in which I refer you to my flickr photostream...

Pictures of our apartment with stuff in it are up on my flickr.
You'll also find a few (no, really, like less than 5) pictures from Tye's visit. We went to a really cute place called Comfort, but my camera's battery was dying, so I didn't take a lot of pictures.
(picture taken by Leanne's wonderful camera. I am trying not to laugh at the guy taking the picture, who said "You look like ducks!" or something along those lines, because we were in a V formation. Also, a prize to the first person that notices what's different about this picture. Here's a hint: I learned a valuable lesson this week about keeping track of how long I use one pair of contacts.)
You'll also find really blurry, hard to understand pictures from the night I went out with Leanne, Diana, Shannon and Rebecca and had a ridiculous amount of fun. My camera was on its last little bit of energy, but I tried to take a few good pictures (uhh, they're "artsy"??).

There is a hilarious story behind this picture. I wish I could tell you, but 1) it's really Diana's story and 2) it's probably one of those "you had to be there (especially after a few cucumber mojitos)" stories.
There are also pictures (and videos) of when David and I went to the Gone to the Birds festival to see the Purple Martins. It was crazy to see! The picture above is a shot of the huge flock we saw first.
This hawk snatched a Purple Martin out of the air, plucked it, tenderized it with its claws and then ate it whole. Someone in the crowd called it a Republican, which got a lot of laughs. It then flew into a tree full of Martins to try and get another. What a jerk.

it's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho

So, Mom, Dad, Megan, Katy, Mike, and AJ were all here sometime between the 15th and the 21st. Whew!

What we did:
-Ate at Retro's, Blue Talon, the Cheese Shop, Chik-Fil-A (there are none in Michigan), California Pizza Kitchen... I can't remember where else. LOTS of good food.
-Gave dad his Father's Day gift (Tiger Woods Golf for Wii--he loved it)
-Went to the Sunday night movie on Price George St.
-Went to Macarthur Center for Body Shop and H&M goodness (oh my, do I love H&M--that was my bday present from my parents)
-Played mini golf while mom got her Mother's Day massage (she said it was the best ever)
-Went to Jamestown
-Went to Richmond
-Went to Busch Gardens (David and I now have a Fun Pass and we're looking forward to going back again and again and again... and again...), but sadly, the rides were shut down about an hour and a half early due to a storm, so we left.
-Tried out new recipes, made by master chefs Megan and Ruth (mom).
-Drank St Julian wine and lots of good beer. Also, had a pomegranate margarita. Deeelicious.
-Played Things (Dad wanted to know what the Canadians sent me for Xmas-- looove it) and introduced AJ to Apples to Apples
-Played Wii!! OMG. They brought down everything, including Mario Kart and Wii Fit, as well as this other game full of carnival games (difficult, but addicting). David and I have been thinking more and more seriously about getting a Wii, mostly for Mario and Wii Fit.
-Went swimming, scared Megan by floating up beside her in the pool.
-Made lots of Mighty Boosh references and sang many of the songs.
-Laughed until our stomachs and cheeks ached over the Creepy Traveler.
-Counted quilted bags and the amount quilted bag conventions (when 2 or more women in a group of women have a quilted bag).
-Saw The Happening-- HORRIBLE! What the hell M. Night Shamalan?!

Did I forget something? Probably. I think I got it all though.

My birthday was absolutely wonderful because they were here, there was lots of good food, lots of laughter and lots of new clothes.

improvement on yesterday

Today was much better. I got a lot done, my kids were annoying and endearing. One of them chased me around the room, threatening to hug me. I asked him, "Maino- what am I going to do with you?!" He goes, "LOVE ME!". That kid is crazy. Another student, Kendall, came into 8th bell and asked me, "Mrs. P, you feeling better today? Someone told me you were having a horrible day yesterday."

I got some more good news today, too. My birthday will not only be awesome because Tye and I will be having a joint birthday (and my teachers-only "going away") party (possibly involving roller skates?) and because that same week, my parents, Megan, Liz will be here, but also because Katy and her boyfriend Mike will be here! YES! That is so fantastic.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Tye's for a spa night and possible sleep over. It is the perfect weekend for that to happen. This weekend and next I have a TON of work to do to get me on track, ready for David's graduation and his family's visit, and ready for the SOL craziness that's gonna happen in about 2 weeks. Wow--It's almost the end of the year.

intro to wsbg 101: parents edition

My parents and cousin Liz came for a visit last Monday through Friday. They came with no real plans or timeline, but Megan and I had a few things we needed them to do...

First (and most important!): Eat some Chik-Fil-A. And they can only order a #1.

Dad approves.

Second: Go to Food for Thought. Have dad drink a Yuengling beer.

Again, he approves.

Mom tried a mojito for the first time. I had some sort of martini named after Poe.


