Gl-unting

Tomorrow I am going on my first duck hunt. It’s going to be a ‘double date duck hunt’ with Duck Dude and his sister and bro in law. I think it’s the only thing that got me through this allergy ridden week.

The best thing about this hunt? It’s going to be more gl-unting than hunting. Glamorous hunting. Like glamping but glunting. My main purpose of going is to watch Duck Dude’s dog, Koal, do her thang. We plan on cooking breakfast and drinking drinks that will keep us warm. I do not even care to shoot a gun.. I just want to stay warm.

If I had a pink camo jacket I would wear it.

If we were going deer hunting, I would glitter paint the antlers.

If we were shooting a moose, I’d still glitter paint the antlers. It’d make all the boy mooses go ‘wahhhh.’

If I were going to prom, I’d wear a camo dress.

Just kidding.

I could actually see his sister and I doing this though..... just a little morning yoga!

And the whole time I’ll probably be imagining this:

I will give a whole recap next week, but until then:    

Happy Friday of Thanksgiving break... y'all!!!

Prince Fielder

And here lies the problem. If you tell me these are My Rangers... I am going to believe you. When I believe you, I am going to assume that I will be included on all major issues. So when I randomly hear that not only Ian Kinsler, but also my Baylor bear David Murphy has to go play with the Tigers/Indians, and we get Prince Fielder.......I pout allllll night long and complain to anyone who will listen. This is why Prince Fielder just plain sucks.

1. His name is Prince. Seriously. You are not royalty and you are no where close to looking like a Prince; therefore, your name should not be Prince. One time I had a student named Princess and I despised calling her name... and she was anything but a Princess. And Prince reminds me of Princess and I just do not see why you would name your child that! 

2. I hate one of his tattoos. If you know me, you know I love my tattoos. If it were socially acceptable for teachers to have sleeves, I would have one. But Prince Fielder has a tattoo, in Korean, of his name.... on his neck. First of all, neck tats? No. You're a hood rat. Secondly, in Korean? You're not Korean. Third, it says Prince? You cannot remember your own name? I don't get it. If that was tattooed in English we would all make fun of him. I don't think having it in Korean makes it any better. 

3. He can't run the bases. I am specifically referring to game 6 of the ALCS this year, but I am sure there are other examples I could find. He was on third and got chased down by Saltalamacchia. He dove for third base and ended up about a foot and a half short. Yup. You're real close, Prince! Look at him looking at the ump like "Sympathy call? Something?" And the third baseman is like "Your, like, so far away, I don't even feel the need to step on the bag." The only good thing about this picture is Salty's mask is flying off and you can see his face. Hiiiii Salty. Come back to Texas. 

4. His playoff batting average is less than admirable. The tweet speaks for itself. 

RIP David Murphy. As soon as I can have a chat with management about My Rangers.... and the Man BFF and I have a "talk" with JD over Christmas break... I'm sure he will trade for you to come back. Stay strong and come hang out with me on Dec 7th in Waco.

  

Prized Purchases

Lately, I've been super impressed with some purchases I have made. Is that a cocky statement or what? I can't help but love them and want to wear them all the time and would gladly spend more money on alternate color options to add to my collection. Some of these purchases I made a while ago before "fall/winter" set in... and I'm finally getting to wear them. Here's a couple:

 

 

This hole-y sweater from JCrew is just amazing. It's the perfect warmth and it's so easy to dress up or dress down. I want to wear it every, single day.

 

I've been a fan of baby lips for a while... but I typically stick with the neutral colors. Until I just went for the "Cherry Me" red yesterday and I already love it. It says 'my lips are the perfect red' without yelling 'I want to be a fashionista' like red lipstick Taylor Swift does. My red lipstick is only for special occasions and this chapstick makes me feel more fancy on the e'erday.

 

This sweatshirt from Urban is so fantastic. And it was on sale. And it's gray and white. And it's a sweatshirt. And it has lace... so it's like a nice, sweatshirt. It's marvelous. But I'll probably wear pants with it. (just for you mom)

 

This tank is also from Urban... and I specifically bought it so I could wear it underneath my blazer. I can't wait to wear it to a Christmas party. It looks so winter-y and pretty. And the model has pants on! Clever concept.  

 

Now I need black flats. Like good black flats. I cannot find a pair that I want. And I'm hopeless. Help me.

 

2 Days Until break... I'm counting hours if you want to get specific.

Principal's Office

I did it. I voluntarily walked into the principal’s office.

Let me preface the story with this. I love my principal. He is great. He does not micromanage and he always supports me. I love when he comes into my room.. he is always welcome. However, I do not care to spend time in his office. It still just feels weird. And I do not like to ask favors.

Buuuuut. I neeed to be on this hiring committee for a new math teacher in January. I never want my blog to be a negative place. When I go on rants, I try to at least keep it a positive rant…. Ish. So I will say this. In order for me to be a better teacher and to have a collaboration partner, I needed to tell demand kindly ask my principal if I could be on the committee.

