Sheet rock, spiders, & pollen, OH MY!

I can't believe ANOTHER week has flown by. In that time we have finished the sheet rock in the basement. This meant the washing machine had to be disconnected. We own Fisher & Paykel washer and dryer. I've had them for... wow... 7 years. Each has been serviced once, and now I'm going for the washer's second. After reconnecting, it doesn't want to drain.

Last weekend, I was assaulted by a spider. OK. So it didn't attack me, per se...

It did BURST out from under the litter box sending me SCREAMING into the opposite side of the house. I closed the bathroom door only to notice it has a nice sized gap. I call Matthew in a frenzy.
T: What should I DO?!?
M: Just put a Mason jar over it, slide a piece of paper underneath, and take it outside.
T: Wha? Ha! A MASON JAR WON"T FIT OVER THIS THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
M: How big is it?
T: Friggin' HUGE!
M:(laughs) OK. I'll be home soon.
T: (trying to control breathing) I think I have a glass that's big enough.

So I grab a glass, and try the sneak around behind it... it ran. More screaming. Me chasing it. It chasing me. I finally corner it and lower the glass. It raises in front two legs. Guess what buddy? I'm done screaming. Your @$$ is going outside.... as soon as Matthew gets home. Can you see? Can you see the size of that thing?!?

The spider and I now live in separate harmony. :)

And now a kudos to Zyrtec which is keeping my sinuses at bay for now.

Spring Reading

I have always loved reading, even when I was a kid. Thanks, mom, for all the book fair moolah! :)

Anyhoo... I decided that I needed to read "The Chronicles of Narnia". I did not read them when I was younger. As I was wandering around Barne's & Noble's one day, I spied "The Magician's Nephew", and so my reading began. I have since finished "The Lion, Witch, & the Wardrobe" and most recently finished (as in, today) "The Horse and His Boy".

I look forward to reading "Prince Caspian". I love the Phish song, and when Matthew had a salt water tank in college, we named the clown fish Prince Caspian.

Tis all for now! I tend to do my best reading in the warmer climates. There's just something about sitting outside and reading a good book!

Spring Break

This is Spring Break week, and I am trying to make the most of it! It started Saturday in Asheville. A friend from my Greensboro days was visiting her folks in Aville, so we got to hang out. We did Malaprops for a coffee/smoothie, Woolworth Walk with its beautiful, local art, and The Grove Arcade with its funky, hip shops. I found a t-shirt with a goat on it! We also had fun at the Bath Junkie creating different scents, including dirt+cucumber+basil...

Sunday was Easter. We had dinner at the King Ranch. Little Addison did not feel well, but she sure did have some fun in her swing! Oh, I love to hear her giggle!

Monday was for more friend time. We met up at Carl Sandburg's place in Flat Rock. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, verging on being hot! The goats and chickens are my favortie part, and yes, I did wear my new goat t-shirt. :)

We had nice hike followed by some delicious pizza by the Flat Rock Bakery. Mmmmmm!

Tuesday was long overdue time spent with a good friend. We had a fantastic time shopping at Target, then lunch at Hannah Flanagan's, and more shopping downtown Hendo.

Wednesday was my time. Matthew has been threatening to donate any of my framed pictures that don't get hung up. I managed to get quite a few hung yesterday in no time! I don't know why I waited so long to do it.

Thursday... getting less productive: I've done a load of dishes; one load of laundry washed & waiting to be put in the dryer; one basket waiting to be folded; vacuumed AND Shark steam-cleaned the floors; hmmm... maybe I've done a little more than I thought today. Yay!

I'm hoping to go back Monday, recharged and ready for the next 9 weeks. We don't have any breaks between now and the end of the year (thank you, snow).

Hope all is well with you out there in cyberspace!

Relay for Life

I have joined West Falcon's Relay For Life Team. I have never had a family member with cancer, and I hope I never do. I do have friends and students who have had cancer or have had family memebers with cancer. I hope that the money raised can help fund research to find ways and cures.

I will be walking in May. This is the first time I have participated in an actual event. My fundraising goal is $200. If you would like to support the Relay For Life, please click here http://relay.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=14331603&pg=personal&fr_id=24674 if you would like to donate.

Please feel free to share any of your stories here. Thank you for any support you give or have given to Cancer Research.

Playing catch up...

This past school week has been the first full, normal week since the week of December 7. It was a long week, especially since we only had a one day weekend. We went to school last Saturday to make up a snow day.

I am conducting the Pit Orchestra for our Spring Musical, "Thoroughly Modern Mille". It has been a lot work but at least it's fun! I have an awesome group. Our show opens next week, so I am going to try to get some rest this weekend (we'll see how that goes).

