In My World...

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TEACHER?

2012-01-18T15:59:00.000-08:00

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TEACHER?
by Jeff Foxworthy

1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr. _____" and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils.
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.
21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

Dealing with the Technology Generation

2011-12-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

I've gotten pretty used to explaining "older" technology to my second graders, with each year getting worse.

I've explained those square things that we used to put into our computers...

I've explained what that curly thing coming off that old phone did...

But I was not ready for this one. My students were completing a Christmas crossword puzzle and I thought I had gone over all the "tricky" clues.

The clue for 15 Across (six letters) reads: "You might mail Santa one of these."

More than half of my students wrote:

e-mail

Nightmare

2011-12-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

You can ask most teachers and they can tell you about "back-to-school" nightmares. Mine usually involve scary parents, destroyed classrooms, or huge 15-year-old students in my second grade class.

But all my dreams had one thing in common: I didn't actually know any of the people in them. When I have my class dreams, the kids have always just been random dream-children. Well...not anymore. I had the craziest dream about my class that I am teaching right now and it was unbelievably vivid. If you haven't heard, I only have 17 students in my class this year and they ROCK! They are smart, well-behaved kids and I love them.

Not so in my dream!

They were EVIL!!! They just seemed to hate me and were trying to make me made. I was yelling and screaming at them and they just ignored me. The part that I can not get out of my head is that I was yelling at one of my little girls, right in her face. She turned to face me and bit my cheek, hard enough to rip the skin!

This is when I woke up with my heart pounding. And I know perfectly well that it was just a dream, but when that little girl walked into class to day, my heart skipped a beat. :)

Love your teachers

2011-11-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

This has been floating around Facebook:

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That ...would be $19.50 a d...ay (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE.... That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is! The average teacher's salary (nationwide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!! Heaven forbid we take into account highly qualified teachers or NCLB... Make a teacher smile :)

How to Have a Truly Crap-tacular Day

2011-11-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

1. Run late getting ready in the morning.

2. Have car frozen shut, to the point of pulling on the door 3 times to get it to open.

3. While scraping the frozen windows, have the windshield wiper smack you.

4. Drive a mile and a half before realizing that the headlights are off.

5. Have two granny-slow driver on the road, doing 15 under the limit side-by-side.

6. Work computer being slower than a turtle running uphill in molasses.

7. Just when you feel like you can handle the rest of the day, kill the power to the entire school/ town.

8. Try teaching in the dark, but then the power coming back on 50 minutes before you would have been sent home early.

9. Then find out that the other schools went home early and you didn't.

10. Don't get to eat lunch because you have recess duty.

11. Deal with people in Walmart after school.

12. Stupid boy has to work late tonight.

Should have just stayed in bed this morning.

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!! (long, but detailed)

2011-10-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

I love surprises, but have never been completely surprised by anything or anyone...until now. Cory found out that I like surprises and went from there. He started out on this a few weeks ago and told me that he was going to have to work on my birthday. I was disappointed, but didn't want to be whinny about it, so I just figured we do something another time. There was a really small part of me that hoped that this was all a trick or something, but then I dismissed it, thinking that Cory wasn't that smooth/awesome.

When I told this to my roommate Carlee, she took it upon herself to plan something fun and awesome for my birthday. Unbeknownst to me, Carlee and Cory had been secretly planning behind my back for almost a month. Carlee said she would get a group together and we would go to dinner or something. I figured I would just let her do her thing. The pessimist in me just kept reminding me that plans had fallen threw for my last several birthdays, so I didn't want to get my hopes up.

So on Wednesday, I hung out with Cory after he was done with school, but nothing was ever said about my birthday. I figured we were just avoiding the topic so that I won't feel bad. I went home that night feeling a little sad, but figured that my birthday could be as happy as I made it. At midnight, my phone rings and Cory is singing "Happy Birthday" to me (I had to ask him about it later because I was so tired and out of it). Then the fun really started.

Birthday morning started great; when my alarm went off, the radio had on one of my favorite songs and I thought, "This is going to be a good day." We had been doing Red Ribbon week at school and each day had a fun dress theme. Thursday was Red Day, so I had gone to DI and bought red sweatpants, because who doesn't want to wear sweatpants to work on their birthday? So I get all ready to leave for school and head out to my car. I open my garage and Cory is parked in front of my driveway...with flowers. I almost started crying I was so shocked! He didn't have to get up early that morning and he would have had to get up really early to be there. So then I figure this is my birthday surprise since I won't get to see him later in the day.

I went off to school and one of those great days at work. The kids treated my birthday like a national holiday, I got TONS of chocolate/candy, I got cake, balloons, and cards. It was just a fun day at school. Around lunch time, I get a text from Carlee, saying that she's got a group of 8 people going out for my birthday, and just for fun, we are all going to dress up super fancy. And she had ever put out some of her really nice jewelry for me to borrow (she's a former beauty queen). I was supposed to be dressed and ready to go by 6 PM for dinner and then a dinner at a friend's house after. I thought this just sounded so fun; if I couldn't be with my boyfriend, at least I can have an awesome time, dressed up, with my friends.

Cory made sure I was still falling for the lies by texting my "from work", complaining about some rude customers. (He is very thorough). Around the same time, Carlee texts me that she's a little behind at work, but will be home in time to go to dinner. So I came home to an empty house and started getting ready. I pulled out by fanciest dress (too fancy even for church), did my make-up, fixed up my hair, and "frosted" myself with Carlee's fabulous jewelry. As I was getting ready, I kept thinking that I should take a picture and send it to Cory so he could see what he was missing out on. At 5:55 PM, I get another text from Carlee: the day has gone horribly, everybody is running late, she has to cover some work thing at 7 PM, so we're have to cancel the whole dinner.

