Summer Lovin'

So here are some pictures from our summer. I know you are all chomping at the bit to view them, and I didn't want to make you wait any longer.

Our camping trip at Fort Custer:





Trying to get the fire started:


Success:


We ate one of our dinners in the car during all the rain...so much rain.


Trip to Massachusetts:




This one's for Rachel..."The shot heard round the world":


Cute pic of the 'rents...


Because I'm an English nerd...


Spooky:


Where every body knows your name--sadly we didn't see Norm:


Ben and Ted--Williams, that is:


Boston Common:


Adam and Ben:

5 YEARS...HOORAY FOR US!

5 years of wedded bliss! We would be an old married couple by Hollywood standards.

Happy Anniversary, Benj. I love you!

Dream a Little Dream

In my Psychology class we do a unit on dreams and consciousness. During the unit I have my students keep a dream diary for two weeks (b/c we all dream) and then they have to take three of their dreams and analyze them. It's really interesting to hear what's going on in a person's subconscious. I've always been fascinated by dreams. I think it's because I have such weird, vivid dreams and I'm slightly scared that I'm abnormal. The other night I had this dream that I was driving to Lansing to check out where Ben and I could park for our upcoming excursion to Wicked (that's right...I'm seeing Wicked in 1 day!!!). So I'm driving and I think I'm in Lansing when all of the sudden I'm in Puerto Rico driving to the mall. Then this guy pulls into my lane and broad-sides me and starts screaming at me in Spanish. And since I'm not real great with the Spanish language, I'm sure he was just speaking gibberesh. So then I'm like, "I need to get back to Lansing...I'll just take the freeway to get home." I guess the ocean didn't pose as big a problem. So I'm trying to find the freeway but all the signs are in Spanish. Then I see a sign that says, "I-94 oeste". So, I think my problems are solved until broad-sided guy is on my tale screaming at me in Spanish. Then I woke up.

So this dream got me thinking about my weird dreams and my recurring dreams. So here are three dreams that I seem to have at least once a week.

Dream #1: I'm the lead in a musical and it's opening night and I don't know any of my lines or songs. I don't have my costumes and the curtain is about to open. Then the dream takes a variation on me either going on stage and making up songs or me going on stage and realizing no one is in the audience.

Dream #2: I'm signed up for this college class, but I keep forgetting that I'm signed up for it, so I never go. Then the end of the semester comes along and I have to take a final in this class that I've never been to and which I need to graduate. I go to the class and get the final and know nothing on the test! I freak out and usually start crying or yelling.

Dream #3 (this one is more recent): It's the first day of school and I'm the teacher. I get to class and have nothing prepared. I don't have a syllabus for any class, I don't have lesson plans, seating charts, nothing! It's frightening.

Weird aspects of dreams that are recurring:

1. I lose all my teeth (just had that one the other night. Actually, I never really had real teeth--I had dentures my whole life and just realized it. So I took them out and couldn't get them back in.)

2. I'm trying to run away from something, but my legs move super slow.

3. I'm running and I'm super-awesome and have the longest legs.

4. I'm talking to people or driving and can't open my eyes. I had a dream where I was walking up to the front of our church to sing and my eyes suddenly closed, and I fell (even weirder...Damon Seacott had to help me to the stage).

5. I'm friends with Angelina Jolie.

I invite all of you to take a look into your dream world and see what your subconscious says about you.

Can't Sleep...CAN'T SLEEP!!!

I planned this post last night as I lay wake from 3:30 to quarter to 5....IN THE MORNING!! Lately, I go to bed all tuckered out ready for sweet, sweet REM and then BAM 3:30 rolls around and my brain seems to be gearing up to do someone's taxes. I lay there and look at my precious husband who is having no trouble sleeping AT ALL and it takes everything in me not to wake him up for a rousing game of Scrabble. I'm sure he'd appreciate that.

I don't know why...for GOD'S SAKE WHY??!! Then during the day I'm exhausted. Yesterday, this is how my day went:

Rolled out of bed around 9:45, ate breakfast, took a shower, ate some pizza rolls, took a nap...4 hours after I woke up at 9:45.

