Moving day!

Hey there b's and g's! It's been a little bit but I have a good excuse...I moved! Step 2 (after step 1 of finding a job) was to find the perf apartment in the metro area. My bestie Amanda and I had searched all summer and after a fate-filled 24 hour span of time not only welcomed a 3rd roommate-the lovely Miss Hannah-but also found a wonderful 3-bed/2-bath in OKC! All 3 of us are excited and thrilled to have a spacious apartment in the city and after a month of facebook messaging and tweets of excitement, we finally moved in yesterday. Imagine this: We live in Oklahoma, it's July 27th, 1:00pm, and there's been a state-wide burnban for the entire summer. To say it was a little warm would be an understatement. Tonight is my first night in the new place and after 2 days of moving and rearranging (plus the request of a bff) I decided to share some do's and don'ts for moving day. So here we go:

DO'S:
1. Plan ahead-don't wait until the day before to start talking to your roommates about who has what and what you still need. It made such a different to start talking as soon as we knew we had a place when it came to furniture, appliances, etc.

2.Bring help-whether it's a friend, significant other, family memeber, whoever...BRING SOMEONE. This is not moving out of a dorm! This is real life. It is so helpful to have help when it comes to awkward shaped pieces as well as heavy pieces. Not to mention time efficient and good bonding time. :)

3. Pick rooms before you start unloading-if you know who is getting what room, you can set up and arrange furniture as you go rather than load it all in the living and decide later.

4. Take breaks-especially in the middle of the summer this is crucial! We all took a few minutes to grab a drink, sit down, and cool off between trips. It makes a difference I promise, and also leads me to my next point.

5. Bring drinks/food-loading up a cooler with water and gatorade and packing a bag of snacks will be the best decision you ever made.

6. Sit back and enjoy your work-take the time to sit down, look around, and enjoy the hard work you've done. Moving is hard work! Sitting down to talk about how homey it feels and how great it looks is important.

DON'TS:
1. Look cute-this is not the time to put make up on or wear your good clothes. Throw on some workout clothes and consider packing a back up pair in case you sweat through your others (and you will).

2. Sit back and watch everyone else unload your stuff-All 3 of us and our helpers were AMAZING! Everyone helped everyone with their truck loads and it worked out so well.

3. Help your roommates-I promise you it works better if you help them. If trucks just take turns in the spot closest to the door and everyone helps each one unload it goes a million times faster.

4. Do everything in one day-I personally don't even have everything up here yet and our living room in still full of boxes. Do a room a day and you can see instant results. We each did our bedroom yesterday and then today Hannah and Amanda did the kitchen and we all worked on the living/dining this afternoon and evening. As we unpack more boxes it's so much easier to find a place for things because we are doing it a day at a time.

5. Lock yourself out-bc then you'll set your car alarm off and all the neighbors will come outside to see who the new people are. :)

Remember, this is an exciting time! For most it means starting a new journey and living somewhere they haven't before. Take time to sit and talk to your roommates. Go to dinner, shop for new fun things, or just watch tv while all talking about how fun this year is going to be. It will all get done and moved up that flight of stairs I promise. If you have any thoughts, comments, or a do/don't of your own, please share! I'd love to hear about other people's moving day experiences. Happy moving!

I'm really bad at this

So it's been about 4 months since I've posted anything new on here, which is entirely too long! I spent my last semester at OSU going through some very exciting changes and soaking up every single bit of my last months in STW. The teacher in me is saying that it's much easier to just make a list of things that have happened since you last read. So, here we go.

1. I graduated! Yes it's true, my victory lap finally came to an end. I have to say that I did enjoy my last year at OSU and I learned so much more than I ever thought I would; however, I really missed my SA girls. Luckily I have the best friends in the world and they all made multiple trips to come to Stillwater, including my graduation. I seriously have the best friends ever.



