Along Came Holly…

For those who also check out Ben’s blog, Ben made a recipe for Blue marlin steaks a few days ago that he was extremely proud of (to say the LEAST).  He was trying to make it look so professional, you would’ve thought Emeril was coming to dinner.  Of course, I noted that he chose to serve his signature dish on one of the most beat up dinner plates we own and that Emeril would never use celery leaves as garnish.  But, I digress…as I laughed my way through this whole episode, I also decided to create a dish of my own.

Anyone who knows me even remotely well understands that I don’t cook.  I hate cooking and Ben loves it, so we have a good arrangement.  But I love baking–especially desserts, my specialty.  I have made some spectacular desserts this summer, including a delicious chocolate zucchini cake and carrot cake from scratch, not to mention some of my old standards including chocolate peanut butter cake.  So the same night of the marlin meal, after I saw Ben’s blog post, I decided to do some baking of my own.  I really wish I had taken pictures of some of my other creations–I will do that from now on–but I set to work with Betty Crocker making snickerdoodles and oatmeal cookies.  Not terribly impressive, I know, but they were scrumptious and to compete with Ben, I naturally photographed my creations.  Here they are, tucked neatly in their Tupperware homes…

Now that Ben and I photographing food (what has this come to?), I’m sure I will have to up the ante and get more creative with my desserts.  Before long, I’ll be making five-tiered wedding cakes and french pastries!

I forgot I had a few updates for my dedicated readers!

1.  The farmer’s market (aka my wonderful mother-in-law) came to Grand Rapids last week to move in my youngest sister-in-law at Aquinas College.  She also brought a SINK FULL of carrots, which I washed and peeled, and the three of us (Ben, his mom, myself) made an assembly line to shred them.  Using the food processor, we shredded, bagged, and froze 24 cups of carrots.  I will be making carrot desserts until the end of time.  That’s okay, though, I love them and Ben will grow to love them. 

2.  I have officially finished my master’s program.  I got an A on my research project, bringing my master’s GPA to a perfect 4.0.  Go me!  I will get the official papers after graduation in December.

3.  I went to visit the “old” dorms at GVSU while visiting with my mother-in-law last week.  They were smaller than I remembered, but I felt wistful nevertheless.  What a fun time in life that was…

Stay tuned!  More interesting info to be posted soon as Ben and I embark on a trip to the Shack In The Woods for Labor Day that includes renovation!  Yippee!

I have officially committed to being a teacher again.  Not that I’d thought about quitting or anything, I have just mentally resumed my teacher mindset and have begun thinking like a teacher again.  I have been to my classroom only three times thus far (a new record for me at this time of year), though I know I have at least two more trips planned before kicking off the year with an inservice.  In short, I’ve unpacked and moved back in.

I am excited for a new adventure this year…I will have a student teacher!  This is my 8th year teaching, so I feel ready for it, but I’m not sure if I really know what I’m getting myself into.  I am sharing her with one of the kindergarten rooms because she is seeking an early childhood endorsement and must have experience in both settings, so it will not be all day, every day for half the year.  A little more subdued, I suppose, though I wish I didn’t have to share her.  Scheduling with the other teacher will be interesting to say the least–we get along well, but sharing any person between two teachers always gets sticky.  At any rate, I am sure it will be extra work and I will undoubtedly have to choke on my Type A personality more than once, but I am eager for the challenge and excited to think I might help shape a prospective teacher! 

The class list is in, letters are being mailed out, the school engine has officially begun turning.  We’ll see how blogging and I survive a school year…

Today, I was a good alumnus and volunteered to help freshman move in at my Alma mater, Grand Valley State University.  In previous years, I have not been able to help with this adventure, so I made room in my “busy” schedule to accommodate this activity.  I was selected to help freshman move in to the brand new Neimeyer Honors housing.  The housing was INCREDIBLE.  The students were in air conditioned rooms with either 2 or 4 students–regardless of the number of students, each student had their own bedroom, complete with bed, desk, dresser, closet, and at least one (two if you were lucky) large windows overlooking various parts of campus.  Then, these students had a common area with a living room (including four more large windows overlooking campus) and fully equipped kitchen, including a full size fridge AND DISHWASHER.  These “dorms” were nicer than the first apartment Ben and I lived in when we got married–and it was a decent apartment!

