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Defeated

I don't want to go into all of the gory details other than to say that I am totally feeling defeated. Work is really rough for me right now. Half marathon training isn't really going so well either. We made it up to 6 miles but haven't done anything this week. Of course, there are other personal struggles going on right now and I feel like the life is being sucked out of me. I feel like a completely different person and I don't like it. I'm not happy...I'm exhausted. I hate complaining and being sad and that is all I have been for the last 10 days. I need to snap out of it. I need a reality check. I need some more happy in my life right now.

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Questions Answered (Part 4)

What is your most prized possession?
This is a hard question for me to answer because nothing in particular comes to mind. I had to think, if my house was on fire and I could only run in and grab one thing, what would it be? Honestly, the only answer is my dog. Technically, she is a prized possession, right? I guess other than Mia, I would grab photo albums.


Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
In 5 to 10 years, Mike and I will still be in St. Louis, but we will be in a new house. Hopefully we will have 2 or 3 children and another dog. I will still be in education as either a teacher, administrator, or district professional developer. Mike will still be a graphic designer and hopefully will be taking pictures, both professionally and personally. I'm sure nothing will be too out of the ordinary. I just hope that in 5 years and 10 years, we have health (of us, our children, our parents, and our friends) and happiness. It is fun to think about what life will be like when we are nearing 40!


What is something you wish you could do, but know that you will never be able to do?
Ohhhh, so many things...some at the top of my list would be: jump out of a plane, be the same religion as my husband, someday be a stay at home mom, stop being a procrastinator, become completely organized, be creative.

Since I know you IRL :), you are always so refreshingly honest and forthcoming. You don't seem like the type of person who could ever speak a lie because you always say what you're thinking. Do you find this to be true about yourself? Have you always been that way or can you point to specific life events that have developed that personality trait?
Wow...first of all, thank you. I do consider myself to be honest about what I am thinking or feeling. If you don't want to hear my true opinion about something, DON'T ASK! I haven't always been this way, though. I feel that after college, I felt more secure about myself, my ideas, and my opinions. Although I know that I am not always right (believe me...I know this), I really trust my gut. I make sure to be honest with myself first, followed by my husband, family, and friends. Sometimes I feel like this trait can be a fault because sometimes I need to keep my mouth shut. People don't always want my honest opinion!

If you won the lottery, how would you spend your money?
I would start by buying a new house. I would love a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2-story home with a wrap-around porch and a big back-yard. And a swimming pool. Oh, and 2 car-garage. Next, we would travel...a few BIG trips to places like Bora Bora (see pic below of the Hilton hotel), Australia, Hawaii, Spain, or India. Knowing myself, the rest would go into savings.


What is your favorite store to shop at?
Overall favorite store- Target
Favorite clothing store- The Limited (Got this adorable top a couple of weeks ago and now it is on sale for $25. I need to get in there while they have their 40% shirts sale.)

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Questions answered (Part 3)

In your dreams, would kid #1 be a boy or a girl?
I change my mind on this all of the time. The majority of the time, I would say girl. But then I think about how awesome it would have been to have an older brother (I'm the oldest). I also think that it might be easier to raise a boy first (through childhood and the teenage years) than a girl. Obviously, we will be thrilled with either. Two of my best friends have/are having boys so it would be fun to give them a friend...or a girlfriend.

Do you prefer when life is spontaneous or well-planned out?
I'm a planner. I love to make lists and carry my planner around wherever I go. Surprises are fun but I hate waiting to find out what they are. I like knowing things ahead of time so I can plan the best way I can act/respond.

If you could meet/have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
I would love to meet Oprah. I love her and watch her show every day. She is so generous with her money. Her star power also encourages others to be generous. She is smart and worked hard to pull herself out of hard situations in life. Her show teaches me with almost every episode (I still can't believe she interviewed the "man that had a baby" that was really a woman). I love her and would love to meet her. I think she would have a great energy about her.

Would you rather be blind or deaf?
Of course, the obvious answer would be that I wouldn't want to be either. But if I had to choose, I would rather be deaf. My uncle is deaf and my aunt is hearing impaired. Although their disability makes their lives much more challenging, I feel that there are many things they are still able to do that allows them to fully function in society, such as work and drive cars. (I am not saying that blind people can't function fully in society, I just think it would be more difficult.) I can't imagine not being able to see my children growing up, watching a sunset over an ocean, or traveling around the world and seeing all there is to see. However, I also can't imagine not hearing music. This year, I will have 3 students in my classroom that are deaf or hearing impaired. I am looking forward to learning a lot this year from these students.

