My second post of firsts

So, Disregarding my last post this is my first post as a married woman. I probably should have written this one first, but it was easier to write the last one because it was light and required little thought to organize and publish. I am not so much into thought and organization right now. This is reflected in the bedroom across the hall from me right now. Disgusting.

There are some things about marriage that have surprised me

For instance. When I set the alarm at night, it is not for me, since I am not working right now. Nope it is for Husband who is working and doing a wonderful job of it. So when I panic about weather the alarm will go off or not, it is not for me but for him. But here's the deal. I thought, before the wedding,"Whew... we will both set an alarm so therefore if one of us messes up the setting at least the other's will go off and therefore save me the worrying of the malfunction of an alarm clock.

I was wrong.

Also, planning meals is a little different as well. When he says... "I think I want _____ ______ with _____ for supper." I jump on it because seriously, I don't like deciding what we are going to eat. I am less picky than he is and therefore I agree with pretty much any eating choice. He however is more likely to say, "let's not have ____ tonight lets have _____ instead." Which is how I found out that if one marinades fish one day thinking that one will eat it that evening, and the eating of the fish is put off for two more days, the fish will definitely be OVER MARINADED.

Lemon Pepper.... That is all I have to say.

But, for the most part Marriage so far has been delightful free of the past stresses of our relationship.

Such as,

"Should I bring the food to your house?"

"Should you bring food?"

"Shouldn't we go out cause it is easier than lugging around groceries?"

"Should we kiss that long?"

"Was that too long."

"Is there a too long?"

"Am I a Loose Woman?" (no kidding)

The ever popular high school question that should never be subjected onto adults of "How far is too far?" "What about farther?" "NO FARTHER THAN....!!!" "BAH"

"Did you remember to bring the game/movie/invitation/miscellaneous stuff that we need over here tonight or do we have to go back to your house to get it?"

"It is stupid for us to make two rental payments, and two utilities payments, and two everything else payments. At least we can combine our phone plan and sill live a blameless life before God and Man."

So you see, there are definitely wonderful reasons to get married. Some of the more positive ones are:

Saying goodnight in bed instead of outside in the dark standing barefoot on the unforgiving ground.

Talking about forever without worrying about making boyfriend nervous.

Getting to go to the Young Married's Sunday School Class rather than the No Man's Land Sunday school class that every church from here to Galilee tries to pass off as a "Single's Group."

And that list doesn't even mention the unmentionable. That's good too

I am going to postlude to any of you who stumble across this entry and are discouraged by wanting a marriage but not having one. Do not despair, God's timing is wonderful and he has amazing plans for your life just as he has for mine. Who can fathom the wisdom that God has, or the reasons for the incidents in our lives. No one can. So therefore be encouraged because the unfathomable is yours to live out day by day.

first post of firsts

This is my first post on my new school laptop. It is a wonderful thing to graduate from a PC from the early 2000's to a lap top that I can take with me where ever I wish it to go. I went to pick it up this morning, and I had to go through this excellent training.

It began with : How to dock a lap top at a docking station.

NO do not open the lap top. The monitor now works as your computer monitor just like normal.
A monitor is the screen thingy in front of you.

Now turn on the lap top. Ahem... This is the power button. No not that power button, the one on the docking station. Yes there is a power button on the actual lap top, but for the purposes of today we will not be using it. YES you can use the other power button at home.

This is the new Improved (gay) version of microsoft office. Have fun finding spell check. Then after a week of practicing finding spell check you can begin the terrible journey of finding PRINT!!!

Anyway... It was kind of like the blind leading the blinder and some sighted persons like myself through the valley of the shadow of death.

I will admitt that when I tried to open the package that had my power chord in it, I launched the chord across the room with the force of Dwight's potatoe gun. I didn't feel quite so bad though because the woman who was leading the training launched the laptop, that she was carying around the room as a visual aid, onto the floor with a terrible crash.

