In Preparation

So, we are leaving for vacation on Friday. We are getting out of Kansas and heading north where there are mountains. "Mountains? What are mountains?" you may be asking. They are these very tall pieces of land that are very pretty and we can't claim any here in the grand state of Kansas. Apparently you are supposed to hike in these things called mountains. Now, hiking to me is like, "Hey, I'm gonna hike down to the corner to Walgreens, I'll be back in 10 minutes." Anyone from Kansas understands where I'm com
ing from with this. We don't have places to hike besides little trails around our man-made lakes. This is the extent of my hiking experience:
A large group traipsing through the "woods". From what I hear you don't jump off the rocks where we're going...it's a lot longer way down to the bottom.

So, in preparation for our trip I've been training. I started running for a few weeks, but this week I've discovered that I love spinning. I like being able to work out with a group. I think I get a lot more out of it and "have" to do. I can't wimp out 5 minutes into the hour long workout...I mean, I would never wimp out 5 minutes into a workout...ever...

Doug and I have also been taking 2 mile walks with our hiking boots on Saturday mornings and then he makes me do the stairs...curse the stairs...I hate them. Usually I do them with a very bad 2-year-old attitude. It makes it more fun that way. Okay, maybe not a 2-year-old attitude...it's probably like a 5-year-old. Much better.

So far I like hiking. A 45 minute walk in the park...no hills, no switchbacks (whatever that is!), no elevation (I'm not kidding...none really), and no bears. It's been good. I'll let ya know how I really feel next week.

Parking Garages

Apparently, I have developed a slight fear of parking garages. I have no idea where this came from. I don't ever recall being afraid of parking garages before. I have to park in a parking garage when I volunteer at the hospital and every time I drive into the stinkin' thing my chest gets all tight and I'm pretty sure I start minorly hyperventilating. I think terrible things about how there are hundreds of cars above my head...are cars intended to be "suspended" in the "air". I've been parking the basement lately, and it's super scary down there. Just think about all of the stories of cars sitting precariously over my head. It makes my heart flutter. I tell myself, "Simmer down, this parking garage has been here for many, many years! It hasn't collapsed yet!" One would think this might possibly calm my spazzed out nerves, but no it makes it worse! I look around at the 70's style painting and then start looking for cracks that will surely bring the thing down. That's my cue to walk as quickly as I can to the safe building where I can't hear cars driving over my head.

Not only do have this fear of the thing caving, but what about all of the crazy people that sit in parking garages just waiting to get you. Have you seen the movies?! Anytime there is a parking garage nothing good comes of it. So, on top of retreating as quickly as I can to the safety of the building I'm also checking my back. I'm sure if a doctor is ever in the same parking garage as I am he may admit me to the psyh ward.

I blame it on watching too much 24.

Sorry, Friends!

I have really stunk this up lately.

I think I got done teaching and didn't want to do anything that had to do with literacy...except for reading and talking...seriously, I've been reading like the government was gonna burn all of the books in the country. I'm about ready for my next stop at the library.

On the "plant front" I have killed too many things. After we got back from Dallas my dear, dear aloe plant had been overtaken by mushrooms. My dear husband then made the decision to banish it from the house...something about fungus growing in our apartment seriously freaked the man out! :-) May it rest in peace. Our strawberries taste like a mixture of dirt and manure...pretty sure I won't be placing any of those things in my mouth again, but they sure are pretty! The rest of the veggies look green, but aren't exactly producing anything! Oh well...my goal wasn't to kill them, so I guess I'm successful so far!!

I started volunteering in the Ronald McDonald Family Room in between the PICU and pediatric units this week. I had training today and I'm SUPER excited! I'm very excited about getting to help people who are going through a really hard time to make them a little bit happier. I just hope I can resist the freezer full of cinnamon rolls and watching Sister Act of the VCR while I'm on duty!

Okay, I need to go clean so it looks like I actually did something while Doug was at work...drat.

Still Alive...and Growing!

It's a miracle! I haven't killed off my plants yet! Everyday I peek out onto our balcony expecting to see withered up plants that are ready to blow away in the wind, but instead I see this:


and this:




I am so proud!! They are like my little babies! Do you see that little red strawberry?! It's amazing, eh?! We're eating it tomorrow. We're gonna cut it in half and share it. I sure hope it's good. So, if the plant is like my baby would the fruit of the plant be my grandbaby...or perhaps a grandberry? Hmmmm...okay, okay, I'll stop.

As if my home is full of growing little babies I added another today. This is an aloe vera plant and someone brought it some cuts of it to school today so I decided to brave it. Someone said they are really hard to kill. I'll see if I can prove them wrong! Not so sure how well this one is gonna work out, but I really like the pot I found for it today! So, it may die, but at least it looks good in the process.


So, I would like to welcome the new member to our family...live long and prosper...or at least live for a few days.

Politically Incorrect?

Okay, so serious blogs are not going to become my thing. In fact, I have a plethora of blog ideas bopping around in my very full brain right now, but I don't have time to write just yet. Patience I tell you. I have one that I would like to make time to write tonight...be grateful because I'm putting off reading The Diary of Anne Frank (yes, I know that's supposed to be underlined I just can't figure it out right now) to type this out. It could be somewhat political, it could be somewhat controversial, it could be somewhat not politically correct...I don't know because I haven't quite processed it all so it may just come out a jumbled mess and I apologize now for it. Just leave me a comment that says, "Great work! Made perfect sense! Keep your day job!".

