Write a Letter

Well, another month has come and gone. This month I chose to write a letter to my friend, Anne. I have worked with Anne for the past two years. She teaches next door to me,and I don't know where I would be without her! I'm constantly popping in and asking her questions or just being nosey and looking at what she's doing to see if I can copy her. I don't know what I would do with her! I am so glad to be working with such wonderful teachers, and Anne is a huge part of that awesome team!

Of course, I've also finished some books. I read The Poisonwood Bible. It took me forever to read, but in the end it turned out to be really good. The book is about a family that goes to be missionaries in Africa. The dad made me really mad because he went there with the intention to "fix" the people there. He tried to change everything they did. It was neat to see how his family overcame his attitude, though, and what became of them once they left Africa. Very good book, I highly recommend it. I also read Twilight. I started this book several months ago, but just couldn't get into it. I picked it back up this week, though, in order to complete a challenge for my online book club. I am so glad that I did! While I found the beginning very slow, I really enjoyed the end. I now understand what all the hype is about and I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in the series!

I've Been Busy!

Well, here I am again, trying to catch up on my list! I've actually completed a lot. I'm going to try to catch you up on what has been going on.

First, Brad and I are buying a house! It all kind of happened a lot faster than we were expecting, but we are so excited! It's about a mile away from our apartment--only two blocks from my school. It's an adorable two story cape cod. We just fell in love with it! We had our inspection last week and everything seems to be going well. If everything stays on schedule we will be closing on September 4th--my birthday! Probably the best birthday present I've ever gotten! So, needless to say, that means that I'm working on the "Save enough money for a down payment on a house" and "buy a house" tasks!

I've also been doing a lot in the health/fitness category. I've started keeping track of all of the meals that I eat. I found this great website: www.sparkpeople.com. It's an awesome place that gives me meal plans and counts my calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc. It also gives me workout routines so that I can stay on track to lose the weight that I want! Not only have I been keeping track of my meals daily and working out 4-5 times a week, but I've also cooked two new meals: Cajun Chicken Caesar Salad and BLT Salad. The Cajun Chicken salad was okay. I think that we needed to marinate the chicken a while longer because it didn't taste very "cajun." However, I really liked the BLT salad. It tasted just like a real BLT! I found that recipe in my Hungry Girl cookbook. I have a couple more that I'm hoping to try soon, too. I'm really enjoying trying new recipes--especially healthy ones that taste yummy! Oh yeah, I also went to the Farmer's Market for the first time. Actually, I've gone a couple times now. I tried our local Farmer's Market, but they didn't really have a lot of food (go figure--we live in a FARM town!). So, my mom and I took my nieces to the one in Orland. I got lots of yummy fruits and vegetables. My favorite was the green beans--they were so fresh! My mom and I have kind of made it a tradition now, that we take the girls on Fridays and go to the Farmer's Market.

Of course, I've finished some books, too. I read Summer Sisters (very good!), Clementine's Letter (from my classroom library--I love Clementine!), Can You Keep A Secret (also very good--I would love to see this book as a movie), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Sloppy Firsts (to be honest, I was a little disappointed with this book because it came to highly recommended, but that's okay). I haven't gotten as much reading done lately as I would like because we've been so busy with house stuff--and now I'm starting to work in my classroom, but I'm still taking time whenever I can to get things done!

Last, Brad and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie at Hollywood Boulevard a couple of weekends ago. It was pretty good. I love that theater because it's so cozy. It was Brad's first time there and he really enjoyed it. We haven't been able to spend as much time together as normal because he started his job and he typically has to travel about an hour to get to his store. However, we like to take walks to look at the house and talk about what we want to do to it. So, we've been making the most of our time together!