Muffin Madness

I finally finished Angela's prize from the last giveaway. And it sat on my counter for an additional two weeks before I got it in an envelope to mail. Then it sat in the car week until I got it to a post office.

Then I had to wait another week until she received it so I could blog about it.

Angela requested a book with some felt food as something she'd like, so I found a children's book that made me think of her. Her husband Mike is affectionately referred to as the moose so it seemed fitting.

Those are my attempt at felt muffin making. The internet was disappointingly unhelpful with this endeavor. There are six thousand felt cupcake ideas, but nothing definitively muffinish. There was at least one failed attempt, but I'm somewhat satisfied with the results. Hopefully Angela is too.

Science Teacher Rule #82

There are multiple ways to deal with disruption. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out method to use.


Student (who when I asked if he had ever heard of ADHD responded 'no, they tested me for that'): messing around with something for six millionth time

Me: What the heck are you playing with now?

Student in the back:(loudly, exasperated) He's always playing with something!

Students up front: giggle giggle giggle


Me: in my head reprimand dirty minded students up front or ignore. reprimand and make all the sweet innocent kids figure out what's dirty. ignore and let the dirty kids think it's ok. reprimand and make the kid feel even more embarrassed. ignore. yell. ignore. yell. ignore. yell.

Meh.

Lazy way out.

Ignore.

And successfully keep from laughing myself

5 Sense

My pal Angela (who won the last comment giveaway. And I haven't forgotten the prizes for those who first commented on the new site. It just may be summer until you get your surprises) is doing a giveaway of her own about how to stay sane while keeping house.


Here's mine:


1) Celebrate!

We had a bunch of bottles of Martinelli's left after our New Years shindig so we decided to 'celebrate' more often. Whenever the day was long, John would text me that we needed to celebrate that evening. So we'd pour some into martini glasses, toast something good that happened ("To paychecks!") and drink up. Makes the weekends come sooner. Anything in a fancy glass with a toast makes it a celebration. The bottles are gone, but the celebrations move on :)


2) Take shoes off in the closet. I have a small tendency to plop down on the couch and lose the shoes. Which may or may not lead to having five different pairs on my rug at the moment...

3) Empty the dishwasher ASAP. This means dirty dishes go straight into the dishwasher. Which means the sink stays dishes free. Which means the kitchen feels cleaner. When I can empty the dishwasher.

4) Exercise! To quote Legally Blonde, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. And happy people don't kill their husbands." It's best immediately after work. No prying yourself out of bed at disgusting hours or motivating yourself after dinner (both require lots of mental energy)


5) Pandora and Grooveshark. And students with excellent music tastes.

If you want to enter Angela's contest too and share the wealth of your 5 "sense" (see it's like cents but not. ha!) like here

Science Teacher Rule # 72

It takes a few times for freshman to get anything.



funnykid: Dude so I was watching the Matrix last night and I finally got it.

otherkid: Oh my gosh you've never seen the Matrix until last night?

funnykid: No I've seen the Matrix like six times. I just never got it before. The whole things in a computer!

Science Teacher Rule #3

Positive reinforcement still acts on negative actions.


kid: *does something stupid*


Me: *laughs*

kid: "you're welcome"

Me:*perplexed look"

kid: (proudly)"I made you laugh"

Rock Climbing

My friend Brian came to town this weekend for a visit. When Brian comes, we go climbing. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so I have to rely on my cell phone to prove to future children that their parents are hardcore.

That's me on a crazy impossible cliff. It was the hardest climb I've done on real rock. (the photo is the right way. Aaron got an awesome picture.)


I tried to get Elena doing the splits but she moved too quick.

Brian at the top.Aaron at the top.

John hanging out.

Antartica

My parents are kinda awesome. Like go to Antartica awesome.


On a tiny plane with two other french ladies


And touched a crazy sign made of whale backbone.
They rode a zodiak through freezing cold water to see freezing cold glaciers

And saw sea lions.
And saw a pretty little church (the only church) on the continent.
And took the very expensive picture (the bandana has been on 6 continents now)
And saw lots of penguins that make annoying honking noises and projectile vomit and projectile poop six feet.
And saw a sweet parent penguin.

Of course they had to spend some time checking out the beauty of Chile. Puerto Varas I believe.
And this never ending city is Santiago (again, I believe)

And thawed on the beach in Vina del Mar


Pretty Awesome.

The biggest scam at the grocery store.

As many of you know, I'm a part time hippie. I was worse when I was in Flagstaff. I think it must be the decreased oxygen intake combined with the lack of smog. And the gorgeous scenery makes you want to hugs trees. And go hiking. And make the world a better place. And live there forever and ever.

However, the view isn't as pretty from a cardboard box and that's what we'd probably be living in.

Anyways, all that ramble is coming down to the fact that I don't buy red meat. Got in the habit in Flagstaff and it has stuck. Although John has now forbidden me from buying any more turkey dogs and has decreed that Hebrew National is worth every penny. I happen to agree because after three years of turkey dogs, there really is no taste comparison. (Do I still get hippie points for Kosher at least?) We still eat red meat at restaurants, with family, and when John does the grocery shopping without me. Or when he slid the roast into the basket without me noticing.

Most meals are easily made using ground turkey or chicken. Normally I just buy the turkey sausage because HOLY COW HAVE YOU SEEN HOW EXPENSIVE GROUND TURKEY or CHICKEN IS?!!! I'm not paying quadruple (QUADRUPLE!) the cost of ground beef, even if it has a superior protein to fat ratio, less cholesterol, and no grease to decant.

