I'm Not Dead

So It's been many, many, MANY weeks since I last blogged. Sorry. A little thing called life interrupted my life. I promise to try and blog once a week. I assure I have been ignoring all my friends on facebook as well.

I've had so many things to blog about . . . totally useless and unimportant stuff, but still, it made me laugh at the time.

Like last Saturday, when I cleaned my room. First of all, "cleaned" is being used very loosely here. I picked stuff up, I put my overflowing laundry basket in my closet and shut the door. It looked better after I hid some stuff. But what I discovered id I have way too many books.

I, like many people have a constant pile of books I'm getting to. the bookstore is my refuge from stress. In recent weeks We've had mid terms at school, not to mention the lead up to Halloween. Plus we had UEA weekend. Of course I went to the bookstore. I think I sent the Barnes and Noble families to college all by myself.

So as I was "cleaning" my room I discovered not one pile of books I was getting to, not two pile, but three. Three piles of books. and I am reading them. There are three or four romances, a couple of New York Times Best Sellers, children's books, historical fiction, a Harry Potter book, and a couple of fantasies.

I piled up 20 books altogether.

And it's not like I suddenly stopped reading and let things get backed up! I'm almost done with The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (not as good as Da Vinci Code).

I am not allowed back into a bookstore until I get these piles under control.

Or until report card stress forces Autumn to take me there.

Now I have some reading to do.

Priorities

The time for season premiers is upon us . . . yay! We have a DVR now so you'd think that getting in all those missed programs would be easier.

Yeah, now we just have a longer list of stuff to record. Because we can.

When you have one TV, it really whittles down your list of options pretty well. Now our list not only includes both Autumn's favorites and my favorites, but some new stuff too.

So how do we prioritize? Is "So You Think You Can Dance?" more important than "Project Runway?"

And what do we do about Thursday night? Who wins, "Survivor" or "The Office?"

It's a mess.

I want to see if "Glee" is any good. Autumn wants to catch "Vampire Diaries." They both run up against other shows.

Luckily, "Smallville" moved to Fridays and so far, no conflicts.

I tell you, scheduling fall TV with a roommate is a job of work.

New Goals and School Daze

The year has started and I apologize I didn't post pictures of my class before it was trashed by my 30 fourth graders. Then again, you shouldn't be surprised, I still haven't posted pictures of my "new" apartment.

At the beginning of every year, teachers are asked to reevaluate themselves and the jobs they're doing and make goals for the new year.

I hate this particular part of starting school. I never know what to write. I ruminate for hours trying to figure these goals out, you know, how do I become a better teacher, a better communicator, all that. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things I could do better. It's the choosing just a couple of things to improve out of so many that always stumps me.

Happily, I found out I could write a goal concerning my health because it directly applies to teacher attendance (the bosses like you there). Since I already want to go to the gym, I decided to write one about going to the gym. While I was at it, I wrote in a bedtime, and I said that I would stop all work at 8:00 p.m. so I could destress, like you might do with a book or playing tetris. How awesome is that?

The state of Utah is supporting my laziness! (But now there are more reasons to feel guilty about not going to the gym today . . . sigh)

Books I've Read

I was recently reminded of those long, hairy novels they assigned at the end of the year in English for you to read over the summer. I remember, I would be so excited to have my summer, and then, wham! Summer reading assignment. And it wasn't just some thin little thing I could get skim over in a few days. No, I remember my summer assignments being, The Odyssey, Grapes of Wrath, and David Copperfield.

Did the teachers really think I was going to read those books? Me? When I had all that free time to sit in the air conditioned Rosepark public library and read what ever was handy?

I perfected the fine art of scholastic procrastination over those summers. I would get my copy of the book in June, and then it sat on my nightstand until two weeks before school started. Have you ever tried to read the Grapes of Wrath in two nights?

So, I also honed the art of scholastic deception. Erin calls it cheating. I call it survival in honors English.

My cousins and my sister and I all went to West High, one year after each other, so we shared the required novels. My copy of David Copperfield looks pretty trashed. And I never finished it. The Odyssey is in two pieces. I didn't finish it either. So it certainly looked like I had read them. (Well, someone had).

Just one small way to confuse the teachers with my sneaky ways.

I also observed something else that helped me. If you listen very carefully in class, the teachers will tell you exactly what they want on a paper. For a B anyway. So I took notes, and skimmed and I am proud to say I never copied any one's work or read a Cliff's Notes version of anything.

And I got a B.

So, as I begin another school year, I think of all those kids, scrambling with their Shakespeare and their Dickens, and my heart goes out to Mrs. Barnes and Miss Fowler.

Of course they knew what I was doing. Because they are not stupid.

Happy Reading!

Sam And Holly

It is usually Erin's job to report on her kids antics, but today I can't help it.

Yesterday Erin and I went shopping for my school clothes and her birthday present. In the middle of Wal-mart, Sam was behaving like a typical 4 year old, and trying every one's patience by whining "Mom, mom, mom . . . " Finally Erin said "I don't want to hear you say mom for one minute."

Sam didn't miss a beat, and whined "Erin . . ."

Holly and I went school shopping. I hadn't intended to buy anything for her yet, but when Erin went to take Sam to the bathroom, she started showing me all the cute things and pointing out which ones were in her sizes. when Erin got back, we had three outfits in the cart.

Holly SOOO has my number.

As summer winds down . . .

If you can believe it, I have about three weeks left and I have to get back to work. The school will be open in August, but we have a really awesome principal who doesn't believe in working over vacations, so he may not let us in. I just can't think where the summer has gone. And then I think of all the reading I've done and the traveling I've done.

THAT'S where it went.

In honor of my wonderful summer, I thought I'd post a few pictures of this summer's "stuff" . . . the events that made it go so fast:

In June we went to Disneyland for Ezri's birthday. Ezri is Autumn's niece.

Sam also decided that he was "Buzz", not Sam. Who am I to argue with a child's life goals? So I got him a Buzz t-shirt in Disneyland.

Holly got a lot taller and lost a few teeth. She also learned how to ride a scooter.

Brittanie graduated so we went on a cruise to The Bahamas to celebrate. (This is what humidity does to my hair)

And Max is learned to move around and is cutting teeth . . . but he's not taking any of it very seriously:)

It's been a very busy summer. The best kind, because I was busy with family.

How I spend my summer.

Many people have the misconception that teachers are only in the biz to get three months paid vacation every year.

First of all, it's closer to 2 months when you account for meetings, workshops, faculty stuff, meetings, cleaning, conferences and meetings.

Secondly, I have plenty to keep me busy this summer. I have not been bored at all.

I organized my CDs. I play a lot of music in my class and until this year I didn't have an MP3 player or an iPod. (Which I recently learned you can plug into the microphones we use at work and play through the speakers and it's totally awesome!)

Anyway, since I now have WAY too many CDs (about 500+), I put them into alphabetical order every summer. I'm not obsessive about it. But this way, for the rest of the year, I basically know where a given CD should be. Nothing gets put back exactly right, but it doesn't get really messy until around Christmas, and I don't really do anything until summer.

Before:

After:

See. Very busy.

Anyone who knows me, knows I adore earrings. The dangly, chandelier earrings. I believe there must be a gene for this because my Grandma Baxter loved them too.

But they are a mess. So this summer, I went through my jewelry boxes (yes, that's a plural) and clipped pairs together, and tossed out old ones that don't have pairs.

Before:

After:

Too busy. Busy, busy, busy.

Or bored. With a dash of weird tossed in.