Die Schule Beginnt

(me on the first day)

School began yesterday. And I was so nervous. Yes, even though I started teaching 5 years ago, I still have anxiety about the first day. I can't help it. Just like a student, I wonder what the kids will think of me. I wonder if I'll forget what I had intended on saying to them. I hope I will remember to do the activities I have planned! How will I convey to my students how much I want to help them succeed? How will I deal with behavior problems on the first day?

Because of that, I told Evan that I wasn't going on the first day. I asked him if I could just call in sick! Let's be honest, I was being ridiculous. :) I knew I was going to go on the first day and it was going to be fine. And it was. The students liked me. I liked them. We played some games in German and had fun together. I wore my dirndl, which made everyone happy. Success!

Today, my 6-year-old niece told me that she read a book about a person who was REALLY nervous for her first day of school. She was talking with the principal and saying that she wasn't coming and was just too nervous. At the end of the book, the surprise is that the person who didn't want to come was the teacher. Consequently, her name was Sarah!

I guess I need to read this book and get over my own first day jitters next year. I know I'll be fine and that I know how to handle even my class of 33 students. Here's to 178 more days to go.

Smoky Smokerson

We have a neighbor whom I hardly know, but rather like. She seems nice enough the once a week we say hi to each other (and the one time she let me use her cell phone to call mine when I lost it in my apartment). There is, however, one problem. She smokes.

Now, I don't mind smokers who smoke in their own spaces. That's their choice and perogative. On the other hand, I don't particularly like smoke in my face or coming into my apartment. Cue the problem.

In the summer, it's been hot and we don't have air conditioning. The best way to cool down our apartment after a long summer day is to open all of the windows, bust out the fans, and let the cool night air refresh the less-than-desirable temperatures. It's really quite a good strategy that works on most occasions, except when you wake up at 3AM and it smells like someone is smoking in your bedroom!

Apparently our neighbor works swing shift. When she gets off at 3AM, she likes to have a cigarette break and chooses to smoke right in front of our apartment letting all of that smoke get sucked in by the fans! SO NASTY! On more than one occasion, we've shut our windows when she starts smoking out there and she's asked, "Was the smoke coming in the windows?" Well, yes, in fact, it was! This hasn't stopped her from smoking in front of our apartment, though.

Thankfully, last week, our new apartment manager laid the smack down on the no smoking on the premises rule. We haven't had one problem this week and I hope it continues! It's nice to feel like I can actually leave my windows open and I don't have to worry about someone's smoke getting into my apartment.

Do you have problems with smokers? How do you deal with it? What do think about locations smokers are allowed to smoke? Agree? Disagree?

Climbing Adventures & Back to School

After we got back from our adventure on the Olympic Peninsula, we decided the next morning to head out of town again to go rock climbing and camping (plus I had to do some reconnaisance work for German). So, last Thursday, we headed out to North Bend to check out some new climbs that we hadn't done before. We had a lot of fun and headed out from there to find some free camping I found online in Leavenworth.

After driving until 8:30pm, we found the super secret (or not-so-secret because 4 other cars showed up after we got there) FREE camping spots. It was a nice spot near the river. (Below, Evan is lifting up our tent to shake out any dirt that may have found its way in there.)

In the AM, we got up early, ate our token oatmeal breakfast and headed out to find the climbs! Evan has climbed A TON in Leavenworth and wanted to check out some new climbs he hasn't done yet. Unfortunately, we drove around for 3 hours trying to find this one specific spot. The book wasn't very clear and we stopped a million times to check out if this was THE spot. It wasn't. (That's what the picture is below of Evan walking along the street with his climbing book.) Eventually, we went to an easy-to-find spot and climbed there for a few hours. That's me on top of the 60 ft. tall rock. Not super high, but it was a fun climb!

Once the temperatures started rising, we headed into the Bavarian village of Leavenworth to be tourists. I offer my students culture credit for German if they travel to Leavenworth and complete a few tasks. We had fun trying to figure out what my students should do in Leavenworth. We had some Bavarian sausages with sauerkraut and rye bread (YUM!) and just enjoyed walking around the faux Bavarian town. All in all it was a good trip.

Today, I went back to school, though. Sad. Just as my summer was ending, Evan's summer began. At least we had a week off together! :)

Stout Family Adventures

Evan and I finally had some time off together this week! We decided to head out to the Olympic Peninsula to go to the Olympic National Park and the Hoh Rainforest. I had been with my family before, but Evan had never been! We met a few Germans (which, of course, made me happy) and one of the ladies was kidding Evan about how she had been here twice and this was his first time, yet he lived so close. Here are a few highlights from our adventures:

We checked out the surfing at La Push. It was breaking! We called this our "dry run" since we were checking out the scene and didn't have our surfboards with us. I was surprised to find that La Push (home of Jacob? or is it Edward?) was only one road and a coffee stand. It was TINY!

The Hoh Rainforest has these HUGE Sitka Spruce trees.

