30 Before 30

Have you heard of this 30 Before 30 thing?  Apparently it's a new take on the bucket list and I can't help but say that I love the idea!  Basically, you set 30 goals that you would like to accomplish before you turn 30 years old....I know, I know, it was sort of self-explanatory. ;)  In any case, I have decided to take up this challenge and record my experiences as part of this slightly very neglected blog.  Therefore, without further ado, I give you MY 30 before 30 list:

1. Go on a 7 day cruise (I've only done 5 day ones)

2. Leave Kindercare and get a teaching job

3. Redecorate my bedroom

4. Pay off my credit card

5. Take a trip with my girlfriends

6. Go through McDonald's drive-thru and buy the meal of the person behind me

7. Kiss someone at midnight on new years eve

8. See Wicked, the musical

9. Make enough money that I can actually put some into savings.

10. Pick strawberries and learn how to can them (make jelly)

11. Go back to California

12. Fall in love

13. Make a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11 and again on 12/12/12

14. See 10 classic movies I've never seen

15. See a play at the Ordway and one at the Guithrie

16. Pay off my car

17. Travel to NYC and see a broadway play

18. Get on a workout plan that works for me

19. Travel overseas

20. Create some projects from Pinterest

21. Go to 3 different wine tastings

22. Give 30 gifts in 30 days

23. Buy a marshmallow shooter and have a war with friends!

24. Plan an awesome themed party

25. Write a children's book

26. Buy myself a designer something - purse, shoes, etc...

27. Go to ValleyFair and ride every single ride!

28. Shoot a gun

29. Learn to play at least one song on the drums!

30.

There you have it!  30 things I would like to accomplish before I turn 30 years old.  Unfortunately for me, I only have four more years until that horrible number!  In any case, some of the items on here are harder than others but I guess we'll just see how I do!

Have a FABULOUS 30th birthday party!Until next time.....(which hopefully won't be another 2 months!)

A Little WILW Fun....

I've gotten so bad with posting lately.  I'm going to plead that it's summer and there's just so many other OUTDOOR things I'd rather be doing!  But it IS Wednesday and for the mere fact that it's a nice, easy post, I thought I'd link up with Jamie for a little WILW fun!

{ I'm LOVING }

The sheer amount of FUN I had this weekend for the Fourth!  I went to my roommate's cabin and between the boozin', boatin', lakin' and campfire-in' it was a FANTASTIC weekend!

{ I'm LOVING }

That I took off yesterday from work and only have to work three days this week!  Love me some short-week!

{ I'm LOVING }

PAN-O-PROG!!!  Lakeville's city days are this weekend and I am twelve kinds of excited!  I grew up going to pan-o-prog and it's so much more fun now that I can go into the beer garden and see GB Leighton play!  Summer fun with my friends?  I think YES!

{ I'm LOVING }

Bloody Mary's!  Mal and I perfected the Bloody Mary this weekend and ya'll, I'm not even kidding when I say we could sell these!  They're amazing!  And despite the fact that my liver is desperately craving a break, we may or may not have had one tonight.  Just sayin....

{ I'm LOVING }

The cah-razy tan I got this weekend!  Girlfriend needs to remember to take sunglasses off once in awhile...currently rockin' the raccoon eyes.  Nice....

But......despite being burnt, this tan is *twelve kinds of awesome!*

And just cause I can.....

{ I'm NOT LOVING }

CHIGGERS!!!  I got these damn things all over my legs from going in the lake this weekend.  If you don't know what they are, don't look 'em up.  Trust me.....they're disgusting!  And.....they itch like a mo-fo!

Anyway, what are you lovin' today?!

Je vais à Paris!

I just found out today that..........

I'M GOING TO PARIS IN 77 DAYS!!!!!

Ohmiword, I am so unbelievably excited!  My godmother texted me last night and asked if I wanted to go with her.  (ummmmm, yes?!?!)  AND, the best part is, she wants to pay for my airfare and lodging!  I don't know many other details yet, but I cannot wait! 

I'm off to Wisconsin tomorrow to celebrate Father's Day with my daddy but I'll post more details when I return! 

Glee-Cap

Okay so wow, it's been a busy few days!  I wanted to review the Glee concert I went to last week, but then it was the last week of school and the kids were cra-to-the-zy and before I knew it, over a week had past and I STILL had not posted a Glee-Cap!  Whew!  How was that for a run-on sentence?  Anyway, let's talk a little Glee Live!

