So, I'm getting out of Guymon again and I absolutely can not wait! I'm leaving Saturday morning for 5 days at a camp on the OK/Arkansas border. This will be my third summer as a counselor there, and I can't express enough how much I love it. If I could turn this one week's experience into a paid, year-long job, I would be so stoked. I would love that job more than I love the one I already have! Aahh, New Life Ranch, how I love thee.

Too bad my to-do list between now and then is about a mile long. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a little pool time... or a lot. There's nothing like putting the earbuds in and laying out on a lounge chair in the warm sunshine to make my heart smile. I think I'm going stir crazy here anyways. I need to find something to do that does NOT involve covering my books from school. Because that's alllll I've been doing the last few days. I think I'll take a break for awhile and do something else productive. Like laying out. :) Or paying bills. :( Either way, I won't be doing school work. And that's all that matters.

High Expectations vs. Settling

Is it too much to ask to want a good guy?

Let me define good. I mean someone who isn't just trying to get in my pants, who will respect me, and who I can have an enjoyable time with. Apparently these qualities are hard to come by. I've been "in the dating scene" for... awhile now. So far, I have found a whole lot of Mr. Wrong's and not even a Mr. Almost. Maybe my standards are too high? I like to think that the man I'm looking for is achievable. Blame on the amazing male role models in my life, but I know there are good ones out there. I guess they just aren't where I am.

I never worry about this too much, but being in the middle of the wedding season (my refrigerator and Facebook page are covered with wedding invitations, engagement announcements, etc.) has got me thinking. I like to think I'm ready for marriage. I've got my college degree. I'm in a profession I love, but is not limited to certain locations. I'm independent. I'm 23. Those are all pretty good qualifications for being ready to get married, right? I'm through with silly hook-ups and "just having fun." I think I'm ready to find someone that I can spend forever with. I want to date men with marriage potential. I'm ready for Mr. Right to step in and save me from all the awkwardness of dating around. So, to get to my original point... Do I stick to my high expectations for what I desire in a future husband or do I settle for something not quite as perfect? I realize there won't be one "perfect" guy out there for me. Nobody is perfect. But I do have high expectations on non-negotiable qualities. I suppose I can slide a little on some of the "fluffy" qualities. By this, I mean, the qualities that don't affect who I am and what I believe, the important stuff.

Maybe I'm just getting restless where I am. I'd like to think that my future spouse is not here in the panhandle. But maybe he is? I sure haven't seen any inklings of him, if he is. I guess I'll put on my optimistic face a while longer and see how it works out for me.


Two posts in two days. Look at me go.

Well, we all see how well the workout log worked for me, now didn't we? Haha. In reality, I did semi-ok with the working out. I just never blogged about it. I always have so much to think about and write about at the end of the day, I just never remember that I have an actual place to put it all. There needs to be a reminder email I can have sent to me that will keep me on top of this writing thing. Maybe I'll work on it now. It's summer, so I have a lot of free time. I finally started on my school to-do list today. I started tackling the biggest thing on the list, which is covering all of my paperback books with contact paper so they will keep in better condition longer. I worked on this for two or three hours today, and I'm a little proud of my progress. As for the rest of my free time this summer so far, once we got my brother's wedding out of the way, the roomie and I have been enjoying a lot of time poolside. I had forgotten how much I enjoy just being outside and soaking up the sun. It's nice. And, cancer risks aside, I'm enjoying the nice tan I have acquired.

Ah, my brother's wedding. It started with this fiancee's bachelorette party the weekend before the wedding. I was on my way to Dallas for the dinner party when I was rear-ended in OKC. Not a good start to my weekend, I must say. But thankfully, that was the only bad part to the weekend. I enjoyed spending time with my soon-to-be sister-in-law and her family and other friends. I also got to spend a little (and when I say little, I sadly do mean a very small amount) of QT with the brother. But I'll forgive it, because he was super busy with getting his new house ready to move in and other wedding priorities. I also got to enjoy several days at the parents' house. Although I did get quite bored with not much to do during the day, I enjoyed being around my parents for more than just a day or two and being back in my hometown for a short while. The wedding went fabulously and I am so glad to include my new sister-in-law in my family now.

So my plan for the rest of my summer includes finishing my school to-do list, getting caught up on my scrapbooking, more pool time, a couple camps, and well, just doing what I do.

Here's to hoping I can keep up with this better. Even though I say that every time. Haha.

The Plan

All right, so, this is the new direction my blog is going to take. I've decided that I'm going to keep my work out log on here. Maybe this will keep me more accountable. Haha. We'll see. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll keep going with the normal updates on my life. But I'm also going to be updating you on how my fitness plan is going. Tonight, I'm going to create my fitness plan and post it on my bathroom wall next to the mirror so I see it every day. Then, I'll let you know how well I'm keeping up with it on here! Sound good? Good.

Well, with that out of the way, here's an update on my life. School has been going well. I had my last observation with my university supervisor (yay!) and he said he's definitely going to recommend me for my certificate (bigger YAY!). So, I'm finally done with all of that! I think, anyway. Haha. HOPEFULLY. :)

I did meet a boy a couple weeks ago. He's cute and very cowboy. And I like hanging out with him. I'm just not sure how much boyfriend-potential I see in him. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how much boyfriend-potential I see in anybody right now. Still healing the heart a little from the last one, I guess.

In other news, the weather has been B-E-A-UTIFUL here this week! It makes me want to sit outside allllllll afternoon long! Which is bad, because I usually have a lot of stuff to do. Haha. I'm pretty sure that I will cry if it gets cold again. Mother Nature, you can NOT tease me with this lovely weather, and then send snow again! It's not funny! So I'm hoping that spring is here and winter has finally left.

I don't really have much else to say. Better go cook me some (healthy) dinner and get my school stuff finished for tomorrow!

