Life in Denim and Flip Flops

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. – Gladys Bertha Stern, British author, critic (1890-1973) Someone sent this quote around at work today. It really got me thinking. I always give up something during Lent to mark the season, but I never really do anything special during Advent. I think to mark the passage of December I'm going to send out a not-so-silent email of thanks to a different person each day. Someone I don't tell nearly enough how much I appreciate them. Or someone who I appreciate for something they might not know they do. I realize this is a bit insane to do on top of all the stuff I need to be doing in the next few weeks, (and blogging everyday for another 2 weeks), but I like projects. And doing a little bit at a time is nice. And to be honest, it's been one of those years where I think we can all use a little extra smile during the holidays. So keep your eyes peeled for an email. :)

Wow. A 9-day break from work makes it awfully hard to go back. It was a nice break from reality, but I need to get working on prep for next semester. Just remind me next year, not to schedule 4 classes on the first day back! I'll see you on the flip side!

So when you celebrate 2 holidays over the course of 4 days involving a total of 19 people over the age of 12 (and 2 toddlers), you need a lot of food. I thought I'd chronicle a little of that for you. If you've visited my house during this festival of food, you know I'm not kidding when I say we have a lot of food. You saw a bit of the candy prep earlier this week, but that's just part of it. We have the traditional spread for Thanksgiving: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, rolls, fresh veggies and dip, etc. The countertop looked like this: Our dessert table was a bit ridiculous this year though. There are always way more desserts than necessary, and they tend to last us the whole weekend. This year was no exception. There were the following desserts this year: 3 pies (apple, cherry, pecan) 2 cheesecakes (pumpkin, mint chocolate chip) 6 kinds of cookies (chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate w/ peanut butter chips, snicker doodles, butter...

I've found a new aerobic exercise. We play ping-pong (table tennis) at my house during Thanksgiving/Christmas. Usually we tend to play round robin, which for those of you not lucky enough to have witnessed this involves playing with multiple people, hitting one shot, dropping the paddle and running around the table. When all of the grandkids were little they would be someone's handicap. You'd carry them with you while you ran around the ping pong table all the while playing. If you were good enough (or lucky enough) to make it to the finals, you hit the shot, drop the paddle, spun around, picked up the paddle and hit the shot. Rinse and repeat this til someone missed. When you had a kid in one arm this spinning element usually came with a burst of giggling. I was never really old enough to be the carrier rather than the carryee in this situation until now. My friend Shanna brought over her adorable children: 3 years and 16 months. Playing round robin ping-pong with Sophie o...

I know that I am truly blessed and have much to be thankful for. I have wonderful parents and a great sister. I have a job I love with fabulous co-workers and office-buddies. My friends are incredibly amazing. Even those of you I've never met IRL. Seriously you have to be to put up with me. I have my health and I'm genuinely happy where I am. My students keep me busy and laughing. What are you thankful for?

Today was a calm one. A little cleaning and tidying around the house. A few more groceries to buy. Mostly today involved being with the family. We had a fun lunch which ended in us laughing loud enough that we got a few odd looks from nearby tables. We watched the Badgers win 3rd place in their holiday tournament and welcomed our first relatives to the house. The rest show up either tomorrow or Saturday. Right now Manda and I are camped out in the front room. We did so to watch Glee in private. If you really want to watch something during Thanksgiving you need to quarantine yourself from the family as they have the bad habit of talking through anything. *Anything they don't watch they ask about, and anything they do they give opinions about.* Nothing wrong with that, I just want to watch Glee in peace :) It was adorable if you haven't seen it yet. Tomorrow brings more family, a few family friends, lots and lots of food, the Packers-Lions game, probably the Mythbusters marathon,...

After dragging my butt out of bed this morning at a semi-decent hour (the Badger game went til 1:30am), the family jumped into the truck and the SUV and drove out to the Christmas tree farm to bring home our tree. For those of you who don't know, my extended family does both Thanksgiving and Christmas in one weekend. So we do Thanksgiving Thursday, put up the tree and decorate it on Friday, and then celebrate Christmas on Saturday morning. Which means...we need a tree before Thanksgiving. No matter who is around, this is always an immediate family thing. I took the camera along to document the day. Hope you enjoy the results.

