Random thoughts

Coffee: Starbucks' new mocha chai is wonderful. Overly sugary? Yes. Definitely. But I've never loved a chai before, but I am loving this combo. (How did I never try this while working there?? Bizarre.) A short might be my go-to holiday indulgence this year. At Starbucks, anyway. Josh and I are loving exploring fantastic coffee shops in Nashville - so fun! We still need to try food at Frothy Monkey, same same at Crema, I need to get him to my beloved Bongo Java, and we both need to brunch at Fido. Asap.

MusEd blogs: I don't know how this is the first time I have ever thought of this, but the other night I googled "music education blogs" and got tons of results! I have barely seen any such things through Pinterest so I didn't think there was much out there in that vein, but MAN was I wrong. I was also thinking I'm disappointed in myself for not receiving any publications. I feel a little torn on what I should be getting, but I could at LEAST have scoured the old NATS editions that I have in the attic. They're a few years old but less out of date than I am for not having read them! How have I spent time reading home decor or fashion blogs and magazines when this is out there? Crazy. Also considering joining a Kodaly chapter, but we'll see. Tangent: I want to start grad school in January, but am rapidly finding that scholarships happen ONCE a year, not again for second semester-starters. What the heck? So uncool. Anyway, getting over it nnnnnnnnnnNow.

Friend conversations: the best conversations involve sharing things. "You have to check out this ______" (book/movie/article/radio show, etc.) -like homework from a class, and things to check up on until next time. "Send me pictures when you get started!" Or "I'll call you to discuss further once I've finished it." Etc. I had two great friend conversations the other night and it made me decide I probably need to make that an at-least-weekly call to one of a few dozen fabulous folks in my life.

Currently reading: The Book Thief and Watership Down. Loving both. A book discussion group at our church is reading Searching for Enough in a Culture of More, and I would say that it should have been read over the course of maybe a month, discussing sections, rather than individual essays, each week. If you have a strong church group looking for a book, check it out. If you're starting a new group like ours was, reading one essay at a time is a nice, low-commitment way to go. Anyway, I'm very happily surprised at how bright and engaged - and consistent - the group has been so far!! Verrrrry cool.

Veterans Day: with school and Army out, I get that there are a lot of people out and about today. But the hours-long wrapping-around-the-building lines at Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Starbucks, and Cheddar's are just totally depressing. The sight of it all just feels so sad (especially since I'm not even talking about dinner, I'm talking about 11 am!! Ewww!) and lemming-like, it's enough to make anybody all snarky and superior. Bah!

Issues: on my mind a lot lately? Sexism. There are a lot of -isms out there, totally worth fighting over, but the one that I feel I see and can personally fight over is sexism. Feminism is for Everybody, as I agreed as we read that book in Pluralism, but especially since I read How to be a Woman by the genius and irresistibly charming Caitlin Moran (self-read audiobook SO HIGHLY recommended!) I can't seem to get her mantra out of my head. We're all just the guys, and should treat each other as such. So fair! So easy! There are specific issues where I could see people disagreeing with her, but by and large, I'm in her boat. Love.

Okay, enough random thoughts for today. Hopefully I'll let contemplations that don't really fit into status updates spill over here. Thanks, blog! Happy Veterans Day, all!

A Big One

I have recently begun a long-term subbing position, and have been quite surprised to discover that these things take up ALL OF YOUR TIME. I have been showing up early (not extremely early, but as early as I can get myself up to get there) and leaving late (very, very late) every day. Ugh. I'm pretty sure it takes so much time because I am just slow, but am hoping that that will change with time. Anyway, it's pretty fun and the kids are some kind of crazy, and it's a whole heck of a lot better than subbing in different rooms every day!

But that is why I haven't updated as much as I had hoped - I haven't had a free second. But I have one now! So I will put up LOTS of pictures so it's at least somewhat worth the while of waiting. (I know, you've been unable to breathe without my updates, it's quite natural.)

So after I visited my adorable niece and nephew near San Diego, I headed up to San Fran. First I got to visit Trisha:

Well, I said I was visiting Trisha, what did you expect, but flower pictures with over-the-top lighting? LOVED it. I also spent one day without T, as she had work to do. (She's so busy and important.) I saw some neat art in the Stanford art museum, and took a picture of my favorite. I have a picture of the plaque, so if you get mad at me for not citing it, I will just send you a copy of that picture.

