Movies

Bob got home from Yakima the other day, and we thought we might catch up on our Netflix movies that have been sitting around and go see Tropic Thunder at the theater. I would recommend both films for very different reasons.

I wasn't planning to see Tropic Thunder in the theater, or maybe even on Netflix, until I read a glowing review in Newsweek. I know this will make me sound old and out of touch, but it seems like the comedies these days are just sophomoric and borderline disgusting. The actors over-act, and the nudity it almost out of control. Take "Step Brothers" for example: Not funny at all. But the predecessors like Old School were pretty good, I thought.

Anyway, Newsweek said Tropic Thunder was an intelligent comedy. I was intrigued... do tell more! Robert Downey, Jr. was unrecognizable, in a good way that kept you watching. And Tom Cruise played the best role he's had in a long time. Notice him in a fat suit in the picture below. His dancing at the end of the movie makes every penny spent on the ticket worth while.

Oprah suggested Akeelah and the Bee. Of course I was on board almost immediately. I'm a sucker for movies about underprivileged minorities in rough schools. It makes me homesick for Anniston High School. Also, I love spelling bees. I can't begin to imagine the nerves that come in to play going to Scripps National Spelling Bee, but I sure did enjoy a feel good movie that portrayed little Akeelah's struggle to prove her intelligence and find her voice in a community that needed some positive energy.

If you find yourself with some free time this weekend, Tropic of Thunder is worth the admission price, and Akeelah and the Bee is a fantastic family flick that will make you wonder how you would measure up when asked to spell some of these words that middle schoolers are mastering. Amazing! And time well spent.

Meet-N-Greet

I'll NEVER wear these shoes to teach! -Ouch... Standing at the front, center of the room looking back. Take you back to Mr. Schwipp's class, anyone? "Trade and grade!"

Last night was our meet and greet at Komachin Middle School. I've been looking forward to this night for quite some time now. Yes, I wanted to meet the parents and students, and yes I wanted to gauge attitudes at the beginning of the school year. Additionally though, I just wanted to see what this age group looks like!

In Alabama, I taught juniors in high school, and most of them could have passed for being in their mid 20's. I'm relieved to find that most of these kids look like, well... kids! All summer long when I met a kid, I would ask what grade he or she was in. I think middle school is going to be a completely different ball game than high school.

I'm attaching pictures of my classroom. I'm happy with it, and I feel like it is a creative space where kids will want to read and write. The bottom picture is DeAnna and I. I feel so good about our English teaching team in our house, House One, and throughout the rest of the building.

I'm going to spend my last weekend finishing the epic novel, World Without End. It's the best book I've read in a long time. It's just taking FOREVER! (A mere 1,014 pages in small type will do that to you).

Here's to happy reading and a great school year.

Confidence Course

Yesterday was our first day of teacher in-service at Komachin Middle School, and the administration planned a ropes course day out at Gig Harbor for us. The entire faculty went and engaged in a day of team building and trust establishing activities. We were randomly split into smaller groups of 11 and 12. My group had everyone from a librarian to math teachers to special ed teachers. It was a great chance to meet people I wouldn't normally work with.

The first challenge was this giant deck balanced on a fulcrum. The idea was was to get all twelve people onto the deck without tipping it. Then we divided ourselves onto the outermost planks without tipping. You get the point. We had to lose the personal boundaries and cling to each other. Needless to say, we weren't strangers for long.


In the next activity, all twelve of us had to balance ourselves on a 1 foot by 1 foot square box for the time it took to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Look at us crammed in there! Thick as thieves, we were.
Here we put our smarts together to figure out how to make it from landing to landing without touching the ground. The engineery/mathy brains on the team figured it out pretty quickly.

These are the other two new girls I'll be working with in House One. On the left is DeAnna Miller, a fellow English and Social Studies teacher, and on the right is Tricia Melton: Math. I already feel like these are my sisters. We're learning the ropes together. -And on Monday that was literally.

