A First

Let it be known, that on this, the 30th day of December, 2011, I mowed my first lawn. 

 Not really sure how I got away without mowing a lawn for 27 years*, but it sure did make me feel proud when I did it (and only with limited help from my brother over the phone). Thanks Ke-lay! 

*Probably the same way I've gotten away without ever giving the dog a bath. 

Let's Kinect!

My friend Mary got a Kinect for Christmas.  

I would like to share some fun photos with you now from my first Kinect experience:

 We look just like Japanese Power Rangers, do we not?
Definitely the best song on Just Dance 3.

This pic is my favorite because it shows how "good" I am at following dance instructions. Everyone else is facing the screen and I'm still turning around. Haha!

I can't wait to do this again on New Year's Eve!

Overly Efficient

Since living in my current home, I have acquired the nicknames "Miss Efficiency" and "Electricity Nazi." Mostly, the power company's "Time of Use Plan" is to blame for this.  In AZ, you can save money by using the bulk of your electricity during certain times of the day.  Of course, they want you to use your electrical appliances at times when it is least convenient for you as the customer.  I am usually the one who is reminding everyone else of these times and getting a little bit agitated when they don't adhere to them.

Recently, two important events happened that basically changed my whole life:

First, the fire department dropped by a few months ago to check if we had a gas leak that was setting off the carbon monoxide monitor.  They asked us if we had a gas dryer, to which I responded, "No."

Second, I was talking to my best friend, who just moved into a new home and had to buy a new dryer because the house only had hook ups for gas dryers.

Both of these events kept stirring in my mind.

Then, I finally realized that my dryer is a gas dryer!!!

Why is this such a big deal?

Because for the past THREE YEARS I have not been drying my clothes from 1-8pm in the summer and 5-9am and 5-9pm in the winter and it hasn't saved me a single penny! I followed that crazy schedule with my laundry for no good reason.  I still can't believe it.


P.S. When I told my mom this story, she was not at all surprised.  I guess that when I was in first grade, I yelled at her for leaving the water running while she was brushing her teeth.

Magnetic Picture Board

We found this cool picture hanging thingy in a closet in our house a few years back.

My mom really liked it, so I wanted to make her one. 

 I finally figured out how (with some help, of course).

What you'll need:

-9" x 30 " board, sanded and painted

-four 5x7" metal shingles (found in roofing section at Lowe's/Home Depot), 

with a teeny hole drilled in the corner of each one (thanks Pops!)

-16 furniture nails (also called decorative nails, but the men folk 

at the hardware store will give you blank stares if you use the term "decorative")

-choose a phrase of your choice and have your awesome friend cut out the vinyl on her Cricut for you

Put it all together and you'll get:

One of these (and a happy mommy)!

Lt. Holmes

This is Steven:

AKA Lieutenant Holmes:

Last night he left the U.S. to serve our country in Afghanistan,

and it's all his fault that my emotions have been on a roller coaster ride all day. 

This morning, I started crying as we were saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

 I think I only made it to "I pledge" before I had to stop talking.

Then, one of my students noticed the menorah I put up for Hanukkah and said,

"Miss Jones is Jewish?!!"

That made me laugh.

Only a few minutes later, they had a special visitor appear on the announcements.

It was a father who came home last week from Afghanistan for a short while.

He presented an American flag that flew on Sept. 11, 2011 in Afghanistan and was dedicated to our school.

Crying again.

The rest of the day went really well.

After school, I stopped at Walgreen's and they asked me if I wanted to buy a candy bar for the troops in Afghanistan .  I said, "Yes I do!" without shedding a single tear.

I picked out a great one for you Steven.

I can't wait for you to be reunited with your wonderful wife and
soon-to-be-born little girl!
Thank you for serving our country!

Flourish

Today, my class turned in their math papers and one of them caught my eye.  Here it is:

A normal name and a flourish name, huh?  This may seem very random and kind of strange.  Unless, you were reading Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary with us today.   In this book, Ramona is only 4 and doesn't know how to write her name.  She wants her name to have lots of i's to dot and t's to cross.  So, she writes the letters she likes, but always "with a flourish."

