I stumbled across teacherwishlist.com while searching online for nearby volunteer opportunities a couple weeks ago. It was an interesting concept. Teachers upload a wishlist of classroom supplies for their students, parents or donors purchase the items to donate to the classrooms. Pretty simple.

Although I am not a parent, (pet-parents count too though!) I decided to check out the lists around me to see if I could help out with their needs. Once I entered my zip code, a search populated 10 schools within my area. I was somewhat surprised to only find 2 teachers, both from the same school, utilizing this site!

From their about page: In a recent survey of elementary and middle-school teachers, 71% reported spending an average of $462 per year out of their own pocket on classroom supplies and learning tools.* Teacher Wish List was created to thank teachers for their generosity. (How many other jobs require employees to pay for supplies?) This service makes it even easier for parents to continue to help teachers.

I guess most teachers aren’t aware that this site exists or maybe they feel a little strange asking for donations. I know some teachers send home a list of supplies that are needed for each student, so the responsibility then is on the parents to purchase the items. I see parents and kids roaming the aisles of Target and other local “everything” stores for their Back to School supplies, lists in hand!

The supplies that were on the lists I looked at on the site were for Preschool and Kindergarten classes. Tissues, paper towels, stickers, puzzles, etc. These items were specifically for the classroom — for everyone to use. The requested supplies were everyday items that I could pick up at Target and wouldn’t break my budget either. So I decided to help out. I emailed the teachers and let them know that I wanted to donate the items on their individual lists.

I went to 2 stores and found all the items and in total for both teacher’s lists it only cost about $65.

Items from Preschool and Kindergarten class wishlists. This shows only one class. Just double what you see and that's the second class!

Target has this incredible dollar section right at the front entrance of the store. I found these and other age-group specific topics of cards, like geography, math, science, etc. But since I was purchasing for kids 6 and under, I felt these would be best suited for them.

$1 each at Target

Some may recognize these “Play Packs” from my haul video. You’re never too old to color!

"Play Packs" come with crayons, stickers and mini book.

I fondly remember making paper puppets out of white paper bags like these. You just glue a bunch of stuff on it, draw a happy face and then carefully stick your tiny 5 year old hand into it (not to open all the way) and ta-da! A new friend!

Supplies for paper puppets!

Both classes cheered for Silly Bands. I don’t get it, I must be getting old. But I’m glad the kids love them!

Silly Bands...??

The teachers were both very grateful for my donation. We made small talk and I told them I was always interested in teaching, the younger kids especially. Who doesn’t want to play with little kids and color all day?! Have juice and crackers for snack time — omg, a designated snack time?! Yes! I love the order within the chaos and the little smiling face aren’t bad either.

Trying to find something unique to do on our weekends off, I stumbled upon Garretson Farm’s Butterfly Release in Fair Lawn. As stated on the website,the farm is “one of the oldest sites in Bergen County, this pre-revolutionary sandstone house is officially listed on the New Jersey State and United States National Register of Historic Places.“

The Garretson Farm is still in operation and is officially owned by Bergen County and operated by volunteers.

There are holiday workshops, monthly picnics and planting year round. This place has seen a lot of history and I’m glad I visited it.

Below are some pictures of pretty flowers from the garden with a beehive container and the historical building still furnished with old timey stuff like a yarn loom.

Herbs and veggies from the garden.

Here’s the loom and yarn!

And of course the butterflies!

So it’s kind of funny that we intended on going to this farm to see a butterfly release, but didn’t realize it was literally only a couple that were going to be released! In my mind I thought it would be just swarms of them, but it was just 2, 30 minutes apart.

So I’ve only posted 1 entry for July and felt the need to give stillinbed.com the same love I’ve been giving to Good, Bad and Ugly with Lupus.

Upon signing in here today, I noticed there were a bunch of comments on my trypophobia post. It seems like I only managed to reply to 1 of the comments sometime last year. For that, I’m truly sorry. I’ve reply back to the 37 other comments individually and feel a sense of accomplishment and relief in doing so. I hope all is forgiven and those who commented will continue to read my future updates.

