Progress! ...but a totally boring post.

The semester's coming to an end. I'll miss my classes, but at least I see all these kids all the time so it won't be like I have to wait for them to come visit me or something. I'll miss Psych, too. But I am looking forward to my World Cultures class!



















I'm also feeling pretty great about my diet/exercise program. Not like it's a "program" program; I'm just eating scantily and exercising. Today I only had 1220 calories and I went to the gym. I keep forgetting that I can't just pick up where I left off six months ago; I want to run three miles at once but my body just can't handle it, so I overdid it Sunday and had to take a break yesterday. Boo. I also bought Acai berry drink fortification stuff at Whole Foods and I've been mixing that with OJ every night.

Update on my New Year's Rez! I'm happy to announce I completed January's "two new things" last week. This month I used homemade laundry detergent and I also ate antelope for the first time. Oh man, it was good! Thanks to Laurie, who supplied the roast, and Hubby for cooking it up.




















The gym I work out at has mini personal TVs on all the treadmills. Today I (a little ironically) watched The Food Network - it made the time totally fly by. I heart Duff.

Woo!
Today I received an awesome surprise - and one that teachers rarely get.
On the master schedule, I had no class listed for my 3rd period. I figured that since my colleague is leaving before the end of the quarter, and that I was taking over her class the next quarter, that I was going to be given special assignments until she goes on maternity leave. Turns out, they really just didn't know what class to have me teach. Now there's a group of students (mostly freshman and sophomore, I guess) that need an elective. "Make it fun!", they said. So I asked my current Psych class what I should teach, and got everything from Oceanography, Astronomy and Psychology, to Home Economics. I suggested maybe a World Cultures class, and they totally jumped at that. And since I'm Social Studies endorsed, I can offer a "Cultural Anthropology" class and it will count toward their Social Studies credits! Woo!

So now I'm brainstorming all the things I can do with it. I've been tossing ideas for this class around for a couple of years, and now I get to teach it! We'll learn different cultures' dress, dance, music, food, and social norms. I know it sounds kinda boring but I'm super psyched to teach it.

Today Hubby and I went to MACA to get a little work done. He was working on his Work Sample and I got a lot of repotting done. As a Biology teacher, I find it necessary that I have fossils and live plants everywhere in my classroom. It's kind of a requirement. I even have plans next Saturday to acquire more fossils. Possibly more plants, you never know. Hint: if you ever feel like getting me a present, the nerdiest/most amazing thing I'd love is a fossilized Ginkgo leaf. My birthday's in April. Thanks in advance!











I found out a couple weeks ago that I weigh more now than I ever have ever ever ever in my whole life. So, needless to say, I'm trying to fix that... but I've got to do something different, as the last time I cut calories/killed myself exercising, I actually gained two pounds. Grr.

I'm adopting a super simple/non processed foods "diet", along with cutting calories slowly down to 1200 or 1300 a day. Next month I'll start up at the gym that's two blocks away. It should be said that I do not abhor exercise. I actually really like running, which is what I did over the summer/fall, until I injured my foot and knee and had to give it a rest - and by then, the weather had turned. I've missed it. I was up to four miles a day.

Other news: there was a plumbing emergency in the complex and they surprised us by shutting the water off to all the apartments yesterday. We spent the day at James' parents place, which was kind of nice.

It's been nice to live simply. No money = simple homemade meals and much fewer choices to make during the day. Today we splurged and went to Sushi Land. It was pure heaven. A quick trip to Whole Foods got me a wedge of some delicious Irish aged cheese which I'll have with figs and whole wheat wafers for lunch. Mmmm....

I'm really excited about this year. My New Year's Resolution is to try at least two new things a month... I wanted to do one new thing a week, but since I'm a teacher, weeks fly by and I'm super busy, and didn't want to feel like a failure if I let a week or two slip by. So, I figured two a month is reasonable.

I've already got my first one! I used my home-made laundry detergent for the first time today. Sheets are in the dryer, so I'll see in a bit how it did. It was super easy to make, but I think I'll make the liquid kind next.














This resolution stems from my enjoyment over trying new things in the last few months. I just keep stumbling upon good opportunities. Last week, for instance, I ate goat for the first time ever. Hubby and I went to our favorite Indian place for lunch (they have the world's best Indian buffet), and they had goat curry. It was super good and I kinda wish I had gotten more (it was just a little taste). Ah well.

Future "new" things to try:
*Possibly an Administrative License program
*Again, different sushi every time I go
*Making my own pasta (Mom, can I have the chicken noodle soup recipe?)

