Big words, dancing vegetables, sad realities and aqua aerobics

On Friday night, I pulled one on Bryan. I said the word "wistful" which he claims to not know the meaning to and has never heard before. Following this realization, he called two friends who we both agreed frequently drop big words and appear smart, but they had never heard this word before either. Jokingly, I said " Maybe you need to get smarter friends" to which he replied "Maybe you need to quite talking down." I thought about this later and came to this conclusion: I have known for a long time that Bryan is incredibly smart, though in very different ways (such as common sense, the "ways of the world" and most importantly, how things WORK). I would not call myself smart but I know that things came very easy to me in school, so I guess that makes me book smart. Especially being a teacher and seeing how kids struggle, with myself struggling to understand why they struggle, I realize that I was pretty smart in school. Nowadays, I feel there is so much I do not know, and because I have four years of college plus graduate school and a big vocabulary does not make me smart. But together, I think Bryan and I make a pretty good team. And I will pull the "big word" card again when I feel Bryan is getting smarter than I.

If you want to laugh and get a stupid song in your head, go to You Tube and look up Veggie Tales: The Cheeseburger song. This, along with a stupid video of a robot humping a volt meter has gotten us cracking up all week. And then there are the songs by Simon and Garfunkel that Bryan loves to dance to, I discovered after watching the movie "The Graduate". Apparently, he was a fan of "Mrs. Robinson" growing up.

On a more sad note, I learned tonight after school that one of my students is going to be leaving. The company that her dad owns and operates has not been doing well and over the past year they have lost everything, and finally now, their house. This was not a surprise, as I have a fairly close relationship with the familyand she (mom) has been very open about their struggle. All along, I have admired how much they have sacrificed, especially to keep their children in a good, Christian school. Their faith in the Lord and the peace that they have now, with everything falling apart around them, is so admirable as well. They still have so many blessings and God is helping them out in so many ways. For example, Bryan fixed their truck as the axle was falling apart in the back end and an anonymous donor paid for most of the work, which ended up being $1500. This was their only car, and during this time someone let them borrow another car. And the kids have been able to stay at our school thanks to other generous people as well. This is such a good family, who have been steadfast and so willing to help others as well, that it is heartbreaking to see. But their determination is a good example of how God can provide peace and will take care of them through their struggles. I am going to miss my little first grader, who I will admit was one of my favorites, but I know God has bigger plans. And this story is a testament to the fact that you can be rich one minute and poor the next, but God will always be there.

Tonight after work Bryan and I headed to the gym. I was late but I wanted to try an aqua aerobics class. It actually ended up being really cool. I was the youngest, and dare I say skinniest, person in the class and it was hard work! It covered the situps, pilates, and aerobic exercises I try to do each day in one 50 minute class! The best part was that no one could see me sweating! Now maybe I can work up the nerve to try other classes....my co-worker keeps suggesting kick boxing with her but I will really need a lot of confidence and agility (not to mention coordination) for that one!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

And so it begins

This weekend was one of those weekends that do not come along very often. Those weekends when you feel like you had just the right amount of fun and work accomplished. Of course, there is still a lot I could have done. There is this obsessive part of me that wants to get some work done that I have assigned to myself since the beginning of the school year (reviewing books on teaching practices I have not read since grad school)that I still put off, but I did get my basic cleaning done around the apartment AND Bryan and I got a terrific start to Christmas shopping today, rather unintentionally. But I did this all in the fashion I always strive for: work done on Saturday, rest and fun on Sunday. Usually, it ends up the other way around and I am lazy on Saturday and scrambling to clean up the pieces on Sunday night. Well, here it is almost midnight on Sunday night and we had a fun, albeit busy, day today, so I do have to make this quick.

On Friday night, we went to dinner and a movie. The movie was good...it was American Gangster which was a true story (my favorite part) and it had lots of action (for Bryan). The food was a cute little Mongolian restaurant which I liked but still to this moment did not agree with Bryan! Saturday, we had another outlet installed for internet in our new apartment so now we are not tripping over cords, and I got some errands done and called some friends and visited my parents. Then I made a terrific Nacho dinner (if I do say so myself) and had Brad (Bryan's brother) over for a movie. After the movie (*another good one: Reign on Me) I cleaned the apartment. Today, we went to church, got coffee (Praise God for Peppermint Mochas at Starbucks!) and went to teh Woodburn Outlet stores. Mainly, I was looking for a replacement for my absolute most favorite leather bag I got on our honeymoon (which I did not end up finding) but we got ALL of our nieces and nephews their Christmas gifts. Then after we drove home, we went to the gym and did more errands (Bryan got his hair cut) and came home and had dinner (Praise the Lord once again for delicious leftover Nachos!). Then we decided to continue on our Christmas shopping tirade and went to Target, then to Bryan's parents, where we dropped off the purchases heading north to Seattle tomorrow with his dad, who will be working near his sister's family.

