Merry Christmas dear blog readers! Have you had a good day? Filled with family friends and, if you're in Iowa, SNOW.

Christmas has been going well here in the Clear Lake Schnoebelen household too. We got up at 7am (Which is the earliest we're allowed to wake up. Stephen initially had his alarm clock set for 3am but mom caught him.) We sorted and open presents this year. I got a lot of useful things and I wanted and lots of fun things... Like glass canisters for flour and sugar, salt and pepper shakers, a little light-up Christmas tree decoration, a miniature dulcimer pin, a garlic press, an 8" frying pan, the 5th season of the TV show House and those glow in the dark planets and stars, amid other things. :-) Thank-you one! Thank-you all!

Here are some pictures. Mostly of Watson enjoying the crinkly paper... Oh. Did I mention it? Dad said that I could bring Watson home to stay for the holiday so I wouldn't have to board him. Isn't that CRAZY? But I'm grateful, so thanks Dad!



















Here you see Watson looking slightly confused at the surrounding gifts...



















But he loves crinkly paper. Here you see Mary exploiting this love.


















This Watson diving among the crinkly carnage.

















After presents I made Christmas pancakes! And they weren't Christmassy just because I was wearing a Santa hat and had a pancake with a Christmas tree. I substituted eggnog for milk and added cinnamon and nutmeg. They were good!


















Here is a close-up of the tree-pancake. :-)


















And here is Stephen eating it. Mom and Dad were surprised that he ate it. Mom said Stephen refuses to eat pancakes unless they contain chocolate chips.
















Mary says: Look! I am so awesome, I have gathered the sparkliness of Edward Cullen and trapped it in this ball! (Matthew got one of those rubber bouncy balls with glitter in it...)


















I gave everyone homemade cranberry eggnog muffins and Mom accidentally left hers out... This picture was taken AFTER we pulled it from under the couch. Sneaky, sneaky Watson had been having a snack.




After Matthew and Daniel finished shoveling the heavy, very slushy snow, we built a Calvin and Hobbs-inspired snowman...
























Matthew went in after we started on the middle section because he was cold. But Daniel and I carried on!


















Here is the snow-cannon we built to go with the snowman.


















Here's Daniel with our creation...

























And here's me! :-D

























Here's the view from the back.

All in all, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Unfortunately, these pictures don't show (other than on our coats, etc.) How HARD it was snowing! It was really coming down! From the windows it looked really Christmassy and pretty. But outside the snow was wet and not the best to work with.... It was 35 degrees out, after all.

Stephen got a bunch of Tom and Jerry cartoons, so we've been watching that all day, and they just finished. Now Philomena, Mom, Daniel, and Mary are watching VeggieTales: The Story of St. Nicholas.

Dinner was delicious! We had ham and mashed potatoes and snicker salad and sweet potatoes. Mmm-mmm! So good!

After dinner we played the game Snorta, which was fun. In the game everyone playing draws a little animal figurine, a small barn and gets a stack of cards. Each person chooses an appropriate noise for their animal which everyone must memorize. Once everyone chooses a sound the animals must be hidden in the barns. Then you go around the table, each person taking a turn flipping over a card. If your card matches someone else's, you must make the sound of that person's animal before they do. If you win, the looser takes the cards. The goal of the game is to get rid of your stack first. We only played one round, and Matthew won.

So yeah. :-) That has been our Christmas. :-) I hope everyone else has had a good day! Tomorrow I will probably go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with some of my family. :-) I can't wait!

Now, I'm off to end my day by wrapping up in a blanket, turning off the lights, and watching the Doctor Who Christmas special. *siiiiiigh*

Happy Christmas Eve...

Most people at this time of the Christmas season are jittery with anticipation. Whether it be the coming of Jesus, for Santa to come, receiving or giving Christmas presents, spending time with family, cooking/eating etc.

While I *am* excited for Christmas to come, I am jittery for an entirely different reason.

This year's Doctor Who Christmas Special.

I knew it was coming.

But I didn't want it to arrive.

Do you remember this post?

David Tennant's last episode as the Doctor airs in the UK tomorrow and in the US on the 26th.


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH....

:-(

This is distressing. He's *my* Doctor. No one can be as good.

Matt Smith has some crazy-freaking-huge sneakers to fill.

Blizzard report...

This is the window in my kitchen. It overlooks the roof of my garage, which lies about 4-5 inches below the window ledge. As you can see, the roof of my garage has accumilated quite a lot of snow.... I can only imagine what the roof of my HOUSE looks like...
























I hope my garage doesn't cave in...


...I hope my HOUSE doesn't cave in!

Snow day continued...

No school tomorrow either. YAY!

Snow day!

School let out at 12:45... YES!

Now I am going to:

Wash dishes
Keep Watson from destroying my house
Bake cranberry eggnog muffins
Write my Christmas list for Grandma and Grandpa
Watch (not in any particular order, and not all at once):

• -Tinkerbell
• -Atonement
• -Doubt

Read (also in no order):

• -Breaking Dawn
• -A Christmas Carol

Make a delicious chicken salad for dinner
Shovel (again) -Gave up.

Today I bought my first snow shovel. I feel as if a milestone has been reached in my life.


ALSO, if you have not started following the Doctor Who ADVENT-ure calender, do so NOW!

