mondays…

…after a vacation are always a shock to my system.  in many ways it felt good to be back at school.  i enjoyed seeing my 85 cherubs today :)  but, it was a crazy day!  my desk was clean this morning when i walked in the door.  by lunch time, it was completely buried :(  

i have some work to do yet tonight, of course!  :)  i could have done more school work over vacation, but why?  it’s vacation!  lol! 

we had a showing of the house early this evening.  don’t know anything yet about how it went.  as i was driving down the street and into our driveway, i noticed that the house for sale three doors down  (probably our biggest competition on the street) had a landscaping company working in the yard!  but, that’s ok.  our yard is looking good for this time of year — our daffodils are blooming!  patience…i keep telling myself.  the house will sell.  i just need to have some patience! 

my lazy days have come to an end…

this has been a very nice, relaxing spring break at home. a number of my colleagues were a bit shocked at my sheer delight in being home for spring break. i love to travel, there’s no doubt about that. however, i can be a huge homebody as well. and, i needed some time to just be home. in fact, there were a couple days this past week when i never left the house! i’m truly blessed to have had such a nice week!

• it has been good to get a few things taken care of around the house. one big thing that i tackled was the tupperware cupboard–just in case someone opens the cupboards when looking at the kitchen, i don’t want to scare them off with a mountain of tupperware at their feet!
• i’ve spent many, many, many hours scrapping! i ran out of adhesive, completed an album, i’m almost out of pages, and i’m almost out of printed pictures! i’m in june of 2006 that means…i get to scrap our wedding next!!
• i’ve watched many baseball games, and many movies (while scrapping)
• i caught up with several friends over tasty meals
• i spent three hours at school–it felt great to get some new bulletin boards put up, and i did some cleaning and organizing. i brought home some grading to do yet this evening, and i am in the middle of making a new bulletin board. i used my cricut for all the titles and a few shapes; now i can laminate them.
• i enjoyed some down time with ty. it’s great to hang out and not feel like i should be doing something for school! he worked, but he was able to be home a bit more too.

we had someone go through the house this past week–they weren’t interested, “it shows nice but has a tight floor plan”. we got a call this weekend from our realtor that someone will be coming through tomorrow evening. so, i’ve been picking up around the house this afternoon; i should probably fold some laundry too! i may even bake some chocolate chip cookies later tonight, just so the house smells tasty! i’m probably in for a lot of let downs if i continue to think this way, but i can’t help but hope that whomever comes through tomorrow just falls in love with our little abode and puts in an offer! i can dream, right?

i hit the ground running this week with at least four meetings (that i know of!). april and may are notoriously busy around school, so it’s great to have had the time to recharge. well, the tigers are losing by a lot (again) and the cubs are losing as well (at least it’s close!). i sure wish the mariners were on tv more often; ‘course they aren’t doing any better! LOL!

have a wonderful sunday afternoon. the sun is peeking out of the clouds right now…it’s cold outside, but it’s sunny! yea!

a big city adventure

a little bit about our sunday adventure. well, maybe more like an epic description of our day:

1. drove to michigan city — a beautiful sunday morning drive, sunshine all the way! we were early, so drove along red arrow highway for a good distance. we saw a lot of little towns, many antique stores, and some intriguing mom and pop restaurants which we may have to go back and try.
2. took the south shore commuter train from mi city into downtown chicago, near millenium park ($26 total for both of us, both ways!)
3. ate a tasty lunch at giordano’s pizza on randolph — no wait!
4. walked off our lunch on the way to catch the redline train which would take us right to wrigley field.
5. walked off more of our lunch when the first redline station was under construction, and we continued on to the next one; it was at this point we discovered the problem — only the elevated portions of the redline were running…the other portions are ALL underconstruction. (it would have been helpful to know this ahead of time; say, when we looked up the info about chicago’s transit system on line when plottin out our route…)
6. continued walking off our lunch as we pressed onward, looking for a different train to take us to wrigley.
7. hopped in a cab when we realized how far we had to walk to catch a different train and that game time was quickly approaching — i love cab rides in big cities! what a rush as the cabbie wove in and out of traffic; we made good time to wrigley!
8. joined the masses of people as we made our way to our seats.
9. found our seats in the middle of the first inning — section 511, row 5 (upper deck with a beautiful view of the city and lake michigan!
10. enjoyed the game immensely — it was 60 degrees, with a little wind. we were in the shade, but we did alright. i, of course, had on many, many layers, and brought a blanket and gloves.
11. CUBS won! it was an exciting game, and we had a lot of fun. as usual, people watching provides entertainment as well
12. walked about a mile through wrigleyville to catch the brown line (instead of the red line).
13. rode the packed train through chicago — we loved seeing the city from above the street level. such incredible architecture throughout the city.
14. laughed hard — when we got off the train, we found ourselves one block from the south shore commuter train station on randolph.
15. waited a little while before we could board the train — i enjoyed a cinnabon
16. shared our seats on the train — the six o’clock train out of chicago proved to be a popular choice. the train was absolutely packed; not a seat in sight. when a family of five ended up standing in the aisle, ty gave his seat to the mom who was holding a little boy. it turns out, the family was from grand haven, she’s a teacher and graduated from calvin in ‘92, they go to first crc, and they’ve done youth ministry in the past. we really had a nice time getting to know them. their little guy was 2 1/2. their other kids were about 11 and 9. the little guy was quite entertaining. definitely 2, but very well behaved considering the cramped quarters.
17. drove home — thankful for the beautiful weather, our adventure, and new friends.

