Losing Steam.

I tell you what, this teaching thing is tough stuff. I'm enjoying it but we have reached that point in the year where we are all just ready for summer. I know I've only been here for two months so it doesn't seem like I should be feeling that as much as the teachers who've been working all year but there's this whole different feel and mentality about school at this time of year. The kids are distracted and uninterested and I'm too tired to keep reeling them back in. This whole week (yes, all three days that I've been at work this week) has been a constant battle. It doesn't help that my kids are acting more and more like typical middle schoolers with each passing day -- not my favorite. As you may or may not know one of the biggest reasons that I prefer teaching younger grades is because I like to stay away from all of this obnoxious pre-teen stuff. They're getting super sarcastic and sometimes almost mean with one another, and every time any of them says anything the other four follow with a chorus of "Oh my gosh! That's so wrong!" Really?? REALLY? At 11 and 12 years old they really think everything is a sexual innuendo? Is that actually what's going on here? Seriously, it is beyond irritating. I really don't remember it being like that when I was in 5th and 6th grade. And I went to public school...

We have a lot of fun stuff going on at school so as long as they're busy with work and projects, they're pretty okay to be around. In fact, they get really excited about some of the lessons I teach and activities I come up with and that always makes me feel really good. They really are sweet kids...

We're still studying Ancient China and loving it! Today we learned about paper and printing and we made our own stamps. I'm hoping we'll use the stamps to decorate our poetry books but as we just started poetry yesterday, I can't guarantee that there will actually be a poetry book. We only have two weeks left in school. We're also planning a China themed party for our last full day of school. We're going to make decorations and dress up and make all of the food together and everything. It should be a blast!

I picked up a 5 pound bag of fortune cookies while Steven and I were in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago. The kids loved them! Steven and I did too. They are completely gone.
School is keeping me very busy and this last week and a half I spent most of my free time filling out applications. I don't currently have a job lined up for next year so I've been working really hard on that. I have completed 6 applications and there are another two on my list. After I've finished those, I'll look back through all of the websites again and probably try to find some other schools with job openings that I might not even know about yet. Not sure what I'll do if I don't get a teaching job but we'll deal with that when (if?) we get there. I'm choosing not to worry -- or at least that's what I tell myself :)

Steven and I spent Memorial Day weekend out and about. Saturday morning we drove down to Vancouver to spend some time with Scott and Kristen. Unfortunately, we left the sun in Seattle and completely missed the beautiful weather. On the plus side -- we did have a ton of fun in Vancouver. We met up with Scott and Kristen and a few of their friends at a park along the Columbia River. The boys took off for an afternoon of rock climbing and the girls spend the rest of the day on the boat. We travelled along the Columbia River and then up the Willamette into Downtown Portland. At some point we found a little pocket of sunshine and stopped to soak it up and enjoy some snacks. Around 7pm a crazy storm rolled in. We got off the boat and into the cars just in time. It was pouring down (does it count as down if it's sideways?) rain and crazy windy and then there was thunder and lightening and hail. The streets were so full of water and it happened very quickly. Is this the kind of weather I can expect any every time I leave Seattle from now on? It's happened the last 3 times I've left town! We spent the evening making dinner (eggplant zucchini tomato mushroom feta casserole -- loving this recipe!) in Scott and Kristen's beautiful kitchen -- always a treat to cook in a real kitchen :)

After a morning of french toast, games, and an estate sale (S&K found a new dining table with 3 leaves and 10 chairs, I got a super cute little sugar shaker - NBD), Steven and I made the drive back home just in time for family dinner. We celebrated Grammi's birthday over Northlake Tavern pizza at Uncle Scott's house and then crashed at Mom's for the night. We don't like to make the drive home if we don't have to. We spent most of Monday on the couch watching the last few episodes in Season 2 of The Voice. I love that show. What an incredible opportunity that would be! I would definitely choose Adam as my coach. Well, actually, after watching the entire season, I wonder if maybe I would choose Blake. Hard to say I guess. Most definitely NOT Cee Lo or Christina. Congratulations to Jermaine Paul! Definitely a well deserved win. I can't believe Steven and I didn't accidentally hear who the winner was before we had a chance to finish watching the season -- so thankful for my mom's DVR!

On a not so happy note... It has been a bummer of a week (month?) in Seattle. Seven people have been killed in as many days. It's really pretty frightening how many shootings there have been and all of them totally random. The news is somewhat horrifying these days. I would suggest steering clear of it. And it seems like it isn't just Seattle either. There's scary stuff like that happening all over the country. It's just really sad and I felt like it needed to be acknowledged. So there's that.

