It's a Kindle!!!

Yesterday I turned 27 and my hubby was just the best. He got me what I had been lusting over for awhile now and I just love it! I was so happy when I opened the package. It is all set up and has been put into good use. He also got me a killer CK red pea coat. Love that boy!!

Proud for my kiddos

This week has meant a lot to my students. I teach in a district that is about 60% african american and they were so excited for this election. Before Obama, they didn't even know what an election really meant, but now they know and they are so proud.

I am so happy that Obama won the election. I see this as being such a great step forward for our nation. My kiddos now have a man to look up to. Something to aspire to. I am so very happy for them. Too many times my students don't see their potential and I see Obama as their potential.

Thank you President-Elect. Please keep being the role model you are. My students are relying on you to lead the way.

Election Day...Get Out and Vote

Homecoming

This weekend is Homecoming for U of I and my FIL and Hubby will be going. I hear Minnesota plays dirty, so it should be interesting. With this event brings visitors. My 2 little monsters, I mean nieces will be up and going with us to the pumpkin patch. I love this place and we always have a great time. The colors are changing; the temperature is falling and things are moving along.

Not much happening...

Don't have too much to say. Fall is here. Colors of fall are popping up all over. The house is decorated to my delight and I am relaxed. Life is ok.

Somebody has a new toy

Taaadaaaa! Tyler is the proud owner of a new Yamaha V Star motorcycle and he is way psyched! And so am I.... I get to accessorize of course :)

He made the leap this summer when he took his training course and got his license. We have been looking into this for awhile and he took the plunge today. Yay Ty!

This week has been pretty busy. We had a rain out Monday, so we went to 7 Saints for dinner with friends and then we had the men's game Tuesday to keep us busy.

Yesterday we went to the U of I for a lecture series on the Hubble Space Telescope. It was amazing to see such wonderful pictures. It is very nice to have such a wonderful resource for all of our geeky endeavors. So a late night was had, but it was so good to be out and about and with each other.

After Hours tutoring started this week, so I am up to my eyeballs in it. My Mom and Court are on there way here as I type for a court date (Miss Courtney) with the traffic court for lil miss speedy. Quiet weekend is on the books for this coming weekend. Ready for a nice rest.....

The Hurricane is Here!

Sure, you might not hear this everyday in Illinois, but Ike has made its way in and is sticking around for the day. We have had a ton of rain today and the temp has finally fallen to lovely chilly temps. I have started to deocrate for fall and am just loving it!

This weekend has been entertaining to say the least. Friday we had Josh and Audra over for tacos and we watched "There will Be Blood." I got what the movie wanted us to get, but it just wasn't great. Daniel Day Lewis was fabulous, but it just didn't do it for us. Saturday we woke up to no rain. This was a relief as we have season tickets to Illini Football and there was supposed to be an 80% chance of rain. We went to the game and saw the Illini just barely sneak away with a win. The neat part was we sat in the New side of the stadium with the sky boxes and it looks great. The entertaining part was two vinyl pannels from the stadium's roof flew off at us and blew water onto the fans. It was a bit disconcerning and showed the stadium still needs some work.

After the game we went to the local motorcycle shop. We are going to be the proud new owner's of a new motorcycle. Tyler got his license yesterday morning and is amped about his new bike. I have to work on calling it a motorcycle as to not confuse Tyler (I just got a new bicycle a few weeks ago) so we have been quite busy. The new hog should be picked out sometime this week I would imagine and in his hands sometime soon. My one requirement was for it to have a backrest so I didn't fly off the back end. He agreed :)

Last night we chilled with Josh and Audra and had Cajun Bayou Chicken Pasta which featured habanero peppers. Apparently Josh forgot to wash his hands after cutting the hot hot pepper and when we used the restroom a certain part of his anatomy became quite agitated. It caused quite the laughs. :) Sorry, Josh! We dressed Lily the Yorkie up in zebra-print ribbons and pink scarf and just had a nice, relaxing night.

