Birthday Love

I survived another year of grading research papers and lived to see 30. Yippee! On my actual birthday, one of my students told me that 30 means I'm not young any more, that I'm officially old--to which I replied "You're only as old as you feel."  Truth be told, I've been looking forward to my thirties---fewer growing pains and more comfort. There's only been one strange moment of "30" settling in. Joe and I were jogging together and it hit me.  We are now both 30-somethings on a jog. Weird. In my mind I am still 23, just wiser and unable to metabolize alcohol quite as efficiently.

My birthday celebration was extra special.  Joe planned a surprise party for me, and though it didn't go off as smoothly as he planned, I was totally shocked when I walked into one of our favorite restaurants to find a table filled with friends and family.  It took a few minutes for it to sink in. I'm pretty sure my reaction wasn't the most video-reel-worthy because I tend to be undemonstrative.  My first reaction was overwhelming anxiety: Oh crap, all of these people are here for me?!  But, after a couple of glasses of bubbly, I was thoroughly enjoying myself.  I was so happy to have everyone there in one place.

One of the highlights of the night was Joe's present, and I say that because he'd actually kept it a secret. He's a terrible keeper of secrets, and for him to A) throw a surprise party and B) not give me my present early,  I know the weeks leading up to that day was pure torture. Joe put a lot of thought his gift, and I really love it. 3 words: little blue box.

Me dressed as one of the Golden Girls on my big night.

Cheers to 30! And thank you to all of my friends and family who made it memorable!

Research and Junk

Yay! It's time to grade research papers again.  Here are some things I have learned to help ease the stress of grading 165 million novice-scribed research papers:

•  Shamelessly ask students for chocolate and talk up its mood-enhancing effects.  They sometimes oblige.

This is just from the early submissions!

• Grade 10 research papers per night. It keeps things manageable. Do not procrastinate.  I repeat, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE (ahem...especially via blogging!)

• Buy "special" grading pens.  Gelly Roll gel pens are a longtime favorite of mine.  I may or may not have just spent a small fortune on them tonight at Hobby Lobby.  Gel pens make me feel all warm and fuzzy, and I don't feel bad using them in the role of "Grammar Nazi" as I grade papers. Zer are nooo contractions in zee research papers! Use zee third person, dummkopf!

Happiness is a new pack of gel pens.

• Set the alarm on Saturday and Sunday to be grading by 9 a.m. and break at noon for a couple of hours.  Then get back to it until dinner.  After dinner, grade until midnight.  I'd be up that late watching television anyway. 

• Never save the horrible papers for last.  Sprinkle them in with the good ones. I've had to resist the urge to drown myself in the toilet in the past because I saved the bad ones for last.

• Enlist any unsuspecting loved one to check off the easy stuff.  Students get points for turning their paper inside a folder, including their outline, rough draft, and abstracts. Joe is my go-to guy for this stuff.  I've even trained him to recognize the MLA heading.  He's a big help, so I share my chocolate with him.

• This is the first year our school is using Blackboard with the SafeAssign feature.  It's a plagiarism checker. It rocks my face off, and it saves me hours of detective work.  I lurve it.

There you have it, folks!  Those are my coping mechanisms for research paper grading. I left of the minor detail about keeping the wine fridge well-stocked because that just goes without saying.

Beastie Baby

There's nothing new or interesting to report, so here's an obnoxiously adorable picture of my dog, Phoebe.

Phoebe Facts:

•  is going to be 4 in January.
• was born the same day as my late grandfather.
• has a c-section scar from her first and last litter of puppies.
• is obsessed with hunting lizards. It's one of her OCD  yorkie traits.
• does not care to play with toys.
• likes to snuggle under the covers at bedtime.
• weighs in at a whopping 4 lbs.
• is the resident "fun police" and will growl and bark when Oscar, her 18mo old puppy, has too much fun playing.
• likes to take road trips and is a great traveling companion.

• loves Joe and flirts with him like crazy.
• needs to be shampooed, conditioned, and a blowout once a week.
• was once in a dog show and placed 2nd.
• is not a good eater.
• loves apples, broccoli, and Chef Michael gourmet dog food, but will eat Royal Canin Yorkie food when she feels like it.
• would probably be a vegetarian if we'd let her.
• is registered with the AKC as "Yorkminster's Miracle in Motion." How's that for a fancy name? 
• is the prettiest little yorkie on the face of the planet, if I do say so myself.

