Christmas time is here...and gone again

I can't believe Christmas is already over. Like most, the season seemed to rush by in the midst of work, giving finals, grading, buying gifts, decorating the house, etc. At least I can say that I truly enjoyed myself this Christmas holiday and had so much to look forward to. (I know...improper English, but this is my blog...:)) For the first time, I decorated my table with my new-from-last-Christmas tableware. I love the look of white! I didn't want any red/green, which is incredibly difficult NOT to find, since my kitchen in red/white/black.This is also the second year I put up the smaller tree in the dining room. I love this tree! It totally reminds me of something my good friend Hayley would do. What do you think Hayley? :)

Of course, my "real" tree in the living room is full of anything and everything Disney. I'm afraid I scared Joon just a bit with my Christmas-y decor since neither he or his family have celebrated Christmas since they were kids. (I asked him about that, and he didn't really have an answer. They just don't make a big deal about it. Christmas is just another day to them. Well, I have news for him...) He did have fun putting together my new tree. He spent almost 3 hours (HOURS!) getting the tree out of the box and arranging each limb so it would look perfect. He said this tree business was an art form, and he wanted to get it right. Apparently, I've been just slapping my tree together for years now.

Before school let out for break, the teachers met at Diamond Bowl, a little funky modern bowling alley in downtown Independence for the annual Christmas party. Guess what? I WON a basket!! Each house donated items to be gathered for 5 or 6 different baskets, and if you wanted a chance to win one of the baskets, you bought tickets. (The money goes to our Benevolence Fund at school, which helps our homeless and needy kids.) I put in $20, and I WON! This is the basket--I figured there was about $150 worth of stuff. Not too shabby!

Let's see...2 bags of Twizzlers, 4 soup bowls, 1 soup mix, 1 brownie mix, 1 cupcake mix, 1 large tin of hot chocolate plus the cutest little whisk, a cookbook that will never get used, an Andrea Bocelli Christmas CD, 4 free movie tickets (I only can find 2 now for some reason.), 4 handmade coasters, 2 nice reed diffusers, the Apples to Apples game, 2 bottles of wine (1 white, 1 red), a giant bottle of Begium beer, and a gift set of Irish creme/2 small glasses. I made the soup last night, and it was delicious!

Joon and I had our Christmas the weekend before and exchanged gifts because he couldn't wait until Christmas. I think someone's Grinch-y heart is growing...

He gave me a 320 GB external hard drive for my laptop. I had asked for this b/c I don't want to use my laptop's drive for all my music and pictures. He also gave me a pair of gloves and a very nice dress coat. He received some cologne, the new Call of Duty game, and an electric razor. He really likes the game--he's playing it right now!

Soze loves her new much-needed big dog bed. It actually matches the rest of the living room decor and is so soft! Maybe now she won't spend so much time on the couch, but I wouldn't bet on it. She enjoys laying next to me too much!

Joon drove down with me on Wednesday to surprise my mother at her retirement party (another blog another day), so he was able to finally meet my family. They all loved him, as I knew they would. On the very first day at my mom's house, Joon came across this picture of me hanging on her wall, and he fell in love! He thought I was just the cutest little thing at 3-years-old, and I couldn't disagree.

Grandma spoiled her granddog, and Soze literally eats it all up...

One surprise that I had in store for Mom was a shadowbox of her baby clothes. After my grandmother passed away in February, Mom found several of her baby dresses. She knew she wanted to keep them, but she wasn't sure how to display or preserve them. I think I surprised her with this one!

My brother Cliff and his son Adam...it seems like just a few years ago that I found Adam sitting in his crib, diaperless, with poop smeared all over himself and flung on all the furniture in the room. Remember that one Mom?

One present that I actually asked for...don't laugh...was a Snuggie. My house gets cold, and I refuse to turn up the heat anymore than I absolutely have to. A Snuggie could be my solution! So here we are, my sister-in-law, Terri and me--Snuggie Sisters! :)

I know that even though I have such a good time with my family since I only see them all once a year, the time comes to say goodbye and come back home. This is what Joon and I returned home to--about 8 inches of snow! We couldn't even get in the driveway, and I didn't have a shovel! Joon borrowed one from my neighbor to get started, and I drove to both Home Depot and Sears in search of a much-needed snow shovel. Sears came to the rescue, and when I got back to the house, Joon was in shovel mode.

