About Me

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I am a twenty-something second year teacher living in the midwest. I am a Christian woman and proud of it! I am the middle child of three girls. I am the proud aunt of the very beautiful Lil E and Lil C!! I love TV, movies, reading, and baseball. I am in my second year of teaching , but my first year teaching kindergarten. It has been quite the journey!

28 June 2010

Epic Weekend

Last weekend my parents went to visit big sis and bro-in-law, leaving lil sis and I with the house to ourselves for a weekend- an Epic Weekend.

Epic Weekend existed of four parts the first two of which are chronicled here.

Epic Weekend- Part I- Backstreet's Back!

Yes, Lil Sis and I attended the Backstreet Boys concert on Friday night!!!! It was amazingsauce!!!!

We got lawn tix for $15 which we agreed were the best fifteen bucks we've ever spent! Aren't we adorable?
:)

Waiting... in the beautiful summer evening!

The lawn was definitely more crowded than the seats :)

The Opening Act- Mindless Behavior (aka 4 12 year old boys...)

Then our favorite boy band!! I couldn't really get any good pictures...



But it was an awesome concert! Lil Sis and I were up and rocking out the entire time!!! We were a little worried they'd play a bunch of their new stuff that we didn't know/care about. But they played a lot of their old stuff. Probably two of every three songs were oldies but goodies. There were like 4 or 5 costume changes including one when they were dressed as robots. Also during costume changes they played trailers of movies with BSB as the leads, the best was Brian as the prince in Enchanted :)

Here's my boy!

I <3 Brian and his adorable little son. To start the show this adorable curly headed kid came out. He said, "Are you ready for the Backstreet Boys? Here's Nick, Howie, A.J., and of course my dad, Brian!" So cute!!!

Here we are with our excited faces!

The weather stayed pretty good for most of the concert, but about half an hour before the end it started sprinkling, then I got a text from a friend saying there were tornado watches in the area... I figured that if it was bad they would stop the concert. Then it started pouring!!! and we saw lightning flashes in the distance. We were soaked, but it was so fun!!! When it was over everybody splashed in puddles all the way to the exit. The rain definitely made the night :) Here we are in the car after the show

So Awesome!!!! If you have a chance to see BSB definitely do it, so worth the money!!

Epic Weekend Part II- Seeing Toy Story 3 in Imax. Neither Lil Sis nor I had ever seen a movie in Imax so we decided to check it out.

The movie was awesome! I laughed, I cried (almost), I definitely left feeling satisfied! For peeps my age it was cool to have Andy grow up with us and be dealing with similar life situations as us now (i.e. going away to college). Pixar does it again! Seriously, their movies never stink and usually always rock! Definitely check this one out!

20 June 2010

Daddy-0 of the Patio

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers, uncles, grandpas, and godfathers out there.

I have the best Dad ever...
I love when we go to baseball games together and you help me move home!!


I love spending holidays dying Easter Eggs, decorating Christmas Cookies and building gingerbread houses!


I love mocking outdoor art with you on vacation!


I love talking baseball with you and heading onto the field for Photo Day!


I love visiting big sis and bro-in-law with you!!


I love when you come out to school to see football or basketball games and we stay in swanky hotel rooms!!


I love when we go on awesome vacations and get to spend time together!!


I love playing putt-putt golf on real golf greens!


I love celebrating graduations with you and all of the help with math homework!


I love seeing you all dressed up in a tux and walking big sis down the aisle!!


I love your corny jokes, when you make me laugh and just being silly!!


I love hay rides and pumpkin picking, even when we're a bit too old...

I love you Daddy!!!!

09 June 2010

Photo Shoot!

I met up with one of my bffs from high school Monday night at the mall. She needed some professional outfits for an upcoming interview. I needed nothing... :)

But I ended up getting three fabulous pieces, two of which I "needed" for teaching and one of which is thoroughly impractical, but adorable!