What a cool idea for team building. I've never heard of a school incorporating this kind of activity, and it sure beat the heck out of sitting in lectures all day. (Which is what we did today).
I know I can depend on these people professionally, and if we're ever trying to cross the Amazon River with only three little pieces of wood, I think we'll be okay too.

(Another) New Hair Cut

Do you know how people say getting tattoos is addicting? How once you get one, you get another and another? I feel the same way about hair cuts. Once you go short and different, it's easier to go shorter and more different. (I wanted to say differenter there, but I talked myself out of it).

I figured that since I'm registered to run the marathon, have my travel plans in place, and am running more and more, that I needed a running hair style. There are three things in life that just irk me: buying gas, watering hanging baskets, and blow drying (okay, and straight ironing) my hair. And with running and Barry's Boot Camp, I've been doing my hair twice a day! That simply won't do.

So today I called our Aveda salon in Olympia, Euphorium, and begged for a last minute appointment. I told them I was not afraid of short hair and that it had to be super low maintenance. This style can be air dried or quickly blown dry in a pinch, then touched with a bit of the Aveda Pomade, and... voila.

These pictures are of the final product after I helped a teacher friend move into her room for three hours this afternoon! All things considered, I think it held up pretty nicely.

By the way, those of you who knew me in high school, this is almost identical to my hair senior year. I planned for a completely new style. But you know what? I liked the look then, and I like it now.

Como c'est dice "classique?"

The Real Deal

I finished my new teacher orientation a couple of days ago, and during those two days of mind-numbing paperwork, they let me know I have two personal days and 12 sick days per year. Two personal days is exactly what I need to go to San Francisco in October to run the marathon.

Today my principal okayed my days, and I came home to book my travel plans. My plane ticket is purchased and my hotel is reserved... it should be great. The hotel looks beautiful. It's only a couple of blocks from the starting line and the race expo, and it has a spa. There will be massages on Sunday after the race. Oh yes, there will be.

So now I have to start with my race psychology. Originally I thought I might race for time. I envisioned running it in under four hours. Mind you, 3:59:59 would have qualified. But I've been busier than I was in the spring, and my miles aren't as fast and numerous as I would like them to be.

Without further ado, here are my goals:

• To run this marathon faster than my previous three marathons.



• To be able to walk and have fun shopping the day after the marathon.



• To enjoy the experience for what it is.



• To remember that walking occasionally throughout the race still propels me towards the finish line. No judgment!

Oh, also I have decided on a training strategy. Yesterday I went for an 11 mile run, in the evening, in the POURING rain, and I decided I need something to get me through these long runs by myself. So I downloaded Chasing Harry Winston on iTunes. It was great fun. These are the books I don't have time to read. And they're like candy. I'm pretty sure they rot the literature section of your brain right out. I was hooked on the flimsy story line in no time, and it was like watching a movie. I hardly remember the miles passing at all.

I'm not sure if it's fitting or insulting that I'm using "Chic-lit" to train for an all female marathon. At this point, I'm beyond caring. If it works, I'll use it.

New Moon

I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's book, New Moon, just a little while ago. This is the second in a series of four Young Adult lit books. Normally, I am not into vampire books, movies, anything really. So I was surprised to find that I liked the first, Twilight, book so much.

In the second book, Bella, the main character finds herself in a bit of a love triangle with a werewolf and a vampire. I have to admit I found the Jacob character a very obvious foil for Edward. As such, it made for a thin layer of character development and plot. Be that as it may, it was an enjoyable read, and I will continue with the series. I do want to see how the love drama plays out with these two larger than life lads.

I hear the second book is the worst of the four, and I find that encouraging. And who knew I'd be torn between rooting for a vampire and a werewolf, and actually enjoy it all the while?

