so...

okay, so today at work was a little rough.  i was extremely happy when we walked the kids down the sidewalk into the arms of their loving parents/daycare providers/bus drivers.  when i got home, stu told me to come over to the table and told me to have a look at hurley.  he stuck his hand in and a teeny tiny hurley jumped out of the dirt!  i freaked!  i dont know why but my first thought was that hurley had a baby!  nevermind that hurley is a boy and that baby frogs are TADPOLES.  but i still freaked.  then stu told me that he bought a new frog.

they are pretty cute together actually.  and [insert name later] looks a lot bigger in this photo compared to hurley than he really is.

i guess that stu has been spending a lot of time on the "frog forum" (definitely nerdy, i know) and kept reading that they get lonely and liked having a little friend with them.  so now hurley has a little brother.  he is pretty darn cute!

I guess that if we are going to have one frog to take care of for a few years, we might as well have two frogs to take care of for a few years.  stu's pretty well known for spontaneous buys.

the wedding circuit

so it seems that in the last two years, i have really been hitting the wedding circuit.  pretty much that just means that a lot of my friends have been getting married.  i was recently in touch with my best friend's mom and she sent me some pictures that she took while tyler and i were at a few weddings of high school friends that were held in port orford.  i just thought that i would put them on here because they are pictures of old friends who i wish i stayed in better contact with.  for some reason i wasnt able to scan the prints through my computer so i did the nerdiest thing possible and photobooth'd them.

(tyler, heather, me, sara)

this picture was taken at ashley's wedding, held at the church we all went to in high school.  she was my first really close high school friend to get married.  it was two summers ago and i think that we were all in shock because we all felt so young!  its crazy because since high school ashley moved to salem, went to college and obviously, got married.  sara moved to california and lived the crazy life at a lutheran christian college which i found out was a very lax christian college...if you know what i mean ;-).  heather moved to southern california and got her  masters and is now teaching her own fourth grade class.  tyler, after college with me, moved to portland, is the marketing manager for girl scouts, and also, as of late, has another part-time job which she has failed to call and tell me about!

(me and tyler)

this picture was taken at tyler's parents house last summer.  we were getting ready for sara's wedding.  it was held at edison creek on sixes river (the place we all used to camp at and swim and stuff).  amazingly enough, it was actually a warm, sunny day on the coast and i actually got a sunburn!  sara married the boy we always knew that she would, even though she had to go down her own road for a while, so it felt like a reunion.  tyler and i got to drink wine with old track coaches and teachers and see a ton of people.  it was crazy to see the kids from church who used to be the grade schoolers hanging around being high schoolers.  that was the part that made me feel old!

anyway, yea, sorry i had to post sentimental pictures but i am kinda sad that all my friends are growing up and i never get to see them anymore.  at least we get to see each other at the weddings!

weekend fun!

i cant believe that i went like four days without blogging! i know that it hasnt really been that long but it definitely feels like this last weekend was a long one. 

on saturday morning stu and i decided that it was time to buy hurley a new home. he's been jumping really high and whacking his head on the metal screen on the top of his terrarium. we thought that since he was a little frog and his home was like a foot tall, that at some point he would realize the reason his head hurt was because he was jumping too high. well...he didnt and finally stu caved.anyway, his new home is awesome and, if you go by body-to-home ratio, his house is like five times as big as ours now. here's a little picture of him hanging out in his new "log." he looks angry but dont worry, he always looks like that.

on saturday night, stu and i went over to katrina and kenton's house. kenton, being the superstar that he is, didnt get angry at me for bringing my taxes with me a second time to get help. this is the first year that i am actually an adult who isnt a dependent or have a job on campus! but i didnt know what i was doing to so i had to get some help.

we got to play with finley, who wasnt feeling too well but was still a sweetie anyway, and made some calzones. then becca came over and we had a few drinks and hung out. i got a few pictures that actually turned out.  i think that next time i will have a few drinks less so that i dont feel embarrassed the next day but overall i still had a lot of fun.  im not allowed to put pictures on here of stu and all of the pictures that had kenton in them had stu in them too, so i cant put one of kenton on here.  but he was there!  this was a really cute one of katrina and becca though!