It has snowed about 2 more inches since this, but at least the main roads seem pretty clear. Joon and I were supposed to visit my stepfamily down in Memphis, but with the snow and ice, and even Memphis's bad weather, we decided to stay in and go sometime either this spring or summer. I can't wait for them to meet him, and I know they will love him just as much as the rest of my family does.

I've been working on catching up on my scrapbooks the past 2-3 days, and I hope to have some pics up on another post. Instead of being 2 years behind, now I'm only 7 months behind!

Thanks to Mom

Mom and I spent some quality Mother-Daughter time over Thanksgiving. I drove down to Springfield to visit, eat, shop, and go to a Branson show. Ryan's buffet fed us a home cooked meal (at least it tasted like it!), and we both enjoyed out time there because 1) we didn't have to cook a giant Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us, and 2) we didn't have to clean up after ourselves! We also treated ourselves to a movie, but for the life of me, I can't think of what we saw now.

Of course, Black Friday meant SHOPPING! I am NOT one of those people who venture out early anymore after standing in line for 3 hours to buy a $20 DVD player a few years back. Who wants that? So now I just get up and go out on my own when I feel like it. This year it didn't seem like the crowds were too bad. Most of my shopping was done that day, and then I met up with Mom after she got off work that afternoon. We went back out for more shopping and finally finished up around 9 pm. Needless to say, that was one LONG day!!

Saturday meant lounging around the house and then heading for Branson later in the afternoon. Mom had bought us tickets (FRONT ROW...) to see the Baldknobbers Country Jamboree. I used to LOVE this show when I was a little girl. Now? Not as much...After seeing so many Broadway shows, this was just a small letdown. I mean, the singers could sing, the comedians were funny, but it just wasn't the same show from when I was a kid. Next year, I think we will go back to our favorite show in Branson--Pierce Arrow.

Back to Halloween

Since I hadn't blogged about Halloween yet, I thought I'd go back and put in a little blurb before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Joon and I met some friends at Ernie Bigg's Piano Bar, my favorite spot downtown. They were celebrating their two year anniversary with a big party and costume contest. Joon and I didn't win (we didn't enter, so I guess that takes us out of the equation), but we had so much fun just the same. I'll let you figure out which ones we are. :)

Thinking of summer

Since it is really, really cold outside (try 17 degrees or so...), I thought I would look through some summer pictures and reminice about the good ol' warm days. Joon and I had a summer pool party to bring both sides of our friends together. This was my first chance to meet his good friends, and I love them all! They are so genuine and seemed thrilled to meet Joon's "better half".

Sarah, Jill, me, and Kelly take some time to relax and enjoy our time off from school. Of course, I'm sure all we talked about was school during our time together (as always!).

I finally broke down and had to buy a new lawnmower this summer as well. The old one was really old, and I was done restarting it every five minutes. Joon helped me pick out my new shiny red one (see how technical I can get?). I love it!

Joon also helped me start my own little garden of tomatoes. I've never grown anything in my life, except maybe a Chia pet when I was in the 6th grade. Much to my surprise, the tomatoes grew! I had plenty of cherry tomatoes for my salads all summer, plus a few regular tomatoes for my world famous BLTs!

