Eclectic

Just a few thoughts and things to share:

1.) I am a clumsy girl. I made myself bleed not once but twice today because of my sheer stupidity. First, I scratched my elbow so hard with my fingernail in the process of taking off my hoodie that it actually bled, and then again a few hours later I cut my hand with a knife in my hand when I got a sudden terrible itch in my ear (it's a kind of complicated situation).

2.) Nie Nie was on Oprah today. I obviously didn't get to watch it due to my lack of both cable and time. But I watched this clip. Not the best reporting skills, but it doesn't diminish her story. She is amazing.

3.) I made these:

I think they are adorable despite the fact I didn't get a very adorable kind of grade on them. I'm wearing them to bed tonight, and in my opinion they are perfect!

4.) Potential Halloween costume:

I already have the blue wig, dragonfly clip, and yellow jacket. All I need is the boots!

5.) I should not be a science teacher, and no one should have let me be one. I pretty much bored the pants off even my most attentive and cooperative students today with my bumbling attempts to explain how cell phones and circuit boards work.

6.) This time in two nights I will have attended the Brand New concert.

7.) This time in three nights I will have seen The Used.

The end

Marc Chagall

Why Teach for America should rue the day they rejected me:

Ok, maybe that was a bit of an overstatement, but I am pretty darn good at what I do. The kids seem to like me too (this sign was given to me by a girl I made move seats, yelled at just a little bit, and took away her headband after she threw it at another student). I think it says something when even the sometimes difficult students still like me. And even if it doesn't mean anything, it makes me feel good none the less!

We learned about Marc Chagall today. Not being the most informed in the art department, I had never heard of him til I saw a lesson plan based on his work on kinderart (thank heavens for this amazing site). He was a pretty cool guy, and made some amazing art. One of his most famous works is called I and the Village.

A lot of his works are based on the Jewish community in Russia where he grew up. Obviously, he was a painter who expressed his feelings rather than real life in his painting. I mean the man is green!

So with this painting as our inspiration I gave the children the assignment to draw an X across their paper and fill in each triangle with an animal, a person, what they're thinking about, and what they're dreaming about. Here are a few of the products from todays class:

I am deeply grieved to report that poetry week is officially dead! For some reason this year, the powers that be seem to think that we are unable to come up with our own lesson plans. For the next few days we have to read to all the kids as a collective after school group until someone has all the lessons planned for the rest of the semester. Let me just say what entertains kindergarten children does not work for 6th graders. I also spent at least an hour last night looking up songs and lyrics that rhymed so we could listen to music during class today...all for naught! I also wasted quite a bit of paper printing said song lyrics. Alas, I suppose this is just another testament to the fact that life is not fair (insert resigned sigh here).

Autumn in the South and Poetry

I recently blogged about missing my mountains in the fall. To continue in a similar strain, I also really miss the Allardt, Tennessee Annual Pumpkin Festival. This is a lifelong tradition for me, and this year marks the fifth year I have been unable to attend. This tiny festival in an even tinnier town is the epitome of a small town celebration complete with parade, beauty queens, car show, local crafts, home cooked food, a talent show, and face painting. As the name suggests, the main event of the Pumpkin Festival is the pumpkin weigh in. This year's winner:

New Record weighing in at

1,266.1 pounds

To read more about this delightful festival visit their website.

And on a different note; Remember this?

I showed up at work today in a not so uncommon situation of having no lesson planned and about 20 minutes to get one planned if I don't want to wing it with a class full of sometimes difficult 6th graders (definitely don't want that to happen). I went to the library to return some books I had borrowed for last week's lessons. Lo and behold, I spotted four of these books sitting on the shelf, and it was all gravy from there. I wanted to work haikus into my lessons this week, and seeing this book of poetry helped everything fall into place for a week devoted to poetry. I was very happy with the way that worked out, and the kids were pretty happy too (they don't know we're going to be focusing on poetry all week yet). However, I'm going to look at it in an interesting way by pulling in music, rap, presentation style, and a little bit of writing of course.

And to end this post here are some words of wisdom from the great Shel Silverstein:

PUT SOMETHING IN

Draw a crazy picture,

Write a nutty poem, 

Sing a mumble-grumble song,

Whistle through your comb.

Do a loony-goony dance

'Cross the kitchen floor,

Put something silly in the world

That ain't been there before.

Conference and Cooking

"The mist of darkness descends on all the travelers. . . .The successful travelers resist all distractions."

Can I just say how amazing Elder Holland's talk was today? If you missed it or are curious about the importance of the Book of Mormon to my religion please, please listen to this. I really like how he just said it like it is and made no apologies for it. It was the closest thing to a rousing sermon I have ever heard in general conference, and I loved it. It was one of the most vehement defenses of the Book of Mormon I have ever heard. It was definitely the highlight of the session. I loved the story he told about Hyrum and Joseph and the page that Hyrum had marked in the Book of Mormon, and he actually had the original book with him. I had also never heard the story about the brothers sharing their testimonies shortly before they were martyred. I like what he says about incorrect explanations for the origins of the Book of Mormon.

"None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young, unlearned translator."

and

"No wicked man could write this, and no good man would unless it were true."

