Surprise! It is February already. We would just like to wish everyone a happy new year. We keep contemplating how our students are going to refer to this year's spring break (if we have one). Anually, near spring break time, when the fever sets in, they go around spouting out "spring break oh __" (fill in the blank with the current year). However, that becomes quiet difficult since we have embarked upon a new decade. Is it going to be "spring break oh-ten" as it has been "spring break oh-nine, oh-eight, oh-seven" and so on in the past? It just doesn't have a very intelligent ring to it. I guess there is no use worrying about it until we find out if we are going to actually have a spring break or not. Pesky El Nino has already started knocking off our days. Spring break days are always very much needed. The second semester never has as many work days or holidays as the first semester, and on top of that you have threats of inclement weather that really jeopardize those very scarce teacher work days. As El Nino would have it, we have already lost our last day of spring break due to missing our fourth day because of snow. We have two more days of spring break that can be taken before we have to begin going on Saturdays. It is just a mess. We are in the mountains! Why would you take away a snow wavier for this area? Aye-yi-yi!
Off of my snow rant, which could potentially snowball into a many more paragraphs. Like we said, happy new year! We hope this year finds you warm, with money to pay your electric bills, and still on the path reaching for your New Year's Resolution. Since it is February, I highly doubt that anyone is still even considering their resolution, but if you are, good for you! I know that January was packed at the yoga studio. The studio I religiously go to had a promotion that offered a free week of yoga, a t-shirt, and some other perks to anyone who could do 30 days of yoga in a row. I considered doing it, but then after rationalizing it, I decided I really don't have the time right now. However, it is something I would love to do eventually. My yoga certification is still in the works. I had my January yoga weekend which was very transformational for my yoga practice. I don't know if it was meant to have been portrayed this way, but the yoga approaches we studied were very feminine and masculine. We studied a type of yoga on Saturday that really focused on finding creative expressions of poses and were much more conducive to the flexibility and fluid movements of a female. Then on Sunday, we studied Ashtanga yoga which was originally developed for 14 year old boys and really deals with rigid discipline. I also learned a lot about heath and nutrition, and the importance of eating organically and living sustainably. All of these topics are very interesting to me and I have entwined them into my life in some shape or form. I have really taken to some of the sequences of the Ashtanga practice and, after a month's practice, am really noticing the benefits. I feel much stronger and stable in a lot of my poses, particularly poses that require arm strength. My biggest accomplishment this month has been to do a head stand (standing on my head) without the support of a wall. I can now kick up into a head stand in the middle of a room. Nutritionally, I have tried to start buying a lot more organic foods, less processed foods, locally raised meats (the documentary Food Inc. was also a partial contributer to the aforementioned), and whole foods.
The first week of January, to help us cleanse after the holidays, we ordered a weeks worth of bulk vegetarian/mostly vegan food from Veg-In-Out. This is a really convenient, affordable place to order food from if you are going to have a busy week and are on a budget. To our surprise, they were featuring their "Best of" menu, so we got to sample what people considered to be their best dishes of '09. This was a really good way to start the year. In January, I also made a lot more foods from scratch. Lately, we have been really into homemade granola. Throughout the workweek, I eat granola and yogurt every morning for breakfast. Sam has fallen into the same trend. Last week I made maple brown sugar granola with oats, pecans, almonds, walnuts and flax seeds. Today I made vanilla cranberry granola. It has come to our attention, especially with our recent budget talk at the beginning of the year, that it is much cheaper to make granola than it is to buy it in the store, and it tastes much better! Since I was snowed in this past weekend, I had a lot of time to cook and bake. I also made corn bread, rosemary foccacia bread, and chocolate chip peanut butter cake with spelt flour; all very tasty by the way.
