Six Day Weekend!

Well I can hardly believe that tomorrow will be day FOUR of being out of school from the winter storm.  It dumped almost a foot of snow (maybe more in some places) in Oklahoma and dumped about an inch and a half of solid ice here... which keeps refreezing (or never melting in the first place) because the temperature hasn't been even close to being above freezing, and won't be until tomorrow afternoon at the very earliest.  Oh yeah, and did I mention that we're supposed to get some snow tonight/tomorrow?  Insanity!!  I don't think I've ever been out of school for four days in a row for snow/ice... and most definitely not in Dallas. 

...I have been loving every minute of it though! Don't get me wrong - I love my job, I love the people I work with, and I actually had a really great day on Monday.  But an unexpected little holiday??  Awesome!!  I'm not one of the ones who is going stir crazy... I have thoroughly enjoyed myself these past three days, and can't wait to do it again tomorrow.  Tim has been working from home, so it's been us and Lucy, just hanging out together the past three days.  I've been reading (started and finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - awesome book... once you get past the first 200 pages, which are just so-so), doing some digital scrapbooking, some traditional scrapbooking, watching movies and tv shows on Netflix, and generally just piddling around.  It has been fantastic!  Tim and I ventured out in the freezing cold yesterday to go eat at Gloria's (okay, so I was starting to go a little stir crazy - I'm glad we went out!). 

Today, all I did was read.  I only got out of bed to either make tea or food, and then I would eat/drink in bed while reading.  I get obsessed when I find a book I really like, and I'm almost relieved sometimes when it's over, because then I feel like I have my life back again.  Until then, I really can do nothing other than READ!  I love it.  :)

Oh, and I did this too:

I decided I'm going to go the digital route with Andrea's wedding and our trip to Hawaii - I found two really adorable digital kits that I couldn't resist - they're from Flergs, and I seriously love everything she makes... I have to will myself not to buy everything in her store!  Incidentally, she just released a new kit literally 9 minutes ago - my reader had one update when I went to find her blog and it was hers!  Crazy.  And, of course, I want it.  BAD. 

So... Andrea?  You likey?  I feel like it needs some sprucing... but I like it!  I plan on doing more tomorrow, so I will post them when I do.  :) 

Alright friends, I'm off to bed... got to get my beauty sleep to prepare for day four of reading/scrapbooking/lounging/general bliss.  G'night!

Date/Girls Night Weekend Extravaganza!!

Thanks Andrea for reminding me that since I spruced up my blog, I should probably BLOG a little from time to time.  :) 

This has been the BEST weekend I've had in a long time!  Tim and I took the day off on Friday to kick off our date weekend EXTRAVAGANZAAAA!!  For no reason at all, we just decided it would be fun.  :)  I got a great deal on a room at the Warwick-Melrose down the street (thank you Groupon!), so we figured we would just make a weekend of it.  I feel like all I did was eat wonderful food this weekend... and it has been glorious.

Friday we got up and went to a new coffee place - The Crooked Tree.  It's an old house that they turned into a coffeehouse - I love when they do that!  They have local artists' work displayed throughout and local musicians that play as well... definitely our kind of coffee place!

Then we saw The King's Speech - loved it!!  I recommend it to everyone (unlike True Grit... which I thought was okay, but overrated... as most Cohen brothers films are in my opinion).

Lunch was at Fadi's Mediterranean Grill & dinner was at Trece (an upscale Mexican restaurant off Knox), two more new places we had never been to eat, and we loved them both!  If you ever go to Trece, you MUST get the guacamole... it was to die for, probably the best I've ever had next to my Nonnie's or my brother's.  Mmm!!

Saturday night was girls' night, and we managed to pack in dinner at Gloria's, a trip to Eatzi's, a game of Bang!, dessert at Chocolate Secrets, and The Social Network all in one evening.  It was fabulous!

So that was my amazing weekend... and it's only 2pm on Sunday!  I love weekends like this.  The kind where you feel like you got to DO a lot, but you were productive and had time to rest even.  Perfect.  Just like the 75 degree weather we've had the past few days!  Don't remind me about the fact that mid-way through next week it won't even be above freezing and we have a strong chance of a "wintry mix."  UGH.  Is it spring yet?

And now, for an update on Project 365!  And I'm off to get ready for the upcoming week.  Adios friends!

January's pictures thus-far.  Only forgot to take a picture 4 times!

Journal strips for January - it's really hard to try to be so concise!

And is what they look like together (how they'll be when I print my book)

You like?

