Do me a favor

Can you guess which song they're playing? :)

"Who's that coming down the track?

It's a huge machine that's red and black!

Ain't nothin' finer in the land than the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band!"

Vote for them because they're clearly the best band EVER!

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/indianajones/voteBand

I'm so happy!

Chris called me tonight on his own accord! Totally a surprise! We had a lot of laughs about memories we shared together as young 'uns and I just genuinely loved hearing from him especially since we don't get to see each other hardly at all and probably won't see each other for Christmas :(. He did say that he gets 2 weeks vacation this year so he may try to swing a trip to Idaho for some snowboarding sessions. We have a free day pass for him whenever he decides to come out.

I had my class weekend. My head pretty much was jam-packed full of stuff after today. The professor thought it would be beneficial to speak in Spanish for about 2-3 hours of class time today and yesterday. He was trying to create what is called a "din in the head" which means that once someone's been immersed into a language, after about 15 hours or so, they start hearing the phrases over and over again in their head and then they try to find ways to use those phrases with other people. Interesting, huh? Anyone that's learned a language before and then that has possibly visited that country probably has experienced this. You just hear all these different things (phrases, words, etc) in your head and then you start to repeat them out loud to other people! I really could identify with this because after having studied German for so many years and then finally going over there and living with a non-English speaking family, I constantly was hearing it all around me and also in my head. It felt like an overload for the first week or so of living with them. Let's just say that I was so exhausted and couldn't wait to go to sleep every night. Now I can sorta understand what an overload that new English speakers might experience while they're in school. Also that's why if you might come across some ELL children and they come up to you and start saying, "Hi! How are you? How old are you?" You can now know that those phrases are probably haunting their minds everyday--hahaha.

Back to the Spanish--fortunately for me, I still have my listening comprehension for the most part for it. My speaking abilities however....I was a little less confident than when I was in college and learning it all the time in my classes. Once again, I kept wanting to switch to German and that's why I had to stop taking Spanish in the first place. It was confusing for me. Maybe I should pick Spanish up again though. I still have all my books from the classes. I should reteach myself to the level of proficiency that I was before I decided to switch back to only German.

I better go now though. I have my friend, Karen, coming over to watch "Sex and the City" with me. Kyle's working so what's better than having a girls' night???

I've been busy this week!

I've been subbing 4 days this week and 3 of them for the same person. I'm currently an ELL teacher at an elementary school so I'm getting a taste for what it's like. Let's just say that I've never heard Burmese before now...I have these little boys that are from Burma and all they do is speak Burmese and bicker in Burmese all day. It's funny. This one little boy is so small! He's supposedly in 4th grade but he's only 3'9inches and he weighs about 40 lbs. The only reason I know that is because they're doing a book called "All About Me" and they have things such as "I live in a house/an apartment...I weigh this much and I'm this tall...." and so on. I'm formulating my opinion as to whether I'd want to teach ELL to elementary ages or not...I'd preferrably teach high school ELL but if elementary was my only choice, then I guess I would. It's hard though with that age. Their activity levels are so high and they're so young and immature that it's hard to work with them at times. I also have been working with 6th graders and well, any 6th grader can be hard to deal with no matter which country they're from! :) Anyway, they're starting to like me I think so today wasn't AS taxing as yesterday but it was still difficult because my first grade group was ALL about the fidgeting and fussing...I guess every group can't be perfect, right? The first graders aren't even all immigrants--they're just kids that need some extra language help because they're severely behind, I guess. It's been a good several days though. I'll take these days over a horrible day anytime!

My current weight: 168.2. I've lost about 25 pounds so far. I'm now in the my healthy weight range all though, I'd still like to lose a little more, I am feeling so much better about myself. I never thought I would say that I've lost 25 pounds ever in my life! I didn't even think it was possible. Altogether, it took me a little over a year to complete this and I still think I could lose about 5-10 more pounds so that I can feel even more comfortable in my skin. I feel wonderful as it is--just think if I can lose those extra 10 more how much more wonderful I would feel? At the weightwatchers place, they're doing this clothing swap thing where we can bring in clothes that we've shrunk out of and maybe somebody else would fit into them. I only brought 3 blouses because I've been steadily cleaning out our closet of things that I can't wear anymore simply because they're too boxy and loose or not flattering anymore. It was sad to let go of 2 of those blouses because I really liked them (the colors) but recently I've tried wearing them but had to just take them off and change into something else because they just ballooned out from my middle and no longer did their natural slimming trick that they are cut for. They just kinda made me look pregnant or something. Anyway, I'm sure I'll find even better things that fit me even better than those ever did! Walmart has some really cute stuff now. I was looking at some new sweaters they have and to think that before I wouldn't have even tried them because I think they're that kind of material that likes to cling a little bit but now whenever the time comes, I will be ready to try them on! Alright. There's an update. Hope you enjoyed.


