I feel loved

• 
  
  Today I chased a student from another class who was climbing the fence into the woods by my portable.  He's one of my students and he has crossed boundaries in my room before.  My 3rd period was impressed with my sprinting abilities and excitedly asked: "Did you get him Mrs. Thompson?"  I said yes.
• I felt very supported by my loving husband.  He will always tell me when I'm over-reacting or being too sensitive, but today he agreed with me.  I felt loved and vindicated in my feelings.
• I'm ready to run tomorrow!  Shem is coming too and I'm excited to get back out there.  I will be a marathon runner.  I will run for myself, my health, and my kids.  I want my future kids to have a mom that loves her body enough to take extra good care of it.
• I'm excited to see my MIL tonight and give her my letter.
• I want to organize all of my parents photos someday.
• I want to write my Mom a letter too.  I love her.
• I stayed at work until 4:30 today...working.  It felt good.  I'm going to make it a habit to stay late every night except for one night a week.
• Shem thinks I should strap all of my crazy students to their chairs with duct tape...I laughed and then said that there is a better way to deal with them.

The week in review

I'm convinced that life will never slow down.  In fact, I think that I will never let it slow down because every time I find myself with one project wrapped up I volunteer myself for another one.  I should just admit to myself that I like to be busy even to the point of being stressed.

I have to work on the stress part.

My immune system hasn't been as strong this year as it has in the past so when Shem was sick last weekend I started to feel a little sick at the beginning of the week.  That always makes it hard to get out in the 50 degree rain and go for a run...so I didn't.  I can take 5 steps forward and 3 back for running 8 miles last Saturday and not even 30 minutes this week.  Oh well.  I'll just tell myself that I haven't lost anything that I can't get back after a good workout on Monday. :)

Teacher appreciation week is also to blame for me feeling like a slacker.  We had a dessert day...there were brownies and other sweets that I ate.  I had doughnuts on three different occasions too.  Did I mention the greasy pizza hut pizza that I ate too?  There was grease dripping down my pointer finger as I ate it.  Shem and I threw away that pizza hut coupons that we got in the mail because of my greasy finger.  Aside from the food it was nice to feel appreciated.  One of my students brought me a flower with a cute note attached.

Anyway.  Shem and I both love food and we try to make good food even when we're really busy.  I spent 3 hours at Winco on Monday night just to get some good food for the week.  The lines were insanely long and why do people bring their whole family grocery shopping with them anyway???  Why can't Dad/boyfriend stay home with the kids?  I tried to pass the time on the phone with my brother, but my call was dropped which meant utter boredom.

Part of the reason why we did all of that shopping was for Dawn's surprise 60th birthday party on Friday night.  We made appetizers and they were amazing!  We modified this crab won ton recipe to be Dawn and Rochelle friendly by replacing the won tons with fried rice cups that Shem created.  With the fresh buttery crab it tasted really good!  We also made these skewers with feta, cucumber, fresh mint, and a green olive.  It was so yummy!  Dawn was incredibly surprised and Q's new house was amazing looking!  We went all out to have a special dinner with stem ware, linen napkins, and matching platters.  We served everything on white dishes so that the food would look amazing...it did.  The food was incredibly good considering the limitations in food that Dawn can have now.  She loved it!

After we surprised Dawn.  She gives the best reactions.

Janea and Wendy also worked on a book of memories for Dawn.  Everyone wrote about their favorite memories of Dawn and then some of us read our entries.  It was so special and fun for me to hear about those memories. 

Dawn's book of memories.

In a way it was also sad for me because I didn't get my entry done in time to put it in.  I felt sheepish about it the whole time, but I told myself over and over that I can still hand her a letter with my memories in it.  Feeling bad about not getting that letter done made me wish that I hadn't spent so much time working on my photo blog (which looks amazing thanks to Emily Norton @ http://www.emilyjune.com/) or worked late hours last week in order to get caught up at work, or spent so much time editing and taking pictures, and I even wished that I hadn't gone running.  Oh well, it's helping me to prioritize my life.  Family is really important to me and I need to put everything aside when it comes to family.  Shem and I both wish that our jobs weren't so all consuming during the school year. It takes away from our quality of life and we get so run down that when we do have free time all we can manage to do is sit and do nothing or sleep.  And most of the time sleep is the best thing so that we can do it all over again the next day or week. :)  One of the flaws of our job. 

