Some pictures for your viewing enjoyment

I finally got some pictures to scatter through this blog. Enjoy!

Included in this post are the best pictures I have that don't really belong anywhere. The first is my sister and my mom on my uncle's boat on the lake in Cascade when we went to visit my grandparents.



The rest are pictures of Wesley that I took for his doggy book.

Alive!

I definitely think that Tuesday is the least interesting day of the week. There's not much you can say about Tuesday.

I spent several non-teaching hours today reading the book Alive! because I'm going to have to teach it to my tenth graders soon. Wow. What a story. I read and read and read and only managed to get through half of it. For those of you who need their memories refreshed, this book is a true story about the Uraguayan rugby team who crashed in the Andes mountains and stayed in the ice and snow and 30 below temperatures for 70 days before two of them managed to hike out and get help. I could hardly handle only getting through 200 pages of the book today, because I felt like I was abandoning them if I stopped reading when they were still stranded on the mountain! But you can only read about death, and despair, and people eating dead bodies to survive for so long before you start to get sick to your stomach. Of the original 45, only 16 remained at the end of the story, all of those suffering from severe malnutrition, despair, and trauma. It's a pretty tough book to read.


I think the character that touched me the most was Liliana Methol. She was one of the last 10 to die, accidentally getting suffocated in the avalanche that killed 8 people and filled the wreck with snow. She was an especially touching figure first because she was the only woman who survived the first night, and second, because she spent her time and energy comforting the other survivors and comforting her husband, Javier, who survived the entire ordeal. The saddest thing is that she had four children, all of whom were without a mother after this.

If you want to know more about any of this, or if you want to see the origin of that picture of Liliana that I pirated, see http://www.viven.com.uy/571/eng/Default.asp

For some reason, reading this book made me want to make sure that I fulfilled all of my responsibilities. So, after working out, I rushed to my parents' to attend to the dog: making sure his teeth were brushed, loose hair was brushed out of his fur, his meds were dispensed, and his infected ear was tended to. I don't know why I felt that way. I guess learning about tragedy can have a weird effect.

I lifted weights tonight (man, do I need to work up again!) and so I'm exhausted. It's time to go home and take a shower. If you're not thoroughly bored yet, wait till you read what I will write tomorrow!

E

One more weekend post

It's about 8:30. I'm hanging out at my parents' while they spend the night elsewhere. They're on some kind of Church duty.

I stayed up late last night because of the party and then didn't sleep well so I was exhausted today. As a result, I really didn't get much planning done. It's okay. I have two periods tomorrow plus I pretty much know what we're going to do.

I think I have been watching too much of the TLC Channel. While working out last week, I saw a documentary on Juliana Wetmore, a Jacksonville, Florida 3-year-0ld who was born missing 30-40% of the bones in her face. She has had twenty-some surgeries, I think, to date and she needs several more. Nothing in her body is damaged except her face (i.e., her brain is that of a normal 3-year-old as is the rest of her body) She's going to face some incredible challenges in her life, and the documentary really touched me. It also reminded me of the websites and i-movies I saw about Jacqui Saburido, the gorgeous teenager whose car was hit by a drunk driver. Her body burned completely all the way to her feet before they managed to get her out of the car. As a result, she doesn't have much of a nose anymore, no ears, no fingers, no eyelashes, no left eyelid,. . .she doesn't look like the gorgeous young girl she used to. I read somewhere that her friends keep asking the question, "Who will ever love her now?"

Here are some links in case you are curious about what I am talking about:

Here's a link to a website about Juliana
Here's a link to a website about Jacqui

I think that's always a hang-up I've had. I grew up chubby, and I was always teased for my weight as a kid. That really affected me and, though I seldom ever admitted it to others, in the back of my mind I have always meant to be sure that my children didn't have the same problem. This mostly meant that the choice of whose DNA mingled with mine has always been really important to me, partially for that reason. On the one hand, I have to admit that I really don't want anyone I can influence to go through the kind of heckling I did. I don't admit that bias to people, though, because inside I know it's wrong. The pressure to be pretty is a totally unfair one to be putting on your children. My children will have to go through what they go through, and I won't be able to protect them from everything. I shouldn't if that protection involves not allowing them to be themselves or imposing my own preconceived notions of who they should be onto them. I worry I'm going to do that someday.

But documentaries like the one about Juliana and the story of Jacqui Saburido are real wake up calls for me. These girls are innocent people, and what has happened to them is not their fault. It just goes to show that -- regardless of the sorts of BS lies our culture tells us about what is really important about us-- beauty is only skin deep, and we need to see it for what it is . . . nothing. That's pretty unsettling for me, because it certainly hasn't seemed like nothing in my life, and a lot of my inner structures are based on an understanding of myself that sees it as pretty important. That should come as a surprise to some people I think, since I'm hardly a "girly girl."