This week we have my Mom and Sister coming up for a traffic court date and they are going to stay a night or two, which will be nice. Looking forward to cooler weather, great softball and relaxation.

The Dairy Queen is coming!!!

I had an absolute ball this weekend with my little nieces. They are an absolute riot. I was met with running hugs and yelling monsters when I reached my in-laws this weekend. My little goddaughter was keeping everyone busy with her rapid fire wit and complete hilarity.

A favorite quote from the weekend: From the mouth of a 4 year old.... "The Dairy Queen is coming when I lose my tooth!"

I asked her who she had to pay off to arrange for that? She said "What!?" I get presents!" :)

I asked her if she meant the tooth fairy, and she agreed, "Yah, the Dairy Queen!" Gotta love her!

Mmmmmm.... Beer and Corn :)

Last night we met up with Josh, Virgil and Kristy at the Urbana Sweet Corn Festival. Where else can you get fresh sweet corn, beer and all the usual festival fixings in one place? It was great! We always have a wonderful time, but this year was twice as fun as we met up with people and had a great time chatting and goofing around.

School has started and things are getting to be in full swing. Monday will be my first day with all my kiddos and I can't wait to get to know them better. My little 6th graders are such weirdos, but I just love them to bits. It can't get much better than what I have it. I have been working on getting technology into the classroom more and it seems to be doing a great job. The kids love playing with all of the cool stuff I get to bring into the classroom.

On the homefront, my surgery went well, but the result was not what we wanted. I am being vague here because of the extreme personalness of the topic, but know that I am healthy and doing ok, just dealing with the hardest thing I have ever been through and wouldn't wish on anyone. Hope this reaches everyone well. Have a wonderful weekend!

-L

It's Go Time

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

Got the Packet

Today I got the prerequisite district packet for the 2008-2009 school year. Still in 6th grade.. still in the Science department :) Love it! It made me start thinking about the upcoming school year, and I am excited. I will most likely have a student teacher and many observers. Penny deals are happening at the office stores. I am now tenure. Get a nice raise. Tyler got a humungo raise not two weeks ago. Everything is looking up.

After commenting on another blog today, I could only think about what a klutz I am in the month or so before school. Sometimes it is something major, sometimes it is just pure holy cowness. It always seems that there is something big that happens in the first days and weeks of school to keep me on my feet.

My first year of teaching, I awoke on my birthday to find a cyst of some sort. I had to have surgery to deal with it and it turned out to be ok. I just have a nice battle scar.

My second year of teaching, I was working in my room the week before school and I was standing on a chair putting up border on a bulletin board. The next thing I know, I am on the floor in great pain. I had a huge indentation on my left side with bad bruising right away. I had landed on an overhead cart that was to my right..... yes, I had done a 180 in the air and landed on the cart on the opposite side. I have no idea who it happened, but a bruised kidney was the result.

My third year was the summer of the knee. I found out that I have significant wear and tear of the kneecap and need knee replacements. They won't do this for another 20 or so years, but I am living it up until then.

My fourth year was uneventful. In fact, I was waiting for something to happen at any moment and it didn't.

So I am hoping I am on the up trend this year. Some of you know what I am going through personally and I am hoping for a huge success to keep with this trend.

Hope you are all doing well. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend. I am off to cook up some buffalo burgers and homemade french fries for the fam.

A long Month...

No Updates for June? Well it has been a busy month. Summer School, our 4th Anniversary, Courtney and Ben moving up for the Summer, Co-Rec Softball... lots of good stuff.

Summer School was a hit. We went for 3 weeks and I had a blast with all of the ankle biters. I am normally with all the hormonal 6th graders during the year, so having every age group in the summer is ultra refreshing.

This year for our field trip, we went to the Children's Museum in Indy. It was a 3 1/2 hour bus trip, but the kids had a blast. There was lots to do and no lack of experiments to be conducted. So overall, a very good trip, minus the psycho bus driver we had, but when don't we have those? :)

This year for our Anniversary, we kept it low key. We went out to Jim Gould's, which is a fantastic place to eat and had a wonderful meal. Then we were off to our softball game. Our anny fell on the same day as our weekly game, so we changed and headed out to the field. the 4th Anniversary is flowers/fruit/silk and linen. I got Tyler a flowering tree for our front yard and he got me flowers and new pajamas with some Jelly Belly's on the side :) Nothing too fancy, but traditional.

