Roger

Back in July, I was so excited one day when I looked out my window and saw a deer in our yard (you can read about it here).  I was even more excited to catch it on camera, because who knows when I'll see a deer again!  Well, um, it turns out I'd see that deer a lot.

So much that we he's become used to us...

"Oh hi, I just thought I'd lie down for a bit.  No, I don't mind if you come out on your deck and inch closer to me so you can take a better picture.  Go on ahead..."

So much that we call him our pet...

So much that we've named him Roger...

Oh, Roger, you goof...

So much that we see him every few days...

"Yep, it's me again.  Just walking through and thought I'd say hey."

PS, thanks to my wonderful husband for his awesome photography skills.  You can definitely tell a difference between my photo (the first one) and his photos (the other three).

Exhausted

You know when you work out for the first time in forever?  You're doing it, you feel great... until afterwards. You ache all over, you can't move, and the last thing you want to do is work out again.

Yesterday was the first day of school.  By the end of the day, my feet were blistered and aching from standing/walking around all day, my throat throbbing from talking for three straight classes, and my head aching from all the noise.  None of it was worse than a usual weekday.  The only problem is my "usual" weekday for the past few months has been hanging out on my couch in bare feet not really talking to anyone until Jason got home.

Boy I am out of shape.  Teacher-shape that is.

Friday Letters -- 2012/13 School Year Edition

Dear 4:45am, you come far too early in the morning.  Dear Coffee, I need you to up your game.

Dear Open House, you are no fun.  Sure, it's great to meet parents, but you never give me enough time with them.  Everything is so hectic, with parents trying to navigate the school and figure out their child's schedule.  Plus, you keep ending up being on Jason's birthday, which is just cruel.  Oh, and you make me have a 13hour day, which is REALLY cruel.  No wonder I'm fighting a losing battle with my coffee this morning!

Dear Flip Flops and Shorts, I will miss you.  Dear Dress Pants and Cardigans, welcome back to the wardrobe.

Dear Classroom, I'm excited to be in you another year, and I'm glad you're much more organized than you were this time last year.  Please don't start smelling like sewage again this year.  Did you hear me, sinks?  I don't want to have to buy lots of air fresheners again if I don't have to.

Dear Fellow Teachers, I've loved having some time to hang out, eat lunch together, and attend meetings together.  Sorry in advance for being MIA most of the time during the semester.  We'll catch up on the next workday, I guess.

Dear Students, this semester is going to be challenging.  I'm trying some new things, but I will try to pretend like they've been my policy for years.  Follow my rules, do what I ask, and we'll survive this semester together.  For goodness sake, put those cell phones away!  With the exception of cheating, those phones are my biggest pet peeve and the easiest way to get on my list... and you don't want to be on my list!  My goal this semester is for you to understand science better and for you to hopefully like it a little more than you did coming in.

Dear Former Students, I've loved running into you the past few days around campus.  When you smile, yell "Mrs. Self!," and run over and hug me (yes, these were girls, btw), I can't tell you what that means to me.  It almost means as much as the student I failed who stopped by to visit.  I failed you, and you still want to drop by and chat?  That's awesome!

Dear School Year, I can't believe you start on Monday.  I need more time!  There was so much more I wanted to get done during the workdays, ack!  I'm dreading you (hey, summers are awesome...) and eagerly awaiting you at the same time.  Dear 2012-2013, bring it on!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Happy Birthday to my favorite fella (whom I love even when he's being silly)!

This day last year, Jason got quite the birthday gift -- an earthquake!  Here's hoping today is a bit less of a surprise.  One thing doesn't change this year.  For the second year in a row, I'll be at school until 8:30 on Jason's birthday doing Open House.  Boo!  Hope he has a great day, and I'll see him later tonight for ice cream dessert. :)

If you're interested, here's last year's post about his birthday and the earthquake: Birthday Earthquake!

Jason's "30th"

On Saturday, Jason and I frantically cleaned the house and prepped the food, all in anticipation of having our first guests over in the new house.  We invited some friends over to celebrate Jason's "30th" birthday.  He's been 30 for several years now, but hey, I have the 3 and the 0 candle, so I'm not too worried about it.  Someone asked what happens when I turn 30.  I told them, "Oh, then he has to become his real age!"  He's not allowed to stay at 30 if I'm getting older each year!

