Happy Rachel's Favorite Holiday!

I have slipped for the last few days and not updated. Sadly, my week off is over. I really have loved having five days of complete freedom! I got a lot done around my house, which was so nice. I am finishing off my tasks today. It will feel great to have a completely clean house!

On Thursday, I had a really lazy day. It was kind of a crummy day, so I didn't get to lay out in the sun. :( I laid around and didn't do much... it felt good, but it made me even more tired. I don't think I'll do that again for awhile. I did do laundry; at least I accomplished something positive! Ty came home and then headed over to Tom's shortly thereafter since I was headed to Bible Study. That is what's hard about Thursdays. I love, love, love my Bible Study, but he gets home and I have to leave very shortly after that. I am in a Bible Study with some friends from school called "Stepping Up: The Psalms of Ascent". Beth Moore wrote it and I am just a little obsessed with her studies. I just bought her new book on the apostle Paul and I am looking forward to this fall when I actually have time to go through and study it! However, the study that I am in right now is amazing. It's a detailed study of Psalms 130-143. These Psalms were designed to lead you up and out of whatever you might be going through. God has placed me in this study for a good reason, and I am enjoying all that I am getting out of it!!

Yesterday was the FOURTH OF JULY! You might not know this, but it is my favorite holiday. Tarah, no comments please. ;) I just love that it's smack in the middle of summer. I also love barbecue's and fireworks! It was great that T was able to be home yesterday. It gave us a nice long weekend. We spent the day together, played a few games of Disney Scene It (I won each game by a LARGE margin!), and went over to Robert and Viona's for a barbecue. We had a great time! She had some AMAZING appetizers that we munched on, we sat and talked for awhile, then went outside to grill. While Viona grilled, we talked and Tyler played "golf" with Wesley. They are two peas in a pod. It was very fun to watch. :) We had some awesome chicken, grilled veggies, bread, corn... you name it, we had it. It was great! Then, we enjoyed some Barefoot Contessa chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing that I made. I am proud to say that everything was indeed made from scratch. I was so proud of myself, and I think they turned out really well! We ended the evening with a few games of Sequence (one of our favorites) while Wesley tried to go to sleep on the couch. He was having a rough time because of all the fireworks, poor guy. He ended up getting up and saying over 30 memory verses to us before we left! This little boy is amazing and SO precious. I can't even stand how cute he is. Before he went to bed, he said to his dad, "Daddy, I am very concerned that Mr. Tyler and Miss Rachel aren't spending the night." Then, as we were leaving, he presented me with a plum and said, "Miss Rachel, I would be happy to offer you this plum. I would also be happy to offer myself a plum." Too cute! Here is a short video of Wesley telling us some of his Bible verses and then a few pictures of us decorating the cupcakes with red and blue sprinkles!

Today, I have cleaned the floors. It is not fun, but very neccesary. Tonight, we are going on a date night. We are going to Red Robin, to see Wall-E, then to Starbucks. I'm pretty excited. I hope you all enjoy your weekend. Happy 4th of July!!

If you need painters, we are AWESOME.

Day three is over and I am feeling a bit sad. This will be my last week off in a long, long time. I have so enjoyed this break and I think that next year, I will take the whole summer off and just enjoy myself. However, I am enjoying this summer with the darling kids I nanny for, so I will just take it for what it is... a fun summer that's just a tad busy! :)

Today was rather simple. I woke up, got ready for the day, and my precious friend Laurel came over. She was kind enough to help me paint my new classroom today! We painted for about 2 1/2 hours straight and finished! I must say, it looked GREAT! Neither of us had ever painted before, so we were kind of nervous, but I think we did an excellent job. It was tiring, but we got a lot done. We painted the room white, but when my kids come, we are going to make a border by using their hand prints dipped in primary colors! It should be very cute and very "elementary". :) The room was already white, but it was kind of a dingy white... it needed a fresh coat! I will put a picture up of the final result in a few months. Painting was a lot of fun and it was great to spend that time with Laurel just talking and catching up. She has quickly become a dear friend and a huge blessing and I love living by her!! I will have to take her out to lunch soon to say "thank you" for all her help today!

