This is essentially my car. It's this color, officially called "Cashmere". It's basically a pearl colored car (the lighting in this picture is a little dark) and it looks a lot like the Cadillac Escalade color that I fancied. I'm not really a white car person. But this is just really subtle and shiny! My paint job has an extra clear coat on it to make in extra shiny.

It's a Limited edition 2005 Ford Expedition. It's loaded. 6 disc changer, moon roof, factory installed DVD, leather, 2nd row captain's chairs, heated AND air conditioned front seats, tow package, AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control, Safety Canopy system (oversized side curtain airbags), Reverse Sensing System (which means it beeps like crazy if I'm going to hit something going in reverse) and power-adjustable pedals, power-folding heated mirrors, and a self adjusting air suspension system for a smoother ride.

Not that some of this matters to you guys. BUT it only has 42k and we got it for 3k cheaper than any dealer in Dayton would give us and got MORE for our money. We bought it over in Columbus on Sunday.

We're having a bit of car drama at this point, but I'm sure it will all be fixed by the weekend or I'll be returning the car. The air suspension system is having some issues on the passenger side, but I made the dealer put in writing that he would fix it if there was a problem. I'm taking it to the Ford dealership in town this week to have them check it out. They'll pay to have it fixed or I'll return the car and walk to work. Because I traded them my old car. :)

I'll try to post a picture of me with MY real car later this week.

My Weekend

We bought a new car.

:)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've met Larry. Larry and his wife Marla and their 16 year old daughter Kathryn live across the street from us. They're our new neighbors!

I haven't seen Marla or Kathryn yet, but here's what I got from Larry:

1. He's a smoker- I could smell it on his breath. Kinda gross. But I'm trying not to judge.
2. He's already got the goods on the neighborhood because he asked Kendall if he was the pilot on the street. Kendall's repsonse, "No. I'm the doctor." HA!
3. Marla works from home
4. Their daughter just got her driver's license
5. Larry is working in development and research for Cargill Foods in Dayton
6. They're from Iowa
7. He seemed really nice

Jamie was jealous because once again we got the goods before her. She thinks we're too social. She wanted to meet the new neighbors before us, but I'm just good. :) Actually Larry arrived by himself and was looking for a shovel to clean up the snow. Their snowblower and shovels were all in the moving truck. :) So I lent him one. Cause I'm good like that.

People Are Strange....

My idiosyncracies:

1. I LOVE extra sharp cheeses. Sharp cheese are good too, but the sharper, the better. My personal favorite is Cabot Extra Sharp White Cheddar. I can only get it at Trader Joe's and Jungle Jim's but it's always worth the trip.

2. I view my dogs as people. No, seriously. I talk to them like they really understand everything I'm saying. I ask their opinion on things. I even sing to them. And I really believe that they understand about 50% of what I'm saying. True dog lovers most often see their dogs this way, as furry people. My mom does the same thing.

3. I have had sinus problems ever since I moved to Dayton. Before I lived here I hardly ever got a stuffy nose. Now I have one constantly. I've had it for 10 years. I don't even really notice it anymore. But for the last 10 years, I can only breathe out of one nostril at a time.

4. I'm a bibliophile. I can't even tell you the number of books that I own. If you haven't seen our office, it's obscene the number of books I own.

5. I'm a cinephile as well. We own close to 500 DVDs. You can come rent from us. We're free. :)

6. I love day by day tear away calendars. I used to get a new Foxtrot calendar every year. But then Bill Amend had to decide to just go to Sunday comics and now they didn't make one for 2008. I was very disappointed.

7. I love change. If I could rearrange my living room, bedroom, office, classroom every month, I'd be happy. I just love getting a new look and seeing things from different angles. When I was a kid, I changed my bedroom around monthly. I really only had 4 options for arrangement, but I'd rotate them all. It made me happy. :)

Hmmmmm...what type of wine does one serve with Cheetos....maybe Trey can answer this one.....

Nothing. For two days! No moving truck, no cars, nothing!!!!

It's driving me crazy!!!!!

