21 book reviews, 8 lesson plans, and 3 final exams later...

Hello again. I can't believe it's been three weeks since I have done a real post. How sad! Think of all the exciting events in my life you missed out on. But I am going to try and up-date you on the real interesting stuff so you are not dying from curiousity. However I want to do it in short little posts. Long posts are just too long. Enjoy the following random tid-bits that spew forth from my brain! Don't stop til you get to an old post or have filled that empty feeling you've had inside you since April 9.

Easter

Our Easter was bittersweet. We missed being with our families, but we didn't have to spend it all alone because our church had an Easter dinner potluck after the service. We stayed for that. The ham was good but the potatoes weren't as good as grandmas (naturally). No Easter candy for me though. It was probably for the best. My friend Karen told me she didn't even know what Easter egg hunts were when she was a kid. Probably because they wanted to stay focused on Jesus or something... Which I think is a pretty good idea since we get distracted with all the presents on Christmas. The sermon was really good. The whole service was probably the best Easter service I have ever been too, so that was cool. If you are in to listening to sermons (you never know) click here to hear sermons from our pastor. You can also see a video about our church we made to pass out to the people in the community. I am warning you though, because of the video, the website takes my computer forever to load.

Little Monkeys.... everywhere

Ariel's birthday was a few weeks ago (if you dont' know who Ariel is, then too bad, you are just going to have to go back and read my first posts). I wanted to do something to make her feel special, so I decided to bake some cupcakes for her and everyone at tutoring. Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for cupcakes that were too cute too pass up. I didn't bake them from scratch which I usually try to do, but who would when I needed to bake four dozen with only two muffin pans, and then decorate each and every one with that special little touch?



I also got her a pretty good present- a cute little teddy bear with lipgloss and nail polish stuck in its arms and a necklace around its neck, a slinky, silly putty, and the leftover m&m eyes. I think she looks pretty happy, don't you?

What I have been doing for the past two weeks

I can't tell you how good it feels to be done with school for the semester. Last week I worked a full week, so I hardly had time to get any school work done. Remember how I am a sleep addict? Well I figured out I was just getting too much sleep. Since it is impossible for me to get up any earlier than is absolutely necessary, I decided I would just have to start staying up later. I changed my sleep schedule so that I go to bed about 12:30 or 1 and get up at seven. I don't feel as groggy and tired when I wake up. Plus it gave me a reason to drink coffee. I have discovered how nice it is to drink black coffee when I get to work. I started calling it my happy juice because it has this magical effect on me, where I feel alert and in a good mood. No wonder Jonathan sucks the stuff down like a hummingbird does kool-aid. (Don't ask me where that came from). So with the help of added hours in my day, I managed to write five book reviews in two days (phew!). Then this week I had to write the eight lesson plans for my language arts class in two days. That was fun. Thankfully I had Monday and Tuesday off, so I had the time. I hadn't cleaned my house for like three weeks, so Tuesday night I spent three hours cleaning. Wow! the bathroom is sparkling along with the fridge. I hate dirty fridges. How can you put new groceries in a dirty refrigerator? Don't do it. Wednesday I had to teach one of my lesson plans to the class. I was nervous but I think I did really well. The finals for my classes were take-home, so I got those done. And for my music methods class, my professor exempted me from the final (Yay!) since I knew everything on it anyway. So there you go. I have three weeks of freedom until summer school... but we aren't thinking about that right now are we... because we are enjoying having a clean house and no homework!

What now?

Unfortunately, it is super cram time for Jonathan, so I don't get to spend my free time with him. So I won't distract him, I bought two new video games to get addicted to. I should probably take advantage of the weather though. It has been really warm and sunny, although the past couple of days have been wet. I need to buy some food (my fridge is ready). I made my grocery and meal list tonight while watching The Office and Earl. Oh and here's a tip for all of you who shop at Cost-co and Sam's Club. Learn from my mistakes.

Things not to buy at Sam's Club (especially if you have only two people in your family):

• honey
• vanilla extract
• any kind of spice or herb
• produce
• dairy
• candy (you'll eat it all)
• blue cheese
• mayonaise, ketchup, mustard etc...
• clothes for your mom (hey, it's one stop shopping!)

Feel free to add to the list!

One more thing... Please help me out here. What is the difference between Cheese Its and Cheese Nips? This has been keeping me up at night.

For my faithful readers

I am sorry I have been neglecting you. However, I will continue to neglect you until at least next week. I am swamped with homework.
I have an entire language arts unit (8 lesson plans) and three book reviews to write, and three finals to complete, all by next Wednesday.
Pray for me.

Spoiled

This is the beautiful man whom I love:





It is now the point in the semester where the crack-down begins for Jonathan. Papers are due; professors want to employ him. He has been working very hard on a paper that is due tomorrow. He has had a difficult time writing it, so he is pretty discouraged right now.
So I just want to tell you, Jonathan, how proud of you I am and how much I appreciate you.

In case you readers did not know, I am as spoiled as they come. Let me explain:
Every morning Jonathan wakes up anywhere between 4 and 5:50 am. He takes a shower, and does homework until it is time for him to wake me up at 7 am. My alarm goes off, but it is across the room, so I never get up to turn it off. Jonathan comes in and turns it off for me. He gives me an extra few minutes of sleep while he gets me a large cup of cold water (I am terribly thirsty in the morning). I am not a morning person. You already know about my sleep addiction. So I put up a pretty good fight when it comes to getting up. Jonathan is ever patient though, even though he often has to literally drag me out of bed. While I get ready for work, my lovely husband prepares my breakfast.
-egg in a basket (just like mom used to make)
-bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats (with almonds)
-orange juice
Depending on whether or not I have to go to school after work, Jonathan will pack a lunch for me (paper bag and all) and put together a change of clothes for me also. Then he drives me to work and drops me off. If I don't have school that day, he picks me up too.
But wait there is more-
He makes dinner at least three days a week.
He usually helps with the laundry or does it himself.
He often vacuums for me.
He almost always cleans the kitchen.
He goes grocery shopping with me when he can.

