Just One: The Other Side of the Glass

"Birds, Butterflies, & Bugs"

We were worried about the cats adjusting to our new home. So far it's been a pretty easy adjustment. Cruz has had the easiest time. His favorite thing about the new house? Being able to sit up on the window sills and watch all the wildlife outside. He seriously gets all worked up every time a bird flies by or a squirrel runs across the yard. Sitting on the other side of the glass, he's so eager to chase every creature that's out there. But, when we let him go outside, he turns into a little scaredy cat and jumps at all the new outdoor noises.  

Just One: Periwinkle

"Lazy Days"

Summer has brought with it a lot of lazy days. And no one does lazy days better than Periwinkle. She has officially claimed the bed in our guest bedroom as her "spot" and will lay there for hours. Nothing we do can make her leave the warm, sunny spot on the comforter. Unless, of course, we grab our jar of treats.

Just One: Tybee Island

"Brothers"

We just got back last night from a 4-day weekend trip to Tybee Island and Savannah. As much as I would love to have a post ready to go this morning with all the details from our trip, I don't. I promise to share everything this week though.

To hold you over until then, I thought I would share just one of my favorite pictures from the trip. I took this yesterday, the last morning of our trip, while we were walking the beach and admiring the sunrise through the clouds.

Busy Waiting

Its seems like that's all that has been happening around here lately.

Waiting.

We put an offer in on a house about 3 weeks ago. We went back and forth. Then, we walked away. The sellers asked us to reconsider. We resubmitted the same offer. Now, we're waiting on their bank. 

To say we're frustrated is a bit of an understatement. We knew the home buying process would have its challenges. But I guess we didn't expect it so early on in the process. 

In the mean time, while we're waiting, we've been trying to keep busy.

Busy hitting up yard sales.

Busy hanging out with friends and entertaining little ones.

Busy chaperoning prom.

Busy kayaking.

Busy eating out.

Busy riding trains and helping parents with Easter egg hunts.

Busy playing sports with the nephew.

Busy being a teacher.

Even though we've done pretty well at remaining busy, we're still pretty anxious to get to the next step of the home buying process. We're cautiously optimistic. 

It's Been A While

Life has been pretty crazy lately. Let's catch up....

The month of January was pretty hectic. There was rarely a night that I didn't have anything planned.

Suddenly I went from having 1 class of AP students to 4 classes of AP students. So a lot of my afternoons have been filled with teenagers staying after school in my classroom for various reasons. Besides that, I agreed to be the ticket-taker at both the girls and boys basketball games this year. At times that meant 4 games a week. As much as it was a huge time commitment, I'm excited to earn a little extra cash to put towards a down payment on a house

When I wasn't collecting ticket money at the school basketball games, I was holding Powderpuff practices with my Juniors. I never played when I was in high school, and had yet to attend a game since I started teaching, so it was all new to me. I wasn't suppose to be at the Powderpuff game - it was originally scheduled while I was away at an AP conference in Jacksonville. But it was rescheduled due to weather, so I got to watch. In the end, I'm glad I was able to go because we ended up winning!

After the Powderpuff game I had to rush home and pack my bags. Dan's grandmother passed away and we had to make the trip up to Connecticut for services. It was my first time to Connecticut, and Dan's first time back since he was 2 years old. It was also our first real road trip. We left the next morning and drove straight through. It was a great trip, despite the circumstances. I'll share more later, but for now, here's a couple of pics from the trip.

We just got back into town last weekend. Things are finally settling down. Now it's just a matter of catching up on all the grading that was piling up on my desk while I was away.

While we were gone, my mom looked after our cats. We're still waiting on our little fur babies to quit growling and hissing at each other and become friends...

It's definitely been an adjustment since we added Callie to the mix. We're hoping that in the next couple months they'll have worked through all of their issues. Fingers crossed!

We've been experimenting with some recipes I found on Pinterest. Some were good (like this and this). Some not so good (like this one). You know how that goes!

And since last night was Valentine's day, I guess I should probably share a little about our Valentine's. Since Dan had to work last night, he made reservations for Thursday night at a local spot. When we came home there were tulips, a card, and wine waiting for me. He went all out this year! I gave him his gift last night - a card and some Reese's cups with stickers on them that had things I love about him or inside jokes written on them (idea from here). All in all, it was a perfect Valentine's!

Oh, and I can't forget the little gift a student brought me earlier this week! Her church was holding a "Love Week" where they pick one person each day and shower them with love. This student decided to shower her teachers with love in the form of chocolate chip cookies and Expo markers. What teacher wouldn't love sugar & markers?

So that's pretty much what's been going on around here lately. Although things are winding down, our schedules are never quite clear. Besides school and family life, we've now added trying to buy a home to our list of things to do. There's already been a few bumps in the road, and I'm sure there will be more along the way. One of these days I'll get around to writing about it. But, right now, I've got a pile of papers calling my name that I've been neglecting.

Favorite Moments of 2013

It's crazy to think that tomorrow marks the start of 2014. Seems each year goes by faster and faster. I'm headed into Orlando this afternoon to celebrate my stepdad's birthday with the family (yep, he's a New Year's Eve baby). The Hubby and I don't have any major plans for tonight. He's working today, so it's hard to make plans when you're not sure what time shift will end. But, we're looking forward to spending tomorrow evening with friends watching UCF play in their first bowl game. :)

Before I head into Orlando, I thought I'd pop in and share my 10 favorite moments from the past year, starting in January and going through December.

