HIGH-FIVE FRIDAY

• I had a coupon for free coffee for my drive back Chillicothe on Sunday afternoon!
• I wore a sweatshirt to school on Monday and GOT AWAY WITH IT.
• One of my Comp II students works at Golden Corral and hooked me up with a dozen free rolls on Tuesday night. CHA-CHING!
• I get to see Ben TODAY!
• BYE-BYE-BYE (*NSYNC STYLE) TO JANUARY!!

My New Playlist

It's been a while since I posted a list of the songs I'm jamming to! It's because I've been listening to YouTube videos in my car rather than downloading the songs to my iPhone. WELL, I finally got around to it on Monday and now I have the lovely little mix. Check them out!

Peace out, girl scouts!

WIWW

Some of the looks from the past week, y'all!

Polka-dot button up + pink cardi + black jeans + back riding boots: Old Navy

Skinny jeans + red tank + white cardi: Old Navy, Boots: Rampage

Watch: Groupon, Hornets T-shirt: Gift

Skinny jeans + gray cardi: Old Navy, Chiefs T-shirt: Chiefs team store

Boots: Rampage, Turquoise ring: Cozumel shop

Black skinny jeans + chambray pullover + floral sweat shirt: Old Navy, Shoes: Macy's

Tan skinnies + black tank + cardi: Old Navy, Scarf: H&M, Boots: Rampage, Watch: Walmart

I have to tell ya'll that I'm looking forward to having a mirror with better lighting! -___-

Winter Fashion

As we are dead smack in the middle of winter hear in the good ol' midwest, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite winter looks. For me, this year, the pieces that I'm mixing and matching with everything are as follows:

• Layered sweaters
• Scarves
• Tuxedo-stripe skinny jeans

First a few snaps of my favorite look: bold scarves with a white sweater over black. Whether it be a black dress, a button down, a tank... whatever, I'm game! The color combo is my fave.

Another favorite look of my is a scarf choice that you wouldn't expect with something that you'd normally consider drab. Here I am traveling to Chicago (dirty airport mirrors...), and with my gray pullover I've paired an american flag beauty. With color peeking out from the bottom of my sweater, you can also tell I took the opportunity to layer!

 

While I don't have a picture of me wearing my tux jeans, I found a picture from the ON website.

Fun fact: I actually picked up my new favorite pair of tuxedo stripe jeans from Old Navy when they were on sale for $9 (normally $34.50)!  I figured, hey this is a steal, so why not? I've fallen in love with the extra detail on these babies!

Right to the right is another favorite layering/scarf/sweater combination of mine. I've come to decide that while winter may be cold, that doesn't mean I can't wear my favorite bright color combos! Don't be scared ladies!

 

Last year, I had a crazy obsession with knit hats thanks to my balding. This year, with my hair growing back it's not a train I jumped back on, but still a trend I love!

What are you beautiful people wearing this winter?

Life Since Honeymoon

Well guys, getting back into the swing of things after being on a honeymoon is tough stuff. I came immediately back to work, leading me head on into lesson planning, homework, and missing my HUSBAND back in Kansas City. Yes, I'm going to be excited about calling him my husband. We've waited a long time for this!

Anyway, since my return, life has been filled with trips home, meals with people I love, restless nights, and more. Here are some quick snapshots of here, there, and a little bit of inbetween!

Went home to KC for the week to find that mom and dad still have the tree up & to get some good eats on the Plaza!

 A quick hand update & a glimpse at our soon-to-be married life venture.

 Also got to see my fave kid, Athen!

This past Sunday called for lunch with B, then a drive home, followed by a load of laundry consisting of only blue and black clothes and a fun conversation with my girl Stacey!

 Lastly, enjoy this piece of eye candy. Living in the country here isn't so bad every day.

WIWW

Skirt: Forever 21, White button up: JCPenney, Cardi + tank: Old Navy

Tights: Walmart, Boots: Gift, Watch: Betsey Johnson

Cardi + leggings + Chiefs shirt: Old Navy

Skinny grey cords + cardi: Old Navy, Red top: Sam's Club, Boots: Rampage

Watch: Groupon, Necklace: ??

Dress + scarf: H&M, Chambray button up: Old Navy, Tights: Walmart

Watch: Betsey Johnson, Grey flats: Kohl's

New Year's Resolutions??

As I was perusing through blogs that I follow, I noticed a trend happening. Rather that posting about their New Year's resolutions, I'm seeing a lot of "goals for the year" posts. I'm in love with this idea. Not only because it's a nicer word, but it makes the whole idea seem a lot less filled with pressure. Rather than resolving to do certain things, I can take baby steps to accomplish my goals, right? Right.

With that said, I've come up with a quick list of goals of my own.