Not much else to report... we made homemade pizza tonight (pepperoni, mushrooms, ground beef, jalapenos, and cheese on whole wheat crust -- yum!) and watched a movie called Everybody's Fine. It was very good but also very very sad. Too sad maybe. Robert De Niro plays a character whose wife has passed away and as she was his only link to his children, he's trying his best to get to know them for himself. Meanwhile they're all trying their best not to disappoint him with their imperfect lives so they only tell him what they think he wants to hear and their dishonesty continues to widen the void between them. I don't do well with movies about people who are old and alone and have lost their spouse and have kids who don't want to have a relationship with them. I kept the tears in until the very end and then totally lost it. Because I am way overtired all the time these days I couldn't stop crying. We had to get out some chocolate and turn on Seinfeld until I fell asleep on Steven. I know. I'm ridiculous.

Celebrating Steven.

In case you haven't noticed, we really like birthdays around here. We love celebrating and going out to eat multiple times in the same week and exchanging gifts and finally spilling big surprises so we don't have to hold them in any longer :)

Steven's 26th birthday was almost two weeks ago and we had a marvellous birthday(week) full of family, friends, food, and many surprises. The day before Steven's birthday we spent with my mom and sisters. We  had lunch at Red Robin (Steven's favorite place to eat... we've seriously been there 5 times in the last month) and then drove into Seattle for an afternoon of games at Cafe Mox. Steven's birthday gift from my mom was that he got to take three new boardgames home with him. I thought he was going to cry he was so happy. What a treat to get three new games all at once!! Now if only we had space for them... our game shelves are already packed to the max. We finished our afternoon of family birthday fun at Menchie's. Mmm... love that place.


Of course I had to be at school on Steven's birthday, which I was really bummed about, but it worked out really well because he was able to have lunch with his dad and then hang out with his brother for a little while. We had homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner (my first time making it -- oh. my. goodness. I used both cheddar and cougar gold and it was absolutely amazing.) and then took our cribbage board over to The Mint (bar in Enumclaw) to play while we had drinks. It was really fun and relaxing to just be out in Enumclaw and know that we only had a short drive home. Not sure why we don't do that more often. I had picked up a slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory on my way home from work for our special birthday dessert. I figured that made more sense than me trying to bake an entire dessert for only the two of us. We shared it while he opened a couple small gifts from me (Psych season 5, and the 1910 expansion for Ticket to Ride -- yay for normal sized color cards!).

I had been telling Steven for months how super excited I was about his birthday. Then about a week before he finally asked "so do you have something planned?" Huh. My "big surprise" for his birthday was schedule for Tuesday May 1st, the day after his birthday, and it hadn't really occurred to me that his actual birthday was going to seem like a total dud when I didn't have anything planned or wrapped or anything. So the whole macaroni/cheesecake/Psych thing was totally last minute but it definitely served it's purpose. He had no idea that he hadn't even received his real birthday gift from me yet.

On Tuesday, I left for work around 5:30am, just like I normally do, but showed up back at home at 1:00pm -- more than 3 hours early. I think I freaked him out a little. I gave him a big hug and told him we needed to get going or we would be late for our dinner date in Portland with our friends. He got right in the car. So trusting! If I were on the receiving end of a road trip surprise I would be like "well, what do I need to bring with me? Give me a few minutes. Do we have any car snacks? When will we be back? Should I bring a clean pair of socks?" but he pretty much just walked right out the door and was so super excited about our big surprise trip to Portland.

We arrived at our hotel around 4pm (please, there was no way I was going to drive home that late on a school night) where we took full advantage of the free chai/latte machine and cookies in the lobby. We had our cribbage board with us and it was a perfect way to pass the time before walking over to the restaurant. Jeremy, Ronnie, Sam, Scott, and Kristen all met us at a restaurant called Brix Tavern. Their happy hour was amazing!! Everything we tried was really tasty -- the smoked cheese fondue in particular. We're already planning a return trip. Oh, and Jeremy had a coconut beer that was really lovely. I'm trying to track it down so we can have some at our house. As we were finishing up I could hear Steven making plans with Jeremy for him and Ronnie to come back to the hotel and play one of our new games with us.... time for the second big surprise of the evening.

