Jodi's Thoughts on Life

quizzes, they really never end, do they?

2010-12-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

I started my annual Christmas letter today; well, I started draft 2 today. And I was going to mention something about the kind of flower that represents us and then put an online quiz for readers to try. So, I go online and google: What flower am I quiz. You can find anything online :)

I take the first one and am enjoying myself during each question. I love answering the questions, like what would you do on your day off? what word best describes you? it's fun and introspective. then, I pressed submit. The flower that best represents me is... a snapdragon! ugh. I don't like snapdragons. Not what I wanted so I go and try the next quiz.

I enjoy the 2nd quiz too actually. I submit my answers to this one. This time, I am a... CARNATION. double ugh. The description was very fun, but if you know anything about flowers, you know carnations can live out of water for days and in water for weeks and therefore considered the cheapest flower at a flower shop. They don't have great representations. Carnations in a flower shop are the hohos in a dessert shop.

Of course what do I do? I go back and take another quiz, in search of a good result. I take the 3rd, glad it is a quick one because I am anxious to get to the end. I submit my answers, and I am a lily. Now, this may be good for some, but I am notorious for not like lilies. Yes, the daylilies smell nice, but they are called daylilies because they only last a DAY. And lilies in general are the most masculine looking plant out there. Once again, I am definitely not happy about the result. Of all of the flowers out there, can't I get ONE that I like?!

4th quiz. 4th attempt. And believe me, I will take quizzes or at least go back and change my answers to be a different person until I am a flower I like.

Finally, this quiz told me I was a sunflower. After the 90s and wearing my sunflower dress from express with my matching sunflower hat a little too much, i took a decade and a half break from sunflowers. But just this year I became obsessed with sunflowers. If I made an arrangement this summer, it most likely had sunflowers with a black gingham bow on the tie.

Thank you brainfall website for giving me the sunflower: You are a Sunflower. You are spirited and vivacious. Willing to do anything to help others be happy, and ask nothing in return. You always see the bright side of any situation and are the life of the party. It is impossible to feel down when you are around.

http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/what-flower-are-you/

Try out the website. Good luck on getting the flower you want, but you also may not be as opinionated on flowers as I am.

yesterday's adrenaline rush

2010-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an adrenaline rush for sure. I worked at the flower shop yesterday to help with a massive wedding. The setup was to be fast, efficient, and had to end perfectly all in 3 hours. At the end of the day, even though it was long, and hard work, I loved it, and I realized that was mostly due to the adrenaline rush we all had. I miss that feeling. That feeling is what you get/got when you play(ed) sports. But only when the win actually matters and it is a physical sport where your body gears up and makes the win happen for you. Once you are an adult that rush is a rare feeling. Yes I play sports, and yes you want to win, but it's just not the same. Noone keeps track of your wins so the win doesn't really matter. I'm actually not big on adrenaline rushes when I'm doing something scary or dangerous, too out-of-control for me. You also get that rush when you are playing a fast card game and you are about to be out, and you play your last card, bam, you yell, "I'm out!!!" you smile, not really because it mattered that you won, but the game's quick pace makes your heart beat a little faster and the heart likes that and when your heart is happy, you are happy.

I just looked it up the difinition of adrenaline and it takes you to the word, epinephrine... never heard of that word. Definition of that word was "A hormone that is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to physical or mental stress, as from fear, and is regulated by the autonomic nervous system. The release of epinephrine causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. Epinephrine aslo raises glucose levels in the blood for use as fuel when more alertness or greater physical effort is needed. Also called adrenaline. Chemical formula: C9H13NO3.

perfect definition.

I even said today, "I want to do it all over again!" Yes, I do, but maybe not anytime soon.

We'll see when that next rush comes. Here's to finding our next adrenaline rush!

The 12South stop sign

2010-11-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

It was around 4:30 am last night/this morning, Eden and I were driving home from the flower shop, you know the usual time people get off work. We were driving down 12th ave, and I saw a stop sign and stopped. We both looked at each other and said, "Wait. We've never stopped here before." So we look at the stop sign and it was leaning on a tree and it was upright making it look like it was a real stop sign. We laughed about it and just wondered if someone was video camering the stop sign to see how many people would stop for the fake stop sign.

I quickly forgot about it until I was driving home today from a friend's house and stopped at the corner of Sweetbriar and 12th. The exact corner from last night/earlier that morning. I was at the other corner of the street waiting to turn on 12South and I noticed the other car on 12th was waiting for me because they had a "stop sign." So I looked behind me after I turned on this new fake 3 way stop and I noticed the next car did not stop but the one behind it did and then the next car kind of just yielded and the next car stopped completely.

I like how much power a stop sign has even if it's leaning on a tree. Speed limits are white, unnoticed sometimes and almost seem like a suggestion. But stop signs are red, bold and cause immediate action when seen. We'll see how long it leans. Maybe it will become permanent. It makes me think where else we can lean stop signs around Nashville.

Did you just call me LAME?

2010-11-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

My biggest pet peeve is when people assume something about you when they just met you. try to analyze you, call you out, or solve your problems. I don't know why it irritates me.

This past Saturday was the day before Halloween. So I get off of work around 8:30, get my Brazilian soccer outfit on and head to a house party where my friends are. Lovely time of dancing, and of course we have a neighbor knock on the door and inform us that the stomping and jumping and music is too loud for them. Does this only happen wherever I go, or is this common for other people? I like to dance and jump around and if it's before 10 pm, I don't think you should be allowed to complain!

anyways, that's off topic. We leave the party, I drive a bunch of us to Demonbreum, get out, and find out there are no more tickets. I decide to tell this guy that was with our group that I'm going to head home. It was almost midnight, I had had a late night on Friday night and I had a fun time already, and I had to get up for Sunday school in the morning and all of those sorts of things were running through my head.
here's our dialogue on the street:
him: So I tell a couple people in the group I'm going to head home and the guy I don't know says, "You're being lame!"
me: I looked at him, and said, "Did you just call me lame?!" (Did someone who doesn't know me at all just call me lame?) "Do you think that's going to change my mind and decide to stay a couple more hours?"
him: "Well, that would deter most people's decisions."
me: "Well, that's not going to work with me."
him: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
me: "No, are you saying I shouldn't go home because I might meet my next boyfriend in the next hour or so on the streets of Demonbreum on Halloween Eve?"
him: He replies with, "What kind of guy are you looking for?"
me: (Oh please...is what i think) but I go ahead and answer him.
So it ends with me being I guess "lame" by going home at midnight. May I add that I had a very fun night at the house party and went to bed very happy with my night thank you very much mr. strange man who's calling me names.

water with ice, no without ice, with a lemon, no without a lemon, no with 3 lemons! ahh!!!!

