Hiatus = OVER.

So yeah... when was the last time I blogged? I feel like this might have been the longest I've been away since I started blogging almost two years ago. I wish I could say it was because I was doing something awesomely fun...

...but unless endless report cards and other annoying work-related tasks count as awesomely fun, we are out of luck.

Today I left work at a reasonable hour (which I deserved after tutoring, working all day and then teaching an extra curricular after school) and left everything at work. Well that's a lie, I brought stuff home I just simply haven't taken it out. What have I done instead? Worked out, ate dinner, did some laundry, made some phone calls (dinner reservation for Eric's birthday dinner included, wahoo) and did some serious goodreads stalking. I'm looking for a book to read on my trip next week. Eric's mom is lending me her Kindle so that I can try it out. I need a fast read that is also good so I'll be hooked to the Kindle. Any recommendations?

I know it's a little sad that I consider a night of working out and doing laundry as a luxury, but I swear I sometimes do have fun... just not really on Tuesday nights. Wanna see some pictures from Eric's 30th Birthday Party this weekend?!

Oh, so you thought I was not going to get ridiculous 30 glasses? Yeah right... do you guys know me at all?

Eric's mom provided the cake as always, and Josh provided the "You're Old" candles...

My mom provided the sugar cookies (and peanut butter cookies)...

Some of my friends joined in for the fun...

Tiff was there too but I forgot to get a pic (though I do have a picture of us at Eric's birthday/ our housewarming party two years ago, man time freaking flies- never thing I know it's going to be ME who's 30!). Obviously lots of Eric's friends were there but most of my pics are not blog appropriate (random kindergarten teacher paranoia moment). I do have the token picture of Eric and his smallest friend. Every time we hang out with him, I have to get a picture of these two...

I actually wish I got more pictures, but I'm bad at taking pictures at my own parties. Too busy making sure everyone is having fun!

Most notably missing from the party were my brother and sis who were too busy being college students... can't wait til that's done and over with and we can hang out all the time (assuming they don't both leave me for the Connecticut/NYC area forever...wahhhhhhh and marry Yankees fans... double WAHHHHH). Katie = my new brother AND sister until further notice. She's obviously up to the task. Don't worry Katie, even when they do move back to Boston forever, I will still need you as my other sister in order for my children to have cousins around the same age as them. This is why people have best friends, I'm telling you- she solves all my problems. No sorry, she WILL solve all my problems when she lands a job at my work and kicks out all the people who bother me... yes, Katie, get on that.

Wow this post is all OVER the place. This is what happens when I don't blog for a long time, I guess! To sum up: I need a good book recommendation, Eric's party was a success, Katie = slowly working towards solving all my problems.

Let's see if I can blog tomorrow night after attending yoga class (this is my not-so-subtle way of making sure I attend yoga class). What have you guys been up to?

What Can Kindergartners Teach Me About Yoga?

I'm kinda in love with yoga lately. I took almost two weeks off from it because of my ridiculous back injury last weekend (no, I didn't get it from shoveling which would have been normal- I instead slipped on ice, didn't even fall all the way down but managed to tweak my back somehow, wah). Yesterday I decided to try it. My back was still hurting but I thought of all things, yoga is the thing to try. If I decide to go down to child's pose and lie there the rest of class, no one would even bat an eyelash.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. I modified poses a little bit, but in general I think yoga helped my back. Can't say the same for running this morning, but why talk about negative things like the fact that running + me = worst enemies?

Let's talk instead about all the important lessons that my kindergarten students have taught me about yoga...

1. Push Ups or Chaturanga Dandasana (haha I love yoga lingo). I will admit I am not the most awesome at yoga push ups. I try to do them but by the time I get to the 15th of the yoga class, there is no way I am doing it correctly. I never gave much thought to do until I saw my kindergartners doing "push ups" one morning when I told them we needed to get some exercise. They were in push up position all right, but there arms were not moving at all... it was just butts in the air, butts down, butts in the air, butts down and then of course "look, we are doing push ups!" As ridiculous as they looked, I can imagine that I may look similar by the the middle of class. So now I swallow my (pointless) pride and sometimes put my knees down. Girl push ups are better than butt push ups.

2. Slow Breaths. I literally am impressed by people in yoga in how SLOW they can get their breathing. When we do the "oms" at the beginning of class I've taken like 13 breaths while people are still letting out one. I figured this didn't matter much until my kindergartners got involved. Sometimes when they are being particularly insane, I will tell them to take a deep breath. Without fail when I say this I have 20 children who sound like they are hyperventilating. This does NOT calm children, it makes them more crazy. So I've now taught them how slowly you need to take a breath in order for it to actually calm you. Hmm, perhaps I need to take my own advice?

