dynamite

'yessssssssssssssssssss!'

my 's' works again! i am so happy that i am very tempted to type every 's' in this post as a capital. but that totally goes against who i am.

such a classic case of 'don't know what ya got til it's gone.'

's', i love you forever and i will never take you for granted again.

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

bull horns

okay - i am all about avoidance.

i know that's horrible, but i hate confrontation so much that i prefer to dodge these situations entirely.

call me a chicken or a scaredy cat or whatever you want...you know why?

because today i went against my own innate grain!!

i grabbed a bull by the horns!!!

perhaps that's a little bit dramatic, but figuratively speaking, i did grab a bull by its horns and i got something out of the way that i was completely 100% dreading.

at the same time, i avoided blatent confrontation.

score.

in fact, i feel bold enough to say that the encounter was not at all unpleasant.

i have a new lease on life!

communication is good. :)

(i know i am probably the last adult person on the face of the earth to discover this profound element of humanity, but again - i am all about baby steps)

and speaking of baby steps...

i had a male student (who i don't teach) ask me today, 'do you have kids?'

'yes, i have two. a five year old and a seven year old.'

(for the record, jay will turn five next week. moment of silence, please.)

***silence***

thank you.

said student continues, 'oh!! how fun! a boy and a girl?'

'no, they are both girls.'

palpable sigh from student...

'don't you just *love* being a mom?'

'yes i do. it's amazing.'

'i can't wait to have kids of my own one day.'

(this is where the part about baby steps fits into this post. see? it's relevant.)

mind you this is an 11 year old.

a boy.

a precious little guy.

he does fabulous magic tricks.

he proudly wears his mom's jackets.

he has *tons* of personality.

i honestly think he's a pretty cool kid.

on a completely unrelated topic, i watched julie and julia for the first time. do you know what single line in the whole movie stood out most to me?

'and I cried like a small, emotionally disturbed child...'

i'm not quite sure why this caught my attention and subsequently made me laugh so hard. maybe it's because i have several in my classes this year. some have been professionally diagnosed as emotionally disturbed. others have received my own peronal seal of approval for emotional disturbances. i have a talent of being able to pick those kids right out of a line up! maybe it's a curse.

but more on this in another pot.

i have to go becaue a you can tell in the lat paragraph, either the ring finger on my left hand uddenly doen't work anymore or my 's' is not working properly.

(i've had to hit it really hard for the lat few line to make it type that particular letter. i am gonna kip it for the remainder of my blog today)

o, until i can properly a e the problem, i mut go. i need leep. lot and lot of leep, very very oon.

:)

the.

end.

good night.

leep tight.

as pleased as punch...

well, i googled the etymology of the phrase...

from the punch and judy puppet character. punch's name derives from polichinello (spelled various ways, including punchinello), an italian puppet with similar characteristics. in punch and judy performances the grotesque punch character is depicted as self-satisfied and pleased with his evil deeds.



punch and judy shows are popular summer-time entertainments in britain. they have been somewhat in decline during the latter half of the 20th and into the 21st centuries, due to them being seen as politically incorrect. that's hardly surprising as the main character punch is a baby-murdering wife-beater.

i don't think i'll be using the phrase anymore.

fairy fiasco

cee finally lost her first top tooth yesterday. it fell out at a birthday party. am i the hugest dork for getting so excited about teeth?



the girls stayed with their dad last night. he admitted that he's 0-2 on being the tooth fairy. maybe he should catch the rock's newest flick for some pointers! he does get points for creativity...the tooth fairy left $1 under her pillow on the palette where she fell asleep, and $2 under the pillow in her bed.

however, once again, the tooth fairy forgot to actually take the tooth. we've been through this song and dance before.

so the tooth beary is back at our house, and we decided that she must have been in a huge hurry and forgot to grab it. we're hoping she'll come back tonight to retrieve the tooth.



regardless, she was as pleased as punch with her loot (where did that simile come from and what in the heck does it mean?). jay is absolutely dying for her first visit from the fairy.

ahhh - the trials and tribulations of growing up and learning to be a fairy. it ain't easy.

really, mr. butt?

i made a quick stop by h.e.b. after school today. i needed the essentials: tomatoes, wine, pasta, crayons, and advil.

i love my h.e.b. i think everyone has their own affinity with 'their' store: it's familiar, it's comfortable, you know your way around, you can be in and out in five minutes if need be. you might even have your favorite checker, lane, and/or bagger. or at least that's the sentiment i have for my h.e.b.

