Wish List Wednesday

It's Wednesday and you know what that means!  Time for Wishlist Wednesday!  I have been racking my brain with what to put on my wishlist, but then I remembered something I have been wanting for a while now - a KitchenAid stand mixer in RED!  :)

I am not sure why I want one now - I have been avoiding them like the plague for years.  I think I felt that owning one would make me too "domestic" or something.  I guess I'm over that now.  :P  I would also like to venture into more baking and having one of these would GREATLY help.  

Plus it's red!!  :)

An Awesome Story + Wish List Wednesday! :)

The only reason I am able to bust out a blog right now is because it's SUPER slow at work. Today is my last day here anyway, so they can't really do anything about me blogging at work. :P

Anyway, there is a lot going on here in my world. First, I got a teaching job on the reservation in Whiteriver, AZ. I'll be teaching 6th grade at an awesome school with an awesome principal! I'm sad to leave this wonderful job here though. Everyone I have had the pleasure of working with has been wonderful and this is, by far, one of the best places I have ever worked. But, the budget is all crazy and I didn't know if there was going to be enough money for me to work here next year. So, I ran across this teaching job and couldn't pass it up even though it was for this year. I mean, I have gone through ALL the education and was really tired of feeling like I wasted my time (and money!) by not having a job in my chosen field. This was my chance! And I took it. :)

The only problem was that Whiteriver is 2 hours away from where we are now. This meant that if my husband couldn't get out of his teaching contract in the middle of the year, that we would be long distance. Again. We actually met on eHarmony and spent the first two years of our relationship long distance. But now it was different because we were married - newly married - and didn't really want to be apart. So he hmmmed and hahhhed for a couple of days until I quietly reminded him to just look at the job openings for the Jr. High. Sure enough, there was a 7th grade English Teacher position available. He applied for it and was told that the teacher currently in the position hadn't passed her teaching exams yet, was going to take them again so P would have to wait until they knew if she had passed or not. But, they wanted him to come in for an interview anyway. So he went. Two days later they were calling him to offer him the job! YES! We won't have to be long distance again! :)

After we got hired in Whiteriver, we told our prospective bosses that we would be leaving and they were both really stressed out about finding replacements for us on such short notice. However, everything has been working out so far. My replacement happens to be the person *I* replaced when I got hired here. She was planning on retiring but after only a few months she realized that she really couldn't afford retirement and was looking for another job. That's lined up already, she is coming back on 12/27/10 so there won't be any down time here. P's replacement happens to be the daughter of one of the ladies that work in the office at his school who was really down on her luck and desperately looking for a job. She is highly qualified and can step in a week after break. P only has to provide one week of substitute lesson plans and then he's gone from that school! He's looking forward to there being more support and resources available to him in his new school. He's also happy that he only has to teach and plan for one grade level and one reading intervention group. I am nervous and excited all in one. I can't wait to attack that classroom and make it MINE! I have all these ideas for classroom management, a bunch of positive reinforcement ideas and just ideas to help all my students be the best they can be! :) I'm also really excited to be stepping into my chosen carrier. I guess there is a reason for all those years of waiting for something to happen. I think I was supposed to wait until Whiteriver was ready for me. It feels like we are both being pushed there by cosmic forces since everything is just lining up so nicely.

Except for housing. We already gave 30 days notice at the place we are living now and currently we don't have a forwarding address. There is teacher housing on the reservation available for the teachers, but it's full. I even called the district to double check this and they haven't called me back. We tried to get into this awesome house on Saturday but even though we got along great with the owner’s wife and her dog, and it looked like we were for sure getting the house, two days later her husband told us that we couldn't move in because of our cats and the bad tenant that had lived there before who had animals. Oh well, on to our second choice - a four-bedroom town house for like WAY cheap. They require a pet deposit, but we can handle that. So, we applied but the woman who takes care of the rentals wasn't in the office yesterday so we are playing the waiting game again. In the mean time we heard back from one company who said they had two places that were okay with our pets so we might go back up tomorrow and look at those. We did see one place that we could move into right away but it was old, dinghy and dark...it just didn't feel right. I guess it would be okay for short term, but I don't want to move that many more times in our life. Especially if we have to do it ourselves again. :P So we are hoping on the town house or there being some place just as nice to look at tomorrow.

