"We only have this in red...not pink."

.....if anyone knows me AT ALL, they know that this one sentence could actually have reduced me to tears (and HAS in the past). At the phone store, when they didn't have the phone I wanted in pink last year, I literally started to tear up. It's sad. It's a problem. My computer is pink. My toothbrush is pink. My retainer is pink. And my beautiful, wonderful, now BROKEN camera was hot pink. But I'm in Italy, my camera is broken, and I needed the best, cheapest one I could find. Which came in red. I'm a grown woman now, getting mature colored things. We'll see how long it lasts.

Anyways here are a couple pictures from my new camera...

I have kewl roommates.

Lounging in the kitchen.

My new camera has a "cuisine" mode.

Crystal likes to fry up her french fries and burgers when Italian food gets the best of her.

ALSO.
After buying my camera from a camera store (where thank GOODNESS they spoke English...I'm getting better at Italian but I don't even know how to tell people at the camera store what I want in ENGLISH let alone Italian. So I was grateful. And I showed him my memory card and told him I wanted an inexpensive one, and bought it)...but anyways after the camera store I went to this household goods store to buy a cheap blow-dryer. All of the shops in Italy are basically specialty shops. So this shop was owned by this nice old man who only spoke Italian. I went in, spoke Italian to ask for the blow-dryer I wanted...and he was so sweet! Before he sold me the blow-dryer, he took it out of the box and TESTED IT to make sure it worked. Show me a place in America that cares that much. Seriously. Show me.

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Mental Health Awareness Month Resources and Reflections

General Mental Health Awareness Resources (linked below): National Institute of Mental Health Mental Health America Brain and Behavior Research Foundation National Alliance on Mental Illness National Eating Disorders Association Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Donor Drive (in honor of Ryan P. Johnson) Myths v. Facts of OCD: International OCD Foundation

mood-o-meter

One of my main goals for my classroom this year is to teach my students how to communicate their emotions and use productive and healthy coping mechanisms. So, I introduce to Miss Forster's first grade class... ....DRUMROLL PLEASE..... The mood-o-meter!! Here's an example of a mood meter that I found online: Basically, here's how it works/how I want to use it. The colors can represent different types of feelings on the spectrum. Blue: low energy/unpleasant=sad, depressed, sulky, tired, etc. Green: low energy/pleasant=happy, content, peaceful, calm, etc. Yellow: high energy/pleasant=excited, surprised, enthusiastic, etc. Red: high energy/unpleasant=angry, frustrated, annoyed, etc. In our classroom this year, we are going to start the year off by learning about this spectrum of emotions-->the mood meter. We'll discuss what the different colors represent, what someone looks like when they're feeling each emotion, what you feel like doing whe...

"The further you travel, the smaller the world becomes."

Well isn't THIS the truth. Anyways. About two weeks ago, a group of five friends and I took a 10 day backpacking trip of Europe. To sum it up, we went from Rome to Portugal to Spain to the Czech Republic. We visited the cities of Lisbon, Seville, Barcelona and Prague. It was incredible. It was 10 straight days LIFE LESSONS, tests of PATIENCE, and adventures. Here's a little picture summary of the trip: The group, camped out at the train station in Rome, waiting to go to the airport. Night one of our trip: Sleeping in the Rome airport. Fun Fact: Airports are, in fact, NOT fun to sleep in. Especially when all you packed is one backpack, no blankets, no pillows, and no mattresses. An even MORE fun fact: The Rome airport is cold, especially in October, and especially at night. The next morning, we flew to Lisbon, Portugal! Enjoying the beautiful sunset in Lisbon. (Not posed or anything.) The girls (Mandi, Teagan, me, Allison) walking along the water in Lisbon on our firs...

"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation." -Glenn Close

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