The Blog Book

I don't know why this is loading vertically, but you can get the idea...it is a blog book. My amazing sister turned my "Mind the Gap" blog into a coffee table book using http://www.blurb.com/
Unfortunately, Blurb no longer downloads from Blogger (I think they are trying to fix it, however), but my sister was thinking WAY ahead and downloaded our blog back in September when the two sites were still compatible. All of you with blogs out there should check out this site--you can design the most beautiful scrapbooks, cookbooks, blogbooks, etc.! Thank you SO much, Brittany, for this super special gift!!!

Christmas Joy!

Liz, Jesse, Sara, and Clay at the UK-Tennessee State Game the first night we were in Kentucky. Notice Liz's fun UK Santa Hat--she should have made it onto the Santa Cam!
The cheerleaders had a lot to cheer about--UK won 102-58!

The beautiful tree COVERED with presents. Santa did in fact arrive!

The stockings--note the one for Camden on the far right :-)

Camden has increasingly liked to "cuddle" with us when we read or watch movies on the couch...he might have driven Max and Maggie crazy, but he sure is cute sometimes!

One of my favorite times is Dec. 27th--my Dad's birthday! It is traditionally the day when my entire family gets together, and we always have so much fun not only celebrating Dad's b-day but also catching up and continuing the holiday funness. It is a special day for our family. Here are Dad and Brittany blowing out the candles on the homemade carrot cake--my mom makes the best carrot cake in the world!

My sweet grandmother, Nonna, in the middle of one of her stories. This time she was telling us about how our grandfather, Walt, was "different" from all of the other boys she dated...in a good way :-)

It was a WONDERFUL Christmas at home in Louisville this year--thanks for everything, Mom, Dad, Brittany, and Gege! We cherish our time with you always!! Miss you already!

WE ARE DONE!!!

Happy Holidays, friends! We are officially on Winter Break and couldn't be more excited about it! It has been a whirlwind of a week between administering exams, grading exams, two school Christmas parties, and some final Christmas shopping (did I say final? Hmm...I have a feeling I will still be keeping my eyes open until the stores close on Christmas Eve :-). We love this time of year.

We head to Louisville to see my family tomorrow--be back with the blog upon our return! Good times to come--New Year's Resolutions (I love them!) and surely lots of pics from Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, Clay and I exchanged this morning because my gift was non-transportable. Clay wrote me a sonnet (it's becoming a tradition--I cherish it) and gave me dance lessons (yee-haw!) and I refashioned his work desk, decopaging (sp?) his favorite poems on its surface as inspirtation for his own writing. A little Panera bread, hummus, and a hike with Camdawg rounded out our sweet, sweet Sunday!

Here are some (funny) highlights from this week:

Clay's desk

Nick, Ashley, Erin, Sara, and Clay at the M faculty "Vintage Christmas Party." We are all a little tired from grading non-stop...can you tell?


I'm not sure what is going on here. I think someone told me to "be a tree." Like my dress? I bet the Goodwill closest to you has another one--just $4.99. A steal, huh? WOW. Remember, it was a Vintage Christmas Party.

Again, not sure....

This is me and my new good friend, Kat--at the Division I AA Football Championships in Chattanooga last Friday night. How did we get tickets to the showdown between the Montana "Grizz" and the Richmond Spiders? Well, Kat is big time. I feel lucky to know her (seriously). We had a blast--and the Spiders won! Go Virginia team!

Signs of VACATION!! We took Cam-dawg for a hike at Cloudland Canyon Park today in an effort to get outside after what has seemed like weeks and weeks of rain. We had fun the first couple hours of the hike...and then it got plain cold. Clay and Camden still had a blast, but Sara Jenney was pretty darn excited to get back to the warm car and even warmer home.

Pretty incredible waterfall. Like Clay's beard? It definitely kept him warm today! :-)

This was before it got cold...

WOW! WE ARE ON CHRISTMAS BREAK!! WAHOO!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Cookies are EVERYWHERE! Have we ever told you about the insane deal that our school parents give us every holiday season? As a treat for the teachers, all of the parents of students at the "G" bake bake bake so that we can come to school one day, receive a bag, and be told to pick out "48 of our favorite cookies" from the loooooong table of homemade baked goods in our theatre. It's crazy. The funny thing is that the very next week, the parents of students at the "M" (what we are calling our schools so that our blog doesn't come up when our schools are Googled) do the EXACT SAME THING. What does that mean? Yes, 100 frickin' cookies in our apartment. GET THEM OUT or I will eat them all! So...what do we do? We feed Clay's advisees, we host a dinner party, we hand them our to our students...and we might just freeze one or two as a treat for later. Gotta love Christmas time!