I think "crushed" and/or "devastated" would best describe my mood at that moment. My first thought was to go put on PJs and be done with the day. But then I decided that I had spent all that time getting all pretty, that I just want to sit and be pretty for a minute, also hoping that maybe one person from this whole group might show up. Just as I was about to give up, the doorbell rang. Thinking that I'll have to tell whoever it is that dinner was canceled.

When I opened the door, there was Cory, in a suit, with a bouquet of roses! This time, I really did start to cry a little. And he says, "Did Carlee just flake out on you?" I think I was in shock for the next 20 or 30 minutes. All I could keep saying is "I can't believe you did this!" When we get out to his car, I see that he had spent a lot of time completely cleaning his car. He gave me my first present, a book he thought I might like. Then we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant and everyone was asking why we were all dressed up. He even joked during dinner, "No, I'm not going to propose to you tonight."

After dinner, we went to a show at the Hale Center Theater, "The Marvelous Wonderettes." Going to a show, all dressed up, on the arm of a guy, AWESOME. The show was really cute and we both really enjoyed it. After the show, it was time to head on home. When Cory dropped me off at home, Carlee was home, so we all had a good laugh about everything and she took our picture, because we looked too good not to do pictures.

And then Cory said the a book was not a birthday present, and neither was dinner or the show. He gave me a gift certificate to get an hour long massage. I think he was trying to kill me with happiness. This was two days ago and I have yet to stop smiling. :)

Something like this :)

2011-10-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, and that time I got punched!

2011-09-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

Got punched yesterday...

...by a first grader...

...it really hurt...

...still not sure why...

...and oh yeah...

...it was in the boob!

According to my students...

2011-09-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty good looking!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2011-08-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

It starts again:

Student 1: "Do you have kids?"
Me: "Nope."
Student 2: "Do you have a husband?"
Me: "Nope, no husband either."

Student 3: "How can you have a job without a husband?!?"

SWEET!

2011-08-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

If you cook for nice boys and send them home with some, they might return it with interest.

Sweet!

Waiting

2011-08-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

A few of my friends had this as their Facebook status and it makes me laugh everytime I read it:

For all you single women who are in such a hurry to get married, here's a quick piece of Biblical advice: Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz...While waiting for YOUR Boaz, don't settle for ANY of his relatives: Brokeaz, Po-az, Lyinaz, Cheatinaz, Dumbaz, Cheapaz, Goodfornothingaz, Lazyaz, and especially his third cousin Beat-yo-az.

If anyone asks, my name is Brandy

2011-07-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

I consider myself an all-American girl: I love the 4th of July, fireworks, hamburgers, and of course baseball. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad taking me to Phillies games. I'm good at watching baseball. Playing... not so much.

Evidence: when I tried to play on my ward softball team, I tripped over my own feet while trying to catch a ball and fell on my butt, dropping the ball.

So last night my home-teacher Jeff called me up. His intramural team needed another girl or they would have to forfeit, and this was in tournament play. For those of you who don't live in Provo, BYU intramural sports is kind of a big deal. If you win, you get a shirt that says you won! Amazing, I know.

Anyway, I was a little surprised that Jeff asked me, knowing that there are some really good players in our ward. I even tried to warn him, "You know I suck, right?" Then the truth came out. Jeff asked me if I felt okay about a little identity theft.

To play on intramural teams, you have to register your team in advance and it can't really change after that. For the game that night, they had the student ID of one of their girl players who couldn't make it. I was given her card (I look nothing like her) and if anyone asked, my name was Brandy. But luckily for us, they don't look at the pictures or you when you check in, so Brandy was there to play.

To be honest, I didn't completely suck. I got a bunch of hits when I was up, got a couple people out, and actually caught the ball a couple times.

However, my true colors did eventually show, and I caught a ball with my thigh instead of my glove. The bruise is showing it's true colors now too. :)

I Need to Get on This

2011-04-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

My class does Show & Tell every Friday and I decided to do one myself. After the students' standard questions (where did you get it? when did you get it?), their favorite question came up again:

How old are you?

When I answered (for the 20th time this year) that I'm 27, the same evil child as before calls out:

And you're STILL not married?

When I said no, I hear:

Are you even trying to find a husband?

I decided to be the adult and just ignore it, and tried to move on. As I crossed the room, one of my little girls (who must have an aunt in this situation) "whispered" to the evil child:

You're not supposed to ask them about stuff like that! That don't like to talk about it!

I have 2nd graders pitying me...kill me now.

Interpreter

2011-03-22T17:41:00.001-07:00

I think I can officially add "interpreter" to my resume. Anyone who teaches young children probably knows what I'm talking about.

One of my students came in this morning, came straight to me and said (with excitement), "Miss Bramhall, did you hear about the big salami?!?"

Me: "The what?"

Student: "The big salami...did you hear about it?"

After about 5 more attempts, I figured it out:

salami= tsunami

The news has finally trickled down to second graders in Santaquin, Utah.

Hercules

2011-02-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

This is Hercules.

Abby and I rescued him a couple years ago from the toy dog pound.

(AKA- the DI Yard Area)

He is large enough for an adult to ride.

And he is very friendly.

The other morning, he just couldn't wait for Abby to wake up.

I'm told the scream could wake the dead.

He was so excited for me to get home, he was waiting in my bed.

