New chair

Our old chair was very loved, but it was also broken. So after months of nagging discussion, we decided to go and get a new chair. We had a Groupon that was $49 for a $200 off certificate to Ben's Brand Furniture, a discount furniture store in the area. We decided to grab the deal and found a nice chair at a good price that fits our criteria.


So there it is! :) The guy who sold it to us loaded it in his pickup and drove it to our house for us, a nice bonus!

Birthday "week" begins

In our family, we celebrate birthdays in a big way! When it is your turn, you get from the week before your birthday to the week after to enjoy your birthday and claim it as your excuse to get what you want. A full 14 days of celebration all about you! I don't know when Nick and I started doing this, but it has caught on and we play it up big-time every year.

Want a turn at the remote?

"It's my birthday!!" will get it for you!

Want to go out to dinner and pick the restaurant?

"It's my birthday!!"

Want to win a squabble? Get out of doing a chore? Need an excuse for forgetting to get the dry cleaning?

You get the picture.

So the official "birthday week" (it is really two full weeks) has begun! One week from today is my 31st birthday! (Or as Nick says, the 2nd anniversary of my 29th birthday.)

Let the fun begin!!

Crazy person update

Because I'm insane, I took a subbing job last week, this week, and next week. So in addition to my current teaching schedule, I am "teaching" an extra day each week. I know, I know, that only puts me up to three days a week. But I'm here to tell you, it makes a difference! Especially when I'm doing all the normal things I do on a weekly basis! I added up the hours I spend on school and school-related work during the week and it is between 30 and 40 most weeks. Add in another 8 hours of subbing (plus driving time) and I'm nearly at a full time job! Last week I spent 9 hours just in the car driving to and from all the places I had to go. It was not my favorite week of all time! I honestly can't imagine going back to full time teaching. I don't know how I did it all!

So I've been a terrible blogger!

A quick adoption update for those of you who are interested: we are home study ready and will send our applications out to agencies on Friday. This puts us in official wait mode, waiting on a match! I'm thrilled to be done with the paperwork and ready to continue moving forward!

Kitchen island

We've had an island in our kitchen since we bought the house. When we moved in, we decided we needed more counter space and this solved the problem. We bought an unfinished one and finished it ourselves and it has been great. Unfortunately, I took it a little for granted and put a hot pot down on it, creating a burn mark. Nick sanded it down Saturday and refinished it, making it look better than new!

While it was in the garage being worked on, my kitchen looked so big and bare!!


The after effect - back to normal and back to usable space again. Having a huge open space in my kitchen is a little counter-intuitive, actually (pun intended). :P

Fat cat

In an attempt to make herself feel skinnier than she really is, Scout decided to sleep on the arm of this chair for about an hour the other night. I tried to tell her she was too big, but she didn't seem to care.

Persuasive writing

My students had an assignment to write me a persuasive letter. I told them that if they convinced me of what they were asking (and they could ask anything they wanted), I would not only grant their request, I would give the person who wrote the letter extra credit in grammar. They took it to heart and composed such heart-wrenching letters that it was hard to decide. Among requests for more recess, no homework, a fist pound, and pleas to buy from their fundraisers, I had a couple that asked for snacks or treats. One of them wrote an argument that was the clincher for me: "If we have our mouths full of yummy treats, we won't be talking.''

Sold.

So to honor my side of the bargain, today I made chocolate snappers and I'll bring them to school to share with the class. I'm hoping my student's letter proves true as well!

Another sign of fall

Apple pie!!!

Nick's doppelganger

Is it just me or does Nick bear a striking resemblance to the Atlanta Braves' Brian McCann (of course Nick is much better looking!)

Wonder of wonders

Amazingly, the flowers I received as a gift from a student back at the end of May are still alive (and dare I say, even thriving!) under my somewhat halfhearted and not-so-careful care.



Inspired by their hardiness, I planted two new flowers today. We'll see how it goes.

Date night and a new dishwasher

Nick and I went out for a date last night, something we haven't done in awhile. It was nice to go out to eat and enjoy each other's company apart from the ordinary. We also had a mission: to look for a new dishwasher. And we found one. To be honest, buying a new dishwasher is NOT the most fun ever. But we had to have one. The specific things we were looking for:

1. Our old dishwasher is currently held together by electrical tape and string. The new one is not.
2. Our old dishwasher's dial has to be turned to a very specific place before it will run; otherwise, the water will not go into the basin. While I haven't tested out the new one at our house, it doesn't have a dial and I'm pretty hopeful it won't have that issue.
3. Our old dishwasher smells bad pretty much every time you open it, even after running a vinegar cycle. Our new dishwasher better not!

All in all, I think we made a good purchase, hopefully the last time we'll have to buy a new one for this house!

(P.S. The picture above isn't what we wore on our date night to buy a dishwasher. I just don't like posts without pictures as much as posts with!)

Fall

I noticed today that the leaves are starting to turn. I'm seeing some on the ground now as well. There is definitely a crispness about the mornings and evenings now, even though the afternoons are still a bit too hot for my taste.

But fall weather is on the way, and to get myself inspired (and because I haven't posted in a blue moon), here is one of my favorite fall poems. I love the cadence of this poem and the feeling of autumn it brings! (Best read aloud!!)

When the Frost is on the Punkin
By James Whitcomb Riley

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.