Thursday, May 29, 2008

Who am I?

Who am I?

I received this as an email forward and decided to blog it instead of forwarding it.

These were my instructions:
Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. Answer the 30 questions at the end and send it to your friends (including me). This is for your entire life!

( ) Gone on a blind date
(x) Skipped school
(x) Watched someone die
(x) Been to Canada
(x) Been to Mexico
(x) Been to Florida
( ) Been to the Caribbean
(x) Been overseas

(x) Been on a plane
( ) Jumped out of a plane
( ) Been on a helicopter
( ) Been on a train
(x) Been lost
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country
(x) Gone to Washington , D.C.
(x) Swam in the ocean

( ) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
(x) Sang Karaoke
(x) Paid for a meal with coins only
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) Made prank phone calls
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue


(x ) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(x) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about or love
(x) Blown bubbles
(x) Gone ice-skating
(x) Gone snow or water Skiing
(x) Gone to the movies

1. Any nickname? ..............lyss, aly
2. Mother's name? ..............Judy
3. Favorite drink? .............diet coke
4. Tattoo? ....................no
5. Body Piercing's? ............ears
6. How much do you love your job?..........a lot, except when I don't
7. Favorite vacation. ....................London, definitely
8. Favorite TV Program?....................The Unit, CSI
9. Ever been to Africa ? ..................Nope
10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? ........yes
11. Ever been on TV? ......................no
12. Ever steal any traffic sign? ..........no
13. Ever been in a car accident? ..........yes
14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? .....4-door
15. Favorite salad dressing? ..............ranch or caesar
16. Favorite pie? ......................... blackberry (cobbler)

17. Favorite number....................20
18. All Time Favorite Movie? ..........Sound of Music
19. Favorite holiday? .................Christmas
20. Favorite dessert? .................Warm Blackberry Cobbler with vanilla ice cream
21. Favorite food? ....................chips and queso
22. Favorite day of the week? .........Saturday
23. Favorite Brand of Body Wash ?......
24. Favorite toothpaste? ..............Colgate

25. Favorite smell? ...................baked goods in the oven, chili on the stove, a man wearing cologne
26. What do you do to relax? ..........read and/ or watch a movie
27. Favorite Sport? ...................go Astros!!!!
28. How do you see yourself in 10 years? .....................i never know how to answer this question...

29. Furthest Place you will send this message? ...............I'm not sending it, though I guess my stattracker can tell me the furthest person that viewed it!
30. Who will respond to this the fastest? .................... I'm not tagging anyone or anything like that, though anyone is welcome to do it on their blog too!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Random Musings

Only one more day of school!

I think I've found a house I like. But I might like another one, too.

I'm leaving town this weekend for my cousin's wedding and another cousin's 25th anniversary party. It will be my second wedding weekend in a row,and I have another one the next weekend. What can I say? I have amazing friends!

Finishing up end-of-year paperwork and trying to figure out what I need/pack for summer school since it's not at my school is kinda hectic.

My fingers feel like icicles.

I've already got my gradebook set up for next year, all of next year's conduct charts are run off as well as morning work for the year. I'm thinking about having homework run off, too.

We watched most of Sound of Music today in class, but couldn't figure out how to make the second disc play without a remote.

When I went into Blockbuster last night and asked if they had any VHS, the guy laughed at me.

I'm blogging instead of cleaning up my classroom.

I think that might be all of my currently random musings.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Prince Caspian: Another Blockbuster

I went to see Prince Caspian last night and thought it was absolutely amazing! The costumes, the actors, the cinematography, all of it was extremely well done. It had been a little while since I had seen the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I've not read any of the books, so I started off a little confused. However, the story is superb! I highly recommend it!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

there are 4 days of school left
kids are going wild
grades are due today (but i'm not finished grading)
kids are going wild
my partner teacher is out
kids are asking a thousand questions
the copier isn't working
kids won't stop talking
my partner teacher is going to be out tomorrow too
kids are sooo ready for summer, they won't stop talking
another teacher on my team just told me she won't be here tomorrow either
we had an ice cream party today (Awesome TAKS scores!)
we're going to have a pizza party tomorrow (TAKS is over!)

Did I mention my partner teacher is out today?

It-Say Own-Day

My class was talking as we lined up for lunch, so I instructed them to sit back down.

I notice one student is writing, and I ask him what he is doing. "I'm writing??" he says hesitantly. "What are you writing?" "I'm writing words in pig latin."

Only 4 more days.

(not soon enough!)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

To be told: "You were right"

Ahhhh, the satisfaction!

Yes, I do know where a comma is needed...even though some may disagree with me.

