Thunder Cake

I am posting a picture of a note I received in December from my students. It was absolutely precious and yes, I am working with the writer on his spelling! :)

After looking at that again, I decided to do something fun for my kids. We read the story "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco this week. If you haven't read it before then you should because it is a short, sweet read. It is about a little girl who is afraid of a thunderstorm so her Grandma suggests making thunder cake to keep her mind off of it. She has to do several things which require her to overcome her fears, but at the end of the story they end up eating the thunder cake they made. Since I am trying to be a "cool" teacher, I made my kids a thunder cake tonight (with a little help :) ) which I will allow them to devour tomorrow. I hope this gives me some cool teacher points...

Man, I'm a nerd.

Mother is always right

So I went to work out with a friend yesterday and we were switching from different things for about 45 minutes. Then we noticed a free yoga class going on that started in 5 minutes. For the next hour, we stretched, held crazy positions, and breathed deeply over and over. I left feeling more relaxed than ever. Mom, you always told me I'd love yoga because of all my crazy flexibility and it doesn't surprise me that you were right...once again. :)

Summing up the week

I had Monday off, but 4 day weeks sometimes seem longer than regular weeks and I'm not sure why that is. We watched the inauguration in my classroom and a lot of it went right over the kiddos' heads. I told the kids that it was an important day for our nation, but it was also really neat for them because they have only known one man as president since they were born. We discussed what Obama said in his address so I made sure to take outline notes while he was speaking. My principal encouraged all of us to watch it in our classrooms and I was glad I had the opportunity to watch.

Thursday nights are turning into a girl's night for me. Our first one this week was ridiculously fun so I hope it continues!

Friday I went bowling again. Boy am I bad at bowling! My high score out of the 3 games we played was a 109. I still enjoy laughing and making fun of myself though! Thank God I have become less competitive (in some things) as I've grown older. Gone are the days of throwing golf clubs on the ground! :)

Yesterday, I went camping with a rather large group of people. There were 12 people, 5 dogs, 4 cars, 4 tents, 2 campsites, and a lot of toasted marshmallows! Some of us went on a 4 or 5 mile hike and had to cross a river by jumping from rock to rock without getting our shoes wet. I took a few pictures during the hike with my phone so as soon as I can figure out how to post them from my phone, you'll see them. It was a tad chilly and by tad chilly I mean it was downright cold, but everyone had a blast. I forgot how much I like camping and it made me really want to go fishing as well...

Today I am trying to be a little productive with laundry, cleaning, grading, and long overdue errands. We'll see how far that goes...

Last, for those of you reading this that are not living in Austin... I miss you!

Awkward

So I went on a dinner date tonight, only I didn't realize it was a date....awkward! Seriously, what do you do in this situation?!

Picture

I just downloaded pictures from my camera and this one brightened my not-so-good-day up a bit.

Surprise deux

So far this weekend I have done 2 surprising things. I am most surprised by the more common of the two. First, I got a tattoo. I have been wanting one for a couple years and when I finally saw one done about a month ago, I decided it wasn't that big a deal and bit the bullet. The tattoo itself is sort of a tribute to both sides of my family. I got a maple leaf to honor all that Canadian blood in me. The guy who did it got creative with the shading around and inside so it almost looks 3D. It is red for the most part, but he put a lot of other colors in there that give it a nice effect. I also requested a small cross somewhere inside the leaf and he put it in the top center of the middle vein. Parents know and are actually pleased with the design I chose. :)

Second, we grilled out at someone's house tonight and I forgot to bring food for myself that I could eat (aka no cow or pig). I decided to eat half of a burger, which is something I haven't had in 4 or 5 years! It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't really good either. Just oddly familiar.

On a separate note, I have been trying to help out one of my friends this week who is going through a rough time. I realize I almost become sad because I cannot help her as much as I want to. I act as goofy as I naturally am and perhaps a bit more which does bring a smile to her face every now and again, but I wish I could do more. Cheering someone up is hard work.

P.S. - The skydiving trip has been scheduled but in order to respect someone's wishes (Dad), I will not disclose the exact date. I promise to write about it after the fact.

