Hard work

I spent the first day of spring break working in the yard. I needed to rip out a bunch of miniature chestnut trees. I have a massive chestnut tree in my parkstrip that is the bane of my existence. Every season it has to drop something and the nut casings are the worst - sharp pokey things. But the nuts are like rocks - dangerous in their own right. Well I had a pile of debris that decided the sprout. There must have been close to 50 little trees I ripped up. A few came out intact. I took a photo for your enjoyment. I also took a photo of the naked budding tree. Did I tell you it was a lot of work? I broke two nails. No photo of that, though, sorry.

Flag pole

I don't think you can see it, but it's there, perfectly framed by the huge trees. This is the walk ed took while listening to his sales pitch getting him pumped up be a powerful salesperson continually climbing higher and higher up the ladder of success. It's one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. I love that I live so close and can reenact it whenever I want.

sadness

the other day a kid and i had a class in class - at the beginning. he was drinking pop (against the rules) and i told him to throw it away. he chucked it across the room and when i called him on it he retorted with, "throw was the operative word." snot head. so he went to the office. anyway, he came by this morning to apologize. he's overall a good kid and one i like. i'd checked with the office the other day and the vp explained some personal issues he's dealing with. when i offered him my sympathy and fogiveness today he said his sister will probably be dead in the next few months. she's anorexic and his family can't afford the institutional care she needs. apparently she eats a 300 calorie "cookie" a day. i know what it's like to anticipate the death of a loved one. it's hard. kids deal with tough things. why oh why.

accents

i've gotten in the habit of reading my friends' friends blogs - facilitates procrastination. i discovered a fun self quiz on one and you know how hard those are to resist, so here are my results:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

i certainly wasn't surprised.

niece does yoga

this is her favorite pose. it cracks me up. it looks just like down dog but with no hands. i don't think i could do it. i have a hard enough time with regular down dog.

Brats

Is that spelled right? I mean the delicious sausages eaten on a spring ski day in the parking lot right off the grill - good times. The first photo is of dona audrey and danielle ready to go schlecking. Then there's ed and josh doing some grilling. There's also a photo of vanya lynn leanne dona and danielle hanging while the food digests. I also got a photo of ed and mark cleaning up where the peppers spilled. The last shot is of me and audrey sitting in the snow. Mark got two shots of me stuck in the snow while schlecking but they're still on his camera. Maybe i'll get copies eventually. What a perfectly gorgeous day it was. Much love all around.

Thumb

Look at me -I have a green thumb! I planted flowers and a lilac bush last year. It worked - they grew - hooray for spring!

fabulous!

this is an assignment i had turned in today by my resident artist. she often comes to class with some sort of drawing on her face. today she was decorated like a clown. lately she's been wearing a baby food jar filled with dead leaves (i think) around her neck on a string. anyway, she's terribly creative and interesting. i just had to share what type of work i get to grade sometimes. i think the essay part (what i'm grading) is actually on the back, these are just her class notes. i hope the cool details show up in the picture.

is it just me?

okay, i'm going to tell a story about a guy who asked me out. i can do this because no guy i ever date ever reads my blog - it's just all of you and some random people that accidentally stumble on me. i only say this because the story is not the most flattering. but maybe one of the guys that reads this will think twice before he asks out a girl.

it all started three weeks ago. sunday night my sunday school teacher (a boring one i have to say) called and chatted for a bit before asking if he could take me out sometime after he returns from argentina. i said sure. i figured it was worth the date - you never know - he was friendly enough. well he got back some time last week. he called me on sunday and did the small talk again, you knowm, asked about my week. in sunday school i'd made a comment about what a challenging week it had been so he asked for some details. then he asked me how this week looked. i told him it should be better. then he said, "okay, well i guess i'll call you some time next week to see if we can find a time to go out." i responded with, "well i'm free this weekend." he seemed pleased and said he'd call me on wednesday to set a date after he'd looked around to see what was going on. so last night he called. i told him saturday was already out (yes, believe it or not some other random guy who is not my type is taking me to dinner on saturday). he was cool with it. apparently there was nothing going on that he could find on either night so he said we could just go to dinner. i told him about a free concert on friday night that sounded interesting. he said, "okay, then we could just go to subway and get a quick meal and catch the concert. or if you want we could just go to sizzler." now i don't know about other people, but to me, sizzler is not the sort of place i want a date to take me for a nice meal. in my mind it's like chuck-a-rama without the "all you can eat" part. i laughed hard on the inside and we agreed we'd make the decision on friday when he picked me up. this morning i decided sizzler wouldn't be so bad. i really like steak and am not too picky about quality or ambiance. at least i'll have a good laugh on the inside.