ty said his favorite part of the day was riding the trains. i’ve never taken the train into chicago before. i have to agree, that was a lot of fun. i’m still a bit more partial to the actual baseball game…it’s deep in my blood we both agreed that this is a trip we would love to take again. i’m amazed at how easy it is to take the trains into and around the city (even when plans go slightly awry!). plus, with the price of gas and parking, this was way cheaper!

this was the perfect adventure for a warm spring day in april.

my spring break…an update

i really am quite blessed.  it is wonderful having some time off, and a husband who encourages me to take advantage of my downtime.  it is monday afternoon, and the past few days have been great.

a recap of my saturday:

• slept-in until 7:30 — when one gets up at 5:15 everyday, 7:30 is great!
• breakfast date with my husband — there is a dutch bakerjii just down the road which we both love
• scrapbooking — i finally completed an album about ty and i from june of 2005 through feb of 2006; the next book will have our wedding in it
• visited with the neighbor — our next door neighbor’s house burned down last summer; she took me on a tour of the new house.  it’s a pre-fab home, but i have a little house jealousy.  it’s a great layout — lots of what we are looking for in a home.  however, i will take a small house over losing everything in a house fire, any day.  (ty may disagree with me on that one; i’m a bigger pack rat )
• lunch on our back patio — the 60 degree weather was perfect for our egg-salad sandwich lunch outside; ty had a fire going in the fire pit, too!
• more scrapbooking
• a soak in the hot tub — ty needed it after all his work out in the yard
• and still more scrapbooking — i’m spoiled, i know!

it’s spring break!

wow; what a day! i’ve literally done nothing but lay on the couch. lazy? yep. needed? yep! i’ve watched the today show, little house on the prairie, the news, and the tigers! (tigers lost 8 to 5). sometime in there i slept for awhile. now, it’s time for some good ol’ hgtv! i’m so hooked on tv design shows, it’s slightly obsessive. but, i like to dream about the possibilities for our future house.

now i’ve spent the afternoon updating my blog. i’ve been having some trouble with my blog design. ty and i figured out the problem was due to internet explorer. when i switched to mozilla firefox, all the design problems disappeared. so, i’ve spent the afternoon messing around with my computer, and i took the time to set up a subscription to google reader. i’m looking forward to using google reader since it updates me when someone updates their blog. this should save me some time, since i often sit and go through my whole list of blogs in order to see who’s written lately!

as for the remainder of spring vacation, i have just a few ideas:

• scrapbook– A LOT!
• read (i’m in the middle of a great fictional civil war book — the widow of the south)
• take a walk (or two or three!)
• catch up with a good friend over brunch
• clean and organize a few more cupboards and closets (esp. the tupperware cupboard!)
• ice cream at captain sundae
• watch the cubs play at wrigley! we’re taking the train from michigan city into chicago for the day! it may be cold, but it should be a blast; especially with a stop at giordano’s pizza
• school (unfortunately, i do need to go to school for a day. i have a lot to do, however i’ll be a much happier camper if i get some work accomplished next week. i don’t like returning from a vacation behind)

well, i think it’s time for a little dinner. maybe i’ll actually cook for my husband this week!