Married Twinky Weekend

As I said before, we didn't skip town as planned for the anni weekend. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty bummed about it at first but got over it quickly once we awoke Saturday morning to see a snowfall like I haven't seen in years! It was beyond beautiful! I loved it for SO many reasons! 1) the weather was to be warm the next day so it would be gone and wouldn't interfere in people's lives (esp my driving) 2) it was so so so so sooooooo pretty! 3) huge flakes 4)watching the beast bound around in it 4) bundling up with my mister 5) that it happened on the weekend 6) that it happened on our ANNIVERSARY weekend! 7) that it lasted all day 8) that it made me feel like we were snowed in and still stuck away like we had initially planned to be...I could go on and on but I shall refrain ;)


Saturday wasn't our exact anniversary but it was the day that we celebrated. The day started with me remaining in bed for about 3 hours while reading a book - this is something I haven't done in FOREVER and it was greatly missed. During this time, the mister cooked us breakfast which smelled so good during my reading time! We ate and went back to reading and video gaming, appropriately. There were of course many spurts of time where we watched the beast go beserk or just watched the snow fall. It snowed until 5 that evening, btw, and it was reported that our town got 9.9 inches! We had a oven baked frozen pizza for dinner and watched some b-ball. (I cannot believe how much I am getting into the March Madness business!) Later after we cleaned up we opened up a bottle of nice wine called the Bird Man, which my mister is, and relived what we were going through this time last year. Oh, and I wore this snowman shirt the mister got me as a joke a while back...I thought it was perfect for the random snow day! And funny! I wore a white long sleeved shirt under it and when the mister came out of the room from getting himself ready, he had mimicked my outfit completely! Well, he didn't have a snowman shirt on but you get the idea.


Moving on. That night was Earth Hour which asks that everyone turn off their lights from 8:30-9:30, local time. The Great Pyramids turned off their lights, the Vegas Strip participated, the Eiffel Tower was there and there were big street parties in larger cities all in the dark! We shut down all of our goodies, lit every single candle in the house (which did make me a little nervous as we have one kittie who is quite flame curious) and kept the lights off for much longer than the said hour! After about two hours, we turned on the ipod and had dance party 2009 in the kitchen. It was LOADS of fun. Oh, also during this time, we dove into our wedding cake which was surprisingly SO good and stepped outside to have cigars to celebrate! During the dance party, we cracked open a bottle of Cava (a Spanish champagne) and proceeded to get a bit more fuzzy.


Sunday morning consisted of some headaches, melting snow, lesson planning, b-ball, leisurely reading and a fancy homemade anniversary dinner. Oh, and some more cake of course ;)


I couldn't have asked for a more perfect anniversary weekend. I'd like to thank Mother Nature for snowing us in, my folks for storing our cake, our electrical lines for not letting us lose power, our friends and family for not calling and most of all, my mister for being my mister.

A Fantastic First Year

Well boo hiss. But still yeah. This Sunday is mine and the mister's 1 year anniversary. YEE HAW!!! Too bad we don't have cattle to round up. What? Anywhoodle. We were planning on skeedaddling to the country but here in Okiehomie, we've got some jacked up weather sprouting and we've decided to stay inland. Er, in town. I'm so bummed because I want to get out of town SO bad! But it would just be a muddy mess if we went. Not us but our ginormous beast that is. I don't feel like having muddy paw markings all over the place and we partially fear being snowed in if it really snows, that is. So we're staying here and we'll still have a good time with our frozen pizza, polaroid project, schmaniversay playlist and living room camping. We acquired the top of our wedding cake to eat and I'm crossing my fingers it is actually edible! I'm all about nose-diving into that thing! It's really bizarre it's already been a year but I guess that's a good thing that it doesn't feel like it's been forever, eh?

I have nothing else to say except Happy Anniversary to the Bifftastics. We are fantastic. Biffishly fantastic.

