Girls weekend!

Hello all. I just had a great weekend. My friend Lauri came and stayed. We have know each other since we were 4. There were a few rocky years in grade school :) but mostly she has always been one of my best friends. She is always there for me no matter what. I can have not talked to her in months and she is always willing to be my sounding board and listen to me complain. I also remembered this weekend how good she for me, subtly encouraging me to be more positive and less critical of others, thanks Lar! Anyway Friday we went shopping and got some great makeup,had dinner at the cheesecake factory, very yummy, and then went to a movie. Saturday I introduced her to her first pedicure, nice excuse for me to get one! We had a great time just hanging out. I am so glad she came and I hope to get to see her again soon.

Nothing much else is going on. It was a busy week at work. I missed the monthly Chili's outing Friday. At least once a month a group of us from work go to Chili's after school on Friday and hangout for awhile. The group includes our Awesome administration. Any teachers out there reading this you can be jealous now. I work at the best school ever! This is just one small example of why it is so awesome. November is going by in a blur. Next week is New Moon, yes I have tickets already and then Thanksgiving! I am now issuing an open invitation to anyone who would like to come to Thanksgiving dinner. I love to cook for Thanksgiving and would love to have more to cook for! Hope to see you...

Quarantine

Hello all. Thank you very much those of you that fed my need for feedback. Although like a drug I always need more :) Anyway it has been an interesting last couple of weeks. I got a really bad cold about a month ago. I stayed home one day, watched way to much random TV(Say yes to the Dress)but after like a week felt a lot better, than my sinus' started to get worse again. I used my mucinex and decongestant hoping it would go away but after 3 weeks decided to go to the Dr. That was Monday. I found a nice colleague willing to watch my class and went hoping for some antibiotics. The Dr. came in and asked me if I had been exposed to the H1N1 flu. I said of course, I am a teacher. She said you have a fever of 101.6, many flu symptoms so I am testing you and you have to stay off work for 7 days. I said, "what the crap!" We negotiated it down to staying home till the test results came back. I then decided to put it in my Principal's hands because I really did not feel that bad but I didn't want to be a typhoid Mary. She said even if you don't have it you still probably don't feel well, stay home. So for 2 days I was quarantined at home. It was kind of nice but I felt like I was wasting sick days, what if I really do get the plague? Also as a teacher being gone for multiple days is a lot of prep work! Anyway the test was negative, yea!

In better news last night I went to my 5th They Might Be Giants concert. This time Jennifer went with me, she had never been. It was great! They played the entire "Flood" album plus a bunch from their new "Here comes Science" album. It also included a couple of numbers with sock puppets and an accordion! It is always a different experience seeing them. At the end of the concert they handed out free bumper stickers and I got one straight from one of the Johns!!! For all you parents I highly recommend their kids albums, I have heard "No" and quite a few off the science album now. Hope you all have a great day!! Until next time...

Finally

Hello all, well any of you that still bother to check this since it has been so long since I wrote. At first I did not write because I was irritated. Yes I have discovered through this blog (actually I kind of knew it, the blog just confirmed it) that I am needy like a dog when it comes to praise and/or feedback. I want people to acknowledge what I do, now!! Facebook is bad for this too, I get upset if no one has commented on my status. It is pathetic, I am getting therapy and taking pills for it.... (extra points for anyone who can name that quote :) Anyway as part of my therapy I am going to write on this blog regularly no matter if anyone comments or not. (It would really encourage me though if you did comment, please, I need it)

So we are already almost to Halloween, the time has gone by fast! School really is going very well so far. I don't even have a "bad" class so far (knocking on wood now.) I am getting to the frustration point with students who refuse to do anything in class or outside of it. We have a new intervention system that we are doing this year though and that is helping, every week I get to pull some of those kids in and give them some one-on-one attention. It is a lot harder to do nothing when the teacher is sitting next to you walking you through the assignment!

I have also been attending an aquacise class. As most of you know I hate exercise but for multiple reasons it became even more clear I needed to do something. I had heard some one talk about how much they liked the aquacise classes at the local rec center so I decided to try it. I can't say that I like it for the whole hour but I like it enough to finish the hour. Also it is really good on my bad knees. I was going twice a week very regularly until the last two weeks when I got sick. I have to start up again next week. This might get more difficult when it gets really cold, I hate changing in gym settings. It brings back flashbacks to junior high.