Cirque du Soleil tickets! This whole big birthday thing started back in February when I bought these tickets. Since the show isn't coming to Seattle this year, I decided we were just going to have to drive down to Portland to see it. I figured Steven had no idea they were even going to be in town. On our drive home from California last month, I noticed the big Cirque tent just off to the West of I-5 and was hoping Steven hadn't seen it. And then since I knew it was there, when we drove down to Portland that night, I was doing everything I could to make sure Steven didn't notice the tent as we drove by. I asked him to get out the GPS when I knew we were getting close but then the GPS was "thinking" so Steven wasn't really paying any attention to it. And then I tried to get him to cuddle me and lean on my shoulder (I was driving obviously) but that didn't last quite long enough so, last resort, I sped up to get next to a semi and kept it between us and the tent until we had passed. Phew! Ridiculous, I know. I was kind of really proud of myself and feeling like "sweet, he has no idea the show is in town, so there's no way he will guess that we're going." But wouldn't you know it, right at the stop light off the exit we took there was a big huge Cirque du Soleil billboard. "Hey look! Cirque du Soleil!!" I didn't even respond. I had no idea if he had any inkling, I just couldn't believe that after all my efforts to hide the tent we got off the freeway to that. Anyhow, he didn't have a clue and was totally shocked when I pulled out the tickets :) He thought dinner with friends in Portland was the big surprise (which it certainly was!! Not often we do that) and was super excited to be going to yet another Cirque show -- our 4th one in the last two years.

(I wanted to get a picture of the tent but you can't see it very well. The yellow and blue stripes were so pretty in the sunset!)

The show was incredible, as usual. We were both asleep within minutes of being back in the hotel room. Wednesday morning we gave ourselves enough time to enjoy breakfast at the hotel, take a walk to Voodoo Doughnuts (bought one of those huge glazed doughnuts for my students to share), and then pop over to Jeremy and Ronnie's for a quick game and lunch, before driving back home. We stopped in Chehalis for Cold Stone and cribbage (nice break from the driving) and made it home in plenty of time to watch a movie, have dinner, and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. It wasn't easy for me to finish out the school week after having that random day and a half off in the middle but it was SO worth it! I just loved surprising Steven with all of those fun things I knew he would really enjoy. We had a blast.  (funky water fountain in Portland, I like it.)

Glad I finally got to write about it! It drives me crazy when I have something to blog about and just can't find the time to do it.

The sun was out in full force today and my pink-y skin is feeling a little toasty. I'll be needing some lotion.

Off to spend the rest of Mother's Day weekend with my beautiful mother!!

The Switch.

The flannel sheets have been put away for the season and the duvet cover has been washed and hung out in the sunshine (it smells so good!). The windows are open, the heat is off, and I'm strongly considering packing away all of my sweaters and scarves for the next few months. I even have a little sunny color on my skin. I just love spring.

Extreme California Weather: Take 2.

My poor little blog! It's almost the end of the month and I've barely written anything at all. School has kept me equal parts busy and exhausted this past month and while I think about blogging nearly every single day, I can never muster up the energy to make it happen.

It has been determined that I should no longer visit California outside of the warm, sunny, predictable, summer months. Steven and I took a road trip over spring break and the weather was nothing short of atrocious. Torrential downpours, wind, freezing temperatures (no joke, as in 39 degrees), hail storm, tornado warnings, mudslides, thunderstorms... I'm not exaggerating. It was crazy. The good thing about it was that it ensured that we stayed indoors and made the most of our time. We visited with friends, played cards, ate lots of yummy food, and even made a little time to relax. How about that?

We left home Monday morning, after Easter. Since Steven didn't get off work until 8am we decided it wouldn't really be reasonable to try to drive all of the way into California the first day. We didn't want to be dropping in on any friends at eleven o'clock at night. So we decided to stop in Oregon. On the way down we met up with Joy at Olive Garden for a really fun lunch and then drove over a mountain pass that neither of us had ever travelled before.

It was really fun to be off the "beaten path" that is I-5 for a little while. We drove by Detroit Lake and the Detroit Dam and then made our way high up into the mountains where there were still many feet of snow. On the other side we drove through an adorable little down called Sisters. I really want to stop there sometime. It was like Winthrop but a bit bigger and -- dare I say it? -- I think maybe even a little cuter - gasp! But we all know Winthrop has a special place in my heart so don't read too much into this. I think Sisters was where we drove by one of the nicest looking fire stations I've ever seen. Wish I had gotten a picture.

First stop: The Pines Resort in Sun River. This was the first time we've used our timeshare and we were pleasantly surprised. I mean, we expected it to be nice, we certainly paid enough for nice, but this was really, really nice and spacious and clean and in such a beautiful area and right near to the little Sun River Village with a nice (and reasonably priced) market and everything! We had a one bedroom place with a king sized bed and TV in the bedroom, wall bed in the living room, deck, gas fireplace, full kitchen, and a huge bathroom. The moment we walked in the door we were wishing we had planned to stay all week. Check it out.

Steven kept that fireplace on the whole time! Even when I was way too warm and kind of done with it. It's just really fun to have one and I think he wanted to make the most of it.

Biggest bathtub I've ever seen in my life. I want one. The jets were nice too.

