Favorites

favorite- a person or thing regarded with special favor or preference

That being said here are a few of my favorite things as of late:

Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash

Troy and I discovered this in San Diego, when we stayed at the W Hotel. I love this so much, because the wash is super gentle but it has mini exfoliating beads that scrub all the 'stuff' away without leaving your face pink, blotchy and full of hurt. I love this face wash sooooo much that my partner in crime and I, helped ourselves to a few extra samples, when nobody was looking! Ooops... living the life of crime :)

My Ugg Slipper Roos

Definitely not the cutest slippers out there, but I got a killer deal on them from a completely understanding Dillard's shoe goddess... $25!!! They are so comfy and keep my tootsies toasty!!





Starbucks Americano (grande)



Just discovered this yummy drink this week. I usually get the Starbucks drip coffee, and my neighborhood Barista suggested the Americano... espresso mixed with hot water. I loooove this drink, but it has to be grande style. 5 shots in the venti is way too much power for me.

Francesca's Collections

Love this little boutique in La Encantada! They have some cute, unique and most importantly affordable things! They also have really amazing pieces of jewelry and other chotchkies! I love this place and could spend hours looking at all their pretty little things! Best news yet... they are opening a store at Park Place!



Pureology

Way too expensive for me to admit how much I spent on this shampoo and conditioner, but it is SOOO WORTH IT!!! Since I have been using it I have cut down on the amount of conditioner I use in the shower. Also I don't need to use a leave in to work the comb through my nest! In fact I do not even have a messy nest when I get out of the shower anymore! My hair is so wonderful and soft and strong since using this product.... I am in looove with it! On top of all of this, last time I went to get my hair did, my hair stylist and I decided that I actually didn't need to color my hair, just needed a little trim!!! Long story short... my color lasts longer, my hair is smoother and my split ends are not so rampant!!! Sooooo worth the money (even Troy admitted this after I caved and told him how much it was)

And my final favorite.... Rodeo Days!


Tucson celebrates Rodeo Days! Due to our rich rodeo heritage the voters of Tucson have set aside 2 days to celebrate and experience the rodeo events that come to town, the end of February. This means that we get a 4 day weekend! Woo hoo... I promise to always embrace and teach to our future leaders about the importance of the Rodeo, as long as Tucson always promises to give me my 4 day weekend!!! I am loving my 4 days off...thank you Tucson :)

I love Sabino Sundays

Well friends... thank you all for your kind thoughts and positive words! It is nice to know that by no means am I the first person to ever be disappointed in a friendship or relationship! Actually I never felt that I was the only person, but I found myself caught up in the whole thing and lost a little perspective. Thank you all... you have definitely lifted my spirits!

I have had a pretty fantastic Sunday so far! Troy and I got up early and went for a 4 mile walk in the foothills near Sabino Canyon. We started actually hiking the canyon, Sundays at the beginning of our relationship, but now we prefer to cruise the neighborhoods instead. I love Sabino Sundays, as I have nicknamed them. We walk through beautiful neighborhoods tucked away in hills and mountains. The views are truly breathtaking. This morning the weather was chilly and overcast so the mountains were even more beautiful! All the plants were wet from the rain the night before, so it seemed like the palo verdes and ocotillos were even more green than ever! And the smell of the desert after it rains... today I fell in love with Tucson a little bit more.

The real reason I love Sabino Sundays is our conversation. Troy and I talk about every and anything on our minds. In fact we end up laughing the majority of our walk. Troy makes me laugh deep down into my belly (between him and my newfound love of Pilates, I will be ready to rock this bathing suit season!!) We look at all the houses and discuss what we like about them and what we would change about them. It is fun to imagine the different improvements that we would do if the homes were ours to remodel. I tend to prefer the mediterranean, european and spanish colonial type homes. Troy and I have very similar tastes... I would call it impeccable :)

After we grabbed breakfast and coffee at Beyond Bread and went to Lowe's. I try to make deals with Troy... an hour at Lowe's for an hour at Target (love) but if I am being completely honest, the Lowe's trip is becoming a favorite part of my Sunday too! It ties hand in hand with our remodeling dreams! We walk throughout the store and talk about what we like best in each aisle. We limit ourselves to an hour in Lowe's, otherwise we could probably be there all day long.

The day is not over... I am now sitting on the couch watching Troy play Tom Clancy. Some might say, how boring! I would have to counter and say, you obviously have never seen Troy play a video game before!!! In a few hours we are going to fill our bellies with my mama's homemade dinner (and dessert)!

Tomorrow is a big day for me! There are 3 teachers coming to observe me from other schools in the district! My principal recommended that these 1st and 2nd year teachers come see how I run my class and how I implement the curriculum, etc. I am very flattered, a little shocked and a whole lotta nervous!!! I hope I remember to breathe!

a temporary state of sadness...

