A few random things before bed…

I know I haven’t posted all my pics and I haven’t told you about my new ride…believe it or not I’ve been busy.

On the way back from the lovely humid Memphis, I watched (for the first time ever) Batman Begins. It was really good, not at all like the other Batman movies out there with the neon and horrific costumes. Why did I watch this movie? Well, besides the fact that a 20 hour drive is long and boring, The Dark Knight came out on Friday. Let me tell you, I love living in a small town. Bought tickets 10 minutes before it started and walked right in to the theater. Warning: the move is LONG. Very, very long. over 2 hours long. It was awesome. It held my attention the entire time. I’m so glad that I had just watched the first movie, because this one picks up where the first one ended. Loved it! Go see it. I don’t want to say too much b/c I don’t want to spoil it. Go, go, go! Oh, and take your man with you. He’ll appreciate it and you can probably get a chick flick the next round for being so nice and taking him. : )

Guess what I started today? No. I didn’t clean. No. I’m not giving up anything. No, not that either! Fine. I’ll just tell you. school. Not teaching, but attending. The tables are being turned on me. I’m in a Geometry class for a couple of weeks. It will help me become highly qualified and the credits go towards a pay raise. : ) BUT, I actually have homework, projects, and a final. Ugh! I feel like my kids. lol Did I mention that I have to go an hour and a half away from home just to get to school? that I have to be there at 8 AM? that I like to sleep? that I like to sleep late? oh, and that I have to teach high school geometry next year? ME?! I just started to love my Algebra I, but duty calls in another form.

I’ll leave you with a pic….

My hair is short and curly and Lucky is her beautiful self. She has such a natural beauty. : ) and so does her daughter…..

Hey Y’all!

The mountains missed me, but were very welcoming when I returned to Colorado! I have many things to do, and yes, one of them is to update. Here’s the short story…

I moved out of the basement.

Molly ran away from home.

I went to Memphis for a week.

I need to download pictures.

I need to organize my new closets.

I need to post more.

Just want to say thanks to my two bestest friends that keep jacking my blog.

It was really good to see Jana and Lovey. Oh, my goodness. You have no idea just how cute Lovey is until you spend some time with her. Her sweetness cannot be captured with a picture. Jana, I expect her to have a name for me soon. lol Love you both!

At KT’s house, I got some good quality time with Baby Boy. We curled up on the couch and rested. His brother ran around playing with his kong and his daddy seems to be doing well after his surgery. KT and I had some great one on one time together. Unfortunately, she and I did not get a single picture together while I was in town. : (  I think she should just come to Colorado and see me!

I traded in the Explorer Sport for a 4-wheel drive. It’s sweet! I’m thinking of calling her sweetness…

Pictures soon. Email me and harass me if I don’t update in a few days. Lots going on….

2 days!

Two days down. I have officially been on summer break for 2 days. I have accomplished…a little. I am going through some paperwork. I’m trying to get some things organized around here. If you know me, you know I’m not organized. I’m going to start working on my syllabus for my summer class. I don’t want to put it off until the last minute. I want to finish reading the 7th book in the James Patterson series. I’m almost done with numero seis. I started them before I moved. I read the First to Die and thought it was good. Mom bought me the 2nd and 3rd on audio so that I would have something to do with my long drive from M-town. I think they took care of 15 hours of the road trip. I need to invest in some more audio books for the drive in July. I guess that is something else for my to do list. Back to the books, I received #7 as a present and then filled in the gap every time I went to Wall-Hell (that’s for Kellie). The books were great to start, but I’m finding that the author has a habit of making each chapter 2 or 3 pages long. It is annoying. Really, really annoying. I don’t know how to describe why. I kind of feel like the book is not experienced in writing so it just tells a quick thought, blinks, and starts a new chapter. It’s weird. The next chapter is not from another point of view. It picks up exactly where the last one left off. Am I just being stupid? I know I taught Language Arts and literature was my favorite thing, but I am not an expert.

I don’t have much to blog about because I only think of good things when I am in the shower. I don’t think it would be wise to take my laptop in the shower with me and I usually forget my thoughts by the time I get out. Anyone have a solution for that?

The weather has been great! Big blue sky. Sun is shining. Temp in the high 70’s - low 80’s. : ) Here is something to ponder…Aspen is open for skiing this weekend. The top of the mountain still has enough of the white stuff.

Wow!

It has been a long, long, long week. Tuesday felt like the week should be done already. And, by the time Friday came I couldn’t put a complete thought together. Here’s a quick review of my fantastic last week of school…

Monday: K-ra-zy schedule at school. The kids cleaned out lockers, checked out with the library and the cafeteria. Then I saw all of my classes for 20 minutes. It was basically enough time to sign yearbooks and say good-bye. Then, we broke the students into groups to work on their projects. The kids all went home and I stuck around tutor. I was tutoring another teacher’s son in Algebra II. That was tough. Did I take Algebra II in high school? I can’t remember. If I did, I didn’t study this stuff. I went straight from tutoring to the 8th grade Continuation Celebration. I, finally, left school for the day around 8:30. Whew!

