Tuesday, November 27, 2012
11/27/12
I have a few minutes before work. I'm out at 2 today. We are supposed to get a touch of snow! Yay! It is supposed to turn to rain so who knows. I have tomorrow off. I hope to sleep a little better tonight and in a little tomorrow.
Monday, November 26, 2012
11/26/12
I hate Mondays. Truth be told, Tuesday is my real Monday this week, but still...I'm up so that is a good start I guess. Coffee is ready. Sierra's been out. I'm the only one up. I got my nails done on Friday so I am feeling pretty good about that. I think today will be a full on hair and make-up day so I can pretend it isn't only the beginning of the week.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
11/25/12
I think this was the longest weekend ever! Thanksgiving was of course on Thursday. It was a good meal. Not our best, but it all came out ok. Nothing burned but the potatoes could have cooked a bit longer. The turkey was quite yummy, as was the squash. I had a bad headache Thursday and Friday. Date night Friday night. I had a yummy meal from El Tapatio. It has become my favorite restaurant in RI. Home for some Nyquil and rest. Yesterday was spent decorating the tree. My headache is finally gone. Today I am going to clean the kitchen and try to get rid of this cold.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!
I'm spending some quality time with Bella this evening. It is just us until about 10 pm. I'm cleaning and prepping as much as I can for tomorrow. The squash is actually done now so I can just heat it up in the microwave tomorrow and at least free up some time and some of the burners on the stove top! I'm going to roast the turkey and do the potatoes, parsnips and sweet potatoes in the roaster with the turkey. Stuffing and gravy will be done on the stove top. Peas can actually be done in the microwave as well. Hayley is going to need the oven for her pumpkin cheese cake and our pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I'm super excited to watch the parade tomorrow morning. It isn't Thanksgiving to me without that in the background and then we will probably spend sometime watching Netflix. Have a great holiday everyone!
11/21/12
Another day, another dollar. This day will not get done fast enough. I have about 10 minutes before I leave to drive to work. Thanksgiving food and snacks bought. Turkey is STILL frozen...it needs to make major thawing headway today and tonight or we're in trouble! I renewed my library book online this morning. I was making excellent time with it but then I scored 11/22/63 and well, the rest is history. Kind of neat that tomorrow is 11/22/12! I should be almost finishing it by tomorrow. You know it's a good book when I don't get distracted by a messy house, tons of shows on Netflix, or my many apps on my iPhone and iPad! Well done Mr. King!!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
11/20/12
I had a pretty good day off today. Hayley and I took Bella to Chuck E. Cheese for a long lunch. As it is Tuesday, it was nice and quiet in there, unlike the rest of Warwick, so I enjoyed having most of the restaurant to ourselves. I got my paperwork done. Work tomorrow till 2 then I'm off for the rest of the week! Yahoo! Sooooo in other news, up until the last few weeks, I haven't really wanted to get back into teaching, but my new job has me in the schools and I'm thinking I've taken long enough of a break. Time to get back out there. I was pretty much drained creativity wise and had zero interest or desire to get back on the lesson plan train, but it's time to put my family first and get a job I can retire at. Maine and RI have reciprocity and as long as I live/work in other like-minded states, transferring certificates shouldn't be too hard. I have a strong inkling I will probably finish up my teaching career back in Maine, but that is still a far way off. I will spend the next few weeks working on my portfolio, fixing up my existing lesson plans and working on some new exciting ones and linking up all my units with the proper standards. This will also give me lots of writing time, what with paid summers off! :) All I can say is in the last few years, I have just kind of taken an education break...I just wanted a job where I could possibly learn new skills, experience new opportunities, and not have to be terribly creative and I wanted a flexible schedule. My current two jobs have provided all of the above and then some. I didn't have to be the boss. I didn't have to coordinate curricula. I did however have to help manage behaviors in individuals. I have had to sit in on IEPs and attend in-services. I've had to keep, manage, and file behavioral data. I've had to be creative. SOOOOOOO even though I thought I ran away from it all, I never really stopped. I am a teacher. I am a writer. I also think that all of my experience gained in my current two jobs has helped me become an even better teacher!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! He is smart, kind, romantic, funny, and super good looking! I am a very lucky woman.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
11/14/12
Totally bizarre night's sleep. I'm sure I was up at 2 or 3 but I somehow thought it was closer to when I had to get up, so I didn't let myself completely fall back to sleep. Oh well, I'm up and at 'em now and am going to make the most of my day. I'm sure I will be ready for the weekend after the next three busy days.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
