59. Get a facial

59. Get a facial COMPLETE 10/06/2012

Every year, Ryan's grandmother's family hosts a family reunion in West Virginia. This year it happened to fall on my birthday. I decided not to make the trip this year but Ryan really wanted to. He was upset that he wouldn't be home for my birthday so he told me he was going to set up something special for me to do while he was gone. I found out two days before my birthday and the night before he left for West Virginia that he had set up not only a facial, but a hand/foot treatment and a swedish massage at a local day spa for me and a friend of mine.

I cannot tell you how absolutely amazing it was. I had never had a facial or a professional massage before and boy, was I missing out. Sparta Works Massage & Skincare was awesome -- if you're in my area, I definitely recommend it! It was the perfect way to celebrate my 24th birthday!

Back in Action

The last month has been absolutely insane. Okay, the last two months. I literally have had zero time to sit down and blog. Truthfully, I sort of forgot I had a blog -- that's how busy I've been. Cheer season started in August which means two and a half hour practices six days a week, football games on Friday nights and competitions on Saturdays. I also took on more responsibility at school this year as a PLC lead and the freshman class sponsor so because of meetings and homecoming ticket sales, I've had zero planning time at school over the last week. I've been having to grade and do most of my work at home. And then I have this thing called a husband.

Other than the running around like a chicken with my head cut off thing, this school year has been GREAT so far. Since it's the second year our school has been open we experienced a lot of growth and had to hire on about 30 new teachers. We got some hilarious, helpful, awesome people this year who I am already so happy to work with. This year I'm teaching 9th and 11th grade, which are two classes I absolutely love, so I'm very excited about it. I'm not teaching any new preps so I can actually spend some time on updating and fixing lesson plans I've created over the last two years.

The house is still coming along. We ended up repainting the living room and extending the color into the kitchen/dining room and it looks AWESOME. I'll post about that soon. I'm spending this weekend in Lowe's and Ikea gathering stuff to put my office together. I tried spending the first month of school grading and planning at the dining room table and it just ain't working so I sweet talked my husband into spending money to give me workspace before we put in a sprinkler system, which is a whole 'nother post all together. A lot has happened in the last two months and we got A LOT of catching up to do!

So I Suck.

I have no other reason for not blogging in over a month than I simply didn't feel like it. Don't worry though, folks. I'm back and fully ready to recommit to this whole journaling my life thing. The first real post of my return? Tomorrow's the first day of school.... should make for an interesting read.

Loving Lately: Cuptakes

Since I got my iPhone, I've had a picture from our wedding as my home and lock screen backgrounds. I absolutely love the picture (and my husband too!) but I was looking for a change -- something cute and sophisticated. I did a little searching, and  while browsing around the interwebs I stumbled upon an app called Cuptakes. Selling in the App Store for a mere $0.99, it is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. 

Each month, Cuptakes updates on your device (you can download it to an iPod Touch or iPad too) with different wallpapers in a variety of different styles and colors. All you have to do is select a design.... 

... then click the Save It button in the bottom right hand corner -- the image will save to the photo album on your device.  To apply it as your background for your device, open the Photo Gallery, choose the image, select Use as Wallpaper, and set it as either your home or lock screen -- or both! Cuptakes even has coordinating designs so you can make your home and lock screen different but go together. The best part is that you can save different designs as 'favorites' in the app so you don't have to keep the saved images in photo album. 

When I discovered the app, I fell in love with all the sweet designs immediately but I did feel just a smidge sad removing one of our wedding photos from my background. Enter Cuptake Frames, the newer sister app to Cuptakes. It costs just a little more than the original ($1.99) but it's totally worth it. This version works similarly to provide you with cute, sophisticated backgrounds (it also updates monthly with new designs) but this time you can insert your own photo into the background before you save the image to your photo album. Simply choose a category... 

.... select a design, and decide how you want to insert your photo. You can choose to take a picture or insert one that already exists in your photo album. Once you've inserted a photo (zooming and shifting it until you're happy with it's placement), click the save button in the bottom right hand corner... 

... and that's it! The photo is saved to your photo album just like it did in the original Cuptakes so you can easily set it as your home or lock screen. 

I probably made it sound a lot more complicated than it really is, but seriously, it's super easy. I have a Cuptake Frame set as my lock screen and I love that it's just a little something extra -- and that I got to keep my favorite wedding photo as a part of my background. If you're interested in learning more about Cuptakes or Cuptakes Frames, make sure you visit the developer's website. And if you have a Mac Desktop or MacBook, you can also pay to download a similar version of the apps to your computer. If you're all about matchy matchy matching, you should definitely check it out. 

