thechittumfiles

Something you probably don't know if you're not a runner

2011-06-27T09:05:00.002-05:00

Warning: this post isn't for the faint of stomach. Might not want to read it while you're eating breakfast.

Friday morning I planned to run about 3.5 -4 miles. It would have to be my long(ish) run for the week since I was headed to the suburbs of Chicago Saturday morning. I didn't want to take running clothes or shoes with me on the trip, because I was taking a very small bag with lots of books for work in it. Figured Saturday and Sunday could be my rest days.

Runners get into a certain routine when they're in training. It's good, because it helps you know what to do on race day, keeps you feeling your best. As one of my running friends will tell you, she and I have a method to early morning runs. You get up about 90 minutes before you want to go, have a cup of coffee and some toast with peanut butter. That coffee and PB does wonders for your, shall we say, digestive system. Helps you go to the bathroom before you hit the pavement.

I did all that on Friday morning, but then I had a mini-crisis with my travel plans, so I spent some time trying to figure that out, and my timing got wonky. Finally, I was able to go run.

About halfway through, I had to stop at mom and dad's (strategically planned the route to go by their house, just in case) to use the bathroom. Had to stop and walk to get there, my stomach was really cramping. I made it there just in time, did my business, and was able to run again, the rest of the way home.

It was the perfect storm of a bad run - timing was off, I hadn't had enough water that day, the night before we had Chinese and I drank a soda. I've figured out that soda plays havoc with my system, and the greasy Chinese food didn't help, I'm sure. This has happened to me before, so I always plan to run by places where I can stop if I need to - convenience stores, grocery stores, parents' house, etc.

If you've ever done a road race, you might have seen people just run up to the curb and let loose right there on the street. Yes, it happens. NO, I have never done that (luckily, never needed to). I'm not so worried about time/finishing fast that I won't stop and walk til I can get to a bathroom or PortaPotty. I remember when I ran the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon, I was really surprised to see that (it was my first marathon).

I've got to run today. Here's hoping my routine stays all good.

Let the marathon training begin

2011-06-18T22:52:00.003-05:00

I saw somewhere (maybe it was in my email) that there will be a Rock and Roll Marathon in St. Louis this fall. Travel to there will be fairly cheap (we can drive), and I needed a little running mojo motivation.

So, Hubs and I signed up for the race. He'll do the half, I'll do the full. I've been working out, but I haven't been doing a lot of running lately. I've been sampling different classes at Lifetime, and doing DVD workouts at home. I run maybe once or twice a week.

That's going to change. I did an easy two-miler on Wednesday (before we decided on this hare-brained scheme), and we signed up last night for the race. Today, I ran a 5k on the treadmill at the gym. It felt good, and I ran it a little faster than I usually would. I would like to run this race a little faster than the last two marathons I've done. We'll see how that goes.

I think this will be a good carrot, because once summer workshop season starts, exercise isn't high on my priority list. With a marathon on the calendar, running will HAVE to be on that list over the next weeks and months.

PS - Friends and family, you'll probably be happy to know that I'm not doing this race for charity, so I won't be asking you for lots of money over the next few months! :)

Hank says "HI!" and "Mom needs to blog more often."

2011-06-16T23:57:00.004-05:00

Sure, I haven't blogged over here in about six months, but it's summertime, so I have a LITTLE more time on my hands, and we've just got THIS GUY!

This is our new kitten, Hank. Those of you who know Gracie know that he is basically her mini-me. He's about 11 or 12 weeks old, and we adopted him from No More Homeless Pets KC, which is an organization that fosters kittens so that they won't be left in shelters where they might not make it.

A few things about him:

He's cute as hell.
He's got a TON of energy.
He's starting to teethe, which is a little problematic.
He, um, has a lot of gas! (This is not something I remember with Gracie when she was little.)
He's getting braver by the day.

Gracie and Hank are at least now able to be in the same room with each other, after a little bit of hissing on Gracie's part. Hopefully, they'll be fast friends soon.

Hank was a surprise birthday present from Hubs. We went to pick him out the Saturday after my birthday, so we've had him for about three weeks now.

I've done a few other things lately that should get a little blog love, so hopefully they'll be a few more posts on here soon. For now, though, I'm tired. It's way past my bedtime.

Help from friends DOES keep you more accountable...

2011-01-16T11:11:00.002-06:00

I've been absent here, yes, but I have been blogging quite a bit over on Unraveling the Stash. Check it out if you haven't already.

If any of you made New Year's Resolutions to get/stay in shape, I've got a tip for you: enlist a friend to help hold you accountable. It's not a new or revolutionary tip. They tell you that in all the fitness magazines. However, it's been working pretty well for me. Even if your workout buddy lives across the state instead of across town, she really will help your motivation.

Kathryn (lives in Wichita) and I text each other each time we work out, so I always feel guilty if I tell her I'm going to do something and then I don't do it. And, she works out before work most days (she doesn't have to be there at the crack of dawn like a high school teacher does), so when I see that she's worked out for the day, it makes me go later in the day.

I didn't really want to work out yesterday, or Friday after school, but I'd already told her I was going to do it, and I didn't want her to call or text and make fun of me for wussing out.

Of course, I'm typing this after having skipped Zumba class at Lifetime this morning, so will I get a workout in later today?

I guess we'll see.

Happy New Year - 2011

2011-01-01T00:45:00.003-06:00

To family and friends - we love you all! Be safe and joyful in 2011.

I've started a new blog project for this year. I'll still be updating here with friends and family fun times, but if you'd like to know what's happening in chitknit's world, check out unravelingthestash.com.

The first post went live tonight, and it will be a yearlong project. More on it later. For now - it's bedtime.

As one of my Facebook friends said, "Midnight used to be the starting point. Now it's the end point."

Getting old is hell, ain't it?

Thanks to Betsy for a great dinner tonight, along with Adam's awesome chocolate fondue and homemade popcorn.

Knitaissance

2010-12-02T18:55:00.005-06:00

I hadn't really been knitting much since this summer. I don't usually knit much during the summer just because the heat makes the feel of yarn less enticing, but I feel like this summer I didn't knit ANYTHING.

Then, the beginning of the school year was crazy busy - I was like a rat on the treadmill for those first 10 or 12 weeks. When I would get home from school, I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, let alone make pretty things with needles and loops of yarn.

Thankfully, I've rediscovered my needles and yarn, and I'm knee deep in a bunch of quick projects right now. You might notice when you see the photos that most things are very gifty, so spoiler alert - if you think you might be receiving one of these gifts, you might want to stop reading now...

Hee hee. Sadly, my Etsy site has fallen victim to craziness in my job and life, so I haven't made anything to sell in AGES. I would really like to start doing that again.

Here's a quick knitting round-up:

Obviously, this little mitt needs a mate. I've made up two left hand mitts, so I need to get going on the right hand ones. This is the Mock Cable Wristers pattern from "60 Quick Knits" in Cascade 220. It truly was a quick knit.

I've made up a couple of these java jackets. They fit perfectly on these grande cups, and as a bonus, they're totally re-usable and environmentally friendly.

I love this tiny wine sweater cozy! Even though it looks complicated, it was a quick project. I think I finished it over about three days. One sleeve one night, the other sleeve the next night, then the body and turtleneck the last night. Simple, and a really cool gift idea, I think - just add the bottle of wine...

This is the "Ballband Dishcloth" pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's a special order for a certain aunt of mine - she's got a great idea. Need a gift exchange gift? How about a couple of knitted dishcloths (they feel so much better than the other kind) and a nice bottle of fancy soap?

I knit this hat for the wife of one of Adam's co-workers. Again, a super-quick project.

And, last but not least, here's Lauryn modeling her mom's birthday present - it's the Ribbed Pillbox Hat also from the "60 Quick Knits" book.

I would really like to tackle something larger (a sweater for myself, or the sweater my husband has been asking for for years), but for now, the little projects will have to do.

Sports and News

2010-11-29T21:25:00.002-06:00

Big things have been poppin' around here lately. Good ol' BV's football team just won the 5A State Football Championship over Bishop Carroll this weekend. This was great news for a couple of reasons - one, hello...STATE CHAMPS! Two...got to see my good friend Jaime Green at the game. Even though I'm not one of the "special" ones anymore (no official press pass), I managed to get down on the field to visit her for a few minutes during the game.

That, and watching the PBS special "The President's Photographer" have really made me miss the old job, even though I love the current job. I need to get out there more and make more documentary photographs.

If you haven't watched that special, go to their website to read all about it and watch online. It was so good even Gracie wanted a front row seat.

Long time no blog

2010-11-21T20:56:00.003-06:00

I haven't written a blog post in more than three months. I know that because they last post I wrote was the start of the 90-Day Weight Loss Challenge at Lifetime, and the final weigh-in for said challenge was two weeks ago. (I lost 7 pounds, for those of you keeping score.)

A few weeks ago, it seemed like everyone I saw said "Hey, so, you, uh, ever gonna update that blog of yours again?"

I won't bore you to death with all of the reasons for the lack of blogging. Just know that, I'll try to do better. I suppose I just haven't felt like anything exciting enough to share has been happening lately, so I've been quiet. School's been really tough, and really busy this semester. Lots of things happened right there at the beginning that made it a hard start to the year.

But, here we are, two school days away from Thanksgiving, and things are going well. I've even gotten in some quality knitting AND reading time lately.

Speaking of reading, if you haven't read the "Hunger Games" books by Suzanne Collins, run, don't walk out to the bookstore and find yourself a copy. They are super fast reads (young adult novels), and once you start them, you won't be able to put them down.

I'd been hearing that from many friends, so I got on the hold list at the library. Only problem was, I was 163rd in line, and there were almost 100 people AFTER me. Luckily, some work friends had copies of the books, so I was able to borrow from them, instead of waiting three years for the library copies to be available.

•••

Hubs and I are having the fam over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I'm making a pumpkin pie from scratch. Stay tuned - I'm sure THAT will turn into a blog post. I'll shoot some really high quality food photos...

90-Day Weight Loss Challenge

2010-08-26T18:35:00.003-05:00

If you read my last post, you saw that according to the fancy-schmancy equipment at Lifetime, my real age is actually 39. That, plus the 90-day weight loss challenge I'm in the midst of, are inspiring me to get off my duff and go the gym, either before school, or even after a long day at school.

Probably the biggest change the Challenge has inspired is that I'm not eating ALL of the sweets and junk food that is constantly at school. I weighed in for the challenge on Monday, Aug. 9, starting at 154 pounds.

I weighed yesterday, and I'm down to 150. Not a ton, obviously, but it's a start. The person who loses the largest percentage of weight wins $250 Lifetime dollars, which can be used for lots of things at the club (like personal trainer appointments and stuff like that). Not too shabby.

I missed the kickoff party because I had something else I had to do that day, so I have no idea who else or how many other people are even in the club contest. I guess I'll just have to toil in solitude, competing against myself instead of trying to measure up to other people in the challenge.

I've been doing some weights workouts that I've not done before. Meeting with the trainer really helped with that kind of stuff. I'm also swimming and doing some workouts besides just running. It's a little tough to fit it in, because we are planning to run the KC Half Marathon in the fall, so I have to keep my running miles up, but try other exercises at the same time.

We'll see how it goes. I'll try to keep you posted. The gal at the gym did shoot a before photo of me, but I don't have it to share...

My "Real Age"

2010-07-28T18:53:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite segments on "The Biggest Loser" is when the contestants visit Dr. H and he takes them through a battery of tests to determine their body's "real" age as opposed to their chronological age.

To me, that measurement really crystallizes what being morbidly obese does to one's body and life expectancy.

Today, Hubs and I went to our free "Fitpoint" exam at Lifetime. It's nowhere near as scientific and precise as Dr. H's on BL, I'm sure, but it does at least give you some idea of where you stand.

We each did a five-minute treadmill test, a sit-and-reach test, biceps strength test, and of course they check your height and weight. Based on my test, my body is 39 years old. 39! That's six years older than my chronological age.

With some fitness and lifestyle changes, my paperwork says I could get down to 25 years on the "body age" scale, which would be seven years younger than I am. Basically my biggest problem is that my body composition is 30 percent fat! I can tell you right now, it's my sweet tooth that contributes to that issue.

I like to work out, whether on the treadmill, going outside for a run, doing an exercise DVD, etc. The thing is, I've never had a trainer walk me through some sort of program for optimal fitness. We get three free training sessions with our new membership, so I'll be interested to see what happens if I can actually get on and stick to a program.

Oh, and in case you're curious, Adam's "body age" is 31. So, he's fit enough to be considered two years younger than we really are. Guess we know who will outlive whom in this relationship...

YOU have to take the responsibility, with the right

2010-07-22T21:08:00.002-05:00

I might have angered some people in my "Juvenile Justice in America" class tonight.

I'm okay with that.

It's my right. For the most part, I didn't disagree with what they (including the instructor) had to say, right up until classmates said they felt media should be somehow "regulated" to lessen the negative impacts on children.

That's where I diverge.

Do I think most of the so-called "entertainment" teens consume is ridiculous? Yes.

Do I wish teens paid attention to better, cleaner influences? Yes.

Do I believe our some of teen "idols" are abhorrent? Yes.

We watched "PBS Frontline: The Merchants of Cool" tonight in class. It's a 2001 documentary about all of the research that goes into the machine that is Viacom (MTV and just about every other cable channel), the four other major conglomerates that control media and message in this country and what how that research affects teen spending habits.

The show highlights scenes from the debauchery that is MTV's Spring Break each year. It touches on teens who buy into rage rock groups like Limp Bizkit and Insane Clown Posse. (Their fans hate the corporate machine, but like all "cool" things, eventually corporate America gets its hands on "alternative" guys, too.

You think the marketing was insidious back in 2001? I'd love to see an update of this topic today with social networking implications examined.

Most of you know, I don't have kids, so understand that's the point of view I'm coming from. That said, I kinda think it's the parents' responsibility to debrief with kids on what they're seeing. I'm not sure I'd want my own children listening to songs and watching shows fraught with awful language that also completely devalue women. I'd hope I could help them understand that that sort of thing doesn't fit in with our family's value system.

But, you know what, it fits in with some people's values. I know some of those people. If that's what they want to do, I can't control it and that's fine.

I think the other students got a little snippy when I said that society CAN'T regulate media - it's against the law.

My classmates mostly seem to think that it's society's responsibility to regulate the media children watch and the clothes they wear. (In fact, someone even spoke Tipper Gore's name: "Whatever happened to those sticker label things she wanted to do?" Um, the labels are on all "explicit" CDs today.)

But here's the thing: You can do say, think, believe and produce what you want in this country. The first amendment gives us that right. Everybody has it. In fact, some people I completely disagree with have the first amendment, too, but I don't have to listen to them if I don't want to.

My problem with "society taking responsibility for this trash" is that who decides who is in charge? What if I'm in charge, and I don't think anyone who has blue eyes should be allowed to say or do anything?

Society doesn't need to take the responsibility. Parents and families need to take responsibility for what their children are consuming. Be their parents, not their "cool friends" and tell them you don't want them listening to it.

Good and good for you

2010-07-12T08:43:00.005-05:00

I haven't written very much about the garden this summer. Last summer I posted about it all the time. I guess it's not "new and exciting" in this year two, so I don't really think about it.

The tomatoes are finally starting to come in, too, but they were so good we ate them before I took the photo above.

Last night, Adam made tilapia with zucchini, tomatoes and jalapenos, with quinoa. It's awesome to cook something when more than half of the ingredients came out of our own ground. It was delicious.

For the fourth of July, I made Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. The consistency was more like cake than bread, and it is really good with milk. Zucchini seems to be the one thing we always have a million pounds of, so it's nice to have different options for cooking it up.

I'd like to go see what's out there this morning, but since it rained heavily yesterday, I'd be up to my knees in mud, I think. I'll let it dry out today then head out tonight to harvest a little more.

We're using grass clippings between rows to keep the weeds down. It really does seems to be helping. There are a few things popping up here and there, but they are easy to pull. It's not like weedy grass is growing between the rows.

Last week, Adam made two different green beans dishes, and we froze a couple of bags. It took me about 90 minutes to pick beans from the entire row, and I had two full plastic grocery bags of beans. They are very tasty, and they freeze easily.

Lucky to Love My Job

2010-06-26T09:08:00.002-05:00

I've talked about the myth of summer vacation before on this blog, so I won't bore you to death about that.

Though we do get "three months off" I usually feel busier/more frazzled during the summer than during the school year. This summer, I'm working at five workshops and I attended one other with three students this last week.

There might be a few journalism teachers reading this blog who are thinking "FIVE? That's nothing, I do eight or 10!"

I try to limit myself a little bit - I would, after all, like to have some time to pool it with Betsy and Mitzi, visit my friends in Wichita, go to movies with the Hubs, and work in the yard. This summer I'm extra busy because I'm taking grad classes. Somehow, I also have to leave time for prep for next year's classes.

Dang. I said I wasn't going to bore you with that myth stuff, and there I went and did it.

This post is supposed to be about how lucky I am to have a job I love. I don't love it because I get all this time off.

I love it because of the school where I teach. I love it because of the kids I get to work with. I love it because it's fun (most days).

Earlier this week, I took three students to a Creativity Workshop in Minneapolis. It was a quick trip - fly up Sunday, start the workshop as soon as we got there, work all day Monday, visit Mall of America, work Tuesday morning, fly back Tuesday night. A whirlwind.

But, the students who went were just great. I know they were tired from traveling, but they worked so hard, and they soaked up all the expertise the workshop offered. The girls were nice to me the whole week, and more importantly, they were nice to the workshop staff. I've taught at many a workshop with students who just didn't seem too interested in the workshop offerings, and the attitude shows it.

Being able to trust students who are traveling with you is half the battle on out-of-town trips. I have always been very lucky on convention and camp trips traveling with students.

We giggled, we groused, we walked four blocks in a surprise rainstorm (after I said "Oh, I think we can walk..."), we ate a lot and we shopped.

Though we were drained after flight delays and just wanting to get back home, I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all.

Your Big Backyard

2010-06-19T11:25:00.006-05:00

Way back when I was in elementary school, one of my favorite activities involved reading the "Your Big Backyard" and "Ranger Rick" magazines. Maybe they came once a month or so, but I loved them. I've chosen to title today's post about things growing in my yard as an homage to one of those favorite reading memories.

I'm a big fan of perennials - it's just too hard to try to plant annual beds. The end of the school year is so hectic that I don't have time to baby new plants like you really need to. I'd plant them, then I'd have crazy weekends and they'd die. So, lately, I've been transplanting perennials from my dad's yard and from my friend Betsy's sister Molly's house. The great thing about this is: IT'S FREE.