my h.e.b. has a new checkout lane by the produce - right where you walk into the store. it's the super quickie lane. never a line. always 10 items or less. if you were only buying bananas, i think you could park, grab, pay, and leave in two minutes flat if you used the super quickie lane.

so today, seeing as i needed only five items, i was super psyched about the super quickie lane. it's friday. i wanted my goodies and i wanted to be home.

another thing i love about h.e.b. is that whenever you check out, they always offer you the one dollar savings items. it's the quick sale stuff...sometimes it's really, really good, and sometimes it's not. it might be gum, shampoo, deodorant (always an awkward moment being a woman and having a male checker), toothbrushes, or even chocolate (i love the weeks when they are brave enough to offer chocolate *and* toothbrushes at the same time).

the super quickie lane does not have the one dollar saving items.

i like this.

i have been known to be a sucker for the impulse register purchases.

today?

not so much.

the sweet little quickie lane lady scanned all my items - wine, tomatoes, crayons, pasta, and advil. and just before she announced my total ($17.52), she asked, 'would you like to buy my plant for a dollar?'

uhhh.

who says that?

the 'plant'...oh, i felt bad for the way i looked at it. i judged the plant on the spot: death in a pot. the plant had been dead since november at the very best. it had at one time been a small rose bush, but death had humbled it into a small quart-sized plastic container. pathetically, it was wrapped in some of the shiny gold foil stuff left over from christmas. the bud pods were petrified, i think. the tag hung miserably from one of the 'branches'.

all i could think of was matthew 25:45 which says, 'whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

would you like to buy my shriveled, crunchy, brown death plant for a dollar?

really?

i decided that the chances of the holy trinity being classified in the same genus & species as a tree or plant were slim to none.

plus, we're in a recession. a dollar is a dollar.

so my answer was a simple 'no, thank you.'

i would not like your dead plant for the bargain basement price of $1.

i can kill plants at home for free.

however, if this is a new hot trend, then i have found my entrepreneurial niche. i am the best plant killer ever. all i need to do now is buy some cheap plants, bring them home with me for a week (which guarantees death for them), then sell them to h.e.b., and collect my millions.

and then they will offer to sell them to you.

let's make a deal.

wanna?

oh, what a day

chips, salsa, and a margarita are in my very near future. what a whopper of a day!

i really don't want to go into the details of the insanity that happened at my school today, but picking the girls up and getting some lovin' from them makes it all better. their dad is coming to pick them up in a bit, so i will definitely be hopping in a bubble bath later, too.

i can't imagine working with any better group of people. sometimes our sick humor keeps us sane.

of course, everything is relative. when i got home, i turned on cnn (have i mentioned that i am slightly addicted to the news?) and that put life into perfect perspective.

magically, my day didn't seem half bad after all.

haiti is breaking my heart. here's what i don't understand: God won't give you anything you can't handle. i firmly believe this. i also believe that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. but hasn't there been enough death and destruction? how much more can they take?

their faith moves me. their strength and community overwhelms me. their love and zeal for life astounds me. their ability to take the lemons life has dealt them in the last two weeks and turn them into lemonade makes me realize how lucky i am.

perspective works in mysterious ways.

yes, i had a somewhat odd day, but oh my goodness.

i can anticipate a hot bath; there are people in haiti who haven't been able to bathe in well over a week. i can look forward to some chips and salsa; there are people in haiti who are ridiculously starved and haven't eaten in days. i will sip on a delightful margarita shortly; there are people in haiti hurting each other just to get a sip of water. and my level of stress is too weak to even pale in comparison to theirs. i am spoiled. i take things for granted.

inspite of the horror that the earthquake has caused, i have been given a solid spoonful of the elixir called reality check.

therefore, my day wasn't bad at all. not even a little bit.

each day is a gift. including mine.

sonic

i *love* that when i go to sonic and run my debit card, the machine gets so excited for me!! it says:

approved!!!

thank you!!!

no, thank you, sonic, for making my day every time i visit. it is a little tidbit of a daily affirmation that honestly does make me smile.

it's as if the machine knows that there have been times when my debit card doesn't work, and it is truly patting me on the back for having money in my account.

sometimes it's the little things that make my day. sonic, thanks for all of the special days you've made for me!!! you are not just america's drive-in, you are mine, too.

next time you are feeling a little blue, you should pull into one of the little parking spots, order a little something for yourself, swipe your card, and accept your daily dose of love. it'll make you happy, i just know it.

lots of love & tater tots...

therapy

i just went back through an old email file of gems from the ex. i am absolutely shocked by it, and at the same time i can't help but think how fortunate i am to have left. i am thankful that i saved those because it was really good for me to read them just now (in a twisted way).

my 'former' life was so demeaning. i cannot ever imagine treating anyone the way i was treated.

in the same breath, i cannot imagine anyone taking that kind of verbal nastiness, even though i am guilty as charged. who was i?

alas, that was then, and this is now.

thank goodness these are things that are mere memories now instead of daily realities.

