thanksgiving in the outer banks

this thanksgiving, we were thankful for:

a beach to visit and relax on. i'm not as much of a beach person as many people assume, being a native southern californian, but these beaches were EXACTLY what i needed.

amazing weather, for the most part (see the second picture below--the oncoming rainstorm on wednesday night!).

this guy:

a few other sightseeing things to visit, like the famous OBX lighthouses and the place of the wright brothers' first flight.

and last and certainly not least, great friends (and strangers) who took us in and fed us a fantastic thanksgiving feast. brad was the bomb and invited us to eat with his friends who were ALSO staying in the outer banks--it was perfect. and amazing. and so much fun.

i don't want to be too effusive in case it hurts our families' feelings, because we weren't there spending time with them, but this was an absolutely PERFECT thanksgiving. it would have been just even MORE perfect if they had been here with us, of course--but these three days in the outer banks gave me the last push i need to finish off this semester.

the outer banks have once again been placed in my mind as one of the most perfect places in the world. (we're now scheming to see if there's a way we can get the leiningers to do a family reunion out here in a few summers when the sevys come back from denmark. we can dream!)

i am thankful for thanksgiving (break)

i rushed home from school today (after eight solid hours of conferencing with students and going to class) so that i could chow down on our pre-thanksgiving chocolate pecan pie that we made for a party this weekend. IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

i feel like i've never been more relieved to have three days off for the week of thanksgiving. ever.

this month has been painful. but it's almost done. one more week of class and then 1.5 weeks of finals.

then it'll be three semesters down and only one to go.

i feel like that deserves a BIG cheer. (anyone? anyone?)

a haircut for tommy

(i think i'm going to write a children's book someday with that title. i can see a whole series coming on! tommy goes to the dentist, tommy's first day of school, tommy brushes his teeth!)

runner-up title for this blog post: extreme makeover: one-hour version!

back when tommy was considering being j biebs for halloween, his hair was slightly appropriate. but then it really started getting out of control. let's just admire the mop for a minute. look at him! he went CRAZY, getting away from those strict byu rules! he's practically apostate!

it didn't always look this shaggy/bad. he pulled it out to emphasize the dramatic effect, i promise.

but i gave him a haircut, and for the first time, we were actually both satisfied with how it turned out. and it only took one hour this time around instead of two.

i really just wanted to share these photos to document for posterity how extreme tommy's style gets sometimes. phew! thank goodness i have my honor-code-abiding husband back.

warm feet in the winter

i've always kind of felt like a second-class citizen in the fashion world. not because i'm not fashionable enough (although i'm definitely not), but because i've always had trouble finding shoes that fit. i wear a size 11, and let me tell you, there are NOT enough size-eleven shoes to go around. i mean, even plus-size women have their own stores nowadays, but do you see any inclusive movements going around to help those poor women who have big feet? i can answer that question for you right now: no, you do not. the only places where you can rely on finding size-eleven shoes are payless and nordstrom (aka nordstrom rack because AS IF i'm going to spend $200 on a pair of shoes). i think i just went on one too many unsuccessful shoe shopping trips during my insecure days in high school to ever feel enthusiastic about trying to find cute shoes that fit my feet.

so that's probably one reason why i've spent the last five winters wearing nothing warmer than a pair of vans, keds, or regular old flats all. winter. long. yes, i've always had very cold feet during the winters. but i'm just trying to explain that i've always been footware-fashion challenged. in fact, i was considering sending out a plea for help via facebook, asking what types of shoes people NORMALLY wear in the winter. i didn't even know what i should be looking for (refer again to my confession of being fashion-footware challenged).

fast forward to last weekend. tommy and i went to go buy tickets to watch the help, and we thought the movie started at 7:25 because that's what time the website said the movie was showing at. but silly us, we should have KNOWN that you can't trust what websites say the movie times are, because it started at 9:25--so we had two hours to kill. and luckily, the movie theater was right across the street from target. can you see what's coming?

we wandered around target, tommy thinking about getting a new pair of church socks and me wondering if there would be any bathing suits left in the store for me to take off their hands (there weren't). i was aimlessly browsing around when i noticed that i was in the shoe section--and i was surrounded by size elevens. no, literally, SURROUNDED. i didn't even know what to do with myself--i think i started to hyperventilate and snatch up all the boxes like a crazy shoe hoarder. they even had BOOTS in my size! boots without heels, no less! (because i don't want to wear heels on a daily basis, but i want boots that i can wear to keep my feet warm. but it's surprisingly hard to find heel-less boots that aren't polka-dotted rainboots, i think, although i've never tried very hard.)

i ended up buying a pair of boots and a pair of fuzzy slippers that have rubber bottoms and therefore TOTALLY count as shoes and i will definitely be wearing them on outings to the grocery store and non-judgmental friends' homes. these are the boots that i bought, just for your viewing pleasure. if you think they're ugly, please don't tell me, because i am just so dang proud of this successful shopping adventure and the fact that i'm finally a boot-owner.

once again, proof that target CAN make all your wildest dreams come true.

i had to laugh

after being reminded by devin and cathy about the amazingness that is the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks, i couldn't help but laugh when i saw this note on my student's paper to me, wondering if her source was appropriate to use for this paper.

apparently she doesn't believe that "japan" is a real place. (not to mention, why on earth would it matter where the authors are from? oh, freshmen.)

upswing

my emotions have been rollercoastering lately. i end the day either feeling really stressed out, or really contented and satisfied with my life. today's an upswing day--i feel just great. why?

1. i just finished the help, finally, after listening to it on audiobook. i loved it.

2. tommy and i are going to go on a marathon date on saturday which involves seeing the help movie, dinner at tgi friday's, temple, and a walk along some of the beautiful fall-y trails of north carolina. best part of the date? everything that costs money has a gift card for it. cha-ching!

3. i met with my capstone adviser today and she approved my study i'll be doing! and said that it looks GREAT. in all caps.

4. i got an internship for next semester, working as an editing intern at the indy. big deal! really! it's a publication that real people READ! i walked into my interview and my soon-to-be supervisor said that i just seemed super qualified and he would be thrilled to have me. i know, i'm working there FOR FREE; of course i'm qualified. but i don't feel like i hear those words very often! it felt great.

5. there are only four weeks left of class this semester, and that INCLUDES thanksgiving break! the semester is already feeling like it's winding down, and I LOVE IT. (i cannot say that loudly enough.)

6. tommy and i have some great plans for thanksgiving, mostly involving visiting the outer banks. we've STILL never been to the north carolina beach and i think it's high time we go, even if it is november.

7. we've had this pumpkin pie milkshake twice this week. and it's really enough to cheer ANYONE up.

8. my english 101 class went really well today. i always feel encouraged when they talk and participate, even if they're not learning anything.

9. i've been feeling this pressure lately, like since i'm getting a master's i'd better be planning on doing something really impressive with it once i graduate. but it's just been a little bit liberating to realize that i don't WANT to do anything super impressive. i will just take what i can get and not stress about being the best-ncsu-graduate-ever and enjoy myself and do what comes naturally. doesn't that sound awesome? (of course, this fluctuates about every day, but this is how i feel today and it's the most comfortable of my opinions about post-graduation work, so i'm happy about it.)

10. i just ordered my free reimbursement pair of skullcandy headphones, and i love getting those back in the mail.

so many reasons to feel good. i guess this is my gratitude post, since it's the month of november and everyone's doing that post-one-thing-i'm-grateful-for-every-day-this-month thing. but i showed them, because i have ten things. (i'm the most grateful.)