8.08.2012

Bahhhhhhhhh. It's hot here. 

5.12.2012

An addition

It has come to my attention that I forgot to say what I am doing net year (thanks mom). So, I was fortunate enough to get a job teaching 7th and 8th grade social studies at Pioneer Preparatory Academy. I am so excited about the school, the administration seem awesome, and there is totally potential for upward growth!!!
I am so excited to get to merge my love of middle-school and history to one job!!!! Whooooo!!
So no, I'm not playing soccer for a career next year- unfortunately :)

5.02.2012

5 Reasons it Should Be Summer

1) it has already hit over 100 degrees here down in the hot box of Arizona. No more beautiful spring temperatures, I'm getting ready to hunker down for the summer n start saving for my $300 electric AC bill.
2) I have recently resigned from my job at TFA and am done June 15th. If you're interested in what I will be doing for a living, please keep reading. Anyhow, June 15th needs to come soon as my motivation is lacking Big Time!
3) I'm ready for summer outdoor soccer. My Spring season ended over a month ago and I'm really ready to start playing at the end of the month.
4) Come May 15th I'll be moving into a new place- good riddance (my old landlord was not the best of people).
5) I just started playing semi-pro arena soccer and our season starts in about a month. Yes, I will be playing semi-pro soccer after a 4 year hiatus from competitive soccer. We'll see how it goes.

3.25.2012

Turning over (another) new leaf!!

Okay, I realized I said that after my last post I was going to write more... But I'm really going to try this time.

Right now I am on an airplane traveling I Memphis for work. This is occurin the day after Megan an I got back from our week long vacation in Florida and the Bahamas!!!

Our first two days of vacation we spent in Fort Lauterdale lounging on the beach, reading and taking some time for relaxing.

Then, after two nights there we drove I the port of Palm Beach where we boarded our two day cruise to the bahamas! Not only were we going to the Bahamas but we had the suite room on the cruise!! We spent the morning playing on the beach of Grand Bahamas island, did a banana boat tour o see the pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean and tour around the island. The afternoon was spent walking around the town and enjoying food. We boarded the ship and headed back to Florida.

The next two days were a whirlwind of Universal and Disney. We spent the afternoon ad evening of our first day in Orlando experiencing Universal Studios going on all the rides and even seeing Harry Potter World- which was awesome. We even went in some water rides and for soaking wet. There was also a Dr. Seuss area that contained Moose and Goose Juice (that pic is for you dad and de. Seuss sleep book).
After our fun day at universal we spent the next fun day at the four Disney parks. We started our day at animal kingdom and he safari ride, and ten went to a fun Mt. Everest roller coaster. We then went to Hollywood Studios where we had the best luck ever. We got two fast passes for the Tower of Terror and a super awesome Aerosmith roller coaster. The rest of our day was spent at Magic Kingdom with a brief stop at Epcot. It was a completely exhausting day but super super fun!!!

We returned home and now I'm off again traveling this time for work. I will be spending a week in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta learning about how to be a better leader. Hope all is well with everyone and you're doing better in your bracket than I am (even though I'm in first place for my work one).

xoxox

1.05.2012

Help Support TFA Phoenix!

As Teach For America Phoenix we represent 18,000 students, 318 teachers, over 100 schools, and 34 placement partners...However, we are 1 corps and 1 cause dedicated to eliminating the achievement gap in the Valley of the Sun. As Teach For America corps members, alumni, and friends and family our vision is to rally together in support of one another and of our movement in Phoenix.

Please consider supporting our efforts to raise $18,000 in honor of the 18,000 students our corps members teach everyday.  All donations will go towards Teach For America Phoenix's efforts to recruit, train, support and develop our corps members and alumni teaching in Arizona to become the leaders for educational equity necessary to impact the transformational change we hope to see in the opportunities available to our students.
Teach For America Phoenix - Teach For America

11.19.2011

Long, (not really) Awaited Update

Well, I realize it has been many a month since I have updated my blog.  Even though I take some time to add pictures from my phone here and there, my writing has waned.  I am going to try to make a commitment to post much more often.

I was thinking about doing a month-by-month update but that may take a while, so I'm just going to do a bulk update with pictures on many things that have occurred in the past few months.

