My Weekend In Photos

Weekend 5/28-5/30.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Thank God for 3 day weekends. I gives me time to catch up on...nothing. Well, sun, and blogs, and some grading.

But not enough that I hurt myself at it.

This post is sans photos for the first day and half because I'm a struggle.

Friday night we celebrated with some friends as one of them just got a new teaching job at a middle school, and Dave got a summer job that he wanted. Hooray!

<Insert picture of fire pit, Bud Light Limes, hot dogs on sticks, and the Glee season finale playing a la laptop here. >

Saturday took Dave off to my parent's house with some friends to work on a few odd jobs on the outside of the house. It left me to go to Kohls, Starbucks, and work at the custard place.

Where I get a lot of change in my tip bucket.

Because I'm pretty.

Or because I use a napkin when I touch their ice cream cones.

Since it's been about 60 degrees out at night, it was about high time to take the comforter off, wash the blankets, and do some cleaning around the house.

We took Bruin's cover off of his bed to wash and put the bed on our bed to sweep up the floor.

It should have come to no surprise to us that because is one of the most awkward dogs on earth we'd find him like this:

Love him.

Our next Sunday task was to go  down to my parent's place so we could return my dad's truck.

Now before all of you haters start telling me about how I drive with my dog is dangerous, yeah I get it. He has a doggie seatbelt. It was in the other car. And driving with the dog in the crate seems super dangerous to me.

So since it was just he and I on the way down he decided to join me.

In case you were wondering, my dog is my copilot.

He ended up chatting my ear off really.

And then things got a little rude.

Dave did a little more work around the house.

Yeah, mine. Thanks.

Mom went on a run and came back.

My little sister worked pretty hard.
On her tan.

I tried ripping up a part of the lilac bush for my mother, failed, and then Dave went on to do it instead.

My father was hard at work studying to finish that masters degree up officially.

Meanwhile, the dogs enjoyed eachother's company

We stayed for dinner and grilled. It was delicious.

On memorial day we were hoping to hit up a parade but when I looked things up online I guess it already happened on Saturday? What the what? I know.

I woke up early enough to go for a run, don't worry it was only 70 degrees out at 9 A.M.
It was a little bit of a struggle because I've fallen out of shape yet again, so I didn't go as far as I wanted to, but it was progress.

This guy is always up for a jog. He doesn't care if it's rain or shine, 70 or 30, and doesn't judge me on my speed or distance.

Perfect running partner.

Dave and I were going to hang out with some friends, but I had A LOT of things I wanted to get done around the house. And let's just say our lines got crossed somewhere on what the plans were going to be. As much as I would have loved to see some friends, it worked out to just do our own thing.

Dave whipped up perfect looking omlettes, Bruin begged, and then did he tough task of making sure the couch was still working.

We decided to take advantage of the super gorgeous weather and reformat the cinderblock garden that our landlords had made for vegetables a while back. It was overgrown and not looking so hot. The landlords told us we could make it ours, and the other tenants are doing a lot of other yard work. We thought we'd make it our little project to rework the ground, the space, and grow some veggies!

It was a little messy.

Our little man stuck in a dog's body was just dying to come out, and since we have no fence in the front and there are a lot of stray cats, we tied him up on a leash. He was having a blast and will make an appearance in many pictures. When he wasn't getting in the way, he sunbathed.

During the process, WE FOUND BONES!

Squirrel? Cat? Dog? Human? Kangaroo? Dinosaur? We'll never know.

We ended up leaving the garden skinnier and longer. We weren't super pumped about the way we left it, but we'd reevaluate once we came back.

We dropped off my film, (UGH there has to be a celebrity reading my blog right now that thinks that it's so fab that I deserve to have a big girl camera from this century RIGHT? KTHANKS.)

And spent some Kohls cash, gift cards, and hard earned money on the following:
-Running sneakers, Dansko clogs (because I've worn holes into my other teacher shoes?What?) and nice sandals to teach in.
-2 pairs of capri pants and a t-shirt that I can teach in, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have nothing to teach in in any weather above 40 degrees. I've been a hot tranny mess the past week in my classroom.
- A big girl clutch wallet.
-SEEDS. LOTS OF SEEDS.
-And we ended up buying some more cinderblocks, which are surprisingly cheap.

After food, picking up my cave illustrations pictures that were processed onto cd, we got home and reworked the garden into a wider and more even garden.

