My Life Mirrors Jen Lancaster

As a gift for being a great "student" teacher, my mentor gave me Jen Lancaster's second novel "Bright Lights, Big Ass."

I recommended Jen to my mentor teacher earlier in the year because we seemed to have the same (good) taste in books. And right I was, I feel that my mentor (and now friend) have become even closer as we share just exactly how our lives mirror Jen's.

First, let me quickly run through the differences:
1. I do not live in Chicago. I also do not live "in the city" but in a suburb outside of it. I think that it's nice and am a fan of not having to deal with traffic on a daily basis.

2. I unfortunately do NOT own a set of pearls. However, I've been trying to convince my husband that a good teacher needs a good set of pearls. So far, it seems that my persuasion skills need a little more work.

3. Our family life is not the same. She has (obviously) amazing parents. While my father is non-existent and my mother is dead.

And I'm pretty sure those are the only differences between the two of us.

So, here's a few examples of how my life mirrors Jen's:

1. I also think that my dog smells like corn chips. I constantly mention this to the husband and he always gives me a really weird look.

2. I too have tried the "low-carb"/"no-carb" diet and have dreamed about eating cheese dip with slices of cheese, coveted Olive Garden bread sticks, and thought about food while the husband has tried to talk to me about something serious and/or important.

3. I also do the majority of my reading in the bath tub. Apparently so does my mentor ... here's a funny anecdote: After picking up "Such a Pretty Fat" (Jen's third novel), my mentor decided that she wanted to take a bath while reading. She undressed and slowly began to get into the hot water. Just as her foot hit the bottom of the tub, she slipped on something that must have been left behind by her children and dropped the book into the water. Whilst fishing it back out, she screams bloody murder causing her boyfriend to come flying into the bathroom. He finds her completely "nekkid" holding the book in a towel as if it were a small child. Needless to say, the book has been shoved under other books to try and flatten it out and get it ready for "Meet Jen Lancaster day!" Which will happen on May 12th!

4. I've attended Weight Watchers meetings and rolled my eyes when they discuss cake in the work place. Then, I've rolled my eyes when teachers in the teacher's lounge discuss cake in the work place.

5. My animals totally run the house. One sleeps in his own bed and the other sleeps in our bed. We can barely touch each other without her getting in between us for a couple of doggie kisses.

6. I have also blown out the ass of my pants. (I'm actually hoping that the fabric just snagged and ripped a hole ... but we can never be too sure.) Luckily, God made sure that I was wearing black underwear that day so that I wouldn't have to deal with some kind of indecent exposure type thing with my students.

7. I LOVE Chick Lit!

Honestly, the list could go on and on ... but I have some blogs to catch up on and some reading to do. OH, and Lost ... it is Lost day!

So until later, Good night ... hope all is well in the blogger world. Oh, and Jen if you are reading this ... Much Love!

Spring Break -- Relax!

I've finally made it back home from the dear old "home town."

It's nice to be back in my own little one bedroom apartment.

However, while I was gone ... not only did I get to spend Monday thru this morning with my adorable little nephew, Kaleb ... but I also finished three books!

Right now, I'm reading Jen Lancaster's book "Bright Lights, Big Ass." I can not tell you people enough how much I freaking LOVE her.

In fact, once I'm finished with this book ... I'm going to have to give you a complete run down on how much I love her, and why we should spend all of our time together because we are so much a like!

The similarities are unreal! You'll see. You will.

Tonight, I'll be hitting up the Tomball Job Fair. I've got my suit (and three different colored shirts, which will ensure that I will not look like I'm wearing the same thing if I get called back for another interview or two) prepared, and my resumes printed, and I'm ready to go.

And then I remembered ... hm ... probably should take off the extremely chipped black finger nail polish and choose something less "modern and hip" ... so I'm going with clear. It'll look brilliant on my fantastically wonderful real nails that I do not pay over 20 dollars a month to have (I am SO lucky!)

Then, I will need to decide which colors to wear for eye shadows and gloss.

I'll also be driving in style in the Scion. (Is that how you spell that??)

Aaron has decided that he will now be driving my civic (with a new transmission ... she has become VERY expensive) and I will be driving his new (11 month old) baby. I'm fine with it! I can plug in my ipod now ... I can listen to CDs ... I can change the set stations to MY favorite stations ... and it's a pretty awesome little thing!

