Suddenly old...

Wow. On Monday I stayed home sick from school. However, I had to take a paper to my teacher at Lindenwood because it was due that evening. So, I decided to just go after I picked up my medicine.

I got out of the car, walked to the main part of campus and suddenly felt older than I ever have...in my life. All of these college kids were moving from class to class, talking about the crazy fun they had over the weekend, looking forward to the next weekend, drinking Starbucks, and really, only having to worry about papers to write and laundry to do.

I came in with NO make up on, not at all dressed to impress, just in a hurry to get home (to my actual house I now pay for!), and I suddenly felt old. I missed the days when all I had to do was go to class, work a job, and do laundry.

Don't get me wrong, I love my life now and feel so lucky, but I have my moments. Monday afternoon at Lindenwood was one of those moments.

Jamye

Jamye is my friend from school. I remember meeting her after I started teaching at North High. I remember thinking that she was nice, but I never could have imagined what a wonderful person/friend she would turn out to be for me. Countless times, she has brightened my days at work, helped me put things in perspective, or commiserated with me when I just needed someone to share in my anger/sadness. It is extremely rare that you find someone like this. It is extremely rare that you find someone who is always willing and happy to go out of her way to help.

It was hard for me to move here to St. Charles, because I had to leave all of my friends in Edwardsville. Shortly after, Corey, my best friend from the time I was 14 moved to Phoenix. Rachel, my other best friend was "finding her way" as I was and she moved and was busy as well. It was scary for me to move to a place where, essentially, I had no friends. Now I feel that I would be sad to leave St. Charles because of the friends I have, namely, Jamye. She is a major reason why I will not be leaving North High. While all jobs have their faults, if you work with really extraordinary people, it's hard to justify leaving for small reasons.

On Friday I came to school sick, tired, expecting it to be a really rough day. On my desk I found the most beautiful vase of flowers with a note thanking me for being a really wonderful friend. Wow. I'm not the one delivering flowers. Needless to say, they were from Jamye.

I hope everyone who reads this has a "Jamye" in their own lives. Here's to amazing friends!

Small things...

I am sick. It just came today. I was fearing that it was coming, and here it is. I have the congestion, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, sneezing, and general tiredness that I hate. I will live, but it's just no fun.

However, my grandma Bette always says, "Thank goodness for small favors." I actually thought of this today. I pulled into the driveway and saw a package on the porch. I knew what it was. It was my Snuggie.

Yes, I wanted a Snuggie for my birthday and Rick ordered one. Make fun of them all you want, but it arrived on an evening when all I wanted to do was snuggle up.

So here I sit, typing on the computer, wrapped up nicely in my snuggie thanking goodness for small favors!

Snow Day #2!

How wonderful it was to get the "no school call" last night! I got to stay up late, not worry about waking up...it was great!

Lexie enjoyed playing outside today...for a brief time. She LOVES snow, but when it gets to be almost as tall as she is, she gets scared. I think I would too.

Also, strange story: Rick, being the wonderful husband he is, shoveled the driveway today before heading to work. Rick, being the weather obsessed person he is, also took a ruler out to measure how much snow we had. So, after measuring, he put the ruler on the rear bumper of his car. He backed out completely forgetting about the ruler. Well bloggers, he came home today (after driving on the highway mind you) and the ruler was still on the bumper!!! It was not frozen either. It blew my mind and I thought I would share that.

Taco Bake Snow Day!

My friend Joi had this recipe on her blog and it looked SO good, I knew I had to try it. It just so happened that today was a snow day so I had a lovely day to grade, lounge around, then leisurely fix dinner.

It was really yummy and easy to make. The recipe originally came from here, and was super easy. I even used whole wheat pasta, low fat cream cheese, and other low fat friends :-) and it was STILL mighty tasty. The other great news is that it makes a whole pan, so we will have a few more meals out of it.

Maybe I will eat it for lunch tomorrow while I am home AGAIN due to snow. :-)

Happy Wednesday!

Movies

I feel like there are so many movies I want to see!! I am even "behind" on DVD rentals...whew! Luckily we got two months of Netflix for Christmas. I just have to strategically plan the two months to be when we will be home, I will be finished coaching, and we will really make good use of our unlimited rentals! :-)

I would like to know what you all think of these movies. If you have seen any, would you leave me a note telling me whether it belongs at the top, middle, or bottom of the priority list?? Thank you!

Swing Vote-I know it's older, but I really wanted to see it.
Batman The Dark Night-yeah, we really never saw it. I know.
Bride Wars
Valkyrie
Frost/Nixon
Marley and Me-I LOVED the book
Benjamin Button
The one with Meryl Streep as a teacher...what's the title???

Chicago

Katie and me at my party. Yes, I am in my pajamas. It was my party.
Blowing out candles in my Skinny Cows.
me and the new Mr. and Mrs. Kohn!
The three of us at The Melting Pot for my birthday.
I got balloons!!!

Our reason for going to Chicago was to celebrate with my good friend Eric as he married his lovely fiance (now wife!) Becca. It just happened that the wedding was on my birthday so I got to spend my whole birthday weekend in Chicago! Who could complain about that??

I went with my two favorite people, Rick and Katie, to my favorite place, The Melting Pot. Then we headed to Howl at the Moon...it is an awesome piano bar in Chicago. We had a blast.

We ran around on Saturday during the day then did the wedding thing in the evening. When we got back to Katie's apartment she had a little party all set up with decorations, Skinny Cow ice creams, and gifts. It was one of the best birthdays...just because. It was great!