JUUUUSSSST because I can :)

1. What movie could you watch over and over again and not get tired of?
Sweet Home Alabama. Hands down.

2. What's your biggest pet peeve right now?
Well I have a longgggg list of pet peeveS (Some call me difficult, I like to say that I am particular. I'm very black or white, I either love something or hate something, there is no in between with me :))But today at the top of that list would be selfish people. Can't stand selfishness.

3. If you had to describe your best friend in five words or less, what would you say?
Kind, loving, funny, loyal, caring, wonderful, crazy,.... clearly I need more than just 5 words.

4. If you did not have to worry about money or go to school what would you do for a living?
I know this is cheezy but I honestly love what I do, that's why I chose this profession. My dad always told me if you do what you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life. Apparently that stuck with me.

5. What is your one "splurge" item, that you will always buy, no matter the cost?
I don't "splurge" often, probably because I don't have to money to lol BUT if I do its usually on clothes :)

New Year. New life. New Start

New years resolution circa 2008: lose weight
New years resolution circa 2009: try and lose weight
New years resolution circa 2010: no, really, lose weight
New years resolution 2011: SERIOUSLY!! I'M GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!!!!

Do I think I'm fat? absolutely not!!! Am I healthy? Am I happy with my relationship with food? Am I happy with how I look? absolutely NOT!

Introducing the yeast free diet!! My sister who is infamous for being tiny and a health nut told me she was starting a diet, usually this is the point where I would laugh and declare my undying love for junk food, fried food and cokes! With just graduating, starting a new year and essentially starting a new lifestyle(peace out college years, its been real)I've decided its time to be a big kid and take responsibility for all aspects of my life, starting out with my eating habits. You see, I have this love/HATE relationship with food; It's always been there. Some people over eat when they're happy, or when their sad and sometimes even when they're mad but me, I just flat out over eat! Why am I not overweight? I honestly think its purely for the fact of genetics... yes, in that sense I'm so blessed that it aint funny. But just because I range in the normal weight percentile for my age and weight does not mean I'm healthy... because I'm not! Do I work out? NOPE! I hate to sweat, do I watch what I eat? NOPE! Do I eat in appropriate portions? NOPE! So that's it, I've had it! I am now declaring that I, Melissa Mason, am going on a diet and swear that I will be faithful to this diet. That's part of why I'm writing this... I need someone or something to hold be accountable for this diet. I can convince myself of anything, like the fact that eating ice cream with chocolate syrup every night before bed is totally ok because ice cream is made from milk and you need milk for strong bones. So writing this makes me feel like I have something to report to and doing this with my sister, gives me someone to make me accountable for this. This point in my life is perfect for this change. I don't live in a college town so I won't eat fast food every week, Bryan is in California so he isn't here to spoil me like he always does by taking me out to dinner, or out for ice cream, or to any and every restaurant I want to go to(again, another aspect of my life where I am SO blessed, he's an amazing man, right?!), and the fact that with me teaching it leaves me on a structured eating schedule with breakfast and lunch at the same time every day. So wish me luck!!! I hope in 2-3 months I look not only skinner but more importantly, healthier :)

I'M BACK!

A few days ago my sister so kindly reminded me that I hadn't posted in a while and I told her that my life was boring and had nothing to post. She looked at me like I was stupid and said " Are you serious? You just graduated, you just went to California and you just started your job!" and she's right I have a lot to talk about!!!

Graduation day was fun, exciting, amazing and SO tiring! Bryan's ceremony was at 10 am, his family along with my mom, dad and I sat through the opening ceremony, the key note speaker, the presentation of doctorate degrees, master degrees and then all of the BA degrees. Then at 2 pm we repeated the same thing over again!! After graduation Bryan's family along with my family headed out to my family's property in Trinity and had a family dinner and celebrated my Bryan's 23rd birthday :) It was an amazing day and an even better evening, our families mesh SO well! Seeing both families come together for the first time and hit it off so well meant the world to me, after all, there's nothing more important than family.

Christmas was the best this year, and I have to say that it's all because of Malaya. Our family came together to make it the most amazing first Christmas a little girl could ever want..... I only wish she could actually remember it! But none the less I know that this Christmas was one for the books when it came to my mom,dad, Rachael, Charlie and I. I'll never forget it.

