summer is here.

and I have never been more glad.

this year was hard.  I don’t know why it felt especially hard, but it was.  it might have been because of the class from hell I had last fall, or the one hour of algebra 2 I didn’t like teaching.  I don’t know what it was, but it was hard.

I still loved (and love) my job, and I still know that it is where I belong.  and I am so thankful for the break we get each summer, to renew, to get some balance, and to reset before beginning again.  and I will choose to be thankful.

thankful for kids like this:

who bring me things like this:

this was the first teacher appreciation gift I have ever gotten in eight years, and it made the hard year worth it.

this summer, my plans are:

–run at least 150 miles
–help rewrite some curriculum and try not to punch anyone in the process
–try to remember to stay hydrated when I’m not teaching
–turn 30 in the mountains
–take in the glory (and the cooler temps) of the pac nw
–see some very, very good people in the pac nw
–get some sleep
–go to the pool
–trust that God is bigger than dental misfortunes
–read James
–start on a gigantic quilt project

how about you?  I am pretty excited.

 

instacali.

so I went to socal last week.  it was pretty freakin spectacular in every way.  I went for a tru conference, and in case you don’t know already, I LOVE TRU.  it is awesome.  it is the curriculum we use for sunday school and it is really very excellent.  and the conference was so…..non-conferency.  like the worship was actually good and not just a rock concert, I didn’t find myself wanting to get up and get a drink or walk around, it was fairly small (as far as conferences go, there were probably like 300 or 400 people total), and everything was useful and kept my interest.  and I have lots of ideas now of things I want to do.  I even got Matt (who is in the videos we use for worship each week) to let me record a video of him on my phone to take greetings back to my kids and let me tell you, they couldn’t even believe it and they freaked out.  here is our experience in instagram.  (there was an instagram contest with lots of categories, and when they told us about it I turned to my group and said I WILL WIN and I that is exactly what I did.  I won two categories and won some books and a t-shirt!  there were lots of funny jokes about instagram throughout the conference and my favorite was that filters make everything more spiritual.  there is something pretty awesome about making jokes about things being more spiritual.)

mostly, I was excited that this was our scenery.  I am just about done with school and let me tell you that I am DONE WITH SCHOOL.  over it.  so it was nice to be somewhere where I didn’t have to think about it. I was pretty close to giving some of my students the finger, and that sounds like a good way to get fired, so I was happy that I was able to step away for a little bit and take a breather.  I know that sounds terrible to anyone with a job that has to work all year, but these last few weeks are a really tough push.  I love my job more than anything, but I would get burnt out pretty fast if I didn’t get some balance.  (this photo won for best artsy photo).

WE WENT TO THE BEACH!!!  I love the beach.  it was really lovely.

this one might be my favorite.

this is my other winner for the category of taking a picture of someone taking a picture of someone taking a picture.  another category was a photo with new friends, so this shows both of those things.  it’s not a great picture, but these are my new friends from austraila and I really like them.  they were pretty awesome and it was fun to hang out with them.  side note:  australians don’t know what chili is.  also?  it is much harder to explain chili than you would think it is.  also?  in general we ate really well in socal.  there is nothing I love more than sharing a good meal with good friends.

this is me and my friend cindy.  we were kind of pushy about wanting some sushi.  TOTES WORTH IT.  best sushi of my life, duh.

I was also kind of pushy about making it here, because COME ON I LOVE CHEESEBURGERS.  also totes worth it.

getting home was kind of a mess because there was bad weather in dallas. we ended up getting so delayed at dfw that our flight didn’t leave until after midnight.  the flight from oc to dfw was particularly bad, because it was FREEZING for the first half (like so freezing the big huge guy next to me was complaining too), it took 4 hours instead of the normal 2, and the (ADULT GROWN UP) man behind me was kicking my seat the whole time.  but, even with all that, I will never get tired of the window seat.  no matter how many times I fly, I never get tired of looking out the window.  especially at cities, especially at night.  or during incredible sunsets.  worth it.

