who knows where thoughts come from?

the color run

2012-02-07T16:47:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday I ran in The Color Run with my friends Katie, Sara, and Sheri. I was super pumped about it after having looked at the website and seeing all of the pictures. At every 1k there are people throwing powdered "paint" at you, and then at the finish line you get a color bag and everyone throws their color up for an explosion of colors.

Well it rained Saturday night which wouldn't normally be a problem, except the course was an off road, grassy course. It turned out that we basically ran through giant water puddles (Sheri landed it one that went up to her knee! I had a hard time breathing I was laughing so hard.), and a huge mud pit. We were slipping and sliding while our shoes filled with water and mud. By the end it felt like I was running with 10 pounds of mud on my shoes. It also didn't help that after a week of 60-70 degree weather it was in the 40's with an insane amount of wind. Well, I don't have a white long sleeved shirt, so I wore a white tank top. It was miserably cold! But it would be worth it, right?

Trying to stay warm.

So the race starts, 30 minutes late, and we were off! Derrick, Katie's boyfriend was nice enough to take pictures of us running.

The first stop was green, then yellow, purple, and pink. There were supposed to be 5 color stops, but because of the rain and insane amount of mud the trucks couldn't get to one of the spots where the color needed to be.

Running to the finish with Sheri.

We didn't want to wait for the giant color explosion with the group because it was cold, so we had our own group explosion!

Katie and I then started having our own dance party. The DJ at the race had some pretty fun music.

Please make note of our shoes. And that was after we knocked as much mud off as we could.

I took a picture of what I looked like after the run and group explosion. (I had to wash my face 3 times, once rubbing the loofah all over, and shampoo my hair twice. I still had pink spots in my hair that didn't wash out.)

After all the complaining we did, it was totally worth it just for the pictures! I will probably do it again next year and make sure to bring Derrick along with us!

100th day of school

2012-02-05T19:52:00.000-06:00

I saw an awesome project for the 100th day of school, and knew immediately that I would have to start celebrating the 100th day! (We don't usually celebrate it in 2nd grade.) After getting buttons from my Aunt, my grandma only wanted me to "borrow" her thousands of buttons she doesn't use, I had parents bring in old fabric, wallpaper samples, cloth, etc., and we were ready! After we made portraits of ourselves of what we would look like at 100, we wrote about who we thought we would be then. There were some hilarious things! One kid said they would visit their parents (I'm guessing who would be around 130 years old) "every half month."

Enjoy my new favorite portrait project! (Although let's be honest, our beginning of year portraits will never be beat.)

The 2 writings I posted were the funniest of the bunch. I can't wait for next year's 100th day!

3m half marathon done!

2012-01-29T18:54:00.000-06:00

This morning I ran my second half marathon! I woke up at 3 am (my alarm was set for close to 5, so I was annoyed). I woke up so early because my stomach was bothering me. Most of you know all about my stomach and the annoying things it does to me. Most of you probably don't know that when I get nervous (like I was this morning) I start having stomach issues. It was pretty bad this morning. I'm not sure why I was so nervous today since I had done a half before, but I was. After taking my medicine, and trying to eat a bagel dad drove me up to the start of the race and then headed back home to get mom. The weather at the start was amazing! No wind, 35 degrees, and no humidity. Thank you weather gods!

The first few miles weren't too bad. I was trying to get into my groove, ignore my stomach, and not go too fast out of the starting line. I actually didn't sprint at the beginning which is unlike me at races, but good since I was running so far. I ran the farthest I've ever done without stopping to walk from mile 2-6. 4 miles! Another milestone among many in my life as a runner. Around mile 6 I started walking at the water stop so I could drink and take some sport beans. The second I started walking my right knee had a shooting pain in it. Awesome. I started running again hoping to lose the pain and it took me about a mile to get the pain away. It was pretty rough, I almost started crying while I limped/ran.

At mile 8 mom and dad were there (in full length coats, I guess it was colder than I had thought). I slowed down so dad could take some pictures, threw my gloves at my mom and kept on going.

Something I love at races, especially these long ones, are the awesome people that come out to support us. Every few miles there were people playing music and instruments to entertain us. The best was 2 different guys miles apart playing acordians, 2 old mariachi men, and a guy that kept jumping on his bike and riding further down the course every few miles.

Every time from mile 6 on, when I stopped to get water and walk, my knee would kill me. I was averaging a 10:30-11:00 mile pace until about mile 8 where I was slowing down from fatigue, and from my knee. Even with that I never had a mile slower than 12 minutes.

At mile 12 I was starting to lose it. That's when "One Tribe" came on. I was throwing my fists around and singing out loud. The people around me probably thought I was nuts. And THEN this came on...

When it started I literally stopped for a few beats, and when it really got going I started having a dance party all by myself in the street. It also including some dance running, dance skipping, and lots of hand gestures. The best part about it? There was a photographer right there and I'm pretty sure he got pictures of it. At least I'm hoping he did! If so I will make sure to post them here whenever the pictures come out.

As the end got closer I sped up. I was nearly sprinting (or sprinting as much as my tired legs could handle) to the finish line. Mom and dad were even able to get a spot on the sides and take pictures of me running in.

I love this one because it looks like I'm flying.

I finished in 2:28:42! WHAT?! That is crazy! That is 15:12 faster than my half last February! Holy cow! I still can't believe I was 15 minutes faster. I placed 338 in my age group, and 3927 overall. When I was taking my finishers picture I saw Larry, Kim and Brandon (all way faster than me) and we took some pictures.

After finding my parents we went to breakfast at Maudie's like we always do, and then I went home and took an ice bath for my poor knees. As I'm posting this I'm still sore and walk like an old lady. But it was totally worth it! I ran another half, beat my time, and had a dance party in the middle of the street. Who could ask for more? Let's just hope my body is ready for the Color Run, a 5k, this Saturday!

esme's killer

2012-01-27T19:03:00.000-06:00

News broke last night that the man who killed Esme killed himself a week after her death. His roommate found him dead a week later, on January 12th. I'm mad he took the easy way out and killed himself rather than face what he did. But I can take solace in the fact that he had to spend a week hearing all about her, how amazing she was, and all the people she touched while she was with us.

He is also now being linked to the attacks that happened to women running on the trail near Congress, and on Congress street. I remember Brandon telling us during one of our Wednesday runs this summer about those attacks, and told me and the other girls that we shouldn't be running by ourselves on the trail, especially not on Congress. Of course I made sure I was careful when I ran and never ran in a place where I was isolated, but I didn't stop running on my own. It's scary to think this guy was the same guy that killed Esme. I am curious to find out more about this guy. I don't think we will ever know why he did what he did. But hopefully her family can have some peace now that he is dead.

5 more days...

2012-01-24T20:08:00.000-06:00

In 5 days I will be running my second half marathon. I started running almost 2 years ago, and am so proud of myself for not only keeping up with it, but pushing myself to run another half marathon! It all started when I decided I needed to challenge myself and try something new, so I had set a goal to run a half marathon. I accomplished that goal last year, and it was an amazing experience! Afterwards I started thinking about what other kind of races I might want to run, not thinking I would actually run one that long again. Well I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, and I have been training since this summer. (Well, that's not entirely true. This summer was the worst. I thought I was going to die every time I ran even at 6 am because it was so freaking hot.)

In 5 days I will run my second half, and am aiming to beat my time. Based on my long runs the past few months, I am capable of running a 10:30-11:00 minute mile. Possibly even faster depending on how crazy I get at the start line. Now that I'm so close I am having a hard time not freaking out. I'm not freaking out that I won't finish, because I know I will. I'm not freaking out that I won't beat my time, because as long as I finish I don't really care. (Although let's be honest, I will be pissed if I don't run faster.) I am freaking out about my feet, and legs, and every little thing I'm feeling. My toe that I sprained awhile ago feels like it's possibly waiting quietly before springing back up and being annoying. My right knee is officially hating me and crackles all the time and is sore after my long runs. The side of my calf has a weird pain when I run that fades and then comes back without warning. I'm at the crazy obsessive phase where I am wearing tennis shoes to school for the rest of the week just so I don't make my feet extra sore. (I don't think I was this crazy before my first half. So why am I deciding now is the time to become crazy?)

Ugh. I need to drop everything at the starting line Sunday morning and just run. Run to accomplish a goal. Run to remind myself I can do anything no matter what my brain tells me. Run to remember lost friends. Run to feel alive. I will drop all of my worries, my craziness, my sadness, my anger, and I will run with joy. 5 more days.

run to the sun

2012-01-22T12:51:00.000-06:00

Last year I ran in the Run to the Sun which is an overnight relay. A group of teachers from my school were on a team, and it was an amazing experience! We are running it again this year, and I am so excited! If you can help donate to this fantastic cause, please do so. Any amount is appreciated and will help the Batten Disease Foundation eradicate this disease.

Click here to donate.

Thanks, and happy running!

im officially 28...i feel old

2012-01-19T20:22:00.000-06:00

Monday I officially turned 28. I know it's not old, but it sure feels old. I think it feels so old because I am rapidly getting closer to 30. Oh man. It will happen before I know it. Anyways. I spent Sunday night with a group of friends at The Highball in their Rapper's Delight (karaoke) room. We sang the night away! It was a blast! I sounded pretty crazy the next morning because of all of my singing.

Larry and Sara were pretty amazing singing Summer Lovin from Grease. Larry sang Sandy's part, and Sara Danny's part. (It reminded me of when Rebecca made me sing Danny's part EVERY TIME we were on a road trip. No matter how much I begged, I never got to be Sandy.) They were pretty fabulous. I recorded it, but it didn't come out well. I may still have to post it later just so you can hear the amazingly high notes Larry was reaching.

The next night, my actual birthday, we went to Sheri's for The Bachelor. I have to say, I have the most awesome for real friends* ever! Not only did Sheri email me before that night checking ingredients and making sure I could eat what she was making, but Sarah even made me brownies! AND she got candles and everyone sang me happy birthday! I have some pretty awesome friends who take care of me and my insane food issues. What more could a girl ask for? I can't wait to see what this year has in store for me. This birthday weekend has me thinking it might be pretty great.

Oh. Except for the fact that my class totally forgot about my birthday! It was pretty hilarious when over the announcements they said happy birthday to me. If there was a record playing it would have totally scratched to a stop at that point as each one of my students turned their head to me with a look of confusion and surprise. I couldn't help but laugh.

*Two summers ago I decided I needed to make new friends, so my goal for the summer was to become "for real friends" with Sarah. The next summer I expanded my friend search to the other awesomely cool girls at my school, and thus formed our "for real friends" talking club, and friendship.

for esme

2012-01-17T19:43:00.002-06:00

Sunday was the memorial for Esme here in Austin. It was a perfect tribute to her, and her life. Many of her good friends spoke and told beautiful stories about her. Esme also volunteered at the Girls Rock Camp here in Austin. They finished the memorial by all getting up on stage, at least 30 girls and women playing, singing, dancing, celebrating Esme and life, and performed She's a Rainbow. I think everyone, myself included, were crying for our loss, for what Esme's death has shown us, and just thinking about how in love Esme would have been with this performance. All for her. It was the perfect way to say goodbye.

"You are full of unlimited possibilities!" Esme

talking club is back

2012-01-14T12:06:00.000-06:00

The Bachelor is back, which means the Talking Club is officially back! This week everyone came over to my place and I set up a pizza and salad bar for everyone. I made my dad's awesome pizza sauce and bought a bunch of individual sized pizza crusts. I also bought a bunch of salad stuff and made these insane peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I found on Pinterest.

There was more pizza stuff than that, but that's all that could fit on that counter. And yes, Sheri even brought a can of anchovies for anyone brave enough to join her. Sick. I did not. Last week was at Alli's and we invited Larry along since it was the day after we found out about Esme and we just wanted to all be together. Because of that I couldn't leave him out for this weeks. Plus we all bet on who we thought we would win, and since Larry is in the pool I would have felt bad not inviting him.

Everyone was thrilled I took their picture.

So far Sara and I are in trouble. The girl we liked is fading into the background, so I'm afraid we are going to be out next week. Sarah told me to just pick the craziest girl for her and unlucky for her, she actually got kicked off that night. Below is our pool. I figured I had to put it online so the girls, and Larry, could see and so I can't cheat and change things.

Me: Britney

Sara: Britney

~~Sarah: Jenna~~

Katie: Lindzi

Alli: Kacie B.

Larry: Jamie

Allison: Kacie B.

Barry: Nicki

Heather: Rachel

Sheri: Samantha

Chloe: Blakely

I can't wait for this Mondays! It looks like it will be an insane episode, AND my birthday! Woo Hoo!

fear and madness

2012-01-08T16:25:00.000-06:00

Over the past week, I haven't really been too scared. My friends on the other hand, not so much. One friend is getting a gun, another has had her mom in town all week staying with her, and another stayed with our friend all week and when her husband leaves today she will be at someone else's house. Now we all know I jump at everything, and during a scary movie I'm terrified. But those things pass pretty quickly for me. After reading, hearing, talking all about Esme and what happened to her, I have made sure I'm staying smart and cautious. I don't mind walking back to my car alone in the dark, or sleep with the window open if it's nice outside, and I have always LOVED living alone. Living alone has never been a scary thing for me. But, things have changed since Esme was killed.

On Friday some friends and I went for a drink and towards the end of the night we started talking about Esme, what happened, being safe, and how scared everyone is. For some reason on my way home I started getting terrified. I hated that feeling. Walking into my dark apartment was awful. My heart was beating out of my chest I was so scared. I kept the door open (not totally safe in itself because someone could run right through, but if someone was inside I could run out super easily) and started going room to room turning on every light I could and looking under, and in things. When I got to my bathroom I kicked my shower curtain (I always close it after a shower), and when no one made a sound I karate kicked it open. After that I knew my apartment was safe and I closed and locked the door. From there I got out my pepper spray in my nightstand, dusted it off, and put it on my key ring. Who knows if it even still works, my parents got it for me when I first went to UT.

