ow

last night's climbing was great, but i think i pulled something. it feels like my left oblique. i hoped it would go away, but it's been over 24 hrs and still hurts a lot. people keep telling me to get it checked out, but i figure they'll just tell me to take it easy, so i'll try to do that. but i'm going to be very upset if this gets in the way of yoga and climbing.

also, lillie is limping. it started last night and it's in her right shoulder. again, i figure if i take her in, they'll charge me a lot and tell me the same thing for her - rest and pain meds. so for now, we're taking it easy and self-medicating. i guess if neither of us improves, we'll have to go in. like mother like daughter.

every day is better after yoga

and i'm so glad i have a challenging, fun class to go to each wednesday. it seems like by "hump day" i really need that pick-me-up that yoga provides.

this morning was quite difficult. for some reason, i was just exhausted when it was time to get up. i attribute it to three possibilities. 1. i haven't been as active this week as before, and as we all know, being more active gives you more energy - there's an oxymoron. 2. i woke up with a start at 5am for the second or third morning in a row. something happens in my sleep cycle, and i'm convinced that it's like 9am and i'm late for work. i bolt upright in bed and crank my neck around urgently to see the clock, just to find out that i have another hour to sleep. of course, this could be attributed to 3. last night i had a dream (nightmare given the topic) one... or possibly more, though it's a dream so i'm not totally clear... student, and an angry, heated conversation with said student's parent for somehow wronging their child in some way. never good in reality, never good during the day, definitely awful when occurring at night, in your dreams, when you're supposed to be serene and relaxed! anyway, suffice it to say that by the time i got in to work at 7:30 this morning, i was already somewhat perturbed.

though my second period class went rather well (it usually does), i had a meeting scheduled at 10:30 with the mentor coordinator for the school to go over her assessment of my "recent" - aka so long ago, i can't really even remember what i taught that day - observation. now, i must remind you all that i loathe observations. i mean, i detest them with a fire that burns deep within my soul. there is no basis for this intense hatred, as i have never before received a bad evaluation, nor do i lack confidence in myself as a teacher, so this hypersensitivity towards scrutiny doesn't make a whole lot of sense. nonetheless, i was certainly not looking forward to this meeting. after telling me that she was impressed, and the lesson went well, and the kids were engaged learners who felt comfortable in my classroom as a positive learning environment, she proceeded to make a list of "suggested improvements" about a half a mile long. this would be ok with me if they made sense, but the requests she made were a waste of time if you ask me (or any of my colleagues for that matter). so anyway, i was grumpy.

the end of the day came with yet another parent conference that i was not looking forward to. that went fine though, and around 4:30, i left work. i got home just as soon as paige was pulling onto my street. we chatted, changed, and headed to the gym. paige decided that after all my raving about the gym, and with one opening soon in knightdale, she might as well give this yoga class a try. we met megan there, and the three of us suffered/smiled/strained/stretched/sweated our way through class. it was great to do something for myself and to do something that's good for me at the same time. perhaps that's my fascination with this discipline. it gives you a chance to make your physical body better, to change your outlook, to rest and recuperate, and to take time out to do something just for you, all at the same time. paige had a great time too, and we capped off the night with a dinner at the rockford. pictured below, a sweaty twosome of sixth grade teachers.

and on a totally unrelated note, not only is my orchid still alive, but it bloomed again! i'm totally astounded. seriously.

saturday, sunday, monday - this is a long one

i kept thinking of things i wanted to blog about and taking pictures of them... but i never blogged, so i'm doing it all in one large post. hold on to your butt.


saturday, i went to breakfast with andrew at the cameron village carolina cafe. we have had terrible experiences there, but this time the food was great. despite the girl at the counter who looked like she might die in the middle of taking our order, it was a completely enjoyable experience. afterwards, andrew went to work, and i hung out in "la di dogs", the fancy designer dog store (also in cameron village), owned by one of our oberlin clients - such a sweet lady. after chatting with her for a while, i met monica at caribou coffee for a catching-up session. we took our coffees to the hunt horse complex for a little horse-watching and chatting. after that, we explored the flea market, and i bought a beautiful antique cherry hope chest. where i am going to put it, i have no idea, and it is currently sitting in our living room. after that, i hung out with tex, megan's cat, over at megan's. we chatted, snuggled, and hung out until andrew got off work that night.

