Friday Night

It's Friday night. I've been laying in bed since around 5pm, relishing in the fact that it is indeed Friday, and I can officially be sick. Got hit with some kind of weird sore throat in the middle of the Wednesday night, but one can't be sick on a Thursday. (One can cancel tutoring, however, and go home earlier than planned.)

Today I masked it as much as possible, but luckily I foresaw my voice dying early on in the day and prepared a short video for the kiddos to explain the mixture problems (with cute illustrations to boot). Mixture problems can be the bane of an Algebra teacher's existence. Luckily, my 8th graders are the types who, when told, "Okay, now, this is one of the most difficult concepts...", somehow rise to the occasion and declare about ten minutes into the lesson that this is in fact quite easy. I think they do it just to be contrary.

Of course, the reverse is also true: when I think they're going to have an easy day of it, all I get are panic-crazed thirteen year olds writhing around in the classroom.

Complicated mixture word problems? Sure!

Completing the square to solve a quadratic equation? Sounds easy enough!

Making a table of values to graph an equation? What is this dark magic you're trying to teach us?!

Sigh.

That reminds me of a story from this week. Whenever I have to get on a kid about being off task, the standard retort is, "But I wasn't talking!" No one seems to understand that it's not the talking, it's the off-tasking. Anyway, yesterday during a quiz (a no-talking no matter what time, obviously), one of the boys let out a sigh, along with saying the word, "sigh." I gave him the Look. And he said, "What? I was just sighing." Oh, how the lines get blurred when you're in 8th grade.

Chris and I just counted up the remaining weeks of school. Three full weeks + 2 days left! And there's a Memorial Day break of 4 school days thrown in there, too. Seriously, I don't even know what I'll do with my life this summer.

Iphone shots from the last few weeks:

We did a one-year-old shoot with the Saura family a couple weekends ago. It was nice being out on the beach early in the morning.

After the twins' shoot, Chris accompanied me to my kid's Math Field Day, which happened to be at a Catholic school/church where we shot Gabby and Bill's wedding last year. Chris wasn't so into the whole field day thing, so he found a quiet conference room to work in. Wish I could show the pics of the girls celebrating one of their wins, but I can't publish student photos on my personal blog.

My little garden continues to grow! Although I had to get rid of one of my lettuce plants because of an aphid infestation, the parsley continues to flourish. We bought a basil plant a couple weekends ago as well and it's looking good still, too. The cilantro's not doing a great job of growing back yet after I harvested some, though.

This was one of the most delicious smoothies I've made. Tried out dandelion greens for it, but the kicker was the lemon and lemon zest. Made it taste like a refreshing summery lemonade!

My little classroom one morning. I got there super early this morning to make sure I could get my copies done before anyone else got there. And I was beat by a sixth grade teacher by one minute.

Last Monday we got a random text from Jesse to come over for an impromptu poker night. So we did. Chris played, and I sat in the corner on a bean bag chair and did my lesson plans.

Last week I got on a crazy sleep pattern. I would fall asleep as soon as I got home, sleep for about four hours, and then wake up pumped. Got my work done from around 9pm-2am, then went back to bed and felt fine all day at school. This happened about three nights in a row before Chris complained that he didn't get to see me with this schedule. (I think he also added that, surprisingly, he missed me, the little stinker.)

Did I ever mention the cats just fawn all over Chris when he gets home?

Students like these have made this first teaching year better. :)

The other day was a flowery headband day.

And I got a real flower for Mother's Day from one of my students. I don't know if he really knew the meaning behind the holiday.

We shot this guy's one-year shoot, too.

As well as an engagement session in North Park, where Chris creeper style shot from behind this plant.

Jack continues to love drinking the shower water. He mews every morning for me to turn the water on for him, but he only likes it when it's hot.

Teacher Appreciation week  = gift cards, candy, and lotions. Plus a car wash certificate, because one of my students noted my car was really dirty! Ha!

Crazy sleeper.

And finishing up with an impromptu trip to Olive Garden. Chris met me after work and let me pick the place. Mmmmmmmm, chicken gnocchi....

Blog Update, what?

No, seriously. Somehow I've found myself with a "free" night.

On a Wednesday.

That's in the middle of the week, if you're counting.

So technically, I would't call it a free night. I should use it to get ahead on next week's plans, especially since next Thursday is my evaluation day by our principal. Which means I need an excellent, too-cool-for-school 8th grade-engaging, rocking lesson plan on completing the square. Because nothing says school's fun like completing the square.

Anywhos.

Here's some stuff that's been going on, per my photo stream.


I got to scrapbook over spring break! Just one little page, but I also got to start Project Life (a few months late).

