Monday, December 21, 2009

that verklempt feeling

I hate-love coming across words I don't know. I hate it because it's frusturating to be reading along and then walah there's a foreign word you have absolutely no idea what it is and why you have never seen it before. I love seeing these words because I usually look it up and then I feel that much smarter :)

My word I saw today I actually saw TWICE. I love this new word, it's a nice adjective. This is where I found it, "Every time I left the ALAG space for the day, I noticed a certain thickness rising in my throat, that verklempt feeling I always get at the end of It's a Wonderful Life and whenever I see young girls as happy and carefree as they deserve to be." Then I saw it used later in this sentence, "I smiled at their frenetic raindance, an expression of sheer, youthful joy, and fell back to sleep. A rather verklempt sleep, I should add."

Looked up my new unknown word, verklempt, and it means "overcome with emotion". I usually cry when I am verklempt. I picture the heart overflowing with emotions and that is directly connected to the eyes and therefore tears come pouring out because your heart pushed it out. That's my only explanation of why people cry when they are happy.

I hope you have verklempt feelings this week during the Christmas season.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

next wednesday

I forgot to add,
The real question is... Should we dare go next week? Will any of those 5o people staring at us remember the exact same outfits.

I say we'll be going again. What do you guess?

"Girls, the Christmas party is next week."

If any of you know Jess, she likes to be early to any event. And if she is not early, at least be right on time. Last night she took being early a little too far :)

On Tuesday Jess gets Aris and I all pumped for Tin Roof's Christmas Tacky Party on Wednesday night. She tells her new guy friend to come, she tells a couple of our other friends to meet us there.

After I go hiking I go and shop for a tacky something to wear to this shindig. Finally find something that wasn't $40. After going to a movie with my roommate, I get home and change into my outfit, put some makeup on, and poof and hairspray my hair. Jess and Aris pull up and off we go. Even the ride over was pretty eventful since another car was one inch from colliding into us on demonbreum. We scream and give the other car glare looks then park.

We get out with Jess in her tree skirt acting as her skirt for the night, a sequined Christmas vest and reindeer ears; Aris holding a box of playdoh and wearing a santa hat, turtleneck, big green necklace, and red corduroy dress; Me, holding a 4 square foot box of play food, wore a Santa shirt that said "I Believe" and red earrings. We come in and the people by the door all laughed at Jess's outfit and loved it. Then we walk one more step and another guy yelled at us, "Girls, you know the Christmas party is next week!" Jess of course was smart and said, "Oh, we just came from a Christmas party." We looked around and absolutely no one was even in red or green, let alone tacky Christmas apparel. Aris whispered, "We must leave now." We just nodded in agreement. So we grabbed our gifts, ran across the street, stepped in dog poop, and laughed for a good 10 minutes and more while we scraped poop off our feet.

Monday, November 16, 2009

weird tip

This may not strike anyone else into thinking this tip is weird, but I sure did! It is the only tip I've never been able to explain mathematically. I put it in the computer and wrote it down right away so I could somehow figure it out at home. I actually put it on my bulletin board in my room just because I thought... it might be nice to figure it out, or to look at it, or maybe just to blog about it sometime.

Her credit card bill was $42.12, She gave me a tip of $7.70, and her total was $49.82.

Adding $7.70 did not make it a whole number, nor did adding $7.70 make it an exact percentage of the bill.

If you have any ideas, let me know.

And I wanted to give a shout out to "Modern Gal" who posted a comment on reusable bags. I didn't know people other than my friends and family read my blog :) thanks for stopping by and reading.

I need water, not A1 in my water

When I'm at work, I get extremely thirsty. I guess you can't leave drinks out because it's a health hazard I guess. Although, why does everyone else in the restaurant get to leave their drinks sitting next to them but I can't leave my water out? So we are supposed to put water in a cup, take a sip out of the cup then put it right in the bus tub. It works okay but sometimes you just want a sip and it seems like a waste of time to do all of that. So I go thirsty most of the time.

I have tried to leave my cups out, even though it is against code but they dissappear into the bus tub after one minute anyway. I have thought about bringing in my glass water bottle I drink out of at home, but it is way to large to put on any shelf. And I tried bringing my roommate's plastic bottle to work, but I don't like the taste of water in plastic and it tipped over once and soaked my entire purse. I don't want to go back to buying plastic water bottles either.

