A New Meaning of Summer Reading

Remember when Summer Reading was a stack of really boring books that had to be completed during our much deserved time off? Yuck.

Now that I get to choose my own books for summer reading (books that do NOT suck), it's a lot more fun. I know a lot of my blog readers enjoy reading as much as I do so I have some book recommendations for you guys:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This book was definitely one of the top books I've read this year. It's about a girl from an Indian orphanage who is adopted by an American mom and Indian father (both living in the states) who can't have biological children. The book follows her struggle with understanding her Indian heritage, her birth parents etc. It also follows the struggle of her birth mom (in India) and adoptive mother and her grandmother (Dad's mom, also in India). It was a really great story, and I think most girls or moms who have gone through the teen years with their moms/daughters can probably relate to this story :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Okay, I realize I am seriously late to the party on this book. I actually took it out of the library last year and couldn't get into it at first- I must have had too much going on or something. I decided to give it another shot this year and I absolutely loved it this time. If you have somehow managed to not read this yet like I hadn't, you should read it now :)

  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

At first I was not sold on the interesting writing style of this book, and the fact that it is narrated by "Death." However, i was quickly won over by the amazing characters. Liesel, the little girl and her foster parents are all amazing, though at times quirky people. I also came to love Lisesel's best friend Rudy and Max, the Jewish man who hides in Liesel's basement (should've probably mentioned this book takes place in Nazi Germany). I could easily read another book featuring all of these people. I read this book pretty fast, but it's not an easy book to read, and the writing does make it confusing at times (which makes me thankful I read it in real-book form because I had to go back occasionally to check things). Personally, I felt the book had a positive message about what people are capable of and friendship/family, but it's not really a happy ending- so if you need that, this book may not be for you.

When I originally posted, I forgot one other book I read this summer so I'm adding it now :)

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This book is a true story (I think, don't hold me to that) about a homeless man and a wealthy art dealer who become friends. The story was good, but it did move a bit slow at times (probably because it is real). Also, it was quite a bit more religious than I expected it to me, which wasn't a problem for me but it's something to be aware of. Again, not exactly a super happy ending, but a good read all the same.

I am now reading Little Bee, so I'll let you know how that is when I'm done with it.

Have you read any good books lately? Please share!

Have you read any great books lately?

Burlington VT, Days 2 and 3

Finally catching up on the rest of Eric and my 1 Year Anniversary Trip :) You can read about the first part here.

On Saturday morning, Eric and I decided to go rollerblading on the Burlington Bike Path. The view was amazing...

Both of us are comfortable on rollerblades, but the path was a bit more challenging than we expected...

We still managed to do a good amount of the path despite the obstacles, and it was definitely a good work out.

Next up, we hit a crepe placed called The Skinny Pancake for lunch. I was a little nervous because the reviews were not the best, but everything they said was totally wrong. The food came fast and it was amazing. I got the "Heart Breaker" which was a strawberry and banana crepe covered with Nutella. It was amazing and brought me back to my amazing crepe place in Australia called Pancakes on the Rocks (if you are ever in Sydney, go there).

Post-delicious crepe it was time for Eric to find his friend Champ. In case you are not familiar with Champ, he is an under water lake monster who lives in Lake Champlain. Eric visited Nessie in Loch Ness five years ago, so he is starting to reach his dream of swimming with all the lake monsters.

Even I put my feet in, it was too cold for me though!

In the afternoon, we stopped back at our hotel to get ready to visit the wineries. We stayed at Green Mountain Suites in South Burlington, which was about 10 minutes away from the downtown area. It was a pretty central location especially for exploring a bit outside of Burlington (where the breweries and wineries are) so that was great.

Overall, I really liked the hotel. It was all suites, so we got a bedroom and then separate living/kitchen area. I love having a full size fridge for water bottles and leftovers when on vacation! The other great things were free breakfast (and not a terrible one either), free internet and on weeknights they have a free dinner (only one choice but still) and free beer and wine from 5-7pm. Amazing! It's so funny to me how much MORE you get sometimes at a cheaper hotel. However, the one thing I did not love was the overall smell of the place haha- I really don't know what it was because everything seemed clean but particularly the stairways smelled terrible. Perhaps I am crazy but Eric agreed. Still probably worth staying here though because you can always open windows and there were so many other great things about it.