anyway, its back to having a full week of work and i feel totally spoiled since ive gotten a few days off in the last few weeks but ill pull it together...at least there is american idol tonight!

damn cricket-eating frog...

so i totally sympathize with this guy. but in a less naked way.

i need to do something!

so ive been surfing the web a lot tonight (drinking a beer and watching man vs. wild/foo fighters concert and waiting for sarah and derek to come over; sleepy and trying not to go to sleep since its been so long since ive seen both.) and ive had a little push of inspiration.  i realize that other people, when they are bored, they actually do something.  its an amazing concept.  i feel like i am busy a lot of the time and it is hard for me to start projects.  i also realize that there are lots of people out there who not only work but also have children or other obligations and still manage to do things.  

it seems ridiculous that i have all this time on my hands and i havent done anything that is worthwhile.  im probably one of the few people who is actually super addicted to reading and am sort of a book junkie.  when i was in grade school i used to get grounded a lot by my parents; not because i was sneaking out or yelled at my parents but instead it was because my mom would find me holed up under my blanket at 3 in the morning with a thick book when i was supposed to sleeping.  it was unusual behavior for someone in the 4th grade.  another word for it: nerdo.  totally and utterly nerdo.  my addiction is getting in the way of me being motivated.  i need to stop going to bed early so that i can finish a book and start spending an hour doing something real.

anyway, that was a really long winded way to say that i really need to get back on the track to doing real, concrete things.  tomorrow im going to go to the oregon art supply and actually use the gift certificate that the girls from westmoreland gave me for christmas two years ago.  i am in serious need of some canvases!  and maybe some white oil paints...i have a project in mind and i really need to start working on it because when i painted that portrait for stu's parents of their dogs it took me like 6 months.  and it was crap.  and stu's dad takes it out every holiday when their whole family is there and i get all embarrassed because i didnt have enough time to do it right.  anyway.  im rambling because im bored and cant read right now and have no canvases.

you know reading is an addiction when:

*you have 6 bookshelves in your house and still have books in boxes in the basement

*you go to bed at like 8:30 and dont go to sleep until 1.  you may be super tired in the morning but hey!  at least you finished that book you've already read 3 times.

*when all you want for christmas are gift certificates for smith family

*its friday night and you seriously consider ditching your friends for curling up with a book

*your idea of making it big and having lots of money and living your dream is "who cares what the house looks like, i want a library room with one of those ladders on wheels to get to the tallest shelf!"

losties

okay, so i didnt post anything earlier about LOST because i was afraid that katrina hadnt gotten to see the episode and i didnt want to show any spoilers.  but i totally have to say that I CALLED IT!

i know that the "huge" twist at the end wasnt that huge but i called it way in the beginning.  kate was telling her lawyer that she didnt want her son in court and i turned to noah and stu and said, "it might not even be her son.  i mean, it could be aaron."  

yeah...i never get the theories right on LOST so im pretty proud.  

oh yea, and yau-man was voted off of survivor last night and now stu has to cook me dinner.  or take me out to dinner more like it.

"you just totally scooby-doo'ed me didn't you..."

im also so freaking excited for obama!  woo hoo!

i have to say that i am really thankful to noah for making me pay attention really early in the game.  he was telling me and stu about obama months before he even announced that he was running and noah was also the person who told us about obama coming to the convention center in portland, where we were able to see him speak.  i feel proud that ive had an obama sticker on my car for almost a year and am so excited that he is doing so well in the race!  watch out hilary, no one wants to see you cry for a vote!

its thursday!

i cant believe it!  i am ecstatic!  we just got back to work yesterday and already, today is the last day that we have kids!  woo hoo!  

granted, we did have a really long weekend but still.  i got back to work yesterday and it really felt like it was monday.  i kept thinking that i had to do everything i usually do on monday and not wednesday.  so this morning, i get up thinking that it is tuesday when im watching the news and realize that it was THURSDAY!  do you know what that mean??

well, other than only having kids today for the rest of the week, that means that im that much closer to being able to sleep in past 6:30 in the morning.  oh yeah, and that LOST and survivor is on tonight!  i need so little in my life to really get me excited.  its pretty ridiculous.

