Kindergarten Teacher

This year my I themed my Kindergarten classroom. I decided to do a garden theme. I made my Calendar bulletin board look like a barn and the sunflower beside the barn is my job chart.















This is my word wall. By the end of the school year each flower will have a word on it that the students will be able to read.















This is my bulletin board where I display all of my students work. My cousin Drew built me this picket fence and hung it from my bulletin board for me. I absolutely love it!!! Thanks Drew!

Gidget Goes Camping

My sister and I both own gremlins from the movie made in the 80's. My gremlins name is Gidget. Cody recently celebrated his birthday and I took both of my boys camping! Here is a picture of my stuffed friend!!! He is so cute! When you shake him up and down he makes a very
happy squeaking sound. My sister and I make frequent phone calls to one another and our gremlins often do most of the talking.
















This is a picture of my sisters gremlin. His name is Gizmo! Gizmo is so cute too! But I have to say I don't like his Longhorn hat very much. Go Aggies!

Happy Teacher

One of my students father is a professional food carver and has a series on the Food Network Channel. He presented me with a fruit bouquet that he hand made last week! In addition he is getting to carve pumpkins for the Obama family. He was personally invited to the White House. When he told me this I said, "Oh my gosh! I wish I could go!" He took my request seriously and now on Halloween day I am going to get to go to the White House and help him carve pumpkins for the President!!!

Antique Shopping

Look at these adorable houses! My favorite place to go on the weekends is to Lucketts, VA. Cody and I love to go antique shopping and see what kind of treasures we can find. This weekend we found a window planter that I am going to hang in my bathroom to hold towels.

















After going through these antique stores and rummaging through many antique linens I became inspired to sew pillows for my bedroom. I found this amazing pattern on sale at the fabric store and sewed my very first pillows by myself. Sewing is my new found interest and I am looking forward to creating many more things.

Here's Looking At You Kid

This Valentine's Cody and I went to the Tally Ho Theater downtown Leesburg and attended their Valentine's event. The event included wine tasting and viewing the movie Casablanca. Cody and I sampled many red wines and cuddled in the historical theater until the movie started. We reminisced about many of our college dates and shared laughter about our first date jitters. I took a picture of the theater and posted it below to give you an idea of what historical Leesburg looks like.

Tally Ho was built in 1931. It was originally built as a single screen theater seating 500 people. In recent years Tally Ho has undergone a renovation and new operators have taken over the theater. New releases as well as cult classics are viewed at the Tally Ho.

Casablanca is definitely on my top list of movies. Cody and I are looking forward to attending many more movies at the Tally Ho. I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!!

Supremes de Volaille a la Milanaise

With all of the snow we have gotten over the past few days I have been trapped inside my apartment. Today I watched lots of HDTV and got inspired. I decided to make one of my Julia Child recipes. It is called Supremes de Volaille a la Milanaise (Chicken Breasts Rolled in Parmesan and Fresh Bread Crumbs). The recipe wanted me to saute both sides of the chicken breasts in clarified butter. Until this recipe I was unfamiliar with the concept of clarified butter, so I googled the term to find out what it meant. When you clarify butter you are simply separating the butter into two parts: 1. milk fat (which sinks when you boil butter) and 2. water fat (rises to the top in the form of a froth when you boil butter). The process of boiling the butter and removing the water fat from the butter allows the remaining butter to have a higher smoke point. Here is a picture of the clarified butter that I made. I was very proud of myself.

In addition to clarifying butter for the first time, the recipe also called for fresh bread crumbs. I have never made breadcrumbs before, but with a food processor this concept is quite easy. All you have to do is place torn bits of bread into the food processor and hold down the low speed button. The processor will grind the bread into fine crumbs perfect for baking.
Below is a copy of the recipe and a picture of the meal that I prepared.
Recipe: Season the supremes with salt and pepper. One at a time, roll them in the flour and shake off excess. Dip in beaten egg. Then roll in the Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs, patting them in place with the flat of a knife. Lay the supremes on waxed paper and allow cheese and bread crubms to set for 10 to 15 minutes. Saute on both side in clarified butter until resilient to the pressure fo your finger. Serve with brown butter sauce.

I really enjoyed making this recipe. It was fairly easy and it turned out delicous! Bon Appetit!

Blizzard of 2010

Cody and I have officially survived our first Blizzard. This past weekend there were winds of 35 miles an hour and we acquired approximately 30 inches of snow in a matter of two days. Here are some pictures. Below is a photograph of my car. I named my car snowflake when I first purchased her because I bought her in December. I thought the name I had given her was appropriate, but Cody told me this past weekend that I needed to re-name her snowball.

This is Cody posing with his truck. All we had to uncover our cars was a broom and dust pan. We tried purchasing a shovel when we heard we were getting this much snow, but the man at the store said that Virginia was sold out of shovels. While I'm hacking at the snow with my dust pan I heard a sweet old man asked if I would mind if he used his snow blower to unberry my vehicle.
Of course I didn't mind! Thanks to this old man my car was ready to drive in a matter of minutes.

Here are a few more photos Cody took of the nature preserve near our apartment after the snow had fallen.

We have had one sunny day since this snow storm and it is predicted that between 7pm tonight and 7pm tomorrow night we are expected to get another 20 inches. I can not tell you how much I miss the Texas sunshine. I'm sick of stocking up on food and fighting with people in the grocery store over the last gallon of milk. And I would like to be able to drive my car to the mall. I have not gone shopping in over a week. Matter of fact the mall has been closed due to the bad weather. I was hoping they would have a huge sale going on for all of the crazy people who risked their lives driving there.