This is for Martha!

I got the kindest email today from a reader and was compelled to do a quick post to let her and everyone else know what's going on. (Thank you, Martha, for your nice email. It was a blessing to me today!)

We are doing very well! We got word in early December that our house sale was going to actually happen! We got a copy of the paperwork on December 16th which makes it a for sure thing! So we moved! We moved out of the old house on December 22 and are loving life in our new, charming place. Life is crazy, disorganized, and full of unpacking and organizing. Oh, and celebrating holidays. And getting to know our new pet bunny, George.

I promise to fill in the details soon! For now I'm settling in for a long, relaxed night of CSI marathons and thinking happy thoughts about what 2009 has in store for us.

Love and Happy New Year wishes to you all! (Especially you, Martha!)

I'm not quite sure what to say here

This ad popped up on a blog post in my google reader. Apparently pigment is extremely heavy...? Or if you lose weight you'll change your skin color?

Edited to add: I thought of the punchline: I bet she feels like a whole new woman.

And we were very thankful

Mom arrived last Saturday night for a week-long visit. Having recently been laid off, with plenty of options on the horizon, a Florida vacation was in order. First stop from the airport: Shrimp Shack.


Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are a bit of a blur. I worked, Mom read novels, we rested. But on Wednesday we took the convertible down to the beach. First stop: Gramma Dot's for shrimp.



Then the beach, for some reading. We thought for sure we'd be cool as the air was cool. But the sun was quite warm and Mom got some sun. I just got more freckles.


Thursday was Brad's birthday. We started out the day by eating chocolate cake for breakfast.



Then we went and surprised twin sister Shelley at the Emergency Room where she works. Surprise! (And we were told by the other nurses to be careful... the bathroom has two exits. Go out the wrong one and you'll be in the morgue. Yum.)


The birthday kids.


Then it was off to Gramma Dot's again for seafood. Our excuse: it was one of the few restaurants open on Thanksgiving.


Then we went to see a movie and vegged the rest of the lazy day. On Friday we had the family Thanksgiving at Ralph and Chris's house. We celebrated birthdays there, too!


On Saturday Mom, Steph, and I went back to the beach to catch some sun. This smarty was throwing bread upwards and the birds were all catching it!


And on Sunday it rained. We ran a few errands, lazed, and Steph and Brad worked on school work. And then it was time to bundle up again for the trip home to Chicago. Which was delayed and delayed. Poor Mom and Steph got home at awful hours.


It was a lovely time and I can't wait to do it again! I took quite a few days off of second-job and LOVED the break. So nice.

This past week second-job had a big meeting, so after a particularly rough day (14 hours away from home), I came home to this:


Vases are packed up, so a water bottle is the vase. :) The hot chocolate mix is from Norman Love, the gourmet chocolatier here. I married so well. Thank you, love.

We're still waiting on house news to tell you. At this point we have a tentative closing date of December 15th (!!! 10 days away!!!) but that's not certain yet. I'm going a little crazy trying to stay sane with this process. All our paperwork is in, and now the buyers are getting their stuff in order. Eesh. But at least there are steps forward.

This weekend is Brad's last school weekend for the semester. He'll have a month off until the spring semester starts up... hooray! Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Meow

After a long week dinner out is in order. Brad's cottage cheese came in the shape of a cat food can.

You know it's time for a weekend when...

..you teach the lesson you taught last week without realizing it. The students were too gracious to correct me, though many wondered afterward why we were having a review session of last week's homework. So they got a double-lesson today. Dur.

Underdressed, au naturale, and lots of fighting

It is official. It is cold here. We woke up to mid 30's this morning and actually turned the heat on yesterday. Yes, that is cold. And I keep thinking that I'm midwestern, so I only need a couple of layers to brave the cold while walking from car to class. Um, no. The wind (yes, there is a windchill this morning) cut right through my long-sleeved t-shirt and sweatshirt, and I shivered across campus. I forget that my midwestern blood bid me sayonara when the first Florida summer hit, and now my thin blood thinks I should be snuggled up in bed with an electric blanket. Underdressed indeed.

In other news, I've started a new hair-care regimen. I read about in a few blogs I read, and it intrigued me. Instead of using shampoo and conditioner (do you know what's in there? chemicals that are toxic and harmful! so they say) I'm using a baking soda solution for shampoo and an apple cider vinegar solution for conditioner. The benefits I've read about online are astounding-- no product buildup, more volume and life in my hair... sounds good to me! It's week one of this experiment, and so far, so good I think. Although Brad did ask if I was going to stop shaving my legs and armpits, since I'm getting all natural and hippy on him. (The answer was no.) The only downfall is that the apple cider vinegar solution, weak as it may be, stinks to high heaven and makes me gag from the smell. Not a great way to start the day. We shall see how this goes. At least it's super cheap!


Things have been ultra-hectic in the Bressler household lately. We're still happy campers, as evidenced above. Since I complain a lot, I thought I'd prove with a picture that we do smile sometimes. :) We've been keeping up with our neighborhood walks a few nights a week and have been meeting the neighborhood animals. The burrowing owls are back and fatter than ever (babies coming soon?), and we met a few cats around the corner. There are two healthy, friendly ones, Wendell and Gizmo, and then one we see around that is terribly mangy whom we affectionately call Mangy Kitty. Turns out the owner of the healthy kitties feeds the mangy kitty and calls him Big Head, since he does have a disproportionately large head... anyway, this has been a nice diversion from the crazy.

