Good Timing!

Last year when the power at school went out I was one of the confused newbies.  This year I sound like a veteran assuring students and new teachers that "it happens all the time" as I go on with my lesson in the dark.  I know where my flashlights are and I'm capable of finding them in the dark in mere seconds.  We've had some flickers and instances of momentary power loss so far this year but today the power went out and was not coming back on anytime soon.  It is important to remember that my school has no windows which means no chance of natural light sneaking in.  Luckily, it happened right at dismissal time though some students did learn that I am perfectly capable of writing referrals in the dark.  I am very glad that the PA system is one of the few things that works off of a back up system.  The other good part is that those of us who stay at work long after we have to were forced to leave since we couldn't possibly get anything done.  When I left the proper district people had been notified of the problem.  The power will probably be back on tomorrow but I'm dressing comfortable just in case history repeats itself!

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  It was a fairly relaxing day for us.  We had a traditional lunch with Mike's parents and brother and we made a less traditional Asian inspired dinner with my parents.

Surprise!  Mike's parents have a bird that a customer found and decided to give to them.  The bird didn't seem very friendly to us.

After a traditional Thanksgiving lunch we were strongly encouraged to participate in playing the game pictured above.  Is it ironic that my blog from yesterday discussed my love for Cranium games and then today I found myself trying to be the first to collect a hound dog, satellite dish, television, recliner, jerky, and fly swatter to fill my trailer?  For the record, we did not win the game and we were not upset.

 

It was a lot of fun having my parents help us make our Asian feast.  We had a modern Japanese chicken noodle soup.  It is pretty basic but has a soy sauce, garlic, ginger, white pepper, and green onion reduction that gives it a nice little kick.

We needed a vegetable so we tossed some green beans in the wok with diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chili paste.  They are pretty good if you can take the heat.

My dad isn't usually a fan of Asian cuisine so we put together a simple beef and brown rice dish as a safety item to make sure he would have something to eat.  He seemed to like everything.  He especially liked that we did the dishes at the end of the meal.

One of my favorite snacks are pot stickers so I had to have some!  Mike has made them from scratch before but the ones we had today were frozen.  We were already having to wash pots while we were cooking so we decided to take a little help from the store.

We also had to have egg rolls!  Again, we decided to take a little help from the freezer section at the grocery store.  We got the mini ones because they were so cute.  When we make our own they never come out quite this pretty.

I totally forgot about planning dessert until we got to Dallas so I asked my mom to be in charge of that.  She baked an apple pie and made some mini pumpkin cheesecakes.  I had a mini pumpkin cheesecake and it was very tasty with a little bit of cool whip!  I might break out this recipe for the next Starting Point event.

I love how Mike can always make me laugh!  It's like a challenge for him to see how much cool whip he can pile on his dessert.  The best part is that I didn't see this until I was loading pictures from today onto my computer.  I guess he wanted me to find out but not before he was able to enjoy his mischievous creation.

Pre-Thanksgiving...

Today we drove to Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with our family.  Though the drive was fairly uneventful, there are a few things worth blogging about.

Starting Point Ladies Night wasn't tonight but when I was going through my pictures I realized I hadn't mentioned it yet.  Five of us met at The Cheesecake Factory and had a great dinner on Saturday night.  Lindsay has the group shots on her camera so all you get to see for now is my dulce de leche cheesecake and cafe mocha...Yum!

My contribution to dinner tonight was the appetizer.  This is the second time I have made mini caesar salads and they turned out pretty good.  The first time I made them was for the last Starting Point Game Night but I think I chopped the lettuce too small that time.  They are so easy to throw together at the last minute.

We went to Starbucks with my mom after dinner and saw a new game we had to have.  We love Cranium games!  This one involves creating a bracket of people, places, things, and actions and then playing a tournament with challenge questions until a winner is decided.  It includes a "sweet" decider finger for tie breaking purposes.  It also includes "a lovely, lovely ham...If ham is not in box, it may have been confiscated by the food police...Apparently, there is some law about sending hams along with outrageously fun board games."  My first thought after seeing the game was how much fun it would be to play the game with Katie and Sean!  "This game is for adults or people who are adult-like."

Before going to Starbucks we had to drop by Target to make a holiday return.  I bought my mom the light-up snowman pictured above as an early Christmas surprise but it didn't work.  We were able to exchange it for a new one that did work without much trouble.  Don't forget to save your receipts from your holiday shopping!

Mom bought Sadie an early Christmas surprise!  Sadie can now sport her soft pink hoodie when she goes on walks instead of going out in her pajamas.

 

In our quest to get our lazy beagle to get a job we are now turning our attention to the music industry.  All she needs is some 'bling' and she will be the cutest chart topping rapping beagle ever!

Next Year...

One of the funniest blogs I read is called "Hobo Teacher".  It's really funny because the situations that are written about are truly  characteristic of working at the middle school and high school levels.  Katie might have Turkey Hat Day, but next year I'm starting my own school Thanksgiving tradition inspired by Hobo Teacher.  I can already imagine the reactions I'll get!  It plays into my favorite discipline strategy of convincing the students that you could snap at any moment and anything could happen.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A Turkey Shoot

Just like my kids the day before Thanksgiving Break, I have zero interest in being here today. I’m thinking I’m just going to respond to each question with a turkey call.