sunday morning, andrew and i went to church and heard a sermon on idols. tyler (the head pastor) asked us lots of questions that really make you think about what drives your life. i really think you could analyze the answers to these for months and not run out of things to talk or think about.

• what are you most afraid of?
  
• what do you long for most passionately? what gets you out of bed?
  
• where do you run for comfort? what comfort do you treasure the most?
  
• what do you complain about the most?
  
• what makes you the happiest?
  
• how do you explain yourself to other people? what do you brag about?
  
• what has caused you to be angry with God?
  
• what do you want to have more than anything else?
  
• what do you sacrifice the most for in your life?
  
• whose approval are you seeking?
  
• what do you want to control or master?

the whole idea being that these things are our idols, and when we feel like we can't live without these things - beauty, a house, a new tv, etc. - then living without them becomes our "hell". and we spend our whole lives trying to escape this hell and save ourselves. and that's not a great way, or even a good way to live.
i'd love to have a biblestudy based on this topic - please let me know if you're interested!!

upon leaving church, lora called to see if we wanted to go climbing. andrew had to head to work, but i joined in and had a great time. i was not very good, and i'm in a lot of pain today, but that's ok because getting back into it is exciting no matter what. the new gym, triangle rock club, is much nicer than the others in the area, and the company was also excellent. lora forced me to take my belay certification test (thanks), and even though i let her drop like two feet on her ANNOUNCED fall... they still passed me. hehehe. i do blame my very friction-y belay device for making it difficult to get the rope through (hence not keeping up with lora's climb as well as i'd like to), so i switched devices for lora's regular atc and had no problems for the rest of the day. i tried, unsuccessfully, to do some pull-ups at the end of the day, but that's ok, now i have a new goal :-)

afterwards, lora and i hung out for a while, drinking protein shakes and chatting. then the two of us met up back over here for dinner and pie-making! for dinner, we made eggplant parmesan with spinach linguini. andrew joined us before the food was finished cooking, and we all enjoyed dinner with a nice bottle of wine. we followed it up with a scratch-made apple/rhubarb pie. also delicious. the dinner was only successful because of the awesome three-person teamwork. we kept that great team vibe going for the rest of our hanging out. complete with toenail painting.
after going to bed late, i woke up sore and exhausted. today was fine, but parent conferences make me feel like this: until i go to my car and receive this:
true romance from the husband to celebrate our 6-month-iversary of being married! my husband is great!

aaaaaaaaand this is what i did on friday:

cooking

i've done a lot of it recently, and i've really wanted to be able to add some of it to butwesuckatcooking, but it's been pretty good! which i guess is a better result than being able to blog there. still, i kinda wanted to make an appearance. i was thinking about writing about the nasty cookies melissa and i made a while ago... perhaps i shall. ANYWAY, on to the good cooking i've done!

the other day i realized we had a banana that was starting to turn. i thought, "hey, i'll make banana bread!" my mother makes really good banana bread, but i've never attempted it, so i looked on the internet for a simple, yummy-looking recipe. after finding an acceptable one with as few ingredients as possible, i still had to go to the store for baking soda and bananas... yes, the whole reason i chose to make the bread was the banana, but one cannot make an entire loaf of bread with only one. i went to the store and got the ingredients; unfortunately, all the bananas were borderline green. i bought them anyway. with only one error in the process (luckily disaster was avoided, as that part was thrown out and restarted for the end product) and an hour later, this was the result:a beautiful and extremely tasty treat! the outside was crusty and sweet with the inside light and fluffy. i probably will not be able to duplicate this.