Zac Brown Band's Southern Ground Tour

My good friend, Lindsay, from school, invited me to go see Zac Brown Band perform at the new Independence Events Center (this was the first event I believe at this new arena). Knowing that I’ve past up too many concerts before, I immediately said yes! So, two weeks ago, we met up after school with her daughter and five of her middle school buddies.
Needless to say, the concert was fantastic! I was very surprised that I even enjoyed as much as I did, even after standing all night on the floor! I knew I liked what little ZBB songs I’d heard on the radio, but I loved every song they performed, even the ones I’d never heard in my life (and there were plenty!)
(Levi Lowry above)
Because this was the Southern Ground Tour, ZBB had three other performers with them. Levi Lowry came out first and sang a few songs. I immediately became drawn to his sound because it felt so raw and full of emotion. The crowd seemed to really like him more than the other two openers because of his music. Now the third guy that came out, the crowd liked for a different reason—he was HOT! Nic Cowan looked nothing like a country singer, but he hails from Texas and has that southern drawl. He was making the women drool. No wonder the floor was wet and sticky by the end of the show. :) The only woman on tour, Sonja Leigh, sang in between the two guys. She had a rocker-grittiness to her voice, but she could sing. I liked her, but she was my least favorite among the opening acts. One part that I thought was cool was that Zac Brown (I did learn there is an actual Zac Brown in the Zac Brown Band!) himself came out and sang at times with each opener. Most “big name” singers don’t do that, but he seemed very down to earth and normal. He was just a country rocker with a guitar and a song, and he wanted to share his music with others.

One sour note of the evening was that there was a group of girls (I hate to use the term ladies or women because they certainly weren’t acting like any.) directly in front of us who were SOOOO drunk they could not stand up on their own. Two women danced with each other during most of the opening acts. One of them kept swaying and bumping into me. I’m not a confrontational person, but I’d had it at that point. I politely asked them to move up just a bit into some empty space in front of them. She ignored me, and the girl next to me jumped in and asked again. She still ignored me. Finally, I elbowed her in the back and pushed her forward. Both girls stumbled but didn’t say anything. Fast forward 15-20 minutes and ZBB is getting ready to come out. One girl looks like she is going to puke, one is holding her up, etc. Lindsay said something to the “leader” of the group, and 5 minutes later, they all left! The “leader” was pissed off at us, but we just said it was because of her group no one wanted to be around. Once they all left, we all enjoyed the show just a little bit more…
Zac Brown came out and rocked the crowd. The band performed for almost 3 hours! That is unheard of in the concert world I think. Most groups usually sing for MAYBE 1 ½ hours at the most?? ZBB did it from about 8:20 or so until almost 11:30! We definitely got our money’s worth of entertainment! They played everything from Bob Marley to America the Beautiful and country in between. Of course, “Chicken Fried” and “Toes” were two of the biggest hits with the crowd, and we all sang along to “Whatever it is”, but we also went nuts for their rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, the same tune they performed at the CMA’s just last week! Other songs I enjoyed were “Sic ‘em on a Chicken”, “Jolene”, and “Highway 20 Ride, but my new favorite song of ZBB is “Free”. It’s a beautiful country ballad about being free and going in whatever direction your life takes you. This song just really hit home for me after the turmoil of the past year.

After this show, I will definitely follow ZBB music. I’ve already downloaded their album, and I can’t wait to hear the next one! I just added 5 or 6 of ZBB songs to my playlist, so if you want to listen to a specific song, just scroll to the bottom and look at the end of the playlist. :)

My new toy

Can I just tell you how much I am loving my new toy, my new HP G60 laptop? I have wanted to buy a laptop for a couple of years but always made excuses on why I really didn't NEED one. After my mom told me about this special at Walmart, I knew I had run out of excuses. Walmart was selling this laptop for one day only at a special price of $298. Wow! After checking around, the price seemed too good to be true. At other sites online, the computer was going for $450 or more. Nice! :)

Joon helped me get everything set up, but I have a slight problem with the computer. Now that I have it, I have no reason to get up off the couch! I can watch TV, movies, catch up on my DVR, and spend time online all at the same time. However, this gives me no excuses for not putting another newbie to good use--Rosetta Stone. I bought this program so I can learn a new language--Korean, of course! :) I also need to figure out a way to get my old programs and files from my desktop to this new laptop. Any ideas?

