1. Safety duty. I'm sure if this blog was more popular, I would get at least a few comments from a parent whose child got hit by a car because their teacher wasn't out on safety duty. But this blog is not that popular, so I am going to complain about safety duty. This school is literally psychotic about it. We get our panties all twisted up every single day if someone is missing their safety duty. There has to be at least one teacher on every crosswalk. I'm talking about the crosswalks in the parking lot, not the ones on the busy road that is actually like 5 miles away from my school. WHY!? Guys? Just why. Most kids know to look before they cross the street. Most parents look around before they pull forward, because they're at a freaking elementary school at 3:30pm and they know that there are dozens of kids all around.
I don't really want to make the argument that safety duty is an unimportant job. Mostly I just want to make the argument that I should not be the one who has to do it. I am too busy making copies and erasing my board and uploading grades and rearranging desks and emailing parents and checking books back into the guided reading library and filling out forms, and I'm just not sure why the PTA isn't in charge of safety duty.
2. Other teachers. Mostly, I like other teachers. But there are some teachers who don't understand their job, and instead of just teaching their students, they try to teach the teachers around them, too. To them I would like to say: Shut up. Go back in your classroom and close the door and stop trying to tell me what to do. And teachers that "shhhh" other teachers are the worst.
3. Paperwork. It's just so annoying. I know it is not solely annoying to teachers - there are plenty of jobs where paperwork is a downside. But it is certainly annoying to me.
4. Parents. Can be so awesome, so so awesome. But they can also be the worst thing ever. I guess it's just hard to be a parent, because not many of them can seem to strike the perfect balance between being nice and babying their child, and between being strict and just plain mean. I kind of like my job because kids get assigned to me and then even if the parents don't like it at first, I have all year to convince them that I am in fact awesome, you're welcome. But I kind of don't like it because until I prove myself, some of them just set up camp in my butt. And I want them to leave.
5. Salary. You do not get paid enough. Everyone told me this, but I looked at the numbers and I thought that sounded like plenty of money for me. Listen: the only way you actually get paid "enough" to be a teacher is if you are teaching as a hobby. Not as a job. Not as a career. As a hobby.
But here's why you should teach, if you feel so inclined:
1. You have to do what you love. No job is perfect, and no matter what you do, you can find something in your line of work to complain about. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
2. You get to color, and cut, and glue, and put glitter on things if you want.
3. You get hugs pretty much daily.
4. Sometimes you get shivers because you really are sitting at your own desk, in your own classroom, looking over the names of your very own students, and you're doing exactly what you've always wanted to do, and that is really a nice thing. Not everyone can say they're doing exactly what they've always wanted.
5. Children's books are cute.
6. Kids are really smart, and really nice. Sometimes they're snots. But in general, they are nice, and they don't want to hurt other people.
Final score: 5-6. I guess you should teach, after all. [If you want to.]
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Monday, October 21, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
How it Started
I'll just address the elephant in the room right upfront: This is a long blog post. I put in some pictures, which I'm hoping will act as snacks in Sacrament Meeting and keep you entertained....mostly. Carry on!
Some might say that it all started with a note. But actually, it didn't. Actually, it all started with knock. And a handsome stranger asking if this was the apartment where our ward was having nice notes.
Some might say that it was the wrong apartment, and at the time, that's what I told him. But actually, it wasn't. Actually, it was the right apartment, and the right girl, and the right boy. I just didn't know it yet.
I didn't make a great first impression. As in, I asked him if he was weird and awkward in the first 3 minutes of knowing him, and he thought I was rude. [For the record, he was a teeny bit awkward, so it was a valid question.]
However, it wasn't such a bad impression that all hope was lost. He came over again, and I redeemed myself. And then, he came over again, and again, and then he kept coming over. And I didn't even mind.
October 9th was my birthday, and since the best friend advertised free food and birthday kisses in a painstakingly crafted mass txt, he was there.
I won't tell you what I wished for when I blew those candles out....but the weekend after my birthday, I found myself squashed up next to him on a couch in an apartment south of campus, watching a scary movie with some friends. And he held my hand.
He played it cool, but this is how he felt:
A week later, I got a mysterious nice note. It looked like this:
I searched the ward menu, and the only S.S. in our ward was Stephen Shimp. And I knew, grazie to my women's intuition, that Stephen had not written this nice note.
