MY year in pictures!!

Here's a not-so-brief look at 2007... There are 37 photos, so bear with me here...

(Note: If you'd like to see the larger version of a photo, click on it!) :)

1.) Rock climbing was a big hobby of mine this year!




2.) Mary & Shawn got engaged!! (This is us at a celebration for them.)




3.) Sarah graduated from college! (Here are our parents at the ceremony.)




4.) I quit teaching after my first year. (This is a painting one of my former students did our last month of school.)




5.) I moved to a lovely little house...




6.) ...And got a new job! (Here's a photo, previously shown on this blog, of me on my first-ever overnight business trip to Winslow, Arizona!)




7.) My best buddy, Andrew, and I went to a friend's wedding in Colorado.




8.) My own sister, Katie, then got married!




9.) These days, it's rare to have the whole fam together.




10.) The wedding was beautiful and awesome.




11.) Mr. and Mrs. Knapp enjoyed some time with their niece, Claudia!




12.) I also acquired a kick-ass roommate (James) and kitty (Isaac, here with laser-eyes).




13.) James & I overwhelemed the living room with our colletion of books and movies.




14.) I learned that two high school friends of mine (Amanda & Maria) now live in Arizona, too!!




15.) Sedona, extremely close to my new home, proved a wonderful place to frequent.




16.) James introduced me to the drama class's costume room. Hehe.




17.) Our sage-like office printer offered words of wisdom.




18.) On a random trip to Albuquerque, I stopped to admire the annual hot air balloon festival. It was awesome.




19.) The weekend after Albuquerque, I hit up Vegas with a high school/college friend of mine (Joe), and we met some very nice strangers.




20.) I got to see my cousins and their respective children!




21.) James made our house's first fire of the year! :)




22.) On a spur-of-the-moment splurge, I flew to Cleveland for Thanksgiving, just in time for my niece, Claudia's, birthday.





23.) The four sisters posed with one very bored boyfriend.




24.) During Thanksgiving, I was also fortuante enough to see some good friends.




25.) My father showed his patience with my niece, Tabatha's, antics. (I can't help but find his expression here hilarious, considering how little Tabatha is.)




26.) I flew a lot (14 flights this year alone)!




27.) I also drove a lot (about 30K miles logged on my car)!




28.) Andrew got his first "real" job as a guidance counselor in Page.




29.) Meanwhile, we got mini basketballs to play with at my work.




30.) My new buddy, Jared and I, showed off some shades in a ghetto-fab store in Phoenix.




31.) Back in Cleveland, I got to see lots of friends again! :)




32.) Sarah and I kicked it with our nieces and our family.




33.) Yay, friends!





34.) And yay, more friends!





35.) I love my parents. :)




36.) Old college roomies get to bowl when we're all in town!




37.) Again, it's so awesome having good friends.





That's all! It was a crazy, eye-opening year, and I shall remember the important lessons I've learned.

2008, here I come!

Survey says...

So I've been taking some online surveys to get some free stuff... The surveys are actually pretty cool. One time, they mailed me a new Progresso soup that I got to sample & report on. Good stuff.

Anyway, I took another survey today about Sure antipersperant/deodorant. Here are some excerpts:

[Prompt:] Describe the ad as if you were talking to a friend.

me: "Hey, Andrew."
Andrew: "Hey."
me: "So I saw this new ad for Sure deodorant."
A: "Really? Tell me about it."
me: "Well, it had this guy running in a train station, and the ad said 'u r not afraid of a morning jog' or something like that."
A: "And how was 'you are' spelled? Don't tell me it was like a text message."
me: "Oh, it was. They just used the letters ‘U’ and ‘R’ to represent the actual words."
A: "But you hate stuff like that, Ms. Grammar Queen!"
me: "I know, but upon further examination, I realized that if you took out the 'S' and 'e' in 'Sure,' you're left with 'u r.' Brilliant, really."
A: "Surely. So, what are we doing this weekend?"


[Prompt:] What does the phrase “Protect who U R” mean to you?

It means that the texting/internet culture has dominated over conventional use of the English language. Honestly, it's a bit disconcerting, but those who ignore change have to deal with it anyway.

season's greetings...

... from my trash people. i'll share with you... though you may need to click on it to be able to read it. it's harmless, i promise:



happy holidays, all!! :)

Birthdays and Top 10 Lists

First, I forgot to wish my momma a happy b-day!!! (Happy b-day, Momita!!)

Second, I'd like to list my New Year's resolutions... (There are quite a few.)

1.) Only hit the "snooze" button ONCE in the mornings.
2.) Spend 30 minutes or less on the computer at home each day.
3.) Take only 1 trip per month.
4.) Only eat out once per week.
5.) Pay off at least 2 times each credit card bill's monthly minimum each month.
6.) Clean house/room 15 minutes each day.
7.) Make good eating choices.
8.) Get more tutoring/work hours if possible.
9.) Find some way to exercise (even a little bit) every day.
10.) Do not do anything that is inconsistent with who you are.

So there.

Finally, since I'm into "top 10" lists lately, I'm going to make one for another situation in my life. You see, my roommate and I have not been able to get the heat turned on in our house yet (looong, stupid story). Thus, we've had to be creative with how we stay warm at night & in the mornings. Without further ado, my list:

You know it's too cold in your house when...

