The sun was warm, strong and made playing in the water that much sweeter. We snorkled most days and enjoyed hours of reading by the pool, in the hammock or on a beach towel. We checked out local places, and picked up some Tortuga Rum, Rum Cakes and other fun treats to bring back home. We munched on tasty coconut popsicles, watermelon soda and banana chips from the local grocery store in the afternoons by the beach.
The smell of fresh ocean everyday, full bellies every night and copious amounts of sleep made for a week beyond unreal. It was a week I could do every year if I could. I came back feeling refreshed, and ready to tackle the rest of the school-year.
It makes me think every break I have should feel that good. I know I struggle with unplugging, but when you do, it’s better than you can every imagine.
We were a full house for New Year’s Eve, all total I think 11. For the last two year’s we have had a tradition of having a steak for dinner on NYE. We also ate a ton of veggies and mashed potatoes. We had some cocktails, played some wii earlier in the day and just enjoyed the day together. A few of us pulled on some sparklier clothes, but for the most part it was a pretty casual evening.
I mean, after dinner we worked on a puzzle. Crazy, right?!
Monday was my first day back at work, and tomorrow we see our students. I’m looking forward to starting over with them. For the past few it has been pretty low-key, and I have been liking every minute of it. I know before Christmas it was crazy, chaotic and rushed. Having this last week and a half to recharge has been great. Sometimes you just need some you-time.
I hope your NYE was as delightful as mine was!
I’m also organising things to knock off my 101 in 1001 list. Check it out if you haven’t already!
When I was younger, we often decorated our house for Christmas on the same day that we got our Christmas Tree. Getting our Christmas tree though, was always an adventure!
We would pile into our big, comfy, green Ford Explorer, and head into the mountains. After getting lost for a few minutes we would discount the first few tree farms, because predictably they would be picked over. We would settle on a farm, grab our jackets, put a leash on our pup, and head into the wet wintery forest. Finding the perfect tree has become somewhat of a routine. We can’t go with the first tree we find, because there might be a better one out there. We usually haggle over the final tree, because I want a Charlie Brown tree, while the family wants a wide, large tree with evenly spaced out boughs. I wanted the homeliest tree out there, to take home because no one else would. Often, I lose the vote and we get a tree that is tall, wide, and barely fits on our car, let alone in the family room.
When my brother and I went away to college, sometimes we got our tree closer to Christmas, sometimes we would even pick one Thanksgiving weekend. Last year, we joined with another family for the Christmas tree selection, and it was a blast. This year, we plan on going with the Issa Family again, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. When we picked a tree during Thanksgiving break, we also decorated the house.
Now that I have my own place, I have been itching to get cute Christmas decorations. I have been resisting these cute things for a few days now, but I might give in!
My mom and I were the two that usually were anxious to pull out the Christmas Boxes and decorate the whole house. I usually was in charge of the Christmas Tree decorations, while either my dad or my brother did the lights on the tree. To this day, decorating the tree is one my of favorite holiday rituals. I love that the holidays are finally here.
Rather late Saturday night we moved the party to Beach House #2 (BH#2) and continued on very late into the night. I snagged a bed and crashed about 2am, rather late for this old lady who prefers 10pm sharp.
On Sunday I woke up bright and early. Often my internal alarm clock wakes me up when I would rather have slept in. I started on breakfast for the group and enjoyed watching people stumble in, semi-awake. After a while, the group was fed and drowsy. We tidied up the house, and some people took of. The smaller group left for the beach. Annie, Sunny, Huyson and I wandered along the beach, snagging cute photos of each other. We walked around the down-town area and picked up some tasty ice cream. We tidied the house and left for home.
It was a great weekend.
I wish more were like that, full of sunshine, fresh air and friends. I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving foods next week, it is powering me through this week, knowing next week will be fantastic and full of yummy foods!
Last year I saw the most beautiful toggle coat at J.Crew. It was a beautiful, but costly coat. I waited for it to go on sale, but it sold out before that happened.
This year, I am determined to get a toggle coat. One of my goals with buying new clothes is to diversify what I have in my closet. I hang my clothes in color order to see exactly what I have, so I don’t buy a 5th white collared shirt (like I did over the summer by accident).
I have been looking for a warm toggle coat, but I need to set aside some time to visit some stores and try these on before I can fall in love with one. But these are the ones currently on my list of coats I love.
Topshop at Nordstroms
Tweed at Macy’s
Teal at New Look
Duffle at Zara
Madison at Modcloth
How do you feel about toggle coats? Do you have any? Any of these colors you think would look beautiful on a blonde?
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! I know I can’t wait to sit back with and relax.
It had just been one thing after another this week! Last Sunday, I picked Annie up and we made some tasty things with my new Kitchen Aid Stand mixer.
My new mixer.
