Monday

New bits from this week
-I started listening to an audiobook this week! I love podcasts, but I cannot remember the last time I listened to a book. (I actually have recorded myself reading several books and passages for my students though!) I am using an audible.com free month subscription to listen to "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami. I have never heard of him or read anything by him but I hope I can listen to this while running! 

-I now have a passcode on my phone. It is making me angry! I figured out how to get it to set to not lock after 15 minutes but I am OVER IT. 
-It's my second week receiving the Skimm and I am quite happy about it! We don't have cable and the Kalamazoo Gazette is great but not my style for local and world news. (For those who don't know, it's a daily email system Mon-Thurs that gives you the lowdown. 

-We took the plunge and got the Costco membership! We went once for groceries and yesterday Monica and I went sampling. Definitely liked trying all the different foods, aha! 

So official

-Kalamazoo also took a snow day last Tuesday! My mentor teacher, the teens, and I were all PUMPED! 

Went to get hot cocoa with Jbird

Links I liked

-Top 5 Procrastination Behaviors + What They Say About You from mindbodygreen
-Petfinder. Enough said. Gabe needs a new brother or sister! (Jae is weirdly obsessed with finding a rescue that looks like Gabe. I am ambivalent on whether Gabe and the new dog look similar..)
-I believe, sort of by Because of Jackie. I enjoy reading about all different types of views that people have on religion. 


Also, it's not linked to anything, but here are some great compliments

COMPLIMENTS THAT AREN’T ABOUT PHYSICAL APPEARANCE 

1) You’re empowering.
2) I like your voice.
3) You’re strong.
4) I think your ideas/beliefs matter.
5) I’m so happy you exist.
6) More people should be listening to what you have to say.
7) You’re a very warm hearted person.
8) It’s nice seeing such kindness.
9) You’re very down to earth.
10) You have a beautiful soul.
11) You inspire me to become a better person.
12) Our conversations bring me a lot of joy.
13) It’s good to see someone care so much.
14) You’re so understanding.
15) You matter a lot to me.
16) You’re important even if you don’t think so.
17) You’re intelligent.
18) Your passion is contagious.
19) Your confidence is refreshing.
20) You restore my faith in humanity.
21) You’re great at being creative.
22) You’re so talented at ____.
23) I don’t get tired of you the way I get tired of other people.
24) You have great taste in ___.
25) I’m happy I stayed alive long enough to meet you.
26) I wish more people were like you.
27) You’re so good at loving people.

PEACE OUT

WIW #1

Well, those pounds have been creeping on.. This past summer I usually have a very active lifestyle, for example at summer camp 

6am: run or kayak for 45 mins
830: breakfast - usually eggs & zucchini muffin made by Chef Nick
1030: walk a mile
11:10-11:45: walk all around and carry things
Lunch: vegetarian stuffed peppers with a serving of fruit and vegetable (also made by chef Nick)
1-230 CHILL TIME
4-445: being active doing something
6: dinner something also vegetarian made by Chef Nick
7-830 walking around
9-1030: more walking around 
1030: SNACK popcorn or granola bar or apple

These days, it's more like this..

Breakfast: coffee
between: a run or walk!
Lunch: nothing or whatever I packed
Snack: chips or diet soda
snack: tortilla chips
dinner: EVERYTHING IN THE FRIDGE OR AROUND THE HOUSE
snack: beer or wine.. 

So it's really no surprise that I have probably turned some of that muscle into fat.. 

11-19-14: I weigh 160.4lbs. 

During the summer I remember that number being closer to 142-147
In high school I weighed 136 at the end of my senior year. 

Granted, these are also due to physiological changes, but DAYUMM. I wear the same size clothing and some of the same clothes, but I know it's not the same. 

So my goals for this week are as follows.. 

Drink 3 Liters of water a day
Eat 5-7 servings of vegetables before eating processed food (baked tortilla chips, potato chips, etc) 
exercise once a day for at least 20 mins

Hopefully I will come back next week with a WIAW and a WIW!!

peace and love

Senior citizen on the prowl

I have had a long, wearing battle with the color of my hair. When I was younger, I had the typical ashy blonde hair that most people have. As it started to get darker, I turned to a bottle of Sun In my cousin left at my grandparents house in Florida. Obvi, it turned lighter but none the less orange-r and I was happy. 

Since gaining WAY more knowledge about dying your hair at home using the sally's supplies, my girlfriend Waffles turned my dark strawberry blonde a few shades lighter and I loved it! It was great for summer and spending every single day outside and on the lake. 

