Girls Night, Craft, and Other Fun

First thing. Received an e-mail yesterday from the one lady that will be a WorldTeacher in American Samoa this school year that had found my blog and had asked me some questions. Guess what? She has been assigned Tafuna High School science, which means she will likely be in what was my classroom. Crazy.

My friend Kyle is getting ready to head to Micronesia next week. He is the friend that I found out about WorldTeach through. He was looking to head there last year, but things did not fall into place at the time. Then, I ended up going to American Samoa. Now, it is his turn. I am currently experiencing the watching someone get ready to go part - a different perspective. Interesting, and it makes me think about how everyone else was feeling when I decided I needed to go.

A friend of my friend Karena was performing in a play through the Omaha Red Theatre Monday night, and I decided to go. I had gone with Cassie and Karena once before to a show in which Holly played. Turned out to be a good girls' night. Cassie, Karena, Sarah, Jessie, and I went to Carlos O Kelly's for dinner first. I tried a light enchilada with a side of rice. Yum and only 320 calories. Cassie, Sarah, and I also tried the punched margarita. When I had gone the day before with my Mom I noticed this summer deal going on with these new drinks to try. We are going to try all 7 of them and earn our own margarita kit at the end. We have punch cards for the summer line-up. :-) Fun for the girls.

Sarah went back home after dinner to work on some homework, and the rest of us headed to Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs for "Boheme", the show.

Cool little outdoor venue in Council Bluffs.

The performance included 26 scenes that were written up by the cast themselves. (We talked with Holly about it afterward.) They did the scenes in random orders too. They weren't chronological or anything. All stand alone. They also had political messages and were interesting. It was a cool thing to see.

The girl in the red dress is Karena's friend from high schoool - Holly. I have spent some time with her before, and she is fun.

After that, we came home to find that Kyle wanted to go out for some ice cream. Not that I needed any, but it was fun and I had some calorie room left for the day. Ended up at Sonic where Kyle insisted we all get larges, as they were half price. Only $2 for a large, when a mini usually costs $2.19. Oye. They also didn't let me get away with just ordering vanilla. Boring they said. The banana crema pie one was okay, but I still wished I had my plain old vanilla. Next time, there's no arguing. haha

Woke up Tuesday morning and got my workout in first thing including 30 minutes of some Insanity and 12 minutes of some solo Zumba. Made myself a single pancake for my late breakfast with a side of banana, strawberry, and Greek yogurt. Delightful.

I attempted baking some peanut butter cookies. I say attempted because I ended up burning the bottoms. Typical. I should know better than to try and bake cookies. I've never been very good at it. I like to experiment in the kitchen, but baking cookies is not my cup of tea. haha. When Cassie and I both tried one though, they still had good flavor. Sure... a little burnt at the bottom, but they were still good. Having Cassie say that was nice. She's a good baker. Not my worst batch. Decent, actually.

Cassie and Sarah wanted to attempt some of the melted crayon on canvas art pieces. Tuesday afternoon was the time for that. Here is Sarah and Cassie blow drying away.

Here is when I first started. I cut out part of my photo and temporarily taped it, so I had a general idea where some of the outlines were.

Started with some shades of blue for the ocean first. This was my favorite part. Makes me almost want a smaller canvas and just do the shades of blue for a water canvas. Maybe some day.

On the left you can see the photo I was inspired by. On the right you can see my final product - my "creative" and slightly abstract rendition of Pola Island, American Samoa. Up close you see more of the texture. I hung it on the wall in my room, and it looks good.

After dinner, which included some grilled veggies on the grill, the kids went out to Carlos O Kelly's. One more mugorita night for Kyle before he leaves. A little thing we use to do when living at Morningside. Here's the four of us plus Sarah's dogs after dinner looking all nice. We had a good time enjoying one another's company and laughing the hardest I have in a while. Almost forgot how much my friends could make me laugh. I am very thankful for these three people and cherish this time I get to spend with them.