My life per my phone's dictionary

I found myself scrolling through the personal dictionary on my phone today, where I add words that I've typed that aren't in the dictionary, but that I want it to recognize. I think that words included are a pretty good representation of my life (besides a couple of boring ones like centers and favorite that are there because my phone likes to be British...)

Albus 

AVPM

AVPS

AVPSY

Baconukkah

A celebrated holiday in a dream I had once. It sounded so good in theory, but upon waking I realized how offensive it would be...

bowtie

bullpen

butterbeer

Christmasy

Coldstone

Coolio, def, OMG, rando, probs, sorta, tix, totes, yup 

(aka random slang)

Dumbledore

Everwood

Freakin'

himym

Hogwarts

hoodie and hoodies

ICEE

Inge

Katniss

Klaine

livestream

Malfoy

I was planning to use a picture of the very attractive much older version of Tom Felton as Malfoy, but then this one came up and of course I had to use it.

McDonalds and Meijer

Mockingjay

muggle

Newsie(s)

(Less than two weeks!!!!!!!!)

Panera

Peeta

Pigfarts

quesadilla

Rumbleroar

Starkid

sweatpants

Topanga

Weasley

This ended up being a super long post, but it was really fun to put together :)

Sisterhood

I was pretty excited to see that ABC Family was having a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Double Feature on Saturday. So after a long, emotional, awesome night watching AVPSY Friday night, a Saturday running errands, prepping wedding shower invites and soaking in all of the AVPSY joy on the internet, I settled in to watch the double feature.

I first read Sisterhood of the Traveling pants when I was in eighth grade. I had an elective class called Novel Club, which was basically a class where you did book clubs :) Some of my good friends were in the class and the first book we chose to read was Sisterhood. It was so much fun to read and discuss together. We classified ourselves and our friends according to their corresponding characters. I was a Lena: shy, modest, intellectual. We swooned over Kostos, worried about Bridget, cried with Tibby when Bailey died, were shocked and angered when Carmen got blindsided with a step-family. We had very heated discussions about whether or not Carmen's dad was justified in canceling their tennis plans when a wedding crisis came up. We were quite divided on this subject and got very into this argument; I'm pretty sure our teacher had to tell us to move on... Then  when Carmen's dad sat calmly eating with his new family after Carmen ran away, we were united in hating him. :) At the end we wrote and acted a skit that involved the four girls on a talk show. So much fun!

We continued reading the books and loving them. I love that the books celebrate positive relationships between girls, when we see an ever increasing amount of girl drama in the world. These girls showed us how to be real, true friends amidst  the drama of growing up and boys and high school. They were always there for each other and loved each other, even if they were mad at each other or were far apart. And while they made their share of mistakes, they were at their core good examples. When I think about some of the examples in the media that young girls are exposed to now, I wish girls would look up to the sisters, instead... Even though we remained a few years younger than the girls, we grew older and grew up with them. We saw them graduate and face a future where they wouldn't see each other every day, before we were faced with the same thing ourselves and learned from them.

When my friends and I graduated we created our own rip-off of the traveling pants. No, we did not all fit into a magical pair of pants, we sent around a notebook in which we recorded important parts of our lives and then sent it on to our fellow "The Book" members. We even made up our own set of rules regarding The Book, a la Sisterhood. It was a great way to keep in touch our first couple of years in college. We also met each summer and at Christmas for a party. After the first year or two, the actual book became more trouble than it was probably worth and we stopped passing it around. We all had busy lives and it was hard to commit to writing and passing it around. We continued to keep in touch and meet for our semi-annual parties until we graduated from college. So many people I met in college were amazed at the way we kept in touch with high school friends. But we were all so important to each other that it was worth the effort to keep in touch. I feel so blessed to have had such amazing relationships with these women. They were such a big part of my life for so long. And while we haven't all kept in touch after college, all ten lovely ladies will always have a special place in my heart!

I love the movies, too. I think it's funny that when the first movie came out Alexis Bledel (Lena) and Amber Tamblyn (Tibby) were the most famous for their roles in Gilmore Girls and Joan of Arcadia respectively. However when the second movie came out, it was Blake Lively (Bridget) and America Ferrera (Carmen) who had bigger careers for Gossip Girl and Ugly Betty. The fourth movie is like a conglomeration of the next three books, but still great. And sure there were changes to the movies, but they kept the spirit and message of the books.

