A Life in Motion: March 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A Lisping Laura

We are nearing the end of our big English Language Learner's test at school. It's pretty much the same thing I've done in New York. The test is broken into 4 parts; listening, reading, writing and speaking. The first three I can test the kids in groups of up to 6, which is a great time saver as I have like 45 kids to test. The speaking however is done individually. And it is what causes me the most stress.

So I have this little lisp. It's been nagging me since, well, as long as I remember. I even have memories of being pulled out of class during my third grade year to do speaking exercises. My family likes to tease me about me saying "snake". To this day my tongue sticks out between my upper and lower teeth when I say 's' words.

Over the years I've learned to hide it more, but even today it still happens in the following three scenarios; tired, over-served and over-excited. Clearly I wasn't over-served or over-excited while administering the speaking part of the test, just really tired. Thank you HP. I read and re-read 'Maria's Field Trip' to my students and by the end I sounded like a non-native English speaker. More like a native of Spain where a lisp is appreciated.

So I will save my breathe and count down to Spring Break (2 days!).

Sunday, March 27, 2011

ReFresh

March is coming to a close! Things are ending, new ones beginning. HP's last day of baby daycare was Friday. He was sad to say goodbye to some of his friends. However saying bye to a certain redheaded Parker was pretty easy. These boys are always in battle when I see them together. Crawling over each other, stealing toys and pulling pacifiers out of mouths (that's Harrison's favorite, he loves popping those plugs out of his friends mouths). Thanks to the triumphant return of Aunt Katie from Yellowstone and the eventual return of his grandparents he'll be in the care of family until August.

We exchanged our books and magazines yesterday at the library for a fresher batch. I LOVE magazines. I'm really into Whole Living and Natural Home (man I feel older saying that...). But honestly for any potential home buyer they're kind of addictive. Sort of like a bride feels about all those bridal magazines. I was reading it and enjoying a cup of coffee with HP pounding puffs into smitherines at his high chair this morning. I saw a lot of projects for my potential backyard. We drove there yesterday with friends and showed them around the backyard. I kind of felt like a trespasser... We happily noticed a million fresh flowers sprouting up all over the place. I've spotted a perfect place for the rain barrel and I'm contemplating where a little garden could work. As far as the actual buying of this potential house we're in mid-stream. Appraisal review this week, finalizing loan, etc.

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Last March's goals were all health related and I'm happy to say I've completed them! We had our eye appointments last week, H has his a month from now, I'm getting my first total physical this week and our dental appointments are next month. Yay success!

Now for April's goals: make new healthy routines which include the following

~try new recipes for lunch/dinner

~play more (swim/walk/run)

~clean more (for real...)

Wow, me last year!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ugh

I have never had strep throat before...but the past two days I've had a softball sized lump in my throat that is not only large, but also spiky. It hurts! My lymph nodes on my neck are all bugged out and fighting something. I think this means I actually need to go in and have it checked tomorrow. Ugh. I'm looking forward to feeling better and writing a sweeter, happier, Spring-filled post.

Friday, March 18, 2011

A Tale of Two St. Patty's

Happy St Patty's Day Little H!

As we drove toward are 3 respective destinations on St P's day we heard on the radio that one of the local bars, McFadden's was open and serving bright and early at 5am. Wow. On a Thursday that is impressive. Who are these people that don't have work on a Thursday?

I also found myself pondering how can someone stomach putting down a bunch of green beer that early? Then a somewhat fuzzy memory from college popped into my head.

My club rugby team at U of M traveled occasionally for tournaments. I attended two of them. One was NashBash in Nashville, TN and the other was the St. Patty's Tourney in Savannah, GA. As we were a club team we drove university vans down in carpools. I, along with 5 other girls sped (and I do not exaggerate saying that- we were stopped and ticketed twice on the way down alone and stopped and warned once on the return trip) down south. Now I lucked out and only had to drive one leg from 2-6a heading into the city.

