Me Before You Questions

Aubrey has had her questions up for a few days, but I figured the Monday before our discussion was a pretty good way to start off our week.

But first off, I'm not sure what I was expecting from the book, but it's definitely not what I had anticipated. I have enjoyed it, that's for sure and it's captured my attention. However, it's not what I had expected. Also...I have lots of book left before I can say I know for sure what I was expecting or not...so yeah.

That being said, here are Aubrey's questions for this month:

(via)

1. Did you like the book? Was it what you were hoping for or expecting? Why or why not?

 

2. What do you think the book title Me Before You means? Who is the me and who is the you?

 

3. "The thing about being catapulted into a whole new life-- or at least, shoved up so hard against someone else's life that you might as well have your face pressed against their window-- is that it forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you may seem to other people." Louisa Clark, Chapter 5 What do you think of Louisa? Was she a better person at the end of the novel? Why or why not?

 

4. Will gets a tattoo that reads "Best before 19 March 2007." Will lost a lot in his life but he also chose to leave a lot behind. Did you find anything about the way Will chose to live his life inspiring? Or did you find the way he chose to live is life more difficult to grasp and/or reconcile?

 

5. What are your final reactions after reading the book? So many issues were raised and so many ideas were presented. How do you feel as you walk away from the book?

 

 

Also...HOW IN THE WORLD ARE WE ALREADY AT THE END OF FEBRUARY?!

Sorry for yelling, but c'mon! February has flown by...don't you agree?

I hope to see you back here on Saturday for our discussion, but in the meantime:

Happy Monday!

 

 

Five Things I Already Know and I'm a FTM (to-be)

This was written a few weeks ago when I was in the middle of my 14th week of pregnancy. We had already announced it to most of our family, some close friends, and most of our coworkers. And here's the thing, all of the "friendly advice" came from people who aren't very close to me. Surprise! 

Take a look.

I’m currently pregnant for the very first time and most days I feel like I’m completely in the dark about certain aspects of pregnancy, labor, and babies. Even though I’ve received some very useful advice, I have so many more questions that I could ask other mom friends or I could read about. But I just haven’t.

Insurance? I have no clue how this is going to work out.

When should I start showing? I feel like at 14+ weeks I should be already…

Why don’t I feel pregnant anymore? I just feel like my regular old self.

Diapers? When should I start stocking up?

Breastfeeding? Mastitis? Come again?

You said mesh underwear and adult diapers in the same sentence. For real?

Although my list could on and on and on...I really do know some things about pregnancy, labor, and babies, despite all of the “advice” I’ve already received.

I know that I won’t be able to sleep as much during my next pregnancy.

I take frequent naps after school and after supper. I do know that once I have one child and I’m pregnant with my second or third or fourth I won’t have the luxury of napping whenever I please.

What I really want to say to those moms giving advice is…

You mean I’m not going to be able to nap every day after school and eat cereal for every supper because my child(ren) will need to be supervised and will require a well rounded meal? Huh. Because I thought I’d have the leisure of napping and eating whatever I’d like for my next pregnancy.

I know that labor will be hard and exhaustive.

Labor is, by definition, meant to be a difficult task. If I were under the impression that labor was some simple task, I probably wouldn’t be mentally psyching myself up for the big event...even though it’s still 6 months away.

What I really want to say is…

Actually, I thought the definition of labor was something completely different. I’m so glad you cleared that up for me.

I know that babies are expensive and require a lot of work.
While we don’t have a ton of extra income right now, I know that our priorities for spending will change. Not only our priorities, but our budgeting will change too. And those priorities and budgeting aren’t the only things to worry about. I know that it’s going to be a lot of work and that we’ll be exhausted.

What I really want to say is…

You know, we decided to start a family because we thought we had too much excess income from both of our teaching salaries, so we needed to spend it somewhere. And we really only want to see our child(ren) for a few hours a day because daycare and school should be the ones raising them.

I do know that my alarm clock will not be going off at the same time it is now.
I know that my child(ren) will wake me up much earlier than I’m used to now. I don’t like mornings and I know I’m going to look like a hot mess (every day, if I’m being honest). I know that even though I’ll be waking up earlier, I still might have less time to get ready for my day.

What I really want to say is…

As a matter of fact, it’s a bummer my kid won’t wake up to my alarm clock because I have a ton of time in the morning the way it is. All of that extra time will now be spent caring for a child instead of showering for 4 minutes.

Most importantly, I do already know that this little child will change my life forever.
I know that my nights will be filled with feedings and diaper changes. I know that my days at work will be filled with counting down the minutes until I get to pick our little baby up from daycare. I know that my life will change drastically. 

What I really want to say is…

I know and I can't wait. 

