Eric already gave me his present this morning: a cashmere sweater and a gc for a massage.  I am way pumped about both of them.  In fact, I think I’m going to have to make a trip to the dry cleaners so that I can wear my new sweater tomorrow!

Other than that, the morning hasn’t been too exciting.  I exercised outside (it only rained on me a little bit), and I put the garbage out when I got back from my walk.  Then I got ready, had breakfast, loaded the dishwasher, did my bible study, and read my email.  Now I’m here! 

I do think I’m going to run some errands later this morning, but I think that I’m going to take my grading to the library to do.  Sometimes it helps me focus if I don’t have such distractions like the tv and easy internet access.  But I’m also planning to go to the dry cleaners (see above) and WalMart sometime today.

I don’t have any big plans for my birthday, though.  We’ve been out to eat every night this week, and I’m tired of take-out/eat-out.  So I think I’m just going to have dinner here tonight.  My family is coming up here tomorrow night for a small party (and Kelly thinks I’m going to have a Dora cake…I think she’s going to be disappointed!).  Other than that, it’s a grown-up birthday, so it won’t be that exciting.  Wait…maybe I’ll get my car washed today! That will add lost of birthday excitement!

Okay, so it’s Wednesday.  As I left this morning, I almost put the
garbage out…but then I remembered, garbage day is tomorrow (there’s
your reminder, Trisha!).

I have a very busy day today.  Class, prep time, lunch with a
student, class, lunch with my mom (I probably won’t eat twice, but I’ll
go home and talk to her!), class, meeting with my chairman, then
home.  Then I have to go to the church for a dinner thing with the
music/arts ministry which the drama people volunteered to help
organize, then drama rehearsal, then home.  Wow…I’m tired just
looking at that!

Yesterday was good.  Eric sent me flowers (birthday/valentine’s
combined) and he made me a “card” at work.  He etched real gold
onto a small piece of glass to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” – it was
cute!   In honor of our tradition,
we ordered chinese take-out from PF Chang’s, but ended up waiting in a
30-35 minute line to get our food (they were crazy busy)!  After
dinner, I gave Eric his present (2 movies) and he relaxed while I set
up a romantic “love nest” (sorry Kim) to watch the movie.  I’ve
never really decorated much for Valentine’s, so I had candles,
sparkling juice, comfy pillows, various chocolates and we watched The
Italian Job (one of my favorites).  All in all, a successful
evening, I thought. 

It was probably overkill, but I like to do Valentines Day up for him
since he has to turn around and celebrate my birthday so quickly.
Anyway it was fun, and it looked really pretty!  Unfortunately, I
couldn’t find our digital camera, so I couldn’t get any pictures of
it.  Oh well!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Only two days until my birthday (the really important part!).

Today I think we’re doing our “normal” romantic evening: Chinese food and a movie.  Of course, I intend to spice things up a little bit so it won’t be exactly like every other year.  But it is nice to have a non-pressured date all ready to go…and we have a gift card to PF Chang’s to use, so we’ll get really good chinese!

Other than that, it probably won’t be so exciting today.  I have some errands to run (some of them are -day related).  I need to create and send our small group’s newsletter for the week, and I need to prep for drama group tomorrow.  I also have some papers to read and respond to, but I won’t put actual grades on them this round.  Not doing that does make it somewhat easier to do.  I do not have any laundry to do today, though!

It’s Sunday afternoon. We had a friend over for dinner today.  I made a pork roast, which turned out beautifully!  We had it with bbq sauce (my favorite!) and I made herbed potatoes, rolls, jello and green beans.  There were cookies and ice cream for dessert.  Hmmm, so far all I’ve mentioned is food.  Gee…maybe my posts will be as exciting as Kim’s now!

I also had to run to WalMart this afternoon and then I cleaned up the kitchen.  Eric is now napping, but we haven’t done our “homework” for small group yet, so I’m going to have to wake him up soon so we’ll look prepared!  Of course, he just started snoring a little bit, so maybe I’ll have to start on my own.

Yesterday was not that exciting.  Eric worked for most of the day (he left at 7:15 and got home around 2:30 or so).  I made cookies and did some laundry.  I also went shopping up on Sawmill, but didn’t find too much worth getting.  I also forgot that I was supposed to be at the church for a bit (at 4:30).  One of my drama group was part of the service this weekend, and I just like to show up to run interference for them (get mics, make sure of the order of service, make sure no one forgot there was drama scheduled, etc.).  Thankfully, things went fine without me, but I was greatly annoyed with myself for forgetting. Teach me to make cookies, I guess!

Oh…and Eric and I went to see The Pink Panther on Saturday.  It is a light, funny, not complicated movie.  It’s not great, but it’s not bad either.  And we did both laugh regularly during the show.  Oh…and it’s only 1:30 long, which is a very nice change of pace from 3 hour movies!  So, if you just need a light bit of entertainment…try that.  Just don’t expect more than that!

So…it’s been an interesting afternoon.  I was driving to my appointment (on 70, almost to 270) when my phone rang to say they needed to reschedule because my doctor was doing a c-section at that moment.  So, I get/have to wait another month for the joy of seeing the doctor.  Of course, that meant I drove around for 20 minutes just to come back home again.  Oh well…

When I got home, I finished my grading, finished cleaning my kitchen, vacuumed, brewed iced tea for my husband and planned my time frame for our evening (we’re having a friend over for roast chicken for dinner).  I even decided to make homemade bread, though I still have to figure out what else to have with the chicken.  Any ideas?

