Now we need the weekend

This time I don't have any fun, random activity that we did this weekend. Seriously. On Friday, Brett was called on to do a huge project with a deadline of 9pm tonite. He's been working so hard all weekend (even getting up at 630 this morning!!). Since he was being so productive, I took the time to be so as well by catching up on a mountain of grading, taking a nice walk, ironing a bazillion clothes, and doing laundry! Exciting stuff, huh? We did get to church, though, so don't go thinking we are a bunch of pagans. :)

After working so hard all weekend, we feel like we deserve our real weekend. Makes sense, doesn't it? The good thing is that weekends like this won't be the norm for Brett; he'll have slow times and crazy times at work, so we'll just go with the flow.

Happy October (almost)!

Why I love my house: reason 1

My new mail waits on my foyer floor.

I want a new template

Old Town Alexandria

Over the weekend, Brett and I went out and did something neither of us had really done before: we walked around Old Town Alexandria.


Old Town is an historic area on the water of the Potomac. There are lots of cute shops and even more restaurants and cafes. You can take ferry rides down the river or walk around to see all the boats that are docked. There's a nice park there, and we enjoyed walking down the streets of upscale townhomes. You could also peruse a couple of the museums and historic buildings around, if you have time.


The picture above is where we ate dinner. We treated ourselves to a nice, leisurely seafood dinner. The Chart House is right on the water, and since the weather cooperated, we got a seat next to the railing of the balcony.

Can you see the Capitol?

So, if you are tired of the whole DC tour, come visit us and we'll head to Alex.

Wonder what we'll find to do this weekend?!

Mums the word

Pam wins. When I see the word "mum", the first thing that comes to mind are the homecoming mums worn and coveted by thousands of girls. It wasn't until I went to college, though, that I found out these are just another Texas thing. Those of you who have no clue what these are, you need to go google "homecoming mum" and look at the images. They are amazing.

Imagine: at least a 6-inch silk mum with about 50 yards worth of ribbons that dangle past your knees. Add to the ribbons your name, your date's name, your school and the year. Also, you'll have plastic footballs and megaphones on there. Some ribbons will be braided. And if you are an upperclassman, namely a senior, it's highly likely you'll have at least 3 mums AND a small teddy bear. And yes, you pin this to your clothing and wear it like it's the coolest thing ever. And there is a boy version, too.

Since I didn't go to a school with football, I never actually participated in wearing, but I do remember making these with my mom for all of my brothers' dates. And I've decided that since my high school has homecoming sometime soon, I want to wear a mum. Maybe I can get the other Spanish teacher from Texas to start this tradition with me.

Go here for some images of mums. You HAVE to look at them on the girls because they are so big!

Mums

Another survey for my people.

What comes to mind when you see the title of the post? Brett and I were having a conversation about mums tonight. That might sound strange, but for some of you, I know you'll understand why. I'll explain later.

Back to School night

Tomorrow is Back-to-School Night. That means that all the parents come to school at 700pm. At 705, the bell rings and they have to go to their child's 1st period class, where they spend 10 mins. They continue through the entire schedule, getting to meet all the teachers and see what class is like.

All the veteran teachers in my department are freaking out about it. I'm not. Should I be? My teacher friend next door (also new, also coming from private school) agrees with my opinion: is it really that terrible? The veterans seem to think it's this huge, life-changing event or something. For me, I figure the parents will come in, I'll tell them about our class, and they will go home. And if they try to corner me with a parent/teacher conference, I'll just tell them to buzz off...I mean, send me an email and we'll work out the details. =) I'll report back some nite to let you all know how it went. Go ahead and be praying for me!

Catching up

Now that I'm working all the time, I have to spend my weekends catching up on all the things that I neglected throughout the week. That would include laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, grading, lesson planning, and so forth. However, we did make sure that we got to enjoy some fun together by going to the Nats game last nite. We had really great seats--just 9 rows back from the 1st base line! That's the way to go, man; very cool. It was Hispanic Heritage Night, so, lucky for Brett, he had his own little translator next to him! And I actually enjoyed the whole Hispanic night because I got to learn lots of baseball words, which I didn't know beforehand.

Anyway, it was a good time, and the weather was perfectly fall, which is exciting! Now I'm off to grade and then I may let myself finally go do some of that back-to-school clothes shopping I meant to do before classes started.

