Sunday Celebration!

Today I am hosting a baby shower for my friend Teresa. I decided to go with a fall flower theme instead of something more traditional. I was inspired by all the beautiful flowers I saw at the grocery store.

 

I even decided to buy a flower pot for each guest as a favor. I used some yellow ribbon and a hand made tag for each one.

Brunch type items are on the menu and good conversation is going to be the entertainment!

Only a couple more weeks until we get to meet Baby G! :-)

Kindle Read - "One Day, All the Children..."

Image Source: Amazon

 
Although this book isn't a Kindle Read, I still wanted to post a short review on it since I found it very interesting and inspirational.  I actually found this book on my company's book exchange shelf. I probably never would have read it (or even know about it), had I not just happened upon it as I was perusing the books while my lunch was heating in the microwave.

It's no secret that I LOVE school. Sometimes I still think that teaching might be in my future...

So I was really interested to hear how a recent college grad, Wendy Kopp, created one of the country's largest teaching movements, Teach for America. I didn't know much about Teach for America prior to reading the book and personally only know a couple of people who have been involved (including Kimberly Michelle).

I enjoyed reading about how Teach for America started and the struggles and triumphs of these young college grads in building a national non-profit core of teachers from the ground up. It was so inspiring to hear how Wendy and her team persevered through times when they almost couldn't secure enough fundraising money to make payroll. They were all so committed to making sure that children in low-income areas received the same educational opportunities as children in more well-to-do areas that they weren't going to be knocked down that easily!

I think my favorite chapter by far was one where Wendy traveled to different schools to see Teach for America teachers in action. By doing this, she was able to see what set some teachers apart and made them (and subsequently their students) more successful. She noticed that to be a good teacher, you needed to be a good leader. Someone who could set goals and motivate students and their parents to help him/her meet those goals. A teacher needs to work relentlessly to achieve the goals they have  set and constantly assess their effectiveness and improve their teaching techniques over time.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading inspirational book and who is interested in education.

Do you have any inspirational books (educational or not) that  you would recommend?

Fall Loves

Image Source: Here

 I love the first day of fall!


Although some people may think that the first of the year is a great time for new beginnings, I think that this time of year is just as good. Fall means school has just started for the year (a time I LOVED and sometimes wish I could go back to). It means mornings when you can walk outside and smell the crisp autumn air. It is where the days get shorter and its time to light pumpkin spice or cinnamon candles. It's a time where you know the holidays are just around the corner. It is college football time, where the Hubs and I can root on our Golden Bears. It's the start of a new Fall TV season where the Hubs and I get to curl up and watch our favorite shows, both old and new. It's a time when I get to pull out my sweatshirts, comfy PJ's, and slipper socks. I do LOVE fall!

It wasn't until recently that I really realized that FALL was in fact my favorite season. And this year I fully intend to embrace the fall season and ENJOY it!

I'm hoping that with the start of fall, it can also be the start of a new season of blogging. I miss having a journal and a place where I can look back on what I've done and what I would like to do.

So here's to this to making this Fall a season to remember!

Do you love Fall as much as I do? What's your favorite part?

Fell off the Blogging Wagon

Wow...did I fall off the blogging wagon!

It has been over a month since my last blog post and unfortunately I have NO big news, like Sugar over at Sugar and Spice, and NO big excuses to show for it.

It has simply been a lack of inspiration...

I talked to my best friend about it and she came up with tons of things I could blog about. Funny how people looking from the outside in can see more interest in my life than me and I'm the one living it!

Here's a list of some blog topics in the works:

• Surviving my first "baby" babysitting experience (with some help). How hard could it be to take care of a baby this cute???

• My constant search for fulfilling activities to participate in to offset my extreme lack of motivation in my current line of work.
• How to Have a Garage Sale - The Hubs and I REALLY need to have a garage sale and get rid of all the crap we have in our garage and one and only spare bedroom. I've never had one before though and the prospect is SUPER overwhelming.
• The Hubs and I went on a boat tour of the new Bay Bridge a couple of weeks ago. It was very interesting and I can't wait till it is completed (especially with The Big One coming...)

• Babymaking - this one I'm a little apprehensive about writing about. I mean, I feel guilty saying that I think we have issues when we haven't been trying for that long. My gut tells me (based on the information my body is telling me) we're gonna need some help and I have an appointment coming up to formally discuss it with my doctor.
• We took The Pup to a dog park for the first time two weeks ago and he LOVED it. Then yesterday we went to Fort Funston, aka, "Dog Disneyland" as our friend Bret calls it, with some friends. It was awesome (for people and their canine friends). Here's a picture of the ambiance there on an apparently rare sunny day:

 That's a pretty awesome start of blog ideas and it felt great to get these ideas down on "paper"! Now I need to find time and motivation to get writing!

Brain Dump...

I haven't felt very inspired to write lately...which has been why things have been somewhat radio silence over here. I do have stuff in my head that I know I should get down on paper (or on this blog), but I've been so lazy I just don't feel like doing it.

I thought it might be a good idea to do a brain dump to get clear my head so I can get some real writing done!

• I'm coming up on the two week mark of having my brand new spiffy Smartphone. I think I've finally decided that I am going to stick with my Droid Incredible 2. Once someone showed me how to work it (i.e. figure out the setting so I could make the screens look the way I want), I really started to like it. My favorite thing about it is that I can sync it with my Google, work and Facebook contacts all without physically connecting the phone to my computer. I've also found myself to be more productive since I can check all my blogs easily BEFORE I get to work.

