Summer Relaxation

I can't quite get into the social mode--I didn't see anyone for two days in a row and I only have five days left!  Last week was just too overwhelming for me.  Plus my BFF has not responded to any texts or emails I have sent her in the last several weeks (though I did get an invite to charadium so maybe she is just busy)

I can't really summarize what happened last week but I think I broke inside for a while.  This is an emotional job, trying to help shift people and processes, and systems-- but this story might help illuminate the highs and lows I experienced, the level of responsibility for change, and how hard it is to make an impact on so many people in such a short time.

L:  We are here to talk about classroom management (for the non-teachers, this is a phrase we often use for "kids acting bad in your class and how you handle them")
Aussie guy: Okay let's role play, who wants to practice being the teacher?
Teacher: Me, I will do it!
(Scene:  L and Aussie guy are in a student group, Aussie guy refusing to let me contribute, my body language is obviously angry)

Teacher: Hi, what is going on in this group?
Aussie guy: I am just doing all the work, like usual
Teacher: (directs herself to me): And what is your contribution to this group?
L: You are looking at it.
Teacher: (starts crying) That was really cruel
Room of teachers: (awkward silence)
L: (freaking out that the entire room is full of participants who hate me because I was mean to this teacher in a role play) Oh, I mean, my group member doesn't ever let me contribute, you know, I am really angry at HIM, you know, like I am so mad at HIM because he wouldn't take my word
Teacher: (finishes scene up pretty well considering the breakdown)
____________________
Scene wraps up and I tried to smooth it over by saying "oh sorry, I just got really into the role play, you probably remembered some awkward moments with students too, so let's figure out how to address this in our class in the fall!"
__________________
I was completely mortified for the rest of the day and felt like I needed to do something for teacher person.  I see her in the hallway and the following conversation ensues:

L:  Soooo sorry about yesterday, I felt so bad!
Teacher: (confused) What are you talking about?
L:  You know, the role play?
Teacher: Oh that was so fun!  I love to do improv acting! I take classes.

Wow.

Too bad the rest of the teachers didn't realize she was so good because check out my feedback:

"I felt that the instructor put people on the spot in multiple instances. There would also be a question of whether the instructor(s) understand adult learning theory. Part of me hopes that is the issue and that it is not a rudeness issue."

I still haven't recovered.

Primary Children's

Even the elevators are fun!

Summer Line-up

I know you are all dying to know our travel plans... so here we go:

Beginning Sunday

Me:  Indy for a week
Steve+kids: Utah for the week

Family: Utah for a week

Me+kids: North Carolina for two weeks
Me: Ohio for a day
Kids: North Carolina for a day
Steve:  Utah for two weeks to polish off that reading list (only about 160 books to go, right?)

Family: Utah for a week

Steve+ kids: Utah for another week
Me: Chicago for a week

Family: Utah for 1-2 more weeks, then back to SB via Vegas

Good times.
 

Birthday Celebrations

A Pirate theme...

Sound like a fun idea.  This ^^^ is the party I attended exactly two hours before the party we threw for our kids.  Needless to say, do not go a party the day you are hosting one because it just sets the bar unbelievably high.  Unless it is a moving themed party.

I asked my own kids what theme they wanted and the response was: Food.

So we had a food themed party, which I can't really say is radically different than any other party we throw.  Here are the shots of our food:

Behind the fruit salad was the bruschetta so here is the much requested recipe for y'all.  The bread, fyi, was a combo of the Trader Joes' Multigrain, the Albertson's French and a loaf of sourdough from Our Daily Bread. Did you know that the Goleta weird Albertson's (over by TJs) sells bread from Our Daily Bread?  So good. 

The Graham Crackers were actually Fruit S'mores which I really liked for kids treats.  Super easy, cream cheese and brown sugar spread on the crackers, then fruit--we did a slice of strawberry, a half blackberry and two halves of raspberries.  

Then the cardinal sin of kitchens, I actually used a jar product to appease my children and I still regret it.  I wanted to make my own nacho cheese sauce but they insisted I buy this stuff.  AND they didn't even like it ("this cheese is yucky"--duh!)

Gross.  But we did have some other stuff for the nacho bar:

Each of the kids also got their own cake.  Bonus points to those who know which character is featured on the cupcakes.  Doesn't count if you came to the party.

