We've got everything we need...

...and right now, everything we need is enough.

I'm a do-er.  I always have been.  I like to make things happen.  I don't like for time to be wasted.  On the surface, this is a quality of which I am proud.  Down a little deeper, I know that it is a quality on which I need to work.  Sometimes actions speak louder than words.  Sometimes you have to let things happen.

My brother's house is quickly becoming 

one of my favorite places 

What we like to do:

On our last day of summer.

My furry niece and nephew

Tomorrow is the big day!  Tomorrow I will start twelve weeks of student teaching.  Nervous is an understatement.  I couldn't even focus long enough to pick out an outfit.  (In my head I'm thinking Navy pants, white blouse?  But maybe that's too dressy for an inservice week?  Maybe I should go khaki pants, nice tee, cardigan?  But honestly, I'd rather be over-dressed than under-dressed.  I... gotta go, guys...)

Update: My first day was fantastic.  If they needed a new teacher, I'd take a job at this school in an instant.

Rain and Dancing.

Oh man... this week wasn't my best for posting every day.

Things are busy, rearing up to start school and completing all of those "nagging tasks" that have bothered me throughout the summer... and for each task that I tackle, a thousand back-up errands take their place.

Discovered what the boardwalk had to offer earlier this week with one of my very favorite people.

Wild Rumpus, indeed.  I love this girl.  And Waterman's orange crushes.  Obviously it was a good night.

I'm a little stressed and a little terrified, but how could I not be?  I hope I am prepared.  I hope I am ready for all of the failures and successes that are headed my way--but especially the failures. They will happen.  Lessons will bomb.  Kids will misbehave.  THAT is where I am going to learn, not when things go right, but when things go WRONG.

But for now I'm going to relax and enjoy this MIA MICHAELS DEDICATED EPISODE OF SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (OH my gosh...) & this rainy day.  No one does storms like Mia Michaels... or Virginia Beach.

I like to meditate now and zen.

If yesterday was any indication of what's to come, I am going to love the second grade.

Went to Maryland yesterday/this morning to pick up my newly repaired Satobot--only to get rear ended in my rental car on the way up.  Hahahaha I can't even... OH I AM SO ZEN.

Anyway, everything worked out just fine and I still got to spend time with some of my favorite people, and one of my favorite puppies:

Seriously... I love this dog more than I love most people.

Someone asked me today about my future.  Nothing makes me dizzier.  How about this:  If you're talking to someone in their twenties, don't ask them what they're GOING to do next year, ask them what they WANT to do RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT.  That's as far as I can go, really.  Life's too big and beautiful for pigeon holes.

...besides, if you're friends with twenty-somethings who have their lives planned, get new friends.  Spoiler alert: those are boring people.

Other notable things I learned today:

1. The Underworld is a stupid movie, but running from vampires in the cardio cinema is a hell of a workout.

2. Stuff You Should Know: Shark Diaries  Seriously.  You can have Shark Week any week.
(Also, I listened to an an incredible [and incredibly old] radiolab podcast about memory & forgetting, can't believe I almost forgot to post about it--HA.  Seriously though, listen to radiolab.  It will change your life. )

3.  I'm really glad that I'm not living in Berlin, Maryland right now.

A thought:

Meeting my mentor teacher today.  I'm nervous.  It's like a first date, except the state of Virginia is mandating that we be together for at least twelve weeks.

Take me the way I am.

All Ingrid, all the time.

Also, it's like one of those clue novels 

where you get to pick your ending. 

Some day I'm going to start off each morning 

singing this to my students.

Changed my desktop to a spice girls wallpaper.  #bestdecisionivemadeallday

MAN, it's going to be hard not waking up to the beach tomorrow.  #endofvacationproblems

Coffee and chocolate with an old friend today. #somethingschange #somethingsneverdo



Amazing phone conversation with my true north tonight: #book-cationpending #youcalibrateme

Missing my girl, missing that face. #nowords #hashtagsfallshort

Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France...

My parents have been married for twenty-seven years today.

How many fights have they lovingly resolved,

how many times have they thought it was just too hard,

only to conjure up the strength to keep moving, keep loving?

I am inspired by them, inspired by their love.

Went on a walk tonight, 

Megan was a crab's hero,

saving it from the thrusts of a dog's jaw

and clueless human onlookers.

Because evil exists when good men stand by and do nothing, right JFK?

I stepped on this. 

23 things I should be able to do at 23 (but can't)

GPOY.