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?