2010-11-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm no longer working at Crows Nest, but in honor of servers, here's a little something I wrote down one night.

short story, but these are the kinds of things that happen every shift and are why I dont' necessarily like serving for people. i like to laugh but not when I'm fake smiling and laughing. It feels too odd.

I ask these girls what they would like to drink.
first girl says, "Water, no ice, with lemon."
2nd girl says, "Water, with ice, no lemon."
I ask the 3rd girl and she says, "Water with ice, and lemon."
and the last girl says, "Water, with ice, 3 lemons."

You can't blame them for liking their water all a certain way, but that's crazy. Despite the odd orders, I am still a pleaser and you better believe they had their waters, with ice or no ice, with lemons or with 3 lemons right in front of them with a lovely smile plastered on my face, ready to take their order and all of their requests.

where are the beans?!

2010-11-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

I love me some bean soup. At Crows Nest, I would always get the bean soup if they made it that day. I also love TJ Maxx. So when I was in the food aisle at TJ Maxx I saw they had a box of gourmet bean soup, and I obviously got excited about that and made my purchase.

I finally got around to making it last night. All it needed was 8 cups of boiling water, then I pour in the bag of beans and spices. Easy, right?!

Well, when I got around to pouring in the mix, there was a bag full of spices and powder mix but I just didn't see any beans. I saw a couple, but I was thinking, where are the beans for this soup? I go ahead and cook it hoping for a miracle and maybe the beans would grow out of nowhere.

I pour myself a big bowl of soup and put my spoon through it and maybe if I'm being optimistic there was 5 beans in the whole cup. I go back and search for more beans in my huge pot of broth and a lot of effort brought forth a couple more beans to add to my bowl. it was sad. my halloween night dinner was going to be so delicious and now it was a bowl of broth. I drank the broth and packed my lunch for the next day, which was supposed to be a yummy gourmet bowl of bean soup and now consisted of leaf greens, a couple cherry tomatoes on it, balsamic vinegarette, and an apple.

i decided to fix my soup problem and bought 3 cans of black beans to put in the soup. Now it looks like black bean soup.

I just want to go back to making my trusty cabbage soup and chili, but i've been trying to be more of an adventurous cook. I think i'll go back to the cabbage soup next week.

Two Timers

2010-01-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Check out my good friend, Mary Margaret's music video on country magazine website...
"Country Girl Diva" by the Two Timers :)
http://www.todayscountrymag.com/videos.html

how did our grandparents survive without North Faces!

2010-01-15T07:08:00.001-08:00

My friend at work had a little trouble getting out of his apartment complex to get to work the other weekend. He starts walking down the hills to get out of his complex and to the main road of Old Hickory. When he got to work he was trying to describe how horrible and cold the walk was. Someone said, probably sarcastically, "You're life will never be the same after today." He said, "Now, I know what my grandpa felt like walking to work everyday! But he didn't even have a North Face." He thought about that, and then said, "Wow, that must have sucked."

Oh, the people with North Faces can't imagine life without it.

my niece abby!

2010-01-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

Check out this video of my niece abby :) She is 9 months and already starting to walk. Aunt Jodi is proud of her !!
http://babyredoutey.blogspot.com/

leaf cutter ants

2010-01-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

This was just a peculiar, funny moment my friend Alan and I had while we were hiking a few weeks ago. We were walking along, talking about animals that we were seeing at Radnor Lake and all of a sudden my mind goes off thinking about something else and I say, "You know what's weird?" And if you know me, what I think is weird at that moment could be ANYTHING. Then when Alan replied he actually guessed what I was thinking about!!!!!!!! He said, "leaf cutter ants." I didn't know the name of these ants, but I knew those were what the ants I was thinking about were called because that's why I thought they were weird because they cut leaves. I of course freaked out and couldn't believe he randomly guessed that because I think these ants are only in Brazil or South America.

I'll actually tell you about these weird little ants. They are so cool! Sparky and I went to the Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro. When we were walking along we noticed a looong line of ants, I wanted to stop and look at them so we sat down and watched them. It was amazing. They were in a single file line and each ant was carrying a tiny triangle of a leaf. The line of ants was climbing up this tree and dropping it off and then the line would go back down and go the other direction. We watched them do this for a while and then we looked back and noticed they were coming from a long way down the path. So we walk along the trail of ants and saw that they were going up another tree. This tree is where they were getting the snippets of leaves and then sending it back to the other tree one by one. Here's a wikipedia site on them if you want to check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leafcutter_ant

and a national geographic kids video on them: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/bugs-kids/leafcutter-ant-kids.html

The picture above is the one I took when we were watching them!

judi chop

2010-01-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

I like nicknames. It's funny how you can be Jodi one day and a totally different name the next. You become a new name without even noticing it. As long as you answer by the name, it sticks. I was thinking about that at work the other day because I have a new name at work, "Chop". I didn't even faze me that I was answering to it until one day at work someone comes in the kitchen and says, "Hey Chop, give me a hand." I casually answered, "sure!" Well, our manager just started dying laughing and thought it was so funny that I was actually answering to this name and he didn't even know where it came from.

It started back in August during my first week at Crow's Nest when another server there named Allen, called me Judy. I kept correcting him, but I think he just liked calling me Judy to bother me. So I started answering to it because I couldn't stop it anyways.

Several of the guys like to watch funny videos on youtube in the office at work and there is this one particular video they love! It's called the redneck ninja, I don't think it's as funny as they do, but you'll still have to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Ry3BB5cQM
After that video, they started calling me Judy Chop! Then of course it sometimes gets shortened to Chop.

That is my story on why I answer when people yell, "Hey Judy Chop!"

that verklempt feeling

2009-12-21T19:25:00.001-08:00

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.

next wednesday

2009-12-10T10:11:00.000-08:00

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."

2009-12-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

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.

weird tip

2009-11-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

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.

is anyboday too young for split ends?

2009-11-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

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!

does Kriss Kross make you want to jump?

2009-05-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Aliens!

2009-05-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

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.

new obsession

2009-05-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Kids sure make you feel cool

2009-04-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

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.

random girl

2009-04-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

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.

oh Brazil

2009-04-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

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?!

procrastination

2009-04-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

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

Caleb's, the stud, first steps

2009-03-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

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/

bad turned good

2009-03-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

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 :)

sleeping late, working, then chillin' with the amigos

2009-02-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-24T06:05:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-13T12:13:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-06T06:09:00.001-08:00

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.

delirious

2009-01-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

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.

seagulls

2009-01-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

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.

vera wang and free espresso and dog

2009-01-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

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.

My nephew Caleb is a 1 year old now and he is a stud!

2009-01-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

my excuse is a ... sebadicle?

2009-01-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

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.

