It’s Monday! And we will finally be home in Denver tonight (thank you, Jesus!)! I am going to make my best effort to make these Funday blogs a tradition on my blog. These will be days when I share all the things I am currently loving!
*PS. If you missed my post about Portland, Maine you can check it out here (just click the picture. Dude, it took me so long to figure this out, really gotta work on my tech skills):
Eastern Promenade on a cloudy day
So without further ado let’s get the party started!
*Back-to-school classroom planning*
As much as I do not want summer to end, I am actually excited for back-to-school this year (That is not a lie, I actually am!). I can’t wait to catch up with my coworkers and hear all about their summers! Also, if you know me well, you know how much I love planning out my classroom and back-to-school activities! There is so much that goes into planning a classroom and it is definitely not all about cute decor! The most important thing is setting up the room in a way that is going to give your students the best learning environment to ensure they have a successful year! With that being said I love cute things so I really enjoying planning out the best learning environment for my students with that cuteness factor included!
*Face Masks*
Pampering myself is becoming quite the norm and I am loving it! My current favorite way to do it is with face masks. I love how my skin looks and feels afterward. I also love all the benefits they have for your skin (minimizing pores, absorbing excess oil, evening out skin tone, etc.). I love, love, love my Beautycounter balancing + charcoal and brightening + vitamin c masks! (*disclaimer – I do sale Beautycounter products but I WOULD NOT suggest anything on here that I did not actually believe in!!) They are amazing!
I love all things Kate Spade (I miss having an outlet store close by :()! This watch was my “you finally made it through this school year in one piece” present to myself. I know that may seem ridiculous but there were seriously many, many times last year that I was not sure I was going to make it! (But I did, thanks to a little [A LOT] of help from my friends!) I love this watch because it goes with everything! I can dress it up, dress it down, (dress it left, dress it right?!? No? not good? My apologies).
Sorry for the picture quality! (airports don’t make for the best picture taking)
*Weddings*
I have always loved weddings. (My childhood dream job was to be a wedding planner). Our Massachusetts friends’ wedding did not disappoint! With a beautiful bride, handsome groom, awesome decor, amazing food, and an epic dance party (seriously, that dance floor was on fire all night long!) you really can’t go wrong!
Our row! (El Jefe, Accountant friend, Man Machine, Man Bun[he cut it off :(], Me, and Glen Coco) We missed you Special K!*Seeingfriends for the first time in forever*
This goes with the last one. But seeing these folks was quite the joyful experience (especially after their 24 hour journey to get to the wedding)! We missed you Special K! Our friend that got married was in our Masters’ program with us and it had been WAY too long since we had seen him and his now wife!
***Not making the things I’m loving list is these shoes! I fully expected them to be on here. I mean look at them they a A-DOR-A-BLE! BUT they are not COM-FORT-A-BLE! AT ALL! Not even a little. Not even when you sit down. The only time these beauties were comfortable was when they were not on my feet (preferably, at least 10 feet away). Like, I seriously think I’m gonna lose a toenail from these bad boys! Sorry Nine West there were great in theory not in execution!
Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday!! Next post will be from Denver and I canNOT tell you how excited I am about that!
We are in to East Hampton, Mass for our friend’s wedding! Portland was a great time! HUGE shout out to El Jefe’s cousin, Poppy, for letting us crash at her place and recommending a ton of awesome things to check out in Portland!
Here is our trip to Portland in pictures! **Disclaimer I am not the greatest photographer so don’t be too disappointed in the picture quality** I’m working on my photog skills!
Anyone else remember this stuff?!?!
This was not actually in Portland but seeing this in a gas station on the way reminded me of my childhood!
The Sea Dogs came away with the victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels (seriously, who comes up with these names?!?)! Go Sea Dogs!!
Sea Dogs win!!!!
Next up was a mini brewery tour. Not bad, Portland, not bad! I’m clearly bias toward Denver breweries but I was thoroughly in impressed with all the places we visited! I LOVE a great craft beer! We stopped at Shipyard, Sebago, Gritty McDuffs, and Liquid Riot!
