Caught red-handed!

Being a preschool teacher, I say the same things repeatedly, day in and day out. Much like a parent, but I have seven children, all the same age. So about 75 times a day, I say (quite automatically) "Use your words, please"... "Go get a tissue if you need to wipe your nose"... "Do you need to go potty?"... "Put your bottom in your chair please"... "Use your spoon/ fork"... "Let's make these dinosaurs play nice and use them to give hugs instead of hitting" (yes, I DO say that last one alot, don't ask)

Anyways, today we had a substitute program director, which means the amazing woman who puts our food out and magically knows which utensil will be best for my kids was gone. It's usually easier to just give them spoons, but today they got forks for very messy food. So, I took away all their forks and gave them spoons, with lots of admonishments to please USE said utensils instead of grabbing handfuls of runny mac and cheese.

Of course, with the extra fork usage, all there was left for me was a spoon. When I finally sat down to eat, 10 minutes after we got in the lunchroom (what with all the utensil swapping, pouring milk, scooting chairs, etc) I was hurried. I went to eat my salad, realized I only had a spoon, and decided to go for it anyways. As a huge piece of lettuce started to slip off my spoon, I caught it with my index finger and slipped it in my mouth. Not something I would do at Buckingham Palace, but fine for preschool lunch. Or so I thought. Until I heard from one of my youngest boys (who had a fistful of pinto beans), "Miss Melissa... please use your spoon."

At least they hear me.

Resolved (and sharing publicly so I can't back out)

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions.

That being said, I have a New Year's Resolution.

Knoxville has an amazing series of paved trails called Greenways. They mainly wind through parks, along streams, and sometimes next to roads, but they are always surrounded by green (at least in the summer). At this point, there are 41.9 total miles of greenway in Knox County, divided among 30 or so trails, many of them connected.

In 2010, I plan to run every single foot of greenway in Knoxville. Not really a lofty plan... even if I only run trails 20 days this year, I'll only have to do 2 miles a run. Not a stretch. It seems like a little more if you consider that some of the trails are not a loop... so to do a 3 mile trail, I'll actually have to traverse 6 miles to get back to my car(I'm only committed to running each trail once, so I might not actually RUN the whole 6 miles). The bigger committment will be actually getting to all the trails. I probably can't knock out 6 short trails in a day because they are spread out around Knox County.

I'm excited because in doing this, I'll see alot of the parks and pretty places in Knoxville. Probably, I'll spend January and maybe February building up my endurance, and then set out to do a trail most weekends starting in March. Scott and I are going to start running 5Ks in March as well! I'll try to remember to take pictures and share my running adventures!

Cabin Fever... is it Spring yet?

The bread was a success. It's also gone. Yum. I wish I had more time to make more of our food from scratch. It's scary to me to think how much preservatives and dyes I put in my body without even considering it. I think I'll try to bake a loaf of bread each month or so, to try to reduce the preservatives a bit. The bread obviously doesn't stay fresh as long as store-bought bread, but that's ok... it just means we have to eat more of it. And it's so delicious, that isn't hard. Plus, staler bread works well for toast!

I now understand the meaning of cabin fever. There is a definite effect on my kids from being cooped up inside for the last few weeks. We haven't played on the playground since I've been back for Christmas, but I think tomorrow is the day... it's supposed to be up to 50 degrees here!

In Carr household news, we are progressing very well on the furniture front. Yesterday, we bought a couch (our first new couch) and a coffee table at a wonderful wholesale furniture store (very inexpensive prices... attractive pieces). Today, we bought a vacuum cleaner, an important item when you have an allergic husband and all carpet. We were sad when we had to leave our vacuum in California, but it just wouldn't fit in our car. So it's finally been replaced! And we found an amazing used bookstore very close to us... stacks of books, two cats, and all!

Random Notes from the Arctic

This is a shout-out to our awesome sister/ sister-in-law Mary! COME VISIT US MARY!!

I am not quite ready for this three-day weekend to end. It was very relaxing... we mostly used the weather as an excuse to stay inside and glance out at the snow every hour and say "Wow, the snow is still there!!"

