Something's Wrong With This Picture

I guess Christmas was a little more difficult than I thought. All I remember is sitting down to watch Santa Baby 2 on Lifetime or Hallmark or whichever channel I watch and waking up to this. Bummer. Have you tried the peppermint kind? Little burst of yummy peppermint heaven. Maybe I can whip it up in my magic bullet? Right now I have peppermint soup.

Note to self

If a recipe calls for frozen rhodes rolls, pop and serve biscuits are not an equivalent substitution.

Butterscotch bubble bread is now raw, doughy mess.

Also, if it calls for a bundt pan, a loaf pan probably isn't a good idea either.

This is my morning.

Hip Hop Dog

So you don't have to look at the contents of my purse anymore. Blame Kiley.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Problem

I have a problem. My purse is messy. Seriously messy. So messy that when my phone rings it often goes to voice mail before I can find it. Within the last week and a half I have had my purse dumped out upside down twice. The first time was at the Conference Center. I was not happy. I knew they were going to search my purse but seriously this was like a cavity search for purses. The second time I was with my mom and I heard a distant ring. I thought it was my phone. I looked and looked for it but I couldn't find it. My mom was with me so she looked and looked for it too. My mom ended up dumping the whole thing out in the front seat of the car. I still couldn't find my phone. It turned out my purse was so messy it jumped out and went under the seat. I took this as a sign. It was time to clean out my purse. So forty-five minutes ago I told myself that before I could go to Target and buy that shoe rack I want, I must clean out my purse. What I found was slightly embarrassing so when I'm embarrassed I like to write about it and post it to the internet. Here are some of the contents. You might like to play along Eye Spy style.

• A toothbrush
• Important receipts for school
• 13 Post it note lists
• Flex spending letter that should have been mailed last month
• Missing ID tag
• Computer cord for projector
• Sucker
• Two tampons
• $437 dollars in cash and checks (what? Who has $437 in their purse?)
  
• Another purse
• punch cards from every place that gives out punch cards (most with only one punch)
• two ticket stubs
• 47 assorted pens and pencils

Yup, I'd say I have a problem.

Anyway, I think I've earned a trip to Target and with $437 I think I can buy a pair of shoes to go with that rack.

CCRs

I'm pretty sure the person growing corn in their front yard is violating a rule in the CC&Rs.  Oh the joys of living in a planned community -- Only a few more days.  Let the packing begin!

Fan of Fans

I cannot stand to be hot. For the past four weeks I have complained about how hot it is in my school no less than 23 times a day. It's so hot! Sweaty gross hot. Back to School Night almost did me in. To teach all day in a hot, sticky room and then try to look presentable in front of parents was near impossible. In fact I might have mentioned a few of the school board members' telephone numbers during my presentation. (I really didn't in case my boss ever reads this -- but boy did I want to.) My thought is you can always put on a sweater, but you can only take so many things off. Believe it or not this year is not the worst year when it comes to temperature. My first year at my current school Utah had a record hot May. More 100 degree tempertures recorded in a month than ever before. That was also the year that my air conditioner thought it was an F-16, or at least it did an incredibly realistic impression of one, and then upon discovering that it was securely fastened to the concrete and would never realize its dream to soar high above the clouds, it gave up its will to cool and died. Two long years of sweltering heat followed, school then home, then school, then home. Until I finally saved enough money to buy the biggest, baddest, "coolest" central air unit on the block. My neighbors had air conditioner envy. It is a beautiful machine. It will be hard to say goodbye when I move later this month but the new place still has central air so I'm good to go.

During those years without air conditioning, the only thing that helped me make it through those long hot nights was this:

The biggest ugliest ceiling fan ever made. It came with the house. One night it actually came detached from the ceiling and was dangling by the electrical wiring. Thankfully Mark rushed over and secured it to the ceiling again, but the image of those brown wicker blades spinning out of control scarred me for life. As luck would have it exactly one week ago I broke it. I pulled too hard on the chain and oops, there it goes. I have been living with this thing for close to nine years and I break it one month before I move. Grrr. So I dragged Melanie to Home Depot and she helped me pick out the cheapest new ceiling fan I could find.


I actually have a lot of experience with fans. They are positioned strategically around my classroom in an effort to keep the lil' ones cool and calm. The first day everyone also makes their personal fans to keep in their desks at all time.Notice the cute crayon sorter tucked in the shelf.

Sometimes I turn this fan on the students and sometimes I just face it right on me. It depends on how generous I'm feeling.
After one week in the classroom my student teacher came with two more fans. They don't stand upright but if I'm going to plug them into an extension cord and drape it across the table anyway so what if I tip it on a chair. I know the fire inspector would not approve.
Finally, here is the newly installed ceiling fan, complete with energy efficient light bulbs.This isn't a fan, but Adam likes to refer to it as "The Stool of Shame" I keep telling him that's not where misbehaving students sit. I sit there when I read a chapter from our novel after lunch while the kids fan themselves, guzzle water, and can't hear a thing because we have four fans going in the classroom.

Next week they are forecasting temperatures in the 80s. That better be the truth or a certain weather forecaster might be getting a threatening telephone call.