I don't have to spend a ton of money at the garden center and then cross my fingers that the plants will survive. Plus, I think that plants raised in similar areas/soils just do better than something purchased that was probably trucked in from a nursery miles away.

Mostly the plants I've transplanted have been hostas, lilies and iris. The iris have bloomed and are done for the year. But, some of my lilies are blooming, and I've got one patch that will look amazing next week. It's full of buds that haven't opened yet.

These are hostas and a shasta daisy that I got from Dad. The daisies are starting to bloom. I wasn't sure if they would since I just planted them this year.

Readers who are family members might be interested to know where some of this stuff is planted, since we live in what was my grandma's house (and honestly, it's probably still considered grandma's house - I know we still call the back bedroom "Julie's room").

The plants above are just under the Julie bedroom window and the bathroom window (in the front yard, but behind the giant ornamental grass thing).

The plants below are planted in front of the playhouse which is now our garden implements storage shed. I would have posted an overall photo of it, but there's nothing except peeling paint on the wall, so the photo wasn't that great.

This year, I got the bright idea to try and reclaim the sideyard between our driveway and the chainlink fence. Adam tilled it a couple of times, and I planted some random stuff. Some of the lilies and irises I was talking about, some lamb's ear. (All of this will come back with a vengeance and spread, spread, spread.)

You see, that's why perennials are so great - low cost, low maintenance...

Aunt Alice sent me some seeds for other flowers this year, so along the sideyard, I also planted this morning glory in a couple of places. I can't wait for it to bloom and see what color the flowers are. It's doing really well, but I've got it in a couple of other places that aren't quite as robust.

Alice also sent pumpkin, gourd and giant pumpkin seeds. I planted those in the sideyard because I know they'll soon grow crazy and take up lots of space.

I'm pretty sure these two are the giant pumpkins. The photo on the package is a 5-year-old boy standing next to the pumpkin and it's almost as tall as he is. So, we'll see what happens with that.

Below is one of the mammoth sunflowers. There are about six of these growing out there. Again, can't wait for them to bloom.

The worst part of the sideyard reclamation project is that it's super weedy since this is the first summer we tilled it up from grass. The past two weeks I've spent a lot of time out there cleaning it out. But, now that that's done, I think I can mostly Garden Weasel it to keep it clean.

Avid readers will probably remember garden posts from last summer. The photo below is just so you can see how large the garden is. You're looking over various lettuce, onions, potatoes, cabbage from this angle.

Over on the other side, there are a few herbs, like this basil. SO. MUCH. BETTER when it comes straight out of the garden.

I'm not sure when the cabbage will be ready, but it sure is growing. Probably won't catch me making sauerkraut any time soon - I remember the smell from Aunt Fronie's cellar when I was a kid. Love the taste of it, hate the smell!

We've got a bunch of green tomatoes growing too. That's what I'm really waiting for.

A quick photo of the front of the house. This bed is the one I started when we moved in three years ago. It's shady all the time, so it's just hostas and ferns.

Technically, those are in the front yard, so I guess they don't really match the title of the post. You'll just have to deal.

I'm off to have a salad with garden greens and peas.

Exercise on a Tuesday

2010-05-25T20:36:00.002-05:00

I've set a goal for this summer: exercise for 60 minutes every day. Any kind of exercise. Running, walking, Bob or Jillian DVD, whatevah.

HOPEFULLY, because my summer schedule is certainly less packed than the school year, I'll be able to make that happen. Basically, what I need to do is convince myself that getting out of bed and putting on the exercise clothes is the way to go. Then, just do it right away and get it overwith.

Sometimes in health magazines, one of their "tricks" to motivate is sleeping with your exercise gear on. Gross. There's no way in hell I'm sleeping in a sports bra. Un. Comfortable. I hope I can get past the five minutes it will take me to change without losing the motivation.

Tonight I went out hoping to do a 60-minute run. That turned into a 1-mile run followed by a 45-minute walk with a few sprint intervals thrown in. Sometimes, I get out there and I just can't stomach the run. Tonight was one of those nights. I try not to beat myself up over it too much, because I know I should consider the fact that I did get up off my butt for an hour is a victory in and of itself.

Especially on a Tuesday. Usually, I'm in class from 5-9 p.m., so I burn about, oh, 7 calories sitting in a classroom taking notes.

We'll see how this little experiment goes. Maybe I should throw a quarter in a jar every day that I actually do 60 minutes. Then, maybe I can buy something for myself before school starts with my hard-earned change...

You are (dead) everybody. You are (dead) everyone.

2010-05-24T06:30:00.003-05:00

(Don't worry - that title is not some scary call to action. If you watch LOST, you'll get it, if you don't, you won't.)

I'm still not sure what to think about last night's LOST series finale. All I know is that I went to sleep thinking about it, and I woke up this morning thinking about it, still trying to decide what I know and what I don't.

That show has been with me since I started teaching - it premiered in September of 2004, just after I left the newspaper business.

Adam and I watched the first season in the basement TV room at our first house in Valley Center.

I watched seasons 2-3 at our little pink house on Holyoke in Wichita. Betsy and Mitzi and Adam and I watched season 4 (with great premiere parties at a certain principal's house). The girls gave up on it because they got behind, but Hubs and I stuck with it.

At one point during season 3, our DVR quit working, so I watched most of the shows on ABC.com in our back computer room. It was FREEZING in that room, and I spent the winter huddled under a blanket watching people on a desert island on my iMac screen.

I loved those characters. Each was flawed in some way, but all they were trying to do was make their way in the world and do the right thing. I'm not ready to talk about what actually happened in the finale just yet. I think I still need some processing time, and I'm interested to see what all the TV gurus out there have to say.

Did you watch? What did you think?

Monday morning caption madness 2

2010-05-10T06:07:00.001-05:00

Who ARE these people?

2010-05-09T17:24:00.003-05:00

I don't know why I read the story comments on the Star's website. Usually, I don't, but when they publish the searchable databases of public employees, one is sure to see some doozy comments from clueless people.

The searchable databases do not include teacher salaries, I guess, because two or three people are complaining that teacher salaries aren't there.

The following two comments come from the same poster. Keep in mind, like most newspapers, the Star doesn't require commenters to use their real names, so most will post vitriol they would never think of attaching their own names to.

Why aren't teachers salaries published? That's where the highway robbery is! SHOW US THAT KC STAR!!!!

Post the school district's payroll!!!! THAT'S WHERE THE TAXPAYER'S ARE RAPED!!!!! DO WE NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE THE TRUTH?

Sidenote: Gosh, anonymous commenter, you obviously didn't listen to and appreciate your teachers back when you were in school, because you don't know how to show plural words versus possessive words. Wah wah.

Do people honestly believe teachers are living the high life? That we are overpaid? Are you freaking kidding me?

Cruise through the parking lot of a local high school, and you'll see beautiful, shiny new SUVs and sports cars mixed in with older economy cars. In our parking lot, those shiny and new cars are in the STUDENT parking lot, not the faculty lot, for the most part. And, if there are super-nice cars in the faculty lot, it's probably because the educator's spouse has a great job!

Before you start with your "But you get summers off, and winter break, and Thanksgiving break" argument, let me remind you that almost every Sunday, I spend at least three hours (sometimes more) grading and planning for the week. And, a typical day at school for me is 10 hours. Many times, there is work to be done once I get home, too.

I might not get up and go to work every day during the summer like a regular school day, but I work all summer long, teaching workshops, taking my students to workshops, planning and re-working things I've done in the past. The goal is constant improvement to help my students achieve everything they are capable of and more.

I know I'm not the only one. We don't teach for glamour and prestige or high wages, trust me. We teach because we love what we do, and we want to help children succeed. Sadly, many in the general public do not value education professionals. These are the same people who complain about the "state of the world today." Do they think we should just be paid babysitting wages? It seems they think that's all we're doing.

We have to go back to grad school (on our own dime) to further our education to get any type of significant raise. In fact, that's the only reason I'm seeing a pay raise this year - because I've spent thousands of dollars working on my master's degree. We don't get bonuses (like corporate America), and we're not getting step raises this year. It's a wash. I'm just lucky that I teach in a district that is able to not (technically) CUT our pay this year, because of the economic crisis and the state's budget problems.

I'm amazed that people want the best services (firefighters, teachers, police, social workers) but they are not willing to foot the bill for it. Do they think that money magically comes from somewhere? Grows on trees? I don't know.

Hey, Crazypants: You complain that American students can't keep up or compete with their foreign counterparts. How do you plan to remedy that situation by continually cutting budgets for schools? The math simply doesn't add up.

I hope the Star does eventually get around to publishing teacher salaries. Maybe then this yahoo will see that he's completely off-base complaining about our high salaries.

And the winners are...

2010-05-08T10:00:00.002-05:00

Even though they technically missed the Wednesday deadline, the winners in the caption contest are Aunt Janet and Kollen! (Thunderous applause)

Best Pop Culture Reference Caption goes to Kollen for:
I gave you my heart, and you give me a crayon?

Best Reading of Body Language Caption to Aunt Janet for:
"Do these polka dots make my butt look big?"

"No, I think its the diaper."

Most young women can relate to that second one, I think!

Thanks to those who played, and look for a more grown-up version of caption madness this week.

Monday morning caption madness

2010-05-03T05:19:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's just me, but I think this photo is really funny - their body language interests me. If it strike you funny, too, tell me what you think.

Caption this photo in the comments box below, and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday. That gives you two days to get the creative juices flowing.

Sunday morning at the Nelson

2010-05-02T13:24:00.005-05:00

Betsy rallied the troops for a photo outing on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art this morning. Molly brought Ellen, and Molly and Betsy's friend Marie brought her son, Preston. The weather was perfect for a little outdoor time to hone photo skills, which Betsy has been doing a great job of on her other blog.

Preston sorta kissed Ellen when asked. It was more like a drive-by kissing (or an air-kiss, I guess).

The lovely McKnight-Lund ladies.

You might have seen this little one over on the View Across Town.

I don't have kids of my own, so I might not be the best judge, but I'm guessing that free will in children can be a scary thing for parents sometimes!

Ah, and the woman saying "I know, I don't know what the heck he's thinking" has already started.

It's not a photo shoot at the Nelson without pictures of the shuttlecocks.

Caroline and Ellen take a nice little walk along the shaded path.

Thanks, Betsy, for getting us all out to enjoy the beautiful weather and friendship.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post - it will be a caption contest with an outtake from today.

On the road again

2010-04-27T21:18:00.003-05:00

I've started running again.

Maybe that means I'll start blogging again.

Adam and I are training for the Hospital Hill 10K in June. Those who live in KC, and who have hung around any runners, know that Hospital Hill is a badge of honor.

You're not really a runner in KC until you've done that race. It's tough.

Last year, the 17-year-old co-editor of my newspaper staff ran it. She blew out her Achilles tendon halfway in but finished the race.

She's young. She's on the cross country team. She blew a tendon.
What am I thinking?

I'm old. Just six weeks ago I could hardly walk my back hurt so bad.

Training for this race is different, though. Adam is training with me. This is a huge development. He's not really a runner for the sake of exercise, but I think he's motivated by the mystique of Hospital Hill. For three weeks now, we've been slogging through runs, starting with 20 minute runs, moving up to 45 minute runs during the week. On Sunday, we did a 50-minute run. I still take a walk break every now and then during the workouts, but knowing that Adam is running slower than he would really like to helps me keep moving. I don't want to slow him down too much.

Sometimes our runs together are quiet, only the rhythmic tapping of running shoe to sidewalk and my ridiculously labored breathing break the silence. Usually, though, it's a nice chance for us to catch up on each other's days.

I can bounce ideas off of him when I'm trying to motivate un-motivated students. He was one back in the day and usually has suggestions that help me back off the ledge. I can work out problems in my head.

The time between Spring Break and summer vacation is always the doldrums, but this year it's even worse, since we have no inservice days or three-day weekends or any other breaks.

The yearbook is done, so that's one thing to check off the timeline. Our last newspaper work night is tomorrow night. Another item checked off. State journalism is this weekend.

The dots on the timeline are coming hard and fast, but sure enough, each one is ticking away.

I finished my fourth six-week master's class tonight. Number five starts next week. With school, my grad classes, and life, I feel like the hamster wheel is moving much too fast for me to keep up.

Running is keeping me going through all of this. I don't think I realized it while I was laid up with the back trouble, but I was in dire need of some endorphins (and some sunshine).

Spring Fever

2010-04-02T16:54:00.002-05:00

One of my seniors went to the restroom today during editors' hour. When she came back, she said "There seems to be an unnaturally high number of people in the halls right now."

The newspaper editor in the room said "It's almost 7th hour, on a Friday, and it's April 2."

Nail on the head. Nail on the head.

It's getting to be that time - senioritis is setting in for seniors (and everyone else for that matter), and the weather is finally nice. The wandering ways and drifting minds make it tough to get through the week.

I suppose having a classroom with no windows has one benefit: I tend to forgot what the weather is like when I'm there the entire day. So, I am able to resist the call of beautiful weather a bit. That is, until I need to go up to the office, and I pass the wall of windows.

Usually, at that point, I'll quickly decide it's time for team-building activities that can be done outside on the back field. That gets us out and energized for a little while.

However, for today's reminder of what the weather was like I didn't even need to leave the friendly confines of room 450. About 9:30, the rain began pelting the roof. It was quick, but it was fierce. We heard a little thunder, but mostly just constant heavy rain. Even though they can't SEE it, that rain always gets the kids riled up.

On the home front, this time of year means it's time to get out and clean the partially decomposed leaves out of the flower beds, and start thinking about the garden. I'm hoping to plant a couple of blueberry bushes, some strawberries, and even some asparagus this year, in addition to all the stuff I'm sure Jeanne is planning on putting in the ground.

Attitude makes the difference

2010-03-09T21:38:00.002-06:00

Remember my earlier posts about how the money is getting tight around the district, and cuts are looming?

The list of possible cuts to our district was published Monday, totaling about $9 million. The board and district officials have to cut about $6 million, so they've built in some wiggle room, since there will be protests against some of the items.

Thankfully, I have not received a visit from the job grim reaper, otherwise known as our principal, this week. The deadline for possibly affected employees to be notified in person has passed, so I guess I'm okay (though I'm still nervous). I'm pretty sure if he would have walked in my room any time this week, even if he was really there to say "Congrats on all those state qualifiers!" my insides would have liquefied lickety-split because I'd be expecting the chopping block speech.

The classes I'm taking to get my masters are made up of all teachers from our district. I know some of them are affected. Class tonight was NO fun. People are worried about their jobs. People are worried about the two final projects we have to turn in before Saturday. People are frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of concrete instructions on the projects. Trust me, I would include myself in that camp, but I also know that you just have to buckle down and do what you're asked sometimes. It's not that bad.

For me, 9 p.m. couldn't have come fast enough tonight. I can't take four hours of people with poor attitudes complaining about work they don't want to do.

It's a necessary evil - you want your masters? You jump through some hoops, write some papers, pay a BUNCH of tuition, and there ya go. The work is not that hard for me - it's simply finding the time to complete it between grading, planning, teaching, having a life outside of school, deadlines, meetings, etc.

I wish I had the guts to just tell the other guys to shut it tonight. I am not the most optimistic person on the planet, but I know it's necessary to make the best of a bad situation sometimes. If you sit somewhere for four hours, the whole time thinking about how awful it is, then it's going to be awful.

I hope that when our next six-week class starts, people are a little more peppy. I don't want to spend my Tuesday nights being depressed for the next 18 weeks!

It's supposed to be a project progress shot, but it's more like a snapshot of me

2010-03-04T20:57:00.004-06:00

or, at least my life and environment. I really just meant to post a quick photo to Twitter so the knitting followers could see what I've been up to.

But, when I stopped to look at it again, I realized that to a close observer, this photo says a lot about me.

You'll notice the ABC logo on the TV in the background. While we watched LOST, I worked on my knitting project. I have to multitask to get anything accomplished, and I think watching TV and knitting certainly counts. The only problem is, with a show like LOST, I have to give a little more mental energy to the show, so it's slow going on the knitting projects.

Kansas City-area readers will spot the remote that goes with our Time Warner digital cable box on the TV tray. The TV tray basically serves as my desk. I keep my laptop there, and it's where I eat breakfast each morning.

Adam and I aren't sit-down-to-the-table-and-eat-dinner types. We eat in front of the TV, hence the trays. I would like to think that if we ever have kids, we'll be the eat-around-the-table types, but since it's just the two of us at this point, we're usually just catching up on DVR'ed stuff.

Eagle-eyed observers will see the Rock Band equipment and the Wii. That reminds me, we haven't had a good Wii party in quite a while. Might be time to rustle one up over spring break.

The Snuggie and the clothes in the laundry basket next to my foot echoes the color on the TV screen. Weird.

We don't have a purple polka-dotted curtain. That's the back of a KSU quilt Mom made for me a long time ago. It's finally warm enough that we can take down our extra window insulation. Maybe Adam can do that on his day off tomorrow. With the sub-zero temps and snow for so long this winter, we needed a little help in the heating department.

In the bottom corner of the photo is our little tropical plant that we've managed to keep alive throughout the late summer and fall. We got some nice plants on sale at the De-Pot just before fall. They're all thriving at this point, despite the dark and cold wintry conditions in our house. When you've got all the windows covered with blankets, it's a little tough to get the required amount of sunlight for houseplants.

I'm sure most people who saw this photo noticed the sock and moved on. And that's fine. It is, after all, supposed to be a photo of a sock. But, like I said, I just thought it was interesting when I saw all of the other things in the photo.

Hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of a Thursday night at Casa de Chittum. I've got to sign off for a few days. One more day of school this week, and then I'll be working furiously to complete graduate school homework between Friday night and Tuesday night.

Wish me luck. I'll need it.

When's spring break again?

2010-03-02T21:55:00.003-06:00

If I make it through the next two weeks, I'll be a happy girl. Kids' last day of school is next Wednesday, we go through Friday.

Between now and then, here are just a few things I need to accomplish:
Help yearbook make their second-to-last deadline.
Help newspaper make their deadline this Friday.
Newspaper distribution Wednesday before break.
Two final projects for my master's class: a differentiated lesson plan and a four-part case study of a student I have chosen to differentiate for.
Four forum posts for graduate class.
Trip to Manhattan Saturday with 10 yearbook and newspaper kids for publications boot camp.
Grades posted by next Friday at 3.
Newspaper late night tomorrow.
Yearbook late night Thursday.

