Personality Quiz

I rarely take these types of quizzes but I'm bored and trying to unwind so I thought I would. The results were actually pretty accurate. Hmm... if you would like to play, the web site is http://www.colorquiz.com/ . Enjoy!


Jillian's Existing Situation:
Sensitive and understanding but under some strain; needs to unwind in the company of someone close to her.
Jillian's Stress Sources:
Wishes to be independent, unhampered, and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which she imposes of herself or by her own choice and decision.
Jillian's Restrained Characteristics:
Egocentric and therefore quick to take offense. Sensitive and sentimental, but conceals this from all except those very close to her.
Feels that she cannot do much about her existing problems and difficulties and that she must make the best of things as they are.
Jillian's Desired Objective:
Her need to feel more causative and to have a wider sphere of influence makes her restless and she is driven by her desires and hopes. May try to spread her activities over too wide a field.
Jillian's Actual Problem:
Feels restricted and prevented from progressing; seeking a solution which will remove these limitations.

25 Random Things

This is from facebook. I've enjoyed reading 25 Random Facts about people I know. Here are mine.

1. I have webbed toes.
2. I didn’t know this until I married Richie and he informed me. I didn’t believe him until he proved me wrong with pictures. I thought my toes were normal. Who looks at other people’s toes anyway?
3. I don’t have a middle name.
4. I went to kindergarten twice.
5. I finished my undergrad in three years.
6. My brother and I used to live together. And it was great! I miss him terribly.
7. I can never remember names. How I remember the names of my 85 students amazes me every year.
8. I am obsessed with New Kids on the Block. NKOTB 4-ever!
9. In high school, my BFF Lisa and I decided that our history teacher could possibly, maybe, secretly have been Jordan Knight from KNOTB and we made a whole time line of his life. We were a bit crazy. Poor guy.
10. I have watched every season of Frasier from start to finish no less than 30 times.
11. I am a patient person until you put a puzzle in front of me. My patience goes out the window after about two minutes of trying to fit those darn pieces together.
12. I love to color in coloring books with Crayola crayons (and only Crayola crayons).
13. When I was young, I hated my name. One summer I decided to change my name every day in an effort to find one I liked. Poor family had to deal with my craziness.
14.As a child I was afraid of the man in the box. I thought there was a man that lived in a box in my aunt and uncle’s basement that wanted to kidnap me. I can thank Jon and Brian for this.
15. I also believed that plastic toys of sharks and whales would become real when tossed into a pool. Thanks again cousins!
16. I still believe in Santa Claus.
17. I am afraid to sleep in a house all alone.
18. I am a perfectionist but I also procrastinate way more than a perfectionist should.
19. Disney World is my favorite place in the world. I wanted to go for our honeymoon but Richie said no. :(
20. I cook dinner every night for my husband. I also pack his lunch (and mine) every night for the next day. Sometimes I put notes in my husband’s lunch.
21. I would live in my pajamas if I could.
22. I love to write.
23. I bought my first house when I was 18 years old.
24. I am the world’s pickiest eater. Just ask my coworkers about my pureed vegetable soup and my lettuce and cheese only tacos.
25. I had my belly button pierced when I was a senior in high school.

Meal Plan Monday

I try every weekend to plan our meals for the upcoming week. This helps me hit the grocery store (hopefully) once a week and reduces our eating out. I figured I'd post my weekly meal plans on Monday to keep me on the ball. Some days, I'm just so tired I don't feel like cooking but it is so much better for our wallet when I do! Here goes for this week:

M- New Horizons Chicken with noodles and salad
T- Beef stew with potatoes and yeast rolls
W- Chicken Parmesan with fettuccine
TH- Tacos!! (my favorite :@)
F- Tacos day two- yum!

Aunt Cathy

Thank you to those who prayed for my dear Aunt Catherine. Aunt Cathy has passed away. She was a strong woman who always put her family first. My heart feels broken. Aunt Cathy taught me how to bake and cook. I loved her more than I was ever able to tell her. I pray that she is with the rest of our family and knows just how much she has meant to me. I will forever miss her.

