Huzzah!

It's been about a month since the last update... pretty standard for me.  :-/ (?)

Anyway, the last entry was all about our anniversary and what crafty things I've done/been doing this summer. (yeah, I had to check what the last entry was, and I was surprised to find the craft entry! i guess i'd totally forgotten about it!)  Well, unfortunately, not much else has happened in the line of craftiness.  I'm still reading blogs about crafts and I still have ongoing projects, but I certainly don't have any progress that I find worthy of bragging about and/or taking pictures of... which I guess would just be a way of visually bragging--so I'm back to having nothing crafty to brag about.

Something I do have to brag about?  My freaking awesome car!  Some (most?  all?  none?) of you know that in March, Jay traded in his Toyota Corolla, began driving my Ford Focus (I love you, Irma!), and that we bought--and I get to drive!--a new Honda Insight (her name is Harley, in case you're curious).  We get awesome gas mileage--I'm talking 42+ mpg, people!--and, I found out today, I'm doing pretty well on oil change frequency, even for the insight.  Since purchasing Harley* at the very end of March, I've/we've driven 8,600 miles.  Today, after some important meetings (more on that later in the post!), Harley had her very first oil change.  Isn't that amazing??  8,600 miles between oil changes!  The service man at the dealer said that I was getting great usage out of my oil, that he usually has to change it around 7,000 or 7,500.  Why is it "around?" you ask, Why isn't it predictable like every other car?  Well, the Insight has a computer thingamajig (sorry if I'm losing you in the technical lingo here) that measures the oil life.  When the oil life gets below 20%, a little message is displayed saying that the oil needs service soon.  I have no idea how or why this is the appropriate time to change the oil, but I like that I don't have to keep up with it, that Harley will tell me when she needs new oil, just like when she told me her tires were low.  I <3 Harley.

Earlier this week (yesterday and Monday, in fact) I attended some staff development sessions.  Wait... does that mean?  Yes!  It means I got a job!  And not just any job--but a job I really really want!  I have been hired at Bowie Middle School as a sixth grade language arts teacher!!  I'm super excited because this is the school where I did my student teaching last year, so I already know the population, the administration, my co-workers, and tons of other important things!  I had such a wonderful experience last year that I couldn't be more excited to be a full-fledged member of the Bowie team.  :D  ...And yeah, getting a paycheck will be nice, too.  ;-) (student teachers are unpaid interns)  Today, in my important meetings, I signed my contract, I was introduced to some benefits options, and I picked up my school laptop.  Needless to say, it was a pretty good day.  Before today, I was unofficially-officially hired.  What I mean by that is this: the school was ready to hire me, but HR hadn't done the paperwork or had me come in to sign my part of it. 

So, knowing that I'd eventually get to the paperwork part of the process, my administrators and department chair enrolled me in staff development for yesterday and Monday.  We learned all about our new curriculum and how to implement it and tweak it and rock it.  I'm really happy to be a new teacher this year opposed to other years, because while I am new to teaching, everyone is new to teaching this curriculum--so we're in similarish boats and we'll learn together. 

I'm also really happy about my job assignment because I found out that 2/3 of my classes are honors classes!  SO EXCITED!!  Sure, this means I have to plan a regular and an honors lesson every day, but we're a sixth grade team, so we'll do it together.  :)  I'm looking forward to it.

Add in a superawesome chick trip to Mississippi with wonderful women, and that's what's happened in the past month.  Taa-daa!  :-D 

 

*Why in the world did I name a Honda Insight "Harley"?  First, you should know that I like to name things, especially things that seem intelligent--cars, computers, printers, iPods (the only apple product that I own--Jay has other apple products, but they're not mine), etc.  I couldn't just arbitrarily pick out a name for my new car, it had to feel right and seem appropriate.  When we bought the Insight, the model and color I wanted wasn't in stock where we bought it, so we had to get a loaner car from the dealer.  When we finally got our car and returned the loaner, I forgot to get my insurance card out of the loaner.  Our dealer guy (Curtis, btw) called and told me, so I pulled over at the next available place so he could bring the insurance card to me; as it would happen, the next available parking lot was that of a Harley dealership.  Jay and I looked around, and he suggested we name the car Harley.  I liked it.  And now that's her name.

Crafty things!

disclaimer: the layout of this entry is weird, and i'm tired of messing with it.  weird it stays.