We had house guests for about half an hour. I found these cuties wandering down Greenfield Drive on the Friday of spring break, and I couldn't leave them out on the street to get hit by a car! Animal control came to get them after they'd made themselves at home on our porch.

Jack did not like the houseguests. Sawyer wouldn't even come out to look at them.

 Guy's poker night/girl's craft night at the Holz's.

 Chris getting down and dirt at Becky and Kris Cowen's maternity shoot. We did the shoot in the same spot that we did our engagement pictures in three years ago, so that was cool.

Don't know why this picture is sideways. I turned it right side up in Photo Booth....

This one either. But this is me trying to get a pic of us both before it got too dark in the house. I don't like grainy pictures. Chris doesn't like being interrupted form his Batman game.

We've been really into spicy lemongrass pho lately. Luckily there's a place right down the street.

The days are longer again, thanks to spring. I love seeing light pour in the house at 6:30pm.

This is mine and Sawyer's nap spot.

Crazy kiddos at their maternity shoot.

Believe it or not, we had another houseguest within a week of the last two. This cutie was running around our condo complex. Chris and two other neighbors spent 45 minutes chasing down her brother who was not nearly as friendly.

Ha. They were only traumatized for the first ten minutes. When I checked on them again, they were at the screen getting friendly. They could totally handle it if we got a small dog.

Love him. On Matt, Donna, and James' family shoot/1 year shoot for James. That kid was serious.

Mornings. See Chris' hair in the background?

Trying to grow stuff on our porch this year and being much more successful than last spring. Although my basil and arugula kicked the bucket already, I've managed to grow tons of cilantro, and this spinach is starting to grow.

We saw West Side Story with the family in L.A. this weekend. It wasn't great, but it was a fun outing with our favorite people.

Today. My kids decided my outfit was cute today. So I snapped a picture of it.

Okay, that's enough goofing off for now. Gotta go find something fun to do while teaching how to complete the square.

Three Years Later

We returned to our engagement shoot spot, this time as photographers ourselves. Just over three years ago, we were engaged and standing in front of that old barn. It's been an adventure for sure. :)

Ten on Tuesday

1. It has been almost two months since my last post! Sometimes I lay awake at night and think about the things I would have blogged if I had time.

2. I'm currently taking a break to eat dinner and catch up on other blogs. (It's hard to use InDesign and hold a fork at the same time.) Saw someone else's Ten on Tuesday and thought, "I have enough time to write ten quick things!" So here we are.

3. Today was a difficult day. My first module was pretty bad. Someone threw a stink bomb in another classroom. I had a whiny kid in third module. And in my fifth, I made my first kid cry. To be fair, she cried because she had done something inappropriate and I was letting her know exactly how her actions had affected other people and she was actually taking it seriously, so at least it was kind of a win. But it still wasn't pleasant for me.

4. We just had a weekend off. It was amazing! We sat at home. Chris got an entire engagement session done in two days. I had two full days to work on school stuff.

5. Somewhere in that weekend, we also fit in repotting our succulents (we kind of killed them off...) and I went to Home Depot for this season's attempts at growing things. Got some lettuce, arugula, basil, and some starter seeds that we'll see if I can actually get to grow.

6. Ry came over one of those nights. We made awesome quesadillas and watched Argo. Good movie, but I'm finding I can't handle intense movies very well anymore. I become a stress case throughout the whole thing!

7. Jack has officially learned how to do the "happy dance" on command. His happy dance is the rolling dance he does at the front door whenever one of us comes homes (or Ryan comes over- Ry's special). He's done it since he was a baby, and I've been trying to teach him to do it when I say, "Where's your happy dance?" And. He. Does. Smartest cat ever.

8. Sawyer continues to be pretty.

9. We went kayaking (in February!) last week on our day off. Cool experience, but we were tired! Hopefully I can do a full, real post on it with the pics. We rented a water proof camera to document the experience.

10. And, before I get back to work, what am I currently working on? I mentioned InDesign before... I've started creating my own worksheets and help documents in InDesign and I'm loving how they look. Now instead of searching for the perfect worksheet that covers everything my kids need to know, in the order I want to teach it in, I just make it myself. It's time consuming, but it's also a creative outlet, so it's working for me. Maybe I could be a math textbook designer... how does one get a gig like that?

Saturday

Plotting the succulents while our two babies watch from afar.

January Goals + One Little Word for 2013

Here we go, January! Rather than make sweeping declarations for the entire year that I know I'll fall short on, we're going to take it one month at a time this year. I like being able to adapt as needed. ;)

One Little Word 2013: Overcome. 

