Scrapbooking and Zumba

One of my goals over spring break was to work on our wedding scrapbook.  Thanks to one of our dear friends, we have a beautiful green fabric scrapbook with dark green stitching and large pages ready to be filled with all our pictures.  After a wonderful visit with our family in the mountains, I still had four days of break left when we returned to our apartment.  Along with reading, I have been scrapbooking! I've always loved scrapbooking and, to me, it's something very relaxing.  I have a little three drawer box with all the stickers, papers, and stencils that I have collected over the years and I surround myself with all the paper and pictures in the floor.


For our wedding scrapbook, I decided to include the cards that we were given from the shower and wedding.  I thought everyone bought such pretty cards and I just hated the thought of them sitting in a drawer or box so I decided to cut out some of the pictures and words from them to include in our scrapbook.  This way, they can be viewed whenever we look at our pictures and they have a special part in making our scrapbook even more beautiful.  I've included photographed pictures of the pages I have finished so far.  Many of the colored paper and small art came from wedding cards. 

[I love this paper because it looks like strips of black lace.  It came from Michael's. The little wedding dress and the "cherish" came from a card...a lot of the cards actually helped me pick a color scheme. I thought this page looked good with the crisp light blue, cream, and black with the black and sepia pictures]

[I loved this picture of the bride that I used in the middle, which came from a wedding card.  All the extra colored paper also came from cards!]

[The dress on the right sticks out from the page making a 3D look.  I thought this light purple went well with the pictures with my bridesmaids.  I also love that my photographer captured the picture on the left. Jaime was taking a while to get dressed and we were all standing there looking at here (I also like that it captures a picture of my room and my Phantom poster above my bed)]

[I didn't use any wedding cards for this page but I love all of these pictures and thought they looked good with black and brown.  I also bought this brown and pattern paper from Michael's.]

[This picture came out a bit blurry. I used a card in the top right as a frame.  Cards make great frames! I've also used Christmas cards for frames in other scrapbooks.  You just cut out the picture in the middle of the card and voila! you have a frame for your pictures...when I first started making scrapbooks I would try to cut out my own, but using cards is so much easier!]

[I love the colors on this groom's page and Scott's picture also got a frame made from a card at the top of the page.  I'm pretty sure I got the little picture tab stickers at the Dollar Store a long time ago but I think they work great for this page!]

[I used several pieces from cards on this page.  I absolutely loved the little picture of the tiny yellow church (it's made with fabric).  The flower at the top sticks out from the page, making a 3D effect]

[Another blurry one : (  But this page is beautiful! I used another frame from a card at the top left and the flower in the middle came from a card as well]

[This is one of my favorite pictures so I thought minimal was best - just a crisp white page and this black and white photo.  It also creates a nice juxtaposition with all the other busier pages]

[The 'i do' and 'bride & groom' came from cards and I thought these colors looked great together]

[This paper also came from Michael's.  The curvy paper at the top is a card that I cut in half - I thought it made a kind of 'two hearts becoming one' effect.  And I love the picture of our hands in the card frame at the bottom]

I'm nowhere near finished with the scrapbook since there are more than 30 pages so I may be documenting some of the honeymoon pictures in it too.  I will be posting more pictures of the scrapbook when I get more finished.

IN OTHER NEWS, Scott and I signed up as members at the Urban Fitness down the street and we have absolutely loved it so far! There's the usual free weights, elliptical machines (with small tv's and cable), a racquetball court, basketball court, and (my favorite) a lap pool.  There is also a "Cardio Cinema" room where you can go watch a movie while you are riding a bike or walking on the treadmill.  Also, there are numerous classes you can take: Yoga, Cycling, Hip Hop, and Zumba.  Today I went to my first Zumba class.  It was so much fun! I was sweating like a pig when I left and wasn't very coordinated with some of the moves but I can't wait to go back! Hopefully along with getting fit, it will teach my goofy self how to dance! 

Christmas all year round...

It has now been almost 80 days since Scott and I tied the knot and we are still recieving wedding gifts! Just this weekend, we recieved some items from Pampered Chef, four very cute mixing bowls, napkins, and a Willowbrook picture frame and figurine.  Getting married can mean presents for months to come and it can feel like Christmas all year round!  Another gift that was given to us this weekend from my dear great-aunt and her husband, was a tea set by Noble Excellence.  It came in a large hat box and contains little tea cups and plates, a saucer, and a darling little pot (which I have included below).  Each little cup displays a picture and a few lines from "Twas the Night Before Christmas." I'm so excited about displaying them for our first Christmas together as a married couple on our make-shift mantel (since we live in an apartment, we just bought a shelf that we are planning to use for Christmas decorations and for hanging our stockings). 

