Moving On

I really enjoyed this fall-type weekend, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The bright blue sky, no humidity in the cool air...that was when I finally realized that the beginning of each season is my favorite time of year. I can't wait to go apple-picking, to make candy/caramel apples, to carve pumpkins, to start wearing cozy sweaters. Summer was awesome and now I'm ready for fall.

After lazing around Saturday afternoon, D and I met up with a couple from our church at a local Cajun restaurant. I eat pretty much everything and like it, but can we say S.P.I.C.E.Y.? And David was in all his glory. We actually spotted this restaurant at least a year ago and I distinctly remember telling D that we'd go there for his birthday...last December. Well better late than never. It's kind of pricey, so we probably won't be going back any time soon.

I was prepared to spend a leisurely week with David, but a video-game night here and a dinner with friends another night there and it's turned into a not-so-leisurely-but-just-as-fun week. Our brother-in-law, Josh (D's sister Mary's husband, got that?), even decided to show up in Philly and we were more than happy to have him over for dinner.

Last night, D and Ron started playing this game on the Wii that they want to turn into a weekly Man Night. More boring a pasttime I couldn't think of but these guys were at it for three hours, THREE hours. Sara and the baby and I had so much more fun, at least in my opinion. I made some apple crisp and you know fall is in the air when an apple crisp recipe crosses the mind. Then, tonight was the night we hung out with Josh for a few hours.

The fun continues on throughout the weekend when D and I meet Sara, Tony, Ari, and Pete at the Big E on Saturday. We're leaving for CT on Friday night, but I don't want to think about that right now because I've got a whole lot of packing to do at some point between now and then. What I am thinking about is the Breadbowl Chili I'll be making for dinner tomorrow night. I think the couple we're having over is the only one to have escaped this dinner so far, not for much longer though! Yum :)

The official engagement picture:


Congratulations to Ryan and Yana! Ry FINALLY proposed to her, today, September 16, 2007. They've been dating since April 2005 and they are planning an April 2008 wedding.


I'm so excited for next year: Ryan and Yana's April wedding (as of now), D's May graduation, and Nick and Kristina's June wedding. Not to mention moving out of state and D's grad party in the beginning of June and then the start of Residency in the beginning of July. Let the fun begin...in a few months, I need to rest up before all of this!

I wanted to post something September 11th-related, but couldn't figure out what exactly. On Tuesday, after dinner, we were flipping through channels and letting our food digest before embarking on our nightly walk. I paused at TBN, one of the fifteen channels we do get since we are not cable subscribers. It's a Christian-run network that I sometimes watch, but usually pass right by. That night, however, they were doing a 9/11 tribute, which included interviewing the relatives of people who had died. How heart-wrenching. But many of these people turned to and embraced their faith and are now living joyful lives. How heart-warming. They kept talking about God's grace and His mercy and I couldn't help but wonder if I would have the same reaction these six-short-years later. Then I started to think about the "why," which is never a good road to start down.

Not five minutes later, though, a commentator started talking about a hijacker that didn't make it to his designated plane. That was one less plane able to hit what many believe to be the White House. And then the host started detailing the events aboard Flight 93 that crashed not too, too far from where I am currently living. Investigators later found out that it was probably headed for the U.S. Capitol. Another part of the terrorist plan thwarted. So while, yes, September 11, 2001 was, is, and always will be a horrifically tragic day for millions of people...God was, is, and always will be right there in the midst of it all...outpouring His grace and mercy, even when we can't see it and even when we don't know we need it. How comforting.

I like how the people in this article chose to remember the day.

I was doing my daily walk up and down the playground yesterday (a very easy way to get to 10,000 steps on your pedometer!) and I overheard some girls trying to one-up each other. It's a very common practice in kindergarten...and something that really annoys me. This particular day, the girls were talking about dresses.

"My mom bought me this dress that is so beautiful with sparkles."

"My mom bought me two dresses that are princess dresses."

"My mom bought me three dresses. They all look like prom dresses."

I couldn't resist at this point. I love to call 5-year-olds out on the vocabulary they use but have no idea what it means. They overheard it either in an adult conversation, in a music video, in a commercial, or on a TV show, but it's something they only half-grasped. I know, it's kind of a cruel past time, but it's very entertaining, so it's okay :).

"What's a prom dress?" I asked, looking puzzled.

