My Eyes

It's inevitable. Once again my mom is right. I need to get an eye exam. My eyes are starting to hurt everyday. Uggh. I so don't want to do it, but I need to do it. I'm just hoping that I don't have to get glasses. I need to get back to making exemption forms for my students, but my eyes hurt so badly! probably doesn't help that I'm on the computer. uggh...okay off to work, so I can finally rest my eyes!

Is it summer yet?

I'm sitting here in study hall. Why study hall you ask? well, the teacher didn't show up so I got to cover the class. Yippee!

Well, I went to Wichita this weekend. It was great. My mom and I had a total girls' weekend. We watched soap operas, ate angel food cake with strawberrys and whipped cream and of course chatted it up.

I also had the opportunity to spend time with my good friend Jennifer Cheng...oh wait, I mean Dr. Jennifer Cheng. She and her husband Jason just celebrated their first year of marriage on Monday. Last year Murad and I traveled to Wichita for their wedding. Like me, she did a lot of DIY things for the wedding. Last year we talked all the time about our plans for the wedding and how we did it. Her wedding was so cool. It took place at a local country club on the golf course with the reception in the club house. She also had three (yes, three!) dresses! Her colors were ivory, pink and chocolate brown. In addition, to DIYing most of the aspects of the wedding, she also did some cooking. She made white-chocolate covered and dark chocolate coverd pretzels as her wedding favors. They were so yummy! Murad and I took extras. When I visited her, she had just received her wedding album. It was cool to look back at last year! She and I both experience the post-wedding planning blues, but I think that's normal. Now we have so much more to do, that we are both kind of glad to have all that work out of our lives.

Ugh...so ready for summer! I'm dreaming of the pool!

Murad and I decided to hold off on the wedding bands for a while. We need to pay off our credit cards and save $$. I also didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize our honeymoon. Plus with Abby coming the summer, money will be tight!!!!!!!! Plus, I really love my simple band. It really symbolizes me and my relationship with Mr. Soup. We love each other and that's all that really matters in our lives. We're working together to achieve our dreams and goals!

Well, I guess I better get back to work! Luckily these kids are quiet and not disruptive. I should've brought work down.

Okay, well back to dreaming of summer!

tag

8 things I am looking forward to:

- Abby coming to visit this summer

-pool time

-going to Kansas this weekend

-going to New Jersey at Thanksgiving

-Punta Cana, Dominican Republic March 2010

-finding out where Murad will attend grad school and where will live for the next five years

-sleeping in!

-dinner

8 things I did yesterday:

-taught 7th graders

-watched Real Housewives of New Jersey

- walked the dogs

-paid bills

-made homemade pizza

-slept

-talked to Murad

-checked facebook

8 things I wish I could do:

-run a marathon or half-marathon

-write full-time
-be more assertive
-worry less
-do math...well
-travel to Australia (still not giving up hope)
-eat and drink whatever I want
-keep my apartment clean throughout the week

8 shows I watch:
-Family Guy-
-Whose Wedding Is it Anyways
-The Office
-The Young & the Restless (on Soap.net)
-Living Single (reruns)
-Saved by the Bell (reruns)
-anything on MSNBC
-Real Housewives series

8 People I tag: Katie, Tish, Amber, Lynsey, Lara and three more!

Summer is Almost Here

Can you tell I'm ready? These kids are driving me bonkers! Luckily, we're reading a 7th grade favorite, The Outsiders.

So, definitely some good news:

-I got an extra $750 from my mentor grant so I was able to get most of my car repairs done. Only one more minor thing (with a hefty $250 price tag). I'm going to wait until the fall on that one. Now I can finally drive my car back and forth to Kansas! WOO-HOO!

-Murad and I's 3 year anniversary was yesterday! Can you believe we've been together for three years? Tomorrow is our 2 month wedding anniversary.

-Murad got added hours at work! Woo-hoo! This will open up a lot of things for us. We may be able to get our wedding bands. We currently just have plain platinum bands (still effin expensive in my eyes). I want a 3/4 eternity bezeled band. I wasn't a fan of bezeled until recently. It's in our price range. Murad wants a channel set band. Unfortunately his is not in our price range. He could get it in white gold and it would be $600 cheaper, but we are big fans of platinum and don't want to jeorpordize quality (we're such snobs..which is funny because we're Poor!). I told Murad that if it meant postponing our honeymoon (again) then I don't want to do it. I need the beach. Punta Cana, DR, here we come! We're buying booking it soon so we can get some good deals!

