Surprises are the BEST!

So I am on day three of student teaching and it is going really well so far.  Haven’t done much

yet because it has been a pretty easy week for the following reasons:

1. My co-op teacher gave a test Tuesday.

2. We had a guest speaker yesterday.

3. We are watching Cinderella Man today and tomorrow and possibly Monday. 

(Why is a history class watching Cinderella Man you ask? Well its set in the Great Depression and actually depicts what happened during it really well)

BUT this post is not about student teaching, I just felt yall should get a small update on how it’s going.

This post is about how my day went from good to AMAZING!  

I had the best surprise EVER waiting for me today when I got home from a very long day of watching the same movie 6 times in a row.  It’s wasn’t a bad day by any means, just long and repetitive.

So I walk into the Little Yellow House and Ashtyn is on the couch.  She has a box next to her and I ask who its for.  She says, YOU! 

My first thought is HUH? But I didn’t order anything and my mom isn’t sending me anything.

She looks at the where is came from and it says North Carolina.  My very first thought is of course ABBY CRAIN!

What could she possibly be sending me I think.  So I open up the box and first there is this note:

I smiled the whole time I was reading it.  

Side note:

Abby is one of my very best friends.  I met her on my first College Program and we have been the best of friends ever since.  We did a second program together, she has been to El Paso twice and I’ve been to North Carolina to see her too.  She is one of the most generous, kind hearted people I know. And I am so glad she is in my life.

Ok so then I looked under the note and what do I see? A DISNEY BAG! 

I opened the Disney bag and this is what’s inside:

For those of you who don’t know.  Princess Aurora is my all time FAVORITE Disney Princess.  

Needless to say I jumped up and down and my eyes got teary. 

BEST PRESENT EVER!! 

I can’t stop looking at it! 🙂  

My new purse rocks,

Kathleen

  

Call Me Miss Crafty

Last week was very uneventful.  I didn’t start student teaching, I just had some meetings.  But I did meet my cooperating teacher and saw his classroom and stuff.  He is very nice and has been teaching for 29 years! 

Needless to say I think he knows his stuff.  Anyway, I officially start tomorrow! 

After I’ve started I’ll try and blog every Sunday with fun tidbits from student teaching! 🙂

Ok so this weekend was super fun! On Friday my roommates and I went to dinner at this yummy Mexican restaurant called Garcias and then went to the movies.  We saw No Strings Attached.  So cute and funny! 

On Saturday I just kinda laid around in the morning and then me and my roommate Kelsey went to Lowes and bought all the stuff to REPAINT MY DRESSER!! YAY! 

Now you maybe asking, why is this such a big deal Kathleen?

Well I’ve been meaning to repaint this awful white dresses that my mom gave me that used to be in my room when I was little.  It’s solid white and terrible to look at.  

Kelsey and I went to Lowes and got some black paint, some sanders, and one more paint brush (we already had one at the Little Yellow House.)

The then we came home and got to work.  And here is what we did:

Here is what the dresser looked like when we started

Here it is without the drawers.

Drawers.

Supplies

 After the first coat of paint Lookin better already!

Big thanks to Kelsey! She was a big help and helped me with everything!

Yay for painting the second coat on the drawers!

Here is it is that night after we finished the second coat.

The next day we had brunch in the morning and  I was so excited to put on the last coat and sand the edges to give it a more vintagey look that I forgot to take picture.  Oops. 

HERE’S THE FINAL PRODUCT! I am so proud of my dresser and it looks AMAZING in my room!

Painting this thing was the most fun ever! I totally want to go around buying furniture and re-painting it.  

I must say though I was inspired by Monica.  She has redone some awesome stuff that she has found at both Goodwill and on Craigslist.  She is my inspiration! 

After I painted it, I realized I was tired of how my room was arranged so the roommates and I rearranged my room! 

Just walking into it makes me smile. 

PS. Sorry these pictures are blurry. Blame my camera! 

Hope you all like my fancy new dresser! I know I do!

I love being crafty,

Kathleen

A Few of My Favorite Things!

Tomorrow starts a brand new week.  A very exciting week for me because on Tuesday I finally find out which high school I will be at for student teaching.  After that will start the craziest semester of my college career! 

So on this very cloudy and cold Sunday night I decided to write a frivolous, just for fun post on a few of my favorite things! 

