Back in Black

I'mmm back!  Wow, what a long two weeks it has been!  I will give you an update about what has been going on in our crazy lives.

Well, two weekends ago (the 7th-9th) we went to my mom's for the weekend to attend a WVU game.  We left right after work on Friday, got there late on Friday night, woke up really early Saturday, drove to Morgantown, met Josh's family and friends and tailgated before the game.  I didn't actually have a ticket to the game, so when it started, my mom and I decided to go shopping instead!  Morgantown is practically dead during a game, so we were able to drive around town without much traffic.  Updates will come later, because the shopping trip was "home-decor" inspired.

We drove back late Saturday night, hung out, woke up made muffins on Sunday for my mom's 45th birthday and visited for just a little while.  We then drove all the way back to the other side of Maryland and got ready for school on Monday.

Thanks to my new after school program, I am at school every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until around 6pm.  Then I am always rushing home, starting dinner, doing things around the house, and getting ready for school the next day.  That particular week was the week before our best friends Wes and Meghan's wedding.  So they were super busy and didn't have much time to do anything else, so we invited them over to dinner every night!  I made some pretty good recipes (all new ones), so it was nice experimenting with friends.  Next Tuesday's Tasty Tuesday is going to be one of those recipes.

On Thursdays, I don't have after school programs, but I do have grad school.  So I am always busy that night.  Friday I am ready to konk out, but as you know, last weekend we went to a wedding!  The wedding was in Jamestown, NY, near Lake Erie.  We took off work on Friday and drove up really early in the morning.  We left around 6am (which is earlier than I would have woken up had we gone to school!).  We drove the whole 9 hours up to NY and got there around 3pm.  We checked into our hotel, met our friend Amber, from college, and got ready for the rehearsal and dinner.  The rehearsal was great, the dinner was fun, and we went out afterward to a local bar to hang out the night before the wedding.  Unfortunately, the bride, Meghan, was starting to develop a sore throat at that point, so she took it easy, drank water, and just hung out.

The day of the wedding was crazy.  It was pouring down raining ALL day.  It was actually sleeting a different times of the day.  It was 35 degrees and *no joke* there were 60 mph winds.  On top of that, Meghan woke up with strep throat.  Again, no joke.  She was really sick.  The fever-body-aches-chills-raw-throat kind.  Poor girl.  Fortunately, the wedding was beautiful (despite her almost passing out from being so sick) and everything was perfect.  We took pictures, and got in our awesome limo... which promptly got a flat tire.  Yes, seriously.  We spent a good portion of our limo ride in a garage getting our tire fixed.  Wes wanted to go to a local brewery for beer and pictures before the reception.  I will admit, this was a genius idea.  We got photos by the vats and drank some pumpkin beer.  It was awesome.

Once we got to the reception, poor Meghan really didn't feel well.  While I acted like a fool dancing all night, Meghan mostly sat and watched because she was so sick.  I will say that she looked beautiful.  You couldn't tell she was sick.  Except the shivering, the blanket, and the tears :-(  Poor girl.

Then, the worst thing you could ever imagine.  After we all left the reception and went home (hotel) for the night, Meghan's grandfather had a heart attack and passed away.

It was terrible.  But, we have decided to throw them a wedding re-do/party re-do to celebrate, so they can have a happier day together without death or illness.  Here are Meghan & Wes before we went into the reception:

She was so pretty!  You can view the professional photos (all 886 of them) here.

Please pray for them!

We have made LOTS of updates to the house and I am excited to share :-)  Happy Monday!

Book Reading and Beach Bumming

The beach is great!  I am super tan, I have been eating well (junk food and seafood) and I have been sleeping approximately 10 hours per night.  It's awesome.  I have also been doing a lot of reading. 

Water for Elephants, by Susan Gruen is one of the top 3 books I have ever read.  The main reason why, you ask?  Because I could tell from page one that it would be one of the best books I have ever read.  I have never been so "hooked" in my life.  Wow, what an amazing talent an author has to do that to the reader!  It's also written in the first person from the perspective of the main character, a man.  And how she did that I will never know.  I believe they also made it into a movie, right?  I will have to look that up.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards is what I finished today.  It also happens to be in the top 3!  How luck am I that I got to read two out of the three best books of my life in the same week?  WHOA.  There are about 1 million reasons why The Memory Keeper's Daughter is in the top 3.  The main ones are:

• This book is about truth and dishonesty in human life.  No matter whose side you take or who you relate to the most, you can sympathize with everyone because it is so real and raw.
• Kim Edwards describes scenery like no one else I have ever read.  I absolutely felt like I belonged in the book, at the scene.  Like the book's world was in a little capsule and I poked a hole and slid in.  I could see everything.  For example, I was sitting on the beach and I was reading about a particular scene when the female main characters was knocking off a wasp's nest outside and the wasps were swarming around her.  I seriously felt like there were wasps swarming around me.  I even shooed one away!  But when I looked up, the wasp was real!  It really was there and just happened to stop by my beach chair as I was reading that part of the book. What a coincidence!  I would have felt the same either way, though.  That's how well she described the scenery.
• It made me cry.  Any book that can make me cry immediately gets in the top 3.  (Just so you know, it also happens to be the only book that has ever made me cry).

