If I only had an immune system. . .

Three days into the new school year, I managed to catch my first cold of the year. You'd think that even with 300+ varieties of the common cold, I might at some point get lucky enough to face a virus I've dealt with before. No such luck this time around.

My first year of teaching, the longest I went without being sick (usually with a cold) was 3 weeks. Last year was better; I made it for 6 or 7 weeks at one point. I was hoping this year for something better. Even 3 months would be progress. Nope. . . 3 days. I hope this is not an omen of the coming school year.

On the bright side, if the average lifespan of a cold is 7-10 days, I'm halfway through this bug. I'm also over halfway through this week. Can I just say that I think teachers are even happier on Friday afternoons than their students?

I've also managed to impress some of my colleagues with my susceptibility to the cold virus. I suppose I have to find my enjoyments where I can, eh? Maybe coughing all over everything would be a good way to get a table all to myself at the next faculty meeting. Maybe I could even use it to postpone meetings I don't want to go to. Hmm. . .maybe this illness thing could work in my favor. . .

Oh, and lest you think I am lacking in the hygiene department, I do wash my hands often, frequently, and correctly. I teach foods classes, after all. I also clean my phone, doorknob, desk, etc. with disinfectant wipes daily. What's wrong with me? :)

I survived

I survived the first week of school. :) It feels like it should have been more than 4 days, though. On top of classes, I also went to volleyball and football games in between grading, lesson planning, and regular teacher stuff. The good news is that I only have 2 preps this quarter (2 classes, each taught 2 times during the day, on a block schedule), so I'm staying on top of things a little bit better. The bad news: I've already caught a cold. Sheesh. At least I've got the weekend to give my poor aching feet a rest. I'd forgotten what being on my feet 10 hours or more a day feels like.

100th Post and Summer Adventures

My Summer Adventures:

Baking with the nieces and nephews. We made the frosting from scratch for this German Chocolate Cake:




We let all the kids help us decorate this chocolate cake:


This creation is what happens when you give sprinkles to kids aged 3 to 10 and tell them to have fun. The cake was yummy, though.


We set off sparklers and fireworks at my aunt and uncle's house:



Later, we went to an aquarium. My sister got bitten my a penguin (twice!) but seems to have recovered.

Too bad summer is almost over!

The ants go marching. . .

I was going to post yesterday, but I got distracted by killing the ants that have started to invade my kitchen. As far as I can tell, they are getting in through a crack in the kitchen window seal. I have set traps and have been scrubbing down every single surface of my kitchen.

I know that the weather is getting chilly at night, but I'm wondering how the "Eat at Sarah's" sign got posted in the ant world. Maybe it should get changed to "Sarah's Ant Bar." The ant traps I have out are filled with ant poison, and after the ants come out, they start to stumble a little bit. Drunk ants don't go in a very straight line (neither do poisoned ones). Of course, I'd rather not have this knowledge to share with you, but I still have almost two weeks before I go back to school.

On the bright side, cleaning out everything has given me a chance to organize my cupboards and find out what's actually in there. The only weird thing I've found so far is a jar of jam from 2008. It had turned to liquid, so I promptly tossed it. :) I've also found stuff that I can use to pack lunches this year. Our school cafeteria has pretty good food (I count my blessings on that one!), but it's on the complete opposite end from my classroom. What can I say? Half an hour goes by fast.

In happier news, I finished putting together another quilt top tonight. I've been working on some new projects this summer, as well as finishing up some old UFOs (unfinished projects). My grand total for completed quilt tops right now is eight, plus a couple of table runners, pillowcases, assorted mending, and other random stuff. Not bad for the Home Ec teacher, eh? She cooks, she cleans, she sews, and every now and then she does some laundry. If I could find my card reader, I will post some photos. Believe me, my sewing machine is counting down the days until I go back to school. I think it wants a vacation, too!

Out of hibernation

I'm still alive!!!!!

