Watch out! The girls have hit the town!

After overcoming sickness and crazy schedules two of my dear friends/bridesmaids, Emily G and Emily H, and I finally had our girls time this weekend. I was so proud of our crazy adventure skills in Minneapolis so without further a due I'll explain.  


We ended up using a Groupon for the Radisson in downtown Minneapolis.  We managed to get a room originally $209 for a mere $89.  On top of that, we also got 3 free drink vouchers for the restaurant and bar attached and 1 free parking pass.  That in itself was about $36. Yeah I know...we rock!  Needless to say I'm now addicted to Groupons.  


After getting there around 6:30 Saturday, we decided to go on the hunt for food.  Let me set the scene...St. Patrick's Day evening, downtown Minneapolis, 3 girls who none of look over 19.  We put on our big girl panties and decided we were too desperate for food to not go.  We walked with confidence even though I was the only one with a tiny tiny clue to where we were.  We finally got to the downtown Target.  Go Amanda!!  We decided to stop our crazy adventure and get food there.  At the little restaurant they had basically nothing left because they were selling out of everything.  We did manage to find food though that would qualify as dinner for the night and then had a little bit of fun shopping.  We also got some goodies for our hotel!  After some shopping we decided to leave with our goodies and attempt to make our way back to the hotel.  We actually ended up being only a couple blocks away and made it back with no problem.  
Back at the hotel, we made our own salt scrubs and had plenty of girl chat time before calling it quits for the evening/extremely early morning ;)


Sunday we lazily made it out of our hotel and decided to head for the Mall of America.  With Emily G and I in the front seat of my car, we got our next set of big girl panties on and took charge err a few wrong turns. We got there though safely once again and had a blast.  Between the 3 of us we found enough good deals for a small army!!  After many hours of fun shopping, it was time to get the other girls' cars and for everyone to head home.  It was so sad saying goodbye after living so close to one another last year, but I'm thankful for the precious fun time we were able to spend together.  


A few pictures :)

Front of our hotel

Lobby of the hotel

Sugar scrub time!  On your feet Emily not your mouth!!

The goofy bunch :)

Ready to start our beauty treatment!

Amanda got the drain stuck and it wouldn't go back up...luckily we eventually figured it out.

Well that's the end to our adventurous girls' weekend.  I hope you were able to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend. Hope you have a great start to your week!!

The results are in...

For those of you not familiar for what it take to be a teacher in MN I'll try to explain.  After at least 4 years of learning how to be a teacher, one is clearly not qualified enough.  So, even after you take all the classes, do the studying, and walk across that platform to receive a fake degree, you cannot get your license. See there once were these people on very high pedestals that said obviously we need to make future teachers take and pass many many many tests before they are able to receive their licence.  Since future teachers spend all 4 years learning why testing students is not always a good idea and therefore should find alternate ways to assess, you might see why it is so difficult for these tests to make sense to us.  How does a test prove I'm a good teacher...feel free to explain this to me in a comment.  Oh well...I'll take part in their little game and try to kick some butt doing it! So, for me to get my K-8 with math specialty licence I would have to pass 7 tests.  To get my K-6 licence I would have to pass 5.  Are you still with me?

In February I took the first two tests that had to do with teaching philosophies. I just found out today that I passed both!!!  Since I need the 5 minimum to teach, I have 2 out of those 5 done!!  I'm signed up to take the other 3 of those 5 the first week of April.  I want to just work on 5 right now to get some type of licence.

Here's the other kicker.  You may be thinking, but Amanda you are probably going to end up in Chicago and therefore will need a IL licence.  Well to get my licence in IL, I first have to have my licence in the state where I got my teaching degree...MN. Then I get to do all the stuff for an IL licence (which doesn't look quite as bad thankfully). I have no choice but to get this MN licence to even have a chance at teaching in any other state.

Do I lay in bed at night and wonder why teachers get paid so little to work so hard and also have the most difficult position upon graduation because we can't even use our degree till we run around bushes to get a licence? Yes!  Between my brother and I, I have experienced some pretty bad teachers.  I don't have any idea where their motivation comes from.  This licence that I'm working so hard to get is not even good for very long.  In a few short years (if even more than 1) I'll have to run around some more bushes to keep what I work so hard to get in the first place. 

My point: please send up a quick prayer and thank God for the teachers you had, for your friends and family that are teachers, for the teachers your kids have had, and maybe even those of your grandchildren...especially the good ones.  I'm thankful that God made such special people with a gift and love for teaching, and I'm thankful for the energy He gives us.  It takes a lot not just to keep little ones going all day, but also to run around so many bushes to prove we know what we're doing.  