On to lighter topics. Today I did a crossword, ran a bunch of errands, gave the dog a bath, went to church, and watched TV. Now I'm just hanging out until bed time, which is coming upon us very quickly.

I shall leave for the evening. Have a good night!

Elisabeth

The Murder Mystery Hoochtacular!

Hello, all!

Well, last night was the night! I had my murder mystery dinner, and was it fun! Emily, Renee, Tony, Clare, Anne-Marie, Aidan, Becky, Joe, Misty, Jennifer, and Nathan all came over and we played Gangster! The apartment looked great and I decorated the bathroom with ladies' lingerie that I bought at the Idaho Youth Ranch, a little I had, and some I borrowed from a friend.
The guests brought the food and there was plenty of it! We ate hors d'oeuvres then had the first round of the dinner. The first round took forever as it usually does. After dinner, we finished the second and third rounds, had dessert, and then finished up for good around midnight. This time Aidan was the murderer! And we all actually accused the right person! That's a first for my murder mystery dinners.

My sister came and, I have to tell you, Emily has the world's best belly laugh. As a little kid Emily laughed hard all the time, and it was a heavy, sincere laugh -- the kind of belly laugh that grabs you from your toes, sits heavy in your stomach, and just bubbles up from there. I haven't heard it for years. Last night, though, Emily's belly laugh was back! It wasn't quite as intense as when she was little but there it was! That's so cool! I thought she had lost it.



I took pictures too! I actually have quite a few pictures to post here but my parents lost their cord to upload the pictures at home so my dad has to do it from work. I'm going to wait until I go to Meridian High's Homecoming game this Friday (I want to take pictures there too) and then have my dad make a CD for me with the pictures on it. I should be able to post them sometime next weekend.

I got paid yesterday and I was thrilled when I found out the amount they had put into my account! Considering the raise I got when Meridian hired me, though, one would think that I would only get about $100 more take-home every month. As it turns out it's more like $300! That's incredible! So, first, I need to check with the district and make sure that they didn't mess up my tax information because I don't want to owe taxes when the time comes. Then I'll have a personal party if they didn't.

But, even so, I used the surplus money this month to pay off my credit card. I just wanted the whole debt gone. This is going to be a very skinny month since the payoff amount cut into what I would normally use to live on. I think I can do it . . .I think I can, I think I can . . .

Then, next month will be SO COOL because I'll have all that money left over. What will I do with it? Well, I think I'll put $200 or so into savings, $50 into my furniture fund, and $250 towards my loan as an extra payment? That would be cool. I have a whole month before then. I'll just have to see.

Pictures soon . . .I promise! (Probably next Saturday)

Do any of you remember the Progressive commercial where the woman rejects her boyfriend because of his website? As I peruse my blog, I have a similar image floating through my head. I am at a cafe', sitting at a small, round table with some unnamed male (the only thing I can tell about him is that he's not an old guy), and he gives me a look that says I'm about to drop a bomb on your head so you better brace yourself. This is gonna hurt.

He says, "I don't think we should go out anymore."
And I say, "Why?"
And He says, "It's your blog. I need more pictures than that."

Then the scene cuts to the Starbucks Frappucino commercial where that band is singing "Eye of the Tiger" to that guy named Glenn as he gets ready for work. I'll include a link to that commercial if I can find it. It used to crack me up.


Starbucks Commercial Link

Well, nevertheless . . .Due to an unfortunate mishap where I ended up taking my car to the mechanic when all it needed was a new battery, (Argh! Two other guys had looked at it and said that the battery was fine!) I now have 2-3 months worth of credit card bill to pay off before I could buy/save for a digital camera and before I can start redecorating! But, never fear! After watching a good amount of HGTV this weekend, I have decided that before I go spend my hard-earned cash on solid wood furniture or on electronics, I really ought to know what will look good in my apartment. So, I have decided to spend my free time studying a bit of interior design. My living room is not only antique-looking but it's really small, so it will probably need some fancy work to really get it looking good! The delay in buying power will be well-used. It will actually end up benefitting me in the end.

Well, it's late. Planning is mostly done, but I have yet to put gas in my car and get lunches ready for this week.

I'll take some pictures of my living room tonight and post them. :)

Join the Miss Teacher of the Year Pageant!

Hello, all!

This morning was hilarious. I had a school meeting this morning, and at a little teacher's breakfast afterwards, the ELL teacher who was sitting next to me told me that he won't have to go to school tomorrow because he is teacher of the year at his school. Now, I don't know where I got this idea but, for some reason, I have recently had the impression that the Teacher of the Year contest was some kind of pageant, where you express interest and then compete against other teachers for the title. So, when he said that he got tomorrow off, It naturally occurred to me to ask at which point in the competition they were: had he actually won or was tomorrow some kind of teacher swimsuit competition or something as part of the big contest? So, the question came out thus:

"Did you actually get voted Teacher Of The Year or did you just nominate yourself?"

