Anniversary Number Two

It's impossible to pay tribute to the two happiest (and in some ways toughest) years of my life. When a couple prepares for marriage, they hear all sorts of comments. Everyone has their own unique understanding of marriage; marriages are like fingerprints- unique, twisted, complicated, intricate. So here, after two wonderful years, is my understanding:

Marriage is sitting in silence and being completely comfortable, knowing we don't have to say a thing. It's just being together. Sometimes it's me just listening while Randy talks about pharmacy school stuff and chemistry stuff, because even though it all goes over my head, I love hearing his passion and excitement.

It's sometimes fighting about silly things (remember when you ruined my sandwich, babe?) but always forgiving because it's never worth it to hold a grudge. Sometimes it's Randy staying up until 2 a.m. while I tearfully work my way through some emotional crisis I'm having.

It's putting someone else ahead of yourself and encouraging that other person to follow his or her dreams. Because you know they will also encourage you to follow yours.

Marriage is doing the HUGE pile of Randy's dishes even when I really don't want to or picking up a pair of dirty socks on the floor for the thousandth time and getting annoyed...until I remember that if this is the worst of Randy's  flaws, who am I to complain?

It's knowing weird little things about someone else, like where all their birthmarks are or that they always sleep with a shirt on because otherwise they feel itchy or that they don't like the grape flavored Tums.

Marriage is an ebb and flow, a give and take, a complicated dance that alternates between graceful and clumsy, depending upon what you're going through. After all, no one's perfect, and imperfect people result in imperfect marriage. But marriage, like many other things, is a learning experience. Even when you don't feel like dancing anymore and you're stepping all over each other's feet, you keep dancing, because you've promised you will.  I hope we dance until we're old and gray.

And there's a lot that marriage isn't. It isn't all cuddling, snuggling, flowers, romantic dates, and sexy lingerie, though those are certainly good things to incorporate. It isn't always easy, and it's certainly not always painless. But despite others' skepticism about getting married at 21, and despite the moments when I wonder, "What did I get myself into?" and despite the dirty socks on the floor and facial hair in the sink...

I wouldn't want my life to be any other way. And I wouldn't want to share life with any other person.

Happy second anniversary, love.

Color Me Rad

Have you ever had blue boogers? I have!

Last Saturday, my friend Lindsay and I ran in my first 5K. Lindsay is a super-athlete, so three miles was nothing for her. She doesn't even run and still made it look easy. I had secretly been running for a few months to at least semi-prepare (read: not have to walk).

If you've never done a race, I definitely recommend starting with something like Color Me Rad for several reasons:

1) They don't even time you. There's no watch, clock, stopwatch, hourglass, or sun dial. They seriously don't care about time.

2) It's for charity. Part of the race proceeds went to the Special Olympics. A really neat component of this race was the fact that a Special Olympic athlete led each heat! So cool!

3) It's incredibly fun and not boring. You are always looking forward to the next "color station" where volunteers bombard you with colored cornstarch. Then you end up looking like this:

Thank you, Lindsay, for buying this picture so I could steal it from Facebook.

I'd always wondered what I'd look like as a Smurf with a mustache, and now I know.

"Good Behavior" at what expense?

Friday night, my dear friend and college roommate came to visit us. I was so excited to see her and her husband, and I was also excited to meet their dog, Swarley.

For those of you not familiar with why this name is possibly one of the best dog names EVER, please view this video.



Anyway, I knew their dog was going to be epic, and in fact, he was. He was a sweet, fun little pup. However, our kitten, Minion, disagreed. Being the idealist that I am, I was sure that she would be a little scared but that her curiosity and talkative, friendly nature would win out, and she would make a canine friend.

I was very wrong.

Minion hid in our room pretty much all night, even though Swarley came up to the bedroom door and tried to befriend her. Even after my friend and her husband and Swarley left, Minion was so quiet that it was eery. It was almost like having a completely different cat.

And it got me thinking... even though I complain about how talkative and hyper she is, I felt a little sad when she wasn't acting like herself because I knew she wasn't being Minion. She was acting out of fear, and she wasn't being herself.

And then somehow THAT got me thinking about teaching, coaching, and parenting (Minion is the closest thing we have to kid) ;) It's hard to balance modifying behavior with encouraging creativity and individuality. It's important to validate students' feelings while still holding them to certain standards. It is necessary to teach kids social practices and social norms while still encouraging them to be true to themselves. And it's a huge balancing act!

I often ask myself, "Is the MOST important thing to have well-behaved kids? Is that really the end goal of being a good teacher or parent or coach or whatever? Is the MOST important thing to have kids who are confident in themselves? What IS the most important part of being a teacher (or, I guess if it's more applicable to you, parent/coach/mentor)?"

And I don't know the answer to any of those questions. I do know that kids are resilient, but they are also fragile. And there are some people who assert that kids need to just conform to the system or whatever adults tell them, even at the expense of breaking their spirits. The most important thing, some people argue, is that kids always just comply without question.

I know I don't agree with that because it seems like a slippery slope. Personally, I WANT my kids (students AND future biological kids) to learn how to think for themselves- how will they do that if they are taught to just always comply with every adult authority figure, even if that authority figure is wrong?

I am still working on balancing certain aspects of teaching. I do know that I don't want my students complying with me solely because they are scared (just like I really hated that Minion was "quiet and good" because she was terrified). I also know that I am willing to listen to them in an appropriate time if they address me in a respectful manner. They can always come talk to me after class if they feel strongly about something that happened in class. Usually we can work out a solution together and move on in a positive direction. I like when they question me respectfully because it shows me they are thinking for themselves, and this is something SO MANY KIDS nowadays do NOT do!