Kungfu fighting

Everybody should be kungfu fighting! I had a lot of fun trying that out tonight with my old high school theater teacher (just to make it a little more random). Luckily, I had a friend from school come with me so I wasn't the only beginner in "street clothes" in the class. I'm pretty sure I used muscles I haven't used in a while and my stupid dancing background kept messing me up. I am going to continue trying this out for the next couple weeks and if I still enjoy it, then I will look into buying a membership. It can be a great workout for your body and I think healthy for the mind as well! I can already see how this would be the ultimate stress reliever, which we all know would be very beneficial for someone like me! :)

Living the moment

So I have been making plans to do several random things this week. The drag time during the daytime on the weekend has been a bummer, but I've been keeping busy for the most part. I am going out or hanging out on weeknights now, which I thought would be hard with school, but so far so good. I had a "dinner party" and then a game night with a new group of people who turned out to be a lot of fun. I finally went ice skating and realized how much I LOVE it. I am even considering buying my own skates (yes I know this sounds a bit extreme and crazy). I made plans to play laser tag and even though they fell through I know we will eventually go in the near future. I found time to go to the movies and Curious Case of Benjamin Button was pretty darn good. I saw an old friend today, who fortunately I will be spending more time with because apparently I have to hold her accountable. :)
I am going to try Kung fu with someone this week and hopefully go bowling on another one of the nights if I can find someone who sucks as much as I do! I am going sky diving at the end of the month or beginning of the next and I'm psyched.
If anyone has any ideas of other random things I should be doing or making plans to do, I am open to suggestions.

More writing...

Pretty sure this one was within the last year, maybe last spring?

Untitled...(I don't title a lot of them)

My mind is blank and yet the pencil moves
This simple act does all but soothes
The pencil brings above what's been hiding deep below
These days, everything seems to be a foe.

My face is bright but my thoughts are dark,
When will my lies finally leave their mark?

I'm going to hate myself tomorrow morning!

Feelings

Nerves
Twisting, grinding
Constant reminder of tomorrow

Thoughts
Swirling, expanding
Never stopping for a minute

Attraction
Tingling, deepening
Growing day by day

Doubt
Gnawing, screaming
Pushing its way to the front


*I believe this one was written sometime in the last 2 years? Maybe? I need to start dating these things...

Surprise

For those of you who really know me, brace yourself for this surprise. I actually considered getting a dog...until I remembered I live on a second story apartment and that would just be cruel. If I lived anywhere else though, I think I totally would be getting one. A dog person...who knew?

P.S.- I'm not sure if I can really use a "p.s." on a blog, but I'm going with it. Another poem will probably be coming later today!

Woohoo!

Turns out I may be going skydiving in the near future....more details to come :)

Can I really call this poetry?

Okay, I am going to type 2 different poems that I wrote way back in the day, as promised. Try to think back when you were a teenager probably and you can relate to something in one of the two! I use the same type of writing in both poems so I am thinking it was around the same time, but I think the first one is a lot more negative than the second one! WARNING: I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THIS IS GOOD WRITING!

"Poem" 1: Everyday

There's a hole deep inside that no one or nothing can fill.
Something's missing, something's gone, something never will.
Each day is no different because every day is the same.
The only change is tomorrow's coming and yesterday already came.

"Poem" 2: Life

No. This is not me, yet no one understands.
No one ever will, no one ever can.
I desperately want to scream with aggravation
I must bite my lip and resist the temptation.
Life is not meant to be understood
It would already be explained if someone could.
Everyone is different and everyone's the same.
Figuring that out for yourself is the game.
No one will understand, no one will know,
Unless they become you so your insides show.
You are unique and you are alone...
Look life in the face and let that be known.

New year

Happy New Year! I can't believe it is actually 2009. It was a very chill celebration for me bringing in the New Year with family. Gourmet food, fun company, games, and little surprises like gelato today (Yum!). Here's wishing everyone a fabulous 2009!

I realize I will only be 23 this year, but I am having conflicting feelings about my age. On one hand, I feel like my life is already starting to get away from me. I sometimes imagine myself still living by myself in an apartment with perhaps a fish, school stuff taking up half of my apartment at the age of 40. On the other hand, I do not feel old enough to be a teacher. It still feels a little weird telling people that is my profession now. I hope this is a common thing to go through at this stage in my life.

On a separate note, I have gone through some old journals and notebooks from back in the day during this break. I found some poems that I actually wrote at different points in my life and I am thinking about posting one or two every so often. They are by no means great writing or even good writing, but that is how I usually dealt with strong emotions. Some of them are depressing and some of them are sweet, but I just figured I'd give you a warning before posting any of them. :)