Wisp day 3

MK arrived last night just as the fire was dying. Maybe its because of what we used as kindling?

Woke up today and could barely lift my arms to put my blonde locks in a pony. So so sore from snowboarding. It was sunny and 50* out so we just lounged around the house before going to see Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was good! Can you believe matinees here are only $5?? When we got back we all played with our brostaches.

Snowboarding day uno

Last night we had a romantic fire and made s'mores. We also spent some time giving ourselves a mini pep talk to try to remember how to snowboard.

We got up early and hit the bunny slopes! It was crowded so after a few runs we decided to take the lift up to some greens and try our luck! It may have taken me an hour to get down that green but I did it! Ready for round 2 after a lunch and beer break. :)

Ready to go!

Wisp!

Kim, Brett, Susan, Matt, Carrie, Ryan and I arrived at our cabin in Deep Creek, Maryland yesterday. There's only one question- where's the snow?

We all settled in and had some delish homemade lasagna made by my grandma (Thanks, Gram!!). Then played apples to apples where Brett kicked everyone's butt!

Today we woke up to a nice surprise - snow! Us girls trekked to Walmart to get supplies for the week because we only brought booze.
We bought 15 lbs of beef for taco night, burgers ad chili. Only one trail was open so we opted to hang at the house and prepare for tomorrow. I've been sick and on antibiotics for a few days now so hopefully with this day of rest I'll be ready to shred!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Holiday Party at Kim & Brett's!

 Reunited and it feels so good...

Kim celebrated a Birthday!

Now, all the presents have been wrapped and Christmas pjs are on! 

We're ready for Santa!

Merry Christmas!

In the upcoming year I am excited for new friends and old friends that are newly back in my life. 

Feliz navidad!

Won third place in the door decorating contest at school.

Can you guess what it is??

A christmas cactus! Har har har

Thanksgiving

The night before thanksgiving is one of my favorite nights to go out. Not only are out-of-town friends back in the area but the next day you know you have a feast of food to kick your hangover's butt. This Thanksgiving eve was no exception. My friends Jason and Chris had a cocktail party at their apartment in Ballston with 15-20 of our high school friends. Some we see more often then others but when we all get together, it's as if no time has passed. It is funny how when we are around each other, we resort back to our former HS selves - bad habits and all. Unfortunately after a bottle of wine, I forgot to take pictures. I hate when that happens. We ended up at Clarendon Grille where we chatted the night away. So much fun.
The next day was spent sleeping off my hangover and preparing for the feast. My best friend from elementary school, Ashley, her sister Brittany and their grandmother joined us for dinner. Their parents are living in Hong Kong for a few years for work.

Thanksgiving is always a time for reflection so on that note, I'd like to say that I'm thankful for my family, friends, and my beautiful dog. I can't believe she became part of my family a year ago today. Happy Anniversary, pup!

Whoa, where did October go?

October went by so fast!! Between homecoming, school work and grad school work I haven't had a spare minute! 

Homecoming & Spirit Week:

Celebrated Halloween by sitting in class. Mae dressed up:

I got the iPhone4S and have been loving being able to FaceTime (so have the pooches):

Been loving the wall weather and walks with the girl:

Got an early Christmas present from my sister: new snowboard boots!

The past week I have been bedridden with a bacterial infection. All I can say is I'm ready to finally 1) feel better, 2) be done with classes for the semester and 3) finally get my social life back! I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

My Mae-kin

My little Mae is a pumpkin, hence the name Maekin!

trying on her witch's hat!

She has a pumpkin t-shirt to wear for October and I also got her a witch hat and costume for Halloween. 
So cute! 

Luck be a Lady

Since I was heading to AC soon after work on Friday, I went out with my mom and grandparents on Thursday to celebrate the B-day.



Ash and I headed to Atlantic City after work on Friday. We met up with the other car full of Kim, Brett, MaryKate, Susan & Jeff at the Maryland House. We arrive around midnight, checked into the ho-tel (aka 'the dorm') across the street from the Tropicana. 

Brett had left over comps from his Bachelor party but could only get one room so we had to split up. After waiting in a long line and talking with the most miserable front desk person we were handed a key to the "powder room" since all of the rooms regular were sold out. A powder room? Great, that'll be nice for the 7 of us to share. So we grumpily hike upstairs to the 22nd floor to find our "powder room" was basically the "parlor" section of one of the high-roller suites at the Tropicana. Good news: we had a incredible view with windows that wrapped around all sides, easy casino access and a sweet bar/sitting room area. Down side: there was only an open-up couch so we had to order some roll-away beds for half our crew that was staying at the Trop. After popping some B-day champagne and Georgetown cupcakes...

which then turned into firefly on the rocks...we headed down with some crisp hundred dollar bills to the black jack table. 