This is his “Stop taking pictures so I can drink my beer in peace! You are being a Pest!” face.Any place that provides large pretzel sticks with your beer is a winner in my book!Stopped here for lunch and another beverage! El Jefe reminded me about 1 trillion times that he had been here before with a college friend (Who was being at pest then, El Jefe?)Loved these coasters!!Liquid riot! I thought the old bug out front was really cool!My beer looked and tasted like a mimosa. I’m not complaining about it!
On Thursday, El Jefe and I celebrated 3 years together! We went big this year and took a sunset schooner tour (big thanks to El Jefe’s folks for this!). This was one of the coolest things I have ever done! The weather was perfect and the views were great!
Romper is from Target!I can’t tell if that is a look of love or annoyance… I’m gonna go with love!! Let the selfies continue!We had poor planning skills with the drinks… We were gonna buy a bottle of wine then realized we had no opener or cups… oops. But we did find these over priced plastic travel wines with lids which actually worked out perfectly!! Look at us solving problems and stuff!I’m wearing that cozy sweater I told you about in my last post! Seriously, love that thing!This schooner is 105 years old! Also, check out that pretty sunset!
There are more pictures but I am currently on a greyhound bus to Springfield and they won’t download. Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Friday!!
Also, will someone pick this house up in Portland and drop it off in Denver as an early birthday gift?!?! You would make my life!!
But first a little update on: Where in the world are El Jefe and I?
El Jefe will be so happy for this trip to be over so I stop making him take selfies! (I won’t stop *BAHAHAHA*)
It feels like an eternity since I was home in Denver last. So far we have been on 5 planes, a ferry boat (twice), and an almost 4 hour car trip. Still to come is 3 bus trips and one flight ( and if you count the T in Boston as a train, there will be several trips on that as well)! We also figured out that by the end of this trip we will have slept in 11 different beds! Let’s just say I am a little over traveling and I am craving my own bed. On the bright side, I am becoming quite the well-rounded traveler.
We are currently in Portland, Maine. It is super beautiful here. On the docket is a baseball game (GO Sea dogs?!?!), brewery tour (let’s see if they have anything on Denver’s breweries), a schooner ride (I’M SO PUMPED FOR IT!! Big thanks to El Jefe’s folks), and hopefully kayaking! I’ll keep you all posted on how our adventure is going!
Ella and El Jefe on Swan’s Island
** Also, a huge shout out to ELLA Graves. She lived a long happy life with with an amazing family! We are so happy we got to spend the last week with you sweet girl! I hope you are enjoying endless amounts of leftovers! You will be greatly missed!***
Ok, traveling so much has me thinking about all the essentials for going on a trip (especially traveling to multiple different places within a fairly short period of time). SO I thought I would share the top 10 things I canNOT travel without (maybe you will learn something or maybe you will wonder “Who the HECK does this girl think she is making top 10 lists? What a WEIRO!” well you wouldn’t be the first so I’m gonna write it anyways **insert emoji with tongue sticking out**)
DRUM ROLL PLEASE….. My TOP 10 travel essentials are:
10. Supportive shoes. I don’t care where you are going (I mean I actually do, please tell me so I can live vicariously through your adventures once school starts) you NEED to bring these. I canNOT tell you how many vacations I have packed for and all I was thinking about was cute, cute, cute. Well sometimes you have to say (pardon my almost French) “F cute, what’s not gonna hurt my feet!” OK, rant over. But seriously people bring supportive shoes on you trip. Just do it and thank me later!
9. Leggings. Ladies, I do not need to explain any further, you get it. Comfy, warm, flexible, flattering, etc. Gentlemen, I also do not need to explain any further. I mean have you seen your girls’ booty in those leggins’. Thought so! NEXT!
7. Chapstick. This goes with the last one. When I travel I cannot keep enough moisture on my lips. Gotta have that chapstick!
6. Face wash. I am not going to lie. I used to be the laziest face washer of all times. I used to just take one of those face cleanser wipes and run it over my face then call it quits. Well, that led to many breakouts and poor complexion (GO figure). So now I make sure to carry a really good cleanser and exfoliator with me on trips!