Oh and did I mention we both start January 3rd?! Yeah. We have less that TWO WEEKS to pack AND move AND unpack AND put our classrooms together! Sheesh! Also right in the middle there is Christmas. We got invited to Christmas dinner and we are supposed to bring deviled eggs so we have to make those at some point...one thing at a time...one thing at a time!

I just want to ask, and I don't do this very often, but if you could just pray to whatever god/goddess/being you believe in - or if you don't believe in anything just send out some positive energies toward us during this stressful time. Everything is just working out so nicely so far, just help us keep the flow going regarding this situation. We need to find a place to live this week so focus on that for us if you can. Thank you all so very much!

You are all invited over for dinner!

It might be in a cardboard box though... :P

And on to this week's Wish List Wednesday! Last week I asked for more time, and that was to finish out my Christmas presents and get them out. I'm happy to say that I got that time and the presents should be arriving at my parents' house today via UPS. Yey! This week I have been having a lot of problems with my kitties getting fur balls and leaving presents for us all over the house. I think it's the changing weather. They don't know if they should be growing their winter coats or shedding them! Also, most of the places P and I have been looking to move into have all had light carpeting. Who would be so stupid as to put light colored carpeting in a RENTAL?! It just shows everything. So, because of the light carpeting, and the kitties, I would like to wish for a Bissell Spot Bot! It's like a handy dandy little portable carpet cleaner. It's also lightweight and will even fit on stairs. You just fill it with cleaner and water (I plan on using warm water and vinegar), place it on the stain, push a button and it does all the work! Whoo hoo!! It even comes in RED! SEE?!


Isn't it just cute?!

*DROOL* Perty huh? Okay, that's enough of that. :P I do really love it though. I have heard that the only thing people have problems with is that the reservoir is small and it leaves a lot of water in the carpet after cleaning. But that handy dandy hose there is supposed to suck the water back out of the carpet so I'm not sure what the issue is. Anyway, that's my Wish List Wednesday! Can somebody say, "Housewarming Present?!" :P

I think I'm going to start a "Blogs of Note" section that lists some of the blogs or even websites I come across that I find interesting enough to share.  Here's today's:

I'm not sure if my sis-in-law over at Lilac Barries is doing a WLW this week, but go check out her blog anyway because she's kind of all sorts of awesome. :) Also, check out Rants From Mommyland. The ladies over there have a wonderfully heart warming blog entry called There's Something About Target... that will make you tear up and smile from ear to ear!  If you didn't know about this blog already, Hyperbole and a Half has a new blog entry called The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas that had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt last night!  I love her stories, she is a great writer.  :)  Last but not least, Moda Bake Shop has an advent quilt project up.  A great project for next year since Christmas is like 2 days away.  I think it's adorable and the pockets go together so easily!

And that's it for today - I know it was a lot.  :)  I should blog more often...

PS - did you know that there is a spell check option in the top right hand corner of the composition box?  I didn't!  And all this time I've been cutting and pasting my blogs into Word to check the spelling which really messes with my formatting...*shaking head*

Wish List Wednesday

On this Wish List Wednesday, I would like to wish for more time. I don't seem to have enough these days. My day consists of getting up, going to work, going home then going to bed. It's like I have no time in between work and bed - or that time just FLIES. I *do* have some Christmas presents done, not all of them, but I don't any of them will get to their prospective places before Christmas. I need one day - really two - but I'll settle for just the one - one day to knock out those gifts. I hear about women how work full time AND make all their gifts AND cook AND clean for their families. To that I say - HOW?! Right now it's just P and me and I am struggling to just keep the house clean, even with his help! And then to save money, I decided to make presents?! What was I thinking? Yeah well, it does save on money, but really not on time.

So, on this loverly Wish List Wednesday - my wish is for more time.

