It's so intense...

Because Monday is "so intense," I thought I would share this as my video to make Monday a little lighter!

And if intense isn't your thing, how about awkward?
Yes, this guy is for real....for real in the sense that he is playing a major joke on the news stations! Check out the other clips from different stations..It is definitely worth it.

I hope your Monday was wonderful!

Once upon a time...

This blog is hard to write. Not because of its content, but because my dog Emmy keeps resting her head on the keyboard.

Now, however, I've convinced her to lay BESIDE me, so for as long as that lasts, I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, a boy (we'll call him Kevin) told his girlfriend he was taking her on a date. He told her to be ready at 6:30...a.m. and he would take her on a fun, romantic "sunrise" date. Thinking this sounded early but fun and different, she readily agreed. So, the next day, he picked her up and they proceeded to the surprise destination. The girl was convinced they were going hiking, so she wore flip flops to discourage that ;). However, they ended up at Coolidge Park. There was no one around--they were completely alone in this place that was usually buzzing with activity!
The boy told her to look for a dry bench to sit on (the sprinkler were going) so they could watch the sun rise, so she obliged and began to look in every direction for somewhere out of a sprinkler's reach. As her eyes skimmed over the landscape, she saw a picnic blanket set up and said, "oh, look, someone's having a picnic!" As they came closer, she realized that person was her! There was a card with her name on it sitting on a picnic blanket in front of a vase of beautiful flowers. So, she and the boy sat down and had a delicious breakfast (he had brought all her favorites) and watched the sunrise. Just as she was thinking this date could not get more perfect, the boy reached in the basket and said, "There's one more thing in here I want you to try...Would you try being with me the rest of your life?" and with that, he pulled out a diamond ring!
And then, they lived happily ever after :)
Well, first they went to get his mom a diet dr. pepper at sonic and to show her the ring and to sit with her parents at the family table restaurant where they were having breakfast. THEN they lived happily ever after!
True Story.
Of course that super thoughtful boyfriend was Kevin and the reluctant to hike at six thirty in the morning girl was me!...one year ago today :)

"not too much strut though...cause that looks tacky."

Some things I just realized:

1.It's been an entire WEEK since my last post..I've been wanting to write a new blog everyday, but somehow, here it is...again...Monday.

2. Tomorrow is Tuesday. All day TODAY I've been thinking it was Tuesday. Except for once when I thought it was Thursday....does that mean it's going to be an extra long week?

3. School starts Wednesday!! I'm going to be the computer teacher this year, which means I will have my OWN CLASS!! muahhhahahah...just kidding. For real, though, I can't wait.

4. sometimes when I'm typing, I captilize and sometimes I don't. Don't worry, I dont do this on "professional" emails. Just for you GuYs! ;)

5. Do grown ups get growing pains? Not a realization, just a question.

6. I realize that "funny video Monday" should probably become a tradition. So, here's a throwback video...one of my favorites from back in the day when American Idol was great television. And this was one reason why.

and just in case you're sad after seeing simon and the old gang again, here's another one.
Ok, have a great TUESDAY, you guys!

If you're reading this...

..you made it through Monday!
I know Mondays can be rough after a relaxing, pajama wearing, pancake eating, Saturday morning cartoon-watching weekend (oh wait,i don't think kids do that anymore? And who would after they canceled Pepper Ann?!)...but let's look for the positive in Monday. They're not ALL bad.

Here's just a few good things in my Monday:
-I went back to work..in MY classroom! I can't wait to be the new computer teacher at EBE. It's fun to love your job.
-Kevin went with me to the school box. If you aren't an educator, you probably don't love spending much time in there, and that is why I appreciate him coming. I realize he probably went along mostly to make sure I exercised financial self control...but I'm still glad he came!
-My puppy can officially sit on command!..what shall we move on to now? "stay"..."heel"...or how about "Can you run to the store? I forgot something." For now I guess we will settle for "sit" and "stop chewing my computer cord."
-Kevin just said the words "Hey, I'm gonna go work on catching a raccoon for a second if that's okay."

and if it's taking you a little longer to find something good in your Monday, I'll share a little something with you, courtesy of my friend Megan:

I'll give you a topic...discuss.

I felt bloggy (you know, when you want to write a blog but don't know what to write), so I asked Kevin for some inspiration. "Tell them about your food!" he said..."You mean how I heated up frozen dinners for us tonight?"..."Well..."

