~33~Blogger Behind the Screen (Part 4)

In my previous "Blogger Behind the Screen" posts, I've brought you into the various aspects of my life-my family, where I grew up, my profession, and now in this last installment, I want to share with you my love story.

In March, 2004, I was in the spring semester of my freshman year at Augsburg College.  It was a typical weekend night-going to a party with some friends.  Little did I know, this night would forever leave a mark in my heart.  On this same night, a handsome man, was on a trip with his frat to their annual convention in Minneapolis.  Through a twist of fate, this handsome man and I ended up at the same party and crossing paths.  We caught each other eyes, and he walked up to me and we started chatting.  To my dismay, I discovered that this man, named Jake, was from Iowa and not from Minnesota.  Despite this, we exchanged information at the end of the night and parted ways.  I never expected to hear from him, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I did!

Our 1st New Years together, 2005 

We quickly formed a special connection-talking for hours every day about anything and everything.  This was not an ordinary relationship!  Although we knew that maintaining a relationship so far apart from each other would be hard, we also knew that our connection was too strong to ignore and they had to give it shot.  For the next 4 years, we maintained a long-distance relationship, taking turns driving to see one another every other weekend.  Over this time, I got to spend a lot of time not only with Jake, but with his friends as well and they soon became not just his friends, but OUR friends. 

After I graduated from college, I wanted to move to Iowa to be with Jake and started to apply for teaching jobs.  I had interviews with several Twin Cities districts and with the Ames school district in Iowa.  The only job offer that I got however, was from the St. Paul school district in MN.  I felt that I couldn't turn down a teaching job and signed a contract.  After another year of long distance, and us wanting to become more serious in our relationship, I knew that if we were ever going to be able to move forward, we needed to live in the same state.  At the end of the school year, I decided not to renew my contract and made the big move down to West Des Moines, IA where Jake and I got our first (and current) apartment together.  

Spending time together in Ames, IA

After almost 2 years of living together, and 6 years of dating, marriage had definitely been discussed several times. We had done some ring browsing together, but never settled on anything.  In the fall of 2010, we decided to participate in a local promotion held by one of the local jewelers, called a Diamond Dash.  In this contest, we raced around downtown Des Moines with many other couples in a huge scavenger hunt.  The grand prize was a $10,000 engagement ring.  While we didn't win the prize, we did find a jeweler that we love.  With the help of our amazing jeweler, Shelly, I we found the perfect setting.   Jake purchased the ring, and I was left to sit on pins and needles, wondering when I'd be presented with it.

March 13, 2010 was just an average Saturday and I left for my shift at the Y.  Little did she know Jake had started orchestrating an amazing proposal the minute I walked out the door.   After getting off work, I walked in the door to find Jake down on one knee with the ring and our apartment glowing with candles.  Jake, who had kept keepsakes of our memories the past 6 years (cards, ticket stubs, pictures, gifts, etc), had them spread out all over the apartment!  

He also had picked up dinner from Macaroni Grill-the first meal I had made for him.  He even had the first movie we'd watched together, "Hardball", playing on the t.v. I of course started crying at the beautiful sight and Jake said the most beautiful words. I of course said,"YES!!!"  We ate dinner together, and then headed out to meet with our friends to celebrate.

15 months later, we were married in a beautiful ceremony, on June 25, 2011.  We will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary exactly one week from today.  In honor of that, I will be taking after a fellow June 2011 bride and blogger of Forever and a Day, to do a weeks worth of blog posts about the various aspects of our wedding day from getting ready-to our honeymoon. 

Photo taken by Imagen International

~32~New Product?