Oh, wait, and that whole TEACHING thing. Still have to do that for another week...The good news is, the weather has finally turned just a bit, and the sun is staying up until about 6:30 p.m., so at least we have that going for us.

Luckily, I've been keeping up with what needs to be done in my master's class, so I'll just be tying up loose ends this weekend. Today was the fifth of six weeks in Differentiation. After spring break, we start the fourth class in our Masters of Education cohort program.

I should have my Master's degree by December, which sounds great, except for the fact that rumors are now flying that all non-tenured teachers will be pink-slipped, and only certain ones will be rehired, because of our district's budget cuts. The district is releasing the list to the public on Monday, March 8, so we should be notified any day now if we're on the chopping block.

I'm not tenured (I haven't quite been here for three years yet), but I think I'm pretty insulated. I don't think they'll let me go - won't go into it here, since I've already written about it here. It's hard though, to be in an environment where everyone is walking on eggshells, worried about their jobs.

You could see it on the faces of each and every student in my masters class tonight. You can see it on the faces of district coordinating teachers. You can see it on our principals' faces. It's a weight, constantly there on our shoulders - what's going to happen?

I realize that my little blog isn't going to raise a ton of awareness for support of public education, but I hope that if you're reading this, you understand how important it is for the state of Kansas to fully fund public schools. I heard today that the state didn't make its payment to the district again in a timely fashion, so our paychecks came from the reserve funds. Scary.

Even if you don't have a child in public schools, please understand what they mean for our neighborhoods, cities, and the country. Chances are, you went to a public school. Someone supported you back then, and we need you now. Please let your legislators know that the further we cut, the higher level of quality gets sacrificed.

I heart the Olympics

2010-02-13T09:09:00.003-06:00

Adam, Joshua and I watched all four-and-a-half hours of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies last night. Sure, some of it got a little tired after that much time, but it was pretty damn cool.

From an outside observer's point of view, the only hitch came at the end during the torch ceremony when the fourth of the pillars didn't come up. Okay, it still looked good.

This morning, on Roger Ebert post this: @ebertchicago: U.S. tweeters being snarky about Canadian Olympics ceremony. Canuck reply: If you're so smart, why don't you have health care? I get the joke, but unfortunately, I think Americans would be snarky about ANYONE's opening ceremony. It's not just because of our history of thumbing our noses at the neighbors to the north.

I don't think I posted anything too snarky last night. Here's mine:

The cauldron kind of looks like it came from Superman's home planet.

Jeez, they could have at least given The Great One a rain coat or something to cover his head in the rain.

This has been keeping me busy during the opening ceremonies. Started a new sock. Excuse the bad photo. http://yfrog.com/3i6t0tj

Swedes have the best hats!

Wait! What? Thanks, NBC. Your commercial break totally screwed the athletes of my motherland. We're still rooting for you, Croatia.

Granted, I was knitting during the telecast, so I had something keeping me from becoming bored, but all in all, I thought it was a good show. Loved the Tom Sawyer-like prairie segment.

I would like to know, though, if NBC would have shown the footage of the luger if he would have been an American athlete. As we watched the news intro to the ceremonies, they showed him flying off the track, and I asked Adam and Joshua if they thought an American would be showed like that. The man died. Cover the story, but we don't need to see the footage over and over again.

We're talking about ethics in J1 this week. I think we can use that scenario as an example for the students to discuss in class. What would they do if they were the TV news producers?

Snow is falling again

2010-02-05T14:00:00.002-06:00

When I woke up this morning, small flakes were flying. I headed out to the chiropractor, and then the large, wet flakes began. Right now, there's about six inches of fluffy snow on everything. The city hasn't been by to plow the road yet.

I'm heading out to the gym. Normally, weather like this would keep me from getting out on the road just to go to the treadmill. But, since it was conference week this week, and I haven't gotten to run AT ALL since Sunday, I've got to get out and do something before my nine miler this Sunday.

The chiropractor said I needed to wait until about 3 p.m., so that I wouldn't undue my adjustments or cause more trauma to my back. Unfortunately, during all of that waiting time, it's been snowing heavily.

If I see any other great photos, I'll post them later. These two were shot from my covered front porch when I got back from the chiropractor.

Safe travels, everybody!

Yikes. Things aren't looking good.

2010-02-03T20:48:00.003-06:00

Anybody who hasn't been under a rock for the last year or so knows that the money is tight in a lot of places. The economy is "slowly recovering" according to some, but companies are laying people off, state budgets are looking awful, things are being cut, cut, cut.

Monday after school we had a meeting to talk about the district's budget forecast. It sounds awful. We've already cut $11 million between cuts made last year and cuts made during this year, and there are more to come.

Layoffs are on the table. Salary freezes are on the table. Program cuts are on the table. It's hard to know who's safe and what our jobs will look like next year. Some teachers might be teaching different classes, larger classes. I'm nervous. I pretty sure I won't LOSE my job, but if there aren't enough students signing up for yearbook, newspaper and journalism classes, suddenly I become an expensive proposition for the school and the district. I'm not certified to teach any other area, so I'm sort of stuck.

I spent last Thursday at the state capitol with four of my students. They competed in a contest sponsored by KSPA. Students interviewed our legislators to find out what they were thinking on the state's budget and so the school district's budget. Those we spoke to are not in favor of any sort of tax raises (not even on cigarettes). Their solution is to continue cuts. We're pretty much all the way through any fat there was, and we're getting into the muscle and bone.

Why not increase taxes on something that is NON-essential for life? Whatsa matter? Smokes getting to expensive for you? Well, QUIT. Or, help me educate the doctor who might save your black lungs someday.

I realize tax increases aren't a popular proposition, but when you are talking about schools, it's tough to to stomach cuts to programs. I saw that in my former district, they're talking about removing art classes from elementary schools. For some students, the chance to participate in art classes is a lifeline.

The scariest thing I heard on Monday during our staff meeting was that the district has already had to dip into our "reserve" fund to cover payroll three times this year. That means three times the state's payments didn't make it to the district in time to pay our salaries. That reserve fund sounds pretty important to me, but one of the possible "solutions" the state is proposing is districts returning those reserve funds.

If this keeps up, I might have to really get you clicking on the Google ads...we could be looking for some supplemental income.

Running on the brain, sunburn on the head

2010-01-26T05:46:00.000-06:00

Sunday's training schedule was an 8-mile run. I got up and did it fairly early, so I wouldn't mess up our weekly Panera grading date. I knew I wouldn't feel like running after we were finished.

Based on the weather, I probably would have felt like running after Panera. When I left the restaurant, it was almost 50 and sunny out. But, because I motivated early, I ran inside. On the treadmill. For. Eight. Miles. At 8:30, when I left for Gold's it was only 30 out, and I knew I couldn't slog through that temp by myself.

Thankfully, I got one of the TWO good treadmills (seriously, Gold's, it's 2010. Can we upgrade our 1987 model treadmills?). And, even better, the one I got was right in front of the TV, so I got to choose my running accompaniment for the morning. I chose E! Channel, because I knew I could watch The Soup, E! News Weekend and The Daily 10. Perfect fluff for 90 minutes of running.

The run felt pretty good. I wasn't dying at the end, but it did get pretty monotonous on the treadmill. I can't wait until temps get high enough to do all my runs outside.

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I must have had running on the brain after Sunday, because that night I had the strangest dream. It's coming back to me in bits and pieces.

I was in a strange city, running in a marathon. In the middle of the race, there was a "challenge" of some sort. We ran into an open stadium, and I remember that I changed my shoes (quickly, as if I was racing) and a man was shouting instructions to me.

"Run up the stairs, all the way, once. Then, run around the top of the stadium once, then run back down the stairs. Then, continue on your marathon way."

Uh, what?

I barely remember doing it in the dream, but I'm pretty sure I was climbing the stairs walking, then crawling, then pushing through it. Somehow I made it out of the stadium.

The next thing I remember from the dream is that there was a stop in a hotel room. I assume it was my room, because all of my luggage and gear was in the room. (How convenient that my lodging was right on the race route, and that I had remembered my hotel key card...)

Once inside my room, I removed the white visor I was wearing, thinking at that exact moment "Jeez. A visor? That was stupid. My part is going to be so sunburned."

Sure enough, the next scene I remember from the dream is me looking at the top of my head in a mirror to see a giant red and pink patch of blistered skin just above my forehead. Ouch.

I fashioned a covering for that sunburned patch out of something, slathered on a bunch more sunscreen on the rest of my exposed skin and headed out of the room to finish the marathon.

I can't tell you HOW I finished the race, because the last thing I remember as my alarm went off was walking out of the hotel room.

I do remember stumbling through my bedroom door into the bathroom because I wasn't fully awake. I hate being jarred from a deep, dreamful sleep by the darned alarm clock. It makes me off all morning!

A knitting progress report

2010-01-25T05:02:00.000-06:00

One of my goals for 2010, as reported at the first of the year:

Keep knitting. And trying new and different patterns. Work through the yarn stash. Knit up what I already have, and then I can get new fun yarn. Maybe I'll start knitting things and randomly sending them to people I know...Who knows.

Since then, I've worked on a handful of projects. I completed a hat for Adam and below, you can see the matching scarf I'm working on. I've made a lot of progress, but it's just ribbing, and requires lots of weaving in ends because of the striping. Because of all that, I've taken small breaks from the scarf for other projects.

I'm participating in a sock KAL (knit along) that my mom told me about. I've knit A sock before, so this helps me meet the goal of trying something different. I've never done a KAL before, and I'm hoping that because I'm doing it with a bunch of other people, I'll actually get a PAIR of socks knit by the end of this project.

It's fun because we get new instructions on Friday afternoons. I get an easily digestible knitting assignment for each weekend.

In other KAL news, I also tried this dishcloth KAL from Rachel's Knitting Corner. She gives a washcloth knit along on the third week of each month, and you knit just a few rows a day. Again, a good excuse to sit down and do just a little bit of knitting each night.

I just finished it tonight. Needs to be blocked, as you can probably see. I used two colors of Sugar and Cream 100 percent cotton yarn. It's my go-to dishcloth yarn. I don't usually use more than one color of yarn, so again I was able to work on my goal of trying new knitting techniques. It was actually pretty easy to carry the two colors along the edge.

I've got a few more rows to do on the sock in the next few days, then I need to get back to work on Adam's scarf. I'd like to finish it within the next week or so.

Maturity Notice

2010-01-24T08:09:00.003-06:00

I received a "maturity notice" in the mail the other day. At first, I thought maybe someone was patting me on the back for being a good girl, having a good job, nice house, etc.

It wasn't. It was something even better than that. We paid off our little red Ford Focus! Woo hoo! The montly payments weren't that bad, because it was a 72-month, zero-percent loan, but still. I think that's an accomplishment. And, anyone who worked with me at the Eagle knows that for a while there, I changed cars pretty frequently.

The Focus doesn't have a lot of miles on it, either, so it should last us a while more. We might not have a bunch of fancy stuff, but we have what we need, and now the only debt we have is the payment on my car. That's a nice feeling. I'm glad we don't have to spend our paychecks paying for stuff bought months (and in some cases, years) before.

For those of you with kids, be sure you're teaching them about credit cards and debt, because there isn't a class in the public schools that deals with that. We touch on it a little bit in our advisory classes, but personal finance is definitely something kids should learn before they head off for the easy-credit land of college.

Driving the Dodge Caravan thru the Taco Bell drive thru

2010-01-21T19:27:00.003-06:00

I watch a lot of TV. Those of you who know me or read this blog have probably figured that out. Despite that fact, I don't watch a lot of commercials. I'd say 75 percent of my TV watching is on the DVR these days.

I'm either not home, or too busy at the time the show is on, to watch it live. The other 25 percent is mostly treadmill time, when it's on as a distraction.

Lately, though, I've noticed two commercials that really chap my hide.

First, and some of you have already commented on this on Twitter and Facebook, is the Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet. I'm just going to say it: Are you freaking kidding me? Unless that woman ate super fatty menu items at Taco Bell every day of the week earlier in her life, I don't see how eating Taco Bell can help you lose weight.

Sure, the "Fresco" menu items might be healthier choices than say, the Burrito Supreme, but it's not diet food. Give me a break. I'm pretty sure if I were to go on the Drive Thru Diet I would gain weight, since I don't eat fast food more than once or twice a week (a benefit of not being a newspaper photographer anymore, when I used to eat it all the time!).

The other commercial that is driving me crazy is the Dodge Caravan commercial that tells men "Because come on, what's more manly than driving around with your five offspring in the car?" Seriously? That's the measure of a man now? How many children he can father? Is Dodge trying to cash in on the Duggars and John and Kate "phenomenon"? I'm pretty sure the last thing the planet needs is a car company encouraging people to overpopulate the planet even more.

That Dodge commercial is incredibly sexist. It's okay for women to be stuck driving minivans, but if a man does it...He needs to be pounding his chest the entire time.

Are there any other commercials out there right now we can discuss?

What a 180.

2010-01-14T19:47:00.002-06:00

I won't go into too much detail about winter break and then winter break 2.0 (the three snow days last week) because I'm sure you're tired of hearing about "all the extra time off" teachers get.

This week has been a complete turnaround from last week's life of leisure.

First of all, we're back to regularly scheduled programming at school.

Second, yearbook is trying to complete a deadline that was due last Friday. We didn't finish because of the snow days. Plus, we had proofs to return on Monday night.

Third, newspaper's deadline is next Monday (which we have off for Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday), so they had worknight this week.

Fourth, my grad class was Tuesday night from 5-9.

Fifth, AFTER newspaper worknight, we had 8th grade round up, where they come in and learn about all of the possible activities they can get involved in. That didn't get over until 8:30.

So, Monday, got home about 6:30.

Tuesday: 9 p.m. (prof let us out a tiny bit early, thankfully).

Wednesday: 9 p.m.

Tonight: 5:40 (left fairly early, just had heavy traffic heading home).

Tomorrow is finally Friday. I think last week's unexpected vacation left me seriously unprepared for a full work week. I had psyched myself up to return on the day after Christmas break, and having the snow days was a real motivation killer!

There's good news and bad news at the end of this tunnel: Since it's MLK day on Monday, newspaper won't have a day at school to work on deadline. So, we're working on Saturday during the day. Good news is, WHEN we get done on Saturday (when, not IF), we won't have to work on Saturday, so I'll still get to have a "weekend" - two days off.

When you think of me this week, visualize a hamster on a wheel, trying in vain to keep up. I'm going to do a quick Biggest Loser Wii workout right now, before 30 Rock, since I have had ZERO time to exercise this week. There's a 7-mile run staring at me this weekend. It won't be pretty.

Can I get a fist pump for GTL?

2010-01-10T11:35:00.003-06:00

If you don't know what that stands for, consider yourself among the lucky (and smart) ones.

I've been hearing here and there of a new show on MTV called "Jersey Shore." Bobby Moynihan did a great impression of one of the main characters on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago. My interest was piqued.

That says a lot, considering I haven't actively turned the channel to MTV in, say, 12 years. Oh, wait, there was that one season when they ran "The Paper" about a high school newspaper staff. I did watch that show each week.

But I digress. I hate MTV these days. Not for the reasons one would assume a 32-year-old would grow to hate it. When I was young (middle and high school) I thought old people wouldn't like MTV because it would be too loud, and they would grow to hate the type of music played on MTV. Little did I know the reason I would grow to hate MTV is because it's not M TV any more. Ridiculous "reality" shows about self-involved 20-somethings just do not hold my interest.

After watching last week's "The Soup" I decided to DVR an episode of "Jersey Shore" so I could see what all the fuss is about. I figured I couldn't deride it til I tried it.

Let the derision begin.

Basically, all you need to know is that GTL stands for "Gym, Tanning, Laundry" which, combined with barhopping, fist pumping and general debauchery, is all the cast members feel they need to do with their lives. I'm hoping that any teens who are watching this stupid show are watching it because they get a good laugh out of it, not because they aspire to be like this and be on MTV.

If you're looking to make a little money in the stock market, look into hair gel, because these gentlemen are ALL ABOUT the hair gel, and god knows it's only a matter of time before it becomes a trend.

I suppose the show is good for a laugh, because Adam, Mitzi, Bets and I got some good laughs out of one we watched last night. Our laughs mostly came from the ridiculous nicknames they've given themselves: Snooki AKA Snookers, Snickers, Mike The Situation, Sammi the Sweetheart, etc.

If you want to find out what your "Jersey Shore" nickname would be, there are a few nickname generators out there. Here's our group nicknames:

Me: The Tight End
Adam: A-Train
Mitzi: The Opportunity
Betsy: Tanny

I need to stop writing about this right now, because I'm afraid that combined with the drop in IQ I experienced from just watching the show, trying to dissect the show might make me a total idiot.

Have any of you watched it?

In recent knitting news

2010-01-08T07:53:00.000-06:00

Observant readers of this blog might recognize these arm warmers, though it's been about 15 months since they were last posted on the blog. Back then, I had finished the first one and started the second. The student in knitting club at school had seamed the first one for me, because she's an awesome seamstress.

Then, I finished knitting the second, but set it aside because I didn't want to have to seam it. I love knitting, but I hate seaming - probably because I'm not very good at it. The pattern, from "One Skein" by Leigh Radford, is pretty simple, but they do take a while since the yarn is lightweight and the needles are small.

Since we've been out of school the last few days, and it's super cold outside and in here, I decided it was high time to seam the second one so I could wear them while knitting and working on the computer. So glad I did. Thanks to Hubs for shooting this photo (in which you can see I'm wearing our Snuggie...)

Adam gave me a 2010 Knitting calendar for Christmas, and he picked this striped alpiner hat pattern out. It was a very quick project - just took about two days. The pattern calls for it to be knit flat and seamed up the back, so another one I had to challenge myself with.

I knit this with Bernat Baby Alpaca yarn, which feels delicious. And, bonus: it was on sale two for $5 at Michael's the day after New Year's. I will most likely be buying more of that yarn soon. You might notice the crochet edging around the bottom of the hat (the white part). This was a good project because it forced me to exercise a few different skills.

I'm working on this matching scarf. The color in the photo is a little funky, it was just a quick iPhone pic to post on Twitter. It's looking great so far, but will require lots of end-weaving-in because of the stripes. I can't wait to get a photo of Adam modeling both pieces once they're finished. Stay tuned.

Cabin Fever - It's set in

2010-01-07T17:32:00.004-06:00

And, we are off AGAIN tomorrow.

I would be much more excited at this prospect if it wasn't 100 below outside, and if I didn't feel crappy. I must have a cold or bronchitis or something, because I've got an awful wheezy cough, and my body aches.