39. Try A New Chili Recipe

39. Try a new chili recipe COMPLETE IDon'tRememberWhenExactly

I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to try a new chili recipe when I made my 101 list, but I did. At some point, I stumbled upon a recipe on Pinterest and decided it was THE chili to make. And I'm glad I did because this shit is delicious.

I'm going to share the recipe here but I take absolutely no credit for creating it. Mine is a version of this one posted by Gina at SkinnyTaste. Her website is fantastic and her recipes are awesome. This one was too -- I just tweaked it a little. We avoided the chopped onion and cilantro, and added a little more cumin and chili powder to spice it up. I shred the chicken an hour before serving instead of a half hour (so it can soak up some extra juice) and I prefer a can of corn as opposed to a bag of frozen kernels. Really, they are tiny changes and either way, I could eat the entire crock pot full myself. I made this in October for Ryan's family reunion and the entire crock pot was gone by the end of the day. I got a ton of compliments and a ton of demands for the recipe. Seriously, make this. You won't regret it.

Minus the chicken, because there is no way to make raw chicken look good. 

Ingredients
2   14.5 oz. cans of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chiles
1   16 oz. can of Black Beans
1   16 oz. can of Corn
1   16 oz. can of Kidney Beans (I use light, but dark would work too.)
1   8 oz. can of Tomato Sauce
1   Packet of Taco Seasoning
2   Tbsp of Cumin Powder
2   Tbsp of Chili Powder
24 oz. of Boneless Skinless Chicken (I use many small cutlets as opposed to 3-4 breasts.)

Directions
Combine diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, kidney beans, tomato sauce, taco seasoning, cumin and chili powder in a crock pot; mix. Place uncooked chicken on top and cover. Cook on low heat setting for 8-10 hours, or on high for 6 hours. One hour before serving, remove chicken and shred with a fork -- it should fall apart with no issue. Return shredded chicken to crock pot & stir mixture. Let sit for remainder of hour and serve.

Chili mixture minus the raw chicken. Again, because it grosses me out. 

I like to add a sprinkle of sharp cheddar cheese on top of my chili and eat it with a handful of Tostitos Multigrain Scoops. Sour cream is delicious too, it just makes the chili a little more runny than I like. This is the easiest recipe on earth. It takes about 3 minutes to put everything in the crock pot and it cooks on its own. No work, no fuss, and a whole lot of tasty.

Fourth of July Mani

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier in the month! I wore this manicure to the Giants game we went to on the Fourth and got so many compliments, even I was surprised. I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps on all but my ring fingers, where I used Essie Aruba Blue. I used China Glaze White on White for the stars and added a little sparkle with Orly Tiara. Best part? It was super easy. The only slightly difficult part was keeping my hand steady while I used the end of a bobby pin as a dotting tool. Definitely one of my favorite manicures. 

80. Go to a Giants Game

80. Go to a Giants Game  COMPLETE 06/04/2012

The view from our seats on the first base side. 

When I saw that the Giants were playing the Nationals in DC on July 4th, I jumped at the chance to buy tickets. Not only was I excited to cross another item off the list, but I've never been to an MLB regular season game and I haven't see Buster Posey play baseball in person since June 2008. To say I was giddy with excitement would be an understatement. 

Oh Buster, how I love thee. 

Madison Bumgarner, baby sister's favorite.

Super great shot of Bruce Bochy.

Ryan and I took the metro from Vienna in to DC, got off at the Navy Yard-Ballpark stop, and quickly made our way down to the third base line to try and snap a few pictures. I was hoping to get another shot with Buster (I managed to get one in 2007 while I was at FSU) but they sent us back to our seats before we got a chance. 

We forgot to take a picture before we starting sweating like mad. 

We had seats on the first base line, not too far up. We were in a really great spot to see the Giants get their asses handed to them. With the exception of the loss, the ridiculous heat and the killer sun burn I got on the top of my thighs only (resulting in a super awkward tan line), the game was awesome. Ryan and I had a great time. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go -- hopefully it won't be our last game!