This semester Brad has two concurrent classes, which is a mistake made by his program but has been un-fixable. He is supposed to have one class for the first half of the semester, and then a second class for the second half. Well, no one told the professor of the first class he had only half a semester to cram everything in, so he planned for the whole semester. Weekly online postings, huge term paper, etc. The second class started up in late October, so Brad has been doing all the first class's regular stuff plus all the new stuff for the second class (readings, homework, test preparation). Nearly every spare moment that he's not at his regular job, Brad can be found researching for his paper, reading about forensic accounting, posting online, or doing homework questions. This has been a nutty month! The happy news is that after muuuuuch writing, many vacation days taken and spent working on his paper, Brad finished the 21 page draft last week. We spent some time this weekend editing and learning APA style, and Brad expects to turn it in by the end of the week. Much rejoicing is in order!

My tutor-coordinator job has been out of control as well. The end of October was the close of the first month of tutoring... and the first round of monthly paperwork turned in from our 30-some tutors. Since prior proper planning did not occur (though I tried, I was resisted), many teachers were not properly trained, and I have been cleaining up messes and putting out fires and doing data entry until my fingers bleed. Not really bleed, but until the battery on my computer runs out.

We will be happy when the holidays arrrive. Our university semester ends around December 11 and we will be glad to have a break from school.

Speaking of school, this past weekend we had a lovely date!


The university had a fundraiser night at the Everblades hockey game! Real pro hockey! That was a surprise as we thought we were going to a game of the school's club team. Driving into the huge arena we were in awe of all the cars... until we saw the marquee and realized it was a pro game. It was fun and replete with lots of fighting and an interesting first half-time show in which two people were put in hamster balls and raced down the ice. Oww.


This weekend Mom comes in town on Saturday night for a week (yay!!!) and then Sis arrives on Wednesday night right before Thanksgiving. Brad's birthday is on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, which we'll actually celebrate by eating seafood (chicken for me) and sitting out on the beach. Shelley works Thanksgiving in the ER which allows her to have Christmas off, so we'll have the family Thanksgiving and birthday celebration on Friday. Hooray for family time, for time to focus on the things for which we're grateful, and a break from chaos. Happy Thanksgiving!

So sad

It's terribly depressing around here, which is no surprise considering that Southwest Florida's economy has been built on the housing market for years. I just saw on the news that we're averaging about 2,500 foreclosures per month! In our county alone!!! Brad and I have been taking our neighborhood walks and counting how many vacant houses there are... and how many have their air conditioners stolen. It's so sad.

It's been bugging me...

Two things I forgot to mention when they happened: (these are posted with Shanel in mind, as I know she's due on Tuesday with baby #2 and could use a laugh):

1.) A few weeks ago I heard a little click-thud. Very little, not loud, barely perceptible except that in Florida any noises I did not myself make are cause for concern. And I was right. An inch-long roach fell out of our recessed can light onto the floor. Not even kidding.

2.) Last weekend we experienced something not unlike fireworks. In our garage. I went outside to run errands and in the middle of the garage floor was a big old wolf spider. I gasped and Brad came to my rescue. He stepped on it and just like fireworks, little bitty spiders spat out in all directions. We got out the spray and gave them all a good shower. But it was really gross.

Happy (?) Halloween.

We're not big participators in Halloween festivities other than scarfing down as many mini-Twix candy bars as we can find. This year we ramped it up a bit. A few weeks ago as we sorted through our itunes mess we found that Brad had a soundtrack of scary sounds. So to participate in our neighborhood festivities, Brad went big.


He pulled out his big bass amp, plugged in the ipod, and pretty much all of southwest Florida could hear the scary sounds. Titles like "Cats in Hell", "Stabs and Splats", and "Scary Dentist" reverberated throughout Lehigh, competing with the joyful sounds of the high school marching band at the football game down the street. After about, oh, ten minutes, I just couldn't take it any more. The Scary Dentist was pretty much the deal breaker; loud dentist drills with maniacal laughter (presumably by the dentist) and moans and screams (presumably from the patient) just didn't spell "restful evening" to me. But it was funny while it lasted, sort of. I felt all naughty doing it, too, since we never do anything Halloween-related.

A little later the kiddies came over, dressed as a kitty cat and a clone trooper or something. They came straight from the big harvest party at their church and snuggled with Brad and watched cartoons while Shelley and I caught up.


In other news, we're doing everything we can to increase our health these days, eating more healthily, walking regularly, and today started taking vitamins. I was told if we put the fish oil pills in the freezer and take them with food, we wouldn't get fish burps. Um, no. You know how I gag really easily, especially on my uncle's boat, when I smell fish? Yeah, I just lost my breakfast. Poor Brad hasn't lost his yet, but is wishing he could. No more fish oil for us. This has to be a practical joke put on by doctors. "Ingest fish oil? No, that won't be gross. You'll love it!" And the moment we walk out the door, the maniacal laughter begins.