Reason #341 Why I Love 6th Graders

In class, my students have spent four days researching a topic of their choice. Today they started writing papers with this information. Here is my favorite quote from today:

"Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, had a dream, and died."

I literally cried so hard I laughed when she read this to the class. I felt terrible because she was so proud but, um, seriously? No more specific information was available to use for this thesis statement??

I love my students!

My wonderful husband

I forgot to include with the wedding posts the wonderful surprise Richie planned for me after the wedding. For months I had been telling him how decorating the hotel room is the groom's job. I figured he would do a few little things. I will never underestimate him again!

We left the reception and walked down the street, along the square, to our hotel. It was a nice touch to the evening and I love the pictures of us along the sidewalk.

We got to the hotel and stopped at the front desk for our luggage. All of the front desk girls were so nice and totally giddy. I figured it was because we were all decked out. Finally, we get to our room and Richie opens the door. Inside, there were beautiful flower arrangements everywhere. Candles were lined up in every imaginable spot. There was a gift basket with lotions and bath stuff and a McCarty bowl. My ever-thoughtful husband also had sparkling cider chilling for us. He had planned this whole thing and used our local florist/gift shop to decorate the room. I was in complete shock! The girls at the front desk later told me how concerned Richie was, calling to check on the room. When we returned a few things to the florist, the girls there commented on how sweet my husband was. He was the first person to ever ask them to decorate a wedding night hotel room. I am so lucky!

I forgot to take pictures at the hotel so these are from the house the next day. They also put flower petals all over the floor and on the bed. I tried to save them but did something wrong because I was left with a big glob of mold. Yuck :{

The gift basket.

Two of the arrangements. I wish I knew what those funky looking flowers were called. I loved them!

Snowy, Sickly Day

Given that I have the flu and have been in bed for this three-day weekend, one would figure I'd be getting better. Ha! My body laughs at making anything work out nicely. I was up since the wee-hours of this morning, trying to breathe. You don't realize how nice it is to breathe until you suddenly have to force yourself to. Needless to say, I waited until 5:45 so I could call my asst. principal and then drowned my coughing in codeine cough syrup. (I was afraid to take the cough syrup, fall back asleep and not call in. I think part of this flu is also making me delusional. I woke up Saturday night worrying that the Wal-Mart pharmacist had lost my inhaler prescription...)

As I was sitting in bed, still coughing up a lung, I got a text from my wonderful friend from work, Lori. Lori is also the person that makes our school run. I mean this as a 100% fact. If it were not for Lori, chaos would ensue. Almost immediately. Anyway, I love Lori so very much and today was no different. Back to hacking up a lung, I get a text that she is on the way to my house (she lives just across the street so normally it would take 1/2 a second to get here...thankfully she was coming from school so I had 2 minutes to prepare). I jumped out of bed, brushed my hair that hasn't been washed in over two days and ran to the door.

I was so happy that she stopped by! She dropped off some books from another friend at work. It was such perfect timing that she came because I was feeling pretty down. It is nice to know that I have two people at work who care about me so much. Forget Lori keeping work together, she helps me keep my non-work life together too. Lori = priceless

I <3 Lori


On a less-depressing note- it is SNOWING in Oxford!! Snow flurries abound! The sun is peeking out now and I'm sure it is stopped but yay! I love snow! We did get snow last year, this same weekend I think. Here are a few pictures from last year's "snow day.

Adventures in Babysitting

This title applies mostly to Richie, not me, since most of you know I was a professional babysitter growing up. Richie, on the other hand, hasn't spent too much time around little tykes. The reason for us watching our beloved boys Max and Bo is rather sad, but I'm glad we had the chance to spend an afternoon with them. Aaron and Andrea, our wonderful, most bestest friends here in Oxford, are moving. We are so happy for this opportunity for them but so sad to see them go. Aaron has already left to start the new job and Andrea stayed behind to sell the house and tie up loose ends. While Aaron is gone, we've been trying to help Andrea as much as we can. So yesterday, the boys came to our house for a visit...

