I've had such a fun weekend! I finally got to see Rent. I missed it when it came out in theaters and I've been anxiously awaiting it's arrival on DVD. I'm totally addicted now. Brad got me the soundtrack for Christmas and so I've been listening to it constantly the last 48 hours. So good!!!

Speaking of music, my role in my church choir just got bigger. Ash Wednesday is this week and I'm singing in a duet. A couple of times - one major one and then a couple of lines here and there in other pieces. Yikes! It's really cool. I've learned a lot since last fall when I joined, feeling absolutely clueless. The woman who's my counterpart in the duets is the only other alto in the choir and we do well together - our voices just blend nicely. I'm excited! I'll have to post a follow up later in the week.

Snow day!!!! Yippeee! It's the best kind of snow day, too. It was snowing pretty hard until about 11am, just long enough to cancel school, and then it started to melt and now at 3pm it's almost all gone. I can still get out and about and not feel shut-in.

I finished this puzzle I've been meaning to do since about October. A kid at school noticed that I have a handful of puzzles on my wall as decorations and he brought one in for me to finish. He started it and got frustrated. It wasn't a high priority and I kept putting it off, even though every day he'd ask when I was going to finish it. I busted it out this morning and knocked it out pretty quickly - he'd actually put together some nice chunks already. The glue is drying and I can't wait to show it to him tomorrow.

I'm also working on an application for a fellowship this summer to Japan. I'm really excited about it! I'm sure I've got about a snowball's chance in hell of getting it - they only take 12 people from the US AND Canada. Yikes! But, I figure it's worth trying for. Wouldn't it be a hoot if I got it? I should hear back by mid-April.

That's about it here. It's been a quiet few days. We had a workday on Monday so with this snow day, it's a really short week. It'll be the weekend before I know it!

Wow - what a week! I found out Tuesday that the Academic Team regional competition I thought was March 15 turned out to be February 15!!!! We were supposed to compete last weekend, but the snow postponed it and the boneheaded secretary at my school told me March. The Athletic Director came into my room at lunch on Tuesday and was like, are y'all ready to go tomorrow???!!!! Holy crap! I was livid! So, I spent all afternoon rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pull something together - the hosting school is 3.5 hours away, so we had to spend the night. I got everything squared away, but I had to leave school immediately because Brad and I had plans for V-Day.

Brad outdid himself again. We don't get out much, so we generally try to do something nice for V-Day. We went out to eat at this cute German restaurant and then went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Blackfriar's Playhouse in Staunton. It's an amazing Shakepearean theatre - the only one in the world! It's my favorite date-spot, so it was awesome!

Fastforward to Wednesday. Gathered my four competitors and left school at noon. We got to the host school and had a blast competing. I love my kids! They are so knowledgable, but are so socially well-adapted. They're cool people. Our school hasn't made it to the regional level in 7 years so just showing up to this tournament was a huge deal. They won the first round, but lost the next two - but I just found out that the schools they lost to were the top two of the night and will advance to States. That makes me feel a lot better. We had a couple hotel rooms and had a great time staying up late chatting. We took our time coming back today, but we eventually had to get back to school. Love those kids!!!!!! My team is pictured below - they're the best!

So anyway, here it is, late Thursday afternoon, and the last time I drew a deep breath was Tuesday morning. Crazy. I'm chapperoning the school dance tomorrow night, but after that I'm chilling out for a while...

Sorry I've been out of commission for a whole week. The flu really knocked me out for a while and then work got crazy. Wednesday evening, I got to judge the district forensics competition (various forms of public speaking, not dead bodies). It was a blast! These kids are so talented. My school's team walked away with 3rd place overall, with two girls winning their categories!

Friday, I threw a toga party for my kids since we just finished our Rome unit. It's really scary to have 50 minutes of unstructured time with a room full of 9th graders, but it went well. Many of them wore togas and brought Roman food for extra credit. We even had gladiator matches! It was so much fun! Guess it's going to be really hard to go back to a regular lesson on Monday... The picture below is of my 2nd period class - they had the most kids dress up so I thought I'd use their picture. Aren't they cute? :)

Well, crapola. I'm sick... I've got the flu - the real flu - influenza. I don't think I've ever really had it before. I rarely bother with the flu shot because it's expensive and I don't ever get the flu, but here it is. I missed work today and went to the doctor. Fortunately, it's in the early stages so they were able to give me this drug that's supposed to allieviate the symptoms. I tell you what - I'm getting a flu shot every year from now on - this sucks!

