The Family Tree

So here we are. This is me and my sister. I didn't realize that we still look a little bit alike these days. This picture was taken this weekend at a wedding (my sis is in a bridesmaid dress). We are almost complete polar opposites of each other. She is energetic and driven and fun and extroverted, definitely one of those people who is the life of a party. She is also selfish and irresponsible and slightly narcissistic. Me, I am laid back (some might say lazy), go with the flow and most times would rather read a book than even go to the party! :) I think there are pros and cons to both of our personalities. My sister works very hard to look good and I think she is so beautiful! I LOVE my sisters goofy side. And I love that she can be so fun and outgoing. I'm not saying that I am not fun, but it definitely takes me awhile to warm up to people and you will never catch me doing this in public:

But I am the responsible one, the one people come to when they have a problem or need advice about electronics or just need a sounding board that includes constructive feedback. I don't know.....its been a weird weekend for me I guess. The wedding was fun, I did alot of dancing. It's nice to see some old school friends too. We get together and it's like I am 16 again, accept I'm not 16 anymore and I am kind of happy that I've changed so much since those days. And EVERYBODY knows I don't drink so they were nice and just got me regular cokes. And let's face it there are not too many people who will dance unabashedly and sing along with "Ice Ice Baby" I still know all the words too! :)

I don't make this stuff up!

So we have flamingos in our back yard!  Seriously!  Apparently they escaped from Busch Gardens or the zoo.  They visit our little lake every now and then.   And today I heard the distinct call of a peacock!  I know the sound from my service at the Sierra Safari Zoo during my mission.  (Danica did you know that Hobbs the Liger and Hyme the hyena died?!?) If the alligator comes back I am going to start charging admission!  But really that's not the point of this post! :)

So we got a phone call from the hospital my grandmother is staying at.  I've mentioned before that she likes to use her call button like a butler bell.  Well I guess the nurse was not coming fast enough so she decided to call 911.  That's right my grandmother called 911 from INSIDE the hospital!  And yes that is dang funny!  But all I can think of is that this is my gene pool.  Her crazy selfish genes are a part of me too.  And every once in awhile those genes pop up and I get more than just a little bit crazy.  I worry that some day the crazy genes will take over and I won't even realize it!  (sigh)  Needless to say they took away her phone at the hospital and discharged her the next day.  But until the discharge they came pretty fast every time she pressed the button.  She is so proud of herself too!  Maybe being crazy isn't that bad after all..... she and my sister usually get what they want.  Something to think about anyways.....

Karma

So you all know that I have a crazy italian grandma right? And its not the "ohhh isn't that funny" crazy. Its the "what?!? she really did/said that?!?" kind of crazy. I look at her and I totaly understand the mafia. Anyways its finally come back to bite her in the bum.

So there is some head nurse at the assisted living facility she lives in that she doesn't like. The nurse tried to threaten her with going to a nursing home if she didn't quit using the emergency button in her apt like a butler's bell. Well you don't threaten and old italian crazy grandma! Although I do have to admit that once my grandma had a vendetta she attacked life with a renewed vigor! Well grandma reported the nurse to someone higher up. This is in addition to call her names that I would send my students to the office for and hurling curses that you all couldn't dream up because you are too nice! Bottom line: They hate each other. Please keep in mind the my grandma is almost 90 (she's been telling people she is 97 to get attention! Such a switch from the days when she used to lie and say she was younger!!!) and she might be a pain in the bum but that nurse should still be professional!
Anyways the nurse has just been kind of sabotaging grandma's care trying to actually get her sent to a nursing home. And when she fell down in the middle of the night that nurse had her sent to the hospital with the hopes that she could prevent my grandmother from coming back.
My mom is handling the situation. Which is really lucky for the nurse. My mom is so Christlike and kind. I on the other hand have more than a little of that crazy Italian blood running through my veins. Man I was ready to call a meeting with that nurse and let her have it! I was going to threaten lawsuits, put them on the news all of which I can actually do thanks to my dad's resources. I told my mom that I would handle it and take a meeting with her myself. But my mom just called and put things in a Christlike way and just kind of hinting around about the things we could sue their hiney's off for! I get so mad everytime I think about it! Nobody knows how rude and unkind my grandmother can be better than I do. She and I have been butting heads since I was 6 or 7 years old (seriously we used to fight everytime she babysat us) but she is an old woman and we pay good money to that place! What kind of a crack head picks on a 90 year old woman? Seriously go work some place else! (sigh) I was hoping if I wrote this down it would make me feel better. I guess I am still fired up.

