The Secret Life of Me

things that make me sad.

this is why i made dylan get us cable for the olympics.
for anyone who isn’t a swimmer, just know that the US swam an historic race. jason lezek is a hero.
also i <3 michael phelps.

like woah. i am a little surprised that it actually worked.

i was finally able to get in a real swim workout this summer and i feel fantastic about it. for me there is nothing like the feeling after being in the water; it brings out nearly every nostalgic/euphoric feeling i have. thanks to merial (hi merial!) i have a swim buddy too.
i am already reminded that summer is too short and in about 6 weeks i will be returning to work and the only outdoor pool in town will close shortly after. i find myself trying to figure out how i will continue swimming during the winter time as access to pools is a little more difficult. perhaps i will suck it up and pay the alumni fee at the university pool. it is a nicer indoor pool than the others in town, but frequently crowded and more expensive. it is, however, on my way home from work. the other indoor pools in town are a little bit in disrepair though still serviceable and less expensive but far more out of my way. ugh. if this is the most difficult decision i have to make this summer, i will count my vacation a success.

only this time the walls cannot be made of sheets and the roof cannot be held up with a broom handle. we are two days away from being finished with our home renovation project, save counter tops. i am really proud of the work we have done, amateur as it is. i have a renewed appreciation for those who do skilled-manual labor after this. i always have had appreciation being the daughter of an electrical contractor and i have never been afraid of manual labor myself, but still the whole process is quite an amazing feat and i find myself in awe.
despite the accomplishments of the week, i am exhausted beyond recognition, nearly beyond function. between the patio project and remodel i have racked up over two weeks of 12+ hour days with my only day of break being the day i woke up at 4am to fly to sacramento only to turn around and drive straight back. i am very much looking forward to when the work part of my vacation will be over and i can rest. until then…

so tomorrow marks the last day of my first year of teaching. i already know next year will be so much better because i am exhausted-ready-to-drop-sleep-for-100-days tired, but still can’t wait for next year. it’s really nice to finally have a job that challenges me in so many ways but in which i can still be successful and continue to progress every day.
tomorrow i will get to send my students off for the summer and there is a short list of things that i hope they learned:
homework, although a nuisance, is worth the time
read the directions first
remembering at the last minute that you have a test does not constitute studying
the word “then” refers to a sequence of time: first i bought my meal, then i ate it. the word “than” is a comparison: i like ice cream better than bananas. get it right.
and there was some math in there too

so yeah, it’s been a good year.

so in my class at school X, my students finished their final projects and some of them are awesome.

i have been working on our yard for several weeks and i finally feel like i am making progress. i have somehow managed to get both front and back out of their previously wild states and into manageable existences. now all i have to do is not get lazy about it.

we have two big projects coming up in the near future and it’s a little daunting thinking about the amount of work it will take to finish them. the first is our back patio. next weekend we will be demoing the existing concrete slab and leveling the gravel surrounding it to prepare for a new stone/brick/paver? patio. this will more than double the size of the existing patio and greatly improve the look of our back yard.
our second big project is the kitchen. this project compared to my garden/patio projects seems monumental. the goal is to open the room and make more functional counter space. thanks to the help of my parents, we should have plenty of sage building wisdom at our disposal and barring any major disasters, we should get it done.
with all of these projects happening, i have been thinking non-stop about how lucky we are to have people around who want to make life easy on us. we have had an unbelievable amount of contributions from various family members without which we wouldn’t even have a house to do projects to. so i just wanted to say a grand thank you to all of the people who have helped in big and little ways to make all of this happen. so yeah. thanks. <3

huge thanks to all the people who sent me birthday greetings! it was a wonderful, though rainy, day.

as rachel so perfectly pointed out, it has been perfectly perfect outside for the past few days. summer’s first attempt (the end of may/beginning of june is almost always cloudy and rainy it seems) has been quite a success. i have been working on getting our yard looking nice and even though i am limited because of my neck, things are looking well. my garden is doing the vegetable thing, albeit slowly, and i am somehow managing to keep the weeds at bay in the majority of the yard. we have plans to lay down a brick patio in our back yard and thanks to the arrival of our stimulus check, that should happen before june ends.
we are approaching a year in our house, and now that we have been able to finish some projects, start a half dozen more and daydream about our potential list of projects, it finally feels like home. so time for a beer, some bbq and maybe even a run through the sprinklers. i’m going to go play outside.