And party cake numero dos:

It was my first time ever making roses so no mocking.

And the last one that took the most amount of time and really looks the least appetizing:

Yes I am a short-order baker one time a year.  This is my attempt to show love via baking--which kinds of the ways of showing love is that? Time?

We always do a treasure hunt, also related to the food theme because they got a lot of chocolate.  Steve created 44 clues, 4 treasure hunts, and a very complex party experience.  A few parents were concerned that we lost the five year old group but they all appeared eventually, none the worse for the wear.  Safety in numbers, remember that.

Some of the treasure seekers:

Remember this kid in white ^^^

If this were Friday, it would my favorite foto.  The kid in white I told you to remember?  He is hilarious.  His older brother is too, they are the same ages as my 2 and 3 and in their respective classes as school.  So the kid brings a gift in a bag with the following note:

Translation:  do you like the Dodgers?  If you like the Dodgers then open this.

So in spite of not having any intention of becoming a *fan, she did indeed open the bag which yielded a stained and well-used jersey from the kid.  He, btw, is 5,and he gave the gift to my daughter turning 8. His mother suggested he give it to Gillian instead, but he insisted that he wanted Bridget to have it.  I thought this was the best gift of the day and provided a great memory for everyone in the family who got a kick out of it.  A gift lasts a few days but a hilarious memory lasts a lifetime.  

Thanks to everyone who came, especially those who gave us these GREAT games that we have been loving for hours:

Blokus

Set

I have no idea who the giver was of these gifts but Set is seriously THE best game.  Too bad my family members cannot seem to beat me.  Katie another reason that I need you to stick around and provide me with some competition.

*A joke I once heard from this guy:

A guy was heading down to watch a Dodgers game and realized halfway to the stadium he forgot his tickets in his car on the dashboard.  He walked back to his car and saw that someone had broken into his car windshield... and placed two more Dodger's tickets on the dash.

This and That

I have been doing a lot of stuff so I have had to neglect a few invites to charadium which I am unfortunately just not mastering. However, I turned on the autocorrect and let's see if that helps.



Here is a quick update:


1. Disneyland. We are trying to make good use of those passes we bought so we have gone now 7 times. I like to dress us all in the same color so I can find everyone quickly but unfortunately this last time I selected brown and everyone just blends it. Red works WAY better. Oh well lesson learned.

2. I have taken a lot of years to discover how much I like this place but there is no other FF place I would rather be than this one (aside from Chick-Fil-A which we don't have here).  I wish this discovery had not come at the beginning of a serious calorie reduction program (which is working great for me, thanks for asking) but I did discover that you can get a "protein style" burger with lettuce instead of a bun that only has 280 calories.  The problem is I love the buns so it kind of loses its fun. 

3. Kinder graduation. Nothing special and it might be a bit of an overly blown ceremony but I still found a joy in watching this little cute girl limp down the aisle.  She is holding our end of the year teacher treats in her hands.

 

I spent most of the ceremony chasing this child:

Gillian was sad that we didn't bring balloons like a lot of the other parents but we told her she had a lot more to go before we would fork out any cash for her.  But still, major milestone!

4.  Katie's birthday bash.  Gooood times at Chilis outdoor exile patio.  We were the only ones out there so we could be loud, and not worry about talking over everyone which is good considering there were 17 adoring fans in attendance.

5.  A songbird flew into our house.  For some reason it was enthralling and scary.  Mary Poppins and Cinderella mainly communicated through windows with them, right?  Here are three of ten shots I took:

6. Cream is yummy. We celebrated Katie's Dessert Contest win by buying a half gallon of cream to make a chocolate trifle. No pics evidently but believe me, it was scrumptious.

Travesty

This is not appropriate for a blog post but it has changed my essence to more of a blue aura so I am going to share it anyway.

Many people go through hard times in their lives and don't want to share it in public because it is so painful.  But I have heard it said that blogging your troubles can ease your worries so please forgive me for sharing something so raw and close to my heart.

My company took away my Macbook Pro and provided me with a Lenovo.

There. I said it.

People can argue that a PC is really comparable to a Mac, that they are so EXPENSIVE etc.  But to quote Michael Scott, do you know what is even more expensive?  Ignorance.