The girl who made the statement whipped her head around to look at me, then looked back at her cohort, then looked back at me, baffled, and said,

"I don't know, but I have three of them," showing me three fingers for emphasis.

Yeah, so, I continued walking up and down the playground...it's a good way to add 10,000 steps to your pedometer...

I could not wait to spend the weekend with David. We had a fun Friday night planned with a movie and popcorn. Fearless (B-), with Jet Li, was David's choice. Not the best movie I ever saw, but I enjoyed our time together...until my other (little) man called. Our friends Sara and Ron were interested in a Date Night and asked us if we could possibly watch their little guy. David, David who?! ;) Sure we could babysit!!!!

And that's exactly what we did Saturday afternoon. They went to see a matinee, so they brought the baby over around 4ish. He is so entertaining, with his rolling and reaching and grabbing and smiling and talking. Poor guy was getting over a cold, which made him a little fussy, but we got plenty of playtime and talk time in before it was naptime. His parents returned around dinnertime, so we ordered a few pizzas (gotta love those buy-one, get-one coupons!) and settled in for a night of chatting and Super Scrabble. We played guys against girls - guys won. However, I would like to state the unfair advantage they had: Sara couldn't stay up any longer and fell asleep on the chaise for the last hour of the game. So I was up past midnight playing by myself against two very intelligent people. I lost by 100 points. I tried to pull ahead last minute with a 54 point word, but they were just too far ahead. Here's what the board looked like, we didn't use two letters:


After all that thinking and using of brain power, we slept so well...or it could have been the late hour we went to bed.

Today, David treated me to Auntie Anne's. I had a buy-one, get-one coupon and I couldn't resist any longer (I think I printed it out on Thursday...). Boy do I love those pretzels. D got some video game-playing time in and I actually got to read for a sustained period of time. I'm reading The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan. It's about the formation of Israel from both a Jewish and an Arab perspective. A little light reading for the end of summer. I also got out another Lisa Scottolini book (all her books take place in the Philadelphia area...we listened to one on the way to CT), which will be a fast read.

Oh yes, forgot to mention: Our bible study has now concluded. We had a make-your-own-calzones dinner on Tuesday night as a finale. We're going to try to get together once a month, if possible, because everyone is so busy in the fall. I learned a lot from our study book, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, and plan on reading it again. There is just so much good information to process. My goal is to do that during the month D is away.

That pretty much sums up my/our weekend. Here goes week #2 in kindergarten...

Well, with Labor Day inevitably comes the start of school. I always look forward to that three-day weekend, but then I also know school begins promptly the next day. It's a teaser holiday. Anyway, this year is shaping up to be a great one. I have 6 students: one boy and five girls. Could I have asked for a better combination?! I don't feel too bad for the boy because he has three brothers at home, so he gets his fix there. What's better, these kids are so well-mannered, excellent listeners, very quick learners, and, well, no trouble at all...at this point. I'm almost bored throughout the day because I usually spend a lot of time correcting, especially in the beginning of the year. I'm knocking on all sorts of wood and praying this impeccable behavior lasts longer than the first week of school.

I wish I had a Kindergarten Conversation to post, I was even on the look-out for one this week, but, um, these kids don't talk! I mean they do the normal amount of talking here and there, but nothing like I experienced with past classes. I love, love, love it. Again, I may be eating my words in the next week, but somehow I don't think so. These kids are a different bunch and I can't pinpoint exactly what is so different about them, besides all the obvious characteristics I've already mentioned, but I'm loving this class. Maybe they know it's my last year of teaching kindergarten here and want to make my year as easy as possible. Maybe they are so into learning that they don't think of acting up. Maybe they are so happy to be in kindergarten that they will do anything to stay. Whatever it is, I couldn't have asked for a better to start to my last school year here in PA.

I heard it said many times this weekend that "Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer." Boo. This summer flew by. I know we did a lot, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like summer should only be half over and we should be going on another mini vacation. Not so.

We left Philly around 6:45pm on Friday and I was fully prepared for a 6 hour ride. After all, it was Labor Day weekend. We arrived happily in CT around 11pm. The only traffic we encountered was when we were half-way over the George Washington Bridge...not the best place to get stuck, but we managed. D downloaded an audio book called Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline from our local library's website, so that kept us quite entertained for at least three and a half hours of the ride. I actually couldn't wait to ride back to PA so I could find out what happened in the end. She's a local author who sets her books in the Philly area so it's really neat to be able to picture most of the locations she writes about. Anyway, the no traffic made a great start to our three-day weekend.

