Book-Ends

Beginnings:

I started work on Wednesday! Yay! We've just been doing faculty training so far and I feel like I've been walking around with a big question mark on my head. I've learned a million names and failed to learn a million acronyms. I am quickly realizing that half the meetings we have don't apply to me and that I have a very rare job. While most of me aches to be starting a dance program at this school, actually teaching students and creating movement, I'm getting excited to work with Ashley and know that it will be a good experience. I really love how friendly, helpful and encouraging the faculty have been and am glad to be working at Lake View High School.

Endings:

Bret took his anatomy final on Wednesday, thereby finishing his first class at ASU with flying colors. I am so impressed with how well he has done in this class (an I know his peers look up to him too and appreciate how humble he is about his success). Anatomy ended early because his professor has been asked to go to Korea for a few weeks... something military related. This is great because it means that anatomy is out of the way so they can really hit Neuroscience hard. (By the way, aren't these pictures crazy? People wearing their anatomy on their skin...? Luckily Bret gets to study the real deal.)

In-Betweens:

Most of the other things that happened this week revolve around food. On Monday I felt like baking and wanted to make some thank-you treats for people. I made a silly mistake with one of the recipes and accidentally doubled one major ingredient because I had extra sitting on the counter. The dough was WAY to sticky when I tried to spread it into the pan so I caught my mistake and doubled everything, leaving me with a kitchen overflowing with treats. The treat total: one huge Texas sheet cake, one large and two small cookie sheets of pan sugar cookies and a whole bunch of cracker candy. I delivered 8+ plates of treats and harly made a dent. Let's just say our freezer, fridge and bellies are enjoying the leftovers.

I also tried a lot of new meals this week that were a big success. Wahoo... that doesn't happen very often (new meals OR big successes!). We had southwestern crock-pot chicken, chicken fajitas and bbq ribs. Mmmm. If you want some new recipes try sisterscafe.blogspot.com. We've really liked the two recipes I've tried.
Finally, Bret and I ate out for the first time in about 2 months. We joined his classmates for a celebration at Bonsai. It's just like the Bonsai in Salt Lake... they make the food at your table on a big grill. We were skeptical about using our splurge dinner on Japanese cuisine, but we loved it. I even tried a shrimp (yes, for the first time ever, please don't judge me). It was alright so I ate the other one on my plate too. I just wish they weren't so pink and swirly... its hard to get over. Take the picture above for example... can't you just picture it's little head sitting right on top? Luckily mine was cooked more than that so it looked less creature-like.

We are loving life... the beginnings, the endings, and everything in the middle!