A Story to Remember

Where have I been you may ask. Have I been doing nothing over my spring break to blog about?  Well let's just say it's pretty hard to blog when you're brushing up on your Amish skills...
Friday March  2 5:30am - Mom, Lauren, and Amanda deport for Charlevoix, MI
                         5:00pm - Ladies arrive in MI as it starts to snow, and snow, and snow, and snow!!!
                         11:00pm - lights blink and then power goes out
Normally when the power goes out, you may take the time to throw out a few laughs and take bets on when it will come back on.  This power outage was unfortunately unlike any other power outage I had ever experienced or even heard of.  On Saturday we got a call saying it wasn't going to come back on till later Sunday, so we packed up and headed to a hotel.  The only problem is we had to worry about the pipes freezing.  So, before we could tuck in for the night we had to sit in the cold running a generator to heat the house up.  I know crazy!
Since we had the hotel we were able to all clean up and attend the shower smelling fresh :) Luckily the shower was planned in a club house type place in town where there was electricity.  The shower was absolutely beautiful and  a lot of fun.  The shower masked the problem that still loomed over our heads...we were still without power and had a very chilly house.  To make what felt like a never ending story short, we didn't get power back till Wednesday at 12:30pm and we left early Thursday morning.  So we truly did not have power the entire time we were there.  UNBELIEVABLE!!  I still can't get it through my head that it really happened.  


While enjoying a dark, chilly house, we did get some pretty exciting news...Patrick got accepted into the University of Chicago.  That's right, my man got accepted into a school tied for 5th in the entire country! I am a proud wife-to-be!  He still has two letters out there to hear back from, but let's just say it wouldn't surprise me if we ended up there.  Although we still have a ton of questions floating in the air that we would really like to have answered, we're accepting that answers just come with time.  It's always good to practice patience :)


Now I'll leave you with a few fun pictures from the shower...

Beautiful table settings

Cupcakes, not only adorable but delicious as well!!

Grandparent loving!!!  These wonderful women are the creators of this beautiful shower!! (Mom's mom and dad's step-mom)

Opening gifts...crockpot from my soon to be mother-in-law

Cute Miss Maggie, it was her very first bridal shower and she was soooo excited!

Three generations of my family with our Maid of Honors.  L to R: Grandma with her MOH sister Arlene, Mom with her MOH cousin Sue, and ME with my MOH bestie Lauren

Lauren at the hotel, this pretty much sums up how we felt all 4 days!  It didn't help that it was the smallest hotel we had ever stayed at.

Since there was no room in the hotel, this is what happened.  Games for entertainment and food  that was left over from the shower.

If you were enjoying a spring break last week, I hope you were able to enjoy it with power!  Have a great week and enjoy this beautiful weather!!

It's been awhile...

so obviously a lot has happened.  But, to spare you of hours of reading about not that much I'll fill you in on the latest two excitements.


#1
Setting: Room 103
Plot: Girl leaves class for Texas. New girl student is going to come.  New girl student is a no show, but in her place new boy is assigned to our room instead.  Mother of this boy informs that there are some behavior issues. 
CT: It's okay, we have lots of issues in our room
(new boy enters room)
CT: (whispering to other teacher) Maybe we don't have issues quite like this!
So, if you got my little story, we got a new student today.  His scores were very low and he didn't listen much if at all.  In short it was a long day.  I have to keep thinking that this is just another challenge we'll have to overcome and it will make me a better teacher.  Let me tell you one thing though...my little hometown Byron school has got nothing on this school!!


#2
Back up a little to Saturday...We (Patrick and I) had our food tasting for our reception.  We brought our moms along too for some more advice and taste buds.  People train for a lot of things, marathon, olympics, ect, but I didn't know that you really should train before going to a food tasting.  We ate for 3 hours straight.  People... 3 HOURS!!!! 12 appetizers, 3 salads, 12 main courses, and bread. The craziest part is that when we got home Patrick ate a huge bowl of ice cream right when we walked in the door. Apparently he needed something sweet.  I however needed a bed (and a bucket just in case).   Good news of this marathon of food is that no matter what we end up or what our lovely guests choose to have as their dinner, it will be fantastic! 145 days...pretty soon to be 144.  I'm getting more and more excited as each day passes.


I hope you're having a lovely start to your week and keep safe from all the snow about to fall if you're in MN!!

DUH! What else would one do with an orange seed?

I go to pick up the kiddos from lunch yesterday.  I notice the kids are having oranges as their fruit for lunch.  These are not the simple oranges from a can, but real legit oranges so the smell has filled the lunch room and the hallway.  I'm standing there just trying to get a feel of how many students are done and boy "J" says to me....

"Ms. Shupert, I got an orange seed."  (He puts the seed in my face to make sure I get a good look.)  "I'm going home and going to plant my seed and grow myselft an orange tree."

Ahh I just about died right there in the lunch room.  I gotta give the kid credit for having high hopes...maybe I'll have to come back in a few years and see how that tree is coming along.

