blown away.

it's official: i'm an occasional blogger at best, a sporadic blogger at worst.  however, over the past month (specifically the past week) i have been blown away by the kindness and generosity all around me and i absolutely have to share it with you.

i'm not ashamed to admit that at times (or many times) with my new job i've felt overwhelmed.  i'm a little baby teacher and i often lack the confidence needed to execute everything i want to execute.  it's been quite a test of patience to develop long term goals -- i'm such an instant gratification type person that i've really had to take a step back and pace my tasks.

this past week was my FIRST BOOK FAIR EVER (besides the last one i went to when i was 10 years old) and i SURVIVED.  there were 100000 things i could've done better, but there were at least a couple things that i did right.  i'm calling it a success, even if my financial form isn't filled out just yet.  it was one of those mental successes.  i had to get through it to know that i could get through it.

and speaking of getting through it, i could never in a million years have survived without the generosity of my volunteers (and my dad who was manipulated into spending TWO ENTIRE DAYS with me at my book fair).  these are some of the most selfless people i have ever met and i am truly blown away by their kindness.  they gave up hours upon hours to sit at cash registers, straighten books, or offer a warm smile.  there were also so many teachers (who are BEYOND busy with their own things) that stopped by to lend a hand during planning periods, pass along words of encouragement, or just remind me to breathe (or share a halloween cookie with me).  you can't find those types of people these days.

and besides that, my precious college roommate, who happened to get married this past weekend, took the time out of her week-before-the-wedding-crazy-time to send me words of encouragement about the book fair.  (and side note: the wedding was amazing, no one tripped down the aisle, AND i got to spin around in circles in a field during photographs ... my kind of party!)

so what have i learned the past week (and month)?  there's good all around me.  good moments, good learning experiences, and most importantly, good people.  i'm a blessed baby teacher.

ode to dad

happy father's day to my rockin' dad!  in honor of this glorious day and his glorious self, i've composed a little ditty just for tom.

and okay, it's not a little ditty at all.  it's just a straight up 5-7-5 haiku.  but whatever.  my blog.  my ditty.

handsome witty tom

never stays awake for gifts

christmas means he sleeps

and in case that wasn't enough for you on this father's day, here are 8 fun facts that make tom special.

8 fun facts you maybe didn't know about tom 

somewhere on that tree snoopy is flying in circles.

1.  one time mom had a snoopy christmas ornament.  snoopy was an angel of sorts and one of his wings somehow broke off.  dad offered to fix it.  alas, snoopy's wing got glued on upside down.  now snoopy appears to fly only in circles.











2.  tom drove me to school most days in middle school.  like all cool dads and daughters, we'd sing all the way from our house to the school.  the air force song was our favorite song to sing.    

3.  tom was my soccer coach before i realized i hated organized and competitive team sports.  one night he foolishly played goalie as we practiced our penalty kicks.  that is the night i broke his pinky finger.  he should've known better than to try to block my rocket kick.  sadly we don't have pictures of the broken finger.  but it's still funky looking today.  ask him about it.

we love to go to epcot and take this same picture each time.

4.  tom and i like to travel.  we try to attend both the renaissance festival and an atlanta braves game each year and soon-ish we're planning on conquering harry potter world.  one year i brought a friend along to a braves weekend and the three of us decided to play hide and seek in the hotel.  it turns out the hilton employees don't like it when you do this.  lesson learned from dad: be sneakier when you're hiding.

jennifer's not biting dad's neck. i promise.

5.  when my sister and i were little, my dad always played in the pool with us.  or at least i always remember him playing in the pool with us.  we had some really intense gliding competitions.  he always won, but i'm pretty sure it was just because i was 3 feet tall.  i demand a rematch now that i'm 5'2''.

cooking time!  and yes, my shirt says "mom's 30!"

6.  my sister and i enjoyed "cooking" alongside tom when we were little.  really we just put bags on our heads and pretended we were cool.  pretty sure we never made a thing.  but at least we looked so cute, right?

tom's third favorite school?  ecu.

7.  tom might be the only person in the entire world that truly loves both carolina and that other school equally.  i'm not kidding when i say that.  he prints out both basketball schedules and keeps them side by side on his nightstand and makes sure he schedules all of their games into his planner so he can coordinate.  and what about when they play each other?  he's always in a good mood because he says his team will always win.  frustrating much?

tom's moved me in and out of unc over 9 times.

8.  tom has moved me every single time i've moved schools, dorms, apartments, etc.  the only time he hasn't moved me was when i was little and he was at work.  that's when the gill girls moving company (don't you dare steal our name) would get bored with how things were and rearrange our rooms.  other than that, tom's a good little mover.  he claims to be done moving my stuff, but i'm pretty sure my furniture has a date with him scheduled in december.





 if you don't know tom yet, i'll gladly introduce you.  he's a riot.