A little announcement...

If you follow us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter you'll already know what our announcement is.

Last night Kyle and I celebrated our fifth Valentine's Day together. Our first date was on Valentine's Day 2012 and with every year that goes by, I enjoy our time together more and more.

For our first Valentine's Day, Kyle made me dinner at my apartment. It was a nice way to spend our first "date"...quietly in and together.

This year, our weekend was spent the same way. Saturday night we ordered in pizza and last night, I made dinner for the two of us.

Quiet weekends are some of my favorites. I love being able to spend time at home with Kyle. And this year we are cherishing the quiet moments even more. That's because we will be adding a third member to our family this July!

Stick around and join us in this journey!

Happy Monday!

Five on Friday

It's Friday! Thank. Goodness.
A. Liz Adventures hosts Five on Friday every week, so head over there to see what she's got in store today.

one | Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day will be our fifth Valentine's together. I do realize I've not yet written our story, but this will have to do for now. Our very first date was on Valentine's Day 2012 and our first married Valentine's Day was in 2014.

So since our fifth Valentine's Day is coming up this weekend, I'm excited for all of the events of the weekend. As far as I know, we don't have much planned, but I certainly hope we do something.

two | Master Chorale concert

Kyle sings with the local Master Chorale and they have a concert tonight. L'amour: bliss and angst is the name of the series tonight and apparently it's a compilation of love songs. Kyle wasn't too pumped about singing in French. Too bad.

And my parents are coming over for the concert, so that should be a lot of fun.

three | woodworking

Kyle asked for a shelf for Valentine's Day and he doesn't believe that I made some of the furniture pieces I say I did. So I'm making him a shelf. Check it out.

four | book club

We are reading Me Before You this month for book club. If you've not gotten a copy of it yet, make sure that you do. I'm about half ways through and I'm not sold on it, but it keeps getting better!

 

five | The Life of Bon

Disclaimer: I don't watch "The Bachelor". I have a handful of coworkers who do, but I've just never gotten into it. However, I've found myself going back to read Bonnie's recaps each week because her take on the whole thing is just hilarious. If you watch "The Bachelor" or even if you don't, go check her out. She's funny.

And don't forget to check in for the Valentine's post.

Follow me here, here, or here to see what's up first.

Happy Friday!

Conference Recap

I’m a teacher. I’m a teacher and I love it. I love teaching and I love learning. One thing about the education field is that we teachers never stop learning. Last weekend is a great example of how we never stop learning.

North Dakota United is the North Dakota Education and Public Employee union. As teachers it’s a fabulous organization to help us advance in the area of teaching and advocacy.

Last weekend, we were able to go to the NDU Bargaining and Advocacy Conference. And let me tell you, I was not excited to go. I had a very poor attitude about the entire thing.   I’m just so tired and I don’t want to be away from home. Do we really have to go? I know it’s a free conference, but still. I don’t want to be there. Kyyyylllleeeeee. See. I was a gem to be around.

But we went and I’m so glad we did. We were able to visit and connect with some of our colleagues from around the state and dive more in-depth on issues that we're interested in.

Speaking of colleagues...if you’re in District 16 in West Fargo, check out Lisa Dullum’s campaign for the ND House! Go like her Facebook page and help her get elected! Lisa has some great ideas for our state, especially in the area of education.

Alright, now that you’ve checked out Lisa’s page, let’s continue. My full day of sessions started off with a Viral Marketing and Communications session led by Kelly Hagen from NDU. We learned that in order to reach our target audience, we need to be connected to social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Let's see how well we can do with our association.

I followed that up with a session on Rights and Ethics within the education profession, led by lawyer Mike Geierman. He discussed the differences between ethics and law. He proceeded to use local (our state) examples that we can all relate to.

And we finished up with Grievance Procedures in education. It was great to hear about how to go about trying to be heard if you're not sure that "right" is being done by you. And I know, our day sounds awfully dull. But it really wasn’t. Honest. I really love to learn and when it’s information centering around my passion it’s that much more exciting.

If you’ve survived this post, you’re now fully realizing how much of a nerd I am and how much I loved these sessions. If you’re interested in what we discussed in each of these sessions, I’d be happy to talk to you about them! Shoot me an email or leave me a comment below.

As always, Happy Thursday!

And stay tuned, a special Valentine’s Day post is coming your way this weekend.

What is winter doing?!

Winter is here. I mean, looking out the window on Monday I saw the epitome of winter in North Dakota. Snow is blowing. The sky is grey/white because of the clouds and precipitation. The wind is blowing (30mph thankyouverymuch). It’s winter.

