Funday Monday!

Happy Monday! This week I am co-hosting Funday Monday with Carly at Lipgloss and Crayons and Molly at Still Being Molly. I love this link up so much because you can literally write about anything! I love reading what everyone has to say about different topics. I have had this summer off from work and school. It has been two months since graduation and unfortunately I'm still looking for a job. School counseling jobs are hard to come by. I met with the principal of a local elementary school at the end of March and really thought I would end up being hired there. In my district, new jobs are posted each Monday. I have been checking, and checking, and checking. Nothing was showing up. I called the school last week to find out that the principal had decided not to hire a school counselor for the upcoming school year.  I have been feeling disheartened and frustrated lately. I worked my butt off in my graduate program and have nothing to show for it yet. It has been discouraging. I am still optimistic though and am keeping my options open. I have searched for jobs in mental health agencies, at the local university level, and have decided to begin studying for the K-6 elementary education exam - so I can possibly start out as a teacher. Positive thoughts are much appreciated as I continue through this struggle to begin my career as a school counselor. Not just for myself, but for my fellow classmates who have just graduated (there were about 12 of us) and are still on the hunt for jobs as well.
Happy Funday Monday! Each week, Molly & I will be selecting a few of our favorite posts from the Monday before to feature……it’s a great way to put the spotlight on a few of y’all each week! Please be sure to link up an ACTUAL post, not just a link to your main page. A few of our favs from last week: Cheesy Green Chile Chicken Jcrew Style Night Whale Sharks Watermelon Three Ways

The Rules for #FundayMonday Link-Ups:

1. Follow your hosts Molly @ still being [molly] ,Carly @ Lipgloss & Crayons , and your guest hosts for the week Angela @ Adventures to Remember and Bridgette @ Bridgette Nicole

• Grab a button and / or post a link back here in your BLOG POST (NOT your blog’s main page) so your readers know what all the #fundaymonday-ness is about. We love you guys linking up and we do go through and read all your posts… so if you do not give credit, we will have to remove your link. That’s no fun, right? Right. So be nice and share a link! Pretty please?

 

• Link your blog post up using the linky tool below! It can be ANYTHING! An outfit post, a giveaway, a story, a recipe, whatever. Why? Cause it’s #fundaymonday!

 

• Visit a blog or four that you’ve never been to before and leave a #fundaymonday comment – you never know, you might “meet” someone new that you will lurve!

 

• Have fun! Cause it's Monday!

 

 

Want to cohost #Fundaymonday? We will be accepting weekly cohosts starting next week..........please email us at carlybrydon@gmail.com for more info!

Guest post: Meet Stephanie!

I'm giving away an iTunes gift card over at Lipgloss and Crayons. (Don't leave just yet to enter it, keep reading!) Last month, I won a giveaway Carly and friends were hosting and snagged some really awesome ad spaces, one being on her blog. Well, she totally rocks and I 100% recommend sponsoring her blog if you haven't done so already! Go check out the giveaway and her post about what she, as a teacher, wears to school. But first, check out the rest of today's post...

I am so excited to introduce you to a lovely lady I have met in the blogging world named Stephanie. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled onto her blog but I am so excited I did. I swapped blog buttons with her for the month and we got to talking and discovered we have a few things in common. We are both working in the education field as school counselors (I'm still not employed yet, but she is!), we both thought we would HATE middle school before we started working in it, and we both live in Florida. Enough from me: read about the reasons she loves being a school counselor, and be sure to stop by her blog too!

Hi everyone!  My name is Stephanie, I blog over at Never The Same Spice Twice...where I plan my meals each week (most weeks anyway), post recipes and tips I've picked up along the way, and talk about what life is like with the sweetest hubby AND a baby on the way!  But what a lot of people don't know about me is that I'm a school counselor (my day job)!  I'm excited that Angela has invited me to guest post over here, and thought I would talk a little bit about the 5 reasons I enjoy being a counselor!

1.  Every day is different!  I can't even tell you how many times I catch myself saying "Never had this situation before"!

2.  There is an extreme entertainment factor!  Yes, kids say the darndest things...and so do the parents!  You just have to laugh!