I fully believe in focusing on the things that I am grateful for in life... and there are certainly many! However, this has been a challenge for me recently (boo)
I have had some disappointments intertwined with all of the daily wonderful blessings... such is life, right?
It just seems like the disappointments have been outweighing the blessings, or maybe it is just that the disappointments have stung me a little deeper.
Considering that I have been using Troy as my sounding board for the last 2 weeks, and the poor man has been up to his eyeballs in my 'feelings' I figured I would give him a respite and reach out to my blog buddies...

I have a friendship, that has been broken. Broken by little white lies here and there, a lot of broken words and most recently a few hurtful and permanently damaging actions. I have held onto this friendship for a long time, I have invested quite a bit of time and myself into being a friend. By NO means have I been a perfect friend this whole time, but I can confidently say that I have tried my best. I can also confidently say that I have tried by best to make up for all the times I have been a not so great friend.

Up until now, I have never really taken an inventory of what maintaining this friendshp has entailed. I began to grow tired of the negativity and the one-sided-ness of this person. The older I have grown, the more I have learned about myself. I really truly enjoy simplicity...if you ever saw my closet you would think I am full of ba-loney! But truthfully... I have grown tired of inconsistencies, and the dramatics and the insecurities associated with certain relationships and situations in my life.

I never intended for this relationship to break, I just wanted to open the door to talk about it freely. Apparently my friend is not at this time willing to do this. In fact she is more willing to just write it off. This is the part that is utterly confusing to me... I do not understand how someone can write off 15 years of their life. Actually I don't understand how my friend can write off her 15 year relationship with me.
This situation has been tough on me, because I have such mixed feelings about it... I am happy to be rid of the 'drama' behind it, but it saddens me as well.

To top it all off... my health is not where I would like it to be. Nothing major, just nothing necessarily good either.
I realize that all of this is playing together to cloud my generally positive demeanor. I also realize that I need to give myself time... to get past the blow of losing a once positive (or so I thought) friendship. Also time to get my health back in order. I just do not want anymore days when I wake up feeling even slightly blue or crabby. I know I need to switch my train of thought to the many blessings in my life... I just cant seem to do that at the moment, which leaves me a little disappointed in myself. This is not like me at all!

That is all my debbie downer blogging for today! Here is to the days filled with more blessings than disappointments (I know you are out there....)

Weekend Update...

Well this weekend was super busy AAAANNNDDDD super fun!

I woke up Friday...
to the most amazing looove basket for Valentines Day! Troy and I celebrated Valentines Day Friday because we had lots of other plans for the rest of the weekend. Anyways... Troy filled a basket with two bottles of wine, Dove chocolates (my new favorite since being introduced to them by Warner and Cindy) valentine cupcakes, homemade chocolate covered strawberries (yes, homemade), my own copies of Will You Be My Valentine Charlie Brown? and The Time Travelers Wife, a new red nail polish and a bottle of Burberry perfume. He also had gotten me my very favorite flower... pink peonies! It gets better, because Troy had taken Friday off from work to come and spend 'Valentines Day' with me and the kiddos!! Talk about being the most thoughtful, sweet man... ahhhh. I felt incredibly special and loved and I got to see Mr. Troy in action... I put him in charge of a craft center and reading a book to the students! Everyone loved seeing and spending the day with Mr. Troy... everyone (especially me!)

After work, Troy took a huge nap (after he expressed his new found understanding of why I was so tired after work sometimes) Then we got all gussied up and went to Sullivan's Steakhouse. I am embarrassed to say I have never actually eaten there before (only enjoyed some tasty cocktails!) I am so happy that my first Sullivan's experience was with Troy... we totally gorged ourselves with some divine dishes! It was the most perfect evening. I know why people love Valentines so much... now I do too!


Saturday...
was all about the Jersey Shore! We, AKA Snickers and the Good Time, had a blast at Vanessa and Ben's partay!! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves as we feasted on Ron Ron Punch, pizza, ham and pickles :)


Sunday was TROY'S day!
I gave him my totally homemade present... it was cheesy, but heartfelt. I made him a mix CD of songs that make me think of him. I also made him his very own 'jar of love'. I made little round labels of all the things I love most about Troy and I put them onto the bottoms of Hershey kisses and hugs! I also got him some scratchers, because I am feeling so lucky to have him in my life. We got some breakfast and sat outside because the weather was amazing. After that my boygle requested we go to Lowe's. We spent a good hour+ in Lowe's, while I sported a ponytail... Troy's request. When we were leaving Lowe's, Troy said it was the best day of his life... I guess it really is all about the little things in life! Before we headed to my moms for Sunday dinner, he got some time in with the other love of his life... Tom (as in Tom Clancy).

I would say it was a pretty magical weekend... and of course just like after every other weekend Troy and I spend together, I am left wishing that I had just one more day :)

Simple Pleasures

I am putting together a list of the little things in life, that make me extraordinarily happy. I think sometimes people can get wrapped up in all the things that are going 'wrong' in our lives... I find myself stuck there sometimes too! It is nice (and better on your heart) to focus on all the good things.