New happenings:

1. I’ve started a personal journal. You know, the kind I write stuff I can’t share with the world. This all of course, in the name of personal growth and self-enlightenment. Keeping this journal has been a goal of mine for a long time, but I just wasn’t disciplined enough to start one and be consistent with it, until now. This was all brought on by a movie I saw over the weekend, Any Human Heart — which originally was a book written by William Boyd with the same title. I fell in love with the story and inspiration was sparked, then putting pen to paper began!
2. I found time to clean my closet and organize my shoes to donate to the Women’s Rights Information Center, which their “Career Closet” (helps low-income job seekers shop for outfits and accessories) is run by Past & Present Boutique.
3. Upon visiting my dentist for a checkup, apparently I have 2 cavities. This may not be a shocking revelation as “more than 90% of adults over the age of 40 have had tooth decay in their adult teeth,”  and “over 19% of children ages 2-19 have untreated cavities.” It’s a fairly common, I guess. But I have never had a cavity in my baby teeth or adult teeth. I think the dentist is mistaken, I’d like a second opinion, really.

Discoveries:

1. Pepper normally chases after the laser pointer light, like most other cats. She’s fine with but not with It’s actually pretty funny to see her happily playing and chasing the first dot, but as soon as I change the laser to the circle, she runs and hides!
2. Kind Bars. I received one in a BirchBox and fell in love! I was so happy to find them at Target. They’re delicious and nutritious! “Kind’s all natural whole nut & fruit bars put an end to hunger by delivering all-natural nutrients like fiber, protein, calcium and iron.” Perfect for my anti-eating days. A bar and a multivitamin usually do the trick for me!
3. You can take the girl out of Little Saigon, but you can’t take Little Saigon out of the girl!
• I was homesick for delicious Asian dishes like my mom’s home cooking and all that’s familiar to me in Orange County (I’ve lived there since I was 2!).  The closest thing we’ve got is run-of-the-mill Chinese take out and a Mitsuwa about 20 minutes away. But getting those authentic Vietnamese dishes were out of the question. So, I decided to cook my own! I made bò lúc lắc (literally “shaking beef” – seared beef with sautéed onions), bánh xèo, (literally “sizzling cake” – crepe entree typically with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts), thịt kho (caramelized, braised pork belly with hard boiled eggs served over rice), and bánh phồng tôm (shrimp/prawn chips flash fried). Sadly, none of the dishes tasted like my mom’s, but Jeff liked it!
4. Almond milk. I came across this simply because I had a coupon for it and didn’t want to pay full price for the lactose-free milk I normally get. So delicious and good for you too!
5.  Cavities are contagious! Thanks Jeff!

I found a hobby and it’s a pretty time consuming one. But one that at least let’s me be creative and create lupus awareness all at the same time! I know I should’ve have done this a long time ago, but I guess it just wasn’t right yet, until now.

Presenting: http://www.youtube.com/moxieosity

I’ve been quite busy with this new project and am sincerely happy that I’ve got supporters and subscribers.

This channel is dedicate to describing my 9.5 year journey with lupus — from unknown symptoms, diagnosis to stability.

Also, just for fun, some videos will be about the going-ons in my life and how to keep busy while unemployed. However, the focus of the channel is mainly to retell my experiences with this disease.

In 2 weeks, I have uploaded 5 videos — 3 of which detail my struggles with lupus, from beginning until now.

I’m newly inspired to share my stories with the youtube public. I’ve got a list of episode ideas lined up and am excited to film these brief glimpses of my life. Ideally, I’d like to put up 2 videos a week — 1 lupus focused and another fun focused.

There will be at least 1 new video every week, I promise.

Please stay tuned and subscribe!!!

Pepper was acting a little strangely the past few weeks. She’d be in the kitchen and settle down in front of the dishwasher, whether it was running or not, and simply stare at it. I figured something maybe wrong and would play with her and give her extra attention, but she’d still just plop down right next to the dishwasher.

