a moratorium on the "christmas ban"....all in the name of CARDS.

I have a serious ban on all things Christmas until after Thanksgiving has passed.

My students ask if we can listen to Christmas music. My response: “absolutely not, give Thanksgiving a chance.”

I walk through the aisles and aisles of Christmas merchandise and leave the store saddened and disappointed with their single shelf of Thanksgiving adornments. You want to sell Christmas early FINE, but give Thanksgiving a chance.

I sit here on the eve of Thanksgiving, excited for the day and the feast that is waiting tomorrow, but perhaps even more excited for the day that that is waiting the day AFTER tomorrow. The day my Christmas gets to burst forth, Christmas music, Christmas socks, Christmas cookies, Christmas decorations, and one of this year’s most exciting features, Christmas cards.

Why do Christmas cards bring me more excited than normal this year? Because this year Shutterfly is offering Christmas cheer to bloggers in the form of cards.

Normally I spend hours if not days hunched over a craft table creating cards….which is why my handmade Christmas cards normally turn into hand made thank you notes and my Christmas cheer is spread in the form of generic store bought cards with personalized notes on the inside. (remember college when your Christmas shopping didn’t get started till after final exams….think its bad to take four of five of those tests….try grading 150 of them and welcome to my life)

This year Shutterfly’s delightful selection provides me with a delightful alternative. Photo cards where I get to show off in yet another form all the many photos I’ve taken capturing our year on film. Perfect for people like me who take picture after picture after picture and can’t make decisions for the life of me there are options like this or this (the hard part…deciding between them! solution....use more photos! make a calendar! another much better than store bought product)

And so I count down the hours….till my ban on Christmas passes…and my photo creating commences. Till then I have 2 pies, a turkey, and a half dozen sides that need my attention.

is it mid-November all ready?

I am writing this post while I put off writing study guides for my students' final exams so it must be. Granted the first final exams fall a month from yesterday and none of my students have an exam until a month from sunday but who am I to crush the spirit of a student who just wants to do well. (don't actually answer that...especially if you are one of the aforementioned students because then you are likely to say "the one who takes special joy in crushing the spirit of children in the name of learning" even though this 100% is not so, even though it may seem that way at times)

The temperatures have fallen....perhaps for keeps this time which means I get to show off my newly crafted/procured hats....I will take this moment to show them off here as well...and apparently burgundy is my favorite color this year

I opened the bottom drawer of sweaters freeing the wool ones from their moth proof vacuum bags, fluffing them to snuggly proportions.

I have had not 1 but 4 snowflake mornings where my car greets me with a snowflake on the dashboard warning me to beware of ice.

I have been scouting christmas crafts as a way to channel my holiday cheer all while struggling to resist the desire to buy those oh-so-cute penguin mugs at Target because I believe in Thanksgiving and believe that it too deserves it's 15 min of fame.

and people have been willing to show us apartments for our Jan 15th move in date. The idea of which was apparently outlandish a mere month and a half ago. more on the great apartment hunt/disaster/fill-in-adjective-here-once-all-shakes-out in hopefully a couple days.

in other words yes, it IS mid-november. and the blog has been neglected for 2 weeks.THIS is what happens to Teacher Ams.

p.s. i wish teacher ams made real money so I could afford to buy art at holiday gatherings like this

happy halloween!

it's halloween time again....how do I know....the signs are all there

the houses by my school are dressed to a T (though they looked better pre-windstorm.)

I rocked the pirate costume (complete with drunken parrot) at school on friday.

The day started with pumpkin scones and a pumpkin spice latte.

My pumpkin is carved and scarily looks out the window.

Im on the 10th and final day of halloween socks

and we sit on the couch decked out in our costumes drinking cider, watching halloween movies, and eating the candy we bought for the children because the children never came despite our brainstorming of not-so-creepy ways to lure children to our door....(come little children I'll take the away into a land of enchantment....)

not-so-cold camping

last year cold camping looked like this:

and sometimes like this:

and the layers were only shed after we climbed this:

this year cold camping looked like this:

we hiked over the dunes like this:

then laid on the beach like this:

since it was warm and there were TONS of people they they all laughed at our tents that looked like this:

and we ate lots of delicious food like this:

and this:

and only in the morning when it was chilly did we look like this:

twins!

when my little sister and I both lived at home and went shopping together we had an unwritten and unspoken pact...who ever picked up the article of clothing first got dibs. we look FAR too much alike to dress the same as well.

when I went away to school it was no ok to buy the same things, because we were 600 miles apart so would not likely be seen at the same function dressed alike. Of course everyone likes to wear new clothes so on occasion we rocked the matching attire in the safety of our own home while I was in town.