Enough about that, lets get to the wine! We started at Shelburne Vineyards which is about 20 minutes away from Burlington. All the wine was delicious and the girl who did our tasting was awesome. She's moving to Ireland next year to start her own business where she will lead people on writing tours of Ireland. Awesome? Yes.

After, we headed down the street to Charlotte Valley Winery to taste some more wine. Their view was beautiful...

The wine was good too, but the girl doing it was not as much fun, so we enjoyed our first winery a bit more :) They are both worth a visit though.

For dinner, we visited another Burlington eatery, L'Amante. I ordered a fish special which was delicious...

Plus they served hummus with their bread, which automatically makes me love them.

The last part of our trip happened on Sunday morning when we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way home. It's about 40 minutes outside of Burlington so it makes sense to go on the way up or back.

I expected the Ben and Jerry's to be one the major highlights of our trip, but it was actually a little disappointing. I mean, the sample of mint chocolate chunk was delicious, but there were WAY too many people on the tour (even though they have tours every 15 minutes I think!). It was also just kind of corny in general, and this is a kindergarten teacher saying this.... so it was probably super corny to the average person. Also the line to get ice cream after was insane and wasn't moving so we decided to just wait until we can go to a scoop shop our next ice cream. Oh well! Eric and I are always cranky on

Sundays leaving a fun weekend so maybe it was that :)

Overall, I liked Burlington. It's a great weekend trip from Boston. It's definitely a beautiful area and there was more to do than I even expected when I first booked it. However, I don't think I'll be back any time too soon. I have much higher expectations for a place I visit in the summer because I need it to be significantly better than a weekend at the Cape or in New Hampshire to be worth my while to return. Hawaii was that, but Vermont really wasn't for me. Glad we went though :)

What are some weekend trips you go on from your house? Are they awesome enough that you would recommend them to a visitor coming from out of state/out of your area?

The First Year

Sorry about my weird blogging schedule recently. I've had a really hard time adjusting to my new schedule since I normally blog at night, but now get home later than usual most nights. However, I have a weird gap in the middle of the day most days so hopefully I can start blogging mid-day a little more frequently. Also, I am aware that I still have not blogged about the rest of my trip to Burlington, Vermont yet, but I couldn't let another day pass without saying:

It was Eric and my anniversary on July 10th :) Wahoo!

One of my friends once told me that the first year of everything sucks. Many times in my life this has been completely true. My first year of high school was rough. My first year of college was hard. Let's not even DISCUSS my first year of teaching! I still loved high school, and college, and teaching- just not the first year of any of them!

For me though, my first year of marriage was not one of those things. The first year of marriage was glorious :)

Here are some highlights of married life so far:

*An amazing honeymoon in Hawaii...

*Finishing a 5K together...

*Other fun trips...

But it wasn't all trips and finish lines. It was also just the day to day that continued to be as awesome as it was for the 5 years before we got married. Some of the day to day highlights were:

*Laughing. More than 13 times a day (apparently that's the amount the average person laughs- that person does not have Eric as a husband.... and probably doesn't teach kindergarten either).

*Went for walks and runs. Whether we just wandered around our neighborhood or ventured down to the res for a longer stroll, this was something we were more consistent about this year and it was the best.

*Made fun of ourselves. One of the best things about Eric is that he is fantastic at making fun of himself. The two of us really never get mad at each other about household duties, we just laugh about it. Same with 99% of other things that we do/say etc. It's a lot more fun to laugh than fight :)

*Talked about work. I feel really lucky that Eric and I are both teachers (well except maybe when it's time to pay bills haha). Not only do we have similar hours and vacations together, but I feel like we really understand what each other's day is like (even though Kindergarten and middle school PE are obviously a bit different!). We both love to share and appreciate hilarious kids stories and we fully understand each other's work frustrations. Eric has given me a lot of good advice about how to handle situations at work and I feel like we both have very similar philosophies about how to deal with children and coworkers.