Life

Wow, how terrible am I at keeping up with this?! First of all, for the few of those (if any?) that read this, I'm terribly sorry for leaving you hanging for months.

Now, life in the last few months. Wow. In a word? Impossible. And when I say "impossible," I mean it can't be summed up in one word. Busy. Crazy. Good. Bad. Fantastic. Real. Those are a few words I would use to describe my life. Here's a quick rundown.

September: Gene' and I did order our season tickets, so almost every weekend was spent in Stillwater at football games. School went well. Just normal, day-to-day craziness with my kiddos.

October: Ahhh, fall break. Two words that every teacher loves to hear. Again, we got to spend an extra day or two in Stillwater because there happened to be a game on our fall break weekend. We also endured a two and a half hour wait for the 30 seconds it took to get our flu shots. But worth it, I suppose, if we don't get the flu.

November: Again, Thanksgiving break. Two more words I love to hear. It was a busy month in school. I spent a week teaching my kids about the first Thanksgiving, because so many of them had no idea what it was all about! I got to go home for most of the break, and my brother and his fiancee came up from Dallas. I came back to Guymon to enjoy (well... not so much...) Bedlam with Gene' and her family. Rough game, but I guess that's about what we can expect when playing OU.

December: After finding out OSU would be returning to the Cotton Bowl, my parents generously offered to take Gene' and I to the game. The kids were a little crazy at school, but that's to be expected so close to Christmas break. I survived my first solo classroom party. Holy cow. I was exhausted at the end of the day! Christmas break went really well. I enjoyed spending so much time with my family. I made out pretty well with the presents too. Haha. I returned to Guymon to spend a few days, including New Year's Eve, out here with Gene' and all our friends. Then, we go up at the crack of dawn on New Year's Day to drive to Fairview and join my parents for the trip to Dallas for the game. Thankfully, we got to sleep in the backseat the whole way from Fairview to Dallas. We got to spend some time with my brother and his fiancee that nite and then we made the trek to the new Cowboys Stadium the next morning for the game. Pre-gaming festivities? Great. The stadium? Unbelievable. The game? Ehhh, not so much. And again, the Rebel Yell grated on my nerves like nothing else. But, overall, the trip was a success.

January: Cold. Long. We did get MLK Day off, which was nice. I sure do enjoy four-day weeks. :) Not too much happened in January. It was a pretty boring month.

And, that brings me to February. We had two snow days this month, which I'll probably be regretting when we have to make them up during nice weather, but they sure were nice at the time. I also met a boy. Dated him. And had my heart a little beat up by him. But I'm surviving, trying not to be bitter and upset and all that. He's apparently not meant to be in my life, and as hard as that was to accept at first, I'm getting there. February is almost over, and that means March will be here. March equals = spring break, warmer weather, the start of college baseball, and that much closer to MLB Opening Day. :)

I can't tell you how ready I am for spring. I'm so over cold and snow and all this winter. I'm ready for shorts and flip flops, sno cones, driving with my windows down.

Alright, so, that's a pretty hefty update on my life. I'm determined to be better at posting from now on. Even if I have to put reminders up to help me remember. Haha. Maybe I'll even get some pictures up one of these days. We'll see.

Until then..

Holy Toledo

So, life has been a whirlwind of getting ready for and starting school over the last couple of weeks. I finally got my room all finished. Yay! I'm trying to find time to take some pictures to post. Orientation was craaaaaazy. I was at the school from eight in the morning until six that nite. I met almost all of the parents. A few parents and students who weren't in my homeroom, but who I have for English. Then, Thursday came. I had to do all of that typical first day stuff--go over rules, procedures, what I expect, what they can expect, etc. Needless to say, I was all talked out by the end of the day! Who'd have thought that two days of not really doing actual school work could be so tiring? I did work hard, and very productively, over the weekend, though, and I got all of my lesson plans finished AND all of my copies run by Sunday evening. I even had time to relax a little and spend time with my family, who came to Balko to visit! It was so nice to go in this morning, and not have to worry about doing anything but setting a couple things out. My first day of actual teaching went well. I did have a new student in one of my English classes. Well, he wasn't actually new. He was pre-enrolled and on all the lists already, he just didn't show up until today. And, he's bigger than I am. And it kind of intimidates me. Haha. But I sure won't let my students know that! :) I didn't even have anything to grade when I came home today, so I got to play some Rock Band. If I can just keep on top of my plans, like I did this weekend, this year won't be too bad.

Other than that, not a whole lot has been going on. Gene's and my life pretty much revolve around school. We're trying to get involved. We plan on going to some of the sports events around here. One of the other teachers on my team has a daughter that plays softball, so I'll try to make it to as many of those games as I can. And, of course, OSU football begins in T-minus 19 days. Pay day comes next week, and we will be ordering season tickets! We're pretty excited to go back to Stillwater, especially for football games!!

So, that's my life for now. We'll see how my first full week goes. I may change my mind about how much I like my job. :P JK!

Days 1 & 2 of Classroom Renovations

This post is going to be short and sweet because I'm on borrowed internet. Haha. I started work on my classroom yesteryday. Holy disaster zone. The cabinets were soooo not organized. At all. I found bulletin board borders in at least 4 different cabinets. Kleenex boxes were stored in several cabinets. Books were all over the place. So, before I did anything in the room with my stuff, I worked to completely reorganize the cabinets, drawers, and teacher's desk. I feel so much better now that that's all finished! Tomorrow, I will finally get to start putting my stuff away and (hopefully) putting things up on the bulletin boards and walls. I met one of the other teachers on my team, and she's really nice. I'm excited to meet the other two soon. I will have pictures and more to say once I've got internet in my own house. Until then, wish me luck! School is QUICKLY approaching!