;)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Dancing on Tables

One of the teachers on our grade level told her class that ALL (yes, she said, "all") the 4th grade teachers would dance on the tables if the students scored at least 50% Commended Performance. Well, you can see from yesterday's post that they went above and beyond our request. Even though Marie spoke for all of us, we were good sports about it.







Only 6 days left!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Drum Roll, please!

TAKS Scores are in!

4th grade results:
Reading: 99% passed, 63% Commended Performance
Math: 98% passed, 62% Commended Performance
Writing: 98% passed, 73% Commended Performance


4TH GRADE IS HOT, HOT, HOT!!!!!!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Annoying Naymz

A group of friends and I were walking out to my car tonight when one of them says, "I just got an email from Alyssa."

??

She looks at it to see what it says, since I obviously wasn't sitting at a computer and don't have internet access on my phone. It's from Naymz. I'm a member of Naymz, but don't like the annoying emails I'm receiving and didn't realize they were sending emails to MY FRIENDS! (said in slightly higher octave voice)

Several others of the group claim to be getting similar emails fairly often from "me" about this site as well. I'm already slightly miffed at the webservice and now I'm even more so!

I come home and immediately go to their website. I click on help and see the Frequently Asked Questions are all about how to get things to stop happening. How do I unsubscribe? How do I stop receiving emails? How do I stop emails from being sent to my friends? Yuck. I followed all the directions. If you're a friend of mine and have been receiving emails from Naymz, hopefully they won't be coming any more.

I'm sorry!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Too Big!

I was sick the week after Easter with a nasty-I-don't-know-exactly-what. In the week of illness, I lost almost ten pounds. I have kept that weight off and worked hard to lose a little more. I now have almost no work clothes that fit! This is a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. It provides a dilemma as I have only another week and a half of school. After May 30, I won't need work clothes again until August 25. I don't really want to go spend money on clothes that also won't fit by the time school starts again. (Yes, I'm being optimistic, but that is the plan, so I'm sticking to it.) So, I'm left with wearing REALLY loose fitting clothing!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Plenty then scarce

I usually have an abundance of Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons. You know the ones that come in the mail every other Wednesday and offer you 20% off or $5 off a purchase of a certain amount? I keep them stashed in my car at all times for when I need to go shopping for a wedding gift. As a single in a large group of singles, I attend many weddings each year (as I'm sure most of my readers do too!)

I have four weddings in the next month, and I need to purchase a gift for three of them. But, I'm out of coupons!

What's a girl to do?

Monday, May 12, 2008

Buying or Building a Home?

I am in the house-hunting process. Over the last two months I have looked at www.har.com, spoken with my realtor and looked at hundreds of homes online. I've personally walked through at least a dozen. Some are marked off the "possibilities" list right away, while others might be marked off after some research or discussion with one person or another. I've currently narrowed it down to about two. I say about, because one is out of my price range, but I think the owner is asking too much, so if they lower the price, it would be a possibility. The other is a new build.

Now there are many nice perks to building my own home. I get to choose what type of flooring is laid and the color of that flooring. I get to choose from several different floor plans and make adjustments to make me happier. Because I may be one of the first to buy in this neighbor, the builder is throwing in all appliances and free crown molding as well as a few other perks. It is a single family home, so I am not sharing a common wall, but there is a common area with picnic tables, a walking path and a pond with a fountain. I like the location of the neighborhood and have friends close by. The builder is throwing in 10k towards a down payment and closing costs, making my monthly mortgage payment very affordable.

However, there are some headaches to building my own home. It won't be ready until October-ish, so I'll be moving while teaching and taking school. This was pretty stressful last fall as I moved out of a leaking apartment. I was hoping to not repeat that process. Building a house means being involved in a process I'm not at all familiar with and learning what questions to even ask.

It's exciting, yet overwhelming.

I'm still not sure of my final decision...

Thursday, May 08, 2008

I'm sorry, Wha?

Two guy friends of mine and I were walking through a few houses on Sunday afternoon. We're discussing a good material for doors, the aesthetic benefits of an art niche, appropriate sizes for bedrooms and various other home-buyer topics. In the middle of these discussions, one of them turns to me and asks, "Have you ever waxed your legs?"

WHAT?!?

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Lizard vs. Gecko

I can handle lizards. They are green, brown, tan, and sometimes red. I won't go pick one up on my own or anything, but if someone is holding one, it's not a big deal. I don't scream or run another way or try to get away from them. Geckos, on the other hand, are a completely different story. They're see through. As in translucent. And that's enough to explain why they freak me out.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Grr

I just finished a post about how much I loved the weekend. When I clicked, 'publish post' the computer screen said there was an error. I tried to go back to publish it again, but my post was all gone.

Yep, it's Monday. :)

Friday, May 02, 2008