At one point or another in the past, I've mentioned crafts that I was making/planned on making/made.  I think I even promised pictures.  Some of you (maybe?) have been just dying to know what I've done.... well, maybe just somewhat curious.  Either way, here's the proof that I've actually done stuff!

First up: flowers.  I learned how to make these cute flowers, but didn't know what to do with them.  I started out by following the directions from a website that Jay showed me.  Then, I thought I'd be a rebel and do it differently!  Really, I just didn't much care for the alternating petal patterns. 

So I stopped alternating petal patterns and decreased the amount of petals.They turned out pretty cute, I thought.

Then, I decided to go back to an even number of petals and still not alternate patterns, but put a fancier button in the middle.  What could I do with these flowers, though??

Put them on shirts?  Yes.  Put them on bags?  Yes.  Pretty cute, right?  I think so.  And then, genius struck!  I COULD MAKE MUMS OUT OF THEM!!  At the end of the summer, I will have participated in three weddings and attended another. And I would have attended a second/fifth wedding for the year, but I went to Houston with my family for my sister's wedding shower.  I got to thinking that this is Texas, and we wear mums to homecoming, and make mums for baby showers, but not many people (or any people?) make/wear "mums" for weddings.  Well, not any more!  I can make them!  See?

First wedding mum--work in progress

My very first wedding mum.  It's not complete in this picture (the ribbons are just placed), and the $5 is to show scale.  I also don't know how to take pictures, so this is the best I have of this... and other pictures--before and after this one--of different crafts are really not much better if at all; oh well.

Anyway, though.  I made this first one and was very pleased with it

"I did more thinking"

I did more thinking, and came up with this one here.  How does this one show that I did more thinking?  I'll tell you: look at the back!  See those white stitches?  Rip those suckers and then you have detached the ribbons (which are attached to their own piece of fabric), and can now wear the flower as a pin, or on a bag, or in your hair, or however else you like!  Sweet!  I like this one the best, I think, because the colors are so fun.  Oh, and all the wedding mums I made were coordinated to the bride's wedding colors.  Cause I'm that good.

The back

So, all the mums were made... what now?  Anything else I can do with this leftover fabric I have?  Do I really need  more flowers?  Yes!  I put stems on them and used white buttons in the center, and voila!  The beginnings of a wedding bouquet!  I showed them to my cousin who is getting married next year, and now I'm getting to make all the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres for her wedding!  It's a big task, but I'm really excited about it.  I'm learning how to make other fabric flowers as well, so her bouquets will be filled with different flowers of different colors.  They're going to be beautiful!

Headed in a different direction, I started a quilt for my sister's baby.  I took on a pretty difficult pattern, and I have pretty much zero experience with quilting.  Who does have experience quilting?  Jay's mom!  And she's being super fantastic and helping me with every step of the process... and there are a lot of steps just to make the front of the quilt... we haven't even talked about the back yet!  Yikes!  I've packed up my dining-room-turned-craft-room a few times and headed to her place so that we could make work on the baby quilt.  Is it finished yet?  Nope.  I haven't really put much effort into in a while.  I keep thinking that I have a long time to make it, but I guess there will be a baby shower before the baby is born, so I'll really need to get cracking on the quilting.  ...I better call Jay's mom and make a quilting date with her!

Before my sister's baby is born and before she has a baby shower thrown for her, though, my best friend is moving from Texas to Connecticut.  :(  She's going for school and it's going to be great for her; and now Jay & I have a real reason to visit Connecticut!  (I'm focusing on the positives--not on the fact that she moved away.)  I couldn't let her leave without giving her a gift for her new place in her new state.  A long long time ago (I'm talking middle school, folks), I started making a quilt for her for her birthday.  Yeah.  That never got finished.  So I was going to give it to her for Christmas.  Still didn't happen.  I have no idea where that less-than-half-finished project is anymore, so I was hesitant to start another quilt for her.  Would I finish it?  Did I have time?  Would it look like poop?  The answers, respectively, are yes, yes, and--surprisingly--no!  Awesome!  I make this quilt with no help except creative input.  (Picking out the fabric is a huge stressor for me.  Seriously.  I don't know why.)