1. All time favorite Disney movie is SLEEPING BEAUTY

2. Favorite nail polish if OPI brand.  I just bought the color called Give Me Moor. This is a recent favorite thing.  I’m starting to develop quite a collection! 

3. Anytime before 1960.  I always tell people I was born in the wrong era.  I wish ladies still wore hats and dresses all the time.  .  

I like vintage inspired furniture and one day when I have a house I hope to have it be very vintagey.   Isn’t that bed to die for!! 

4. Antique stores: Over the summer my mom and I went to a ton of different antique stores and it became one of my favorite things to do! And if I had more time, I would do it every weekend

5. England: I went to there when I was 16 with my mom and it was the best trip EVER! I loved everything about it when I went.  I really want to go back again one day and one day I will! 

I love the historic buildings:

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

The lovely gardens and parks:

(This is Hyde Park)

6. Afternoon tea:  This summer was the summer of the tea parties! I had two of our own and went to two different tea rooms.  Its was old-fashion and fabulous.  I love every minute of it and I wish we had afternoon tea everyday! 🙂 

So now you all know a tiny bit more about me that you didn’t know before! 🙂 

Oh one more thing: I have to share some awesome news…two of my very best friends in the entire world got engaged over Christmas.  Ashley is now engaged to Kyle Wright and Monica is now engaged to Bobby! It is so exciting! Two weddings are in my future now and I could not be more excited for them. Needless to say I am now looking at all things wedding for when these besties of mine need wedding help! : )  

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, 2011 is going to be one awesome year!! 

Out with the Old and in with the New!

2010 is officially over and 2011 has just begun. 


It was a great year. Here are a few of its highlights:


1. I went to Disneyland for the first time with 4 amazing friends.
2. I turned 22.
3.  Went to Disney World to celebrate said birthday.
4. Moved home for the summer for the last time.
5. Got closer to old friends.
6. Went to some fabulous tea parties.
7. Saw Tim McGraw in concert.
8. Went to Disney World again and to St. Augustine, FL.
9. Met a great bunch of new friends in the form of new roommates and fellow future teachers.
10. Finished up my undergraduate course work.
11. Went to Disney World one final time (4 times in one year!).


See what I mean about having a pretty great year.  


I hope 2011 will be just as great as 2010.  No…..I hope its even BETTER! I will be graduating from college, hopefully getting a job with the Disney Company and moving to Florida.  I also hope that in the personal department my life changes.  Some of my closest friends are now in  great relationships and I can’t help but want the exact same thing.  So hopefully he finds me in 2011.  Life can change so suddenly and I am so excited for the changes that are ahead of me.


Here’s to a great 2011! I hope its filled with magic, love, and change!

A Very Disney Christmas!

Last week I got to spend a whole 4 days at Walt Disney World at Christmastime! It was a trip for business but mostly pleasure.  It was the most fun trip I’ve had in a long time!

So the business part of the trip wasn’t really business.  It was a bunch of meet and greets with people who work for Disney in areas that I want to work in.  I got to meet with a guy named Dustin, in Disney College Program Recruiting and he told me the ins and outs.  Its basically sitting in front of a computer all day hiring new CPs to do the College Program.  Yeah not something I really want to do, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I got that professional internship.

The second person I met with was Kevin.  He is also in College Recruiting but he also worked for the YES Program, which is where I really want to be.  The YES Program is a series of field trips that elementary, middle, and high schools can take.  There are different classes the students can take, anything from Science, Photography, Math and HISTORY! Can you see why it would be perfect for me yet? Kevin gave me some great tips for my audition tape (yeah an audition!).  I have to video myself teaching something.  It can be anything I want, I just have to show that I can teach.  After we met Kevin even e-mailed one of the managers of the program, asking if I could shadow a YES presentation in the near future.  That means another trip to DISNEY! YAY! It was such a good meeting.

And last but certainly not least, I met with Caleb, he is a Guest Service Manager at EPCOT and he talked to me about the Guest Relations PI.  He gave me some great tips for my interview and took a copy of my resume to look over.  He was super helpful and even said to e-mail him when I submit my application so he can be on the lookout for it!

Needless to say the meet and greets went really well and I am so excited to start applying for PIs in February.  The rest of the trip was spent having a great Christmas filled vacation at my future home! Which I will now share with you in picture form…..ENJOY!

We started with the Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Light!

It was truly an amazing site. 

Suzanne, Casey, and I spent a lovely day together! 

So glad I got to see this with them!

My old roomie Cara met us there! It was so good seeing her!