I know it's been almost a year since I updated my blog (10-11 months, I think). I won't bore you with details, but it's been a crazy hard year both school-wise and personally. Things are going better now, though, so I am back to blogging. I will hopefully have some pictures soon to show you my adventures. Since June, I've had a wonderful summer doing almost nothing school-related. I've gotten lots and lots of quilting projects done, and had a wonderful time visiting with family. School will be starting up again soon, but I should be posting more often this year. I have always heard that your third year of teaching is the one where you start to get the hang of things; I hope it's true! All my classes this year are ones I've taught before, and I get to start of the year with double Beginning Foods. Most of what we do is in-class work, which means less out-of-class grading for me. :) Win-win as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. To you loyal readers, thank you for bearing with me. Hopefully, there are a few left (Hi, Mom!). :-)

Nothing like a three month hiatus

Well, I'm back in the swing of things. School has begun again, and I'm happy to say that we're two weeks from the end of first quarter. I'd forgotten how physically tiring it is to teach. I'm also happy to find that the arch supports I bought at the store are very, very helpful in eliminating my sore feet. I managed to pull a muscle in my hand last week trying to turn the knob on my whiteboard (I have one that can flip over so I can use both sides), so I'm also really glad for Tylenol and ibuprofen. I think it should come standard as a necessary school supply (for the teachers :)).

On the crafty side of things, I haven't had time to do much. Something about grading papers and preparing lesson plans cuts into my free time. . . I have had some fun in planning projects for Christmas, but we'll see how much actually gets done.

I will try to post more regularly, but I think I may be taking my blog private in the next little while. Just let me know if you want an invite.

Friday finish

I've pretty much been taking it easy this summer. I'm taking an online class to renew my license, but I've been having a nice time sleeping, reading, and sewing. As a reward for surviving the school year, I sent a couple quilts off to get quilted. They are in the mail on their way back to me for binding, but I wanted to share them with you. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. My favorite part about the process is that the long arm quilter sends me pictures. :)

Purple Patch quilt:


Close up of Purple Patch quilting:

Star Quilt:


Close up of Star Quilt quilting:


I think these quilts are going to be gorgeous when they're all finished. Is it wrong of me to be proud of myself?

It takes a heap o' livin'

It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home
 (see http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/quotes/heapoliv.htm for the rest of the poem.).

I've been doing a heap of a lot of living these past few months. I will expound more on that later, but I am still trying to finish out the school year. I have begun the count down to the end of the school year (we've got less than a month to go), but I'm still plugging away daily at grading and lesson planning. I keep hoping it's going to get easier or that I'm going to get the hang of things, but I'm beginning to doubt that. Oh, well. At some point, I'll get caught up.

On the bright side, though, my apartment is finally starting to feel like home. I've been spending some time in the past month or so getting pictures hung and cushions made, and I finally feel like I am ready for visitors. Of course, seeing as how I've pretty much disappeared from off the face of the earth for the past few months, I don't know if I have any friends left who could come and visit me. I'm getting ready to come up for air, so to speak. It's kind of nice to have a sewing room kind of set up (it's a little messy, but I'm getting some stuff done). I'm finding that sewing is truly stress-reducing for me (well, so long as everything is going well!). I have big project plans for the summer. If only we could fast forward May. . . :)

Thanks for hanging in there with me; I will try to be a better blogger as life continues.

My precious

I've wanted one of these for a very long time.



Thanks to my mom's keen eye for a sale and months of saving, my precious has arrived.



Happy birthday to me. :)

(Yes, my birthday was over 2 weeks ago, but hey, I've just been basking in the glory of my precious.)

Urban legend confirmed

Today, one of the teachers at school and his wife had twins. I was chatting with a different teacher in the hall and mentioned that I was relieved to see the babies had normal names. Turns out, the teacher I was talking to had once upon a time (in another state) taught twins named Orangejello and Lemonjello (O-rahn-ge-lo and Le-mon-ge-lo). I had heard about kids being named this, but I now have a direct source for such an occurrence. Is it a bad thing that I practically skipped down the hall after confirming the urban legend?