Time to read

It was a very unusual January with about 7 snow days! The beauty of these snow days was the time I got to read!! I have always enjoyed reading, but most of the time I just read a few pages before bed. During all these snow days I was able to read 4 new books! The whole Divergent series by Veronica Roth really had my attention, and I think it's a good thing I find these books after they are all published because I don't know how I would have been able to wait for book 3 especially! After finishing those, I popped off one quick girly romance just in time to head back to work. I have to say I am extremely thankful my parents were both solid readers, they really encouraged a life long hobby and love!

Healthy and happy

This post is a little late, because I fell asleep on the couch last night!
Mondays Happy thought for the day was about my health and strength. I feel like I have probably posted a fair amount about working out lately. After a mostly relaxing day (yet another snow day) and running errands, last night swim practice was cancelled, so I did a home workout. I use an app on my phone that is basically high intensity intervals for a set time. It tells me when and what I have to do. It's great.

But while the workout was kicking my butt last night, I was thinking about how happy exercise makes me, and how thankful I am for my health, and that I keep getting stronger and stronger. Although I might have to accept my limits sometimes, like I can't run as fast, or jump as much, or swim as hard.... I keep improving, and thats all I can hope for!

That winning feeling!

When I compete in swimming, and triathlons, I am doing it for me. I like the challenge. They are both something that is physically difficult for me, and I push myself to get better. When I compete in sailing, it is a little different.  Its not the same intrinsic feeling of getting a personal best. But I have this competitive side... which anyone who knows me are probably laughing and nodding just reading this! But when I swim and do triathlons... I am not worried about the placing as much as I do in sailing. With Triathlons.. usually there are so many people that I don't expect to be as fast, and with swim meets, there are so few, that when you win out of 2 it doesn't feel the same. But that great feeling comes when you finish and you see your time, and you realize "hey I just did that better than ever before!!" Or, in your heat for swimming, you hit the wall first, and see that little 1 next to your lane. Although the people next to you may be in different age groups, or male, its such an amazing feeling to look up there and see the 1 plus a great time!! Today I was able to get a PR in 2 of my events, and placed 1st in my heat in one or 2 of them. Such a great feeling. And I got to share it with the support and excitement of our Lakewood swim group. We cheered for each other, congratulated each other, and supported each other. Overall... a pretty great day!!

Best Saturday Mornings

Most people consider Saturday mornings great when they get to sleep in, make a nice breakfast, enjoy some time at home before beginning their day. Not me. I've never been a sleep in person. As a kid and even a college kid... I was usually awake by 7 or 8 am. Now as an adult, I am lucky if i can sleep in past 7/730!

So what do I do on saturday mornings? Head to swim practice and then often get some brunch after. Nothing motivates you to get through a 730 am 3500-4000 yard practice like the promise of breakfast and friends!!

It also made me think, I have developed a group of girlfriends based solely on working out and food! That's what we do together, and I love it! We run, we swim, we bike, and we eat. Occasionally we might throw in other activities, but those are our go to's! These girls are also great because they are encouraging, pushing and fun.

Happy thought for the day- friends go a long way!

Sunday- we meet up again for a swimmeet!

Keeping the Living Room Warm

After our last super cold spell a few weeks ago, we learned that sometimes our first floor radiators just dont get the heat spread throughout the rooms like in the bedrooms. We didn't turn the heat up, just kinda dealt with a cold living room (and i spent most of a day in the bedroom!)
But my dad came up with the idea of putting a fan near a radiator to get the air moving. So this morning, I suggested that to Corey, and he seemed a little doubtful. We both kinda thought the fan would have to be behind the radiator to push the air out... and we don't have the room between the wall and a unit. So, before corey left, he took our window exhaust fan we use in the kitchen and put it on top of one of the radiators. 1 hour later, it was shocking how much warmer the dining room and living room were!!
On the plus side, the radiators don't have to kick on as much which may mean in the long run we will save a little gas (maybe it won't matter because of the energy spent using the fan, but I'm thinking less of two evils!!)

Hope everyone had a good Friday- I know I enjoyed yet another "cold" day and lounged around the house!

"Cat" nap

Had a little bit of a headache off and on today, so when I got home I had intentions of laying down and maybe reading. Well, a nap immediately ensued! But what I loved was that in seconds of me laying in bed, my awesome cat jumps up, starts purring and climbs right on top of me to nap with me! My cat, Gitta, never ceases to amaze me. She's probably one of the most friendly cats I know, loves people and loves both playtime and sleep equally. Maybe only loves food more!! I have had cats almost my whole life, but this one I feel is the most incredible. Her personality is just so fitting with Corey and I. Love her!

Now I'm headed to bed (pjs on backwards, dreamin of a snow day!)