Last year my word was real, and while I promised to expound on it I never did. I don't really remember my exact reasons for it anymore (that's why you should always expound on things...), but I do feel I was real this year. I was myself. My crazy, kooky, weirdo, musical loving, nostalgic, picture taking, scrapbook nutso self.

This year, overcome has a variety of meanings for me.

I want to overcome my feelings of anxiety toward creating wonderful lesson plans and reaching every student perfectly. I'm finding life isn't perfect. Some kids don't want to be taught and some kids do need to be reached in different ways. But I can decide what to do in each situation without stressing out about it beforehand.

I want to overcome my caffeine addiction, specifically in the form of soda.

I want to overcome my intense desire to come home from school and immediately fall into a good nap, thus wasting away the precious hours of my evening.

I want to overcome my selfishness in doing what I want to do and do the things that Chris needs/wants me to do as soon as possible. He puts in a lot of work for our business while I'm napping after work!

I want to overcome sensitivity. I've been told a gazillion times this year that teachers need to grow thick skins. I have translucent skin. Small words bother me a lot. I agonize over harsh conversations. I need to learn to see every confrontation as a challenge to either be better or give grace to myself.

I want to overcome my hatred of running. I'm not good at it. I've never been good at it. It baffles me that people can run more than a couple minutes without stopping, let alone run 26 point something miles in a marathon. But right now it is free exercise, and I need me some exercise.

I want to overcome anxiety in general. I've lived much of my life with an anxiety disorder and I hate that it has severely affected some aspects of life, and in some cases entire years. I'm glad that these disorders have become less taboo over the years and that I've discovered others that are close to me who share the same struggles, but I am so over it.

2013 will be a year of growing and stretching. This year I'll finish my first full year of teaching and start my second. This year will be the year that our photography business becomes bigger and we have to somehow find even more time to devote to it while maintaining our other full times jobs. This year, instead of chipping at my college debt, we'll smash off chunks every month and hopefully be done with it once and for all. This year Chris will turn 30 and I'll turn very close to 30. This year we will take on challenges and walk by faith, and hopefully we'll come out in December thinking, "wow, that was an intense ride, but we did it!"

Hello, 2013.

New Year's Eve: A Low Key Affair

New Year's Eve was certainly quiet at our house. We tried to scrape some plans together sort of last minute, but it the end, all our peeps were also having low key celebrations at their own house. Much as I love a reason to party with our people, it really was a great relaxing time at home with just Chris and the munchkin kitties. I don't know if it's just the first year of teaching mayhem or what, but I've enjoyed this Christmas break so much more than past years. Maybe it's because I truly feel I've earned that quiet and solitude this year... whatever it is, I've been loving being at home, getting to practice my sewing skills (still working on them), playing around, and just doing things slowly. Sigh. It's going to be so sad to go back to craziness on Monday.

Our New Year's Eve day looked something like sleeping in to an unholy hour I won't even write here, and then it was off to lunch at Subway and to Ikea to pick up a new bookcase for my classroom. I'd decided it was no longer a matter of choice, I needed something with which to organize everyone's homework, all the daily handouts, and piles of stuff that grew every day, and my projector cart just wasn't cutting it anymore. Chris put the bookcase together in my classroom for me and I seriously love it already. There's nothing even on it yet, but I love it. It will organize so much of the kids' stuff on a daily basis, which means I can focus on the teaching and not so much on the keeping track of everything.

After our Ikea adventure, we decided in exchange for Chris putting my bookcase together, I would vacuum the house with the serious shopvac and overall clean up the place so we could ring in the new year with a newly organized house. So the house looked amazing for 2013.

We phoned in a huge sushi order (so we could eat all evening) and popped in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One...

... while keeping Jack from stealing our red dragon rolls.

For some reason, this was the Harry Potter movie Chris decided he wanted to know what was going on. So we paused a lot while I explained the intricately woven details of Harry Potter's journey... maybe with more details than he wanted. I mean, who can say? Harry's got a lot going on.

Jack and Sawyer slept between us for most of the evening, except in the beginning when all Jack wanted was for Chris to hold him. Jack loves Chris. Way more than he loves me. And he loves me a lot, so that's saying something.

We finished up both movies with a few minutes to spare, so we snapped one last "Chris and Jordan 2012 picture" while people started throwing fireworks off outside our house. 

Then we crawled into our warm bed, cranked the bedside heater up and talked about how we could be better to each other in the new year. It was a delightful little conversation, perfect for the opening hours of the new year. I decided I would be better at doing things right when Chris asked me to do them. (I am horrible at putting things away for "later." He's going to work on wanting to help me do things like put bookcases together more. I lobbied for him rinsing all the food off his plate when he puts it in the sink, but that just started an argument on rinsing vs. washing, and I gave up. 

Happy 2013!