... side effects ...

of spending every afternoon in the child development lab:

- spending hours (literally) writing lesson plan objectives
- exhaustion after spending five hours setting up, engaging 20 children in developmentally appropriate activities, cleaning up
- insomnia caused by a large to do list and interaction re-plays to remember for future reference

It is 2:30 in the morning! Luckily it is Friday night. Unluckily my to-do list for tomorrow doesn't have an end to it...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love school. I was talking to a fellow child development lab teacher day and expressing how grateful I am that I can be a student and for how much I have learned and grown from going to school. That being said, I am so ready to be done!

I'm done with stress induced insomnia. I'm done with hiking up Old Main to go to class. I'm done with tests and studying and busy schedules. I'm not done with learning - I hope that I will never be done with learning, but I am done with school.

I'm ready for a real life. I'm ready to make yummy dinner (mostly every night). I'm ready to have a yard and a garden. I'm ready to have a child to wake me up in the middle of the night and to make me cry with joy. I'm ready for Nate to find a real job that he can love. I'm ready to stop being a student. I'm ready to be an adult.

I have one year left. I am a definite carrier of "Senioritis." I will study hard and work hard and do what I set out to do when I realized that I was in it for the long haul - and when I am done, my real life will be begin.

Until then, I'll find joy in the little things and try to get some sleep!

... allow me a moment ...

... i'm going to reminisce again ...

this morning i was eating breakfast. i made some mint truffle hot chocolate (yum) and a blueberry bagel with cream cheese (yum). as i was schmearing my bagel, a childhood memory came SCREAMING back at me! i'm not sure why today, because i eat my share of bagels, but i thought i'd do a quick post!

in the town that i grew up in we had a mall. not a very big mall, but when i was young, i LOVED hanging out there with my girlfriends. most times when we visited the mall it wasn't to shop - it was to follow the cute boys around, try on cute clothes, and grab a snack and chat! the mall used to have a restaurant called "Hunk a Bread" - it was a sit down "bakery" that served ginormous hunks of bread with jam, soup and sandwiches -

and

it is the place solely responsible for my love affair with bagels and cream cheese.

before "Hunk a Bread" i never really liked cream cheese. but, apparently, paired with a bagel and heated in the microwave just right, it is on the top of my favorites list! as i was schmearing my bagel this morning the image that came to my mind was of me reaching over the counter to take my perfectly schmeared and heated bagel from the nice cashier! i searched the internet for a picture of the shop but couldn't find one anywhere, but i did find a FB group dedicated to remembering CV as it used to be - and there were some mentions of "Hunk a Bread," so i felt a little better!

anyway - not really a point to this post and i should really be heading out to class, but as i ate my bagel this morning and thought about "Hunk a Bread" and the memories that came with it, it made me smile. and that, my friends, makes me happy.

happy reminiscing to you all.

.. so EXCITED for THIS ...

*** 10,000 ***

How many of you check out your blog after you've posted something to make sure it looks okay? Raise of hands? If you didn't raise your hand, you may not be telling the truth!

Anyway, I just posted about my cute nephews and nieces, and the fabulous day we had with Nates sibs last Saturday! I hit "Publish Post," then "View Blog," and guess what I saw?

My blog has had over 10,000 hits! My blog? Little old me who says nothing coherent and everything random?

I must say it makes me feel quite nice and it gives me a little bit of a self-esteem boost!

So, to those of you who are looking now, THANKS! I appreciate the fact that someone out there cares about what we have to say and what is happening in Our Little World!

Happy Friday!

5 Cute Kiddos & Some Tasty Food

Last Saturday we headed up to Cliffside Park with Nate's brothers and sister and their families! We had some yummy food, a lot of laughs, and of course, took a lot of pictures! We had the kids wear their I "heart" NY T's so that we could get some pictures for Nate's parents!!






We got a TON of pictures and I've posted more on the blog that we set up for Nate's parents! If you want to check them out, click on the "For the New Yorkers" Link to the left!

We had a great time, as always, catching up with the adults and hanging out with the kiddos!

... LOST ...

I have been a fan of LOST from day one! I watched Seasons 1-2.5 pretty religiously and loved every minute of it! As school got a little more intense, I started missing episodes when they were on and got quite confused about what was happening, and kind of gave up on the whole series!

But then... we got our Wii. And after that, we got Netflix. And then, we synced them together. And then, we watched LOST!

It took us several months to get from the first episode to the last, but we finally did it! We watched the final episode last night and enjoyed every minute of the almost two hours of LOST excitement!!


If you're looking for a way to kill some time, I'd definitely recommend this show!