Then he wanted to play with Carlee.
So he got in her laundry basket.

The best part was she was on the phone when she screamed.

I am (officially) AWESOME

2011-01-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

I was choosen as the Teacher of the Month...

and received the Orb of Awesome!

Yes, I am AWESOME!

Meet Carlee

2011-01-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

We got a new roommate in December, an awesome girl named Carlee.

But this is what happens when she finds my camera sitting on the counter.

Again?!?!?!

2011-01-16T16:20:00.000-08:00

Even the smart ones try it!

They really think I'm that dumb!

2010-12-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago, one of my students broke his ankle, so he got to stay in from recess everyday. Apparently it's awesome to stay in my class during recess, because next thing you know, everyone is "sick" and needs to stay inside too. Unless there is a fun game going on or their best friend brought a cool toy from home.

So I had to start a new policy: you have to have a note from a grown-up to stay in. It was working pretty well. I could just say "where's your note" and they'd give up and get back into line.

One day, we were already 2 hours into school and just about to go out to recess. One of my girls walks up and pulls a folded 2-inch piece of paper out of her pocket. She has it to me and says, "Oh, this is from my mom. I forgot to give it to you earlier."

Gotta give her an "A" for effort...but a "B" for spelling and punctuation.

Seriously???

2010-11-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

I foolishly thought that having a movie party as a reward was a great idea. (Insert evil laugh directed at me.) The kids were all excited about, been talking about it for days, did all their work so they wouldn't lose said party. And several students claimed their moms "wanted to bring in a treat," which translate to "I volunteered my mom with her knowledge." One little girl had been saying from day 1 that her mom was going to bring in popcorn. Reminded me everyday and got notes so mom would know what time.

Now back me up on this...when someone says their bringing popcorn for your movie party, big bag of popcorn, already popped...

Yeah...not so much.

The woman, who can 35 minutes late, brought 4 boxes of unpopped popcorn. And then ask, "Oh...do you need help popping that?"

Seriously?!?!

How To Have The Best Birthday EVER!!!

2010-10-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

1. Get pre-birthday mint chocolate cake the night before.

2. Your awesome roommate decorates the downstairs of the house while you're asleep.

3. Said roommate also ties balloons to your door, which make you nearly pee your pants when you open the door to the dark hallway.

4. Get to wear sweatpants and sweatshirt to school (Red Ribbon week dress-up themes).

5. Get to wear a tiara to work (just because I can!).

6. Best friend in Jersey sends you flowers at work.

7. Your students actually behave, for the most part.

8. Cake at lunch.

9. Cupcakes at the end of the day.

10. Great songs playing on iPod Random Shuffle on the way home.

11. Los Hermanos for dinner, with fancy/fruity drinks.

12. More cake.

13. Lots of birthday texts, phone calls, Facebook post, etc.

A Big Confidence Boast

2010-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

(Sorry to those of you who already heard this story)

Last week, I was having one of those "fun" days. Had a cold, students are nuts, etc. Then one of my students decided to make my day even better. Enjoy the following conversation:

Student 1: "Miss Bramhall, do you have any kids?"

Me: "Nope."

Student 2: "Are you even MARRIED?" (said with some shock and disbelief)

Me: "No."

Student 3: "How old ARE you?!?!?"

Me: "26."

Student 3: "You're 26 and NOT MARRIED?" (pause for look of total shock) "If your 26 and not married, you like NEVER going to get married!!!"

Me: "Thanks."

Senile or ADD

2010-08-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ten Signs You're Going Senile or Have ADD

10. You throw your keys in the trash.

9. You have to be reminded what you were just talking about before the funny commercial came on.

8. You have to go back into the house to get your iPod, and then again to get your wallet.

7. After all that, when you finally get where you were going, you realize you left your keys to the building.

6. When you go to eat cereal, you notice you have a fork.

5. After eating said cereal, you try to put the cereal box into the fridge.

4. Your brain won't let you go to sleep until you've made a list of all the stuff you'll forget by the next morning.

3. Five times in one day, you forget why you went into a room.

2. You have to make six trips up and down the stairs because you keep forgetting stuff.

1. All of this happened in less than 2 weeks.

A Cautionary Tale

2010-07-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

When you are

down the Provo

be sure to wear your

or else the

will treat your

like a

The End

Are you kidding?

2010-06-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

I was able to help carry this into the basement...

I helped carry this into the house...

But I try and lift this into my car...

And I get this!

(And I look like I have mustache because of weird shadows)

Are you kidding me?!?!

Always Cheers Me Up

2010-05-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Nuff said

2010-04-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

PASSED!!!

2010-04-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

I passed the evil test!!! I could not believe my eyes. When I took the test, they said that it would take 4 to 6 weeks to get your results in the mail, but you could get them online as soon as they became official. By Saturday, I just couldn't take it anymore. The anxiety was going to kill me. And if I didn't passed, I'd have to sign up real soon to take it again.

I think my heart actually stopped for about ten seconds as I was logging on. Then when the score sheet opened, you have to scroll down to see the actual score. My hand wouldn't let me scroll down. I think my thought process was: "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist!" Finally, I got up the courage to look...176 out of 200!!!! Happy dancing and screaming sum up the next ten minutes. :)

The Roots May Be Brown...

2010-04-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

...but I have got to be a true blond. I had one of those moments that have to be straight out of a dumb blond joke book. Almost three weeks ago I got all my tax stuff ready and mailed it in. I even put extra postage on the one that I was worried was too thick. I went off on Spring Break feeling great about getting everything done ahead of time. I got back this week and got back to regular life. This morning, I grabbed my check-book to get books from our schools book order. I opened it up to write my check and there was my check for my state taxes!!! Keep in mind today is April 14th.