Should've Been #112: DMB

112. See Dave Matthews Band in Concert COMPLETE 06/16/2012

The day after we closed on the house, Ryan and I went to see Dave Matthews Band at Jiffy Lube Live with two of our good friends, Zach and Lauren. We had lawn seats and the show was awesome! DMB sounds great live. There's nothing more disappointing than a band or artist sounding nothing like they do on their records. DMB was my older sister's favorite so it was a really cool experience to be able to see them in concert. They didn't play Crash, which was her favorite song, so that was a little bit of a let down but I hear it's really, really rare that they do. Either way, it was an awesome show and definitely should've been on the list.

Lowe's Paint Department Hates Me

One of the first projects we wanted to complete when we moved into the new house was finishing the family room. It's our main living space on the middle floor and one of the first areas of the house you see, especially if you enter through the garage. We wanted it to be the first room we really worked to finish since any visitors to the new place would spend the majority of their time here. We decided we would paint the room the week after we moved in while Ryan was on vacation because, lets face it, I'm a clumsy person and shouldn't be left to paint alone. 

We picked out a color before our closing date and got two gallons the weekend we moved in. One morning while I ran errands Ryan started painting and I helped him finish when I got back. We ended up using a gallon and a half of paint to cover the walls, and then Ryan went back over a couple of spots around the room that needed a little extra coverage. And then, as the paint started to dry, we realized WHAT THE WHAT! THE WALLS ARE TWO DIFFERENT COLORS.

You know you see it. Right there, top right corner of the wall. Big patch of NOT the right color. 

In case you're more curious about the paint color instead of the fact that there are TWO DIFFERENT COLORS ON THE WALLS, it's Valspar Filoli Antique Lace. It's an very yellow based mustard brown/tan combo. At first we thought the difference was just the lighting but then the Lowe's gods laughed at us and sure as shit, those two cans of paint were definitely different shades. We were so annoyed that we packed up all the paint supplies and called it a day. We'll finish it later, we said. And a month later, it's still two freaking shades of Filoli Antique Lace.

Valspar's Filoli Antique Lace with a patch of who the hell knows what right in the center. 

I think it was a blessing in disguise though, because after staring at these walls perplexed for a month, I decided I hate this color. It's much more yellow/gold than I wanted it to be and although it's a nice color, it's not at all what I had originally imagined for this room. I'm so sick of looking at the patchiness that I'm bound and determined to repaint the family room before next weekend. And maybe this time when we get two gallons, they'll actually be the same color.

Should've Been #111: Buy a House!

#111: Close on our 'permanent' house! COMPLETE 06/15/2012

It was about 5 months between signing the contract on the house and the closing date. In fact, we ended up closing on the last day of school! It was an incredibly stressful week -- between finals, grade changes, failure justifications, planning the end of the year picnic for the entire staff and packing up my class room, I was in an awful mood. Bless my husband's heart during that week.

I am so incredibly happy with all the choices we made in the house. We have beautiful hardwood, a gorgeous kitchen, a super awesome man cave (Ryan's favorite part), a big backyard (at least in this area) and plenty of space to grow in to. Ryan and I have spent the last week moving furniture and boxes, painting, unpacking, cleaning, mowing the grass, trying to keep Buster from eating EVERYTHING and unpacking some more. We finally got a few big things on the list crossed off this weekend before Ryan had to head back to work but there's still a ton I want to do! Buying permanent house definitely should've been on the list!

Our House Hunting Journey

 So we put the townhouse on the market. And it sold. 

Selling the townhouse wasn't totally unprompted. It's not like we looked at each other out of the blue one day and were like hey, we should sell this joint. When Ryan and I started talking about the future and the possibility of expanding the family beyond four-legged furry creatures, we decided we needed to start looking for a more 'permanent' house. We knew we needed something bigger, preferably with at least 4 bedrooms and a finished basement. We wanted an updated kitchen, a fenced-in yard, laundry upstairs and two closets in the master. We definitely had an idea of what were were looking for so sometime in early January we started checking out houses online, including a new community in Stafford, about an hour south of where we were living at the time. 

The distance from our current location didn't really put us off at the start -- an hour was a bit of a way away but we didn't feel like it was really that far. We scheduled an appointment with the sales rep in the community and headed down one weekend to check out the community and model. We loved the house. We even went as far as pricing out all the options and upgrades. But on the drive back home, when we really started thinking about the distance from our current jobs, Momma Burns, our hobbies, etc. we decided it just wasn't the right move for us. Although housing prices are much lower in Stafford than they are here, we just didn't want to be that far away from an area we loved. We ditched that idea and kept looking. 