*On a side note, I just saw my "waffles" label while labeling this post...guess what's for dinner? (Now I can add the waffles label! Awesome!)

Finally a REAL post!

But first, I have to shamelessly plug something I found online that I feel is really awesome! I found this offer on one of the blogs I read called Sew Dang Cute Crafts.  Right now, Canvas People have a great deal of $55 off a photo canvas - just pay shipping and handling. If you choose an 8x10 canvas, it is free!  The shipping and handling is kind of pricey, but I think it's worth it.  I used a really cute picture of my wedding for my canvas.  I also emailed everyone on my email list that I think would appreciate the deal and now I am letting you, *all* my readers, know about this too.  :)  Just in time for the holidays!

Secondly, I would like to do my Wish List Wednesday, Thursday Edition!  (Thanks for my sis-in-law, Lilac Barries, for doing a Wish List Wednesday and reminding me about blogging!)  I would like a digital picture frame so I can up load the cutest pictures of my wedding and take them to work with me.  Something like this:

LOL!  I love the expression on that kid's face!  :)  With a digital photo frame, I can show off lots of pictures w/o taking up that much space - and I can change the photos out when I feel like it.  Some of these frames come with remotes, which I don't think is necessary.  The last thing I need is another remote to keep track of. The price isn't bad - the cheapest one I saw on Amazon was about $30 before shipping.  The reviews say it can only hold 10 pictures, but why would anyone want more than 10 pictures in one slide show?  I get kind of bored after that anyway.  :P  So there's my Wish List Wednesday on Thursday!

Anyway, on to the REAL blog entry!  The Wedding Night Story - keep reading!  It's rated G.  PROMISE!

As I stated before, the reason I was gone for so long was that I went off and got married.  The wedding was FANTASTIC with awesome food, amazing flowers, great cake, wonderful people and a beautiful venue.  The only thing I was kind of upset about was the flies that decided to show up during the ceremony.  But, once the sun went down, the weather was perfect and the reception went off without a hitch.  There were so people taking pictures that I felt kind of famous that night!  Well, it was my wedding after all.  :P  It all went by too fast...I wish time could have stopped, or slowed down so I could have spent more time with the people I don't get to see that often.  However, I am really glad I got to spend as much time with everyone as I did.  :)  We spent time chatting, eating, dancing with the kids and just having so much fun!  Everything was just perfect.

So, since the wedding was SO perfect, in the back of my mind, I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop - so to speak.  And it did.  The ceremony lasted into the night, 9 or 10pm, and we didn't get out of there until late.  We spent some time packing up my things at my parents' house then went off to the first stop of our honeymoon in San Luis Obispo.  We were going to spend our first night in a hotel there then go on up to Morro Bay for a few more days.  Well, here is where the other shoe dropped.  We arrived at the hotel very late, which didn't have an elevator by the way, checked in and went to our room.  Our room was on the second floor and poor P carried two big bags up the stairs.  We get to our room, open the door...and BAM! We were hit with a wall of cigarette smell (coming from a non-smoking room none the less!).  I reeled back and said, "We can't stay here"  and we promptly went back down stairs with the big bags and asked for another room.  There were no rooms available.  So, we asked for a refund but since we reserved the room from an online company, we had to call them to get the refund.  Since it was so late, nobody was there to issue the refund so we had to wait until the next day.  Fine...but where were we going to sleep?

By this time, it was..oh about 1am and everyone we knew in the area were hosting other people and didn't have room in their houses - or asleep and unreachable.  So, we went next door from this horrible hotel to the Courtyard by Marriott.  I know swanky...and if the story stopped here, it be awesome but it wouldn't be a story!  So, we walked in, stood there waiting for another family to check in - which felt like forever since around this time at night, and after such a long day, time seemed to slow down to annoyingly snail-like slowness.  We finally get to the receptionist and tell her our sob story about how this was our wedding night and the hotel we had smelled like smoke and how I was allergic to smoke, etc...  The receptionist was sympathetic to our situation and actually hung up on somebody who was holding for the VERY last room they had!  Amazing right?!  Well, the room was $200 JUST for that one night (even after the AAA discount she was going to give us) and she didn't tell us how much the room was until AFTER she hung up on that poor guy.  I felt bad for the guy because we could not afford that much for just one night, especially since we had just spent so much just on traveling to California from Arizona.  The receptionist was nice about us declining the last room available and didn't kick us out of the reception area when we tried to find another room.