Current face wash routine: Beautycounter charcoal bar (3 times a week) followed by Nourishing Moisturizer. On days when I do not use charcoal bar I use Nourishing cleanser or exfoliator followed by moisturizer! Beautycounter
5. A Bag with WHEELS. Ok, I am putting this on here because I have finally realized that as cute as my Vera Bradley duffel may be (and trust me it is cute) it is not fun to carry around airports, ferry stations, bus terminals, or public transports! Get a bag with wheels, END OF STORY!
4. A Cozy Sweater. This was a toss up between flowy dresses and cozy sweaters. Cozy sweaters win because I am travelling in the Northeast right now and it gets very chilly at night. My comfy sweater has been so, so nice on this trip!
MY GO TO: My LOFT lounge cardigan in gray (I bought it at the outlet)
3. Snacks/drinks. I take for granted that flights will be on time and ferries will be made. Just saying, from experience, that does not always happen so pack snacks and drinks (or buy overpriced at the airport like I do). You don’t wanna be sitting at a ferry port (where there is no gas station, convenience store, or restaurant) for 2 ½ hours with nothing to eat or drink. And then bother your boyfriend every 5 minutes about it. P.s. that isn’t me speaking from experience at all, I just made all that up out of a hypothetical situation**
**that is a straight up lie. That 100% happened to be on this trip. It was not fun and El Jefe was very annoyed with me (In his words, I was being a “Pest”).
PSS. This normally wouldn’t be so high on my list but due my recent experience it seems super important so it is coming in at numero tres!
2. A Notebook. I have always been someone who carries a notebook around with me. Getting new notebooks has always been one of my favorite things (even though now I have about a million and they are all basically empty). But on vacation a notebook is essential! Especially for my spastic mind. I need somewhere to get all my teacher ideas out, all my emotions, all my projects, etc. A notebook is essential to any trip’s enjoyment.
1. A Really Good Book. Dead seriously this is essential for entertainment purposes! I know all of us Gen Y/millennials think that there is internet wherever we go but news flash sometimes you are on a small (very, very beautiful) island and they don’t have internet everywhere you go (For those of you who just read that and are going through some slight shock, just take 3 deep breaths and repeat after me, “I WILL SURVIVE THIS, I WILL SURVIVE THIS, I WILL SURVIVE THIS.”) No, but in all seriousness I absolutely love reading and it is one of my favorite parts of vacations. On vacations I can get through a whole book without interruptions! It is so, so nice!
Look who’s back, back again. I’m back, tell a friend!
I apologize for my long hiatus from the blog. Life got overwhelming at the end of the school year and I just couldn’t keep up. But I’m back and ready to roll!
View of some sailboats from the ferry
I am writing this post from the ever so beautiful Swan’s Island, Maine. El Jefe’s family has been coming here for like a million years and I have had the pleasure of coming out and spending time with them for the past 3 years. It was quite the long adventure getting here this year but totally worth the hassle! We also got to spend a week with my family in KY before heading here. You never get to old for time with you mommy and daddy!
El Jefe and I super pumped to be on the ferry to Swans Island after missing it the day before and then getting the time wrong the next day. He loves when I take selfies if you can’t tell!
For the past 3 years, this island has been a place for us to wind down and relax before summer is over and school starts (I know, I know teacher friends I need to shut my mouth and not speak of such things). This summer has been a short one (as I taught summer school and have been traveling to see family and friends for the rest of it). I can NOT believe the school year is just a few weeks away. Anyways, back on topic… This trip has been exactly what I needed and I am reminded of how thankful I am to get to come to an amazing place like this each summer!
Hilltop porch view
Fun fact of this trip… I discovered the family journal from the Hilltop house (the nickname for his family’s house here) and it has some gloriously, hilarious entries from young El Jefe that follow his journey into becoming a “man” on the island! Priceless! I’m just a little bummed I am just now discovering it!
Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I am back on the blog so keep an eye out for new posts on a regular basis!! I will leave you with a few of the things I learned about myself this summer:
I am awful at remembering to take pictures to document my adventures. (I will work on that). Like I didn’t take any pictures from back home in KY (YO Madre! Help a girl and text me those pool pics….ok, ok! I’ll say the magic words… Pretty please!)