I wanted to blog in particular about this past week. Tyler and I have witnessed 3 separate instances of just plain ignorance this week.

#1. At Monday's Mens League game, we were waiting for the guys to play when they heard a commotion and called us girls to attention. A girl was being jumped by 4 others in the parking lot. Car took off, police came, lots of senseless drama.

#2. Tyler and I went on a picnic Wednesday and we go to the pond at the Japanese Gardens. We were done eating, so we were heading back to the car when we saw a girl snap a cell phone in half, a guy running after her and then said girl get into a car and proceed to rev up the engine and almost take out guy trying to block her path. Police show up, end drama.

#3. Old man in electric whellchair dares to move old lady's cart at supermarket only to be told that lady won't move her damn cart if he is going to act like that. You better watch yourself. - I about died.


Other than that, not too much is going down. Last night I was the only sober one in my home with 4 grown adults drunk and playing Rock Band with a freaked out dog, a pissed off cat and fireworks blaring out my windows. Picture this now :)

Today I am dealing with some effects of meds I am on and waiting for surgery coming up this month. Nothing life threatening, just changing. Hope you had a good 4th!

School's Out for Summer :)

Let the Games Begin. School Bus Races Commence. Game on! Yesterday was the last day of school for my district. Report Cards went out, hugs were given, tears were streaming. This year was especially hard. When I began teaching, there were 7 new teachers coming in with me to our building. One in particular stuck out and we became quick friends.

Over the years, she has become my closest friend and I love her dearly. This year was her last with me. She has decided to find a position closer to home so that she can start a family and be both a wonderful teacher and a wonderful mother and I am so happy for her. But... I will miss her like crazy. We were always paired together by our students as the funniest or the best... and then there was one. Don't get me wrong, I wish the best for her, but I had every intention of duct-taping her to her chair so she couldn't leave yesterday. Didn't happen, but we are all good.

In other news, Ty took off the afternoon to be with me yesterday and it was so nice just having him around when I was hurting. He has been a rock lately for me. I am so lucky to have him. This weekend my older baby sister moves into town with her boy toy. I think we are in over our heads with her :) Don't worry, Mom, I will take good care of her. Not much else is going on. I am going to go in to work to do some consultant work Tuesday and then we start Summer School the 9th. Yay for extra money.

I really do love teaching all the different grades in Summer School. It is something completely different from my regular job and I adore the little ankle biters :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Hope you are having a nice weekend. We are down home with the in-laws and having a nice time. School is wrapping up nicely and we had a nice visit at the Planetarium that went well. No major blunders. We watched a film on Space Shuttle Launches. Neat stuff.

This weekend we went to see Indiana Jones and I thought it was great. I have seen all of the previous movies, but never more than once or twice, so this one was pretty good for me. I loved the story and all the cinematography. Call me a Geek... it fits.

Not too much else is going on. Feeling tired and worn out. Ready for a break before we head into Summer School. One month of Summer School and then a month of potentially life-changing events. Things are looking up in my little world. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that all turns out well.

Lots of love!

6 1/2 more student days :)

Smile! The School year is coming to a close. Summer School is on its way and July will be here before I know it.... and then it is BREAK TIME! This week we are heading to the Planetarium for our field trip. I am so excited. Yay for end of the school year!!!