The Smell of Crayons (and other school memories and musings)

School starts in 20 days here, and I'm starting to get the school supply fever. You know what I'm talking about. When you're in pre-school, you have that container of white Elmer's glue that has an orange lid on it, the little spreader wand in the middle, and it smells like mint. Don't even try to deny the fact that you tasted it a time or two. I know I did. Unfortunately it never tasted like it smelled.

In kindergarten you had your crayon box full of those giant Crayola crayons that smell one hundred times stronger than normal sized crayons. -I love that smell!

When we were in middle school, there were new Trapper Keepers to buy every year (along with the coordinating folders and Lisa Frank stickers, of course). Sadly, in high school, there were no more Trapper Keepers, but there were still new backpacks to get every year.

And this is where I find myself now. I ordered my new book bag today. It's the Vera Bradley Puccini Messenger bag. I think it will be perfect for walking or biking the one mile to work, and the pattern is very retro looking.

If Trapper Keepers did come back, I would buy one in a heartbeat! Until then... it's a good thing I'm a teacher. Dorky as it makes me, I do love a new batch of school supplies every year!

Kiss The Dust

This year my 7th and 8th grade students will be reading a series of multi-cultural short stories and novels. That means I'm reading them NOW to get a jump on the game. I read Farewell to Manzanar about the Japanese Interment camps during WWII, and I finished reading Elizabeth Laird's Kiss the Dust today.

Kiss the Dust tells the story of a Kurdish family who flees from their home in Iraq in 1984 to the mountains of Kurdistan (a place I knew almost nothing about), on to Iran, and then to Europe. Until reading this book, I had the vaguest notion of what a Kurd was in relation to an Arab.

In case you don't know, there is a region called Kurdistan that is in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. The Kurds have their own language and customs, though not their own country... a major point of contention with the countries in which they dwell. So most Iraqis are Arabs, people from Iran are Persian, and the people from Kurdistan are Kurds.

This book paints a very realistic picture of what it must be like to be uprooted from your country, to not speak the language(s) of the countries you find yourself in, and having to learn the word "refugee" and "asylum" in as many languages as you possibly can. Just in case you are not allowed to stay in, let's say Germany, and are forced on to Great Britain. I finished reading the last sentence, and had to sit there for a moment and take a couple of big breaths.

Laird does an excellent job of creating believable characters who change the reader's global perspective just a little bit at a time.

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Presidents of the United States

Everywhere you look, you're reminded that this is an election year. The thing is this: it does matter who is in office. Every president we've had has made his mark in one way or another. Whether we remember that mark is something else altogether. Which brings up another point. If we're not aware of the mistakes made in the past, we're destined to repeat them.

Let's simplify the whole notion of history even more. I read recently that an astounding number of Americans can't name the first five United States Presidents. Which got me thinking... I honestly was hard pressed to get past three.

It's been a while since I memorized the names and order of the presidents. Yesterday I made flash cards and re-learned the first 20. Today, I'm finishing the list. Tomorrow I'm going to get started on Vice Presidents and then later in the week on to First Ladies.

I just got back from Barnes and Noble with two books. One of them is Presidents For Dummies and the other one is put out by the History Channel about little known presidential facts.

I'm pretty sure I know who's getting my vote, but I want to read up on our past Commanders and Chief to look for clues as to who might be the best candidate.

Also, I'm sure knowing the presidents' names by number will really come in handy if I can ever get on Jeopardy. Let's see... #7 (Andrew Jackson) #18 (Ulysses S. Grant) #35 (J.F.K)

U.S.A.

Has it been four years already? Anyhoo... Yay Olympics!

Moroccan Goodness

Cous-cous is my favorite food right now, and I thought I'd share my newest creation. This is adapted from a recipe found in the newspaper in Colorado. It's a really quick recipe and is deliciously refreshing in the summer time. Serve it cold. Also, I think it's great by itself, but Bob thinks it needs a sandwich or something to go with it. You be the judge.