Once the pattern and fabrics were chosen, I cut out my pieces, laid them in an order I thought looked good, and then got to work on pinning and sewing the top.  Fortunately, I found this great website that takes you through the quilting process from start to finish.  I learned about basting (which I'd never even heard of) and how to make my own binding tape.  I worked on the quilt right up to the day of her going away party, and pulled it out of the dryer right as Jay and I were leaving for the party.  It turned out nicely, if I do so say so myself.  Sure.  The lines aren't all perfectly straight, but is any quilt perfect?  (Okay.  Lots of quilts are probably perfect.  All the quilts that Jay's mom makes look pretty perfect to me!  And so do my aunt's.  Just give me time, y'all; my quilts will get better!)  And my favorite thing about the quilt is that no one did any part of this for me!  (Except helping choose fabrics, of course.)  I'm pretty proud of it, can you tell??

Quilt front

Quilt back

So, that's what's happened in my world of crafts.  :)

Also, can you believe I've updated this blog twice in two days?  Woo!

A Whole Year!

Can you believe it?  It's been a full year since Jay and I stood somewhat nervously at the altar of our church and exchanged vows to love, honor, and cherish each other for the rest of our lives!  This first year of marriage--which people say is the hardest?--has been fantastic!  We've not killed one another, or really even come close... I don't think.  Certainly we've had disagreements and even arguments, but we're in no way calling it quits--or even thinking about calling it quits!  I think we've learned things about each other, and learned how to live with each other as well.  It's been a great year of marriage.  :D

Right after breakfast at home.  Still kind of early for me.  ;)

To celebrate our first year of marriage, we went with the traditional gift route: paper.  So, we'll be going to the Journey & Foreigner concert in September(!!!!!!!  YESSSSS!!!!!), and now own stock in Disney.  And Jay also got a pretty sweet shirt out of the deal.




Annnd!  On Sunday morning (our actual anniversary), Jay made waffles, bacon, and fresh-squeezed orange juice!!  It was sooooo delicious!  For lunch, we had wedding cake (and not a top layer that had been frozen for a year, but a fresh cake that our bakery made for us; yeah, our bakery was awesome!) and glasses of milk, which we ate and drank using our china.  :)  I love using the china!  Dinner was wonderful, as well.  We went to Simply Fondue and had way too much food that was super delicious.

When dinner was over, we went to a super freaking awesome hotel room that my mom got a great deal on!  (It's good to have friends in high places!)  Seriously, this place was bigger than our apartment.  For realz.  It even had two bathrooms!  No one had to wait to go!

On Monday, we walked around downtown Fort Worth a bit, then ate at Pizzeria Uno, and it was also good!  All-in-all, it was a wonderful wonderful anniversary and year of marriage.  :D

4th of July!

First off, I do not have a job.  I interviewed, but no luck.  Oh well... something good'll happen, right?  My resume and application are still floating around on the internet, so people still know I'm interested in their positions.  :)

Jay and I are trying to organize our lives and get rid of some clutter, but we're having a hard time of it--we're not hoarders, we just don't have much stuff that we see as useless.  It's a fine line, I'm sure, but I think we're still on the "sane" side of it.

Being the 4th, Jay's off today.  Know what we've done today?  Nothing!  We went to lunch, but we've spent today playing computer games (The Sim 3 for me, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for Jay!), emptying the dishwasher, and watching movies on Blu Ray and NetFlix.  Huzzah!

It's still light out, so we're still not doing anything.  Eventually it'll get dark, and we'll turn our eyes skyward and look for fireworks.  Hope you're enjoying the holiday as much as we are.  :D

- Christine & Jay

Busybusybusy

I was told that I don't update enough.  I thought that my activities don't really merit an update, that they're not really that interesting, but really, "that's the point."  So here it is.

Today, I went to Six Flags for the second time this year; I have a season pass and paid parking all season--if you want to go some time, I want to go with you!  It's one of the few non-wedding-related thing I've done in a little while.  Last week was a marathon of wedding events, and tomorrow starts up another set of wedding-related events (I'm a bridesmaid in two weddings this summer!).  I know: you think I'm just throwing around words here and using "marathon" as an exaggeration, but I promise I'm not: I went to a bachelorette party, then to get our nails done, then a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, then a bridal luncheon, and then the wedding for one bride; Sunday, we (yep, Jay came with me!) woke up and went to bridal shower for this week's wedding.  Yesterday I donated platelets, today I went to Six Flags with Nick and Mojo (it was hot, but we had a really great time!!), tomorrow I'm going to a bachelorette party, then Thursday is a rehearsal and dinner, and Friday is the wedding.  I'm just go go go, but that's alright--I'm unemployed, what else am I up to, right?

