5 years ago today...

...Mike & I were married! :)

(now if only we were leaving for Antigua tomorrow...)

happy birthday, grandma!

I have been blessed to have grown up close to both sets of my grandparents and today I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my grandma (mom's mom). Today she is 82! The picture above was taken about 2 weeks ago - do you see the family resemblance? :) I love you grandma!

Oh, yeah, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

Until next time...

he's home!

Mike is finally home! He left last Friday morning around 4am to go with a group from our church down to the New Orleans area. They worked with a sister church of ours in clean-up from Hurricanes Katrina & Ike. This is not the first time Mike has been away for over a week, but it was a lot harder for me this time around (I don't know why, but it was)!

But, he's home now, the trip went very well, he has made some great new friends (watch out, Brittany, he says he now has a replacement little sister!!!), and all is right again with the world! :)

Until next time...

1st snow!

Okay, I am not a huge fan of winter (I prefer to call myself a "tropical fish") but even I get excited about the first substantial snowfall of the season (oh, and don't get me wrong: I also enjoy the occasional snow day)! Today's snow was perfect: light enough that I only had to scrape my car 2x (instead of digging it out), soft enough to be beautiful, and it was warm enough that the roads weren't that bad (although the paper said that there were 45 accidents in the county today!?!). I couldn't help but take pictures, starting on my drive to school! :) Stay warm!

useless knowledge #3

Sorry, I can't help sharing these with you! :)



The fingernails grow faster on the hand you favor. If you are right-handed, your right fingernails will grow faster, and vice versa. The middle fingernail grows faster than any other nail.

happy birthday, baby!

Yesterday was Mike's 33rd birthday. He got to celebrate it with some friends at lunch (thanks for the Princess cake, Ed!! LOL), and then hung out with a bunch of teachers at D&S Brasserie. They were in on my present to him (sorry, no details here!) and I just wanted to show that Mike DID keep up his end of the bargain...Isn't he so handsome? :)

(BTW, Brittany, I had to cut his hair since you now live too far away!!!!)

BEFORE

AFTER
(He didn't want me taking his picture!)

Until next time...

oh, wait, here's one more!

I forgot I wanted to share some pictures!

Barnstormers Game - September 20

Our friend, Kate, wanted to hang out last night (Halloween) and she decided that we were all going to dress up. This caused a bit of angst on my part, until I arrived at Salvation Army. My housewife-about-to-get-in-the-shower getup only cost $10 (from slippers to the curlers on my head - all from SA!) Mike was "Joe the Plumber" who I called when my shower wouldn't work! :)

I am trying to get out of paying my repair bill!

Me in all of my glory

All of us at Quips

Late at night, curlers out, trying out the fedora - is it just me or do I sort of look like Brittany? (as in my sister, not Britney the singer)

how does life get so busy???

Honestly, I know that we all are busy, but my goodness, sometimes I feel like I can't catch my breath! To all of you out there who are parents, as well, I have no idea how you do it! :)

If I it seems like I have avoided you - I haven't called, posted comments on your blogs, sent e-mails, looked at your shutterfly sites, posted on my own blog, etc. - it's not that AT ALL! I just am away about every evening and when I finally do get a chance to be home, I just don't feel like doing anything that requires large amounts of brain functioning! I keep telling myself that once I don't have to go to HACC 2 nights a week it will be better, but I know that I will just find something else to take that time (or something else will find me)!

I also am still struggling with my sinuses, so many days I am fighting some tough sinus pressure/headaches. My CT scan did not show any abnormalities with the sinuses, but I am good candidate for surgery to correct my very deviated septum. I haven't decided yet whether to go for the surgery; if you have had this particular surgery, I welcome your thoughts. If I do go ahead with it, my Christmas vacation will be spent recuperating from the surgery...

There is a lot I want to say on very different topics, so I think that I am going write them in separate posts - make sure to read them all! :) (I think there are 3 more below!)

