idontbelieveingrammar

Recently me and Shaun took advantage of the fact that we were paying for childcare over the 2 week Christmas break whether we were using it or not. The kids went to school. We went to a movie. Movies are very rare these days. Well at least ones with out talking cars or robots. We saw 4 Christmases with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. Mainly because there weren't very many good options at the time ( it was before all the Christmas day releases.) We wanted something light and short and funny. Besides we like all those dysfunctional family Christmas movies.....like the "Family Stone", "Dan in Real Life" and the mother of them all "Home for the Holidays". In case you haven't seen the movie...let me give you a brief synapsis. The main characters have plans to spend Christmas on a beach somewhere, but their flight is canceled. They are busted and end up committing to spending Christmas with their families. All 4 of them. Both of them have divorc...

I love going to my mailbox this time of year. Usually it is only filled with junkmail and bills. This month it is filled with friends. Their faces and letters make me smile. The Christmas letter has always baffled me a bit. I love reading them and getting to catch up on people's lives. But I have never quite known what to see. Most of these letters seem a bit too polished. I don't mean grammatically.......more like some of the stuff of life has been left out. One of my good friends has always joked about writing a REAL Christmas letter. Starting out with something like, " This year we filed for bankruptcy" or "we managed to stay married for another year" or "my son is failing half of his classes". Imagine the response those would get! So I will attempt a REAL letter. Some of the highlights as well as some of the lows. My tendency is to be super wordy.....but I'll do my best to keep it to a reasonable length. When I reflect on the year...

maybe some of you have noticed that i have taken a break from blogging for a while. a month. an entire month has gone by since my last post. i didn't even take that much time off after delivering a baby. my absense has not been due to lack of material. i have plenty. not even necessarily lack of time. although it is in short supply these days. i just haven't. i have been decorating cookies, and looking at christmas lights, not sleeping and occasionally grading papers. it is probably the attempted balance of 2 and going back to work and sick babies. ...but..... instead of trying to do more this Christmas, i have tried to do less. buy less presents. send out less christmas cards. only slightly less. it still isn't like me to skip a party. but things like blogging, laundry and pictures with santa have been put on the back burner. time just passed. email went unchecked and the dished piled up in the sink( ok...the dishes part isn't so abnormal for my house). maternity leave...

2 month appointment today. Apparenlty if you are 10 minutes late they really will reschedule you. 10 lbs 12 oz. 23.25 inches and super cranky after those 4 shots.

I was raised in (and recently returned to) the Methodist church. Methodists celebrate communion on the first Sunday of every month with an “open table”. I have always loved communion. When I was small it was primarily for the grape juice. I heart grape juice and my parents had an official ban on all red liquids in our house until I graduated college ( I kid you not!). Later of course, I started to understand that communion is a precious holy thing and is to be endeared for much more than the forbidden delicious beverages served. The church I grew up in had a very traditional service. Every first Sunday after a slightly abbreviated sermon we would turn our hymnals to the back. The parts where the preacher would read his part and the rest of us would read the boldface sections outloud in attempted unison. The communion liturgy we read every week was entitled “ The Great Thanksgiving”. For years, I wondered what the connection was between bread and grape juice and Thanksgiving. They sure ...

We have toys strewn across the house. Toys that light up, or make noise, or build things. All kinds. Some of them expensive. Of course.........O just wants to play with random stuff like boxes or paper bags but this one was new for me. If you can't tell it is a breast sheild ( the business end of a breast pump). Apparently O thought it made a better megaphone for his one man parade.

Consider this a commercial break. Blog tour book review take 2. Melody Carlson's Let them Eat Fruitcake Are you having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit? You know, well before Thanksgiving. This year they didn't even wait until Halloween to start putting up all the Christmas goodies. If you don't want to break out the tree just yet or start addressing Christmas cards.......you can start with this fun light read. The basic premise: Four twenty-something girls sharing a house between the timeframe of Thanksgiving to Christmas. Each have their own mishaps, doubts and/or disfunctions. The good: Maybe I am just in the Christmas spirit.....but I mostly have good things to say. It was light and fun because who has time to read anything serious during the holidays. It reads really fast and is perfect for any holiday travel....if you have a car/plane ride ahead of you. Assuming you are not the one driving, although I did catch myself reading it redlights (yes, I am that ...