Busy Being Crafty

This weekend I made this set of onesies and t-shirt for a friend of a friend who is expecting a little girl.  I LOVE how the colors worked out (I was worried that pink and too much black might be too garish for baby stuff, but it isn't at all.)  Next up will be a set of matching burp cloths.

Fun!

 

I've been wanting to stick yoyos on something.  yoyos=LOVE

Want one of these for myself!

One of my favorite alphabet appliques.

 I also made another little Halloween number for Maia.  She'll be set for the days leading up to Halloween.  A girl needs wardrobe options.  Her mother, mycousinamanda, taught me that when we traveled together.  She and I stuffed suitcases with many more articles of clothing than one human could ever wear in a 4 day vacation time frame.  Then she traveled to Japan many times and learned to pack light.  And then she taught me to pack light. (Her and Rick Steves.)  Packing light is overrated. I'm still trying to find the happy medium. ;)

Front.

Back.  Ruffle butt! I heart the candy corn fabric.

I finished the edges of the ruffles this time. We'll see how they hold up.

Stereotypical

It all started when Joe bought a new pair of cowboy boots.  He's from Florida, so he was a little excited to own his first pair.  Since he bought a pair, I decided to finally splurge and get those Old Gringos I'd been wanting.  Thankfully, I waited so long they were on sale. They are, by far, the coolest and most comfy pair of boots I've owned.

My first pair of Old Gringos!

Joe's are ostrich. Mine are butterfly and leopard. ;)

A picture... per Joe's request. ;)

Next my brother hooked Joe up a new Glock through some military wholesale program. I'm not a huge gun person, though I do not object to them.  Joe bought me a handgun when he was working overseas.  When I fired it for the first time, the spent casing flew behind my sunglasses and burned my cheek right under my eye.  I haven't shot it since.  Now we can go to the shooting range and practice together, or so he says. I think you see where this is going...

Ford F-150 Lariat. Doesn't look like a truck from here.

Now we will have two black on black vehicles. Gangsta.

I guess Joe thought he needed a pickup truck to complete his transformation. We spent all Saturday test driving trucks and shopping around for a good deal.  We think we found one, so by the end of this week, Joe should be a "true Texan." ;)

I Love Surprises!

Well, not all surprises. Let me rephrase. I love GOOD surprises, and today I got a really nice one.  When I arrived home from work, there was a package waiting on me from my brother's girlfriend. I wasn't expecting anything, so I was really curious as to what it could be.  She is a very thoughtful person and sends thank you notes and cards for various occasions, but I really wasn't expecting this.

A super soft and comfy Victoria's Secret UT hoodie & t-shirt!

Turns out they sell UT stuff in North Carolina, too.

I heart them! Thanks again for thinking of me, Holley! Hook'em!

Halloween Craftiness

The blissful change in temperature inspired me to get creative today. Despite being completely congested and miserable with some crazy allergies, I dug out my long sleeve TCU t-shirt and leggings, (it may be a little too early in the season for long sleeves, but hey, I was excited) and headed to Hobby Lobby and Joanne. Since I have a billion projects I'm dying to try, I went a little crazy, but hopefully I will have some cool things to post on here in the coming weeks.

Planet Applique has a ton of cute Halloween designs, and I won a random drawing a while back and had some credit built up.  I haven't made anything for mycousinamanda's baby, Maia, lately, so I thought I'd be the crazy, crafty auntie and make her some fun Halloween stuff. 

I used a tutorial for this tutu from a fabulous site pinned on Pinterest (thanks, Heather!). The tutu is adjustable and should, at least, make for some festive pictures. I love babies in tutus.  Anyway, I like how it turned out, and it was super easy.

Check out the pics. The model monkey (the only stuffed animal in my house) is now quite a bit smaller than Maia, but you get the idea. :)

Halloween tutu and cute ghost tee.

Close up of the girly ghost.  It needs to be ironed flat.

So Far...

School is back in session and aside from the sore throat from all the talking and my aching feet things are going well. It may be too soon to speak, but all of the horror stories I heard about the Class of 2015 have so far remained a thing of the past (knock on wood). Maybe they grew up over the summer. Maybe the bad apples vanished. Maybe they came to Jesus. I don't know, don't care.  But I actually kind of love them right now.  Yay!  Here's hoping for continued harmony in my EIGHTH year teaching sophomore English.

Joe is now working on his MBA at TCU, which gives me a break from football some nights (I love football, but it's mainly just college teams I care about).  Since I'm done with academia for now, I've filled the void with A Game of Thrones.  It is a set of books turned to an HBO series, and I'm hooked.  So far I've only watched half of the 1st season, but it is an excellent show (think Camelot meets Lord of the Rings and Braveheart but less predictable than all three), and I will probably turn to the books to get my fix until season 2 comes out. Other than that, things have been pretty uneventful.

