A Special Day

Happy Birthday (4/25) Grandpa Hans! Old Fashions in your honor.

xoxo, natty ♥

Scenes from a Savers

My grandmother and I went to Saver's today to get nylons so that we can make those stenciled Easter eggs and I saw a few things that tickled my fancy. There are some funny links too...enjoy.

 

 


Kate Middleton!
Will & Kate look-alikes...but not really!!!

xoxo, natty ♥

Easter

What my grandmother and I may or may not be doing in the next few days:

♥ This...naturally dyed Easter eggs
♥ and This...herb stenciled Easter eggs...how cool is that??
This is what I would like to do:
♥ Attempt making Hot Cross Buns via this recipe: Hot Cross Buns!
♥ and maybe her (the Pioneer Woman) Greek Salad recipe too since it looks too yummy to not.
***Sub-note/question/digression: which weekend will Saint Nicholas in San Jose have its Greek Festival? I wait allllllll yeeeeaaaaaarrr looooong for their delectable grilled lamb with lemon, pastitsio, loukoumades, and moussaka (I'm salivating) and when it comes down to the last two months, I need to know the actual dates so that I can stretch out my stomach count down. Unfortunately their website either doesn't mention the dates or is very cleverly hiding them so as to ward off over eaters like myself. I think that it's usually Memorial Day weekend, but I need to be sure***
This is what I may or may not be doing in the next few days, with no help mind you:
♠ Lots and lots  of grading
♠ Lots and lots of laundry
Over and out y'all!

My how she gets ahead of herself...

This is what I'm reading right now...but really, you should take note of the stack behind the book. I ventured over to the library today. It was the most productive part of my day. Running close to 15 miles in the past two days and over an hour of yoga last night apparently took a toll on me so I was pretty pooped today. I enjoyed the crosswords and chatted with Mr. M's dad (Hi!) and decided it was time to break out the bike for the first time this year. The tires were still nicely inflated and after a winter in the garage ms ruby (my bike from M ☺) needed only a quick wipe down from a towel.  The sun was out and it was warm and beautiful out, so the bike ride was very pleasant.

What I mean by getting ahead of myself (see: Post Title) is that when I get to the library I get so excited about what there is. Even though this is just spring break for me, since it's so late in the season it's feeling a bit too much like summer. Consequently, I checked out more than I could possibly get in this week, but it just felt soooo good. I usually check out a nice stack to kick off summer for me and I just couldn't help myself today.

The main book, the one that I'm starting with, is a book I saw a coworker reading about Mary Winchester. If you grew up in the bay area then you know about the Winchester Mystery House. If not, then just clock on the linked name of the house in the last sentence. My good friend and I growing up were terrified by it but fascinated at the same time (at least I was!). Anyway, once I saw the book I decided that I must che andck it out and so far it's pretty interesting and informative, though please don't worry, I won't give a blow-by-blow account, I'll leave it to you.

I also checked out this book:

which is all about "one pot" meals for two to six that you can make in a Dutch oven in about an hour; how cool is that? You layer your veggies and grains and proteins in a certain way and cooking them in a Dutch oven does the magic that cooks it all up perfectly...recipe fun! You can read more about it HERE. Confession: I'd already checkout out this book several months back but never took note of any recipes and ended up turning it in late; fail there, but this time will be different!

Anyway, another relaxing day of break has passed and I think that tomorrow might have to bring some actual work doing (cringe!)...nighty night =)

xoxo, natty ♥


Post Script: YUM!

Spring Fling

Traveling dog...

BEST FIRST DAY OF SPRING BREAK EVER! My day wasn’t as dramatic as I just implied, but I did have a lovely day. I slept in, got a latte, lazed around, did the crossword puzzles AND the jumble (“…on a dead end!”), finished save-the-dating,

Off you go little ones, do your job...

vacuumed (blech), watched “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” (shamelessly, mind you)(I’m on volume 3), ran, and took some backyard/garden pictures. I say the “Best first day ever…”so vehemently because with the advent of every vacation, except Christmas, there’s just too much going on there, I ponder how well suited I am to a life of leisure and not having to show up anywhere. I am totally content puttering around the house and straightening up our things or reclining on a beach or whatever it is that I do with my free time. The tricky thing, though, is that I can get quite crabby by the time my vacation time comes to an end. I really don’t think it’s because my happy time is coming to an end, I actually think it’s because I’m ready for the structure and community that work allows me. This happens to me at every vacation. It’s great, I guess, since it means that deep down I do like to be employed for reasons other than monetary ones; that I like what it is I do, even if it kicks my hiney all the dang time. However, being at the start of my break, I’m soaking up every second of it even if I’m just cleaning and taking care of life’s business…SPRING BREAK 2011 SAN JOSE WOO HOO YEA!!!! Minus the body shots…