Until that night, I had a pretty rational mind. I know that as long as I'm safe and cautious, I should be ok. I also know even with being safe anything could happen at anytime, anywhere. But Friday night my mind lost its sanity. Being this scared is no way to live. As I write this I'm feeling better, not as fearful. But who's to say this fearfulness won't happen again?

I've always read true crime books, loving the science, psychology, and detective work behind these stories. It is crazy to think I now actually know someone that this has happened to. I've been trying to think back to all of the books and cases I've read about. Hoping there would be some answer, or ray of light that would help. The latest reports are that this man has possibly attacked many other women over the past year or two. Of course this hasn't been stated as fact from the police, but based on sketches there is a possible link.

All I can do at this point is be smart about what I do. Don't walk to my car alone at night anymore. Have a friend walk me to the door if I'm feeling uneasy. (Derrick walked me to my apartment Friday night and did a "room search" like he does for the flight attendants when they land for the night. He's a pilot in case that was a confusing sentence. And no, they aren't staying in the same room, he just checks that they're safe before he goes to his own room.) I will keep my pepper spray on my keys, and by my bed when I'm sleeping. Lynn, our school counselor, is also setting up a self defense class for us after school sometime soon. Although lets be honest. If I ever were to get attacked there is no way I will actually remember any of that crap.

I'm mad at this guy for taking a friend. I'm mad at him for taking someone so young, and so awesomely cool. I'm mad at him for scaring my friends. I'm mad at him for making me feel unsafe in my own apartment. I'm just mad.

for esme

2012-01-04T17:28:00.000-06:00

I have been waiting a few days for this post. Mostly because I didn't know what to say. Early New Years morning after coming home from a New Years Eve party, a coworker of mine was killed in her home. I didn't know her well, but I knew her well enough to know that she was an awesome, always upbeat, fun person. Something I have learned since Monday is that she was really big in the music scene. There is a benefit for her next Friday and apparently a lot of awesome bands are playing. (I'm not cool enough to know those bands, but Esme was.) There is also one already in the works in Brooklyn, New York! I said I didn't know her well. But who knew?

It's scary that it was a random act of violence, and scarier that he is still out there. 3 girls were attacked within hours of each other on her street, the other 2 girls were lucky enough that they weren't killed like Esme. Living alone has never been very scary for me. After this, I will be making sure my doors are always locked, and I have pepper spray near my bed. Some of the girls at school are staying with friends for the rest of the week, another's mom came in to stay with her. It is a scary time right now for girls living alone. It makes me think twice about walking around outside in the dark, something I don't mind doing.

Today was our first day back, luckily it was only us teachers. It was a hard morning talking about her, sharing stories, and discussing what we do now. How do we tell the kids? Tomorrow will be a scary day with the kids. But like Amy said this morning, we need to think about how Esme would handle it. She would walk in with a huge smile on her face, and love on her kids all day long, and make them feel safe. So that's what I'm going to do.

Above is something a coworker's brother created. We wore stickers today with this image. It has already spread to so many non-school people across Facebook. You will be missed Esme.

resolutions

2012-01-01T17:09:00.000-06:00

Last year instead of making resolutions I thought about things I wanted to leave behind in 2010, and things I wanted to run towards in 2011. Overall I think I did pretty well keeping to them. This year I am going to keep those resolutions in my mind, and add a few things I want to do over the year.

Read at least one book a month, even during the school year. (Way harder than you would think.)
Catch up on my scrapbooks. This one will take awhile, I don't think I've done anything in them since I was 21...I think I need to move to digital.
Run a race in another state-I don't care the distance. Even better, run a race in a city I have never been to before with one of my running buddies. Abby? Amy? You ready?
Keep putting myself out there. No matter how hard it is.

What are you changing? Leaving behind? Working on?

christmas in chicago

2011-12-31T19:08:00.001-06:00

As you all know, my sister has a kid now which makes traveling more interesting. Because they had just come down for Thanksgiving, and had an amazing time, we thought we would spare them from traveling back to Texas, so we went to them. I was so excited about snow on Christmas just like last year, but sadly the weather was just cold with no snow. It was a great trip! Lots of food, and family time. It couldn't have been better!

Let's start with the sleeping arrangements. Before Miles, his room was the guest room, and their office could be turned into another guest room if needed. That's what we did last Christmas. Well, Miles is here and things have changed. There is one less guest room, so I got the air mattress in the closet. That first night was awful because it was freezing, uncomfortable, and kind of scary. It didn't help that Rebecca and Michael were telling me Santa was going to chop my head off and centipedes were going to crawl all over my body. After that first night I got a total of 4 blankets, and a heating pad. It was much nicer in the closet after that.

Yes, that is my picture on his toy. It's my school picture from this year, and apparently one of Miles' favorite new toys. I think when I first got there he was a little confused because he hit my face a few times like he does to the picture.

Lions fan already!

We started our usual photo shoot. He wasn't having it and I realized why during this picture. I heard a huge fart, and then a blowout happened.

Bath time because of the blowout. I think Miles needs a haircut.

Party hair.

9 to 5 hair.

Miles' first Christmas! I know he doesn't get it, but we were all super excited for him!

Miles trying pickled okra like his mom. He hated it, but started laughing because we were laughing at his faces.

Amazing dinner once again made by Rebecca.

The best present I got for Miles (In my opinion at least. His favorite were the caterpillar drumsticks above. But come one, a coonskin cap? Amazing.)

I had built an awesome tower using almost all of the blocks earlier in the day, so we had a competition to see who could use the most before it fell over. Dad did a respectable job.

However, I am a master builder. They shouldn't have messed with me. Rebecca was mad I was able to use all the blocks though because that meant that the game was over. Sorry. I'm just too awesome.

Photo shoot #2.

He was going through my bag while I got my charger and found this hat. Of course I put it on him. He looks so guilty in this picture!

While we were there he even took his first steps! Living so far away I never thought I'd actually get to see one of his firsts. But I did, yay!

Here are a few other fun videos I took while I was there. Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

tacky christmas sweater party

2011-12-18T16:43:00.000-06:00

Katie and her boyfriend Derrick had a tacky Christmas sweater party at their place last night. I was on a search for an awesome sweater the past few weeks. I tried several Goodwills, other thrift stores, and finally found something at Walmart. I even got these fabulous jingle bell earrings. The earrings helped make the outfit, but the jingling drove me a little crazy.

The party was a lot of fun! Lots of cool school peeps were there, and so much amazing food! I didn't get to eat it, but it looked awesome. I would have pigged out if I could have! I did try to make some champagne jello shots, classy I know, but one kind I made didn't taste good and the other kind didn't make enough to even bother bringing them. They weren't that great anyway. Oh well. I tried.

some of the girls

twins!

the awesome hostess, Katie

the awesome host, Derrick

Merry Tacky Christmas!

merry christmas...suckers

2011-12-14T17:46:00.000-06:00

I don't think I have ever posted a video I saw on my blog, and I think this is the best way to start. Let me just say, I can't wait until I have kids old enough to do this to them! Or, I can't wait until my friends kids, and nephew, are old enough to do this! I didn't know how to embed it, so go to this link for an awesome video.

I love the kid who got a hot dog, and the sandwich girl. Ok, I need to go watch it again. Enjoy!

lights of love

2011-12-13T15:16:00.001-06:00

2 Friday nights ago I ran in the Lights of Love 5k with two friends from school, Katie and Chloe. It had been raining all day and it had luckily stopped an hour or two before the run. I was super excited because we were going to be running around a neighborhood with all of their Christmas lights out. I love running in the dark, and looking at Christmas lights while I run is even better! I even put a Christmas playlist on my iPod to get me into the mood.

Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" was the first song on my playlist which totally pumped me up! It was a great run, but I was bummed at the people living in the neighborhood. There weren't many lights out, so the run was a little more boring that I had expected. But it was still a great run for 2 reasons. The first is that I ran my fastest 5k to date! Not only did I run it in 30:24, but I ran my first mile in 8:46. 8:46! I have never run that fast in my life! The second reason why the race was great was there was a Jingle Beer stand and several very jolly men were passing out beer on their lawn. Of course I couldn't say no to these jolly men, so I stopped to grab a drink before finishing the race. This is probably the last race I will run until my half marathon at the end of January, and it was a great one to end on.

Katie is in front in purple, and Chloe next to me in black.

Woo hoo! (The time is slower than mine because I didn't get out right at 0)

i'm a good teacher, i swear

2011-12-03T19:41:00.000-06:00

I started reading centers this week, and in one of the centers they have a book they read together. Before they start reading I have them explore the book, and ask questions they may have. These questions are usually something like, "Who is the main character? Where does the story take place?" Well...I got 2 questions that made me laugh out loud, and then wonder if I needed to throw their sheet away or send it home and hope their parents don't question the book choice. Before you see their questions, let me say they are reading different books, and they are both great kid books.

Question 5

Question 4

I'm just helping my students to become more well rounded and learn about life.

oh christmas tree

2011-12-01T20:03:00.000-06:00

I have a tree skirt that does its purpose. It's red, felt, and ugly. Of course that meant I needed to look on Pinterest to find a craft I could do that would make this ugly tree skirt amazing. I found it and immediately got to work. Jo-Ann's had an amazing sale going on over Thanksgiving weekend so I got this cute red and white snowflake fabric for only $10 for 4 yards. (I used almost all of those 4 yards for those of you that will be copying....I mean for those of you that will be inspired by me.)

I cut the fabric into long strips, about 3 inches wide, until I had a big pile. It only took me about an hour, and that was with me stopping periodically to watch tv. After that I spread out my skirt and got all of my supplies ready to glue and ruffle the fabric.

Stupid hot glue gun glue dries quickly so for the first few strips I had to put only a little glue, ruffle, more glue, ruffle, you get the idea. I was video chatting with Rebecca and Miles during most of the gluing and she was very supportive. "So how long did the first circle take? Man this is going to take a long time. It's looking fluffy."

In the end it took me about 3 hours to do the entire skirt. The first few rows I was starting to get nervous that I would hate it. But it is AWESOME!! My fingers were covered in hot glue gun glue, a little burnt, and the floor was a mess with stringy glue stuff. When I picked it up to put around my Christmas tree it was glued to the ground! Luckily I was able to pull it off and nothing got messed up.

On a side note, as I was decorating my tree I pulled out a cat ornament my mom gave me in 2007. She even wrote Luna's name on the side so no one would forget who that cat was supposed to be. She even has wings and a halo. I think my mom is psychic and knew she would ran away/get lost/get killed by some wild Greenbelt animal. RIP Luna.

Merry Christmas y'all!

family thanksgiving part 3

2011-11-30T21:17:00.000-06:00

So in part 1 of this saga, I said I would come back to some of my Aunt's toys that are upstairs. I'm starting with a picture that I am well aware is not a toy, but it needed to be addressed and this felt like the best time to do that. This was in the room I was staying in. I started laughing when I saw them. Who needs so many Styrofoam Ho Ho Ho cups? I asked her why she had so many and she said she was giving them to her girls for Christmas. At that point she got pulled away and never finished explaining. Since I am still unclear, I'm assuming for Christmas my cousins are getting Styrofoam cups that are only good to use once a year. Merry Christmas y'all!

The amazing discovery was that my Aunt has tons of new, but also awesome old toys. A lot of them I remember playing with, or remember having one of my own. There were also a bunch of dolls and stuffed animals. Now I am all for keeping your kid's toys because they will be totally awesome when they get older. However, there are times when it's ok to get rid of things.

Exhibit A

What is wrong with his...her hair?
Why are, let's go with its, its eyes painted on looking sideways? With eyes like that I'm already thinking this doll is totally going to wake up and kill me in the middle of the night.
Why is it making that face? That is just creepy.

Exhibit B, Exhibit A's BFF

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?
I bet your BFF over there ripped it off because it couldn't get to me. That's right. I locked the door knowing what was coming. Good thing too, because that could be me.

Exhibit C

Holy crap. The lighting didn't help the situation either.
What is going on with her hair?
This one totally would have killed me. But I put that monkey on top of her so she would rip the rest of his face off instead.

And with that, Thanksgiving has been recapped. I feel that leaving you with that terrifying image is probably for the best. Good luck sleeping tonight, and Happy Thanksgiving!

family thanksgiving part 2

2011-11-29T16:51:00.000-06:00

I left off as we were heading downstairs to watch the last Texas vs. A&M game. I am a HUGE Longhorn and was excited as always but also sad for this years game. A&M is leaving the Big 12 so this was going to be the last game (in the foreseeable future) against these two teams. We have a winning record over them, W75-L37-T5, and I was hoping to add another win to that category.

As the game started my stomach started feeling weird. I wasn't sure if I had eaten something that I shouldn't have (not on the Courtney food plan), or if I had caught some left over germs from my sister, Michael, or Miles. (The 3 of them had been sick over the previous weekend with a nasty case of the stomach flu.) I figured I had eaten something I shouldn't since I had been around them a few days and I hadn't felt badly yet.

About halfway through the first quarter I went upstairs because it was getting worse. That's when it happened. Vomit city. Unfortunately there were no tv's upstairs and I didn't think I would make it downstairs to watch the game near one of those tv's, and near a bathroom. I could hear everyone downstairs cheering, and seconds later would get an update from my ESPN app telling me what had happened. I made many trips to the bathroom during one of the most exciting games ever! (Because of what was at stake, and because of what happened.) The only upside was we won! We are officially more awesome and way cooler than A&M. I already knew that, but now everyone else knows too.