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

Fresh Lake Erie Perch... doesn't get much better!

This past weekend Corey headed up to the bay to ice fish all weekend. Everyone he was with had a successful weekend, so in turn he came home with a few walleye and several perch. So tonight we fried up the perch for an easy dinner. Honestly, had more than we could eat in one sitting, but it was certainly good! Meant to take a picture, but then again, I am one of those people that feel like we see too many pictures of peoples meals on social media. So, use your imagination... imagine about 12 perch lightly fried up with just some flour and pepper, sitting on a plate! There ya go!
Finished the night off with a ride on the bike trainer for an hour. Loving this app i found last year that sets me up with intervals and beeps at me when its time to change gears so I don't have to do any thinking!

Thankful for the fresh fish, and looking forward to the Walleye dinner tomorrow night! 

Sometimes a compliment helps (tuesday)

Today was pretty much an ordinary day, students were good, classes went fine, came home and got some work done for a foundation I am on. I headed to a board meeting for this foundation, and I will admit, some days it takes a lot out of me. I have been on this board for several years, and am starting to feel my time is up. I have spent the past year as secretary, and have to admit, I feel like I could have done a better job. There are still loose ends I am trying to tie up. As tonight's meeting wore on, I felt myself getting frustrated, wanting to keep things moving. I know I am guilty of talking too.. :-) Then came the issue that I wish to retire from the secretary position. And no one steps up to the plate. I get it, i really do... everyone already has a lot on their plate. So as I am feeling like I am going to be continuing in this position, someone asks to clarify that I am JUST retiring from the position not the board, and I hesitated. Because, honestly I am not sure my heart is in it anymore. But the light in the tunnel at least for tonight's meeting was someone looking me in the eye and saying they really appreciate me being on the board and my strong personality is an asset. Thank you. Sometimes it helps to hear the little things. And to anyone reading this, who I may have snapped at during said meeting, Sorry...I get impatient when I am tired! ;-)

Sunday fun day (version 1)

There isn't much better than a Sunday with knowing Monday is a day off! One thing that is better is getting to fully enjoy the day with a good book, and the time to read it! Started the day off with a great workout downtown (cold run and then good swim). Then came home and spent the day with the goal of finishing the book I started a day or two before.

If you haven't read Divergent yet, highly recommend it! Fast read, interesting story, and has that futuristic "what could happen" story line. It's similar to Hunger Games but I think this one is a little better written. I like the main character a little more. It is slated to come out as a movie this year, so do the right thing and read it before you see it! 

Thankful for the time to enjoy a good book! 

Finding something lost

So I forgot to post last night before I fell asleep, so I am getting in my post now!
My Saturday was a fairly uneventful saturday.. swim practice, breakfast with friends, laundry, reading, dinner with friends then bed!
But one thing that stuck out was the feeling of finding something you thought was lost! So I am headed to go snowboarding tomorrow. And Yesterday I figured it was a perfect time to go through the closet and gather up my stuff. Now, last time I thought I checked, it was all in there in a bag, so I figured it should be pretty easy! Ski pants- check, gloves- check, coat- check, helmet- check, goggles... uh oh! So I tear apart the whole closet. Which in itself is probably a good thing! I was able to reorganize, throw away stuff that we had been holding on to, put things in other places they belonged! So I message Corey, hoping he saw them, or borrowed them or something. No luck. Starting to panic! Start looking online at cost of new goggles.. uh oh!
But then, he mentions just checking the basement just in case. and BAM!! There was a whole other bag with gloves and stuff and my goggles!! woot!! Now it's mostly more organized, I have everything I need for tomorrow, and I don't need to go shopping today!! Love that feeling of finding what you were about to give up looking for!!

Friends

To say that I'm thankful for friends would truly be an understatement. My friends mean the world to me. They have been there for me through good and bad and all the cliches you can think of.

I have a fair amount of people in my support system and I love each and everyone of them. But tonight, I'll stick to simply saying I'm thankful for my friends who push me. Some push me mentally, some push me musically, some push me physically ( ok not physically push me, but get me to push myself! )

Without those friends I wouldn't be who I am today. 

So thank you, to each and everyone of you. And thank you to my triathlete girls for a great bike trainer workout in my living room tonight!!!

More snow!

Call me crazy, but I enjoy living in the north eastern US because we have seasons! There are a few months of hot (which I love), there are a few months of cool temps (which is the wonderful break from the hot), there is spring (which I am indifferent to, other then the flowers that pop up in my backyard,) and then we have winter. Cold, snowy, short day winter. I love winter as much as I love summer. I get a little excited everytime I see snowflakes.  Whether it's the first ones of the season, or a return snow flurry after 2 weeks of heavy snow- I am happy to see it! Today at dismissal we opened the door to some light snow, and it made me smile. Sure it can have its dilemmas of traffic but overall I am a fan!!