For now I'll settle for laying by the pool. I'm so ready for summer. Even though I'm teaching summer school, I still have plenty to look forward to:

-no more GRAD SCHOOL! I'm done with my 2nd master's. well I'm not, but I'm done with the coursework and that's all that matters

-Abby will be here! Girl time! movies, plays, library time and whatever girly stuff we have to opportunity to do. I'm so excited to have her here. Murad and I are going to focus on helping her develop healthy eating and exercise habits. I'm hoping they are habits she'll continue when she goes back to Kansas in the fall.

reading and writing! I can't wait to read for pleasure and start journaling again!

-Finally, Murad is starting the grad school application process. I know most people don't like writing statement of purposes, but I like helping him do it. I love writing and I love helping him acheive his goals! I'm so proud of him! He is back in school getting another degree solely for the purpose of going for more school. School doesn't come easy for him, and he's successfully raised his GPA! He's applying for about 5 different Ph.D Counseling Psychology programs and a couple of MSW programs. It hasn't been an easy road for him, but he's stuck to it. He's so dedicated. I know whatever program he gets into will be the best for him. This is such an exciting time in our lives. We've been seriously talking about buying a house wherever we end up so that we can start on a family in a few years! CRAZY!

-Sampson and Maya time--more time to play and cuddle with my babies!

Cheese

So, this post is honor of CHEESE. Not Cheese Heroin, the drug common among teens in Dallas and cause for drug-related overdoses, but the actual curdled milk!
I bought some of those Laughing Cow Babybel cheeses and I'm in love!
Today I made cream cheese pinwheels for no apparent reason. I just love 'em.
Here are some of my favorite cheeses (in no particular order):
cream cheese (my fave)
brie (2nd)
mozzarella
swiss
cheddar
American
queso
colby jack
feta
string cheese
cheesecake (i know, I know, but hey, it's soooo good!)

oh, I just love it so much. I did some research on cheese (via wikipedia). some interesting facts:
Cheese is rarely found in East Asian dishes, as lactose intolerance is relatively common in that part of the world and hence dairy products are rare Glad I'm not Asian!
White wines go better with many cheeses than reds.


I think part of the reason I love cheese so much is because it goes perfectly with my favorite drink! WINE! haha! My friend Christina had a wine and cheese party for her birthday. I think I am going to do the same for mine, except maybe add a more French theme. I'll include some French foods and decor as well! Oh, I'm so excited for January 26th,2010 now. Not excited to turn 28 though. Okay, so I just wanted to share some information on Cheese. Off to eat some more! This is the perfect night for wine and cheese: I'm finished with graduate school and tonight is the premeire of what is sure to be my new favorite show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey! For those of you who don't know that my husband and most of my new family are New Jersey natives. Bring on the stereotypes!

Visit www.cheese.com for more information!

Happy Mothaf@&$*ing mother's day

I like to use bad words when I'm excited. In my vocabuary bad words can be used to describe things that make me happy and things that make me mad. It's all about context and tone. If only I coud use them to teach these concepts to my students. They would ace the TAKS test.

**Disclaimer* my C key and L key are stuck so if you see a word missing the letters c or l, that's why**

Today was my first official mother's day! Well, not really, but my first mother's day as a stepmom! Last year was my first mother's day as a dog-mom. Maybe next mother's day I'll be a real mom... who knows?

Okay, so Friday night was my friend Melanie's birthday. We went to Manny's in Uptown for dinner. I had heard rave reviews about the brisket tacos, but I was too scared to try them. Big mistake, but oh well. We had a good time, drinking, eating and celebrating everything we love about our pal, Mel.