Black Like Me

I just had a dream that I was driving by myself on a trip and I was having a hard time concentrating.  I was in the right lane and when I got to a curve, my car went over the line and I started driving at a slant on the side of a hill. Thankfully, I was able to get back on the road somehow (although crashing in a dream wouldn't have hurt me too badly).  Instead of getting pulled over, this cop lady at the bottom of the hill had me (and my mysterious son that appeared out of nowhere) get into her vehicle with another lady who had broken some traffic law.  The cop took us to a building, where we had to sit and wait for some sort of traffic school session.  As I was sitting, I looked down at my legs and was disgusted.  They had large bumps all over them and plus they were hairy in some parts.  I really wanted to shave them, but I was afraid that might not work out so well with the weird bumps all over.  The other interesting thing was that in my dream I was half black, and as I looked at my legs I was thinking, my legs look a bit darker than usual.  They were super dark.  I could go for that shade of skin, but only if it was minus the hair and bumpiness.

Sharing Time

Today I am going to catch up on what's been going on in my life.  Mostly for my dad, who threatens to stop reading my blog if I don't update it often enough.

First, I have a story to share:  

One day, I was standing outside after school, yelling at all the children to "Walk!" That's a skill that I acquired in Teacher School.*  A ten-year-old exits the building, walks over to me, and asks, "Is it raining?"  Umm, did you really have to ask me that.  My response: "Is it?"  He looks up and decides that it's not.

Next, I have a definition to share: 

 (Thank you dictionary.com)

lit·er·al·ly

   [lit-er-uh-lee]  Show IPA

adverb

1.

in the literal  or strict sense: What does the wordmean literally?

2.

in a literal  manner; word for word: to translate literally.

3.

actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy: The city wasliterally destroyed.

4.

in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually.

People have literally been using this word way too much.  They literally don't know what it means.  "Literally" is the new "ironic."  They hear it and think it sounds great and want to literally use it themselves and then their children literally start using it and the meaning begins to get lost.  

I literally don't know who to blame for this problem, but I get upset at them every time I hear it used incorrectly.  Nothing will ever top the day that a girl giving a talk in church said, "I literally cried my eyes out." And here's another: " I literally have people coming out of the woodwork asking for the recipe." Wow. That's amazing.

I would also like to share a secret:

No, it's not a secret about my love life.  Sorry.  It's the secret to having the best grilled cheese sandwich ever. Are you ready? The secret is: use sourdough bread.  When you combine cheese, sourdough, a little butter, and a hot griddle, your mouth will be in heaven.  And then you'll have to eat it every night for two weeks like I did.  It's that good.  

Finally, I will share some pictures:

 I made that snowflake!

Aren't you impressed? (because you should be)

It is the first snowflake I made under the tutelage of my new roommate.

(and the first picture I took with my new, fancy camera) 

Our whole ceiling is decorated with these amazing snowflakes, 

all made by my new roommate from Texas. She's amazing. 

*To learn about Teacher School, you'll have to read the book 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny. I highly recommend it. If you are a teacher, that is. Or if you just want to, but you won't appreciate it as much I'm guessing. 

I'm dreaming of...

...not a white Christmas, if that was what you were thinking.  Although, that would be really pretty and quite an unexpected surprise.

No.  Really, I just wanted to announce that I'm dreaming again.  I haven't been having many dreams lately and it's probably because I haven't been getting enough hours of sleep in.

But everything changed last night.  Or this morning, rather, as I was sleeping in and not taking a shower before work.

My dream started about my new roommate who moved in today.  I really do have a new roommate.  That was not just a dream.  She was probably freaked out when I told her today that I'm already dreaming about her.

Anyway, the new roomie is from Texas and so is one of my coworkers.  In my dream, my coworker sent me a text message because he had some important information that I needed to know about this new girl before she moved in.  I tried to read it, but I received 80 more text messages right after that and I had to sift through all of those before I could see what his said.  Plus, I was hanging out with some girls in my ward in a very unkempt apartment and it was hard to not completely ignore them and look at my phone at the same time.  So, I never got to read the message I was trying to find.

