Apparently...

is a word I use quite often.
people still look at my blog (at least that's what I've heard).
there is a job opening in my local school district, and yes, I applied today. :)
school starts tomorrow.  Poor lil high schoolers and junior highers.
I was bitten by two bugs.  Not a fan.
the termites like to hang out in the kitchen.  I suppose it could be worse; they could like food instead of wood.
Amos is the best dude around. :D
people had a good time picking out towels for us.  I think we got towels in four or five different presents.
I need to go to bed.

Since...

being married...

1. Started and finished Gentleman's Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson
2. Gone without hot water for a few days while the water heater pilot light was fixed
3. Wandered down to the library to "look at the books" when our toilet had problems
4. Went to the store with Amos to get a plunger to fix above-mentioned toilet, only to find him wielding the item like a sword in Target (oh dear. ;) )
5. Unpacked presents and possessions
6. Gone to Goodwill at least four times to drop stuff off and/or find stuff
7. Made really bad peanut chicken
8. Cleaned up the backyard
9. Set up the hammock
10. Gone to the laundromat twice
11. Listened to lots of Amos stories :)
12. Told lots of stories
13. Sent out résumés
14. Made good stuff, like sloppy Joes, strawberry sauce, tri-tip burritos, strawberry milkshakes, pita chips, etc.
15. Slept in almost every day
16. Talked to friends in Korea and India
17. Heard about friends going all over the world
18. Kissed Amos many, many times :D

Browsing

Two painted green kitchen chairs - $12.99 each
One short white bookshelf - $7.50
Five "Calvin and Hobbes" comic books - $3.99 each
$1.50-5.99 each
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Gentleman's Agreement
Knowing God
Cheaper by the Dozen (first printing)
Humility
Guns, Germs, and Steel
American Girl set: Felicity (still shrink-wrapped)

Hooray for Goodwill!  Like we really need more stuff for our already-packed out little house, but who can pass up such good and useful deals!

I sound like an advertisement.

Happy Saturday! :)

Arrivals

Tuesday: Mom and Lester
Wednesday: Grace and Herschel (after 64ish hours on a train)
Thursday: Seth and Katie; Dad, Brenda, Luke, Alexis, Gio; Lester, Barb, Julia, Sara, Theodore, Nathaniel, Reuben, Alisha, Ellie, Chloe; Aunt Brenda and Grandmother; Irene
Friday: Ross and Audra; Scott and Ashley
Saturday: Garret and Kaydee

It's coming together, and AMOS AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! :D

TWO DAYS! :D

TEN

Yes, I am TEN days away from getting married.  Crazy...and so exciting! :D

Countdown

17 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes, 30 seconds


I'm so excited to marry my best friend and sweetheart, Amos! :D


You can ask him, I keep shaking him because I'm so excited.  Poor guy's going to end up with whiplash or shaken adult syndrome or something...

Two-point-five days left!!!!!!!!

I can't wait for the end of school!!!!!!!

Spiders

Quite a few years ago (i.e., the other day ;) ), I was up late at night.  I saw a spider high up on the wall in our hallway but didn't want to kill it.  However, I thought I probably should because my little sister was sleeping in the room nearby, and I didn't want her to get bitten.  My brothers were asleep and I thought, "I kill my own spiders.  I don't need them to do it for me."

Thus, I came up with a bumper sticker idea.

I kill my own spiders.

That bumper stick has been affixed to all the cars I have driven/owned.  When I run out of stickers, I simply go on-line and make a new one.  I've gotten all sorts of responses.

One man in a business suit talked to me a gas station.  He was very confused.  He thought I raised spiders just to kill them. (Ummm, no, that's creepy; I don't do that.)

Another time two high school boys drove by in a truck.  One leaned out the window with both thumbs in the air and yelled, "Yeah!!  I kill my own spiders, too!"

On another occasion I walked out of the bank and towards my car.  A lady in another car was very excitedly taking a picture with her cell phone.  She said she thought it was great, and she was going to send the picture to her friend.

