How I Manage to be Superwoman

By now, if you read my blog, you have probably figured out that my day job happens to be teaching. And trust me, if I wasn't a teacher now, I'd be blogging about all the crazy shit that happens at our school on the regular. Usually, Andrew can't wait to hear what I have to say about my day. I text him throughout the day with little hints like, "Hey, remind me to tell you about the backpack incident when you get home." I know. You're all dying to know about the backpack incident at this point in time, and trust me, it is pretty much insane. However, for now, I'll have to save that story for later when I'm not longer teaching.

Most of you also know that I own my small business making cards and stationery. This small business has become my night job. I've had a lot of people ask me exactly how I'm able to get all of this done and quite frankly, I'm not really sure how I do it. I recently had a friend tell me that I must be superwoman. So, I decided to document one of my days just so I could realize how much I do every day. I mean obviously, I need to shove that in my face since I'm not overwhelmed or anything like that. Ever. Nope, not at all.

I have to start my day with coffee. 1) I like coffee. And by like, I mean love. 2) Coffee not only tastes good, but it keeps me awake. 3) I wish there was a such thing as a coffee IV. But then I guess I wouldn't be able to taste its delicious taste.

So, yeah. Boom. 8:00am. Coffee.

8:25am. Grab my orders from the night before to drop in the blue box around the corner.

8:30am. Get in the car and make the 6 minute drive to school. Yes. 6 minutes. I love it. When we bought our house, it cut my drive to school in half. I am obsessed. Be jealous.

8:45am. After heading to the main office to sign in, stopping to chat with the janitor for a few, and stumbling through a crowd of kids that I am not awake enough to deal with yet, I arrive at my room.

8:50am. I start working on last minute prep for the day. Thankfully, I have a planning period first thing in the morning. I finish typing up some notes for my U.S. History class and copy a political cartoon for a primary source analysis activity.

9:15am. I start grading U.S. History tests from the day before. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of essays.

9:45am. I have to pick my 7th graders up from gym class. Who thought it was a good idea to put a bunch of stinky teenagers in a gym class first thing in the morning and then ship their sweaty bodies to my room immediately after? I don't know, but I can think of many things I'd rather do that deal with that stench. Just sayin'.

9:50am-11:15am. I teach. Seventh grade geography.

11:20am. I've finished dropping my students off a lunch and head to the bathroom (I spared you the photo), quickly check my email, and finish screening a section of The Last of the Mohicans that I'll be using for my 8th grade U.S. History class after lunch.

11:40am. I pick my students up from lunch and I teach for 3 hours and 15 minutes straight. No break. Three classes. One seventh grade geography and two U.S. History classes. Today in U.S. History we're analyzing clips of The Last of the Mohicans in connection to what I'm teaching about the French and Indian War.

3:00pm. Planning period number two of the day. This day is different since it's the Thursday before we headed to Syracuse for our long weekend. I need to finish making sub plans for Friday. I have to make copies, staple a bunch of stuff, and then I keep working on more of that grading. I also finish my lesson plans for Monday. Planning periods = working like mad as if I'm trying to survive something insane.

4:45pm. I finally get home. Lilah wants to go outside.

4:46pm. Finn follows me around everywhere and wants cuddles.

4:49pm. I'm starved. I didn't have enough time during our 25 minute lunch to eat. That's most days. I've still not gotten used to it and I hate that there's not enough time to eat during my lunch. Leftover pizza it is.

5:03pm. I scarf down the pizza and head up to my studio to start getting work done, but I decide to catch up on a few blogs first instead. I have less work to do tonight since it I left my school work at school for the long weekend so I decide to enjoy a little blog reading.

5:26pm. I finally decide to change out of my work clothes into something more comfortable.

5:33pm. I'm still hungry. I make some coffee and get some mixed nuts to snack on.

5:46pm. It's time to start writing my blog post for the day.

6:15pm. Andrew gets home. He goes on a walk with Lilah while I finish blogging. At this point, I forgot to keep taking my photos. 

After Andrew gets home, we cook and eat. Dinner is usually ready around 8. We like to eat late and always have. It's time for us to catch up and I look forward to this every day. At around 8:30, I start in on my card orders and I work until I am done. Sometimes that's only an hour with an hour to spare to relax on the couch before bed or a bit of time to design instead. Sometimes that means until 1 or 2 in the morning. On days when I haven't been able to get as much grading done at school as I'd like to, my schedule gets adjusted and I might have to kick blogging to the curb in order to get everything done.

