Things that bug me...(in no particular order)

• Weather-(not that I can change this one) 17 degrees yesterday and 50 today. How am I supposed to know how to dress? Yes, I watch the weather channel, but it is no wonder everyone's getting sick lately! (Not me, thankfully. Knock on wood.)
• Basketball-that a basket is called a field goal. Field goals are in football. Why this annoys me is beyond me. Probably because I know very little about football and I don't need any terms that could be confused with another sport. Give me a break here folks.
• Co-workers-one in particular that refers to certain parts of the brain as "dendricles and neons". What the?! I think you may have injured your dendrites and/or neurons if you think this is what they're called.
• Parents (no not mine)-those who complain that their children are not learning much in my class. The very same children who tell me they do not have an ABC puzzle at home and that their parents don't talk to them about the things we talk about in school. These same parents would rather play video games with their kids than be involved with their learning. And they're too busy with their own social lives to help them learn anything.

Things I'm thankful for...(also in no particular order)

• My sweet husband-boy, am I lucky and don't think I don't know it. (Shh...don't tell him. Wouldn't want him to get a big head or anything. I tell him enough.) :)
• My house-I LOVE this house, but I wonder how much it would cost to upgrade our tub and shower. They're the only things in our house that are just too small!
• My job-Finally, a job that I love and 12 sweet little faces I get to see every day. And I love the parents of (most of) those kids who tell me how glad they are that I'm there teaching their kids. Even the not-so-involved parents are at least glad I'm there. And I am too.

Proud big brother Mason with Alexa. What cuties! :)

Oh, how I love DVR. I just watched American Idol (the first one of the season) and didn't have to suffer through the agonizing drawn-out comments and singing. Cut to the chase people and just get to the point. No commercials, no listening to Simon and company bash the contestants, just get on with it.

Also, we just watched the latest OSU vs. Texas game on ESPN classic. SWEET! We forgot to DVR it on Tuesday, so once we heard the outcome we were pretty upset that we didn't get to see it. OSU won in triple overtime. Oh yeah!

If you don't have DVR, you should get it. Your life will never be the same. :)

Monday...back to work. Trying to get back into the swing of things.
Tuesday...Go Wahoos! We went to see UVA beat up on the Maryland Terps. What a fun time!
Wednesday...our weekly happy hour was a bust, so my hubby took me out for a date night. We went to 220 Seafood for all-you-can-eat crab legs. It was SO good!
Thursday...we DVR'd American Idol and are cozied up on the couch catching up. Agonizing, let me tell you!
Friday...gotta do lots of homework for my class on Saturday. YUCK! Gonna put something in the crockpot so I don't have to worry about dinner.
Saturday...class all night long. What a busy week!
Sunday...can't wait to relax all day!

Happy Birthday to my new little niece, Alexa Brooke! Wish we were there to celebrate with you today. But don't you worry...Aunt Amy and Uncle J will spoil you (and your brother)rotten when we see you. Now do me a favor and let your poor mommy get some rest, OK? :)

Talk about a nail-biter! We had such a fun time at the poker game last night. There were 10 people there at 2 different poker tables. After 3 or 4 hours, it was down to 2 players. Would you believe it was down to me and one other person?! I just kept getting really good hands and people kept getting knocked out right and left. Once I even had pocket aces! I can't believe I actually came in ahead of 8 other people! It was pretty fun. We played a 2nd game and I guess I should have switched seats or something because my good luck from the first game sure didn't stick around for game two. I got out pretty quickly on that one, but I was tired of playing and ready to be done anyway. So far, I've played 4 games total and stayed in the game longer than J in all of those games, so it makes me kinda proud. :) I think I represented the ladies pretty well last night. The great thing is that nobody has figured out my playing style yet, so they don't know how to read me. That's quite a feat for someone who as usually as transparent as I am. I can't wait to go again next month. But I think I'll be practicing up between now and then.

