For Nana

Those Winter Olympics...

Now that the Winter Olympics are over, maybe I can return to my blog. :-)

I hope to have a new post soon, and don't be surprised if it contains my Top 5 Olympic Moments from the past two weeks.

Because I'm a bit of a fanatic...and maybe slightly traumatized that it's over.

My mother also wants me to post a cute video of Amelia, and I'm trying to figure out how to do that.

So...more posts soon!

The Week in Review--Amelia, Olympics, Etc.

Amelia with the Grandparents. My parents took Amelia back with them last Monday and kept her for the week! They spoiled her rotten with tea parties, beach trips, and more, and she had a great time. We met them halfway between our house and theirs yesterday to get her. I was so glad to see her, and I was thrilled when she came running toward me with a big smile and gave me a huge hug. Quite frankly, I was a little concerned that she had been having such a good time with them that she'd run away from me and want to go back with them!

Anyway, while we missed Amelia terribly, we did enjoy having a little break and some quiet around the house. We went to a movie this week (Valentine's Day, which I enjoyed even though the critics hated it), and we ate out just about every night at restaurants that aren't exactly the most kid-friendly. I also got to have dinner with my friend Sheri one evening, and that was fun, too.

But we're definitely glad Amelia's home!

The Winter Olympics, especially Men's Figure Skating. I'm going to totally geek out on you right now and confess that I stayed up until 12:30 a.m Thursday (really Friday) to watch Evan Lysacek win the gold...even though I had to get up four hours later.

I'm a big figure skating nerd and have been ever since I watched Scott Hamilton and Katarina Witt win the gold in 1984. I don't follow it as closely as I used to; in fact, I've never even heard of the skaters on the women's team, but I had heard of the skaters on the men's team (I even saw Lysacek and Weir skate "live" before at an event in Atlanta about six years ago) and heard all the buzz that this was probably our strongest and first real chance reclaiming the gold since 1988.

Making this even better was the fact that Evgeny Plushenko--a skater who has been around for years and had recently come out of retirement to repeat his victory in Torino--was one of the contenders. I've never liked him only because he comes across as extremely arrogant (as evidenced by his sour grapes attitude since Thursday night).

Anyway, it was totally worth the lack of sleep because Lysacek won the gold with a difficult and beautifully choreographed program, and apparently it was, in the words of the commentators, "the skate of his life." Plushenko landed a quad, but other than that, his program was lackluster. I liked the fact that the "total package"--athleticism and artistry--won out over one impressive jump.

I'm also happy for Lysacek's coach, 71-year-old Frank Carroll, who has come this close to having an Olympic champion before (he coached one of my faves, The Kwan), and now he finally has his champion.

And since I've totally just shown my figure skating geekiness...let me just go all the way and show you what is my Picture of the Day (for my Project Life album) for Thursday:


I know. Sometimes I scare myself. I just LOVE great Olympic stories. :-)

The diet. It's going very well. I haven't exercised at all, but I've done very well with my food intake, even with all the eating out we've done this week. I've made Tuesday my weigh-in day, and I'm curious to see the results. My goal this week is to add a little exercise.

And in conclusion...I've got lots and lots and lots to grade, so I better get to it. Someone remind me why I chose English as my subject to teach....?

Weight Loss, Take 482.

If you're rolling your eyes at me, I completely understand.

I wonder how many posts I've devoted to "I'm turning over a new leaf--skinny, here I come" posts.

I really don't want to know.

I've got to do something. I started Weight Watchers online today. My goal is to lose 20 pounds.

I thought photographic evidence of my goals might motivate me, so here I go. (Don't worry--you're not about to see any photos of me in a sports bra, a la The Biggest Loser.)

My first goal is that I want to fit into these black pants. I bought them at a killer price at Ann Taylor Loft, and I love them. At the time, I needed to lose maybe 5 pounds for them to fit well, but the price was good and I was convinced I would lose the pounds, so I bought them. Not only did I NOT lose those pounds, but I gained about five more. So in about 10 pounds from now, I should be able to wear these pants.

My next goal is to be able to wear this shirt (which also goes with a very cute size-8 denim skirt). I bought this outfit right after I lost all my baby weight...and it fit for about 2 weeks before I started putting weight back on (more about that in a minute).
The spot on the shirt is something with the camera I think; this shirt doesn't have a big grease spot on it. Anyway, I think this shirt is about 13 pounds away.