To name just a few of my personal challenges:

--My new machine is racist.  There is no way on a this laptop (other than converting your uiojklm to a ten key) to create accent marks on the web.  People say that you can do it yet no one, no forum, no helper person has been able to tell me how to do this.  Convert your keyboard it says.  Well you know what? I don't need to convert, YOU need to catch up Lenovo.  On a Mac it is opt e, ALL the time.  There is no alt+130, or alt+164 or alt+8796246

--The trackpad is from you know where.  They made it all bumpy for some kind of tactile response, but the think doesn't actually work--the scrolly feature? Yah, lame.  It does work with a rolling mouse so then I have to carry around an extra 24/7.  They threw in that red dot looking thing but it offers nothing but a Hinduiy feeling.

--The search feature, while far superior to the old version of Windows, only allows you to search in that ONE folder, not your whole machine by default like in my old (three years old) Mackypoo.

--The cursor just kind of has a mind of its own.  It does not bend to my will and half the time it only pretends that it is around where you think it is but when you start typing you have jumped the page.  Wha?

I could go on and on but I will end with two essential key points:

-The Lenovo machine I have is supposed to be highly reviewed, fast, etc.  But guess what? the outside of this machine looks exactly the same as the model designed SEVEN years ago.  Catch up people!  This is the age of design.

--When the machine is closed, I can't turn it over and push a button to see my battery life.  SUCH a ripoff.

Oh and btw, this machine broke the first week I had it and I have to open it with a credit card to get the spring to open.  The "TLC package" that our IT team bought for me to "make up for the fact that I won't be able to use the genius bar" has been unable to address the matter for three weeks.  Three weeks.  Backorder.  And they didn't even check it out to see if I needed that particular piece.  If this were an Apple product, I would have had the entire machine replaced with a big fat sorry from a very adorable twenty something apple sales guy within minutes.  A profuse apology even. 

So once again, please accept my apology for sharing something so intimate and believe me there are a lot of details I left out. 

I would appreciate if if you wouldn't try to talk me out of my passion for Apple, Inc. by referencing their bullying of Adobe or how they have now become more capitalist profiteers than Microsoft whom they previously accused of being overly capitalistic and profiteerish.  I don't really care about their politics, I just want my machine back. 

MWF seeking new local BFF

So as you may know my favorite friend Katie is moving all the way across the country.  In fact, there are only a few other places she could move domestically that would be further away (maybe Maine or St. Augustine)

Today we went to the beach.  I hope she posts a pic of either the dead non-singing bass we saw or the seaweed grass skirts (since you don't have an iphone you can mms it to me and I can post it) to show how much fun it was.

I soo heart this friend of mine and she had me at "yeah it was a little crazy" when I questioned her about a event in which we had both participated and were afraid to acknowledge its craziness in public.

Actually even prior to that time I remember that at the first playgroup I attended when moving to SB, she used her mad newsreporter skillz to discover everything about me in a short conversation.  It was only about an hour later when I realized that I didn't know anything about her.

See that is Katie's magic.  She asks the most detailed and interesting questions that make your own life seem infinitely more interesting than it actually is.  Some people talk so much you can hardly get a word in edgewise.  With Katie, you continually fall into a trap of being that guy--she asks so many questions that I always walk away wondering how anyone could listen to me talk for that long and still manage to appear interested.

Most amazing is that Katie isn't using this strategy to deflect from her own lack of interestingness.  She has more creativity in her small toe than most people do in their entire beings yet it takes you at least a year to even scratch the surface.   She takes brilliant pictures, she makes the most carefully crafted boutiquey bows worn by children all over, she has a wild sense of humor that you must listen carefully to catch (or read) and btw, her birthday parties are legendary.  If you are a regular reader, you know that she was our FIRST place baker in our dessert contest.  Her recipes are posted over here if you want some scrumptiousness.  There are so many other things to say about her but I don't want to reveal in ten minutes what it took me four years to learn.  Four years and what feels like a lifetime of friendship.

My one consolation is that Katie and I are friends online already--we read and comment on each other's blogs, facebook updates, and email each other links to funny/inappropriate/political shockery.

My other comfort is that she is moving to such a fun place I will be able to hold out for a periodic family vacation visit.

I won't say I am sad for her, only for me and the gigantic hole she is leaving behind.

Anything I forgot about her?