And the pieces are finally connecting :)

Last week (May 20 and 21) I made the voyage out to Texas to sign my contract, look for a place, and meet with my new Kindergarten team! I was overly excited and could not wait to get out there and really enjoy my new home. Although I encountered a couple speed bumps it ended up being a super successful trip and I got so much accomplished and checked off the list!

On May 20th I woke up at 3:45 am and headed to the airport. For those of you who don't know I fly stand-by thanks to Derrick for super cheap, but it usually requires me to get there for the very first flight of the day to have the best chance of getting on! I had to fly from Charlotte to Houston, then Houston to Austin. Well I made it to Houston just fine... but Austin not so much. So rather than get down and frustrated I just rented a car in Houston, grabbed my trusty GPS, and hit the high road to Austin (about a 2 hour and 45 minute drive). I called my mom on the drive, quite a few times actually, and told her about how weird it felt to be heading out to TX and not feeling nervous -- I ALREADY HAD A JOB! Now was the fun part! On the drive from Houston to Austin I ran into some pretty crazy and interesting things. For example, small towns where people were literally sitting outside of the run down general store in old, rickety rocking chairs (pretty sure they had some straw in their mouth too).

I saw a ton of cows and horses on the side of the road. Tons of ranches. But the craziest thing of all... I saw a car catch on fire!! I was driving along and noticed everyone getting over into the left hand lane. I opted to follow them and then I could see way up in the distance a lot of smoke coming from a car. Well, as I got closer I all of a sudden saw it go up in flames! The weird part was there was a cop and a farmer standing by it and neither seemed concerned.... hm....? Maybe it's a usual occurrence there?

Anywho -- so on I drove! I finally arrived and it was pouring and I had on a white skirt (awesome). I headed on up to sign my contract looking like a drowned rat but luckily it didn't take long at all! I think I was a bit overly excited though because I messed up on one paper 3 times because I kept forgetting to read the directions (First name first then last... when does that ever happen on a legal form???). OOPS! :) (check off signing contract)

After signing my contract I was STARVING! It was about 1:00pm in TX (this is for you mom... 2:00pm your time) and I hadn't eaten since about 6:30am (your time mom) on the plane when I buzzed the lady for a muffin because I fell asleep when she made her rounds (yep... I was that girl). I always get nervous getting off and looking for food in another area I'm not familiar with, even with a GPS, because I still manage to get lost - and getting lost in TX can be kind of expensive since there are tons of toll roads and every time you get off and get on you pay (I know this from experience). Plus, I seem to lose reception with my GPS a lot in TX (grrr). New technology can be quite frustrating sometimes!

Anywho, I found something on the drive so I grabbed a quick bite and then Derrick's friend Will was suckered into helping me for the day! It was sooo awesome to have someone drive my rental around and know where they were going. We drove around for about 5 hours and he showed me a ton of places! I ended up finding and signing my lease (check off signing the lease) and it begins August 5, so we will move sometime that first week of August. I then had to hurry back to drop off Will and head to my hotel to meet up with my friends Danielle (TriDelta sister) and Alex (college friend). Will is also a pilot and it worked out wonderfully that he was working and had an overnight in Austin, which is where he has a townhouse that he owns with his wife. He checked into the hotel room and then let me have it for the night (so nice of him!). The downside was that I had to pay $24 for valet because they didn't have a parking garage (What the **bleep**!?!?!?)

Danielle and Alex swung by to pick me up and we headed to a great restaurant downtown called Wahoo's (yummy fish tacos... sorry Alex you got food poisoning from the white beans the guy tried to convince me to get!). We then went across the street to a super cool bar called Rodeo for a couple drinks. Very neat decor (tree stumps for tables, cows and bulls on the walls). It was so nice to be in Austin and be able to really sit back and enjoy it; to take it all in.

Austin is definitely a different city than I had thought. Many people tell me it is so much like Charlotte, just newer. Well, I'd have to say that couldn't be more off in my opinion, at least looks-wise. Austin has a very old feel to it, not updated. Rather than build new apartments, they revamp the old ones. Lots of the areas look old but are actually very nice and remodeled. There are so many different types of people and things to do, I don't think it is a place you can get bored in - ever:) I'm excited to begin to explore in August!