A few days ago she moved from the kitchen to the bathroom and would stare at the radiator against the wall. Jeff figured she was hunting something — but what could it be? I’m home all the time and hadn’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. There were no signs that anything was out of place or different. Until last night…

Pepper was at her usual post in the bathroom, Jeff was working out in another room and I was in the bedroom on fb of course. Then I noticed Pepper came into the bedroom, playing with something. I though she might’ve found a rubber band or pen and was patting that around. When I looked to see what it was, Pepper had pushed it under a pair of jeans that I left on the floor. I picked up the jeans and was SHOCKED it was a mouse!

Pretty cool that she was able to do that, especially since neither Jeff or I heard or saw anything that signaled we had a rodent in our apartment. Also, I’m very glad we got it away from Pepper before she got a chance to tear it up. The mouse was fully intact and we proceeded to put it in tupperware to throw out. Glad to report that since catching the mouse, Pepper hasn’t been huddled next to the dishwasher or radiator.

So it was the big day, Jeff’s presentation was one of the last ones of the conference. He had various meetings with his team and needed to practice one last time before show time.

I had some free time to myself and gave myself a mani/pedi then wandered the hotel for a bit before my hair appointment at a salon inside the hotel.

Ta-da! Simple. but much needed. Of course,  I wrote a Yelp review of the place and gave them 4 stars for an excellent experience!

After his presentation was done we decided to keep it low-key since we had to be up early the next morning to catch our flight to Charleston. We had a 3 course dinner at Stones Throw and slept like babies!

Next stop, Jess and Stewart’s Wedding in SC!

We got to Charleston safe and sound. Upon letting Stewart know we had made it, off we went to the rehearsal (since Jeff was one of the groomsmen) at Boone Hall Plantation. We did the meet and greet with the families and got to spend sometime with our West coast friends.

After the hustle and bustle a few hours after landing, we were able to check in to our room at the Wild Dunes not far from the 2 beach houses that everyone else was staying at in Isle of Palms. The resort itself was very big and had a lot of open space. We reserved a 1 bedroom villa right next to the ocean! It was beautiful! Again, we had to be up early the next morning for the wedding, so an early night it was.

~ Wedding highlights ~

So, all in all it was a whirlwind adventure that we would’ve done again in a heartbeat. Jeff got to speak on behalf of the company, I got my first trip to DC, we got to go to Charleston for a beautiful wedding and to catch up with old friends! It’ll be good to be home though, I’m sure Pepper misses us. Part 3 coming up — our adventures trying to get back to Newark…!!!

This past week really tested my patience, endurance and energy levels. On the go eating of not so healthy food, catching sleep half hours at a time and just the mere disturbance of my daily routine of doing nothing. This trip was for two important events: Jeff’s presentation in DC and our friends’ Jess and Stewart’s wedding in Charleston, SC.

Jeff was invited to speak about social media in Washington DC two Fridays ago at an annual graduate admissions conference. We were both very excited at this opportunity and wanted to make sure we could do everything on our end the make this a smooth trip and stress-free presentation for him.

There were loose ends we had to tie up at home first like getting an automatic kitty kibble feeder, setting up the webcam to monitor Pepper’s food and water, unplugging virtually every electronic appliance, stopping the daily paper, making sure our bills were paid for the month, putting our mail on hold etc. I managed to do most of these thing on my own, freeing up Jeff from these duties. I wanted to take care of the more mundane things so he could prep for his speaking engagement. More importantly, it was like my mini daily mission to get these things done and crossed off our to do lists for both our sanity’s sake.

We pack our bags and set our alarms the night before leaving for seven days. We wake up semi-refreshed and ready to drive to Newark airport. As we’re driving on the freeway, the thought of us missing our 6:30a connecting flight to Philadelphia sets in. We still had to leave our car in the daily lot, check our bags and get through security all with in about 45 mins! I began to worry.