:) :) :): ) :)

It hurts...

I stayed up way too late last night til about 2:30am...ouch. I was working on my paper and wanted to get about 99% of it done before the week started and I did! I'm on the 11th page out of 12. I'm sure that I need to either delete or add information to the paper so that is what I'm going to do today. I ended up keeping Kyle company for part of his late nite staying up. I just now woke up simply because I had to or else I would probably have trouble going to sleep tonight. Plus, I have a job for the rest of the week so that's why I decided to try and get the paper done last night and really finish it up today so that I could start reading the assigned articles for the next class that is starting this weekend too.


The cat is snoring...it's kind of weird to hear a cat breath that loud--it sounds like there's actually a person in here with me.

*well, I wanted to post a picture of the cat all passed out and snoring but for some reason I couldn't get the memory card to work. Maybe at a later time...also I wanted to show you what a HUGE pile of clean laundry Kyle had created just for us to fold! Isn't he so nice? I told him that's why I do one load at a time and fold it and then by the time I'm done with that load, the other load is done and so on....I don't know if he understands that or just doesn't care. I told him he's like the Sorcerer's helper or whatever that Mickey Mouse is in and when the broomsticks come to life and keep bringing in bucket after bucket until the room overflows--I even sing the song that goes with it as he's bringing in piles and piles of clothes from the dryer...I really will post a picture though as soon as I can get my card to work.

Sorry for not updating these past few days

I've been kind of busy sorta. After that bad day, I didn't go into any jobs the next day and instead just worked on classwork. Oh by the way, I have my huge rough draft due this next Saturday! No worries though because I've got a plan and it's low stress (or so I hope). There's been this huge scandal with the professor in that he changed the due dates of everything and made things due sooner (i.e. 12 page rough draft) and people are in a frenzy over that. When people get in a frenzy, rumors start flyin'. Anyway, we've got it all settled out and as far as I know, I'll be fine--as for the others, who knows? It's a good thing that I already had a pretty solid topic and most people didn't and that's why they're freaking out so much. They all had such vague topics because they really hadn't spent time thinking about it and trying to narrow it down. I think I impressed the professor at the first session when I showed him my outline.


I subbed today at Boise High. It was great. I had a really good day with the kids because they were all very courteous and polite to me. Get this: they treated me like an adult human being! What a concept, right? One thing I did notice though was that either dress code is very relaxed around here or people just don't seem to follow it. This girl couldn't have been wearing more than a foot of material to cover up her butt and her you know what. She couldn't even sit normally. hahaha. Back in Starr's Mill days, if we wore something that short, we'd have to either go home or have a parent bring us something else. Maybe none of her teachers say anything because they're afraid that if they say something, the girl will say something like, "Why are you looking?" and that causes a whole heck of a lot of trouble so that's probably why she can get away with it. Oh well. Teen girls will be teen girls. It was a good day though (if I haven't already said it before). It's funny that one day I'll have the absolute worst day and then I take a break and when I get back into it, it's like things do a total 180 and things are totally changed. It puts my faith back into students again. It's all about how they're raised at home. That's the key. Plus, Boise High is like the BEST high school in this area anyway so they better behave anyway. The kids that feed into that school are mostly high middle to upper class citizens, which doesn't have to mean that they've got class, it is just a factor in how the students will probably treat their teachers and anyone else. I had a couple of kids today help me get to the classroom that I was going to and they were so nice about it too. I was so appreciative!


Maybe I want to teach at Boise High eventually or whenever I get my master's. I'll have to see if they have many openings for ELL. There were too middle eastern students in one of the classes today and one of them had sort of a hard time with the math instructions and when he was trying to ask me what to do, he couldn't find the words as to how he needed help. So I know there is some need for that position. I really hope that I can find a job after going through all this schooling. In a bigger city, there'd be no problem but here it seems like the specialized teachers either die in their position or they already know who's going to take their place if for some rare reason they have to leave.