Good news is - it shouldn't be H1N1 or the seasonal flu, since I've been vaccinated for both this year (first time I've ever gotten a flu shot, at least as an adult). I'm not really sure how I got sick, since it was winter break and I was only around a few of my friends, my husband and my parents, and none of them are sick.

Maybe one of the other teachers got me sick on the first day back, or maybe someone at the gym didn't wipe off/sanitize the treadmill when they were done and I got their germs. Jerks.

So, today I knit some, watched a little TV, and read a book - "Olive Kitteridge." It's good. I'll read it some more tonight, but first I need to do a little work on my grad school assignments. I'll be reading those for the next few hours, and possibly doing a little writing. The more I do tonight, the less I have to do this weekend.

I just wish I felt like going somewhere, but I don't want to leave the house. Good thing we've got plenty of food! Adam is working tonight, so I'll do my work while he's AT work.

Cabin Fever Countdown

2010-01-06T19:44:00.003-06:00

Welp, today was a snow day (we knew last night). And, we got word by 4 p.m. today that tomorrow will be a snow day, too.

I'm betting we'll be out of school on Friday, as well. Why not just go for the trifecta?

The snow didn't start until this afternoon, so I did get up and go to the gym. I thought a 3-mile run was scheduled for today, so that's what I did. When I got home to check the schedule for tomorrow, I realized I read it off by one day.

Having graduate classes on Tuesday nights messes me up. Class is from 5-9 p.m., so I don't work out on those days. I was supposed to do some interval training today, and then the 3-mile run tomorrow. Based on the view outside my window at this point, looks like I'll be relegated to a Biggest Loser Wii workout tomorrow.

Teachers went back to school on Monday, for a half-day of meetings and then time to work in our rooms in the afternoon. That time is vital for me - helps me clear the docket and get mentally prepared to greet students on their first day back. We had one day back with the kids on Tuesday, and then this mini-vacation.

I'm guessing that my trip to the gym today will be the only time I get outside in the next couple of days. I don't want to shovel the drive, and if I don't need to be on the road with idiots, I won't be.

Besides, my snow day kind of turned into a sick day - Monday night's nagging cough turned into joint aches, sore throat and cough after school yesterday and right on through my class last night. I guess the good news is if I'm sick on our days off, I don't have to write sub plans because everyone's at home!

So far today, after the gym, we watched a movie (Away We Go, with Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski), I've knit and read a couple of magazines. I might be a tiny bit crazy after a couple more days like this. I'll keep you posted.

There's more snow on the ground, so maybe you need one of these...

2010-01-04T05:27:00.000-06:00

A brief peek outside the window on Sunday morning revealed yet another couple inches of snow on the ground in Shawnee, America. When the weather is such, pretty much all I want to do is wrap up in knitted goodness and hunker down on the couch.

What better time to highlight some Etsy items you could make great use of in this kind of weather?

I don't think I've left the house once this week without a hat on my head. It's vital when the temperatures are below zero. Here are a few cool ones I found on Etsy.

This Winterberry hat is darling. I might need to buy it for myself, so you should check it out fast!

This photo is a little small, but click on this link to go look at this Hazelnut Brown Lace Handknitted Cap. This would look great with a dressy coat, for a night out.

If you're looking for something for the man in your life, here's a manly man's waffle-knitted hat.

For the teeniest, tiniest among us, there's a darling oatmeal-colored baby hat in my shop.

I also think that this Rugby Handknit baby hat would look super-cute on a tiny baby. The yarn is so big and chunky.

These are just a few of the handmade items I found while browsing on Etsy this morning. Remember, if you're looking for birthday gifts, shop Etsy - it's a great way to support artisans and crafters who would just like to get their work out there.

Happy shopping, and happy crafting!

Even with the gym, it's hard to work out in the cold

2010-01-02T13:27:00.004-06:00

On the Half training schedule for today, a 3-mile pace run was staring me in the face. Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day, but because my workout schedule was somewhat lacking earlier this week, I went ahead and did an upper-body/cardio workout on the Biggest Loser Wii game last night. Unfortunately, my Wii balance board told me I gained a pound this week! At least my BL character, Michelle, wasn't up for elimination!

I didn't do a lot of running this week, since I did about four hours of shoveling snow. Oy.

There's a sign on the door at Gold's that says "Know that showing up is half the battle." Yes, typically this is true. If I can just GET my lazy ass to the gym, I will work out.

However, when you wake up to wind chills of -10, just going to the gym is the entire battle. Even though I only had to be outside for a total of about five minutes coming and going it was still a motivation killer knowing I would be freezing my running shoes off.

I did it, though. I got up, had my typical Saturday morning pre-run breakfast of coffee, toast and peanut butter, and I went to the gym. Since it's Jan. 2, the place was pretty crowded. Lots of faces I didn't recognize. Must be the resolution crowd. I'll be interested to see how long some of them last. I hope I see them past the next few weeks. That's been me before, waking up Jan. 1, thinking "This is finally the year..." and going to the gym every day for about a week, then quitting!

My three miles were okay today, and tomorrow I'm scheduled for six. Mitzi and Kat are doing this too, so I know they are right there with me.

Thank goodness I HAVE a gym membership. There's no way in H E double hockey sticks I'd be out running in these temps!

2010 - No hovercrafts or robot maids, but still all good

2010-01-01T11:48:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year, friends!

I've done resolutions in the past, and it seems I never accomplish them (short attention span, I think). So, my "resolutions" this year will be more in the form of goals.

Blog more. I noticed that in 2007, when I started this blog, I posted 217 times. In 2008, 234 times. In 2009, after I discovered Twitter - 49 times. Sad, sad, sad.

All that tweeting and time wasted playing Bejewled on Facebook seriously handicapped my blogging. The whole point of starting this blog was to get me writing every day. I always tell my students, the more you write, the better you get at it, just like playing an instrument or a sport. Based on my blogging performance in the last year, I'd say I'm a bad influence.

I'd like to say that I'll post to Betsy's photo blog (I have to call it Betsy's because I haven't posted on it since, oh, last summer), but I know that I'm overextended in cyberspace. I cannot commit to two blogs, tweeting, Facebook, and e-mail. It's probably because I have that silly little thing called a real job...

Keep the e-mail inbox under control. I have a bad habit of not deleting e-mail as I read it, or not saving what I need from it and getting rid of the rest. Just in my g-mail inbox, there were 2,300 messages on Dec. 30. With a little bit of work yesterday (interrupted by sledding) and some work today, I've culled it down to fewer than 800. I will get it cleaned out today. I should do the same with the work inbox as well. It's overwhelming to have all that "junk" always there.

I need to read, decide, file attachments and info immediately, then delete the dang message.

Weekly Panera grading dates. You've probably read something about this over on Betsy's blog, but I need to commit to it as well. For some reason, it's so much easier for me to get school work done if I am not at home. Going to Panera with the girls makes it something I look forward to instead of dreading. We did this a lot at the beginning of the school year, and I was so much more caught up on grading and planning at that point.

Keep motivated and MAKE the time to run and exercise. When I get in the habit of running and working out, I really do like doing it. It's easy to do this during a two-week break from school, when I can go at any point during the day. I need to decide on a schedule and stick to it. Magazines and Web sites always say to schedule workouts on the calendar like you do every other appointment. Maybe I'll try that.

Kat, Mitzi and I have registered to run the Dallas Rock and Roll Half Marathon in March, so at least I have that date staring me down, and a training schedule to stick to. That helps on the motivation front.

Last year, I ran 375 miles. I would love to set a goal of running 500, or even 750, as I have tried to in the past, but I never make it that far. So, my goal is to best my total of 375 for this year. As long as I go farther than that, I'll be happy.

Keep knitting. And trying new and different patterns. Work through the yarn stash. Knit up what I already have, and then I can get new fun yarn. Maybe I'll start knitting things and randomly sending them to people I know...Who knows.

Reading. I would also like to continue my reading list. I've been trying to read more frequently than I had been in years, and I think I did a pretty good job last year. I'll keep up the list on the right side of my blog so you can see what I've been up to. If you have any suggestions for good reads, comment away. I'm always looking for new authors.

I suppose that's enough for now. I don't want to set a super-ambitious agenda simply because it's Jan. 1, and then disappoint myself later. Maybe I should make a goal to check in with myself every couple of months to see how it goes?

What are your New Year's resolutions? How will you do it?

Finally got the forecast right

2009-12-27T10:39:00.006-06:00

I don't think I've ever seen this much snow in my life. And, it's STILL falling at our house.

After dinner, Adam and I took Malachi out so he could play in the snow for a little while. I pulled him up and down the street on his little sled, and Adam helped him make snowballs. The snow wasn't the greatest for snowballs or snowman making - too dry.

These photos were on Christmas Day - when we thought this was all the snow we were going to get. Little did we know.

After we finished shoveling, Adam made a snow angel in the neighbor's yard.
Thankfully, Dad brought his snowblower over and helped us clean the driveway. It would have taken forever for us to do it with shovels. Even just the touch-ups and extra we did with the shovels took about two and half hours.

It's pretty and all, but enough. We don't need any more of this stuff.

I may not be blogging, but I have been tweeting...

2009-11-29T20:59:00.003-06:00

And here's the proof. It's a word cloud of words I used most often in the last year.

Writing for my grad class - assignment 1

2009-11-01T20:03:00.005-06:00

So, I thought since the first writing assignment for my graduate class was to write personally from a prompt, I'd put it here on the blog. That way, at least my (dwindling) followers would have SOMETHING to read this week.

We had a choice of about 15 prompts. None of them really resonated with me, but there was one like this: A time you knew you were in trouble.

So, I chose that one, and wrote about the one time I remember being seriously in trouble (at least enough that I was grounded from after-school activities for an entire semester). I think I've blocked out the major details, but it's still an interesting anecdote. We had to write EXACTLY 350 words. No more, no less. It was a great exercise in editing and word economy.

If nothing else, I'm sure mom will get a good laugh out of it.

•••
Friday night was the cast party for our winter musical. I chose to ride with one of my friends, and a senior friend, to the after party. I don’t even know whose house we went to or where we were. Once there, all I could think about was leaving. I was bored, and I was scared. At 14, I hadn’t been to a house party like that before, and I did not want to be around people who were smoking and drinking. I knew my parents would kill me.

The problem was I had no way home. I didn’t know where we were, but I knew it was somewhere near the Plaza or downtown. How was I going to get to Shawnee? Nobody else was ready to leave the party yet. I should have just called home, but I thought my parents would kill me for making the stupid decision to go to the party in the first place.

Looking back, I’m sure they would have been slightly perturbed at the prospect of picking me up after midnight, but that would have made them much happier than wondering where the hell I was at 5 o’clock on a Saturday morning.

Sitting at the party, I thought I’d be fine if I could just get home early enough that they would still be in bed. Mom never waited up for me, and Dad wouldn’t head for the golf course until 8 or so. Pretty solid plan, except for the fact that I forgot to turn off my alarm clock the day before.

Sleeping soundly, both parents were blissfully unaware their daughter was six hours past curfew, until my own alarm went off and woke them up.

•••

My mom rocks.

2009-10-21T20:11:00.006-05:00

Those of you who know her probably already know that, but just in case you didn't, here's a little newspaper story to let you in on the secret...

Mom's dream a difference maker ran in the Shawnee Dispatch. The story really shows the effort that Mom had to go to to get Dreams Work off the ground and keep it running, and the support she's received from friends and family all these years as well (they're always the ones we ask for money from first, after all).

You can support Dreams Work by purchasing an opportunity to win this large queen size quilt:

The chances are $1 apiece or six opportunities for $5. If you bought this quilt outright, it would probably be worth a few hundred dollars. It could be yours for just a few dollars if you're lucky!

Send checks payable to Dreams Work, and your name and phone number will go on the ticket. The address is 13717 W. 108th Street, Lenexa, KS 66215.

The drawing will be held on Dec. 3 at the Eighth Anniversary Open House. Need not be present to win!

You can also support Dreams Work by visiting their web site - there is a donate link.

Crawling before I walk

2009-10-19T21:54:00.002-05:00

I haven't been running lately. At all.

I've still been exercising, but it's mostly been walking and doing the Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred videos. I've tried to run a couple of times since this summer, but it just didn't feel right. I think part of it was the heat toward the end of the summer, but I also think I was burned out after the marathon training earlier in the year.

Betsy and Mitzi were over here on Saturday and we were talking about Mitzi's KC 5K experience Saturday morning (it's a great story - you'll have to ask her to find out...). As we talked, I realized that she and I ran two half-marathons and one full marathon since this time last year.

We did the Kansas City Half-Marathon last October, the Olathe Half-Marathon in April, and the Seattle Marathon in June. Of the three, I'd say I had varying results - I finished KC 10 minutes before my goal time, Olathe right at my goal, and Seattle 45 minutes later than my goal. Each time, though, crossing the finish line felt damn good.

Thinking about those three accomplishments has gotten me thinking about running again. Plus, I REALLY want to beat my last year mile total. To do that, I'll have to run about 30 more miles this year. I think that's doable.

Tonight, I ran a TINY bit. Like, just a half-mile. It felt good, and I'm sure I could have done more, but like I said, I just haven't been feeling the running lately. My plan is to keep doing the Jillian workouts, but try to alternate those with walking/running days. I'll just add a couple minutes to each run, and hopefully I'll hit that end-of-the-year goal.

Beautiful weather like we had today certainly doesn't hurt the cause. It was 74 degrees when I left school!

Maybe I'll shoot for Olathe again next spring. I do so much better when I have a race in mind.

Who's with me?

Big day at Oak Park Mall - Making Over America with Clinton Kelly

2009-09-19T16:57:00.009-05:00

So, anyone who knows Betsy and Mitzi and me knows that we're big fans of TLC's "What Not to Wear."

Imagine our excitement when we heard that Clinton Kelly would be coming to Overland Park for his new project "Making Over America." Weeks ago, when Adam and I were out shopping at Town Center Plaza, we passed at poster at Macy's promoting the event.

I made a mental note of the date, and made sure to tell the girls. Adam, of course, was nonplussed by the news.

Today was the day. I haven't seen that many people at the mall since the day I saw Jamie Walters ("How do you talk to an angel?") at the mall in 1995.

There were chairs set up on the first floor, and priority seating for family members of the 15 chosen makeovers. We decided to stay up on the second level, where we had a "front row" seat at least. It was a little hard to hear since the speakers were angled for those on the ground level, but it was still a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, I did not have a long lens with me, so my little kit lens did the best it could.

At the start of the show, before the big reveals, Clinton brought a couple of women up on stage and did a live version of the 360 mirror. How nerve-wracking that must have been. Bets and I made sure to wear "cute" outfits in case we were spotted by Mr. Kelly. Alas, our spots up top weren't the best for that!

I definitely think that after watching "What Not To Wear" for the last few years, I've discovered some tricks for dressing better. Now, if I could only afford to buy all the clothes I see on the show. Damn teacher salary.

One thing he said today that I thought was funny (and so true) is that all women watch WNTW hoping to see someone their exact size and proportions and style so they can find out how to dress for themselves.

We didn't stand in the book-signing line - at least 100 of our closest friends were in it by the time we walked by, and many more were on their way.

Probably the most exciting part of Betsy's and my day is that Clinton actually @replied to us both on Twitter. We both follow a few celebrities (Betsy more than me, I think), but none have ever replied to us on Twitter (not even when I was raising money for Team in Training).

I did learn something that I can tell my classes on Monday (and no, it wasn't about fashion). After the show, Clinton took questions for a few minutes. One young lady asked where he went to school and what he majored in. He told her he attended Boston College, majoring in environmental (something I couldn't hear) and communications, then I THINK he said he has a master's in journalism. (The speakers were poor for us up high, remember.)

He said he was working as a magazine editor when he went for the WNTW audition. Those communications and people skills you develop as a journalist can help you do a lot of things in life.

I thought that was pretty cool - a little connection we share!

La la la la la! I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

2009-09-06T09:29:00.003-05:00

The title of this blog refers to the picture I see in my head each time I think of the thousands of parents who are calling school districts all over the country right now regarding President Obama's speech to schools on Tuesday.

Parents are pulling their kids from school. The speech is about inspiring students to be motivated, get good grades, do well in school, and dream that they can make something of their lives. It's a message of personal responsibility - how can you disagree with that?

It's not about health care, it's not about auto or bank bailouts. (What kindergartener would want to listen to that anyway?)

Jim Greer, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party said "Taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." It's socialist ideology to inspire kids to do well in school?

Maybe some of the parents need to spend some time in schools during the day to understand that a message of personal responsibility is not a bad thing. According to Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, the dropout rate in the U.S. is 30 percent. Almost a third of children enrolled in schools don't complete 12th grade?

I am lucky to teach in a district that is at the high end of the spectrum - almost all students are college-bound, and the community is incredibly supportive of teachers, and students, and all of our efforts.

But I know that in some places, a message from the president, could go a long way in inspiring students. Would people be so upset about this is the speaker was say, a famous athlete? A movie star? Same message, but no "politics."

I am amazed at the firebrand politics surrounding this speech. The same people who just six or eight years ago were saying "If you speak out against the war or against President Bush, you're being unpatriotic" are now doing what they said not to do. Isn't it still unpatriotic? It's still the president, it's just a different guy from a different party. If it's unpatriotic for anyone to speak against the president, it's unpatriotic for everyone (I don't believe speaking against the President is unpatriotic, I believe it's our right under the First Amendment).

I guess the biggest disappointment for me, and this latest news crystallizes it, is the fact that civil dialogue in our country is so far from civilized. I know that I don't agree with everyone on everything. But I'd like to think that I can listen to the other side of the story, and then continue to dialogues about what is being discussed. We can agree to disagree, and we can still be friends. That doesn't seem the way it is these days - discussion is so polarized, and one side isn't willing to work with the other side.

Where are we heading?

In honor of surviving the first week of yearbook class...

2009-08-22T17:02:00.003-05:00

A little fun from YearbookYourself.com.

Now, it's time to go back, officially

2009-08-16T15:00:00.002-05:00

School's officially back in session tomorrow. I can already tell you that I won't be able to sleep tonight.

I'm starting my sixth year teaching, third at BV, and the butterflies will be fluttering like mad tonight and tomorrow morning. I feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished on these last few work days, so hopefully the butterflies can calm down a bit.

Most of the day Friday I worked in my room, filing and organizing and sending out items to be copied. Then, I took Friday night and Saturday completely off from school concerns.