However, this means that I will not be able to buy my wonderful little Accord with the sun roof and the keyless entry and the blue tooth already built in for a while. And ... I'm sad. But, what's a girl to do. We are trying to save up to buy a house, we are trying to save up so that Aaron can get a masters in education so that he will have a "back up plan" just in case his company wants to move him to Omaha ... because I mean ... "NO!" ... and we are also wanting a Baaaaayyyyybbbbbeeeee. :)

So, I'll rock out in the Scion for a while ... no biggie. Although, now I really wish I would have convinced him to get the pretty dark blue color ... the dark reddish brown color that he has is kind of getting old.

Alright. So I still have a lot of things that need to be discussed ... and I promise that I will soon get to them. Although, I'll be gone for the weekend because we are going to the lake ... don't think that I am leaving you guys again for nearly a month. I'm not! I promise!!!

(hopefully)

How many weeks has it been now?

I know. I get it.

I'm supposed to post my feelings and little anecdotes here. More than I do.

I need to do this if I want to eventually get some kind of a following one day. (which I do ... go and tell your friends)

However, when I sit in front of the computer at home ... (not the laptop because Link tried to kill himself by eating through the cord) ... I feel like there are a million and one other things that I need to be doing ...

These things include ... but are not limited to:
Lesson plans
Grading
Reading
Mourning the loss of my car (more on that ... hm ... I don't want to give a set date. Soon?)
Spending time with my husband
Taking the dogs outside for a run
Working out
Eating healthy
Catching up on my filling DVR
....

Basically ... not blogging.

I really want to though. I do! I promise!!

So, I will. Starting this week.

I'm here at my grandpa's house for the next couple of days. It's Spring Break (much needed!!) and I have nothing to do all day except plan lessons, read books, play with little Kaleb (hopefully), and blog!

So, I want to say that you will see more of me.

I want to.

But we'll see.

Whoa, Sorry.

Sorry for my lack of posting as of late.

I was finishing up my Teacher Work Sample and getting it all submitted.

I was also going out with friends and having a lovely time of it.

In other words ... I didn't have time for you, blogspot. And I'm sorry.

Things to come:

Our "Observation" of "Lent."
Puking, and why it sucks.
A happy dance because Jen Lancaster is coming HERE!
Losing weight?
and other things that I'll blog about at a later time.

I hope that all have been well and that you haven't missed me much lately :)

A MeMe!

Not for lack of creativity ... mainly for lack of drive ... I post this. Enjoy it ... and ask me if you'd like to be interviewed also.


1. How/when did you know that you wanted to marry Aaron?
-- I don't know if there was an exact time that I knew that I wanted to marry Aaron. He made me happy throughout our time together and it was just something that I could see in our future. Everything just fit together perfectly. I loved him, I loved him family, I loved our relationship, I loved everything about "US." So it was just natural that we would eventually get married. Aaron says that he knew that he wanted to marry me when I went with his family and him on vacation. But, maybe I just always knew ... things were just so great.

2. Why do you want to be a teacher?
--I want to be a teacher so that I can make a difference in someone's life. I know, I know, that's the bull-crap answer, but it's true. I think that I will be a good teacher and I think that my kids will actually get something out of what I have to offer. I look forward to shaping the youth of America.

3. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could have one book series (or set by an author), what would it be?
--It would definitely be the Harry Potter series. I read it at least once a year and there is no way that I could do without it if stuck on a deserted island. Right now, I'm also reading the Inkheart series ... which is actually pretty good ... but nothing can beat Harry Potter.

4. What cancelled TV show do you most miss?
--Hm, I'm going to have to go with Pushing Daisies on this one. I just thought that that show was so beautiful and sweet. Every time I finished watching it, I had a smile on my face. It was a great fairy tale type show and it was very colorful and bright, which you don't find on television that often. I think that it is stupid for them to have canceled it ... all they are running now on that channel and that time is re-runs of Scrubs. Ugh.

5. If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
--I would like to go and tour a couple of places. For instance, I want to do the Sound of Music tour where they take you around Austria. I'd also like to go on the Harry Potter tour, so that I can see the awesome castle that it was filmed in and stuff like that. I'm a big nerd ... I know. But, I really could go just about anywhere on vacation as long as Aaron was with me :)

Leave me a comment saying that you want to be interviewed and I'll do just that!

To play along:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by sending you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Babysitting

Like a teenager.

On Valentine's day at that.

But it's the adorable little nephew and so I don't mind.

