pre-prom photo shoot?

Naturally I wanted to capture my prom outfit, so I asked Doug to snap a photo.

Or... several.

Awkward leg pose:

 Duck lips/peace sign:

Work it/censored?!

 Okay, enough of this nonsense, I'm gonna be late:

And no, if you were wondering, there was no spray-tan incident this year (despite a few of students making jokes about it - HALEY. CHRIS. I'm looking at you!).

the piano guys

Everyone.

I have no words. Just... just watch & listen.

(ps - Lyndsay, can we please do this?)


and one more:


Music is ... the coolest.

Okay, I lied - one more.

real life conversations, pt. 16

The sad news is that Doug & I ended up not going to NY this weekend. We would have gotten in at 3am and we would have had to leave early on Sunday morning, so we decided to come out another weekend.

The good news is that prom was a ton of fun, and the kids looked amazing. The theme was "Dinner at Tiffany's" - and it was beautiful! (All pictures stolen from Marisa!)

Our officers:

 Best. Co-sponsor. Ever.

And then Doug & I went out for dessert afterward, during which the following conversation occurred.

Me: "We are living simultaneously young, wild AND free."
...about 5 minutes later...
Me: "Okay, let's get the bill. I'm tired."
Doug: "So young and wild and free, huh?"

recently i'm... [25]

Rejoicing About: successful performances of Beauty & the Beast (some pics here)! our fingerprinting appointments are scheduled!

Listening to: I'm obsessed with Walk Off the Earth's rendition of "Somebody That I Used to Know" (see previous post) and "Some Nights" by Fun.

Looking Forward to: prom tomorrow night! Gram's open house Saturday!

Feeling Nostalgic About: my seniors graduate in less than a month now... also,
Not Looking Forward to: cleaning out my closet at school of four years worth of hall-decorating supplies and miscellaneous stuff from class projects...

Proud of: the fact that I am completely caught up on grading!

Reading: Our little book club will meet on Monday night to discuss Room by Emma Donoghue, which I didn't love - but I'm looking forward to hearing what others thought. Our next book to tackle is a book about the plague, which is sitting on my dining room table... and I can't even remember the title. Oops.

Laughing at: The anti-YOLO twitter feed happening between the Partons and Snyders. My favorite: "I wear a reflective traffic vest when I go for walks, even during the day. #yolo"

Enjoying: Can't you tell? Nesting for nurseries. Every day is a day closer.

walk off the earth.

Friends.
Have you seen this video?
Walk Off the Earth cover of "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye?
Um, sidenote: Gotye's music video for the song freaks me right out.

People are so crazy and cool.

opening night.

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

After...

...12 weeks of feeling like this:

... a few days where i send doug text messages like this:

... several practices where students steal my phone and take pics like this:

... a whole lot of this:

... a few of these:

... too many hours spent pouring over this:

 ... many hours of this:

 ... and this:

... creating things like this

(though let's be honest, the detail work was done by people FAR more artistic than me!):

 ... and most nights crashed like this:

...

It's opening night.

PCA presents Disney's Beauty & the Beast.

In the words of Chris Brown, "Leggo."

another fashion post?!

Who am I?!

This is what I wore to my friend Katy's baby shower.

entire outfit except belt: various seasons of, you guessed it, target

belt: goodwill

Yes, that is the Tigers' game in the background.

Pura Vida: Day 6-8

Day 6: Zip-Line!
We started the day with some of the best pancakes I've ever had and amazing fresh orange juice. Then we drove a couple minutes to zip-lining! Through the jungle on the side of the volcano. I have never done this before, and it was pretty awesome! Well, to be totally honest, I was kind of scared the whole time, but I was so glad I did it. Again, I don't have any pictures of this because we had to purchase pictures, and we haven't been given the copies yet. However, I did steal some of my students' pictures from Facebook. I also did the Tarzan swing, which was incredible. It's like the rope swing I grew up with... on crack. My hands are getting clammy just thinking about the first few seconds of free fall, at which point I think I was yelling, "SWEET MOTHER" because I thought I was going to die. But once the rope caught, it was awesome.

After the zip-line, we had lunch and began our trek back to San Jose. This was the most beautiful drive we took. The sun was on the way down, so the lighting was beautiful, and farmers were irrigating their coffee... fields? It was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, I was so overtaken by the combination of the dulcet tones of Mumford & Sons combined with the glorious scenery that I neglected to take any pictures. We stopped on the way home for barbeque dinner at an odd little western joint playing Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, House of Pain... it was weird-slash-awesome. We got back to our hotel, did devos & crashed.

before

 before, pt 2

during!

after: i can't believe we just did that!

Day 7: BEACH.
This was the most relaxing day. We drove about an hour and a half to a boat that took us out to Tortuga Island, where we lounged on the beach, went snorkeling, and rode a banana boat, and then lounged on the beach some more. My irrational fear of sharks surprisingly did not surface, and I was able to enjoy snorkeling... despite one student who kept swimming under me, pretending to be a large fish. Banana boating was a fun experience - it's easier and less painful than tubing. When we got back to the hotel that night, we did a class bonding activity, where each student says something nice about another student. My co-worker facilitating turned it over to my co-sponsor and me at the end, and we basically told our kiddos how blessed we've been by the past 4 years, and I told them this was my last year at PCA and started crying in front of them (awesome), and then there were more tears and we all prayed together and that was that!

our place of departure

what would i have done without this friend the past 4 years?!

yes, of course that's the island boar running right under my seat at lunch.

incredible.

Day 8: Departure
We enjoyed a slow morning, then sadly bade farewell to our now beloved Costa Rica. We spent our time at the airport running from gift shop to gift shop, trying to get as many of the free samples of chocolate-covered coffee beans as possible.

I absolutely loved Costa Rica, I love my seniors, I love my co-sponsor... what a trip!!

Pura Vida: Day 5

Day 5: Tuesday ::
We took a 3-hour bus ride (yet again, gorgeous scenery along the way) to La Fortuna. On the way, we stopped in a little town whose name escapes me, but they had a gorgeous church with the coolest shrubbery ever. When we arrived in La Fortuna, we checked into our hotel, Volcano Lodge, right next to Mt. Arenal, an active volcano. Then went to a local orphanage, where we spent a couple hours playing with the kiddos there. Later that afternoon, we hiked down to a waterfall, swam around in the river and then went out to dinner. That night we did devotions around the pool, while I tried not to freak out as bats were swooping down over the pool, eating bugs above the water, presumably.

view from our bathroom stop along the way

view of the church from the street

view from the church

oh you know, clouds on the horizon.

first views of the volcano

our hotel room, and the volcano. picture me, mouth agape, asking marisa yet again who we are.

first view of the waterfall.

blurry picture, but this gives you a good idea of some of the 500 stairs.

i wish i had taken the time to get some better photos of the stairs, but i was too excited!

more stairs

the waterfall!

me & marisa... a little sweaty at this point in time.

another blurry picture, but look at the color of the water!

farther down the river

Stay tuned for days 6-8!

10 on 10 : April

Friends. I failed at 10-on-10 today. I didn't remember until 9:53, when I was on my way to school to help paint the set for our school musical. Then I just couldn't keep up throughout the day.

10am: treats for kiddos who came early to help paint

11am: painting set

1pm: the binder that rules my life right now.

5pm: post-practice chocolate.

8pm: shopping. I texted Patti around the same time the last picture was taken and said, 

"Can we please bake/eat something bad for us tonight?"

9pm: YES WE CAN.

9pm, pt. 2: sevenish-layer bars. HEAVENLY.

That's all she wrote, folks.

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