NYC

NYC was fabulous. Quick overview for those interested (I know you've been dying to hear about our trip):

Monday - The wonderful Wes takes Laura and I to the airport at 4 o'clock in the morning - WHAT A GUY! Then we fly into Newark, NJ and travel by train to NYC. Quickly we made our first trip to Times Square, Madison Sq. Garden and the likes. We ended our St. Patricks Day celebration in a pub with some new friends. Bagpipes and beer. Great fun!

Tuesday: While walking through the financial district we found a great deal: 2 huge slices of NY pizza and coke for $5. Finished in 8 minutes flat - be impressed. South Street Seaport and Brooklynn Bridge on our way to queue (that's Laura's British version of "standing in line") for Ellis Island. It was here that we met another new friend, Eric. Laura and I have similar museum styles, we like to read -- which lead to being thrown out at closing. That evening we went to Spamalot----can't really describe just how amazing it was---highly recommend it.

Wednesday: Museum of Natural History, Spring Awakening, Excellent Bagel w/ Cream Cheese, Thai Food, Black and White Cookies, NY Library, Bryant Park

Thursday: SoHo, Little Italy, NoHo, Chinatown, Central Park, Shopping on 5th Ave., Lunch with some other Arkansans, Friday: Columbia University -- beautiful! Metropolitan Museum -- WOW! Laura's cousin Phil works at the Met, really sweet job, so we had lunch with him, played on our own in the museum for a good 5 hours. While taking a little break at the Met we ran into the one-and-only Leah Samour, weird. Then back to Brooklynn, where Phil lives, for dinner and a little Razorback basketball -- Wooo Pigs!

Saturday: Farmer's Market at Union Square, The Village, Chelsea, Mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Cheesecake

Sunday: Happy Easter! We flew home. But mind you the trip started with a rather scary subway ride at 4 am. It ended with a wonderful welcome home from Weston!!

I think my favorite day was Tuesday or Thursday or Friday. Oh, I don't know they were all great. I highly recommend the same trip for anyone who has not yet been.

nicknames

Direct quote from student reading journal:

"My nickname wasn't given by my friends, actually my dad gave it to me, but I'm going to tell you what it is anyway. My dad calls me Bowlin Ball Head because my head is so hard it broke one of my grandparents teeth."

I about died laughing, as this is one of the only original nicknames. Most of the kids just wanted to be called "Blabber-mouth" or "Shorty" or "Spiky." For obvious, sixth-grade reasons.

Love these kids.

Where is your heart?

Did you know that sixth graders act like 4 year olds, on fairly regular intervals? I used the Valentine's candy, conversation hearts, for an activity in math the other day. Each kid got 20 hearts and needed to find the percentages, fractions and decimals of each color. At the end of the day I felt fairly confident in the success of the lesson until I learned that one boy decided to stick a heart up his nose! No lie. I later asked him about it, and his only response was that the other kids told him to.

I laugh at (and with) these kids on a daily basis, but typically I forget why by the time I get home. I'd really like to document the crazy adventures of sixth grades, but oh well....

Happy Days

So it is obvious that one of the perks of teaching is the time off, but the SNOW DAYS is a wonderful unexpected perk! My weekend was short, due to a Saturday professional development thing, so I was feeling stretched this week anyway. And now a snow day! Could anything be better? I even watched a movie this afternoon, without grading papers!

That's all. Just a happy day.

Europe Anyone?

With the line of work I'm in, I have the wonderful benefit of extensive time off. The two weeks of winter break were absolutely wonderful. In college, I typically became bored with the month+ breaks at Christmas time, but this was just right.

After 3 days in Tulsa with the fam, we drove to Colorado for some of the best skiing of my life. A great wedding/New Year's party and a quick trip to Dallas completed my traveling of the break. I finally came back home on Thursday, giving myself a full 3-day weekend to rest and catch up.

This brings me to my current quest: Summer Break. I really want to travel. Specifically to Europe, but I don't want to go alone. Partially for safety, partially to keep myself sane. If anyone is traveling in June/July ....

My Morning

I've always felt that casual greetings with people are awkward and not geniune. Specifically, I hate "Good morning, how are you? Fine, and you? Fine, thanks." Ok, yes, this is a polite social norm, but it is too predictable and feels fake everytime I'm involved in this conversation. I've even been know to avoid eye contact with people to avoid this lacking conversation.

This morning, though, I was greeted in a different way. I was coming into school (work) very close to late and feeling a little sickly - definitely NOT excited about the day ahead of me. Quickly walking towards my classroom, I see a man from church. His daughter is on the team down the hall, so I see their family about once a week. I smile and say, "Good morning!" But he broke with tradition. He said, "The Lord's blessing be upon you today." It caught me off guard, but it also calmed me in a way that no other greeting ever has. Isn't it interesting how important it is to be reminded of our identity in Christ on a daily basis?

My Hand Was IN A COW!

Yeah. In a cow. See attached picture for proof.

I think I went on the best field trip of all time, today. Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but it was stinkin' cool. The U of A Animal Science Department has a cow with a permanent hole in its side. You can stick your hand in and feel the inside of its stomach and play with its lunch.

In other news, I spent a great weekend in Chicago. If you haven't seen it, you should make plans to see the musical Wicked. It was incredible! No lie. And... if you haven't visited him yet, you should make plans to visit Callan in Chicago. He's didn't get me lost, or anything!

The ice storms in Tulsa definitely ruined the end of the weekend, but I will choose to remember the beginning rather than the end. :)