H5F 04/29/2016

1. While I suffered from a cold for most of the weekend, I finally felt human again on Sunday. I ended up driving out to Independence to have lunch with my parents and while I was out that direction I hit up one of my favorite stores - Cargo Largo. Every other Sunday they have "bag day" where if you bring your Cargo Largo tote you get 25% off anything you can fit inside it. I found  this gem of a t-shirt and of course I had to snatch it up!
   
   
2. Plans are underway for our Senior send-off breakfast at CHS! We have eight seniors graduating this year and we're having a graduation party/breakfast on May 6th for them. It's just a fun get together to celebrate where we'll give them cards and such.
3. Lately, with the school year wrapping up, I've been feeling super nostalgic about my time at Truman High School. After attending an event at Venesia's school, I felt inclined to pull out my senior-year yearbook. Flipping through the pages, I found some great shots of pep assemblies and activities that I thought I'd share with you.
    
4. I'm currently in the process of planning a visit to STL to see one of my besties from college, Sam! I've never been to a Cardinals game and I've heard awesome things about Busch Stadium and Ballpark Village, so this is at the top of my list to do. We're thinking I'm going to go at the end of June when the Royals will be there for the I-70 series!
5. My nephew turns 1 tomorrow!!!
    

Social Media and Selfies

While on a day-to-day basis, the content of this blog is pretty light, there is something that has been on my mind lately and I've decided that I want to touch on it. Bear with me. Here's the thing. I'm a self-proclaimed blogger. I have numerous social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. In this day and age, NOT having social media is found to be more strange than having it. Even before the modern-day apps were huge, there were options like Xanga and Live Journal to post thoughts, photos, and more. Having an internet presence is the norm. Following your favorite sports teams, show hosts, celebrities, and friends on social media is just what people do. Hell, my mom is even on social media at 60 years old.

   

I find myself wondering though, what is the purpose of social media? To create a digital scrapbook to be able to look back on past events easily? To share your life events with the world? To keep in contact with old friends? I'd say all of these things are true for me - to some extent. Where I find myself taking issue with my online presence is when I catch myself ruining an enjoyable moment by feeling like I NEED to take a photo or post an update about it, or worse, not taking a photo and feeling guilty about it afterward.

   

When Ben and I had our housewarming party last summer, we were so lucky in that we won a FeteBox. This allowed us to have the perfect fiesta for our family and friends. While putting things together for the party, I took a number of photos of the decorations and food, but once the party started, I put my phone down. I enjoyed time with my co-workers who had driven to town, I caught up with old friends who had taken time to come over, and maybe most importantly, I ate my tacos without feeling like I needed to take a picture before consumption. There are no pictures of me or anyone else at that party, and while that may seem sad, it was such a great day. Naturally, I felt guilty afterward because I had no proof that this good time had even transpired. I had no photos to provide to the owner of FeteBox to show how perfect her product was in the production of my housewarming party. I felt like I had let people down for not having pictures to post on social media - and that my friends is ludicrous.

   

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Kimberly, you're a blogger... that's basically agreeing to take photos of every meal you eat, every outfit you wear, and every visit you take to the bathroom." While that may be true, for me, I think it's more about having authentic experiences these days. Yes, I go to brunch and take pictures of the food for review posts. And yes, I use Snapchat to document every day occurrences and take selfies that portray my mood. Will I stop doing that? Probably not. Will I start evaluating the importance of ruining a moment to take a picture. Absolutely.

If I'm to be honest, I'm having trouble finding the balance these days. As a blogger, I know that to market my brand I need to have social media. As a human, I want to delete most of my accounts and live my life. It is not my life's desire to live it through social media.

   

In conjunction with these thoughts, I want to touch on "selfies" for a moment because I feel they fall into a similar social media category. In reading around on the internet, I have seen a lot of posts centered around "selfie shaming." People condemning people for posting too many pictures of themselves on THEIR social media. People saying that the occasional selfie is fine, but too many is too much. People judging and berating people for taking pictures of themselves when they don't meet society's standard of beautiful. (If you're not model thin and gorgeous, you obviously do not have the right to take a selfie).

My immediate response to these ideas? THANK GOD THEY'RE NOT FRIENDS WITH ME ON SNAPCHAT. My logical, realistic, second response? Bull shit. As a woman, I have been told for my entire life that I need to love myself, love my body, LOVE MY CURVES. But THEN, when I have a day where I feel cute and take a selfie, instead of people acknowledging my self-love, I become a narcissist. I become selfish. I become conceited. All things, that most days, I hope people realize that I am not regardless of how many selfies I take and post on social media.