How did you decide on your career path?
As mentioned before, I knew from a very young age that I would be a teacher. I never had another major in mind in college. According to Answers.com "About 80% change their major at least once. On average, college students change their major three times over the course of their college career." Wow!

What made you decide to do graduate work?
As a teacher, it is almost an expectation to continue your education. Districts want their teachers to be educated at a graduate level and most districts offer a tuition reimbursement program. Most districts also reward their teachers with pay raises when they recieve their masters degree. It was never a question that I would get my masters, I just needed to decide why area it would be in. Administration always appealed to be and I felt that it would give me a wealth of knowledge and understanding background of the educational system (school law, facilities, management, leadership, etc.)

What's your favorite thing to cook?
This year, I feel like I have really started cooking much more and much better. I don't make anything too hard, I love using the crockpot, and pastas are so easy! I really like making fajitas and stirfry. Just throw a bunch of veggies and chicken into a pan and go. So easy! I am also pretty obsessed with THIS chicken chili and my pasta con broccoli.

What's your guiltiest pleasure (food and otherwise)?
Food guilty pleasure- pizza and McDonald's chocolate shakes (I let myself have 1 each year. I had this year's 2 weeks ago and it was awesome.)
Otherwise- stlwed

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Cinque Terre=Heaven

We woke up early on Wednesday and hopped on our new train to Monterosso. See, our original train reservation was going to take us up to Pisa then over to Monterosso. That would have been a 5 hour trip and of course, I didn't realize how the train system worked when I reserved that trip from home. We were able to go to the train station the day before and buy a new reservation for a shorter trip to Pisa and then Monterosso (only 2 hours! much better!).

We stepped off of the train and were in heaven. Seriously. This picture was at the train station!

Let me explain how Cinque Terre is laid out. Cinque Terre means the "five lands" and therefore it consists of 5 little towns along the coast. We stayed in Monterosso (the northernmost town) but hiked to all 5 towns (you will see each one shortly).

Monterosso is the youngest, hippest, and most like a beach resort which is exactly why we decided to stay here. I was SO happy with our choice...especially after visiting all of the other towns. If you ever come to Cinque Terre, I would definitely reccommend staying in Monterosso (Vernazza seemed pretty cool too!).

OK, on our first day in Monterosso, we dropped off our bags at our AMAZING bed and breakfast, put on our swimsuits, and headed to the beach and grab lunch. Caprese salad for me and prosciutto and meloni for Mike.

The beach in Monterosso is a pebble beach and it was pretty painful to get to the water and walk around. We spent most of the day just laying out and enjoying the atmosphere. Cinque Terre is kind of like the Ozarks of Italy. People from around the area come for weekend get-aways. Apparently, it gets so crowded at some times during the summer that the police barricade the streets that enter the cities and only allow people in with hotel reservations.

We showered up and headed to our first of many delicious meals in Monterosso. Cinque Terre is known for amazing seafood since it is on the coast. It is also home to pesto so we had to make sure to eat both everyday. Dinner was amazing...swordfish for Mike and pesto pasta for me!

After dinner we walked down to the water to take some pictures on the rocks. We ended the night with wine on our B&B's terrace.

Our second day in Cinque Terre was the best. We decided to take the 6-hour hike through all 5 towns. We started in our town of Monterosso and took the 1.5 hour hike to Vernazza.

Not going to lie...it was pretty tough. A LOT of up and down! But check out the views. This is looking back at our town of Monterosso...

After exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes, we got a sight of the BEAUTIFUL town of Vernazza. This was my favorite view on the entire hike.

We stopped for a bottle of water and piece of foccacia bread and hit the trail on the way to Corniglia. Another hour and a half of up and down. I was definitely getting tired of the steps.

Corniglia is the only town in Cinque Terre that is not on the water.

We didn't stop in Corniglia...it didn't seem like there was too much to see. We kept on going and started our 45 minute hike to Manarola. This hike was much shorter and much flatter. It was great being able to see the town in the distance. This part of the hike was BEAUTIFUL. Manarola boasts about having the best deep-sea swimming in Cinque Terre. The water was gorgeous!

This is Manarola...


With only one hike left, we decided to stop for a bite to eat. The final walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore is called the Via dell' Amore, "Pathway of Love". The short hike was created as a shortcut for lovers from the two town to meet. Throughout the years, couple put locks along the path as a sign of their love. Cute.


We stopped at Bar Amore, a cliff-hugging cafe, to enjoy a couple of beers and a great view.

We had an hour to kill in Riomaggiore before hopping on a boat and heading back to Monterosso. Goodbye Riomaggiore!