In other news, along with getting two more guitar referals this weekend (!!!), today I found out that my poem won second place in the John Fox Jr. Poetry Contest.  I will recieve $50 in the mail soon, along with a booklet including my poem and the other winners.  I always enter my poems or short stories in this yearly contest. It  reminds me of Jo March in Little Women recieving compensation for her short stories when I recieve my own check in the mail. 

SHOWER

Wide-hipped women come out of their houses;

come down from their hollers and make the

religious pilgrimage.

They’ll have wrapped up

pots

pans

towels

curtains

“Why when (Roger/Harold/Thomas/Nathan/John) and I were married, we didn’t have a thing to our name.”

silver spoons

knives

forks

“Another girl gettin’ married off – seems like just yesterday she come out of her momma screamin’, curly headed with fat cheeks.”

handpainted plates

hand-written recipes

“Why she won’t even cook – probably make him eat out every night.”

television sets

movie players

music players

Some of their men have gone on to Jesus and others are there in body only.

This is what they live for – a girl becoming a wife, a woman.

Marching in with their odd-shaped packages,

print Easter dresses worn even in November – coal dust clinging to their hemlines

candlesticks

picture frames

mixing bowls

They sit around together, little hens pecking each little detail.

They’ll be chewing on this one for a while, like the tobacco stained on their men’s teeth.

telephones

address books

They’ll make a note to call up a prayer chain when they get home,

Go back to their hollers, back to their houses and tell (Roger/Harold/Thomas/Nathan/John):

“Why they won’t be half as happy as we were.”

If he’s there, he’ll smile at her, peeling his eyes away from the television set

to say, “That’s nice, dear.”

If he’s not, she’ll take his picture down from the shelf

and he’ll smile at her, uniformed and forever young.

Either way, she’ll walk in the kitchen with a handkerchief,

wiping a tear from her cheek.

Dracula: an antithesis of Christ

After reading Dracula in my 19th Century British Novel class, I found that there was an interesting appearance of Christian (or anti-Christian) symbolism and allusions throughout the

the novel. I thought it was very interesting and I'm not quite sure what Stoker's intention is.  

Two passages that particularly stand out are found in the last part of the novel.  The first is found in chapter 21 when Mina tells the men about Dracula's visit to her.  He mockingly tells her, "And you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh; blood of my blood; kin of my kin; my bountiful wine-press for a while; and shall be later on my companion and my helper."  This passage sounds very similar to Jesus' instructions to the disciples at the Last Supper in the book of John (6:54), "Whoever eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood will have eternal life" (NIV).  Because this passage parallels Christ's words, Stoker seems to present a kind of parallel "last supper" for Dracula in which Mina provides one last nourishment.  It is suggested that this is his last "feast," before his own death.  While we cannot rightly claim that in the Last Supper there is any sense of victimization, the juxtaposition that Stoker appears to construct provides us with a fascinating image of Dracula's "anti-theology."  If Christ is normative then perhaps Dracula represents a distorted analogue, such that Stoker is not merely providing a picture of life transformed into the undead, but of the corrosive or oppressive nature of death itself. Finally, consider Stoker's allusion to wine, calling to mind images of not only the Last Supper, but the Christian practice of the Eucharist, in which disciples are believed to participate in the death of Christ and undergoing a transformation of being.

Another passage of interest occurs in chapter 23, when Dr. Seward writes of Dracula in his diary, saying, " He is [...] the father or furtherer of a new order of beings, whose road must lead through Death, not Life."  In this passage Stoker appears to compare Dracula directly to Christ.  However rather than leading people to Life through Death, he leads them through Death unto Undead (something perhaps worse than death).  It is as if Stoker is presenting an anti-Christ, not necessarily the biblical anti-Christ, but a direct opposite of Christ. 

Arsonists and Nutella spread

Well it's been a week since I've posted and I've pretty much been busy working on my two final papers for my grad classes.  As my first quarter of grad school is winding down, I am planning my nearly two weeks of break ahead.  Along with visiting our family, I plan to scrapbook some on our wedding album and READ.  Books in my library bag this week: Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rawandan Genocide by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures & Misadventures in the Realm of Children's Literature by Selma G. Lanes, Push by Sapphire, Ballistics by Billy Collins, and The Painted Bed by Donald Hall.  And having just finished a class dedicated to the life and poems of Emily Dickinson, I couldn't resist An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes of New England by Brock Clark, seeing as how it's first sentence goes like this:


"I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me, for which I will continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter."