Overall, I enjoy social media. I'm not trying to bash the interfaces or purposes of these outlets. I just want you guys to know that it's okay to enjoy life and your experiences without taking pictures every five seconds. And when you do take those pictures, it's okay for them to be selfies.

Until next time. XXO.

Rainy Day Playlist

When I was in high school and college, I made new playlists for big events, to go with the weather, or to celebrate holidays. I enjoyed having music that could describe my outlook at any given moment, really. As I've gotten older and things have changed, that hobby occurs far less often. This week though, the Midwest has endured a LARGE amount of storm activity and I was inspired to make a playlist that reflects how I'm feeling today, April 27th. Some songs are throwback, but some are more recent too. I hope y'all enjoy!

• Skyscraper - Demi Lovato
• Life After You - Daughtry
• Almost - Bowling For Soup
• Rise Up - Andra Day
• Back Home - Andy Grammar
• Sit Still Look Pretty - Daya
• A Good Man - Emerson Drive
• Girl Crush - Little Big Town
• Die A Happy Man - Nelly
• Batter Up - Nelly
• Soldier - Backstreet Boys
• Out Of My Head - Fastball
• Wondering - Good Charlotte
• More Than Anyone - Gavin DeGraw
• Fix The World Up For You - James Morrison
• Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer
• Ain't Got You - Kevin Michael
• Sunday Mornings - Maroon 5
• Come On Get Higher - Matt Nathanson
• Drill Team - Prozak/Tech N9ne
• Waiting All My Life - Rascal Flatts
• Drink You Away - Justin Timberlake

Until next time! XXO.

H5F 04/22/2016

It has been a while since I sat down and wrote a H5F post. Things have been busy and now I'm sick, but I want to be consistent for you guys, so here we are blogging. Here are my five highlights from this week:

1. On Sunday morning I had Google Fiber installed at my house. After sitting on the waiting list for almost a year, this was VERY exciting!
2. Tuesday was the specified date for the state-wide ACT test. While juniors at CHS took the ACT, the rests of the classes participated in community service activities around town. My class elected to stay at the school and complete projects that our custodial staff needed finished. Other classes cleaned up parks, served lunch, or colored with senior citizens.
3. Yesterday, Venesia sang in her school's talent show. She rocked it!
4. Today, my students finished their classroom novel, Night. One of them even said it has "actually been a pretty good book." Teacher win.
5. I have been suffering from a terrible head cold the past few days. I'm looking forward to the weekend and some sleep.

Make Up & Beauty

If you know me at all, you know that I'm not a huge make up girl. Really, the largest reason being that I don't know much about it. I'm not knowledgable about products or brands... and couple that with my skin issues and it's just not my forte.

Here are the products that I usually use. With my Rosacea, I actually use baby wipes to wash to my face and remove my make up. Most soaps are too harsh or make me break out. I get these wipes at Target and I love them. With that said, I'm definitely open to finding a REAL face wash/skin treatment. Mirvaso is a Rosacea medication that I apply after washing my face when my pores are open. I also have photos of the products I use on a normal basis. My aunt works for Estee Lauder, which is why that's where most of my products come from. I'm not against using anything else, but because I don't know much about make up, I have usually stuck with whatever she recommends or sends me.

 

 

Recently, I decided that I wanted to try to find a few new products that I could use. What was the easiest way to try a bunch of things without spending hundreds? Ipsy. A few of my friends got Ipsy bags, so I decided to take the plunge and create a profile. I got my first bag this month and I was both nervous and excited when it arrived. Here are the products that it came with:

 

 

  

I have not tried all five products yet, but I've gotten through four of them and so far I love them. The only item I have not tried is the oil treatment, but mostly because last week was CRAZY with prom and there was a lot going on. I plan to try it this week. I tried the rest of the products Saturday since I needed a "night" look to chaperone.

I figured I'd document the phases of the application to share with this post. The first photo is my skin post-washing and pre-product. If you can tell, because of my Rosacea, my skin is uneven in tone and blotchy. I walk a fine line of having a really dry T-zone and nose, but an oily chin also. The second photo is my face after I had applied concealer and foundation. It's a bit more even, but I think I would like to find a non-liquid concealer to try and maybe a full-coverage foundation. I know that skin diseases can't just be "covered up" though so I'm realistic.