 

…cold oatmeal.

so….as promised, I will tell you how the various oatmeal stuffs turned out.

in a nutshell?  not good.  here is my summary:

1.  overnight oatmeal:  I ate the apple cinnamon for breakfast on monday.  it was fine while I was eating it, and it kept me SUPER full all morning (something that never, ever happens with anything else), but…….every time I thought about the cold oatmeal I got really grossed out.  does that ever happen to you?  something is fine when you are eating it, but then thinking about eating it sounds gross?  just me?  so the next day when I tried to eat the other kind I was just too grossed out at the thought of cold oatmeal to stomach it.  so, this is not something I think I will be doing again, but I think I am going to make an effort to eat more oatmeal (just hot like normal, not cold).  usually I don’t go for oatmeal because I always want more than one packet (yes packet, they have some good healthier ones now that come in tall pouches that will measure the water too), but I think if I did go ahead and eat two packets, it would be okay, because it would keep me full enough to not want to go in search of candy by 3rd hour (and extra oatmeal calories is probably way better for me than the junk food calories I’d go looking for later).

2.  oatmeal smoothies:  I have nothing good to say about these.  the texture was pretty offensive and I couldn’t stand to drink more than one sip.  I love smoothies, but to me these were more like slime or slop than what I think of as a smoothie.  a few weeks ago in sunday school I was telling the kids about the prodigal son and how he ate the pig’s slop, and these smoothies seemed just like what I always imagined “slop” would look like.  gross.  I have no desire to eat something that I might associate with slop.  I’ll stick to smoothies that get their texture from frozen fruit or ice.

so….sorry.  no glowing reviews here today.  stick with the coconut limeade!!

ps–side note:  I do think the chia seeds added to the oatmeal helped with the staying full aspect, so I might add those to hot oatmeal as a boost (plus I still have a ton since I had to buy them in a bag).  also, I am very excited about the powdered peanut butter, and maybe using it with my standby peanut butter chocolate banana shake that’s my all time favorite.  that’s my favorite flavor combination, so it will be nice that it won’t be so calorie-spendy when I enjoy it (which is….all the time).  I don’t think I would want to use it to like….make a sandwich or something (the label says you can mix it with water and that sounds a little sketch to me)….but I think it is super suited to something like a smoothie (or baking/cooking).  over and out.

 

pinterest eats.

so…pinterest.  honestly, I don’t get it.  I mean, I get it, but….it has no power over me.  which is strange, because it seems like something that is SO up my alley that would suck me in for hours.  and I read about how it does that to pretty much everyone ever, and how it takes up all their time, and makes them feel inadequate, and inspires them, and blah blah blah.  I mean, it’s a great idea and all, but I spend maybe ten minutes a week looking through it and that’s it.  and if this is you, I’m sorry, but if I see one more stupid picture of a little kid’s birthday party with little labels on the cupcakes and flag bunting on the wall and fancy kool-aid in mason jars wrapped in burlap….let me tell you.  I mean, seriously.  to me, that is not something I aspire to.  I digress.  I think that I have mostly pinned food stuff and quilts.  (sorry for the rant.  I waste plenty of time doing nothing so I am not one to judge you if you feel like cupcake labels are the greatest).  (BUT SRSLY, COME ON).

and this weekend?  kind of on accident, I made like four things I had pinned on pinterest.  it wasn’t like my goal or anything, and it was actually a really busy weekend, but I did a little cooking and it was all from pinterest.  I will report on two of the things and get back to you on the other two.

also, disclaimer, I did not take a single photo of either of these.  pictures link to original source.  

first:  mini chicken pot pies.

