What’s Next?

27 May

I haven’t worked out  in over a week. It’s sort of starting to bother me. I’ve been hopeful that this cold will go away soon, but every morning when I wake up, I have a pounding sinus headache. I’m sure stress is to blame too — there’s no way that it’s speeding up the recovery process.

It just kind of hit me that my wedding is seven weeks away. And that I still have no house to live in. And that I still have a lot to do for the wedding. And no job lined up for the fall. It’s overwhelming, and thinking about everything when I’m sick only makes it worse. Do you feel more anxious when you’re sick? I always do.

via Pinterest

Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who had my life all figured out before I graduated high school. Instead, I spent five years in college with a handful of different majors, and no clear direction in life. Now, one year out of college, I still don’t know what I want to do. I feel like I’m wasting time.

My experience in the 5th grade classroom on Friday went okay. I wasn’t feeling well and it was the kids’ last day of schoolwork (next week is field day and awards), so I spent the day helping them finish projects, take a test and turn in all of their assignments. It was stressful, but it was still much better than the time I used to spend cooped up behind a desk. The frustrating thing is, I feel like I wasted my first year out of college behind that desk. The job that was supposed to help me gain experience and build my portfolio didn’t really help me at all, and now I feel like I have to start all over again. So the question is, what do I do next? I like being in the classroom and working with kids, but do I like it enough to go back to school and earn a second Bachelor’s? That takes time and money. Or do I spend my days applying for random communication positions that I have no real interest in? Or do I pick up a retail job that pays minimum wage and pursue my dream of freelancing on the side? I just don’t know what to do.

I haven’t talked about it too much on the blog, because it’s an issue that only concerns me, but I know I can’t be the only one who has felt this way after college, or in college. I’m not the only one who doesn’t have my career path figured out. Right?

I picked a weird time to quit my job, and it’s only adding to the stress of trying to buy a house and get married. I’m sort of hoping that everything just falls into place when I’m least expecting it — isn’t that how things usually seem to work anyway?

I realize that this post is just a long rant, but it’s something that I needed to get off of my chest. There might be a few more of these as we get closer to the wedding ;) — there are a lot of upcoming changes in my life!

Hopefully, I’ll feel better tomorrow. Exercise is my biggest stress reliever, and I’ve realized how miserable I am without it! Plus, I think I’ve watched a little too much ‘House Hunters’ and ‘My First Place’ for my own good. Fingers crossed that this is the last day that my butt is parked on the couch.

Tell me about your career path after college. Have you always known what you wanted to do?

How are you with change?

 

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Friday Things

25 May

1. The most exercise I’ve gotten this week is a two mile walk around my subdivision — and that was an accomplishment. I was just glad I made it a whole 30 minutes without having to blow my nose.

2. Speaking of blowing my nose, I have officially gone through three boxes of Kleenex in less than one week. I’ve also used my neti pot more times than I can count. If Jordan no longer finds me attractive, I won’t be offended.

3. Today, I am substitute teaching in fifth grade. Quite the opposite of kindergarten, I’d say. My background is in grades K-3, so I’m anxious to see how it goes.

4. I just finished reading this book. I highly recommend it.

5. I plan on starting this book next. It’s written by a blogger, and I just can’t get enough of her family. Read her blog, at least one time. Her photos will make you melt.

6. Sleep and I have not been friends lately. When you agree to substitute teach, you agree to be on-call during early hours of the morning. Waiting for the phone to ring (or not ring) makes me anxious.

7. I recently learned that my fiancé can do a yoga tripod on cue. I, on the other hand, can barely manage downward dog. I mean, really? Life’s not fair ;) .

8. Speaking of yoga, I think it might be time to give it another try. I’ve never been a fan, but it’d be a good way for me to strengthen my arms and abs before the wedding, without the added stress that weight training puts on my body. Bethenny Frankel swears by it… maybe (eventually) I will too?


Do you practice yoga?

How often have you worked out this week?

 

 

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WIAW #5: Out of Town Eats

23 May

Instead of boring you with my breakfasts, lunches and dinners that look very similar, now that I’ve been spending plenty of time at home, I thought I’d let you in on the food that I ate while I was out of town. I must admit, when I go out of town, I don’t always eat the healthiest food. I like to squeeze in workouts when I can, but I’m much more lenient when it comes to what I eat, especially because I’m usually eating out. I think that I kept a somewhat healthy balance this weekend, but you can be the judge. As always, check out Peas and Crayons if you’d like to participate in WIAW.