Naturally, I flashed back to my freshman dorm at GVSU, which I lived in 12 years ago. My residence hall room had permanently affixed bunk beds, countertops with drawers that functioned as my desk, dresser, and kitchen cupboards, a fan, closets with a paper “door”, and a tiny window which overlooked the ravine.  And, oh yeah, COMMUNITY BATHROOMS.  These kids have to share a kitchen, I had to share a 4 toilets, 4 showers, and 6 sinks with 63 other girls.  Times sure have changed–I had a Pinto compared to the Cadillacs now being offered!

In all fairness, those kids moving in today had to earn a place into that building–it is honors housing, and they will have to work very hard to maintain their place in that gorgeous building.  Also, in talking with one of my former “residence hall” alumni, I learned that those dorms have also been remodeled to include furniture that moves around, more private, updated community bathrooms, and real closets.  Still, I found it amazing to see what kind of housing is now being offered to college freshman, in what I can only image as an attempt to get those students to choose GVSU over another college.  It will be interesting in the coming years, if I choose to volunteer again, to see what these students will be enticed with next.  Maybe…a new car?????

Click to see the Neimeyer Honors Housing Floor Plans and compare to GVSU’s “Updated” Residence Halls

All of those who analyze dreams, I need some advice.  I have been having some really disturbing dreams as of late and while I’ve tried to analyze them using dream books, etc, I am getting nowhere fast.  I have had several dreams, none of which are the same, but all involve the same concept–death.  I had a dream two weeks ago in which somebody shot my beloved dog in the skull right in front of me.  I was so upset in this dream that Ben had to wake me up because I was moaning and shaking.  During my vacation in Wisconsin, I had a dream that a tornado killed my dad, brother, and sister, leaving only my mother and I alive.  I know I’ve also had a dream in the past two weeks that someone shot me in the chest, although I can remember little about the dream other than that.   About three weeks ago, I had a dream that I was driving to school with my carpool buddy Kim, and we slid off a snowy curve into a deep ravine lined with massive trees.  I was the driver and while we ended up okay, but it was still traumatic.

The only conclusion I’ve come to is that all of these dreams leave me feeling very out of control in each situation–no matter how hard I try to keep people, my dog, and even myself out of harms way, I continually fail.  In the past few weeks, I’ve dealt with some pretty severe fertility issues.  I have come to accept that I will likely never experience pregnancy or give birth to my own children, so is that the “death” of a dream?  My mom told me I need to discuss these unsettling dreams with a professional (namely, my counselor), but I thought I’d bring it to the blog to see if anyone has any ideas.  Those of you who may know me more closely may have deeper insight than a stranger, but I’m welcoming all takers.  I have never had a history of nightmares and I never repeat dreams over and over–while themes tend to sometimes repeat, the dream is always different.  I always dream in color, which I guess has some significance when analyzing dreams. 

Please help the moderately insane with some advice!!!!

I have finally returned from the trip I took with my parents to Wisconsin to visit my relatives.  My aunt and uncle live in Door County, which basically occupies the entire peninsula part of Wisconsin that juts into Lake Michigan.  My three cousins (their children) live in the greater Green Bay area, so it was a chance to visit and see everyone.  It was an enjoyable, relaxing trip.  Two of my three cousins have children, so it was fun to see their kids and catch up with their lives.  I have one second cousin who is going to be a high school senior–it made me feel extremely old because I can remember her mom being pregnant with her as she was the first grandchild.  How time just flies on by!  Packerland was really fired up about all the Brett Favre controversy–it was all anyone was talking about since the trade actually happened during my time there.  I love football more than the average bear, but I swear folks in Green Bay probably bleed green and yellow; it’s like a religion there.