3.  You get to make a difference!  You may not see the results for a while, and sometimes you will wonder if "it's all even worth it".  And then suddenly, that "Ah-Ha" moment comes, and you realize why you love your job!

4.  You get to do a little bit of everything!  Ok, if you are thinking of going into the field you probably have heard "you don't get to do nearly as much counseling as you would like".  Unfortunately this is true, but you get to do a variety of other things so it never gets boring!

5.  You get to go all out with school spirit!!!  This is the beauty of working in education in general...see picture above!  You get to participate in decade days, crazy sock days, pirate days, character dress up day...the list goes ON!  

Don't get me wrong there are days when I feel completely overwhelmed!  Things move very quickly, and there is literally not enough time in the day to even scratch the surface!  But at the root of it all I'm still happy with my career decision, and I'm grateful to work with a wonderful team!  Since this is one of the craziest times of the year, coordinating state testing, 6th grade orientations, as well as the beginning stages of developing next years master schedule....it is nice to reflect on the reasons why I do love being a school counselor.  

If you have any questions, just ask!!!

high five for friday (7) & gator boots

1. This photo tells so much about my happiness at the moment. 

First: I am just 2 hours away from my total number of hours needed at my internship this semester. That's right, just 2 more hours! Second: I need 48 total group hours and am just 5.5 away from that number. Third: I only needed 120 direct hours and I have 133. Pure joy over here right now! This internship has been a lot of hard work, and now on to my second "high five"....

2. I couldn't have survived my past two internships without my amazing supervisor. Long story made short: I had a terrible first internship experience at a high school in 2011. My supervisor was nasty and could have cared less if I learned anything. I ended up having to switch internship sites in the last month in order to reach my mere 100 hours of internship. My supervisor for my past 2 internships (R) is such a wonderful person with the biggest heart. She has advocated for me in a million different ways and done everything in her power to make sure I reach my designated number of hours and also learned a great deal about what school counselors really do. Yesterday, we had some quiet moments between the two of us and it was truly awesome. I'm so happy to have made a lifelong friend in this process.

3. I got to see my cousins, aunts, uncle, and Granny over the weekend. Sadly, it was to attend a funeral, but we had a nice dinner together after the service...during which I broke the news about my tattoo. Granny was not a fan, to say the least. 

4. Pardon my language in that picture, but I partied pretty hard Friday night. I had a blast, but hated myself the next day. For the past 3 years, I haven't done anything like that. It was nice to let loose and have some fun for the first time in years. 

5. Today is a jeans day! Seriously, it's about the little things in life... Looking forward to the weekend and a possible beach trip. Praying for no rain Saturday. 

What are your plans this weekend? Have a great one!

And, I leave you with some Big Tymers for #backthatazzupfriday

Linking up:

high five for friday (6) + #yolo

Happy Friday lovelies! Another week has flown by. Feeling good about life :)

This week's high five:

1. I had a great after school event with my grief group kiddos. We had a dinner with their families and did a balloon release to celebrate the time I have spent with them. My heart was so full of love and happiness! It was so great to hear from their families the positive impact I have made in their lives.

2. I've been feeling major love from my supervisor this week. I am so blessed to have a supportive supervisor who has really helped me to reach my fullest counseling potential.

3. I got a 97 on my group presentation in class this week! Holla! I was extremely nervous, as I usually am for presentations, but managed to pull off something spectacular with my peeps. Can't say I would do it again though.

4. I'm loving my tattoo. Here is a picture of it! Still working on the post about my experience getting it.

5. I've only got a few weeks left of graduate school! Most of my assignments are complete so therefore I'm having fun this weekend. #yolo

Warning: this is the unedited version

Linking up!

Giveaways galore!

Hello lovelies and happy Saturday! I've got a few neat things to share with you today!

I just entered the Follow Me on Bloglovin Massive Giveaway over at Hayley's World! $100 to PayPal, $100 to Amazon, $100 to Etsy, and $30 to Target - some of my favorite places!

Which one would you be most excited to get?

