Green Thumb. Sort of.

This summer, Russell and I planted six sweet potato plants that were about eight inches high.  We installed white latices on either side of one of our front windows (instead of shutters), and we hoped that maybe by the end of summer the vines from the sweet potato plants would reach the middle of the lattice.   

Oh my.

In about 4 weeks, the vines had grown all the way up to the roof line and were spilling over our stone border around the garden!  Nuts!  It was so pretty and so lush, I couldn't believe the luck we had with plants--FINALLY!

Well, we had our first freeze a few nights ago, so all of the pretty green leaves were withered and yuck.  Today when I got home from work, I rolled up my sleeves and cut them all down.  Here is the massive mess that was left.  

As I was cutting and pulling the vines out of the garden, I found a few treasures...

I'm a farmer!  I grew three sweet potatoes!  Granted, one is much larger than his brothers, but, hey, I grew these!!!  And I don't grow things well!  

So, besides now being a natural farmer, I also found another use for the gorgeous green leaves from this plant over the summer.  I love having fresh flowers in the house, but those can get pricey after a few times of replacing them.  Thus, I would cut off sections of leaves from the potato vines and place them in funky vases around the house to add a splash of bright color.  As the decorators on EVERY single HGTV show say, "You need to bring the outside in!"

I just love the charteuse color and how it gives a bright pop of color around the house.  Free foliage!  And those clippings have been out for about a month--they never die!  Perfect.

However, now that my front yard is bare and ugly, here is my project for tomorrow.

We're going to plant some evergreen trees so they'll be pretty all four seasons, and we got some yellow pansies and yellow mums.  Very fallish.  Very yellow.

Thus ends my journey through taking a recent detour in my career (becoming a farmer), and hopefully my fall/winter planting endeavors will be as successful as the previous ones!

Costume Par-tay!

Last night, our Sunday School class all got together for a good, ol' fashioned costume party.  We were to dress as couples, and I was very intrigued as to what people would come up with for our event.  

Over the past few weeks, Russell and I were trying to come up with something clever yet inexpensive, as I doubt we'll be actually using our costume repeatedly throughout the upcoming years.  We thought of a few celebrity couples, but we didn't have the right gear.  We came up with some cartoon/T.V. couples, but, again, nothing to wear.

So...we went as this:

That's right.  Meat and Potatoes.  

Some thought I was dressed as Eggs, but, no.  Meat and Potatoes, a proud couple in the world of food!  ;)

Here are some other pics from the evening of some of our pals and their clever costumes:

Our hosts for the evening, the Quigly family as Brad and Angelina.

Winners of the costume contest: The Williams family as the Flinstones!

Rob (as Cowboy) eating some steak for dinner.

The Glenn family (with Kellan) as the Hillbilly Family.

Some of the gals in their costumes, including a pirate, a little girl, an M&M, a cow, and the Pink Panther.  Very clever, ladies!

We had a fun night of dressing up and hanging out together, and I'm very glad to be a part of a group that isn't too cool to look ridiculous for at least one night a year...!  ;)

And what are you going to be for Halloween???

Pregnancy Test.

Let's just end the conjecture before the post continues: I'm not pregnant.

However, I'm sure many of you remember the days of being a newlywed and having a few "freak outs" over the fact that you could, in fact, be pregnant now.  Well, at least we had a few of those early in our marriage when things didn't seem "normal"...if you know what I mean.

Anywho, I have been frequenting the doctor over the past couple of months for various and sundry reasons including, but not limited to, strange blood pressure things, questionable lump things, lovely UTI things, fatigue things, low iron things, etc.  Annoying, to say the least.  I am a healthy person who eats right (Maggie Moo's ice-cream not included), works out at least 3 times a week, and gets good amounts of sleep.  So during all of these visits, my doctor has been switching up my birth control--different brands, different levels of estrogen, etc. to try to combat a few of my issues.

Well, we ALL know what can happen when your BC routine gets the ol' switch-a-roo....

These past few weeks, I have felt nausea occasionally, I've been VERY tired and I have felt like I might be coming down with something.

Needless to say, I went out and bought a preggers test.  JUST IN CASE.  (By the way, if you know me well, you know that this is THE LAST THING on my "To Do" list right now---so I was overly freaking out and underly excited.  Just so we're clear.)

I took the first test after studying the directions for a good 15 minutes.  No need to screw this thing up and get all weirded out for nothing.  So, I was looking for two parallel blue lines for positive, OR only one blue line and a completely blank space for negative.

I got two blue lines; but they were perpendicular to each other.

WHAT THE CRAP!?!??!  This was not an option in the manual!  I scanned the instructions, got on the Internet to do some frantic research, called my pharmacy student husband (and freaked him out ROYALLY at work....oops), and was about to call my doctor to make an appointment when I realized this must mean nothing.  Right?  I mean, there wasn't even an OPTION for perpendicular lines!!!  I took a deep breath, and I decided to stop freaking out.  If it isn't even an option in the manual, it means nothing.  