Even so, he did like my cute skirts. And we did go out sometime.
When we finally did go out sometime, it was to this place:
I had been rock climbing a few times, and even been on a few dates to this place. This date was the best of them all :)
That date was on November 3rd. And not to color myself psycho or anything, but in the interest of full disclosure I should probably share that when my sister asked me less than a month later if I liked him, I told her I kind of wanted to marry him.
In December, we had all kinds of adventures.
This conversation happened when we stepped out onto the ice:
Stephen: WHAT! Heather, you don't know how to ice-skate??
me: No, I do! I promise I do! I just....I forgot, but I'll remember in a second!
Stephen: Oh, no, no, Heather, noooo!
me: Stephen! It's fine, I'll remember! Just wait a minute!
Stephen: What are you doing? Heather, what??
me: I'm just skating! Hold on, just slow down for a second!
It was not my most graceful ice-skating debut, but as soon as I remembered what to do (after about 5 minutes of tremulously clinging to Stephen and insisting that I knew what I was doing), I actually did okay.
I love Christmastime. I love downtown Salt Lake City. And holding hands on the car ride back to Provo, once we finally found the car at 2 in the morning, I loved Stephen, too.
Ingredients, if you're interested in replicating our fine work:
-Starbursts from my kids for Christmas
-Berry Colossal Crunch cereal for the roof
-fudge-striped cookies from a 100 calorie pack
-brownie bites, also from a 100 calorie pack
-Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal
-tootsie rolls from ???
-frosting from when my kids made gingerbread houses at school and the parent volunteers tried to throw away the frosting and well, I rescued it.
-graham crackers from a bonfire we attended in oh, October....
And then he went home to Indiana, and I went home to Maryland, and we skyped almost err day.
When he managed to get his arse back in Utah, we had more adventures!
and one time, when we were snowboarding, he asked me to be his girlfriend!
I said no.
But then I said yes of course, so it was just a minor setback. Then we went home, made fajitas, called his parents, and - most importantly! - changed our facebook status (super-important, you guys. It is 2013)
Winter has never been my favorite season. As in, it has always been my worst-favorite season. But winter with Stephen is a nice season, because it involves fun things like snowboarding and yummy things like Little Caesar's pizza that I had to buy for my roommates and warm things like cuddling.
It was normal to never have leftovers, because I had a Stephen instead. Normal to sit on his lap while he studied and I graded. Normal for him to come in and visit my class, when he had a chance. Normal for me to come and study with him in the library and go to classes with him when I was off-track, or to go to the UVU basketball games so he could get extra credit in his class. It was all just the best kind of normal I had ever lived!
So that's how I think it started. How THIS
Some might say that it all started with a note. But actually, it didn't. Actually, it all started with knock. And a handsome stranger asking if this was the apartment where our ward was having nice notes.
Some might say that it was the wrong apartment, and at the time, that's what I told him. But actually, it wasn't. Actually, it was the right apartment, and the right girl, and the right boy. I just didn't know it yet.
I didn't make a great first impression. As in, I asked him if he was weird and awkward in the first 3 minutes of knowing him, and he thought I was rude. [For the record, he was a teeny bit awkward, so it was a valid question.]
However, it wasn't such a bad impression that all hope was lost. He came over again, and I redeemed myself. And then, he came over again, and again, and then he kept coming over. And I didn't even mind.
October 9th was my birthday, and since the best friend advertised free food and birthday kisses in a painstakingly crafted mass txt, he was there.
 |
| Some might say that Stephen had nothing to do with building this cake. Those people would be right. He just put the candles on because I said we couldn't eat it until I had blown them out, and if we're being honest with ourselves, we might as well just admit that the cake was 90% of the reason why he was there. |
He played it cool, but this is how he felt:
 |
| (Me, too.) |
.jpg) |
| This is the note that some say it started with. |
I searched the ward menu, and the only S.S. in our ward was Stephen Shimp. And I knew, grazie to my women's intuition, that Stephen had not written this nice note.
