My Birthday

My birthday yesterday was so pleasant! The morning started off pretty normal; I got up at 6:00 a.m. to go to work. I never told anyone at work that my birthday was approaching, so I didn't expect any attention, but it sort of "leaked out" (long story, but Facebook was part of the reason). During my first period, one of my students gave me a vase full of red roses, a balloon, and a card. Then, during fourth period, Clinton surprised me at work with a pot full of marigolds and another birthday balloon. Later, for fifth period, another student was pulled out of my class by a campus assistant (who also happens to be his mom), and they both returned with a vente-sized vanilla-mocha frappuchino from Starbucks. They put shiny sparklers next to the straw and wrote "Happy Birthday!" all over the cup. It was very touching (and delicious). Then, finally, during eighth period, ASB came in with an arm full of balloons and gave me a giant hand-made card that featured a collage of pictures from ASB Camp. All the girls from camp signed the card. It's really cute and I plan to hang it up in my room.

After work, I went to Maan Fu with my family, which is a Japanese restaurant where they grill the food on a large hibache grill right at your table. It was awesome...I loved how dramatic the presentation of the food was. During dinner I received gifts from my parents and Clint. Clint got me the most beautiful laptop for my birthday (which I'm using right now), but the way he presented it was hilarious. I would explain it if I could possibly do the hilarity of it justice, but it would take too long.

After dinner we went out for drinks. I had so much fun! Shannon and Sarah got me to sing karyoke, even though my voice is raspy and awful. The only downfall of the evening was that I had to leave so much earlier than I wanted to because I had work the next morning. I was supposed to have a BTSA observation today which was making me feel nervous about being out late, but ironically, this morning, my observer called and cancelled.
When I got home from partying with my family, I discovered a special birthday message on FB from one of my coworkers that particularly stood out. Again, explaining the message would not do it any justice and would take way too long, but it was so creative and hilarious. I found out today that it had taken him 45 minutes to compose it for me. This sounds so cliche, but his e-mail was a perfect ending to a nearly perfect day. I just went to bed feeling so special.

Today I have been dragging. I'm fatigued with cramps and the beginnings of a cold. So I guess I am officially coming down from my birthday high.

Parade

This is the longest I have gone without writing a post since I started my blog. I just haven't felt inspired to write lately. It's weird, because I feel like I have such a pleasant life, but it makes for really uninteresting blog entries. Not that I want something dramatic to happen just so I will have something to write about, but my life is so...settled...and a lot of times I just don't know what to say. I could say that today I'm still a teacher, still a mom, and my life has the occasional little anecdotal events at best, but that's about it.

Today I was in a parade. I've never been in a parade before, so it's kind of funny that my first time in one was today, at the age of 30. The parade was so much fun. Clint and I were there with our kickboxing group, and our martial art's class somehow wound up leading the entire parade even though they had registered late. We had to march down Main St., singing this cheer intermittently. Every time the parade stopped, we had to perform. Us kickboxers rotated each time we stopped, so sometimes I was kicking, sometimes I was punching, and sometimes I was holding pads for others who were kicking and punching.

The one thing I didn't expect was to see people that I know along the parade route. I've never known anyone to attend our city's pitiful little parade, so I was surprised when people in the audience hollered my name. I was thrilled to see Matt and Alana among the spectators. They both looked so excited and surprised to see me and Clint in the parade. But we never did tell anyone that we were going to be in it, so I guess why would they expect to see us there?

Elijah and his Little Ninjas group were in the very front our group, and they were so cute. For the first half of the route, they were smiling and waving at the crowds. But for the second half, it started to get hot, and they kept sneakily hitching a ride with the truck that was leading the parade. They would just jump in real quick (when the parade slowed or stopped) and enjoy the ride. I'm pretty sure that this was frowned upon, but we thought it was hilarious that our little ninja group kept getting smaller and smaller. Trinity was the team leader for her class, and she was awesome. Her job was to keep everyone in her group in a straight line and to start the demonstrations. She sounded so loud and authoritative, but in a good way. She really seemed to know what she was doing.

