shopping!

I went to IKEA yesterday to shop for things for my classroom and got quite the haul. It was a great day. I planned to go with one friend, then invited another friend at the last minute. They were both so helpful with choosing what I needed, and then with packing it all into my Mazda3. If we had gotten one more thing, I would have had to leave a friend in Atlanta. ;)

I was thinking of painting the walls in my new room, but with all the colorful decorations I found, I'm thinking I can skip the painting. I may still do an accent wall, but I want to speak with the other teachers first and see what it involves. I haven't actually painted anything before...

I bought this rug. All my students won't be able to sit on it at the same time, but it will be a nice defined space to sit when we need to. I'm really hoping it doesn't get too dirty.I got these frames in blue and green. I have four, but I may get more later. Right now I plan to put a photo of Husband and me, and a photo of each cat. I realized after the shopping trip that I want to take a photo of the class on the first day, so I'll need a different frame for that.

This chair is for the front of my classroom, so I can sit and still see the class. I like it because it has a foot rest that fits me. I'm 5'3", and many tall chairs don't have foot rests at the right place and my feet just hang there. It gets tiring after a while.

I really like having plants in the room, so I bought four pots. I couldn't find any of the right plants at Ikea, but I know Lowe's will have them. I got pots in red and blue.
I also bought two table lamps, two wire drawer organizers on wheels, and wall stickers of poppies, but I can't find pictures on the website.

I don't really have any good chunk of time to go decorate the room until Friday, but I may go in between my morning and afternoon shifts at Sylvan. I'm itching to see everything in place!

90° and sunny

It's Friday! That means I'm off work. And since the weather is beautifully sunny and hot, I'm heading to the pool this afternoon. My friend S is coming along, and bringing her daughter A. I plan to sit in the sun until I feel like I might actually melt, then jump in and cool off, and repeat for the next two hours.

I went to the gym today, and lifted weights for a bit. I was doing this whole planned out program for a few months last fall, and got really discouraged when I started gaining weight again. Awesome. I know from past experience that working out doesn't help me lose anything at all. But it does make me look better, so I'm back at it.

I'm also back to tracking my food and counting calories. It worked last time, so here I go again!

I also need to finish my last assignments for school. After tonight, I'm done! Grades will be in on May 18th, but I'm assuming I've passed everything. ;) I signed up for two classes this summer to get a reading endorsement, but I'm pretty sure I'll drop them. I'm ready to not have anymore homework hanging over my head. I can always get the endorsement later if I want it.

great weekend!

This weekend was just plain ole' fun. And like usual, Husband was skydiving both days.

Saturday morning I worked. I go in from 9-12 and proctor tests. Mostly we just sit around and talk, and help a kid every now and then. It's nice easy money.

Saturday afternoon I went to my friend's to hang out. There were four of us girls, just drinking, eating, and playing games. We were there for 6 hours! I haven't laughed like that in a long time. There were some very terrible and very hilarious jokes.

Sunday morning I slept until 10:00! Thank you rain for keeping my bedroom dark enough for me to sleep past 7am.

Sunday night I went to dinner with another set of girlfriends to celebrate S's birthday. Her husband is deployed, and I paid for her babysitter so she could come out. We had a great time. I'm so glad to have friends like them!

making new friends

So I've been here for almost three years now, and have made myself a couple good friends who I really enjoy knowing. I am still actively trying to find more, just because it's fun to meet new people and have a group to get together.

I had a girls night at my place last night, and invited 7 friends. I hadn't thought about it being Easter weekend and spring break, and because of the holiday, three friends were going home for the week.

It ended up being four of us last night. One girl and I have been friends for over two years now, and the other two are people I just met at work.

One coworker and I have already had lunch and gone shopping together, and I had thought that she was worth getting to know better and introducing to my other friends. Last night, I found out that I was wrong.

She's nice enough, but is also apparently racist! I am not used to hearing the n word, or hearing people justify their racism by the fact that they differentiate between regular black people and n*****s and that they also call white people n*****s. Wow. No thanks. I'm trying to decide if I should say something, or just drop her like a hot potato.

The other coworker is quite pleasant, and I will definitely be inviting her to more events. She's about 30 weeks pregnant, which is also fun. It will be nice to meet her daughter in June!

The weather is is gorgeous right now, and I'm about to invite everyone to the first pool day of the season. I can't wait to get out there and bake myself!