I know that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, therefore we’re supposed to have an early spring. But I’m overly skeptical today. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Northern Minnesota and it seems that an “early” spring makes a debut at the end of April and a “late” spring doesn’t arrive until the end of May. But a blizzard doesn't give me much reassurance.

I don’t have high hopes for spring arriving any too “early”.

Kyle and I got phone calls from the school district Monday morning at 5:30 letting us know that it was a 2 hour late start. It was wonderful to hear that. But when I looked at the list of area schools, I was glad that I wasn’t driving anywhere. There were 80+ weather related announcements and the road reports looked rough.

So, we’re very thankful that we have jobs in town and that we have reliable vehicles to get us to and from school every day.

And on that note, who is planning a “spring break” trip? I need some warm thoughts sent my way, as I look out at the blizzard blowing outside my window.

Happy Wednesday!

Five on Friday

It's time for another Five on Friday with A. Liz Adventures! It's been a while since I've participated, so let's see how it goes.


one | school

Block 4 is just about half done and it's crazy to think this is our longest block! At my school we run a 6 block year. Students have 2 classes per block for 3 hours per day and each block is approximately 30 days long. This way they are able to earn their 6 credits per year, but only have 2 classes at a time. When I first started, it was hard to adjust to the new schedule and the routine of having to do grades 6 times per year. But as I've grown accustomed to the routine, I've realized just how much faster the year seems to fly by!


two | conferences

Kyle and I are headed to a conference for the state's teachers' union. Exciting stuff. I know. Even though it's a conference for work, we will get to see Kyle's parents and we don't even have to fork over money for a hotel! Woohoo!


three | books

I just started the book for this month's discussion, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

 

I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but I'll keep you posted as I keep progressing. I think Aubrey has already finished the book. So there's that to keep in mind. 

four | crocheting

My friend, Beth, is pregnant and could give birth any day now and she asked me to crochet her little boy a new beanie hat. So I've been looking for some good patterns. What do you think of this one?

 

I'm hoping to knock it out of the park this weekend in the car on the way to and from the conference...and getting more of my book read. 

five | camp patton

She's back! And I couldn't be more excited! When I saw that Grace was back to blogging, I almost fell out of my chair. I also had to share it on Facebook because I love her blog that much. She's hilarious, real, and she's got 5 of the most adorable kids ever. Head on over to Camp Patton to check her out. And if you like The Bachelor, you'll enjoy her recaps.

Now head on over to A. Liz Adventures to check out the other Five-on-Friday blog posts!

Happy Friday!

January Book Discussion

I'm sorry I'm so late on getting this up. I was waiting until Aubrey's post was up so I could put part of it here and then I got sick = no bueno.

So here are some of her thoughts from this last month's book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

(via)

1. Did you like the book? Was it what you were expecting or hoping for? Why or why not? As I admitted before, I had pregamed this book a couple of years ago so I had a little idea of what I would be reading. However, what I didn’t realize was the two parallel story lines that would co-exist throughout the book. Overall, I appreciated the intertwining of the personal Lacks story with the scientific research and development so, yes, I did like the book. I found myself constantly thinking about how much I would love to use this book in my classroom, but my current school is too conservative for some of the content. The issues raised about medical ethics, healthcare, poverty, race, etc. would be fascinating to work through with high schoolers as many students are just starting to form their own opinions on such things at this stage of their lives and this book offers valuable insight into such a life-changing discovery that still affects us in so many ways today.
2. What did you think of the style of the book? Skloot wrote a nonfiction piece that read as a piece of narrative fiction. Did you like that? Why or why not? At this point in my life, I really appreciated the narrative tone of this book. I read so much academic nonfiction for my job and graduate school that I enjoyed getting lost in a book that read like fiction but was actually nonfiction. I just finished another book of the same style, Brain on Fire, and I highly recommend checking it out—I finished it in four days!
3. Of the two concurrent storylines in the book, did you find yourself favoring one over the other?Going into the book, I had no idea that the scientific research storyline even existed. Overall, I enjoyed the humanistic storyline of the Lacks more, but I really do appreciate the insight and development brought on by the more objective research. While I do not necessarily agree with the way Henrietta Lacks’ situation was handled, the research storyline helped me to see and understand how events were able to unfold as they did and why the doctors felt they were justified to act as they did. I found the Lacks family to be very deep and complex, even if they may not appear as such on the surface. Their issues of poverty and lacking education really gave life and reality to many issues Americans have faced in the past and some are still facing today, especially with the issues of Common Core and Obamacare at the forefront of our nation.

Head on over to her blog to check out her last 2 points of the story. And don't forget to join us in reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. We will have our discussion questions out during the last week of February and our group discussion will be here on Saturday, February 27! 

Happy Wednesday, everyone!