Menu:

Grilled Italian sausages, brats, or hotdogs

Peppers, onions and condiments

Pasta salad (shout out to Holly for the awesome recipe!)

Watermelon

Chips

Poundcake (Jason's favorite cake)

Vanilla or "bear kind" (dark chocolate with caramel and choc-covered cashews) ice cream

We had such a great time chatting and playing (well, Audrey and I played while the others chatted) that I once again forgot to take pictures!  I finally remembered in time for dessert.

The almost-birthday boy

Stuart and Audrey

Miranda and Rebecca (I hate that I didn't get better pictures...)

Happy almost birthday, Jason! (His actual birthday is tomorrow)

Photo Gallery

For years now, I've been amazed at Jason's photographic talent.  As we would daydream about a "real house," I'd tell him I wanted to develop some of his pictures and hang them in our house.  He'd cringe a bit, because he's never 100% satisfied with his photos (though everyone he knows just loves them!), but I'd insist.

Well folks, I finally got my gallery...

It's in the hallway at the top of our stairs.  Here's a picture to give you an idea...

Special thanks to Amanda who helped with the final selection of the photos.  Also, thanks to Bed Bath & Beyond for putting their "gallery in a box" on sale, which made everything look cohesive for not a lot of money.

Sold

Sold.  What a beautiful word.  Know what sold yesterday?  This house:

Know how that makes me feel?  Like this.

Goodbye to Summer

Today's my last official day of summer.  Tomorrow, I return to work and to the real world.  This is my goodbye letter to summer.

Dear Summer, 

First of all, thank you for existing for teachers.  I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have all summer to pack up the old house, paint the old house, move, unpack, settle in, clean, and organize.  If I had been working these past two months, we'd still probably be picking our outfits for the day out of cardboard boxes!  Thank you for providing me a break from work.  I put 110% into the school year, and by June, I was spent.  I needed this break to refresh.  Thank you for giving me time to paint letter projects, something I don't get to do during the school year.

Thank you for lazy mornings.  While I'm not one to sleep in, even during the summer, I do enjoy my leisurely mornings blogging, watching taped television, and doing Sudokus in my pjs.  Thanks for "sports clothes" (what Jason and I call workout shorts and t-shirts) and for giving me no reason to put on "real clothes" most days.

Thank you for your produce.  Thank you for juicy peaches and ripe tomatoes.  Thank you for zucchinis and cucumbers that don't break the bank because they're actually in season.  Thank you watermelon, too, though I'm just now realizing I haven't had any this summer.  I'll have to remedy that today.

Sorry I ignored you most of the time.  I didn't take full advantage of your sunshine and warmth.  I didn't visit the beach, go to the pool, or even once slip on a bathing suit.  I didn't take early-morning photo trips with Jason to avoid the blazing heat.  I didn't take photo trips at all...

I know our relationship the past few months has been pushed aside to make room for my relationships with my houses (yes, plural, though we're hoping we get an offer on the townhouse any day now).  I know I haven't enjoyed you fully this year.  But trust me, as I start my school year tomorrow, I will be daydreaming about you for the next 10 months.

I'll be counting the days til I get to see you again,

Meg

Problem Solved

The Problem: Big empty space above the mantle.

The Idea: Frame a fun graphic fabric in three frames.  I had some very specific ideas, and really questioned them when I couldn't find the perfect fabric at JoAnn's.  I had originally wanted three coordinating fabrics for the three frames, but ended up going with one pattern instead.

The Solution:  The actual framing went really well.  I used the mat as a guide to line up what part I wanted visible, cut about an inch (very freehand... good thing no one can see my crooked edges!) bigger than the mat, and taped it down to make sure it wouldn't slip.

Voila!

We plan on hanging them up, but we didn't have wire at the house yesterday when I took the picture.  You'll just have to use your imagination for now.

The best part?  It turns out the fabric is called Belize Azure.  Since we honeymooned in Belize, I took this as a positive sign.

Living Room Before and After

When Jason and I first saw what would later become our house, we talked about all the things we liked -- even the paint colors!  Yes, I know you don't necessarily need to like the paint colors in order to like a house, but this was a bonus.