Today when I picked up O from school he was coloring a pilgrim. I tried to tell him some of the Thanksgiving story as we loaded him up in the car. I gave him the gist about Pilgrims and Indians and the first Thanksgiving dinner. I thought he was getting it and told him that it was about to be Thanksgiving and that we would have our own feast. He got all excited and said "Indiana Jones is coming to dinner!" He was very disappointed to learn that Indiana Jones and Indians aren't quite the same thing or even slightly related. And that no actual Indians would be coming to dinner either, although I am a smidge Cherokee. Note to self, ask Dad what kind of "cartoons" they have been watching.

On Monday we had some nasty weather. There were even tornado warnings in some neighboring counties. O's school decided to take the oppertunity to be extra safe and practice their tornado drill. So some brave 3 year old class teacher rounded up all her classmates into the bathroom and tried to explain the why. When I picked O up that afternoon, he told me that we needed to hurry home. the "Mato" was coming. "tornado?" I asked. "yes, mommy. The tomato is coming. The red tomato." I cracked up as I rushed home to beat the storm, and kept an eye out for falling produce.

Yesterday me and Shaun got an early Christmas present. A new large flatscreen TV. It isn't quite as big as some of our friends...but it does dwarf our old one. Owen, in true male fashion, is in love with this piece of electronics that is as long as he is high. Everything, especially Diego, is better on the big screen. This morning I checked my email and read one of those messages ( or comments) that just irks you. The kind you worry about and spend an hour working on your response. The kind that you make into a much bigger deal than it really is. The kind I spent a good portion of the day trying not to think about.......but still managed to take up alot of my thought time and energy on what is probably a non-issue. So I am trying to take a cue from my new big TV. I am going to trying and think of the bigger picture. In the bigger picture this minor issue that is stressing me out really doesn't matter (much). It does make me aware of how quickly and easily we can get de...

......or donkey. last night i stayed up listening to amazing speeches letting the newsanchors convince me i was watching something historic. shaun even almost voted. oprah in tears was a little too much for me though. maybe she was crying about the lack of good material for saturday night live now that election is over. kidding. i jest. but i was moved. i was hopeful, and I didn't even stay awake long enough for obama's speach. i knew this morning would leave a lot of texans unhappy. i have tried to brush off their comments for the last few months. most of them assumed i felt like they did. i didn't. i woke up to watch obama's speech on tivo. then i stopped to fill up my car, and cringed to see a truck flying a giant confederate flag from the back with horrible things shoepolished on his windows. i started to doubt that any progress has been made. then breakfast with a friend who had some very passionate opinions a few days ago. i mentioned staying up late watching...

7 games of solitare 2 games won. 63 pages read ( dave sedaris rocks) 2 hours of bad daytime tv ( bonnie hunt and crossing jordan) 8 phone calls telling me to vote 0 actual people on the other end. 3 number of times I was almost asleep only to be interupted by a phone call telling me to vote 25 percentage of my day spent with a child attached (literally) 2 number of times I was spit up on enough to warrant changing shirts o times I actually changed shirts 3:36 time I put on clothes other than my pjs 6 level of bejeweled I made it to before Tess's cryings insisted on prematurely ending the game. 4 numbers of diapers changed before lunch 8 number of loads of laundry waiting to be done 1/2 number of loads actually done ( only half because it sat wet in the washer for 2 days before I finally transferred it to the dryer. Still haven't hung any of it up). 3 recipes I looked up online to make for dinner 13.84 the dollar amount of my dinner order at taco casa 5:36 time Shaun pulled up ...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Owen just scooted out the door for the day dressed as spiderman. His school is having a halloween party......but I am not sure he was supposed to show up ALL day in costume. I also considered the fact that they are serving lasagna for lunch, and the outfit is a one-piecer making "potty time" a nightmare. I thought maybe just taking his costume to put on at party time would be a better idea. However, I could not convince my child of this. Before leaving he asked me a question that has stuck with me ( well maybe because he asked it about a dozen times in a span of 5 minutes). "Who are you going to be today mommy?" First I tried responding with something easy......"Owen's mommy". Apparently that was not exciting enough. Then I tried to appeal to the superhero in him with "super woman". Apparently they don't show that cartoon anymore so there is no such thing if you are 3. I started to get desperate and told him I could be "Dora"...