then, the next night i decided to make some flavorful pasta with an assortment of ingredients andrew was sure to love. despite the somewhat overcooked whole wheat pasta, this pungent dish was a favorite with andrew. i'm not a fan of all these flavors joined together at once, somewhat overbearing i think, but i really made it for him, and he liked it.

next, i decided to attempt the ever-dreaded souffle (only correctly pronounced swaffle - like rhymes with waffle). i chose a chocolate souffle with a simple recipe of just eggs, sugar, chocolate, and a crock-pot dish buttered and covered in sugar. the crock-pot dish made an appearance because after i'd planned and bought ingredients for this endeavor, i realized i didn't have a souffle dish. this is my proudest accomplishment in the kitchen thusfar, and i have not a single picture! i bought the best bittersweet chocolate i could find, along with organic brown eggs, organic sweetened butter, and regular old sugar. i meticulously followed every direction to the t, and ended up with a fabulously delicious chocolate souffle. i topped it off with fresh blackberries and enjoyed it with vanilla silk - quite extravagant for a sunday night. lora made a similar sort of thing the other night that incorporated many similar ingredients, except hers was a flourless chocolate cake (also delicious), so it had a thicker, creamier consistency.

i'm not sure what my next cooking adventure will be, but i'm excited to get back in the kitchen! (wow, that's weird to say given my general lack of girly-ness and domesticity!)
i promise to post again soon with some non-food-related trivia :-)

Overdue review of The George

Last weekend Emily, Megan, her friend Matt, and I went to The George on Glenwood. From what I can remember it used to be April and George wine bar. Somehow April was removed from the picture and after some months of closure the place reopened. It has a very similar feel inside. The main difference I noticed was the removal of the lounge areas in favor of tall bar tables.

Like many restraunts on Glenwood South this is a tapas style menu. Unlike other tapas places the theme seemed to be more fresh simple plates instead of the heavy spanish style. This might have been the first time (aside from our rehearsal dinner) that I've actually had everyone share their dishes in the true tapas style. Amongst the four of us we got smoked salmon which was very good. So good in fact that we ordred a second plate. Lump crab cake on spinach which was alright, the crab was just that, crab and a little boring. I also ordered chicken quesadillas which came with a lime infused avocado, very interesting. Their gouda and spinach dip was really good, I am a sucker for any kind of spinach dip. Megan ordered chicken with chopped spinach which I thought was alright, it had the whole freshness thing going for it. Emily ordered a caprese salad which I thought was good. I think she expected a little bit more than what came on the plate but for the prices you really couldn't complain. Megan's other dish was shrimp with sausage and grilled peppers I think. If I remember correctly no one was overly impressed. I believe that covers all the food we ordered but Emily can correct me if I forgot anything.

The wine was pretty good in my opinion. I got a glass of some moderately priced Merlot and Emily got a Rioja. Matt had a Riesling which he seemed to enjoy.

The dessert menu looked really good and also was very moderately priced. We however did not get dessert there because we wanted to show Matt and Megan the Cupcake Shoppe which was enjoyed by all. Emily and I really liked our carrot cake cupcake.

My overall impression of The George was pretty good. While not every dish we got was stellar we only touched on about half the menu. I think there are plenty of great things to eat and drink as well. The prices are very good compared to some other local tapas restaurants. It's definitely worth checking out if you are in the mood for somehting new.

Just for the record my favorite tapas places are still Redroom followed by Humble Pie.

holy CRAP!

tonight in yoga... drumroll please... 

