Everything's bigger in Texas

I guess I've always grown up going back and forth between Texas and Georgia, so I haven't ever had the outside perspective of what people think who haven't been to Texas before, until a conversation with my best friend.  She asked me what Texas looked like and I'm pretty sure she had this in mind...

or this...

yikes.

I mean...I guess that's what happens when you type "Big Texas hair" in google, so maybe some of that is true. But not entirely!! Texas is cool. Texas is cool because of many reasons, and one being my family lives there.  This past weekend I got to go on a short trip to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Let me repeat that FIFTY years of marriage!! Now that is awesome, and what's even sweeter was the heartfelt conversation I had with my nana about the development of their sweet sweet relationship leading up until marriage. Talk about holding back tears.

We spent quality time eating good food, catching up, and looking through old embarrassing photos...here's one that was a little scary...

Meet my dad. At the ripe age of 17 (left). Meet my boyfriend. At the age of 21(ish). (Right)

                        

   

Scary huh. These shirts are oddly similar. I'm not sure whether to laugh or be scared. o well. My two favorite men enjoy similar styles? I guess that's how I'll leave it.

In other news...me and my big brother were clearly livin the good life during the elementary days.

Overall. My weekend was ballin. I loved everything about it. I hope your weekend was as good as mine :)

Mer

ps. ADPi's are the basketball champions for greek week!!!!!!! You can read about that Here!!

spring blog makeover

Okay..so maybe it's not a complete makeover, but I'm trying to establish a cool blog that people get excited about seeing.  Maybe thats a bold statement...but you know everyone thinks it, why else would you decorate your blog in fun ways?! anywho...I hope you like my new look!!! I'm stoked about it. My favorite color is orange, I love polka dots, and I LOVE cute birds like THEEESSE!! Maybe I'm a little too excited about this background, but I'm stepping up in the blog world with this new and improved look. I feel like things will only get better from here!! Okay..maybe a little dramatic, but hey, everyone has a little drama queen in them somewhere, mine just might come out in my blog.

I also changed the title, I thought this title suits my blog well.  Maybe sometimes my posts are a little less casual but for the most part, I like the word casual. I somehow feel peaceful when I say casual. Its just...well...casual.

If you have any cool blogs tips. PLEASE tell me. I'm open for anything, I want to learn!!

Have a casual weekend.

xo Mer

Vida Joven

After 8 long days in the Dominican Republic, I am back in America.

  Things are different. 

Mostly different in my mind, but things are different. 

This wasn't my first time going out of the country, but was the first time I experienced the things I did.

19 of us helped contribute to the building of Pico Escondido.

Pico Escondido means Hidden Peak.

The pictures don't do it justice.

It was breathtaking, in every essence of the word.

We shoveled. We dug through rocks. We raked. We made cement. We made mortar. We drilled.

Personally, It was hard physically, but it was also hard mentally.

I dealt a lot with lies of the enemy being fed through me, and was discouraged at times.

I learned a lot about myself this past week.

How I handle situations & how I handle people.

I learned what I need to work on & what some of my strengths are.

I learned a lot about God's word & how true it is when people say that scripture is 'God breathed'.

I learned the true meaning of Colossians 3:17.

I learned to "just be".

I learned to live simply. 

In my opinion, living simply is one of the most refreshing ways to live life.

I was reminded time & time again how loved I am by so many people.

I believe we wrestle with things to allow us to persevere.

James 1:3-5

Back in Milledgeville, Georgia my mind is a little different.

For the lovely person that made up this name. I will sign my post this way for you.

   

Mer cat

Ms. Perez

My dreams coming true, my dreams coming true!!!!!
Today, I was officially accepted into the Fall 2012 Early Childhood Cohort, and my day couldn't get any better than this. My mind is swirling with so many thoughts right now, it's really hard to contain my excitement. I can't stop thinking about how my future classroom will look, or where I will be placed during the next two years of college.

I am just in the clouds right now, taking in all that is joyful. I CAN'T WAIT to use these letters for my classroom that my wonderful boyfriend made me. Now, all I have to do is paint/decorate them!! I'm thinking of doing a collage or yarn wrapping...we'll see how that turns out since I'm so crafty....