Any suggestions?

Sneak preview

Here's a sneak preview of what will be a very belated Christmas present to my family. It's in the works - let's hope your patience pays off. :)

Yay, holiday cheer!

This year, James and I are doing the holidays more casually. By that, I mean that I've put up no decorations, we didn't have turkey for Thanksgiving (although Hubby cooked an awesome meal), and neither one of us has done a lick of shopping. It's liberating, I tell you.

Thanks to Paul for hosting an awesome Thanksgiving for friends! We were packed in there, man. And I learned that Paul is frightfully talented at foosball. It's the years at NBHS. ;)

Usually, we try to give hand-made gifts, but fail to successfully do so for everyone - I think this year we'll succeed! I've been super busy getting things ready, but they still won't make it for Christmas, unfortunately. The majority of them have been extremely time consuming. But honestly, this year, I'm more looking forward to giving presents than I am at receiving them - there's nothing I've had my eye on, which really is frustrating to Hubby, I'm sure... and I think I did an awesome job with James' present this year so the process of creating it is making me super excited for Christmas morning!

Steve and Sara Wedding Preview

My friend Steve got married! I went to Phoenix for a few days to meet the bride and spend some quality time with my college friends.

Here are just a couple of the pics I took. I'll post the rest on flickr as soon as I have some editing time!

Happy 4th Anniversary!

I love you, Hubby!

6:50 - 7:20: Drive to work. No time for coffee.
7:30 - 8:10: Staff meeting. Present a 20-minute lesson based on Marzano's work.
8:25-10:30: 1st period, then Advisory. Set up a few more conference appointments.
10:30 - 11:30: Write referral, contact parent(s) x 5. Attempt to work, only to get pulled into other drama. Get nothing of my own done. (Sorta my fault. Sorta.)
11:30 - 11:55: Get pizza for lunch meeting. Set up room.
11:55 - 12:27: Lunchtime "Student Voice Seminar" in my room. Chow down on pizza while leading meeting. No time to sit. Thankfully, students cleaned up so room was ready for third period.
12:27 - 3:20: 3rd and 4th period. Emailing back and forth with parents.
3:20 - 3:45: Find out I'm double-booked for conferences. Debrief with principal and student per referral from earlier. Eat one more piece of pizza. Leave the other one for my one and only scheduled break in conferences at 6:45. Cherish the thought of that one last piece of cold, cheesy Hot-n-Ready Little Caesar's. Get ready for conferences.
3:45: Student-led conferences start (20 minute appointments each). I had 13 scheduled; one no-show. Due to double-scheduling, extra time spent with kid who plagiarized, and talking shop with freshman parents, no break was had!
4:00: Realize I have to go to the bathroom.
4:15: Voice totally lost due to several coughing fits and fear of collapsed lung. Drinking plenty of water to help cough is not helping my need to pee.
6:30: Only break scheduled disappeared due to double-booking. Tried to escape to pee but crowd of parents clogged my escape route. Student finds small number of ants in middle of classroom floor; an uncommon site in my classroom. I'm surprised but think nothing of it.
6:45: Behind schedule. Hands dry from washing them so many times. Hope I don't give too many germs away.
8:15: Last family leaves. Finally can go pee. ...
Throat is throbbing, headache from coughing. My stomach had been growling for two hours. Oh yeah! The pizza! Turn off all lights, grab my stuff, chug some cough syrup, and make my way via cell phone glow to my back door. Grab that piece of pizza in the dark and take a bite. Doesn't taste right. Turn on back light to discover that ants beat me to it. Ah! Ants in my mouth! Now I'm almost puking AND coughing. Wash my mouth out a dozen times. Still starving but now imagining ant parts stuck in my teeth.

Call Hubby and find out that a school that a couple friends work at halfway burned down. No one was hurt, but much of the school was lost.

At least, at the end of the day, I can say that I'd rather have ants in my mouth.

(Side note: still horribly sick, as many of us are. And still can't talk. Hubby has been praying for this day for years.)

No offense intended for any of my vegan or vegetarian friends. :)

The past few days were spent at McMenamin's Grand Lodge at a LFEE conference. I won't go into details, but I will say this: it was an interesting mix of really fantastic discussion about equity (concerning race, SES, and culture) and really uncomfortable "sharing of feelings"-type group hug stuff. And yes, there really was a group hug at the end. My discomfort with personal contact alone were enough to make me cringe, but add in H1N1 and I was practically having a panic attack. However, it was very validating to see how far along MACA is, especially considering we're only in our third year. Basically, we rock. Go Hellbenders!