I'm pretty sure it's alcoholic

Granted, it says SHC, for Signature Hot Chocolate. And there's a shot of hazelnut in there, too. But man, it tastes so decadent, so sinful, I'm pretty sure there are laws against drinking this stuff in the morning, especially on the job. Divine.

And to do his part to celebrate this first chilly morning (it's about 55 right now! yikes!) Brad indulged in a caramel apple cider. Which makes me think of Jenny since she introduced me to that lovely beverage. Until then I felt like an outsider at Starbucks since I'm not a coffee drinker. I wonder how Jenny and Rich and their 2.5 girls are doing.

Top Ten Reasons I Loved This Weekend

1.) Due to midterm-week, I didn't have to teach on Friday. Time to get caught up with second job stuff.

2.) Time to veg with Brad on Friday night, watching Kath & Kim, The Office, and SNL on VHS, taped from a busy Thursday night. While eating cake that Brad made for me, for my birthday. He made it. All by himself. And it was good.

3.) Sleeping in on Saturday morning, but waking up early enough to work on my current crafty project before Brad woke up.

4.) Garage-sale-ing with Brad, being adventurous and trying breakfast at Chick Fil A (better sausage than McDonald's, no surprise), driving in and out of rainstorms... all in the same neighborhood (very cool skies!).


5.) More time to work on crafty project for fun. And time to catch up and chat with my sister. Despite both having flexible schedules this semester, they never seem to match up and it's frustrating sometimes.

6.) Good conversations with Brad about hard-to-say things. We don't have many conflicts, thank God, but that makes it even more hard to talk about things when they come up. I'm so blessed to have a husband who talks and even more importantly, listens with both ears and open heart as well. What could have been a tough conversation was just so easy.

7.) Fun time celebrating my b-day with the family. We brought Pizza Mias from Pizza Hut (advertising works!). I wanted to try them, but you have to buy three to get them for $5 each. So we brought them to dinner, and they were good! (And I found out that you can buy them individually for about $7. Love a bargain.) Also featured Saturday night: oreo ice cream pie, homemade by Chris. Amazing. Skype-ing with the little girls and Beth and Rico in Michigan, so cute and fun to see them. And generous gifts-- gift cards for Target, plus the beginning of my Fiesta-ware collection in gorgeous red. So fun!

8.) A super-productive Sunday! For October and November my focus at my second job has shifted to data-entry big time. I got about 40 files entered today! Only 260-some to go!

9.) My husband's creativity blossoming! After a discussion about omelets with Chris last night (I don't know how to make them since I don't like eggs), Brad decided to experiment and make an omelet this morning! He chopped up some red pepper and added some sharp cheddar cheese. And he said it was good.


10.) A free haircut! I haven't had one since August and my ends were getting a bit split... and in the interest of schedule and finances, recruited who else, my dear husband to cut my hair! And he did a great job!

Maybe this post should be named Top Ten Reasons I Love My Multi-Talented Husband.

Friends don't let friends bake in Florida

There are corn muffins from the Jiffy box. Seriously. I blame the sea level. But I'm so puzzled. I couldn't have created sombrero-looking corn muffins if I had tried!

He got me!

Tuesday night was the final night of our Theo class at church, and we had a pot-luck party at a couple's house in Fort Myers. I brought, as requested, the apple dumplings from this site. It pains me to present these as a home-made item as the ingredients are apples, crescent rolls, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and Mountain Dew. It is embarrassingly caloric and far too easy to make to accept any praise. But they are go-od.

Brad had work to do on his school work so he stayed at home.

Or so I thought. While I was out, Sneaky Pete ran to the store, purchased a cake mix and eggs, came home and made me a CAKE! He even threw in some chocolate chips and a big scoop of peanut butter just for fun! But while it was baking he realized that frosting doesn't come in the box, so he had to dash back out and pick up frosting!

When I came home, the house smelled amazing, Brad had completed his reading for school, and we got to party a little. (No, Court, that's not a euphemism.)

Lighting the candles... (see the wall of boxes in the background?)


Four times eight = 32. Clever man. The birthday candles are packed, but the tealights are still out!


"How do I frost this?"


I am so very proud... and so full of cake. We nibbled on the cake pretty much all week, and also took it to family night on Saturday where it received high praise. I'm so proud of my sweet, adventurous, thoughtful man!

We also broke the rules and opened presents on Tuesday night. I received a darling box from my mother with stickers all over it-- very festive and appreciated, Mom! Inside were real! autumn! leaves! and a sweet Susan Branch calendar. And a check that will go toward some fun shoes, I'm pretty sure. I also opened Grandparents' card and check-- thank you both so much! My present from Brad was a necklace I've been wanting for a while--


My mother gave me the pearl, and I wanted it re-set and strung on a chain. We shopped around until we found a mom-and-pop place that would do it for less than $50-- much less, actually, and they were terribly accomodating and kind. So nice to find shops with a personal touch. (P.S. You can also sort of see my homemade haircut, too! I'm thrilled with it! Somehow I convinced Brad to try it on Sunday, and he did a wonderful job. Straight across the bottom, plus long layers! Impressive. I just noticed that it looks crooked in the picture, but I'm leaning. I promise it all lines up and doesn't look weird.)

Such a lovely birthday week I had.

