From my eyes…

I was told today the my cat is famous (again).  Apparently, I mentioned to my friend Emily that Ricky is potty trained. I vaguely remember her saying that she’d like a cat, but her husband didn’t want a litter box. I told her about Ricky and our great accomplishment of the year - getting him potty trained!!

Well, Emily was bored at a conference this week and she told Renee (a fellow teacher) about Ricky and they looked him up on the Internet. Renee though it was a hoot and showed her daughter once she got home. Now, Becky has gone and added Ricky’s little potty video to her MySpace page. HA! Just can’t get enough of my not-so-little Ricardo.

The Sentrs turns 100,000 miles!
If you haven’t ever driven a car long enough to see it flip 100,000 on the odometer, you may not understand the excitement I experienced tonight. Just know that it really was neat.

I bought my Sentra when I was 19. I’ll be 29 in January. This car has been with me through most of college, my time working with Andy and hauling him all around the East Valley, several moves including across the country to IL, two break-ins without being stolen, thousands of trips to the dog park, and hours “concerts (me singing at the top of my lungs). It’s t’s literally seen me through my last 100,000 miles.

With the car situation up in the air, I’ve been trying to prepare by shopping around online for a new vehicle. Ideally, I’ll keep my car and save my moola until the Sentra complete poops out on me. I’m not sure I’m going to have that option though.
In the case that I need to get a new car, I’ve narrowed it down to the Hybrid Escape. I was thinking I could go cheap, you know, something with four wheels, heat & air, and a windshield. Or I could get something I may keep for 10 years like I have with the Sentra. I know I REALLY want a hybrid. And I’ve always wanted an SUV. I figure the Escape is the best of both at the moment.
Then I went to the webpage for the Hybrid Escape and found that Kermit the Frog is the spokesperson!! I was sold immediately. How can I not buy a car from Kermie? Not to mention the multiple benefits of the Hybrid engine, the seats made from recycled materials (I thought that was so cool!), and the more functional vehicle overall (perfect for pets, hauling teaching supplies, and camping gear).

I’m thinking I want either the Tungsten (dark silver), Ice Blue (that gorgeous blue gray I’ve been drooling over for about 6 years), or Kiwi (it’s a gorgeous muted sage shade).

I’m waiting until the final decisions are made about the Sentra before I move on. Either way, the money is not being saved for this new beauty!

I believe in being good, because I am a Christian and we are taught to live as Jesus did. I believe in being good, because I’ve seen the benefits of how happy it makes me feel. But the part of if I’m bad, bad things will happen and if I’m good they won’t? Well, that’s a bunch of bologna. If I’m “good”, more positive opportunities will present themselves, sure. And in turn, if I make poor choices, if I’m “bad” then life will be harder. I get that part. But, I don’t believe that when bad things happen to me it’s because I’m a bad person, or did something wrong. I don’t really think I can after the days events. 

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to my Ya-yas: 

I dragged myself out of bed in a less than perky mood. I was tired and slow and ended up being about 5 minutes behind schedule by the time I headed to the car. When I got in, it wouldn’t start. So I did what any sensible person would do, I called my boyfriend and asked what to do and then got mad at him, well, not really, but didn’t use a very nice tone of voice, when he didn’t have an answer. I hung up, wandered around my house for a second not sure what to do. Tried to get my school’s phone number from the Internet - why it hasn’t been in my phone all this time is beyond me - but of course the wifi wasn’t working. So I decided to try my car again. It started! Weakly, but started. I left to get to work. I turned a corner, went down a hill, and then saw the flashers. Some a-hole cop sat right where the speed changed from 45 to 35 and then wrote me a ticket for speeding. So frustrating. I ended up late to work, but only by a few minutes. It was an ok day at work, but after the rough start I wasn’t in any kind of fun mood. I called my homebuilder, who was supposed to pay me $500 for my friend Emily having bought in the neighborhood. Of course, when I called about that they said they don’t do it anymore. And when I questioned why anyone had told us about it, they just blew me off and insisted they couldn’t pay me anything. Whatever. Fine. The bigger kicker of the day was on my way home from work when I got rearended by a giant Silverado truck, the kind that requires diesel fuel. It was just that driver and me and no serious injuries (my back is jacked up, but no blood or anything). I messed up and didn’t call the cops, because I felt like we handled everything ok and no one was really hurt. Well, apparently, in IL if damages are over $500 you must have a police report. Instead of coming home and just going to bed to end the horiffic day, I had to go back out to the accident site (Mike came with which was nice of him) in the freezing cold and file a report. Oh well, at least I have it now and the other driver has been ticketed. Today I went to the dr, but he didn’t do much because of inflamation. Hopefully, he can help more tomorrow. I didn’t think I’d hurt my neck (my low back is all that was achy), but he found a very tender tendon and then said “you had your head turned didn’t you” How do doctors do that?! So cool. And yes, my head had been turned. Anyway, so I got the guy’s insurance info and headed home. I dialed All State on my way in the door, dropped my purse on the counter, and without turning on a light stepped into the kitchen (I needed to get my phone plugged in before it hung up, so no time for the light that moment)…..I stepped into a pile of glass! Seems that Ricky was on top of the fridge while I was at work and knocked one of Mike’s fraternity ball champagne flutes onto the floor I felt really bad for Mike. And I didn’t get hurt, thankfully. Neither did my pets!

