Easter Basket

Well, since the blogging world is full of Easter basket chronicles I thought that I would add one of my own.  Instead of Easter baskets I did Easter packages!

This was Easter Package Central! The spare bed was covered with Easter eggs, tissue paper, toys, and candy!

Zsolt and Anara’s package was soooo much fun! There were Peter Rabbit books and glow stick and Peeps and stuffed bunnies that smell like chocolate!   Fun times!

Jake’s package was the most fun to put together. It took over a hundred eggs to fill one large shipping box. Each egg was filled with chocolates.  The best thing ever: the camouflage Easter eggs! They even came with little army men to put inside!

Happy Easter everybody! 

Learning Life Lessons

I learned a lesson tonight. Maybe it was on attitude.  I’m not exactly sure.
Today was “one of those days.” You know the kind I’m talking about? The kind of day where nothing truly bad happens but where it could have, maybe even should have, gone a whole lot better?
My lesson plans were fine – but not great. By the 6th time I taught homophones/homonyms I was more than happy to be done with them. The Pep Club had discipline issues, I have paper work galore, I had to help set up for a faculty meeting tomorrow morning, my keys to everything are missing, there’s a field trip tomorrow, . . . etc. etc.
When I got home I changed into pajama pants and went downstairs to watch a recording of Castle, NCIS, and NCIS:LA. I was going to have a nice, relaxing night of television and think about nothing.  Unfortunately NCIS:LA is a rerun tonight – disappointing— and I was still feeling grumpy when I turned off the television. (Strange, usually watching shows about murders relaxes me.) I decided to go to bed early, maybe curl up with a book, and call it a day. Good Riddance.
Sammy had different plans. He was barking at the back door- his sign to go out- so I opened the door. But when he was done with his business he wouldn’t come back in. He stayed on the porch, backing up every time I acted like I was moving towards him. Eventually he had me standing out on the edge of the back porch, and despite my Eeyore mood I couldn’t help but notice the sunset. Before I knew it I was following him out into the backyard and we began to play.
Sammy’s favorite game is tag. He loves to chase and he loves to be chased. I couldn’t help but laugh as he ran this-a-way and then that-a-way narrowly escaping my grasp with his tongue hanging out and grinning like a fool. He’s lightening fast and can change directions on a dime, so I know that every time I “almost” caught him it was because he allowed it. There’s no way he would ever let me get that close if he didn’t like the thrill of almost letting me win. He likes to hide behind the trees too and then waits to run until I sneak up on him. Sometimes we just run tight circles and figure eights around the trees as he weaves back and forth.
Do you know exercise, laughter, and a beautiful evening do to a bad mood? They shatter it to smithereens.  It is not possible to be in a bad mood and be having fun. 
So what did I learn? I learned that next time I feel that maybe life is getting out of hand, or at least not going my way I need to do something completely random. I need to play a game of tag with the dog, or go for a walk, or find a sunset. I happen to be one of those people who believe in signs from God. No I’m not saying that God spoke to me through my dog or the sunset. But I believe that He does put good, beautiful, innocent things in our lives everyday so that if we so choose, they’ll be there when we need something to help us out.  Tonight when I needed cheering up I found that I have many things to be cheerful about. And so now when I go to bed early, curl up with a book, and call it a night I won’t be doing because I’m cranky, I’ll be doing it lighthearted and refreshed, grateful for the opportunity to have a nice relaxing evening at home.

Lucky

I’m not a big music lover, nor am I a huge fan of Jason Mraz, but I happened upon this song a few months ago and I really like it. It’s fitting for my life right now.

Out of place?

A while back I pulled into my garage and noticed something a bit odd. Then, as I was sitting in my car the other day talking on the phone and looking around, I noticed something else that was odd. Let’s play a game to see if you can find them too:

Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Did you see it? If not, let me zoom in a little bit and help you out.

Yep, you saw that right. There are pickles with the gardening tools, and butterscotch pudding boxes on the lawnmower. 

