Sweet.

Everything is so much more fun when you are sharing it with at least 100 others. Seriously! It was so much fun to hear my 10th graders tell me "Happy Birthday" to the point of annoyance. It was so sweet when they came in yesterday morning with cupcakes and fruit punch for their afternoon classes. It was sweet to have my teacher friends celebrate my birthday with me.

It was sweet when Ellen brought me this:

And Stacy brought me this:

.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better...

My sissy showed up at my door step!!! I could not believe my eyes. She and Ryan did a great job pulling that one off because it is difficult to surprise me. In fact, I don't think I've ever been surprised before. Being twenty three is fabulous.

Plus, we got to eat lots of ice cream cake:

I forgot to take a picture before we cut the cake, so no close up for you! 

We laughed and laughed. Talked and ate. Laughed some more. Then we all went to bed. Sadly, when I got home today, our little treasure (sister) was gone. But I did come home to this:

It doesn't look fun; I know. It looks like medicine; I know. 

It is. But I don't have to take it! It's the first medicine that Ryan made at school in his Solution Lab. It's actually Calamine lotion. :) I thought it was super neat. He made the label and everything. Now I'm just waiting for chapstick week...

Happy Valentine's Day (an extended celebration)

I love Valentine's Day. I've never thought much of the holiday. I've never disliked it, but I just never thought about it. Ryan and I have never gotten to actually be together on the actual day of Valentine's Day. Except last year. Last year, we were so excited to get to be together on Valentine's day. I went to visit him at Lyon, and I ended up having a relapse of my stomach issues. He brought me soup and flowers, and he ate sonic. How romantic.

This year was much better. It was our first actual Valentine's date, even after all these years! I was anticipating this holidy for about two weeks. I was making Valentine crafts (I had such a blast making these cards!), looking up Valentine crafts, browsing through Valentine merchandise at every store imaginable. I didn't go overboard this year, but I have big plans for Valentine decorating next year. Get ready. :)

I love this time of year because I get double presents from Ryan since my birthday is also in February. He got me a new orange iPod and I was so delighted! He already regrets it; we haven't had a conversation since I opened it.
I got Ryan clothes to celebrate this holiday. If I didn't buy him clothes, he would be naked. I can't remember the last time he bought clothes, but atleast he wears clothes that I consider to be visually appealing. I also bought him some cupcakes from a local place, Cupcakes on Kavanaugh. D-e-lic-ious. I never knew a cupcake could be so special. These are divine. Trust me.

Ryan tried to eat them all in one day, but I made him spread it out across two days. :)

Nerdy

I love crafts. I spent part of my day making some Valentines, and I am super excited. I want to be a stay at home wife and do things such as cook and clean and make crafts. But more on that later. I cannot yet reveal this Valentine awesomness. That would be much like opening a Christmas present the week before Christmas!

I also love to read. I did not enjoy reading in high school. In fact, I did not like reading until I took an Adolescent Lit class in college. I didn't enjoy reading because I never found a book that I really liked (besides The Boxcar Children). But I've been trying to read more lately. It's difficult with my school schedule which leaves little time for reading, but I've carved out plenty of time to do what I like to do. I've learned that I love fiction. I always learn so much from fiction rather than non-fiction. I don't think many people understand that (except for those who frequent the fiction genre). Once I start a book that interests me, it's hard to put it down until I'm finished. I've read two books the past two weeks.

I've been wanting to read The Shack since fall '08, but reading was never a priority. I never "had the time." I read it the week before last; once I finished, I immediately wanted to read it again. I learned so much in such an illustrative way. About life and relationships and love and God. On top of that, it's just a great story that is meant to be enjoyed. I love the way it is written. There is controversy surrounding this book, of course. I don't buy into it. It's fiction, which should automatically make it controversy free. :)

Last Sunday I went to Barnes and Noble to find a new book, and I came upon this treasure. I had never heard of it, but I liked the title. I finished it over the weekend and ended up really liking it. It didn't wow me, but it was a sweet story and I really enjoyed it. It's mainly about three kids (they are actually adults) whose mother and father die on the same evening. While going through their things, they find out that their dad wrote a letter to their mom every single Wednesday, beginning with the day they got married. Through these letters, the kids are able to learn about each other and about their background. Good read!

I just started reading The Time Traveler's Wife last night and I am completely in love. I haven't seen the movie, and I  haven't heard anything about it or the book. (I like reading random books. Can you tell?) I love the way this book is written, and I adore the characters already. I have only read 20 or 25 pages. It will probably take me longer to read this one because I'm getting busy with school and because it's a longer book. But I'm dying to read all of it.

So there. I'm nerdy. You should meet my husband.

You can't make me

Snow day #2.

Tomorrow is snow day #3, which makes 6 consecutive days off for me.

I don't want to go back. They can't make me go back. You can't make me go back. I've enjoyed this way too much.

Ryan and I ventured out to Hobby Lobby today; no vacation is complete without it, of course. The roads were not bad on our adventure. They were only wet. I'm praying that mother nature once again breathes her wet, icy air on the roads so that I can have an even longer vacation. It's selfish. I know. Typical me. And I don't even feel bad about it. Hm.

The only bad part about only living with your husband and only going out with your husband is that you never have pictures of the two of you. We don't have but two pictures of us on our honeymoon; we have no pictures of us and our married life. We need a paparazzi.

Rest.

Every week should be a four day week. Five out of my past six weeks back at school have been four day weeks. I have felt more rested than ever. I've had time to do many of the things I've wanted to do for a while, such as create a blog, read some books, investigate twitter, and make a commonplace notebook. I have been wanting to make a commonplace notebook for several years now. I finally did tonight. I a m S O e x c i t e d.

I have always been a quote keeper. As I read, I underline quotes, words, and phrases that I like. If I hear or read something that is lyrically appealing to me, I write it down. A commonplace notebook is a place to keep inspiring things. It's similar to a journal, but very little in this notebook will be my own words. It's mostly quotes and such from other places. I have four tabs: Paper Cuts (which is for quotes and clippings from books, songs, etc.), Little Laughs (for anything cute and funny), Kids Say the Darndest Things (quotes from my students), and iRead (an annotated list of the books I have read/am reading).

This week is actually a three-day week for me; we got enough snow to get us out of school for two days! I know this picture is horrible. I took it in the dark. But it never snows very much in Little Rock, so we are beside ourselves!



We also made snow

ice cream this morning

at 10 AM. Ryan put

Spring oreos in his.