wait no more

for those of you who have been getting pumped up for disney pics like i instructed you to do...the time has come!!! click on "My Pictures 2" on the left hand side of my blog and enjoy!

allow me to reminisce

the most recent of my memories came to me this morning when i received my ticketmaster update of shows coming in november. hanson is coming the 21st! i know, i know..."hanson?" you say. well see i didn't like the ummm bop days of hanson, but after that i've enjoyed them. my friend jennifer and i found (or were we given?) an interactive cd-rom of them when their second album came out. we watched the music videos and the clips about their lives and started to have crushes on them. i liked the oldest one and she liked the middle one (i'm thinking that was how it went). we decided ashley porter should like the third one so it would be complete, but she never really caught on. oh that was fun while it lasted! another one of my memories is a bit more serious. the other night i helped my friend terra create her own blog. and within the conversation she told me i should be a writer because my blog was so funny and that i was a good teacher. this meant the world to me since i've really been doubting my abilities lately. but it also reminded me of my freshman year at evangel and the friends i made. we did everything together and i was more myself then than i have been in awhile. they are such amazing friends that they came in for my wedding after not seeing me for 3 years. it made me think about my decision to transfer here. i know i needed to come to ncu - too many things have confirmed that - but i had a really hard time wanting to make friends here. i didn't want to leave the great ones at evangel behind. but they have been such true friends to me. even though i don't talk to them constantly or get to see them much, when we do make a connection it's priceless and almost as if we were never apart. i thank God for friends that are part of our lives for a season, but i am also greatful for friends who will be there years down the road because our time together was so sweet.

car trouble

today was a series of unfortunate events for me. maybe i should call it the "car catastrophe". this morning i wake up to pick up some of my education girls for our field trip to the science museum. i was a few mintues early (which is unlike me nowadays) so i decided to take a drive down the street where we parked nick's car for the weekend and chris's for a few weeks (chris is my brother-in-law who is going to kuwait soon). lo and behold it is street cleaning day. each fall they clean up the leaves and if your car is not moved, they move it for you - to the impound lot! both of the cars were there though - glory - so i decided i'd just move them to a parking ramp. i go to get in nick's car and the driver's window is broken (this is the third time now). speakers are ripped out along with his cd player. the dash is torn up and in horrible shape. however, they did leave all of the cds and my tanning lotion :) i had no idea where the keys for chris's car were so i tried to call nick - he's in meetings in orlando all day remember? no answer. we had to get to our field trip. after all it was class and i used my one skip when i was sick. so i let it be praying they wouldn't tow until after lunch since they have until 4:30 to sweep. no such luck. i had to pay $133 to get it back. what a mess! now we need a new window and who knows what for nick's car. not to mention my car's breaks are acting a little wacky. thankfully we have this extra car to drive if we need to. otherwise it would be more difficult. i'm also thankful i came back despite my wanting to be in orlando still. i was able to take care of things this way.

i have returned...

well, not like i was gone for all that long. i have tons of things to write in here about my trip even though it was for two days. i fell in love with disney. the trip felt magical even though i didn't go to a park. staying at a disney resort helped i think...you get a ride to your hotel with disney movie clips and instructions, shops and the monorail in your hotel and breakfast with the characters! you should have seen my face when i saw minnie!!! i was a kid again. i also considered investing in disney real estate to join the vacation club. lol i really needed that time away and wanted so badly for hurricane wilma to come full force through orlando so i could stay. even though i wouldn't have been able to do anything outdoors. however, i made it out right on time and now am back in my apartment alone since nick isn't finished until thursday. well, i'm not totally alone - i have kioko. i don't know how i will ever be able to vacation without my children because i missed my cat so much i got teary when i saw her again after two days! then again i got teary during the magic kingdom fireworks show from the roof of our htoel. nick and i decided we will not travel with our children until they are old enough to remember the trips. some of these families had children under three. like they will remember anything! do you remember anything before kindergarten? if so - how much of it do you recall vividly. if we're going to spend hundreds of dollars on a disney vacation they better have pretty dang good memories of it - and not just from the pictures we take. speaking of pictures, we took more of us on this trip than we did on our honeymoon! nick still has the camera and i will be posting them soon. in the meantime get pumped up for them :) that's all for tonight - i'm beat and expecting a call from my wonderful cousin heather. oh how i miss her! i've also put off homework and need to compose an original song on the recorder!!!! yeah right! we'll see how that goes.