The day after Christmas I hopped onto a plane and flew out to California to see Bryan! I know he had only moved back to California 4 days prior but the thought of him being in another state had already hit me hard and I couldn't have asked for better timing to make it out there. This trip was different than the rest, while we did go do a few fun things it was mainly about us getting things in order. Figuring things out. We have so many things we have to look at in order to really figure out where we are going to be in the next year, so this trip was mainly about getting a better idea of what exactly Bryan and I need to be doing while we are apart. I have to say that my favorite thing we did while I was there was spending time with friends. Yes, I said it. I officially have wonderful and amazing girlfriends in CA. I got a chance to sit and actually hang out and get to know some of Bryan's friends girlfriends and fiances. We hit it off amazingly and now have a bond that I know will last through out the years ahead of us!

Coming home was bittersweet. I missed home SOOOO much, my family, my friends and niece. Gosh, Malaya grew up so much when I was gone that I could barely stand it!!! I hate missing out on all the new things she accomplishes on a daily basis, and I miss not being able to kiss her and sing my best friend song to her. On Tuesday I started my first "big girl" job and i L-O-V-E it. I'm looking forward to seeing where this road will take me and seeing how much my students will grow.

That's it for now... I know, I wrote a novel but A LOT happened in the last month! Here are some pictures, hope y'all enjoy :)

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Too BLESSED to be stressed

Lately, with the stress of school winding down and the pressure for plans after graduation winding up I have been in this dumb, "poor me" mind set. Now, looking back I feel so ashamed to have gotten so caught up with what I don't have instead of standing back and just appreciating everything that I DO have. These last couple of weeks God has sent some pretty clear, loud signs of exactly how blessed I am. 


Last Wednesday was my final day of student teaching, It was a sad one but I handled it well knowing that I was going to be back to see the kids very soon. My wonderful mentor got me a basket FULL of teacher goodies, the kids got me cup cakes and drew me pictures and gave me cards. I felt so special that my time with them meant a lot to them. While I was looking at my cards and my gifts a little girl came up and placed a brown paper bag on my desk and smiled and said "Here Ms. Mason"! I looked into the bag and there was a small stuffed toy snowman along with a note. This note forever impacted me:

This little girl has a math learning disability that I was allowed the opportunity to not only help diagnose her but allowed to help work with her. Honestly, I don't feel like I went above and beyond to help her. With my lack of experience I just did what I thought would help, we went over multiplication cards, we worked on math problems and I always tried my hardest to give her compliments, to just be positive and let her know I believed that she was capable. This little girl and her note means more to me than I think she will ever know. How lucky am I to have been able to mean something like this to a child! That's the kind of feeling that brings you to tears and drives you.


Yesterday, my best friends Jenny and Ashley threw a tacky Christmas sweater party. I had so much fun! It was good to have our groups of friends get together and just have fun. There was a lot of good food, a lot of laughs and I received a surprise. With my graduation only days away my friends along with my super, fantastic, amazing boyfriend sprung one one me. Ashley pulled me to the center of everyone and Jenny started her speech. I knew my friends were proud of me for finishing college when I could have easily given up but I never realized how proud. As a gift, a handful of them got together and bought me a round trip ticket to California for New Years so I can be with Bryan. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!?! I have been SO concerned about Bryan moving back to California on the 21st and so scared about what route our relationship is going to take after graduation. He's going home and I'm staying due to a wonderful opportunity to work right after graduation. So now is the waiting game. My wonderful friends and Bryan made that wait a little more tolerable due to this gift. Thank you to my friends who did this for me. I have never felt so loved by friends before. Y'all truly are blessings in my life.

Our 3rd Christmas together <3

"I have never felt so loved by friends before. Y'all truly are blessings in my life."

Coming to an end.

" When you are down to nothing, God is up to something."

So, now that Thanksgiving break is winding down and almost over I have 3 days left in the classroom with my precious 4th graders. Though I'm excited to be done and ready to graduated I can't help but be a little heart broken at the thought of leaving these kids. I have made such amazing friendships with those guys and I'm gonna miss them so much but the bright side is that it looks like I may be getting hired on for the months of January and February to help the 4th grade team with TAKS writing, so that's exciting!

Lately the feeling of graduation has been extremely overwhelming. The thought of this chapter in my life coming to end is exciting but so scary. This is all I have known for so long. I committed myself 110% into getting through school and I have been so focused on finishing that now that I'm here at the end it's terrifying to know that it's over. There are so many BIG decisions coming up in my life, from jobs to family life to my place of living. Decisions that impact the next few years of your life and I desperately just want to make the right decision. Unfortunately for me I never know which is the right decision until I have made all the wrong ones and at this point in my life I can't afford any more of those. I know God has it planned out for me and I am so thankful that he does because if I had to decide on my own, I'd be in a world of trouble. I just have to wait it out, right? Just worry about finishing school and face whatever comes next when it finally comes. Easier said then done for a control freak like me.

