Growling and hissing

We performed an experiment today and Tiger and Karen's cat, Shadow were the subjects. I had this great idea of trying to see if the two cats would get along so that when we left on our GA trip, we could leave Tiger with Karen and save over $100. Well, we packed him up in his pet taxi (which he's almost outgrown) and made our way to Karen's house. We got there and at first, I didn't let Tiger out of the cage. Shadow saw that we had a visitor. She wasn't so sure about it and she hesitated coming over to us. I finally opened the cage for Tiger to come out and that's when the fireworks started. There was growling and hissing and tensed up cat bodies. Tiger started walking around but I was scared that wouldn't go too well because I knew the other cat would want to defend her own territory. He went into their laundry room where the litter box was and I knew it was probably time for him to use it. He had been in the car for a long while and I didn't know for sure if he had to go or not. He first checked out behind the dryer but I pulled him out of that and guided him to the litter box. He seemed interested. He took a sniff or two and perched himself on the lip of the box and then let out a hiss as if he thought somebody had been using HIS box. He got in finally and actually went number 1 for a long time. Man, was I glad he went in there instead of in the pet taxi and in the car. He got out and Shadow saw that he had been in there and was headed towards the laundry room to probably try and rip him a new one. I quickly saw what was coming and before she could come in there with him, I pushed the laundry room door closed to a crack. Shadow wanted in of course and she was not going to stop at anything. That is the strongest little cat I've EVER seen! She was pushing herself against the door and I was actually having to keep some force against the door because she was really pushing!! I decided she wasn't gonna stop so I grabbed Tiger up in my arms so he'd be protected because she has front claws and of course, Tiger doesn't. I just got too stressed that they were going to have this huge cat fight, so I put Tiger back in his cage. Pretty soon, Tiger started hissing and growling whenever Shadow came within his line of vision. They both were hissing and growling before long and it was like they were having a conversation between each other because the growling would alternate. Finally Shadow had enough and went into another room. I decided it was time to take Tiger home because it just wasn't working. I was happy that we had at least tried this to see how it would work instead of only dropping Tiger off at Karen's place and then leaving. I'm sure she appreciated it too. It could've been a disasterous 2 weeks! Needless to say, we're leaving Tiger at the boarding place where he'll be in his own cage, with his own litter box and food. He won't have to share anything. haha!

Our goodies

Yesterday for Christmas we each got a good amount of goodies from each other and from the Campbell side of the family.

Kyle got:
GT sweatshirt
A self-help book
Golf stuff
Tropic Thunder movie
2 sweaters from Kohls
chocolate treats
fancy hair stuff

Jen got:
2 types of perfumes (body sprays--Sugarsnap from Gap and Simply Cotton from MaryKay)
The Host (book by my favorite author, Stephenie Meyer)
Dancing with the Stars exercise DVD
Georgia long sleeve tshirt
Georgia plaid pajama pants
chocolate treat
hair stuff
hot chocolate box that was already opened because we had it in our pantry....here's the story: Christmas Eve morning, we opened gifts from each other and after we had opened most of them, there was still one more for me from him and he said that I had to wait til Christmas morn to open it. He had written on the gift paper: For a steamy, hot Christmas morning and so I had no clue what that meant. He said it was something special but he also said that I shouldn't get too excited either because it's not anything REALLY special and expensive..just something small. I didn't know anything about this gift. The others I had a few guesses as to what they were but this one was mysterious. Christmas morning came and we continued opening the other presents. I saved the mysterious one for last. I opened it finally and here's what it ended up being: an open box of hot chocolate. For a "steamy, hot Christmas morning"...get it?


We had a good Christmas Day though. It was relaxing and I just sat on the couch and did NOTHING. I went to my friend, Karen's house later that night and played some Guitar Hero game (which I really can't play at all) and played some Dance, Dance Revolution. We then watched the movie, "Mamma Mia!" which isn't that great but I think it's because it was soooooo hyped up the whole time as it was out in the theaters and I got so tired of hearing, "MAMMA MIA! HERE I GO AGAIN!!!" Karen loves the movie though so I guess that's what counts, right?

Up too late

I'm up too late tonight. I got back home from Arjun and Prithvi's at about 12:45am. It was fun. I ate green curry and it was delicious! We visited a lot and it's so nice to talk to them because they can talk about anything! Prithvi was showing me some Bollywood videos and then showed me some Bollywood dance moves...I want to learn more! :)


I guess I better get to bed though. It's about 2am mountain time...yikes! Our house is sorta a mess and I've been trying to clean it gradually but it just keeps building up...ahh! help!