High School Homecoming

2008-12-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

Has anyone gone back for their high school homecoming before? If you haven't, I would suggest you do. It was a ton of fun! A couple of my friends and I walked around the halls and peeked in classrooms, and it was like 13 years of my life flashed before my eyes. It was awesome! I went to a Christian school so I was in the same big building for 13 years straight. I had Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd... 7th, 8th... all the way to senior year. I love all of those memories that I forgot about. We even went into the girl's locker room to see if it still smelled the same haha.

I love high school basketball. I love the squeak on the floors. We creamed the other team too! We beat them by 45 points. That is crazy. 33 to 78 I think. I went to the Metamora vs. Washington high school basketball game last Tuesday too. I'm really getting into the basketball lately!

one more

2008-12-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

I just had to add this on to the crying list. Yesterday I had a boy who was sent to the principal's office because he was involved with a situation on the bus. So of course when he gets back he put his head on his desk and is crying during entire Social Studies. Then after 30 or 40 minutes, he pops his head up and is ready for the rest of the day!

drama and tears all day long

2008-12-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

I had one person after another crying in my room today. It seemed like there was no break without someone crying. Well no one was crying during PE I think. And I think it's funny. I'm actually chuckling as I write this.
From about 8:30 to 10:30 I had a girl who was teary eyed and red faced all morning about something. She wanted to go home but I said she couldn't ask.
Right before reading groups, I gave 3 boys homework notices because they didn't turn in their homework. 2 of them sat at their desks and cried and cried. One girl came up to me concerned about why there was so many people crying and I told her nothing's wrong they are just sad.
Then during reading groups a girl comes in sobbing, not just tears, but sobbing. I told her to sit down for 5 minutes before she went to reading group to control herself. She came back from reading groups and sobbed for another 4o minutes.
Oh dear. so many tears. I like teaching 5th grade, but I definitely would not want to be an actual 5th grader every again.

my space bar

2008-12-08T17:27:00.000-08:00

The right sideofmy space bar does notwork. I'mtryingnottogobackandfixitbutitisannoying the crapout ofme. You see I havebeentyping foralongtimenow. whenwegotacomputerwheniwasfiveistarteddoingthesetypinggames.thenofcoursein juniorhigh i doofficialtypingclass. theninhigh school and collegeigetevenmoreusedtotyping.

Sojust tonight i figured out how my spacewill work. I havetotypeitwithmyleftthumbonthe leftside ofmy spacebar.so now i'm officially starting to retrain myself to punch the space bar with my left thumb. every time i have to seriously think about it. i at least was abletodoitforawhilebut ijustgaveupandnowi havenomorespaces.

helpmeandmykeyboard!

My class and I were on the front cover of our newspaper today :)

2008-12-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

I had my kids each write a novel in November. We were the nerdy class that wrote everyday for an hour in the computer lab. It was actually a lot of fun. We even locked up our "inner editors." It's a program called NaNoWriMo. Anyways, I submitted this article and all of my kids pictures to the newspaper and it got on the front page. woop woop. The pictures were all in color in the newspaper, and they aren't on the website. So that's sad you can't see the fine colorful drawings.

http://www.pjstar.com/kjs/x692907984/Germantown-Hills-students-take-novel-approach-with-November-writing-project

It's not all that exciting, but it is exciting for now.

I want to be a postman.

2008-12-01T18:20:00.001-08:00

So some of you may remember me saying I've always thought that being a postman would be a great job. I thought it would be a good over the hill job. How could you have a bad day as a postman? You're outside most of your day, you get good exercise walking from door to door, and you get a free car to drive around in! Of course when it rains or snows it probably stinks, but it stinks for pretty much everyone when it rains or snows. Plus I'm sure I could just put on a ton of under armor to stay warm. They probably even provide you with rain hats. Oh, but being outside on those nice days would be so worth it. I love getting mail too, so I would be the providor of good things to people. That maybe going overboard, but people appreciate the consistency of mail and the spontaneity of getting something actually exciting.

My brother-in-law Jason actually busted my bubble though because he said they usually only take veterans or active military men and women. You mean I have to go to war to be a postman? If that's their reward for serving our country all of those years than it must be a good job. I wonder if I sent in a lot of references from military guys then they would let me in?

Actually I was thinking about this again because I was driving to Walmart on Saturday. On my way there was this postman vehicle that sped right past me. It was going by so fast it made this huge noise and was maybe even a blur for a second. I started thinking about how I could be that person blazing down the street in a postman vehicle. I would recommend that my vehicle be a jeep of course. That would be sweet. I could be known for driving quickly just to get your mail there a little faster, and I could even run from door to door in the neighborhood. Any postman I've ever seen walks waaaay too slow. That's probably why they call it snail mail. They walk and drive too slow.

teacher's lounge lunch

2008-11-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

We talk about food soo much in our teacher's lounge every day. Just today we talked about my pizza slice for a good 15 minutes.
They asked me where i got my pizza, then i didn't know the name of it so i told them about where it was, then someone figured it out, then someone talked about how they were afraid to go in their because it looked dirty, then we talked about whether we take it to go or if we eat there, then we talked about the owner, then how long they have been open, then went back and talked about how you get there, then if we could possibly get it catered, one teacher said that she thinks that is where she'll be getting her dinner this week, then it went to what type of pizza i had. i had a gyro pizza so we talked about lamb meat, then we talked about the spinach sausage pizza that place had. then we tried to find a day that maybe we could get it delivered to the school or someone could get their class watched and then go get the pizza themselves. then we talked about how slow the service is sometimes since there's only one guy who does the serving, the register, AND he cooks the pizzas in the back. he's a buzy little guy. then we actually talked about the crust at this place because someone had just told a story about a pizza with really hard crust and how they didn't take any money off for it.

We talk about food everyday like this. the questions where did you get your food always starts it. if someone made it we talk about how they made it and what is the recipe and if someone makes something similar they say how they do it. then if it's just a lean cuisine or a frozen thing we even talk about which meals are good and what they put in them and how long we heated it up. then if it's from a restaurant we talk about where the restaurant is, what the food was like, whether other people have been there, who'd you go with.

everyone eats, and i guess it is something we all have in common. if in doubt, talk about food!

could you do me a favor?

2008-11-24T16:09:00.001-08:00

I don't take credit for thinking of this first because I heard it on tv, but i thought it was interesting.

Did you ever notice that you can tell what kind of favor someone wants by the length of the pause after you say it. short pause means a no big deal favor. long pause means a favor you might not want to do. For example, "Could you do me a favor and hand me that pencil." Practically no pause, not a big deal. And if you said, "Could you do me a favor? ....." And then you just wait and pause long enough and see if they will accept the favor before you even say it.

if you met a rock that was alive, what would you do?

2008-11-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

I have a girl in my class, whom actually had an entire blog just of her own in the past. She comes in and tells me during snack time, "I just LOVE rocks so much. You know what I would do if I met a rock that was alive?! I would ask for its autograph!!" Then she proceeds to tell me the conversation she would have with the rock. It was just too funny; she is dead serious about her rocks. (I get rock gifts a lot.) I wish everyone could have been there.

senior year '08

2008-11-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend Missy and I realized that we ("we" as in fellow '05 college grads) are in our senior year of adulthood. Senior year of adulthood. That means we must be getting really good at being adults?!

