School Days Are Upon Us

It's that time again, the first day of school is quickly approaching----tomorrow! I think my classroom looks ready to go, what do you think?

View from the door

With upwards of 30 students this year, I decided to put my kiddos in rows. I had to rearrange a bit, so you see my word wall has moved to above my teaching area. It's so cute with it's vintage alphabet cards, I like it.

View from the back door

Here you can see that each student has their pile of supplies/books/folders they need for the first week of school. And their activity for when they first come in. It's an activity I usually do with 2nd graders, a "Treasure Chest" but I think if parents and I help out, my little firsties can do it!

My family for the next 180 school days

I'm excited because it's my first year officially as Mrs. Gianino. That should be fun for the little ones to learn :)

Happily tomorrow is a minimum day so we only have students until 1:00. A good way to get back in the swing of things for both students and teacher ;)

Oh, I'm so glad I have my coffee maker ready for me tomorrow morning...I plan to be at school by 7:30. That's....early for me. :)

I'll be back tomorrow to let y'all know how it went!

Heroes in a Halfshell, Turtle Power!

I couldn't resist starting my post about our turtles with a quote from our childhoods - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were awesome.

Anyway, here is the story of how two baby red-eared sliders found their way to our dining room table.

Picture this: I'm in a co-worker's classroom and I see a small tank with turtles. "How cute," I tell her. She tells me the story of how she ended up with them. Her cousin's adult turtles had laid eggs and lo and behold, there were baby turtles they didn't have space for and after a party and a few beers, my friend ended up taking these two cuties home.

A week or so went by, and my teacher friend decided she didn't want the turtles in the classroom because baby turtles tend to carry salmonela and she didn't want her students exposed. But the longer they were at her apartment, the more she realized that she couldn't take care of them either - she would forget to feed them and felt bad.

Somehow, someway, when she asked me if Joe and I wanted some turtles, I said yes (after checking with Joe of course). So, the turtles came home with me a few days later, complete with EVERYTHING she had purchased for them, pretty nice deal.

When I brought them home, they fit in a rectangle Ziplock container. So tiny and cute!

Once home, transported in their tiny Ziplock container we set up their little tank on a cabinet we had. We thoughtfully named them Wyatt and Doc, after characters in Joe's favorite Western movie, Tombstone.

Cutie turtle climbing a "large" rock.

These things grew and grew and grew and needed a bigger tank. The second tank still fit on the cabinet. My nieces and nephews love to come over and feed the turtles or hold them.

Wyatt has always been much bigger than Doc.

They got so big, I had to put them in the bathtub!

One day, I was cleaning their tank and put them in that pyrex container seen above. Not a second after I did this were they running around on the floor.....New tactic - when I clean the tank, Wyatt and Doc get to take a mini-vacation in the bathtub.

Aww, sisterly love.

Now Wyatt and Doc are about two years old, and we've come to discover they are both girls. Sorry ladies, we are not changing your names :). Above is a photo of their favorite past time, "sunning" themselves on their dock. This is a rare photo. Usually when I see them like this and try to sneak up on them to take a picture, they jump into the water and hide. Thanks girls.

Cleaning turtle tanks is fun!

Here you see my newest idea - having my nieces who love the turtles so much help me clean the tank every month. We really need a bigger filter, but it's not in the budget at the moment. These girls are such a big help to their Auntie Lo: we've made it a competition. The last time we cleaned the tank it took a total of 55 minutes start to finish. Next time, we'll see if we can beat our time, and celebrate with a treat!

Just keep swimming :)

Our turtles are great pets and good entertainment :). Just the other night we went out to sushi and brought the leftover sashimi. They think this is fantastic. They will push each other out of the way to get at it. It is hysterical. Next time, maybe I'll get an action shot of eating sushi out of Joe's hand!

Things to do Before I'm 30...(Part 1)

This summer, while contemplating leaving my summer job, my friend Jen sent me this link: Things Every Woman Should Have and Know Before She's 30. Mostly, because I had never officially quit a job before. All the jobs I had in the past were jobs that ended because I graduated or summer came to an end: the job in the church office, the job at my high school's office, my summer jobs at a local tv and radio station, and my most favorite college job. I've held my teaching position now for over 6 years, but my summer job was one that I needed to leave for many reasons that don't matter for my purposes here. The fact that Jen sent me this link is what I meant to write about, so I have digressed quite a bit, whoops!

Anyway, quitting a job before I turned thirty became a mission. And I made it, with 6 months to spare. And as Joe and I consider the future with little ones our bucket list for "before kids" began to coincide with my "before 30" bucket list.

So tonight, I conquered another item on my list, that maybe I didn't realize was on my list.

I tried sashimi.

"WHAT?!" you say?

Yes, yes, I did. And I liked it. And might even eat it again. It looked yummy on Joe's plate so I said, "I think I'd like to try that before you feed it to the turtles at home." And I took my chopsticks and I did. A tiny piece of tuna and a tinier piece of salmon.

Meanwhile, this got me thinking about what else I'd like to accomplish before I'm thirty here in a few short months (seriously, where did this year even go?!)

While I don't have a solid bucket list, I'm sure I'll be adding to it....

