I love this photo of Marc and me. I'm definitely lucky to have such a great little brother. A good friend of Marc's died this week and I was with my brother, and my mom, for the funeral. It was sad to see my brother hurting so much, but it was also amazing to see what a support Marc was for Rick's family. When it comes down to it, Marc is always there when we need him and he is just a good boy.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Favorite Photo Friday
I love this photo of Marc and me. I'm definitely lucky to have such a great little brother. A good friend of Marc's died this week and I was with my brother, and my mom, for the funeral. It was sad to see my brother hurting so much, but it was also amazing to see what a support Marc was for Rick's family. When it comes down to it, Marc is always there when we need him and he is just a good boy.
10 Things
10 Things I Can't Get Enough Of Right Now:
1. Heather Ross fabric - she makes the cute VW bus fabric I blogged about, as well as tons of other irresistible fabrics
2. Garlic bread - I could eat it every day
3. Reading - I'm really into the books I'm reading and would like to spend all day, every day just reading
4. Sunshine and cool fall breezes
5. Searching etsy and ebay for the Heather Ross fabric mentioned above, and the joy of it arriving in the mail
6. Burts Bees pomegranate oil lip balm
7. Days off from school - if only they came more often
8. York peppermint patties
9. my Birkenstock clogs - the perfect fall footwear
10. Sam Adams Oktoberfest
1. Heather Ross fabric - she makes the cute VW bus fabric I blogged about, as well as tons of other irresistible fabrics
2. Garlic bread - I could eat it every day
3. Reading - I'm really into the books I'm reading and would like to spend all day, every day just reading
4. Sunshine and cool fall breezes
5. Searching etsy and ebay for the Heather Ross fabric mentioned above, and the joy of it arriving in the mail
6. Burts Bees pomegranate oil lip balm
7. Days off from school - if only they came more often
8. York peppermint patties
9. my Birkenstock clogs - the perfect fall footwear
10. Sam Adams Oktoberfest
Monday, September 21, 2009
Late Summer Fun
This past Sunday was one of the best days I've had this summer (my summer was a little crazy, so I'm extending it to include this great day - plus the weather was amazing). Sean and Victoria and I spent the day at Salisbury Beach and it was perfect. I haven't been to Salisbury Beach in forever and it was nice to be there when it isn't so busy. It really feels like you are stepping back in time there. We had Tripoli pizza for lunch, then lounged on the beach for a few hours.
Brooke came to the beach with us and she enjoyed getting sand on the blanket and shaking water and sand all over us. As Sean and Victoria say, Brooke really thinks she is a human, so she needs to be in on everything that is going on around her. Here she is enjoying the beach views. 
After a couple of hours on the beach (I got my last sun tan/burn of the season) we continued our day of fun with ice cream at Hodgies, a round of mini-golf, and dinner at a yummy restaurant in Andover. It was truly a perfect day - one last summer hurrah.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Makes Me Smile
I keep hoping I'm going to be able to stay on top of all these blog posts I want to write, but it just isn't happening. Ten Things Thursday is a wonderful idea, but lately my weeks have been insanely busy and stressful and by the time Thursday comes around I'm hard pressed to come up with a list of two things that make me smile, let alone ten. So I'm going to continue to be sporadic in my postings and assume that all of you, dear readers, will be okay with that.
I luckily did have two things that really made me smile this week that I want to share with you. The first is this lovely guy:
We have monthly faculty meetings at school and at each meeting the Apple Awards are given out. These are given by one faculty member to another in recognition of something great they did or something they should be acknowledged for. There are three Apple Awards, of various designs, but this guy is the coolest. And I got him this month!! I was the first new faculty member to receive an Apple Award and, as all the teachers have been telling me, it is quite an honor and a big deal. It was given to me by our sound and technology teacher, who is hilarious and who has been so great to me since I arrived. I'm a disaster when it comes to technology and sound equipment, so he's been helping me figure out what I need for a new sound system in my room and all of that stuff. When he presented me the award, he said the apple represents the music department and the guy is me holding it all up. I am very proudly displaying the Apple Award on my desk for the month, and am already thinking about who I'll pass it on to next month.
The other thing that made me smile, and which I unfortunately don't have a picture of, was the faculty golf tournament on Thursday. I hate golfing and had no intention of going to the tournament, but my friend Michelle (who is the colorguard instructor and is the person I know best at school so far) was golfing and she convinced me and Joy, one of the math teachers who is good friends with Michelle, to come and cheer her on. I had chatted with Joy a few times but didn't know her well so it seemed like a good opportunity to hang out with her, and be at a school social event. Joy and I decided that we would drive a golf cart and drink beer for the afternoon, which is exactly what we did. We zoomed around the course, visiting all the faculty teams (only nine people played) and delivering them beers and snacks, and generally being silly. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time and it was a much needed release after the last few stressful, intense weeks of school. Everyone who was golfing, including my principal, apparently found us quite amusing and insisted that we have to come back to drive the cart when everyone golfs again in the spring. Joy and I are already looking forward to it, though we have been told that we need to learn some golf cart etiquette first - something about driving down the middle of the fairway while people were trying to tee off...
