Lucky Number 7

Seven years ago today, Ricky and I done got hitched.

Hard to believe it's been 7 years already. I remember Thanksgiving the year before we got married, just after we got engaged, not long after Ricky's grandfather passed away. His grandmother was talking about how she couldn't believe it'd been 33 years, that if someone had told her when they wed that they'd be married 33 years she would have laughed, because it's so hard for us to think of - 33 years with one person!

I know what she means. Obviously none of us go into marriage expected to ever leave or be left by the person we're marrying, but there's something in our brains that just makes it impossible to imagine what it's going to be like that far down the road. When I try to think about years and years down the road, it's so hard to even imagine. Suddenly, I turn around and we've been married 7 years and I wonder, when did that happen (and are you sure we both made it through alive?!).

Marrying young has it's advantages and disadvantages. We've had our share of arguments and stubbornness, sure - I once walked home 2.6 miles at night in the rain because I didn't want to ride with him after an argument! - but mostly we've had good times, and bad times that turned into good times because we got through them together.

I think our 7 years can fairly easily be summed up this way:
2 houses + 2 vehicles + 3 degrees = 7 years.

Oh yeah, and throw in a dog for good measure!

85 cents for a cookie? Why, that must have been 10 years ago!

I was thinking about how great it is to find money in coat pockets and realized we have a few coats in the closet that rarely, if ever get worn. Aha! I thought to myself. I might be able to "make" a buck or two!

So I started going through all of the coat pockets. Nothing, until I got to my letterman jacket, which I haven't worn since I graduated. In the right hand pocket I found 15 cents. Pretty darn sure that had to be change from a warm chocolate chip cookie purchased from the CCHS cafeteria during our morning break. Man we loved those cookies!

So much to be thankful for*

So far it's been a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.

I had a rough few days at school - a tough parent meeting (tough doesn't even begin to describe it - after he heard about, my administrator told me I don't have to take abuse from a parent and that I should have said, " I'm sorry, this meeting will have to continue with an administrator present" and walked out of the room. Yes, it was that bad), a fight in my classroom, and an overall need for a few days away from the craziness. Enter Thanksgiving Weekend!

Thursday was wonderful. Ricky and I decided this would be the year for us to start hosting Thanksgiving. We set up a long table in our living room, borrowed silverware and serving utensils from my parents since we don't have enough, set up a buffet table and beverage station in the kitchen, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with 10 adults and 2 kids. Ricky had to work so we served our meal abotu 5 pm. My very first Thanksgiving day turkey was wonderful. I used the Williams-Sonoma Turkey Brine at the suggestion of a friend (and 120+ raving reviews on the W-S website) and it definitely did the job. The white meat was almost as moist as the dark!

We had a great day with Ricky's parents and sisters, both nephews, Ricky's grandparents, my mom and a friend of Ricky's sister. There was so much food, great fellowship, and it was just a wonderful time to enjoy the company of friends and family. My mom was a huge help, even though she felt she couldn't do much as she broke her foot a week before Turkey Day. She may think she didn't do much, but I beg to differ! If nothing else, she made sure I didn't screw up the turkey!

Friday Ricky was off so we ran some errands, returning borrowed items and did a little shopping at Lowe's in the afternoon. No, we were not up at 4 am for the Black Friday sales. You know I love a good deal, but I love my sleep (and keeping my body parts in tact) even more! In the afternoon we took a thermos of hot chocolate downtown for the Christmas Tree Lighting in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Afterward, we had an excellent dinner at Aura Restaurant and Lounge on 10th and Burnside. What a cool place - a little too cool for me, I think! The food really was wonderful but I'm not sure we'd fit in with the standard clientele.

Today I met a friend/college roommate on NW 23rd for some lunch and shopping. We had a good lunch at Rose's Deli, then did a little shopping at Paper Source (I got some Christmas wrapping paper), Moonstruck (yum, chocolate!), and Lush (bath goodies!!).

Overall it's been a fantastically relaxing weekend, something I really needed. Tomorrow I'll be hanging out at home getting some work done while I wait for the delivery guys to show up with our new bed!! We've been redoing our bedroom and we're getting down to the end. Still need to choose a paint color, find nightstands and a dresser, and get new blinds for the window. All in good time, though. It already looks incredible since Ricky installed beautiful new wainscoting. What a change that made!

