The Urbanites Go to the Country

My dear friend Elana lives quite a ways out of town in the boonies.  She’s such a sport to drive into town for work and social functions on a daily basis.  We city folk don’t venture out of the city limits too often, but a group of us piled in a couple of cars and took a road trip to the country yesterday for a visit.

We drove, and drove, and drove for miles on a winding road.  The scenery was beautiful and there wasn’t a traffic light anywhere in sight!

After about 40 minutes, we left the marine layer behind and arrived in lovely Leona Valley. 

 
Elana and her husband Brent have a beautiful home surrounded by mountains and enormous trees. 






We visited their newly planted garden…an actual garden with vegetables and everything,

and peach and apple trees.

     


To further prove we were no longer in the city…THEY ALSO HAVE GOATS!  This place is like a farm!  from left to right - Nicole, her baby Harlow, and Paris.  (You can take the girl out of the city…)
  The baby Harlow

Jason, the goat whisperer.


Homemade country drinks!
Mike enjoying country life…

and maybe too many homemade country drinks?

After a lovely lunch on the patio, we were off to pick cherries! 

The Leona Valley is widely known for its cherry orchards.


The cherry pickers!
 
These cherries, straight off the trees, are so red, so sweet, and so juicy.  I won’t be able to eat a store bought cherry again.  
 
Sundays are usually my self-imposed day of rest.  This visit was so nice though, it was worth the trip.  Thanks Elana and Brent for such a beautiful day!  I can’t wait to visit the country again!

Open House is Closed

Tonight was open house at school.  Open house is an evening where the students can bring their families to school and show of what they’ve been doing all year.

A week ago Friday was a furlough day for my school district due to California being broke.  Being the dedicated teacher hot mess that I am, I spent about 9 hours at school on a non-paid day to make my classroom presentable for open house.

This year has kicked my butt, and at the end of the school day I am so exhausted from dealing with a crazy group of 2nd graders.  Rather than stick around after school to do any cleaning,  I go home bruised and beaten with my tail between my legs.  I can’t tell you the last time I straightened up my classroom.  It was so horrifying that while working on project last week I asked a student to set some papers on my desk and she came back and said, “There’s no place to put them.”  With only a week until my students brought their families to school to show off their classroom, the furlough day was welcome free (literally) time to get some work done.

Before 
Many of our posters and charts had fallen down in our recent humid weather…


Some of my books and book characters had fallen over or off of the cupboards. 


Pretty much every flat surface had a stack of paper of some sort…

The reading table

  
and my desk! 

The most embarrassing part…

These are snowflakes that we made in January.  It is JUNE people!

So what can be accomplished after 9 hours in a classroom?
 
Flat surfaces are cleared,

snowflakes taken down and writing put up,

posters, and charts picked up off the floor,

and student work stapled to the walls and placed neatly on desks.

As I said goodbye to the last visiting family, I was thrilled that the room looked so nice for my students’ open house, but also relieved that the night was over.  Only two more weeks until the end of the school year and I CAN’T WAIT!

Weiner’s Weiner

Well, the truth finally came out (ha) today.  Anthony Weiner (Rep NY-D) did tweet a picture of his penis to some girl he “friended” on facebook. 

If you haven’t been following the story, here’s a little summary taken from the AP…
”The scandal began more than a week ago when a conservative website reported that a photo of a man's crotch had been sent from Weiner's Twitter account to a college student in Seattle.

For days, Weiner claimed that he hadn't sent the photo and that he was the victim of a hacker. But he caused guffaws when he said that he couldn't say with "certitude" that the underwear shot was not a picture of him.”

Today, additional women with additional photos came to light and after a week of denying it, Weiner held a news conference and admitted to a lapse in judgment. 

I’ve been a fan of Weiner.  I like his politics (health care reform, pro-choice, compensation for the 9/11 first responders…yes he’s a Democrat).  He’s also relatively young in American politics, which makes for a different take on the normal “rich white guy” policy. 

So how disappointing that he is involved in this scandal.  Some people are outraged that his moral compass is skewed, while others are upset he didn’t just come clean last week rather than lying about it.  Agreed, all valid points.  But ya know, I think what is most irritating is that someone, in this day and age of technology and the knowledge of how fast it can break you, would be stupid enough to send anything of a sexual/personal nature to anyone that could potentially be forwarded or hacked or viewed on the internet.  My goodness!  This seemingly smart, up-and-coming liberal hero, has likely ruined his career with photo of his junk.  Why would someone think that anything but a scandal would come out of an action like that? 

