Yes, it has been a shower-ful week, in more ways than one.  But first, a public service announcement of great importance!

Once upon a time, there was a classroom of sixth graders in Minneapolis, Minnesota, excited and ready to start a new school year.  However, many of their families and their school itself lack the money and resources necessary to provide them with the materials for a fulfilling educational experience.  In fact, their teacher has a classroom budget of $100 for the ENTIRE YEAR, and their school does not even have a library.  In short, this teacher, who cared about her kids before she even met them and is passionate beyond words about sharing her love of literature with them and helping them improve their reading skills, is being asked to improve their reading without any books.  Oh, did I mention that this teacher is one of my dearest college friends and an all-around amazing person, teacher, and half-of-a-folk-duo?  Yep, check out The Minnesota Pipe Dream for the full story of Meghan’s rollercoaster ride as a new Teach For America corps member.

But anyway, back to the serious stuff.  If the situation that this wonderful teacher and her potential-filled kiddies are in tugs at your heartstrings like it tugs at mine, head on over to her project page HERE to make a donation through DonorsChoose.org.  Donations can be in any amount, can be anonymous, are tax deductible, and in many cases can be matched by the company you work for!  Any bit helps, people.  Think about being twelve years old again, and how much you loved being wrapped up in a good book.  Think about how much your favorite book, and your favorite teacher, impacted your life.  Oh, you’d like the link to donate again?  Here it is!

In the immortal words of Ryan Howard from The Office, “Teach For America girls are WAY hotter… but they’re nuts!”  It’s true, guys, they’re nuts.  Nuts about READING!  Oh ho ho.  On to my showery life.

Rain Showers!

First, we’ve actually had a couple nights of lovely, lovely rain, which we have been dreadfully needing.  Last week’s 110+ degree days were not going to fly with me for much longer, and luckily it’s been a little cooler since the sprinkly almost-but-not-quite-thunderstorms of last week.

Actual Showers!

Last Sunday, I got up before the sun and trotted out to the beach with 500 other crazies for the OBX Sandbar 5K!  It was pretty funny seeing the mix of people who turned out.  There were a lot of people like me who seemed to just be running casually, but also some who were mega-intense about it (read: doing ridiculously awkward leg stretches in the middle of everyone), and some who seemed like they weren’t quite sure what a 5K was (one lady actually turned up wearing flip flops and didn’t kick them off until almost ten minutes in).  It was nice and breezy, and amazing to see the sun come up over the ocean as we ran along the beach – I am not usually up early enough (and also not working) to take advantage of that view!  Running on sand is tough, though.  I almost wished I’d just taken my sneakers off and run barefoot.  After the race, there was lots of water, yummy orange slices, and tons of free beer (one of the sponsors was Michelob Ultra).  Most people were really excited about this, but given that it was barely 8am, it didn’t really appeal to me.  So, I didn’t place (apparently some people think it’s cool to run 5Ks in seventeen minutes – no joke), but the consolation prize was a pretty awesome swag bag!

T-shirts, bumper stickers, magnets, chapstick, coupons, energy bars (not pictured because they were eaten immediately), and the bag itself!  Pretty sweet.  I was tempted to drape everything over myself all at once and pull a Michael Scott:

Suffice it to say that I was sweaty enough after a beach 5K in the sun to take a very refreshing shower (sorry, it was the only way I could think to tie everything in to the “shower” theme here).

Baby Showers!

After a solid nap and an afternoon at work following the 5K, it was time for Kacey’s baby shower!  There were lots of fun baby games, adorable presents, yummy food, and lots of friends.

It’s a funny thing seeing one of your good friends opening car seats and diaper bags and baby bottles – it made the whole thing a lot more real!  Kacey is going to be an amazing mom, and I’m really excited that I’m now going to be around long enough to meet little Cooper when he’s born in October!  Everyone at the baby shower spent some time with fabric markers and blank onesies making an outfit for the baby, so that Cooper will have personalized onesies made by his mom and dad’s friends for almost every day of the month!

After a few “trial runs,” Penny and I were seized by a stroke of inspiration and came up with this brilliant masterpiece:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m quite proud of the scarf.  Although we endured the teasings of our non-Harry-Potter-fan friends (“What’s a Ravenclaw?  That sounds mean.”  Ohh, Sharon.), Penny and I are pretty certain that this idea will catch on, and we’re actually developing a business plan.  We’re thinking that we could take personalized orders so that people could choose the houses or characters they want on their onesie.  It would be called… wait for it… Potter Babies!  No?  Well, girls can dream.  We had fun with it.  Our original design also boasts the added bonus of calling Chris a Hufflepuff once and for all.

And finally… Wine Showers!

This is really unrelated, but too funny not to share.  The other night, Sarah and I were enjoying a glass of wine out on the deck (which is located right over the carport where Perry is parked), when a rather enthusiastic laughing fit combined with the precarious setting of Sarah’s wine glass on the uneven railing led to a dramatic man overboard moment.  Luckily, Sarah caught her wine glass, so there was no broken glass to clean up, but the wine itself was a goner.  It wasn’t until I went grocery shopping the next morning and went to load the bags into Perry’s trunk that I noticed he’d gotten a nice little wine shower… red wine, no less.

Allllllll down the back of him.  Poor guy.  At least he got his antioxidants for the day!