Then came the last book, Sisterhood Everlasting. I unfortunately was majorly spoiled about the book (thanks a lot Barnes and Noble's review). I knew going into reading it that Tibby drowned. It definitely colored the way I read the book. As soon as Tibby didn't show up on time, I was literally sobbing, "she's dead! She drowned." I could see it coming and none of them knew and it was torture waiting for them to figure it out. I was bawling long before they knew anything was wrong. I think Momma thought I was crazy, but I think it was ten times worse, knowing what was coming and them being blissfully unaware. But, of course I loved the story and was glad to be back in a world with my friends.

So I sat watching the movies last night, thinking of my friends, remembering the good times and missing them like crazy!

I'm Grateful For... AVPSY

Last night AVPSY premiered on Youtube. 

I finished watching it around midnight and had a lot of feelings. It will be a little while before I can organize my thoughts well enough to write them down.

 For now I am so grateful to have been able to see the show live and now again online. (Next weekend, Lil Sis and I are going to watch it again together :)) 

Today I decided to follow Dr. Seuss's wise advice: "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."

Don't mind me as I curl up in my sock drawer for days...

AVPSY

The time has come, the walrus said to detail Lil Sis and my epic adventures at Leaky Con and seeing AVPSY. As AVPSY is (finally!!!) being released on youtube on Friday, I figured it was as good a time as any to revisit our fantabulous weekend in Chicago.

It started one day last July when I was perusing twitter and saw a tweet that Starkid would be performing A Very Potter 3-D: A Very Potter Senior Year at LeakyCon in Chicago in August. I immediately texted Lil Sis at work. Chicago is not far from where I live and I knew that we must be there to see it live. Not satisfied when she didn't respond immediately I also left her a voicemail. She called back shortly thereafter and we ordered tickets right away. It was seriously such an exciting day; this show has been years in the making and Darren's fame and schedule just didn't make it possible for them to do the show until then. (Darn you G.L.E.E.) We didn't care that it was only going to be a "staged reading," we were psyched. We would get to  see Darren and our other beloved Starkid's perform live in the roles that made us fall in love with them in the first place!

The show as set to be performed on Saturday, but we decided to head out Friday and spend the night because we didn't want to run into traffic or something and miss the show (and yes we're paranoid like that). We rocked out to Starkid tunes all the way to Chicago, managed to find our hotel fairly easily and get checked in. Then we decided to do some shopping downtown, which was just down the road from our hotel, except we went the wrong way the first time and ended up going at least a half a mile in the wrong direction before we realized it... But we managed to find the shopping and perused some stores; the American Girl Doll store was a must!

After walking around all afternoon, we decided to get dinner and not at some place we could eat anywhere, an only-in-Chicago type of place. Except we were really hungry and the first place we passed that looked good was a Bennigan's, so we stopped there. But we did sit out on the sidewalk, which we couldn't do back home, so we claimed that as a victory. It was fun to people watch all of the people dressed in their Harry Potter and Starkid gear.

Then we went back to the hotel and decided to check out the merchandise. As chronicled in my Denise Donovan blog, we took a long time deciding what Starkid merch we wanted and met Denise Donovan! I ended up with a Granger Danger T-shirt, JMOMS DVD and powder blue sweatband.

This was our first taste of living in a world where people loved Starkid. I got lots of compliments on my Keep Calm I'm a Starship Ranger t-shirt. It was so fun to be surrounded by people who got all of our random Starkid references and geeked out over powder blue sweatbands. We overheard someone saying that their mom saw Joey Richter at the ice machine, so of course our eyes were peeled for Starkids whenever we left our room ;)

We also checked in to the Leaky Con (since we only had passes for the conference for Saturday) and got our Leaky Con swag.

After making our purchases we decided to hit the pool, with about half of the other people there :) But it was fun and we got to relax our muscles that were sore after a day of a lot of walking!