I DID A SPLIT!!!

actually, i did two splits, one on each leg... i hadn't done a split since i was like 12!!!
and that is really all i have to say!

ahaha cynicism is funny

my friend jessi posted this on facebook, and it is HILARIOUS

No Child Left Behind:
The Football Version
Author Unknown*
l. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL
3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don't like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th games.
5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.

i haven't posted much

but neither has anyone else in blog-land, so i don't really feel bad! for some reason, this second week of february has been quite the whirlwind of responsibilities, and we didn't even really celebrate the hallmark-created-"holi"-day! as i alluded to in a previous post, the low grades on progress reports has led to a surge of (what the school calls) parent "support". i call it "support" because i'm not exactly sure who they're supporting. if it was of the teachers, they'd be keeping their kids under control in the first place, cause that would really be the only support that we'd need. if it was support of the students, they'd have been at home helping the kids all along, or they'd have asked us a long time ago if their taking students out of class everyday or coming late everyday was influencing their child's performance. so i must believe the surge of caring must be exactly that, parent support. they're supporting themselves because even though in a week's time they'll go back to their regular way of doing things, for this one week, they're making themselves feel better by going to the school and meeting with the teachers, and then coming home and yelling at their kids.

but enough cynicism, even though we have had over 10 parent conferences in the past 5 or 6 days, they've been good, and it hasn't been too stressful. i spent the earlier part of the week fighting my sinus infection. though it is still present, i don't feel nearly as bad as i have. i also had TONS of grading to do because we turned in a project, a paper, an in-class writing assignment, and some daily stuff this week (and last week), and then of course, we had our friday quiz (sometimes vocabulary, sometimes grammar). additionally, we had the normal influx of phone calls, emails, meetings, etc. which depleted any remaining "planning" time we have at school, so i haven't planned ahead like i usually do - oh yeah, and somewhere in there, we taught some classes :-)

extracurricularly speaking, i had yoga on monday and wednesday but skipped working out tuesday for dinner with lora and on thursday for a surprise visit to my husband and night in eating chinese and watching tv with my mom. i was more than content with that serving as a valentine's celebration. i'm not huge on the day, but boy the students were! along with the cards and sweets and normal rigamarole that comes along with the day, i have to say this has been the most drama-filled week of 6th grade with my students! there has been more smiling, glance-casting, note-passing, crying, fighting, and yelling than any other week so far. and honestly... this is the week i've enjoyed the most at ewa! i don't think it's the drama i like, i think it's the fact that 1. they acted like real students for the first time ever, instead of a misfit clan, and 2. class time was actually a quiet time away from the hustle and bustle between classes. i think i was frustrated that they weren't allowed to be kids and hang out and talk in the halls before because that meant that the only time they could do their socializing was in class. but with all the insanity between classes and at lunch, language arts class seemed to be the time to do... language arts! insane.

so this thursday, just as i was feeling weighed down but not crushed, i got another task laid on me from the mentor-coordinator. i decided that rather than letting it make me crazy and going home to do it immediately, i would just be calm and do it when i got around to it. i graded my papers as speedily as possible, and now on the weekend i have about 1 class worth of grading, the weekly planning, and this other assignment (a pacing guide) to work on. i think that sounds like a feasible morning's work. i've done my saturday morning cleaning (mostly just picking up junk, washing dishes, and tidying, no real scrubbing), and it's almost becoming a ritual. i don't know if andrew notices it, but i'm sure he appreciates it.

since we didn't have a real valentine's day celebration together, he planned for us to have ours last night. he was going to cook for me, which i love, but we have so much food in this house, we really didn't need to do that, and he wanted to go out and do something fancy or exciting, but i was so exhausted that that didn't look like a great plan. but, he bought me a lovely orchid (i really hope i can keep it alive), heated me up some leftovers, and we watched some more desperate housewives. nightly, we've been making our way down wisteria lane and the first season of dvds. it's quite an entertaining show, but only if you watch it all at once. i don't know if i could stand a normal season with a week between episodes, but andrew and i have pretty much decided that that's our preference anyway - watching seasons of shows all at once. after finding out that mike was convicted of manslaughter, we decided to go out to porter's for desserts and wine. it was a lovely evening with good food, good wine, and good conversation. after that, we came back in, watched a few more episodes (and of course i fell asleep on the couch), and went to bed. it really was a great end to an action packed week.