*Supported each other. Okay, so Eric and I have some different interests sometimes. Like golf, which I do not love. Or yoga, which I don't think Eric will ever do. I'd rather be at work a million hours a day than clean or do really any housework at all and Eric would rather do yard work/cleaning/organizing/cooking etc than work a million hours a day. Even though we may not be exactly the same, I think we always try our hardest to support each other in our separate quests and interests. I am thankful for that.

So, overall our first year of marriage has been a blast :) Next year at this time I'll be in Canada celebrating Amber's wedding and I hope I'm saying the same thing about Year #2.

Do you believe that the first year of things often is not the best?

Exploring Vermont, Day 1

We made it to Burlington, Vermont for our 1 Year Anniversary Trip. It's a little different than Hawaii (our honeymoon), but it will work :)

The drive up was about 3 1/2 hours. We stopped in New London, New Hampshire for my absolute favorite restaurant in the state of NH (and one of my top favorites ever): Peter Christian's Tavern. This place is near my childhood summer home and I have endless memories of it. Plus, they serve really tasty soups and sandwiches (and really good honey mustard that they sell to take home). Somehow I didn't take any pictures of our beautiful patio seat, but there is a good chance we'll be back on the way home so I'll have another opportunity.

Our first night we arrived, we checked out a place that had been recommended to me by a friend I used to work with (thank goodness for facebook) and it was rated the number 1 place to eat in Burlington on Tripadvisor- that's enough to convince me. It was called American Flatbread. Yes, it is a pizza place, but not just any pizza place- a pizza place that brews beers on site AND has only local ingredients (very Vermont). For beer I tried one of the house brews called Schoen Dorf... was probably one of the best beers I've ever had and it's actually kind of unfortunate that I can't get this beer anywhere else.

Mine was the top pizza- the "vegan" haha- It has tomato sauce, mushrooms and black beans- yum. The pizza was delicious and the service was great too. Plus the whole meal with drinks was $30 and I still have half that pizza in my fridge which I'll be having for lunch today.

Yesterday was our first full day and we had two major things on tap. #1- sailing on Lake Champlain. We made a reservation about a week ago with a company called Whistling Man Schooner Company which does 2 hour sails around the lake. There is also a big boat call The Spirit of Ethan Allen II that also does tours, the reviews were more mixed but I'm assuming if your goal is just to see Lake Champlain you'd be fine with either.

The day was flat calm, so there wasn't a lot of actual sailing happening, but as somehow who gets sick when it gets rough on boats, I really can't complain.

There were about 12 people on the boat, as well as a captain and first mate. Here is a look back at Burlington on the way out...

On the other side of the lake is New York State and the Adirondack mountains.

Life is good.

While on the boat, Eric also read up on "Champ" which is basically the Nessie (Loch Ness) of Lake Champlain. Eric enjoys underwater sea monsters and has a goal to swim in all the locations that are said to have them. So far, he has swam in Loch Ness and will hopefully swim in Lake Champlain before the weekend is over. A few more to go, I'm sure :)

Burlington Harbor has a break water (30 foot tall rock wall) to protect it. I think it's also pretty...

Post sailing adventure, Eric and I got soft serve and smoothies and headed back to our hotel to regroup. Next, it was time for adventure #2 of the day. The Magic Hat Brewery! Magic Hat is a favorite for Eric and his family so we were excited to visit the brewery.

It did not disappoint. It was really cool both inside and out.

Magic Hat just gave off a really awesome vibe. The people were really relaxed and seemed like people you could just befriend in a minute. Plus, they offered a free tour of the brewery, tons of samples AND Eric won a free pint glass for being able to tell what ingredients go into making all beers. Wahoo.

Finally, for dinner we headed back to Church Street (the main street in Burlington). We ate at a restaurant called Asiana Noodle House which served pretty good Japanese food. Although the real draw was the atmosphere. Church Street is fantastic for people watching and we had an awesome start up band from New Orleans playing next to us for most of dinner. They were great and lots of cute kids stopped to dance which added to the entertainment value.

Also, Eric found something very pink in his food...

Lol. It turned out to be a fish cake! I am really curious how it got to be so pink!

My college roommate was from Seattle Washington and one of the things she found fascinating about Boston (other than the fact that we did not have to bolt our shelves to our desks in case of earthquakes) was that we could very easily drive into several states in one day. Obviously in Washington State, this is a little more difficult. This post just proves this fact, as I spent Thursday in 3 states (MA, NH and VT) and then yesterday, I had a gorgeous view of the state of NY. Crazy!