Saturday Breakfast (8:30am)

After a 30 minute treadmill workout at the hotel gym, I grabbed breakfast from the breakfast bar. I toasted an English muffin and spread half with jelly, half with peanut butter. On the side, I had some strawberry Activia yogurt, and a cup of hot tea to drink. 

Lunch (1:30pm)

After running around and preparing for the shower, I was more than ready to eat when it was time. I helped myself to big servings of both the kale & Brussels sprout and fruit salads, and finished my plate off with one turkey wrap and a few pieces of sushi. I probably could’ve gone back for more, but brides can’t eat too much I had to save room for a piece of vanilla cake with cheesecake filling.

Dinner (7:30pm)

By the time dinner rolled around, my throat was achy (the beginning signs of my cold), but I was still hungry and knew I needed to eat something besides sugar. Before heading back to the hotel, my sisters, mom and I went to one of my favorite Michigan restaurants, Olga’s. I had the grilled chicken Olga — basically, a pita filled with grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and plain Greek yogurt. The yogurt is what makes the sandwich! Curly fries came on the side.

Dessert (8:30pm)

Remember how I said I didn’t need anymore sugar? Well, that thought didn’t last for long. After dinner, my sisters and I were craving something sweet, and I needed something cool to soothe my throat. Since we don’t have one near us at home, we made one last trip to Ritter’s. I had a coconut chocolate chip “Glacier” (similar to a DQ Blizzard, but with frozen custard). Sidenote: If you’ve never tried frozen custard, do it (at least once in your lifetime). It’s good.

Sunday Breakfast (9:30am)

When we went down for breakfast on Sunday morning, the room was packed and the food was picked over, so we decided to check out of the hotel and grab something on the way home. We made a quick stop at Panera, where I ordered a bagel with bacon, egg whites and cheese. I also grabbed a cup of hot tea from the hotel before leaving.

As you can see, it wasn’t the healthiest of weekends, but I was there for a celebration, and I don’t regret my food choices. Now, if I can just get over this cold and back into my workout routine, I will feel better :) .

Do you save treats for the weekend?

Do you feel guilty if you indulge too much?

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Productivity at Its Finest

22 May

For the past day and a half, my view has looked like this.

My cold has gotten the best of me. I spent yesterday glued to the couch, and though I’m feeling a little better today, I still don’t have the energy to do much. In fact, it’s difficult to do much when I need to have a box of Kleenex by my side at all times. I think all of the recent changes in my life have caught up to me, and this is my body’s way of telling me to slow (my mind) down. So, that’s what I’m trying to do.

Spending time on the couch has allowed me to spend a lot of time on my laptop. Since I’m pretty much in full wedding mode at this point, I’ve spent too much some time looking up fun wedding things.

For the honeymoon… but in white

When my cousin got married, she wore a cute “Bride” sweat suit on the morning of her wedding. In fact, it was the same sweat suit that Bethenny Frankel wore on her wedding day. It’ll be too hot for me to wear sweatpants in July, but I think I can pull off a “Just Married” bikini on our honeymoon. I’ll take the risk of looking cheesy ;) .

And then, thank you to CafePress.com, I found these gems.

Believe it or not, I am not being sarcastic. Who doesn’t love a cute/funny t-shirt? Perfect airport attire, I’d say. They might even help us get upgraded to economy plus, you never know ;) .

Clearly, I’ve had a productive day.

How do you keep yourself entertained when you’re at home, sick?

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Michigan Bridal Shower Dress

21 May

Since so many of you commented on the dress that I wore to my bridal shower (thank you very much!), I thought I’d do my very first fashion post, inspired by Julie’s fashion posts.

Dress: American Eagle

Shoes: T.J.Maxx (see the full shoe in this post)

Necklace: Kay Jewelers (gift from Jordan)

If I keep these posts up, maybe I’ll get better at posing (not so awkwardly) ;) .

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A Michigan Bridal Shower

21 May

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I am originally from Michigan, and that is where the majority of my family still lives. So, instead of having my side of the family’s bridal shower in Indiana, my mom and I decided that it would make more sense to drive up there. And that is exactly what we did on Friday morning.

After a long day of substitute teaching on Thursday, I was looking forward to getting away for the weekend. Around 9:00 on Friday morning, my mom, sisters and I packed up and began the five hour drive. The shower was being held in the dining room of my grandma’s condo complex, so we had a few things to take care of when we arrived in the afternoon. Instead of stopping at the hotel, we decided to drive straight to the sushi restaurant to order a platter of sushi for Saturday, and then we went to my grandma’s condo to meet up with the coordinator and discuss all of the details. They were very accommodating and provided all of the linens, plates, cups and silverware, which made things much easier on us! We spent the rest of the evening catching up with my aunts and cousins, who came into town early for the shower. And before we went back to the hotel to go to bed, we made sure to make a stop at Ritter’s Frozen Custard.

