OK, Beyonce, just stop it right now because I just can't even...

I'm I've watched Lemonade 5 times now and I just...

I mean, I...

I...

I love it. I love it all so much. 

I'm speechless.

So there.

Here's a few of my favorite parts

Boom!

Hiding in the Tall Grass

Busting up Errythang in her Yellow Dress

In the Tub

Girl Power

Not Sorry with Serena Williams

Pigtails for Days and Dancing on a Bus

"I'm Just Too Much For You"

Redemption

Heart Eyes Emoji

Ah, Bey...

Precious Moments

Great Minds Think Alike...and so do theirs

It's a special thing when your best sister-friends can get along with your man and have a great conversation no problem,

It's even better when the sister-friend and the hubby can share a beer and laugh at how crazy they both are and make fun of the other sister-friend/wifey for being the polar opposite to their anxiety.

Alton Brown

I had no idea who he was (until I googled him) and I'm sure many of the kids at Fayetteville Street didn't either, but Alton Brown came to our school!

This is him.

He did a cool science/culinary experiment that involved popcorn, exploding balloons and dried crickets. 

Needless to say, the kids loved it and now we all know who Alton Brown is.

Popping popcorn with an extra hot lamp

Making culinary science jokes.
 I didn't know it but he has his own show AND was on Iron Chef!

He's doing 2 shows at DPAC tonight and we got front row seats at Fayetteville Street Elementary.

Trying to emulate the chemical reaction that occurs when popcorn is popped. Inside the balloon is kale (for fiber), packing peanuts (for cellulose), and dried crickets (for protein).

This was right after he made that lady eat a dried cricket!

Heating up the "kernal"...this poor woman!

And...POP!

The best part was that Alton Brown stayed after the show and gave each child (over 300) and teacher a personalized autograph!

Thanks, Alton Brown!

Jugamos al Tenis

That means "We play Tennis", en Espanol!

Every now and then, Jason and I will take up a new hobby together. Last time you might remember it was ukulele, which AHHHHHH we need to play!!! and there have been other things too.

Some things stick, some do not. Sometimes this is because Jason decides to get WAY better at the thing than me. Or sometimes, like with tennis, Jason already is WAY better than me. But we have fun anyway...or at least I do.

Mostly, it's just really fun to get outside and play. And for me playing means, I don't have to care about being good at the thing or being competitive in any way. I can just PLAY.

Twinsies

I mean, we're basically the same person.

Wise words on Contentment

"If you try to pursue happiness, you will miss it because the search for happiness will cause discontent. Searching is bound to create turbulence within. A turbulent mind is an unhappy mind. Your search for happiness is always in the future, it is never in the present. The future is outside; the present is within. Bliss awaits you within." -Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi)

I love this guy

Just watch them all right now.

Preferably while drinking a giant glass of wine.

WA

We weekend tripped to Olympia, WA to see Bekah and James/Morrison for a little over-nighter at the Foster-Keddie family compound and Marina.

Nice time.

Rewards of Teaching

Teaching is hard, especially when you're teaching 86 seniors the last term of their senior year. They stare at you, get on their phones during class, try to get out of doing their work, and other seniory things that I can't really get mad about because I did them all myself when I was a senior.

However, one of greatest rewards of teaching is seeing your students present exemplar work or having a student say "Thank you, I learned so much from your class". On my last day of class this Thursday I got to experience both of these rewards.

For our final project for Multicultural Literacy, I gave the students a choice between writing a 10-page paper or writing their own Multicultural Children's book.  I got a lot of really cool books and some well-written papers (along with some half-assed papers as well), but this book below really takes the cake. It's the story of my student's father, a Japsnese-American who was afraid to eat his lunch on the Boy Scout trips he went on when he was younger because it was different from the other lunches. 

The cover. Notice these individually cut out, collage-style illustrations

Notice the detail on the rolled brown paper bag lunches

We all have these thoughts sometimes.

I love how she captured the emotion in these faces.

This isn't the whole book, but I just wanted to share a few pages of this adorable and moving story about being different. I'd like to think that my stellar teaching had a small hand in its creation.

The Wine

When Jason and I got engaged our friend Mike, who we refer to as "Mike's Pick's" for his wine picking ability and wine knowledge, gave us a bottle of wine from 2005 (the year we got together) and instructed us to hold on to until 2015 when we had our 10 year date-a-versary.  For the past 7 years, we have carted this bottle of wine with us through several moves, across the country and back and back again.  And finally, the time has come to open it!

Last night for our 10 year date-a-verary we opened the wine and drank it. The whole bottle.

We thought it was good, but we also couldn't  tell if it was corked or not.  We think it was a relatively nice bottle of wine, but our limited wine knowledge left us wondering "is this good?" ,"is it bad?", "Is it corked?", "what kind of wine is this?", "am I tasking minerals and berries or rotten vines?".

Regardless of whether we knew if we liked the wine or not, we had a great time with this bottle for sentimental reasons. Not to mention how nice it feels not to have to worry about babying that bottle anymore. We're free!

We open it. Wonder, "is it corked?"

Those silver markers last a while...

Wine label 

Taste

Taste

Looking back...

I discovered this thing where I can look at the old pictures from my blog. They are saved all together in an invisible file in the sky somewhere and what fun it is to look back at them and reminisce. Here are a few of my favorites:

Practicing yoga at 6:30 am in our little Hillsborough house. Viktor joins.

Hula hooping in our Hillsborough yard with my hoop from Jason. What ever happened to my hula hoop?

Strawberry picking in Hillsborough. Skipping down the aisle. 

Hammock water happy place

Alex! Boat!

My favorite meal ever...20$ Whole Foods salad

Passed out in Bryce's jeep after a day at Carolina Beach with Jessica and Bryce...circa 2011?
Was it too many Miller Lites or too many Britt's Donuts?

Another lake goodie. I like the look on my face to Jason in this picture.
Love and Funniness. 

Reading a story to kids at camp the day Viktor came to CFS. 

Book club! Man, I miss those ladies.

Edie pooping at the South Dakota KOA campground "pet walk", which was actually more of a dirty field.

Campfire chillin' with Marissa at the New River Gorge this past September.

The New River. I do love to sit on rocks by the water.

This guy.