And because of the wonderfulness that is the DW ADVENT-ure calender, I have the happiest desktop EVER!

1st one done!

Tonight I had my first ever concert! And it went really really well! I directed about 200 or so K-5 students in a 40 minute concert and it went fantastic. Really smooth. All the music played, all the mics worked. YAY! :-D

It still amuses me though that the first concert I ever directed has also been the first elementary music concert that I ever have attended... :-)

The next concert is in the spring, and I have a nice little break before I need to start thinking about that. At least until January.

Whew! It's over and it went great!

Also, IT SNOWED TODAY! I really kind of excited about that, because it looks beautiful. Even though it made the roads bad.... I told mom she shouldn't come, so she turned around and went back home. (She was about to Mason City.) What was ESPECIALLY cool about the snow was that driving home, it started to snow again and I had my brights on and it looked like I was driving through hyperspace, like on STAR WARS.

Okay. I have more school tomorrow. And I was there almost 12 hours today. So I'm going to bed.

An imagined dialogue...

Me: *sees Watson eating my couch cover* Oi! Watson! Stop eating my couch!
Watson: *pauses and then stretches* Huh? Youz talkinz to me? I iz not noming... *catches sight of tail* AH! THERE IZ DAT THING ON MAH BUTT! I willz get it this time..... Nom-nom-nom... *proceeds to wrestle with tail*
Me: *goes back to what I was doing*
Watson: Ah-HA! Dat fold of fabric looked at me goofiez! I will show it!!!! RAWR! *begins to chew couch cover again*
Me: WATSON! NO! *graps "Kitty Corections Bottle"*
Watson: AHHHH! SPRITZING WATERZ OF DOOOOOOOOM!!!! *runs away*

But who's counting? Oh, wait.

It's been a year and I'm starting over. I don't need to think about last year. I don't need to go back and review all what I was thinking and feeling and blogging. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard not to see that time as a waste or a failure. I guess I can only say that I learned. I suppose that is what is important.

I feel that my heart is finally my own again and my standards are higher than before. I have a better idea of what I want in a man, although I'm afraid that he doesn't exist.

It's like what I tell Jessica... It's just me, Watson and my imaginary boyfriends up here in little Sumner. And she laughs. But she knows what I mean.
_____________

I know that I am a strong, confident woman who is not perfect. I know I can't do everything by myself, although I often insist that I can. I've gotten over the idea that just because one relationship ended does not mean that I am unlovable or not attractive. It's just a matter of time. I just keep reminding myself that it has to be in God's time, not mine.

*sigh*

An update inclulded a breif blip on Doctor Who and Twilight

Ack.... It's been ages since I've blogged... Sorry!

I'm just pluggin' away. Remember the cold I mentioned Thursday November, 5th? Well, I still have it. The week after the musical my chest became full of disgusting gunk and I lost my voice... Which made teaching MUSIC CLASS really difficult. Luckily it was a short week and I survived. My voice is back now... But I have a ridiculous stuffy nose and I *still* have a cough. I had to buy yet another box of tissues because the one I bought yesterday (even though they were Puffs) made my nose sore because I had to blow it so much.

Also, after almost 3 months of searching I found a second job! *whew* I was really getting worried. It's a waitressing job, on Friday and Saturday nights at a little locally owned restaurant in a nearby town. This past Friday was my first night and it went really well. It's just a manner of learning different procedures and memorizing the menu. But it's not hard at all. I had one table ask me if I'd gone to school for restaurant management and they didn't believe that it was only my second night. (Previous waitress experience FTW!) So hopefully the money I earn from that will help me start to pay of those pesky pesky student loans. (Btw, I found the job through an ad in the paper... How lucky was that?)

Watson is doing well. I took him to my Uncle Greg S.'s last week for a check-up and to get neutered. (I have two Uncle Gregs on my Dad's side... Just to clarify.) Watson is a little over 3 months now and weighs about 4 pounds. He fell in the bath again Friday night. Which makes Bath:3 Toilet 1 Watson: 0. He's doing really well though. He's very cuddly and likes to lay in my lap whenever I'm at my computer.

Going to Iowa City last weekend was a lot of fun! I was there longer, so I got to see everyone! Grandma was babysitting some of my cousins, so Friday night Grandpa and I ordered pizza and then I went with my Uncle Doug to a play rehearsal that he was directing with the help of my cousins Katie and Anna, their younger brothers John and Paul were in the play. Afterwords I went to their house and got to see my Aunt Nancy and meet their dog Kipper. Evidently he's kind of crazy, but he was pretty quiet when I was there, just chewing on a bone.

Saturday I went shopping at Coral Ridge Mall with my cousin Marie. She helped me pick out some really nice clothes. (On our way to the mall we saw a rainbow!) I got a pants suit for $30 at Kohl's and I was really excited. I also found some nice tops at Kohl's, Old Navy and Maurices. Afterwards we went back to her house and she made 18 dozen monster cookies with her friend Liz... And they were really good! They gave me a plate of them. :-) The kitchen was kind of chaotic, so I watched the rest of the Hawkeye vs. Ohio State game with my Uncle Greg S. What a game! It was so good!

