A Stronger, More Independent Woman

So, Doug has been gone now for 11 days.  When someone asks me how I am doing, I usually say something like, "I am becoming a stronger, more independent woman." and fake a really nice smile.

Well yesterday, I decided that as a "strong, independent woman," I should go ahead and fill up my own tires.  (I've been talking about doing this for months, but I was hoping that Doug would do it for me when we stopped to get gas, but it didn't happen before his trip.)

So anyway, I was driving by the Sheetz where they have a free tire pressure thingamajig and I decided that I was going to do it.  ALL ON MY OWN.  My hesitation was always that I didn't know how much to fill up my tires.  One time when I was expressing this concern to Doug, he told me that I could probably read the number that is listed on the tire. (Ahem... not such good advice.)

So, I get to the gas station and read my tire. (Max 44 psi)  Okay?  So, I decided that I didn't want to fill it to the MAX and only set the machine to fill it to 42 psi.

So apparently, that's WAY too high and Doug practically flipped when I told him how much I inflated them because now I have an increased danger of having a blowout. (Great!)  If you're wondering how full you should inflate YOUR tires, it's usually about 32-35 psi.  You can check your car's owner's manual or there's usually a sticker on the inside of the driver's door.

OOPS!  Well, now I know!  I just need to go BACK to the gas station and deflate my tires...

Good thing I'm becoming a stronger, more independent woman.

Ouch!

I got my one month shot yesterday and the hot flashes have come back fully. Darn! I hope that these will be last ones until I hit real menopause. Once again, I'm glad I'm going through this in the winter time. I haven't felt too crazy emotionally which I am thankful for.

Doug had to work a crazy shift 10am-2am, yes AM to AM and on the LAST week that I get to see him before he is gone for a month. I'm hoping that we get to hang out some before he goes.

Caitlin and I went ahead and did our weekly date night that we do on Tuesday nights while her hubs has duty as a volunteer at the fire department. We commuted to work together, so I only had 10 minutes before and after school to get work done. Made me feel like I was running around the school like a crazy person (which I was) during my planning time today. We usually eat cookies and watch chick flicks. Tonight, we switched it up and ate Swiss Cake rolls instead of cookies.

Oh yeah, another thing...

Today, I almost CUT OFF MY THUMB WITH A PAPER CUTTER! Seriously, I think it's every teacher's nightmare to do that. I was really chopping at these short little pieces of paper and my kids were in lab (under supervision from TWO different adults, but you never know with my class)... So anyway back to the blade and my finger. I had my thumb under the blade and SLICE! OUCH!

Now I did say ALMOST cut off my finger. My fingernail kept it from really cutting me too badly. The worst part of the injury is actually the bruising... Scratch that. The WORST part is the trauma of THINKING that I cut my finger off! I just hope my nail doesn't fall off.

Ouch!  Good thing I had a fingernail to take the blow!

It really doesn't look too bad. I put a bandaid on it right afterward and my class was asking me all day if I would take it off and show it to them. :) I guess I should be pretty thankful that I was using the newer dull one and not the huge old sharp ones that look like they could take someone's whole arm off.

Sweet (Indirect) Revenge

So, I'm going to do something that I'm pretty sure I shouldn't do in a publicly available website... complain about my boss.  Here it goes anyway...

This week report cards were due on Thursday.  Report cards aren't what they were like when I was growing up.  I still have five different letter grades to give, but there are also a billion little subcategories within each I need to take data for as well.  If it were only those two things, I would've been done during my Teacher Work Day this Monday... but we have COMMENTS.

We are to write individualized narratives on each student.  My comments usually run about 20-25 sentences PER CHILD.  It's a lot of writing and it all seems to mash together in your brain.  Now, I do love each one of my students individually, but when you need to sit down and write that much specific stuff about every child you feel like your brain is going to explode. 

Now don't get me wrong, I think that comments on the report card are a GREAT way to communicate with parents.  The problem is that ours are scrutinized by one of the administrators to the point where the teachers are literally having nervous breakdowns over them and sobbing in the hallways.  Yeah, I'm not joking.  It's bad.  REALLY BAD.

One of our administrators will just glance over them and say, "Great!"  Which honestly sucks because you do need an extra set of eyes.  The other will comb through them and instead of giving you specific critiques, will tell you that they're not good enough and that you need to REDO them.  Now, I haven't had that personally happen to me, but I've seen it happen all around me.

I've worked 14-15 (5am-8pm) hour days this week... no dinner breaks.  Unfortunately even after working all of these hours at school, I was late turning in my monthly citizenship certificates.  I had the names submitted a while back and the certificates just needed a quick signature.

