Bingo and Bundts

I’m back in College Station and semi back into the usual routine. I got back in town Monday afternoon and classes started Tuesday bright and early at 8am. I am really excited about my classes this semester and can’t wait until I get to go to the elementary school in 2 weeks. My professors seem really nice… always a plus! This semester I am going to have about 90 million projects and lesson plans… which isn’t thrilling but I can’t wait to get started on them!

It has been super good to see all of my friends, especially my wonderful roommates! We have been so chatty this week which is probably a good thing since we will most likely get much more busy as we get further into the semester! Last night Katherine and I went to BINGO with Matt and a few of his friends! We had SO much fun! I never knew how intense Bingo was! They call the numbers out about every 5-8 seconds and you have 12 cards to check… let me just say, you get a little dizzy! Oh ya… and if you don’t call “bingo” after the number you win with it doesn’t count!!! Unfortunately no one we knew won but we still had a super good time! Then we met up with Jillian and had frozen yogurt… delish! Today Jillian and I went on a cleaning spree and cleaned almost the whole house… including our carpets (or as Hayden now calls it Maroon Madness… I have to agree with that name for sure). Also, I was so tired of our makeshift doormat that I went to Pier1 and bought this really cute rug! It just adds a little color to our house! Then we decided we wanted to make Katherine’s Camp Cake (chocolate chip bundt cake). To make ourselves feel less guilty about eating a cake we rode our bikes to HEB to get the ingredients we were missing. It was definitely worth it! Best cake I have EVER eaten!

The not so fun, but still exciting, part of my week was a meeting I had on Wednesday morning. This meeting was to talk about our field placements at the elementary schools and registering for the teacher certification exams. The stuff about field placements was fine and dandy… but the certification exams, not so much. EK! This just made me realize how close I am to actually taking these tests and how much studying I need to do… add that on top of all of my projects I mentioned earlier. I will probably be taking the Generalist EC-6 test in late March and the ESL test in late April! I just found out this week that I qualify to take the ESL exam, which hopefully I can pass and become ESL certified! That is definitely a plus in the teaching market at this time! I just got really stressed out about this because of all the unknowns… Any teachers out there with study tips PLEASE let me know! :)

Also, I find out on Tuesday what school and what grade I will be in this semester. Last semester I was in a 5^th grade classroom. That wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I learned a lot. I am just hoping this semester I am with the younger students. We will see!

Overall this has been a great first week of school… especially since it was so short (thanks to Martin Luther King)! This semester is going to be incredibly long (with tons of work) but incredibly short (last semester in CS yikes) … However, I think it is going to be a good one! 

6 years!

Time sure does fly when you are having fun! I can’t believe Matt and I have been dating for six years. To put that in perspective… When we started dating, Matt couldn’t drive and I still had braces.

To “celebrate,” Matt and I are going to Dallas this evening to have a nice dinner and then heading downtown to Reunion Tower (THE BALL!) to have dessert! I have wanted to go to the ball for a long time now and I am so excited that we are actually going!!

Here is a little blast from the past… just for fun :) 

Spring of 2006 ... (this is the earliest picture I can find)

Homecoming 2006

Christmas 2007

Fall of 2008

Spring of 2009

Summer of 2010

January 2011

Summer of 2011

January 2012 ... (making funnel cakes!)

Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.

Colossians 3:14

BUT, one of the BEST parts about today is actually what is happening tomorrow! Matt’s dad is arriving home from Afghanistan. He will be in the US for about 2 weeks. He has been gone since September so we can’t wait to see him!!  

Photo Coaster Pinspiration

Thanks to Jillian Anderson, I am addicted to Pinterest! I have always loved doing little crafty projects and Pinterest provides so many ideas! The best part is when I am able to follow through and try some of the wonderful ideas out. For Christmas, I got a couple of my gift ideas from Pinterest. My favorite is these Photo Coasters (click link for full tutorial).

This little project was so easy and turned out so cute!
Here are a few extra tips...

• I got my tiles at Home Depot for less than $5 (they came in a set of 9 which was unfortunate because I didn't need that many... but since they were so inexpensive it was okay... I will just use them for another set of coasters)
• Printing on the tissue paper can be pretty tricky... but don't give up! It really helps to tape the tissue paper to paper like the tutorial suggested to help feed it through the printer (I think it would be nearly impossible without doing this). I didn't have any card stock so I used regular computer paper instead (which worked fine). Next time I will make sure I have card stock and see if that works better. 
• In stead of printing out a 4x6 photo, I cropped my photos to 4x4 so I could see exactly what it would look like.
• I used the gloss modge podge and glossy clear coat and they worked really well.  
• Instead of using felt on the back of the entire coaster, I cut a small circle piece of felt (like what you would but on the bottom of chair legs) into fourths and placed each piece on the four corners of the coasters. 

Here is how my coasters turned out!

This is the back of the coaster like I was talking about in the tips.

This great little craft was so fun, inexpensive, and turned out really cute! My mom loved them when she opened them on Christmas morning. I highly suggest trying this project!

2012!

I created this blog almost a year ago, however this is my first post. I keep thinking of things I could write about on my blog, but I never get around to actually doing it. I have decided what better time to start than the New Year! So here I go!

2011 was a big year for me with tons of traveling and the beginning of my senior year in college, but I have a feeling 2012 is going to be even bigger and better. I will complete my undergraduate classes in May and begin student teaching in the fall. I will graduate from A&M with a bachelor of science in Interdisciplinary Studies in December! I feel like I just started college and now we are officially in the year that I will graduate. Right now December sounds like it is really far away… but I am expecting it to come very fast! This year I will have a lot of “big girl” decisions to make like where I want to student teach and where I want to be after I graduate. It is going to be a very exciting time. On top of becoming a teacher, I have set several goals for myself to accomplish throughout this year. I thought it would be fun to list them on here because #1 I will be able to remember them and #2 so I can hold myself accountable.

12 Goals for 2012

1. Graduate from college… (should be easy… right?)
2. Get a job teaching … (this one is kind of a duh! but with the way jobs in the teaching field are going this one could be tough)
3. Eat healthier… (avoid fast food, sodas, and fried foods)
4. Begin a regular exercise schedule… (occasionally I go for a run, but I want to be more consistent)
5. Run a 5K, 10K, and a half marathon … (eek. This may be hard because of how busy I am going to be this year, but there is no excuse not to get this done! This was one of my goals for last year… I ran a 5K but never made it to the 10K or the half.)
6. Be positive ALL of the time! … (this is something I harp on a lot because I think it is one of the most important qualities of being happy… but sometimes I struggle with being positive in stressful situations.)
7. Be patient … (this includes all areas of my life… school, family, friends, and faith)
8. Be spontaneous … (or maybe even plan-taneous)
9. Go on fun dates … (this kind of goes along with spontaneous)
10. Do my hair and make up more … (aka don’t look like a zombie when I go to class)
11. Communicate more with my friends that don’t live near me … (this is so hard but it is something I HAVE to get better at!)
12. Strive to live and love like the Lord has taught us to.

P.S. Here are a couple of fun photos from New Years! 

Photo credits to Matt Nelson! 

http://gallery.me.com/gtbzz85#100349&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=10