One of my fabulous christmas gifts this past year was a flat bin, with tons of decorative options for my future classroom. Each year, the bin will be filled up more with other ideas to fill my classroom with.  This past year, I got a giant grading book that also came with tons of activity worksheets to make copies of. There was also borders for a bulletin board, and the theme was tropical (my favorite). It had monkeys, bananas, and the rainforest throughout the pictures!! There was also a large-lettered sign to put up for my first day of class that can spell anywhere from kindergarten-5th grade...but I'm really leaning towards Kindergarten. God, really has planned out this life for me that humbles me to falling on my knees. When did I ever think that my plans were better than what God had planned for me? I feel as if EVERY week, God shows me something else that says, "See? I created this world. I created life. I created YOUR life. So why don't you leave it up to me to do the planning. I know what a magnificent life looks like, and I want that for you." God is good.

Ramblings at Midnight

Sooo considering it is the last week of February, and I am two months into school, that means I have two months left of my second year of college. It is mind blowing to me, where did the time go?! Okay. Focusing back on the middle of the semester type issue here...would leave me to tell you, that sadly, this week is midterms. I think this is the most exams I have had in a week. There are FOUR big ones. I'm not just talkin 'studying the night before and cram kind of exam', I'm talkin 'essays due at midnight the night before to go WITH your exam kind of deal'. It's exhausting to say the least, and what do I decide to do before my biggest test of the week? Procrastinate and surf the web. Okay, well maybe not surf the web, but I do get on youtube so I can put a little laughter in my life before I bore myself with the six civilizations of the ancient world. I think I might be on the verge of a breakdown, but I tend to work myself up over silly things like tests or grades in general, so it's normal. Then, I try to remind myself, "Oo it's college, who cares? When will I ever have the chance to live life the way I am now?", but that only works for a second because I can never free myself from actually caring A LOT about how I do in school.

On a side note, we got FIVE NEW GATEWOOD YOUNGLIFE LEADERS!!!! Praise the Lord!! I am so excited. SO excited, our family is growing so big, and it makes my heart so happy. We already have a weekend getaway lake trip planned to have bonding time. More on that later...

Before my friends & I went to see what leaders were placed at what schools, my funny friend showed me this hilarious one year old baby interview. I mean, I'm not sure if your humor is the same as mine, but I found it really funny. I just think pretty much anything to do with kids is funny/adorable, so I'm sorry if this was a waste, & I'm sorry so many things on my blog so far have to deal with babies and kids, but what can I say I just melt! Enjoy this sweet video.

Happy Early Leap Year Day!!!! 

Mer

Color, Cut, or Trim?

I'm on a hair kick. For some reason, recently, there have been several hair conversations between me and my girlfriends.  I'm talkin' SERIOUS hair conversations. Yes, there IS such a thing as a serious hair conversation.  Well it's serious in my mind...only because once one thing is brought up, I tend to wonder off..and when I say wonder off, I mean my mind just gets so excited about all the opportunities you can do with hair that I tend to lose focus on the conversation. whoops.


I've always been infatuated with hair.  I'm not sure if it was because I had untamable hair when I was a child, and I've always wanted to be able to tame it or what, but regardless I love it. From the ages of about 3-13 I had no idea what to do with my lion's mane. I'm not quite sure my parents knew either.  One thing that I learned from old pictures is NOT to brush curly hair...it is...um...interesting if you do. I did some crazy things with my hair that I'm not sure why my mom let me out of the house. I wish she had documented each hairstyle though, because that would have been epic. Actually, I did some crazy things with my outfits as well because my mom was a cool mom and aloud me to be creative from a very early age..Here's a vision..

My hairstyles consisted of: hair-o-gami (and one day at school it got all tangled in my hair and my teacher spent a good 30 minutes trying to get it out), butterfly clips, tiny braids (that I thought made me look like I just got back from an exotic beach), and countless other numbers I did to my hair. There was also an endless supply of options I could do because...well I forgot to mention, but my first real haircut wasn't till 5th grade...so I had a lot to work with.  It wasn't to the floor. gross. I know that's what you were thinking.


Now that I'm older and much more wise with how I treat my hair, I've come to the point where people actually let me do THEIR hair! crazy huh?! I think it is, but I enjoy it so much. I've spent countless of hours on the computer just googling hair. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but it's fun!!! Seriously. There so many different cuts, styles, colors, and shapes someone can do with hair. One of my roommates and super close friend of mine has gotten braids before and it was AWESOME. here's a pic so you can bask in her coolness with me.