Happy Thursday!  I’ve had a very productive morning, I think.  I emptied and filled the dishwasher.  I cleaned up some papers.  I filled out the paperwork for my doctor’s appointment this afternoon (it saves time while you’re there, but it takes forever to find all the info every time).  I also ordered contacts.  The lady on the phone needs to work on her service skills.  And I ordered makeup. 

I also should use today to get some other things done: finish laundry, vacuum, clean off the counters, etc. Oh…and I need to remember to put the trash out.  But before I do that, I have to clean out some of the leftovers in the refrigerator.  I should get to that. 

Today is definitely better than yesterday.  That’s always a good thing.  I’m making progress towards finding solutions to my various frustrations, which is also helpful.  You know…if the world just ran the way I think it should, it would be so much easier for me to handle!

I just talked to Deb on the phone for about an hour.  We had a lovely chat, and I even talked to Kelly before hanging up.  She’s getting much easier to understand on the phone.  She told me all the news: Holly is napping, Daddy is at work to buy money, they are staying home today.  They went grocery shopping yesterday, and Holly left her toys on the floor (one of them is a rhinocerus).  Also her birthday is Nov. 19 and she was very excited when I told her that I’d buy her a present for her birthday.  She promised to come to my birthday party next week, and bring her mom, dad, and Holly.  She’s pretty cute!

I’m frustrated today about classes, church stuff, lots of stuff. 
I won’t go into details because it wouldn’t edify any of you and I
doubt rehearsing my issues will help me resolve them.  But it’s
10:15 and I’m really annoyed.

I have to spend the next couple of hours trying to finish the grading I
have for my 2:00 class, so I can’t write much today.  By the way,
I did NOT get my ironing done (didn’t even try really).  And when
I went back to Lenscrafters with Eric’s sunglasses, I was told that the
real problem is that the frames are curved but his lens is very flat
(because of the Rx he needs).  So he’ll probably need to go back
in and pick a different frame.  Funny, but it seems like that
could’ve been mentioned when we were there the first time…but maybe
I’m just being silly!

Karen’s school district levy didn’t pass; I heard this on the news this
morning.  That won’t be good for them…they’re having trouble
getting by now!  But of course, they’ll still be expected to meet
the No Child Left Behind standards! Does that just make so much
sense…

Okay, on to grading, I guess…

I walked outside this morning.  It was cold, but it’s getting light earlier everyday, and I just couldn’t stay inside.  So I bundled up and walked in the neighborhood.  Only my nose was a little cold!

Today I have to take Eric’s sunglasses back to Lenscrafters.  The lenses aren’t fitting correctly into the frame (I don’t think you should see a gap between the lens and frame!).  So we’ll see what that requires.  I also think I’m going to go over to a Verizon store.  Eric’s contract finally ran out (mine had run out last spring), so we can now get a family plan of some sort.  We were going to go on Saturday while we were out getting his glasses, but the crowds (and crazy drivers) were getting to him, so we didn’t stop.  So hopefully we’ll find a plan that will work for us.  And…I can’t wait to get a new phone!  Mine is VERY old and I’ve been nursing it along until now.  So…that should be fun.

Other than that, I must grade today, and I think I’m going to try to finish the laundry (and ironing).  So I guess it’s not that exciting, but hey, it’ll keep me busy!

Okay, so a quick post for today.  The party last night went really
well.  I ended up only taking the fruit and the chocolate covered
stuff.  We actually did pretty well yesterday.  We usually
end up with phenomenally more food than anyone can eat, but we didn’t
have too much that looked barely touched.  It did sound like there
was going to be a lot of food, but I thought we had a good amount to
feed the 16 people who came.  And I purposely took fruit knowing
I’d have plenty to take home and enjoy myself!

Other than the Super Bowl party, it wasn’t that exciting of a
weekend.  Eric and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday
night.  On Saturday we went to the mall to buy Eric some new
glasses, and we also picked up a few other things while we wandered
around waiting for them to be finished.  Eric sort of let me be
the final say on the new style, and that was a lot of pressure. 
His new glasses look totally different than his old ones, but he looks
very trendy (without looking like a freak).  And Karen also
approved, so that just reinforced my decision.

Anyway, then I graded on Saturday afternoon, did laundry, made cookies,
and then we watched the CBS show about the last 30 years of Super Bowl
commercials.  I guess it wasn’t that exciting, but hey, it was
relaxing.

Oh, and in case anyone up here missed it…winter is finally here!

So it’s Sunday afternoon.  I decided to give myself a short break so here’s a post for Trisha to read in the morning.

I had a meeting after the music portion of the second service today, so we didn’t get home until almost 1:00.  I made tacos for dinner (quick and tasty) and then took a minute to read my favorite stuff in the paper and clip coupons.  Then I started on what I’m taking to the Super Bowl party tonight.  I’m taking cookies, fruit, and chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries.  I made one kind of cookie last night, but decided I’d wait until today to make the second kind.

Unfortunately, the second kind didn’t really turn out so well.  I made oatmeal scotchies, but I have had a lot of trouble recently getting any cookie with oats in them to turn out right.  So I ended up with a pile of crumbles rather than normal cookies…they tasted good, but I couldn’t exactly take them anywhere.  So I decided that one type of cookie and the other stuff will have to suffice.  Besides, we always end up with WAY too much food, so it’ll probably be fine!

Karen is hosting the party tonight for our small group.  It should be fun.  I’ll let you know tomorrow!   Anyway, I should probably go back to the kitchen and work on the cutting up the fruit.