Relaxation

Monday Tyler and I took a day for ourselves. We went to the Cards/Cubs series over the weekend, got back late Sunday and made Monday our own. It was so nice. We both took personal days and just enjoyed the day. It was in the mid 70s. Ty mowed and installed his new, beloved garage lights. I went on a shopping bonanza at the local nurseries and planted my lil heart out. I ended up filling over a dozen pots with flowers of all kinds. They make me so happy :)

Spring is Here

To start off, I wanted to share sme photos of our volcano build last month. The kids had a blast and it was the perfect chaos to have right before Spring Break. We have now moved on to Astronomy and I look forward to some awesome planet model projects towards the middle of May. This is the best time to be a jr. high teacher :)

And finally, we have our first baby eggs of the Spring. These are over at the point where two walls of our fence meet. I took these pictures Sunday and today I found only 2 eggs. It looks like something got into them overnight. We also have our white tulips in full bloom and the red tulips coming up more each day. This is our first year with tulips, so it is neat to see there cycle. I just love Spring. This weekend is our first St. Louis Cardinals game. Should be a good one.

Happy Earth Day!

They Call Me TaterSalad!

This weekend we were lucky enough to see Ron White, from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, on stage. In one word, he was absolutely HILARIOUS! Now granted, you have to have his sense of humor and just run with it, and apparently I am right there with him. If you ever have a chance to see him, it is a very good show.



I have been reading quite a bit lately. When I get stresses, this is the one of two things that takes it away almost instantly. I won't mention the other. So I thought I would take the monsterous load of books I have read and review them for your pleasure :)

I guess most of the books I have read lately are by Sophie Kinsella, who's real name is Madeline Wickham. Each penname has many books written under it and most are worth checking out.


Remember me? by Sophie Kinsella

This book is by far Sophie's best work. An absolutely hilarious story of a fun chick losing her memory and realizing things aren't always how they seem. Very funny!


The Tennis Party by Madeline Wickham

Unfortunately, I was not able to read more than the first chapter in this book. It just didn't grab me at all.




Big Boned by Meg Cabot.

This is in a series of books about Heather Wells, a retired Princess of Pop. I highly recommend any of the books in this series. They are a very good, quick read.




This is literally just a tiny sample of what I have read lately. I read books so quickly and just move on. I am definitely a series fan, because I like to know more of the story. Now I am on to Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Somebody just got older

This week my hubby turned 28! So to celebrate, I made him chocolate- peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter icing. I think they are the best yet :) This week has been a very full week. I started the Astronomy unit at school with my kiddos and even played catch to practice for our co-ed rec league.

Today we have practice with our whole team. It will be interesting to see how a bunch of girls who haven't played in about 14 years will do, but I am ready for the season to start. This week we are heading down home to see Ron White on stage. His show should be an entertaining one. For those of you who don't know him, he is one of the guys from the Blue Collar Comedy Show with Jeff Foxworthy and the like. This guy is nuts, but I love his humor.

Hope you have a good start of the week!

A nice Spring Day

Today we went to Prairie Gardens, a local garden shop and found all kinds of goodies. The house has really been turning into something to be proud of. My first bulb has flowered outside and my tulips are coming up like crazy. I am so excited. I actually have some kind of green thumb. Today we got some greenery for the house and a tree to go by the fireplace. The ficus is a very nice shape and adds a lot of life to the room. Thanks for looking!

Picture Wall in the Hallway to the Bedrooms


New greenery around the fireplace and mantle

Refinished console table with new decorations

A laugh for today

Saw this earlier today and thought it was hilarious. Check out ShoeboxBlog.com for more funnies.

A Day in Nashville Country

Today my Mom brought us around Nashville and the surrounding area to some of the local favorite haunts. For Brunch, we headed to the Loveless Cafe. This is the place famous for BISCUITS. Bobby Flay from Food Network has even had a throw-down with their biscuit lady. This place was great for a hearty lunch! This is a must-do for anyone going to Nashville!

Right down the road from Loveless is the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is basically a huge bridge in the middle of nowhere. It holds a road that was once a Pony Express Trail and now goes all the way down to Natchez, Mississippi.

After some shopping on the side, we headed down South to Arrington and found Arrington Vineyards. This is a vineyard that is fairly new to the area and is partly owned by Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn. We did a wine sampling of 11 different wines and even had rasberry wine-infused truffles.
We brought home the award-winning Syrah and the truffles, of course. Mom came home with the Sweet Liberty.