The Hoh Rainforest had a phone with moss on it. I had to laugh! Evan's pointing to the sign that shows how much rainfall it gets in the rainforest: over 138 inches! Evan is modeling how you had to wash your hands at the Hoh Rainforest. Apparently, they lost their funding for water and had to start resorting to using a ladder, duct tape, and a hose. Nice.

We camped in the rainforest. Evan forgot our tent and thankfully I asked him about it when we drove past a Big 5 store. We got a new one for backpacking.

When we woke up on Wednesday, we drove through Forks and then headed out to Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point of the United States. We could see Canada across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Awesome. We played hide and seek with our HAM radios. Can you in win hide and seek? Well, pretty sure I won.

We ended our trip on the top of Hurricane Ridge overlooking the mountains and the ocean. It was beautiful! Here's to more Stout Family Adventures to come.

Household Projects

As promised in the headband post, here are some finished projects in my house. I've needed a shower curtain for a year. Evan had bought a semi-cute shower liner when he moved in before we were married, but it wasn't cutting it for me. Sad, it took me a year to actually get one. That's what happens when you're a teacher, I guess. I got this shower curtain, liner, and holders free with a gift return! Love it! I also moved the stretched canvas project into the bathroom because it fit better with the decor there.

And of course this little beauty is still hanging proudly in my bathroom! I still love being able to see my earrings clearly without scrambling through that little turtle (above) that holds the rest of my earrings.


My uncle gave us this mirror for our wedding, but we weren't so into the gold leaf. It took a year, but black spray paint really made this look great! (I made this while watching "Julie and Julia." You should see this movie!) I put this on our wall in place of the stretched canvas project. I'm thinking of adding some vintage wrought iron or else maybe some vinyl lettering above it. What do you think?

Addicted to Headbands

I'm addicted to making headbands. Okay, there I've said it. I guess while I'm admitting my secrets, I'll also admit that I'm addicted to starting/finishing up household do-it-yourself (DIY) projects. I think I've done more projects in the last few weeks than in the entire school year combined. (For note*** on that, see bottom of post.) I'll post more on the household projects soon!

The headband ideas started a while back. I'm getting SICK AND TIRED of dealing with how long my hair is getting (currently to my natural waist). I'm growing it out again for Locks of Love and am now realizing that summer isn't always the most optimal time to have long tresses. I wanted my hair out of my face, but I haven't found headbands worth buying. I decided to make them!

Here are some headbands I've made. I won't post my own tutorials, because the blogs I got the headband ideas from already posted such great ones: Tie headband, Raw Edge Headband with Flower, Basic Headband.


I've been at my sister's house watching her kids for the past couple of days and my nieces BEGGED me to make them tie headbands. We found a pink tie for $2 and I went to sewing. I'll get a picture with them wearing the ties. They were asleep when I finished Friday night. This project was SUPER easy, but I realized it was harder to sew with silk than with the polyester tie. One step I added was to cut out 1/2 inch of the "insides" of the tie before I sewed a 1/4 inch seam. That way, it wasn't so thick to sew. I also HAD TO USE pins to pin down the silk tie.



***NOTE:I think this all started when I FINALLY had my first, real summer vacation as a teacher. I've been teaching 5 years and have worked (hey, taking my students to Germany on an exchange was definitely work!) every summer really for the past 10 years. Okay, I know what you're thinking. Most people work year-round, so stop complaining. You're right, but try being a teacher and then talk to me about summer! I love teaching, don't get me wrong, but teachers need a break! I work so hard during the school year. Some days I leave at 6:00am for a meeting and then don't leave school until 8pm because of all the grading and planning I have! (April this year was particularly bad.) I figure all of the extra time I give during the school year MORE than makes up for the (kind of ) two months I have off during the summer. I don't think that most teachers actually take off two whole months. I know that I've been working in my classroom weekly for the past month or more.

Hammy Hammerson

Evan and I like to joke around and add "y -erson" onto certain words. For example, I tell him he's being "tricky trickerson" sometimes. Not sure when or why this all started, but it did and we say it. And laugh.

Evan using a ridiculous face to look into our "FREE" HAM radio bag (AKA we paid $375 and they threw in a cheap bag)

On Tuesday, we received our very first portable, handheld HAM radios! I told Evan that we are officially Hammy hammersons. Okay, so really we are officially HAMs (not that we weren't after we got our certification). Granted, I don't know how to use the thing, I still haven't used my call sign (but I know it!), and I haven't done anything with my radio other than listen to others transmissions. But, we now both have HAM radios and $150 worth of other gadgets to go with it. All I'm hoping is that someone will soon teach us more of the ins and outs of HAMming it up! Go Hammy Hammersons! More adventures in HAM radio operating to come.

Link Love

A long time ago, I realized that all of the links from family and friends in my sidebar were taking up A TON OF SPACE and also made my blog page load slower than before. Hesitantly, I decided to delete them from my sidebar. I had seen on another blog a unique way of sharing links to friends/family/etc. by writing a post and then using a button to link to that post. I thought it was a GREAT idea, but never finished writing the post.