Here we are rocking our homemade A Very Starkid Summer T-shirts. Mine says "I'll see my friends, gonna laugh til we cry" from Goin' Back to Hogwarts and Lil Sis' says "We've got these days  of Summer" from Days of Summer. The back lists the dates for Apocalyptour and Leaky Con.

The next morning we got up bright and early to attend some conference sessions before AVPSY which was "scheduled" to start at noon. They had said that if you attended a session from 11:00-11:50 you would be let in before people who just stood in line, so we had planned a full morning. We also packed our nifty Leaky Con bags full of snacks because there would be no time for lunch! 

Rumbleroar!

Our first session stared off pretty humorously. First off all, the wrong lecturer showed up. He started trying to lead us in yoga and we were all like, "What?!  Isn't supposed to be about how no one in Harry Potter has any parents or parental figures or something?" Then they got that straightened out and our lecturer never showed up. But being the true fans we are, a few people just started running it like a panel. 

Then we went to a simply fabulous session about Snape and whether he is truly good or evil. The place was packed! But what made the whole thing, was that a Snape impersonator showed up and started taking part in the discussion, in character! It was so much fun :)

I think the next session was the 11:00 that we really had no interest in, but we had to pick something so that we could get into AVPSY first... I felt bad for the guy because, seriously, no one really wanted to be there and everyone was counting down the minutes to noon. Lil Sis and I munched on some snacks. Then some workers came to get us in line... and we stood in line for like at least half an hour... It was excruciating, but we had some lovely Starkid sing-a-longs to tide us over. Then they marched us through the Chicago Hilton like a giant conga line! I'm sure we looked crazy to the legitimate guests. When we got closer they made us put our badges on our foreheads so it was easier for them to check. At that point we would have done whatever they told us!!

We finally got seated, discovered some lovely 3-D glasses under our seats and tried not to freak out! I won't spoil the show, yet, except to say that it was amazing. Very few people left without tears in their eyes (cast included). It was funny, touching, full of amazing songs and clearly more than a staged reading. Yes, there were tons of goofs and everyone read from the script, but it wouldn't be a Starkid show without mess-ups and they really only had like 48 hours to rehearse. It was amazing to see Darren (and everyone else) perform live. It was perfect.

We got out and realized that it was after 5:00! A show that was supposed to go from 12-3, went from 12:00-5:00! Again, not a Starkid show if it wasn't super long, and to their credit it didn't start until at least one by the time everyone got into the room.

Since the schedule was all out of whack, Lil Sis and I just skipped any more sessions and headed to get food. On our way to McDonald's, we got several really strange looks and possibly a comment about us being hippies, when realized that we had re-entered civilization while still wearing our sweatbands :)

We took our Mickey D's to Millenium Park to eat and debrief on the awesomeness that we had just experienced.

Next we went back to the hotel and took part in a rockin' Starkid sing-a-long. So fun to be around people who had the words memorized just like us!

Then there was the ball. We hadn't really been sure if we would attend, since we were driving back home that night, so we didn't bring any ball type clothes, but we still went anyway. It was so much fun to just dance the night away, even if we were carrying around our large bags the whole night! The DJ played "I Wanna Be" and some Disney songs! I saw Dylan Saunders wandering through the crowd and we said hi and gave him hugs.

After awhile a bunch of the Starkids came out and were dancing, which was fun to see.  We were sort of far away and it was dark, so my pics aren't very good... Some of the Warblers were there and started dancing when some of their songs from Glee came on :)

Oh, Joe Moses (wearing the hat)

Joey is in red on the far right of this pic and Darren's a tiny bit right of center wearing a blue short sleeved shirt and black vest...

We were pretty pooped from a seriously long and emotional (very, very exciting!) day.

Around midnight we had to decide, were we going to stay until 2:30 for the traditional singing of Total Eclipse of the Heart or leave then. We decided, you only live once; we were staying. This is also when we saw Matt Lang, but decided he looked uncomfortable enough that we didn't approach him.

So we stayed and rocked out to Total Eclipse of the Heart with a few hundred of our people and then hit the road. They usually play the song several times, so after the first playing we left to beat the rush. Which led us to meeting the adorable Nick Lang in his purple tracksuit. One of our biggest regrets is not asking him for a picture, but we did tell him we loved the show and he thanked us for coming. 