So here’s the story: One night  rushing home late from the grocery store in January one of my bags broke as I lifted it from the car. Groceries went everywhere! One jar of pickles even shattered onto the cement sending juice and glass all over the floor. It was late, and I was tired, so I swept up the glass and pickles, picked up all of the groceries that had rolled under the car, and went inside.  I vaguely remember picking up the unbroken jar of pickles and setting it aside while I was cleaning and I guess I was so busy looking at the floor I didn’t even look at the lawnmower.

This is just one example of how crazy life has gotten at my house lately. I seem to be losing my mind just a little bit. 

I might not have noticed they were missing, but I sure am glad to have them back! Pudding or pickles anyone?

Learning Patience

I’ve decided that patience is about learning how to wait. It’s about how to make the most of the time that we are given, no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in.
Tonight I had the “opportunity” to spend the evening with several different gentlemen from India. We met via a 1-800 service number and we were working toward the common goal of fixing Jacob’s laptop.  It had been a pleasant hour and a half with Abdul (not even kidding) in which he asked me questions, I answered them, he repeated them back incorrectly, I annunciated better, and then it started all over again. I spent a lot of time sitting in front of a laptop that didn’t work, waiting for directions and advice.  After running through all of the usual technical support questions, I was finally transferred to another friendly individual who was explaining to me how to go about mailing the laptop off to be fixed.  I started to hear a strange beeping sound that kept interrupting him. At first I didn’t think anything of it, and then in hit me! My phone battery was dying! Oh no! Where is my charger?! Oh yeah, its in my classroom -- 3 blocks away! The next thing I knew I had been disconnected.
Panicked, I ran to the garage and plugged my phone into the car charger. I knew that it was futile, but I couldn’t help hoping. I opened the garage door about a foot, and propped the back yard door open with a gas can to avoid fumigating myself, and then I waited. I waited for someone in India to pick up the phone again. I waited for the new young man to look up my case number and transfer me to the right department. I waited for someone in Hardware Support to accept my call. I tried patiently to re-explain everything that I had just spent the last hour explaining to someone else. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. The issue still isn’t resolved completely – he’s calling back tomorrow to finish – but as I sat shivering outside in my garage I began to think about my time.
I had made plans for this evening. It was going to be a fun evening with a Monday Movie, popcorn, etc, but instead I was stuck in my garage, listening to “hold” music on speakerphone (my car charger cord is too short to reach from the plug to my ear), and staring at the lawn mower (more on that at a later date). Is that what I wanted to do with my time this evening? Nope. It sure wasn’t. Was there anything I could do about it? Nope. There sure was not.
Now, it’s past 10:00pm. I still haven’t eaten dinner, I haven’t watched any television, read any books, played any games with Sammy, or even fixed the *bleeping* laptop, but its time for bed and I’ve learned a few lessons tonight. Lesson #1: Never call for technical support with 50% cell phone battery life, it won’t be enough. Lesson #2: Learn to speak Hindi, that may save a lot of time and make lesson #1 unnecessary. Lesson #3: Always keep a spare library book in the car for such emergencies. Lesson #4: Stop trying to control how you spend your time, the sooner you learn to give up control, the happier you’ll be (or at least the less frustrated).

Suggested Reading

I came across a link to this article through Your Life Uncommon, a blog that I enjoy reading often. Because this article describes 99% of the links on my blog, I thought it would be worthwhile to share.  Enjoy!

http://www.mormonmommyblogs.com/2011/03/mmb-and-abcs-nightline-why-people.html

I Think I Love the BBC

This has been a great year to watch PBS. Back in January I saw a preview for a Masterpiece Mystery that looked pretty good so I set my DVR to record it. Since then it has recorded every Masterpiece movie that comes on Sunday nights: Masterpiece Mystery, Masterpiece Classic, and Masterpiece Contemporary.  I’ve pretty much deleted the Contemporaries; the Mysteries and the Classics are the best.

First of all, have you seen the Masterpiece Mystery: Sherlock Holmes?  Well, if you haven’t, watch it quick! Click here. It’s the first version of Sherlock that is in the 21st Century not the 19th. Very clever too if you can understand what they’re saying. Also, Watson is kinda cute.  I think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would approve.