This past Saturday I thought I had come up with a great solution. We have to go cups with lids, so i decided to put my water in one of those cups with a straw and put it behind the iced tea containers. I loved it! I would take a little sip from my cup every time I would pass it. No one was throwing it away and I was staying hydrated.

Well, my great idea ended when some of the guy servers found my cup. I had a little break where none of my tables needed me and I walk to my cup and take a big sip from it. I spit it everywhere. My water was now full of A1 sauce and completely disgusting. There goes my great idea of leaving my cup out.

Now I'm back to grabbing a cup, putting a sip worths of water in it, drinking it, putting it in the bus tub and moving on.

Friday, November 13, 2009

is anyboday too young for split ends?

I was sitting somewhere and waiting, don't remember where actually. I was looking at the ends of my hair examining for split ends. Some guy next to me said, "You're a little too young for split ends, aren't ya?" Huh? I didn't respond, I probably just gave him one of my weird looks.

He obviously knows nothing about hair. A 5 year old swimming a lot in the summer can get split ends.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this one!

reusable bags

two reusable shopping bag stories...

Marshalls has these huge reusable bags that are really cute. They are not a big green color that says PUBLIX on it or whatever the business is. The bag looked like pretty wallpaper. I was buying a coat so I decided to buy the big cute reusable bag also. The cashier scans the coat puts it in a plastic bag. She scans my bag and puts that in the big plastic bag. I interrupted her and told her I would like my coat in the bag I just bought so I don't have to use the plastic bag. She said, "Oh! Ok!" I didn't think I thought of that great of an idea. That is the point of buying the reusable bags.

This bag was a pretty big one, so I thought I probably needed another reusable bag that was a little smaller in size. So when I was at Office Max the other day using my gift card, they had a few that were really cool too! Once again the cashier scans my small items and puts them in a plastic bag. Scans my reusable bag and puts that in the plastic bag as well. I again interrupted the cashier and told her she could just put the small items in the bag I just bought. She took out my reusable shopping bag, opened it, and then put the small items still in the plastic bag right in the bag I just bought.

I don't know why I thought these instances were so peculiar. Why use the reusable shopping bags if the cashiers don't like to use them. Especially when she put them in the plastic bags and THEN put them in my shopping bag.

Now I just have to remember to actually use these shopping bags when I go in stores!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

does Kriss Kross make you want to jump?

Saturday, usually a pretty non eventful time for me, but I was bound and determined to find someone to do something with me! I found a friend to eat dinner with me and she said, "Is Sushi Popo okay with you?" I said, "YES! I love sushi." Good moment #1.

Then she had a blind date to go to, so I meet up with some old high school friends. We have fun hanging out, and they said, "Do you want to go dancing?" (Do I want to go dancing?, duh!) I said, "YES! I love dancing." Good moment #2.

We go across the street and the music was loud, and it was crowded with Peoria folks. I liked it! I like loud music for some reason. Some people may not like it because you can't talk in a loud place, but I think that's the reason I like it. Dinner is for talking, coffee is for talking, going out is for dancing. Anyways, we go dancing and then good moment #3 happens, The next song came on, "Put your hands up in the aaaair!" (So I did) The music paused, then it came back with, "Kriss Kross will make you JUMP, JUMP!" There's good moment #3! You better believe that I was a jumping fool haha.

Here's the chorus to everyone's (i mean everyone's) old fave:
Jump Jump
The Mac Dad will make you Jump Jump
The Daddy Mac will make you Jump Jump
Kris Kross will make you Jump Jump
uh huh uh huh
Jump Jump

So, not the best night in the world of course, but I just wanted to take the time to note and appreciate those 3 good moments.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Aliens!

In Social Studies yesterday, there was a page in our workbook that we filled out right before we read the section. After looking at the titles in the section and the photographs, we wrote down what we saw. We saw a flag, an eagle, a coin, and a painting of a lady holding a flag, etc. Then they had to answer this question, "What do you think you will read about on these two pages?" One of my kids asked, "What if we get this wrong, will you mark it off?" I just explained as long as it made sense like they didn't say: "We are going to learn about aliens!" or "We're going to learn about basketball players!"