So maybe we should have a graduation and pass out diplomas of adulthood in the spring. maybe some open houses with punch and cookies.

What's after that? well, i'm sure we'll figure it out.

you have to watch my funny little nephew

2008-11-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

Go to my sister's website and watch the "eating cereal" video. You must watch, it's not just adorable it's downright funny.

http://www.babyredoutey.blogspot.com/

star on my zipper

2008-11-11T10:07:00.001-08:00

I love the little things about clothes. The smallest details that no one would ever notice. I put on my new jeans the other day. I wear them all of the time now. I held the little zipper to zip them up and I noticed there was a star cut out of the little zipper. It was so cute. A cut out star on my zipper. I loved it. I loved my jeans before now that it has a star on the zipper i love them even more.

I don't remember what pair of shoes i loved so much when I was little. But I remember that one day I looked on the bottom of my shoes and there was an awesome design on the bottom. It was like the bottom of my shoe could be a paint stamp.

Clothes are fun when you find secret things weeks after buying them.

don't you just love randomness?

2008-11-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

Our moment in Chicago was beyond random and Sunday. So I get to see Missy on Saturday after the Ohio State game in Chicago. Of course what did we do all night? Dance in our friend's apartment, duh! That's what girls do in apartments, dance! Saturday was fun.

Then on Sunday morning Missy wakes me up while I was sleeping on the couch a little before 8 am and says, "I've got your whole day already planned for you!" I said, "Good." I was glad, but I probably didn't sound so thrilled that early in the morning.

Once we were ready we started on my day's plans. We picked up Angie from the Midway airport. She hopped in and it was a nostalgic moment for sure. It was weird to have three Nashvillians all of a sudden in one car in Chicago. I dropped them off at the Bears game. Turned around and headed to H & M. The moment was fleating but fun.

one man bathrooms

2008-11-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

I can't stand one person bathrooms. I don't like the idea that they are standing out their waiting on you. Especially when they try the handle to see if it's locked. I jump a little and then I feel all rushed to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, check my hair, and run out... because they are waiting!

The worst is when you sit down on the toilet and you look at the door. Then you realize you never locked the door! Do you hurry back to the door to lock it or just hurry and go to the bathroom?

I just don't like it. I like stalls.

What would it be like?....

2008-11-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

The new Congressman for Illinois is an energetic guy from Peoria who is my age. The youngest Congressman in the United States.. Aaron Schock. (Check out his campaigning website... http://www.aaronschock.com/index.html )

With the whole election day coming up and going to his party tonight, of course being a girl, I get all carried away with my thoughts, "Hmm... so if we get married, and then he becomes President, that means... I would be the First Lady!!" It's of course ridiculous, but it just made me wonder, "What would it be like if I was the First Lady?" My parents actually always said that my sister would be a good First Lady. I think I would be a pretty darn good one. I could tour and speak at schools. I could be an inspirational speaker.

What would it be like...

It's still okay to daydream as an adult, right?

random bike guy on highway

2008-11-04T07:14:00.001-08:00

I was driving to work this morning and there was this guy. He was in the middle of the highway. All he was doing was trying to get to the other side of the 4 lane road. But there was a slight problem. You know those huge cement blocks that divide roads for construction? This guy was in the middle of the highway with maybe a foot between the lane and the cement barricade and he was trying to hurdle the cement block with his bike in his arms.

I drove past and looked in my rearview mirror to see how his progress was doing. He was still trying to leap over on his stomach on the top of the cement block and throw the bike over as well. Then I look farther behind me in my rearview mirror and the cement block divider stopped maybe 30 feet behind this guy who was trying to hurdle him and his bike over it. "Just walk a few more steps dude and you could have sauntered right to the other side of the highway with ease!"

Wow. I hope he finally got across safely.

prom day dress up

2008-11-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

I had a dejavu moment on Saturday night.

Actual Halloween night pretty much was extremely uneventful. I passed out candy with my dad, did pushups and situps while I waited to fill my time. Watched a scary movie, went upstairs, cried some tears, and went to bed around 10. So I get up on Saturday thinking, "Jodi, you better get to wear your costume tonight."

So that afternoon I was officially going to a Halloween party. Knowing where the house is and what time it starts and who will be there means I was actually for sure going to a party. Yes! I get super excited and make sure mom is home to do my hair for my costume. She was late and I was frantic thinking I was going to be late to my party! Which let's be honest like anyone would care if someone is late haha. She does my hair. Dad watches us do it. I add the lipstick to finish the look. I go downstairs and pose for about 10 pictures for my mom in the dining room. I grab my stuff and walk out the door. I then look behind me and look onto our back porch and see my mom and dad standing next to each other smiling at me as I walk off saying, "You look great! I hope you have so much fun!!" Still waving and standing there I get in my car and drive off while they are still smiling and saying, "Have fun!"

That is when I thought, "Oh my word. I feel like I'm going to prom all over again." I think my parents were just so excited I was actually going to a fun party that they were sending me off with good fortune. Don't you just love parents? I'll have to figure out how to post a couple of the 10 pictures she took.

Aaron's aka Errands

2008-11-02T15:48:00.001-08:00

Missy reminded me of this story of when I was little and I never posted it.

When I was little, little like before you go to Kindergarten little, I don't remember much of what my days consisted of; but I do not I went to do some "Aaron's" a LOT. Practically every day mom would say,"Jodi, we've got to go out and do some Aaron's." I would get in the car and we went to the grocery store, library, KMart, or whatever was on her list of things to do. So we did "Aaron's."

I finally went to Kindergarten, made some friends; and one day I was at a friend's house on a Saturday afternoon. I'm guessing I was either at Shelley Russell's or Summer Belsly's house. The mom said that we had to get in the car to do some errands. I was astonished and said, "What? My family does Aaron's too! Don't you go do Belsly's not Aaron's?!"