I was sick all night long. I tried sleeping but that didn't work. I tried rolling over to my other side because my hips were sore, and that just led to me having to run to the bathroom. It was a sad, long, disgusting night. Being sick, even at a relatives house, is awful. All I wanted was to be home, Houston, Austin, either would have been better. The next morning my mom called checking in on me, and asked if I felt up to being in a car. I told her I just wanted to go home. (Insert pathetic, whiny voice here.) We decided to drive to Houston instead of Austin for a few reasons. 1. It was a shorter drive, 2. Miles wouldn't have to be in the car as long or have to get used to another new place to sleep, and 3. Then Rebecca, Michael, and I would drive Saturday morning to Austin to finish our awesomely planned weekend. (We were going to watch the Michigan vs. Ohio State game at a Michigan bar, hang out, and then go to a Master Pancake show at the Alamo Drafthouse called A Very Hanksgiving. It featured a mashup of all of Tom Hanks' movies and tv shows.)

After a long morning, well for someone who hadn't slept all night, we left for Houston. My mom was nice enough to let me have the front seat, and my awesome giant brother in law was nice enough to let me lean my chair back some. He's a giant, he has giant legs that need to go somewhere, and he let me crunch those giant legs up. It was very nice of him. When we got home we all ate dinner and went to bed pretty early with the plan of the 3 of us waking up to head to Austin at 7 to make it in time for the game, and my parents would wake up just as early to take care of Miles. I woke up around 6 and checked my phone like I usually do and saw I had a text message from my sister. "Not going to Austin. Sleep in." Wait, what? She came in not much longer after I saw that text and I asked what happened. Apparently soon after I went to bed my parents came in and told my sister they were both sick. Ok, well at least I now knew it wasn't something I ate and possibly left over germs I had caught from the Chicago crew.

So we were Houston bound since the babysitters were officially sick.* No hotel room, no football game at a fun bar, and no Master Pancake Theater. Oh, and no official ride back to Austin at this point. I guess Greyhound could take me home.

My poor parents kept their door shut all day, and would call us if they needed anything. My mom even told me to leave it at the door and knock. I didn't do that of course, but I thought it was funny she offered that. I did however totally hold my breath every time I went in there. Around 10 we got a call from my Aunt. My Uncle was sick too and felt like death. Not long after we got another call from her telling us my Grandpa was sick. Not longer after that, Zachary only made it halfway back to Dallas before having Jennifer pull over at a gas station to puke his guts out.

I'm sure my family probably hates me now and totally blames me. However, I think it is way more impressive if we blame this on Miles because his reign of terror is way better. Because he got sick earlier and in Michigan, he terrorized 4 states (Michigan, Illinois, Texas, Louisiana), and infected 3 cousins, 1 aunt, 1 grandpa and grandma, 1 great aunt and great uncle, 1 great grandfather, and 2 friends. That's a pretty impressive record for a 9 month old. Those stats are way cooler than mine, so I'm just putting all of the blame on him.

I was feeling better, but still tired on Saturday. We watched the Michigan game, Go Blue!, and tried to make it exciting for Michael. I don't think it was the same though.

After the game there was a great pianist that played for us. He is very talented.

We then went to the park. We tried to convince Rebecca we didn't need to add the car seat to the stroller because the basket thing underneath would totally work. She didn't go for it.

This was the best picture I could take of the ridiculousness that is his hair. It is amazing.

That night we rented some movies and Rebecca and Michael decided to have some wine. Rebecca broke the cork and so Michael found a medieval poking device to try to fix the problem.

It didn't really work so they had to shove it all the way down and then use my mom's loose tea leaf holder thing to strain the wine before drinking it.

Sunday everyone seemed to be on the mend and feeling better. Mom and dad actually emerged from their room. I was lucky enough to have a friend drive me back to Austin so I wouldn't have to take the Greyhound. Before leaving, Miles and I had to keep up with traditions and have a photo shoot. He wasn't having it that day, so there aren't many photos to show for it.

I think his face sums up this trip and Thanksgiving pretty well. Over. It.

*For those of you in Houston, I did want to see you. However, I was terrified I would start to infect the entire city of Houston so you should just be thanking me. Plus I'll be back in a few weeks for Christmas.

family thanksgiving part 1

2011-11-28T17:49:00.001-06:00

For the past several years we have all met up in Houston (Rebecca, Michael, myself, and now Miles) and then would drive to Shreveport Wednesday morning. After pigging out, watching football, and a night of recovery, we would drive to Austin on Friday. From there everyone else figures out how to get home, either driving to Houston with my parents and then flying home, or flying straight from Austin. We did it again this year, and had to rent a huge car to accommodate the family which now includes a baby. Babies sure need a lot of crap when the travel. Fortunately, we have had a lot of practice packing up and I think we outdid ourselves.

Ready to go!

My parents stayed with my grandparents, and the rest of us stayed at my Aunt's. She has a bunch of grand kids and has a pretty sweet set up upstairs with TONS of toys. (More on the toys in another post.) It couldn't have been better for Miles! He LOVES balls, and was thrilled that he had so many at once. So we thought it would be a good idea to put him in the container of balls. You know, like a mini McDonald's ball pit.

My cousin and her son stayed with us as well, and boy oh boy did Zachary LOVE Michael! When Jennifer, my cousin, told him he would be sleeping on the floor with her and myself in beds, he had a better suggestion. He thought it would be better if there was a boy's room and a girls' room so he and Michael could stay together.

Just waiting around for food to be ready.

The best part about this picture is that it looks like Rebecca is feeding Zachary.

After pigging out on delicious food and watching hours upon hours of football, some of us got ready for bed, and we went upstairs to play some more!

Michael and Rebecca made up a great game called Peoples. They of course didn't tell Zachary it was made up, and he really wanted to play. Michael would never deny someone to play something ridiculous he made up that makes no sense. Enjoy the video of them playing Peoples. Can you guess the rules? Don't worry if you can't. I'm pretty sure they were made as he went in order to make sure he won. You can also hear Miles making his favorite noise in the background.

Of course Miles wanted to play. He watched how the game went and totally thought he could take on his dad.

After Miles went down we all went down to watch the Texas vs. A&M game. And that, readers, is where I will stop for now. So far we were off to a great start! Great food, family time, Peoples, what could go wrong?

happy thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T18:17:00.001-06:00

Let me start of by saying, yes, I am aware that I haven't been around for 20 days. Have you missed me? I bet so. Well I am currently lying here on my couch figuring out the best way to blog about our Thanksgiving. It was...memorable to say the least. Check back over the week for all of the installments. While I get everything figured out, I will start with a fun activity I found on Pinterest that I did with my class. We discussed writing how-to's, and wrote our own! We created our turkey feathers by coloring on a coffee filter with markers and then dipping the filters in water to make the colors spread. It turned out pretty cute!

This poor turkey had a little trouble...

I love how happy he is to catch a turkey and how terrified that turkey is after being caught.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Check back for the saga of our Thanksgiving trip.

training has begun

2011-11-07T18:56:00.000-06:00

Everyone should know training has begun again for me. I signed up for the 3M half that's at the end of January. This is the one I found out about last year AFTER I signed up for the Livestrong half. This one is mostly downhill which is amazing since the first half I did was designed by a masochist. Hills the entire half, and a huge one the last mile. Seriously? Anyways, training is in full swing. I got another new pair of shoes (I think this is now the 4th pair I've bought since I started running.), a new running watch, and am in the market for some better cold weather running clothes.

Yesterday I did my long run, only 5 when I was supposed to do 7. It was a hard run so I cut it short. My legs were tight, my stomach wasn't cooperating, and it rained the entire run. The rain I kind of enjoyed, it's the other things that stopped me short. Having hard runs sucks. It makes me worried that I won't be ready for my half. I know I will be, but having tough runs makes me wonder why I decided to sign up for another half marathon. Amy is already trying to convince me to sign up for another half that is for women only a few months later. Maybe I'll do it to keep me in top shape for the Run to the Sun again this year. Either way, I know it will all be worth it as I run across the finish line with a huge smile across my face.

1 year anniversary

2011-11-06T11:48:00.000-06:00

Well, it's officially been a year since Luna went missing. I totally figured she would show up by now. I guess I was wrong. You always hear these amazing animal stories, they rescue their owner from a fire, alert Timmy someone is stuck in a well, etc. I guess Luna isn't as cool as those animals. The best thing she could do was snag crickets in her mouth, sit next to me if she felt I was good enough, and occasionally pee on my bed, in the sink and in my papasan chair.

Oh Luna, you have been missed. Maybe it's time for me to get a new, non-peeing on furniture, cuddly cat. Maybe not. What if she comes back? I know she would totally hate having another cat to have to deal with.

In memoriam.

i heart college football

2011-11-05T11:36:00.001-05:00

Another one of my awesome parents gave me tickets to our game this past weekend. The seats were awesome! Not only were we on the 40 yard line, and in the 38th row, but we were on the for real seat sides! I've only experienced bench seating when watching college football. Well, no longer. I was in seats with a back and arm rests and everything! This must be how the rich live. The downside to sitting on the fancy side? It was so quiet! I'm used to screaming, chanting, singing along, high fiving strangers...I guess yelling isn't something fancy people participate in. Something they do participate in? Sitting quietly and watching the game. It was strange. I still had a blast though!

The alumni band was there playing at half time, along with alumni baton twirlers! Watch to the end of this first video, I like the booty bump the old lady does with her baton.

This dude tried over and over again to throw his baton super high and catch it. His old hands must be out of shape because he missed it more than he caught it. The people on the fancy side were more into the baton man than the game. Way more yelling at this old dude.

All in all it was a great time. Hook em!

the power of iphones

2011-10-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

I have had a cell phone since I was 16. In those 11 years I never have dropped my phone in water or the toilet. Well, my 11 year streak just ended. Last week I dropped my phone in the toilet! The second it fell in I pulled it out, and that's when the ridiculousness started. Since I have never dropped my phone in water I didn't really know what the best next step was. So obviously I turned off my phone and then shook it really hard to get the water out. That would totally work right? I then put it in a cup of rice to try to get more moisture out.

Well....I got bored and about 2 hours later I took it out and turned it back on. It worked! However, I noticed certain sounds weren't working. Hmm...instead of turning it off and putting it back in rice like I should have, I started texting Wes asking him what to do. I also googled it and it said to plug and unplug headphones while music is playing and that might fix the problem. I tried that, but unfortunately there was rice still in the headphone outlet thing and I totally smashed rice into it. Oops. My next brilliant idea was to get a toothpick and start picking the rice out. It kinda worked. But no sound. I decided to leave it alone and hope for the best.

Most of the sounds are working now, but I for sure shorted something out. Do I live with it randomly working and then not working, or splurge and get the new iPhone? Decisions, decisions. Also, how in the hell is my phone still working? I bet the ghost of Steve Jobs is looking over my shoulder protecting my phone. I'm sure he doesn't have anything better to do wherever he is and is watching out for my phone.

jealous faces

2011-10-19T20:36:00.000-05:00

I went shopping over the weekend and stopped into Payless. Typically there aren't many shoes worth even trying on. But I hit the jackpot! I tried on some awesome green snakeskin stilettos. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. But fortunately, I took a picture of the best shoes ever! Of course I had to buy them!

You are seeing pure amazingness! Gold heel, gold zipper up the front, and covered in black...fur?...Mohair? (What is mohair?)...Who knows. I zipped them up, and walked out of the store with my head held high wearing my new favorite shoes!

Ok seriously? Obviously the only part of that that's true is I put them on to send a picture of them to Angie. Please, I am not Jenny from the block (although let's be serious, she isn't anymore either). Seriously Payless? I really will be so happy if I see someone wearing these out in public soon.

never eat soggy waffles

2011-10-18T20:08:00.001-05:00

Ok, I realize I have been posting mostly about school lately. Well. Deal with it. Once school starts back ridiculous things happen that I must inform you about. Yesterday we were looking at maps and learning about the difference between compasses and compass roses. Afterwards we came up with different sayings to help us remember how to draw a compass. I told them I learned "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" when I was their age. After the lesson they did a really fun activity, and one of the questions was to write their compass saying.

Oh man.

Well, I guess I wouldn't ever want to eat soggy wieners either! Ben was in my room as I was checking them and I started laughing, and when he gave me a weird look I told him why I was laughing. He asked why the kid wrote that. I told him why not? Wieners is a funny word. He just about fell out of his chair laughing at my response. Hopefully that conversation doesn't seem weird when he tells his mom about it.

kick off your sunday shoes

2011-10-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

Last night my friend Eric and I were going to go to Alamo to see 50/50. Even though it's been out for awhile, it was sold old. So in the lobby we start looking for other movie times at other theaters, and discovered Footloose was starting soon at the theater in the mall. Now you would think it would take some arm twisting to get a boy to go see Footloose. Nope. I'm pretty sure Eric danced back to the car in preparation. As we drove there I thought about going to see Footloose, on opening night on a Friday, at the mall. I was expecting either a bunch of people around our age seeing if it was any good compared to the original ready to sing along, or a bunch of middle school girls ready to scream at Ren every time he came on screen.

Surprisingly the movie was pretty good! It was mostly people around our age, and the girls next to me sang along to several of the songs. And one of them totally belted out the last song. I usually go see movies at Alamo, where they have a strict no phone policy. Because I have been spoiled, hearing several phones going off was annoying. AND one dude (I'm assuming) who was in one of the first few rows was on his phone most of the movie. If I had been sitting anywhere near him I would have been pissed. On our way out of the theater we even saw this one girl dancing back to her car.

All I want to do now is dance! I need to go practice my dance moves to be ready for a spontaneous dance party. While I practice, enjoy the most ridiculous, and the best dance scenes ever.

parent-teacher conferences

2011-10-12T17:25:00.000-05:00

One of the worst things about teaching in Austin is that you HAVE to do parent-teacher conferences twice a year. For some kids it's really great because I need to talk to the parents about something that is going on with them either academically or behaviorally. But for the rest of them? A waste of both of our times because they are doing fine, and are awesome. Anyways, conferences were this past Monday. Overall they went really well, but I did have 2 really funny things that happened.