Puzzles are my jam! (ok, I may have already known this but I need to buy some for home!) BIG thanks to El Jefe’s folks for always providing amazing puzzles (along with a fabulous puzzle pedestal)!
I’m not sure I am ever going to leave Denver if only for the fact that the humidity is basically nonexistent and the bugs are minimal! The humidity in KY can only be described as disgusting! Here in Maine the bugs have been outrageous (SOOOO may bug bites)! I very much enjoyed my time in both places but I’m ready to be back in a non-humid, non-buggy environment!
I get extremely emotional when talking about my job and I cry a lot about it! (OK, OK, Coworkers! I admit that I may have already known this or at least you all did!) Super big apologies to El Jefe’s fam bam for my emotional cry session at the dinner table (No, Brooks and Howe I am not kidding, it happened and I am sure you all will never let me live it down. I wouldn’t have it any other way!)
Had dinner in Bass Harbor since we missed the ferry
Next stop before our journey back home is Portland, Maine to celebrate our 3 year anniversary (I know I can’t believe I have tolerated you for that long either El Jefe)! Then on to Massachusetts for John and Jen’s wedding! More on my summer adventures later! I just wanted to pop in super quick and let you all know that I’m back in action on the blog!
Hi ya’ll! Sorry for being MIA for the last couple of weeks. My computer decided to bite the dust! Also, its February and all my teacher friends know that is one of the hardest months of the school year (spring break is too far away)! Needless to say I am pretty pumped that we are headed into March this week.
Our crew for the day minus our friend with the great hair.
Anywho, I have been dying to tell you all about the brewery tour my friends and I went on a few weekends ago. This little brewery adventure came about because we slacked on getting tickets to a beer festival and they sold out. So my wonderful roomie, Special K, wasn’t going to let that keep us from having a fantastic weekend! She organized a fabulous tour of some of the breweries in the RiNo neighborhood (River North). The day started out with beautiful weather then turned a little chilly but that did not keep us down!
We started at Mockery Brewing to enjoy our first couple of beers. I really enjoyed this place! We sat out of the patio (this was when the day was still warm) and had a great time chirping El Jefe (sorry I’m not sorry)! I had a DU Hast Weiss – Smoked Wheat Ale (Beer score = 16 [guest post from El Jefe explaining this coming soon]). It was superb! Mockery Brewing I will be back!
Their flight contraption was cool!
Once we finished up our beers we decided to head to the next Brewery, Black Shirt Brewing Co. Special K told us it was close by…. Let’s just say the walk there included a super creepy factory (“Our friend of a friend who we are now better friends with” [Sorry CPA dude] was convinced we were going to be chopped up into tiny little pieces [slightly dramatic]) and a bird poop bridge. Like seriously I’m pretty sure that it is where every bird in Denver goes to do their business. But you will be glad to know that we survived (barely! Ok I’m a little bit of a drama queen [Special K would definitely agree with this]) and we made it to Black Shirt Brewery Co. This was a cool little place. At this point in the day the weather started to get a little chilly but the cold can’t stop us! The girls and I shared a flight of 6 different beers. We enjoyed them, although I did not pay attention to how I put the flight down so I’m not sure we ever figured out which beers we were actually tasting (oops! My bad!). There was only one of the 6 that I did not thoroughly enjoy (of course I’m not sure of the name, sorry).
That food truck you see… yeah it tricked us! They closed before we could get food… I mean how do you close your food truck before dinner time?! My inner chubby girl was NOT happy!
Next on the list was Beryl’s Beer Co. There is some construction in the area so this also ended up being a tricky walk but once again we made it (Special K’s navigation skills = B-, but we still love her!). The beer I got was amazing! It was called Jingle Beans. It is a pear coffee stout. I am not usually a dark beer lover but I will definitely get this beer again. We played horse race (a card game) and even drew a crowd. El Jefe served as the race announcer and he did a fabulous job (there is video evidence and I really want to share but I will refrain because I am a nice girlfriend)!