So that was the day I finally figured out that ALL families do "Aaron's" aka ERRANDS.

he's in love with me haha

2008-11-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

So there's this guy at the halloween party I just came home from. He had a dart gun. Everyone once in a while it would boing me in the head or hit my braids or something. I would glare at him and throw the dart back at him. Then he walked over and gave me bubbles once. I think he even tried to talk to me with very little success. So it turns out an hour or so later my friend's husband says to me that this guy who is throwing darts at me told him that he was in love with Pippi! haha. He's in love with Pippi and he's throwing darts at her and blowing bubbles in her face. Don't tell mr. blue pants this, but he has no chance. I don't like that. I don't like darts thrown at my face. He must have fallen in love with me when I was on the stage singing with the band in a microphone "The Monster Mash." And then of course there's this other guy who was sits next to me at the fire. I said, "Don't you just love fires?!" He said, "I love getting drunk!" I got up and left without even answering. I wish every guy was that apparent about what they love. So we have a love of darts, love of pippi, and love of getting drunk. wow.

btw... the party setting was amazing. I pulled up and immediately thought everything was awesome. The garage had tables with candles. The house had the restrooms. There was a band in the barn with tables. Crockpots of food in the back of the barn: dip, cheese balls, chili, tortellini dip, cookies, hot wings, and i'm sure i'm forgetting other stuff. then outside of the barn was a 5' x 5' firepit. It was definitely blazin'. I felt like a rotisseurie chicken because it was so hot. I would go in circles every 30 seconds to warm all sides of me. I told my friend Jess that if I could just pick my top favorite 50 to 100 people this party would be unfreakinbelievable. Maybe that's what my wedding will be like. I will have a big bonfire and a barn band. Then everyone could stay in a big cabin. with all of my favorite people...that sounds like fun to me.

woah. i just took my pippy braids out and my head sure does feel better now.

I love Jerry Seinfeld

2008-10-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

About 10 years or more ago I got this Jerry Seinfeld book that he wrote. It was basically things people would blog about. I just remember reading it to my mom and laughing so hard about one or two paragraphs that I would practically pee my pants and my stomach would hurt. It was the first person or book I actually considered really funny.

Anways that is the reasoning behind why I like Jerry. I am going to find the book and find those paragraphs that made me pee my pants. I'll write them and we can decide if they are still as funny as I remember.

grandparents these days...

2008-10-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

I thought were computer illiterate!

Not my grandma. First of all, she's had email forever. That is no big deal to her. Then she got instant messenger so she can send messages to my mom. The other week the whole family gets an email that invites us all to her new blog. (If you want to check it out, it's http://earnedmygreyhairs.blogspot.com/ ) And I promise you I never even told her that I had a blog. She just came up with her own blog one day and now she updates it everyday. Then to top it all off I got an email the other day that says, "Ethel Russell requests to be your facebook friend." Oh my word, my grandma has a facebook page. I denied the request. Is that horrible of me? My answer is I definitely don't feel guilty about that.

This is just a side note from dinner at the grandparents tonight. My dad was drinking coffee out of a mug. I looked at it, read the cup, and said it outloud, "I did it in Danville." (It was from a bank grandma used to work at in Danville.) Dad and I laughed for a while, but didn't let grandma in on what was so funny about the mug.

i get your drift.

2008-10-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

I was meeting my mom today at the mall. I walk in to the department store from the parking lot and immediately ignore the person who is trying to sell something at the door. I stop though and notice that the guy who is selling something is actually my age, does not have a wedding ring, and is actually cute. That situation just does not happen very much. So I go back to the table. I talk to him about what the coupon is for, what his company was, blah blah blah. I must have been talking too much because then when I asked him if he lived around here he said, "I live in Bloomington because my girlfriend goes to school there." Then he asks me about what I do, and I say I'm a teacher. He says, "Oh my girlfriend has a friend whose a teacher!" So I was thinking then, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get your drift. You have a girlfriend." I say it was nice talking with ya and go on my merry way.

Why in the world does it matter that I need to know where his girlfriend goes to school and if his girlfriend's friends are teachers? I secretly actually think it was weird but nice of him to constanly talk about his girlfriend to a stranger.

rain

2008-10-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

I left school and right away my gas light turns on. I had just ran through the parking lot in the cold pouring rain so of course getting gas was the last thing that I wanted to get out of my car and do. I passed a couple gas stations and still convincing myself that getting out of my car again to get gas was ridiculous. No one should have to be outside in this rain.

Then, of course, right when I think it is crazy to even be outside for 2 minutes I look over at the Peoria Stadiums and there were 2 soccer games going on. Grown men playing soccer in the pouring, cold rain. What are they thinking? They obviously are willingly doing this. Or they are an olympic team that can't allow the time to cancel a game and reschedule.

Who's more stupid, those soccer players or me driving on no gas and not wanting to get gas even though there are covers.

I did actually get gas at the next stop. If those soccer guys are that brave I will be too!

Baby Queen Video.

2008-10-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

http://users.telenet.be/leukelinks/flash/queen.htm

aerobic class

2008-10-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

I would just love to know what people think about when they do those aerobic workout classes. Yesterday I went to this crazy class at the riverplex that I don't remember the name to, Turbo Attack maybe? Anyways, 35 minutes after you have used up every ounce of energy you thought you had, the muscle woman leading us tells us we have the hardest part coming for the next 20 minutes. At that point is when I wonder what people are thinking. I muster up the weirdest situations in my head just to get myself to kick as high as I can, to keep jumping when they tell you to jump. I visualize someone in front of me that I have to kick his face off or that I'm filming in an action movie or that if I just jump a little higher this one last time I will win some huge award. What are these other people thinking about? Their grocery lists? That they might die that second? Maybe they are thinking about nothing. who knows. I know what I think about.

percentages not looking so good.

2008-10-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

In church on Sunday we had a guest missionary speaker. One of the first thing he tells us is that "80% of high school students leave the church within 12 months of Senior year of high school, and 70% of them do not come back." Yousers! Don't get me wrong, I loved college; but I wonder what kind of impacts it is making on the Church.

The guy said a whole lot more, but I thought that his first statistic was food for thought.

Get me a green pepper!! NOW!

2008-10-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

I am someone who feels the need to HAVE to have all of the ingredients in a recipe in order to eat it. I almost didn't eat my chili yesterday, and I love chili.

Yesterday, I was the first one home so I was in charge of making the chili. Well, I find all of the ingredients... except green peppers. Right then, I called mom and leave a message, "Mom, I cannot make the chili because there is no green peppers!" Then I call dad and leave him a message, "Dad , I cannot make this chili for dinner because there is no green peppers!"

I start dumping the rest of the stuff in the pot. I sit and wait for my last ingredient. I was so hungry, and I kept thinking I only had 20 more minutes until I had to leave for my game. Hungry and waiting my parents finally come home, but with NO green pepper. I said, "What are we going to eat if we don't have all of the ingredients?!" They looked at me weirdly and told me it doesn't matter if it's in there or not we are still going to eat it.

hmm... interesting, still eat it without the green pepper in it? I got a bowl and it tasted just like chili even with out the green pepper. Praise the Lord, my dinner didn't even need to be saved.

bath robe

2008-10-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

If there was one piece of clothing I love it would be my bathrobe. The particular bathrobe I have is 7 years old, which is not too old. My grandma's is probably 20 years old.