I knew it was the best decision for us, but from that point forward I told Ryan it was his job to find the house. I had gotten way too attached to the property in Stafford. If he let me in on the house hunt, we'd never make a decision. I told him that when he found one he liked, he could tell me and then I'd check it out. If I loved it too, we'd move forward. It was a good plan, given my indecisiveness and whatnot. About mid-January Ryan called me on his way home from checking out a house in a new community not too far from the townhouse location. "I think you'll really like it," he said. "But I think you're going to hate the sales guy." 

Turns out I more than really liked it -- I loved it! And initially I only slightly disliked the sales guy (he grew on me). We ended up signing a contract that night -- picking our lot, elevation and exterior colors. Only trouble was that pesky property we already owned. The company let us move forward since ours would be one of the last houses in the neighborhood to be constructed. They gave us up until the day of closing to sell our place. Operation Sell The Townhouse/Clean Like A Crazy Woman commenced and very, very luckily, a month later we closed. Then Operation Live With Momma Burns For Four More Months/Hurry Up And Wait also commenced. Until about a week and a half ago...

Five Things

I've decided to start doing these 'Five Things' posts so all the random pictures I want to post on the blog finally have a place to call home. Enjoy!

Patriotic Splatter Nails for Memorial Day. 

Buster Sporting the Cone of Shame.

Cheer Camp with the Elementary School. 

New Mirror for our new Master Bedroom. 

OPI Crown Me Already over Revlon Steel Her Heart.  

Loving Lately...

1. Essie Nail Polish in Lights: Part of the limited edition Poppi Razzi collection, this bright, neon pink is the perfect color for summer. 

2. BioTrue Contact Lens Solution: Back in the swing of wearing contacts, this solution feels natural and makes putting my lenses in a burn-free experience. 

3. Revlon PhotoReady Creme Blush: With a creme to powder finish, these blushes are easy to apply and even easier to wear. Flushed, the pink shade, is my favorite of the three available. 

4. Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara: New from Maybelline, this mascara boasts a gel-mousse formula that lengthens lashes without making them brittle and flaky.

5. Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain: Similar to Tarte's Lipsurgence, this less-expensive alternative gives your lips a long-lasting natural flush and comes in a variety of shades.

6. Real Techniques Brushes: Created by one of my most favorite YouTube beauty gurus, these brushes are soft, lightweight, and cruelty-free. 

Things My Students Say

Me: Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards.
Student: How did she die?
Me: She was assassinated.
Student: Yeah, but how?
Me: I believe she was shot.
Student: They had guns?
Me: It's 1984. We just spent 4 months talking about World War II, the Cold War and the influence nuclear weapons has on foreign policy and you're asking me if they had guns?
Student: Okay, maybe I should have thought that through.

Happy Mother's Day!

I've retyped this blog post eight different times, trying to find the right way to say how thankful I am for all you've ever done for me. You're amazing, beautiful, strong, supportive, caring, loving, all-knowing. There are no words to accurately explain how much I love you. You mean the world to me. Happy Mother's Day!

27. Drive Thru

27. Pay for someone behind me in the drive thru COMPLETE 04/21/2012

After a very nice person in front of me at Chick-fil-a paid for my diet lemonade, I decided to pay it forward and bought breakfast for the person behind me. I hope you enjoyed your chicken biscuit, fellow Chick-fil-a lover. :)

It's been a little over a week since the pink eye incident and the allergic reaction to my drops, and I'm finally (FINALLY) making some progress. I went back to see the ophthalmologist last Monday with no redness, no puffiness but still blind as a bat.  I told the doctor that things were feeling better but that my vision was definitely still blurry. He checked out my eyes, said things were looking better and told me he would see me in a week.

Um.... I can't see...

After insisting that I could not function another day without being able to see more than two feet in front of me, he checked my prescription in my glasses (which were not helping) and checked my eyes again. He said of course my glasses weren't helping because my prescription was "really, really wrong." When I asked him if he thought it was permanent damage because of my reaction to the first set of drops, he said no, my prescription had been wrong all along. Sir, I'm pretty positive they worked just fine before my all freaked the hell out.

Long story short, I got some new glasses and can finally see! I went for another appointment today and doc says things are looking better, about 70%. I have to use the goods drops for another week and go back again on the 14th. He said if my prescription hasn't changed and my eyes are close to 100% then, he'll fit me for new contacts.

What feels like $1 million in copay and prescription drops later, I'm almost back to normal. Good grief.