The words "dumb blond" can't even begin to explain how stupid I felt.

And not to worry; I took the check to the tax office and they said it happens every year.

Evil Test

2010-03-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

To become a level two teacher, and basically be a teacher forever, you have to take the Praxis II exam. I prepared, I studied, I even made flashcards. I was so ready. Then I went to take the test. I should have known this was going to be bad. I had to be up on campus by 7:30. I get there and just stand around for a while and then they tell us we can go into the classes to take the test. To get in was like getting into an exclusive club: they checked your ID against a list and if you weren't on their list, they booted you. After waiting in one line, I find out they changed the room number at the last minute. Luckily it was just across the hall, but still...life isn't stressful enough, let's play musical classrooms. And as we're waiting in line, I over hear one girl say that her friend took this test 4 times before she past. (start hyperventilating)

We finally get in the class and into our seats. Now on the ticket/info thing I got, it said that if you arrived a minute after 7:30, you would not be allowed in. Yet, up until 7:45, they were letting people walk in. So then they finally start...with reading a million instructions and yelling at anyone who is chewing gum, myself included. Then they had to pass out test booklets, which was mad extra fun by the fact that they had 9 different tests going on in our room, and each one had different instructions and booklets. We finally started around 8:15.

The Praxis II exam consists of 24 multiple choice question, then reading 4 case studies and answering questions about what teachers did right and wrong, making sure you mention different teaching and learning techniques, which I knew inside and out. When I was studying, I read a bunch of these, so I knew that when writing these, more is better. So on the first three (out of 12), I wrote everything I could think of to go with the topic. I was so creative and wrote fun activities that the teacher could have done instead. Then I looked at the clock...45 MINUTES..for THREE QUESTIONS!!!!! Did I mention you only have 2 hours for the whole test? AHHHHHHH!!!!!

So I started working a little faster. I get about 3/4 of the way done and look up...30 minutes left!!! So I started frantically writing anything I could think of, as fast as I could. I think I'll get the last three marked completely wrong because they're not quite legible. But I FINISHED!!! With 45 seconds to spare. As I left, my hands were literally shaking (I was panicking and holding the pencil real tight at the end), and I couldn't get my heart to slow back down.

When I came home, I couldn't really answer any questions with words, mostly just "hhhhhmmm....mmmm...." Thank goodness of awesome roommates. Abby took me out to Texas Road House, which in my world, is equivalent to heaven. And we even convinced a couple friends to come with us.

I won't find out the results for about 4 weeks but I am not going to stress between now and then. I studied all I could and if I have to take it again, I am finding a new profession. :)

Yes, I am awesome

2010-02-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

My boss told me so: I officially rock. This last week at school, I had heard rumors about we were going to have observations in our classrooms. I hadn't heard anything official, so I was going to plead ignorance for not signing up. Big mistake. When you don't sign up, your principal will happily oblige with a "pop-in" observation. And of course it's on the day when you want to kill a student or two. :)

Lucky for me, two miracles happened: a) I had an great lesson planned for that time anyway, and b) second graders still get freaked out if the principal walks in a room and therefor behaved a little bit better. So he watched and took notes while I taught my class about centimeters. I guess I've finally been a teacher long enough that this doesn't phase me. The only time I really remembered he was there was when one of students wanted to measure the principals shoes for our practice with rulers.Then after about thirty minutes he left.

Yesterday, after school, he reminded us that if we had been observed, we had to met with him. You go over your evaluation and talk about good stuff you did and things you need to work on. He got busy after that, so I went back to my room to work on stuff and figured he'd catch me next week. Later, my boss realized I was still there, so he came and went over everything in my class. Turns out, I am an AMAZING teacher, in case you didn't already know. I know it sounds like I'm bragging (which was not my intention), but it's just really nice to hear that you're really good at your job. Especially at then end of a difficult week.

So now I basically have a certificate that says, Yes, you are awesome.

First Time for Everything

2010-02-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

I had two big firsts today. First, when I went to the bank today, I successfully used the vacuum-sucker thing. I had tried it once before, but failed miserably. This time, I did it without dropping anything on the ground and without having to ask the nice bank man for any help. Though I did manage to dump out the entire contents of the change pocket of my wallet...but luckily all that fell inside the car.

Then, tonight, the big first happened. I am a 26 year old who has never tied a cherry stem into a knot. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't really like cherries. And my last attempt (also my first attempt) was an embarrassing public display at an FHE. I always thought it would be easy since I rock at unwrapping Starbursts. :) Abby and I got dinner at Sonic tonight, which of course means giant Cherry Limeades...Mmmmm! When I got to the end of my drink, I saw the stem sticking out of the ice, mocking me. So, for the next 10 minutes, I worked that stem to death until finally...

I DID IT!!! I finally did it! And yes, I did scream like a little girl. I think it had something to do with watching the Olympics at the same time.

Yes...I know how pathetic I am...but if you don't celebrate the little things, where's the fun in life?