And that, my friends is my sort of typical day. And then I go to sleep and wake up. And do it all over again. That is how I manage to be superwoman.

Phew. I'm tired.

Sponsor in March

It's hard to believe that February is already almost over! Each year it flies by so quickly! If you're looking to grow your blog or business, I'd love to have you sponsor this month! I've made a few changes to my ads that I think will help increase exposure. I'm offering a limited number of large feature ads that will have an opportunity for a giveaway and individual feature. In addition, I have a small ad option which includes a group giveaway option. Giveaways always seem to drive the most amount of traffic, so this is an affordable ad option with a chance for extra exposure. Both options come with lots of social media love as well. Feel free to head over to my sponsor page for more info! As always, all of the ad revenue goes right back into sponsoring other blogs which in turn brings more traffic back to you full circle. I'm looking forward to another awesome month on my blog and hope that you'll join me! :)

Shop Update

It's been a while since I've shared some of my new cards with you all. I have a lot of new designs that have made their way into the shop and I wanted to share some of them with you as I often do. My recent design projects have been focused on upcoming spring holidays-- Saint Patrick's Day and Easter.

I also finally added the much awaited butthead card that I wrote about a while back.

And after missing some cute butts, I decided to whip up this anniversary version.

Don't worry, I know you all missed my cute butt just as much as I did.

Ok. That was awkward. I know. But also funny.

Either way, I'm super glad to be back to designing and adding new items to the shop. It's been a lot of fun! I have a few more Saint Patrick's Day and Easter cards here in my shop if you'd like to check out the rest, and don't forget about the taco card! (You know you all love that one the most!)

What have you been up to lately in your shop-- if you have one, that is?

Weekend in Syracuse

Every year we go back to Syracuse to meet up with friends, go to a basketball game, and visit old campus haunts. This year's game was especially exciting with a sold out crowd and record breaking attendance for any college basketball game in history at 35,012. We were playing Georgetown, a long time rival, and it was the last game in Syracuse between the two teams as Syracuse is leaving the Big East conference next season. In addition, Carmelo Anthony was in attendance and his jersey was retired during halftime. This event was especially awesome for us since he led Syracuse to the National Championship our freshman year.

We enjoyed pizza at Varsity, the oldest standing establishment on campus.

Walked about campus and checked out the Hall of Languages. The Hall of Languages is Syracuse University's iconic building, happened to be the building in which most of my classes were in, and is recognizable from the Addams Family.

We enjoyed walking through the Quad rather than trudging through in knee deep snow as it usually seemed to be the case while we attended.

And of course, the Dome. Dome, sweet Dome. This year we headed there a little early so that we could catch the team during their pre-game warmup.

We were even lucky enough to get our photo taken at court side during warmups, thanks to a super nice usher that was willing to let us in for a photo op.

Our seats were pretty bad and the game was pretty bad, but it was still fun to be in attendance at such a historical game for Syracuse.

Aside from the outcome of the game, the weekend was just what we needed. Catching up with friends, eating lots and lots of food, sleeping in until 9:30 two days straight, free omelets every morning at the hotel, brews and fish tacos from Empire Brewing Company, coffee from Freedom of Espresso-- all around a good time was had. Can't wait to do it all over again next year.

I Have a Problem

I have a problem. Some of you may know about this already, and others may not. I am addicted to tacos. This is not something that just recently developed. This is a lifetime addiction. When I was little I would ask to go to Don Pablos for my birthday. Now I can happily say I have upgraded my personal taste in tacos and prefer local joints instead of the chains.

A few summers ago, one of my college roommates came to visit. We decided that we needed to have a taco party. The next summer, her wedding rehearsal dinner was a taco party at her favorite restaurant. I am pretty glad I got to attend that dinner for more than one reason, I have to admit.

My favorite restaurants in college both served tacos. The Mission and Alto Cinco. We made special trips to these places on the regular because we needed tacos or something similar to tacos. And I still need to go to one or the other when we go back to Syracuse (which we're actually doing this weekend!).