I decided that I needed to stage a photo shoot to show you the cute new outfits I can make!!

First is a high-wasted, knee-length, khaki shirt. I needed a new khaki skirt, my other one is old and not very cute. I found it at H&M for $25 :) great!

I paired it with a brown flowered top that I got at Penney's a couple of weeks ago and my pointy-toed brown heels!!

Next, ensemble-
I really wanted some dressy capri pants that I could wear to school during the spring and summer. I have tried on a bunch, but finally found these at T.J. Maxx for $15!!!!

I paired them with a teally top I got a few months ago at Target and my gray plaid flats. I was going to have Momma hem them (I'm so short!) but I think I like them this length...
I also discovered that from the side this shirt makes me look pregnant... oops.
I threw on a belt and it sorta helped :)


Last outfit- the impractical one. I tried this dress on at T.J. Maxx and didn't let myself try on anything else afterwards because I knew I shouldn't buy anything else :)
So cute! I wore it with my black, gray/silver and white heels. Love it!

The following conversation ensued.
Momma: Where will you wear that?
Jillibean: To Emily (my friend/former roommate)'s wedding.
Momma: In December?
Jillibean: I'll wear a sweater and tights.

I don't have a cute gray sweater yet, but I will find one! But here it is with tights.

While I was doing my photo shoot I was listening to Glee songs from last night's finale, so of course some dancing ensued... well it won't let me add those pics, but I'll try again later...

I also got this purse at Target the other day <3

05 June 2010

The True American Idol

Last weekend, lil sis and I made a trek across the state to attend the Lifehouse/Daughtry concert! We loved Chris Daughtry on American Idol (he totes should have won; Taylor Hicks beat him, seriously??? that is not cool).

We met up at a friend's apartment and walked downtown for dinner. We went to this custom burger place. I had a chicken burger with swiss cheese, lettuce and bacon. Delish! Plus my order didn't come out with everyone else's so it was free! Plus they had awesome fries. My friend's roomie ordered ostrich meat. It pretty much tasted like beef, which was kinda disappointing.

Then lil sis and I walked to the concert, which was really nice becuase we didn't have to pay to park! Big Thanks to Laura for letting us crash at her place :)

When we got to our seats lil sis and I had a two person row! We were in the corner so there were only two seats in our row, which was nice cause no one got up and walked in front of us.



I hadn't been to a concert in a long time, so I wasn't sure what I should wear. But I ended up with my cutest dark jeans, a brown tank top and some fun gold jewelery (my New Moon gold motorcycle necklace :) And of course my new yellow wedges!


The opening, opening act was Cavo.
They were pretty good, I'm not rushing out to buy (or download) their CD, but they were entertaining.

Then we waited while they changed the stage for Lifehouse...
They were really good! They played about 9 songs, four or five of which we knew. It would have been better if we'd known more of the songs on their new album, but all of the songs/ performances were good!


Then came Daughtry!!
Again we probably only knew about 1/2 - 2/3 of the songs, but it was a really good show! I would definitely recommend it!!


This is the girl from one section over who was dancing all night! Until security made her move :(

After approx. five awkward minutes after Daughtry left the stage and some people left the arena and some people were waiting for an encore... Daughtry came back out for two more songs. During "Home" the lead singer of Lifehouse, Jason, came out and sang, which was cool.

Then we walked back to Laura's apartment and crashed for the night. The next day we headed back across the state, in two cars, which was kinda fun :)

Then we bought tickets to see the Backstreet Boys in June :D

p.s. is a list of concerts I have been too
1) Faith Hill/Tim McGraw- my friend got free tix the day of because it was going to be a TV special and they had to fill all of the seats
2) O-Town- yup I am that awesome
3) Clay Aiken/ Kelly Clarkson- I really wish I had cared more about Kelly Clarkson at this point, because now I really like her music
4) Clay Aiken - yes, again...
5) Josh Gracin- he was the homecoming conert at school one year, plus he's from Michigan!
6)TransSiberian Orchestra- awesome, but very loud, wear earplugs
7) Daughtry/Lifehouse- see above

New Teacher Clothes

Mom, Lil sis and I went shopping last weekend to get lil sis some professional clothes for her internship this summer. Mom also let me get some more/new clothes for teaching :)

Lil sis found tons of cute stuff, which was good, cause her success at clothes shopping is either stellar or a major fail. Pretty much everything she tried on looked great!