Merry Christmas

I just made the best Christmas Eve dinner! We had a ham that Micron had given all their employees for the holidays--it wasn't as good as the spiral-sliced ham we usually have but good enough. Luckily I still had some of the brown sugar glaze left over from Thanksgiving. We also had some broccoli, sweet potato souffle (actually, it was the recipe for praline yams but I put some small marshmallows on top to make it our own) and I made a to die for cheesecake...pb chips and chocolate chips...mmmmmm. SO RICH! We could only eat a very small sliver because of the richness. I made Arjun and Prithvi one but added white chocolate chips and put theirs in an oreo cookie crust. It's insane!! I'm going over to their place tonight. Prithvi had at first cancelled our little get together but then she called me and said that tonight she wanted to observe Christmas Eve and not work...haha! Hilarious! :)


In case I don't write tomorrow, I wish ya'll a very Merry Christmas!! I love ya'll and miss ya'll so much! It's a bit hard to face tonight and part of tomorrow alone but it's great to know that I have friends here that want to spend time with me and family at home that love us and we love them. I got a little emotional after I hung up with Mom and Dad this afternoon but I'm okay now. I just have to know that we'll be home by next Tuesday (hopefully assuming that the weather behaves)! We're so excited!

Ski day

We went skiing today--here's a synopsis of the day:
1.) It was really cold in the morning due to cold, cold wind!
2.) We slipped and slid all the way up the mountain to the resort in our car.
3.) The slopes weren't very well groomed yet because of a sudden downpour of snow within the past couple days leaving lots of bumps and lumps and snow chunks for us to fly over and hope that we don't break bones or our heads.
4.) I fell twice because of this really loose snow and both times, I landed with my head pointed down the incline and lying upside down on my back with my legs bent in ways they shouldn't be--the second time, I hit my head on the ground but luckily for the soft snow, it only hurt a little bit.
5.) Kyle fell down once on a slope called the Lazy Mary
6.) I learned I have awesome strength in my legs because Kyle and James said that only someone with really strong legs and power could keep a wedge shape that long on those steep inclines we encountered throughout the day. None of them would've been able to go that slow down the slopes unless they had my sort of power. Kyle said that he watched me come down one and he said I was so slow and deliberate with my wedge that it amazed him...even though I was slow. I didn't want to fall again though. It's scary to fall on skis, especially when it's not that easy to fall on them and when you're going down a really steep mountainside and can see mountains in the distance and the edge is near....There was one point that my skis kinda got stuck in a huge lump bump of snow and it kinda made me just stick there. I couldn't move out of it because I was little paralyzed by fear of seeing so far ahead in the distance and how high we were and where I had to get down to. *shiver* It's just something you can't think too much about.
7.) We're all a little sore...I tried stretching before we started and I think I might be in less pain than the other 2 but I still feel pretty worked out.
8.) We went out for pizza with James and his wife, Liz...pizza was very good, service was bad.


Oh well, it's time for me to go soak in warm water...either that, or I'll take a nice hot shower to relax the muscles. Night!

Because Kyle made me do it....

I had a random idea tonight and it turned out kinda stupid but that's okay. In Body Jam dance class, we always are learning new routines and stuff and sometimes the routines are easily remembered and so I wanted to see just how ridonkulus I looked while dancing in class (of course, in class everybody's a lot more enthusiastic and has a lot more energy). Here's the evidence. Kyle was my videographer. This is what happens on a cold and snowy night with nothing to do...

It's a blowy, snowy day and Tiger's worried!

It's been blowing snow all day and we wanted ya'll to see what's happening outside here in Idaho! It was a late start to the snow but finally it hit us. We're going skiing tomorrow all day.

Made it!

I made it through the week! Hooray! The best part of today was that the kid that called me out and gave me attitude was not at school...that definitely made the day better! :) I gave the students all candycanes and chocolate candies. They appreciated it very much and one girl actually asked, "Are these from you?? Subs never give us anything!" Yeah, I guess I didn't really have to do this but I felt like I wanted to thank the students for behaving and cooperating with me this week, however difficult it might've been. A lot of them actually wondered if I was coming back after the break and wanted me to. They had frowns on their faces when I told them that I wasn't sure if I was. The teacher is wanting to take leave and so the principal had asked me if I could come back after the break but seeing as though we'll be in GA til about the 13th, I won't be officially back in town and ready to work until the 15th (accounting for the possible delays we may face on the 13th). Anyway, the principal said they appreciated all my hard work with the students and really wanted me back but wanted to keep subs consistent for the students. There's still a chance that the regular teacher will come back either that or they'll find another sub that they have names for who speak German or if all else fails, they'll get an interim sub until I get back. We'll see. The point is, they were happy with me and that makes me look really good in their eyes should a possible position come available! :) :)

Halfway through!