I read Fox News approximately 27 times a day. I like it. I'm a nerd. I like that too. I typically don't read it for pertinent information (although that's nice on occasion), I like to read it for the very weird and bizarre stories under the pertinent story section. I like to read it for stories like, "Pregnant Woman Gets Hit by Car While Fleeing Bear" (true story, check it out...no worries, the lady and the baby are fine...the bear isn't...but have no fear the lady is gonna give the kid the middle name "Bear" in its honor whether a boy or girl). Now these stories are wonderful and great in every way, but a pertinent story has been catching my eye lately...it may not really be a pertinent story, but it gets to be up in the pertinent section so it counts.

The story has been about Miss California, Carrie Prejean, in the Miss USA pageant. She was asked by Perez Hilton, a very openly gay man, what her stance was on gay marriage. She responded with, "I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anyone out there, but that's how I was raised." She, later in the evening, would come in 1st runner up, quite possibly due to her answer to that question. In response to this answer she has been attacked all over the place for answering that way. Perez Hilton has called her many unmentionable names and many other people too. People are ticked and saying she had no right to say that! What in the world?! We live in America right?! Just checking. Our constitution is still in tact right?! Just checking. Isn't there some amendment about freedom of speech?! Sometimes I do not understand this country. I love it and I am proud to livein it. I don't want to take our freedoms for granted.

You know what? I agree with her and I have absolutely no shame in saying that. In the Bible it is clear about same sex relations. I will always stand on that. Do I have friends that are gay? Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Do I agree with their lifestyle? No, I do not. Nor will I ever. Will I continue to be their friend? Yes.

How come it's okay for people in favor of gay marriage to say such things about people who aren't in favor of it? Yet, when someone simply comes out says they disagree with it...in a non-confrontational way...the world is up in arms!

I, by no means, would ever say anything like that about people who are in favor of it...I do not agree with Fred Phelps or anyone involved with him either.

I just don't understand the world we live in...I don't understand double standards. It makes no sense to me.

On a side note, I do NOT agree withe pictures she had taken of her from a few years back...just so you know.

Let's see what kind of hits I get with this post...

Weight Loss

Woo-hoo! I lost 3 pounds last week!

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with that macaroni and cheese and Spam experiment.

Speaking of Spam, I did some research...

• A serving size is 2 oz
• In those 2 oz is 170 calories
• 1 can of Spam holds 12 servings (this stuff could feed a large family!)
• It's made of pork shoulder meat w/ some ham added, water, sugar, salt (and a lot of it...750 mg/serving mind you), and something called sodium nitrite (I thought my chemistry teacher mixed that with something and then it exploded in high school...should I be eating it?!)
• Spam became popular during WWII when there was a meat ration
• In the US 3.8 cans of Spam are consumed every second! Seriously! If you just did the math in your head (which I'm sure you all did!) that would be 7,752 calories of Spam are consumed every second.
• People that live in Hawaii average 4 cans of Spam each year for each person...they are the Spam capital of the world, you know.
• Spam is sold in special gift boxes in Korea.
• Spam stolen from army PX's in Korea are sold on the Black Market.
• Nikita Kruschev was quoted as saying, "Without Spam, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army" in WWII about the Russian army.
• There are 13 types of Spam: Spam Classic, Spam Classic 7 oz., Spam Low Sodium, Spam Garlic, Spam Lite, Spam Golden Honey, Spam Hot and Spicy, Spam Spread, Spam Singles, Spam Hickory Smoke, Spam with Bacon, Spam with Cheese, and Spam Oven Roasted Turkey
• The Spam mascot used to be Spammy the Pig
• The world record for eating Spam is held by Richard LeFevre. He devoured six pounds of it- or, eight- 12 ounce cans- in 12 minutes.

So, Amanda you have learned lots of new things today!! You may pick any of the above facts to share!

Now, I can't say I hated it. I would definitely never eat this stuff by itself, but, all in all, it was too bad all chopped up in mac and cheese. Although, I lost 3 pounds last week I wouldn't recommend it as a good weight loss staple food. I'm just sayin'.

Where I found my amazing amount of Spam knowledge:
http://www.cusd.claremont.edu/~mrosenbl/spamfacts.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/470437/little_known_facts_about_spam_.html?cat=22

Pause

So, I've got 12 days with my kiddos left...14 teaching days (2 of them are kindergarten screening for next year's hoodlems). That's not a lot. Not at all. Although, it seems as if it will never get here. The last few weeks of school creep by! The kids are antsy, teachers are antsy, the ants are antsy. Everyone is just downright antsy. I gave my kids the little talk about Spring Fever. I think they all thought they caught some crazy infectious disease like swine flu. Oh well, I told them I didn't want them to get it (Spring Fever...I don't want them to get swine flu either, don't get me wrong) so they needed to cover their coughs and sneezes so as not to give their neighbor Spring Fever. Okay, okay I didn't really tell them that it could be passed by germs, but we did have a good long talk about it. Nevertheless, they still got it. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

In the midst of finishing up this school year I'm also packing up my classroom. Yeppers, this is it for me for a while. I'm putting my full time teaching career on hold and going to part time/substituting. This is due to Doug and I moving sometime in the next several months...who really knows when! I'll let you know when I find out! In the process of cleaning out files and cabinets and such I can't figure out where all of this stuff came from! Seriously! I've got a ton of stuff...a ton of trees have been killed in the process of my teaching career...sorry, Trees.

So, anyway, I'll keep cleaning and sorting away, but right now I'm going to bed so I can rested up for the crazies tomorrow! 14 days...14 days...14 days...