You may be wondering why I always say I will post pictures eventually. Well, this is because I am kind of afraid of this computer. We have a Mac and it is still uncharted territory for me. I could upload my pictures to my old Dell without fail. I was very good at that and I would totally be able to post pictures from my old computer. However, the Mac is still very confusing to me, so as soon as I figure it out or make Ty sit down long enough to teach me, you will see some real photos. :)

After painting, I came home and relaxed. I was exhausted. After a while, Grant and Em came over and we grilled out, then finished up The Departed because Grant and Em had already seen it. I had seen it, but I had just forgotten about how it went. It was a pretty good movie... a LOT of expletives, but a very clever screenplay.

So, that was about it for today! Tomorrow will probably be even more low key, but I love days like those. Maybe I will even get a chance to lay out in the sun.

Until then...

Healthy Living

Well, day two of my big week off is coming to a close. The weather was better today; yesterday, it was quite rainy. Cincinnati has been void of humidity lately, which has been GREAT! It just makes me sad that my hair straightener has been sent away to be repaired, meaning that I have had to wear my hair curly for just about a week now. If I could wear my hair straight, it wouldn't be unmanageable for once! Just my luck. :) T says he likes it better curly anyhow and I don't have anyone else to impress!

This morning, I slept in until 10:15. It was glorious. To be honest, I don't even remember T getting up to go to work. I must have been really tired. It is so nice to wake up at a leisurely pace. I cleaned the house this morning, used more of my great Method products, and got ready for my day. I met my friend, Judy, for lunch at a great place in Fairfield called Roosters. I love eating chicken wings, and Roosters has the BEST chicken wings... they are huge! Five fill me up quite adequately. We had a great time catching up! I work with Judy and her daughter, Lindsay, is getting married in about a week. I miss that time of life. Don't get me wrong, but the months and weeks leading up to my wedding were some of the best of my life. Sometimes I get a little nostalgic at the fact that my wedding is over. However, if you were able to attend, I think it was a pretty great time. :)

After lunch, I headed over to my friend Viona's house. We meet every Tuesday and she is mentoring me. She is an incredibly amazing woman of God and such a blessing to me. I also work with Viona and she has quickly became a precious friend. I look forward to our times together so, so much. We are going through one of Beth Moore's books, Get Out of That Pit. I am learning so much from Viona and I look forward to many more times together. Viona and her husband, Robert, also have a precious little one named Wesley who has also quickly become near and dear to my heart. Honestly, I think he is one of the most (if not THE most) darling little boys I have ever met in my life. We are going over to their house on Friday evening for a 4th of July BBQ, so I will post pictures so you can see his darling-ness firsthand. :)

I have realized lately that it might just be physically impossible for me to pass a Target and not go in. However, today, I passed one and just kept going! Small victories for Rachel! It might also be due to the fact that I just was in a Target yesterday... but, whatever!

I went to a health seminar tonight with my friend Sherri who sells JuicePlus. JuicePlus is a whole food, not a vitamin supplement, that offers you more than the FDA suggested serving size for fruits and veggies everyday. The seminar was not a plug for JuicePlus, but specific guidelines for nutrition. I am so glad I went! I learned a lot about how to eat, what are common nutrition myths, and practical guidelines to eating healthy. I am really excited to start taking my JuicePlus and gradually change some things about the way I eat, namely cutting out ALL refined sugar and white flour. Is it the easiest thing? No. Is it impossible? No! Here are some things that I learned tonight:

• 1 in 3 women will have cancer in their lifetime.
• 1 in 2 men will have cancer in their lifetime.
• 1 in 6 women will have breast cancer.
  
• The average American child is consuming 5 POUNDS of sugar per week! Gross!
• There are 17 teaspoons of sugar in a 20 oz. Coke.
  

Those cancer statistics are mostly due to diet and nutrition!! Yikes! I think that it's our responsibility to know these things and how we can keep our bodies healthy. Leanne (the speaker) talked about how the first choice for recovery and prevention is nutritional excellence and she also gave me a good phrase: If it doesn't rot or sprout, throw it out! She showed us a meal from McDonalds that she has saved for the last four years... and it has not grown any mold or decayed or ANYTHING! It was actually very disturbing how many preservatives are packed into the foods we eat! She spoke on the importance of eating a lot of plant foods as opposed to animal foods. All in all, it was very stimulating and I hope to go back to another seminar with Sherri soon!

Tyler and I watched The Departed tonight until he got too tired and had to go to bed. Poor guy. He's been working so hard lately. That leaves me all alone out here writing to you! I have another day ahead of me in just a few short hours, so I think I will sign out for the evening. I will leave you with another great quote I heard tonight from Leanne: "Americans are overfed and undernourished!"

