A month of updates

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I have updated my blog. This has probably been the busiest month of my life. School is a flurry of activity, my husband and I have both had birthdays, we took a trip, I took a trip, and most importantly, I haven't had a Sunday afternoon nap all month! That is probably the best indicator of a busy month! So, here is a quick recap for those of you who are dying to get caught up on my amazing life (insert appropriate sarcasm here).

• My Birthday Bonanza--my birthday was on the 8th, which just so happened to be the time that the 9 weeks at school ended and the day before our teacher's conference in Pensacola, needless to say, it was a difficult time to have a birthday. But, my AMAZING husband surprised me with tickets to see Wicked in Atlanta on my birthday! I have been dying to see it, but every time I have tried, I couldn't for various reasons. It was just as perfect as I knew it would be. The theater in Atlanta is incredible and the show was the perfect birthday present. We spent the night in Atlanta that evening and raced back the next morning. 

The spectacular Fox Theater in Atlanta

• Quick trip to Pensacola--The moment we got back in town from the birthday trip, I had to change clothes, pack a bag and head to our teacher's conference/convention in Pensacola. We left on Sunday and got back Tuesday evening. It was a good trip. I got some good ideas to use in my classroom and I found some awesome things in their teacher supply store. Unfortunately, when I got back, I realized that I did not have my keys. No car. No way of getting in my house. No spare. Thankfully, my mother-in-law rescued me. 
• Grading, grading, grading--This year has been killer with all of the grading I have. I have a large class. I have great students. I have a TON of grading though. I think I have spent more time grading so far this year than I have in the last 2 years combined. And now we are starting on research papers. 

• Hubby's birthday bash--My husband's birthday is on Halloween. I jokingly call it the devil's birthday:) This year his parents hosted a mystery party at their house. We each arrived in costume and throughout the evening had to try to figure out who was the thief. In between each of the rounds there were some hilarious games and contests. We had a pumpkin carving contest, a dance contest, a rap contest, charades, and a few others. It was SO much fun! I even won a few of the contests! 

Can you believe that this one didn't win? 

• Chuckwagon Festival--This last weekend our church hosted a fall festival. This was a blast! Hubby and I worked at a booth. At our booth, kids would shoot a Nerf gun at a pyramid of cups and knock them down for candy. It was so much fun. I will admit that I shot a lot of kids with the guns. We had a pitch-in dinner and I made a yummy Peruvian soup. It was my first real attempt at it, and it was so delish! I will have to make it again sometime. 

This is really just a small snippet of what has gone on this month, but I can tell you that I am so thankful that it is November. We have a few days off this month, and for that I am extremely thankful. I need a few days to rest and recharge. I need to plan for Thanksgiving, I need to clean my house and finish the laundry and maybe take a quick trip to the grocery store, but for now, I will relax. At least for a few minutes. 

Food Expectations

My husband alleges that I am the pickiest eater in the world. I insist that I just know what I like. I have what I call "food expectations". I know what I want and I know EXACTLY what it should taste like. For example, I made some homemade sausage gravy a few weeks ago, but I used a different brand of sausage. It was terrible, or at least I thought so. I knew what it should have tasted like, and this wasn't it. Now, you might think sounds pretty normal, but this extends to everything I ever eat. Every time I go to a restaurant, I order the same thing. The exact same thing.

I feel like this is pretty normal, but apparently everyone else thinks this is weird. Especially the lady at the Arby's in Atlanta. I ordered my usual sandwich, and my husband ordered something else, and I told him how I always get the same thing, because I know what I like. Well the lady at the counter overheard this, and was shocked! She could not believe that I would only order the same thing every time.

Everything I make at home must be the same as the last time. This means using the same brand of ingredients every time. And using the same pans, spoons, utensils, etc. Which also means obsessively cleaning the kitchen before I cook, but that is another issue altogether.

I am sure this is another manifestation of my OCD. Or just another item in the long list of things that make me so awesome!

