DOES THIS EVEN COUNT AS AN UPDATE?

What do I even say on here anymore? I thought once I had started my summer vacation that I would have plenty of things to write about and then, well, here we are. Postless. And writing about nothing? What is that. Oh yeah, that's my life.

I was laying in bed last night, unable to fall asleep, and all my brain wanted to do was write. But my computer was in the living room and that was just too much work - so I stared at the ceiling and invented dialogue for a fiction story.

///

"Come va?" he asks, in Italian. How are you?
"Cosi-cosi," I reply. Alright. This has become our little game. "Y tu?"
"Molto bene!!" he says with a certain gusto. Very well. All five of his fingers on his right hand are pinched together and he's making a sweeping motion with his arm that is so stereotypical of Italian non-verbal communication. We crack up and fall backwards, landing softly beside each other on the bed.

His dark eyes sparkle as he looks over at me, his face wrinkled with heavy laughter. He shifts his gaze away and then back to me, the expression of his features changing suddenly, becoming more serious than I had anticipated. I expect him to kiss me, but instead he says, "MOLTO BENE!" again, almost at the top of his lungs this time and then collapses back into a deep laughter.

///

But that's all I can remember before I eventually drifted off to sleep. It's been a good long while since I wrote anything story-like. Mostly I just cover the non-events of my life and actually those just go by unnoticed most of the time.

I'm tempted to write posts like my cute little almost sister-in-law. The Highs and Lows of recent times. Or maybe just the highs. Then every paragraph is about its own event and there you go. But even though it works so wonderfully for her, my brain does not post like that.

So you're stuck with this nonsense. Hashtag sorry not sorry.

This is the life of a girl who cleans a lot and doesn't write about the things she does when she's out of the house. Did you know there is an event here called Car D Lane (a play off Coeur d'Alene in case you were confused) and it's an antique car show. Also, I went there with Nathan and my roommate and her boyfriend. We took our picture by this beautiful Stingray and then posted the picture on Facebook saying "look what we just bought!" as a joke.

I'm fairly certain most people think we actually bought the car and the humor was lost on them. Which actually made it funnier for me, because I'm a teacher and Nathan and is a teller at a bank. A new car? Especially an antique new car? HAAA. But then I remember what kind of country America is and maybe it's actually a believable story anyway? Who knows.

Well, my coffee is cold now. Natalie out.

AND INTO THE SUMMER WE GO

So, June huh? I mean, where does the time go? I remember when summers used to take forever to get here and now it's like I blinked and here we are! Sunshine and all!

The end of this school year is pretty bittersweet for me and also really irregular. Granted, I'm only a year in so regular isn't really my area of expertise, but there's been some crazy things that have happened to me in the last week. So.

I keep writing dumb posts and then deleting them because words just seem to not be my friend lately. However, it looks to me that if I write a billion really stupid ones, I'm sure to find a winner in there somewhere. And well, I guess here we are? I mean, we'll find out one way or another because either you'll read this or you won't.

Anyway, moving on.

My classroom is empty, the chairs are all stacked and art supplies are all boxed up for next year's students to wreak all sorts of havoc with. I sat in front of my computer today, after a long couple of hours of collaboration with the other two art teachers for the district and there's potential for me to just move to the other school instead of being completely out of a job. God will provide something, I just know it. Mostly because something always shows up right when I need it most.

I'm a bit wishy washy between wanting to continue teaching and wanting to try something else. Looking back at how this year went, and how a majority of the time I would come home and wish I could just give it all up as I cried in the shower, and then! You know what happens? I buy a yearbook to commemorate my first year teaching and those stinking little brats filled it all up with words of love and encouragement that I will find something else and that they'll miss me to pieces and that I'm their favorite teacher or that I helped them get through some pretty rough stuff in their lives and well, shoot. Just tug on my feels a little harder, will you?

One of the things that cost me the opportunity to be re-hired is my lack of self confidence. Admittedly, I struggle in this area a lot and even though I try not to let it show, it's just one of those things. I have abilities way beyond what I give myself credit for, and you know, self confidence will improve with experience in my profession. But those yearbook entries, dude. It's an incredible self confidence boost. I never set out to affect that many people or to impact that many lives. I just showed up to work and made geeky, nerdy jokes about art and asked my students how their day went and what they did for the weekend. I know I'm not the traditional teacher, and sometimes I get a lot of flack for that from other teachers in my building, but as long as the kids are learning the kids and are happy, then I guess it doesn't matter.

So now I'm going to take my summer and paint my heart out. Maybe start an etsy shop to sell some event and holiday cards. And write more articles about lots of different things. Basically, just do whatever the heck I want to because I can. This is my life and I'm going to live it.


(pictures of my busy life, in chronological order...or at least I think they are...)

Nathan's graduation! 

i got a tattoo touch up and addition. the birds really needed to be fixed.

dress fitting and bridal shower for my lovely soon to be sister in law!

(a month and two days away, butwhoscounting)

first day of school selfie and last day of school selfie

aaaaand daniel graduated! to the kid we wondered if he ever really would make it all the way through, i give you a hearty congrats. i can't believe that you're old enough to be graduated from high school, or more likely, that I'm old enough for you to have graduated from high school ;)