I assure you that mine were not nearly this pretty.  but they were very, very tasty, and tonight they reheated pretty well.  I did reheat them in the oven, so we’ll see how it goes on the microwave train tomorrow.  I used plain buttermilk biscuits, the little wimpy ones, so they didn’t go up so high on the sides.  but they were fine and not too crazy overflowing.  as per my usual, I did not measure anything, so I used WAY too much chicken and WAY too many veggies.  so I had a ton of filling left over.  lesson learned.  (well…as in, I’ll know not to use so much next time, not as in I’ll start measuring).  my favorite thing about this was that I was smart and only used veggies I love.  chicken pot pie was my favorite meal at the derb, but somehow I always ended up with the one with the most carrots and green beans (ugh).  so it was nice to use peas, corn and broccoli.  I also used cream of chicken soup with herbs, YUM.  so this is not exactly a meal of real food, but it was pretty easy and satisfying and not super high in calories.  I may count this as one of my new standbys.  we’ll see.  I would totally recommend this.  I think it would be great for kids too.  or…picky eaters in general.

next….HUGE SUCCESS!!!!!
with….limonada de coco!  (coconut limeade)

so…this looked pretty delicious, but I was pretty unfamiliar with cream of coconut.  coconut is not my favorite thing in the whole world–I enjoy it sometimes, in some foods, but not always.  I do, however, love the smell, and it’s pretty easy to claim coconut lime verbena as my favorite smell from bath and body works.  I wanted to try this…so I looked at the store and it took me FOREVER to find the cream of coconut.  heads up to you, it’s by the drink mixers (like for margaritas or bloody marys) and it is DEFINITELY not the same as coconut milk.  it came in a can, or in a squeeze bottle, and I (very wisely, I learned later) chose the squeeze bottle (hy-vee had this kind, way cheaper than amazon).  so when I get home and check out this bottle, I’m like “this is SUPER heavy.  what the heck is in here?”  so I check it out, and the recipe calls for ONE CUP of this stuff.  I check out the nutrition info, and find out that the serving size is 2 oz, which is 1/4 cup.  AAAAAnd, in that 2 oz, there are 267 calories.  ummmm….WHAT IN THE FREAKIN HECK.  I do not want a drink, no matter how refreshing, that costs me more than a thousand calories.  so, I decided to try changing it based on what I had on hand, and seeing how it worked out, and OH MAN.  I hit the jackpot.  you guys.  this is SO. GOOD.  for real.  it was such a treat and it was so tasty and fantastic.  bobby and lindsey showed up ten minutes later and I made them some and they agreed.  delicious.  we all agreed that it had plenty of coconut flavor, even with using so much less cream of coconut.  although none of us are huge coconut fans anyway, so maybe you would disagree.

so…here is what I did to change it (and lose about 800 calories–this one should be less than 200):

mix:
about 1 cup vanilla almond milk, (or more)
one or two tablespoons cream of coconut (which is why you want the squeeze bottle and not the can…save it for next time)
about 2 tablespoons lime juice (which would probably be better fresh, sorry I was lazy today)
if you need it sweeter add some sugar or truvia or agave or something.

mix it up with a shaker and ice, OR, if you have a magic bullet or a blender, blend it in there with a few ice cubes to make it all nice and cold.

grab a straw and enjoy your summer.

next up:  overnight oatmeal and oatmeal smoothies.  in the fridge now!  look for opinions soon.

 

30 before 30: book rankings.

rankings; plus some additional movie commentary.

1.  through painted deserts–I just love donald miller.  that’s all there is to it.  we saw blue like jazz this week and I liked it.  it really, really resonated with me, but I don’t think it has mass appeal.  which is fine.  it was weird, but after reading several of his books, I get it, and I know what he means.  I don’t think a lot of people would necessarily pick up on it from just seeing the movie, they might just be like “umm….what?” but I get it.  it really speaks to where I think I am in reference to God and culture, “christianity” and society.  my facebook feed is weird.  I have friends who are theology students who post wordy and judgmental quotes about how God hates our society, and friends who think God is crap and post links to articles discrediting Him.  and I don’t think those first people are accomplishing anything for the kingdom.  and it makes me mad.  I digress.  I just love mr. miller.  I love his writing.  I am so glad he went to reed.  he has a gift, and every time I pick up his pages I benefit.  I feel like we are friends.  and I think he would say the same about me.

