Saturday (where is the time going) Snapshots

This week totally flew by. With actual wings. Honest. 
Flew. At jet speeds, quicker than I could blink my eyes, this week, this summer, and all it's marvelous (sometimes difficult) wonder flew with it. Sad face.

Oh, and I have exactly one month until I go back to school. Why.

I'm linking up with Miss Nelson once again for her fabulous Saturday Snapshots!

I am a glutton for Greek food...or ethnic foods in general. I found a small, family-owned Greek restaurant in a less-crowded area of town, and I can't get enough of it! The lamb and fish souvlaki's are amazing. 

This is what happens when students steal your phone...I probably had about 30 pictures of my teaching partner and I in various frozen poses of speaking, not to mention a few videos of my phone being passed from student to student. Note the completely unattractive shade of yellow that our summer uniform shirts were...gross. Oh, how I will miss my summer school students. 

Our morning TA group for 7/8 Movie Makers! We're quite the attractive bunch, if I do say so myself. We decided to get all dressed up on the last day (yesterday) for the Academy Awards, during which we showed the best movies from each group, and presented them with little trophies! It was so cute, and the kids loved seeing which movies won which awards.

Hammin' it up for the cameras, as per usual. I can't believe how quickly these past five weeks flew by. I'll definitely miss the students and my TA/teaching partners.

Of course, the last day of school ALWAYS calls for an ice cream party! All of the kumus quietly rushed our students through lunch and whisked them away to our classroom atrium, where we had set up an ice cream bar for them. They were so surprised and may have drifted off into a sugar coma for the rest of the afternoon (oops). They worked hard this summer, so we thought the definitely deserved the treat.

My two Hawaiian Immersion School students! I love them to pieces. At Hawaiian Immersion, they learn all of their subjects in the Hawaiian language, so their English skills are not up to par. We worked a lot this summer on strengthening their writing skills since their reading and comprehension skills are already amazing.  Since I can speak Hawaiian pretty well (but not as well as these two!!), we would converse daily in the Hawaiian language, and their fluency blew me away. I will miss them and our conversations dearly, and I can't wait to see how they blossom into the scholars I know they will become. 

Since yesterday was the final day of the PUEO Program, we had a culminating ceremony during which some of the scholars from each P-level would present a few things they learned during the summer. The program runs from grades 6-12 (P level 1-7), and each grade level has a variety of classes they take during the summer. For P2, the P-level I was teaching, their morning classes were Movie Makers and Marine Biology, and their afternoon classes were Math and English.  Our four P2 student speakers were very nervous the day of the ceremony, but they delivered their speeches without any problems at all. I was so proud of them, and I can't wait for the day when I can watch them graduate as P7 scholars. All of the tears!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday! 

xo,

Monday Made It: Food Edition

I have been meaning to link up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics and post this recipe for Monday Made It for oh, about 3 weeks now (oops). Better late than never!

The cultural diversity in Hawaii is reflected by both the population and the amazing ethnic foods, so I wanted to share one of my family's favorite recipes! This recipe is for a kalbi marinade, which can be used on chicken, beef, or even vegetables. Kalbi is a Korean dish that is very popular and super easy to make! I make this a lot for parties, and in advance of a busy week so I can freeze the leftovers and have ready-made meals, prefect for a girl on the go.

Ingredients:

4 cloves of garlic (or more, if you're a garlic lover like me!)

3 stalks of green onion (more or less to your liking)

1 1/2 cups of soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar (white sugar also works, but I like the flavor that brown sugar gives to the marinade)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup sesame oil

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

4 pounds of your preferred meat/vegetables

Salt and pepper to taste (the marinade has enough salt as is, so I usually just add a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper if anything)

   

   

Marinade/Prep:

In a food processor, chop up the cloves of garlic. You could use a knife or a garlic press, but I think that you keep more of the garlic flavor by using the processor. Finely chop the green onion, and combine your garlic and green onion in a bowl. Add in the remaining marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. Put your meat/vegetables in a container/tupperware and pour the marinade over the meat/vegetables until covered evenly. Put the container of marinating food into the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours. ** I leave the meat in the fridge overnight to soak up more flavor!