Tuesday: Field Trip. We walked to the tram at the Caverns. Then I spent the day on tour of the caves, watching the 8th graders on different rides, and telling them NO, I do not have any money for you. After the day was done, we walked back to school in the rain. The pouring rain and then just before we got back the sun came out shining bright. I had another tutoring session and left school around 6:30 or 7. I met up with a friend for a few quick moments and then went home to crash. BUT, I was too tired and unable to sleep at first.

Wednesday: The first day of presentations! Our 8th graders did a research project on a topic of their choice that provided change to our world today. We talked a lot about turning points and how 8th grade is a big turning point. They did a group presentation that was about 20-25 minutes and then each group member did a personal presentation. The personal side was a reflective essay where they described their journey through middle school. It was an amazing experience to hear exactly what the kids thought about the teachers, the other students, and themselves. We had laughs. We had tears. After school, the mentors and mentees went out to dinner. It was a good time. I left there, went home changed clothes, and headed to the park. It was the first night of Jazz in the Park. I really enjoyed it and plan on going again next week. f

Thursday: Second day of Presentations! Let me just explain that presentations start at 7:30 am. Each presentation is alloted one hour. So, I go from one class to the next and sit over and over again. I listen carefully. I grade. I take notes. I get a little brain dead. By the end of the second day, I had a brain of jello and I worked until 8:30 pm. I had my evaluation meeting and attempted to clean my room.

Friday: Oh, the one benefit of this week. My kids were all done. D.O.N.E. I went to school a little late. I sat in on one last presentation. I cleaned, rearranged, graded, hugged, cried, and finally went out to lunch. It was a small lunch group and nice day. We reflected on the school year and all that we accomplished or didn’t accomplish this year. After school, we ran over to a teacher’s house for one last toast to the school year. We did a quick shot on the shot ski. What!? Never heard of a shot ski?! Yeah, me neither. It is a ski with shot glasses hot glued to it. Everyone takes their shot at the same time while holding the ski. I don’t know that I really understood the point of it, but we had a drink. Then, we passed around the bottle of jager for one last swig. I went home and watched disc 3 of Friday Night Lights. :  )

Sorry to bore you with all of my details, but now you know why I haven’t updated or commented on your blogs. I just made it through the hundreds of posts that were on my reader. I read you. I love you. I may or may not have commented. I wish I could say that I’m done for the Summer, but I’m not. I need to finish cleaning my room. I still have grades to get together. AND, I’m teaching a class this summer. It finally filled up on Friday and is on track. I have all boys. Yep, I’m teaching seven 7th&8th grade boys Physics. Anyone want to co-teach with me? It’ll be fun. I’m using the money from this class to drive to Memphis this summer to see everyone.

Enough for now. I’ll try to find something more exciting to blog about this week.

Random!

I was tagged by a couple of different bloggers to complete this meme. Sorry, it took me so long. It has been cra-zy busy with only one week of school left. Yes, I have 1 week left. I’m excited!

I’m too lazy to go back and see if there were exact instructions. I think I’m supposed to tell you six random things about myself. I feel like everyone knows all my random things, but I’ll try to come up with some….

1.  I have to shave my legs every day or at least every other day. I can’t stand to go more than a day. It bugs me. I hate having the smallest bit of stubble, especially in the Summer. I want smooth, sexy legs.

2. I love tattoos. I have a few and want more. Each one means something to me and I have gotten them at some point in my life that I will never forget. Most people that meet me are shocked to learn that I have them. I only show the one on my shoulder. ; ) I like tatts on boys, too.

3. Blue is my absolute favorite color. I love dark blues like a sapphire, which happens to be my birthstone. But, I also like the bright blue sky on a warm day or looking into a pair of gorgeous blue eyes. I do not like yellow. If I wear most shades of yellow, I look sick. I like very pale yellows for decorating, but that is where I draw the line on that color.

4. I do not like science fiction or magic or any of that stuff. Well, I thought I didn’t. Back in April, I borrowed and watched the first season of Heroes on dvd. I love that show. It is awesome. I am all caught up from watching it on the internet and cannot wait for it to come back on tv. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next. There is going to be a 3-hour season premiere this fall. : ) Yeah!