3. Time to Breathe. One of my favorite of the "mind" concepts in yoga is the idea of breathing in a difficult moment. You would think that yoga would teach me this and then I would apply it to kindergarten, but in fact teaching kindergarten has made me better at doing this in yoga. As you can imagine, teaching kindergarten requires a certain amount of patience. Though truthfully, its more often the parents and other people at my job who require the true patience. Still though, I've learned when I am waiting for something (let's say a child is taking a full minute to get out what should've been a 3 second answer- c'mon you know what I'm talking about), it's best to just think about breathing rather than how long it is taking for that child to zip his jacket, ahh! I'm still working on applying this concept when adults piss me off though...

4. Don't Get Discouraged. I'll be honest, I'm not a natural "yoga person." I clearly don't have the relaxed personality for it and don't even get me started on flexibility. I am literally one of the least flexible people ever. I can't do so many of the cool yoga poses... crow, wheel etc. Oh and downward dog is definitely NOT a resting position for me. But you know what? There are kiddos in my class who struggle with reading, writing and/or math every single day. Sure some kids hear me explain something once and get it, but others have to listen really carefully, try really hard, do the modified version and still might not be even close to perfect. Do I suggest they give up on kindergarten? Nope, I modify it for them... just like the yoga teachers do for me. So I won't give up on yoga either. I'll just love it more. Maybe someday you'll see me doing a sick headstand.

Oh yeah, and it's Superbowl Sunday right? Who are you rooting for? If you don't care at all (and I really don't, so I hear you), tell me something fun you did this weekend. AND, go visit Lisa and wish her a Happy 30th Birthday!!!

Move to Hawaii?

Yesterday brought my 4th snow day in 4 weeks. Maybe some teachers like snow days but I do not. It's like stealing a nice, sunny vacation day from my summer and making it miserable outside so that I have to spend the whole day shoveling (or watch Eric shovel as it is in my case, I love him) and stuck in my house. Oh and did I mention that I always seem to have some kind of meeting that has to be rescheduled to a much more annoying time? Yeah... and also:

Even my darling kindergarten students, who said that they LOVED snow have started casually making pictures like this during choice time...

Yup even the 5 year olds are dreaming of the beach.

This winter Eric and I have mostly been joking about moving to Arizona, but then it occurred to us... Arizona is nice in the winter, but in the summer it will be misery, why not enjoy a little of this instead?

Yup Hawaii. So I did a little research on teachers in Hawaii. The average salary, while less than MA, is not terrible. But then I noticed that Hawaii is rated 50th friendliest state to teachers (yes, out of 50, in case that wasn't obvious). This number was calculated when comparing teacher salary to the cost of living...

Well crap.

When I told Eric the unfortunate news, he was unfazed. He said he planned to leave teaching for professional ukulele playing. Can't you just picture it?

+

A match made in Hawaiian heaven.

What should my new career be in Hawaii? Ideas needed!

Adventures in Twist Ties and Bert Hats

I don't know about you but I find checking out of a hotel to be depressing. No matter how long you stay at the hotel, it always feels like two seconds earlier that you were in the same lobby checking in. I know I was only on a two day vacation this week, but it felt like about 3 seconds. And yet, all the ridiculous meetings I have to sit in always feel like 3 weeks long. Why is that?

Are you sick of seeing pictures of Eric and his brothers yet? Too bad...

We arrived to our hotel, Newport Wyndham Onshore nice and early on Friday afternoon and had some time to relax before dinner. I don't think I'll mention the place where we ate dinner because Erin may or may not have found a twist tie in her chicken... wish I was kidding.

On Saturday, Eric and I introduced the rest of the family to 2 of our favorite Newport locations that are winter-friendly: Newport Vineyards and Newport Storm Brewery...

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Newport Tokyo House.

The menu amused me.... note "interesting wine"...

Also the food was delicious and no twist ties to be found. Wahoo. I have high expectations for my food as you can see.

This morning we ended the trip on the best note possible...

Yup. If you go to Newport, go to the Cookie Jar.

Also, give event gifts for Christmas, then you get to enjoy them too :)

I'm done being demanding now. Oh wait, one more thing.... universe, I'm begging, please redirect any blizzards headed to Boston this weekend. We literally have no space and I really need to teach some kids to read about now.