You didn't see that, She said.

Oh yes... We did Miss curriculum tech from so and so elementary.

I just felt bad for the guy next to me who was a computer programing teacher. I can imagine that he felt that the introduction to the start menue was quite benieth him.

Although the "do not undock your lap top untill the light turns green" statement probably became his sustinance for life in that dry and barren technical desert.

Play day... wow. Jump Jump Jump!

It is the last day of school. I have to go teach my morning classes. I am excited and in a weird mood all at the same time. It doesn't feel like it should be the end, but then again it is just the beginning of another end. So anyway.

I wish that I could have had more time to write over the past couple of days. We had play day yesterday. I was the leader of team six. The kids did amazingly well. My group had little to no problems and my fifth grade leaders were AWESOME. We decided that team six jumps. When people asked us why we jump, we just said, "we don't know, we just jump." Kids love a gimmick. We did jumping celebrations throughout the day.

I was also glad that I took the time and the money to make bandanna ties for each of the kids in team six. The group was split into teams of four and these teams were categorized by color. I had 24 little Rambo head bandanna head clad youths following me around all day. It was truly something to jump about.

I am not having a jumping celebration for the farmers tan that I got yesterday. No body told me that it was going to be 91 degrees and all sunny. Not that I didn't enjoy my favorite kind of weather, I just wish that I would have sun screened my face and arms. Hey, it could be worse; I could be burnt.

school year's end.

What do I do at the school year's end?

I need to clean up, clean out, and take down. I need to clear out, and make room. I need to...

I need the people from Mission Organization to come to my classroom and make it PRETTY!!!

I need help.

I need to get to work.

NOW

Summer 2008 to do list: This list is in process, even though summer is not

I am not working this Summer for the first summer in about 9 years. Instead I am going to:

1. Clean out my apartment room by room, inch by inch
2. Clean out my room at my parents house
3. Learn how to make cinnamon rolls

4. Finish wedding details:
4a. Figure out wedding gifts
4b. Reception food
4c. Reception paper goods
4d. Reception decorations/wedding decorations
4e. Find a huge GINORMOUS fern
4f. Choose Scripture/music/readings
4g. Prepare a centerpiece to see if it works
4h. Finalize Photos/Dress/Flowers
4i. Get shoes
4j. Get musicians their music
4k. Move Room mates stuff out
4l. Move Christopher's stuff in
4m. After wedding move Christopher in

5. Get Married
6. Honeymoon
7. Print/Send 6 hundred million thank you cards
8. Buy back my soul from the united states postal service

9. Learn how to be a wife
10. Learn how to cook more German food
11. Make a quilt from the wedding fabrics

12. Plan/choreograph programs for the 2008/2009 school year
13. Go to balavisicx work shop
14. Go to Orff work shop
15. Go to tech work shop
16. Get my room ready for 2008/2009 school year

Indicatory

If the way that I feel this morning is an indication of how the children are feeling, I am done for.

I had a most wonderful weekend. Christopher's birthday was Friday and we went to the River fest and then saw Colby Collette at an outdoor concert. She is good by the way. I have only heard a couple of her songs on the radio and such, but she has a good repertoire, and she is not bad live which is a problem for some performers. Not bad means good in this case.

Then we watched brother of Christopher play tennis at state on Saturday. He metaled, and we are Very proud of him. I never knew how fun and intense Tennis could be. I truly enjoyed myself.

Saturday the rest of the day we spent with the fam, as well as Sunday. All of the extended family came over on Sunday for a salad lunch. I had some good coleslaw that I will have to post the recipe for. I also made a hot water cake that was GOOD.

Then Sunday night we went to the burro to watch my dad play bass in the oratorio. He did wonderful... Applause for Dad!!! And we celebrated birthday of Crustin and Justifer and Mothers day afterward. All of the families in one place... now there's a loud room of people.

Then home again home again to a wonderful bed at a little later than I wanted it to be.

