Divert Your Eyes!

I've been babysitting Doug's tank while he's been out of town with his dad. I normally don't go into the basement because it's not finished, but I've needed to get water for Doug's tank. (His special water making station is down there.)

Everything above the basement is basically my territory (besides Doug's Office) for organizing. We always joke about when I clean/organize stuff I hide it on purpose to further Doug's dependence on me for finding things. (Totally not true, but not a bad idea either.) We have unofficially divided the basement into 2 halves... HIS half and MY half. I normally don't go down to the basement, but when I do, I do my best to divert my eyes from Doug's side. What you are about to see is pretty terrifying! (for me at least)

DIVERT YOUR EYES!

GASP!

Doug's Idea of Organization

My Idea of Organization

Now you're probably wondering how two people have this much stuff...

Well, over 70% of the rubbermaid containers on my side are filled up with girl baby stuff from my oldest sister who can't wait for me to have kids. The other ones are holiday decorations. We like to be festive and also like to catch things when they are 75% off after holidays. All of the boxes on the side are from appliances and such that we have purchased over the years and not gotten rid of the boxes because we've moved so much.

Doug's side is mostly computer stuff/electronic gizmos that he has collected over the years. At one point in time when we were living in Provo, I found over 11 computers hidden in our TINY apartment. Only 3 were in use at the time! Even if something is not running, he likes to take it apart and see what he can use or learn from it. He needs a special room with a lock and no windows to do this in. Something detached from the house would be preferable.

I'm not saying that Doug is a total slob because he's not. He just likes to have things readily available to him. His office is better and will be a lot better once he finds the time to put in the build in bookshelf/cabinets in the room.

Do you think Doug will notice if this pile is mysteriously missing when he returns?

Darwin Recovery

Darwin has almost recovered fully from his operation and is jumping into laundry baskets again. Here are some attempt to photograph the kitten that NEVER stops moving!

Empty House = Loneliness

So Doug and his dad are gone this weekend spending time at grandma's house while his dad is in town. I'm sad I can't be there and I'm even sadder that I'm stuck home alone. Well, actually I haven't really gone home much. I worked until late last night and came right home to go to bed.

Doug will be moving into his place in Annapolis starting the weekend of March 14th. I will miss him terribly, but at least I will see him on the weekends and we can talk on the phone every night. A luxury my navy wife sister was not allowed while her husband was out to sea and she was at home pregnant.

With Doug gone, it will be different at home. Coming from such a large family, I'm uncomfortable with silence. Maybe I'll have time to try to do that list of things that I have always said I would do. On that list is sewing, cooking extravagant meals, digital scrapbooking, taking beautiful pictures, and decorating the bare white walls of my house. I have quite a few roadblocks before I actually can start doing these things. I don't have a sewing machine yet because I'm not ready to make an investment on something that I don't actually do yet. I like to cook, but I have no one to cook for. I need a better computer to do my scrapbooking and actual scrapbooking doesn't have a Ctrl Z(undo). I'm working on the taking pictures thing, but it's a little frustrating right now because I don't have anyone to photograph. I'm not sure if I should decorate my house right now if we are potentially moving. It's just extra stuff to pack up and nail holes to fill in when we leave. All excuses, I know! Maybe I should just make my goal to ramble on my blog. I'm good at that!

I keep on thinking that I need to make some more friends. All of the women at church close to my age have kids and I don't fit into that group right now. My visiting teaching companion is great, but once again I think we are at different stages in our lives. I am friends with the teachers at school, but it's kind of awkward going to hang out with them at bars when I don't actually drink. Doug is my best friend and I love hanging out with my family, but I'd still like to branch out some. I worry some days that I have forgotten how to make lasting friendships with how often I have moved lately.

Blogging makes me feel connected to people even though in reality I'm not sure if that's really accurate. (One reason being that only like 3 people read my blog!) Hopefully this will keep me from burning out while I work like a crazy woman for the next 5 months to fill the void.

I'll stop complaining now and get to work! :)

Future Writer?

I assign my students topics to write about on a weekly basis in their journals. Usually one day of the week, I give them a "Free Choice." I really do HATE grading journals with a passion, but I have one student that I can't wait to read their journal. He definitely could have a future in writing... if only I could get him to capitalize his I's on a regular basis.