I will, at some point in my life do hair for a living, and it will be a dream come true.  I can't wait for it. But for now, I will just be happy my hair isn't untamable anymore...well for most days.

Happy Tuesday!!!

Meredith

San Ignacio, Belize

Belize has been on my mind lately.

I miss my students

I miss the heat

I miss the 'fruits of the spirit' song I taught

I miss ambergayes caye

I miss Mr. najarro

I miss cave diving

I miss the 75 ft waterfall

I miss the food

I miss San Ignacio, Belize

Last May I went on a study abroad trip to San Ignacio, Belize and taught 2nd grade.  For two weeks, I invested in these students lives inside & outside the classroom.  While being in 90 degree heat with a humidity of most likely 99%, we taught these students what we knew.  We brought in these ways of learning that they had probably never even dreamed of seeing.  We showed them exciting and fun ways to learn instead of sitting in their seats and copying word after word from the board.  After all, they were only 7 years old.  I learned so much throughout these two weeks that I never could have imagined learning in this time span.  It was hard, it was tiring, it was hot, and some days I didn’t want to get up and stand for 7 hours in a classroom with zero air conditioning, but it was worth it.  These kids were smart.  These kids wanted to learn, and showed me that schools can have no resources, and yet they can still learn. They were still as smart, and maybe even smarter than the students in America.

This one little girl captured my heart while I was there.  Her name was Hayley, and she was beautiful.  She lived in a small village a little ways away from the school and always brought new things in to class to show me.  One day, she came in with new tennis shoes that lit up, and I could just see in her beautiful green eyes how excited she was about them.  She had the coolest crayons, and always seemed like she was ahead of the game in fashion (they also wore uniforms, but I just had a sense about her fashion).  This is Hayley.

We taught the students about the food chain, and made a game out of it. We made alliteration frogs, and taught them a silly fruits of the spirits song during Bible that they loved.  What was extremely interesting to me was that many of the teachers at Bishop Martin didn't have teaching degrees.  Belize is in such dire need for teachers, that they allow people with degrees that don't necessarily have to do with teaching.  Not only were we given the opportunity to teach the students, but we had afternoon lessons where the teachers learned different creative lessons.  On the weekends, we were given these opportunities that were crazy.  I honestly have never felt so adventurous in my life. We went to the mayan ruins of Xunantunich and climbed all the way to the top. We also went cave diving! Let me just explain what all that entails..We hiked 45 minutes through this mountain and came across a water hole.  We stopped, and had an interesting lunch (the tour guide provided lunch), and jumped in the freezing cold water with helmets and a light.  We swam through an opening in the cave until we got to a place where we could stand.  We were walking, swimming, & climbing through this cave for 2 and a half hours.  I think I went through a lot of emotions during this period.  Personally, I'm not a huge fan of doing certain things where I'm not sure whether or not I will come out alive..I don't know but that's just me.  We climbed this cave, and as we made it to the top, we had to take off our shoes and put on socks from our dry packs.  We were taken through this historic part of the cave where the ancient Mayans had their rituals...yes people...sacrifices!!! I saw real human bones of a girl that was sacrificed!! It was a little creepy to say the least, but awesome at the same time. We also got to swim in a 75 ft waterfall which was pretty awesome as well.

After the two weeks of teaching and exploring we flew to an island called San Pedro which was off of Belize.  We stayed there for the weekend and snorkeled in the Belize Barrier Reef!! I will admit, I cried the whole time, while my sweet friend Rachel held my hand. haha I'm just a little afraid of sharks...and we swam in this place in the ocean literally called "shark & stink ray alley."  But hey. I survived, and I'm extremely glad I did it.

A week after I came back from Belize, I received an email from Hayley, which made me so happy. I miss these kids so much, and I wish that I were able to go back and see them. This was the email I received :  Mrs perez I am doing good  and you? I am having  fun  are you having fun? Mrs perez how are you doing?

   so sweet!!

Here are some pics from the trip:

                                                                   Maybe one day I'll be teaching your little ones :)

                                                                                                  Meredith