Well I hope all is well with you and I promise to be back soon.

Cape Cod!

Hi guys. Yes I know it is a miracle, a post two weeks in a row. Amazing! This week has gone by pretty quickly. Monday we had swimming lessons and then we went to the beach about 45 mins from Glastonbury. It was very nice, kinda of crowded and no big waves, good for kids. The kids also went crabbing. I have always heard about "crabbing" but did not know what it entailed. for the kids it entails tying a string to a raw chicken drumstick and sticking it in places you think crabs are hiding. Kind of weird, I know. The kids caught 6 crabs though, then we released them back to be tortured by some other kids. Tuesday night Kim and I went to the midnight Harry Potter 6. I know I didn't think I would be able to talk her into it either, but she was very nice and indulged me. It was great. For the first time Michael Gambon (the guy who plays Dumbledore) didn't make me want to throw something on the screen. The movie was very well done, can't wait to see it again.

On Friday we went camping on Cape Cod. We stayed at a giant state park near the beaches. This is the view from our camp...


The first night we had a major storm and while we did stay mostly dry the adults did not get a lot of sleep. On Saturday we went to two different beaches, one on the cape side and one on the ocean side. The one on the cape side we went to for low tide. It was amazing the water receded like a mile into the ocean and you could go out and look at the tide pools left behind. Dave and G found a huge horsehose crab, A and I found several crabs buried in the sand. (I think this is a much better way to go crabbing) At the ocean side beach we finally found our big waves. The water was a lot colder but the waves were a lot of fun. This is G against the ocean, trying to stand against the big waves...











Here is I. having fun in the sun...










After two beaches we went back to camp, roasted hot dogs and went to bed, we were tired. This morning the kids decided to swim in the lake and here is Kim styling in the fabulous sun glasses we mysteriously ended up with... (she was desperate for sun glasses)



Next week is Kim's B-day and we go to D.C. Hope you all had a great week!

East for Summer

Hello all. It has been am long time so this might be a long post, you might want to prepare a snack now. I'll wait... Ok, Well first girls camp. It went very well! We had 16 girls from our ward go and we had no drama, no fights, nothing! I was very impressed with all of the girls they got a long great, made sure everyone was involved and unless they are all lying, had a great time! I had a great time, minus all the bug bites. Also all the girls got certified!!! I know there are a lot of people who do not think that girl's camp certification skills are important, but I do. I think these skills can help the girls become more independent and self-reliant women. The girls even got me to wear my bedazzled purple headband for a whole day, oh and our skit won! I wrote the script but the girls did all the work.

After camp I had 5 days to recover and get ready for my trip back east to visit Kim and family. I needed almost all that time to recover, I was exhausted when I got back. Anyway with a few minor delays I made it to Glastonbury, CT. So far I have watched a lot of Charlie and Lola. I am not complaining, as kids shows go this one is rather entertaining and the English accents are nice too :) We also had a fun girls night since the boys went to cub scout camp. We did pedicures, had homemade blueberry sorbet and I was forced to watch High School Musical 3. They should have stopped at 1 but the nieces enjoyed it immensely. Yesterday we went to the outlet mall near Glastonbury. It was really great. Big, lots of good stores and not very crowded. The only complaint is the lack of eating options but I did get a nice new shirt. That afternoon we went to the Hartford river festival on the Connecticut River. There were some kids activities, face painting and then fireworks. We went on a very long journey to find just the right spot to watch the fireworks from but we ended up right by a playground which when waiting for 3 hours with 3 kids was great. The fireworks were amazing. The finally was the best I have ever seen! Kim and Dave said it was better then the ones they watched last week in Boston. Well worth the wait and we made it to the car right before the downpour started. Tomorrow we are going to the beach after swimming lessons. Next week we are going to Washington D.C. Should be exciting. Here are some pictures of the fireworks, not great but ok for my camera. Also the cute kids.

Catch up

Hello all. It has been a long time. I have just not really felt like blogging for the last few months. Knowing that so many of you (snicker) have been waiting anxiously for news I have decided to end your misery :) Well I got through the end of the school year. I have developed a theory that there is a finite amount of time that most adult humans can be around 12-14 year old adolescences and still remain sane. I think the regular school year is just about that amount. Of course this could just be me :) I did plan better this year and most of my classes were watching movies that actually had to do with the curriculum the last week of school. Yea me!