I had my bullet points ready. I had my reasons listed out. I had thought of rebuttals in case he said no. And after a week of gathering courage, emailed him to “have a quick chat.”

I walked in, made a quick corny joke, and sat at a table with him. I took a glance at my notes and began talking. “Thanks so much for meeting with me. I promise I won’t talk a lot of your time….”

Within 30 seconds, I’m not even joking, he said, “I want you on the hiring committee.”

Oh.. uhh.. cool. Well. I’m not finished with my bullet points. How can I say that all professional sounding?

“Thanks, but I still have bullet points!”

Now you just blurted something out… stick to the bullet points!!!

“I really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the experience and grow professionally. I was wondering if you had created a profile of the person you are hoping to hire?”

And then we talked about what I was looking for and compared it with what he was looking for. We talked a little bit about logistics and that was it!

I’m officially on the hiring committee and I get to be a part of the interview process. We’ve already had over 30 applicants for the job, so I’m hoping we will really be able to pick from the cream of the crop! I’m sure I will have some blogs in the future about the process. We expect to begin interviews the first week in December.

I’m already praying that the person God drops in the job is the perfect one for the position.

3 days until Thanksgiving Break, but who’s counting? 

Post It Note Project

Post It note project is complete!!! And now I have to grade 103 of them... but that doesn't matter because they look awesome! Here are some of my favorites from this year!

I'm trying to turn this kid. From Ducks Unlimited to Delta Waterfowl. Your welcome Duck Dude.

The most adorable golden retriever in post its ever!

You can never go wrong with minions!

I think this turkey is super pretty and it reminds me of Screwy Louie... Duck Duded's new turkey friend who lives around the corner with two big dogs. I'm completely serious. 

Who else was a boss at tetris? Was the word boss used back then? I tried to think of one, but I'm not sure I succeeded. These kids succeeded. I love tetris.

What's not to love about a sonic meal?! 

And be careful if you're a teacher in the hall around me... you never know when you'll end up as a math project! 

Happy Friday to all! I'm spending my Friday with a Family Pack of Ricolas. Nice to see you too winter weather.

Spiderman Socks

Coaching is a funny thing.

Monday night I had the opportunity to watch one of the best high school games I have ever seen. It was phenomenal…. The #3 and the #5 teams meeting in the third round of playoffs! They school where they played was way too small and the stands were flooded with people. Everyone packed in like sardines, because there was no way anyone was missing this match. My [former] girls worked their tails off and they won in 5 games! Not only did they win in 5… they won the 5^th set 15:4… and sent the 2 time defending state champions packing! It was glorious.

This leads me to my own coaching superstitions. The way I start in the beginning is always different from the end.

I started with:

My rose gold Fossil watch, my black number, my sister painted clipboard, and touching their shoulder while they warm up.

I ended with:

My brown Michael Kors watch, a blue number 2 pencil, my sister painted clipboard set on a chair by me, touching their shoulder while they warm up, and my Spiderman socks.

My Spiderman socks became a hot commodity throughout the season (I might have talked about them in a game day note). The girls asked me every game, “Are you wearing your socks?” Every time I responded, “What do you think?” It’s such a mental game with all the 13 year olds. I am not above wearing Spiderman socks to give them the confidence to win.

And we won 3^rd place for the season in the tournament when we came in as the 4^th seed. Superstitions work.

Spidey sense, out. 

Baby Lock Me in A Room With You

My school is currently experiencing problems with Google. That makes my life so much more difficult than it needs to be!! But I'm working through it and finally getting to blog. So instead of recapping my Thursday night, I'm recapping my Thursday night and weekend! Thursday night was the Baylor/OU game and it was glorious!! We won and I was already wearing my "Ouch, that had to hurt" shirt!!! 

I gave that game to my Uncle Phil and his defense. It was awesome. My OU friend wanted to bury her head and wear a Baylor shirt by the end! That's right. Sic em Bears!

Speaking of sic 'em bears.... our BU/Texas tickets came in the mail!!!!! Ahhh! The last game at the Case! I am so excited and cannot wait for Dec. 7th. I was hoping Texas would lose in OT, but it's setting up one heck of a finale in Waco! 

Then, Duck Dude and I went to see Josh Turner!!! I had never seen him before and when he hit that first low note of "Baby, lock them doors and turn the lights down low"..... I wanted to be locked in a room with him. He was amazing! He sounded phenonemenal! Exactly like he does on the radio. Mucho respect Joshie, you're good. 

Bring on the week! 

The Hickey: One time edition

It all started the Friday before homecoming, or BUHC13, if you've been around these parts lately.