It was nice to spend the day with my Mom. We don't get to do that often. Thanks, Mom! Heading home tomorrow. Till then...

Happy Easter!

This has been going around for a week or so and I thought I would post it for all to see. We are heading down south to see my family for Easter and won't be back until early next week.
Hope you had a nice start to spring. Happy Easter!

Yummy Cupcakes

Tonight I made homemade chocolate cupcakes with pink icing. They turned out divine!
I may have a new calling as cupcake diva. :)
If you have any sites for good cupcakes, send them my way!

Recipe (from recipezaar.com):

Ingredients

1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. In a small bowl add the boiling water to the cocoa slowly while stirring to prevent lumps until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

2. In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

4. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 17-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

And the verdict is...

I had my final appointment today with my specialist and he seems to think I have a clean bill of health. I am to stop taking all of the meds I have been succumbed to since January and live life again. This is way GOOD news. If I don't hear the word infection for the rest of my life, I will be all good. So yay!
Today we starting our paper mache volcanoes in class. The kids were nuts. They had the mixture all over themselves and each other but had a ton of fun. It is great to see them getting to do some kind of crafts. I love seeing their creativity. It is definitely what I live for as a teacher. They make me proud!

Happy Saint Patty's Day!

Hope you had a green day! Today I made the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner. It turned out very good. I even made potatoes and carrots to go with. The Irish came out in me. It was nice to make such a traditional meal.



This weekend was jam packed full of good food and family. Friday night we went out for a date night. We started out at Ko Fusion for dinner. It is a local sushi place. I have only had sushi 3 times now, but I am a fan of the crab and avocado types. They are very yummy!



We then went to Campus town and had desert at Moonstruck Cafe, which has the best Peanut Butter Milkshakes in town. Hands down. I also had the cutest little chocolate truffle.. It was called a Choco Lab and it was in the shape of a dog. Very cute.

After Moonstruck, we met up with Josh and Audra to see the movie Vantage Point. It is a movie based all on the characters point of views. The movie was very intriguing and kept us on our toes the whole time. You should see it!

Saturday, we had a wedding to go to. It was my two co-workers getting married. So we had a blast hanging out with everyone on a Saturday night. The wedding was beautiful. The food was outstanding and the company was warm. It was nice to be a part of their big day.

Sunday, we drove a mere 3 1/2 hours to Percy for Grandpa's 80th birthday party. We had the event at the Bed and Breakfast in town and even took turns getting pictures taken. Here are two of my favorites:

This week I am doing paper mache volcanoes with my classes to end the Quarter. We will then end the year with Space. Love it! Today was a day full of Green and it went well. Here is to a good week! Till next time...

It got me Captain...

Well, I finally got it. The flu has been going around like nobody's business and it finally snuck up on me and threw me down a flight of stairs a few hundred times. I feel like death!

Under weird circumstances, I had to go into work this morning, but was able to get a sub for the afternoon. I spent it sleeping only to have Tyler wake me up when he got home at 5. To say the least, I needed the rest.

My day has consisted of sleep, sniffles, and fever.... I can only hope tomorrow is less of the same.

This flu season has been something else. My students have been dropping like flies. Schools have even been closing due to lack of attendance. That's when you know it is bad. And to think people bother to get the flu shot and then it goes and mutates on us!

We have been relatively busy lately. We visited with our family this past weekend and helped to move in my brother and his wife into their new home. It is a beautiful place. I am really proud of him.

We are looking forward to heading down South for Easter and staying with my parents for a few days. The bulbs in the garage are starting to sprout, so we know Spring is in the air. This time change has really thrown us for a loop. How have you done with it?

Thanks for checking in!

A great weekend...

This weekend I did what I thought might be impossible.... I went skiing! My knee held up just fine for the 10 hours or so I was on the slopes. I am so thrilled. When my surgeon diagnosed me a little over 18 months ago, I thought there wouldn't be a chance that I would be on the slopes again, but I was.... and I was fast. Such a good feeling.