I am pooped, excited to get planting and reap the benefits of what we sow, and I feel accomplished.
Overall, a very worthwhile weekend.

With all of that said, it's important to note that I appreciate each and every person who has, does, and will serve in the military. It's important for us to remember those who sacrificed their lives so that we can continue to live in freedom.

So, how was your weekend?

I Am Liz Lemon

Have you ever watched a T.V. show and just fallen in love with a character?

Then, as you keep watching more and more you realize the reason you enjoy watching this character and all of the mishaps they get into is because you and that character are oddly similar?

That's how I feel about Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon on the show 30 Rock.

via

She is awkward, can easily be manipulated while under the impression that she's actually in charge, wants to stand up for what is right, believes in love, finds herself in
Charlie Brown Like" situations, has a work spouse, and is overly invested in her career.

Though there are physically some differences, (hair color, eye wear, and general body shape) the rest is the same.

For all of you doubters, I have compiled a list based on facts that I have accumulated,  of ways that Liz Lemon and I are actually the same human being.

How Liz Lemon and I Are The Same Person

We both:
- Are college educated.
- Like to write.
-Think sweater weather is the best kind of weather.
- Buy any magazine with "healthy body image" on the front.
- Have taught/teach.
-Come from an optimistic and supportive families.
-Are stress eaters.
- Doubt our maternal instincts.
-Would like to make "pwomp" happen.
- Say, "What the what"?
- Love white wine.
- Like to see muppets present at award shows.
- Believe "gay dudes should be allowed to adopt kids and we should all have hybrid cars", which is the backbone of our wavering and unsure Liberal identity.
-Are very concerned about not being seen as racist.
- Believe long distance is wrong distance.
- Think the word "lovers" is icky unless between the words "meat" and "pizza"
- Have overwhelming amounts of student debt.
-Believes everyone should enjoy eating a sandwich
-Went through a time where we had an aversion to eating eggs.
- Play way too much Boggle online.
-Will believe in whatever Oprah tells us to.
- Our parties are mandatory.
-Think we're qualified to give relationship advice to whomever crosses our path.
- Like watching the Daily Show.
-If we gave up caffeine would have to go to bed at 5:30.

There are also some quotes from the show that strike me as something that might come out of my mouth, or thoughts that have actually gone through my head:

- " I need to do that thing that rich people do where they turn money into more money. Can you teach me how to do that?"

-" If reality TV has taught us anything, it's that you can't keep people with no shame down"

-"Tracy took advantage of my white guilt, which is supposed to be used only for good, like over-tipping and supporting Barack Obama."

-Jenna: "That guy was going to buy you a drink."
Liz: "Really? I already have a drink. You think he'll buy me some mozzarella sticks?"

In all reality though, I think every female can relate to Liz Lemon on one level or another. There's just something about her that screams normal, despite the fact that she is a writer on a Television Show, has won an Emmy, and spends most of her time making sure Tracy Jordan doesn't do something crazy.(Which, we almost have this in common. My job includes some "Tracy Jordan" like students sometimes that I am keeping out of/digging out of snafus pretty often.)

via

I'll leave you all with one final quote, and I think it does a pretty fine job in proving my point:

Whether it's a little or a lot, there is some Liz Lemon in every woman.

“I’ll tell you what I do want. I want someone who will be monogamous, and nice to his mother. And I want someone who likes musicals but knows to just shut his mouth when I’m watching Lost. And I want someone who thinks being really into cars is lame and strip clubs are gross. I want someone who will actually empty the dishwasher instead of just taking forks out as needed, like I do. I want someone with clean hands and feet and beefy forearms like a damn Disney prince. And I want him to genuinely like me, even when I’m old. And that’s what I want”. –Liz Lemon

via

Thoughts of the Day

1. I know I have been complaining about it raining for 2 weeks in a row and how I was starting to grow mold behind my ears. But the past 3 days have been beautiful. And after coaching two track meets and one track practice, I need to take a nap.

But not in the sun.

I have  officially turned into a human being that is useless when I get home because of the sudden reintroduction in the sun.

I guess I'll have to take it easy this weekend.

Watch a movie, finish random tasks around the house,  take it slow serving ice cream, and cuddling with my boys.

Or maybe I'll go tanning. I never said moderation was my thing.

2. Speaking of my addictive personality, I don't know if I'm quite there yet, but I may be on my way to becoming an extra-large-scented-candle-hoarder.