We enjoyed both the hot tub and the bathtub and spent the evening relaxing by the fire.

Day two we left Sun River bright and early for a long drive down into Visalia, CA. We were lucky enough to have a bit of sunshine on this drive. After many many hours of saying "isn't it nice to have some different scenery? Isn't it so fun to drive somewhere new?" we were actually very excited to be back on the familiar interstate -- haha! I guess it made us feel like we were really making progress.

We drove through Sacramento just in time to stop for happy hour at the Melting Pot :) They were celebrating international cheese fondue day (you suppose they made that up?) and they were doing free cheese fondue for two all week long. Of course, our meal wasn't entirely free... we ended up getting drinks, cheese fondue, a salad, and even a little chocolate fondue. It was a really fun little date.

We spent the night in Visalia visiting Soundtrack, a friend from Steven's camp days. She and her new husband (they've only been married a couple of months) have a beautiful home! They're like real grown ups.

Day 3 -- a nice short drive up to Mariposa. One of our favorite parts of the roadtrip. We love love love visiting the Solanos -- Chad's grandparents :) They are so sweet and so much fun and just such a great reminder about what's important in life. It's always a relaxing and thoughtful time up there.

**let me just comment right now that typing up this blog post is SO MUCH MORE FUN than the school work I'm supposed to be doing... it's true**

We laid around most of the day: visiting, playing cards, eating yummy food, and watching our Blue Planet DVDs. Judy showed Steven how to make really yummy shrimp in the oven (he was maybe a bit too liberal with that tobasco sauce... he went through a lot of water at dinner time) and we made an apple crisp for dessert.

After a long day of horrible weather (this was the day with most of the bad stuff including the mud slide on a section of freeway we had driven earlier that morning) we caught this gorgeous sunset from the deck.

It was quite cold but we managed to stay outside long enough to take a few pictures.

Self portrait numero uno -- actually, maybe the only one. We really didn't take all that many photos on this trip.

Day 4: Oakhurst :) Always a pleasure. We met up with another camp friend -- Cobalt -- for lunch at the Forks (burgers, milkshakes, and fries - oh my!), did a little shopping (cute little pineapple lamp for my desk at school from a thrift store, and a fun set of chopsticks from this random world imports store), stopped at Jamba for cribbage and smoothies, and then did a bit of grocery shopping before heading back to the house. We made salmon and rice for dinner and watched a movie called Tortilla Soup. We also found time to make a pan of scotcharoos and the next morning we made a batch of cookies. As usual with Steven/Steph travels -- lots of good food!

We started driving around lunch time on day 5 -- San Francisco bound. It was a beautiful drive. We drove through one big storm but it didn't last long. All of the lingering clouds made from some pretty incredible scenery.

First stop in SF was the taco truck. Steven just couldn't resist. He told me we were just getting a snack but we were both more than stuffed by the time we finished this gigantic burrito.

We had such a nice weekend visiting Paige! Friday night she and a couple of her friends took us to a poetry slam. It was actually really cool. I've never been into the whole poetry thing but these teenagers wrote and performed some pretty impressive pieces. Then we went out for ice cream at a place somewhat similar to Molly Moon's. Similar in the fact that they have weird stuff. Steven had a bourbon flavored ice cream with cornflakes in it and I had one scoop of coconut and one scoop of browned butter (I think, if I'm remembering correctly).

Saturday was a more perfectly sunny day than I would have imagined possible in the city of San Francisco. I didn't know it ever cleared up like that! We went on a nice walk up this big hill, played games, and just kind of took it easy. We were all glad for the low-key weekend and had another early night.

It is so strange how we can wake up in Paige's world, drive hundreds of miles, and later that same day, fall asleep in our own bed. That always seems weird to me to be able to be in both of those places in just one day.

Steven and I were on the road by 7am Sunday morning, in Puyallup for dinner at Red Robin by 6:30 and back home by 8 where we managed to cut Steven's hair and take a quick shower before falling into bed. Speaking of cutting Steven's hair -- we've decided to rig some kind of contraption so that there is a vacuum hose hanging down from the ceiling just above his head that I can pull down and use to vacuum up all the hair with. I wrestled with the vacuum this time to try to get as much of the hair as possible before it fell onto him or the floor/chair and it worked really well in terms of clean up but wasn't so comfortable for me. The hose part maybe just isn't long enough and it's hard to coordinate one arm cutting hair and the other vacuuming it up. Anyhow --- My alarm went off at 4:45am the next morning and I've been living and breathing school ever since. Phew! Total whirlwind. Can't even believe it's been almost two weeks since our trip, it has gone by so quickly. I know the end of the school year will be here before I know it.