I returned to Grand Rapids in time to turn in my final project for my master’s class, thus ending my quest towards my masters.  It really did feel good to be done, although I will not technically have my actual diploma until after the December graduation ceremony.  I have completed my master’s degree at Western Michigan University via one of their satellite schools, so I don’t plan on walking at graduation or anything like that; it would be the only time I actually went to the main campus in Kalamazoo, which seems silly.  It’s done so that’s what counts.

I have begun my silent mourning period today.  With vacations over with and graduate classes concluded, I can no longer ignore the inevitable.  It is time to start thinking about…school.  Over the past several summers, I have really looked forward to going back to school, but this year, I am just dreading it.  I got a bit more excited today when everyone was talking about their classrooms during grad class, but I am still bummed.  I plan on sucking it up and venturing in this weekend to start organizing things, I’m hoping it will fuel some excitement.  People are usually pissy when teachers whine going back to school after having months off, but I look at it this way…anyone could choose to be an educator, just like I did, and everyone knows one of the perks is having summer’s off.  I am also paid for the amount of time I work–if I worked 11 months of the year like many professionals do, I would also make significantly more money.  I’ll hop off my soapbox now!

For those of you who know anything about dreams, I will be looking for your input in a future post…

Ben is the king of excursions, let me start by saying that.  For our 6th wedding anniversary, which we celebrated on Sunday, Ben found a private island for us to stay on for the night.  Who gets an island for their anniversary?  Me! 

We went to Middle Island in Lake Huron, just north of Alpena, Michigan.  The island has a fully functioning lighthouse on it, which is operated by the Coast Guard, and several of the remaining outbuildings that remain from years ago are being refurbished by a privately owned entity.  We stayed in the Keepers Lodge, which was the fog horn building originally.  The original keepers quarters are currently being renovated and plans are in place to one day make those quarters into a bed & breakfast. 

There were several cool things about the island.  First, we were alone on the island.  ALONE!  What a neat feeling!  Captain Mike brought us to the island, gave us a grand tour including the lighthouse, made sure we knew how to work all of the appliances, and left!  Many people we know got the heebie-jeebies when we said we were alone, but we loved the solitude and the quiet.  Next, there was no electricity on the island.  The fridge and oven ran on propane and several mounted lights in the cabin also operated on propane.  We used a modern-day privy and the shower was also outdoors.  It was VERY dark at night, but we thought it was neat to live just like the original folks had lived over a hundred years ago.  Finally, the views were just breathtaking.  Below, I posted two of our 120 pictures–the first is the view from the lodge to the lighthouse and original keepers quarters, the second photo is the view from the sliding glass door in the lodge to Lake Huron and the campfire pit. 

Ben and I were both sad to leave as we only spent our anniversary night on the island.  We plan to go back either late this year or next year, possibly with friends.  We definitely would like to spend a longer amount of time on the island, maybe get to explore some more, spot some deer, and relax with the island to ourselves!  If anyone is interested in going, check out www.middleislandlightkeepers.com

Tomorrow, I am off on another vacation–this time with my parents to visit my favorite aunt and uncle in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin.  This is my last hurrah before I come back and face reality…summer is over and I need to get my butt into my classroom to get it prepared for my 08-09 school year.  Ugh.

Ben’s family reunion took place at the Shack in the Woods this past weekend.  This year’s party was called NIFOFTY (Nobody Is Forty Or Fifty This Year).  Ben has nine aunts and uncles and along with their spouses, no one turned one of the “big” ages this year. 

We painted a new Shack in the Woods sign to welcome all our visitors.  It turned out to be quite enormous, but then again, Rapin’s don’t generally underdo things!  We had wonderful bonfires, smores, and one of Ben’s uncles brought old movies he converted to DVD, so he put them in a projector and played them on a white sheet on the garage.  It was fun to watch everyone reminisce; I also saw some old movies of Ben long before I knew him, my favorite being him as George Washington in a fourth grade play.