The third and fourth photos are my full make up that I wore to Prom, which used the four Ipsy bag products. I used the STARLOOKS in Jet as my liner, the OFRA shadow as one of three shades to create this eye, the blending brush to... blend... the three shadows, and my lip is the TARTE lip cream. I would say that the lip cream is my definite favorite product in this bag. I love the color and I really liked that it wasn't a sticky product on my lips. Second place would be the liner as it had a smooth application, but I felt that the jet black was too stark of a contrast with my complexion.

   

I would say, overall, the products I am most comfortable playing with are eye liners and lip colors. With that in mind, I definitely need help and/or tips on basically everything else, haha. I'm posting this post as both my admittance that I'm just not very good at being a girl and my plea for any suggestions of where to go from here.

Thanks for reading!! XXO. Until next time!

Breakfast in KC (Stop 13/16)

I'm getting close to the end of my Best Breakfasts in KC list - there are only three to go! With that in mind, I'm trying to decide what I want to do next. I've found a list entitled "10 Places To Eat Only The Locals Know About in Kansas City" and I think that may be the next venture. I love brunch, and I don't think I'll ever stop going, but I think I'd like to venture out and try a few other restaurants that may be better known for other things.

This weekend, we tried out Julian in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City. We had heard great things about the restaurant, including but not limited to the fact that is houses James Beard Award-winning chef Celina Tio. The restaurant is named after Celina's grandfather, Julian, who taught her how to use a chef's knife when she was eight years old. She has competed on Food Network's “The Next Iron Chef” and Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters.” You can find a lot more information about Celina Tio on her website.

We are to the point in the year when we are able to eat outside when we brunch, so that was the obvious choice today when we arrived at Julian. After perusing their menu, we decided to start off with Julian's fair-trade, organic French press coffee and an order of their Doughnut holes dusted with ginger sugar.

 

 

For the meals we went with Drop biscuits with meat gravy and a Brunch style cheese burger with fried egg, house bacon, and hollandaise sauce. Overall, we were pretty pleased. It was a cozy environment, good food, and great coffee. Here are some things that we didn't like:

• The portion size of the biscuits and gravy
• They did not have a current liquor license so we were unable to have cocktails
• The burger was open faced, which was not what I thought it would be

After reflection, we would DEFINITELY visit Julian again. To us, great service is REALLY important and we got that, no question. Celina Tio was running food and seating tables herself and I thought that was really neat. When you combine that with comfort, good music, and good food, we're sold.

 

We would give Julian an 8.5/10.

Prom 2016

A large part of the reason that I've been MIA these past few weeks is because it has been crunch time for Cameron's annual Promenade and Prom. As one of the junior-class sponsors, I helped facilitate the planning of prom, placing all of the orders, etc. to pull of a great night for our juniors and seniors. Well, Saturday night was the big event and I think it went off perfectly.

The theme was The Great Gatsby, but rather than focusing on different aspects of the novel, it was more along the lines of the kids being invited to one of Jay Gatsby's infamous parties! With 800 balloons, feathers, glitter, and elbow grease combined, the Cameron gym was transformed into a lavish party complete with a balloon drop.

Overall, getting to be involved in the Prom process is stressful, chaotic, and so much fun. Nothing beats getting to see all of your students dressed up on Prom night. For my own benefit, I documented the past few days and I thought I'd share those with you. These photos move chronologically, starting Thursday going through Prom night.

   

   

I want to give a big shout out to one of my best friends, Stacey. She was a major trooper and helped me run the door. We had fun admiring all of the dresses and chatting about our own Prom experiences. Really, though, it was so great just to take her to where I work every day and show her around. Being a teacher is a huge part of my life and it was awesome to get to share it.

  

 

When people ask me why I decided to be a junior-class sponsor, I tell them it's because of the kids. Being a Special Education teacher, I don't have the opportunity to teach most of the students at Cameron High School. Being a class sponsor allows me the opportunity to meet and get to know so many kids that I wouldn't get to know otherwise. Here is a little bit of proof of the fun that can be had:

  

Because I'm leaving Cameron and moving down to middle school in Blue Springs, this will most likely be the last Prom I ever sponsor. It comes with bitter-sweet emotions. I've had a wonderful time in this role, but I'm looking forward to what comes next.

XXO. Until next time.