When I went to India last summer, we went on a church retreat in the jungle for a few days.  I decided that I didn't want to sleep with my bed right up against the wall in our room, just in case some bug came along.  There were some pretty gross spiders that stayed in the jungle, too. They weren't colorful or evil-looking, but they had fat, squishy bodies and could get pretty big.  I pulled the curtains over the window and found a spider running along the fabric.  I knocked him to the ground and killed him.  I moved another curtain, but this time a spider ran down my arm, which I flailed violently.  That spider died, too.  I also found another spider living in a crack near the sink.  I think managed to get him to come out, and he too gave up the ghost.  I'm really glad none of the other girls found the spiders; they didn't have as much "spirit of adventure," as I like to call it.

Over the last few months, my students found out which car was mine and now periodically make comments to me in class.

"Oh, Ms. Byers, I kill my own spiders, too."
"That's great, David, thank you, be quiet now."

Today someone decided to tease another student.

"Oh, you have a huge spider on you!!"
"Just get Ms. Byers to get it off!!" :)

Ahh, spiders.

*Edit: Dave Tuck, my speech professor in college and one of Amos' friends, reminded me that I used my bumper sticker in a speech in class, too.  I almost forgot about that.  (I think that's the thing that sticks out to him most about me... ;) )

Things I see and hear

Things I see on the way to school:
-Lots of cars
-Lots of trucks
-Lots of motorcycles ridden by bikers weaving in and out of traffic
-Construction (mostly just in two areas)
-Huge metal culverts as tall as semis (part of the construction)
-A dark blue Hummer with the license plate "O BAE B" (it makes me laugh every time :) )
-Semis carrying all sorts of things: milk, oil, caskets, livestock, rental equipment, mail, etc.  My favorite was the one I saw today: huge rolls of brown paper about 8-10 feet wide and 8-10 feet tall!  They were anchored to the flat bed with chains that passed through the middle of the rolls
-Billboard advertising the end of the world (it was replaced with a Ralph's ad around May 15th or so)
-A lot of young men and women all wearing blue scrubs, walking to a nearby dental school
-Cracks in the pavement
-Tail lights
-Graffiti, partially hidden by honeysuckle clinging to a chainlink fence
-Overpasses
-Rushing water in the California aqueduct
-Traffic update signs: minutes to downtown via 170 (it can range from 25-45 minutes)
-Clouds
-Dirt

Things I see at school:
-Papers (clean, distributed, distributed again, crumpled, collected)
-Pencils (broken, bent, crazy-colored, plain, eraserless, borrowed, missing)
-People (kids, TAs, administrators, therapists, coaches, librarians, maintenance)
-Desks (small, big, dirty, broken, marked, scarred, clean)
-Books (long, short, torn, ripped, loved, dirty, crisp)
-Reports (behavior, participation, homework)
-E-mails (parents, daily news, reports, free dress Fridays lists, confidential)

Things I hear at school:
-"I'm a potato." (Quite frequently, actually)
-"You little hypotenuse."
-"He didn't take his meds today."
--Insert random yelling-
-"Ms. Byers?"
-"Ms. Byers!"
-"Ms. Byers?"
--Insert nervous giggling-
-"Where is your missing work?"
-"Can you call him Mr. Mongoose?"
-"I forgot my question."

Happy birthday to Amos!!! :D Only 35 more days till he's my husband!!!!!!!

11.5

11.5 days until the END of SCHOOL!!!!

I think I'm more excited than the kids are. :D

Mish-Mash

This post's title is essentially a nod to Heather's Hodge-podge:

1. I have been busy.
2. We had STAR testing this week, so I didn't have to teach as much and I didn't have all of my kids every day; that was nice.  Back to the regular schedule tomorrow!
3. My neck got sunburned at school today.  The whole junior high and high school student body and staff walked to a park for a student-staff softball game.  It was fun being in the sunshine and talking to some of my kids. :)
4. Only 51 more days! :D
5. Amos is sick with some bug that went around in NE last week.  Theodore, Reuben, Barb, and Caitlin got it, and now Amos succumbed.  I'm hoping I can avoid it. :/
6. I believe spring/summer has come to stay, finally.  Enough of the rain already!
7. Katie is now a Vlieger!  She looked beautiful in her wedding dress with her beaded (decorated? fancy?) headband.  Seth was really funny; he came up to the first floor of the Ralston home "dressed" for the wedding in his pajama shorts and shirt and his wedding tie and vest.  He got his picture taken. ;)
8. I have 19.5 days left of school.  It is going to go too fast and too slow, all at the same time.
9. That's all for now!