There are certain things I never or rarely have to do, because Jonathan does it all for me:
-take out the trash
-get gas
-dust
-go to the bank
-hang up my coat (I don't know why but I despise hanging clothes up, especially coats)
-drop off the rent
-answer the phone
-rub my feet
-water the plants
-carry in the groceries
-make the bed
that is all I can think of that moment, but I assure there is more.
He is the most intelligent, thoughtful, loving, helpful, funny, handsome man I know.
I love you Jonathan. Thank-you for all you do for me.

Lower Back Pain

I am probably not one to complain... but today at work I spent three hours trying to get egg membrane out of egg shells. Let me explain... for our fancy-pants Easter Brunch, we must have extravagant desserts. One of them being white chocolate pots de creme in a hollowed out eggshell. What does that mean for us? Use the special egg tool to cut the top of an egg off, dump the raw egg out, and try to scrape out the invisible egg membrane- all without cracking the shell. What fun!

Missouri Botanical Garden

Jonathan took most of these pictures . Okay all of them (except the ones I took of the tulips) . He is a much better photographer than I am. That is because, according to Jonathan, he has "perspective."

All is lost

Okay well, I just was merrily typing away, then I accidentally lost all that I had just typed. So I promise, I was going to post something interesting tonight, but now I am mad and don't want to type it all again. Besides I'd never be able to remember it.
I guess I'll just give you the main point of the paragraphs I had written.
Random Thoughts-
My music methods class is fun. The teacher is fantastic at the piano. He is trying to teach everyone the basics of piano. Since I already know how to play I get to help teach. I wish I could take lessons from him, because without a piano teacher I am lost. I have been working on this song for months. I think I am finally getting it.

Sunday's service was convicting. It was the best Palm Sunday service I have ever been to. Not super cheesy, like Palm Sundays have a tendency to be. The theme was betrayal. I don't know if this link will work, but you can try clicking on it to see our church's bulletein from this Sunday. I will tell more about it later, and try to fix the link.

I have been sad lately. I had a rotten last week at work. We didn't have much going on, so there was hardly anything to do. Plus the air conditioning still wasn't working, so it was unbearably hot. Today was much better though because this Sunday is Easter, and we have a huge Easter Brunch. I kept busy, and the air-conditioning was fixed.
I miss my family. I miss Idaho. I especially miss downtown Boise. We realized that we have now lived in St. Louis longer than we lived in Boise together. I can't believe it has been over a year and a half. It feels like ages ago since we first moved here, and even longer since we lived in Idaho. It is weird to think about it. It seems like we had totally different lives in Boise. Actually it was a different life, but it seems like a different life-time. That doesn't make much sense does it? There are definitely things I like about St. Louis, and reasons I like living here. I won't bother to name them now. But still. My parents, my grandparents, my siblings, my in-laws, are all in Idaho. My twelve-year-old brother is growing up without me. I hardly recognize him when I see him. Here we have no family. We have church friends. But none that are super close (yet; we are working on that). In Idaho we didn't need friends because we had our family.
Jonathan and I are so anti-social. We like to isolate ourselves from everybody, especially if we are feeling lonely (which doesn't make much sense, I know). Pastor Donn actually warned us about this during our pre-marital counseling. We took some personality tests thing, and we were both extreme introverts. He said we will really have to make an effort to get out and be with other people. He is so nice. He even told us we could call him for money if we needed some to go out. I am sorry, I'll shut-up now, I am sure you have had enough of my whining. If any of you have advice on making friends, let me know :)

A Boring Report of the Past Week

It has been so warm here lately. It cooled down a lot today, and it is supposed to get colder, but yesterday it was eighty degrees. Everything is so beautiful finally. Everywhere the trees are blooming with white, purple, pink, and peach blossoms. Unfortunately the magnolias are already done blooming. Tulips are everywhere. We even have some in front of our house, but they haven't quite opened yet.
Quick updates-
Wednesday at work I made my first quiche. It was cheddar, tomato, spinach, green onion, and ham, delicous! I was very happy because it turned out wonderfully. The way we make quiche is a very delicate process, so I was a bit nervous about it.
Thursday we went to a Blues (hockey) game. We got the tickets from a guy from church. His family business has season tickets in a really good section- padded seats and everything. So that was fun. Plus they actually won which always makes it more enjoyable. Oh yeah, and it was free coffee mug night, so two Blues mugs for Jonathan which is a nice addition to his Blues memorabilia.
Friday I had the day off and was able to get the house clean and some homework done.
Since I had Saturday off, which is rare, we took the opportunity to go to the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is free to city residents on Saturday morning. It was beautiful. Of course it's always beautiful, but especially at the beginning of Spring. That night we went over to our friend's house to play games with some other people.
Sunday after church, I spent most of the day reading the next book club book, Rebecca. I have read it before, but I didn't remember it much. In the evening it was so nice outside, Jonathan and I took a long walk to the park.
That is pretty much what has been going on with us.