Things that make me mad... but at the same time... I'm happy!!!

Okay, so we're going to start of with the mad part, and end on a happy note.  I explained this to my SBFF Kaitlin this evening, but I must let it out to the rest of you as well, just cause I do that... Anyways...

I go grocery shopping, and as you all know I've been on my go green kick, so I have my two resuable shopping bags with me.  Now, I have more than two, but my goal was to only buy enough that would fit into these two bags.  But of course, I've never been one to stick with a shopping plan, so alas, I had more than would fit in just the two shopping bags.  Now, you would think that since I brought my own bags that I am someone who cares about the environment and had a reason for brining the shopping bag, which is true, but apparently the girl who was bagging my groceries didn't, cause the extra she proceeded to put in not one, not two, but THREE extra PLASTIC bags.  Now tell me this... is the world going to spontaneously explode if bathroom products are touching my cereal boxes??  Because I'm sure that I could have fit at least two of the plastic bags' worth of stuff into my other reusable bags.  So, I was a bit ticked off at that, because if she would have asked me, I would have probably just bought another reusable bag, seeing as I use them ALL the time.

But, alas, I get home, and you know how the plastic bags sometimes stick together?  Yeah, well, I had on of those situations in on of my bags... yeah... like a STACK of 5 other plastic bags inside one of the three plastic bags that I was already MAD about!!!

Anyways... I'm done...

Onto a happier note, I told you all that I would blog about my running club, so here's that little segment...

My kids are AWESOME this year!!  I push them, and they want to kill me some times for that, but they seem to be having a great time.  We did some easy stuff on that first day, and I talked to them about what a cool thing running is, and we talked about stretching and stuff like that.   On the second day we did a running game that they ended up LOVING!!  It is such an awesome thing to get to see these kids trying their hardest and working on the exercise that all kids really need.  Some of them seem to be geniunely really interested in the sport and I'm so glad for that.  So, this is going to be a GREAT running club session!!  I'm already sooooo excited and it is only two times in!!!  This week, I'm thinking that we are going to talk about other things aside from running that we can do during the week to keep us fit, and we are going to talk about some inspirational things... I might bring out the story about the three guys who ran the Sahara desert one year.  Over a thousand miles of running, spread out in a little over a hundred days... talk about motivation!!!

NEW COOL TOOL!!!! So excited!!!!

All right ladies and gents... you know that I'm into this whole healthier food kick, and I love all of you for putting up with me while I'm on it!!  However, this one really seems like one that is going to stick.  I do admit to eating a little Taco Bell every now and then and stopping at a Burger King or Wendy's on the way to Grad School, but I've been doing pretty good!  I am worried about what is going to happen when my farmer's market goes away though, because nearly every day for lunch I bring a fresh pepper to slice up and eat, and this just in... tomatoe and mozzerella salad!!!  YUMMMMMMM!!!

You would all also be very proud of the fact that I made a lasagna and froze some of it instead of buying frozen lunches (mainly because frozen organic lunches are freaking EXPENSIVE!), and I made some fresh basil pesto and pasta which introduced me to my friend the food processor.  I'm just really excited about the food choices that I've been making.

Now, with that said, I have been purchasing things without thinking about them... which is where the lovely tomatoe mozzerella salad came from (I bought a bunch of tomatoes at the farmer's market without an idea as to what I should do with all of the tomatoes).  This week, I bought.... an eggplant.  Now when I was growing up, I remember my mom baking eggplant, I do, but I remember telling her that I hated the eggplant.  To be honest though, I don't think that I actually have ever TRIED eggplant before.  I just thought that since it was a vegetable and it was weird looking and purple, it was obviously a bad choice.  Well, I bought one Thursday at my weekly farmer's market trip.

Enter the new AWESOME tool that I just found.  You enter what you want to cook... say... eggplant... and then you click on other ingredients that you might have, or might want to use, and PRESTO!!!  I even typed in "Taco Dip" cause I have to make some for a party, and I clicked on what I have in my kitchen, and BOOYAH!!!  There is a sweet taco dip recipe.  So, I thought that I would share.  Don't be afraid now to try new foods, especially with this handy new Web2.0 tool!!!

http://www.cookthing.com/

A Marriage of My Two Loves

So, most of you know that I'm a runner... and most of you know that I'm a teacher... well, I am in the fortunate position that I get to combine those two loves...

Most people don't understand all that exercise does for your body.  Our lack of exercise and health conscious ways of life, are really causing some issues in our children these days.  Diabetes, obesity, malnutrition... those are just some of the issues that are facing today's kids.  But did you know that there are a lot more issues with an unhealthy body in regards to your brain?  ADD and ADHD, depression, and many other psychological issues plague todays students in an alarming way, and as a teacher, I see a lot of that first hand.

But there is an answer!  I don't say that you should quit any clinical treatments reccomended by your child's doctor or school speacialist, but just take into account these truths.... Your brain is FULL of chemicals.  When those chemicals get off balance, you are in for a world of issues.  One way to regulate those chemicals and provide your brain with much needed oxygen is to exercise.  Exercising releases chemicals to balance out brain activity, which is why when you are not active on a regular basis you may have attention issues and depression issues.  Often times we supplement these issues with medicine... but did you know that most of the medicine is actually medicine that is a naturally occuring chemical in the brain?  If your body is completely balanced and healthy, there is no use for these things!!!  AGAIN.... if you are seeing someone for any of these situations, DON'T stop seeing that person!!!