2.  the help–oh boy, I still haven’t gotten over how much I loved this book.  if you haven’t read it yet, do it.  it is so very good.  as far as movies go, I got this one but haven’t watched it yet.  which is a little nuts.  lindsey and bobby and I have been watching sunday night movies and popcorn, maybe I can sneak this one in soon.  I am expecting great things.  will I be let down?  I hope not.

3.  true grit–people.  this book is so good.  anyone would like it.  and it is such an easy read.  you can read my post about how much I loved this book, but for now I MUST address the movies.  first, the one from 1969.  oh man.  I’m going to go ahead and say it:  this movie was bad.  not horrible bad, but definitely bad.  it was not terribly true to the book, but it mostly missed the tone of the book.  the thing I loved so much about the book was the attitude, the snark, the hilarious dry humor.  and none of that was present in this version.  especially in mattie–I think I can say that this was one of the most terrible casting decisions of all time.    kim darby was so awful.  she didn’t look like mattie (in fact, she looked very much like my best friend’s husband, I am not kidding), and her attitude and character was so off.  it made me really angry.  I said so like 40 times during the movie.  bobby and lindsey kept saying “you will like the new one better, we promise.”  the other thing I have to mention is how hilarious the rating is.  it is rated G.  G people.  let me tell you about some of the things that happened in this movie:  3 people got hung (shown), like 10 people got shot point blank, a guy chopped another guy’s fingers off with a hatchet, and they said sonofabitch and dammit several times.  none of this is offensive to me, just hilarious that it was rated G.  what in the heck 1969!  second, the one from 2010.  YES.  yes yes yes.  this movie was great.  hailee steinfeld was spot on and played such a better mattie (ps she is going to be petra in ender’s game!!!!  omg so excited, that is one of my all time favorite books).  the people who made this movie must have actually read the book, and they did it justice.  matt damon was hilarious, and so was jeff bridges.  (the only character that was better in the old movie was mr. lee).  so much better.  so very much better.

4.  northanger abbey–this book also ranks number 4 on my list of jane austen books.  pretty great, but not as good as some of the others.  I did like the movie, but you know I am a character person, and it is just harder for me to relate to catherine.  the movie was very well done, however.

5.  the kite runner–had I not read the four books above, this one could have easily taken the top spot.  so good.  so well written, such deep characters, such a compelling story.

6.  of mice and men–classic steinbeck.  an easy read, but at the same time, a really, really hard read.  this book affected me a great deal.

7.  the pearl–again, steinbeck is my homie.  I enjoy his writing a great deal.  the grapes of wrath is next on the list.

8.  the devil in the white city–I really wanted this to be higher up.  this is a classic case of expectations set too high for me.  a likable book, but a little slow for my taste.

9.  life of pi–such a weird book.  if I was basing my rankings solely on endings this one would be way higher up.  the rest of it was too slow for me.  I still have a lot of questions about this book and would love to discuss it with someone who has read it!

10.  let the great world spin–I had no trouble putting this at the bottom of this list.  I did not like this book!  it was hard to get through, and though there were some redeeming parts, not nearly enough to make it worth it.  lame.  don’t read this book.

so there you have it.  it has been good for me to be motivated to read more.  I’m currently reading birdsong, which, let’s be honest, I am only reading because I want to watch the masterpiece miniseries with eddie redmayne in it  (I’ll love you forever jack!)  so far it’s pretty good, but MAN is there a lot of sex!  I mean really!  I think the war is about to start so maybe the focus is going to shift?  the love story is pretty great, but the author is really toying with my emotions right now.  the characters are pretty interesting, and I am curious to see where it goes.  it’s feeding my 1910s anglophile self while downton abbey is on hiatus.

I still have 9 or 10 books in my queue, but….any recommendations?  I will gladly take them!

 

honestly?

Dear Parents.

Here are some things I would like you to know.

1.  Your kid is pretty amazing.  You wouldn’t believe some of the things they can do.  Know them, and give yourself an opportunity to see these things.