Today didn't go as well as I would've liked. I had a kid pull an attitude on me in front of some students, accusing me of being "unfair". Nobody else voiced that same sentiment so I assumed he was just being a little turd. It's kind of a long story but...I guess I'll tell it anyway:

This particular class, 5th period, turned out to be one of those classes that you think to yourself, "Oh crap...it's 5th period." They don't do much and when I tried playing games with them, they just seemed to not be interested. Apparently though, this kid wanted to play a game called "Silent Ball", which is the game that I allowed 6th period to play on Monday and the word spread, I guess. I didn't let 5th period do it because I had a feeling about this class that they wouldn't be able to handle the game in a mature manner (not throwing the stuffed object so hard that it hurts someone). Well, after this dork threw a fit at me today before class, I decided I'd test the waters and see if they actually could handle it. I tossed him the beanbag fish and he got ahold of it and guess what he did? He wound up his arm to get ready to throw it and threw it as hard as he could at the person next to him. AS SUSPECTED....I took the fish and asked if anybody ELSE wanted to play and they just stared at me blankly and nobody answered. I put the fish back in the file cabinet and said that's why we're not playing the game--nobody ever wants to play games! And when they do, they take it way out of hand! UGH! So when the closing bell rang, they all left and this girl that was in the class was across the hall and started saying something like, "O my gosh...German was so boring! All we did was watch Shrek(in German) and then just sat there and did nothing!" What the...??? It's their own ____ fault!!!!!


Okay, I'm done. I'm done with them. This is why I'm nervous to take extended term sub positions, with high schoolers anyway. A week is all I can mentally take. The good news is that I'm gonna take all the students candy canes and other various holiday candy goodies on Friday and they're allowed to bring a board game from home to share in class. It's early release, so each class is about 40 minutes long. Long enough. Lunch isn't even being served. We're getting out at 12:10 and I'm outta there! Don't get me wrong, I loved meeting most of the students in this lady's class and wouldn't mind subbing again for her but next time, I hope she provides a little more material and substance for the classes to get through so that we don't have these types of conflicts again. I hate feeling like this towards students. I want to like them all but unfortunately, I guess that's not the case--there's always gonna be at least one class that tests you a little more.

Day 1 down, 4 more to go...

Today wasn't painful at all. It actually was quite enjoyable! The kids were very respectful and cooperative with me. Maybe it's because it was only the first day? We'll see...


One class was very grateful that I knew German. One girl said that the other subs just told them to say German words to each other. What the heck does that mean? HA! Anyway, then the other half of the class was like, "Oh CRAP! You know German?!? OH NO!!" Like they thought I was gonna do something to them or whatever. They had a project apparently that they were supposed to turn in this week and they kept asking me if it was due this week. I told them that they were allowed to just wait til after break (that's what the German teacher said). They seemed relieved and were very thankful for me. It made me feel good that they were so happy with me. I'll definitely want to sub in that class again! I almost had a trainwreck though in the last 2 periods of the day because I left one of the necessary teacher books at home. SHEEZ! So, I about didn't have enough to keep the class busy on German stuff and then there was a video that I found that the teacher had been showing them before and they complained a little but not too bad. I just turned it on just for the sake of having some German language flow into their heads whether they really listened or not. Eventually they'd hear it in their minds and maybe start dreaming in the language like I did (of course, I don't think that really happened to me until I was in college and was expected to write papers and constantly speak in German during class). I had good intentions anyway. So, all in all, everything went great!! Nothing to worry about.........yet. :)

First real snow of the year

I woke up this morning to a blowy, snowy winter morning. I took the opportunity and snapped a picture to let you know that yes, we do have snow, finally! :) Oh and no headaches this morning, thankfully and I've completed my planning for Monday. Hopefully it all works out or better yet, maybe we'll have a snow day?! HA! Wishful thinking. I really can't plan for Tuesday just yet because I don't know how well this Monday will go or how far we'll get. At any rate, I'm being optimistic that tomorrow will go well.

