April 25, 2013: Garden time

It's that time of year again!  We started the seeds for our new garden.  Hopefully we get even better results this year than we did last year!

April 24, 2013: Syrup shots

 

Yes.  That is my father, taking a shot of pure maple syrup.  Texts like this absolutely make my day.

April 23, 2013: Must. Have. Reeses.

I had been craving them all day and was planning to stop by Walgreens on my way to class tonight to get one.  I was running late though, and I didn't have time to stop!  It was pure joy when I realized that there was a mini mart place right in the Merchandise Mart Building!  YAHOO!!

April 22, 2013: Runners for Boston

My coworkers and I ran a run to support the victims and families that were injured during the Boston Marathon bombings.  It was cool to see so many people come together in support.  We love you, Boston!

April 21, 2013: Does this ever happen?

I bought three different things at Dominick's and my total after tax was exactly $5.00.  No extra cents.  That has never happened to me before.  Am I crazy to be this excited about it?  

April 19, 2013: Blair Witch: Artie Style

HAHA!  While facetiming, Kyle had to carry Artie through the hallway with the ipad.  He immediately began making these freaky faces.  Add the moving camera, and it totally felt like I was watching Blair Witch all over again!!  Kyle and I tried to play along but we were laughing so hard it was tough getting a picture with all three of us looking terrified.

April 18, 2013: Chipotle

That is the closest I have come to finishing my Chipotle in a long time.  

April 17, 2013: New store in town

Augastino finally rented his store space... to a new age spiritual healing place.  They are selling healing crystals, spiritual herbs, and religious books.  I find this beyond hysterical.  

April 16, 2013: Chicago Fire...again

Our street must either be super awesome or run down enough that they don't mind burning up a few buildings, because they taped Chicago Fire right outside my apartment again.  This time I didn't offer to be an extra since they didn't take me up on it last time.

April 15, 2013: Tax day delinquent... or not...

This is my first year that I waited for the very last minute on my taxes.  I filed them at 6:00 Monday evening and discovered I owed money on my state taxes!  I began to freak out, not realizing that the post office stays open late on tax day so you can get your returns postmarked on time.  I drove to the post office and was absolutely shocked at what I saw.  There was a line of cars along the entire two blocks in front of the office. Postal workers were stationed outside with reflective vests on and traffic glowlight sticks waving cars on.  They had created a "drive through" type service so you just drove up next to them and handed your return to them out your window!  For those of us not prepared with stamps, they had mobile stamp selling stations outside.  Chicago sure knows how to cater to the procrastinators!

April 14, 2013: Scariest turtle ever

Apparently this plastic singing turtle is beyond terrifying because Jonah will only touch it from the safety of his mom's lap, and when it starts singing, he clings to her.  We got quite a laugh out of it all :)

April 13, 2013: This kid can eat

I got to visit Becca, Brandon, and Jonah this weekend!  I haven't seen them in probably six months, so I was in total awe when I saw how much of a little man Jonah has become.  You are going to see this kid in the guiness book some day under "record amount of anything paleo eaten" because he is insane.  He is just over a year and for breakfast he put away a 3 egg omelet with veggies, a banana, an avocado, and a large portion of ham.  Go, Jonah! 

April 12, 2013: Lemon head

Yes, that's me with a lemon on my head.  We were getting the students pumped up for "Lemonade Day," a chance for them to become entrepreneurs and start their own lemonade stand businesses.  I believe it worked.  

April 11, 2013: goodbye note

Many of my friends find notes on the floor with swears, threats, or rude gossip on the floors of their classrooms, even those who teach younger elementary.  I am BEYOND grateful that I find notes like this instead.  I love my kiddos!

(If you don't read second grade very well "pirit" is pirate.)

