"Squirt Boat"

It isn't that I, myself, am terribly excited about this new purchase; however, seeing as Brian doesn't really get into the whole blog scene, I decided to utilize this time to portray what Brian WOULD most likely blog about, were he someone who did...
This Saturday we drove to the Ocoee to pick up what hasn't ceased to be talked about in our household for a long time. A squirt boat. If you aren't familiar with one, let me tell you a little about this contraption. It is a kayak, not built for running rivers or waterfalls, but for catching eddie lines and forcefully submerging yourself beneath the surface of the water, as well as doing other interesting moves in. It is built so that when sitting in it in water, you are actually just below the surface of the water, so it is very small and very form-fitting. When we got home, we immediately set it to the test on our lake. A nearby fisherman exclaimed, much to my amusement, " looks like you just about lost your boat, son."
I have never understood Brian's excitement for this particular type of boat, although I am sure many people don't understand our shared excitement for other kayaks, so I certainly won't press the matter.
In other news, school is steadily winding to a close. I give my final exam tomorrow. I have been working on a slideshow for the middle school's moving up ceremony Thursday night and I'm quite pleased. I have discovered I-DVD on our macs. It is an awesome program. I'm going to making DVDs for everything now! I'm beginning to get really sad. I'm suddenly realizing - or at least I think- I'm going to miss my first little students! I think I'm going to boo-hoo when they "move up" to high school Thursday. Isn't that funny? I thought I would strangle them all year and now I'm all misty-eyed!!
My family is on their way to GA for my cousin's wedding this weekend and I'm looking forward to their stay. June will be a super-freaky-busy month, but lots of things I'm excited about.
That about wraps up my update. cheers!

An eventful week...

My little Indian sister has returned! We got to fly to Omaha last week and suprise my dad on his birthday, and remain to suprise my sister who flew home from her year as an exchange student in India. Unfortunately, our suprise didn't work for Suz because the word leaked out...but I don't think she was dissappointed to see us, and we certainly weren't sad to see her! She looks very different with the hair and the piercings and the henna tattoos, no?

After a lovely family visit, we flew home and into the most stressfull week of my life so far (unless I'm blocking out some big exam weeks in college. A close call). The Middle School play was this weekend! All our hard work looked pretty hopeless at Thursday night's dress rehearsal, but Friday night came, the curtain opened, and they came alive and delivered a WONDERFUL show! I couldn't be more proud of my first students! We performed again Saturday to a less responsive crowd and had a main character get a major nose bleed in the middle of it, but I think I smiled all night I was so pleased with the kids.

The beautiful flowers are what they presented me with at the close of the show. They each had a pink carnation in their hands at curtain call and I didn't even know it! SO CUTE! I will get some still shots of the kids on here soon.

So, now that the yearbook is finished and the play is over, exams are next. Getting through this should be a piece of cake. I am looking forward to the summer and weddings and seeing friends and family.

Feelin' like baking these days...

Our camera is broken and my creativity is oh so limited right now. You'll just have to stare at this pretty photo of a caramel cake because I am baking one right now. I don't plan on having as many layers, but I have to bake the cakes one at a time because I only have one 8" cake pan...do you guys SEE why I need to have some children to blog about????!

Okay, in other news, I planted a garden yesterday. I went to take pictures of it and that's when I discovered that my camera is broken. My next blog will probably be about the camera I'm dreaming about purchasing with our tax return. Anyhoo, I'm very proud of it. We dug it all by hand, which was dumb, but rewarding too. I thought I was going to make it so much bigger, but I decided it will be a piece-by-piece process. We are growing such delicious things as zuccini, sweet potatoes, squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, beets, corn (we'll se how that goes), watermelon...you get the idea. I'm also working on an artichoke seedling.

I can't wait to be a stay-at-home mom so I can bake and work in the garden! Meanwhile, I'm reading this great book called, "Get out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall." It's helping me to get inside the adolescent brains of my students and we are having a book discussion group at our house on Wednesday. That brings me to the reason I'm making the caramel cake. So, that sums up my exciting news.

I'm vowing here and now to get better and more creative at this blogging thing over the summer.

Love to you all!

Ode to Asheville and friends I miss...

I took FOREVER to get this post up and going didn't I? Well, if you are wondering, it is because I loaded all these pictures and then somehow lost them all again, so it has taken awhile to get motivated to do it again.

Anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about my lovely trip to my favorite place, Asheville (which included Black Mountain and Montreat mostly). It was one of my most exciting moments to get to see the two newest members of life in the world of new and growing families that reside in the area, Will (BIG Will) and Lydia (Lydie Bidie). Susan and Annie, you're children are beautiful and already dating each other, so I hear. Duely note: Bella Rose is on her way, and Ryland King is quite a hunk. These new and beautiful people keep entering the world! Aah me.

Next, I saw Becky's captivating vignette at Interiors of Asheville. I'm so proud to say that I was a part of this girl's first memories painting. (yea, I took art class with her) She soared into an amazing artist, and I have some little canvases stuffed in a box somewhere, hiding in shame. Way to go Becks! I'm so proud!

I must give a shout out to Mary Stuart and Sarah, who accompanied me to an intimate concert of my new favorite artists, Schuyler Fisk and Joshua Radin. The show was really neat and laid back. We had front row seats and ended up just chatting with them afterwards. Totally down to earth and fun, acoustic music. Mamas, I would suggest Joshua Radin's album "We Were Here" as lullabies for those munchkins. His voice is so great!

I also got to spend some much-needed time with my cousin Carolyn. Our lives have really parallelled each other's. She went to Montreat after I graduated and is now living with a group of OE girls in the house right behind the one I lived in. It was cool to be back on campus and walk around with her. I even logged onto a computer in the lab in the student center! A lot has changed, but I'm happy she got to experience Montreat too. I think we both gained a lot from that place...

We've been back at school for a week, and I feel like I have spring fever. I am SO READY for this first year of teaching to be OVER and my first paid summer to BEGIN! It is already full with weddings and other random stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing my sister sometime after she gets back to the States next month, and attending a conference for Middle School teachers in Destin, FL. A little beach time will do us good!

Wish I had more excitement in my life to share right now, but for now, this is the best I can do. By the way, I need some help figuring out how not to make my pictures just a big pile. Anyone??

Love to everyone who reads this! MMMMWWAAAAAA.

-M.C.

Spring?? Are you here?

So is that you spring? Because I am really ready. I didn't realize how ready I was. I'm tired of cold. We are packing up and getting a group of 7 tenth grade girls ready for their first back country experience. If the weather is like this, I don't think we'll be able to get them back home! They'll love it....I hope.

Dexter's pictures depict his mood any day that is warm and sunny and beautiful. If it is raining, we have to practically push him out the door just to go to the bathroom. Today was not like that. He wallowed and chased sticks. I love our yard. In some of the pictures you can catch glimpses of our blueberry bushes. We have 7 or 8 of them - huge! I can't wait until summer evenings when we pick bushels of them. I'm also thinking it might be time to start planting a garden...maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I've never had a garden before and I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm planning on reading up on it though.

The year is finally starting to feel a little less stressful. Last night was my last night of proctoring study hall at night for two hours with a bunch of kids who hate school (they put the teachers with the bad ones). I'm having a little celebration inside. Having evening duties is one of the worst things about this first year teaching. The time at home and doing something totally unrelated to school is so precious and few.

So, anyhoo...today is a great day. Spring, I hope you stay.

windblown...

It is a crazy windy day...

I haven't taken any cool pictures since our ski trip, but I just felt like blogging this afternoon. Today, as I drove up the driveway, I noticed that the chair on our front porch had been blown into the yard. The neighbors had just told me that their grandchildren said they saw Dexter on the porch, but we always leave him inside, so we shrugged it off...I mean, what do kids know? (kidding.) So the chair had been holding our screen door closed because the latch is broken, and the wind also blew our front door open, so Dexter was indeed just hangin' out on the front porch today. Luckily he was able to get back inside - I haven't figured out how yet- or else he may have been blown away!!

Not only does this blog title represent the weather today, but it is a metaphor for my life right now. I have a fuller plate than I have ever experienced in my life! (again with the metaphors!) Amidst the yearbook deadline, teaching a research paper to eighth graders, my middle school play, and all the other directions I feel pulled in, "windblown" describes just how I feel. So, I just had to settle in for a few hours and take a break from the craziness...before it's back to work tonight!

Double Black Diamonds!!

We spent our much-too-short winter break in Snowshoe, WV with some friends from school, Lisa and Daniel. We had a great little condo close to the slopes, and we skied enough to last a while. Lisa and Daniel are "expert" skiers so Brian and I decided to become the same. We had skied for nearly three days straight when we finally approached the double black known as "Shay's Revenge." Brian's run was a complete success and mine was something shy of that. I was relieved to have spent about 30% of the slope in a free fall slide, meaning I didn't have to ski that part. The important part is that there were no broken limbs and I am proud to say I have done it!