Christmas Shopping

I feel pretty awesome about the status of my Christmas shopping this year. I've bought nearly everything I want to buy and have put off buying some big purchases so I can make those on Black Friday while visiting with my family. I'm going a little different this year with things that I've made personally. That's always a little iffy in my book because if they don't like it then that's all on me...but I hope that they appreciate it more because I made the effort.

Speaking of visiting with my family, I can't wait to get out of Radford and spend Wednesday to Sunday in Hampton. I also cannot wait for a break from my students. I feel like I might kill someone if I don't get some quality time away from them. I don't mean to gripe, but the teenagers in my classes are just so disrespectful and hateful that sometime I wonder why I do what I do. I wonder if it's just a low socioeconomic area problem or just a problem with teenagers in general. Either way if they don't change their ways they'll have a hard time keeping a job, having a stable personal life and in general they will be a burden to society, which is sad and frustrating to me. At any rate, I am glad to take a break from that and I hope when we get back in December we'll be able to tolerate each other better.

Randomness

The weather here has been amazing for mid-autumn. Usually it's getting pretty chilly even during the day, but it's been getting into the mid to upper seventies during the day lately. It's nice enough to go outside with just a comfy sweater on.

We have finally discovered what gets Hershey to stop barking...a large cup of water poured over his head. He doesn't like that at all. Whenever he sees the orange cup, he usually stops barking or jumping or whatever he's doing. Maybe one day I will be able to clean the muddy paw prints, nose prints and slobber off the back door. We'll see though.

I'm having one of those cranky days today. Everything is frustrating and irritating today, which is frustrating and irritating. Colby whining and not following directions really gets my blood boiling. What is so hard about following directions? What is so difficult about sitting in his chair and eating his lunch? And what is so hard about holding my hand in the parking lot? I know, I know, he's only 2 and a half...but still. I can't wait to get over these terrible twos.

Adventures in Red Pepper Jelly

My mother-in-law buys this amazing red pepper jelly and she often pairs it with cream cheese to make a dip. Unfortunately she can't get the jelly around here. So...I thought maybe I could find a recipe to MAKE red pepper jelly and then give it to her for Christmas, so this past weekend I canned my first jelly. It was not hard to make and it wasn't even hard to can and guess what?! It was DELICIOUS!!! I took some leftover jelly over to her house on Sunday (I couldn't can that last half a jar) and let them try it and she said "It tastes just like the other stuff I buy." I was thinking cha-ching!! I took a jar to Bible study yesterday with a block of cream cheese and some veggie ritz crackers and everyone loved it! I felt like superwoman :-) So, here's the link to the recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Red-Pepper-Jelly-236699
Don't let the word spicy fool you. It has a little kick, but I don't really like spicy foods and I LOVE this dip. If you like it hot, add some more red pepper flakes. It makes me want to try new things with cooking more frequently :-)

Chilly!

Brrr...it's chilly! I was laying in bed with my face poking out of the covers so I could breath thinking that it was awful cold out there. So when I finally got up and looked at the thermastat...Brandon had set it on like 62 degrees! No wonder I was freezing! When I looked out the window it was frosty outside. Fall is definately here and it is clear winter is on the way.

Well, we just finished the first nine weeks at school. I was really concerned because I only had 7 A's before I put in their research papers. I'll have fewer after that, that's for sure. I have about the same number of F's and it is very clear that several students will be repeating my class next year because they have averages in the 20s. I was really disappointed in those students. None of them are stupid, they're just lazy. It made me wonder when expectations were like in middle school and when asked it seemed like if you came to school, you passed. That is so irritating! It does not prepare them for high school where you actually have to do the work to pass and if you don't you take it again. If I was principal, I think that middle school passing culture would have to go.

Colby's hair after a drive with the window down.

Being silly at mommy's birthday party!

My happy family!

Christmas in October.

Isn't Colby's outfit so fashionable!!


Today I worked the three little pigs concession stand at the game. The game was a bit lop-sided as we beat the crap out of Duke, but it was fun...sort of. I haven't really been into the last few games for some reason. I mean I love Tech and Tech football, but it's hard to get interested in games where we blow the other team out of the water.

Currently I am typing on a keyboard with two loose keys. The 'F' key and the 'T' key were yanked out by a certain two year old by the name of Colby. I did find out that you can order new keys online $5 a key. That can get expensive after a while!

Homecoming!

I opened the back of the car and was like "Hmm...a case of toilet paper. What...don't we already have a case of toilet paper in the bathroom? Is Brandon saving TP in case of the apocolypse?" When I called he said no he wasn't stockpiling TP for the apocolypse, yet, he just forgot he'd already bought some and bought some more.

This week was homecoming week. As the sophomore class sponsor I had to meet with my officers, come up with ideas for decorating, buy the supplies and stay after school to supervise and do a little helping. Our theme was cartoons from the 90s and our assigned cartoon was Spongebob Squarepants. It was really a piece of cake. On our wall we created the houses of the different characters connected by a road and the cartoon logo, on the locker ends we painted the characters, over the lockers we hung jellyfish and bubbles and on the banner we had two of the characters playing football amid a sea of bubbles. Usually it's difficult for anyone to beat the seniors, but we beat everyone! Yay sophomores! Though, Ironically enough they misspelled sophomores by spelling it sophmores. In the end we added an apostrophe so it was soph'mores. It was funny.

Bark Collars and Homecoming

So as mentioned before, Hershey has a small barking problem. Well, I guess the proper description would be an ANNOYING barking problem. So, one of the teachers at school let me borrow her bark collars. We tried the citronella spray one first. The smell is supposed to deter the dog from barking. So it would spray, he would see the spray and try to attack and there would be more barking until it quickly would run out of spray. It was funny, but I really just wanted a fix for the barking, not comic releif.

In other news I'm gearing up for Homecoming week. Last years homecoming was dismal. The kids in the tenth grade class sucked it up big time. This year my tenth graders are fantastic! Official decorating doesn't have to happen until next week, but they're already working on it this week! And I hardly have to do anything! It's great!! We'll see if it continues, but I'm crossing my fingers that it will!