A Computer Blessing

2010-01-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness for blogs and Facebook. I know it's kind of lame, but because of awesome computer-ness, I feel like I'm still very close to a lot of people who are far away. I just reconnected with some old roommates and discovered old inside jokes never die. I can also see my family who live far away and watch their cute kids grow up. Thank you to the computer and internet gods! :)

The Ups and Downs of Christmas Time

2009-12-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

I think I've just been through the craziest week of my life. My students were beyond insane this whole week, but that's to be expected. The fun really started on Thursday when we had our school "Let It Snow" musical program. We were in charge of teaching our own classes the songs and actions. The second grade got to do "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas" and the "Chipmunk Christmas Song." Teaching the kids to sing a song is one thing, but getting 47 eight eight-year-olds to do actions at the same time is a different story. I learn all the action backwards so I could mirror them. So for the show, which was packed with family, friends, and random old people, I got to sit in front and do the actions with them. The absolute best part was during the first part of the Chipmunk song, the kids were supposed to sway. Right, left, right, left, stop. That was all. Getting 47 kids to sway at the same time...entertaining, to say the least. Two kids came within 2 inches of cracking their skulls together and one other almost fell over because they were swaying so big.

If that wasn't fun enough, Friday was, and I quote, "the best day of school ever!!!" Our school did a canned food drive and my class collected the most so we got to have a hot chocolate party, which turned out to mean that I got cups and hot chocolate mix and was on my own. The kids loved the whole thing. Then in the afternoon we had our class party which was crazy. The kids flew through all the games and crafts in twenty minutes, but it all worked out pretty good. I should have know something was going to go bad. It was too easy.

I survived the insanity of the last day because I just kept telling myself that I was flying home in less then 24 hours. So last night I packed and cleaned and got everything ready to go. Got up this morning at 6:30 so I could get to the airport in plenty of time for my 10:15 flight. We pulled up in front of the Sky Cap and there was no line. I was like "Wow, the airport gods are smiling on me." WRONG!!! When the guy asked where I was flying to and I said Philadelphia, he said, "No your not." Everything from Connecticut to Virginia is buried under a huge snow storm. They weren't even delaying the flights, they just full-on canceled everything.

When I tried to call Delta, they were so busy that you didn't even get to sit on hold. So I called my roommate Abby, who had driven me, and told her to circle back around and park. Then she was nice enough to come in and wait in line with me for about two hours to get on another flight. At least it was entertaining watching what different people wear to fly. We saw everything from the pink crushed velvet track suit to the lady wearing silettos and a full-length fur coat. And plus, we saw the best mullet of our lives and we never did figure our if it was a guy or girl. :)

The whole time we were standing in line, I kept reminding myself to have a positive attitude and not yell at anybody. It wasn't there fault I was stuck. This turned out to be what saved me. When it was finally my turn, I was as pleseant as can be and the ticket agent did everything she could. She worked for about 10 minutes to get me the first seat possible. While she was working, a guy came up behind me and was yelling about how the airline had screwed up and he needed to go in 30 minutes. Because of his crappy attitude, nobody wanted to help him. Lesson learned: a smile and a happy attitude will get you a long way.

So now I'm still in Utah, but I have a flight out Sunday night/Monday morning at 12:55 and I'll get to Philadelphia around 10:30 on Monday. Yes, it's annoying and it messes up my plans, but I'll still get home and before Christmas, so it's all good.

Your Life May Be Pathetic...

2009-11-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

-If you get way over-excited about using the vacuum-sucker-tube bank system for the first time.

-When your 8 year old students start pointing out your zits, asking "Why do you have a big red bump on your face?"

-If the teenage clerk at Bed, Bath, & Beyond calls you "Ma'am."

-You go to a wedding reception of a person you used to baby-sit, before you're married.

-You show up a day early for said reception.

-If you get upset when you lose to chance to win a toy AFLAC duck.

-When you know only about 5 people are even going to read this. :)

I'm a Survivor

2009-11-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

I lived through the first round of this years parent-teacher conferences. Wow, they really went all out this year. I always am really nervous because there are always parents who question me because of my age. It doesn't help that they all seem to think that I'm only about 20. Then I had to explain to three parents why their children were failing math. They never turned in any homework (ever), and even though I send home progress reports every other week, this somehow came as a huge shock. And of course it was somehow my fault. :)

I think the worst one was a parent who I never have had a good experience with. She came in with both guns loaded, ready to protect her child from anything negative I was going to tell her. And then for the next hour she told me every negative thing that has happened in her life and her child's life, 1% of which would have any effect on her schooling. I do want to know and understand my students, but I do not need to know about all the messy details. BWHAAAA!!!

Awesome Stuff That Happened Recently

2009-11-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so I'm really slow at posting cool stuff anywhere, so now there gets to be a ton of cool stuff all together. And when you see them all together, you get a glimpse into the awesome-ness of my life. :)

Half way through the month of October, my school has our Fall Break. The dates are chosen to coincide with hunting season... yeah, we're cool in Utah. Months back, my former roommate, Staci, who was seriously the bestest roomie (after Abby of course), invited Abby and I to visit her in Vegas. Plus it was her birthday, so we really, really had to go.

We couldn't leave until Friday evening because Abby had to work. So we set off and the fun ensued. Abby and I in a car for long periods of time usually ends in laughter and mild to extreme stupidity. We had been driving for an hour or so, and the sun was starting to get in one of those annoying spots where the visor ceases to be helpful. Now, you have to know an interesting fact about Abby. She worships the sun, loves to be in it, but hates when it's in her eyes. She shouts at the top of her lungs, "MY EYES, MY EYES!!!" Since the evil sun would not hide behind the sun visor like it was supposed to, Abby started to get frustrated. I should have been worried when she started to play with the visor, wishing that it could bend in different ways. Next thing I know SNAP!

She snapped in clean off. Didn't even leave a stump behind.

But then Abby, being the inventive, creative person that she is, found that she could use a broken visor as her own personal, where-ever-you-need-it visor. The sun never had to be in her eyes again.

