Goodbye, 2006!

This is my last post of 2006.

Darryl and I are really kickin' it up over here--we've been cleaning all day, and by cleaning, I mean CLEANING. (Darryl was washing the intake air vent of our bedroom with soap and water, if that's any indication.) We "super-cleaned" two rooms, and I'm in the midst of doing just a good dust, vacuum, and straighten in the other rooms. Boy, do we know how to party like it's 1999!

I do have a couple of resolutions I want to put out there. Maybe posting them here will help keep me more accountable. Any chastising or tsk-tsk-ing is welcome if I get off track:

1. Like many Americans, I want to be more in shape. I've decided to try a new approach and simply eat less (or fewer calories) and move more. I don't want to get obsessed by the number on the scale, but go more by how my clothes fit. I want to drink fewer diet cokes, and I would really, really, really like to get to the gym 3 times a week. (To a real gym rat, 3 times a week seems like nothing, but trust me--it is a whole heck of a lot better than the ZERO times I'm going right now.) I think the gym thing will help me with my stress level, too.

2. I want to make better use of my time. I don't really think I lie on the couch and do nothing all that much, but I think I could be more productive with smaller chunks of time. This is especially true when it comes to grading papers. I typically think I need a big chunk of time to grade, but really, when I have just ten minutes, I could at least knock one paper off the stack.

3. I want to focus on the positive. This really concerns my teaching. I have a tendency to cling to the negativity some students project towards me ("I hate this book" and "This project is stupid," etc.) and let it outweigh the positive things that happen ("Shakespeare is awesome" and "Class was fun today"). I had been getting better about this, but lately this has been my Grendel. Resolution #1 might help with this, too.

I think I'm going to stick with just three--I don't want to overdo it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2007...and I hope you are spending your New Year's Eve doing something more exciting than cleaning!

Dreamgirls

If you haven't seen Dreamgirls yet, you must go. Jennifer Hudson will knock your socks off. When she finished singing "And I Am Telling You," the movie audience applauded and one woman yelled, "You go, girl. You tell 'im."

I haven't seen the stage version; I'm not sure how this compares. (I really didn't like the movie version of Rent because they changed some things--unnecessarily, in my opinion--from the stage version.) I would recommend seeing Dreamgirls in the theater, though, so you can get the full effect of the sound and big screen. This is definitely not a rental. See. It. Now.

Official Post-Christmas Post

Darryl told me today that he "couldn't believe" I hadn't done a Christmas post, so here it is.

Christmas was good. Darryl and I went to Florida to spend time with both our families. We're both from the same town, so the good thing is that we get to see everyone when we visit; we don't have to decide when to spend which holiday with whom. However, the downside is that we feel that we have to split our time, doing a few things here and there with this family and a few things with that one. Oh, well...no perfect scenario there, I guess.

It was good seeing everyone. Here are a few highlights from the trip:


Darryl desperately wanted to open his new camera on Christmas Eve so he could take pictures the next day. That was a good idea in theory...if only his wife hadn't forgotten to pack the special memory card with it. Oh, well. (By the way, the surprised look on his face is completely fake, as he already knew what he was getting.)

Here are our nephew and nieces (L to R): Madison, Savannah, and Cameron.


Christmas afternoon, Darryl and I drove to Tallahassee to visit with Darryl's Uncle Sandy and Aunt Carol Sue. We took them a fried turkey. (Side note: Darryl ended up frying 4 turkeys over the weekend.) While I don't have a picture of Sandy and Carol Sue for some reason, I do have the only picture of Darryl and me on Christmas, taken in front of their tree.


Another big highlight of the trip was seeing Darryl's Uncle George and Aunt Miriam and their two daughters, Malorie and Camille. The last time I saw them, they stopped at our house to spend the night on their move to the DC area, and Malorie was about to start her freshman year of college. Now, Malorie is a senior who will graduate in May, and Camille is an exceptionally talented ballerina-in-training who has apparently grown a foot since I saw her last. Wow.


Santa was pretty good to us this year. I have lots of new kitchen gadgets (I love kitchen gadgets), and Darryl has been taking pictures with his new camera...now that he has his memory card. I understand now why celebrities get angry at the paparazzi--I think Darryl took 15 pictures of me eating a grapefruit last night. Nice.