2.  Guess what!  Outside of school, grades don’t matter much.

3.  Good people who have good lives, good jobs, and are happy in general, didn’t all get straight As.

4.  Your child is not a failure if they get a C on a test.

5.  It is important that your child tries hard, but their best may not be perfect, and that’s okay.

6.  If you tell me to “LET ME KNOW RIGHT AWAY IF HER GRADE DROPS BELOW A 95%”, I am totally judging you as a bad parent.  Sorry.  I have seen the effect this has on your child.

7.  I didn’t usually have an A in math, and I am a math teacher.  I have struggled with math more than I have succeeded, and I am still good at what I do.

8.  Trying to get your child to take pre-algebra as a 6th grader is completely unnecessary and causes more harm than good.  Not every 10th grader’s brain is developed enough to be ready for calculus.  And if you do push them into that early program, don’t get mad when they are crazy stressed out four years later, or can’t make 100% on every assignment or test.

9.  Social skills are more important than aptitude.  Especially in real life.

10.  Fight the urge to compare your kid to other students.  Help them find their strengths and their passions and encourage them, instead of asking why they weren’t as good at that one thing as that one other kid.

Sincerely,
Your awesome kid’s teacher.

 

5. read 10 books (10/10): The Devil in the White City

and with this, goal 5. read 10 books is accomplished.  yes!

so this book.  it came highly recommended from my friend tommy (or timmy, as my iphone likes to say).  and I think my expectations were too high.

I did like this book.  my only issue was that it was a little too slow.  it jumped around a lot, and while sometimes that is a good thing, it was a little confusing.  overall I would give this book a B+.  I loved all the architecture, but not as much as I wanted to because I think I wanted more pictures.  I think I need to investigate the world’s fair of 1893 a little on my own.  I wish I could go and see the exposition…walk around and see all the buildings.  I had a hard time picturing them in my mind.  also?  I love chicago.  it is such a great city.  I love big cities in general.  so it was pretty great to read about it some more.  and it was crazy to read about hh holmes.  what in the heck.  why did he kill all those people?  I think my favorite thing to read/learn about was the ferris wheel.  even though ferris wheels are my #2 biggest fear, it was so fascinating to learn about the first one.  honestly I think I wouldn’t have been as stressed out by that one–the cars were all enclosed.  my main fear with ferris wheels is the lack of restriction–I feel as if you could fall out really easily–so I don’t think it would have been as scary in an enclosed car.  did you know that, at the time, it was taller than every skyscraper in chicago???  this is insane to me.  I mean, buildings are a lot taller now than they were in 1893, but to think of a ferris wheel that was taller than every building so far just blows my mind.  and that nothing like it had ever been built–it was based on just what the builders and engineers knew thus far about the properties of steel.  this just blows my mind.  even as a math teacher, who has confidence in calculations, I feel like I would never be confident enough to say “my calculations are correct, so this crazy dangerous thing will most certainly be a success.”  (also, I mean, I make a lot of mistakes.  like a lot.  I can’t even cut fabric in a straight line with my ruler & rotary cutter half the time, and I make ridiculous math mistakes in front of my students all the time, so I would not be the person for this job anyway).

but, I did like the book in general.  I just really, really wanted to LOVE it.

up next:  30 for 30 book rankings!  and movie commentary.  stay tuned.

 

instpiration.

I am having a hard time being inspired lately.  I have some quilt pictures to post once I get them taken.  but I need a place to start…so I will start with instagram.  oh instagram.  how I love you.  I don’t care how trendy you are, you make me feel like the little things in my life are worth remembering.  so here is a plethora of recent photos off my phone.

a few weeks ago we had crafts and drafts and I made this little necklace hanger.  I pretty much love it.  my room is a disaster right now and it makes me happy to see some order.

we ate lunch at foo’s a few weeks ago after church and the guy working let us each sample one of the christopher elbow chocolates.  it was a great day.

for my mom’s and grandma’s birthdays I got them a bunch of novelty stuff at tj’s.  the next week for family dinner we had a tasting party and it was so fun.  the dried oranges were my favorite.  also, my stepmom is correct when she refers to the chocolate covered edamame as crack.