I wish I knew how to make a collage on the computer because I don't want to post 5 pictures of our dinner. I'll just post the most amazing pesto gnocchi that I have ever dreamed of. Oh man, what I would do for food right now...

Our third day in Cinque Terre started off great! We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at our B&B and decided to spend the entire day at the beach in Old Town Monterosso.

I was so happy. Relaxed. Breathing in life and loving it. Ahhhh...

Mistake/Lesson #8- Don't wear rings into the ocean. Don't get too nervous, I didn't bring my wedding rings to Italy. But my darling husband did. Here is the last picture of his wedding ring...

I cried. No, it wasn't expensive but I was really sad. It was the ring that was blessed on our wedding day, the ring that I put on his finger in front of our friends, family, and G-d, and I cried. But there was NOTHING I could do about it. It slipped off when a wave hit him and it would be impossible to find it among the millions of pebbles that were changing every few seconds. I vowed that I wouldn't let it ruin the rest of my trip. I didn't really like that ring anyway and it even mentioned it HERE!
It was time to let the ring go and get over it (which took me a few hours) and get do our last amazing dinner in Cinque Terre. I don't even eat seafood and I thought this was pretty amazing. (I didn't eat the crayfish things but I thought the shrimp and rice were delish.)



We walked around for the rest of the evening and enjoyed our final night in Monterosso. I love this picture and how you can see all 5 towns lit up at night.


We absolutely LOVE Cinque Terre and although I thought I would never want to go back to Italy, I would definitely come back here.

Where did we stay? The fantastic Locanda il Maestrale. If you go to Cinque Terre, I couldn't recommend this B&B enough. We adored this place. Our suite had 2 levels...a seating area and bathroom downstairs and bed upstairs.



Outdoor terrace where we read, ate breakfast, and drank wine at night.







Our Cinque Terre itinerary didn't really include much. Ahhh...so relaxing!
Wednesday, June 9th
-lunch and layout at the beach
-dinner at Ristorante Belvedere
Thursday, June 10th
-hike the 5 towns (6 hours)
Friday, June 11th
-Beach day
-Dinner at Il Casello

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Questions answered (Part 2)

Did you always know you wanted to be a teacher?
Oh yes, I probably knew at age 5. I used to play school and teach my sister, brother, and half of the neighborhood. I was always in charge of something and that started at a very young age.

What is one thing most you miss about being a kid?
I was so lucky to have such an amazing childhood. I had a mom that stayed at home and a grandma and great-aunt that would take me to every corner of St. Louis. Although I loved all of the adventures and fun that I had as a child, I really miss the carefree lifestyle of childhood. I find myself WAY too worried and anxious all of the time. I wish I could always relax and enjoy life the way only a child can.

If you knew could you try anything and not fail, what dream would you attempt?
I would definitely move to New York and try out for a Broadway show. Or let's take it down a notch...I would try out for the Muny. Or Stages. Or any community theater. I would have to take acting lessons first but if I knew that I wouldn't fail, I would do it!

When is the first time you ever drank a beer?
I think the first time sneaking a sip of a beer was in middle school. I hope I don't get fired for admitting that. :)

How did you and Mike meet?
Mike and I actually went to the same high school. He is a year older than me and we didn't really cross paths too much in high school. I was a cheerleader and in show choir and he was an artist and skater. The closest interaction we had in high school was when we both spent a week as 6th grade camp counselors in 2000.

After I graduated from Mizzou, I went to a going-away party of a friend that was moving to Chicago. He went to KU with Mike so he was there too. I remember walking into the party, seeing Mike on the couch, and instantly started talking to him. I didn't even know him well from high school but we talked most of the evening. He gave me his business card and I invited him to my concert (I sang in a band) at Helen Fitzgerald's that was the next night. He came, we hung out, and stayed up all night talking at a friend's house. I got home the next morning at around 7 am after talking to Mike all night and told my mom that I met the man I was going to marry.

They were reunited at a mutual friend's house the summer after Lauren graduated. Mike had been working as a graphic designer for a year and Lauren was beginning the job search for a teaching job. That night, they hit it off instantly! Lauren was singing in a band at the time and was performing a concert the next night. She invited Mike to come and watch and he did. After the concert, a group of friends hit the town but Lauren and Mike were side by side, getting to know each other. Throughout that night and into the early morning, the two stayed up until 7 AM talking and laughing. Mike asked Lauren on a date for the next weekend but they ended going out only 2 nights later. The two have been together ever since!

This picture was taken at Helen Fitzgerald's that night...