All this last minute campaigning is getting to me. It is the ugly kind with attack ads and robo-calls. When my phone rings, I think if this is another campaign call I will scream. Someone ( or usually just a recording) goes on about their candidate. If it is a real person they end with the same question, " Can we count on your support?". The first (and only) question and chance for interaction in this conversation. Usually I have hung up by then. I think we can learn a few lessons about how to express our faith....from politics. 1. cold calls don't work. pretty much stop handing out tracts and tell the bullhorn guy to shut up. People might care what you have to say if you just have a real conversation, not an agenda. Opinions, votes, ideals and even souls are changed in friendships and relationships NOT random phonecalls or signs in your front yard ( same goes for bumber stickers...) 2. getting nasty only turns people off. Nothing turns me off to a candidate more than a n...

These are from my friend Tina Make a Smilebox slideshow To see more great pics of Tess check out my friend rhonda's site www.snapshotsonlocation.com , click on view my session, login Tess, password pictures

I have a housekeeping secret that I am about to reveal. About 30 minutes before Shaun gets home I like to start a load of laundry and/or dishes. That way when he gets home it "sounds" like I have been domestically busy all day.... instead of just watching daytime tv and breastfeeding. So yesterday while moving the wet clothes from the washing machine over to the dryer .....I notice a weird squishy object. Upon further investigation I discovered that they were earplugs. I thought it was a bit odd....but just figured Owen had been playing with them or occasionally Shaun has to wear them on site and maybe he left them in his pocket. Case closed. Until about 4:45 am and my daughter is making crazy night noises so loud I can't sleep. ( really she sounds like a lawnmower.. it isn't even snoring more like perpetual grunting). By 5:15 am (still awake) I start to connect the dots ( all that daytime law and order) and suspect that my sweetly snoring husband might be smugg...

This morning, early, I could hear Tess waking up. I wasn't quite ready to start my day or provide breakfast. I remember thinking....just a few more minutes of good sleep. I reached over to the side table and attempted to hit snooze. I wasn't being funny. I meant it in that sleepy state. Turns out babies don't come with that button.

My favorite restraunts include: Uncle Julios, Pirahana, Bonnells. O's favorite is easy and much cheaper. McDonalds. He could care less about the food...it is all about the toy inside the Happy Meal. He can spot the golden arches about a mile away. He thinks it is so great that there is even a song written about it. You know, "Old McDonald". Last time we drove past Owen said he wanted Old McDonalds. I laughed, and asked him if Old McDonald had a farm. He replied, matter of factly, "no he had french fries".

This morning as my husband woke up around 6:30, I was just taking Tess into the other room for breakfast. He looks at me puzzled for a moment and asks if we slept somewhere else. I say no, and return with a puzzled look of my own. He responds, "but I slept". We all got some much needed sleep at our house last night. Of course I was up for atleast an hour around 3 am, but that is nothing compared to the dozens of times we were up the night before. This is the first time in months ( yes I know she is only 3 weeks old, but I swear she was keeping me up long before her birthday!) that I have gotten 4.5 hours of continuous uninterrupted sleep. Who needs 8 hours. 4 feels amazing. We almost feel human. I just might shower before noon. Cross your fingers that this trend continues. I think we will keep her after all.

We were invited to a big fun costume party last weekend. The party is always a bunch of fun and I was excited for Owen to go. He has been wearing his spiderman cosutme for weeks now already. Me and Shaun were struggling to think of costumes. Until I stumbled upon a few wigs. I was Hannah Montana and Shaun got the mullet wig and could go as Billy Ray. Owen thought we were hillarious. Most everyone else needed an explanation. Tess was a skeleton......mainly b/c all the baby costumes seem so big and I refused to have her be a pumpkin. The next night we had a Sunday School social. I told O we needed to get ready for the party and he got all excited and ran to get his spiderman outfit.....again. I took some serious explaining that not every party from now on required costumes. I tried to convince him to go as Peter Parker......It seemed to work and we got to leave the mask at home.