I've also worked on a few crafts in the meantime.  I've made fabric flower brooches, fabric "mums" for bridal showers, and continued working on a quilt for my sister's baby.  My mom's friend is getting married, so I've also helped her make a bouquet of metal brooches--it's kind of a pain in the butt, but it's going to look really awesome when it's done!

Jay found out why one of our tropical plants looked so sad and wilted: the roots were completely disconnected from the topside of the plant.  We had two plants in one container that had no draining hole, so he thought maybe they were drowning; when he moved the plants into a container that drains, he found out the sad news about the roots.  But at least now we know why it looked so sad, and our surviving plant can drain excess water.  The mint on the back porch seems to be doing well, as does the other planter of flowers from one of my girl scouts... even though the flowers got knocked over in last night's storm.  Some friendly person in our complex found it on the ground and put it back on our fence rail.  :)

Jay also helped my dad, my uncle, and James build a fence last weekend (the weekend before the wedding).  It took them two full days of working, but the fence in my parents' back yard looks a million times better than the original fence looked when it looked its best.  Oh.  Jeff came over in time to help with the last five minutes of working on the fence.  (We call him Blister--always showing up when the work's done.  tee hee.)

Tonight is actually Jeff's birthday (Jeff is my sister's husband, btw), so we're about to head out and have a celebratory dinner with him and the family.  :)

Hope you've enjoyed the post!

Traveling, Y'all

Jay and I recently returned home from a super fun trip to San Antonio!  We had our first opportunity to take our new Honda Insight (it's super sweet!) on a longish (I've driven to many places that took more than five hours of car travel, so anything less than that isn't really a "long" trip in my book) trip.  Around town, we get 45 or so mgp, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.  (Yesterday, I got 60 mpg on my trip from the Magic Time Machine (a restaurant) to our home!  WOO!)  On our way to San Antonio, we did not fare as well.  I think our average for the tank we took down there was only like 39 mpg, and the way back was closer to 45.  And when it's windy out, boy does the Insight get blown about the road.  All-in-all, though, it's a pretty quiet ride and it's smooth, and the navigation system and iPod playing system and Bluetooth connection and hands-free everything and the climate control is pretty freaking awesome!

Okay.  Enough about the car.  Onto the trip!

One cool sculpture spotted on the trip--cow made of fenders!

Squinty eyes!

Gazelle!

Since we didn't have an agenda to keep, we kind of took our sweet time in arriving, and made some off-course side trips.  On the way, we saw some cool sculptures, took a squinty-eyed picture, and we saw a whole field/herd/ranch of gazelles (side note: they didn't budge an inch when we drove past them at upwards of 65 mph.  When I did an impromptu  u-turn in the middle of the road and circled around to pull off onto the side of the road to take pictures, the critters went nuts and started running away; it was very strange that they were afraid of us approaching slowly and not afraid of us whizzing by). All of that happened on the way to our first destination before San Antonio: The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que.  What, you don't know what The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que is?  Well.  It's a delicious barbeque place in, essentially, the middle of nowhere that Jay saw on some show--Man vs. Food? maybe?--and heard of  otherwise, so we headed there from Coppell.  I'm not generally a big fan of bbq, but this place had it going on.  I'd probably drive there again if Jay ever wanted to on a weekend.  Or whatever.

It's in the process of being relocated, thus, construction.

After we ate a delicious lunch (completed with dessert!), we set our course to a different side destination: Stonehenge II!!  Okay.  You've probably never heard of Stonehenge II, and you probably think I'm making it up.  But guess what: I'm not!  It's real!  It exists!!  I first learned of it when reading the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace--the movie is loosely based off the book, but it's set in England and is a real story (or as real as any memoir goes).  Either way, the book is hilarious, and you should definitely read it some time; it's completely not the story of the movie and it is HILARIOUS--I read it during silent reading when I was student teaching, and sometimes it made me laugh out loud, which earned me crazy looks from the 8th graders.

Workers asked me to hold this while they took a break.

But back to the point!  I learned about Stonehenge II in the book, and I immediately said, "What?  Stonehenge II?  This guy's crazy."  So I googled it, and found out that it's a real place.  Of course, I had to see it for my self.  So when Jay and I began planning a San Antonio trip, I asked if we could visit, and he was also intrigued.  Voila!  Stonehenge II!


