Yay!

I'm really excited that I found a shower curtain that was exactly what I wanted...and it was only $7!!!!! I bought it at Ross. I love that store! I almost bought a comforter (one more to add to the collection) that had palm trees all over it but I figured that'd be overkill. It was pretty though and it was that shiny/satin-y look. But alas, I did not. I think I wanna go more of a linen look...cream or white to add to that fresh, tropical feel.

A really good recipe that ya'll must try!

It's called "Hot Lips Chicken":

1 (13.5 oz) bag tortilla chips
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 yellow, red and orange bell pepper chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 oz) can mild or hot enchilada sauce (whichever spice level you like..we used traditional and it was nice--not very spicy at all, so I guess it's mild).
3/4 c. water
2 cups Mexican style cheese shredded

*You might want to sautee the veggies (minus tomatoes, of course, because the peppers and onions are still crunchy after baking...unless you like that crunchy texture--which I liked personally but Kyle wasn't crazy about the crunchiness. I think it adds an extra unique feeling to the dish).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spread crushed chips on bottom of 9x13 in baking dish to form crust. Layer shredded chicken on top of chips. In a small bowl, mix peppers, onion and tomatoes and spread on chicken. In separate bowl, mix together enchilada sauce, soups and water. Pour over all and top with cheese.

Bake 25 minutes or until cheese is brown and bubbly. It's DELICIOUS!! We love it!

Kitty cuddlin'

I love my Tiger kitty and he loves me. That's all that matters. Only a kitty that loved me would let me smother him like that. :)

It's a little late but here ya go...(Valentine's pictures)

Kyle is wearing his new Cashmere sweater!

We went to Macaroni Grill! Tasty, but too rich for me...we had a good time though!

Headache central

I'm suffering from a headache right now after taking a nice, long nap. I think I might be coming down with something like a head cold. I think those are going around right now and I've been in a few schools lately. I need to fight it early so that it's not fullblown.


This week I did something I've never really done before. I made a huge salad at the start of the week (romaine lettuce, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, cherry tomatoes and carrots) and put it in the fridge and everyday for lunch, I just served up a nice-sized bowl of it and put just about a tablespoon or so of dressing on it and ate it...nothing else for lunch unless it was an orange. I haven't been getting enough fresh veggies lately and decided that would make me feel healthier than I have been in the past week or so. Last week's weigh-in was not good at all. The previous week, I had done excellent and lost 3.6 and then this past weekend, I gained all but 0.4lbs back of those that I lost. Why is my weight so volatile????? I've already asked this in a previous post but it just boggles my mind! One minute, I'm feeling the most slender I've been in....well, ever and then the next moment, I'm standing on the scale seeing that my weight has just skyrocketed. I'm lifetime now so that means that I don't have to weigh-in everytime I come in...we only are required to weigh-in once a month, but I like to weigh-in like regular because I'm still trying to lose a few more (10-15) pounds and plus, it keeps me honest so that I keep working at it and don't just let it all go the week before my required weigh-in. It's not going so easily, though. So, in addition to this jumbo salad bowl in my fridge (which I just finished today and had the throw the rest away because it was getting frozen leaves of lettuce in it--ew) I've been chuggin' the water too. Why do I have to have cravings? Why can't I be one who doesn't have a food problem at all? Kyle's been eating junk at work and does he gain weight? Noooooo....but I do recognize that just because he's skinny, doesn't mean he's healthy. I'm probably healthier than him in that respect. He tells me he's buying hamburgers OUT OF THE VENDING MACHINE!!! EEWWW!!! Not only is that probably not the best thing to eat because of a bajillion calories and fat, but come on, a hamburger out of a vending machine?????? Gross! I've been telling him he needs to not do that because I'm starting to get worried about the frequency at which he does it. Geez.


So, tonight I'm gonna do the 2 gym class thingy that I try to do every once in awhile and see if that doesn't make me feel better. We'll see. :)

Heaven on Earth...in the form of a pancake

I fixed breakfast this morning and decided to make pancakes. Well, we usually put fruit in them but this morning we didn't have any small berries, just whole strawberries and I figured those would make the pancake so it wouldn't cook as easily all the way through. As I was thinking about what to put in the pancakes, I suddenly thought of what I had in my baking stash in the pantry. I had some Reese's peanut butter chips and I had just a few of them left. So, I poured them into the batter. Oh My GOOOOOODNESSSS!!! The BEST tasting things I've EVER eaten!! Now, don't worry...I only ate 1 that had the chips in it. I had already made 2 plain ones before I thought to put those in the batter. So, I ate the 2 plain ones too. It couldn't have been that unhealthy, right? Mmmm...it was so worth it. :) On Valentine's Day (night) we went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner. I ate my salad and drank my "leaning bellini" (which by the end of the night, I felt like I was leaning) and then my food came out. I had ordered a 4-cheese ravioli. I took one bite of it and decided that it wasn't good...WAY too rich for me. I ate a few more bites because I felt like I should eat a little more but it didn't go down very easily. Just goes to show that we don't do rich foods like that at all and my body/mouth/stomach was resisting it...even though it was technically my "free" day. I took the rest home as leftovers and am letting Kyle eat them instead.