My dream shifted and I was in a hotel/resort place.  I had reserved this really nice luxury suite and a whole bunch of people who I apparently knew were there with me for a party/soiree/gathering of some sort.  Then all of the sudden, a bunch of evil mobsterish people come busting in there.  I couldn't figure out why they were there and then all of sudden, the lady who was their leader informed us that she was after one of the guests I had invited (she's definitely off the invite list next time).  The last thing I remember is that the scary mob lady took a knife out and punctured the skin on my hand as a warning to me.  She drew blood and everything.  Then I woke up.

Want S'more?

I have heard numerous jokes at my school from teachers saying that they are going to put a cot in their classroom since they practically live at school anyway.  I decided that I need more than just a cot to sleep comfortably.  

 And I only had to move a few desks to fit the tent in there!  Actually, the tent isn't for me.  My class went to typing camp.  They've been working on a typing program on their special little keyboards called NEOs.  As motivation for them to complete the typing levels, I let them go inside the tent.  Here's a view inside:

We also took breaks to sing songs, make crafts, and eat s'mores!

This little thing is the best invention ever.  It's not a campfire for sure, but for s'mores in the city, it's the best thing ever.  Especially if you're not allowed to have an open flame.  You pour water into the back compartment and the steam that is created as the microwave is cooking away prevents the marshmallows from exploding.  So, you have sufficiently melted chocolate and mallows.  

Typing Camp was a great success!

Attempting to be Crafty

I definitely was feeling ambitious today, attempting more than one craft project.
Some attempts turned out better than others.

Attempt #1: A bow made from wrapping paper. :/

Attempt #2: Cards

Attempt #3: Earring Holder

Attempt #4 (my biggest triumph): A Necklace

All of this was made possible by the help of the beautiful and talented Mauri

Liking Today

*Despite the fact that they all got drenched from the instant downpour that came without warning this morning, my class didn't go crazy (any more than usual, that is).

*The firefighters that came over to check on our carbon monoxide detector lived up to my expectations (I've been debating whether or not to add a picture of some firemen with their shirts off. I couldn't decide on just one, so you'll have to look it up yourself or call the fire department).

*I received a call from my bishop only minutes after the fire engine left to make sure that everything is okay at our house (news travels fast on our street).

*I attended a school board meeting in which they approved (after three years of waiting) that our salaries will no longer be frozen (they're being thawed?)!!!!!!

*I decided to get a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard to celebrate (GREAT decision).

*Did you notice how parentheses happy I am today (because there are a lot)?

Kids In Mind

I'm not really sure about the best course of action to spread the news about this, but this will be a start at least.

I've never trusted the MPAA rated system because I wasn't ever certain of what I was getting myself into when I went to see a movie.  If anyone has seen Sixteen Candles, I'm sure that you can sympathize.

Then, one magical day, a friend of mine introduced me to kidsinmind.com and my movie watching experiences changed all for the better.  I was no longer unsure about what I was about to watch.  Kids in Mind has a 0-10 scale for profanity, violence, and sexual content, so you can decide what level you are comfortable with and (if you have them) what you want your kids to watch.

If you had checked the site before seeing Marley and Me (PG), you would have seen these scores:

and then perhaps you would have realized that this is not just a cute dog movie and left the six- year-old at home.

The only downside is that kidsinmind started in 1992, so you won't be able to look up old films. Sorry.

In Case of Fire...

During my recent trip to Utah, I learned what to do in the event of a fire.

 Exit the hotel using the stairs, whether...

you are fully clothed

or only wearing a shirt

 or you aren't wearing anything at all.

Other highlights on our trip included:

• seeing a billboard for a sports drink that read "Your body is a temple: stay hydrated."
• meeting up with a bunch of my favorite people (waiting for the pics that aren't on my camera)
• my mom thinking that I said I was picking up some "fun" (instead of buns) at Walmart, which resulted in the following fun purchases:

 

(Nothing says fun like blue hair and making slam dunks in the car)

That Was Awkward

Last night, I watched Sense and Sensibililty.  There were plenty of scenes where someone in the room had the opportunity to say "awkward" (and they did).  My favorite awkward scene is when Edward Ferrars shows up to talk to Miss Elinor Dashwood and she has to inform him that Lucy Steele is in the room.  I love it!