Taking a Day Off- The Teacher Version

Teachers, for obvious reasons, don't get the typical "vacation" days. Though it can be frustrating that we always have to pay ridiculous prices to go away during school vacations, it makes sense that I not take off for Florida while my class just hangs out for a week.

Instead, we get what's called "personal days." In my district we get 3 per year and in Eric's they get 2. These do not carry over each year so if you don't use them you loose them. I don't know the exact statistics but I would guess that the majority of teachers do not use all of their personal days. This attitude is definitely encouraged by the districts which vary between a yearly reminder that personal days are for things you really can't do any other time like "closing on a house" (my principal's favorite example) and actually making specific rules about when you can take them, what they can be for etc.

I don't think I took a single personal day the first two years I taught, and since then I take an average of 1 a year. This year I might be setting an all-time record of 2 because Caroline is graduating on a Monday. Today I also took a personal day so we could leave earlier for our big Newport trip with Eric's family. Perhaps if I had known how many snow days we were going to have this January I may have not taken this day off, but you have to reserve days off in advance so, oh well.

So yeah, I have the day off, YEA. But just for fun, let's talk about what went into this particular day off...

It all began about a week ago when I realized how busy this week was going to be. I decided it would be best if I started writing my sub plans as soon as possible. In order to do that I had to do a rough sketch of my whole week so I'd know where the kids would be come Friday. After I finished that I started to write up my plans. By Saturday morning I had a rough sketch of what my kids would do today without me to teach them.

On Monday morning I started the process of getting the materials ready. I started with the arm strength draining process of writing on the easel (oh how much I wish I had a smartboard). I had to write the morning message, followed by a lesson for writing workshop, followed by visual cues of what to do during writing workshop, followed by the sound we'd be learning in reading workshop, followed by the reading workshop choices, followed by the math lesson on teen numbers, followed by the visual cues of what the kids will do independently during math, whew. I really need a smartboard. (oh by the way, this is what I have to write on the easel every day, not just when I'm out- it's worse on days when we have science in the afternoon, fortunately Friday is not one of those days). That's only the beginning of the prep. Then I had to go create a sheet on "About the Authors" for our writing time. Of course kindergartners can't read perfectly so I have to find a clip art picture to go with every question I want the kids to answer. Then I have to cut and paste that into a word document, organize it all, adapt it for some kids who need it, print out both versions. Now I have to create a sheet for the Teen Number search the kids will be doing in math. I don't think I need to really tell you every aspect of my plan, do I?

So Wednesday after I am finally released from a 3 hour long IEP meeting, I run through all the plans with my classroom assistant who is running the day today. I just want to take this moment to say how THANKFUL I am that I have someone I trust running my class and who knows and loves the kids. I know this will not last forever especially in this economy so I appreciate it while it lasts. Moving on. On Wednesday afternoon I thought all was ready.

Then yesterday comes, ANOTHER snow day. Obviously I anticipated this, which is why I had everything ready on Wednesday. But now I have a whole day to remember I forgot to give the poster to the child who will be Star of the Week next week, oh and did I put the schedule on the board? Where is the attendance folder? What if my special needs children don't get this About the Author concept? What if the rest of the class is calling out "What does this say?!" or "I need adult writing!" or "I don't know what my favorite book is!"

Nothing a little trip into school can't fix. So there I was, wandering around the school trying to find someone to let me in on a snow day. Twenty minutes and a little snow climbing later and I'm IN the building. An hour and about 7 e-mails to my classroom assistant later, things are set.

Fast forward to this morning. I feel like I should be at work, but I'm not. I'm thinking about what my kids are doing. I tell myself to go to yoga to calm down and actually enjoy my extra long weekend. Halfway through yoga I remember that I recently learned that a teacher can actually be sued if something happens when they are not at work (I don't know if you can WIN this lawsuit, I'm guessing no, but the fact that it can even happen is scary). Yeah, I'm calm right now... I swear.

(before you enroll me in therapy asap... writing this post made me feel a lot better haha).

Now off to Newport, will bring computer :)

Rudeness

By now you may have heard of Travel and Leisure's Rudest Cities in a America article. Since Boston was labeled #6, I thought I'd comment on my thoughts...

#1- What does rude exactly mean? I always hear midwesterners commenting on how people are "unfriendly" because they don't talk in the grocery store line in Boston. I don't find it rude at all to mind your own business in the grocery line and that's what I generally do. However, Eric gives off some kind of "you should talk to me" vibe and people always talk to him in lines or everywhere we go! Anyway, do people really want to talk to people in the grocery store line THAT much?