Sunday I went to mass and was very amused by one of my little cousins who insisted on wearing her dress backwards and was wearing rubber rainboots with it. It was cute. :-) After church I stopped at my Uncle Greg H and Aunt Marcy's house and had lunch with them. Then I went to my Uncle Tom and Aunt Melissa's where I played checkers with my cousin Kolbe and lost! But it was a good game. :-) I also got to see their dog, Daisy. My Aunt Melissa says that Daisy is the only one in their family that will do what he says. (LOL!) Then I swung back to my Uncle Greg S and Aunt Aunt Val's and picked up Watson. Finally I stopped by Uncle Doug's again to say good-bye and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's. I got to eat some of Grandma's yummy hamburgers. :-)

I made it back home about 6pm, no problems. Watson was glad to be back. :-)

This morning after church I made a delicious Sunday morning feast! I made hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. And of course a cup of PG tips to go with it. Everything turned out great! It was so good! :-)

Today Rachel D. and I are going to see New Moon. :-D We are both excited! I got an awesome voicemail from Jessica on Friday.... She went to the midnight premiere and said it was great! The voicemail was awesome in the fact that it was rambly and very much Jessica and I could tell that she really liked the movie and at the same time, was really tired.

Tonight I have a bell choir performance at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. It should go really well... I play C and D on the treble staff. And sometimes C#.

I have my first concert of my teaching career on December 3rd! It is coming up really close! It will be kindergarten through 5th grade... In total, about 203 students. And we have about 2 class days left to practice for it. Ahhhhhh! :-O 5th grade band will be playing too. It will be nice when it is over... Then I can breathe...

Oh! OH OH! OH MY GOSH! DOCTOR WHO! The latest special, The Waters of Mars..... SO GOOD AND SO CREEPY!!!! I watched it at school after the school day was done because I didn't want to watch it at home by myself! Really, that special was really well done, I thought... But now there's only ONE left and he'll regenerate!!! :-( :-( :-( There will be much muchly much much fangirly tears. It's airing on BBC America in December... But I'll still be here in Sumner, and I would feel weird watching it at Jessica's house... Because I know I will cry and Jessica won't be there because she will be in China, and her parents would probably be weirded out.

This week is only a half week at school. I'm coming home to Clear Lake on Wednesday! :-D YAYAYAYAY! It will be fun!

Okay, I think that's a good enough update for now... I need to take some more phenylephrine. My ears are getting plugged up. And then I'm off to see New Moon! w00t! Go Team Edward! And if there is ANYONE around me on their cellphone, or reciting the movie as it's playing I will punch them in the face.

Some things I learned from Seussical...

That I actually DO know how to do make-up, even though make-up is really all about experimentation.

I have gained "coolness" points for knowing about Call of Duty and Nazi Zombies, how to play the card game Egyptian Rat Screw and being able to quote Harry Potter and a various array of Disney movies at the drop of a hat and rocking at Apples to Apples.

Being able to sew both by hand and with a machine came in handy more than I ever thought it would.

Being the assistant director also sometimes means you're part of the pit, providing sound effects and turning pages for the piano player.

Students will almost always rise to the occasion, but not necessarily when you want them to.

Sometimes you just have to be mean to get the point across.

But more often than not, just let frustrations slide and don't be afraid to laugh.

Very often you will have to dance and move and look like a goof to get other people to do the same.

Usually, it's easier to look sad and upset for long periods of time than happy for a 5 minute scene.

Let students have the chance to tell you that something isn't working.

No talking backstage is a MUST!

Making lists of props, scenes, blackouts, costumes and choreography will help you in the long run.

Student cellphones are banned during the show and belong in the cellphone bucket. Plus they mess up the wireless mics.

Unfortunately rude people in the audience will still use them no matter how cute and Seuss-like your pre-show cellphone announcement is.

Where an actor is looking and directing their line can either make a scene really awkward or perfect.

If your line is supposed to rhyme, it's harder to improvise if you can't remember what you're supposed to say.

5 reprises of the same song can get confusing!

AND

Don't ever forget or underestimate power of the willing suspension of disbelief!
_______

The show last night was fantastic! There was dancing! There was lots of singing! The crowd was really responsive and everyone had a wonderful time! Well done everyone!

A blog in a series of numbers.

1. I think I am getting a cold. I can *feel* it. In my throat. It doesn't help that I sang an entire musical today. I am exhausted. Tonight I made a frozen pizza. Watched Dr. Horrible and then dozed off.

2. Watson fell into the bath again. This is the second time this has happened, not counting the time I threw him in after he jumped into the toilet. I have a picture which I will upload later. This makes Watson: 0 Bath water: 2 Toilet: 1

3. This is an ad that Facebook decided to show me just a moment ago:
















Double Wartburg Track and Field mate?!


4. Seussical the Musical is this weekend! Here's some pictures that were posted on the event on Facebook. The students have worked so hard to put this on! Miss Bailey and I are so proud of them!


















"Biggest Blame Fool" (Wickersham Brothers, Horton the Elephant, Sour Kangaroo, and Bird Girls)



















"Anything's Possible" (Cat in the Hat and Jojo.)


























"The Circus McGurkus"
(The Cat in the Hat)


5. I bought Watson a chew-toy thing so he will maybe leave my hands and shoes alone... And it's a little rooster that makes a cockadoodledoo sound whenever it moves. I am beginning to regret my purchase. It's starting to feel like A.) I've somehow moved to a farm and it's perpetually morning. Or B.) Peter Pan has moved into my house somewhere....