6 of the 7 of us made up an entire blackjack table (Ash was the bj virgin who decided to sit out the first couple shues so she could observe & try to pick it up). We gambled until the wee hours of the morning- all of us were up a few hundred bucks! Wahoo! 5:30 in the morning, red eyed we all fell into our beds. The next day we got up, had some much needed coffee and brunch, then it was back to the tables! My dad was visiting my grandma who lives only an hour away, decided to make the trip for a few hours. We played some more black jack until I decided to take a break to play some slots with my gram. I hate slots. I like blackjack because I feel as I have some say in winning or losing. The only appeal to them for slots was to pull the lever and now 99% of them just have some lame-ass button you push. I sit down for a chat with my gram, shove $10 in the slot machine and start unenthusiastically pushing the button on my 25c machine. DING DING DING after about 3 pushes of that magical little button my machine goes crazy & I'm $100 bucks richer. I just increased my investment by 1000%. Woot! For dinner us girls went over to the Borgata for some delicious sushi and wine at Izakaya ("a modern Japanese pub"). Mmmm...I love the Borgata and the Trop was fun, too, but there is no place to gamble like Harrah's. 

I remember going to Harrah's as a little kid with my high-roller grandparents and so badly wanting to be on the floor of the casino where all the action, strobing lights and noise was! We open up our own blackjack table again and played for hours before Brett and Jeff met us. It certainly great when you can sit at the table and play for hours - without having to keep breaking out more dinero. I pretty much gave all the money I had won back to Lady Luck herself, but the hours of entertainment, good company and free beer made it worth it! We grabbed a limo back to the trop, and hit the sack. 

Thanks for coming out, ya'll. It was fab to bring in year 2-5 with such great friends. 

Feliz Cumple a Mi :)

I was surprised to see a video message from my favorite sister & her class, wishing me a very enthusiastic 'Happy Birthday!'

So I made my students sing to me in Spanish & say thanks or 'Gracias'. My class was excited but are such good actors, that they portray their apathy so well. :)

La cucaracha

So as I was happily back to work on this Monday and teaching my young teen aged minds. During the first block, I proceed to walk around the rows in my classroom (as I always do) when my sandal gets caught on one of my student's backpack (as they always leave them in the isle). All of the sudden, two giant CUCARACHAS start dancing across my classroom floor. SICK. You would think after the numerous bug-incidents in Costa Rica I'd be better prepared for this...nope. 


Do you know what a cucaracha is? Most people know the song, but I'm not sure they know it's about one particular kind of bug. Be carefully when looking for the song, as there are two versions.

A School Friendly Version:

Spanish	English
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,	The cockroach, the cockroach,
ya no puede caminar	can't walk anymore
porque no tiene, porque le falta	because it doesn't have, because it's lacking
las dos patitas de atrás.	the two little feet from the rear.

& a marijuana "laced" version. PUN-INTENDED ba ha ha. Clearly, I taught my students the first version. :)

Spanish	English
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,	The cockroach, the cockroach,
ya no puede caminar	can't walk anymore
porque no tiene, porque le falta	because it doesn't have, because it's lacking
marihuana que fumar.	marijuana to smoke.

Dear fall, it's time to come and stay this time.

This week was crazy. 
Monday- class
Tuesday- funeral
Wednesday- class
Thursday- back to school night
Friday - exhausted. 
+ working full time. 


Last night, I met some great friends at Jackson's in Reston Town Center to decompress about the week's event over a bottle of wine (or two :) ). I came home before midnight to crash. 
Being out in the town center in the muggy September night made me long for some fall weather and fashions. This weather has been so wacky and unpredictable. I need fall! Changing leaves, sweaters, football games, dark denim designer jeans, scarves and boots. Now, this is a lot of admit as I am one who usually wears flip-flops all year round, at least until the first snow. That being said, I also love boots - from Uggs to my Sperry rain boots to the amazing Sam Edelman 'Pierce' Over the Knee boots (left) that I bought last year. I have been searching for black leather boots but have yet to fall head over heels for any because I have had a hard time finding a black leather boot that doesn't make me 1- look like a pirate or 2- look like a biker chick. Walking through Nordstrom today, the Frye boot gods must have heard my prayer because I look over and see (aahhhhh) a pair of the most gorgeous black leather boots. The Frye Melissa Button Boot (right). My wonderful mother treated me to them for an early Birthday treat. 


Lots of work to get done before next weekend. The big birthday celebration in Atlantic City is on deck! Woot!