Amen!

from flickr

Now I lay me down to study,
I pray the Lord I won't go nutty.
If I should fail to learn this junk,
I pray the Lord I will not flunk.
But if I do, don't pitty me at all,
Just lay my bones in the dorm hall.
Tell my prof I did my best,
Then pile my books upon my chest.
Now I lay me down to rest,
And pray I'll pass tomorrow's test.
If I should die before I wake,
That's one less test I'll have to take!

By Anonymous

Because...

Today, I found out I was teaching my kiddos about cause and effect last minute. I didn't have time to come up with a fancy lesson plan like my math lesson plan, so I just went by the book. Scandalous, right? I ended up telling my kiddos that the cause would always be after the word because and you can find cause in because. I also had them give me some of their own sentences as a warm up to this concept. Here are some of my favorites:

He got up in the middle of the night because he was hungry.

I wore gloves because it was icy cold.

I went to Disneyland because it was my birthday.

I did my homework because I like to do homework.

I like cats because they're soft.

I Know I'm a Teacher-In-The-Making When...

I know I'm a teacher-in-the-making when...

I get really excited over discarded teaching materials from the library and I'm willing to tote them to my car in 75 degree heat.

my fingers are covered in Expo marker ink because I'm too lazy to grab the eraser during a lesson.

I count out 300 pasta circles and sort them into twenty sandwich baggies for each of my kiddos.

I can make a kiddo smile.

I Can Be President Because I Have a Bracelet

Check the video clip below starting at 07:34 for the beginning of the bracelet reference.

Worst President Ever

The Worst President in History?

One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush

SEAN WILENTZPosted Apr 21, 2006 12:34 PM

Flashback: Bush in '99 -- We Warned You!

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history. more>>

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Last weekend, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We decided to go to ATV riding in Pismo Beach and then have dinner in the same lodge where we got married. Of course, we planned to stay the evening as well. Since we're on a budget, we decided to stay at a particular inn that shall remain nameless. We chose this inn because it was affordable and my mom and dad stayed at it during our graduation weekend. They had a super cute room with a beach theme. We hoped to get the same room or something similar.

When we arrived, we entered the lobby. There was a delicious cheese and meat platter. We got really excited. Then, the innkeeper took us to our room called the Manhattan. Doesn't that sound like something spiffy? It wasn't spiffy. It was as far from spiffy as you could get. We ended up nicknaming it the Purple Palace. Everything was purple including the sofa, the tiles on the fireplace, the carpet and the tiles on the bathroom counter. It had old apartment smell. It felt like we were staying at a friend's place who has funny taste and buys everything at garage sales. The breakfast was delicious though and all the drinks in the fridge were complementary. We also had a great view of the bay. It was still icky. We were happy to leave in the morning.

The next day, we went to SLO. We always have to stop in SLO if we're in the area. As Linda and Joel say, we have to touch base with our old home. :) We walked around downtown and had lunch at Firestone. Mmmmm...Firestone. Still as tasty as it's always been. I also got to buy some children's books for half price at the last remaining used bookstore downtown called Phoenix. Picture time:

Us taking a break from having dune-tastic time.
You can't tell, but we're smiling.

I finally got my hubster to stop long enough to take a picture.

Me maintaining my consistent speed along the dunes.

Beautiful view just across the way from our room.

The living room/dining room part of our purple palace.

Our pimp purple fireplace.

Us in front of the gazebo where we said our vows.
Somehow we managed to pick the exact same clothes we wore to our rehearsal dinner.

The outside of McClintock's and it's advertisement for it's trademark appetizer.
My friend Eliot says turkeys hang low.

The window display of Tom's Toys.
The theme was gangster Grimm fairy tales.
If you can't tell, Little Red is holding a gun up to the wolf.

Hitchhiker

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Rubber ducks aid NASA study

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As an organization they're used to investing billions of dollars in scientific experiments that further our knowledge of earth and space. But the only bill to speak of on this occasion is orange and attached to the body of a rubber duck.

