Thursday, June 27

instagram life lately






the last two weeks of school before our three week vacation has been pretty relaxed compared to last year. so relaxed that i have fallen into the feeling of not wanting to do a darn thing!! all i can think about is going home and all the fun adventures i am going to have during my 2.5 weeks at home.

here are just a few pictures of what i have been up to lately.
you can follow all of my instagram posts here!
i hope everyone is enjoying summer at home and not melting away.
happy end of the week!

Thursday, June 20

as of late,


as of late,

i have been spending a lot of time with one of my tutoring families. i have said this before but i really love getting to know my students and their families on a closer level and these three little girls may be some of my favorites.

i have been obsessed with this online boutique. why does everything have to be so cute??

i have also been obsessed with gel manicures. two full weeks with an un-chipped manicure? why on earth did it take me this long to discover how wonderful they are?

i have been trying to spend some extra time with my little pup as i wont be seeing him for a few weeks. it's always so hard to leave him when i visit home but the welcoming i get when i come back is worth it :)

i have been able to think of nothing but going home for a visit at the end of the month! man, am i ever grateful that teachers get the same vacation their students do.


happy almost friday, guys!

Monday, June 17

i love barbeques


yesterday we had a huge family gathering in honor of father's day. paris's sister had a paella and a bunch of spanish tortilla's made. someone also brought a caprese salad and i couldn't help but be reminded of home because we eat those three things all the time! man i love going to bbqs (or picnics? this wasn't really bbq food i guess) not only because all of the food you can eat but the time just relaxing with and telling stories with everyone there.

it was a great celebration for all of the dads there but of course the most important dad of all time was missing .. mine! hope you had a great father's day, dad and i can't wait to see you in just two weeks!


Friday, June 14

what i'm currently listening to



synesthesia by andrew mcmahon from his solo project. i have been waiting a few weeks to post this because i wanted to use the actual music video which was released yesterday. i'm not overly thrilled with the video but i am a fan of the song. enjoy!

and happy weekending.

Thursday, June 13

things that make me smile and a giveaway!


when a shirt i've been eying for months goes on super sale and is still in stock when i buy it

when the two year old sister of the girls i give private lessons to tells me i'm her teacher and that she loves me on my way out the door .. the cutest.

when paris takes me to get ice cream after a not so happy day at work

when my guilty pleasure TV shows are back on air .. hello, pretty little liars and the bachelorete!

when i get to see my friends and family in 2.5 weeks!

when the week just started and it's already thursday :)

and of course, giveaways! i'm participating in a giveaway with one of the best bloggers around, nicole!
i'm giving away a $10 Sephora gift card among some other great prizes! You can enter below :)


Blogiversary Giveaway Remember how I just had my first blogiversary? Well what better way to celebrate than give a giveaway with some of my favorite bloggers?!
The lovely ladies below are giving away 13 ad spaces, $95 in gift cards, and another $60+ in additional prizes:
Blogiversary Giveaway Treasure Tromp
Blogiversary Giveaway Treasure Tromp
Blogiversary Giveaway Treasure Tromp
Blogiversary Giveaway Treasure Tromp
Blogiversary Giveaway Treasure Tromp
And since I'm all about spreading the love, there will be 2 winners. 1 lucky person will win the grand prize (all the amazing prizes from all these lovely ladies) and another one of you will win the prizes from me ($25 to Sephora & 1 month of ad space). Sounds like a good deal? a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, June 10

happy monday


just some positive energy for everyone now that monday is here again!

Thursday, June 6

better late than never







finally i have some of the professional pictures from my brother's wedding to post here! the pictures were taken by First Mate Photography and they are beautiful!

the wedding was at the Hampshire House in Boston and it was beautiful!

Wednesday, June 5

worst field trip ever part 2




part 2 of this story isn't as shocking as the first part, just a little disappointing. like i said yesterday, the purpose of our field trip was to go to a beach famous for having thousands and thousands of sea turtles come and lay their eggs. the beach is called playa ostional in guanacaste. i had never been to guanacaste before so i was really excited to get the chance to do so but even more excited to see so many sea turtles.

we went to the beach around 9pm at night, after a six hour bus ride and a few unhappy hours at our hotel. we started to watch a movie about the thousands of sea turtles we were meant to see and our guides get a call that we should rush to the beach because there are sea turtles coming! we run to the beach and follow our guides who are the only ones with red lights and who can see anything (turtles get disoriented with white lights).

all of a sudden the whole group stops. and everyone starts crouching down to see the lone turtle on the beach. the one turtle we will see the whole trip. i will admit it was pretty cool seeing this turtle dig her little whole and start laying her eggs...until it started to downpour.

now i usually try not to be a debbie downer but after everything that had happened already that day i was super bummed that we only saw one turtle! the pictures from the beach are from the next morning when we took our chances again, still without any luck.

needless to say i was extremely grateful when we all made it home safely friday night!

Tuesday, June 4

worst field trip ever





 on thursday and friday of last week i went on a field trip with my students to see the sea turtles laying their eggs and potentially seeing some baby turtles hatch out! these pictures are from the hotel where i stayed with 47 of my students and three coworkers. it looks great right? beautiful view, lovely pool, and tons of wildlife around us!

there were six of these little villas, each with room for five people. wait, six villas for 5 people? that's only 30 people...

thanks to the company that planned our field trip we ended up at a hotel with a capacity of 30 people and our party was 50+!! what did the hotel say, you ask? we have some extra mattresses that we were going to put on the floors. you were going to?? as someone who has a degree in hospitality management, this situation was horrifying. besides the fact that they willingly booked us with more than 20 people over occupancy, they didn't have anything ready. our extra mattresses were no where to be seen, some of the regular beds didn't even have mattresses to begin with, the bathrooms were dirty, no hand soap to be found, and less than an hour after we arrived we had numerous angry parents calling us up.

what a way to start our class field trip.
stay tuned for part 2 ;)

Monday, June 3

pretty please

one thing i try to do when i am home is spend as much time with my closest friends as possible. sometimes i feel like i am always making the rounds but i'm usually not home for very long so i have to take advantage of the time that i have.

last month when i was home i spent some time with my oldest friend, jess. we spent most of the time looking at her inspiration pictures for her upcoming wedding! i was so excited when she got engaged a few months ago and all i have wanted to do is talk to her about what her big day is going to be like.

while we were being super girly looking at wedding pictures, she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids! she had made all of her bridesmaids their own nail polish color in a box asking for us to pretty please be her bridesmaid? of course i said yes!

so now that my brother's wedding is done i have another one to look forward to next year!



i can't wait to spend this next year helping you get ready for your big day.
love you, jess!