Update Central

I know its been a gazillion years since I’ve updated… okay, not quite that long. But it has been a while. So much has gone on, and it seems like anytime I’ve had time to breathe I’ve just been ready to crash. But I'm spending some time on the couch watching football, so I thought it would be a good time to update. So here goes:

WORK:

This week was my first week at my school in the classroom, and it went really well. I have quite a caseload of 4th graders, but I really like all my kids. They kept my hands full, and I definitely have some crazy stories to tell already, but it’s been great to get to work with some neat kids who just need some help. I spend all day, every day in the classrooms with the kids, even eating lunch with them. It’s been like going back to 4th grade all over again, and I’m learning the ropes pretty quickly. I love being back at Eastern and Giles County is quickly becoming “home” again.

HOME:

We’ve continued to make some changes and improvements here at houseofchinn, including bringing back some furniture from my folks place. On labor day, they drove up from Richmond and brought us a piano and couch. The piano is the one we had growing up that my sis and I took lessons on, and my mom decided the couch was expendable and offered it to us. We really appreciate them driving it up here, and it allows us to continue to transform our upstairs living room into a nice adult sitting room, with the basement room becoming more comfortable as our family room for tv and just general hanging out.

TRAVEL:

Being the big baseball fans that we are, David and I wanted to catch a game at Yankee Stadium before it’s torn down after this year. Even though we’re not Yankee fans, we wanted to see a huge piece of baseball history. I’ve never been to New York City, so it was a doubly cool experience for me. Cheri & Jordan (my sis & bro-in-law) decided to join us, and the 4 of us drove up to D.C. last Saturday morning, caught a metro to the bus stop, and took the BoltBus up to NYC. We spent Saturday evening walking around and exploring NYC (we did A LOT of walking!) and then on Sunday we went to the Yankees game. We then hustled back to the bus back and caught the last bus back to D.C. We returned to Richmond around 1:00 am. I have so many pictures and thoughts to share about this, that I’ll do a separate post hopefully later this week.

FOOTBALL:

Fall = football. We had the chance to go to a VT game yesterday, and watched as our Hokies struggled to beat Furman. It wasn’t a pretty game, but we had a good time. We plan to watch most of the games this year on tv to save a little money, but David was able to get $5 tickets to Saturday’s game so that was hard to pass up! We tailgated with one of his co-workers and had a great time. We then came home and watched more college football on tv. Go ECU! That’s all I can say – it was so fun to watch them beat up on WVU (one of our hated rivals here in Blacksburg) since we lost to ECU last week. Our consolation -- we didn't lose as bad as WVU! ☺




Today is the first real day of the NFL season, and the Bears play tonight! We’ll be watching football all day long as we track our fantasy teams. I know it sounds lame to a lot of folks, but its really what we find relaxing here at houseofchinn. ☺

IMPORTANT DATES:

Yes, last week (Aug. 29) was my 29th birthday! We had dinner in Richmond at my folks place, and David planned a surprise party Monday for lunch when we got back in town. That was a very nice surprise, and there was a crew of folks waiting with grilled cheese and pokey sticks. You can’t beat that! Top it off with funfetti rainbow chip cake, and I was I heaven. ☺ Thanks everyone who showed up and helped make my birthday celebration a wonderful treat!




Tomorrow is our 7th anniversary! How crazy?!?!? It feels like just yesterday David and I tied the knot. He has a business trip though, and as a result, we’ll celebrate tonight with dinner and the Bears game. David has some plans, so I’ll write more after it happens.

Again -- I’ll try to post pictures soon of lots of the stuff going on… more soon!

08-08-08

Wow. Let's just start off by saying that since 8 is my favorite number, I knew I had good things in store on this day.

It was Jeanette's 30th b-day, so that was a wonderful occasion to start. Next, it was the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic games, and I LOVE the olympics. So that was also wonderful. I mean put those two things together, and all the 8's, and it was a fabulous day indeed.

I started the day by going ice cream shopping so I could make an ice cream cake/dessert for Jeanette's b-day party that night. I have made a pact that I will not drive anywhere in town (to save fuel/be more green and to be healthy since everything is within 5 miles in town). I decided I would bike to Kroger with my cooler backpack because walking would lead to melting. However I was so concerned about getting home with the cold goods that I forgot to get the main ingredient (Oreos) which were not a cold item. So I spent several hours working on Sunday's message before biking to the other Kroger in town to get the Oreos. (I was wearing a yellow cycling jersey and didn't want the same Kroger workers to see me twice...I just knew they would remember
me. After all, I was a Kroger cashier for a summer in college and I totally remembered customers!)

I then joined Terri and Jeanette at Moe's for lunch, although I cheated and packed my own. I was feeling pretty good at that point and considered biking to the mall to meet them for the movie, but time didn't allow. I frantically made the ice cream cake and rushed off to pick up the two of them and Sarah. We then headed to the theater (where we met up with Kati & Jackie) to catch a matinee of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was a wonderful movie -- full of out-loud laughing (thanks Sarah!) and a number of tears (to quote Kati, "Who would have thought we'd have cried that much at Sisterhood 2?"). It was definitely a girly feel-good movie and in my view, a must-see.



As you can tell, Jeanette was definitely enjoying the b-day celebration.


There is no story behind this. (You only turn 30 once, right?)

We headed to Souvlaki's in downtown Bburg for dinner, before ending back up at houseofchinn for the Olympic opening ceremony/bday party.



We learned that kids aren't really entertained by the opening ceremonies. Toys are much more exciting than watching a gazillion chinese people in lighted costumes.


This picture needs no explaining.


This one might. :)


And here is me, breaking the ice cream fast. I made it. I'm not sure what day I started exactly, but I know when I did the math in my head at the beginning I think I calculated about 30 days or so. The point was not the days -- it was the exercise in self-control and self-discipline.


Some highlights of the evening were:

-Ddubb's toga
-Jim's frequent line,"China does have a lot of people."
-seeing Steve & Amy again (who were gone all summer at LT)
-"Does anyone know where that country is?"
-"Oh look, they're showing us a little globe to help us!"
-Sarah's cinnamon croissants
-"You know what China does have. A lot of people."
-"Is that an LCD screen?"
-Terri & Jackie's fashion critiques of the country outfits.
-"When will the U.S. be marching out?"
-"Those poor cheerleader girls -- they have been jumping/clapping a long time."
-Terri's funfetti cake
-The ice cream cake
-Us singing to Jeanette -- TWICE :)
-Did I mention "China does have a lot of people"?

Once the U.S. team marched in, we were all tired and said our goodnights. There were more countries still to come, but some of us had enjoyed a wonderfully packed day, and it was time to bring 08-08-08 to a close. Definitely a day that will be remembered for me, though. For very good reasons. :)