...and in other news:

I feel like my entire personality has been taken over by student teaching.  It's pretty much all I've been thinking about, so it's pretty much all I've been talking about, too.  However, school has been cancelled for today AND tomorrow due to the "extreme weather" so I've decided that I need to spend time today working on "Caroline" instead of my "Ms. Davis" alter-ego.

First up: Blog post!

Last week I had a layout up on the Silhouette blog that I never shared here, and now seems like a good time to rectify that:

I really like the concept of the two matching pictures (taken three years apart) but I'm not going to sugar coat it: the difference in the tonal qualities really bugs the heck out of me.  Blech.

I really don't have a whole lot to say about the layout, but I did want to mention the rhinestones.  Silhouette sent me their rhinestone setting tool and a variety pack of gems and I'm in love.  First of all, I'm sucker for gadgets, but I'm also a sucker for things that work.  Compared to the tradition gemstone set up with the line of adhesive that needs to be broken and always has an awkward tail, these are AMAZING.  There's no tail.  You put the singular, tailless gem where you want it and apply heat using the setting tool.  It melts the adhesive on the gemback and the gem STAYS PUT.  I put that in caps because with the traditional kind I feel like a week later they're all going to be pooled in the bottom of the page protector, whereas these feel really firmly stuck down.  This is a good thing!

Moving on to other news:

• I hardly think that 2 denotes a trend, but I seem to have taken up baking.  Last Sunday I made soft pretzels and yesterday I made Parker House rolls.  The pretzels were mainly because I had a weird but incredibly strong hankering for them.  The rolls were mostly because I had two more packets of yeast that need to be used before May.  And, honestly, I think I wanted something to really concentrate on.  I feel like my brain slips back to school every couple of minutes no matter what I'm doing.  But if I'm really focused, I can escape for a little while.  So doing something that's a little out of my comfort zone is a great distraction.  Plus: rolls.  So I guess it's win/win.  And I still have a packet of yeast left to use up.  I wonder what's next?  Maybe more pretzels, because there were amazeballs. (I don't even say amazeballs, that's how amazeballs there were.)

• I decided that I needed to go on a mini shopping spree to add some teacher clothes to my wardrobe.  LLBean sent an email offering 20% off my entire order, but I couldn't find anything I like.  Which is odd, because I really do like LLBean.  But here's the deal (and I'm talking directly to you, LLBean): as a plus sized woman, I don't want to dress like I've given up.  Or that I bought all my clothes 15 years ago.  Waistlines have moved down, and for good reason.  But the ONLY lower-than-the-natural-waist offering they had was corduroys.  Now, if you're plus sized and look good in corduroys, then God bless you and more power to ya!  But I'm not going to wear pants that not only add volume but also make weird noises when I walk.

Okay, rant over.  At any rate, I took my business to Lands End, where I found a bunch of lower waist options and they were on sale.  Yay! I love a sale!  And yeah...I bought two pairs of pants in colors that I never would have considered had they not been the only option in my size, but seriously, when they arrived I fell in love.  And then there are these lovelies:

Now, I'm considerably taller than the model, so my 27 inch inseam does not (unfortunately) come down that far (oh, the heaven I would be in if they did!) but I LOVE THESE LEGGINGS.  First, I can't believe that I bought leggings: no one needs to see all my lumps and bumps.  But here's the thing: there AREN'T any lumps and bumps to see.  And that's not because my body miraculously changed, it's because the fabric is wonderful: thick and comfy and stretchy and MATTE. None of that icky spandex sheen. Blech.  By the way, I bought that top, too.  I'm not wearing this to school obviously, but it's adorable and I will happily wear it on the weekends.  Probably both days.  ;)

• Last Monday was President's Day and Kerig and I both had the day off.  For most people I'm sure this sounds like no big deal.  But for the last gazillion years we've both worked retail, so we've rarely had a day off together.  But now that we're both "working" in the schools (in quotes because it's not like it's an actual job.  This is technically a class for me.) we have a weekends-and-holidays-off schedule that jives up.  So anyway, we took advantage of $5 Mondays and saw August: Osage County.  It was more serious than I had expected, but it was a great story.  Meryl Streep always blows me away, and this was no exception.  I can take or leave Julia Roberts, but I must admit that she did a great job here as well.  I love a movie that doesn't tie up every loose end, and Kerig and I had lots to discuss about the characters and what happened next over dinner.  I love that we can watch the same movie and interpret things differently.  I constantly have "Huh, I never thought about it that way" moments when we talk after a good movie.

Okay! Thanks for allowing me this ramble.  I think the rest of the day involves scrapbooking and CAMEO'ing and otherwise not obsessing about graphing systems of linear inequalities and composition of functions.  Yeah. Good luck with that.  Me. Not you.  I'm pretty sure you're not going to be too worried about either of those things... :P

Thanks for stopping by!