As I remember we were bonding over the fact we Right and Left Flank position

There seemed to be a green haze as we approached downtown. An 8am parade was scheduled and a great number of people were already milling around the streets. We bought our wristbands that allowed us into beer tents and purchased red cups of warm, green beer. This on an empty stomach was not making my morning. Unfortunatly the crowded streets were devoid of much food but overflowing with Irish spirit...

Can you find me?

Yeah...that's my coach and I on Halloween that year...

The team's mindset was straightforward; drink moderately in the morning, play a game, rest, play another, rest, play the finals and then party with the other ruggers. And if you have ever met one you'd know that could involve any/all of the following: drinking from an old boot, singing profane songs, the passing around of questionable substances, zuluing(running around topless after scoring your first 'try'), getting hit on by ANYone, and general merriment ending in a deep, deep sleep.

Harrison would be shocked and appalled to think his mother did such things!

That being said, if you know me (and well, if your reading this I hope you do) you can rest assured that not all of that is applicable to me. I am a teacher after all :)

Two very different St. Patty's Days of 2006 and 2011.

But he loves me anyway :)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

We're on the Move!

Lots has happened over the course of the week. I'd put them into 3 categories, because that is just what I do.

I. Baby H:

He went from being semi-mobile to a real crawler seemingly within the week. His daycare ladies must have been working him hard because he has launched into true crawling. In addition to that he is really into pulling himself up onto anything he can get his paws on. One of his favorite things to do is stand in his crib and slap the railing as loud as he can.
He is also being a champion sleeper. Waking up around 3/4a for a feeding then rolling back to his tummy for the rest of the night. We are really appreciating that. Will it last, eh? Perhaps.

II.House:

We actually made an offer on this house that we really like. It came back with a counteroffer and after a little discussion we decided to sign that too....whoa.
So now inspections on Monday will tell us if it's a lock. And then...I guess we go from there.
Here's a little written sneak peek on the house:
3 bedrooms all on the upper story, fireplace, bay window, fire pit in backyard, funny little carport, wood floors throughout, nice kitchen, built in 1930.
Things to update: windows! They literally have a pulley system to open them...

III. Me

I am getting back into the swing of working out. Awesome. Played volleyball at the staff v. students game this past week and am sadly feeling it in my arms and stomach. I so miss sports!

I went swimming, delightful! I need to get back into that.
And the house is located 2 blocks away from a bus stop that could take me to the street that I work on. That would be amazing to not have to drive over there and do all that back and forth. And honestly, that's getting way pricey!
Also, we paid off 1 credit card which puts me on track to make my goal of killing 2 by the end of the year! Yay!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

A Bear Walked into a Bar...

I feel a little too old saying this, but we went to the Home and Garden Expo at DeVos downtown. We came away with 3 bags of pamphlets and info. There were two things that stood out to me.

#1 Barrels that repurpose rain water, love it

#2 Chocolate covered cherries. No pictures of those, but I did eat at least 2 handfuls of them. What they were doing at a home and garden show nobody knows.

We were also treated to a delicious lunch at HopCat by the parents. Even Harrison enjoyed his bottle at the bar.

Both boys are eyeballing the drinks behind them...cute?

Way cute!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

So this house that I like is a real.....um...good deal/first house/fixer upper/solid foundation/good start? All those words that you would use to describe Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. But that came out all right in the end didn't it? All it needed was someone to believe in it.

Here's the good, bad and ugly of my little diamond in the rough:

Good-
sweet wood floors throughout
arches all over the place
fireplace
screen porch
a partial white picket fence (for real!)
3 bedrooms
1 1/2 bathrooms in good repair
backyard with fences

Bad-
chipping, wood siding
old windows
unknown roof/furnace ages

Ugly-
wood panelling basement
appliances in the kitchen

Creepy-
we found out it's an estate house....the one thing Jon was not keen on was the notion of possible hauntings

There it is. Jon gets to see it for the first time today. I'm anxious to hear his thoughts. By the way this house is literally two houses away from the picture-perfect house that ruined me last week.

In anticipation of having at least ONE project in this maybe-house of ours I am currently loving this website:
http://www.younghouselove.com/ , now that is one crafty couple after my own heart.