So, right now I am in the midst of grading their papers, and everybody got that answer right except one person. After the question, "What do you think you will read about on these two pages?" She wrote, "ALIENS!" Oh dear. And you'd think I would be surprised she would put that, but it's actually very typical of her to write something without even caring if it's right or not.

Maybe in a few centuries, a history book will have a section on when Aliens invaded America. THEN, someone can write "Aliens!" for their answer.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

new obsession

I just started watching American Idol last week. Oh my word, my new obsession is Adam Lambert. When he came down those long stairs singing "You make me feel good," I was in all agreeance with Paula Abdul. He made her and me feel BETTER than good. He was awesome!! So recently I've been listening to all of his songs on youtube and I just am more obsessed.

I predict: he wins.

Matt and Andrew, if you see this, put me down for a bet in your Cougar Club spreadsheet that Adam Lambert will win American Idol.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Kids sure make you feel cool

The one thing that is great about being a teacher is the moment the kids walk in they can make you feel so good about yourself sometimes. This morning, a few kids came in from the bus and three kids bombarded me. Two girls said, "Oh! Miss Aaron, you're hair is so pretty today." "It's awesome!" Then a boy said, "You should definitely wear your hair like that more often." I said a big fat, "Thank you!! You are all so sweet to say that."

Adults don't do that. They don't googoogahgah over what you are wearing or how your hair looks or how wonderful you are. It's hard enough to get a boyfriend to do that! I just got a note last week telling me, Mrs. Aaron, (no, i'm not married they just screw it up a lot) that I was amazing, awesome, fun, fantastic, i rocked, and the best teacher ever! Another girl wrote an acronym for me:
M-marvols (supposed to be marvelous)
I-increditable (supposed to be incredible)
S-supportive (spelled right!)
S-sweet

J-joyful
O-outstanding
D-'dorable
I- incretdible- (spelled it differently, but still wrong)

A-acute (I'm a small angle?)
A-amazing
R-rock
O-outstanding
N-nice

And before you start thinking that I actually am the best teacher ever or just bragging, kids for the most part are just like that. They honestly would do the same thing even if they had a teacher that was crabby, rude, boring, and old.

I think we should start writing more notes to people. Give them an acrostic, draw them a picture. We think as adults that they have to be long and perfect, but really all it needs to be is, "Hey, You're awesome and the best ever!" Note done. pass it along. and it would instantly make the person feel better. If I ever get married, I would just love it if my husband gave me acrostics or had a little note with a drawing saying, "I rock!" or "You're awesome!" I could even hang it up on the refrigerator haha.

Monday, April 27, 2009

random girl

I had my 3rd Illinois teacher licensure test on Saturday. I go into the huge gymnasium with about 1,000 people at tables. I find my number and sit down next to a girl who is sharing the table with me. Now I do have to explain a little something that I feel everytime I sit next to a complete stranger, anytime it is just me and another person, like in a bus seat or a plane ride or in an elevator or in a doctor's office. I sometimes have this weird feeling that I have to talk to strangers. Like it is a moment that if you don't talk to this person at that moment, you will never get another chance again. Somehow you might make their day just by striking a conversation. Maybe it is a light, funny conversation or you share some meaningful words. Shoot, they could even become a new, good friend or your next date. Either way, that stranger is there and then they are gone.

That was a huge sidetrack, but back to the girl I sat next to. I sat down, got out my book I was reading and just stared at my words because of course I had this need to strike up a conversation. So, I looked over and then noticed... She had her thumb on the table, practicing how she was going to roll her thumb to get the fingerprint. I watched her practiced and almost convinced myself that maybe I needed to practice rolling my thumb on the table. I decided not to say something and disturb her practice of the thumbprint roll. The woman came and we both did our thumbprinting just fine and made a solid mark on our answer sheet. Good thing she practiced and I thought about it. Then I thought again that maybe I should say something since we had 15 more minutes to sit there. Then she broke the silence and said, "Can you believe how big the thumbprint example is?! Whose thumb is that big?" Of all of the things for her to bring up, I can't believe she said that. So I replied, "That is a really big thumbprint." She seemed so strange that she probably could have used a nice conversation, but on this day I decided to just read my book and ignore the stranger.

oh, btw, the test was HARD. Every question, left me guessing for the answer and wondering why in the world this is important for a teacher to know.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

oh Brazil

So I was able to take a vacation in Brazil a couple weeks ago. It was a pretty amazing place. There were just a couple random moments that I thought were funny/odd enough to put on paper.