Scientists from NASA hope that rubber ducks will help them better understand glacier movements.

In the name of climate change science, researchers at NASA have dropped 90 rubber ducks into holes of Greenland's fastest moving glacier: the Jakobshavn Glacier in Baffin Bay.

Scientists remain unsure as to why glaciers speed up their movement in the summer months and it is hoped that the rubber ducks -- labeled with the words "science experiment" and "reward" in three languages, along with an email address -- will shed some light on the phenomenon.

One theory is that the summer sun melts ice on the surface of the glacier which creates pools of water which then flow into moulins -- narrow tubular shafts in the glacier. These then transport the water from the top to the underside of the glacier.

It's thought that this base water acts as a lubricant to speed up the movement of the glacier towards the sea. more>>

Color? Colour?

Today, Miss. V- wanted to know how to spell "color" for a sentence in her journal. She didn't know how to spell it though and was having trouble sounding it out. Her table mate came up with a good idea. He told her to check their crayon box because they use crayons to color, so the word "color" had to be there somewhere. What word did she pick? Crayola. Her sentence turned out to be: The crayola of the dog is brown. As my hubster put it, it was good thinking. I definitely give them kudos for the effort. I had to explain that she wanted "color" and that Crayola was the name of the crayon box. :) All these pesky brands getting in the way of my kids spelling.

What's Your Flavor?

Today the kiddos wanted to graph what smoothie flavors everyone liked. Here are the categories/flavors that they came up with:

1. Peanut Butter
2. Chocolate Chip
3. Strawberry
4. Coffee
5. Vanilla
6. Other

Notice anything odd about the choices? I thought coffee was pretty out there. What do wee ones know about coffee-flavored anything? Two kiddos actually voted for it as their favorite smoothie flavor. :)

Thanks Nintendo

Today, I helped my kiddos with some journal writing. Journal writing with the kiddos is always interesting because they're still learning how to spell. At the end of journal writing, I get the fun task of decoding. You would not believe how many different ways there are to spell "because" in the eyes of a first grader.

Here's one of my kiddos' journal entries (kinda sorta):

I like to go to the park with my mom. Wii play together.

When I saw the "wii," I smiled inside, especially since I just got my Wii Fit this past weekend. I was thinking how to explain to him why that wasn't the we that he wanted. I had to explain in it a clear way because he might think that I don't even know what a Wii is. I told him that "Wii" he had written down was the right way to spell the game that he plays, but what he really wanted was the "we" that meant two or more people together. He seemed okay with the explanation.

Thanks Nintendo for mixing up kids with one of the most common sight words that they need to learn. Next thing, he'll be spelling me as "mii."

Word of the Day (Sept 19)

Misogelastic: A hatred of laughter.

Pec-A-Licious

Observant

As a teacher-in-the-making, I sometimes forget that any pair of eyeballs can be on me at any given time during the day. I had a very friendly reminder today.

(During calendar time)

Me: (Sitting behind all the students on a chair and counting silently to myself.)
Mr. L-: (crawls over to me) Mrs. T---, what are you doing?
Me: I'm listening to calendar time. What do you mean?
Mr. L-: Well, you were doing this (mimics how my mouth was moving silently).
Me: Oh! I was just counting how many days we've been in school to myself. You're very observant Mr. L-.

The Important Thing

If you're into children's literature, The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown is awesome. One of my favorite descriptions is that "rain is the color of air." I got to revisit this book this week in my language arts class. With my first year wedding anniversary around the corner, here's a blurb about being married inspired by the form in The Important Book.

The important thing about being married is laughing together.
When you're married, you wear a special ring
and you share a last name with someone you're not related to.
When you're married, you always have someone to eat dinner with
and someone to say "I love you" to.
But the important thing about being married is laughing together.

I Survived!

I survived my first of many formal observations today! I also taught for half the morning. Crazy right? One of my kiddos did the cutest things today that totally impressed my supervisor who came to observe me.

