back to reality, but a girl can dream

Today was my last day off before heading back to some new teacher trainings tomorrow and then just around the corner will be the start of the school year. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to be heading back to school, but not working really rocks! The last few days have flown by, here's a quick recap:

Thursday: I was captured by the baking bug! I made really delicious chocolate chip cookies. Recently a "Neiman-Marcus" cookie recipe was forwarded to me and to be honest, I believed it to be the true "Neiman-Marcus" cookie, so I decided to make it. Though never having had an actual Neiman-Marcus cookie to compare it to, it was the best cookie I ever made.

Yum!

Friday (our 6 month wedding anniversary): We met up with our good friends Joe and Emily and had some delicious sushi from Sushi on Fire in Huntington Beach. While my heart will always remain with Sushi Studio, Sushi on Fire is pretty good too. Afterwards, we hit up Yogurtland in Fullerton and then called it a night.

Saturday: After some morning paper shopping, my newest obsession, we drove down to San Diego. Rob's mom & dad were performing with their ukulele club in Carlsbad at the Museum of Music Making. While we missed their performance (traffic was terrible), we had some time to walk around the museum, which is pretty cool, especially if you're a music lover. Afterwards, my dad and Patrice (his girlfriend) met up with us for dinner to celebrate Laura's birthday at the Fish Market in Del Mar.

This is about when the paper obsession began...

Sunday: After church, we attended a couples baby shower for our good friends Ken and Kelly. They are expecting a little boy in mid-September. We had a great time with everyone as we showered the soon-to-be-parents (again) with love and good wishes for the arrival of baby #2. We can't wait to meet the little guy in a few weeks!

Ken, the baby daddy

I did a horrible job at taking pictures this weekend, but Kelly will hopefully send me some pictures soon and I'll post the highlights.

I had a few minutes today to daydream about what I would do if we didn't have to work [sigh]. Here's what I came up with:

- Volunteer more with the Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Workout for 2 hours each day
- Read 1 book each week
- Write letters to our local government about potential improvements (thank you West Wing and Sicko for the inspiration)
- Organize our photos and place them in albums
- Archive our old VHS tapes onto a DVD
- Learn how to knit
- Go back to ballet classes (hopefully the 2 hours of working out will help the body image)
- Get back into making jewelry
- Go for a walk or bike ride each day
- Make dinner (most days at least)
- Volunteer at a local school
- Learn how to maintain a garden
- Write letters to long-distance friends
- Learn a foreign language, perhaps German (that's what I took in high school)
- Volunteer at a local shelter

This is just the start of what I would do...my list could go on and on, but alas, it's bedtime. What would you do?

My day begins at 8am...Yikes! Coffee Bean here I come!