After school got out my Grandma came to town for a few days, that was great! We went to the Ochre temple open house, saw the giant Kennecotte copper mine, and went for a picnic in the mountains. We had a lot of fun, thanks Grandma!

Since then I have been wasting a lot of time, thanks Farm Town on Facebook, and trying to plan Girls Camp. It should be very interesting, I have one more week to go before the big event. I am also ready to go visit Kim, Dave and the kids now! I hope all is well with all of you.

Catch up

Well it has been awhile. Here is a brief catchup on what I have been doing. I had to spend my legislative money by this week so I did quite a bit of shopping the end of last month. I bought some fun new toys like a wireless, all-in-one printer and my favorite a 5 foot Cat in the Hat to go on my wall!! I am easily amused some times, but I am proud of it so here is a picture-



Isn't it cute? I also went to Boise for Spring Break. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I got to spend some quality time with my amazing Grandma, my cousins, Aunt and Uncle. I also had lunch with a friend from Junior High-High School. It was great to catch up and I realized that I had great taste in friends even back in Junior High! On the way back to SLC I decided to stop at Shoshone falls. I had never been there, really I didn't know much about it. Apparently the falls is only really cool in the spring with the spring melt. It is called the Niagra of the West and since I have now seen Niagra falls I thought it would be good to see the one in my own backyard. It was spectacular! Here is a picture of it-



Nice huh? This week Angie and I went to a play at the Hale Center Theater. It was a version of the Phantom of the Opera, not the Andrew Lloyd Weber one. I now know why the Andrew Lloyd Weber one is more popular, it is vastly better. Angie did a great and humorous review of it on her blog so if you want to know more read here (Angie if you want me to take the link off just let me know:) So this weekend Angie and I did watch the other Phantom, unfortunately the copy I rented was very damaged and it kept skipping, but it was still better:) This weekend I am holed up at home trying to deal with my stomach problems and caffeine headache. I think my stomach has finally had it from years of ibuprofen and diet coke and is rebelling. So I can't drink diet coke with out a lot of pain, which leads to the headache. I toughed it out last night but when it had not gone away today I got desperate and made flat diet coke. I really hope this is a temporary condition!

Cutest kids ever!!!

My brother in-law posted some new pictures on his facebook page and I have to share. I mean these are these cutest kids.... I am not just saying that because I am their Aunt, I think I can be totally objective :)

Happy Moments...

Hello all. I survived another week and as you are reading this it seems you did to, congratulations to us all! This week was very busy and tiring. I had several IEP's including one that I have been dreading all year. That one went surprisingly well thankfully. I also had a couple of Ward Sing practices to attend. Wait, before you all start cringing and thinking what is going on... i am not singing in the ward sing. I am strictly back stage help. This is my attempt to become more involved in my ward, get to know people more. Now I am wondering what I was thinking :) I think that the show is going to be great it has just been a lot of commitment and a lot more this next week as well. Oh well. I guess life is made up of experiences, the more the better. Also I have discovered that a member of my ward has a diet coke fountain with good ice in her house, available at all times. I am now trying to figure how to make good friends with this family :)

This weekend will also be busy. I have a practice at 7:00 am tomorrow morning, I am trying not to think about it, and my St. Patrick's day dinner. Tonight was a boost for my mood though, I went and saw Duplicity. It was very enjoyable and not only because I got to stare at Clive Owen for 2 hours. That was very nice though. So as a way of sharing I shall post a nice picture of him here. Just take a look, it is sure to make you feel happier!



Now wasn't that nice?

12 and 13 year olds, necessary?

So this week has been a bad one at work. As you can see by my title, today I am wondering if we can't just skip the years 12-13 in the growth process or at least maybe like speed it up. Like maybe if we had a fast forward button on each kid and speed through those years in like a week. I think that would be great. Then they would emerge more mature, they would not steal my dry erase markers, they would not forget what I have told them 3 times before- about 30 seconds after I told them the last time, they would not demand my help and attention all at the same time, right now!!!! Really it would be so nice, I bet parents would go for it too. So if any of you out there know of a brilliant scientist looking for a new project please pass along my idea.