Christmas and Cookies

Darryl and I are leaving this afternoon for Florida so that we can spend Christmas with our families. While I'm not looking forward to packing for the trip (packing clothes for crazy Southern weather, making sure all the presents are packed, taking along things that might be needed like Christmas movies and CDs, packing a turkey fryer, etc.), I'm looking forward lots of fun, good food, and good times with everyone.

Speaking of good food and good times...my favorite thing to do this time of year is bake goodies while watching Christmas movies. If any of you like to bake sugar cookies, let me suggest this recipe by Alton Brown. I've tried several sugar cookie recipes before, and I've settled on this one for the past few years. The dough is super easy to work with if you want to cut shapes with it, but it isn't a super sweet cookie; I suggest topping the cookies with icing or decorative sugar. This week I've also made Pecan Pie Bars, Magic Cookie Bars (a classic, but I love them--very similar to your Hello Dollies, Tim), chocolate fudge, and peanut butter fudge. The diet starts after the holidays.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much I'll get to post while I'm gone, so just in case I don't get to post again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful one filled with laughter and the people you love. Happy Holidays!

Beginning of Vacation

I'm enjoying the beginning of my much-needed Christmas vacation. This semester was a bit challenging--I've felt a bit "off my game" for much of it--and now I'm just tired and enjoying the break.

Yesterday I went to see the movie The Holiday because A) I was in the mood for a romantic comedy, and B) I thought it might boost my Christmas spirit, which seems to be wilting in the 75 degree weather. (People who know me well know that I detest hot weather at Christmas time.) I didn't really care for the movie for a multitude of little reasons--too long, Jack Black's unnecessary character, and so on. However, I am very excited about one of the movies featured in the previews called Because I Said So, featuring three actresses I love: Diane Keaton, Lauren Graham, and Mandy Moore. I cannot wait. One of the other previews was for We Are Marshall, a film I have been anticipating ever since its highly publicized filming in Atlanta. I'm hoping to see that one next week, and I plan to see Dreamgirls next week as well.

I've also caught up some on my TV watching. My fake TiVo was loaded with episodes of The Office, Everwood, and Gilmore Girls, and I've watched all of those. Plus I've baked some Christmas goodies and wrapped all my presents, so I've been somewhat productive...if that kind of stuff counts.

And, in all my laziness, I forgot my dental appointment today. I have NEVER forgotten a doctor's appointment. Fortunately, I was able to reschedule for tomorrow, but I feel completely stupid about that one. Someone out there please tell me that I'm not the only person to do that.

Christmas with Casi

Casi and I have been friends since my senior year of high school. One of my favorite holiday traditions is our annual "girls' weekend," when we Christmas shop, bake sugar cookies, watch movies, eat good food, and just enjoy spending time together. We also buy an ornament each year to commemorate the weekend, and now I have a collection of nine "girls' weekend ornaments" on my tree.

This weekend is a permanent fixture in the calendar; we've managed to do this even when separated by many miles, and we even were able to fit it in the Christmas Darryl and I moved to Atlanta...although that weekend included more box unpacking and less movie watching. Anyway, we had a great time this weekend, as usual.

Darryl was away for the weekend, fly fishing in Louisiana, so I had to use the timer on my camera. The picture above was no small feat, but we managed to get it in three tries. Here's the first try. Abby wanted it to be noted that she was part of the girls' weekend as well.

Christmas in Opp

Last weekend, Darryl and I went to Opp, Alabama, to see my dad's side of the family for the annual Christmas gathering. Even though it was a really long drive for us to tackle in one day (four hours each way), spending time with family I don't get to see that often made the long trip worthwhile.

Lunch was delicious--smoked ribs and chicken with all the fixings, various desserts, and Christmas goodies. Afterwards, we played "Dirty Santa," also known as the White Elephant exchange. All I have to say is that I learned quite a bit about my family as a bottle of wine became the hot ticket item for people to steal. :)

Anyway, it was a great time, and I was glad I was able to spend some time with everyone. Below are some pics from the day.