I don't have a neatly wrapped, insightful ending for this jumbled post. Sorry :)

So, what do YOU think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

We're losing the art of writing

Sometimes being a high school English teacher is downright discouraging. How do students make it to me, in eleventh grade, not knowing how to use "to" and "too" correctly, or how to correctly conjugate verbs, or how to organize thoughts into paragraphs? How do they pass middle school unable to write in complete sentences or correctly capitalize proper nouns or join together two independent clauses using a coordinating conjunction? OK, that last one I can maybe understand, and I don't mind teaching them that. But I feel so disheartened by all the other stuff!

This week of "summer school" has been especially discouraging. I am in charge of five three-hour days of intense tutoring (with 15-20 students, depending upon who shows up). And then, they take the state writing test. I'm scared. The kids HAVE to pass this test to graduate. I'm scared many of them won't. I'm scared that if we keep failing our kids, we'll have generations to come who will only b able 2 talk lk ths and wont kno how 2 rite right.

Today I got to thinking...how did I learn how to write? First and foremost, I think learning to write comes from READING. As a reader, you're exposed to masters of the language, those who weave words to paint pictures and propel a plot and create characters who make you laugh and cry. You pick up on certain words' connotations. You know which prepositions to use with what words. You just KNOW things about the English language because you've encountered them in reading. Research shows that reading and writing are intertwined, and we as language arts teachers are instructed to teach reading and writing together.

But I think I really, truly learned to write through letters to my grandfather, who was a published author and poet, a journalist who loved writing about sports and his political views, a man who would send me letters weekly. I remember writing to him and signing the letter "your grandaughter." In Grandpa's next letter, he wrote, "I didn't know I had a 'grandaughter,' but I know I have a lovely 'granddaughter.'" And that's not the only thing he corrected in my writing! I remember working so very hard to create perfect letters to him and Grandma, all the way down to trying to make my atrocious elementary handwriting adult-like.

We live in a world of texting and tweeting. Print media is in danger of becoming extinct. Cursive isn't even taught anymore in many schools because it's "pointless."

I urge you, just this once...get off your computer, get out a pen and paper, and just write something. A poem, a letter, a list of things to do, a story, a journal entry, whatever. Yes, technology is awesome- after all, you're all reading this on my blog, aren't you? But that doesn't mean that writing with pen and paper has lost its value. I think it's just up to us to keep the art alive.

Recycled t-shirt headband? yes, please!

As a teacher, I'm constantly asked what I do in the summer. It's a tough question to answer because I don't want people to get jealous of all the free time I have. Also, I don't want to appear lazy. So I usually list everything I could ever possibly do to make it seem like I'm super busy: work out, read books, clean the house, cook all the time, plan awesome lessons for next year, teach summer school (which hasn't started yet, but whatever)...you get the picture.

One thing I've been doing this summer for real is finding cool crafts on Pinterest. And instead of just pinning them and saying, "Man, I wish I had time for this," I am actually DOING them. Since one of my latest fashion obsessions is headbands, and most stores charge ten bucks for those things, I decided to make some myself. I made a few for my sister Michi (who can make a burlap bag look gorgeous), and then I made one for myself.

I used this tutorial (includes video!) for the headband part and this one for the rose. I didn't have any cute buttons, though :( Next time I will!

 This is what the headband looks like. You can see the poor job I did hotgluing it, so I'm going to be neater about that next time.

This is what it looks like on- the flower is kind of off to the side. Because...well, that's where it ended up. 

And I wore it out today and received several compliments on it. Success!

Happy 4th

Some people post videos of their adorable, babbling babies. Some people share footage of their precious puppies.

Since I have zero kiddos and am not a dog person (though meeting my friend Kara's greyhound may have softened my heart), I have to share kitten videos. Specifically, our kitten Minion the Magnificent, who has not lived up to her name at all but who makes up for it by being quirky, entertaining, and sometimes downright annoying.

Warning: if you hate cuteness, don't watch this video.

Happy Independence Day! Here's to family, pets, friends, loved ones, and all those who serve our country!

Sound the alarm!

Yes. I am a total jeans sweatpants and t-shirt kind of girl. Blame it on the homeschooling. Blame it on the years of being an athlete and the free t-shirts that come with that. Blame it on laziness, being cheap, wanting to be comfortable at all costs...whatever you want.

So why am I dressing up so much lately, y'all? What is wrong with me? Look at these outfits I put on just to go to Target (went once yesterday and once today...I may have an addiction, but that's a different post):

Who is this girl?



Also, my nails AND TOENAILS are painted. I am wearing jewelry-hello, people, a necklace? And my hair is not in a messy bun (although it is in a ponytail...I'm still working on motivating myself to do my hair regularly). I'm a changed woman!

You know, I kind of hate when people say that we shouldn't change. We've all heard it- "Well, she USED to be a, b, c, but now she's x, y, z."

Come on, now. We ALL change. Those of us who used to live in frumpy mom jeans and tattered t-shirts dress up in skirts just to go to Target. Some of us who used to chow down on burgers and fries are now hardcore vegans.

And that's ok. Change isn't necessarily bad. Life is full of seasons. Our friends might change with the seasons; our beliefs may grow and deepen as we become more experienced, wise, and educated.

If you're not willing to change, how will you ever learn new things, explore new ideas, meet new people, or grow as a person?