Stuff and Things 10/2

In honor of The Walking Dead's return next weekend:

As always Rick, thanks for the inspiration.  

Mail your boxes by tomorrow if you're Pumpkin-swapping!

Since we've made some major home purchases at Home Depot in the last few months, I get electronic receipts sent to my email.  Because we lose things.  So now, when Scott goes to Home Depot, I get to see what he bought/where he was before he even gets home.  It's fascinating.

I have no idea how Angi knew I had a fall surprise package ready to mail to her, but when I got this fun and sweet gift from her in the mail on Tuesday, it made my day.

Candy corn!  And pumpkins!

She sent a bag of real candy corn too and it's already gone (obviously).  

No Starbucks September ended well!  I haven't been to Starbucks since some time around the end of August and I've only been to Panera twice.  I'm making it an October goal to hold it to one coffee out per week, Starbucks or not.  I've been drinking a crazy amount of jasmine tea and it keeps me occupied on the way to work, when I'd normally be itching for a drive-thru window latte.  

Stuff and Things 9/18

+Did you sign up for The 3rd Annual Great Pumpkin Swap?  I recommend it!

+I figured out why I had so much time to work out at the gym and cook fancy desserts a couple of years ago:  I didn't clean the house.  It was the bare minimum in Alaska.  Although, to be fair, it was just me and Scott, and most of the time just me.  I vacuumed a lot.  That was about it.  Here, I feel like I'm cleaning all the time.  I think there was only one or two friends who ever visited us at our house in Alaska and they were close enough friends that they didn't care what the house looked like.  (Aren't those the best kind of friends?)
When we moved to Missouri, I decided I would step up my game and now I feel like I'm always straightening, sweeping, folding, etc.  It's an exhausting way to live.

+The No Starbucks thing is going well!  I don't even feel tempted because, like Sonja says here, Starbucks probably just doesn't do it for me in the end.  I have been to Panera twice.  I had an iced latte 2 weeks ago and a hot latte on the 45 degree day last week.  I'm feeling good about this.  Oh, and I had the world's worst caramel latte at the Air Force Academy last week.  I thought it was like caramel-flavored water and I didn't even drink half of it (so that doesn't count, right?)

+Yesterday a student was in tears and I was finally like, "What's wrong?" and she was like, "My pen is in my backpack and I needed it and I raised my hand and I had it up for a long time and you didn't call on me and I know you saw me."  All through tears.  And I was all, "It's okay, really. Get your pen!" and she's still crying and I'm like, "Hey, we all have problems.  I'm hungry, I've got kids not listening, my dog made a mess this morning and I was late for work…" and she started laughing and that was the end of it.  But I could've went on…"…and I'm living in a half-finished house and my husband's at training and I'm dog-sitting as a favor to a friend so I have THREE dogs to take care of instead of two and the coconut milk leaked so I had to empty the fridge this morning and I brought cereal for lunch today (CEREAL) because that's how well-prepared for life I am…etc, etc……etc.  

I think I made my point though.  

And that's all I've got for today.  Sorry for the sad, picture-less post.  But, for real, sign up for that pumpkin swap.

Stuff and Things 9/11

Sweater: Loft // Pants:  Gap

+I bought these pants online from the Gap clearance selection back in June or July.  I guessed at the size and they fit perfectly.  I'm pretty proud of this.  Modern Boot Fit.

+I was concentrating really hard in that picture on making sure that Jett didn't jump on me like he did last week.

+Last weekend was an absolute waste.  On Saturday, I came down with a sinus headache and spent most of the evening laying in bed.  I never get headaches.  Maybe once a month or every six weeks.  So when I do, I load up on medicine.  Tylenol wasn't even helping.  On Sunday, because we needed some things from the store, I went to SuperTarget and loaded up on Mucinex.  Other than that, I watched lots of reruns.  And I graded a lot of papers.

+Scott had a fabulously productive weekend.  He finished the living room floor and most of the fence.  I painted some trim.  And I steam-mopped.  I also read a terribly sad story about a dog and it seriously ruined my whole day.  I'm so glad the blogger wrote it because it was absolutely beautiful, but still…ruined my day.