am i too picky? you don't have to answer. mostly i wanted to give you a chance to laugh on the inside too.

laffy taffy

i've resorted to snacking on the students' "prizes" - pretty sad, i know. anyway, today's laffy taffy had a joke for dainon. let's see if you can get it dainon!

"what is green and sings?"

don't look yet.

guess.

keep thinking.

think of dainon.

ready?

all right, i'll give the answer.

soon.

next line.

elivs parsley

Look what I found!

On my walk home from work I found a million dollars! The back side gave it away as a fake, unfortunately. But fortunately it was a message about christ and reminded me to pray and read the scriptures. Which is a relevant message and I was happy I could make a connection to this week's rs lesson!

Ducks

Can you see them? Maybe they're geese - yeah, I think they are. I guess that's what happens at liberty park - the fowl find refuge in the gated pool area where the water hasn't been touched in months.

more student news

i stayed late today helping one of my poor non-english speaking students write a full page single spaced essay on why speed limits exist for his driver's ed class. it was not so fun. then i found out one of my english students isn't coming back to school for a few weeks because he has encephalitis. another one of my english students had a brain tumor when he was young and since then he's suffered from anxiety and only gets a couple hours of sleep each night. miserable.

on a funnier note - one of my students was given the first name "lestat." i guess his father was a big fan of the books. and even worse is his last name - "vile." i can never keep straight which is his first or last name. i usually just call him one or the other and figure he'll respond. poor poor poor guy.

famous

okay - i have to brag! i have a student in my 7th period that is famous. or nearly. he was missing from class today and his friend said it was because they were filming "high school musical 2." then it hit me - he was in "high school musical" - the hit disney show from last year. i even saw it myself. it was filmed at east high school. i can totally picture my student - he played the snobby preppy side kick to the snobby preppy girl. he basically played a louder more obnoxious version of himself. i think they're brother and sister on the show. in real life his cousin is also in my class and i know they do dance competitions together. how weird!

huntsman center

it seems i spend a lot of time off and on visiting my folks when dad is inpatient at the huntsman center. he was just there last week for a couple nights. while visiting, my brother took a photo of the parents. i think it's worth sharing since it's a big part of my life. doesn't dad look happy? he generally likes to make faces when being photographed.

Skirt

Look at my new pretty skirt - it's better in person - a bit shiney! Mother made it for me. I'm very pleased about it.

Your president

Jon, this is for you. It's a christmas card on my parents' fridge. It makes me happy. It's from my brother's past ward member.

Return of the hair

Plewe requested another hair shot - what a friend. So while stuck in downtown traffic last night I tried to capture the true essence of the new 'do. Here are some of the real treasures that I think not only reflect the natural flip of the hair but also the pain of sitting in traffic. And truthfully, I deleted the most painful ones. I'll just say that the smile is not totally natural.

quotes

"I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I thought, `What part of my body is telling me that?'" - Emo Phillips

and now one from a student:
"read my poem dude." it was a poem about his car. i had the kids try to write sonnets, or if they couldn't do that, at least write a poem. i laughed out loud to hear him walk into my class and say that first thing to his friend. that's what an english teacher dreams of.

Here it is!

I know you were like all just dying to see the new cut. Well it's here! I can't say I love it. Too bowlish or something. I'm sure it'll grow on me and i'll learn to deal with it. I think the more expensive it is the less I like it. sorry for the shadows - camera phone in the car at dusk.