Adam and I got to celebrate (?) the Death of Summer by spending Friday night at the Doubletree, along with dinner at the Bristol. We won gift certificates for those two things in a charity auction last year. Dinner was so good, and then we did a little shopping at Town Center Plaza before heading back to the hotel. Our room was on the 18th floor, so we had a great view of all the construction on the 435-69 freeway interchange...

Mitzi and I spent a little time in the pool yesterday afternoon. We got a little sunning in before the clouds rolled in and the rain started. I'm pretty sure I played a little Bejeweled yesterday, as well.

I did go to school today for about four hours. I've gotten my head wrapped around the next few days. Even though I don't like to do that on the weekends, I feel like it's going to make my life easier during school. We'll see if that holds true or not.

Next on tap: I'm going to watch an episode of Ruby, then head out for a run this afternoon. I haven't RUN in a long time. I've been doing lots of TV workouts with Jillian Michaels (the super duper hard core trainer from Biggest Loser) and walking a lot. Usually I shoot for 60 minutes of exercise time each day. I'm not sure why I've lost my running mojo. Hopefully it will return soon. Maybe the heat? Maybe I was bored with it? I don't know.

Does anyone have any new fun workouts they're doing that I should try? And don't say Pilates, because I can already tell you, I will not be doing that any time soon.

Digging out from the junk

2009-08-05T08:14:00.002-05:00

It's time to go back to school. Unofficially, at least, for now.

The first day back for teachers is actually a week from today, but I went back for a few hours on Monday, and then for a long day yesterday. I don't mind that I'm there having to do work, but I do mind that there's no air conditioning in my room!

Yuck.

I'm really trying to work on getting rid of stuff I don't use, and organize the paperwork I do have. I got a few new filing cabinets right when school got out, so I have more space for filing stuff, which has helped immensely. (Wow - aren't you excited, I'm finally blogging and I'm talking about filing paperwork! WOO HOO!)

I worked there by myself for a few hours, and then the yearbook editors came in to work on some of their stuff, and then the newspaper staff came in to work on the first day issue. It was nice to have the energy back in the room, and it gets me ready to start the year. We stayed until about 7 last night, since a lot of the kids are working during the day and then coming to school.

So, I think I'll putz around here for a while today, then go to school this afternoon. I'll try to get more excitement for you, blogosphere...

First swing through workshop land

2009-07-09T23:07:00.002-05:00

We got back from Dallas this afternoon, all tired out but jazzed up after attending the DCS Publications Workshop.

Nine of my students attended the workshop, and I taught the Photo Editors sequence to campers from other schools. My nine students were eight girls and one boy. That ratio is pretty much par for the course at yearbook camp - always about 10 girls for every boy (sing that to the Beach Boys tune...).

Thankfully, I have great kids for students, very hard workers who can be trusted to attend their sessions and not have attitudes for their instructors. That makes me happy, and makes my job so much easier.

June was the vacation month for me - a little marathon training, some gardening, work around the house, TV time, etc., and July is the worky-worky month. I'm home for two days, and Saturday morning I head to Florida for Jostens Adviser University.

I'm pretty excited for it - the instructors are the best in the business, and I'm actually getting to TAKE a class instead of teaching at the workshop, so I'm ready to soak up some new strategies.

Seattle PRIDE Parade - Sunday, June 28, 2009

2009-07-04T05:16:00.000-05:00

Race weekend was a biggie for the city of Seattle.
The marathon alone brought in 25,000 runners, not to mention their friends, family and supporters.
Shuttle drivers told us there were three or four cruise ships in port, adding even more people to the fray.
Then, Sunday, when we woke up and went out in search of breakfast, Mitzi and I found the staging area for the Seattle Pride Parade - right outside the front doors of our hotel.

It was a nice distraction for us as we walked along trying to loosen up our tired legs. After we had breakfast, I went back and got Adam, and he and I walked along the route for a while. The parade started 11, and when we were waiting for our airport shuttle at 1 p.m., it was still going strong!

Adam took a bunch of photos. I was playing with the flip camera, so no stills for me.

The floats and parade walkers were pretty amazing and intricate.

We thought maybe we found a girlfriend for Minnie...

It was cool to see all of the support for the gay community - there were TONS of people at the parade.

Teamwork makes the Dream work!

2009-07-02T21:43:00.004-05:00

Any of my co-workers who read that title will smile, since it's something we hear a lot at school. Even though it's a school thing, it's quite appropriate for Mitzi's and my latest hare-brained scheme.

We did it! We finished the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon last Saturday morning. We did it together - not only the 5 hours and 45 minutes it took us to run the race, but all the miles and miles of training and the ups and downs of raising more than $4,100 each.

Five months of Saturday mornings coming WAY too early, five months of sending e-mail after e-mail to all of our friends and family (thanks to all of you by the way!), five months of What Ifs? and How do wes? Five months of pounding the pavement in our trusty running shoes.

The above photo is deceiving because the light makes it look like it's in the middle of the day. That picture was taken about 4:30 in the morning when we got to the start line area. That's Mitzi on the left, along with other TNTers Jeanne, Melinda and Mary. You can see us all there with our various gear - water, Cytomax, PowerBars, sweatshirts, sweatpants, etc.

Mitzi and I woke up at 3:15 that morning, put on sunscreen, put on Body Glide (in hopes of heading off chub rub and blisters, at least in my case), put on sports bras, socks, singlets and shorts, and finally shoes, waist packs and hats. Each of us laid out everything we would need on Friday night, so we wouldn't have to look for anything on Saturday morning.

Even though we were far from home, in a different time zone, we tried to keep everything as routine as possible that morning.

It was anything but.

Up super early, bus to the starting line. We arrived there about 4:30. We brought bagels and peanut butter with us, so that we wouldn't have to start the race hungry. Usually we only have about an hour between eating and running, and this time it was much, much more because of the wave start.

Luckily, the coffee shop behind the girls in that photo had a $1 cup special, so we were able to have some coffee with the food, which is a BIG part of the morning routine.

We started in corral 25, so it took almost 50 minutes for us to cross the start line after the gun went off. If you look at our finish time, it looks like it took 6 hours, 28 minutes, but not really.

The first half of the course was nice - ran along the water, some nice downhills, saw a bald eagle perched low in a tree, lots of spectators.

The second half - not so much.

Adam took this photo of us as we passed him and our friend David around mile 15. It was somewhere near downtown Seattle. Here, we're still feeling mostly okay...

The second half of the course was much hillier than I expected, and most of it was running on elevated highways, so they wouldn't let the spectators up there. When the going got tough, it was tough to be up there. We had to dig deep to keep on moving. We told a few stories, played a few games, yelled "Go Team!" to all the other Team in Training runners. We took walk breaks (more than we typically would), since it was hilly and actually a little bit hot.

I know - it was like 110 in the shade in KC that weekend, and only about 75 in Seattle, but when running, it feels 20 degrees hotter, so it was a little warmer than we expected.

That's Mitzi as she crosses the finish line. Didn't Adam do a great job taking photos?

I still had some gas in the tank for the last quarter-mile or so, so I really kicked up my pace so I could finish strong. It made me feel great and proud to hear people saying "Go Jill, you're doing great!" but in all the photos after I crossed the line, my mouth is open since I am breathing so heavy!

I've now finished two marathons. I think if you'd have told my 18-year-old self that, she would say YOU'RE CRAZY - there's no way!

Thanks to Adam and Mitzi for being great travel companions and Mitzi for being an awesome training partner. I couldn't have done it without either of them.

I will put up another post later this week with travel-type photos of places we saw and things we did. I wanted this one to be mostly about the race itself.

Birthday Boy's Wishes

2009-07-01T05:27:00.005-05:00

When this little guy asks nicely, how can you say no to that face?

Mom and Dad said Malachi called and said "Aunt Susie, can I come over and swim?" Since Aunt Susie's the landlord (and she bought the pool) we can't say no...

Not that we would have, of course.

Julie got him all geared up in his matching Spiderman water wings, goggles, trunks and innertube, and he hopped right in. Sorta.

It took a few minutes of hemming and hawing around the ladder before he finally got in, but once we convinced him there weren't any sharks in the water, he dove in. He's pretty tough, considering we had all gotten out a few hours earlier because we were getting "cold."

I suppose when you've just turned four, getting to go swimming outweighs being cold.

Malachi did manage to find the few sunny spots left in the pool. After about 5 p.m., most of the pool is in the shade, so unless it's still 100 outside, it can get chilly.

Adam showed him how to blow water out the end of the pool noodles, and Malachi thought that was pretty funny.

I'm glad Malachi and Julie got to come over. We love to have visitors, and we missed his birthday pizza party on Sunday since we were still in Seattle.

Happy Birthday, little Dude!

How does your garden grow?

2009-06-30T21:55:00.003-05:00

So, if you follow me on Twitter, or if we're friends on Facebook, you've seen photos of our garden bounty recently. For tonight's dinner, we had peas, carrots, onions and zucchini straight out of the garden with our turkey dogs. It was YUMMY, even though as we were shelling the peas, Adam said "This is a lot of work."

Yeah, but it's worth it when you taste it.

This is what it looked like just after it was tilled in the early, early spring. Mom and Dad and Mom's friend Jeannie planted a bunch of stuff. Jeannie has been working it a lot, weeding and taking care of it.

This is what it looks like today. If anyone wants to remake the Stephen King horror classic "Children of the Corn" we've got the prime location for you.

Here's another view where you can see the corn, green beas, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. Tomatoes are in there somewhere, too. As you can see, all the rainy and cool weather we've had this summer has lent itself to a bountiful green garden.

This is what we used out of the garden for dinner tonight, except the jalapenos and green beans. Saving the jalapenos for a little homemade salsa (we hope) and I took the green beans over to dad. He said he'd been craving some of those.

We'll probably be making some zucchini bread soon...

•••

Thanks for hanging in and continuing to check the blog. I'm a little overextended in cyberspace, and the blog has definitely suffered. I would still like to use it to keep in contact and to generate a little Google Ad revenue, so hopefully I can get it back up and running...

Summer time, where did you go?

2009-06-14T09:29:00.003-05:00

Looks nice and warm in those photos, doesn't it? It WAS nice and warm on the days we set up and filled the pool, but since then, it's only been warm enough to get in it twice.

Twice!

Now, I can't be totally angry about this - the weather has been good for the garden (post and photos of that to come later this week), but we haven't done any lazing around in the sun and pool. Boo!

Hopefully, by the end of this week, I'll actually have photos of us IN the pool, instead of hanging out by the side of it.

Last night, we did eat dinner on the front porch, sitting on the swing. It was quite nice. I'm conflicted - usually I love hot summer weather, but being able to sit outside without breaking out in insta-sweat has been nice.

Memory Lane

2009-06-04T21:39:00.004-05:00

So Betsy posted this a long time ago, and Mitzi finally updated her blog with it, so I thought tonight it would be my turn.

The rules: Bold the things you’ve done, and post on your blog!

Update: post has been edited to add asterisks to the things I've done. After I posted, I checked the blog and couldn't tell the difference between the bolded and not bold things.

1. Started your own blog*
2. Slept under the stars*
3. Played in a band*
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower*
6. Given more than you can afford to charity*
7. Been to Disneyland*
8. Climbed a mountain*
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo*
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea*
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch*
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning*
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables*
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight*
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill*
24. Built a snow fort*
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping*
27. Run a marathon*
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse*
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset*
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise*
33. Seen Niagara Falls
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community*
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied*
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke*
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing*
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling*
52. Kissed in the rain*
53. Played in the mud*
54. Gone to a drive-in theater*
55. Been in a movie*
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies*
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason*
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check*
68. Flown in a helicopter*
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy*
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial*
71. Eaten caviar*
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square*
74. Toured the Everglades*
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle*
79. Seen the Grand Canyon
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car*
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper*
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House*
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox*
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous*
92. Joined a book club*
93. Lost a loved one*
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo*
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone*
99. Been stung by a bee*
100. Bought your own home*

I have done 50 of the things on the list, so I'd say that's a good start for a 32-year-old. Hopefully I'll get some frequent flyer miles saved up and knock out the traveling items I haven't done yet...

Lists like this have to strike me when the mood is right. Usually, I think they're silly, but it was fun to go through this one. It brought back tons of memories of my early time in Wichita - the meteor shower with Travis, Teresa and Andy, filming "Dancing on the Moon" with Rod and the crew, the awesome Eagle ladies book club, and Hubs and my honeymoon. Each of those would have been blog posts unto themselves had I had a blog back then.

I wonder who comes up with lists like this. If I were to make up my own list, what would I include? Maybe that will be a blog post for another day.

"Your school newspaper your first assignments toward success"

2009-06-02T16:31:00.002-05:00

Check out this educational video from the 1940s about what it takes to succeed in the newspaper business. It features newsboys, rewrite men, outside men, etc.

Oh, and women just aren't prepared for the rigors of reporting for the real news sections, so if you'd like to work in news, girls, start studying how to write for the society pages.

How far we've come.

Summer vacay offiially starts tomorrow, so what the hell!

2009-05-31T21:39:00.002-05:00

Look what one little trip to Wal-Mart can do for you:

Make you work your ass off. Mom decided to get an inflatable pool for the yard - improving and upgrading the rental property - so we set out to install it this afternoon while Adam was at work.

He missed out on all the fun.

As you can see above, Jayne had the easy job - supervisor/project manager.

Luckily, I had the airbed inflator, so we used it to inflate the upper ring. That made it go fairly fast. I can't imagine using a manual air pump (like a bicycle pump) to do it, which is what the introductory how-to DVD suggested.

The worst part was having to smooth out the bottom and try to get out as many wrinkles as possible. The box said READY FOR WATER IN 15 MINUTES. Heh. Maybe if you've done it a half-million times before.

By the time we were ready to stop and just watch it fill, two hours had passed. Those of you who have done this before - where did we go wrong?!

At least when I look at these two photos, I can see a definite difference in the "Before smoothing" and "After smoothing."

The water is still running. We'll be checking on it tonight, turning it off before bed, and starting up again tomorrow.

Hopefully the next post you'll see will have Jill relaxing on a floaty in the pool.

Memorial Day with the Fam 2009

2009-05-26T22:01:00.005-05:00

This post is mostly photos, and a lot of them speak for themselves. Most were taken by me, but obviously the ones I'm in were taken by somebody else...

This is the home my grandpa grew up in - it's in Altus, the town in Arkansas where they filmed the first season of the simple life. As you can see, the house has been vacant for so long, it's basically falling down around itself.

I didn't go on the drive to Altus. When we got back from the boat trip, I got a migraine, so I took some high-powered ibuprofen and took a three-hour nap. So, I think Carrie or Ann probably took the photo above.

The highlights of the trip for me were taking the boat out on the lake, and two nights spent playing dominoes with my cousins.

It was cloudy and a tad on the cool side on Sunday, but we decided to try the lake anyway.

Sara got to go tubing for the first time.

We did brave the cool waters. Once you got in the water, though, it wasn't so bad. Ann shot the above photo of us.

Malachi didn't seem to be a big fan of the lake. He got in, but got right back out.

Same thing with Kenzie. She got in, swam out to her mom, and swam back to the boat.

Even though he wasn't a big fan of swimming in the water, Malachi loved the boat ride.

Sara and her girls.

We picked up Matt from shore so Ann could drag him around the lake. He was quite the skilled tube-er. He was steering up and over the wake, and doing all kinds of cool stuff.

Even my dear old dad got in the lake. As you can see, he thought it was a little cold. I had stuck my foot in and said "It's not that bad!" just before I shot this photo of him getting in the water...

Dad even went tubing. I think he really enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure he's never done anything like that before, but I could be wrong...

That's me way back there on the tube. The water was a little cold when you first got in, but once in the water it wasn't so bad. Ann shot the photo of me. (Hey, zoom in next time!)

Other than being out in the boat, we hung out in the condo most of the weekend, since the weather was chilly and rainy. I think I'll definitely go back to Beaver Lake again. It wasn't really crowded, and the scenery was nice.

This was the view down the hill from our balcony.

Here's the little goober.

Saturday morning I went down to the shore with the kids so they could go "fishing." Mostly, they just played around in the mud and water, but the weather was really nice at that point, so it was okay hanging out down there.

I really like this photo of Kasie. If I was shooting this vacation for a photo assignment, I'd have edited a lot tighter (obviously) but I figured I'd show off as much of the fam as possible.

Chalk up one more reason to despise PCs

2009-05-25T21:24:00.003-05:00

The plan was to post a bunch of photos from the family vacay tonight, but when I attempted to burn a CD on mom's laptop so that I could put them on my laptop, all hell broke loose.

Thought the CD burned. Brought it home. It's unreadable by my Mac. PC people? Anybody? Help here?

I think I'll just take my jump drive over there tomorrow and copy them on to that - no burning required.

I won't post too much about the trip yet - the photos will make that better. We got back around 3:30 this afternoon. Adam and I helped Mom and Dad unload the RV, then we grabbed dinner at Ruby Tuesday's (Adam was craving salad, and they have the best salad bar). We were going to go to a movie, but decided to come home and watched "Close Encounters." Then, Mom called Adam's phone to inform us that I had left my purse and phone at their house, so I had to run over there to pick it up. Good thing they're only two minutes away by car...

I did come home to find one baby bird egg in one of the hanging plant baskets on the porch, so we'll have to keep an eye on that to see what happens. It rained on us all the way home from Arkansas, but none here, I guess. I really need it to rain, since SOMEBODY was "too busy" to water my plants while I was out of town.

•••

We have one half day with students tomorrow, and then again on Wednesday. I've got grading and work to do in the afternoons, hopefully all goes well.

Summer vacation - oh so close!

"That's why they pay me the big bucks"

2009-05-17T09:02:00.004-05:00

Every one of my publications students would probably recognize that quote. Each time one of them thanks me for helping them figure something out, that quote pops up. It's what I do.

I'm getting ready to steam and press my graduation gown, and head off to Kemper for our graduation ceremony at 1 p.m. I think this year's ceremony will be a tough one for me, even though it's only my second year at BV.

This newspaper staff was one of the best I've ever worked with - they got along so well, the editors led by example, they worked really well with the sophomores who hopefully will be on newspaper for two more years, and it was just FUN to work with them. I couldn't have asked for a better mix of personalities.

Last Wednesday night, we had our "banquet" at Winstead's. Just about the entire staff made it, and the ones who didn't were working. I think that's a real testament to how they felt about newspaper this year - it was a huge part of their lives.

Of course there are days when I don't want to go to school - everyone has days when they want to "call in sick." But spending fourth and fifth hour with these guys every day brightens those moods.

