Saturday, March 28, 2015

One Foot In, One Foot Out

I feel like I'm in-between two lives right now.  I'm finishing out the school year here in MO, getting my students prepared for the end-of-course exams, helping my seniors prepare for graduation…and then I'm also mentally preparing myself for the huge life change that is moving halfway across the country.  I'm already thinking about the things I need to do when I move to Arizona.

It's weird to have one foot in and one foot out.  I'm helping my department plan and prep for next year, knowing I won't be there to see the changes.  At the same time, I'm wondering what it will be like at my new school, what the curriculum looks like, and what planning with a new group is like.

I'm cleaning my current house for prospective buyers while simultaneously thinking about where things will go in my new place.  I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone!

I was so exhausted on Monday and Tuesday (darn the two hour time change!) that I forgot to take pictures.  Monday I wore my mint bow top with the lattice pants.  Tuesday I wore the blue floral dress with the pink sweater over top.

Lace Tank: Altar'd State
Navy Midi Skirt: Cato Fashion
Blazer: Target
Nude Flats: Vince Camuto (Dillard's)
Necklace: Premier Jewelry

Sweater: Ann Taylor
Skirt: Marshall's
Necklace: EBay
Rain boots: Hunter



House Hunting Trip

Last weekend was crazy.  I had two interviews Thursday afternoon via phone.  This was also the second day of parent/teacher conferences.  I had permission to leave the conferences for an hour or so in order to hide in my car for said interviews.  Also, it was raining.  So you can imagine how well the phone interview reception was!

I had one really good phone interview and one really bad phone interview.  I wanted to be really upset about the bad interview, but I wasn't.  I reflected on it before heading back inside for P/T conferences, and I realized I had done NOTHING wrong.  In fact, many of the questions they asked were the same as the one before, and that interview could not have gone better.  The first interview I had was for a school similar to the one where I currently teach: it's a demographic of economically disadvantaged students and the school does a LOT to help those kids succeed.  This first interview was with the department head.  She was friendly and conversational and I felt really good about it.  The second interview started out with bad phone reception (which I apologized for, explaining I was in my car in the rain because I was in between meetings with parents).  The interview would ask a question and then interrupt me in the middle of my answer to say she could hear me better at that particular second.  Or once she asked me a question about my use of technology, and as I was in the middle of a sentence interrupted to ask, "Wait, how big is your school?  Do you even have diversity?"  Ummm…really?!  I felt like this person thought so highly of her school that she didn't even respect me enough to realize I was also interviewing her, that I was also trying to decide if the school would be a good fit for ME.

Obviously, this made my decision really easy.  Second school: cross it off my list.

After the end of parent/teacher conferences at 8pm Thursday evening, hubby and I drove nearly three hours to St. Louis to catch a few hours of sleep.  Our flight was to leave at 5:30 am Friday morning.  And we all know that you have to get to the airport a few hours early to make it through security.  After about three hours of shut-eye, we got to the airport around 3:30 in the morning!

Once we got to Phoenix (our new home!) we drove to the high school where I had given my first phone interview.  The interviewer (dept. head) had invited me to come visit her classroom and see how I felt about the school!  It went really well and I was offered a job on the spot.  I feel so blessed to have found a wonderful school family so quickly in the process!

After checking out the school, hubby and I headed to the hotel for a quick change before starting the house hunting.  Here's my outfit from AFTER that quick-change:

Top: H&M
Undershirt: The Limited
Jeans: Mudd (Kohl's)
Sandals: Toms
Necklace: Gift from hubby
Ignore the blurry shots and the ugly toes.  Day one of house hunting was a bust and hubby and I felt a little discouraged.  Day two went much, much better.  We found TWO houses we really liked and we put offers out on both.  One came back immediately with an acceptance of all our terms! Here's a picture of my outfit that day AND a quick pic of the house:

Bow Top: Dillard's
Lattice Pants: Cato Fashion
Necklace: Gift from hubby
Sandals: Toms


Since we had an offer on the house, Sunday was spent by the pool as we waited for paperwork to be finalized so that we could sign off on things before heading back to MO.

Maxi Dress used as coverup: Kohl's

To recap:  In one weekend, I got a job and a house!  Not too shabby.


Week of Parent/Teacher Conferences

I have fallen behind on this blog.  Life has taken precedent at the moment!  Two weeks ago, the school had a short week because of parent/teacher conferences.  On top of that, I was planning a trip to Phoenix to interview for some teaching positions and also to look for a house.  More updates about that in a later post!

Here are the outfits I remembered to capture on my phone (featured in backwards order):


Thursday 3/19 (P/T Conference Day 2)
Dress: Calvin Klein (JcPenney)
Blazer: Target
Wedges: Anne Klein
 Wednesday 3/18
Sweater: Cato Fashions
Dark Skinnies: Kohl's
Flats: Target
Necklace: Premier Jewelry
 Tuesday 3/17 (P/T Conferences Day 1 AND St. Patty's Day)
Top: Express
Pants: Cato Fashion
Blazer: Target
Wedges: Anne Klein
 Monday 3/16
Top: Dillard's
Cardigan: Gap
Skirt: Walmart
Necklace: Premier Jewelry
Flats: Hush Puppies

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Saturday

I won't be posting an outfit for Sunday.  I'm feeling ill (just a cold) and won't be going out of the house in anything but my sweats.