April 10, 2013: Miracle of life

My class went on a field trip today to a dairy farm.  We were led into the birthing barn where we watched a cow give birth to a calf!  Surprisingly, my students were all very respectful and self controlled during this!  It dead silent in the barn while we watched the cow push this little guy out.  It wasn't until the cow let out one long, slow, MOO that some of us started to giggle a little.   When the cow started licking her calf clean, however, one of my students blurted out, "THAT is DISGUSTING!  Do you know that came right out of your BOOTY?"  

I also found out later that one student had asked a teacher, "Is that what happened to Mrs. McLaughlin last week?"  (Mrs. McLaughlin is another teacher at our school who just had a baby a couple of days ago. :)

April 9, 2013: I work Out

I'm sexy and I know it.

Which is totally why I only showed my feet in the picture.  No need for anyone to stumble over my white chicken legs. :)

April 8, 2013: Hey Buddy!

These are some of my favorite moments.

April 7, 2013: Strange creature in the tree

On my run today I saw this little guy just hanging out in the tree.  My mind immediately began wondering who had put him there.   A small boy trying to scare his younger friends?  A mom trying to make her kids laugh?  A really creepy man who has a stuffed lizard fetish?  Let's just say running the scenarios through my head kept me entertained the rest of my run.

April 6, 2013: Secret Garden

I went for a run today and part way through got bored.   I decided to stop and look for any geocaches nearby.  I found one but could not figure out how to get there.  It was located in a courtyard on UIC's campus.  I finally got to where I could see the courtyard but needed to walk through a wall in order to get there.  (which was where this picture was taken).  I finally found the walkway I needed to get inside the courtyard.  Once there, I lost my signal and couldn't find the cache.  It was a fun adventure though!

April 5, 2013: RACHEL!

I haven't seen my friend Rachel in 7 years...since we graduated from Hope.  She was in town for a conference this week and wanted to visit me, as she put it, in my "natural habitat."  She met me down by school and we went to Davanti, a legit Italian restaurant in Little Italy.  The food was incredibly delicious, but surprisingly small.  As you can see, we got a single ravioli as our order.  Good thing we also ordered pizza.

Thanks, Rachel, for such a great time catching up!

April 4, 2013: Catastrophe

We lost our last two shrimp today.  One of my students was backing up and knocked the entire ecosphere on the floor, shattering the glass and sending the shrimp flying.  They flopped around for a few minutes while we scrambled to fill a bucket with water.  They survived for another 40 minutes or so in the bucket before finally sinking to the bottom.  We said a few words to honor them, then flushed them down the toilet.  

The kindergarteners just got a bird as a class pet.  I think we'll hold off a little longer before we try something new. 

April 3, 2013: Bruised butt

No picture. 

My reasoning:

Over spring break Jesse, Randi and I went geocaching in Cartier Park.  This was my first attempt at geocaching in the wilderness and I was pretty pumped.  We decided to off road it rather than walk along the path, in hopes of finding the cache quicker.  In order to do that, I had to scale a steep hill that still had some ice on it.  I slipped a little, and Jesse laughed saying that she was going to laugh her ass off if I actually ended up biting it.  No sooner were the words out of her mouth, I slipped and hit the ground...HARD... and slid part way down the hill.  One week later, the bruise on the side of my hip is the size of an english muffin.  I told Jesse that and she asked me to take a picture for the blog today.  I did.

Looking at it now, this is an extremely inappropriate picture to place on this website.  The bruise stretches from my butt to my hip.  I am scantily clad in the photo, and it is a closeup of my butt.  Not pretty.  Be thankful I spared you!

April 2, 2013: Classroom panorama

I just figured out that my phone has panoramic view on it.  This was my first attempt at trying it out.  And yes, the student in the corner is dressed like Harry Potter. 

April 1, 2013: My hope is found in Jesus... and this lady

Let me set the stage:

  When I got back to Chicago from spring break I had two $200 tickets on my car for not having my city sticker.  I am fully aware I was breaking the law by not having this sticker, but in my defense, I had tried 3 times to go to the alderman's office to get the sticker with no success.  All three times I went, nobody was there even though it was well within office hours.  

