What I've Learned From Gift Wrapping

Every year I wrap gifts. I wrap gifts more often than I even realize because, with my family, there's a birthday in literally almost every month. But then comes the holidays (for my family, Christmas) and everything explodes with ribbons and tape. 

Now, you would think with how often I wrap gifts that I would have some sort of actual system or plan going into the ordeal that is wrapping gifts for 6 family members as well as friends and my significant other and his family. There isn't. There hasn't been for as long as I can remember. It's really just a total mess, so here are some lessons that I have relearned again this year about gift wrapping:

1. Metallic wrapping paper often reflects light and makes mistakes less obvious.

         See? You can hardly tell this    needed two separate sheets of paper.

2. Make sure all of the supplies you buy to wrap gifts are unwrapped before you start. Nothing is more annoying than trying to pry open a fresh roll of tape while holding your perfectly flat paper against a gift.

3. There are two kinds of people in this world, those who hate curling ribbon, and those who can never have enough. (There's never enough curling ribbon.)

4. Simple can be the best looking, and obviously easiest, way to go about it. "Brown paper packages tied up with string" is definitely back in style and takes the guessing game out of matching colors.

5. Be prepared to lose everything. Put down the scissors, pick up the tape, spend 15 minutes looking for the scissors again. There's teally no winning unless you are insanely organized, which I am not.

6. Don't stress too much about how it looks. If you're awful at wrapping, there are always gift bags (and most stores will wrap what you buy for you). Also, the paper will end up on the floor and in the trash later anyways, so who care of it's not smooth or covered in tape or a weird color? The gift and the thought are what matter most.

If your had any revelations while gift wrapping this year, I'd love to hear the ! Happy holiday everyone, and happy second night of Hannukah!

Today, I Believe...

• That sometimes all you need is time, space, and coffee to power through the days ahead.
• Relationships are amazing and worth a lot of your attention, but never lose your head in them.  They may be the person you end up spending your life with, but your true friends will be there even longer.
• Endings are sad and scary, but there's always hope to fall back on.  It's never too late for a new beginning.
• Finding new music that you instantly love is one of the greatest pick-me-ups in rough times.
• It really is okay to eat an entire half of a cake while you're mentally unstable.  Just make sure, when you come back around, you do an extra lap or so around the track.

Happy Monday, everyone.  I hope you've all been well! (Or are getting well after the onset of seasonal allergies have kicked in).

Things I've Learned: Living in Oklahoma

So after a month of staying in Oklahoma, I feel like I have a fair assessment of how I feel about this place.  Here's a short list of things I've learned living in Oklahoma:

• Oklahoma is a flat state.  Flat states mean an insane amount of wind because there's literally almost nothing to block it.

• That being said, if you're a girl, you better be good or get good at doing your hair in an updo of some sort or carry a brush with you at all times.  Or just cut all of your hair off completely.  There's literally no point in trying to leave it down.
  
  

  

  I was outside for about 4 seconds to take this...

• If you live in the area I do, airplanes are a part of every day life.  Every day, all day.  Even if you can't see it, you're sure to hear it.                                

  

                                                                             

• Whether it's considered a Southern state or a Mid-Western state, apparently there's almost no such thing as 'southern hospitality' around these parts.  I don't know if it's just the time of year, but most people I've encountered down here are grumps, too.
• The Bible Belt is almost literally visible through Oklahoma City.  There's a line of hospitals with gigantic, lit-up crosses on the sides of the buildings. 
• People in Oklahoma have NO idea how to handle snow and ice.  The schools were literally shut down for 3 days because of an inch of snow.  Also, this is what they consider a snow plow...
  

Things I've Learned from Courtney & Nick

My sister is getting married this weekend!  I am so excited for her and her new life with Nick, who is such a great guy for her.