Then we went and met Katie and her boyfriend at the ESPN restaurant at the Boardwalk!

I really wish Abby, Kelly and Whitney could have been there with us! 

The next day Suzanne and I had a FABULOUS lunch at Le Chefs de France,

in (you guessed it) France!

Best part of the trip was definitely meeting Santa and Mrs. Clause! 

(Suzanne added a little something special to this picture!)

I just love this girl! 

Our next stop was Magic Kingdom. It was a whole new experience seeing it at Christmas with all the

beautiful decorations.  If anyone knows how to do Christmas right, its Disney!

The Dapper Dans sang us some wonderful Christmas carols on Main Street!

And of course we had to meet some characters.  We met some lovely princesses, Peter Pan, and 

of course Mickey and Minnie!

We really wanted to meet Rapunzel and Flynn but unfortunately their line was crazy, so we settled on taking a picture with his doll!

Suzanne took a picture with Maximus.

Second best part of the trip was the Castle lighting show! Cinderella’s Castle is the most amazing sight EVER at Christmas!

SEE!! SIMPLY MAGICAL!

We took many many pictures in front of that gorgeous thing.

I will most definitely be going back to Disney at Christmas again!

Who knows I might even be living there next Christmas! : )

Well that was my trip! It was awesome and as I’ve already said you all need to see Disney at Christmas for yourself one day!

I love Disney at Christmastime,
Kathleen

Goodbye Fall Semester…..HELLO DISNEY WORLD!

It is official! My Fall 2010 semester is OVER!! It is an amazing feeling! One more semester to go and I will be a college graduate!

Sorry I just had to share my very exciting news with all of you!!

Oh and the fact that I will strolling down Main Street USA in 4 days with this lovely lady……..

I love the Disney,
Kathleen

Life Is Wonderful

Boy has it been a one crazy couple of weeks.  Here is what my life has been like the past few weeks that I have been absent from blog world:

1.  I finished my Observation Block! That brings me one step closer to student teaching and graduation! I don’t think I’ve explained just what the Block is, so here goes.  In the Observation Block, I took three classes at a high school and then mixed that in with observing a teacher in his/her classroom two class periods each day.  I was only there on Tuesday and Thursdays, but I was there from 8:00am-3:30 pm! Talk about a long day! It was exhausting, but it really prepared me for next semester.  So I got to observe 2 different teachers, which was really lucky.  The first was a US History class, with Juniors and the second was a World History class with Sophomores.  The students and my cooperating teachers were amazing! I was really sad to leave them.

My block classmates were an amazing group of future teachers who I am so lucky to have gotten to know. We all got along really well and had a blast with each other.  Here are a few pictures from our class:

Best group of future teachers EVER!! 

2. We had Thanksgiving break!! Which was entire too short but lots of fun, but too short.  My brother and I drove to our grandmothers together.  Spent Thanksgiving with my dad’s family and then got to spend a day and two nights at home.  I just love going home after being gone for so long.

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving:

Aren’t my cousins just lovely?

Norris Family Christmas card 2010! 

5 of 7 Norris grandkids

Oh and Ashley and I did some Christmas shopping! 

3. I GOT MY NEW MAC!! Which I am using as I type this post! ; )

4. December is here! I just love Christmas.  There isn’t anything like the Christmas season! The music, the lights, the decorations just make me so happy! Even more exciting is that in 8 days I will be back in my happy place….DISNEY WORLD!! Oh my goodness I can’t even begin to express my excitement.  Trust me, a whole post will be dedicated to my Disney Christmas trip!! : )

5. We went to Sights and Sounds of Christmas last night and had lots of fun.  We also celebrated Bobby’s birthday and had a great time!

Monica, Me, and Sam

 Just look at all those lights! : )

Snowman Tigger!! 

I just love her!

Yay for Christmas music!

So that is what has been happening in my life the last couple of weeks! I am so blessed to have so many amazing friends and so many exciting things ahead of me.  I am really loving life right now and couldn’t be happier.  Did I mention I’m going to Disney World next week? Cuz I am!! : )

Till next time!
Happy start of the best time of the year!
-Kathleen

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Wow it has been way to long since I’ve blogged.  It has been a crazy week.  I’m almost done with school and right now it is Thanksgiving break! I’m currently at my grandmother’s house with my family. 

I’ll post pictures later, but for now let me just say……..