Amy is right... Traveling every weekend is not easy, but it is almost always fun.

Live for the week as well as the weekend! (that is my new mantra)

divine revelation of a kindergartner

"The only things that should go in your mouth is food and your tooth brush." ~ Brock

"And also drink, you need drink." ~ Mi'chael

How true that is, how true that is.

TOOOOSDAY!

Yah,
That's it.

TOOOSDAY

Don't want to be at work.

Really want to go for a walk right now.

Specials teachers need recess just like the kids do.

~THE END~

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Well ladies and germs, There are officially fifteen days left in our school year. These are desperate times my friends.

Desperate times due to the fact that both our principal and our assistant principal are out of the building today. Do you understand what that means???

The inability to send children to the office.

Gasp!

It is true, we are not allowed to give office referals because our principals are gone, and the secretary just doesn't think it is in her job description to RIP kids. Even though both you and I know that she could rip anybody's kid any day of the week.

The biggest part of this deal is that, Shhhhh we don't want the kids to know that they are gone.

So in a desperate effort to fool the students, our secretaries have set up a Tina dummy.

Behold the Tina Dummy



It is a suit of clothing stuffed in proportion to our fearless leader. It is topped with a proportional balloon with a wig on top of it. The face of the balloon has been artistically improoved to look pretty much JUST LIKE TINA. Tina dummy sat at her desk for half of the day yesterday.

I thought that our office staff had stuff to do... I guess not.

Slip of the tongue past the tip of the teeth

What a to do

What a to do to die today
At a minute or two til two.
A thing distinctly hard to say,
But harder still to do.
For there'l beat a tat, too,
At a quarter til two,
A rat-a-tat, tat-a-tat. tat-a-tat, too.
And the dragon will come
When he hears the drum,
At a minute or two til two today,
At a minute or two til two.

A fifth grade reader's theatre warm up exercise.


Don't you feel like sometimes your life is a tongue twister. Today I have encountered two slips of the tongue past the tip of the teeth.

I have a poster on my wall with the Peanuts characters walking on the top of the globe and the poster says "Everyone smiles in the same language!" A kindergartener walked past it and said,

"Everyone Smells in their own Language."

How true that is.

I was teaching third grade today and I was talking about the song Harlem Airshaft of Duke Ellington's. The song is about an Airshaft in New York City. I said...

"Harlem Airshaft is about the noise that you can hear in an Air shaft in New York Sh**y"

Oh yes, I accidental swore at a class of third graders. They totally heard me do it too. They said,

"Did she just say S***y?"
"What did she say??"
"Giggle giggle giggle (unintelligible third grade girl speech) giggle giggle"

I explained my slip of the tongue with the city and shaft getting combined...

And yah, I think that they might forget it before they go home and swear to their parents. At least I hope they do.

Wii nerd?

Well,
Yesterday Mario Cart for Wii came out. We bought it. Oh yes, Wii did.

We made ourselves do all of our wedding homework, and then, we partied by playing Mario Cart. Let me tell you, it is so much easier with a steering wheel than it is to steer with a joystick. I am much better at it than at the original wii. I am not good with my thumbs, and this solves the problem. No joystick, no thumbs. TA DA!!!

I am doing Jazz lessons with all of my students this week. I was going to do Jazz lessons last week, but I was deathly ill and wanted to die. I still want to cough up a lung, but all in all, this is better than having my throat swollen shut. Trying to look on the bright side here.

Speaking of bright side, I may not be counting down to my wedding, but I just decided to count down to the end of school. There are.... (pause for me to look at calendar) 18 days left total. WOW!!!!

Have I really been teaching for a year. Did I really fake it so that people thought I knew what I was doing for an entire year?

'Guess so.

Friday?????????