Megan's Puppy!

so this weekend, stu and i went to portland and spent the night up at his parents house because it was valentine's day weekend and we had to go to a nice dinner right?  not so much...im pretty sure that the late valentines day dinner was a afterthought.

 

one of the main reasons we actually went to go meet stu's sister's new puppy!  he is a cavalier king charles spaniel and his name is walter.  im actually really proud that megan decided on that name because she got the idea from a book, walter the farting dog, which i got her for her birthday last year as a little inside joke.

  

i know that walter isnt our dog but he was so cute that we couldnt help but take a ton of pictures of him and i decided to share because he is just so damn adorable and you just want to squeeze him and love him and hug him and love him some more...

walter is actually spending the next three weeks in palm desert with megan so by the time he comes back he will be so big!  we've got the puppy pics though!

new picture of kristy lee cook that i found online.  jeez, im like totally a stalker.  but she's still my favorite american idol.  the new list of the final 24 american idols is up if you are interested.

LOST valentines ;-*

kate--"you really know how to make a girl feel special."

Jin--"im lost without you."

ben--"you're not like the others.  you're different."

locke--"wanna know a secret?  you're something special."

jack--"our love needs no fixing."

sayid--"life is torture without you."

sun--"care for the seeds of love and they are sure to blossom."

claire--"we go together like pb&j."

desmond--"i see love in your future."

juliet--"i'd never hurt you.  trust me."

hurley--"you drive me crazy."

sawyer--"you need me to make you a mixed tape?"

i hate credit card companies!

this has been like, the longest, worse day off of my life.  i swear!  this morning i got up early to call some credit card companies to try and figure out what my next move is to fix my credit.  i spent the better part of the morning on the phone, going crazy, trying to get people to pay attention to what i was saying, only to have people tell me things i already knew or transferring me and then dropping my calls.  tomorrow is going to be devoted to going to the post office and then getting multiple police reports written up.  its going to be pretty sweet.  i have a headache!

oh thomas...

before stu and i got our own apartment, when we had first started dating, i had a small studio apartment and stu lived in chase gardens with his roommates noah and antoni.  it just made sense, since stu was always over at my place, that there was no reason we should both be paying rent.  i was on a month to month lease so i moved in with stu and noah and antoni.  during that summer, one of noah's friends, thomas, needed a place and noah had the biggest room in the entire apartment so thomas moved in too.  it was a pretty good situation and we all got along really well for it being five people living in a three bedroom apartment and even after stu and i moved out and everyone else disbanded, stu and i have stayed really good friends with noah.  in fact, i would go so far as to say that noah is probably our best friend in eugene.

anyway, that is the back story for this next piece.  its been a really long time since we have seen thomas because he was going to school for his chemistry degree and moved on to bigger and better things going on here in eugene.  tonight noah came over and he invited thomas.  it was like a homecoming.  we were all watching indiana jones and drinking a few beers (one and i had to stop because i was too tired).  after the movie, thomas got up to go.  our door is kind of a pain to get open because our house is like a million years old and the wood is all swollen and the knob is weird and you have to turn it towards the front window to get it open.  thomas didnt know this, and being slightly drunk and a guy who works out all the time, he yanked on the door super hard.  somehow, im not quite sure how, thomas broke our door knob the rest of the way and now we cant use the front door.  thank god we have a back door or we would be climbing out the window to go places.  anyway, it is really a comical situation so i took some pictures of noah trying to help us fix it.

okay, our house is so old that to turn on the lights in the livingroom, you have to TURN the switch to the left of the door.  talk about ancient.

we are some pretty classy people, let me tell you what.

new haircut + Finn = one great day!