Jackie Me and Megan with our 3D glasses on!
I'm not sure where to start because it's been so long, so I guess I'll start with Labor Day.  Some friends and I took a trip to Hermosa Beach to go to Universal Studios, spend some time on the beach and just get away from the Phoenix Heat.  We had a great time on the beach, enjoyed the King King vs. T-Rex and Jurassic Park Ride at Universal (even though they literally dump gallons of water on you at the end - see picture) Studios and had some great food as well!


After Labor Day, I went to a couple of concerts.  I went to the Ray Lamontagne concert.  Opening for Ray was Brandi Carlile and Vusi Mahlasela.  Craziest part of this concert is that I actually included Vusi Mahlasela in my Orals project at Whitman because he was one of the musical leaders of the anti-apartheid revolution in South Africa... crazy.

I also went to the Taylor Swift concert in mid-October with a bunch of people from work.  THere were a few crazy things about that concert: 1) We were the oldest people there who didn't have kids BY FAR, 2) Two nights of T-Swift concerts in Phoenix sold out in about 15 minutes (15K people at least at each show), 3) We literally had the FURTHEST seats away from T-Swift and the tickets were still over $100.  All that being said, it was probably one of the better concerts I had ever seen!  After the concert, Ours by Taylor Swift is my new favorite song (words and song is a bit off in this video but it's a great song)!

Megan, Me, Catherine, Josh and Jackie

Megan and Me after the run

Along with concerts, my friends and I did a fun mid-run (pictures included) and I got to do a bit of traveling already this fall.  As for the mud-run, if you've never done one or never heard of one, check them out, they're so much fun.  After about 1/4 of a mile we ran up this dirt hill and plunged into mud up to our armpits... so fun!!!  It was the perfect mix of social-atmosphere and fitness!

My first "trip" was to Vegas to hang out with Michelle for her birthday!  It was so wonderful to see her after nearly 2 years of not seeing her.  We also had a great time visiting some of Megan's family and relaxing by the pool!  A great mix of "on the strip" and "off the strip" Vegas.

On Top of Rockefeller Center 



In Central Park
For work, I spent a week in Newark, NJ (which wasn't too exciting, but it was close to NY).  Then, after the work week I spend the weekend in New York with my friend Josh from work.  We did a lot of sight seeing which included doing the Rockefeller Center tour where we got to see the set of Saturday Night Live, the set of Brian William's new show Rock Center as well as all of the football sets that they use to report in the studio!  We took the metro a lot and also walked a TON.  We saw where the twin towers once stood and the new construction they are doing there.  We walked down to see Wall Street (and saw a ton of Occupy Wall Street protestors) and also walked to see the Statue of Liberty!  It was a great trip where I got to see many of the touristy things that I had never seen before!


Right after NY I took a trip to the other side of the country to visit Fam!!!  We had an amazing weekend seeing Mom and Dad's new house, going to the Sounders game, seeing Emily (a friend from college) and enjoying a REALLY relaxing weekend.  I was blown away by the Sounders game: 64,000 holding up their scarves, clapping at the same time, chanting the same chants... truly impressive!


 
Then came Halloween.  We carved some pumpkins, decorated and had a fun party.  There were 3 kermits at the party, a cowgirl, a flight attendant, a "Haboob" (someone dressed up as a dust storm), Elmo, Batman and Kristen Berndt (Yes, one of my friends stole my whitman soccer stuff, put a blonde wig on and came to the party dressed as me...).

Jackie and Chris
Megan and I 



Tom As Batman
ESPY and Drew's Dog Spartacus




Drew Dressed as Me


Okay, now that you have an update on the last few months, here's a quick update on what's going on in the next little bit.
Today, my friends and I have put together a "Turkey Bowl" where we are planning on playing flag football at 1pm today.  After that, my soccer friend and I are going to the US Women's Soccer Game at University of Phoenix Stadium where they are playing Sweeden!  Should be a wonderful, and hopefully relaxing weekend.  Sunday will probably entail a lot of football watching and some University of Phoenix homework!  

Have a wonderful fall weekend everyone.  Enjoy the cold weather because right now in Phoenix it's still about 70 degrees.