o-town here i come

ok, so before i write about my trip, let me ramble a bit on a thought that crossed my mind while typing the title for this blog: quite a few cities have cool or "slang" (if you will) names that singers or rappers often use in their lyrics. think about it: A-town = Atlanta (i'm assuming from usher's use of it in yeah) Frisco = SanFrancisco The Lou = St. Louis Philly = Philadelphia L.A. = Los Angeles (ok, it's not slang, but short) NYC = New York City you get the picture. now, my question is why is it only for a few cities? what about places like seattle? or san diego? and did anyone bother to include minneapolis in this list of cool and shorter names? i mean it's much longer and more difficult to say than orlando or st. louis. what about where you live? wouldn't you like to have a cool name for it? i suggest you make one up and start to use it. see if it will catch on. i mean around campus here a few people started calling chapel services "chaps" and now it's campus wide. abbreviations can be a catchy thing. who knows, maybe it will be part of the next big hit on the radio. for now i will ponder what i can make minneapolis into. any suggestions from you are welcome of course. and let me know what names you have invented for where you live. come on, even if you don't wanna use it at least humor me. now after all that i suppose all i really had to say was that i'm heading out for orlando tomorrow. hopefully i can come back depending when wilma decides to strike. have a great weekend, i'll be updating you when i return.

teachers, chicken and prunes

today i had the awesome privledge to attend the educate minnestoa conference with my good friend dawn. every fall all minnesota schools all closed for two days so the teachers can be a part of this learning opportunity. there are key note speakers, workshops and FREE STUFF! i left with three bags full of goodies. let me tell you, dawn and i could hardly walk anymore after that load. we learned about field trips kids can take, got ideas for lessons on subjects from art to pork, had our picture taken with ronald mcdonald, won free theater tickets and more! we also sat in on a few workshops to help us land a job. for one of the first times i began to seriously think about what i want to get my masters in. who knew you could get it in technology or teaching gifted students? wow! after a long hard day of "teacherness" and work for a few hours, i relaxed with nick and some orange chicken. mmmmm. let me tell you that i have recently become obsessed with this chinese dish. dish? should it be called that? well you know. i have also become obsessed with wrinkles. on my face that is. when i go to target i stand in the makeup and face care isles for long amounts of time. perhaps longer than i realize since i'm not checking my watch. i read the labels and wonder what product i should use to prevent wrinkles from forming. i've decided i want my skin to stay young looking all my life. i don't want those huge bags poofing out from under my eyes or giant pores. but, nick says i have to wait to use those things. well maybe i should considering a 0.5 oz jar of eye cream costs $18.00!! but until then i will obsess and perhaps develop an irrational fear of becoming a prune.

lazy weekend

over the weekend the only homework i had was to create an inquiry science lesson on tropism. although it was a bit tough, it's better than the many many things i normally have to get done over the weekend. this is my point in the semester when i'm having a hard time getting through. i mean i neglected two assignments last week! i simply didn't want to do them. (and they were only worth like 10 points). luckily i get my fall break and trip to orlando this weekend and then after one more week of regular classes, i'm in the public school classroom twice a week instead. that always reminds me why i'm in college and gets me pumped up enough to finish out the last a few weeks. when i wasn't doing my homework, nick and i were busy making our house look "homey" we haven't had anything on our walls because we were scraping to pay bills. now with his new job, we have filled each room with pictures. the bedroom is italy (paintings we bought there and our photos), the living room is black and white bridges (with an amazing floating shelf from ikea) and the hallway has wedding pictures including a shadow box i made with our invitation in it. you can see them in the pictures below along with the rest of our apartment which i have never put on here before. as you can see, we are all about ikea :)

take a tour

The bedroom with the paintings of italy.