   

Cooking:

Heat grill to medium-high (medium if you're cooking vegetables since they will take a shorter amount of time to cook). Take your meat/veggies out of the marinade and drain the excess marinade. If you want, you can save the marinade to coat the meat while you're grilling it. Grill meat until it is lightly charred and tender and cooked to your desired level of "doneness". 

Serve with hot rice and your choice of korean vegetables (my favorites are cucumber kim chee and bean sprouts) and enjoy!

xo,

It's Aloha Friday!

YIPPEE! I can't believe that next week is the last week of summer school, but I am beyond ready for a few weeks of rest, relaxation, beach time, and crafting before heading back up to school!

Here to celebrate the semi-overcast but ever-so LOVELY Aloha Friday, is The First Grade Parade's Favorite Pins Friday linky! I just found out about this through Stephanie over at 3rd Grade Thoughts, and since I am an extremely enthusiastic pinner, I figured that this is the perfect linky for me! All of the images are clickable and will take you to the original posts!

Teaching

I love being able to snatch ideas from professional teachers in the hopes that I will be able to use them one day in my own classroom, and I really liked this word ending foldable from I Love 2 Teach! I think foldables are so nifty and they seem to be all the rage with kids!


Who is a fan of acrostic poems? *waves hand in the air frantically* ME!!! Besides this very cool first day of school activity from Tales Of Teaching in Heels, I also created a community building/anti-bullying lesson that also involves acrostic poetry for my Classroom Management course this past year. Yippee, poetry!  


Also, who doesn't love ecards, especially when they're about teaching. 

Fashion

I love this outfit so much. The simplicity of the skirt and the top, paired with a chunky necklace? Perfection. 


Speaking of perfection and my obsession with polka dots, I'm lusting after these Anthropologie flats! What I'm not lusting over, however, is the price. Merp.

DIY

So technically this isn't a DIY, but I want to make a tutorial soon! After looking at this Tory Burch necklace (and fainting at the price tag), I figured that I could make a version of this with minimal struggle. That being said, I am the QUEEN of struggle, so we'll see. DIY coming (hopefully) soon!


I've been seeing the chalboard and banner craze sweep the internet, and I really want to hop on the train, but for a smaller fee. The banner is made out of chalk cloth (HOW COOL IS THAT?!) and hopefully I can complete this craftventure before the end of summer!

Beauty

I absolutely LOVE these makeup brushes. I'm beyond obsessed with polka dots and gold right now, and I can never seem to have enough brushes! Speaking of brushes...

This brush guide definitely came in handy at the beginning of the summer when I had to purchase all new brushes (I don't want to talk about it...) and I wanted to spend a little more time and money to make sure that the quality was better than the ones that I previously owned. I found myself wandering aimlessly in Sephora trying to figure out what brushes I needed (do you have any idea how many types of eyeshadow brushes there are?!), but this brush guide ended my struggles, thankfully.

Health

I'm on an intense quest to get fit and healthy. There are so many motivational/inspirational posts out there to help me whenever I feel a little down about my level of fitness. I started the Couch to 5K program with KDog earlier this week, and so far so good! Now to get my eating in check...xo,

49

I have 49 days until my last year of college starts. 
Uhm, what?!
I have no idea where this summer went, where the last 7 years of my life went, and even better, I have no idea what I'm going to do when I graduate.

But let's not think about that now. I have a month until grad apps open online, so I can breathe. Not really, because I need to write essays and personal statements, but it'll all work out. I hope.

Here's my late link-up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade and Jess at I {heart} Recess for July Currently and Goals, respectively.

Currently...

I'm listening to a lot of country music. Florida Georgia Line, Darius Rucker, Miranda Lambert...something about country in the summertime. My current favorite song is Darius Rucker's rendition of "Wagon Wheel." L-O-V-E it!

I'm loving that I don't have to take the GRE! Thank GOD. I took one look at the test-prep book and almost cried. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I really really REALLY did not want to have to take another standardized test. Yuck.

I'm thinking that I'm waaaaaay behind with choreographing dance pieces for next year. Oops. I'm one of 3 captains for my college dance team, and I'm in charge of choreographing hip-hop routines during the year, and more importantly, a routine for TRYOUTS in early September. I need to get on this, PRONTO.

