Photo Fun!

I have found my new favorite website! www.photofunia.com As you can tell I have had so fun messing around with pictures on this website today, so I'd thought I'd share!

Also, I only have 5 more days of student teaching at the high school and then off to the elementary school. I can only imagine how tired I am going to be the first week of being 300 6 to 11 year olds! But I am very excited needless to say. It's unbelievable how fast this year has gone by so far. I guess when you enjoy something as much as I enjoy teaching, time just flies! As far as the job searching goes, no luck yet. I have sent out 2 resumes and sending 1 more out this week. So hopefully within the next month I hear of something!

Happy Monday to you all!

Happy V-Day!!

Since yesterday was Valentines day and the Bar to Bar Crawl here in J-ville, Andy and I had to multi-task to celebrate it all! Yesterday morning I had to keep clock at the high school for a basketball game and while I was gone, Andy was busily working on my surprise. When I walked into my house there were flowers and a card on the table. After I opened the card and adored the flowers I found out that he was making me home-made lasgana, Olive Garden salad, breadsticks, and a bottle of our favorite wine. It was delicious and perfect for our Valentine's Day! I was really surprised, but knew something was up because he is soooo Mr. Predictable :) After we had our romantic lunch, we headed to the Bar to Bar Crawl to meet up with some of our friends who graduated. It was soo nice to see some of my girls since the last time I saw them was for our girls weekend. Needless to say, a GREAT time was had by all and lots of laughs were shared.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all!!!

Locker Room Drama

Today I fully took over all the classes at the high school I am teaching. I am WORN OUT completely!! Anyways, along with teaching all classes today I also had to break up my first girl fight. Now going into teaching, I figured somewhere along the line I'd have at least one dispute. However, I never thought it would be two girls fighting over.... you guessed it... a BOY! Needless to say, I restrained one student and my teacher restrained the other and we broke it up instantly. I was lucky and did not get touched, but my teacher on the other hand got pushed and accidently brushed in the face. I'm glad that wasn't me because I don't know how I would have responded :) Until the next great story.....

Untitled

I have no clue really what to even talk about as I sit here, but what I do know is that I am way jealous of all of those back home who got a snow day today!!! We got nothing this morning but it did start snowing around 1 pm today and is still coming down, so there is always tomorrow. Other than student teaching, my life is pretty boring. Getting up early, teaching all day, coming home to clean, do laundry, or work on homework pretty well consumes my day. (HOLY CRAP, did I just sound like a damn adult?!?!?) Anyways, I am hoping to have a more exciting entry later on this week.

Back to a Routine

Well I have enjoyed my FIVE day weekend. Yep, that's right 5 days. I lucked out and got 2 COLD days last Thursday and Friday. With the windchill, it was roughly -18 outside, so my school district cancelled school. It was nice, but I am definitely excited and ready to get back into a routine and really begin my student teaching career. This past weekend I went to a country concert in Springfield with five of my girlfriends from school. All of them are older than me and graduated already so it was especially nice to see them and I realized just how much I missed each of them. The concert was great and the artists were fantastic. Jason Aldean, Leann Rimes, Keith Anderson, Joe Nichols, and Phil Vassier were there just to name a few. Anyways, a good time was had by all.

Top picture: Jason Aldean. He sings Hicktown, Relentless, Johnny Cash, and more.

Next picture: Alissa, Beth, Me, and Jackie. My luck all four of us were in Fatty's wedding.

5 Day Weekend!!! Man, I love Teaching

Today I woke up to my phone ringing at 5:30 am. It was my cooperating teacher calling to deliver the message that school had been cancelled again today. It was also cancelled yesterday and with no school on Monday in honor of MLK..... FIVE DAY WEEKEND! However, on Monday I have a teaching seminar I have to attend but it doesn't start until 1 pm. I didn't do much on my day off yesterday except relax and dust and vacuum my room. It was pretty gross! On the agenda for tonight is a Girls Night! I'm going to a country concert called Ya'llapollooza. Jason Aldean, Leann Rimes, Phil Vassier, Joe Nichols are just a few out of the thirteen bands. It should be a good time. Anyways... off to pack for the weekend and get a few things done.