New Wall Hanging

If you don't know what Pinterest is, I feel so sorry for you! I love it so much. It is the best of the best of the internet and it has tons and tons of great ideas. I have been drooling over one such idea for months now, and finally today I made it! The best part of this project is that I purchased the parts of it at Hobby Lobby for 50% off! The ampersand was only $5, and the letters were $2 each, so it was only $15 plus the cost of the spray paint.  I feel like it's Christmas! And it was really easy to make, which is good for me, because I don't have much of an attention span and I certainly don't have a lot of time.

The letters and ampersand were gold, so I spray painted them black and red. Then my honey hung them. I really wanted them to go behind our bed, but since the bed is at an angle, it won't look right, so it just hangs on what used to be a very boring wall in our room.

One of the best things about my hubby!

TA DA!! I love the way it looks! 

Weird week!

This week has been incredibly busy, incredibly stressful, and full of unexpected surprises...not all good surprises. I feel like I have had a mountain of work all week. I get to school early, stay late, and still bring things home to work on in the evening. Thankfully, tonight, I left school with no work! What a huge blessing after the week I have had.

To begin, my Monday started off as any other stressful Monday. Busy, busy, busy...not much of which I can even remember.

However, Tuesday is when the excitement began! I was teaching my students to divide with fractions, when suddenly there was a fire drill. I have come a long way since my first year of teaching in regards to my reaction to a fire drill. The first fire drill I ever experienced, I ran out of the school, leaving my students to fend for themselves. This week's fire drill seemed pretty normal until I noticed that the students toward the back of my line were moving around and jumping out of line. I went back there to see what was wrong, and there were fire ants everywhere! This is one of those things that I never experienced back home in Indiana. So, I was trying to get my class under control and brushing ants off of some of them, when suddenly I was viciously attacked by the same ants! They were up my legs almost to my knees before I felt them. By the time we got back to the room, my legs and especially my feet were freckled with bites. That was enough excitement for one day!

Jerks of the insect world! 

Wednesday was full of surprises too! It was picture day, so after getting my hair under control, or as under control as I could, I headed to school in the rain. The rain stopped just in time for us to have prayer at the flag pole. The humidity was incredible though. I could feel my hair growing bigger and bigger. Just in time for us to have our school pictures. I can just imagine how that one is gonna turn out.

Mrs. P-sixth grade teacher

Wednesday afternoon, some of my students were heading to cross country at the other campus, and through a series of circumstances, I got to drive them over in the school's van. On my way back, I nearly hit a squirrel and was a nervous wreck. Little did I know that was the least of my concerns. As I turned to head up the drive toward the school, I saw a stick in the road. A stick that moved. It was a snake! A SNAKE! I still can't think about it without shuddering! It raised its head when it saw me coming toward it. And I drove right over it! Hopefully I killed it, but I didn't see it there when I left that day. I was so afraid to get out of the van. I just knew it was hanging on to the wheel to jump on me when I got out. So, I got all my stuff together and jumped out of the van, as far as I could away from it! I am so thankful no one was there to watch me look so crazy!

I almost can't look at this picture! I still have the heebie-jeebies!  I also don't know if this is the type of snake it was, but it looked kind of like it. 

This has been my first encounter with a snake in my life. I have never seen one outside of the zoo. This is also my first experience with the fire ants. I hope I am done for the week with my random encounters with nature. So help me, if I get attacked by a rabid raccoon this week, I am going to be furious!

Finding a balance

We are about 7 weeks into the new school year, and I am really struggling to find a balance between being a good wife and a good teacher. I feel like when I am doing great things at school, my home life is a mess. The opposite is also true. I try to remind myself that God will not give me more than I can handle, but that doesn't always give me the comfort that I need.

I love what I do. I love teaching. I honestly feel that I am called to be a teacher. Really, what other job can you play games, talk about bugs, and do art projects all day? Ok, I do a bit more than that. I love the challenge of teaching. I love watching a student understand something for the first time. I love getting to celebrate small victories with my students, like finally understanding how to change a mixed number to an improper fraction. I love that every day in the classroom is an adventure. There are no two days the same.

I also love being a wife. I love my husband and I love to cook dinner for him and clean the house and do the laundry and all those other chores. (let me clarify...I love doing those chores for him...I don't actually love cleaning) I love having time to spend with my husband in the evenings and on weekends. We love a quiet night in or a date night out.