Well that was our week minus all of the interesting conversations Shem and I had.  Happy Mother's Day!  I can't wait to call my Mom today!

    Huntington Park, Kirkland, Wa.  After eating out at Wing Dome on Saturday night.  I love hot wings, well hot chicken tenders.  The sunset was beautiful and Shem took this picture.

Sunday snapshot

Shem has been the high functioning sickie today and yesterday.  While he has been sick he has held the fort down by washing the dishes, folding the six loads of laundry that I didn't get to, vacuuming up stairs and down stairs, playing countless hours of "Zack and Wikki", putting on one of his new license plates so that he doesn't get a ticket on Monday, and watching a movie, "Adam" (cute movie!!) with me on Saturday.  And now he's planning some awesome "nibbles and noshes" for this weeks menu!

I on the other hand have run 8 miles on Saturday, made some final decisions on my new photo blog design (I'm thinking it will be up and running this week!) prepped all camera gear, freaked out about said gear not functioning to optimal level of satisfaction, taken pictures of new niece, Kaybrie, ran to Target, started a load or two of laundry, enjoyed some Chipotle with Wendy and Corom's family, slept in today, planned my CTR 3-5 year olds, lesson, went to church, and then came home.

I love that Shem is such a sweet husband and that even when he's sick he is still so willing to work and help me with some of the chores that I can't get to when I'm running around like a crazy woman all weekend.  I just wish he were able to hang out with me. :)  I mean, he totally could've joined me on that 8 mile run with Rachael!

Disneyland! The happiest place on earth. :)

I just found these pictures from our small camera from Disneyland.  We didn't take very many, but I think these sum up how we felt about the whole experience:  Way too happy, tired, a little too excited, and finally relieved...that the laundry was done?

I was bored waiting in line and Shem had my earbuds, so I decided to play with the camera instead. :)

He was very tired and Pluto was nice enough to let him nap for a while. :)

The Hotel Del in Coronado.

I've seen pictures of this place that this awesome photographer in Califronia has photographed families near and I told Shem that I had to go too and take some pictures.  This place is just awesome and it costs a pretty penny to stay a night, but maybe someday when Shem and I make millions as teachers he'll take me for a special occasion or a not so special occasion and just because. :) 

We had to take pictures in front of it just in case we never come back.

Photo recipe: auto focus and one strong long arm + two people who don't really care how the picture turns out.

What Shem sees through the lens...okay, i photoshoped myself, but who wouldn't?  I like the tones and the contrast in texture.  Too bad my lips are pale.  A little color would've added some depth and pretty tones around my mouth.

San Diego Zoo

We loved the zoo.  I highly recomend going to a big zoo like the one in San Diego.

Flamingos.  They're the first thing you see when you get there

My buddy.

My best friend. :)

A turtle's behind...I didn't take this picture on purpose either.

Hippo love.

I'm not sure what this is...I'll look it up.  (I always say that to my students!)

The elephants were my favorite to see.  I love the wrinkles on their bodies.

I love blogging!

I really should be grading my last class of papers because I promised to give them back to them tomorrow...the day before spring break, but you can probably guess that I'm just ready for a break!  I read a lot of my friends blogs or read their status' on facebook and sometimes they just seems so exhausted and I feel like I can relate with out even having kids of my own.  Teaching 9th grade takes a lot out of you!  But there are moments that make it so worth it. :) 

This post isn't about work though!  I'm a day away from vacation and I need it!  This post is however about my love. :)  What is my love you ask?  Well it's none other than YOGURTLAND!  (should I have said Shem instead? ha ha. :))  Yes, I have a 2nd love and it is Yogurtland and I will seriously pay someone whatever I can to open a franchise here in Seattle.  I think it could do well in the U-district. :)  Here are some pictures of my love.  And yes, I will blog about this because well, someday I will make a book of my blog (it's our family journal) and I will want to immortalize this post in that book forever. :)  I'm just so happy right now!  *does happy-dance.  I also fixed my iTunes library yesterday and I have all of my fav tunes back also.  Okay Okay, I'll get on with the pics now.  (I really hope people read this because I'm talking to myself at this point.)

My favorite yogurt to get is plain tart and then I top it with fresh fruit like, stawberries, kiwi, blueberries, and banana.  I then like to pu some white chocolate chips in for an added bonus.  I went 4 times while we were in California and I loved it everytime!  I love my husband for taking me there and for smiling as I blissfully partook of the best stuff on earth. :)