1. One of the families that came in are from Asia and have many beliefs about school, performance, etc. that I'm sure everyone has heard/read/experienced before. The dad said something about that he wasn't going to let his daughter go to as many birthday parties this year because it just gets to be too much. (Agreed!) And then he said, "Parents at this school just love their kids too much! They give in too much." Oh man I loved that! I wish I could have laughed, but he probably would have been offended when I just thought what he said was funny.

2. One of the mom's came in and her son came in towards the end and she asked if he had anything else that he wanted us to talk about. He whispered in her ear and she said you need to tell her yourself. So then he said, "Well, (for the purpose of this we will call her Dolores) Dolores won't call me my name. She keeps calling me dude. Dude, dude, dude, dude. Ugh. Dolores is so annoying. Why doesn't she just call me my name?" Luckily he was looking at his mom while I stifled my laughter. She looked at me and made the same face I assume I was currently making. When he walked back out of the room we both started laughing. One of the best things was the way he said dude. It was more like dood...I don't think that cleared it up. Well, whatever.

I had 4 make ups yesterday, and 2 more tomorrow and then I'll be done. Finally! Hopefully I will finally start sleeping again after Thursday. One can only hope.

raccoons are scary

2011-10-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

I had a post I wanted to make last week and totally forgot about it until today! Why did I finally remember it? Probably because I had a run in with those scary ass raccoons again! Last week I woke up at 5 to go run at the gym. I have to walk to the front office to get there, and luckily there are some lights outside so it's not pitch black. About halfway there I noticed a raccoon. I kept my eyes on it, but kept walking. Then I saw another one, and the first one was following me. Then a third one popped up and all three had their eyes on me and followed me. It was really scary! Finally as I was right by the office there was a dumpster they all ran into.

Terrified that I almost got rabies I heard a scream. It sounded like it came from the pool, so when I got into the gym I looked at the pool to see if anyone was in it. There were! Not only were there 6 people, but there were 6 naked people! Already my morning had taken 2 unexpected turns. The treadmill faces the pool, so I couldn't help but look at them. It was a weird way to wake up. They could totally see me, and knew I could see them since there were lights all around the pool.

When I went to the gym yesterday I only had to deal with those same scary raccoons trying to give me rabies. Luckily I had my eyes on them so I totally knew what they were up to. I was ready to kick them if necessary.

i should be a food writer

2011-09-27T17:50:00.000-05:00

I love food. Granted, my love of food has changed the last few years with my new forced diet. Either way I always thought that being a food writer and restaurant reviewer would be a pretty awesome gig. As I was going through old cookbooks to get rid of ones that are no longer relevant to my life, I came across this pretty sweet rating system inside one of my cookbooks.

Amazing right?! I totally should start my own food blog so I can rate them solely based on this system. It's nice because there's a clear difference between ok and very bad. But what if it's just bad? I know I've had things in my life that were bad, but by no means would they require those awesome Spanish exclamation marks. Maybe I could adjust it to accommodate more of a range?

I looked through my cookbook to see what I did on pages that were ok or very bad. I didn't write notes on why it was bad, or things I could do different. Just the face. Some of the recipes I didn't even understand why I tried because they looked disgusting. All my other cookbooks were totally normal which was quite boring. (Granted, this was a cookbook from middle school and the rest were from when I was older.) Be on the lookout for my new blog rating restaurants with smiley faces and exclamation marks. It's going to be pretty awesome.

i like big butts

2011-09-26T20:21:00.001-05:00

This post might be TMI for some, but my sister just wrote a post that was TMI so I figured I should follow suit. So I decided I needed to face something that couldn't be denied any longer. My butt is getting bigger. How do I know you ask? Because I am living in a constant wedgie. I googled "bigger butts and running" and came across an article on Livestrong titled "The Best Ways to Get a Big Butt" with this terrifying quote:

Running

Outside of being a great cardio workout, running tones your lower body, giving you a bigger, rounder butt. To increase the butt-building potential of a running workout, add sprints, stairs or hills.

Awesome. All I did this summer was sprints and hill drills. And now I'm training for another half marathon. My butt is doomed! I'm hoping that it's getting bigger because of running and not because it's just getting fatter. I guess I need to go shopping this weekend.

best end to a friday

2011-09-23T17:36:00.000-05:00

Depending on how our week goes, we will go to the forest at the end of the day to play. We went out today and some other classes were out there. I was talking with Sarah when a former student of hers (I knew him as well, he was quite...unforgettable) came up with a skeleton of a lizard he found out there. He was showing us how the jaws work and then said, "And right here is where the family jewels were. You can tell because of those bones. Too bad they're gone now." Oh man, I wish he was still in second grade so I could hear his ridiculous stories.

2011-09-19T20:25:00.000-05:00

I spent the past weekend avoiding the craziness of ACL, and our awful 100+ degree days. How did I do this you may ask? I went to Chicago to visit Rebecca, Michael, and my super awesome nephew Miles. I wasn't sure how to pack since all I have been wearing are shorts and tank tops. Packing a sweater? It seemed too good to be true! (In order to be safe I also packed a tank top and shorts. You never know.)

Miles turned 7 months while I was there, and he looked like a new kid when I saw him! The last time I saw him was July 4th weekend. It's crazy that he looks so different in just that short amount of time. I spent the weekend holding onto Miles while he bounced up and down (my shoulders and biceps are sore today), reading him books, putting him to sleep, taking him to the park, and even making him laugh! He's not a fussy baby, but apparently he doesn't laugh much, to Rebecca's annoyance. But I was able to do it! Granted, it sounds more like grunts half the time. But I'll take it! I guess Rebecca and Michael aren't as funny as they seem to think they are.

He also learned to wave while I was there. Now I don't want to say it was my influence, but it probably was.

Look at him "walking" too! He's such a big boy!

It was really hard to leave him on Sunday. I know he felt the same way because he was giving my puppy dog eyes on the entire ride to the airport. I know he won't remember me when I see him at Thanksgiving, but at least Rebecca and I sound the same so he'll basically know who I am. Here are some more pictures of this weekend to enjoy. He's a pretty cute baby. I dare you not to scroll down!

Wait, what? There's no more food?!

Baby jeans and baby feet? Too much!

He loves to swing!

Mushmouth

Miles was cold, so he took care of himself.

I love food!

He's a big fan of mine, obviously.

Our typical photo shoot.

Miles' hair super long, so we thought we'd let him finally see the world clearly again. The result? Pure awesomeness.

Photo shoot continued...

Look at him standing! (Or...leaning with support...)

Miles loves to read!

Do you really have to leave Aunt Courtney?

2 more months until our reunion, and counting!

things i love

2011-09-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

I'm stealing this idea from my friend Katie who has a blog and finally told me about it. (I don't know why she kept it a secret because it's funny. And when she gives the ok I will link it from my blog.) Anyways, here are things I love right now:

1. Being able to drink coffee on mornings where I don't think I can even muster enough energy to put on real clothes.

2. Seeing a movie in the middle (ok right after school) of the day. Sarah and I went to see The Help, finally, and it was awesome! It was awesome because I finally saw this movie, I went with someone instead of going by myself like I was going to do, and it was a fun thing to look forward to throughout the day. Even better, I got home early enough to still eat dinner and go to bed at 9:00 like an old lady.

3. Heather's crazy reaction to the possibility of a roach being near her. I had heard that Heather FREAKS out when she sees a roach. I mean screaming, running away and making her 7 year old students deal with it. Unfortunately I hadn't ever experienced this in person...until today! Her sink has been leaking in her classroom so she was cleaning out underneath it so our awesome custodian wouldn't have to deal with it when he came to fix it. She stood up to throw something away and was about to get back under there for one last thing when I saw a huge roach. I stopped Heather and said the only thing I could think of. "Heather, look right at me." She looked confused and almost started laughing. I said it again and without even seeing anything, she yelled "IS IT A ROACH? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" She screamed louder than I had ever heard, and literally ran towards with her arms up in the air. She seriously screamed as if someone was literally sawing her arms and legs off. I gave her some of my laminating to cut and told her to leave the room. As I physically pushed her out of her room one of my old students was standing in the door of the room across the hall with a look of pure panic, and curiosity. That's how loud she was. Kids across the hall could her her through 2 closed doors. It was an amazing sight to behold.

4. Pinterest! Really, I don't know what to say except it is awesome. It also gave me tons of awesome things to do and try over the summer. Last night I made pulled pork tacos from a recipe I saw on there. It's a magical website. I don't know what I would do without it!

5. I just signed up for my second half marathon! I will be doing the 3M Half in Austin on January 29th. I never thought I would do one, let alone 2 half marathons! Let the training begin!

Things I don't love right now:

1. Having the crazy jitters after drinking my coffee since my body isn't used to so much caffeine. (It probably didn't help that I basically chugged it and drank it in less than an hour. No big deal for normal people, but this was only the 4th cup of coffee I've had in over 3 years. My body was hating me. Or teaching me a lesson. Who knows.) For real. I couldn't write at one point because my hand was shaking so badly. Totally worth it though because I didn't fall asleep while I was teaching.

2. Karma. I walked into my "living room" after getting in my pajamas and saw a huge daddy roach on the ceiling. Killing it was a lot of fun with my own, controlled, screaming.

3. I don't have enough time to be on Pinterest anymore because school started back up. Boo!

4. Half marathon training begins! Having to run 8-10 miles on the weekend will be rough. Waking up crazy early on a weekend during the school year? Sucks. Doing this in the freezing cold (or, Austin's freezing cold weather) will be tough. But I can't complain, it has been ridiculously hot here this summer, so running in weather where I won't be sweating before I even start is nice.

So those are some things I am loving and hating right now. Enjoy!

i will always remember...

2011-09-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

you are drivin' me nuts!

2011-09-11T17:42:00.001-05:00

Oh man do I love Toddlers and Tiaras! I'm just watching the latest episode and cannot believe what is going on these days. First of all, there was a kid last week that for celebrity wear was Dolly Parton, fake boobs and all! And yes, she was only 4 years old. I could not believe it, and assumed the judges wouldn't like it. Nope, they LOVED it! One of the lady judges said it would not have been as good without the boobs.

So this past weeks episode features one 2 year old whose mom paid their coach to quit her job and work for them full time! Another 2 year old didn't get to sleep until 1 am and woke up at 6 am. Obviously she was tired and was falling asleep while they were doing her hair and makeup so her mom called the dad and said, "Go to the store and get her happy juice." This juice, for a 2 year old, consisted of an energy drink, apple juice, and coke. Before she went on she was still tired so her dad was throwing her in the air while she was drinking her happy juice out of a bottle to help wake her up.

One of the 3 year olds was wearing black shoes instead of white shoes and white socks in order to stand out, and the judges took off points. Girl, you should know better than that!

Oh my God! So I am blogging and watching this at the same time. For celebrity wear, someone dressed their 3 year old up as Julia Roberts in Pretty Women! And not when she gets all classy in the end. She was dressed like a hooker! Oh man Miles needs to get on this beauty pageant circuit! He would totally be way more classy and awesome than these crazy people. Don't worry Rebecca, here's a link to all of the Illinois pageants coming up.

For those of you weird enough to not watch this show, here is the best beauty queen I've ever seen.

i love college football

2011-09-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how awesome my parents are this year? Well thanks to one of them I am going to the game tonight! I haven't been to a game since I graduated 5 years ago! I even got a parking pass. How fancy! I am pumped!

HOOK 'EM!!

who doesn't love a free paint job?

2011-09-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sure by now you know how awesome my school is, and how awesome the parents are. Well one of my parents, and one of Nichole's parents asked us the first week of school if they could paint the outside of our portable because it looked so sad. We of course said yes! We didn't know when it was going to happen, but we definitely weren't expecting them to do it that weekend! Not only that, but they were crazy and decided to paint at 2 in the afternoon. Not only that, but they painted on the hottest day in the world. It topped off around 111 degrees while they were out there. Other teachers who face our portable were texting me that they were out there so I stopped by to check on them and see if they needed anything. It only took them a couple of hours, and it looks AWESOME! It definitely makes walking up to my room way more enjoyable.

Before

After

Next up? Rain gutters so we don't get wet every time in rains. Who wants to put them up? I'll offer a nice high five, smiles, and water from the hose outside. I know, it's pretty tempting!

oh boy

2011-09-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

I am trying to keep up my awesome tan so I decided to go lay out today. I also wanted to go outside and enjoy our cold front of 95 degrees. I know, it's getting pretty chilly around here. (Don't worry, I just checked the temperature and we're already back up to 100 degrees.) Anyways, there was this crazy kid who was probably around 6 years old, who was there with his older sister and crazy mom. Just as I'm getting into the pool this kid starts yelling that he's drowning (he can doggy paddle, but not very well) and his mom keeps yelling at him to shut up while she's sitting on a chair reading. Then he says, "Hey mom, I just peed in the pool." Awesome. I get that swimming in a pool with kids it's pretty inevitable that they'll pee in the pool, but don't announce it. I immediately got out and he got out and back in. He then said, "Mom, it's still hot right where I peed!"

So he continues to yell and scream, and his mom continues to yell and scream at him for yelling and screaming. This cute kid showed up and the crazy kid starts showing off and doing cannon balls. So the cute kid tries to copy him and the crazy kid told him he was too little to do any stunts. He then starts to play rough with the cute kid and the mom said they needed to go. Crazy mom sees what's happening and screams (still sitting in her pool chair, book in hand) at her crazy son telling him to leave the boy alone and get out of the pool. He gets out of the pool but refuses to sit in the chair next to her, so she starts chasing him around the pool! Oh man, it was getting pretty good. She finally got him to sit down and continued to yell at him for being mean to the cute kid.