*I'm procrastinating on my class reading assignments by dusting surfaces in the house. You know I must be desperate to not read anymore if I'm DUSTING.*

It wasn't fair the way he treated those kids...

The past 2 Tuesdays I've been volunteering at an evening childcare program for families who are taking English classes. The description of the program was that the kids would do homework, art projects, snack and get some playtime. So far, I haven't seen the homework aspect. The "art" projects have been crappy and boring. The only things that have been consistent with the description are the playtime and snack. One thing that really angered me this week was how the teacher disciplined one of the girls. Okay, so the situation went like this: Aysel (girl) and Dejan (we call him Dan) were sorta bickering back and forth and playfully calling each other names like most kids do. I was sitting at the their table and was witnessing this. The lead teacher calls Aysel out and tells her finally to move to another table, which by the time he did that, she wasn't even doing anything. We only had 2 tubs of markers and she didn't have any markers at her table so naturally, she had to get up and come back to our table to get some. EACH TIME she had to do that, the leader kept yelling her name telling her to sit back down. I was irritated! She would sit back down at her table without really protesting and then if she needed another marker, then of course, she had to come back over quickly. You guessed it, he'd say her name again and tell her to sit down. She stayed near me and was talking to me and minding her own business when all of the sudden, he says, "AYSEL! GO TO THE CORNER!!" My frustration and irritation raged inside of me because she wasn't doing a damn thing!! (sorry for the language, I was doing that for emphasis). She was being so good and not even talking to Dejan and he made her go sit for like 5-10 minutes in the corner. What sense does that make?

The art project was lame too. I know V-day is coming up on Saturday and he wanted to have them make Valentines for whomever but it was sooooooooo laaaaaaaammmme. I was even bored and I knew some of the other kids were bored too just by hearing what one girl said: "Are you kidding me?? We have to sit here for that long? I have spelling I need to study at home!" See? This kids either need real homework time or a meaningful, short lesson/activity to keep them occupied. Not some lame heart sheet to color in. I didn't mention that this lead teacher is a Geometry/Physics teacher in high school...Well, in case you're asking why I didn't say anything, I just don't feel like I have any right to usurp his authority. I know how that feels and I don't want any hard feelings but I don't know how much longer I can stand being in that room with him. I guess I could be grateful that this is probably gonna give me some good material for my research paper but geez...does it have to be torture? I ended up making a Valentine for the girl because I felt so bad for her. My message said: "To Aysel, You are one cool kid! From: Jennifer". She was surprised that I had made her one and she told me that I was really sweet.


So, my paper will have something along the lines of my experiences with this program and what I witnessed (unfair discipline, stupid activities, etc) and then I will give suggestions as to how I would personally run the class for those 2 hours. Once I'm more focused, I'll share more details.

Overwhelmed and Underpaid

Subbing has been slow lately but I guess that's actually a blessing in disguise when it comes to getting some schoolwork done for my classes. I just wish that the subbing wasn't so slow so that when I needed to work, I didn't have to worry about whether there was going to be a job available or not. Last Fall, anytime I looked on the Subfinder websites, there'd always be at least one or more jobs available but now since both districts have OVER 1,000 subs, the jobs are few and far between! I have so much reading to do for these classes, it's great that I don't have a fulltime job or else I'd feel so much worse! I've been having to read anything from children's picture books, to young adult chapter books, to contemporary journal articles, to articles from the 18th-early 20th century (lemme tell ya, those about bore me to tears)! When I feel rushed about reading, I start to read either really slow or I'm just reading words and my comprehension is so low that it's almost as if I didn't even read the assignment. Luckily, the Wednesday night class talks about the articles during class so that if by chance (and that's a big chance) I didn't read the article, then they'll discuss it and I'll get the main idea. The articles he assigned this time were about 50 pages each!!! Ick!! I haven't read them yet and class is tonight. I guess I'll read about half of each and get the main ideas out of them before tonight. Maybe. I almost felt like going on a reading strike but decided for the better.... :) Anyway, if you notice that I don't update as much, it's because all I'm doing is reading and nothing else. I hate not updating because I hate for ya'll to keep looking at this site at the same entry for weeks but I'll try my best.. :) The weekend classes will be done in a month so I'll have more time after that.


