the last and the first.

"How was your last day of student teaching?"

is a very common question in my life currently. It makes my heart beat a little faster and a grin come on my face for different reasons. For one, I have actually completed something well. I feel like I did a job well done when it comes to this category.

Another reason is because I had the greatest kiddos in the world. No exaggeration there whatsoever. Every single class threw a surprise party for me. I've never had a surprise party before. Before first period, all of my little jokers were sneaking in grocery bags and boxes and refused to make eye contact with me. It was like they thought: "If I don't see her, she can't see me." Cute little boogers. Each class had a cake for me and they made cards and wrote me thank-you notes. My fourth period went all out with a banner and apparently they had been preparing for this for days, if not weeks. Like I said, cute little boogers.

My teacher even gave me a fantastic present: She "robbed the English office" and gave me a ginormous bag of school supplies: grade books, pens, pencils, dry erase markers, high lighters, etc.

It was hard for the bell to ring at 2:18 but it happened. I loaded my car up with my loot and headed for home. While driving I made a few phone calls to fellow LTN-ers and mi madre and left voicemails that sounded something like, "I AMMMM DOOOONNNE. D-O-N-E. DONE! DONE, DONE, DONE!" I'm sure they enjoyed it.


On my way home, I checked my Twitter to find out that my beautiful friend Caleb's grandmother wasn't expected to make it through the night. I immediately U-turned in the middle of Gorman Street and headed to The Ranch. I don't have an update, but I do know that God is Sovereign and Caleb and his family are in His hands. If you're the praying kind, I'd appreciate it. Caleb's grandfather past away back in the summer and this is an incredibly hard time for his family.

After Caleb had to leave, I headed out to dinner with some other LTN girls to celebrate the conclusion of this crazy ride. It was super fun but exhausting at the same time.

My darling Ally, one of my best friends in the major, leaned over and asked if I wanted to catch a movie with her. We headed out to the $1.50 and caught up with friends, Risa and Dre. We went to see Easy A, which is an adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. If there wasn't so much cursing in it, I would totally buy it and use it in my classroom. It was super cute, but all of the four letter words ruined it for me.

On the way back from the movies, Risa said, "Hey Rebekah, are you going to Hannah's tonight?" CRAAAAAAPP!!!! My girlies were having a Christmas party and I had COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN! I sped over to UWoods and joined in the celebration for a couple of hours.

By midnight I was exhausted and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.


"How was your first day of not student teaching?"

is another popular question in my life.

True story: I spent it in bed.

I didn't set an alarm. When I woke up, I took the dog outside, came back in to bed and watched a season of Friends, a couple of movies and a few episodes of Will and Grace while eating many, many bowls of spaghetti. The only reason I changed into good sweatpants instead of holey ones was because My Kelsey texted me, "There's too much cheese ball left over from the party last night. Go eat it." I consequently spent the next 7 hours at their apartment.


A couple of you have noticed the mention of a dog in my Tweets and my blog posts.
Well, it's official: My puppy has come to live with me!

It's a long story, but she's here and I'm loving it. She's a lot of work and I definitely cannot be as independent as I once was (ie, I had to come home last night at 3 am instead of crashing on my girls' couch because I didn't want Milley to be alone), but she's worth it.

My Hannah hates animals. Cannot stand them. I find it amusing because we're so similar in almost everything else and she's also the most caring human being on the face of the planet. But it's true, she hates dogs. She puts up with Milley because she loves me, but that's about as far as it goes. My Hannah has noticed, however, that Milley seems to have taken on my personality in the many years that we have been together:

1. Everyone that walks in the door is there to see her.
2. She will crawl into anyone's lap and demand attention, and she's just so cute, you can't help but love her.
3. She doesn't understand the concept that some people just don't like her.
4. She's stinkin' dramatic.

Case in point: I was enjoying my day in bed yesterday, but every now and again I would get up and take Milley outside to do her business. About 4pm yesterday, Milley was done sitting around. She wanted to go on the run that I promised her (before I knew it was going to be raining all day) and she wanted to dance around and get dirty and sweaty--I wasn't having any of that. I was beautifully curled up in my beloved bed and wasn't planning on getting out that day. Milley came up put her nose up next to my nose and starting licking my face and whining a bit.

"Baby, I am not taking you outside. Now come lay down."

She whined a bit more until she realized I wasn't playing. Then, dramatically, she plopped (not laid, plopped) herself onto the floor beside my bed and sighed loudly. After a few sighs, she looked up to see if I had changed my mind. When she realized I had not, she sighed some more. Looked up. Laid back down. Sighed some more. Looked up. Laid down. Sighed some more.

When she realized I really was not moving, she huffed (not sighed, huffed), and rolled over so she was no longer facing me.

Diva.