Let the Festivities Begin!

I am now officially on Thanksgiving Break. This is indeed one of the things I am thankful for right now. I do love my job and am very thankful that I have it because I know there are a lot of Americans don't have jobs right now. I also do have a pretty awesome job. I get to be around the future everyday. I get to have, even if a small part, an opportunity to make a difference in kid's lives. That is pretty awesome. I do not touch every kid, but I do touch some and that is amazing still! I love my students and even if it is hard sometimes because of how broken their lives are, it is so worth it. I think I need to tape what I just wrote up on a wall in my house and look at it every day before I go to work. Seriously, it is hard to have a positive attitude at work sometimes and I am not always who I should be there but each day is a learning experience for me.

So, wanna know how I will spend the first day of break? I knew you would. I got to sleep in which was magnificent and needed. My eye flared again yesterday so I am again on antibiotic drops. It worries me a little. Sleeping helped a bit. I am going to head to the grocery store and buy potatoes for Thanksgiving. I then will go to the laundromat which is one of my favorite places on the planet (feel the sarcasm!). Then I plan on watching some DVRed shows and just chilling.

I have gotten to see Ben the past few days and it has been fun. Last night we went to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant. It was fun. We also watched tons of The Office because he is trying to catch up. Yeah, it is really a sacrifice for me to watch The Office as you all know. I did sleep through most of the ones we watched last night but I had good reason. We may watch more tonight. Good times!

More Thankfulness!

Continuing the Thankful week...

I am so thankful for all the awesome friends I have. Sarah shouted out to me in her blog yesterday and I was very touched by that. She is one amazing person and without her, I would not be the person I am today. I am thankful for her courage and example. I am also thankful for all of my work friends. Today the home and consumer science teacher helped me make a present. (It is scary when Alice sews btw). Janette made me dinner tonight, she is always amazing. Of all the people in my life, not only is she one of them but she is one of the ones that keeps me sane. I can always vent to her about anything. She always listens and understands. It is always nice to have these great friends who know what I go through every day with the students I teach. I really have noticed that I have always been surrounded by amazing friends. I do not know why but I always have good friends. They always help me with everything. Today even one of my friend's emails made me not be as nervous as I had been. MBC is amazing. She is also quite the librarian who always recommends good books.

I am very tired and if you are reading this and you have not been mentioned please do not be offended. If you are one of my friends, I am thankful for you and for all you do for me. You people are pretty darn special.

I must sleep now. Only one more day to get through before break. YIPEE!!!

I Think I Can Last Two Days!

This pic is funny because I bought some nuts to eat this week remembering how much I loved eating these kinds of nuts with my grandpa at his house. I went all out and bough some and even a new nutcracker. Well, I am allergic to peanuts as a lot of you know. Well, I am also allergic to other tree nuts apparently because I had a reaction to one of these kinds too. Sad day! It was good to remember Grandpa though!

Yeah, I think I can do it, I think I can make it through two days of work this week. That is just fantastic. I am so excited.

Today I didn't do much. Went to Church then came home and read for a bit and then had dinner with two friends. I like when friends come over and make dinner for me. If anybody else wants to do this, please feel free!

I decided that in each post this week I will write about something I am thankful for seeing it is Thanksgiving week! Here is number one:

I am thankful for knowing my creator. My faith in God is something very dear to my heart. In fact, most of my decisions in life involve Him. I also feel that I am a much calmer person because of my knowledge of who I am and my part in Heavenly Father's plan. I know that even my trials have reason and that through each of my experiences here on earth I am made stronger and basically God is shaping me into who I am supposed to be. The journey is pretty much one of the awesomest things about life. I am so thankful that I can see God's hand in my life and that I know that everything will always work out as long as I have faith in him! What a wonderful thing to have and to know!

It is later than I wanted to go to bed. I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to one great week.
Love ya all. Unless I don't know you very well, but even then, I think I probably would learn to love you though time!

Geto!!!