We so want to go traveling again to some place new but as ya'll know, it takes a little extra money to do that. Otherwise, I'd love to post more pictures here of new and exciting things. Maybe during Spring break we'll have some time to go somewhere new. Who knows?

And the total is...

32.2 pounds lost, as of today. I lost 3.6 pounds this past week! I've started running again since the weather has been taking a nicer turn. It's nice to get back outside now. :)

4 hours seemed like a lifetime

I subbed for four hours in Mrs. Birch's first grade classroom today and it seemed like a lifetime. I'm reminded of my favorite phrase used to describe first grade classrooms: "It's like herding kittens." That's truly what it's like...especially today. The kids were ALL over the place. It wore me out!


I also had to report a strange man on the property of the school who appeared to be rolling marijuana joints. I saw him as I was parking in the sidelot and he was sitting on a picnic table bench with bag of contraband in between his knees and papers in his hand, secretively rolling the material up. I tried not to focus too much on him so he didn't sense anyone really watching him. I walked into the building and signed in as a sub and then immediately reported it to the secretary and principal. They both walked out there to check it out but then when they came back into the school, they told me that he was gone and was walking on the other side of the street at that time they went out there. Thankfully, he'd gotten the notion to leave and take his business elsewhere.


Anyway, eventful day it was. I found out about my friend, Maren and her exciting news about being pregnant...she's been married only since this past August. Oh well. It must be something in the water here in Idaho...I hope I don't catch it. I know everytime I hear of someone else being pregnant, I always write about it and complain. Well, it just seems like all of our friends here in Idaho are "leaving" us and having babies. The one couple that we really, really like and love to hang around and who don't plan on having any children anytime soon is of course, moving to another state entirely (Arjun and Prithvi). Arjun is leaving in March to join Prithvi in Texas after having lived apart as a married couple for about 10 months or so. Everyone else here? Either pregnant or has multiple children. Argh. Okay. Enough whining...our time will come eventually (when we're 100% committed to having one and that should be the only time we would have one...not because of peer pressure).

Had a weird dream last night

I woke up with mariachi music in my head this morning and I thought it was so odd and why would I have that kind of music in my head??? This afternoon I was joking that maybe I was just really craving some margaritas OR (as much as I shouldn't say it) the irritation that I have for the readings that we have to do for the master's classes about "white" society causing problems for hispanic populations manifested itself into a humorous dream...you be the judge. :)

I don't get it and I just can't wait to graduate and get out!

I am so frustrated with my master's classes! I'm tired of feeling guilty about who I am and where I come from. I'm tired of feeling guilty about my skin color. I didn't choose my identity anymore than people from other countries who are complaining about being oppressed. I've been reading articles for these classes and all they talk about is how generalizing a group of people is bad and causes people to devalue their culture/language (students, in particular). Great, I get that. No, we shouldn't over-generalize people who have a certain look about them (i.e. accents, skin color, etc). Which brings me to my next issue in asking where people are from when I notice an accent. Apparently, it's a bad thing to ask people where they're from because it means I'm looking to label them. But then again, if I don't ask them where they're from, I might tend to "assume" where they're from which causes them to be pissed off because I just categorized them. What the ? It's human nature to categorize and that's how we make sense of the world. It's what you do with that categorization afterwards that matters. Sure, if you put certain people in a category and then say that they can't have the same privileges as other groups, then yes, that's bad. What I really don't get is how these professors say that we should accept everyone and treat them the same no matter what but then we're supposed to appreciate their differences too. But wait, doesn't that mean we're supposed to notice differences too? Which can also be negative? What do they want from me? I'm not supposed to care about differences but at the same time, I need to know where my students came from and appreciate their diverse backgrounds.

Another thing is apparently, calling groups "minorities" is looked down upon. Well, I agree with the fact that nowadays, the "minority" groups are becoming the majority groups with how much the United States is changing. Change is good. :) I'm all for change but I don't think the United States is as bad as it was way back in history. I mean, we just elected a black president! That says a whole heck of a lot about how far this country has come and so now we should look towards the future instead of constantly looking back and feeling sorry for ourselves!


Again, my main concern though about these classes is that I have this constant feeling that I should apologize for my forefathers and the fact that I'm white and middle class. I shouldn't have to apologize much like these people shouldn't have to apologize or feel guilty for who they are either.

I'll step off my soapbox now. :)