So far:

1. Quit a job.
2. Try sashimi.
3. Think of other things I'd like to do before I'm thirty.

New Uses for Old Things

So, I had a candy buffet at my wedding. Which was awesome, except that at the end of the day, I had a whole bunch of adorable vases and apothecary jars that I had no idea what to do with them.

Candy jars (almost) ready to go for our wedding day!

Until the other day when I was inspired by something I saw on pinterest (of course). I decided to take my favorite jar (on the left!) and put my nail polishes in it. They had been in a Caboodles box in the closet, but now they are just looking adorable on my bathroom counter. I'm sure Joe loves it too. Hehe.

Looking good repurposed!

On a side note, we've also got a nod to Joe's sister's wedding on our bathroom counter. The peacock feathers are from her bridal shower and wedding. I repurposed some old cheap necklaces to fill some bud vases and voila! Cost to us -- $0.00 :)

How's that for budget decorating?

What We Love Wednesday

This week's list of loves....

image from en.wikipedia.org

Every summer we catch on to a new show that we haven't been watching. This summer we've so far caught up on 3 seasons of Breaking Bad, and are almost current. In case you don't know about this show...It's dark. Essentially it's about a chemistry teacher turned meth chef. It didn't sound appealing at all to me when we started watching. But considering we went through season 3 in the course of a weekend, that should tell you something...

Which brings me to...

image from en.wikipedia.org

Without you, Netflix, we could not stream Breaking Bad, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Pretty Little Liars (oh wait, that's a show only I like....) on our....

image from apple.com

Apple TV. This adorable device lets us stream Netflix right to the tv. And youtube, and itunes, videos we have on the computer, and so much more. It's a tv kind of love.

There you have it.  A glimpse into the loves and lives of the Gianinos for this week :)

What's Cooking?

A month ago, Joe and I went out to a new Chinese restaurant and decided to try Szechuan Chicken. It was so delicious, I had to make it for dinner that week! I found a good recipe on Cooking Light's website and adapted it to fit the veggies I really like in my stir-fries. Since this was before I started blogging, I hadn't thought to take any pictures or write about my experience.

Then, I made it again last night (and was so excited because I didn't have to go to the store for ANY ingredients, I had them all in the house, whoo hoo!!)

And, forgive me. I meant to snap some pictures while I was cooking, but I only remembered to take a picture of the ingredients. That's what happens when I'm watching Eureka on Netflix in the background (thank you iPad, but I digress...)

The original recipe can be found here. Really, I didn't change too much. Joe really likes this recipe so it's another that will be in the rotation.

Szechuan Chicken Stir-Fry:

What you need:

• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, divided
• 1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (I substitued red wine vinegar)
• 2 teaspoons chile paste (I used sambal oelek) (less if you don't want it too spicy)
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips (I used green because that's what I had)
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 cup diagonally cut celery
• 1/4 cup (1-inch) slices green onions
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 cups hot cooked long-grain white rice (I used basmati rice)

<Ahh, all the ingredients were in my house!>

What to do:

1. 1. Combine 2 teaspoons sesame oil and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a small bowl. Keep aside.
2. 2. Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 tablespoon canola oil; swirl. 
3. 3. Add chicken; stir-fry 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.
4. 4. Add remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil; swirl. Add bell peppers, celery, and green onions. Stir-fry 1 minute. 
5. 5. Add broth mixture; cook 30 seconds or until thick. 
6. 6. Return chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes or until chicken is done. 
7. 7. Spoon 1/2 cup rice onto each plate, top with stir-fry mixture.

Enjoy!

Thursday Thoughts

I was originally going to post this as "What we love Wednesday," and then I realized....it was Thursday. So Thursday thoughts it is. Or, a love note to Costco and its awesome return policy and/or Keurig coffee brewers everywhere.

Photo from www.keurig.com

Some time last year, who knows when, Joe bought us a fantastic Keurig single-serve coffee maker from Costco. Can you say love at first sight?  We decided that this was great for us - we rarely make more than one cup of coffee at a time - and with our opposite schedules most days, it didn't make sense to make a pot of coffee everyday.  This was our savior. And we loved it. Dearly. (Ok, I loved it, Joe probably liked it.) And the great thing about the Costco version is that it came with 60 k-cups in the package - and a "my k-cup" that we could use our own coffee in. I even had made a "coffee station" in our kitchen - the small counter space worked well with a "pod drawer" where store the coffee pods below the Keurig. Single greatest item in my kitchen.

And then about a few months ago,  our beloved Keurig died. We tried cleaning it the recommended way, and was going to call the company to see what they could do, but it was out of warranty since it was over a year old. 

Then yesterday we had an epiphany: We bought it at Costco. Costco is awesome and is known for a good return policy. So, on a whim after Joe got off work, we lugged the machine. I thought I would have to explain the whole saga of how the button works sporadically but no, as soon I as I said, it doesn't work anymore, they looked up when we bought it and gave us a "Costco cash card" to replace it.

Ah, perfection. Not only do we have the updated model of our beloved coffee maker, but also a new selection of 60 new coffee pods. Also, a new method of using our machine: filtered water. Apparently this makes all the difference.

Here's too many more delicious cups of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, apple cider, and more! :D

Thanks Costco!