One of the goals we had when we starting hacking away at our debt last year was to refinance the house into 15 year mortgage with a MUCH lower interest rate than we currently have. I wish we would have done it to begin with, but live and learn. The appraiser was just out on Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for us.  If all goes accordingly, we should close before the end of September.  It's just a waiting game.  I hate waiting games with big events like this.

Sorry for the boring stuff.  I'm going to have to get some ideas for blog topics to supplement..like finishing my Spain blogs...Or maybe I can post pics of crafty baby projects since mycousinamanda is having another girl!  And for the record, just because I make the occasional baby item for a family member or friend does not mean I am hopelessly overcome with baby fever, as my brother so kindly pointed out to me. Just maybe a passing baby hot flash or something like that. We're not in baby fever territory just yet. :) 

I'm off to watch these rain clouds (gasp!) roll in.  The wind is blowing leaves off the trees early.  It looks like October and feels like summer out there.  Bring on the rain and cool weather!

Lucky Me

I just want to brag on my husband for a minute. He stopped to pick himself up some fancy schmancy beer this past weekend and asked if I wanted anything.  I just told him to pick something out if it jumped out at him, but otherwise I didn't care for anything in particular. Knowing I'm on a Spanish wine kick, he brought me this bottle of Albarino and said that he picked this particular one because it looked like a label I'd design. I think he's a keeper. And how cute is that label?

Pool at the Joule

This past weekend, after a Mary Kay morning courtesy of my good friend and consultant, Megan Ross, I had the pleasure of hanging out at the Joule hotel in downtown Dallas.  Myfriendkim invited me to a girls' night, which I gladly accepted.  I'd been to the bar at Charlie Palmer for a wine tasting, but I'd only heard about the fabulous rooftop pool in the attached Joule.

Yeah, that's a glass front overlooking Main.

 Let me tell you... it is the coolest thing in the whole city of Dallas, maybe Texas.  The front edge of the pool is glass and looks over Main Street 10 stories below. Never mind that I wasn't crazy about hanging out near said glass (partially because I envisioned the glass dislodging from the building sending the water and us gushing out on Main Street or that maybe people could see my body though the other side of the glass, and I worried the optical illusion would make me at least 40% larger than I already am. Eek!), but it was awesome from the other side of the pool and the view was just as nice.

The less frightening but equally lovely view.

The Joule would be a perfect spot for a romantic retreat or just to go and relax like we did.  Plus, if you get hungry or want to party it up, it is walking distance of some really cool spots in downtown Dallas.  I could get used to living downtown.

Refreshing mist= frizz.

Cork Letters

So I pride myself in my lack of creepy hoarding tendencies, but I do have a thing about keeping corks.  See what I mean?  It was becoming a bit of a problem because I was using up all of my large vases after the hurricane starting spilling over.

So many corks!

Well, I've seen some super cute ideas to repurpose corks--- like necklaces and trivets, but I came across this idea on Pinterest, and knew I just had to make my own. So I did. And I liked it.  The cool part was picking through the corks and remembering the occasion tied to each. Some cork labels were plentiful and others were rare.  It showed our changing taste in wine over the years, and that was cool.

Getting the corks placed was the trickiest part.

So with a $1.99 letter from Hobby Lobby, some hot glue, and Lord know how much invested in wine, this is how it turned out.  Pretty cool!

Barely put a dent in my stash. Who needs a cork letter?

Follow Your Nose

When I was at Office Max the other day lamenting all of the Back to School items on display, I ran across some pure nostalgia. Mr. Sketch markers.

Amazing in 3 languages!

 Only they weren't the basic scents. There is now an 18 pack with 6 new colors. OMG. I died a million times.  And then I bought three packs to indoctrinate encourage my students to appreciate the pure joy that is Mr. Sketch. (And I might go back for more!)

Aren't they glorious?

Never mind that an administrator might walk by and see me encouraging my students to sniff markers.  I am merely training them to have a keen sense of smell that will come in handy later in life. I will save them hundreds since they will no longer need to purchase a wine nosing kit to ID the aromas in the glass of wine they are smelling. You know, in case that wine smells like banana split or tropical punch...in which case they should pass on that wine. See?

Weekend Getaway NC

Joe and I flew out to North Carolina to visit my brother and his girlfriend this past weekend.

