Senior Year, Already?

I'm back!!! I mean, I've been back for a while, but this is actually the first opportunity I've had to breathe since I've been back, hence the shocking lack of blogging going on. Apologies, apologies. I'm a terrible, busy person. Three for Thursday, let's go!

ONE

School started extremely abruptly and without any warning on Monday, with a 4-hour student teaching orientation. Fun? Not really. Informative? It was like having a high-rise worth of steel beams (also known as information) thrown at you rapid fire and you're expected to catch them all and balance each beam perfectly WITHOUT EVER DROPPING ONE I feel like I'm going to cry a lot this year. We have a hefty work sample due (20 lessons, each with a pre and post assessment, as well as 3-4 pages of reflection per lesson), on top of daily lesson plans, and the regular homework we get for class. It'll be fine. One day at a time.

TWO

The school at which I'm student teaching this year has 2 weeks of inservice (yippee!!!!) so I've been helping out my supervising teacher and doing a bunch of pre-inservice work around the school with my fellow student teachers, who are also my friends from school. Yesterday's enormous project was to clean out and organize the dreaded art closet, and man, it really was a 4-person job. We cleaned the closet for about an hour and a half, and it went from looking like people just threw supplies in there, to actually having an organizational system! We were so proud that we took a picture of our final product.

THREE

Dance team tryouts are next weekend! I'm beyond pumped, and my co-captains and I have been furiously working all summer in preparation for tryouts. I choreographed a hip hop routine to "That Power" by Will.I.Am., and I'm working on a pom routine for "Applause" by Lady Gaga. I'm OB-SESSED with her new song, and it's really catchy. It really is going to be a whirlwind year, but I'm excited. Nervous, anxious, and overwhelmed, for sure, but all in all, I'm excited. It's going to be great.

Senior year, here I go!

xo,

So Long, Sweet Summer

Well, I guess that's it. Three and a half blissful months of summer have come to an end, and I'm returning to the land of hipsters, coffee, bikes, and no sales tax in the morning. Mixed feelings, definitely, but mostly just sadness. I know I'll be back, and I know I have a lot to look forward to for this school year, my last year in college, but I'm aching for summer to just magically restart itself when I wake up in the morning, and for these past months to have all just been an amazing dream. 

Wishful thinking, I'm aware. 

So long, sweet summer. I'll see you again. Stay tuned for my senior year shenanigans! There will be many... 

xo (and a little bit of tears),

Five for Friday and Saturday Snapshots!

Where is the time going? I feel like it was only yesterday that I was packing up to leave the chilly Portland spring for the blissfully hot Hawaii summer I had in store. But here I am, less than 2 weeks away from returning to Portland for my last year of college. 

I repeat, where is the time going?! And why is it in such a rush?

Yay for linky parties!!! I really enjoy these linky parties because in the hustle and bustle of the week's activities, I forget to slow down and enjoy all that has been going on! These give me the opportunity (as sad as that may sound) to take a step back and be like, "oh yeah! That totally happened and it was really fun!" So without further ado...

ONE

I made my 17 year old, vegetable-intollerant brother eat broccoli. Approximately 2 cups of broccoli. How? By making broccoli cheese patties and a "cajun ketchup" to dip them in. Cheating? Perhaps. Did it work? He asked for more...

I also made a statement necklace! Yay crafts (and pink)!!

TWO

To celebrate the waning days of summer, KDog and I drove out to Keiki's beach on the North Shore, dove for shells, swam a bit in the chilly and crystal-clear water, and of course stopped for shave ice from Matsumoto's on the way home. The perfect summer day, in my book.

THREE

Look at me and my first legal drink! Yippee! My 21st birthday was on Tuesday, and I celebrated with my family with a nice beach morning and kayak with my brother, dinner at the Top of Waikiki restaurant, and a show in Waikiki just as the sun set over the westside of Oahu. 

I will definitely miss these Hawaiian sunsets in a few weeks.

FOUR

The incredibly kayak adventure began at Kailua beach, and ended at Flat Island, a bird sanctuary not too far out to sea. It was nice sibling bonding time with my brother, who has been paddling for the Waikiki Surf Club and for sport during the school year for the past few years. Needless to say he was far more skilled than I, but we had some good laughs, mostly him laughing at my wimpy upper body strength.  

On Flat Island, with the Mokulua in the background!

 

FIVE

Today, my brother starts his first last day of high school at Kamehameha as an amazing Senior. Although he's pretty twerpy at times, he means the world to me and I cannot imagine my life without him. He puts up with me, shares music with me, and makes me feel not so old and irrelevant. I love him to death, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him.

11 days left in the beautiful Aloha State. Then it's back to school, teaching, and not getting enough sleep.

Senior year, I'm ready for you.

xo,

Monday Made It! Who Likes Pink?!

I start out each summer with soooo many DIY projects and crafts that I want to tackle. And then I look at my calendar and it's August and I go back to school in a few weeks.

Uhm, what?

So, just in time for Monday Made It, I put my foot down, put on my productive pants (I only have one pair, and they often get lost), and sat down in front of the TV to watch Shark Week and make myself a statement necklace that I've been meaning to since the beginning of summer. Oops.  Thanks to this awesome DIY tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, this craftivity took me under half an hour. Yay!

You will need...

8-12 pieces of parachute cord (ABM's tutorial said to make each piece 8 inches long, but I wanted the statement piece to be a little longer. I went with 10 inches.)
Fabric tape
A necklace chain
Clasps to close the necklace
Pliers
Scissors

Start by cutting the parachute cord pieces to the desired length. 

Lay out the pieces next to each other and tape them down to a flat surface.

Split the pieces into 3 sections, and braid the sections (like the above picture). Be careful to keep the parachute cord as flat and not twisted as you braid. 

Tape the ends of each side together with fabric tape.

Attach a necklace chain to each side of the parachute cord. You will need to attach the necklace clasp in the middle of the chain, also. 

Wrap more tape around the parachute cord and necklace chain to form a cone at each end.

Voila! Wear and be stylish. Happy Monday! Good luck to all of you returning to school!

xo,

Summer, Storms, and Snoozing

Some of you may have noticed my absence from blogging in the past week (or two...woops). I promise I'm not through with my shenanigans quite yet, I just feel like I've had absolutely nothing to write about since summer school ended (sob) and I don't want to bore you all with short and meaningless posts. I'll give a quick recap of the past few weeks:

Summer is quickly wrapping up, and now that it is officially August, I'm officially freaking out. There are 5 days until I turn 21 (party party party!) and 20 days until I go back to school for senior year! I'm beyond excited to return to student teaching, but I'm not at all ready to get out of summer mode and into school mode. Nope nope nope, not yet. BUT, I know that with school will come more blogging, and I like blogging. So many contradictions... 

Our first summer storm "hit" the islands on Monday night. Tropical Storm Flossie gained way too much hype for it's oh-so-intimidating name, and brought a little bit of rain and wind. Very minor, and absolutely no reason to worry, despite the frenzy that everyone seemed to experience (is it really necessary to buy that much water for light showers and minor gusts?).

I've been sleeping. A lot. Which is nice because I know that in 20 days I'll go back into perpetual zombie mode. Sleeping, going to the beach with friends, and more sleeping. I'm really not ready for summer to end, can you tell? 

Live up these last few days of summer! I know I will :)

xo,