Author Archives: Elisabeth

About Elisabeth

The joyous and sometimes odd adventures of a former English teacher and her trusty sidekicks, Jared the Hottie Husband and her two Italian Greyhounds, Stinky Stevie and Bonnie Boo. Recently the adorable baby, Princess Evelyn, has joined the clan to shake things up!

Jul23

What’s on YOUR grocery list?

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Elisabeth

What’s on YOUR grocery list?

The other week, Jared wanted me to get him some Goo-Gone for his bike. Since I was planning on going to Michaels for picture frames (and if you show your teacher ID you get 15% off–Woohoo!), and Michaels is next door to Target, I thought I’d kill two birds with one driving trip.

After buying before-mentioned picture frames (and a few other things that distracted me while I was at Michaels), I dropped the purchases off in my car and went into Target. And naturally, since I didn’t know where the Goo Gone was to be located, I went in the entrance furthest away from where I wanted to be and walked through most of the store before I found it. And on the way to finding the Goo Gone, I came across THE CUTEST maxi-style deep purple dress. Then the following thought process ensued:

Well, it can’t hurt to try it on. Oh, wow! It actually fits! Oh… $29.99. But I have lost 10 lbs recently… and my school colors are black and purple- this is totally showing school spirit. And I haven’t gotten myself a dress in a really long time… Okay. Now, where’s that thing I came here to buy?

Don’t even pretend that doesn’t happen to you when you go into the store. Moments like that are part of the human experience.

So I was standing in line with a dress and Goo Gone. There were only two lines open because apparently 6:00 PM on a Friday evening is not a hot shopping time. I got in the shorter line with two people ahead of me (that only turned out to be shorter because a woman had a million coupons that they were scanning). While we were waiting, the lady in front of me turned around, looked at what I had put on the check out stand, and said “Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one with totally random purchases!”

Touché.

I never really think too much what other people think about my grocery list (except maybe for those awkward buys like girly time of month sort of things). But I’ve started noticing other people’s purchases more. Like the people tonight that bought about 10 lean cuisine meals and a couple packs of off-brand Coke. Or the time when I saw somebody in the “Express: 10 Items or Less” line buy two items, wine and something from the meat counter, which cost about $127.00. Gourmet, anyone?

So, this was tonight’s list:

Produce: strawberries, mangos/pears/pink lady apples (all of which we couldn’t find, even though the store ad said they were on sale?), red bell peppers, zucchini, squash, salad, cabbage, kale, mushrooms, thyme, basil, asparagus, green onions, red onion, guacamole, and bananas

Dairy: Mozzarella cheese, yogurt–plain, vanilla, strawberry, and cups (all light/fat-free kinds), eggs, fat free half-and-half (isn’t that a little ironic?) and pudding

Grains/baking/cereal: whole wheat flour, whole wheat couscous, steel cut oats, and bittersweet (65% cocoa or more) chocolate.

And the rest: sugar free jam, garbanzo beans, Excedrin for tension headaches, frozen fruit, frozen brocoli, whole wheat filo dough, and saffron.

So what does that say about me? No idea. But the wallet hurts because all that produce. SO NOT CHEAP. With all those complaints going on about rising obesity rates and how our generation isn’t expected to live as long as our parents, you’d think the answer is obvious. We could start fighting against obesity by making it a little more affordable to eat healthy, universe!

Oh, and by the way, those of you who are expert homemakers probably already knew this, but SAFFRON? O. M. G. It was $15.89 for .01 oz of saffron filaments. For those of us who struggle with math, that’s $1,589 PER OUNCE. You. Are. Kidding. Me. We made an educated decision and didn’t get it. When we got home, I decided to do some research. And now I get it, but I am still buying my saffron online from now on. Got it here, instead.

Lesson learned, universe. And I got to learn some new, useless trivia to add to the clutter that’s spread throughout the recesses of my brain.

Jul18

My love affair with Harry Potter

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Elisabeth

My love affair with Harry Potter

I am admittedly a Pottermaniac.

So, when I say it was an emotional weekend because I watched the Harry Potter 7.5 movie, it’s a little complicated.

Let me explain:

I had heard about the series off and on, but was skeptical about how great they were, really. I mean, everyone goes on and on about Justin Beiber, and I just don’t get it. (PLEASE DON’T THROW ANYTHING AT ME OR LEAVE AWFUL COMMENTS BECAUSE OF THAT!) So I hesitated on trying to read them.

What changed my mind? Well, way back when I was about 14, one of my awesome cousins, Amy, was visiting our house. Instead of hanging with me, she had her full attention in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And every fifteen minutes or so, she would start laughing out loud. She would try to explain something to me, but like any time you haven’t read the book and gotten to know the characters, I just couldn’t appreciate it like she could. I started to feel really left out.

So what can you do? I immediately grabbed a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and I was lost. Within a few days, I had voraciously sped through all the first four Harry Potter books. I fell in love with the various characters, the humorous writing, the allusions to all sorts of mythologies. I then joined the nearly four year wait for the fifth book to come out.