First of all, I get off the plane and Sparky and I find the apartment. Of course I desperately need to go to the bathroom, and he says, "Oh, by the way, you can't flush toilet paper anywhere in Brazil." My response was, "You said what?!" He tried to convince me that it was normal and the toilet paper in the trash cans next to the toilets never smelled, but of course I didn't quite believe him. So, I wipe and I put my toilet paper in the trash can like a good Brazilian would. And then the next 8 days there I did the same every time I went to the bathroom. And no matter how busy the public restroom was and how full the trash can was, Sparky was right, it never smelled. So it wasn't that bad at all.

This isn't exactly a story that would only happen in Brazil, but it seemed pretty funny to me at the time. So we are sitting in this perfect restaurant. At a perfect table with candlelight and a wooden duck, right next to a window with no screen, a warm breeze and the view of the stars. (note: Supposedly Sparky has become an astronomer because he could find all of these constellations that you can only see in South America.) Anyways, it was the waiter that made the night even more perfect and hilarious. He didn't mean to be funny, but his intensity for being our waiter was awesome! He stood by the wall and watched us and every time I took a sip of wine he would come over and grab the wine out of our ice bucket and fill my glass back up. After my tenth sip and his tenth time of running over and filling it up, I felt like the queen of Brazil or something. Then, when he added food or glasses to our table and had to rearrange or our cup was on the side of the table that was against the window, he would disappear as quick as he came and then reappear outside of the restaurant with his head leaning in and start fixing our table or our candle or our drink from outside of the restaurant leaning in the window. Once he was done he would run back inside the restaurant and finish what he was doing on the other side of the table. (Very small table may I add) Every time he ran outside and then popped his head in, I would laugh and giggle while he was doing it. He was definitely a man that took his job seriously and I loved him for it. He did serve us the best moqueca I have ever had. Well I've never had it, but I LOVED it!

Another little tidbit from the trip, I noticed right when I got on the plane to Brazil from Canada. I looked at every row and every aisle and I am pretty sure I was the only blonde on the huge plane. Even once I spent time there, noone else seemed to really care that we were the only blondes, but every once in a while when Sparky and I would walk around it was just funny to be the only two blondes in seeing distance everywhere we went. I actually kind of liked it. I'm used to blending in for the most part, and I kind of liked the change of scenery and pace.

So I survived toilet paper trashcans, intense waiters, brunettes everywhere, and even a monkey flying at my head. I loved every moment! :)

Where should I go next?!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

procrastination

I love the comic strip, "ZITS." Teenagers are funny.

I'll try to relay the one from last Sunday's paper...
So they show the mom doing 6 different yoga poses
in her last pose, her son says, "Mom...?"
She opens one eye to look at him.
..."Can we leave five minutes early and drop by the office supply store so I can get some poster board to make and illustrated timeline of 14th century European trade devolpment on the way to school?"
The mom, with her yoga mat in hand and black fuming coming out of her head, says, "Only my kids could undo forty minutes of yoga with one sentence."

My mom saw it and laughed and laughed. She said, "This sounds just like you when you were in school!"

Earth Day

So, in honor of Earth Day, the students actually decided to keep our lights off in our room all day, very interesting day in the dark. We watched the "Story on Stuff" and of course did some Earthy Day math problems, and even went around the muddy, school grass and picked up trash.

