playing catch-up!

well, it's been a while, but i am trying to keep up with things!

let's see... friday night andrew and i went out to nofo for dinner, where the appetizers were good, drinks were moderate, and while andrew's food was good, mine was gross... the people were nice though and decor eclectic, and it was nice to go out to celebrate making it through a week at the new job. i was really stressed with work, and i needed some time out. we hoped to meet up with jackie, byron, and jackie's friend afterwards at blue martini but got sleepy and left before they got out of their play. it was ok though, we had a good time anyway - i love my hubby :-)
[at the blue martini]

this weekend was our housewarming "party" - i say "party" because it was quite meagerly attended in numbers, however i doubt i could have asked for a better collection of people. the attendees included the lovely jackie willse and handsome byron jennings, as well as my parents. we invited a lot of other people, but they didn't come. we had TONS of food, and if possible, more alcohol than food. along with different kinds of fresh fruit, gourmet cheeses, fresh rosemary/olive oil bread, water crackers, and blue cheese hand stuffed (by me) olives, andrew made chicken parmesan with whole wheat spaghetti, broccoli, and my mom brought a salad. the boys loved andrew's vidalia onion dressing, while jackie and i preferred the cabernet dressing (both c/o the biltmore and our honeymoon). additionally, we had mixed drinks, wine, beer available - though no one drank any, and coconut cake for dessert (that even the non-coconut lovers liked). i wanted to take pictures, but i kept getting distracted by food, alcohol, and guests... just as it should be!

on sunday, andrew and i went to church at vintage21, which has recently relocated from the oberlin rd location to a location even closer to us on west st downtown. along with being a freaking awesome church, they also participate in first fridays, so you should check out the website. previously when i went to vintage21, i enjoyed it mildly but didn't really think it was the place for me. also, i was not in love with the music, and music is important to me in a worship service. this time, however, i felt like the sermon was written just for me, and the song selection and delivery was awesome. we'll definitely go back. plus, they conveniently have 3 sunday services, one around 9, one at 11:30, and one at 6pm - very convenient for us. afterwards, andrew and i went furniture shopping and found a bedroom suite we'll probably buy (for those of you who don't know, we really have no bedroom furniture. currently our bed is on the floor and we have no dresser. this is the manufacturer's picture of the bed for our suite: the decision of whether or not to get a king sized bed took us to jackie's dormia store, where we decided we'd just go all out and get the king. i am EXCITED about that.

sunday evening, andrew went to another interview while i planned lessons for this week's classes. i was planning on teaching the giver beginning next week, but i found out today in the teacher's lounge (where i go during my planning period since there's a class in my room) that "you know 7th graders do that book, yeah they love reading it" meaning i "can't" do the book, cause heaven forbid the 7th grade teacher have to do something different next year. so now i have nothing to do next week and no idea what book to have them read... just when i was getting my unit together. grr. but on a happier note, things are going better than last week, and the math teacher, paige, and i were accidental twins today![mrs. korhonen and mrs. richardson being twins!]

i don't know what the plan is for tonight, but andrew and i have decided to limit ourselves to one or two meals out a week so that we can put some money away for a house, and i think tonight might be one of our nights!

oh my gosh

this was so cute, i had no choice but to copy it and link it here!!! dinner/housewarming party tonight - let us know if you want us to join!

long week

well, this week was certainly the longest one i've had in a while. i'm glad to be making more money and teaching again, but this job is very stressful. maybe it will get better, but there's a lot going on that i wasn't really prepped for. kids are way WAY behind, and i haven't been given some basic materials and/or information i feel like is necessary to succeed. for example, i got fussed at today by the attendance person for doing it "wrong"... because i used a ballpoint red pen instead of the felt-tipped black pen to mark students present or absent. why this was such a huge freaking deal, especially considering i have never had the felt-tip rule explained to me, and every other school i've worked for makes you do attendance on the computer anyway, i have no idea. we also have no books, no library, and no shelves. i managed to procure a semi-shelving unit from the office today, and i am going to bring in some of my personal books monday, but the lack of a library, book room with class-sets of books, or computer lab sure makes meeting the goals of the 6th grade curriculum a challenge.

i gave a vocabulary quiz today covering 8 vocabulary words. it was fill-in-the-blank. it had the words on it. most of the kids failed. many of the kids spelled one or more words wrong. believe it or not, some kids even used words that weren't even on the list because they didn't happen to notice that the words were on the bottom of the page. oh, and one person got a zero, but didn't leave any blank.