Love, the new health-lovin' Rachel ;)

I've gone green!

As most of you know, I am a teacher. I find teaching to be the most fabulous profession ever for many reasons, one of them being summer break! I have never loved summer more than I do this year. However, I realized quickly that if I didn't work this summer at least a little bit, I would get terribly bored. I have been nannying four days a week until 2:30 (have I mentioned this already?). It has been a lot of fun with trips to the library, the movies, and the pool. The family is out of town this week, so I have a week of freedom! It started today, and I think I will document "Rachel's Week O' Fun"!

I spent the morning being just plain lazy. It was fabulous. I slept in and then watched a Lifetime Movie of one of my favorite books by Jodi Picoult (!). The movie did NOT do the book even a bit of justice, but what can you expect... it's Lifetime. :) I got ready and met two of my girlfriends, Beth and Cassie (and Cassie's baby, Caleb) for lunch. We had a great time together. We brought our wedding pictures and talked about the joys (and occasional frustrations!) of marriage. We then got onto the topic of bondage in our Christian walk, which I found very interesting. We began talking about the fact that as kids and even as teenagers and adults, we have all struggled with the bondage of feeling as if we will be "punished by God" if we don't do our devotions one day or skip church one Sunday. It is mind boggling to me that we can turn something as beautiful and humbling as Christianity into something that can be so restricting. In my opinion, that is Satan at his finest. He takes something that has saved us from him and from ourselves and turns it into something that can feel so choking and terrifying. That is so what this world is all about though, isn't it? If you're good enough, if you read your Bible, if you pray, if you are "spiritual" (whatever THAT means these days!), you will get to heaven. As long as you do enough for God, you'll be good when you die. How awesome is it that we serve a God who is not about tasks? That we can simply trust Him with our lives and commit our all to Him and He will show us His glory! I am in awe of His grace and power, especially as of late! He has shown me His glory and it is amazing that I can break free of that bondage with the power of His grace and mercy!

Anyways... back to the day of fun! After lunch, I journeyed over to Target and Golf Galaxy where I picked up a few more cleaning supplies (I'm getting borderline obsessed) and returned a hat for T. I did get some Method glass cleaner as well as some Method stainless steel cleaner. If you're not familiar with Method cleaning supplies, they are environmentally friendly and they are just fun. :) They come in pretty colors and they smell great! My current favorite is Method Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Cleaner, as showcased below.I am not going to go off on a whole paragraph like last time, but this stuff is GREAT. I love the way that my kitchen smells after I use it. It's worth the $5 at Target... for sure.

After Target, I went to Biggs, which is my new choice of grocery store. I had a coupon for a free gallon of milk, so I decided to go there instead of Hyde Park Kroger, which has always been my grocery store. However, I have found a whole new love for grocery shopping in Biggs. It is bigger, cheaper and NICER. I will always have a soft spot for Kroger and I am probably not completely done shopping there, but I am planning on doing my next big grocery shop at Biggs. I also continued my "green streak" and purchased 5 cloth grocery bags. They were cheap and I definitely will use them. I have hated using all the plastic grocery bags... why does the checker always feel the need to put a carton of ice cream in ONE bag? What a waste. I am looking forward to using my new bags and will post a picture of them the next time I put them to use! I am doing my part to help the environment and although I don't believe in "global warming", I do believe in doing my part to keep God's earth clean and the way He intended it! So, don't think I will be making any Al Gore-type speeches anytime soon, because to be honest, this is probably about as green as Rachel gets!

I came home and did a thorough cleaning of my kitchen, threw in a load of laundry, and enjoyed a relaxing evening with my hubby which included our (yes, I said OUR) weekly viewing of "The Bachelorette". I think that T is the best guy in the world to willingly watch DeAnna's search for love each week and give me a great commentary. I think it's safe to say that we are both rooting for Jesse to be the last guy standing. Tyler "identifies with them the most". :) He also gave me permission to be on "The Bachelorette" if he ever kicks the can, which I hope is never a reality! Oh well, at least I know that I have options! ;) KIDDING, only kidding! I have the best hubby EVER... way better than any old Jesse!

So, that was today. We will see what tomorrow brings! Love!

It has been quite sometime, dear Blog.

