happy birthday to you.

Today would have been my daddy's 49th birthday. 

This is the man who taught me what real love is.

He taught me that a few words will mean so much less than all your actions ever will.

That I shouldn't - don't deserve to - drive a car without knowing how it works first.

There is a difference between a Phillips and a flathead screwdriver, and I should know what it is.

I know that math actually applies to my everyday life.

He taught me the value of a dollar.

And the value of working hard for a dollar.

And, most importantly, the value of generously giving that valuable dollar that I worked so hard for.

He taught me the proper way to make coffee.

That singing at the top of your lungs is the most efficient way to have the time of your life.

By the time I was in kindergarten I could rapid-fire titles and artists of many songs on the local classic rock station. He taught me that too.

I know that NASCAR is not just for rednecks, thanks to him.

I learned that reading is a fun pastime.

He taught me that education doesn't just happen in school, and that I damn well better be getting an education until the day I die.

But, just in case, I should take in all the "book learning" I can manage.

He showed me that I can make my own path. 
And it will probably be better than the path anyone else has for me.

I learned through him that I can be strong when it seems like everything is going wrong.

I know how to be independent. I can take care of myself. 

I also know how to find the people who make me happy.
He showed me how important it is to laugh every day. Every day.

He showed me that life is too short to wait for happiness to come around. 
He taught me to make my own happiness, and work hard for it.

He taught me to live like I could die tomorrow. Because I could.


I got all this in eleven years. I can only imagine where I would be today -almost 22 years old-if he were still here.

I love you, daddy. We miss you every day. 

Love,

Your little girl

Today I was telling my kids that I was going to pretend to be their parent so they could practice their performance for the parents' luncheon. I said "Mrs. K and I aren't parents, but we'll pretend to be right now." One of my cherubs responded with "Well, Mrs. K really is a parent, because she has a husband!"


Out of the mouths of babes.

xoxo-

mts

I haven't had time to post in awhile. Busy is definitely an understatement. I'm going to try to get back into it soon, but for now..


HI GRANDMA! :)

xoxo-

mts

out of the mouths of babes - one.

     "Miss Snyder, will you peel my orange for me? I'm going to eat my fruit first because it will help me poop. I have trouble, you know."
     Your laugh for today.

xoxo-

mts

I'm leaving on a jetplane.

     In honor of my recent air travel home for Thanksgiving, I have my own personal list of DO's and DON'Ts for air travel. Unfortunately, these all come from actual experiences I have had over the weekend.

this post is so boring it doesn't even deserve a title.

     Wow, it's been three weeks since I posted last. I suck at this. Sorry.
     A lot has happened in those three weeks. I have been so busy with my Teacher Work Sample Portfolio that I haven't had time to breathe. I haven't even started it yet, but planning for it has been consuming my life. I'm starting it today.. yikes! It's only a huge unit plan that will wind up filling an entire binder, that I'm not going to teach until February yet have to have planned now, and that determines whether or not I get recommended for a license in the state of North Carolina. No big deal. I've also been working on my applications for graduate school. So far, all three of them are finished except for my personal statement, which is the part that is scaring me. Again, no big deal.
     I'll try to be better at updating, seeing as I've had two people ask me when I was going to update just this week :) After this week, I will actually have time to breathe again, promise.

xoxo-

mts

If I could write a letter to me and send it back in time to myself at seventeen.

     Uh-oh. I'm getting deep today. I am currently writing from a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio. Why Columbus, you ask? My little brother, JT, is currently on a tour of Ohio State. Yeah. I feel old.

Making plans to change the world, while the world is changing us.

     I'm too tired to write something of my own today, but I came across this yesterday and it's been on my mind ever since:
     "Think you can't change the world? Too late, you already have. It was changed for the better the minute you were born. There are more people than you can imagine who will never be the same because they came in contact with you, if only for a fleeting moment." - Gail Purcell
     I can only hope that's true.

xoxo-

mts

Count to ten, take it in, this is life.

     Remember when I said I had a surprise that was keeping me busy? I can finally tell everyone: I am a big sister!

You are the best thing that's ever been mine.