I didn't notice I even liked it that much until quite recently. Today for instance let me fill you in on my happenings after I got home. Let me add in that it is a dreary, windy, rainy, cold day. I come home and I instantly go upstairs and put on my slippers and out of my high heels. I start dinner. I wasn't comfortable enough. I go back upstairs and put on my black pants instead of my thin dress pants. I keep dinner going. I realize I need to take Maggie our dog out so I run upstairs again and usually you would think that a person would get a coat. I go and instantly grab my white bathrobe. So now I have my cheetah slippers, thick black pants, turtleneck, and white robe. I take Maggie out into the front yart to go pee. Once I was outside in my outfit, it dawned on me that I look like an old woman who has been sick in her bed for a week. Who wears their bathrobe and slippers outside?!

I'm not taking it off. I just cooked chili in it. I even slept in my robe the other night. It's like sleeping with a hug. Well it's not as good as a warm hug, but close.

I will take it off to go to volleyball tonight. I'm not that attached.

a bit more about Friday

2008-10-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add that when the kids came back from their puberty session I had mini deoderants on every kid's desk. The funny part was how excited they all were about it. The boys got Old Spice and they got them out right away and started using it on their armpits. The boys started putting it behind their knees and on their feet.

The girls came in later and didn't quite put it on right away. They did open it up right away and thought it smelled "Amazing!" They all wanted me to smell it. They did actually smell really good, like cocoa butter.

Deoderant, their prize possession for the day.

puberty talk was today.

2008-10-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, my kids survived the puberty talk meeting. 90 minutes long.

I was not allowed in the boys room, thank God! The boys came back first, and they definitely gave me an earful.
-"I am horrified."
-"I am going to have nightmares tonight!"
-"I was so bored."

I of course got the most exciting question told to me. Their was a boy in the other class who rose his hand and asked, "Can testicles get squashed?!" Wow. I am glad one of my boys did not ask that. If you're interested, the speaker said, "Yes, you're balls can be squashed."

The girls room was not as entertaining. There were a lot of questions though, which was surprising.

All in all, I think they learned a lot. That's what school is for, right?!

is it odd that..?

2008-10-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Matt calls me tonight leaves a message: "Jodi. It's Matt. Do you think it's odd that..."

Okay friends. Basically if anyone asks if what they are doing is odd, it probably is! But always remember, odd is good not bad!

So he admits to me that he has been buying tons of food at McDonalds that he can't possibly and probably won't eat just to get those Monopoly pieces. McDonalds brings back their smartest marketing idea ever. They know exactly what Americans want and love. Americans love games. Americans love food. Americans love money.

They have Matt spending his salary at McDonalds. How many others are out there?! It is odd, Matt, but I have faith that you will win something! haha.

"bye bye ketchup." tear.

2008-10-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

We are reading this book at home. 6 ways to become healthy or 6 weeks to becoming healthy or something like either of those. Well, of course each step has a ton of things you have to do to complete the step. So, mom and I decided to do what we can each day.

At dinner tonight mom eyes the Heinz ketchup bottle, turns it around and looks at the ingredients. She says, "This has high fructose corn syrup in it!" I shook my head and said, "oooh noo." "Good bye ketchup bottle."

I laughed pretty hard about that. I actually was so serious about my "Oh no." I knew from then on our household would not see Heinz ketchup or probably any ketchup again. Oh we'll probably bust it out for picnics in the summer when the guests want it, but until then.. the Aaron's said goodbye to ketchup tonight.

tear.

what's next?! peanut butter! probably.

big guy REALLY had to go...

2008-10-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

My mom and I were on our way to my volleyball game tonight. We were 5 minutes from our destination, but my mom HAD to go to the bathroom right away. So, we find a gas station in the middle of nowhere and found the restroom. It was a one person bathroom so I was waiting in the hall for my turn. I was lounging in the hallway when this big guy comes running past me, pushes me to the side a little and runs for the men's handle. He grabs it and it was locked. "Oh man! I can't believe it's locked!" So we stand side by side in this little hallway. I stare at him while he bounces his feet back and forth like a little kid about to pee his pants. (He is definitely a grown middle aged 40 year old man.) He tries to distract himself by reading the bulletin board fliers. Then he tries to start a conversation with me, and his opening is "I should have worn a diaper!" All I thought of to say was, "I guess you should have worn one."

I made it into my restroom before he did. Hopefully he'll go buy some diapers or at least not tell strangers that in little hallways in the middle of nowhere.

a gray rampage

2008-10-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know what got into me this morning. It all started with a $15 Target gift card.

Gift cards are the devil. I spent 125$ when I was only supposed to spend 15$. I was going to get candy for my kids and maybe something for my halloween costume. I did that. Then I found these adorable gray sneakers. Right then was when my gray rampage started. I went to the woman's section and literally tried on 18 different items that could go with these sneakers. I bought a couple things, but I thought I could do better. Then I went to Macy's with a 10$ gift card. I bought something else that was gray. Then I went to gap and bought 2 more gray things.

I crossed "get candy" off my list. But then added... return some of the gray stuff and return something else at Target and rebuy it because I actually forgot to use my gift card when I checked out.

i'm leaving to go hiking now. i'm going to wear nothing gray for now.

puberty slips

2008-10-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

I had no idea that in 5th grade the school has a program setup to split the boys and girls up to talk about certain things. Well maybe the first week of school they asked me when they were going to have a boy/girl meeting. I said I had no idea what they are talking about.

So a week ago, the secretary comes in with permission slips. One pile for the boys, one pile for the girls. She told me to hand them out. My kids instantly saw them on their desks when they came in to the classroom. Some just stared at it. Some said, "OH NOOO!" Some asked if they had to do it.

The funniest part is that they had to turn them back in and a few of the kids forgot to do that. So I have to go and ask them for their permission slip. They say, "Permission slip for what?" I tell them, "Oh you KNOW, the puberty slip." They get super awkward, but then kind of laugh about it. They are officially called the "puberty slips."

Next Friday, from 1 to 2:30 the program will start. I even got a few parents coming in to attend the meeting. It's going to be a big day. I'll give an update about it next weekend.

Puberty = when you are no longer a carefree child that has no worries in the world

this is a shout out to the 80's Barbie doll

2008-10-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

We all had the 80's Barbie doll. did we not? Jess and I saw the REAL Barbie doll on Sunday. We saw her. We stared at her. We took lots of picture of her. These boys walked by and told us "Y'all are going to hell." I looked sheepish and said, "What for?" "You know why."

Here's the description. Teased hair in a high pony tail... messy with strands of hair coming down. Very tan. Very skinny. Then the dress.. oh my. i just chuckled thinking about it. the dress was very fluorescent orange. It was a very short tube dress with straps off the shoulder. I actually have no comment on the shoes. they couldn't have been normal though.

reliving life

2008-10-08T13:43:00.001-07:00

I was just thinking about this yesterday when Matt and I were talking about how awesome Saturday's game was. I said, "I wish we could do the whole thing over again!"