I now shop a lot with claires. (read: do random things where they give you t-shirts for doing them, stand in long lines at the ND bookstore, and scour the clearance rack at gap when we have a few minutes to kill downtown.) we now match. a lot. we don't plan it (fully) though we may pick the pair of sweatpants to take on a trip because the other one packed them too. and we may discuss what clothing we're going to wear so we're all on the same page attire level wise. but we don't plan the matching.

but on that rare (read: frequent) occasion that we do match. we take pics. and then we try to show it off (read: go into mcdonalds rather than through the drive through) because we are just that cool.

spirit week 2010

when I was in high school I only got spirited up during spirit week because it was a chance to get out of uniform. now I do it because it's a chance to be ridiculous. and so I give you spirit week 2010.

monday was twin athlete day. people still confuse megan and I so we decided to capitalize on it. and so we donned her dad's blackhawks jerseys and set out with matching style.

wednesday waz heritage day. I set right to work making some leiderhosen out of ribbon and binder clips, affixing a feather to my fedora, and searching far and wide for the perfect pair of knee socks. upon arriving at school i found a young frauline and snapped a quick pic.

thursday was grammar school day. first it must be known that in the catholic school world the term grammar school is used to refer to your k-8 school or any schooling before high school. secondly, although I went through an awkward phase in middle school where I liked t-shirts that were much too large I do not currently have anything from my grammar school days. I do however have my high school uniform. and so i rocked that. along with my kairos cross, high school class ring, and earrings I havent donned since those days of being a star.

7th (5th) inning (weekend) stretch

in baseball they have the 7th inning stretch, where you stand up, stretch, contemplate leaving, and mentally and physically prepare yourself for the last two innings that await you.

last weekend for me was my 7th inning stretch, except that instead of 7th it was 5th, and instead of innings my life has weekends. (unless you count august camping weekend, followed by tall ships and bdays in the month of August)

in terms of baseball my life this fall has been inning after inning of over-the-fence out-of-the-park home runs. two studer family weddings, two ND football games, 4 consecutive weekends of out of the park home run scale fun.

week 1, labor day weekend: Studer wedding #1.

we hopped in the car to drive to st. louis to see my cousin Christy marry a handsome lad Steve. we got to: see both sides of the family, witness a beautiful wedding, play with camera features, introduce the Studers to Ted Drewe's (who doesn't need a custard break between ceremony and reception), hang with the siblings, and make fabulous memories

week 2: ND vs Michigan AND North Shore Century

we hopped in the car to drive to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish take on the wolverines. This year was the first during which we sprung for tickets...we put in for 3...thinking we'd get 2 or at least we'd sell the third....needless to say this was game one of three... The Irish fought hard....and we took some framable pics.

we then drove home, so we could get on our bikes and ride and ride and ride and ride the next morning. claires and I were slow....so we took naps while nick rode an extra 12 miles. 52.5 miles later we all completed our ride...and had new bike gloves raptor hands to show for it (and yes that is how we described our pose to the stranger who took our pic)

Week 3: ND vs MSU

even during my time at ND I never made it to an away game (unless you count the sugar bowl of 2006....but that doesnt really count as an away game) so this weekend we headed off to East Lansing to hang with K^2 and Tod^2 and catch some Irish vs Spartan action. We saw K^2's family then Tod^2 took us to sparrow tailgating land where we had free drinks, and free food, free beads, and FREE VISORS! and we met this delightful man who sat in front of us, more accurately, paced in front of us, yelling at the players by name...checking his laminated roster if ever he was unsure who deserved the yelling.

Week 4: Studer Family Wedding #2

this week we headed off to Burlington, Vermont, the land of ben and jerry's, maple syrup, color changing leaves, the lake monster champ, and hippies. This is NOT the land of the coat factory, despite the atrocious claims of one individual. here I rocked my hat while waiting at JFK airport for Airforce One to clear the area, here we ate tons and tons of ice cream, my dad molested a cow, we saw lots of pretty trees, tasted vermont, toured the magic hat brewery, searched for the lake monster, danced the macarana, witnessed another beautiful wedding, this time joining my cousin Greg with his girl friend of 10 years, Sara, and paid $300 to fly out of town on a US Airways puddle jumper after jet poo canceled our flight home less than 8 hours before it was to take off

week 5: the stretch.

we entered week 5 plan-free and 100 % excited for it. we cleaned the apt, put up halloween decorations, then sneaked north to wisconsin to pick some apples and the occasional contraban pumpkin. it was delightful.