While we were at the Stonehenge II site, we also saw something else from another place and time... but you'll have to go there on your own to find out what!  (Or look through Jay's facebook photo album.)


After that exciting stop, we headed to San Antonio to our swanky hotel room suite.  Jay booked us at The Hotel Contessa, and it was beautiful.  There was some fragrance they used in the lobby that I didn't care for, but it wasn't used anywhere else, so I was alright with that. While we were there, we even went swimming on the rooftop swimming pool.  It's pretty weird/awesome to swim on the top of a building.

Of course, we visited the Alamo.  What trip to San Antonio is complete without a stop at the historic site of a lost battle?  The first time we went there it was closed, but that made it easier for us to get a picture of the two of us without random people in the background.

Yeah.  That guy is just hand feeding sting rays.  No big deal.

We also took a trip to Sea World.  If you're looking for rides, Sea World is not for you.  If you're looking to learn some stuff about ocean creatures and see some pretty awesome shows featuring sea mammals, then Sea World is definitely for you.  I took a bunch of pictures there of the shows, mostly because I kept trying to get the shot where a whale or dolphin or whatever is mid-flip.  I'd certainly recommend it.  And if you're a teacher, you can sign up for something or other to get in free.  And if you're an active or retired or reserve military person, you can get in free, as well.  I don't know that it's worth joining the armed services just for free admission, but you have to weigh that for yourself--who am I to decide what is important or right for you?  ;)

Baby whale!  (Which is called a calf.)

Did you know that San Antonio is only a few hours (fewer than two, actually) away from Shiner, Texas?  Jay and I know.  And we went there.  We got to tour the brewery for free, and we got to sample four brews, also for free.  The tour doesn't last very long, but it's pretty interesting.  And we got to see Shiner being canned, not bottled, and that doesn't happen very often, so we felt pretty special.  It's amazing how machines and assembly lines work.  Jay and I probably could have stayed at the brewery and watched the bottling/canning all day, but the Shiner people probably wouldn't have appreciated it.


Of course, we spent a bunch of time walking around San Antonio.  We ate both on and off the River Walk, went through La Villita and looked at all the artsy stuff, and we walked to El Mercado for dinner and to look at the shops there, as well.

We decided that the heat and humidity in San Antonio is more intense than we care for, but we had a really great time.  We enjoyed spending time together and seeing the fun stuff we got to see.  Plus, we missed the crazy hail storm that happened in the DFW area while we were on vacation, so that was an added bonus.  We're already talking about our next trip, but we're not quite positive where it'll be. 

:)

p.s.  No word on the job front yet (I know you're curious), but my resume and application are out there.

Big News, Everyone!

First off, I'M OFFICIALLY A GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS!!  I graduated on Friday, May 13, 2011, and it was a pretty painless event.  It only took about two hours (only?  is that really the appropriate word? i say so.), and I wore converse with my cap and gown (I did wear a dress, though--I wasn't completely casual), so I was comfortable and didn't trip walking up the steps, while on stage, or walking down the steps.  It's a fabulous feeling to be completely done with my undergradate degree.  Maybe grad school is in my future, but not my immediate future--I just want a break before I dive back into school.  (Thanks to Erin Costa for taking and posting this picture of me!!!)

So now I'm waiting for my diploma to arrive.  And for the state of Texas to finish its process to grant me my teaching certificate--yes, I passed all four of my certification exams!  Once the paperwork is done, I'll be certified to teach any subject for early childhood (think pre-k) through sixth grade.  But my major and my specific certification is 4-8th grade English, language arts and reading.  Ideally, I'll get a job teaching language arts in a middle school classroom, but I'll be more than willing to accept any position I'm offered!

I've been using my time since I completed student teaching to make some money in my field.  Yep, I'm substitute teaching.  I'm only working in the Irving ISD, but I'm perfectly happy to be here.  I've worked at the same school I student taught at most of the days I've subbed, and I'm really enjoying it.  I like seeing the familiar faces, and some of those faces like seeing me, too.  :p  (Oh well, you can't have everyone like you, right?)

Right now (well... not right now, of course) I'm working on a few crafting projects, and I'm finding that I really enjoy it.  All the projects I've begun involve a sewing machine in some way or another, and I haven't completed them yet, but they're getting there!  Once they've been completed, I'd love to post pictures for you, my adoring fans.  ;)

Until later,
me