Scott did take me out for a date last night to the Smoky Mountain Brewery-- apparently everyone else in the city had the same idea. There was barely room to stand and wait for our table... it was wall to wall people. I guess everyone had been stuck inside for a few days like us and wanted some hot food and cold beer (blechhh) to comfort them. But our date was amazing :-)

My favorite accomplishment this weekend: I finished reading Mornings on Horseback. Fantastic book! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in American history or likes biographies. Our 26th President was a highly interesting person. Some interesting trivia:

• He was highly asthmatic as a child and almost died at least once from suffocation.
• His family were seasoned world travelers in the days before airplanes. As a preteen, he spent months in Europe and floated for months down the Nile, all while attended to by multiple servants.
• Until his second year at Harvard he wanted to be a biologist-- at 8 years old he used to kill and dissect multiple birds a day
  
• He spent the better part of 3 years as a rancher in the Dakota Territory. He and some friends once chased down and caught three robbers who had stolen their boat and carted them 50 miles to the nearest town to face justice (he was made fun of for having not killed them on the spot)

I love biographies so much. It is so much fun getting engrossed in the story of a person's development and to read about all of the factors that led to who they were as an adult. This one even made me cry (when his wife died), I was so invested in his story!

On another random note, I made Linguine with Clam Sauce tonight. Yum.

And, to end this extremely disjointed post, a picture to remind myself that it once was summer in Eastern Tennessee. And that it will probably eventually look and feel like this again someday.

Snow Day!

Happy January! We are getting back to normal life and routines after an amazing (and much too short) trip to SoCal. Well, at least we are trying to get back to normal life! I was gearing up for my first 5 day workweek, only to be saved by a treacherous inch of snow!

Knoxville gets snow several times a winter, but it rarely sticks from what I've heard. However, we've had temps below freezing for 9 days straight (highs hovering around 25)... so the snow stuck! We knew it was supposed to start snowing Thursday, so all of us teachers were like little kids, watching out the window all day for the first flakes. We spotted them at lunch, found out Knox County closed schools an hour early (we follow Knox County closings), and everything went into a frenzy. All of the kids were picked up by 1:45, and it was officially a snow day! First of my life! We found out last night that schools would be closed today too.

So what did I do on my first snow day ever? Slept in late. Cleaned the bathroom (official Friday chore). Ate banana bread for breakfast. Caught up on blogs and started reading through the archives of one I really enjoy. Ate a disappointing yam for lunch. Read some of David McCullough's biography of Teddy Roosevelt (I love everything that man has written <3). Walked over to Borders and Food City with Scott (when it was 20.3 degrees outside). Experimented to bake my first loaf of "real bread" (not a quick bread like banana bread, but yeast-based sandwich bread). Made homemade pizza from dough we had made and frozen last week. Watched some Daily Show. Looked out the window every 20 minutes to see if the snow was still there (it is!) :-)

I'm so glad we had a snow day, especially since I have to get up early to take a Praxis (teacher certification) exam in the morning. It was nice to have a morning to rest! And next weekend is a 3 day weekend again because of MLK Day!
Celebrating in our apartment complex on Friday night
Want to go for a swim?
A new level of excitement for the War Machine! Pretty cool icicle (they are all along the front too)
Bread in progress! Mixing the dough at high speed, which made the mixer travel slowly across the counter toward the edge... very exciting.

Before baking... wondering if this is going to work. So far, so good!
Look! A real loaf of bread! Tomorrow, we'll see how it tastes :-)

All in all, a fabulous, relaxing and fairly productive snow day!

Best Costume of the Year

We were driving in Atlanta a month or so ago, and we stumbled across a Halloween party in a really cool old neighborhood. This guy was walking to the party with his friends... none of whom were dressed up. I really wanted to be his friend.

Alive and Kicking

Yes, we are still alive in East Tennessee. Football mania hasn't killed us yet :-)

Actually, the reason that I've been posting less is that we've been enjoying life here more! We've been kept away by *gasp* social engagements. Things are finally getting to the stage here where we are not totally alone... some friendships are finally in the works. :-) We met a wonderful couple who lived upstairs in our building... we've hung out with them a few times. Sadly, they moved out of our complex but they're not too far away. I've been going to a few crochet meetups a month. Scott's been playing tennis and going out with some physics guys. We've had some of his physics friends over here. And we just finished the membership class at our church... so it looks like we will become official members this month, and join a Bible study! I enjoyed having so much downtime when we first moved to Knoxville, but it is nice having places to go and people to see, too!