My problem is that I want to be perfect at both things. I want to be the perfect wife and the perfect teacher. Deep down, I know this isn't possible, but I am trying. And usually failing at one or the other. The other day, I had a small meltdown because we didn't have any groceries. I couldn't even imagine finding a time to get to the store to get the groceries. I felt like a terrible wife. Especially when the only decent thing I have made for my husband for dinner this week came out of a take-out bag.

When I feel like I am being successful in taking care of my husband and home, I feel like I am a terrible teacher. I want to do more in the classroom than I actually do. I want to have extra activities and I want them to look effortless.

I know that this year will fall into place soon. I know that. And perhaps the whole point of this blog is to help myself realize that. Every year, I feel overwhelmed, and every year I get on track, and everything eventually straightens itself out. But until that happens, I am going to keep trying to master the balancing act I have going on, all why trying to look like I am not completely crazy.

Where were you?

As the 10th anniversary of the September attacks rolls around this weekend, I am at a loss for words. I teach a class of 11 and 12 year old students who only know what they have been taught about it. They have no memory of that event, and yet to me it is still a very vivid memory. This must be how my parents felt about the JFK shooting, or my grandparents felt about the bombing at Pearl Harbor. They remembered vividly, but to me, these events were just something from my history books.

Until September 11, 2001. Then, I knew how they must have felt to be experiencing a tragedy that affected everyone. A day so horrific that my mere account of it cannot clearly express to my students the reality of that day. They will learn it as a fact in their history book, while I remember the emotion and grief and confusion.

I was a senior in college and running late to my algebra class. I remember running to the dean's office to drop something off, and the dean of men put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Have you heard? An airplane crashed into one of the World Trade towers and a few minutes later another plane crashed into the second." That small insight into the day's events will stay with me forever. I remember heading into class and no one knew yet. I told the girls that I sat with and by the time the class was over, it seemed that everyone on campus knew. We went back to the dorms and looked at video online. Then we headed over for chapel and we watched it on the TVs at the gym.

I still remember the next day, when George Bush addressed the nation, I was at Pizza Hut. Everyone stopped talking and stood up while he spoke. The restaurant was silent as he vowed to seek those who had committed such a horrible act. I can still remember how it felt to look around at all those people and feel a sense of closeness to them, even though we were all strangers. But our shared experience had given us a sense of unity. I remember how touched I was when Congress began to sing "God Bless America".

Looking back, my memory is still so vivid. I can recall the pictures I saw, the articles I read, the stories I was told.

Where were you?

Broccoli Salad

I love a good cook out, or a barbeque as some call it. I have always enjoyed going to these functions and preparing dishes for them. However, the food sometimes becomes a bit mundane. Burgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, deviled eggs, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, and the usual dessert. Recently, while feeling too lazy to make potato salad, I thought that broccoli salad would be the perfect dish to take to a dinner. I scoured the internet for good ideas and after combining and tweaking, this is what I have come up with. And it was aMaZiNg!

Here's what you need:

2 bunches of broccoli
1 container of cherry or grape tomatoes
1 red onion
8 oz. cheddar cheese
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 pound cooked (crispy) bacon
1 cup mayo
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
black pepper

Here's what you do:

Cut the broccoli into bite size pieces and cut the tomatoes in half. Put in a large serving bowl.

Then slice the onion into slivers and chop the bacon. Add those on top of the broccoli and tomato.

Next, add the golden raisins and the sunflower seeds.

Then take the block of cheese and cut it into very small cubes. You could probably use shredded cheese for this, but I love the way the little squares of cheese look in the salad.

Then mix all of these ingredients together.

Next, assemble the dressing. In a separate bowl, combine the mayo (you can substitute plain yogurt for the up to 1/2 the mayo if you want to cut the calories a bit) sugar, vinegar, and black pepper. Mix it well and then pour on top of the salad.

Finally, mix it all together!

This is really good if eaten immediately and it tastes even better the second day. Ours has never made it to the 3rd day, so I don't know how well it will keep beyond that.