I’ve been on a phone camera kick recently. As mentioned, my little computer is quite slow. Blogging and internet and such is fine, but loading up the camera takes a toll so this way I can just email the picture directly to myself. Hence the quality of the pictures isn’t as good as it could be, but ohhhhh well. I “snapped these shots”, though, because as much as I love summer, spring is just such a close second (something I have definitely mentioned before). It smells soooo good outside these days (depending where you are, I suppose, but you get it) because of the jasmine and other fine fragrances nature allows us (citrus blossoms! Etc.) and I LOVE how the day time lighting in the house has a tinge of green to it because of how many green leaves are outside the windows and just how concentrated that green is (not to mention the different shades of it: light-almost-yellow-green, deep-hydrangea-leaf-green, grass-green…). Today the sky was grey but the cloud cover was fairly thin, so the grey is very bright if you can picture it; this bright light reflects that green and I just can’t STAND how pretty and luminescent it all is and how it casts everything in this light. Plus the days are still getting longer…waxing, if you will, as in the opposite of waning, not the waxing that is painful…I digress. While summer woos me like no other, the green is not quite as fresh as it is now and once June hits us, the days technically shorten just a teensy bit every day, though one doesn’t really notice until later. So I would love the warmth and sunshine of summer with the beauteous coloring and promise of aforementioned summer; sprummer ifyoupleasethankyouverymuch.

Another thing about the gardens is that there's always a surprise. My decade old cousin and his neighborhood pal play in and around the yard/house/street/wherever. See if you can spot some of the evidence of their misadventures here.

I live by the kitchen door...

I do too!

Those green leaves I love!

Pretty and sweet-smelling trumpet flowers...these are a bit worse for the wear but they bloom often and smell soooo nicely!

How much is that doggy...

Hydrangea leaves and buds...soon to be flowers!

More hydrangea...

and more!

Backyard wisteria...

Backyard persimmon...

Backyard Japanese Maple...

Street sycamores...

Backyard view...

Anyway, this day has been quite nice. I’m sitting on top of clean laundry on a freshly made bed waiting to go to yoga (which hasn’t happened in quite a while, incidentally) and Mr. M and I are going to get a quick bite after so I’m excited for the night ahead. I have also mapped out a brief schedule for myself for the rest of the week so that I can pencil in grading. I find that I am really drawn to absolutely any other to-do when the grading piles up and that makes it necessary to make a list that includes the grading since I’m a slave to my lists…so...happy Monday (really!!)!  Post Script: I went to yoga and, as always, thought “Why don’t I do that every Monday?” 

Happy Birthday!

***Disclaimer...someone's having a bit too much fun with the "instamatic" application on her phone, which explains the funny color tones and blurred edges on the pictures (aren't they cool though?1? Huh?!? Yes???!), so please be patient with me.. Soon enough I'll grow bored of this ability and just post normal pictures. Thanks!***

My lovely grandmother celebrated her birthday this past weekend. To start off the festivities (and the commencement of my spring break), Mr. Mike and I indulged in some fish burritos.

I love their marquee; it changes often and is clever.

We got the heart card...

and we were excited to eat.

We were patient waiting for our food...

but this is what someone looks like when you get in between him and his tilapia burrito.

The long awaited burrito.

We then had cake at my aunt and uncle's house. I failed at taking pictures of the beautiful spread they had set up but I did snap one of the red velvet bundt cake I was so excited to add to the mix; it had bumble bees and that giant flower in the center...♥

 

The next night we ventured out to this restaurant:

It's on Skyline Boulevard and has a lover-ly view of the bay area, as well as some yummy food. I feel a bit sheepish taking pictures of food, but oh well! We had some yummy hors d'ouevres and then dessert was soufflé which they're quite good at making there. M and I had the gran marnier sauce on ours but there was an extra raspberry one floating around that was not too shabby. Fun fun and a great birthday!

We had stuffed mushrooms which were divine and didn't go too fast since the younger kids thought they were snails; ha!

I love when you get sorbet in between courses; it's like extra dessert!

Soufflé!

YUM!

Happy with those "snails" ☺

Me and the birthday gal...♥

It was a great weekend and I'm so lucky to have such an awesome grandmother; happy birthday and I hope you had as much fun as we did!

Whew!

***There are no pictures in here...sorry!***

I did it...yea! I took 58 high school girls and two adult chaperones to the Day Worker Center of Mountain View...check it out here. This is a super cool organization that blows my mind every year I visit (this was my third time). Local day laborers can come to this center and employers also come and ask for workers, so it acts as an intermediary and workers don't need to go wait in some parking lot. The workers are also able to receive health care from a mobile health unit as well as English classes and free legal services and a myriad of other neat things. Workers will actually lead different things throughout the day at the center for the workers who aren't out on a job; one lady leads Zumba! I just cannot emphasize how WELCOMED we were made to feel which seems so ridiculous to me since they were doing us the favor by allowing us to interview them and invade their space for a morning.