welcome new teacher.

in aswer to your questions

i'm writing while watching house, so this might or might not make sense, but i'm too tired to stay up later, and "inquiring minds want to know" so i'll give a brief update. i got up, once again, around 5:30am and began my teaching life again. the hot shower was effective at waking me up, and though we didn't have any milk for coffee, we had some of those grocery store frappuccinos from starbucks that gave me a bit of a caffine/sugar jolt. the drive to zebulon was actually beautiful as i saw the sun rise over the highway and light pink on the clouds. [blurry pictures do not even begin to show the beauty]
i got in to school to find that, though they told me i'd be "observing" my kids for 2 days, i was actually supposed to teach. so i freaked out a bit in my head, got furious a bit in my head, kicked myself a bit in my head, and then went and found the copy machine... for real.

the first day was ok. the kids are definitely different from my leap kids... i have no experience teaching "normal" 6th graders, but the parents at east wake are SOOOO much nicer than the ones at smith. they were excited for me to be joining them, and i've gotten nothing but smiles and good feedback so far instead of questioning glares and demands. that's nice.

east wake is just SO so different. the frustrating thing is that i have the same class of kids 3 times in a day. once in the beginning of the day for an unstructured, ungraded "homeroom", once for lunch, which they eat in the classroom since there's no cafeteria, and once at the end of the day for antoher unstructured, ungraded "6th grade elective" - fun.

i was tired and grumpy when i got home, but my lovely husband took me out to dinner at 518 West, where we enjoyed a fantastic dinner and 1/2 off bottle of wine!
the second day was a little better, the kids are adjusting to my more-strict-than-the-substitute attitude, so we shall see. i'm wary of teaching in general, but i do appreciate not feeling like i'm under the microscope anymore. i actually feel like a respected professional for the first time since i started teaching. like i said, we shall see.

now it's time for some planning and law&order. yay!

last weekday of freedom

yesterday was my last friday without a job... sort of. cause i spent it trying to get ahead in my job, so it's not exactly like i wasn't working. i've actually spent the past 3 days trying to get planning done but for one reason or another haven't been able to. yesterday i finally hunted the woman down who had the materials for me, and i got them... at wake med. cause that's where she was. i know, it's a little insane. i was thoroughly annoyed with her until i actually met her, but she's just so sweet that you can't be unhappy with her once you see her.

anyway, so i had to cancel the riding planned with jessi once again (very sad about this) to actually do some planning. i worked from the time i got home (somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30) until andrew got home (around 6:30) and then a little more, and i still haven't done all that i set out to do three days ago. not sure how much time i'll have this weekend, as i've got cindi's shower and bachelorette party this morning/tonight, and we still have TONS of unpacking to do. i'm thinking we need to trash like half of our stuff!

so last night after i tore myself away from my desk (which wasn't much of a challenge physically, since our unlevel floor had been trying to roll me away from it all day!), andrew and i got dressed and headed out to a "tapas and wine bar" dinner at zely&ritz on glenwood. we're trying to make it a habit of trying new restaurants, and though we've been to zr for desserts before, never for dinner. the reason i say it's a "tapas" rather than tapas is that there's not much tapas about it other than the portions are small... and if you ask me, that's normal for gourmet or upscale dining. my overall rating is mediocre with the prices being much too high for the product. their wine selection by the bottle is pretty good, but by the glass is extremely limited, and with the prices on the bottles so high (and the prices on half-bottles higher than i'd usually pay for a whole one), i was not impressed. i ended up with a spanish red that was pretty watery and later an organic sauvignon blanc which was a little sweet for my taste (but what do you expect with a sauvignon blanc anyway) and very heavy on the citris, especially the grapefruit flavor. as a starter, andrew and i got the cheese plate with two local "artisan" cheeses and a beet and feta salad. the best thing about the cheeses was their garnish of marinated pears, though the cheese was good, and the salad was gigantic for my expectations, but also a little salty. we had some shuffling of waitresses, so that was interesting for the feel of the experience, but we definitely ended up with the better of the two. as main courses, andrew got the trout, a new addition to the menu, and i got the emu in peach glaze - excellent. it was like a good steak and reminded us of the "banner" elk that i got at the mast farm inn a while back. the main courses don't come with sides, so you have to order those separately (another $9 or so), so we shared some organic squash risotto - also an extremely large portion - and it was very tasty. for dessert, andrew had the special, a peach/rhubarb crisp, that he commented needed to be crisp-er, and vanilla ice cream. i had the apple brioche bread pudding and, with some convincing of the waitress, subbed out the cinnamon ice cream for the honey comb. i think we both agreed that the desserts, along with the rest of the experience fall into the mediocre category. we walked away satisfied but not raving and with a hefty bill to boot. i would agree that it's probably a nice 2nd or 3rd date place, but if you're looking for good tapas go to the red room, if you're looking for good organic food, go to city beverage, if you're looking for exotic food with lots of selection and good wine, spice street's still the place, and if you want a wine bar, try the grape.