Then I stayed a night or two with my older sister, her husband, and my other niece, Lily. Here she is, being a complete doll:

And how did I get her to give me those enormous, genuine smiles? Oh, I smiled at her. Yes, she IS the ideal subject. I also spent a day wandering the city, so here's your token shot of the Bridge:

Finally, I ended my trip with almost a week camping up north with my extended family on my father's side. Here is Stephen, maybe my favorite cousin, washing out a shirt with his three-year-old son . . . and maybe getting him just a little bit wet.    : P

So there you have it! We're all caught up. Up to like, late June, that is! Haha. But the rest of the summer is coming, trust me.

Then again, I wouldn't count on anything before next weekend if I were you.

Update No. 2

Hey folks!

Been a little slower than intended with the updates - this is because I found a long-term sub position that has been keeping me hopping! Which is great. I'll be spending the next eight weeks with a crazy little class of second-graders whom I love.  Anyway, on to the next part of my summer journeyings!

I took a long trip (over two weeks! WHOA.) to California to see lots of folks! I took TONS of pictures of my little niece and nephew, Kate and Griffen. They are twin two-year-olds, and were more fun than I could possibly stand. I loved every second. Here, look!

Their level of wonder at the whole world was completely refreshing.

Kate and Griff with Rich, my brother-in-law.

This beach day was the best!

I struggled to get Griffen's amazing smile on camera, until I had daddy tickle him - got to be a tricky photographer!

That day, G wasn't so sure about wandering into the water. But we had lots of fun in and out!

What a gorgeous little boy, eh?

Sure, the mission of TOMS is a great one. But seeing this precious little girl dance around in mine was worth buying them all by itself.

I wish I had gotten some good pictures for you of my sister-in-law, Julie, as she is simply adorable. Sorry about that. But trust me, they come by all this cuteness honestly.  : P

Next up: adventures in NorCal!

Eff You, Victoria

I received a set of coupons from the very generous Victoria's Secret company a little while back. One for a free tote bag with a $75 purchase (wow, really??), one for $10 off a bra, and a free pair of panties. Well, I just don't spend that much on a bra EVER (80% off I would go for. $40 off I would go for. $10? Means nothing to me in that store.) and I don't really need a bag that advertises my undergarment choices. But I went in for the free underwear.

Yes, I felt like a huge cheapskate picking from the "only ones that are free with the coupon" table. But, well, those were the only reasonable price in there. But as I picked through and compared the sizes to my front, I decided small was too small. And then, so was medium.

I WEAR A LARGE???

This is not a problem in and of itself. If I wore a large in ANY other retailer's sizing within this continent, I would be fine with that. But, well, I don't. So I'm sitting here in my large, free-to-me undies and vowing that I will never go into a Victoria's Secret store again. At least, not to pay money for anything.

Been There, Done That

Hey all,

Today I'm going to begin updating you on my summer life - travels and experiences - through the pictures that I have from them. Here are the problems which I foresee with this: if you know me in real life, you have already seen these pictures on facebook, on my computer, or in life. If you don't, you might not care much about the goofy pictures I have of my various trips. BUT, I am not too concerned about that.  : P

So here goes! We'll start at the beginning: my sister's graduation.

There it is - they did it! Congrats, Class of 2011!

My little sissy with Mom and Dad.

And with me!! So proud! (Note: she is in flipflops and I am in heels. Yup.)

Lil bro, lil sis, and Sissy's bf post-grad party.

I have to say that I'm very proud of my sister and excited for her and all that she's on her way to accomplish. I am also very proud of myself because all the clothes she wears in the above photos are a direct result of me. She thrifted the dress (under the gown) and skirt and belt at my favorite thrift store here in town, and the grey patterned shirt is a gift from me when it got too tight. Yup, I like to dress her like my own little life-size doll.

Emma and I didn't do all that much together when we were growing up, at least prior to my going to college. But one thing we could both always enjoy doing together was making cookies. We always made chocolate chip, and always used the exact same recipe, which we have totally memorized now. I was making some cookies tonight, and had these great flashbacks to teaching her how to measure it all, and her convincing me not to eat all the dough before we cooked it, and the way a batch never made it more than 24 hours in our house. So I decided that I will send most of that batch (which came out PERFECT, btw) to her new dorm - she just moved in last weekend! Please hope with me that her new dorm and college are completely fabulous and great for her. K thanks.