“Are we doing anything today?”

"Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!"

“Can we just not do anything today?”

"Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!"

“Do we have—“

"Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!"

“Why are you—“

"Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!"

Two Weeks of Randomness!

The past two weeks have been sooo busy! This past week at school holiday fever hit the students. The eighth graders were so blatantly and outrageously naughty on Tuesday and Wednesday that they were actually quite manageable Thursday and Friday because the were so worn out! Though I could go on explaining the details for quite a while, I will instead focus on other highlights of the past two weeks.

Since it has finally started to get a little cooler Sadie has been shivering like crazy!  We decided we needed to find a sweater or something for her so that she would be so cold.  Stephanie recommend a little shop and we decided to stop by.  We couldn't find a sweater we liked but we did find some dog pajamas that are really cute!  Sadie looks really cute and I think she likes them because they cover most of her body and keep her toasty.

The sixth grade students taking home economics at my school had a very interesting project that was seven days long and ended this past Wednesday.  They created and carried around Flour Babies!  It gave all the teachers plenty of opportunity to debate whether or not this was a good idea but overall I found the project very entertaining.  Some of the babies were very cute and some of the sixth grade classrooms had nursery or daycare areas so that the babies would not be too much of a distraction.  One of my students made me the Abuelita (grandma) of her flour baby pictured above.  My mother would probably not be happy to know this means she is already a great-grandma.  Unfortunately, after school on the last day of the project some of the babies did not make it home safely.  The front lawn of the school was covered with a fresh layer of flour and it wasn't too hard to figure out which students had participated in the shenanigans.

Last weekend Mike and I wanted to try a new Thanksgiving macaroni and cheese recipe so we figured why not make a mini Thanksgiving dinner.  Our meal resembles college cooking more than gourmet but it wasn't bad for only two hours of work.  The new recipe was great!  I apologize to the mashed potato lovers out there.  We considered making some because we found a great recipe for smashed potatoes last year but they just weren't necessary.  Our must haves are green-bean casserole and stuffing.

Today we joined Michael Weyler at Mission Greenspoint to give out items for Thanksgiving dinner and give some love to people who really need it.  Most people know that I like sleeping late on Saturday mornings but getting up early was totally worth it.  We were blessed to see so many volunteers ready to help.  We spent a little while packing bags with two cans of green-beans, a can of cranberry sauce, a can of yams, a box of cake mix, a container of frosting, an a package of stuffing.  People also received some materials about dedicating their life to Jesus as well as a Kroger gift card.  Call me OCD, but I was very focused on making sure I matched each cake mix with the correct flavor of frosting.  Talking with some of the people who came to receive the bags was the best part.  Weyler did a great job sharing the gospel.

We love to volunteer because it provides such great opportunities to have an impact on our community.  As teachers we see our students and their families going through some of the same difficult situations as the people we talked with today at Mission Greenspoint.  Even though we didn't know any of the people who were helped today, I know that there are volunteers in our school attendance zones who are helping our students and their families.  Mission Greenspoint will need volunteers to help with Christmas and I hope we will be available to help.

Classroom Move!

This week my classroom was moved from the 6th grade hallway to the 8th grade hallway. The good news is that the janitors moved all of my boxes and furniture for me over the weekend. The bad news is that they left all of my boxes and furniture in a big pile in the middle of my room. If you have ever played the Rush Hour game pictured above you can start to imagine my frustration with getting my room arranged. Usually, teachers have plenty of time before school starts to get everything arranged and decorated. On Monday morning I had about thirty minutes!

I was sweating like crazy all day on Monday from pushing furniture around. If you haven't seen school furniture you should know it is usually pretty big and heavy. I scooted it all around the room for hours trying to figure out how everything would best fit in the room and I kept changing my mind. The Rush Hour game comes in because I was working in such a small space. To move my desk I had to push the file cabinet (completely full) a few feet in one direction, the bookshelf (with books) a few feet another direction, and my big blue cabinet (totally stuffed full) a few feet another direction. I had to constantly reshuffle the furniture just to move each piece a few feet. If I wasn't so impatient about getting everything organized I would have called in the Starting Point Moving Crew. Luckily, I  only ended up with a few broken fingernails and sore legs and arms.

I'm having to get use to sharing my new room with another teacher.  We have classes in there at different times so it isn't too bad.  She and I have very different teaching and discipline styles.  I haven't had to write up any of the students in my classes but I did have to write up one of her students today.  Things aren't perfect but they aren't too bad either.  I was really disappointed about having to move classrooms in the middle of the year but there are definitely many advantages.  I know I've got to stay positive and make things work!  If they move me again I'm going to campaign for an ESL tree house behind the school for my classes!

Birthday Earthquakes!

Happy Birthday Dad!  I guess those couple of earthquakes will make this birthday unforgettable!  I never would have thought there would be earthquakes in Irving.