Seriously, WHAT IF... you could relive things over again? If I could just pick and choose days I have had and consolidate them into 365.25 days and make that the year I just relive over and over again that would be pretty awesome. The only bad thing is that what if better days are to come? Then I would be living a "perfect" year over and over, but it is actually just ho hum compared to what I would have had if I just kept on living in the present. Maybe the day before I die God will tell me, "Jodi, your life has come to an end so now you can finally pick your favorite 265.25 days of your life and relive them this next year before you come to heaven."

Maybe I should number from 1 to 365 and start jotting down the days I would like to repeat, then by the time I die I will have my days all recorded and ready.

birthday gifts

2008-10-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday one of my kids wanted to give me my birthday gift soo bad. She kept saying, "Can I pleeease give you your birthday gift?! I got you the coolest gift ever. You're going to love it." Finally after school I told her she could give it to me a day early. She runs over and gets it from her desk and makes me close my eyes and open my hand. Well I trust her for some reason not to do anything mean to me when my eyes are closed so I open my hand. She puts it in and tells me to look... It was a rock.

Now I know that came from the heart, (It was actually a rock shaped heart haha.) but seriously. I think this might be one of the things I miss from my old school. Last year, I got a Visa card for $200! Holy cow is all I said when I got that moulah. I used that money right up on a couple's massage.

Even thought I only have hand soap and twizzlers (I hate twizzlers) on my desk right now, I know they really like me.

sleep deprived

2008-10-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

okay. I have got to be honest here, I need sleep. All my mom said to me when she saw me today was, "You look awful!" oh dear. I LOVE 8 hours of sleep more than anything in the world. I will hopefully get that tonight with my sleeping drugs I got today. Tomorrow... tomorrow I will not be the Debby Downer of my own blog. The real Jodi will reappear again with a good story... tomorrow.

nighty night y'all!

YES!!!!

2008-10-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Pa-lin! Pa-lin! Pa-lin! The democrats love her, what?! The news loves her, what?! The Truth Squad says she is all around truthful and joe is a big liar.

I love the "Truth Squad." that is a great name. What kind of squad could I be a part of? I'm not computery enough to be a part of the Geek Squad. What other squads are there that we can be a part of.

"Say it ain't so, Joe."

A wink and a smile

2008-10-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm watching the debate. That's what my friend, Val, and I do for fun on a Thursday night haha.) Did anyone hear Joe Biden say Bush's name over and over and over in one of his comments. That wasn't the funny part, it was the way he said his name.. Boooshez, Booshez, Boooshez... it was just too much I definitely lol-ed.

I do think they are both doing well, but still I love Palin's wink she does all of the time. I wish I could do that. ;) And I love Joe's teeth. Wow are his teeth big and straight. He needs to flash those pearls more.

Palin is a real woman. I like her. I hope I am like her.

sad news

2008-09-27T15:57:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Paul Newman died. He is and was so hott. His blue eyes are unbelievably amazing. Who wants to have a Paul Newman movie marathon?

Santa Claus

2008-09-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

This is another story about the crying polka dot girl in my class. Well we were casually talking about Santa Claus in class for some reason. We talked about him not being real, thinking this was no big deal and for sure everyone should know that by now!

The next day Megan came in and said she went straight to her mom when she saw her at home and said to her, "Mom, tell me the honest truth. Who puts out those presents on Christmas? Is Santa Claus real?!!" Her mom replied seriously, "Yes Megan, there is no Santa Claus. We are the ones who put those presents out under the tree." She told me she was a little upset/devastated /sad.

I don't remember if she said she was upset, devastated, or sad; but I thought it was better that she knew.

Santa Claus is not real.

spelling word: squirrel.

2008-09-27T15:45:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted since Tuesday. bad me. you know my days are not that exciting so sometimes there is just not even one line to write about.

This story is a shout out to the people who were with me on fourth of july 2 years ago...
I was actually grading my kids spelling sentences in the car yesterday. (fyi...I was not driving) So, I'm reading through the sentences and one of the words was "squirrel." My student, Tyler, writes: "I act like a squirrel sometimes." I lol-ed. Now this is a kid after my own blood. I made no comment on the sentence I just gave him a 100% and laughed.

the fat boy and the "flower of youth"

2008-09-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Who saw Warren Sapp on Dancing with the Stars? funniest thing i've seen in a while. This guy is a 300 lb. football player who is dancing the quick step with a 120 lb. girl. Picture a Great Dane with a poodle or a Rhino with a flamingo. Then picture this Rhino actually moving his feet as fast as the flamingo and flinging the pink thing around like it's nothing but a feather. Go Great Dane Rhino! You've got my vote.

Then there is this Cody kid- the exact opposite of Warren. Right when he came on the screen my mom says, "what is he, a highschool musical weirdo?!" The judge called him "the flower of youth." I'm still not sure who he is. Does anyone?! Cody is his name, and he says he's "super excited." haha.

My mom just said again, "Whoo iiis he?!"

i love sprinklers.

too many points may be a bad thing

2008-09-21T20:35:00.000-07:00

Wait a second! I just got 27,643 points on my tetris game. That's pretty good. I have too much time on my hands, oh dear. nah, being good at tetris should be a priority.

computer games

2008-09-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's something that maybe no one knows I do almost every week for the past 3 years, and I wish I did every day... I play tetris on my computer. Well Missy and Jess may know because they may have seen me do it at my desk. I'm not that good, I think the highest I've gotten is about 25,000 points. It is so addicting though. I make those silly noises like, "aheheheh." "ugh." "joooodi!" "why did you do that?" then of course my back and neck always kill at the end of it because i haven't moved my head an inch because you have to concentrate so hard on what you are going to do with that next tetris piece. ooh! I have a game that is so cool. I'll find it tomorrow and then add it. it's a really cool brain teaser game. I love any kind of puzzle thing. I did an entire puzzle last Sunday in one day. pretty good.

the beat of marley

2008-09-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

I've been listening to Bob Marley. What is it about Bob Marley that makes you think that everything will actually be okay?
I think I know. It's the beat. I remember that beat when I was in Belize. Belize was the only time in my life where my top ten favorite thing I've done lasted only 2.5 hours. Dancing in Belize in the middle of the day on the ocean was that one time. My other top 9 were 24 hour events of good things all in one day.

Do you have to know where I am?

2008-09-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

I was just mapping out running routes on http://www.usatf.org/. It's pretty cool if you want to try it out! You map out your route and it tells you exactly the distance you are going to run or just did run. It got me thinking that you could tell people where you are at all times. Running and Camping... those are the two places that you can actually escape and people not know where you are. But NOW.. you can map it out and tell people where you are. I could go running and leave the map out for people to know where I am going. I actually did that when Sparky and I went winter camping this past winter. I left a little map out for Jess and told her what time we would be hiking and exactly what hike we were going to be on. Of course I trusted Sparky to keep me alive in the freezing cold weather, but you just never know.

