Whoa ...

I didn't realize it had been over a month since I last blogged!
I'm all moved in, pretty much settled and extremely excited for this new adventure.

I'll add some new photos sometime soon, but for now the upload tool isn't working!

Packing Stinks.

Over the past week I've thought of a few blog topics and now I forget them. So, I will just write about packing (so that I can continue to procrastinate from it).

When I found out that I was going to get the house I thought "it's time to start packing!!" and I was so excited. So I cleaned out three or four closets, washed a whole bunch of sheets and blankets, piled up a bunch of boxes and cleaned out a few kitchen drawers.

That was two weeks ago. I haven't packed a box since.

You'd think that now I'd be a little more motivated to pack since my closing date could be ANY (gasp) day now (probably April 10ish). You'd think. Of course, I've hardly been home the past few weeks. I have been super basketball fan, went to Chicago for AP Training then to Columbus for the basketball game and a little getaway Saturday night. Then I had the emergency root canal Monday and a hair cut last night, Parent Teacher Conferences tomorrow night ... whew. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

I'm thinking this weekend will be it. SUPER PACKING WEEKEND! Maybe I'll post a picture of my pile of boxes.

On another note, how does one accumulate so much junk??

Brackets Schmackets.

Every year since at least 1999 I have filled out at least one if not two NCAA brackets and I have entered a pool.

I have never won a dime. Now, I do consider myself to be fairly well-versed in sports, but I know it's always a crap-shoot for this tournament. I know you're supposed to pick a certain amount of "upsets" and shouldn't always pick the number 1 seeds to go all the way. I always follow this advice ... to no avail.

This morning I woke up to look at my brackets and I got out my fancy little highlighters to mark them off (a little OCD, I know). There are way too many blue cross-outs and not enough green highlights.

Maybe next year I really need to pay attention to the teams for a month or so before the tournament, not just the week before.

Or, I'll just hope that one day my luck will finally push me ahead and I'll be a bracket champion.

Movin' on up!!

It's almost official! I am almost a home-owner!

Last Tuesday the sellers accepted my offer.

Friday I had the home inspection (nothing major is wrong, thank goodness, just a few minor repairs need to be made and two of them my dad fixed while we were there - he's awesome!).

Today I started packing. I cleaned out / packed five closets, one bookcase and washed all the bedding for the spare bedroom and all tablecloths. I figure if I start with the non-essentials now while I have time it will make it easier to pack the things I'm still using for the next couple weeks.

Wednesday I will go to the bank to process the loan and I guess to get all the paperwork done.

Supposedly we will close within 30 days. Wow. I'm thinking Easter / Spring Break will be busy busy busy for me!

Wish me luck!! I'm scared as hell, but so excited to get started on this venture!

Aunt Janis ... I like the sound of that :)

So I have known for about 4 months that I am going to be an aunt this summer, but yesterday we found out that It's a Girl!!

I am so excited ... of course, I would have been excited for a boy or a girl, but it is nice to know. I can't wait to start shopping and finding all kinds of great books, toys and clothes (of course) for her!!

This is going to be such an exciting adventure. We are going to have so much fun and from what I hear being an aunt is pretty darn awesome!

Yaaaay to all of us! Can't wait until July!!

Time Flies ...

I can't believe it is March 9 already. The past few weeks have just flown by, in my opinion. I suppose having something to do every weekend makes the weekends go by quickly, which can be good sometimes.

I was thinking that March was going to be a long month because we don't have any days off of school, but now I am rethinking that opinion. This Thursday I'll be at a meeting all day, so I won't be at school. Next week I have a personal day. The week after that I will be in Chicago for AP Training. Amid all of those things we are HOPEFULLY going to be playing basketball still, so I might be traveling back and forth to Cleveland!!

Of course, we lost an hour this past weekend, so I guess technically, time is flying by. That's good. I'm ready for spring, warmth, sun and whatever comes next.

Home Sweet Home??

For the past six or seven months I've been thinking about buying a house. I'm scared to death. As independent as I am this is one step in my life I really never pictured doing alone.

BUT - looks like the time has come!! I started looking a few weeks ago at homes in Warren and was scared and disappointed to see how deplorable the ones in my price range were.

Saturday, however, I think I may have found one. Wow. Scary. Exciting. A block and a half away from my parents ...

Anyway, I'll add more details about it later, but here is a link to the photos of the house - http://www.gmaceatongroup.com/listings/images.php?lid=42836754&img=2 .

Going to the bank tomorrow I hope for preapproval, then we'll see what happens next! Wish me luck!

Get Out!!

I was probably only 14 years old when Seinfeld first aired. I'm sure I was still watching Growing Pains and Mr. Belvedere at the time, so I didn't even attempt to understand it. I remember watching it a few times in college, but not that often. So when it went off the air in 1998 I supposed I hadn't seen that many episodes of it ... unlike now when I could take just about ANYONE in a Seinfeld trivia contest. I mean for real. I sometimes feel like Elaine, Jerry, Kramer, George, Frank, Newman, Morty, Babu, et al are my friends. Often (and when I say often I mean almost daily) I use Seinfeld quotes or situations in my life. For real. It's probably quite annoying to others, but to me it's HEEELARIOUS!! I am a little disappointed that I usually only catch four or five episodes a week now due to my hectic schedule, but I always laugh.

I'm not sure what gets me the most about it. Is it the callous way the characters deal with each other? Is it the banter that they have with each other? Is it the way they just seem to breeze in and out of relationships? Is it just so amazingly about NOTHING that I can't get enough of it?

Some of my friends are pretty knowledgeable about the show too (maybe even more than I am) and when we used to play games a lot we were quite competitive! Recently my sister and brother-in-law received the Seinfeld Scene-It game and were pretty nervous to play with me. I'm itching to play again. Sometimes I even do Seinfeld trivia on-line. By myself. And I'm awesome.