After we moved in, there was one room color that I knew I wanted to change -- the living room.  It was a really pretty forest green.  The problem is, I like bright colors, and they didn't work well in a room that color.  Once we got the green chair, the wall color had to go.  After much debate and bringing home lots of paint chips, we came to an agreement on a color called Bleached Denim.

Believe it or not, JASON picked out this color!  I was going to get yet another tan in our already tan house.  I'm soooooo glad we chose this color!  It had really brightened up the place, though my flashless pictures may not convey that well.

Before:

After:

The Tie That Binds

My family is freakishly close.  We probably talk more often in a week than most people talks to their family in a year.  One thing that keeps us close is our collective love of food.  To explain this, let's take my phone records from last Thursday:

10:01 (8min, 57sec) -- call from Mom.  She calls to talk to me about my aunt being in town, my blog, and other assorted topics.

2:06 (7min, 18sec) -- I call Daddy.  I've just left the grocery store with salmon steaks, and I call him to ask about seasoning the salmon and assorted cooking preparations.  Via Daddy, Mom shares the recipe for the dill sauce we always eat with salmon, and answers my "what to have as a side dish" question with about five or six ideas.

5:29 (32min, 28sec) -- Kara calls.  She's on her way home from work, and just wants to chat.  We talk about my new living room paint color, a new K-12 finance program she's working on with Pitt County Schools, what we eat for lunch at work, the benefits and disadvantages of a protein-and-carb diet, what I'm fixing for dinner, how Kelly fixes salmon, and I'm sure several other things.  There was a stream of consciousness with this conversation, though I can't trace it now.  My favorite Kara quote of the conversation "Don't tell Addison that today's [Thursday's] blog was about a squirrel, and not her."

6:08 (16min, 24sec) -- My phone rings again (6 minutes after I got off the phone with Kara).  Jason says, "It must be your other sister."  I check the caller ID and start laughing, because it is actually Jill on the phone.  I tell this to Jill, and she says "Does it freak other people out how much we communicate with each other?"  (which is what inspired today's blog, by the way)  We talk about Jason's brother's upcoming wedding, the details I know about it, and assorted memories from weddings we've been to before.  I interrupt the wedding conversation to ask her a question about salmon preparation, because as we're talking, I'm making dinner.  She had to go when she got home, because her puppy very eager to play with her.


Things I love about talking to my family:
~Don't take this the wrong way, but it's a great way to kill time.  We talk to each other very often during commutes from work or errand-running.  Between me and Mama, we can get Jill the whole way from Charlotte to Atlanta.  If our first call-choice doesn't pick up, we'll call our second choice, and so on.  I can't tell you how many times I've called one of my sisters back three minutes after they called me, and they're already on the phone with Mom.

~There's no pressure.  Everyone has that friend or family member whose call will last a minimum of 30 minutes if you pick up.  With my family, we talk so often that no one is offended when we have to get off the phone.  Kara doesn't talk when she's at home, because she's spending time with her family.  Jill gets off the phone when she arrives home because there are dogs she has to immediately deal with.  The other day, I answered Jill's call by saying "Hey, we're about to eat" followed by an immediate "cool, talk to you later" from her.  We know we'll catch up with each other again in a couple of days.

~We can talk about anything.  I mean anything.  Holiday plans in July, decorating plans in my new house, recent Addison behavior, details about something I'm teaching, Jamesville happenings, work frustrations, the list goes on.  If there's a lull in the conversation (good luck with that in a family of chatters), there's the universal topic -- food.  Oh food, I love you.  Almost as much as I love my family.

Juicy Deliciousness

There are few things in the world as disappointing as a grocery-store tomato.  Mealy, pink on the inside, flavorless, juiceless.  Blech.  It's not worth your time or money.

That said, there are few things in the world as delicious as a home-grown tomato.  Last week in Jamesville, Mama and Daddy loaded me up with several tomatoes from their garden.  While I'm reserving one for a couple of meals with Jason, the rest have been eaten as my all-time favorite summer meal -- tomato sandwich.