Not that this is a bad problem, but it's kind of annoying...I just bought some pants before school started and they're really nice and I love them! When I was buying them though, I tried on a 10 and a 12. The 10 was a little too tight for comfort--they fit but I would've felt self-conscious in them. Well, I tried on the 12 and they fit perfectly--almost too perfectly. I bought 'em and now not even a month into wearing them, they're too big and I have to keep pulling them up. IRRITATING! I mean, I love that I'm losing but when I have to keep buying clothes=spending money that we're kinda tight on right now, it's not the best thing right now. It's a tough predicament. BUT I will NOT gain the weight back just to fit into bigger pants--that's just ridikalus! (yes, I know I misspelled that word--it's for emphasis). I gotta have clothes that fit so both Kyle and I know that and so we make a little extra room for clothing purchases when the need arises. Plus, he's been playing golf, so there...buying clothes is my golf game. It's fair. :)

I'm angry and am feeling very used right now.

Today was not my day by any means! I had to sub as this elementary school and let's just say that I was used and wasn't treated like a human with a brain. I don't really want to get into it because it was a long horrible day with a head ELL teacher who didn't give a crap about me and who I was or that I had something in common with her by getting my Master's in ELL. She just said, "Oh?" And then continued looking at her email and made no other small talk. I was treated like a servant...go make 30 copies of each side of these 200 worksheets...WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!! My title for the day was supposed to be an ELL TUTOR! Tutors are supposed to TUTOR students. The only fun I had today was working with a tiny girl in second grade named Janet from Africa. She was the cutest thing ever! She'd never been in school before and therefore, she couldn't write her name. I played a game with her and what I did was, even though she might not have understood exactly what I said, I told her that I was going to write a letter and see if she could do it better. Every time she wrote the letter "perfect", I made a huge deal out of it and gave her a high five and a smile! She liked the high fives and she also loves the letter 't'. She kept writing 't's and giving me high fives every time she wrote one. hahaha. She also liked the letters 'j' and 'n'. She had a little difficulty with the 'a' and the 'e'. It was the highlight of my day working with her. I love her! This further cemented the fact that I want to be an ELL teacher (with a brain)!!!!

Putting myself in others' shoes

Today is a very serious day. Every year on 9/11, I can't go the day without thinking about what happened. I've suddenly realized that within the last year or so, I've noticed that I've been extremely sensitive to traumatic situations such as this day that happened 7 years ago. I don't quite know how to explain it but it just feels like I almost channel into what people are feeling that have actually experienced these horrible events, whether it be personal experience or they've lost family members due to those events. Even though I've not been personally involved, I just feel so bad and sad and troubled as to why people do the things they do...For a few examples: when that man went into the Amish school house and shot all those innocent children for NO REASON AT ALL!!! Except that he was angry with himself. I cried while the news reporters were recounting the horrific story. Also, today I shed some tears for the families that have to experience 9/11 every year now. A constant reminder of those terrible terrorists that felt it was their duty to God to do this and attack America. What God would want people to attack others in his name??? Doesn't sound like the God I know. Now, this is in no way condemning all people that belong to a particular religion...ALL religions have their fanatics. I'm just saying that how can some people allow themselves to become so brainwashed and so mindless??? It's sickness. Whatever happened to thinking for yourself? Whatever happened to that saying, "if everyone was jumping off a bridge, would you?" I guess that saying doesn't translate to all languages but I'm sure they have their equivalents. I'm trying hard not to sound insulting to other cultures/religions in this entry so please don't take it this way. I'm just in a very contemplative mood and it's probably just because of what today is--a very important date in our history. I remember what I was doing that day in year 2001. I had class that day and I was getting ready to go--I had just gotten out of the shower all fresh and clean and had gotten dressed. I got my things (notebook, bookbag, etc) and walked out of my dorm. Note: we didn't have a tv in our room so I was clueless as to what happened. I walked down the hall and as I was passing some of the girls' rooms, they stuck their heads out and were whispering to eachother (not so quietly) "do you think she knows?" I turned around and said, "What do I know?" That's when they took me into their room and showed me their tv and then told me that school had been shut down for the day due to the events of the morning. It was unreal. It was like a movie--a really bad movie. One that just makes you stare in disbelief. Terror in people's faces--not a smile on anyone's face...no good news anywhere. Myers Hall their tv in the common area on and students would come and go and some would pause to watch and others would just walk past. It got to the point that the news kept playing the footage so much that it was making people become numb and frustrated because of the repetition. The campus had an eerily quiet feel to it. A friend of mine was from NY and her dad was in the fire department--her eyes were bloodshot for a week. Luckily, she finally found out that her dad was okay and I think she said that he didn't have to go report to the site. Ugh...my heart breaks for everyone out there that has been affected by this.