I hope I'll be able to blog about my teaching experiences sometime soon. I'd love to keep track of the fun things I'm doing. I have found and created so many activities just in these few short weeks and I need to find an efficient way to document it all before I forget everything. There are so many awesome teacher blogs out there (shout out to Ms. O'Brien who saved my tush when I was in a bind at school last week -- so thankful for her blog! http://ramblingsofa5thgradeteacher.blogspot.com/ ) and I really hope that someday I'll be a part of that.

Off to bed! Well, maybe a bit more school work first but the sooner I get to sleep the sooner I can leave and I get way more work done actually at school than I do at home.

'À bientôt'

(not really sure why I decided to go with the French there but it was the first valediction that came to mind  --  and yes, I did just look up the word "valediction." I was going to use "salutation" but I know that is a greeting and something that goes at the beginning so I had to look up the word for the ending.)

Spring Green.

A color I have learned to love and appreciate more than almost any other as I've grown up. It used to be one of my least favorite colors in the crayon box. Well, nowhere near as bad as that "burnt sienna" but still, I didn't think it was pretty. Now, I love it. We still seem to be living in a world of bare brown branches and drab looking evergreen trees but if you look closely, very closely, you can see that the new life is there. The tiny new bright green leaves are finally starting to show themselves. I haven't seen any tulips yet but daffodils are poking out here and there and I'm sure that SPU has been properly decorated with brightly colored primroses.

I don't know whether or not I feel like this around this time every year but my goodness, will winter never end? I am clinging to these tiny signs of spring. I may or may not sit and stare at the new leaves that grow on my potted hydrangea. A couple of the leaves started to shrivel the other day (lack of sunlight! I think I might be shrivelling as well.) and I kind of freaked out a little. I think that little plant has been giving me hope that things really will grow back again. Sigh. Fortunately, we've seen a bit more of the sun lately. I've worn my sunglasses on my drive home everyday this past week. Woohoo!

Hope spring is treating you well. Happy Easter friends!

Poncho People.

I learned something new on this particular trip to Disneyland: if there's rain in the SoCal weather forecast, you sure as heck better pack your rain boots because they mean business. As the song goes, it never rains in Southern California, but girl don't they warn 'ya, it pours, man it pours. True story. And yes that really is a song; proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyC7WnvLT4

We had a blast!! It was so wonderful to have a girls' weekend! I hadn't been on a trip with Mom and Tara since... uh, well, I'm not sure actually. It's been ages though and that just seems weird. To only travel with Mom and sisters or Papa and Grammi your whole life and then all of the sudden you only travel alone or with your significant other. I think continuing the family trips is definitely a good idea.We were so cute walking through the airport. Actually, it was mostly Tara who was cute. Her suitcase was pathetically short so she looked kind of silly pulling it behind her, and then her giraffe, Autumn, sticking out of her backpack just made me giggle. I don't know why but for some reason I just found it really funny.

We arrived at the hotel very, very late -- word of advice, do not take the Super Shuttle from LAX. They drive laps around the airport until the van is full. We seriously rode around in the van for 45 minutes before actually leaving the airport. No bueno. It was midnight by the time we got up to our room and we pretty much went right to sleep. Mostly right to sleep anyway. We explored the room, flipped through the channels on the TV, found some souvenirs (coasters, pens, stickers off the soap wrappers etc.), then flopped onto the surprisingly comfy beds and tried to keep the excitement at bay so we could snooze for a while.

This was our first time staying at the Paradise Pier hotel. It is so wonderful to stay at the Disneyland Resort and have a nice short walk to and from the parks!! And everything is just so cute and Disney-y, so that's fun too. AND they serve Mickey Mouse waffles in the hotel restaurant, which is always a plus.

And we're off! Didn't get up nearly as early as we said we were going to though. It wasn't raining Friday morning so I wore a tank top, capris, and sandals. I didn't even unzip my sweatshirt all day long and by 2pm, I was ready for long pants and socks & shoes :) I made my best effort, what can I say?

Parducci/Sodoma girls self-portrait take 1.

(speaking of Sodoma, Mom made my reservation for the shuttle under the name Stephanie Sodoma. I called her out on it and we laughed and thought it was really funny. Then when we arrived at the hotel at midnight on Thursday night the man at the desk asked for the name of the third guest:
Mom: "Stephanie"
Man: "Last name?"
Mom: "Sodoma"
Steph: "No it isn't!!"
Mom: "No it isn't!! It's Lentz! Stephanie Lentz!"
It was really really funny and she told me not to tell Steven. I think I told him when he called about two minutes later.)

(speaking of the man behind the desk at the hotel -- his name was Steven. In fact, I was running into Steven's all weekend long!! I saw at least 5 cast members with Steven on their name tags and one Disneyland guest with Steven embroidered on his Micky ears hat. There were just Steven's everywhere except not for mine because he was at home and it made me kind of really sad.)