So I got out of work early (woop! woop!) and took the lightrail downtown.  Let me take a second to remind you that I am a straight-out-of-suburbia kinda girl.  Have I ridden the lightrail before?  Absolutely!  Have I ridden it by myself?  HELL-TO-THE-NO!  I was a bit nervous!  I mean, what if I got mugged?  Or worse, missed my stop?!  Fortunately, other than having to wait for the next train (one pulled out of the station as I was walking up), I made it downtown with no mishaps! 

We decided to eat outside at a little restaurant/bar called Gluecks.  It was literally right outside of the Target Center which made for some very interesting people watching!  We quickly realized that we were going to be on the slightly older side of the crowd and proceeded to participate in happy hour full-force!  Don't judge, you would have too!  After a few drinks and dinner, we headed across the street for the show.

Our seats were incredibly disappointing.  I had known that we didn't have the best seats (we went for CHEAP!) but what I didn't realize was that there would only be ONE ROW behind us.  Still, we figured that with the screens, we'd be able to see just fine.  Well....that wasn't the case.  Unfortunately, the screens weren't the greatest.  Despite this, the concert was AWESOME!!!  It was so cool to be able to see the songs performed live (or mostly live....with some of the dancing that was going on, there is just no way it was live!). 

One of the most disappointing parts was that I had heard that Lea Michele was supposed to sing "Don't Rain On My Parade."  This is one of my absolute favorite songs and unfortunately, she didn't sing it.  Not sure why.  Other songs included in the show were:

1.  Don't Stop Believing

2.  Dog Days Are Over

3.  Sing

4.  I'm a Slave For You (KILLER DANCING!!!)

5.  Fat Bottomed Girls

6.  I Want To Hold Your Hand (Soooooo good live!  One of my Favs!)

7.  Ain't No Way

8.  PYT

9.  Born this Way (AWESOME!)

10.  Firework

11.  Teenage Dream

12.  Silly Love Songs

14.  Raise Your Glass (The Warblers were AMAZING!)

15.  Lucky

16.  River Deep, Mountain High (another awesome number!)

17.  Jesse's Girl

18.  Valerie

19.  Loser Like Me

Then.......the lights went on and I was sad that it was over.  But it wasn't!  The encore was probably the best part!  Chris Colfer did "Single Ladies" (which was so great!), the boys did "Friday" and Kevin McHale did "Safety Dance."  At that point, my roommate says, "he can walk?!?!"  Priceless.....pure gold!

Finally they finished with "Empire State of Mind" and my personal favorite, "Someone to Love."  Overall, the show was shorter than I expected but awesome!!!  I would totally go again, although next year, I'll spend the money to get better seats.

Here's a few pics.....

"Don't Stop Believing"

"Single Ladies"

The Warblers

I got some video too but the quality is horrible so I'm not going to post them.  All in all, a great show and a fun night!

What I'm Loving Wednesday.....

I'm sure you have all been just dying in anticipation for my review of Glee Live!  Never fear my friends, the post is almost ready to go up!  Until then, let me tide you over with a little WILW fun!  Link up with Jamie if you want to join the fun also!

{ I'm LOVING }

That by 6:30 tonight I will FINALLY have my new phone!  For those of you who didn't know, I accidently slid my Lifetime Fitness membership card though it and broke the strippy-thingy (and yes, that IS the technical term for it).  So, for the past WEEK, I have been using an old phone.....and by old, I pretty much mean that this phone was what Fred and Wilma Flintstone used.  I'm sooooo ready for a new phone!

{ I'm LOVING }

The weather!  Did ya'll hear that we broke records the past two days?!  It was 103 degrees yesterday in Minnesota! 

{ I'm LOVING }

This song!  Like to the point that if I didn't love it so much I'd be annoyed because I cannot get it out of my head! 

{ I'm LOVING }

SUMMER BREAK!!!  The kids have one more day of school and then I'm starting my summer curriculum!  I love summers with the kids because although it's busy, it's also a TON of fun! 

{ I'm LOVING }

That I'm going to a Twins game on Saturday with some of my favorite people!  And hey, with the winning streak they've been on, maybe they'll be able to pull of another one!

What are you loving today?

I'm full of GLEE!

Why you may ask?  Because in one short day, I will be attending the GLEE concert! 

