Go Traffic Light Boy. It's Your Birthday.

Today was Traffic Light Boy's birthday. To commemorate, I would like to share with you an excerpt from his sensory descriptive writing. His subject, of course, is a traffic light "...with glittering ponds of light with colored grass." (Just a note, this boy is incapable of writing a complete sentence on anything else.)

Also, today on the bus for our field trips he pointed out that his very favorite thing about Maryland was that they have "all-new" traffic lights.

I. Love. This. Kid.

A Quiet Sunday.

First some important news: hours of enjoyment for all those involved is as simple as a ping-pong ball, a bathtub, and an orange tabby.

Second, I'm a little stressed out as the big shopping season begins and I'm watching as things on our registries are sold out before I even got a chance to share the registry information with my guests. The plates I fell in love with are on backorder now! So sad! I want to bust the collective knee caps of all those pushy shoppers taking the last item off the shelves.

Give our registry a chance...

Yam Withdrawal.

I know Thanksgiving has come and gone. I know that I shouldn't even be talking about food at this point, but I have to blog about this. For many, many, many, years my family had Thanksgiving with our closest friends. Everyone would share the cooking, but one unfortunate family would have to host at their home. However, this was fair because the host family rotated between the three families.

While the family hosting the event would change, and the people present at our official Thanksgiving dinner would change, one thing would not change: the yams.


The sweet, delicious, yams topped with marshmallows. My favorite Thanksgiving item without contest. I know in my heart that the pilgrims found some way to manufacture marshmallows using a churning device and that they had their own platter of authentic yams topped with marshmallows at the first Thanksgiving dinner.


Sadly, Jamie declared that yams with marshmallows were airing on the side of (for lack of a better phrase) "white trash" and that they should not be part of our Thanksgiving dinner. Of course he is wrong. For two years an epic battle ensued, and I fought and fought for my yams. For two years I was victorious.

That is...until this year. Yams were absent from our bountiful Thanksgiving spread and some other fortunate family got to enjoy those yams pictured above. Jamie announced that instead of yams we would be making a "maple autumn blend" of veggies with butternut squash, acorn squash, and parsnips. Butternut squash is no yam, my friend, and parsnips are definitely not marshmallows.

Ultimately, I conceded because we discovered that marshmallows are not vegetarian and therefore, I would be the only person at Thanksgiving eating the yams since Scott would never lower himself to partake.

Candied Yams? This one's for you...

Thanksgiving Recap.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I know it's actually not offically Thanksgiving anymore, I just figured I would check in anyway. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday spent with loved ones. I spent mine with two of my very favorite men -- an intimate Thanksgiving. Even though there were only three of us, we still managed to whip up a lot of food (in addition to the aforepictured turkey masterpiece):















It was yummy. On the menu was a simple roast turkey that I basted with a mixture of orange juice, garlic, and a littl soy sauce. Totally improvised, yet surprisingly good! Yummy mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and a roast with autumn vegetables. We had some crostini with roasted red pepper and goat cheese for our appetizer.

Scott approved of the food so that was good.

But now I am exhausted from cooking and cleaning dishes all day. And the bellyful of turkey probably doesn't help. I am thankful for the warm, soft bed that's awaiting me as soon as I finish this post.

The only casuality (aside from the turkey) was a wine glass that fell victim to Scott's fork-flinging antics. We are down to 3 sad little wine glasses thanks to the brothers Long. I think we should register for plastic wine tumblers instead of glasses.

Germ Central.

So I'm sick and many of my students are sick. The result of which is that the classroom is a veritable paradise for germs right now. Here is quote from today to illustrate:

Jordan: [coughs weezily]

Diamond: [clears the phlegm out of her throat]

Ms. U: [honks nose while blowing it]

Dre'Kwon: It sounds gross in here today.

I promise you I do have other children in my classroom other than these three -- although I do realize that I have mentioned all three of these students in previous posts. Dre'Kwon just cracks me up on a daily basis. The other day he brought me a stress ball that was in the shape of an apple.

Dre'Kwon: [puts apple/stress ball on the corner of my desk]

Ms. U: ???

Dre'Kwon: It's so I don't have to bring you a real one everyday...

Ms. U: Thanks Dre'Kwon!

D: ...and so when you get mad at me you can just look at me and squeeze it a lot.

Sometimes, I love my job. Even when I can't breathe out of my nostrils.

Found Treasures.

So in our packing frenzy, Jamie and I found some long-lost items. Here of two of note. The first was my acceptance letter into TFA - Baltimore. Once we were assigned a region in the country, they sent us a pretty standard welcome letter. Attached was a letter from a student in the Baltimore City Public School System. It was a cute letter and I vividly remember sitting in my dorm room reading it over and over.