While I have no desire whatsoever in burning down dear Emily's house, or anyone else's house for that matter, I thought it would be an interesting conclusion and closure to the course.  Needless to say, as soon as I finish these two papers, I will be reading my own little stack of books before starting my second quarter of grad classes. 

 

On another note, Scott and I have discovered an excellent, and somewhat healthy, snack: a fresh sliced orange with Nutella spread.  It is delicious! My mom suggested the Nutella spread which I had seen on commercials of kids eating it on their toast in the mornings, but I thought it was just too good to be true.  A creamy, chocolate spread that was okay for kids to eat AND it tasted good; I just couldn't believe it.  But they weren't lying! It's good right out of the can and we agree that it's even better than chocolate icing (which we had gotten into somewhat of a bad habit of eating straight out of the jar instead of saving for cakes).  

...Spring-weather shopping...

We woke up Saturday and it was such a sunny day, we decided to go for a drive. We went to a mall near Cinci and did some shopping with our wedding gift cards.  While in Macy's (a new favorite store of mine), we saw three other couples who were going about the task of registering.  We chose not to register and instead told people we wanted Fiesta dishes and that our colors are brown and blue.  I thought it worked out really well because I just don't like the idea of going around telling people things I want them to buy for me.  We ended up with almost everything we needed - loads of blue, brown, and cream towels (which look really great all color-coordinated in the linen closet), blue bed sheets, and almost all of the different colors of the Fiestaware.  We also received lots of different gifts cards!

This weekend, with a Macy's gift card, we purchased a metal potato masher so that we could make homemade mashed potatoes.  When we got home, we did just that and they were great!  Another purchase was a plastic chopping board with a built-in strainer that goes over your sink.  Since we eat a lot of salads and I'm always chopping vegetables, I think it was a good investment.  They were both from the Martha Stewart collection, which I really like right now with the turquoise and red colors together.

Our last purchase was a hand-painted cereal bowl.  It isn't part of the Fiesta-ware dishes, but it matches our rainbow of dishes really well.

Today as Scott and I were sitting on the couch with the sun streaming in through our windows I commented that I would love to have a chair to put on our balcony to read in the sun.  We headed to Lowe's with another gift card and bought a blue adirondack chair and when we returned, I enjoyed reading the final chapters of Dracula outside with a cup of coffee in my new chair.  I can't wait for April because I want it to warm up a little more and so we can buy the strawberry planter to put on our balcony.

     

our silly cats...

I didn't have any pets as a child because we lived in town surrounded by roads and lots of school traffic.  My parents really didn't want to have a pet inside (and I can understand why now) because they shed hair everywhere.  My husband, on the other hand, grew up surrounded by animals.  Because he lived near the woods, it was much easier for them to keep pets, and lots of them.  Oftentimes his mother would just pick up animals on the side of the road (and once the dog ended up belonging to someone else), and they would bring them home and give them a place to live.  


When I moved out on my own, I hadn't really thought about getting a pet (partly because a pet was not allowed in the apartment I was renting).  There was a terrible stray cat problem and they would hang out on our doorstep and beg for any kind of food.  Most of the cats would come and go, or sadly get run over.  One day this cute little white and grey cat just nosed his way inside our door when I was trying to leave the apartment.  He just walked right in and started looking around and well, my roommate and I just decided to let him stay inside.  I named him Sammy.  

[Sammy with his head stuck in a tissue box]

For me, having a cat was a whole new experience and it seemed like everything he did was just amazing to me.  Sammy has always liked looking out the window.  He used to sit on the window sill of my old apartment and watch the coal trucks go by and the kids outside at the high school next door.  I would leave him sitting at the window sill and return home to find him on the top of a chair trying to look out the blinds on the window of our door.  I had him for about four months before we met Sophie.


Sammy's mother had another litter of kittens and my roommate made a nice little place for her to give birth and keep her kittens dry and warm, but like a lot of the irresponsible mother cats she just abandoned them and only the strong would survive.  


One day, before Scott and I were getting ready to go eat, I saw this tiny, fuzzy little runt of a kitten that looked just like Sammy. She was walking clumsily around the yard and acted like she couldn't see where she was going.  I picked her up and saw that she couldn't see; she had a really bad infection in her eyes and there were furry patches covering them.  We brought her inside and Scott took tiny clippers and cut the infection out of her little eyes while I held her in my hands.  She was the tiniest and sweetest little thing.  Even though I wanted to keep her right then, I didn't want to leave her alone with Sammy; I wasn't quite sure how he would react so we put her back outside with her brother and sisters.