I'm not sure if you can tell but I'm a little excited!  Any TV show that combines a good storyline with AWESOME music (including songs from musicals) is a perfect fit for me!  I'm curious to see what songs they'll go with for the live show.  Here's what I'm hoping for:

1.  Loser Like Me

2.  Don't Stop Believing

3.  Empire State of Mind

4.  I Want to Hold Your Hand

5.  Born this Way

6.  Start Me Up/Living on a Prayer Mashup

7.  I Feel Pretty/Unpretty Mashup

8.  Somebody to Love

9.  For Good

10.  Don't Rain on My Parade

11.  Firework

12.  River Deep/Moutain High

13.  Lucky

14.  Marry You

15.  Teenage Dream

Really, if they even did just a few of these I'd be a happy girl! 

Who'd a thought I'd turn out to be such a GLEEK! :)

Trend-setting?

I have a problem.......or so I thought!

While doing a little closet spring cleaning, I came to a realization that I have a ton of striped shirts.  Horizontal striped shirts to be specific.  Thick stripes, skinny stripes, different colors....you name it, I've probably got it!  The funny thing is that I never realized my tendency to wear stripes!  Anyway, after getting rid of about 8-9 striped shirts (don't worry, I kept a few), I felt as though I had this little addiction under control. 

HOWEVER......

I was watching a daytime talk show today (yay for holidays that allow me to have a day off!) and the stylist said that stripes are totally in for this season!  So what I originally thought of as a problem, I'm now realizing is just me being trend-savvy! 

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!  Enjoy your day off and remember to thank any soldiers you may run into!

And remember, go forth ladies and embrace the STRIPES! :)

MIA

Sorry I have been MIA lately.  It's been a busy few weeks and between working three jobs and applying for teaching jobs, I just haven't had much time for blogging!  Which is not to say that I haven't wanted to blog!  I have!  Promise!  I'm hoping to have more time soon!

Anyway, today I pulled up Yahoo's homepage to check my e-mail and saw some of the coolest pictures in their little news section.  You have got to see these because they are ah-maz-ing! If I had even a tiny smidgen of this artist's talent, well.....I'd be set for life! (The artist is Edgar Mueller) Check out these 3D street paintings he did:

How COOL are these? 

The Resurrection Story....

......as told by a third grader:

"Jesus sufficated himself for us 'cause we're bad people...well not always....but sometimes we do bad stuff.  So Jesus sufficated himself.  And then the Dementors came and Jesus' best friend Peter pretended he didn't know Jesus.  Then it got even worse because Judas told on Jesus and then Jesus had to die on a cross.  That's like a little 't'.  They put nails in his hands and then he died.  But he came back to life on Easter, not like a ghost though.  He wasn't a ghost.  He was a real person and the Dementors were happy and so was this lady named Mary.  It's a good story!"

Kids have such a way don't they?  I hope you had a wonderful Easter!

What I'm Loving Wednesday.....

I haven't linked up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday in awhile.  Time to get back on the wagon I'd say! :)

{ I'm Loving }

That my Victoria's Secret swimsuit came last week and I. LOVE. IT!!!  Now, if only I could convince myself to work out a little bit more so I'd have a dancer's body in it!

{ I'm Loving }

That this weekend is EASTER and I'm heading to my parent's house in Wisconsin.  I'm really looking forward to spending the holiday with my new little cousin, aunt/uncle, grandma and immediate family!  It should be a lot of fun!

{I'm Loving}

Modern Family and Better With You!  Seriously, after a crazy day there is nothing better than sitting down with a glass of wine to some AWESOME comedy! 

{ I'm Loving }

That after I finish this post, I'm GOING TO BED!!!  I have had far too many late nights lately and it's starting to catch up with me.  I can hear my bed calling my name!

As Always.... { I'm Loving }

My favorite little feline, Chloe! :)

(yes, she really jumped into the washer...what can I say, the cat likes to be clean! ;)

{ I'm NOT Loving }

The fact that it is April 20th and it SNOWED today!  Seriously?!?!  I'm SO ready for SPRING/SUMMER!!!!

What are you loving today?  Go link up!

Dear World,

I completely understand that today is Monday and Monday's traditionally tend to be a bit slower of a day.  (trust me, I'm rockin' a totally crappy hairstyle today because I was moving a bit slower than usual this morning.)  However, despite this, do you think we could attempt to speed things up just a little bit?  I mean really, Ms. Cashier, do you have to bag groceries at a snail's pace?  And Mr. Blue Sedan:  it's called a stop sign, not a stop and wait for ten minutes sign.  I've got an insanely busy week with a lot to get done.  If you could just help me out a little by speeding yourself up or staying out of my way, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks so much! :)

Jessica

Welcome to.......

THE FARM!!!