In other news, and partially sparked by discussions at LFEE, I'm having issues dealing with my past culture and the culture I belong to now. And issues deciding what/who I want to leave behind and what I want to continue dealing with. Am I a coward/weak if I go one way? Do I have an obligation to make a certain choice over another? Am I part of the problem or the solution? What am I doing to better myself and other people - and is it doing any good? *sigh*

Hi!
The weather has turned a little colder. I'm so happy!

My shoulder froze up again, sadly. The in-laws have definitely come in handy yet again... I had run out of Valium.

Total drama with some kids at school is keeping me busy. Whilst snooping this afternoon Liz and I ran into some students downtown (totally skipping) - and instead of avoiding us they came by to say hi. Sometimes, after having such a fun and kooky conversation with students outside school, I feel guilty when I turn them in later... but something tells me they knew it would happen anyway. Plus, I don't think they could hate me.

Did a lot of talking again about condoms and sex and douching and all sorts of nastiness today. Taught the kids how to roll a condom. As one friend puts it, "You're definitely not teaching in a Utah school." No doubt, thank goodness. Studies show that kids will start having sex at the same age regardless, but that if they've had decent education about it they'll have lower pregnancy/STD rates. It's a tricky subject to teach, so I give plenty of disclaimers and I choose my words carefully... but it's nice to feel I might actually be doing a service to humanity in some small way.

Hubby makes the best dinners!

I'm terrified of swine flu. I need to get both the shots. There's kids at school whose family members are being diagnosed. It's totally hitting us. I'm terrified. !!!

Last week I went to see my grandparents. I also saw my aunt and took a day trip to Yellowstone. It was such a nice trip, regardless of the 30 hours I spent in the car (hence my shoulder). Also, I saw one of my oldest friends, Ariane, in Boise. Such great times were had by all! I posted pics to my flickr account. :)

They've begun bringing me apples. Anonymously.

I have a cold, and I thought about calling in sick today, but the biggest thing holding me back? I wanted to go to school. Because I'm enjoying it.

This is Sex Ed week in Science. I might extend it through next week as well. My original intent was to try to embarrass them as much as possible, but not only are they unflappable, but they also ask really good questions. We spend an entire hour Monday discussing sex and sex myths. I get the feeling that they know they need to know this stuff, but no one's really talking to them about it. It's kinda sad. Fortunately for me, I'm enjoying it immensely and I'm going to take the Praxis to add a Health endorsement.

Usually I have my iPod playing music either when they're coming in the door at the start of class, during work time, or during their break. I realized that I should take note of Heather's class and have a specific song I play during class clean-up at the end of the period. Lately, especially because of the number of illnesses going around (60% of the staff are stricken), I've had them clean all the surfaces in the room. So, to make it more interesting, I brought in the Benny Hill theme, "Yakety Sax." Hilarity ensued. Not only are my students awesome enough that they immediately knew where the music was from ("This sounds like the Benny Hill theme!"), but a few of them began mock-chasing each other around the desks in appropriate style - even making it look like sped-up film. Ah, MACA kids. They're the best.

So, for your viewing pleasure:

Poor Hubby. He seems to have caught a wicked cold - not an easy feat for a man whose immune system fights a hard battle. What's more amazing is that I am not sick - a testament of how unpredictable my own system is. Granted, I've been teaching for a few years now, so it's had plenty of time to build itself up, but usually it's a safe assumption that my first month of school will be filled with orange juice, cough suppressant, and snot. This year it seems it's Hubby's turn. I guess it's his first real exposure to the petri dish that is public education. Poor Hubby.











Speaking of Hubby - his student teaching placement fell through at Newberg. I quickly made some arrangements with Laurie, and about a week later James was starting his practicum at MACA. Since he started about a week and a half ago, I've seen him very little during the day... lunch, usually, and maybe we see each other in the hall once or twice. What's great is that he's pretty much just taken over Paul's first three periods already - he was antsy to start teaching and he's getting some really good experience. Most days I forget that he's in the building until I walk by his door and have some momentary confusion. At first, I thought it might be weird, but it hasn't been at all. Students pretty much all know that we're married, but still whenever a student asks, it's become customary to rotate through relations. "He's my uncle." "He's my first cousin once removed." "He's my P. O." They get mad every time but they should really just learn to stop asking if they already know the answer.