Vests

Vests.
That was at the top of the list for today, followed by flowers, backdrop fabric, ribbon, and shoes.
Wedding.
That is at the top of our minds these days, especially for the next sixty-three days!
Yardage.
150 yards of ribbon, eleven yards of blue backdrop fabric, three yards of blue table fabric, and three yards of green table fabric.
Acres.
Acres of flowers to be looked at in anticipation of bouquets and boutonnieres.
Ounces.
Many ounces of Starbucks purchased as part of their 1/2 off frappuccino sale, May 6-15!

Amos and I spent a good part of the day in downtown LA.  We looked at flowers in the flower district so I could know in advance what I wanted for the flowers.  As we were driving by the flower shops looking for a parking space, Amos commented that he could smell all flowers...and we had the windows rolled up!

Next we set off for the men's clothing district.  Armed with a white index card detailing the measurements for Amos' groomsmen, we wanted to find some one blue and three green vests.  Well, even with a ton of suit shops, it was more difficult than we anticipated!  Several of the dapper owners of the shops expressed surprise when we said we were looking for blue and green vests.  I don't know why they didn't have nice blue and green vests, considering all the mustard yellow, burgundy, orchid, and lime green suits we saw!  We went to one shop and talked to the older folks who ran the store.  We told the lady we wanted a dark blue vest, and after rooting around for a minute, she came up with the perfect vest.  Amos tried it on, and his face lit up.  He LIKED this one. ;)  His vest was taken care of, on to the groomsmen!  We didn't manage to find vests that would fit all three guys, so we will keep looking.

Then it was time for lunch.  We stopped and had Subway, which isn't my favorite but looked better than El Pollo Loco or any of the other places around.  I wasn't feeling well, so I sat down at a small table in the packed restaurant while Amos ordered our sandwiches.  As Amos was talking to the guy behind the counter, another customer approached my table and asked if he could join me, or was I with someone?  I pointed at Amos' back and said, "Yeah, I'm with someone" and he thankfully wandered off to find another place to sit.  I don't think he was creepy, but it was a little odd.

The next adventure involved bulk fabric.  We went to one store that sold fabric by the pound rather than the yard.  We got some fabric to decorate the tables at the reception and moved on, looking for ribbon and some fabric for a backdrop.  We wandered down the street, touching nice fabric, laughing at funny fabric, and shuddering at hideous fabric.  We found some blue fabric that worked, and one of the men working at the store quoted us $6.00/yard.  He took the price down to $5.00/yard, but it was still too much.  The owner saw us looking at the fabric, so he said he would give us a better price.  He asked us how much we wanted to pay and I promptly said, "Three."
"Okay."
Well, that was that!

We had more adventures finding spools of ribbon, and we eventually left downtown LA about four hours after we arrived.  I was really surprised because it seemed like we were there for forever.  We drove out of downtown and decided to stop at the mall in Burbank, just to see if they had shoes for me.  I told Amos I didn't think he'd want to walk around the whole mall, but he thought it would be better to go rather than wonder if we could have found something.  We searched the mall directory for shoe stores and found a store that I had seen on-line.  I found the shoes I saw on-line, and they looked even better in person!  The salesgirl gave me a huge bag for my small sandals, so I eventually ditched the bag in a garbage can.  We went to another tux shop, but of course, they didn't have the right vests, either!  Not too sure what to do about that now.

After that we got our 1/2 price frappuccinos.  I tasted Amos' first to, you know, make sure it wasn't poisoned or anything. ;)  We went home and figured out fonts for our invitation envelopes (coming soon!), tried to find stamps that weren't cheesy or ugly, and said goodbye.  Amos had to take a nap before work, and I just needed to take a nap.

All in all, it was a good day of spending time together, holding hands, and, as our wedding pastor says, enjoying the journey. :)