And now, it is midnight and I had best get myself to bed. Even though we were busy, I am still wide awake with the adrenaline from shopping! I am so relieved that we are over halfway done! And, best of all, it was a great weekend spent with my husband who I am so thankful for. I hope you all (whoever you are...no thanks for no comments!!! Just kidding!) have a great week! Have a happy, happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for you, my family, friends and fellow blog readers!:-)

Stripped

So this has been quite a week. Parent conferences, wedding planning, finalizations with the moving process, Bryan is not feeling so well, I am praying to not get sick despite having numerous sick kiddos, AND our computer dies!!! Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, all these things have cost me money, which with the holidays coming up, I do not feel as though we are in excess of. Tonight is my first night back on our rebuilt computer and I am seething. I LOST ALL MY FAVORITES!!!! I sat down to catch up on my blogs and finances, etc, and all my websites I had earmarked and categorized are GONE! I am dreading the day when I realize that an all-important Word Doc that I need is not saved to my jump drive or there are pictures from the last year that we will never see again. Our computer was literally only 5 months old. GRRRRRR.....

But tonight was a great night...Bryan went to the bachelor party and I got my nails done with my sister in law and then headed to my community group to eat dinner and play Mad Gab, which is the funniest game ever. I highly recommend it. Well, husband just got home from his big night out. Ive got to hear all about it....

Home of the new Guitar Heroes

If anyone is interested in coming over, Bryan purchased himself the newest Guitar Hero game set for PS2, complete with two guitars for head to head competitions. And when I pay him back, it will be his christmas present :-) Our new apartment has been filled with the noises of old rock ballads and bad-ass guitar strumming. I decorated my guitar with stars to make it as feminine as possible and Bryan put skull head stickers on his. When we play, I am this chick in a black bra with thong straps coming out of her pants and Bryan is this punk rocker dude with a mohawk. It really is very exciting. I hear there is another game coming out called Rock Band (or something like that) which includes all kinds of musical instruments. I personally have a fascination with drums. I would LOOOOOOVE to have a drumset and take lessons, but I am sure my surrounding neighbors in this building would have a problem with that. But our goal one day is for Bryan to learn the real guitar and me the drums. I have this fantasy of Bryan and I playing songs together and our baby sitting in a car seat on the floor next to us clapping his/her hands along with the beat. We are going to be such cool parents. But I will remember to keep my thong straps inside and my shirt on over my bra. My alter ego will be forced to remain in PS2 land.

Other news this week: I got my hair done, again! And this time it was way more successful. In exchange for babysitting Melissa's son Jacob (1 year) on Saturday, I got an incredible deal (almost free) on my hair. She cut it chin length, slightly shorter in the back, dyed it darker brown with deep cherry red highlights. If my hair were not so thick and wavy, I would like it better but I got lots of compliments today at work.

We sealed the deal on our other apartment and I am praying for a full refund of the security deposit. No, we did not have a cat living with us. Where would you get that idea? :-)The moving process went well, and we are completely settled into our new apartment and enjoying the space and the clean carpets and brightness of it all. Bryan just has to hang a few more things up. I have been struggling with getting all of our household accounts switched over (cable, internet, etc) and address changed. We have two different Comcast guys coming this weekend for two apparently unrelated reasons. We dealt with a lot of frustration this week with our cable tv, and at one point the phone line was dead, and at another time we could not get internet. Ah, the joys.

Happy Halloween, by the way! I cannot believe what a big deal this "holiday" is not to me anymore. I guess that is another part of growing up. I was not even really that interested in talking about it with my kids at school. And surprisingly, they did really well in containing their excitement! Bryan and I just went out to eat, to Target and to Home Depot. We did not have one trick or treater!

The rest of this weekend will be filled with errands, chores, school work. Next weekend is the BIG wedding weekend! I am so excited for Kendra (Bryan's sister) and Mark. It will be great to see all the family again. And my parents are invited too, which makes me happy. I like it when families can converge and share in the same joys!

H mmm...well I guess that is it. Tonight Bryan and I went out to eat (again! ...I know). While eating, he suggested we stay out and do something fun. Needless to say, nothing panned out so we are back here. I am blogging and he is in the garage. But I think I will start a movie....Have a good weekend!