Bedtime survey

Bedtime has become very important to me. It's 7 minutes before 9pm, and I WILL be on my way to getting ready for bed by the time it hits 900. I am grumpy and annoyed in the AM anyway; even more-so when I don't sleep enough.

This new bedtime is such a change. Last year, we were getting into bed a lot later. Do you realize that, technically, I could come home and watch the last afternoon soap opera because classes are done so early, but I have to miss The Office because I can't stay up past 9pm?! That's insane, people!

So, I'm taking a survey of bedtimes. Your job is to comment with your bedtime! Good night!

Work, work, work

We both did that all day because today was Brett's first day of work! This is the first time in our married life that we've both been officially employed (I will admit that, technically, I am not employed. HR is a bit slow and has yet to give me the paperwork and this mysterious thing they call a contract. Apparently, they are quite satisfied having me come to work each day without signing me on. They swear that I'll be paid; let's hope so.)!

He had a wonderful start and is looking forward to being at his firm. They've already got work lined up for him, including a deadline! No loafing around there!

It'll probably take us a while to get used to a new schedule. I go in so early and get to come home early, relative to when Brett would probably get home, so we're going to have to figure out a routine that would give us more than just an hour in the evening together! Here's to having fun in new jobs and new routines!

Saturday

Saturdays are absolutely incredible when you work the entire week!

Last nite, Richie and Liz came over & we grilled out. They stayed way past my (new) bedtime, but it was no problem, because it was Friday! I got to sleep in (relative to the weekday) and spend the major part of my day avoiding schoolwork and enjoying a day off. Brett went down to the District to do some volunteer work while I went to the grocery store.

When you move to a new city, one of the hard things about it is figuring out your new stores. Where do you go for the oil change? Household items? Fast food when you don't want to cook? And, most importantly, groceries? I think I'm going to go to 2 stores to get groceries. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But, I have a new love for Trader Joe's. It's one of those quaint, natural stores that has exorbitant prices on some stuff and great deals on others: like 19 cent bananas. Can you believe that? So, I get certain things there because I save a bundle. Plus, the people there are way nicer than the other store, and they have a lot more cashiers open so I don't have to wait as long.

After groceries today, I did some productive and not-so-productive things. And for dinner, Brett and I went out! It's been a while since we did that together, so it was nice. We have this great little downtown area about 1 mile from us that we love! When we got home, we put in Night at the Museum. It's cute and entertaining. Now it's bedtime. Tomorrow is a busy day!

Our House

Enjoy some pictures of our house.

The bedroom:


My office:

Basement:
Patio:


Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Spare bedroom/Merritt's office:


Living Room:


COME VISIT!

First Day of School

It came. I went. We survived.
It's time for bed.

New York

I just got back from a fantastic weekend with my dad in New York to see the Yankees. He is an old time Yankees fan and he loved seeing the stadium and eating at Trattoria Trecolori. Check out some of the pictures....


Eating dinner at Trattoria Trecolori:


You'll notice that this picture is eerily similar to the same picture that Merritt and I took in NY in 2005. That's because we ate at the same restaurant and sat at roughly the same location!

Cleaning the mess

You know how you have days when you don't really check the email, and then somehow you don't check or reply to messages again, and then all of a sudden you have a bazillion emails in your mailbox? So, you have those bazillions in there and it just seems overwhelming and as though you'd never get to the bottom of the pile, so you don't bother. And then a few days later you finally just have to do it. That's what I've been doing. I'm down to 13 from 68. Yay for me!

Well, while I was going through my emails, I found some really fun pictures that my family took way back in July (disclaimer: my brother didn't email them to me until about 3 weeks after the trip, so it's not that it's been sitting in my inbox for 6 weeks). Brett and I couldn't go on the vacation, so they wanted to let us know we had been missed. I have the greatest family in the world!


This weekend while I was working, Brett's mom came over and did all kinds of work in my yard! It's amazing! She bought new plants for us, and painted our patio furniture, and transplanted some existing plants we had. I didn't even know you could do that. It's like she played musical plants with our back yard! And now it's all pretty and pruned! I'm so glad that I have someone with a green thumb to get my yard looking nice....and someone who can eventually teach me how to do something other than water the plants. But, that's for another season; for now I'm satisfied letting her plant and replant, and I'll water when she tells me to!