The Ingredients:
There are only 5 ingredients, so you can't scrimp on any of them.  You MUST have a "real" tomato.  Don't try with a grocery store tomato.  You will be sorely disappointed.  You will need mayonnaise.  This is a rare treat, so don't try to "healthy" it up by skipping this step.  You will need bread (I've always been a fan of whole wheat), salt, and pepper.

The Procedure:
Keep the paper plates for your ham and cheese sandwiches.  You will need the stability of a real plate for this sandwich.  Mayo the bread and slice the tomato.  Stack as many slices as physics will allow you (this often takes some maneuvering) and eat the rest.  Yes, I love tomatoes that much.  I gnaw on the unsliced tomato like I'm eating a peach.  Nothing gets wasted.

Liberally salt and pepper.  If you have multiple tiers of tomato, you may want to lift up on the top tier and salt below.  Again, don't skip this step.  The salt is needed to really draw out the delicious tomato-y juices.

The last step is most important.  Put the bread on top, and just walk away.  It's tempting to eat it right away, but the salt needs a few minutes to do its work.  I time this by getting a drink and chips, finding something on tv to watch while eating, and grabbing a paper towel.  Do not try to eat this sandwich without a paper towel within reach.

Eating:
Eater beware.  This is a messy meal.  If juices aren't flowing down your forearms halfway through, you didn't make it correctly.  You will probably not be able to put the sandwich down once you pick it up.   But honestly, once you taste it, you won't want to put it down!

Happy eating!

Hello!

Wordless Wednesday

A Day in the Life of Addison

Back in June, I let my nephew Sawyer guest-blog.  You can read that post here.  After seeing Addison on Friday, I've let her guest-blog today.

Good morning!  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I get to go over to Grandma and Pa's house while Mama and Daddy are at work.  Sometimes, Aunt Meg comes for the day.  She says it's to visit everyone, but I know it's really to play with me.  I'm ok with that, though, because I love having a play buddy!  Here's some of things we did:

I had story time with Pa (and later with Aunt Meg).  I loooooove books, and I like to select one, hop in Pa's lap, and wait to be read to.  If Pa doesn't start reading to me immediately, I will grab his hand and put it on top of the book to tell him what I want.  I love when Pa reads Goldilocks to me because he does all the bear voices.

Aunt Meg took pictures of me.  Aunt Meg always has a camera when she's around me, and I couldn't be happier!  I love cameras.  When I visited Raleigh last December, Uncle Jason would take a picture of me, and then I would run over to see the picture on his screen.  I'm smart like that.  I blame Uncle Toby, who is a photographer and probably taught me about cameras.

On Friday, I looked at Aunt Meg after she took a picture of me and she asked if it was ok.  I grabbed my chair from my play things, moved it to the center of the room, and posed in it.  If she was going to take a picture of me, I wanted it to be good!

Aunt Meg walked into another room, but I wasn't done posing, so me and my chair came along.  I'm a really good model.  The only problem is, sometimes I get up too soon to look at my image on the camera!

Aunt Meg taught me how to take pictures with her camera.  I loved pushing the button and then looking at the picture I took.  I may need to work on my shots a bit, but I'm getting the hang of it.

After this shot, Aunt Meg said "You took a picture of my leg."  I corrected her and said "And me!!!!!"

Hmm, I'm going to need more lessons from Aunt Meg on how to take a self-portrait...

I played the piano.  Yep, I am a renaissance woman with lots of interests.  Grandma is teaching me how to play chopsticks, and I sing along while she plays Jesus Loves Me.

At one point, I got up, put on Pa's hat, and came back to the piano.

I played in the pool.  While I was taking my afternoon nap, Mama came home early from work.  Yay, another playmate!  I changed into my bathing suit and played in the pool in Grandma's backyard.

I threw my beach ball.

I played "One, two, three, JUMP!"

Grandma splashed me with the water hose, which I loved!  She said, "It's raining, it's raining," and I giggled.

Then Mama got the hose...

Here, give me that hose, and we'll see if YOU like it, Mama!

Mama told me to swim like they do on the Olympics.  I immediately laid down on my belly and started kicking and splashing around.  I see a gold medal in my future.

Yep, just another fun-filled day at Grandma and Pa's house. :)