Just in case you need some good Earth Day tips, Here are a few ways that my students committed to going green today...
-I will not long for more things. (good one.)
-If something breaks use it for something else
-grab a few napkins not a lot
-I will plant plants
-stop homework (I didn't agree with that!)
-use biodegradable substances
-use cloth and towels instead of papertowels
-buy fresh vegetables instead of canned
-use a fan, rather than air conditioner
-unplug your computer, tv, and electronics to save energy
-don't drive to short distances that you can ride your bike or walk to
-shop less

Monday, March 30, 2009

Caleb's, the stud, first steps

You HAVE to see Caleb walk in my sister's blog. He just took his first steps on Saturday. What a triumphant thing to accomplish. Maybe it's not that triumphant, but it is exciting.

a MUST see:
http://babyredoutey.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 27, 2009

bad turned good

I had the best day on Wenesday for some reason, and then when I thought about it, nothing really seemed that good about it. I just think the good things prevailed!

Wednesday, overall a good day, even though it was the middle of the week.
I did my Extreme Cross Training class, which was my 5th time doing it, and I'm still sore! Sore should be bad, but I definitely consider being sore a good thing. It's painful, yet exciting.

Then while I'm hobbling down the stairs in pain, but happy, I go into the smoothie store by the entrance. I've never tried it so I decide to go in that day. I saw my absolute favorite drink... peanut butter and banana smoothie. And to top it off it was called the "Elvis" drink. Elvis is my favorite celebrity of all times. (sidenote: that would be fun to have a smoothie shop, where they all had funky names that were created and named by the customers. Like Bagel and Deli! Ooh, I want one right now.) The girl tells me they are all out of bananas. I said that was okay, and I would just try my 2nd favorite drink, the chai drink. She said they were all out of any chai flavors. Sad.

No Elvis drink. No chai drink. Still hobbling to the car because my legs were so tired. Yet I was still cheery.

I decide to go to Smoothie King and get my Peanut Power drink, smoothie king never runs out of bananas. I got the 6$ drink and it was huge. I sucked on it happily for about 45 minutes. Since it had taken me that long to drink it, you would think I would be relieved it was gone. That last, loud slurp was disappointing that it was all gone. Still, I had forgotten about no Elvis and no chai and was happy about my 45 minutes of Peanut Power.

Then on my way home, I was slightly bummed that it was nice out and I hadn't spent a minute outside, and I was going straight to church that night when I got home. But I looked to my right and saw my first green grass lawn of the year. The first sighting of the new year of the green grass lawn always gives ya a good feeling. I'm glad I have mine documented: In year 2009, a Wednesday on March 25th at about 5:50 pm... green came back.

Then to end the night, we have been having a church service every night for 2 hours. 6- 2 hr. services in a week. I was not too excited about the whole idea Sunday morning, knowing I was going to be attending all of these services... just about 13 hours in a week. But to be honest, it's been exciting to be dedicated to something that is good for me. So, that is just another example of something that seems like it was going to be bad, but was turned good!

No days are without the bad, but what I pray for all of you is that your good outweighs the bad!

Are all beaches old?

I don't know why I thought this was such a funny conversation, but It was...

I was telling my mom about this beach Sparky and I are going to go visit outside of Rio.
I said,"We're going to go visit an antique beach called Paraty."
"What do you mean an antique beach?"
"I mean it's an old beach."
"How can a beach be old, ALL sand is old?"
"I meant it is an old town."
"What makes it old?"
"It has a lot of history to it."
"What kind of history?"
"I'm not sure."
"Oh, ok."

antique? old sand? why old? history?
Leave it to moms to always ask questions :)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

sleeping late, working, then chillin' with the amigos

This story was from a book, The 4 Hour Workweek. Thought it was kind of funny and clever. I don't know if those are 2 of the right words to describe it, but you can come up with 2 words of your own after reading it! (Maybe ironic or interesting?)

The conversation between an American man with a Mexican man:
“But… What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”


The American laughed and stood tall. “Sire, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

He continued, “Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, senor, how long will all this take?”

To which the American replied, “15 – 20 year. 25 tops.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

grandparent's day shout out

I just got word that Grandparent's Day is coming up. The kids have to act sweet and civilized for an entire morning and do a program and eat refreshing snacks with their grandparents. Oh dear Lord. I have to come up with a program. My last memory of Grandparent's Day was when I was in 1st grade 19 years ago and I have a picture of me passing them a refreshing snack to eat and I looked very sweet and civilized and had a very cute tight braid in my hair. The braid that goes down both sides and into a bun like Star Wars. This is definitely a time where I will ask the other teachers, "What are you doing?" "Sounds good. That's what I will do also!"

