Kids Can Be Cute

Corey's niece turned 4 today and I came over to Corey's house/grandparents house for a family dinner. Corey left to go see Avatar 3D instead, which was slightly awkward for me. But anyway, I had fun playing with Taylor...play doh, dolls, farm on your hands and knees, ponies, strawberry shortcake, etc. I told her I would have a PJ party with her, so she snuggled up next to me. She was fighting falling asleep so hard it hurt me, but....here are a few things she said to me after kissing her doll goodnight and then kissing me goodnight:
T: "I am so sad of Corey for missing my birthday party. Will he come home soon?"
Me: "I don't know...he is watching a movie with his friend." He will be home around 10:00...you will be asleep by then."
T: "Ok. Well...wake me up when he gets home so we can have a tea party and then I can go back to sleep."
Me: "Ok. Corey loves tea."
T: "Yes. And he can't sleep over with us."
Me: "Why not?"
T: "He is crabby all of the time."
Me: "Only if he wakes up early."
T: "Well guess what is happening tomorrow?"
Me:" What?"
T: "You and Uncle Corey are getting marries. And you can't wear white dresses because boys don't wear dresses, and I don't want you wearing a white dress. White is ugly."
Me: "Yes, boys don't wear dresses, and what color do you want me to wear?"
T: "Boys are stupid and wear purple because it is Corey's favorite color."

And then she fell asleep. Precious. I better go to sleep. Apparently, I am getting "marries" tomorrow. :)

Christmas Cookie Blues

Does anyone actually count calories or take notice of how much MORE you eat during the holidays. I used to get annoyed when people would say they put on "holiday weight" because I thought it was bogus and there really wasn't a difference between what you eat now and say what you eat in ...May. Until this year. Our entire kitchen is littered with sweets. I have desserts for breakfast, cookies after lunch, and cheesecake or some other Christmas leftover after dinner. I feel like a lazy sloth.

I think the other problem is that I hate to waste food. What would happen to all of those sweets if I didn't or my family didn't eat them? We wouldn't get fat...that's what. Instead, I feel bad for that one loaf of holiday bread getting hard on the counter, or that one lonely cinnamon roll leftover in the fridge. I thought we had enough sweets, but tomorrow I am making my dad a Heath Bar 4 layer birthday cake for his birthday. Oh.My.Flabby.Stomach.

Just to be completely fat, I ate Wendy's at 11 tonight after I already had 3 meals. I think it is the lack of having a routine....not getting up and being at work all day...and also having free food allll over the place.

If you are having the same problem, I suggest you do what I did last night with my sister. We just put on some great tunes and danced until we sweat and felt like we had a good workout- about 40 minutes that felt a lot shorter because we had good songs playing. It always motivates me because I want to finish "one more song" and next thing you know, you dance for 4 min. and 29 seconds longer! I will need to have another dance party tomorrow I think...I am kicking myself for not capturing and posting some footage. I bet you are disappointed, too. Dancing is my favorite thing to do!!

HIT AND RUNS ARE RUDE!

Last night was a crappy night. Corey was visiting (not why it was crappy) but we decided to go shopping at the mall-ridiculous traffic-and then we got there and I got sick. In 6 different public restrooms. About every 20 minutes I would be sick in a different mall restroom. Only ONE restroom was semi clean. GROSS. SO needless to say, my shopping was interrupted a lot. Corey was so patient...he found a TV with MNF on and watched the game when I would get sick. Then as he was driving us home, we were about 4 minutes from my place and some idiot pulled out from a bar parking lot onto the main road we were traveling on, and hit Corey's car and then raced down the road going the opposite way. If Corey had not swerved (thank God no one was coming the OTHER way) into the next lane, I would have been smooshed. God was so good because it could have been a lot worse. The girl was inching out more and more, and we were going the speed limit, and she just kept creeping out until she hit us. Moron. After several choice words by Corey, we called the cops, who were equally disappointing. When Corey suggested that the cops check to see who just left the bar, they told Corey to not tell them how to do their job-"they have been doing this for 12 years." Well, excuse us, officer...we were just hit, so why don't you get over your ego and do something about it. He was a complete jerk. Serve and protect...my butt! Then inside, we talked to a waitress, who basically said some chick left after drinking too much so that was also frustrating. She wouldn't say anything else and hid back in the kitchen.

Corey isn't getting his car fixed because he isn't paying the 500.00 deductible...I don't blame him. Who just hits someone and drives off in a fury? HOW RUDE.