After we declined the room at the Hyatt, we had to find another place to stay.  So, we go on the phone with this really patient guy with Hotels.com.  We tried to get another night at the Inn at Morro Bay, which was the hotel we booked in Morro Bay for our honeymoon, but the hotel was completely booked.  Since it was SOO freaking late by that time, the guy from Hotels.com had to physically call hotels instead of book them online, so he put us on hold and proceeded to call other hotels in the area.  We also gave him a price point of under $100 to remember while he was asking about rooms.

During our time on hold, I decided to thank the receptionist for hanging up on the guy and let her know that we appreciated that she didn't kick us out while we called pretty much her competitors in the area to get a cheaper room.  She was really nice about the whole thing and we got to chatting.  Come to find out, she was once a flower shop owner that my Mom used to work for back in the day.  Crazy huh?  Small world!

Anyway, around that time, P finally got back in touch with the guy from Hotels.com who had found us a room in Santa Maria at the Historic Santa Maria Inn.  Now, if you're not familiar with the central coast of California, let me educate you.  :P  Our wedding was in Arroyo Grande at the Gardens at Peacock Farms.  We went from Peacock farms north about 10 minutes to Grover Beach.  From Grover Beach, we drove north another 10, 15 minutes to San Luis Obispo where that smelly hotel is located.  Santa Maria is a little over a half an hour SOUTH of San Luis Obispo, and an hour SOUTH of Morro Bay.  And it's 1am...after one of the longest (but one of the best!) days in our lives.  But, the distance doesn't matter because this room was the ONLY room on the central coast - that was reasonably priced. So, we decide to take it out of shear desperation and start moving on out.  We thank the receptionist one more time and she gives us some free refreshments to help us with the drive that seemed like a trek across the world by this time.  She also reminds us that it's not really that far away and that now we have a story to tell (which we do!).

We get to the hotel...and it's BEAUTIFUL!  The lobby is clean, full of historic furniture, lovely wood trim and a roaring fireplace.  We check in and the receptionist gives us a late check out because it's about 1:30, 2am by the time we get there.  As we went up to our room, we encountered a drunk guy waiting for the elevator.  He reeked of alcohol and stumbled into the elevator before us.  I didn't want to join him in the elevator since he smelled so bad and I was afraid of being thrown up on, or worse, having to talk to a drunk person, so we waited.  The elevator went up a few floors and then stopped.  We waited a few more minutes and then called the elevator back down, figuring he had gotten off to stumble to his room.  When the elevator came back down, guess who was still there?  That's right, the drunk guy!  When the doors opened he was in the middle of taking a header into the wall of the elevator.  I think I shrieked a little which woke him up a bit and he pressed the button to go back up.  We waited for the elevator again, this time a little longer to ensure that he got off.  After a few more minutes we called the elevator back down...and he was still there.  This time, he was right on the other side of the doors and when they opened, he stumbled out, almost right into me.  We let him go and grabbed the elevator before he could orient himself back to the elevator.  The elevator smelled like alcohol, but luckily we were only on the 2nd floor.  We FINALLY got to our room and pretty much crashed right away.  When we finally got to sleep it was around 3am.  When we woke up in the morning, we opened our presents, ate wedding cake for breakfast and lounged around until check out.

I would highly recommend the Historic Santa Maria in to anyone!  The beds were very comfortable and the bathroom was clean with a nice hot shower.  The only thing that was kind of disorientating, especially that late at night and being so tired, was that the building was old and the floors were slanted.

Kind of an amazing and funny story huh?  Aren't you glad you kept reading?