#2- Can you judge the rudeness of a place where you grow up? I don't find people in Boston to be rude at all (I mean other than some people obviously!), but maybe I'm just used to it?

#3- One of the comments that someone made on the rudeness article was that some cities have people who tend to be rude behind your back. Would you prefer someone be rude to your face, or behind your back? I'm not sure... sometimes I think it's better to keep your mouth shut and then tell someone later :)

#4- I find in general rudeness/niceness stereotypes about cities/countries are completely incorrect every single time. I wonder if this is because of expectations or luck, or because some stereotypes are just wrong. Some examples:

*Australia has a reputation for kind and welcoming residents. Please know that I love Australia and it will be a happy day in my life when I return there. The people that I met and became my friends were amazing people. But I have amazing friends here in #6 rude Boston too, and I found random Australians to be relatively rude towards Americans. There was a point while I was there that my Australian friend had to stand up for me because someone started yelling at me electing President Bush. Personally, if I met someone from North Korea, I would not start screaming at them about their country/leader etc. This happened to me more than once in Australia. Oh and don't get me started on the bus drivers over there, oh boy! The accents did make them sound slightly more friendly...

*Similarly, Eric and I were told about the welcoming personalities of the Greek. Um... really? We did not find this at all. In fact, this was the only place on our Europe trip that was not at the very least amused by Eric's attempt to say hello and thank you in the native language of the country we were visiting. They would actually look at him kind of weird...

*On the other hand, we had the opposite experience in France. Everyone knows the French, especially in Paris, have a reputation for being rude. However, not one single person was rude to us in Paris. In fact, when we looked extremely lost with a map on the side of the road, a random French guy stopped and attempted to help us without us even asking! Despite the fact that he spoke no English at all, he used the map and gestures to help and didn't give up on us even when we were confused. I call this, the opposite of rude.

Did your city fall on the list of Top 20 rudest cities? Do you think that's right? If you don't live in the US- do you think your city is considered rude or not? What rudeness stereotypes have you found to be false?

Ten on Tuesday

As I've mentioned, life is crazy right now so I don't have time for a great big blog post, I do have time for Ten on Tuesday though :) Thanks Lisa for inspiring me every week!

1. Do you decorate for Valentine’s day?

Obviously...

Haha alright fine, that was freshman year of college :) I don't really decorate any more but I still think Valentine's Day is a great holiday. Why not celebrate the people we love (friends, family, significant others) with some pink and chocolate? This doesn't mean I love crazy sappy romance or anything, but I did enjoy my surprise feety pajamas last year!   

2. Does your desktop have a picture or computer graphic? Is it organized?

My desktop has a picture of Eric and I at our wedding :) It's not organized but it doesn't look messy because everything saves on top of one icon... don't know why but don't care. I never pay attention to where anything is saved on my computer because i just use the search feature.



3. Do you use a paper planner, electric planner or no planner at all?

All about my paper planner, tried to adjust to electronic but I like that my paper planner is available all the time and I can break it out in the middle of a meeting and not look like I'm texting :)



4. Do you change purses or bags often or stick with a good thing?

I am obsessed with purses and bags. I change them pretty frequently but not ridiculously so. I'm using the one I made at my bachelorette party last June still... but I got a new teaching bag, so you know I feel fullfilled on the new bag department.



5. What’s your favorite YouTube Video?

Kinda hate YouTube. Eric and my brother watch YouTube for hours after everyone else has gone to bed. I just don't find it amusing...

That being said, if I had a smartboard in my classroom I'd use some of the videos on it I think. Just found an awesome one on teen numbers yesterday haha.



6. Do you use Turbo Tax or a real person to pay your taxes?

I use my Dad, who is definitely a real person :)



7. How many states have you set foot (or tire) in? Which ones?

Let's see... Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, NH, New York, Conn., Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma (at age 2 and don't remember it, if this counts) Utah, Arizona, California, Hawaii... I think that's it. So 18. Not bad, but I'd like to see a lot more.



8. How many countries have you been in? Which ones?

US, England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Scotland, Ireland... that's 10 if you include the US. Also not bad, but let's be honest I can do better- I just need an endless supply of money and time...anyone have extra?



9. How many pillows are in your house? (Sleeping or decorative)

I think 4 on my bed, 2 in the guest room, and maybe 3 downstairs. Very random question, not gonna lie.



10. How cold is too cold for flip flops?

This is a tough question for me because I LOVE flip flops, but I hate to be cold. How about we just change it so it is just NEVER too cold for flip flops (aka never gets below 60 or so haha).