Should've Been #110: For Sale

110. Sell the townhouse!! COMPLETE 03/30/2012

Ryan and I are planners. We plan shit. It's what we do. And so our plan, even before we got married, was to be in a single-family home before we started a family. Our theory was always that a baby + 3 dogs + two full-sized humans + a small townhouse = an episode of Hoarders in the making. Hence the plan. And then, because of some health issues I have, we came to the realization that, while we aren't trying to rush into having a small Burns, we can't exactly wait forever either. 

So in mid-January, Ryan and I made the decision to put the townhouse on the market. With the furbabies and our busy schedules, we knew it would be chaos trying to not only live in our home, but have it ready for showings at a moment's notice. With a little magic and fairy dust, we figured we would try to con my angel of a mother-in-law in to letting us move back in with her while the house was for sale and we looked for somewhere else to live. She fell for it. Suckerrrr. 

We deep cleaned carpets, scrubbed the crap out of the grout in the kitchen (Ryan has sworn to never have tiles floors in our house ever again), packed up our every day junk and moved on over to Momma Burns' casa. We left all the big stuff -- bedroom furniture, desks, etc. -- and staged the house. We told our amazing realtor that she could bring potential buyers over whenever she wanted, handed her the keys, and left it. We moved out Valentine's Day weekend, put that baby on the market February 15th and by day 11 had three offers. THANK YOU SWEET REAL ESTATE BABY JESUS. 

One of the offers was insultingly low (yeah, hi you don't offer $30,000 below asking price, it's rude) and the other two were right on target. One wanted the washer and dryer, one didn't. Ryan and a few of his buddies (by the grace of God) somehow managed to get those beautiful appliances down the stairs and out of the house and BOOM! SOLD! We accepted the offer and closed at the end of March. 

I know there are people reading this (I love you Allison Marie!) who want to stab me with a spoon for selling the house so fast. Let me say this -- we lucked out. Two weeks before we put our place on the market, a similar unit across the street (without stainless appliances and some other upgrades we had) went up for sale... for $25,000 more than ours. If that hadn't been the case, I seriously doubt that it would've worked so well in our favor. THANK YOU SWEET REAL ESTATE BABY JESUS. 

So good news is we sold the house. Bad news is we're semi-homeless. But not for long! 

You have GOT to be kidding.

So remember the pink eye thing? Oh, it gets better.

The symptoms went away almost as soon as I started using the anti-histamine drops the doctor gave me so  the assumption that it was an infection because of allergies was pretty much confirmed. But my eyes started getting redder. And my vision started getting foggy. And before I knew it, my eyes started burning so badly I could barely open them.

I called my doctor, who advised me to stop both sets of drops (anti-histamine and antibiotic) because these were NOT expected side effects. After making an appointment with an opthamologist (which Ryan had to drive me to) turns out I'm allergic to the antibiotic drops (sulfacetamide) the original doctor gave me. Now I have an inflammation on the surface of my eye, which is causing my newest symptom -- blurry vision. The upside is that redness and swelling are completely gone but I can't see more than two feet in front of me without it being a big, fuzzy mess. The vision should return to normal in a day or so but the dryness could last up to two weeks, says the doc. At this point, I really just feel like I have dry eyes and need a new prescription.

It's not painful anymore but I can't watch TV, read, grade, drive, etc. Riding in the car is iffy too -- I can't look up because everything is a giant blur and if I look down I get car sick. Super fun. Typing this blog right now on my laptop is a little tricky but it works since I can get pretty close to the screen. I haven't been at work since Monday though and I can't return until I can see clearly.  Nothing like burning through all my sick leave. I'm on a new set of drops now and have to use an ointment when sleeping to avoid irritating my eyes any further. I go back to the opthamologist on Monday afternoon -- hopefully driving myself! -- for a followup. We'll see how that goes.

Seriously?

I have pink eye.

My doctor is pretty sure it's the type of pink eye that is caused by an allergic reaction to pollen in your eyes (not the bacterial one) but still .... it's pink eye. And it's gross. And painful. And it sucks.

And let me clarify -- I don't just have pink eye. I have pink EYES. Both eyes, people! BOTH EYES! Just last week I was bragging about how I never get spring allergies and blah, blah, blah, BOOM, now I'm putting drops in my eyes 5 times a day. I freaking jinxed myself.

I haven't been to work in the last two days but I'm already starting to feel better. The school nurse said I can return to work 24 hours after I start using the drops so I should be fine to head back tomorrow, you know, as long as I don't look possessed/like a demon.