Second, did you miss the latest Masterpiece Classic, Downton Abbey? Because if you did, then you are seriously missing out on something awesome. It’s got romance, intrigue, and all sorts of yummy British accents.  Luckily its even an Instant Queue movie so if you want to watch it over and over again while you wait for the one you purchased to be shipped, then you can! Oh wait, maybe that’s just me. Also, to save you the searching online -  the 2nd season won’t come out until February of next year – in America anyway.  It will be rough to wait that long, but we can pull through if we have each other.

In the meantime I’ll be starting the next Masterpiece Classic, Any Human Heart. I’ve only watched the first 15 minutes so far but it sounds intriguing. Well, right up until I fell asleep on the couch.

Room Makeover!

Everything in my house is brown. Brown wooden floor, brown cabinets, brown countertops, brown furniture, even the walls are a light shade of brown.

In a two week crash course in decorating, my friend Jennifer and I redecorated my bedroom.  It didn’t turn out the way that I expected it too. In fact, it turned out much, much better.

Here are some pictures of the room before we began:

Yes, I realize the bedspread was blue. But it was beginning to get holes in it and needed replaced.

Please notice the blank walls. And the strange pinky brown color of paint.

Here are some pictures of “The Project.”  We spent one weekend just working on the paint. This was quite the project because we had to also find a new comforter and then pick out paint to match.  We saw two midnights in a row trying to get this all done, and that’s really saying something!

Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.

Sammy did a fairly decent job of staying out of the way. He only ended up with a little bit of paint on his tail.

Jake was giving directions and encouragement from the other side of the world. Yea for Skype!

Paint central. Also give a YEA for having a bathroom right off from the bedroom.

Yes, Jennifer and I took turns climbing to the top of the ladder to paint by the ceiling. Guess which one of us spilled an entire bowl of paint on the carpet?  Hint: not Jennifer! No worries- the carpet is fine.

Finally the painting was done and we were able to put the furniture back in place.

This weekend Jennifer came back and we finished the decorating. We spent the morning shopping and then got busy sewing, drilling, hammering, measuring, leveling, and gluing.

 

Here are the end results. What do you think?

I owe a HUGE thanks to Jennifer for all of her wonderful ideas, enthusiasm, and help. I also owe a huge thanks to Alex for helping us pick colors, Sherry and Aunt Margo for helping us figure out what the heck we were doing, Mom for helping find the decorations, and Dad for bringing us dinner to keep us going. Also, the Quilt Barn, TJ Maxx, Pier 1, Macy’s, and Lowe’s for being so convenient and having cool stuff. 

Movie Mania

Back in September I set a goal to watch one movie a week for an entire year. I’ve done okay, not great, but okay. At first I was calling it my Monday Movies. And while I still strive for Monday nights sometimes it gets moved to the weekends when I have more time. All in all 22 weeks have gone by since I first began. Some of the movies were lame, some were interesting, some made me cry, some were just plain fun, and some I loved so much I went out and bought my own copy. In the last 22 weeks I have watched the following 21 movies:

1. Only Angels Have Wings
2. The Glass Bottomed Boat
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife
4. French Kiss
5. Benny and Joon
6. Mansfield Park
7. How to Train Your Dragon
8. In Love and War
9. When In Rome
10. August Rush
11. Anna and the King
12. The Shop Around the Corner
13. Amelie
14. Last Chance Harvey
15. The Duchess
16. In Love and War
17. Oscar
18. Inception
19. When In Rome
20. One Fine Day
21. Let’s Make it Legal

Silly Time–Make Up Your Mind!

Okay, I need some help from my science-fiction fan friends.

I am really confused about the concept of TIME.

Today is the first day of February.

Part of me is saying, “What the heck. . . it’s already February? Wow! Where did the time go?!”

But another part of me is saying, “It’s only February? Why isn’t it, like, April or something? Sheesh, this year is taking forEVer!”

Please explain.