My roommate and I decided that we would take the little kittens to the vet and let him try to give them away since the mother had abandoned them and they would probably die.  When it came time to take them, the little furry "miniature Sammy" was nowhere to be found.  My roommate took the others to the vet and I kept looking out for the runt to come back.  Days went by and it rained and I just figured she must have died.  About a week later, she was there under our little bush again and I didn't waste any time bringing her inside. She had survived because she was strong. I named her Sophie.

 

 

[Little Sophie's eyes looked pretty pitiful for a while...but they healed]

She was the most curious little rambunctious thing, and still is.  She can run and climb like nothing I've ever seen and she's just so small.  She never blinks her big eyes either and we think it's because she's afraid they might shut again.  


In our apartment now they love lying in the sun, and Sammy loves to take his little paw and open the blinds to look outside.  He looks like a little man checking out the neighborhood and it cracks Scott up every time he sees it.  

  

You can tell they are brother and sister because they wrestle each other all the time.  Little Sophie will come up and pounce on Sammy and then they play tag or hide and seek.  Other times you will catch them lying together on our bed or on the couch with their heads touching and Sammy's paw holding Sophie's.  I would still call myself a new pet owner because things still fascinate me everyday, but I don't think it will ever get old owning and taking care of these two cats! Well I got them both in the springtime about a year ago, so I thought I would devote a post to them.

 

[Sammy and Sophie]

Whip It...Up

My husband and I very rarely rent movies from movie stores.  For a while we did the Netflix thing while we were dating, but decided that we weren't getting our money's worth.  Then we discovered that many libraries have all the movies you could ever want to watch.  Our local library here in Ohio even has Express 2-day rentals of the newest movies...and we don't even have to pay for them!


Tonight, on my way home from school, I picked up some express movies, two of which were "Whip It" and "Up."  I surprised him with "Whip It;" he's been wanting to see it for a long time and was very excited when I brought it out of my canvas library bag.  I highly recommend it; although at first we were not really sure in what time period it was supposed to take place.  When watching the previews (and we'd watched them several times), it seemed that it was set in the 70's or 80's, but then the mom "whipped" out her cell phone and we realized it was present-day.  

We both absolutely LOVE Kristin Wiig (I especially love her SNL skit as the Target lady) and you get to see her in a bit more serious role in this movie, if you can believe it.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it for some good laughs!  Also, I just have to include this because it's too funny...the girls on the "Hurl Scouts" roller derby team all have nicknames like "Babe Ruthless," "Rosa Sparks," and "Maggy Mahem." Scott said mine could be "Jane Ostentatious" (playing on my love for Austen literature)


Our second movie for the night was "Up," which we had both seen in the theater, but I just couldn't resist getting it.  I just love everything PIXAR makes.  I don't think there is a movie they've made yet that I didn't enjoy and think was absolutely clever.  They always have a good balance between humor for children, while mixing in a little for the adults.  Even their short films are brilliant!  My cousin just recently sent me the score of "The Married Couple" on behalf of being a newlywed.  The montage of the little married couple in the movie brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.   

So go support your local library by renting movies from them! This way you don't have to wait until Friday to have a movie night!

One chicken...three meals!

On Friday I bought a rotisserie chicken from the local market where we go to buy meat.  It was only $5.99 and it was a reasonably-sized chicken.  My mom has taught me to bargain shop and I knew this was a good deal! That night we had delicious chicken, a fresh salad, and some french bread.  We stripped the rest of the chicken off the bone and put it in the fridge.  On Sunday we were craving chicken and broccoli alfredo so we brought out the chicken again.  We sauteed some broccoli and some strips of some of the leftover chicken in olive oil, butter, and italian seasoning.  Then we added our alfredo sauce to the pan (not too much...you only want it to lightly coat your noodles).  We always just buy our alfredo sauce at the store and spice it up with some basil and ground pepper. We poured our penne pasta into the pan and tossed it, adding shredded mozzarella cheese on top.  It was another delicious meal!

  

We still weren't finished with our leftover chicken! Today we decided we wanted chicken and cheese quesadillas with brown rice.  

 

We still have a little bit of chicken leftover but I'm not sure what our next meal will be.  But it just goes to show you, if you play it right you can have three meals from a small rotisserie chicken.