still alive.

I'm glad that my New Year's Resolution wasn't to blog more, because I definitely have failed.  February is flying by at a rapid pace and I'm managing to stay as busy as ever.  I've come to accept that that probably won't ever change, which I'm ok with.  I don't mind being busy, but I still need days like today where I don't do much of anything at all.  I got sick a couple of weeks ago, started feeling extremely tired on a Friday.  I spent the entire 3-day weekend lying in bed (and catching up on some TV shows).  Amazing how your body knows better than you when you need to rest sometimes.  I was so thankful for those 3 days because I think it helped me from getting the worst of the sickness going around.  The cough is still lingering, but I've been feeling pretty good all of this week. 

Work continues to consume my time (for obvious reasons) We have just over a month of school days until state testing and the pressure is on.  I went through a short phase of being worn out and my heart wasn't fully in my teaching.  After talking to some people and through their encouragement, I'm excited to keep going.  Despite the early mornings, I'm excited again for school.  As much as my students wear me out and can be annoying (with their complaints and attitudes), I love them all.  They are funny and make me laugh.  I can't always hold in the laughter, which is sometimes a good thing.  I've tried to lighten up a little, not be so consumed with trying to make them act perfectly, and just really enjoy them and being their teacher.  (Ok, that makes it sound like I was obsessed with being serious and perfection, which is not true.)  Still, though, life is good, and I can't really complain.  Hope you've had a great February.

I'm going to *try* to update more.  No promises. 

lazy days.

Words cannot begin to describe my weekend so far.  However, I'll try to do it justice.  I left school yesterday afternoon right around 2:45, which is pretty rare for me to leave on time.   Rare as in never.  I drove straight home and did nothing.  I laid in bed and watched some shows from the past few weeks on my DVR.  Literally nothing.  It was great for awhile, but also made me feel really lame.  I got up and had a quick dinner, helped Mom unload the car from her trip to Costco, then proceeded to do nothing for the rest of the evening.  I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I looked at Pinterest (first clue I need to get a life?).

I woke up this fine Saturday morning around 7:30, decided I wasn't ready to get up, read a little bit of my book, rolled over and fell back asleep until 9:15.  That's more like it.  Had breakfast and read my book for a bit.  My mom decided she was going to wash all the dogs and asked if I would take drying duty.  Sounds easy enough, but it's a big job.  Finished that job right around 12 and decided it was nap time.  I woke up around 2, took a shower, laid in bed and watched TV.  After dinner, I know find myself sitting on my bed.  And, yes, I'm still sleepy.

I'm justifying all of this lazing around by the facts that 1) I didn't get to sleep in at all last weekend and 2) I've been on the edge of getting sick (but not ever actually getting sick) all week, so I think my rundown body is trying to catch up on rest or something.  I did, at least, get out my stuff to finish planning for next week.  I want to actually do something, though.  Maybe I can find something fun to do after church tomorrow.  I should soak up these lazy days because they are rare, but I can't help but wish I actually had something to be doing besides work.

another weekend gone by.

I survived my 10-hour, which was technically 9 hours, training this weekend.  It was long.  I had to wake up way too early for a Saturday and sit through an informative, on the edge of boring, training.  I have another one in a couple weeks that I am contemplating skipping out on.  Not that it wouldn't be awesome to do that again, because it sounds delightful.  Really.

Ok, so, really, it wasn't so terrible.  Honestly, it was probably way worse because I had serious sinus pressure and sinus headache issues all morning.  My face hurt to touch it since the pain woke me up around 4am.  It subsided enough to make it through my day, but I spent most of the day subtlely applying pressure to my cheeks and forehead, desperately trying to make myself feel better.  It wasn't until after a late lunch with the parents and a trip to Rite Aid that I finally got some relief (around 4pm).  I was completely convinced I was getting sick.  Once the pain went away, I felt a ton better with just a remnant left on Sunday.  Thank you, Lord.

My hope to do something fun this weekend was unsuccessful.  It was church (not that that was not fun, but not exactly the fun activity I was hoping for), lunch with Gramma (always a party), report card and planning time on Sunday afternoon (no comment), and back to church (not really fun, but good).  The end of the day was most exciting.  I always love seeing friendly, familiar faces at church.  And, after a long wait for dinner, I went to Dewar's and picked up ice cream sandwiches for my parents and myself.  Not that we needed them, of course, but 1) it was dinner and 2) I had to check out the new location.  Definitely justified.

back to the grind.

I put off this post because I didn't know what to write.  School was back with a vengeance on Monday the 9th.  My kids were a little bit nuts, as were the teachers, as we all tried to readjust our sleeping schedules after vacation.  It's amazing how two weeks off can really throw you off.  I had been going to bed later (despite me telling myself I would stick to my routine...ha) and eating lunch whenever I was hungry.  Not anymore!  By the time we were all getting back into the swing of things, we had a 3-day weekend last weekend (not that I'm complaining).  It was nice, really...a sort of easing back into school.

