So apparently the folks over at UT Medical School have a complete and utter disregard for proper Halloween celebrations. Matt's block exams are this week, and his biochemistry test is tomorrow so hanging out with me, watching Hocus Pocus, and going to a Halloween party was out of the question for tonight. There will be plenty of future Halloweens though--I wasn't too bummed. And I pulled together a pretty good celebration of my own:
1. Carved the most amazing pumpkin of my life and plunked it on a fence spike so it would look like a floating head.
2. Set up shop for the trick or treaters.
And then they never showed up! Not a single, blessed, soul. Darn it. So what's a girl to do but take the candy bowl upstairs and indulge her Friday Night Lights addiction?
Hey, it's better than what Matt's been doing all night . . . this is a video of one of his lectures last week. Phosphora-what??
We have been receiving ads for Central Market since we moved here. The ads were cute, and the food looked exciting. So, we made a date night out of it and went in search for something unique to make for dinner. Turns out that Central Market is one of the coolest places we've been to! Think Trader Joes only bigger, with a whole array of gorgeous fresh flowers (half the store smells like fresh roses), 10 million different kinds of cheeses, a wall of gourmet chocolate, an entire bakery section with a display of tarts that could have been straight from Paris, a deli that was so crowded on a Friday evening that it had to have been good, and samples.
We put together a delicious spread of grapes, fresh guava, black bean hummus, pita bread, baguette, brie, and ancho chile/monterey jack burgers on fresh ciabatta rolls. Random? Yes. Delicious? I think my overly excited expression in this picture says it all :) Another hidden gem! Keep em' coming, Houston.
I am so excited for fall that I can hardly stand it. I've spent the last couple of weeks envying facebook pictures of my friends wearing their scarves and jackets at BYU football games, the instagrams of the beatiful fall leaves in Provo canyon, and countless blogs posting recipes like dinner in a pumpkin and crock pot soups. A little depressing, until Matt surprised me by breaking out the Halloween decorations while I was at work! That settled it. I was going to welcome fall properly, regardless of the 90 degree weather--pumpkin bread and all.
And then this weekend happened! We've been in the 60-70 degree range for the past couple of days. Sure, the leaves are all very green, and it's supposed to get back into the high 80's tomorrow, but I wore a scarf and had soup for lunch today. That will be enough for now.
3 weeks until Halloween.
6 weeks until Thanksgiving.
12 weeks until Christmas.
I don't know what it was, but man. This week was long! Progress reports came out a couple weeks ago. Which means that I had to notify parents of failing grades. Which means that I now have quite a few kids coming to after school tutorials. The good-teacher side of me knows this is a good thing, but the tired-teacher side of me knows that that's two more hours of teaching after a long day, and two more hours of prep and grading to get done at home. Plus, there are only a couple weeks until report cards go out. And we just got some new information about the big test the students take in March, and now we basically have to overhaul our entire year plan. So let me just come out and say it. This job is overwhelming and hard. I love it, but it's overwhelming and hard. Luckily Columbus pulled through, sailed the ocean blue, and gave us a three day weekend right when I needed it.
Here's my Monday activity :) Grading! It's a ton, but it will be so nice to get caught up.
On a brighter note:
Matt knew I was having a rough week and surprised me with a trip to the zoo on Tuesday. It was so nice for both of us to take a break from everything, and enjoy a rare cool-ish evening outside! We were both impressed by the size of the zoo and the variety of animals. And it's only 5 minutes from our house. Score.
This weekend was General Conference! "General conference is a semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During general conference weekend, Church members and others gather worldwide in a series of two-hour sessions to receive inspiration and instruction from Church leaders."
As always, it was a welcome respite from the world. I was able to take a weekend off, relax, and enjoy the inspired messages that were shared. I needed this!
"There's something in each day to embrace and enjoy . . . let us resolve to be happy, regardless of our circumstances."