The big problem when weeks like this happen is Ms. Crandall gets more and more sarcastic (they tell us not to be at all, like that will happen) for instance here is an exchange that happened today, Me- "Suzy I have asked you repeatedly to not throw things in class, please don't do it again." Student- "But Joe did it first." Me- "Oh, well that's OK then because obviously if someone else does it first that completely absolves you of having to obey any rules. So apparently you are free to just ignore all the class rules from now on."

Yes I know this may not be the best teaching method but I did get a laugh from my students who understand sarcasm and the offending student was quiet :)

Update...

So, its been a little while again since you have been graced by a life update from me. The last couple of weeks have been good and bad... first the good stuff. Depeche Mode is touring this summer!!!!!!!!! Yea!!!!! I am a little excited. SO I called up Kim and told her that she would have the good fortune to go to the Boston or New York show with me and she said, "Are you sure you want to see them here, haven't you seen them enough." I will now give those of you that know me time to gufaw and say "What was she thinking?" To answer her questions, I have seen them 8 times and yes I do really want to see them twice this summer. If I could afford to go to the Vegas show too I probably would. They are highly entertaining!

Anyway in other good news this week I also got my JPASS results back. For those of you that don't know, JPASS is my teacher evaluation and I have to have 4 a year my first 3 years of teaching. If you do not pass you get put on probation and could lose your job. Anyway this semester my JPASS was being done by one of our Vice Principals, she is supposed to be the hardest JPASSer. I have not had her evaluate before so I was a little nervous. Then a couple of weeks ago she came in to observe me on the worst day possible. It was portfolio collection day and without going into the details is basically means chaos. After that I was seriously worried. The second observation went well but I was still worried. Also being the competitive person I am I get mad if I get less than I have before, even if I pass. I know it doesn't really matter but its how I feel. This week she came into give me my results... it was the highest JPASS I have ever received!!! I was so shocked and happily surprised. I do have to say that I think technology gave me a leg up on this one :)

The bad stuff lately includes a funeral for a friend's Mom which was very sad, I feel so bad for her and her sister. I hope they are comforted by all the prayers from friends and family. Also my own family stuff that I will not bore you with. It is more of the same crap I have been dealing with for many years now. Yea. It could be worse though.

Hope you all are having a good March and I will leave you with a bit of wisdom from the X-Files- Scully- "Nonsensical repetitive behavior is a common trait of mental illness." Mulder- "Are you trying to tell me something?"

The X-Files

So I am still at work, it is about 5:00. It is student led conferences night so I am here till 8:00, yea! I am sick of work, I was here till 8:00 last night too so I thought I would do something else. For Christmas Angie got me the first season of the x-files on DVD. I do not know why I have never gotten them before, probably too expensive. Anyway that one season made me remember how much I love The X-Files! So since Christmas I have bought 5 more seasons, I have been watching a lot of x-files the last few weeks. The other day Angie also asked if I had heard the "I love David Duchovny" song. I had not, so tonight to distract myself I found it. It is great. Very entertaining, although now with the whole sex addiction thing I am not so sure I would want him to love me back. Maybe it is better just being unrequited love :) Also I don't really agree with the part about killing Scully, I really like Scully too. Anyway if you have not heard it you should take a listen it is pretty entertaining :) Here is a link- or just listen to the one on my page. Hope you enjoy!

The first five...

Well I commented on my friends so I guess I have to follow through :) Can't wait to see who I get to make stuff for.

The first five...
The first people to leave a comment on this blog will receive something made by me.
However there are some limitations
1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year. (might take a while)
4. You have no clue what it is going to be, poetry, shoes, bags or a little invention of my own. I may bake something and mail it you . Who knows? Not you that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. It may blow your mind!
Here is the catch, if you choose to do this. You must post this on your blog and be ready to make something for five people too. This will be fun! When you receive the fabulous item I make you, you must post a picture of it on your blog.

an update...

This week has gone by pretty fast. My new classes are still behaving, hopefully that will last awhile! I have developed a new pain or at least it got way worse this week. My hip for some reason really hurts, mainly after I have been sitting and then get up. I can barely walk sometimes. I have tried the exercises that the chiropractor gave me but they didn't seem to work well. Maybe if I was more consistent... I did play some Wii this week. I am better at tennis but my 7 year old niece still kicks my butt. I must get more practice time in, Andre would be so disappointed in me :) I went and saw Doubt last night. It was very good. The acting was great and it made you think. I really do love Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Hope you all had a great week I am off to try and increase my score for Settlers of Catan...