Top: Gap
Skirt: Marshall's
Necklace: Premier Jewelry
Nude Flats: Vince Camuto (Dillard's)
I got a surprising number of compliments on this outfit.  It must have been the bright, cheery pink color of the skirt.  I originally had this skirt in my summer wardrobe and moved it over into my spring wardrobe because I needed more bottoms. I'm so glad I did so!

Saturday, March 14, 2015

That Bag of Grading

The past two weeks have been a blur of painting, packing, and staging the house.  The realtor came on Friday to take pictures for the website and I signed the papers, so it's now official that we are going to be moving.  GAH!

All day yesterday, my throat felt a little sore and then BAM! last night I felt the full-blown cold coming on.  I took medicine and tried to sleep in as best I could--colds tend to keep me up and feeling miserable.  Because of this, I've been eyeing my bag of grading that I brought home.  It needs to get done, but taking a nap sounds so much better!

Here are the outfits from earlier in the week:

Wednesday
Dress: JcPenney
Cardigan: J.Crew
Necklace: Premier Jewelry
Navy Wedges: Anne Klein
 Thursday
Seersucker Dress: JcPenney
Cardigan: Gap
Necklace: Dustee's
Flats: Hushpuppies
 Friday
Sweater: Ann Taylor
Skirt (actually a dress): Target
Necklace: Premier Jewelry
Flats: Hushpuppies

On another note, I have mentioned going to a capsule wardrobe.  I have been really good about not buying any clothing since going to this, but my spring wardrobe has just been…lacking.  I've been frustrated because some of my pieces just don't seem to "go" and others weren't fitting well and I just felt blechh about it.  The point of a capsule wardrobe isn't to make you feel this way at all.  I decided the problem was that I was trying to hold on to some items that I just really didn't like.  I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on new clothes and I am not sure what I will really feel good about wearing once I am in Arizona, so I stopped by Cato Fashions this afternoon to see if I could replace a few items.  Here's what I found and what I replaced:

I replaced the cream sweater on the left with this super-soft (and on clearance!) animal print sweater.
It's neutral enough that it should go with everything in my spring closet.  AND when it warms up
I plan to just roll the sleeves.

I replaced the super-cute pink skirt on the left with a more neutral navy midi skirt on the right.
While I really liked the pink skirt, 1) it was a little short for work and 2) it didn't really pair with
anything I owned except for the cream sweater above that I replaced.

I replaced the denim capris on the left with these navy patterned ankle pants on the right.
There wasn't really anything wrong with the capris but 1) They were too casual for work and
2) they didn't work well with chilly weather

Last, I replaced the black capris on the left with the black and white patterned ankle pants
on the right.  I had similar reasons for replacing the black capris: 1) they were a little
tight and thus I wasn't wanting to wear them and 2) being short, they only
work when the weather is pretty warm.
Well, there you have it.  My replacements for my 40 hanger spring closet.  I spent less than $65 on all four pieces and I feel super excited to wear everything in my closet now!   I almost didn't buy the black and white pants because they look so similar to the navy and white ones, but they are just different enough to make it worth it to me.  I feel I have so many more options for mixing and matching now that I have more neutral and versatile pieces...It just goes to show that you can't just put together a capsule wardrobe with random items you like, but you really have to think about things like versatility, color compatibility, and fit.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Start of the Week

Each night I tell myself that I'm going to go to bed early and get some more sleep.  It never happens.  Why does it never happen?  These are questions that I am haunted by.  Also, I ended that sentence with a preposition, which also haunts me.  But I'm too tired to care.

Top: Kohl's
Cardigan: J.Crew
Skirt: Walmart
Tights
Flats: Toms
Necklace: J.Crew

Top: JcPenney
Jeans: Mudd-Kohl's
Cardigan: JcPenney
Flats: Hushpuppy
Necklace: Premier Jewelry

Owning It

We have been preparing for our upcoming move by de-cluttering.  It's amazing how much you accumulate over time.  It was quite embarrassing to see how much junk we've held on to in the almost-three years we've lived in our home.

We've gotten rid of so much stuff--most of it donated to Goodwill or friends--and I'm now feeling okay about where we are at with our stuff.  Yes, we could get rid of more, but we aren't out-and-out hoarding anything either.

Here are my photos from the past few days:

Black Top: JcPenney
Gray Cardigan: Maurices
Jeans: Mudd-Kohl's
Flats: Hush Puppies
Pendant Necklace: gift from hubby
Cream Sweater: Loft
Skirt: Target
Gray Tights
Gray Boots: Payless
Necklace: Francesca's