Saturday, August 27, 2011

Oh Happy Day

I've mentioned before on the blog that I hate talking about money, but I'm going to break my own rule because it's my blog and if I can't talk about it here, then where? Plus, this is a pretty big deal!
Cam and I paid off our credit card debt yesterday!!! This is something we've been working toward for a long time, and it has involved a ton of planning, hard work, and sacrifice for us, particularly this summer. I can't even begin to count how many times Cam and I've talked about this day and it's finally here. Now it's onwards and upwards - we are officially saving for a house! :)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday Bliss

This morning Cam and I woke up pretty early and lazed around for several hours playing video games (him) and surfing the internet (me). Then we made cinnamon toast at 10:45 and we're now eating it happily. Going back to work reminds me how much I love weekends, Saturday mornings in particular. Saturday mornings are so full of promise and excitement, with the whole weekend in front of you just waiting to be enjoyed. Cam has been traveling a lot for work lately and I'm so glad he's home for good. We're going to a 1st birthday party for our friends' daughter this afternoon and looking forward to just getting to be together. So here's to the weekend - hope you're having a great one!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wednesday Stuff

I'm a wee bit exhausted, so another list post it is!

- I started back to work on Monday. It's going well but I am mighty tired! My legs are so unbelievably sore from all the moving and running around like a crazy person. All the things I worried about in my previous post are working themselves out just fine and now I've moved on to other things...such is life, I suppose. My classroom is coming right along - I will post some pics when it's all ready. Wish I had thought to take some "before" pics - it will be a massive transformation by the time I finish. There is something so fun and satisfying about taking a space and making it your own!!!

- I have the best husband ever! Cam has been such a help to me! He helped me move all my classroom stuff out of my parent's house (shout out to my parents for letting me store it all there since we have no room!) and into my classroom in the 105 degree weather. He's also helped me get stuff ready for the classroom and has been so supportive of his stressed out wife. Poor guy wasn't even fed dinner until after 9pm last night!! Love that man of mine so much.

- This afternoon Cam walked in the room and started talking to me and all I could see was his hair! It looked exactly like Rick Perry's!! I guess it's because I've been seeing Perry on the news so much lately, but I couldn't help but notice the hair resemblence.



Hope you're having a great week!




Friday, August 12, 2011

Cruising for a Bruising

This is what happens when you move your living room furniture to work out on your Wii Fit and things don't get put back exactly where they were before. I guess I'm so used to the exact placement of the tightly packed furniture in our living room that moving something even a couple of centimeters can lead to disaster. And just ask my husband, I can be a real drama queen about injuries. I even show him my bruise every day so he can see what color it has morphed into. Isn't he the luckiest guy ever? ;)

P.S. I saw The Help last night and it was wonderful. The movie was very faithful to the book and the acting was superb! Hilly Holbrook will make your blood boil and Aibileen will make you cry, whether you've read the book or not. It was one of those movies where everyone in the theater clapped at the end! Love love love it.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday Randoms

- I'm enjoying my last week of summer before returning to work next Monday. My plans are to relax and fit in a couple more summertime lunches with friends. I'm trying very diligently not to be anxious about the new school year. I've already caught myself laying awake a couple of nights sweating all the small stuff. I'm not worrying about the obvious things like meeting my students or how the first day of school will go. Instead, I worry about all the minutiae. What will my new room be like? What if I get in there and there are no desks? How many bulletin boards will I have? When will I move all my stuff into my room? Because of all the madness last year, I lost my classroom and now have to move into another one on a different floor away from all the other 8th grade teachers. And my new room is a former special education classroom, so there's no telling what's going to be in there. Normally I could just go up to school and check it out, but our building is under construction and we have been forbidden from coming up there this week. But I'm trying not to stress about such things...they will all work themselves out and I am so lucky to have my job. After all, I told myself I would teach in a bathroom if I was able to get my job back, so this will all be fine.

- The Help comes out tomorrow and I am so excited!! Cam and my sister's husband both happen to be going out of town on Thursday, so a girls' movie night with my mom and some family friends is being planned for Thursday night as we speak. I can't wait to see this movie - I know it will never live up to the book (they rarely do), but the movie looks pretty good!

- It's hot outside, y'all. Really, really hot. So far Austin has had 55 days this year of temps over 100 degrees, and we are on track to break every record on the books this summer. And we haven't had a proper rain shower since September. The drought is getting pretty scary - fires are popping up all over the place, one last Friday was way too close to my parents' house for comfort. I'm praying for the many farmers who are dealing with this and all the people who have to work outside in this awful weather.

- Have you ever watched The Talk? It's a CBS daytime talk show a lot like The View, except sane. It's the one thing I've been consistently watching while I've been home this summer (except the Casey Anthony trial) and it is really good. It's just a panel of very different ladies who seem to legitimately like each other, which is refreshing. And this may sound weird, but one of the hosts, Julie Chen, has the most soothing voice ever. I want a recording of her voice to help me fall asleep when I'm laying awake worrying about desks and bulletin boards - ha!

That's all folks! Stay cool!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Matt Damon Takes a Cameraman to School

I saw this today and had to share it. Well done, Matt Damon! I do not always agree with him on political stuff, but he is right on about this one and seems like such a stand-up guy.



What bothers me the most about questions like the one this reporter (and many others in the media) asks is the presumption that all teachers have tenure. Most media news outlets are based in New York, a union state. In Texas and other right-to-work states, there is no such thing as a teacher union or tenure. And the notion of job security is laughable...what happened to me and thousands of other teachers in Texas this last year is proof of that. Teachers are subject to the same layoffs brought on by downturns in the economy as people in the private sector. I find it so incredibly irritating that everyone just assumes teachers have access to tenure. And if we're talking about unions, what about other unionized employees? Why aren't union guys who make tires or build cars treated with the same suspicion that educators are?

So there you have it. Probably the only time you will catch me ranting about anything slightly political on this blog, or in public for that matter. I was raised not to talk about politics or money in public...but I made a little exception for Matt. :)

Monday, August 1, 2011

Hello August

Is this really necessary? This forecast makes me want to cry.