Then we almost didn't get let out of the parking garage, but thanks to a nice garage attendant we did and were on our merry way!

It was an epic and, dare I say, magical weekend!

I'm Grateful For... Kim

I am so, so very grateful today (and every day) for my dear friend Kim. She has had an extremely difficult week and just lost her father today. My heart is breaking for her and I just wish I could give her a hug. She is always there for me when I need her and I wish I could do more for her today.

Last year I had the pleasure of teaching with Kim. It was both of our first year's teaching (although she is already married with several teenaged- children). We shared so many ups and downs together. She was the first person I would go to with vents about school and to share the hilarious stories that come with being an elementary school teacher. Almost every day after school I would pop down to her room and end up staying at least 15 minutes, talking about school, our families and life. We had a great time teaching together!

We got to travel for a two-day teaching conference together last spring. It was so nice to get to spend time together outside of school. We ate out, went shopping, watched an hour of Croc Hunters because we couldn't figure out how to change the channel... good times.

When I went through a very rough end of the school year and summer, Kim was always there for me. Taking me for lunch on the beach, out to dinner or just to talk while I cried. She was always there with a hug, a word of advice and a touch of motherly protectiveness. I'm not sure how I would have gotten through the summer without her love and support.

This year we are teaching at the same school again, but our rooms are across the school. It's not as convenient to pop down to her room after school, but our classes are buddies and we share planning time, so we find time to chat :)

I am so, so, so very grateful that Kim is in my life. She is sweet and thoughtful and generous and a great inspiration to me as a teacher, Christian, mother and wife. To borrow a Grey's Anatomy cliche, she's my "person" on this side of the state. Since I'm away from home, she's the person I go to when I need something. I know that I can count on her for comfort, advice, or just a hug.  God certainly had a plan when he had us teaching together last year.

I'm sending all of my love and prayers her way, as well as thanking God that he put her in my life!

Adventure is Out There!

Today after thoroughly cleaning my apartment, grocery shopping and getting school stuff ready for the week, I decided that I deserved a reward, in the form of relaxing while watching a good movie: Up.

I love the movie Up. It is Pixar at it's finest. It is visually beautiful, as well as ver funny, while telling a poignant story. Kids enjoy it and so can adults. There is a surface level story that appeals to kids and a deeper one that appeals to adults. The characters are lovable and adorable and funny. I mean look at Russell

and tell me that he isn't the cutest thing ever.



 I laughed out loud several times and cried during two different points in the movie. It is just so excellent. That montage at the beginning, chronicling Carl and Ellie's adventures together, get me every time. The opening notes began playing and my eyes were already tearing up. I read somewhere that that is the world's greatest love story told in five minutes and with no words, and it is the truth. We should all be so blessed to find our Carl (or Ellie). Then, near the end, when Carl finds that Ellie has filled the Adventure Book with photos of their life together. Man, I couldn't make it through it without crying, again... Such a touching and beautiful story.

I mean, I can't even... They're so adorable.

I went and saw Up in theaters with Lil Sis and her then boy-friend, now fiance, Kev. We had so much fun. It was really the first time the three of us had spent time together. We rocked our 3-D glasses and teased Kev with the line "Kevin's a girl?" relentlessly. Good memories. It was the first of many fun and crazy times the three of us have spent together :)

Now, I am planning Lil Sis's wedding shower and of course I am going with an Up theme. I am so excited about this shower; it is going to be epic. I went on a shower planning tear this weekend, which probably contributed to my strong desire to watch Up today. I can't wait!!

I'm Grateful for... sore throat remedies

When I get a sore throat (which I have now, thanks to two nights of parent-teacher conferences), I have two go-to remedies:

A Frozen Coke/Pepsi

and

Tylenol Cold, liquid-form, or as I call it, "the blue medicine." 

This stuff rocks, it has a "cool burst" that cools your throat right when you drink it, which is awesome! I swear by this stuff.

I also take these obsessively to try to head off the coming cold

Lil Sis and I took these regularly before our trip to New York last year, so we wouldn't get sick and we didn't! Although I did get sick right when we got back and I stopped taking them...