1. Drink more water. I've never been good at this. I'd rather drink milk or juice or Dr. Pepper or pretty much anything other than water. With my Psoriasis and Arthritis, water is my best choice though if I want my joints and skin to have a chance at anything. Water it is.
2. Take my medication every day. This is really a struggle for me. It's not that I forget though. My medication makes me sick sometimes, so to avoid that, I don't take it. Especially if I'm already sick with something. In addition, to be honest, sometimes I don't take it because even after FOUR YEARS of battling this, there are days when I don't want to feel like a science project. In the end, it is what is best for me, so I will fight on.
3. Be a strong partner in my marriage. As we've taken our first steps into marriage, I find myself feeling like a giddy kid again. I love Ben, I miss Ben. I am so unbelievably, over the moon, can't even verbalize it, happy. With that said, I hope to be a strong partner in my marriage, not just be married. I want to make sure we communicate, compromise, and always say "I love you."
4. Keep in better contact with friends. I say this one with great intentions, but it is one of my biggest struggles. I truly love my friends, but I am the worst at keeping in touch with people. I love catch-up lunch dates or coffees, but with my limited budget this semester those are basically out of the question... Because of that I'm going to make a better effort at basic communcation. We are all busy, but could make time.
5. Love my students. Lastly, I want to love my students. I want to take in every single second I have with them this year as we don't know our if our educational paths will cross again. I want to attend basketball games, I want to have those weird random conversations for the first five minutes of class, I want them to know I'm interested in their lives and love them and teaching them is a big part of my life not just my job.

All in all, I think these goals are attainable. I'm looking forward to bettering myself, my relationships, and my health. Here's to 2014! Cheers!

Flashback: Snowpocalypse

High-five Friday

It's time to high-five, guys!

• I went back to school after getting married and got to see all of my kids' smiling faces.
• Chillicothe boys basketball beat Maryville on Tuesday!
• Benjamin came to visit me Wednesday night. We went to Walmart, ate, and watched American Idol and it was the best night ever.
• I applied for my new Social Security card Thursday morning.
• I bought new mechanical pencils and they are AMAZING!

Honeymoon Highlights

Thanks to booking early, a wonderful wedding gift, and saving our pennies, Ben and I were able to have an amazing honeymoon. We spent a night in Miami, Florida at our dream hotel and then ported on a cruise headed to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico.

We stayed the Z Ocean Hotel in South Beach for our stay in Miami. Our hotel was beautiful and had tremendous views. For dinner that night we decided to live large and dropped a pretty penny on the best seafood and steak we've ever had at a restaurant called A Fish Called Avalon. I'd recommend it to any of my friends traveling to Miami in the future!

The next day we were lucky enough to have beautiful, 80 degree weather, so we got to take a walk on the beach. We naturally had to be cliche and write in the sand. It was our honeymoon, after all.

 

Here's a fun story: When Ben and I went to the car rental place at the airport on Sunday to get our car, we went expecting to get a basic, economy car because we paid for the cheapest gig possible. Well, they were "out" of those cars and wanted to give us a minivan... I ended up asking the representative helping us if there was ANYTHING ELSE we could drive because I didn't exactly picture myself cruising around Miami on my honeymoon in a minivan. With that, he told us he would "take care of us" for our honeymoon. So we got this beauty for the same price. Cruising with the top down was definitely a highlight of our trip!

Ben and me being Ben and me (foodies), we had to try out the sushi before we left for the cruise. We asked around and were told to try a place called Moshi Moshi. We were NOT disappointed.

Our cruise's first stop was Key West, Florida. It was actually kind of nice having the first port still in the US. We were able to do and see a lot, but had no trouble with currency or cell phone service.

A fun thing about Key West is that where we were, the mail street was named Duval street. Not quite our last name, BUT PRETTY DARN CLOSE. Obviously, we had to take pictures.

Overall, the cruise was great! They had delicious food available for every meal, fun shows (musical, comedic, and otherwise) to see every night, and we even found drinks we liked at the bar! :)

Ben was also able to snag some really cool shots while we were on the ship!

We also really enjoyed our time in Mexico even though it was shorter than we would have liked. We didn't get to make it to the ruins, so we would like to go back to do that someday. Something cool that we did do was buy a turquoise ring (or I should say Ben bought it for me). My grandmother was a huge fan of turquoise and when she passed away, I wasn't able to have any of those piece of her jewelry. Ben and I searched high and low for a ring that I loved, that we felt suited her too. It's a close third in the ranking of my favorite rings that he's ever bought me. ;) Check out all three here:

In the end, it was a wonderful trip aside from the fleeting seasickness we experienced on the boat. Ben and I are already planning a trip back to Florida for our one-year anniversary to do the things we weren't able to do these past couple of January's. Here's to many years of celebration and skipping out on the freezing temps that all of our loved ones at home were dealing with!