I ended up buying a brown and pink flowered, short-sleeved button up which was on clearance for like twelve bucks.

Then I found this adorable top (which you can find here http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID=50434&CatID=53654&GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=18fed5e&attrtype=&attrvalue=&CMID=50434%7c53651&Fltr=COL%3aEquals%3ablack&Srt=&QL=F&IND=10&cmVirtualCat=&CmCatId=50434|53651|53654 I couldn't find a way to post the picture) I love that it is short sleeves and a little bit unique (the upper chest/neck area is sheer) but still modest enough for school.

I tried on this fabulous high-waisted purple skirt with a wide belt, but it was much too big and they didn't have any smaller sizes. I lurked on JC Penney's website for about three days trying to order one, but they were always out of stock. Eventually I was able to nab one! It should be here in a week or two! Here's a pic of it


I can't wait to get the skirt and try it on with the top! I tried them on together at the store and it looked good, but the skirt was too big... I also can't wait to wear it my first day of student teaching! I'll be sure to post pics once I get the skirt.

02 June 2010

!@#$$%%^^&

I'm not sure I can even express in words what I am feeling right now. My beloved Tigers (specifically Armando Galarraga) pitched a Perfect Game tonight, which was blown by a horrible call by an umpire. With two outs in the eighth the umpire called a guy safe, when he was clearly out, ruining Gaga's perfect game.

My family freaked out. We were yelling cause he got it and then yelling because they said he hadn't. Heartbreaking.

It was such an exciting game until then. After Apple Jax's amazing catch to the start the ninth my heart was beating out of my chest. It was intense. Then my heart stopped. My heart aches so badly for Galarraga. Honestly that will probably NEVER happen to him again.

He was such a classy guy, a good sport and a cutie pie in his postgame interview. After the guy was called safe he had a tiny smile on his face, which he later said was due to nervousness/confusion. But he buckled down and got the 28th straight batter. He was a class act in his postgame interview. Cracking a smile and laughing. He joked that he'll have a couple more perfect games. And said he belives he got a perfect game and no matter what the record books show he'll tell his son he got a perfect game. He was also perfectly gracious to the blown call umpire. He even said, "Nobody's perfect." Which was really cute considering Gaga was tonight (p.s. I nicknamed him that long before Lady Gaga).

This poster on freep.com sums up my feelings towards the ump best: "Dear Mr. Joyce, you made a terrible call, and you cost a young man a perfect game. I do give you a lot of credit for actually doing the right thing after the game, and watching the replay, and admitting your mistake. I truly believe this was an accidentally blown call, and all human beings make mistakes. Its a shame that it happened in a situation like this. Don't get me wrong, I'm still ultra-PO'd at you, but i hope that no one does anything silly toward you or your family. I hope there is some way for MLB to try to make this right, and turn it into the first ever 28 out perfect game in history."

I know the guy's human, but he screwed up.

The Tigs all said they think Gaga got a perfect game and they gave him a beer shower anyway which is really cute. Laird clearly learned a lot at his anger management classes since he didn't punch anyone, although one post I read said he should have done us all a favor and decked the ump so Laird would have gotten suspended for the rest of the season :)

I know that MLB probs won't overturn the call, but in our hearts and minds Armando was perfect tonight!!

p.s. Yo Ken Griffey Jr. Imma let you finish, but I gotta say that Galarraga had the best baseball story of the whole day. The Whole Day.