Tomorrow is our niece's 1st birthday! It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed!

My chorus and orchestra have our first spring concert on March 23. Why I am doing a concert the Tuesday after the musical, I will never know. It will be a good concert. I'm proud of our progress so far.

I am looking forward to Spring! I can't believe Daylight Savings is tonight. In my 32 years, I have never delt well with the time change.

That's about all for now. I'm going to go outside and enjoy this sunshine while I can!

Celaya & Guanajuato, Mexico

It was time to leave Patzcuaro and travel to Morelia and catch a bus to Celaya. Matthew and I took a busvan to the place we were dropped off when arriving to Patzcuaro. We weren't exactly sure how to catch a bus to Morelia, but we knew the buses stopped at that spot. While looking like sad little lost gringos, our buddy, Gerado showed up in his taxi! He said he could drive us to Morelia! This worked out quite well. We arrived at the bus station in Morelia and bought a ticket to Celaya.

The purpose of traveling to Celaya was to visit some friends. They picked us up at the bus station and took us back to their house. The next day they showed us around. Have you ever seen a Garbonzo bean/Chickpea NOT in the can? This is what it looks like.

I don't know if you can see the green pods, but that is where the bean is. We collected a mound of bushes, and Rogelio's mom picked the beans. The next morning, she was roasting them over a fire. This makes them very tender and delicious! You just peel and eat!

We had a great time meeting their families. Matthew and I decided to stay in a hotel close to the airport since our flight was at 9:00am. On our way, we made a trip to Guanajuato. The city was very cool. It has a lot of old Spanish style architecture. There is a series of tunnels made by silver miners. They were deemed structurally sound, so now you can drive UNDER the entire city via these tunnels.
This little dog was just hanging out on the roof. (Haha! Get it? Roof?)

This is a pretty good example of what most of the buildings look like. There were so many brilliant colors.

All in all we had an AMAZING trip to Mexico. I most definately want to return to the beach and spend a whole week. We weren't prepared for the cooler weather inland, but we still had a great time. The history and old buildings were fascinating. We felt safe the whole time, but we had done our research on the places to go and not to go.

The plane ride home:
We arrived early enough to chill in the airport before our flight left. We arrived in Houston at 11:35 CST. Our next flight left at 12:46 CST. For some reason I had to check my bag, but Matthew was able to blue tag his. Anyway, we jump off the plane, I go running to get my bag. I forgot that we have to go through customs first. I waited for Matthew for a minute, watching to line grow. I said, "Forget this" and got in line. I made an entire loop before Matthew showed up. He got in line with me, and we begin watching the minutes tick. 12:00noon, 12:10, 12:20... we were averaging 10 minutes a loop. We FINALLY get to the desk, and we get through fairly quick. We RUN to the baggage claim, skipping the escaltor and taking the stairs. Matthew goes on one side, I take the other to look for my bag. GOT IT! We RUN up the stairs to the train to take us to our terminal. It was pulling away just as we got there. So we wait... We jump on the train... 12:45... We RUN up stairs (with our bags...) I really thought my legs were going to give out. More running... 12:55. We missed our flight! The lady at the desk was just as frazzled as we were, but she was sooo nice. The only flight to Charlotte was the next day, but she found a flight that was leaving at 2:40 CST to Asheville. AWESOME! This worked well, because we were able to get lunch. We called everyone, and Matthew's parents could pick us up at the airport. My sister didn't mind keeping my truck at her house for another week (Thanks, sis!).

The best part was spending a whole 10 days with Matthew. We haven't had a vacay together in years.

Tzintzuntzan, Mexico

So headed back into town for lunch. This was the beautiful courtyard where I had pasta alfredo. Yeah, I know...


Instead of busvan, we took an old bus to Tzintzuntzan (szin-SZOOT-san). Matthew affectionately calls these "chicken buses".


The purpose of this trip was to see the famous Purepecha (poor-hay-PAY-cha) Indian ruins. They are still in the process of cleaning it up and "fixing" the ruins. We just took our time and wandered around.

Some of the old blocks had carvings.


We had a big day! We went to Isla Janitzio AND Tzintzuntzan. I'm as bad as a toddler when I get tired, so needless to say I was becoming a little cranky. We took the bus back to Patzcuaro and went in search of dinner. Most the restaurants were already full, and we ended up circling back around to our hotel. That suited me just fine, so we had a nice dinner.

We ordered our beers, and we notice that everyone else is drinking coffee! No one was drinking beer. I guess they were too cold. We grabbed some beers and took them to the balcony on our floor. Despite the wool blanket, it was pretty cold! Matthew and I headed to the room to make plans for the next day.