso museum! i love picasso!

am and i at la alcabaza

so participate with where in the world wednesday and go over to Jess's blog - Classy in Philadelphia and share your link :)

virginia

whooooohoooo! i'm on spring break and i have off allll next week. tomorrow morning we're off bright and early to drive down to see my sister and have some fun near richmond and then go say hi to tj at monticello and i also get to see holly! and then the civil war spring break tour of 2010 begins! i am quite excited to frolic on the battlefields where grant, lee, jackson, mcclellan, hooker, meade & burnsides all stood. and the history teacher in me is just sooooo excited to have pictures to use in class and to learn more about the battles so i can teach the civil war better. i know, i'm a dork. but i LOVE it!

have a happy easter!