today was a strange day

today was strange on so many levels. i didn't sleep well, and andrew got up with the intention of going to boone, but after looking at his gross poison ivy, i convinced him to go to a doctor to be sure it wasn't infected. then, we went to chapel hill where i dropped andrew off at the urgent care place, and i went to my chapel hill caribou (the best caribou) and got my favorite seat in the place! i worked on planning some, but can't do too much because i haven't heard much back from the school.

andrew then came back to caribou and we chatted for a little before he went to pick up his prescription. we met my mom for lunch at university mall after her chemo, and andrew and i stayed and shopped for a while. it was a good time.

then we got into rush hour traffic compounded with fair traffic, and i remembered why i do not like driving in the triangle. after it took us nearly triple the time it should have, we got to the grocery store and picked up some food for dinner. i made chicken burritos and realized how extremely small our new kitchen is. man, that was one thing i really loved about the last place and about the place we were supposed to rent in cary - open kitchens. oh yeah, and we can't get the oven to turn off.

anyway, andrew liked the burritos, and i thought they were kinda gross. however, i haven't felt great since the revenge of the fair food began last night, so who knows. then we watched last week and this week's grey's... they were entertaining. now it's time to sleep, but i just don't feel like it. weird day.

"safe" blog #12308029348032984028493.

i'll let andrew post about the fair, cause he seems determined to, but i must post my favorite picture from the trip:

friends and occupations: what do they say about us?

when i sit and think about my close friends, it seems like they have one thing in common, and that is a desire to help people. a lot of my friends happen to be in the service industry - not like waiting tables, but like "serving" - as teachers, counselors, veterinarians (or vets in training), nurses, etc. and those people are the ones i understand best.

i think it's interesting that a lot of my close friends are people i've known for a long time, that i met through school or church. and we don't sit around and talk about the "old times"; we make new memories, even if we don't have a ton in common anymore.

i'm excited to be teaching again soon because (other than working at the vet), that has been the only fulfilling job i've ever had. and the ridiculous thing is that i could make TONS more money doing other things, but they never make me happy or make it worth the feeling that i'm not doing all that i can with my life.

jobs that demand a lot from us emotionally, often require long hours for insufficient pay, and leave me at least wondering "man, if i wasn't spending so much time working, what else could i do to be of use to mankind?" but i guess that's just me being lazy, because i could definitely get up off my butt and go help some more people if i really wanted to.

a lot of andrew's friends, or friends i've made through andrew, are very smart and/or talented people who've made a good place for themselves in well-paying occupations, frequently in "corporate america", and they are extremely nice, caring, and generous people who seem to have found occupations they enjoy. which is awesome.

but i wonder, what does that say about us? what do our friends say about us? and moreover, what makes someone a service industry person while others should be corporate people? and what draws us to those like people?

people sometimes say, "those who can't do, teach." i say, i can do a heck of a lot more than most people - and i have! - i just prefer to teach, otherwise how would anyone else ever "learn to do"?

THERE ARE PICTURES!!!

there are pictures in posts all the way back to oct.7th, so scroll down and take a peek, cause posts are way better with pics :-P

another of the fun pic from the wedding...
caught in the act!

my breaks are becoming more prevalent than my working

today has been spent inside this house. i actually have only been outside to let the dogs out. otherwise, consider it my four-room cell. it's not all bad, cause i've gotten a lot done in the way of unpacking, the only thing that is discouraging is that there's more stuff than space in each room, i'm still not done, and i know andrew's bringing more for me to unpack when he gets in tonight. so i'm lukewarm about the whole subject.