This is what happiness looks like, in case anyone was wondering:

When your mind is a mess, so is mine.

     Hm. Lots going on during the past week. Did you notice the fall/Halloween background change? :) Anyways, since I'm a busy lady and I only have approximately ten minutes to write this post in which I plan to decompress my entire week, let's do this in my favorite form of writing: THE LIST.

I was a flight risk with a fear of falling, wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts.

      Please tell me someone has noticed that all of my post titles are lines from songs. I totally stole that from Grey's Anatomy. Did you know that all of their episodes are named after songs? I'm not good at coming up with catchy titles, and I'm a dirty idea stealer, so I let songs make my titles.

     This weekend was Homecoming here at Western. I can't even describe to you how incredible this weekend is here. Western is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life, and that is saying something coming from the girl who has been to Rome, Florence, Venice, Jamaica, Bermuda, Niagara Falls.. you get the picture. Cullowhee is gorgeous. It's home. People love coming back here. 

I'm not together, but I'm getting there.

     I have got to get better at this blogging thing, although in my defense, last week was Watermelon Bust and this week is Homecoming, so I have had days where I have forgotten that I am supposed to eat, let alone blog. 
     Can I just say that my life has been really stressful lately? Am I allowed to say that? I'm not complaining.. I have a roof over my head, clothes on my body, and food in my fridge. My tuition is paid and I have a car that starts when I need it to. I am thankful for those things, I really, really, really am. Still, I think that I can vent a little bit about my crazy life because, well, let's face it - this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.

What have you been doing lately?

     So, yes, I realize that I have been MIA. This week is a full week for me - it's Lambda Chi Alpha's Watermelon Bust, which is a weeklong philanthropy event. There are different competitions and events each day and it's a huge contest between the sororities. Tonight was the "Bust A Move" competition - aka dance competition. All the sororities have been working really hard and everyone did a great job.
     Delta Zeta rocked it. 

These are my people.

     It's gameday, people! Time for girls to come out in their purple dresses and high heels, for everyone to play hours and hours of cornhole in the parking lot while sipping their beers and singing in the most awful off-key voices to country music.

Celebrate we will, cause life is short but sweet for certain.

     First things first: I am having an incredibly difficult time stringing together a coherent post today. I can practically hear all the neurons in my brain firing in a million different directions. I'm sort of picturing the following scenario: thought A shoots off and starts heading toward my hand. It's enjoying the sweet ride from my brain to my fingers, where it will be pounded out onto my keyboard. Then thought B shoots off, because even though he is off-topic and irrelevant, he feels left out. Thought A collides with thought B, they get in an epic bar fight, and they both wind up coming off of my fingers in a mangled, banged up, limping, pitiful walk of shame. And neither of them look good.
     The point of that useless story was to tell you not to judge my off-topic ramblings today. I know it's ridiculous, but that's how my life has been lately, so it suits me.

You make me feel so young.

     Today one of my cherubs asked me how old I was. I told her I was 21. Her eyes got absolutely huge and then she said, "Really? How do you look so young, Miss Snyder?"

I was thinking, overthinking.

     I have been thinking lately about the kind of teacher I want to be. I think before I figure that out, I need to figure out what kind of person I want to be. I know. I'm deep.

We all just want to be big rockstars.

     So, because it is a Friday morning (Fridays are supposed to be my days off, but because I am a poor college student I spend them working.. ahh, the American Dream) and I spent the better part of my night and wee hours of the early morning having deep heart-to-heart conversations with fellow poor college students about topics of extreme national importance including the Jersey Shore, the comfort level of sweatpants, and the beauty of care packages from home (more on that later), I am a little too tired and incoherent right now to make a real post. I'm not even sure the first chunk of this paragraph was a legitimate sentence. I'm obviously off to a first-class start with this deeply self-reflective blog.

Can someone stop this train?

     I've been meaning to start one of these things for a long time. And by that, I mean for the past six months or so. I've always had some kind of excuse - mostly that I didn't know how to start a blog or how to make it cooler than what my kindergarteners can probably make - but now I know how, so there's no excuse.