KTIP = HADES

I hate KTIP...

I'm ready to get back to just teaching.

Post Secret

This was one of the new cards from Post Secret.

I feel this for many people.

Hallelujah!

Jen found a Wii!!!!!

After endless weeks of searching, Jen was able to stand in line and get one this morning.

I'm so happy for her!

Currently Reading...

I was thumbing through the books on sale at Waldenbooks about a month ago and came upon this book. I read the back and thought it looked interesting, so I bought it.

Ever since then, I've heard so much about it!

Kim Edwards, the author, is a professor at UK and the story's setting starts in Lexington in the 1960s. It's pretty cool because I recognize some of the places they talk about (US 60, Kroger in Versailles, Newtown Pike, Leestown Road, Lexington Cemetery, etc.). This book was on NY Times' best sellers list.

I went into the book not knowing anything about it really and have been pleasantly surprised so far. Has anyone else read/heard of this book? What were your thoughts?

Inspired JT Video

I was reading Cameron's blog and watched a video she had of Justin Timberlake calling into Ellen.

This led me to watch one of my favorite clips of Justin (also at Ellen):



Enjoy!

SuperNanny: Gtown Style

I don't normally watch this show, but last night was the episode that they taped in Georgetown.

I really wanted to tune in for a couple reasons:

a) To see if I knew the family (working in the public school system usually guarantees that)

b) To see how many of the places I recognized

c) To see if I knew anyone else in the background (also highly likely)

I recognized the dad a little bit (but everyone looks familiar here) and knew which school the boys went to, they visited my Kroger, Evans Orchard and the Bengals training camp at the college (I was especially excited to see 2 of my Bengals...), and I did see some people I knew (they were walking down an aisle at Kroger)

It was a crazy episode and very sad, but frustrating. Of course it ended happily. Now that dad and his 3 boys will be recognized EVERYWHERE! It's such a small town.

(Now I'm just waiting for my Louisville Extreme Home Makeover to air next month)

Intro to 'Nati

As I've said before, my co-worker's girlfriend, Sarah, moved here from Sacramento less than a month ago and Em and I felt it was vital that she be formally introduced to our favorite city, Cincy. With the long weekend available, we took Sarah up for the whole day to let her in on some of our favorite things to do.

Of course one day was not nearly enough time to do everything, but we did eat at both Skyline and LaRosa's, we drove in over the river so she could see the skyline, we went by Paul Brown and Great American, we went up to Mt. Adams, we went to Newport Aquarium, went shopping, and even re-visited Channel 9 news to watch my brother at work on the Saturday 6 o'clock news. We had a great time!

Sarah tried her first 3-way (chili) and coney.

The first bite was interesting, but she fell in love on second bite.

Em, Sarah, and I at the top of Mt. Adams. It was cold!!!

In the mouth of a shark at Newport Aquarium.

I touched a starfish (along with many other sea creatures that day)!

Em and Sarah touching a horseshoe crab and starfish

(Sarah was a bit anxious)

A shark (I touched his smaller friend later).

Take note at how close we are...it's a good thing we sat so close...

Sarah "feeding" the birds. She makes a nice statue.

Em, Jen, and I pushing with all of our might. We thought it'd be easy!

All 4 of us squeezed in a bubble. We had a great time at the Aquarium.

Jen found her name amongst a wall of mugs.

Awww...

Waiting for the 6 o'clock news.

Daniel doing his job (he's in the black hoodie)

Here's your new Channel 9 news team!



To be fair to Jen, we're planning a trip to Nashville soon.

A Work of Art

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my parents were converting a room in their house to a sports room (a.k.a shrine to their children) and Mark, Em, and I all went to help. They fed us and we painted our little hearts out. Even my brother stopped by to assist us.

The room looks awesome and the really neat UK bar stools are the cherries on top!
(Those were the special project given to Em and me)

I thought I'd include some pictures of the work in progress as well as the finished product.

Em working hard on repainting the bar stools.

Mom painting the UK blue wall.

UK bathroom was a work in progress.

Cincinnati Reds wall

The red wall with the immaculate bar stools

The finished UK blue wall looking in to the UK bathroom.

The UK bathroom. This is one of favorite parts.

On the baseball wall, there's a picture of my dad's little league team as well as his shirt there on the wall (so small!).

Let's zoom in on that picture....