Even so, he did like my cute skirts. And we did go out sometime.
 |
| This is the night he wanted to take me on a date, but it was the ward Halloween party. So we just hung out there and took beautiful pictures like this one about it. |
 |
| This is the night after the Halloween party, the other night he wanted to take me on a date. A Jew came to town and we had already planned on going to Cornbelly's with my roommates, so we just invited Stephen and his roommates along. They did things like taking pictures of us in the pumpkins and then offering to let us use them on our wedding announcements. I did things like pretending not to notice their comments.... |
.jpg) |
| This picture is not from a date either. It's just from Halloween day, when Stephen and I hung out for like the hundredth time. And for the first time, he caught a fish from the Raintree River. And also for the first time....something else happened :) |
When we finally did go out sometime, it was to this place:
 |
| The Quarry |
This might be where my mom might say it all started. The day after he asked me on a date, I called my mom.
"MOM," I said, "You'll never guess what happened to me."
"What!" she said, all excited already.
"The cutest boy in the ward asked me on a date!" I said. "I think we're going this weekend!"
She cheered. She asked for his name. She facebook stalked him. She congratulated me.
That date was on November 3rd. And not to color myself psycho or anything, but in the interest of full disclosure I should probably share that when my sister asked me less than a month later if I liked him, I told her I kind of wanted to marry him.
In December, we had all kinds of adventures.
 |
| December 1st found us ice-skating at the Gallivan Center.... |
Stephen: WHAT! Heather, you don't know how to ice-skate??
me: No, I do! I promise I do! I just....I forgot, but I'll remember in a second!
Stephen: Oh, no, no, Heather, noooo!
me: Stephen! It's fine, I'll remember! Just wait a minute!
Stephen: What are you doing? Heather, what??
me: I'm just skating! Hold on, just slow down for a second!
It was not my most graceful ice-skating debut, but as soon as I remembered what to do (after about 5 minutes of tremulously clinging to Stephen and insisting that I knew what I was doing), I actually did okay.
 | ||||
| Looking at the temple lights in SLC.... |
 |
| .....meeting some Anti-Mormons posing in awesome costumes for free pictures, forgive us for that brief affiliation..... |
 | ||||||||||||
| .....wandering the streets of SLC, looking for the car.....(Don't worry, it was parked at none of these hotels. We checked.) |
 |
| This one time, we made a bomb-amazing gingerbread house. |
Ingredients, if you're interested in replicating our fine work:
-Starbursts from my kids for Christmas
-Berry Colossal Crunch cereal for the roof
-fudge-striped cookies from a 100 calorie pack
-brownie bites, also from a 100 calorie pack
-Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal
-tootsie rolls from ???
-frosting from when my kids made gingerbread houses at school and the parent volunteers tried to throw away the frosting and well, I rescued it.
-graham crackers from a bonfire we attended in oh, October....
And then he went home to Indiana, and I went home to Maryland, and we skyped almost err day.
 |
| Even when I was back in Utah for New Years Eve and he was still in Indiana, and I should probably have been going to a party or something. We skyped then too. |
 |
| He taught me how to snowboard.... |
I said no.
But then I said yes of course, so it was just a minor setback. Then we went home, made fajitas, called his parents, and - most importantly! - changed our facebook status (super-important, you guys. It is 2013)
 |
| I should note that, when we called his parents, his mom said I seemed really sweet :) ...........which she quickly followed up with an invitation to read the new For the Strength of Youth booklet. |
 |
| As boyfriend and girlfriend, we once optimistically went to Sundance to try to get into the Matthew Mc-con-a-hottie and Reese Witherespoon movie without previously buying tickets, and instead just eating at a cute Mexican restaurant when we found that there were no more tickets available. |
 |
| We went to Fire and Ice at the Riverwoods. We missed the fireworks, and the snowboarding, and pretty much everything else, but we were in time for the ice sculptures! |
 |
| ....and in time to walk around and try on some really beautiful hats. |
It was one night, later in the month of January, when Stephen said: "I don't want you to think I'm weird, but....do you ever think about, what it would be like if we were to like, get married?"
I was so surprised that he said that, but to tell the truth, I did think about it. Pretty much err day.
All of a sudden, it was February,
 |
| Jazz game! |
 |
and then Valentines Day.
Which was a perfect day with a perfect ending. The ending was a whisper that sounded like this:
him: Heather.
me: Stephen.
him: .....I love you.
me: I love you, Stephen!
And with that, we started life with a new normal.