We went up with a couple of friends from High School that are near and dear to our hearts and had a blast. Our tradition is to go to Devil's Head Resort in Wisconsin and this was a record year. Usually we deal with ice and artificial snow, but there was a wonderful base and great conditions.

Valentine's Surprise

I have been meaning to post this, but just now got around to it. My hubby is the BEST! He really did a nice job this year for Valentine's. Usually we keep it pretty low key, but this year we felt like spoiling each other just a little more than usual, so on the 14th, I came home to this on my doorstep:
I was so excited. He picked it out all on his own and it is fabulous. Coach is my guilty pleasure and i just love it! I had flowers show up twice at work. One being when he made the order, and one being the right day. It was amusing to everyone except Tyler, poor guy. Tyler ended up picking out a weather station that broadcasts over the internet. If you want the link, just email me and I will send it over.

We ended up eating out at Biaggis, which is a favorite of ours. And then we went to see Juno at the movies. That movie is really good. It really did something to me (teaching jr. high and all) but that is another story. But overall, it was a nice evening and day with lots of love to go around.

Success!

Wednesday night, Tyler and I started this year's valentines adventure by taking our first cooking class. It was fabulous! Each year we try to choose something different to do together. The first year Tyler came up with this idea, we did horseback riding lessons. We ended up doing them for about 3 months. It was so much fun!




So this year is the year of food. We hooked up with the Adult Education Center and this week's lesson was on The Flavors of Italy. We learned the recipes for:

-Lentil Soup with Italian sausage - very tasty
-Gorgonzola Coins - not a big fan
-Clam Soup - Tyler's choice
-Parmesan Polenta Squares
-Pork Tenderloin with a tomato and olive topping
-Mozzerella Shrimp - to Die for!
-and Beef Tenderloin with a brown gravy

Tonight's dinner was the Beef Tenderloin. We went to the Butcher to get our meat. I explained what I needed and he custom cut the beef to my needs. Came home and cooked a wonderful dinner of beef, asparagus and butter bread. :) It really turned out great. We have some leftover meat and gravy, so I plan to make a stroganoff Monday. Tyler is busy making dutch cocoa cookies and I am relaxing. Happy Weekend everyone!

Thank goodness it is Friday...

I could have sworn that there was a FULL moon this week. My little darlings were near the edge of demon-like this week. Friday is looking good. Here is to a great weekend!

It's a BLIZZARD!!!

Well this is seeming to be a common post on my blog :) Our last blizzard was about 2 weeks shy of a year agao and here it come again. The major school districts are us are closed tomorrow already, and I am waiting for the call. Not too much is going on here. We had my brother and his wife over for tacos last night and rocked out to Rock Band.

We have also been stuck on this awesome series from Discovery: Planet Earth. Last night we watched the segment on Jungles. This had to have been one of my favorites. The Birds of Paradise


has to be one of the craziest species on our planet. So amazing for this science geek to learn all about. Tomorrow we continue on with our staining project, hoping to still have the Cosby show on Saturday.

Till next time!

Lazy Sunday

This weekend has been a busy, busy weekend. Only because we have had things going on. This weekend we decided to start our staining project. Way back when, we bought the console table and mission table in natural wood finish. It was a good buy and looked great in the old apartment. This weekend we started to change the natural finish to a dark walnut finish to match the rest of our new furniture in the house. It is a task and a half, but had been fun working together to get it going.

This past week I worked a total of a whopping 2 days. We had MLK day off. I went up to Chicago on business Monday night and Tuesday and school was called off Thursday for the cold. Have to love those days where there is no school and you can still get around ok. :) Love being a teacher.

This next week we look forward to seeing a living legend: Bill Cosby. We are heading home to see him at the local Theatre. It should be a good show. Not much else is going on. Taking it slow and living life. Hope all finds you well.

Till next time.

A new toy...

Here is a link to a cool letter image finder using FLICKR images. You plug in the word you want to spell and can then customize the images. Very fun!