Family

So....Brian asked me, "What are you going to blog about today?" And as I have sat here thinking about it...I have been watching around me.  I am visiting family in Provo.  My niece and nephew are playing in front of me.  We had the opportunity to go to church with them and their mom today.  It was a great time to be together as a family.  And then they came over to grandpa and grandmom's house to have dinner and hang out with us.

My nephew and I have always had a special bond.  I happened to be living with my in-laws for a period of time when he was about six months old.  His mom was in school and so he spent time at grandmoms.  I took care of him a lot at that time because grandmom had just broken her elbows.  I loved spending that time with him. He would light up anytime I was around which was my favorite thing. I was the favorite aunt! Then I moved to Roosevelt, and he didn't understand why I wasn't there a lot anymore.  Brian was still around then with our car situation at the time, and he knew we went together and I was told that he would always look around for me when Brian came in the room. He was disappointed when I wasn't there.  When I started coming for visits more often, he seemed mad at me.  It took a while until he warmed back up to me.  However, the nice thing is that to this day we still have a great relationship.  He made me a get well card after I got sick. This weekend he has told me a lot about what has happened to him and it has been great to spend time with him.

I love spending time with family!

This photo is actually really kind of old...like probably only one year after we moved to Roosevelt but it is seriously one of my favorites!

Top Posts for May

Today is the first day of June--can you believe that I am halfway through this 365 project?! I know I can't.  A lot has happened this month and stayed the same.  I am still in pain, though thankfully I am currently writing this from Provo where I will go see a doctor on Monday.  This month brought a new challenge that was great with a prompt everyday.  Sometimes the prompts were hard to do, but overall I really enjoyed the challenge.

The top posts for this month were:

3. Day 7: Things I'm Afraid of  This one was kind of short and sweet...happens when I've been tired but I love that people like those because I like writing them. Though this one started my Bout of Books goals so that makes sense too why it's so high.  Really shows that I should do more challenges!

2. Top Posts for April This one really doesn't surprise me because A to Z bloggers are awesome! Lots of people went around and looked at people's reflection posts--and yes though I am a bad fellow A to Z blogger I do hope to repent and get on linkys and go explore everyone's!

1. Day 9: One Moment  This had you choose a moment from the day to document with a photo and/or words...it so happened to be a day I stayed home from work and went to the doctor.  So with my ongoing pain saga it doesn't surprise me that this one was up there.

So that was May...here comes June.  My hopes for June are that I get better!  I also hope to get fully caught up at school (as fellow teachers go...um good luck!) I definitely want to get more caught up than I am.  June will also bring boxes....but more on that later.  Blog wise, we are going back to the original formula of book reviews, weird ramblings, school stories, teacher ideas, knitting things etc.  But now that I've seen these challenge things and as I mentioned before I should really do more of these to get more people here, I will be keeping my eye out and maybe hop on one every once in a while.  Really is that cheating?!  Hope not!

Graduation day...which was actually April 2010...so not really May but graduation days are usually in May

Day 31: Vivid Memory

Today is the last day of May...so it is the last day of the Blog Every Day in May challenge. I have enjoyed doing this challenge...I was glad to find out about it after A-Z Challenge because I was worried about coming up with my own posts again.  For June, I am going to try to go back to some of my own stuff.  However, on those days that I can't think of anything to write I might pop into some of the June challenges for inspiration.

Today's prompt is about a vivid memory.  And I am having a lot of trouble coming up with one. My husband suggested my scar story....but already did that for favorite childhood memory ....he also suggested the night he broke up with me.  That was a very painful night so I don't remember a lot of it enough to consider it a vivid memory---I blocked a lot of it. But that made me think that I could tell the story of how we met in general, because I don't think that's on here.

It was my sophomore year in college, and I actually had a different blog at the time.  It served more as a whiny journal (which might be why I don't want this one to become that).  I was able to track what fellow bloggers visited my site if they were logged in.  I saw an unknown log-in, but the profile picture looked familiar. He was in Provo, so I wondered if we had a class together.  After messaging a question to figure out how I knew him, I found out I actually didn't.  We did develop a relationship in the community and he let me know one time when he and his friends were going bowling that night. I vividly remember that night, meeting all of his friends (who I now know very well) and meeting Brian.  After bowling, we went out for ice cream at Leatherby's (our now favorite restaurant).