I hope you all have had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as I have. I am truly in a wonderful, holiday spirit. Here's to keeping it through the next 26 days and beyond!






*It's killing me that the title is grammatically incorrect, as it should read "so much for which to be thankful" but that sounded kind of odd and pretentious so I went for the more common version. It's all I can do not to change it! I am a freak.

Insanity

Before I continue, let me make this disclaimer:

I am glad to have a job! For the most part, I love what I do, I love my students, and I am oh-so-glad to be employed.

That said, it is insane. At last count I had 240 students in 6 periods. I rarely work fewer than 10 hours a day and I'm still behind. It took 3 hours to grade a 10 point quiz because there were so many of them. I feel like I'm brand new at this. The only good thing is, I'm not the only one. All of the teachers in my school are working crazy hours. We're all behind on our grading. We're all feeling frazzled.

Not to mention we're having some major behavior problems we haven't had in the past. That couldn't possibly be linked to the fact that we're serving 100 more students this year than last with 1/3 fewer teachers, could it?

Needless to say, life is insanity. I also committed to stage managing The Laramie Project prior to being recalled to my job. It has been such an incredible experience but if I'd know then what I know I might not have done it. Eh, what am I saying, of course I would have! But I am looking forward to Saturday when the show closes and I can feel like I have some free time again.

catching up

Apologies for my prolonged absence. I'm working on finishing the college memories posts. I was going to wait until those were done to post this, but decided not to.

I got my job back. I know, right? In the midst of our economic crisis, when districts are cutting jobs like crazy, I managed to get my job back. I don't know all the details of how it happened, but I know this. The school board voted to add 27 teaching positions back to the schools. Our school got 2. I was one of the positions recalled. I also know my principal was working hard for weeks to get me back. I am now teaching drama full time. So not only was I rehired, but I'm full time instead of part time.

Things are crazy busy since everything is incredibly different, with bigger class sizes, longer terms and a completely different daily schedule. I now see the kids every day for 18 weeks instead of every other day for 12. Since I wasn't rehired until 2 weeks before school started, well, I've had a lot of work to do.

I've got a lot more going on in my life than that, but I'll post about it later. Now I need to get to bed.

College Memories #5: Whirlpools and Wheelchairs

The saying in the training room was that if you were never hurt as a high school athlete you'd spend all your time in the training room in college, and vice versa. I was one of the lucky ones who got to spend hours in the training room each week for therapy and treatment.

My catcher and I used to joke that we'd be in wheelchairs by the time we were 40. I have 12 years to go, and I'm not so sure we were wrong! We used to get in the whirlpools after games to help with the muscle pain. Sounds lovely, doesn't? Two close friends hanging out in the whirlpool after a game...

Yeah, well, it's not. In training room terms a whirlpool is an ice bath. Yes, an ice bath. You know which body parts I had to whirlpool? My hip flexer, hamstrings and lower back. Guess what that means? You guessed it - sitting in the stupid whirlpool with who knows how many pounds of ice swirling around. I'm surprised I still have all my toes.

College Memories #6: White Bouquet

Our sophomore year, Amy and I decided it would be good to have an air freshener for our room. I can't remember if she picked it up or if her mom did, but neither of them knew of my sensitivity to floral smells (as in, I can't stand them and they give me a headache). I thought it would be ok, but the Glade plug in was just too powerful for our little room, even on the lowest setting. So, being the smart college sophomores we were, we unplugged it and set it on the dresser.

Set it on the dresser, next to the stereo remote, not thinking about the fact that oil is viscous and permeates just about anything meant to hold it in...especially something meant to let the vapors out. Yeah, that's right, it leaked all over the place.

Our room reeked of White Bouquet, the offending odor, for weeks. Finally we got rid of it. Until one day....

Amy and I both snapped our heads up from our books. What was that smell. Could it be? No, it'd been months. But it was! Where was it coming from? Not our room...let's go, we'll figure it out.

And like Toucan Sam we followed our noses and found that people at the end of the floor had a plug in air freshener in - you guessed it - White Bouquet.