D was actually more busy than me this visit, which was nice for both of us. He liked hanging out with the guys and I liked being able to relax and not feel so rushed around. Mom and I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, but not much else. Dad, Grandma, and I went on our traditional food shopping spree...we actually hit up two stores which was unusual. That night, D and I ate dinner with his family. Sara and Tony and Ari were there and Ari was her entertaining self. I played the "I'm going to get you" game with her and if I was near Tony, her "base," then she'd run past me to get to her daddy. I thought it was funny that she was running to/past the person who was going to get her, but she saw safety and didn't look back. Poor Tony was trying to play Wii in the meantime, but managed to still do good at whatever he was playing. She kept me entertained for a while, until she was tired and had to go :(. I did manage to snap off these pictures of our Ari-girl:




And here's everyone playing the Wii. I think Dad, Sara, and I were the only ones who weren't playing!



Sunday was another relaxing day. It was great to see some church people again. In between churches, Grandma, Mom, Yana, and I took a little trip to Target:


After church, Dad prepared this yummy dinner for everyone and Ryan and Yana sponsored a very yummy ice cream sundae party:


Monday was our Labor Day Picnic. Dad and Mom love hosting these things, so we had another houseful of people. Some of Yana's family came this time and it was so nice to meet such sweet, sweet people. We had our usual family members there and D's family came, including Ari-girl. I made my pulled-pork recipe and it went over well. I can't take too much credit for it, though, the crockpot did all the work! Here are some of the outtakes:

Crazy week, people. This week has been absolutely crazy, but I guess what else is new, right? I’m scrambling to get my kindergarten classroom in order, with mixed feelings, as thoughts of this being my last setup float in and out of my mind. I only have five students signed up, which is due in large part to the astronomical amount of tuition they are charging per week for kindergarten. $217. Or you could go to the public school for free. Decisions, decisions. However, I certainly don’t mind coasting on out my last year here, so I am certainly not complaining!

D started his Neurology rotation this week. His final grade for Rads was…drum roll please…HONORS! :) He was told that he received one of the highest scores on the exam. He was also told that his personal statement was wonderful and that it would make him stand out among applicants. And the same person wrote him a stellar recommendation to go along with his Residency Application. God is good. This Saturday, September 1st, he can officially send out his online application to the programs he is applying to by simply clicking the “Submit” button. He has been diligently working on it and is actually showing signs of anxiousness, which is very, very rare. I, on the other hand, am relieved that we will finally start the process of discovering where we will be moving to in less than a year! Labor Day weekend will be a much needed time of rest and relaxation.

Yesterday we had a few friends over for a picnic dinner. I made pulled pork in the crock pot for sandwiches and had corn on the cob, chips, baked beans, and watermelon to go along with it. It was the easiest dinner I have ever made. Mom said she wants me to make it for our Labor Day party and informs me that I can get all the ingredients when I go food shopping with Dad on Saturday morning. I guess Dad had recently informed her of this shopping trip. He definitely has not forgotten about our Saturday morning tradition, what a cute dad, I miss him.

In other news, the countdown is on until D leaves for his Rads rotation in CT. I'm glad he is going, but I will really miss him...obviously! My mom is "sending in the troops" (her words) and has assigned my grandparents, Nick and Kristina, and her and dad each a weekend here with me. D will probably be coming down with Nick and Kristina. I will be flying up the last weekend for four days and driving back with him. And then Mom had this other great idea: Instead of D driving up by himself that Sunday before he starts, she suggested we come up Friday night, stay the weekend up there and then I'll fly back Sunday night and use the other half of the round-trip ticket when I fly back up for my four-day weekend. Brilliant! Genius! Know why? Because the Big E will still be in town!! I always want to go every year, but can never manage to get up there during that time. Now...we will be!! Also, I feel better about not wasting part of an airplane ticket. A one-way ticket to CT is over $500 and a round-trip one is $250. So I was just going to use one part of the ticket and not show up for the last leg, but now I get my money's worth!

Alright, enough procrastinating, on to that much-dreaded chore of packing...