I'm achy and I alternate between burning up and freezing cold. I'm highly contagious so I can' t go ANYWHERE for the next couple of days - not even sure if I'll be safe to go back to work on Monday. I am bored, bored, bored. How the heck am I going to spend an entire weekend trapped in my room?!!! ARRGGHH!!! I HATE being sick! So there.

It used to be quite common for royal ladies to enter a "confinement" period during the last two months of their pregnancies. She would have had some company, but not much. Two months! At least I've got books and TV. I guess I shouldn't complain. Thanks for putting up with the rant.

Yikes! Last night, our indoor kitties proved themselves as worthwhile mousers. Shadow caught a mouse in our downstairs guest room - eeeeeekkkkk!!!! We weren't sure if it was a real mouse at first and Shadow (having never caught one before) wasn't sure if he did a good or bad thing, so we had a good stare at one another that seemed like ages. We were thrilled he caught it, but didn't really know what to do next since the poor mouse was still alive and looking at me very pleadingly (I felt terrible!). Unfortunately in our hesistation, Shadow ran upstairs and let go of the still-living mouse in our office, which is right across the hall from the bedroom. Yeah, we couldn't find it. Wasn't real excited to go to bed. The cats kept jumping on the bed all night and I'd wake up in a panic, thinking they might be bringing me a "present". Rough night....

Brad found the mouse dead this morning downstairs. He gave the cats an extra ration of kitty treats for their trouble. It's been over 2 years since I've seen a mouse in this house and then Stitch just chased it towards the door and it slipped out. This is the first time one has been killed by our cute kitties. Better to have killer kitties than rougue mice in the house, I guess.

This is the 4th Thursday night at home and it's very weird. Usually my choir practices on Thursdays and it's kind of a benchmark for my week. My director broke her foot and has cancelled practice indefinitely. She's a pain in the ass so I don't mind missing, but I do mind not seeing everyone. We're all playing conspiracy theorists, convinced something more sinister is going on, but I'm sure her foot just hurts badly...

I didn't make a New Year's resolution to lose weight or work out more, but I'm making a concerted effort anyway. I have this awesome elliptical machine at home set up in front of a tv/dvd player. I'm completely addicted to this Irish show, Ballykissangel, and I'm being really disciplined about only watching it when I work out. Netflix just sent the latest discs and I've worked out every day simply because I can't wait to find out what happens next. I did Seasons 1 and 2 about two months ago, but took a break because I couldn't get ahold of Season 3. I'm well into it right now, but it's only available up to Season 4. Going to have to find a new obsession or I'll go back to being lazy!

After many a conversation with my computer-guru friend, Susan, I've finally got my blog mostly to my liking - enough to advertise it, anyway.

The big excitement here is that Brad is continuing to prove himself a juggernaut with his dissertation. He's made significant progress on his last main chapter and then only has to write a quick intro and conclusion! It's really amazing/scary/cool that he's so close to finishing. It does, however, mean that we're both making a concerted effort to give him time to work. It's always been frustrating when we've done this in the past, but the light at the end of the tunnel is so bright and it's totally worth it.

We did make it out this weekend for a couple of movies. Saw Walk the Line and Brokeback Mountain. Loved them both! Brokeback was my favorite. I know some of you might not be comfy with the subject material, but it was truly a beautiful film. I'm rooting for it for Best Picture.

Over the weekend, Brad's family came to our house to celebrate our niece, Mya's, first birthday. I volunteered to make the cake since I'm trying to hone my skills in that area. After some trial and error, I came up with this Elmo cake. It was so fun! We had a great time. Mya's older sister, Alyvia, kept us in stitches - she is so funny!

As much as we enjoy our nieces, it is always a nice reality check for our readiness to leap into parenthood.

Well here it is. I turned 30 last week and wanted to try something new. Since I'm not really into bungee jumping or skydiving, I decided to do something tame, like learn to create and maintain a blog. I will do my best to keep this site updated with stories and pictures about the stuff going on in my life. I hope you find it at least moderately amusing. Happy reading!