We spent the first night just hanging out and went to a nice dinner at The Steele Pig in Sanford, not too far from Will's house.

True Story:

Dad: "What are y'all doing?"
Me: "Heading to Will's house from the airport."
Dad: "Ask Will if he's still smoking."
Me: "Um, no Dad, he quit a while back."
Dad: "He said he had two briskets..."
Me:  "Oh! You mean smoking..."

The guys spent all day Friday smoking a brisket in Will's new custom smoker.  He's very proud of said smoker, and he has the whole process down to a science.

Envision Will hauling this behind his Range Rover. LOL

Needless to say, we had some delicious food that evening.

Saturday we got up and headed out to Charleston, SC.  I'd never been, so I was excited to check it out.  It's only about a 3 or 4 hour drive from Will's, and he'd made us a reservation at The Peninsula Grill for that evening. But we killed some time at a local Charleston wine bar called Social. If I lived in Charleston, I would be there all the time.  They had a great beer and wine list and cheese and meat menu, so we drank and snacked for our lunch. 

Will and Holley at Social.

Me and Joe and some old guy.

Joe enjoying a beer after his 8 mo self-imposed "no beer or liquor" stint.

 It was Bell's Oberon.

Just a cool truck outside a Gelato shop.

We walked around a bit before dinner.
 

There were functioning carriage houses everywhere!

 Apparently Bobby Flay did a Throwdown at the Peninsula Grill over their coconut cake, which was ah-mazing and huge.  We split one slice 4 ways and still had some left on the plate. I'd go back to eat there alone, but there were so many other fantastic places I'd have to try first.

The famous coconut cake. Yum!

After dinner we met up with one of Will's AF buddies and his girlfriend and danced the night away. I don't know what got into me, but I was a dancin' fool.  It must have been all the good food and wine, because Joe busted out some really interesting dance moves, including one we all dubbed "the chair hop."  No one caught it on film, so the next time you see him you'll have to ask for a demonstration. You won't regret it. Trust me.

The next morning we got up and strolled through the market. I was feeling pretty rough after my night of debauchery, but everyone else was 100%. I guess I'm just a wuss. We had brunch at High Cotton where there was a Dixieland Band playing (so cute). I mostly picked at my omlet, which was absolutely delicious, but my stomach betrayed me and threatened barfage if I ate more than a few bites. So I mostly drank water and was miserable while everyone else enjoyed their meal.  Hopefully I didn't ruin it for everyone.

Thinking about starting their own charter fishing boat.

We loved Charleston, and can only describe it as "like New Orleans, but cleaner."  After swinging by Ryan's place to hang out and eat (he also owns a smoker and smoked pork loin!), we drove back to North Carolina in the blinding rain.  I was going to take a picture, but I figured it would just make everyone here all depressed and jealous. We got back Sunday night and lounged around and then packed up and headed back to Dallas the next day. Joe and I had a great time, but we missed our dogs terribly and were beginning to suffer withdrawals. I think they missed us, too!

Pantry Door Makeover Pics

Conditioning the chalkboard makes erasing easier.

Ready to go!

I had no idea what to write.

As promised, here are some pics of the finished pantry door makeover.  I went to Hobby Lobby today and snagged some chalk and eraser.  I also picked up a locker organizer to hold them. 

Done!

Today I took my last final exam and completed my master's program.  Hallelujah!  I will walk in December since TCU does not have an August ceremony. To be honest, I am a little sad it's over.  I really enjoyed being a student again despite the stress. Where do I go from here? Joe will be in grad school for at least the next two years, so I need to find something to keep my mind occupied.  Maybe more blogging? A doctoral program?  Who knows....

Major cheese (and no makeup. sorry.)

Excuse me. I'm going to go have a celebratory drink now. :)

Pantry Door Makeover Sneak Peek

I totally blame Pinterest for my recent creativity binge.  I saw this photo and decided that our pantry door would make a fantastic chalkboard.

Source: myidealhome.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Plus, my pantry door was looking a little grimy and nothing coneals grim like black paint and chalk dust.

I went to Home Depot and picked up a quart can of black chalkboard paint for $10 and some fine sanding pads for the electric sander, and a dense foam roller.  I should have done my homework first because we already had the sanding pads and a roller. $10 wasted.  Doh! 