today was a pretty good day.  work was awesome because katrina brought her wonderful little boy finley to work and i got to play with him!  fridays are always nice because we dont have any kids so we pretty much get to hang out and prep for the next week.  its definitely work because we always have a ton of stuff to do but its nice because we dont have to be in "teacher mode" and we get to eat whenever we want and talk about what we want.  im not sure that i got much done at work today but i felt that it was okay because i was "helping" katrina get her work done and we didnt have a long TO DO list.  finn was so cute playing with the slide and the tunnel and if i could have, i would have done nothing but play with him for hours!

i also got my hair cut today.  i was pretty nervous by the time the scissors actually touched my hair because the woman who cut my hair was falling behind and i had to wait for an hour, which is plenty of time for me to freak out and think of a million reasons to keep my hair long.  but in the end, im pretty happy.  it isnt exactly what i wanted but i really like it!  i think that it is better.  i wanted to put up a picture of it how she styled it because chances are, i am never going to get it looking this good again! 

its a goofy picture but i was trying to do it while talking to noah and stu and i felt all awkward.  i like this side of the style the best.  so far.  we'll see.  haha.

happy valentines day ;-*

today was an excellent valentines day.  at work we had a party in each class and all the kids were really excited.  they had made heart shaped envelopes for their valentines and today i taped them up.  after snack/cookie/cupcake time, they got to go around and put their valentines in their friends' hearts and then watch a dora movie that becca had brought.  it was so cute to see how excited they all were about giving their little treats to their friends.  we have been working on giving compliments to friends a lot lately and they've really taken to it so it was nice to have a day pretty much revolving around the whole "friends and love" thing.  plus, i totally made out and got like a ton of cupcakes and candy.  cool!

i came home from work and parked on the street so that i could discreetly take stu's valentines gift out of the trunk of my car.  i walked around the corner and up the steps and was greeted by this:

okay, so maybe i made stu go back and pose for this picture...

i loved it! it is so perfect. especially since tonight is LOST night!  here are some close ups of my favorite ones.

oh ben...

claire always did like her peanut butter.  "i sure could use some peanut butter chaaaalie,"

its funny cause hes always crying in the jungle and trying to fix people

he is a bad ass.

stu also got me some beautiful flowers and a love "voodoo" doll, some bath salts, and a frog prince.  and this book called porn for women.  its a funny book with pictures of men doing things like doing the dishes and vaccuuming the floor and saying stuff like, "as long as i have legs to walk on, you'll never have to take out the garbage,"

arent they pretty??

i felt pretty stupid about what i got stu.  i just got him some darth vader chocolates and a little meercat thing.  it was very cool.  but i couldnt find anything for guys!!  i swear.  oh well.  haha

i hope that everyone's valentines day was as good as mine!  i plan on finishing out the night with some survivor and LOST and some quality noah-time!

tomorrow im getting my hair cut!  i think that im going to go pretty short so pray for me, pray that i get a good hairstylist who has the right answer when i ask her if the style will look good on me!

so noah requested that i post something of kristy lee cook up because i doesnt watch american idol.  some who doesnt watch american idol!!  are you crazy??!!  okay, anyway, i am totally obsessed this year.

i tried looking online but there are really no pictures of her up yet and her myspace page is private (stalker style!) so ill repost that video of her.  i totally disagree with what she is wearing but other than that, im excited.

oregon represent!

so my girl kristy lee got through to the top 24 on american idol!  oregon represent!  im pretty happy!  the bummer is that if she makes it through to the top for a while, im going to have to keep watching american idol all season.  usually i watch the first like 4 episodes and the last 4 episodes but if i actually know someone on it, i should probably follow through.

how you know you are a teacher

i was looking at my friend nicole's myspace page and she had this list and i thought that it was pretty funny. 

HOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TEACHER:

1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.

2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.

3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr. _________" and know you have been spotted.

4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.

5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty-five minutes.

6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and prep period.

7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.

8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.

9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 7 to 3 and have summers off."

10. You believe chocolate is a food group.

11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.

12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.

14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.

15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.

17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!

18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."

19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils

20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer and finally,

21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

things that i personally find myself doing more since ive become a teacher--

-always checking the dollar bin area at target because you never know when they are going to have 

(1) cool stickers

(2) random toys we could use like wooden trains

(3) helpful books like "bye, bye bottle" or "no more diapers!"

