Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Random Letters

No real post, just a few things I'd like to say...

Dear next door neighbors,
It is very rude to move from 10pm until well past midnight.  It is especially rude when she share a wall with a neighbor to be moving at midnight and to be slamming doors.  I have to teach 20 six year olds.  I need my rest.  And by the way, why are you already moving.  You just moved in this summer.

Dear eye ulcer,
I do not have time for you.  I do not have time to put eye drops in my eye every 2 hours and make 3 trips to the doctor.  I am way too busy the 2nd week of school.  And I hate wearing glasses.  Especially when my husband is coming home and I haven't seen him in over 100 days. 

Dear AF,
Please do not let me down.  Please.

Dear parents,
Please put your kids to bed early enough that they can get PLENTY of rest before coming to school.  I am running out of patience for grumpy tired children.  I am grumpy and tired too!

Dear Texas weather,
I really liked the cold front you provided us with last weekend.  I would greatly appreciate more cooler weather.  I am tired of sweating while dismissing my students. 

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Letter From Sam

Before you begin to read this, yes, we are that couple that when talking to our dogs refer to ourselves as Mommy and Daddy.  Anyway, here was an email Anthony recieved after my drive from my parents house.   

Dear Daddy,
Please get home soon. Mommy is threatening to get rid of me. It all started because my gran gave me foods Mommy doesn't let me eat. Well, those foods gave me awful gas. So, on the ride home I was tooting. A lot. Mommy stopped to see if I needed to go to the bathroom since I kept tooting. We were standing in the grass and I was checking things out when I spotted a door. I thought there was something exciting behind that door and took off. I was so excited that I didn't listen when mom said no and stop. I also did not notice that she had fallen to the ground and I pulled her about 10 feet. She is very mad at me. She has a scraped arm and foot and keeps complaining that her arm, side, leg and foot hurt. Please hurry home and save me.
Love,
Sam

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

First Grade Fun-Days 1 & 2

My brain is too tired to put together a cohesive post, but I wanted to post about my first two days of school, so bullet points it is.

*I have 20 kids.  Eleven are students  from last year.  They are a very chatty bunch, but I'm so happy to spend another year with them.
*Since I was a kindergarten teacher last year and a first grade teacher this year, one student asked if I'm going to 2nd grade next year.
*I don't think I'm going to have one student that I am able to write lots about like last year.  There's really not any real behavior problems.  Thank goodness!
*Today I went to sit down in my chair at the front of the class and I totally missed the chair.  I'm really not sure what happened.  It was funny and a great chance to explain how to be a good friend when someone gets hurt.  But, did it really have to be on the day I was wearing a dress?  I never wear dresses to work. 
*I may have walked out of the bathroom today with the back of my dress all tucked up.  Perhaps I should not wear a dress to work again.
*I forgot that one thing I don't like about the first weeks of school is that I have to be really strict to set my expectations for the year.
*I am thrilled to be teaching first grade and not kindergarten.  There haven't been any screaming or fit throwing kids during the first week of school!

It is now time for bed.  I am exhausted, both physically and mentally. 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

TaDa!

Tonight was Meet the Teacher.  It was so funny watching the kids' reactions as they realized that I was their teacher again.  I'm not sure if they were more confused about being in my class again or the fact that I was in another room.  I hope they don't expect to see me again next year in 2nd grade.  I am done moving!

I am very pleased with how my room turned out and finally have pictures to share.  I had intented to take pictures as I progressed, but I forget things. 


View from the door.


View from our bathroom/sink area.


My work area/meeting area.  I love the pollka dots on the black shelves!

Another one of my polka dotted shelves


Our class meeting area and promethean board.


Library nook

I absolutely love it.  I switched from desks to the hexagon tables and it really opened up the room.  I like the colors and the lack of clutter.  Once school gets started I will fill the two bulletin boards with our "Class Promise" and pictures of the kids.  I am looking forward to a great school year!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Blessed

I think it's funny, and a bit sad, that it takes a big tragedy in your life to make you realize how blessed you really are.  The sadness that filled my life on Monday, made me realize that I am blessed with so many friends who love me and care about me.  And not just friends that I've known for many years (though they were wonderful too).   These were freinds that I met here after moving.  These are other military wives and other teachers.  And even you guys.

