Blogging I Am.

Thursday 21 April 2011

We had a very fun Seattle date on Tuesday. We saw the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Center. They had all kinds of props and costumes and set pieces from the movie and then they slipped in some science exhibits where ever they could. They had these little legos with magnets so you could make your own little hover-craft type things and they had displays about how bionic limbs work and new science on artificial hearts and skin. And just all kinds of crazy stuff.

And since it's member appreciation month at the science center we got to see the Born to be Wild IMAX for free. It was about these ladies who raise orphaned baby elephants and orangutans and then release them back into the wild when they're old enough. The little babies were so cute. During one of the elephant scenes Steven leaned over and said "No, you can't have one." I didn't even ask! But he knows me so well. I was wanting a baby elephant. (Let's face it, I just want a baby.)

And here it is --- get excited --- PROOF that the sky is still blue behind all of those clouds (I had my doubts) and the monsoon season may be coming to an end in the very near future. (I took this photo on Tuesday 4/19/2011, honest) The rain this year has been unbelievable but I think the sun is doing it's best to come back to us.

The excitement of the week -- I was substitute teaching at the alternative school yesterday and at 1:48 (about two minutes before we would have been done for the day) they announced that we were in a lock down. I spent the next hour in a dark work room/closet with 16 eighth graders. We had no idea what was going on. All we knew was that it definitely wasn't a drill. The kids were all stressing out and everyone had to call their parents and tell them not to come pick them up and some kids were getting really upset/scared and it was just crazy. They finally let us out at 2:45. I found out this morning that there was some 11 year old homeschooler (gotta watch out for those ones) walking on the edge of the high school campus with his BB gun. What a lot of trouble he caused. I'm sure he received quite the talking to.

God Has a Sense of Humor.

Monday 18 April 2011

I can't believe I'm waking up to snow in mid-April. This wasn't exactly the reprieve from the rain that I was hoping for. At least the sun is out... right?

Happy tax day.

Workin' 9 to 5.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

I think I can officially say that I am now a working woman. Of course I don't actually work 9 to 5. Sometimes it's 7 to 3 or 8:30 to 4 or 7 to 7... it just depends on where I'm working that day. Steven and I have essentially swapped schedules (although mine isn't qiute as hideous as his was). Now instead of him working all of the time and me being home alone all of the time, I am the one who works and is occasionally gone for 12+ hours a day and he's the one who gets to stay home alone! I can't say that this was really the kind of change we were looking for but it's still good. It's good for me to be working and it's nice for Steven to have a bit of a break. He's been spending a lot of time filling out applications and studying for tests. He has a test with the Tacoma FD next Tuesday morning and the his test with the Enumclaw FD is on May 7th (I think), which is coming up incredibly fast!

I have been working almost full time. I've substitute taught at least 4 days these last two weeks and then I've also been working at the tutoring center about 6 hours a week. So there are certain days where I leave the house at 6:45am to go sub at a high school and then don't get home until 7:30pm after tutoring. At which point I usually just feel like pulling on sweats and getting in bed to watch an episode or two of Iron Chef with my husband. It's hard to get motivated to do much else (as you would very quickly notice if you walked into my rather messy little home right now). I've been very fortunate over these past couple of weeks to have had sub work scheduled in advance. Sometimes I'm able to find jobs online and not only was I able to work a full week this week but I already have three days scheduled for next week! As of next Tuesday I will also be employed by the Puyallup School District so I'm hoping that that will help me to get even more work (and at a higher pay rate).

I've come to the conclusion that the tutoring job has been really good for me. The timing isn't ideal (we usually don't end up eating dinner until 8pm on those days) and it's tough to go back to work after a full day of teaching but I'm glad that I'm doing it. I've been having a pretty tough time with the substitute teaching. And if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, then I'm sure that's nothing new but it's a topic I'm revisiting just the same.

