catch up

Isn't it interesting to take a moment and think about your life? There are so many things for me to be grateful for at this point in my life. I am so blessed to have been put in this situation with such amazing people around me. 

Last week I was fortunate in being sent to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a Charter School Conference. The only time I can actually recall being in the Mid-West prior to this was when I traveled to Ohio for a Thanksgiving trip with my dad and brother when I was in high school. If you have never been to Minnesota, let me just say Minneapolis is a must visit at least once in your life. Downtown Minneapolis is full of quaint Irish and English pubs, amazing highrises and beautiful old churches. We couldn't get enough of the amazing compliments between the old and the new in this city. We took some time on one of these days in Minneapolis to visit the Mall of America, unfortunately it was not nearly the amazing destination I anticipated. Yes it was big. Yes it had an amusement park in the middle. But the grandeur of this place was diminished when I realized that there are about 4 of each store inside the Mall. 

While I was at the Mall of America my friend Cassie and I quickly coordinated a spur of the moment trip to Wisconsin. Let me just say, I don't necessarily do "Spur of the Moment" well! This trip was to entail riding in the car for 5 hours with a 3 year old!

My drive to Neenah, Wisconsin

My new best friend, Evelyn

I cannot express how grateful I am to have friends like Cassie, when we saw each other it was as if we never parted. Over 12 months of not seeing one another and it felt like only a day had gone by! What an amazing feeling!
On Friday night we went to a wine bar in Neenah, Wisconsin called Uncorked. Maybe not the best idea, but we decided to begin our evening with a flight of sweet white wines... 

An intimidating flight of wine

Cassie with all of the vino

If the fun on that first night was any indication of the fun we were going to have for the duration of my trip, we had a good time instore for us! The fun times had included: floating the river and acquiring an incredible burn on the front of my body, going to some of the fun little bars, learning how to play bar dice and winning a free drink by beating the bartender, as well as listening to a great local band play!

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I am so glad I went on this adventure!

Miss ya Cass,

 

instafriday.

For the first time ever I am taking the chance to link up with another blog. Found this awesome linky from a blog that I greatly enjoy reading, The Pleated Poppy.

Enjoy my week in Instagram pictures, {I might possibly add another list of pics later this week from the last week of school and a how to of my end of the year awards and gifts!!}

In the past week I got to pack up this itty bitty apartment/condo... this was it when it was almost all done! oh geez... I am so glad this adventure is complete!

 Thank you UHaul for the words of wisdom! Let me just say I had never driven a vehicle so large in my entire life!! Glad to know that "Speed Kills"!

 Thanks to all of my helpful friends I was able to get all of my furniture moved into my new home in about 3 hours {including move out time!} because of this I bough all of the wonderful peeps some Chipotle via the awesome app on my phone! Yummy!!

Just a few of the fun reminders of my crazy kiddos this school year that I found while unpacking before the family showed up!

One of the options of layouts for my furniture in my great new house! This is most definitely the one that worked the best for this open floor plan! Loving the new house!

In honor of my new house and mattress, I felt inspired to buy some new sheets!!! Goodness new sheets sure do make everything better!! I have a crazy obsession with grey and yellow as of late, now just waiting for my fluffy new comforter to show up from New Mexico

The joys of a new home, not having cable working right away, hot dog! Luckily I do love me some "Gilmore Girls" something fierce! *FYI this is the episode when Rory met Logan....

After my first shower in my beautiful new home, I walked downstairs to be greeted by rainfall inside... of course the shower drain wouldn't be connected to anything! Fixed now but still nervous to use the shower!! Uh Oh!

The first meal I cooked in my new home, Kraft Mac and Cheese! Love me some easy mac, it has been so long since I had this!

Love it when my family comes into town!! My wonderful Mom is pictured with me above!

Hope you enjoyed my first ever Instafriday and link up! {Hoping I did this awesomeness the right way!}

Love, Peace, and Vegas Lovin,

might be.

I might be taking a break from working on my students end of the year awards which might be a break from packing more of my beloved belongings.

I might have a slight obsession with drinking a Coke during the first half of my teaching day, Unfortunately this habit might not be the healthiest however it is my survival technique to get me through the last 3.5 days of the school year.

I might be completing my last week of the school year with my fantabulous fourth graders!

I might be counting down the days until my family comes to visit and break in the new casa. Hurry up Gwennie!

I might feel incredibly dehydrated at the end of the day and it might be a sign that I haven't been drinking enough water... oops!

Finally...

I might have gotten my dishes packed up this evening and am now wondering what I am going to eat food off of, that is if I had any need to make something in this microscopic kitchen

You might be about to be bombarded by ShimmerSparkleSarah posts because get this duckies, after school year is out I will have much more time to show you some bloggy love!