i should have been planning the year school-wise, but i just haven't felt inspired. i know most of it is that i have had to unpack - and i'm not the kind of person who functions well in a disorderly home. i need to get everything at least straightened, though not necessarily decorated, to be able to focus on the task at hand. i did a good job of thinking about school while i unloaded the office, but i'm missing some very important notebooks relating to teaching that i've created/amassed/stolen from chapel hill... and i'm hoping they're at my mom's house, because otherwise i might have to cry.

i keep wanting to put pictures up on here, but now that we are in raleigh and actually have internet, i have no earthly idea where the cord to get the pictures off my camera and on to my computer is... sad day indeed. i thought perhaps one thing that might cheer me up after this arduous day of monotony would be to cook for a few people and, late as it may be when he gets home, have a small gathering with friends, andrew, good homemade food, and a bottle of wine, but alas, no one loves me and wants to come over tonight!

i guess now that i've rambled on somewhat depressingly for a few paragraphs, i should probably get back to work and try to finish unpacking these boxes before andrew brings more in when he gets home at 10.
::insert melodramatic statement here::

oh, and ps. the kitchen has no drawers. like... none. not a single drawer in the entire kitchen. no one thinks to check to see if the kitchen has drawers. in jackie's words: it's like asking if the house has a bathroom. nope, outhouse.

for byron:

hmm ok new post, special request from byron (whose pain i can feel after looking frantically from updates of fellow bloggers during my boring times at work). since last time, andrew, melissa, and i headed back up to boone for the "last trip" to pick up the last of our belongings and clean. unfortunately, as i predicted, not everything fit in this load, and the cleaning didn't get done. andrew will make the real last trip tomorrow... if stuff doesn't fit, i guess he'll have to throw it out or something... sad![melissa looking like lillie][my two favorite girls in the world!]

we went to the asu band competition on saturday and had a really good time. i love that andrew wanted to attend, as it was a big part of my high school experience, and i do some of the stuff he loves (like climbing and hopefully soon, mountain biking), and he has recently been a part of me riding (horses) and of the band comp. - i guess i forgot to mention that i got to ride the other day with jessi. the horse's name is chance, and he's really cool! anyway - i was proud of jordan's guard, as they did a really good job, and proud of the band because they're still a force to be reckoned with. panther creek (mr. robinson's new band) did well for their age. they are young and it showed, but they are growing, and improving, and that is always positive. in a way i missed that part of my life, but i also feel that my best way to stay involved now is to be a spectator perhaps... i don't know, i just think i might be done with actually working IN the process stage. andrew made the comment that he didn't know how popular i would be when we went to see jordan's kids. i thought it was kind of a strange comment, but i guess it makes sense since i graduated from high school in spring 2001. being involved in that program has been something i've taken pride in for a long time, and it was both exciting and a little weird that andrew didn't already know how much a part of the program i used to be.

like i said though, we had a great time, and the bands did great. after that we went back to spend our last night in our little boone house. it is a little sad! today we packed as much as we could, i cleaned like a fiend, and we made our way back to town. andrew and i went to a late dinner with byron and jackie to the grape, a really cool wine bar with excellent food and quite the wine selection. it's a tad pricey (though not surprising for the type of establishment it is), but we all had a great time and enjoyed a delectable palate sensation. jackie and byron each had some white wine, while andrew had a merlot, and i had one glass of a merlot rose and one glass of a chianti that was supposed to be like a sangiovese... if anyone knows the difference between the two, or what makes a sangiovese, please do share, because i like them! we have also deduced that the mac murray ranch russian river valley pinot noir is ONLY good in the 2003 vintage, and the 2005 is terrible! 3 out of 3 critics agree (those three being andrew, jackie, and me). along with great food, great wine, and great friends, we also had a great dessert! some chocolate mousse thing, i have no idea what, but it was awesome and involved fruity compote and hazelnuts.

now i must be off to bed to join my poison-ivy-riddled husband! tomorrow shall include waiting on the cable guy again, unpacking our houseful of stuff, and planning for my classes that i'll begin teaching a week from tomorrow! eek!

don't move the computer!