It wasn't until I found it again today that I realized that I actually taught the kid who wrote my letter. Tell me -- what are the chances?? This was long before I knew what school I would be teaching at -- even long before I knew what grade I would be teaching. Of all the kids, in all of Baltimore City, the letter they ended up sending me was from a future pupil of mine! Now, I can't wait and find her tomorrow to show her the letter she wrote four years ago.

The other awesome thing was from the same era. Right around when I was finding out where I would be teaching, Jamie was applying and getting into law schools. When he got into GW I made him this drawing:

(I know it's crappy quality, but I don't have a scanner)

I don't know why exactly, but I think this totally encapsulates our relationship. Please note: Jamie's spiky head of hair in all but his infant stage of life, and the fact that he always has that big ol' grin. Also note the fact that there are piles of CD (cases) in the back of our car as we drove across the country because Jamie insisted that they come with us and get prime seating while they did. Meanwhile, all clothing got piled on top of our car and pounded down by the elements (including but not limited the most incredible rainstorm ever).

Boy howdy do I have a crush on my fiance.

Leader of the Pack.

Actually. Jamie would prefer if you called him "The Packing King" in deference to his mad packing skills. Here is a boring picture of him in action:


Yes. After 2.5 years we are packing all of our accumulated junk and getting out of Greenbelt and moving into D.C. Into a real house! One that has nice floors and brick walls! And its own washer and dryer! And a fireplace! [does a happy dance]. It's awesome -- so awesome that I don't mind the addition 20 minutes of driving it adds to my hour long commute to work. Wanna see? (You may also want to appreciate the most awesome Harry Potter scarf I made for Jamie).

That "Under Contract" sign is because of us! That's us! Standing in front of our new house! So now, we pack and get ready for our big move in December...

Better Than Some Stupid Bond Movie.

So yesterday we celebrated my brother-to-be's birthday. Actually, it was one of my BTB's actual birthdays -- but he's far away so we couldn't really celebrate it with him. Scott had his birthday earlier this week so we took him out for some dinner, fed him some ice cream cake, and watched a movie.

The whole day I had been dreading seeing the new Bond movie. I knew that's what Scott would want to see and as it was his birthday and all, there was little that I could do to stop it. There's nothing I really hold against the Bond movies...except that they all suck and I have yet to see one that I enjoyed. But last night the movie gods were smiling upon me and sold out all the showings of Casino Royale and plopped Stranger Than Fiction in the only convenient time slot. That was awesome.

As I had been wanting to see this movie for quite some time now, I was setting it up to be a huge disappointment. It was not. I liked it -- which means you should all go see it. And while you're at the theater, glare at the Casino Royale poster.

And because I now can, here's the trailer:

Just So You Don't Have to Look At Captain Planet...

...I update.

I feel like this last week has been all wedding, all the time and I'm finally getting to check some things off the ol' list. The biggest accomplishment came on Tuesday-- I finally picked out my wedding gown! It really is as dramatic as is in movies. You try on a dress and you start crying because it's so overwhelming. So I forked over the money and now I get to wait around for it.

Yesterday, Jamie and I visited a couple of stores and scan-gunned to our hearts content. Of course, we've been adding things to our registry ever since we got home, but the scan gun is also as awesome as it seems.

Finally, we went dancing to check out a band we've been thinking of having. They were great and I'm happy to report that at no point did I wipe out on the floor completely. But listening to the band raised a good question. We decided that if we were going to get a band -- this would be the band to get. Which also means making a decision that would completely affect the entire atmosphere of our reception. While Jamie and many of his friends are big fans of swing dancing and the like, I lack rhythm and grace. Also, unless my friends have been harboring a secret passion for dance, they might not be as willing to get on that dance floor for jazzy music.

The band is really good. They will definitely entertain and Eric Felton seems like an excellent master of ceremonies. But, I want everyone to feel included. So the big question is: should we risk getting a D.J. that might botch things up, or go for the classy band? Opinions?? Help.

Finally: I know that I have been seriously lame lately as far as updating goes. To make up for it, here's a little gem from Friday's class.

[Kids are cutting up grocery circulars to put together a shopping list for our lesson on money.]
Kid 1: Oooooh! Let's get some sausages!
Kid 2: I want Mac n' Cheese!
Kid 3: Let's get some bleach!
1: Why [sic] you want bleach???
3: It's good!
1 & 2: [laughing]
3: What? Ms. U! Can't you drink bleach??
Ms. U: [horrified] What??? NO!
3: Ya you can! Like, mixed in with some water??

After much panic and discussion, we determined without doubt that Kid 3 does NOT drink bleach at home, but rather lemonade that comes in a similar looking container. Jebus.