i think i'm tagged . . .

Uh . . . I don't really understand this whole "tagged" business. It started with Jeana, moved to Stephanie, and got Jaclyn too. I think since I read Jaclyn's blog (as did many of you people who haven't done this) I'm supposed to post the 6 weird facts/insights/etc. about myself for other people to read. If you are a person that was tagged looking at this, then do the same on your blog!

1. This time in 2 weeks (do you see the pattern here?) I will be getting ready to drive to Highland for my training for a job that's not at all related to my degree. I'm stepping onto a moving treadmill, I think . . .

2. I don't like writing . . . AT ALL. This fact about me has been brought to you by Dr. Swafford's neverending torture called vague papers about some book I was supposed to read . . . I'm not even sure what to turn in.

3. I don't sleep well until it's almost time to get up. Then, to Jaclyn's dismay and frustration, I like to argue with my alarm clock in the morning about whether it really is the time I should get out of bed or not by hitting the SNOOZE! button an average of, oh I'd say, at least 3 times.

4. To mirror Jaclyn's responses again, I only use Colgate toothpaste (the gel kind). Colgate toothpaste is the one health & beauty item that is constant in my life. Pretty much every other thing is subject to being replaced by the newest/"best"/brightest/weirdest/least expensive/most expensive item I find on the shelf. I rarely find something I can't part with to try something new. (All those ads on TV - they're for me. Too bad I don't really watch TV.)

5. When I start cleaning, I suddenly take on the OCD side of myself and have to clean just about everything and in a certain order. Now, to me, the order is just common sense and I can't understand, for instance, why someone would clean a floor before the countertops!?! Granted, my cleaning streaks usually happen when I'm trying to avoid something that seems like even less fun to do, like homework. Coincidence? Nope.

6. And for my last fact/insight . . . I kinda like the smell of skunks. They don't smell terrible to me, is what I'm trying to say (plus they're cute). I guess I came to the right college. I thought that fact was random enough to save for last.

Now you're wondering how you got stuck in the Internet black hole of blogging and are trying to hit the back button faster than your browser will load. I don't blame you . . . ;)

i put the "special" in special ed.

So today I got to teach 2 periods of the pre-inclusion (special ed.) kids' classes for Mrs. Amos while she did M-teams for our 6th graders who are being promoted. We just did two worksheets and they weren't too bad. The kids at school are crazy, overall. It's not just one group of them. They are just coming off of a whole week of testing and have about one month of school left and no academic requirements. I don't understand the whole system as it stands right now. Why leave time after the summative evaluation?

I finished my portfolio tonight. It's not due until Thursday. I wanted to get it out of the way so I can spend the next couple of nights wrapping up my independent study for School Leadership. I realized today that Dr. Swafford doesn't even remember what exactly he told me to do in the first place, so as long as I turn something in, I should be just fine. Plus, he extended my deadline until next Thursday, without me asking him too. This class is why my MSN thing has said "deadlines amuse me" for the last few days.

I am heading into a week of time off, basically, with some much-deserved fun interspersed throughout. Ryan, Jaclyn, and I are going to the GA Aquarium next Thursday, and we'll be going to at least one Lookouts game next week. I'm excited. That's why I have to get this junk done and just cruise into graduation.

I'm off to bed before I turn into a pumpkin!

a river walk

Yesterday was a really nice day outside once the thunderstorms and downpours went away, so Mary Jane, Randy, Jaclyn, Stephanie, Amy, Jeremy, and I (we missed you Ryan!) decided to take ourselves down to the Riverwalk. It's about 10-13 miles long, depending on what you include, and goes from the Chickamauga Dam to Ross's Landing downtown.

Amy & Jeremy met up with some friends and biked down to Coolidge park. We didn't have a way to get the rest of the bikes down to the Riverwalk, so we parked a little past the Chatt State campus and walked (I rollerbladed) back toward the dam and watched guys fishing. There were LOTS of great blue herons everywhere, perched on the dam and rocks. They fished almost like pelicans, only they didn't dive all the way under the water. The fish were definitely abundant, because both the herons and fishermen were catching a lot!

We got back down to where we had parked and got all of the food out to eat. After Stephanie had a couple of bolono blunders, we finally could eat our sandwiches. I wasn't quite hungry yet because I stuffed myself full at lunch, but it was good anyway.

We got out the ball gloves and Jeremy's giant frisbee after we ate. Jaclyn and I alternated between playing frisbee, playing catch, and playing with my camera. Randy took a LOT of pictures too, mostly of playing frisbee. He got some funny videos (that both include Stephanie looking spastic) of the frisbee too.

It was really nice getting to be outside for most of the beautiful day. Especially because the rest of last week was totally rainy and stormy. We even had one day where the sky was a sickly green color. Even though we need the rain, I'm glad to have days like yesterday - especially when they end up being on Sabbath.

hooligans

Cameron, Austin, Rose (blew out her ACL), Leslie, Cody, & Josh

the girls in the gym during free time after TCAP testing all morning

card sharks

Angie, Rachel, Courtney, & Abbey

Abbey & her "calipitter" George (I think)

a nice day in the sun

Jaclyn and I had a nice "mental health" day yesterday. I didn't have to go to school and she didn't have to go to work. So, we headed to downtown Chattanooga and just walked around and hung out--something we (amazingly) haven't done in the 5 years we've been at Southern. So here are some pictures.

We got downtown a little after 10:00a and went shopping in the few outlet stores that are in Warehouse Row. We actually both bought clothes there at the Tommy Hilfiger and Bass outlets. They're nice buildings, but there are only about 10 stores total. It was kind of depressing in there.

We then walked from the Choo Choo area all the way to the aquarium and to the new Riverwalk area. We played in the fountain/waterfall/steps thing between the two parts of the aquarium and walked around for a while.

