Family visiting Baltimore

My family finally came to visit us in Baltimore (Balty). Sarah and I were so happy to have company that we went out and bought another air mattress. My mother came up from Austin to visit and then accompany my sister, Lauren, to Southern Virginia University (SVU). On her way back my mother stayed with us again and my brother, Chris, came from New York to visit.
My brother looks pretty bad-to-the-bone in this picture. Sarah and I took them on a nature walk in a local park and we got lost in the forest. We walk around aimlessly and arrived in someone's backyard a few miles away.This is a picture before we entered the forest. On labor day we went to my favorite childhood restaurant, Friendly's, and enjoyed a delicious Oreo Sunday.After that we went to the Maryland State Fair where we watched a pig race and went on the carnival rides. It was sad to see the family leave, but Dad is actually coming up in a month and we're excited!

What Jon does at work

My coworkers and I are singing to "You Drive Me Crazy" by Brittney Spears. This is what I do when I go away on work trips. Who says engineers don't know how to have fun?

This week's happy moments...

I bought gas for $3.33 a gallon!!

The blind girl I was so worried about is one of the best students in the class.

I left school at 2:30 today as opposed to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday.

Finally got an LCD projector for my class so I don't have to use those "overhead projector" things... that's what they tell me they're called anyway...

FHE with Jon after missing a week while he was out of town.

Now I've Done It!

I've gone and got myself a job. I'm teaching Spanish at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology, a magnet High School in the area. It is a highly respected public school where students apply and audition for their "prime", kind of like a major. They also take a regular core of classes. It is in the top 5% of Public High Schools in the United States, and I feel very blessed to be working there. I actually accepted the offer over a month ago, but I started on Monday. This week is for teachers, and we start with students next Monday, the 25th. I am working part time, teaching three Spanish 2 classes. My hours are from 11am to 2pm. Does it get any better than that?? I don't think so...

Anyway, the first two days have been a little bit overwhelming, but I am really excited to start. I feel like I am getting things together, and even if I have to fake it for the first couple weeks, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll pull it off. I usually do. Pull things off, that is.

To do:

Jon went out of town over the weekend. He was helping out at a recruiting event at a university, which left me all alone on Friday and Saturday. To keep myself busy, and distracted from the fact that I was missing out on a whole weekend with my husband, I made a to do list. Since no one was there to witness my productivity, I thought it would be appropriate to replicate my to do list here, with a bit of evidence of its completion, for the world to see.

Sarah's To Do List

Do laundryAs you can see from the clean towels in the dryer, I did the laundry. So what if I didn't get around to folding a few measly towels...

Fix pillowsI made these throw pillow covers awhile ago, but the closures on them failed after only a few weeks. So I spent some time fixing them, and now they stay closed and I think they look lovely.

Pay Comcast billOur TV still works. That should be evidence enough that I did, indeed, pay the Comcast bill.

Watch Olympic Opening CeremoniesOkay, so I got this pic off the internet, but to furnish proof that I did, indeed, tune in to the opening ceremonies, I will identify the only singer atop the giant globe/Chinese lantern whose name I can pronounce. Sarah Brightman. And, I'll tell you what, it was good!

Book Christmas FlightsFriday morning I heard on the radio that the airlines are cutting over 60,000 seats at Christmas time. So I got a little nervous about rising prices. My nervousness was validated when I did a search on Orbitz and saw prices of over $1,000 from here to SLC. Thank heaven for Southwest though, because I was able to find tickets for MUCH cheaper than that, and booked them (while on the phone with Jon, of course) just to be safe. Here's the email receipt, just in case you think that story sounds too far-fetched to believe.

Send thank you notesThis has been an on going project for the last several weeks, and I am pleased to say that over the weekend I mailed all but these few whose addresses I was still tracking down. Very big relief.

Clean houseThis part looks clean at least, right?

Shop for school clothesYou might think that once one graduates from college, school clothes shopping is over for them, at least until they have school-aged children. Sounds like good logic, but it just doesn't hold if that one happens to be a teacher! I think that's got to be one of the perks of teaching. You get paid a pittance, you deal with naughty kids all day long, but hey, you get to shop for school clothes every fall. Totally worth it in my humble opinion. My goal this year, though, has changed from "look cute" to "look older than the kids".

Print email applicationI'm not sure what's with Baltimore County Public Schools tech department, but it seems that the application for their electronic mail cannot be submitted electronically. So I had to head to the business center at the club house to print out this form (we still don't have a printer, and I have made many a trip to the business center- chiefly to print out directions to wherever I was going. Thankfully, the recent purchase of a GPS has cut down greatly on those trips).