Okay, that's all! I'm off to sleep and fight this cold!

In which something I wrote is mentioned by a minor YouTube celebrity...

Okay, so I follow this guy named Alex Day on YouTube, because he makes some pretty funny videos, he's a Nerdfighter, and he happens to be the guy who started Time Lord Rock. He's part of a band called Chameleon Circuit.

Last week he made this video:



In which he talked about Nerdfighter personal ads. And I thought. Okay, I'll post a comment. Just for fun! :-) Why not?

So I did:
















If you don't want to click on the picture, this is what I wrote:

Nerdy day-dreamer is bored with ordinary life looking for that special someone to help make her life extraordinary. Must be willing to do crazy, adventurous things that vary from building forts in the living room, learning how to make homemade rootbeer and reenacting scenes from Lord of the Rings while hiking in the country. If you love STAR WARS, Harry Potter and Doctor Who we will get along great! Must enjoy an eclectic selection of music, Broadway, live theatre and unintentional awkwardness.

Yesterday, Alex made this video:



And I was just watching, thinking that all of those were cute, and awesome and funny... AND THEN HE READS PART OF MINE! Out of the 2,017 comments, he picks part of the ad that I came up with to read! Which I think, is pretty freaking cool! (I'm at 1:16, just FYI.)

Ha. :-) That made me really happy, and nerdy and excited. I told Rachel V. I could make a really good Patronus right now, and she said yeah, or I would be able to fly. :-)

Seuss, Teaching, Malapropisms and Watson

So I finally have a moment to blog, seeing as it's a much more decent hour--9:40 as opposed to 11:59... So as I try to keep Watson from eating the couch and climbing into dresser drawers from the underside, I shall write.

First, first, first: Happy Birthday Matthew!

Second, I have been kept super super SUPER busy being the assistant director for Tripoli's production of Seussical. This play is SO MUCH WORK! I'm not *complaining* I am *stating emphatically* because I am having a lot of fun! We're finalizing props and getting sets and their related changes and trying to deal with kids who are sick. Lots of crowd control. But I think the show is coming together really well. :-) The showtimes are Nov. 6th and 7th both at 7pm in the HS gymnasium. Tickets are $4 for students and $5 adults. I'm excited to see it with costumes and all... I choreographed all of Oh, The Thinks You Can Think. :-D

Teaching in general is going really well. I mean, nothing ridiculously exciting. We're in the middle of "Hallowe'en Week" and tomorrow I start my lesson with the 4th-5th graders about the song The Erlkonig. It's really cool and creepy! The 2nd-3rd graders just finished acting out a story to The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Kindergarten and 1st grade did a sound story to the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. It was a lot of fun! :-)

This Friday Emily and Rachel D. are coming over and we're going to have a girl's night! I don't know exactly what we'll do other than watch movies, cook food and play with Watson. Saturday I have a 1st year Teacher's Conference all day and Sunday I have rehearsal from 1:45 to whenever.

That means I need to do lesson planning for next week THIS week... Since I won't want to do them on Sunday like I normally do and I obviously don't have time on Saturday. At least I can legitimately start practicing for our elementary Christmas concert next week!

And the piano in my classroom FINALLY got TUNED! And it sounds SO MUCH BETTER!!! My *kindergartners* could tell that it was out of tune. That's how bad it was.

Okay, so this just came up on mugglenet.com... WANT. That would be SO COOL!!!! (In case you are confused, it's the audition schedule for the Harry Potter theme park that Universal Studios is build. I wish I had $$$ and TIME to go do that!)

Okay, so this is random, but as I'm typing this I'm listening to Pandora... My Alan Menken radio station to be exact... And do you ever have one of those moments where you FINALLY get a pun, or a particular joke or specific play on words? Well, I just had that... "Zero to Hero" was playing, from Hercules, and there's this line that always sounded to me like "Now who's rich and famous, he can tell you what's a Grecian urn." And I always thought... "Yeah... What IS a Grecian urn?" and then I think of THIS scene from The Music Man. (Side-note: don't watch into Shipoopi... It gets painful.) And then I heard Zero to Hero today--just now-- and heard that line THIS time understanding the "urn" should be "earn." :-P But this isn't the end of my malapropism, dear readers. The REAL line goes like this, since I've now looked it up:

"Now nouveau riche and famous
He could tell you
What the Greek'should earn."

Oh, Disney... Sometimes I don't know what to think about you and your clever and often misheard lyrics.

Okay, what next... Haha, maybe... Watson? :-)

He's getting so big! If I'm home long enough, he will actually calm down and cuddle a little bit. Saturday we watched The Ghost of Girlfriend's Past and he slept curled up on my chest and purred and it was nice and warm. Tonight we watched The Secret Life of Bees and snuggled :-) In fact he's curled up in my lap right now. We haven't progressed to him sleeping in my bed yet... He's still too crazy and I wouldn't get any sleep.

Even though he is starting to cuddle, he is still a little turd sometimes. He loves shoes. LOVES them, and I don't really know why. Because he isn't really specific. He likes the shoelaces on my tennis shoes, and the leather on my ballet flats and the squishy-foam of my flip-flops and my fuzzy slippers. Sometimes he doesn't even attack them. He just holds them or curls up on them.

He's kind of nibble-y on me too... Like he'll try to initiate play by biting my hand, but it's never hard and he's never punctured skin or he'll tackle my leg and I have to shake him off. We're working on stopping the nibbling. I hope it's just a phase.