.jpg) |
| It was normal to go rock-climbing, |
 |
| normal to go running, |
 |
| normal to hike the Y (with one person riding piggy back at times), |
 |
| normal to fall asleep on the apartment floor after working out. |
So that's how I think it started. How THIS
happened, is a blog post for another day :)
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Always a little awkward when....
....you go to the Jordan River temple and the guy doing confirmations asks why you aren't in school and you know (because you have the Spirit with you because you are in the temple after all) that he thinks you are a high schooler.
....and you also know that you can't just say, "I got a substitute," because then he'll just think you're a high schooler who saw that there was a substitute and decided to skip class.
....and you can't think of a subtle way to casually let him know that you are a teacher, so in the moment you throw all subtlety down the drain and just blurt out "I, uh, I'm a teacher, I left early, I have an interview."
....it is 10:00 in the morning and already 4 children in your class have cried.
....this note is in the nice notes box:
....and everyone denies having written it. (And also, it is eerily similar to the very first nice note you wrote to The Boy once upon a time last semester....)
....there are 8 girls at a table at B-Dubbs, surrounded by wings and big-screen TV's, and not one boy is there with them.
....and although it may look like a clever "go where the men are" kind of girls' night out, not one of those girls is there because she wants to get hit on, either.
....a box of crayons sets off an entire string of events that your team dubs "The Foot Saga."
....and said saga is still ongoing and you get the idea that it will continue until the end of the year.
....you go to Zumba and feel all excited about it and enjoy your time there, and then the next week when it's time to go again, someone has chest pains and someone else has no gas in their car and someone else has no motivation, so that's the end of that short-lived reign of fitness.
....boyfriends can't say anything without best friends knowing about it, and even if some quotes don't make it to the Man Board, they do make it into our normal conversations.
....some idiots come over to your apartment and interrupt The Bachelor because they are playing Bigger or Better and they are wondering if you have anything you would like to trade with them? And you can't even talk to them because, excuse me, it's The Bachelor.
....you see police lights as you come in your apartment and catch a glimpse of someone who you think you recognize and jump to the conclusion that your Relief Society president has been in a car accident, so you decide to bring her some cookies, but then as you walk over there, the police make you nervous, so you go to her apartment to make sure that it is in fact her....
....and some boys are walking away from her apartment carrying the front door??
....and you don't stop them.
....someone thinks that it is okay to lock a shopping cart to the stairs outside of your apartment and actually they are right, that is a little okay, but what is not okay is rattling it around at 2 in the morning when you are trying to go to sleep.
....you go in for a job interview and wonder if someone accidentally told the guy in charge of the interview that he was just there to interview himself, because truly you feel more like an audience member than a job applicant.
....you live in utah and all the cars like to remind you.
....and you also know that you can't just say, "I got a substitute," because then he'll just think you're a high schooler who saw that there was a substitute and decided to skip class.
....and you can't think of a subtle way to casually let him know that you are a teacher, so in the moment you throw all subtlety down the drain and just blurt out "I, uh, I'm a teacher, I left early, I have an interview."
....it is 10:00 in the morning and already 4 children in your class have cried.
....this note is in the nice notes box:
....and everyone denies having written it. (And also, it is eerily similar to the very first nice note you wrote to The Boy once upon a time last semester....)
....there are 8 girls at a table at B-Dubbs, surrounded by wings and big-screen TV's, and not one boy is there with them.
....and although it may look like a clever "go where the men are" kind of girls' night out, not one of those girls is there because she wants to get hit on, either.
....a box of crayons sets off an entire string of events that your team dubs "The Foot Saga."
....and said saga is still ongoing and you get the idea that it will continue until the end of the year.
....you go to Zumba and feel all excited about it and enjoy your time there, and then the next week when it's time to go again, someone has chest pains and someone else has no gas in their car and someone else has no motivation, so that's the end of that short-lived reign of fitness.
....some idiots come over to your apartment and interrupt The Bachelor because they are playing Bigger or Better and they are wondering if you have anything you would like to trade with them? And you can't even talk to them because, excuse me, it's The Bachelor.
....you see police lights as you come in your apartment and catch a glimpse of someone who you think you recognize and jump to the conclusion that your Relief Society president has been in a car accident, so you decide to bring her some cookies, but then as you walk over there, the police make you nervous, so you go to her apartment to make sure that it is in fact her....