2. I got a job! I cannot believe I found a job at the perfect school. I really could not be any more excited to begin teaching in the fall and start growing my little family of firsties. Here's a sneak peek of Ms. McKnight's 1st grade classroom...



3. I learned a lot about myself. Student teaching was an experience I will never forget. I was tested in ways I never thought that I would be and was emotionally and mentally drained for most of the year. However, I spent a lot of my weekend time reflecting, learning, and planning for what I had going on and what was to come. It's amazing how connected you can get to yourself when you take the time to do it.

4. My little brother graduated HS! That's right, the McKnight household has 2 graduations this year. M and D are doing ok, although both kids are living at home for the time being which hasn't happened in 2 years. August should be interesting.

5. Nature and I acknowledge each other.

There are countless other things that happened and that are going on but I realize my life is not that interesting. I have been contemplating starting a new blog to track my journey from student to teacher so be on the lookout for that. As for the rest of the summer, I'm back at good ol Ed's waiting tables and saving up for my big girl life as well as preparing to move to OKC with my other half Amanda. Exciting things coming up for Ms. McKnight. Yikes. Real world, here I come.

Aprons aren't just for cooking

So as many of you know, I am in my last stretch on my road to becoming a teacher. I think that it is very important to join a community of other educators and pool your resources in order to better the education of children. Over the past five years I've met a lot of really amazing future teachers, one of them being Miss Claire Knight. Miss Knight has just started a blog discussing her adventures in student teaching. I hope to do this when I have my own classroom but I love Claire's idea to start one now.

While I was looking at her blog last night, she posted something that caught my eye. She has been working on creating teacher aprons to ease the running of a classroom. Many times teachers need pens, post-its, markers, kid sticks, tape, etc but it's not convient to stop what you're doing and go get it. Her apron provides pockets for all of these teacher essentials and they are super cute! I would have never thought of this but it's a really great idea.

Miss Knight is giving away two of these aprons to two lucky readers and you can find out all about her giveaway here. I hope that you all take time to read about her adventures in the teacher world. And kudos to Claire for her amazing idea!

Bring it on 2011

Happy New Year b's and g's! I cannot believe it's already 2011. I hope that you all had a wonderful NYE and are all finally recovered. I spent the weekend getting my little Kelsey married off to a wonderful man. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to and I found myself feeling very blessed to have the people in my life that I do. I'm not usually the sentimental type but the feeling of love was so obvious I couldn't help but be thankful for the people I've met in the past four years of college.


For those of you that don't know, this is the year that I finally graduate from OSU. I have seriously enjoyed my time here but I'm ready to embark on my new journey. Starting on Monday I will be in my last student teaching semester at Sangre Ridge in the 1st grade. I am really looking forward to another great semester and cannot wait to meet my new classroom of students. I find myself searching sales and $1 aisles at the store to start building my very own classroom. I've decided to set some goals for myself so I'm not scrambling at the last minute and hope to have a job set by June 30. For a teacher this is pretty lofty but I have faith that things will work out.

I've also decided to do sort of a life cleanse. I've done some real thinking and decided to eleminate people and relationships from my life that don't make me a better person. While I am very grateful for every experience I've had in life, I think it's time to let some things go and look toward the future. I've realized that I'll be 23 in April and will start my real career in less than a year and it's time to start embracing the kind of person I want to be in the long run. It will def be challenging but I'm ready for it. I started last night by deleting about 40 people from my phone. I mean why was I holding on to the ex boyfriend from high school or the girl I did one group project with? I have no idea. Time to let go and move on.

I challenge all of you to look toward the new year with a new sense of self. I know many of you have taken on new adventures and I'm looking forward to doing the same. I started off the year with some really wonderful friends I haven't spent enough time with and I plan to remind myself how lucky I am for the family and friends I have been blessed with. Next on the list? A trip to Dallas in 9 days to see some of my very best friends. 2011 will be a year to remember, I can promise you that.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot?
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?"

Yes, I think that it's about that time.