today's plans include a tad more cleaning (i might even do laundry!); grading papers, making pacing guides, and planning lessons - at caribou; hopefully putting up the picture frame i put together with the wedding reception table cameras, perhaps repotting my orchid, bra-shopping, and when andrew gets off work at 2, we'll find out where to go from there! 

i am blessed

wholly, intensely, undeservedly, specifically, and completely.

sinus infection relapse can ruin a weekend

luckily, i have a sweet husband who tried to make the best of it.

friday, i was excited because andrew had the day off, AND sunday off, which he hasn't had since he started at dormia and won't have again the forseeable future. we planned to take advantage of this day by either taking a day trip to boone for a couple errands and just to get out of town, or going climbing. i was really excited about these options until i woke up feeling the crud again.

before this year, i've been a ridiculously healthy person, like... kick ass immune system. but this year, i had gotten a cold on more than one occasion. last time, it just wasn't going away, so i went in to the doctor's office to find it was a sinus infection. man do they suck! this friday, the very same symptoms recurred, and i realized my fate. since it was too late to go to the doctor's, i just began taking the prescription "maxifed" - a super-de-dooper sudafed cousin that works ok. i thought maybe if i cleared out the sinuses, the infection would just go away - riiiight. no such luck.

by friday night, i was crying on the couch because i knew our weekend plans had been ruined. most of the time i can tough it out, but when this sinus thing hits, i'm practically incapacitated. it sucks all my energy, makes me zonky, gives me aches everywhere, messes with my balance, and of course screws up my hearing, breathing, etc. so i'm pretty much a couch potato until the meds kick the infection. the thought of wrecking the only weekend day off for andrew really upset me.

saturday, i had lunch and hung out with kim, doing her friend's hair for the vet ball, and by the time i got home to andrew, i was completely exhausted. we entertained briefly the idea of climbing for the evening, but by the time we ate, i was so tired it was no longer an option. we did have a fantastic night just being together though, so i can't say i regret it. sunday was church, a visit with my parents, and then ridiculous amounts of desperate housewives dvd's. it certainly isn't climbing or vacationing in boone, but at least i got to snuggle with my husband!

update: left work early, spent 1.5 hrs in the waiting room, spent another 30 mins in the appointment, now have prescriptions for more drugs. woohoo.

true story

at lora's request, i am posting this asap (i was supposed to post it yesterday but was too busy).

Yesterday, I was reading a student's paper, and he was writing about a battle. I came across the sentence, "... and then there was a hambush..."
"A hambush? What's that?" I inquired.
"You know, like a hambush, when someone jumps out and surprise attacks you."

i could not contain myself. i laughed in his face.

lora's response: at the end of the battle, was there peas?
jackie's response: or green eggs?

what's yours?

traveling dmv

earlier this week, i tried - unsuccessfully - to finally get a driver's license with my correct name and address. i decided i'd do it on my workday since that'd be the ideal time to go. wrong. but today, i had a totally different experience when i went to the traveling dmv van behind megan's work. instead of going to some scary podunk dmv office, waiting for hours, and dealing with some angry fat guy behind the desk, i drove downtown, parked on the side of the road, and walked straight in an out of the dmv - even after pleasant interactions with the friendly older lady who was working the van.

not only did i get my new name and address on the card (and of course a terrible picture to go with it), but i don't have to renew it until 2016! insane.

after getting my license, i stopped in to visit megan's office. the government records building is not one i think i could stand to work in all day, but it's pretty cool that megan has her own office with a window and her name on the door - i should have taken a picture of that! but instead, i took a picture of us, standing in the office.

now off to yoga... followed by the carolina/duke game and hopefully lots of booze and desserts with andrew!