i am sitting here in the dining room, once again stealing internet. if the computer moves as much as an inch or two in the wrong direction, we'll lose our signal. it's especially sad since we got the internet set up on wednesday... and it worked. then we got back and it was mysteriously not working. oh well

i have to say that the move went relatively smoothly (aside from andrew locking the truck keys in the ignition) once we got in town thanks to the many friends we had come to our "moving party" thanks again to melissa, norman, jackie, and dave! we got in really late, cause we left really late, and we had that truck unloaded completely within an hour and a half. it was awesome. then the girls went and picked up lilly's pizzas and the boys waited on us and drank beer. unfortunately, the lack of cable also meant we couldn't watch grey's, as was the plan, and so we headed over to jackie's where she'd tivo'd it. only... it only tivo'd 3 mins of it, so we didn't watch it. sad. i fell asleep on jackie's new leather couches and we woke up and came back shortly after. and ps. i still think the office is one of the stupidest shows on the air.

then we got up this morning to get the couch from my parents' house, looked at some furniture, unloaded the couch here at the house, and returned the truck. andrew humored me with a lunch at sushi blues again, and we brought home a lot of left-overs - yummmm. we took a nap (and slept WAY too long), and then met jessi out in hillsborough, where i got to ride chance. he's pretty cool, and i had a really good time. then we, andrew, jessi, norm, and i, went to dinner at the cheesecake factory. we had good food and came home to our cupcakes from the cupcake shoppe for dessert. now after i satiate my internet craving (though not completely cause it's off and on here), we're going to bed. then it's back to boone for the day, cleaning the place and going to see the band competition at asu, and then who knows. we're sure to be back here by monday evening at the latest since we have to be out of there before the 16th.

oh, and if you think posting and loading pages is hard on stolen internet, you can forget about pictures until at least monday when ours should be fixed for real.

peace out.

t-13 hrs and counting

we are planning to leave here tomorrow morning around 8am... if tomorrow goes anything like the rest of this extended "weekend" (really week) period has gone, there is no way we'll leave on time.

since i last updated, we packed up the dogs once again and headed back to boone. andrew called sushi blues, and they redeemed themselves with my nabinyaki udon experience by re-making my food that had mysteriously disappeared, free of charge. i ate it in the car on the way up. we got into town last night and were extatic to be able to sleep IN A BED. it was a good night and a great morning waking up here in the boone house. the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day with brisk, cool temperatures throughout. as i type, it's already getting dark and it's only 7... i guess summer really has ended, and with it our days living up here. it's almost like this has been a long summer vacation and now we go back to the real world in raleigh. kind of sad... but only a little.

the washer guy came and set up the washer for the move, the tow-truck guy came and towed the 4-runner to the shop (it will either get sold or go on consignment at high country 4x4 after the starter's replaced), and andrew picked up the gigantic, i mean GIGANTIC moving truck. which he got stuck... on the driveway... spinning gravel... and then in the tree. we had to saw a branch off the tree. it was comical to say the least. once the truck was unstuck, we headed to black cat for lunch (or lupper, as it was nearing 4 by the time we got there). lucky for us, andrew ran into his friend rob from work, and he and his girlfriend drove up and helped us move the heavy stuff. otherwise it would have been me carrying everything once again. [the truck in our driveway][the truck in the tree][andrew in the tree... to cut out the truck][close up of andrew in the tree... which we later found out was covered in poison ivy!]

now, there is a lot of boxing up and loading up that needs to be done by 8 am. do i think it will get done in time? not really, but we can hope! back to the packing i go...

HARD wood floors

if you've tuned in recently, we meet up with our heroes on the front porch of their new place on mordecai, not the place they originally intended to rent, but a good place nonetheless...

haha ok, so we came and saw the place on mordecai and went ahead with it. we've slept on the hardwood floors for two nights in a row, and though thermarests are excellent inventions, it is still a HARD WOOD for sleeping on! i'd rather sleep outside on the dirt cause it has some give! hahaha. oh well.

yesterday i had another interview for this teaching job at East Wake Academy (why that and nothing else gets capitalized, i have no idea), and i went ahead and accepted it. i am now their newest 6th grade teacher and begin on Oct. 22nd. yay... kind of. i'm both excited and apprehensive about this, as it's been a while since i've taught, and it will be NOTHING like teaching at smith. that will be good and bad i'm sure. so we need to get all moved in to this place this week so i can spend next week planning the year. the moving party is thursday, all able-bodies are welcome, and we'll provide pizza and beer for afterwards.

the night before last we went to dinner with jackie to the red room, came and saw the place, and then went out for drinks with jackie and dave before sleeping here. jackie met the dogs for the first time and fell in love with lillie - i mean, they do have the same color hair! we had drinks at the blue martini, but they decided business was slow and they'd close 25 mins after we got there, so we all went back to dave's house and somehow stayed until 4am. dumb.