I luckily did have two things that really made me smile this week that I want to share with you. The first is this lovely guy:
We have monthly faculty meetings at school and at each meeting the Apple Awards are given out. These are given by one faculty member to another in recognition of something great they did or something they should be acknowledged for. There are three Apple Awards, of various designs, but this guy is the coolest. And I got him this month!! I was the first new faculty member to receive an Apple Award and, as all the teachers have been telling me, it is quite an honor and a big deal. It was given to me by our sound and technology teacher, who is hilarious and who has been so great to me since I arrived. I'm a disaster when it comes to technology and sound equipment, so he's been helping me figure out what I need for a new sound system in my room and all of that stuff. When he presented me the award, he said the apple represents the music department and the guy is me holding it all up. I am very proudly displaying the Apple Award on my desk for the month, and am already thinking about who I'll pass it on to next month.The other thing that made me smile, and which I unfortunately don't have a picture of, was the faculty golf tournament on Thursday. I hate golfing and had no intention of going to the tournament, but my friend Michelle (who is the colorguard instructor and is the person I know best at school so far) was golfing and she convinced me and Joy, one of the math teachers who is good friends with Michelle, to come and cheer her on. I had chatted with Joy a few times but didn't know her well so it seemed like a good opportunity to hang out with her, and be at a school social event. Joy and I decided that we would drive a golf cart and drink beer for the afternoon, which is exactly what we did. We zoomed around the course, visiting all the faculty teams (only nine people played) and delivering them beers and snacks, and generally being silly. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time and it was a much needed release after the last few stressful, intense weeks of school. Everyone who was golfing, including my principal, apparently found us quite amusing and insisted that we have to come back to drive the cart when everyone golfs again in the spring. Joy and I are already looking forward to it, though we have been told that we need to learn some golf cart etiquette first - something about driving down the middle of the fairway while people were trying to tee off...
I've Been Tagged
I just added this post on my craft blog, Crafty Camper, but I thought I would put it up here as well.
My friend Amanda over at Sevin Stitches recently tagged me to tell you six random things about myself that I haven't shared on this blog. Between my two blogs I've share quite a lot of information about myself, but I've been thinking about this post for a few days, racking my brain for new tidbits, and this is what I came up with:
1. I don't like cooked fruit - no apples, or blueberries, or cherries, or anything. I can handle cooked strawberries, but that is it. This hatred of cooked fruit means I don't like apple pie, apple crisp, apple fritters or anything else involving cooked apples that everyone else in the world seems to love so much. The words "un-American" often come up when I mention how much I dislike apple pie - it is a label I'm prepared to bear.
2. I could watch "The West Wing" on DVD over and over, and over and over again. It is my favorite show and no matter how often I watch it, it never gets old. I just finished watching the entire series (7 seasons) for what might the billionth time and I'm considering starting to watch it all over again fairly soon. I think the show is incredibly smart and witty, plus if I could combine Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman, I'd have my dream guy.
3. Speaking of "The West Wing", I think part of why I love it is so much is that it appeals to the part of me that was a political science major my first year in college. Yep, at 17 years old I had aspirations of becoming a politician. I still find politics and public policy interesting (though I do think it is more a love of history than politics, and probably always has been), but halfway through my freshman year of college I realized it just wasn't the right track for me. By that time, I was hanging out with all the music kids at Holy Cross and taking more music classes than political science classes, so I knew it was time to make the change. My mom tells me that she had known all along that I would eventually go into music education - it was just a matter of me figuring it out on my own.
4. I can read the same book multiple times and not be bored with it. I know a lot of people who can't go back to a book and read it again months or years after they have first read it. I'm not like that at all. One of the best things about moving into my new apartment was that I had the space for all my books that had been living in Sarah and Reg's garage for the past 5 years. I loved unpacking them - it was like being reunited with old friends. I think part of the reason why I can return to a book again and again is that I read really quickly and once I've finished the book, it is kind of out of my head. I can't tell you all the details of the plot and recount the book once I've finished reading it - I remember the general ideas and whether I liked it or not. This means that I can come back to it months or years later and it is fresh again. I guess the good thing about this is that it saves me money on always buying new books!
