Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Random Tidbits

So Lauren has been getting on me for the past few weeks saying, “Chris, you have to blog or people will think you are dead” and “Look at our friends blogs [special shout out to Ali’s new layout—oh Frank . . . ], they are so much cooler than ours!” Well faithful blog followers, I am alive and well, but frankly I cannot compete with all of your blogs. Nonetheless, here is my lame attempt at filling you in of what has been going on in our lives over in the Mid-Atlantic. (On a side note, that is where Washington, D.C. is located—the Mid-Atlantic. When we moved here I made a comment about how I was excited to live in the Northeast, and one of my new friends looked at me like I had a third arm . . . Turns out, after all, we are South of the Mason-Dixon line).


I know, it came as a shock to me as well . . .

Although there is nothing show-stopping happening in my life right now, I didn’t have class today (one of the perks of still being a student—we get more time off for holidays) and so I have no excuse not to dust off the old laptop and share a few “Random Tidbits” of the day in and day out of our lives. Enjoy!


We are Jealous of Your Houses and Dogs

That’s right, your houses and dogs rock. Lauren and I both left great dogs behind in KC (Gunner & Holly) and moved to a tiny apartment (580 sq. ft) that doesn’t allow pets (yuck). In order to stay sane, we have been vicariously living through your blog and facebook posts, creepily stalking pictures of your houses and new puppies and secretly wishing we had your life. Usually, our stalking goes something like this:

Lauren: “Chris, look at what [insert friend’s name here] did to their Dining Room. It is beautiful. I wish we had a house.”

Chris: “Wow, that’s awesome. Even better, look at [insert name of friend’s dog here] in the background. I love that dog.”

Lauren: “Chris, you haven’t even met that dog.”

Chris: “I still love him. Why do you hate fun?”

This usually results in Lauren logging onto FrontDoor in order to browse houses for sale that we can't afford, in a city we don’t live (hey, but we can dream, right?!). We have also started going to the local Petsmart on “adopt a dog” Saturdays to play with all dogs they bring in from the local shelter. Anyone looking for a new pup check out your local shelter first, they have some great ones there!


I stole this picture of Frank off Ali’s blog. I haven’t met Franklin (yet) but he is in my top 5 list of favorite dogs (don’t worry other blog followers—your dog is in my top 5 as well—in fact my top 5 really has about 15 dogs). We will meet some day my friend . . . some day!


Book Club

Lauren and I have gotten really into reading and decided to join a book club. Okay, that was a bit misleading . . . Lauren and I formed a book club of two (her and me). Our first book was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (I know, very trendy). Great, fast read with interesting plot twists, I recommend checking it out. (If you need to borrow a copy let us know, we have two . . .)

Check out this book if you are one of the 15 people in world who has not read it yet.


Basketball

I play on an intramural basketball team—3 on 3 in the Fall and 5 on 5 in the Spring. Most likely you have heard of us . . . we are the powerhouse “Air Matlock” and I play under the pseudonym “Special K” (that’s right, “K” for “Kansas”!). We just advanced to the playoffs last Thursday night with an outstanding performance from yours truly (just kidding . . . I had a single double, 0-2-0, thank goodness we have some studs—shout out to “Buck Nasty,” “Hog Wild,” “Sam Wow,” and “The Ham Slamwich”). I’ll keep you posted on our post season progress!

Hot item here. I am thinking of signing it and throwing it up on eBay at the end of the season.


Recycling

We watched Prince Charles's “Harmony” the other night. In case you missed it, this is eerily similar to Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” only with a British accent (who knew the King-in-waiting was such an environmentalist!). Anyway, Prince Charles kept talking about how there are “bloody fools” out there who are destroying the environment (that’s a made up quote, he didn’t really say that but I thought it sounded British) and I realized I was one of them. Lauren and I thus ramped up our recycling efforts and set up a whole new recycling center in our kitchen this week. I am excited to take recycling serious once again (although there is not much room to move around in our kitchen now).


A Clip from Prince Charles’s “Harmony.”  I'm a bad person.


Well, that’s about all going on around here. We are having a blast and starting to feel like we are blending into NOVA (Northern Virginia in case your didn’t know!) more and more every day. Can't wait to see all our family and friends over break (and perhaps meet a dog or two?).

Friday, November 19, 2010

So Thankful...

With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I should blog about some of the things I have to be thankful for.


- I am thankful that I have two more days of work until BREAK!  It has felt like a marathon to make it to this break and I am ready.


- I am thankful we get to spend time with my mom and Steve this Thanksgiving.  Chris hasn't been able to spend much time in Chattanooga, and I know my mom cannot wait to show him around.


-  On that note... I am thankful I have a mom that doesn't care that all I want to do over break is eat turkey and lounge.  She just can't wait to cook for all of us, and I am so good with that :)


-  I am thankful for my in-laws and how understanding they were about us not coming home for Thanksgiving.  On that note... I am just thankful for my new family in general.  I am a lucky girl!


-  I am thankful that I get to spend Christmas break with my dad and Marilyn... and the rest of the Pederson clan that we miss so much.


-  I am thankful for the families of my students.  I had 100% of my kid's parents show up for conferences.  That is the FIRST time that has EVER happened.  I feel supported and appreciated and it means a lot to me that they made it there.  This may seem like a small act to us, but most of my families don't speak english, had to walk/ride a city bus to get there, take off work that they really couldn't afford to miss, all because they care about their kids education.


-  I am thankful that I get to see the Lincoln Memorial all lit up every Thursday night when I go pick up Chris from his night class.  Pretty awesome... right?




-  I am so thankful to have girlfriends that love me and always support me.

-  I am thankful to have a husband to come home to every day.  He cleans the apartment every Friday so we can start the weekend with a clean house.  He cooks after I come home exhausted after parent teacher conferences.  He does the dishes EVERY NIGHT!  He takes out the trash EVERY TIME.  He is the best husband (and come to think of it, he is very domestic.. :)

-  I am thankful that Chris got an internship in KC this summer!!!!  Kansas City here we come :)

I am so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving :)