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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. 



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The one where I'm socially awkward.

I never know how to act around people I just met. Or barley met. Or hardley know. Most of my close friends couldn't stand me the first time they met me. Yes, this includes the love of my life, a Mr. Elias Hernandez. But I guess it goes back to high school...... Insert flashback noise from Waynes World.....no? Moving on. I was a terrible person back in high school. I mean wow. Just awful. My mouth is what got the best of me. Either horrible rumors and gossip behind people back, or snarky sarcastic remarks in front if people I was MEAN! Whenever I met someone, I could not look past their faults. Anyone. If I saw someone I would automatically think of something I don't like about them. It was bad. Eventually I let God take care of me. By the end of senior year I had done some damage control and cut some fat from my friends. I ended up with only 3 friends at my high school. Yup 3. That's it. Love those three girls. You know who you are. So, in letting God get a hold of ...

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I've discussed the mom thing enough. You're probably like "Okay. We get it. You're bad at this. Move on." Will do! Let's discuss something I am relatively okay at: teaching. This is currently year 5 in the classroom for me. I've been at my current high school for 3 of those years teaching mostly 11th grade English, (every once in a while they like to throw in a sophomore or a senior group). I love this class. The age, the content, the behavior, the literature- everything. This is my sweet spot. I honestly have been sitting on this blog post for over 4 weeks now, in this exact spot. I have NO idea how I want to shape this blog or even begin to talk about my love for education. Management? Content? Students? English? Parents? Environment? Professional Development? There are literally so many things to talk about with education, that I've had the worst time narrowing down what it is I want to discuss in my first education themed blog. I w...

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Remember when I kept up with my blog? More importantly: remember when I thought I was going to simplify this year? I told you all I was going to keep things focused on 1 word: simple. My life, my goals, my home, my job, my thoughts- KEEP IT SIMPLE. Have I done that at all? If you think that I have, you must be new here. It's literally one month away from being 2019, and I have been anything but simple this year. I changed schools. We continued to gather clutter. We have yet to get a grip on our finances. I still overthink every little thing I do. My house is a constant disaster area. My new school has been a challenge at every step. Personal challenges and relationships have been a struggle. I have done everything except keep it "simple" this year. In every sense of my "simple" goal, I failed. Sure, I have a month left. So I could get back on track. I could try my best to simplify what I can. But sometimes, I feel like I try so hard to NOT try so...