I'm a little peeved at my body right now, b/c ummm...DEAR BODY, in 3 weeks you have to wake up at 5:30 A.M.! I'm obviously tired, b/c I had the nap yesterday, was exhausted when I went to bed, wake up exhausted. Maybe I have insomnia. Maybe I'm supposed to be taking on the role of a super-hero during these wee morning hours--saving Spring Arbor from its rampant crime waves.

Okay, going to go take a nap now.

Eating Like I Did in College

I don't know what summer does to me, but without fail I revert back to my bad eating habits of my college days. During the year, I do pretty well with at least feigning to eat healthy. Then summer hits, and boom...its coronary city. Let me tell you what I've had for lunch the last couple days...

Spaghettios using Pringles as a spoon...mmmmm (I'm hungry an hour later).

For dinner tonight...

A hamburger with a chocolate chip cookie to follow and a doughnut from Krispy Kreme.

Last night (this will make Sara proud)...

I ate a whole thing of Sour Patch Kids...by myself...in a half hour.

The summer sun has got me craving the sweets.

I will say I have not gone back to soda and I eat Grape Nuts every morning and drink a glass of Florida's best orange juice.

I also had a bowl of cantaloupe with my bowl of chili-mac last night.

Competitive eating has never looked sweeter to me.

This One Time at Band Camp...I Lost my Mind

Let me preface this post by saying we are truly blessed by our living situation. Ben's job allows us to live in an apartment rent-free. Nice situation, right? Yes, it is. We don't pay rent or utilities or internet or anything. I mean it doesn't get much better. I thank the Lord for this opportunity at this point in our lives. That being said...

Our apartment is in a dorm building where 300 other students live from September to May. We coexist peacefully with these blessed students. We hear occasional rounds of wrestling up stairs, and there are only a handful of times when I look at Ben and say, "Do you think someone just died upstairs?" To which he replies, "Eh."
Living with these 300 college students for most of the year is fine.

But for one weekend every summer, my inner-Mr. Hyde comes out. For one weekend every summer, a large band camp lives in our building for several days, and I weigh whether or not it would be acceptable to storm upstairs in my pajamas, hair askew, and scream obscenities at innocent high school students for interrupting my precious, precious REM cycle. I know when they have arrived because at 9:00 a.m. (when I'm still sleeping...b/c I get to b/c I wake up at 5:00 a.m. during the school year so get off my back) someone starts playing the drums in the bedroom above our bedroom. Loud, loud drums. That weekend, my friends, has arrived. They are here.

Riddle me this Internet (and I know that I teach high schoolers for a living): why do high schoolers have to scream their conversations with one another across a courtyard? Why? WHY? Why does it take an HOUR to walk from our building to the track across the street (where they practice)? Why does the smallest kid always play the tuba? The smallest kid with a brace on his leg? What?

I'm all for the arts in education, but ummm...not in my place of residence.

Oh Band Camp, you are the bane of my existence.

I'm Not Dead Yet (part deux)

Hey friends...so I've been an uber let down to myself as far as keeping up on my blog. I've had no motivation whatsoever this last month and a half. I think I'm suffering from burnout. I have been keeping track of witty, non-sensical things that pop into my head and I say "hmmm...I should write that on my blog." For example:

1. What the frick is up with this "summer weather"? Huh, Al Gore? Huh? I mean don't get me wrong. Anything is better than 12 inches of snow, but I want hot days...I didn't live in the desert for 10 years for nothing. My body needs hot weather, lest it die.

2. Why must celebrities pick out the most obscure names? It's not even fascinating anymore. You are not going against the norm if you name your baby something weird and you're a celebrity. If I were a celebrity, I would name my child Pete or Bob.

3. Why did God create us to have gas? And if we all have it, why is it so taboo to excrete it in front of others? I'm just saying, I think we should take pride in the stinkiness of our gas.

4. What is a parkway?

5. How come women with dark hair are cursed with dark leg hair that grows at a phenomenal rate? I mean I shave at 9:00 a.m. and by 4:00 p.m. I could honestly compete with Robin Williams for hairiest person alive.

Okay, that's all with the sage ponderings of yours truly.

I was in Boston last week, so I'll post pictures soon. Get ready for a treat. And by treat I mean 10 pictures of where the Revolutionary War started.