The Plan

Back in May of 2013 I graduated college. Good times. 

Except I still went back to school in the Fall to take some education courses that I didn't take as part of my undergrad, but still needed as a pre-requisite for the teaching credential program. Welp, after long hours of homework, observations, and tutoring...I'm done :] To be perfectly honest, this last semester had been the hardest I've ever worked in school, and am totally expecting straight A's as a result. Yeah yeah! The coursework wasn't difficult, just a lot of assignments. Blah. Either way, I'm done!

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At this point, I've checked off a bachelors degree, taking these education courses, and passing my CBEST off the pre-requisite checklist for the program application. 

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What's left: Passing the multiple subject CSETS, getting my fingerprints done, getting CPR certified, collecting letters of recommendation, finding out if I have/need to get a TB shot, and if I decide on the middle level program...figuring out what subject I'd like to teach and take that respective CSET. All this needs to be done within the next two and a half months. Yay for pressure! 

I just spent my last free weekend laying in bed watching mindless tv, because as of today...I start working on getting what's left of that checklist completed. I will spend the next month studying for the CSET because I take it mid-January, and am volunteering in a classroom once a week so I can try and earn a sincere letter of recommendation for an experienced teacher. CPR classes are scheduled for the second week of January, and if my budget allows, I should be getting my fingerprints done by the end of this month. Man. I'm stressing myself just thinking about all of it! But it can get done because plenty of people have done it before me! I'm gonna not have a life for another 3-ish months...bur you know what?

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Anyways, not sure what the point of this post is...maybe just kind of an update, and obviously some hills gifs because I'm totally missing that show right now. Is anyone else's schedule just as crazy? Are you working towards anything with a deadline? What do you do to keep from overwhelming yourself? Ahhhhhhhhh.

Happy Monday :]

Fall '13 Part 1

My career goal since like 7th grade has been to become a teacher. 

One of the first things on the checklist to becoming a credentialed CA teacher is a Bachelors degree. CHECK! After 7 years ;] 

Now that I've got that...I'm taking 3 education classes at Cal State San Marcos that are prerequisite courses for the teaching credential program at school...holy wow. So much work. Thankfully it's interesting work compared to some of my undergrad courses...but still, so. much. work. One class is technology in the classroom, another is diversity in the classroom, and the last is teaching theory and methods.

It's week 6 and these are my thoughts...

Technology: It's in 2nd place as far as number of assignments. The cool thing about this class is learning about all the different apps and programs and technology tools used in classrooms that I've never heard of. Unfortunately, I can relate to 60 year olds learning how to text. I'm so lost with all this new technology. I've never been a whiz at this kind of stuff...but I didn't think I'd be as clueless as I am! I definitely need to be patient and know that I can't turn a project around in 30 minutes like I'm used to. 

Diversity: Probably the most emotional class I have. We're learning about second language learners, bullying, how different socioeconomic levels affect learning, linguistic diversities, special needs students, etc. Tears have definitely been shed in this classroom...not by me, but others in the classroom. Not sure how I feel about that. Also, I kind of just lied. I had to pull old pictures for a presentation about myself and spent one evening a week and a half ago crying my eyes out thinking of the good ol' times from my childhood. Something super cool about this class is the observation hours. We spend 20 hours tutoring a student. Yesterday was my first night tutoring and it kind of started off awesome. The house where I'm tutoring has two siblings that require separate tutors. The other tutor and I walk in at the same time and introduce ourselves and I say that I'm here for [insert older child's faux pseudonym here] and then the youngest child looks at the older kid and goes "Awww you're so lucky." That same child then tries to cover it up and says "I'm lucky too. I'm actually luckier." Moral of the story is my first impression with 9 year olds rocks. My favorite thing about this class [which makes me a total fatty]...snacks <3 The professor started out the semester with bringing in food and a classmate started a sign up list for the rest of the semester.

Teaching Theory & Methods: 1st place when it comes to school work. This is the class that I lose sleep over just to make sure I've got everything done. There's current even posts, reading logs, reading organizers, reading questions, and my favorite thing...classroom observations and writeups. We're required to do 45 hours of observations between elementary. middle, and high school. That is actually cut down to 25 hours since the 20 tutoring hours from the diversity course are applicable to these 45 :] I started my observations a week and a half ago and I absolutely love it. Which is a total shock because I've been dead set on teaching elementary school since 7th grade and now I'm second guessing that option. I still need to check out elementary and high schools before I totally decide...but I'm just surprised as how much I'm loving middle school. I've had a chance to see U.S. History, Algebra, Language Arts, and P.E. Tomorrow is my last day of middle school observations so I'm a little sad about that. But just a little because elementary school is next week and I'll really get to see how I feel about the little kids!

Blah. I guess my reason for this post was to be able to come back to it in about 6 or so weeks and see how my sentiments have or haven't changed. Sorry for the long and lengthy and post about nothing fun unless you're on the same or similar career path as I am. I'm sure you non teacher folks have checked out before getting to this point. To those that haven't...thanks for reading :]

All the images above were stolen from pinterest, below are some other favorites!