Sugarland May 2009

I'm going back in time for a little while to share some of the more memorable moments of this past summer. While I didn't feel like I could blog about this stuff at the time, I most certainly am making up for it now! :)

Back last spring, I bought 2 tickets (not knowing who I'd be going with) to the Sugarland concert. They were coming to town on the very last day of school, and I thought that would be a perfect "school's out" treat for myself! Since I had met Joon, I knew I had to drag him along for the ride. Country is really not his type of music, but he loved this concert. He didn't like all the standing up we did for the entire show, but he enjoyed himself (I like to think it was because he was with me! :))

Matt Nathanson opened up as the first act, and he wowed the crowd with his voice. Man, can he sing! If you don't know who he is, he is the guy who sings "Come on Get Higher". It's on my song list at the bottom of the screen if you want to hear it. He sang a few songs, and Kristian Bush from Sugarland came out and played a little jam session with Matt. Since the concert, I've downloaded Matt's CD, "Some Mad Hope". It's a really good CD. My favorite song of his before listening to the CD was, of course, "Come on Get Higher", but now it's "Wedding Dress". What a beautiful song...how great would that song be for a wedding dance? :) Hmmm...

After Matt's set was over, the "real" opening act began. Billy Currington came out and gave a great performance! I'd never really known this guy before except maybe a song or two on the radio, but he was good. His biggest hit was "People are Crazy", but he sang "Must be Doin' Something Right" and kicked it into high gear with "I Wanna Be a Hillbilly". Billy definitely earned my respect that night with these and a bunch of other songs. He seemed to be very comfortable on stage and talked to the crowd between each song.

Finally, the wait was over! Sugarland came out and rocked it!! They started with a ballad from behind the screen, then transitioned into "Settlin'". This was their introduction to the KC crowd of 10,000 or so screaming fans.

We all went nuts as they sang hit after hit. Jennifer and Kristian belted out "It Happens" (see the video below--just be sure to pause the song at the bottom of the screen before you push play on the video), "Want to", "Stay" (which the whole crowd, including me, belted out along side of her), "Joey", "Genevieve", "Everyday America" (they showed pics from all over KC that they had taken that afternoon), "Blood on Snow", "Who Says You Can't Go Home", etc. They played too many of their hits to name them all, but what a wonderful night of music, dancing, and singing right along with them. Even Joon found himself singing along at a few parts! :)

The most surprising events/songs of the night were:

*Jennifer broke into a Madonna medley during one song. She interrupted her own song to sing "Holiday", "Into the Groove" and (I think) "Best of my Love".

*Before the finale, both Jennifer and Kristian got into these blow-up bubbles and literally walked/rolled across the floor on top of the audience. That was fabulous!

*Perhaps one of the best moments came during the encore. The entire band, including Jennifer and Kristian, came out dressed as the B-52s and performed "Love Shack". It was so awesome!

This was a great experience to share with Joon. It's definitely a concert I'll never forget! Can't wait to see what Sugarland does next!

Happy me

I don't know exactly how to say this, so I'm just going to get this out there. I'm in love! I know...I just wrote a blog entry on my new divorce, but the truth is, the divorce is just now final after many, many months of being single. I wasn't really looking, but I found someone who totally makes me happy, and I love how I feel about myself when I'm with him.

Okay, how did we meet? I decided in March to put myself out there in the crazy dating pool known as online dating. After signing up and talking to a few guys I'd never end up with, including a 57-year-old biker dressed as Santa and a full-time poker player who lives at home with his dad, Joon found me. He let me know he was interested and thought I was cute. I looked him up online and saw that he was a Korean doctor who liked to travel. I'd never dated a Korean before, and since this was my time to try new things, I thought why not. We began talking online, chatting back and forth, emailing each other, and we continued to do this for a couple of weeks. I learned that this man made me laugh so much that I just had to meet him! Our first official date was Wednesday, April 8th, and we've been together ever since.

I won't bore you with all the details of our dates and time together, but just know that we are totally serious about each other. I love that he calls me his babe, and we have so much more in common than I ever thought possible. After all, he grew up in South Korea and didn't speak English really until he was 19 or so when he came to America. I grew up in Arkansas and Missouri and was raised by a preacher. However, we love to laugh together, watch movies, listen to music, dance, and talk to each other. I think that is one of the most enduring qualities about Joon--we can talk to each other and tell each other anything. We have the best conversations about nothing! Our biggest differences? He cooks, I don't. I spend money, he doesn't. That balances out, right?

