lately

life in all of it's iphone photo glory, from morning coffee and first birthday parties to reuniting with girlfriends and fall finally making its grand entrance.  welcome back october.

  

  

    

  

  

iSpy with my little eye

life lately (and labor day weekend) according to my instagram photos.

 
 
 
 

yummy leftovers from boyfriend's momma.

bright and sunny reupholstered chair.

"it's what teacher's do, carrying things in boxes."
spending my evening crawling after my niece = priceless.

congratulatory ice cream cake from DQ.

like grandpa like grandaughter.

best breakfast buddy in town.
#quote #inspiration #truth.

 



juggling act

 
 

 

best friend love.
double duty, getting work done.

sweet pictures of baby niece are the perfect thing to wake up to.

best friend and a little girl time.

good luck wishes for the first day of school.

thanks to my big sissy for writing such a wonderful fall insprired post last week!
(she is really moving and shaking in this blogging world and now is even considering an etsy shop!
mind-blowing. i'm so proud.)
i can't believe that september is right around the corner. or that the first day of school was yesterday! craziness! but more about that on a day that i'm not scarfing down my cereal and drinking my morning cup of coffee by travel mug (such an appealing picture, no?).

needless to say i've been neglectful. but for such wonderful reasons, i promise.
and i'm meaning this in every which way of life, minus school.
sometimes i need to remind myself that this bloggie isn't my full-time job and just a little (HUGE) part of me that i need to somehow fit in to my day to day life.
it's all about juggling right?

oh hello, saturday

wait what?
i know what you're thinking. who is this girl and why hasn't she posted on her blog.
i apologize to you all and especially to you, little blog, life has just got me a little frazzled these days. setting up an entire classroom in a two week time period - from scratch - is no small task. it is actually no large task either. if setting up a classroom were a ship it would be the titanic. and i may or may not have just barely missed a few icebergs. so please forgive me if my posts are sporadic, or short, or make no sense, or just end up being a giant jumbled mess. hey, a girl can try.

so, to stay with my theme of doing everything off of the norm, i've got for you today my friday letters...errr...on a saturday.

dear job, thank you. thank you for being in my life for this entire up and coming school year. who would have thought i'd be a full time teacher not even a year after graduating. God is good. bring on the kiddos.

dear blog, i may have already said it, but i'm so sorry for neglecting you the past week. hang in there, life is about to get a lot more interesting, and once i get the hang of balancing it all we will have some wonderful things to talk about. pinky promise.

dear fall, hey, i see you're trying to move in with some of these cooler temps (hello only 70 degrees last night). please hurry on up and move right in. my jeans and sweaters greatly miss you.

dear nugget,  i miss your little baby self. can it be labor day already so i can squeeze and hug your little baby goodness. auntie m has lots of new things to teach you (and a new stuffed friend named SkippyJon Jones that wants to play with you and Hungry Caterpillar).

dear phillip phillips, i became obsessed with this song during the olympics and i'll be forever repeating it for the next month or so.

p.s. hey olympics, i miss ya, wanna come back in my life sooner than four years?

perspectives and chocolate milk

tank h&m; skirt aerie by american eagle; sandals kohl's (all from earlier this season)

it is amazing what a good nights sleep can do to one's perspective. i went to bed in a terrible mood. and that mood was amplified by the fact that i didn't fall asleep until probably well after 12:30 a.m. but when i woke up (besides contemplating why i had a dream about chocolate milk) i felt a wave of unbelievable gratitude. a shift in perspective by about a million degrees. a sense of calm.  the sunshine that was streaming in my window certainly helped as well.

this little number in all of its poor photographic glory was worn one night on vacation. it was hard to narrow down which maxi skirt i wanted to take along with me but i definitely made the right decision. light-weight, breezy, i could just eat it up!

speaking of eating, err drinking. time for that glass of chocolate milk.
to catch a glimpse of a few more vacation pictures, head on over to my sissy's blog, one more time.

when in rome, do as the romans

  
   
baby S finally learned how to beat the rebel forces with a light saber, and how to rock her very own pair of stunna shades. and sand? pshhh...sand is nothing to little S. she crawls on it like she doesn't have a care in the world.
also, ask her any yes/no question in the book -- with a one grunt response for "yes" and two grunt response for "no" and she can answer it.
 
 
 

there is nothing i look forward to more as summer approaches than our family, all together, in one place - the beach. it has been this way for as long as i can remember and it is nothing short of amazing each and every year. this year i was even more excited knowing that this meant ten whole days with everyone i love most and no drives to new york or skype calls to see their faces.
i could ramble on forever about vacation. what we did and all. but instead i'll let the pictures do the talking with a little assistance from some stories.

the stories my family tells, as we are all circled up in the usual seating arrangement that our beach chairs seem to find, revolve around, but are not limited to:

-- my father and his small accident with the paring knife. four stitches later and he is water-banned for at least forty-eight hours. which led to the discussion of the "finger condoms"...which you can only imagine where that led to...i don't make this stuff up.

-- the time my cousin forgot she had nail polish remover on the top shelf in her bathroom and proceed to spill it all in her hair and eyes and face when she had to be in work in ten minutes. oh, and having no idea how it would react to her meds her psychiatrist prescribes her.

-- good cat, good cat, hideous.
-- the trials and tribulations of a pedestrian.
-- bejeweled and bedazzled walkers.

-- the time my aunt j's cat brought a bird in to the house. and it was still alive. and flying.

-- the time my aunt j and uncle j told my dad to pretend he was blind and would walk him and ran him straight in to a pole.

-- conversations my grandmother and grandfather used to have.

-- the time my aunt j went out with some of the cousins and my aunt k. the "low" song came on. and everyone went low (and my aunt j, can't get low unless she has some assistance - thus she demonstrated). and when they all came up a lady emerged high above the crowd as if she was being carried. it was my aunt k.

-- that one time my cousin picked up a girl at a gas station and fed her triscuits.
-- that one year that my uncle decided to wear a speedo and pose baywatch style on the beach for all to see.

         

p.s. if you'd like to see more of my vacation, which i know you do, 

visit my sister over here on her blog!