And last, but not least, is this sundress. I would really like to be able to wear it in May...maybe for Mother's Day or something? I'd say this dress is 20 pounds away. (And it is prettier in person.)


After I had Amelia, I actually did very well with losing the baby weight. Then at the beginning of that summer, Darryl's dad passed away and we spend a lot of time in our hometown. Now, some of the best cooks ever live in my hometown, and people there tend to show their love in homemade cakes, casseroles, and any other form of comfort food. I remember distinctly a butternut cake--and I mean a BUTTERnut cake that left a big grease spot on the paper towel--that changed my life (and increased my weight).

And I never got it back under control. I could play the blame game all day long; the stress of being a first-time mom, the stress of work and a new principal, the fun of cooking and enjoying what I've cooked have all contributed to my poor eating habits.

But I'm tired of feeling yucky and out of shape. I believe I'll be successful because I'm just READY to feel better. And spring and summer are on the way, so that means pool time. Shorts. Sundresses.

Here's to thinner, healthier days ahead!

Snow, Valentine's Day, Cupcakes!

As I already mentioned, we got a good bit of snow...several inches. Amelia loved shuffling around in it. The snow was actually too powdery to make a decent snowman (and do I even know how to build one, anyway), but we tried some snow angels and just walked around in the yard. It's amazing how a covering of snow can make your all-too-familiar yard look like a different world.


My parents came up Saturday, and Darryl and I went out Saturday night to The Capital Grille, which is really one of our favorite "special" restaurants. We get the same thing every time, but it's so, so good.

On Sunday, my mom and Amelia made Valentine's cupcakes. Once again, Amelia was a pro with the sprinkles.
Notice the cupcake apron. Nana even made sure that Amelia had the appropriate attire.

She was also a pro at eating the cupcakes.
(FYI...I promise we feed our child food besides cookies and cupcakes.)

Cookies!

With the exception of a short excursion to Chick-fil-a, Amelia and I stayed home today. We decided to bake and decorate some Valentine cookies. Festive, yes?

I'll confess that these cookies were not only store-bought dough, but they were also already rolled out and cut into little hearts. Now typically I'm all about making the cookies from scratch, but I figured Amelia would really have more fun decorating them, so that was really my main priority.

Here she is with the cookies, before they went to the oven. (She wanted some of that dough SO badly, but I'm still Paranoid Mom who thinks her daughter will get salmonella. Of course, I ate some, but whatever.)


She really enjoyed shaking the sprinkles on.

And she enjoyed tasting her creations. (I think Elmo was hoping for a cookie.)
On a different note, we got several inches of snow today--definitely the most we've gotten since we moved here seven years ago. I'll definitely have to get some pictures tomorrow. It was still falling after dark and I didn't want to mess up my camera. :)

Valentine's Party

Amelia's daycare class had their Valentine's party Wednesday since Thursday was a half-day (thanks, teacher furloughs) and today is full day off (thanks again, teacher furloughs).

Anyway, the party was super-cute. Amelia had a smile like this on her face the entire time.



Here's a pic of Amelia with her friend Tanner. Amelia LOVES Tanner. Whenever we're getting ready to go to school in the morning, I ask her if she is ready to see her friends, and she says, "See Tanner? My Tanner?" Sweet.

Here's a pic of the whole group.

Here's Amelia, checking out a valentine from her box:
I love these little parties. The daycare teachers do such a great job in making each child feel very special. Amelia had such a fun time (and so did her mommy)!

Oops...I Did It Again

I neglected my blog again. It's easy to do. Life gets so busy, and I've really been trying to get in bed by 10 or 10:30.

But here I am.

I don't really have much to report. I really have been making an effort to cook at home more (this is HUGE for me), and last Sunday, I made this deliciousness, homemade chicken and noodles:



And might I add that the yumminess you see in the left corner is blackberry cobbler.

I know. I don't know what came over me. It was all delicious and definitely thwarted my efforts to lose 10 (or more) pounds.

Speaking of thwarted efforts, about as soon as I posted how well I was doing with Wii Fit Active, I haven't done it again. I'm hoping to get back on it this week.