To all who come to this happy place, welcome.

I wish I knew more Walt quotes. This is definitely a personal favorite and I think it every time I walk down Mainstreet.

Evidently Tara was being a flamingo in that photo, which is fun. I like her style. We spent the morning on some of our favorite rides (Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, Pirates...) and then stopped at lunch time for the most amazing corn dog I have ever eaten. So worth the calories and the heavy grease-ball feeling I had in my stomach afterwards. Tara had a dance thing to be at in Toon Town at two, at which point I pretty much ran my cold little self back up to the room to change into warmer clothes. It wasn't raining or anything but it was only in the 50s and rather windy. Not exactly capris and sandals weather you know.

Just as we got up to the room I got a phone call from Chelsea saying that she had just walked into Disneyland. Blast! Terrible timing. We decided to meet up for happy hour at The House of Blues in Downtown Disney. We shared fries and I had a really lovely drink called a green gator. It had pineapple juice, malibu rum, and melon liquor. And then into the park for more rides and a churro of course :)

Always fun to be at Disneyland with a friend! And what a treat to see Chelsea -- it's not often I can call and say, "hey! Want to meet me at Disneyland?"

I'm not even going to comment on this.

Friday night we saw the World of Color show. I'm not even going to try to describe it to. I will say that it is not to be missed and I am so incredibly glad that we went on Friday night! Trying to go Saturday night in the wind and the rain would have been miserable. Tara and I ended Friday evening with at least two (maybe three) trips down Splash Mountain. Mom is such a great sport! She just kind of hangs out in the giftshop right there while we run back through the line. We were really lucky the line was so short and I told Tara it was the only chance we had to go on Splash because I knew that if I got wet it didn't matter since we were going right up to the room anyway. The first time down we didn't get wet at all. Should have ended there though because we got splashed pretty good the second time. Mom bought a couple of cookies and some really tasty English toffee for us to share. Tara fell asleep before she could eat any of it so we saved her a bit for breakfast.

Saturday morning we looked out the window and just saw a wall of sideways rain. Seriously. The palm trees were blowing around like crazy and it just looked miserable. We were still excited to go into the park but I'll be the first to admit we were probably all feeling a little hesitant at the same time. We started the day off right with chocolate milk and Mickey waffles and then Mom had a little surprise for us:

Ponchos.

I shuddered when I saw her holding them. I always think the people wearing ponchos at Disneyland are such wimps! I mean, come on, isn't it ridiculous that people buy ponchos to go down Splash Mountain? I think so. But, we weren't wearing them for water rides, we were wearing them because the weather was miserable and cold and there was no chance of us drying off and warming up while we walked around. So, we were poncho people. It was quite the adventure.

Tara had another dance thing to go to so Mom and I dropped her off, zipped over to Disneyland to pick up fastpasses for Space Mountain, and then popped back over to California Adventure to get in line for the totally awesome Toy Story ride. Yet another not-to-be-missed attraction that I had never experienced before.

Within the first 15 minutes of our day I was completely soaked from the knees down. Our shoes were just squishing all morning long. We didn't really talk too much Saturday morning. I think Mom and I were both just trying to talk ourselves into enjoying the Disneyland experience but we had to agree, it just wasn't the same in the rain. I hope this was both our first and last Disneyland in the rain experience.

We went on some rides and it was nice to get out of the rain for a minute but everything was wet wet wet, even inside. We were more than happy to take a break at the Pizza Port and share a hot chocolate and slice of BBQ chicken pizza for lunch.

You should see some of the pictures Mom took on that day. In one particularly pathetic photo, I am on the Dumbo ride with my chin tucked down to my chest and both my jacket hood and poncho hood covering as much of my head as possible. I've never thought of Dumbo as a fast ride but I kid you not, the rain was slapping me in the face as I was flying around up there. At one point I just started laughing. I couldn't believe how ridiculous the whole scenario was.

We met back up with Tara and decided it was the perfect time to go down the Grizzly River Run seeing as how we were already completely soaked anyway. It was so much fun!! I was really nervous about getting splashed because I thought I was going to freeze but the water on the ride was actually warm and it felt so good! That was one really nice thing about most of the rides -- usually at Disney parks I freeze every time I go into a ride because of the AC, this time it was actually nice and warm in the rides and just freezing outside.

Back up to the room to change (blast! The only dry things I had at this point were capris and sandals -- should have brought an extra pair of jeans. Fortunately it had pretty much stopped raining by this time in the afternoon so I wasn't so much worried about getting all wet again as just being cold.)