Hello blog world! I hope that everyone had a great weekend! I know I did.  Aside from some softball Friday night, and a bachelorette party for a friend on Saturday, I was able to get in some crafting, that I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.   A few months ago, a coworker of mine asked if I'd be able to help make a birth stats sign she saw on Pinterest for her daughter's bedroom.  The crafting bug decided to bite me this weekend, and I wanted to try it out.  Here's how it came out:

Each panel is painted with acrylic paint in rosy pink with a white trim.  The polka dots were cut using my Cricut in various sizes and traced on to the panels.  I painted them in with magenta paint and then went over each with Magenta glitter paint to give it a little extra sparkle. The words were stenciled using the Cricut font, "All Mixed Up".  I stenciled them first with my sharpie paint pen and then I went back over it with white acrylic paint.  Each panel is connected with pink polka dot ribbon.  The only thing I would change the next time I make one-would be to make the ribbon between each panel a bit shorter. 

Right now, I'm working on another mock-up using rectangle panels, with a more boy-friendly theme.  

What do you think? What would you want to see on a birth announcement design?

~31~ Freedom!

Happy (almost) summer to all of you!!  I am now officially on day 8 of summer vacation, and so far I'm loving it!  At lot has happened since my last blog post, so I'll do my best to catch you all up to speed.

**New Toys!
When I got my Cuttlebug a few months ago, I bought a "Daisy Quilling Kit" to go with it.  I however, quickly learned that I needed another type of plate-to make the die cut work.  I finally got the C plate a couple of weeks ago and wasted no time trying it out.  My daisy didn't turn out quite as nice as the example, but with some more practice, I'm sure I'll get there.  :)
I also got a score-board, used for scoring my folds a lot more precisely than I had been able to do previously.  This particularly comes in handy when making my shutter-cards.

**Jake's Birthday
Jake celebrated his 28th birthday on Friday, May 25 and continued well into the weekend.  Since Friday was my last day of work (woo hoo!), I was able to leave early at 3 and meet up with Jake, who had the day off.  We then headed to the driving range so that Jake could hit some balls at the range with his new b-day present (which he actually got a couple months ago)-a Driver.  We followed that up with a round of putt-putt, which I sadly lost.

After that, we met up with some friends and went to a new, trendy burger joint downtown Des Moines, called Zombie Burger and Lab,  where they make a bunch of unique/gourmet burgers that all have zombie themed names. They also had some very creative and amazing adult shakes. It was a fun atmosphere and very delicious.  One of the coolest things they had was a huge bar with over 130 different beers and the option of getting a flight of beers for only $9!  They served this on a wooden paddle splattered with "blood" and circle cut outs for the glasses.  After dinner, we headed to a new bar called, "Woolys", where they had some amazing live music.

**New Job
Well, kind of.  At the end of the school year, I was given an opportunity to join the Urbandale chapter of the National Educator Association.  I was currently in the process of applying for an NEA/Public School scholarship for my masters degree, and it seemed like perfect timing.  I volunteered myself to be the treasurer, and was elected!  This will definitely be another way for me to be more involved in our district.  Last week, I met with the union president and got everything transferred over.

**School Supplies
Last Wednesday, after dinner at Red Robin for the conclusion of Jake's b-day celebrations, we stopped by OfficeMax so that I could get a few supplies for my upcoming graduate classes that start at the end of June.  I was only planning on getting a few things, but walked out with much more! The best purchase was a new laptop bag at a steal of a price, thanks to the clearance section.  I was wanting something larger to replace my work-issued one so that I could keep everything in one place-my laptop, binder, school books, pens, planner, etc.  I spent last night getting everything organized-something I oddly enough LOVE to do!  Jake called me Monica from "FRIENDS".

**Cupcakes!
Last Thursday was my last evening shift at the Y for at least the summer, and I promised my coworkers that I'd bring in some cupcakes as a peace offering for ditching them.  I made confetti cupcakes in both standard and mini sizes with my homemade buttercream frosting.  You can get the recipe HERE.  I normally just frost my cake with a knife, but saw a post on Pinterest that showed how to create professional looking frosting using piping bags and tips.


The tip that I used worked out very well for the mini cupcakes, but not as well for the larger ones.  I need to get a larger one for next time.  I also got to try out some silicone cupcake wrappers that I had gotten as a Christmas present.  They worked out very well!

