Virginia is for Lovers

I'm pretty sure I've written approximately 5,000 posts on how much I love Virginia, but what's another one at this point?  We have a friend who is thinking of moving to Virginia and asked me why he should.  Oh, that was a mistake.  I asked him to give me a time limit so I didn't go on for the next 10 hours.  In my short time limit, I came up with this:

1. the people are amazing- everyone is so kind and friendly, the "southern hospitality" you always hear about is 100% true (and if you want to meet the very best people in VA I could introduce them to you because coincidentally I'm related to them!)
2. it is beautiful there- trees, flowers, old buildings, etc.
3. history is everywhere you go (maybe this is only tempting for a nerd like me) I love seeing the oldest settlements in the country, presidents' homes, and old battle fields all in one day!
4. the weather is excellent- once you get over the humidity (and you will, I promise) the weather is perfect- hot in the summer with massive thunderstorms, delightful in the fall and spring, and not bad in the winter (don't count this winter, it was a fluke)

Have I convinced you yet?  My love for Virginia is one of the reasons I am dying to win the giveaway on my amazing interior designer friend Kirsten's blog.  You should check out her blog A. because it is fabulous and she is so talented and B. so you can enter the giveaway too!  (But if you win, I expect you to choose Virginia for your state.) 

fashionista

Getting dressed this morning was somewhat of a struggle.  It was one of those awkward days when I was dying to wear Spring clothes yet it was freezing outside.  Add to that predicament the fact that we are way past laundry day and yet haven't found time/energy to do it all.  So I gave up and pulled on an old classic- red pants I got in the tenth grade and a thick black cardigan I also wore regularly in the tenth grade.  I was definitely sending a white flag to my closet- "Fine, I'll wear that outfit I've worn a million times for about a million years and look like the loser that I really am."

I arrived at school feeling a little self-conscious that I looked like a flashback of my fifteen-year-old self (not a good thing) but I soon ran into my gorgeous friend who complimented my outfit!  Minutes later I ran into another gorgeous friend (let me tell you, teachers are hotties) who again complimented my outfit.  Well, my day pretty much rocked after that, and I'm now going to bust out all my clothes from tenth grade to see if they have the same effect.

 This (unfortunately) is not from 10th grade, but here is my fabulous outfit at Thanksgiving my freshman year of college. Don't worry, I wore better shoes with it this time :)

The only thing better than Spring Sunshine

is a Spring Thunderstorm.

I love you rain, just please don't stay long enough that you drown all the beautiful flowers and ruin the trails so my mountain biker hubby gets grouchy. 

Pizza Party!

This week was pretty rough for a number of reasons.  It was the first week back after Spring Break.  It was my first full week of school in 4 weeks.  The weather finally turned nice, and we had to stay inside all day (except for the loooong recess breaks I would give.)  And, we started end-of-year testing, which is completely miserable for all involved. 

So I decided we deserved a pizza party for making it through.  It is finals week so Bryan didn't have class and he kindly agreed to pick up the pizzas and bring them to school.  As we neared lunch time my kids' eyes were glued to the windows looking for their pizza.  Finally, our hero arrived with pizza boxes in hand.  One of my students called out, "Mrs. Martinez, I didn't know your husband is a pizza delivery boy!"

If he wasn't so close to getting his masters (one more semester!) we would probably ponder a career switch to pizza delivery boy, because he was really darn good at it.  But, I think  we'll stick to the engineering thing.

Ode to Spring Break

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. sleeping in every day
2. re-reading The Alchemist, starting To Kill a Mockingbird and Leadership and Self-Deception
3. getting ahead on lesson plans (pretty sure that hasn't ever happened in my life)
4. trying a few new recipes/actually making dinner for a change
5. dollar movies- Dear John and Sherlock Holmes
6. getting caught up on Glee episodes (so excited for Tuesday!)
7. finishing a sewing project and starting another
8. eating my first Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcake9. going to the Creamery and making fun of all the awkward daters (we can make fun because we were once there)
10. getting caught up on laundry, cleaning, and re-filling my refrigerator
11. watching Duke win and gloating over my not-too-bad bracket
12. going to the gym (okay, maybe only did this once)
13. going to Dear Lizzie with some of my favorite girls
14. going on a bike ride with Bry
15. reading some of my favorite talks from General Conference
16. taking mid-day naps

The only thing that could make me love you more is for you to never end! Please?!?!

A Love Story

The real reason we went to Virginia was for Bryan's brother Trevor's wedding. He married a cute girl named Kirsten who I love because A. she is hilarious, B. she is so sweet, C. she's going to be a fabulous sister-in-law, and D. she's from Virginia!This isn't really my story to tell, but their story is so great I wanted to share. I'm not sure when Trev and Kristen started dating, but I know that it was before Bryan and I started dating in April of 2006. They dated for a while then in 2008 they both left on missions. For two years Trevor was in Brazil and Kristen was in Indonesia. They wrote back and forth (it still amazes me that letters could actually make it from Indonesia to Brazil and vice versa) during that time. Kristen came home in November, then Trev got back in January. After many years of waiting, they got engaged in February and were married on March 26th. We were so glad to be there for the exciting event (even if it was freezing cold!) It was also fun to be back at the Washington D.C. Temple because we hadn't been inside since we were sealed there in July of 2007.

All the Martinez ladies plus Grandma Griffin

All the guys

Cupcake Mess