I'll never forget...9/11/2001: "The day our world was broken."

Explosive birthday!

Today was Kyle's birthday but last night we decided to bake cookies for his birthday treat. He actually baked them. They were SOOOOOO GOOOOOD!! Mmm...too good. Anyway, we had this bottle of sparkling wine that we had had for a while ever since we went to Napa Valley in CA. We decided to have some and see how it tasted. I carefully unscrewed the little wire top and then it was time to remove the cork. Yes, you probably already know what happened. I pulled it out slowly and it popped open and liquid EXPLODED EVERYWHERE!!! Let's just say that it took care of about half the bottle contents. I was just hoping Tiger wouldn't get the notion to come over and start licking...we'd have one little drunk kitty on our hands! haha... This is kind of embarrassing to say but Kyle said that it reminded him of one of those Cialis/Levitra/Viagra commercials where "interruptions" happen...hahahaha..

SO EARLY!!!

I couldn't go to sleep last night because I kept anticipating being woke up by the subfinder and now here I am awake and it's NOT due to the stupid subfinder...I've been waking up at around 5:30ish every morning just in case it calls or somebody calls needing a sub and so I won't be rudely awakened. So far, no calls. I'll probably be going back to bed soon. I only realized earlier this morning that I might not get many calls this week because Friday is an in-service day so there's only 4 days this week to get through. I really hope that this picks up really soon or else I may have to enlist in the Meridian sub army. I'm already thinking that I might do it anyway and just work at the elementary school that's across the way from our house and at Centennial High because I really liked working there (especially the ESL classroom). Plus, I'd like to get reintroduced at Centennial just in case they have another ESL position open up at a later date (aka in the year 2010, or so).


I definitely have a sub job on Monday of next week so maybe that's the sign that things are gonna pick up and get busy. And I also probably have a job for the following Monday because of somebody at Garfield having Jury duty but she said that she would call me for sure the week(end) before.


I'm currently working on getting one of Kyle's coworkers, Lan, to do the ELL interview with me. I called her yesterday but nobody answered because her phone was off...I left a message with her voicemail and hopefully she'll call me back soon. I want to get this thing done so I can get stuff checked off my assignment list that are the easier things to do so I can really just focus on the paper. I have a little time though but the interview, as well as the full length rough draft of the paper, are due on October 10th. A little time, but no procrastinating here. It's just too much to put off and I learned my lesson really well from middle school--ahem, Georgia history project notebook--thanks again, Mom and Dad!! :) It definitely made a huge impression on me and from then on, I NEVER put big projects off if I can help it because it just gets me in trouble and I can't work under that much stress!


Alright...no calls, yet. Going back to bed.

Adventures in the BSU library!

I went to the BSU library today to get my research started and find some books that will help me with my paper. I felt a little lost but I soon found my way. I ended up finding about 9 books to bring home with me. Finding books for research is a bit challenging because you first have to determine if it's a book that could be relevant by looking at the contents. If the contents have nothing in them, then you put it by the wayside but if it does say something pertaining to your topic, you have to make sure it actually has more than one sentence about what you want to talk about. WHEW! Tedious! Anyway, I checked out the books and since I'm a grad student, I get to keep these books for 6 WEEKS! I feel so special.


I just ran today for an hour nonstop! It kinda hurts but I feel good.

First session done

I just got done with my first 2 meetings of one of my master's classes.  It was great!  I'm excited to do this work!  It's a lot but I don't think it'll be too bad.  I'm gonna try and knock out most of the stuff this week if I can and then do a lot next week.  The assignments I have to do (and their due dates) are:

September 26: Chapter 8 (from Imagining Multilingual Schools) summary presentation with a partner.

