Love List- January

Last year I started my own monthly Friday series for things that are bringing me joy.  Here we go with the first installment of 2014.

Item 1- A kick ass toilet seat.  You heard me, a toilet seat like no other.  No matter how much I clean the kid's bathroom it still resembles a Greyhound bus station 95% of the time.  Bill found a new toilet seat that can easily and quickly be removed and submerged in a bucket of cleaning solution.  Bad aim, meet your match.

 Item 2- New items tried at Trader Joes

I am currently in love with their roasted veggie pizza (NO CHEESE!!!).  New favorites also include the sweet potato gnocchi and the Herb popcorn.  I took Ben with me the other day to buy healthy items for his lunch box.  Lo' and behold that he picked out new fruits and one veggie to try and actually like most.  

Item 3- My amazing student teacher.  believe it or not, I have never had a student teacher.  I've been asked multiple times but always declined believing that it was just more work.  With my National Boards up for renewal and also trying to add marketable skills for my teaching resume I said yes this year.

She is mature, uber organized, has great presence with the students, takes charge, and sees the student teaching experience as a semester long job interview.  We have developed a great working relationship and while she is only teaching one of my classes due to my AP spring load,  I could not have been more lucky to have been matched with her.  One her first (real) day of handling classes alone, I left her a note, school supplies that she was planning on buying, and her drink of choice that she can legally have at school.


Item 4- The return of the weekly flower budget.

This was what 10 bucks bought to brighten up my desk at work.  I'm thinking about asking the owner of a local floral shop that I know if she would consider taking me on as an apprentice during the busy prom and summer wedding season.  Sound crazy or a tiny baby step towards a dream?

Item 5- Thunder from Down Under

After talking to Bill about the timing and the affordability of a trip in light of a saving year, I am planning on flying to Vegas to meet up with my sorority sisters during the summer.  Last year I had to miss our annual summer meet up and missed the debate on where to go for the following year.  It appears that they went big for 2014.  We've been working out the details for hotel, spa, and show suggestions in our private FB group. Why not a stretch of the imagination, we have voted that we all need some thunder from down under.  There are only a handful of people that I would want to hoot and holler at a total campy performance, but my sorority ladies are on the short list.