One of the things I was MOST excited about moving out of SoCal was the seasons. And I have NOT been disappointed. We'll see how I feel at the end of winter, but for now... seasons are a fantastic thing! It has been amazing to watch the leaves shed their summer greens and put on a show! I have seen colors in nature the last few weeks that I have not seen before in my life... colors that no man has replicated. It's amazing, some of the leaves seem to almost glow, they are so bright! And silly city-girl me... somehow I thought that all of the trees would change on the same day. Like, one day they would all be green and the next they would all start turning orange. But it's been fun to see week by week which trees are changing, and now which trees are starting to lose their leaves. I can't picture living in Knoxville with no leaves on the trees... since it is normally SO green here. But... it will be another adventure.


A few weeks ago we got our adventure-hats on and went for a drive to the mountains. The colors are good down here, but I really wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So we did the tourist thing and went to Cades Cove. Cades Cove is an 11 mile one-way driving loop up in the mountains. It was pretty well populated in the early 1900's, so there are a lot of amazing old houses and churches. And of course, the scenery is amazing. I was hoping to see a bear... but I was at least satisfied with a few deer and a bunch of wild turkeys. It was one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever been in my life, and I can't wait to go back when we have time to get out of the car and hike around. This is definitely somewhere I'd love to bring out of town visitors!

Photo Of The Day-- New Thirties-ish Hat!

I've been crocheting a lot lately-- it's much more fun in the cold weather, plus I have a crocheting group to attend several times a week. I finished this a week ago, but finally got it all pieced together. I like how it turned out- a plain beanie, embellished with a silver scalloped edge and a crocheted flower and leaf. I think it looks a bit like the thirties. Definitely on the gaudier side of what I'll wear... but it's fun!

Highlights from The World Of Little People

- Our unit the next two weeks is on dinosaurs. I know NOTHING about dinosaurs. But I can ROAR pretty well and that's all that really matters when you're two.

- Victory from the last week: The Three-Year-Old learned how to remove his own shirt with minimal whining and crying about how he can't do it.

- Only one major injury, to Blondie. She fell on the play car and hit her head on the metal(!!!) steering wheel, leaving an awesome diagonal line bruise down her forehead from hair to eyebrow.

- I now have two biters. The Peanut has joined Stitch in using teeth to communicate.

- Glue sticks do not work with two-year-olds. Glue with paintbrushes does.

- It is possible for a child to talk for 2.5 hours when they should be taking their nap instead. Even if you take away their book and their shoes, they will still talk and not fall asleep.

- There is absolutely no way to use the water table in class without requiring a 20 minute mop-up with paper towels afterward.

- Pull-ups with designs that disappear when you pee are such a bad idea. How fun is it to make those little hearts disappear by peeing! I seriously think they are slowing down our pottying progress!

- It is also fun to pour your milk on the ground if your teacher will make you clean it up afterwards. Consequently, this child is not allowed to clean up his spilt milk... which I worry is setting him up for all sorts of character problems.

- It's fun to have the most flowery hats and bonnets, and sparkly purses, in the dress-up corner. Two-year-old little boys will think they are adventure hats and bags and will wear them to drive the play-car. And that is just awesome.

- No matter how frustrating a child is or how much they cry or disobey all day, when they run up to you and give you a hug, it is still all worth it.

- Two-year-olds can learn Scripture! Our class verse is Eph 4:32a: "Be kind and compassionate to one another." We talk about it almost every day, and when I see examples of the verse being used or not being used. I don't know how deeply they understand it yet, but I can ask questions like "Is hitting someone a kind thing to do?" "How about sharing a toy?" and they respond "Yesssss" or "Noooooo". The older ones can even give me examples of kindness. And I asked my YOUNGEST one "What does Eph 4:32 say?" when she was having trouble being kind, and she responded "Be kind and PASSIONATE!" Good enough for me... God's word is starting to sink into her little heart! This is why I teach!!