Substitute teaching can be so easy, in a sense. Soemone else has already done all of the lesson planning for you and quite often it just involves turning on a movie or handing out a worksheet, but the rest of the job is challenging in a way that my own description cannot do justice. First of all, it is so difficult to basically have a new job every single day. Since I'm new to these districts I'm not even familiar with where the buildings are. So I get a job, I look up directions online and jot down the phone number just in case (I've already gotten lost twice and had to call to say I was going to be a couple of minutes late). Then I find my way there and try to determine where I'm allowed to park: visitor parking? staff parking? am I taking someone's spot by accident? One time the spots were ALL numbered so I called the office and they had to look up the assigned spot of the teacher I was working for. then I have to get my bearings in the building and try to remember important things like where the bathrooms are and how I get back to the office (I just don't really go to the bathroom at school ever because I don't want to ask someone where it is). Then I read the sub notes and frantically try to figure out what the heck it is I'm supposed to be doing. Then the kids come in, "Sweet! A sub!" I wish this meant they were actually happy to see me. What it means, in fact, is that they assume they don't have to do anything while I'm here and they can just sit and talk. I. Don't. Think. So. But that's their expectation for when there's a sub so that's what they try to do and I try to be all nice and friendly about asking them to be quiet and get some work done but then I end up having to yell to get the point across that I mean business and then I get all upset because now they think I'm mean and I'm really not but they made me be mean because they weren't following directions and they were being disrespectful. I've recently discovered a secret weapon. If you "sacrifice" a student (sending them to the office or ISS - in school suspension) then the rest of them will shape up pretty quick. If not, kick another one out. I had never sent a kid to the office before I started working down here but it really helps. And let's be honest, I don't have to put up with everything they're dishing out. They can be so rude some times. The other good thing is that I know that I have the support of the other teachers and administrators in the building. Everyone is willing to step in when there are behavior issues. And when I take attendance and accidentally mispronounce someone's name everyone laughs like how-could-I-be-so-stupid-to-mispronounce-that-name-in-such-a-weird-and-totally-wrong-way? As if it's my fault their parents named them something I can't pronounce! Then I spend the whole day worried that I'm letting the kids talk to much and all of the other teachers probably think I don't know how to manage a class or maybe I'm yelling too much and the other teachers think just crazy or maybe I didn't follow the sub notes exactly and the teacher is going to be frustrated when they come back or maybe everyone's just thinking "who let the 23 year old in here?" because I'm also always really self conscious about how young I am... and I could go on and on and on. The students don't understand that I've had the same training their teachers have and I deserve the same respect. Kids are always saying how substitutes are so mean and now I know why: Zero job satisfaction. And heaps and heaps of job dissatisfaction.

Basically, I never feel successful as a substitute teacher. I don't really get to help anyone or see the kids make progress. I'm not accomplishing anything or working towards any goals and that's difficult for me. I am a product of 17 years of education where my teachers told me exactly what I needed to do to be successful and now I've been tossed out into the real world where there aren't any rubrics or guidelines. No one is going to hand me a list of things that I need to do to get an "A" in life. And it's just so difficult feeling like I'm failing everyday. Okay, not everyday. I do get paid on the last day of the month and on that day I usually feel decently successful. So that's where the tutoring comes in. At the tutoring center I usually see the same students every week. I can chat with them and ask how school is going and how their weekend was and I can give them the one-on-one attention that they need and actually watch them learn. I can see their progress from week to week and celebrate with them as they improve. It feels good to move through math packets with them and see them conquer a concept that had them totally stumped just three weeks ago. It feels like I'm accomplishing something and having an impact and I can't even explain how much I need to feel that.

So that's how I feel about that.

