Summer This and That

Hi! I don't have a ton to write about unless anyone wants to hear about summer school??  No?   Then, I'll just share a few summer things, like unnecessary Target cuteness and my favorite summer drink instead.  Here are a few summer "to do's" I recently finished.  Get jealous of my motivation lately:

1) Target has really cute summer stuff.  No, I don't think anybody really needs an icecube tray in the shape of lemon slices, but I couldn't resist. 

I made my sister's "Summer Fun" themed gift because she has been all about her balcony space lately and Target basically provided everything but the liquor:

The gift consisted of:

* A white ice bin for holding drinks

* A graphic dish towel for party fouls

* Lemonade mix and liquor for the best drink ever.  See below for "recipe".

* Fun straws and a lemon shaped ice cube tray

* A magazine with The Bachelorette gossip

* A modest gift card to her favorite store to buy a summer top

* Vine lights to hang on balcony for A Mid-Summer Night's Dream look

2.  Best drink ever:  I am not a fan of sickeningly sweet drinks, like Mike's Hard Lemonade, but I surprisingly do like this one:

* Lemonade (preferably fresh squeezed, but Country Time will work)

* Firefly sweet tea vodka

* Ice

* That's it.

Make to taste, stir, serve.  I love an Arnold Palmer without the overwhelming alcohol taste.

I first heard of this combo on Pinterst.  Their version was a thousand times fancier looking:



3) Trivia Night:  Dan and I did the trivia night with friends that was on my summer list.  Dan is a Jeopardy jedi, so his nerdy power combined with the other two guys won us first place! 

Mali and I were not as helpful.  :)

At least our big winnings paid for a round of drinks!

The summer list is getting whittled down now...

1. Learn to use my DSLR camera
2. Go to an outdoor summer concert
3. Make homemade ice cream
4. Put together cute theme gift for Bethy
5. Create photo books for all recent vacations (thank you, Shutterfly!)
6. Read five new books
7. Cook five new dishes
8. Celebrate anniversary with something new
9. BBQ and baseball game
10. Try something new on Pinterest
11. Beach trip with family
12. Trivia night with friends
13. Visit a farmer's market

#22. Make Homemade Ice Cream

The day after school lets out, I always have high hopes I'm going to have time to indulge in the perfect "Pinterest" summertime activities.  You know... like growing my own veggies and building flower boxes whilst using freshly picked strawberries from our backyard to make homemade ice cream. Or at least to make homemade ice cream.  That one is always on the summer list.

Many of you reading are those inspiring people who are just awesome at crafts and cooking and being domestic goddesses.  You all are completely inspiring because, while I have the best intentions, I usually end up taking on too much tutoring and teaching summer school and later crashing while watching Real Housewives with Dan instead.  

But yesterday, I did it!  I finally made homemade ice cream after three years of wanting to do it.  I'd like to take credit for finally getting in gear, but it wasn't me at all. We visited my parents for July 4th, and my mom actually said to me, "I saw that you posted 'Make homemade ice cream' on your blog, so I bought all the ingredients for it!" She's the sweetest.

She even set up her counter like a cooking show, with the measuring cups and cocoa and cream and all the fixens' ready to go, perfect for a lazy cook like me. 

I'm not rocking a new fashion statement; I just had my bikini on underneath for the pool afterwards. I'm pointing at the computer screen that Dan set up with the recorded episode of The Bachelorette that we missed. Yes, I have him (begrudgingly) into it too.

Side note: Still Team Arie. Just saying.

Anyway, we watched it while I made the ice cream.  For those with an ice cream maker, the recipe was easy and sinfully rich. Skip over the blue part if you don't want the recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1-1/2 cups whole milk

3-1/4 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

NOTE:  You can put in up to 1 cup of mix-ins

Instructions

Place the cocoa and sugars in a medium bowl; stir to combine. Add the whole milk and use a hand mixer on low speed or whisk to combine until the cocoa and sugars are dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. If not freezing immediately, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Turn machine on; pour mixture into freezer bowl, and let mix until thickened. At the end, pour in a cup of mix-ins, if desired.  The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

***

I just chopped up a ton of Giaradelli chocolate and threw some mini marshmallows in.  My mom owns the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker which makes AMAZING ice cream and gelato.  None of this rock salt and gritty ice cream mess.  This stuff turned out like a five star restaurant "food with height" dessert.