After watching the movie, I went home and went to sleep.  I had a dream that I met a dashing young man and he started holding my hand at some social event.  Before long, another young man who had clearly expressed that he had no interest in me showed up and started holding my other hand.  I'm not really sure why I even let him do so.  Anyway, both of my hands were occupied simultaneously.  They are lucky that I didn't have to sneeze or something.  Although, if I did, I'm sure that I would have aimed in the direction of the latter. :)

True Love

This has been my favorite for years.

And always will be.

Now it can be yours too!

Spaghetti

Today we read two poems about spaghetti at school.  One was about how great it is and the other talked about how hard it is to eat.  Afterwards, I told the kids to write a letter to their parents.  They were supposed to persuade them to either make or not make spaghetti for dinner.  This is my favorite one:

Dear Daddy,

You make really bad spaghetti.  Please don't make any more.  It's really hot.  It's really sad that can't make it better well...to bad.  No affence, I can't eat a noodle it's to bad especially the sauce.  Why do you make spaghetti if I don't eat you will give me no lunch.  :( Well, all I need to tell you is don't think I like spaghetti. Please don't make it!

Sincerely,

Your daughter

It's All in the Family

About 6 months ago, a set of twin brothers joined my ward.  I have to ask them their names every time I see them since I can't tell them apart.

I had a dream about one of them the other night.  Even in my dream, I didn't know which one I was talking to.  All that I can remember now is that we were at a wedding reception, sitting at a table.  He commented that there must be a red, plastic bird in front of him, bobbing into a cup of water. There was.  It looked like this:

This may not seem like a significant observation to you, but it would if you knew that both he and his brother are blind.

I still remember their first day at church very vividly.  My friend is their cousin, so they sat by us in Sacrament Meeting.  Afterwards, I escorted one of them to Sunday School class.  It just so happened that we were having a lesson from the New Testament on a blind man. Talk about the scriptures having more meaning.

About a week ago, I was sitting next to one of them at a dinner.  I was beyond grateful that I could see my food and the utensils that I needed to bring that food to my mouth.  As we were talking, I asked him if there was anything he would like to invent that would be really helpful to him as a blind person.  I was not expecting the answer I got.  He said, "Honestly, the best thing that a blind person could have in his life is a great family.  I am really lucky to have great parents who support me and who have helped me to be social."  Wow.  I guess that family really is important,  no matter what our situation in life is.

Before & After

Whenever Lydia and I are apart (which is always more than we should be), we send each other "before and after" pictures in the mail.  Over the years, we've seen some pretty good ones. 

 It's amazing how much people can change!

Gotta Love It!

I'm posting this to let you all know that I had a very productive day today.  

When I showed up at work, my desk looked like this:

 Now it looks like this:

  

Since before school started (Aug 10), 

these baskets have been on the floor of my car:

Today, I finally returned the baskets to the dollar store,

and now my car floor looks like this.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get rid of all the oil stains

that mysteriously appeared on my car mats.

Rabbit Reality

Last night, I had a dream that my school was having a fundraiser.  We were selling rabbits to the students for $1 a piece (not so sure this would in actuality raise a lot of funds).  Students could either buy one, two, or three rabbits.  That was pretty much my dream.

The problem was that when I woke up, I was waiting for students to come to my house to pick up their rabbits.  I was supposed to go to the gym, but my twisted logic told me that I couldn't leave the house in case someone stopped by to get a rabbit or two.  So, I missed the gym today.

I wish that I would say that I just made up the rabbit excuse so that I didn't have to work out, but I honestly believed that the events in my dream were real.  Now my roommate is frightened that I am going to hurt someone or do something I'll regret because I can't distinguish reality from dreams.

Take my money

After blogging this morning about how I don't have any stories to tell, I got a story in less than 24 hours.

Today I went to Walmart.  I had 5 things on my list:

1. Q-Tips
2. Swiffer duster
3. Kleenex
4. Milk
5. Salad ingredients

Somehow I ended up spending $100 and I didn't even get any Kleenex. 