Students make me laugh

As I realized I needed to write today's blog post, I started thinking, ok, I was in a pretty good mood all day, nothing really seemed to stand out. Classes went smoothly, swimming practice was good. Nothing really made me switch gears and remember the positives. But then I remembered... my students. They make me laugh....A lot. This year at one of my schools I truly enjoy the 8th graders. I have known many of them since they were 3rd graders when I first started at the school, and some of them really are great kids. There are some odd ducks, and some that push the limits, but then there are some that just bring a smile to my face. I enjoy that I can get laughs out of them too. They seem to be a little weirded out when they walk by and I say "Sup?" to them! (That's prob my favorite "i know I'm a dorky teacher, but I'm gonna say it anyways" greeting!) Today at lunch duty, a few 8th grade boys were joking around, and I was able to give it right back to them. In a class later, a student managed to side track me into a off topic conversation for almost half the class, but I wasn't even mad about it! We still managed to get a little of our lesson completed!
I have had moments this year where I have felt like I am forgetting to do things in the classroom, but today was a day that made me realize sometimes the relationship with the student is just as important as everything else we are trying to teach them! So, thank you to my students for making me happy today!

Thank you mom.

Today I am missing my mom. A lot. But I can't dwell on how much I miss her. So instead I'll do a brief post about one of the many things I loved about her. Really I could write for days on all the amazing things my mom meant to me. And I am sure over the remaining 352 (approximately) posts I will mention her amazingness again!

But tonight I'll talk about how thankful I am that she taught me to love the water. My mom loved the water. She loved sailing, swimming, listening to the waves, watching the lake change and so much more. And she has passed that passion on to me in every way possible. Tonight I returned from a great swim practice. And I'm preparing my year for some great swimming and sailing challenges. And although I can't call her or have her come watch my next milestone.... I know she is with me, every stroke, every wave and every race. 

The picture is from about 1985-6? Either Lake Erie or Florida on my grandfathers boat.

Thankful for lazy Saturdays

It's not very often that I have a low key weekend. Usually there is lots planned and just a little time here or there to myself. But I'm very happy that today (and this whole weekend) was relaxed. I was able to go see my students basketball game (which we won by a landslide!) and got to eat my 2nd favorite ice cream. Sadly my very favorite ice cream was discontinued. So some Ben and Jerry's will have to do for now!

Never thought I would say my dentist made my day?

This has been a good challenge for me so far. Although I will admit I have gone to bed a couple times forgetting to post, I have consciously thinking of "what makes me happy today?" Today was one of my tougher days. I've been having some pain in my mouth/jaw/sinus this week, and wasn't sure if it was a sinus infection, or something going on with my teeth, so first I tried to self-diagnose and medicate with some sudafed and ibuprofin. (After determining, ok although jaw pain is a symptom, I am most likely NOT having a heart attack... silly webMD) Long story short- you probably don't need my medical history of the week- no infections to speak of, courtesy of seeing my dr. and my dentist! so Yay!

Ok, so throughout today, while trying to combat this pain and still teach my students, I am thinking "ok, what is good about today?" I could easily wallow in self pity, but I promised myself I wouldn't do that! So here it is, the thing I am thankful for today... my dentist! Back in the fall I finally (long overdue) found a new dentist near home. Went in for some stuff, seemed pleasant enough. Today, I call in around my lunch time and they fit me in immediately! I walk in the door, and before I can even take my coat off, they bring be back, get me situated and start taking xrays and getting organized. I was in and out in quicker than I could even tell my principal I was on my to school, with good news and no huge co pay or outrageous fees!! How many other appointments have you been to like that?

Love it when things go right!

When returning to school on an unexpected day, its pretty much a guarantee that students (and sometimes teachers) will forget what day it is, and what goes on that day. In my case, it tends to be students forgetting their instruments. While I easily had a handful of students in each class forget their instruments yesterday, my highlight of the day was then I had a class of 5th graders (yes 5th graders, the newest to the program) ALL had their instruments!! Granted it's a small class, but I'll take it!! It was better than one of my classes of 8th graders I had in the morning! They also came back with a fairly good memory of everything we had been working on, an we were able to progress past the review I had planned! I will admit, I look forward to that group most of the time because they are so excited to learn in my room each day!

To Work Again...

Alright, so maybe I am only waxing nostalgic because I have managed to have 2 1/2 weeks off from school, but I do really enjoy my job. I have some hilarious kids, some talented kids, some obnoxious kids and some that just make me smile and shake my head! I have an amazing job of getting to teach middle school students how to play instruments. Its noisy, its considered unstructured, principals don't know how to evaluate me, and teachers don't know how to put up with the sounds coming from my room. But honestly, my favorite time of class is the first 5-10 minutes when the kids come in, open up their cases and start playing. I give them "warm-up time" and although some abuse the downtime, some use it productively, and either play something new and different or actually practice what we're working on. Either way, I enjoy hearing that freedom of playing for a few minutes. That is, until the first trumpet plays a sound as loud and high as they can into the ear of a unsuspecting flute or clarinet player and then I have to deal with that!

