#meetings #JohnnyCash

Hello to my friends and family!

Let me just start this post by saying I miss you all terribly!  I am now exiting the "honeymoon" stage of moving and into the "reality" stage.  While there is still no doubt in my mind about this move, I just miss my family and friends.  School started back in Iowa last week so that means I now am the big sister to 1 official junior higher, two freshmen in high school, and one sophomore in high school! Can you believe that? Cra-Cra!

And now to update you on the past few weeks. If I had to choose one word to sum it up, I would say: "meetings". I have spent the last two weeks sitting in a chair, in various locations all over Greenville, listening to people talk at me. It's been trainings, orientations, meetings, etc. You get the point. But it's all part of the job. :) Needless to say, I am sooooo excited for the students to come back to school. Back to School Night is Tuesday night and the first day of school is Thursday. I have used a few days to get my room ready for my fourth graders and, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty good! (My assistant principal came in the other day and said, "Woooah girl! I haven't seen a room look this inviting since I was teaching!"...just my little brag moment! :) ) Anyways, I am attaching a few pictures below so you can all visualize where I am spending my days from here on out. I can not wait to meet them all.  Anyways, here are a few pics of my room!

Besides living the life of a full time employee, our lives have been pretty boring.  We continue to spend time with our awesome neighbors who live below us.  We recently held a Monopoly tournament (I am proud to say I took 2nd!).  We also have Family Dinner Nights with them on Sundays (today, woohoo! And it's their turn to cook!).  They both went to ECU, located here in Greenville, so they know all the "hot spots" around town and have taken it upon themselves to show us the best of Greenville.  Considering we have yet to have a boring night out with them, I would say they are doing a great job.  Here is a picture of us with the boys during a night out on the town!

I do have a throw in this story from last night, just for a little giggle.  So we have a few bars near us with which we like to go to.  They always have live music and, one of the biggest bonuses, they are within walking distance.  Anyway, last night we went there and, as we are approaching, we hear the live music for the night.  They had a very jazzy twist on many county/pop songs, so obviously, if we can sing along, we love it!  We walk in, after paying $10 cover (not impressed), and make ourselves right at home in front of the stage, singing along, dancing, and acting as if we own the place.  Okay, this is when you should be saying to yourself, "Girls, you are not in Cresco, these people do not know you, and this band is not the Goatropers.  AKA, chill out."  But no, we continue to have a great time and are really liking this band.  Partially because #theleadsingerwashot @sjslifka @ezueger.  But back to the story, before we know it, we hear the unmistakable beginning of Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash.  Having the parents that we do and being raised in small town Iowa, Sam and I instantly start dying because we know it and no one else does.  We start singing and jamming out, me on my leg guitar and Sam on her air guitar.  The. Band. Is. Im. Pressed. So what do they do? They give Sam and I the mic and let us sing the first verse.  Was it karaoke night? No.  Did they let anyone else sing? No.  Clearly we are something special.  Obviously we rocked it and we found ourselves saying, yet again, #welcometogreenville and/or #greenvillecan'thandleus. So thank you to everyone who helped us become stars last night; we wish you could have seen it. 

Anyway, I will keep you all posted on how the first few days go with my students! Wish me luck! :)

Until next time...

P.S. For those of you who don't know, the "hashtag" (#) is used frequently in our conversations because of Twitter.  We are obsessed with Twitter and hashtag #everything! :) Still don't understand? Get a Twitter account and follow us @sjslifka @keriank @ezueger!

Welcome to Greenville Folks

As Sam and I have lived in Greenville for a week now, we have found ourselves in some pretty interesting situations. We have found and taken a liking to our neighbors. They have shown us around the town a bit and it's always an interesting time! Here are a few entertaining moments for you :)
1) First Night Out - Our neighbors (there are 3 of them) took us out to a local City Bistro. It's a motel so naturally, we thought the worst. Where are they going to kill us? Will someone hear us if we scream? (Yes mother, we were using the buddy system at all times.) Turns out the City Bistro had a live band that night called the "Emily Minor Band". She was a country singer and she has become our new favorite live band to listen to. There are memories of us standing next to the stage, screaming, hands in the air, singing "Broken Wing". Yes, it was a good time! I now follow her on Twitter and guess what? SHE RETWEETED ME!!! I thought it was a pretty big deal and was very excited! We can't wait to see her live again.