Aside from work, these last couple of weeks have been pretty fun. We had Tara over for a sleepover and game day while she was on spring break. We had a super fun dinner with the Piehlers and played two great games of Scrabble. I've done a little shopping, including buying a dress and shoes to wear in Lena's wedding. I love shopping and have seriously missed it! It's so fun to come home with bags of shoe boxes and clothes. On Steven's last full weekend with the ambulance company a spent an afternoon with Tara and our dad building bee boxes. Dad has bees on his farm. Last year he had 40 pounds of honey but he's getting more bees this year and is expecting 1,000+ pounds of honey! We spend almost four hours drilling holes and putting boxes together. And on Sunday of that weekend I spent 8 hours at church. No joke. And 6 of those hours were spent in the nursery. I did my normal church stuff in the morning and then stayed after to help set up for the membership class and then went in to the "under 2 years" classroom for 4 hours during the class. We had everyone from a little 7 week old baby to two almost two year olds who were potty training. It was crazy. My back was pretty sore for the next couple of days.

Tonight Steven and I enjoyed a much needed date night. I put on some new shoes (yay!) and we went to Salty's on Alki for happy hour. It was so tasty and such a beautiful view, as always. It was still cloudy and somewhat rainy but the sun was shining on the city and it was lovely. We shared a sushi roll and a basket of fish and chips and then drove into the Seattle for a show at the 5th. It's a new Dolly Parton musical called 9 to 5. It's not our new favorite or anything but it was cute and fun and we laughed quite a bit.

Sorry this post was so long... that's what happens when I go two weeks in between updates!

We've got a fun weekend ahead of us including a visit from our dear friend Chelsea and a long awaited worship night at church.

Hope you're having a great week!
Steph

April Foods.

I'm not much into the whole April fools thing so today was filled with food instead! Steven wanted to try telling everyone I was pregnant but doesn't it just feel mean trying to make someone believe something that isn't true? I think so. It makes me crazy when Steven tells me stories and I say "nuh-uh" "no way" or "that's not true!" And then he finally gets me to believe it anyway and then says "No, of course that's not true!" and then I feel really stupid. It's just not cool. Anyhow, I know people have a lot of fun with it. Actually, I have to admit (though I'm pretty darn embarrassed) that someone got me good this morning. We were up on Capitol Hill and someone had changed the "Pike" street signs to say "Pine" and vice versa. I was really confused because I thought I knew what they were supposed to be but the signs told me otherwise so I went along with it. Thanks to Cupcake Royale I found out it was just a prank: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150149162284096&set=a.70207794095.71502.50176324095&theater

I spent today in Seattle getting some much needed "girl time" in. Lena and I met at her house and had lunch together (grilled cheese and tomato soup! as well as zucchini and a mango) then spent some time looking at nail polish colors online. I tell you what though, I'm not so sure that those colors translate very well over the internet. We looked at one that Lena actually owns and it was totally purple on the website but translucent pink in real life... hmm... then we spent some time looking at dresses for me to potentially wear in her wedding and she showed me her wedding dress and a really pretty purple dress and some silver shoes that she will be wearing for her friend Anna's wedding. We even spent some time planning Lena and Aaron's honeymoon. I love planning vacations online and looking for good deals!! And then we ventured out, first to QFC for some free bags of chips (random April fools promotion type thing) and then to Cupcake Royale for birthday cupcakes.

There were some Red Cross guys outside of Cupcake Royale and this one really really wanted us to make a donation. we were stuck talking with him outside for like 15 minutes!!! Seriously, he just wouldn't let us say no. I tried telling him that we both have significant others who we make our financial decisions with so we couldn't just sign up to make monthly donations without talking with them. (to which he said that we're so awesome we must have equally awesome significant others so of course they wouldn't be upset when we came home and said we had committed to donating to the Red Cross on a monthly basis.) I tried telling him that we give to other organizations and there are a lot of different charities but one person can only give to so many (to which he said that the Red Cross is the best! to which I said "well, but I've already given to the sub-par charities so I have nothing left!") and on and on it went. Finally, he told us to go into Cupcake Royale and talk it over and then we could talk with him after. At that point we were just plotting how we could get out and back to the car without him seeing us! I told Lena we were allowed to say no and just walk away and he was just going to have to deal with it. We really let him talk and keep us there much longer than we should have considering that we had no intention of signing up from the very beginning. We were maybe being a little too nice... By the time we got back to the car it was 12 minutes past the amount of time we had paid for -- yikes! We didn't have a ticket yet though. The good news is, we got cupcakes. We went back to Lena's house and ate ice cream and drank tea and ate our cupcakes. Lena had a lemon one and I had a coconut lime one, which was absolutely fabulous.