This self diagnosis is legitimate because I now believe I am an expert after carefully watching multiple episodes of "Animal Hoarders" and just plain old "Hoarders: Buried Alive."

I can tell you a story about each one, become unruly when someone even hints at trashing them, and forget which ones I have.

I haven't found like a dead mouse underneath all of them.

Yet.

3. My hands are a little sore right now. Not because of anything cool like battling a bear or playing guitar. But because I continued to hit my whiteboard in excitement while discussing the format of persuasive essays today in class.

4. Does it bother anyone else that out of all of the women that star on VH1's newest trashtastic show, "Mob Wives", not one of them is currently married to an active member of the mob? First of all, I was excited to see some horse heads in bed and other godfather like things. But no, just lots of phone calls from jail in botox.

(Go on and take a guess as to whether this has stopped me from watching. )

I guess my real point here is that when I get my own reality television deal, the title of the show will be unelaborated and as literal as possible.

Tune in Wednesdays at 10 for the, Come watch me as I run around like a crazy person and tell stupid jokes to children and adults alike at my job, and then go home and get stressed out about everything but by the end of the night haven't made any progress in my goals. Except for that game of Sudoku on my phone, I totally owned that,  show.



5. My dog just walked over to my other open laptop and nudged at the keys with his nose. After no success he walked over to the other end of the couch, laid down and let out an exasperated sigh.

Just a day in the life. NBD.

6. I've never been one to wake up in the middle of the night thinking about every possible thing that you have to do and then not be able to fall asleep again. It happened to me last night for the first time.

Are there stages of craziness? Because the fact that as a last minute hail mary a half hour later I chugged a glass of water and then fell right to sleep. I had not been thirsty at all.

Or maybe it's about time to get rid of our down comforter? Waking up in 60 degree whether with duck feathers or whatever is going to stress anyone out.


7. I leave you all with a cute picture of my dog due to lack of a better way to close this post.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I haven't done this link up before but I figured since I didn't have Tail Wagging Tuesday, and I don't want to get back in the funk of not blogging for 4 days straight at the end of each week that I've been finding myself in, I shall link up!

Oh, and I guess I'm loving some things.

1.  I am loving the fact that my students are totally getting into their books for their literature circles.
At the end of the year I need a way to keep the 8th graders going, so I assign them books for literature circles. They grade each other and have to lead two classes a week within their book groups. I found last year that these were an easy way to keep the kids accountable for still doing work up until the end of the school year. And guess what, THEY'RE LOVING THEIR BOOKS! Which I of course totally love this Wednesday.

2. The track team that I am one of the assistant coaches for won their meet by like a gajillion points  a lot! It's been so cool to watch these guys grow as athletes and take pride in what they do as the season goes on.

3. This guy.

For someone who is responsible for 90 adolescents during the day, I can barely take care of myself when I get home. Or in general.

Like that time when I didn't look at the weather and packed sweatpants instead of shorts for 70 degree weather. Oh NBD just sweating my face off and dying from heat exhaustion as I yell at children to pump their arms, stretch their stride, drink more water and "No you may not hold the baton you will poke eachother's eye out."

Who comes sweeping in to save the day with a pair of shorts and Iced Coffee? You guessed it. The handsome man in the picture.

This may have been only one example, but my general incompetence to perform basic tasks this week has for some reason exceeded my own expectations, and my brown-eyed wonder continues to step up and treat me like a queen.

4. The fact that it's starting to FINALLY get warm.

I have maybe 3 outfits that I can wear to work that are appropriate for this type of weather. Uhhhh I feel a shopping trip coming on.

5. I have 20 days until summer vacation.

I am actually starting to not be stressed out about jamming in curriculum and easing into a state of the following:

Happy Wednesday!

My Weekend In Photos 5/20-5/22

So due to some One-Hour-Photo struggles technical difficulties, 24 hours later I have my photos from the weekend! I CANNOT get a newer camera faster. I guess I have to start pinching those pennies!

So I promise that next time I'll hopefully have this post up by Sunday night/Monday morning.

Because I know you're all just dying to see some more closeups of Dave's face while sleeping and Bruin performing human tasks  IMMEDIATELY.

Okay. Here we go!

 Friday afternoon, despite a rainy track practice, I came home to some pretty great news. 
 Due to the wonderfulness of the end of my week he opened up one of the bottles of champagne that we're still knocking away at from the wedding and watched The Kings Speech.

Where Colin Firth is adorable.

Not my picture. From the movie.