A First of Many, I am Sure

Yesterday was my first day of offically student teaching. Now I don't get to teach this week because it is finals week, so I pretty much just hang out and read all day. NOT VERY EXCITING FOR 7 HOURS! But after my first day, I had many of my firsts to begin my teaching career. 1- Getting hit on by a high school student. By the end of the class, he wanted my number and my reply to him was "Nice try, but you're not getting it" 2- Getting hit with a pencil. For some reason, high schoolers are fascinated with breaking pencils and chucking them across the gym. It was unusual day in PE because they were cleaning out lockers and watching a movie, so the gym lights were off and there were 150 kids, so needless to say the excitement I dealt with. 3- My first sight of high school PDA!! I had to tell a girl to get off of her boyfriend. If you could only imgaine what I really wanted to say! 4- I experience the quickest lunch ever. Those precious 30 minutes go by sooo fast! To be honest, after my first day, I was not thrilled with high school students, but I am going to be Positive Pam and wish for the best. Like I told my mom, It can only get better!

A New Pair of Eyes

This week I had LASIK eye surgery done. One word to describe it: AMAZING. It is almost scary how quick the surgery is and how fast my vision has gotten better. It was all worth it and highly recommend it to anyone considering! Anyways, Winter Break is coming to an end which is a bitter sweet feeling. It was so nice to see friends and classmates and catch up and then lounge around all day long if I wanted to, but starting tomorrow life will become busy again. I have doc appts and meetings all day back at school and then Tuesday I start student teaching. UNBELIEVABLE how it feels like yesterday when I was a senior in high school. I very excited to start teaching, but nervous all at the same time. I will be teaching PE at a high school and then PE and Health at an elementary school which is what I have found that I really really enjoy. Anyways, I need to get packing to head back to school. I hope everyone is having a good New Year thus far!!

I love a lil thing called Winter Break!

The best part of college is.... You've guessed it, BREAK! I do truly love being on the go all the time (I get it from my mama) but there is nothing like being in your PJs all day and lounging around of course after doing all my chores that mom has left me. Yesterday was my cousin Jason's birthday, so Jodi and I made him supper for his birthday. After that we messed around on the computer with ringtones and funny emails. Its nice to get to be with both of them at the same time.
Tomorrow I plan on getting my Christmas shopping done; a task which I'm not looking that forward to, but oh well TIS THE SEASON!

It's Almost Over!

Today is the first day of finals week!!!! WOOO HOOO. It is a bitter sweet ending really. It is the last finals I will ever have to take because next semester I'll be student teaching and only have to give a presentation. So when Friday comes, I will have taken my last college test EVER... until grad. school that is :) I am so excited to start teaching full time, but a little scared as well. I can't wait to have my own classroom! Anyways... I have two presentations this morning for finals, so off to school I go.

Forgot to Post Pics

I'm Back!

Well the past 2 weeks I have been traveling the United States! I have been "jet setting" if you will from the Southwest to the East coast of BAWSTIN! (That's how to say Boston with the accent of course) Two weeks ago, Trav, my two cousins, and myself fly out to Las Vegas for a long weekend! It was absolutely awesome! The city is insanely busy and the lights don't stop. While we were out there we saw the UFC fight which was incredible as well as sat FRONT ROW to Kathy Griffin Live. Both were awesome and was so glad to be at both places. Other than that we gamble and enjoyed the strips of Vegas. Once we got back on Sunday, I went back to school for two short days and then turned around and flew from Chicago to Boston. I went with the IC Womens basketball team as an assistant coach. Boston was fun, but the weather there is SOOO much colder than here in IL. I enjoyed some FRESH seafood since we were bout 2 miles from the ocean. We also went to Salem, Mass where the infamous Salem Witch Trials took place. The next night we headed to downtown Boston and it was 8 degress outside!!!! We went to the actual Cheers bar and then headed to Quincy Marketplace and Fennial Hall (Spelling on that is wrong) There were tons of restaurants and shops. We couldn't do any of the real toursists sites because everything was out of season and closed by 4 pm. But overall, it was an alright trip, but needless to say I WAS PUMPED TO BE HOME!!!! There definitely is nothing like home! I hope everyone has a great Holiday and enjoys family, food, and fun tomorrow!!! I know I have a lot to be thankful for. I have great friends, a WONDERFUL family, and have been blesses with many opportunities that have shaped me into the person I am today so I thank God for all those wonderful things!