We have lots of exciting things coming up in June, that I will be sure to blog about, so be on the look out.  I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer-even if it hasn't officially started yet. 

Until next time, 

~30~ Blogger Behind the Screens (Part 3)

The mediocre teacher tells.  

The good teacher explains.  

The superior teacher demonstrates. 

The great teacher inspires.

-William Ward

In 1992, I was inspired.  I was just 7 years old, yet it was then that I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up: a teacher.  I was in the 2nd grade in Ms. Erickson's class.  I can't quite pinpoint what it was now, but there was just something about her that made me want to be just like her.  She inspired me to want to inspire others in the same way.

As I continued through school, having more experiences and outlooks on life, I was still determined to become a teacher.  I loved the feeling I got knowing that I helped someone. Once I reached college, these feelings never subsided.  I considered other majors for a bit, but kept coming back to elementary education.  At my college, Augsburg, licensure covers grades K-8 and so I was required to choose a middle-school specialty area.  I initially thought about social studies (WHY, I have NO idea!! After all, it is my worst subject), but soon came to the realization that math was the area I had the most interest in.

Prior to graduation, I student taught for 14 weeks in a multi-age classroom with grades 1 and 2.  I absolutely LOVED it.  I enjoyed getting up everyday and going to "work" so much that Sunday evening would roll around and I'd be ready to go back to school because I missed my kids.  I learned so much from both my cooperating teachers and the students and I knew I had made the right choice.  (I will mention that student teaching wasn't my first experience in the classroom-I had to complete 140 hours of classroom practicums prior to student teaching).

Two months after graduation, I was hired for my 1st real teaching job in St. Paul, MN at a humanities magnet.  I had 18 4th graders-all of whom I will remember forever! I don't think I'll ever forget any of my students, but I think there is something special about your very first class.  It was an extremely tough year as I navigated my way through teaching all on my own.  There were even times that I questioned what I had gotten into.  However, by the end of the year, I had a great group of students who had come together and built a sense of community in our little classroom, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment-I had survived my first year of teaching!  With me wanting to move forward in my life with Jake, I made a decision to resign at the end of the school year and move to IA.  This really was an easier choice than I thought it would be because our school was facing major cuts and I would have probably been let go regardless.

Finding a teaching job in IA proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined.  The first step was transferring my teaching license, something I put off for way too long.  In the meantime, to bring in income, I took on a temp position working for an insurance company doing quality assurance while doing private tutoring to keep up my teaching chops.  After a little over a year of that, I finally had my licensure in place, and was ready to start subbing.  Little did I know this was perfect timing.  Only a week or so after meeting with the associate superintendent, I was called back not about subbing, but a very recently opened job position as the Title I Math teacher.  I was thrilled! I went through a week long process of interviewing and then was hired!  I am now about to start my 4th year in the district and I am absolutely loving my job! The kids make it all worth it and I get so excited helping them to make sense of the math world around them.  My hope is that throughout my career, I will be able to have the impact my 2nd grade teacher had on me-that I will inspire just 1 of my students to do something great.

~29~ And The Winner is...

Yesterday was the March of Dimes at Principal Park, downtown Des Moines, and boy was it a great day! The weather was perfect and lots of people showed up to walk for babies.  The best news is that I was able to meet my fundraising goal of $100!!! Thank you to all of my amazing friends and blog readers for your generosity!!

The winner of a $25 gift certificate to my Etsy Shop, is Lindsey!!  Congratulations!!

~28~ March for Babies

Each year, 13 million babies enter the world earlier than we intend for them.  Because of that, these little miracles must fight for their lives harder than you and I will probably ever have to fight.  Luckily, due to caring and effective doctors and nurses, and research from organizations such as March of Dimes, most babies born as early as 24 weeks (and some even earlier) are able to survive and grow into beautiful, healthy children.

