January 27, 2013: Cooking frenzy!

Gretchen gets the notorious BFD award (Best Friend of the Day) today.  She spent over six hours sharing gluten research, teaching me which ingredients to avoid, taking me shopping, and cooking meals for the week with me.  

Despite what the tears on my face might make you think, I enjoyed all six hours tremendously.  (They were onion induced).  Here's to many more Sunday afternoon cooking sessions!

January 26, 2013: Little Goat Diner

I decided to go all out on my last day before going gluten/dairy free.  I chose the Little Goat diner, a phenomenal new restaurant that just opened.  IT WAS AMAZING.  I got an incredible beef sandwich and a milkshake.  If you live in Chicago, you need to check this place out!

January 25, 2013: First snow!

It took until mid January before we finally had a snowfall that left snow on the ground.  I love looking out the window of my classroom and seeing the blanket of white.  

January 24, 2013: Dead Jessica

Apparently a long weekend shut away in the cold classroom was too much for poor little Jessica.  While testing some students on reading comprehension, we happened to look over and see she was missing.  We found her sunk to the bottom of our ecosystem.  That's her, the little orange thing below the numbers.

Jessica, may you always remember how you brought joy to 29 little faces.  Striker, MJ, and Mordecai will miss chasing you around the algae.  We hope you rest in peace and disintegrate soon so we don't have to look at your dead body.

January 23, 2013: Crazy Kids

My kids had a sub yesterday because I was flying in from NC.  I come into class today and find this paper man hanging from this kid's desk.  Do I even want to know what happened yesterday?  I asked the kids how it went without me, and one student replied, "Well... we weren't our best.  Some of us tried to get away with stuff when you weren't here."

Points for honesty, buddy.

January 22, 2013: Artie's first outing

Oh no.  I am scared of this big scary world outside of the womb.  Good thing I have these ridiculous puppy carseat covers to keep me safe. 

January 21, 2013: Hello, everyone!

Artie loves playing with his family!

(For anyone who may be getting tired of Artie pictures, get over it.  I am only visiting for another day).  

January 20, 2013, proud Auntie

I never knew I could just sit and stare at a baby for so long without getting bored.  

January 19, 2013: The thinker

I spent the day pondering life with Artie.  He is the most snuggable little man I have ever met.  He's laid back, makes funny faces, farts all the time, and gets hilarious crazy eyes.  I LOVE HIM!!

January 18, 2013: Typical Jesse

Jess and I split the salad at dinner tonight.  At the end of the meal, she threw her empty butter packets, some half eaten bread, and some other random garbage into the remains of the salad.  A few minutes later, in all seriousness, she asked me, "Hey, did you want to box this up?"  Yes please, I would love to eat your garbage.

January 17, 2013: Kate's Birthday Sushi party!

When we sent out the invitation for Katie's birthday dinner at Sushi Dokku, one of the newest and most delicious sushi places in the city, I thought John was kidding when he asked if they had chicken dishes.  He was not.  John eats no fish, so while we dined on some of the tastiest sushi I had ever eaten, John ordered this tiny filet and potato meal.  Good things he snacked before he came!  

January 15, 2013: Taste of New Country

Liza invited me to see Greg Bates, Maggie Rose, Casey James, and Kristen Kelly in an acoustic concert.  They did a great job!  Bub City just opened and I have a feeling I will be going there a lot more.

Lookin good

This dinner Kate made sure looks good...

January 13, 2013: Icy ride

Apparently there was a little ice storm last night.  It made me 15 minutes late to church this morning because I spent so much time scraping the ice off my car.

January 12, 2013: Help wanted

I gave him money.  I hope his girlfriend is ok.

January 11, 2013: Confiscated Happy Man

I confiscated this little homemade paper man from one of my students because he was playing with it during class.  I stuck him on my computer and kept him there all day.  My student noticed that I liked this guy so much that during free time, he began making me a 3-d origami paper man.  I will post pictures when it is finished.  

January 10, 2013: Heroes in a half shell...

TURTLE POWER!

I told you, the hats for little boys are so awesome now.

January 8, 2013: Artie, you can do it!

It's Artie's due date today!  I tried to text him a little encouragement, but he didn't really listen to me.  I guess he'll come when God's ready for him to come. :) 

January 7, 2013: Missing my brother

I started doing circuit training for the Tough Mudder I am running in May.  It kills me every time.  One of the last times I did it was over Christmas, in sunny NC, with Kyle to keep me motivated.   Even though the entire next day neither of us could really move and kept telling the other we hated them, I miss him!  It's not as fun doing it alone in cold Chicago!

January 6, 2013: Best photo of 2013!