Can you tell I'm psyched?

I also knocked #9 off my summer list:  Go to a baseball game

I just have to share one more picture from that.  A guy was launching free t-shirts from one of those guns, and Dan caught a balled up one!  With one hand!  You would have thought they had just launched a ball of cash at him.  There was much screaming and fist pumping.  I think he felt like the man:

Truth time: I'm glad for my summer list because it's kind of reminding me to schedule fun in, as nerdy as that sounds.  I think I've taken too much on this summer, and I've got no one to blame but myself. I said yes to teaching summer school, yes to tutoring several students, yes to taking two college classes, when I should have been saying "Another mojito, please" and chilling out.

I also somehow persuaded myself that I have tons of time to take on house projects, which is why I now have a half painted living room, a strip of peeled off wallpaper in bedroom, and three pieces of furniture still in boxes. At least I'll hopefully be able to share some house updates later in August. Or I'll just get used to the open paint cans and bolts and screws under my feet. Either way.

Anway, more summer list and house updates coming soon.  How was your 4th??

8) Celebrate anniversary with something new

Summer list time!  They're my favorite "to do's" of the year, spanking all other months, like say "Make 100,876 copies of worksheets" in September.  I'm guessing you wouldn't want to hear about that one, right?

Anyway, I was going to get my act together to think of something new and creative to do for our anniversary.  I wanted to forgo the usual dinner and movie.  I kept searching the Internet for ideas and had the best intentions, but with preparing for summer school and a trip to see my parents, I completely flaked.  

Luckily, Dan didn't!  He planned a surprise trip, courtesy of a Groupon he bought to this historic inn in Luray, Va.   You definitely have to make your own fun in Luray, which consists of about five stop lights, but he knows how much I can't get enough of the mountains.  Love this man.

Anyway, here's the classy front of the hotel.  Kind of looks like a place made for a mint julep.


      We basically spent the first day just taking in the landscape and dipping in the hotel's pool.  I forget  how much I love the mountains until I see views like this again.

What else?  Oh, Luray had one cute sandwich place that we checked out, and I just wanted to share the charming inside.   I loved the bike and the old school card catalog.  There is something very cozy about a bookshelf so tall that you need a ladder.

Luray is not really known for its culinary scene, so we just had greasy mexican for dinner to mark the 'ole six year.  Sidenote:  It's very hard to snap an iPhone pic at arm's length and hold up six fingers at the same time, so excuse the awkwardness.

Beers and rocking together on the front porch = two old souls just kicking it

The next day, we continued to celebrate with our little field trip to Luray Caverns.  Yes, it was as cheesy as it sounds.  Our guide deserved a Mr. Luray Caverns 2012 sash with being so sweetly enthusiastic and eager to tell his cave jokes throughout the entire tour.

Our guide:  "This formation is what we call "The Ice Cream Cone'.  Can anyone guess what flavor?? 

No?

Anyone?

ROCKY ROAD!"

This guy had his audience eating out of the palm of effing his hand.  You would have thought he was Will Ferrell.

There's also an organ that creates music by vibrating off stalagmites.  Our guide dubbed the music: "Tunes from 'The Stones'." 

You know the jokes on the candy wrappers?  If Hubba Bubba gum ever needs new writers, this guy would be a shoo-in.

Still, it was kind of neat to see the caverns I used to walk through as an awkward eleven year old on our family camping trip... while wearing a fanny pack... and tapered jeans... and a sweatshirt I had glammed up with puffy paint. 

Memories.

Anyway, we finished our trip with a picnic at Lake Arrowhead:

Not much to say about this.  We just ate and took a paddleboat around this scenic lake:

 

Two more summer to do's coming this week!   