I hope you all have a great day with family, friends, and of course all that very yummy FOOD!! I know I’m super excited for all the yummy food my grandmother is making!! : )

Till next time,
Kathleen

Random Thoughts

On this very lazy Saturday here are a few of the things on my mind!
Yes this is very very random post!

1. The fact that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 comes out on Thursday and one of my very best friends, Monica is coming with me!

2. I will be at Disney World for Christmas 4 weeks from now! I cannot wait to be on Main Street USA with Suzanne and Katie looking at Cinderella’s Castle all done up in icicle lights, watching the snow fall on Main Street USA in Magic Kingdom, drinking hot chocolate, watching the Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights, having tea at the Grand Floridian, and generally just having a magical time!

3. Thanksgiving break, where I will spend time stuffing my face and having a fabulous time with my family! All the cousins have a tradition where we go see a movie on that Wednesday night.  And being that we are all Harry Potter nerds, said movie will be HP 7!

4. Getting a new laptop. Soon I will be a mac user!

5. Being finished with the Fall semester! Then I just have one more semester and I am DONE with college, scary and exciting all at the same time. 

6. I really should work on my Correspondence Class.

7. I really want these boots from Target and this jacket from Forever 21:

8. I need a new book to read.  Suggestions welcome!

9. I want some new nail polish.

10. It is pretty chilly in the little yellow house I live in!

Hope that was random enough for you! : )  Till next time!
-Kathleen

What next?

Since this blog is supposed to be all about the many opportunities I have ahead of me.  I figured I should dedicate one post to explaining exactly what those opportunities are.  So here goes!

As I have already mentioned, I am getting my degree in History in a Single Teaching Field.  What the heck does that mean? All it means is for my major I took History and Education courses that will allow me to teach 8th grade or high school history.  I’ll be able to teach US or World History.  I plan on also taking the test to get certified in English.  Anyway, right now I am in the middle (or well near end) of my field base observation block at San Marcos High School (Go Rattlers!).  During the field based block I basically just observe teachers, find out the dos and don’t of teaching.  I did get to teach my own lesson on the Panama Canal (yes I rocked it).  But again it is mostly just  a whole bunch of observing and watching 10th and 11th graders make fools of themselves.  Just Kidding.  They are all really fun and I can not wait to take over my own classroom.

So I’ll finish up that in December and then in January I start my actual student teaching.  Where I will get to take over the class and actually teach!  My name is being sent to the Comal ISD, so I could be student teaching at either Canyon High, Canyon Lake High, or Smithson Valley High School.

NOW….as most of my family and friends know, I am a huge mega big time Disney person.  Nothing makes me happier than Disney.  In fact Disney World is where you will find me from December 12-16!  And I’ll be there at CHRISTMAS!! You can’t even imagine my excitement! But that is for another post.  Okay, anyway, way back in 2008, I participated in the Disney College Program and LOVED it! I loved it so much I went back in the summer of 2009.  While I was there I decided I wanted to teach.  Strangely enough though, I also decided that I wanted to work for Disney full time.  Now I absolutely adore teaching.  But I am constantly planning my next trip to Disney.   So, I decided I needed to go back and get it out of my system before I fully commit myself to teaching full time.  That is why I will be applying for a Professional Internship with the Disney Company this spring.  My trip in December to Florida, is to meet with several Disney leaders in the areas that I plan to apply for Internships with.  That way when they get my application they have a face to put to it.

I am so excited and nervous at the same time.  I am pretty confident that I’ll get one.  But there is always a chance I won’t and let me tell you, if I don’t I will probably be a little heart broken and will cry for about a week.  So prepare for that in the event that it happens.  Which I’m praying everyday that it won’t.

So there you go.  That is what I have been thinking about all semester and what I will continue to think about for the rest of 2010 and a tiny part of 2011.  I think 2011 has some exciting things in store for me, and I can’t wait to see what they are.

I’ve heard pictures always make a blog better, so even though they have nothing to do with this blog, here are some fun things I’ve been doing lately.  Starting with a fun night carving pumpkins with my fabulous roommates to spending last night at Wurstfest with some of the funnest people I know! : )

Pumpkin I carved for Halloween!

3 of 4 fabulous roommates!

Wurstfest in New Braunfels!

That’s Dave, Sport, and Bob (Monica’s other half) 30 bucks later Bob finally made a winning shot and won that lovely Scooby Doo!

That’s all for now!
Hope every one has a fabulous week! : )
-Kathleen