Spygate 2008

Okay,

So today we saw two cars pull into the driveway across the street. One car has out of state plates. So we spy from the second floor windows of our house to see if we can get a glimpse of the people.

What we saw was a dude with salt and pepper hair. Yeah. Not good for our "fun, new, young couple". He only stayed a few minutes, walked around the house and then got in his car and left. We believe the other person was his realtor.

So tonight Kendall sees the old owners cars in the driveway. He suggests we go over and exchange phone numbers. This is really code for, "Let's go find out more dirt." He claims it was really for the numbers. I know better. :) So we ended up chatting for a while about their new place and then casually asked who bought the house. See, that way it doesn't look like we don't care about them leaving. :)

So they gave us the skinny:

A couple in their middle years with a daughter who is a sophomore in high school. They're moving from Iowa. The dad is going to be the head of research for Cargill Foods in Dayton. Sounds like a snooze fest to me. (Aren't I terrible?) I'm sure the kid isn't happy about the move. So maybe that will make for some good drama. I guess they also have a son who is working on his doctorate. So that probably places them in their mid to late 40s. Their son has to be just a shade younger than us. So maybe that will be a plus. When he comes to visit we'll have someone cool to hang with.

But I'm not holding my breath.

So all in all a slightly disappointing moment. But as I said in my last post, we're pretty social people and I'm sure that we'll at least get to know them on a surface level. We'll both be out in our yards mowing grass and wave. Who knows, they could be kick ass. Maybe they'll be our second set of really cool aunt and uncle combo.

But I'll still totally be spying when they move their stuff in. I want to see if they have good taste in furniture! LOL! And I can still use my Cheetos standard if all else fails... ;)

PS

I like Cheetos. I hope the new neighbors do too! :P

Excitement of the Unknown

Karen's blog about Jim fixing up the house on Kay and the giant moving truck sitting across the street from my house inspired this entry.

I have to be honest when I say that I'm excited that our neighbors across the street are moving. It's nothing against them. They're great people. We've been over to there house several times and sat around and drank different wines that their friends mail them from around the world. They're funny. They're also....old. Okay, not like one foot in the grave old. But their kids are all grown, and well, they're our age. So it's kind of like hanging out with your parents, or maybe more like a really cool aunt and uncle.

When the sign went up in their front yard a couple of months ago, we were pumped. We thought it was a great opportunity for new, younger people, to move into the 'hood. Many of the houses for sale in our development are selling to younger couples in their late 20s and early 30s who have young kids or are getting ready to have kids. This is obviously good for us.

But for me, it's not about their kids. I'm greedy. I want cool new friends. Screw my kids making friends someday or having people to play with. I'm looking for new people to have a BBQ with and drink some beers on a hot summer night. Or to have a New Year's Eve party with where no one has to drive home. Or even just a game night that keeps us up late because the trip home is short.

So when the sale pending sign went up, we were curious. I made Kendall go out one night when they were getting their mail and ask who bought the house. It was really cold and all he got was the brief detail that it was a "family". I've been speculating with Jamie (my friend next door) as to what type of family it will be. We're both obviously hoping for a couple with young kids. Her because she has young kids, me, well because I want new drinking buddies. (Haha) The moving van today is getting me even more excited. They are closing tomorrow. Which must mean that the new owners will be taking immediate possession.

Where I'm really torn is, how big of a nosey busy-body am I? Will I spy out my windows while they move their stuff in? (Probably) Will I run over with some cookies and a card to introduce ourselves? (Most likely) Will I make some new friends? (Only if they look cool- HA! JK) Jamie teases that we know everyone on the street already, which is mostly true. So it's likely we'll meet these people and at least become friendly acquaintances. We're just social people. We like to know our neighbors. Is that a crime?

It also led me to think about Karen's old house. I'm sure the neighbors liked them, and I'm sure that they're disappointed that they moved. But isn't there some excitement in the unknown for them too? Will the new neighbors be jerks? Will they make a lot of noise? Not maintain their yard? Will they invite peple over for cookouts? Some people hate the new and unknown. To me it's exciting. I love change. And even if there is a foot of snow outside my door tomorrow, I'll probably still try to spy on the new neighbors. :)

My last few days

So yesterday and today have been pretty intense for me. It all relates to work.