I was on my way to sneak them onto the guidance counselor's desk when the administrator popped out of nowhere and saw the certificates in my hand.  I tried not to make eye contact, but she stopped me and asked incredulously, "Are THOSE citizenship certificates?!?!"  I responded sheepishly, "Uh, yes?"  Then comes the smart-A remark. "You know those are LATE!" (REALLY?) I was tired, completely and utterly overwhelmed, but I responded desperately, "I've been working 14+ hour days this week and It just didn't happen on time."  She turned and stared down at me with this look of complete disgust and said, "You're not the only one!" and then stormed off.

I had JUST HAD IT at that point.  I walked quickly down the hallway, taking deep breaths, and turned the corner to make a copy.  There were two teachers already at the copy machine and I said pretty loudly, "I am so PISSED at ____!" (This is as foul as my language gets for those of you that know my personally, so you KNOW I was upset.)  I was on the verge of tears as I explained to my teacher friends what had happened and they weren't surprised at all.  This administrator has a reputation.

I was able to cool down quickly and put on a big smile for my kids to welcome them in the morning and greet them at the door.  We actually had a really great day.

Then I had to see HER at the faculty meeting after school that day.

At our faculty meetings, we do this compliment thing.  We write compliments on little slips of paper and a few are randomly drawn and read aloud at the meeting.  The remaining ones are delivered to our mailboxes.

I was thinking of a couple people that I could write compliments to and the guidance counselor came to my mind (because she is so awesome, probably).  Anyway, I got this naughty idea in my head... and I wrote it down.

Dear (Guidance Counselor),

THANK YOU for being SO understanding about my citizenship certificates even though they were turned in late this month!

Thanks, Jen :)

Yeah, and it totally was randomly selected to be read OUT LOUD.  I didn't know it at that point, but word of my little run-in that morning had spread to the whole staff.  Just about every teacher in there knew that it was a indirect blow to the person running the meeting.  I had people totally giving me high fives in the hallway after the meeting. :)

I'm so bad.

Memorial Day Weekend

Doug and I drove down to the Cumberland area to visit with some friends over Memorial Day weekend this year.  It was a last minute sort of deal, so we didn't even leave until Saturday.  Doug has recently upgraded my computer, so we gave our old computer to the friends we were staying with.  There are actually some Americans that do not have a computer OR the internet.  It was their first desktop computer and it was fun teaching them how to use it.

While we were in the area, we decided to go strawberry picking at Higson's Farm.  Doug went there as a kid and has some very fond memories.  While we were driving there, Doug scared me by suddenly putting on his brakes, pulling over, and running out of the car.  He came back with this!

Meet Turtle... I didn't know that it was in Doug to be rescuer of turtles, but apparently it is.  He picked him up and returned him to a nearby stream safe from cars.

Minutes later, we arrived at Higson's Farm.  We had been wanting to go here to pick strawberries for a while, but I believe the family that runs the farm is Seventh Day Adventist or something, so their Sabbath is on Saturday.  Since our Sabbath is on a Sunday, it makes it hard to get in on a normal weekend.  Thank goodness for four day weekends!

Here are some pictures of Doug and I while we're picking strawberries.  This isn't the most flattering picture of me.  Doug usually wakes up a full hour before me and by the time I was awake, he was up and ready, rearing to go.  I wasn't going to let him go strawberry picking without me so, I just left with him at that moment.  I'm wearing what I wore to bed the night before.  I haven't showered, brushed my hair, put on make up, or do any of the other stuff I usually do to make myself public friendly.

 

Not many people these days drive yellow cars.

Pick Two

I went to Panera Bread to meet some friends from high school on Saturday.  It's been a while since I had seen them, so we talked the whole time in line.  When it was my turn to order, I hadn't even looked at the menu so I tried really quickly to figure out what I wanted to order.  There was one of those "Pick Two" deals so I decided on that.

In my hurry, I selected the Turkey Bacon Sandwich, the Tomato Soup, AND the Thai Chicken Salad.

The lady looked at me and said, "It's called Pick TWO.  Which means you can only pick TWO."

Oh yeah, I knew that.

No Soliciting

This year, Doug and I have late church so Daylight Savings Time wasn't too hard on us.  We stayed in bed until around 10am and ate breakfast together in our PJ's.  It was a beautiful day and I suddenly remembered that we planted 75 tulip bulbs in our front yard back in September.  I ran outside in my pajamas and found little green starts of tulips popping out of the ground.  I hollered at Doug to come and look too.  We ooh-ed and ahh-ed at our baby tulips popping out of the ground.  It's rather exciting to see something grow that you've planted!

While we were out there in our pajamas, we noticed a door to door salesman talking to our next door neighbors.  Hoping to get out of the awkward situation of saying no to the poor guy, I ran inside and wrote this quick note on a piece of easily accessible paper to post on our doorway.

My intention was to stick the note on the door really quickly so he would be able to read it upon approaching our door.  Unfortunately, this guy was standing a foot away from the door with his arm up ready to knock when I opened the door.  I stuck it on there and closed the door really quickly.