We have been very busy learning all about the farm for the past couple of weeks, doing everything from milking cows and gathering eggs to planting lima beans and making butter!  Here is just some of the stuff we've been up to:

Giant veggies with cool facts

Farm Dramatic Play- complete with farm animals, hats, bandanas, stick horses, chicken hats, crops to plant and a cow to milk.

 Grass-heads, Our Schema Chart and Our Crops

 Muddy Pigs

Lima Bean Greenhouses

Farm Words Word-Wall

If I lived on a farm writing

Moo-velous Data and Cows at Night


It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least!!!  Up next?  Easter!

TGI{almost}F!

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Guess who graduated from their terrible two's into their terriffic three's today?!

Ms. Chloe-Cat!

(we're calling that her birthday crown!)

We obviously celebrated this milestone today with lots of snuggling, playing, a yummy dinner (fancy feast appetizers-WET FOOD!) and a brand-new CATNIP hedgehog toy!  Can you say spoiled?!  She absolutely loves her new hedgehog though....in fact, when I teasingly try to take it away from her, she smacks my hands away with her paws! 

Happy Birthday to my baby-girl, Chloe! :)

Tail Wagging Tuesdays!

Okay so I just found the cutest blog with an AWESOME new link-up for Tuesdays.  It's called Tail Wagging Tuesday and it's all about your favorite little fur-baby!  LOVE IT!  

This week's topic is your favorite picture of your pet.  When I saw the topic, I instantly knew which picture of Chloe I was going to post. 

This is Chloe when she was only about six weeks old and just a tiny ball of fluff!  She only weighs about 6 pounds now so she's still a pretty small cat but she was just so darn tiny in this pic.  Pretty sure I had this photo blown up and framed.....yep, I'm that kind of pet owner! :) 

Anyway, go link up to play along! 

Happy Tuesday!

Dancing with the Stars and Good Friends!

And it's another great night for Dancing with the Stars!  Can we just pause a second to talk about Kym Johnson's abs?!  Holy Hannah does that girl have ah-mazing abs or what?!?!  I think I maybe just found my newest inspiration to workout cause if I could get my abs to look even half that good this summer?  Well....let's just say I'd be one HAPPY girl!

Anyway, it was another great show tonight.  Kym and Hines were fantastic, as were Chelsea and Mark.  Next came the part of the night that'll be talked about nonstop for at least the next week:  Kirstie and Maks.  I felt so bad for them!  It was obvious from the replay that poor Maks' thigh just gave out and down they went.  Judging by the wincing he did for the rest of the dance, it wasn't Kirstie's fault and he really was hurt.  It was a shame but they still managed some decent scores, proving that Kirstie is a pretty good dancer.  They'll be back next week.  This was my favorite dance of the week:

In other news, we went out for Bekah's birthday this past weekend and had a blast!  Who would have thought going out in a small town could be so much fun?  Of course the theme of this little shindig certainly made it a lot of fun too!  HATS!  It didn't matter what kind of hat, everyone just had to wear one!  I'm not usually one to wear a hat but I fell in love with the one I picked up at Target this week.  I might become a hat wearer afterall!

 

Apparently Jacki had lost her hat by this point of the night!

The whole gang in front of the creepy bear!

It's Monday.....and it's random! :)

Don't say I didn't warn you!

1.  We have deer in our backyard!  Five in fact and it is just about the coolest thing ever!  You would think I had never seen a deer before by how I react every single time if they appear.  I'm rushing to find my camera and tiptoeing out onto the deck to see if I can snap some good pictures.  My roommate just rolls her eyes and says "you city people!"  Whatev......I think they're cool! :)

2.  I got "surprise" money on Thursday last week.  I say surprise because I was expecting it but not until August.  Have ya'll ever filed for renter's credit before?  If not, I HIGHLY suggest it!  It's like receiving free money from the government!  Anywho, it's not supposed to come until August but apparently the state of Minnesota is trying to stay on top of things and sent it early!  Thank you Minnesota!  I'm sure you're wondering what I did with said money......well this girl headed off to the MOA on Saturday and SPENT some of it!  Is there anything prettier than the following picture?

3.  This morning did NOT start out the best for me!  (don't worry, it has since turned around).  Already running late (what else is new?!), I ran into my bedroom to finish getting dressed for work.  After throwing on pants, socks and shoes, I went to put on my shirt.  Thank goodness I glanced in the mirror because that's when I saw THIS:

I washed it this weekend and apparently this happened.  It's like this perfect circle of stickiness with lint all over it!  Any ideas of how to remove it would be greatly appreciated!