Who's counting?

I've been around for thirty one years and 364 days. Tomorrow is 32. I'm not ashamed or uneasy with my age, rather, I relish being out of my self-defining 20s and especially being done with the angsty teens. I love my 30s, feeling comfortable in my skin and excited about possibilities on the horizon.

I came across a blog with lists (could anything be more fun?!) and this one struck me as a good exercise. Since life is rather hectic these days, I appreciate the reminder to stop and reflect. It's written as a weekly reflection, but I'm broadening it to cover my past year. Credit goes to Marc, whom I don't know, but whose writing is a lot of fun to read. Here are his 20 reflection questions:

1.) What did I learn last week? – If you have trouble answering this question, it’s time for a change. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you should learn something new every week.
2.) What was my greatest accomplishment over the past week? – Reflecting on your accomplishments is a healthy way to raise self confidence and contentment. It’s also an effective way to track your progress.
3.) Which moment from last week was the most memorable and why? – It may open up your mind to new passions and goals, or simple pastimes worth revisiting.
4.) What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week? – Everything else is secondary, and should be treated as such. Nevertheless, this question will also shine light on other noteworthy tasks.
5.)What can I do right now to make the week less stressful? – Set reminders in your calendar, get your laundry done, fill the car with gas… organize yourself.
6.) What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming week? – The idea here is to learn from your struggles and better equip yourself for future encounters.
7.) What was last week’s biggest time sink? – Steer clear of this in the future. Setup physical barriers against distractions if you have to.
8.) Am I carrying any excess baggage into the week that can be dropped? – Physical clutter, mental clutter… eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary may shine bright.
9.) What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? – Pencil in a time to get these things done. For any 2-minute or less tasks, consider scheduling them first thing Monday morning.
10.) What opportunities are still on the table? – If it’s still available and you want it, make a concrete plan to go after it this week.
11.) Is there anyone I’ve been meaning to talk to? – Regular communication can solve problems before they fester. Always keep an open line of communication to those around you.
12.) Is there anyone that deserves a big ‘Thank You’? – Take time each week to thank the people who have helped you. Your kind gesture will not go unnoticed.
13.) How can I help someone else this coming week? – The easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. If you help them, they will remember you when you need help.
14.) What are my top 3 goals for the next 3 years? – You’ll never make any progress in life if you don’t setup realistic goals for yourself.
15.) Have any of my recent actions moved me closer to my goals? – If the answer is no, something needs to change.
16.) What’s the next step for each goal? – Knowing the next step is the key to accomplishing the whole.
17.) What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week? – The answer can act as a great source of motivation. If nothing exists, schedule something to look forward to.
18.) What are my fears? – Consciously address your fears each week and slowly work on resolving them. It’s all about taking baby steps.
19.) What am I most grateful for? – It’s a smart way to keep things in perspective, and something you should never lose sight of.
20.) If I knew I only had one week to live, who would I spend my time with? – Another helpful reminder… Life is short. Spend more time with the people you care about.
Take 30 minutes every Sunday and give yourself the gift of self reflection. It has worked wonders for me, and I am confident it will do the same for you.

So today as I have a bit of free time, I'm pondering.

In other news, we woke up on Sunday night at 11:30 to the sound of glass breaking. Not such a fun sound. We both got up with a jolt, and Brad got out the baseball bat (brake club, actually) and we toured the house. We didn't find any broken windows or anything, and now believe that it was a vase or glass inside one of our many packed boxes. We had just taken all the plywood shutters off the windows and it freaked us out! But thankfully no major harm was done, and we'll probably find the broken object when we unpack in a few years. :)

Appearing over the verizon store

Apparently they control the skies these days.

The end of another week.

If airfares are too expensive...

...just dream that you took a trip!

I had the most wonderful dream last night! Usually my dreams are weird and somewhat disturbing, but last night was a nice break and was totally a gift from God. I've been feeling burned out lately, working lots of hours and dealing with difficult families (parents of students in our tutoring company). It's hard to put on love when families show an air of entitlement, attitude, etc. They're getting free tutoring, no charge at all, and can't act grateful or even show up sometimes. It's frustrating, especially since the state requires particular attendance rates, etc., in order to pay us. Anyway, it has been frustrating.

I'm also a bit burned out from teaching at the university. I have the same class 8 times, which is a dream to prepare for but boring by the second class. This burnout has been causing me to re-evaluate where I want to go with my life. Do I really want to pay a zillion dollars and work my tail off to get a masters in education? Do I want to just go have babies and forget careers for a while? (I know-- pick up your jaw off the floor. I'm turning 32 next week and the clock ticks louder. Yes, I think about kids.) Do I want to go into counseling? Pastoring? It hasn't been a swirly tornado of wondering, but definitely something I've been pondering. If I don't like education anymore, which I know God gave me before, what do I do?

Then last night in my dream I was interviewing for a job at the first school at which I taught in real life-- a private girls school in Baltimore. I loved my time at BMS, loved my students, loved my colleagues. I didn't blog then so I don't remember the negatives, the stress, the down-sides. I know it wasn't all easy, but I remember liking the challenge and the atmostphere a lot. In my dream I got to visit with old friends, former students who had all grown up into lovely young women, share hugs and tears with colleagues who were going through hard times, and then interview for a job there. I remember wondering if Brad would like Baltimore, and if we would find a church there. It was so very real!

