When I should've been doing homework...

In honor of Rosh Hashanah, we had no school today. I had hoped to be ultra productive and get lots of grad school homework done, and while I have done some, the majority of my morning has been filled with much more interesting activities...

For starters...I cut another inch and a half off my hair. You may have noticed in the hiking pictures that somehow it all already grew back. 'Twas time for more chopping.

I surprised Marcus at work with some White Sox cakes I made in honor of today's ultra-important game. This morning before he left he told me that Sox fans are supposed to wear black (maybe until they win? not sure...) today, so I went ahead and did it, even though I don't fully understand. :) His manager, also a mega-Sox fan, was also excited.

I think they turned out pretty cute. :)

Okay, now that I do have a few hours yet in the day, I'm really going to try and get a lot of work done. I am currently studying up on Scientology for a presentation I have to give. Some strange stuff (in my opinion). I hope ya'll have a great day! Go Sox!

Hiking at Starved Rock

Saturday was my parents' 28th anniversary! So they came up for a little mini-family-gathering at Starved Rock. We had a fun time hiking and afterward we went to possibly the most random place ever...it was an indoor amusement park/pizza joint called The Enchanted Forest. It was quite an experience. We had a great day and it was fun to meet (almost) halfway without either of us having to drive a full three hours.

The girls

I know, I'm such a daredevil. At this point my mom was shouting for me to come down, which was really funny...considering I am an adult. :)

Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom!

It was fun finding random caves to attempt to spelunk. haha.

You might have wondering, "Where is Brandon?" Well...we wondered that too...until we found him here at this lodge. Oh Baldy!
(P.S. For those of you who don't know, my brother's nickname is Baldy.)

This random but cute bookshelf/dinner table.

You could sit on this man's lap for a rest after a hike if you wanted. We did!

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonderful feeling, Everything's going my way...

Okay, so those are the lyrics from Oklahoma, of course, but if you think that is my life, then think again! :)

Just kidding, I don't mean to sound so negative. BUT, I do have a nice little anecdote for you...

Last night I was in orchestra rehearsal and about thirty minutes into it I could see that we were really rehearsing and that I wouldn't have time to do some homework like I thought I would. So, I reached into my purse to grab my phone to text Marcus and see if he would want to meet up at Starbucks after orchestra so I could do some homework. Well, good thing I grabbed my phone, because what I saw on my screen was: FIVE missed calls, THREE voicemails, and TWO text messages all from Marcus. The texts just said "Call me." and "Please call." Oui vey. So of course I start to get paranoid that either someone died or our apartment was on fire or something crazy like that. I texted him quickly saying "Can't call." --obviously, since I was in rehearsal. So, at one point during Brahms I had ten measures of rest so I quickly hunched over behind my stand and listened to my voicemail....

Turns out...we blew a fuse! No one died and nothing was on fire. Good grief. Such a big deal about something so small. The message said that we blew a fuse in our apartment and that the maintenance guy can't get there till the morning. Of course Marcus tried flipping all of the breakers, etc., but nothing would get things up and running again. The message also said that since nothing was working, he was leaving. So, I texted him my original plan, "Meet at 'bux?" He texts back, "I'm at Red Star"....ahh...suddenly it ALL comes together. Why would Marcus choose Red Star Tavern over Starbucks for a place to spend his evening???? Oh yes, THE WHITE SOX GAME WAS ON. And with the power out- he needed to watch it somewhere! Haha, that made me laugh. So, after orchestra he walked across the parking lot from Red Star to Starbucks and met me there. Of course I asked him why he made such a big deal about the power being out, and really, what in the world did he expect ME to do about it from orchestra??? His response?

"I just wanted to know if I could get a beer."

Oui vey. Gotta love him. :)

So, in conclusion, we took our showers and got ready this morning by candlelight which happens to be one of my recurring nightmares. For real- I often have a bad dream that the power is out and that my alarm doesn't work (which did happen- my phone didn't wake me up like I thought I had set it to do) and then I have to get ready in the dark. My bad dream really happened! But then, we got to go to Panera for breakfast and now here I am at school...obviously with nothing better to do. :) Hopefully the power gets fixed soon enough before the food/milk in the fridge goes bad...

Hope you have a great day...the kids are coming in!

Sunday = Fun Day

We had so much fun today with a little family-athletic-action! Last night we went to visit Lindsey and Becca and see their new apartment, and Becca threw out the idea of playing a little wiffle ball sometime the next day. Well, we tried to invite many people, but it just boiled down to the five of us who were there when we the idea came up the night before. Nonetheless, it was a fabulous time. Hopefully we'll do it again sometime soon. Lindsey has also suggested some football...we'll see...I mean, as Brittney and I discussed today during Sunday School, I made my way through flag football in gym class by either standing on the sidelines or running with the crowd...what's to stop me from doing that again? I mean truly, do you have to UNDERSTAND a game to be able to play it? I suppose not. :)

Ouch. Marcus throws hard...Becca got a welt. Injured at the first game!

Nice wiffle ball wound!

Trav was switch-hitting...remind you of anyone? (Swisher)

Strike one!

Crazy pitcher...