THUS, another freak out.  Awesome.

The point of this post: A letter.

Dear Pregnancy Test Companies,

Get it together!!!  There are women out here on the verge of nervous break downs, and we need to know FOR SURE that we are not preggers.  Please fix the perpendicular lines on said pregnancy test.

My high blood pressure thanks you.

Your customer,

Erin

Football Pancakes.

This morning was the first day of my Fall Break---praise the Lord.  For real.  (Side note: I think it is in the best interest of the parents and students when the teachers are allowed breaks...less heads exploding and premature greying....for the teachers.)

Anyway, I was looking forward to sleeping in for the next few days, watching some T.V., catching up on my reading, shopping, sleeping some more.  But I had heard from one of my students that my church was doing a breakfast for the football team this morning, so I thought I'd help out.  There aren't many avenues through which a teacher in a public school can share their faith, so it seemed that my mere presence at this event could open the door for a student to bring up the issue of faith.  Which is, in fact, NOT breaking the law.  Plus, it seems like I have the entire football team sprinkled throughout my classes, so this was a perfect chance.

So, I rolled out of bed (to the sound of my alarm...usually a no-no during breaks), got ready for the day and headed up to the church.  I was in charge of maintaining the serving tables, keeping them stocked with hot pancakes, crispy bacon and creamy scrambled eggs.  The boys came in and were obviously hungry.  I saw my students and got to joke around with them all about their upcoming Senior paper.  But most importantly, I saw all my kids SEE ME there, which was the main point.

Nothing outrageous happened.  Nothing extraordinary.  

But they saw me.

I try to find other ways to quietly share my faith without risking my job.  For example, I use a projection screen hooked up to my computer to project quizzes, instructions for the day, grammar practice, and a few Internet vocab games that we play (lame, I know, but I'm a teacher...I'm supposed to think grammar is fun....).  In order to "plug for Jesus," I made christnotes.com my homepage.  So when I open up an Internet screen, the verse of the day just happens to be there.  I can't talk about it, but I sure can't help it if my homepage with Bible verses is "accidentally" projected up there....!  ;)  

Like I said before, it is a tricky tightrope walk being a Christian public school teacher, but I believe God gives me small, seemingly insignificant opportunities that could someday make a big difference.

I just have to be aware enough to see the opportunity before me.

Oh, and I also have to not want to strangle my students when they ask me 8,000 times, "Is this assignment really for a grade?".....YES!!!!!!!  Always YES!!!!!!!!!

;) 

Why Blogs and Teaching Don't Mix.

The reason it has taken me so long to come over to "the dark side" as some have put it (a.k.a. blogging) is that I teach high school.  I don't want my students knowing every little thing about me, nor do I want to share things with my friends that my students can then find and use against me!  I wish I could write with honesty like Katie on her blog, Baby Makes Three, and I wish I could write about all of my hilarious goings-on like Whitney on her blog, Glamorous Life of a Housewife.  

But, I sort of can't.

I mean, I have sooo many interesting, funny, embarrassing, strange, and ridiculous stories from my day spent in the classroom, but I feel like I can't share them....because "they" might be reading.  Ugh. 

However, I shall endeavor to find things that aren't too mind-numbingly futile to blog about during the next few weeks.

Let's start with a story about my children.  Most of you have met them through various and sundry means, but let's show them off again, shall we?

Mabel.

This little spit-fire is my practice baby.  She is a three pound Yorkie, but she doesn't know her size.  Mabel sleeps all curled up in a little ball by my neck, and she has the smallest bladder in the known world.  Her hobbies include looking cute, shredding and evenly spreading tissues on the floor, knowing the meaning of the following words: sit, look at that, lay down, tennis ball, Mr. Bunny (favorite toy), off, go potty, and (my favorite) tell Daddy you need to go potty.

Charlie.

Charlie is half Yorkie and half schnauzer.  He didn't come from the best place, so it has been a lot of work to get him to be calm and trusting.  Charlie's hobbies include: licking his feet constantly, snuggling sweetly (as long as you pet him), giving kisses on your chin and letting the lady-dogs eat first from the bowl.

Milly.

Hmm.  What to say about Milly.  She was a rescue dog we adopted from PetsMart, and she is very sweet.  Very sweet and very boring.  She literally lays around all day and only gets up to go potty or eat.  BORING.  I love her, but I have realized I want dogs with a personality.  She has a sweet temperament and mothers the other two.

So, those are the pups.  I am not planning to procreate any time in the near future, but it is fun to learn about 'parenting' through our dogs.  My husband and I know a lot more about each other now that we share responsibility of our three puppies.  Might be kind of lame to compare actual parenting to dog parenting, but I'm sure it has been good practice for us.

Any other doggie lovers out there???  :)

I Caved.

So.  I caved.  The ol' Xanga site was good to me, alas I needed a change.  We'll see how long this lasts.  

Also, I'm a little out of the loop...exactly how does anyone even know you have a blog...?  Help.