I often times have trouble keeping my eyes open (which is different than sleeping) when watching conference from the comforts of my couch in PJs with a blanket. I felt absolutely no desire to close my eyes during his talk; it was rousing to say the least.

I also really appreciated President Monson's simple and powerful message to go out and serve.

All of the conference messages can be accessed through www.lds.org

On another completely unrelated note:

I made tartlets today. I was a little worried about the chocolate ganache because I used fat free half and half instead of heavy cream. For awhile I was unsure about whether it would ever set up, but it finally did. They look pretty delicious! (However, I must admit that the ones I made with Jessica this summer looked even better.)

Chocoate Ganache Tartlets

Lemon Curd Tartlets

(with pre-made Phyllo tartlet shells)

**Random thought:

Why are all the laundry mats south of campus closed on Sundays when the on-campus Wyview laundry mat is open? Hummmmm?!

Fall Food

I really enjoy the fall. I have missed Autumn in the Smoky Mountains at college these past four years, and am missing it for the fifth right now. Going home for a few days at Thanksgiving is really not enough. I miss my mountains dressed out in the fall colors. It's just not quite the same here in Utah.

and here's one taken from our family's property in Middle Tennessee:

I had some time to experiment with some recipes I've been wanting to try. This summer whilst in England I discovered a truly magical vegetable: parsnip. I love these carrot-like little guys. They are delicious! It's been a little cold here the past few days and that combined with the fact that it's autumn means comfort food is a must have. I found a recipe for parsnip soup at Epicurous.com.

It has parsnip (obviously), carrots, celery, onions, chicken broth, ginger, and a little fresh nutmeg all pureed into a yummy conglomeration of vegetable goodness. Add a little whole grain bread on the side and some skim milk, and it all adds up to a most excellent dinner.

So that was the success for the evening. My attempt at baking pumpkin bread (one of my all time favorite foods) failed miserably. The batter looked and smelled delicious, but the finished product is slightly too embarrassing to put online. I'll be making tartlets tomorrow which I am fairly sure will be much better since I've made them before with my wonderful friend Jessica.

I'm not entirely sure what lesson plans for next week are going to look like, but some how or another I am determined to fit haikus in so watch out for those.

Great American Pastimes?

I attended my first hockey game tonight (BYU v. UVU at 7 peaks). Before tonight my experience with hockey was limited to The Mighty Ducks trilogy. Back in May (maybe March) I also attended my first rugby game. After experiencing the fast paced but not overly long action of these sports, I have seriously begun to question the rationale behind two of America's most popular sports. In my opinion, and this is strictly my opinion, I fail to understand why anyone would want to spend the long hours watching the stop and go action of football and baseball when you can watch rugby and hockey instead. Not to dismiss the American sports, they are good and everything but especially in the case of baseball just downright boring to watch (once again my opinion). Rugby has all the tackling, passing, etc. of football except once the player is tackled the game just keeps right on going. There is also some large group push and shove action going on (scrum) and lifting people into the air.

WIthout the pads too!

Lots of body checking, tripping, fighting, hitting, and other semi-violent actions.

When you can have this much relatively non-stop action in less than or approximately equal to the time why would you choose to spend the 3 1/2 ish hours it takes to watch the stop (heavy on the stop) and go action of America's favorite pastimes? For all you American pastime enthusiasts out there, step out of the box for a bit and go see some rugby or hockey (or soccer, lacrosse, water polo, etc....I'm not picky). You just might like; I sure did!

**This post is not derogatory, insulting, belittling, etc. I am honestly curious why the massive disparity in popularity of football/baseball and rugby/hockey came to exist.

Paramore and Pasta

I've been listening to Paramore since early 2006ish. I'm a little overly proud of the fact that I jumped on the Paramore bandwagon before there actually was a Paramore bandwagon. Plus, they are from good ol' Tennessee which makes me love them even more. I even did a stint with red hair my sophomore year inspired by Hayley Williams.

Before I discovered Paramore and Eisley I was pretty discouraged about the lack of talented female-led bands outside the realm of country music. Luckily, I saw the light and have since discovered a whole slew of talented female artists.

Paramore's new CD Brand New Eyes (which incidentally has the name of one of my all time favorite bands in the title) is out now and I highly recommend picking one up! And I know it's good because I've already listened to it!!!

Also, I've had an eggplant and some ricotta cheese sitting in my fridge for the past week. I've been dreaming about having me some cheesy stuffed 

shells with grilled eggplant for quite a few days now. Alas, I am way too busy to find time to cook anything that requires time on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I finally had time tonight! It was delicious! You can just barely see a bit of the eggplant from under the shells on the bottom right. After I filled the shells I poured a little more sauce and cheese on top and baked it in the oven for about 20 mins.

I used ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, and ramano cheeses, Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper for the filling. No amounts...I just kind of made it up as I went. I used the same thing (minus the cheese) and a little oil to season the eggplant. yum yum

I'm three for three with kids in tears during sports class. Every week so far somebody has cried because of some injury. I'm going for four next week when we play whiffle/soft ball because that sport is just asking for an injury.