#1 Discovering Geocaching

In January we were introduced to geocaching by one of my colleagues. We were hooked on it for a little while (as you can see here and here), but we lost interest as we realized that the GPS systems on our phones weren't the best. We're hoping to invest in a handheld GPS, like the one above, and get back into it.

#2 Snorkeling with Manatees

This was probably one of my favorite "dates" that Dan and I went on this past year. Dan's mom gave him a voucher to go swimming with the manatees in Crystal River for his birthday. We had to wake up really early and swim in really cold water, but it was totally worth it. Definitely an experience I won't soon forget!

#3 The Birth of This Cutie

Although I don't talk about my friend's kids on here very often for the sake of their privacy, I couldn't help but share a photo of Dan looking like a natural holding our "niece." She's grown so much in the past year and I can't believe her parents are already planning her first birthday party!

#4 Chaperoning Grad Bash

I didn't mention our trip to Universal on the blog, mainly because I didn't snap too many pictures while we were there (had to preserve the cell phone battery in case a student called). But the trip was awesome! We were asked last minute the day of the trip if we could chaperone. I was fine with it, but Dan was working in Orlando at the time and wouldn't be able to make it to the school before we had to leave. A couple of hours of scrambling, and we devised a plan to take all 5 buses on a detour to a rest stop on the turnpike to pick Dan up on the way to the theme park (and do the same to drop him off on the way back). Being a chaperone was great! Because the park is closed to everyone except the schools attending the event, the kids can wander the park freely without having to be babysat. Which means, we got to go where we wanted, ride what we wanted, and skip all the lines. We had such a good time, we're hoping to do it again this year.

#5 Visiting Friends in Navarre

In April we surprised our friend on his birthday by travelling 7 hours to visit him one weekend. It was great to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since their wedding, see their new home, and explore a new town. We're talking about making another trip up to see them soon - maybe this will become an annual tradition?

#6 Our Trip to Savannah & Tybee

This was the first major vacation that Dan and I took, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. Although Savannah wasn't exactly what we thought it would be, Tybee made up for it. We're planning another trip to the area this summer for to watch my father-in-law graduate from college and I'm campaigning to stay in Tybee rather than Savannah this time.

#7 Celebrating the Hubby's New Job

We took a big leap over the summer and became a one-income household so that Dan could pursue a job closer to home. That risk paid off at the end of the summer when I got the call from Dan stating that he'd been hired on full time. We went out that night and celebrated. I'm so proud of all the hard work Dan has put into this career and happy that he finally has a job that he's happy with.

#8 Surprising My Sister

I won't forget the look on my sister's face when she first saw her new laundry room. It was priceless! I'm so happy that we were able to give her and her family something for Christmas besides a gift card that truly would help them in their day-to-day lives.

#9  Solar Bears Game

Just like last year, we went to an Orlando Solar Bears hockey game with Dan's family the weekend after Christmas. This is one quickly becoming one of Dan's favorite things to do over the holidays, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again next year. It's sort of becoming an annual family tradition.

#10 Bringing Callie Home

And, of course, I can't forget the newest addition to our family. Even though it's only been a couple days, she's already known for her headbutting and laziness. Seriously - this cat can sleep!

So that's it! A recap of 2013. I can't wait to see what next year holds!

Callie

We welcomed a new addition to our family this weekend. 

Meet Callie!

You may have seen her on my Instagram feed last month. She was a stray that showed up in my mom's backyard. She's crazy friendly - even lets my niece and nephew drag play with her! In fact, my niece is the one who started calling her Callie, and it stuck. She happens to be a little vocal too....

As much as I knew we weren't exactly looking for another cat, every time I saw her, I knew she'd fit in with our other two furballs. She's the perfect mix of Periwinkle and Cruz. She's fluffy, has a nubby tail, and is a lap cat like Periwinkle. She's not afraid to tell you like it is and loves to nuzzle/head butt you when she wants attention like Cruz. 

But I had to convince Dan that we needed to bring her home with us. I had played with her a couple of times at my mom's house, but Dan had only heard about her and seen a picture or two. The first time he met her (which I caught on video below), he agreed to take her home.

Before we could take her home, we had to take her to the vet to make sure she wasn't microchipped, that she didn't have a disease she could pass on to our cats, and that she was spayed.

She wasn't a fan of the cat carrier. Or the car ride. But what cat is? Once we got to the vet's office, she was tortured had a series of tests run on her. Then, she came back into the room with us while we waited on the vet to come back with the results. She sat in Dan's lap for a little while before trying to find a hiding place.

The vet predicts that Callie's about 3 years old, which puts her at about the same age as Cruz. Even though he agrees with us and thinks she belonged to someone at some point, she wasn't microchipped. The scary tests (like feline AIDs and leukemia) all came back negative. But she did come back positive for hook worms and ear mites - both of which are easy to treat, and neither of which would be harmful to Periwinkle or Cruz while she was being treated. So, back into the cat carrier she went to go back to my mom's for one last night.

This time she slept the entire way home. Even when we stopped by Dan's parent's house to introduce them to her, she refused to get out of the cat carrier - just wanted to snooze.

We picked her up the next afternoon and brought her home last night. We've been trying to get the three furballs to get along ever since. Let's just say that Callie has taken over the office, while Cruz and Periwinkle pop their heads in occasionally only to be hissed and growled at before they run away in fear. Who knew such a sleepy cat could have such an effect on the other two?

Luckily, I'm still on winter break, so I'll be home all week to play referee to help them all adjust to each other. Fingers crossed they become friends sooner rather than later!