Then we decided to paint our nails and somehow a bottle of dark purple nail polish broke (on the carpet!!) and spilled all over! We were frantically trying to clean it up before it dried.... Lena was freaking out so I gave her the laptop and suggested she look up ways to get nail polish out of carpet while we tried to get it out with nail polish remover. The article she found told us to do all sorts of crazy things including using Windex, hydrogen peroxide, non-acetone nail polish remover (uh... the one we were using was 100% acetone, wonder if that's bad) and hairspray! We tried pretty much everything and then Krista realized it probably wasn't very smart for us to be mixing all of those chemicals. We instantly put them all away and stuck to the nail polish remover. It actually worked decently well and now there's just a little hint of pink to this lovely brown carpet. It sounds like their landlord is planning to replace the carpet soon so hopefully this won't be an issue.

The whole thing was really a fabulous house-bounding experience. Three of Lena's room mates were in her room helping us clean up the mess. We laughed a lot! Lena and I decided we should make the most of the broken nail polish and used it to paint our finger nails and toe nails before throwing it out. It's really pretty and I think I might need to buy a bottle of it for myself. I've never worn purple nail polish before but I'm loving it and I think it would be the perfect shade of purple to wear at Lena's wedding! We spent the rest of our afternoon together painting nails and watching Dirty Dancing Havana Nights. It was so "girly" and relaxing and I absolutely loved our time together! Either Steven needs to start painting his nails and eating more ice cream or I need more of my girlfriends in my life! (I think the second option would be everyones preference.)

I spent the rest of the evening on a pie date with Lindsey! It was so great so see her!! We hadn't gone on a coffee date since last spring and I hadn't seen her at all since the wedding. We had a really nice visit. We went to the Seattle Pie Company in Magnolia (I had a delicious piece of raspberry/marionberry pie) and just sat and talked until they closed. We might have to make that a regular thing. It was lovely.

I told you it was a food day!! Toast with cream cheese, goldfish crackers, grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup, zucchini, mango, coconut lime cupcake, udderly chocolate ice cream, tea, and raspberry pie -- I'm stuffed! (and if you noticed that there seems to be an excessive amount of desserts where dinner should be, well, life's more fun with dessert, don't you think?)

And now I'm laying in bed, about ready to fall asleep. Steven is downstairs playing Tide of Iron with Jeremy. I wouldn't be surprised if they're up quite late. This is the first time we've ever had a friend over to hang out with only one of us when both of us are home and it's so weird being upstairs in bed while Steven and Jeremy are downstairs playing a board game. Usually when our friends come over they want to play with both of us but I suppose there's a chance that Steven needed the guy time just as much as I needed the girl time.

Lastly, Steven received the e-mail from the Enumclaw Fire Department yesterday. Applications will be available starting next Thursday and then tests start and then interviews towards the end of May. They'll know who's being offered jobs by the first weekend in June!! It's so nice to finally have a timeline. We're very excited and nervous and anxious and hopeful and excited! Pray for the best.

Goodnight!

Change it up!

Is that really a hockey term or do they just say it on The Mighty Ducks? It's actually D2: The Mighty Ducks when Coach Bombay isn't there and that teacher lady is coaching and she says "they're getting tired. We need to switch places." and then Charlie tells her to yell "Change it up!!" I suppose this really has nothing to do with anything except that it happens to be what I chose for the title of this blog.