Like I said, though, school came back with a vengeance.  We immediately had to plow into reviewing everything they had learned prior to break and forgotten in those 2 weeks off.  After squeezing in as much review as possible, I had to give Winter Benchmarks.  Which I was nervous about.  Because, at the school I'm at, test scores are King.  One of the first things I heard was "Don't let your high kids drop."  Oh, great, no problem...and no pressure.  As I'm looking through the tests prior to being scored, my hopes weren't terribly high.  I'm not really a "teach for the test" kind of person, but am being forced to be to some degree.  I guess you pick your battles depending on the school you teach at.  On top of all that, I had round one of my BTSA stuff due this week.  Oh, and I also had my first evaluation with my principal.  Tomorrow evening and much of Saturday I have 10 hours worth of a math curriculum training.  And Monday and Tuesday evenings I have 6 hours worth of Classroom Management Seminar.  Awesome.  Let's do everything in one week!  (Sidenote: I'm definitely going to need something fun Saturday night and/or Sunday to recover from my training.)

On a positive note, my birthday is 6 weeks from tomorrow.  I was just telling my mom that it seems like not that long ago I was teasing my sister about hitting the "quarter century" mark.  Now it's my turn.  It doesn't really make me feel that old, especially with how often reminded how "young" I am and hear, "oh, you're still a baby."  In every circle, I'm always the youngest...I guess that just means I'm mature. 

Alright, I have work to do, so I must go.  Until next time...

another la day.

I took advantage of my last weekend of freedom and headed to LA one more time.  This time I went to Burbank to hang out with Lindsay and our cousin, Jessica.  We got there Friday evening and went to dinner, had Yogurtland for dessert, and walked around downtown Burbank a bit.  We spent the rest of the evening playing a new version of Clue (who knew?) and Phase 10. 


Saturday morning we had a late breakfast in Burbank and then headed to our ultimate goal for the weekend: Mood Fabrics.  It was nowhere near where we imagined it to be, but so fun to be there and check out what they had.  We had to buy something to use the Groupons we had purchased, so Lindsay got some fabrics for her apartment, like to cover her dining room chairs and make some pillows. 

In what context would one actually use a button with the Mood logo on it?

We definitely found the fabric that was used for these looks...either that or it was almost identical.  I choose to believe the former:



We were really close to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, so we decided to head that direction and check it out.  Apparently we've driven down it before, but I was too young to remember, so it was fun to see.  Of course, the shopping on Rodeo Dr. is a bit out of our budgets, but the area around it was fun! 

We were walking down another street when we spotted someone with a Sprinkles Cupcakes bag.  We knew it had to be around there somewhere...thank you iPhone for helping us navigate the two blocks to get there.  It was both mine and Lindsay's first time tasting their cupcakes.  My favorite was the Red Velvet, but all (well, the 4 kinds I got to sample later) were quite tasty! 

We decided to walked actually walk down Rodeo Drive on our way back to the car. 

Proof we were really there.

I decided that since I was taking pictures, I should take some with us in it.

Lindsay and Jessica...and yes, I do think Jess looks like she is growing out of Lindsay's shoulder/neck/head

Oh, you know...Just hanging out on Rodeo Drive.

A short ways down the block and this is what we saw:

Thank you, random man, for getting in the picture too

It was getting to be late afternoon so we decided to head out and back to Burbank.  Of course, there is no real fast, direct route out of the area, so we wound through Hollywood.

Actually a decent picture from my phone considering the distance and amount of haze/smog that day

We had Porto's for dinner.  If you're keeping count, yes, that was the second time for me that week, but still delicious!  It was back to her apartment from there, and back to Bakersfield for me...to celebrate one last day of vacation until reality sank in today.  It was fun while it lasted, though!

Question: Did you read the title as "LA" (as in Los Angeles) or "la" ( as in a note to follow so)?  Just curious.

a long-awaited day.

A little less than two months ago I mentioned wanting to go see Wicked again to some friends.  To my delight, they were ecstatic about the idea and quickly jumped on board.  I bought the tickets the next day.  And then the wait began.  Thankfully the Christmas holiday season allowed for some distractions because I didn't want to be too excited to go.  But yesterday was finally the day!

We left town midmorning and headed straight to our lunch desination: Porto's Bakery and Cafe in Burbank.  Lindsay had introduced us to it a couple of years ago and, while we haven't been there a lot, it's definitely a favorite!  It's Cuban food and each sandwich comes with plantain chips.  They also have delightful potato balls that have meat inside.  They sound disgusting to me, but taste delicious!  After a fairly quick stop, having just beat the lunch rush, we hit the road again and headed to The Grove in Beverly Hills.

