Relaxation?

I am trying to just calm down but there's so much to do and so much to decide on. Today I was at my college (where I haven't attended in 2 years!) to speak to an advisor. I want to change my AA in elementary ed to AA in business. Unfortunately there was a mix-up in the sign-up sheet and unfortunately many people were upset.
I really want to figure out what classes I should be taking because I think I finally found a career I'll be good at. I don't have very much time to go to school as it is since I am working 40 hours a week, then come home and cook and clean. Then my evening are spent everywhere.
I honestly believe that you shouldn't need a piece of parchment that says you have a degree in something to be to have a job and make more money. There are so many people in this world who are just not able to get into college for one reason or another but they have unbelieveable talent helping people or managing or teaching or cooking... It just isn't fair that the only way to get anywhere in life is by bringing in a copy of your Bachelors Degree Graduation Certificate. What's holding me back from finishing college is money. Unfortunately my parents are in the process of losing their home. My mother is the main bread-winner spinning wires and my father is a struggling home remodeling and repairman. Financial-aide will not help my funding for school (even though i am living on my own and paying all my own bills) because I am under 24, not married, don't have children, and my parents make "too much".
So school stress plus the constant pressures to exceed as a preschool teachers, preparing my class for kindergarten. My fiance and I are also starting to struggle paying our $724/month rent but we're trying to find a way out of it.
There's just so much right now going on and I can't help but to ramble. I just need to remember to "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON"

(photocredit: pressureless)

How I now eat

Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments:

1. "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."

2. "Avoid foods containing ingredients you can't pronounce."

3. "Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot."

4. "Avoid food products that carry health claims."

5. "Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle."

6. "Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmers' market or CSA."

7. "Pay more, eat less."8. "Eat a wide variety of species."

9. "Eat food from animals that eat grass."

10. "Cook, and if you can, grow some of your own food."

11. "Eat meals and eat them only at tables."

12. "Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure."

Source: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Surfer coffee house

My fiance and I are in the works to starting a coffee house with his father. We are still trying to determine what our customers would like. We don't want to be a Dunkin Donuts, nor do we want to be a Starbucks. Neither give the opportunity to befriend others in your neighborhood. We want a place to become friends with the customers and for our customers to become friends with eachother. We want an open atmosphere where an older man could sit down and talk with a few teens about politics, how life is and was...where anyone is free. Since the location will be across from the beach we will have a vintage surf feel for the place. The music people will hear could be from Bob Marley to Jack Johnson to Beach Boys to Jason Mraz. We hope that the furniture will also be focused in this category with tables made from old surfboards. Other than coffee, pastries, smoothies (made from local grown fruits), teas (hot and cold), soft-serve ice cream, and possibly gelato will be served. There are 2 possible locations though. They are in the same plaza right infront of a highschool and middle school. One is located on the very end corner with the availability for customers to sit outside and smoke if they choose...but that location would have to be sectioned off since it is part of a large add on to the plaza. The next closest store would be about 100ft, and it's Publix. The other location is next to a movie theatre and surf clothing store and is a recent closed down karate store. Unlike the other location it doesn't offer an outdoor seating area for smokers. Since it is an old karate place, the flooring needs to be removed, a kitchen will need to be added as well and cleaner new bathrooms, one wall has a giant mirror on it, the ceiling needs new grids, and there is a large japanese shinto shrine inside. So it needs major repairs.

I really don't know which of the two is a better choice.

(photo credit: art.com)

Have a lovely weekend

Doesn't Aubrey look so gorgeous and classic? Makes me wish I lived in an area I could bike more...

This is the first weekend in weeks that I'm not doing anything too exciting. My fiance and I are on a very, very tight budget...especially with rent due next week. I know that we will definitely be sleeping in. (Even on my vacation I woke up at 6:30 so I could spend time with my fiance before he went to work.) Tomorrow morning in laundry. Other than that we have nothing planned. At the moment we are watching a Michael Jackson Marathon on Fuse and soon heading out to Barnes n Noble to relax with some coffee business books and actually drink coffee. BTW, this book is amazing. Here's the website of their blog : http://www.laurenandemira.com/


Take care <3

(photo credit: obit-mag)

Bittersweet

Bitter- Michael Jackson has passed away at 50 years old. Of course everyone, their baby and their great great grandmother know this. Most favorite song-Thriller.

Sweet- Just convinced by my amazing future sister in law to go ahead with a BABS degree. It is a better choice than Elementary Ed in this economy...

I made an amazing meal

Here are the recipes in the case you want to surprise your hubby/boyfriend/family...

Roast Chicken with olives and thyme

and as a side

Roasted Tomatoes

add some delicious fresh baked bread and some red wine and voila.