Sunday, February 22, 2009

enjoying what you have

Today my pastor's sermon was on Ecclesiastes 5. I thought his last point was very interesting so I thought I would share it with y'all...

Ecclesiastes 5:19 says, "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God." (italicized was added by me)

So the paster pointed out that we shouldn't ask for more, we should request the gift of enjoying life! The real gift is not having what you want, but enjoying what you have. Enjoy your home, enjoy your job, enjoy your children, your wife, your husband, your friends, your city.

Paul in Philippians 4:12 said almost just that as well, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Philippians, one of my favorite books in the Bible. Read it, it's good stuff.

new name option for a baby: Tied

My friend was telling boy name options for her new baby. (I don't remember the options she said so I"m going to make them up because it actually doesn't matter in the story!) She says, "I might call it Mark, Evan, or tied with Evan is Hunter." Another girl said "Oh! Tied sounds like a good name." She didn't comment, thinking maybe the other girl would just figure it out on her own.

Then of course she runs into the same girl another time, and the girl asks her, "So did you name your baby Tied? What a cute name."

I do actually think it sounds like a good name, but maybe spelled Tyde. But little does she know it was the word tied as in "equal with something else". Or the game was "tied" at half time.

goodbye my little netflixes

I just ended my membership with Netflix today. It was kind of sad, I looked at the payment history of my account, and I have had Netflix since April of 2006. That seems like a long time. I've had some good times with Netflix. Gone are those good times. I just don't have time for movies or TV anymore.

I received a goodbye email, which was sweet of them :)
"We hope you enjoyed the service and will consider returning some day.-Your friends at Netflix"

They called themselves my friends, now that is clever.

Friday, February 13, 2009

my frown

They say that it takes more muscle to frown than to smile. I don't think I ever frown. There are of course times when I am not smiling, but frowning takes some serious effort. You actually have to push your cheeks to go downward and the lower lip has to pucker a little. It's difficult to do.

Last weekend, it was a rare day because I actually went to an instant frown...

Last Saturday I was eating Chinese. At the end of the meal I got the Chinese treat... a fortune cookie. I didn't want mine because I was telling mom that I heard they were bad for you and I don't even like them anyways. She tells me to at least open it to see the fortune. Now that's the fun part! So I open the wrapper, crack open the cookie, look in the cookie... instant frown. Literally I felt my face change to a frown. There was no fortune in my fortune cookie.

Next time maybe I'll think twice about opening it. Don't want to bring on a frown.

Stump, my inspiration

I'm not sure if any of you are into watching the Westminster, but it was on earlier this week! I heard about it because my grandma repeatedly told us on Monday night that Westminster was on after dinner and she just HAD to watch it.

Sadly, I did not get around to watching it. But as I was pulling into the parking lot yesterday morning, the radio dj started talking about the new Westminster winner. I pulled into my parking spot and I actually found myself tearing up as I was listening to the winner. Here's his story... His name is Stump. Great name! Nothing crazy like Polly or Sue Ann or Precious. He is 10 years old, which is 70 years old in human years! He almost died a few years ago and retired from competitions. He jumped out of retirement, did not train one bit and right into Westminster. Stump got in the show and ended up beating the #1 dog! The judge said, 'He showed his heart out. I didn't know who he was or how old... I just couldn't say no to him.'

Stump wasn't afraid of those little dogs that were younger and maybe more bouncy or cuter than he was. He believed in himself and went for it.

Go Stump. You're an inspiration to us all.