Anyhow, I'm not one who's usually much into change. In fact, I'd say I'm generally opposed to it. I very much enjoy the comfort of familiarity but I'm slowly learning that change is a good thing and I'm trying to embrace it. So here are some things that have been changing around here:

1. Spring is here!! I can hear the birds chirping in the mornings and the frogs croaking in the evenings and the cherry trees are blooming! It's been over 50 degrees for the last week or so and the days are definitely getting longer. March was an insanely busy month for us and I am so looking forward to starting a new month on Friday and welcoming even more springy weather.

2. I'm going to start splurging on yummy/healthy foods every now and then. Steven and I were at the grocery store together today and we decided to buy salmon for dinner (even though it costs about 3 times as much as chicken, which we already had at home in the freezer anyway...). We had salmon and rice and zucchini and an orange and it was SO good! I'm thinking salmon should be a once a month treat -- I'll keep watching for sales. (We also purchased the Tangled DVD and watched it this afternoon. Still just as cute as when we saw it in the theater. I love it.)

3. Here's the big one -- we're making some huge changes in terms of our jobs. Steven has been somewhat miserable at his job for, well, the entire 6 months he's been working there. He would really like to focus more of his time and energy on volunteering at the fire station and working on getting a firefighting job. So we're finally doing something about it. Steven gave his two weeks notice at Rural Metro on Monday. He will still be working for them part time but that might be as little as two shifts per month. His stress level has decreased significantly since we made this decision earlier this month. It definitely helped to ease the tension during this busy time. We're so looking forward to having a normal work schedule that allows us to actually eat dinner together more than 5 times a month and attend church together every week instead of just every other. I'm trying my very best to substitute teach as often as possible. I am currently employed in 4 school districts and have submitted applications to 4 more. It's a little late in the year but my goal is just to get two solid months (averaging 2 to 3 days a week) of teaching in before the summer starts. I also got a tutoring job at the Sylvan learning center in Maple Valley. It's only 6 hours a week but it's something I can continue into the summer, so that's good. Steven had an interview at US Bank on Tuesday and is hoping to get a part time job as a teller. The pay is pretty close to what he was making with the ambulance company and the commute is only half as long. We'll both need to find something more over the summer but we're feeling good about what we've got going on right now.

4. The blog has a new look, did you notice?

5. I'm growing up! I'm learning how to say "no" and set healthy boundaries and not just be nice all the time. I read a book last week called No More Christian Nice Girl and I'm feeling rather empowered. These kinds of changes are particularly difficult but I'm working on it.

6. Steven got a new helmet. The new helmets actually came in a while ago but I just took the photo recently. He's pretty excited about it so I thought I'd show you. How crazy is it that I'm married to a firefighter? Pretty darn.

7. Speaking of firefighting, Enumclaw is in the process of hiring 3 firefighters. We haven't really heard when they're going to start testing or doing interviews. Right now they're putting together committees and just getting ready. I don't think it's too early to start praying that Steven gets hired though. Feel free to join in.

8. I think I'm finally ready to apply for a real teaching job! I've been working on the online applications so that when the job postings go up over the next few months I'll be ready to submit my applications right away.

9. Steven and I are ready for quadruplets!!! JUST KIDDING! No way am I ready for that but we have been enjoying our time in the nursery at church every Sunday morning. We work in the 12-16 month room and so many of them just want to snuggle. It's really sweet.

10. Well, I can't think of a tenth thing that is changing so I guess that's just a perfect example of something that isn't changing -- I still have some OCD tendencies, like how I couldn't just end my list at 9 and be satisfied :)

That's all that I have to update you on this evening. I would love to hear from you though! Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if we haven't had a chance to catch up in a while.

take care!
Steph

p.s. happy 23rd birthday to Lena!

Drinking From a Fire Hose.

Doesn't life just feel like that sometimes? Like all you want is a little sip of water and all of the sudden a deluge comes blasting out at you at the rate of 7 gallons per second. It just doesn't seem fair does it? How can you possibly take in and enjoy any water at that rate? Doesn't seem helpful at all. I can't wait for things to slow down.