Here are Leigh (my cousin Andy's wife) with her daughter Lily and cousin John:


Here are Uncle Joe and his family. His son Jody (now 6+ feet tall, wearing the cap) and I shared some fun adventures when we were wee younguns, adventures that primarily included my throwing him off the back of go-carts and 4-wheelers. I never could grasp the idea of accelerating slowly. Anyway, also in the picture are my Aunt Judy, Jody's wife Melissa, and their son John.


Here are Uncle Tim and his family: Aunt Winifred; my cousin Andy; Andy's wife, Leigh; and their daughter, Lily. (I can remember when Andy was born, and that makes me feel REALLY old.) My parents and Uncle Tim's family have become very close over the past couple of years, meeting every Friday night for dinner. I'm hoping Darryl and I get to see them again when we go to Florida for Christmas next week.

Here are Darryl and me with my parents. You've already been introduced to them. I enjoyed seeing them, too. (I tried cropping the pic so that the shadow wasn't in the bottom right, but my results were always blurry. Oh, well. Here we are with the shadow.)

And here is the last pic--my dad and his siblings. Poor Aunt Azalea...I'm sure being the only girl in that house of boys was quite the adventure.

So there you have it--Christmas in Opp. Have any of you ever been to Opp?

Busy week

The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy for me, as is the case every year before the holidays. I've had to finish up my grading, type up exams, and so on. The end is in sight, though--our vacation starts tomorrow.

Yesterday I did something that I haven't done in at least five years: I overslept because I forgot to turn on my alarm. Darryl woke me up at 6:00--an hour and fifteen minutes later than I ususally get up. I had to forego my shower (gross!) and morning coffee. I truly felt "not all there" all day.

I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. My friend Casi is coming up this weekend for our traditional Christmas shopping weekend, and I plan to get it all done then.

I will try to have a legitimate blog post up soon, complete with some good pics of my family gathering last weekend.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far.

I'll post again soon!

Overdue Thanksgiving Post

I've been meaning to post for over a week now, but I have been super busy. I wanted to tell you a little bit about our Thanksgiving, though.

This was the third Thanksgiving in a row that we have spent with our friends from Louisiana, Damian and Rebecca. They arrived Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday, and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

I really love to cook, so cooking Thankgiving dinner was lots of fun. I've realized, though, that even though my mother made it look easy, preparing the meal requires much "thinking through." Math certainly isn't my strong point, so I had to resort to pen and paper to calculate my cooking times.

Darryl and Damian fried a turkey (delicious!), and we also had dressing (my best yet!), sweet potato casserole, creamed corn, green beans, pineapple casserole,
rolls, pecan pie, and sweet potato pie. Here's a picture of the table. It's a little blurry, but you get the idea.

Later that evening, we went to Lake Lanier's Magical Nights of Lights. Even though the lights are pretty much the same every year (and the admission charge has gotten to be ridiculous), Darryl and I try to make it out there--it's becoming tradition, I guess. Anyway, Rebecca and I rode the ferris wheel. (Two years ago when we did this, the weather was extremely cold and the frigid wind blew up the legs of our jeans whenever we hit the top. Fortunately for us, the weather wasn't quite as nippy this year.)
We also took stuff to make s'mores at the "campfire" (really a gas-fueled pit of coals). Anyway, here are the four of us after all the ferris wheel ridin' and s'more eatin'.
Rebecca and I have made a tradition of participating in the "after-Thanksgiving shopping" madness, and we really took the sport to a new level Friday. Of course, we are supposed to be Christmas shopping for other people, but we somehow end up Christmas shopping for ourselves. All I'm going to say is I have not one, but two pairs of really cute shoes that I can't wait to wear. Darryl and Damian, of course, were avoiding the malls as much as possible and were content to watch the LSU-Arkansas game (Geaux Tigers!) and the FSU-Florida game (Darryl wasn't happy about that one).

So there's my long overdue Thanksgiving post. I'm judging from other people's blogs that it was a good holiday for many. While I'm thankful for many things I've been blessed with, I have one more thing to add to my list: I finally finished grading those blasted Grendel papers.

Additional Note: Now that I've "published" this blog, I really hate the photo arrangement. However, I've been uploading photos and trying to get everything "just so" for about 45 minutes now (I accidentally deleted some text once and had to rewrite), and I just have other things to do...like put up a Christmas tree. Oh, well.