Monday, January 27, 2014

snow days.



In my 26 years of living in IN, I cannot remember a winter quite as cold as this one.
This winter has been pretty brutal, and I've been daydreaming about moving to Georgia.

Anyways.
This is my 2nd snow day off in a week.
The 5th snow day overall this year.
And school is cancelled for tomorrow too.

Ty's even off work today because the county offices closed.
There's currently a travel ban.
$2500 fine if you're out on the roads.

So what are you supposed to do with all this free time?
Plan lessons ahead?
No...because you left your school bag at work last Thursday, thinking you'd be back on Friday.
But you weren't.

We've been spending a lot of time watching tv, playing games, reading, relaxing, making doggy burritos.

For some reason, I just can't seem to be productive on snow days. I seem to think they are ONLY for being lazy.

But I will say that a little while ago, we cleaned the bedroom.
Not just "straightened up."
I'm talking a pretty major deep cleaning.
I'm the first one to admit that we neglect our bedroom.
No one ever goes in it.
But I love when it looks nice, like it does now!


Let me explain those blue pillows.
Our sheets were getting yucky, so we got rid of them. We had a spare set of king-size sheets that we decided to use, but they're periwinkle.
Oh well, like I said, no one ever goes in there except us.

But while cleaning, I came up with a to-do list for this spring/summer for the bedroom.

To Do:
-Get sheets that match the bedding.
-Get/make a headboard.
-Paint our bedroom furniture.
-Get new blinds/shades for the windows.
-Get a new laundry hamper (ours was the cloth kind that hangs on the wooden thingy. Abby ripped it one day when she was being naughty while we were at work. I still haven't replaced it. I'm starting to feel like a neglectful wife....ripped hamper, periwinkle sheets, yucky blinds. Just keeping it real, folks.

I normally don't care at all what the bedroom looks like. But I think it would be nice to spend a little time and money on the room that's "ours." 

Now we're off to do some more tv watching, relaxing, pet-cuddling snow day activities.

xoxo, wife.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

games and such.

Ty and I like to play games. 
We used to play Scrabble for hours when we were dating. 
We've attended numerous game nights as a couple. 
And we like to play games on random weeknights when there's nothing else to do. 

Well with the whole Polar Vortex thing earlier this week, we were stuck inside with not much to do. I posted the other day about a little bit of game play. 

The next night we had another session. I had mentioned that I really wanted to play Battleship, but we didn't have it. So when Ty was out at his job interview the other night, he stopped and bought it. And we commenced to play yet another "snowy day" game.






The kept trying to make some elaborate designs while he played. We thought this looked like a ninja-ish figure.

While he was out, Ty also bought my new least-favorite game ever. We played it at my parents' house the other night and I hated it.
Dumb.

It's stupid.
And I don't get it.
And I think it's terrible to make someone do math while playing a game.

But then I got a Yahtzee.
And ended up winning two of the three rounds we played.
So then I was happy.


I've now moved all our 2-person games to the shelf in the living room. That way we're likely to play games more often.

xoxo, wife.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

he's 27 years old and...


He just had his first job interview yesterday.
Yep.
First one.
He's been incredibly fortunate up to this point that he's known the right people to get jobs. And then the connections he's made through those jobs have helped him get different jobs.
But today was different.

Now, he's still keeping his full-time job. But he also wants to pick up a small part-time job for some extra money for hunting stuff. Which is actually really respectable of him. Hunting is a really expensive hobby, and he doesn't want to spend "our" money on it all the time. 

So he went in for a job interview with a local gun shop/shooting range yesterday. 
I could tell he was a little nervous beforehand.
But he called me after and was SO excited!
He told me all about it.
The questions they asked.
The responses he gave.
Their reactions to his responses. 
It was evident that he was pretty proud of himself, and that this was a big deal.

I found myself smiling and told him over the phone, "It's kinda cute how excited you are about a part time job interview."

But I guess it's kind of huge if it's the first job interview he's ever had.

He's basically been offered the job, and will work out a part time schedule in the next week or two. The company is pretty much going to work around his full time job and his hobbies, which he's pretty pumped about. And he made a point several times today that he didn't want to work too much because he didn't want it to put any kind of strain on our marriage. So he'll keep that in mind as well.

I tell ya...this kid's a keeper.
Even if it took 27 years for him to go on a legit job interview :)

xoxo, wife.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

polar vortex 2014

This whole Blizzard 2014 thing must be documented. It's crazy.

First of all, let the record show that before this last big snow, I SHOVELED THE DRIVEWAY LAST WEEK. This is almost unheard of around these parts.


Husband was pleased.

Anyway, the weatherman had been forecasting this huge snowfall and bitterly cold temps all week. Most of the time this kind of thing doesn't actually end up occurring, but I figured I'd head to the store anyway, just in case. I just have to say that I don't think I've ever seen that many people in the grocery store at one time. It was like Black Friday in the frozen foods section. I had to wait in line just to get a stinkin' cart! And then I had to fight my way down the aisles to get food. It was nuts. But apparently worth it, because later on it snowed for pretty much 24 hours straight.

Once all the snow was said and done, we woke up to this spectacular sunrise. It was the first time it had been sunny in quite some time, and it was gorgeous. 

(Can you believe we didn't grill out for dinner?)

Unfortunately, with the lovely sunrise came some INSANELY frigid temps.