I April Fooled My Class!

Ummm for those of you who have known me for a long time you know that I have a teeny tiny practical joker side to me. (as evidenced by all the cars I have tee-pee'd many on my mission) So when I was reminded driving to work that it was April Fool's Day my mind went into action! So I post their daily schedule as a powerpoint slide that they copy into their planners. Well the April 1st schedule was so mean! It said they were going to write a 2 page essay, take a test, do 5 pages of math review and turn in a bunch of work that was supposed to be due on Friday. THEY TOTALLY FELL FOR IT!!! They looked so pitiful coping down their schedules! One was near tears! After the announcements I told them I had one more power point slide for them to look at and the second slide said "April Fools!" but they still didn't get it so I had to explain to them that their schedule was fake! HA HA HA HA HA! I am so glad I have a job where I don't always have to act like a grown up! :)

The Language of Choice

So at the beginning of the school year they give you all kinds of training to help you survive. It's actually an overwhelming amount of information thrown at you so you end up drowning anyways....but that's not the point! One of the classroom management techniques they teach you is called the language of choice. When a child is misbehaving you give them 2 choices with the intent that the child will choose the good choice. This way the student feels empowered and it doesn't turn into a power struggle. I use it alot and it really does work. The only problem is coming up with 2 choices that won't get ME into trouble! For example when one of my students is acting out and not doing his/her work for the millionth time this year I usually say something like "you can either chose to follow my directions and get back to work or you can chose to go to time out or you can chose to sit out at teacher PE etc" you get the idea. Now what I REALLY want to say is "you can either choose to follow my directions or I will choose to beat you like your mamma should have!" But I suppose that would be less effective. Or would it?......... :)

Green Light GO!

So we are in our second week of standardized testing at school. Man that will suck the life out of you! I can only imagine what it does to the kids so I take pity on them and we go outside for Teacher PE everyday. Today the first graders were on the playground so we stayed in the covered court area and played red light green light. For those of you who don't know the game goes a little something like this. The kids line up at one end of the court and whoever is it yells "green light" and they all race down the court towards the "it"person. The person can then at any time yell red light and everyone has to stop. If you don't stop you are out. The object is to be the first person to tag the "it" person. Well I decided to be "it" the first time around! You can see where this is going can't you? :) Yeah so the kids are racing towards me and I yelled red light and they all stopped. I yelled green light and they all ran towards me again but they got really excited and so no one stopped when I yelled red light again! I got tackled! But to my credit I did not go down! :) I guess it was more of a group bear hug than a tackle anyways! I know I probably shouldn't do stuff like that because then they all get riled up. But its so fun to hear them laugh that sometimes I just can't help myself! :)

Happy Feet

So I love the school that I work at and I especially love my 3rd grade team. Why? Because they are fun and like to do things like go and get pedicures together like we did today! I needed one too because it had been awhile and my toes were looking pretty rough. And when you live in Florida and can wear open toed shoes 360 days a year its just standard maintenance! Heavenly Father really took care of me with this teaching thing! Let me explain:

I started out at a completely different school! About as opposite from my school now as you can get. I loved the kids at my old school, but the veteran 3rd grade teachers on my old team weren't really nice or helpful. There wasn't much of a team at all accept for the new teachers. Well because I work in the 7th largest school district in the country they do things a little differently. After the first 20 days of school they take a count and if you don't have enough kids in your grade you lose a classroom. They do this because in other parts of the district they have too many students and they gain a classroom. So you leave your school and meet up and pick from the schools that have openings. I was SO upset when I found out I had to leave my old school. And stressed because you never know where you are going to end up! But I prayed my guts out and felt prompted to pick my current school. And I have been blessed ever since! My new teamies went out of their way to help me out and make sure I had everything I needed to succeed as a new teacher! They took me under their wings and showed me the ropes and have laughed and cried with me all year! And I love the school that I am at! I have a great mix of kids with diverse economic and social backgrounds and I love it! I am definitely blessed! And I have cute toes too! :)

Turn Back Time

So I am surviving my crazy life quite nicely! 2nd Counselor in Relief society, full time 3rd grade teacher, taking a Saturday Class, visiting my Grandma on Sundays after Church which is after an RS Meeting so sleeping in is no longer an option on the weekends. No Problem! Actually life is really good and I feel very blessed right now.