After the parade we went to Route 66. We actually had a really pleasant time, other than the fact that it was uncomfortably hot. First we browsed through all of the booths, and then we took the kids to the bounce houses. The kids had a great time in the bounce houses, but we had to cut them off after about forty minutes because Elijah's face was getting so red and flushed, even though he was drinking tons of water. I worry about him, because he has such a delicate little body (unlike Trin, who's as sturdy as a horse), plus he's just my baby. After the bounce house we came back and I went cruising with my mom in the Corvette. That was my favorite part, because I loved seeing all of the awesome classic cars and their amazing paint jobs, plus I had a great time hanging out with my mom. The AC was definitely a bonus, too. While I was with my mom, the kids went cruising in Emmett's truck. They loved it.

Completely unrelated, but we are seriously considering letting our house in SL's go into foreclosure. I feel guilty because the idea actually excites me.

Writing a Resume

Last night I stayed up until midnight filling out an application and creating a resume. It has been several years since I've had to do a resume, so I pretty much had to start from scratch. I went through this whole process last night because I'm applying to be an Intern Support Provider through my school district. An Intern Support Provider is simply a teacher who gets paid a stipend to meet with a participating intern teacher once a week and offer them help and support. Although I love the idea of helping a new teacher, I wasn't going to apply for the position because I am technically still working under a preliminary credential (even though I'm tenured). But my principal insisted that I needed to apply anyway and wrote me a letter of recommendation (I just have to love her--she always thinks the best about me). Creating the resume last night was a lot of work, but I figure even if I don't get the position, it never hurts to have an updated resume. The resume came our really nice in the end and I am very happy with it. I still have serious doubts that I will get the position though, primarily because we have very few interns this year due to all the pink slips that were issued last year. So the few interns that we do have, I'm sure they would rather assign them to someone who has more teaching experience. But if I do get the position, I'm spending my stipend on nice stuff for the house--so here's hoping!

Now I have to figure out a way to get some energy before kickboxing tonight, because I'm just about running on fumes.

Family Fun Day--Not too Bad =)

Okay, I'll admit, "Family Fun Day" was a little fun. Clint and I arrived a bit late because he worked the night shift and had to sleep in today, so when we got to his aunt's house we barely had time to cram down lunch when the games began. There was a water-balloon toss, a wheelbarrow race, and some sort of egg relay race. I played the first two games, but sat out for the third game because Clint was exhausted (from the wheelbarrow race) so refused to be my partner. The wheelbarrow race was really amusing, because since I was wearing a jean skirt, Clint was forced to be the wheelbarrow while I was the "driver." Talk about a mismatch. He weighed a ton and I kept trying to push him faster than he could run on his hands. Twice we wound up falling over onto our competition. We pretty much clobbered them.

After the games, some of us girls went into the house to make beaded jewelry. I made an anklet, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings. They don't look generic either...Clint's Aunt Tina brought some really nice beads and accessories. After the jewelry-making session, a group of the more lively people got a game of Texas Hold'em started. I'm a very mediocre player, but sadly, there were so many beginners at the table that they all looked up to me as an experienced, seasoned player. I kept telling them that I'm not that great at the game, but apparently being the "lesser of the evils" really puts one into a respectable position. I was having a great time playing though, but unfortunately our game sort of fell apart around 7:00 because a lot of families had to start the long drive home. So we had to cash out before the game was over with no clear winners.

The only downfall to the whole day was the smoke. It is worse in Pearblossom, and it was getting pretty thick toward the afternoon. Luckily it didn't affect my eyes too badly. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have runny eyes today.

Movie Night at the Dojo

We went to the Movie Night at the dojo tonight. It was kind of cool to be in there with all the lights out and everyone curled up around pillows. The highlight of the evening though happened before the movie began. Some of the boys were fooling around (in amazing, talented ways) and accidentally cracked the base of Sensei Brandon's $400 punching bag, spilling water across the mat. Josh immediately tried to get away from the bag, but the water basically turned the mat into a slip-and-slide, and he wound up slipping and falling all over the floor. When he finally escaped the "flood" area, the guys all realized that Brandon was going to be furious when he saw his punching bag. So they tried to cover the situation before Brandon came back into the dojo (he was out in the parking lot). Josh grabbed a mop and Bo found some black electric tape, and they both hurriedly tried to repair the damages while Matt played the role of look-out. Josh was mopping the water up as fast as he could when suddenly Matt shouted out "He's coming!" Josh responded with "Oh crap!" and threw the mop onto the middle of the mat and ran away, ducking for cover behind a bench. When Brandon walked in, there was a wet mat, a mop lying perspicuously on the floor, and several very guilty looking people. Brandon demanded, "What happened?" and Josh crept out and stated, "I'm really sorry sir. I just couldn't hold it any longer and had an accident on the mat." Of course that set all of us into hysterics (yes, I know...we're such mature "grown-ups") and blew Josh's cover story. Little by little Brandon learned the truth, and he was not happy, to say the least. Those boys will probably be doing push-ups until Memorial Day.