Early Riser

This is a picture of the sunrise up in Round Lake which I was blessed to see Saturday morning at 6:30 AM! Holy smokes! I left the house at 6:00 Saturday to join my friend Julie at a children's resale. Once in awhile I join her for these things, when I'm feeling up to it. It was fun, as usual. She found some good things and it was fun to go because this one was at a new location. I think I have now officially been to four early-morning crazy children's resales...even though I am childless! :) I guess that just shows that I am one rocking friend. haha, jk. :)

Back in the Swing of Things

Welp...here I am back in full swing. Life is going well. This week has been busy, lo and behold I have gotten to see my husband and get to bed at decent times. School is going well, the kids are all getting into a routine, and we're having fun.

I did find out that I will be most likely adding another grad class (ouch!) to my semester this year, bringing my grand total of credit hours to....12...eek. I think some undergrads (definitely not music or ed majors!!!) count that as full-time school! Well, I count it as part time considering my lovely teaching job usually pushes me well past 45-50 hours per week. :) But, this other class came up and it's one of the classes for my emphasis (International Human Rights) that is only offered at Trinity's California campus, but for this one they're going to tele-conference it and I really can't pass that up. Basically, I'll have to show up for class at the same time as the grad students out in Cali do, but I get to go to Deerfield and attend a virtual classroom via the internet. Should be cool. We'll see... I do have lots of homework to do for all four of my classes this semester and I hope I can fit it all in. I will definitely have to be diligent with my weekends!

On a completely different note, I went shopping yesterday afternoon for some "modest summery clothes" for India. I was hoping to find a bunch of things on clearance since summer is more or less over. Jackpot! I got some really cute shirts for ultra cheap at Old Navy and one at Target. I ended up coming home with five shirts and only spending $35. Too bad I have to return two since they didn't fit (oops, didn't try them on the store). Speaking of India...I'll be sending out support letters soon, so stay tuned! :)

Sorry I have no pics to post. No exciting events have been taking place lately. :) I've only been snapping shots of my students and I really shouldn't be putting pics of them on my blog! :)

Have a great week drying off. I hope you weren't too ruined by all the rain this past weekend.

One more hair pic and then some other stuff

Alrighty, here's the new 'do straightened. Not the best pic, but that's alright...

What a week so far! I am excited to start orchestra tonight. I am so exhausted though from going nonstop for about 17 hours straight each day this week. When can I sleep in? :)

Hope you all are having a great week! Feel free to drop me a line to let me know! I love getting comments on the blog! (or real emails, too!)

Getting adjusted...

Is this day over yet??? This is like the craziest and most stressful day! I don't know why, other than I'm probably making things a bigger deal than they need to be! I just feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I have on my plate. Why in the world am I blogging then!?! Well...mainly to show ya'll a pic of my hair today. :)

Chop!

Okay, on a night like tonight, cutting my hair was totally NOT what I had time for...but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do when she gets a whim. I have been "growing my hair out" now for like two years and it's really been at the same length for like a year and a half, so I figured I had accomplished my goal of growing my hair out. So, I decided that considering the fact that I also like my hair short, I went for it and chopped it off. Below are pictures-- it is unstyled, and I look weird sans glasses, so don't judge yet. :) Wait till I post more pics of it actually done nicely. :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

What a week that lies ahead...

Okay, so that is a random picture, but it is of me right now as I type. :)

I'm a little nervous about the week that lies ahead...well, maybe not nervous, but um...dreading it?

Marcus and I just got back from a rousing game of 21 (well, two games, and I lost both) and I took a quick shower...dinner is cooking on the stove and he is practicing bass. I thought I'd take a moment to update the blog since I haven't since last weekend. That's because nothing too eventful has taken place!

This week is going to be pretty crazy...Monday after school I have our year's first union meeting (should be interesting as we prepare for contract negotiations) and then Monday night I have night class and I have a presentation to give (which I should be preparing at this moment). Thankfully, I signed up for one of the first presentations and after this one, I'm off the hook. The only downside to that is I haven't yet seen other students do it, so I'm not 100% sure what is expected. I guess I'll just do my best. Tuesday night I have orchestra, which I'm looking forward to since I had to miss the first rehearsal last week due to Back to School Night (oh how I love working for 14 hours straight)...Wednesday night I have/get to work a recruitment for Marcus. Let me explain. At his work during back-to-school season, many times the guys there have to work nights at schools while their music teachers do band and orchestra recruitments. The kids come and try out the instruments and then they come over to the Music Center table and rent their instrument. It's a pretty convenient setup. I LOVE working at these!! Marcus was supposed to work on Wednesday night, but the band that he just joined has a show that night. He was having trouble getting out of work to play the show, so I offered to do it for him. Almost every fall, I get to work for Music Center at a recruitment or two. I think they are so much fun- I love watching the kids decide what instrument to play and of course I get the chance to hand out my card to potential horn students, haha. Plus, it's a little extra money for us, since I get paid for it. So, although that means I'll probably miss Marcus's show, I will have fun at the recruitment and he'll get to actually get to go play his show. Then Thursday night is small group, which will be good. SO...now that I see it all spelled out, maybe I'm not so much dreading all that I have to do, more just the fact that I won't really see Marcus this week and that I'll be going nonstop.

I will take this moment to now insert a happy event: tomorrow I get to meet with Sarah for coffee and hear all about her European adventures!!! I'm glad she's back! Even if it is only to leave me again shortly for the sunny, beckoning South Carolina.

Alrighty...time to watch the White Sox game-- they just tied it up in the ninth inning and now we're going into extra innings! YAY, gotta love baseball. :) Go SOX!

Today's Score:

Played 21 again this morning. Today's score 10:21. I'm getting better! :)

Happy Labor Day, everyone! Enjoy your day of no labor!