This is my "reading nook" and our "bar". You can see part of our kitchen too.

The "bay window" in the living room...we have a great view of the skyline out this one, but we really wanted those curtains, so it's covered up

The living room with our bridge pictures. We had quite the time trying to figure out how we would place everything. In my opinion, it's a big commitment :)

These are the wedding pictures in the hallway (i'm very proud of my pottery barn shadow box)

sorry the house was a bit messy, but you know - people live there it's not going to be perfect :)

the joys of fall...

today was rather eventful with my girls i nanny. it all started when we were getting in the car and the kindergartener decided to get in on her own side (usually they both get in on my side and i shut them in). i turn around to see how she was doing and watched as she put her left hand between the open door and the car while she pulled the door shut with her right hand. ouch! there were tears and screams and cries. she wouldn't let me look at it and there was nothing i could do until we got home. she couldn't buckle so i asked her sister to help, but mccall freaked out because teary ansley had slobbered on the belt. well, by the time we got home ansley had forgotten the accident and was screaming for fruit snacks instead of her hand. i guess the rest of the afternoon wasn't quite as exciting. i started reading matilda by ronald dahl to them, we packed for their sleep over, and played in the autumn outdoors. ansley raked the yard to make a "huge" pile to jump in and there was the usual game of monkey in the middle. however, i have been concerned about their language... now i expect boys to discuss bodily functions on a regular basis, but 5 and 7 year old girls who mention poop whenever possible?! that is odd to me. i mean they answer questions like, "what did you do in school today?" with "pooped on my teacher" or "went poopie in my pants". they interrupt card games to tell me they have doo doo in their diaper. honestly! however, my new rule is they are only allowed three "poops" a day. on the third one they spend some time in their room. luckily they haven't gotten to three, because i'm not sure if i should tell their parents about this rule. who am i kidding, they probably already know - kids tell all :) never ever did i think i would have to make a rule about using the word poop. never. pardon the expression, but am i an old fart to not like hearing about it?

classical please

today i made a trip to the doctor's office to take care of this sinus infection. i was running late and rushing to arrive early to fill out my paper work with it being my first time there and all. for some reason the classical music station was still on, and let me tell you it kept me much calmer than i would have been otherwise. my on-ramp to the highway was closed so i had to figure out which way to get to it, then i couldn't find the building i needed to go into. but i remained very calm. i recommend finding your classical station when you're in traffic or having a rough day. it did wonders for me! well maybe it did wonders. the doctor found a heart murmur when she was examining me. it could be from my fever or the infection or it could be from stress. then again it could be nothing at all. she said most children have a heart murmur, but it should end by 21. i've never had one before, so i'm a bit concerned. i have to go to a heart clinic and have an echocardiogram done a the end of the month. they'll stick little electrodes to me and look at my heart with an ultrasound machine. keep me in your prayers, it may be nothing or simply due to stress, or it could mean some serious heart disease. i'm a really healthy person so i'm doubting that's the case, but still you never know.

surprises

this morning i woke up and it was only 39 degrees outside! what the heck? the drop in temperature has also made my sinuses go out of wack and i will be making a trip to target shortly for alavert or cariton d. a more pleasant surprise i heard the other day from nick...we're going to orlando the weekend after next!!! he has a 3M convention thing and his boss said he could go a day early and bring me along. so we'll be heading out saturday the 22 and i'll only get to stay through monday while he goes to all his meetings until thursday. it's after my two days off for fall break so i can just enjoy the sunshine, the disney resort and universal studios. we chose to go there because it looks like it has the most for "big kids" like us. i can't wait. i'm only half way through my semester, but it's really been rough. not really so much the amount of school work, but i've felt alone and inadequate a lot. i avoid people and social situations frequently and it makes me wonder how i will ever be a teacher if i stay this way. that's just one of the many things i think about. i won't depress you with anything else. i guess keep me in your prayers, i could use them.