Just when I think my blog is suffering from a serious case of the blahs, someone new tells me they read and enjoy what I write here. Thanks to my cousin (N) for caling today to let me know my blog made you laugh. Thanks to my sister who thinks my blog was whitty. (Why is it that whenever I hear the word "witty" I suddenly want to burst into song? "I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel witty and pretty and bright." I know, I'm a dork...what can I say? Oh and by the way, I spelled witty that way on purpose. B knows why. Love you, B.) Thanks to my friend Jennifer who leaves comments here and understands when I'm a lurker and don't return the favor and comment as often as I should on her blog. :) (Sorry!) And thanks to those people who read even when I don't post that often.

Today, I'm catching up on my blogging (obviously) and lounging around with a cup of coffee. It occurred to me last weekend that I have turned into my parents. (Not that that's a bad thing.) When the weather was so nice and we had the windows open, I found myself on the couch with a cup of coffee and a book and realized that I had often found my parents doing much the same thing. Whether it was dad reading the paper or mom reading a book, I often awoke to the smell of coffee brewing and came into the living room to find the windows open. It was a somewhat surreal moment to be able to proudly say "I have turned into my mother."

And this comment brings to mind another time when I was at mom's house and commented that her coffee smelled good but that I just didn't like the taste. I remember mom getting out all different kinds of coffee and making it several different ways trying to help me find out how I like to drink coffee. We must have made it every imaginable way and with every conceivable ingredient until I decided I just plain didn't like the taste of coffee. Fast forward to college where I suddenly found myself staying up late and getting up early. I quickly found my way to drink coffee. With a skirt, as my dad says. (Translation: a little coffee with my creamer and sweetener) Nowadays, I drink all kinds of coffee and when my favorite local coffee shop had a seasonal coffee I adore, I bought up 5 bags just to store in the freezer so I could enjoy that flavor all year long. Speaking of which, my cup is empty.

Ante up. It's poker night tonight. Let's hope I can hold my own and keep up with the big timers. Ms. Crafty needs a new pair of shoes! :)

Overheard today:

1) "The rhino-sorceress has one large horn..." Uh, do you mean rhinoceros?

2) "It's OK if the picture looks like Picass-io did it...it's art. Yeah, that would be Picasso, crazy woman.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...yes folks, it's January 6th and we've got our windows open today. It's supposed to get up to 70 degrees today! Woohoo! I don't know what we're going to do today, but whatever it is, we'll be doing it outside. :) Have a great weekend!

It's like Monday. But on Tuesday. :) I like having a short week. It's kinda nice. And we only had 3 kids in class, due to President Ford's funeral. It made for a nice easy way to ease into the work week. Tomorrow, we expect all 11 back in full force and rarin' to go. Should be interesting. Glad tomorrow is Happy Hour night. :) We're having more of the Veronica Mars marathon tonight. Fun stuff. Happy Tuesday.

Would you believe I am ready to go back to work tomorrow? Yes, folks. After 4 days off, I am bored. I've read all the books I had, can't work on my lesson plan until I see what my co-teacher is teaching about this week (don't want to do the same thing she is doing), have cooked so many things that my fridge is packed full of food, and there is nothing but football on t.v. Oh yeah, and can't go shopping because most stores are closed and can't shop online because it's not payday yet. Sigh. Jason calls this the best t.v. sports-watching day of the year. Wish I felt the same. BORING!

5...4...3...2...1...Happy New Year! :) We had a fun, relaxing New Year's Eve here. We stayed home and I made a few snacks. We had ourselves a Veronica Mars marathon. (One of our favorite shows. I bought Jason the complete 1st and 2nd seasons on DVD for Christmas.) We had some margaritas and parked it on the couch for the entire evening. It was pretty fun.
Did we make resolutions? Of course. We always do. We usually write them down and keep them in the drawer in our dining room table. I think I have all of our resolution lists since 2004.
One of my resolutions is to blog more. I already have acchieved this, since my laptop lives right beside the couch in the living room. It's easy to blog a little during commercial breaks when I'm watching t.v.
Another resolution is to watch less t.v, so we'll see if I'm able to keep that one. :)
Another resolution is to finally figure out how to make biscuits from scratch. Not peanut butter fudge though...I'm leaving that one up to the pro. (Love you, Pawpaw!)
Hope everyone has a fun and happy new year. 2007?! Can you believe it?!