Third: Go through Williamsburg and W&M's campus, eat at Retro's, try the samples at the peanut shop, take senior pictures for Lizzie and make all of them take polaroids (not scanned) with Thomas Jefferson's statue in Merchant's Square and more pictures with TJ on the campus.



And thus, it becomes a tradition as we now have eight people doing this. If you come to visit, I will make you do the same.

My dad bought new shoes just for this trip and lots of walking around. Look at how new and clean they are!

Fourth: Go to Va Beach, swim in the ocean (Liz's first time!), go to Macarthur and shop, and see Pet Sounds (it was amazing! and Liz's first non-school live production)

Ocean! I now love it.

Tritan is a giant

and he has a huge turtle!

I think they all had a good time. It was nice having them here. We ate lots of good food, swam in their pool just about every night, sweat it out during the two amazingly hot days we had, and played Apples to Apples (Liz is now hooked). I took a picture of one of the rounds, because I laughed so hard:

The green card says "Quiet". I won with Helen Keller. What can I say? I have a twisted sense of humor during that game.

Today is super hot. I was planning on taking a walk up to CVS to pick up the pictures I took of Liz and having lunch, then wandering on to parts of W&M's campus, but Meg took my earbuds to my iPod. It turned out to be a good thing cause it feels about 100 degrees outside. I went up to CVS, no photos yet. Went to Plan 9 and bought two first-time pressings of Belle & Sebatian's If You're Feeling Sinister and The Boy With the Arab Strap. I wasn't sure if I wanted them at first, but then I saw the little sticker that said "Free Download of Album". What? Free download? Yes, please! So, I finally have the two albums of Belle & Sebatian's I've always wanted, on vinyl and in mp3 form. Sweeeeeet. I also bought The Road, the book it seems everyone's been talking about since Oprah got the guy to do an interview and talked up his book for about 30 minutes straight. I read the first few pages and it seemed worth it, especially since Books a Million is amazing and it was something like 40% off. I had lunch at Padow's and started reading The Golden Compass. I'm about 35 or 40 pages into it, it is really, really good. If you like Harry Potter, you'd probably like this series, as well. I stopped back into CVS since the dude working there said that the photos should be delivered any second, but they still weren't there. I really want to see what they look like!

a very colonial birthday

So, it's now June 17th, which means I am now 24 and a second year teacher.
My last days of school included many nice times. I watched Pan's Labrynth and Stomp the Yard with my kids. I got hugs. I got a t-shirt. I got awards. I gave awards and cards (one girl cried). And we ate a lot of food. Oh! And I found out I will have my own classroom, Tyesha (a long-term sub I just looove, she's just amazing and hilarious) will be joining our department as a teacher next year, Amy (other Michigan teacher) will have a desk near me, as will Ahmasi. Good changes, even though we saw many teachers leave and Chandra and Jerilyn will be downstairs with the 9th graders.
I took class pictures of every class but 3rd bell because a lot of kids couldn't make it, were making up other stuff, whatever, and I ended up with only five kids staying. I had pictures of most of them already, anyway, so... whatev.
I'll post the class pictures here, my flickr will have all the other pictures I took of kids and their funny faces, dances and handshakes.

1st bell: Paul, Chris, James, Bryan, Colin. Cleo. Renika, Nycolle and Ronisha. We were missing about 5 kids, a few of which never showed up because of family or medical issues.

2nd bell: Justin and his beloved donut, Tremaine, Melvin, Sandra, Franklin, Aric, Annette, Ariana. (Front) Sequena, Bonnie, Josh, Tony, Cody. I loved this class, I love this picture.

5th bell (most of it, anyway): Danielle, Zakiyyah, Vanessa, Nekita, Matthew, Dustin, Chen, Robert. (Front) Damian, Brittany, Samantha, Chris, Taphanies and Ryan. Loooove them!

8th bell: Vicky, Dorian, Kristian, Bre, J'mari, Deena, Julia, Shane, Rodney, Eric. Lauren, Patrick, Shawn and Ashley (cutest couple ever.), Crystal, Cherae. James, Le'Stace, Carl and some kid from Bugge's class that snuck himself in there. This was my crazy, but hilarious class. Many times we all laughed until we cried. James and Patrick had an amazing handshake they showed me that day, I took a picture of part of it. I should have taped it, it was amazing. haha.

So, my birthday. Thank you to everyone that sent me a birthday wish, I really appreciated it. Meg and I went to New Town, shopped, bought stuff, had lunch, went to get manicures and pedicures and then we all went into downtown Williamsburg, got a gift to send to Amanda to help her heal, and went to dinner at the Green Leafe Cafe. Very delicious!
I played around with the photo merge program that came with my camera. Here is a visual representation of what I bought for myself, what was bought for me, and our nailzzzz. It was not a wild & crazy birthday, but it was relaxing and wonderful.