We munched on dim sum while we baked and I had a lot of fun. We made an orange bundt cake, cranberry orange bread, pumpkin bread, spicy cinnamon pumpkin muffins and blueberry muffins,
Our baking results
Work was busy this week, with two rounds of testing for the teens. We often get home around 6 and often I just want to crawl straight into bed with the pups when I do finally get home.
On Thursday a few of us grabbed italian food for dinner. We got grand total of 3 trick-or-treaters. Quite frankly, I was disappointed we didn’t get more at our new place. But the three that did come, we loaded them up with candy!
My students were sleepy and off task Friday, which was a bummer for them since a lot of work was also due. I stayed later than planned at work getting ready for the next round of CAHSEE next week.
I met up with Annie at ValleyFaire and we shopped! With payday on Thursday I wanted to splurge a bit! I had picked up a treat for myself last weekend, but when I finally opened the little brown Kate Spade bag (most of you know exactly the bag I am talking about!) my new bow bracelet was twisted/bent! So our first stop was Nordstrom’s, where a nice young lady switched it out for a new sparkly one. This is my new bauble!
My new bracelet.
I tried on a pair of Uggs because my old pair is so old and well-loved and really not fit for anyone outside of the pups and my roomie’s eyes. Of course, they did not have the correct size for my giant feet, so I settled on ordering them. (Thank goodness Nordstrom’s doesn’t charge for shipping!) Can’t wait for them to arrive!
We wandered over to Sephora,where I picked up a Smashbox eyeliner cream I had been eyeing. I use their Photo Finish Light primer, and i love it!
My primer.
It makes my make-up last, and it seems that it make my makeup stick better. I’m normally a warm person, and halfway through the day my make-up is gone. But a friend had recommended this brand, and they are my go-to primer now. I had also heard good things about the eyeliner cream, so we played around with it. I convinced Annie to try some of their products as well, since we have similar type of skin.
Next stop on our shopping spree: shoes, shoes, shoes. I always think of this Kirsty MacColl song that my dad and I listen to. It is called In These Shoes. It is really a fabulous song. You should listen to it.
While Annie got sucked into trying on lipstick at Chanel, I looked at shoes. With my giant feet (and toes) I often have to order shoes, and pray to the shoe gods that they fit. More often than not, I end up returning them because they gape, pinch, or otherwise look odd. I found a pair of Corso Como heels that I liked, and also ordered a pair of black boots by them in the hopes that they fit as well.
The new heels
The new boots.
Currently some of my work shoes are not as comfortable as I would like. I am looking forward to having some happier feet.
Sorry for the lack of posts, I was having issues with my laptop suddenly shutting down randomly. I had my tech guy at work do his magic and it seems to be fine now. I hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday!
Work has been busy, and it occurs to me that I haven’t really talked about what the Roomie and I do during the day.
The Roomie and I work together at a small charter high school in san Jose. I teach two periods of intro to art, and then work as the site testing coordinator for the rest of the afternoon. I tackle a combination of paperwork from MAPS (Measure of Academic Progress), CELDT (California English Language Development) CAHSEE ( California High School Exit Exam) and most recently added PSAT and SAT Testing for our school. I organise, assist proctor, proctor the tests, and then collect and ship all the documents back.
In one aspect, it is nice that I teach for a bit, and then get to format the rest of the day any way I choose. But, it is also a lot of paperwork to read through (Dull stuff too), and mind-numbing test proctoring. I have been playing a lot of catch-up in both sections in addition to starting my BITSA training.
Also, I am the yearbook coordinator for our school. Getting that program ( a club at lunch really) up and running has been a lot of fumbling in the dark since there aren’t many notes left from my predecessor. He has been helpful, but I am making a lot of decisions that I hope will pan out well!! We shall wait and see.
The Roomie is also working hard, and teaches the girls soccer team after-school. We get home most days around 6, and dive into dinner and cuddle time with the pups. They sorely miss us, so we try to give them lots of love when we are home. Our days are long but the weeks tend to fly by. We have been very busy with the quarter ending this past Monday, so writing posts has somewhat fallen to the wayside. Now that I have had a few weeks of work under my belt, I am hoping to build gym time and blogging time back into my daily life. I also just got a Canon Rebel Xti from work to play around with for yearbook, so expect more photo saturated posts coming soon!
Today and tomorrow Roomie and I are at a professional development session at our sister school in Hayward. Tomorrow my group (the art teachers), are hitting up museums in San Fran, so expect a photo filled entry tomorrow!
Happy almost Friday! (it feels like one to me since we don’t have students for two days!)
Ps. What should I be for Halloween? I have no clue!
Granted, I had been gone most of the previous week, but still! This week was all over the place between giving benchmark tests, CELDT testing/ PSAT testing, and grades due as the quarter ends Monday. I had put a lot of time in to get everything organised for Wednesday, which was the day the whole school was in testing.