So, this past week...

This past Thursday was Bryan and I's 2 year anniversary! WOW, 2 years already? I still remember the first time I met him in our biology class, I didn't know his name for 2 weeks and only called him "football boy". That's the way I'll always remember him, my football boy. I'm so lucky to have him in my life, he really is the most amazing man I have ever met and I can't wait to keep count of all of our anniversaries to come. 

This past Friday was my precious niece's 6 month birthday. HOLY MOLY my best friend is growing up. She's my favorite part of my day and I love her more than words. She is absolute perfection! My sister and brother in law are amazing parents and seem like seasoned pros more than first time parents. I can't wait to see all the new things Malaya will be getting into!

"That's the way I'll always remember him, my football boy."

"She is absolute perfection!"

Ps. 34 days till Graduation

Finding my nitch.

 " It takes faith to believe that if God says no to a dream, it means he's up to something with his glory written all over it."


I remember the day I graduated high school, I felt as if I had finally broken free and I was going to do anything and everything to accomplish my life long dream of becoming a well known dancer. That was it. There was nothing else I wanted to do. School was a task, a task that only stood in my way for many years. A few weeks after graduation I tried out for a hip hop dance team called Wyld Styl, they were searching for a new member to add to the team in order to be able to attend a prestigious competition in L.A. By the grace of God I was chosen and I begin to work towards my life long goal. Along the way I met some amazing dancers, I mean, these people were incredibly talented, talent that I just knew would take them far in life. I can say that once upon a time I danced along side some of the most gifted dancers, and once upon a time I got the chance to call them my friends. But along the way I began to lose myself. I dyed my hair, I dressed the part and I did nothing... absolutely nothing but eat, sleep and dance. My relationships with my family and friends previous to dancing took a turn for the worst and I lost a lot of good friends. I was in a relationship that was unfair to me and to him, I was trying to be somebody who fit the part but never belonged there in the first place. I remember specifically the day my mom held my face in between her two hands and cried, all she could say was " What happen to her? What happen to my baby that I raised for 18 years?"I realized then that MY goal, MY dream, MY wants had ruined so many other things in my life. I attempted to fix things and through previous experiences in my life I knew the only way to fix it was to make a clean break and let things mend over time. So that is exactly what I did.  I moved out of my apartment, i said goodbye to the life that I was trying to live. So there I was, starting out at ground zero. I cried myself to sleep majority of the nights and I wandered lost through out most of the days. All I had was my family, my friends who I still to this day don't think I deserve after abandoning them and school. Through out my time at Cy-fair community college I took the basic classes needed for any degree but still lost as to what I wanted to do with my life; I didn't think I would be anything besides a dancer. This is where Katelyn and Layne Weber came into my life. I took a nanny position to two children, one in elementary and one in Jr. high; this seemed like no big deal because every job I have ever had, had something to do with kids. Being able to be apart of their lives on a daily basis impacted me. I formed unbelievably relationships with them and to this day I still think of them as my little sister and my little brother. Then it hit me. My love for kids, my nitch in life. I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that any job I have ever enjoyed involved children. My family had told me for so long that I should be a teacher, that I was great with kids and that it was what I was meant to do but not until I made that realization for myself did I ever feel the need to pursue it. So that's what I did, I got my grades up, transferred to a school that was and still is extremely well know for their education department and I worked day in and day out to catch up and make up for lost time. Teaching is a profession unlike any other and I now, can't imagine doing anything else. Nothing compares to being that someone for a kid, being that person that they are excited to see everyday. So many kids deserve someone to love them, someone who sees the best in them and someone who WANTS to be there for them. All my trials and tribulation means so much to me now, at one point I couldn't understand why God was putting me through all the pain but now I see it was to make the journey worth it. God put me through a test that made me realize that what I thought I wanted wasn't what would make me happy. He said no to a dream and I could have stopped there but I kept pushing, and in that journey he gave a bigger dream, a dream that would not only fulfill my needs but a dream that allowed me to help children. So here I am, I feel like my life has come full circle. 

"I was trying to be somebody who fit the part but never belonged there in the first place."

"Then it hit me. My love for kids, my nitch in life."

countdown to graduation: T- minus 44 days :)