So to make me fell better about breaking part of my baby, Abby apologize about 7,000 times and then entertained me the rest of the way to Vegas (also 4 hours). Man, was she tired. :)

Then, in the not so distant future, in was my birthday. I became an official Old Maid by become 26. As traditional goes, Abby made me the coolest cake of my life. Two years ago, it was a caterpillar (so cute!), and last year was a whole beach scene (including Fruit Stripe gum surfboards and Teddy Grahams wearing icing swim-suits).

Since I was OBSESSIVELY watching the Phillies in the post season, Abby decided to make me a baseball cake, including the Philadelphia Phillie, which she didn't know at the time, but I have loved him since I was 4. He turned out so cute! (She made sure he had a big butt.)

After the awesome-ness of my cake, it was soon Halloween, which is my second favorite holiday. I LOVE making costumes and dressing up. And now that we've graduated from Trick-or-Treating and switch to dancing, it's even better. Abby continued with her theme of cool movie characters which people seem to have trouble recognizing in costume form.

This year she went for the lady from "The Birds." And yes those are crows, feathers, and painted on fake blood on that awesome suit. I discovered that I apparently have a great talent for painting on fake blood.

I start planning for Halloween months in advance, which is a really good idea if you make your own costume and they are award-winning (two years in a row). My friend Brian was helping me brain-storm back in August and he suggested Wonder Woman. I didn't really think anything about it, but a week later, when I was really trying to figure out what to be, Wonder Woman just kept coming up. So I did. Several trips to DI and Jo-Ann's fabric, lots of sewing, gluing, and a lot of iron-on-ing, you get Wonder Woman, the blond version.

My favorite parts are the boots and the Lasso-of-Truth. The boots were tan, mid-calf boots that I spray painted candy apple red. Then I "fashioned" the top half out of red pleather and Velcro.

And this is what you can do with my hair with a hair brush and 5 minutes. AWESOME!!!

Other random things:

You know your favorite take out place when you start to recognize the staff who work there. You know you go to your favorite take out place when the staff start to recognize you. :)
My niece, who is basically one of the coolest nieces ever, has her own blog, which is cooler than mine. She's 8.
You know you're having a rough day as a teacher when the best thing you can say at the end is "We all made it out alive."
I told my friend to bring me something awesome from Italy for my birthday. She brought me a picture of herself...in Italy.

Never Assume

2009-10-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

We had an assembly on Tuesday at school. Ballet West has a school program where they come and teach the kids about ballet then do a little performance. I was terrified about how the kids would act, especially the boys. Turns out, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. They sat still for the whole program, which was an hour long. They LOVED it. The only thing I had to do was keep them from standing up to see the dancers toes. They even told me they loved the music. The performance was a 15 minute version of "The Sleeping Beauty." They loved Tchaikovsky's music. All of them were dancing around at recess. It was so cute.

Yeah for free stuff!

2009-09-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Labor Day, Abby and I went to Seven Peaks for our last hoorah. The season passes were so worth it. We had already gone in the water once and were just laying out to dry off. There was a little family in front of us and they were packing up to go. The wife turned to us and asked if we wanted their rented tubes ($5 a piece). We jumped at the chance, because you can't use the free tubes in the lazy river or wave pool. We then spent the next two hours floating around Seven Peaks. We went around the Lazy River about 3 times. I was so relaxed I looked like I was dead.
Then we took them into the wave pool. We went in before the waves started to get used to it first. We've seen many people biff it getting into their tubes with the wave machine going. I didn't have any trouble with mine, but Abby was a different story. When she would get in, her legs would go straight up into the air. Then when she was trying to readjust or get comfy, she leaned back to far and disappeared. From then on, I wasn't allowed to let go of her tube. She even used the Death Grip on my leg when I let go for 5 seconds.
All and all, an awesome way to spend your last official day of summer.

I love people watching

2009-07-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

Saturday was the bestest day ever for people watching. First Abby and I went to Seven Peaks for our weekly dose of sun and fun. I don't know what it is but when people go to the pool with a bunch of their friends, they forget that the rest of the world can still see them. Last week we saw the first Speedo of the season. Wow, words can not explain.

So we figured it was going to be tough for the pool to top that one. Never...ever...doubt the power of boys being stupid at the pool. We had two separate, but equally awesome sighting, but didn't get pictures of either (dang it). The first was the steroid triplets. These guys were there to be seen. I don't think they ever touched the water. What is with guys who think they need to be that bulky. The one guy could wear a C-cup!

Then came the big group. It was 5 guys with a few girls, so obviously they were trying to look really cool. And, oh, did they achieve their goal. Instead of swim trunks, they all opted for home-made, cut-off, denim shorts. Each had varying lengths. One had knee length, which is acceptable, but then each got shorter and SHORTER. One guy was basically wearing Daisy Duke's. And he did not have the body to pull it off. A fashion tip for the gentlemen: It's never a good thing if your shorts are shorter than the girl standing next to you.

As if the pool wasn't good enough, we also hit up the Spanish Fork Rodeo that night. The word "awesome" falls short of describing the fun, food, and people. Of course there were cowboys by the dozen and there were some FINE lookin' men in Stetsons. There was a cool old man wearing the cover-alls, the cute little boys in cowboy attire, and the prissy girl wearing high-heeled, pink Converse shoes. And let us not forget the hillbilly couple wearing their matching black wife-beaters. AMAZING!!!

