Hey there. I want to try to write on the blog more often, but with school (and work picking up and life stuff), my brain doesn’t feel ready to come up with any kind of concise topics that will satisfy my inner perfectionist.

I’m thinking maybe a solution could be to check in at least once a month to chat about what I’ve been up to? And maybe those posts will spark other posts where I can dive deeper into a subject?

It never hurts to try, right??

Recent trip to the farm…it’s pumpkin season!!

I listen to a podcast by Gretchen Ruben called Happier, based on her book Happier and she and her sister talk about their wins and fails at the end of each podcast. They call them gold stars and demerits.

I like the “gold star” because I will be an elementary teacher in a couple of years AND I love the word “demerit” because it reminds me of that time on The Office where Jim comes in late and Dwight gives him a demerit. (anyone?)

So this is happening.

gold stars

-Finding my classes the second week of school without the use of Google maps. I totally used the walking setting to find the buildings on campus the first couple of days.

-Keeping up with my long runs, the last one being 10 miles.

Dave biked with me on my 8 mile long run. It was awesome.

-Did my half marathon and did not die!!! All kinds of things were against me including an hour delay in the race starting (which messes with running fuel, makes the last part of the run hotter since it’s later, etc.), allergies AND good ol’ Aunt Flow was here so I had cramps and had to stop to change things out. But again..I made it!

-Picking a date for our wedding. I mean, we’ve been engaged over a year (and dating 9 years), so might as well pick a date! December of 2017 in case you were wondering.

-Getting Dave (the fiancé) good birthday presents. I am generally terrible at gifts, but this year I did alright.

-Booking a blog makeover. It’s been slower since the beginning of the year (which is to be expected), but I was delightfully surprised when Jill at Run Eat Snap contacted me. It will go live this week and I’m so excited!

-Successfully taking care of the house while Dave is out of town. I’ve taken care of the house and cats while Dave has been traveling about 1-2 weeks a month for the past few months. Nothing has caught fire and no injuries have occurred and the trash has gone out on time, so I’m calling it a win!

Zoey cat doesn’t want Dave to leave again!

-Made a couple of friends at school. You know, because I’m terrible at making friends.

Demerits

-Most other workouts for my half marathon training aside from my long runs have gone by the wayside since school started. I’m hoping the amount of walking I do on campus will help make up for the workouts I’ve missed!

-Meltdown on a river float. So we did this thing called “floating” on the Elkhorn river. You sit on inner tubes, attached to each other and rafts for coolers and you float down the river for a few hours. The thing is…there aren’t exactly bathrooms on the river. You have to go in the water. While people are right next to you. Or go off into the river on your own on one of the stops while people are looking at you.

Long story short, I had a hard time with this and as a result of having a couple of beers on an empty stomach, started bawling to Dave (we were away from the rest of the group fortunately) after a couple of hours of painfully holding it in. Thankfully I was eventually able to relieve myself, but I felt bad for ruining the happy floating vibe for Dave.

-Not getting enough rest slash being overly stressed which results in breakouts all over my face. And I’m one of those people that can’t resist popping.

-I go to class two days a week, but have been coming home during the break. This means 40+ extra minutes of driving and putting myself through the stress twice a day to make it to a parking spot in enough time to walk to class. This needs to change. (edit: I have changed this since I first typed it. woot!)

-Total lack of confidence teaching junior high kids. I’m volunteering for an after school program that does science projects with lower income schools and I was taken aback by how difficult it was to a. talk about the subject in a way that made sense and b. to get them to listen. It’s gotten better since the first day, but it was awful awful the first day. My poor partner basically did everything himself while I stood there.

-Falling behind with my online Food Science class. I didn’t realize how far behind I was until I noticed the test was next week and I had only watched 4/8 lectures. Oops!

Goals for the rest of the month:

-Picking a wedding venue. Then no more wedding planning until winter break! (we will see if that happens)

Awesome wedding app called WeddingWire.

-Teacher interview and paper. (I did pick a teacher to interview!)

-Passing my first math test and food science test this week.

-Keeping up with my online food science class a little better.

-Applying to be officially in Elementary Education program.

-Leading a lesson for the after school program.

-Create a Facebook invite for my Gilmore Girls revival binge-watching shindig! (anyone?)

So tell me…

Have you had any rock star moments the past month? How about any demerits that you need to give to yourself? Also…any tips on wedding planning when you’re super duper busy already??