11/14/12
My four day weekend is coming to a close. Booooooooo! Not that it was super exciting. I stayed inside for most of it, drinking vast amounts of green tea and applying Vick's and consuming Mucinex. I was bound and determined to get this blechiness out of my lungs. After one day of the green tea and medicine route, I noticed a huge difference. I did read some and I watched a lot of tv. A LOT. On Saturday, I watched the entire single season of Freaks and Geeks. I still feel pulling the show was one of the greatest television travesties of all time. I never saw it as a long term show but certainly a couple of seasons. I also watched The Walking Dead on Sunday night. The latest episode was nuts, even for this show. I then switched over to one of my embarrassed-to-love shows...Finding Bigfoot. Last night, I watched a couple of episodes of SOA, followed by my personal favorite Parks and Rec. All in all, it was an excellent television weekend for me! Last night, Zach hung out all night at Game Stop with the masses so he could get his latest copy of COD. My husband actually had a day off yesterday! It was nice for him to be home all weekend even though I'm sick and cranky. Nice for me anyway. Wasn't the weather beautiful this weekend? Just shy of 70. How about that for middle-ish November? I really wish my lungs had been up for enjoying some exercise in all of that. My tree is going up this weekend. YAY! I have always gotten a tree the day or weekend after Thanksgiving but the year before last, I put it up early and I have to say, what a way to enjoy a stress-free holiday! It was up for our Thanksgiving guests and I didn't have to have my husband stay up late decorating it naked like our first Christmas...long but funny story that I believe started with a dare. Yes, the Stones know how to have a good time! :) And yes, our tree is up early and down usually Christmas day, as we're anxious to have our living room back and so we all have room to play our newest Wii games. Trust me, you need space for those games if you're anything like us. Plus we take it down as we usually head to Maine some time after the big day, and we don't have to hassle with cleaning if we do it BEFORE we leave. Nothing more depressing than coming back to a trashed house. I guess I need to finalize the menu for next week. The usuals will be there. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, squash, parsnips, gravy, cranberry sauce, brown and serve rolls, TONS of appetizers and a few select desserts. And of course, the drinks! My husband and I have honed a super yummy salad. (He does the work though!) Diced fresh crisp romaine. Not the bagged stuff. Feta, cranberries, chopped chicken (after Thanksgiving, it'll be Turkey), walnuts, diced cukes and tomatoes, fresh parmesan, croutons, and my favorite, diced apples. SO YUMMY. This is the only salad in which I clear my bowl. Well, off to enjoy my day off! Spending the day with my princess Annabella and I have some cleaning, reading and crafting to do.
Friday, November 09, 2012
11/9/12
My busy two days have now come to a close! I'm going to sleep in a little tomorrow maybe. Clean a lot. Cook some yumminess. Play with Bella. Maybe get my nails done. Definitely read and watch Netflix and knit. I had a great day at work today. It went by relatively fast. I'm always a fan of that!
Thursday, November 08, 2012
11/8/12
We will be announcing our big news in the upcoming weeks. Until then, I will continue to blog about the benign..
Getting ready for my long two days at work. I go in at 3 and won't officially be done till 5ish tomorrow evening. It is still very windy today. It started Tuesday overnight, continued all day yesterday and through the night and I was expecting today to be quiet. Nay, nay. I actually saw some snow last night when I went with my husband to pick up Kayla, which was the reason I went for the ride. It was too warm here on the coast to get any snow. Two more trees fell yesterday from all the wind. One across the street and I have no idea how it didn't take out the power line but I am so thankful it did not. And one in the woods next to our house. I'm pretty much all set with this wind. For one, it is incredibly loud. Almost as loud as it was during the hurricane. It is going to be almost 70 on Monday. Welcome to winter in Rhode Island. I can't believe how quickly Thanksgiving is coming! A holiday on Monday and then the next week is Thanksgiving! I am hoping to pick up my niece Alexis as dictated by tradition (and because she told all her friends she was going to Rhode Island)! Last year, she spent a week here in August instead of Thanksgiving, but this summer, we were in Maine for my grandmother's funeral and that was kind of a chaotic time for us as we had to rearrange our schedules which consequently meant we wouldn't have had a lot of free time to spend with her if she had come back down with us. In light of the hurricane, I feel confident in saying we will not be attending Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We will just make some yummy Thanksgiving food and have plenty of appetizers and snacks and play board games and have some dance offs with our Just Dance games and of course, get some marathons in on Netflix. Fun, fun.
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
11/7/12
Life is...
Rarely boring.
Incredibly weird.
Full of contradictions.