I did heat up frozen dinners tonight, but I also cooked a little to go with their pitiful selves. We don't eat frozen dinners every night and I DO love to cook..I don't have any pictures to share tonight of my food (I will soon!), but I do think I'll share a recipe I love (and that I kind of made up...I know. It's a big deal.)

So, you know what spanakopita is? If not, it is a delicious Greek pastry-phyllo dough filled with spinach, feta, dill and a few other things depending on the recipe. It is WONDERFUL and one of Kevin's favorite foods. And they look like this:


(these are not mine....someday i will share my pictures with you!)

What could be tastier than this crunchy, ooey gooey cheesy spinachy treat?...crunchy, ooey gooey CHOCOLATEY spanikopita. That's right....spanikopita minus the "span"..ich. One night I had some leftover phyllo dough and some really yummy chocolate-banana spread from World Market (one of my favorites) as well as some ripe bananas. So i just replaced all the spinch, feta, etc and used this--and TA DA!! Dessert spanakopita was born. I tried them out on Kevin and he loved them! I later let my parents and sister taste them (they were considerably more nervous than Kevin was) and they loved them too...so I think they are here to stay!

Now, spanakopita are fairly easy to make. To make dessert spanakopita, I simply used about a teaspoon of my spread and a banana slice inside each one. I'm sure there are multiple spreads and delicious things to put inside the dessert version (I suspect Nutella might be what I try next...how can anything made with Nutella be bad?)! You know what goes best with dessert spanakopita? Vanilla bean ice cream (or plain vanilla if you ask Kevin) and coffee. Yummm....I want some NOW!

So where do I go to get food inspiration? All kinds of places, but Allrecipes and The Pioneer Woman are my favorites.

I love cooking--it is a great creative outlet and stress reliever! I think everyone needs those...and it gives me an excuse to play with my food and not always follow the directions on the box. And if I can't find some good recipe to make or model after, the Pioneer Woman always offers up a good laugh (just click the link to be redirected).And she gives me homeschooling hope. But that is a topic for another day!

summer days, driftin' away...

Please forgive my Grease reference, but summer is almost over (the part where I don't go to work, anyway...i think the temperatures are here to stay awhile). In light of this, I thought I would share a little of what we did with our summer:

1. Even though I was out from school, Kevin still had to "work"...even when the World Cup was on for the whole month of June.



hey...wait a second..is that soccer on the laptop?!?

2. We got a new friend for Tom Selleck...




We are currently trying to convince him that she is not a pirhana, but is indeed a puppy. We are also not sure that it matters to him; he has a strong distaste for her either way.



3. We celebrated being married for six months..



he makes me happy!



aaand what number am I on? oh yes. 4. We went to our nation's capital. This deserves its own post altogether (which will happen later..I haven't yet recovered physically/mentally/emotionally. ha.):





...that is my husband, the future President. Please disregard the tomato. That's also a story for another time.

And that was my summer! What did YOU do?

p.s.
i promise not all of my posts will be in list form :)

So, this is my first blog. I'm obviously not going to be awesome at it at first, but I have lots of thoughts swimming in my head about many things, and I wanted a place to write them. So, to start out, this is just a randomly compiled list of things about me (and in no particular order...I don't want any of them getting jealous).

1. Right now my biggest struggle is not yelling at the puppy (Emmy, nee Emily Dickinson) when she scratches away my skin, bites off my little toe (not literally, it just felt like it) or eats cat poop (tmi?). Why is it a struggle, you ask?...She is just so darn cute.

2. One of my current favorite things is editing my husband (kevin k lewis') status updates before he posts them on facebook. you people have no idea what you are missing out on sometimes.

3.I love to cook. sometimes I make things up and sometimes it turns out okay and others it does not. Mostly I'm learning to follow recipes (I know, a novel concept) and tweak where I want to. This is something I'll post about occasionally and is one of the reasons I wanted to start a blog!

4. I'm a graduate student, and my classes start back in about a month. So, after then I'll just see you guys in person around April because I'll be hiding in a cave doing homework until then. I'm going to miss you, sunlight. And people.

5. Five days of vacation=six months of laundry. Apparently.

Well, that is all for now..i'm very worn out from chasing Emily Dickinson around the yard earlier.
Now that's a sentence you don't see everyday, huh?