The tickets were irritating but there was nothing I could do at the moment so I drove to Michigan to visit my family over the Easter weekend.  While in Michigan I told my family the one thing I really wanted was a blizzard from Dairy Queen.  I drove into town only to discover that they were closed on Sunday because of Easter.  Sad.  I left for Chicago a little disappointed and still craving the blizzard.  Later that night, Katie texted me telling me she was on her way to McDonalds to get a McFlurry and asked if I wanted one.  I was so excited!  Not as great as DQ but close.  Unfortunately, she got there and they had closed down their ice-cream machine for the night.  Fail #2!

SO...  after school today I headed to the alderman's office again today for a fourth try to get a permission letter saying I can get a certain zoned sticker for my car.  They were there!  Unfortunately, they told me that the district lines had been redrawn and I was no longer in ward 25, despite what the city of chicago website says.  The woman was just about to tell me I was SOL when she saw my exasperated face.  Feeling sorry for me, she gave me the letter I needed and pointed me in the direction of the office I needed to get the actual sticker. I drove to this office only to find that they did not have any more stickers.  They told me to go to a secondary location.  I drove to this secondary location to be told that they also did not have any stickers left.  I had to go to the downtown office which closes at 5:00.  It was now 5:30 and I was pissed.  Knowing I would not get the sticker today and chance getting another $200 ticket tonight, I was extremely irritated.  I decided the only thing to do was pray for patience with this great city... and get my fricken ice cream.  This lady made me so happy when she handed me the McFlurry.  I think she thought I was a psycho.  

March 31, 2013: Liquid crack

A visit to the sugar bush isn't complete without the shot of hot, fresh maple syrup.  CHEERS!

March 30, 2013: Ivan meets Emery

They are going to be best buds some day. 

March 29, 2013: Big basket of Cam

Yeah, we have fun.  

March 28, 2013: Snuggles

Living 930 miles away from your nephew is really hard!  This is my last day with Artie before I fly home.  I won't see him again until probably June.  I don't want to stop snuggling with him because by the time I see him again he might not remember me.  I loved being able to actually kiss his spit bubbly face instead of just wave to him from behind the ipad screen.  It was nice knowing for a couple days he knew I was a real person and not just a rectangular robot head.  I like to believe he could feel how much I love him every I snuggled him, made him laugh, and talked with him.  I am forcing myself to believe that somewhere inside babies can hide that away and bring it back the next time they see the people who love them, even if it is not for a few months.  I know that so many people go through this, and even more people have it worse than I do.    I am blessed to be in a place where I can see him as much as I do, blessed to have a good relationship with my family, blessed to know my little man at all.  I am blessed. 

March 27, 2013: Hanging out

My favorite part of the day while in NC was morning time when Meg brought Artie in the room for lazy time together.  We would just lay in bed, talk, play, and snooze.  Artie relaxes with his hands above his head.  It is hard to tell if he is just resting or putting out the vibe.

March 26, 2013: Match maker

This was one of the most joyful moments ever for me.  My two loves met one another for the first time.  Artie was clearly digging Leyla.  I have heard that each one already has a kid or two they are betrothed to, but I can hope.  

March 25, 2013: Independent Woman

That's Leyla, dominating the solid foods.  She just started this week and already has it down.  For every bite, she tried to grab the spoon away from Em and do it herself.  Em is going to have her hands full with this girl!

March 24, 2013: Little Leyla

You are about to see a lot of pictures of babies.

Spring break began this week so I traveled to VA to see my amazing friend Emily and her daughter, Leyla.  Leyla is 5 months old already.  She is super smiley and has the most adorable eyes.  She loves kicking, drooling, and talking to her mom.  She does NOT love when I kiss her on the cheek.  Instead, it tends to send her into a screaming fit in the middle of the grocery store. :)  By the end of my stay though, she got over it and let me kiss her all I wanted :)