5. I have no desire to own my own house anytime soon, which is very unlike pretty much everyone else I know. I like living in apartments, especially now that I have a big one, and not having to worry about all the details and hassles of home ownership. My biggest dream is to buy a house on Georges Pond, Maine, where I spent summers growing up, and have it as a summer home to retreat to at the end of the school year. I'd be completely fine with owning a summer house, but I have no desire to own a year round home. I think my ideal life would be an apartment in Berlin for the winter and a house on Georges Pond for the summer. Sounds pretty nice, don't you think?
I hope you enjoyed my random facts! Now I get to tag some blogs to do their own lists. Play along if you'd like - I'd love to see what your facts are!
1. Julie over at Los Lemleys. Julie and John taught with me in Peru and are now living, teaching, and raising their son in Japan. I love reading Julie's blog and keeping up with their lives.
2. Cindy at Just Alaska. She is a former student of mine from Manchester who has a beautifully written blog sharing her life as a newlywed, lower 48 transplant now living in Juneau, Alaska.
3. Amy at Making The World A More Creative Place. Amy and I went to high school together and she keeps a blog about her life in Florida and all of her exciting travel adventures with her husband.
My friend Amanda over at Sevin Stitches recently tagged me to tell you six random things about myself that I haven't shared on this blog. Between my two blogs I've share quite a lot of information about myself, but I've been thinking about this post for a few days, racking my brain for new tidbits, and this is what I came up with:
1. I don't like cooked fruit - no apples, or blueberries, or cherries, or anything. I can handle cooked strawberries, but that is it. This hatred of cooked fruit means I don't like apple pie, apple crisp, apple fritters or anything else involving cooked apples that everyone else in the world seems to love so much. The words "un-American" often come up when I mention how much I dislike apple pie - it is a label I'm prepared to bear.
2. I could watch "The West Wing" on DVD over and over, and over and over again. It is my favorite show and no matter how often I watch it, it never gets old. I just finished watching the entire series (7 seasons) for what might the billionth time and I'm considering starting to watch it all over again fairly soon. I think the show is incredibly smart and witty, plus if I could combine Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman, I'd have my dream guy.
3. Speaking of "The West Wing", I think part of why I love it is so much is that it appeals to the part of me that was a political science major my first year in college. Yep, at 17 years old I had aspirations of becoming a politician. I still find politics and public policy interesting (though I do think it is more a love of history than politics, and probably always has been), but halfway through my freshman year of college I realized it just wasn't the right track for me. By that time, I was hanging out with all the music kids at Holy Cross and taking more music classes than political science classes, so I knew it was time to make the change. My mom tells me that she had known all along that I would eventually go into music education - it was just a matter of me figuring it out on my own.
4. I can read the same book multiple times and not be bored with it. I know a lot of people who can't go back to a book and read it again months or years after they have first read it. I'm not like that at all. One of the best things about moving into my new apartment was that I had the space for all my books that had been living in Sarah and Reg's garage for the past 5 years. I loved unpacking them - it was like being reunited with old friends. I think part of the reason why I can return to a book again and again is that I read really quickly and once I've finished the book, it is kind of out of my head. I can't tell you all the details of the plot and recount the book once I've finished reading it - I remember the general ideas and whether I liked it or not. This means that I can come back to it months or years later and it is fresh again. I guess the good thing about this is that it saves me money on always buying new books!
5. I have no desire to own my own house anytime soon, which is very unlike pretty much everyone else I know. I like living in apartments, especially now that I have a big one, and not having to worry about all the details and hassles of home ownership. My biggest dream is to buy a house on Georges Pond, Maine, where I spent summers growing up, and have it as a summer home to retreat to at the end of the school year. I'd be completely fine with owning a summer house, but I have no desire to own a year round home. I think my ideal life would be an apartment in Berlin for the winter and a house on Georges Pond for the summer. Sounds pretty nice, don't you think?
I hope you enjoyed my random facts! Now I get to tag some blogs to do their own lists. Play along if you'd like - I'd love to see what your facts are!
1. Julie over at Los Lemleys. Julie and John taught with me in Peru and are now living, teaching, and raising their son in Japan. I love reading Julie's blog and keeping up with their lives.
2. Cindy at Just Alaska. She is a former student of mine from Manchester who has a beautifully written blog sharing her life as a newlywed, lower 48 transplant now living in Juneau, Alaska.