I should've added a smiley face.  That always makes notes seem nicer.

Dragon Club - Join TODAY!

A few weeks ago, my students decided that they were all going to create and join clubs. It started innocently enough with one small group of students asking me if they could create posters for a "Dragon Club" and hang them around the classroom. I told them it was okay as long as ANYONE in the classroom who wanted could join.

The next day, all of my other students decided that they wanted to create their own club as well. Before I knew it, posters for "Sports Club: Boy's Only" and "Girlz Rule" were being put up around the classroom. I had to put a stop to it ASAP because inevitably someone would be excluded and their feelings would get hurt.

My original "Dragon Club" founder had already asked her mom if she could bring in treats for the class to encourage everyone to join her club. I had given her the go ahead, so she had come to class with small Oreo cookie snack packs and orange flavored Capri Suns that day. She handed the snack out to everyone during indoor recess. They were all having fun and enjoying their snack courtesy of the "Dragon Club."

I was at my desk grading papers and enjoying a Capri Sun of my own when one of my students walked over to me with a very worried look on his face. He asked me in a very serious tone that was just above a whisper, "Could you try your Capri Sun and tell me if it has ALCOHOL in it?" I was quite puzzled, but inquired further to try to understand his thinking. He explained to me that it tasted like his hand sanitizer which contains 62% alcohol.

The first thought that popped into my head was, Uh, I don't even know what alcohol tastes like. Then I talked to him about the dangers of eating your hand sanitizer and let him know that I didn't think that the people that made kids' drinks would put alcohol in something that looked like it was for kids. He still seemed unsure, but returned to his desk and promptly threw away his unfinished "Orange Wake Up" Capri Sun. (I guess hand sanitizer doesn't taste that good.)

My brother-in-law posted this picture on Facebook the other night with the following caption, "Juice boxes... now in mommy flavor!"


Uhhh... I guess I need to retract my earlier statement!

*Warning* Pyrex May Explode

The other night I decided to make Ritzy Chicken for dinner. I was really excited about it. It was a recipe that my mother in law gave to me probably about 4 years ago, but I had never gotten around to making it. I just was too busy preparing extravagant meals EVERY night... NOT! The sad truth is that I prepare an actual meal about 1-2 times every 2 weeks.

I threw together the ingredients really quickly because this recipe is a breeze. I even remembered to preheat the oven. I put it in the oven and came back when the timer beeped 30 minutes later to this...

KABLOOEY!

The Pyrex exploded while it was cooking! I had never had this happen to me before and it has definitely made me a little weary about cooking with Pyrex in the future.

Simple Recipe for EXPLODING Ritzy Chicken:

1) Cup up 3-4 pieces of chicken.
2) Spread chicken along bottom of bottom of an 8x10 Pyrex dish.
3) Mix 1 Can Cream of Chicken and an 8 oz container of sour cream.
4) Spread this mix over the chicken.
5) Crush up a sleeve of Ritz crackers and sprinkle it on top.
6) Drizzle 1/4 cup of melted butter over crushed Ritz crackers.
7) Bake for 30 minutes at 350°
8) Enjoy! (Unless it explodes and is full of glass slivers.)

A Turtle in Our Yard!

Things have been slow lately... literally!

Doug came home HOME this weekend. He got home a little earlier than me and mowed the lawn. YAY! I have been mowing the lawn since May, so it was nice to get a little break. I was walking through the yard later putting back the rain gutters when I saw something moving in the grass. I got a little closer and saw that it was a turtle! We never found turtles at my house growing up (even though we did have a pet turtle named Turd for a while from one of my dad's fishing trips... but that's another story).


Anyways, I ran and got Doug and he picked it up and said it smelled bad. I put it in some water and tried to feed it grass and mushrooms and all kinds of other things that I'm sure turtles don't actually eat, but I wanted to see it do something. I got tired of it after about 5 minutes, took a few pictures of it, and then set it loose.


He was a nice turtle. I named him Mr. Turtle. He was very small. Is anyone out there a turtle expert that can identify this one? My husband thought that he might be a snapping turtle???

"What a Little A-Hole!"

We went by my parents' house while Doug's siblings were visiting this last weekend. Allie was looking for a craft to do while we were in the process of making Katie addicted to Guitar Hero. Allie made this cute little race car out of a foam kit that my mom had sitting around. It came complete with a little pennant that they could put their name and a lucky number on. She did it with a little bit of help on my part, but it turned out great!

While we were at the zoo the next day, Allie accidentally left her little craft on the table. When we came back, Darwin had ripped her little pennant to shreds, but luckily left the car alone. I was having a bit of a flashback to when Darwin chewed my shoes, so I really could relate with Allie. She was really sad, but then she decided that she would "give" the pennant to Darwin since he was having so much fun with it.