A Season of Waiting

Wow. Where did this week go? It was one of those weeks that seems to drag on, but then at the end I don't really remember much of it.
Monday we all got to have a 2 hour training after work... 10 straight hours at work sets the tone for a long week. That meant I didn't get to go grocery shopping til Tuesday, which made Tuesday a long day also! Thursday I baked my once-every-two-weeks double batch of cookies, to fill the cookie jar and boost the freezer reserves. Double Chocolate cookies this week... they are really soft and taste like brownies. Mmmm. Friday I got out of work an hour early and we got Italian Ice (at Ritas, where I will take every person that comes to visit us!) and checked out a local book store (named Carpe Librum, how awesome is that?). This weekend I've been catching up on much needed small projects.

But quite honestly, it's been a hard week. I've really been feeling lonely all week. That is the one really hard thing about the move to Knoxville. I love it here, love the landscape and the architecture and the culture and the weather and the friendly people, but I have yet to make FRIENDS. It's hard because Scott has automatic buddies in his physics group, but I don't have something like that. Yes, I have work, but there are only 3 other teachers at my school and we don't interact much since we are soo busy in our own little classrooms. 2 of them are significantly older than me, and they are nice but not people I can see as my life-long friends.

I am fairly introverted and not great at making friends immediately. Our apartment complex isn't really social (there's no central meeting place everyone hangs out except the pool, and it's past the season for that). I didn't really have any activities to meet people. I've started going to a crocheting circle so I'm starting to meet people but I've only gone twice so far. I don't really know what other things to go to... I'm looking at more crochet meetings and book clubs or classes, but I haven't tried anything yet. I'm just now getting to the point where I feel settled into the apartment and routine so I have time to do things. We hadn't settled on a church (but I think we have as of today!), but I would like to make friends at whatever church we end up going to.

So I have hope that I will be making friends, and I am committed to put myself in at least one situation each week where I will meet people, and to take initiative in making friends there. But for now... it's hard. Scott gets to go out with his friends on Friday nights (which I am so happy for him!) but I long for the day when I will have friends to go out with too! I am trying to trust in God, because I know His timing to provide friends will be perfect... and I know I am learning to lean more on Him through my lonliness. But I would love some good girlfriends to do life with! I miss all of my friends from San Diego and LA!

Photo of The Day-- Bringin' In The Harvest

One of the things that attracted me most to our apartment when we were looking at it was that the leasing woman offhandedly said "Yeah, do whatever you want to it... you can garden if you want." Later I asked her if she meant I could tear up plants, and she confirmed. So, despite the fact that we had absolutely no furniture our first two weeks of living here, I tore up a small patch of STUBBORN ground cover. I probably worked for five or six hours to clear 6 by 12 inch patch I have. I planted some carrots and basil. Today I noticed one basil plant was about 6 inches tall, which means it was time to harvest. I got about six medium leaves off of it, and used them in my stuffed zucchini... they tasted so amazing!! Here is the pride of my crop, right before the pluckin'. (Not the best picture, but my camera was getting rained on!)

Photo of The Day-- First Ever Grown-Up Decorating?

I've been inspired recently. I'm reading through the archives of Pleasant View Schoolhouse. It's a wonderful blog. The author is amazing at all things domestic... sewing, baking, cooking, decorating, knitting, and other such lovelies. I am just starting to come into my own domestically. We are still at the stage where we don't have a couch or bookshelves, and store our books on the floor. We don't really have the money to do up our tiny apartment in fancy decorations. But reading this blog has inspired me to do a little bit with the little I have. I have really never decorated before, besides putting up posters in college. I never got to the decorating stage in LA. But I'm determined to bring a bit of beauty to our modest home here.






A bag of lovely pumpkin scented pinecones and berries at AC Moore for $2.99, a repurposed vase with beautiful curves, and an autumnal dinner napkin for some more color. I can't decide if I like it more with or without the napkin. Thoughts? Ideally I'd have a runner for the dresser, but... it's all about making do.

Picture Of The Day-- Who Can Guess Where I Want to Be Right Now...?

Living in the Bible Belt

Admittedly, there have been fewer major differences between living in Knoxville and San Diego than I pictured (the majority of people here drive cars, and not tractors, down the street... despite what I had imagined).

Some of the more foreign feeling things have come from the fact that this is the Bible Belt. It's strange... it's not so much that all of the people here are church-goers. A larger percentage of the population than I had expected do not go to church. It is more that the culture is different.

- You know how many Spanish radio stations there are in Southern California, on both AM and FM? Well, it's like that here with Christian radio stations. It seems like every other address is gospel music, modern Christian music, Bible verses, sermons, etc etc.

