Things only middle school teachers have to say...

Every once and a while I'm struck at the ridiculous things that I have to tell people during the day.  I often think "if I had a normal job, I wouldn't be saying this right now."  In the last five minutes I have had three such incidents:

1. "Please put your sock back on your foot where it belongs." -- to the 14 year old boy who has it on his hand as a sock puppet.

2.  "Uh... we have a quarter test tomorrow." -- to the boy who asked if there was any history homework.  We've only been talking about it for a week.

3.  "Do you really not have anything  better to do with your time?" -- to the girl drawing monkey faces on the white board behind her seat in study hall.  Clearly we're not giving enough homework.  

Team Dark Knighties!

This past weekend was the Tri Girl Tri -- athlon that I signed up for with a couple of friends. It turned out to be a great time. Above is the full team -- the Dark Knighties. How did we come up with this name? Good question. We spent an entire dinner trying to think of something better, and we didn't. A fellow teacher of ours used to play basketball for Calvin College back in the day and since Calvin was the Knights, they called the girls team the "Knighties". She finds this simply horrifying (that they all thought it was perfectly acceptable) and we find it hilarious. However, Knighties sounds a little too nice... and weird...and since the movie the Dark Knight just came out it seemed to be a logical choice.
This is my relay partner Kari. We had a great time and a great race, mostly thanks to Kari. She had a fabulous run! Unfortunately the swim was canceled because it was so windy and the water was a little choppy. This was a real bummer because we had a chance to excel in the swim but also a big relief because it meant I didn't have to get on the bike all cold and wet. So it ended up being a run-bike-run. We're both really excited to give it another try sometime because we think we could do pretty well in the two wo-man relay.

Chateau news

Just when I think life is getting boring, things get so crazy that boring doesn't sound so bad anymore. A few weeks ago while sitting around the lunch table, my friend Mindy suggested that a few of us teachers go and do a sprint triathlon together in Napa. I thought everyone was just talking, and consequently agreed to be part of a relay. Apparently everyone else was serious because I am now signed up to do the swim and the bike legs of this triathlon in 2 weeks. So the girls and I have launched into some training and have been trying to get to the pool a few times a week. Neither distance is overwhelming -- a half mile swim and a 12 mile bike ride -- but who knows what it will actually be like.

On a related note, this past week we had our first bike ride field trip at school. It was a pretty big success. We biked from school to Los Gatos for ice cream and back, about 14 miles round trip. We had one injury... someone who slid of the path and was convinced he broke his arm. I was convinced he didn't, but I guess I'll find out for sure when I go to school tomorrow. Regardless, his mom came and picked him up while the rest of the group went on. This put me about 15-20 minutes behind them. I did go after them once the child had been retreived by his mom. In the process of me going after the group and trying to find my way on a trail that I had no clue about, I managed to have an accident of my own and fall off my bike on a surprisingly steep hill that I couldn't change the gears fast enough for. I'm fine, but managed to do something to the derailer of my bike so that the gears won't shift. Not very timely for my triathlon in 14 days.

On a totally unreltaed note, yesterday we interviewed Margaret Kerry, Disney's reference model for Tinker Bell, for our podcast. This was a lot of fun. She is a spunky women that sort of makes you wonder how it is that Tinker Bell never talked. I'd tell you more about it, but really the best thing to do would be to listen to the podcast. That's not a shameless plug, it's just that her stories are so amazing, it's best to just hear her tell them. It will likely be the November 1st Mousetalgia podcast.

Nerdy things

Last night, some friends of ours invited us over for a Wii party with their kids. Dave and I had a great time, but the highlight for me would have to be learning to play Guitar Hero. I've picked this up a few times at Best Buy and tried to learn how it all works, but making mistakes in a really public place isn't my thing. So, our friends' 10 year old daughter gave me the basic run down and everyone waited patiently while I tinked my way thought "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." I'm not sure if it was the privacy of someone's home, or a couple glasses of wine to loosen me up, but this bout with Guitar Hero was the most sucessful yet. So sucessful that I seriously considered heading to Best Buy today to pick up my very own copy. Since it is a bit on the expensive side, and I just bought the Wii Fit this month, I've decided to be a little patient and hope that people will be trying to liquidate them soon since Guitar Hero World Tour is set to be released at the end of October. Regardless, I'm ready to be one of the swarm addicted to this game.

Another reason I'm holding out on Guitar Hero III is that Lego Batman is being released in only 2 more days! In case you are not aware, I'm a sucker for the Lego games. Lego Starwars got me hopelessly addicted and I conquered Lego Indiana Jones this summer while living my "lady of leisure" life. Dave is of the opinion that I should have my graduate project totally complete before picking up Lego Batman as I seem to struggle with time management when I get one of these new games. However, waiting any longer for a new lego game just doesn't seem like a whole lot of fun. So, if you have any doubts as to how I'll be spending my free time this week, well... you should have it figured out by now.

From the mouths of babes....