I had so many people telling me that were praying for us.  I had so many people checking in on me.  And I had so many people share hugs and encouraging words.  Even though my biological  family was hours away, I was surround by my family in Christ.  God has truely blessed me with some amazing people.

Monday, August 16, 2010

It's Just Not Fair

I know that life's not fair, nor will it ever be.  I get that.  But there are some unfairnesses that really bother me.

Today, my sweet 5 month old niece passed away.  It's just not fair for a life to be so short and a mother to have to bury her baby.

It's not fair that the Red Cross only services immediate family members.  It's not fair that Anthony has to deal with the death of his niece from so far away and miss the service.  It's not fair that he's in even more danger because he can't concentrate on what he's doing because his heart and mind are somewhere else.

It's just not fair!  I want nothing more right now than to crawl into the arms of my husband, but instead, I sit on my couch alone.  I know that I'm supposed to be a strong military wife, and I have been.  I've dealt with all the things this deployment has thrown my way.  But I'm tired of being strong.  I'm human. 

Please keep Anthony and his famiily in your prayers. 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Sam and the Sprinkler

Earlier in the summer, I wrote about how my grandmother let Sam play in the sprinkler and how much he loved it.  Well, we're back home and I don't have a back yard or a water hose.  But, I do have a large area behind our apartment.  So, we went outside to play since he had been stuck in his crate a while today.  I let him off his leesh.  I threw the balll.  He chased the ball and ran back to me.  I then went after the ball (he's not real good at fetch) and threw it again.  We repeated this cycle several times and then he took off towards the apartment.  I was afraid he had spotted some poor, innocent person to lick to death.  But then he stopped. 

He spotted a sprinkler.  He was so excited.  He began trying to catch the water.  By the time I could get to him and get him away he was soaked. 

Anyway, I got him all dried off and came inside to call my grandmother.  I expected her to laugh.  Oh no, she was so excited that he was able to play in the sprinkler.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Back to Reality

It's back to reality now.  No more lazy days.  No more sitting in my pajamas until 2 every day.  No more weekly shopping trips with mom.  No more vacation to see Kimmie.  It's time to get back to work.  I have very mixed feelings about this.

On the plus side, I am one step closer to Anthony being done with this deployment.  I will have a routine to keep me busy.  I will be surrounded by 20 kids who love me unconditionally.  I will be doing something I love.

I started back unofficially today.  I helped with registration and started working in my room.  Moving grades means moving rooms.  Moving rooms means a gaint mess!  And I hate messes!  I'll be back up there tomorrow to paint some book shelves, place furniture where I want it and start getting settled.  As much as this part of teaching stresses me out, I love it. 

Look for some progress pictures of the room and some first grade fun stories coming soon!  Until then, I'll leave you with one more pictures from my trip.

Us sailing...in case the flying hair didn't give it away.

And by the way, head over to Cupcakes Take the Cake and check out Kimmie's guest post and leave some love.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Meg in the City-Day Three

Sunday, Kimmie had another fun day plan.   After a wonderful breakfast, we got ready and headed out to Fisherman's Wharf.  We started with lunch at Hardrock Cafe.  Kimmie had found a great buy one get one free coupon for hamburgers.  After lunch, we walked around some, admired the sea lions at the pier and then found our dock for our harbor cruise.

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf

Kimmie had found a really great deal for a harbor tour on Groupon.com.  It was a 90 minute tour through the harbor on double mast sail boat.  We got to see Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, and a great view of the city.  It was a bit chilly on the water, but not too bad as I was prepared.  Although, a beanie/tobagan/hat (whatever you call it) would have helped some, both with the cold ears and the crazy hair.