This would have been a much more exciting occasion had I not been sick with the flu. Richie was at work and I was doing ok with the boys. Max and I were playing Cars legos and Bo was running around with the Wii remote saying "bowl, bowl" while actually doing the bowling motions (because he is such a smart little boy, not because we play Wii bowling entirely too much :) ). Finally, Max and I had the Cars lego track set up and ready to go. Apparently that is the cue for destructor Bo. He trampled through, putting the flag in his mouth and trying to cuddle the cars. My patience was running out so I called Richie and waved the white flag. I must say, I owe the creators of the movie Cars a body part for simultaneously entertaining a 3 year old and a destructive 1 year old until my hero hubby could save the afternoon.

Thankfully no tears were shed by any of the boys, including Richie. Max did tell Richie at dinner that he would call Richie's dad if he didn't have a clean plate. He kept saying, "Naughty Mr. Richie, eat your dinner." Richie would pretend to eat and Max would say, "I'm calling your daddy!" He would then laugh and remind him that he would have to sit on his bottom in timeout if he didn't eat all his bites. Love it!! We are going to miss them so very much. My fingers are crossed for their open house today. While I don't want them to go, I want this transition to be as smooth as possible. We will miss you guys!

Richie and Max watching Cars and eating their favorite snack- Goldfish.

My sweet Max.

Destructor Bo, going for the plant.

*What hideous, fuzzy pictures I have. I'm still learning how to use our new camera :)

Christmas

This was the first Christmas that Richie and I were able to be together. Normally, we'd be with our families here, there or somewhere. It was so special to wake up together Christmas morning and open gifts. Even more fun was decorating our new house. What a nice way to spend our first Christmas together.

Getting the Christmas tree was a little difficult because Richie is "allergic" to Christmas trees. The past few years he has had fake trees but I've always had a real one and I was determined this year would be no different. While it is tradition to get the tree the day after Thanksgiving in my family, it didn't work out this year because I was sick. We waited a week before we could go and we couldn't find a decent tree anywhere. Finally, we found the perfect tree. I was so excited! Richie was a little upset because he got some sap on him, but once he saw the tree set up in our house all was forgotten. (Though I wouldn't let him help decorate the tree at first, telling him he couldn't come near it or he would have an allergic reaction to the sap, haha!)

Once I finished ragging on Richie, we turned on our favorite show and spent the evening decorating. We strung seven strands of colored lights around the tree, wrapped the banister and mantle with garland and hung the stockings over the fireplace. Truly wonderful and uplifting! I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!

Oh, and just like last year, Richie talked me into letting him open his gift early. I thought I'd thrown him off the trail, but somehow he knew he was getting a Wii. I am normally a horrible secret keeper, but I was so proud of myself this year. Bummer. The fun we've been having with the Wii (and the fun our friends have been having) totally makes up for the non-surprise of the gift. I love my hubby!

Max

I love this boy!

Lake Trip

Continuing my theme of reverse chronological order for events that have recently transpired, here are pictures from our lake trip. We went sometime before the wedding with friends and stayed at the lake house of parents of a student I taught last year. The lake house is gorgeous! It is two stories and then has a third story only accessible from the outside. The third story is a game room and guest room with its own bathroom. Brian and Nadia stayed in this space so as not to be disturbed from the kiddos waking up at 6am. Richie and I stayed in an open loft and Aaron and Andrea slept in the downstairs bedroom with Bo in their room and Max in his own room.

I figured we'd be up with the kids but Max always managed to be up before I could even think about setting foot out of bed. One morning we awoke to find Max sitting quietly on the chair next to our bed reading his book. What a sweet boy!! (FYI- this is sure to be the first of many Max posts. For those who don't know, Max is Aaron and Andrea's almost three year old son. He and I have a special relationship and I just love him to pieces! I am also equally in love with their other son, Bo, who turned a year old this past November.)

We spent the long weekend swimming in the lake and riding the jet ski. The house has a private dock easily accessible by approximately 110 steep stairs. By planning strategically we only had to walk up and down the stairs twice a day. That's the house at the top of the picture and those are all the stairs down to the dock. It was an excellent workout and allowed us to all stuff our faces with Puppy Chow for three days.


