It Feels Like Saturday

Howdy:

It's time for an update. (I'm procrastinating from cleaning.) I hope to straighten up my "desk". If you don't remember, I use the dining room table as my desk and it's overflowing with paper and items from the semester. I also need to organize my shelves on the kitchen counter. They too are overflowing with papers. I'm hoping that most things can be placed in my filing cabinet or filed in the garbage.

I also hope to work on my bedroom. The bedroom door is currently shut as Gavin has a friend over and he doesn't need to see the rubble.

I got a lot accomplished today. I ran errands this morning (not all of them sadly), got a much needed hair cut, and submitted the rest of my final grades. I also slept in until 10am. I wanted to be up at 9am. Whoopsie. I'll have more to do tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm pleased with my hair cut. My hair was getting really long and the ends we weird. The lady took around 2 inches off and re-did my layers. It looks much more professional. I'm having the least amount of highlights done on Thursday to fix my roots. I'm looking rather ghetto in that area.

I have a few more gifts to wrap and they are all for Gavin. He's too observant so I'm not sure when I'll do them this week. I'll probably have to hide in my room to finish that task. He was tough to shop for...I didn't want to spend oodles of money and sadly the stuff he's interested in costs oodles of money. Everything else is wrapped and ready to take to NE Iowa.

I've been trying to drink more water. Plain water sucks. I'm not too excited about adding Crystal Light packets either. While at the grocery store today, I remembered my idea of adding citrus to water. I love water with lemon at restaurants. I bought a lemon and a lime. I sliced them both thinly and added them to my 2 quart pitcher with water and ice. It's been delicious so far and it's a nice flavoring. I was hesitant to add the full pieces of fruit but had no use for half a lemon and half a lime so what the heck? I've drank 4 glasses of the water in an hour.

Doesn't it look tasty?



I haven't had a huge craving for sweets and Christmas goodies. People at work have been bringing various cookies, breads, etc. and I've left them alone. I didn't have the urge to make my cornflake Christmas wreaths or chocolate-covered peanut butter balls either. I'm excited to make popcorn balls though...not excited to eat them though. We had a potluck on Saturday after the Christmas pageant rehearsal. I made the artery-clogging cheesy hamburger dip. It was a big hit and was gone before the end of the potluck. If you ever want to make this unhealthy dip, see below:

Ingredients:

--one big block of Velveeta (not the small block) I used the 2% milk variety.
--one typical jar of salsa...I went with mild since spicy food kills me.
--one can of cream of mushroom soup (this one surprises people)
--one pound of browned hamburger (some people add a lot more but I'm not big on the meat) Drain the hamburger too.

Cut up the Velveeta into smaller blocks of cheese and combine with the other ingredients in a crock pot. I served it with multigrain tortilla chips to make it healthier....ha.

That's all for now!

Break Time

Howdy:

I should be diligently grading these unit plans in front of me. I have the attention span of a 2 year old today. Luckily I don't have a ton of work to complete today before I mosey down to Ankeny so I should be able to complete this grading task before 3pm.

Life has included many late nights lately. I've been bringing work home with me and working into the late hours. It's been helpful because it's kept me half buried in work rather than completely buried. It's also been damaging because my sleep schedule is messed up and I'm not getting enough sleep most nights. I had the opportunity to be sleeping by 10pm last night but I couldn't settle down until 2am. Waking up at the desired time was impossible. I can't pull that tomorrow as I have to be here around 7am to prepare for the 7:30am final I need to deliver.

I was able to do something very worthwhile (and non-work related) last night. I accompanied Jon to a Wal-Mart in Des Moines for a shop with a cop type of event. Kiddos came in with folks from Big Brother/Sister and did shopping for their families with funds from the police department and other sources. I was a gift wrapper. At first it was embarrassing to gift wrap with the other ladies because they were fabulous with their skillz. When things got busy, I stopped caring and simply tried to get wrapping paper on all the items.

My card writing task is about done. I'm finishing the last of the cards for people at church (yippee no need for stamps!) and handed out some at work today. I still need to do some gift wrapping at home and make sure everything is organized for the trip to Waukon. I'm not sure if we are taking my car or Jon's jeep but I'll have to strategically pack so everything fits and nothing is forgotten.

OK...back to grading. I wish I was more motivated!!

Cinnamon!!

Howdy!

I'm burning a "Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin" candle so the apartment smells dandy. I love the smell of cinnamon. I can't smell the pumpkin at all (and I'm Ok with that).

I've been making steady progress with my Christmas cards. It's a nice way to take a break from grading and other prep work. Last year I put them off too long and I scrambled to get them finished which led to me not enjoying the process. I've slightly altered my list but didn't take many people off it. I had a lot of extra cards from previous years so I haven't had to buy many cards.

I forgot to mention that I watched the movie "Black Swan" last week. I remember how strongly they promoted the movie and now I understand why. It was a combination of horror and soft-core porn. The main character is a ballet dance (Natalie Portman) and she loses her mind while preparing for the production of Swan Lake. I kind of regret putting it in the mail...I want to watch it again so it's going back on the Netflix list.

Life has been stressful as the semester comes to a close. I still need to revise two final exams and write one from scratch. Unit plans are slowly being submitted too and I need to start tackling them too. I'm hoping to start grading the handful I have tomorrow night so I don't have all 27 staring at me this weekend. I have administrative tasks to accomplish too so all the grad students end their semester properly and make preparations for the classes they teach in the spring. I feel like I have to hold their hands more than I should....bleh.

