We are finally falling in love with her. It has taken 2 months for genuine, consistent love…but Ryan and I finally think Charlotte is the coolest cat in town. Well, really she is a dog, but that doesn’t sound as good. She has not perfected potty training or stopped biting…but she finally fits our lives. I don’t remember not having her. She was born 9 days after we got married so it is sort of tangible, growing marker of the joining of Ryan and I. She is stinking hilarious. She has a ton of energy and her eyes are so expressive. She always looks like she is deeply sorry when she gets scolded. She looks like a little teddy bear. We just love her! Of course we talk to her in baby voices …we are smitten! Now come on….you know when you saw these pictures you went awwwwwwww and smiled goofy at the screen.
Archive for November, 2005
Last night Kristie invited some girls over for “girls night.” I love how we design gender specific events. Candace and I were the only ones who were able to come so it was a cozy affair. Candace brought season 5 of FRIENDS and some sinful cookies. We watched about 4 episodes and laughed our butts off. I have always been able to appreciate the wit and creative writing the show is famous for…but there is something so sweet about laughing with friends surrounding you. Kristie so gently pointed out the goofy way I kept looking at her every time a funny part happened to make sure she was laughing too. This is definitely a Hemeon trait because my brother does the same goofy face I do. I want to be yoked in laughter, no solo laughing for me. Kristie and Candace are wonderful laughers….they have contagious chuckles that wax and wane with each joke. When I got home I felt good inside from spending 2 hours straight laughing. I just realized how many times I have used the word laughter but I can’t think of any other synonyms to replace it besides chuckle. Anywho….I am blessed to come from a family who loves to banter, is armed with witty retorts and has learned to laugh at themselves. I also have friends with similar senses of humor and have married a very amusing man. I am also thankful that my Lord has a great sense of humor and has created us to enjoy each other and appreciate the humor life will surely bring.
As you all know I live in a world of 6th-8th graders which provides a vast amount of humor as well as frustration. Frankly, I don’t care if so and so pushed you or said your mom is a loser. I don’t care if the bus driver yelled at you or you hate pizza day. These do not affect my day and I can cut off these mundane conversations with “Let’s get back to work and save socialization for the lunchroom.” It is so great to be the adult! However, each day I suffer through 30 minutes of 8th grade lunch duty. I would rather pull my nose hairs out one by one…but I am forced to be the lunchroom Nazi patrolling the endless rows of tables checking for food on the ground, those who aren’t eating, those moving table to table…on and on. There is one table of 8th grade girls we call the “popular obnoxious”. They are overly gregarious and like to turn around and size-up their peers as they walk by…all 20 of them looking at once! I am no exception to this rule. I consider myself fairly abreast of the latest fashion, but each day I have a little wave of anxiety as to how 20 pairs of eyeballs are going to approve or disapprove of my clothing and hair. It makes me infuriated at myself for even caring, but it is hard to ignore an entire table looking at you, whispering and then looking again. You would think they would do this to the teachers that stereotypically wear goofy holiday sweaters, high water pants or 3-dimensional pins….nooooooo…they never bat an eye in their direction. It is my mini Everest each day from 10:45-11:15. It makes me laugh most days as most kids are affirming with their cute comments. Most of them have no idea who I am because I teach such a small population at the school. I won’t tell them my name in the lunchroom to keep myself as this enigma teacher who may or may not have good fashion sense. Good times.
I got the fever for the flavor of a Pringle…
Published by November 21st, 2005 in Uncategorized. 6 CommentsSadly enough, I had to look up the spelling of Pringles. It was the old debate on the ending gals or gles. Anyway, enough about my poor pragmatic skills. I am T minus 21 hours of school left until Thanksgiving break. This is the beauty of being a teacher, you still get to experience the excitement of looking forward to school breaks. My kids are starting to drive me insane as we are wrapping up the next grading period today and they are pathetically behind and even more pathetically apathetic about getting the work in. I have vowed to not let them rain on my parade. In my first period Study Skills class a kid was working on a paper where you are suppose to start off by saying “Here’s why….” He was ticked I was making him work on it when he was so tired so he wrote his paper on “Here’s why I hate school and am going to destroy it.” It was a beautifully uplifting piece talking about how horrible the administrators are, how they try to act like they are 18, but they are really 50 and he wants them to grow up and stop speaking in a country accent. He also lamented on school lunches and how he hates that teachers decorate their rooms with “smelling things”. I realized he was trying to say smiling things, but did not know how to spell it. He had great lines about how he sees “smelling” rainbows and “smelling” flowers and “smelling” stars and how they make him want to throw up. It was hysterical. Ahhhh…the bitter angst of puberty foiled by the inability to spell. I told him that although it made me laugh, he would not be able to use this paper. I suggested that maybe he should write about “Here’s why I will work hard and pass all my classes so I don’t spend another year in 8th grade” but he wasn’t down with that. This kid reminds me of my brother at his age. He is a skater, loner, trying to be bad as he can be, but is really a good kid at heart. I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOL SPECIAL ED!
Okay, my 30th birthday is steadily approaching…but not before Dan! Is it wrong to be ridiculously excited to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight? I seriously think this is some of the best writing I have ever read. JK Rowlings lives in another dimension. Now I know why the Brits like to say the word “Brilliant”. She has managed to create an entirely new society, language, sport, and people…Brilliant! Ryan and I listened to the entire 4th book on CD while going to New York last year. This is a 20 hour road trip for us and the CD’s are 22 hours long. Needless to say, we hardly spoke or stopped the car. When we got back to Virginia we laid on my couch for 2 hours listening to the crazy ending. Although this book series is controversial in Christian circles, as a pure work of literature, it is fantastic. Thank you to Dan and Gretchen who are waiting in the cold this morning to purchase tickets for us all. Laugh, boo, or make fun….I don’t care…I am a fan’s fan.
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