Tan, blonde, and enjoying the sunshine

Even go-kart racing is more fun as a blonde

Then, I did a cardinal sin. I dyed it dark. 

Gone to the dark side

After a few months had past, I decided I wanted to have more fun. AKA, dye my hair strawberry blonde again and get rid of the dark. After about a month of googling, I decided it would be best to do it in three stages.. a bleach bath with a color in november, another bleach bath over thanksgiving, and then finish the whole shebang off over christmas. A few weeks between each process, and the new knowledge of applying coconut oil before applying the dye. 

Bleach bath= 40 creme developer + clear shampoo + bleach

It looked great! I knew that it would be a little orange-y cos I had dyed it dark. It was not too damaged at all, and still looked like a great in-between color. 

Apparently you have to shade in your eyebrows when you're blonde.. 

So then I waited two weeks. Two long weeks. I kind of got bored one day and thought, hey, another bleach bath won't hurt!

I was right about the bleach bath being fine. But then I decided to tone it.. Apparently my hair was a little too delicate at that stage because it TURNED GRAY (aka almost my natural color nowadays).

Much more old lady like in real life

It was a HUGE SHOCK! But of course, of all the people this could have happened to, I was actually not too horrified by it. I definitely looked "trendy" or like an old lady from the back. Cue the senior citizen jokes from all my friends. 

It is halfway washing out right now, but now I am definitely not going to fix it for a few weeks! ahhH!

Current status: grayish and cold

So moral of the story.. when you have a plan.. you should stick to it. 

Currently

Cooking: Nothing. I have been eating all the raw fruits and veggies lately. Ain't nobody got time for 90 seconds in the microwave.

Planning: Lesson plans and activities for the rest of the semester! We are reading Seedfolks and I am working on fluency and comprehension with the students.

Reading: Well, I just finished Gone Girl and totally recommend! I lent it to a friend about a month ago, and I am itching to be able to start it again. I recently finished Eat, Pray, Love and read a fiction book by the same author.

I have also been researching the effects of screentime and how that plays into students with disabilities. Here is a less scientific journal type article from NPR that sums it up.

Watching: We re-started Mad Men and every time I am floored by the cultural differences. What a different world!

On HBO, I watched Americans In Bed and 112 Weddings. The first focuses on the relationships of 10 couples and many of them talk about the importance of physical attraction. 112 Weddings was interesting because most of the couples never imagined what marriage would really mean to them. Jae was less than interested but I was enthralled!

Wearing: All black everything with scarves. Going from internship to work makes me feel like I am a funeral.

Running: I have trying to get out of my rut. I have been running at Asylum Lake lately and running on the trails is super motivating! I also LOVE running in the cold. Well, more like my body likes it. PS- Asylum Lake is aptly named.. it used to be the Kalamazoo Asylum in the 1800s and early 1900s.

A man's thoughts on PLL

Jae and I watch A LOT of tv. Like, a lot. We watch tv before bed every night (it helps me fall asleep). We have watched all of Gilmore Girls, New Girl, OITNB,  Blue Mountain State, and loads of others. 

Recently Jae and I were watching Pretty Little Liars on netflix. (My choice, not his, ha!) Jae is totally the kind of person who likes to ask annoying questions while watching tv. I get where he is coming from, but he needs to shut up sometimes! 

Here are a list of things I have compiled that he has to say.. 

-Why do none of their boyfriends have proper haircuts?

Long hair, don't care

-Have you ever seen a high schooler dressed that nice?

I wish I dressed that good in high school. Or even right now. 

-Is that teacher wearing high heeled boots? Do they hurt her feet?
-Was this school built in the 1960s? Why is nothing retrofitted! What are these chalkboards?

Mad because the desks are not like that in high school 

-Really, Mona looks fine. (this is season 4 for reference)
-Why does Toby look insane? His face is too dudebro. It's obvious that he's effed up. Look at those crazy eyes. And that hair. I wouldn't even do my hair like that. 

I do admit, he does kind of look intense

-Why do they all look so good? 

We may never know. 

-A

Things I hate about fall

Things I hate about fall
-every girl wearing the same outfit. Vest, oversized long sleeve shirt or sweater, jeans/ leggings, knee high boots. Myself included on that one. 
-the other standard outfit is plaid shirt with jeans. 
-pumpkin spice lattes. I definitely enjoy hazelnut flavors more. Most of the time I am not spending my money on a $4-5 drink. 
-everyone's leaves pictures getting like 80 billion likes on instagram. I get it. It's a leaf that changed color. No need to post 5 pictures of the same tree. 