I've had a yucky teaching week with a few of my classes. I really am feeling the need to reinvent the wheel but am struggling to find the motivation to do it. Sometimes I think that I could light myself on fire and do a dance and they still wouldn't be engaged with what is going on.

Instead of leaving on a negative note, I'll leave you with this photo. Amelia and I were playing with her Elmo answering machine, and she was getting completely cracked up over the sound of her voice being played back to her. Cute!

TV, Amelia, Wii Fit--Just a Variety of Subjects

I had barely started my teaching day yesterday when the daycare called to tell me that Amelia had a fever...a grand fever of 100.3. Apparently some kind of fever bug is making its way through her classroom, and the symptoms are a fever and nothing else. After scrambling to make some lesson plans for the rest of the day, I picked her up. She acted fine and played when we got home. We even had lunch with Darryl.

And because she has to be fever-free for 24 hours, I stayed home with her today. I do love Amelia's daycare and realize their rules about this stuff are the same as every other daycare's rules, but she really is fine.

(Edited to add: This post has taken me three days to write, if that is any indication of the craziness of my life this week. I went to school yesterday--Wednesday--only to leave after 6th period because Amelia had another fever. And now we're home again today.)

So I have a little blogging time. I'm going to post about random things that have been going on.

TV. I haven't blogged about TV in forever. I don't watch nearly the amount I used to (is that a good thing?), and really when I say I "watch" TV, it means I have it on while I do other things like laundry or lunches, or I have a back-up of DVR'd shows that I have to make an effort to watch in one sitting. (I stayed up until 1 in the morning watching 1 episode of Friday Night Lights and 3 episodes of Glee. Priorities, people!)

First, if you are not watching the new show Modern Family, shame on you. That show is hilarious!! The ensemble cast is incredible, and the writing is smart and funny. It has restored my faith in sitcoms.

Second, my latest obsession is Glee. When I first started watching, I didn't fall in love with this critics' darling right away. I couldn't figure out what it wanted to be...a farce? a parody? a soap opera? a comedy? And then I decided just to sit back and enjoy the ride. (And maybe the show got better as it went on?) I also downloaded the soundtrack, and now I've decided that Matthew Morrison, "Mr. Schuh," is my new celebrity boyfriend.

Third, Grey's Anatomy is AWFUL this season. I keep tuning in because I am hopeful it will get better, but really, it's bad. I'm annoyed.

Fourth, Lost is returning. This show exhausts me on so many levels. I'm loyal to it, but I am kind of glad it is ending after this season. It makes my head hurt.

Amelia. Every day she is doing new things and picking up new words and expressions. Indulge me while I share a few...

--She likes to drive her Disney princess figurines in the back of her farmer's pickup truck, like so:
--She claps and cheers after "Somebody to Love" on the Glee soundtrack. (That's pretty much what we listen to ALL the time in the car these days. I have a tendency to obsess over one CD at a time.)

--The other day when Darryl picked up my cell phone to make a call on it, she said, "No, Daddy. That's Momma's phone."

--She loves to read her books and say her numbers.

--She is doing lots of "pretend," and that is fun to watch. It's interesting to see what's going on inside that noggin of hers.

Wii Fit Active. My latest fitness attempt has been the Wii Fit Active. I've been pretty faithful with my 30-Day Challenge. I like it because every day is something different, and there have been days that I have been sore because of the workout. It's a good solution because I don't have time to fit in a visit to the gym, but DVDs bore me because they are the same thing every day. It's a good solution.

Wrap-up. I know this post was random, but that's the way I roll these days...do what I can when I can. :)

First Haircut

On Monday, we took Amelia for her first haircut. We went to a place called Pigtails & Crewcuts that specializes in cutting kids' hair. The place was very cool, with airplanes and cars and firetrucks for the kids to sit in while they had their hair cut. They also gave out little treats and dum-dum suckers.

Amelia did great. We didn't have anything drastic done; she just needed to have it evened out some in the back. Here are a few pics:



She's enjoying her pigtails and her sucker in that last shot. And she looks so grown up to me there; it makes me sad. :(

Restoration

Forgive me for the lack of blogging. I'm not even going to elaborate on how incredibly busy school has been lately or how I'm already behind and it's only January because I'll just get in a funk about it. So on to better things...