My brother had wanted snow SO BADLY while he was visiting. He woke early every morning and I could tell by the look on his face when he came downstairs that he was thinking that would be the morning for fresh snowfall. 

When this happened the following day, I was sad that he’d missed it. 

Watching it snow. Hehehe.

UGH!!! I just spent a good amount of time writing a beautiful post about how Mike and I decorated our home for Christmas. It got deleted. Humph. I’m not writing it over, but I will share the pics

My stocking hanger. I just fell in love with it as soon as I saw it!

Mike’s stocking hanger. He also fell in love with his the moment he saw it.

Chicago is home to many famous attractions. Two of my favorites are the comedy clubs Zanies and The Second City. Who can’t use a good laugh any time?

The 2nd City is home to many popular comedians. Stars such as Bill Murray, John & Jim Belushi, John Candy, George Wendt, Shelley Long, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and many more. It’s an improv school that performs shows for us common, less hilarious, folk. I went to my first 2nd City show last year, for my friend’s birthday. It was great way to spend the evening.

When my family said they were coming to town and wanted to see the city, I thought 2nd City would be a perfect evening.

Unfortunately, it seems most of Chicago thought the same thing. The shows for the evenings they were here were sold out.

I was sad, but quickly remembered Zanies. This is a stand up comedy club home to a very loooong list of popular comedians. I knew right away that my family would dig this as much as they would have enjoyed 2nd City. And we did. We saw John Caponera, He was a real hoot!

I highly recommend either club for a great night! Both are great entertainment and the prices are really decent for the city.

Waiting for the show to start.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I really like July 4th, too, but Thanksgiving is the first one to pop into my mind when someone asks what my favorite holiday is. I think it trumps Independence day, because it happens during autmn - my favorite season.

This Thanksgiving was extra special, because I got to be in my own home. It was stressful, I won’t lie there. My family said they were coming and I said ok and then didn’t think a lick about it until about a week prior to the big day. Then I freaked out when everyone started to ask my questions that I didn’t have the answers to. I kind of felt like “Um, I said you could come, I didn’t say I was cooking a turkey or anything like that”.

I managed to get everything together and with everyone’s help we had a nice meal. Mike’s parents joined my family as did his oldest brother’s family. Everyone brought something to share and like most families had WAAAY too much to eat.

The day before Thanksgiving, I found Mike online looking up different way to cook the bird. In the morning, I found that he’d printed off directions that he liked and was planning to take this on all by himself! I think he had fun cooking our turkey and he was proud of himself. Why shouldn’t he be! It turned out just perfect. He managed to do a great job with the mashed taters, too.

    

My mom and dad cooked their specialties - pies, dressing, fruit salad, and homemade whipped cream.
Mike’s parents brought some Italian dishes - red rice and knedly. Mike’s mom also brought dressing (he and I had argued about which mom was going to make it until we decided to ask them both to do it!).
Other people contributed sweet potatos, deviled eggs, munchies, etc.
I made green bean casserole (with the crunchies!) and it came out pretty well.

We sat around and talked a lot, tried to play Family Fued but it lived up to its name, and then talked some more. Dinner was great and I was thrilled to have everyone in my home. 

There are many things in my life to be thankful for. There are so many people who help in life that I fear if I were ever to be on a stage winning an award for something I would forget to mention them and feel crushed forever that I could forget someone special to me. It make me hesitant to list the things I’m thankful, like I’ll forget something I really want to express about. 

I’m going to try anyway.

~ Family & Friends - “duh” you may be saying, but I truly realize how blessed I am to have people in my life. And several at that. Not everyone does and as I get older they just get more and more important….or…well, I appreciate their importance and influence on my life more.

~ My amazing new job and the principal and hiring panel that picked me to fill the position. I feel like I’ll forever be indebted to them. I don’t think they understand to what degree this has effected my life.

~Mike. Who qualifies under F&F sure, but who stands alone in my eyes because he is so much more. I’m not  writing more it will get cliche and mushy sounding.

~ Abby & Ricky. They changed my life. I can’t imagine not having them. They make my days better every single time they snuggle up to me and show that unconditional love in only the way a pet can.

~ My students. With their inocent and eager faces on a rough morning, who remind me why I get up in the morning.

~ My house, my car, my education, my computer, my camera, my opportunities

What are you Thankful for?

When it came down to planning our Thanksgiving meal, Mike and I started by creating a list of regular foods we eat. Then we threw in a few of our favorites. Apparently, it’s a typical in their family to have something they call Red Rice each Thanksgiving. And he couldn’t go without deviled eggs.
I HAD to have my mom’s dressing (not muchy like most people make it) and my grandma’s fruit salad that my dad now makes.

It got me thinking about what I feel are “holiday foods”. Does anyone else associate their birthday with homemade butterscoth reindeer suckers? Or is Christmas only Christmas when there are Buckeye cookies and Cream Wafers? Is Halloween only truly Halloween with an abundance of orange and black wrapped peanut butter toffee? Ok, fine. You all think I’m crazy now. I have no shame in admitting that these are some of my atypical favorites for the holidays. 

I do have traditional favorites as well. Thanksgiving can’t be missing green bean casserole with extra fried onion crunchies on top. Christmas needs to have a good ol’ fashioned sugar cookie. Easter is best with a Reese’s peanut butter egg - they’re like twice the size of the regular cups!

What are your favorite holiday foods? Anything different we should all try?