Superlatives are Sexy!

I was just grading some papers from the High School. Let me give you a background of the assignments...Lesson: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives. On an index card walk around the room and write 7 sentences comparing you and your classmates in this ESL class now. Sample sentences given: Sam is tall but Roman is taller. Sebastian is the tallest in the class.

Ok-so I am reading the cards this morning and this is what I find on one of my sophomore boy's:

#5. Dah Ler (girl in the class) is sexy but Miss Plamer is sexyest in the room.

Note: incorrect spelling of my NAME! and sexyest. Ugh. High school boys!!! Totally were not supposed to use the teacher in your examples. And stop sitting in the front row staring at me. Thanks, creeper kid.

And then, while grading the advanced classes essays about a book and character collage they had to do...
One of my junior boys, when asked why he put that specific item on his collage, in his WRITTEN essay, he writes: "I chose this picture because it was my favorite part in the book. The girl had big boobies and I love boobies."
That was his concluding sentence and then he turned it in for his final project grade. What are these kids thinking? Nevermind. I don't think I want to know.

Good News!

Grad school has been kicking my butt as of late. Mostly because I find it hard to strike a balance between doing work for work and doing work for school. Whenever I work on one of those two for an extended period of time, I feel guilty like I should be doing the other one.

I have had the same Prof. 2 classes in a row now. I thought the guy hated me. He is seriously one of the most intelligent people I have ever conversed with, but he is so blunt it borderlines being rude. Let me give you an example of one of his messages to my (small) class of like 15 people:
Please do not email me with questions or problems. I get too many emails in one day and don't have time for yours. Send your queries to Stephen and he will contact me. Only do this on Thursday evening and I will get back to you at my leisure.


I turned in my paper the other day which had basically been consuming my life the last 2 weeks. And...I shall brag a bit because [it's my blog] I worked hard!!!! I got an "A." Considering the last course he refused to give me an "A", I think this is a great accomplishment. I really want to tell people, but no one really cares about my paper about Options in Grammar Teaching. :( The stupid paper is worth 50% of my entire grade. So this is good news for me. Now if I can only survive until the end of May................

New Life

I can't get the formatting to work right whenever I put more than 1 picture in my blog. But, these are two pics of the newest member of the family...Samantha Rae McCracken. She was born this morning at 1:12 and weighed 6 lb. 4 oz. and she was 19 inches long. She is definitely a cutie. The entire time I was there she maybe cried once and it was this soft cry that was almost soothing in a way. She was very content and slept a lot...most of the 4 hours that I was there. Watching Ryan with her was just precious. He will be such a great dad!!

It is so strange to think that my cousins are now having kids!!! Like a whole new generation. I am starting to feel old. But, it is kind of good I guess. I think you appreciate God's blessings more. It just amazes me to look at something SO tiny and intricate and think that some people don't believe in a Creator. The whole miracle of God creating every limb, cell, tiny feature...is precious and I think that God's love is seen so clearly in the eyes of a newborn!

I love spending time with my family. I can't wait to watch Sammy grow up. Good job and congratulations, Abbey and Ryan!

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

I was really excited because I was getting a new neighbor-and by neighbor I mean we share the same house (split in two) and walk up the same stairs and have the same porch, so it kind of matters how I like/dislike the neighbor. My old neighbor was apparently there for 4 or 5 years. He was very nice-30 years old, polite enough-but not very social and it was just kind of a bummer. Because I have no friends in this town, that's why. My old neighbor was the brewmaster for the entire PA Rennaissance Faire and well..yeah.

Ok, now that I brought you up to speed, my new neighbor arrived this past weekend. It is now mid-week, and I just met him now walking in from work.

Now think about a balloon when it is filled with air. That is how I felt because I was praying that my new neighbor would want to hang out sometimes, maybe watch sports together or talk on the porch or even jog around downtown with me. What happens to a balloon when you let the air out? I am that balloon. All hopes abandoned.