4.  Dancing with the Stars is on tonight!  Can't wait to settle down with a glass of vino and watch some dancing! :)

5.  I discovered this weekend that Diet Coke makes me break out.  And I mean bad!  It's like a full-blown teenager.  About a month ago I discovered a new affinity for diet coke and ironically, it was about that time that I started breaking out.  I tend to break out around the time of my monthly so at first I figured it was just that.  But after weeks of it not clearing up, I started to look at what I had changed in my life.  I never thought of diet coke because let's face it, who would automatically think of that?  Well this weekend it finally crossed my mind and I haven't drank the stuff since.  Surprise, surprise....my face is finally starting to clear up!  Apparently the aspartame in diet coke can cause break outs.  Who knew?  Anyway, it's back to Dr. Pepper and Cherry Pepsi for this girl!

6.  Check out these mini-giraffes!  Okay so my cousin sent this link out on facebook and I just had to click it to see if they were real!  Supposedly they aren't but these petite lap giraffes are still about the cutest things I have ever seen in my life and I wish they were real!  I love giraffes to begin with and pretty much anything in tiny version is amazing (well, except chocolate.....and money.....and okay, well any animal in miniature form).  But I love that you can watch them on the giraffe cam!  Real or not, you have to check them out! :)

And I think that is about the end of my random post!  I hope everyone had a good weekend!  Go make some dinner, pour yourself a glass of wine and settle in to watch a little DWTS.  I know that's what I'll be doing! :)

Glitter and Rhinestones and DANCING.......

OH MY!!!

That's right!  Tonight was the premier of Dancing with the Stars!  Man, oh man, am I excited!  Let's talk some dancing shall we?

First off, WHAT was with Brooke's dress?  The bow (or whatever that thing was) on her hip was just rediculous!  Maybe it would have worked for an awards show such as the Oscars, but it definitely did not work for her tonight. 

The rest of the show was pretty good though!  Initially I was disappointed to hear who the cast was but after watching the first episode, I think it's still going to be a great season.  There are quite a few celebrities who have potential to do well at this!  Sugar Ray, Hines Ward and Ralph Macchio had a pretty great night and I was shocked to see that Kirstie Alley was actually pretty good!  Ms. Wendy Williams surprised me with how timid she was!  I expected that with her larger than life personality she would bring some fun to her dance.  Instead, she seemed to just bring the fear! :)  Still, it's looking like it's going to be a fun season.  I like that there's no real front-runner the first week in!

Oh, and did anyone else see Lindsay Lohan in the audience?  I might be wrong but I swear it was her sitting in the back across the isle from Chloris Leachman.  Perhaps she's trying to change her image? ;)

Those Pesky Leprechauns!

One of the best parts of being a teacher is creating magic for the kids.  Holidays are a fabulous opportunity for this and with today being St. Patrick's Day, well, let's just say......

magic was made!

A couple of my kiddos created a leprechaun trap today before heading off to school.  They were so excited and spent about 2 hours working on it!  At this point, while I was impressed with their ability to stick with an activity for that long, I was a bit skeptical on whether or not they really believed the leprechauns were going to come.  I mean, these are third and fourth grade boys.  Who don't believe in the tooth fairy.  Or the Easter Bunny.  Or even Santa.  But, realizing that at the very least I'd be able to make some magic for my younger students, I upset the trap, stole all the pennies being used as 'bait' and sprinkled green and gold glitter.....on my carpet. (I should insert here that I have a love/hate relationship with glitter.  I love how it can complete a project but I absolutely HATE the mess it creates!)  I also typed up a little poem from the leprechaun himself.

When my kindergarteners got back from school they were, as I expected, very excited to see that a leprechaun had been in our room.  As my older students started to trickle in, they were pretty excited too.  Then I went to pick up the boys who had built the trap.  They were hardly even on the bus before asking about the trap and when they got back, were so excited to see that they had almost caught a leprechaun.  I think what shocked me the most was when their parents came to pick them up, they just had to tell them all about the trap!  (the best part was the looks on the parent's faces as they tried to figure out how on earth their child really believed that a leprechaun was real!)

And I have to say, the treat the 'leprechaun' left was delicious!

Our version of a

"Shamrock Shake"

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Sprite (add extra food coloring to make it more green)

Whipped Cream

Gold (or rainbow) sprinkles

The best part of the day? 

"Ms. Jessica, you always make things so much fun!" ~ 2nd grade girl

Don't you just love holidays? :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!