And Winston Churchill still goes down as Britain's biggest bad ass that everyone can't help but love. Even when he looks like a bulldog smoking a cigar.

Still not my picture. Unfortunately.

I had to go buy a couple of books on Thursday for my classroom, and while I was there I accidentally bought myself a book. Whoops!

 

Yeah that's right folks, I teach language arts and have NOT read Pride and Prejudice. 

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!

Okay, you can get over that now, because I've read my weight in Shakespeare.

 I didn't start it yet. I'm still reading Are you there Vodka? It's me Chelsea by my girl Chelsea Handler. Eventually I'll get to this Ms. Austen.

To my credit, A lot of Chelsea's book is about her awkward travels through puberty and growing up. Sooo it's stuff that's relevant right? 

Bruin got a bath, and I promise he didn’t hate it as much as it looks. 

Saturday morning my mom came up to drop their dog off and take us for Breakfast at Denny's. They couldn't have the dog around because  MY DAD GOT HIS MASTERS FROM BU! Pretty cool huh? So because I was working I couldn't head down, therefore, the dog.

So sometimes you can catch her at an angle and she looks real nice.

And other times she looks like a total sketch fest.

But they’re best friends. And hey she eats while he’s around so I guess it’s good for her to visit.

No animals were hurt in the making of this post. Just had a little bit of water squirted at them when trying to take food.

So Dave left for work at a local park that he’s been helping out at on weekends and I hung out with the dogs and whilst working on things for school partook in a marathon of this.

That’s right, a Harry Potter Marathon. So sue me.

After that, I went to my second job  that just started which I’ve mentioned before.(Yeah you know  us teachers who are stealing from the government and ruining education take on second jobs. It’s because we’re greedy.)

I came home and my husband made me some dinner since he ate with friends.

Wine in a juice glass with grilled cheese is the perfect "after work" dinner.

Sunday Morning brought AN INTERVIEW FOR THE HUBBY!

Doesn’t he just look sharp? Man does he love it when I’m walking around with my camera.

(Which by the way he thinks the interview went well.) He headed off to his second job again after the interview so I had the apartment to myself with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle DUMB (You choose which one is which, it really depends on the day. )

I sat down with a cup of coffee, revamped my blog a little and made a button that people can grab! (Take a look at it it’s on the side. And while you’re at it, grab it!)

Yes, I do really heart Jim, and yes Dave is fine with it. Because he hearts Pam. So it balances out right?

My friend Katie came over, and thank god she’s one of those friends that will do random crap with you. Like go grocery shopping in Walmart on a Sunday. That’s true friendship. I mean have you ever been grocery shopping at Walmart on a Sunday? It’s packed. With some pretty interesting people.

 After that we made it back in time for my parents to pick up the sketchy one. 

My parents LOVE Katie.

So once they’d left, we went for a walk. There’s this old graveyard that is only semi-taken care of near my house. Now before I lived in my first apartment I had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST IN GRAVEYARDS ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT’S SO CREEPY!  But after you live in an apartment where the graveyard is one of the least creepy parts of your neighborhood, you get accustomed to going for a jog in there. So Katie, tweedle dee and I all went for a graveyard adventure.

 

I’ve been dying to take pictures in this graveyard. There’s a lot of stuff that isn't in the most tip top shape but still looks nice in some places.

And then there are the parts that are completely run down, like the road that leads down to the other half of the graveyard. Yeah this used to be tarmac! Completely eroded.

Or the random gravestones that are thrown in the woods.

But overall it was pretty cool to take pictures in there, and a chance to get out in this yucky weather. Those clouds that you see in the background? Best weather in weeks.  No joke.

 

If I was one of those weird people who had favorite gravestones, these would be it.

Okay I guess I’m one of those weird people, but bear with me here. Each of these gravestones has a quote having to do with something important about the person, and each one of the quotes is really cool.

I am just dying to know what this one said before it was broken!

So overall it was a nice walk, and I think I got some keepers as far as photos from this mini-adventure.

When we got home my friend took off, but the most wonderful man on earth came home, and shortly after this person meandered into my apartment.

Okay you got me, I know her. That’s the sister. She’s living with us for the summer. Bruin loves her, so I guess we'll let her stay.

 I made a family dinner for the three of us from a recipe that I got here.

Keeping it classy with Mac and Cheese on the side.

It was delicious! Next time I’ll be using less red onion though!

And that my friends was all she wrote! How was your weekend?