Tis the season for helmets

For Christmas this year, I received two pairs of galoshes. I had searched and searched for months before trying to find some myself and had ZERO luck. I even had one young worker at a store who had never even heard of the word galoshes. Seriously? Apparently, I had harped around enough to let it be known that I was in the market for some of these shoes and was gifted the pair of pairs!

Today I'm wearing my galoshes and I'm not happy about it. I'm down for some rain here and there and often times, need a good washing from the sky to match my mood but as for springtime storms in this part of the country, I'm not so welcoming. We've got possible severe storms in the forecast and it's got my stomach in knots. I love living in Oklahoma more than I can express but this time of year, I find myself wishing I had a spring retreat in a non-tornado-threatened area to abscond to. I'm pretty sure this time of year scrapes precious moments off of my life much more than other times of year. The worry I go through has my body manifesting anxieties in not so friendly ways. Did I mention I hate tornado season?

Now, try teaching while having a huge chunk of worry in your body. Now try explaining tornado season to people who have only lived in this country for a few months. Try acting brave for them. Try to act like it's no big deal. I don't act. I tell them like it is; that I'm petrified of pulling a Dorothy Gale and that nothing scares me more than springtime storms here. I teach them weather terminology that is rarely heard anywhere but here. I teach them how to safely protect themselves when they hear the sirens. I teach them that it's okay to be scared but that it's important to keep a level head admist those fears.

Perhaps I make it worse than it should be. Many of my anxieties are anticipatory. When in the moment of the feared moment, I'm fine yet hours, days or weeks before I am sick with worry. Perhaps someday I'll welcome these type of storms the way I welcome those that arrive during other parts of the year. Perhaps.

I've informed the mister that I'm purchasing helmets for us for tornado season as I've read that blunt force trauma to the head is how most are fatally injured in tornados. He's not really down but it makes me calm down a bit. And think of the photo-ops with those helmets ;)

Did I mention that our one year anniversary of marriage is this Sunday? It is. True story.

Bring on the Cabin Fever

I figured since I'm on DAY TWO of snow days that I should dedicate a little time to b-logging! It feels like so much has happened since I last posted that I think I'll break this down into little sections :)

Oh, this is 'Pongo' (not his real name but similiar. I like it because it's from 101 Dalmations!) looking out front at all of the snow coming down last night! He seemed utterly confused :) He is enjoying running around in it today though!

Teaching

I'm back in the classroom yet today's classes have been canceled due to the whiteness outside! I should be disappointed but it's so nice to have newfound days at home! Having a weekday off is so different than having a weekend off for some reason!

This semester I'm teaching Intermediate Reading and Advanced Speaking, much as I have done in previous semesters. This semester though, I've found one notable change in my Reading class...nobody is from the same country! I love it! There someone from: Columbia, Vietnam, Russia, Syria, Iran, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and Peru. What a special experience for them and me! I love intercultural relations which is one of the five million reasons I love my job.

Now that I'm done with my own schooling, I feel like I am able to give my students more attention then before and thus feel as though I'm a better teacher for them. Also, both of these classes I have taught before from the same texts so I'm able to build on what I've done before, change this and that and build a more perfect class for them! Can you tell I like to lesson plan? ;)

My speaking class is shared with another teacher as we have so many students who want to take this class. It focuses on how to speak in a group, how to give effective and confident presentations and then works on natural gestures, intonations and cues. It is an incredibly beneficial class for the students to take. The first semester I taught it, I mentored under another teacher who is so energetic and is FULL of amazing ideas. The following semester I taught the class alone. Third semester, they asked ME to be a mentor teacher to another instructor which was awesome! This semester, I was supposed to be mentoring again but certain classes didn't make, blah, blah, blah and now I am team teaching with the original teacher I mentored under! I'm so excited to have his input and energy in this class! I think this is going to be a great semester :)

The House

The other section of my post I was going to dedicate to house stuff. We have been doing so much lately it seems! As of last Saturday, we have now owned our house for two years. It is amazing that so much time has gone by so quickly! We were talking about how nervous we were when we made the move as we hadn't even lived in the same city before then! I remember pulling up to the house the day the mister moved his stuff and seeing a big U-Haul out front. I remember thinking, 'ok, I hope this works!' And alas, it has. Thank God. :)

Some of the bigger changes lately is the removal of the Benjamin Franklin stove from the kitchen and the addition of some can lighting, courtesy of the electrically inclined mister. Please ignore the duct tape on the ceiling though which is covering where the stove used to go through. Remember, it's a work in progress :) Now we are able to house a (empty) fish tank there (the only empty one), plants during the winter, a little music station and most importantly the animals food bowls! SO nice to actually use that space now!