Now, I'll just have to get by like this kid:

I guess that I subconsciously decided that I wanted to blow more money after that because I left my purse in the shopping cart and drove home.  Once I was home, I was very confused as to where my purse could have been.  I tried calling my phone to see if I could hear it and some man answered.  He was a Walmart worker.  He might even be part of the "Asset Protection" team. He told me what a doofus I was and where I could pick my purse up.

So basically, I'm very, very, very thankful that some honest person found my purse and I'm going to try to not be such an airhead in the future.

Out of Material

I've got nothing. 

No dreams. 

 No funny stories. 

 I feel like I've been doing a lot,

but I don't know really what to say about it.

  So, I'll just tell you what I've been doing

and then you and come up with some
 funny/interesting/boring thoughts in your head about it.

Last weekend, I went to see The Lamb of God.

I got free tickets at the last moment.  I've heard that Rob Gardner was talented, but I really had no idea how wonderful it was really going to be.  Click here to see a preview of one of the songs.  I can't be certain, but it really looks like the composer has no shoes on, which I find to be very amusing.

One of the people that I went with has OCD.  Which reminds me that I've also been telling everyone about this t-shirt, which I also find to be very amusing:

 

I also went ice skating.

I refrained from busting out these skills 

as I did not want to intimidate the other young single adults.

Mostly, I've been spending WAY too much time at work.

Luckily, there are little things that make 

lesson planning and grading papers more bearable.

Like when a student leaves a note like this at the bottom of his assignment:

 Here's the other side:

Tonight, I will be hanging out with Betsy Ross and John Hancock at the Constitution Fair.

Apparently, most people are excited to see David Archuleta there. I, personally, am most excited about the

parachuters!

2nd Best Birthday Party Game

Does anyone else remember playing this game?  There are several random items on a cookie sheet.  Then your friend's mom covers them with a towel and removes one item.  She takes the towel off and you try to figure out which item it missing.

Well at school, we started a unit on mystery books and let me tell you, it's pretty much the best thing ever.  We had a staged mystery and the kids made detective hats and soon we'll get to eat red herrings (Swedish Fish).  It was suggested that we play the birthday party game I mentioned above to get them to start paying attention to details.  I couldn't very well imagine that I wanted to give 27 sets of eyeballs enough time to stare at little items on a cookie sheet.  So, I made a 21st century version of the game.  Do you want to play? You can if you just click here.  If the slideshow doesn't start right away, click VIEW and then START PRESENTATION (instead of just scrolling through the slides really quickly or it will totally give it away). Have fun!


P.S. Are you still wondering what the number one birthday party game is?  Well, you stand over a Mason jar holding a clothes pin next to your nose.  Then you release the clothes pin and hope it makes it in the jar.  It may sound strange, but it was my favorite.  Maybe I'll play it at my next party.

Anybody Want a Peanut?

One of the perks of visiting Lydia is that she makes REALLY YUMMY food.  Seriously, it's beyond delicious.  I'm sure all my other friends make good food too.  They just haven't made it for me yet.  So, invite me over sometime and I'll rave about it on my blog for you. A small price to pay for yummy food.

Anyway, one of the things Lydia has cooked for me is called Thai Chicken.  It's basically a Thai version of Hawaiian Haystacks.  How can you go wrong with chunky peanut butter AND peanuts as ingredients (unless you're allergic, of course)?

Afterwards, I decided to make it for my brother's birthday party so he'd feel special.  It turned out that there were some communication issues and he didn't even end up coming to his own dinner.  Too bad for him because he really missed out.   My parents got to enjoy it, though, and my mom asked me to email her the recipe.

I kept putting it off, but she emailed me thanking her for the recipe a few weeks later.  I couldn't even remember sending it to her, but I was glad that I didn't need to worry about it anymore.

Soon, Lindsay was requesting good recipes.  I knew just what to send her.  Plus, I already had it in my sent box, so it would be super easy to share the recipe.  I searched and searched through my emails and even with gmail's awesome search tool, I still couldn't find it. :(

After talking with my mother, I discovered the email I got from her was actually in a dream. I never sent it to her.  I've received several text messages in dreams, but this was my first dream email.  It's really kind of hard to distinguish real technology from dream technology.  I'm lucky this hasn't gotten me into any sort of real trouble so far.