I left my beloved straightener in the coaches office... and I dried my hair to be nice and big for the weekend. Like, huge Texas big. Then I could do nothing to tame it because I forgot my straightener. So, I decided to pull out the curling iron, that I haven't used in 3 years and I shouldn't have been using it for about 5 because my hair doesn't and will not ever stay curled for longer than 13 minutes.

I was drinking my coffee, listening to pandora, enjoying not being at school on a Friday when the inevitable happened. I burned myself. A nice lovely burn on my neck that looks strikingly similar to a hickey.

Now, this is bad.. because everyone knows the more you try to defend yourself the guiltier you look. This was made even worse because when we were in high school, my red head sister attempted to cover up a hickey by actually burning herself with a straightener. Smart, huh? It didn't work and let's just go ahead and say my bro in law is lucky my minister mom let them get married 6 years later. So what do I do??

My options? 
1. Accept defeat. Just let everyone know I got a burn and let the remarks fly about my "hickey."
2. Try and hide it. Ultimately looking more guilty if someone happens to see it. 
3. Distract people with somewhere else to look. I really love that commercial where the mom says, "What? It's smokey eyes!"

4. Wear a scarf. Infinity scarves are perfect for keeping the neck warm hiding anything you might possibly have on your neck. 

Yup, can't see my neck!

5. A combo of the above.

I eventually decided to go with a combo of #1 and #4. There's not much that my family hides from each other. I also thought it made for a hilarious story. And I took the "sure it is!!" and the "uh huh... a 'curling iron burn'" like a champ.

So there you have it. The one, the only, the first and the last edition of my "hickey." 

Meet Hedwig

Meet Hedwig. He's the purdiest painted owl I ever did saw. Mainly because I painted him, and drew him, and slaved over him for a solid 3 hours. And I love him. Here was my thought process along the way. 

Whaaat? We have to actually draw?? No, no... this is a painting thing, not a drawing thing. Grr. Hmm.. it actually does look like an owl. Dang those v's in the center are crooked. Well shoot... guess I'll go with it!

Ah, I see what we did there. Each individual brush stroke is a feather.. because owls have feathers. I'm following you oh master painter Christopher. Look at that shading on the sides of the face. I feel like that's quality shading right there. 

I really like this feather color. I think I get more bold with each painting I do. Don't be afraid to slap that paint up there Mollie! He still looks pretty cute... but I'm gonna go check out everyone else's around me. 

Oh hey Laney with your own apron that you brought with you!! Dang your brush strokes look awesome. Now I'm feeling self conscious about my own ability to hold a paintbrush and not shake... maybe I drank too much diet coke today.. maybe that's why I'm shaking... no.. that could never happen. I take that statement back. What are we doing next? Painting a circle?? Do you know how hard it is for a math teacher to paint a circle. Do you have a ruler so I can measure each diameter of my circle, Christopher? No? Hmm, good thing I have awesome estimation skills. 

Yeah, I can deal with those circles... but what are those feet? They're yellow blobs!! How are they supposed to look like feet? And what did I do with my branch? I made a lovely poop green/brown and thought I'd put that on my painting. That was dumb. And it just keeps getting bigger because I keep trying to add brown/black like Christopher originally told me to do. Why did I venture off on my own? 

Ohhh.. I get to make my own eye color? Obviously my owl's eyes are going to be green. Not the poop green.. but a pretty mint green. Yes, that is actually what I was going for... my circles aren't quite perfect anymore, but that is a pretty green. Dang those v's are still way off center.  

Those really small parts of white were very difficult to paint with a shaky hand... Where's the part where we put more stuff around the eye to detract from my not perfect circles?? We get to make more of our own colors? Perfect!! I want mine to be bright and cheerful... because he's a happy owl. He's a happy Hedwig... Hedwig!!! I'm going to call him Hedwig!!!!! 

And there you have my imperfectly perfect Hedwig. 

Toast to October

Here's to pumpkins. Enough said.

Here's to volleyball season. I love you and I will miss you in about 2 months... but I am glad you are finished for now. 

Here's to parents. The good ones that will do anything and everything for me. And the bad ones.... because you are excellent birth control and a reminder of exactly what I do not want to be like. Yikes. Too harsh? Oh well. 

Here's to my first experience with curriculum writing. It's long and difficult, but I'd rather be doing it than someone else. 

Here's to another month a Pinterest project has laid on my kitchen table uncompleted. I'm working on it. Ok... I'm kind of working on it. I'm working on it by drinking wine... because I need the corks. Does that peak your interest? Maybe I'll remember to ask a restaurant for their corks sometime this next month. 

Here's to decision making. I can't decide where I want to hang sweet little Hedwig in my apartment. He's moved around at least three times this week. Oh shoot.. I haven't blogged about Hedwig???

Here's to actually having too many blog posts in your mind. This month I had toooo many posts I wanted to write. When does that happen? Maybe I'll get to them all next week!  

Until then....