Music Notes

I'm not a big American Idol fan, but I do watch it on occasion. We have been DVR'ing it and when we have time, going back through and watching the performances. I don't know what it is, but there is just something about this Phillip Phillips guy that intrigues me and I like watching him play. Let's move beyond the fact that he has a ridiculous name and some may say he's a Dave Matthews repeat. He's got something going on there. His rendition of "You Got It Bad" by Usher has me hooked. I will shamefully admit I have watched it a few times.

I was also introduced to a new song called "Somebody That I Used To Know" that is becoming increasingly popular. I heard it a few times on our local indie/rock station, but now I'm hearing it more mainstream, too (annoying, I know.) I really like this song a lot. He did a duet with Elise from American Idol (who is no longer on the show) and I love it. Her voice was awesome and I'm sad she didn't stick around longer.

Ok, one last video! I looked up the REAL video for this song, and it's also very intriguing for some reason. A very strange video but it has me hooked!

Hope that provided some adequate procrastination time for those who need some! It's been a busy week for me. I have a lot of posts lined up in my head but I just can't sit down to put the adequate time I want to devote to them. Unfortunately, I will be busy for a few more weeks, folks! My 5 year class reunion is this weekend (I know, crazy!) and I'm a co-host. I'm planning Tonia's bachelorette party this week, too, calling around to hotels and making plans. Tonight I had drew the invitations and I'm pretty excited about them. I'll be sharing them once the recipients receive them! This week at school teachers have been getting rid of stuff from their rooms they don't want/need anymore so I have been a scavenger and have scored a lot stuff! I've also been getting a head start on my room for next year. Then I'll be headed to San Diego in 2 weeks! PHEW! Lots of fun stuff going on over here! I will share soon, I promise!

Hope you all are enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having! Summer is right around the corner (6.5 days for this lady!)

Ok, I'll share one embarrassing story. Today I was on a run and a rock came out of no where (I swear!) and put itself in my path. I didn't see it and I full on tripped over it (it was about the size of a golf ball, urgh), twisted my ankle, and whipped out HARDCORE! Like tumbled and rolled like a fool. I immediately looked around to see if anyone noticed after I realized I had maintained all my limbs. Well, there was a guy standing nearby who CLEARLY saw this whole thing unfold and he quickly turned around and pretended not to notice! Can you believe that?! I don't know if he was trying to be nice and save me the embarrassment, but I would think he could have made sure I was ok. My ankle does hurt but I shall persevere! ;) (I don't know why I just shared that story...but there you have it. Embarrassed again.)

Happy Mother's Day!

Just bopping in to wish a very happy Mother's Day to my mom! Thank you for all you do for us! Another big Happy Mother's Day to my future mother-in-law, Jolene! I hope all you mothers out there are enjoying this beautiful weather and relaxing. Mom--sorry you had to spend another mother's day at a softball tournament :)

The Best Week EVER!

It still hasn't sunk in completely that I officially have a BIG GIRL JOB! Teaching contracts, benefits, IPERS...all that good stuff! All that hard work has PAID OFF and it feels amazing. I'll be teaching kindergarten at the school I am currently a long-term sub at. I'm so excited to be able to stay where I am--I feel comfortable there, I know the staff and students, and it's just a really great place to be!

The original excitement is starting to fade a little, and I'm realizing I have a lot of work ahead of me. I may not have the carefree summer I had envisioned, but I am 100% ok with that! I have started collecting tons of ideas for my classroom and got some great things at garage sales this morning.

I feel so incredibly lucky to have this job. I know I'm one of the lucky ones getting a teaching job right out of college; there are a lot of teachers out there and not a lot of jobs right now. And to get my DREAM JOB right out of the gate?! Are you kidding me! I was very stressed for a few months of no interviews, but now I am so RELIEVED I can enjoy the summer and have 3 months to start planning for next year!

My favorite part is that I can say, "I'm a kindergarten teacher!" :)

Healthy Smoothies!

I started making myself healthy smoothies this week. We got a blender to make margaritas for card club, and I have been taking full advantage of it. I first got inspiration for making smoothies from Iowa Girl Eats. If you're not familiar with her blog, you should be. It's very popular and she posts SO many healthy and delicious looking recipes. I can't cook so I don't attempt any of them, but they sure do look yummy. I even saw her on the news last week! Did I mention she lives in Des Moines? Even better!