"had a bad day again"

kind of feel like the chorus to that song is playing in the background of my life sometimes. just when i'm trying to be content where i am, something else comes up to knock me back down.

the thing that's getting to me today is that i try and TRY to be a good teacher, to work hard for my students, to create lessons that are effective, interesting, engaging... to create assessments that value different learning styles, to provide project-based learning, and to do ALL of those good things that they teach us in college. but with the students i have this year, i feel like nothing i do is good enough - no, forget good, i feel like nothing i do is even worthwhile. like i might as well stand up in front of the class, squawk like a chicken, speak gibberish, and then take their papers up as a grade. seriously, they'd probably make about the same amount of sense.

i'm beyond frustrated. i need some encouragement.

or maybe i am just not meant to be a teacher. :-/

andrew was romantic!

i love my andrew, and he is wonderful in so many ways, but romance is not generally one of them. however, last night when i got home, these were on the table for me! andrew said he came home and the house was so clean that he thought he needed to do something nice for me. he's so good :-) i've been cleaning and rearranging now that our old mattress has found its home at megan's house (for a while). i've finally been able to BEGIN cleaning out the "dog room", which is really the "junk room", but should be the office. today, while andrew has been at work, i've been working more and, while i'm satisfied with my progress, i still really wish this house could be totally cleaned, organized, and decorated - why don't i live on one of those reality shows where they clean, remodel, and decorate your house?

anyway, i'm still excited about my flowers. here's another picture hehehe :-)

time for improvement

today hasn't been great.

1. woke up, went to the gym but had a terrible time.
   
2. came home and cleaned for several hours.
   
3. looked through bills/bank statements and found out that the bank has been taking $8/month out of the account i haven't been using as a "maintenance fee", so i've probably lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 so far.
   
4. put together some leftovers for a nice meal and it tasted yucky.
   

and that's where i am... still lots of time and potential for improvement. let's hope it does.

::update::
ok the day got much better! i talked to melissa some online, and that was cool. then megan and i went to the mall to buy her some big-girl clothes. we visited andrew at work, and megan got a kick out of the adjustable bases, especially the massage feature. we also partook in the edible bouquet, which was luscious.

after that, we made a trip to southpoint to join melissa and vanessa for 27 dresses. it was a surprisingly good movie. it made us laugh, it made us cry, it became a part of us. you know how it is. seriously though, it was really good.

after that, we spent a few minutes browsing around urban outfitters, and megan bought some really cool area rugs. i am coveting her area rugs. we left southpoint and chatted for a while, watched tex enjoy the new rugs, and headed home to eat andrew's mexican cooking (which was great) and more chatting. all in all - much improved.

playing hookey

last night, andrew and i went out to dinner with lora and marc. we met up at humble pie and had another great meal there. i appreciate a place with an eclectic decor and good food. we shared a few bottles of wine, some work stories, and discussed topics from travel to animal rights and even circumcision. never a dull moment.

i'd been toying with the idea of taking a "mental health day" from school all week long. since i've been so stressed at work recently and andrew works every night and weekend, i wanted to just take a day to be here with him and relax. this morning when the alarm went off, i decided today was the day to stay in, but unfortunately, i did pretty much feel like crap. so while i felt good that i wasn't lying to the school, i also regret somewhat spending the day off that i had laying on the couch.

this evening though, we went out with andrew's mother to uno's for pizza. that's pretty much one of the only places we go with her because both andrew and his mother are crazy about pizza, and this is as close to real chicago style pizza as they've been able to find in the area. we had a nice time there and then spent some time bumming around briar creek.

we went to petsmart or petco or whatever it is and bought an "ultrasonic" bark preventing bird feeder thing. it's supposed to put out frequency when dogs bark up to 50 feet away. weirdly enough, it is advertised to be used for your dogs or "for your neighbor's dogs" - i thought that was a little strange. but we are willing to give it a shot so the children will quit being obnoxious in the afternoons.

after that, we went to the caribou where we had our first unofficial date. andrew and i spent all day hanging out in this alcove while i was supposed to be grading papers. we literally spent 5 hours talking - it was kind of neat to go back there and reminisce. now that we've finished watching the "hell's kitchen" on the fox reality network, it's time for bed!