Whew! This week has flown by. In Erin Morin style, I'll make a list of the happenings.

1) I have officially finished my fourth week of school. It ended with a bang...er...a punch. Yes, two kids got in a fight in the last 5 minutes of the school day, and I hate the fact that I had to contact parents and send them home furious for the weekend. Other than that, it ran fairly smoothly. I feel like I got my head in the game this week and was able to teach more effectively. I got to know some of my students a little better, and that was a huge plus.

2) Thursday we spent the evening with friends separately, but Joel surprised me with yellow gerbera daisies, a book, a Newsweek, chocolate, and a card with Where the Wild Things Are! I love that our presents to each other always come from Quail Ridge Books and Whole Foods. They are perfect and small and exactly match our tastes.

3) Last night my parents and Joel's parents came over for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday. I started cooking right after school, and I finished setting everything up right after they got there. That means some of the food got cold....but it was pretty good. The menu: Honey dijon chicken with curry, sweet potatoes with olive oil, tamale pie, salad with cranberries and almonds, and bread. I felt like there were many different flavors, but it wasn't bland, so that was good. Joel's mom brought a yummy carrot cake. I think everyone had a good time, and Joel and I got to just veg at night. I watched some of my TLC shows and we watched the season finale of The Closer, our new favorite show.

4) This morning we got up late, went for a long, long walk at Shelley, and talked the whole time. It was nice because with both of us working full-time, we are pretty tired when we get back. We still try to do things with friends at night and cook dinner together, but sometimes that crankiness is inevitable. I love Saturday mornings, because they belong just to us. It's that one point in the week that I know we will have nothing to do. We went to Whole foods (which will be our ruin), and bought me some soap and some lunch. I have a weird thing where I can really only use natural glycerin soaps. Other soaps don't moisturize enough, and body wash is terrible. The other kind I buy for special occasions (like our wedding:)) is the sandlewood soap from India that you can buy at Ten Thousand Villages. But Whole Foods has a line of soaps that smell really good and are pretty cheap. Today I bought rosemary and mint, olive oil and aloe, and lavender. Mmmmm. Joel made a delicious lunch and cleaned up the kitchen from last night. I changed our sheets to green and white (my favorite!) and cleaned the guest room. Now it's budget time. Ah, domesticity.


5) I am reading a new book, Three Cups of Tea. It is AMAZING. I highly recommend it. And it makes me want to travel again. I am terrified to up and leave Raleigh and my family and friends, but I just want to see the world. We both love learning about other cultures, and we hate being tourists. I just want to go and experience what other people live day to day.

6) This weekend is the Greek Festival. YAY! We have been waiting for this all year. We're going tomorrow after church. Then we'll start taking Crown Sunday evenings so we can learn to manage our money better. I'm a little nervous because I've heard there is lots of homework, and I feel like I have plenty of that! But I know it will be very beneficial.

7) The end!