jarblings

i love having roommates, especially when we have fun incidents like the following:

jessica is very upset with her brother because he plans on getting a new dog, when they already have a family dog that she ends up taking care of... and so jessica is telling tim how mad she is and what she'll do to her brother if he goes and gets a new dog. next thing i know, tim runs out, and asks me the phrase that you use when you want to say that anything goes in a fight...

me: uh...no holds barred?
tim: ahahaha...
jessica: whatever!

of course, i am curious about what she said instead. jessica had said that she'll shoot her brother - no bars hold. her justification is that no bars will hold her back from shooting her brother.

ahahahaha...

visitors!

wendy and josh are in LA! we've been eating and hanging out - it's so fun! it's like having a bit of home here. and i love that i'm getting to share this part/phase of my life with people who know me in a different context.

tonight, they got to come and visit my church and i was so excited for them to come. i really love my church. obviously, we are aren't perfect, but it has been the environment that has helped foster so much growth for me this last year. this adds to the love i have. and tonight, at least for me, was just another reminder of why i feel such a big pull towards it. i was totally moved by the sharing of the amazing people that i go to church with and get to call friends. i love that wendy and josh felt blessed by being part of the service tonight and that they were given time to share their heart and their ministry, though they were pretty much strangers to exodus. that, in and of itself, moved me. and that we prayed for them - even more so. i'm not sure i can even express in words what i felt tonight. i just know that my heart was bursting with such joy and encouragement and sense of love and being embraced.

*EDIT*

ok, i totally thought that jessica had copied the valentine's day card she gave tim. i just found out that in the original card, the answer was just written. she came up with the pictures herself! this makes it infinitely more funny. but, it might only be funny if you know jessica and tim.

and in case you've tried, but haven't been able to figure it out, you can highlight for the answer:
[2 hearts + beat + ass + juan = two hearts beat as one]

misinterpretations

i had to teach my kids metaphors this week as part of the language arts lessons. some of them had funny interpretations. here are a few:

sentence: that car from the 1940s is a dinosaur!
interpretation 1: the car is mean and ugly.
interpretation 2: the car is really big.

sentence: the hat was a pancake after she sat on it.
interpretation: the hat was hot and flat.

sentence: john's brain is a computer!
interpretation: john is a robot.

happy valentine's day

holidays are insane when you're a teacher. the kids find it really difficult to contain their excitement. all day long, it was about when they would get a chance to pass out their cards to one another. i didn't think that so many of them would actually do the whole card thing. even a bunch of the boys brought cards. too cute. i received an insane amount of gifts and chocolate. two of the girls (really, their parents) sent beautiful tulips and flower bouquets. my friend becca jokingly suggested that we ban all holidays (except the ones where we get a day off) because of the "hyper" factor. i had a target shopping bag full of stuff.

by the numbers:
6 - number of mini-mugs i know have
4 - number of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate given to me
1 - box of lindt truffles
2 - bouquets of fresh flowers
3 - fake flower gifts
too many to count - valentine's day cards (you know, the kind you used to give out as kids...) and random candy

one particularly funny card from a kid (the class barber...if you remember that story) - he signed it with his name, and then "your main man" - i cracked up! i showed the office staff and they were dying... it was too cute/funny. poor kid... in a few years he might remember this and be mortified.

so i got home today after class and jessica and tim are doing their gift exchange. jessica's gift involves this elaborate question and answer game about their relationship, plus a bonus "puzzle." she saw the puzzle/riddle in a card at the store and thought that it was funny and the kind of humor that tim would appreciate. instead of buying the card, she just re-drew it:

it's insanely funny when you figure out the answer to the riddle...it could also be potentially in poor taste (you'll see what i mean when you figure it out...) i could not stop laughing...i thought it was worthy of a scan and a post. jessica would like everyone to know that she DID NOT make this up - she saw it in a commercially available greeting card made for the occasion. anyway, tim figured it out almost immediately and jessica says, "you figured it out so fast! you're so smart! how come you're so smart?" ahahaha...

and an unrelated funny story about math: i was teaching about lines and angles yesterday. i asked the kids if they'd heard of those two things. here's the conversation:

boy student: "i've heard of them, but you can't see them."
me: "what do you mean you can't see them?" and then i realize what he means...
me: "oh! you're thinking about angels! that's different from angles..."

i spelled out both words on the board, so the different in spelling and pronunciation would be clear...the kids and i had a good laugh about that one.

...and so it begins...again...

tomorrow, i go back to school. i've been on break these last 8 weeks. these last 8 weeks have been so fantastic. i got to do a lot of things, like:

• be part of shiv & gar's wedding
  
• go home and spend a few weeks with fam & friends (christmas + new year's)
• puppy-sit russell
  
• hang out with friends in seattle, portland, and LA
• have quality time with God
• start a 40-day fast from all TV (i know...it's torturous)
  
• sleep/rest/eat/read/have a life
• catch up with friends
  
• go to a taping of leno
  
• go to hawaii
• learn fun new games
• go shopping (brick & mortar and online)
  
• get my sunny disposition back
• share at church - audio clip - exo-fast day 20 - i'm the third person
  
• be a person again

and i had to do things like:

• write the first portions of my thesis
• go to class once a week for UCLA (and 1 saturday a month)
• pay my credit card bills...BOO

did i mention that i am one lucky girl with great friends? i'm lucky enough to have friends who willingly came to my school to help me set up my classroom (of course, there was the lure of a free lunch) and just get random stuff done. also, awesome friends timmy and judy found a sewing machine at an amazing price and procured it for me just in case i wanted it, which i did. i am now the proud owner of a singer sewing machine from my favorite store - yep, you guessed it - target.

i'm more excited than stressed about going to school tomorrow. at dinner tonight, i didn't feel any anxiety. normally, sunday dinner is when the anxiety kicks in. i'm going to take this as a good sign. i really, really want these next 4.5 months to be different than the first 4. i want to be different - i want to be more and be better - for both myself and for the kids. wish me luck... we'll see how i am after school...

and i know i haven't posted about hawaii...i really am going to, but it's been busy these last two weeks... so until then, you can read about it from kepi, aka jeff. you'll have to scroll through to find links to pictures from the first 3 days and his commentary.

break #5

i'm still sitting on the floor of my living room working on the thesis. outside, it is still warm and beautiful. i hear the buzzing lawn mowers and feel the breeze coming through the balcony's screen door. both of these things remind me of growing up - summers in portland. it's a happy feeling. i'm basking in it.

*basking*
*basking*
*basking*

ok, i am done. back to work.

cabin fever

it has been oddly warm the last few days for february. yesterday it was something around 80 and today, in the mid 70s. i look out my window and it's beautifully sunny. i would much rather be at the beach than cooped up in my apartment writing my thesis, which does happen to be coming along kind of nicely. still, i'm getting antsy sitting in front of this computer screen trying to write intelligent and revolutionary things.

i want to go to the beach.

on a different note, i've been meaning to post pictures and write about hawaii, but like i said, i've been trying to be all academic and smart. i'll get to it as soon as i finish this portion of my paper.

break over - back to work... boo...

[edit]
this is the conversation i just had with my brother:

mikey: steve nash injured
mikey: this is bs
me: so no RAW?
me: wait...who's steve nash?
mikey: steve nash of the phoenix suns
me: oooh
me: oh...white guy?
mikey: the 2 time reigning mvp
me: with long hair
mikey: yeah
me: i was thinking steve austin.
me: hahahaha
mikey: P
mikey: hahahaha dumb

my excuse - my brain is fried from writing!