Getting back into the swing of things

So it's been a few weeks since my last blog post (oops!) but I've been so busy and all over the place...excuses, excuses!

Last week I went with my fiance to his training in Mystic, Connecticut. I feel really fortunate that because I teach, I have summers off and have the ability to do a lot more trips! So we went to Mystic for three short days and one day he was off at a training and I was SHOPPING!

The town itself was really cool. It's the site of the 1988 Julia Robert's movie Mystic Pizza, which was actually filmed in Mystic (or parts of it were). We didn't get a chance to stop in but got a peek at the restaurant as we were driving by. In Mystic there is a shopping center called Old Mystic Village (click here to check it out: http://www.oldemistickvillage.com/). There were lots of types of shops and things to see; a definite if you like "general" stores, yummy chocolate, or unique finds!

I spent the day that my fiance was off training shopping at a different plaza. I found this really cute store called Cape Cod Crafters. They had a bunch of crafts and decorations that were hand-made by local crafters at a really, really reasonable price. I am a sucker for all those quote plaques so I bought a few unique ones for our house and my classroom. It would definitely be my number one pick of places to go in Mystic!

We got up early the next day and headed to the Mystic Aquarium. They had all sorts of cool things! We had the chance to pet stingrays (which I chickened out of!), seeing beluga whales, and watching the "critter cam" (a camera strapped onto the back of animals in the wild--we could see the footage!) They had a lot of neat things to see, but we made it a quick trip to get back home to the puppy!

So after all this, I'm working hard on getting my classroom ready for school and preparing my lessons! I promise after next week (when I get into the swing of things) my usual posts will return!

What is this?! and Growing Pains

I feel like this summer has been a non-stop
                Go
                        go
                               go
                                       marathon.

Last week, my friend from Florida, Nicole stayed with my roommate and I. It was so fun to see her (since we rarely have a chance to spend a week with her) but still felt busy. This weekend, my fiance and I went to another friend's wedding and Monday was my birthday--25!

I'm finally feeling like I can have a breather and some free time--something I feel like I have been missing in my "summer off." I have a small vacation planned in a few weeks and school starting up in 4.5 weeks (YIKES!) So I do have some planning/packing coming up in the not so distant future, but today I think I can take a small break and just kick back, relax, and maybe read a magazine.

My birthday was yesterday, I am an 8/8 baby! Making 8 my lucky number. My birthday was not super exciting, partially my own darn fault. Part of me thinks that maybe this is how birthdays will be now that I am getting older and have reached all the milestone birthdays and have friends and family spread world-wide. I slept in (because I was exhausted after the Sunday wedding we attended) and when I got up I did chores (because I had been gone since Friday and the house was a mess). So in between laundry/vacuuming/dishes/dusting/finishing painting the Master Bedroom, I brought lunch to the fiance at work. After he came home from work with flowers and a card we headed to his parents for dinner. Later, we met up with my roommate, Jill, from Life After College http://lifeaftercollege3.blogspot.com/ for cake and presents. The highlight of my day was definitely cake with Jill and just chatting with her and the fiance. BUT...the rest of my day felt a little lack luster. I guess I should have made a point to go shopping or to a movie, but maybe this is just what grown up birthdays are like.

Anyone else have exciting or not so exciting birthdays as you get older or is it just me?

Silly things people say

I was just having this conversations with my friends and thought, "perfect blog post!"

Ever since I got engaged people say the darnedest things. Most are out of a place of love, but still!

Here are some of the comments I've gotten when I've shared the big news:

"Don't have your wedding during (insert month/date/time here) because I'm can't come then"

"Why are you waiting so long to get married?" (We're planning for a summer 2013 wedding)

"I better be in your wedding!"

"Make sure you do a open bar all night!"

"Why are you getting married so soon?"

"I'm invited, of course"

"Don't get married..."


And my favorite, this is one the fiance had said to him, "I thought you were going to wait a few years to "sow your wild oats" before getting married. Why are you in such a rush?"

Do we have to invite that person?!

Truly we've had a lot of really nice comments and a great deal of support.

Anyone else engaged/married with similar experiences and comments? Or just have people that really care about you say crazy things?!

A wine weekend with the girls

A few of my college friends are flying/driving up to the Finger Lakes Region of New York State for wine tasting. (Here's a link to the Finger Lakes Wine Country website  FLWC) It was always a favorite past time of ours in college and now we're back together three years later!

We love to taste the wine, get together and catch up, and of course meet a lot of interesting people along the way.

I never really liked wine until we went wine tasting (and I actually discovered wine wasn't all bitter or dry!) I've become a very small-scale wine expert (in the act that I know a little trivia about wine and some tasting facts that wow my friends whenever I take them!)

I'm a fan of sweet wines, especially a blush wine. If you are too, one way to easily tell the level of sweetness of a wine is to look on the label/box/tasting guide for the R.S. percentage. R.S. just means residual sugar and tells you how sweet the wine actually is. (For me the sweeter the better!) The sweetest wine out there is called dessert wine, which can go on top of ice cream, fresh fruit, or stand alone (in small quantities of course--it's very sweet!) Typically I like my wine to taste like juice and am totally happy in the 6-8% R.S. level, but I have has some dessert wines as sweet at 22% R.S. Keep the R.S. in mind even if you're not a sweet wine drinker, it will easily help you find a favorite wine.


Are there any wines you LOVE? Does anyone know any wine trivia or taster's tips?

The Catcher In the Rye

What I'm reading now:

J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye



I've read The Catcher in the Rye before (actually in 11th grade English) and really liked the book.

Now, that I'm rereading this book to teach to my seniors in the fall, I'm in love with this book! There are so many cool things I just overlooked as a teenager, that I'm picking up on. The symbolism is awesome and I adore the fact that Holden is such an unreliable narrator. He says he hates this and hates that, and the next minute he's doing just that. Typical teens!

So, if you haven't read it, please you have to go pick it up or borrow it from someone, somewhere. It's wonderful (and it's got sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll appeal--so to speak).

Yeah, I'm an English nerd. Snort, snort.

Weekend Recap

So this weekend, the fiance and I did a lot of work to the Master Bedroom and it's starting to look like a real room again, not just a room under construction. Thank goodness!

We painted most of the room (minus our accent wall) and will definitely paint that this week. Next steps are stripping the molding and cleaning up the hardwood floors--the end is in sight!

We also have a garden--it's huge--and all our hard work in that is finally paying off! We gathered about 10 cucumbers and a large bowl of beans. Nothing is better than fresh vegtables!

But I am really working hard this week because I'm looking forward to next weekend. A break from all this work and crazy go, go, go-ness. Some of my college friends are coming up and we are having a girls' weekend and going wine tasting! 


Now to just get the apartment cleaned and grocery shopping done before they arrive!

What were you up to this weekend? Anything exciting?

Up early

I'm up at 7 am getting ready to go to the gym.

And blog of course!

My roommate, Jill, thinks I'm crazy because I can sleep in until whenever (because I'm not working this summer--the many perks of teaching) and yet, I insist on getting up early to go to the gym.

I don't know why I prefer going early in the morning, maybe it's because I can't during the school year or maybe it's quieter there in the wee hours? Either way, I'm getting my butt out of bed earlier than neccessary!

Is there anything you get up extra early to do?