I'm wanting more time with my fabulously devilish seventh graders that I'm teaching this summer. I can't believe that next week will be the last week in the program, and I feel like we should've covered more over the 5 week period than we did, but I'll keep that in mind for next year.

Above all, I'm desperately needing summer to slow down. I can't believe that I only have 49 more days until school starts, and even less than that until I have to leave the beautiful 808 state and go back to Portland (not that I don't love the 503 just as much). I'm going to miss the sunshine, beaches, and most of all, the quality time with friends and family that I've had this summer. Cue tears.

Tips, Tricks, or Hints for blogging? Well, I've only been doing this for a short while, but a very friendly and helpful blogging guru told me, when I started this blog, to be myself, unapologetically. I think that's really the best advice for not only blogging, but also for living your life. Be unapologetically you.

And now for some July goals! 
Personally, I need to make more time for myself. I get into a habit of trying to be whatever people need, whenever they need it, and that leaves me emotionally and physically exhausted. I have to remember to fill both others' buckets, and my own. 
On my family level, I would really like to schedule more family dinners before I leave! At least one or two more. I miss them all so much when I go back to school.
My latest health journey is involving the Couch to 5K program I've heard so much about. I downloaded what seems to be a very helpful app, and I'm going to start running today after school with my best friend, so hopefully that along with eating healthier will help me to become fit and lose some of the weight I gained this past year. 
Since I'm not a teacher quite yet, my goal for school is to get all of my ducks in a row to apply for the various graduate schools and programs I've been looking at, and to also successfully graduate from college this coming Spring! I'm so excited, but also sad; I've made so many friends and memories in these past 3 years and I really can't imagine my life without the best friends I've gained through college. 
My main blog goal is to get on here more! I get so caught up with what is going on with the week that I totally forget to write until it's Friday...oops. I'll be more on top of things. Bear with me.
Last but not least, my outside of the box goals (which I'm not really sure if this is outside of the box...) are to try out new recipes and to craft more! I had a whole list of things I wanted to make and bake this summer and I've crossed off maybe...3? Boo, busy life. In the next 49 days, I will become the ultimate crafter/blogger/baker...or I'll try to. We'll see.

Happy Tuesday! 

xo,

Liebster Award

 A HUGE shout out and thank you to Sarah over at Kinder Cakes for nominating me for this award! I'm pretty excited, if you can't tell. In my short time of blogging so far, I've been so fortunate to meet a number of kindhearted, compassionate, and extremely helpful individuals who have given me TONS of advice to get my feet wet in this crazy awesome blogging world, and I could not be more thankful. So in order to accept this nomination I have to do the following:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me
2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
3. Answer the questions posted for me by my nominator
4. Share 11 random facts about myself
5. Create 11 questions for my nominees
6. Contact my nominees and let them know I nominated them!

I am nominating these amazing blogs that I've found through link-ups and Bloglovin':

KinderKarla

Grooving Through Fourth Grade

Second Grade Stories

Making Waves in Second Grade

A Day In The Life Of A Title I Teacher

Questions from Kinder Cakes

1. What is your favorite dessert?

Cheesecake! Ooh I looooove cheesecake. With strawberries.
2. If you could be a Disney Princess, who would you be?

Oh gosh, well my friends and family call me the mermaid, and I learned to swim before I learned to walk, so definitely Ariel. Living in Hawaii gives me the opportunity to spend every free moment at the beach, and you best believe I take those chances whenever I can!
3. What is your dream car?

A white Nissan Versa hatchback. I love small cars (my current baby is a red Kia Rio5); they get such good gas mileage and can fit into any parking space.
4. What is your favorite TV show?

Oh yikes this is tough. When I can watch TV, I watch Bones, Criminal Minds, Vampire Diaries (shhhh), Catfish, and Friends. I think Bones is probably my favorite though; a little bit of romance, a little bit of science, and lots of crime-solving adventures. 
5. What is the last song you listened to?

Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker! I really like the original version of this song by Old Crow Medicine Show, but this new rendition is equally as soulful and twangy. I'm not usually a country fan, but I really dig this song.
6. What is your favorite animal?

Dogs. I know it's generic, but seriously, whenever I see a dog being walked down the street, I don't even have to know the person who owns the dog, I will stop and pet it and scratch it's back for a little.
7. Which holiday is your favorite?