So... that was day 1 of my trip to Austin! I got a lot done and was on cloud 9:)

Check back later for day 2 (and 3... yep... I hit a few minor speed bumps along the way.... surprised? I'm not....)

Ahh - the craziness begins!

Hi all:) So sorry for no blog updates but my life has turned into a crazy whirlwind tornado (and yes... that image is exactly what my life feels like)

between winding down the school year, starting up at the pool, and packing! I have some wonderful things to blog about and really want to devote time to it so hopefully this weekend will allow me some 'blog-time':) Please don't stop reading I PINKY-PROMISE I have not forgotten!

Packing thus far... talk about unorganized!

So the other day I went off to school and asked my boyfriend to take apart my dining room table and if he felt like he could take apart my end tables and coffee table also. I wanted my dining room table apart so that I could start using the dining room as my storage room for all of my boxes and excess (which I seem to have lots of excess) stuff. When I got home what a wonderful surprise! He not only took apart all of the tables but had moved all of my random boxes around the apartment into the dining room and stacked the chairs and taken everything off the walls. Now granted, it doesn't feel much like a home anymore but I finally felt like I was taking a step in the right direction towards packing! (PS... for those of you who don't know, my boyfriend is amazing and helps me out so much with everything!). Unfortunately, the great step I took towards packing came to a very quick halt with Mary's wedding and now I am working everyday till 8pm at the pool since the swim team has begun practicing. So I came home tonight and realized I feel like I have taken a step BACKWARDS! For those of you who know me I am a super organized person (some may call it very Type 'A') and my dining room looks like the most unorganized, stressful, disgusting room ever! Exhibit A below:

As for those of you who are wondering what is up with the space saver bags, well, my mom bought me more (I'm telling you... she must love when I call to tell her about sucking out the air and the excitement it brings me!). She bought me 4 more bags which I used the other night to pack all of my winter skirts, pants, sweaters, and cardigans. Here is the crazy thing! THEY ALL STAYED SUCKED THUS FAR~! My theory is that although they are all made by Space Saver mine are from Target and my mom's are from Wal Mart. They have different zippers along the edge to seal shut and I think the Wal Mart ones are better! My ones from Target... yes... I am still having issues with. I even took out 1 item from the 2 that wouldn't stay sucked and well... they still suck big time! I figure I've done all I can do - I'm keeping them the way they are and just packing a lot of stuff on top of them to keep them from expanding too much. And no.... I could not even get my clothes as flat as they show in the pictures (seriously.... what is it that I am doing wrong? I just want to be like the infomercial!). Experience my Space Saver bags below in Exhibit B:


Now they may be expanding but let me tell you what exactly is in those 'plastic bags of sucked out air'.
1. 3 pillows
2. 1 down comforter for a queen size bed
3. 2 quilts made by my mom (king size probably for 1 and the other is square shaped maybe twin size)
4. 1 fleece blanket
5. 2 duvet covers
6. 1 bed skirt
7. about 20 pairs of pants
8. 15-20 sweaters/cardigans
9. 6-8 skirts
10. 1 twin bed comforter
11. 2 sets of queen size sheets and 1 set of twin sheets

Yep people - ALL OF THAT sucked down so flat (or lumpy, whatever you want to call it) and saving so much space!

Last thing to say is that over the weekend Derrick (my boyfriend) went out of town for a bachelor party. I have been trying to find a Longhorns hat - orange and adjustable - for a little while now. Well much to my surprise he brought me one back from one of his sits in Texas over the weekend! Whoo hooo --- hat day is coming up at school and I am pumped to sport my new residence:)

So that's what I have thus far! I plan to get a ton more packing done this weekend and organized and don't forget.... I also have a whole classroom to pack up too! Good thing I actually enjoy packing (yep you heard me). I love to reorganize my things! Hopefully I will be able to upload a much more organized and packed up apartment soon!

My Best Friend's Wedding!

Picture this: A beautiful ivory gown with beaded details, a long train with a veil that was just as long, a perfectly sunny day, and wedding bells ringing and you have my best friend Mary's wedding.