Will I ever be ready at the beginning of a school day. I don't know what else to do to fool proof this day, but I still feel like it could flop at any minute. I guess that there is only so much prep work that a teacher can do in order to feel ready. I think that it is an energy thing. I didn't sleep well last night and it is throwing me off. Especially since I have to work with a tough fifth grade today and they TOTALLY drained me yesterday.

Last night I was retching to Christopher about the fact that I have to work with a couple of kindergartners who do things just to see how much they get away with. The fact that they are the smartest two little boys in their class worries me. At home, they can do no wrong. Can their parents see their behavior? Do they realize that something is not connecting? Chris said, "Don't you know already what to expect from these boys?" I said, "Yes I do know what to expect from them, but it also helps me to blow off steam just to talk about how they make me crazy."

For instance: I asked the kindergartners "What do you do in the mornings when you get up" I called on many little girls and boys who couldn't wait to tell me that "I take a bath." "I brush my teeth" "I don't ever want to get up, and my mom turns the lights on and stomps on my floor"

And then little Red headed David pipes up. "I go to the store to buy dynamite to explode the dryer" (With a "what are you going to do about it lady?" look in his eyes.)

Well little red headed David... Time out of the group for you!

Chris said, "Aren't you supposed to let kids think outside the box."

Yah, Try being a teacher for a year and then tell me that.

Thank the Lord for Vicks

I have been sick for the past three-ish days.
Last night I tried a "Mom's home remedy" and rubbed Vicks Vapor rub on my feet before I went to bed. I put socks on my feet after the rub so that it would stay on my feet and not vicks my sheets.

Anyway... I woke up this morning, and I feel a lot better. Was it the Vicks? or the 1000 other drugs that I have been taking trying to beat this thing?

Eye, there's the rub.

Post

Weekend:
Friday night: practice for church
Friday night: eat entirely too much
Saturday 6:00: wake up and make breakfast for NE fan football friends
Saturday 9:40: get out of bed for real
Saturday 12:00: Leave for T-Stock!
Saturday day: hang out with friends, eat good food, loose wallet, find wallet.
Sunday am: Burn right eye with foreign contact solution cry and eye water for 4 hours
Sunday noon: eat Good food with mennonite friends
Sunday afternoon: Honest hours
Sunday night: 7:00 come home
Sunday night 8:15 fall into bed
Sunday night 9:15 fall asleep.

Ah.... The weekends go by in a flash, but this one felt as long as a week that had gone by in a flash.

Pfffffff

THE STORM IN THE NIGHT!

So, two nights ago it was the storm window banging, and last night it was just a storm.

I woke up at 3:08a.m.-ish to probably the loudest roaring of storm I have ever heard in my life. Which is shocking because living in tornado alley for all of my life has caused me to be involved with some interesting storms.

I was writhing in bed, very annoyed with the roar, when suddenly I thought,

"If I am writhing here annoyed that I am awake because of this loud roar, and that loud roar turns out to be a tornado coming right up my street, I am not going to be pleased with my decision to stay in bed."

So, I got out of bed to make sure that I wasn't going to have a Dorothy/Come to Jesus experience right then and there.

The roaring turned out to be a combination of the fact that the gutter outside my window is plugged so the water cascades against the side of the building in waterfall loudness and hale.

Fun.

It is long, but hang in there... cause it is bizarre enough to be interesting.

Last night was an interesting night. The wind was pounding on the south side of the building where my bedroom is. I was frustrated because the storm window in my bedroom is loose so it banged against the window casing almost all night long.

I fell asleep around 10:00 and somewhere around 1:30 started to dream this dream:

I was in my parents’ house with a bunch of vagabond looking children. One of them was one of my fourth grade students and in my dream he was my brother.

(He is Asian, which I thought was appropriate since my sister in real life is Asian. Anyway… in real life he has been having nose bleeds, and I must have been concerned about it because...)