I spent most of the last 36 hours enclosed in my room. On Saturday night me and Shaun had devised a plan that would give us almost 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep each. I was proud of the plan and eager to double my sleeping allotment. My shift started at around 2 am. If I went to bed at 8, after feeding Tess. Shaun could give her a small bottle when she woke up then bring her back to her bassinette in the bedroom. Around midnight, I woke up to Owen coughing. I didn't remember anyone giving him his asthma medicine and thought I'd give him a puff before going back to sleep ( I sitll had 2 more hours!). He immediately projecttile vomited all over the couch. Shit. We can not be sick. 102 degrees says we are. So the 6 hour of sleep plan was thrown out the window and it was revised into divide and conquer. Shaun got Owen ( and to clean up the icky mess) and I got Tess. I closed my bedroom door and made it the germ free zone. Sort of. I probably got the easier end of the de...

On Thursday I put on real pants for the first time in months. No, I have not been running around pantless.....but I mean real pants. That zip and button and everything. No stretchy waisteline, no belly band and no draw strings. No, I am not one of those girls who wore her skinny pants out of the hospital. My belly is still a bit jelly. I still have a sensative incision and actually haven't been brave enough to rip off all the steri-strips ( think of about 30 mini bandaids over c-section incision). But there are a few pairs of fat pants that I can fit into. Usually I would be all for pj or work out pants for all occasions ( something I never outgrew from college). Putting on real pants and blowdrying my hair are amazing feats these days and suddenly make me feel like a person again. It's funny. There are these baby milestones coming up, like smiling and rollig over. All the magazines and websites give you expected dates for this to happen. I think there should be new ...

I love the fair. Corn dogs and carnies and lemonade and rides and the foul smell of livestock. Shaun took Owen yesterday......and it was so hard for me not to go along. Owen was totally wiped out when he got home! Make a Smilebox slideshow

On Monday night I ventured out for my Monday night bible study. I managed to read the right chapter and take a shower and was eager to get off the couch and away from daytime TV for a few hours. Tess slept in someone else's arms the whole time. I tried to hide my yawns, and to be honest I missed most of the conversation. I may have read the chapter, but very little of it sunk in. One thing that did hit was they started by doing introductions. But not the normal kind. Not Hi, I am ..........., I am a teacher, a mother, a friend, etc. No titles were allowed. We often describe ourselves based on titles. What we do, who we are to other people. But who are we when those are stripped away. Kind of like Job. I liked the idea of the assignment. I like to write and figured as soon as I started typing some kind of profound answer would stream out. But I am struggling to find any words. I am a child of God. That is something that can't be stripped away. That is about all I ca...

Sometimes we want God to be fair. We look around and see everyone else getting a break. Lately I have been the girl getting the break. My life is good. I just had a baby girl with the right amount of fingers and toes. My husband is a big help. And in the middle of all this economic mess, both of us have stable jobs. I have friends who always seem to be hit pretty hard. Marital stuff, job stuff, kid stuff, money stuff. All of it. All at once. And all the while things seem to be going so smoothly for everyone else around her. It has started to affect our friendship. Some people would say, but you don't really know what is going on. People who seem to have it together -- usually don't. I won't pretend to have it together, but sometimes I wonder when the roles will be reversed. God doesn't work that way. We don't really want him to. If he was fair, if we got what was coming to us......well we would all be in bad shape. Some of us get more, some of us less. ...