Why do we like to keep constant tabs on ourselves and make sure people know where we are? In case we die? Well, you're dead so it doesn't matter. I guess maybe in case you get kidnapped.. because then they know what point you were taken from. What's the probability that I would actually get kidnapped? hmm.. i'm sure that is online somewhere... there is probably a map of the different probablilities of getting kidnapped around the US.

you, me, him... who?

2008-09-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

One of my students found this note in the hall and I actually had to draw the people out and point arrows to figure out what she/he was talking about.

note: "Sexi mexi I dk if it's true but did you tell ryan marten to ask me out for you."

It seemed like a simple sentence, and I instantly thought that she like Ryan Marten. But then I decided to sit down and figure out who "me," "you," "ryan marten," and "sexi mexi" all had to do with each other.

I dare you to figure it out. I did.

a girl that deserves her own blog all on her own.

2008-09-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

I have another girl who constantly constantly constantly wants your attention. I could probably tell several stories about .along with all of this... she always wants to show your her pet rock who talks, in the middle of math she'll want to go to the computer and work on her newsletter, in the middle of spelling, reading, science, read-aloud.. anytime really she'll want to go to the bathroom, in the middle of social studies she'll feel like she is going to throw up, in the middle of science she'll want to go copy her newsletter, in the middle or reading she'll want me to get yarn out, in the middle of who knows what she'll want to show me something she brought from home, in the middle of math she'll want to tell me that we won't be needing our folders in music today, right before lunch she'll want to call her mom because she is still going to throw up, in the morning she'll want to tell me about her rock collection or the locker she made, during reading groups she wants to show me her Pippi Longstocking and friends popsicle sticks she has made and if I think there hair is the right color, She burns wood chips outside with her magnifying glass, she won't leave school just in case we will be watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, at the end of the day she'll want to show me her new book and she'll want to do ANYTHING to get an Aaron's Allowance.
You may think I'm joking or exaggerating, but this all happened today, and I don't even have a good enough memory to actually remember everything.

my kids

2008-09-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

I think my kids are funny. My kids... meaning my 5th graders.
I have one kid who when at recess swings on the swings and sings opera on the top of his lungs. I love to listen to him. I wish I could sing opera on the top of my lungs everyday.
I have one kid who on the very first 5 minutes of meeting him ... he said, "Miss Aaron, I went to a Lego Camp this summer and I have been desperately trying to find a lego league. Could you find one for me?!!"
I have another kid who when he looks at you, I swear to God he looks like the cat from Shrek. He is the most adorable creature alive.
Of course I have already discussed my fly lover and my polka dot bathroom sobber.
I have another kid who when anything surprises him he yells, "Holy Cow!"

This is a shout out to all of my friends who are Buckeye fans,
One of my kids came in this morning with a plastic bag. He brought a buckeye for every student in the classroom for good luck on the test. He's one of the leaders of the class. I have never believed in luck and today these buckeyes did not disprove my theory. The buckeyes did not help them on their math tests.

me vs. Rachel Ray

2008-09-16T19:38:00.001-07:00

I was making corn salsa tonight, thinking this would be quick. I start with the cherry tomatoes, the most essential ingredient for salsa. One by one I take a tomato and slice it longways, then take one of the halves and slice that in half. Then I picked up the other half and sliced that side in half. Good! 4 little pieces. Halfway through the carton, I thought Rachel Ray would have been finished with the entire salsa by now, and probably even would have moved onto the next dish by now. Well maybe I can't cook an entire Rachel Ray meal in 30 minutes for 5 people, but I sure can cute tomatoes in 30 minutes. Go me!

1st day of teaching

2008-09-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is actually a story that happened to my friend Val. And to preface this story, we went to a private, Christian school where every student in the school was a car rider. You had to be a car rider.
This is Val's very first day of teaching ever. Miss Neil. The school did not give her a run through of how dismissal works at her school, I guess they thought it was obvious. The end of the first day came and the intercom comes on loud and clear and says, "The walkers may be dismissed." So several of her 7th graders stand up and start walking out of the room. "Oh no, they are not pulling one on me!" she thought. So she ran to the door and yelled at these rebellious students she had, "You cannot leave! NONE OF YOU HAVE WALKERS!!"
They had a good laugh as they explained that walkers were students that walked home. She of course was embarrased but laughed and admitted she thought there was a designated place for students with disabilities and walkers to walk out first. At least those students had something to tell their parents about their first day of 7th grade.

goals

2008-09-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

jo's Goals… post suggestions for me if you can think of one for me!
-cake decorating
-blogging
-save me some $$$$
-clean my car often because I don’t have Sparky to clean it now
-be good at teaching
-keep running
-keep weight off
-play the clarinet in the local Peoria Band… I could, but I was just kidding on that one… I don't think i would meet an athletic guy there

dropped off

2008-09-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is so my mom...

last week my mom didn't want to drop me off at home before her nail appointment. I said i didn't want to go to the nail appointment, and she pulls over on the busiest street in Peoria and just calls dad and tells him to come pick me up and then she drives off. The funny part of it is the mental picture of me standing there on the side of the road stranded for 5 to 10 minutes just because i got dumped on the side of the road. And my dad came and picked me up and didn't think it was weird at all. who drops someone off at the side of the road?! it was pretty funny.

a compliment

2008-09-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was 8:30 am, everyone should be in the room by this point. I had a girl or two missing. One of these girls comes in exasperated because Megan would not come out of the bathroom stall. People were making fun of her polka dot outfit and she said, "Even a 3rd grader said something!" The friend came back again and said she still wouldn't come back. So the class got a speech letting them know that there would be serious consequences if anything mean is said about her outfit from anyone.
She finally came in and I gave her a blanket to wear around her shoulders. Finally she got the guts to take it off and come to my desk for a question on whatever they were working on. One of the other boys was standing with her and said as serious and sincere as you can get, "Megan, I really like your outfit today." She looked at him and said, "Thanks."
The rest of the day she looked good, or at least she just felt good.

hot and cold lunch.

2008-09-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hot and cold lunches. Pretty simple right? To Kindergarteners, not really. My mom took the time to explain both hot and cold lunches. "A hot lunch is a lunch you receive at school. A cold lunch you bring it from home." No one knew if they had a lunch in their backpack. So, they take a trip out to the hallway to check each backpack. They understood now. So, she starts the roll and asks them, "Hot or cold?" Everyone is doing good until she gets to a certain student, and she said, "Hot or Cold?" "Weeeeeellllll....." said the student and holding his head like this was the hardest question ever. "It's not really cold, and I believe it's not really that hot. I think... I think it is lukewarm."

haha. so, he sounds stupid but he is actually thinking too much. his lunch was lukewarm. somebody get that boy an ice pack for his lukewarm lunch!