Here is my little list (for today), in no particular order...
the smell of fresh, clean laundry
fuzzy slippers
pink yum-yums with Jess
listening to children's conversations
The Giving Tree and Oh The Places You'll Go
watching reality television (guilty)
laughing so hard that my belly gets a workout
fun Girls night out (or in!)
looking at my Grandmas pictures and listening to her stories
spending time with my family
falling asleep in the cold
pilates
accomplishing a goal or wrapping up a project
watching and helping a child 'get it'
and last, but certainly NOT least.....

Come on how could that face not make you feel wonderful inside? Whether I am having a good, bad or just so-so day... Troy ALWAYS makes me feel loved :)
Feeling incredibly lucky to have him is DEFINITELY one of my life's simple pleasures!

Funny Fridays

I have been encouraged by MANY to keep track of all the silly, funny things that my students say and do. They do always provide me with a good laugh and I guess I just never thought others would get so much enjoyment out of them! I guess I was wrong about that!!
So in attempt to share all the sillies that happen throughout my week, I am going to start a weekly post entitled Funny Fridays! It will be like a Top 5 list of the silliest stories of the week! Here goes... (my response is in pink, students in black)

Pretty...
Ms. Plicht... you are the prettiest teacher in this whole classroom!
Why thank you, that is so sweet! Did you know that I am the only teacher in this class?
Yep, and you are the prettiest too!

Love...
(after giving a student a compliment for being kind)
Ms. Plicht, I think I just might love you!
Really... when will you know for sure?
Maybe when you give me a positive paw! (a school reward for good behavior)

Simple math...
I forgot what 5+5 is
If you hadn't forgotten, what would you say?
10!

Farm life... (this one counts double!!!)
(while helping a student write a story about going to the farm)
First I get to the farm. Next I will milk a cow. Last I will ride a horse.
Good! Let's make one of our sentences even juicier! Can you give me some details about the cow?
I pull its wienie and the milk comes out.
(laughing) Actually the milk comes out of the cows utters, not the cows wienie... milk cows are girls!
One time my wienie turned pink. Mom told me to stop touching it. My sister told me to clean it.
Alrighty, lets get back to our story!

That's all for now! Hope you enjoy these funnies as much as I do! Often times I have to turn away to stifle the laughter, but most of the time I fail miserably!

What a BUSY weekend!

Well I could NOT wait for this weekend to start off!!! First of all I was excited to kick off the first Girls Night Out! The night was perfect... Jess and I touched up after work and shopping (her part) at my place, over some pink yum yums. Then we made our way to La Encantada for some mild window shopping and to snag a table at North. Breanne met us there and Nicole and Vanessa soon followed! We all ordered some tasty snacks... the artichoke was deeeelicious. Then some other lovely ladies showed up. I was a little nervous about how the nigt would turn out. I was the common element among all the girls and I wanted to make sure that everyone felt comfortable and at ease. My whole vision of this was to form a group of girlfriends, who got together monthly to catch up and enjoy each others company... so obviously having everyone feel comfortable was a must. I think it was really successful... at least I had a blast. My cousin and her friend Jessica, as well as my friend Chelsea came out to play. We all enjoyed sipping cocktails and chatting away outside under the heaters.

Soooo... as the night was simering down, Troy called to tell me that Sarah's water broke. All the girls said adios and I raced home to get some clothes thrown in a bag to go to Phoenix. We didn't get in until almost midnight. Sarah was just starting her almost 28 hour labor! Can you believe that?!? I am so impressed with her strength. She was joking around and chatting with us, even when I could see that she was having a contraction on the monitor. She really set the bar high for amazing labor etiquette. I cannot guarantee that I will remain as composed and collected as she did!!

So while we were all anticipating the arrival of baby Allison Gabrielle, we had some quality bonding time in the waiting room! All of the family made the trek to Phoenix, but as we got into the wee hours some went to the hotel to try to catch some zzzz's. Troy and I stayed with his parents, Cindy and Warner and his grandparents, Gene and Cecilia.
As Troy snoozed away on the most uncomfortable couch, Gene and Warner taught me how to play Unce (I think that how you spell it). Its a card game thats like a mix of Phase 10 and Rummikub... sooo it was right up my alley! Around 7am in the morning, Troy and I finally went to the hotel room to sleep. It was so hard to actually fall asleep, no matter how tired I was! I was too excited to miss something having to do with Allison! Needless to say, this is how the majority of the weekend went. I didn't want to miss anything at all, so sleeping was pretty impossible. I think that everyone pretty much felt the same way!!

The little peanut finally decided to introduce herslef to everyone around 10:50 something on Saturday evening. She was very adorable and incredibly perfect... really looking like just a cute little peanut!!! It was very easy to fall in love with her.
So the weekend may have been without sleep, but it was certainly filled with a lot of bonding and amazing memories. Babies are such a miracle and a blessing into everyones lives, and I am just incredibly fortunate to have been a part of Miss Allison's welcome into the world!