Stella and Dot

I'm sure everyone has heard of this company by now. My Aunt April has been selling their lovely things for many years now and I've received emails from time to time about items. 

My Aunt is very pretty (and "so stylish" as my cousin Jessie would say) and seeing the goods on such a pretty person makes you want to buy, buy, buy. She brought all of her merchandise/stock over for the ladies to ooh and aah over. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures--my camera was attached to my hip practically the entire weekend. It really was quite a display. I bought some things and I wanted to buy several more. 

My Aunt was wearing these on Saturday and I have been looking for some pretty navy earrings with gold accents for a few months (I randomly search Etsy about once a month).

How beautiful is this bag?!?!? The inside is another pretty pattern but in teal. And yes, my Aunt also had this on her person Saturday. A perfect match for her navy earrings. Well, this sucker is sold out until July. I ordered one anyway.

No, I didn't buy this ring. I can't really explain why I covet it so badly but I do. After I learned the price I just walked around the house wearing it for about 30 minutes knowing I couldn't buy it. I think I will keep this on the back-burner as something to save up for--or maybe request as a birthday present. Although, it may be discontinued by September. What's a girl to do?

Family in Virginia

Yesterday afternoon I returned from a trip to Staunton, Virginia. About 9 1/2 hours each way. In a van with my mom, dad, Michanne, and Fred. It was a looooong trip. My dad's family (his mom and two sisters) lives in Staunton. All in all I visited with 13 family members (and the two boyfriends of my youngest cousins) this weekend. We visited the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind (VSDB) where a building is dedicated to Ralph's dad; stopped by my uncle's new office building; visited the farm where my cousin is raising cows (for slaughter, black Angus); played corn-hole; went to the park (video below); ate entirely too much; and enjoyed stories and laughter with everyone.

New building sign

Inspirational words inside building

The family (part of it anyway) outside the building

Land where my cousin keeps her cows

Horsey enjoying a salt lick

The family (again, a portion of the family) outside the barn

Momma cow with babies

Uncle Dave with his grandchildren

Aunt Jo, Ralph, and little Chase

Duck pond at the park

Crazed swan (you'll understand in a minute)

Swan expressing its dislike of guy with baby disappearing

Nail-Biter

Yikes! My portfolio presentation is tonight. I'm very anxious but happy that the semester is almost over. Seriously, at the end of my 10 minutes tonight I consider spring semester to be behind me. I got an 'A' in my selection and development of instructional technology course (say that five times fast) so my practicum is all that's left. I believe it is a pass or fail course so as long as I don't do what this guy did then I should be fine.

It's not a webcam situation either; more of a conference call while sharing a computer screen. I'll stay at work for the presentation. It wouldn't be a good idea to have my dogs barking in the background. Our family road trip to Staunton,Virginia starts on Friday. I'll have my wonderful iPad along to keep me entertained and sane. I haven't seen my dad's family in almost 5 years so it should be an interesting weekend. Class starts again on Monday and we'll be traveling back to Georgia that day. The first week of class usually involves introductions and getting familiar with the syllabus and course calendar so I won't miss much in one day. This is my final class. I've registered to take the GACE on June 15 (more nail-biting) and I'd rather write a 30-page paper then take that dang exam.

Almost There

Folks, we are in the final stages of the semester. I've completed all my tasks, checklist items, editing (well, that's an ongoing process until the very end), reflection essays, and beyond. All that's left is presenting my portfolio via conference call (and getting my grades). I'm not sure when I get to schedule my presentation but the potential presentation dates are May 6th, 8th, or 9th. So, things are certainly winding down. Last weekend was my first weekend of freedom in forever. I took Friday off and spent the day with my friend Barbara and had lunch with my mother-in-law. I also got a pain-free pedi. On Saturday I went outlet shopping with my mom and bought so many pretty things. On Sunday I got a ton of stuff done at the house. It felt so liberating to do something other than school work. And I'm not stopping there. I'm going to see Sister Act at the Fox with mom on Saturday and my sister and I will try to see Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody in May.

I'm going with my family to visit my dad's relatives in Virginia in May as well. I'm also reading like crazy. I finished An Abundance of Katherine's and Ashes. I started the Ashes sequel, Shadows, today. I just looked on Amazon for the next book in the Last Apprentice series and it won't be out until September but guess what?!!?!? The movie version (I'm assuming of the first book) will be out in October! How did I not know about this? It's called The Seventh Son and has Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore with Ben Barnes as Tom. So excited!