Well, last week was the last week of field trips for summer camp! Unbelievable. We rounded out the summer with a trip to Build-A-Bear where I made this bear. The first year I made a bear and decked it out in green scrubs and a medical kit and David was...not too impressed. Don't know what I was expecting him to be, but I was all happy about it and he was wondering what the big deal was. So last year I made a bear for my friend at work and this year I made this bear for me. More than I wanted to write about the bear, so moving on...

Friday night we went into the city to finally experience the Lights of Liberty Show. We discovered it a few years ago as we were walking by the Liberty Bell/Independence Hall area and it seemed like a really neat experience. Fast forward to Thursday night when D received a buy-one-get-one coupon in his inbox from Philly FunSavers and it was finally meant to happen.

What is the Lights of Liberty Show? Here's what their website says, "Experience the American Revolution, as it happened, where it happened – through state-of-the-art technology at the Lights of Liberty Show, the first ambulatory sound and light show of its kind in the world. As you journey through Independence National Historical Park, the story is told through beautiful hand painted images that are projected up to 50 feet high onto the buildings where the events actually took place over 230 years ago. You’ll hear a moving musical score composed for the Show and performed by musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra plus dazzling effects produced at Skywalker Sound. The voices of Walter Cronkite, Ossie Davis, and Charlton Heston tell the tale." You can read about How They Do It, too.

Since it's a light show, tours begin at dusk and continue every fifteen up until the last tour which leaves at 9:15. We had an 8:45 tour time, so we got our headphones and met our group of thirty people near Independence Hall. Our headphones did most of the narrating as we walked through the five city blocks around Independence National Historic Park, but we also had a tour guide and two crossing guards that stopped traffic and lighted our way with flashlights.

First, we walked to the first Post Office which is at an entrance to the alley that leads to the site where Ben Franklin's house used to sit. Get all that?! Our headsets started playing at this point and we soon learned about the riots that Franklin caused by being such a vocal proponent of independence, about the meeting at Carpenter's Hall by a group of people later calling themselves the First Continental Congress, about how they amassed soldiers with the help of George Washington, about fighting the redcoats (with real smoke (fog) and everything!), and about how many, many people gathered outside Independence Hall to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. That's where the tour ended, with us listening to the reading of a portion of the Declaration of Independence followed by a choir singing "God Bless America." It's definitely one of the better Philly attractions, and different, too, because you're touring the historical places at night. We didn't take any pictures for obvious reasons, but here you can see some of what we saw here (choose "dial-up" or "broadband" near the bottom of the page).

My mother has a sense of humor about her. I found it funny that she listed every single item in the bag that she sent down with Ryan and Yana except for this shirt:


At first glance, I thought it was a cute shirt. Not a big fan of Disney, and I know Mom knows that, but it was the thought that counted.

Upon closer inspection (and two offended-sounding gasps later), though, I noticed that Tinkerbell wasn't in her usual cute, flying-fairy type of pose. See?


I'm assuming this is why Mom failed to mention that this shirt was in that bag...

Like I said, Ryan and Yana arrived Thursday afternoon. They came to my work to get our apartment key and the kids really, really enjoyed seeing them again (they spent some time with my kindergarten class in March when Ry was taping a lesson for my Master's program). A few comments I overheard:

This was a fun week. I had to take it one day at a time otherwise I would have gotten stressed out with all that was going on. But, success, everything went as planned and we even enjoyed ourselves in the process.

Monday was bible study, per usual. We decided to double up on chapters in order to finish the book by early September. Come September, everyone turns busy. A couple of us might start a different book and meet every other week. Either way, this book, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, has been an incredible read. I like all the practical applications is has to offer and am trying to integrate many of them into daily life. I thought life after my Master's would slow down, boy was I wrong.

Tuesday was a D and I day. Can't exactly remember what we did, but I'm sure it included eating dinner and going on our 30-minute walk. Wednesday, our summer camp went to New Jersey to the Adventure Aquarium. It was an interesting trip, made more interesting by the realization that summer camps ends and my last year of teaching kindergarten begins in two weeks. That evening, with salad in hand, we arrived at our friends' house for dinner. We've never been there before so we visited their neighbors before finally ringing their doorbell. The night was thoroughly enjoyable which means we stayed out too late on a school night. We still had to return the cat to her house before we went to bed. Ryan and Yana were coming on Thursday and they are not cat people.

They arrived safely and thus began our long weekend of fun. More to come...