Have you ever made candy cane carpaccio? Clearly you don't live with my family. Today was more candy making day. Well, mostly it was dipping chocolate day. Want to know why my day was so funny? Check out this sampling of our cooking experience. Ignore the wobbly camera, I used my isight camera. Not the best option, but the only one I had. :)

Today we did some baking and food making. Mom made a big pot of chili for lunch. She and I made cinnamon swirl and pumpkin bread (from box mixes). Then we moved on to the candies. Mom got this recipe for Oreo balls. Basically it's pulverized Oreos mixed with cream cheese. You freeze them and then tomorrow, we'll dip them in melted almond bark. We also made what I have just (as in 30 seconds ago) named "Christmas Rings of Deliciousness." We take those holiday circle pretzels and bake them for a few minutes with a Hershey's Hug set in the center, then when they're still melty you top them with an M&M. This year Mom bought some different hugs. She ended up with the Candy Cane kisses. We ended up topping these with broken candy cane pieces. They are fabulous!! During this expedition, Dad came out to help with his recipe, so we put him to work crushing the candy canes. He told us he was "going to make a nice candy cane carpaccio." It was at this point...

Back at home. Hanging out with my family for the week. Today was mostly vegging, reading, and watching sports. Now we've moved into movie viewing mode. Tomorrow will be more getting the house ready and maybe more dessert making. :) Oh, and the Badger game at 11pm from Hawaii! I feel like I packed way too much, but I will be here for the next 9 days. And some of it is books that are going to other people. Well, and clearly I needed to bring some laundry too. I still probably over-packed, but I don't care. I'm just glad to be home.

I found myself way too wide awake at 12:30 am this morning. So I did what I usually do in that situation. I get up, take a hot shower, and come back to bed.Usually this is enough to kick my body into a sleepy rhythm. And if not, at least I get to sleep in a little later since my shower is out of the way. Last night was different. I was still too awake, so I put on an audiobook. Usually the reading-aloud does the trick. Again, not so. It was past 2am before I fell asleep. Pair that with a killer headache most of the day and you get a nice picture of my day. Thus a short post tonight. I tend to try to outlast my headaches, but tonight I'm hoping the Aleve kicks in quickly.

What a week! Something about the week right before Thanksgiving has made our students crazy. So between the incredible number of reference questions, 7 classes, oh...and spending the weekend with Autumn...it's been a fabulous week. Or do I mean busy? the weekend in Des Moines with Autumn- I've already sort of talked about the show, but the rest of the weekend was fun too. Lunch downtown complete with yummy dessert, getting a free appetizer at dinner because we waited so long, delicious mojiitos, wandering around the book store creating reading lists, and comparing music lists. So so much fun celebrating Christina's birthday all week-I'm so stealing your themed days to celebrate your birthday all week next year. I missed yesterday, but I promise to catch up today. :) And seriously? I might have to use some of that movie list as my own!! my tv shows- Big Bang, Glee, Survivor, and Bones have been fabulous this week. "Warm Kitty, Soft Kitty" in a round? Booth and ...

So I had a conversation with one of my favorite faculty members today about his interesting day. Long story short, one of his students brought their pet snake to class. We both agreed that snakes definitely rank rather high on our list of fears (either rational or irrational)! My favorite quote of the conversation: "I mean I couldn't really kick her out of class for that, but..." It got me thinking about what other irrational things I sort of freak out about. Bugs don't usually freak me out too much, but worms on the sidewalk do. Bats and birds creep me out big time. Mostly with birds it's their eyes. Not sure why. Speaking of eyes, as a kid I hated those glass button looking eyes on stuffed animals, to the point where I wouldn't play with ones that had it, or find a way to cover them. Mostly I think it's because they looked too real. Actually, they still bother me a bit. As do sock monkeys. That one I can't even begin to explain, so don't ask. Ot...

Earworms are those songs (or in my case, bits of songs) that get stuck in your head. Ok, it's one of a few words used to describe it, but it's the one I like the best. I don't know about you guys, but I feel like I constantly have a song stuck in my head. Mostly mine tend to be one or two lines on repeat. If I'm really lucky it'll be the whole song, preferably one I like. As Amy well knows, I also have a tendency to get songs I hate stuck in my head. Most notably Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus songs. This week it's been RENT. Not the full-length songs. Mostly just the "Christmas Bells" and "Voice mail" pieces. Oh and the line "Because reason says I should have died, three years ago..." It's been a fun week because of that. I've caught myself humming along a few times. I really like it when it's a song I know the words to. When it isn't I have a hard time getting rid of it. Usually singing it through to the next few lines...