Yesterday we had a district meeting with all 7th and 8th grade english teachers. We had to sit down by grade level and decide which of our state standards were the most important to us and we thought we needed to hit more heavily than others. Now there are only 4 people per grade level in our district that teach these classes. So you'd think it would be easy for us to come to a consensus. Ummm, no. The way my building attacked them was completely different that then way the other middle school attacked them. And then it made people attack each other. No one wanted to compromise. No one wanted to see the other person's point of view. I spent 3 hours trying to play mediator between 3 women. It was awful. I had a horrible headache when I left. And I felt like we got very little accomplished. We're meeting again on the 22nd to rehash the details. UGH. As I desribed it to one co-worker when I got back to school, "It was like a hostage negotiation. Except I was the hostage, negotiating for my own freedom!"

I spent today in our first district negotiation meeting. While I can't talk about what we actually discussed (we all agree to keep what happens behind closed doors confidential) it was another intense day. I was fortunately able to get up from the table and leave for an hour and a half to go to the doctor. When I came back, things were still heated and points of view were clashing. We decided to break and have lunch and were able to come back to the table with a reasonable solution and actually came to a conclusion within an hour of returning. I should point out that it took almost an entire day to hash out one thing that we both wanted. CRAZY! We were able to get through several other small issues in the afternoon and ended the day at 3:30. We pick up where we left off on Monday. I learned A LOT today and I am really glad that I decided to participate in this process. As the day progressed I felt less intimidated and started talking in the group. It was nice. I felt respected and valued.

I don't really want to talk too much about the doctor, but things went well today and while I'm physically uncomfortable, I'm hoping that it's a good sign that there are multiple eggs floating around in there. Now it's time for the fun part....te-he! Kendall has been sick all week with an upper respiratory thing. He's getting antibiotics today and I'm really hoping that I don't get it. But 's going around.......

I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday. Even though I have to write up another set of lesson plans for Monday....and then Thursday! It's so crazy! I think February is going to fly by at the rate! Which is good. Only 79 more school days til summer vacation!!!!!!!!!

Weekend

Friday night we went out with our neighbors to Bullwinkles for Restaurant Week. We had a great time sitting around chatting and laughing. It was a nice end to a very busy week at school. The only bad part of the day was that the girl who we pay to clean our kitchen never showed and never called to say she wasn't showing. I was counting on her to get that done and didn't factor in the time for my baby shower prep. I left her a voicemail asking her to call me with an explanation for her no show. She called shortly after and gave me a story about her mother-in-law getting into a car accident. Now I'm a sympathetic person, but she was lying. Her story didn't make any sense. So I think she's fired. I haven't 100% decided.

Saturday I threw Jessica's baby shower. It went extremely well. The cake was adorable. All of the food was delicious. And my idea to create a scrapbook for pictures of Madeleine's birthday went over well. Everyone thought it was a creative idea and the pages turned out wonderfully. I'd do the same activity again at another shower if I threw one. Frankly, I'd love it was done at my own baby shower some day. It was only slightly difficult to watch Jessica open her gifts and ooh and aah over what she got. There was a moment when I couldn't help but thinking, "I really wish this was me." There were also two babies present and three pregnant women. While it was hard to be surrounded by it, I made it through and had a good time. I just had to keep saying to myself, "Someday. It's not never."

Today we headed down to Karen's housewarming party and got to see the house with some extra furniture. It looked great! There were a lot of people there and a lot of great food. We got there right at 3, like the invitation said, and were the first people there. :) We helped Karen get some of the food together and it was good to have a few moments to just chat with her before the crowd got there. I'm greedy. I like one on one time. :) We are spending the rest of the evening watching the Super Bowl commercials and half time show. I'm not really wasting my time watching the game.

I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow to get to the Dr at 7:15. I'm trying to miss as little work as possible for these appointments. It just sucks to get up so early on a Monday...UGH! I think it's going to be a long week.....