Happy Wednesday peeeeeeeople!

Life Lately...Part 2

Whoop. Part 2! No lame-o intro like yesterday, let the good times roll!  

Del Mar Races-

Horse races happen every summer out here and this was my first chance to go in a long time thanks to a work event that was being held there! Bet on random horses mostly because their name related to something in my life. Ended up picking a lot right, but somehow bet wrong and left the track being down $20. Oh well. It was super fun!

Baconfest-

My friends and I had been looking forward to baconfest for months. We are lovers of bacon. Even bought some super sweet day of the pig shirts from Butcher & Baker for this event! Unfortunately, it was kind of a letdown. Extremely hot day, too many people, not enough vendors which led them to run out of food an hour and a half into the event, lots of beeeeer (which sucked for someone like me who doesn’t drink beer) and ran out of water. Our group of 6 probably got about 7 samples out of the 40 advertised food vendors and that was because we split up a couple of times and were in different lines and got samples for everyone. Lots of people were upset, complained on their facebook and twitter. I wrote an e-mail to the organizer and threw a fit because it wasn’t worth the $60 they charged us. They’re working on righting the wrong and offered unsatisfied people VIP tickets for next year…I’ll keep you posted on how that works out :] We went to a friend’s beach BBQ right after and that was cool, but the best thing about that was we all got to see a random couple get engaged! How sweet is that?!!

Our awesome shirts!

The sweet proposal we got to see!

Birthday-

I turned 25 last week. Had some drinks with my friends the night before the big day! Couldn’t hang for a midnight drink because I’m a grandma and was in bed by 11:00 pm. Went to 6 flags with a few people on the day of my birthday. That was tons of fun, but very exhausting. And the drive was kind of veryyy long! Might need to get a hotel in the area next time. Not many pictures of that since I left my phone in the car all day…didn’t want to risk losing or dropping it! Also, one of my biggest goals for myself was to have my degree by the time I turned 25. I graduated in May and got my diploma in the mail the day before my 25^th! Just in time :] Birthday gift to myself was a new watch...I’ve been on the hunt for one for months. Loved this one, pulled the trigger and got it :] 

OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL!

Rascal Flatts-

Wasn’t too excited about this show, would have been the 3^rd time I’ve seen them and the other 2 times were very unimpressive. The only exciting thing about it was The Band Perry was the opener and I’ve loved them and the energy they put into a show for a while now! The Band Perry was great, and Rascal was better than the 2 other times that I’ve seen them, but still…nothing special. Whomp.

Fireball Jello Shots!

Most of us! Including Jessica's crew!

Okay, I think that’s it…or what’s noteworthy at least. There’s a couple of concerts and last few baseball games in the schedule before life settles down a bit. As fun as everything has been, I’m cool with some down time!  

Never Doing That Again...

This might get me banished by the blog world…but whatevs. I won't mention any names so this post will only be partially passive aggressive.

A few months ago I signed up for a thing that pairs you up with other bloggers and throughout the month you’re supposed to keep in contact throughout the month, follow each other’s blogs, comment on posts, and eventually do a gift swap valued at like $10.00.

March.

1^st month. I was paired up with a chick and didn't really hear from her all month. Didn't get a follow or comments on my posts and only heard from her when I commented on her posts. I can’t hate too much because she did send me a gift that was pretty sweet and reignited my love for ferrero rocher chocolates.

April.

2^nd month, hopefully I’d get paired up with someone cooler because for me it wasn’t so much for the gifts as it was to get to know other bloggers...or so I thought. This month’s partner was much better, we constantly talked, commented on each other’s posts, etc. I had high hopes for this blog friendship. I mailed out my gift and was told that mine might be a little late because the chick didn’t have money. NBD, I understand not having money. But then I not only never heard back about her receiving my gift and if she liked it or her trying to get a hold of me to send me my gift. Whomp. That kind of sucked really hard.

May.

3^rd time is a charm, right? Nope. But this was kind of my fault. I kind of fell off the face of blog world because school was kicking my butt and I needed to make sure I graduated. I didn’t post much so there wasn’t much opportunity for my partner to comment and I did my best to comment on their stuff but kind of sucked at it. Once graduation was said and done, I tried to get a hold of her to at least get our gift swap done and never heard back. Whomp.

Didn't sign up for June, and probably won’t do it ever again but it is what it is…oh well.

Let’s post some favorite random pins to lighten this post up a bit!   

How cute is this?!!

Every. Single. Damn. Time.

Fundraiser: $1.00 per piece of tape. Brilliant.

Country concerts=summer. 1st one of the season is tomorrow!

#swoon. i love zac. amanda bynes has lost it. nikki, well...meh.

Like that one time I was "shush"-ed at a bar for cheering on the USWNT during the world cup. Funny stuff.