....

by now we have entered week 6: the camping trip part 3. tomorrow morning we head out...next weekend we cheer the irish to victory in person one last time for the year...3 weeks from now I sleep in.

PSA

here is my public service announcement for all those who came in contact with me over the past week. i have been sick. I spent my week with daily stops at the pharmacy to get drugs for the newest symptom. and so I share with you, poor unfortunate people who I breathed on a bit too much so that you may make one trip and know what to expect

day 1: the flaming sore throat

I woke up monday morning feeling like my

throat was on fire. the drug of choice, sucrets, now in a delightful berry pomegranate flavor

day 2: body aches

time for my all time favorite remedy, daytime dayqui (now with vitamin C) night time nyquil regiment. Take a dayquil in the AM. another at noon, a third upon arriving at home, and then pop a nyquil before going to bed.

Day 3: the nose

after sniffling my nose through class on the afternoon of day 2, day 3 arrived with me determined to not spend my day kleenex in had. I've not been a user of nasal sprays in the past, but I thought I'd give it a chance. it was glorious. simply fantastic. yes it may have burned a little in the beginning (this makes sense when thinking about spraying HCl up your nose) but other than that it was delightful. moment later my nostrils were clear and breathing recommenced.

Day 4: the mucus hack

granted yes, when I get sick the hack, aka my chronic bronchitis as diagnosed by the future dr. kerry kilbourn, comes along and takes me down, and is the longest to leave....but others have also fallen to the hack as well. and so I give you the last drug of choice. mucinex! I had the choice...the one that soothes coughs or the one that makes coughs more productive. while I know the idea cleansing my body of the evil mucus is a good one, the idea of standing in front of my class having productive coughs was not so appealing. so soothing coughs for me!

and there you have it. the shopping list for the plague along with the list of what you have to look forward to, and I send it, along with my deepest apologies.

i am sick. don't mess with me.

driving home from work always makes me angry. so angry in fact that my mom finds it hard to believe that Im driving while on the phone with her unless she hears me yelling at strangers while talking to her

apparently driving home from work while sick makes me super angry. super angry in a dont-you-f-ing-mess-with-me kinda way. Super angry in a dont-you-f-ing-mess-with-me kinda way that carries over long after I've gotten out of the car.

normally when Im angry at strangers I loudly tell the person Im with how I hate it when people _______. loud enough so the offending person feels bad about themselves, but not directly to them so I can tame the passive aggressive rage monster inside.

apparently when I'm filled with sickness inflamed rage I get a little more bold.

take today, after nearly being t-boned by someone coming off a side street in a parking lot, I safely parked my car and proceeded to walk into the store. nearly getting hit by someone speeding through a crosswalk.

if there's one thing I hate it's people who dont respect pedestrians in a cross walk...I stopped mid-sentence my conversation with nick, turned to the lady whose window was open as she flew by and said "this is a cross walk ma'am"

her response "shut up you f-ing bitch" and a "I shouda f-ing hit you" as she drove by.

if only she had. I'd have sued her for every last penny she had to her ignorant name. teach her to try and hit pedestrians in a crosswalk.

f. u. bitch. *

*apparently I am still drenched in sickness-fueled rage.

the 1000 mile project: update 2

mile 823.23: happy smiles after finishing our first 50 mile ride. we're still standing, 62 next year it is.

1000 mile project: update 1

mile 712.2: deer in the morning.

camping envy

we went camping about 2 weeks ago. we arrived to find a roaring fire curtsey of k^2 and tod^2, pitched out oh so cute tents on our oh so gigantic campsite, had some fire time and some reading time then called it a night.

the next morning we ate some ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches, chopped some wood, did some reading, packed a lunch and headed to the beach for beach day round 1. we even came back early and had dinner made, eaten and cleaned up from by the time the sun went down.

day two, much the same. blueberry pancakes for breakfast, jerry-rigged some shade with our old rain fly, went for a bike ride, ate a quick lunch, then headed out to enjoy beach day 2 red flag swimming and all. we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.

and then they came.

they were us, only better.