Alternative Professions

Work is getting very crazy and I feel like my To-Do list is ever-growing. I feel like my lessons are always lacking that "something" and I am tired of waking up early and walking into the treacherous weather (okay, that has only been twice this year), but still...
I am trying to think of awesome lessons. I had a student tell me my class was boring! Oh gosh! I don't want to be that teacher. Maybe, kid, there is no fun way to teach context clues and suffixes. UGH.
I have decided to make a list of jobs that I would rather have for awhile to get a break from teaching (thank goodness Christmas break is coming!)-here is the list:

1. Personal Grocery Shopper. I love grocery shopping more than most people. LOVE WEGMANS! I could coordinate menus and then shop for the people. Great service for the elderly.
2. Personal Chef- This follows up with the last one. I have stopped cooking for myself. I want to cook for others. I eat microwave frozen dinners and canned soup. It is not worth the hassle for one in my tiny kitchenette. Plus-no dishwasher. I can't WAIT until I have a husband and one day a family to cook for every night!!!! :)
3. Party Planner- I really wish I could sit and plan parties from my house. Menus, decorations, guest lists...so fun!
4. Taste Tester- Wow, it seems as though all of my things revolve around food. Interesting. I could totally be a person that taste tests recipes before they are published in magazines.
5. Water girl for the Eagles. I have always wanted to give water to sweaty football players during the game. I could really use some Jackson, Westbrook, and McNabb in my life. Yes, I am one of those people that STILL likes McNabb.
6. Professional Scrapbooker- I would like to be at home scrapbooking other people's favorite life events and decorating them with cool stickers from Michaels.
7. QVC set designer. I love QVC. Call me an old lady if you wish, but they have amazing products on there. They have really expanded their merchandise to include swanky designers and awesome cosmetics i.e. Bare Esscentials. I would like to design the sets for them plus meet the hosts that have felt like family to me since I watched QVC my entire life-my grandma (my closest family member) worked there before she passed away.
8. Professional student- I would love to pack up and go to Florida and study Florida's great linguistics program.
9. Dr. Shields house maid. He was my favorite professor. I miss him terribly. I took 6 different classes from him. He gave me even more passion for grammar. I would clean his house for pay...or not for pay.

Here are 9 things I would rather be doing right now for work than teaching at the moment. Today our ceiling tiles busted and we all walked into a flood. The hallway is lined with garbage bins. Classy. Can't wait until our new school is finished! Oh well. This is where God has me so I am going to go teach now. Today's lesson: Finding themes in literary works.

Prayer Request

I have known Andy since he was born. We're practically like cousins. I call his parents "Aunt" and "Uncle." I was wondering if you could join me in praying for Andy...he was going to school out in California, but had to come home because of this medical problem. I am posting a link here to his blog site. Feel free to read his story and pray for Andy. He is an awesome friend to my family and me, and a GREAT guy.

Thanks! :)

http://prayerforandy.tumblr.com/

My Chin Babies

What do all of these babies have in common? Besides the fact that they are all so stinkin' adorable, they are all Chin refugees. For those of you who don't know who the Chin are, they are just one ethnic group in the war torn country of Burma, now known as Myanmar by their government. I have 2 Chin students currently. I have fallen in love with "my Chin babies." The tiny girl, in poor quality pictures #4 and #6, is the newborn baby sister to my two students. She lives across the street from me and I walk over after school and hold her for hours. Also, Jessica (picture #3) is the 2 year old sister, too. The other pictures are family friends and relatives to my students' family that I have met at the various cultural events I have attended.

I am sorry that these aren't the best quality photos (taken on my cell phone) BUT I hope you get the point that they are so cute. Also, I can't be artsy and arrange them nice and pretty because I am not that tech savvy. Anyway, I am blogging about my Chin babies to put it in writing that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to adopt a Chin orphan or refugee one day. If I blog about it...it might come true? I don't know...one of my life goals....

The Fly Won't Die.

Things in my apartment are falling apart. Just little things, kind of.
1. The fly. There is this HUGE fly in my apt. and I thought it was a bee (like those huge bumble bees) because it would never land long enough for me to see it...it would just buzz. Very frustrating. Last night, after about 72 hours of listening to it, I tried to kill it when it landed on my curtain in my living room. Well the thing fell, so I thought it died but I couldn't find it. Then about 10 minutes later it is crawling along my floor (on the other side of the room)...so I scooped it onto the flyswatter. I thought it was injured this time. I threw it away after swatting it again. I even dumped a little water onto it in the trash can. -10 minutes later. Go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. The fly is no longer in the trash. What the heck, fly!?
2. A shelf fell off the wall. A big black shelf with a candle and a figurine sculpture just decided it didn't want to hang in the family room anymore. Scary.
3. My light bulb blew out- doesn't sound like a big deal but it is a unique bulb high in the middle of the ceiling in my bedroom. No clue how to replace that kind. My room is dark now.
4. My cable is out. I reported the outage. I then wrote a VERY nasty email to them about my dissatisfaction with the company while I was missing my Thursday night date with Jim Halpert. UGH! (by the way, I wasn't just complaining about the outage -I know that happens-I just have been through a LOT with this company. They always screw me over and while they were making me miss my show, it seemed like a convenient time to tell them).


So...there is an update on my life. I didn't blog for awhile because I was dying of swine flu and then bronchitis. Fortunately, I didn't end up dying..just felt awful for like 9 days and had a fever for 5 days straight. Missed work.

I am catering a party this weekend. I am very excited about that. Also, I am listening to my beautiful Christmas CD now. I usually am an only after Tgiving Christmas music listener...but this year I am really feeling it early. It's relaxing and comforting as I sit by my pumpkin and apple candles burning and grade essays...or as the case is, put off grading essays to blog. :)