With a safe place like this to go to, laborers do not need to worry about being abused by employers or unpaid since the center requires employers to adhere to a certain set of agreements. Another cool aspect of this center is that the laborers actually provide service for their community; women will knit blankets for premature babies at a local hospital and there are monthly blood drives. I take my students in as an immersion aspect of our immigration unit and am always just blown away by how welcoming the workers are (as well as their incredible and charismatic director), cooking and serving us lunch and generously telling their stories for my students interviews. The center has also just begun blogging courses for the laborers which is so cool since it gives an outlet for story telling/venting/expression/etc. and I'll be adding it to the blog roll.

Soooooo...if you're in need of things done (they are willing to do all types of work!), give the center a call. Most of the workers do speak Spanish, but the benefit of calling is that someone who speaks English will answer and help you out.

On the flip side of the coin, I approach any and all field trips that I am in charge of with dread and anxiety, often dreaming of all that can go wrong the nights leading up to it. Especially since we take the light rail on this trip and there's a fair amount of walking involved, there's a lot that I can worry about, but the girls did an awesome job and despite strong nerves, really opened up in their small groups with the workers, so I was happy. I was also exhausted. Mike and I ventured to Trader Joe's to get him some lunch for today and also to go to the self-serve fro-yo next door and I swear I dreamed it, that's how zombie-like I was. I kind of made it through classes today and I'm also super excited to go on breakaway day (like a one-day retreat) with my homeroom tomorrow...double yea!

I'm also in the process of ordering a little cakey-cake for my grandmother's birthday and I'm tres excited since it's a BUNDT cake from here and they're so...so...so...YUM! They're very pretty to boot with fluffy flowers and other embellishments in the centers. This is going to be a great birthday weekend =)

On that note, happy almost hump-day!

10

Ten...that's what we ran today. Ten miles were good today. Ten miles were hard today. Ten miles were fast today. Ten miles were the farthest I've run since the 26.2 that I did in October and for that I am ever so grateful and happy since this means I'm on the up and up mileage wise and I'm getting close to another race...although I could also argue being somewhat apprehensive about that race, but that's the way I feel before every race, so whatever to that. I haven't blogged much about my relationship with running, but it's one that I value greatly and feel so lucky to have. I started running to run, not just running around a yard or something, when I was 14, and I started running on a team about two years later. I ran cross country and track in high school but it wasn't until I started running cross country and track in college that I actually put effort into the running and got faster and more dedicated to it. Towards the end of my senior year in college and at the beginning of outdoor track season I started to really slow down and felt like I was running through pea soup. I was apparently a very anemic girl at that point and had to stop running which was "ok" by me since it had gotten so exhausting. It would be two more years until I started running again. When I was found to be so anemic and had to stop running, I was actually really ready for a break. I had been running steadily and heavily for several years and was a prime candidate for time off. However, my first two years of teaching kicked my boot-ay into the atmosphere and beyond so it wasn't until my third year after college that I felt ready to get back into running. Physically I was better and I finally wasn't comatose after school each day, so there I went. 
I've since done two half marathons and a full one as well as a handful of shorter distances, things I never felt like I could do in high school or college when races were super stressful. The marathon, in my eyes, is worthy of its own post, so be patient, fair reader(s[?]) but I can say now that I've really loved having the outlet of my daily (or maybe every other day!) run and the racing is just a bit of extra (sadistic?) fun. If I'm exhausted after school, I don't always make it out the door, but on the days that I do, I feel better and less tired than I would've imagined earlier that day. 

Anyway, this is so not well written and a bit rambling, but it's what I'm thinking; I love running...most of the time and whether I realize it or not. There; I said it.

Also, we had pizza for Ben's birthday last night and I took some pictures...yay! We made one batch of dough that didn't rise so well and cheated with some Trader Joe's ready made dough. 

Mike and the Birthday Boy pizza making…

All participating...

Gretchen

Cooking…

...cooked!

Everyone kind of pitched in and made his/her own pizza and there was salad and a Dairy Queen Reese's Blizzard cake...delish! Mike and I got Ben some sort of Nerf gun and the gift bags at Target were a bit too small so I grabbed a gift "sack" but failed to read the dimensions and when Mike opened it we realized that it was big enough to fit like two adult bikes, so we supplemented the gift with bunched up newspaper...Ben was pleased. 

The giant birthday bag…

We ended the night with sparklers and I quickly fell asleep when we got home.

We just finished dinner and I'm dreading tomorrow since I'm taking almost 60 kids on the light rail to Mountain View on a field trip and I get just so anxious about field trips. I breathe the biggest most dramatic sighs of relief when we get back to campus. Wish me well and enjoy the pictures from last night. Also, have a great start to the week!

A photogenic couple if I may say so myself ☺

 Yes...I take the majority of my pictures of animals...so what

Michael wasn't so thrilled with the cat

But I sure was!

One of the kids decided that Mike was chilled and needed a cover...he didn't resist.