Now I must go, time to wake up Eric so we can get free breakfast before our adventures today :) I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Dreaming in Red, White and Blue

Happy 4th of July! :)

Eric and I were at the Cape this weekend enjoying the beautiful weather. Man I love summer. Can it be summer all the time?

My long weekend in pictures:

4th of July weekend is definitely one of the favorites of the year. Eric jokes (half seriously) that I am a terrible American and completely un-patriotic. I would not say that I blindly love the USA- I see our faults. Sometimes the USA reminds me of the middle school cool kids that act like they are better than everyone else, and what can I say, I love the underdog... which we are not, though once upon a time we were :) I don't have any illusions thinking we are the best country, or the only good country or that anyone can be anything here etc etc. But, I do actually love my country and here are some reasons...

1. I don't believe that equality has been reached by any means, but I do feel proud to live in a country where some of the people with the most power are "minorities" who may not have the same opportunities in every country in the world. I feel the same way about people who were born into seemingly nothing and have become some of the most successful people in our country. I love hardworking people and a good happy ending.

2. I love all the amazing cultures and religions you can find in the USA. As a white, Irish/Catholic person, I have had the opportunity to participate in a Jewish Seder, wear an Indian sari, make Chinese lanterns, celebrate St. Nicholas Day, and receive a Korean painting as a wedding present. I love that.

3. I love that I never once for any minute of my life felt limited in any way by where I live. It was always clear to me that I could be whatever it is I put my mind to as long as I was willing to work for it.

4. American food. No I don't mean burgers and fries. I mean I have been to probably about 10 countries and the food never compares to here. I know, you are probably wondering how I've been to Italy and can still say that. Sure, I love Italian food and obviously no where has Italy beat in this regard. But can you find good Japanese food? For overall diversity and greatness of food- I'll pick here any time. Just my opinion :)

What do you love about your country? How did you spend your long weekend? (I think all my readers are American or Canadian right- so it was either Canada Day or July 4th for you- if not, what did you do for the normal length weekend haha)

School Supplies Taking Over

Each week it seems I discover something new about "full-time" tutoring. This week's discovery was how the STUFF takes over. I would say in general if you looked at the house as a whole, the only major clutter we've accumulated in 2 years is my tutoring stuff. However, it's always been relatively hidden... until, this week.

The kitchen table:

My desk:

The dining room table:

As you can see, basically every inch of table space in my house was covered with books, games and folders. Though it doesn't look like it, it is all very organized. Each kid has their own folder which has their notebook, strategy bookmarks, word lists and other papers I want them to use or do. Each kid also has their own zip lock bag filled with games. The books are more all over the place but that's because I tend to use the same books for kids who are at the same level.

Since I tutor at each child's house, their is really no where else to store my materials except at my own house. Yesterday though, things got even more crazy. I had to go by my school to collect materials for the summer school I will start working at on Tuesday. It's in my district but not at my school so I had to figure out what I'm going to do with the kids at least next week and bring all the stuff with me: binders, papers, pencils, colored pencils, whiteboards, sound cards, dot paints, scissors, glue and all the other materials it will require to teach struggling kindergartners to meet their IEP goals in six hours a week while also making it fun. Guess where this stuff went? My car.

I didn't take a picture, but let's just say both my house and car are being taken over by school supplies right now. Obviously a trip to Target was in order. Does anyone else have a serious obsession with storage containers? Because I do. My first two years teaching I bought SO many. Today, I kept it in control. One 3 drawer stand and a big plastic container.

The 3 door stand is currently in the dining room but will probably move to the office. Now it's REALLY organized- books in the bottom drawer, folders in the middle drawer and games in the top. Yay! Clean table space!!!

The big container will hold all my summer school supplies. I've been told I'll have to move classrooms a couple of times during the summer because the custodians will be cleaning each room. I figured the best bet was to have everything in a real big container. But to be honest, I haven't put it their yet. That's on Monday's agenda :)

What kind of clutter takes over your house or apartment? Do you like to get rid of it or are you a cluttered person?

It's almost 4th of July weekend! What are your plans!?