Christmas, by far. There's something magical about the holiday season, and having my family together in one place makes the day even more special.
8. What is your favorite fruit?

Mangoes. Summertime in Hawaii is mango season, and I will eat those babies like no tomorrow.
9. What was the last thing you ate?

A clif bar! I needed a little sugar to hold me over between breakfast and lunch, and the kids are making music videos for class today, which means that they're way more energetic than usual (oh boy).
10. If you could meet a character from a picture book, who would it be?

Lily from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. That chick and I would be besties!
11. Where would you vacation if money was no object?

Europe. I've always wanted to see Spain, France, Austria...everything. I'd travel for as long as I could, see everything I could see, the whole spiel. 

11 Random Facts About Me

1.  I can speak Hawaiian with about 80% fluency.

2.  If I go to a carnival, I HAVE to buy cotton candy. Love that stuff.

3.  I love to sew, and I have a small bow business on the side.

4.  My favorite color is purple.

5.  My college's school color is purple, and my family thought that was why I chose to go there.

6.  I play the flute and piccolo.

7. My nail polish collection is ridiculous.....ly awesome, and I'm nearing the 100-bottle count. Ok maybe it's a little more ridiculous than awesome, but that's ok!

8. My mom and dad and I all graduated from the same K-12 school, and so will my brother (this coming Spring, WOOHOO!)

9. If I could only eat one food group for the rest of my life, it would be fruits.

10. I'm addicted to dubstep and mashups of songs.

11. I've never eaten a Twinkie.

11 Questions For My Nominees

1.  If you could have 3 wishes come true, what would they be?

2.  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

3.  What is your most irrational fear?

4.  What is your favorite piece of clothing to wear?

5.  What is your favorite quote?

6.  What is your favorite movie?

7.  If you had your own TV show about anything, what would be your intro song?

8. What is your guilty pleasure?

9. What is your favorite flower?

10. If you could have an outdoor adventure (ex: hiking, backpacking, surfing, diving) and all expenses were paid, what would you do?

11. What was your favorite book as a child?

Thanks to my patient followers for putting up with the lags in blogging (sorry!) and my rambling, and to Sarah for the nomination!

Take a Deep Breath

Smell that? It's summer, which is halfway over for me. Sad faces all around. I realized that in my flurry of summer shenanigans, I barely got to take some *me* time. I'm teaching seventh grade English (The Giver ROCKS) for summer school (under the direction and guidance of a professional teacher, since I'm not licensed yet), but the planning and prep is exhausting! Not to mention time consuming. But I think this is a good look into what life is going to be like, especially for my senior year of college where I will be student teaching full time in addition to attending night classes and dance team practices as one of the 3 captains of the team. Phew! Can do.

This sunny Saturday, I'm taking a break from the hustle and bustle (not for long, I'm off to pick up my better half and go to Clay Cafe in Ward Warehouse to paint some pottery!) to link up for weekend #2 with Miss Nelson and her AWESOME new blog hop Saturday Snapshots. I L O V E to take pictures, and this is the perfect way to capture some of the memories that would otherwise be forgotten. Participating in this linky is just one of the steps in my attempt to slow down, take a deeeeeeep breath, and appreciate all of the beauty and life around me instead of just rushing through my days. Here we go!

When I'm home on vacations, my family likes to have family dinners. It's awesome, we eat way too much, someone usually gets minorly injured, and I get to play with my favorite niece and nephew! It's awesome. I love my family to the moon and beyond, and our QT together became increasingly important after my papa (grandpa) passed away. Something about the impermanence of life bringing family closer together.

My adorable nana

My crazy, fearless brother

Jumping from the terrace into the pool, with a broom, to look like Harry Potter for his FB profile pic...

So much Korean food!!! 

On Wednesday, my family and I checked into the Waikiki Marriott to get a little staycation lovin' and watch the 4th of July fireworks at Magic Island. It was such a nice break, and being able to spend all day at the beach and pool was the perfect remedy to the summer school stress.

The view from our 24th floor suite!

Hammin' it up for the camera is a specialty of mine, haha!

Waikiki at night

Two of my favorite shots from that night (above and below). I wish I had brought a tripod! Boo, shaky pics.

The finale!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday! Head on over to Miss Nelson's Saturday Snapshots to link up!

xo,