I waited for the guy to walk up the sidewalk and I shook his hand which was awkward enough. Then the guy didn't even say anything so I said, "Hi. I'm your neighbor, Bethany." And he said, "Ok." AWKWARD MOMENT! Then I asked him where he was from-he said this town, surprise. Then I asked what he did and in a barely audible voice he said he worked at a nursing home kitchen. Ok. I apologized for not meeting him before and he said his friend met me the other night while his friend was out having a smoke. FALSE. I didn't meet his friend. Then before we were even done the "conversation" he walks up the steps. I am pretty sure this kid has ZERO personality. Other notes about him-he drives a very old Buick. I think he is 23 years old (I think my landlord told me that). He carries large black garbage bags to and from the trunk of his car. I have seen him do this 3 out of the 4 days he has been here. I am hoping one day my body won't be in one of them. I mean, I am willing to give the guy a chance, and by that I mean not judge him completely and still say hello if I ever see him. BUT, I don't see us EVER hanging out. The dude is so socially inept. And I am used to Corey who is kind of socially inept as well. This is a whole different ballgame. My words do not describe the weirdness that just went down.

I wish I lived in Mr. Roger's neighborhood. They were all so social and friendly and very, very helpful. Remember that little trolly they had? I want that too so I would have transportation.

Emeril's Delight

A few weeks ago, Corey and I both went "home" and enjoyed a rainy weekend with my parents. We all went to the new SANDS casino in Bethlehem (for dinner, not the slots) because I had been dying to try Emeril's new restaurant. He doesn't have any other "Burgers And More" restaurants in the country, so it was very new and exciting. Burgers and More is supposed to be called BAM! for short, since that is what Emeril always says. In case you can't tell yet, I'm a huge fan! Pork fat rules! Ok...so my restaurant critique is as follows:

1. Only waited about 10 minutes on a Saturday night to be seated. +
2. Create your own burger-write on a paper what you want and hand your paper to the waiter. +
3. Quality of the burger- AMAZING! Big and juicy! +
4. Sides- we all got something different. I got the classic fries-they were good, but small. +/-
5. Dessert- THE BEST PART. Corey and I split a Bananas Foster Milkshake. I never tasted anything so good.

I wish that I could be a food critic. There isn't anything better than a quality burger, fries, and a shake! YUM! I really recommend going to the SANDS for BAM!

Make A Baby!

Facebook ads keep getting creepier, folks! Why is it that EVERYDAY when I log into facebook I have the same ad for the newest weird craze listed as number one? The ads are supposed to randomly change but I always get MAKE A BABY!
Despite being totally creeped out, I clicked on the link to see what it entails. You have to PAY 10-20.00 $ and upload a pic of you and your mate and see what your child will look like. Tell me this: are people that impatient/curious/vain to pay that money to see a computer generated picture of their future offspring? Would they even generate an ugly baby picture? Maybe they would - to deter people from reproducing. Maybe it is some group's scam and their aim is to not overpopulate the earth. Also, you can cross your pic with Brad Pitt's or Chris Brown's to see what your babe would look like if you did it with a celeb. There are so many questions that I have about this site/idea. This is probably what my baby would look like if I mated with Ronald McDonald:

To Think I Limited Him to Fishsticks!

The other week Corey came to visit me over his spring break-which really didn't turn out to be too exciting because I was working and he had work to do. He came up Wed. and we left Fri.
On Wed. I took care of making him a nice dinner, mainly because food is truly the way to Corey's heart. But, also, because it is SO nice to cook something for someone and not heat up a frozen microwaveable dinner, which have become the grim standard.
Then, on Thursday, I had a conference outside of school all day, so I was getting home late and then I had fitness class at 6:45, so I asked Corey to take care of getting dinner. My first thoughts: a ready cooked chicken, frozen pizza, ready cooked fried chicken, spaghetti. I told him I had to eat early so I wouldn't puke at the gym. He didn't have anything ready. Alas, he went to the STORE at 6, which I was OK with, and just grabbed a bar before the gym.
Here comes the cute part of the story. It took him forever to shop. I came home at 8:15, and the ENTIRE table was covered with an amazing spread of food he had cooked-amazing, since I thought he couldn't do it. AND the majority of the dishes were done, dried, and PUT AWAY!

The meal: Chicken Francaise (even garnished!!!), Rice, Garlic Caesar Salad, Biscuits-in a Tupperware bowl lined with a napkin-very cute, and Cranberry sauce. Not only did it look good, it was absolutely delicious!!! I wanted to blog about this because 1. I want to remember this. 2. Corey doesn't usually do this "romantic" stuff, so it is very sweet. 3. I hadn't blogged for many weeks. Sorry!