Labor Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day! I have posted some photos of one of my labor of loves: my garden. I have been able to enjoy many delicious jalapeño peppers, banana peppers and red peppers from this little apartment garden. I will be enjoying my day with lots of friends. Hope everyone enjoys their celebrations today!

Tomato and Feta Frittata

I made this yesterday and it was delicious and very filling. Weight Watchers: 6 pts. for the entire thing.

Ingredients:

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 spray of olive oil

1 tsp. garlic

1 banana pepper (optional)

7 cherry tomatoes

1/4 c. of crumbled feta

Spray pan and put on low heat. Add garlic and banana pepper for about three minutes. Stir eggs add salt and pepper if desired. Cut tomatoes into quarters and add to the egg mixture. Stir quickly then add to pan. Bring pan up to medium heat and let cook for 5 minutes or until completely cooked. Add feta cheese and put under broil for a few minutes or until melted. 

Enjoy!

Weight Watchers

I joined Weight Watchers on Saturday. I decided to try it after my bestie Hay has lost 52 lbs. Wohoo! I am so proud of her. She looks amazing and I want to look and feel amazing as well. Since I have started the hardest day so far was Saturday because I was just getting used to smaller portions but today and yesterday I have been surprisingly full all day. I am looking forward to seeing myself I,prove and am glad that I chose this for myself. I will definitely be posting about my progress as I am looking forward to all of the new changes in my life. :)

The 3 Boys

Flowers from Phil.

Oliver and Lewie

Lewie trying to get his smell on my sea bag.

My favorite photo of Lewie. He really loves to rub on people's bags. 

I have three new boys in my life... Two are cats... No worries. Phil and I have just begun dating two months ago but already I feel like these men are a large part of my life. His cats Lewie and Oliver have unique personalities much like my super adorable, nerdy, goofy and slightly weird boyfriend. 

Oliver will shower with you...a cat, that loves water. So weird! Afterwards, you will see water paw prints all through the apartment. And, he meows...a lot! Like, constantly. It is actually really funny (well now that I can't hear him it is.) 

Lewie on the other hand is shy and runs away when people come through the door. He doesn't fall for evil toys like laser pointers.  Lewie is sweet and will lay in Phil's lap for hours but he sheds way too much fur for me. I typically wear black and that is a huge mistake around 2 cats. Lint rollers have become my new best friend. 

End of Summer

Summer is official over. While most teachers enjoy a long break from school, I am usually itching to get back even when I work a summer part time job. Contrary to popular belief teachers are not paid during the summer so we have to budget out money from all of the months. I would prefer to be paid for twelve months but I feel I might be alone in that. The break is definitely refreshing but I am always excited to hear about how my students summers were and hope that they are looking forward to another year forward. One more year closer to our ultimate goal of graduation!

Here are some before and after shots of my classroom. It's amazing how long it takes to get a classroom ready and even then I don't feel ready.

This is the first year that I won't have some one else in my room with me. Although, it certainly is nice sharing my room with others I am excited to add a reading nook in for my students to dive into some books. 

Students always remark at how colorful my room is and amazingly enough it reminds me of my apartment. There is just something very warming and welcoming about color. I hope that all the other teachers have had a great start to the new school year!

Baby Z's Shower

Hay and I's gift for Baby Z. I wish I had snapped a few pictures of the rest of the gifts. 

A few weeks ago, Hayleigh and I threw a shower for Emily who is expecting a little girl in October. Hayleigh and I had been thinking of ideas ever since we saw the sonogram picture so it was great to see all of our ideas come to life. We had a great day and great help from Hayleigh's sister Whit and her mom who helped with the food. The food was delicious! I have a few pictures of it but definitely doesn't do the pizza bread any service. A huge shout out to Hay who hosted the event at her house. She has such a nice townhouse; it was perfect place to have an event!

Adventures of a Saturday!

This past Saturday, Phil and I decided to go to Duke Gardens and to the Durham Farmer's Market. The gardens were really nice and since it was slightly drizzly there was only a few people walking. We walked about 1.4 miles which definitely was not a lot but we did work up an appetite for the donut muffins.

The donut muffins from this stand called Savory is awesome. I bought a chocolate one which was really rich. I love chocolate but I was definitely thirsty when I was done. At the Farmer's Market there is also a few food trucks which are my favorite. We bought tator tots with comeback sauce for the Foster's truck. Then we picked up a slice of pizza from Pie Pushers which had an asparagus pizza with feta and mozzarella. They were both delicious choices! The asparagus is a great idea for pizza and the tots were awesome! Phil and I debated for a good 10 minutes about what the comeback sauce was and when we went to buy a drink another person asked what it was and Phil and I were off by a lot. But, oh well it was a lot of fun.

I also ran into one of my students which was a blast to see him. I am looking forward to going back and seeing my students!

Later we went to the Chatham Hill Winery to meet up with a few people (Hay, Beth, Adam, Lukas). We enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about the wine making process. Everyone but myself and Lukas (Phil's friend) enjoyed the dry wine tasting. I decided to try the sweet wines. Afterwards we split a bottle of Pinot Grigio and were able to catch up. Hay and I shared some funny stories about teaching. It was great just to sit and talk.

This was my last weekend before school gets started again and I am certainly ready to go back but it is always nice to share fun times with great people. I feel truly blessed! Much love!