For me personally, I would love Target (obviously) but I think I would like Amazon or Etsy even more. I always find the neatest things on Etsy, like this calendar I am currently coveting. You pick the pattern, color(s), monogram style and shape! You can also get it in ombré! With the Amazon one, I would pick up some children's books I have been saving in my shopping cart for when I have my own counseling office. Bibliotherapy is so useful in working with students. It's a great way to help them calm down and learn that whatever they are going through has been experienced by someone, or is at least understood by someone else, because there is an entire book devoted to the issue.

Also, if you haven't done so yet: you can also follow my blog on Bloglovin. I myself am still trying to adjust to Bloglovin. Lisette blogged last week about how you can import your Google Reader blog feed to Bloglovin and not lose all those peeps you follow!

While you are over at Lisette's blog, be sure to check out the March sponsor giveaway her and her amazing sponsor are hosting! They are giving away 14 different ad spaces between each of their blogs.



Would you like a chance to win a Clarisonic Mia 2 in your color choice? Have you entered the giveaway I'm co-hosting with some lovely ladies? You can do so here! ONLY 2 days left!

Other awesome giveaways:
$25 gift card to J.Crew from The Serena Saga, found at Jessica Who?
$60 gift card to Starbucks from Songbirds & Buttons + sponsors
2 months ad space and a pair of button earrings from My Life as Mindy
March group giveaway: Ad space plus various gift cards from Pursuit of Pink and sponsors
Giveaway for two winners: anchor tee!
$1000 shopping spree to Etsy, Anthropologie, Pier 1, Target, & Starbucks: The Serena Saga & sponsors
$1000 VISA gift card from an amazing group of bloggers!



For my fellow iPhone owners: check out The Kinch Life for Aubrey's Friday Freebie. Customized for you!

Which giveaways have you entered? What would you be most excited to win?

high five for friday (3) and an old school favorite

Thanks to Whitney I now cannot officially start my weekend without #backthatazzup Friday. So, start backing it up for Nelly, cause it's hot in here!

Now on to my happy moments of the week!

1. I lined up a meeting with an elementary school. Yay for getting my foot in a door, somewhere. It feels like a great start for my future.


Please don't let your mind go numb over what I am about to say, but some big things are going on in my school counseling world. Check out this blog post from FSCA. FSCA is the Florida School Counselor Association; I have been a member since I started my graduate program back in 2010. FSCA is making some big moves in Tallahassee this week trying to get a bill passed which will regulate the school counseling profession. You can read about the bill here, see a summary of what the Student Failure Prevention Act means, and get updates on the FSCA legislation at the blog here. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the school counseling profession and shared about the school counselor to student ratios which negatively impact student success in this post. I am very excited for what this bill could mean for me and my classmates and the profession overall. My supervisor said something to me this week which really resonated and deeply saddened me: "you will probably never do as much counseling when you become a school counselor as you did when you were an intern." *Ouch* Please, if you have a moment, and live in the state of FL, write a letter to our state representatives letting them know what you support the Student Failure Prevention Act (SB 0154 and HB 0801). Here is a sample letter if you are having trouble finding the words to say in support of this legislation. I am thankful for your support and taking the time to read this, and doing what you can do to help! Kudos for making it through that long-winded moment of advocating for myself.

2. A student of mine nominated me for staff member of the month at my internship site. I shared about it here.

3. I had a major breakthrough with one of my students who wrote me a beautiful letter that brought tears to my eyes. She thanked me for changing her life and said she knows I will go on to change many other lives. I had no idea such a beautiful message could come from a 6th grader.

4. I learned a lot about myself this week. I'm happy that I am one of those people who can always find a way to better improve myself. It's my belief if you feel there is no room for improvement, you are not trying to be your best self. We are all human and have this amazing ability to learn from our mistakes.

5. Today is my day off! I haven't had one of these in for-e-ver! I slept in late (til 8 am) and I'm still in my PJ's. Headed to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. It doesn't get much better.

Have a lovely weekend!

What was the highlight of your week?

Just because...I love what I do

Linking up with some awesome bloggers: Lisette and Catalyn.

I love my unpaid job and right now money cannot compare to how blessed I feel to be able to give back to these students....but at the same time, I am ready to start getting paid for all my hard work!

Please excuse the "blobs" on the picture, that's my way of protecting student's anonymity.