Water plantsAs you can see, one of the tomato plants likes tap water. The other one decidedly does not. I blame its early death completely on its own finicky nature, and take none of the blame, as I have treated both with equal love and care.

Buy nightstandsPoor Jon has been putting his alarm on the floor for the last couple of months, so when a Visa check card for $100 came from rent.com for signing a lease through them, I headed to Ikea and this was the result. Chinese lanterns seem to be becoming a theme in this post. And circles are becoming a theme in our room.

Grocery ShopIce cream sells for about $6 for a half-gallon around here, so when they have a good sale, you've just got to stock up!

Go to poolYes, I really put this on my to-do list. See, when we moved in, the pool was a big selling point, but I had only been once all summer (I kind of have a problem with the hours and days they are open...don't really jive with my schedule) but I figured I'd better make up for some lost time and go before summer's over. I went twice this weekend. Here's some evidence drying in the shower.

Read bookI have been reading the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series by Pamela Aidan, (Shout out to Diana..."Hey they Fitzwilliam...") and I finished the third and final one this weekend. I have to say that although they were a little slow to start, I really got into them by the end. Very interesting take on the classic story. Also, going to the pool allowed me to multi-task with this item, and kill two birds with one stone.

Sew apronAprons for Jon and I have been my most recent project. I spent some time working on mine this weekend. It's much more complicated than Jon's, which I finished in a couple hours flat.

Prep Sunday dinnerWe had Becca and a friend over for dinner on Sunday, and I wanted to get the tedious part of making curry over with, so I spent an hour or so chopping onions, garlic and jalapeños. I must say, my hands smelled lovely for several hours afterwards. Here is some leftover curry. I'm sorry, but I just didn't have the foresight to take a picture of myself chopping. It may look gross, but it tasted great!

BlogI must admit that I didn't get to this one over the weekend. I think it was the book's fault. At any rate, better late than never.

Done, and done. Phew!

VISITORS!

Last Saturday night we were quietly spending the evening at home when we got a phone call. James, my double cousin, had been unjustly arrested on suspicion of having drugs in his car that were not there, and had spent half the night previous in a Brooklyn jail. WHAT? I could go on and on about my feelings about that use of our tax dollars at work, but instead I'll write about the silver lining. Due to said arrest, James deservingly took Saturday off work, and he and Adam decided it would be a great time to come visit us in Baltimore. So, they asked, were we busy? And if not, could they come spend what was left of the weekend with us? We told them to come on down, so down they came, and arrived a bit after midnight. We were really sad to be missing the family reunion that was going on in Utah without us, and the impromptu mini-reunion did not disappoint. We stayed up talking for a couple more hours before going to bed, and then attended church together the next morning. Church was great, and we came home for a leisurely afternoon. The boys played Settlers of Catan while I read, and then I made dinner while they napped. We ate together (it was the first time there were more than just the two of us at our table, and we loved it!) and then headed out for a Sunday nature walk, that turned out to be a little more rigorous a hike than was, perhaps, appropriate for Sunday. But once you're halfway through a loop, you might as well keep going as turn back. It was a gorgeous walk though, through thick wooded areas. We saw cool mushrooms, crossed a river by walking over a fallen tree, and listened to the birds and dirt bikes in the distance. (Fortunately the dirt bike sound was available for only a small fraction of the time). After our "nature walk", we headed back home for some chocolate pie and some scrabble. With a little team work at the very end of the game, we were able to use every single piece! Adam, however, was the clear winner...do not let his seeming frustration in this photo mislead you. After scrabble we had a little creative time with the pieces, and then just hung out and talked. We all agreed that it was great to spend time with family, and that it had been way to long for all of us. Monday morning, the boys packed up and headed back to Jersey, and Jon went back to work, but it was a surprisingly fun and refreshing weekend. We love having visitors!! (hint hint)

I'm cheating on my grocery store!

Since my initial grocery store adventures I have been faithful to Weis, other than quick stops for one or two items. Until last weekend when Jon was sick and I headed out to buy some sick person food and medicine. The Super Fresh tempted me...especially when I realized that it is actually CLOSER than the Mars when we take our newly discovered short cut to Bel Air road. So I went inside. But it gets worse. I signed up for their Fresh Club Card! It's actually much cuter than the Weis card. And I went there again on Monday to do the real grocery shopping. Aside from not carrying bean sprouts, the a gallon of milk costing $3.99, it did not disappoint. So, we'll see. But whatever you do, don't tell Weis.