The new layout, background, banner, etc?  Felt like I needed an update for the new year.  :)

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that it's already 2011.  It's crazy to me that I've been living in Dallas now for almost as long as I lived in Norman.  That just doesn't seem possible!  Almost half of my life post high school has been here... so weird!  I have to say though, that it really does feel like home now.  Especially because we have our very own place... a place that we can do ANYTHING we want to make it ours.  I love, love, LOVE our condo.  The living room is now (basically) completely finished - finally have our entertainment center built and even the curtains are up.  ...taking down the Christmas tree is another story - it's still Christmas at our house!

So I have a project that I'm going to attempt to embark upon.  I'm going to attempt to do the whole Project 365 thing... you know, where you take a photo a day for a year?  Well, I had wanted to do something scrapbook-y like that, but it was just too overwhelming (and possibly just a complete waste of time and energy!).  So I found this little digital kit online last night - it was only $7, and I got a photo template and a journaling template for each month of the year.  Once a month, you make the template your own... do the digital scrapbooking thing... and for the rest of the month you just plop your photos in the windows and add ONE line of journaling (more like a photo caption than "journaling").  SO AWESOME!!!  The other thing that I think makes it more flexible, is that if you skip a day or two (or 10) of taking photos, you can just plop some pretty coordinated paper in that square in place of a picture, and it still looks cute!  Which seems way more doable than the idea that you "messed up" if you didn't take a picture every single day (which I think we ALL know I won't do).

So here is January so far...
(they'll be facing each other in a 12x12 album that I'll make into a photo book at the end of the year)

I think I'll add the pink border around the first page too just for consistency... but I like it so far!  And I like the idea of taking the pictures each day and then dropping them into a pre-made template (whenever I feel like it)... rather than posting them to my blog everyday or something like that.  Way less hassle this way.

So... we shall see!  I'm typically not very good at sticking to this sort of thing, but I just really love the idea of looking back at an entire year of your life... and not just the fun exciting moments (that I will probably scrap anyway), but the random, everyday moments that truly do make up your life.  Wish me luck!

As far as resolutions go, I'm going to take a page from my dear friend Alicia's book and say that my resolution is just to TRY.  I'm not going to vow to lose 10lbs, go to the gym 5x a week (every week!), to read x number of books, etc, etc etc.  Even my "month of resolutions" plan last year (resolving to do something for a month, rather than a year) didn't even make it to February!  So I like her idea better.  I'm going to try to be healthier in general - which would include eating better, cooking more meals at home rather than going out, hitting the gym as much as time and energy allows (but not using the "try" part as an excuse to be lazy and not go).  I'm going to try to nurture my spiritual side - continuing to go to church regularly (and trying to go more when I can), being better about praying, fasting, and being generous with my time and resources.  And I'm going to try to have a better attitude about this year.  It has been a stressful, frustrating school year, and I'm not even sure why... but I want to be better about choosing my attitude.  Oh, and I want to try to be nicer to my sweet husband... it's so true that you can be the most terrible to the ones you love and trust the most.  We generally get along and communicate really well, but I know that he definitely sees a side of me sometiems that nobody else ever does... and that's not always a good thing!

So there you have it friends.  My "welcome to 2011" blog post.  I'm looking forward to this year... although I've got to be honest, being a teacher and still being ruled by the August-June year, it doesn't really feel like a "new year."  It just feels like the same year, halfway through... and if I'm really wanting to make a change and start fresh, it always seems like the summer (or beginning of the new school year) is the time to do it.  Hmm.  Just realized that.  Weird.

Oh, and one last bit of updating, we paid off my car yesterday!  Happy New Year to us!!!  :)

Kitty Induced Insomnia

Well, after about a 4 month hiatus, I think it's time to write a few words...

Lucy woke me up sometime between 2 and 3 this morning, wanting to play and making lots of noise.  Then she would come and nuzzle my face to get me to wake up.  Mission accomplished!  I realized I was wide awake, and figured it must be about 4:30 or 5... nope.  3am!!  I decided to get up anyway and have been cleaning the house, drinking tea, doing my lesson plans for next week... it's been a really nice morning!  Almost time to go get ready, but figured I could squeeze a quick blog post into my super productive morning. 

Oh, and my soundtrack to my insomnia morning?

I love it!!!!

 So... let's see what's been going on in my world...