I felt a sharp decrease in the filial goodwill coming from my left side after that.

So, after I had discretely excused myself from the breakfast I spent the next hour cracking up. In my car, back at school, in my classroom. Man, was I loopy! And it was so funny!

Then I taught my classes. That wasn't so funny! O, there is so much work to do! English is going very well -- with a lot of maintenance effort and time -- and Learning Strategies -- Ha! Wouldn't it be nice if that went well too!

So, school has recently ended and I'm not sure what to do: Work or pack it up and go home to work . . .but what if I forget something at school? That wouldn't be good.

But I had better skedaddle lest the loopiness come back!

What a helluva day!

Or should I say HELL of a day. It was terrible day at school, thanks to the sweet kids in my eighth period who have attention-getting behaviors, serious mouth-control problems, and no reason to be in a Learning Strategies class they didn't sign up for. I can't entirely blame them. I would much rather have the time off too. But we don't always get what we want.

So, I'm all jitters. I came home and ate the rest of the low carb ice cream stuff and one of the remaining pieces of my royale cake. Now I have to go work out and work it off.

Wesley and I played for a bit too, which helped.

Now I'm looking stuff up on the ISAT to help me teach my learning strategies class. I'll write again later (hopefully) with more to say.

Takin' a Break

Hello!

Just taking a break from lesson planning for a moment to write one more entry!

Notice on the "links" bar I have added two links. The first one is a link to Wesley's dogster webpage which desperately needs to be updated. The third one is a link to Ryan Fisher's site since he just told me about it last week.

Wesley is so cute! When I am typing, he comes downstairs and curls up in a little ball with his head touching his tail. He's like a little Wesley doughnut, and I can come over to him and fit my arms all the way around his sleepy little body and give him a big hug. He just lies there grumbling and enjoying the attention and extra warmth.

I am posting two non-helpful links in this blog entry. The first is the Montego Sofa from Pottery Barn. Buying a new futon mattress has turned my mind toward the day when I will purchase a whole new couch. This is something like one I dream about. (Honestly, though, I think when it comes down to it, I'll want one that's a bit comfier. This one just looks so cool!) This is similar to one I would like except that mine would have to have a back cushion, something for the arms, and none of that wicker crap on it. (I hate wicker unless it's purely an accent piece.)

http://ww2.potterybarn.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=schi1%7Cp1%7CwMontego%5CsSofa&pkey=sa1s00montego%2Csofa&gids=p5584

This one is better in some ways (i.e. there's actually a cushion for the back and I like the color more) except I don't like the arms as much. And it still has that wicker stuff all over it.

http://ww2.potterybarn.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=shpcfuruphnfw%7Crshop%2Fpipcfuruphnfw%7Cgp5584%7Ck%7Cs&pkey=cfuruphnfw&gids=p6076

Well, time to get back to planning.

Weddings, Theft, and A New Futon Mattress

Hello, all!

It's been a very interesting weekend so far! Last night (Friday), I went to our high school football game. We kicked Eagle High's fanny all the way to the endzone. The final score was 51 to 0! It was a lot of fun, but, as the teacher who shares my portable said, it would have been more fun, "if the other team would play." We had a great time. We, the teachers, sat in a section just full of fans wearing their blue and gold. They ran from just little kids all the way up to full-fledged adults. It was pretty fun!

Then today a ton of stuff happened.

a) My car wouldn't start after having the air running for 5 minutes without the motor on. I thought it was my battery, but, alas, it may very well be my starter! We'll have to see what the final bill is

b) My mother made me throw out my futon mattress because it stinks of cat pee. (Yes. All that enzyme stuff hardly budged the scent.) So, my parents bought a new one when I wasn't looking and put it on my futon! Wow! Ummmm. I feel really bad but it was really nice of them. The new one isn't nearly as comfortable as the old, but it doesn't smell either, so that's nice! Now I have to get rid of the recliner for the same reason. Damn cat! He needs to be able to go outside, because I guess a litter box just doesn't cut it for him. That's why he's living back at my parents' house now.



c) I went to Kelly Lewis' wedding. I had been thinking about making sure I got my parents' digital camera for it, but I forgot completely after my car died! It was like a mini high school reunion. I guess Kelly has kept a lot of the same friends for the last ten years. It was a very grand affair. They filled the whole cathedral with guests, had a reception at a nursery, had a dance floor, a large, catered meal . . .Christine and her family were there too. (Christine has been living far away since college.) It was fun to see her.