I don't have time to give you the full explanation of Vegas, but we had a BLAST!!! Here a few photos. Frank Stallione, Fremont with the other Okawvillians, and the Bellagio ceiling with my camera effects are the photos above. I will try to give a break down of what we did each day at a later date, but now I am busy packing for BOSTON, which I leave tomorrow for with the Womens IC bball team. I am going as an assistant coach. Off to class!!!

HOLY COW.... I'm the Worse Blogger ever!

So I just want apologize now for not updating this for 29 days!!! YIKES! It really is hard to believe its been that long, but I am making a pact to myself to update this at least twice a week. So let's fast forward a month and begin fresh! I have been busy teaching, doing homework, and planning my trip to VEGAS!!! I leave tomorrow with my brother and two cousins! It is going to be so much fun! The best part about the whole thing is that last Thursday I got a call from Jason, my cousin, to see what I was doing on Nov. 13. I was like I don't know let me look at my schedule, 30 seconds later, I was asked to go to Las Vegas and couldn't turn down the opportunity!!!! So we leave tomorrow evening and get back Sunday night!! I am so excited because I have never been and who doesn't love shopping, booze, and gambling :) SORRY MOM Anyways.... I am going to start my OGT like Miss Heather does. My ONE GOOD THING for today is last night I got to spend the night with my mama!!! She came up to IC to talk to my honor society about Pampered Chef. We got to have dinner and just talked for awhile. I'm ready for a few days at home just to lounge and drink some wine with my favorite people!

Also, I have posted a few pictures from Halloween. I was a WHOOPIE CUSHION.

CRAZY WEEKEND is finally over!

Well it has been a crazy week here!!! So I'm glad that today is Monday and we are off to starting a new week! Thursday was my 22nd birthday (as well as Heather's bday... I think she's 24 :) ) Thursday was celebrated with me, Andrew, and 12 girls going to dinner at the Toad for some pizza and drinks. The night ended up being a blast but I'll let you fill in the blank with what we all did! Friday was Follies here on campus. Follies is the all school talent and variety show and anyone can sign up and they pay out for the top 3 places. Well myself and a friend did a SNL skit with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. I played Mrs. Clinton and we rocked it out. We ended up winning 2nd place for 50 bucks! So that was fun. I'm going to try and post some of the video online so you can see it. Everyone loved it and laughed their butts off so that was our main goal.
Saturday was a busy day! Mom came up for the football game and homecoming parade. After the game, Mom and I went to Andy's for dinner with his family and his roommates families. After that we went to the Homecoming Dance. The dance was a blast and the first two pics are from the dance.
I hate to end this blog so quickly without any details, but life is so crazy and I'm going to be late for work this morning. I'll be sure to update tomorrow or Thursday when things settle down!

Lots of Stuff... So Little Time

Well I spent last Wed. - Sun. in Grinnell, Iowa. You think the corn fields of IL are boring, well I've got news for you!!! Iowa beats our ass! hahaha The reason I was in Iowa for so long was because of our conference golf tourney!! We are 6 PEAT Champions!!! Which is extremely exciting because not only have we set school records, we get an automatic bid to the NCAA National Tournament in Florida in May. While in Iowa, a few exciting things happened. 1- One of my teammates, Nicole, shot a hole in one! First in school history so that was exciting! 2- I got to see Coop and Pat. I was in the wedding in June and it was so wonderful to catch up and see them. Coop was really excited that we visited, so we went shopping at an outlet mall and then went to dinner. After being with them for a few short hours, I realized how much I miss Coop and Pat! 3- FEVER BLISTERS!! Wednesday I had a fever blister when we got to Iowa. Thursday it had gotten worse. Friday and Saturday the pain had persisted into my face and I knew then that I didn't just have a fever blister. Sunday I spent crying a lot because of the pain and then Monday I finally went to the doc. I had spent Monday morning and Sunday night just crying because of the execuiating pain. Well after a doc visit, I have neuralgia. It is basically the damage/infection of the nerves on the left side of my face. I'm really lucky it didn't hit my facial nerve because then I'd have paralaysis. So basically I'm doped up on seriously nerve pain meds and so far they have worked. This pain is seriously one of the worst I've had in my life. This is all caused by stress, so basically I'm just trying to de-stress!!! Just ask MOM, lol she knows how awful its been.
Next on the list! Yesterday started Homecoming Week!!! The theme is Hollywood on the IC Hilltop. Tonight and tomorrow we have powderpuff games. We are the defending champs and got real football jerseys this year, so I'm excited about that. I play quarterback and we have to play the juniors. Our game tonight should be the championship game, but the luck of the draw didn't make it that way! The rest of the week we have fun activities going on with a semi-formal dance on Saturday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Travis today! I can't believe my little brother is 21! Insane how it seems like last week when we were 5 and 6 and he cut my hair while Dad was napping on the couch!!
Well I hope everyone has a great week and another Congrats to Erin Shubert for getting engaged over the weekend. I got a text from her that read "I was the first to drive, the first to drink, so I might as well be the first to get engaged!" CONGRATS ERIN

October ALREADY????