Seniors worked on college apps and essays. Juniors took the PSAT test. Sophomores were with my CELDT team testing and Freshman were taking their annual PE test. It started off well, but then twenty minutes into testing everything exploded. Our CELDT booklets did not match our administration booklets, which was a crucial step as much of the test is read aloud to the students. After running around like a chicken with my head cut-off our amazing district testing admin noticed that there were three testing versions in the book, and we were on the wrong one. With that simple fix we were back on track. I had spent so much time organising students, training my test proctors and sectioning out the answer sheets, test booklets and pencils that it never occurred to me to check that we had multiple versions. Oh well!
For most of the week I have been working on getting my classroom settled. They will start on drawing a still life next week, and I just finished backloading all the lessons we had done in the last four weeks into a while you were out binder. Additionally, BITSA and staff development has been taking up time as well. But on Friday I felt like I had finally found ground beneath my feet.
This whole week I have had a cold and this morning I finally gave in. I slept in till 10 (!!!) and it felt glorious. I swifferjet the apartment, tidied up my room, did laundry and ironed, baked banana raisin bread and cornbread. I watched Now You See Me and Iron Man 3 (i loved both of them!).
While watching tons of tv I looked over the internet for some fantastic wall art.
I have been loving these three!
One of my favorite thing used to be getting back to school supplies before school started. There is something about having engraved pencils, cute notepads, a fresh backpack and a rockin’ fall closet that makes the start of school that much better! These just keep popping again and again on my Pinterest and I love them all!
Have any suggestions as to where to get some great wall art? Any good band or art posters you just can’t get enough of?
Let me know where!
I hope you are taking a break and getting some you time this weekend!
Before the wedding my father, Uncle Chip, Richard and I decided to go explore a local town called Sharon Springs, in search of coffee and breakfast snacks. The cafe wasn’t open when we arrived, so we wandered down the street to peek at the little downtown section.
The town used to be a big vacation spot for a famous bath house.
This old funky hotel was beautiful, but showing its age.
It was also for sale, at a great price! (if you need 10acres)
We grabbed donuts and cappuccinos at the Black Cat Coffee shop.
Yum.
On Friday, Richard and I picked up my cousin Andrew and his wife Katie from Jeannette’s house. We drove 4.5 hours from Troy to Niagara Falls. I was the only one that brought my passport, so we stayed on the American side. We stopped for pizza and wings for lunch, and munched on Dunkin’ Donuts as well.
Our lunch on Friday
We walked around the Falls for a bit, snapped tons of photos, and got tickets for the Maid in the Mist tour boat.
It was amazing! I loved how the water was rushing so loud, and disappeared off the edge. I know sometimes doing the touristy-thing can be lame, but this time it was fantastic!
Niagara Falls
Despite the blue ponchos they gave us, I was totally drenched.
Katie and I.
We walked back to the car and saw some cool statues.My cousin and I had matching converse shoes! Can you tell which are his and which are mine?
Matching outfits, totally unplanned.
Naturally, my cousin crawled onto a public monument while I took his photo. #ilovemyfamily
My cousin Andrew is awesome.
We drove back and crashed. It was one very long, but still lovely day! Did you do anything fun on Friday? Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? Have you been to any touristy places that you really enjoyed? (Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, White House, etc)?
Last night we celebrated Mum’s birthday. We had a delicious dinner. We started off with some avocado crostini’s.
Avocado Crostini’s
We had Stolen Chicken for the main course. I love the potatoes and veggies that come along with it.
Our tasty stolen chicken.
My Dad has been bringing in ripe tomatoes everyday from his garden. He tried a new kind this summer and they look amazing. The smell of them feels like summer is still here.
Fresh tomatoes from the garden
Today was a great day. I woke up and read in bed for a while with one snuggly pup (the other was at puppy class). I went grocery shopping. The grey skies and cool weather put in the mood to bake. I started with making some chai, and then tumbled into baking some banana bread.
Robert came over and showed off his swanky new car! Its a 2013 Honda Civic. It’s beautiful! It was pouring for a while so we settled on making some carrot-cake in celebration of his new wheels.
His celebratory carrot-cake!
After a while it stopped raining and I was able to snap a picture of the his new wheels! He refuses to let me take a normal picture of him, so pardon his silly faces on all of the photos.
The new vehicle + his carrot cake doggy bag!
I’m not sure what he is doing here…
After the flour had settled we watched something on Netflix and the other pup and I snuggled on the couch. I stepped away to gather my things and she curled up in the warmth of my spot. Isn’t she cute?
My other snuggly puppy
How was your Saturday? Did you get a chance to kick back and relax? Have any fun things planned for tomorrow?
The smell of fresh ocean everyday, full bellies every night and copious amounts of sleep made for a week beyond unreal. It was a week I could do every year if I could. I came back feeling refreshed, and ready to tackle the rest of the school-year.
Classy and Fabulous 
You must be logged in to post a comment.