(By the way, this would be a great place to say that there are NO hard feelings about being ignored by Amy for Harry Potter. I GET IT. I only feel indebted to you for opening my eyes to an amazing series.)

So, for the fifth, sixth, and seventh books, I was one of THOSE people who attended the midnight release parties at Barnes and Nobles to be one of the first to know what was next in the series. Because if I didn’t know, as soon as possible, I JUST MIGHT SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST! (I really hope you all know that feeling–the excitement, tension, and relief that come with being so entranced with something magical like this.)

I even dragged Jared along to those last two. We were dating during the sixth book’s release, and had just been married for a few months with the seventh. And let me tell you, that is true love. Standing in a line with a bunch of people dressed up in ridiculous costumes because you are supporting the girl you love’s obsession for something other than you.

(And since his sister, Sarah, and my two younger brothers were both just as in love with the series, it wasn’t like he had much better to do than play card games with us. Like sleep or play video games. I am sure that I will regret this aside sometime later when he reads this post, but I couldn’t help myself. But I digress.)

So I read those books, and I cried at some point in every one of those books, Goblet of Fire and on. And the tears only increased in frequency with each new book, too. Like, only the end of book four, when Voldemort comes back and Cedric dies, kinda sad. (What?! Lord Voldemort returns in full force?! Really, have you have been living under a rock all this time?) So that was only a little bit of the end. By The Deathly Hallows, I think I cried off and on through most of the beginning and then nonstop through the last half of the book.

So with that history in mind, I have a love-hate relationship with the movies that drives anybody watching them with me crazy. Because the books are just so much more in depth and the movies just can’t get all of that in there, or focus on weird parts that I don’t think are integral. What do you expect? I AM an English teacher, after all.

And I know the movies can’t get it all in unless they do extended editions that are four hours long, like the Lord of the Rings series, meaning by the end it’s TWELVE hours. And most people don’t really have the endurance for that, especially when they might not have read the book. So you have to cut some details. I GET IT, PROMISE. But the movies, even the best of the series, all have flaws. This one was no different. It wasn’t bad, at all. It was actually pretty good, for the most part.

But, the movie was more of a hollow echo of all those powerful emotions I felt when back in July 2007, as I finally reached the end of a masterfully written tale. It was over, then, for me. Because no other format can truly cover this story that is the very picture of the word epic. As in, when you look up “epic” in the dictionary, next to where it states, “heroic; majestic; impressively great” you will find a picture of JK Rowling or one of the Harry Potter covers.

All Saturday evening, I relived the ghost of this tale, felt moved by the ghostly echoes of the powerful waves that sweep over me whenever I read the book. And when you have had a love affair with a story like this for over a decade, that can be emotionally draining.

My hats off to you, J.K. Rowling, for being able to create a world that has swept over this world with such power. I can only hope that some day, I could write with such power, beauty, and creativity as you have.

Jul18

YWC Day 1

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Elisabeth

YWC Day 1

Because I wasn’t busy enough this summer, right?

I actually wasn’t going to do the Young Writer’s Camp this summer, but I was asked to do it. Part of me was flattered at the time, but now I am thinking it’s just because they couldn’t find enough people who were qualified for it to volunteer. (By the way, I DO get paid for it!) So for the next week, I will be going to a local high school from 7:30-12:30 to work with 6th, 7th and 8th graders on how to become better writers. Woohoo!

I did not want to get up this morning. I didn’t sleep well. Fortunately, I didn’t have any of the typical teacher nightmares that usually happen when I know I’m about to get a new group of kids to teach. Like, not knowing where I’m supposed to go, walking in late, not having anything planned for a lesson, having repeat students from years before, or not knowing anybody’s name and looking like an idiot. Oh, and then there’s the part where I APPARENTLY AM NOT WEARING ENOUGH CLOTHING. Ugh.

So nothing like that. Just my typical run of the mill weird insomnia and stupid dogs deciding that 2:00 AM is an acceptable time to whine at the door until we let them outside.

I also had a sort of emotional weekend. Nothing life threatening, but for an anxiety-ridden person like me, it was enough to make me stressed out. I might have to do a blog post on all those things separately, later on. I started to try and put it in here, but it was going to take awhile. So to sum it up: Harry Potter movie 7.5, late night noisy neighbors, and a fire ant invasion in our family room. Throw in a bout of PMS, and it was a recipe for disaster.

The camp itself was actually pretty good. The normal awkwardness of the first day got over pretty quickly, and the most of the kids were really good.

The group of kids I have are split about half and half. By saying half-and-half, I mean half are there because they like writing and want to be there. Then there’s the half there because their parents think they need extra writing help. If anything, it’ll make for some interesting activities.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good first day. Especially because I’ve never done anything quite like this before.