(photo credits: http://www.realsimple.com/)

So excited...

These pictures make me want to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland so much sooner than March 2010! I love Tim Burton's movies, Helena Bonham Carter's movies and Johnny Depp's movies (especially when they're all combined---sweeney todd)

(photo credit: huffington post)

My fiance just said I look cute in the computer light...

Because I was wondering what goals I still need to do during my vacation. And here they are...

1.Finish Inservice hours for work (if i want to keep my job i better do this!
3.Visit fiance atleast twice for lunch (1 down, 1 to go)
6.Plan atleast one extremely delicious meal that I wouldn't normally make during the work week (I still need to grab a good recipe)
7.Look up some courses to take in the fall since I haven't been in college for 2-3 years (mainly a financial set-back) (will do asap)
8.Workout 30 minutes a day with the Tony Horton's 10-minute trainer (I have yet to start, but you know what? It's my vacation! I do a lot of running around at work, so number 8 I scratch off.)
9.READ! I have so many books that I've read a few pages of but never seem to finish (I have a few more left!)
13.Write the lesson plan for 2 weeks from now. (still have 5 days til it technically need to be in)
14.Figure out how to rearrange my classroom (not a necessity but probably will do in the next couple of days)

Only 8/16 left. So I'm 50% done and that's not too bad since I did 50% last week on Thursday and Friday. Today was my "neice hang-out" day. So, 50% left for last 2 days!

A day with my neices

I spent the day with my neices today. I am on vacation (from last thursday to this wednesday) and I have been doing nothing. I basically had to take vacation because my 3 years is fast approaching and I needed to take my second week's worth of vacation. I didn't want to be confined to my apartment for 5 days so I told my older sister that I was going to take my neices for a day. Our first stpo was ron jon's surf shop (where the above photo was taken). We tried to go to the cocoa beach pier but didn't realize during the week I'd have to pay $5 to park! Then we headed off to cocoa village so they could run around in a water fountain:

It was there that a little boy pulled down his bathing suit and attempted to pee on a fountain but his mom caught him in time. We were all starving and tired (my younger neice fell asleep on the way to get food and woke up with a big red blotch on her face) so we headed off to my most favorite quick delicious beachy burrito place.

It was after this that my older neice, Angelina, said "All the places you've taken us we've never been before!" That was my goal. Spend as little money as possible and let them have a ton of fun going to places they've never been. My fiance and I actually want to travel like that. Go places none of the Florida tourists know about. And write about it. Anyway, back to the day... the three of us came back home swam in my apartment's pool then I brought them home. It was a fun-filled day in the 96 degree without (with heat index about 105 degrees). Now I have 2 days to accomplish the rest of the items on my to-do list. I don't even remember what they are!

Dancing instead of wars

What if countries and people just had a dance off instead of fighting. Like, people wouldn't train for war...they would train to be a better dancer than the other country. I thought about this while my fiance and I were talking about Fight Club. I said "What if it was dance club." Then he went over the rules that Fight Club has and I changed the word 'fight' to dance. Here it goes.

1. You do not talk about dance club

2. You DO NOT talk about dance club

3. If someone yells "STOP", goes limp, or taps out the dance is over

4. Only two guys to a dance

5. One dance at a time

6. No shirt, no shoes

7. Dances will go on as long as they have to

8. If this is your first night at dance club, you have to dance.

Wouldn't dance offs make the world a better (and more humorous) place?

My first day off, somewhat in photos

I played with my cat, Poutine. Something I rarely get to do since I usually work all day, then come home to cook and get ready for bed. My weekends I am running errands everywhere. It was fun to mess around with her. Especially see her reactions when I put tape on her head. Unfortunately she was so freaked out I couldn't get a picture.
She was meowing at me while standing on her litter box so I got her food. Then she made a mess. Making me do double work...

I did some research of my family history online. I didn't get very far. This is an email my Aunt sent me years ago. I plan to someday make a family tree out of it to understand it better.

I found some of my baby teeth while sifting through bins under my bed. There was an envelope labeled "Marleena's Teeth" which either my mother or grandmother wrote. Is it kind of creepy to have saved them all these years? Well, I took this picture, then threw them out. I then did 1/2 of my number 3 on my vacation to-do list. I visited my fiance for lunch a picked up a couple tall iced white chocolate mochas on the way (hold the whipped cream :-D )I was pleasently surprised to find a bad full of undeveloped film that is from the early 90s and recently. Not sure if they will come out though (one says develop by june 1991). Plus I don't know where I will find a place that still develops film. I know wal-mart around here doesn't.I completed number 1/4 of number 4, which was to clean the bathroom. (I live in 820sq ft so the bathroom is very small. half of it is the entrance/sink and the other half is toilet/shower)

I look forward to completing other items on my to-do list but figured since I will soon be making dinner I won't be able to photograph my events. So really, am I on vacation or am I going against feminism and acting like a "Sally Homemaker"? haha

An adorable video

this video makes me want to take my fiance on a bike ride through town and make it pretty.