One of our engagement pictures

After that night, Brian and I became friends--I don't remember this, but Brian claims by my doing.  Shortly after that we started dating.....and that first day was a great vivid memory.

Day 30: Letting Go...

When I saw this prompt yesterday of writing about what comes to mind about letting go...I was a little bit of uh oh.  This challenge has really prompted me to open up a little bit more about myself on my blog (good for readers I hope?) but I shy away from making it super personal because who wants to read me whine everyday?  Which seriously, I could probably do for like ever!  But as I reminded myself today of the prompt and what I could write my mind went back to a conversation I had with co-workers today.

The past few days I have been realizing that last June was when my current professional life COMPLETELY changed.  To save company embarrassment and some good friends of mine's personal business all over this blog the reader's digest version is I lost a lot of good friends to work with, I increased my work load considerably (one job title to two then three).  I have had to learn to work with a boss that I do not get along with.  I have had to decide how invested I will be in my job (which as any teacher can attest to varies from day to day).  I have revamped a lot of how I teach, how I grade, and my relationship with students.  I have been apart of decisions in the company that I never thought that I would be apart of and some I wish I wasn't.  We have done our big social networking push this year and I have been glad to be apart of that. I just can't believe its been a year.

So bringing it around to letting go....over this year I have gotten less bitter about the causes of the changes and forgiven a lot of the root causes.  But I still miss certain people (and I hope they know who they are) on a regular basis.  One in particular often comes to mind when I don't know what decision to make--my brain does a WWCD? Sometimes I think I should just move on, still be friends, but let go of hoping to see them come around the corner.  But other days its nice to think that some day we will all work together again.  I love you guys!

I thought of the perfect picture for this post, but then I realized it is at school on a CD. So if I remember this picture will hopefully change

Day 29: My Life in Music

Today's prompt for the Blog Every day in May challenge asks me to share five songs that bring back memories or speak to me. My two sisters do a lot of song stuff on their blogs..it is a lot of fun to do this so here we go!

My number one favorite song right now is Kelly Clarkson's What Doesn't Kill You.  Yes it is a lot of people's favorite song but it speaks to me in a variety of ways each day--I can survive work, I can survive this mystery illness, etc.




Number two on the song list is Don't Forget Me from Smash...I love this song--I can't really put my finger on it but it is just really speaking to me just now.




Number three is a memory: Over My Head from The Fray.  This always reminds me of sophomore year of college...at that time was the first time I felt in over my head in my life....if only I could go tell myself that its nothing--it will get worse :P




Number four is another memory...our first dance song, the Luckiest from Ben Folds.



Last song...At Last by Etta James.  This was the prom theme my Senior Year and this song always takes me back to high school

Day 28: A Picture of a Teacher

Being a teacher is to a certain extent my life.  As I woke up this morning in A LOT of pain, tears, and exhaustion...I pulled myself together and went to work. It ended up being an ok day with an opportunity to teach some students things about social studies and English.  So with today's prompt being a picture I went back to the Cedar Ridge Academy Facebook page (we would love it if you went and liked us :P) and found this picture.

Yep...that's me on the ground!

We had an assembly a few months ago.  They talked about physics with skateboards and showed the kids a lot of things. They thought it was SO cool....but they needed audience participation.  He jumped over me without the board first, then just holding the board, and then actually on the board.  I wish we had a video of the last one...apparently I did an involuntary scream.  Yep this is what I end up doing as a teacher...and I love it!

Day 27: A Letter to You

Dear Readers,

Today's prompt from Blog Everyday in May Challenge is a letter to my readers (yes I think I just stated the obvious).  As a brand new blogger, I am grateful for every page view and for every follower.  When I very first started each follower was cheered for and each pageview was applauded.  Then I had the great opportunity to participate and survive the April A to Z Challenge.  This challenge put me on the map even more.  My followers more than doubled! I had waaay more page views! I loved it.

I love being able to participate in a great online community of fellow bloggers.  I love getting comments, and hearing what people say to my blog.  I know I need to be better about responding....but don't let that stop you from responding.  I read each one and appreciate each one!

Have a great Memorial Day and stop by anytime!
Kimberly @ Inspirefly

P.S. One of these days I might add those quick comments spots maybe. You click a button as a like/love/etc.  But I don't know if they just discourage comments.  Do other bloggers use those and like them? Hate them? Got them and got rid of them? Have them? Any thoughts would be great!