Old Friend

No time to write anything meaningful because I need to go to bed! Today I woke up with my crummy cold still lingering. I still have the pink eye too, but it doesn't look pink anymore. It just "feels" pink, which is even worse. At least yesterday when it was all stingy and runny, anyone who came up to me could see there was a problem. Today, it's still gushy and burning, but it just looks like I'm crying for no real reason. I kept my lights off in my classroom for most of the day again, but my students seem to be getting used to it. Other than my eye, my day was really good. I found out more about ASB camp, and I am really excited. It's going to be nothing but fun and games...apparently there's a swimming pool, awesome food, a zip-line to ride, and all sorts of other stuff.

Today I met up with a friend who I've known since junior high. I ran into her last week because she was one of the parent volunteers chaperoning at our school dance. When we ran into each other, it was immediate recognition followed by lots of loud squeals. So today we decided to take our kids (and our dogs) to the park. We talked about "the good ole' days" for an hour and a half and she showed me pictures of all of us at her two different birthday/slumber parties. In one set of pictures we were about eleven or twelve years old, and in the second set we were about fifteen. It was pretty surreal. I was surprised to learn that she never graduated from high school; she wound up getting her GED several years after high school. She dropped out of school when she was seventeen because she had moved in with her older boyfriend. She wound up having a daughter with him, but they are no longer together and she is remarried. She is now a stay-at-home mom with three kids, but says that her house is always a huge disaster. She was refreshing to talk to because she doesn't try to sugar-coat her life...she just tells it like it is.

After visiting with my old friend, I rushed off to kickboxing, which was the same torturous workout as usual. This Friday the dojo is having a movie night. Clint and I are bringing our popcorn machine, but I'm not sure if we're going to stay the whole time or not...it depends on his schedule. I hope we can stay though because the movie nights are really fun.

Confusing the Moon

I had to give a presentation (on Bloom's Taxonomy) in front of the entire staff at my school this morning, so of course I wake up with an awful cold and full-blown pink eye. My eye was stinging so much this morning that I pretty much thought I was screwed. I started to get ready anyway, and as time passed, my eye got somewhat less runny, although it was still really sensitive to light. I had to put my makeup on in half-darkness just to make it work. At one point I decided I was going to have to call in sick, so I thought I would just show up to work to give my presentation and then go home when I was finished. You should see the clothes I wore today--usually I dress really professionally, but today I wore denim capri pants, a green fundraiser t-shirt, and my hair was in a sloppy pony tail (not to mention my eye was a lovely shade of pink). Finally, at the last minute, I decided that I was just going to stay at work. Sometimes the effort to create sub plans is simply not worth it, and I was already up and dressed. It wound up being a pretty good day though--I felt like my students learned a lot today, and I was able to teach in the dark (by using PP), which felt good on my eye.

Yesterday I met my friend Sarah for dinner, and we had some good conversations while the kids played. When I left, it was about 6:40 in the evening. On the horizon there was a red ball, and I couldn't figure out whether it was the sun or the moon. It was still very slightly daylight, so I thought it might be the sun...it looked too large to be the moon. At the same time, all the recent fires have put so much ash in the air, that it looked like it might be a large "blood moon." Either way, it looked strange. When I got home I felt almost cheated because I never figured out which it was. I mean, when in life does a person ever confuse the sun with the moon? Trinity and Elijah couldn't tell either. We finally got our answer later that night, when the dark red ball was still in the sky, but it was now higher and it was completely dark. It turned out to be the moon. It's interesting what effects all this smoke creates in the sky.

Next Friday I will be going to "ASB Camp" in Big Bear with about thirty eighth graders. I am really excited, but also nervous because I have to drive one of the vans. I am somewhat of an edgy driver when it comes to driving in unfamiliar areas, so hopefully I can squelch those feelings down when it's time to leave.