a cool decorating idea!

while looking around on apartment therapy (only a wise activity on a completely obligation free, snowy saturday, i should add!) i found this etsy site that sells wall decals of a world map.

i don't think i'd be brave enough to put this on any wall in my house, but it looks SO cool!

overheard in my classroom 4

while standing outside waiting for two girls' parents to pick them up, one asked me:
"mrs. alberts, are you going to make fried chicken for dinner tonight?"

"no," i replied. "i don't know how to fry chicken."
"it's easy!" the other girl responded. "my grandma can teach you."

"oh, mrs. alberts, it's just you and your husband at home? that's sad."
"not really. we're together."

all about providence!

tomorrow my fam is coming to visit us for the long weekend (YAY!)

which makes it even more wonderful that i just stumbled upon a guide to providence on one of my fav blogs, sometimes sweet.whenever we go to visit the fam in providence, i'm curious what else is out there that they have yet to discover.

there are so many yummy sounding restaurants featured. plus, new ideas of places to visit. awesome!

overheard in my classroom 3

me: what's your grandmother's phone number?
J: i don't know.
me: well, can you tell her to call me?
J: she doesn't know your number.
me: well, it's the school's number. or she can email me.
J: MISS ALBERTS! she doesn't use email. she's 46!

i died. then i pondered which was more startling: that she thought 46 was too old to be emailing or that her grandmother was 46 years old. gosh.

new years lunch: follow-up

i just realized i took a few before shots of the table-set-up for our new years day open house. the party was a big success- we had about 26 people in our little home. hooray <3

the menu turned out well. next time i won't make pasta because it didn't stay warm and ended up a little bit stiff instead of soft/warm. oh well. [AND, see those grandmommy's rolls in the photo above? they don't look right. but they tasted fine. so i'm okay.]

of course i set up the table beforehand to make sure everything would fit. which it didn't. and my tablecloth is wrinkled. ha!

 the poppy seed bread ended up being wonderful. it was the best dessert by far.

a date

  even though we regularly spend time together and (in my opinion) do a good job of making each other a priority in our busy schedules, it's been a long time since joel and i went on an actual date.

 so i reminded him we'd gotten a movie gift card for christmas (thanks, al!). i hit up trader joe's and got pizza dough/cheese. then i stopped by our closest corner store where you can make your own six pack. we ate, talked, relaxed, went to see "tinker tailor soldier spy" and came home to relax some more. <3

(p.s. you can put a clementine in your blue moon, right? it doesn't have to be an actual orange... ha)

makin' us some travel plans!

last february we went on our 1st annual winter getaway. over presidents' day weekend, we traveled about 3 hours from our house to annapolis, MD. we stayed in a quaint B&B and had an awesome time!

today i will book the accomodations for our second annual winter getaway. [side note: i kinda feel like joel & i don't have many traditions that are our own yet, so this one makes me incredibly giddy! it was joel's idea to continue it again this year and i couldn't be happier to have him make the suggestion!] we're going to western virginia to stay in a town called hamilton. apparently the area is great for antiques and outdoor activities.

i'm seriously SO SO excited about this!!