He *IS* getting better about jumping into my lap with out his claws extended, which is nice.

I took some pictures of him, which was hard, because he doesn't stay still for very long...

















He's actually asleep in this picture. Be impressed.


















Lasers on! Check!



















This was taken right before he started trying to attack the camera.



















And then ONCE in a BLUE MOON! He stays still long enough for me to get a beautiful picture of him! :-D YAY!



I love Watson! And I can't wait for the Sherlock Holmes movie! :-D



Note: The sleeping picture was taken last Saturday, the rest were taken today.

A surprise, and people who think they are smarter than me...

Hello, this has to be quick, because I need to get to bed and it is considerably later than I intended...

1. Surprises:

Tonight I was getting ready for a bath. I won't go into the details, other than... Tonight Watson jumped into the toilet, pre-flush. My hand was ON the flusher and I hear this "blooop" and there is my cat. In the toilet. Stupid, stupid cat. So I picked him up, and put him in the bath tub, which was conveniently filled with water that was for ME... But what else was I supposed to do? So I put him in the tub, which rinsed off the bits of him that came in contact with the toilet water. This obviously made him even more wet and very unhappy, but I told him he deserved it.

So then I had to get new bathwater and take MY bath while Watson fussed about being dripping wet and tried to dry himself off.

Needless to say, I didn't feel very sorry for him.


2. People who think they are smarter than me:

Mainly, some of my students. In two specific areas: Music, Harry Potter and quite often where those two subjects coincide.

And I know it sounds self-centered and over-confident, but really. Don't even go there. I have been reading Harry Potter since before most of them were born... Yet, they seem to think they can argue with me saying that Greig's In the Hall of the Mountain King is from Harry Potter, and that the track Double Trouble (which *IS* from Harry Potter) is from the 4th movie. No. Double Trouble is from the 3rd movie and the text is taken from the Scottish Play. Greig's In the Hall of the Mountain King was written as incidental music for the play, Peer Gynt and premiered in 1874.

Um, no. You're fighting a loosing battle kids. Especially in these two areas.


Okay, that's all I have to say. Watson is trying to run off with one of my shoes. I must stop him and go to bed.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

An introduction...

Hello everyone!

I got my new kitteh! I've decided to call him Watson! (In the end it was between Watson and Maxwell--because when he purrs really loud it sounds like when you make coffee...) He is a big trouble maker and likes to talk. He can purr really loud and likes to pounce on things that do not really exist. :-)

I went down to Iowa City this weekend to have him checked out by my uncle who is a vet and Watson has a clean bill of heath! My uncle said he found him to be friendly and easy to handle, which indicates that he came from a good family and has a good personality. :-)

It was also good to see some of my cousins, uncles and aunt and my grandparents. :-) Grandma made a delicious lunch and Grampa and I watched the food network and had Chinese for dinner! Grandma went to the Hawkeye football homecoming game with some of my cousins and Grampa and I watched it at some of my cousins' houes. (1st half at one, 2nd half at the other.) Like I said, it was good to see everyone! :-) (And Iowa WON! YAY!)

Oh, and it SNOWED yesterday! And it even sticked for a little while!

Okay, that's all for now... Here are some cat pictures! :-)

















Watson asleep in my lap...



















Watson on the go....


















Eating his bed...


















And drinking his water...


Also, it's important to remember that if you spray your hands with the "no chew" animal deterrent spray, so your cat will stop biting your hands in play. it will still taste bad 2 hours later when you forget that it's there and lick yogurt off your fingers...

My birthday and my kitten....

Hello All! Today is my birthday and I am now 23 years old. I feel the same... Just like I do every year. Although, I'm tired from teaching. My family all mailed me cards and sent me a bouquet of flowers to school which was a nice surprise.

I was going to make avocado feta salsa tonight for dinner, but I forgot to buy feta and the grocery store in Sumner does not carry it. :-( Oh, well, I'll have to save it for another time. I bought some ice cream and rented some movies and I'm going to cook up some chicken and make a salad and just chill. :-)

It's also fairly cold in Sumner. I just turned on my heat. My thermometer says it's 64 degrees inside and 52 degrees OUTSIDE. I slept with sock on last night.

I haven't decided on a name for my cat yet. Daniel suggested Hobbes, but my cat isn't orange, which would have been cool. Mary suggested Sylvester. Dad suggested Lawn Dart. BUT I stole a picture of my kitteh (and it's litter mates) from Facebook. Geri had posted one. Unfortunately, my cat is on the bottom of the pile... So you can't see it very well... But, it's better than nothing! Enjoy!

Three short stories...

These are the short tales of 1. The Correction I Made to the Sumner Library, 2. The Amazing Gender-Changing Kitten, and 3. The Cricket in My Ceiling.

Story 1:

Today I further cemented the fact that I am a nerd. I went to the library today, and while browsing the animal section, locating books about cats I came across a book that was all about cheese, and was mostly cheese recipes. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with mice, but that was before I saw all the cheese recipes. Then I thought it was placed on the wrong shelf. (After all, the 636s--animals, were very close to the 637s--cook books.) but no. The catalog number was a 636. So what did I do? I took it to the front counter and explained to the librarian that this cheese cookbook has been assigned the wrong catalog number by some mistake and did not belong in the 636s with the other books about animals. (I also re-shelved 4 books that were out of place, but I didn't tell her that.)