Here's a pic of the new can lighting in the kitchen! The mister went on a crazy cleaning rampage yesterday focusing mainly on the kitchen, which needed it badly, and made it look beautiful! One of these days we'll paint in there, replace the sink and the countertops. We're still debating on the cabinets...I am enamored with them and he isn't so much :)

Here's a lovely bedroom shot for you showing that we FINALLY hung up something above the bed! It took a mere two years but it finally happened ;) Oh, two of those three little pillows on the bed I hand made!

Finally, we've focused some time, energy and money into our fishtanks. We've four altogether with three of them actively housing fishies. We are both fish enthusiasts and love to just sit and watch them swim! We currently are fish parents to many convict cichlids, three baja sharks, a rhino pleco, an ancient and huge catfish, a plain jane pleco and three silver dollars we've named Finbad, Spike and Tetris.

So there's some actual photos for you and a lot of babbling to digest! Hopefully this formats ok and it all makes sense together! Hope all are warm and enjoying the pretty white!

Positive Hyphenation

Hello readers! Hello new year!

I began this new year doing something I should have done 9 months ago...I finally changed my name to incorporate my husband's last name! I did the not-so-modern-anymore hyphenation and now have a million letters to sign when signing my last name but I will now always still have that piece of my parent's name that is so important and pride producing for me. The reason for my delay for the change? Well, there's two reasons. 1) I wanted to wait until I was done with school because I was worried that there would be the chance of records being confused and would then be forced to spend another million years chasing my tail to graduate! AND 2) I was totally procrastinating all of the hoops I would have to jump through once the change took place.

So on January 2nd, I headed to the SS office, waited for two hours and it was over. The first 30 minutes of the wait was torturous honestly but the remaining hour and a half was rather pleasant and truly flew by. Why? Well, a young lady (I can say that because she was probably 2 or three years younger than I ;) came and sat next to me and struck up an enjoyable conversation. We talked about work, name changes, schooling, children, church, waiting, house ownership, waiting, marriage and in the last five minutes, we exchanged names. It was so much fun to meet someone I didn't know and have a true blue honest conversation about anything without any previous knowledge of each other. I'll probably never see her again but I will thank her internally (and bloggily) for befriending me during those 90 minutes and reminding me that friends are anywhere we try and seek them out.

My last post mentioned a bit of new year's resolving. Well, I've yet to learn how to prepare artichokes but in the first four days of the new year, I sure have eaten a lot of them! That's something, right? ;) I have recently realized though that I think I've been neglecting myself and my mental and emotional well-being. I talk about this and that but I don't take steps to really heal, grow and evolve. I'm not as proactive about myself as I once was. I know it's only been four days, but I've been more proactive in this regard in these past four days than I have been in a long time.

I've started reading a book called How to Want What You Have which I've read about a fifth of thus far and what little I've acquired from it thus far has been so so very eye and heart opening. The author speaks of the 'precious present' and that life on Earth as we know it is life on the 'pleasure planet' and by remembering these two principals that we will begin to see life through persistantly gracious eyes and hearts. I'm working hard to overcome my anxieties and worries and these two 'P' phrases have so far been nothing but beneficial to me. If I examine life from a good, positive, pleasurable viewpoint, I cancel out the negative and scared view I've been experiencing for too long. Not to say that I always view things negatively but when those type of thoughts sneak in, they overwhelm me and take over. I don't want to sit here and forever blog about what I'm worried about, what plagues me or what I'm scared is around the corner but rather, I want and plan to blog about what makes me happy, what beautiful sight I took in during the day and how I was positively affected through life for that day.

