Hello, all! Although today’s date is somewhere near the end of July, I thought I’d keep up with the recaps. I was planning on doing a post with joint months like the last post, but I had way too many photos!

That’s how everyone else remembers what they did in a month, right? All the photos and screenshots we take on a daily basis? Just me? 🙂

I was looking back at the last update post and realized how much has changed. It’s summer. Life is good. I was SO overwhelmed last semester and it’s slowly melted away.

But May. May I was still in the stress.

It was my last month as the President of NE STEM 4U. I have to student teach during the next school year and the officer positions last a full school year. Student teaching, by the way, is essentially having a fulltime job, so I didn’t see how I would also run a student organization. The transition was a little tough for me and it’s still so weird not getting messages on the daily about something that’s going wrong. I weirdly miss it.

Anyways…

Here are some things I did in May:

-Mentored a lot.

-Worked a lot.

I went back to work for the Child Care Center. I had taken some time off from my job for mental health reasons AKA the stress of the past semester’s practicum, my grandma’s passing and additional responsibilities in NE STEM 4U. Sometimes I think I should try to find another job that pays more than minimum wage, and then I’m reminded of how unique it is to have such a flexible workplace. PLUS I’m gaining great experience as a teacher and those kids. <3

Probably one of the most stressful days of my summer was taking our child care center kids to the zoo. I was super excited to get to go this summer (I didn’t work at the right time last summer), but boy oh boy. Let me tell you–wrangling 30+ 3-5 year olds at a crowded zoo is no joke.

Fun fact: I worked full-time during my first month of “summer break” between the child care center and mentoring. Woot.

-Visited some of my practicum kiddos at Bancroft Elementary.

My mentor teacher said it was the first time she had teaching students visit her, which was surprising to me!

It was so good to see all the students, hear about the rest of their year and give them some words of wisdom (as a 30 something student). That day was one of those days where I realized all of my missteps have maybe been for a reason and that I can share what I’ve learned with others. Plus I brought Eileen’s cookies, so it was a good day.

I also kept up with my new year’s goal of being social (#beingsocial2018) and said, “yes” to a lot of opportunities to connect with friends…

-Went to my friend’s baby shower.

She had twins! And they are adorable, healthy little peanuts. The baby pictured is another friend’s baby and altogether my friends are making me a tad baby crazy.

-Saw the Bodies Exhibit.

I hung out with some of my NE STEM 4U friends outside of school.

We saw the Our Bodies Within exhibit in downtown Omaha which I found fascinating. The exhibit consisted of actual bodies donated to the cause that had been injected with a type of plastic that preserved them. They were able to make the most amazing diagrams of the body with these preserved donors from being able to see all of the human muscles to each individual vein on a lung. Most of the people I went with were science majors, so they thought it was “okay.” I could have spent hours there.

-Walked with the fam.

Self-explanatory family fun was had.

-Watched my youngest sibling, Chase, graduate.

He will be joining me at UNO this coming year and it’s given me all the feelings–proud, but also feeling a little bad I’m still in college at the same time.

-Watching a friend run the Lincoln Half Marathon.

This was the first time I had ever been on the other side of the race. It was pretty inspiring! We had breakfast together at a local restaurant afterwards.

Other things that happened included…

-Running a 10K race.

It was brutally cold and my original intention was running the half-marathon, but about a month out I decided my heart just wasn’t in it. I accomplished my goal of finishing before the half-marathoners, though!

-Visiting the Omaha Joslyn’s Art Museum.

Dave and I have been trying to be better explorers of our hometown Omaha (which goes along with the #beingsocial2018–it’s all about saying, “yes” to things.)

-Getting back into Instagram.

It’s possibly because I have a little more time on my hands, but also I LOVE having the creative outlet.

-Died my hair pink.

It lasted for a hot second and it was hardly noticeable. Ha!

Welp, that’s all for now. Be on the lookout for the next two updates. 🙂