Skip to main content

About Me

Oh ya know. I'm just your average, almost 33 year old married, teacher, parent.


Some fast facts about me:
My name is Elisa Marie- my first name is from my maternal grandfather, Elias Pettikas.
Grew up with an older brother, a mother and a father.
Though I was born in southern California, I grew up west of Phoenix.
My mom was in education and my dad was a minister.
My mother passed away in 2015.
I met my husband, Elias Hernandez, through the church youth group.
We were friends before we dated. 
We got married March 9, 2014.
Yes, our names our similar. We know. We hear it all the time. Move on. 
I graduated with my degree in secondary education from Grand Canyon University in 2013.
I've been working as a high school English teacher since 2013. 
Elias works as an IT guy and also is the Music Minister at our church. 
We've lived in the West Valley of Phoenix for our entire marriage, and currently live in Goodyear.
March 7, 2017 our little Leandro Benjamin was born. 
November 12, 2020 our little Uriah Finn was born.
We honestly don't have anything we "do" as a family. We like to watch "The Office" on repeat, and occasionally take a trip to Disneyland when we have money. 
I'm mostly a friendly person and will pretty much talk to anyone about anything, any time. 



Popular posts from this blog

The one with hallway.

 I don't have an idea for this blog.  That is why it's been a month or so since my last blog. In all transparency, I was working on a longer blog that I was updating daily about my decision to sign my contract or not for next school year. But then I ended up signing it and it's truly not an interesting blog. It was just like: "Should I? Nah. Well? Okay. Nah. Okay I will. I signed it. The end." So, now we're here, just waiting until the end of the year to finish and I am on the hook for next year. I could still leave, but breaking a contract not only gives me hives because of the ethic implications, but also there is a $2,500 fee attached to that which is NOT in my summer budget currently.  I am tired of teaching. But to be fair, it is April and I am ALWAYS tired of teaching in April. But I will say this April is different. Education is different. It's changed. A part of me knows that I will be called out of teaching soon. I don't see myself retiring as...
Read more

The one with a novel I'm writing??? I guess????

 I'm writing a novel.  I have no idea where it is going and where it came from, but I am writing it nonetheless. I am still working out the main events and outline for this thing.  Guys.  I have no idea what I am doing.  This is like an actual novel and I really don't think it's going to even be good. I don't think it's going to make me much of any money. But I'm writing it.  It's loosely based on my life, very loosely. It's still fiction, but it has similar vibes.  The idea randomly came to me one random night and then since that moment I've just been pouring out the ideas for this story.  Writing is a wild thing. It's so personal and weird. I keep reading through what I have, thinking about how others might perceive this. But is that the way to do it? Or do you just put your story out there and see what happens? Do you just write it and simply not care how others see it and review it? I'm not even sure I am physically able to do that. Can I...
Read more

The one with pie.

This title is a little misleading. This blog will actually be about work. You know, that thing we all look forward to having a day off from. It’s still weird to think that I have an actual “career.” I mean, not as weird as being a parent, but still a strange concept for a person who still doesn’t feel like she’s made it into the adult world. This is my 5th year as a full time classroom teacher. It’s definitely not been easy. I’ve been through anxiety, depression, coming in early, staying super late, grading on any free time I have, crying on my lunch breaks, quitting mid year, parent complaints, thousands of hours of professional development, long term sub problems, breaking up fights, de-escalating situations, sassy teenagers, hormonal teenagers, emotional teenagers, hard situations, mandatory reporting, and of course getting BARELY above the minimum wage for all of this. I don’t go through that list to get pity or sympathy or encouragement. I go through this to let ...
Read more