I really love these girls.  we were dressed alike for twin day (hey, we like each other and wanted to include all of us) for spirit week.  I feel like this top was pretty fashion forward and it was a weird step for me to take to wear something with these crazy sleeves.  but all of us got so many compliments.  win.

the great day cafe has really become my favorite place in all of kc.  greg and sandy are so great and the food is great and the atmosphere can’t be beat.  and I’m also starting to think that downtown op is pretty much the greatest block in town.

this little girl is light of my life right now (and really, her parents too, I like them).  I am so thankful we live nearby and I get to see her all the time.

even though it was only 20 points, I felt like such a winner for playing such a relevant word,

on the same day that jami and chad and I went to go see titanic in 3d.  it was so incredible.  I don’t care how cheesy it is, I really do love that movie.  and it was great to go see it with these two.  I really like the three of us.  we are a good trio.

my classes in general have been really fun lately.  I don’t know what it is about what we’re learning right now, but it’s been a good time.  and it was so hilarious that one of my nerdy students was wearing this shirt on a day when I was teaching my advanced kids about logarithms with different bases, and comparing the concept to binary numbers (something most of them have absolutely no concept of) (and to be honest their teacher doesn’t really understand them either)

lastly, my good friend beth moore came to town this week.  I like to think we are good friends.  she is such a wonderful speaker and teacher and she had so many encouraging things to say to me.  lindsey came with me and we had such a good time.  also, beth told a story about a kangaroo baby that made me laugh so hard I thought I might pee my pants.  also?  I feel like I look old in this picture.  I am getting pretty excited for my big birthday.  I hear the 30s are pretty great.  so maybe 30 is the new 30.

 

11 things. (part 2)

okay so here is my part 2.  happy friday peeps!

Here are the rules:

1.  Post the rules.
2.  Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things. (see here)
3.  Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4.  Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5.  Go to their blog/twitter/facebook and tell them that you’ve tagged them.

Questions from Michelle!

1. If you could only eat one type of cereal for the rest of your life, what would you choose and why?  OH MAN this is hard!  I switch around on cereal all the time.  I might go with wheat chex.  my initial response was grape nuts, but that might be hard in the later parts of my life.  I also love reese’s puffs, and granola, and special k.

2. What is your favorite room in your house/apartment and why?  probably the living room because I spend all my time out here.  I love my purple furniture and we get lots of natural light since our apartment faces south.  I also love my bedroom when it is clean but I don’t spend nearly as much time there.  I also love the living room because it’s where I share life with my friends.

3. Quick!  Your home is on fire!  What 3 things do you grab?  my laptop, the quilt on my bed, and my favorite necklace.

4. What is some of the best advice you’ve ever received?  oh boy this is easy.  right after I graduated from college, I was getting ready to head up to minnesota for my last summer at camp. I was trying to decide if I should keep my applications in kansas active, because since the school calendars up there are super different than here, if I got a job here, I would need to leave camp a few weeks early.  I didn’t want to put jason (my partner on the island) in a bad place, so I asked him what he thought I should do.  he gave me this quote: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  that made my choice easy and I knew that teaching is what makes me come alive.  I feel like this advice still guides me even now.  thanks j.

5. Who do you think would play you in a movie?  hmmmm… I’m going to go with Jessica Brown Findlay.  because she’s gorgeous and I want to look like her.  and I think she could be snarky.  and because sybil wears pants!  she’s pretty progressive.

6. What is the last book you read and would you recommend it to a friend?  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller and YES YES YES I would recommend it to a friend.  I recommend this book to everyone and their mom I love it so much.  I feel like it really changed my life and I need to read it like five more times.  I love Donald Miller so very much and I can really identify with him.  this book is SO GOOD people.  I am serious.  EVERYONE should read it.  you’ll thank me.

7. What is something you wish you were really good at?  running.  I wish I had natural talent and it came easy for me.

8. If you could receive a $500 gift card to any clothing store, where would you choose?  either nordstrom or loft.  probably loft because it would go farther there  I love shopping!!

