EVIL BREAD

Bread is so evil. I just have to say that right out. With rising food prices and wheat prices and everything, we, meaning I am trying to be more domesticated with some of the food we eat. For example: I have been making our own cereal, just granola, no biggie. Matt and I enjoy eating our 12 gran or even 24 grain bread as long as it is mostly whole wheat, which is our fav. Well my current trial at this time is trying to get the bread to rise. I have seriously tried everything that everyone has told me. Sit it outside on a humid day to rise, I did that and when I went to move it to the oven it sunk, like as if someone popped a balloon. Put it in the oven with some warm water under, nope didn't work, barely moved. Put it on top of the oven with it at 375, not it even started to cook it too early. Seriously I have tried. Well I finally tried something different and it worked, kind of. It was not a whole wheat bread recipe but it rose and mostly stayed "raised" here is a pix. I promise you I do have a life but it is truly not that interesting.

~The Whole Wheat Bread~

~The Other Bread~

~Now Side by Side~

Also as promised here are some pix of my garden:

~I have about 10 tomatoes on this plant alone, my other 2 tomatoes are about to start producing as well. Also my purple bell pepper plant just flowered so I should be getting some bell peppers soon.~

~My Thyme and Rosemary just started to grow out of nowhere. I though that they had died!~

~Also I was told by my student's grandma that there was an article and pix on the newspaper today about the recital. The one day that that newspaper was delivered to my house and my studio is in it. Here is the clipping. I have it framed now and it is in my piano room. I didn't even know that they were going to put anything in the newspaper, so it was a huge surprise to me. One of the parents asked for the names of all the kids in order, I just thought that she wanted it for scrapbook reasons. Well I am very OK with free advertising.~

That's about it for tonight. Have a wonderful Saturday everyone. Also Melisa thanks for the swimsuits I love them!!!!

The crazy month of July

So I finally figured out my schedule for the next month with teaching and everything else that is going on. I figured out that 3 out of the 4 weekends I will be gone and I will be missing 4 weeks straight of church. July 4th weekend actually I have nothing planned, yet. The next weekend is the family weekend for Matt's military unit in New Jersey and I do know that on Sat, we are probably going to the Six Flags in New Jersey, sorry Elizabeth but you won't be there, you can fly out if you really want to though. And we will be making a stop in NYC. I haven't been there since High School and I barely saw anything. It will be so much fun being there with Matt. The weekend after that I am flying out to Vegas for a wedding of a friend, and I will be staying at another friend's house while I am there, Corrine I look forward to seeing you!!! The week after that I leave for PHX and spend a day in PHX to see my other friends, Laura, can't wait, and also go to the best MEXICAN FOOD IN THE WORLD: TIA ROSA'S. I have been starving for some real Mexican food. I even asked my mom to ship me some overnight, that is how desperate it got. And Sunday the 27th Matt and I fly to LAX with the fam and leave for the cruise for a week to Mexico. I am just going all over the country this next month and I am so excited.

Also I will be posting some pix of my latest trial, baking bread and getting it to rise. Also some more pix of my flowers and garden.

My first Garden!

So I am excited to tell you guys that I have finally grown my own flower garden and here is the proof.

~A Butterfly Bush~I have had some very beautiful butterflies pay me a visit since it started to bloom.

~My Strawberry and tomato patch~

Also last night Matt noticed that one of our food storage waters had sprung a leak and was leaving water in the bottom of our pantry. Matt pulled out Archer's bag of food and I went to pick it up and move it and the bottom was so water logged that it bust open. Archer went to town while we were cleaning up the food storage mess. Here is a pix from before Archer stared to scarf down and here is a pix when he decided he had had enough. There really was a huge difference in how much he ate. Hope all you fathers have a great day today!

Chattin' With German Folk!

So my in-laws are in town, and this week I have been playing "tourist" in my part of the country. It has been a lot of history lessons and as most of you know I am so horrible at history that it has been very difficult for me to stay interested in all this stuff. I went back to Monticello and went to Monroe's house. I also went to Jamestown on Thursday and learned a lot there and then to VA beach on Thursday night, Matt did have Thurs. and Fri. off to spend the day with us and we had fun walking on the beach and enjoying the time out there. Friday we went to York town and we had a ton of fun there too. They have people that are dressed up and they explain how life used to be and actually demonstrate how to cook and plant things. Today we went to the Luray Caverns and I overheard some people talking, and they weren't speaking English. So I started to listen in and figured out that they were speaking German. For those of you who don't know I am semi-knowledgeable in the Germanic Language. We said hi and started talking. One of them grew up in the Czech Republic until he was 15 then his family moved to Germany. So he knows how to speak Russian and German. But he didn't know any English or only a little English. He had fun speaking with me and he was helping me remember my German. I was really racking my brain on remember German. It has been about 3 years since my classes. The other 2 were fluent in English so if I couldn't remember a word in German than they would help out. It was very fun. I was having so much fun on talking with them, and I was trying to help explain what the tour guide was saying cause they had a difficult time understanding him. There names were Thomas, Alexandra, and Merrick. I did get Alex's email address to get a recipe and to try to keep talking to her. Anyhew Matt is going to help me keep getting better at German and now we are talking about going to Germany. We'll see what might happen in the future.

