I used to like staying home from school...

So, as you know I started a new job a while back. My first day was January 5, so I've been there for four weeks now. I haven't really blogged about it for a few reasons:

1. I'm a procrastinator.
2. I wanted to take pictures of my school to include in my post, but I didn't get around to it for a really long time. See #1.
3. I've been really busy with costuming stuff, so I haven't been thinking about school as much once I get home.
4. I'm still new and learning, so I don't have a lot to say about it yet.

But this week, I was finally initiated into the world of education.

I got sick.

It's all those kids with their crazy germs! I even had to stay home. Two days in a row! And I don't like missing work. Especially when I've only been working there for a few weeks. I'm still trying to prove myself and show my awesome work ethic. But I tried to go in on Wednesday, and I was sent home. I was pretty croaky-sounding, and eventually I lost my voice completely. When it started coming back, this weird croaking noise would come out of me randomly as I was trying to talk. I couldn't really control it. It was funny.

But I did get to watch a lot of Legend of the Seeker when I was home alone for two days. I pretty much love that show. It's cool.

So now I know what it's like to work in education. And I like it. Not the getting sick part, but the job in general. In my position, I work with all the kids in the school, though I see the Sp. Ed. kids more. I go from class to class playing and observing all day. It's pretty awesome. We have some of the coolest little kids in the world. And that's fun.

And I finally took some pictures!

The pictures aren't really all that cool because I don't work in a traditional classroom. The Special Ed. team is based in a resource room. So we have lots of cool toys and resources (ha!), but it just looks like a room with a bunch of stuff in my pictures. Oh, well.

It's kind of a mess. But it doesn't always look like this.

And this is my school:

Ha! Just kidding. This is a private Christian school up the street. But I think it's really cool that I get to drive by a castle every day as I go to work.

It's pretty.

So, that's school. It's cool, until it gets me sick. I'm going to try really hard to stay healthy from now on. But I'm not sure that it will matter with all the kids snotting on me all the time. Oh, well. I guess it's worth it.

I'm going K-ra-zy!

I've been sewing a lot recently, and I have A LOT more to do in the next couple of weeks. My mom and I are co-costuming for a production of "Crazy for You." We were asked somewhat last minute, so we haven't had as much time to prepare as we would have liked. Plus the show is big; we have 34 actors! It's really the first big show either of us has designed, which is a little scary. I'm fairly certain that we're not going to get everything done.

Things have been a little tough at times throughout the process (so far). We don't have as many people on our crew as we thought we would, and the director doesn't really seem to care much about the costumes in general. I'm sure I add to my mother's stress because I get very frustrated very easily. But I'm really hoping it will all be worth it when our fabulous costumes hit the stage on February 13!

Anyway, sewing and planning has completely consumed my time these last few weeks and it will only get worse. This is what I've been doing:

Getting started. Lots of fabric.

Here's the fabric once it was formed into things. Knicker-pants and crazy sequin shrugs, though you can't really tell from the way I piled them together for this picture.

The costumes we took to fittings on Saturday. We had to load all these and the rack into the car, drive 45 minutes, and then unload them at the studio. Then we repeated in reverse so we could take them home and work on them. Fun!

A bodice for one of the EIGHT Follies' girls' dresses we're making.

Two of the half finished Follies' dresses. They still need sleeves and finishings. Plus lots of pink fufu stuff to make it crazy pretty. (And they really need pressed!)

We still have lots of work, so I'll keep posting along the way!

Call me lazy

I'm a major procrastinator. And I occasionally get in certain moods where I just don't want to do anything.

I REALLY should be doing this right now:

Sewing costumes! My mom and I are designing for a local production of Crazy for You. We have A LOT of work to do.

Or this:

Laundry (obviously). It's clean, though. I just need to fold it.

Possibly this:

A crosstitch for my niece who was born two months ago. It's going to have her name, birthday, weight, etc. I know I need to get it done, but it's not like she will be mad if it takes a while. As long as it's on her wall by the time she's three or so, we can just tell her it's been there since she was born. She'll never know.

And I should have done this a LONG time ago:

My bathroom needs to be cleaned. It's not disgusting dirty (FYI: I recently cleaned the toilet), it's just really cluttered.

But instead, I'm doing this:

Playing online!

And this:

And watching TV! (I have no idea what that weird bubble thing is. It wasn't in the TV show. Maybe we have a ghost.)

Oh, well. Tomorrow's a new day!

My favorite things!

There are certain things in my life that just make me happy. Things I pretty much can't live without. These are some of those items.

1. My lappy. I would be lost without this. I'm typing on her as we speak. I married a computer nerd, who spends HOURS on his computer every day. So I've found my own ways to waste time online. Blogging is one of those time-wasters.

2. My awesome KitchenAid mixer. See previous post for all her awesomeness.

3. My car. This is not him, but he looks kinda like this. His name is Samson, but I call him Sammy. He's pretty and comfy.