Anyway, she made this Green Monster Smoothie and insisted it didn't taste terrible. It included lots of spinach, so I was skeptical. 

All this week I've been trying different concoctions and I've been thoroughly enjoying my smoothies. I make them each morning and sometimes after my workouts. I have actually lost weight eating these smoothies! I think it kick starts my metabolism in the morning. My fitness says "The second most important meal of the day is the meal you eat after your workout," because your body is a sponge. I think the post-workout smoothie is also doing my body good.

I don't have a real "recipe" with measurements (of course), but I will tell you the kinds of things I throw together. 

Frozen strawberries (about a handful)

Frozen banana (half a banana--I would suggest cutting it up and freezing it first)

Frozen blueberries (about 1/4 cup)

Pineapple (about 1/4 cup)

Skim milk (about 1/2 cup)

Orange juice (about 1/4 cup

Greek yogurt (2 tbsp)

Peanut butter (1tbsp)

Spinach (1 large handful)

I make this about 10 minutes before heading to school, and then I put it in the freezer to get it extra cold. Sometimes my blender makes it a little too frothy, but I think that's because I keep it in there for too long. I also bought kiwis and oranges that I'm going to try out. I use Greek yogurt because it's high in protein. I haven't been brave enough to try the Green Monster yet, I wanted to make sure I could commit before I spent extra money on Almond Milk and Chobani Greek Yogurt. For now I'm using A&E Skim and Yoplait Greek and it's doing just fine.

I really can't say enough good things about this smoothie thing! It saves me time in the morning because I can eat breakfast on the go, and it re-energizes me after boot camp. Go make yourself some healthy smoothies! 

Sweet Summertime

Summer is almost here! I truly cannot believe it. I only have 3 more weeks of school, then I'm off to San Diego for a week! After that I'll be returning to my summer nanny job and having lots of fun with two awesome little ladies. Yesterday on my run I was thinking of all the fun things I wanted to do this summer, mostly to keep my mind off of how much I wanted to stop. Nonetheless, I kept the list going when I came home and ended up with a lot of things I want to do! I thought it'd be fun to document how many things I actually do through my blog this summer. Here is the start of my list, I want to get up to 50 so I may add more before the summer actually gets here.

1. Go pedal boating at Gray's Lake
2. Secure a job for the fall
3. Put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean
4. Spend a weekend in Galena, IL
5. Go on a hot air balloon ride
6. Go to the downtown farmer's market twice a month
7. Try Yoga In The Park at Gray's Lake
8. Write a kick-ass maid of honor speech
9. Get a lot of wedding planning accomplished
10. Read 2 books per month
11. Hit up a lot of garage sales
12. Get started with Big Brothers Big Sisters again
13. Volunteer at a youth shelter
14. Visit the Humane Society
15. Visit each of my bridesmaids 
16. Go on a picnic
17. Participate in the Color Run in Minneapolis
18. Make another sock monkey
19. Read the Des Moines register each week
20. Cook one new meal per week
21. Jam out front row to my favorite band IN THE WORLD Brand New with my best friend and fiancé!
22. Introduce my parents to Kevin's parents
23. Go to a few I-Cubs games
24. Run in at least 2 road races
25. Go to the Zoo Brew at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines
26. Go to a comedy show
27. Go to a drive-in movie theatre
28. Keep a food log
29. Grow something other than mold
30. Make a new friend
31. Sew a blanket
32. Get organized
33. Print off more pictures
34. Go to 3 outdoor concerts
35. Float the river
36. Get in the car and just drive
37. Rent bikes downtown
38. Go to the state fair
39. Go camping
40. Send one piece of snail mail per week
41. Make an inside fort
42. Throw a themed party
43. Watch a few of my sister's softball games
44. Work on that farmer's tan
45. Get our engagement pictures taken

There you have it! If you have any other suggestions of fun summer things to do, throw them my way! Especially if you live in the Des Moines area :)

All photos are from my summer in Italy two years ago. The photos are from the Amalfi Coast.

Love.

I know I gave you a photo overload earlier today, but I don't care. While Kevin and I were at Gray's Lake yesterday just hanging out, I of course had to pester him with a photo opportunity. Let's just say it got a little out of hand and this is what happened.