Saturday night Murad and I joined Christina and her friend Lashundra at the Taste of Addison. It's basially this outdoor fair, but on a smaller scale. They have some rides for kids, live bands (Foreigner was there! "I wanna know what love is...") and then a whole bunch of food stations run by different restaurants in Addison. Well, guess who happened to be there? Manny's Tex Mex Restaurant. Turns out they have an Addison location too. Murad and I had the brisket tacos and loved them. Murad hates Tex Mex and he was like, "these are damn good!" He even liked the salsa...so did I. Murad also tried crawfish for the first time. Nate's Seafood was there and they had 1 lb. for $5. Murad was all over that. I think we found a new favorite for him. In addition to those fine foods, I had the sampler from Texas De Brazil (bacon-wrapped chicken, sausage and steak) Murad had the steak from there. I love Texas De Brazil, but it's extremely expensive and you really have to love meat to eat there. All they do is bring you meat. So, trying the samper for only$7 was great! We also had cookies from Nestle Tollhouse and then finished the night with our favorite....FUNNEL CAKE. We were stuffed when we got home. All the walking and eating made us tired so we conked out at 10pm.

I love that the weather is changing. I love going to outdoor events. This time of year is just so fresh and wonderful. Unfortunately yesterday was rather gloomy, cold and overcast. However, being outside with my husband and friends made it fun. We had a great time laughing and experiencing good food!

mother's day cards

more pics

Brand New Flavor in Yo Ear!

Some new pics of things I've created or redecorated! I'm not quite done with the Abby/Guest/Office room, so I won't post pics of the ugly unfolded laundry on the bed or the piles of bills spread out across the ottomon. However, I did put the rug down. Mr. Soup absolutely loves it. He said it adds something to the room. The chest looks cute too!

Okay, so about two months ago I bought these two black chairs off of RISD marketplace. I put them in front of the fireplace along with an altar arrangement from our wedding to make a little sitting area. Even though I cannot fully redecorate, I do enjoy changing things around every few months. When Murad goes out of town I take the opportunity to rearrange furniture or buy new furniture. He hates change, but he's slowly coming to appreciate my decorating craze!

The colors for our bedroom are deep blue, scarlet, gold and brown. We got a beautiful gold duvet and pillows along with a stunning red paisley sheet set. In addition, I bought an end table from RISD marketplace and a lamp from Wal-Mart. The only thing I need to get is a brown or gold bed skirt. You can see how well it matches our master bathroom decor. Notice my babies in the pics as well.

Mr. Soup snapped some pics of us sleeping. I had no idea until I loaded pics on here that he did that. You can see that my dogs really think they are human. Maya sleeps with her head on the pillow too! They crack my shit up!

Lastly, I made some mother's day cards this year. I got the idea from Murad's stepmom. She's always calling us her little chicks, so I went with a one cool chick theme for them! I loved making them. I need to make some graduation/congrats on passigng the bar exam cards too. Lots to do! Abby's aunt graduated from high school and will attend a small Lutheran college next fall. My brother graduates this summer from KU. My bridesmaid (and best friend) Christina's husband just recently passed the Colorado bar exam. I'm so excited of all their accomplishments.

My Babies

Maya













Sam

Some pics of my babies a few weeks ago...Mr. Sampson Lee Soup and Maya Leigh Soup (yeah, that's right. My dogs have middle names!)

Swine Flu, TAKS and motherhood

Well TAKS week has come and gone. This week, the 7th grade students took the reading and math TAKS. The 8th grade students took the Science and Social Studies TAKS. I hate just sitting there watching the students take the test. My assistant principal kept telling us to calculate the hours we were getting paid to do nothing. Excuse me? I am not going to calculate hours for not getting paid unless I'm at home in bed or on the beach. This is still work to sit and do nothing but watch kids. no internet, no book, no NOTHING! At least we got to wear jeans.

The Swine Flu. Wow! This pandemic has really got me scared. I keep telling myself it's not a big deal and that everything is going to be okay. However, when I watch the news I get scared. Fort Worth ISD canceled school for a whole week! Those lucky kids....and teachers!