Finally his mom lets him get back into the pool and his mom gets on their pool float. Because he doesn't have something to hold onto anymore he is struggling to swim. He starts yelling again that he's drowning. His mom's response? "Don't swim then! You don't know how to swim yet." Excuse me, what? If that's the case, then why were you letting him swim around all by himself while you read your book? So he's yelling for help and luckily his really sweet sister was near by to slowly walk to him and pick him up by his hair. I wish I was a part of this family. It looks like fun.

another old friend is back

2011-08-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

The day before school I decided to try one more thing. Coffee! I'm not a huge coffee person, but getting a cup of coffee every once in awhile is nice. I'm only posting this now because I wanted to try it another time just to make sure. I know coffee hurts normal people's stomachs sometimes, so I thought better safe than sorry. Also coconut milk creamer is pretty awesome in case you were wondering.

it's the most wonderful time of the year

2011-08-29T17:03:00.000-05:00

It's portrait time again! I somehow always seem to get the non-artistic kids which make portraits even better! However, I finally got some artistic kids! This would normally be a good thing! (I know I will love it once we do more art projects) However, artistic kids are too good at drawing people, and it makes portrait drawing less fun. Here are some of the gems.

His poor mouth. I didn't realize I had a student with black gums.

I also didn't realize I had a 30 year old in my class.

Ms. Swan, is that you?

The next two are the best of the bunch.

I still laugh every time I see that poor girls hair. It's just as thin as mine! I hope Ingrid never sees her. Who knows what she will say about her hair!

dear second grade teacher

2011-08-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

At the end of the year we have our students write something that we share with their upcoming teachers. It is used primarily so we can see where each of our students were writing-wise at the end of school. First grade has their kids write letters to their second grade teachers. They can write about what they hope second grade will be like, things they want us to know about them, etc. Here are 4 of the best ones I got.

Sorry kid. You already had time out this year.

Oh man. He sure does need help not talking.

No way are we having a class pet. But we will have computers. I hope that helps your hopes and dreams come true.

This one is my favorite. I had her older sister, and she is just as funny as her! I love that she needed to tell me that she is so small, and "tine" and that she was just born that way. This is going to be an interesting year.

dating tips

2011-08-27T21:18:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember Claire's conversation with me about the different types of dates. Well not long after that Heather invited me over to dinner where Claire asked me, at the dinner table, if I had gone on any kissing dates. Before I could answer she looked at me and said, have you been on any lover dates? Richie, her dad, just about choked on his food while Ben was giggling with his hand over his mouth. I look at Heather who looks nervous and I can't stop laughing.

I ask her what a lover date is, and she said it's a kissing date, except your're naked. Oh man. She did go on to say I shouldn't go on lover dates until I'm married. I told her she and Ben should write me a book with all of her dating tips. After a week of hard work (Heather said she was freaking out because she didn't think she would finish it in time, and because she forgot one of the dates.) I got the most amazing book of all time. Enjoy!

Even a table of contents! Very fancy.

My favorite is the things boys could do together. I love "walking around and checking out ladies."

I'm on it Claire.

Ben drew this picture to go with the lover date page.

I had to zoom in on tip number 2B. Please check out her spelling of boobs. Also Please note tip 3. Wait, really? That's something I need to worry about?

I was laughing so hard reading this! I immediately ran down and showed Sara, who teaches 3rd grade. I would have shown more people, but it was pretty late and most people had left school. I hope you enjoy the tips as much as I did! And feel free to use any of the tips, even though they are meant for me.

why, you look beautiful!

2011-08-17T18:08:00.000-05:00

I went back to work this week. Boo. There are a lot of teachers at my school, so I really haven't had a chance to talk with everyone. Well today I had a great first conversation with one of the third grade teachers. Now let me say that she is so sweet (sickeningly so when you're in a bad mood) and I know she didn't mean any harm by what she said. Here was the first conversation we've had since being back in school.

Her: What happened to your hair?

Me: What do you mean? What's wrong with it? (It is in a ponytail)

Her: (She grabs the ponytail) There's nothing there!

Me: What are you talking about?

Her: I thought my hair was thin, but man, yours is crazy! It's like you have no hair to your name!

Me:....Yeah....

What does that even mean? I don't have any hair to my name? Whatever. It's just another reminder that I am, in fact, balding.

madame olisha knows all

2011-08-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

Friday night was packed full of interesting happenings. Let's start with dinner with the Heleniak's. I got their family hooked on Harry Potter, and they wanted me to see their pictures from Disneyworld (Disneyland? whichever is in Florida) and their visit to the world of Harry Potter. At dinner Claire started asking me if I had gone on any dates lately. Before I could even answer she said, have you gone on any lover dates? I looked to Heather who looked nervous and mortified, and asked what lover dates were. She ran through the different types of dates there are, adding in different gender friend dates. Then she said, lover dates are kissing dates except you're naked. Oh man.

I start laughing hysterically and look at Heather who is officially mortified, and something else I couldn't put my finger on. I'm sure Heather was glad to hear that Claire said lover dates are only allowed when you're married, so I shouldn't be going on them. Poor Ben, I don't think he knew what he was getting into at dinner. He just looked on with wide eyes and giggled. Through my laughter I said they should give me dating advice with pictures and words. Heather emailed me that night and said they were already working on the cover for my dating advice book. Check back for their book once it's finished.

After my dinner with them I met Pat and Angie who were on their way to get their palms read. I of course drove as fast as I could to meet them at Madame Olisha's.

They were not accepting credit cards that night so we could only get one palm read which was $10. For a card reading you had to shell out $50! Once we were about to get ready I was so excited! Especially because I was hoping for something out of Pee Wee's Big Adventure when he stumbles upon a psychic. Crystal ball and everything. That is not quite what happened. She told us to sit down on the couch in the front of the building and grabbed Angie's hand. After about 20 seconds of information we were allowed to ask one question. It all happened so fast we had to regroup in Angie's car before going anywhere else. She said Angie was closed off and not very trusting and her career would change in 6-9 months, Pat was searching for something and has not found her soul mate, and then it was my turn.

I don't know how much I believe in this stuff, but she was right on for me! She said I hadn't been sleeping well in the past 2 weeks (I've only had 1 or 2 good nights of sleep lately), I needed to stop living in the past and thinking negatively because I'm not a negative person (I have been thinking about different things from my past lately), and then I got to ask my one question. I asked a similar question like Pat and asked when I'd meet my soul mate. She said I would meet him in the next year or two. So get ready for a wedding in the next 1-2 years!

be your own runner

2011-08-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

This summer a group of teachers at my school and some friends have met on Wednesday mornings at a track to do speed work. (drills, sprints, hill drills, intervals, etc.) Each of us took a week to plan and that made things fun and interesting because it was always different and you never knew what to expect. Well this morning was our last official summer speed work and we had guest coaches. When Amy told me we were having guest coaches I was excited, then when I realized who they would be, I starting shaking in my boots. I texted my friend Alli telling her this and that I was scared. (She's a friend of Paige's, one of the guest coaches) Her response? "You should be." Oh great.

The two guest coaches, Paige and Kristin (I mentioned Kristin in another post about resolutions after reading her blog.), are parents at our school. They are amazing runners, and have a long list of marathons, half marathons, and even ultras under their belts. They are for real runners, where I still feel like a....beginner? faker? Not sure yet. I'm always the slowest of our pack which I don't mind because they have all been running way longer than me, but it's different when new people come in to coach us. I feel like over the summer we have bonded as runners, and we all know each others strengths and weaknesses and help each other push through. With our guest coaches I all of a sudden started feeling like my effort wouldn't be good enough, that I would be letting them down or something.

Well, we did our usual warm up, including the usual drills but with the real names. Larry calls all the drills we do something different so it was funny to hear Paige say we're doing...whatever and none of us knew what she was talking about because of Larry. After that we learned of our fate for the morning, doing the ladder, I think is what she called it. We ran a 200, 400, 600, then an 800, and went back down from there to the 200. In between each one we had a 1-2 minute rest. But, like I said before, I didn't want to look stupid in front of them so I pushed myself way to hard in the beginning. Not only that, but because I'm naturally slower than the rest of the group, I had less rest time in between because I finished after them even with me going more all out that I should have. My head started feeling a little fuzzy after the 800 even with me slowing down some. Because of this I didn't finish the second 400. I hated that.

At the end of the workout I was drenched, with legs like jello. I was really appreciative of them for taking time out of their morning to coach us, and for Paige for cheering me on. I was also disappointed in myself. But then on the ride back I started thinking and realized I needed to stop. Stop comparing myself to other runners, stop worrying about what other people think of me and my speed, stop worrying that I will let others down when I know I'm putting in everything that I can. As long as I know I'm pushing myself, and I'm working my butt off (literally) that is enough. My effort is enough no matter what it looks like compared to other runners. Sometimes at a hard part in my run I'll say to myself, "Run strong, be courageous." Maybe I need to add in, "Be your own runner."

dessert for dinner

2011-08-09T20:52:00.001-05:00

Dessert for dinner? Yes please! Monday we met for the last summer Talking Club, which is turning into a Talking Wine Club. We have yet to decide how we will continue being for real friends during the school year. Of course I already started a blog for us, and am thinking about how we can continue the fun.

So for the very last summer Talking Wine Club meeting we decided to go out with a bang and have dessert for dinner including dessert wines. I made the most delicious gluten, and dairy free (of course) strawberry coconut cake. I am not kidding when I say it was amazing! Everyone else was in love with it as well. When I make it next time I will probably leave out the coconut extract so I can taste more of the strawberry since it already was coconutty. It looked so pretty when you cut into it too!

I also made GF, DF chocolate chip cookies, which eaten after my cake was a huge disappointment. With 7 girls, there were more than enough desserts.

This was the first time I was actually glad I had a reason why I couldn't eat all of those desserts. But of course that didn't stop me from cutting myself a huge slice of cake. I justified it because I couldn't eat anything else. I now have half of a cake staring at me as I write this post. If I run extra fast tomorrow at my speed workout, I can eat a big slice...right?

emily's outta here

2011-08-08T18:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Pat, Angie and I went to Houston for a going away party for Emily and Mickey. (They're moving to Wyoming for his job.) We will get back to their going away party in a minute.

My dad is awesome and made food for the three of us while we were there since he and my mom were out of town. Yes, I'm aware I'm spoiled, and yes, I'm fine with that. I made sure to tell my dad we would only be there for dinner and breakfast the next day. I don't think he was listening when I said that. There was a note on the table explaining the food. When I opened the fridge and freezer, I started laughing.

In case you can't tell, we found a bag of each of the following: sesame chicken wings, buffalo wings, spicy ribs, sweet ribs, and balsamic marinated steaks.

10 bagels (I can't eat them so Angie and Pat both got 5 bagels), granola, drinks, and a huge bowl of fruit.

I'm not complaining, but that was a lot of food! Since dad wasn't there to BBQ like usual I was excited to see who would show up and therefore who my true friends were. It was nice to see everyone still showed up! Since we had so much food we heated up a few plates of food and still fed everyone that was there. Karam and Diane even brought extra stuff to snack on which was awesome.

While we were at Emily and Mickey's going away party Angie, Pat, Michelle and I decided we needed to have a photo shoot like the old days. Obviously. Here are the best ones:

Haunted mirror

Hiding behind chairs

Can you find me?

See ya Mickey and Emily!

seriously?

2011-08-03T09:33:00.000-05:00

I was in Hobby Lobby (I think I've spent more time there this summer than I have my in my entire life) last week getting my shadow box and came across this display, which was only 1 of several, including multiple aisles:

Seriously? It's July. And as of today we've had 49 consecutive days with 100+ degree weather. The past 2 days we reached 107, and today is supposed to be even hotter. Looking at snowmen doesn't make me excited about the holidays and weather in 4 months, it makes me pissed it's 107 degrees and I'm forced to look at snowmen.

key holder

2011-08-01T16:35:00.002-05:00

I don't know if I've said this yet, but I love Pinterest! I can't get enough! I don't know what I will do once school starts and I won't be able to pin things constantly. Maybe I can find ways to keep my students busy while I pin things. I probably wouldn't get in trouble right? Especially if I explain to my principal?

Anyways, I saw a cool thing where you use skeleton keys and make necklaces with them. So I went antiquing and found some awesome keys at this crazy store on Congress. I know I made fun of that guy I met at that one antique store, but I am officially in LOVE with skeleton keys. I think I will continue to buy them because they are just so cool! I'm not as crazy as him talking about the day of yore, but I do have a serious love for these keys now. After looking through pinterest more, thinking about other crafts I want to do I decided I also wanted to make some sort of hey holder to hang on the wall. When I saw this key holder (scroll to almost the end of her post), I started thinking about ways I could use the keys in a similar way instead of making necklaces with them.

Then it hit me, shadow box! So I went and bought more keys (I talked myself out of buying this amazing key that was $40), a shadow box, and got to work. My supplies:

Since some of the keys were dark, I was afraid some of them would not look as great with the black felt. So I got some of the fabric I had left over from another pinterest find, and used that to back the keys. I used sewing pins to hold everything down, including the fabric. After arranging the keys, all I had to do at that point was screw in the hooks and hang it!

Finished product.

I love my latest craft! Especially since this was the first craft I've made totally from my own idea (well...with some inspiration from others).

Sidenote: One of the blogs I read, Young House Love did a Pinterest challenge, and I happened to already be in the midst of this project when it was posted! Check out their blog for all the cool things their other readers have created.

necklaces

2011-07-30T09:29:00.001-05:00

As you know, this blog has turned into more of a crafting blog than a blog of what's going on in my life. Don't worry, once school starts I won't have time to craft since I'll be grading papers and returning emails all the time. Another awesome craft Angie and I found on Pinterest was making necklaces out of old t shirts. We followed the instructions on this awesome blog and got to work!

All of my shirts

Done!

Angie had a pretty awesome crop top after her cutting. I think she said this would be her new workout shirt.

