Your World

Zack and I found ourselves in a quandary last week. We had planned a trip to San Diego as an attachment to a business trip he was going on. He'd leave on Monday, I'd fly down on Thursday (Valentine's Day) to meet up with him, and we'd spend the weekend playing on the beach, visiting museums or zoos, and playing with my little bro and his wife. Buuuut mixing business with pleasure doesn't always work. The business trip was pushed back a week, and then it was pushed back another week. And then it was undecided. That works great if work is paying for the tickets and all the change fees. Not so great for us. When we realized that our weekend trip to San Diego was going to cost us twice as much, we started looking at other options. We could go anywhere we wanted to for a 4 day weekend (that was cheaper than San Diego.) We finally decided on a road trip to Colorado to visit Zack's dad. To make it more fun, we broke up the 11 hour drive by staying at a place in Glenwood Springs. It is home to the largest hot springs pool in North America. You know it's a fun place when there are signs on the pool deck that say "Pool deck may be icy." It was really fun to swim in hot hot water while my head was freezing freezing cold. We had a really good time. Semi-spontaneous trips can be fun... if they're planned right.

A few weeks ago I had my kids answer the following question: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you do there?

Their answers ranged from the daring....

To the not so daring...

To the imaginative...

To the interesting.

And some just wanted to make friends around the world.

A while ago Zack and I asked ourselves the same questions in the form of a challenge. The challenge was this:

We have 3 weeks to come up with 3 different places to travel to.

At the end of the 3 weeks we had to present our ideas.

We had to say where we'd stay, how we'd get there, give ideas on what to do, and have a rough estimated cost of the trip.

Our ideas ranged from caving and whale watching in Canada to Broadway shows in New York to an RV trip down the California coast. Not that we're going to do any of them anytime soon, but it never hurts to have a vacation idea rolling around in your head.

Now I'm asking you the same questions. If you could go anywhere (and I mean ANYWHERE. We're talking dream vacations here.) in the world, where would you go, why do you want to go there, and what would you do?

Small Green Rooms of Joy

Earlier this week, around 11:15 in the morning, I heard this announcement on the school intercom:

"Teachers, a pipe has broken on 700 South, just down the street from us. In order for them to fix the problem they will need to shut the water off to our school in about an hour. The water will be off for the rest of the day."

I was hoping the rest of the announcement would go something like "...and so we will be closing school early today. The buses will be here to pick the students up at 12:30...". No such luck. My principal happens to be a stickler for the edumacation of the chillins.

What did follow was news of portapotties being delivered to the school within the hour and the promise of water bottles for each student and hand santizer for the classrooms.

Hurray for the resourceful principal. The water problem is solved!

Here's what ensued in my classroom for the last 4 hours of the day:

Because the principal had announced that there were water bottles for each student, my kids knew they had water bottles coming. Now when first graders are given their very own water bottle for keeps because of a special fun situation the inevitable happens. That's right. They all drink their entire bottle within the first 15 minutes. Aaaaand what inevitably happens 20 minutes later? That's right. They ALL have to go to the bathroom. And where are the bathrooms? Oh, right, they're outside. And because they're outside they have to go with a buddy. And they have to bundle up because it's 10 degrees out there.

I think every student had to go to the bathroom at LEAST 4 times before the end of the day. Never before have portapotties been such an attraction. Everybody's got to go try the cool new green outside bathrooms that smell! And everybody's got to experience freezing your buns off, Right?!

I, for one, was determined not to be in any situation that would require using portapotties that were situated on the school playground. I have several reaons for this. (Obviously.) For one, it's cold. Two, it's a portapottie. Three, my bathroom breaks are when the kids go outside for recess...to the playground. I could just hear the knocking on each side of the portapottie now. "Teacher's in there! Teacher's using the portapottie! Mrs. Evans, are you in there!" No thanks. And the last and final reason, would YOU use a portapottie that had recently been used by 200 children multiple times in the past 4 hours?

He Built Me a Cake

My cold is not gone. You think it's gone? It's NEVER gone!
Seriously, this is literally the longest cold I've ever had in my life.

This is the cold that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some little kid gave it to me, I don't know who it was, but he'll continue giving it to me forever just because....

Anyway, this blog isn't about my cold. It's about how my hubby has been taking care of me throughout the cold. Even when he's been feeling sick.

Here are two excellent examples of what he's done for me the past few weeks. (17 days and counting...)

He built me a cake.
I was at the stage of my sickness where my throat felt dry all the time. The only thing that made it feel better was if I was constantly swallowing something. But that something couldn't be all hard and salty like chips. It had to be soft and snacky...like a cake.

(Yes, this is how we eat cake at our house.)

He surprised me with Comfort after a long day at school.