Anyway, so in case you've been holed up in an underground bomb shelter for the last year, this was an election year and it finally ended last night! Can I get a thank you Jesus for THAT? While strictly conservative states scare me in a Deliverance sort of way, I rarely consider myself a Democrat or Republican. I pretty much expect the government to stay out of my personal life. I also think pot should be legal. And in Rhode Island and Mass, a usable amount is now no longer a crime. Save your gateway drug propaganda. If we were to heavily tax drugs and legalize them, our problems would be solved. Millions would now have jobs. Our expensive punitive system would be reserved for real criminals. I also support cruel and unusual punishment within our jails. As it stands, jails provide meals, water, heat, electricity, medical benefits, and beds. I'm sure for many, it beats living under a bridge in the freezing winter. I believe if you don't work, you don't eat. The welfare system was designed in a time of great need, for people who still had a strong work ethic and certainly was not created to sustain millions of people for whom generational poverty is a way of life. However, I'm not sure how shipping shoeboxes to Africa helps our nation's children. Money needs to be spent on educating children so they can get out of the generational poverty trap. If you are a single adult, fucking get a job. Spend some of the time you've invested in your "diagnosis" and get an education. I have asthma, sciatica, at times debilitating anxiety but you know what? I get up and go to work every day. I also think everyone who wants to get married to whomever or whatever for that matter, should be legally allowed to. This has never been a religious issue as far as I'm concerned. Gay people are still not allowed to get married in a Christian ceremony. This has been a waste of time and money, in the sense that it should have a remained a non-issue. Legally, two people, regardless of sex, should have been allowed to be married by a judge or justice of the peace all along. Seriously, who cares?? And suffice it to say, let an individual try and tell me what I can and can not do with my body. As far as gun control...hmmmm...I love guns and I wish I could shoot a heck of a lot of people in the knees. I do hate the idea of animals getting shot for the sake of sport. If you need to feed your family, and you will use the entire animal and honor it then do what is necessary. A lot can be learned from our Native ancestors. A lot can be learned from Jesus. It hurts my heart to think how this one peaceful man, 2000 years later can bring people to such disgusting depths and use his name as a shield. Whomever coined WWJD is brilliant. Jesus didn't run for office though. He in fact left the government alone. Mark 12:17.."render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Jesus is my hero. He died for what he believed in. He didn't send shoeboxes to Africa. He offered hope, education, love, forgiveness, understanding.
Sunday, November 04, 2012
11/4/12
It was glorious to have that extra hour of sleep this morning! The ending of daylight savings is one of my favorite days of the year. In fact, I got a lot of sleep this weekend. I had to make up for zero sleep Wednesday night. I worked on some DIY projects that I had pinned awhile ago. I watched a couple of movies and I read a little.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
11/3/12
Hard to believe we're in the first week of November. Winter is coming! I guess I should use quotations for that little phrase now, thanks to George R. R. Martin, but since I live in New England, I will let him try and fight me for it. I'm still reading a long list of books. I started Sophie's World by Jostein Garrder yesterday at the Westerly library and I'm not sure where I was or what I was doing when this book came out? It is spouted by Time as a "beginner's guide to philosophy, written by a schoolteacher" mixed with a "modern day version of Through the Looking Glass." This is a book I personally would have enjoyed to read as a young adult, considering how much I'm enjoying it now, but as a former 8th grade English teacher, there are only about 5 students I would have recommended this book to. That being said, in just the first few chapters, I have about ten different lesson plans brewing in my head! I plan on being equipped with 300 new lesson plans before I venture into teaching again. Lesson planning takes up so very much time! I also see myself as doing this with Bella as she becomes an independent reader...write her letters and send packages of clues and when she figures out the "lesson" she gets a surprise linked to the lesson. For instance, a lesson on ancient Egypt could end with tickets to explore pyramids with Pop and me, or it could be something as simple as a trip to a museum exhibit. Anyway, what a neat way to learn things, and I refuse to not be a part of her education process. I learned most of everything I know that wasn't taught in school from my grandparents and great-grandparents and if I'm going to spend time invested in teaching other kids, you better believe she will be getting the best of me. Speaking of Bella, and really, when am I not usually speaking of her, Kayla signed her up for gymnastics! I am SO excited! It is just one day a week for a few weeks, but I know she will love it! I also see some dance classes and music lessons in her future! And of course, once she's old enough for team sports, she will be thrust into soccer, especially if her Pop has anything to say about that! :) As she gets older, she will of course decide what she wants to spend her time on. I guess I will go hop in the shower. It is almost 11 on this Saturday morning. I am feeling very creative today, but I'm sure a drive to NK will kill that enthusiasm. As much as I did not enjoy getting up at 4:30 am to drive Hayley to work, it was so nice to be on the road with virtually no traffic and the lights pretty much all green. I had a chance to contemplate that it isn't the distances I drive daily that drives me crazy, as much as it is ALL the people that are on the road all the time and the fact that 3/4 should never have passed a driver's test. I'm certainly not the BEST driver there is, and if those people make my driving look good, then you can imagine what I'm talking about.
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