Our parents should be somewhere near Charleson, WV now, on their way here. Tomorrow by noon, they should probably be here, along with our cousin, Liz. We're looking forward to hanging out with them in the CW, shopping in and going to Va Beach and Norfolk, seeing Pet Sounds and maybe convincing them (or part of them) to go to Busch Gardens. Woo, visitors!

we had some guests!

We had some visitors! Last Saturday, we went to D.C. to pick up Amanda, Megan and Michael. There was some drama involving delayed planes and luggage and two teenagers (?) fitting the description of "gothy emo kids" amazingly well making out in the Holocaust Museum, but it was amazing to actually see the inside of D.C. Megan and I had never been, so it was nice to have a small first look. (We'll probably go back this summer.)
We ended up going to the Holocaust Museum only, but it was AMAZING. We got there 2 hours (maybe less?) before it closed. It's 4 floors of STUFF. Amazingly well put together stuff. Some of it we already knew, some of it we had never seen or didn't know much about. It is possibly the best museum I've ever been in. It was a little crowded because it was at the end of the day, so they were letting people go through without staggering groups. We had to rush through the last part of it cause they were closing up, but it was well worth it.
On Sunday, we took them around Colonial Williamsburg, W&M's campus, etc. etc. It was kinda chilly out and since it's the off-season for tourists, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot goin' on in CW. Oh well. We figured they would come back another time, when it was warmer and CW is bustling with people and lots of stuff to stare at. Plus, we were cheap and didn't want to pay $30+ for a ticket during the crappy part of the year to see CW. This means we couldn't get into buildings and such. Amanda left on her train later on Sunday. It was a quick visit, but it was sooo nice to see her.
This past week, Megan and Michael went shopping, hitting up every place known to Hampton Roads for good clothes. Well... just about. They went to the Outlet Mall in WBG, New Town, and we took them to the Macarthur Center in Norfolk, where H&M quickly drained the rest of their money. Meg picked up a few applications for summer jobs. Oh! and we finally tried fondue! We went to the same place David and I went to for some hocho (haha) a while ago, Coco chocolatier. They offer chocolate fondue in the evenings and Meg and I have had a strange obsession (much like our one with the moose) with fondue, so we went! It was pretty delicious. We got a milk chocolate one and a dark chocolate with chambord one. They gave a nice selection of things to dip. We also had hot apple cider, which I probably should have skipped. Too much sugar for my poor stomach. I had a big stomach ache from all the sweetness (happens to me every time!) but it was well worth it. Michael bought some really amazing truffles. He gave me a rum ball one, which was amazing. The most amazing one was this passion fruit one. It had a really fantastic flavor that, as we were putting it, explodes (or was it bursts?) in your mouth.
Anyway, they also came to school with me one day. My kids were very interested and a few of them were like "OMG! MRS. P'S SISTER!!!" I do talk about Megan a lot and was all "My sister's coming!! Ahhh!" They were very nice to them and a few of them actually said we looked alike! This is a new thing for us. They promptly fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was funny and my students called them wussies. Mike actually fell asleep on the love seat (not the largest space to fall asleep) that we have in the computer room while I read the zines I ordered from Microcosm and Meg played the Sims. We took some pictures of him because the air mattress was propped up on the top of the loveseat and he was curled underneath it. He slept from about 6:30 onward, sort of waking up to take a call from Scott (but he apparently remembers nothing of that, haha). Amazing.
Last night, David and I went to see 300. It is amazing! I really loved the style of the movie and I thought it was very well done & put together. Then again, I'm kind of a sucker for Ancient Greek/Roman tales (no matter how much liberty the writer took with the "true" tale) and the style of Sin City (which I thought was pretty similar to this & that would make sense cause they're from the same guy). I can't believe people are taking it really seriously and complaining about historical problems and supposed right-wing justifications for war and racism. Get over it! It's a graphic novel! And now a movie! Just enjoy it! I thought there were both right and left-wing arguments about war, but I don't know if they were intentional, nor do I care. As for the historical inaccuracies... a-duh. Racism and sexism is abundant in all movies and TV shows--it depends upon the viewer to absorb it and believe it (and if they're believing all stuff they see on TV and in movies... they need some help). Some people take things far too seriously. If your child is going to be changed by a movie, they are watching too much on television and in movies and not spending enough time with people, doing things and learning from them. Enough with the rant. It was really amazing and I'm glad we chose to see that over Zodiac. I want to see that one, too, but it would probably be just as good looking on our little television set than on the big screen. The same probably couldn't be said for 300.
It's strange now to not have Meg and Mike here. I miss them. It was a lot of fun coming home and seeing Meg on the couch. I'm really looking forward to her coming back for the summer now.