So...this week has been busy with lots of grading and exam preparation, but this week is a short one for both of us as we head into exams and have a break from teaching for 3 weeks. It's amazing what this long of a break can do for us professionally (and personally). Teaching can be exhausting, so standing up in front of high schools for 5 periods a day, 5 days a week can really begin to make your head spin. But give us a few days to sleep in, read, and reflect, and we are good to go. Lucky for us, we get three whole weeks to do all that--and we can't wait to take advantage of it! Louisville, here we come! and then it's Blair's wedding in Chicago--beautiful!

Thursday night, Clay and I took his wonderful advisees out to Crust Pizza and then to Walmart so we could buy a 10 year old girl some Hannah Montana and High School Musical 3 stuff for Christmas. Seeing the guys play with all of the toys was pretty cute. And man, can they shop. They are in and out in less than 10 minutes flat. Wow. They know how to do it.

Friday night we hosted four dear friends for dinner--our first dinner party in our new apartment and with our new furniture. It went well, but I have to say that I have yet to master the art of dinner parties. Although I thought I had prepped a fair amount the night before and that afternoon, I still found myself in our tiny kitchen throughout the entire cocktail hour. One day I will learn how to host gracefully and actually be relaxed at our own functions. That said, our black bean and mango salsa, Valencia Shrimp and Scallops, green beans with roasted vegetables, fresh bread, pear and blue cheese salad, and fruit cobbler with vanilla ice cream went over pretty well, I think. Clay and I definitely had to take Camden for a walk when it was all said and done--we were stuffed.

Saturday brought more cookies! (See above). We went to church to help bake cookies for the caroling at nursing homes that the YAM's (Young Adult Ministries) did today. We couldn't actually sing due to the M football banquet this afternoon, but we had fun baking with some new friends.

The football banquet was very classy and touching--way to go, Clay, for two undefeated seasons in a row! After that, I headed to a new yoga studio in town for a free (holiday special) Yoga for Athletes class that was glorious. I have been trying to keep up my running even though its gotten colder outside and the CC season is over, so it feels good to stretch out my hips and hamstrings and spend some time really stretching. Love Yoga. I always feel so calm and centered when its over.

We had the dorm Christmas party tonight, and now Clay and I are going to watch another episode of the Office (Season 4--thank you, Brittany! We are LOVING watching an episode every night before bed!) and then head into our last week with the students before 2009! Awesome!

I'll leave you with a cute pic of the Cam-dawg:

So Many Books, So Little Time...Hmm, which one should I choose?

Is this our dog or what? :-)

So many thoughts...but first, so many papers!

I promise we haven't forgetten about our blog--but it is exam and final paper time in Chattavegas, so my mind is currently swimming with media analyses and final portfolios. This weekend will provide a bit of a breather, though, so check back soon! Lots of funness to report...including our friends Mary and Jamie's AMAZING marathon times. They are rockstars in every sense of the word.

We'll be back as soon as I can see past this stack of papers :-)

Givingthanks

I know it has almost been a week since Thanksgiving, but I can't stop thinking about all of the sweet blessings in my life for which I am grateful. Therefore, I decided to stop prepping for classes for a minute in order to say thanks for "the little things":



I am thankful for...

...the fact that as soon as I realized I locked my keys in my car yesterday at the post office, a policeman walked by and kindly helped me break into my own car. 15 minutes later, I was good to go. And a little package was in the mail to my marathon buddies :-).
...an email from my aunt that made my week.
...articles about the future of education (check out this week's Time cover story) and stories of teachers who, as cheesy as it sounds, really did make a difference.
...fun Christmas cards! Sending them and receiving them! LOVE pictures...
...a husband who is my best friend. His wisdom and steady care for others inspires me.
...teacher friends who email me materials "just because." You know who you are.
...Christmas. Everything about it.
...emails from my mom and dad. So faithful. So thoughtful.
...House Hunters every night at 10:00 p.m. I'm addicted.
...nights with absolutely no grading to do! glorious!
...Clay's chicken noodle soup. Simply the best.
...students who make me laugh even when I am teaching grammar.
...the moments when Camden falls asleep on my lap.
...good runs.
...warm showers on cold days.
...the times when the perfect song comes on the radio.
...my awesome colleagues. I work with some pretty amazing and wonderful people.
...blogs! I love reading--and writing--them!
...a good night's sleep
...days when magazines come in the mail (Tuesdays: Newsweek; Fridays: People; Monthly: Harper's, Cooking Light, and Cuisine at Home). It's like receiving a present every time.
...our new dining room set. I love it.
...the fact that we get to live in a healthy, vibrant community for free. How did we get so lucky?
...freshly washed sheets.
...clementines! yum!
...the cross country team.
...finding good things on sale!
...smoothies!
...people who take the time to read our blog! Thank YOU!