a weekend snapshot

I love relaxing weekends such as this. The kind where you know you can just sit back, chill out, drink tea, read a book, and not worry about having to have the house immaculate or your hair done just right. (Or done at all, like yesterday. It was one of those get out of the shower and pull it all back in a headband all day days.) Phil took yesterday off and we certainly made it a day off. Well, I did clean out the refrigerator, a job I'd been putting off, and I finished the laundry and mopped the kitchen floor, but I also took a nap, read a scrapbooking magazine, and tried a new recipe out for dinner (which just so happened to be the third one of the week, thank you very much). We wore sweats all day and it was wonderful! Phil fixed me a buffalo burger for lunch. At first I wasn't going to eat it, but then I did. . . and I didn't even gag. Tastes like chicken. I mean beef.

In other news, I've been keeping a little notebook near the ellyptical in which I record the date, time spent working out, and calories burned. I found out the other day that Phil comes home from work and checks it to see if I've worked out that day or not. I love that sort of peer pressure. Don't worry, he's on the treadmill right now, and I know that in just a short while I'll be in there huffing and puffing away too because I certainly can't have him be one up on me when it's only Sunday. I like exercising in there with him at the same time, but I love being out here listening to him sing along to songs like "Pretty Woman" and "I Can't Get No Satisfaction."

Mercy!

Friday morning brought good news. I stepped on the scale and happily discovered I'd hit the -10 pounds mark. So on my way to school (while still in Washington because in Washington even though you're not supposed to talk on your phone, you can as long as you're not breaking the law some other way while driving, but once you get to Oregon, it's totally fineable if you're talking or texting) I called my mom to share the good news. Only Dad answered. So I told him to ask her if she had 10 pounds of sugar, which she did. Then I told her via him to get them out and hold them. She was just a little spastic because the bags of sugar were, of course, way back in the back of the pantry. Well, once she had them all dug out I said, "Now tell her that's how much weight I've lost." Then I hear, "That's all you wanted to tell me? Why couldn't you just tell me you lost 10 pounds? I didn't need to dig out all this sugar." My reply, "Mom, I'm a teacher. I need to give you a good visual." She says, "I know what 10 pounds is. I don't need a visual." Dad pipes in, "That's not 10 pounds, those are only 1/2 pound bags of sugar." To which I yelled really loud, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!"

Moving on. . . it's been another exciting week in the first grade. I have two kids missing their top two teeth, one missing their bottom two teeth, and numerous other wiggly ones just waiting to be pulled. We are out of space on our tooth graph for the month of January. I always ask them, "How in the world do you people eat?" They think it's hysterical. We had an earthquake drill the other day. The kids are piling under their desks, heads covered, rear ends up in the air, and one of the boys lets one rip. I mean, it was so loud it could've caused the walls to crumble in and of itself. I was trying to be so serious, in light of all that's gone on in Haiti and all, but I had to hold in the laughter as walked over to get my little notebook just shaking my head the entire time. Fortunately we went outside, allowing the room to air out a little before we came back. I'm reading Little House in the Big Woods to them which is like a flashback to my first grade class when my teacher, Mrs. Kurtz, read that to us. I still remember the part where Laura gets spanked for hitting Mary. They started learning cursive right after we got back from Christmas break. Don't get me started on that. Teaching cursive writing is a thorn in my flesh and should be reserved for the big kids with better manual dexterity in 3rd grade.

It was pouring down rain all day Friday. The sun was shining beautifully all day yesterday. And guess what? Today, the rain came back. No big surprise. We just get to look like drowned rats all over again.

Remember my sister and her deer hitting problem? Well, she hit another one. This makes #7 for the year. And she wonders why her van is making weird noises. Well, hello Jennifer! If you'd stop hitting deer maybe things would work right.

I downloaded a new album onto my ipod this week. Pretty much all by myself, which is pretty amazing considering I still don't think I've got it all figured out yet. I loved Watermark and was so sad when Nathan & Christy Nockels decided not to continue their husband/wife duo anymore. Then at the Chris Tomlin concert we went to last year, Christy Nockels is there singing back up and my heart beats for joy when she announces she's putting out a new album - Life Light Up. That girl's got some vocal chords.

And that, my friends, is my weekend snapshot.