My friends, ground turkey and chicken is a scam.

And I have found an easy substitute.

Take the boneless skinless chicken and grind it.

Life changing no?

I always thought the deli section had the capability but have been too chicken (ha! I'm so funny) to ask. I still haven't it done it. Mostly because Fresh and Easy has made its way into my heart with their simplicity and $1.67/ pound chicken, despite their lack of delicatessen.

So when I craved meatballs this sabbath, I threw my chicken into the Holy Grail of Blenders.
Voila! Ground Chicken. Now it isn't in the little tubey shape, but if I had a pasta maker or playdoh accessory, that could easily be resolved.

Jenny-o will never jip me again. Butterball will no longer burglarize my wallet. (insert third brand of chicken and alliterative verb)

I am liberated.

Crappy def: my day

I'm sick.

I have been for four weeks or so. Way sick immediately after my triathlon, but not too bad since then. As long as it was after 10am or before 10pm. Mostly sick enough to be annoying but not enough to keep me down. You been there?

It's lame.

I was ready to be done with the persistent cough. In the spirit of "I'm going to live my life anyways" I went hiking on Thursday, partied it up new years eve, had a lazy day Friday, and decided to go on a bike ride with my triathlon friend Julie Saturday.

Bad idea.

After 35 miles with yucky hills (YOU ARE THE DEVIL HAWES AND USERY!) in a group where Julie and I were the only ones who hadn't done an ironman, I didn't feel so hot. I wrote it off as excessive calorie burning and satanic mountain climbing and proceeded to be productive (sewed two skirts, finished all my mending, made two flower clips, and two headbands plus cleaned my craftroom and did all the laundry. There will be brag pictures, be assured). Went out to PF Chang's with the hubs and had an overall excellent day, as long as my butt bones didn't come in contact with anything harder than Charmin.

I wake up Sunday morning at an indiscriminate hour and I can't swallow. My primary threat response took over: sleep.

I wake up about 2pm and make the executive decision not to go to church (yes that's right, I have 2:30 church now). Can't swallow, can't breathe, can't move without a muscle yelling SORE. I can cough though. Really well. I'm happy to demonstrate. My lungs keep practicing, hoping they'll get their big break. I expect an agent to call any day.

I manage to make it four hours before going to sleep at 6pm. The truly awful part is that I have to set my alarm to wake up for Monday. It's the first day of the semester and I have a sketchy idea at best on what I'm teaching, let alone what I would have a sub do. But as I tell John, the up side is that I set it for 13 hours later :)

So I wake up this morning, miserable. I stumble through the thoroughly humidified haze and shower. I don my incredibly cute new black skirt, but it's still not enough to banish the loathing. I get in the car and turn the key.


GarummrummrummRUMmrummrummrumm.

Garummrummmrummrummm

You. have. got. to. be. kidding. me.

Call John. Try a few things to get the car to start. Fail.

Call my visiting teacher. Already at work. Call every stay at home mom in my phone. Realize I have no friends and vow to be better at answering my phone. Call brother in law. No answer.

Call sister. She happens to be on her way to work but happily offers to turn around and pick me up, even though she is going to be running late herself. Let's me borrow a car. She even lets me borrow her cute little Scion instead of making me drive the extendocabextendobed truck.

That's love people, that's love.

Drive to work and park seven minutes before the bell rings.

Realize that my id, stamp, and keys are not in my purse. They are in the bowl where they have rested peacefully the entire break.

Realize I didn't get copies made in December

Realize they turned the electricity off for a week of repairs and my leftover ice cream sandwiches are congealed all over the freezer.

Find out that Jimmy, Frankie, Bobby, Michael, Joe, AND Sam, the swirling blackholes of attention and immaturity are ALL in third hour. The third hour that has 30 kids when my colleagues WHO ARE TEACHING THE EXACT SAME CLASS have 18 a piece.

Alexander has some new competition for a children's book.

I'm taking tomorrow off just in case I get boils and all my family dies. I'm not cursing you God. Promise.

Resolute

The whole journaling thing and I are definitely not BFF's. We're more like old friends from high school that you love when you see, but you only get together four or five times a year. Afterward you say, "This is so much fun! We should do it more often!" but really, you're kidding yourself. It's going to be five times a year if you are lucky. That's me and journaling.

Some people make their blogs their journal. Mine is not. But it kinda is. Following the analogy, my blog would be the equivalent of facebooking. Not as good as getting together, but still sorta involved. So my new years resolutions are not making it in the journal, but on the blog. Because we all know it is not a goal unless you write it down. Right beehives? I think I taught that a few weeks ago. And like Alicia said, teachers have to make our goals measurable.

In 2010 I want to (in no particular order. Don't want you all to think my priorities are mixed up)

1)Visit a new country
2) Do an olympic distance triathlon (I think. today's bike ride was a little rough. Maybe I don't want to)
3) Go to the temple 12 times or more
4) Get the new Castillo names temple ready, write down the story, e-mail it to everyone and invite them to a temple day
5) Hike Flatiron
6)Landscape my backyard so golfers will stop bringing canned dog food to the fence. MY HOUSE IS NOT ABANDONED!!
7) Try not to live for the weekend
8) Finish the last two dad gum string balls for the entry way
9) Reupholster the ugly awesome green couch with new slightly ugly awesome fabric ($3/yd!)
10) Plan Beehive lessons a week in advance
11) Master the flip turn
12) Be on time for church at least three sundays a month
13) Invite more people to dinner
14) Not cut my hair short
15) Be a 100% visiting teacher


We'll see how it goes. I think I might need to start a sticker chart.