... just some pics ...

If you didn't know by now, I kinda' love this guy!!


Me and my Auntie Cricket!!


Nate & Sam!


Funny faces with Marisol & Omar!


No important news in this post! Just some photos!! Happy Sunday!

... life ...

I'm happy to announce that life, for the moment, has resumed to busy normalcy!

The chiropractor is making a huge difference for me, my work and school schedule are now fitting together nicely, and I'm getting back into the swing of studying!

I gotta take a minute to tell Nate how grateful I am for him! The last month was tough and stressful, but he took it all in stride and was there to do whatever needed to be done! Being married to Nate is the best thing about my life and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and caring husband!

That's it! That's all I've got to say today!

~ W H E E L S ~

Two weeks ago yesterday, I was picking up Nate from work when this happened:


Ouch.

The next day, our Insurance Company hooked us up with this:


Yikes. Our six year old nephew said, "it looks like this" as he made a wavey motion with his arms. Yup. He had it right.

A few days later, this appeared:


Not the best lighting, but if you look closely you'll see my wicked bruise. The band-aid next to it is covering up a large scrape that graced my foots presence as well!

Around the same time my foot turned green, we were told by our Insurance Company that our Santa Fe was fixable! We rejoiced! We loved that car and were so excited that it was getting fixed.

We spent the next week speculating on the work that was being done on our car and when we might have it back.

Then Nate got the call. When the auto company opened up the hood and started taking the car apart, they noticed that the transmission was damaged. The car was being totaled. We were sad. We were stressed. We took advantage of the attorneys that I work for and had them help us with the settlement to pay off the car.

I went to clean out the car before it was towed away for good. I drove around the parking lot and did a double take, because our poor beloved Santa Fe didn't quite look like itself:


Sniff, sniff, sniff. I actually teared up. I realized how much I loved our car.

I sat in the drivers seat for a minute, re-lived the last moments I was in the car, and made my peace with the situation.


Then we went car shopping. For the first time ever, we both dreaded it. We searched the local dealerships and test drove cars that we thought we would like. We liked them all, but we couldn't make ourselves commit to any of them. We were comparing every aspect of the car to our Santa Fe.

We left frustrated and I told Nate that I was turning the decision over to him. I didn't care what car he picked, none of them would be the Santa Fe and eventually we would love the new car just as much. We had to make a decision though, because we only had two more days left with our Rental Car. Stress.

That night I couldn't sleep, so I jumped back on line and looked at the "Valley Motors" website. It was pretty late (or early, depending on which way you look at it), so I didn't believe my eyes when I saw a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe for sale! Same year, same model, same EVERYTHING! I'm pretty sure the first thing I said to Nate the next morning was, "I found a Santa Fe."

When we got in the car to take it for a test drive, Nate said that it felt like home. Neither one of us could believe how easy it was to know that the car was ours. We went through the motions, and two weeks and one day later, we are at home in our new Santa Fe!


Now that we've got a car squared away, our new washer delivered and a clean house, we're hoping for life to slow down a little!!

... apparently ...

Life is funny. After posting about my hellish week last week, I thought the stress was over. WRONG. I thought too quickly!

... apparently we need a little more stress ...

Saturday morning we awoke to the washer in our laundry room being removed (long story short? it belonged to a previous tenant and via our landlord, we had permission to use it). Mr. Tenant decided he wanted it, and came and took it. We pulled out the Credit Cards and ran to Home Depot. Washer being delivered in 2 days.

Insurance. Yikes. How can I dislike dealing so much with insurance companies and people who run red lights and depend on them to pay my hospital bills and car repairs at the same time? Frustrating. It turns out, the guy who ran his red light AND confessed to it (yup. confessed right away. admitted guilt. as he should have.) is now contesting the citation that was given to him. Seriously dude? We've got witness reports and logic to say that your first confession was the correct one. On top of that, our car is now totaled. They opened it up to repair it and saw that the wreck damaged the transmission. Poor little Santa Fe. How we will miss you.

So... new washer, new car ... expensive? Yes. Excited? About the washer? Yes. About the car? We gotta do what we gotta do. Still grateful for blessings? ABSOLUTELY. We might be broke for the next month, but we still have thing to be grateful for.

Oh, and I get to see a Chiropractor on Monday! Hopefully he can make me feel better!

Adversity

There is no easy way to begin this post. It has been a rough week. I'm not going to spare you the details, again because this blog is also a journal for me, so if you want to skip to the end and read the "lesson learned," feel free!