I dreamed that he had had a bad nose bleed and had bled all over his shirt and on my clothing as well. I fixed up his nose and took his cloths upstairs to wash out the blood. I rinsed my shirt as well. I distinctly remember the blood mixing with the water and trickling down the drain. Suddenly I felt the need to hurry and get dressed again because I had to take my little brother with me to fight for Batman against the Joker…

(“WHAT~!” You are thinking… but just roll with me… it gets better.)

So, I get brother all ready to go and we go outside. The entire time I am fearing for my life. Suddenly we are met by three girls who are part of the Joker’s team. We fight them for a long time. Dodging futuristic weapons and using no weapons of our own because we haven’t met up with Batman yet to get our weapons. Finally I knocked a force blasting gun out of one girls hand and instead of shooting it, I hit her under the chin with it so hard that she flew up into the air and out into the atmosphere. I can still picture what she looked like floating aimlessly in the universe.

(cause I could see that with my naked eyes right where I was standing with my fake little brother in my parents front lawn.)

The other two henchgirls ran away after I knocked their teammate to the moon. Which gave me just enough time to figure out how to work my force blaster.

I say force blaster because there is no other word for it. It didn’t shoot bullets. It was very similar to the stunning guns that the alliance uses in the TV show Firefly. It shoots out force fields which knock out and disarm my opponents. I finally figured out how to work my force blaster. I was forgetting to cock the gun before I pulled the trigger.

(Go figure, a wii can shoot without begin cocked, but a force blaster… not a chance.)

After I solved the problem with the force blaster, I took my little brother and we set out for a taxi. We got into a taxi, but the inside was HUGE and filled with the henchpeople of super villains/heroes. I was plotting with my batman team, when I saw my “childhood friend” Christopher sitting plotting with Joker’s henchyouth.

Our eyes met in an “I will defeat you” moment and then our gaze softened as we remembered all of the good childhood times we had together.

(Now if any of you are following… Christopher is my fiancé and we were not childhood friends, but I guess for the purposes of my dream, my mind created him into a childhood friend. WEIRD!!!)

So at the same time we realized that we were in love. “So” he said, (and then he said something that I can’t remember) and then we kissed. We kissed passionately.

It was very wet.

(I might as well get some good kissin in my dreams… Right?)

Ahem…

We decided (after the kissing) that we would be on the same team, and that Christopher would come over to Batman’s side, but only after we had a chance for him to work as a double agent.

Our taxi pulled up in front of a large old building with multiple stories. We got there just in time to see Batman and Joker fighting. We climbed up inside of the building and I saw Pirate Man (I don’t know where he came from. He isn't even a superhero) and Penguin who were just about to come to Batman’s aid. (which is also strange since Penguin is an enemy of Batman in real life.)

Christopher, my fake little brother, and I jumped out into the open ready to fight and suddentlyyy………….

The storm window banged against the casing of my bedroom wall and I awoke from my dream poised sideways in bed as if I was going to shoot the Joker right in the back with my force blaster.

Well,

What did you dream about last night?

Whoop new template

Well, My attention span is shortening just like my tolerance for the same template for my blog. I wish that I was savvy enough to create my own template... but alas I will have to rely on those computer smart guys to think of things for me.

Anyway. Last night I ran to Chris' then Chris and I walked/ran for a LONG time. I found out that I don't use my hip flexor muscles in Zoomba, and they were in need of a work out. We ate dinner and started planning our church service for next week. It is looking promising. His job in planning is to be a liturgical genius and transition savvy, and my job it to make sure that the chords are in the right Key/Place and to sing random Christmas songs out of the Mennonite Hymnal because I couldn't find any other songs announcing Jesus birth.

It was beauteous, or at least I thought so till the hymnal was snatched from me like a lizard snatches a bug.

I did however find the sending song all by myself. Even though I thought that it was "Sweet victory in Jesus", before I realized that it was "I love to tell the story of unseen things above." They have similar beginnings. Mennonites are complicated.

After church-ing we played some Wii, and Chris killed me at tanks and I killed him at pool.

