A Plague on our house!

Yes, I know it's supposed to be "A POX on your house", but what I've been suffering through for the past few days is better described as a plague (right, Cousin Jen?), seeing as I haven't had any pox popping up. Two days of school missed and at least half of the weekend was spent traveling between the couch, the bedroom, and the kitchen, where I made myself hot tea, chicken noodle soup (Lipton, from the box), and warm Airborne shooters. I'm happy to say that I'm currently at about 89% recovered. The last things to recup are always my ears, for some strange reason. I keep swallowing and opening my mouth, trying to get them to clear up. Very bothersome. How did I manage to catch said plague, you ask? Let's just say that it probably didn't help having two students arrive at school with 100+ degree fevers and another that was probably at school for a week with pneumonia before his parents realized he was sick. All of which occured over the course of about one week. Coincidence? I tend to think not.

So, I know it's been forever since I posted. I might not even be posting tonight if I hadn't promised my friend Jeny that I would so I could meet her meme challenges. I will answer two of them:
-My go-to dinner for dinner party: Definitely start out with marinated cheese as an appetizer, it tastes even better than it looks! Main course would probably be Balsamic & Cranberry Glazed Pork tenderloin, again for the looks and taste factor. With that would be my green beans with pignoli and onions and probably a corn casserole. For dessert, there's nothing more fun or decadent than chocolate fondue made in my awesome electric fondue pot, with amaretto and chopped toasted almonds. I would serve the fondue with pound cake cubes, strawberries, bananas, shortbread cookies, and pineapple chunks!

-My Favorite Teacher, ever: During my formative years, I would have to nominate my second grade teacher, Mrs. Ruth Godfrey. I thought she was so beautiful and she was so encouraging. That was the age at which I decided I wanted to be an author when I grew up and even wrote and starred in a play with some of my friends. I remember going to Austria on a skiing trip for two weeks and I wrote her and my class a postcard from the plane. When I got back, I found that Mrs. Godfrey had dedicated an entire bulletin board to that postcard that said "Look! We got a postcard from Carey!" And I remember her asking me to show her how to do a snowplow when I got back.
A very close runner-up would have to be my Shakespeare professor in college, Dr. Gary Walton. He made Shakespeare come alive for me when I was a sophomore. He had us going to several productions, reading aloud, walking all over campus looking to find the best stand-in for the Roman Forum when we were reading Julius Caesar, and performing. The best was when he came up to me at lunch and shook my hand in front of everyone for writing "an awesome review of the production of Macbeth we'd seen as a class." Oh, and he would always extend our paper deadlines at the last minute. I had the biggest crush on that man!

Dr. Happer, who was my professor for Western Civ and History of the South, would have to be the third place winner. She was an awesome teacher who had a powerful way with metaphors (the geography of Europe is like a sandwich, ask me how-- I think I still have my notes somewhere) Happer was tough old broad who had to bring her dog to class one day after Raleigh was devastated by Hurricane Fran and her dog peed on my friend's backpack! The one problem was when I had pneumonia and had to miss a week of class. It practically took an act of Congress to get her to let me make up the quizzes I had missed, so big a proponent of attendance was she!
Jessica B, now that you have a blog, I expect you to answer those questions, too!

Here are some highlights from the past month:
-Sweet D made Salesman of the month again for October! Yay, Sweet D!
-JenyB and I went to the Quilt Festival, which was awesome and inspired me to learn how to sew & quilt. Behold Jeny with one of our favorites from the "show quilt" area:

-JenyB and I also went to the Nutcracker Market last weekend. We were less impressed by that, definitely did not live up to all the hype. The caramel and chocolate apple was yummy, though!

-I hosted my first Southern Living at Home party and reached my qualified consultant status with over $1000 in sales! Thanks to everyone who ordered for helping me achieve that goal so quickly!
-I made a really yummy dinner on Monday night- meatloaf and mashed potaoes. Sweet D and I were happy little piggies!
-Sweet D and his Dad made me a cool divider for my cabinet! See how organized everything is? Holy cutting boards and baking sheets, Batman!

Well, that's all I have to report from the House of Rut.

Tune in after Turkey Day and I may have a picture of our new table and chairs, which are due to arrive this week!