A Day to Catch Up...

Nothin' much new here. I'm just finishing up my 8th grad class this week and I'll be happy to be done with it! Only two more classes to go, plus a Capstone project and I'll be officially done with my Masters program.

This week I've been busy working on my final for class and trying to get things done for the holidays. This morning I woke up, showered, and started getting ready for work. Around 6:30, I checked my phone only to find that we have no school because of a power outage. I'm pretty grateful to have an extra day to get things done this week! I have a list of things to knock out before the weekend.

On Sunday, we went to the Lions game and this is a picture I took on my phone as we were walking to Hockeytown. I don't know what the plan is for this building, but only the front of the building is standing...made for a cool picture.

Made it Through Week 2...

27 kindergarteners who miss their mommies + never having been to school before + a cramped classroom + a cold = a tough week.

But I survived week 2! Barely!

OMG

This school year is getting off to a rough start! That's all. I just need a pep talk. Feel free to leave comments!!

Lions Game

Last night we went to the Lions pre-season game...and believe it or not, they actual beat the Patriots. Go Lions! Can I just say, it's pretty fun watching the games when they actually win!

We have casino club cards (or whatever you call them) because we stayed at the Greektown Casino Hotel when our basement was being worked on two years ago, so we get to park for free in their parking structure. It's nice saving $20 whenever we go downtown for an event. I told Gil yesterday that the free parking might be the only silver lining to that whole basement fiasco!

We were planning to eat at Pegasus in Greektown but ended up running kind of late and the wait was too long. We ended up eating at Bistro 555 in the Greektown Hotel. It was pretty good and ended up being cheaper than we expected, too.

Today we're hanging around the house getting things done (aside from me writing this post!). Gil's mowing the lawn and I'm about to go vacuum and steam the floors, do a couple loads of laundry and plan meals for the week. Better get going!

Brush with Fame...Well, Not Really at All

Gil and I were driving home from an unsuccessful attempt at seeing a movie on Saturday night (which merely involved us getting soaked on the way to the theater, only to find out that the movie was sold out), when we noticed some bright lights and a crowd gathered on the street.

The day before we had noticed that some movie or tv show was being shot in town because police were blocking off the streets and we could see the crew. We were trying to cross the street to go ask a cop what they were filming, but we couldn't figure out if it was okay to cross or not and I was a bit terrified that we were somehow going to ruin their shot. I'm pretty sure they corralled the area enough so that random pedestrians wouldn't ruin anything- but either way, we awkwardly stood around watching as they filmed the scene way down the street before we decided to head to dinner.

We had a hunch about what show it was but we got another look on Saturday as we drove by. It was definitely the show Hung which airs on HBO. I'm pretty sure we were looking at Thomas Jane in his yellow rain slicker. Terrible picture, I know but it was the best I could do before the light turned green...kinda fun to see a show being taped!

Our Treadmill Needs a Bigger House...

I'm so so excited for our treadmill to be up and running. I was feeling so good on Monday...still energized after only a day back at school. Now, I am coming up with all the same old excuses for not working out. The top of the list right now is not wanting to go back out into the cold once I'm home and really not wanting to drive to the gym (which is really only about ten minutes away...lame!). Also, I'm tired! Apparently it only took me two weeks of vacation to forget how tired I am at the end of a teaching day. The thought of getting ready for the gym and driving there sounds pretty terrible. I've run outside twice this week and because of the cold, it hurts to breathe! I am keeping up with myfitnesspal.com really well though.

Hopefully by this weekend the treadmill will be useable. Gil got home from work yesterday and got excited to put it together. When I came downstairs this morning, this is the view that awaited me:

Yes, that's a treadmill in the dining room. We still have to figure out how to get it into the office. The office was too small to assemble it in that room and the treadmill has to stay in the (huge) box for most of the assembly- based on the instructions. Apparently if you remove it from the box before the directions tell you to, the world will end. Soo....we are left with this conundrum.

On another note, we went to the Lions game last Sunday and had a ton of fun. It was my mom's first Lions game and she was ridiculously excited. The only downfalls of the day were the super long security lines (in the freezing cold) before going in and having to be patted down. Kinda put a damper on the pre-game excitement, if you ask me. When we got out of the game, we headed back to our car and saw that the people who had parked in front of us had had their car broken into. Bummer.

The game itself was really fun and I was happy to be with my mom at her first game!

At the game! <3

Fight or Flight

Whenever Gil comes in the house after work and I don't hear him, I jump a mile. He mocks me every time. Now I know why! After school today, all the teachers were listening to a presentation in a classroom and we started hearing "pop, pop, pop" outside the window. I guarantee you've never seen a group of people hit the floor so fast! After the shooting on the front yard last year and throat slashing behind the school this year, we're all a bit edgy. Understandably. It definitely got my heart pumping today as I lay on the floor waiting for a bullet to fly through the window. No wonder I'm always preparing myself for the worst!

...By the way, it ended up being hooligans with fire crackers (and yes, I just used the word "hooligans"). And for the record, the College of Ed at GVSU was great, but it did NOT prepare me for this!

Tigers

Last night, the Tigers played Seattle and we were there in the best seats I've ever had. It was fun being so close to the field. The game itself was a little slow for my taste and as usual, I watched people and listened to random conversations around me more than I watched the game. I try, I really try to pay attention to the actual game but it never happens. Gil was already downtown for work, so I met him there and we got a drink and some food at the Elwood Bar and Grill Besides the with a few of Gil's coworkers. I will be the first to say that I can be no fun at all at sporting events because I get whiny when it's too hot or too cold and yesterday was pushing 90 degrees. But thank goodness, our seats were in the shade.

There was a big group from Gil's work at the game for an event, but we ended up with tickets much closer to the field and away from everyone else! By the end of the game, we were ready to go because we were being dive bombed by bugs every few seconds crazy bugs with a death wish, it was a fun night in Detroit.
And oh yeah, the Tigers won, in case you were wondering!