Lucky for us, it seems that as life gets crazier it also gets more exciting. Jeremy proposed to Ronnie on Friday evening and we were so blessed to be invited to the "after party," which, of course, was a huge surprise for Ronnie.

Yeah, I know, I can't believe Jeremy's engaged either :)

I know this picture is dark but they're just so cute and happy it doesn't even matter. I had to include it anyway. There were probably about 25 of us, friends and family, waiting in the dark when Ronnie opened the door to her house. I don't think I've actually ever been part of a flip-the-lights-on-and-jump-out-and-yell-surprise type of a party but it was so fun!! Ronnie just had this deer in the headlights look and stood there staring at us for a good three seconds.

There was lots of hugging and congratulating and then we all circled up for story time. They told us about their lovely evening and we all ooed and awed and laughed and it was just beautiful. Ronnie has typed up her account of the events if you want to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/ronnie-glazner/slow-dancing-in-a-burning-room/507082641811


I think my favorite part was that both of their families were there. It made my heart so happy to watch Ronnie share her joy with her mom. There was so much love in that room.

It was a wonderful evening and I'm so glad we got to be a part of it.

Contrary to my personal nature, Steven and I drove down to Portland Friday afternoon with absolutely zero plans of where we were going to stay or anything like that. We spent the afternoon roaming around Powell books and having dinner at Sushiland and then to the party of course but when it came to the sleeping portion of the day... well... we just didn't have a plan. We had thrown sleeping bags and pillows into the car hoping we could just crash at Ronnie's but we decided that wasn't the best option for us and maybe we would sleep better in a bed. So at 11pm we booked a hotel from Jeremy's computer. I was a little nervous to be staying in a cheap hotel in Portland but it was actually quite decent. We had a two room "suite" (suite meaning that it has a smallish kitchen and is meant for extended stays, not meaning "fancy") because that was all that was left and it only cost $75 so that wasn't too terrible and the good news is, they had a complimentary deluxe breakfast in the morning! Oh wait, you mean, the monochromatic counter-ful of sliced bread, toaster waffles, cheerios and frosted flakes with the toaster, grape jelly and styrofoam plates? Oh, yeah, that deluxe breakfast. Haha! Good thing I LOVE frosted flakes and the toaster waffles were actually really yummy but watch out! They melt the styrofoam, which I'm sure causes cancer. That styrofoam stuff is a thing of the devil for sure.

We were up bright and early Saturday morning to enjoy that deluxe breakfast and hit the road! We were on our way to Steven's interview with the Hoquiam fire department and had a two and a half hour drive ahead of us.

Interview. Check. Change back into street clothes. Check. Tour the fire station. Check. Make bagel sandwiches for the drive. Check. Put gas in the car. Check. And we're back on the road again. When we arrived back home at 1pm Saturday afternoon we had barely been gone 24 hours and had driven approximately 450 miles. We spent the rest of the day laying in bed watching movies, eating grapefruit and drinking tea. We were both very near to falling asleep around 7pm but I knew that would mean we'd be waking up at 4am so we forced ourselves out of bed and made some bagelbites to enjoy while watching Backdraft.

Sunday was a very big day and one Steven and I are both very happy to have over with. The Stairclimb. I left home around 7:30, as usual, to get to church. I serve in the 12-16month room and I love it in there and we have really great volunteers so that makes it even more fun but recently all of our kids seem to have moved up to the next age group and we got a whole new flock of little ones. So all of the sudden most of our kids in there are just barely one year old and all they want is to be held. First service just happens to be nap time for pretty much everyone and it's just tough for them to stay awake...

... so sometimes they don't. I had these two little ladies sitting with me the entire time we were in there. They were both fighting sleep like crazy too. For the first half hour we were sitting on the floor but I just couldn't hold us all up anymore so we moved into the rocking chair. But every time Addison (on the left) got close to sleep, Grace (on the right) would touch her face or kick her or something and then they'd both start crying... finally we moved to the bean bag and by the time their parents walked in, they were both fast asleep. I could have done with a nap myself.