Hope you could enjoy a good laugh with me tonight. :)

What a weekend!!

Wow!  This was quite the weekend so obviously I have a lot to share :)  And yes this includes pictures, not just words.  This weekend was the annual KVSC Trivia weekend in St Cloud!  If you recall, this is the precise beginning of Patrick and I's forever (where we got engaged).  Here is a short video that shares a little about Trivia and starts and begin with yours truly!!  VIDEO!! The minute we walked in people started to bring up these wonderful memories again and watch our video all over again.  I have no doubt we have a large group of people excited for our marriage underneath the Stewart Hall building. So Saturday Feb 11 at precisely 6:00 marked our one year of being engaged...I can't believe how fast it has gone.


So a big thing about working the phone bank for Trivia is your phone alias.  As you may have seen, I didn't have one as of Friday night (and Saturday morning) and was asking for help.  None was given on facebook or at Trivia, so I began thinking hard and quick.  Result...what I believe should be the best-phone-bank-name-ever winner.  My name was Who.  Now the best part of this is that when a team is awarded points you read this..."That's ___ Trivia points to team #___  for question ____ from Your alias.  (they need to keep track of who awards the points in case there is a problem) So mine ended with "who."  People would be so confused and tell me their name again and again as I kept repeating "this is who".  Others got it and laughed.  Needless to say I had a lot of fun with it.  Next year Patrick and I decided I need to be "Who?"  because then it will sound more like a question when I say it.  Plus it's always nice to have a returning name.  I just hadn't found one I liked...until NOW!


Another thing you'll notice in the pictures below are the treats I made for Patrick's birthday (the 13th).  Every year I bring something special to celebrate his birthday since it always falls on his birthday weekend.  I can't lie...I spent many many hours making these this year, but it was definitely the talk of the weekend so I guess it was worth it ;)


Alright picture time :)

Clearly I destroyed the kitchen in the cooking process...I had to take a sec to snap a pic because usually I'm really a very neat cook!!! 

Product #1  Cupcake, brownie, and colored frosting

Product #2  Obviously we needed french fries to go with our burgers.  These are simply sugar cookies

Set up at Trivia

Patrick at the phone bank...we weren't very busy when I was snapping these next pictures.

My computer login in screen :)

A small moment when it actually stopped ringing!

You might ask "what is so funny"  The fact that this was about the 10th one I took before we got it!

Yes I can't lie, these are Red Lobster cheddar biscuits and fresh shrimp...phone bankers are treated well and there is NEVER EVER a shortage of food...well except when Red Lobster shows up ;)

We sure had a lot of fun (even if it wasn't as epic as last year).  However, all this fun left me in tears when Patrick had to leave tonight.  Saying good-bye will never get any easier. 160...it will come eventually.  I hope you have a great week!

What better to do...

Than post a blog while you're home sick.  Although it practically killed me, I didn't go to school today and took a sick day to get better instead of just pressing on.  My stomach has been aching since yesterday afternoon and can stop at any time!  Anyway, I thought I would share how wonderful my Saturday was.  I wish I could do it all again!  


3pm we had our first premarital counseling apt.  It went very well and made me get very excited!  At 4:30 we headed straight to the cities.  Yes, this means we went to premarital counseling very dressed up...a little weird, but we had a tight schedule.  We got to Buca di Beppo's 10 minutes before our reservations!! Perfect timing...I think so.  We enjoyed baked ziti and fettuccine alfredo for dinner and then AMAZING cannoli for dessert.  We left a little after 7 and made it to the parking ramp directly across from the Orpheum at 7:30.  Perfect timing again?!...I couldn't believe it myself.  8:10 (10 minutes late due to these women who kept wandering around finding their seat) The Lion King began. It was more amazing than words could ever describe.  Best Christmas present ever?  I just think it might have been one of those.  I can't believe that people were blessed with such talent.  When the show first began I think I lost my breath.  Now, I leave you with a few fun pictures from our night.

Read to go!  After poking Patrick to get a smile

Time to eat!

"Patrick say cheese"

"Now your turn Amanda"

So I meant to take a picture of our beautiful dessert, clearly I turned into a starved beast  and dived in before taking the picture...therefore you get a picture of our empty plates...sorry to disappoint.

Let the show begin!!!

A very nice man offered to take our picture after watching take a few failure attempts ourselves.  Yes my dress was only knee length...thank goodness it wasn't too cold!!

This allowed us to see all the talented people that were in the show that had actually been on Broadway before!

"Tickets please?"...certainly!!  Main floor seating?...Why yes I do believe so!

Where the magic happened...only it was much more exciting than this backdrop.

Okay so this has nothing to do with our wonderful Saturday, but I had to show off my one amazing moment of artistry....please notice the reflection on the piano key.  What can't be seen...the amount of time I spent balancing that ring between the keys!!!!

Have a great week...at least better than mine has began!