For our final stop we made our way to C Squared Ciders. This place is awesome! They have Mario Cart on an original Nintendo system, life size beer pong (trash cans and kickballs), large connect 4, and a lot more. I had a ginger cider and it was fabulous! I wish we would have spent a little more time here but it was late and we were all super tired (plus D.P. Dough was calling our names, and you DO NOT ignore D.P Dough when it is calling your name, you just DON’T DO IT! You hear me Man Bun?! YOU JUST DON’T Ignore D.P. Dough).
Jingle Beans in the back! SOOOOO GOOD!
If you love craft beers and ciders then you should definitely add Denver to your Bucket List. There are almost as many breweries as there are dispensaries (not really, but there are a ton of amazing breweries).
*When picking beer do not just go by the name. I learned this lesson the hard way. You are welcome!*
I thought it would be fun to share some things that I am currently loving. One thing that will not be making this list is my new deodorant because it absolutely does not work (Sorry to the girls next to me in Barre3 class today)!
* Brewery Tours
Beryl Brewery in RiNo
Yesterday, my friends and I decided to go on our own little brewery tour. Big thanks to Special K for organizing the whole adventure! (And I won’t mention that little part where you lead us past a creepy factory and into a bird poop tunnel.) I will write a full post on this later this week but we went to several different breweries in Denver and had an absolute blast! One of my favorite parts of Denver is all the craft beer and unique breweries.
* This Kate Spade phone case
It makes me want summer and the beach!
All things Kate Spade are my favorite and I really miss living so close to an outlet store. At least my mom keeps me updated on my collection! Momma Bear really is the best!
* Surprise V-day packages from the rentals
You got that right!
My mom is the best about sending packages to make me feel like I’m not so far away! She wraps them up super cute and they always contain the best little surprises. She also sends my class gifts for all the holidays and special events. She is pretty much the best! (Rentals stands for parents for those of you didn’t catch that :))
* My new Sewing Machine
Thank you tax refund for letting me treat myself to this beauty! I have already made an envelope clutch and I have big plans for this bad boy! I went with the electronic model because that is what I have been learning on. Also, big shout out to Claudia at Sew You Studio for giving the confidence and skills to try something new!
Victors in the back…. losers in the front (sorry V Neck)
A lot is going on in Keri world lately and I’m pretty excited about it! (See I told ya I like exclamation points!) The Super Bowl feels like it was a year ago but I thought I would share some pictures from our festivities. My favorite part of the Super Bowl is getting together with friends and having yummy food and drinks. We had people over to our house for it and we had a really good time!
Before we got started inside we played some yard games because it was 60 degrees and sunny (in February?! I’m not complaining!). As you can see, El Jefe and I pretty much dominated the competition!
Once we moved the party inside we enjoyed plenty of delicious food (I definitely went to bed with a food baby that night). I made queso dip and pizza rollups. My wonderful roomie, Special K, made sliders (serious yum factor)! And her boyfriend, Man Bun, made hot wings on the grill. While everyone else rated them a 7 (what a cop out score!) I gave them a solid 8.5 (9 for the sauce, 8 for the tenderness, ease of consumption was the only complaint). There was also homemade Mac and Cheese (told ya I went to sleep with a food baby)! We watch a little bit of the game too.
A little action shot!
Showing off their beautiful masks
Meanwhile, in teacher world, my class has been spending our ELD (English Language Development) time working on reader’s theater to improve our fluency and expression! I swear they are the cutest! It told them a little while to break out of their shells and get into it (especially my cinderella crew, heaven forbid you actually have to dance with each other, insert blushy emoji) but we got there eventually. They did a great job and I am so proud of all their hard work.
Here are a few images from the live action:
A rat as a narrator?! Why not!The cutest little elf I ever did seeThe Gingerbread Man running away!Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother.. bippity boppity boo!
There are about a gazillion more pictures but I feel like that would be picture overload! We had a lot of fun with this and I’m hoping we get another opportunity for it later in the year.