They've definitely had their plates full for the last year, with Nick being deployed with the Air Force, both of them moving to Oklahoma, as well as planning the wedding and all of the things that go along with it. I'm not sure how they've managed to get everything done in such a short time, especially with my sister starting a brand new job down in OKC, but they've managed to get everything together and seem to be handling the stress a little better than some couples do.

 They've been up in Connecticut for the past few days and on Monday I got to spend the day with them putting together some of the final details for their special day.

This man was a great help in finding THE shoes!

Things I've Learned From Courtney & Nick

• Life is a great balancing act, and when you can't get what you want you  can always learn to accept someone else's way.
• Value the people who value their own happiness.  They're the ones who give the best advice.
• If it's meant to be, it will be, and it's well worth the wait.
• Things don't always go as planned, but things will always work out for the best in the end.
• Love can deal with distance, especially if you're the adventurous type and can close the gap one day.
• Taking a risk can be the only thing between you and the life you want. The worst that can happen is getting turned down, in which case you move on.

Congratulations Nick and Courtney!  I'm so insanely happy for the both of you and I wish you all the luck in the world, although I know you won't need it.  I'm so excited for the wedding Saturday!  Love you both!

Things I've Learned From Living On My Own

I've been trying to move out of my parents' house since I was 18 years old.  Not that I don't love my parents, I do, I just always felt like I was stuck there and relying on them, which I didn't want to do for forever.  I can honestly say, I'm glad I stayed with my parents as long as I did.  Being an adult is hard, and if you don't think so, you are probably not doing it right.  Or you're way more self-motivated than I am.

Things I've Learned From Living On My Own:

• Speaking of self-motivation, this is something you need to be really good at.  And if you aren't good at it, you better learn to be good at it, and quickly, otherwise nothing gets done.
• Getting things done is hard.  And expensive.
• There is a lot more cleaning involved than you will ever be okay with doing.  Always.
• You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want.  That isn't as great as it sounds (especially after you realize you gained 8 pounds in 2 months).
• Family suddenly feels closer once you get farther away.  When I lived at home, I could go a week without seeing a member of my family.  Now that I live an hour away from them, I hear from most of them almost every other day.
• I have too much stuff.  I need to get rid of it because it's still sitting in boxes three months later...

I need to have a yard sale... And a good work out routine.

Things I've Learned From Hannah

My sister Hannah's birthday was the 15th, and I'm obviously getting to this post a little bit late.  Randomly recently, I remembered a time when we were a lot younger and my older sister, Courtney, and I made Hannah eat maple leaves from the trees because we would play Land Before Time and they were the tree stars.  I wonder if they remember that =P  Happy birthday, Hannah!

Things I've Learned from Hannah:

• Sometimes, the only thing you need to clean your room is $10 and OCD sister.
• Pie nights and Gal-entine's Day hold special meaning and should be done as often as possible.
• Pipe dreams and plans of owning a bakery are a great distraction from not-so-fun current jobs.
• Discount, post-holiday candy and zombie movies make for great nights and paranoid survival packing.
• Walking Dead episodes are way more intense if someone is sitting next to you screaming and/or almost crying.
• You always need a sidekick who will follow along for long drives or 1:00 AM Walmart trips.

Welcome to your 20's, little sis.  Love you!

Things I've Learned From My Brother

As some of you may already know, I come from a fairly large family (3 sisters and a brother) which rarely leaves room for dull moments.






My brother, Brandon, is turning 18 tomorrow!  I am so proud of him for sticking it through high school and getting everything into place so he can graduate in a month and he's become such a great guy because of all of the work he's done.  Congratulations, little brother, on everything you've accomplished and I couldn't be happier for you.  I know this is a big year for you and I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Things I've Learned from Brandon:

• Music is sometimes the only way to explain how you feel and can often explain it better than you can.
• Being a peacemaker is hard, so when in doubt, make them laugh.
• There's a lot to be said about the value of hard work.  There's also something to be said about sleeping until 5 PM.
• Don't be afraid to be goofy.  You can be your own best joke. But don't worry, people will still take you seriously.
• Homemade costumes can be just as great as store-bought.  However, homemade costumes are easier to fit over casts due to over-confidence in your Spidey Senses.
• Be interesting. Be amazing. Be a super hero.