• Tim has abandoned me.  He's been in San Francisco since Sunday and won't be home til Saturday.  Let's just say it's been a LONG week!
• Had Thanksgiving at our house with Tim's family this year - loved it!
• Tim has convinced me to get him an iPad for his birthday/Christmas (pooling our money and all his other birthday & Christmas money together)
• Saw HP, liked it... didn't love it... can't WAIT for the final movie though, I think it will be amazing
• Bought Eclipse - it was the highlight of last weekend.  :)
• Got the superintendent's "Super Teacher" award for "Integrating 21st Century Learning" in my classroom - woo hoo!
• Am headed to Oklahoma next weekend to see my bestie, and I can't waaaait!!
• Christmas in Tulsa/Tahlequah this year; I'm so excited to go home and see my family - I haven't been home since my birthday, which is just insane.
• 15 days til Christmas and I've only bought & wrapped ONE Christmas present.  I rock.
• Finally bought pretty pillows for our couch... and while this may not seem exciting, it was a HUGE deal.  The pillow search was getting a little out of hand

So... I think that's most of it!  I'm really looking forward to a relaxing Christmas break, and going home to see family and friends.  I could really use a break right now... I'm just feeling a little beat down lately.  I need to be refreshed.

Well, my alarm (you know, to wake me up?  because I should be sleeping right now??) just went off, so I'm off to go get ready.  First time all week I will have actually started getting ready when my alarm went off... instead of pressing snooze for 30 or 40 minutes!  (Bad habit I am blaming Tim for!)

Happy Friday!!

Hello New School Year!

Just swung by the vet so they could take a look at Lucy's incision - the vet said that she is completely healed and she can have the cone off for good!!  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  You have no idea how thrilled I am about this!!  I have felt so bad for her - she's had it almost a week!  She just could not quit licking, and it made us sad to see her with it, made us a nervous wreck to see her without it... it was just no bueno.  And she finally got to play last night, which she has been dyyyying to do - and I think she wore herself out!  She didn't wake us up at 5:30 this morning, and has just been snoozing the whole time I've gotten ready (extremely out of character!).  Maybe this is the new, more relaxed, newly spayed Lucy?  I actually kinda hope it is... she is very demanding of our attention ALWAYS.  :) 

As for me, today is our first day back to work!  I think I'm kind of excited to go back... and I think I will feel better when I've got next week all mapped out in my head a little better.  It will definitely be great to see everyone today though - it's always like a little mini-reunion!  But it's also a sad goodbye to two people who are just so "East."  One of our awesome APs and our amazing technology integration specialist, who was also my partner in crime for scrapbooking club... and my friend.  I'm super bummed.  Everyone is.  :( 

Speaking of starting the new school year... this time of year always inspires me to have a fresh start on getting up on time, planning good meals, watching  what I eat, working out, etc.  I reinstalled the "Lose It" app on my phone yesterday, and I'm actually enjoying inputting everything I eat and what I do for exercise!  We'll see how long that lasts... last time I had it on my phone, I eventually had to take it off because I felt like I'd gotten obsessive about it.  :/  But I definitely think it helps you to be much more aware of how much you're eating, and if you're eating the right things.  My current plan will allow me to lose about 8lbs by December - losing only 1/2 pound per week... I don't think I have the willpower for a pound per week!  If I can manage that, I'll be back where I was when (I think) I looked my best.  I hope I can stick to it... crossing my fingers!! 

And last but certainly not least!  I'm getting an iPhone 4 for my birthday!!!!!!  I am sooooooo so so so excited!!  I really didn't even care about getting the new one for a long time, I've been quite happy with my old 3G (that's right - we don't even have the 3GS!).   But then when I was in OKC for my best friend's at-home reception, I used her 3GS... I couldn't believe how much faster it was than mine!  So my formerly adored 3G quickly turned into my irritating dinosaur phone.  And if you're going to get a new one, might as well get the iPhone 4!  And we found a place that will buy our 3Gs for $125, so it will only cost $75!  Ahhhhh I can't wait!!  (I apologize for the incredible amount of !!! in that paragraph, I can't help it!!!)  :)

Have a fabulous week! 

My Little Cone-Head

 

Poor little baby got spayed yesterday, so she's wearing her little cone for a few days (maybe a week? eek!).  We're also supposed to "limit her activity"... which if you have met her, you would know that this is REALLY difficult!!  So she is confined to the spare bathroom right now... it's about the only place in the house where she will kind of be forced to rest and take it easy.  Not many fun places to run and jump on, no stairs to run up and down... but I feel bad for her, because I'm sure she is lonely (she is normally with us every moment of the day when we're home) and bored.  And not loving that collar, poor baby!  She does, however, have a bathtub filled with towels and blankets to sleep in... which she really likes.  :) 

...and she's still pretty cute even with her "Elizabethan Collar" though right?  hehe