This seems to be the new “thing” for known personalities (politicians, athletes, etc) to get caught doing over the last several months.  You’d think they’d learn a lesson from the previous scandal.  Clearly, they have not.  That is true stupidity. 

So this is reminder to anyone in the public eye and my bloggy friends…Learn from Anthony Weiner’s mistake (and all those before him) - don’t email, text, message, facebook, tweet, fax, or post your goodies.  It never turns out well.

The ABCs of Me

First found this post over at Brown Paper Bunny, and since then it’s been popping up here and there. I love me a good questionnaire, so I, of course, filled it in.

Age: 37 (ouch!)
Bed Size: Cali King and even so I sleep so close to the edge of the left side it could be a twin for all I know.
Chore you hate: Cleaning the bathroom and kitchen…water and dust…ick!
Dogs: Rigby
Essential start of your day: I am in such a fog most mornings that I have no idea how I get myself going
Favorite Color: RED!
Gold or silver: white gold (silver I guess)
Height: 5’ 4”
Instruments I play or have played: ha ha ha remember the violin post?
Job Title: Teacher
Kids: No way!
Live: Newhall (Los Angeles), CA
Mom’s Name: Sandra
Nickname: Kimmy (if you dare), K-Mack
Overnight hospital stays: Nope (knock on wood)
Pet Peeve: Drivers who drive slow in the passing lane or even worse who drive in the passing line right next to the car in the 2nd lane
Quote from a movie: “Equally important: will find nice sensible boyfriend and stop forming romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, sexaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts. Will especially stop fantasizing about a particular person who embodies all these things.”
- Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones’s Diary
Right or left handed: Right
Siblings: No, none
Time you wake up: Too damn early
Underwear: yes, matched to the bra
Vegetables you dislike: avocados, cauliflower, onions (texture not flavor), mushy peas
What makes you run late: I’m never late unless my clock has lost time
X-rays you’ve had done: wrist, ankle, foot (horsey injuries)
Yummy food you make: My faves - Homemade Mac & Cheese, Red Velvet Cupcakes, Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Picatta, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Enchiladas
Zoo animal: Maybe zebra (but really anything furry and cute are my favorites)

Your turn!

May Is Over Already?

Where is this year going?  I can’t believe it’s June!  I also can’t believe that I’ve kept up with The Kathryn Wheel’s Calendar Challenge.  This time, I didn’t worry about the background too much.  To start, I painted an acrylic wash over the journal page.  Then I used a giant foam flower stamp, painted with various acrylic colors to add texture to the background.  Another loose piece of paper was washed with acrylic and punched out into circles.  They were nice and BIG, as I was having trouble writing on my itsy bitsy squares.
 

I also found some time to work on additional pages.  I love to stow away in the art room for hours and create. 

   

 

 

 

 

Grown Up Mac and Cheese

Last week, I wrote about my LEAST favorite food.  This week, I’m sharing a recipe for one of my favorite meals…Macaroni and Cheese! 

What’s there not to like about macaroni and cheese?  It’s got cheese and it’s got pasta - two of my favorite food groups!  It has been a “go to” food for as long as I can remember.  If I’m desperate, and there is a mac and cheese emergency, I even like the blue box…

But since I’m not 7, I can also make a mean adult version of macaroni and cheese.  Looking back at my Tasty Tuesday recipes, I can’t believe I’ve never shared a Mac and Cheese recipe before because I’ve got many.  This is my most recent.

Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta (I used penne), cooked, drained
- 6 slices thick cut bacon, cooked, chopped (I used Applewood from Trader Joe’s)
- 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts cooked and cut into small pieces (I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and paprika and put them on the grill)
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
- 1 1/2 cups extra sharp cheese, grated or cubed
- 1 cup gruyere cheese, grated or cubed
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste

Instructions
1.  Prepare pasta, chicken, and bacon and set aside while sauce is prepared
2.  In a medium sized pot melt the butter and then add the shallots.  Cook over medium heat until soften and lightly golden, 10-15 minutes.
3.  Whisk in the flour.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 1 minute.
4.  Whisk in chicken broth and milk.  Raise heat to med-high bringing to a boil, stirring constantly.  Continue stirring until sauce is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.
5.  Reduce heat to med-low.  Stir in thyme and salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
6.  Gradually add cheeses to the sauce, stirring until melted.  Remove from heat.
7.  Add bacon, chicken, and pasta to the cheese sauce and mixed together.  Pour mixture into a 10x15 casserole dish. 
8.  Place under the broiler for about 5 minutes until the top is browned.
Serves 6-8

The gourmet cheeses make it very rich so a little plate full is just right.  Enjoy!