Jeff decides to drop me and our bags at the curb. I’d check them while he parks the car. These next few moments were stressful, not knowing if he’d get back to the terminal on time. I proceed to the baggage counter, check our bags and print our boarding passes. The next few minutes felt like waiting for an eternity before I saw Jeff speed walking to the security checkpoint where I was waiting for him. We get through security rather quickly, probably since everyone on that flight has already boarded.

We race to the gate just as the pilot reaches the adjoining door and the jet way. The rep at the gate says, “There you are. We called you a couple of times and the pilot even came out to look for you.” A little embarrassed smile, brief eye-contact to the pilot as we both scuttle down the jet way and up the stairs to board the plane. We made it with only seconds to spare.

It was a quick flight to Philly and a brief layover before we boarded the next flight to DC. Nothing out of the ordinary in Philly. We had a little time to get our coffee, a small bite to eat and of course, check in on foursquare and earn some badges!

In DC the weather was the same as it was in NJ, cold, gray with a steady brisk breeze. Surprise, surprise. We hail a cab, take a 15 min trip and get to the hotel/conference site around 10:30a. I had made a special request for early check in to the hotel when I reserved the room. The request was not answered and our room was not available yet. Instead of dragging our luggage around the lobby of the hotel, we left it with coat check guys and looked for the conference registration desk.

After getting his badge we were pointed in the direction of the “ribbon bar.” This was where registrants could bling their name badge with various sticky-backed multicolored ribbons. Jeff was especially excited that the bling was bigger than the name badge itself.

We still had time to kill so we wandered around the lobby more and finally found a little cafe that served cold sandwiches and coffee. Around 1p we finally got to check into our room, where we prompt crashed and passed out on the bed for a much needed nap for a few hours. When we woke, we decided to order room service.  Their French onion soup was to die for! Totally delish, piping hot and ooey gooey cheesy! Back to bed! We had a eventful day tomorrow to rest up for!

My biweekly SHRM classes that began in February ended today and I’m happy to announce that I passed and earned a certificate from FDU in partnership with SHRM.  I’m also an official member of SHRM, too!

Next steps: update resume and job hunt. Wish me luck!

Society For Human Resource Management

Back by popular demand, (and the sheer amount of eventful happenings in recent months) I’ve decided to try my best and devote my time updating this blog more often than the 7 months it’s taken since my last post! So many changes in so little time! Well, as you can tell by the title of this blog, I am now a Jersey Girl. So what happened? OCGirliegurl on the east coast?! Breaking it down now, keeping it short and sweet.

September
Trip to Chicago with Jeff turns out to be one of many in our future together!

Saw Cabaret, visited the SkyDeck and well, got engaged!!!

October

Impromptu visit to Iowa and saw a very unique show, Acrocats (see cat ears in pic below).

And now….

Most recently we got an apartment in New Milford (only 2 days into the search!).

>Back by popular demand, (and the sheer amount of eventful happenings in recent months) I’ve decided to try my best and devote my time updating this blog more often than the 7 months it’s taken since my last post! So many changes in so little time! Well, as you can tell by the title of this blog, I am now a Jersey Girl. So what happened? OCGirliegurl on the east coast?! Breaking it down now, keeping it short and sweet.

April
Began work at an escrow company in Irvine. My girls!!

May
Visited Dallas, TX for the first time and experienced 4 days of the most unpredictable weather — humid, sunny, overcast and finally a tornado warning!

June
Adopted Callie, my first guinea piggie.

July
Chewy comes along — 2 piggies now!

August
Saw Wicked the Musical in San Francisco. Loved it! First professional musical I’ve ever been to.

September
Trip to Chicago with Jeff turns out to be one of many in our future together….
Saw Cabaret, visited the SkyDeck and well, got engaged!!!

October
Impromptu visit to Iowa and saw a very unique show, Acrocats (see cat ears in pic below).

And now….

Most recently we got an apartment in New Milford (only 2 days into the search!) and finished assembling our IKEA bed (I know, lacks quality but it looks good!) in record time…well, maybe not. Our New Place!