Home Depot only had two types of Rust-oleum chalkboard paint, black and white, which can be tinted to the color of your choice.  I thought about using this idea from Martha, but I didn't think it would be as practical for my small space.  I went with black because it works nicely with the dark slate tiles in my kitchen, and it hides the grime. :)

First, I sanded down the existing brushmarks on my pantry door. I decided to only paint the front.  Sanding was pretty messy and covered my whole kitchen in a layer of fine dust.  I would advise covering everything with a drop cloth if you don't want to scrub the kitchen.

Then I started rolling on the first coat.  I didn't get it very even and it was rough in some places, so I had to wait for it to dry (overnight because I started this project around 8:00pm). I think the roughness was due to my attempt to add more paint to the tacky first coat.

Before I started painting this morning, I sanded down the rough areas. Then I slapped on another coat and voila!

Excuse the mess and painter's tape. You get the idea. :)

All I need to do is"condition" it with a layer of chalk after three days, and I will have a highly functional chalkboard in my kitchen. It should lighten up a little once it gets all chalked up.  My mom suggested doing the door to the garage, which is smart. Maybe I'll do that one too if this one works out.

Consider this a sneak peak. I'll post a final product picture once I get it "conditioned" and my kitchen cleaned. :)  I was just so excited to share. I need to think about where/how to put a chalk holder and eraser. Hmm. Maybe I should have put a few coats of magnetic paint on there first.

Will and Sarah's Most Excellent Adventure: Part 1

I've been putting this blog off for awhile because A) I've been writing poetry inspired by this trip for a creative writing class I'm presently taking.  I don't consider myself much of a poet, which is why I haven't posted them and B) We had so much fun that the thought of putting it all into words is overwhelming.  So I'm going to give a litany of everything cool/semi-interesting about the trip. Also, in the interest of packing light, I only took my point and shoot camera and iPhone, so the picture quality isn't as awesome as I would have liked. Sorry.

The adventure begins...

After a relatively uneventful 8 hr 45 min flight from Dallas, Will and I met up in the Amsterdam airport.

-It was cool to see the tulip fields as we flew in (even though there were no flowers), no old windmills, but there were a lot of modern wind generators.

-We flew KLM and LOVED it.  I highly recommend them for an international flight.

-Impressions of the Dutch stewardesses... Are you from Minnesota?  I didn't even know they were Dutch---their English was flawless!

-Over in Europe they sell Coke Light rather than Diet Coke. Tres chic.

- Since Amsterdam was our point of entry into the European Union, it's the only stamp in my passport. Boo! However, all of the guys stamping passports were hotties!  Hey baby, you can be the first to stamp my passport any day!

-59 FREAKING DEGREES in Amsterdam? Are you kidding me? Too bad I only got to enjoy it for like 5 seconds as I boarded the plane.

We finally touched down in Barcelona a couple of hours later, and the airport was stunning---light, airy, modern.  There were some very nice stores, but my favorite was the FC Barcelona shop.  Hmmm.

Add caption

Welcome to Barcelona.  (FCB Store in airport)

-We had a little trouble deciding how to get to our hotel. Bus or taxi?  We opted for the bus (cause we wanted to be all European and use cheap public transportation) to drop us at the city center, and from there we would walk to our hotel.  It would have been easier had we had our bearings and knew exactly which way to go to get to the hotel.

A little too excited (delirious) for a bus ride.

- Barcelona does not have clearly marked street signs, and only some of the buildings have numbers.  What gives, yo?  After making a block lugging around our suitcases in the heat (which was only in the 80s mind you). Will finally asked a guy working the door at a tapas bar if we were close.  We were about 4 blocks away but going in the right direction.  Will was an awesome navigator.

-First order of business upon checking into our swanky hotel? Nap!  Jet-lag is a be-otch. I think it was about 1:30 or 2:00 pm when we arrived. We had dinner reservations at Cinc Sentits (Five Senses) that night, so we made sure we set our alarms. 

Between our room and the elevator. Ready to hit the streets. haha

-Dinner reservations are pretty late in Spain.  We got the earliest one at 8:30 pm and they took reservations all the way up to 10:30 or 11:00 pm.

- Cinc Sentits was lovely.  Our waiter had the cute Barthelona lisp, and I wanted so badly to record him talking, and I almost busted out my iPhone to capture a video of this ninja napkin folding thing he did when Will got up to use the facilities.  He folded the napkin using four spoons to clamp and fold rather than using his hands.  Now maybe they do that at all the fancy Michelin star places, but I was trying to force Will to get up and leave again so I could catch it on video. I've never seen anything like it in my life. One of the highlights of the dinner in my opinion. haha.

So I'm going to continue in another post.  The dinner itself deserves its own entry.