These kids are so thoughtful. Our managing editor, Emily, gave the editor in chief, Mitchell, a scrapbook of the year - a few photos, but mostly quotes from the "quote wall." It was a hilarious walk down memory lane. They chose to collect money to make a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for my efforts with Team in Training. I think that really says a lot about the kids I get to work with every day.

Hopefully I won't be a blubbering mess at graduation today.

The goal is in sight

2009-04-30T18:23:00.001-05:00

THANK YOU so much for your support along the Team in Training journey to this point.

My goal is to raise at least $4,100 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and I am SO CLOSE. According to my handy-dandy spreadsheet, I'm up to $3,900.

I could not have come this far without your help and support - whether it was a monetary donation, a thumbs-up to a Facebook post, or just asking "Hey, how's the training going?"

Knowing that there are that many people out there who are behind me is really pushing me to continue without becoming discouraged.

Each time someone asks how the training is going, it keeps me honest. It gets me out of bed at 5 a.m. to head to the gym. It keeps me running up those darn hills even at mile 16 or 17.

I've attached a photo of my training partner, Mitzi, and I. It was taken just after our long run last Saturday - 18 miles! We're still smiling, and it's because of you!

My efforts for Team in Training have become even more important just in the last few weeks. I will wear the name Lynsey Fitzgerald on the back of my racing singlet in memory of a 2008 Blue Valley High graduate who passed away three weeks ago after a years-long battle with Leukemia. Lynsey was known around BVHS for her love of students and teachers and her BV Tiger spirit. Her will to be at school even when she was in horrible pain is an inspiration to us all.

Again, I truly appreciate your willingness to support LLS research, programs and patients even in these economic times.

If you haven't donated yet, you still can. Visit my website: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnrseatl09/jchittum

I promise I haven't died

2009-04-20T21:47:00.002-05:00

I've just been really busy, that's all. And, now I've gone and gotten you all excited that there's actually a new post, and it won't really be that long.

I spent part of last week in Phoenix for the National High School Journalism Convention, and I have tons of cool photos to post from that, as well as a trip to Minneapolis the week before that. I will do it this week.

When I got home yesterday, I headed straight to Panera to do some grading with Betsy. For some reason, I get more done there than I do at home. Adam was working at the Home Depot (or, the Dee-POT, as I call it) when I got back in town, so Betsy and I passed the time until he got home.

Adam and I ate at the "sushi train" restaurant - not really called that but it's what we call it. Shawnee-ites will know it as Sakura at 75th and Nieman. We loved it last time we went, but this time it was too close to closing time. The same pieces of sushi that no one wanted kept coming around on the train. Lesson learned - go earlier in the day if you're going to be eating sushi off of a train that circles a bar.

Then, of course we had school today. Stayed til 5 to get some stuff done, and then I HAD to get a run in. Only did that once while in Phoenix, and we go 18 this weekend. Yikes.

Check back with me later this week for photos and more. Kickball practice Thursday and the season starts next week, so that oughta be some good blog fodder...

For now, bedtime!

Spreading the news

2009-03-29T09:48:00.002-05:00

Most of you have probably already seen this because you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, but here's the link to the web version of the Shawnee Dispatch story about my work for Team in Training.

You can read the story (and see the photo of Mitzi and I running) here.

This last week, I made it over the $3,000 mark! Can't believe it. Garage sale this weekend at our place - donate items that you don't want anymore, or come and shop!

Dave's got questions, I've got answers - El Guapo's season preview

2009-03-28T09:09:00.003-05:00

Reigning Kansas City Kickball champs El Guapo are making spring season preparations. Fans and players are confident going into spring's games, but some worry that the team's reputation as the dominators will put a target on their backs.

The chances for an El-Guapo tres-peat (or, three-peat for the uninitiated) have really inspired the league's lesser teams to bring out the big guns against the handsome juggernaut.

"We know they all want to beat us," Manager Mike said. "That just means we'll play our Mariachi music a little louder and wear our sombreros a little bigger. We're not afraid to use intimidation techniques."

Manager Dave worries that El Guapo's star closer, Jill Chittum, might not be able to live up to expectations set by her perfomance in last season's championship games.

"We worry a little bit about her mental toughness going into those clutch situations," Dave said. "We know she can do it, but she lets the nerves really get to her."

The team looks to capitalize on Catcher Travis's catlike reflexes from behind the plate to keep up the defensive performance.

"Defense wins when it comes to kickball," Dave said. "But, it's still pretty damn sweet to blast a three-run homer out to deep center field."

Other teams in the league have compared El Guapo to a junkyard dog.

"They might not be pretty, they're quite the ragtag bunch," one opponent said. "But they'll kick anybody's ass who tries to step on their turf. You gotta watch out for El Guapo."

Spring Break

2009-03-20T18:46:00.003-05:00

Wow, I really thought I would have written a few blog posts during break. Not working on school stuff, not on newspaper or yearbook deadlines, time to blog, right?

Well, not so much.

I've been doing lots of work around the house - general organizing and spring cleaning, cleaning up the yard (raked a lot today). Mitzi and I hit the Shawnee St. Pat's parade and the KC St. Pat's parade to sell beads for Team in Training. We did pretty well at both - sold all the beads she ordered, and didn't have to deal with drunk a$$holes, so that was nice.

Betsy came over Monday night and we shot some photos of stuff to put on eBay. I've got three items out there right now - hopefully they'll sell so I'll have some more donation money for Team in Training.

I got to have lunch with two out of town friends - Candice and her boyfriend on Monday, and Sharon on Wednesday. It's nice to a.) be able to see friends from out of town, and b.) get to go out to lunch!

Mitzi and I will be having a benefit garage sale on April 3 and 4, here at the homestead. If you're here in town, and you've done a little spring cleaning, we'd happily take your cast-offs off your hands! Consider it de-cluttering for a great cause...

I can't believe it's already Friday night of break. This week FLEW by. We didn't do anything special, just tons of little tasks and catching up on home stuff that gets sloughed off during school days.

Our group training is tomorrow morning at Longview Lake. Eight miles. Then, we've got our Silent Auction/Benefit Dinner at Red Robin on 95th and Metcalf. Hopefully tons of people can be there, and we'll get some good traffic. I'll be there a little early, handing out flyers to diners so we can get the 10 percent donation from Red Robin for their food bills.

I'm headed to Wichita tomorrow right after training - it's L's birthday party time again. The trip was supposed to be longer, but I couldn't get everything done before today. So, it'll be a quick down and backer.

I probably have no blog readers left since I'm not regularly updating, but if you're out there:

Ask me some questions. I need some writing prompts so I can get back in the blogging state of mind. You ask, I'll answer...

I service society by rocking.

2009-03-08T12:14:00.004-05:00

We rocked it like a trio of 16-year-old goof balls last night. Adam's allergies have him pretty much out of commission (can we just decide - hot or cold weather?), so he had dinner with us, but then took medicine and went to bed.

The girls came over, and we hit three Shawnee locations: McDonald's (needed the Red Box), Blockbuster (only for the candy) and Little Caesar's ($5 pepperoni pizza). So, basically, for about four hours of entertainment, we spent $6 (pizza and Red Box) - Betsy had a gift card to Blockbuster, so the candy was free for us.

The great thing about Red Box is that you can reserve your movie online. The crappy thing about Red Box is that once you've reserved your movie online, you will still get stuck behind some idiot who is browsing the box for 10 minutes.

FOLKS! Look online, then go pick up your chosen movie. Or, let the smart people go ahead of you.

I'm telling you what - I wish I would have invented Red Box - when I got to McD's there were four people waiting in front of me to get movies. It's obviously a decent business model.

We chose "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." I grabbed the movie, and we headed across the intersection to Blockbuster. Grabbed Twizzlers, Peanut Butter Whoppers, Sour Patch, and a six-pack of Diet Coke. Yes, I see the irony in that statement.

The 16-year-old jokester behind the counter was quite impressed with our purchases. Wonder what his internal monologue was concerning the "old ladies" who were buying nothing but candy and Diet Coke on Saturday night. I don't think I've been inside that Blockbuster in 15 years. I was like a flea market in there - tons of random junk for sale, and a whole table full of DVDs - marked four for $20. As Adam says, Blockbuster is so 20th century.

Then, we crossed the intersection one more time to pick up the pizza. I guess Shawnee Mission Parkway and Quivira is like the nexus of the universe - you can get movies, pizza and candy all within 100 yards of one another. Perfect for a Saturday night in.

Once we returned with the pizza, we finished watching "School of Rock" on TBS before we started "N and N." Yep, we own "School of Rock" on DVD, yet every time it's on TV, we drop everything and watch it - commercials notwithstanding.

I enjoyed Nick and Norah, though I'm glad we only spent $1 to see it. It's definitely the kind of movie that my friends and I would have seen over and over and over and over in high school. We would have wanted to be those kids, and have that night out on the town, with all that "cool" stuff happening.

Well, except for the drunk girl throwing up everywhere.

I'm pretty sure I would have had a huge crush on Michael Cera, too, at that age. It's just how we rolled back then.

I'm just not that into

2009-02-28T22:32:00.003-06:00

...movies where single female characters make conscious decisions to pursue, sleep with and break up the marriages of males in the film.

We saw "He's Just Not that Into You" tonight at Town Center. It was a good chick flick for a Saturday night of light entertainment, but not sure I would pay $10 again to see it. We rarely go to movies during prime time of the weekend, so the talking/moving around and general rudeness of the teen population was a bit disappointing.

They're so good during the day at school - why do some of them turn into jerks while out in public?

I thought the film itself was just interesting enough to keep my attention, but overall, the story and characters were a bit thin - they were more like general stereotypes than well-developed individuals.

•••

Mitzi and I ran all over town today, not with our feet (unfortunately) but in the car. The plan was to get up, head to the high school, run laps around the halls. The athletes do this all the time when the weather is bad.

We got there, and I had everything I need EXCEPT my running shoes. Kinda needed those to get a 10-mile run done.

So, we went back to Mitzi's got cleaned up, and headed out to drum up donations for the silent auction. People must have felt sorry for us, since we were out driving and trudging through the three inches of snow on the ground.

We got a bunch of gift cards to local bars, and for a spa day - it was a great day all around for fundraising. Hopefully the items will draw some bids at the auction.

We spent about four hours soliciting donations today, so I'm glad we had some success. It's really hard to do when you have doors slammed in your face.

If you're in the KC area - join us at Red Robin on Monday, March 23 from 5-10 p.m. They'll be items up for bid, and 10 percent of food and drink purchases will be donated to Team in Training - get a great meal for a great cause!

The bad news about today was that because I'm an idiot and forgot my shoes, we did not get the run in. We've switched our Sunday rest day and Saturday long run day. So, you can find me on the stinkin' treadmill at Gold's Gym for about two hours tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too crowded.

Why won't the weather cooperate?

2009-02-25T21:08:00.002-06:00

Last night, I ran 3.5 miles, and it was almost 7 p.m. when I was done. Today, when I left school, it was B E A utiful outside - sunny, no wind, car thermometer said 68 degrees.

This Saturday morning, the team is running 10 miles, and what's the weather forecast? SNOWY, windy, 30 degrees.

Seriously?

And, it's not just the I-don't-want-to-run-in-the-cold part that bothers me. I work in all day long in a classroom that's in the middle of our building, with no windows. I never know what the weather is like, or get to enjoy the nice days until after 5 p.m.!

Come on weather gods, give us some nice weather on the WEEKEND for a change.

Last Friday, some of my students and I traveled to Emporia State on the big yellow twinkie for their journalism regional contest. We had 13 students who qualified for state! So, those students will compete in May at KU. I'm so excited for them, and so happy that my students are so passionate and dedicated to what they do. All those wins makes our frozen bus ride worth it!

Seriously, when we trooped off the bus, most of us couldn't feel our feet - the heater wasn't working, and some of the windows wouldn't go all the way up and stay. Twenty degree temps and those bus factors makes for a bunch of student-cicles. I had brought along a book to read on the bus, but I gave up because I couldn't turn the pages wearing gloves, and I was so cold I didn't want to take my gloves off!

Just watched LOST - now it's time for bed. So, this one's short and sweet, but it IS an update...Who's watching LOST? What do you guys think? I can't decide what the hell is going on with Ben and Widmore. It's frustrating!

Adorable little French girl tells us a story...or, KITTENS, the French version

2009-02-18T20:13:00.000-06:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Lose it!

2009-02-17T19:47:00.002-06:00

While I was at Crop A Ganza a couple weeks ago, Kat told me about a new app she downloaded for her iPhone, called Lose It. It's a food and exercise tracker that you can use on the iPhone like a food journal.

I am not one to carry around a paper calendar, or notebook or journal with me everywhere I go, and that's one reason the iPhone is such a great tool for me. I always have my calendar and a way to make notes anywhere. So, I might actually get into this Lose It app.

Since I was sick last week, I didn't exercise AT ALL. Starting to feel a bit doughy around the edges. I've never been someone who has major weight issues - I'd just like for my clothes to not be tight...

And, since I'm training for a marathon, I'm not going to be cutting major calories any time soon - need some of that food for fuel.

But, I like Lose It because you can track what you eat and drink, and you can add whatever exercise you do, and it lets you know how many calories you consumed, and what you have left in your budget for the day. You set a goal weight/date, and it gives you options like "I want to lose a pound a week" or "1/2 pound a week" or "maintain" etc.

There are a lot of brand-name supermarket foods and restaurant foods that you can choose from, with calorie information already entered, or you can enter your own foods. Since Adam cooks at home a lot, I'm entering information based off the Nutrition Facts label, and the app stores the info, so I'll always have those to choose from in the future.

Now, obviously, it's at best, a guesstimate of caloric content, etc., but it's still pretty motivating to look and see how many calories you have left for the day, or the fact that running 3.5 miles means I've added 300 calories back IN to my budget. It does make me see how much of a difference exercise can make in your daily life.

I like that I can pick and choose from foods already entered, and that I'm not having to do this with pencil and paper. I've been using it for just about a week now. Check back with me in a few months to see if I've stuck with it!

And, no, no one from Lose It paid me to say anything about their app, I promise!

•••

I did managed to get a run in this afternoon. I was dreading it since I haven't worked out for a week, but it felt really good. Mitzi came over and we ran around the neighborhood together. So, I feel like I'm back to making progress on the marathon training front.

In fundraising news, I've raised almost $1,900 so far! Just got donations today from Terri Wenzel, Thane Chastain and the Barbieri family! We are planning a silent auction to raise money, so if you know of anyone who would be willing to donate items, pass their names along to me...

Back to Biggest Loser.

Spotted in the high school parking lot

2009-02-12T20:14:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I shot this photo, as you can probably tell, since there is snow on the ground.

But, I found it while I was looking through photos on my camera phone, and it made me laugh (again) so I thought I'd post it.

That sticky note hanging from the dashboard? It says "NO SPEEDING" and it's underlined about three times.

Somebody's mom cares about them! Or, somebody's mom cares about insurance rates not getting any higher...

This and that

2009-02-11T11:36:00.004-06:00

I'm home sick again today. Thankfully, it's not flu sick like all of my friends have been tweeting about lately. Just your garden variety run-of-the-mill head cold and cough. Sore throat, lack of voice, etc.

My mom's been couging for what seems like weeks now. Did I get this from her? I hope not, because I don't want to be coughing for weeks!!

I thought I would go to school today. I really planned on it. I even set my alarm for 5:15 like I do every week day.

At 5:16, I decided that wasn't happening. I've figured something out about my body - it will power through just about any stressful or busy time in my life, but as soon as that time is over, my body says: "Sweet! Now we can get sick, since we're done with all the important stuff."

This typically happens around yearbook deadline time, newspaper production nights, the end of a semester (which is GREAT because then I'm sick on my vacation time...). Please read the sarcasm into that last comment. We had a yearbook deadline last week, plus about a million pages of proofs that had to be sent back on Monday. I made it through that, then it hit.

Tomorrow is newspaper late night. If that wasn't the case, I might have TRIED to go to school today, but knowing it will be a 14-hour day tomorrow I erred on the side of not contaminating all of my students...

It's not easy to be away from school when you're a teacher. It's at least double the work. You have to make sure the sub has solid plans. It's not like other jobs where when you're gone, you're just gone, and maybe some shuffling has to happen, but really, everything will be okay.

Considering I slept until almost 11 this morning, I'm guessing my body was saying "Do not pass Go. Stop, and get some rest." Hopefully that means I'll feel better soon. I don't want to be sick in the middle of training for a marathon.

Last night, before bed, I finished "Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" by Laurie Perry. A great book, and super-fast read. I highly recommend you check it out sometime.

The Books page

2009-02-03T21:53:00.003-06:00

I've been reading a lot more lately than I usually do during school. I got started right before Christmas break when Adam brought home a book from the library for me. Since he was being so thoughtful, I figured I better make the time and effort to read it, especially since it was vacation time.

So, I read "In the Land of No Right Angles."
Then, I read "Friday Night Knitting Club: Knit Two."

I was excited about FNKC, because I had really liked the first one. Granted, we were still living in the pink house in Wichita when I read it, so I probably don't remember it that well. But, it was given to me by a wonderful former student, and I truly enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the second one didn't live up to my opinion of the first. I feel like it was a little bit forced. Things just seemed to work out so magically and easily, and the language felt a little stilted to me. It's too bad, since I was looking forward to reading it, and it was given to me by my good friend Kat. (It's like I feel guilty if I don't like a book someone has taken time to choose for me. But it's not their faults - they didn't write the books!)

Then, I started to read "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon. Again, I had really enjoyed his earlier book, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time."

But I couldn't get past page 13 of this one. It was like pulling teeth. I don't usually give up on books. It feels like losing.

So, now I've moved on to "Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" by Laurie Perry. She's one of the bloggers I check regularly over at Crazy Aunt Purl, so I'm thinking I'll enjoy her book, even though I'm only ONE of the things she mentions in the title.

PLEASE GOD, I HOPE EVERYONE CHOSE "Covered in Cat Hair" as the one I am. 'Cause that's the one that fits.

Started it last night at bedtime, and I can already tell it's probably going to keep me up later than I should be staying up.

In fact, I need to get off this darn computer and get ready for bed so I can read a little bit.

•••

TNT Update: Went to the official Kick-Off tonight. You should have seen our team - there's a ton of people on it! I've been psyched since I decided to do this again, but the Kick-Off made it even more clear what I'm about to undertake again. To see so many people with such a passion for doing good and helping others is pretty damn cool.

I'll have to run six miles on the treadmill this weekend at the Park City Best Western since I'll be at Crop A Ganza. I think Mitzi is a little upset that she has to do the first group training on her own. I'll be sad that I'm missing the group run, but happy to be a CAG.