And then dinner! You really shouldn't go to Disneyland without stopping for a monte cristo sandwich at the Cafe Orleans. The fries were pretty tasty too.

The calm after the storm. Gorgeous.

This is from a series of photos. They're all funny but I particularly liked this one.

Saturday night ended with a little Disney magic. Kind of a long story and I'm already a bit long winded but I'll try to keep it short-ish. So you know those little Christmas villages that you can buy with all the cute tiny houses and cars and people and shops and things? Well they have a set of those miniatures of Disneyland. They are unbelieveably detailed and let's be honest, I'm a sucker for anything "miniature". (travel-size aisle at the drugstore? Anybody? Yeah, I thought so.) Not really the sort of thing I would spend my money on but I love to look at them. Anyhow, at one point in time, they used to make one of these miniatures of the Dumbo ride and Mom had seen it online. It has since been discontinued and is rather expensive and difficult to find.

While we were in a store on Mainstreet that had some of these miniatures Mom decided she would just go ahead and ask if maybe by chance they had one of these Dumbo ones. The man in the shop was really friendly and said he was sure he had seen one in the store room just the past week when he was looking for something else. So he went back and looked for us but, unfortunately, came back empty handed.

He was still convinced he had seen one and suggested that maybe it had been when he was in one of the other shops so he sent us over there to ask. The ladies at that store weren't quite as interesested in looking for it. They were certain that if they had one it would be out on display, but Mom asked really nicely and one of the ladies went to check the store room. Meanwhile, the other lady stepped into the office for a moment and then came out with a box in her hand. I got kind of excited but then realized she was helping another customer and thought maybe it was for him. Then she called us over -- she said it was just sitting in the office. Just sitting there! Mom had mentioned our family connection to the Dumbo ride and why it would be so special for her to find this, and it was so sweet because the lady actually got kind of emotional about it. She said she had never seen the piece before and she was so excited to take a peek at it and seemed to be genuinely touched by the sentiment behind the search. It was just this precious little magic Disney moment and it really felt like it was "meant to be." Of course the Dumbo miniature went home with Mom and now has it's special little place up on her mantle.

What a perfect way to end our evening!

It was raining cats and dogs when we stepped out of the shop but we made our way back down Mainstreet to thank the man who had helped us and to tell him that we found it. I loved it. Might not be a super exciting story for you, sorry about that, but I thought it was special.

As it turns out, Sunday morning after a SoCal "hurricane" is the PERFECT time to go to Disneyland! There were no waits at all, for anything, and we were able to go on more rides just in that morning than we had done almost all weekend! No rain on this day but windy and very cold indeed.

SUNSHINE!!!! Yeah Baby! Glad to know it's still there.

One of my favorite pics from the weekend -- we had just come out into the sun so the eye that's in the sunshine is kind of winking and for some reason I just think it's hilarious. Thank you Tara for making me laugh and for being so stinking cute.

One truly beautiful thing about our weekend: the flowers. They were just gorgeous! Everywhere you looked there were brightly colored spring blooms popping up. I think Mom took more pictures of flowers than she did of us :) We learned that they completely replant the entire park multiple times a year (can't remember the exact number), which means that these flowers are specific to the spring season and the flower beds will probably look completely different in a couple of months. We overheard this family in front of us in line for Peter Pan reading Disneyland trivia outloud from an app on their phone so then Mom found an app on her phone and started doing the same thing with us. It was pretty comical because she was having us guess the facts by asking us questions and we were WAY off almost every single time unless it was something we know from the Disney books we have at home.

We finished our Disneyland vacation with lunch outside at the River Belle Terrace. It felt like Disneyland came to life in the sunshine. I'm not even kidding. It was like a completely different place. We just sat there soaking up the sun, people watching, and enjoying our sandwiches. We made a quick stop in a few shops on the way out and then we were off to the airport.

Parducci/Sodoma girls (minus Mandie that is) in the sun!

It was a quick, wet, slightly ridiculous, and very fun weekend and I am so looking forward to doing it again sometime soon! We decided that as soon as I find out I'm pregnant we'll plan a Disneyland trip. It will be perfect for multiple reasons:

1. I am NOT going to Disneyland with a stroller. I just won't do it. So that will be a good time to get my fix before I begin my many stroller pushing years.

2. Steven will be more inclined to give in to my request if I'm pregnant, right?

3. I can eat whatever I want. Chocolate milk and churros all day. With a cup of Dole whip thrown in there every now and then. Who knows, maybe I'll want to dip the churro in the whip. That actually sounds kind of tasty...

