Cleaning and Organizing: The Refrigerator

One of my goals while to accomplish until I am gainfully employed is to clean and organize areas of our house.

Yesterday I had a couple of hours to myself, so I decided to start with a fairly small task: the refrigerator.

This photo probably isn't very impressive because I don't have a "before" shot, but believe me when I say that this is a major improvement. I also wiped down all the shelves and such. Very nice!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Scrapbooking Class, Father's Day, Etc.

How about a little weekend wrap-up?

Friday night, I went to scrapbook class at my friend Mary's store. While the project itself (a Unibind album) isn't something that I consider "my thing," I like to take classes like that just to learn some new techniques. Plus, as I said in a previous post, I'm just trying to get my creative mojo back.

Just for the heck of it, here is a photo from the class.


(Tim, if you are reading this, I'm thinking the crowd in that photo is probably what you envision when you picture "scrapbookers." Let me assure you that Blayne (on the top right), Mary (whose hands you see on the left), and I are very cool scrapbookers. And I think we were the youngest ones there.)

Honestly, I don't remember much about Saturday. We had a Cracker Barrel breakfast, took Amelia to swim lessons, and had dessert for dinner. Yum!

For Father's Day, we spent most of the day just hanging out together, and that was nice. We went to the pool that afternoon and Amelia and Darryl took a long hibernation-type nap that afternoon.

Here's the only Father's Day photo I took. Poor Darryl didn't even get to eat his own lunch; Amelia wanted his broccoli cheese soup and he graciously shared. (We were on our way to the pool, thus the hat that Darryl is wearing.)

A Whole Lotta Nothin'

This has definitely been an up-and-down kind of week.

After I wrote Wednesday, we had some bad storms in our area. After they cleared and the rain stopped, Amelia and I attempted to meet Darryl at a nearby restaurant for dinner, but I got about a quarter of a mile down our road and there were trees across it and a cop blocking the road. I tried to go another route and encountered the same thing. It was kind of creepy and scary. So I ended up going back home and fixing some macaroni and cheese out of the box. Amelia was perfectly happy with that. Me, not so much.

Finally the trees were cleared enough for Darryl to get home, and then the power went out and stayed out until about 3 a.m. It was good times, y'all. (I remember when I was a kid and thought it was fun for the power to be out. Those days are no more.)

Yesterday, I met my friend Blayne again to scrapbook. I'm trying to get my creative mojo back, and it is coming back very slowly. When I got home, I was inspired to clean out/organize my small scrapbooking space (read: the guest room closet and a small desk in the guest room).

On a random note, I don't know what has happened to my attention span, but I can't focus on anything on TV for longer than 15 minutes. I have tons of shows I recorded while school was going on, and I just can't make myself watch them yet. I have five episodes of Glee waiting for me and several episodes of Modern Family, but I just can't make myself get into either of them.

But you know what show I do like to watch in little 15-minute spurts? Oprah: Behind the Scenes on the OWN network. SO interesting! (Darryl makes fun of me anytime I watching something on OWN.)

I also don't have the attention span to read a book for longer than 10 minutes.

Is this normal??

Pool Party and House Alarm

So my pity party from yesterday is now over and I feel better. (However, yesterday I decided to go to the gym to help myself snap out of feeling sorry for myself, and as we were getting in the car, Amelia had a wipeout in our driveway and scraped up her chin, her knees, and her ankle. We were ultimately both in tears before she was all bandaged up and ready to go again. But NOW the pity party is over.)

Yesterday evening, Amelia went to a pool party for her friend Tanner's birthday. Amelia got to see all her buddies and was so excited to be there. I took only one photo, but it's a good one. Is this the life or what?


This morning I got up to realize we had no water. Apparently there was a water line leak, and some city workers had cut off the water to repair. (A heads up that they were going to do that would have been awesome, though.) Then I made the mistake of heading out to my car to get something and forgot to turn the house alarm off, so I set off the alarm. Darryl is the contact person for the alarm company, but unfortunately, he was on a plane coming back to Atlanta, so a cop ventured out to our house. It was a lively morning, to say the least. :-)

Unemployment and Bathing Suits

The Bad: So while the theme of last week was "The Life of Riley," this week's theme is "Reality Sets In: What Have I Done?"

I know leaving my job was the right decision, and I knew early on that I was going to have a week like this one (and it's only Tuesday, people).

This week, panic is starting to set in. The panic of "oh my goodness, I had a job and I left it. Was I insane?" It wasn't helped by the fact that yesterday I went to a career networking meeting was sitting in a room of 100+ unemployed people.

It stings when I see that my old work friends are making plans for lunches and things together and I'm not a part of that anymore, and I realize that life moves on without me...and while that is something I've always known in my brain, it is still hard to sit by and watch.

And I worry that I've screwed up Amelia's life. She was in a great daycare before and I had to move her to a different one. How do I know it will be just as good? How will I know that she will be happy? How do I know I've done the right thing by her?

(I must insert her that Amelia just walked in with her panties on backwards and it was much needed comic relief.)

I'm really not trying to have a big pity party, nor am I looking for anyone to comment to say that everything will be all right; I just had to get all that off my chest. And I actually do feel a little better.

(Speaking of comments...NOBODY comments on my blog anymore. That makes me sad. Hint, hint.)

