... side effects ...

of spending every afternoon in the child development lab:

- spending hours (literally) writing lesson plan objectives
- exhaustion after spending five hours setting up, engaging 20 children in developmentally appropriate activities, cleaning up
- insomnia caused by a large to do list and interaction re-plays to remember for future reference

It is 2:30 in the morning! Luckily it is Friday night. Unluckily my to-do list for tomorrow doesn't have an end to it...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love school. I was talking to a fellow child development lab teacher day and expressing how grateful I am that I can be a student and for how much I have learned and grown from going to school. That being said, I am so ready to be done!

I'm done with stress induced insomnia. I'm done with hiking up Old Main to go to class. I'm done with tests and studying and busy schedules. I'm not done with learning - I hope that I will never be done with learning, but I am done with school.

I'm ready for a real life. I'm ready to make yummy dinner (mostly every night). I'm ready to have a yard and a garden. I'm ready to have a child to wake me up in the middle of the night and to make me cry with joy. I'm ready for Nate to find a real job that he can love. I'm ready to stop being a student. I'm ready to be an adult.

I have one year left. I am a definite carrier of "Senioritis." I will study hard and work hard and do what I set out to do when I realized that I was in it for the long haul - and when I am done, my real life will be begin.

Until then, I'll find joy in the little things and try to get some sleep!

... allow me a moment ...

... i'm going to reminisce again ...

this morning i was eating breakfast. i made some mint truffle hot chocolate (yum) and a blueberry bagel with cream cheese (yum). as i was schmearing my bagel, a childhood memory came SCREAMING back at me! i'm not sure why today, because i eat my share of bagels, but i thought i'd do a quick post!

in the town that i grew up in we had a mall. not a very big mall, but when i was young, i LOVED hanging out there with my girlfriends. most times when we visited the mall it wasn't to shop - it was to follow the cute boys around, try on cute clothes, and grab a snack and chat! the mall used to have a restaurant called "Hunk a Bread" - it was a sit down "bakery" that served ginormous hunks of bread with jam, soup and sandwiches -

and

it is the place solely responsible for my love affair with bagels and cream cheese.

before "Hunk a Bread" i never really liked cream cheese. but, apparently, paired with a bagel and heated in the microwave just right, it is on the top of my favorites list! as i was schmearing my bagel this morning the image that came to my mind was of me reaching over the counter to take my perfectly schmeared and heated bagel from the nice cashier! i searched the internet for a picture of the shop but couldn't find one anywhere, but i did find a FB group dedicated to remembering CV as it used to be - and there were some mentions of "Hunk a Bread," so i felt a little better!

anyway - not really a point to this post and i should really be heading out to class, but as i ate my bagel this morning and thought about "Hunk a Bread" and the memories that came with it, it made me smile. and that, my friends, makes me happy.

happy reminiscing to you all.

.. so EXCITED for THIS ...

*** 10,000 ***

How many of you check out your blog after you've posted something to make sure it looks okay? Raise of hands? If you didn't raise your hand, you may not be telling the truth!

Anyway, I just posted about my cute nephews and nieces, and the fabulous day we had with Nates sibs last Saturday! I hit "Publish Post," then "View Blog," and guess what I saw?

My blog has had over 10,000 hits! My blog? Little old me who says nothing coherent and everything random?

I must say it makes me feel quite nice and it gives me a little bit of a self-esteem boost!

So, to those of you who are looking now, THANKS! I appreciate the fact that someone out there cares about what we have to say and what is happening in Our Little World!

Happy Friday!

5 Cute Kiddos & Some Tasty Food

Last Saturday we headed up to Cliffside Park with Nate's brothers and sister and their families! We had some yummy food, a lot of laughs, and of course, took a lot of pictures! We had the kids wear their I "heart" NY T's so that we could get some pictures for Nate's parents!!






We got a TON of pictures and I've posted more on the blog that we set up for Nate's parents! If you want to check them out, click on the "For the New Yorkers" Link to the left!

We had a great time, as always, catching up with the adults and hanging out with the kiddos!