Gretchen and I are team leaders for our church's greeting/connections team. We happened to show up this morning wearing matching outfits.  I don't know what makes this picture better- my ghostly white skin, Gretchen's hysterical face, or Liza's phenomenal photo bomb.  All together, it cracks me up every time I look at it.

January 5, 2013: fail

Sorry.  I've got nothing.  Not even a bogus excuse.

January 4, 2013: It's FRIDAY! (praise Him!)

A student made me this pink jazzy necklace.  As I got it from her, I cracked up and was reminded how much I love my job.  This necklace was a life saver because today's school day was ROUGH!  We had to come back this week on Thursday and Friday to make up days from the strike.  The students were OUT OF CONTROL!!   In between constantly waiting for students to stop talking, handing out punishments, raising my voice, leading discussions about why the choices they are making are not good ones, breaking up mini scuffles, and pleading with my kid who has special needs to stop crawling on the desk and chasing the other students around, I kept looking at the little paper necklace and reminding myself, "I love my job, I love my job."

January 3, 2013: I love me some water.

That's right.  Water makes me SO happy.  I NEVER think about pop anymore and how carbonated it is and how delicious it is with mac and cheese, crackers, deli sandwiches, Flat Top, movie popcorn, or countless other things I have eaten in the last few days.  I fasting from pop and sweets with my cousin for 21 days.  As much as I joke about it, I can already see how the Lord has used my cravings as constant reminders to crave Him with even greater ferociousness.  I do love this little smiley face no spill insert in my nalgene too, because it helps me stay positive.  There is greater joy in the Lord than there will ever be in sugar.  :)

January 2, 2013: precious moments

New Year's day I drove to Alma and visited Emily and Leyla!  Derek has just been deployed to Afghanistan again, so Em is spending a little time with her parents while she is still on maternity leave.   I give major props to Em, because being a mom seems like incredibly tough work.  She is so strong!  One of my favorite parts of spending time with this little family was story time.  Em and I read Leyla a couple of books before her naps.  The best part though was when Em played an iPod recording of Derek reading a story.  Em turned the pages quietly as Leyla looked at the pages and heard daddy reading.  

I turned my head into the bed and pretended to snooze but instead squeezed out a few tears.  How sweet is that moment!!!

January 1, 2012: Starting over

I came into the bathroom this morning to find this note.  Dad must have put it there last night and I used the upstairs bathroom instead.  The back story is that one day I was visiting my parents and someone was complaining about how the toilet paper in the bathroom never gets changed.  My dad was very indignant, claiming that he had just changed the roll.  I started cracking up and said, "By changing the roll, you mean you stacked the new roll on top of the old one right, because that's what's in the bathroom right now."   He smirked a little and now he makes sure to let me know whenever he REALLY changes the roll.

So yes, dad, in response to your sticky note question, I am very proud of you.  Let's shoot for even more roll changes in 2013!

December 31, 2012: Resolution Run

Congratulations, Syd, on your first 5K!!

This run was a blast.  A little impromptu for me, but that's how I like it.  It was a beautiful course along the lakeshore and run by a bunch of people who were out to have a good time and excited to be getting into shape.  

Sydney was a rock star.  Just look at her hair!

December 30, 2012: Hidden Kitty

My cousin, Sydney, moved to a new apartment today.  I was overly excited to help her move because I have my SUV now.  I basically demanded that she let me move her stuff for her.  As we lifted the box spring on her bed, we noticed the entire bottom was shred up.  Matt explained that the cat must be crawling into it during the day.  As we carried the box spring across the old apartment I happened to look through a whole in the fabric... and found the cat inside!  She looked a little nervous :)

December 29, 2012: Winter walk

Sadie and I went on a nice long walk today.  I ended up in the snow multiple times after she decided to run after a scent, but I didn't mind.  It was a chance for me to walk around and remember how beautiful the snowy farm is.  I miss this place.

December 28, 2012: Shrimpy little family

One of my students gave me this ecosphere for Christmas.  I LOVE IT!  It is entirely self sustaining.  Inside are three shrimp that feed on algae.  All we have to do is make sure the sphere gets the right amount of warmth and light throughout the day.  I am keeping it in the classroom as our class pets.  The students nominated and voted on names.  They decided on Mordecai, Striker, MJ, and Jessica.  If you didn't know already, my students are weirdos.

I couldn't risk leaving the shrimp at school or in my empty apartment with the lights off and heat turned down, so I brought them with me to Michigan.  Grandma and Grandpa were already dog watching Sadie for my parents, so they agreed to keep an eye on my fishy foursome as well.  I think Grandpa loved it.  He swore that they all grew by the time I picked them up.