We were kind of upset at Darwin until he started walking away with his tail sticking up and there was the A from Allie's name stuck to his butt.

Doug exclaimed, "What a little A hole!" :)

Double Yolked Egg!

I was making breakfast for the girls and Doug this weekend before we went to the zoo. I made the girls some YUMMY french toast and finally coerced Doug to have some "Toad in the Hole." Toad in the Hole is a family favorite at my house. I've heard it called Eggs in a Basket by other people, but my family calls it Toad in the Hole. Toad in the hole is an egg fried in a hole of a piece of sliced bread.

Anyways, as the title says, I cracked an egg with TWO yolks! This is the first time that I've cracked a doubled yolked egg or even seen one. Doug and even Katie had both seen double yolked eggs. I was so excited I ran to take a picture!



I was curious about the double yolked eggs so I looked it up on Google and found this site. Here is a short excerpt from the site:

Double Yolkers appear when ovulation occurs too rapidly, or when one yolk somehow gets "lost" and is joined by the next yolk. Double yolkers may be by a pullet whose productive cycle is not yet well synchronized. They're occasionally laid by a heavy-breed hen, often as an inherited trait.

About 1 in 1000 eggs has a double yolk so it isn't all that rare. In some countries, markets sell cartons of double yolked eggs.

Throughout history and in different cultures, finding a double yolk has been considered to mean anything from an impending wedding to a financial windfall to a death in the family.

So would a double yolked egg produce twins? Probably not:

... the presence of the two yolks would generally lead to an unsuccessful hatch. The nutritional value of the egg white, which is an important food supply for the embryo is insufficient for the two embyros.

I hope this means that I'm going to become instantly rich...

Little Scare!

I went to Aunt Paula's house to meet grandma to pick up the girls today. Paula's house is on this really steep hill and I always make sure to put my parking brake on. I had just loaded the girls and their stuff in the car and was pushing the passenger side door when I thought I saw the car move back a little. For a second I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me but NO, THE CAR WAS ACTUALLY ROLLING DOWN THE HILL WITH ALLIE AND KATIE INSIDE! I ran as fast as I could and jumped in the driver's seat and slammed on the brakes. It turned out that one of Katie's bags hit the shifter and knocked it out of park. I thought that thing was supposed to lock in place or something. My knees were shaking so bad when we finally drove away! Whew!

We're now SAFE and hanging out at my parents' house. We picked a large trash bag full of tomatoes and I'm just trying to figure out what to do with all of them. We're planning on taking the girls to the National Zoo tomorrow. I have the batteries for both of my cameras charging so hopefully I'll have some good pictures!

Sumo Doug and Jenny

Our next door neighbors are party fiends. They have three kids and whenever they have a birthday party it is major business. Two weeks ago, their son turned 7 and they had a huge party which included an inflatable obstacle course, customized tool aprons for all of the kids, a cotton candy machine, and more. We had a blast, but I never went back home to grab my camera, so we don't have pictures.

Doug helped by running the cotton candy machine. He was quite the hit at the party. There were lines of kids asking for cotton candy. One of them even asked Doug if he worked for the circus! :)

So last night, their daughter turned 14. They rented the inflatable sumo suits with the wrestling ring. Doug and I went ahead a tried them out. I could barely move in the thing. Whenever Doug knocked me down it took two people to get me back up and standing.

We're glad we have such interesting neighbors!

Doug and I looking tough!

Before I kicked Doug's butt.

Our neighbor Gustavo helped me out a bit by tackling Doug as I laid helplessly on the ground.

Doug spinning me around till I fell.

Getting out of the fat suits.

Nothing New

... except a lawnmower! I know, not too exciting.

Don't really have anything new going on. Doug and I are currently trying to keep what little lawn we have from dying. I seem to remember that grass grew TOO much when I was growing up and we didn't even have sprinklers. Now we have to worry about watering our lawn, fertilizing it, and all that stuff. I don't live in Utah. I live in beautiful, green Virginia. The grass should grow on its own, but it doesn't.

We went to Home Depot on Saturday to get a lawnmower. Our $50 craigslist purchase works, but unfortunately I can't start it and Doug is not home to be able to mow the lawn like he always has. While we were at the store, we were having quite the time even taking the thing off the shelf and loading it into our cart. Some friendly shoppers offered to help, but we basically had it by then.

We didn't even think until we were bringing it out to the car that it might not fit... While we were trying to pick it up to put it in the trunk, another friendly fellow shopper offered to help us out. My comment, "Wow, there are a lot of nice people at Home Depot today!" Doug's comment, "I need to work out more. People must think I'm too scrawny!"

Luckily, it fit! With a few Ninja kicks to the box to get in it the rest of the way, we were on our way.