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.

So, I'm in Maine! I added two states today (up to 27) - Maine and New Hampshire.

New York has totally kicked my butt - I can barely walk.

I went to the MoMA yesterday, which was so good I almost cried.

I've had sushi twice so far this week and both times it was super delicious.

...and I've gotten to see my sister and her family for the first time in years!!

So, tomorrow we move, and then the next morning I'm off to the east coast.
On the to-do list before I go:
*finish packing for moving (I type this at 1 am)
*um, move all the junk (we did hire movers)
*finish up things at school
*update my iPod. This is the most important on the list.

On the to-do list this week:
*sushi!
*MoMA!
*new sandals in Chinatown. I can't resist $5 sandals.
*NY bagel. My friend Liz went to NY and neglected this delight. I mourn for her.
*drive to Maine with my parents to see my sister and her family.
*study for the Praxis. Guh!!!
*take lots of pictures

I will miss my guys and my little girl. The boy skunk has needed lots of comforting lately, and will need even more after tomorrow. I worry that they'll think James moved without me, since I'll be gone for a week the day after we move. I would feel guilty, even, leaving now (due to the moving) if it weren't that I planned the trip before we knew we were moving.

Ah, school's out. This year flew by.

Looking forward to next year: teaching psych, NOT teaching math (maybe), staying in the same room, Liz just one door down (dance, magic, dance!), more photography, being a 3rd year teacher.

Within seven days, I will do the following: finish up the school year (two more days of inservice left), pack up and move to a new apartment, fly to New York. I'm afraid the skunks will think I didn't move with them to the new place, as I'm flying out the day after our stuff gets moved, and I'll be gone for a week. I'll miss the snuggles.

In other news: I gained back all the weight I lost this winter. I totally suck.

Emily P's dances

"Dance Move Burglar" by EUROMOTION

I worked too hard to create these moves
I won't sit back and watch you take them away
Report you to the dance police
They're going to make you pay

Hard labor
On the dance floor
It's the least that you deserve
Everybody work it hard labor style
I want to see it burn

Chorus
Stay away
I did not work this hard for you
Stay away
Dance move bur-g-lar
Repeat 3x

The twisted logic of a criminal mind
It is a victimless crime
To plagiarize my moves
The dance floor ultimately pays the price
Unless you innovate
Nothing will improve

The Ants in the Pants
and the Epileptic Twist
Everybody knows I made them what they are
You can try to emulate my Electric Crocodile
But you'll never be a star
Repeat chorus 3x

Yay for the weekend!
First, James and I went with some friends to a house right off the beach in Seaside. The weather was just right, and we took the beach cruiser. Riding that bike on the beach is perhaps one of the greatest joys ever. I also took my camera (of course), got a new tattoo (Ginkgo leaf/covert nerdiness warning!), and had tons of fun getting to know a few more friends. Although exhausted, it was a really fantastic way to spend a weekend.
When I got back I spent the night at home, then went on the MACA Junior's retreat in Magness Tree Farm, just up the road from Newberg. I opted not to take my camera but those at the school will see the video footage - woot!

Daniel

Bat for Lashes - New Music - More Music Videos

This song is like Robert Smith and Stevie Nicks had a baby, then hired a very sad Michel Gondry to direct it.

close your eyes...

Bat for Lashes - New Music - More Music Videos

Before you actually watch the video, may I suggest you listen to the song with your eyes closed? It's marvelous.
Then, watch the video - and Pow! Your life will never be the same!

A student made me this skunk hat.

It's the most glorious hat ever. The tail can also be worn down - it's held up in place by velcro. The ears are so cute! And the ear flaps are little skunk paws, even though you can't tell that well from this picture. I wore it all day!

Liz got a frog that is also la awesome.

Weekends with Hubby

The weather's been nice, and Hubby and I have spent more time both outside and reading - not necessarily at the same time. I took these last weekend when we went to the park to read, and the sun set just as we were driving home.

For sale: 1 skunk, descented. Eats a lot. FREE SHIPPING!














Just kidding, he's my little guy. See his milk mustache? This is his post-dinner nap.













And little girl. She's in her bathroom-cabinet hidey. I'm just glad I got this shot... I've never seen her so contorted!

Oh, how I love thee!

Upsetting news!

Okay, I realize this is actually old news. But I don't really pay attention to celebrity gossip and latest fashions. Still, I am horrified that I inadvertently did something that is now a new "Hollywood must-have."

Fact: My own tat is 5 years old. LiLo is WAAAY behind me.

Fact: I didn't do mine as a reminder of an asthma attack I had. That is weird.

Opinion: White tats of letters really don't look good. White ink is too difficult to work with for you to get the preciseness you need when doing lettering. Many tattoo artists won't even do white tattoos (fact).



















Fact: taking this picture by myself was extremely difficult with a bulky and large camera. Also, I realized that this is the first time I've seen my own tattoo the correct way (i.e., not reversed in a mirror). This is the first picture I've taken of it.

Skipping school!

So, I skipped Thursday and Friday to come up to CdA for Janneke's wedding! Here are some pics to satiate the CdA crowd:

I "helped" with the flowers the night before, and took a bunch of pictures of the festivities. Also, I stayed with a family friend (thanks Paula and Jim!) and had the opportunity to see a turkey... well, it's best for my squeamish/vegetarian friends to not look at the bottom picture.