Which is Why when I found this picture at my Grandmothers I was surprised by how emotional I got. This is me and my dad. It was taken when I was probably 3 or 4 in our back yard. We have a family picture of that same day too. I saw this picture and my heart just ached. I wanted to cry but I was at my grandmothers and she gets upset when the world doesn't revolve around her so I waited. He's always been a handsome guy and I don't look too bad myself :) I've thought about it and I realized why it made me so sad. I want everyone who reads this to understand that I have a fantastic life. Really! I didn't miss out on anything, high school was great but I wouldn't go back. College was ALOT of fun but I don't miss it. Even my 20's were pretty rad but I am happy being a grown up. But I would give all of it and everything else I have if I could just be that little girl in my dad's arms for a few more minutes. But life just doesn't work that way. So I cried for that little girl who had no idea how good she had it, and had never experienced a broken heart or dissapointment of any kind really. But then I remembered that little girl got to grow up and experience alot of really cool things and meet some amazing people and I felt a little better. :)

Baby It's Dark Outside!

Yeah so I totally forgot about daylight savings time until last Friday! So in addition to my crazy week last week add lose 1 hour of MUCH needed sleep! Also add leaving the house early to pick up a girl who needed a ride to church and then throw in a visit to Grandma! Whew! I am getting tired all over again! :) My talk on Sunday was good, not my best but I will tell you that Heavenly Father and the Spirit were with me when I was preparing! All these things just kept popping into my head! Same thing with my relief society lesson. All the other members of the new relief society presidency were teaching classes that day too! How crazy is that?!?



My saturday class was good. Funny story I walk in at 8am and do a quick look around to see where I want to sit. I spot a pretty boy on one side of the room. Now most girls would just slide on over to a guy like this.............not this gal! I proceeded to the other side of the room about as far away as possible! I didn't even realize I had done it until I sat down, it was just a knee jerk reaction. I think my experience with pretty boys has left a bad taste in my mouth! Just give me a she quiet nerdy guy who isn't socially dysfunctional and I will happily drag him to the temple! :)

Oh The Places You Will Go!

So March 1 was Dr. Seuss' Birthday! We celebrated by listening to Horton Hear's A Who and Oh the Places you will go via Itunes. I love the second story but of course the kids loved the first because of the movie coming out. For all the mom's out there you can go to the read across america website and download the book so the kids can watch it on the computer you turn the pages of the book with an audio version of the story. Its kind of neat! Also we are doing a novel study on a book called Silver that has to do with the Iditarod Race in Alaska and we have been checking the standings everyday of the race. Its nice that I can use my techie skills in the classroom!

This week has been crazy crazy and its not over yet! Here is a glimpse of a week in my life

Sunday I get called to be the 2nd counselor in the relief society president (over education of course)
Monday Nothing going on until my phone rings and they ask me to give a 10 min talk this coming Sunday! Read on to the rest of my week and you will be amazed that I didn't freak out!
Tuesday I got waxed and a haircut, my hair is in a short bob that is stacked in the back and super cute but b/c I go to the beauty school I don't get home till 8pm
Wednesday Take my dog to the vet to get her rabies shot
Thursday CONFERENCE NIGHT I am at school from 7:30 am till 8:30pm with no breaks. The highlight of my conferences was explaining to a mom why it is not appropriate for her 9 year old daughter to have acrylic nails (not the lee press ons but the kind you go to the nail shop and get filled every 2 weeks is that crazy or what) especially all said daughter does is stare at her blue nails and click clack them all day long!
Friday Update my blog read a book and start working on my talk on sunday and the relief society lesson that I am teaching because I haven't been released from my other callings yet!
Saturday In class from 8am to 3:30pm then I will come home and crash and then hopefully finish up my talk and lesson (unless I procrastinate in which case I will be starting them both)
Sunday Talk in church teach relief society, go visit crazy grandma and CRASH happily because I have survived yet another crazy week!!!!