Well, needless to say, I am NOT an expert blogger. I'm not sure if it's due to the fact that I don't think anyone finds my life interesting but me or the fact that I have never been so busy in all my life! Maybe it's a little bit of both! But, to the few of you out there who have checked this every so often in hopes for an update from Haney Land, never fear! I have returned and it is my "summer resolution" to update this more in hopes that someday, I will look back on it and laugh at my ramblings. I will warn you-- these won't be deep in the least bit, but you'll hopefully get a bit of an outlook on life here and maybe, once in a while, a little bit of my heart. :)

It has been a whopping FOUR months since my last update and there has been much happening here! First of all, we moved! We now live in an amazing apartment on the third floor of a 98 year old Victorian mansion and we are LOVING it! Considering all the problems we had in our last place (hole in the ceiling of our bathroom, mold growing through the wall in our kitchen, drug dealing neighbors, etc.), we feel like we are living in Disney World! Well, maybe not Disney World, but at least Cinderella's palace! It is an incredibly gorgeous place with all the charm of an old home. Our landlords, who have quickly become friends, have done an absolutely impeccable job keeping it up. I love it here.

In other news... baby news... just kidding! I had you for a minute there, didn't I? Not for a while! :) Seriously though, in other news, I am going to be teaching third grade this next school year! I am so thankful for this change. I absolutely loved my sixth graders this year, but it was no secret that I struggled at times. Primary grades are my heart, so I know that this will be an excellent switch for me. Plus, I will be working with a wonderful veteran teacher who is going to be an excellent mentor for me. All in all, I am enjoying my summer break but will be really excited to go back to school in August!

More news... hmm. We will be taking a vacation in August. Where, you ask? Well, I don't know. All I know is we will be going somewhere but that hasn't been decided. I am SUCH a planner and normally, this would bother me a lot, but I think that my husband has rubbed off on me and I have become more laid back in certain areas. I'm looking forward to going somewhere... the spot has just not been chosen yet! We're hoping for Aspen, but we will have to wait and see.

My summer has been going well so far. I am nannying for a family Monday through Thursday. The job is wonderful. They are very precious children and I get off at 2:30 every day! That gives me just enough time to get stuff done or take a nap. Today, I was very productive. I cleaned the apartment, went to the bank, did laundry and went to the library. This brings me to my final two points. Here they are:

1. OxyClean just might be God's greatest invention.
2. I am obsessed with the library.

I will hit on the OxyClean part of these points first. After getting married and starting to do more consistent laundry, my sweet mother introduced me to the wonder that is OxyClean. I started with a rather small tub of the powder. I would add a scoop to my regular laundry loads (along with detergent, of course) and my laundry would come out as usual. I honestly can't say that I saw a marked difference in our laundry, but, it was nice to know our clothes were extra clean. Soon, I graduated to a large tub of the powdered gold and began using it on everything... clothes, carpet stains, etc. I loved it, but it was hard to mix up a paste every time I had a stain (which is quite often, I must admit). The next time I was at the grocery store, I happened to come across OxyClean in a BOTTLE. Could it be? Yes, it was. It has saved some great pieces of clothing from the stains I have inflicted upon them, my favorite being bright blue ink all over a corduroy coat. I was about to just throw away my faithful old coat, but I decided to give it a try with my OxyClean spray... even though the ink had been dried in for MONTHS! Well, folks, it came out! Corduroy is as good as new! My latest OxyClean victory was today. I took some raspberries to work so I could have them as a snack, but didn't finish them all. I made the mistake of putting them on top of my new white shirt in my bag when I went home (stupid, I know!) and later, when putting away the contents of the bag, I discovered that my beautiful top had five large raspberry colored stains. I almost cried, but I decided to give OxyClean another chance. SHE DID IT (I'm not sure when OxyClean became a girl, but bear with me)! I saturated the stains, ran a few errands, and when I came back... the stains were GONE. Not just faded... completely gone. I am still in shock. It was a great day for me and my OxyClean. We will be friends for life.

On to point number two... the library. Cincinnati has a great library system. You can check out books from any location and return them to any location. This works out well as I had to return some books from the branch near our old house on the same day that I took the kids to another library. I have to compliment the genius who thought that up. I am also continually amazed to discover new books and authors. My current favorite, who has stayed in the top spot for a while now, is Jodi Picoult. I will warn you... her stuff is not happy-go-lucky, feel good material, but it really makes me think. I thoroughly enjoyed her most recent book, Change of Heart. It made me think about it for days on end. Alright, back to the library obsession. I can't get enough of the library or its contents. I could spend all day in any library and be perfectly happy. I also have about half a million books checked out right now, which still excites me! I would much rather read than do anything else. I think my favorite book out of the twenty or so (I'm not kidding!) that I have checked out currently is Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. I'm not a big fan of Martha, but I am a big fan of what she does. I can't say I have ever seen her show, but I love her magazine and I am currently in love with this book. It is about 700 pages, so I will have to renew it several times... either that or buy it. However, it is $50 (crazy!) so I think I will just renew it until kingdom come.