I'll close with some of our favorite pics:

*being goofy at his place before meeting some friends

*hanging out at my favorite downtown place--Ernie Biggs

*snuggling together at the bowling alley

Now that it's out, I can't wait to keep you updated with more news from my new love. Keep reading!

Closure

Our divorce is FINALLY final. I feel as if this has been an ongoing saga in my life forever, even if it’s really been just shy of a year. Todd and I separated on November 12, 2008, I filed for divorce on January 4, 2009, and we went to court and walked out with divorce papers in hand on October 5, 2009.

When I first contemplated how I would write a blog entry regarding the details of my separation and eventual divorce, I thought I would lay it all out on the line. In fact, I even wrote up a draft entry to save for just the right moment to tell the world what really happened. Now, I don't feel the need to share ALL of that part of my life any longer. However, I do want to tell a part of the story my way.

I’m not sure Todd even reads my blog, but even if he does, I want him to know that for what it was worth, he was a part of my life. A part I don't regret but wish I had made different decisions along the way.

The following is from the original post I wanted to share back last year, dated November 16, 2008: "Where do I begin? I never, ever thought my life would turn out this way. I have friends who'd been divorced. I have family who'd been divorced. I have parents who'd been divorced.... 'Never would I marry a man who would do this to me.' I was smart in my choice. I know how to pick a decent man who would never, ever make me feel like I would be trapped in a marriage because I had no other way out. Guess what? God had other plans. He let me live almost ten years with Todd, through struggles of infertility, illness, school, jobs/no job, ups and downs, until we hit rock bottom. I thought Todd almost dying would have been our rock bottom. I mean, after all, he was out of work for a year while I worked as a high teacher to support us both. We did get support, too, from both of our families, for which we were eternally grateful. Yet none of that pain adds up to the pain I have felt over this past one week..."

That was many, many months ago. I honestly don't even recognize this writing because that is not who I am now. I can say this now without feeling embittered, but for the first few weeks (maybe months), I was angry. Angry at the world for letting my life turn out this way. Angry at Todd for ruining our future plans. Angry at myself for turning a blind eye for so long. But you know what? I’m no longer angry. In fact, I’m happier than I have been in a really, really long time. I feel like I can finally get back to my old self—one who’s not waiting around for something to happen or someone to come around the corner. Am I happy that it’s over? While I feel like our marriage was over a long time ago, it does feel like closure now. That’s the word—closure. No matter what was said, done, etc., now we can officially move on with our lives. I hope Todd has moved on with his, as I am ready to move on to the next stage of my life. Hence, I’ve made plans for myself:

· Continue to work out 3 days a week and lose 30 more pounds. (I’m down 38 from December of last year.)
· Get back to my cleaning schedule at home (every Saturday morning).
· Organize the storage room in the basement—get rid of excess in general.
· Decorate my house for Fall. I don’t really have much in the way of Halloween, but I’ve bought some really cute fall decorations at Kohl’s.
· Get back to blogging on a regular semi-basis, not the 1 blog every few months just so people know I’m still alive.
· Get back to SCRAPBOOKING!!!!! OMG—I haven’t done this for myself since Dad died back in November 2007. Wow—I’m so behind. I also want to do some major overhaul on my current scrapbooks now that the divorce is final. For some reason, I had a mini-meltdown Monday afternoon/evening after the court hearing. I suddenly noticed all of my scrapbooks sitting on the shelves in the living room and thought to myself, “Now what am I going to do with these?” The meltdown wasn’t because I was sad at losing a husband or my marriage, but it just reminded me that I spent my ENTIRE adulthood married to Todd, and every occasion is documented to the fullest in the pages of my albums. I pulled them all down, looked through each one page by page, and put a plan together. I’m going to redo them. Say what? I’m not redoing them from scratch, but I’ve decided that since I still have these memories from the last 10+ years Todd and I were together, I want to remember the events and family and conversations and emotions of these times when I look at my scrapbooks, NOT the idea that we are now divorced and it was all for naught.
· Live my life the way I choose and have a good time along the way.