• I finally got around to making an appointment to get our 1 year and 1 week old Pup to get neutored. I know, I know, I should have done it long ago, but it was a task that I had hoped The Hubs would get done. That didn't happen, so I just went ahead and did it myself. Everything went fine and The Pup was back to normal in less than 24 hrs. In fact, we left him home in the crate for 4 hours with his "cone of shame" on to find it COMPLETELY DESTROYED. Now we have to hope he doesn't lick his wound like crazy...

• I had a yummy lobster sandwich this week...from a food truck! A bunch of coworkers follows Sam's Chowder House on Twitter and found out their Chowdermobile was in the area. I have been to the actual restaurant which is delicious, so we had to try it. It was delish. I mean, lobster for lunch?? I should have taken a picture of all the lobster meat I got, but it was devoured before I could take it. I got a picture of the truck instead! hehe :-)

• TV has been less than stellar lately, but I have found one show that I really like.. Pregnant in Heels. I love that Rosie Pope helps crazy rich pregnant ladies learn how to be a mother or deal with their issues before baby comes. I also love that she discusses her own struggle with infertility and happiness when things finally seem to work out!

Image Source: Facebook

• Only 3 more episode of Oprah left... I'm already crying after every episode. I'll probably do a rehash next week of what I thought of her last season, but for now, head over to Kim Michelle's blog to see what lesson she learned from the latest episode... 

Have a great weekend everyone! :-)

Joining the 21st Century!

So this weekend, I finally did it! I finally upgraded to a Smartphone. I didn't end up adding The Hubs to my plan since he still has to have his phone for another year. I just added the data pack to my really cheapo talk plan from back in the day.

I didn't do a whole lot more research other then using the suggestions you all provided a month or so ago on which phone to get. Instead I decided that I wanted a Droid and then went with the one that was the smallest. This ended up being the HTC Droid Incredible 2, which I didn't realize just came out last week.

Image Source: SimplyDroid

I was a little leery about the brand, as I'd never heard of HTC. All the other Droids were Motorola's but they were SO big. The iPhone is also super large. So based on size, I thought I had made the right decisions.

The problem was, I wasn't able to play with ANY of the phones, as they were all demo units and the real ones were locked until activation. I played with my Droid all weekend to see if I could get the hang of it and although I am learning, some things are just strange to me. My Yahoo mail isn't syncing properly. I'm getting mulitple notifications about the same emails. There are like pre-installed apps that stream all of my Facebook and Twitter updates which I'm not used to. The time on the main screen is so large I can't only put six apps on it. Etc. I also still haven't figured if I can sync my Outlook mail and Calendar from work with my Gmail one. 

One thing I did like was that I could sync my contacts with Facebook and Gmail so I could get pictures of everyone and Facebook b-days show up on my Calendar. Can the iPhone do that???

Needless to say I'm a bit overwhelmed. So I'm sorta thinking about switching to an iPhone. Regardless of the size, I know I know how to use it and have TONS of people at work who can help me figure it out if I have questions. I also know more about using iTunes to get any apps I want.  I don't know anyone with an Incredible. I have 14 days to change phones so I am going to ask around at work today. 

Also, this paranoia victim is worried about radiation. The Incredible 2 has a SAR rating of 1.44, the iPhone has a SAR rating of 1.17. AND I know of a phone case for the iPhone that supposedely reduces radiation. So far it looks like they haven't even started manufacturing any for the Incredible. I must admit this is also sorta swaying my decision as well...

Uggg...now I'm starting to think the extra $30 a month isn't worth the stress I'm causing myself....

I'll keep you posted on what I end up deciding. In the meantime...Any words of wisdom???

Shopping Win!

You may think I'm weird, but shopping is not something I like to do. Many of my clothes are ones I've worn since high school and I typically only buy new stuff when I REALLY need something. I complain to The Hubs about my wardrobe all the time and every weekend I tell him that I REALLY need to go shopping. Problem is if I do go shopping I normally just look around, try the occasional thing on and then leave empty handed. My usual excuse is that the items are too expensive or I'm indecisive in whether I like the item or not.

This weekend, however, my mom, The Hubs and I, hit up the Outlets after attending a birthday party. There are tons of awesome stores at these outlets, but we ended up hitting a select few.

Always on the top of our list is the Coach outlet. I mean, who can resist, adorable purses for like half the price that they normally are! They were have an AWESOME sale the day we were there... all of the items were 30-50% off of the original non-factory store prices and then we were able to et 30% off our entire purchase. With the help of my mom and The Hubs, I was able to leave the store spending on $260 on three items! An awesome deal if you know how much this stuff normally costs!.

I came away with a new smaller, brown wallet, an ADORABLE summer bag that is big enough to fit evrything I typically carry around with me (which is a lot!) and some much needed new sunglasses (my hot pink "Love an Engineer" ones were getting a bit old!).

After that, my mom wanted to go into Aldo to look for some new white sandals. The minute we walked in we saw the perfect ones. I ended up trying them on as well and we both left the store with them! They were a steal for $36. (It was a good think I bought these because when I got home, I found that the heel was separating from the top of the shoe on the white sandals I had at home. It was a great feeling to know that I made worthwhile purchase and a steal in price at that!)

Then, while still at the Aldo store, I saw these cute grey/black flip flops with Sparkly tops. Again, I knew I didn't have black flip flops at home so I knew these would be a good buy. What made it a better buy is that my mom ended up buying my sister a pair and they were buy one get one half off!

 

We ended our short little shopping spree at the Levi outlet where I got a new pair of Boyfriend jeans (I had just figured out my own jean capris were not fitting well.) and a pair of regular jeans (a few of my pairs were starting to look crappy).

It felt good to buy some new cute stuff and it felt even better that I was able to get rid of one item for everything I bought! I'm hoping these fun, practical purchases get me out of my shopping funk!

Any other shopper haters out there? How do you get out of a no-shopping, but really need to be shopping funk?