Our Sailboat
Alcatraz

Our view
Golden Gate Bridge-Notice all the fog
Me a bit windblown

Next on the itenerary was Ghiradelli Square.  It wasn't a bad walk at all from the pier and the sun felt great.  While there, we had some great cupcakes at Kara's Cupcakes.  It was the best strawberry cupcake I've had.  We also stopped by the Ghiradelli store (of course) to pick up some of the new Caramel Latte chocolate bars.  Yum!


Wonderful Organic Strawberry Cream Cupcake

Our last stop for the day was at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park.  There we admired the sites, took lots of pictures and enjoyed some tea.

My tea and rice cakes (I think)

Fun bridge in the gardens

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Meg in the City-Day Two-Part 2

After leaving Castello di Amorosa, we set off for Sterling Vineyards.  This was another "must" on Kimmie's list of wineries.  Our tour began with a tram up the hillside.  Once we reached the top, we began our self paced tour.  Throughout the tour, their were 5 tables set up, each featuring on one of the wines for our tasting.  It was a beautiful winery with beautiful views of the area.


Us on the tram

View from the winery

Our next stop, V. Sattui Windery.  This winery had a beautiful picnic ground; however they did not allow you to bring your own food in.  Kimmie had packed us a wonderful lunch of cheese, crackers, salami and grapes...what else are you to eat when wine tasting?  So, we found a parking spot and had a picnic in the car.  The grounds were very pretty.  We chose to do a wine tasting and chocolate pairing with 5 white wines and 5 chocolates.  It was delicious!  While most wineries in Napa do not allow for weddings (think if 100 wineries had weddings on the same day with 100 guests each, that would be 10000 people in a very small area with a two lane highway), V. Sattui is able to have weddings.  It would make a beautiful setting.

Fountain at V. Sattui




Our chocolates

Our last stop, Cakebread Cellars.  Cakebread is a small family ran winery.  The people here were all very friendly, and very forgiving of the fact that we were five minutes late due to traffic.  Here we did a tasting.  The wines were more full bodied, a bit much for the end of the day, but still good.  With each wine, we heard about the history of that particular wine.  As it was the end of the day, we didn't really have much time to look around as they were getting ready to close.

The sign at the front


Us at Cakebread Cellars

Cakebread Cellars

What would be a better end to a wonderful day of winetasting you ask?   Cupcakes, of cours.  Kimmie found a wonderful cupcake place in Napa, Sift Cupcakery.  It was a cute little cupcakery in a dress shop, the Cakeplate, I believe it was called.  I decided to go with the Keylime Cupcake and it was amazing.  It was a vanilla cake with key lime filling and key lime mousse.  It tasted very natural and not overly sweet.  Yum! 
  
Key Lime Cupcake

It was a wonderful day!  I can't say thank you enough to Kimmie for all of her work in planning such a great trip!  Check back Monday for the last day of Meg in the City. 

Friday, August 6, 2010

Meg in the Cit-Day Two-Part 1

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Napa Valley.  I'm not going to lie, this was the part of the trip that I was most excited about.  Kimmie and I had started doing Texas wine tasting 4 years ago and it became something we enjoyed together.  I was so excited to go to see what Napa was like.  Kimmie was such an amazing host.  She spent lots of time searching blogs and websites to find the wineries that we would.  And she did an outstanding job at selecting. 

The first winery on our stop...Castello di Amorosa.  WOW!  I was in awe.  We drove past many wineries on the way, but none had compared.  It was a castle!  Kimmie had signed us up for a tour and we were a bit early (due to having reschedule for being a bit late) so we looked around and took a few pictures. 

Castello di Amorosa


Us standing outside the castle


Me in front of the castle

 The view from the castle

When our tour started, we were relieved to find we had a wonderful tour guide.  The tour was about an hour long.  We saw the chapel where they actually hold Mass.  We saw the dining room and other various rooms.  But, my favorite part was the tunnels and caves.  The owner wanted this to be just like a "real" castle so he had created underground tunnels and caves.  The caves were build in the side of the hill and were used as cellars to store the wine in the oak barrells. 