That's my dad in the middle in the back.

Anyone who knows my dad has to find this as hilarious as I do. I absolutely LOVE this picture!

That DID just happen...

In Jen's blog last week, she wrote about this guy who came to sing at Common Grounds.

Em, Jen, and I were left speechless and I'm not gonna say anything else about him and his corny songs and demeanor, but I will leave you with a few pictures from the night.

Hair Don'ts

As I laid in bed this morning and watched music videos (the only time you can actually see music videos is 5 AM) I started seeing a trend.

I don't know many bands by what they look like and as I flipped between channels and each video came on, I kept thinking the same band was on each channel. This was due to the same haircut! It seems like every band that I saw had the exact same hair style and it looked like the 3 guys in the back row of this band.

This band is called Cobra Starship and I personally have nothing against this band (in fact, Mark really likes the video they did for Snakes On a Plane), but this hair style is old and worn out and I'm really sick of seeing it.

Wish Granted

While it was almost a week late, my wish was granted and I was given a snow day today!

This is great for many reasons:

1) I got a 4 day weekend
2) I got to sleep in
3) I get to do some blog updating (so much has happened and I've had no time to upload pics)

The above picture is my view from my blogging post in Mark's room overlooking all the snow in Georgetown.

Praying for Snow

I think I need a snow day.

Yeah. I do.

Come on snowflakes!!!!

Past Its Prime

I saw a preview today for Real World XIX on MTV.......19?!?! Really???

I think it's time to cut the cord.

Pretty soon they'll have as many Real Worlds as there are Now....CDs.

Quotes of the Weekend

This weekend was fun. It was a nice break from being back at school. I think I need to recap 2 of my favorite quotes.

"I see you dancing in there. Move with me!" -Creepy singer at Common Grounds to me

"I am not finishing Cat in the Hat until we find Antonio's grill!" -Emily to her kindergartners

(I have another one, but I'll spare the embarrassment.)

Also, I think my favorite moment of the weekend involved me tripping up a flight of stairs and Diet Mountain Dew spilling everywhere.

Attention all LOST fans

I have found some sites that provide hours of fun. I thought I'd share them for anyone else out there who's dying for LOST to start again.

Mark and I saw a commercial for this on New Years Eve. It was like a real airline commercial and it gave a website: http://www.flyoceanicair.com/. It used to have more to look at (you could enter in your destination and how many were going to be flying in your party, etc.) but now it leads you to another site.

That next site is http://www.find815.com/. This site is similar to "The LOST Experience" back in the summer of 2006. It has a ton of videos of this guy who used to work for Oceanic Air and is now looking for Flight 815 because his fiance was a flight attendant. You can read all of his e-mails, look for clues which will give you clues into Season 4, help him find clues, it's great. He gives some ideas as to where the plane may be. It updates itself (I'm not sure how often), but I know the next update is in about 34 hours. He's gone through 2 chapters so far and I believe there's 5 in all.

You can also check out "Missing Pieces" which has short clips that are like deleted scenes. They were taped earlier though and fill you in on a few things. There's 9 in all.

I also read this article in Entertainment Weekly by Matthew Fox. I thought it was great and gave a little glimpse into the behind-the-scenes and a look forward into the next season. Also check out Doc Jenson's article about Season 4. I really like Doc Jenson's stuff because he fills you in all of the good stuff. He has some more websites to check out.

Alright, I think that covers most of the stuff I've found. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Amy!

Kimberly, myself, and Amy

I wasn't able to get a chance to blog yesterday, but I do need to give a shout out to my sister-in-law, Amy, for her birthday. Yesterday was Amy's actual birthday, but we're celebrating today!

Amy's absolutely fabulous! I have a special love for her because of two major similarities: She's also a teacher (5th grade at Tates Creek Elementary) and she also married into this family by marrying a Bennett Boy (that provides hours of endless fun talking about how our lives are basically the same being married to them).

I love her dearly and wish her a wonderful day/weekend.

HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY AMY!!!

Grab a brush and come on down...

Today I'm putting on my worst clothes and I'm going to help my family paint. As much as they feed me...I figured it was time to pitch in.