Equally as exciting that weekend was my goal to get Bo to crawl. It is amazing to think how quickly babies grow up. Bo is now walking and talking up a storm (he can say Mama, Dada, banana and thank you :) ). I spent many hours on the floor with Bo coaxing him to crawl. I even talked Max into modeling how to crawl a few times. Naturally, he did not crawl this weekend but a few short days after we returned home and I was not around to see the fruits of my labor. Boo. I still love Bo Cranium!

On the first day the weather was terribly rainy but we didn't let that stop us. Richie took a picture of me and Max trying to stay dry from the downpour.

Richie helping Max out of the water. Max was fearless- he swam by himself (with the floaty of course) in the lake and spent more time than anyone riding on the jet ski. Richie and I took Max for a spin and he even wanted to drive! Miss Jill didn't think it was a good idea but Mr. Richie won and Max "drove" us around.


Andrea and the Cranester (aka Bo)

Aaron and Max

Look at those eyes!!

Honeymoon Pictures

Richie and I left for our honeymoon the Monday after our wedding. Actually getting to Puerto Rico was a nightmare, but once we arrived it was wonderful. We stayed in San Juan for five days and enjoyed the pool at our resort more than the ocean. Our hotel had a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, a Japanese restaurant and an Italian restaurant. We rotated our dinners between these three and enjoyed lunch at the pool-side restaurant. I think we ordered room service for breakfast every day (it was our honeymoon- perfect time to indulge!) and also had room service deliver ice cream a night or two. It was so relaxing to do nothing but sit by the pool and eat.

We did explore Puerto Rico and take a rain forest tour. Overall, Puerto Rico was fun and served its purpose but we aren't itching to return. This is the first time I've looked at the pictures since July and I've enjoyed reliving the memories. Hope you enjoy, too!

The beautiful view from our room.

Rain forest tour and (not impressive enough to walk up hill both ways) waterfall

We were at the top of this building in the above picture.

This was at a cave we found on our way to the rain forest. It was HUGE!

Finished House Pictures

We are (mostly) moved into the new house. Only one room has boxes and stuff to be unpacked/organized. I thought about not posting pictures of that room, especially since Richie is on my case almost daily about finishing it, but I like the room so I'm including the picture. I am not including any pictures of our master bedroom because it is, well, a disaster area. Today's goal is to clean up the bedroom. We have suitcases and laundry piled high since we've been gone so much. Rest assured, Richie is not without a flat screen tv in this room. As you will see, almost every room has a flat screen tv (even upstairs, though I didn't take any pictures of that TV). My mom said our house looks like a Best Buy show room. Richie is such a good husband that I couldn't resist indulging his desire for the multitude of flat screens.

It feels like just yesterday we were walking through the framed house and obsessing over cabinets, flooring and paint colors (which, though a lonely event since Richie is color blind, left us with some hilarious stories). What a dream to be living in such a lovely house! It is a bit bigger than I thought it would be but that just means plenty of room for plenty of babies :)

With apologies for these pictures being so late, here is the new house:

The front of the house

My favorite part of the landscaping- cabbage! Richie installed the sod. My hero! Uncle Mike and Chip helped him and I am forever grateful.

The family room. Flat screen #1.

The dining room (a.ka. catchall for bills, papers and anything else lacking a place).

View of the kitchen from the hearth room. I love the kicthen! I spent many hours working on the design/layout and choosing appliances.

I am slightly obsessed with my sink. The pantry. It was only going to be the tall shelf part. Then Richie realized there was dead space under the stairs so we had the builder extend the pantry. Yay Richie!

Laundry room. Front load washers are awesome!

Eating area in kitchen and hearth room (and flat screen tv, of course). The fireplace makes this room super cozy. Tub in master bath. Sinks (and mess on countertop) in our bathroom. This is the backporch and screened in porch. Sorry the outside pictures look so dreary. Rain and clouds will do that sometimes. I love sitting in the porch with the fan going while grading papers. At the last minute, we decided to have the back porch's concrete stamped and stained. I love the way it turned out! This is the McCarty windchime my sweet, darling husband gave to me for my birthday this year. I am totally obsessed with McCarty and thank Andrea for opening my eyes to all of the McCarty pieces I never knew existed (including this windchime- love it!).