I grew up in the Methodist church and even though I don't profess to be Christian or to have any sort of set beliefs, I thank the church for instilling in me good morals and good memories had with close friends. When I was 12 years old, I went through confirmation and was baptised. Confirmation consisted of, among other things, a class covering beliefs of the said religion. I remember some things but one this I'll always remember was a story told of two angels sent from above to collect prayers. Each had a basket to collect a certain type of prayer - one for prayers of thanks and one for prayers of wants. There may have been a third angel with a third basket but I can't recall. Just sharing what I remember :) When the angels returned to the Heavens, the basket of wants was beyond overflowing while the basket of thanks was close to being empty. What a great reminder of the importance of giving thanks! Not just in prayer but in life everyday; in our thoughts and souls. I love this story because it doesn't just have to apply to religion and prayers but it can and should be applied to how we view and live life.

Today I am grateful for:
Long weekends
Car heaters
Lazy days
Impromptu movie watching
Creativity
Marriage
Positive words
Corrective eyewear
Cardinals
Playing fetch
Bowling
Falling in love
Dogpiles

May 2009 Be the Year of the Artichoke

I suppose since it's the end of the year, I'm expected to review the year and list expectations for the new year? Well, here's at least an attempt at that.

Needless to say, this year has been a crazy one! Luckily we went through no major deaths like last year but there was lots of healing to be done this year from hardships that have occured in the recent past. Not completely healed but on the way :)

Let's see, this year several things have occured: I got MARRIED for one :) This is wildly important because I'm the type of person to never have a realy relationship, to never allow myself to be loved by someone else and here I am, happily married to my best friend. Truly. Knowing we'll always be each other's side kicks makes me happy every which way possible. We celebrated having our 80lb puppy for over a year now. Never thought I was a dog person and never thought I'd have a big dog but look at me now! I love our beast love having him as part of our lives. I completed an internship in Hungary focusing on English teaching practices in the country. I did this a little less than a month after being married and left the mister at home due to money constraints. I missed him terribly but find comfort in the fact that we can survive away from each other from time to time if needed. The trip was an amazing experience and I fell in love with the country. Perhaps one day I'll return :) What else? Well, this was the year that my father had an argument with a large firework and ended up in the ICU burn unit on a ventilator for three days. That was a tad bit stressful. But all turned out fine and became a reminder of how lucky we are to have each other, near or far. The mister, the beast and I took an 11 hour road trip across country for a wedding days after I returned from Hungary - it was the longest time the beast had been in the car which he did wonderfully with! The mister and I amazingly do very well on the roadtrips if I can keep my anxious little mouth shut about my car fears :) It was a great trip and is always nice to get away. Of course we all know that this was the year that I completed my comprehensive exams and graduated with my Masters in TESL! NEVER thought I would finish any type of schooling let alone a MASTERS! I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for completing that endeavor :) What else, what else? On a lighter note, I cut off over a foot of hair again, was recognized for my jewelry work, met Pharrell Williams (who I'm secretly in love with), finished my first year of teaching, rearranged a few rooms, discovered my husband is a master juggler (seriously) and discovered that artichokes and brusselsprouts are long lost friends of mine. So there's my year in a nutshell.

What do I expect for 2009? Nothing really. I do hope to overcome some of my fears through having my thyroid regulated again - I haven't been proactive with working with it in years and am VERY suspicious that regulating that will help many of my anxieties...I hope, I hope. I hope to continue to be a successful teacher and continue to learn from my students while learning what works best for them. I hope that our marriage continues to be as enjoyable as it has been and that we become better partners than we already are. I hope the jewelry biz keeps kickin like it has been. I hope my family all finds the happiness they are seeking. I just hope for good and to be able to see the good.

So a New Year's Resolution? Not sure that I have any. Just want to continue taking care of myself and raising the best beast, mister and fuzzbuckets that I can. And I'd like to learn how to prepare artichokes from scratch. I suppose that's my resolution.