1.) Putting a Dura Log in the fireplace raises your thermostat by 7 degrees.
2.) You lay the cat on your stomach for extra body heat.
3.) You don't change out of the clothes you wore from the day because it'd be too cold to remove them and change into pajamas.
4.) Breakfast is eaten in front of the open stove, set to 400 degrees.
5.) You sleep with a robe, a hat, gloves, and a scarf on.
6.) Friends come over and never take their coats off.
7.) You brush your teeth by candlelight because of the added warmth.
8.) You warm up by drinking warm beverages and doing any exercises you can.
9.) You wake up with a headache from a night spent with chattering teeth.
10.) Work seems more appealing because there's heat at the office!

Ta da!! Good news, though: this problem should (hopefully!!!!!!!) be remedied tomorrow, should the gas & electric people get their acts together.

For now, adieu.

I'm bad at coming up with creative titles.

So I've been listening to mainstream radio a lot lately... I've been trying to listen to NPR as much as possible, but there's only so much news I can take at once. Sigh.

Anyway, point at hand: there is a vast amount of songs that deal with men being crappy. Here are a few titles & artists that are presently played on popular radio:

-Who Knew by Pink
-Hate That I Love You by Rihanna
-Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood
-U + Ur Hand by Pink

There are countless others, but those are the only examples I could come up with offhand. While looking up songs online, however, I noticed that there are some performed by male singers who were equally screwed over by ladies. Some examples:

-Wake-up Call by Maroon 5
-Over You by Daughtry
-Dreaming with a Broken Heart by John Mayer

Maybe people in relationships can be bad, regardless of gender. :P I was just surprised by how many "men suck" songs there were on the radio the past few weeks, and I thought I'd share.

In other news, I taught back at my old school yesterday (where I taught last year). It's good to be there just for a few hours at a time, and I love seeing my old kids & teacher friends. However, I was a little (wrongly???) disturbed by an occurence yesterday...

When I abandoned my classroom at the end of last school year, I left a note in the desk for the next occupant of my room. The woman who now teaches in my old classroom called me, thrilled to be in contact. I've come in (on my own time) to teach math lessons for fun. (Sick, huh??) Anyway, I've been doing weekly nutrition lessons in her class for the past few months. At first, it was totally weird being back in the room where I had the roughest year of my life. Now, fortunately, I'm used to it.

Well, last year, I gave probably 200% of my efforts to that school. (And I'd like to think that my 100% is a lot!) Toward the end of the year, my class & I worked on a community-wide silent auction/raffle/carnival to raise much-needed money for a crumbling playground. With contributions and event proceeds, we raised over $4,000. Though I had been hoping for more (I was going for $10k), I was still happy we raised a significant chunk of change.

So yesterday, while doing a lesson in the current teacher's room, I learned that the class was on the front page of the local newspaper. They had raised $150 for Unicef, which is awesome. However, my pride overcame me, and I was suddenly both saddened and angered that my class & I hadn't been recognized for all of our outstanding efforts, and we raised more than 25 times what this class did! With a slightly wilted ego, I proclaimed to the class, "Wow! That's wonderful that you were able to raise that money! Congratulations!" Inside, my spirits sunk, and I then did a relatively bland lesson. (I'm usually pretty spazzy when I teach, so this was a huge change.)

So after the whole day of teaching (6 classes!!!), I got to the car in kind of a funk. Do I *need* recognition for the things I do? It seems so! How disheartening. I thought I was above that, but I guess not. Don't get me wrong; friends, family, and coworkers have been outstanding at making my efforts seem worthwhile... but I guess I just wanted a newspaper article or something. Yuck. And you know, I've always seen people in magazines or on Oprah or whatever who had gone unrecognized for months, years, decades, until someone decided to share what they were doing with the world. I figured then that the most amazing people are humble and do not go in search of fame. This makes my realization (that I need recognition) especially painful. Sigh.

Anyway, I suppose that's it for now. The roommate & I have decorated the house with lots o' Christmas goodness. As soon as I find my dang camera cord, I shall share some of those photos on this blog. For now, peace.

Sympathy for our leaders...

So I taught 4 classes today: two 8th grades, a 6th-9th combo, and a 4th/5th combo. Wowzas. I keep forgetting how draining it is to teach all day!!!

Anyway, driving back to work from my second set of classes, I had a brief rush of sympathy (and, to a degree, empathy) for the leaders of countries. (Yes, ladies and gents, this even includes our current head of state.)

I instantly recalled the feeling I'd have at the end of the day last year, after a full day of teaching... I was exhausted, drained, and unmotivated. All I wanted to do was go home, lie on the couch, watch a movie, and forget about things for 2 hours. Today, while it wasn't as bad, reminded me of that sense of sheer depletion. Oy, to be an effective teacher in today's age!!

However, as a teacher, you can take a break. You have the weekends (or part of them) to unwind; you get summers mostly off; you can even call in sick and/or attend a workshop now and then. Being a country's leader, on the other hand, is not so simple. You cannot "turn off" your term for a bit to escape. (Well, Bush seems to take quite a few vacations, but still...) It would be impossible to forget the awesome responsibility you have to society and the world. In a word, it would be maddening.

I suppose I'm just trying to say that I have a newfound respect and understanding of the world's leaders. Granted, I may not always agree with their decisions, but I can absolutely identify with a sense of being overwhelmed and tired to your core.

On this (random) note, I leave you to tutor some adult learners!! Ciao.