Have any of you ever read either of these books?  What did you think?

I will end with a beach picture, of course.  This is me, my father-in-law, and a friend, Nicole.  We are sitting on the crow's nest of the house with drinks watching the sunset.  Oh... and acting like goofballs.

Book Club and Book Store

I am sitting in Barnes and Noble at the coffee shop.  Josh and I ditched our house for the day so our air conditioner didn't have to kill itself trying to keep the house cool.  The heat index today is 117.  Seriously!

So, I am doing some grad school work here.  And I am currently taking a break.  It is about 65 degrees in here, which is cold.  But I really don't want to complain considering I could be outside having a heat stroke right now. I have been doing a very large amount of work on our group project for school and I am excited to share it soon!

In other news, I was invited by some ladies at my school to be in their book club.  I am really, really, really excited!  I love stuff like that and I have never been a part of a book club before!  The closest I have ever come is being in a bible study group and it was awesome.  I really enjoy having a goal and then having meaningful and thoughtful discussions with other adults... especially when it doesn't have to do with work or education... I get enough of that at school.  They are currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I have been wanting to read this book for a while and now I have a good reason to do it:

Have you read it?  What did you think?

Another development has recently taken place.  We had a meeting at school this week to discuss our upcoming school year.  A lot of changes have been going on at my school and in my county lately.  First of all, our school didn't make AYP this year.  If you don't know what that is, Google it.  I would tell you, but it makes me too frustrated to talk about it.  By the way, we lost it because of two students and six total questions on a test.  Second of all, we are no longer a Title I school.  This is very bad.  For many reasons.  The main ones being that because of this, we will lose a number of services, a ton of finances and financial resources, and a lot of personnel.  Google Title I if you don't know about it.  Because of this, my principal is forcing me to spend 45 minutes per day in 4th or 5th grade classrooms working with small groups to teach reading and math.  This is something that Title I teachers or assistants would typically do, but since we no longer have them...  it's up to the music and P.E. teachers.  Seriously.  

I understand that our kids now need these services, so I am a little torn about the whole situation.  I feel bad complaining about it, but if we ever want to meet AYP, I might need to help in this area.  But, it's definitely not my job, I'm definitely not qualified for it, and it's taking away time from my schedule to teach our 650 kids some awesome music.  Also, and most importantly, I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!  It's sad that I have to do this just so we can "pass a test".  Having their music teacher teach them music would be way more beneficial for them, but that's the way of the education world lately.  It's very sad.

On a happy note, G is coming in the morning and I am super excited to see her and do some cool Ocean City stuff.  Have a great (and cool) weekend!

Lately...

...we have been the opposite of busy.  Remember how I said that even though it's summer, we have been just as busy as during the school year?  Yeah, well, that changed lately.  We are so bored.  Next summer we are definitely supplementing our income with summer jobs for sure.  I will admit, though, that I have been consistently busy with grad school work.

I could probably get by with doing less grad school work.  But, as you probably know if you are reading this, I am a perfectionist and cannot do anything "just a little".  If I stick to something, I will do my best.  So that has actually been nice because I am enjoying the work I am doing and I am doing great work for school and my future and I am keeping myself busy!  I am currently working on a very serious and large-scale project with a group of people in my program which I will explain at a later date.  I definitely want to show it off after we get some more work done.

I have also been working out really hard.  Mainly because I'm bored, but also because I am enjoying it and wanting to make some muscles :-)  My last Spring goal was to run a half marathon, which I did.  This Spring I would really like to try a sprint triathlon.  I really think I can do it, physically.  I will need lots of practice swimming, though, because I lack form and speed in that area.  In fact, if I had to do it today, I would certainly not drown, but I would definitely be doggy-paddling.  The only real concern I have is that this year is going to be a trying year in the financial department until we get used to making mortgage payments and budgeting other things.  In order to do a sprint triathlon, I would need a lot of "gear".  The most expensive being a bike!

This weekend my college roommate G is coming to visit and stay the weekend.  We only see each other once or twice per year, so obviously I am really excited to hang out with her :-)

Last thing: I have made a decision to eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetables with every single meal.  And I am going to drink more water and tea and less soda and beer/wine.  So far so good!

Awesome Blossom

That^ title was both inspired by Michael Scott's  love for Chili's Awesome Blossom, and the topper that went on my wedding gift for my best friend's recent nuptials.

Something I will confess:  I am not a particularly crafty person.  I love and appreciate all things "craft", but I have never been interested or motivated to dive into that world.  Until I had an idea for L's wedding gift!

This is foolproof, easy, and can be inexpensive.  You should definitely do it the next time you need to gift someone, whether it be wedding, birthday, bridal shower, baby shower, etc.  Buy the towels from their registry, design them to look like a tiered cake, and decorate with the theme colors!  TA-DA:

It is easier than it looks, I promise!  Watch:

1.  Gather all of your materials.  You will need towels, ribbon, decorations, tape, thick floral wire, and maybe a glue gun.

