Memorial Day Cooking and Books

Memorial Day weekend has been pretty low key, but the highlight so far has been the wonderful dinner last night. (Max details it on his blog, and he does it justice, so go here if you want the details.)

I guess that Max's culinary creations inspired me to do some cooking as well (something I haven't been much in the mood for lately), so today I've made Max's famous broccoli slaw and Paula Deen's Pretzel Peanut Bark. I also bought the ingredients to make her Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes and her Three Chocolate Cookies. I can't decide between those last two; I doubt I'll go completely crazy and make all three in a day. :)

Also, I'm teaching both 10th grade honors sections next year, so I'm basically free to teach the books I choose. Does anyone have any good suggestions for 10th graders? Because it is an honors class, I do want the reading selections to be challenging, but not ridiculously so. I'm open to your ideas...

Graduation and Other Things

Yesterday was officially the last day of school for students, and last night was graduation. Graduation itself was pretty uneventful, but I enjoyed spending time with Kim and Tim. We had a delicious meal at On The Border before graduation, and we've decided it will be a yearly ritual. I've decided that I'm a guacamole snob; I usually don't care much for guac, but Kim and Tim wanted to have the "Guacamole Live," which is guac made fresh, tableside. I thought it was wonderful. So I guess I don't care for guacamole unless it is prepared from fresh ingredients...tableside. :)

(The fact that the previous paragraph focused more on guacamole than on graduation is kind of sad.)

On another note, I must find a pool for the summer. Our neighborhood doesn't have a pool. Before we moved here 4 years ago, we always had access to apartment or neighborhood pools. That has become my quest this morning--finding a public pool. I think I've found one in a nice area not too far from here. Today is the grand opening for the season, so I'm sure this weekend isn't a good time to visit, but I might ride by and check it out. There is nothing I want more right now, though, than to grab a book or magazine and sit by the pool, getting in every now and then to cool off. Ahhhh.

Also, yesterday was the "first anniversary" of the blog. I've really enjoyed conversing with you all through blog comments and posts. Thanks for reading and commenting!

A few quick things

1. I'm finished with students for the year. That's a good thing. To be quite honest with you, I will be happy for the seniors to graduate, and that seems to be the feeling throughout the building.

2. My younger boyfriend Apolo emerged as the victor of Dancing with the Stars last night! Yea!

3. I'm psyched about the season finale of Lost tonight. I will be watching...after I attend our school's "Inspiration Service," that is.

4. I did not watch the American Idol finals last night. In fact, I gave up AI several weeks ago because it bored me.

5. I think I caught senioritis from my seniors. I have work to do--grading my sophomores' final papers, cleaning my classroom, working on lesson plans for next year, etc.--but I don't want to do any of it. I'd rather surf the Internet.

A Busy Week!

Finally I have a chance to catch my breath and post about the last week. I decided just to tackle all this in one long post, but I'll use subheadings so you can read whatever interests you.

Mother's Day Weekend. My parents came up last weekend for Mother's Day. My dad helped Darryl with building a storage shed in the wooded area behind our house. (Our hope is to move everything out of our office into the storage building so we can make the office the baby's room.) My mom and I went maternity clothes shopping, and that really deserves its own subheading. Sunday, we met my Uncle Len, Aunt Jeana, and their one-year-old son, Larson, at Lake Lanier for a Mother's Day brunch. All in all, it was a really good weekend and Darryl and I enjoyed spending time with our family.

Maternity Clothes Shopping. Look, this was completely new territory for me. I'm in that wonderful in-between stage of being too big for my regular clothes, but not quite big enough for maternity clothes. Anyway, I found some really good sales, and I was actually able to buy quite a few things for not too much money. The highlight of the shopping had to be when we went to JCPenney and were strolling through the racks of clothes, and then suddenly I noticed a sign on one the racks that said, "Doorbuster Sale! All maternity clothes 50% until 1:00!" It was 12:30. My mom and I tore through the clothes, grabbing anything and everything that looked remotely cute or fashionable (well, fashionable for maternity clothes). We ran to the dressing room and managed to get everything tried on--we had a wonderfully efficient system going--and I was able to check out by 1:00. I actually was able to find several things there, so the mad rush was definitely worth it.

I've also decided that after my maternity pants have served their conventional purpose, they will become my Thanksgiving pants. :)

Academic Banquet. This was the first year I was in charge of our school's academic banquet. (I inherited this from a teacher who left this year and Tim encouraged me to do it, saying that I should have a "niche.") This was a pretty big undertaking, but for the most part, things went pretty smoothly. One of the things I was most nervous about was the food; the caterer who has covered this event for the past zillion years couldn't do it this year, so we decided to go the route of a (cheaper) dessert-only reception, and from what I hear, people really liked it. The biggest annoyance was the low teacher turnout. If I had blogged about this earlier in the week, you would have probably gotten a 5-paragraph tirade about that, but I have since mellowed a bit and let it go. I will just say this: for a school that consistently sends the message that athletics is (are?) more important than academics, that message is just reinforced when the coaching staff AND many of the other teachers don't show up to the banquet that celebrates academic achievement. Okay, I guess I haven't let it go completely.

Class Night Music. I don't want you to think I'm completely down on our school, because I'm not, but Friday night I had to participate in the ridiculous tradition called Class Night. It is a very long program at which the senior "prophecies" are revealed and the students read their Last Will and Testaments. Then this even more ridiculous song is sung while the seniors leave the stage and the juniors take their place. This ceremony will probably never die. Never. Anyway, I had to play the piano for it because our chorus teacher had to tend to personal business. I didn't mind playing at all, but I didn't really enjoy the 2-1/2 hour practice that it required.