In the midst of figuring this all out, I lost my written recipe and Lydia had to email it to me.  In order to avoid losing it, I'll save it in my inbox AND share the google docs link for all to enjoy.

Thai Chicken

I apologize that the colors on my plate don't make it look super appetizing.   

Hold the Condiments

I'm not really sure how to piece together everything that happened in my dream so that it makes a cohesive story.  Instead I'll just list off the things I remember until I get to the best part.

My dream involved:

-buying tickets to a BYU vs UofU basketball game
-reserving a hotel room with my mom
-walking into a party room with my sister and Mary to find a present left behind for "Ray Ray" (Brandon Ray)
-sitting in a chair with only half a back support to watch a film I needed to see for my college science class
-talking to my friend's sister, Megan, in her kitchen

At the end, someone told me that the door was for me.  Rather than open the front door, I walked out through the garage.  I saw someone out there, but I was confused about whether he was there for me or if my guest was hidden behind the screen door.  He was there for me and he was wearing a hot dog suit.  I walked closer and then realized that I had just walked through a trail of ketchup and mustard that were leading up to the front door.  He began singing a song for me.  It was like I was being asked for a high school dance.  I was trying to determine whether hot dog man was asking me out or if someone else arranged for him to come when my alarm went off.  So, I'll never know who my hot dog man is. :(

P.S. I'm writing this right after waking up and I am not checking for errors, so please forgive any and all you find.

Family Bonding

In my most recent dream, my whole family (minus the brother-in-law,sorry Cam) entered the neighbor's house without permission.  We were on a hunt for a special bottle of Mod Podge my sister needed for a craft project.  I realized after I woke up that I've had dreams before in which the fam broke into this same neighbor's house.  The only difference this time was that the neighbors were actually in the house when we snuck inside.  We felt a little silly when we found them in the kitchen.  Luckily, they were glad to have visitors and provided the Mod Podge for all of Andrea's crafting needs.  Soon, the conversation turned to gardening and the mom was asking me if I planted a garden while I lived in Utah since they have much nicer weather there.  After explaining that I'm really not the gardener type, we left.  Through the window.  Sure enough, a whole biker gang was walking up to the house and gave us some interesting looks as they saw how we executed our exit. 

That Had to Hurt

I don't blog about all my dreams; mostly just the ones that I can remember plenty of details from.  This morning I was telling my dream to my roomies and one of them said, "You better go post that on your blog." I explained that I didn't really think it was blog-worthy, but she told me that I better post it anyway. So I am.

I dreamed that I was at the lake and we went cliff jumping.  One girl jumped off a super high cliff and landed wrong.  She ended up with a bruise alllllll the way up her thigh.  It was super nasty.  The end.

See. I told you it wasn't really blog-worthy.  So I'll try to spice this up a little bit by telling you about my weekend that inspired the bruise dream.

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30am.  Yesterday was a Saturday.  That's what time I wake up all week long.  I was very much regretting this decision as soon as my alarm went off.  It was totally worth it, though.  Plus, I didn't get any bruises, just some sore muscles.

I jumped into my swimsuit and headed off to the lake.  We started the day off with wake boarding.  Best to do that before the water gets to choppy.  Still, the water was too choppy.  Not that it mattered to me anyway, since I couldn't even get all the way up on the board.  Close, but no cigar.  Whatever that means.  I'm pretty sure that next time I go, I'll look more like this guy:

Next, we busted out a three-man tube.  Apparently the tube-making-people want their tubes to be safe now.  Where's the fun in that?  We were going speedy quick and flying over tons of bumps, but I didn't get thrown off once.  All I got was a sore bottom from sitting in that thing.

Later, we went cliff jumping.  I was told that I had to jump so I could tell my third graders about it on Monday.  I did jump, but I don't really think that I'm going to go tell a bunch of 8-year-olds that it's a good idea to jump off the side of a cliff and hope you don't hit any rocks on the way down.

As soon as I got home, I took a three hour nap. And that was my day.