Weekend.

I know, I know, I've deserted my faithful readers for nearly two weeks. I just needed to take a break from blogging. I was beginning to feel obligated to post almost everyday, and that's not the reason I started this blog. I wanted to document my life and stay connected with friends and family, post about things that inspire me, and things I deem worth staring with others. I've had a busy few weeks and just wasn't feeling inspired, so...I took a break! I'm back now refreshed and excited to blog again.

I'm not back with anything new and exciting, but I did have a pretty darn fantastic weekend and took some pictures to prove it. A lot of pictures. Sorry :)

To start, Friday was "Career Day" at school and everyone was encouraged to dress up as a career. I raided Kevin's closet and ended up on farmer. You can see my work gloves in my back pocket in the mirror. :)

I experimented with my hair pastels Friday night and loved the outcome. This has been a hair style I've been using lately for school (minus the colors of course). It keeps the hair out of my face but still allows me wear my hair down.

Friday night we hosted card club and as always it was so much fun! We had an "outdoor" table because our apartment isn't quite big enough for 3! Luckily it was a nice night, until the June Bugs attacked.

It's always a crock pot party at card club. We do have some talented chefs. I'm not one of them. I made strawberry margaritas, which were delicious if I do say so myself. It was Cinco de Mayo eve so I had not choice, right?!

It's obvious most females in our card club are teachers! We have laminated cards to assign tables. 

Happy birthday, Andrew!

Kevin's work friends love hearing his crazy stories of growing up on the farm. Kellie joined us this month and Kevin showed her an aerial picture of his farm and explained it all to her, it was quite amusing! She's from St. Louis :) I love her confused yet enthralled looks in these pictures.

 Saturday I enjoyed some Friends episodes I had DVR'd. Monica and Chandler's engagement gets me every time!

 Kevin and I went on a date Saturday. Sometimes I get really excited about outfits I put together, and this is one of them. So excited, I wore it two days in a row. Shh.

We had plans to go to the horse races at the casino, but it was Kentucky Derby day apparently and it was too packed to even find a parking spot. So, we went downtown for drinks instead. This is at El Bait Shop. They have a ridiculous amount of beers on tap. I don't really care about all that, but my beer loving fiancé does.

See? Beer. It was such a nice day to sit out on the patio. I love the Des Moines skyline in the back.

Since it was Cinco de Mayo, my drink of choice was a margarita. (Ok, to be honest, that's my drink of choice regardless.) This was a special margarita. Since it's some anniversary for the candy Pop Rocks, they had a special for a Raspberry Pop Rock Margarita and it was delicious! And entertaining. When the bartender put the pop rocks in, they popped all over the place! I was finding pop rocks in my hair later that night :)

We ate supper downtown at Capital Pub and Hot Dog Company. We had a Groupon there, and it was awesome! I didn't take a picture, but this place is a house made into a restaurant. Kevin had a Mad Dog which was a crazy spicy concoction and I had a Nacho Dog, with cheese sauce topped with Fritos. Both very healthy options, obviously.

 Then we went to Gray's Lake to relax and enjoy the nice weather. While we spent the day downtown, we talked seriously about where we want to move to when our lease is up here. We both decided it would be awesome to live downtown, and are now looking into affordable loft apartments. I'm very excited!

 Today I took a nap and we watched murder mysteries and conspiracy theories on TV. I'm getting ready to head back down to Gray's Lake to go for a run. Later we will continue our Sunday tradition of grocery shopping. I'm excited we finally have a blender so I can start making healthy smoothies! Let me know if you have a recipe or concoction you love! A movie may be in our future as well.

This weekend is UNI's graduation weekend. Congratulations to all the new UNI Alumns! This weekend marks the 1 year mark of me moving away from UNI to Des Moines. I cannot believe how quickly this year passed by! I still miss UNI just as much. I REALLY miss all my friends. I'm lucky to have made the type of friends that I can call any time and we will pick up right where we left off :)

One last thing-- Kevin has been running for a couple months now and has been gradually working up his miles. He consistently ran 3, then consistently ran 5, and then out of nowhere today he ran almost 10 miles!! Anyway, I'm proud of him. That's all I wanted to say. :)

Happy Sunday!