Well this post will be quick since I am sitting here drinking my coffee, reading the paper online, studying for a test I have in 2 hours, and attempting to update my blog. Today I leave for Grinnell, Iowa for the MWC golf tourney. This is our conference tourney and the winner of this gets to go to the National Golf Tourney which is in Florida this year. This following link is to our Midwest Conference Website. http://www.midwestconference.org/wgolf/2008/9_30_08.pdf You can see when we tee off and what each player shots and so forth. Also, I was named Player of the Week, so right now there's an AWFUL picture of me up on their website. This week has been crazy with trying to get everything caught up for all the classes I am missing the next 2 days. Last night, my junior high team had a game against one of my best friends, Fatty! So it was great to get to see her and her family who came to the game. After an ugly 24 minutes, we came out victorious!! It was a blast getting to coach vs her. Well I hate to get off so quickly, but time is money!!!
Also, there was a tragic death in our small town this past week with a farming accident. Please keep Nick's family in your thoughts and prayers.

Saturday in a Hotel

Well as the title of today's blog reads, I'm sitting in our hotel room after a days worth of 18 holes on the Links. Today was a pretty good day as I shot a 78. I am currently tied for 2nd with 5 other girls. So tomorrow is a big day and hopefully I'm up for the challenge of kicking some butt!! Earlier this week, I got to coach my first jr. high game and we WON!!! Believe me, it is nothing like watching 7th and 8th grade ball at home, but we are learning and getting better and that's all that matters. We are currently 2-1 and play on Tuesday vs. my best friend's team (Fatty's team). They unfortunately aren't the greatest either, so it should be interesting to say the least. Well nothing else exciting has been going on, other than busy days full of classes, meetings, practices, and doing homework. I am soooo ready to be a real teacher :)

Teeing it up!

Well I'm sure you can tell that my weekend was spent golfing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! And I got even luckier on Sunday!!! There were 120 golfers in the two day tourney in Bloomington. My team, Illinois College, and Tiff's team, U of I Springfield, did not play with each other on day 1. However, on day 2, the teams are paired up with how you finished the 1st day. Well my team was in 13th place and Tiff's was in 16th place. Since four schools play together our schools got too!!! Then to make it even better, we both were playing the same position on the team that day!!! CRAZY, LUCKY, or just a plain Okawville thing?? So on Sunday, just like old high school days, Tiff and I got to play a round of golf together!!! It was such a blast to have Mom, Dad, Dave, and Karen watch us play together.

Even though I had an excitement weekend, Andy did too!! He had a football game up in Lake Forest, IL and at the end of the game he got tackled hard. When he was laying down he was having trouble breathing, so he just thought he got the wind knocked out of him really hard! Well after our trainer looked at him he said either a bruised rib or broken rib! So at 1 am and an X-ray and Cat Scan later, Andy broke his 9th rib!! He goes to the doc today to find out just how long he'll be out!

This week gets crazier and crazier. I'm not sure I've let anyone know yet, but I am assistant coaching the 7th and 8th grade girls basketball team here at the Jr. High in town. I LOVE IT!!! I'm so excited to get to coach. It's way different than O-town because most of these girls don't play until they get into 6th grade, so fundamentals are lacking! But the girls listen and we have a few athletes, so it makes for interesting practices. We have our first game this week, but I have class, so I can't attend! I'll keep you updated on that.

Well I need to get off and head to school, but I just wanted to wish my mom a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! She's 46 years young!! I LOVE YOU MOM!!

Boring Day!

Today has been just a normal routine day. Nothing exciting except work, classes, practice, and off to open gym. So instead of posting just my boring day, I'm going to post some pictures from the weekend and from Andy and I being bored this afternoon. We always make fun of those people who take like 3000 pictures of themselves, so we decided to do just that!

The pic of the left is our fight picture!! And the one of the right, well I guess it's just kind of normal!