citylife

(If I were a more savvy blogger, I would link JM's song to this post...or something.)
Living in a town like Williamsburg for 3 years certainly has its perks, but one thing I do NOT miss is driving 20 miles to buy paper towels. Unless I want to waaaay over spend.
On Sunday morning, Dameon and I drove around trying to decide if we should get McDonald's breakfast or Burger King's. I got so excited about all the conveniences the "city" has to offer. I kept exclaiming, "Oooh! Bed, Bath, and Beyond!...Oooh! Gordman's!....Ooooh! Sonic!"
So yesterday I made my first solo venture into the city. We decided I should head to Super Target to get the groceries while Dameon went to the school to check in on the drumline rehearsal. I was about to make 3 very major mistakes.
1.) Cart Selection
Don't ask me how, but I managed to select a shopping cart that was literally ELECTRICALLY CHARGED. No joke, this cart honestly shocked me all the way through the store. Like 5 times per aisle, people. It didn't matter where my skin made contact on the dumb thing, it would shock me. And not even at the point of contact! I would just be holding on and suddenly...SHOCK! It hurt so bad that sometimes I couldn't help but audibly say "OW!" My first attempt at a solution was to keep my focus on not allowing my hands to touch any part of the metal. Just keep my little fingers perched on the red plastic-covered part of the handle. No luck. I finally resorted to giving the cart little shoves and then catching up to it as I made my way down the aisles. Good thing I don't know anyone here!! I considered reporting the issue to the cashier, but knew I'd regret it. My fingers were honestly numb by that point.
2.) Placing large items UNDER the cart
Now when you shop at Target, you of course have to load your bagged purchases back into the blasted cart and make your own way out to your car. I had really loaded up on groceries, so I decided it made the most sense to put my gallon of green tea and my bag of potatoes under the cart. As I "shoved and chased" my cart about half way out into the parking lot I heard this horn repeatedly honking somewhere behind me. Again, I think to myself "I don't know anyone here and surely if my husband has somehow tracked me down, he would know better than to get my attention by blaring his horn." I decide it's in my best interest NOT to turn around. I proceed to shove and chase. The next thing I know, a big SUV has pulled up beside me. A woman rolls down the window and says, "Ma'am!" I look at her. She says, "I think you dropped your juice back there." And sure enough, all the way back near the exit is my gallon of Green Tea AND my bag of potatoes ripped wide open setting in the middle of the lot. ARGH! Thank the lady. Shove and chase back to the fallen items. Next comes classic mistake #3.
3.) Parking space choice
When I had initially arrived at Target, I had pulled into a parking space and then realized the space directly in front of me was empty. I decided to pull on through so I could kinda even myself out a little. Yes, I was driving the Sweet Sable which to me feels like a cross between a pontoon and a conversion van. I pulled through but not quite far enough, which meant my front end wasn't sticking out enough for me to be able to spot it. Yep, you guessed it. Can't find the dumb car ANYWHERE! I'm pretty good at pulling off the "I know exactly where I'm headed" face and body language while my sunglass-covered eyes are scanning the parking lot at a feverish rate. Finally I found her, quickly loaded my groceries into the trunk, kicked the cart back to the cart corral, and headed home.
Phew! better luck next time...

Moving Day

Dameon is so technologically savvy that he single-handedly set up our wireless internet in like 20 minutes. Phew! Connected to the world once again...

Moving day went so smoothly and we felt truly blessed by all the great friends and family who turned out to help us get from Point A to Point B. We were talking about it today and saying, "It wasn't just like we had help. We had GOOD help." Everyone pitched in and sweated it out to help us load, unload, unpack (a little), and even have a cookout/birthday party in the backyard. All in one day!!! I'm going to attach a few pics. Most of them I'll have to keep hidden forever because I look pretty horrible. :) I need to work on my camera skills because many of the pics ended up blurry. Oh well. Come visit us! We'd love to see you and give you the tour.

Praise

Yesssss! After 2.5 months on the market, our house sold. We are so relieved that things turned out the way they did and we're really excited to be able to sell it to a couple who we know will enjoy it and take care of it. Now we're busy packing and wrapping things up here in Williamsburg. We move to Waterloo in one week!!

Vacation, anyone?