And so very happy. I woke up this morning with a renewed energy and renewed focus. I do love education, teaching, children, the energy of the school day and school year, the little mold-able minds, the sweet hearts yearning for attention. I love girls schools, I love private schools. Such a happy morning. Such a lovely trip!

In other news, Brad is completing course 2 of 5 this weekend. His compliance program is 5 courses, and he is finishing up the second. Three to go, Love! You can do it!

Jiminy Cricket is still living in our attic. His chirping is intermittent and we've almost learned his sleeping schedule. Apparently the TV wakes him up, as he likes to chirp loudly (over the living room now) when the TV is on. I read online that the lifespan of crickets is 6 to 8 weeks. We're counting.

The weather is turning a bit cooler now, and we're loving it. We haven't walked every night, but the cooler air beckons loudly. The Miata is getting a lot of use, and the roof has been down a lot. Such a nice treat after a very hot and humid summer. It still gets hot at noon, but the mornings and evenings are delightful. It's so funny-- up north the winters were depressing and sad. Down here the summers are that way for me. I did find out that SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, does vary by region. Makes sense-- the nasty hot summers down here make me cranky and unhappy, and the temperate winters are my happiest time. (Want to visit?)

And last night I experimented with a healthier pizza recipe! I used Brandon's pizza crust recipe and tweaked it a bit, and made our own pizza sauce from a Chef Boy*ardee copycat recipe (we love that sauce, but it's just full of junk). Here's my recipe, partly for you to try if you like, partly so I don't forget it:

Crust:
3/4 c warm water
2/3 t sugar
1 t instant yeast
1 c wheat flour (next time I'll use 2/3 c wheat)
1 c white flour (next time I'll use 1 1/3 c white)
1 T olive oil
parmesan cheese

Sauce:
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 t oregano (maybe 3/4 t next time)
1/4 - 1/2 t Natures Seasonings (in the spice aisle- no MSG in there)

Toppings:
Boar's Head pepperoni, sliced or diced
lots of parmesan cheese
Scant covering of Sargento Mozzarella and Smoked Provolone shredded cheese. This is the best pizza cheese ever.

Preheat the oven to 425 and make sure the pizza stone is inside on the bottom rack.

Make the dough: dissolve the sugar and yeast in the water. After a minute or so throw in the flour and mix with a fork to form a ball, adding extra flour as needed so it's not sticky. Pour olive oil over it and turn to coat the dough; let sit for about 15-30 minutes to rise and rest.

Mix up the sauce so ingredients can marry. Let sit while the dough rises.

Press dough into an oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake on middle rack until you see some brown spots, about 5-10 minutes.

Top with sauce and toppings. Be liberal with the parmesan but conservative with the mozzarella. Slide onto hot pizza stone and bake until it looks good to you.

Wheat in the crust, plus homemade sauce, makes this healthy. Right?

Not everyone has disappeared.

Sometimes we all need a change of pond.

As I walked to meet Brad to go home, two of these big boys were crossing the big patio area between two ponds on campus. They were as big as dinner plates! One was bold and bee-lined it for the new pond. The other was timid and would hide in his shell as soon as anyone came close. He'd pull his head and limbs in with a jerk and would smack his belly onto the ground-- so funny. Some students eventually picked up the turtles and put them near their desired destination as they were going to have to cross a street.

The weekend

The sidewalks are empty as students have left for fall break. oh happy day.

Summer weather remains

It's quite close to being fall here, as the temperatures usually change from 90s to 80s around the end of October. We're still getting lots of breathtaking cloud formations and summer rain. Here are two for your enjoyment:

I imagined standing at the edge of the rain, half soaked, half dry. That would be cool.


And out the other side of the car was this! At the same time!


One thing I really love about Florida is the sky. The clouds are always beautiful and ever-changing. Really fun.

In other news, the cricket was silent last night. There was much rejoicing when we laid our heads down. But this morning we woke up and learned that he has moved locations, and now is living over our bedroom it seems. We're learning to make peace with this new noisy roommate.

It's Friday, or Fried-Day as Mom says, and we're due for a weekend. This week has been rather sleepless for one reason or another, and we're just tired from lots of working. Brad has his paper to work on all weekend, and I have tutor-coordinating work to do. But despite the busy-ness, the long hours, the house-uncertainty, the unknown, we are doing well and are feeling positive in spirit. While Florida has been a rough time for us, we are feeling like we're seeing a few reasons for this time-- Brad's program and the Theophostic ministry. Both have been tremendously inspiring and life-giving lately, and we are certain they are blessings from God.

Have a happy weekend!

Things to be happy about

It's only one cricket, not an infestation. Very happy about this.

The chirps do come and go, so it's not constant.

Brad located it.

It's not in the a/c vent like we thought.

It's in the can light. Brad disassembled it successfully. Wait, it's not in the can light. It's in the insulation in the attic. (Not so happy about this, actually. But keep reading.)