Moroccan Cous-Cous Salad Serves 4 Meals or 8-12 Side Salads

1 C. Water

1 tsp Turmeric

2 tsp Coriander

2 tsp Cumin

2 tsp salt

1 Cup Uncooked Cous-Cous (it comes in a jar)

2 Limes, juiced

1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 English Cucumber (finely chopped)

1 Red and Yellow Pepper (finely chopped)

1/2 Medium Red Onion (Finely diced)

1 Ear of Cooked White Corn, Cut kernels off

2 TBS Cilantro

Boil the one cup of water, Turmeric, Coriander, Cumin, and Salt.

Pour the hot water over one cup of cous-cous in a bowl. Stir together until completely moist.

Cover for five minutes.

Fluff the cous-cous with a fork.

Pour in Lime juice and Olive Oil. Stir.

Add all the vegetables and cilantro. Combine together.

Chill for two hours (I can't usually wait that long) to set the flavors.

Whew!

Obviously, I made it back safely to blog about my running experience today. Anne Marie is indeed a woman, and not a violent one, it seems. Whew! We ran a five mile loop around Olympia, and chatted the whole time. She too is 28 years old, and is looking for a steady running partner. She's a reader, so there were tons of books to talk about, and she is finishing grad school to be an English teacher. Hmmm... who do we know that sounds like this?

Around mile 2.5, I brought up the point that I was super glad she wasn't an axe murderer. Her family was very worried about her meeting ME. It just goes to show... most people are good, it's just the few bad ones that make the news. I really believe that.

Anyway, after our run, we stopped in the running store in Olympia, South Sound Running, to inquire about the local running club. It's called Club Oly, and they run together at least twice a week. So tomorrow we are trying out this new group. We'll run the same five miles, and it will be safe AND fun. A whole bunch of people to run with: Hooray!

Also, the Barry's Boot Camp box came today. I've inflated the ball, read the literature, and am ready to commence tomorrow. Bring it on, Barry!

Running Scared

As you may recall, last week I posted a request on Craigslist for a running partner. Simple enough. But then someone contacted me, and sounded super excited about the prospect of running avec moi.

This is the point where I started to get nervous. First, is this person really a woman named "Anne Marie?" You have to admit, if you were a male psycho killer, what better name to use in the guise of wholesomeness?

Next, why would she/he be SO excited about running with me, a complete stranger, that may or may not be telling the complete truth about my speed and abilities? Hmmm...

Being the sleuth that I fancy myself to be, I gave her/him my phone number to call to set up a running date. Anne Marie called last night. The voice definitely sounded female, and she really did sound nice enough. So we're running the five mile loop around Capitol Lake in Olympia this afternoon (pictured above).

In light of the recent Craigslist crimes, I am just putting this out there: If I don't post in the next couple of days, the person you're looking for uses the name Anne Marie and preys on runners.

Wish me luck!

Wait... WHAT?

I don't know how clearly you can see this picture I took in Yelm. Apparently God has sanctioned guns here in what I mistook for the south for one quick second. Don't even get me started.

6th Anniversary... Sort Of

Six years ago, on August 2, 2002, Bob and I were married in the eyes of the Army. We worked so hard and pulled all kinds of strings to get the paperwork finished, so I could have my orders processed to go to Germany with Bob shortly after our wedding in January of that same year.

It was stressful then, but I am so grateful it worked. If those orders hadn't been processed, Bob would have went to Germany by himself in January of 2003, deployed in May of 2003, returned in August of 2004, been home for six months of the next year, and then deployed again in January of 2006. We NEEDED those first few months together in Germany to settle our little apartment, practice being husband and wife, and get acclimated to the Army (as much as possible, that is. I'm not sure you ever "arrive" with Army wife doctrine).

So, here's to six years in the Army. Six great years. We are happier now than ever, and we enjoy our life together with Chester. We get to move to cool places and meet fantastic people (case in point: YOU're reading this, aren't you?) We're really fortunate that we're best friends with each other, and we just look forward to more adventures.

Here's to more Unexpected Twists.