I know this doesn't have much to do with my move to Texas but this is definitely blog worthy! Mary and I have been friends for almost 26 years and were neighbors for 19 of those years. My mom babysat her when we were in Pre-K and Kindergarten. Our siblings grew up together also. We rode the bus together everyday until it wasn't "cool" anymore and then our parents rotated taking us. Then Mary got her license and she took me to school until I got my license a couple months later. We played field hockey together and were wrestling statisticians in high school. We went through all of our college years in 2 different states and still have remained friends! Although we live in 2 different states (Mary in Delaware and myself in NC currently) we still manage to see each other at least once a year for our annual ski trip in MD. The trip is always a small miracle that it works out because we are both so busy all year and randomly we will both end up with the same days off for a great mini vacation. She is such a wonderful person and calling her my best friend would be an understatement!


The wedding was wonderful and you couldn't have asked for a prettier bride. I couldn't even walk down aisle without crying (yep... I cried before she even came down) and seeing her with such a great guy just made the day even better! Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Neeman!

Okay... sucking out air can't be rocket science!

Okay..... so I'm a sucker for infomercials (let's be honest... who doesn't want to try the latest 6 in 1 bottle opener or miraculous stain fighting all natural cleaner!?!). Whenever the "Space Saver"
infomercial comes on I just am in awe of how much stuff gets condensed into these flat little packages of plastic! Down comforters, pillows, blankets, you name it - it can be flattened! So when I found out I was moving it was on like Donkey Kong to get as many Space Saver bags as I could to save space! Well.... truth be told - infomercials do not always tell the truth. It is NOT as easy as it looks and I am having quite a time getting mine as flat as theirs. Actually.... mine will never be as flat as theirs and I've come to accept that (I bet I need a super powered vacuum cleaner operated by only 2 double A batteries on one of the other infomercials). Below you will find my very frustrating experience with Space Saver bags.

I bought a 3 pack at Target 2 weeks ago - 1 jumbo, 1 extra large, 1 large. I thought for sure this would hold pretty much all my linens, blankets, pillow, and towels and I would only need maybe 2 more bags for clothes (WRONG!!!! Apparently I'm not very good at predictions...). So I begin to pack up my bags trying to follow the "instructions" on the side of the box (which only tell you on average what will fit into each bag.... doesn't tell you anything about how to pack it). Then comes the best part - the sucking of the air! I bring out my vacuum, suck out the air, and I'm left with an ultra lumpy, no air in the bag,.... bag. Way cool - I actually called my mom about it and bragged about how simple and amazing this was - even though it wasn't flat like they showed in the picture! I then proceeded to fill up my other 2 bags and flatten them out - overly excited by the end about how much space I saved.
Well.... don't let looks deceive you! 2 days later I notice that my "sucked-out-air bags" are actually now full-of-air bags! Rather than think it was the bags, I assumed it was the way I packed them. I unpacked all of the bags, repacked them, sucked out the air (enjoying the whole experience again because it is just SO COOL!) and called my mom ... yet again... to brag about how much flatter I got them this time (still very lumpy though of course). Well....

the bags expanded again - but this time only 2 of the 3! Whoo hooo - I definitely did something right in the one! So... I unzipped them, re-zipped them, re sucked out the air (and yes... I enjoyed the process again), wiped my hands clean of this because for sure the third time is a charm.

WRONG AGAIN! 1 of them is holding up pretty well.... 1 of them is eh.... alright.... and 1 of them LOVES AIR TOO MUCH! It is pretty much back inflated after just 2 days! But do not worry --- I shall try again! I WILL NOT GIVE UP!


Here's my question - WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??? These are the greatest invention ever for moving and I really want to use them (in case you can't tell... I have not given up after 4 tries!). HELP!

THIS IS IT

Michael Jackson's movie says it best... THIS IS IT. I am making the move to Texas and for those who know me... this has been long awaited. I could not be more excited about this. It is true what they say though... good things come to those who wait. Well, I waited over a year and ended up with 2 job offers, both in Kindergarten, both in wonderful schools. Hmmm.... decisions decisions. I chose a job in Austin, TX because I have heard such amazing things about Austin. I just cannot wait.

The month of May-July will be very busy for me with lots of preparation. I am currently finishing out my school year in North Carolina, working on opening up the pool I manage in the summer, packing up my classroom, packing my apartment, finding a new place in Austin, finding a storage unit in Texas, moving out of my current apartment and in with great friends for a month, and preparing for 2 of my best friends weddings (shout out to Mary and Shauna)


Wish me luck. These next few months will be an adventure on their own but I could not be more pumped ~ THIS IS IT.