I got home and found this waiting for me:

The instructions were for me to push start on the microwave (he had some honey/lemon drink ready to heat up), put on the comfy clothes, take a Comtrex and a cough drop, and watch T.V., play on the computer, or read the paper while I lounged on the couch and waited for him to come home.

He arrived 15 minutes later with movies and a pizza.

If this doesn't make me the luckiest girl around, I don't know what does.

Fancy Cow

This post has been a long time coming. Uh, sorry about that, D'Nell!
But I finally finished my apron! D'Nell came over and taught me the sneaky last part that wasn't actually too hard if you could read the kryptic instructions that came with the pattern. Seriosly, did the Japanese write them?
D'Nell's apron is so cute and I can finally be a "fancy cow" when I'm cooking.
Woo hoo!

Above Water SCUBA Diving is SO Not What It's Cracked Up To Be

I'm sick.
I have a cold.
Not just one of those little colds where you wake up with a sore throat and a little runny nose that goes away after a day or two. This is one of those feel it in your chest kind of colds. The kind that starts in your chest, slowly moves to your throat and then takes up a room in your nose with occasional hour-long trips to your ears. It's the kind of cold that keeps you up at night for no apparent reason except that you can't lie down without feeling like an elephant is sitting on your nose and it won't. go. away.
Cold medicine doesn't work on this cold. Humidifiers only make the room a little less dry for your poor nose. Liquids merely keep your throat from seizing up and sending you into coughing spasms. Your ears get plugged and won't pop for going on 17 hours now. You feel like you're constantly under water. ...aaand you've already discovered you hate SCUBA diving so you don't need to relive it. Ever.

On the plus side, all noise is muffled a bit and you can't tell if your first graders are being louder than normal. You also can't talk very loudly because of the throat thing and the cough thing, so you get to reinforce the fact that you don't want to get your student's attention by yelling over their chatter.
Also, since you haven't felt like eating for the past 3 days, when you do feel like eating something you feel perfectly justified in eating it on the grounds that your body needs nourishment. Any kind of nourishment. Even if that nourishment is potato chips, soda pop, and peanut butter Twix. If you're craving it, then your body probably needs it to recover, right?

May Your Christmas Be All YOU Wanted It To Be

We all have our favorites at Christmastime. Some people enjoy listening to Christmas music on the radio...constantly...starting before Halloween...and stopping sometime after Easter...if we're lucky. I am not one of those people. Other people look forward to shopping in crowded stores the day after Thanksgiving. Others might look forward to the homemade eggnog and sugar cookies. Some people can't wait to open presents! Others are happy just making sure those around them are loved. The point is, we all have things we do that make the holidays what they are.

And now to the real point I'm getting at.
A kindergartners idea of a good time at Christmas is not often the same as say, a middle-aged high school choir director's idea of a good time.

To prove my point, I shall recount an event that happened a few years ago.

Every year at my school the local high school choir comes and performs Christmas songs for the kiddies. Now, I may be a bit prejudiced about my own high school's talents, but I think it's safe to say that this high school choir doesn't win many awards in competitions and such. But they try hard and they're not too terrible. Besides, the kids don't know the difference and they think it's pretty cool to have "big kids" come and sing to them.
The problem is this: The high school choir director's idea of good Christmas music is slightly different than 5, 6 and 7 year old's. Every year the choir comes and sings song after song of slow, religious songs. I don't mind the occasional slow religious (and sometimes Latin or German) song. What I do mind is ALL the songs being slow, religious and yes, sometimes in Latin or German. Kids like to hear songs they know. Songs they can sing to. Songs like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" (even though no kid actually knows the words to that song except "Frosty the Snowman was a hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmmmm...With a corn cob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal. OH, Frosty the Snowman! hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmmmm....)
Back to the point...
A few years ago the choir came to sing to the kids. After what was probably the 6th slow religious song, they started in on the 7th song. It was, of course, slow and not kid-friendly. That's when I heard a little, but definately not quiet, voice from among the kindergarteners say "Not again!" (Picture a little kid sitting cross-legged on the floor, with their chin in their hands, looking very very disappointed.)I tried to stiffle my giggles as the teacher tried to shush the noisy, honest, tell-it-like-it-is kindergartener.
I guess the real moral of the story is: Know Your Nigel, people. Know Your Nigel.

I've Been Sorted

The sorting hat says that I belong in Hufflepuff!

Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same."

Hufflepuff students are friendly, fair-minded, modest, and hard-working. A well-known member was Cedric Diggory, who represented Hogwarts in the most recent Triwizard Tournament.

 

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

Regardless of who I relate to, my true colors show up in Hufflepuff. But, it was almost a three-way tie.
I'm 81% Hufflepuff, 78% Ravenclaw, 76% Gryffindor, and 45% Slytherin. (Take THAT Voldy!)
We can't all be brave Gryffindors. And frankly, I like it that way. :)