I'm on vacation!

Or as the english say "I am on holiday." This is so nice. I haven't had a full week off since...when I went to Canada in March 2007 I think. Other than that I would split my week vacations with 2 days here, and three days there. Now, it may seem odd that I am vacationing Thursday-Wednesday but it is because my assistant was on vacation for 2 weeks and in that time we had about 15 new children start in our class. So when she returned, I didn't want to leave her

stranded with a new class. So I decided to take 3 days to tell her about the new kids. Besides, there was a staff meeting tonight and it would have stunk to go in on my day off! Though, this Saturday is an open house at my job, and I volunteered to be there 10-12 (on food duty. not fun). Anywho, I've tried to come up with a few things I should do on my vacation. Here's a list of some things so that I can remember also...

(Monday-watch my neices entire day so can't plan anything for that day)

1.Finish Inservice hours for work

2.Get my deposit back from wedding venue since I'm elopeing

3.Visit fiance atleast twice for lunch

4.Clean kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom

5.Maybe rearrange furniture

6.Plan atleast one extremely delicious meal that I wouldn't normally make during the work week

7.Look up some courses to take in the fall since I haven't been in college for 2-3 years (mainly a financial set-back)

8.Workout 30 minutes a day with the Tony Horton's 10-minute trainer

9.READ! I have so many books that I've read a few pages of but never seem to finish

10.Blog more throughout the day

11.Organize kitchen cabinets

12.Balance bills

13.Write the lesson plan for 2 weeks from now.

14.Figure out how to rearrange my classroom

15.Do something to surprise my fiance

16.and last but definitely not least relax. I don't do it often. Usually never at all. I hope to be able to kick up my feet grab some tea and meditate or do yoga. Something to ease my mind.

I have longed for this week in a very very long time.

(photo credit: Ben)

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I was honestly uninspired to write anything today. I'm a day away from my week vacation from work (taking off Thursday-Wednesday) and I've been taking care of my sick fiance. It wasn't until watching Modern Marvels on the history channel that made me decide to quickly write about the book I am reading. The book is In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.

The episode of Modern Marvels, Fast Food Tech. The entire time I was completely grossed out by how the burgers look pre-cooked, the handling of the food behind the scenes, the look of the sauces being squeezed onto burgers. Yuck!

During my lunch break I went to grab a tea and yogurt. One co-worker (who was sipping on a soda from Burger King) said to me "that's why you are so small, you can actually eat healthy!" I just mentioned the book I was reading and made her think about this..."Look at a carrot under a microscope and it would still look good enough to eat. Then look at a burger from McDonald's under a microscope." She then gave this nasty look. My response "Exactly." I want to get a copy of the episode I just watched on Modern Marvels, maybe even grab a copy of Super Size Me and play them for my co-workers that depend on the local fast food restaurants or a quick lunch.

Seriously read the book above though. It's amazing and will make you think about what you're putting in your belly.

wedding gown

I absolutely love this dress and will probably use it as my wedding dress. Granted I am actually elopeing, but isn't it gorgeous?! If I do not buy this one (only $88!) I will definitely still make a purchase from the company that makes them : http://www.unique-vintage.com/

They also have amazing bathingsuit, day dresses, shirts, accessories, etc. You can pick the style you want by era even. The actual store is located in Burbank, CA. aka- across the US for me. Thankfully you can purchase online.

mmm strawberry tart

Today I got off early from work since my classroom didn't have many children so my assistant got to take over. I surprised my fiance at his job with Pita Pit. He was really sick this morning and unaware that I got off of work early.

Saturday we had gone to Epcot and in the France region we went to a Patisserie where I bought a baguette and this strawberry tart. I really wish I could snap my fingers and have this on a plate in my lap right now.

Oh comfort food...

I'm coming back

I have been away from blogspot since I was doing my postings here:

http://marleenaeh.wordpress.com/

I believe I will be returning to blogspot since I can probably attract a larger audience. I also prefer reading other blogs from this sight. So look out for pictures and writings soon. I also have another blog http://alohateacher.blogspot.com/. I teach preschool and hope to soon add the different activities I do for other teachers or parents how would like something more than putting on Disney for their child all day.

Check back soon, and often