Had a funny Say Anything moment. Brad decided to try to look around up there. But being that the hole is only about 6 inches in diameter, he couldn't stick his head up there. So we attached the web camera to the laptop, and he put the camera up there along with the flashlight, and could see on the laptop screen. Except that the camera cord is short, and he was at the top of the ladder, so I stood with the laptop as high over my head as I could reach. And then sang, "In Your Eyes," Lloyd-Dobler-style. Sometimes I'm clever.

We did actually get sleep! Jiminy's location is in the hallway, which is the highest point of the house, and produces a lovely echo (at least that's what he thinks). It was quite loud in the house. But a few extra fans in the bedroom drowned out the noise and we slept ok. (Except for both having weird dreams. Was it the fans? Who knows.) It was a bit like camping. Involuntary camping.

In other news, I'm the newest hot model in town. I'm in a fashion show at the mall this weekend. But truth be told, it's not because they chose me. I saw in the paper online that a store was seeking models for their fashion show and so my friend Ashley and I will go get fitted today, and then strut our stuff on Saturday. We don't get anything free, but do get a 40% discount on clothes. Hmm. Smells like a sales pitch to me.

All else is going well. Our Theophostic class is drawing to a close, and the small group phase starts soon. We still love this process a lot and have had some really powerful moments with God this way.

Brad is working on his big paper on interviewing. It's going to be really good-- we worked on the outline together last weekend. I'm tremendously proud of him, and he enjoys it. What a huge blessing. Certainly something to be happy about!

Wild times in Lehigh

I just jumped out to run a few errands. While sitting at a light under the 75 overpass, I spotted a huge snake in the marshy grass by the exit ramp. Huge. He kept sticking his head up to see what was in front of him. Eww.

Then on the way home, I lost some rubber on the road while screeching to a standstill in the fast lane of a 45 mph road. Because the guy two cars up didn't want to hit a turtle.

Oops, we did it again.

We went for a walk, second day in a row. I pretty much have a six pack and buns of steel now, and Brad has been flexing in the mirror and can't fit through doorways except for sideways, he's so huge. And I had baked Lays for lunch instead of greasy Doritos. I'm pretty much a model of supreme health.

Except that my students are all ticking me off like crazy this week. It's not a full moon, so I'm not off my rocker and they're not lunarly-affected, but seriously! I've had to snap at two classes for being loud and disrespectful! Dumbheads.

I'm playing around with html these days, stretching my brain and learning something new. I don't know a lot, but what I'm learning I enjoy. I'm working on our New York blog for next year and customizing it up. Very fun. And also I changed the format of this blog just a tad. You'll see the links at the left (the blogs I read) are now a little differently spaced out. Smart Blogger automatically sorts them with the most-recently-updated first!

Today is Friday for Brad as he's taking tomorrow and real Friday off to work on his paper. He's in a class on interviewing and interrogation, and has yet again found his calling. He is so just perfect for this field, it gets me excited just thinking about it. He has to write a 20 page paper and has been doing research the past week or so. It's not due until November something but has been hanging on his shoulders like dead weight. So he will make some great headway on that this week.

There are still numerous hoops to jump through before we actually get to move to New York next year, so if you think of us, please just pray for guidance. We have some decisions to make, and some circumstances have to just present themselves. Lots of changes brewing in the Bressler household!

I hear it's getting cool up north... enjoy fall, friends. We are just getting a break from the 90s and have had morning temps into the 70s, hooray. It's beginning to be comfortable!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I'm pretty sure I first heard that from my grandfather. It's so dang true.

Brad got some results back from his triannual physical, and after a discussion of various types of -glycerides, exercise was suggested. I've been considering joining the gym at school, so together we took our first steps toward being Mr. and Mrs. Universe. When we left the house it was barely sprinkling, like it had been doing all day. By the time we were at the farthest point in our walk, it was starting to increase. After thirty five minutes we made it home, two little drowned rats.

Back to life, back to reality

After three lovely days of urping, I'm back to school. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent with a bucket by the bed. Despite the yuck, I did get caught up on sleep, as well as gain lots of respect for my pregnant, morning-sick friends. Just three days of the flu-bug was enough to make me whine. Bless you, dear mother-friends!

Last night I had my big lead teacher meeting for the tutoring company. I prepared for hours for this meeting, so I wasn't going to miss it. It went very well, actually, and I made it through just fine. This morning I'm back at school and glad to be part of the normal world again.

Here are my distractions for the last few days, just in case you need a little break today:
People, for the latest celebrity gossip
Msnbc, for the important news (and more celebrity gossip)
The Ask Metafilter, for answers to questions I didn't even know I had
Dooce, for potty-mouth liberal irreverance, and for laughs
The Martha blog, for Martha Stewart's innermost thoughts
Serious Eats, for food questions (especially fun while watching the Food Network)
I Can Has Cheezburger, for LolCats (pictures of cats with ridiculous captions. Must usually be read out loud to understand. This served as my mental challenge for the days.)
I Has A Hot Dog, same thing, but with dogs (goggies)
ROFLRazzi, same thing but with celebrities. Kind of mean, but sometimes funny.
Totally Looks Like, for people that look like each other. At this point Sandra Lee was on Food Network, House Hunters was on HGTV, and boredom was setting in before Brad got home.

Tonight is family night and we'll celebrate Ralph's birthday. No plans for the weekend, hooray.