12 Summer Things

Dan and I had our first official day of summer, and we spent it with our usual tradition:

Sneaking into our old apartment pool

Gorging on Dairy Bar milkshakes

That's it.  It's the perfect summer afternoon. 

This is our sixth straight year of sliding into our apartment pool.  We are not usually sneaky people, but when we moved out from our absolutely awful apartment years ago, we kept our pool card with us.  It was our way of comically "sticking it to" the rental company while being able to still keep cool in 99 degree Virginia heat. 

Just because it bears repeating, our old apartment managers were the worst.  Once, we had a family of squirrels living in the attic space above our second floor apartment, and we kept calling and calling to try to get the maintenance people to trap them.  We got a response a month later.  That's four weeks of tapping squirrel claws waking us up nightly, folks. Another time, we walked repeatedly down to the main office to pick up wedding gifts that had been mailed to us, and were told again and again from various people that nothing had arrived.  One visit in the office, Dan went to use the bathroom, and saw a huge pile of gifts clearly marked to us in the back corner.  Perhaps someone else wanted to sneak out with our china?  I dunno.  But that sealed it for us.  We decided on move out day that sneaking into their pool for the next decade is the moral equivalent of making tenants deal with vermin and have to sleuth out their missing blender. :)

Anyway, afterwards, we went to this mom and pop diner a few blocks from our house aptly named The Dairy Bar. 

It's rated as one of Richmond's best place for shakes.  Dan always gets the chocolate peanut butter one and I always order the white chocolate raspberry truffle.  Heaven.

I love that this diner's got this board with pictures of people traveling to different world locals wearing their cheesy Dairy Bar shirts emblazoned with a cow eating ice cream.  Notice the below pic of a couple at Stonehenge sporting them:

No shortage of cow decor.  This place knows how to milk a theme.  Wink. Wink.

I always feel like summer has officially started once we have this afternoon together.

Other stuff I want to do this summer that doesn't include organizing or anything else boring includes:

1.  Learn to use my DSLR camera

2. Go to an outdoor summer concert

3.  Make homemade ice cream

(always on my list, never get around to it!)

4.  Put together cute theme gift for Bethy

5.  Create photo books for all recent vacations

6.  Read five new books (seems like a doable, if not random number)

7. Cook five new dishes (again, seems doable)

8. Celebrate anniversary with something new

9.  BBQ and baseball game

10. Try something new on Pinterest

11.  Beach trip with family

12. Trivia night with friends

and one more I just added today:  13.  Visit a farmer's market (always wanted to, always forget)

Anyone else have a summer list going on?

SSSScchoooolll's out for the summa'?

 The last week of school might seem like one big party in, say, the opening scene of Dazed and Confused with KISS blasting in the background, but it wears. my. ass. out. every. year.

I always feel completely rung out the last week: the grades, the packing, the shredding documents, the last minute meetings, the feeling irritated by the spazzy 8th graders who are on level twenty (out of ten), the wondering if I made a difference at all, and the answering last minute e-mails written in ALL CAPS from disgruntled parents trying to get me to change grades.

I guess I'm the one weird teacher out there who feels kinda low at the end of the year, spent of all energy and am ruminating about whether I should keep teaching indefinitely.  Whether I have it in me. 

This happens to me every single year, guys.  I've even mentioned it before here.  I guess it's like my friend Mali who inevitably feels low on her birthday, even when she turned twenty-one.  At least I've come to expect about three days of sleeping in way too late and Googling "jobs for English majors" before I'm back to feeling normal again.  Usually, after sneaking in to my old apartment pool to sunbathe a few times does my self some good.

I usually don't ask for responses or anything, but I'm genuinely curious, so if you have any thoughts I'd love to hear them.  Do any of you ever soul search about your job? Like after a really shitty day?  I guess other jobs aren't really cyclical, so maybe no one else has the every so-predictable variety of emotions: 

 September- Girl Meets Year!  She is overwhelmed, but ready to begin.