4. Henry. He's my stuffed frog. Matt bought him for me for my birthday right after we started dating. He's the perfect size to cuddle with.
5. My purple Chucks. I like Chucks and purple is my favorite color. So my purple Chucks are awesome.
6. My Singer sewing machine. Another gift from Matt. This one was from our first Christmas. I sewed my bridesmaid's dresses on this machine. Plus many other things.
7. Books! I love books. I love my books. I want more books.

I have a tendacy to get really, really into certain things way more than most normal people. Then I'll eventually move on and get completely obsessed about another thing. Therefore, my favorite things change from time to time. For example, I always love Gilmore Girls, but sometimes I get ridiculously obsessed with the show and I watch 5 and 1/2 seasons consecutively. Then, my interest will fade a little, and instead of finishing the rest of the seasons, I'll start re-reading Harry Potter over and over, and obsessing with that.

However, this list contains all the constants. The items that I will always love and need. My favorite favorites!

New Year's Eve and Christmas Number Five

That's right, I said "five." I'm pretty sure I could go two years without another Christmas, after my Christmas overload this year. But it was fun.

I know you're anxious for more Christmas posts (I'm sure you just can't wait!), but first, New Year's Eve:

Matt and I had some of our friends and family over for a small New Year's Eve gathering. We were celebrating the new year, and my last day at my old job, which was the 31st.

I'm not sure what we were doing but Melissa looks creepy.

That's better.

Hanging out. Matt's playing with the cat's toy.

Still hanging out. And eating food.

Waiting for the countdown.

Melissa brought over some champagne that had been sitting in her folk's house for years and years and years.

We were pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be that dark.

And we were definitely sure it wasn't supposed to taste that disgusting. It had absolutely no fizz left and it was pretty gross. Luckily, we bought a back up in case the old stuff was way too old.

On New Year's Day we had our final Christmas celebration with my family.

Hanging out before dinner.

The pretty dinner table.

Chris usually doesn't let me take pictures of him, but I caught this when he wasn't looking.

There's the pretty baby. She's getting big!

My dad with the sparkly, sequined Santa hat.

We were also celebrating my niece's birthday, which was Monday. So we had cupcakes!

The birthday girl!

After Christmas presents and birthday presents, we played a cool new game, called Quelf. It was pretty crazy. I would have taken pictures, but Matt says I've been bugging him by taking pictures all the time. So here's one I found online instead:

It was pretty crazy. At one point, I was hiding in a closet upstairs waiting for everyone to find me. The first person got to move ahead three spaces. Good times.

So, I'm done with Christmas for at least another year. I don't even really want to think about Christmas anymore! But overall, it was a fun and joyful holiday season!

Christmas: Part Four... Will it ever end??

Recap: Three down, Matt's still sick... or is he?

Christmas Four

When we woke up Saturday morning, the greatest thing happened. Matt was feeling better!!! That means that the moment had arrived!

JERRY'S DONUTS!!

We'd been planning to get donuts all week, but Matt hadn't been feeling up to it. I was very close to going without him, but I didn't want him to miss out on the wonderful experience. So, when I found out he was feeling up to it, I was thrilled.

"This is the moment!
This is the day!"

Pretty much the best donut shop ever is in Ark City. Go there. It's technically called Ike's, but it was Jerry's for, like, a million years, so all the extra cool locals still call it Jerry's. I'm not a local, but I pretend. This donut shop is pretty much the reason I married Matt. Just so I would have an excuse to go to his hometown and become a part of his Jerry's traditions.

Anyway, after the spectacular donuts, we still had another Christmas to get to. Christmas with Matt's Mom's family. But this time Matt was around! Yay!

Eating. We had a delicious array of soups. After ham and fixings for Friday, and turkey and fixings for Thursday, soup was a wonderful way to change things up.

There was taco soup, potato soup, and chicken noodle soup. Yum.

The final round of presents. Still small stuff, though.

My niece is enthralled with the bubble wrap. I can't believe how much kids love that stuff. Although, I will admit, it's fun to pop.

And game time, yet again! Rummikub! A friend of ours from college lives in town, so he came over and joined us. Later, some other friends stopped by. It was great to see people again.

Those are my tiles... don't tell anyone.

And Dark Tower again! That's my little dude.

After games, Matt was feeling well enough to become one with his inner nerd-child. His mother found his old "Future Astronaut's Handbook" from Space Camp. I want to make fun of him, but I always wanted to go to Space Camp, so really I'm just jealous.

And I finally made Matt put on the Christmas present I got him, now that I was pretty sure he wouldn't puke on it. It looks good!

Kinda clashes with those ugly chiefs pants, though. I need to get him some Avs PJs. Or some Broncos PJs...

So, it was a crazy vacation, but it was a lot of fun. I loved seeing all the family, and we definitely got to see ALL the family.

It was nice to get home and relax for a while. But it didn't last for too long. Today, we had Christmas with my folks since we missed it last week. But I'll talk about that some other time. I think I'm done with Christmas for now!