I also have to confess that I really enjoyed wearing the headset with the microphone (is that what it's called?). I was backstage and couldn't see anything, so Tim, Kim, and the other people running the show were able to communicate with me this way. I think that if I ever take on another profession, I will look for something where I get to use one of these on an every day basis.

June 15. That's the day I get to find out if we're having a boy or girl. I can't wait! I had a routine check-up the other day, though, and everything sounds good.

TV. I watched TV for about 6 hours yesterday. I figured I deserved it after my extremely busy week. I bawled through the Gilmore Girls finale (I'll miss you, Lorelei and Rory!), and then I had to watch The Office to cheer me up. I also watched the last two episodes of Grey's Anatomy--what a depressing season ender!

This week. Finally, the last week of school is here! We pretty much have just exams left, thank goodness. This week will be almost as busy, though, with more senior activities and graduation. The end is in sight, though!

I will post again...

I haven't posted in a week, and I actually have some things to post about. Things are just really busy right now with the end of the school year approaching, but maybe I'll get a chance to blog over the weekend.

When I do post, I can tell you all about Mother's Day weekend, my foray into maternity clothes shopping, and a few other random bits of interest.

And I can't tell you how happy I am that school is almost out. One more week of students followed by a riculously long week of post planning! The end is in sight!

Les Miserables

Last night, the musical theatre class (which consists of 60+ students) performed Les Miserables. It was incredible. First of all, I'm amazed at how many talented kids we have at our not-so-big school. I know you teachers out there (and maybe some of you non-teachers out there) have sat through your share of high school musicals that featured solos that made you want to cringe (I haven't experienced that at our school, Kim), but all the soloists (and there were quite a few) sounded great, especially the students playing the main parts. Kim, who often comments as "Theatre Director," and Tim have done a wonderful job of bringing out the best in those students. Equally impressive was how much was going on...Les Mis is such a huge undertaking--lighting, haze, a rotating stage, etc. My only complaint is that I wish I had seen it before closing night because I think I would have gone back to see it again!

The End of an Era

Yesterday, Darryl and I said farewell to the red couch and chair. This was our first major purchase after we got married in 1999, and it has served us well over the years. Maybe it isn't the "trendiest" couch by today's standards, but when I saw this in the furniture store eight years ago, I knew it would be the perfect addition to our first apartment. Three apartments, two houses, and two cities later, the couch and chair have been retired.

Now we have a more subdued look going on, as you can see in the picture below. We like the new furniture, but I think it is going to take some getting used to. I'm particulary excited about the "chair and a half"--I think that it is going to be the PERFECT spot for some napping and reading this summer.

News getting out

So the news of my pregnancy is making its way around the school now. It feels kind of good to be out in the open with it; I don't have to keep trying to suck in my stomach, something that wasn't working well anyway.

My students started finding out yesterday (one class actually asked), and I'm just trusting them to spread the news. They've been pretty sweet about it, though, wishing me well and offering congratulations.

I'm oh so tired, though. I went through this several weeks ago, but I appear to be going through it again. Yawn.

BIG NEWS!!!

I've been waiting to blog about this for what seems like forever...but I'm pregnant! I'm 13 weeks along now, and I'm due November 6 (which happens to be just three days after my birthday).

We tried to keep it quiet until I had 12 weeks behind me, but we ended up telling our families about a month ago, and the news has just kind of trickled out here and there. I finally told my principal yesterday, so now I'm okay with everyone knowing.

Darryl and I are both really excited. Poor Darryl--his "to do" list is getting longer by the day.

Anyway, I'm not really one to reveal too much information, but I'll give you a few bits in case you are interested:

1. I haven't been sick. Not once. (Don't hate me, Jen C.) However, the bad thing about this is that I often feel absolutely non-pregnant, so this has caused me overreact from time to time and slip into worry wart mode. (I actually moved up a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago because I needed to be convinced that I actually am pregnant. I needed proof via ultrasound.)

2. I'm hungry all the time. All. The. Time. My "snack" this afternoon was a chicken salad sandwich.

3. I love spicy food. I've eaten all the Flamin' Hot Cheetos out of the faculty vending machine.

4. I'm tired a lot. This has gotten better, but some days I feel as though I'm going to fall over. Today is one of them.

5. My clothes are getting tight in the stomach. I'm not sure if that is "pregnancy" or my eating all the time.

And that's about all I know for now. We do plan to find out what we're having, so I'll be sure to blog about that when the time comes. Oh, and if you know any scary pregnancy stories, don't tell them to me. I've forbidden myself to look at any more pregnancy message boards for that very reason. I just want to hear good things. :)

The best comedy on TV right now...

...is The Bachelor. I'm not kidding. Let me clarify that I'm not "into" the show; I just happen to catch it once in a while, and last night I watched it longer than I usually do because I couldn't sleep. I don't care which girl he picks or if he proposes. Below you'll find my reasons why you should tune in (if only just once) for a few good laughs:

1--The stupidity of the girls. Take, for example, what one of the girls said last night: "This is hard. The man I love is, like, dating all these other women." Um, honey, you're on The Bachelor. That's pretty much the premise of the show.

2--The bachelor himself. Y'all, he's hokey. He looks like a living Ken doll and says some of the schmaltziest things. He took this one girl on a date where they made their own wine, and he said something like, "Oh, it's just like us--a perfect blend." Please. Gross.

3--The music. Yes, folks, because this edition of The Bachelor is called The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman, of course the show would feature the song--you guessed it--"Up Where We Belong" at any available opportunity. And really, isn't that one of the worst songs ever? "Love lift us up where we belong...where the eagles fly on a mountain high...."

I rest my case. (My apologies to my mother, who doesn't really like my TV posts.)