Whoa...it's been a long time

I just had a nice-sized glass of wine tonight and it's been a long time since I've had wine. So, it's affecting me...I feel at ease. Almost too at ease. Anyway, I figured that this would be the perfect time to plan for my 5 day sub job that I just acquired yesterday. It's a German job with one class of ELL. How perfectly planned by that school is that to call me? Unfortunately, the teacher that I'm subbing for left no lesson plan at all. Now I'm planning for at least Monday so I don't go in after the weekend totally unprepared. The wine is helping me at least be a little more relaxed while making the plans instead of stressed like I was yesterday. Mom and Dad can attest to that since I called them almost hysterical because of the French teacher that was there trying to brief me on what I should do with the kids. I don't know if you all know what French teachers are like, but this one in particular was what I would like to call the quintessential French teacher--all cracked out and high on marijuana....hahhahahaahha...She seriously was stressing me out the more she talked. The only good thing that she did for me was to locate some of the lesson materials but then some of the materials weren't fully explained as to what the kids had already done. I guess I'm just gonna wing it a little with some planning on Monday and find out from the kids what they've already done. Thanks again, Dad and Mom for being there when I needed to talk. I love you two so much! Thanks for the advice.


Okay, back to planning...

Why is it that...?

The people who like to incessantly pop and crack their gum with every flex of their jaw always find me and sit real close to me? That just infuriates me!!! I went to my Weightwatchers meeting tonight--not my usual time anyway--and I sat in my normal area that I usually sit and without fail, someone comes in and is chewing gum. She cracks it between her jaws constantly--kinda sounds the same as someone crunching on bones or whatever. EWWWW!!! She sat RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!!!!! Never did the 30 minutes of that meeting ever last so long....I wanted to get up and move but I figured she'd feel like I was irritated or offended by her...go figure. :) Anyway, I only had to write this to get it out of my system. Thanks for listening.

Finished!

I finally finished my paper! It's probably not that good because I'm a bit fried from the last research paper but oh well...I'm done! for this semester anyway.

At it again

I've started knitting again. My hobbies tend to cycle. Now that I'm done reading for now..until Midnight Sun comes out...I've picked up the looms again and experimented with making a hat for myself--it turned out pretty good! The only thing is, I can't really wear it now because it looks a little silly with my short hair. I guess I'm gonna have to grow my hair out some in order to wear winter hats again. I've been thinking about growing my hair out again anyway. I like my hair short and it's really easy to take care of but I guess I gotta get some variety in there somewhere. Kyle suggested it also even thought it was in my thoughts before he mentioned it so just him saying something kind of cemented it for now. :) Don't know how long I'll let it go though. It's kind of annoying to let it grow from this short because it's got to grow through the growing pains. I've had many compliments from students at the schools saying they either liked my hair when it was slightly longer the last time before I cut it shorter and then some others say they liked it after I had just cut it. Decisions, decisions!


Okay, gotta go put my Christmas lights on and work some more on my last paper of the semester! Woo-hoo!

Getting out as fast as I can

It's official...I have now signed up for 4 classes next semester! It's gonna be a huge chunk of change but it's definitely worth it to get out of this master's program quickly!!! I'm not happy with it really because as I said in the earlier post, we're not learning new stuff. I wanna hear more than just politics. If I'd wanted to hear political talk and complaining, then I would've been a political science major or something in that field and since I didn't do that, I don't want be drowned in it for pete's sake! Anyway, that's the deal.


About those pictures I wanted Kyle and me to take at Walmart....yeah, it looks like it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Kyle never flips back to days now so it's hard to go to the photo place when it's convenient for both of us. Kind of annoying but oh well. We'll do them eventually. You just probably won't get one in your Christmas cards--sorry to dissappoint! Speaking of Christmas cards, I have to lug my booty to the post office and get a book of stamps. The last thing I want to do is go somewhere else after being out at a school all day, dealing with children. I just want to go home and sit and veg out for a few hours before I lug myself out to the gym.


It snowed today. Finally. But it's melted now, however, the mountains still have a nice thin coating. It's coooooold!! It's that biting cold that just won't go away no matter how much you bundle up! brrrrr!