So, I've been in a shopping frenzy. TodayI had a wake-up call though. I forgot that I scheduled to pay my student loan interest this month (I have my loans deferred while I'm in school, but I still pay the quartely interest). So, I need to halt my spending some since they just took out that $$. I bought some stuff from my friend from work Carole (also the harpist in our wedding). I bought a nice rug for our guest room and a chest for Abby's toys. I also got an antique purse for $3. I bought paper and envelopes from Paper Source. On Wednesday I used our Bed, Bath and Beyond gift cards to buy a brand new vacuum. I spent $23 on it! Gotta love wedding gifts. I vacuumed tonight and for the first time our carpet is actually CLEAN. No dog fur on it! Woo-hoo! My mom also surprised me with a Defurminator! I can't wait. It successfully takes off the undercoat from the dogs. I can't wait to get it because they are shedding like crazy!

Well, the school year is winding down. I'm teaching 7th grade TAKS summer school during the month of June. I think it'll be alright and it will keep me busy. The money is nice too. I need to pad my savings. I know the honeymoon and everything will creep up on us. Oh, how I can't wait for March 2010 when we're on the beaches of Punta Cana, DR with our friends.

Abby is coming this summer. She'll be here June 14th until August. I can't wait. She'll go to the City of Richardson camps again. We're also going to sign her up for drill team camp and art class. My friend Elaina found tickets for the Dallas Children's Theater's performance of the Never Ending Story. Murad and I want to keep her active and busy. I plan to get her a library card and Murad is going to run with her every day. She'll also have chores like walking one of the dogs and making her bed. I think coming down here will be so good for her and us. Having a child here really does change our perspective on things. We're also going to limit how much Hannah Montana she watches. I don't think Murad and I can stand too much of that horrible girl! Bleh!

Murad will take classes this summer. He plans to take a GRE course this summer so he can take the GRE in the fall and apply for classes. He's starting to narrow down the grad school search. Definitely staying in the midwest (Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma) so that we can be driving distance from Abby. I think he's going to apply to counseling psychology Phd programs since they're a little bit easier to get into than clinical psychology Phd programs. Plus counseling psych fits his interests better (marriage/family therapy). He's also applying to a MSW program here in Dallas, too. Our goal is to buy a house wherever we end up, so we need to save for that too. It's all so scary, yet exciting. I just can't wait to see what happens. I feel like everything is going to be great. I just have this feeling that everything is going to be better than we expected! I can honestly say that is how things have been for Murad and me. Whenever things seem impossible, something great surprises us. We have been blessed in so many ways.

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a mother. With mother's day coming up, it's hard not to think about. I love my mom so much and cherish our relationship. It's a bond no one can replace. She gave birth to me. Everything good that is in me comes from her. However, this week I've seen how horrible mothers can be to their children. How selfish they can be. It makes me sad for the child and the mother. I think motherhood is a gift from God. I can honestly say I'm not ready to be a mother yet. I take that back. I'm not ready to give birth to a child of my own yet. However, I love the motherly roles that I get to play each day. For example, I love being a mother to my dogs. They are my world and all my friends will tell you that if I could talk about Maya and Sam all day I would. They have such unique personalities and they are always there to cheer me up when I am down. I think they do more for me than I do for them! I love being a step-mom! I love doing girly things with Abby. I think if Abby were to live with us I could handle it and be successful at being a full-time stepmom. I hope I can pass down some of the good things I gained from my mom. My hopes for Abby are that she lives life to the fullest and that she never stops learning. I hope she greets people with an open-mind, but is careful with to whom she gives her heart. I hope she is honest with others and honest with herself. Finally, my last motherly role is my teacher role. I kind of ended up with this role by accident. I feel like this year especially my students are crying out. They are so needy and have so many emotional issues. It's hard not to get caught up in it and take it home. There are just too many of them. I have the same hopes and dreams for them as I do Abby. It's just harder to express that to them. It's harder to know if they even care that I care. It's hard to know if they care about themselves.

Well that's my two cents on motherhood. I love my roles. I cannot wait to have some of my own, but for now, I think I need to get a hold of my current roles and be a little selfish. I need a little more me time. Plus, the vain side of me really likes my body. I'm not ready to give it up. I know it'll come back, but it just seems like it'll be so hard! Next Sunday I will celebrate my 4th mother's day as a teacher, my 2nd mother's day as a dog-mommy and 1st mother's day as a stepmother. Happy Mother's Day to me!