Don't forget to donate here.

The most productive Sunday in a long time

2009-02-01T20:54:00.003-06:00

Man, we did a lot today. Nothing huge (except lunch with Denise, Jaime, Lexi and Denise's sister Annie), but lots of little stuff.

I started the day making French toast for breakfast. It's sort of my weekend morning thing. If I'm not getting up early to go run, and I have some time, I'll make French toast if we have eggs. Today's bread wasn't stale yet, though, so it wasn't my greatest FT effort.

After breakfast, Adam and I speed-cleaned the house. I knew that Jaime and Denise would want to see the place and all the work we've done, so we picked up and vacuumed and all that good stuff. We're definitely keeping a little bit cleaner house these days, because I feel like it took less time to do the somebody's-coming-over-hurry-up-and-clean bit.

I love having the house clean, but I hate housework. So, we're not really great at it, unless we have to be. Especially during the school year. The last thing I want to do after school or on weekends is clean!

I mean, sheesh.

We had a great visit with the Wichita crew. It's been way too long since I've seen them.

After lunch, I headed over to Mom's, dropped off the rent, then went and paid the insurance bill, then went to the car wash. My car actually looks like a black car again, not some weird dusty, salty grey color any more! And, I didn't even have to wait in line.

We've been (and still are) watching the Super Bowl. While all of that has been going on, I got my snail mail letter written for Team in Training. The letter is written, the donor form ready, the envelopes addressed. I did have to make an Office Depot run for toner. Nice that my printer was free, but I paid almost $40 for toner cartridges today. Boo. Good news, though, is that I'm up to $295 in donations. If you look at my website you can't really tell that yet, since a couple of the donations were cash ones, but they'll be on there soon. Don't be left out - donate today! (A little public service announcement...)

Hopefully, I can stop tomorrow after school and get copies made, so that we can have the letters ready to send out by Tuesday or Wednesday. Last night, via Twitter, I asked Ashton Kutcher to donate to the cause. Wonder if he will. He and Demi are busy being celebs at the Super Bowl this weekend, so I might have to retweet that some other time...What's the worst that could happen? I don't get a donation from him. Figured it was worth a shot!

After the letter extravaganza, I went through six month worth of photos on my laptop, to pick out new ones I want for Crop A Ganza. I'll upload those tomorrow so I can pick them up Wednedsay on my way home from work. I love being able to upload digital photos to the photo center - so freakin' convenient.

I even knit a few rows on a pair of socks I'm working on for Adam. Can't work on the sweater while watching football. I'm working on the sleeves right now, and there's too much counting and keeping track of stuff involved.

Whoop - time out - Steelers just won.

I'm only at school four days this week. Taking a personal day Friday so I can get to Wichita early for Crop A Ganza. Looking forward to it!

After all this post-game junk is over, I'm watching "The Office" then I'm off to bed. It's a school night after all.

Viva la Taco Via

2009-01-29T19:22:00.003-06:00

Don't worry, those of you who check out The View Across Town. I did mean to post this photo here today, even though I put it over there yesterday.

Betsy was kind enough to babysit me for a couple of hours last night between my school gigs. I live just far enough from school that I would have had about 10 minutes to sit down had I driven home after school and then returned for the 8th Grade Activities Fair. Betsy is a little closer, so we hung out for a while.

We couldn't decide what to do for dinner. We almost went to Chipotle. But then I thought - "Hey, we've been talking about Taco Via for a few weeks, let's go there." She lives pretty close.

We didn't get to go to Taco Via THAT much when I was a kid because it's over at 95th and Antioch, but I have vivid memories of eating there - the old-school menu boards, taco sauce in little cups, out of ketchup-ish dispensers, the logo that you see up there on the styrofoam cup. I remember going there with Mom sometimes - probably after shopping trips to Metcalf South or movies at the Glenwood (the real, cool Glenwood).

I'm glad at least the Taco Via hasn't changed. Can't say that for the other two.

Name, rank and serial number

2009-01-27T18:54:00.005-06:00

Today the yearbook staff and I spent all day in the PAC (Performing Arts Center for the uninitiated) for group photos.

Instead of trying to cram all of the groups into 20-minute time periods on three different days, we scheduled the whole thing for one day, with 10-minute intervals in between. All of you who've attended your average, every day, run of the mill, All-American high schools probably remember this day.

It's the day that some of you loved because you were involved in every club on campus. So, you were in every photo during the day.

It's the day that some of you loved because you weren't involved in anything on campus (including your classes) so you were in every photo. You were that guy who randomly shows up to every group and writes "Hugh Jass" as your name. And yes, I am now that mean old witch of a teacher who calls you on it and tells you to get your Hugh Jass out of the photo.

It's the day that the yearbook staff loves because they get to miss all of their classes to help out, rounding up groups, names and generally keeping the peace.

It's the day that keeps me up at night, worrying that something, some tiny little thing, would go wrong. I didn't look at the clock last night, but I'm estimating that I lay awake for about two hours, trying desperately to quiet the mind and fall asleep. When I finally got up and checked the clock, it was 5:15. Fifteen minutes before my alarm was set.

I'm pretty sure that fifteen minutes was the only sleep I remember getting. Yes - I got up, checked the clock, and chose to go back to bed, instead of just getting up. When will I learn?

All that sleeplessness, and truly, the day went off without a hitch for the most part. The students were (mostly) cooperative. The students (mostly) followed simple directions. I did notice that I didn't have to use my "outside" voice as much during this photo day as I typically did at DHS. There, I used to have to use the microphone to get people's attention. Here, it wasn't that tough.

Probably the biggest snafu of the day was that the company photographer showed up about 30 minutes late. We shot the photos he missed using one of our cameras, and then got caught up fairly quickly once he made it.

Interestingly, in my brief teaching career, that's the second group picture day (out of five) that the photog has been late to. I think we're going to start telling them to be there an hour early, instead of 20 minutes.

The newspaper was scheduled to go to press at 5 this afternoon as well. Luckily, I have a wonderful newspaper staff that I can trust, and they were able to accomplish that goal with very little help from me. I can't decide if subs love or hate my room - the kids are in charge. It's really an easy gig for a substitute, but the kids say that a lot of times, the subs feel like they need to be "doing something."

It was a big day, gone off without a hitch. With a little help from two good pub staffs, a nice and businesslike photographer (except for that little tardy thing), four boxes of pizza and a box of Krispy Kremes, and a very helpful assistant principal, I can count this among the more successful group photo days I've experienced.

Now, about that yearbook deadline next week...

Got a new DVR just in time but...

2009-01-25T17:16:00.003-06:00

I still don't think it will help us Monday night. Used to, we could record "Chuck" on NBC, while simultaneously watching "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS. When you've got a DVR that can record one channel and still show another, no problem on a night like that.

Well, tomorrow night, when one of my favorite TV shows returns five months early, we'll be in serious TV crisis mode at the Chittum's.

TNT is bringing back "The Closer" starting tomorrow. Usually, it's the show that keeps me from getting bored over the summer, but for some reason, new episodes start this week. In addition, TNT is debuting a new show, with Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack, right after "The Closer." Looks like we'll be taping in the living room, and watching TV in the back bedroom so we can get to all three...I know, I know, it could be a lot worse. We could have REAL problems to worry about.

I really hope "Trust Me" is good, and makes it. I have loved Tom Cavanagh since he was on "Ed" and stuck with him for the wonderful but woefully short-lived "Love Monkey" on CBS. I wish I could find season DVDs of "Ed."

Last night at Betsy's might have been foreshadowing of this impending TV bonanza. Adam and I grabbed a bite at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (really stinkin' good if you haven't tried it yet), and headed to Betsy's to help her clear off her DVR. It was 90 percent full when we started watching. They were shows that we don't typically watch - "Psych" "Top Chef" and "CSI." All were great, but as you can see, I think I'd have to quit my job if we became devoted to any more shows!

That's no good.

Team in Training Round 2 Begins - Update and flash back

2009-01-22T21:12:00.004-06:00

As I drove home from school tonight, I was chomping at the bit to get out and run since the thermometer in my car read 64. Sixty-four! Can you believe that?

After the last few weeks of single-digit temps, 64 was heavenly for a run. It was so nice to be able to get out and run without layering, stocking caps and all that junk.

I have officially launched my fundraising website for Team In Training. I hope to raise $4,100 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society before the race in June. Mitzi and I attended one of the first informational meetings last weekend, and the kickoff is in early February.

Every one of us knows someone affected by cancer, and any strides forward in research for Leukemia and its related diseases will hopefully someday help all who are dealing with cancer. Just in the last few years, my friends and family have dealt with cancer of varying types.

The mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families. Every five minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Every 10 minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer. LLS helps fund research, programs for patients and their families, and testing potential bone marrow donors.

My first marathon experience with Team in Training was life-changing. To see the enthusiasm, passion and devotion the TNT group has for the cause is inspiring. Training for and running the marathon is the least I can do to help patients and their families.

Every mile of every training run I was carrying the mental support of everyone who helped me on my journey. All of you who donated, all of you who took the time to say "Hey - how's that going?", all of you who sent your prayers - I couldn't have done it without you.

I'm asking for your help again. Please visit my fundraising page. You can donate online. I'll be updating both my TNT page as well as the blog with training updates and fundraising news.

When I returned from San Diego in 2006, I shared with all who supported my journey. Here is the letter from the end of the road:

HI EVERYONE!

I just wanted to send you a note to let you know that yes, I actually finally ran the San Diego Rock N Roll marathon on Sunday, June 4.

To answer the two most-asked questions right away:
1. Did you win? NO - I'm not from Kenya.
2. How long was it? 26.2 miles.

I finished with a time of 5 hours, 10 minutes, which was just about right on my estimate of the 5 hour range. The weather was perfect - overcast and about 65 degrees for the first 4.5 hours, and sunny for the last little bit.

Looking back, I think the marathon was the easy part. The training and fundraising for LLS was the tough part. Thank you to all of you for your mental and financial support throughout this process. They say you hit the wall when running a marathon, when you feel like you just can't go on. I never felt that. I had the support of all of you, and about 10,000 Team in Training spectators along the course. (My singlet had my name across the front, so people I didn't even know were cheering me on. It was like being a celebrity.)

At mile 22, as I passed zoo 2, a U2 cover band, playing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" I had my marathon moment. At that point, I KNEW I was going to finish that race. Dehydration set in as tears began streaming down my face. ;) It is one of my favorite songs, and about 100 yards past their stage, I finally spotted Adam there waiting for me. Later I asked if he saw me coming, and he said, "No, all I saw was this crazy girl running toward me crying." He thought for a moment that I was in pain. Nope, just overwhelmed. He ran with me for about a mile, then dropped off to meet me at the finish.

Again, as I crossed the finish line, I lost it. Some of you that are receiving this email have run a marathon before so you know that feeling. I think the tears and hyperventilation as I crossed were a mixture of elation, relief, exhaustion, pride, and love for all of the people along the way who told me I could do this. Hopefully, in my finish line photo, it looks mostly like a smile, but I'll probably look like a blubbering idiot!

With my TNT friend, Diana, I finished this race, walking only through the water stops. If you would have asked me six months ago if I would ever run 26 miles at a time, I would have said "Are you freakin' crazy?" But now I've done it, AND sat in a bathtub full of ice water for 15 minutes - that just might have been the worst part!

Thanks again for all of your support, and especially to those of you who have helped me raise $3,700 to help fight blood and bone cancers. With this race, the Kansas Chapter of TNT has now raised more than $1 million.

Have an awesome day, okay?!

> Love,
> Jill

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support.

If you have any great fundraising ideas, let me know!

A somewhat productive vacation day

2009-01-19T20:35:00.002-06:00

Looking back on today, it doesn't seem like I got that much done, but considering I sorted through an entire year of receipts and paperwork for taxes, I guess I accomplished something. Luckily, I had kept most of that stuff in one place, so I just had to go through and sort into piles.

Pretty sure it still took me almost two hours to get it done, though that time did include paying bills and sorting some other mail and paperwork.

Did a bunch of laundry (that's easy - it does itself while you do other things!), and knitted on the sweater for about two hours, too.

Spent some quality time with trainer Bob (a 25-minute cardiomax workout) and 30 minutes of Wii Fit. Mitzi and I have signed up for the Seattle Marathon with Team in Training, so I can't be sloughing off on the exercise when the going gets tough. Having the goal of the race day in mind really helps me focus and commit to training, rather than just doing it to stay in shape.

Hopefully in about two days, I'll have my Team in Training fundraising website up and running, and I'll put a link here. If you're not familiar with Team in Training, it's one of the biggest fundraisers for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. When I ran the San Diego marathon in 2006, I did that with Team in Training Kansas Chapter in Wichita. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The training is tough, the fundraising is scary, but it's a huge motivator to do it for such a good cause.

My fundraising goal for Seattle is $4,100. It'll be a challenge to raise $500 more than I did for the last race. In the next few days, watch for the donate link so you can be a part of it.

•••

Must go get ready for bed. I'd like to read for a bit before I fall asleep. Still working on "Friday Night Knitting Club: Knit Two." I hear the Wichita book club is reading "Revolutionary Road" and it sounds like it must be a good one - everyone's tweeting about it. Might have to add it to my list.

Tomorrow is newspaper late night. Somehow, I've got to fit in a 3.5 mile run. Guess I'll try to do it down in the fitness center before I come home from school.

Onward and upward.

Reunited...and it feels so good

2009-01-18T21:07:00.002-06:00

Kickball team extraordinaire El Guapo got together last night for our end of season kickball team party. It was REALLY the end of season party, since the season ended, um, back in October.

Most weeks when we played, it was freezing-ass cold outside, so we were layered up like Randy in "A Christmas Story."

Why does this matter at this juncture?

Because when we got to the party last night, I hardly recognized anyone. No one was wearing stocking caps, sweats, gloves, and four coats. People look really different when their heads aren't covered, you know?

It's almost like we're Kickball Superheroes. Mild-mannered young professionals who sometimes enjoy playing Rock Band by day, but come Thursday nights, we jump into the phone booth and miraculously change into uniforms for kicking some kickball butt.

I enjoyed some really good homebrew, and Adam and I both got to eat smoked ribs and brisket.

And, as with any party of twenty- and thirty-somethings in 2009, after dinner, the Rock Band was fired up. Seriously, what did we do with ourselves before that game was invented?

You better recognize

2009-01-12T21:41:00.002-06:00

Tonight we went to the girls basketball game at school. At halftime, the boys team members honored a teacher of their choosing. One of the newspaper photographers, Tom, chose me. It was very thoughtful, and fun to be there with the team and the other teachers. I can't remember exactly what was said about me because it's a little nerve-wracking being in front of people, but I do remember that it started with "She always pushes me to be my best" and that my classroom is a fun environment where everyone gets along and he enjoys being on newspaper. I wish I could have a copy of what he wrote. I should have had Betsy or Mitzi or Adam take notes! (But, they all did take photos. I had my own paparazzi going on.)

Above is one of the photos that Adam took. It's pretty funny, I think. I look TINY next to Tom (he's standing to my right). I don't think of myself as particularly short, but when you stand me up next to the tallest boy on the basketball team, I look damn short.

The game was a nice way to end a Monday night. Hopefully it will inspire me to do my best the rest of the week.

Side Project - The View Across Town

2009-01-11T17:38:00.003-06:00

Some of you might have already found "The View Across Town" since it's been hanging out in my blogroll for a few days now.

Back in December, Betsy said "I have an idea for us. A new blog project."

I said, "Okay." I'm pretty much up for anything.

She had seen a blog called 3191: A Year of Mornings, done by two friends who live across the country from each other. Each day, each friend posted an image. It's interesting to look at the blog, some days the images are eerily similar, even though they're posted from far-flung friends. It's also a similar concept to Jaime's blog, 366 images, except Jaime's doing that all on her own.

Betsy and I just live across town from each other, and she's interested in working on honing her photography skills and getting more creative with photos. I also am looking forward to this project because it will force me to shoot photos every day. It will be tough, since I spend my working hours with students whose faces I'm not allowed to post to God and everybody on the innernets. (Silly privacy laws...) But, it has been fun so far.

Sometimes, the photos come from events (like Adam and Jayne's birthday dinner), or shopping trips with friends, but I'm guessing most of my photos will be from the daily minutia. Like the thing that jump starts me each morning, or things around the homestead.

This will be a good exercise for me. Even when I was making my living as a photographer, my strength wasn't in making quiet little photos. I have always been much more able to capture moments of people DOING things. This project will be something different. I can already tell it will be frustrating on some days. All of my photos will be taken with my Canon Digital Elph, or my iPhone. Sometimes I see something that would make a great photo, if only I had a telephoto lens, or the ability to keep the shutter open for much longer than either of those cameras will allow.

But, I must live as I teach. That camera is just a box that lets light in. Don't get all worked up because you're not carrying the same equipment as the guy next to you. (We have to repeat this over and over at summer photo workshops when kids say "But how can I ever make good photos with THIS?)

I hope that you'll add The View Across Town to your blog roll, and check us out each day. As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged. We like to know that someone out there somewhere is interested in all this stuff we put on the web.

Thanks to Betsy for wanting to do this, and to Jaime for being my inspiration for the project.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away"

2009-01-06T06:29:00.001-06:00

From the Onion News Network

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Back to school, back to school

2009-01-05T06:00:00.003-06:00

I know that waking up this morning and heading to school is not the most exciting time for me. It IS hard to go back after such a nice break.

That said, I'm looking forward to seeing the kiddoes and hearing what all they did on their nice long break.

It's going to be a hard week this week, because I have two new classes (classes that change at semester) AND we have a pretty big yearbook deadline.

We'll meet the deadline. We'll meet the deadline.

We won't be stressed. We won't be stressed.

The new kids will be great. The classes will run just fine.

Repeat after me.

I received a few nice notes from students on the last day of first semester. I'm guessing they had to write them as part of their final in another class, but they are still pretty cool, and it's nice to be appreciated!

It sounds cliché but that really is why we do it. I think of all the life skills these kids learn from their teachers and the school environment, and it is a huge deal. In yearbook and newspaper alone, they are learning so much about what they'll be doing in any work environment as they get older.

Here's to a great spring semester!

Will this sweater win me $1,000?

2009-01-03T06:46:00.000-06:00

I don't know, but I'm going to find out. (I hope.)

I bought some yarn the day after Christmas for $1.99 a skein. It just so happens it is Vanna's Choice yarn. Yep, you heard that right - the queen of spokesmodels (or letter turners) has her own line of Lion Brand yarn.