In 2010, just days before Thanksgiving, 2 of my dear friends had their beautiful baby girl, who was one of those 13 million, born at 24 weeks and 5 days. The journey that my friends went through is nothing short of incredible-and I so admire them for their strength and positive attitude, especially while spending 4 months watching their princess fight in the NICU.  Today, I am happy to report that their little one is doing beautifully and is such a joy!

This year, on May 12, I will have the honor of walking alongside my friends at the March of Dimes annual walk in Des Moines.  In addition, I'm helping my friends and the March of Dimes raise money to support premature birth research-which will continue to help support parents and families who have premature babies, and hopefully aid in preventing the occurrence of premature labor.

If any of you would like to contribute towards our team and help support the March of Dimes research, you can make a donation on my team page HERE.  All proceeds go directly to the March of Dimes.  Anyone making a donation by midnight (CST) on Friday, May 11 will be entered in a drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to use at my Etsy shop.  The winner will be announced here and on my Facebook page on Sunday, May 12.  To learn more about the March of Dimes and the walk, you can visit their webpage at www.marchofdimes.com

Thanks to all of you for your support!

~27~ Violin, School, & Travel, Oh My!

I know, I've been a terrible blogger.  I definitely have not been keeping up with my New Years Blogging goals, and for that I apologize!  While posts will probably continue to occur intermittently, I at least wanted to stop by and clue you all into why.

Honestly, this is a terrible excuse, but I have just been so busy, that my blog has fallen down the list in priorities, and I haven't had a chance to do any crafting in many, many weeks.  I am very excited though to get to devote some quality time to exploring my new Cuttlebug.  I did stop at Michaels (using a birthday gift card) and pick up some supplies to go with it.  Definitely be on the look out for some posts highlighting it in the next couple months.

Last week, was one of the busiest weeks of the year.  As some of you, my dear readers, may recall, I play the violin in a local community orchestra.  We rehearse every Tuesday night and perform concerts for the public each season.  In addition, we also accompany a local ballet company in their annual main stage production.  This year, it was the Wizard of Oz. While it was A LOT of work, it was so much fun! I don't usually rave about music other than that from Tchaikovsky, but this all original score, from Kermit Poling, was nothing short of amazing.  It was some of the most fun I've had playing the violin in recent years.

Aside from orchestra, I have been very busy with school.  My district is currently in the process of transitioning over to the Common Core/Iowa Core curriculum, and that means a lot of work from me and other teachers in the district to get ready for it.  We are also in the final count-down until the end of school.  Only 6 full weeks left or, 33 days.  It's completely crazy to me how quickly this school year went by.

Finally, I was filling out my calendar for all of our upcoming events, and oh my gosh we are booked through mid-May already and several weekends this summer!  Next week, I am excitedly going to Baltimore, MD to celebrate the final sermon and retirement of my uncle, who also married Jake and I.  It was kind of a last minute plan/trip and I'm so excited to spend some quality time with my family-some of which I haven't seen since our wedding 9 months ago.  I'll be leaving Saturday and coming home Monday.

Next weekend, Jake has a bachelor party in Chicago, and the weekend after that is the wedding.  The 1st week in May we have our spring concert, and the week after that we have a graduation party for Jake's cousin and we are participating in the March of Dimes-in honor of our friends' beautiful daughter who was born at just 24weeks!  More on that later.  In June, Jake will be celebrating his 10 year high school reunion (when did we get so old?!?) and we will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary, and another friends' bachelor party.  And then, we have 2 weddings in July.  I can already tell that summer is going to fly by and it's not even here yet!

I will do my best to post as often as I can, but please forgive me if it's sparse between now and then end of school.  I have lots of plans to get some good crafting in once the school year is over.


P.S. Last week I was given some great news!! I was officially accepted into a Masters of Science in Education program at Walden University and I begin classes at the end of June!

I hope everyone is having a great spring!

Until Next Time,