woke up for my interview feeling like death, stayed from 9-2, accepted the job, came back, took a nap at jackie's place - all 3 of us on her king and we didn't even have to touch! it was great. and we saw that jackie has a dog agility area in her apartment complex, so we're definitely going to make good use of that and teach the dogs to be super-agility-dogs! woohoo. then we met up with dave at sushi blues, where we ordered way too much food in hopes of eating half of it today... only to find today that the waitress who "boxed it up for us" left the majority of the food not in the boxes... i have no idea but i'm not thrilled! you do not come between me and my sushi blues! [the only picture where they're smiling]

then we had chocolate fondue and drinks at red room (cause it was the only place open with dessert) and wished jackie a happy birthday :-) afterwards we came back to our thermarests and tucked in for the night. the dogs are barking at the cable guy, and andrew and he are crawling around under the house in hopes of finding a working line. yay. hahaha oh well, one day we'll have our very own house and we won't have to sign leases, sleep on floors, or steal internet from the unsecured wireless network in the neighborhood!

sometimes you're the pigeon...

and sometimes you're the statue. this weekend, we've been the statue.

i got off work early on friday in hopes of getting into raleigh in time to see the play, and we were greeted by not only homecoming traffic, but also by king st being closed, so we had to find creative ways to get out of town and try not to loose too much time. still, by the time we were halfway home we were way behind schedule. my mom was nice enough to meet us at the new condo in cary so that we'd have the keys and could drop the dogs off and get going. we got there, and so did she, despite stop-and-roll traffic on 40, and we raced upstairs to unlock the door... only to find out the keys didn't work.

all three of us tried, and then we gave up, the lock would not budge (though the door was practically opening because of how messed up the door was). we called byron, who once again saved our butts and let us stay with him for the night. we didn't have time to drop off the dogs, so they hung out in the tank while we saw the show. it was good, they were good, we took them back to byron's and stopped by the cast party for a little while.

the next morning, we got a call from the landlord telling us his father had dropped off some keys that worked, so we decided before we went shopping for clothes for the wedding, we'd go see the place and drop off some stuff. we got in this time, and walked around the house... that still had furniture in it, appliances not replaced, flooring that was messed up, still messed up, no clean carpets and a number of problems that were supposed to have been remedied last week. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING had been done to the place in the over two weeks that we've been waiting to move in. i was so upset i just cried. i mean i gave up right then and there because, really, what are we going to do?? we have to be out of our old place at the end of the week, and now we have nowhere to live, cause i'm certainly not going to live in a place where the landlord WHO LIVES IN CALIFORNIA is not dependable. we ran to the mall, found some clothes to wear, rushed back to byron's to change and made it to the wedding in time. it was a good wedding and reception, and i got a lot of comments on my new dress, so that was pretty cool - plus, andrew looked HOT. ;)[andrew and me at the reception]

we came back to byron's and slept. woke up this morning, and andrew went in to work with dave, brittany, and cory on stuff for peace college's set, and i went to look at a house in hillsborough. the house was fine but nothing special, and it was far away from my possible new teaching job. i brought the crew back some lunch and spent some time on the computer looking for more places on craigslist. i found a promising one on mordecai and drove over to check it out. it's in a nice neighborhood, with a fenced back yard and a chainlink dog run area. the house itself is old and small but with refurbished wood foors and a remodeled kitchen. the thing we loved was the yard. after much correspondence with the owners, we're going to see the inside of the place tonight, and if we like it, we're putting down a deposit and taking the keys, forget the cary condo.

hopefully after tonight we won't be homeless anymore. the only positive things to come out of are that 1. we have awesome friends and family who are willing to help us out whenever and however they can, and 2. we may not end up where we planned, but we might just end up somewhere better! we are blessed for sure.