My classes are causing conflicts

Sometimes I wonder if my master's classes are worth it. I've pretty much figured out that I am pretty much in this program only for the certificate. Anytime I try to discuss these issues that we talk about in this class with other people outside the class, it seems like it just comes to a dead end and feelings end up getting hurt. There are too many huge problems in this world for one group of ESL master's class to change at once. Ugh. I'm getting tired of the whining that some do about life in this country in general. I know it's not a perfect world by any means, nor is it a perfect country, but other countries have their own problems and if you're not happy where you are, you can always get out. Doesn't matter where you are, just get out if you're not happy or not going to just live with it or don't have the guts to change what you don't like. I guess I'm saying that basically I'm not really learning "methods" to use in the ESL classroom or curriculum that is currently being used in the ESL classrooms. The classes so far have just been a bunch of (excuse the french) bitching and moaning about what injustices have been happening in the world of education and all over the place in this country. In my foreign language methods class, we actually LEARNED different types of lessons and how we could teach a foreign language! What a concept! It's sad to say that I learned MORE in my UNDERGRAD classes than in my GRADUATE classes!! What a crock! This is why I'm just jumping through hoops until I can just get my master's degree and then get the heck out!! Criminey!

What a day!

It was a good one but long! I subbed for a sixth grade teacher that I usually sub for and it was a really good day. The only bad thing was that I had class tonight and we actually stayed there til about 9:30pm--the longest we've stayed all semester! We had to watch this stupid, way too long movie called "King Corn". What did this have to do with ESL methods? I have no idea!!!! Pointless and I'm too tired to explain what it was about. Maybe I'll explain later...

Lazy lady

I've been one lazy lady lately. I haven't updated in about a week--sorry! I guess just not much has been going on. We put up our Christmas tree the other night and decorated it. I attempted to make sugar cookies and guess how well that turned out? I even made them from "real" ingredients the way Kyle wanted them but they ended up SO crumbly and too easily breakable. They still tasted good though. They were RICH! HOOO---WEEEE! You had to drink either milk or water to cut the richness. Oh well. Then we had hot chocolate. So, it was a special, fun night. :)


Didn't have a sub job for today. I still have a c0uple of assignments to do for my last class meeting this weekend. The long break that we had right before Thanksgiving until now totally made me switch into vacation mood so I'm certainly not excited to do these assignments. I did write one of them this afternoon though so I'm half-way done. Just gotta type it up and put some sort of creative, artistic flare to it because it's about fall leaves. You ask, what do fall leaves have to do with ESL? Well, here you go--I'll tell you what one of the professors wanted...The concept is called Nepantla or Nepantlando. This word is from the Aztec language, Nahuatl. It basically means "being lost or losing identity" or something along the lines of that. I can better explain it by my personal experience of moving across the country--when we first moved here and got settled (or somewhat settled, anyway) our first visit back to GA was weird. We had lived there our entire lives and it was so familiar then but when we went back to GA after having been in a different state for a few months, our homes were familiar yet not. When we came back to Idaho, it was the same way except more unfamiliar than familiar because we don't have any family ties here so we have to develop our own identities here in Idaho and start from scratch. I hope this makes sense. It's kind of an abstract concept. Anyway, I have to describe this nepantlando concept in terms of a leaf. Basically, I'm saying that there's this little leaf who grows up in the Spring and Summer and is proud of who he is and how uniquely colored he is but then the first Fall comes and he notices his friends are changing and no longer have their unique coloring. They soon fall from the mother tree and become mixed up in the oblivion of Fall leaves. This little leaf determines to not lose his unique coloring and he remains holding onto his mother tree. Finally the force of the wind is too strong and the cold is too bitter, he loses his pretty coloring and drops from his mother tree to the crowd of already-fallen leaves in order to be swallowed up into non-identity. They just lie there on the ground waiting for the big rake to come group them into one big bag to be thrown out and to never be seen again or be identified with this one particular, unique tree species because according to the humans, they're all just leaves---nothing special. Now, this assignment was supposed to be written in another language. Well, I haven't written stories in German in over a year or so! I feel like I can't express myself as clearly with that language anymore. Plus, I'm thinking, what are they gonna do if I don't write in another language? What are the people in my class that don't speak another language gonna do? They can't just pull a language out of their rears and write in it! Those translator websites aren't that good anyway because they sometimes don't give you the correct word or usage that you want. Anyway, I think I'll just leave it the way it is....in English. I feel more comfortable doing that. I don't want to slaughter the German grammar and structures. :) I could just try to write it in German but if it doesn't work out, then I'll just leave it as is.

The other assignment is just a reflection paper but we don't know how long it's supposed to be because nobody in that whole, dang department can't speak clearly for some reason or tell us what they really want. They have this hangup about telling us what to do...well, newsflash! Ya'll are a bunch of PROFESSORS WITH DOCTORATES!!!! Please tell us what you want!!!!