Dancing Widgets

I dreamed about dancing widgets last night. The past few days I've been very focused on my school work and uploading content on my portfolio. One of our tasks is to add information to a personal learning network (called a PLN). My PLN has to include 2-3 blogs, social networking, podcasts, video or video series, websites, training materials, and professional articles (2-3 of each). In order to add content you use widgets. I have a Netvibes account and the widgets look like this.

These are examples of essential widgets. To add a specific webpage you add the Web Page widget by clicking on the plus sign, and then paste the URL in the settings. Netvibes then displays my widget content like this.

So last night, little widgets (the first picture) were dancing and hopping around my netvibes page having a party. Complete with music by Hot Chelle Rae. The Google Docs widget was taunting me because I can't get it to work (this is true in reality as well) and I had to use the standard webpage widget to upload PDF articles from my Google Docs account. Lost yet? In another dream, also last night, I was talking on the phone with my mom and she said she broke her computer trying to install Google Chrome. I got about three hours of sleep last night and apparently my thoughts revolved around school work.

I Made Calzones

On Saturday mornings I attend Bodypump at our Bodyplex gym, come home to shower, eat breakfast, and enjoy my cup of coffee while watching Pioneer Woman. A couple weeks ago (I think) she made easy calzones. It didn't really look that easy but I guess any recipe that requires dough and offers a suggested pre-made dough is easy. So, I printed the recipe and headed to Kroger after work one day. I bought the expensive soft mozzarella (not recommended) and all the other ingredients and left $35 poorer. I used refrigerated Grands biscuits instead of frozen dinner rolls listed in the recipe. Other than the mozzarella and biscuits I followed the recipe exactly. Well, I added pepperoni too. Oh, and olives. And mushrooms. I ended up with a lot of extra filling. Anyway, I cooked the sausage, onions, olives, pepperoni, mushrooms and seasoning and then mixed the cheese mixture with the cooled meat mixture. I then rolled out 16 biscuits (yep, 16), filled them with the meat and cheese, folded them over and finished them off with an egg wash before going into the oven. They turned out like this.

The bottoms of the last four were completely burnt but 12 of them were just fine. This is what they looked like on the inside.

I would have to say that if you are not a fan of ricotta cheese (I am not a fan) then you should not follow a recipe by someone who says, "I just love ricotta cheese". Jeff also does not like ricotta cheese but he ate almost all of them (over the course of several days) so I'm not sure how to rate this recipe. It did take about 90 minutes for prep and cook time but it wasn't a difficult meal to make. I think in the future I will use regular block mozzarella, cut the ricotta in half, and play around with adding more veggies to the mix.

Honey Boo Boo Encounter

Many of you know about this already because I was texting you furiously while it was happening. But only Jeff and I know the whole story. Last week was my Spring Break. Did I do anything fun? Not really. I stayed in town and worked on my practicum secondary site visits. Meaning, I went to an elementary and high school in Milledgeville on 4 separate days. Anyway, the most exciting thing to happen that week was going out to eat at Chili's in Milledgeville. It was Tuesday evening and hardly anyone was at the restaurant. Jeff and I were being led to our table and I recognized a man sitting with his family. I looked at all the daughters and I couldn't figure out why I recognized them so I just assumed they were students at my school. I started to smile and say "hey" and then my "hey" turned into about 6 syllables long because I finally realized who they all were. My smile got bigger and I just kind of stood there next to their table. One of the daughters (I think it's the one called Chubbs, or maybe Pumpkin--they look very similar) rolled her eyes at me and I'm pretty sure I asked how they were doing.  June said something about something or other and I heard the word "picture". So I asked if they would mind if I took their picture. She very kindly said they don't take pictures during family time and then Miss Honey Boo Boo herself handed me this.