The Good: After the meeting yesterday (which actually was pretty good, despite the fact that it is overwhelming to see a lot of unemployed people in one room), I decided to take on the task of finding a one-piece swimsuit. I'm going on a trip with a high school group in a couple of weeks, and all the females are required to wear one-piece swimsuits.

This was a daunting task because A) I'm not really at the best weight I've ever been, and B) I'm kind of long-bodied, and I always felt that one pieces made me look like a high school wrestler.

But.

BUT.

Yesterday, the heavens opened up and delivered a swimsuit that, believe it or not, was so flattering that I bought it in two different colors. AND it was on sale!!! (Actually, I bought it online when I got home because there were more colors available online.) Behold this bathing suit that is sure to cover or disguise a multitude of body wrongs. (I tried to get a photo of it, but they were all too small):

The Lands' End Grecian Swimsuit

And I searched online for a coupon code that gave me 25% off the sale price plus free shipping!

So, if I'm still in my unemployed state come September, I'll just put on this bathing suit and feel like a million bucks.

The Life of Riley

Honestly, this week I've been living "the life of Riley." I told a friend of mine that if every week could be like this one, I would never work again. (Darryl, don't have a heart attack and keep on reading.)

Yes, I do plan to hit the job search hard and heavy (and I've already applied for a couple), but I just needed a week to, you know, chill out.

Today I went to my friend Mary's store and did a little scrapbooking with my friend Blayne. I haven't scrapbooked at all in several months, and it was good to play with some pretty paper and photos. I'm working on an album for our Disney trip last October and hope to finish it soon.

Getting my scrapbooking on also made me get back in the photo-taking mood. I've been terrible about taking photos lately, but I really want to make sure I catch a lot of little everyday moments...like these from this afternoon.

Aquariums and Diaper Champs

Tuesday I took Amelia to the Georgia Aquarium. We went last year at the end of the summer and Amelia really enjoyed it then, so I figured she might enjoy it even more now...and she did.

Here's why I am a fan of the aquarium, especially in the summertime:

1) It is indoors and COOL.
2) It is easy to get to.
3) The parking is oh so close to the entrance.
4) Again, it is indoors and COOL.

Did I mention it is indoors and cool?

Amelia didn't stay still for long, so it was hard to get photos, but here are a few...




And this has nothing to do with the aquarium, but I have to show you a photo of this momentous occasion:

That's our Diaper Champ, waiting to be collected by the garbage truck.

SWEET MERCY.

Amelia is, I believe, a smart child, but heavens to Betsy, she really didn't give a rip about potty training. Around Easter, I finally just decided to put her in some panties to see what happened, and lo and behold, we haven't looked back.

Well, that's not 100% true. We glance back to Pull-Up Land for naptime and bedtime, but other than that, this is a diaper-free zone.

HALLELUJAH.

A New Beginning

So.

I quit my teaching job.

I'm not sure if that was a crazy decision to make in this economy, but it feels like the right decision.

The bottom line is this: I was spending at least 60 hours most weeks doing teaching-related things. Amelia was spending 10 hours a day in daycare, and that's not even counting the time that Darryl was "Mr. Mom" on the weekends and even on some evenings while I graded papers at Starbucks. I wasn't fulfilling my role as a teacher or my role as a mother to my satisfaction. What's more is that for the most part, my passion for my job was dwindling, and I really didn't want to become "that" teacher who is bitter and nasty to all her students because she doesn't really want to be there. (We all know those teachers exist. I had no desire to be one.)

So I resigned. Even though I knew (and still know) it was the right thing to do, it was still a hard decision to make. I had been at my school for seven years. I had a niche. I got to teach AP classes. I had friends I had grown accustomed to seeing every day. I enjoyed most of my students.

Now, for clarification...my "plan" is not to be a stay-at-home mom. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but I don't think it is for me. I hope to find something, though, where I can leave the office (or wherever) at the end of the day and be DONE with my job until I return to work the next day.

Even though that is exciting (and terrifying), it was still hard to say goodbye to...

...my desk,

...these friends,

...this classroom.

Where I've Been and What I've Been Doing

So, what's the reason for all the quietness on the blog lately? (If all two of you were wondering...)

Non-stop craziness.

After Spring Break, it seemed like life was just one thing after another. The weekdays were filled with the routine of school, and the evenings and weekends were filled with all kinds of fun stuff, like...

A surprise party for my friend Rebecca, who was turning 30. (Ah, 30...)



The prom. (Here I am with my friends/fellow teachers Lisa and Charlee. And yes, that is a stained glass window of Jesus in the background.)

An Easter party. (I didn't make it to the actual party, but I did make it to the egg hunt.)


Easter. (My parents came up for Easter. Unfortunately, Amelia was running a little fever and couldn't go to church, but that afternoon we put on her dress anyway and took some pics.)

(The above is a cake Amelia and my mom made. Amelia wanted lots of rabbits on it.)

A quick senior trip. (Seriously...we went to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure in Orlando and back in 28 hours.)





Lots of end-of-the-year evening festivities, like an academic awards ceremony, Class Night, and Graduation. (Here I am with Tim and Kim before Graduation. Also, this was taken with my phone, hence the poor quality.)

Busy, busy times. I think I'm still catching up on sleep. :-)