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…”

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!"

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.

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.

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.