I am supposed to be in the Mountains right now hanging out with a friend from back home but instead I’m stuck in bed, taking antibiotics and trying to fight a sinus infection (Sorry Widow! I blame the children). Not exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend. But at least it is giving me some time to write this post! (Look at me being all positive and stuff!) There is lots that I want to tell you about. For example, I started sewing classes on Thursday (Sneak peak of my first project below) and I am super excited about it. I will definitely post about it once I am through the 3 lessons! Any of my Denver friends interested in learning to sew I’m an attending a 3 lesson Intro course at Sew You Studio and after only one class I totally recommend it!
It’s a cardholder/ coin pouch!
But for today I thought I would share a little story to give you a view into my teacher life.
It was a quiet Monday afternoon during silent reading. (It should really be loud reading time because for some reason second graders think “read in your head” means yell out the words as loud as possible!) I was going over work with Ms. M (aka my lifeline, she is my para-professional and she is the only reason I survive everyday!). All of the sudden a student walks up and starts poking me, “Ms. Switzer!, Ms. Switzer!”. This happens to me about 1,000 times a day (not an over-exaggeration). So I was totally ignoring him because HELLLLO dude you GOTTTA raise your hand up in here (Ms. Switzer = 1 human, Students = 31 little humans). So I kept talking and he said it anyway. I heard him say something but waved him off reminding him that “we raise our hand if we need something” (in my bada** teacher voice, of course) when my mind started to process what he said. Whatever it was it involved the word POOP. As he started to walk away I snapped back to reality. It went a little like this:
Me: “Wait, What did you just say?”
Student: “There is poop on the carpet!”
Me: “There is WHAT on the carpet?”
Student: “Poop!”
Me: in my mind *ok, ok I heard that right but there is no way there is actually poop on our carpet. It is probably fuzz* I walk closer to the situation. *Wow that is a pretty large piece of fuzz* I get a little closer and I hear Ms. M say to a child, “What are you doing?! Why are you smelling it?! Stop that!” I turn the lights on… It actually starts to look a lot less like fuzz. *It has to be dirt!* Me and Ms . M look closer. *OMG THAT IS A TURD!* Everyone calm down, do not freak out! I will not puke! I WILL NOT puke! Wow that smells bad!
Yeah, so that happened. Just another day in the life of a 2nd grade teacher (Never a dull moment)! At least it didn’t take as long to clean up as the gum in the hair…
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Anyone else have a funny/interesting story about teaching or anything else? I would love to hear it!
There I go carrying on again. Did you see what I did there? Clever, huh? Well maybe only I think so but that has never stopped me before.
Ok, I apologize, let’s get to this blog business. I’m new here in case you couldn’t tell. Starting a blog has been something I have wanted to do for a while and I finally decided to put on my big girl panties (oh, some people think that is a gross word, sorry?) and go for it. I have wanted to do this for several reasons. One: for FUN! Two: As a way to express myself crazy self. Three: To keep in touch, reconnect, or just plain connect with people. And along the way I hope to become a better writer, photographer, adventurer, and who knows what else!
I think I am committing one of the cardinal sins of blogging by not having a clear plan or path for my blog before I start but what the heck, let’s do this thing! It’s this new thing I’m trying, I think it’s referred to as going with the flow. There will definitely be plenty of posting about teaching, my relationship (sorry, El Jefe [translation: The Boss], p.s. this is the nickname he picked for himself, *insert eyeroll*), friends (Oh, hey ya’ll!), fun times, and fitness (let’s be honest probably gonna be more about the fun times).
If you are wondering where my blog name came from (and you haven’t check out my “About Me” page), it is a combo of my name (you probably got that all by yourself, go you!) and the common phrase “carry on”. This a phrase with several different meanings depending on how you use it. It is also something that I feel is super fitting for my life in all meanings of the phrase. Like right now I am carrying on and on, as in I’m rambling. I do that a lot. Sorry in advance (or sorry, I’m not sorry?). Or I carry on to make it through my battle with depression and anxiety. Or I am carrying on with the fun times (no, dad, you did not read that, I am perfect and I never make poor choices ;)).
Anywhooo, I hope you will join me as I keep on “keri-ing on”. And maybe even stick around? Come on you know you want too!
Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday!! Next post will be from Denver and I canNOT tell you how excited I am about that!