What was the biggest lesson you learned in a leadership position? I taught a workshop for the Emerging Leaders program today. Prepping it a few weeks ago got me thinking about all the leadership positions I've been in since high school. And all the crazy things I've learned during those experiences. Did you know that the key to an office with a couch is a great incentive for staff writers? Or that if you don't watch it, you can get elected to a position you didn't know you were nominated for? Or that it's really important to read your position description, especially when it includes being the official interpreter of the constitution? Or sometimes your most important role as leader is to keep your co-leader quiet during meetings? And sometimes it's to speak up for an organization you don't necessarily agree with? Sometimes the best way to co-manage a group involves seeing that co-manager more than your roommate. Sometimes it can be without seeing either one ...

I'm a huge college basketball fan. Being a basketball fan as a kid was totally a given. My dad is a college basketball fan, I played basketball in middle school, and we were just 40 mins south of Madison. So of course I was a Badger fan. I had to try harder in college to keep up on the Badgers. Not all their games were covered in Iowa. There was a lot of the online score watching. So after 4 years of that, I put my name in the lottery for season tickets as a grad student. I didn't get them on the first go around, but there were students who didn't pick up their tickets (Who are these people??) and they just went down the list and gave them to the next people. I was one of those lucky students. I had tickets in the last row of the top tier, but I didn't care. I was in! Even better I found out that my new friend Emily also had tickets. Her seats were way better, and for the entire non-conference season I snuck down to the first tier about 20 rows behind the basket. They g...

I usually try not to have expectations for theatre shows because you just never know what you're going to get. This is because I usually go to community theatre productions. They can be good, but if you expect good you usually end up being disappointed. None of these things were true today. Autumn and I went to see the Broadway touring company of RENT with 2 original cast members (Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal). I had hugely high expectations and they did not disappoint! For all of those who know me, you know how much I love this show. It was absolutely amazing to hear Adam and Anthony sing. Seriously, when Anthony started La Vie Boheme and held the first note, we cheered. So freaking awesome. I am clearly not very articulate about it right now. I'm still sort of in awe almost 5 hours later. Oh, and their version "What You Own" gave me goosebumps! I've always really loved that song, but hearing them sing it live was just kind of intense, but so so cool!! Ok, done f...

So a friend of mine is starting a new blog challenge. Well technically he's calling his blog, his Lorenzo. (Something about the word blog apparently.) He's decided to blog every day for 30 days. Sound familiar? I've been really good about posting once a week since April. I'm appreciative of the support of my BEDA buddies during April and thought maybe I'd attempt it again starting yesterday. November can be a bit of a crazy month, but I think I'll need some stress relief and a place to vent a bit. Or just a place to share some of the more interesting parts of my day. I don't usually need a reminder of why I love my job, but seeing examples of it certainly never hurt. Yesterday I got one of those reminders. I showed up about 11 because I was taking comp hour for Wednesday night. I hadn't been in my office for more than 10 mins when a "library buddy" of mine pops his head into my office. "You're here now. I stopped by earlier and you we...

It's Thursday again, and you know what that means. I'm gonna keep it short today. clothes shopping with my mom- We hit up the 40% off sale at Christopher and Banks this weekend. I know their clothes are sometimes older, but you just have to shop smart there for separates to pair with other stuff. I'm totally in love with the pink vest I bought. certain faculty members- I've had some really entertaining conversations and interactions with some faculty members. They've included my presentation last week, my "song and dance" about the supreme court, soccer strategies, and my gavel of justice (really a crab mallet from a DC trip). Don't ask. I lead a weird life. apple kolaches- I had break on Friday. I love feeding people. I brought the kolaches for the staff and used the leftovers to feed Kevin, Jeraca, Ben, and Susan. They were like mini-apple pies. Yum! Other things I loved this week: my uber-thankful students, Glee, new music from Blue Skies and Matt ...

Oh My Goodness...what a week! I spent this week traveling and working. Oh, and sleeping in there somewhere. Well, for a few hours anyway. Most of my kick ass week revolves around Omaha so I'll start with my non-Omaha moment. surviving my history class- Long story short, I managed to find myself in a situation where I gave a presentation on Malcolm X to a history class. That wasn't the tough part, the worst part was letting them grade me. I purposely did some things wrong and hoped that I did some things well. Putting myself out there is tough! But I really think they got why I did what I did, and so did the prof!! Omaha stuff! I spent the weekend in Omaha with John (and Holly), Justin, Gretchen, and Autumn! I had a blast spending the weekend with old and new friends. It was a really rejuvenating weekend. I came back Monday feeling totally well-rested and ready for the week. meeting Autumn!!- after meeting online during the Blog Every Day in April challenge, Autumn and I finally...