One Month Later...

Whelp. I knew it would happen. This is why I have never really been a "blogger!" Life gets in the way people!

Top 10 things that have contributed to the large gap between posts: 

1. Work. Last week I was at school every day until 6:30 or 7. Possibly the week before as well. Ew. Gross. Ugh. 

2. HOCKEY PLAYOFFS. I'm a bit of a fanatic. Let's go Caps!! (obligatory #CAPSLOCK @washcaps)

3. Our outdoor soccer league is finally getting to regular schedule (rain kept us from playing the first several weeks)

4. Weekends away/with visitors. Springtime apparently = ALL the visits. 

5. More work. Writing IEPs, doing transition meetings, lesson planning...not enough time in the day!

6. Procrastination

7. Third Rock from the Sun is on Netflix! Game of Thrones is back!

8. We decided we are going to move this summer! Which led to apartment hunting and.. 

9. Cleaning out closets/stuff around the house (still need to work on this)

10. Warmer weather has meant we've been outside a lot more! At the outdoor bars, taking a walk, grilling dinner, etc. 

I started to try and type an actual post but all of those things in the above list (particularly #1 and #5) have made me what we (in college) call "cracked out." I'm so tired but I'm giddy but mostly tired but also not in a bad mood just really really really REALLY in need of bedtime happening soon. And I don't write as well. But it's more entertaining, from what I hear.

So, to make it up to you, here's some lovely pictures to show what I've been up to: 

--> Going to Williamsburg, VA to visit the ol' collegiate stomping grounds/spend time with friends who are moving halfway across the country in a few weeks. We had an enjoyable time wandering campus on my spring break, and pointing and laughing at the students who had classes/exams. We didn't actually do that. We just talked about doing that.

 <--  Enjoying the pleasant spring (less so enjoying the pollen that accumulates everywhere) by taking some walks and hanging out on the back patio*.

*This is actually not from my back patio.








 <-- Baking lots of things for Easter and in general. Easter was entertaining because I got my cousins to show my mom how to video chat me, and she took pictures of me (on her computer) video chatting with them, on her camera.

--> Spending time with friends on nice evenings! This is a picture of one of the games at our favorite local hangout. We call it "Barcade" because we never remember the real name. They have a bunch of old school video games and you can play any of them for 25 cents. It definitely brings back old memories!



 <-- My Easter Peep wreath from my grandma. She made this for me one year as a Christmas gift, and it is awesome! She also got me the peep basket and cover. Last week, my mom gave me some greeting cards and the front is a peep with the phrase "Inside, we're all the same." Can you tell my family likes Peeps? It's actually part of an Easter tradition I started where we roast the peeps like marshmallows.

DONUTS. DONUTS. I MADE THESE. TASTE SO GOOD. DONUTS.

Okay I think we need to end there today. I have some interesting baking challenges coming up and a few pre-summer crafts/activities I want to accomplish. Which means I'll be rearin' to go with material and clearly should not take another month to post. Clearly. Obviously. (Donuts?)

Feeling Springy

     The weather has finally gotten less "abominable snowman" and more "typical spring." We have had so much rain...thank goodness the temperature warmed up or we'd be in school until August! Living in a place where there is no plan for snow days and no good way to make roads safe when it does snow has been frustrating. I'm used to living in a place where it's not a state of emergency when you get a couple inches of snow, and I do love a good snow day. However, the last two years of "HOLYCOWTHERE'SSNOWLETSALLFREAKOUT" has been a little tiring.

I think that this image defines "Meh."
This is my beautiful curtain that looks
so blah in the low light. 

     Meh. I'm feeling meh. It's just that time of the school year where we teachers start wondering if we've really done all we needed to do, and figuring out our priorities for the last 9 weeks of the year. I've felt a little inadequate in the teacher realm lately due to being completely overwhelmed with paperwork. So I tried to do something this week that would make me feel like I made a positive impact. Which, of course, meant heading to the kitchen. My baking challenge this week was "fillings." Fillings? Fillings. The suggestions were all sweets, which I LOVE and I had so many ideas for all kinds of delicious, provocative, and sinful looking treats that I could make (most involved chocolate), but I challenged myself to go a different direction.

"One day, all of this will be yours." "What, the curtains?"

      See, I am not a breakfast fan. Don't get me wrong, I love breakfast foods. Brunch foods as well! There's so many delicious options! But in the morning, my body would rather be asleep than getting up, and for some reason my stomach wakes up dead last. It takes a while before I really want to eat something! I have learned in the last 2 years that going in to work before 8 and having to be professional while interacting with middle-schoolers takes two things: COFFEE, and breakfast. I usually stick with something like a half a bagel, or a banana, or granola bar...something small and really not that great for breakfast.

     So I made what I will call "biscuitmuffins," because they look like a muffin and taste like a biscuit. And I stuffed them with scrambled eggs, bacon, and some cheddar cheese. It's a sneaky way to add protein (and CHEESE omg) to an otherwise carb-based breakfast. I thought it might be a way to start changing my breakfast habits. Plus, it's just the size of a muffin (some were smaller than this one, even) so they were perfectly sized for my lacking morning appetite. Not only that, but they taste great. Like, really really great. Like the kind of great that makes your same sex coworkers ask how your marriage is, because they want you to get divorced and then they can marry you and you can cook for them all the time.

Cheesy bacon biscuitmuffin deliciousness.
Also, next up...photo editing software. 

     I followed the dough recipe from this site, and the process, and it made exactly 8 biscuitmuffins.  Looking back I could have made a few of these a little smaller and made 10, but that's really just me being picky. Happy eating!!