In January, Sam had a birthday. One more year closer to the big 3-0. It is amazing how GI Joes still light up a 29 year old's face. For Sam's birthday I went with the traditional new year's theme of "healthy, wealthy, and wise." To represent wealth, I got him a Mountain Java mug and a Roku box. Mountain Java, if you are not in the know, is a coffee shop we go to every weekend to get muffins and coffee. With this mug, you get 50+ cents off your cup of coffee. Withing a few months, it will have already paid for itself. The Roku box is a latent rage. If you have, or are familiar with Netflix, the Roku box lets you stream movies through your wireless connection onto your T.V. Basically, it is 12,000 movies/tv shows at your finger tips for a low price of 8.99 a month. To represent health I got him a very comprehensive guide to sustainable living. It has everything from plant identification to how to slaughter a pig. Does anyone have a lot of land for us to live on? For wise, I got him some stick and click lights for his tool bench and other unlighted areas in the house.
And just for fun, I got him a wine making kit... I guess that kinda goes with healthy, right? A glass a day is good for the heart! On top of all of that, I also slaved away making a German chocolate cake...actually 2. The first one I just wasn't pleased with, the second one turned out pretty edible, if not more so on the very tasty side.
He also got a gun, and a seed growing kit.
It was a very good birthday for him. On his actual birthday, he got to eat with good friends and see Sherlock Holmes.
We also did a pre-birthday party with meatloaf and wacky dress up!
Also in January, we did a lot, as well as witnessed many entertaining events. For entertainment we went to see Abigail Washburn...on a Monday night. She was playing at a catering/restaurant that we had never heard of for free. It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. She is a great performer and a very likable person...and the place had good food and cup cakes! We also went to the Asheville Fringe Festival. Fringe as in very edgy. The Fringe Festival is basically an avante garde performance art festival that really pushes the envelope sometimes. We rode the La Zoom bus and actually experience a traveling show in which we got to get on and off the bus and go into different locations and see the performances. I will just say puppets, clowns, 2012 and it was interesting. This past weekend, we were supposed to go see Willie Nelson, a Christmas present for my dad. Unfortunately it was cancelled because of the snow. But it will be rescheduled for a later date.
A few unexpected entertaining moments include dealings with mischievous/mysterious cats. For one, we have been trying to train Delilah to shake hands. She is one of those cats that can be trained...she is catching on we believe. We also had a Brad sighting. I think I explained Brad in another blog, but if not: Brad is a cat that I believe is related to Weezy. You see, Weezy is a rescued cat that came from a house in the next neighborhood over. The cats in this house were not taken care of, and I am sure that as animals, they did not take care to their breeding practices. They multiplied and they all looked a like. I believe that Brad escaped from this house an is now lingering around our house because he has an inexplicable connection to Weezy, who resides within. HE looks identical...and Brad is a combination of the words brother and dad. Brad Everybody:
The most recent cat conundrum occurred this past weekend. We were doing yoga, ever so concentrated on our pigeon pose, when all of a sudden SPLASH! My immediate reaction: "I think a cat just fell into the bath tub." You see, because of the crazy power outages in the last storm, we filled our bath tub up with water to proactive and avoid any bitterly cold complications. Weezy has a fixation with water...a claw foot bath tub doesn't have much of a ledge. You do the math. There was water splashed at least half way up on all of the walls in the bathroom, as well as all over the floor. Catching her to dry her off is just another story.February is proving to be pretty busy as well. The upcoming weekend is my fifth yoga weekend. Four more to go and I will be certified. The next weekend we will travel to Greenville, SC to see Wicked the musical. In preparation, I am rereading Wicked. It is indeed one of my favorite books. We are also anxiously awaiting the rescheduling of Willie. I have also volunteered to be the costume director of my school's spring musical. This particular musical presents a little bit of a challenge as it is Seussical the Musical: a musical inspired my Dr. Seuss stories. The costumes are a bit whimsical, and some are very elaborate. However, I enjoy imaginative/creative challenges from time to time and I am really looking forward to seeing the finished production. Erwin has some truly talented students!
Some other important announcements: Our friend Mathew is engaged to Becca! Congratulations you two! We are looking foward to some double dates. Time to start a blog. As you can see from our blog, being married is fun fun fun. Also, Matt and Tanya's bakery blog: Yellow Dog Bread Company . We like those sticky-icky buns! And a third Dragon has a website for his musical ventures: Seth's website is here.
Until next/this month-
Your Valentines
(Hope there's a Valentine in the mailbox! Or a wedding invitation.)