(As the students moved from one station to the next)

Mr. D-: (eagerly grabs the chair next to me) Yay! It's Mrs. T--- and I get to read with her!

Super awesome! That's definitely getting filed as one of my warm moments. Keep in mind I have only been with my kiddos for about three weeks. I must admit I'm just as fond of them. :)

Under the Magnifying Glass

from flickr

Tomorrow is going to be my first day of formal observations, meaning my supervisor is going to come and watch me teach. If it wasn't already nerve wracking to be teaching in a classroom that's not yours, I have to have someone come in and note everything I say. When I say everything, I mean everything verbatim. Then, she tells me her findings afterward. I finally know what it feels like to be a zoo critter on display. Hope things go well!

Post Secret (Sunday Sept 14)

Catch Up: Danes Do It Better

I feel like my blog has been overtaken by text lately. Honestly, I've just been too busy to take pictures. Whatever pictures I have taken are still sitting on my memory card and haven't been uploaded or edited yet. Finally, I took a break to at least edit a couple.

After our first full week of being in our new place, we decided to go out for a Sunday pancake breakfast. We had been doing crazy unpacking and catch-up painting the day before. Lucky for us, we live down the street from numerous bakeries and pancake restaurants.

We decided to go to Paula's Pancake House. Surprisingly, there wasn't a line out the door like there was the weekend before. Maybe, most of the tourists went back home. Overall, it was okay. Our pancakes were a little overdone. I definitely prefer Ellen's. I highly recommend Danish pancakes because they're a lot like crepes. Thin and heavenly. Here are some photos from our pancake breakfast and much needed break.

That's only 2 pancakes!
Not included in the picture were 2 eggs.
Not bad for only $8+. It was enough for both of us.

My hubster just making funny faces.
No, he's not about to throw up. lol

Yummy for the Tummy

In our wee little town, we don't have many legit restaurants to choose from, but the few legit restaurants that we have tried so far have been delicious! Here's our take on a couple of them.

• China Panda: Not to be confused with Panda Express. I know they sound a lot alike. When you walk in, you're transported to an authentic looking Chinese restaurant that you would find in the Bay Area or in Monterey Park. The service is a-mazing. The manager comes by to say hello. We've had the same waiter twice and he remembers us. (Yes, that's how small this town is.) We recommend the gourmet dinner. It might be called something else? It comes with wonton soup (a heaving portion), appetizers, entree of your choosing, and regular or fried rice. Get the fried rice. It's some of the best fried rice we've had. It's so authentic that you don't get charged for tea and soda comes in a can--not out of soda fountain.

• A.J. Spurs: If you're a member of P.E.T.A, don't go even if you're not a vegan. There are dead animals everywhere! I've never seen so many dead animals and I've been to the Natural History branch of the Smithsonian. There was even half a deer hanging from the wall. Dead animals aside, the food (minus the ribs) is delicious. The portions are huge! The soup and beans are tasty. You get a root beer float for dessert with your whole entree course.
  

• Burrito Loco: It's a cute small family own restaurant. Their son will probably ask you if you're eating in or to go. Again, we've seen all the same people each time we've been. They always have a smile. Mondays and Tuesdays are all you can eat taco buffet nights. The tacos are awesome! The downside is that most of it is fried. The salsa is flavorful. The prices are reasonable. For example, the all you can eat crispy chicken tacos cost me only $5.99. The chicken was perfect every single time. When we left, our waitress asked if we had a good dinner and the cook peeked through the little window to see our response. We smiled at him and said it was delicious. He smiled and waved back. How awesome is that?

• Ellen's: If you don't mind waiting, Ellen's is worth the wait. We got there around 10:30am. We didn't get seated until 11:00am. Keep in mind we went on a Sunday. Instead of having breakfast (which they're famous for), we had lunch. The lunch was better than we expected. We asked for our bacon to be extra crispy. As my hubster says, "No wiggly fat for us, please." It came out perfect, not burnt. We tried some of Steve-o's danish pancake. Super tasty. It's a variation of a crepe. There's also homemade jams on the table which go perfectly with the pancakes. It's a little pricey but not a disappointment. Again, the service was a-mazing.
  