Baseball Dry Spell

I don’t really know how link-ups/ blog hops work, but I’m doing my first one today...hopefully I did it right! It’s with Sarah over at Venus trapped in Mars. I seriously love that blog. That chick knows so much about sports, is pretty hilarious, and her designs are awesome. My blog hopes to grow up and be like her :]

So we’re pretty much supposed to blog about anything sports related (favorite sport, team, player, a game you went to, something happening in the sports world, etc.) every Friday. This was introduced earlier this week and the timing couldn't have been more perfect because I had a Padres game today. For those that don’t know…4 of my friends and I have season tickets to the Padres games and it’s probably the best investment I've ever made!

Season ticket crew: Ashley, Marcus, Lime, Chels, and I.

Home is section 134

What a great view!

One of the perks of our seats...stretching!

Last night I made the tough decision to switch out tonight’s ticket (and tickets to 3 other games) to tickets on 6/16 for Father’s day. I graduated college (2 weeks ago!) and jumped head first into work. I usually take a Monday or Friday off every week over the summer but I've been so busy these last 2 weeks that I've had to work M-F! Hopefully I get caught up by next week and I’ll have some time to chill…except that my family is in the middle of moving and we've spent the last week sprucing up (paint, flooring, windows, etc.) the “crack house” as I like to call it. I just couldn't justify taking off from work early when I has so much to do AND losing a night of working on the crack house.

My last ball game was May 19^th, and my next game will be June 14^th…there’s a 25 day gap where I will not have been to a baseball game! Thankfully, that weekend will be full of baseball! Yankees vs. Angels on 6/14 & 6/15 and Padres vs. DBacks 6/16!   

Class Of 2013!

Let’s talk about my first day of college ever. I went to the local community college, Palomar College (UCP!) The year was 2006 on a nice summer/fall Monday morning of September…or was it August? Anyways, my first class was softball practice at 10:00 am. I probably left at 8:45, thinking 1 hour and 15 minutes should plenty time to drive the 25 mile distance, and it was. I remember arriving with 30 minutes to spare but ran into trouble when I pulled into the parking lot…and couldn't find an open spot to save my life. After spending an hour going through all of the lots, I finally found an open space! But now I was at least 30 minutes late to class. I struggled to decide if I should go to class or not and after crying to 2 of my best friends over the phone and talking to my dad, I decided not to go. Yep, I did not go to my first class of my college career. Instead I went to the retired softball coach’s office to talk to him about missing class since I knew him personally and was the reason I had decided to go to Palomar and play ball. He told me the new coach was chill and to just talk to her about what happened and she’ll understand. At that very moment, the new coach had stepped into retired coaches office to talk about her first day and there I was, the chick that didn't go to practice. I had to explain myself and she understood…but I had to pay for it and run sprints the following day.

Fast forward 7 years, I graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelors of Arts in Liberal Studies with a depth of study in Arts & Education on May 18,2013! 

Check out the grad pics:

Jumbo-tron action!

WOOOOOO!

martywiththeparty

with the parentals <3

grandma (mom's mom) and grandpa (dad's dad)

my family.

some besties!

school loves!

life long friends...and a photo bomber

with moniqueqee!

I seriously couldn't have done this without the support of my parents, family, friends, and work. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally did it!

I've still got a few classes, tests, and credential program to get through until I’m fully legit to become a teacher so here’s to the next 3 years!   

PBR & ROC Race

1^st blog as a college graduate. Whaaaat?!! Actually, that’s kind of a lie considering I’m not completely done for the semester. I did walk at commencement this last Saturday, but because  I am split between 2 schools, I’m done with everything at Cal State San Marcos, but still have 2 papers to write and 1 final to take this week for Palomar College. Hopefully I have everything done by Wednesday! Because I've been so focused on school & graduation I’ve kind of been a sucky blogger…so let’s play catch-up!

2 weekends ago I went to the PBR (professional bull riding) with my dad. I probably should have stayed home and done homework…but whatevs. I love me some country music and cowboys, but these bull riders were a different sort of hotness. I was in love. And decided if I don’t marry a ball player, I want a bull rider.

Last weekend I did the ROC (ridiculous obstacle course) Race. Some friends and I signed up in like March and the 2 months it took to get here seemed life for.evvvvv.errrrrr. It was a 5k with 16 obstacles throughout the 3.1 miles. Once of my favorite t.v. shows ever is wipeout and the ROC Race was as close as I would ever get to being on the show. Check out the pics!

Our team!

Caroline and I, before and after.

 Funny story about the shoe donation...I wasn't planning on donating my shoes, because they're the only ones I had but when I walked over with Caroline to drop hers off, I caved into peer pressure and left mine as well. This last Friday [2 weeks after the race] I got dressed to run graduation errands, and looked high and low for my running shoes for 15 minutes...until I remembered that I had donated them. Oops! 

This race was SO much fun. Definitely worth the $60 we paid. Here’s a list of the obstacles. Not sure what my favorites were though. I did learn that I’m completely out of shape and pretty much could only run a mile of the course. Walked most of it. Blah. There’s another race happening up in Orange County, I think we might sign up! Definitely check it out if it comes to a city near you!!!