His friends...My Friends

So this weekend we finallly hosted a "house-warming" party at our new little rental house for "Mark's" friends. It was funny.... because I said this to my parents, and then thought about it and realized when you're married a weird thing happens. Instead of it being, my friends and his friends, things start to combine. When you have someone who you care about, and respect, you WANT to know their friends and in the process they become your friends too. So this weekend we had a party with OUR friends. I wish I had taken some pictures, I made Halloween Cupcakes (AKA vanilla cupcakes with halloween sprinkles) finally used our chip/dip tray and had a nice little grill out. Of course the boys stayed up too late... of course we were exhausted the next day but it was  great time!

Next day Mark and I came up with a fair compromise.. he wanted to go out to brunch and I had been begging to go to an apple orchard and go apple picking (a tradition that is not very common in NC! There we pick strawberries :)) Anyways, we had a lovely little brunch on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Uptown; that only cost us $140....thanks to a silly parking ticket for not having my front license plate posted. We've been meaning to do it, but the car was bought in KS where they don't have front license plates, and we've been afraid to drill into the car, but this may be the catalyst. Mark looked in his "hardware" haha... and he did not have the screws we needed. So we will be getting those soon. Luckily to cheer us up we had our precious nephew Max come over... yes we are wearing our beautiful sweats.

Luckily, the apple orchard was much more successful. We made it to a less comercialized one in Stillwater, where there was no entrance cost and $7 for 1/4 peck... not a bad price for 15-20 apples!  We made it there on their last apple picking day, and Cici ate enough apples off of the ground to pay for double what we got. I've been hoping to make something with the apples, but after making all the cupcakes this weekend (I also made some GF pumpkin cupcakes..recipe below! So good Mark ate them!) I don't feel like I should make anything else yet!

I'm looking forward to a nice three-day week up ahead. Heading to NC on Thursday :) and looking forward to a weekend of Wake Forest Football Game with some suities, seeing fall happen all over again, walks with my family, visiting relatives, potential trip to the mountains, Thanksgiving dinner and getting to see the full-grown pup! Can't wait and the only thing that would make it better would be to be bringing along the man. I guess I'll just leave him here to have fun and hang out with "his" friends.


GF Pumpkin Cupcakes:
Ingredients
For cupcakes:
1/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup nondairy milk (soy, almond, or rice)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup chocolate chips
For glaze:
1/4 cup brown rice syrup or honey
1 tablespoon margarine or coconut oil, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch ground cinnamon (optional)
Directions

1. To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Whisk together oil, sugar, nondairy milk, and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gently whisk flour mixture until well combined. Fold in pumpkin, but do not overstir or the batter will become gummy. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.
4. To make icing: Whisk together rice syrup, margarine, vanilla extract, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Using a fork, drizzle icing atop completely cooled cupcakes.

It's 60 degrees...inside my house!

Well, I'm a Minnesotan now right? So 60 degrees is warm? I guess relative to the high of 49 it was today, as well as the 39 degrees Cici and I just went for an hour walk in ;) Cold scmold, I've been told this is nothing! My brother wants to visit this winter, which I'd love... I just don't think us North Carolinians know what we are in for.

On the bright side it is BEAUTIFUL out right now, fall colors everywhere! It reminds me of fall things, football games, pumpkin foods, trick-or-treating, jumping in leaves, bonfires. I'm excited to experience a new fall thing tomorrow, my friend Julie's WEDDING! Fall brings many great things :)

For example... Fall brings locking your keys in your house and opportunities to enjoy the weather, kind of. Thursday after being out for two days at a conference I woke up early and was excited to get to school earlier than normal to get everything back together after a sub. I was ready quickly out the door, shut it an immediately turned around and tried to open it again...I had locked my keys inside. What happened next? What do you think, I broke down in hysterical tears and called Mark, who was already 30 min away (one way) and 1.5 hours away (the other direction). After frantically running around the house, blubbering to him on the phone for 5 minutes my intelligent self kicked in and a wonderful co-worker came to pick me up. Needless to say, my first graders could have said "Sra. Aronson, act your age!" Luckily while I waited for a ride I was able to enjoy the views of fall....

Otoño ha llegado!

Another week in MN :) It's getting pretty!
This has been such a beautiful start of fall. This past week started warming up, with this weekend being in the high 70s! That'll be nice before the high is 45 on Friday. The fall colors are starting to show up, and has gotten me motivated to make pumpkin and fall foods: pumpkin pancakes, squash/quinoa pilaf, etc :)

As far as work goes, this week was pretty normal, however, we had some excitement in the neighborhood department. For some background, we live an a neighborhood called Brynn Mawr; houses are nice, mortgages are expensive, people are friendly and crime is scarce. Unfortunately, there was a mass shooting at a local business that is in our exact neighborhood. It was a small signage company that only employed about 28 people, 6 of which are now dead or in critical condition. It was strange for it to happen in our peaceful area; seeing swarms of police, swat teams, news vans and police tape on our daily walk was quite a shock. As was seeing the same the following morning. We are thankful that we are safe, but obviously it is something that is quite a surprise. The location is only 3 blocks from our house, below you will see the view of the building from the end of our street (luckily we live on a col-de-sac)

Luckily, the intensity was spared for our weekend. This weekend was pretty laid-back for us. Did a couple of crafts, started sewing an apron (pictures probably to come in two weeks) and painted a cute little momento from our wedding (super lame in Mark's terms :)) We of course watched the Vikes play, and because we had a friend come, we won THANKS MIKE :) Even though he didn't bring a veggie tray, he inspired me to make home-made pizza, something I haven't done since we moved to MN!