Fun FHE

2009-07-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

So Abby and I are notorious FHE gypsies. We float around within the groups in our singles ward, but we do always have a friend in the group who invites us. Last night was FHE at the bishop's and councilors' houses. We ended up going with our friend (and my former roommate) Allison, mostly because she agrees to pick us up. On the way there, we played the loudest game of Catch Phrase ever (cookie...cookie...COOKIE!!!).

Allison's group and another group were going to the Anderson's to help them clean their house, which they are fixing up to sell. They were prepare for us: there was a job chart, buckets of soapy water in every room, and enough rags to cover the floor. After an awesome lesson on hope, the mass cleaning started. Since we were the second ones to arrive, we got our pick of jobs. Abby and Allison took baseboards (I don't know why) and I got to take of every light switch cover in the house (I got to use a tool).

When you have that many people (around 20) in a townhouse, funny things just happen. They are even funnier when people are cleaning, for some reason. There were flying rags, a few minor collisions, and a little bit of dancing. And as people started finishing their jobs, there was more fun to be had. The Anderson's were prepare with drinks, brownies, ice cream, and games set up out back. I played Badminton for the first time in my life. I kind of sucked at it when we started, but it didn't matter because we played Ultimate Badminton, where you just keep whacking the shuttlecock (I was told that's what it's called) back and forth.

I also discovered that I can NOT tie a cherry stem in a knot. I tried for the first time ever last night (I don't like cherries) and I failed miserably, in front of an audience no less. And it didn't help that my friends were saying that this means I'm a sloppy kisser.

A few of us ended up stickin around and just chatting with the Andersons for a little while. They are a really cool couple that aren't much older then the rest of us, so we can all relate. We didn't realize how long we were talking and didn't leave until close to 10. We were just having too much fun.

Aunt Cindy Day

2009-07-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

Now that my New Jersey nieces and nephew are getting older, I've started a tradition of just us spending a day together. I give their parents a break for several hours and when I return the kids, they're usually passed out, which equals NAP TIME. :)

This year I took Isabel, Cecily, and Bentley to the aquarium in Camden. This aquarium is officially cool. Not only did they have escalators, which Bentley very proudly rode by himself 7 times, they've got lots of fun things to see. They've got hippos.

They make you feel like royalty.

They have a walk-through, shark-infested tube. (I said to look scared, so Bentley ran away.)

You can even have three children eaten by a giant foam shark.

They've even got sea turtles, and these ones were, as Bentley said, "gianamic."

But I thought this one, and his friends were much better. Except maybe not the scary last one.

They hooked you up with cool shades to see "SpongeBob SquarePants in 4-D!"

And plus, you get tons of cute pictures.

After the aquarium we went out to lunch at Friendly's, which is a favorite of both mine and the kids. If you don't know what it is, you should, and I feel a little sad for you. Then, since the kids had been so good, I wanted to reward them. So we stopped by Five Below, which is an upscaled version of a dollar store (everything is $5 or below, hence the name). Everyone found exactly what they wanted, eventually, but Bentley found the coolest sunglasses ever along the way. Elton John, eat your heart out.

The Little Fireworks Show That Could

2009-07-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

So, my family is really big on fireworks. In years past, my brothers and I have tried numerous times to blow ourselves, and innocent bystanders, to bits. We love making stuff explode. That's why we really love the Fourth of July because all other Americans join us in our passion for potentially deadly entertainment.

Now usually we are down at the shore in Ocean City. We rent a beach house and stay for a week, Saturday to Saturday. We play all week and love the fireworks show down by the boardwalk. They spend over a million dollars on fireworks! The show usually last over 30 minutes. It is amazing. Unfortunately, this year the Fourth fell on the Saturday that we had to be out, so we had to find alternate fireworks. And this was not the year to be trying new places. With the way the economy is going, a lot of towns cut their fireworks budget completely. (Good for budget, bad for pyromaniacs.)

My brother went online and found some not too far away. The directions said to go to this park, but when we get to the park, there were only a few cars there. Even though we were early, we knew something wasn't right. We finally asked some people who were leaving and they said that they had heard the fireworks were going to be a the nearby high school. So we drive over there, and we found all the people. Cars were parked for miles. Now, keep in mind, we have three kids under the age of 8, all of whom could run a mile in 5 flat, but if they are commanded to walk, "their legs are tired." After driving around, and hearing a lot of whining, we found a miraculous parking spot not far from the back corner of the field. We found a big open spot, spread out our blankets and waited.

Now, just to give an idea of how organized this show was, nobody knew which direction the fireworks would be and they said they started at "dusk." Try to explain to a 3 year old how many more minutes until dusk. But we had fun. We chased fireflies, ate candy, my nephew literally jumped on my dad yelling "Wake up!" But by 9:15, we all were getting antsy. People were shooting of their own fireworks, so nobody knew what was going on. Then we saw flashing lights behind a bunch of trees on the other side of a hill. They kept going, but we could hardly see anything. After 15 minutes they stopped. My parents thought that we had ended up in the wrong place and had missed the show. So they started packing up to go. I can't really blame them, because by this time, it was 9:45 and we had tired kids.

As we started back to the car, my niece lost it. She had been looking forward to seeing fireworks all week. She just kept crying, "This is the worst Fourth of July EVER!" We get to the car and just as we start to climb in, the sky exploded. Turns out, our fireworks show was waiting for another show to end, but they didn't tell anyone. We all ran over to a spot where we could see. And it was awesome. About of fourth of it was blocked by trees, but the kids still loved it. I had my 3-year-old nephew on my shoulders and he just kept shouting "WOW", "COOL", and "BIG BOOM!" Ahhh, the next generation of explosive lovers.