Today we went out for the first time. All four of us. We filled up the car. It was weird to look in the back seat and see 2 car seats. Both filled. Both ours. The plan was to go to the store ( Owen wanted green juicy juicy...which I imagine he meant to be apple juicy juice). Owen wanted to go to the pet store ( otherwise known as the Mansfield zoo). Shaun wanted to run into Lowes and I was craving a meal out. 3 and a high chair. We pulled into the parking lot. Shaun got O out, I slipped Tess into her sling and we made our way across the parking lot. I beamed at the ease of this. No big ass stroller to lug around. I could handle two after all. We wandered through the Halloween aisles picking out candy and contemplating costumes. Tess started to fall asleep and O, although he refused to ride in the cart, still stayed pretty much by our side. We headed to the baby section and I started to feel tired. Owen started to stray. And I was ready to go home even though we only had 2 i...

They are out there in full force. When you are pregnant people feel free to touch you, comment on how you are "carrying" or how wide your hips are. This is odd to me, but not nearly as odd as some of the comments you get after the baby gets here. It starts when the lactation consultant walks into the room. The birthing/hospital experience is humiliating enough w/out some granola woman squishing my boobs, rubbing lotion on my nipples and showing me over and over how my newborns lips should be flush against my chest. She does all this with no concern as to how many people are in the room. She talks fast, I mostly just say yes. I know not to question or argue with this woman. What follows is about an hour long conversation about the merits and ease of breastfeeding with my mother-in-law. I disagree. Every nurse and/or doctor seems to ask 2 questions before going any further. The first one is "When was your last bowel movement", and the second is "are you br...

Neither of my children have come out looking quite like I expected. Not like anyone expected. Owen had a full head of dark almost black hair. He looked like Shaun in almost every other way ( as long as you don't ask his mom).....but the hair totally threw us off. I was expecting blonde, or atleast light brown like mine. Tess, was about 9 days early and a girl so I was expecting at least a pound smaller than Owen. This time I was prepared for the dark hair.....and was hoping for just as much as Owen. She came out bald on top. With lightish, and occasionally orangish looking hair. No eyebrows, no eyelashes and big full cheeks. She topped the scales over 8 lbs, and an once more than her big brother made his appearance at. I couldn't place her. She had some aspects of her dad. My hands and feet......but I couldn't really tell who she looked like. When I looked at Owen's first day pictures they look almost exactly alike. I am amazed at how quickly they change. Not ...

Make a Smilebox photobook

Tess Harper 8 lbs 2 oz 20" (thanks to my talented friends tina and rhonda for the pics!)

One of my best friends is a photographer. A really good photographer. I usually take advantage of her services all the time. However, I won't let her anywhere near my belly. I have never been a fan of maternity pictures. I'm not saying that pregnancy is gross (well lots of it is) or pregnant people aren't beautiful. They can be. I am just not a fan. Some maternity pictures I have seen are really neat ( that is the best adjective I can come up with)....but what do you do with them? Really, I am not hanging those things in my house. That being said. I do want to document (at least a little bit) the giantness of this belly I lug around every day. Especially since it should be partly gone in less than 36 hours :) So here are some funny shots me and Owen took.

Since I am supposed to have a baby Thursday morning, Wednesday is my last day of work for about 8 weeks. I have been working really hard to get ready so that I don't have to "lesson plan" over my maternity leave. I got through the first 3-4 weeks with ease but hit a major bump with quantum mechanics. This isn't something most people get. I'm not even sure I really get it. A video or worksheets won't cut it. I wasted hours trying to figure out the best format for notes, practice, etc. Nothing seemed to make sense or like I could leave it with a sub. Electron configurations, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and orbital diagrams take lots of explanation and hand holding. And then I remember something they told us way back in one of my education classes in college. I don't remember what class it was, or probably most of what I was taught. But I do remember the professor saying this: "80% or more of your students will learn the same amount...

I start to wince whenever someone ones to bring up the coming election in group conversation. Don't get me wrong. It is important. It should be discussed. I just don't like it. I don't always no where I stand. This registered Republican is considering voting in the other direction. But truth be told, I haven't done my research. I'm still on the fence. As always it seems there are no good options. Do I go with certain moral issues? Do I go with what I think is best for the hope of the country? Or who will be best at foreign policy? Or who will be best for my bank account. Shaun's no voting philosophy is sounding better all the time ( don't lecture me in your comments.... I will vote) Being a teacher makes you liberal even if you don't want to be. Reading Shane Claiborne doesn't leave you much choice. But secretly I still harbor all these conservative things. Me and Shaun are responsible. We have good health insurance. We are saving for our ret...