The week before last, I had some ALONE time. Darryl really needed to go to Florida to take care of some family matters (nothing "dramatic," just burning land for future planting and the weather conditions have to be just right and so on and so on). I was going to be leaving for my scrapbooking retreat that Friday, and Darryl wasn't 100% positive that he would be back in time for me to leave Friday, so he took Amelia with him. They left on Tuesday, so that meant that I had three straight evenings of alone time. Me. In the house. By myself. Now don't get me wrong; I missed Darryl and Amelia terribly, increasingly more as time went on. But I'm not going to lie--I did enjoy some solitude.

Then, on Friday, I left right after school to go to Glen Ella Springs for my friend Blayne's annual retreat. I'm not going to elaborate on the details because I did last year. The menu, the experience, the whole thing was the same, and it was wonderful. I worked on a project I am doing called Project Life (the objective is to take a photo a day for a year). I also made a mini-album about Amelia's birthday party, and I finished an album I had started about my trip to Creative Escape in Arizona back in August. It was a very productive time as far as scrapbooking goes, and I enjoyed meeting up with the same ladies again.

I think I actually "ahhhhh"-ed out loud when I saw this sign in the middle of nowhere.

This photo was taken at 1 in the morning Sunday, so I look a bit rough. It was pouring outside, so we kept on scrapping until the rain let up.

This is me with my friend Blayne, the morning after we had been up until the wee hours.

The weekend was technically my Christmas present. After going on this retreat last year, I told Darryl the best gift he could give me is this little getaway. It was definitely awesome!

A Snow Day Late and a Dollar Short

Yeah...I'm a bit late in posting photos from our snow day last Friday. :)

Anyway, I was extremely surprised that we got enough snow and ice to shut down school last Friday. In fact, the roads were icy enough that Darryl couldn't even get to work. It was a nice, unplanned day that we had together.

Now, I'm not going to glamorize it; we had a bit of cabin fever later in the day.

Here are a couple of photos of Amelia walking in the snow. We didn't really build snowmen or anything like that because she didn't have any gloves, and she really just seemed to enjoy walking around in it and hearing the crunch of it under her feet.

I also baked cookies (not because we needed them, but because it seemed like the thing to do), and we had fun playing with Amelia. I wish we could have at least one snow day a year!

This made me sad

While he had pretty much all but admitted his steroid use in court testimony several years ago, Mark McGwire's admission makes me sad. I'm glad he's coming clean now and admitting his wrongdoing, but it still makes me sad.

I, like everyone else, was caught up in the home run record chase between him and Sosa back in the day. At the time, my students joked with me because I always used McGwire as an example in my mock thesis statements and mock intro paragraphs that I showed to my class. One class even promised they were going to get a life-sized poster of him for me. I didn't really have a crush on him; I just thought his accomplishment was inspiring and that he seemed like a good guy.

I'm not saying he is no longer a good guy. As I said, I'm glad he owned up to his wrongdoing. But his admission definitely casts a shadow on the magic of that baseball season. :(

The Help

I'll get to the point: This book is the best, most powerful book I've read in a long time.

What is even more impressive is the fact that this is the first book from the author, Kathryn Stockett.

I'm a little late in reading this; I think the book came out early in 2009 and has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for quite a while. You might already know what it is about.

If you don't, here's an overview. Set in the early 1960s in Mississippi, The Help is about two "black domestics" who team up with--and develop a friendship with--a young, white, fresh-from-college aspiring female writer who wants to tell their stories of what it is like to work for white families in a very racially divided community. The book is relayed from multiple viewpoints, and it is at times touching, at times horrifying, at times hilarious...but most of all, it feels authentic. (This is why I never liked the show Dawson's Creek. High schoolers do not talk like that, people. But Friday Night Lights? That show is dead on.)

As for this authenticity...in the afterword by the author, she explains her own affection for the black woman who helped raised her. Stockett is honest in claiming that she can never truly know what it is like to be on the other side of things, but she tries to understand.

I absolutely love Southern literature. In my first year of college, I was fortunate to have one of the best English teachers I ever had--she reminded me a little of Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women--and she talked so enthusiastically about authors like Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Bobbie Ann Mason that I picked up every book she recommended and read it fervently from cover to cover. The Help reminded me why I love the stories of the South.