One year I even had some of my students translate an entire episode for a French 5 assignment. I might do that again. Or maybe it's not good to double dip.

I'm ready to go back to work.

I love my job. I really do! Although I never EVER thought I'd be a teacher, I love it. I especially love teaching French because it gives me a lot of freedom to teach cultural things and to help my students learn about what is out there in the world beyond the Warren Bypass.

I also love snow days. I really really do! But I think that three in a row was a little much. Especially butted up against the weekend. I mean, one a week for the month of February would have been perfect. Then it would have been like a nice little break from five-day weeks, but spread out enough.

So honestly, this is a little too much. I cleaned out all of my drawers on the snow days earlier in the month. This time I did laundry, I packed up CD's (in case I move sometimes soon), I grocery shopped, I hung out with friends and spent a little too much money out and about, I met with a man about buying a house and I spent WAAAAAY too much time on Facebook. I am ready to get back to work. Actually, I am excited to go to the basketball game tonight to see my students and my teacher friends - it's amazing how much I miss them when I'm not around them!!

But I guess we are supposed to get another bad snowstorm next week? I'm sure I'll be happy if I get "the call" - as long as it's only for one day at a time please!!

Here is a photo of the fam from last Saturday at my dad's 60th birthday party! Note the cute little maternity top on my sister :) Love it!! Can't wait until July!!

Chillin' Out - Literally

First of all an update on my phone. I made up with Sprint. They are giving me my rebate AND the girl at Best Buy either messed up or Carlos from Sprint hooked me up because I got my new Blackberry (aka Crackberry) for a great deal. Awesome.

Secondly I am really enjoying another day off. I slept until 10 a.m., which is a feat for me, just enjoyed some oatmeal and now I'm drinking some coffee and blogging. I am also doing a little laundry and should be reading the biographies for the Alumni Hall of Fame - I'll do that in a bit.

So I was thinking that I would like to research how many snow days there have been each year for the past 30 years. I love it when my friends from high school or elementary school say "We didn't get that many snow days when we were young!" When actually, I think we did get a few a year. I was also thinking that maybe the superintendents are more leery these days because of the dangers of getting sued or chastised for not canceling school and students getting into accidents, buses sliding all over the road, students falling on the ice, etc. Just a thought? At any rate, I am loving it.

I am not loving all the snow though. I really would like to place a bet with someone as to when all these mounds and mounds of snow are going to melt. I am thinking they'll be here at least until my birthday, if not until the end of February. It's supposed to be 40 degrees on Sunday but cold again all next week ... with more snow. Oh well, the trials and tribulations of living in NE Ohio I guess!!

FRUSTRATION!!

I am so mad at Sprint. Well, I'm a little mad at myself too. Seems like I never have much luck with technology ... and out of most of my family and friends ... I AM THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY SAVVY!!!!

Let's start from my early problems of breaking cameras. My family says "you always get a new camera" (which is not true) because it seems like they always break - after a few years. I did love it when we could use those disposable ones - no fuss, no muss. And yesterday when I tried to take a picture of my dad at his birthday party I noticed that the screen on my 2 year old camera is cracked. That's what I get for carrying it around in my purse with me all the time.

I got my first iPod - for free as a reward from a travel company - in 2005 and it lasted only for about a year and a half. I didn't complain too much because it was first generation and, well, um, it was free. So I had an MP3 player for awhile, but this year I've moved back to the iPod ... so far so good (keep your fingers crossed).

And my computer drama. In the summer of 2006 (right after my first iPod broke) I made an impulse buy of an HP Pavilion laptop. I'd always wanted one and although I didn't really research it, I trusted my friend's suggestion and went for it. I wasn't connected to the Internet for awhile in my apartment but I would take it to friends' houses and steal the wireless in their neighborhoods. That turned out to be dumb because I got a virus. My sound skipped. The main reason I wanted the laptop was for music since my iPod had broken and now I couldn't even listen to it. I finally got that fixed in the summer of 2007 with a complete overhaul of the system and I got a broadband Internet card in 2007, only to have the hard drive fail on me in May 2008 ... and more problems in the fall of 2008 ... and now the monitor is broken on it and I have my laptop hooked up to my 2001 Gateway monitor in my living room. Can I say G H E T T O ? Some benefits of having a laptop.

Finally, my phone. I got a Katana II in fall of 2007 and never got my mail-in rebate check from Sprint. I forgot about it or only thought about it at inopportune times and never really called to check on it. So now I REALLY REALLY REALLY want a new phone to replace that piece of crap and my account is showing that I upgraded in October 2007 when I never received the $150 benefit of the upgrade at that time. So now I can't get $150 upgrade benefit until August AND I never got the benefit of the $150 from the last one. Screwed. Just plain screwed.

So I guess the lesson here is that I am just bad luck with technology. I suppose I ought to start researching things and taking my time with them instead of buying on impulse ... or actually following up when someone (that someone being SPRINT) owes me money, but whatever. I will just lust after the latest and greatest things. Yeah, for about twelve seconds ...

... then I'll buy it, who am I kidding?

It's a SNOW DAY!

So I've never really thought about doing a blog before, but then I decided that it might be a good way for me to share some of the fun (well, fun to me) aspects of my life.

Maybe someone will find it interesting? Maybe not? I suppose that the more social media outlets I use the more I can procrastinate from other things that I ought to be doing.

Well, there it is. Today I am enjoying a snow day or a cold day (the temperature is 0 degrees with a windchill of -14 degrees) and I hope to get some cleaning done around the apartment. Oh, and I start my new grad school class tonight, so I guess that will keep me busy!

Here are some photos of me with my friends and family a few weeks ago!