Actually, I'm very excited about lending a hand at my old casa. My parents are touching up my old bedroom (my mom's reading room now) with a fresh new coat of white paint. The biggest and most exciting project though is what they're doing to my brother's old room. They're turning his old room in the basement into my dad's sports room. They've also stripped the wallpaper off the walls in my brother's bathroom. The bathroom will now have UK border and UK shower curtain. The sports room will have 2 white walls, a red wall (for all of his Cincinnati Reds memorabilia) and a UK blue wall (for all things UK).

I'm so happy my parents are doing this and Mark, Em, (maybe Jen), and I are lending a hand today to see if we can knock it out in less time. My parents deserve the best in the world and I'm happy they're doing something really cool for themselves.

Wish us luck. It should be fun!

One Tree Hill Returns

The wait is over. After many months of wondering what could happen on the new season of OTH, I was satisfied with a 2 hour premiere tonight. I anxiously anticipated the 8-10 block tonight to catch back up with one of my favorite shows 4 years from where the last season left off.

A few years back, Cameron introduced me to this show and I will forever love and hate her simultaneously for getting me so hooked on a show that none of my friends (other than Cameron) actually watch. I have no one to talk about the show with even though I love it as much as I do.

It was great to tune in to see where my favorite characters picked up. My absolute favorites are Nathan and Haley played by James Lafferty and Bethany Joy Galeotti.

Does anyone else watch this show? Cameron, what were your thoughts?

Bunco

I'm in a Bunco group with a bunch of fellow Scott Co. teachers (I can hear my mom snickering and making comments about my age right now) and we meet once a month. This month was my month to host and I had everyone over tonight to my house. This was fun because I haven't had a reason to have many of my co-workers over to our house.

Tonight turned out to be an even better night for me because I was apparently on fire tonight. I had 3 Buncos which I must say is not an easy task. In addition to this, I tied another co-worker for most wins! I let her take the prize $ for most wins, but I came out $20 richer!

If you've never played before, Bunco is quite possibly the most mindless game ever created. It was pretty much invented as an excuse for teachers to get together and talk. However, for a highly competitive person like myself, it's another event in which I get highly aggressive. I've really had to catch myself sometimes as I try to partner up with people that might help me win (not that there's a particular skill for rolling dice) and I sometimes find myself getting frustrated when people get too focused on talking rather than rolling (an unavoidable side effect with a bunch of teachers). I found this and think I might need to get it made into a t-shirt.

What do you think, is this a problem?

ANTM Recap

One word: FIERCE!

After a week of smiling with my eyes, I can get back to normal life. ANTM was all I hoped it would be and more! It was the highlight of my week. There are no more words...

Christmas in Ft. Wayne

We went up to Ft. Wayne this year for Christmas since my Grandparents were not in Florida (due to Grandma's cancer). We visited both my Grandma and Great-Grandma in the hospital and both are making wonderful recoveries! This made for a good Christmas!

I also got to see my cousin Nick's baby boy. He was so adorable and I can see what people mean when they say the holidays are so much more fun with kids around. He was the center of attention and with good reason (he's ADORABLE!). I put pictures up of him in previous posts but I've included some pics of him at 3 months. WARNING: He's a chunk!!! Which makes him all the cuter. I've also put a picture of Nick holding John.

Christmas was great in Ft. Wayne this year. I really enjoyed the time with my family and Daniel even introdued me to Salad Fingers, which was by far the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time.

My final verdict on Christmas 2007: I am very blessed!

Bring On 2008 (Shout Out to Sarah)

So this year, I rung in 2008 with many of the same companions as last year (I consider this to be a great thing). And to make things even better, we had an addition of some wonderful new friends. Em, Chris, Jen, and Jon joined us again and Clint and Sarah, his beautiful girlfriend from California, graced us with their presence.

Sarah just moved here 2 days before New Years and we couldn't be happier to have her here!!! I'm especially grateful to have another girl here in Gtown (although I know I'll probably lose her to Tates Creek eventually too). Sarah is a wonderful addition!!! She enjoys all of the same stuff as us (ANTM, BW3s, shoes, SATC, playing games, an intense love of sports, ice cream, girly movies, pedicures, and fun in general) and we are thoroughly enjoying helping with the adaptation to KY life. I am sure that 2008 will be fabulous as we ring it in with a new favorite.

Bobseys enjoying Sarah (and TJ)

Mark and Chris treasuring their time together

(Chris is Nicholasville-ing his new hat in this pic...we love him despite!)