So that was my good deed for the day.

Ooooooh, Vogel Library... The things that I never had to do [shelf-reading] that are yet instilled in me...

Story 2:

I found out that my kitten is a boy. So I have to nix all the girl names I was thinking of and switch gears. (I was pretty set on Calliope too!) So far I like:

Watson
Holmes
Samwise
Merry
Prospero
Laertes

Feel free to add in your own suggestions or discuss what you think of my list so far.

I also found out, through extensive internet research, that my kitten is what they call a Lynx Point (or Tabby Point.) I mean, it's not a full bred Siamese, but still, that's kind of cool :-)

Story 3:

Last night there was a cricket IN MY CEILING! (I have a drop ceiling in my dining room.) And at first I thought it was the fridge whirring or something. But no. It was stupid cricket. It also took me a second to actually figure out where it was coming from.

I didn't have any bug-killer spray, other than this wasp/bee killer stuff, but I didn't want to spray that in the house for a cricket. So I used hairspray. And for an hour I would spray hairspray into the space between the real ceiling and the drop ceiling in hopes that I got the stupid bug. After each time I did this the bug would be quiet for about 10 minutes... Just long enough for me to think I got it. Finally, as I was drowning in aerosol fumes, and after talking apart almost half of my drop ceiling, looking for this thing, I FOUND IT. I managed to move the right ceiling panel and it dropped to the floor, where I proceeded to stomp the living daylights out of it.

I don't like bugs.
______________

And those are the stories of my library nerdiness, my boy kitten that I thought was a girl, and the cricket that taught me how to take apart and put back together a drop ceiling.

Birthday List... Updated a little.

Okay, my grandparents where wondering what I wanted for my birthday, so here's a list:

A kitchen utensil rest. (You know, those plate-like things that you set spatulas and spoons on... And no. I don't want to use a plate.)

A desk.

Any kind of shelving unit.

A water filter, that you attach to your faucet.

A big stirring spoon and another spatula.

An electric hand mixer.

A carpet sweeper.

A couch slip cover.

Floor lamps, hanging lamps, pretty much any sort of lighting fixture.

A subscription to the magazine Mental_Floss.

A cookbook... Like one from Better Homes and Gardens or Betty Crocker.

A coffee maker.

A small teflon-lined frying pan.


You can also view my Amazon.com wish list HERE, to get an idea of what other things I would like.

This whole thing is subject to change, but not until after my birthday.

Fireflies...

Check out this video on YouTube. Mary just Facebooked it to me, and it is super cool!

Also, I was sick yesterday and I couldn't go to school. I managed to take care of myself. My stomach didn't hate me as long as I didn't move and stayed laying down.

So I watched Gone with the Wind. Although that didn't solve the problem 100%, it did make it better. That is a looooooong movie!

Today I was well enough to go back to school and teach, although I was tired. After school I went shopping with the chorus teacher at Tripoli for costumes for Suessical and we ate at Perkins for dinner, and it was my first real meal since Monday night. Yay food!

Now I'm back home and ready to go to bed.

Time Lord Rock revisited...

I forgot about this....

Shoot. I should get to writing some of these songs... Allonsy is already finished... But that's the only one....

Kids say funny stuff...

I should mention here, for the sake of being preserved in this blog, and the bowels of the internet, and for the entertainment of all who read this blog...

On Wednesday, one of my kindergartners was trying to get my attention... And was having trouble remembering what it actually was... So he came up with the closest thing he could think of... In terms of long words that begin with the letter S....

And suddenly, my name changed to: "Mrs. Sandwich."

I have heard many variations of my last name... But I must say that "Sandwich" is a first. It was all I could do to keep myself from falling over the floor laughing. It was very very very funny, and very cute!

I did remind him of what my name *was* and he was like "Oh, yeah..." and then asked his question using my correct last name.

LOL, now I kind of want to use it as perhaps my alter-ego.... Mrs. Sandwich.... (Anyone remember this book?)

Numbers...

Happy 09-09-09!

That is all.

Weekend well spent...

... I guess.

Overall, I would say yes.

Rachel V. came Friday night and that was really cool to see her! :-) I cooked up some Chinese and we watched No Reservations and had brownies for dessert. Then we watched YouTube videos for another 3 hours. :-) It was awesome!

Saturday, Rachel V. left about 8am, so that left me the whole day to get stuff done. So after Rachel left, I went back to bed for another hour or so. Then I got up, had breakfast, unpacked while watching Pan's Labyrinth (weeeeird movie...) and then went drove around to see if any of the local banks were open. Negatory. So I only had enough money to do two loads of laundry, but I made it work. Then I went to church and after that I got a call from Rachel D. who told me that some good-for-nothing turd-face stole 2 loads of her laundry from the washers in the laundry room. LAME!

Not cool whomever you are. Not cool.

Saturday night I cleaned and then unpacked while watching Phantom of the Oprea.

Oh, yeah. I've resolved that I will not allow myself to get a Netflix account until I have watched all the movies that I own. Except for Peter Pan. I lent it to someone freshman year of college and it's never had a disk since. This is mostly a ploy to extend the time before I actually DO get a Netflix account... Mainly, after payday. I should rent some DVDs from the library too...

