Rite of passage

This weekend, Sophie joined her brother and auntie in the club of annoying my parents. I suppose I annoy my parents too, but I've never spread Spanish moss all over the house. Sophie was then chased around the house with the vaccuum. Poor baby.

Menu Planning Monday...ish!

Monday :: baked potatoes and leftover fajita meat
Tuesday :: shredded beef tacos
Wednesday :: leftovers before small group
Thursday :: "Alice springs" chicken with wild rice and salad
Friday :: spaghetti with meat sauce and steamed broccoli

Random Photo Thursday

Scruffy, yet sweet.

So presh. I think Miley stole her hairstyle though.

What I've been enjoying lately...

• Jalapeño dip and chips (almost every day after school lately...so bad.)
• When the dogs talk to the neighboring dogs, Sophie does not just wag her tail...her whole backside moves back and forth.
• Naps
• Real Housewives of New York
• A plethora of jean days and spirit days at school (pajama day = the best)
• Finding my camera cord!
• Sweet emails from parents
• Kind and uplifting co-workers
• My Mat Kearney Pandora station
• Toffee coffee in the Keurig...and anticipating bringing out the pumpkin spice and french toast coffee soon!
• Saying "ch-ching!" when I unplug my straightener. I'm notorious for returning home to check that it's not on. Totally OCD about it.
• Ironing...did you know that if you starch one side and then iron the other side, it's a lot easier? My mother-in-law shared that tip several months ago, and it really works well!
• Non-headache days. I feel like they have been fewer lately :o(

 She looks so serious...I think she is not a fan of the camera.

Random Photo Wednesday

Brody's typical Saturday morning spot. Checking out the goings on in the backyard.

Sophie's all-the-time spot: wherever I happen to be. :o)

Quotable quotes

I was grading my students' first week of school mini-me-books this weekend, and was totally cracking up at this:

"I really don't like eating broccoli because I feel like I am eating a tree and harming the environment."

How funny is that? It's the small humorous exchanges and comments I want to remember. I mean, I will never forget my student last year who completed his homework of bringing in a newspaper by picking a neighbor's up on the way to his bus stop.

Menu Planning Monday

I am loving my weekends lately! Especially this past one, as the temperatures/humidity actually chilled out a bit. I actually sat outside and did not sweat; it was amazing. I also had some quality bonding time with Brody and Sophie since Tyson was at the football game pretty much all day Saturday.

The house is starting to come together, so I don't have an excuse to slack off on cooking (last week's efforts were slightly lame, I am ashamed to admit). I'm also starting a daily cleaning schedule this week. Cleaning all day on a weekend is the worst, so I'm hoping to be able to start some good habits with the beginning of the school year. Here's to a tidier home and yummy recipes!

Menu Planning Monday
monday :: red beans and rice (always a favorite)
tuesday :: firecracker chicken stir-fry
wednesday :: small group potluck (I'm making jalapeño dip, yum!)
thursday :: leftovers
friday :: chicken parmesan (my old favorite recipe was on a blog that went private, so I'm trying Skinnytaste's version)
saturday :: grilling, if we buy a grill!

I'm hoping to have some home pictures soon...I still have not found that dang cord though!

Sidenote: Has anyone out there seen Married to Jonas? I was channel surfing Friday afternoon and could not stop watching.

Sophie update!

Last night hanging out after dinner. Right after I took this, she jumped in my lap and cuddled with me. :o)

Oh, little Sophie! I totally love this little muppet. She definitely keeps me laughing...and on my toes. Like Saturday morning when she literally came trotting in the bedroom with a Starbucks cup in her mouth. Apparently anything that gets placed on the floor is fair game. I was done with the cup (luckily), so I tried to resist laughing and took it away from her. I also had to resist taking a picture of that. As funny as it was, I probably shouldn't encourage naughtiness.

One slightly sad part of Sophie is her medical issues. We took her to the vet last week for a checkup; immediately we found out she had a double yeast infection in her ears. Yuck. The next day, her tests came back that she had active heartworms and whipworms. So we've been taking lots of medicine...which she doesn't particularly care for, but she's been pretty great about it. The whipworms mean I have to pick up her poop immediately so the whipworms don't get reintroduced to the environment. I find that pretty funny because I was so pumped about moving into a house so I wouldn't have to worry about that!

Anyways, this little girl could not be more precious. So thankful for her.

Random Photo Wednesday

Remember that time Iris hid in a cabinet whilst we unpacked all day? This weekend it was the bottom of a bookshelf.

On the menu...lazy week!

Menu Planning Monday Tuesday

monday :: baked potato night!
tuesday :: pesto-filled tortellini with sauteed zucchini
wednesday :: broccoli cheese soup with bacon (good, but the leftovers were gross)
thursday :: spaghetti with meat sauce
friday/saturday :: out and about

Still looking for the camera cord. Which is scary, since I only have two more boxes left to unpack! Eek eek! This weekend was a much-need break. Now I just need to get back in gear and get things done. My to do list is looking a little long these days!

So very tired.

This is pretty much how I feel.

Seriously? Longest.week.ever. In between settling into our house/unpacking/trying to find random things, meeting my new students, having morning duty (I volunteered to switch with someone so I am really not seeking sympathy!) outside in the humidity, working with my new teammates to figure out what in the world we are doing**, and getting to know Sophie's routines/preferences/quirks, I have barely had time to think.

**Have I mentioned that our team now has eight ladies working together to plan our brand new curriculum? So new that we received it about three weeks before school started. It's exciting yet frightening at the same time. And by frightening, I think I mean stressful because it's hard to get ahead of the work. For example, I am the "copy queen" for the first six weeks (we rotate jobs). Once we finally agree on an activity, someone still needs to generate the appropriate content and send it out to the team for revising and approval. After it's finalized, I  am then able to make copies and pass them out to the team (hopefully more than a day before it's supposed to be used). I just felt like I needed to document that because it's been consuming a lot of my thoughts lately.

That being said, I absolutely love my job. I've had so many interactions with students already that I've tried to take mental pictures to remember (Elizabethtown, anyone??) in the future.

 

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This three-day weekend could not have occurred at a more perfect time for me. :o)