smurf muffins

Aw the joys of being a teacher. Not only do I get all major holidays(and some minor ones) off, I also get to spread my creative wings and make some really weird things. For example, my cousin, the geologist (yea rocks!), came into town for Thanksgiving and I jumped at the chance to slack off... I mean offer my students an engaging scholastic experience. I suggested to Cori that she should come talk to my class about something rocky, and she agreed (really I just don't think she had any better plans). That is how we came to be giggling hysterically in my parents' kitchen late Monday night while glopping color-enhanced muffin mix into over-full muffin pans, while Alli (other cousin) begged us to hurry so she could go to bed. Our goal was to make muffins that had different-colored layers inside so the kids could shove clear straws into them, pull them out, then use these "core samples" to guess what the inside of the muffins looked like. It worked pretty well except the kids kept getting berries in their samples. Hooray for fifth grade!

-Ang

Motivation

It is a Saturday morning and I awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed at about quarter til nine. I have a long list of things to do today and was excited to get going. Riley and I checked "getting the bugs out of the living room light fixture" off our list and we were rarin' to go. He set off on his adventures, and I headed to my parents' house to start our laundry (which we haven't done in two weeks). THat's as far as I have gotten. I got to chatting, then mom signed me up for twitter, then I discovered the holiday issue of Real Simple magazine, then dad went to pick up pizza. And now I am blogging. Maybe the afternoon will bring more results than my morning.

Ang

Unpacking...

The past 2 years have been some major transitional times for me. I mean the chop your hair off, dye it basically black, change your entire wardrobe and get a tattoo just so you can feel different than you did 3 months ago kind of transition. (Although I did opt out of the tattoo) Lately though, I’ve been reflecting on where I’ve come from and where I’m going and surprisingly enough, I’ve been incredibly happy! I’ve finally made it. I am the new woman I wanted to be and things are fabulous. Or so I thought... For the past couple of Sundays at church our Pastor has been mentioning over and over again the idea of ‘unpacking’ things. Unpacking those things you reeeeeaaaalllly don’t want to unpack. Revealing, analyzing, and examining those parts of yourself you’ve either denied actually exist or refuse to acknowledge even though they are staring you straight in the face.

Yesterday I was digging through my closet and I found a journal from about 4 years back. I made the major mistake of opening it up and reading it thinking, ‘Awesome! now I can see how far I’ve really come right?’ Wrong. I found nothing but page after page of the same thing I struggled with two years ago, and the same thing I am struggling with today. Am I destined to relive the same mistakes over and over again? Did I learn nothing since then? Will my ‘house’ ever be fully unpacked and put away neatly? It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was on my way to a dear friend’s house to get some hot chocolate and have some good girl time and I started crying like a fool on the drive over. When I finally got up the courage to spill my guts again to her, she was (as she always is) an incredible encouragement. She helped me realize a few things.

1) We all have issues! And we will always be unpacking and revealing those parts of ourselves we consider ugly, bruised, and broken to God so that He can make them beautiful, healed and restored.

2) I am fabulous and I deserve only the best. I should never settle for anything less than God’s intended plan and I should never sell myself short.
And finally...
3) The fact that I even recognize that I’ve still got issues to unpack, means there’s already one empty suitcase that has been cleaned out and is sitting to the side. Thank you Syd, you are a blessing. xoxo

So, where does that leave me? Scared, excited, nervous, confused, confidant….all of the above. I still don’t quite know what all of this is going to mean, but I am at least willing to look into it. Who knows, maybe unloading a few pieces of baggage will be good for me and perhaps I’ll find a cute pair of shoes I had forgotten I even had. :)

-Kare

Chai Latte

I am feeling very grown up right now. I am feeling a bit under the weather this weekend, and I woke up from my nap today to discover that my throat was hurting. Crap. So I took a shower and decided to find something hot to drink. I am currently lacking in the tea department, hate coffee, and didn't even have any hot chocolate to speak of. I did, however, have some chai latte mix. I thought that milk might be nicer than water, so I heated some milk, mixed in the chai mix, and am now happily sipping on something that has the smoothness of milk and the cinnamon of chai. I feel very sophisticated.

-Ang

Invincible

Alas, I am not invincible. My immune system has failed me. I finally got the antibacterial wipes out and had the kids wipe all the germs off their desks, but not until it was too late. Now my nose is running, my head hurts, and I have decided I dislike children.