It was so good to come home to Steven! He told me I would never understand how much he missed me (what a sweetheart!) and then he took me out for sushi :) I wish he liked going to Disneyland. I love it so much and was wishing all weekend that I could share it with him. I asked if we could plan a weekend trip down there sometime and just do it the way he would like it -- only the "fun" rides and lots of yummy food, and plenty of time for just relaxing in the hot tub. He said he thought that was doable but suggested we invite another couple along. Any volunteers?

Greener Pastures.

Today was my last day at my terrible-awful-no-good-very-bad job. I can't believe I'm done! It hasn't sunk in yet. It has been a long and miserable 4 months of work and I am more than happy to be done with it. And the even better news is that I finally landed my first ever full time teaching job and I start next Thursday!

It was a whirlwind of a week in regards to my professional life. My interview was at 12:30pm on Monday -- I chose not to tell anyone at my school why I was going to be late for work. I thought the interview went pretty well but left feeling slightly discouraged. It's totally normal to spend the entire day after an interview over-analyzing your responses and coming up with all kinds of clever things you should have said but I was also worried about the fact that they seemed to be interviewing so many candidates. I figured if there were that many people in the running, I was sure to be on the lower end in terms of professional teaching experience.

I arrived at work later that afternoon feeling somewhat discouraged, completely exhausted from our crazy weekend, and generally grumpy about my job. It was a normal day at work, which means not-so-good, and I had pretty much resolved that I was just going to quit even without having something else lined up.

And then I realized I had a voicemail.

It was the principal who had interviewed me less than four hours earlier calling to say that she really enjoyed meeting with me, she had contacted my references -- who all had wonderful things to say about me -- and after a long day of interviews they really felt that I was the candidate God was leading them to choose for this position. I was shocked!!! And so SO excited!

I called Steven and my mom and quickly shared the news with my fellow after-school teachers. At 6 o'clock I went straight to my boss and told her I had accepted a new job and would be leaving at the end of the month. Ah! Such a good feeling! And the crazy thing is, I hardly knew anything about the job I had just accepted. I didn't know what the pay would be, whether or not I would get a spring break, when summer vacation starts, if I would have any benefits etc. etc. etc. Here's what I did know: full time job, classroom teacher, Christian school. Done, done and done. Everything I've wanted in a job (full-time teacher) and after my slightly traumatic experience in my most recent job I am ecstatic about the idea of working in a school where my faith is the common denominator.

By noon on Tuesday I had signed the contract and toured the school. I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade at a small Lutheran school in Burien - I have three 5th grade students and two 6th grade students. Five students!! How cool is that? It is definitely a pay raise from my last job, the commute is about 10 miles shorter (round trip), I still get the same week off for spring break PLUS Good Friday, school gets out for the summer on June 15th, and if I'm interested, I'll be the first candidate considered to stay on in the position for next year. As of right now my official title is "Long-Term Substitute" so I guess I haven't fully arrived as "Teacher" but it's pretty darn close and it's the first time I've ever run my very own classroom.

I had planned to stay at my other job until the middle of next week but I got an e-mail from my boss early this morning saying she had decided that today would be my last day. That was really difficult for me in more ways than I'm going to describe right now. I will say that I was hurt by it and I felt like I got cheated out of the "closure" I had been looking forward to. I had planned to bring treats and write thank you cards and do something fun with the kids but there just wasn't time for that. It was really tough saying goodbye to all of my students today. Some of them made me cute little cards and gave me big hugs and told me I'm their favorite and asked me to come back and visit and one of the students even said "Well can't you just tell them you aren't going?" and she begged me not to go to the new job. It was really sweet. I know this new job is going to be really good for me though so I didn't let myself get too terribly sad about the whole thing.

Another thing Steven and I are really excited for with the new job is that I should be home by 4:30pm everyday. That's almost 3 hours earlier than with my old job! I'll have time to make dinner again and instead of just eating and watching an episode of Psych and going to bed, we'll actually have full evenings to spend with each other! It's just all so good. I know it's going to be a great experience and I hope I enjoy it as much as I think I'm going to.

While we're sharing good news, I should also tell you that I have a really fun job lined up for the summer. I interviewed for this one a couple of weeks ago and got it pretty much right away as well. I will be working at a summer camp in Bellevue. The camp is only four weeks long (so I still get one month off) and I get to spend the whole time taking middle schoolers on field trips. We'll be going to Wild Waves, the zoo, the beach, baseball games, into Seattle to Ride the Duck, to the lake for kayaking lessons, and on and on. I think it's going to be a blast!

I feel like I've finally turned a corner and things are starting to fall into place in this area of my life. It is spring time and the sun is finally starting to shine. It would appear my winter has ended. No more subbing or tutoring or after-school program directing. I get to work in a place where I will be welcomed, loved, supported, affirmed and prayed for. Just the thought of it makes me feel peaceful. Thank God for spring time!