We visited lots of little shops and stores, including the gift shop in the aquarium. It was fun playing with the stingray puppets in there :).

At some point, we both got hungry and we walked back up Broad St. to Ankars. Mary Jane had told us over and over that we needed to go to Ankars for falafels. Well, we finally did. We both got a falafel and we split onion rings. It felt so good to sit inside in the shade and air conditioning. [The worst part of being outside was that whatever killer allergens are lurking outside make you feel bad enough that you don't want to be outside anymore. I had a terrible headache by the time we left for home.]

After eating a meal, I decided that we should take a risk of feeling worse and try some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. [We both ended up feeling worse, btw] I don't think I've seen ice cream melt so fast. I had to inhale it so it wouldn't all go away. It was a good thing I got back in the water after eating it, because I would have been sticky!

We talked to Mary Jane & Randy on the phone for a while. They were on their way back from visiting Ryan in Florida. We heard about all of their great deals shopping and what they had done during the weekend. Then we laid on the concrete next to the aquarium again and waited until it was time to walk over to the theater to see a movie. We decided to watch Ice Age II. It was pretty funny. We were the only people in the theater! Not much business at 3:00p on Mondays, I guess.

Anyway, we rode the free electric shuttle back to the car and headed home. That was our whole day. Too bad all of the days can't be so fun . . .

alumni

Class of 2001 members who can actually follow directions and make it to a picture . . .

Gracie playing in her giant sandbox in the backyard

McKennan & Rosita playing chess. Aren't they cute?

Partners in crime . . . I'm not divulging any more information. Too bad Matt was sick. I didn't even get to bother him.

sleepy

It's 10p and I'm soooooo tired. I took a 2-hour nap this afternoon and woke up when Jaclyn called around 8. I feel ready to go back to bed. This doesn't make any sense because all I did today was sit and grade papers.

I finished teaching yesterday and now the teacher is doing a review and TCAP prep that will go through tomorrow. So I just sat at the desk grading, recording, and entering grades from the homework that was due today. It was nice to have that done before school was over so I didn't have to grade all afternoon.

I just finished printing the rest of my graduation announcements so I can get them in the mail tomorrow. Now all I have to do is graduate!

Jaclyn and I are off on Friday to Pisgah for our 5-year reunion. She's playing the organ for church and we're staying at the Cooks' house. I hope quite a few members of our class show up. It will be fun to see what everyone is doing. Up until now it wasn't that interesting because we were pretty much all in school. By now, most people that went straight to college have either graduated or are graduating soon, so our lives are a little more interesting. I think I have been at all of the alumni weekends since I graduated except for 2004.

Well, my closed eyelids are preventing me from doing much more. I guess it's time to go back to sleep. Yay! Last day of school for the week!!!

moments of insanity

Look who's walking! Ethan is sooo cute.

Ellabell - Ella in her Tinkerbell costume. This is after she stormed away in her PJs with a tutu, gloves, fake jewelry, and high heels (one off, one on) screaming "I said no! I said no!" when I wanted to take a picture of her in them. It was the funniest thing ever to see a two-year-old run away looking like she had broken a heel! She'll never live it down.

I don't know who started this . . . What started out as a distraction from something else ended up being Ella's favorite thing for about 30 minutes. She loved pulling me around the house by the strings on my sweatshirt. She would run away giggling when I told her that if I couldn't see, I would have to sniff her out. Whatever . . . it was fun. :D

reasons i'm ready to move out of SV

• Sharon sitting in the living room talking to her computer (or herself?) while she watches episodes of The Pretender
• the toilet paper thief who will remain nameless, but I have already mentioned her in this post
• turkey bacon
• hair ALL OVER the living room floor
• the thermostat being set on 75+ degrees
• speed bumps
• having an all-night clogging/dance school above me
• food thieves
• dishes that sit in the kitchen for MONTHS
• the SMELLS from the kitchen
• movies/TV all Sabbath long
• not being able to make noise before 3p on Sabbath afternoon because someone is still asleep

Ok, I really should be ironing. I will contemplate my miserable existence with our other 3 roommates some other time.

i'm still here!

Let me just say "One month until graduation!"

Has anyone else been frustrated with Blogger lately? The last couple of times I've tried to log in, it hasn't let me. Maybe I just did it at a high-traffic time. Who knows . . .

Anyway . . . I'm finishing my second student placement at Hunter Middle. I have to teach Monday and Tuesday next week, then the real teacher is doing a review for TCAP (TN standardized tests that teachers are basically rated by - HIGH STAKES for many reasons). Thursday is more review and a how-to on calculators. I think they need more than two days personally . . . After that, we have a holiday on the 14th (Fri.) and I'm taking off the following Monday for no reason really. Then I finish the rest of the week serving snacks during testing breaks. The week after is not going to have much academic emphasis. It's pretty stupid to have a test over the whole year's learning before the year is over (rolling eyes). It leaves a month of nothing to do. That Thursday is my LAST day. I'm so happy. It's kind of boring there.

We sit tonight waiting for storms to hit the Chattanooga area. Who knows if they actually will. Most of them are going north to the Nashville area. The ones hitting there have hail and tornadoes. We'll see if Jaclyn makes it home from downtown ok. I think if we get anything, it's going to be late.

I need to get ready for vespers. It's Destiny Drama in the gym. I hope it's good. I wish someone would be here to actually sit with. Maybe Jaclyn will be back by then . . .

a real post soon . . . i promise

Your Brain's Pattern

Structured and organized, you have a knack for thinking clearly. You are very logical - and you don't let your thoughts get polluted with emotions. And while your thoughts are pretty serious, they're anything from boring. It's minds like yours that have built the great cities of the world!

What Pattern Is Your Brain?