Here's a quick rundown of the week I just experienced:

- Last Friday I got hit by a car while I was picking Nate up from work. Long story short, someone ran a red light, I was restrained in a neck brace on a body board because of concerns with some pain in my chest and back, I rode in an ambulance to the hospital, got x-rays (everything came out clear), and was sent home with muscle relaxers and instructions to take a lot of ibuprofen. If you've ever been in an accident you know that even if you have no serious injuries, you end up super sore for several days.

- Last Friday was also the day I found out that my cousin Cory (who was on his way to recovery after an extensive back surgery) had gone into cardiac arrest and as a result, lost oxygen and was currently on life support. On Saturday his family made what the decision to pull him off of life support because he was registering 0% activity in his brain. His death was a shock to the whole family and has hit me hard.

- School started this week and because of my inattention to details while planning my schedule, the extra pressure added a lot of stress. As a result of being sore, working through my feelings and working out my mistake in my schedule I missed a lot of work (causing me extra stress because I had to work from home during off hours) and am now behind, already, in school.

On top of daily life, one of these things would have been manageable, but all three during the same 7 day period have really taken their toll on me. There was a moment when I contemplated dropping out of school for the semester. There were moments when I contemplated quitting my job. I didn't do either, and am grateful now that I didn't, but either one of them or both of them would have made my life easier this week.

... now a change of tone ...

Although this week has brought a lot of pain, tears and stress, I was reminded about some life lessons, and those are more important to dwell on:

- pay attention while you are driving. I am a pretty defensive driver - I am the kind of person that doesn't trust other drivers on the road and always assume the worst. When I got hit, I had checked the intersection that I was driving into and was looking ahead of me into the lane that I was turning into - the other guy was distracted and ran his light. It only takes a moment of distraction - so be careful.

- God loves me. He was watching out for me. I could have been two seconds earlier and had a head on collision - resulting in something much worse. I don't know if I was hit for any particular reason (except to maybe slow me down for a few days and give me the rest that I needed), but I do know that I was being watched over.

- never let a day go by without telling those close to you that you love them. No one knows when they are going to be called home, so be sure your loved ones know that they are loved.

Yes, it was a tough week. One I don't really care to remember. The things that happened were hard to swallow, but the lessons that I was reminded of are ones that I'm not likely to forget soon.

Now, because it is important, I must tell you that I love you! Whether you are my close family, my best of friend or an acquaintance I hope to know better, you have all touched my life in one way or another, and I am grateful that I know you.

Now, because it is equally important, go tell the ones you love the same!

The Ending ...

... is FINALLY here!

Bought it! Read it (in a matter of 8 hours)! LOVED it! I won't say any more about it because I don't want to ruin it for anyone else who is reading it, except that Collins does a fabulous job of wrapping up the story of Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire!

... visit from Kaobe & Adaora ...

The day after we flew in from NY, Kaobe & Adalou flew in from PA to spend a few weeks with my parents! We, of course, took advantage of their presence and spent every moment we could hanging out with them!

We went to Bear Lake to celebrate my dad's birthday!






We sang A LOT of Karaoke!!



We made silly hats for the kids to wear to a family reunion they went to with my parents:



We played A LOT, A LOT, A LOT of games! Palace, Speed, Golf, Hand & Foot! Apples to Apples, Scrabble, Payday, Clue!





We had a ceremonial burning of Kaobe's Fire Hat after the reunion:




And we had SOOOOO MUCH FUN with them! It was weird to have them here without the rest of their family and their mom - I kept waiting for Amanda to come out and tell them it was time to go to bed and it was so fun when she didn't! :)




Thanks for coming to visit Kaobe & Ada! We already miss you!

New York - Day 10 - Final Day

Our last day in NY was spent shopping at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park! It was a fun way to spend our final day with Carl & Lynnette! After shopping, they took us to "Cheeburger, Cheeburger" for dinner (a tasty little diner with the worst magician ever)!



You may be sick of hearing it, but we had such a wonderful trip! It was so nice to spend so much time with Carl & Lynnette! We were able to relax, sight see, see family and have a great time, and we are so grateful for the opportunity that we had to go!

New York - Day 9 - The B E A C H

Since we got home from our trip, we both have agreed that our day at the Beach was one of our favorite days! We woke up, packed up, and headed over to Smith's Point Beach for the day!







We spent a good 8 hours at the beach that day! Nate & I pulled our chairs up right along the edge of the water and talked, literally, all day! Carl & Lynnette sat back a little ways under their massive beach umbrella (thank you Sky Mall :) and chatted and read! The waves were huge and the weather was absolutely perfect! It was such beautiful day and a great way to relax!