That will be all for now. I do have more to share, but it will come at a later time.

Back to school for Year #10!

I truly cannot believe this will be my 10th year of teaching. I remember student teaching at Parkview High School in Springfield, and that does not seem THAT far back. Hmmm...Derek, one of my first students, would be 27 this year. That does not seem possible! I always said that I wouldn't feel old until my current students were born the year I graduated high school. Well, that time is approaching. The freshmen I have this year were born back in 1995. Holy cow! Where does the time go?

I wish I had pictures to post of my new classroom (8th different room in 10 years, thankyouverymuch!), but I still haven't taken those yet. Good intentions aside, I just keep forgetting my camera. Maybe next week I can take pics while I'm there for Open House.

Some back to school thoughts:

• My body does NOT like to get up on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. I don't mind Thursdays so much because that's my shorter day. I only teach two classes that day, am off for my plan time, then school is over. Of course, I don't mind waking up on Fridays because it's Friday!
• More room in the classroom = less problems in the classroom. Since my kids can spread out just a bit and aren't right on top of each other, there seems to be less touching and griping with each other.
• I'm totally changing how I grade this year. The only grades going in my gradebook this year MUST fit a category (Participation, Portfolio, Essay, Project, or Test). That's it. No more grading random worksheets. If it's not a part of the above, forget about it.

I know I have more thoughts, but it's Friday afternoon and I am ready for the weekend. Tonight at 7:30 I am closing on my house re-finance FINALLY! It's only taken 5 months! Once I have closed on the house, I am meeting some friends for our first Back-in-school-and-I-need-a-reason-to party party. :)

Just FYI--I did join Nutrisystem back at the beginning of August but didn't actually start until school began last week. I have lost 4 pounds since then! Yea me! :) The food is surprisingly good (I've only dumped 1 thing--the mac/cheese with hamburger). I'm eating ALL the time and like the commercial, I can have dessert EVERY NIGHT! :)

biting the big one

Okay, it's time for me to face facts. I haven't lost any more weight since school ended, and I was hoping to be down 10-15 more pounds before school started up again. Well, guess what? I go back next week, and nada--no weight loss, but more likely weight gain. I'm still going to the gym for my classes (yoga and pilates), but even I know that's not enough. I have to get back in the gym on a regular basis to really work out--treadmill, bike, weights, you name it. So after talking to a friend last night, I've decided that I need more motivation. That's why I just plunged head first spending $269 on a month of Nutrisystem. I figure a couple of things--$269 is actually less than what I spend right now on food each month, so I'm hoping to save some money in the long run. I also figure that since I'm living on my own, this will be a much easier way to control my eating habits on a daily basis. Will it be difficult to drive past McDonald's and NOT stop for my daily $1 diet coke? You betcha, but I know I have to do something to get back on the right track. I'll let you know how it's going once I've been on the plan for a while. Who knows? Maybe this is just the kick in the pants I need to finally finish what I've longed for.

just a dog?

Those who know me know I love my dog more than some people. I know "some" say, "she's just a dog," but Soze has been in my family for the past 8 years, and she has come to be my baby. She's more than just my dog--she's my companion, my couch buddy, my little lady, and my punkinhead. When I picked her up at the Humane Society, she was only 6 weeks old and weighed about 5 pounds. Who knew that this tiny little puppy would grow into this massive I'll-eat-everything-in-sight-including-your-new-shoes-and-an-entire-loaf-of-bread monster? Even if I knew how much money she would cost me over the next 8 years and counting, I'd still take her in a heartbeat. Here's why:

Of course, I've also taken enough hair from Soze that I could recreate 150 more of her over the years. This is an example of my living room after a good de-shedding brush treatment. Soze acts like I'm abusing her when I brush her, but I know she has to feel better once that hair is gone. Here's hoping for plenty more memories to come! I love you Soze! :)