Let me be clear here. I love tacos very much, but when I say tacos, I allow all of those other amazing things like enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, and such to be encompassed within the same group. I love it all! And guacamole? Yes, please!

I'm so obsessed, I even made a card about tacos.

Still don't believe me? Here's how last week panned out:

Wednesday-- soft tacos were what we made for dinner.

Thursday (Valentine's Day)-- I gave Andrew a card that said, "I love you more than tacos." (Though that may be questionable..... just kidding, Andrew). Then I contemplated telling Andrew I wanted to go out for tacos. Just as I was about to tell him, he started making spring rolls instead-- the Asian taco? Maybe. You be the judge.

Friday-- we went to one of our favorite local places, Geckos, since going out for tacos failed the night before. I got fajitas.

Saturday-- ok, no tacos. You win.

Sunday-- no tacos either, but while having friends over for a dinner party, we discussed meeting up at Holy Frijoles for tacos-- my fave!

Monday-- we talked all day about making tacos and then decided to go with nachos instead. Nachos for us = tortilla chips covered in a black bean, ground beef, cheese, tomato, green pepper, sour cream, guacamole concoction. Basically tacos.

Tuesday-- while at school late, Andrew and I texted each other about making tacos for dinner. We ended up eating leftover pizza from the school event.

Last night-- we planned on tacos, but realized we were out of salsa (again) and decided to make black beans and rice instead. Basically taco filling on top of rice.

Tonight-- Andrew says we should have some sort of vacation-y meal since we are officially on a three day vacation weekend what with heading up to Syracuse tomorrow. I don't know about you, but that translates into tacos if you ask me.

And now, my friends, you fully understand. I truly am obsessed. I've got tacos on the brain big time.

What about you? Do you love tacos as much as I do, or is there another food that is after your heart?

Lately

Warning: This post will 1) possibly be boring, 2) have no photos, and 3) be completely awesome just because I'm completely awesome. Ok, just kidding about that last part.

It's been a while since I posted, but I'm ok with that. Lately I've felt a bit disconnected from the blogging world and I think that's an ok thing. I spent my time away these past few days doing a lot of stuff that I wasn't able to do for about a month and a half due to my shop being so busy.

On Valentine's Day, Andrew and I cooked dinner and then passed out on the couch while watching tv. That's how we do things. We followed that up by going out for tacos and margaritas at one of our favorite local places on Friday night (Woohoo! Getting a little crazy and not passing out on the couch! Oh yeaaaaah!) Saturday was spent running errands that included a giant dinnerware debacle that will have to saved for a later date, followed by Syracuse basketball watching with a friend at the Baltimore Syracuse bar. Sunday was a relaxing morning followed by preparations for a fondue dinner party. We had six of our amazing friends over to enjoy cheese and chocolate fondue. Monday was a lazy morning and afternoon with a lot of designing thrown in there (more to come at the end of this post).

And finally, Tuesday. Oh Tuesday, you were ridiculously long. You started nice and early with a faculty meeting an hour before school starts, continued with some crazy student stories (which I will one day write about when I am no longer a teacher), stuck around even longer with an after school event that lasted until 7:30, and ended with Andrew and I stuffing our faces with leftover pizza from such said event and passing out on the couch while watching Storage Wars. Oh Tuesday, you were not kind at all.

And now here we are at Wednesday. And I am almost positive you may have stopped reading because I am also fairly positive that I may have bored you in those first few paragraphs. Let's just say that it was kind of nice to live a little.

P.S. The winner of the Oh, Nostalgia giveaway is Beth! Beth, I'll be in touch with you shortly about your prize! :)

he | she

he is an extrovert | she is an introvert

he likes the mountains | she likes the ocean

he likes to wing it | she likes to have a plan

he roots for the Browns | she roots for the Steelers

he is a dog person | she is a cat person

he drinks his coffee black | she drinks her coffee with cream

he likes dark chocolate | she likes white chocolate

he designs buildings | she builds minds

Despite all of the differences in our lives, we always find so many things in common that keep us ticking. And sometimes, those things that are very different only help to make life a little more interesting. Quite honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way! 

Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite dude! 

P.S. Thanks to Erika for the blog post idea. She's pretty awesome if you ask me! I wanted to do this post for a while and thought saving it for Valentine's Day would be a sweet idea.