2.  Now, before you go and ruin the towels you are about to give to someone for their new home, test a little bit of scotch tape on a tiny area just to make sure that it doesn't rip the towel apart when you pull it off.  Mine were safe!  Fold and roll the largest towel to your desired size VERY tightly and tape it together so that you are sure it won't fall apart.  I used the trial and error method on this one to get the size just right.

3. Bend the floral wire in half and slide both ends through the bottom of the bottom tier.

4. Follow Steps 2 and 3 for the second and third tiers.  I found that twisting the wire tight helped to keep everything in place.

5.  Add ribbon of your choice.  L's wedding colors were cornflower and gold-ish, so I chose these ribbons and taped them in the back.

6. Decorate!  Be careful if you need to glue anything.  Make sure it's dry before you put it on the towels!

7.  I found this awesome bouquet of silk flowers at Michael's (you can see them in the top pic) and tore the bottom stems off.  I just shoved the floral wire into the Styrofoam ball that was holding the flowers and VOILA!

It's true that both the bride and groom professed that it was the best gift on the gift table... That's all I'm sayin'...

Weeds and Weeding

Do you want to know the best part about living so close to the beach?  Waking up and saying, "Hey, Josh.  Want to go to Ocean City today?".  Next thing you know, you are in the car on your way!  We got to OC yesterday around 9:45am and it was already about 95 degrees outside.  Yeah, we only stayed until 1pm.  It was a beautiful day, just super super hot.  The heat index was actually about 110!!!!!!  We routinely applied sunscreen and jumped in the ocean to cool off.  It was a good time!

Do you watch Weeds?

It's a hilarious show on Showtime that incorporates some drama and weird humor.  It's all about weed... yes, marijuana.  And you don't have to be a pothead to enjoy this show.  I vouch for it!  It's addicting and hilarious.  You should definitely watch it...  What is that?  You don't have premium cable?  Oh, neither do I.  See, my friends, that is my next point.  You need Netflix.  I don't care if you don't want it, can't afford it, don't watch much TV or many movies.  You need it.  Josh and I got a free one-month trial the other day (which you can do, too!).  And after the first month, it is only $8 per month!  It's not all just about movies, either.  At the risk of sounding like a Netflix advertisement:  You can get one DVD at a time.  When you are finished, mail it back in (for free) and receive the next one a few days later... any movie or TV series you want.  In addition (and the reason we got it): you can stream an enormous amount of stuff on your computer, wii, xbox, etc.  We stream through our XBOX360.  That is how we have been able to watch nonstop episodes of Weeds from episode 1.  Seriously, think about it.

All of this weed has gotten me in the mood to do some garden work outside.  I have been weeding and gardening like crazy the last few days.  And if you know me, I am not the gardener-type.  I have no green thumb.  In fact, it looks more like this:

Yeah, I am Barney.

But I was mildly successful.  I will post updates about the garden situation later!

Tonight, Josh's friend from high school is coming to visit for a few days.  We plan to go to the beach and to Dogfish Head again to take him to the brewery tour and probably hit up the pub afterward.  And tomorrow night is an exciting one!  It will be our first "party" in our new house.  Actually, it's a taco night.  But lots of friends are coming and we are going to have tons of tacos and margaritas and hang out on the deck and probably play cornhole in the yard.  I am super excited to show all of our friends our house... even though it kind of looks empty right now.  We are still working on getting the furniture we want and decorating.  It will take time and money, but we have a pretty good start, I think! 

In other news, I am continuing on my 100 push up challenge program.  I started only being able to do 7 push ups consecutively.  After two weeks, I could do 22!  That's what I call progress!  

Wedding, 4th of July, Birthday

I have been busy!  I thought that summer was for relaxing?!

Two weekends ago, I went to Pittsburgh to celebrate my best friend's wedding!  It was the first wedding (other than my own) that I was in!  And it was a blast!  L was also in my wedding:

L is all the way to the left

And she looked sooo beautiful in her wedding!  I can't wait to see her bridal portraits because they are going to be awesome.  She hired a fantastic photographer.

The bride getting her hair did the morning of her wedding!

My first French manicure!

The whole bridal party

Best Horn friends from WVU

Cutting the Cake

Then Josh and I drove to Cumberland where we spent the 4th of July with my family.  It was a good time.  We hung out, ate food, watched fireworks, and made S'mores.  Always a good time.

L and her new husband(!) followed us back from Cumberland on Tuesday to Salisbury where they stayed for the night and got to see our new house!

Wednesday was my birthday!  We woke up, L and I went on a run, we came back and the boys were making us breakfast, we ate breakfast and then all of the sudden I remembered it was my birthday!!!  yep, we all forgot.  So, they apologized, we hung out, ate lunch, and they had to leave.  I colored all day and watched my DVR shows from while I was in Pittsburgh.  Then Josh took my to my favorite sushi restaurant for my birthday dinner:

Look how happy I am!

Lately, Josh and I have been doing some projects around the house as we get the money (we are currently broke as a joke!).  I will update :-)