- At the UT football game... they prayed before the game. It was part of the opening ceremonies, just like the anthem. It wasn't a super generic prayer either; it was a pretty Christian specific prayer.

- Grocery stores and convenience stores don't sell liquor, only beer. You have to go to a liquor store for spirits. And... they're not open on Sundays. Hmph. Margarita Sunday was thwarted.

- There is a mile stretch on the main road through town, and I think at least 3/4 of the buildings are churches. There are SO MANY CHURCHES in Knoxville. Seriously. I can probably think of 4 times as many churches in Knoxville than Encinitas. I don't know who is going to all of these churches, but there they are. Mainly Baptist and Methodist... I can't think of a Baptist church in SoCal.

Photo Of The Day-- Holy Cow, the Orange!

More than 102,000 people in attendance at Saturday's game. In the ninth largest stadium in the WORLD.
If you have never lived in the South, I don't think you can comprehend the football mania.

See that little patch of blue on the far right side of the stadium? That was cool... there was another one up on our level, just out of the picture on the right. They were LOUD. Sad that we weren't with the Bruin fans, but we got to rep in our section.

Tennessee is OBSESSED with the Vols.

Picture Of The Day-- I Made Mittens!

So, I don't like the pattern I used very much-- I think they are shaped more like oven mitts than actual mittens. But, it's the most complex thing I've ever crocheted, and I think they turned out alright. I've never owned mittens before!

It's amazing to think that in just a few weeks, it will start getting cold. So far, the high has been above 80 every day, and it has not dropped below 60 at night. I've never lived somewhere cold before and I am so so so excited for seasons. I'm secretly (or not so secretly) hoping for an extreme winter... there was a blizzard in '93 and I'd love to have another one this year. The lady who led our horse expedition said that a lot of the nature signs were pointing toward a cold winter, and I couldn't be more excited! I can't wait to start putting extra blankets on the bed, brewing hot tea nightly, wearing coats and scarves, and smelling fall in the air!!

Photo Of The Day-- John and Beth!

John and Beth led Navs at UCLA Scott's freshman year and blessed him a lot. They've since moved to Texas, but we got to see them for a few minutes before the game. It wasn't long enough, but it was great to see their smiling faces. John, sadly, was disappointed by the UT loss (a few years at UCLA apparently wasn't enough to switch his loyalties to the side of light and beauty).

It was a great start to an awesome day... BRUIN VICTORY.

Photo of The Day-- GO BRUINS

In honor of tomorrow's showdown, I have pulled a photo from one of our last days in LA (I mean, obviously this is not Knoxville....) This is one of my favorite views in the world. The beach isn't as good as San Diego, but Santa Monica is full of memories.

Tomorrow is the big game (for us)... UT versus UCLA. We will be going in our UCLA Den shirts! Two little powder blue dots in a massive sea of orange.

The highlight of my day: I was walking in downtown after work and I saw the three buses full of the UCLA players. As they were driving away, I got to point at the Den shirt I was wearing and give them the thumbs up. I'm sure I looked like a dork, but I got some thumbs-up back!


GO BRUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo of The Day-- Sept 10

Thursday nights I'm by myself, so I took the quiet evening to cook, bake and do laundry.It was nice and rainy- a perfect night to be domestic. I made homemade refried beans (not bad), and a double batch of snickerdoodles. I baked one batch, and froze the other one for a later date. I love being able to fill the cookie jar to surprise Scott when he gets home :-) Total count: 40 baked cookies (5 didn't make it into the pictures, but they were delicious), and 22 cookies going into the freezer.

Photo of The Day-- Sept 9

Crazy town...

University of Tennessee football is THE thing here. For the entire state. It is a craze. Bigger than any sports patriotism I've ever witnessed, for any team, at any time.

We were out of town last Saturday for the opening game, but we got to witness some of the fervor the day before. As we were driving home from work at 4 in the afternoon on Friday, people were starting to camp for the big game. Notice the three motor homes... camping... at the SHELL STATION? I have no idea what is going on. Why are these people here 24 hours before the game? Why are they camping at the gas station, in an apparently roped-off designated camping area? The world may never know.

But I do know this: this whole city bleeds orange and white. And we're going to the game on Saturday. In UCLA shirts. GULP.