....and some boys are walking away from her apartment carrying the front door??
....and you don't stop them.
....someone thinks that it is okay to lock a shopping cart to the stairs outside of your apartment and actually they are right, that is a little okay, but what is not okay is rattling it around at 2 in the morning when you are trying to go to sleep.
....you go in for a job interview and wonder if someone accidentally told the guy in charge of the interview that he was just there to interview himself, because truly you feel more like an audience member than a job applicant.
....you live in utah and all the cars like to remind you.
Monday, February 18, 2013
The Perfect Valentines Day, revised
Remember that one time when I posted a blog about what I think the perfect Valentines Day would consist of?
I changed my mind.
Here's what the perfect Valentines Day would actually consist of:
"Mrs. Baggett!! Did you know Miss Connor is getting married?
"....What? No, I don't think so."
"No, she is! We saw her, there's a man with her and he brought her flowers and....I think she just got proposed to!"
"No, that's just because it's Valentines Day. That's her boyfriend."
"GO ASK. She's getting married, I'm serious."
(in my room....) "I just had to come in here, because my kids are convinced that you're getting married."
"What! Stephen, what are YOU doing here? Did you bring Miss Connor flowers?"
"Yeah..."
"Why? Because you love her?"
*Everyone in unison: "You love Miss Connor, you love Miss Connor...."
"Okay now, that's not having an appropriate mouth. Let's get lined up for CAMP."
"Is Stephen staying?"
"No, he has to go to class."
He leaves.
"Stephen is pretty buff."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Why did he bring you flowers?"
"Because it's Valentines Day...."
"And he's in love with you!"
"Oh, really? Is that why he brought flowers?"
"Yeah. Are you in love with him?"
"What do you think?"
"Yeah, you are. Because you're smiling!"
"Oh, that means I'm in love with him?"
"Well, that, and he brought you flowers...."
Tooooo continue:
I think it would be nice, if every girl in the world believed that her boyfriend was better than every other girl's boyfriend. Which is why I don't feel bad saying, right now, that my boyfriend is better than yours :)
I changed my mind.
Here's what the perfect Valentines Day would actually consist of:
 |
| this breakfast, plus blueberry oatmeal being delivered to his apartment butt-early in the AM |
 | |
| this note stuck under the beautifully-scraped off windshield of a certain Cassidy Jane Carbaby |
 |
| these being delivered to my school in person by the cutest boy |
"Mrs. Baggett!! Did you know Miss Connor is getting married?
"....What? No, I don't think so."
"No, she is! We saw her, there's a man with her and he brought her flowers and....I think she just got proposed to!"
"No, that's just because it's Valentines Day. That's her boyfriend."
"GO ASK. She's getting married, I'm serious."
(in my room....) "I just had to come in here, because my kids are convinced that you're getting married."
"What! Stephen, what are YOU doing here? Did you bring Miss Connor flowers?"
"Yeah..."
"Why? Because you love her?"
*Everyone in unison: "You love Miss Connor, you love Miss Connor...."
"Okay now, that's not having an appropriate mouth. Let's get lined up for CAMP."
"Is Stephen staying?"
"No, he has to go to class."
He leaves.
"Stephen is pretty buff."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Why did he bring you flowers?"
"Because it's Valentines Day...."
"And he's in love with you!"
"Oh, really? Is that why he brought flowers?"
"Yeah. Are you in love with him?"
"What do you think?"
"Yeah, you are. Because you're smiling!"
"Oh, that means I'm in love with him?"
"Well, that, and he brought you flowers...."
Tooooo continue:
 |
| this pinata that I made |
 |
| and that had all this stuff inside of it |
 |
| this amazing restaurant for dinner |
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| this movie for afterwards. (or was it another one? who knows. the conversation in the audience was riveting. |
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Carshopping
Is something I do not miss. I imagine this is how people feel when they hate dating and then they get married....anyway. Ever since finding Cassidy Jane Carbaby, my life has been significantly better.
Recently, I was reminded of this when Nicool posted on my wall to say that our facebook conversations are really funny, and I should look at them again. I did, and found this little gem:
Recently, I was reminded of this when Nicool posted on my wall to say that our facebook conversations are really funny, and I should look at them again. I did, and found this little gem:
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