Yucky

I took a job today at the high school where I have been a lot lately.  Unfortunately for me, it was not a math class.  It was drama.  I figured it wouldn't be too bad.  Surely the teacher would have left some helpful lesson plans, drama games, scenes to act out, a movie to watch, etc.

She left nothing.

But I did find something in my quest to find lesson plans on her desk.  I found 2 packages of Ritz crackers next to her keyboard. When I moved the keyboard over to search for plans, I noticed about 20 little tiny black things.  I recognized what those black things were.  Mouse poop.

Sick!

I thought it was first funny that she had crackers sitting right next to where the mice poop was found.  And then I looked up on the wall and found this sign:

I laughed out loud.  Situational irony?

Anyway, I will never come back to this room.  Mouse poop?  I can deal with that.  But 6 classes of drama classes with no plan?  I can't take it.

Colorful cookies

The girls got busy last week and made "Unicorn Poop."  I didn't love the name, so I called them colorful sugar cookies.  I couldn't even eat them.  The colors freaked me out because it looked like playdough.  But apparently, they were delish.

They made sugar cookie dough, colored it 4 colors, and then rolled out snakes from the dough and swirled them all together and then sprinkled them with whatever they could find.  I need to get some neon colors for next time so they look a bit prettier.  Then maybe I will be brave enough to eat one.

Busy tooth fairy

It has been a busy week for Mark.  3 kids, 3 extractions.  I can't stand to see wiggly teeth.  It just makes my tummy all quivery.

Zachary lost his first tooth ever, so he was pretty excited to join the big-kids-club.

Mark took some "before" pictures of Zack.

And then the AFTER!

Math teacher

I have been discovered.

I subbed for a math teacher at a high school.  The teacher went home sick, but before she left she asked, "Wait, you actually know how to teach math?"  What do you know?

Next thing I know, 4 different math teachers at that same high school have requested me to fill in for them.  It is awesome.  Subbing for math when the teacher KNOWS that you can teach a lesson is the best.  I have had too many sub gigs where the day goes on forever because I have to show the same video all day, or the kids have a "work day."  It goes SOOO much faster when all day I am actually teaching.   And because I took that one job, I have at least 10 others on the books at that same school teaching math for different teachers.

I love it when a kid says, "Can you please come back tomorrow?  I never understood this before you explained it."  I also love it when the kids come and see a sub and assume it is a party day, and then they realize we are going ahead with the homework collecting, math lesson, and assigning more homework thing.  "Wait, you actually understand math?"  Yes.  Sorry, kids.  My mom was a math teacher, so I had no choice but to understand math.  And I think it is freaking fun, too.

Solving systems of equations gets me pretty dang excited.  So does finding the sum of the interior angles of a polygon, or proving something is a parallelogram.  I tell the kids that I love math so much that I have graph paper with me 100% of the time.  In my purse, in my backpack, in my desk.  It's true.

It's pretty dang exciting.

Last week I had a math job with 2 open periods in the middle of the day.  The secretary at the school needed a last-minute sub for a choir class for one of my open periods.  I went into the choir room and the teacher told me she would get the kids situated and start them on a study hall.  I told her that would be super boring, and I would rather do choir, if that was OK.  Lucky for me that I can sight read!   It was such a fun class playing songs on the piano I had never heard and running the sections through their parts. It brought back such fun memories of Concert Choir at Skyline.  Bless Mr. Miller...may he rest in peace.

The wait is over!

After a VEEERRRRRY long week of waiting and mail mis-haps, Abram's mission call arrived at his dorm today.

We were all expecting it Wednesday.  However, the MLK holiday delayed the mail by a day.  And then it should have been yesterday.  However, someone at BYU campus mail misplaced all 100 mission calls going to students this week.   The calls were located and delivered to the dorms early this morning.

Abram is going to Xalapa, Mexico.  I had never heard of it, but after I looked it up, I see it is very likely the most beautiful place in Mexico.  Tropical, beautiful, not hot or cold, and on the Gulf of Mexico.  There are also some familiar things from home there--Costco, WalMart, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, etc.  It is famous for flowers, jalapeños, and a very moderate climate.

The coolest thing is that it is a hotspot for Olmec relics.  He will get to see some really cool Olmec heads.  Lucky kid.

It is so exciting to finally know where he is going.

Abram is already fluent in Español, so he is super excited to get going!  He leaves in May less than a week after his 19th birthday.

Oatmeal Bread

This is the bread my kids go crazy for.  It's better than candy.  They absolutely freak out when I make it.  The great thing is that it is a pretty fast bread with minimal rise time, so it's not an all-day commitment when you decide you want to make some bread.  This recipe makes one loaf.  It is also makes excellent rolls.

Ingredients: 2 cups bread flour 1 package of yeast 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup water 1/4 c molasses 2TBSP vegetable oil 1/2 cup rolled oats 1 cup whole wheat flour Walnuts, chopped (if you are into that--I'm not!) egg, water and rolled oats for topping Directions: In mixer, combine 1 1/4 cups bread flour, yeast and salt; blend well.   Heat 1 cup water, molasses, vegetable oil and rolled oats until warm (120-130 degrees).   Add to flour mixture.   Knead at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed.   Gradually stir in the whole wheat flour and enough remaining bread flour to make a firm dough.   Knead until smooth and elastic.   Use additional flour if necessary.   Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and turn to grease top.   Cover; let rise in warm place about 15-20 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; punch down to remove air bubbles.   Roll or pat dough to a rectangle, approximately 14x7.   Starting with the shorter end, roll up tightly, pressing dough into roll with each turn.   Pinch edges and ends to seal.   Place in a greased 8x4-inch loaf pan.   Cover; let rise until indentation remains after lightly touching the side of the loaf, about 30-40 minutes.   Combine egg and 1 TBSP water; brush top of loaf.   Sprinkle with rolled oats.   Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

This weekend I pulled out this old recipe from our Omaha days.  I hadn't made these cookies for years, and I had actually totally forgotten how much I love them.  I am not super crazy about butterscotch on its own, but with just a little bit in these cookies, it is just right.  I can't even remember where I got this recipe.  Likely it was on a bag of chocolate chips 20 years ago.

1 c butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c rolled oats
1 c chocolate chips (I always add a bit more)
1 c butterscotch chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.