Here are all of the finished necklaces!

I tried doing one that was braided, and that just was a mess. Maybe I'll try again another time.

girl weekend

2011-07-29T13:23:00.002-05:00

Pat and Michelle came in town for a girls weekend, one that was long overdue. We went floating on Saturday and it was crazy! I have never seen the river so packed with people before. The craziest part was a themed float that was going on. We saw at least 50, probably more, people all in different groups floating around dressed like they were a bride and groom. One girl was wearing a black and white bikini, top hat with veil, black gloves, and black platform pumps. We saw 2 guys wearing white jackets and black bow ties, many top hats and veils, and all were using a DTF (Down to Float) koozie. People watching was never more fun on the river!

Afterwards we went to Angie's pool and met two weird dudes. One (the balloon master) was especially nuts. His friend walked over to us in the pool and asked if we "Wanted something long and round" and then proceeded to toss a giant water balloon at us. They continued to blow up balloons and give them to everyone in the pool. At first just the kids were playing with them, but before we knew it everyone was tossing them around. It was bizarre. Who brings huge water balloons to the pool, and then fills them up and passes them out?

We also brought an old time waster back. The Panty Ho! This came about in my house in college and I have pictures of everyone, even Ryan and Michelle's dog Harley, wearing them. This time we decided to try to knock bottles over by putting a sock in the end. Here are some pictures. The one of the left is from 2005, and the right was from this weekend. For some reason Michelle didn't put it on this time, but I'm still showing her old one. Enjoy the ridiculousness.

Angie was the best for sure.

Pat's video is my favorite for several reasons. 1: She has no idea how to swing it around. 2: I am laughing so hard I start squeaking, and that makes me laugh even more when I watch this one.

We finished the night going to my new favorite bar, Key Bar. We met some....interesting people, let's just put it at that. After sleeping most of Sunday, I'm ready for another girls weekend!

wine charms

2011-07-28T17:02:00.001-05:00

I have been wanting to make some sort of wine charms for quite some time. I found on Pinterest (I am OBSESSED) really cute scrabble piece wine charms. So I decided to make my own. I wrote on facebook looking for scrabble pieces thinking no one would have any, and one of the teachers at my school was about to give their Scrabble game away! YES!

After picking them up I got to work! Here were all of my supplies:

I used the hammer and nail to put a small hole in the top, and then screwed the tiny hook and eye (I think that's what they're called) in to the top.

It's a lot trickier than you would think. See that crack there? I split about 20 pieces in half trying to get those freaking things in. Also my fingers were so sore afterwards screwing them in. After that, I hooked in a key chain ring, and voila! All Done!

I made a key chain for myself and Angie with the extras. I didn't see it on her key ring though...hmm...

dating

2011-07-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

I took Claire out for her birthday the other day, and we went to Deep Eddy. I had never been there before, and it's pretty cool. Definitely better for little kids or people going to swim laps. While we were sitting on the grass talking she was telling me about the different types of dates you can go on. (This coming after her asking me about my dating life and who was my last date.) According to this 11 year old there are 4 types of dates:

the day of the week dates
dancing dates
same gender dates (like the one we were on together. Sweet innocent Claire)
kissing dates

After telling me about kissing dates she said, "My mom and dad never go on kissing dates. I don't ever see them kiss...That's good because it's gross."

monte carlo

2011-07-20T22:28:00.001-05:00

Just based on the title of this post I bet you were getting a little excited, and maybe jealous of me and my upcoming trip to Monte Carlo! However, you'd be wrong. I don't have any immediate plans to start jetsetting beyond Chicago to visit Miles, or back and forth to my classroom. So if I'm not heading there, why is the title of this post Monte Carlo? Because, wait for it, I saw the most amazing movie today called Monte Carlo!

Today is Heather's (one of the second grade teachers) daughter, Claire's, birthday. Heather asked if I'd be a chaperon for pizza, cake, and the watching of this incredible movie. Of course I couldn't turn this down! There were too many girls for Heather to take them all, so I took a group of 4 girls, all heading into 6th grade, to the theater. They all knew me since they go to my school, but I didn't have any of them so they didn't feel weird saying what was on their mind. And what, you may ask, is on the mind of a soon to be 6th grader? Justin Bieber, his new awful haircut (I LOVE Emma Watson's short hair, but they sure look a lot alike now), and his devil of a girlfriend Selena Gomez who is staring in the movie we were heading to.

One of the girls was cracking me up about her thoughts on Justin!

Mary Fran: I used to HATE Justin. And then I went and saw his movie...and it changed me!

Me: Wait, what do you mean it changed you? (Trying to hold back laughter)

Mary Fran: I mean, I love him now! It changed me. I mean, it was just SO deep! That movie was so deep. How can you not love him?

Me: Wait, we are talking about the Justin Bieber movie right? Of like, his concert?

Mary Fran: Yeah! It was deep. It really did change me Ms. Ewing.

Me: Justin Bieber. Deep. What? (At this point I'm laughing but she's laughing too so I don't feel so bad.)

So we get to the theater and there were people actually there, already more than I had thought, and we sat behind this couple that was probably in their 50's or 60's. No, they weren't with children, so I'm not sure what their reason for being there was. The wife was acting all crazy the whole time talking out and asking questions about the movie and locations. She legitimately seemed confused by the plot. My favorite part about going to the movies was the fact that Heather gasped along with the rest of the audience (not including me) not once, but twice!

I think I need to check Netflix to see if Never Say Never is available so I can see if Justin Bieber will change me. However, I have a feeling my thoughts on him won't change.

it's hot in texas

2011-07-16T14:57:00.000-05:00

I went to dinner with Pat and Angie the other night and we ate outside. It wasn't too hot, the sun was setting, we were in the shade and a fan was blowing on us. Apparently wearing shorts was a good idea.

Better on the chair than on my pants making it look like I wet myself.

antiquing

2011-07-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

For one of my upcoming crafts I had to go to some antique shops looking for the correct materials. (You will have to wait and see!) One place I went to was insane! It was humongous, stuff was separated into different rooms and booths, and stuff was just crammed EVERYWHERE! I held my purse the entire time afraid I would knock something off a shelf and be forced to buy it. There were some interesting things I found. There were also a ton of different weird things and statues I really wanted to buy for Rebecca and Michael. I would have, but I didn't want to be derailed on my task at hand.

Cookie jar?

No idea. But $2.50 seems overpriced.

Sticks? Stirring implements?

I saw these in several different booths in a variety of colors. I think it's a noise maker, but I was too scared to test it out. I was afraid I'd have to buy it after that or something.

Seriously? Used pencils? I would be a rich woman if I could sell the used pencils in my classroom.

I almost bought this for Crissy. I think she would like it.

At the last shop I went to I ran into Corky St. Clair's twin:

He could not stop going on and on about how he loves antiques because it reminds him of the days of yore, and queens, and loveliness. OK, he may not have said all of those things, but he might as well have with all the ridiculous things he was going on about. I wanted to ask if he knew who Corky was, and if he modeled his life after him, but that seemed inappropriate.

push-ups

2011-07-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

I was laying out with Angie and Pa,t and Angie decided she needed to work on her fitness. I'm glad I was able to supply her with an appropriately shallow pool in which to do one armed push-ups.

That was a lot of hard work. She will probably be sore in the morning.*

*Angie texted me this morning saying her back hurt and she didn't know why. I had to remind her she worked on her fitness yesterday and that was probably why.

welcome back to my life

2011-07-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

Those who know me know my food issues. I can't eat wheat, dairy, or fructose, among other random things. (eggplant, bell peppers...) Whenever I have time off I try different foods that weren't tested when all of my food issues began. So far this summer I have discovered I can eat: figs, dates, and artichokes. Well I'd like to officially say hello to my new addition.

Hello old friend! Welcome back to my life! I can't wait to cook with you and drink you with fancy meals around candlelight.

coasters

2011-07-11T18:18:00.001-05:00

Spoiler alert, many of you will be getting this latest obsession as Christmas/birthday gifts! Today's craft is making coasters! They are so cheap and so cool when they are all finished!! I got tiles at Home Depot for 16 cents each, and scrapbook paper at Paper Source for $1.25 a sheet (each sheet can make 6-9 coasters depending on how much white I want showing on the sides), and a pack of 48 felt guards for $6.50. I already had everything else needed. (Paper cutter and fancy scissors not shown)

After gathering all materials, Angie and I got to work! First you put a layer of Mod Podge down, then your paper. After it dries you put a coat on top, wait for it to dry and do it 2 more times. Once it's all dry you spray it with clear, water resistant spray, put the felt guards on the bottom, and you're done!!

Yes, I'm aware my map coasters are from London and Paris and I've never been to either place. But they looked so cool! And yes, I'm also aware I made 10 coasters and never have that many people over at the same time. And yes, I'm aware my coffee table is so crappy I don't even need or use coasters. And yes, I plan on making more for myself.

I'm already looking through my old scrapbook paper for more paper I want to use. I'm also thinking about doing some collage coasters. Maybe even some with old timey photos...man I am getting excited thinking about it!

fabric hoops

2011-07-10T18:52:00.002-05:00

I walked into Angie's apartment a few weeks ago and saw the coolest thing on her wall, fabric hoops! I know, it sounds really awesome. After I left her place, I started googling fabric hoops to get more ideas, and found some great sites. I went to Michael's and bought a bunch of different sizes, and shapes of quilters hoops, and went to a bunch of different fabric stores for fabric. The best thing I found was at Jo Anns, fabric quarters for only $2 a piece! In all I spent about $40 for everything!

I got a great idea from Rebecca when she was hanging pictures in Miles' room and got out some wrapping paper and laid out where I wanted my hoops. Once I did that I marked where the nail would go, and labeled each one with the size of the hoop.

After that I put the fabric in the inside hoop, and glued the fabric to the back of the hoop with a hot glue gun. Once I was done with that I put the wallpaper on my wall and started putting the nails in the wall.

After that, all I had to do was rip the wallpaper off the wall and put my new art up.

All done! Once again, I am pretty impressed with my crafting skills. In my last post I said I had 2 more crafting ideas. Well, since then I've come up with a couple of new ones. I think I will be going broke with all of these crafts. (even though they are all pretty cheap, things add up) Who wants to help ~~enable~~ support my crafting habit?

4th of july with friends

2011-07-09T11:42:00.003-05:00

A trip home typically means Saturday night BBQ like always. However, things tend to change when Rebecca is in town, AND it's 4th of July weekend. The Saturday night BBQ turned into an entire weekend of BBQ. Luckily we always had friends around to help eat the incredible amount of food that was continuously being put out by these two:

This is only one day's spread. This doesn't include everything that was BBQ'd. (Sausage, chicken wings, fajitas) I have a bad feeling my friends are going to be expecting a lot from now on whenever we BBQ.

Nothing says classy like eating wings in the pool...

...or pausing for a Coors Light commercial. Look how much fun they're having!

Even Olivia couldn't say no to a Ewing BBQ on the 4th!

Miles even had friends come over and play, even if they are a bad influence.

Mom and Dad were also great babysitters so we could all go out a few times. Here is our sister wives picture.

It was a great weekend with my friends and family!

4th of july with miles

2011-07-08T16:55:00.001-05:00

I was in Houston for the weekend with my parents, Rebecca, Michael, and Miles (in from Chicago). It was so much fun playing with Miles! I hadn't seen him since he was 3 weeks old so it was crazy to see how much he had changed. He is already holding his head up on his own, talking, and rolling from his back to his stomach! He's still working on going from his stomach to his back. I tried teaching him that one, but it didn't work out.

Before the first swim. He was very excited for his first pool experience!

I bought him this super cute hat. It said it fit infant/toddler...but I think that was a lie.

He loved the pool by his second go around!

We also spent a lot of time together in his jumparoo.

He needed a break between photo shoots with me.

Twins! We totally called each other the night before to plan our outfits for the pool.

In case you didn't know, Miles has some ridiculous hair!

Happy 4th of July y'all!

The last day we had several deep conversations...

...read some awesome books...

...and once again had a photo shoot like our first meeting in Chicago.

I'm a pretty big fan of this kid! I can't wait for our next photo shoot in Chicago!

crackling sucks

2011-07-08T12:38:00.003-05:00

I have this little table thing by my door that I hate. It's this ugly light wood, and I have been looking for a replacement for it for awhile now. It's much harder than it seems since everyone wants to sell something similar for more than $50 or it's ugly. Well I came across a website that showed how you could crackle something yourself! Done and done. Especially since I would only need to buy blue paint since my parents happen to have everything else I would need.

Before with some of my supplies.

I sanded it down, primed it, then painted it black.

Luckily my dad had some scrap wood he let me use to test out crackling first.

Too goopy.

The left turned out pretty good, but too much blue. When I tried using less blue paint it just looked crappy. So I decided to change my plan. I painted the entire thing blue, let it dry (in our heat it only took about an hour to dry) and then sanded it all down to make it look distressed.

I got some really cool knobs from Anthropologie, but the screw part on the back was too long so I got to use a hacksaw for the first time! Luckily dad was able to keep all of his fingers. I was a little worried, but I didn't tell him that. Who else would hold the knob for me while I sawed right next to their hand? Not Rebecca, that's for sure!

All done! It looks pretty awesome, and it looks great in my apartment. I already have my next 2 crafts planned. Once school starts back I don't know how I will be able to craft and teach!

franklin barbecue

2011-07-06T11:07:00.001-05:00

For the past month I have heard about Franklin Barbecue at least once a week. Apparently this place started out as a food truck and was so popular he opened up a restaurant. It was recently voted the best BBQ in the nation, and as someone who loves BBQ and has grown up around some amazing food I was skeptical it truly was the best in the nation. It opens at 11 and I was told if you don't get there by 10:30 don't bother because they close whenever they run out of food. Ok, so maybe they really are that good? A few friends of mine and I decided to finally try this place and see what it was all about. We got there at 10 and there were already about 50 people in line in front of us. Another thing to note, you wait outside, in the heat, for however long it takes.