P.S. Did you catch the season premiere of The Office last night? Still painful as ever, but we're so glad it's back!

Estoy Cansado. Muy, muy cansado.

(I'm tired. Very, very tired.)

It's a good tired, like I've exerted myself and need recovery time. But last weekend it was a beat-up tired. Happy news is that things are looking up.

This semester I'm teaching at the university-- I've mentioned this already I think. I have sixteen classes per week, three on Tuesday, three on Thursday, five on Wednesday, five on Friday. Each class is 75 minutes, though I usually finish in less than 60. So there is some down time, but it makes for a lot of work! It's the only job I had last fall!

I'm also working as a coordinator for a tutoring company. It's a special kind of tut*oring situation, paid for by the No Ch*ild Left Beh*ind Act, where the t*utoring is free to the lowest performing students in the lowest-performing schools. Four years ago I would have been freaked out to drive in these neighborhoods, and now I'm hanging out in them, visiting schools, talking with the very parents I would fear if I met them on the street. It has been eye-opening, and really a lot of fun! It's like a big project-- build the tutor team, train them, recruit students, get the tutors started, and then monitor, observe, and coach the tutors. It's very interesting. But the company I work for is fledgling and local, which means it's very grassroots feeling. There is enough work for about five full time people right now, and we have less than three. I offered to come on full time and leave the university, but they were too busy to talk about that so I'm only part time... but since July things have been building. Add a little responsibility here, a little thing there. One more meeting, two more voicemails, three quick faxes, and a partridge in a pear tree. I told them I could give 20 hours per week. It's September 19th and I've put in 108 hours as of yesterday, just this month.

So last Saturday when my computer crashed, I did too. So funny how those things happened together, technology imitating life. I was on the phone, taking copious notes from my support person, begging for more training since I've had pretty much none, and the screen went blank. My notes were gone. My training was gone. My muster-up was gone.

I finally just broke down in tears, used very loud and foul language, and vented all my frustration to Brad and my one support person (who is having a baby in two weeks and will be no support for a while after). I feel under-appreciated and under-paid. I am overcommitted to this in my heart. My salary is that of an entry-level secretary, but my heart and time commitment has been that of an executive. That feels abusive. And actually, I am to blame as I allowed it to happen. I have to be responsible to say no, to take care of myself, to build in rest. I am learning great lessons through this, but it is not enough to warrant the self-neglect that has happened since July. It all just caved in on me when I had a conference call at 6 p.m. on a Saturday. Saturday! I need to rest a little!

So I wrote an email to my bosses, the founders of the company. (Never do this when you're still emotionally charged. You might use stronger language than is necessary. Oops.) They were not happy, as I let them know of a few roles I cannot play right now. My twenty hours per week has turned into nearly double that, and I simply cannot go on like this, working sixty to seventy hours a week. Which puts those responsibilities back on their frantic and overworked shoulders. But you know? I offered. I offered to come on full time, but they were too busy to respond to me, other than to tell me that that would be a god-send, but they can't afford to match my teaching salary, but "let's talk later" (it never happened).

So after a few tense conversations, including one last night where I tactfully vented a little to them about how their lack of preparation of handouts for a meeting has caused me about a hundred hours of paperwork follow-up, I am happier. We will check in weekly, at my request, to talk about my plan for the week and what I accomplished in the last week. I am released of two large responsibilities-- parent meetings (this has a huge preparation and follow-up list as well), and HR paperwork (I don't have the files, so this was cumbersome and ridiculously complicated as well). I am happier.

Brad has school all weekend, so since I will be missing him I may just sleep a lot. What a novel concept.

In other flora and fauna news...

So we've had bees, and we've also had problems with Apples. My Apple computer, to be exact. It crashed and died on Saturday night, complete with whirring, screeching, and multiple black screens asking us to restart. Brad tried to wipe it clean and reinstall the operating system, but it would not cooperate. RIP, my lovely machine. It's now at the Apple store being sent to Houston to see about repair. However, since we were going to buy a new computer for me next summer, we just jumped the gun and did it now.

It's a lovely MacBook Pro, with all the bells and whistles I'll need. And, the brilliant thing is that my amazing husband recently got our back-ups all organized, so I didn't lose many documents.


We got to do a three-person video chat, with me in my office, Brad in his office (20 feet away) and sister Steph (not like a nun, just my sister) in Chicago!

BIG THANK YOU to my grandparents who thought they were giving us money to help pay for grad school. It went to this computer, Grandmother and Grandfather, and we are so very grateful!

Hive you been?

As Susan commented yesterday, we DO have all the fun!

Carroll the Bee Man arrived last night around 6 p.m. He's a old Florida boy who has done bee-work all his life. He really knows his stuff! He first went over to the window and plucked out a bee in order to determine which kind of bees we had.


He stung himself with it and then gave us a beeology lesson on bee anatomy. "Yep, that's a fiery sting, a fiery sting," he said. "Them aren't honeybees. You've got Africanized bees." Wah wah wah waaaaah. He came inside and took a look from our bathroom window. He estimated that we had five to seven thousand Africanized killer bees. They're called Killer bees beecause they release a pheromone when they sting, and other bees follow it to help with the attack. After multiple stings you go into shock and die from renal failure. Yum.