Looking forward to next weekend heading to see a friend get married :) and then in 2 weeks heading back to NC for my fall break! First time since I've been married. Overall, enjoying the start of fall, and getting excited about trips that are to come.

Feel like a mom...

Soo poor little Cici-pup has been pretty sick this weekend. We headed up to Afton to celebrate Nancy's birthdays and have some good family time. Apparently, while there Cici got into some trouble (probably ate something in the yard). The night we were there she woke up 3 times vomitting, of course Mark slept through it. Then last night back at home, 2 more times in the middle of the night. Not to mention 8 other times throughout the day. Every time I got up I thought to myself, I guess this is good practice?

Luckily, it appears as though she is feeling better. As much as Mark has made fun of me, I've been feeding her the BRATS diet (banana, rice, apples and toast) and she's been keeping it down. Poor little pupper.

In positive news, Tyler and Mark and I got to watch the Vikings game today.. with a veggie tray of course. And the vikes won. Probably because of the tray and the fact I was wearing my Jersey...


Looking forward to a shorter week, 1 day off to assess students on reading, 1/2 day Friday for Professional development. 1st grade Fall lessons, here we come!
P.S. Decorated house with Halloween decorations: LOOK!

window clings :)

haunted house

bear and candy-pumpkin shaped in pumpkin bowl

Pictures of house and classroom :)

Sorry they are a little blurry.

Here's where I spend most of my time!!!

 Classroom:

 Shape Monsters!

Friend Tree!

 Our Rules

First Graders: Fricken CUTE!

First week of teaching first grade, new school, new district, new city, new state, new demographic SO GREAT! I love love love my school, my kids are super cute, my plans are going smoothly, they understand my Spanish and I have free time, things are going well!!

Of course they are first graders, so they act in certain ways I don't want, but all but one when I redirect or give an instruction listen right away. At the end of each day we always say "what was my favorite part of the day" and by the end of the week almost half of my kids were saying "todo"-everything!

My school is so supportive, they've been very helpful and the climate at school is just very happy and fun; people work hard, but they know that work is not life and they head home at decent hours!

Even with it being the first week of school, and having to stay after a little late, I've had lots of free time; enough to finish one of my wedding presents: Paris Puzzle

 

This weekend we have been able to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Played tennis right by our house yesterday,  walked the "bog walk" http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=4&parkid=356 today (walking distance from our house) and have been able to have the windows open almost 24/7! Last night I got to celebrate with my one Minneapolis friend Julie for her bachelorette night, and we went to Uptown, danced the night away and people watched!

 Today was a true Minnesotan, put on my Adrian Peterson Jersey and watched the Vikings win with Mark and our friend Tyler. We ate normal football food....huge vegetable tray and delicious cookies.

Overall, I'd say great first week. I've started normal schedule again, fall is coming, I've got a ticket booked to go to NC in a month, I'd say September is starting out well :)

Kids Come Monday!

So this week has just flown by! It was so great getting to meet everyone on my school team, in the district and my grade level team! Everyone is super friendly, helpful and just seem to love their jobs!

I got to meet my kiddos yesterday. They are soo stinking cute! And tiny! Some of them wouldn't even let go of their mom because they were so shy (wonder how long that will last!) I know that they will still present challenges, and that I will get frustrated at the things they can't do, but I'm actually embracing the chance to teach the little ones and have had a fun time getting my class ready for them!

Below you will see one of my bulletin boards for the Daily 5 (In Spanish of course) and my latest project is painting book covers on canvas! (Thanks to a fellow 1st grade teacher at my school's example!) I have done one so far, No, David! A book that I will read to the students the first day of school.

Mark and I have still been making time to do fun things (it's amazing how much a couple hours each day extra can add!)

This past weekend we went to the Minnesota State Fair (biggest in the country!) and I wore my new dress I made (See below) It was really fun, we didn't really do a ton, just walked around for a few hours, admired all the food on sticks, saw an old professor of Mark's, watched a bird show (that was for you Paul) and ate some food (turkey on a stick not worth it, don't do it!)

This week I also got the opportunity to babysit little Maxwell and went for a walk with my one Minnesotan friend (aside from my sister in law of course) and we got to enjoy the super hot weather we were given this past week (In MN "Super hot" is 92.... I'll take it over KC 105).

Other than that the house is pretty much done! Below you will see a picture of our kitchen island, that makes our little kitchen complete. I also included my delicious gluten free donuts I made this morning... because they are fallesque and it makes me excited that fall is now arriving! We are still waiting to furnish our guest room (pending guests to visit) but otherwise we feel very much at home.

Soo excited to see what next week brings! I'll keep you posted!