Here are two of my favorite entries. The first is a free choice written earlier in the year. In the second one he was supposed to write about what he thought it would be like to be one of the original Jamestown settlers.





Can you see some improvement in his writing?

Possible Natural Aversion to Taxes?

Before I taught the Constitutional Convention in class, we were studying reasons for colonies wanting independence from the British. We read in the Social Studies textbook about taxation issues and then I invited the students to write or draw what taxation without representation means to them.

Here are some of my results:




I think today's children might possibly have a natural aversion to taxes. I'm not sure if they'll want to pay for this spendulus bill. Maybe their children's children will like taxes more...

Nail Pops and Blue Tape

It has officially been a year since we closed on our home. We went to settlement on February 29th last year. (Leap Year) Part of the home warranty is a dry wall inspection where they come and fix all of your nail pops. Nail pops are inevitable with any new construction, so its nice that they come and fix it for you. Doug picked up some blue tape and we went around the house marking little spots the other day. I tend be a little OCD, so this was quite the adventure for me.

I took a picture of the worst section in the stairwell next to the big window. The rest of the house doesn't have this much tape. I thought I might be going a little overboard, so I joked with Doug that we should put tons of little pieces of tape in the front room to freak them out when they come in so they won't think the rest of the house is that bad.

We will be paying on this house till we're in our 50's. I'm just getting my money's worth... right?

Close up of a GENUINE nail pop!

Darwin making sure the tape doesn't go anywhere.

More nail pops!

Apartment Hunting

This weekend, Doug and I went to go check out a prospective apartment for him to stay at during his training. He had posted a want ad on craigslist saying that he was looking for temporary housing for the next 5 months. Over 100 people responded offering places in the area. (One of which was from a Dawn. When he responded to her, he accidentally typed her name as Damn. OOPS! He didn't get that apartment...)

We picked the one that looked the nicest and visited it first. The lady renting the apartment wanted to meet both Doug and I. She actually didn't post the apartment, she was just looking for people that she might want to have stay there. She asked for a picture, so Doug sent her one of our wedding photos.

It's a 2 bedroom 1 bath furnished apartment that he would have completely to himself above a detached garage for $500 a month. We've never paid less than $800 for 1 bedroom apartments in the area, so this is a SUPER deal. So, being in Annapolis, we were a little worried about the neighborhood that he would be living in. Well, this apartment is actually detached from a 1.9 million dollar home! They already have 2 garages on the other side of the house, so they barely even use the one he'll be staying above. Just about everyone in the neighborhood owns a boat and has private docks. It's less than a mile away from private beaches that he will have access to all summer.

When we arrived at the house, we hadn't even had the chance to get out of the car when she was on the front porch excitedly greeting us in an apron with a White House Seal. She is super nice and animated. She chatted with is for a little while and introduced us to her husband. Her husband has worked with the last 3 Republican presidents in the White House (explains the apron). She took us on a tour of the apartment that Doug will be staying in and even invited us to go boating with them this summer. The apartment is not incredibly fancy like the house, but for $500 it is excellent. It also just so happens that her next door neighbors are high up in the company where Doug just got his new job. She told us that she's SO excited to introduce us to them.

This place is kind of unbelievably good for the price so I'm actually a little hesitant. The whole time we were there, I was looking around trying to figure out if these people were some kind of ax murderers luring us into a trap, but I found no reason to actually be suspicious. We haven't figured out any reason that he shouldn't stay there. It's super close to where he'll be getting trained and she isn't even requiring a deposit.

So I guess it's meant to be?

History Alive!

I try not to bore everyone with the stuff from my classroom, but we just did this really fun re-enactment of the Constitutional Convention. This is not an original idea of mine, a teacher a few years back at my school started it and we've done it ever since.

We make custom fitted wigs for students to wear to their convention. We assign the students different roles of historical figures that were at the Constitutional Convention, they do some research on their person's views, and then we give them some topics to discuss/debate. It turned out to be a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from the craziness!

Students giving their speeches during the Convention.

Listening to speeches.

Benjamin Franklin sleeping during the Convention.

Signing the Constitution, quills and all!

My favorite... notice the pink and green nails in the background signing the Constitution!

Group Picture

The ALWAYS requested "silly picture!"