Anyway! Sunday I unpacked some more and then went to school to do some lesson planning. I got most of it done and came back and kind of took a break. Mainly, ate dinner and watched The Mentalist. :-)

Today I also spent most of the day at school finishing up my lesson planning and getting all the supplies and materials ready that I need for my lessons this week... And I did a new bulletin board, which is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. :-)

Next week is going to be all about pirates, since next Saturday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! (And Rachel D.'s birthday, AND Hermione Granger's birthday too...) It will be fun! I can't waaaaaaaiiiit! :-D

While I was unpacking tonight, I came across two of the three movements to the composition my class did for our 20th Century Music Class. Called "Ed i colpi del portello ma abbastanza non duro" (And the door slams, but not hard enough.) We called ourselves the "Serialist Killers" because it was a composition that used serialism. Ha! Puns! :-) Good Memories!

OH!! And I have found EVERYTHING that I have been missing. My Bible and devotional books were in some plastic drawers, where I had packed them... And my 3rd Harry Potter book was where I left it.... Underneath my open copy of the 2nd Harry Potter book.... Derrrrr. :-P Oh, well. At least those aren't lost anymore. Now if I could only find the fixture for my medusa lamp...

Also, do you know what is annoying??? Buying a 2-pack of 9 volt batteries for your two smoke-detectors... So you can be safe and all. Installing them. And then unpacking and finding an unopened pack of...... 9 volt batteries. Gah. :-P Oh well. My TV remote takes 9 volt. I'll just have to save them for that.

Okay, tomorrow I have school again. Let's hope this week goes better than the last. *crosses fingers*

Halfway found...

Okay, so I found another box of books that I had been missing... I forgot that I had moved some of them around because they were too heavy to lift when they where all in one box. Oops.

BUT!

I'm still missing my Bible and my 3rd Harry Potter book. And some daily devotion books. WHERE ARE THEY???

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making any progress unpacking... And then I look at the growing pile of boxes on my porch and garbage bag full of paper-junk and conclude that, maybe I am just a little bit...

Tomorrow Rachel V. is coming to spend the night on her way home. It will be fun! Now... To clean up the house a little... Hmmmm....

Two nights ago, Geri texted me a picture of my little kitten! IT WAS SO CUTE! :-D I can't wait to see it when I go home the weekend of the 11th. (For Jessica's BIRTHDAY!) It's small and fluffy and has light markings like a Siamese (called seal point) but not the body structure of an oriental cat. Mom told me, that Geri told her that sometimes it purrs really loudly and really random times, like it can't control itself yet. Evidently my kitten is the biggest of the litter and was the first to open its eyes. The picture was soooo cuuuuuute..... Ahh! I can't wait to see it!

Mary said I should name it Boombox. But I said no. I will have a better name for it. Geri is pretty sure it's a girl. So far I like:

Rosalind
Rosamund
Calliope
Sylvia


Thoughts?

Nerdfighter video of dorkiness...

I know, I know, I'm really silly and dorky and all that. But it was a lot of fun... And it all makes me smile, no matter what. :-)

And, I have an ugly couch, no?

Punk Music is a joke, it's really just Baroque...

Happy 356th Birthday to Johann Pachelbel! A composer we all know and loooooooove! The "original one hit wonder" famous for composing Canon in D.



Remember this??? (with THIS?)


Aw, good memories... :-)


In other news, there was a DEAD MOUSE on the floor in my classroom today!!!! :-O I went and got the secretary because I didn't know what to do... There is nothing in the staff handbook that talks about dealing with dead animals.... So the secretary got a plastic bag and I picked it up and tied the bag and threw it away. (The secretary was totally creeped out... I was just like... Um, what do I do??? lol... Yay for camp!)

Yeah. It was an exciting day...

Unpacking...

ALRIGHT.

I'm missing:

Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azaban, PB American Edition
Dealing with Dragons, Calling on Dragons and Talking to Dragons, all by Patricia C. Wrede
My Bible (Pronounced bib-lee... jk... PG-13 btw... the clip.)
A couple daily devotional books

My Bible and my Harry Potter book were JUST there when I moved in!!! WHERE DID THEY GO????

I just set up my bookshelf and organized my books and for real... I'm MISSING SOME! :-(

LAME.

I'm a baaaaad bloggerrrrrrr!

Hello all! So I have a million things to do... But this little voice keeps nagging at me "blogbloglbog" and this is way past due... But it's really hard to sit and blog when I just want all the unpacking to be DONE! :-P At yet here I am... Haha!

So.... Well, I have interwebs now, so no more going to the library. I also have finally invested in an external hard drive, so soon, (hopefuly) no more slow computer! It's still finishing up backing up my system, even though I started it YESTERDAY morning at, like, 11. :-P

Teaching at Tripoli is going well. I'm learning and the kids are learning and there are days that are better than others. But that'll happen anywhere. Today the schedule was a little crazy because it was picture day. Today was one of those lessons that looked good/cool/fun on paper, but when implemented in the classroom just kind of wimped out. So now I'm thinking of what to change/improve on for tomorrow's kids. Today I had the school lunch and did not die. :-)

Also I have a cold. Saturday night, I thought it was allergies, so I took one of my last allergy meds and it got better. BUT it was back Sunday morning, so I took the LAST allergy med, but that had no effect... And by the end of church my nose was plugged. (And yes Rachel V. I have been taking vitamins and working on getting good sleep.) I've been drinking lots of fluids. (Amanda M. the Treasure Island mug makes one awesome cup of PG Tips!) Today when I got home from school (which was also interesting because the right side of my nose is all stuffed up, and my left ear is plugged.) I stopped at Sumner Pharmacy and bought both allergy meds AND pseudoephedrine-that-is-not-pseudoephedrine. So hopefully that will help.