Alternately, this e-card is doing me pretty well right now. If I hadn't deleted most social media over the summer I'm sure I could have found a picture of me inappropriately wearing flannel every. single. night. 

sunshine, sammy

Citizenly Duties

Hey! Just stopping by to show off that I voted!!

Clearly a long day with the middle schoolers. Then standing in voting lines. Then class. 

I actually am very excited because I got to vote for Paul Clements over Fred Upton! This is a very big deal if you are into the enviroment. I am not sure if he will win or not, but I have known him for 2 years and believe he is a much better choice than Fred. Either way, I would love to Upton to be outed. 

From the campaign from Patagonia. Cannot tell you how much patagonia gear with the I voted stickers I saw on social media! That's what I get for having camping hippie friends. ;)

And now I pretty much feel like poop and need some rest-- 

Peace-

ps I went to Bridget and I were in neighboring sororities in college. She has been on an amazing weight loss journey, I would definitely reccomend her for any motivation you need!! 

Boycotting Halloween

okay, so I didn't really boycott Halloween. But I did avoid both the college town in which I reside and the metro Detroit hometown from where I am. Instead, I went up north!

Blurry pic from the hammock. Behind me, Lake Huron! It was 34 degrees and I loved it! 

Gabe loved it too! He jumped in the water all over the place. I stole Gabe for the weekend since Jae was doing Army stuff. I would say we had much more fun ;)

I also went to Holly Berry- a craft show in Caseville! Lots of beer bread, dips, and winter crafts were found. My mom came too and she bought Jae's Christmas presents. Afterwards we went to the best margarita place ever. Of course I don't remember the name, but I wasn't driving so I will have to look it up! lOl!! 

Right now we are recuperating from a fun weekend up north and I am on the healthy train. I already went for a run and drank a ton of water. Here's to a great week!!

Weekend Wrap Up

These few weeks have been busy trying to get settled into to life! Here is a sneak peek at some of the things I have been up to ..

Our power went out, due to a huge storm that knocked out a lot of the north side and west side of Kalamazoo, and we lit candles to light the house! Unfortunately, the scents we were mixing ended being Cherry Pie, Vanilla, Piña Colada, Peppermint Tree, Mango Paradise, and Ocean Breeze. The mix of these scents practically gave me a headache. We left for the bar soon after, flashlights in tow! 

Gabe had to go to the vet in St. Joe, so we hiked the dunes and visited Lake Michigan! He was very excited to play but there were a lot of dogs on the beach so I couldn't let him roam too freely without upsetting other owners. 

Monica and I and a few of our friends went to Rupert's, and then to a funk show after. You can't tell much by the picture, but we were both rocking dark lipstick! When I mean dark, I mean darker than normal. I would love to pick up a dark lipstick soon though! I am not sure how gothic it would look with how pale I am, but whatever! 

The funk band was awesome! They used all different instruments and played a few cover songs. Monica requested the full house theme song, but they didn't know it! Typical haha. 

Sunshine, 

Sammy

So in an attempt to get fit and healthy, I am encouraging myself to do something new. I usually work on running 3-4x a week, and I need to work on getting more flexible. I also don't want my body to get into a rut. 

I googled "Yoga for Beginners" and this is what I found. 20 minutes, girl seems nice enough.

Adriene was actually great! I won't lie though, I was slightly bored. I think it's because I am not challenging myself enough during the video. I also took a break to put in my contacts. Doing yoga with glasses is hard dude! They kept falling off my face. The workout was good and I would do it again. 

I also took initiative to add spotify yoga playlist in the background. 

XX Sammy

5 Things About Me

1. I am extremely unflexible. Like, the worst. I am a runner but I never stretch. Ever. I try to do those yoga youtube videos or Tara Styles videos but I end up quitting halfway through. I have been following @laurasykora on instagram and she is doing a couple challenges I would like to start. 
2. I don't like the air conditioning. After my first summer at an overnight camp, I was used to staying outside in the humid Michigan summers. I get so irrationally mad when I see the air is turned on. It's wasting energy and the house is 100+ years old. It doesn't work. 
3. I have never done anything from pinterest. You would never know from my craziness though. 
4. I am a dog person. I grew up with dogs and LOVE ALL OF THEM. I hate cats. They smell and when they jump up on you their little claws get in your skin. 
5. I never have the same hair color.. Stay tuned on that one. 

XX, Sammy