If I ever get married, I hope my wedding won't be quite so grandiose. I would want something more intimate and less, ummmmm, I don't know. . . paid for, I guess. More homespun.

But it was fun, and guests enjoyed the free pop, water, and wine!

And what's worse was that the gifts my folks and I bought for Kelly and Young were stolen out of my parents' car right before we went to the reception! Crazy.

I so wish I had pictures to share. Maybe in a few weeks I can get in touch with Kelly and have her e-mail a couple, and I'll post a link to info about the football game when the news is updated!

E

I've just been 28 for a day and I'm tired already!

Well, not even that. More like 16 hours. We had a fabulous party last night planned for me by Theresa and Nathan. It was great. First, Nathan picked me up and we went to dinner at Cazba. Alanna, Ryan Fisher, Erica, my sister, and Misty joined us. I got some great presents. Some hair products from Erica, a $20 gift certificate to Office Depot from Alanna, a gift certificate to the Spa from Ryan. Dinner was fun.




Then we took off to the Cafe' de Paris, where we were met by Joe Wilsey, Becky, Theresa, Courtney, a little styrofoam cup from Chris Garcia that had "Happy Birthday, Elisabeth" written on it, and an entire cake made out of my favorite treat from le Cafe', le Royale (YUMMMMMMM). It's made of chocolate mousse and this stuff called feuilletine that tastes like the chocolates I bought in Salzburg when Jennifer and I were traveling around Europe in 99. I've got to go back to Europe sometime!

A ton of other folks showed, including Fairy, my parents, both Teruel-Mathieus and some other folks from Church. I got home late, stayed up later, and now I'm so exhausted I'm not sure which direction to go . . .stay here at school and work, or go home and sleep. I think the pressing work will ultimately win out.

Ryan sent me pictures he took today. Thanks, Ryan! Here they are.

I have a hellific eighth period class. I mean it. I have two kids who have serious attention-getting behaviors and I have no idea what to do about it. I can't reward them by putting them outside the portable and allowing them to go wandering around the campus . . .sending them to the office makes me look incompetent . . .What to do? I can't sweep them up into my fantastic teaching strategies because the stupid class is a "learning strategies" course. What's a girl to do? WWSD?

Right after school I would have cried, but I have settled for sitting here typing my woes onto my blog while I swig Diet Pepsi Vanilla. Which of the two did the trick? I think it's the typing, but Bob Dole would swear it was his "little blue friend" who made me feel better, the ice cold Pepsi-Cola. (Say it with a Bush accent and it's funnier.)

Well, I'm almost ready to start grading papers and to get my unit plan into shape. These aren't bad kids, and I don't blame them for being resistant. I can't give them a good reason that they're in my study hall except that their ISAT scores were low. This class is supposed to give them a leg up so they can pass other classes, but how can I help kids pass classes who don't want to pass? I'm working on unit plans/lesson plans but I can only do so much in one week. (I at least have read our major text, though!)

I have hardly ever been so flattered in all my days. That party was awesome. I think so many people came because Theresa planned it and everyone likes to be in on a surprise, especially when there's free cake involved! It was awesome. A very memorable birthday!

Oh. By the way, Misty is moving too. To San Francisco to be with Tim. She's moving at the end of the month. Didn't I tell you? If I truly find a connection with someone like I did with Sara and Shawn (both individually. How rare is that?) and with Misty. . .(The loveable subject of my favorite "crazy neighbor" stories. She's such a hoot!) they move. It just has to be. Maybe it's a sign. Maybe God is populating the states with my favorite people just so I'll get the lead out of my rear end and move somewhere. After today's eighth period, I would move just about anywhere to get away from my two loveable hellions!

They're good kids. I just have to believe that.

What else to say? Nothing. Except this job is stretching me like taffy on some of kind of torcher rack. I'm stretching, but it hurts, and it takes a lot of energy and time and frustration and saying to yourself, "Yeah. That wasn't so good. But I'm working on it." when that situation you never anticipated comes up and you don't handle it the way a truly smooth professional would. I just find myself hoping that I'll be a smooth professional next year.

Another really great analogy for how I feel about this job is . . .y'know when you're on the workout machine and you've hit the really high level and you've been going for like a minute and there's still 3 minutes left before the exercise will get any less intense? Your legs start to hurt and you're breathing hard and you wish you didn't have to strain so much, but you know it's for a greater good, so you just keep steppin' or peddling or whatever. You just keep going even though it's hard to maintain that level of effort . . .because you know you need to. I feel like I'm stuck on level 25 and it's been 5 minutes and I have 35 to go but I keep going because I know that the good my body will get from the exercise will ultimately be worth the strain.

Well, it's time to get off the computer and start some serious unit planning. Then some serious grading.

Have a good day!