(4) maybe something that i would actually want to use for myself

-telling stu things like, "i wonder what you could do about that," or "uh oh!" in a voice that i thought i only used 8 hours out of the day

-thinking in terms of, "if i wandered around a few hours on my knees in these, would it show??" when shopping for pants

-spending hours cutting out projects for the kids to work on when i should be doing my taxes

-getting excited that we are going to have a class party coming up because i havent had a frosted cookie in a while

-getting excited when a parent brings masking tape

-trying to sleep at night only to realize that i have spent the last two hours trying to figure out what im going to do in groups/put out for toys/potty first/hope is home with the flu tomorrow with an occasional thought of plans for the weekend

-humming random things to the tune of the "twiggle song"

im sure that there are a million other quirks that i have acquired in the last few years but the list is getting long.  i dont know if i should be happy or embarrassed about this list.  haha.

oliver's crazy face

stu and i were playing with the ferrets last night and we took a few pictures.  most of them are shots of oliver trying to hide behind the tv or cinder laying lazily on her blanket being a loser but a few of them turned out.  i liked these two:

sweet, calm, loving oliver...

crazy, going to bite your face off in your sleep olly!

no, not really!  while that is pretty scary, stu is actually "scruffing" oliver.  he is grabbing the extra skin on the back of oliver's neck and making him yawn.  it doesnt hurt him or anything but it instantly calms any ferret and you can take terrifying pictures at the same time!

*obama is winning!"

*the writer's strike is now officially over and LOST is going to have 13 episodes this year, and three others to carry over into next season.  there will be NO 24, thank god.

*stu and i went to pita pit tonight and they had this "buy a clover for a $1 and help jerry's kids" thing that you could buy and write you name on them and someone wrote "Taller Ghost Walt" instead of their real name, which is so awesome.

flight of the conchords

stu and i, although mostly stu (he found out about these guys and made me watch until i liked them), are into this show called flight of the conchords.  it is actually a comedy show on HBO about a band from new zealand called flight of the conchords.  the premise of the show is that bret and jemaine moved to the states to expand the number of their fans and ended up with only one stalker fan and the new zealand consulate is their manager.  anyway, that discription doesnt give them any justice but bret and jemaine are actually grammy winning singer/songwriters and it is a hilarious show.  i wanted to post a couple of the songs from the show because they crack me up.

this first one is for all those nerdy LOTR fans like stu and i.  it cracks me up because throughout the entire show, everyone always thinks that they are from australia and when they figure out that they are from new zealand, the only thing anyone knows about the country is that LOTR was filmed there.   which is really funny.  cause thats all anyone ever knows about new zealand.  unless you are noah and went there.

this second one is my personal favorite.  although possibly a little inappropriate.  very catchy tune though!

ahhhhh yeah...

survivor

tonight is Survivor Micronesia and the second episode of LOST!

im pretty excited about tonight, i have to say.  stu and i have split up our teams for survivor:

STU'S TEAM:

chet

amanda

yau-man (lucky ass!  he was my favorite!)

erik

eliza

alexis

cirie

james

tracy

mani

MY TEAM:

jason

jonathan

ami

johnny fairplay

joel

ozzy

kathleen

mike b.

natalie

parvati

i have to say that i dont have high hopes for my team winning this year because i not only got that annoying johnny fairplay but also that annoying jonathan and stupid parvati who thinks shes all sexy-like.  and stu got both yau-man and james!  BUT stu and i also sweetened the deal by betting whether or not it will be a old survivor or a new fan to win the whole thing.  i picked new person.  we havent decided what the prize will be yet but we have a while before we figure out the winning person i suppose.

if you look to your right, you will see that i am going to be keeping track of my survivors and plotting the outcasting of stu's ----------->

i have also recorded lipstick jungle, from the same people as sex and the city, to see if it is as good...

jeez, maybe stu and i watch too much television...