It's All HIS Fault

For once I can say that something broken is not my fault. Matt broke my car. Yes he did. He broke the drivers seat. I have no idea how but now the back rest won't lock into place, except all the way back. So since my in-laws are coming to town this is actually perfect timing cause Matt can just take the truck and I can just ride with the laws. On Tuesday I am taking the car in to hopefully get fixed, under warranty.

Also we are taking on a new project. I started digging a ditch in my front yard, and Matt is going to finished it for me, between the flower bed and the grass to keep the grass out of my newly blooming flowerbed. Now I have finally convinced Matt to let me get some stone for a border. Today we are going to pick out the stone we will use to make the border. Now we just have a super dangerous ditch. Matt dug it a little too wide and deep about a foot wide and 3/4 foot deep. We also got some huge, already made planter beds for a raised veggie garden from a church friend. They are about 10x2. We got 2 of them and I am going to start preparing the beds this year for next years garden. I am so excited.

Matt is in the process of getting an extension for staying in the military. That is correct, he wants to stay in. It actually has been pretty cool with the support he has gotten from his commanding officer a Lt. Colonel and also the CW5 (Chief Warrant Officer 5) who has the support of a 1 star General. Matt has also been promised to get a rental car the next time he goes to the Warrant Officer School in AZ, yes he is going back but now with this support he will not get sent home. We figured that with almost 8 years in the military he might as well go until he hits his 20 year point with the military to get his retirement benefits. So only 12.5 years left of the military. This is something he wants to do and I will fully support his decision. Well that is about all with us over here. Hope everyone is having a great start of the summer!

It is Finished

Just got back from the studio recital and it went GREAT!!!! Short, but great. Yeah, so I am so obsessive with everything down to the last miliseconds, that the way the kids got on and off the stage was very efficient, all 17 of them had finished playing only 25 minutes after we started. How's that for a speedy recital. Everyone had a great time and all of my kids played so well. While they were all playing I had to hold back some tears cause I was so happy for them and this is why I wanted to teach. In the 7th grade my band teacher Ms. Verde/Mrs. Mcgee/ Mrs. McVerde (she got married and we just combined the 2 names) she really helped me understand why music was so great and how powerful and fun it was. I decided in the 7th grade that I wanted to teach. Well in college I was helping out with the marching band at Tempe High and I hated it so much. I realized that I work better teaching one on one than with a bunch of kids who didn't want to be there. My goal as a teacher is that I want one student to gain an appreciation for music as I have and I know that most of my kids felt that feeling tonight. I am so happy for them, and I can't wait for next year's recital when most of the kids will be playing some incredible music. So hats off to my 17 little musicians!!!!

SOL's, Sweating, and Recital...OH, My

Lets start with the SOL's. No it does not mean the bad word thing but it is called the Standards of Learning here in VA for the Standard Exams that are offered to students in like 3rd, 5th, 7th and I think 9th grade. All of my students are freaking out about it and we have the recital in 11 days now. If they don't pass the SOL's they have to take summer school. Well they are SOL if they don't pass I guess, but whatever. And by the way who the heck came up with the name of the exam? I wonder if the "nickname" ever crossed their minds when they were pitching the title of the exam names.

So yesterday I started the next phase level 3-4 of my workout regime for Power 90. Yesterday I did the circuit training, and still feel the affects of it today when I did the sweat training. My bum is killing me from all the squats and lunges from yesterday and having to pick up my leg for the kicking part of the CD did not help much. I AM GOING TO GET IN SHAPE AND GET HEALTHY IF IT KILLS ME...( I know I am a drama queen but it took me over an hour to get through both sections yesterday and today and it should take me 45 min. I will get there I promise you.) For some weird reason I am actually kind of liking the whole, can't move my bum is killing me, cause I know I am doing something good. All it takes is to Decide to do it, Commit to do it, and You WILL Succeed!!!!!!!

As I said earlier the recital is in only 11 days from now. I am super stoked about it and also very nervous as well. Everything has been arranged and it will be a very fun night. I am still trying to make my piano piece even better but for some crazy reason I keep listening to the 5 Browns play my recital piece and want to reach through the speakers and say, "How do you play so perfectly, every single time?" MOM DON'T READ THIS PART...Not that you don't already know what it is. I tried to make a CD for Mother's Day to send to my mom and mom-in-law with a few songs, but I was all by myself in my living room, and after 9 takes I still can't play the end of my big piece/recital piece, without biffing up like crazy. I just listened to it again and I can not convince myself to burn it on a CD. I will probably try again but I fear that it just won't be as good as I want it to be. Well, I'll keep you posted with the results. Have a great week!