Jul13

On the Importance of Flowers

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Elisabeth

On the Importance of Flowers

When I was first dating Jared, I used to say how he didn’t need to buy me flowers for Valentines Day, birthdays, or anniversaries. First of all, flowers can be expensive. Anybody who has had a significant other or a mother knows that any flowers bought on Valentine’s Day and/or Mother’s Day are priced to rack in the big money. And then, after a few days (or if you’re really lucky, a week or two) they die. Get all limp and soggy or dried up and brown, and it’s a nasty mess to clean up.

So I told Jared not to bother. He, like any smart man, decided to play it save and did it anyways, but I would have probably been okay without it. I really did feel badly about how expensive and overrated they could be.

But secretly, I was always really glad he did it.

I LOVE having fresh flowers around the house.

Especially since we have our own home, I feel a certain pride in the beautiful things that are around, even the temporary items like flowers that you have to keep changing.

There’s a certain charm in having them around. The subtle fragrance. The many shapes. The variety of color. I’m always amazed with the beautiful, delicate colors that nature can come up with. I love being surprised by the natural beauty that we can find in the world, and so grateful for it being here.

H-E-B is having a “Rose Festival”. Lots of the flowers aren’t in the best quality, but I found these “Cayenne” roses in the big bin and loved that color. And for roses, they have lasted quite well for the past 5 days. 🙂 Woohoo!

On a side note, I also found this awesome color highlight setting on the phone that I tried out on the roses!

What are the simple things that brighten YOUR day?

Jul12

Who doesn’t like glitter?

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Elisabeth

Who doesn’t like glitter?

So, I could go forward with my rant about how overused the word “epic” is. Or talk about how the South Beach diet is (not) going for me (First 5 lbs in like the first week, gone. Then in the following 3 weeks of faithfulness, only 5 more lbs. UGH.) But both of those aren’t very positive, and I need a non-negative post right now. Or at least something in that “neutral” zone.

So, a little history into the crafty side of Elisabeth. I like doing crafty stuff, but generally it’s non-typical crafty stuff. I’ve tried quilting, scrapbooking, and even photograph albums, but I’m just not the best with them. Story of my life.

During my senior year of high school, my totally awesome mythology teacher (yes, I got to take a whole year of MYTHOLOGY in high school. BEST. CLASS. EVER. And not because it was an “Easy A” sort of class, because it wasn’t.) had us do a mosaic project. We could take any subject in Greek/Roman mythology and make a mosaic of it, using whatever materials you’d like. So I took a picture of John W. Waterhouse that he made from The Odyssey.

(You can find “Penelope and the Suitors” and more from the John W. Waterhouse website.)

My teacher had an overhead of this picture, so I was able to project it up on the wall and do a rough sketch of what would fit on my posterboard I had been given to work with. Fifty hours -yes, really FIFTY 5-0 hours- later, after using up lots of beads, thread, yarn, glitter, and paper, I turned this in:

Most people really liked it. It was voted in the top 3 of however many students finished the assignment. That was pretty cool. My mom was really proud of it, and as a birthday present the next year, she got it framed all nice for me. It now sits on the wall in our dining room, even though every time I look at it I find ways I could have made it better.

Anyways, around the same time we moved into our house, I got the desire to make another mosaic, this time taking my inspiration from Greg Olsen’s art, White as Snow. It almost turned into a gift for somebody else, but after spending 10 hours just to finish Christ:

I knew that I would be too invested to give it away. Plus, shipping the thing would’ve been a pain. So instead, I gave her this, which was probably much more conveniently sized as well!) This time, the project took about 30 hours, mainly using various beads and stones and some twine. Not having to cut up colored paper into tiny sizes really cut back on the time. It sat around the house for awhile, until this past Valentine’s Day when Jared took it and me to the nearest Michaels store to get it framed. (And let me tell you, that isn’t cheap!) It now resides in our living room wall, looking like this:

Lately, I’ve been doing “glitter pictures,” something that I saw Martha Stewart (and no, trust me, I am no “Martha Stewart” housewife in ANY way or form) do on a Jay Leno show. Very random. But it’s fun. You take a picture, and then you glitterfy (new word!) it.

turns into

I take the picture, size it and print it out, then glue it to a canvas. After it dries, I glitterfy it. Since I haven’t had time the past year to do this sort of thing, it took me a bit of time to warm up to it, about 5 hours. But the finished result is pretty neat, yes? I’m working on one of Bonnie to see if I can “customize” it more.

Stinky Stevie has not been glitterfied yet. It’s probably a good thing he can’t read this blog, or he’d be offended I did Bonnie first. But he is a MAN dog, after all, and I’m pretty sure Jared would say being glitterfied is not manly.

Anyways, Jared thinks I should try doing this on one of those crafty websites and see if anybody would want to buy it, but I don’t know. What do YOU think?

(Sorry for any fuzzy pictures… our camera is on its last legs and has been having lots of issues…)

Elisablog

The musings and adventures of a stay-at-home-mom.

Author Archives: Elisabeth

About Elisabeth

What’s on YOUR grocery list?

My love affair with Harry Potter

YWC Day 1

On the Importance of Flowers

Who doesn’t like glitter?