Steven was supposed to be sleeping in while I was at early service but I don't think that was very successful. He was feeling pretty anxious but for absolutely no reason because he did an amazing job!!! Steven climbed the Columbia Tower (all 69 floors) in 17 minutes and 49 seconds. He finished 298th out of the 1,338 finishers. I'm so proud of him. It was his first year and he's been so busy and hasn't had much time to train or anything and I think he surprised himself a little with that time.

When he came home Sunday night I expected him to be absolutely exhausted but it was quite the opposite. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders and he was in such high spirits. So we had dinner and watched Schindler's List, haha, not to bring him down or anything, just because it was due at the library the next day so we had to watch it.

I figured we needed to celebrate a little so I made lobster ravioli (okay, that bit is from Costco) with an absurdly rich sauce that my family is all too familiar with thanks to my genius of an uncle, Scott, he's the best with the food. And I even got out one of our bottles of sparkling cider that was left over from the holidays. And Steven brought me the flowers that were on the table at the stairclimb :) I was really touched that he had thought to bring them to me. Tulips and Gerberas are two of my favorites!

And now back to the work week and guess what, I actually get to work this week. I have a new tutoring job, so I've been training for that, and I get to sub at Westhill on Friday. yay! I think the tutoring is going to go well but right now it definitely feels like I'm trying to drink water from a fire hose. I trained for a couple of hours yesterday then did two training modules on the computer for an hour today and then they threw me to the wolves. I had my first two math students this afternoon. It really wouldn't be all that difficult except that you have two or three students at once and they're working on completely different lessons... I think it went okay but I wasn't too impressed with my performance. I'll get the hang of it though.

And here I am sharing my thoughts with you and waiting for Steven to get home from work while eating a ginormous bowl of pasta and broccoli. I made way too much but it's just so hard to cook for one. I think that's why I usually have cereal for dinner when Steven is gone. And now I wish I wasn't so full because cereal sounds absolutely lovely right now. So glad tomorrow is Thursday! Steven has the day off (as do I) and then Tim and Annika are coming over for dinner. Should be a much needed day of rest and relaxation and fun.

What's Going On Here???

Steven has the day off today and we have plans for the day so I'm not working, obviously, so OF COURSE today is the day that I have gotten 16 calls to substitute teach!! I'm not even exaggerating. Isn't that just dumb? One of the few days that I don't want to slash am unavailable to work and I get a zillion calls (this time I am exaggerating). **Steven wants to know how many is a zillion. Just to clarify, it's loads.** There are so many days that I'm available to teach and I just can't because there aren't any opportunities. You would think those contracted teachers could try to spread their illnesses out a bit wouldn't you? Just thought I'd share that with you along with these random photos from the last week of my life.

This is my sister Tara. I think she's super cute. She and Mom and I went to California Burger last week and Tara got another peanut butter bacon cheeseburger. Yum.

Steven and I had a fun little date on Wednesday. We stopped by Blue Highway and found that they already have a copy of the new Days of Wonder game Cargo Noir that isn't supposed to be out until the end of the month.

I'm sold. It was really fun and not nearly as complicated as a lot of the other board games that we have. Hopefully Steven will get it for his birthday...

Um... yeah... while unloading the mountain of Costco groceries from my car the bottom of the box that was holding the oranges decided to just flop open. And the oranges kind of went everywhere. Fortunately I found this rather amusing and just laughed when it happened. Probably would have been a different story if it was still pouring down rain or hailing like it had been all day yesterday. Now my oranges have dirt all over them. Which is kind of nice, you know, nice to spice things up a little.

Who remembers this cereal? Steven and I were SO excited to find some at the Grocery Outlet last week. It's just as tasty as we remember it being. I love cereal.

That's really all I have to report -- happy weekend everybody!!!