 October- Loving teaching Poe

 Nov-Dec- Wow, it feels like the year is flying by!

 Jan- First fight (AKA: state assessments)

 Feb-March- Bumping along

April- Spring break!

May-As predictable as a rom com chase scene:  I'm in testing hell again

June- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD, WHEN WILL THIS YEAR BE OVER??

I'm genuinely curious if this happens to anyone else, so if it does, let me know.  If your job is always two hour lunches and benefits and bonding retreats and rainbows, don't tell me.  Or do, and specify how I get that job!

 I'm honestly not trying to write this for any kind of life advice; I just thought it was interesting and a little funny how this happens every year.  It's kind of random to think how I've never not been in school. From kindergarten to present day, I've either been a student, student-teacher, or teacher. But you knew that already.

Because of the nature of my job, I sometimes think of the parts of other careers that I have never experienced. Like, I have never given out a business card and never cashed a bonus check.I've never done a trust fall at a company retreat and never worked from home. I've never high fived after scoring an account.
 Oh, and I have never had to further explain my job title at a party. "Teacher" is universally understood, unlike, say, "I'm a human resources director" which could mean many things.

But...I've also never missed a beach week. I've never been stuck in an office. I've never filled out a TPS report or had to wear a suit to work or watched the clock tick by. You can't do that when you have thirty middle schoolers staring at you expectantly.  I generally am busy.  I'm hardly ever bored.  I feel like I'm good at my job and love so many parts of it.

No more ruminating or thinking about summer school that begins in a few weeks.  I'm already feeling more relaxed just writing this.  Tomorrow, I'll post my more cheery "School's out for the summa!" list.  I can't underestimate the power of, say, homemade icecream and a few hours at the pool.  Really, those things (and some time off) make so much of a difference.

Summer, summmer, summertime!

The last week of school is kind of like an overly long, overhyped New Year's Eve.

I always think it's going to be like 3.... 2.... 1... SUMMER!

Really, it's more like 3...2...1...

wake up to blaring alarm... press snooze...finish grades...box up room... shred important documents...skip workout to go to last meetings...8th grade "graduation"...sign a hundred yearbooks.... say goodbye...

crash.

I slept in until noon the morning after the last day of school. And Dan and I haven't stopped sleeping since then. Hence the two + break from blogging.

But now? I'm feeling like this:

3 ...

2 ...


1...


SUMMER!! IS!!! HERE!!!!!

Dan and I just returned from our mid-week trip to Ocracoke Island.

A nice way to spend a Tuesday :)

We stayed at this no-frills motel, which had signs posted with things like, "Please do not use bed linens for cleaning fish. We have towels in front office for that purpose." I shudder to think of what necessitated that sign. Seriously? There are people out there who need to be told not to gut fish on their beds??

At least the place rented bikes for $2 an hour. And it had a pool. :)

We biked to our favorite beer and gourmet store for happy hour both nights. (Side note: See the lights hanging on the ceiling of the porch? That's what I want to add them to our backyard soon!)




We knocked another new restaurant off our "12 restaurants in 12 months resolution", the Back Porch, aptly named for its huge screened-in dining area.

One gratuitous food shot: bacon wrapped scallops. I didn't try scallops for twenty-five years because I thought I was allergic. Turns out, I'm not, and I'm making up for lost time now.

Basically our trip was composed of swimming, sunbathing, taking walks, reading, listening to the same Beatles coverband two nights in a row (Dan couldn't stop smiling and rambling about the Abbey Road medley the band ended with both nights.)

Oh and, of course, we took cheesy photos.

This island has a serious pirate obsession.

My pirate face kicks the sh*t out of whatever Dan was doing.

Not that it was a competition, but if it was, I would have totally won:



Yeah, yeah, my face is not near the hole, but the pirate attitude is there, no?

I have several blog posts I finally have the time to write (yay for time) that will be coming soon. For now, I'm off to sleep without setting the wretched alarm. What up, summer?