like us they were real campers. here for the outdoors, ready to unplug their lives for the weekend, ok with being technology-less for 48 hours, ok with sleeping on the ground in a reasonably sized tent just big enough for the one purpose they were designed for....sleeping.

unlike us they had skills. mad skillz.

they hung a tarp which put our makeshift rain fly cover to shame. (the guy climbed a TREE!)

they chopped wood like us, only faster.

they pitched their tent and THEN dug a trench around it. (this perhaps a little over kill since there was a 10% chance of rain that night)

they even made friends with Riley, the old dog from our neighboring campsite.

camping envy set in deep.

needless to say we watched them, we watched closely...looking to pick up tips.

they barely talked to each other.

unlike us, they wern't cool enough to have bikes.

they were camping but seemed angry.

the 10% of rain came. he struggled with the rain fly while she laid in bed. he even dropped the f-bomb. "all this work for five f-ing seconds of rain?"

we had the same rain. we threw the rain fly on, got out the chairs, laughed, then pulled out our books.

when we camp we have fun. we talk, we laugh, we rejuvenate.

i'll take our good times, non-trenched tents, makeshift shade, over their perfect shade, quickly chopped wood, angry times any day.

more pics from the fabulous camping extravaganza can be found here

1000 mile project

over the summer my bike project was to post tales of my miles. and then I accidentally reset the trip odometer on my bike. and then I forgot what the number was when I reset the trip odometer. so now I have a new project, and a new goal to motivate me wake up and not hit snooze for those extra 5 minutes of sleep. I call it: "the 1000 mile project"

my goal: to ride 1000 miles before putting my bike away for the year. a goal which actually isnt quite as impressive as it sounds. not even I with my crazy bike commute to work (where I proceed to sneak my bike up the back stairs and stash it away in my prep room because last spring the maintenance man told me I couldn't bring it into school. Take that maintenance man...you can't tell me what to do!) has it in me to bike 1000 more miles before the winter comes. I just want to bike a total of 1000 miles, a total since august 2009.

the current odometer: 684.3. that leaves me with 315.7 miles to go. or 14.35 round trips to school via my new 1 mile longer but 1 million times safer route. translation: at my current two trips a week I'll be biking till mid october.

time perhaps to find those gloves.

or ride more days each week.

blog neglect

dear blog-

school has started. i am tired. i struggle to stay conscious on the couch till 9 pm therefore i am unable to post anything more coherent then the fact that at some point i shall blog about my summer projects and camping...is within the month good enough? perhaps by that point i shall muster the strength.

till then.

tour des grandparents (and other assorted individuals)

over spring break I went to london....and did a very bad job blogging about it after day 4....so my great summer vacation was a road trip....3000 miles in 3 weeks.

leg one: home to kansas city, with a stop in st louis to visit ashley and joey....a yummy dinner at a scottish pub and too few hours gossiping and giggling about life followed by a night's sleep and a breakfast of coffee and scones then on my way to the big KC for two weeks. you can see all about that here. the return trip included a stop by my grandpa's in st louis, a feast at red lobster, dessert at Ted Drewe's, and breakfast galore at Bob Evan's before hitting the road with my mommy for my 5 hours that took 8 hours drive back to chicago.

leg two: blueberry picking and beach times in michigan. more on that here.

leg three: off to my grandparents' in northern KY. here we consumed all the glorious culinary delicacies the region has to offer. we ate skyline, and goetta, and city chickens, and grandpa's ribs, and grandma's roast, and pasquale's pizza, and iceballs, and uncle jerry's tomatoes, and drank red beer.

and just when we thought that we might be done...we saw the advertisement for Goettafest. (goetta: a breakfast meat made of pork, beef, and steal cut oats) and the eating began again. there were goetta games, goetta food, a goetta vending machine. gross sounding. delicious tasting.

and then the checklist was done..and so ended the journey. back in the car, back to chicago, back to life, and soon back to work. but first back to the beach.

squirrels

squirrels spend the summer gathering acorns and burying them beneath the ground to munch on through the winter months. i spend my summer gathering berries and burying them in the freezer to munch on through the winter months.

first there were the blackberries. 7 heaping full gallon buckets with the help of my family.

then the blueberries. 28 pounds with the help of my migrant worker team.

amy-squirrel is quite satisfied. AND we found some treasures on our way home...our secret beach, notre dame ave in the middle of nowhere, and a new favorite michigan city dining establishment.