School is in full swing so let the crazy kid stories begin! Today, when casually asking the kids about what they did for the weekend, one of my students innocently replied, "I went to Hooter's." However, it didn't stop there. The explanation continued... "Yea, I didn't want to go, but my dad did. So, my brother and I, we had to go to Hooter's." Excellent. Of course, this isn't quite as good as Kindergarten. There, after peeing all over the wall, one of the boys explained to the teacher that "it" was just "out of control."

So long life of leisure

As you may notice from my 2 week haitus from blogging, I've started working again. In the words of Debbie Downer... whah whah. It's interesting the my morning devotions today focused on how work actually existed before the fall. Hmmm... maybe the good Lord is trying to tell me something. I never thought that I would enjoy not working this much. It turns out, I'm really good at relaxing by the pool, doing lunch with friends, shopping, and this new crafty side of me that I have found. Surely there's a spiritual gift in there somewhere.

School is back in full swing. Our first day of class is tomorrow but we've had all kinds of meeting and such in the last week. After spending all summer with adults, I'm surprised to re-learn how whiney middle school students are. Also, after middle school orientation this moring, I think that some of my students haven't been able to talk at home all summer, because they had A LOT of words to get out. On a much more positive note, it's been cute to see some of them so anxious to get back to school. Several parents have come up to tell me how excited their child was to find out that they were in my homeroom. That has been really encouraging and fun.

So long pictures of fun quilts and hello funny kid stories. I'm sure to get some doozies this year. There's a lot of personality floating around the middle school.

Ta-da!

I had a very exciting weekend. On Saturday, I went and bought my first sewing machine. Ta-da!

It's a Viking, and was paid for with all the swimming lessons I've been teaching this summer. Why this one? Well, apparently it's idiot proof -- an important feature for an amateur sewer like myself. Another cool feature is that it comes with 8 sewing classes. I get to start them in September and have some lofty goals from making drapes, upholstering chairs, making some pillows, an of course more quilts. In wandering the fabric store this weekend, Dave and I found some Tommy Bahama fabric and are scheming ways to use it.

In addition to buying the sewing machine, I was able to finish a project. Ta-da! (I hope you hear appropriate "ta-da" music when you read that.)


This is the quilt that Rachel and I started when we were in Hawaii. The biggest thing I learned from this is that I would have been better served by buying fabric and batting for the back, instead of using fleece. It's too stretchy and not easy to keep straight. The edges aren't perfect, but I got better as I went along.

So, now on to the next one. Ta-da!


I'm still trying to decide on the arrangement of the pineapples. If you have any suggestions, be sure to let me know.

Well, I realize some of you wouldn't classify this as an exciting weekend, it's been fun for me.
I can't wait to make more things!

Magically Inspired Eats

Some of you may know that a few of my friends and I have been working on putting together a podcast. I can take no credit for it whatsoever, but still, it has been a lot of fun. Jeff, our fearless podcast leader, suggested that Kristen, Jen and I recreate an old Tahitian Terrace menu from Disneyland in the 1960's. The pictures above show our creations: a chicken/pineapple type salad and ribs with a pineapple BBQ sauce, served over Cantonese rice. The best part of all this was that there was no recipe -- actually that's a lie, the best part was the company. But after that....

Anyways, I can't post the recipes here but they will eventually get posted on our website when it goes "live". Also, I can't take any credit for how good the food tasted. Fortunately, my friend Kristen is way more outgoing than myself and will talk to anyone. As a consequence of this, we met "big John" in Safeway where he gave us some ideas for the pineapple BBQ sauce. He's a chef who owns his own catering company and was introduced to us by the meat guy at Safeway, another stranger that Kristen helped us meat. As for the chicken salad, well it's hard not to love anything served in a pineapple.

Another Unfinished Project

This afternoon I took a Hawaiian Appliqué class. The top left bread fruit is the one that has been appliquéd. Notice the lack of rounded edges and flow to the leaves. All in all, it was a successful class. I have another quilt pattern of pineapples here at home that requires being able to appliqué, so now I know how and will hopefully be able to do a better job on that one. I also got a really cool sea turtle pattern included with my class today that I might get to someday.

I've continued to work on learning new things this past week. On Monday, I learned how to use a sewing machine. I started putting the binding around another quilt that I started at Christmas. I'm pretty excited about it, but need to wait to go back to the quilt shop for open sewing so that I can finish it since I don't have a sewing machine here at home. I've also decided to take up yoga for the summer. This class always looks deceivingly easy when you walk past at the gym. This past week the final pose was a "crow" which is basically doing a tripod with your head up. This is not easy. The best part was when a few of my classmates over -estimated their abilities and totally fell over, sprawling themselves on the gym floor.

Sewing and going to the gym... that pretty much describes how I've spent the last week. I'm supposed to be working on my Master's project, but this other stuff just seems more fun. Hopefully I'll be more motivated to think about the project this week... just 5 weeks off freedom left! Oh... and I have kept up my desire to try something new every week. Two weeks ago I made two cheese fondues. One worked really well -- a cheddar combined with hard apple cider -- the other I'll probably not try again. Then this past week I made shrimp scampi...also very good.