9. What is a non-profit you are passionate about and what is their cause?  hmm….compassion international.  they are doing so much good in so many parts of the world and really have a vested interest in real change vs. being a band-aid.  I love that your commitment to a child is for their entire childhood.  OR, anything similar to kiva.  my trips to honduras convince me more and more that microbusiness like kiva supports are one of the best ways we can do good and make a change for people living in poverty.  they are a really great source of empowerment vs. handouts.

10. If you don’t mind, please share an embarrassing moment in your life…only because I love you and those stories are awesome.  oh man.  okay, so it’s my freshmen year of high school and I’m super sick and on some crazy cold medicine and my gym class is going bowling at the bowling alley.  I’m all drugged up on medicine and have a fever and probably shouldn’t be at school in general.  bowling gets over, and we’re putting our stuff away and I start to get REALLY confused.  I can’t really remember where I am or what I should be doing, but I look around and see people from my gym class taking off their shoes.  and I’m like “gym!  i’m in gym class!!  I need to put my gym clothes on!”  so I take off my shoes, and then…start to take off my pants.  once a friend told me to not take my pants off and I realized what I was was doing I pretty much wanted to die and couldn’t even talk about the incident for like 3 years it was so embarrassing.

11. Share one of your proudest moments.  these happen all the time at my job.  an easy one to pick out would be a girl that I had last year in my advanced class, who probably shouldn’t have been in the advanced class, but she came in for so much extra help and worked so hard, and now this year she is doing awesome and has so much confidence and has thanked me so many times for how I changed math for her.  that’s it.  that is exactly why I love my job.  also I am crazy proud at graduation every year. also, I just about lost it at our cross country banquet this year because I was so proud of our seniors.  we really have the best kids in the whole school and they are just great people and I am proud just to know them.  they do so many things every day that make me proud.

here are some people that I would love to hear from if you want to play along, or not.  sara, steph, becca, shannon,  wendie, lindsey, mel, emily, and becca.  and here are the questions I want to ask.

1.  where is your favorite place you have ever lived?

2.  where is your least favorite place you have ever visited?

3.  do you wear a lot of makeup?

4.  what was your favorite class in school?

5.  what is your favorite mode of transportation?

6.  what are three foods you could do without?

7.  do you like men with facial hair?

8.  are you an early bird or a night owl?

9.  what is your favorite book?

10.  how much do you love where you went to college?  any regrets?

11.  do you like your name?  would you ever change it?

 

11 things. (part 1)

so my sister what’sup! tagged me for this 11 things business.  which is fine by me because I have felt pretty non-creative lately and this gives me something to write about!  I’m going to do it across two days because I am kind of long-winded.

Here are the rules:

1.  Post the rules.
2.  Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3.  Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4.  Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5.  Go to their blog/twitter/facebook and tell them that you’ve tagged them.

here is a picture of me and my friend lindsey last december on her birthday.  lindsey is such a good friend and I am so thankful she is in my life!  she is moving (!!!!!) to the kc area and it brings so much joy to my heart.  I will be glad (and so will she, I think) when her transition period is over and they have all their business taken care of in the move, so she can start to get settled in gard-ville.  I am thankful to be here to help her with the transition because transition can be hard.  she and bobby are two of my favorite friends and I am glad they are in my life.  plus she motivates and inspires me to quilt and helps me and gives me advice.  thanks friend.

11 random things about me.

1.  I was a girl scout until I graduated from high school.  yes that is a thing.  BUT, also note, I was never a brownie, I did not join until I was 10.  I think that scouts in general are pretty awesome and I think they make pretty good kids.  really, getting kids involved in any way is a good plan.  but I think that being involved in a lot of service really shapes character and that’s something I think is important for kids.  I always wanted to be a good kid so I liked girl scouts an awful lot.  I think that girl scouts also kind of started my love of learning.  it was always fun to try new stuff and get interested in stuff I didn’t know much about.