October 10th: 5 page Interview with a new language learner and first full rough draft of 12 page paper 

November 8th: Final draft of paper and Journal entry compilation (I think)

Anyway, I know you probably didn't want to see all of that but it at least gets it into my head.  The class is pretty relaxed.  The only thing was that a lot of the people in there seemed to talk a lot for not saying anything at all.  You know those kind of people?  They use all this elevated language to explain who knows what.  One guy in particular kept saying things and half way through his speech, we (or I, at least) would be totally lost in what he was trying to say.  Oh well, maybe that's what Master's classes are all about...

Not kidding

I have these black velour exercise pants and light jacket that I bought for last Halloween to be a kitty and I'm not kidding, they were pretty tight and actually, I started feeling a little self-conscious in them after awhile because I felt like even in black, they weren't flattering me...well, I tried them on recently and they literally are LOOSE on me! The only place it hugs me is around the waist, which is good because when I run, it means they won't fall off of me like some of my other pants feel like they're gonna do any minute. It's a good feeling I must say. Alright, I gotta go try this first night without Kyle thing. I'm pretty tired from the day so maybe it won't be so hard to fall asleep this time. Loves!

A funny video that I wanted to share

This video is a bit older but I was going through Facebook and found this video of the baby that belongs to the girl (Micki) that used to live across the street from Mom and Dad. The baby's name is ...Peyton, I believe. I forgot already. Anyway, this was way back when she was still an infant. Turn on your speakers and listen--it's so pitiful it's funny. Elmo's gone and scarred the girl for life.

Just a random picture

Just felt like putting a picture of myself. That's what I look like after subbing at a high school. HA! I managed to sweat my makeup off in the first period because I was a bit out of my element in an accelerated mathematical analysis class...with a student who didn't understand what they were doing...who spoke another language--there's my first ESL experience! :) I really tried to help him but when my math skills are a bit rusty, all I could really do was help explain what the terminology meant. It was all stuff I remember doing and if I remember correctly, I used to be good at it but the last time I did all that stuff was like....at least 4 years ago.

Oh, by the way, there's my new haircolor and new curls that I do most of the time when I feel like it.

Another four months

Kyle switches to night shift this week. He goes back to work tomorrow night so he's going to try and stay awake tonight to get prepared. I hate night shift because it always takes me a couple of nights or maybe even a full week to get used to him not being here at night and of course, I hear every noise and I check the doors several times to make sure they're locked. I also lock our bedroom door occasionally if I'm feeling extra uneasy. But before long, I get used to having the whole bed to myself and that can get pretty comfy! He has to push me over sometimes when he gets home to go to sleep. I also have to get used to having some kind of meal planned and ready before he leaves for work, which sometimes can get pretty early in the evening. When he sleeps all day, he usually wakes up around 4:30pm and sometimes he'll get a shower first but then sometimes he'll want to eat. Looks like I'll be pre-making a lot of meals (i.e. crockpotting and night before cooking--that makes for a long day for me if I have to make 2 meals at once!). I do it to support him though. :) What kind of wife would I be if I didn't feed my husband? ;) Or sometimes I just say, "fix a sandwich or a pita pizza!" hehehe. Ugh, tomorrow I must get up really early to go sub at the high school...I must go to sleep soon. Night!

Starting to pick up

I'm going to be subbing tomorrow for a CALCULUS class! YIKES! Those kids better not ask my any questions about the material...and they for sure as heck better NOT ask me to listen to IPODS!!! AHHH! I will scream (in my head) if they ask me that question. I'm subbing at the high school that I so loathed last fall. Well, it was only one class but still....


I've got a half day job on Thursday for a friend of mine (first grade). First graders are so adorable! I think they're even cuter than kindergarteners, actually. These kids know me though from spring and so it'll probably be pretty easy. :) Anyway, I had another teacher at Garfield ask me to sub later on in the month and another one requested me in the system instead of calling me so it looks like Garfield might be my major source of work! cool.


First day of master's class on Friday and my outline is DONE and DONE! Be proud. It better be right though. :)

It's that time of season

We actually had to turn our heat on a little bit today because the high today is 65 degrees...brrr! It's great! I love season changes!


Sidenote: I've pretty much figured out what I want to write about for my 12 page paper...I'm going to write about Bilingual education programs, the different types and the pros and cons of those different programs. I'll fine tune a title later on...I've got some ideas but I want a title that really says what the paper is about.