I also stopped at the Sumner Gazette and subscribed to their paper, so I will get "happy mail" and not just bills.

Saturday I went shopping with Rachel D., which is when I bought my external hard-drive. I also bought some shelves, which I put together last night, all by myself! I felt very accomplished, since the instructions specifically said it was a TWO person job. Which is probably why it took me 3 hours, but, hey it's put together and in place, all ready for me to load it with books and other things! I also bought a trendy little filing box so I can stop using my dining room floor as my sorting/storage area.

Like I mentioned earlier, unpacking is going slowly but surely. I took a box of clothes to Trinkets and Togs on Saturday and I have a partially full box of various knick-knacks that will be heading that way too. I really wish I had a desk.. I should probably go garage-saling to see if I can find one.

The weekend before LAST Rachel D. came over and helped me paint my kitchen. We had a slumber party and unpacked/went through some of my stuff. We had a lot of fun looking at my old artwork from various ages... (Not just HS! Or even MS! We're talking 5-year-old masterpieces...) One of my favorite being a picture of a stick person with bumps all up and down each leg, and the caption reads "This is me, with lots of knees." It reminds me of this picture Stephen drew for me my freshman year. :-) I have that picture hanging on my fridge as I type. It makes me happy! :-)

OH! Oh, oh oh!!! I'm getting a CAT! :-D I'm really excited! A at that belongs to a friend of my mom's, who's deck I stained this summer, had a litter of kittens! She said I may have one! :-) They were born August 15th, so sometime in October they should be old enough to move to a new home. There's 3 kittens, two black and one cream/Siamese point. I'm hoping the Siamese is a girl, b/c that's the one I'd like. I'm trying to think of names, but so far nothing too exciting. I think it'll help to see the kitten... And not just 8 hours after it was born.

Um... what else... Oh, I am the assistant director for Tripoli's high school musical! We are doing Suessical and I am excited! It should be a lot of fun! The HS choir director (also a Wartburg Grad) is the director and we just finished casting it last week. I don't know when rehearsals start, but I'm really excited for this show!

Okay, is that a good enough update for now? LOL! Hopefully I'll be able to start updating on a more regular basis!

Quick, quick, quick..

Ahhh! I have so much to catch you all up on!!! But I'm at the library with very little time left, let alone enough time to write a decent post.

Keep your fingers crossed that the Mediacom man comes tomorrow after I'm home from school. Then I will have interwebz.

Moved out, moved in, 3 days until school!

Hello everyone! It's been 14 days since I last blogged, sorry... Things have been so crazy! I am in Clear Lake for the weekend, which is why I have internet access... I don't have anything hooked up at my house in Sumner! I'm also writing this on my parent's new HP desktop... Because I forgot the power cord for my laptop in Sumner. :-P

Well, like I said things have been so crazy these last two weeks! I am almost 100% moved over to Sumner. I just have a couple boxes that are too heavy for me to lift on my own and some knick-knacks around the house. I wish I could say that I am unpacked at my house, but alas, I am not. I've unpacked my clothes and my dishes... And that's about it. I also still need to finish painting the Kitchen--Everything else is done! Then I can start putting up pictures and posters! :-) Oh, and Christmas lights.

So I've had 2 official days of work put in as the new elementary music teacher at Tripoli. I've been working like mad all week trying to get my classroom in some order, since literally EVERYTHING was moved out when my room got new paint and new carpet. It looks really sharp! :-) There's been lots of sorting through instruments, putting away random versions of music-themed BINGO and decorating the room and bulletin boards. It's fun, but as always, I wish I had more time. I also need to work on lesson planning. I think one of the important things I've learned in the past two days of orientation/information/planning is that my job is Kindergarten through 5th grade General Music *AND* 5th grade band. I just thought it was k-4 general music, but the buildings are set up differently, so I get to do 5th grade general music too. :-)

I'm really excited for the whole thing. Nervous too, but excited. I've met a lot of really nice people at the school, and everyone I've talked to, including the elementary Principal and the Superintendent have been extremely helpful. I also have a really good mentor, who teaches 3 classrooms down from me. :-)

Okay, I am falling asleep at the computer... Sorry for being so short, but hopefully I'll post more tomorrow. I said I would take Daniel to work at 8am, and then I'm going to FINISH staining a deck.

Fifteen books...

Don’t take too long to think about it. List 15 books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.



1. Harry Potter, by JK Rowling

2. Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis

3. The Dark is Rising Series, by Susan Cooper

4. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede

5. The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien

6. 10 Apples Up on Top, by Theo LeSieg

7. Small Pig, by Arnold Lobel

8. Norton Anthology of Music: A History of Western Music, by J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout and Claude V. Palisca

9. Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer

10. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain

11. The Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

12. The History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage

13. Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

14. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly

15. Grandpa's Teeth, by Rod Clement



I tag... Anyone else who wants to fill this out too...