Tomorrow I return to the classroom after 2 weeks of winter vacation and then 3 bonus snow/cold days. And I am thankful I have a job to return to. I am happy that I have a job I enjoy (and I am happy I don't have to teach any general music classes tomorrow!) Today I reflected on the awesome break that I just had, there was fun, excitement, travel, relaxing, cleaning, eating (lots of eating!) and tomorrow I return to the normalcy of the school year. Time to get back to lessons, grading, assessments; ok, to keep on the positive I will stop listing the chores that have to continue!!

Let's hope tonights "thankful" post about my day tomorrow keeps the positive energy flowing all day. Even through the high chance that 40% of my students will probably forget their instruments since they won't know what day it is!!

Mondays

When you have an unexpected day off on Monday it is a pretty nice feeling. Gone is the feeling of "ugh, work on a Monday..." And in my case this week, due to the cold, by the time I go back to work on Wednesay, the week is half over!! 

I am thankful of a heated house, a garage that helps keep my car a little warmer and my cat who snuggled with me all day!

Who Wouldn't Want an Extra Day?!

We made it home from FL, and we were not affected by the storm that is predicted to be doomsday 2014! Little bit of rain for the last 2 hours, but considering the snow and ice that the news was saying... I am totally ok with the rain.

So, after spending the last 16 hours in a car, I had plenty of time to think about happy thoughts for the day. And although I am still spinning over yesterdays manatee encounter... today's thankfulness comes from the wonderful text messages that came through at about 7:30 tonight..."SCHOOL IS CANCELLED TOMORROW!" So if you know any teachers, you know this is one of the most amazing messages ever, and to even be told the night before, even better!!

Now you may be thinking "seriously, those damn selfish teachers!" And I understand, in fact, after the wonderful 2 weeks I have just finished, i feel weird having a day off tomorrow. However, I intend to rest up from the long drive, and maybe even do a little school work so that I am more prepared when we actually go back (maybe on wednesday!!)

Driving and vacationing

Yesterday we completed a drive to our vacation destination. My thankful moment came yesterday that I love my boyfriend for driving most of the way and accepting that I just sleep! (I was sleeping too much to get a picture!) 

Today, we swam with wild manatees. I can't even explain the amazing feelings of having a 2 ton marine mammal bump against you and move your hands gently! This amazing experience made me happy, thankful and excited all at the same time. I'm not sure I could even sum it up into one emotion. But basically everything about today made me pretty happy!!

Drove right out of the snow storm!

Left Cleveland in the beginning of a great blizzard this morning. Driving was slow, lots of spun out cars. Tonight, my thankful thought for the day is about us driving safely and making it out of the state to start our mini vacation weekend! 

Happy Memories

So I thought the first joyful post would be so easy. In my head I could make a list so long of things that make me grateful and put me in a good mood. But then, where to start! 

So I start here, with a piece of my past that makes me so nostalgic everytime I look at it. This Christmas bear is 29 years old and is in the stocking that I was wrapped in when I was brought home from the hospital. (I guess that's what happens to Christmas babies!) Seeing this bear makes me thankful of the childhood I had, and brings up happy memories of my parents and family. 

2014, lets go!

 During my junior year at Salve Regina University, the Dalai Lama came to speak to the college community. And the 1 thing that stuck out, that I have remembered since, is his comment about world peace. A student submitted a question about how do we obtain world peace, and after he chuckled, he explained that we really need to work on ourselves before we can work on the world, and that by working on our own happiness, then the rest falls into place. I believe that's true on so many levels. I consider myself a fairly positive/upbeat person. Sure, everyone has their bad days, and over the last 2-4 years I have had more bad days than I thought were imaginable, BUT I always manage to keep going, and I TRY to look on the bright side.  
Often times in November, people start posting comments on facebook about things they are thankful for. And I think its a great trend, but why not the rest of the year? I think it's something that we should all at least think about (if not publicly announce) every day. It would make a lot of people a lot happier!

So although I avoid the term "resolution," I am giving myself a goal for 2014. Every day I will come up with something that makes me happy. It could be something I am thankful for, something I am grateful for, something that makes me smile etc. And I will try to get a picture to go along with it. I will say right now, there is a good chance I might not make a blog entry EVERY single day, but I will at least think about the goal, and have something for each day. So at the end of 365 days from now... I will have a record and something to remind me of all the wonderful parts of my life!!