-Ang

barking

My class barks! Seriously!!! They go outside, play for a while, come back in tired and out of breath, and a chorus of barking coughing follows. At times I find myself in the midst of a virtual cacophany of hacking, rumbling, and all varieties of lung-rattling activity. Do people still get whooping cough? 'Cuz that's what it sounds like. When I am teaching I have to talk really fast until someone strikes up the chorus and they all join in. It's like they hear one kid do it and then they think, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that tickle in my throat", and go at it. Am I going to die of some terrible airborne virus? Maybe I should wear a mask to school. I had a professor in college that wore a mask whenever she was outside. She was wierd. Anyhow... I hope they get better soon or pretty soon it will be like teaching in a kennel.

-Ang

October 31...the good girl's excuse to do things her mother usually wouldn't approve of.

Yes, it is officially November and the frightful day of October 31st has come and gone. Last year my Halloween consisted of stuffing the kids in my class full of candy, sending them on their merry way, then going home to an oh so exciting night of absolutely nothing. This year...not the case. Surprisingly enough this year was probably the most fun I have ever had on Halloween.

Following a fun-filled school day including pumpkin math and science centers, I proceeded to get ready for a sick dance party where a fabulous costume and my best dance moves were a must. I was a 60's gogo dancer. Now, I've never been one to go all out for a costume. But this year I happened to come upon a fantastic lime green dress and white knee-high platform boots. I lathered on the white eye-shadow, black eye liner, and frosted lip stick. I flipped out my hair, teased it to an ungodly height, and shellacked it with hairspray. With the help of my mother, I cut the calf length dress to a couple inches above the knee. It's not every day your own mother says, "No, I really think you need to go at least a couple inches shorter." Fantastic!

The dance party was insanely fun. There were all kinds of costumes including a human facebook page (with a wall everyone wrote on and everything!), an 80's rocker, Elvis, Dorothy, a smurf, Michael Phelps, a pregnant woman, ect. I knew I had done well with my costume when I walked in and heard, "Wait! What the freak? Is that Karen?!" Mission accomplished. We all danced the night way, doing dance moves that would have given my grandmother heart palpitations. But hey, it's Halloween so anything goes right? It's a pretty funny sight to see the youth pastor, his wife, the members of the worship band, and a several youth sponsors thrusting and dipping to censored versions of songs normally reserved for clubs on Mill Ave. But, it was all in good fun and the party went on until 2:00 AM so we must have been doing something right!

I would have to say the highlight of the night was when myself and three of my girlfriends secretly planned a dance to surprise everyone with. We added our song to the heavily guarded play list with James-Bond like stealth. When we knew our song was next we headed to the hallway until it was time to make our grand entrance. Then as Crank Dat by Soulja Boy started playing, a gogo dancer, an 80's rocker, a thug and a smurf made their way out to the dance floor and busted out the best performance of the super man dance you've ever seen. Cameras were flashing and people were clapping. It was amazing.

This Halloween I learned three things: I have fantastic friends, I love dance parties, and I look fabulous in gogo boots. :) Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how sweet it really was!

-Kare

Why gravity sucks (or pulls?)

Isaac Newton was right all along. Drop something, and it will be caught up by the earth's gravitational pull and plummet to the earth below. It is inevitable. So why do I think that I can ride off the side of a massive wooden teeter-totter on a bicycle and avoid the consequences induced by gravity? Twice!!! One word: pride. Kristy did it, so why can't I? I have been riding longer. I have done stuff like this before. Should be easy. Wrong. Lack of speed mixed with inability to ride in a straight line spells falling four to five feet onto the unforgiving Oklahoma ground. The first time wasn't too bad. Brief lack of wind, dirt on face, no biggy. I even hopped right back on and tried it again. I succeeded! I tried it again and succeeded again. Score: me-2, teeter-1. I win. However, after riding the cross-country trail and second time Rachel suggests we get video footage of the girls triumphantly conquering the double-teeter. Crap. Rachel does it- my turn. I pedal-pedal-pedal, ride up, wait for it to go down, lose speed, plummet to the ground... again. This time everyone is watching and the video camera is rolling. Convenient. Now anyone who wants to can watch me fall off a teeter totter while uttering a rather uncharacteristic choice word (which according to Andy rhymes with "shoot"). This time I have no oxygen left in my lungs and I lay on the ground grunting until my lungs can reinflate. My legs are bruised and battered, my shoulder is throbbing, my left forearm looks like someone threw a handful of glass shards at it, and my pride is no longer in the same zip code. Score: me-2, teeter- 2.

-Ang