The audit of the summer program sucks. S-U-C-K-S. The lady lied...I was told their requests would not be time-intensive. Bullmalarcy. I had a huge email with many questions waiting for me on Monday morning. They wanted quick answers and sadly a lot of the questions pertained to accounting...I had to bother the secretaries for some answers. I just want that audit done.

I'm excited for the weekend. I've always enjoyed the departmental Christmas party. I have collected a few cool items for a White Elephant gift. I'm going to try and talk Jon into bringing a White Elephant gift too so he can enjoy the event. I have other stuff we can easily wrap up for a gift. Not sure if he'll be willing though since he's new to the crowd.

On another note...dry skin is not fun. I don't remember ever having as dry skin as I do this winter. I should probably be more diligent with lotion. My arms are especially bad.

OK, enough procrastination. I need to whip up a presentation for tomorrow since my health class would like to review for their final exam. Luckily it's simple content so it shouldn't be rocket science (except for those that rarely come to class).

Adios!

TGIF

Greetings!

It has been quite the week. I'm grateful to be sitting my home, sort of being productive, but not doing anything for work. We actually have the Charlie Brown Christmas movie on and I'm considering moving to my bed after this blog entry is finished.

Here are my random thoughts for the week:

--I'm sorry Adele but I'm getting really sick of your music on the radio. They are overplaying her music (and that's an understatement). I'd probably enjoy her music if I listened to not-so-popular songs but alas I don't have any of her albums.

--I am not a huge fan of The Fray but they have a great new song out. I believe it may be called "Heartbeat". It's under strong contention for an Itunes purchase. I'm also enjoying Coldplay's latest release "Paradise".

--I ventured to many stores today to try and complete my remaining Christmas shopping. For the first time in a year (or longer) I went to the Dollar General here in Ames. I wish I had gone elsewhere and paid more money for my items. The Dollar General is located close to one of the busiest intersections of Ames. It was super difficult to get close to the store, I made traffic back up as I waited to turn into the parking lot, and for the first time I severely bottomed out my car in their horrible parking lot. The store was crowded and dirty. Even the employees looked dirty consider the cashier's yellow polo shirt was a dingy shade of gray. I got my wrapping paper and got the heck out of there quickly.

--I'm proud on the amount of money I saved today. I used a kickass coupon at JCPenney and used my birthday gift card at Payless to get some new black shoes for work. I also saved quite a bit of money at the GAP thanks to a great sale. The only wrench in the evening was trying to locate roller blades for Gavin. I was shocked that Walmart does not carry adult-sized roller blades. Target had a few pairs but they were red. Gavin made it clear that red was not the desired color. I'm hoping to find a good pair in a store in Ankeny tomorrow.

--Gavin had his first social gathering at school today. They had a 6th grade party with games, dancing, pizza, etc. I had to snag him and his buddy Thomas early since they had basketball practice. He's really starting to grow up fast. Pretty soon he'll be out on many Friday or Saturday nights. Or he'll be playing sports and I'll be sitting at his games.

--I'm excited to start wrapping presents. I think I'm truly an adult now. I'm excited to see others open their gifts...I'm not worried at all about what I get. I actually feel really good about the fact that Jon and I aren't exchanging gifts. I'm actually hoping for miminal gifts this year. I won't lie...a gift card to Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart would rock. My wish list isn't extensive.

--As you probably saw on Facebook, the Christmas tree has been erected at Jon's house. He had a fun time the other night around midnight. He was awakened to a loud noise in the living room and the dog went bonkers too. He thought someone was breaking into the house. He discovered the Christmas tree lying on the floor. The stand appears to have broken and the tree went down like a ton of bricks. I feel bad because only one ornament broke. It was a glass ball Jon collected and has a Chicago theme. He used the tree stand designed for a real tree to fix the tree and so far it's working.

--I had some emotional eating in my life again this week. I had a lot of Red Cross related stress on Wednesday. Even while on the phone with them I kept thinking about cheesy potatoes. On the way home I picked up some from the Hy-Vee. I overate and didn't feel great in the evening. I hate how negative situations/stress trigger my hunger and cravings. So frustrating! I'm really going to need to get that under control in addition to my urge to snack late at night.

--Jon and I went to the Steeler's game last weekend. I love the atmosphere of a football game whether it's high school, college, or pro. Now it was very cool at Arrowhead Stadium since the Chief's fans were peppy. We tailgated and had very good seats. We weren't in the nosebleeds but we weren't in the lower level. I didn't get cold until the 3rd quarter. I knew the Steeler's were going to win but I had expected higher scores and a bigger difference. We decided to head to Iowa immediately afterwards and not get a hotel. When getting on one of the major highways/interstates we noticed a lot of law enforcement and actually saw the Steelers' buses and caravan get escorted toward the airport. It's crazy that much security needs to be used just to get a football team on their way. It was a long trip back to Iowa and I slept well after all that.

Here are some more things I'm excited about this month:
(forgive me if there are repeats)

--introducing Jon to the popcorn ball making process
--possibly sledding if my lower back and tailbone will permit it
--the candlelight service on Christmas Eve at my home church
--making a gingerbread house that is pimped out with goodies

Ok, that's all I have for now.