Joke of the day from my real life: Sunday evening, I decided to haul out the hose and sprinkler, as I have done not-nearly-often-enough this summer, and give the front yard a good spray. I had been doing some intensive weeding and whatnot, so I just hooked the thing up and headed inside to take a short break before shutting it off.
Fast forward, of course, to Monday morning, when my neighbor across the street came over to apologize for being nosy (which she wasn't) but that my sprinkler was still on.  Over twelve hours later.  So, as you might imagine, my yard is a very surprising shade of green right now. Looking for a great gift for me? I'm looking for a really good, loud timer.

Remember Me?

Dear Internet,

As you may be aware, if you can remember that far back, I used to write things here. And post pictures. But then, summer happened. My postings really stopped about when I went home for about a week to see my little sister graduate. I meant to post again when I got back, but it wasn't long before a friend came down to visit me, and then I headed to California for two weeks to see family and friends. Less than a week after THAT, I went to Colorado for a week to see all of my very best friends (except one extra-special very-very-best friend who was unfortunately tied up in Afghanistan) together for *gasp* NOT a wedding! Then I was home for a bit, but managed to fit in one more short trip, this time to a friend's friend's cabin (aka beautiful little house and guest cabin) on a lake in Minnesota.

WHEW. This has been a wonderful summer, and I feel allll stocked-up on time with people who do not live near me. I have loved it! What I discovered in-between and after trips, is that I had gotten so backed-up on blog posts, that I just ignored them all. Since I began reading blogs, I have always read them like I do anything else - completely, chronologically, and committedly. (See how I managed to do that alliteration thing? No, I'm not sure "committedly" IS a word, but just hush, will ya?) I decided to come back to it all today. I pulled up all the blogs on my roll and began catching up. There are SO MANY and SO MANY posts that I found myself skimming. For fashion blogs, I just looked at pictures, and maybe the occasional "where is that cute shirt from". For friend blogs, I really and truly read the posts, but was thankful that most of my real-life friend bloggers don't update all that often! Haha. And for many of my followed-blogs, I will probably never go back and fill in all those missed days - it's just not worth it.

So I'm back, but a little differently, I think. I pulled up some pictures on my flikr account just now, outfit pictures I took for the blog that didn't get posted before the long absence. I was about to post them when I realized that I had absolutely no interest in them. They aren't enviable craftwork, excellent thrifting finds, beautiful photography, or even all that interesting as outfits go. So I will just delete the pictures and put up something else. I began this blog hoping to share some clothes, but also some of myself. I want to report on events in my life, show off my handiworks, and ask decorating questions, too. I hope you'll put up with all that!  Oh, and I am back, but I still don't promise to post daily. (Sorry that the blog title is a big lie, everyone.) And if you actually like the outfits, don't worry. I have specific requests from the hubby to keep recent pictures coming on here, so they're not totally gone.  : P

See you all soon!

Trumpet Fanfare

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make:

We have a decision!!


I know, it hardly seems possible, but it is true! Here is a rundown of voting (because I found it quite amusing how evenly it was split):

1. Jute rug with Terra Cotta-colred border = Three votes
2. Natural colored rug with concentric rectangles in brown = Five votes
3. Colorful, ethnic-print rug - Two votes
4. Pretty neutral stripe Pottery Barn rug = Three votes
5. Large-print floral rug = Three votes

So I should definitely respond to each of you individually on your blogs (rather than here - sheesh, how self-centered of me! Goodness.) but for a dozen reasons, I am exhausted and really just don't have time for all of that. So I will do so on here.

Several of you suggested one of the more neutral pieces, and I want you to let you know that I really appreciate your counsel - I need your kind of vision to help balance my sometimes.

Dot: I'm anticipated that there will be heavy wear and tear, so I only looked at rugs that were intended to go outside . . . fear not, I was concerned about the very same thing.

Macy: The light is probably an issue I should consider.  My choice will not help brighten the dark area, but it will look nicer than it does empty. Hope you like it anyway!

So here it is, the rug that's on its way to me:

While all your viewpoints helped make this a tremendously easier process, the biggest vote (the husband's) was for this one, in brown. (Thanks for noticing and getting me to the chocolate-colored ones, Trisha!) Also, it helped that it cost approximately 1/3 of each of the other rugs - hurray!

Individualized comments coming soon. See you, all!