The line wrapped around the building by 10:30.

Heather, Alli, and I. (Larry took the picture)

So we waited an hour for the place to open, and another 30 before we even got to the door. While we waited one of the girls that worked there walked around selling beer for those waiting outside in the heat. Another worker even came around asking how much brisket we all planned on ordering. Not quite sure why. Maybe to go ahead and crush some of the suckers dreams that got there too late? Once we got to the door, our dreams were crushed.

Just kidding! They were putting the sign up on the door by 11:30 for the newbies joining the line. Apparently they are usually sold out by 1 or 1:30. That is nuts! It took about another 30 minutes before we even ordered our food. While we waited we already talked about how we weren't coming back unless it blew us away. (Waiting 2 hours for food, without even knowing if you'll get any is a little ridiculous.)

Well, it was freaking AMAZING! I think I said yum after every bite of food. See the brisket over there, that one piece that looks all black? That's right, I got an end that is 80% bark, and I could not have been happier.

Because I am such an awesome daughter, sister, and sister-in-law I ordered half a pound of their brisket, sausage, pork ribs, and pulled pork to share with my family tomorrow. (I'm going to Houston and Rebecca, Michael, and Miles are coming into town as well.) After we all took our first bite we looked at each other and said, so what are you doing next Wednesday?

It really does live up to all of the hype! I plan on telling everyone I know that they need to go ASAP. Maybe I should have ordered enough to have to carry it in a box like some of the other patrons did...maybe next time.

keep austin weird

2011-06-29T09:20:00.002-05:00

One of my goals after my half marathon was to run 4 runs before the summer was over. I am close to accomplishing that goal! (My mile time has also gone down, another one of my goals.) I've done the Run to the Sun, Bun Run, and this weekend the Keep Austin Weird 5k. (Although I don't think I'll be counting it as one of my four...you'll understand by the end of the post.)

Before the run at 7 pm, in June, in Texas with 100+ degree heat, they have a festival. People dress up, there are bands that play, and there are a lot of vendors selling food, drinks, and things made by locals. Crissy and I went as Hooters girls (Rebecca said our outfits were oxymorons) and Evan, Crissy's husband was Hulk Hogan. Before we left we youtubed different Hulk videos so he could see and practice things to do and say. Evan was planning on staying in character the whole time. As we were walking to the festival we must have been there a little early because we didn't see anyone dressed up and Evan was starting to freak out. All of his fears were quickly gone.

I loved that Crissy was standing outside the port-a-potties with her phone ready to take a picture. That's not weird for the other guys coming out or anything.

Evan was THE hit of the festival! The moment we walked in people started asking to take pictures of him!! We decided to take a tally of all the pictures he was in, and we finally stopped counting when he had taken 30 pictures, and was interviewed for a Dallas radio station (hopefully they will post it soon, and I'll of course share with you), the Austin American Statesman (the link doesn't work anymore), Austin 360, and some news station. The best question the radio guy asked was "Do you always have to flex when you talk?"

We ran into one of his wrestling rivals! We wanted Evan to pick him up and hold him over his head, but he wouldn't.

See that crowd surrounding him? Each one of them took turns taking pictures with him.

When the race started, everyone was running like normal. After a water and gatorade station we were all starting to feel the heat and drinks we had had, so we decided to stop running at mile 1. From there on we walked like half of the other "runners." Normally throughout the route you will have water and gatorade stations. This one had that, along with a game stop, 2 photo booths, 2 vodka shot stops, a wine stop, pizza, and Amy's even had a stop where they pass out scoops of ice cream. Walking the last 2 miles was the best idea ever!

They had to have been hot.

Of course we stopped at the photo booth! People kept yelling at the Hulk as they walked or ran by.

It was the most fun, and slowest 5k I think I will ever do! Now back to my real running to get ready for my 4th of July 5k.

the talking club

2011-06-26T10:29:00.001-05:00

A few girls and I from work decided that we needed to become for real friends and get together over the summer. Somehow we decided we needed the pretext of watching the Bachelorette to get together. After 3 weeks of putting the show on and talking through it, we finally decided to call it like it was and stop watching the show and just talk. This week everyone came over to my place, and I got a little carried away with the food. I even realized after they left there was more food in the fridge that I forgot about.

Roasted, marinated artichoke hearts from the Barefoot Contessa, and marinated mushrooms from my dad.

Bacon wrapped chicken.

One of the best things about this is that I am trying a bunch of different gluten and dairy free recipes that I've been wanting to make but haven't. So far everything I've made is delicious! Hopefully that luck will continue.

my first turkey

2011-06-24T20:15:00.001-05:00

After leaving Shreveport, I went to Dallas to spend the night with my friend Pat. Something must have been in the air because a lot of strange things happened while I was there. We decided to get our nails done, and the ladies who did our nails did an....interesting job. My fingernail polish was uneven and you can see the lines. Also she decided to trim my toenails which I didn't mind. However, she decided to trim some, and not others. She also decided to trim one at an angle making my toe look crooked. As we were paying and getting ready to leave someone started getting their face waxed. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORE. Obviously I took a picture because I didn't think anyone would believe me.

After that we went and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I loved their music, it was a blend of tejano and japanese pan pipes. After that we met her cousin and his wife to go bowling. I love to bowl, and am awful at it. There aren't many games I will play knowing I won't win, just ask my friends. (I can be a little competitive, although it has calmed over the years.) Pat and I decided to try new throws: left handed (I almost fell over), granny roll, spin rolls, and the correct way to bowl. (That last one was mine, I don't have the correct leg forward when bowling.)

On our last game we noticed a large angry bowling lady. She was throwing her bowling ball like she wanted to kill it, complete with an angry face. Right when Pat's cousin made us aware of her, we watched her bowl and then walk towards her table and throw a drink in her friends face! During this Pat threw a strike and was mad we were more enthralled in the angry bowler throwing a drink in someones face. The girl stormed off and left with her bowing shoes on.

Somehow that angry bowler changed my game. I had my best game ever because of her! I even got a turkey!! I rarely get one strike, let alone 3, in a row! I usually just barely break 100, and this game I got a 151! Again, I didn't think anyone would believe me so I took a picture.

Apparently lots of drama improves my bowling game. Next time I go bowling I'll make someone throw a drink in someones face that way I'll get another turkey.

busted!

2011-06-21T21:49:00.001-05:00

Last time my parents were in town they stumbled upon one of the great finds in Austin gas stations:

It's basically a listing of everyone that's been arrested in Austin with their reasons for being arrested. There's even a code on the inside to let you know what it all means. For example, POM= Possession of Marijuana. I love how happy and excited some of them look getting their mugshot. If I ever get arrested I plan on making the most of it. Who wants a crappy ugly picture taken of themselves? Not me, that's for sure.

I also love the lady at the top left. The caption underneath her beautiful mugshot was "Adriana Sanchez was allegedly trying to fight everyone and their mother after being arrested for beating on a local pedi-cab driver..." She does look pretty tough. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with her that's for sure! She looks like she would fight dirty. It's pretty funny because they have little stories on different people inside just like they did for Mrs. Sanchez.

I was familiar with this delightful publication because my friend Wes got it awhile back and was drawing their portraits. I even grew up with someone that not only was in it, but decided she was so proud of being published she decided to add her picture from the paper to facebook. I have some classy friends.

So I was in Shreveport this weekend visiting family, and my parents brought Busted so my Aunt Diane could read it. She loved it! She kept making comments (in a Louisianian (is that a word?) accent) like, "Well she looks very normal, what did she get arrested for?" "I need to keep a finger on this code page so I know why these people were arrested." "Drugs? Oh yeah, he's still on drugs look at him. Look at his hair!"

It sure made for a fun afternoon in Shreveport listening to my aunt crack up at these people and their pictures.

baseball

2011-06-14T00:09:00.001-05:00

Let me start off by saying I have never really been into baseball. My high school was known for their baseball team, and I honestly could have cared less. Because of this, I don't really know much about it, and I have a lot of comments and questions. (I have been to Astros games, and I did go to some high school games, I also got tickets to a UT game last year from one of my student's parents, so I'm not a total idiot when it comes to baseball.) So Sunday my parents (who are really into baseball) got tickets to the UT vs. Arizona State baseball game. Before we got to the game I asked what this game meant, and who we were playing. (These seemed like things I should know before going.) So if we won the game we were going to Omaha and would play in hopes of becoming champions of...the world I'm guessing. National Championships? Honestly, even now I don't really know and they told me. Like I said, I don't know anything about baseball and don't really care. Why go if I don't care? Why not. I'll watch a live baseball game if UT is playing. And the game seemed like a big deal.

Let's start with the fans. They are CRAZY! Constantly yelling at the players and the other team's players. The saddest and funniest was when the ENTIRE stadium started booing the Arizona pitcher. There was one old dude up front that kept trying to get the stadium to yell Texas fight, and it only worked about twice.

In the first inning a lady got beaned in the head by a foul ball! It was crazy. The entire stadium yelled "oh!" when it happened. They even had to have the EMS people come down and check it out. She didn't leave so she must have been fine. I also love that the crowd always cheers when someone gets the foul ball like they tried really hard to get it. Do you think the crowd still cheers when it's some old beer bellied dude grabbing it from a kids hand?

Also why do people change seats all the time? This one dude kept going from sitting in front of us, to about 5 rows in front, and then back. Other people would start out in one seat, go get drinks and go to a different seat, and then move again before they finished eating their food. Why is this allowed? Your ticket says what seat you need to be in. Why do you have the need to move when you aren't even moving to a seat that's much better?

During the 7th inning stretch we sung Take Me Out to the Ballgame like always. Afterwards they put on some Cotton Eyed Joe sound alike song and some big dude pulled out the wimpiest water gun and started spraying it in the air in time with the music. It was really weird. If I had been near him and he squirted me I would have been annoyed.

What's up with half of the stadium wearing headphones? You are at the game! Use your eyeballs and you won't need the headphones. Also why are you writing down the stats of the game? Again, use your eyeballs and look on the scoreboard!

Proof my dad, an OU grad, truly loves UT

Omaha bound!

Not only was it a really fun game and we won, but more importantly we were on the jumbo tron! It was my first experience on one of those things. It was a pretty cool thing to have happened. See you again next year college baseball. Maybe. If I get free tickets.

glitter shoes

2011-06-12T11:26:00.004-05:00

Angie and I like to craft together. She told me last year she wanted to make glitter shoes, and this summer it happened! She found someones blog that we used as a reference and then went shopping. We bought our shoes at Payless (originally $16, I got mine half off because I bought another pair of shoes), and then headed to Hobby Lobby where we bought glitter, brushes, and spray glaze. I already had Mod Podge so in all I only spent $17.50 for everything to create some awesome new glitter shoes.

All of my supplies

You have to mix glue with a ton of glitter.

It looked really weird.

Before...

After!

Angie and I took about 5 more pictures of us and our feet in different places and positions. Halfway through the glittering we had to go back to Hobby Lobby for the glaze spray, and while we were there I decided I needed to glitter more things, so I got a $4 frame and glittered it!

Angie and I are now both a little glitter crazed. We couldn't stop talking yesterday about all the other things we can, and should glitter. We almost bought a lot of stuff during our Hobby Lobby run to glitter. Get ready, because you might be getting a little present in the mail that's been glittered!!

i will haunt you from my grave

2011-06-08T20:47:00.001-05:00

I was running errands today and found myself at Walmart when Target didn't have what I needed. Now I am rarely in Walmart so I was wandering around for a long time trying to find the right section I needed. That's when I found it. Tucked between two arts and crafts aisles were memorial flowers you could buy.

They sure are pretty! The ribbon behind the flowers say Memorial in case you were unclear what they were for. And look at that price! Originally $10, they're now only $2.50! Now that's a deal!! On closer inspection the flowers were the crappiest plastic flowers I had ever seen. Someone had also tried dusting them off but didn't do a great job. Now I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but if anyone buys me flowers from Walmart for my funeral, they're gonna get it! I will come back and haunt you from my grave. That is a promise.

rainbow cakes and a baby shower

2011-06-07T19:20:00.001-05:00

I found this really awesome cake recipe for a rainbow cake and have been dying to try it! I even blogged about it the first time I found it saying I couldn't wait to find a reason to make it...well it happened! We threw Nichole a baby shower at the Hyatt Lost Pines. It is such a cool resort! So Friday I spent the day baking these rainbow cakes. I made 2 test ones and then the rest. All in all I was baking these things for probably 4 hours. I also made gluten free brownies so I could eat something, and in case the cakes didn't turn out ok. It was hard because I made the icing from scratch and I couldn't test it to make sure it turned out ok, so I was a little nervous.

Mixing the batter (I used a box mix so I knew they would turn out ok.)

About to tint the batter. I found neon food coloring which looked awesome!

My first two...not a good sign the way the batter came up the sides.

For the next batch I tried tilting the jars with each new color to try to distribute it better. I also used less purple in case that was a factor. They weren't layered like on the recipe, but they looked cool and tye-dyeish!

View from above.

All iced, sprinkled, and bowed up!

I was told they were delicious!!! They looked really cool on the inside too. The colors were super vibrant. You can kind of tell from this picture, but not really.

So there were 7 of us and we all stayed in one room! We also all brought food, magazines, etc. so most of us had multiple bags even though we were only staying the night. I had 3 bags, the present for Nichole, and a sleeping bag. Heather had the same, plus a cooler and a blender! It was pretty hilarious because we were probably the cheapest people at that place. 7 people in one room, we all brought food so we didn't eat dinner there, and we brought our own drinks. When the bell boy came up for the 3rd time with all of our bags Heather told him that we were poor teachers and not to tell anyone what he saw. He thought that was pretty funny. He also said he was an education major so he totally got it.