5. I have become such a beer snob. I don’t know a durn thing about beer, but I know which ones I like. Last night I was at a party that provided adult beverages. It was a very popular light beer that I don’t like to drink. Since I knew this ahead of time, I stopped at the liquor store and picked up my favorite red beer. : )

6. If I eat frozen waffles, I want eggos. Not just plain, though. I want blueberry with light syrup. Pancakes and home made waffles are fine plain with different syrups. The only item that I buy “light” is syrup. I do not buy diet, light, etc. Yuck! I can use the calories and I like to taste them. I really do need to change my eating habits. I had brownie cheesecake ice cream for lunch. Yum!

So…

So, the presentation went well. I snapped a little because our faculty was talking a lot and I was ready to get started. (and our boss had already made it very clear that he was tired of it) After a very full day of activities and meetings, we went to another teacher’s house for a gathering. She lives in a quaint cabin down by the river. I fell in love with it. It has character and the relaxing sound of the river in the background. She’s moving to Arizona this summer and another teacher is moving in her place. I’m excited about that because I will still get to visit this awesome place, but it’s very sad to see her go. : (  She is an awesome part of our faculty and will be very hard to replace. While at this gathering I had the best guacamole I have ever eaten. Alejandra came over and brought it. She is so sweet and apparently awesome at making guacamole. I wish I had some right now.

I have 19 more school days! Yeah! Ashley and KT, don’t even rub it in. I started school later than you. I signed up to teach a small class for one week over the summer. I hope I get enough students that want to participate in it. It should be a fun physics class. Yes, I said physics. I love Science.

Everyone say a big congrats to Aunt Barbie! She graduated from Ole Miss today and my mom is throwing a graduation party at her house. (Wish I was there.) I’m very proud of her earning her degree while working full-time and raising her son and husband. Way to go, Aunt Barbie!

I’m thinking about going back to school. I need to get my master’s and I should do it now instead of putting it off. I just need to find a school on-line. The closest university is an hour away. Any suggestions?

Enough rambling for the day…have a good one!

Reliving Vegas and School Stuff

That is what I am doing tomorrow. No, I’m not getting to go for another visit. We are presenting all of our knowledge and learnings to our staff. We have to present for something crazy like 3 hours. We put together a power point and some fun team building things. I hope all goes well. The best part about tomorrow is that breakfast and lunch are both provided for us. I love not having to worry about what is for lunch. And, I love food. I love to eat. I know it doesn’t look like it, but I do. I miss being in Memphis and having such fantastic chefs so close. I could pop in a few different places and have a fabulous meal in no time. Here, not so much. I have only found one restaurant that I love. There are a few others that are okay or even good. It’s just not what I’m used to. I’m adjusting. The restaurant that I love is Juicy Lucy’s. They have awesome steak and seafood. I’ve only eaten there twice. It’s a little pricey, but it is a steakhouse. I should go again soon. Maybe I’ll find someone that wants to take me out for a date. I could suggest it. Of course, if I do that on a first date I might not get asked out again.

Yesterday, I left school on my first break to take my mother’s day present to UPS. (Mom it will be there Monday. I’m sorry and I feel bad, but I refuse to pay $45 to get it there by Friday. I wish I could be there. Love you!) I was feeling bad about not getting Mom’s present to her in time and decided that I needed something good to eat to help lift my spirits. (wow, this post is all about food) I stopped at the local sandwich shop at 10:30 in the morning. We eat lunch early in 8th grade. Luckily, they were selling lunch and just stopped serving breakfast. I decided to be nice to someone else to make me feel better. It works. The guy working, possibly an owner or manager, strikes up a conversation. He is a former teacher and is ready to get back into teaching. And that has nothing to do with what I was saying. Um, okay, I went back to school with my turkey and an Italian for Jamie. He loves that sandwich. I ran in his room and said, “Italian. I’m just going to put it on your desk.” He stood there with his mouth gaping open. I replied with, “Just thought I would make your day.” That was not the right thing to say in front of a group of 7th graders. Jamie said thanks and I left the room. I was about half-way down the hall when I heard the ooh and ahh and cooing from Jamie’s room. I walked back, threw open the door, and told his class to get over it, boys and girls can be friends. They laughed, pointed at Jamie and told me how red his face had just turned. It was really hot in his room and so I pointed it out to his students. They always give him a hard time. So far, he has been accused of having the following teachers as girlfriends: me (but this is actually the first time since football season), Kristen, and Suzanne. I guess in the minds of 7th graders anyone they see you talking to must be your girlfriend, your wife, or your crush. I will have to remember that.

We have three more weeks of school. It’s hard to believe. We have so much going on on. Three work days for our end of the year project. A field trip to the Caverns. (I’m sooo excited about this.) We have a service learning day where we are going to clean up some local parks and help a local church with some yard work. The last week of school (not included in the three weeks above, so that is actually 4 weeks) all of the students come on Monday and Tuesday and then, the 8th graders will come in groups to complete their interdisciplinary project. They will be giving 45 minute presentations on various topics. It will be a long couple of days for me, but I am very excited to see them. They started working on them in January and have many great ideas.