If you are a Bachelor watcher, you may remember this castle from Jake's season.  The show had the girls staying the night in the castle and sneaking through the caves.  I was very sad to learn that the girls didn't realy stay the night there, as the castle doesn't allow overnight guests.  They had just pretended. 

Oak barrels in the cave


Chapel


The dining room-all handpainted


Inside the castle

After the tour, we were able to taste the wines.  Our tour guide was so kind and suggested we each share our wines so that we could taste more of them.  She even let us try a few extras.  In addition to our pairing, Kimmie had signed us up for some chocolate pairings.  Very yummy!  I think both of us decided our favorite was their muscat cannelli- Il Raggio del Sole.  A nice "bubble bath wine" as we like to call them. 


Our Chocolates

It was by far my favorite winery of the day.  If you are lucky enough to to go Napa, I strongly suggest going to Castello di Amorosa.  I would recommend though, that you save this tour for the last, as no other tour or winery will compare. 


Us in the grapes

I had originally planned to fill you in on all the wineries we toured on Saturday, but that would end up being one long blog.  So stay tuned for the other wineries and for day 3.  And if you want to see more pictures or read Kimmie's take on it all, head over to her blog and check it out.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Meg in the City-Day 1

Kimmie named the trip Meg in the City and I loved it.  I'm going to start with Friday, because Thursday was mostly traveling, nothing very exciting.

Friday was Kimmie's birthday, so we set out to celebrate.  The day started off kind of rocky and I was really worried about Kimmie having a good birthday, but in the end, I'd like to think it turned out to be a pretty good day.

We started with lunch at Leland Tea Company.  Kimmie picked out the Tea for Two which was just perfect (minus the cucumbers).  If you're ever in SF, I strongly recommend checking out Leland Tea Company.  Lunch was amazing.  And the tea was wonderful as well.  Look at the presentation!    

After lunch, we dealt with the fun SF traffic and headed over to Tru Day Spa for a Moji-Toe pedicure and a Vanilla Sky manicure.  We got an amazing deal on the service through Groupon.  It was a very relaxing experience and we even got to enjoy a wonderful mojito while being pampered.

What else can a girl do for some fun after pampering?  Cupcakes and shopping, of course.  So, we headed to Union Square.  While the cupcakes looked delicious, the unfortunately were disappointing.  They have a Macy's and Nordstroms to die for.  We're talking like 5 floors.   



After shopping, we headed back to Kimmie's apartment to get prettied up and then off to Kimmie's birthday dinner at Absinthe.  We enjoyed steak, olives, french fries, and a cheese plate.  And of course, drinks. 

 

After dinner, we called it a night.  We had to get our rest for Napa on Saturday.

Note:  All pictures are courtesy of Kimmie

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Hello Again

It's been a while.  I know.  After Anthony's birthday, for like 5 or so days, I didn't have much to write about.  I am pretty sure you didn't want to hear about my colonoscopy and EGD (GI endoscopy) and the lovely stomach bug my whole family had.  And I decided to spare you the fun of trying to fit 4 days worth of cool weather clothes into one carry on bag (quite  a feat for one who overpacks). 

And then on Thursday, I left for San Francisco to see Kimmie and celebrate her birthday.  We had an AMAZING weekend filled with so much fun that it's not going to fit into one blog.  So, I'm going to break it into segments, because I KNOW you want to read all about what we did.  And if you don't, just pretend.

So, today, I'll start with an overview and some of my favorite pictures.

Thursday: 
Fly to SF.  Go to Kimmie's.  Eat amazing home cooked dinner.  Catch up.

My itenerary and welcome gift.

Friday:
Lunch.  Pedi and mani.  Shopping.  Birthday Dinner.

Us in downtown SF

Saturday:
Napa Valley winery tours.

Sterling Winery

Sunday:
Fisherman's Wharf.  Sailboat tour. Ghiradelli Square.  Japanese Tea Garden. 


Monday:
Breakfast.  Train ride.  Fly home.

Note: Almost all of the pictures will be from Kimmie. She's way better at me at remembering to carry around a camera and capture everything.