Why I stay up past my bedtime and other random thoughts.

1. I believe Brayden or Audrey took this treasure. Sorry it's a day late two weeks in a row. Not a habit.

2. Had my first encounter with plagiarism on a book report. Called the student over.
Me: What does "ubiquitous" mean?
Him: Oh, um, uh, oh, well, I can't really describe it. . . .
Me: Maybe because you didn't write it? (He had cut and paste-d the info TWICE. Couldn't have been more obvious.)

3. I was informed today that there is at least one but possibly three teachers in my hallway who hate my singing and loud talking and feel it need to be addressed. So I will address it tomorrow in the hallway, loudly, during each class change. Sorry that I actually enjoy my job.

4. I was so happy to see Uncle Jesse showing off his pipes and dance moves on "Glee" last night. Only thing that could have made it better? The mullet. (ps I haven't finished the episode so if it sucked don't tell me.)

5. Just got my flirt on with my friend and wing-girl, Natalie at the Tute. It was a good talk by a seasoned CES teacher full of great info on the Book of Mormon. Nice. But to top it off? We had some really classic moments with the boys in the gym afterwords. Priceless. I'm pretty sure that Nat and I should have a reality show in BYU-tv. It would be a must-see. Classic comments:
a. So how often do you come here?
b. You were a snowboard instructor?
c. My name is Carlos. (From a blond haired blue eyed german-decent-ed fellow.)
d. Maybe you could show me some moves on the slopes.
e. Snowboarding is better. Skiing is better. reminded me of. . . . shampoo is bettah. . .no, conditionah is bettah! Name that movie for five extra credit points.
f. We don't like church.

Tracie Tuesday. . .er. . .Wednesday

Sorry!

T-FORCE!!

Muchas cosas.

That means, that I have a lot of things that I've wanted to write about lately, but when I have the time, I forget about it. So we'll just do a big ol' informational post.

I've been really thinking lately about how sad our world seems right now. I know, downer way to start a post, right? I just mean that it seems as if there have been so many tragedies lately and it makes me sad. Most recently, I'm sure most have heard of Madison Mecum, the 13 year old Orem girl who was hit and killed by her 13 year old class-mate who made a choice that altered both their lives. Maddie lived next door to Alan and April and babysat my little babies. When April told the kids, Victoria had a really hard time with it and cried a lot. Being the helicopter aunt that I am, I drove right on down there to rock her in the chair. It broke my heart to see her affected in that way. Although I don't think it's the first encounter she or Brayden has had with death, it just really struck her sensitive little heart. I pray that both families will find peace and comfort during this unfathomable time. I can't imagine ever dealing with something like this and pray I'll never have to.

On a lighter note, I was able to spend a lot of time with my nieces and nephews this weekend as I went on two separate birthday dates and had a great time on both. I love them all so so much and am so glad that Alan and April are so nice about me wanting to see/hug/call them all the time. It's probably good they live 45 minutes away. For them, anyway. I'll post a few pics that I snapped of the dates later, when I download them off my camera.

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately, well, a lot compared to when I wasn't doing any, and I really really just love this time of year. The colors of fall are so breathtaking and the air is so crisp and clear that it just provides the perfect backdrop for pictures. My cousin Heather married Tyler just a few days after conference, so the temple grounds were even more stunning than usual. The weather was overcast and we just barely missed some sprinkles, but it was a lot of fun reveling in their newly-married bliss. I also took some family pictures for my sis-in-law, Kami's family. It's not a secret, I love the Andrew's. From the first meeting, I think at the Firehouse restaurant in Bountiful, I knew that there were good times to be had. We've told Erik many, many times how glad we are that he snatched Kami up when he did, but in-laws come with a spouse, and we're glad that they are fun. Remember Kim and Ted's excellent adventure? Yeah. Fun. You can check out some of their pictures on my photography blog, here. I have some more family photo shoots coming up with a lot of cute kids in cute little costumes, so stay tuned for those.

Finally, I want to mention how much in love I am with Sara Bareilles' new album, Kaleidoscope Heart. I thought about doing a movie review, but we'll just do it here. I love it. I love the music, the complicated beats, the thoughtful lyrics, the juxtapositions, the harmonies. It's just really great. I highly recommend it. Some of my favorites are:
Kaleidoscope Heart
Gonna Get Over You
Hold My Heart
and
Breath Again.
I don't know why I like break up songs so much. I could honestly list the whole cd. Maybe over time, I will. You might just get lucky.
Oh! One more thing! I made a super awesome commercial advertising for the Academic Team with one of the other coaches and I'll try to get it uploaded somewhere because it's soo funny and I would love to let you see it. Believe me, you want to see it. I think that's all. For now. I get to see Tracie this weekend! Yay!

I said BRRRR!!!

It's COLD in here. There must be some TRACIE in the atmosphere!!!

Happy first Tracie Tuesday in October! Yay for fall!!

Whose eye is it anyway?

HA HA HA. One Sunday night a long time ago, we were at my grandma's and for some reason we had my camera with me. Randomly, Tracie and I took pictures of each others eyes, and then I think she took pictures of everyone's eyes. I was just looking for treasures for Tracie Tuesday and came upon these. They needed to be shared.

Miss Paul, bully.

Call me narcissistic, but I like to put myself into all of my students vocabulary quizzes. All as extra credit, of course, but I like to ask questions that I think they should know. For example, last time, was "What is the best class at MJH? Answer carefully." Obviously, it's my class. Most got the point. If they put Mr. Dipo, no way, jose. More on Mr. Dipo in the future.
Today, one of the questions was, "What are two things Miss Paul likes to do?" Really? I tell stories all. the. time. Most of them are about me, doing things I like to do. Shouldn't be too hard to throw out an idea and see if I like it. I even gave the girl who wrote "bike" the point because, well, she's just so sweet.
The overwhelming responses were reading, teaching, singing and dancing. Not a real shocker. Some random responses were, "work in her garden and sit on her porch," which after reading, I yelled, "Victor*! I don't have a garden OR a porch!" He responded that it was just a guess. I gave it to him because I would like to have a porch to sit on. Another favorite response from my 3b period in particular was "bowling," as I had just told them the story of my big 117 point game last night. They were excited for me. Except for that one kid (there's one in every class of every school--you know who s/he is) who says, "one time I got like 175." Sure you did.
But one student left a response that I laughed out loud at. It said, "bullying and teaching." "Louise*! I do not like bullying!" and she laughed sheepishly and said, "Oh, I spelled it wrong." Bowling. Easy mistake.
What she doesn't know is that I get great pleasure out of bullying. Just ask Tracie. Or Laura. Or Erik. Not Alan because he was more of a bully than I was.

PS Laura, I told one of my classes the "gum incident" story and they all said I was so rude. They just didn't realize how disgusting it was. I'd do it again tomorrow. Please don't make me.
PPS *all names of students will be changed because I don't want to be sued.