And that was our Wedding Night Story...and yes, I have made people blush when I tell the story and start off with that title - which just adds to the awesomeness of it all!  :)

Wish List Wednesday

P and I only have one set of bedding with mismatched sheets for our bed.  It's a hassle to have to wash and dry the SAME set of bedding every week or so when it's laundry day.  Also, since it's laundry day, there is a TON more laundry to do along with the bedding.  So, if we start with the bedding, we usually make the bed in time for sleepy time.  If we make the mistake in washing other things first, we usually end up waiting and waiting for our slow dryer to finish drying the bedding while falling asleep on the couch and drooling like an old married couple.  :P  So for today's Wish List Wednesday, I would like to wish for a new set of bedding.  A set of NICE MATCHING bedding!  Like these:

I think we actually registered for this one...it's just neat looking!  :)

If I had this bedding, our bedroom would feel like a hotel!  :)

This set is just gorgeous!

Although, I would probably be happy with another set of sheets!  :P  Don't forget to check out my sis-in-law's blog for her Wish List Wednesday!

Wish List Wednesday

As promised, it is Wednesday and time for a Wish List Wednesday!  I'll admit, I was unprepared and was not sure what to wish for.  Then I remembered that while I was making dinner tonight, I wished for a better kitchen.  One with some counter space would be nice.  Oh and an deep sink with a higher spout.  Something like this:

And perhaps something with a little more color and room to move around in, like this:

I also think a breakfast bar with some nice stools/chairs would be lovely too!  I think I like these the best:

I am particularly in love with red in the kitchen too, like this:

From quickly gathering pictures of lovely kitchens, I have realized that I am drawn to kitchens with white/off white cabinets and darker floors.  I also like the lighter colored stone counter tops.  As for kitchen colors, I am drawn to soothing background colors with pops of color here and there.

Ta Da!  That concludes my first Wish List Wednesday!  Go check out my sis-in-law's site, Lilac Barries for another awesome Wishlist Wednesday!  :)  She's kind of better at this than I, after all she started it!

Friday Review Day

What do you think of the new design?  I have been messing with this dang blog for an hour now trying to get the blog and the header to be the same size.  Why the change?  I just wanted to see if I could conquer the blog!  :P  It really wasn't that hard, just tedious since there is really not tutorial for everything I wanted to do.  I also don't like html and it doesn't like me, so I usually cut and paste the codes for the designs I like and doctor what I know how.  I think it's pretty cute myself!


I have been thinking about ways to make my blog more exciting - for myself - so I will want to post everyday.  I thought about doing a Wishlist Wednesday like my sister-in law of Lilac Barries, but I didn't want to just copy her.  I talked to her about instituting a Wishlist Wednesday like she has and she thought we could both do a Wishlist Wednesday and link each other's blogs!  Awesome idea, I thought, so look for this starting next Wednesday!


Today, I thought I would start a Friday Review Day, or Review Friday, or Friday Review...not sure which one sounds better.  I think I like Friday Review Day the best, it just kind of rolls off the tongue the best.  What does this entail you ask?  Well, on Fridays I will review something that I find fun or interesting.  This something could be anything like a book, movie, restaurant, TV series, etc...  It might just turn out to be "My Opinion Friday," but hey, it's my blog!


Today, I would like to do a short review of a book.  I have read a few books in the past few months, but this one just happens to be the last one I finished.  Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay, is the book that the TV series Dexter is based on.  For those of you who don't know, the series - and the book - is about a serial killer who kills serial killers and what he does to try and fit into society.  It's like stepping into a serial killer's head.  We get to hear the internal dialog he has with himself and see the world the way he does.  What I liked about this book was (and this kinda sounds funny) that the characters in the book were portrayed perfectly in the series so the pictures that formed in my head while reading weren't in juxtapose.  In fact, the first series of Dexter pretty much follows this book - with a little creative license added to make the series more dramatic.  (I hate it when a series/movie doesn't follow the book at all - or when the characters in the book are rewritten so much that they no longer match the original character in the book - for example: Twilight)

I think Lindsay did a fantastic job writing this book but, I am a little put-off with how well he portrayed a serial killer who kills serial killers.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the series Dexter, or likes to read the books that movies and TV Series are based on, like me.  :)