[some pics of the possible new place c/o the owner]

wedding pictures!

it has taken me hours, but i have uploaded every single picture to my flickr account. there are over 1,000 pics, but it's really just ~500 with black and white doubles of each print. i wouldn't look at every single one, as it might make you go a little crazy, but definitely click here if you want to browse them!

one example of a really fun one:

ready to go go go!

i am so excited because my mom messaged me to say that our keys have come in for the new place! not only does that mean we won't have to stay at someone's house this weekend before the wedding, but it means we can get in there and start living in our new place!! we're excited about being able to paint the walls (cause they really need it), and although we aren't getting to move the furniture until probably wednesday cause of the sears people (long story, not worth explaining), that will give us a chance to paint before the furniture has to be covered up and everything. now we just need tomorrow at 4 to get here so we can get the heck out of town!!

not that anyone's seen the condo or anything, but if you have ideas about paint colors, feel free to let us know.

also, tonight we get to see our professional wedding photos for the first time ever! this, i am more apprehensive about. so far i haven't seen any pictures from the wedding i truly love, and i'm sort of scared that i'll see these and just want to cry because i don't have a single one i like, or that i'll realize i looked terrible on the most important day of my life thusfar. i know i shouldn't be this way, but these are the things that go through my head.

also, i can't take any more content writing. it is the devil. i wish never again to be employed by a company where my job is to write, because though i absolutely love writing, i absolutely hate writing about stuff that i don't care about at all. i'm glad i know this now though, because it kind of tells me how i'd do as a reporter. granted, i wouldn't constantly be writing about podunk towns for real estate companies if i was a reporter, but i would probably be assigned lots of work that i'm not interested in, and that would not work for me. i also will probably never let myself have a desk job again because after only a few months of this, i can't stand sitting all day long and staring at a computer screen. i need to be in an active job for sure.

and that is all i have so far. perhaps i'll add more later - tonight's another new grey's!

being domestic

today andrew and i both had difficult days at work. andrew, because he was the only one working, and me, because i wasn't the only one working. i will be glad to be teaching again (if that's what i do) because i'm tired of working in the office environment... or at least an open office environment where i have no quiet and no privacy. i never really thought i needed those things, but it turns out that to be productive and happy i do. [andrew: i'll cut you!]

after work, i ran by "did someone say party" in hopes of meeting up with donna, but they were closed for the week for vacation. good for them, i thought. after that, i decided to make a trip to the harris teeter (you know, the upscale boone grocer), and picked up a TON of food! i decided that along with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, brie, olive oil/rosemary bread, and yellow tail shiraz, i would make some pesto pasta and chicken. we've been munching on the picnic items, the whole wheat fusilli is done and the pesto chicken is almost finished. we're drinking wine and waiting on the food. it's a good life!

tonight, we'll watch our first episode of private practice. we're both excited about it, even if we did miss the pilot.

crispy things

like fallen leaves, the cool crisp air. fall is here and it's beautiful in boone. the temperatures are great, and all around it reminds me of things like marching season and riding at the barn when i was younger. while i am SO glad we're moving for some reasons, i will really miss the whole atmosphere up here - there's nowhere else quite like it in the world! (although, according to my boss, there are some places that are very similar in elevation, weather, and even flora over in california... maybe that's why everyone's left us for the west coast!) [i did not take this pic, but blatantly stole it from someone else's blog]

this morning i got up after tuning in and out of some very strange dreams, took a shower, and rushed out the door to get some coffee. i decided i could splurge and buy a cup since i've been really good about making my own to save money. i got to the coffee shop down the road from appnet at ten till nine... just to find out they changed their hours and don't open until 9... you know, when i already have to be at work. so i took a mid-morning break for a coffee run. coffee was mediocre. i hate paying for mediocre coffee! work was pretty normal, we went to lunch at nick's and they took forever, and then i typed up a storm until 4pm and left.

i decided it's about time i picked up my stuff from the barn that i left there 3 months ago (esp since i practically had a panic attack last night when i thought about how it might not be there for some reason). i got there and had a nice chat with crystal's mom and caught up on some of the barn news. i loaded up my stuff and headed home, but it did make me nostalgic to be there and know how long it's been since i've actually ridden. i'm convinced that once we move and get new jobs i'll be able to ride regularly again... or at least i'm being positive and hopeful! [this is a pic of my favorite horse and me during his first ever dressage show - where we got a 1st and a 2nd!]

i got back in time to hear the last bits of andrew's phone interview, and he told me about it. it sounds ok... not great but ok. this is the carolina ballet master carpenter position. we're still hoping to hear from theatre in the park and design dimensions, so hopefully those will sound more like what he's looking for. andrew told me at the time that lillie had gotten into some burrs and that i would have to de-burr-ify her after we got back from dinner. we watched last week's house episode (so we could watch this week's on time) and headed out to makoto's for dinner. we had a great sushi dinner and i had a nice glass of the house merlot, while andrew had a road dog beer. we were both very happy and headed off to marble slab where i got a free ice cream cause of our punch card and a free topping cause i knew the answer to the trivia of the day - wee! we giggled the whole way home and i sang along to every song. it was a good night.