delegates

okay, so it looks like they will be counting delegate's votes into today because the democratic race is so close.  hilary actually seems to have won the popular vote, winning larger states, but obama actually won more states.  so far.  they are saying that the democratic vote was almost a split.  im still hopeful.  i hate this delegates thing.  i know that they are trying to be fair but it seems like states like oregon get screwed because we have so few.  i mean, oregon was a democratic state in the last election but it didnt matter because the other larger states voted for bush.  i know that it is fair but it just doesnt seem like it.

side note:

do that many people really like hilary?  or is it just that the republicans think that they dont have a chance in hell in the next election because bush messed up so much that they are chipping in and voting for the most republican-friendly democrat?

super bowl, super fun

on sunday, we went over to noah's condo and had a few beers, made some awesome pasta, and watched the super bowl commercials.  it was really fun because it was one of the first times we've gotten to hang out with sarah and derek since they were both really sick right after the new year and i missed them!  we also got to hang out a little with noah's friends travis and ellie.  woo hoo!  possibly expanding the friendscope!

im not in this picture.  im actually in the kitchen making the pasta.  you know, women's work.  but you can see my spot on the couch ;-)

i like this picture because derek looks like he is totally getting into the game.  in actuality, he happened to be yawning at the same time i was trying to take an "aerial" picture of them.  

SUPER TUESDAY!

today is super tuesday guys

"More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar, and accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency traditionally must do well on this day to secure their party's nomination."

fraud

im beginning to wonder why people always say that the weekends are relaxing.  because lately my weekends have just been filled with crap.  im mean, seriously.  the weekend started out good enough but then it just went to hell.

on friday night, stu and i went over to katrina and kenton's.  it was really fun!  i love being able to hang out with katrina when we arent at work.  its weird, we spend like 4 hours together everyday but its so crazy there, that its not like it is visiting time.  i also feel a little weird talking about hanging out around some of the other people at work.  im not sure why.  but i dont want them thinking that we are excluding them.  anyway, its just been really cool to get to know katrina and kenton and finley.  i get my baby fix from finn too!  on friday he gave me kisses and said my name!

anyway, we brought our LOST game (that made me cry the first time i tried to set it up because it was so complicated so i boxed it up and never looked at it again until now, two years later) and kenton figured it out.  it was still a really complicated game!  after the game, we decided that we were too tired to stay and watch the two hour movie katrina and i had picked out so kenton and stu played "one" more game that lasted like two hours and i got to look at katrina's scrapbooks.

saturday, i finished filing for my fraud alert and started to call all the credit card companies on my credit report that i had printed out.  man, that sucked.  bank of america just put me on hold for 50 minutes!  i was so frustrated that i didnt call anyone else.

this morning i tried calling capitol one (the first card company who told me that there was nothing i could do about it and that i would have to pay) and now they are saying that they dont have record of the card.  i got very angry after the third person who i talked to that i yelled at her that i wanted it taken off my credit report if they didnt have record of it.  but she told me that i had to get a hold of the creditor who they sold the account to.  luckily i still have a random number for them but they were closed today.  

there was a credit card on my credit report from a company that i had never heard of and when i talked to them, they told me that if i had filed a fraud alert then they would investigate it.  it also helps that apparently you can only open account from this particular bank in the states of wisconsin, arizona and like, colorado.  which, ive never even been to any of those states except for one 20 minute trip into durango colorado like three years ago with my parents.

anyway, i know that this is some boring stuff but its been weighing on my mind so i wanted to write about it.  maybe ill have something more interesting to write about next time.  for now, if you could just send me your happy thoughts about the whole situation, that would be great

oh, and i found this really cool video online this morning.  the song is really catchy!

"oh...it's friday night and the feeling is right

oh, yes, it's friday night...oooooh what a night"

(think jon lovitz singing it)

so i know that it is not friday night but im still pretty freaking happy that its the weekend.  

i havent been getting much rest and the crickets that we bought for hurleyfrog were talking all night.  they still are!  IM GOING CRAZY!  pretty soon im going to get them out of his home and throw them in the rain....but really ill just go to work and leave them with stu...