These were some of the things that I mentioned when I brought up doing a running club at school to my administrators and fellow teachers.  There thoughts were that it was a valuable thing, but I admit there were some issues getting it off the ground.  Last year, I did the "Wolfpack Running Club" with around 40 fourth and fifth grade students, and I've got to say it was AWESOME!!!  So awesome that it inspired me to organize a 5K fundraiser for the school this year with the help of one of my AWESOME PTA parents at school.  I actually had to turn away kids last year for running club because I had such a great response.  The best part was that I had parents volunteer to come help out and run with the kids too, and groups of teachers that would stay out and workout with us.  Now, you are thinking that this is just a cute little club... well, I can tell you right now, I could probably kick your BUTT!!!  These guys were running speed drills, doing core workouts, and could comfortably run a 5K (3.1)... for a bunch of kids, that's pretty amazing.

This year, I decided to split it and do ten sessions in the fall (starts next Tuesday, wish me luck) and ten sessions in the Spring (to prepare for our 5K fundraiser).  My proudest moment was when I had a mom literally e-mail me like twenty minutes after school got out to say that her daughter wanted to be in running club again this year, and sent me the form digitally to ensure that she got in (it's sadly first come first serve).  So, I'm excited, and I can't wait to get running with my kidlets!!  I'll definitely keep blogging about them as I go, so get ready for some great stories! ... My favorite from last year was my two boys that lagged behind who I screamed at (I am a VERY VERY loud person) to hurry up, and scared one of our first grade teachers walking home.  She said that she had never seen two kids run so fast.  Good times.

Just Like Every Other Day

Okay, I know that I'm probably the millionth person to post about this today, but come on... September 11th... how soon we forget.

Most know that I'm an elementary teacher, so while we did have a moment of silence this morning, we all went about our day as normal.  It wasn't until I looked at my phone and saw that date while I was walking down the hall to the teacher's lounge that it hit me.  It felt like any other day.

Now, when I was a senior in high school, it was not any other day.  It was spending an entire day watching the television, calling my mom to make sure that they didn't go to that meeting in downtown Chicago (we didn't know what could have happened there...).  It was not understanding any of it.

A year later, I was a freshman at Millikin University, and I remember the candellight vigil we had right outside BWA to remember those that were lost.  The flags were at half mast and Rich Dunsworth read a passage from Corinthians to all of the students.  That didn't feel like any other day either.

So, when did it start to change?  When did I lose that feeling that this was a significant day in our history?  When does that happen?  I still remember a 5th grade class that I had last year that asked me about why this day was so important.  What are you supposed to tell a class of ten year old children?  I told them what I saw and where I was and why it was important.  They were actually interested.  I held their attention and you could hear a pin drop, and I was, in that moment so glad to be a teacher.

Today, I take a step back, reading something that my friend Katlin tweeted:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1251364

And then I realized that of my students, some of my third graders were born before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Some of my second graders have never been in this country when we were not at war.  And what is with the war anyway?  Why don't we hear about that anymore?  What is being done?  What's going on?  Anyways, these are just my thoughts... I felt the need to share them.

God Bless all, and even if it feels like every other day, take a step back and remember that it isn't...

Back to the Grind....

I always express to everyone how much I love my job, and I do... I admit however that it is a hard thing to go back to after a summer away though.  The days are so long and the work is wonderful but hard.  This year, I've made it a goal to be more organized with things so I have more time to do more stuff with my teaching.  Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a lot harder that it sounds.  I've been a lesson planning queen these past few days though, getting everything all planned out, which is nice.  However, I choose now to make the list of the top ten things I will miss from my summer vacation....

1. Staying up until 2:00AM just because I can.
     There really is something to be said about staying up late and not realizing just how late it is... I like it... I like it a lot.

2. Playing Farmville ALL DAY
     When home all day, you can plant things like raspberries and strawberries and blueberries, and really get some crazy amount of money and experience!!

3. When a friend calls, I can say yes!!!!
     I love it when a friend calls and they are like "hey, do you want to watch OTH all day?" "YES!!" or "Do you want to go to Chuck E. Cheese with us?" "YES!"  I Love it!!!

4. OTH Marathons...
     I watched a ridiculous amount of this show this summer... and it was wonderful.

5. Staying up to date with Twitter!
     Yes, I admit that I am a Twitter addict... it is just sooooo fun!!  So, I was always hooked into it, and I could always check it... now... not so much.

6. How I Met Your Mother
     This summer, I watched every episode of this show in the span of like three weeks... now I'm addicted, and I can't wait for it to start again!!

7. Music....
     I LOVE music!!!  I love being able to listen to music all day long in the background of my day!

8. READING!!!
     Thanks to my SBFF Kaitlin, I read SOOOO much this summer and I'm going to seriously miss it!!!

9. YouTube
     Nuff said.

10. Getting to do WHATEVER I WANT....
     Yeah... I miss that.

So there you have it folks... the things that I really am going to miss now that I am back at school...