Sorry this post is so long, but I wanted to give everyone the credit they deserve! :) We heart our little town.

Money, Money, Money

After a time consuming long drawn out battle, I got my financial aid! Yay! They even politely paid for my tuition, so I didn't have to worry about the deadline. I even have an extra $300+ of my loan left over for this quarter. That should cover all my trips to Staples. lol. I'm up to my eyeballs in binders.

1st Year Anniversary

We're coming up on our first year wedding anniversary, which sounds kind of funny to say because this upcoming January we will have been together for ten years. Since it's our first official wedding anniversary, we were tossing around ideas of how to celebrate. What did we decide?

from flickr

Yep, we're going ATV riding in Pismo! My hubster just told me today that he got our reservations. I know what you're thinking. We are totally those kind of people that have to book everything in advance. It's going to be my first time riding ATVs. Wish me luck! I hope I come back in one piece.

ISFJ

Apparently, I'm an ISFJ. What are you? Find out by taking the Jung Typology Test. Thanks Jove!

Too Freaking Cute

from cuteoverload

Post Secret (Sunday Sept 7)

What Will They Say Next?

I loved my first week of first grade. Over summer, I seemed to have forgotten how defined their personalities are by first grade. They also say and do the most amazing (and often hilarious) things. Here are some of my favorites from this week.

• Miss E- shares a picture from her "Me" bag. Before she shares the picture, she prefaces it with,"I like experiences, so I brought this picture. The first thing I experienced was my mom." It was a picture of her when she was born with her mom.
  
• We had these pictures of faces to share how we were all feeling. After the directions were explained, Mr L- turns to me and says, "Mrs. T---, I'm going to show my poker face."
  

The Drive

Since we've moved to the valley, we have a 40 minute commute each way. It's not too bad because we get to drive along the ocean and gorgeous rolling hills. Plus, there's no traffic. Here's a conversation we had recently while on our way home from work/school.

Me: (staring out the window)
Hubster: You know this drive isn't too bad.
Me: Yea, I know.
Hubster: It gives a chance to talk to each other.

Another one of the many reasons why I heart him so much. :)

To Be in Love

"I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, --and the stars through his soul." - Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

School is In!

Yesterday was my third first day of first grade. No, I wasn't held back. Last year, I worked in a first grade class as an assistant and this year I'm a student teacher in another first grade classroom. I love it. I've missed being in a classroom and hanging out with little people. Here's a school-inspired mosaic for you to enjoy until I have more time for a more detailed post.

1. Elementary School Playground, 2. Yesterday, 3. Space Alphabet: Z, 4. Red Apple Brooch, 5. Crayons Taste Yummy.....And Are Good For You, Too!, 6. Hop Scotch, 7. HB, 8. 080306: Blank Composition Book, 9. Mosaic of Needlefelted Alphabet ATCs and ACEOs - Tactile Art and Learning for Children

Our Town

The stats on our new town is as follows:

- Has population of 3,000+.
- Has only 3 highway exits.
- Best known for Andersen's Split Pea Soup.
- Has every major fast food restaurant.
- Doesn't have a Starbucks.
- Has 7 gas stations, including two 76 stations within less than a mile distance from each other but they share a $0.10 price difference.
- Known by the slogan "Has everything for the traveler."

It's definitely a small town, but we love it so far. Good thing, SLO prepped us for being out in the country.

I Survived!

This past week while I was on my internet hiatus was crazy busy. I lived a double life between getting ready for my new student teaching placement and moving to our new townhouse. This post is taking me forever to type because my fingers are just exhausted. I think every part of me is achy. Overall, the move went well. We had a bunch of people helping including my parents, my uncle, Carlos, and Steve. We couldn't have done it without them. We also had an interesting dining encounter at A.J. Spurs that I'll delve into later. It feels so good to have our own place. Yay!