I guess this post is probably a week after the fact. But maybe it is more timely than i think. A week is about as long as it takes for us to forget. For the next headline to take over. About this exact time last week, I was making a run to WalMart for water, flashlights and peanut butter. Just in case we lost power. A hurricane was heading our way, well it would be just a tropical storm by the time it got to DFW but still possibly strong enough to knock out the power for a little while. I also tried to fill up my car with gas before the gas prices went up too much. Those closer to Galveston had a lot more prep work. My brother. My friend Laura. My friend Julie. This is Texas. Plenty of people we know live that way. Friday night I went to hang out with some women from church. One of the women works at our mission center and was saying how rough it was to see them stream in all day. It isn't like watching Katrina on TV. That was half a day away. Houston is just down the int...

I forget that race is still very much an issue. I hate to be reminded. Yesterday ( I teach highschool), our spirit "dress up" day was Hip Hop Day. As I walked into the school I thought how fun and original. Lots of students and even teachers participated. They were in their warmup up suits. Crooked hats. Big chains. Jerseys. Big pants. Adiadas. And of course shades. I wanted to bust out with some Run DMC as I walked down the hall. And then I got to first period. It only took a few minutes for me to notice some major tension. Mainly it was the white kids who dressed up and participated. Most of my black students were not amused. They felt mocked. Despite the seating chart that they usually sit in. My kids were now arranged into a white side and a black side. The white kids didn't really know how to respond and the tension increased. At first I just told them to be quiet. Then I tried to ignore it. Then I finally had to address it. I think I even botched it...

I go through phases where I like to pretend that I am a runner. Unlike some people who truly run....I usually have to have a purpose. An event or race that I am training for. A challenge to beat Shaun or finish under a certain time. I haven't been able to run for a while. Yes, I know a person who ran like 10 miles the day before she delivered. I am not that girl. The most running I do is to the bathroom. Too much activity gives me contractions........and trust me I want this baby to stay put for exactly 12 more days. My body howeve is apparently in it's own training routine. She is training me to get used to waking up all night. I pee at least every two hours ( I hope she doesn't want to eat that much). At least every other night I am up for an hour or more. Just awake. Wide awake. Sometimes I lay there. Pray. Lesson plan. Count backwards ( my equivalent of sheep). Sometimes I give up and get out of bed and read or watch tv. I've discovered that 5 am is ...

My friend offered to lend me this velcro belly thing they gave her in the hospital that she swore helped her with her c-section recovery. I looked online to check it out. I found a few for sale and it was named the "swelly belly band". I may borrow it from my friend, but refuse to call anything a swelly belly band. I also have a "boppy".......which if you don't know is an essential U-shaped pillow used for nursing, tummy time and various other things. There is a slightly different brand with a little mroe stuffing, called "my breast friend". I absolutely refuse to buy or use anything called my breast friend no matter how great it is. I would tell you to google it but am afraid of the images that might pop up. People often point to my belly and refer to me in terms like "preggers" and "prego". Not a fan of being called anything that shares a name ( or at least a spelling) with spaghetti sauce brand. For right now, I like to ig...

Me and O just came from getting our flu shots. He has a Tazmanian devil bandaid, I have Bugs Bunny. My arm is already starting to feel a bit warm and heavy and I am hoping to not feel bad in the morning. It will be well worth it if it keeps me and Tess from getting the flu this year. Vaccines are kind of interesting. The flu vaccine for example….people in the CDC “predict” in Jan or Feb which strains of the virus they think will be the most prevalent. Grow those viruses in chicken eggs. Kill the virus and use it to make the vaccine. One shot that just might prevent me from a week of achy fever and chills. They might be wrong at the CDC. Sometimes it mutates. Sometimes we get sick anyways………but……….with the vaccine it isn’t usually as bad. Last year O was the only one in our house to get a shot. We all 3 got the flu. O happily played and watched cartoons after his does of Motrin to deal with the fever, while me and Shaun wanted to curl up and die. I am kind of amazed that a shot ...