Also Laura came in town surprise Nichole!!

Sleeping arrangements. Heather almost slept on that chair back there, leaving a king bed for Nichole only. We had to force her to share the bed with Nichole.

Good thing Laura and I are such good friends, otherwise this could have been awkward.

I want to go back already! Spending the entire day with amazing friends at the pool laying out, reading trashy magazines and going on the lazy river is not a bad way to spend your first weekend of summer!

end of year part 2

2011-06-07T08:03:00.001-05:00

I loved my class this year. One of the kids I had I loved! He was so sweet, and I had his older brother who I also loved. Their family is one of the nicest as well. He started getting food allergy tests this year, and he found out that he has Celiacs, so we bonded over our food issues. (He really loved that he knew someone else who had gone through it.) He even told his mom that he was really sad that I couldn't have hot chocolate anymore, so could she get to work trying recipes until she found one that was good, and dairy, and gluten free. His mom also helps in every way possible, and would bring me different gluten free flours, mixes, and foods for me to try. Needless to say, I am VERY sad to see this family go. Anyway, for an end of year present to me he gave me this card:

When his mom dropped him off in the morning she let me open the card and then wanted to explain the money. She said he again brought up that he was sad I couldn't treat myself at Starbucks and get a hot chocolate, so he wanted to get me a coupon (he meant gift card) to Starbucks so I could get something I knew I could drink without getting sick. He asked his mom if he could do extra vacuuming for money to give to me. She said he vacuumed Monday and Tuesday after school so he could give me money so I could treat myself! I don't think any of my kids have ever done extra chores to give me their money. I still haven't taken the money out of the card. It is so sweet I almost don't want to spend it!! When I thanked him for it and gave him a hug he had the proudest smile on his face.

This card is from another kid, I just thought it was really cute he changed to card to fit how he felt about me.

I'm sad to see them go, but I have no problem if that means I get a 2.5 month break! Hello summer vacation!

end of year part 1

2011-06-06T16:28:00.001-05:00

At the end of the year I give my kids a test asking a bunch of questions about me and second grade. Things like how old I am (oldest I've ever gotten was 54, thanks a lot), where I grew up, what was your favorite thing in second grade, best math lesson, etc. Below are some of the best responses I got this year:

You are correct kid.

I have had about 85 kids take this test, and this is the first time someone told me Luna's favorite food instead of mine. Maybe I should reword it so no one else gets confused about that question.

I wish!

Go beers is a pretty good saying! I don't think I've ever said that though. At least not in class.

Wrestling? Really?

I do talk loudly...maybe something I need to work on.

in case you didn't know

2011-06-05T17:35:00.001-05:00

The last 2 months of school we study poetry and write TONS of poems. For some reason this year their poems started to all revolve around me. According to them, I'm pretty awesome. So in case you didn't know, here are some poems they wrote proving it.

Ms. Ewing's Portrait

Her heart is like a soft pillow

Her eyes are big and bold

Her face is full of happiness

Her heart holds beauty and power

That is as red as a ruby

She lives in a house on South Lamar

And eats gluten free things

I am a learning hero. It's true.

deodorant really isn't that expensive

2011-05-26T19:15:00.001-05:00

I walked into CVS today to get a few things and the first thing I see is this kid who looks no older than 14 pull up his shirt, and apply deodorant. No big deal. Weird, but no big deal. And then he PUT IT BACK ON THE SHELF. For real. How desperate can a 14 year old be? He wasn't with a girl, so it's not like he freaked out and was worried about his smell. Also did he go in only to steal a few swipes of deodorant? Or did he go in for something else and realized he stunk?

Moral of the story? Check your deodorant before you buy it to make sure that kid didn't give it a test run.

run to the sun: completed, and a success!

2011-05-23T20:12:00.002-05:00

I don't even know where to begin. I haven't been running for very long (just over a year) but I can say without a doubt this was the best, most fun, and most meaningful run I have done to date. For those of you that don't know, 8 teachers at my school (myself included) ran a 95+ mile relay from Mount Bonnell in Austin, to Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg in support of the Batten Disease Foundation. We started Saturday at 2:30 pm and finished at 6:45 Sunday morning. Our team name was the Casis Young Guns and we were all wearing the same shirts throughout the run.

When we started we took a group picture at Mount Bonnell (picture to come), then we ran down the steps together and did a group cheer before sending Larry, the first runner, off. Holy cow some of the hills the first few legs were pretty brutal, especially with the sun and heat. (Although compared to the weather we have been having, 95+ degrees with humidity, it was amazing! That day it was only around 80 with no humidity.)

Anyways, after Larry went off we piled into the van and drove to meet him at his stopping point. When we got there we all got out and sat at the top of a killer hill waiting. When we saw Larry we all started screaming and jumping up and down cheering him on up the hill. We did this at every stop, and not every team did so already we were cooler than all the other teams. At the 5th leg, Brandon's first, we came to a point where we were all worried if our runners would make it to the car alive. Brandon was literally dodging cars for his 6 mile run. There was barely a shoulder, and when a car came he would have to hop off into the dirt and grass (sometimes there was a barrier so Brandon had to hope and pray he didn't get hit) and hope for the best. Angie ran next and had the same experience, except she was running in twilight and made it even harder for drivers to see her. This was not making me feel good about my first leg which was right after Angie.

I started running my first leg, which was a 7.5 miler at a difficulty level of 4 out of 5, at 9:00 when the sun had gone down. I was lit up like a Christmas tree! I had my Young Guns shirt which is a highlighter yellow color, a reflective vest, a hat they provided with lights in it, several glow bracelets, a reflective light on my ankle, and I held a little light. Luckily there wasn't a lot of car traffic so I didn't need to worry about getting hit. At one point I had to run into and out of a really steep ravine, so I got a police escort into and out of it! When he rode up next to me he asked how I was doing, and then we had this really comforting conversation:

COP: "You need to make sure to run in the middle of the road, I don't want you to get bit by a snake."

ME: "I have been, I only run on the side when I see headlights coming. Wait...did you say I could get bitten by a snake? Are you for real?"

COP: "Yeah, don't run near the grass. You really need to stay in the middle of the road unless you want to get bit."

Thanks! That makes me feel a lot better about my leg.

I thought I would be scared running by myself, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn't! I really enjoyed myself. I didn't have my earbuds in so I could hear cars and other noises around me, so I put my phone in my waterbelt and had music playing from there. Because of that dogs would chase me up and down their fence barking at me. It was really crazy when I got to the top of a hill and realized a longhorn was watching me. The hills were hard, but I couldn't stop smiling at what I was actually doing. (It didn't help that the temperature had dropped about 15 degress by then.)

Seeing the bright lights of the pit stop was so invigorating. I kicked it up a notch and ran even faster to get to my cheering friends. Kristin Armstrong was running as well and also did this leg. I loved her blog on Runners World about it, and it made me feel better about myself and how hard I thought it was when she, a REAL runner, said it was hard too!

No one slept all night, and it started to get a little nutty in the van around 2 am. Kristy had brought kolaches for everyone to eat throughout the run. The guys had tried them and said they were lethal. One kind were super spicy jalapeno ones, and the other were super heavy brisket ones. So when Kristy ran her second leg at 2:30, we decided to start yelling at her and pelting her with the kolaches no one ate. I was in the back so I couldn't throw any, but I was crying I was laughing so hard. One of our drivers, Jeff, was running with Kristy to help her since we were all tired and tight from sitting around, and I don't think he was too pleased that we were hitting him with the kolaches as well.

I ran next at 3:00 am and wasn't too excited about it. I got some pretty bad blisters on my feet from my first run, and was really dehydrated. I ran my first leg faster than I have ever run, and I wasn't hydrating like I should have because my adrenaline was running so fast I wasn't paying attention to my body. It wasn't smart of me, but I was able to get out there and run again. I ran the first 2 miles running on the sides of my feet because of my blisters. At this point we were going to have to start leaving runners behind and come back for them to make sure we got to the finish line in time. Because of this my team scooped me up and we drove the last mile (all up hill, I picked the perfect time to bail!) to the next stop. I hated that I wasn't able to finish my leg, but oh well. I'll get it next year! I found out they were going to throw bananas at me because I HATE them, but sweet Sheri told them not to because I was hurting. Thanks Sheri! Last thing I wanted was to have gross smashed banana all over me and stuck in my hair.

The last few legs were a blur or exhaustion, nuttiness, and throwing food. Sara had the last leg and she started running when the sun was just starting to peek out. Jeff had ridden a bike with Brandon on the leg before and then again with Sara. In all he did more miles than us, and he was just supposed to be a driver! Sara ran the last few miles with a police escort the entire way over the most beautiful stretch of land. With the sun coming up, the hills in the distance and her view, and the finish line in her sights, I was truly jealous she had this leg. We meet her at the finish line screaming and jumping up and down in celebration of our finish. Most of us were in tears while we screamed her in. We took a finishers picture and then ate breakfast while listening to a really great gospel band. Afterwards the Benson's (the parents whos child has Batten at our school, and the founders) gave some speeches and awards. We won for most donors and team spirit! (If only they knew what was really going on in the van!)

Besides my momentary pain, it was an incredible experience! I can't wait to run it again!! I feel so lucky to say I ran in the first Run to the Sun with an amazingly fun group of friends. Below are pictures, and videos, of the epxerience.

Thanks again to everyone who donated and supported us!

All of the runners minus Larry right before we left Casis.

One of our drivers, Heather.

Of course we had to decorate our van! We knew about the team spirit award and were planning on winning.

Larry is near the tan mailbox. This was the last hill after his 7 mile leg.

Sheri coming in from leg #2.

This is the slap bracelet we passed on to each runner at the pit stop.

Van fun!

Brandon wanted to rest up his legs so he would be ready for his first leg.

Kristy, leg 3.

This crazy guy made his high school running team do burpies on the side of the road. He was nuts. When I told my team I wanted them doing that for me when I came in, they all laughed at me. I took that as a no.

This was the warning so cars wouldn't hit us. If you look behind the sign you can see the amount of shoulder Brandon had. And that was the most he had the entire time. It was a lot smaller for most of his leg.

Brandon with his ridiculous Fred Flinstone dickie.

Brandon coming in from leg 5.

Sara and Jeff coming in to the finish line!

We did it!!

Of course I had to show my blisters. Here is the side of my right foot.

It was ginormous!

Left foot, not as bad.

Larry made a great video of the run from his videos and my pictures. Click here to see it. I can't stop watching it!! I know it sounds stupid, but it still doesn't feel real. I think the sleep deprivation made it all a blur.

caterpillar update

2011-05-07T08:58:00.001-05:00

You may remember my post about the caterpillars arriving at school, and all the excitement that leads to. Well after telling my past horror story I thought I should update everyone on what happened this year. So my first year was a disaster, and the 2 years that followed were great! This year...there were casualties. And again, they were my fault.

When we transfer the caterpillars into smaller containers so the kids can each have one on their desk, there are always at least 20 extras if not more. I usually let some go in our butterfly garden, and then keep the rest in case one of the kids' caterpillars die and then I can do a switch so they aren't sad. Well I packed down the extra food and carefully dumped my extra caterpillars into the container. After a few days passed, I walked into the classroom on Monday and realized all of the kids' caterpillars are HUGE and looking great, and the extra ones were looking still really puny and sad. I brought them to Nichole and asked what was wrong with them and she said probably nothing.

Well, she was wrong. I keptlooking at them and realized what I had done. When I transfered them to the new container I forgot to switch the lids so they had a lid that had holes in it. Yup. I suffocated about 15 caterpillars. Not on purpose though! Luckily I realized this before the kids came in and I dumped them in the trashcan, and covered them up with scrap paper so they wouldn't see them. I then sprayed the trashcan with air freshener because their food stinks and I didn't want any of them nosing around the trash trying to figure out why it smelled like their food. Needless to say, I lied to my kids about my killing them. I didn't blame the janitor this time. I just said they were so big and crowded I let them go in the butterfly garden so they wouldn't be so cramped anymore. They're only 8, they totally bought it.

One activity we always do is a venn diagram comparing ourselves to caterpillars. I don't think I've ever gotten one as funny as this:

He said that they both have heads, they both can drool, and they both frass. (caterpillar poop is called frass. I get great pleasure in telling them to be careful so they don't scare the frass out of them. Of course they think that's hilarious and see how else they can use frass without getting in trouble.)

Now here's where it really gets good.

He said caterpillars poop everywhere, and he only poops in toilets.
Caterpillars don't run, OR walk, but we can do both. (You're wrong kid, we watched them walk around everyday.)
They don't go to school but he does.
And my FAVORITE: Caterpillars "they don't go on dates with other caterpillars", Me: "we can go on dates with people"

I can't wait to see what he does when we compare ourselves with butterflies!

new tradition

2011-05-01T14:35:00.001-05:00

It's crazy to think that a year ago I ran my first race with Jillian, Crissy and Jane. I read that runners are superstitious (I guess most athletes are) and very ritualistic. I decided that since the Bun Run was my first official race, that I would make it my yearly tradition. Running the same race a year later was a strange thing, but awesome at the same time. It was really cool to see how far I've come as a runner in a year.

Last year we were towards the back of the pack, walking a lot, and struggling to catch our breath. (At least I was.) If Crissy hadn't been there to push me and cheer me on, I'm sure I would have finished second to last. Second to last only because I'm competitive and would have made sure I wasn't the loser. But this year, I was towards the middle. Maybe even the middle front!

Last year we were being passed by the young, moms pushing strollers, and old people that shouldn't be beating us. This year I was passing all of those suckers! Last year we ran it in 39 minutes. This year, I ran it in 32:46! That is less than 11 minute miles! AND I even walked 3 times for a minute a piece! I even improved from my last 5k in July by over 4 minutes.

Needless to say today was a good run, and a good day.