I love the shore

2009-06-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

In New Jersey, you don't go to the beach for the day. You go down to the shore. (No matter which direction you are heading, it is always "down.") Once you are down at said shore, you then sit on the actual beach (which is the sandy, oceany part). Just thought I would clarify that first.

Every year, my family makes our annual pilgrimage to the shore. This has been going on for generations and is awesome. We rent a house and stay down for a whole week. This is truly the only way to enjoy the shore. If you come down for one day, you have a lot of fun and all, but then you have to make the drive back, with sand in your pants no less. We do it right. You sleep in, maybe ride bikes or play mini-golf in the morning, spend the entire afternoon playing/roasting on the beach, and then clean up to go play on the boardwalk at night. And the kids love it because, as my niece put it, "there are no bedtimes at the beach house."

Many pictures are sure to follow and the story of our fun trip to the aquarium, but I just wanted to put my love of the shore out there.

My Face Hurts

2009-06-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the much dreaded root canal. And if that wasn't bad enough, I had to be there at 8 AM. Voluntary torture and I had to wake up early for it? Evil! It started out not so bad. They have a head-set so you can watch a movie as they destroy your mouth. And they used one of those things to keep my mouth open for me, so I just blocked out everything they were doing and enjoyed my movie. For two hours, there was nothing but drills. I think I can live the rest of my life without ever hearing a dental drill again.

When I originally went in, they told me that when I came back, they would put in a temporary crown, and do the real one about two weeks later. But when I went in yesterday, they said they were going to do it all in one shot. They apparently have machine that can shape the porcelain tooth right in their office. So this maybe two hour appointment turned into 4 1/2 hours at the dentist! Ahhh! In between the stuff he was doing on me, the dentist worked on about 7 other patients. I really wanted to smack the guy I over heard saying that it was so painful to have your teeth cleaned by the dentist.

After my new tooth was shaped and polished (it's very smooth), the dentist came back in to put everything in. What is it with dentist and treating your mouth like it can't feel pain. By this time all the Novocain had worn off, but this guy was shoving his entire fist in my mouth. He cracked the side my mouth and my cheek still hurts today from him ripping over to the side. Not don't get me wrong, this dentist is awesome, but I think by the end he just wanted to get me out of there. When we were almost done, he kept telling me to open wider. Finally the nice hygienist reminded him that my jaw had been open for 4 hours and might be a little tired and sore. When it was all done, I walked out with a nice-new-shiny tooth, a fat lip, and a whole lot poorer.

Cheer Up the Raining Day

2009-06-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

The weather so far for this summer officially sucks. It is cool, rainy, cloudy, and the sun only seems to come out for very brief intervals. So here's something to brighten your cloudy/rainy day.

Adventures in Dental Care

2009-06-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

I seriously brought this on myself. I haven't been to a dentist in over 3 years. Now, that's now entirely by choice. The last time I went, I was still on my parents insurance. And now I have a job and medical insurance, but no dental. So about two weeks ago, during the last week of school, one of my top left teeth started killing me if I ate or drank anything cold. But I got by. I chewed on the other side of my mouth and lived on Tylenol. After about a week of this, I figured it's probably something more serious then tooth sensitivity. So I made an appointment, fully prepared for the boat-load of money I'd have to shell out.
The dentist is nice and everything, but after taking the x-rays, he makes a noise you don't want a dentist to make: "Oh boy!" Turns out I have a huge (I really do mean huge) cavity in my tooth. Then he says to two words you never, ever want to hear: ROOT CANAL!!! Ahhhhhhh! So they drilled and I have a temporary filling, which tastes absolutely terrible by the way), and an appointment for next week.
Let this be a lesson to everyone else: a.) get some form of dental insurance (this is costing me close to $2000), b.) don't wait three years between dentist's visits. It hurts physically, emotionally, and, worst of all, financially.

Stripper Names

2009-06-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

The other night my roommate, Abby, and I were just sitting around when I came across something absolutely fabulous on Facebook: "What Would Your Stripper Name Be?" After much squealing laughter, we had to try it, of course. Abby went first and got the fabulous name of "Bambi." Pretty appropriate considering her love of all things Disney. Then I took the quiz and got the best stripper name ever: "Peaches." (And it must be said with a southern accent to get the full effect. After you do one of these quizzes, it asks you if you want to publish the results where all your friends can see, and comment, on it. I did actually stop and think for a second about who might see this: family, co-workers, parents of my students. But, hey, you only get to be young and stupid once. So I published it and didn't really think about it again, until Sunday.
I sat down in Relief Society with my friend Angie and we visited for a few minutes. Just before the meeting was about to start, I hear behind me, "Hey Peaches!" In all honestly I had to think about this for a second because there used to be a girl in our RS named Peachie. Then suddenly it clicked. I turned around to see Naseem, my former visiting teacher, grinning from ear to ear. We got laughing about it and I had to explain to a couple girls sitting around us after RS was over because the Bishop's second counselor was sitting behind Naseem. But the best part is that I got everyone to take the quiz too. We now have Peaches, Bambi, Bubbles, and Candy. And we greet each other as such. Although I am the only one dumb enough to post it (twice now). :)

I finally gave in!

2009-06-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

I counted the other day and realized that I live vicariously through no less than 12 other people by way of their blogs. I check them often and love people's stories. So, now that I have tons of free time on my hands (aka- Summer Break), I thought I might just give it a whirl. Now I'm not sure if anyone will enjoy it or not, but welcome to my world!