2.  I LOVE cooking but don’t really enjoy baking.  I don’t really like to measure stuff.  period.  and it’s hard to get around that in baking.  I also really really like my food to be seasoned, like over-seasoned.  I would always rather err on the side of way too much.  this is probably not a good thing and I’m sure not everyone appreciates it.  I also have a crazy affinity for salt. I love it so.  this is not a good thing health-wise.

3.  I drink a LOT of water.  especially when I teach.  I drain my giant nalgene at least two or three times a day.  if I forget it somewhere and don’t have it at school it is a bad day.  I also have to have a straw.  my teeth are really sensitive and I do a lot better with a straw.  I am so glad that my classroom is near the library where we have a nice cold water fountain so I can refill my bottle whenever I want.

4.  I am having a severe underwear crisis.  this is probably not a thing I should discuss on the internet but michelle is the one that tagged me and she is the queen of talking about things on the internet that you should probably not talk about on the internet so here I go.  SERIOUSLY people.  this is like a major stress in my life for the past two years.  I have literally worn the exact same kind of underwear since 8th grade and all of a sudden a few years ago victoria’s secret went and changed the freakin design.  like changed it in a BIG WAY.  it’s cut lower in the back, which is annoying, but even more annoying is that they cut like three inches off each side in the back.  what in the freakin heck victoria’s secret!!!  that’s like six inches total! (I’m a math teacher, I know.)  and listen, I know that my butt is not exactly small (the cheerleaders told me this all the time, thanks, super helpful), but it is also not abnormally humongous.  and I do not understand how this is working for anyone else.  I can wear the new underwear for all of about two minutes before it goes straight up my butt crack.  I don’t know how I am supposed to deal with constant wedgie time.  I have tried other styles or brands, from many places, and none of them are as good as the old stuff.  I just want something that is not skanky but is comfortable.  I don’t want to have to think about my underwear during the day.  apparently this is a tall order to fill.  thanks for listening.

5.  I always knew I wanted to be a teacher.  I am so thankful for this.  and high school is where I belong.  I love teaching my little kids in sunday school, but high school is where I am really in my element.

6.  I love Girl Talk.  as in the musical artist, not as in the game where you had to put on zit stickers when you did bad.  really, Girl Talk is so up my alley and I love him.  I love what he does with music and I could (and sometimes do) listen to it all day.  sometimes I will be like “okay, maybe I should listen to something else instead of girl talk 24/7, so I’ll put on something else, but as soon as it’s over, it’s back to girl talk.  All Day is one of my favorite albums of all time.  I think it’s amazing what he can do with lots of different music from lots of different genres.

7.  I used to be cold ALL THE TIME but about a year or two ago something in my body changed and now I am hot ALL THE TIME.  it’s awful.  not a fan.

8.  I am really not as good at sewing as people think I am.  this isn’t false modesty, it’s the truth.  I am not very skilled, at all.  I make the dumbest mistakes ever, on a very regular basis, and I can’t measure or cut accurately to save my life.  what I am good at is picking stuff that I can handle.  I know how to deal with my shortcomings and downplay them.  if you can do that then you can trick people into thinking you’re good.

9.  I think it is important to try new things.  whether it be food or hobbies or activities or any other skill, I think it makes life way better.  it was so fun and challenging for me to join the color guard in college with no experience, and I loved it.  I love learning other smaller skills–like running the scoreboard at basketball games, or running the timing system at track meets.  I love learning about stuff like that.  (interesting fact! do you know why basketball players numbers’ all have digits of 5 or less?  it’s so when the officials call in the foul, they can hold up the digits on their fingers if it’s noisy.  ”foul’s on blue 5-2, blue 5-2!”)  so take a class, learn a new skill, try a new food.  it makes life better.

10.  I LOVE BOARD GAMES!  a lot.  I really like a lot of those crazy german strategy games….like settlers, pandemic, bohnanza, carcassonne, and puerto rico.  I also like trivia games or  other party type games like taboo and catchphrase.  I also love doing puzzles.  especially americana puzzles with old timey scenes.

11.  I hate beer.  I like wine an awful lot and there are plenty of mixed drinks I like, but beer is gross.  Except sometimes it’s good for cooking.

stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!