Here we go!

Sooooo... I haven't really announced this on the blog yet, but I suppose I should get around to it before school actually starts. I got a job teaching 8th grade math at a local charter school, hurray! It has been an exciting, nerve-wracking, sad, learning-filled, freak out of a few weeks. I had my last few weeks at the Woodman classroom. I had to say good-bye to amazing co-workers who I've grown to love so much. I carried a heavy heart knowing that the job I wanted so badly, and had worked so hard for, was not meant to be, and that maybe, just maybe, I was fighting too hard for it. I spent a week with brand new co-workers. I've read packets and handouts and PDFs and about procedures and curriculum and expectations. My head is full. I finally let my classroom today around 6:30, knowing I was missing some things for the first day, but realizing that I needed to get out of there and just review my notes and lists someplace else if I wanted to keep going. Chris is asleep now (we have a really early morning shoot), and I'm still going full speed. Making new lists of things forgotten, entering in all my modules, sorting my 130 8th graders into teams, reading the student handbook so I know what the rules are. 

Life's a bit crazy right now. I keep thinking once school starts and we get into a routine, things will get much saner, but then I remember that I'll be dealing with even more stuff: lesson planning and tutoring in my spare time and keeping track of grades and all that teacher stuff. A list of 130 kids makes me wish I'd gotten my credential to teach the little kids- you get maybe 30 there, and that's it. 30 kids to focus on sounds so much more manageable than 130. Big sigh. 

Here's some fun pictures I've taken throughout this process. Can you tell I like things to be pretty? :)

Things I've learned about bulletin boards:

1. Draw sketches first.

2. Measure the board before you go to Joann's (on two different occasions) and purchase material just a little too short. 

3. Borders are invincible. You just tug a little and the staples go flying and the border is still in pristine condition.

4. Most borders suck. Go for solid colors. 

5. Fabric is much easier to cover boards with than I would have thought. Burlap was a great suggestion I found online, and it looks awesome. It also makes a giant dusty mess all over the floor, desk, and laptop case. 

All righty, I'm going to try to lesson plan myself to sleep now. Fingers crossed!

It's my birthday!

In case you don't know me personally, this is how I feel about August 8:






Yep, that's how it goes. Midnight to midnight.

Today's festivities included going to work and getting balloons, a lovely plant that Michelle swears is impossible to kill (going in my new classroom!), and getting a homemade farewell cake from several of my students.

Then I came home and refused to do any work. No photo editing. No lesson planning. I surfed the internet. I read some blogs on google reader. I looked up cool ideas I haven't had time for lately.

Then Sonia came and picked me up for a little teacher shopping (she was shopping for Paul). After a trip to Staples, Target, Joann's, and Target again, I came out ahead with a full supply of green binders for each of my units, an awesome stapler, and dry erase markers and crayons (thanks to my roomie Sonia who grabbed them for me as a birthday gift). We went out for frozen yogurt and sat out in the car talking for awhile, and I just freaking love that girl. : ) It's so great having good girl friendships.

When I came back home, I found a lovely card from my husband! It was full of loving loveliness just for me. Thank you, Chris, I love you too!

And now here we are, nine minutes till August 9th. I'm officially 28. It's already proving to be an intense, nerve-wracking, exciting and scary, crazy fun and crazy stressful year. Am I ready for it? Sometimes I think I am, and sometimes I think I'm going nuts with the pressure. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who thinks I'm going to have an awesome year, and delightful friends who encourage and support me daily.

So here's to the 29th year of my existence. (This is me clinking my peach champagne at the screen.) Cheers!

Today

This happened today:

Babies + Green Smoothies

This happened in our little condo today. Jesse and Lily stopped by for a bit, and we happened to have some really green smoothie leftover from dinner. Hannah and Abi just ate that thing up, straight out of the only plastic cup we had in the house.

Babies + green smoothies = awesome

#catlove

Chris coming home from work is always the highlight of Jack's day.

Wedding Crasher

This little guy wandered into the middle of Taylor and Buck's ceremony yesterday, and I mean literally in the middle of it. They were standing up in front of everyone when this little guy waltzed in and stole the show. I was seriously contemplating how I could store him in my car for the rest of the day and take him home with us! Jack and Sawyer would totally love a new little brother, right?

Soup

The other day, when I was trying to grow plants from food (that's a whole different post), I decided I had a lot of food that needed to be used up. Spinach, cilantro, some shredded chicken, and lots of celery. And since I love just throwing things into my crockpot and seeing what happens, I thought I'd give 10-bean soup a whirl. I was feeling good about it, despite my 30% success rate with making soups. (But those 30% are good, let me tell you. Another 30% is good according to Chris, but not to my picky taste, and the last 40% is just not.)

If I may say so, this one came out in the 30% success pool. And it's filling and good for you to boot.

1) Assemble the main characters: In this case it was chicken broth and dried 10-bean soup from Sprouts. (Isn't it pretty in a mason jar? My new dry goods storage system.)

2) Still chicken broth, but I wanted to point out, as this is the first time I've used this particular broth, that this brand comes out dark yellow and really smells like delightful chicken broth right out of the carton. Seriously, my soup smelled and looked like soup immediately thanks to this broth. I think it came from Sprouts along with the above Sprouts branded one.

3) All right, lets start chucking things in there. First, some beans. I used about a third of my jar, which I think was way too much in retrospect. I forgot that dried beans soak up liquid, whoops!

4) I had lentils, too, so in they went for extra dose of protein. You know, along with those ten different kinds of beans.

5) Shredded chicken.

6) Chopped carrots. Why are they in a square? I don't know how it happened. It just did.

7) Lots of chopped celery.

8) I've never used dried garbanzo beans until this soup. They're thick, so I was a little worried that they wouldn't soften enough during the cooking time without soaking overnight, but they were nice and squishy by the end!

9) I love cilantro in soup.

10) Nosy cat. (Not part of the ingredients.)

11) Spinach goes in everything, by the way.

12) Not the greatest picture at all, but it shows the final mess. Not appealing looking, I know.

13) Forgot, I had to use up this dill, too. In it went!

14) And while my back was turned to the crockpot, this little stinker found his favorite spot, despite the ominous water bottle waiting to squirt his cat butt off the counter. 

The verdict?

My take: After pulling it out of the freezer for a quick and easy meal tonight, it's still holding strong. I think I'll add some more spice to it next time, maybe cumin seed or red pepper flakes. I like my soups best when they make me cry, and this one's about a 2 on the spicy scale. Still delicious, still healthy, still filling. 

Chris says, "Mmmmm.... good," and then returns to playing his Star Wars computer game. Sigh. I need to feed him when he's not concentrating so hard on his screen.