25 random things

So I haven't written in awhile because I have this problem that I don't think anything interesting, that people would want to read about, has happened lately. So I saw my roommate do this random things and then my sister so I thought that might be good format to use for a post that might be interesting. Then I read my sister's post and she took most of my interesting things.... so here goes and some of it might be repeats :)

1. I am currently watching the PBS version of Jane Eyre for like the 15th time. It's good.
2. I have no idea how many times I have read Jane Eyre and yet I find new things to love about it all the time.
3. I read the end of the latest Princess Diaries book in the store to find out if she ends up with Michael. She does, yea!
4. I often have insomnia and am up at 3:00 in the morning.
5. I have been to 11 countries and hope to visit a lot more.
6. I own all 5 seasons of Remington Steele and enjoy it as much as when it was on originally.
7. I drink way to much diet coke.
8. I saw Lance Armstrong in the Tour De France
9. I have seen 5 movies in the theater in the last 2.5 weeks.
10. Slumdog Millionaire was the best one.
11. It should totally win for best picture.
12. I almost fell asleep at the assembly on Friday.
13. I spent 3 hours yesterday playing Settlers of Catan
14. I just got a membership to Costco.
15. I love their big bag of snap peas.
16. I had to set up my parents voice mail today, they didn't realize they even had it.
17. I was thrilled to have my first "real" phone conversation with my nephew this week. You know where he asked me questions too.
18. I am addicted to Dunford chocolate doughnuts.
19. I think they put an addictive chemical in them that makes me crave for it daily.
20. I have crooked teeth, even though I had braces.
21. I hate watching people being mean or neglectful to older people in movies and on TV.
22. I have only cried at 3 movies in my life.
23. I went through bigger culture shock moving from Idaho to Texas then when I moved to Taiwan.
24. I love to dance, but only to music I like
25. I used to work at a country dance club.

Well that took a lot longer than I thought it would. Hope everyone has a great day!

Game etiquette

Hello all. So this week I found a website where I can play Settlers of Catan for free. As some of you may know, I quite enjoy playing games and since I can't usually convince people to play with me as often as I want my only gaming outlet is the computer. This seems like a great solution but I have discovered that when playing online other people have some issues. And this is not just me. I have discussed this problem with my sister so I feel that maybe it is a much more widespread problem then I know. In the interests of the general good, or just to get it off my chest, I would like to layout some suggestions for people who play with others online. Please feel free to share these with others, maybe they will get to the ridiculous people I played today!

1. Stop being whimps! It is a game, people play to win, duh! That is why those of us that spend too much time playing anything online do so, we are competitive and like to win!!! So when I rob you even if you only have one card, or only 3 points don't yell at me, or swear or cry.

2. Be nice. I do not mean in strategy as mentioned before, play to win, whatever that entails while following the rules. I refer here to not telling people they are stupid, swearing at them or telling them to learn how to play the game if he/she does something you don't like or would not have done your self.

Now since I myself am a gigantic whinner when playing with real people some people may think that this is hypocritical. You may be right but most of the time I am whinning at my family, they can take it. Not complete strangers. Also I am considering therapy for the problem :)

Actually maybe I will just start vetting people before I play with them. My questions might be something like this... Are you a sissy? Will you whine and act like a 2 year old with a potty mouth if things do not go your way? If not, lets play!

Also, sort of related to the game theme, I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire and it was great! It was disturbing but a great story.

sick.

It has been a little while since I wrote. That is because I was sick, sick, sick! I got really tired of it, if you can't tell :) I got a cold asa soon as I got to Connecticut for Christmas, which after 3 weeks developed into bronchitis and a sinus infection. I did take 2 days off work but I think I would have rather been well and dealing with middle schoolers. On the plus side my roomate Angie took good care of me while I was sick. She brought me KFC and didn't make me stay in my room :) Besides being sick not much going on. Grandma came to visit, which was nice. Also I went to Martha's new baby's blessing which was very nice. I am currently trying to decide what to do with all my free time now that I don't have to go to class after work. This week is the last week of the semester, I think both me and a few of my students will be grateful to have new classes next week. I have about 15 movies I need to watch, at least according to my EW that came last week. I have to be prepared for the Oscars :)