We tried to the Sams thing once. I just couldn't do it. I like the idea of having a year's supply of toilet paper in my garage, or never running out of paper towels...but I had serious difficulty in dropping 20$ on toilet paper. I would much rather purchase my 8 roll pack every few weeks or so. Actually I prefer the 4 roll pack because it actually fits in a bag and isn't so awkward to carry. When I order contacts, I usually only get a 3 month supply. Shaun gets his for a year. When gas prices were up close to 4$ a gallon...I refused to fill my tank. I wasn't saving any money. If anything I was wasting it......along with my time......but I didn't want to see the price column click up into the 80s. Sometimes I just didn't want to wait for it to fill up. Sometimes I was hoping it would drop in the next few days. Regardless I always drove off with my half full tank, and would have to return sooner than I wished for another half tank. Gas dropped a bit and ...

I like to play that twisted game w/ shaun when something is new. I ask him if I look different. He stares at me blankly......I assumes goes through the checklist, is her hair shorter, a different color, is that outfit new, etc. Last weekend I asked him that questions. I got the blank checklist stare and finally he settled on "did you get more freckles?". uh, no. I got my eyebrows waxed. No major change. Although it is my favorite 10$ makeover. Teenagers seem to have this dramatic difference down. One of my students from last year swung by my room and asked if she looked different. I didn't have to stare blankly or go through a mental checklist. Everything was different. Last year she sported chains, spikes, chunky shoes, dark colors and rainbow jewlery. I am pretty sure every item in her closet was purchased at Hot Topic. She was often seen walking down the hall holding hands with a different girl every few months. The day she asked me this she was wearing a prepp...

This blog is all about 2 things I don’t usually do. 1. Blog tours. Despite the fact that my friend Tina runs some of these, and you often get free books ( I love books). I have never done one. Is it like selling out? What if you don’t like the book? That kind of thing. 2. Read books with titles like Generation Hex: Understanding the Subtle Dangers of Wicca. Makes me a little scared . It is either going to be over the top conservative or just weird over the top. ( I was pleased to discover it was mostly neither). So two things out of my comfort zone…..here goes. Like I said I was a bit reluctant to get into the book, but was surprised to learn that Wicca is actually one of the fastest growing “religions” in the US, especially in teenagers. I teach high school and started to realize maybe there was a little more here for me than I had first thought. I did have to struggle through the first few chapters about Harry Potter and Halloween, but as soon as I hit the first interview wi...

I have been dating Shaun for almost 11 years now. It has been a long time since I have had a first date. The first few days of school are as close as I get ( or want to get). It is like a week of 150 first dates. It is an odd comparison I know, and no bad jokes about "dating" my students please... ( ick and I want to keep my job). Bare with me and I'll try to make the connection. They stumble in on that first day. We are all shiny and new and wanting to impress. There is an awkward eagerness( even from the teacher). Some of the kids ( just like some first dates) are trying too hard to impress, a few......the ones sleeping are not trying hard enough ( actually I think they might be trying to appear like they are not trying.) Some are too wrapped up in themselves to care what I have to say. Others are just trying to see how far they can get. (use the metaphor here...not literally of course). For the most part we are on our best behavior. All teachers are really go...

Less than one month to go on the baby countdown. ( let me preface this rant with the fact that I am super grateful for this gift and thankful for a baby.....just not a fan of the belly or the attention that it brings). Now that school has started though I kind of want to draw less attention to it. I mean, random people rub my belly. Kids I don't know walk by and point it out. And everyone wants to know how I "feel". I say fine or good....which is no where near the honest truth......but I don't think the secretary really wants to hear about my hemroids ( nor, probably did anyone reading this). People stop and tell me how "cute" I look .....but when they say cute they don't mean that my hair or outfit looks great -- but that my belly button is sticking out. Some of my kids look on in fear.......not because I am lighting the desk on fire but because they think I might drop this baby any second. Right there on the lab room floor. And sometimes I feel l...