when we got home, we watched this week's house while i de-burred lillie... she had them literally embedded ALL over her fur, and now she looks like she got a new-age do for some "couture" runway show (you know, the kind where everyone looks scary and the "hairdos" are like a blind 3rd grader with safety scissors cut them). in short, it's bad. but now andrew has gone to bed now so i'm going to head that way! night!

a blog a day...

is boring if you have nothing to say! or no pictures to post! but i shall try to be diligent nonetheless.

let's see, yesterday was a pretty good day. andrew and i got up and chatted before deciding to try out a new coffee place. man, we should have tried it out sooner, cause that coffee was freakin good! espresso news is a coffee shop right under mosaic books off king st. they grind their own beans, and they do a dang good job. i had a mocha latte with a shot of caramel - delish. andrew and i shared a raspberry cream cheese cake thingy - also excellent. the decor in the place is very cool, and they're wireless, so there was an abundance of college-y/grad school aged people in there. the only thing that wasn't up to par was the service. we don't know what the deal was, but the girl taking orders definitely seemed angry with the guy steaming milk... and they both took it out on customers! nevertheless, it is my new favorite boone coffee place, which is good cause the old favorite coffee place doesn't have great coffee. [this is a picture of their roasting machine]

then we walked all around king st and played tourist, going to footsloggers, the mast store, artwalk, farmer's hardware, and a few other places mobbed with people. we bought nothing, as usual, but had a really good time enjoying each other's company and the beautiful day. we went to our daily bread for lunch, and the waitress there also seemed to be in a fight with her co-workers but was nice to us anyway. the food was pretty good and not too expensive. then we continued our shopping extravaganza by picking up some scissors for me to cut andrew's hair with from sally's, and then to walmart for some necessities. andrew was amazed by how many people were out and about, but i reminded him that that's normal traffic for me since now it's boone the college town instead of boone the old folks' retirement village.

we stopped at ingles on our way home and picked up stuff for dinner. i made sweet barbequed pork chops with homestyle green beens, dill boiled potatoes, a chocolate silk pie with homemade whipped cream, and we shared a bottle of "pink truck" wine. i was pretty impressed with my ability to juggle 4 items all at the same time and have them all come out tasting pretty darn good. we chowed down and watched (of course) law and order before calling it a night and heading off to bed. man, you go to bed early when you're married! to bed anyway... ;-)

this morning i hardly even woke up when andrew was leaving. i got up late, rushed around, and was in the office about 3 mins late. i don't think it's a big deal, but i don't like being late anyway. i started working on the million and five pages of content we had to write. at some point in the morning mike asked what we were working on. i told him we were working on the million and five pages of content. he then told me that he was going to send me home and pay me for the week but not make me work. but since we had so much to do, i should stay. dang my honesty! i could have gotten paid to have the week off! oh well, this friday's my last day, and then i never have to write another page about "boone nc real estate" ever again! yay.

on the way to lunch, i was forced to be somewhat delayed because the cows got out and were wandering across the road. yes. this is a true statement! i really love that i get to give reasons like that as to why i'm late back from lunch - and have them be true! i offered to help the older couple round up the cows (even though i really hate cows), but they said they had it under control. and they must have, because when i passed the farm again on my way back to work about 25 mins later, the cows were nowhere to be seen, and the farmer had loaded up a few steers into his make-shift trailer and was hauling them off somewhere... i imagine to become hamburgers, but i'm not sure. [this is a picture of the actual farm and cows that i drive by, though not a picture i took.]

anyway, we finished out the day at work, and since i was writing so diligently, the afternoon really seemed to pass rather quickly. i'm still not absolutely positive what i'll be doing job-wise once we move back home. the teaching job seems to offer a lot more money (and prevents me from having to pay the teaching fellows back), but i really enjoy working at the vet and i think i'm pretty good at it! i like always learning new things and helping sick animals... and i like drawing blood and placing iv catheters! oh well, we shall see.

i'm a lot happier with life in general right now. i feel like andrew and i are back on track for success and attaining our goals, and like we're no longer stuck out away from civilization with no hope of making money, buying a house, or following our dreams. so yay for that.

hmm i guess there was stuff to say afterall!