T-minus 11.5 days...and counting. If you're a teacher I know you can relate to that uncontrollable itch that starts to creep in around April or so. (And, no, I'm not talking about the annual outbreak of headlice that comes with t-ball season.) So many times I've heard people say, "Must be nice to get the summers off," and then roll their eyes or something to that effect. But, guess what! If teachers didn't get the summers off, nobody would teach! I'm serious. It is mandatory. I basically think of it as comp time for the 180 days of the year I come in before contract hours, the hundreds of dollars of my own money I spend on my classroom/class, and the many weekends I spend writing lesson plans, designing bulletin boards, and switching my dramatic play center from kitchen, to vet's office, to grocery store, to dental clinic. In all actuality, most teachers don't actually take the summer "off". They spend their time teaching summer lessons and running marching band camps (right, honey?) or taking classes to work toward their master's degree, or starting a new job which means getting a new classroom ready and prepping to teach new curriculum. Okay, I'll step off my soap box now. Anyway, this "itch" has got me thinking about how much I would like a vacation. Our Spring Break was filled with make-up snow days, so we've had a whopping one day of vacation since January. This summer is, of course, crazy and unique for us since we're moving, so I think we'll have to postpone a summer vacay this year. But I found myself thinking back on our Jamaican honeymoon (i.e. Best Vacation EVER) and thought I'd share some of my favorite pics. (P.S. for the LIFE of me I can't figure out how to make pictures be at the bottom of my blog. I don't get it!!!)

More House Pics

(Sun Porch!!)





(Master Bedroom)

(Living Room with fireplace!)

Star of the Week

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile because I find it absolutely hilarious. I am worried, however, that it will be far less funny in written form. I guess you'll have to let me know.
So, every week a different child in my class has his/her turn to be the star. This includes several highly-anticipated events. First, the child gets to bring in family photos which get hung on the bulletin board. Then he gets to dictate 3 sentences that teach us about things he likes to eat, places he likes to go, etc. He also gets to bring in 3 Show and Tell items from home. Finally, at the end of the week, we interview our Star so that we can make a special book for him. At this time, each student has to think of a question to ask the Star. I write the answer on a post-it and they take it back to their desk. After the interview each child gets a page for the book that says '(Star's Name) likes _________' and they have to fill in their answer and draw a picture. Most of the kids ask questions like "What's your favorite sport?" or "What's your favorite movie?" or "What's your favorite color?" or something along those lines. BUT if you have a little boy like "Billy" in the group, things always get a little more interesting. Billy would certainly be considered a creative mind. I've told the kids numerous times that they don't need to keep their hand raised through the ENTIRE round of interview questions. They can raise their hand if they want to be called on, but can put it down if someone else gets chosen. Two weeks ago, however, Billy's question was just so brilliant, so ingenious, that he couldn't even sit still with anticipation. He sat through 15 other kids' questions bobbing his hand up and down and waving it in the air going "Ooh, Ooh!" I could tell that it was making my Star of the Week choose everyone BUT him. Finally, she had no choice and called his name. He was actually breathless as he spit out, "What's your favorite hobo?" Yep, I nearly lost it. And the Star was dumbfounded. I'm the teacher, but how do I even redirect that into something that makes sense? I can't. I say, "Ummmm, Billy that doesn't really make sense. Could you think of something else?" Now, it never fails that when I child is asked to "think of something else" during the interview, they always resort to asking a very narrow question based on something they already know how to draw. Sure enough, he settles for "What's your favorite snake?" (Okay, kid, who knows 'kinds of snakes'??) She thinks for awhile and then says, "...the baby kind." Phew!
The following Friday the same scenario rolls around. Billy's got a question he can barely hold in but the Star of the Week isn't taking the bait. After 15 questions (which seemed like an eternity) it's unavoidably Billy's turn. And, yes, I've been looking forward to it. Breathless Billy says/shouts, "What's your favorite pumpkin?" My Star says, "The orange one." And then Billy follows it up with, "Awww, I was hoping you'd say the heart one." WHAT?!?!
So I send the kids to their seats to start working on their page. But Billy's creativity will not allow him to draw a simple orange pumpkin and leave it at that. The next 15 minutes proceed as follows:
Billy: "Mrs. Place, Can I draw that string on the pumpkin, too?"
Me: "You mean like a Jack-O-Lantern?"
Billy: "Nooooo. That string."
Me: "Um, sure." (yes, sometimes I choose my battles.)
---3 minutes pass by---
Billy: "Mrs. Place, it's that string thing that ties the cow to the pumpkin. That's what I want to draw."
Me: "You mean like a rope?" (i know...i'm answering him as if this makes sense to me?!?)
Billy: "No"
--3 more minutes pass and Billy's really getting frustrated trying to formulate his thoughts---
Billy: "Oh, yeah! Hay!!"
And he proceeds to draw an orange pumpkin sitting on a hay bale.
I'm looking forward to this week's interview session. I'm sure "Billy" is too.

New House = New Kitchen