2) Culture Shock Hot Dogs - Sam is a genius with finding fun things to do on the internet and she saw that Greenville was hosting a Night Out Against Crime in their local park. There was going to be live music, free food, and lots of "vendors". It was quite similar to the one and only Might Howard County Fair. Very fun! So we went and started our venture by grabbing a bag of the free food. We opened our bag to find not one, but two hotdogs. We opened them (starving because we don't have any pots and pans or microwave yet as our third roommate, Emily, has it and hasn't moved in yet) and were taken by surprise. The hotdog was BRIGHT RED. What?! Since when are hotdogs bright red? I, being the closed minded person I am, instantly decided there was no way I was putting that in my mouth. I've seen a hotdog and that was not it. Sam has a much more "when in Rome" type of personality so she went for it. After the first bite she says it's not that bad. Okay, okay, I'll try it. Barf. The first bite may not have been bad but the second was awful. So chewy, so gross. We later find out they aren't beef hotdogs, which is what we were used to. However, eating a gross hotdog was a payoff for the band we were about to hear. Again, we love live music. There was a band playing there called "Parmalee" and WE. LOVED. THEM. They are a country/rock band who plays some of the best music I have heard in a long, long time. Find them on iTunes and download there CD. So worth it! And when they are big, we can say we saw them in concert already! :)

3) Employment and Shout Outs - Maybe this should have been my first post but for those of you who do not know yet, I have landed myself a job teaching 4th grade in Greenville. I am very, very excited! I got a sneak peek into my classroom yesterday and it's big and, of course, super cute! I can't wait to get started setting it all up. I was officially signed on Thursday and I start orientation on Monday. Pretty fast! But I could not be happier and finally feel like the past 4 1/2 years of paying to be a teacher is finally worth it! So a big shout out to everyone who has helped me get to where I am right now in life. I could not have done it without you all. I have the best support system a girl could ask for so, you know who you are; thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!! Love you all!

4) Lazy Days - Because Sam and I don't start work until next week, we have taken this time to enjoy ourselves and relax! We invested in some beer and pool floaties (thank you Grandpa Damon!) and have spent endless hours relaxing at the pool, soaking up the sun. Sometimes, when the sun it too hot, we come back and watch The Hills (we started at season 1, we are now on season 3) or One Tree Hill. Yes, it's a tough life, we know, but someone has to do it! :)

Butttt.....Our third roommate, Sam's classmate, Emily, moves in later today so we need to go clean a bit before she gets here! Hope everyone has a relaxing Saturday and a wonderful weekend!

Miss you all!

Until next time....

A Family Vaca To Remember...

As most of you know, I have decided to move to Greenville, NC with my bestie, Sam. Before we hit the new city, my Mom's family and I decided to take a little family vaca to the Crystal Coast of NC, more specifically, Atlantic Beach.

We arrived at Havelock, NC two days after we left Iowa. Yes, I said two days. I think I can speak for the whole family when I say that it was easily two of the LONGEST days of my life. Driving through the corn fields of Iowa, around the larger cities of Cincinnati and Indianapolis, through the mountains of the East Coast and every other little town you can imagine was not exactly the highlight of my trip. While we made it there safely, I vowed to never do that again unless I am moving home and absolutely NEED to drive back.

And so our vacation started. We were all a bit antsy to take in the beach; I mean, who wouldn't be? We had driven for two days towards the Coast so, naturally, we needed to see the ocean. One would think this would be a great experience, sitting on the beach with a few cold beverages, beach chairs, bogey boards, etc. However, our experience seemed to be the opposite of what we expected. The wind was so horrendous that day! The sand was being picked up and flown at us! Our towels went flying if we didn't weight them down. It was one of those days where you instantly get upset at the person sitting beside you because they aren't thinking of you when, obviously they should be, as they shake out their towel, into the wind, directly at your face. Perfect! I needed a little sand shower, thank you very much!

Here is a picture of Claire and me "trying" to enjoy the beach!

The next day we opted out of another wonderful day at the beach and decided to take a ferry to a local lighthouse. Again, one could only imagine this as being a peaceful afternoon taking a ferry to and from the island, checking out the lighthouse, and maybe hanging on the beach. The ocean gods were not with us, again. As we arrived at the ferry dock, we stepped out of the car to 40 mph winds. Car doors were flying and hair was whipping your face (girls, you know this feeling and it hurts!). But we decided we may as well make the best of it! So as we sat there waiting for our ferry outside, we couldn't even speak to each other. Sitting right next to someone did not mean you could hear them. Tom had to hold onto his hat or it would fly away. Also, I should mention the ferry itself. We had envisioned a decent sized boat capable of taking around 20-25 people. Wrong! The "ferry" was a small "fishing" boat. The thought of going on a teeny little boat in an ocean which was white-capping all over did not seem appealing to us anymore. As we continue to sit there and wait for our turn, my mom is slowly losing it. For those of you who don't know my mom; she HATES the wind. It drives her absolutely insane! She was trying her best to keep a perky face on but finally, when the captain came out and told us they were going to quit running for the day as "conditions became unsafe", we could not help but give a little cheer.

The rest of the day consisted of us taking in the local aquarium, NC Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium. It's a must if you are in the Atlantic Beach area!

We also ate out most nights and I feel it necessary to give a little shout out to the delish restaurants we encountered! For the best shrimp I have ever had, visit Snapperz Grill and Steambar in Morehead City. This was the first place we ate at and, quite honestly, none of the others even came close to their food! For a wonderful crab cake, go to Crabby Patty's in Havelock. I recommend sitting outside on the patio! So relaxing!

As we wrapped up our trip, we were sad to leave the Crystal Coast of NC but excited as it meant traveling to my new home, Greenville, NC!

Until next time...