The perfect ending to an already great day :) .

On Saturday morning, we had an early wake-up call so we could get everything ready for the shower. My sister and I hit up the hotel gym for a quick sweat session, before showering and grabbing breakfast.

By 9:45, we were ready and out the door. We picked up the balloons, sandwich platter and cake, and then went to the room to set up. It was already 80 degrees and sunny, a beautiful day for a shower!

Our guests began arriving 15 minutes early, so we had to rush to set everything up, and before we knew it, the party had started!

The shower began with a game of bridal bingo, led by my mom and sisters. Instead of playing along, I helped my younger cousins (also flower girls).


After a few rounds of bingo, it was time to eat! 

I had a little bit of everything – kale salad, fruit salad, turkey wraps and sushi. The food was a hit!

And I can’t forget the cake.

The cake was vanilla with a cheesecake filling — so, so good!

After everyone had had their fair share of food, it was time to open presents. Unlike the last shower, I was a little less nervous this time around.

See that yellow and blue bag on top of the wine glasses? It actually holds a casserole dish, and my cousin made it! It’s so cute!

Before I knew it, the shower was over, and it was time to pack up all of the gifts. I am extremely grateful for everything I received, and so thankful that all of my family was able to get together!

The rest of our time in Michigan was spent hanging out with family and going to bed early on Saturday night — we were tired! We woke up early to go home on Sunday morning, and unfortunately, I woke up with a cold. It made for a somewhat miserable ride home, but since coming home, I’ve been resting on the couch, hoping that I feel better tomorrow. I’m just glad that I still felt okay for the shower!

It really was a wonderful weekend, and I’m so grateful for all of the women I have in my life.

My grandmas

My mom and sisters (also my maids of honor)

My cousin (also one of my bridesmaids — I can’t believe it’s been over 7 months since I was in her wedding!)

I’m sad that my showers are now over, but I have a wedding to look forward to in less than two months! Time is going to fly.

What did you do over the weekend?

Who are the important women in your life?

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Adventures in Substitute Teaching

18 May

As I stood in the door of the kindergarten classroom, anxiously awaiting for the students to arrive, I didn’t know what to expect. Would the kids be friendly? Would they be loud? Would they be terrible? You just never know. The first kids (a group of chatty girls) arrived, and they seemed nice and tame. And then the boys walked in the classroom. One in particular ran into the classroom, looked at me and said, “You’re hot.” That pretty much set the stage for my day. But let’s backtrack, shall we ;) ?

I purposely woke up extra early so I’d have plenty of time to get ready. At my previous job, we had a very casual dress code, so it was kind of fun to have a reason to get dressed up. I actually did my makeup and my hair — something I didn’t put too much effort into when I was sitting behind a desk for no one else to see.

Awkward…

I packed my lunch.

I made my breakfast.

And then I got ready to go.

I left my house in plenty of time to get there, but I ended up getting lost along the way. Apparently, I misread my Google directions. I had to run into another school located in the same district and ask for directions to the school I was working at (embarrassing, I know). Thankfully, that secretary called the other school’s secretary, and I wasn’t in trouble for being a couple of minutes late.

Once in the classroom, I read over the lesson plans and waited for the kids to arrive — which brings me back to the beginning of this story. Right off the bat, I knew it’d be an interesting day.

The morning went by fairly quickly, but the afternoon was a different story; those kids were hyper! I now have respect for every sub I ever disrespected — and by “disrespected,” I mean sitting in my chair, laughing at the troublemakers in my class. I was too shy to act out.

I’ve worked with a lot of kids. I was the head counselor for a camp of 50+ kids, and I had most behavior issues under control. But those kids knew me. And I had the help of other counselors. When you get 25 six-year-olds in one room with a stranger, the games begin.

Did those energetic kindergartners turn me off from subbing? No. Will I work with kids again? Of course. This kindergarten experience just made for a very exhausting interesting first day of subbing.

The nice thing is, the day went by faster than any day at the office would’ve. And maybe next week I’ll get to try out a different grade — 3rd or 4th grade, perhaps?

Now that I got my first adventure in subbing out of the way (fingers crossed that it will only get better ;) ), I am leaving for Michigan this morning for my second bridal shower! I’m so excited to spend time with family, visit my hometown, and enjoy a weekend away!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Were you a problem child in school?

What are you doing this weekend?

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