Morgan once blogged about living in the Ghetto (http://ingfamily.blogspot.com/2008/11/proof-i-live-in-ghetto.html). Well, if one shopping cart makes it so you live in the ghetto, I live in the Ghetto times seven. There are a total of seven shopping carts in my yard. (One is on the side of the house so it is not included in the picture) I will never understand the mentality of people who take shopping carts from the store and bring them to where they live. I just don't get it. If you live only two blocks from the grocery store, it does make sense to walk there. The part I do not get is why are you buying so much that you can't comfortably carry it? Seriously, the place is only two blocks away...you probably could go there next week, or even tomorrow if necessary! Another thing that I do not get about this mentality is why don't you take the cart back the next time you go to the store. Apparently, you go multiple times if there are multiple carts. Wouldn't it occur to you that "wow, I could take this back with me so it would not become an eye sore." Hmm. Maybe they do not understand that there are other people in the world. "If this cart doesn't bother me, then it isn't a problem." They do not have to walk past the graveyard of carts everyday, do they?

I would also take pictures of all the trash that they have on "their" porch, but I have a fear of them getting out baseball bats and chasing after me. Apparently, the walk to the dumpster is too far, so they just chuck the garbage out onto the porch instead of walking the fifty feet to the dumpster. Again, they are not realizing that this is a shared space and everyday other people have to walk past junk alley to get their mail.

Morgan, I think I win. I live in more of a ghetto than you! I will even dare say I live in the "geto." That is how my students grafittized our sidewalk at school one year. They thought our school was ghetto but really were so ghetto that they actually could not spell ghetto properly. I kinda take humor in all of this but at the same time am irritated by the lack of education around me on all fronts right now. I go to school and teach people who struggle so much then I go home and am bombarded by the same crap. In fact, the other day when I confronted one of the neighbor children about said shopping carts and suggested the next time they go to Smith's they could actually take a few back he responded by saying: "Oh those aren't our carts." Hmm. Funny that I often see him with his mother parking the cart there and taking their groceries out of it. Yep, they must not be yours. One of my students does a similar thing every time I confront him on inappropriate behavior or language. "Please do not swear." "I wasn't swearing, it was my mouth." No responsibility for anything. Very annoying.

So there you have my rant on the "geto" I live in!

Life has been very, very, very busy these days. A typical day has me teaching for about seven hours, coaching basketball for an hour and a half, exercising for an hour, doing some grading for about a half an hour and then going home about about six-thirty. Once home all the energy I have is to plop myself down in front of the TV and veg until about ten-thirty. Sometimes I stay up later because I feel I have not gotten enough Alice time. This is bad because then I do not get enough sleep and I am Grumpy Alice at school. I have found myself yelling at students a few times this last week. I don't like when I get like that. I don't want to be Yelling Alice either. She is not nice. The kids like the Alice who is funny and positive not angry and negative. I am aware of all these things but am having a hard time changing. I guess that is the project for me in the next few weeks.

I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving Break. I don't have too many plans except for hanging with the Bills forThanksgiving and the day after. My friend, Ben, will also be in town from Austin, Texas and I am excited to see him. The last time I got to see him was in March while he was living in Des Moines. It will be fun to re-connect again.

This weekend I am going to the movie Twilight and cleaning. I am procrastinating getting down to the cleaning. The biggest challenge is going to be the mound of clothes that has appeared in my room. I have been so tired lately that Tornado Alice just throws clothes in piles when she is done wearing them. Non-Organized Alice has also not put the clean ones away so the hampers are out of commission for dirty clothes because clean clothes are inhabiting them. I better get to it so I can go to the movie this afternoon. I hope you are all having a fabulous day. I like weekends!

More Carrie

Today went fast, which is always good. Okay so you shouldn't live your life for the future but until Thanksgiving break I am on coast.

The wait for Carrie Underwood is over and the concert went by too fast. I thought about it a lot today. That is why you will get to see a few more pictures from the concert.

Tomorrow is our next basketball game. Today the girls looked lots better at practice. I hope they can remain calm during the game. I think they just get too nervous.

We went to burgers tonight. I sure do love Red Robin and good people to hang with.

I went to the library for the first time since February. What is wrong with me that I haven't been to the city library since them? Weird.

I also watched The Office. It was awesome. Thirty minutes is just not enough sometimes!

It is late again. Going to sleep now!