Friday, February 6, 2009

the ban of Celina Gomez

This all started one day when I heard one of my boys saying someone was "sexy". He in the other corner of the room, but when a teacher hears the word "sexy" being used from a 5th grader, you hear it no matter what the distance. So I made a spectacle of him and told him he should not describe girls that way and he should call them pretty or nice or hott but don't use that word. Most of the class didn't know what he said so they were telling each other he said the "s.y." word so they wouldn't get in trouble. The boy told me that he was talking aboutCelina Gomez, the hottest girl EVER! I had no idea who she was. I found out she is on a Disney show, which is probably why I haven't heard of her since I haven't watched that channel since "ZooblieZoo" was on.
From that day on some of the boys in my class were bringing in pictures of this girl, putting them in their lockers and desks. They were talking about how she was soo hott, soo perfect, soo fabulous. (They actually didn't say "fabulous". I just realized that girls pretty much are the only ones that describe things or people as "fabulous".) I had no idea my 5th grade boys were so girl obsessed. After 5 days of hearing her name in almost every conversation. It was driving me crazy so I banned the mentioning of the name, Celina Gomez, from the classroom. I haven't heard her name since.
If Celina Gomez does see this, This note is for you: "I'm sorry, Celina, but we just had to ban you. Your "s.y."-ness is too distracting for the classroom. I hope you'll understand." Sincerely, Miss Aaron, the teacher of girl-obsessed 5th grade boys.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

delirious

On Saturday my mom, sister, and I decided to go to a movie matinee. We were in a giggly mood already, even slipping and sliding on the road with our car on the way to the theatre was making us laugh. But this story REALLY got us laughing...

When we get to the movie theatre my mom goes up and gets our movie tickets. We wanted to go see Defiance, the movie with hot Daniel Craig who starts a village in the woods for Jews to hide from the Nazis. They give us our tickets and the ticket collector tells us to go to theatre 17. Amber and I sit down while mom is in the restroom. Amber and I looked at eachother because we noticed the entire theatre was packed of either African Americans or college kids. hmm... this is a WWII Jewish movie, right?

Mom comes in right when the feature presentation starts. A concert comes on the big screen, a rap concert. Amber and I looked at mom and said, "We're definitely in the wrong theatre."

We looked at the door, which told us we were watching Notorious. Mom said, "Well I asked for tickets for Delirious!"

We went and exchanged the tickets and sat in the right theatre just in time to see the right movie, Defiant.

So we asked for "Delirious", We wen to "Notorious". And we wanted "Defiant."

The movie sobered our laughs up right when it started, but boy did we laugh all of the way home while our car was slipping and sliding on the snow and talking about our delirious, notorious, defiant mixup.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

seagulls

There is a reason to visit me in Peoria. We have seagulls in parking lots everywhere. You would feel like you were at the beach. When you are at the mall, movie theatre, Walmart, or Target there will be seagulls above you making you feel beachy.

I'm not sure why they are here, but today they probably will not be because it snowed 5 inches. If they are smart they will actually head to a beach not stay around parking lots.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

vera wang and free espresso and dog

I heard a quote the other day. And I saw a quote this morning, both pretty funny.

Kate Hudson (in her movie) was being sabatoged by her bestfriend to gain weight before her wedding. She goes in to try on her dress and she can't fit into it. Her fiance tells her, "Just get it altered!" Kate replies, "You don't alter Vera Wang, you alter yourself to fit Vera!" I definitely had to pause and have some lol time for me when I heard that.

Then this morning I was at Starbucks getting my Grande Chai Tea Soy Milk Latte. As I waited for it (which they were actually surprisingly fast!) I read the sign in front of me: "Unnaccompanied Children will get free espresso and a free dog." How nice of them! Free espresso for their children haha.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

my excuse is a ... sebadicle?

On January 7th, today, at 7:30 pm, tonight, I checked my voicemail and Jessica leaves me this desperately concerned voicemail on behalf of her and others that wanted me to start blogging again. I haven't been forgetting about y'all in the past month. I have actually had a little blog list going that I would randomly write down things that I thought were parculiar that would be writing about. I'm going to call my month blog break a sebadicle. And actually I just went to dictionary.com to see if that word was really spelled that way, and no it said it wasn't. But I saw the word sabatical as a "try this." No there was no definition for that word either. Then finally dictionary.com led me to the word sabbatical, which means..."any extended period of leave from one's customary work, esp. for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc." What a great word. Don't we all wish we could go on a sabbatical? My sabbatical consisted of the normal, December holiday season. gift shopping, gift wrapping, getting my scrapbook pictures printed, went to the library, read several books, spent time at a lodge with the family and 25 other people, fun in Nashvegas, starting school again.... now that brings me here back to my blog. back from the sebadicle, sabatical, or sabatical.

I have 10 things on my blog list at the moment. If they all end up to be actually good things to write about, you'll be getting 10 blog entries very soon.