Thanks for reading!

books

I don't know if you read it or not, but a few posts back, commenter "Mitch" wrote that she has a problem with the amount of "chick lit" books on my 50 book challenge list, saying at the most, they should count for only a 1/3 of a book (even with that, I'm still at 25+ books!) Personally, I think she is just jealous that I can read such "fluff" when she's stuck reading piles of research. But, because I also love my sister, I will try to cut back on the chick lit. Hopefully, she will approve of the books below (except for #26)! :)

26. Tangled Up in You - Rachel Gibson; romance novel - not chick lit, technically! Fun read

27. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch; okay, Mitch, you ATTEND CMU and you never said anything to me about Pausch??? Seriously!!! If you haven't read this book, read it. You will cry. And laugh. And wonder what your life story would be if written as a book. Don't have time to read? At least watch the lecture here.

28. The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo; this was published over 20 years ago, but I never heard of it until I started observing the ESL class at HACC. This was a required reading in the class and I went and bought it after the first night. Simple story, written as a fable, compared to The Little Prince in many reviews

29. Missions in the 21st Century - Tom Telford; required reading for the missions committee that I am a part of at my church; should be required reading for all mission committees!

30. The Myth of You & Me - Leah Stewart; we all have those friendships that we have gained and lost over the years; this novel is about such a friendship

31. Paris Hangover - Kirsten Lobe; novel written in diary format about an American who moves to Paris - you might even learn some French in the process of reading this book!

32. The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran; it has been 82 years since this book was first published; simple to read, but contains many hidden truths (along the lines of The Alchemist)

33. Before I Say Goodbye - Mary Higgins Clark; another required text from the HACC class and my first MHC book I've ever read...and probably the last; not a bad writer, but not really my style

There you have it! Not a single chick lit. on the list! Some of you might think I was doing some soul-searching from some of the books on this list, but that isn't the case. I know what I believe and I am firm in those beliefs.

I have a few Jodi Piccoult books sitting here, and I know that they are good...I also know that they will suck me in and I won't get anything else accomplished until I am finished them...so I make them wait... :)

useless knowledge #2

Here's another tidbit courtesy of the widget to the right:

Around 1400 B.C., it was the fashion among rich Egyptian women to place a large cone of scented grease on top of their heads. As the day wore on, it melted and dripped down their bodies, covering their skin with an oily, glistening sheen and bathing their clothes in fragrance.

Could you only imagine??

Edited to add this tidbit as well:

In 1914, Charles Pajeau hired midgets, dressed them in elf costumes, and had them play with his new invention, Tinker Toys, in the window of a Chicago store during Christmas. This publicity stunt made the construction toy an instant hit. A year later, over a million sets had been sold.

a female president?

Weekly Reader magazine has had a "kid vote" for the last 13 presidential elections. In 12 of those elections, the kids have elected the candidate who went on to win the actual presidency. I decided I wanted my kids (aka students) to have a part in this election, so we voted last week (the WR polls closed on 10/24). Weekly Reader supplied a ballot with pictures of both John McCain and Barack Obama. We discussed the two men briefly (me doing my best to keep my comments equal and impartial so as to not influence the vote) and then I handed out the ballots. The kids had to circle the candidate they would want to be the President.

I have this one adorable little boy who, after looking at the ballot, asks, "Where's the lady?" I said, "What are you talking about?" "You know, the lady with the glasses!" "Oh, Sarah Palin! Well, she's a vice-presidential candidate - we don't vote for the vice-president." Thankfully, he let it go at that! Really, how do you explain these concepts to 5 & 6 year olds? But this did show me that he has some awareness of what is happening!

Oh, and the results?
My class: McCain 5, Obama 16
125,ooo+ of Weekly Reader's voters: McCain 42.9%, Obama 54.7%

I guess we will find out on Tuesday if WR predicts 13/14 presidents!

GO VOTE!