He went back to his old pickup truck and got out his protective headgear, smoker, and ShopVac! After a brief smoking to calm them down, he fired up the shopvac and slurped the bees away, little bit by little bit! He was beeing careful so that he could capture the queen and put her in a special little container. After a while he took the board off the window and we could see light!


Partway done... (view from INSIDE the bathroom, where neighbor Andy and I were documenting everything on our cameras). A good view of part of the comb:


Carroll asked Brad to bring him a plate so we could save the comb. By this time Brad was fearless and outside with Carroll. Andy our next door neighbor went out, too, to videotape from the outside. Andrew, our backyard neighbor, came out to see it too. Nothing brings men together like danger and food.


After about an hour of work, Carroll was done. He said he only got stung twice, which is a miracle since his shirt was super thin and didn't cover all of his skin! He said one bee got inside his shirt and stung him, and the other went through the shirt. But only twice!

Brad gave most of the comb away since we weren't going to eat much of it. We cut up little pieces to try-- tasted just like honey, but runnier and suuuuper sweet.


Carroll did capture the queen and put her in a special vial to give to a friend so the friend can start his own colony. The other bees stayed put in the ShopVac. There are still 20-30 bees left which he said was normal. They'll salvage what they can of the wax they left on the house, then will take off to join another colony. He said we've devastated them by taking their queen, so they won't stick around long. And since he claimed he was late in showing up, he only charged us half price. For $125, it was worth every penny. We offered to feed him dinner and pie but he got a call for another job in the middle of everything and had to leave right away.

Seriously. How do these things come to us? The nice thing is that we are certainly beecoming more laid-back about such events. We just roll with the Florida-isms and try to make the beest of it!

How You Bee?

Um, so we have some visitors at good old Berryman Street. See, when Tropical Storm Fay came we boarded up the house.  Since there have been several storms in the meantime, we've left a few boards up. The boards are bolted to the house, with a few fingerholes for holding the thing up while we screw it in.  Apparently a large family of bees felt like making one window home.

Our master bathroom window is about 18 inches wide by 30 inches tall. The space between the recessed window and the board is about 3 inches deep. That volume is about a third full with bees. Today we're having Carroll the Bee Man come out and take a look. If they are "fine European honey bees" it won't cost us a dime for removal. Fingers crossed.

Does God have boobies?

Sorry for the provocative title, but this article begs that question. I like these emails I get from "Gifted For Leadership" about women in ministry and leadership. They always provide good food for thought as I try to navigate this unpaved and rocky road. It's really an issue I've been struggling with. In my family, women are strong, educated, speak their minds, but still fulfill traditional roles (staying home with children, providing the cooking and cleaning, etc.) and defer to men in many ways. I'm certainly not saying there's anything wrong with that, I'm just trying to figure out how well that picture fits me and the way I was made.

In my quest to grasp what God intended when he created two genders (right, like I can grasp that. I can try, though) I keep coming back to the fact that both genders equally represent him. In the article I linked to above, the author says this about trying to fit into her self-made definitions of being female:

The prophets saw this. They were the mouthpiece of a God described as a mother, as a lover, as a risk-taker. They embraced the mystery that God couldn’t fit into our pre-designed social categories for gender. This seems so much harder for us. We love our boxes and the chance to say, “See, I fit inside this box. Therefore, I am feminine.” We are created in God’s image, our minds, bodies, our feminine essence. This is the beauty of mystery. And this is the challenge we face as women of God.

This blows my mind. Mother? Lover? Risk-taker? Which gender is that? God IS equally male and female, he is our mother and our father, he is our disciplinarian and our comforter, he is our provider and our nurturer... does God have boobies? What will he look like when we meet him? What will he sound like? Will he have.. I just noticed I keep saying he... is he a HE? Or did we choose to use that word way back when because the original language used the male pronouns as a default? See where my mind goes?!

This reminds me of an early moment in therapy with my counselor, Paula, when I was struggling to figure out what it meant to be me. "I feel like Martha Stewart half the time, baking, cooking, creating, organizing, and Tim the Tool Man Taylor, painting, refinishing, building, constructing, etc. Which one am I? How do I choose one?" Paula replied, "Who said you have to choose only one?" Talk about a freeing moment! It's ok for me to be out of the box, to equally value nail enamel and wall enamel, santuko knives and compound miter saws.

So God made two genders. If we equally represent the image God on earth, why don't we equally represent the image of God in the church? Does anyone else feel slighted? For those of us only hearing from men on Sunday mornings, we could use some balance, some feminine perspective! What would it look like to have women and men pastoring together, some sermons fromw women, some sermons from men? Wouldn't that be more well-rounded? If he felt it necessary to create TWO genders, that one wasn't enough to give a good enough picture of him, why do we strive to carry on the curse of men-ruling-over-women? Why can't we all just get along? See each other as crucial to our understanding of God? And encourage each other to be as manly as men can be, as womanly as women can be, in whatever ways he has made us, to fulfill and display the image of our creator? And for those of you whom this bothers, why is it bothering you? Do you feel threatened? Do you feel grateful to not be in leadership, so why rock the boat, Kath? What triggers does this pull in you, dear reader?