Check out that windchill! This wasn't even the coldest.

So when it's THAT cold, this is what Ty looks like before he goes outside to shovel a spot for the dog:
He was outside less than a minute before a layer of frost collected on his glasses.

And this is what your beautiful front doors look like once your husband discovers a tiny gap that's letting in a LARGE amount of that frigid air.

That's janky. The garage door looks even worse.

And this is what you do when there's a travel ban and you can't/don't want to leave the house: You play games. We had a lot of fun and have decided that the two of us need to do this more often. So if you have any two-player games you'd like to send us, please feel free. 


Excuse the no-makeup look. What's the point when you can't leave the house?



I woke up this morning completely expecting this to be my last day of Christmas Break. I got out the laptop and decided to take advantage of a little extra plan time. Then I got an email saying that school would be closed YET AGAIN tomorrow! So I promptly put the laptop away and lounged on the couch again. 

For the record: that will be THREE snow days in a row, and a 2 1/2 week Christmas Break. It's pretty glorious.

And it couldn't have happened during a better year. I think God knows I needed as much time away from my crazy students as possible. Every day that I have off, I get a little more rejuvenated to go back. 

I PROMISE I'll be ready on Thursday...perhaps.

xoxo, wife.

Friday, January 3, 2014

preparation

I'm incredibly sorry to report that Christmas Break is almost over.

BOOOOOOOO!

I decided that the only way to get over the "funk" of going back to school was to try to get back into the swing of things. The other day I decided to sit down and start working ahead.


It was slow going at first. But I sat at the kitchen table for 5 hours and got all my planning done through the 2nd week of February! That's the furthest ahead that I've ever worked.

Today I decided to head into school to get things ready. I spent about 4 hours there...and half of that time was spent printing. Shhhh...don't tell my principal how much paper I used today! I bet I'm solely responsible for the chopping down of 3 trees. But the good news is that I won't have to make copies again for a long time. Which means that I'll get to leave work earlier than normal!

After printing in the library, I headed down to my room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cleaning crew had shampooed my rug and it looks great! In college I was taught to maintain a good relationship with all custodians. I took that advice, and look what it got me!

Then I got some more work done around the room.

(I haven't used this puppy in about 2 years. But since I planned so far ahead, it was really helpful.)


I also got a LOT of pencils sharpened. We go through pencils really quickly...mostly because the kids chew on them or eat the erasers off of them. Now I won't have to sharpen new pencils for quite a while! My poor pencil sharpener was making some very interesting noises by the end of this sharpening session, though.

Look at all those copies! This file thingy won't even close, it's so full!

I have to say, all this work makes me feel much more prepared about going back on Monday. Now I can enjoy the rest of my break.

xoxo, wife.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

new year's eve 2013

As I get older, the years seem to be speeding up. I can't believe that 2013 has come and gone already. It seems like just yesterday we headed down to Ft. Wayne for a good old-fashioned hockey game to kick off the new year. I'm pretty sure it's becoming tradition, since we did the same thing the other night for the 3rd year in a row. But I don't mind. I don't really care about the hockey, but I like the fighting...and hanging out with my sister-in-law, who also doesn't really care about the hockey.

The evening started off at Chuck E Cheese's for some pizza and arcade games.




After we gave all our tickets to Caleb, he picked out some prizes and we headed down the street to get our hockey on!



Trying to rub it in that my preggo sis-in-law couldn't drink, when in reality it took me about an hour to finish the ONE drink I had all night. As I get older, I also become more of a pansy, apparently!

Love this lady!

This would be the face of a 7 year old who's had pizza, popcorn, mountain dew, and an entire thing of cotton candy (most of which is still on his mouth.)

Leave it to Jason and Tara to never let us take an appropriate group shot.

Oh wait, that's more like it!

On the way home, it was just me and the Hubs, because we drove separately. There was a lot of loud and obnoxious singing and dancing (mostly on my part) until we hit the snow storm around Warsaw. Then it was quieter (but still obnoxious) singing from me, and slow and cautious driving from the mister. We pulled into the driveway right at 12:01, and I got a quick kiss before we pulled into the garage. 

Happy New Year's everyone.
May God bless you and keep you safe in 2014.

xoxo, wife.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

christmas recap.

There's never a shortage of Christmas celebrations around these Miller parts. This year was no exception. We had FOUR Christmases again this year. One on each side of both our families.

Christmas #1: Mom's side of the fam


Good food, good gifts, good family time.

Christmas #2: Dad's side of the fam

Playing bingo for gift card prizes...

And our winnings...the Miller family kind of dominated.


Christmas #3: Mother-in-law's side of the fam

Ty's aunt Kimi gave all the girls shellac manicures. I was pumped! These manicures are supposed to last for 3 weeks. As a teacher, this could be my new go-to!


I made some JUMBO marshmallows to take.

Got lots of snuggle-time with my favorite Godson, Bentlee. Love his little jammies!

Christmas #4: Father-in-law's side of the fam

Our Dirty Bingo prizes. I didn't take the picture until after about 10 prizes had been won. The game lasts longer each year because we all seem to think we need to bring 453 gifts. I believe this took about 2 hours to play! But Ty and I got some pretty good stuff.

The same as every year, I realized once again how blessed I am to have such an awesome family. And blessed that since I've been married, my family has grown. Having 4 Christmases is crazy, but I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.

xoxo, wife.