27 pounds has been on my mind lately. A welcome heaviness. No that is not the amount of weight I have gained in this pregnancy ( at least not yet). It is the weight of my blonde three year old little boy. This is on the small end for his age ( as in we are still under the 10% percentile), but it is starting to feel like a lot. My c-section is scheduled for almost exactly one month away ( Sept. 25). Owen is starting to get harder and harder to pick up and hold. Not that he usually wants me to or anything. He tries to be quite the independant one, which is usually good. But there is occasional required lifting. Like when he falls asleep in the car after swimming and I hope and pray I can get him inside to actually take a nap. Like when I lift him on the counter so he can help me cook dinner. Like when I lift him into the shopping cart at the store. Like when he is hurt or scared and I want to hold him. Like when I set him on the toilet in the morning because he is too tired to stan...

This summer has been hot, with only smoe minor releif ( thank you tropical storms) in the last few weeks. Playground equipment is too hot to touch. Most of our time has been speant indoors or at the pool. Normally I like hot. I have a pretty high tolerence for it. I am usually cold. I am the girl that keeps a hoodie in her car for restraunts, movies and other public places that think below 80 is an acceptable room temperature. If I am hanging out at your house, and you happen to have a throw blanket on a chair or the back of your couch......I will probably cover up with it. I have all the AC vents in the car pointed away from me ( or closed). I sleep with multiple covers even in the summer. This summer has been a bit of an exception. Maybe it is the extra baggage I am carrying around. When I was pregnant with O, I just felt normal ( as opposed to my usual cold). That was before very pregnant meets Texas July and August heat. I wake up sweaty. I sweat in the shower. One night I...

1. Make only what you need for that day ( or in this case for Monday). Do not make copies for 2 days from now or 2 weeks from now or 2 months from now. 2. Have your stuff together. This is not the time to cut and paste with your scissors. White things out or copy multiple single pages from a workbook. 3. It better be useful, like your syllabus. Not 175 cartoons or color pages or recipes that you just happen to want to try. 4. Packets of more than 5 pages will have to be made later. Like in the middle of the night or something. 5. Sure you can sneak out of line to pee, or buy a soda from the machine. NOT go to Starbucks and come back adn expect your place to still be there. 6. Be kind to the copier. Use it gently, make sure the paper is straight ( and loaded). No stray staples or taped up originals. Nothing that can potentially jam the machine is allowed. If it breaks on your set, be prepared to run. Fast. 7. Do not under any circumstances walk away from the machine while it ...

When people talk about highschool and/or teenagers they often mention peer pressure. Like this is something we grow out of. Like we hit college and suddenly people can no longer talk us into things or influence our decisions. We are grown ups and can make good rational decisions for ourselves. Right. Not so much. I like to think that I am pretty confident in who I am and can think for myself. And then school starts (at least for the teachers). It is like I am back in high school rather than teaching it. No one is trying to talk me into smoking anything, spiking the punch,or to make out with them in the backseat. (well not yet at least). But........ I find myself complaining, making jokes and sighing along with the rest of my crowd. Go to an elementary school the week before school starts and you will find teachers about to explode with excitement and positive warm goodness. Go to a high school and you will find a bunch of whiners. Most school districts start the staff year with a...

I love love love office supplies. Usually back to school means trips to Office Max, Office Depot, WalMart, Target and of course Staples. I buy good pens, pretty colors of dry erase markers and all things to get me pumped up for a new school year. This year, I have managed to avoid the school supplies.....so far. I am only going back for a month or so at first anyways. Last night, however, I bought 2 very expensive staples. They didn't come from one of my favorite office supply stores.....but instead the ER. O had a run in with a chest and lost. We were up at a sunday school party and I had just left him playing upstairs with a few other kids. I told Shaun to go check on him in about 5 minutes..... 30 seconds later we here a big crash from upstairs followed by some screams and crying that I am sure are coming from my kid. I take off running upstairs to kiss whatever boo-boo he has. I pick him up out of a slightly scared teenage girl's arms and start consoling him when her...