Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

I had one of the craziest days ever and so I figured I had to document it here.  This way, next time I am stressed or think I am super busy, I can read this and say, "oh yeah, I'm not THAT busy..."

I had my last day of middle school.  It was a half day so each class period was 28 minutes long.  I brought in cookies for my kids and they were super cute and sad to see me go.  Everything flew by at an overwhelmingly fast pace and I basically ran around like a chicken with its head cut off from 7 to 11:40.  Then from 11:40 to 11:50 I was able to relax.  However, at 11:51 we had a PTO lunch for the teachers and I got to eat some super yummy food with my fellow teachers for the last time.  It was a nice way to celebrate a last day.  I am going to have to visit because I am going to miss everyone there so much!

Right after the lunch, I drove straight to high school to plan for next week.  I am going to start teaching on Tuesday and immediately take over the geometry class.  Then, after a week or so, I am going to take on the two honors algebra 2 classes and maybe even pre-calc!  Planning was super overwhelming because I just have no idea about anything right now.  I don't know the school, kids, what they have learned already, how 95 minute blocks work, or the curriculum.  Yeah, I feel like I'm a little in over my head.  However, I really want the students to see me as their teacher and so I want to start off right away lead teaching.  I think I might make a bit of a fool of myself for the first few lessons, but I am going to try my best and keep my confidence up. I can't wait to feel more prepared and settled in this new school.  I am also crazy grateful to have a day off Monday. This means, one extra day to prepare!

After planning for 3 hours and still feeling unprepared, I drove home, changed, went to the gym and ran 5.5 miles.  I needed to do something to relax my fried nerves and this sort of helped.  After my run, I returned home, took a quick shower, and got dressed just in time to meet Bri! He was visiting for the weekend and couldn't have come at a better time.  I really was needing some fun and it was great to see him.

We went out to my third restaurant week restaurant!  The place was called, Veranda Restaurant and Wine Bar.  We had an amazing meal and, don't worry, I will be sharing more on that experience later.  Basically, it was great to go on a date.  We hadn't done that in a while and it was nice to enjoy some good food and catch up in person.

The next part of my jam-packed day was in a word, amazing.  I met up with friends and we went out to a place in Madison known as "The Piano Bar."  This may be one ofmy new favorite places...ever.  You get in, grab a seat/drink, and settle down for an evening full of dueling pianos and tons of fun.  Three guys rotated on the pianos.  They took turns playing requests from the audience.  They were so talented and could play basically any song you can imagine.  We requested "Thrift Shop" and we got a cool mash-up of Thrift Shop and Gold-digger   Crazy right? It was so cool.  Then, they called up Kaitlin to sing to her for her birthday.  Of course, my friend Courtney started pointing to my other friend, Tamara, and calling her Kaitlin.  Tamara and Kaitlin ended up sitting on the piano getting sung to for their "birthdays."  It was pretty hilarious   I was so glad to end my night with an amazing dinner and then a lot of fun with friends.  It helped distract me and calm me down.  I am a bundle of nerves right now with school about to start and I know that I need to focus on getting prepared and being around people I love and who support me.  That is exactly what this night was about.

Oh, and I thought it would be fitting to share another way that I de-stress with you all: movies and popcorn.  That's all I've been doing lately in my free time and I even have a yummy recipe for homemade cinnamon sugar popcorn for you today.  This is a great snack for a lazy afternoon and I hope that you enjoy it!

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

Ingredients:
1/3 cup kernels
3 tbsp light butter (I used Brummel and Brown)
2 tbsp sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon (I used more because I am a cinnamon fanatic!)
pinch of sea salt

Directions:
1.  Make popcorn.  I did this is my brand new hot air popcorn maker!
2.  Melt butter.  Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Pour the mixture over the popped popcorn and stir until coated.

Enjoy :)