School is still going remarkably well. It seems that the critical mass has finally figured out what the school's about, and now we just need to focus on the really tough kids. Every day I'm pleasantly surprised by something new.

Yesterday was the most treacherous day at work, however... One kid tried to pierce his ear and mangled it pretty good (which, in my opinion, you deserve if you're stupid enough to do that), two more kids cut themselves, one kid puked in the other science room, Liz's movers had not one, but two vans break down, a staff member had her wallet stolen, and Courtney (math teacher) sliced her finger open and had to go to Urgent Care so they can stitch her up. She knicked an artery in her finger, which needed to be tied off itself before they put six more stitches on top. The trooper even came back to school for the last period!

New year!

Okay, I think I'm back.

School started last week, eerily stress-free and easy-going. James says he's not surprised all the kiddos are behaving well, polite, and doing their work without complaint - after all, this is the third year and we've spent two years working on developing that culture. However, it's about two years early by my calculations (based on other new school start-ups). Not sure how long this will last. Usually the kids are worse at the beginning of the year and you force them into submission by late October. It's really creeping me out.

I forced James to pose for some pictures a few weeks ago, as we have only a handful of us and most of those were taken sometime around when we got married. It's close to four years now so I figured it was time for an update.









I also got a car, finally... It had everything on my list, plus a few bonuses! The old one actually sold for $600, so really, we only spent $200 for that car for 2 years. Nice.









New favorites: Dutch Bro.s Skinny Carmel Lattes, hair straightener, True Blood, 30 Rock, Kozy Shack chocolate pudding, and my hand-held steam cleaner. Dragging Hubby to Lincoln City to eat at Mo's.

Send To Phone

Send To Phone

Send To Phone

For the four people who check this: I think I'll take a hiatus from the blog for a while.

Yesterday was a day for food.

Cow tongue... venison pâté... fresh sheep's milk cheese on freshly baked Asiago bread... grilled Salmon marinated in soy sauce, Sriracha sauce, ginger and agave nectar... brown and wild rice with butter-toasted almonds and raisins soaked in Sherry...

Sorry, no pictures. Alas.

A big thank-you to Jeff for much of that, and for Hubby for coming to the farmer's market and also for coercing me to try the tongue.

New York/Boston/Maine '09

Finally I got around to editing/uploading all my pictures from my trip onto Flickr. This link will take you to the set if you're interested.
To sum up:
The last day of school for me was June 19 (Friday). On Monday, James and I moved, and on Tuesday morning I flew out to New York to see my parents. I spent two days in the city: highlights include the MoMA (never been before!), sushi, the old guy in Chinatown that was eager to pose for the camera, and my bagel (Liz, pay special attention).











With my parents, I went up to Portland, Maine to visit my sister and her family. On the way, we stopped in Boston so I could have lunch with Brent and Danika. Woot! They are so fabulous I can hardly stand it. Also: I got to add New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont to my list of states. I really liked Maine and Vermont. But New Hampshire? Really? C'mon.













We spent a few days in Maine. Highlights include making dinner with my sister, the beach (surprisingly warm), spending time with my niece and nephew (who remembers me! Yay! It's been a few years), and again, sushi (with Maine lobster).

Cheese.
As a child, I could only tolerate mild cheddar in a casserole or macaroni. When I saw siblings nonchalantly slicing off a chunk and popping it straight I grimaced; who would want that stinky piece of squish in their mouth? Maybe I just didn't like the taste of strong/pungent food, or maybe I had aversion to dairy in general (it took me 25 years to enjoy cottage cheese), but it wasn't until a few years ago that I really started to appreciate cheese. I have to hand it to my sister, Ginny, for introducing me to gouda - one of the first cheeses I could eat simply by itself, an added bonus being that it's a goat cheese so I favored those varieties earlier on. Then, years later, came the Pixton's - with their sharp Irish cheddars and awesome devotion to cheese plates, I was able to safely explore the realm and wonder that is fine cheese.

And now I must say I'm becoming a stalwart fan of dropping a little dough on a fine cheese. Gruyere, Brie, Stilton, simple locally-produced Farmers goat cheese... I look forward to these treats more than I do chocolate these days. (I know! Shocker! I used to be such a chocolate snob I'd travel 20 minutes out of my way just for a truffle sold at one particular shop. One truffle.) This week's selection: a goat cheese crafted in Bend, OR., Brie, blueberry Stilton and lemon peel Stilton. The farmers cheese I actually had a few days ago and had to go back for more.