3. Amy at Making The World A More Creative Place. Amy and I went to high school together and she keeps a blog about her life in Florida and all of her exciting travel adventures with her husband.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Favorite Photo Friday
My mom came up to Wanakee a couple of times this summer and she and Eloise became buddies (I think it helped that Mom brought M&Ms every time she came). Eloise is a sweetheart and it did my mom's heart good every time Eloise was happy to see her or asked for her. Here they are reading books in front of the farmhouse.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Guest Room
I bought a mattress and box spring for my guest bedroom and finally got it all set up. Sarah came over this morning to help me get the mattress and box spring upstairs and get the bed all set up.
It was nice to finally get the room cleaned up and put in order. It has basically been a storage room since I moved in and it was good to get things put away.
My friend Karen is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, so now she'll have a nice place to stay. Everyone else is welcome too - I love having visitors! It is a nice cozy room now. :)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Favorite Photo Friday
I'm jumping on the bandwagon of posting a favorite photo on blog on Fridays. It has a couple of purposes - its a chance for me to look through all my old photos and enjoy the memories, and it will hopefully help me be more consistent about posting on my blog. A quick post every Friday with a fun photo seems like it should be easy enough to keep up. We'll see... :)
I've been missing Berlin a lot lately (okay, I'll be honest, I miss it a lot all the time) and this picture has lots of my favorite things in it:
1. Karisti and Michelle
2. The Brandenburg Gate
3. World Cup fans - I'm not a huge soccer fan, but the World Cup happened around my 30th birthday and Karisti and Michelle came to Berlin to celebrate with me. It was one of my most favorite times in the city.
Good times!
I've been missing Berlin a lot lately (okay, I'll be honest, I miss it a lot all the time) and this picture has lots of my favorite things in it:1. Karisti and Michelle
2. The Brandenburg Gate
3. World Cup fans - I'm not a huge soccer fan, but the World Cup happened around my 30th birthday and Karisti and Michelle came to Berlin to celebrate with me. It was one of my most favorite times in the city.
Good times!
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
5 Things
I've been a bit behind on my Thursday posts of 10 things that make me smile and the last few have been incredibly busy, so all I can manage today is "Five Things Friday". Here are the things I'm loving right now:
1. This amazing Heather Ross VW bus fabric. It is very hard to find, but I snatched up a total of almost 2 yards on ebay. I still haven't decided what I'm going to make, but I love looking at it!!
2. Dinner last Saturday night with Sarah and Reg. I hadn't seen them in what felt like forever, so it was great to catch up.
3. My student who asked me to be his mentor for his senior project. He is in my jazz workshop class and he is a great kid. And his project is going to be a clothing drive for the homeless - how great is that?
4. New books! I treated myself to some new books the past few weeks and I'm very excited about them: Last Lion, Julie & Julia, Girls Like Us, and I See You Everywhere. I've been on a non-fiction kick lately, but am hoping to get back into novels too. And I've finally broken down and decided to read Twilight. We'll see...
5. Sewing. It is an incredibly good stress relief for me and I love all the things I've been creating lately. You can check out my sewing projects on my craft blog, Crafty Camper.
1. This amazing Heather Ross VW bus fabric. It is very hard to find, but I snatched up a total of almost 2 yards on ebay. I still haven't decided what I'm going to make, but I love looking at it!!2. Dinner last Saturday night with Sarah and Reg. I hadn't seen them in what felt like forever, so it was great to catch up.
3. My student who asked me to be his mentor for his senior project. He is in my jazz workshop class and he is a great kid. And his project is going to be a clothing drive for the homeless - how great is that?
4. New books! I treated myself to some new books the past few weeks and I'm very excited about them: Last Lion, Julie & Julia, Girls Like Us, and I See You Everywhere. I've been on a non-fiction kick lately, but am hoping to get back into novels too. And I've finally broken down and decided to read Twilight. We'll see...
5. Sewing. It is an incredibly good stress relief for me and I love all the things I've been creating lately. You can check out my sewing projects on my craft blog, Crafty Camper.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
My Favorite Photo
I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!!! On the left is Donald Hall, former NH and US poet laureate and my favorite author, and on the right is Papa, my grandfather. This was taken at Old Home Day in Wilmot, though Mom and I aren't exactly sure what year it was taken. Papa and Donald Hall grew up together in Danbury and Donald Hall has talked about Papa, and my great grandparents, in his books. They have stayed friendly all these years and I love that I have a photo of the two of them together. Mom just sent it to me and it is now one of my most prized possessions.
My Summer
This picture pretty much sums up my summer in a nutshell. As most of you know, I spent my summer working in the office at Wanakee. And while it was hectic and full of drama at times, it also had it's moments of joy and fun. The staff was great and I enjoyed getting to know them. Besides Jean and Mike, and the cook Dave, I was the oldest person on staff, but the kids on staff did a good job of not making me feel too ancient. :)
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