Week 1 of Summer Vacation

This Monday officially began my first week of summer vacation. Granted, we've been out of school since early June, but I've been doing ridiculous amounts of schooling since then. This is the first week where I'm not required to be at a school (either SJCS or SCU) during the day. This seems like it would be a great thing, and for the most part I suppose it is. The amount of time I have to myself accounts for the randomness of this post. Let's be honest, if a student turned this in as an essay, I'd hand it back and tell them to re-do it.

In the last two days I've discovered I don't have what it takes to be a writer. I'm supposed to be working on my Master's curriculum project, and I am generally excited about my topic -- teaching the Constitution to middle school students. However, I'm not very good at living the solitary life. After only leaving my house to go to the gym today, I'm not sure that I'm quite as sane as I was at 7:30 this morning when I woke up. Fortunately a co-worker is letting me teach her children to swim and this gives me some human contact during the day. I guess this gets back to why I like teaching so much -- it allows me to be the star of my own show.

I knew this summer was going to be interesting because I wasn't working. I cannot remember the last time I wasn't employed. I like being employed. As a proactive solution to potential boredom I decided that I wanted to try and make something new at least once a week. Last week, I made strawberry jam. Yum. I'm not sure what I'll make this week, but I'm hoping by making this public I'll have a better chance of actually doing it.

Another first for the week happened just an hour or so ago. Dave and I watched our first animated episode of Dilbert. I never used to understand Dilbert until I married Dave. Now I find it hilarious. An interesting thing that I learned from this episode is how much taller Dilbert is than his co-workers. I'll let you make the connection.

Finally, I've included a picture of the Mary Poppins umbrella I picked up at our Broadway musical. My mom asked for a picture, so this is for her. :) It's just like Mary's with the little parrot on the end. I'm hoping when I use it to direct traffic in January and February (since it will likely be raining) in the school parking lot that people will make the connection.

CA Girl

I love traveling. I really do. I think it's so great how people are people regardless of where they live. People always talk about how great New York City is. Personally, I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of wonderful things to do there and it has some wonderful history, but I just don't see the love affair that so many people seem to have with the city. Apparently, I'm just a West Coast kind of girl. Both Dave and I were trying to figure out why people think it's so much better than San Francisco. I've decided there are lots of reasons for living in SF over NYC. For example SF doesn't really have humidity, it's only an hour from wine country, it's not as crowded, you can do many of the same things (art museums and such) and it doesn't snow in SF. Oh, and there are no cable cars in NYC... one of my favorite things to do in SF.

Having said that, I really did enjoy the city. First of all there's Broadway. If and when I go back, I will see more Broadway musicals. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we saw Mary Poppins. I think this is probably my 2nd favorite musical, second only to Sound of Music. First of all, it's Disney, so everything was done to the hilt. The costumes were amazing. The theater itself was incredibly ornate as well. I also just love the character of Mary Poppins. Just in case you aren't aware, the Broadway play has a slightly different story line then the beloved Disney movie. Both the musical and the movie are based on a series of books and the musical works in some different portions of the books. There are some different songs and some wonderful lines about how Mary can't teach children who don't want to learn, how she doesn't need to explain her actions and of course how she is "practically perfect, in every way." It's a great show with a wonderful story line, fabulous music and some fun Disney "magic" worked in.

Additionally, I enjoyed going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on the fourth of July. This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time and so it was great to go and actually get some mental (and physical) pictures of what these places look like. I was really excited to find some of the political cartoons that we study in school displayed on Ellis Island. Not only did they appear in color, giving me a different perspective on them, it was also good to know that the material I pick for my students to spend time studying is in fact viewed as important by this museum.

Below are a few pictures from our trip. More will be sure to follow on our other website www.davesphotos.org for those who are interested. I'll warn you though, most are pictures of things and not people as Dave took somewhere close to 400 pictures on our trip. You have to love digital photography. :)


Us and the Liberty Lady. :)

Dave, Liz and me in Times Square.

Waiting for the Fire Works to start.

The Mary Poppins theater.

New York

We are currently on day 3 of our New York City trip. It's been quite something. Last night we went down to the East River to watch what was supposed to be one of the greatest fireworks shows ever. Apparently these people who claim that it's going to be best have never been to Disneyland, because it didn't even come close. However, the people around us were clearly impressed. This one woman kept exclaiming "oh.... beautiful..." in her most awe inspired voice. It made me giggle.
Today we visited the East Side Tenement Museum. All the lines that I've read from Jacob Riis in school were echoing in my head as we walked through the tenement. I totally understand the dark stairway he talks about and how the smell of the saloon would wander upstairs in a new way.
Tonight we're off to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. I'm so excited about this. Hopefully it will live up to my expectations. :)

A Kick in the Pants

This week I've been taking a class at SCU. This class is supposed to teach me how to use technology more effectively in my teaching. I guess this begs the question of can you learn how to effectively teach while sitting in front of a computer? This post will not attempt to answer that question. One thing the class has done is gotten me to actually start our own blog. All of our friends have blogs, and we (myself and my husband) love them. I love seeing and reading about what's going on in my friends' lives. However, neither of us has ever gotten the motivation to start our own until.... voila!... a computer class to teach me how to teach with technology!