I can't believe I wrote this much and I can't believe that I wrote that much on a CLEANING SUPPLY. Oh, dear. I guess I really am getting into this whole "wife" routine. :) I will start updating on a fairly regular basis, so check back again soon. Thanks for the prompt to get back into this, Tarah and Hayley... it was fun!

I'm not a good blogger...

Well, it's been several months since I've written here and for that I apologize. I guess I shouldn't apologize, seeing as though there are only a few people who read this thing, but still... I'm sure I will love to look back on this someday just to remember what life was like at this stage. I was talking to Lisa the other day about how often I find myself wishing away this time of life in being excited for what's to come in our marriage with new jobs and kids and new places to live, but that I am working on being excited and content with where we are at right now because we'll never be here again. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense... oh, well. I am finally starting to really appreciate the simplicity of our current life. What is so neat is the fact that right now, we really could go anywhere to live and work. It is an amazing time of life and I am enjoying life as it is. :)

It has been a long weeks. On February 3, my Gram passed away very unexpectedly. She was my last grandparent and my precious friend and I miss her everyday. She is in a much better place and with my Papa which is where she wanted to be. It is so hard for us, but much better for her. I think the hardest thing about unexpected deaths is that they are still very present in your everyday life. I cannot tell you how many times I have done something or seen something or cooked something and gone to pick up the phone to call her. I hope it gets easier soon.
Wasn't she the cutest little lady? :) Anyway, I went home this past weekend for her funeral, and other than the actual funeral part, it was the most refreshing weekend. My great uncles flew in for the weekend and we spent a lot of time together. I had forgotten what it's like to have a "grandpa". We had a wonderful time going out for meals, visiting their old home, and going to the Henry Ford museum. We spent almost six hours at the museum and had to leave because it closed.

My Gram's old house. So beautiful!

Uncle Bob and I. I am sitting in the seat where Rosa Parks made history!

I just realized what time it was and I have to run. Have a most wonderful day! :)

Love is in the air...

...or so they think! My sixth graders are all struck with loving feelings for one another as of late. I have had the privilege of hearing about every single crush and "couple" for the last few weeks, and I must say, it is highly amusing. I learn of a new interest each day and I can't do anything but just laugh to myself and try to remember how I felt in sixth grade when I had my first "boyfriend". Our extensive relationship consisted of a 15 second phone call in which he asked me to be his girlfriend and I accepted, followed by a few games of kickball where I only spoke directly to him maybe twice. Oh, young love. It's so underrated. ;) I did have one of my girls tell me tonight that one of the sixth grade "couples" are already talking about what sort of wedding cake they might have. Oh, dear. I told them that was the dumbest thing I've ever heard, because really, it was.

I also had the distinct pleasure of attending the band concert tonight. They are extremely talented musicians... I was very impressed. It was also fun for me to spend some time with my kids outside of the "school" atmosphere. Really, they are incredible people. I am looking forward to seeing how they grow up. They are a great group-- incredibly sensitive and compassionate and just a good group of friends. I am so proud of them; they've already grown a lot since the beginning of the year. I also have a great group of women to work with as well; they are so encouragingly and we laugh constantly. And on a wonderful note, my Dana is pregnant! She's due in July and I am so, so, so excited for her and Corey! I am pulling for a girl and so are they... so that's good. :) Now that she's pregnant, I have baby fever a little bit more than I did... but just a little, so don't worry, Mom! :)

On a totally different note, we have finally found a church here that we are loving. It's a small Baptist church, but it's only a minute away from our house and we love the people and the teaching. It's so refreshing to be at a church with people who love Jesus with their lives and love each other for who they are, despite their weaknesses. It reminds me of a small HPBC, and appropriately enough, it is also HPBC! :) We have met some wonderful people there and are being fed by amazing teaching. We are blessed!

We have a big weekend ahead of us with Tyler's work Christmas party tomorrow and then a day together on Saturday. We are going to go out to dinner on Saturday and then go and see one of my students in a play, so I am very much looking forward to that. I need a good weekend after the long week I had. Christmas is SO close! :)