Thank goodness

10 Things I am thankful for during the holidays:
10. Mornings where I do not have to set an alarm clock
 9. Wool socks to help keep my feet warm
 8. Getting recommendations from all my hard work in the classroom
 7. Home cooked meals during the holidays
 6. Long walks in the snow
 5. College football rivalries
 4. Blue bird, powder snowboarding days
 3. Snowboarding with good friends
 2. Getting help and wisdom from my father
 1. Spending Thanksgiving with my friends and family

the single sister has a crush!

So most of you know that I have been single for a long time now and it has been a great thing for myself. I have learned so much about myself, what I want, what I need and what is important to me and really all of this could not happened as much if I was in a relationship all this time. While I continue to feel the pressure of finding someone from many people in my life, I feel that it cannot be this thing that I go looking for. I can't search around for the perfect guy that I want to date...as one of my closest friends has always said "it must come naturally."

I totally believe that is the case. For a few months I completely stopped thinking that when I went out with friends or really involved myself in any social situation, I needed to meet guys. I also quit going on dates for a bit until recently. Well I recently went on a mellow coffee date with this guy that I actually met last May, but have been too shy to ever pursue anything with. I finally decided that I wanted to contact him, say hello and see what would happen next. When we first met, there was this mutual attraction to each other and I never forgot this. So I decided to finally pursue and see if the attraction was still there after running into him last week. I had him number so gave him a friendly text. Texting felt a lot more safe to me than calling him, although I do prefer to call. Well to make a long story short, we went out for coffee/tea last Saturday night and it went so well! Seriously I was shocked how well the date went. I am glad that I asked him to coffee because it mellow and a great way to just get to know each other. Date number 2 is happening tonight, where he invited me to dinner at his place tonight!

I am excited, I haven't had a serious crush in so long. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes tonight. I was nervous before our first date, and even when I stopped by to say hi to him when he was working at his campus job at the the Health and Wellness center, but I do not feel nervous for tonight! I feel a bit impulsive, and quite excited about it. Gosh I love having a new crush. It is helping me stay less stressed right now.

YIPEE :)

Have a good day everyone!

Birthday Horoscopes

Every year around my birthday (Oct. 15th) I always check my horoscope because I have found them to make me smile and make me feel good about turning older. Anyways...the horoscope that I read during my birthday was totally fabulous, and really made me smile. While I do not read my horoscope daily, weekly or even monthly to be honest, I do find them really interesting and fun when I do spend the time reading them. Anyways my birthday horoscope for this year read:

"Everything is dreamed first," wrote French poet Gilbert Trolliet. French philospher Gaston Bachelard agreed, adding "Creative reverie animates the nerves of the future. Your task in the coming weeks, Libra, is to act on those clue: Conjure up pictures in your mind that foreshadow the life you want to be living next year. Proceed on the assumption that you now have extraordinary power to generate self-fulfilling prophecies.

This horoscope really impacted me because I have been trying to start to decide what I want my life to look like next year. I graduate with my Masters in Art of Teaching in May and this question of where do I want to teach? Where do I want to live? has really been lingering with me. I know I want to be an elementary special education teacher, but other than that I don't really know what my future holds. As I always say "I am going to go where the wind takes me." One thing that I can picture and foreshadow in my life is first getting a teaching job in Salt Lake because that is where I currently live and do have the most connections. I also want to picture myself getting this internship that I want working with the education department of the Baseball Hall of Fame. So I guess since I cannot answer where I will living next year, or even where I want to be living...I can answer that I want to make sure my future year involves being a special education teacher and working and living in Cooperstown, N.Y. next summer.

Cheers to great horoscopes and positive vibes!

CONQUER THAT FRUSTRATION

So I noticed that frustration and stress have taken over my life and have really affected me and my performance in my masters program the last month or so. I am finally going to stop the frustration from continuing to run my life, my emotions and my health. This program has showed me how tough and stressful "real life" may be and therefore I need to be ready to handle it in a professional, calm and problem-solving manner. It is time that I start making some changes and stop the frustration from continuing to run deeper and deeper into me.

The first way I look to conquer the frustration is through telling what I am most grateful for right now. While my list is rather long, I decided to focus on five things that I am grateful for!

1. My brother, his partner, my sister and her boyfriend helping to make my 25th birthday really special, and really fun!

2. Levels of concern people have for me, and the areas they feel that I continue to grow and develop.

3. This lovely fall weather, breezy and chilly in the morning and at night, and sunny and moderately warm temperatures in the afternoon!

4. Nice service people who are willing to communicate with me in a respectful manner.

5. Going on a field trip to Red Butte Gardens with my mentor teacher's 3rd grade class.

Secondly, my goal is not have ANY WASTED ENERGY! Wasted energy is a sure way of frustration occurring in my life. If I do have some wasted energy, then I need to re-focus and figure out what I am trying to accomplish? I need to set goals during those times and make sure I accomplish them.

Thirdly, I am reducing and trying to eliminate all together all my CLUTTER and CRAP that is constantly consuming and taking up breathing room in my life. I am throwing out, donating or recycling items and things that I feel are inhibiting my ability to breath and function as a normal, non-frustrated person.

Lastly...I am going to continue to be positive through motivation and positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement helps me to feel like I accomplished what I was needed!

Frustration you will not CONTROL ME AND MY LIFE!

Children get A for their optimistic attitudes

I love working with children, I really do. For one they are usually very honest. They are not afraid to hold anything back--they are willing to tell things like they are. I also love how children are such optimists when it comes to the future. They are optimists about love, fortune, and success. They do things that truly make them happy and they have no guilt about what they do.

Children look at the world so differently than most adults. Take love for example, so many kids believe in true love! A lot of kids believe that "we" all have true sole mates that we will find and then be totally in love with.

Working with children really helps to instill and optimistic personality and belief about our world, and our future. I have learned so much from watching, talking, learning and teaching children. In the past I gave up on finding true love, I figured it did exist, well at least not for me. But that view has changed as I have worked with children who have enlightened my mind and energized my spirit. I believe that we all do have sole mates, or at least people we are meant to be with. I believe that we could've already met our sole mates, but the timing was off or the calendar was not set on the appropriate date in which true love could actually happen. For others maybe they haven't met there sole mate, but will in the near future. Either way...we all will find that person that creates lighting bolts every time he or she will work by.

Like children I have begun to find myself one OPTIMISTICALLY hopeful person who just tries to continue to put on a smile everyday!

CHEERS TO LOVE, OPTIMISM AND CHILDREN!