Done Remodeling...For Now

Okay, my new look is complete for now. I had wanted to do a fancy header (the title area) complete with some photos, but it wasn't worth the hair I was about to pull out of my head.

I made these changes:
--I streamlined my look by going back to two columns.
--I organized my links.
--I updated my links and took out links to my friends' blogs that no longer exist. (Tim...why? Why?!?)
--I set Amelia on the path to her 3rd birthday.
--I updated my photo.

I plan to do more of these things:
--Post more frequently.
--Talk more about teaching.
--Show some scrapbooking projects.
--Appease my family and document our lives by talking about what we're doing at home.

I hope you keep reading...and I hope you start sending me more comment love. :)

500th Post--And All I Have to Tell You Is...

This is my 500th post! It seems I should have something really exciting to tell you, but all I have to offer is this:

My blog renovation isn't complete. I'm trying out some different things. I'll let you know when the new "look" is complete. :)

What's going on here?

Monday was my last day of vacation (it actually was supposed to be a work day for teachers, but because of Georgia teacher furloughs, we had the day off...without pay, of course). After all the traveling we'd done, I really just wanted to stay home. Amelia stayed in her PJs all day and played with her toys.

She is really cracking me up lately with some of little antics. For example, look at this pic. She has her fairy color/match cards on the table, with her princess and Sesame Street figurines placed in the same location on top. Any ideas?

A Little Blog Makeover

I'm going to give my blog a little TLC this weekend--update my links, maybe get a new look. It needs some sprucing up. Stay tuned!

Bobby Bowden's Last Game

We finished up our holidays by going to the Gator Bowl New Year's Day. Darryl grew up a diehard FSU fan, so it was only appropriate that he would be there for Bowden's last game. We also decided to take Amelia, not really sure how that endeavor would turn out. She was actually pretty good; I took her into the VIP lounge area during the 2nd quarter so she could run around a bit. (We're not really "lah-ti-dah" people who always get access to the VIP areas; we just happened to have some really good seats for this particular game.) She loved the halftime shows (let me say that the Marching Chiefs might well be the best dadgum college marching band in the nation--their routine to "Thriller" was incredible), and she got antsy only at the end.

And did I mention it was rainy (in the beginning) and cold? In Jacksonville? What's up with that?

Here is what might be my favorite all-time pic of Darryl and Amelia:

Good ol' Bobby B.

It was definitely a wonderful time!

Catching up on Christmas

Because of the photo uploading snafu I experienced earlier in the week, I never really talked about our Christmas Eve/Christmas.

Christmas Eve, my cousin (Vicky) and her husband (Robert) came over for our gift exchange with them and for a little dessert. I made a Delta Mocha Chiffon Cake with Coffee Buttercream filling and fudge icing. It was delicious...and it's a a lot of work, so I figured it was worth a photo.
And oh yeah...I even garnished it with chocolate covered coffee beans. Fancy!

There's not much else to report about Christmas Eve. I decided not to do cookies for Santa (gasp!) because I knew Amelia wouldn't understand it, and she would likely have a meltdown when I wouldn't let HER eat the cookies because they were for Santa. Girlfriend loves cookies. We'll do that next year when maybe she can understand the concept a bit better.

Anyway, Christmas morning was lots of fun! We didn't get up until about 7:45 or so. Amelia wasn't quite sure what to think, but she definitely enjoyed the shopping cart Santa left her!

Later that afternoon, Amelia enjoyed her first baking experience by making "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cupcakes with Nana. Our church's children's department--after focusing on "the real reason for the season" all month long--gave each child a birthday pack with cake and frosting. Amelia and her Nana had a blast!
And here's a little photo of the three of us:
After dinner, Amelia stayed home with Nana and Pawpaw and Darryl and I went to see The Blind Side. Originally, we were going to just go to the 7:00-ish movie, but it (and every other movie we were interested in seeing) was sold out. Oddly enough, a Japanese steakhouse nearby was open, so we ate dinner there (it was yummy!), drove around and looked at Christmas lights, and then finally went to the movie. (And the movie is really good--definitely worth all the hype it has been getting.)

It really was a wonderful Christmas, beginning to end!