Are you planning any more home renovation projects? Because your kitchen turned out beautiful!
Thanks so much! We haven't done much to the house after the kitchen and sunroom. We are planning on painting the basement and building cabinets over the bar. We need to get on that!

What is your favorite book?
Until this summer, I wasn't much of a reader. Don't get me wrong, I read A LOT...but, they are all children's books. I am constantly reading new books for book clubs in my class. However, this summer, I read a bunch of books. My favorite of the summer was Water for Elephants. I must say that I LOVED the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons when I was in college.

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Questions answered (Part 1)

Way back in April, I needed blogging inspiration and invited you all to ask me questions. May got crazy and then June and July brought lots of travels. Kristal's blog reminded me to go back and answer these questions so I am just going to answer them in the order they were asked.

If you hadn't become a teacher....what other career would you have chosen??

Since I was a young child, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I really never thoughts of another career. My true dream would be to star on Broadway but I never had any other realistic job ideas.

What is your favorite thing about having such a creative and talented husband?

I definitely love his photography talent. I think it is going to be so much fun when we have children! It also doesn't hurt that he can Photoshop my flaws in pictures! (BTW, he will NOT Photoshop me as a skinny person, although I have asked many times.)

Have you thought about getting a friend for Mia... Four or Two legged?

Right now, we are going to try for the two-legged friend before we get a four-legged friend. Neither Mike nor I grew up in a 2 dog home but I know that eventually, we will have one! I would love to get another boxer but could go for a smaller dog too. We aren't quite ready for another dog yet...we would like a baby first!

How has it been learning photography? Is this something you've always excelled at or decided to pursue because of MNC?

Originally, I was the one who wanted to get an DSLR camera. I decided that getting a dog would be a great time to get a nice camera. I knew that eventually, I would want to have great looking pictures of our family. Mike took photography in college and immediately hogged our new Rebel. Photography wasn't something that came as easily for me but I am definitely getting better at it. I did second shoot with him at a recent engagement session and I will be shooting a wedding in San Fransisco with him at the end of the month.

Does it make you sad to know that while KW is great and all WG will always be better? ;)

Haha...I didn't even know what this question meant. I had to send Mrs. Maggie a message on Facebook. Apparently KW is Kirkwood and WG is Webster Groves. Silly girl!

What is your end-all trip? The one trip you absolutely MUST do in your lifetime.

It definitely WAS Italy but now that that trip is behind us, I'm going to have to say Hawaii. Um....yes please!

What are your 3 favorite places to eat in STL?
Wow...this is a hard one. I don't think my 3 favorite places to eat are actually the 3 BEST places to eat. They are just my favorite places to go which means that I'm thinking about food and atmosphere. I'm going to have to say Robust in Webster, Sidney Street Cafe (and I've only been there once), and Drunken Fish for sushi. Yummm....

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Florence (plus Siena and Pisa)

We woke up early on June 5th, walked to the station and experienced our first train adventure in Europe. We arrived early and looked up at the signs to see which dock our train to Florence would be. We started freaking out a bit when we realized that Florence was not on the departure list.

Mistake/Lesson #5- We didn't understand how the train schedule works. They have wonderful, yellow schedule boards but we didn't study them and know what everything meant. We couldn't find our train on the board because it was listed by it's final destination, which was NOT Florence. The train would stop in Florence to let us off but that was not the final destination. Ah ha. Rick Steve's has a lot of information about the train (which we did not read before our trip) but I am sure this would have helped us.

I can't really give advice on the most cost effective way to travel through Italy. We pre-bought a railpass that allowed us to travel by train 6 times. You are also able to buy the tickets that day at the station but you take the risk of the train being full. I'm not sure how many times we were on a full train. Probably never. I feel like we didn't get the best deal on our train pass because we bought the first-class, 6-day and then reserved seats. I don't really get this whole process but that's what we did. We pre-purchased our tickets through EuroRail.

Day 1 in Florence, we dropped off our luggage at our hotel and hit the city. We started at the Medici Chapel. Have you heard of the Medici family? They were the richest and most powerful family in Florence, ruled the city, commissioned artists to make things for their homes, etc. The Medici Chapel houses the granite tombs of 6 of the heads of the family. Of course, we couldn't take pictures of this place was pretty cool. The tombs were HUGE and the room was full of granite. I kept thinking about how expensive it would have been for a slab of granite in our kitchen. Haha...

We went to the San Marco Museum (ehhh) and had the best pasta of the trip. Go there- Pasticceria Robiglio. Homemade, dense, garlicy, pesto-y. Hello pasta goodness.