Going to finish watching Gray’s…..or talking to Jason since he just called. Now, I’ll have to watch it on the web.

Nothing New

Not much worth typing about around here.

The weather is getting warmer. : ) Yeah! I actually wore a skirt and flops to work yesterday. My kids all commented on the skirt. What does that say about my work wardrobe?  It was a perfect cinco de Mayo. Some other teachers and I went to a local restaurant for tacos and margaritas. Yum! I take that back. The tacos were good. I have yet to find a good margarita here. I had to order an extra shot of tequila.

Does anyone want to move to Colorado and teach with me? We have a Science and a Math position open. Come on, it’s beautiful. Everyone is really nice. We could be roomies.

I saw Ironman Friday night. It was really good. I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not, but I did. What I didn’t like was the big bruise I got on my knee. I got up during the movie to go to the restroom and hit my knee on the chair that was in front of me. The movie theater is downtown and very old. They have one screen and the cup holders are on the backs of the chairs. I guess it was actually the cup holder that I hit. All I know is that it hurt. It was bad enough that it woke me up in the middle of the night when I rolled over on that side. I am so clumsy.

Coming home last night I saw a beautiful doe. She was running in front of the elementary school. I was going to try to get a picture, but she didn’t like me following her and took off quickly. It was strange to see just one. They usually travel in small groups of 4 or 5.

Our kids are out of school on Friday. The teachers have a work day. I get to present all the awesome things I learned while in Vegas. Where to get drinks? Where I could shop? Where to eat family style at an Italian restaurant? No! I learned a lot about PLC’s, Results, Standards, Assessments, etc. I just need to put together a power point. The Vegas crew is putting together some things after school the next couple of days.

I still haven’t decided if I want to cut my hair shorter or not. I went through some pictures and I liked it shoulder length. I’m just indecisive right now. I know, not me?!

I’m going to go grade some papers and get things together for tomorrow. Night.

MeMe From Joye

Before I go into my list of things to catch you all up, Joye tagged me for a meme. : ) We know each other from high school and we both teach meddle school! She’s a fun person. You should totally check her out. Oh, and I learned that we both have a female, tortie demon cat.

Here are the rules…(I didn’t make them up.)

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. Share six unimportant things about yourself

4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry.

Six unimportant things about me…..

1. I love Hostess chocolate cupcakes. They are so yummy. I always eat two and I eat them upside down. They start to crumble and the icing kind of helps keep them together.

2. I have only owned 3 cars in the past 12 years. My first car was a Grand Am. Part of the bumper was taped together and the head liner was falling when I sold it. My second car was a Sunfire. It was very basic. No power windows or locks. It was a stick shift like my Grand Am. I paid it off and planned to drive it for as long as I could. I did. It got smooshed when I was rear-ended in 2003. I bought my Explorer to replace it and it will be paid off at the beginning of next year. I don’t budget as well as Jana to pay my vehicles of early. ; )

3. I get very annoyed when people ask me if I want a regular or diet drink. Um, hello! Do I look like I need a DIET anything? I didn’t say diet, why would I want a diet? urgh. It’s kind of like my milk, full fat, please!

4. I have taught 7th grade LA, Enriched LA, 6th Science, Enriched LA, Math, a few weeks of SS, and 8th grade Algebra I and Linear Algebra all over the course of 3-1/2 school years. whew! I’ve been busy. I don’t know what was my favorite class. I teach students not subjects. : )

5. I used to fly once in a blue moon. Not anymore! I have been flying a lot more lately.

June - trip to Aspen    October - MEM  November - MEM   December - MEM   March - MEM

April - VEGAS! I know some people fly ALL the time for work, but I never did. You would think I would have a ton of frequent flyer miles. Nope. Different airlines most of the time. I love Frontier and hope that they hang on.

6. I always keep my toes painted. I love to bare foot or in sandals and you have to have pretty toes. Speaking of toes, I have long toes. Ask any of my friends and they will confirm this. I don’t know from where they came, but I sure got them. I’m glad that Spring is finally here so I can pull out my sandals. : ) It was great in Vegas.

Breaking the law, breaking the law

I’m not going to tag anyone since I’m so late in doing this and I haven’t finished reading everyone’s blogs from being out of town. So, if you love me and you haven’t done it…DO IT! or I will come after you with (insert one of your own fears). Not really that might mean I have to jump on another plane and I just can’t afford to do that right now.

I need a topic…

What do you want to know?

What do you want to hear about?

What?! I can’t think of anything to write about. I usually think of things and then forget them as soon as I get in front of the computer. URGH!

I almost had a fight in my class room today. I jumped in between the two boys, calmed them down, and then sent them to the office. The joys of teaching 8th grade in the Spring….I still have no idea why they were fighting. I’ll just blame it on the hormones.