God is so, so good.

i hope my sweet baby girls never experience anyone talking so hatefully to them. i hope that i can instill enough strength and confidence in them to let them know deep in their hearts that it is not okay to be treated less than the best.

i am really beside myself right now.

i cannot believe i took so much for so long. too, too long.

wow.

looking at those old emails from him was some serious soul therapy for me.

sorry for any negative, bitter, or spiteful tone in this - i am just really baffled by what part of me ever thought it was even remotely okay to be treated so horribly.

the bright side?

freedom and a new life.

it has almost been a year - i've come a long. long way, baby.

later, gator.

this morning, 8:42 a.m.: kid hands me bottom copy of duplicate slip regarding late arrival (tardy bell rings at 8:15).

said slip reads:

name: randall**
date: 1-11-10
arrival time: 8:40 a.m.
reason for late arrival: my mom got me here late.

it is definitely worth mentioning that this kid has the writing of a serial killer which really added to the overall effect of the note.

decision: i am going to start keeping track of all the reasons i get explaining why students are late to school.

friday was a very cold day in texas. the temperature did not creep above 30 degrees all day. don't judge; that's cold for us. one family chose to keep their kids home from school. their official note to the office said:

we didn't send our kids to school on friday. it was just too darn cold for us to get out.

did i mention that there was no ice at all?

role models rock.

fruits & trees.

okay, that's it for tonight.

bye.

**all names have been changed to insure privacy (...or have they??)

a toast to...

i raise my proverbial glass in a toast to:

...a warm towel on a cool day.
...a hug when you most need it.
...a clean wine glass when you need to relax.
...enough room for a palette when you need the bed to yourself and your children need to be close to you.
...a cold pillow when you need to flip it in the middle of the night.
...a fabulous teaching partner when you don't really have a plan.
...a friend to chat with even though you haven't felt like chatting in well over a year.
...a wickedly sweet puppy who you pretend to hate even though you really love him.
...friends who pull you out of your funk when you least expect it.
...a mom who is always there, no matter how much you don't deserve it.
...two daughters who love you despite all of your imperfections.
...the smell of rain.
...the smell of a puppy's breath.
...the gift of life and all its many blessing, no matter how big or how small.

the end.

basketball

it's basketball season! this is the girls' first year to play. let me start by saying that i dropped my camera and now it is broken, so i only got a few pictures of jay's 'game'. i am super sad.

luckily, this was one of them...


the girls were so cute. jay begged for the last 2 weeks to be 'unsigned up' for basketball, and she did a great job today!! she is so funny. she did lots of skipping, twirling, spinning, and watching the other game, but i was just really happy that she stayed on the court. yay, jay!!



the girls' dad is, admittedly, not the most patient person who has graced the earth. he was very funny at jay's game...he gained a whole new respect for teachers and people who work with kids on a daily basis.

and speaking of him, he is coaching cee's team. they are the next age group up from jay's, so most of them have played before. cee hustled her little booty up and down the court, and she dribbled the ball several times, too. she is the shortest one on her team by a good foot. therefore, i was especially proud of her for posting up even though none of her team mates could see her over the person defending her.

the girls were worn out, their dad was worn out (he might have mentioned coaching being like herding cats), and i have sneezed no less than 326 times today. it's not even noon yet. i thought subfreezing temperatures were supposed to kill all the stuff that causes allergies. leave it to me to be the anomaly!

my weekend is off to a fabulous start, so i need to knock these allergies out and embrace today and tomorrow!!!

this is jay during the 4th quarter...she's still out there, but she was *so* over it. all of her team mates are at the other end of the court in this photo. also, this image taught me what it means when a picture screams black and white.



more later...

the boy who cried wolf

no offense to aesop, but that is a really lame story. the plot is mediocre, the characters could be developed much further, and it is only like five sentences long.

i just read it to the girls and made it as long and drawn out as possible by adding lots of hyperbole about the boy and the townspeople and the town itself and even the way he loved his sheep and how evil the wolf was and how bad the boy felt at the end and...

...we were still done in less than five minutes.

they were not impressed.

they did not get the moral of the story.

we'll have to try that again (with a different story).

they resonate much better with the tried and true confucius adage of 'liar, liar, pants on fire...'

hey!!! look!!

it's elvis!!!

just kidding.

(but seriously...)