Well, thankfully, Blogger came out with PAGES. I now have a page that lists your links. It's underneath my header and is entitled "Link Love." To look at some of the blogs I read, simply click on the page title and voila! You're in! Now you know the secret of where all my links went. Check them out! (And if I'm missing yours, please let me know.)

Scheduling Posts Tutorial

How many times have you written a few different blog posts on the same day and wished that you could space them out a little bit? I know I have! I think every time I go to blog, I end up writing a few different posts. I hate posting more than once in a day or two day span because I know that one or more of the posts won't get read!

Thankfully, through friends and other bloggers I heard about the phenomenon of SCHEDULING POSTS and it has made blogging SO MUCH EASIER! I can blog whenever I get a chance and not feel bad that I blog in spurts. It also helps my readers to keep up with my blog because they don't have to read 5 posts in one day and then not another post for 2 weeks. Here's how to do it using Blogger:

• Underneath your post, click on the link on the left-hand side called "Post Options."
• This will open up a drop-down menu. On the right-hand side you will see "Post date and time."
• Simply change your post date and time to the date and time you want your post to be published.
• Write your blog and click publish post.
• Now you have a scheduled blog post that will post on whatever date you chose!

I hope this helps a few of you that didn't know that this was possible. I know that it's helped me! In fact, this post was a scheduled post. I am writing it Monday, August 2nd, but it won't post until August 7th.

P.S. You can also back date posts by the same method. Happy scheduled blogging!

Coral Graveyard

Evan made this picture the background on his computer. (I have to use it to bum free wi-fi from our kind neighbors... who said it's okay!) Every time I log on, I have to laugh, because this picture reminds me of the coral grave yard in Hawaii.

One day after surfing on the North Shore, Evan and I decided to drive to the other end of the island just to see what was out there. We drove as far as we could in his truck before being forced to park. We walked to the end of Kaena Point and found a coral graveyard. It was awesome. I've never seen so much coral in my life. I used my stretchy tank top to collect the coral in. We still have it and display it proudly in our bathroom with a few pictures from that day. Good times. Hawaii- I miss you!

That's Evan climbing up there. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to since when I climbed up, I noticed that there was a lock and you had to swing out over the edge to get over. Evan did it. I didn't.

Photo for my former roommate, Michelle, who called me Rusty (last name Russell... hence, Rusty. Get it?) I called her Michka.

This heart was already on the rock so we decided we had to take pictures by it. We thought they might be our engagement pictures someday until we saw how they looked. :)

May 2008

Cooking for Two

Sometimes it's hard when cooking for two. I feel like I open a can of olives to make ONE MEAL and end up with half the can going bad because I didn't have another recipe with which to use olives. This happens with spinach, yogurt, cheese and other perishable foods in our fridge too! I swear, I try my best to cook using all of our perishable items, but I feel like I can't use them all in time before they go bad. Does anyone have a trick to help with this? Does meal planning help? (DUH! It probably does.) Can anyone relate?

Sometimes it feels like THIS is my fridge. Okay, not really. This makes me want to throw up!

1 Year Married

One year ago today, Evan and I were married. And my life has definitely been a whole lot better ever since! It's funny, because it feels like we've been married for more than a year because we dated for 3 years before we got married and have known each other since the days of junior high. It has been a great year full of adventures and learning experiences. I honestly feel really blessed that we dated for so long before we got married, because I feel like this year hasn't been full of any I-didn't-know-that-about-you surprises! I am so much happier being married to Evan than I was when we were dating. I feel so comfortable with him and realize more and more everyday that he is my best friend. He's the first person I want to talk to when something (good and bad) happens. He understands me and helps me to be a better person. Yay for our first year of marriage and here's to 100 more! :)

Here's a book I made for Evan. It's called Reason-A-Day: 365 Reasons Why I'm Glad We're Married. I wrote one reason for everyday we've been married. He hasn't finished reading the 6 pages of 10-point font yet, but he's liked the 2 pages he has read. He said he's savoring each reason.




Evan gave me chalkboard paint (I've been talking about wanting some for a while!) and some picture frames to start a tradition for a random wall of fun family pictures. He had the idea that we could collect random picture frames and put pictures of our family and ancestors and us in the pictures. I love it!

We had a big breakfast to celebrate together and had planned on making a dinner together and eating it at a nearby park. However, Evan was kind enough to invite a traveling truck driver he met at church to dinner. (His dad used to be a truck driver for 10 years, so Evan invited him in honro of his dad.) Instead, we headed to Evan's parents for dinner. I'm glad we could help a guy out on a Sunday when he was away from his family. It was sweet of Evan to think to do that. It's one of the reasons on my list! He's always looking for ways he can help people.

After we got back from dinner, we dug into our frozen-for-a-year wedding cake! It was super dry and disgusting, but hey, it's tradition, right?! All in all, this last year has been pretty great. Here's to more adventures to come! (A small sampling of our adventures this year...)

P.S. I know it's random, but I tried on my wedding dress just to see if I could still fit into it and I can! The zipper was a little more snug than I remember it being last year, but it still fit!