Hi!!! Based on the feedback I received on my last chit chat post, I’ve decided to try and do this bi-weekly! The end of the year is always crazy and I wanna make sure you’re all in the loop with what’s going on. I didn’t know if I’d have much to share after only two weeks but I feel like a LOT of stuff has gone down in just 14-ish days so we’re gonna chat about it! Here we go:
Life updates.
— Ryan and I planned our end-of-year/winter trip! Every year we take a winter trip somewhere fun. This started back when I was in undergrad because winter is Ryan’s off-season for work which makes it easy for him to travel places between Christmas and New Years. Since I’ve been in school every year since we started dating, this has always worked out. Now that I’m working in a school, I still get this time off which is #exciting.
We were going back and forth between places but we finally decided that this year we’re going to…. San Diego and San Francisco!!! I’m so pumped. We fell in love with LA and I’m excited to explore other parts of California. Have you been to either place? Let me know any recs you have!
— This brings me to my next exciting news… Ryan and I are taking a page out of Tastebud Travels‘ book and attempting to travel once a month for all of 2020! What a way to kick off a new decade 🙂 I’m so excited! Ryan and I briefly talked about it after we visited with Thomas and Tiffani in Dallas and Ryan committed to making a spreadsheet and planning out some ideas for trips for all of next year.
Would you guys want a peek into our plans? I can def write a post about that and we’re always down to crowdsource some ideas 😉 We still have a few months next year without set plans!
— Ryan and I went to my friend’s Halloween party and had a blast! I wrote a whole post talking about our costumes and what we did that night so I won’t go into lots of details but I was v into my Matilda costume and am already thinking about what I want to be next year since Halloween is on a Saturday!
— I went to my first work Happy Hour a few Fridays ago! They are doing a year-long bar crawl which basically means every month for the school year we’re doing a happy hour at a different bar. I’m not sure if I mentioned her yet, but the Life Skills teacher, Maggie, and I are friends !!! She is 22 and this year is her first teaching job. She’s great and I love that our rooms are adjacent because that means we can pop in and check on each other throughout the day. I also see each of her kids for speech therapy so it’s nice to be able to work together.
— Started setting up my 2020 planner! I ended up getting the same exact planner and layout that I got last year. I’ve been using a separate planner for work, so this one leaves just the right amount of room for my personal life plans and checklists.
Honestly, I haven’t used my personal planner very much since work started but I’m hoping I can get better at that soon. Even if I’m just using it to document what spin classes I take and what blog posts I’m writing, that’s fine. I promise I’m going to write a post about my organization for work soon! October was my first full month in a ~groove~ with my planning/organization for work so now I feel like I’m in a place where I can write about it all and share with you!
— My best friends from HS, Kelsey and Lauren, and I got together for a girls night last night which was much needed! Lauren is an Emotional Support teacher and Kelsey is in grad school for Physical Therapy so we all have super busy lives/schedules. It is nice to have a night to just sit on the couch, drink wine, and chat about what has been going on. We have a group chat and a Snapchat group but there’s just something different about getting together in person to talk about stuff.
Recent purchases.
Amazon books — with the Goodreads Choice Awards in full swing, I decided to order a few books on Amazon that looked interesting! I ordered: The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, Evvie Drake Starts Over, When All Is Said, and Know My Name.
Gimme Beauty hair ties — I shared about this hair tie company on my IG a few weeks ago but I was so excited to try these! I’ve been using the classic size one all week and it has kept my hair in place so well!
Black fuzzy bomber jacket — I am obsessed with my new Teddy bomber! It’s black so it goes great with anything and I love wearing it to the studio over my workout clothes.
Target games for the Holidays in speech — I love what the Target dollar spot has right now toy-wise! I got some fake snowballs, some wooden food and a magnetic checkers/tic tac toe game. I also got Trouble during their game sale and a card game from Chuckle & Roar! Another one of their games, Red Light Green Light, is a hit too. It’s a quick, easy game to use during therapy and my kids enjoy it!
Reading + watching.
TV shows I’ve been watching — Ryan and I are attempting to watch Modern Family from season 1 to season 11! We love the show and have been wanting to do this forever. Ryan found a website that lets you stream it so that’s what we’ve been doing. This weekend I started the newest season of Atypical and I need to watch Queer Eye Japan! I need to catch up on This Is Us, too. I haven’t been watching a lot of TV lately!
Movies we’ve seen — Since my last update post we’ve seen: The Addams Family! We went to see the new animated version the week of Halloween. There haven’t been any good movies out since then so we’ve been slacking. We have the Regal Unlimited pass so we pay $21 a month to see as many movies as we want. Ryan has always loved going to the movies, so we’ve gone a lot together since we’ve been dating! It’s one of our Friday night traditions.
Books I’ve read — Check out all of my book update posts! I finished Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness and Matilda by Roald Dahl earlier this month but I included it in my October book update post. I read Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane last week and am debating on what to start next!
What I’m loving.
My heated blanket — Ryan’s mom got one for me for Christmas a few years ago and I am really loving it now that winter has hit the northeast! Ryan and I are trying to keep the heat low this winter to save some $$ so it has really come in handy so far.
S’well bottle — I have a 24oz S’well bottle that I take with me to school and spin. It is the best color, too. I previously owned a Hydroflask but didn’t love that the straw lid leaked so much. The widemouth was the right size but I couldn’t drink water out of an opening that big lol. This S’well is the perfect balance between size and ease of drinking.
Little Words Project bracelets — I love my LWP bracelets! They just announced this week that they are keeping custom bracelets on their website indefinitely! The “capable” bracelet was ordered around when I graduated from UD. I just bought one that says “grateful” which is a good reminder to have every day! They make super cute gifts. You could even order a custom bracelet for 2020 to match your “word of the year”.