I am very grateful for these things that help me feel better when I am sick.

I'm Grateful for...

Some Valentine's treats that are sans chocolate, for this gal who gave up chocolate for Lent. Although a helpful co-worker suggested that perhaps Valentine's Day was exempt from Lenten rules, I stuck to my guns. It's a good thing I enjoy:

Little Debbie Valentine's Cakes, vanilla flavored. These are the one of the only treats I prefer vanilla over chocolate, which is perfect for this year! I love these little guys. I bought four boxes a couple of weeks ago because they were Buy 3, Get 1 Free and 3 for $4 or something. Anyway, I still have lots left :)

Conversation Hearts. I know some people think they are gross; I heard someone describe eating them as eating chalk, but I love them! I sampled many while prepping our graphing activity at school.

The tasty Starburst that Momma included in my Valentine's Day care package. They were much appreciated amidst all of the chocolate.

Only 37 more days to go...

Thoughts on Glee

Glee seriously always has good Valentine's Day episodes. Silly Love Songs- adorable. Blaine's velvet, heart-shaped eye patch- adorable. This year was no exception; it was quite a crazy episode, but there was so much great about it.

I was so excited to see that Ryan Murphy's recent tweet about Blaine and Kurt making out during the wedding ep was in fact true, though not quite the reunion I was hoping for. They were so cute together during the whole episode. Their musical number was so fun. I loved when Blaine was turned around pretending to be kissing someone. So great! Happy Blaine in the hotel room. :) I love happy Blaine, there has been too much sad Blaine this season.

I loved Kurt's "chat" with Tina. I had seen a picture of them talking earlier this week and thought, "Kurt has a look on his face like, 'Gurl, you are crazy. Why are you crushing on my man?'" I could just tell that he was going to set her straight. "Did you vapo-rape my ex-boyfriend?" And him straight up calling her a creeper, which is what we've all been thinking for weeks... Kurt was my hero in this episode, well except when he didn't want to really get back together with Blaine, but at least in that scene he was my hero.

I'm sad to say that the whole Emma and Will not getting married, sorta seemed secondary to all of the other storylines...

The whole Marley/Jake/Ryder (or Flynn Rider as I affectionately refer to him) thing was pretty predictable. I was so glad that Marley didn't go through with it with Jake. I was yelling at her the whole time. I do like Jake, but I feel so bad for Ryder. He's such a sweetie, plus I liked him on the Glee Project, which probs helps. I think that Jake could totally tell something was up during that last group number.

The whole scene with Rachel and Finn and she loves me, she loves me not, was pretty cute. Brody is such a disgusting creeper. I don't see how Rachel doesn't see it. She is walking all over a guy who loves her and letting a creeper walk all over her... This is not the Rachel Berry I know. Also, was that scene when Brody said he watched weight-lifting videos but was really leaving a room with a wad of cash insinuating that he is a prostitute? At first I thought he was sleeping with one, but upon further contemplation it seemed more likely that he is the one getting paid. I am not knowledgeable on the subject matter, but that seemed to be the implication to me. Then when Rachel was looking through the date book, I thought she was going to be seeing his "appointments." Guess not.

My prediction regarding the pregnancy test is thus: Rachel is pregnant, the baby is Brody's, she realizes he is a dirty, rotten scumbag and leaves him, she goes back to Finn, who is a great guy and agrees to be with her and raise Brody's baby with her. Just putting it out there so that when it happens, I can claim credit.

Random tidbits- loved how Sam went out with all of the single ladies during the boquet toss. I really also loved Sue in this episode. I don't remember her exact comments, but she had some good ones at the beginning regarding Finn being Mr. Schu's best friend... Kurt and Blaine dancing was adorable and there is no way that anyone (not even Rachel Berry) would have been jumping up and down dancing in those crazy heels she was wearing at the wedding.  It was cool to see Ali from the Glee Project as Artie's new love interest, but honestly when I knew she was going to be on, I was more sad that it wasn't Nellie or Michael from last year...

:( that there is no new episode for three weeks!!! Why do you do this to us Fox??? Why???