Things I've Learned from Kaeley

Kaeley has become one of the nearest and dearest friends I've come to know over the past three years now, and now we're moving in together!  She's been my backbone and my other half of crazy for the last few months and I can't thank her enough.  From Kaeley, I've learned that...

• ...if you have three days off, it's kind of okay to spend all of that time on Pinterest
• ...putting a ton of things into online shopping carts with no intentions to actually buy them all right now is perfectly acceptable (and keeps your wallet happy)
• ...booze and baking, so long as mishaps are avoided, go hand-in-hand because everything is more delicious.
• ...being the boss doesn't mean you will have all the answers, and you shouldn't always have all the answers anyways because then you look like a snob.
• ...decorating and organizing is really exciting and fun, especially if both people have the same ideas/tastes.
• ...boyfriends can be left on the sidelines for a while and be perfectly okay while you go out and do things with your lady-friends.  They have video games and other things to do, too.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to move in with Kaeley.  We've been in the processing and packing and planning stages of the move so far and (hopefully) within the next week I'll be in the house!  I hope (and sort of know) she's as excited as I am.  Happy birthday, Kae (on Friday)!

Things I've Learned from Working in a Daycare

• Learn to be resilient. Don't expect to have a perfect day, expect things to go wrong, and learn how to deal with it when it happens.

• Little kids are some of the most confusing people on the planet. They can be sobbing and then realize what a beautiful day it is and want to run outside within 0.001 seconds.

• Schedules are important to avoid meltdowns on normal days.

• Kids are tough. No, really. I've seen some surprisingly quick comebacks from some brutal take downs. They're also brutally honest.
  
  
• This is probably the only job I will have had that it was completely acceptable to be barefoot.
  
  
• Sometimes, the people you work with will drive you completely insane, but other times they become your strongest support system and the people you enjoy seeing every day .

As I walk out of work on Friday afternoon, I honestly don't now how it's going to work out. I'm sure it will either hit me all at once before I even leave, or it will take me the better part of the next week to realize it.

Over the past two years that I've been a staff member here, I've learned more than I had ever cared to know about wrangling 50 kids between first and third grade, remembered how terrifying and rewarding it is to graduate from preschool and think about starting at the 'big kid school', and at only 21 years old, how bittersweet it is to be on the other end of the spectrum and put my whole preschool class onto the bus for their first day of kindergarten.

It's been an emotional ride for me, hopping from class to class and getting to know the array of teachers, each one of the kids, and most of the parents. I'm surprised to find myself going through the list of things that I'm genuinely going to miss about this job that I never thought I would, like “Bear Hunt” and never seeming to have enough of one thing or another (which was usually when I thought of it at the last second).

Then again I'm less surprised by the things everyone misses when they leave or when the children simply get older and move on, such as the post-nap cuddling, playing Capture the Flag between School Age and TASC, and all the times we found kids and teachers alike laying on the tile floors during the summer because it was just simply too hot to move. Not to mention the little girl that started calling me 'Merica... That's almost too cute to handle.

I can honestly say that this has been the most unique and possibly the most demanding job I've held. Between making baked apples in the microwave with Preschool 1, helping my Preschool 2 class prepare for kindergarten, help the Toddlers figure out how to put on their coats all by themselves and teaching the School Age Kids a few new games, (all while working alongside my older sister, my younger brother, and my mother), I couldn't have asked for a harder, more frustrating, yet rewarding and fun task along with the endless blown kisses and body slams from the kids themselves.

So as I leave, I want to thank everyone for their patience, love, and support over the years (as well as constructive criticism) and for helping me learn as much from you and the children as I hope I taught them in the time I've had with them.

I know it's only been a little more than two years, but you kind of get attached to jobs like this.  I'll definitely be making visits back to see everyone.