Lion and Michael's are co-sponsoring a contest for anything knit with Vanna's Choice yarn. The deadline is Feb. 1, so I better get knitting. I was going to knit the sweater for Adam anyway, so this just gives me a deadline date to shoot for.

In that photo, you're looking at the back. The front has a single cable that runs vertically from the bottom ribbing up to the crewneck. It's not the most exciting pattern, but I had chosen it and begun to work it up, when Mitzi sent me a link about the contest. I figured that you probably had to have your own original pattern, but the rules state that you can submit something from a pattern book, which is what I'm doing. Entries will be judged on creativity and workmanship, and there are 32 prizes.

We'll see what happens.

Here's a photo of my finished duct tape bag from the other night. It makes a great tote for lots of things. I used it to take my knitting project to Betsy's yesterday. The only change I'd make is to use stronger staples next time. I'll have to put them on the shopping list.

Visit to Salt Lake City - Guest Blogger Adam

2009-01-02T06:52:00.000-06:00

I'm not much of a "blogger" but here it goes. Here are some pictures from my trip to Utah. They are pretty self-explanatory, but if you really need a commentary, I guess I can take a few minutes out of my busy schedule to explain each picture.

Here are the three Chittum "Men." I use that term loosely as there is really only one man here.

While we didn't get to go skiing, we did tempt fate by hiking at approximately 6000ft during an avalanche warning.

I thought I was in good shape, but I fell behind Joshua almost from the start, struggling just to put one foot in front of another. It was brutal but definitely worth it.

The Ochre Mountain range, as seen from my parents' apartment. They claim the mountains are about 30 miles away. The Wasatch Mountains are about a mile directly behind me.

Is it wrong that this is one of my Dad's favourite beers? Only in Utah!

Amazing! A city about the same size as Kansas City that has a light rail system that people actually use!

Yes, we were able to go to the Jazz game.

Yes, the seats were really close.

Yes, we had a good time.

No, we didn't get Carlos Boozer's autograph.

Here we have a bar built into a trolley car. It only has like 4 stools in there so you and your friends have to go in shifts to drink.

Joshua is neither 37-54" tall nor "toilet trained." He was unable to play...

Mom and Dad are very proud of their daughter-in-law, who makes up for their son. They are showing off the gifts she made for them.

This is my attempt at "real" photography, during our Christmas Eve candle-light service.

Less we forget about the Mormons and how they pretty much control everything that goes on in Utah, we did find at least one person willing to stand up for what is right. Joshua is the one in the blue jacket and sunglasses.

So visit to Salt Lake City was all that I'd hoped it would be and more. I'm really glad that I got to see my Mom and Dad. -Guest blogger Adam

You will be traveling and coming into a fortune

2009-01-01T22:21:00.002-06:00

Well, I will be, according to my Chinese food fortune tonight. Let's hope that speaks the truth for what will be happening in 2009 for me, and for you.

The year 2008 was a great one for us - a great "new" house, continuing to have good jobs in the sketchy economy, incredible friends, half marathon, lots of knitting, and family and friendily time.

Before bed tonight, I'll tack that fortune to my vision board, and see if "The Secret" can make it come true for me this year. Maybe I'll earn a fortune from Google Ads? Who knows.

Here's to another year of blogging, tweeting, living, knitting, crafting, laughing and loving.

Happy New Year to all - hope it's a wonderful one!

Previously Unreleased - 2008 Photos

2008-12-31T10:52:00.008-06:00

These photos are a selection of my iPhoto library since the Great Laptop Crash of August 2008. I wasn't as religious with the blogging as I wanted to be, so a lot of these photos should have shown up throughout the year, but didn't.

Our aluminum tree.

Thanksgiving Break. (Adam pretty much does this every weekend morning, though.)

Sushi lunch in St. Louis

St. Mary's Mountain and Church, Altus, Ark. Thanksgiving Day

Helping out the neighborhood squirrel population

Adam and I breaking in Rock Band at Mom and Dad's

Adam playing the drums later that night at our house
(for some reason, I love the look on his face)

Waterfire on the Plaza.

Checking progress on a knit in the van on the way to Arkansas.

Kyle modeling (?) his new hat knitted by his mama

The line when we went to vote after school one day

My Thanksgiving dinner at St. Mary's

Kasie wins a pooping reindeer during Christmas bingo

Visit from L means a trip to the park

Jayne was all smiles, hopped up on pain meds after surgery

Why do cats always pick the clean laundry?

How'd you get up there?

Emma's lion

First big snow of the season

Friday night at Blanc Burger

The "other" cat in our lives, Betty

This is what happens when you play too much Rock Band

I love the look on Lauryn's face in this photo

Can't go wrong with a tiny shopping cart.

This post might serve as a bit of a preview for a project Betsy had an idea for. We're working to get it off the ground. I'll keep you posted on that.

All of these photos were taken either with the iPhone, or my Canon Digital Elph. Looks like the blog might be more interesting if I posted these THROUGHOUT the year, eh?

Happy New Year's Eve, everybody! Have fun and be safe.

See you in 2009.

You can fix (or make) anything out of Duct Tape

2008-12-31T00:56:00.004-06:00

The crafty shenanigans were in full force tonight at Casa de Chittum. Last week on "Today" a crafty author, Jodi Kahn, demonstrated making tote bags out of T-shirts and duct tape, using staples to hold it all together. She's shilling a new book, "Simply Sublime No Sew Bags."

I DVRed it, thinking this was definitely a project right up our alley.

Each of the girls picked out a shirt to use, I picked up a new rotary cutter and mat from JoAnn's, Mitzi picked up the duct tape and brought the stapler. We watched the video a couple more times, and Amy LM came over to give us some moral support and tell funny stories.

You have to cut the sleeves off of the shirts, then turn them inside out and line them with the duct tape. It's easier than it sounds, but it does take a little time.

I guess if you got fed up with the project at this point, you'd have a nice, easily cleanable paint smock - just wipe and go!

I chose a red River Run T-shirt, and luckily Mitz had picked up some red tape, and it was exactly the right shade. Then, we worked on a pink shirt for Bets and a cool environmentally messaged T for Mitzi.

Amy shot that photo of Betsy and Mitzi demonstrating how this purse project is something twins joined at the head might be able to participate in.

Once you get the inside lined with tape, you have to "seam" the bottom of it with a line of staples, then reinforce the seam with a line of tape.

Shape the armholes and neckhole the way you want it (makes the straps for the bag) and then turn it inside out. Your cool T-shirt will be on the outside.

Obviously, I've taken out a few steps along the way, but you mostly get the idea. If you're interested in making your own bags, let me know and I'll dig up the link with the how-to video.

Mitzi models her finished product.

Betsy models hers. Realized after they'd gone home that I didn't have a photo of mine all finished. I'll add it tomorrow.

Joshua decided he wanted to get in on the act, so we whipped him up a duct tape wallet. Of course, found the instructions for that on the internet.

This was before we decided that the measurements online were a little GIANT for a normal wallet. We did a little trimming and creative crafting to come up with a finished product.

That's his retired wallet on the right, and our product on the left.

My biggest piece of advice if you're interested in undertaking a project like this: figure out when the tape will be on sale, then buy a bunch of it. The rolls of tape were about $7 apiece, and it took just about an entire roll of the colored tape to do one shirt. They make the tape in just about any color nowadays, but the colored rolls seemed to be smaller than the traditional silver duct tape.

I've got a great tie-dye shirt I'd like to make a yellow-tape bag with. Let me know if you hear the colored rolls go on sale!

These bags would make really cool knitting project bags. I plan to load mine up tomorrow and shoot some photos of it so you can check it out.

Battery Buzzkill

2008-12-30T09:05:00.005-06:00

As we were breaking in the new Rock Band for Wii game the other night, I discovered something about new(er) toys.

In the good old days, batteries could be easily changed by manipulating the little clip that held the battery cover. (See the remote, below, for example).

Two different games I got for Christmas this year, however, require a screwdriver to remove the battery cover.

A screwdriver!

You're already annoyed because you've got to root around for batteries (I think I removed batteries from everything in the house), and THEN, you've got to find a freakin' tiny screwdriver as well.

Is the toymaker's best friend the tiny screwdriver maker? Up there is the Catchphrase timer. You can see the battery cover at the top.

And that's the guitar for Rock Band. What happens when the little screw gets stripped? I know this will happen eventually - it happens to all screws. Then, are we faced with duct tape on all of our toys?

Parents and Santa - remember this next year. When you pick up those "Batteries Not Included" toys, and you're good enough to remember the batteries, you might want to wrap up a tiny screwdriver as well.

P.S. Anybody out there who has Rock Band - gentle reminder to turn off the guitar when you're done playing, so you don't run the batteries down.

Windy wack

2008-12-27T09:35:00.003-06:00

I had planned to write a blog post about how I have pretty much done absolutely nothing the last few days except hang out with the family, eat Christmas goodness, and do a little shopping. So much nothing that I slept over at my parents' house the last two nights. We stay up late, and then I don't feel like going home to a cold, empty house. Adam is still visiting his family in Salt Lake.

Last night, though, Mitzi and I decided we needed to get out and about, so we went to see "Doubt" with my aunt. Great movie. I love both Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and they were incredibly intense in the movie.

After we dropped off Alice, Mitzi stayed over for a bit. We knitted, watched "What Not To Wear" and "The Dog Whisperer." She went home around midnight, and I went to bed.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of the wind outside. WIND. What the hell? I'm a very heavy sleeper. It takes giant thunder claps and lightning to wake me up. Last night, though, the wind did it.

I got up, peeked out the window, went to the bathroom, and crawled back in bed. In my half-asleep/half-awake state, I reasoned that it must not be a tornado, because I didn't hear sirens. I think I did contemplate for a split second going into the bathtub just in case...but only for a second. (I was half asleep and groggy!)

When we got home from the movie last night at 10, the car thermometer read 65 degrees. It was warm out - we weren't wearing coats, and I had the vent going driving home.

When I went out to pick up limbs this morning, most of them were covered in a layer of ice, and it was 32 out.

Of course I didn't pull the car into the garage last night, so there was a little ice on it this morning. I moved it in the garage since the weather is supposed to get worse later today.

I call this photo: "When's summer?" Through the ice, you can see my bike hanging in the window, and those Christmasy colored blobs in the bottom right are our coolers/camping gear.

I'm pretty sure there are still some lose limbs that will come crashing out of the trees if we get ice today, or if the wind kicks up again. Luckily, nothing fell on the cars or the roof.

Our trees are really old - I was just looking at photos of the house from back in the day, and the trees were about six feet tall. They really need to be trimmed, but with wind like this, they're getting thinned out.

No, we don't normally keep the trash can lying on it's side next to the fence.

Our giant pampas grass always falls over when it snows or ices. The weight pulls the grass down. It always looks so pitiful like that.

We're supposed to go over to Julie's for Sax Christmas this afternoon. I hope the weather holds out for that. I'd be quite perturbed if we haven't had a school snow day yet this year, but our Christmas celebration gets snowed out!

I read in the Star that the Wal-Mart at 159th and Metcalf will be closed for a while because of structural damage and a broken gas line. That's right next to my school - guess it was a lot worse out there. Hope my students are all okay.

This and that

2008-12-24T11:17:00.002-06:00

We got up at O Dark Early today to get Adam to the airport. Left the house at 5:30, and got to KCI at 6:40. Normally, it doesn't take that long from here, but there was just enough snow over night to gum up the traffic works. Thank God most people don't work on Christmas Eve, so the roads were at least being lightly traveled.

Looks like it could be a white Christmas, but it's more like a whiskery white Christmas - it snowed, but not enough to cover up the grass.

Last night we did the friend-ily gift exchange with Betsy and Mitzi, and watched "Can't Buy Me Love." Mitz cooked up some awesome homemade pizza. I think she's inspired Adam to invent his own recipe for homemade pizza, too. Betsy gave Adam the Nestle Tollhouse (Tooul-hoouse, for you "Friends" fans) cookbook. We decided that we should make a recipe from there every week when we have our little get-togethers, but we'll also have to schedule an extra get-together for working out to burn off the sugar!

Picture me like the little old ladies in "The Three Amigos" today - SEW LIKE THE WIND! I've got to finish the blanket, and make a scrapbook page frame as well. Guess it's a good thing Adam took off for Salt Lake.

Off to get some work done.

Baby, it's f#@*ing cold outside!

2008-12-23T05:42:00.002-06:00

That's what we do in the Chittum household when it's cold and we're off of school...If you are an avid reader of the ChittumFiles, you probably saw Sunday's post about the frosty windows. Well, we took a drastic step today.

You know it's cold when I'm forced to move the catbox (yes, I'm actually writing about my cat's litterbox on my blog. I'm officially a crazy cat lady) from the back laundry room to the craft room. Unfortunately, Gracie is a weakling, and she can't push the back door open on her own. So, we have to prop the door open just enough for her to come and go as she pleases. That way, she can get to her food and her bathroom whenever she needs it.

Well, that works fine in a normal climate, but since we now live in what feels like the Arctic Circle, we've had to make some changes. The back room isn't insulated very well, since it was added on at some point, and it's quite drafty. I think I saw some teeny-tiny little ice-skaters in the back bathroom's toilet bowl early this morning.

For now, the back door will stay closed, and we're getting ready to hang up a blanket over the door to keep the cold air in the back room.

Yesterday, we opened presents with Mom and Dad. Here's a photo of Dad modeling the hat and scarf I made for him. I got lucky, because I was already working on it for him, when around Thanksgiving, he said "Why don't you knit me another scarf? I need another warm one."

I can post this next photo because I know that Grandma Jarsulic is NOT going to be hopping on the Innernets any time soon to read the blog. We went to see her yesterday and she said they keep it cold at the home where she stays. I've been working on this for a couple of weeks now. I hope it can get it done before Christmas night when the family gets together.

My plan is to make it like a lap blanket, so she can cover up with it when she's rolling around in her wheelchair.

10 gallon head = 1 Kleenex box

2008-12-22T17:18:00.003-06:00

Not even crocheting a blanket for my grandmother could keep me distracted enough during "The Pursuit of Happyness" to keep from bawling my eyes out. Jeez.

Everyone else out there has probably already seen the movie, and is all ready to go see "Seven Pounds." I mean, Oprah was all over it last year. I remember sitting on the couch in our little College Hill house watching Will talk about it with Oprah. We never saw "Happyness" in the theater, but we DVRed it a while back.

I'm really glad I did not see that movie at the theater. It would have been quite embarrassing to be so worked up over it in public.

I had to stop working on the blanket for a little while since I couldn't see through the tears in my eyes. I told Adam that I think part of the reason the movie is so emotional is that the boy who plays Chris Gardner's son is actually Will Smith's son, so it's really intense to watch the father and son dynamic.

If you haven't seen the movie, you really should. It was really incredible, and I love Will Smith anyway, so he really shined in the main role. Just a warning, though - you WILL be an emotional wreck by the end of it, so have the tissues handy.

Should have purchased the DEFROST option

2008-12-21T11:31:00.004-06:00

When we woke up this morning, we were greeted by this frost on the window. It's on the outside of our front room, just behind the Christmas tree. I guess that's what happens when it feels like -12 outside.

Don't all of you who used to live here in KC but have moved to points South miss it? You, yes, you, could be freezing your arses off today like we are.

It's so cold, even our furry friends are wearing sweaters. But, we think Minnie might have just been trying to act like the high school wrestlers - she's got on her singlet and and headgear, ready for whatever pooch comes along and tries to take her down.

We braved the cold last night to hang out with Mitzi and Betsy for a bit. Lots of knitting, snacking, and "Elf" watching. Minnie was quite excited to see her bf, Adam, walk in the door.

We're heading over to Mom and Pop's for our Christmas present opening. Have to do it today since Adam is going to Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve to see his family.

The word of the day: LAYER.

A purty girl dancin' to jug band music and a mess o' mama's barbeque

2008-12-17T16:54:00.004-06:00

I've seen two references to this in the last couple of days, so I thought it must be a sign that I need tor write about it. Kat said she thinks "Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas" is a depressing Jim Henson movie, but it's one of my all-time favorites. I could watch it (and "A Christmas Story") over and over each year.

I haven't seen Emmet Otter's all the way through in a long time (don't have it on DVD), but I remember watching it with my dad when I was a kid. Seems like Dad was always willing to take me to Muppets movies or sit through them with me when I was little. I can still sing a lot of the songs from Emmett's.

One of my Facebook friends posted a seven-minute blooper reel from the movie, and it's pretty funny. The crazy thing is that the boards shown in the clip say March of 1977. I had no idea the movie was that old. That's older than I am!

What struck me as I watched it was how lifelike the Muppets truly are, even in bloopers, and even as I, Jill the 31-year-old, watch them. Henson truly was a master, and to this day, I love the Muppets. "Fraggle Rock" was my getting-ready-for-school show every morning back in the day. I'd turn it on HBO, and sing along with the theme song, and watch Wembley, Gobo, Red (loved her!), Boober, Doc, the Trash Heap, the whole she-bang.

I want to know - is this a result of my age? Was I just a part of the right generation, the one that got to watch the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock, along with Sesame Street? I'm sure I watched a lot of Sesame Street when I was a kid, but I just don't remember it as fondly as I do the others.

Here's a little piece of the Jug Band. If you haven't seen it, you should add it to your Christmas movies list. And, all you parents out there, watch it with your munchkins!

Quick trip down and back

2008-12-15T13:56:00.001-06:00

Last weekend I had to go to the KSPA winter meeting in Wichita. I'm happy to attend the meeting, because I get to see my journalism teacher friends that I don't see very often.

I'm also happy to go because I get to visit my Wichita family. Adam and I drove down Friday night after school. We didn't get to Derby until about 8:30, but we did get to see Kyle and Noah just before bedtime. Of course we were glad to see them, but right before bedtime probably isn't the best time to visit a 3-year-old...

We need to learn to time that better, so we don't get the K-Man all riled up before he's supposed to be going to bed.

After the meeting on Saturday morning, Amy dropped me off at Jeff and Kat's so I could visit with them for a little while, too. I really need three-day weekends to go to Wichita, so we can actually see everyone we want to visit.

After we sat inside and visited for a bit, Jeff headed outside to get some yardwork done, and we went out to provide moral support and take Haley for a walk. L decided she needed a little ride on the mower.

I was already looking forward to Christmas break, but now I'm really anxious for it. The weekend trip provided just a taste of hanging with friends, and I'll have some more time to do so during the holiday. Maybe Amy and I can actually get some knitting time...

Even though we don't get a lot of time together, it's still all quality time. I'm so glad that even though we don't live in Wichita anymore, we are able to stay friends with our tribe.