The real fun began when our score was tied 5-5 and we decided that it was best to end on an even note because both of us are too competitive. I decided that I wanted to create some new wii's.

I made my sister first. I couldn't get her face exactly right, but I am pretty sure I got the right size. She is twice as thin as I am and a whole head shorter. That makes her the tiniest Wii possible. It is so fun to watch her bop around the screen with husband Le, who I made next.

The most fun to make was Bob Ross. That's right, If you play baseball on my Wii you might just wind up at bat with Bob Ross.

Chris said that he wants to create the cast of American Idol next. His goal is to make Ryan Seecrest as little as my sister...

Fast and Slow

I have been engaged for three months and a two weeks.

Some of the time has gone fast. Correction the first two months went fast. Suddenly there is a lull in the time space continuum. It is as if time has ceased at three months and the next three will never happen.

Hmmm

I refuse to count down. Count downs are for new years and other frivolous holidays not weddings. I refuse to spend my days waiting for better/other/newer days. I don't want to wake up one morning and find that I have wished for each weekend or event so badly that I didn't take time to live during the "every day."

How am I going to accomplish living during the "every day"?

Well working world, How do you live during the "every day"?

Wii will Wii will rock you!

Guess what happened yesterday........

I called Target yesterday and asked them my usual question, "Hi, can I speak to someone in electronics?" "Do you have the nintendo Wii in stock?" They normally say, no we don't.

Four months people!

But yesterday they said YES!

So, I called Chris and told him that there was a wii at Target, and that he should go right then and get it. He told me, "I can't go now, it is a really bad time, I can maybe go later." So I resigned myself to teaching the rest of my afternoon classes with the knowledge that we probably just lost out at our once in four moths chance at a wii. Anyway... I didn't hear back from Christopher, so I called Target after school and they told me that THEY STILL HAD ONE!!!

I jumped in my car and went as fast as I could. I got there, and there was one left. It wasn't even out on the shelf. It was still in the back room. I texted Chris and said, "Tell me if you found one cause I am going to buy one in 5 minutes." I bought it and another controller, and then texted Chris telling him of the conquer of my spoils. I had been hunting for so long it felt good to finally get to purchase my sought after wii.

Christopher called me after school and I told him again of my purchase.
"No you didn't." he said.
"YES" I almost yelled.
"Well good cause I got one two." He told me with exasperation in his voice. "You mean that I busted my butt to get out of work to buy you a Wii, and you went and got one yourself?" He stated.
"Yes. You should check your phone." I quipped.

That's right, After waiting through 4 months of calling Wal-mart and Target about three times a week and finding nothing we suddenly had TOO many WII's.

So, we called our video gaming friends to see if they were in search of one, and when they weren't we took our EXTRA WII BACK TO THE STORE.

Oh yes... we did. So if there are any of you who are looking for, and can not find, there is a Wii at target in the northern town of the middle of the middle of Kansas.

How young they learn

I have been working on building a relationship with three girls from the fifth grade. They are girls who give teachers headaches with their constant chatter and fifth grade girl pettiness. They stayed after school last week to help me get my room ready for carnival and we had an interesting conversation about girls, boys, girls and boys, parents, phones, and listening to other people's ideas. It was quality time, and honestly it has helped me in my classes this week.

Anyway, This morning I took a little extra time with my hair (which is as long as it has been in a WHILE) and curled it with my new three barrel roller. It is not a curling iron per say, but more like a ginormous crimper that doesn't make crimps it makes waves. I like it a lot, and it is somewhat satisfying my life long desire for naturally curly hair.

A fifth grade boy walked in with his class this morning and said, "Miss. Music, what did you do to your hair? It looks weird." I told him, "I got a different iron."

One of my fifth grade girls walked up to me, put her hands on my shoulders in a somewhat comforting way and with an encouraging tone of voice said, "He might of said that it was weird, but at least he noticed and that's good."