S is Still for Sprout

Once upon a time I showed you my penchant for sprouting potatoes. Well the time has come again. I spent the entire summer eating on the run and the potatoes in my cabinet suffered.

I'm SUCH a dork but I wonder what causes potato sprouts to grow in certain patterns/directions. Anyone know?

 

Adventures In...

3rd GRADE!

The summer has come to an end and I was back to school this week.

On Monday, we had silly teacher meetings that were sooooo boring. There was an introduction speech where we were advised to learn to eat the new stinky cheese. It was some kind of metaphor for change...I think. I did find out for sure that I would be working in 3rd grade this year. I'm excited about this for several reasons:
1. I like working with 8-9 year olds.
2. I like teaching more content based curriculum.
3. I'm placed with a kick ass teacher who loves technology.

I was fortunate last year to have an amazing class and work with an incredible teacher. It's strange this year, because only some of "my kids" from last year are in my class. I want them all back! But I'm slowly getting used to new kids and I'm sure I'll come to love them too.

On Tuesday, after 1.5 hours of sleep, I met the kidlets. Some of my favorites are in different classes but they are growing on me. On the first day of school an 8 year old boy was spoken to for drawing a penis and balls on his picture. This might be a long year!

I'm psyched for a four day weekend. I have a ton of sleep to catch up on. I'm getting a haircut (nothing drastic like some people I know!) and attending a family party. I'm bringing mini cupcakes to the party so I practiced tonight.

Now here is the thing about making mini cupcakes...they. are. small. The box of cake mix made 60! super moist carrot cupcakes. That is soooo many cupcakes.

At first, I thought I would try to be fancy and creative and frosted a few cupcakes like this:

But three things quickly became apparent.

1. Swirls take too long.

2. I'm too much of a perfectionist so I thought the swirls looked messy.

3. It was no where near enough frosting.

Instead, I decided to just squeeze a huge dollop of frosting on top.

Tons of cupcakes ready to go to the teacher's lunch room tomorrow. Sort of a "yay we made it through the first week alive" reward.

I'm sure as the year progresses I'll have many Adventures in Third Grade stories. Can't wait!

 

(Somewhat) Local Field Trip: Pemaquid Point

After hitting up the Portland Head Light, Everyday Mom and I road tripped down one of the fingers of the Maine coast to Pemaquid Point. We drove through:

and Damarascotta to New Harbor where they filmed part of Message in a Bottle. It was quite beautiful! 

We missed the puffin cruise so instead we dined at Shaw's Wharf...

Investigated the lobster traps...

And pretended to BE a lobster.

After lunch, we headed to Pemaquid Point to visit another lighthouse. I remember going to Pemaquid when I was younger and loving it. Unlike most things that change with age, Pemaquid was just as amazing as I remembered. The lighthouse is quite small in comparison to Portland Head Light which is strange because there are hundreds of feet of rocks between the lighthouse and the ocean.

We spent some time climbing on the rocks and I walked to the very edge of the rocks. Look how far down from the lighthouse you can walk!

Everyday Mom and I stopped at a street festival in Norway, ME and I hung out with an orange Patrick Dempsy for a hot second. We bought plants from him!

Our last stop was to the lobster truck parked outside the gas station. Very suspicious lobster buying...

But they were delicious. First lobster of the summer!

   

New Year's Eve for Teachers

It is the ultimate Sunday Night. I mean...there are Sunday nights every week...but it's the Sunday night before school starts. The Sunday night that marks the end of summer vacation and the beginning of a new teaching year.

Tomorrow I sit through introductions and silly meetings and come Tuesday the kidlets are back. Time will fly and in the blink of an eye it will be Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Here's to a good year!

 

Local Field Trip: Portland Head Light

I've got a thing for lighthouses...and sunsets and puppies and ice cream and well...you get the picture. Maine is chock full of lighthouses so I decided it's time to start visiting them! First up was Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. 

This lighthouse was the first built by the U.S. Government. So that makes it old and famous!

I hiked/climbed down a rocky trail to get to the rocks below. (Molly...see how far the tide is out? That big rock in the middle is your Little Mermaid rock!)

Jack and Rose...from Titanic!!

Peaches were eaten.

I don't know what types of rocks these are but I loved the smushed white strip of rock!

Before I left I put my toes in the ocean...it was COLD! And yes, I have crazy flip flop tan lines.

 

Let's Start at the Beginning...

A long, long time ago (mid-July) I began a frenzy of local field trips, visits with friends, and wedding activities. Until now, I haven't sat down to recap all of the fun. But the time has come. My life's motto of better late than never seems quite apropos. 

Over the summer, my friend M and I decided to read the book "Last Night at Chateau Marmont" then meet up an discuss it. Well, only I read the book (and it wasn't amazing) so instead we just had a catch up lunch in Amherst.

Saw a ladybug smart car which was adorable but seriously... look how small that thing is. I would get dead in a car like that.

It was HOT out which lead to crazy thunderstorms, hailstorms and tornado warnings across Massachusetts. But I managed to evade ALL the rain.

After lunch, I wasn't ready to head home. Instead, I channeled my inner James Taylor and hopped on the Mass Pike. (It really does go from Stockbridge to Boston.)

Naturally, since I was 1/2 way to my favorite place in the world (camp) I decided it would be a great idea to drive by. First, through Westfield and under the green bridge.

Obviously, a pit stop at Katie's was made...

For a kiddie vanilla on a cone with rainbow sprinkles. It melted way too fast but was delicious. Sadly, it was no longer just a dollar.

After driving by camp and eating soft serve, I headed to the Lee Outlets for some shopping. Drove by the Otis Poultry Farm.

After scoring some new tops at the Gap Outlet, I literally headed off into the sunset. (Which incidentally is not as easy as it sounds because it's hard to see.)

The sky looked like it was on fire. 

Side note: I LOVE the sky. The sunset, the clouds, the moon and stars...love them all. Someday, when I am not poor, I will own a super deluxe amazing camera that will capture the colors the way my eyes see them. (If you want to donate to my camera fund let me know!!)  But until that time, I will continue to take cell phone pictures out the window while driving.

 

Color Me Surprised

I received an anonymous gift today!

I think I know who it's from but I'm still doing some detective work.

Edit: The gift is no longer anonymous. Thank you Bonnie!

I LOVE IT!!!!!

#Summer4eva!

Movies in the Park

Way back when, I used to do things and blog about them. It was a way to document the times that I decided not to be a hermit and joined the real world. As of late, I do things and don't blog about them. But tonight I had one of those movie nights. Nothing epic or life changing, just a night that in the movie of my life would have made it past the cutting room floor. Naturally I came home and wrote in my diary blogged about it.

With just one week left before school starts, I am trying to hoard my lazy days. I really wasn't inclined to put on pants today but today's lunch date turned into a dinner date in the big city.

M and I drove into Boston to meet up with some of her friends for dinner and a movie. We drove in circles around the Common until we found a place to park deep in the financial district. Every now and then things looked familiar from my earlier travels and adventures in Boston. We ate delicious burgers and I made conversation with new people...always a frightening task but I survived!

After dinner we walked over to the waterfront to watch The King's Speech outside in the park. The grass was wet and my ass got soaked through the beach towel we brought but it was such a cool thing to watch a movie on a giant blow up tv on Long Wharf in Boston.

It has finally cooled off here and tonight called for the first sweatshirt since March/April. Fall is just around the corner!

#Hoodies FTW

   

Where I've Been

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...so here are 17,000 words worth of what I've been up to.