Stay tuned for 5 questions answered! (Hopefully tomorrow)

Animal Crossing -- My love

I have had a love/hate relationship with Animal Crossing since it was introduced to me way back in the day (five or more years ago). At that time it was on the Nintendo Gamecube ... which I bought mainly to impress Aaron who wasn't my boyfriend at the time. (Silly Girl!)

I loved it! It's a cute-sy little game that has little animal people that live in these little houses and always want you to mail them letters with gifts in them. You've just moved into the town and you are trying to pay off your ridiculous mortgage (somewhere around 20,000 "bells" for a measly little shack.) You spend your time picking up shells, digging up fossils, fishing, or other forms of shopping. The prettier you make your town the more hilarious characters will join in! It's pretty much awesome.

It has loads of characters that are absolutely hilarious and are always "up to no good." I played it for a good while on the "cube," to the delight of my grandpa who just wanted me to fish all the time! But, it started getting a little boring. It's set in real time ... so when it's 11:48 in the real world ... it's 11:48 in their world too. If it's winter ... it's snowing there (Oh, how I wish it would snow more than a freak accident in December here!) If it's spring, there are butterflies and bees flying all over the place there. But ... if you mess with the time (you know, to get away from your own life for a second) a little character comes and yells at you about messing with the time/space continuum. So, I put it away.

But then it came out for the DS! I LOVE my DS, mind you. I have so much fun playing games like Zoo Keeper (which is kind of like bejewled, but with cute-sy little animals) ((Maybe, I just have a thing for cute-sy little animals ... but I digress.)) Or Professor Laythom's blah blah blah ... something about a curious village. (This one is a logic game ... and I love logic puzzles ... and these are actually pretty freaking difficult!) So, anyway ... Animal Crossing came to the DS! Both Aaron and I picked it up ... along with all of his dear friends and we had a blast! We would party at each others towns, swap fruit with each other so that we could get more fruit in our towns, send each other mail (which is always fun), and mainly just enjoy ourselves. Animal Crossing EVEN spawned Aaron's nickname for me "Cute Face." One of the little animals always called me that in the game and he thought it was funny ... I thought it was adorable ... and so it's stuck! But ... it got old again. New games came out that he wanted to play, I was busy with school, or television, or reading, or something else, and my DS sat on the shelf unplayed.

But THEN Animal Crossing was going to come out on the WII! I got SOOOO EXCITED! All the commercials sounded so cool and all that jazz ... so we "reserved" our copy of it and I planned on getting it for Christmas. But Aaron's friends said that it was basically the same game as on the DS and that the DS one was much more fun. So, Aaron said that he didn't want to get it for the Wii ...and I was sad. UNTIL YESTERDAY!

Yesterday, after having a healthy meal (and my first after my bout of flu) at Jason's Deli, we went to the gamestop and switched the 5 dollars from Animal Crossing on the Wii and put it towards Animal Crossing on the DS ... AGAIN!

I'm so excited! I've named my character, Cute face of course, and she has brown eyes and pink hair (this is all done randomly), and my town is called "Avonlee." I love it! It comes with a few characters to get you started ... they each have their own personalities that crack me up:


Introducing CESAR!

He has a bad attitude most of the time. Even when he wants to talk to you ... he pretends that he doesn't and usually brushes you off quickly. Today, he asked me what my favorite part of my body was and I said "My Rump" (Because it is!) and he got extremely flustered and red ... telling me that he didn't need to hear about THOSE parts of my body. Hilarious!


This is Pecan!

I think that we are going to be great friends. She reminds me a lot of "Bunni" which is the one that gave me the Cute Face nickname to begin with. Pecan loves getting mail and gifts and is always talking about how cute her house is and asking how her makeup looks. I think that we are going to be great friends ... (because well ... I love cute-sy little animals remember?)


And here is Teddy!

He is "out for a run" all the time and always tells me that I'm getting a little chubby (yeah, I know Teddy ... that's why I've been going to the gym lately ... OK?) He usually calls me "Beef Cake" and sometimes gets into a serious roid rage. But, it's all in good fun.

And finally ... we have my new character. She just moved in today and I haven't been able to get to know her because she's been unpacking all day. She says that I can visit with her tomorrow ... so until then ... who knows.

Anyway, another cool thing about this game is that you get little letters from your mom. She tells you how much that she is missing you and gives you little gifts. I haven't received a letter from my mom yet ... but when I do ... I'll be so excited ... especially since my mom is unable to actually send me a real letter ...

So. If you have a DS ... get out and get this game ... then give me your code so that we can play in each other's towns!

Until then ... I leave you with this wonderful wonderful wonderful video.