+Do you know why I usually don't blog on Wednesdays?  I used to.  Now, I find that I don't have the time to crank out a quality post (yes, this right here is "quality") or enough to say to fill 5 days worth of posts.  Sometimes I do, but not usually.

+No Starbucks in September is going well enough.  Scott came home talking about the "best Americano EVER, Kristin!" and I was all, "Grrr…" because I've been meaning to try an Americano forever and I didn't get around to it.  October 1st.  Plus, our friends sent me a gift card to Starbucks.  (Okay, "us".  They sent it to us…)

+Last week, the powers that be of the State of Colorado granted me my Professional teaching license.  They took my previous experience into account.  Thank the Good Lord. Otherwise, I would've had an Initial license and then you have to complete classes and mentor programs and meetings (that I'd previously been scheduled to go to).  Again: ThanktheGood Lord.

+Speaking of…no matter what I do, I can't get ahead at school.  I've never had to bring so much stuff home before.  I'm hoping this gets better.  I tell myself that for the 3rd time in 5 years I'm a first-year-teacher again.  It'll get better, right?

+It's September 11th again.  It's really odd to teach elementary school on September 11th.  I know they call it Patriot Day now, but to spend the day with kids who weren't around in 2001 is odd. They always love to ask questions about it and it's really hard to know what to say. I don't want to draw any comparisons (so I won't) but our generation could never appreciate events that happened before our time, and the kids who were born in 2005 have a hard time understanding September 11th.  My 4th graders were born in 2005.  The "where were you/how old were you?" question usually comes up and I tell them I was in 10th grade, in drivers' ed class, just a few hours from where one of the planes crashed in Pennsylvania.  They always tell me their parents' renditions of what happened.  A few years ago, a girl told me her mom was at the hospital, having a baby appointment when she first saw it on the news and she (the girl) was born just a few days later.

{NO} Starbucks September

Ever since we've moved here, Starbucks has become a really regular thing for me.  I could blame it on a lot of things:  I'm tired.  I drive 20 minutes just to get to the store..I need a pick-me-up.  I get up at 5am. I need to pick up a drink on my way to work at 7am.  It's right there.  Convenient.  

I told Scott about my plan to avoid the 'bucks for a month and he said, "…so you're just going to stop at Green Beans instead?"  I hesitated a bit too long before I said no.  He laughed.  Green Beans is on base.  It's not the best in the latte department, so I see no need to stop there if I'm avoiding pricey coffee shops anyway.  The exception would be Panera because there is not a Panera even remotely near me or my school, so that might be not even be a possibility more than two times in a month anyway.

The problem is that I'm not really sensitive to caffeine in general.  I never have been.  It won't keep me awake at night and I think it might be the idea of it that gets me going in the morning, not the actual "drug".  I can't remember if I heard this from someone in real life or in blogland (sometimes the worlds collide), but a person told me, "Hey, maybe you should stop drinking so much coffee.  Then you wouldn't be so insensitive to the caffeine!".  Uh, no.  I don't think 1 cup of coffee a day qualifies as "so much".  Sometimes I have 2.  Heck, sometimes I don't have any.  I've actually been drinking a lot of jasmine tea lately.  Usually I have coffee when I get up in the morning and then sip tea on my way to work.  But I've noticed that (as was my pattern over the last few years) if I feel particularly exhausted on my way to work, I'll stop for a latte.  However, it doesn't even do much for me!  So what's the point?  If it's not Alaska-strong (I swear they made their Starbucks stronger up there), it's not worth it.

I know I need to go to bed earlier.  That's not what this post is about.  Frankly, sometimes I stop on the way home for a frappucino, especially if I have an appointment or errands to run.  Because I know the work doesn't stop when I get home.  This "project" of remodeling a house is a 24/7 job and sometimes just being here is stressful.

The cost of 3 lattes or frappucinos a week is like $12-15.  I could take that money and save it.  Or buy new boots.  Either/or.

Aside from that, the extra calories aren't something I'm into.  While my lifestyle isn't quite sedentary, the extra sugar isn't doing much for me.  I always order non-fat/no-whip, but I refuse to go the sugar-free syrup route.  Sugar-free syrup is terrible for you.  Therefore, I'm drinking away my calories.

So that's where we are.  No Starbucks for September.  I did this once, back in August 2012, and it worked out okay.

Anyone wanna join?