She was playing with her niece at the table when she handed me the card. In case you can't see it very well it's a picture of the whole family (minus the new baby) with their names in gold writing. It's just a mass produced promotional item but I thought it was nice of her to give it to me nonetheless. Anyway, our table was next to theirs and I sat with my back to them the whole night. They were kind of loud but they weren't farting (at least not audibly) or anything gross like you see on their show. Alana (Honey Boo Boo) did spill her drink on the table and all over the seat but that was it. Oh, and they did not have their film crew with them, just a bodyguard.  At one point during the meal I turned my head and saw the bodyguard telling a woman to move on. He even got up and started to pull on her arm. When they were done with their meal (which took 3 different waiters bringing like 12 different dishes) their bodyguard took photos of them with the waitstaff.Other diners ran up in hopes of getting a picture but were told only the waitstaff would get a picture--two of which actually were GMC students. So, while the bodyguard took pictures, I did as well.

Jeff (you can see his arm in all the pictures) kept telling me to put my phone down but what does he know? I needed evidence of the encounter. I figured I would run into them at some point because they've been filmed all over town. The pictures are very bad, I know, but I took what I could get--on the sly. I chatted with the GMC students/waitstaff after the family left about what a jerk I was smiling like a crazed fan and asking for a picture. The Honey Boo Boo clan left a baby bottle behind. Jeff told the waitress to sell it on eBay.

One Year Ago Today

My hubby and I tied the knot. It does not seem like a year at all. We don't have any special plans because we will be celebrating in July when I am done with school. We're going to Kauai for a week. We are both very excited about this trip and I keep trying to remember that the day after I'm done with school we will be on a plane to paradise. We honeymooned in a different paradise along with at least a dozen other newlywed couples. So, Happy Anniversary to us and Happy Easter to everyone.

Coffee = Motivation

I remember the first time I had good coffee. It was over 20 years ago and mom took the whole family to one of those gourmet grocery stores. They had a coffee bar/station where you could grind any flavor of coffee beans and then add any combination of ingredients. Michanne made me a cup and I remember the light caramel color and the dreamy, velvet taste. It was mostly heavy cream, sugar, and honey with a splash of coffee. I never have been able to make my coffee taste the same way again. I never drank coffee while earning my undergrad but I did drink coffee every day when I worked at Geico.

I abstained for many years after those horrible 16 months. Many of you are aware that I've had bladder and ulcer issues over the years (sorry for the clinical content but like I said, most of you already know) and coffee isn't the best thing for those kind of problems. I generally stay clear of caffeine. I did get on a daily latte kick over a year ago at work but it led to bladder problems again so I stopped cold turkey. Now I drink coffee every Saturday and Sunday. Honestly, I have no idea how I would complete any of my school work without coffee. Does it hurt my stomach? Yes. Does it cause acid reflux that feels like I have a huge lump in my throat and like I'm about to throw up? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. Oddly enough I don't have any bladder problems and I do not drink caffeine at any other time except one 8oz cup of coffee on Saturday and Sunday. I'm partial to Green Mountain Hazelnut which I buy in K-cups so I can enjoy my still very cool Keurig. It's amazing how one cup of coffee will provide hours and hours of motivation. I add fat free original flavor Coffee-Mate and about 4 teaspoons of sugar so that might contribute to my energy levels as well. I don't need it to get ready for work in the morning and I don't want it in the afternoon but coffee will be my study-buddy until I finish school. I can give it up anytime I want, really I can, I just don't want to, yet. 

You Know It's Spring...

When Tractor Supply Company has baby chicks for sale. After a marathon session at work yesterday (7 hours working on my digital video project) Jeff met me at TSC so I could see the baby chicks. There's not much to do in this town. We went a few years ago and they had bunnies and ducks. No bunnies this time but they did have sweet little ducks.

There's just something about their little bills that I find adorable. They keep all the little fluff balls in tubs with warming lamps. You used to be able to walk around and pick them up but they were fenced off and to hold them you had to ask an employee. We saw three different kinds of chickens.

This last group are called bantam chickens. They had really unique coloring and were smaller than the other two. Jeff bought this new toy for the dogs.

Remy really likes the monkey and growled at me when I tried play with it this morning. He's growls at everything though. In other non-school news I saw the movie Butter on Friday night and watched Saturday night's DVRd Too Cute this morning. I was smiling the whole hour. I'm making progress on all my school stuff but I still haven't done my taxes. I may need some help this time around since I'm in school again. Anybody else still working on their taxes? I'm actually afraid I'll forget entirely this year because I'm so distracted with school stuff. Ordinarily I would have been done a month ago. And already received my money!