The amazingness of the day continued at Accademia where we saw Mr. David.

That evening, we had another amazing dinner at Buca Mario. Another place that I would highly recommend! It was downstairs...so cool!


The next morning, we got up bright and early to catch a train to Siena. The consierge told us that trains leave every 30 minutes to Siena so we didn't need to worry about when we got to the station. We got there at about 9:40ish, which leads to...
Mistake/Lesson #6- The train schedule isn't the same on Sundays. Duh, right? We had just missed the 9:30 train and the next train wasn't leaving until 11:30. We thought there was a 10:30 train but no, it was Sunday. I wasn't thrilled sitting at the train station for 2 hours.

But finally, after our 2nd train station ordeal, we arrived in Siena! If you go to Florence, you HAVE to go to Siena. Remember when I was trying to figure out what to do between Siena and Pisa...we made the right choice. Siena is such a cool city. It is a city full of up and down roads and burnt, orange buildings. We explored Il Campo (the town square), the Duomo, and the Church of San Domenico.

I loved the Duomo in Siena! It was white with black stripes throughout and was just beautiful!

Look at all of the pope heads around the nave.

As we were walking around the city, the sound of drums can rolling down the street. See, Siena has 17 different neighborhoods that compete each year in a horse race in Il Campo. The Palio de Siena is pretty much the coolest thing I have ever seen (pictures of) and if I ever go back to Siena, it will be during this race. Read about it HERE! So a parade of men and boys in tights came down the street and I loved every second of this experience. They were of the giraffe clan (they have had 33 race victories!). GO GIRAFFES!


Check out these hills!


Finally, we had dinner at another Rick Steve recommended spot, Trattorio La Torre, right next to the clock tower at Il Campo. We didn't have menus at all, the owner just brought us his best dishes. I had ravioli and Mike had pesto pasta with mushrooms, lamb, and asparagus. We split a homemade tiramisu that was made in heaven and then hopped a train back to Florence.

Day 3 in Florence started off at the Duomo. We climbed to the top of the dome (another 400 steps) and were welcomed by a stunning view of the city.

Seriously scary mural inside the dome. Yikes!

For lunch, we decided to take the #7 bus to the small town of Fiesole. Fiesole overlooks Florence and is where all of the "rich" people lived...amazing villas are up here! View of Florence...

For dinner, we wandered across the Ponte Vecchio and admired it after sunset.

Next morning, PISA! We ended up having an extra day on our train pass so we decided to wake up early and go see the tower. This time, we were much more comfortable on the train and we didn't have any issues (thank the lord!). Our trip needed to be fast because we had museum reservations at 3. The train ride was 1 hour, then we hopped at 15 minute bus ride and arrive at the Field of Miracles!

The real reason that we came here was so we could do this!

I LOVED seeing the Tower. I just couldn't get enough of it. I wanted to see it from every angle. It really is amazing how much it leans. I was so glad we were able to come see it.


We ended up staying in Pisa for a total of 1.5 hours. Pisa is definitely not a MUST but if you have time and a train pass, it is definitely worth the quick stop. However, if you are going to choose between Siena and Pisa, hands down to the day in Siena. There isn't much to do in Pisa other than see the tower and the Field of Miracles.

Back in Florence, we hit the Uffizi Gallery. Again, you can't take pictures in there but I saw this and this....yes, Botticelli and Da Vinci. WOW!


Mistake/Lesson #7- Don't try to eat healthy food. It will make you sad. Just get over the fact that you will eat pizza, pasta, and gelato every day. Ordering chicken and veggies just doesn't cut it in Italy.

We ended our awesome day with a few beers at an Irish pub.

The next morning, we ate our final breakfast in Florence and headed off to Cinque Terre.

We enjoyed our hotel in Florence but it was hard to top the hotel in Rome. We stayed at Hotel de la Ville.




UP NEXT, Cinque Terre (my favorite place of the entire trip)!!!

Here is our Florence itinerary in case anyone is interested:
Saturday, June 5th
-Medici Chapel
-Museum of San Marco
-Academia (David)
Sunday, June 6th
-Day Trip to Siena
-Duomo, Il Campo, Church of San Domenico
-Dinner in Siena
Monday, June 7th
-Duomo (climb the dome)
-Santa Maria Novella
-Bus #7 to Fiesole (lunch and walk to church-view of Florence)
-San Lorenzo Market
-Ponte Vecchio
Tuesday, June 8th
-Day Trip to Pisa
-Field of Miracles (Leaning Tower of Pisa)
-Uffizi Gallery

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