We had all afternoon to spend shopping at our own pace, which is exactly what we did.  We went past J. Crew first, which is always a must.  My mission was to find a shirt for my mom (per her request), but they didn't have her size in what I was looking for.  It took much self-restraint to not buy the beautiful(!), but expensive scarf I found in there.  Onward we marched to Anthropologie.  That place is wonderful.  Seriously.  I love it every time.  When I have my own home...watch out.  The rest of the girls all made a purchase, which I so willingly helped talk them into.  "You definitely need those dishes.  They look just like you and match your home perfectly."  (If you want someone to talk you into buying something, take me with you.  I can be quite persuasive...although I'm not sure they needed a ton of convincing...)  After spending a good hour or maybe more, I really wasn't keeping track, in the store, we moved on. Our next  stop was Sur La Table.  My big purchase was magnetic measuring spoons for my mom.  She already had an identical set from there, but we had a casualty over the holidays when one of the spoons stuck to the side of a cookie sheet and baked/melted in the oven.  Very tragic.  We were ready for a small break.  In need of a boost, we hit up Pinkberry and sat down for a bit.  We walked back through Bath & Body Works, Crate & Barrel, Gap, and then Athleta. 

After all of those stores, we were all getting tired, but had to keep moving. By then it was around 5:00 and we headed back to the car.  We manuevered our way through Beverly Hills (Literally. The street I turned onto was so narrow I couldn't pass oncoming traffic.  I had to do some fancy manuevers.  The other girls didn't say anything, but I could feel the nervousness.) and into Hollywood.  We parked right next to the Pantages but our first destination was Dillon's Irish Pub.  We had a leisurely dinner and dessert there, all of which was delicious, until it was time to go to the show.  Wicked was just as awesome the fourth time around.  I still love it and want to go again! 

The worst part of the day was the hour in which we got home...actually worse was the hour I finally fell asleep.  Thank the Lord I didn't have to wake up early (sorry Maggie!).  Thanks again, girls, for a really fun day! 

hello 2012.

Oh my, another year.  Honestly, where has the time gone?  I remember last year at this time so vivdly, it doesn't seem possible that an entire year has passed.  Last year at this time our house was full of family, just a couple of days after Papa's funeral.  I was getting ready for my trip to Slovenia in mid-January.  I was in school and life had so many unknowns about what was coming next.

Of course, there will always be those unknowns in life.  As hard as last year, or really the last 2 years have been for different reasons, I cherish that time.  It's a time in my life when I saw God working distinctly in my life.  I learned a lot about life, growing up, and what it means to trust.  The Lord walked me through difficult times and brought me through to the blessing of a full-time job.

As many lessons I learned through this time, I'm thankful to be through it.  I wrote it a few weeks ago, and honestly still can't explain it, but I feel like life is about to change.  Maybe I'll always feel that way as I continue to get older because change is inevitable.  Maybe it's the new year making me nostalgic.

I pray for each of family and friends many blessings in 2012.  I pray that you know the Lord's comfort and guidance and that we all continue to trust Him this year!

The holidays this year were different.  Different than last year, of course, since we spent all our time in the hospital.  But also different than other Christmases in the past.  It was relaxing and quiet.  It was just my immediate family and my great aunt and uncle.  Christmas Eve was quiet.  We all pretty much did our own thing.  Dad and I went to the Christmas Eve service, while Mom and Lindsay stayed home and made our traditional Christmas Even pasties (meat pies) for dinner.  Christmas morning we woke up, did stockings and exchanged presents, then had breakfast (which we didn't finish until after 11, so that's probably more like brunch).  After breakfast we actually took naps.  We were having porkchops for dinner, which don't require hours of preparation, so it was actually relaxing to not have to be cooking all day.  Taking a nap on Christmas was definitely a first!  I ended up staying in pajamas all day (although I did shower), which was a nice change.  That evening I played a little with my Christmas gift: A new camera!  I still have MUCH to learn, but I'm excited to play with it. 

The day after Christmas we went down to my aunt and uncle's house to have Christmas with them.  On our way down, we made a few stops looking for new chairs for our media room.  We also had to make a stop at the outlet mall to return a couple of things that came from outlet stores.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Only one word can describe the outlet mall on the day after Christmas: Insane.  You couldn't even pull into the parking lot because there were so many people.  We ended up parking on the street behind the mall, literally pulling into the last spot we saw anywhere.  After some quick shopping and making our returns, we headed to their house.  It was fun to see everyone.  I mostly watched my sister and cousins play Rock Band (I wanted to play, but was only invited to sing, which I quickly opted out of) and played a game of pool with cousins. 

The week after Christmas through today has been quiet.  I've crocheted more than I have all year (which isn't saying much).  I was housesitting for some friends until yesterday.  Yesterday I cleaned up my room some and I can now see more of the carpet than I've been able to for awhile.  The plan for today is to dust and vacuum and probably do some work for my mom, again in my pajamas.  Tomorrow I plan to leave the house again.  (I love relaxing and doing nothing, but I'm missing feeling productive and a routine...that's just the way I work, I guess!)  On Friday someone hacked into my Gmail.  Google disabled my blog because they detected "suspicious activity."  I had a minor heart attack when I logged in and read "No Blogs Found."  Thankfully all was restored by Saturday. 

Wednesday is the big day: Wicked!  Too bad it's supposed to be 80 degrees in Los Angeles...seriously?