Bride + Groom + Bathtub = Awesome

We had our first wedding of the season this past Saturday up in Rancho Bernardo, and it was an amazing one to kick off the crazy summer wedding season!

Jessica and John were so fun and playful. When they tentatively asked if we could take a picture in the house's awesome bathtub, Chris and I were like, um, yes! We love taking weird photos! Weird photos always end up being the best photos, and come on, this photo is ridiculously epic. 

Also wanted to point out the chevron table runners. Man, I wish chevron had been a "thing" back when we got married! Ugh, it would have been awesome with our yellow and gray color scheme!

The end of the year.

At our last staff meeting of the year, we were asked to write two things on "the wall,"  a giant piece of butcher paper that serves as a sort of teacher exit ticket after each meeting.

The first thing we were to write was what we learned about ourselves this year.

I wrote: "I can do it." Big emphasis on the can.

The second part was what we learned about our students.

"There is good in them."

Sometimes it takes me awhile to come up with good, thoughtful answers for these type of things. But for these, I knew my answer within seconds. I was third to the wall to write my answers, only because the first two people were sitting right next to it.

How in the world did I get through this year? I still have no idea. For all practical purposes, someone like me, who hates to be in front of people, hates to be in charge, hates conflict, and, did I mention hates being up in front of people?-- someone like me shouldn't even consider teaching as an option. And yet I did, and I got through my first year, with the most ridiculous, crazy eighth graders to boot.

There was drama. There was conflict. There was a lot of me putting my foot down and having to put my  "mean teacher" face on to get them to settle down and learn. And there was a lot of me being in front of people. 130 little-ish people, every day.

I did it. For a whole year, I did it.

(But thank the Good Lord it's summer time now. I don't know how much more I could take.)

The part about their being good in them... I had my doubts for the first half of the year or so. I know the first year is generally the hardest for a new teacher and all, but I can confidently say this was no ordinary class. I've heard stories going all the way back to second grade of these kiddos and their shenanigans. These kids gave me grief every day. They were defiant. They talked back. They talked during lessons. They skulked and became sullen when they were required to work independently ("what do you mean, no talking?!"). They got angry when they received discipline for doing the most ridiculous of things that you would think no one would ever dream of doing in Algebra class.

This was no ordinary class of thirteen-year-olds. 

But now, and this may be the last week of school euphoria talking, I can say I really have enjoyed these kids. Despite all the craziness and the sleepless nights and frustrating arguments, there really is so much good in them.

They are helpers to the extreme. Anything that needed to be done, they all were raising their hands to volunteer. Or asking me ahead of time if I needed anything done. I didn't have to pass back papers, clean the board, or take out the recycling all year. (Super bummed I did most of my own filing though. Didn't think of doling that out till last week!)

They are super bright. They asked questions I would never have expected of 8th graders. They asked questions I'd never thought of. They came up with new methods of solving problems on their own. They cared about their grades (albeit some only when test day came along).

They're quirky and ridiculous, which is great because I'm quirky and ridiculous. They have said and done some of the funniest things I think I'll ever hear. I will forever remember the time in fifth period where someone said something that was just so random I couldn't help breaking my straight-face, down-to-business mode and the kids were just thrilled when I had to pause to laugh at the ridiculousness. I just stood there shaking my head and trying not to smile, but it was just too funny.

We have exactly one week left of school. Two more days of lessons this week, and three days of 8th grade activities, ending with the moving up ceremony next Wednesday night. And then they're gone. These 130 kids, whom I've fought with and fought for the past 9 months that have seemed more like 9 years, will move on to high school, and most of them I'll never see again.

That's so weird.

So here's to one more week of school. One more week of picking battles, practicing patience, and enjoying the laughs they bring.

One more week.

Friday Night

It's Friday night. I've been laying in bed since around 5pm, relishing in the fact that it is indeed Friday, and I can officially be sick. Got hit with some kind of weird sore throat in the middle of the Wednesday night, but one can't be sick on a Thursday. (One can cancel tutoring, however, and go home earlier than planned.)

Today I masked it as much as possible, but luckily I foresaw my voice dying early on in the day and prepared a short video for the kiddos to explain the mixture problems (with cute illustrations to boot). Mixture problems can be the bane of an Algebra teacher's existence. Luckily, my 8th graders are the types who, when told, "Okay, now, this is one of the most difficult concepts...", somehow rise to the occasion and declare about ten minutes into the lesson that this is in fact quite easy. I think they do it just to be contrary.

Of course, the reverse is also true: when I think they're going to have an easy day of it, all I get are panic-crazed thirteen year olds writhing around in the classroom.

Complicated mixture word problems? Sure!

Completing the square to solve a quadratic equation? Sounds easy enough!

Making a table of values to graph an equation? What is this dark magic you're trying to teach us?!

Sigh.

That reminds me of a story from this week. Whenever I have to get on a kid about being off task, the standard retort is, "But I wasn't talking!" No one seems to understand that it's not the talking, it's the off-tasking. Anyway, yesterday during a quiz (a no-talking no matter what time, obviously), one of the boys let out a sigh, along with saying the word, "sigh." I gave him the Look. And he said, "What? I was just sighing." Oh, how the lines get blurred when you're in 8th grade.

Chris and I just counted up the remaining weeks of school. Three full weeks + 2 days left! And there's a Memorial Day break of 4 school days thrown in there, too. Seriously, I don't even know what I'll do with my life this summer.

Iphone shots from the last few weeks:

We did a one-year-old shoot with the Saura family a couple weekends ago. It was nice being out on the beach early in the morning.

After the twins' shoot, Chris accompanied me to my kid's Math Field Day, which happened to be at a Catholic school/church where we shot Gabby and Bill's wedding last year. Chris wasn't so into the whole field day thing, so he found a quiet conference room to work in. Wish I could show the pics of the girls celebrating one of their wins, but I can't publish student photos on my personal blog.

My little garden continues to grow! Although I had to get rid of one of my lettuce plants because of an aphid infestation, the parsley continues to flourish. We bought a basil plant a couple weekends ago as well and it's looking good still, too. The cilantro's not doing a great job of growing back yet after I harvested some, though.

This was one of the most delicious smoothies I've made. Tried out dandelion greens for it, but the kicker was the lemon and lemon zest. Made it taste like a refreshing summery lemonade!

My little classroom one morning. I got there super early this morning to make sure I could get my copies done before anyone else got there. And I was beat by a sixth grade teacher by one minute.

Last Monday we got a random text from Jesse to come over for an impromptu poker night. So we did. Chris played, and I sat in the corner on a bean bag chair and did my lesson plans.

Last week I got on a crazy sleep pattern. I would fall asleep as soon as I got home, sleep for about four hours, and then wake up pumped. Got my work done from around 9pm-2am, then went back to bed and felt fine all day at school. This happened about three nights in a row before Chris complained that he didn't get to see me with this schedule. (I think he also added that, surprisingly, he missed me, the little stinker.)

Did I ever mention the cats just fawn all over Chris when he gets home?

Students like these have made this first teaching year better. :)

The other day was a flowery headband day.

And I got a real flower for Mother's Day from one of my students. I don't know if he really knew the meaning behind the holiday.

We shot this guy's one-year shoot, too.

As well as an engagement session in North Park, where Chris creeper style shot from behind this plant.

Jack continues to love drinking the shower water. He mews every morning for me to turn the water on for him, but he only likes it when it's hot.

Teacher Appreciation week  = gift cards, candy, and lotions. Plus a car wash certificate, because one of my students noted my car was really dirty! Ha!

Crazy sleeper.

And finishing up with an impromptu trip to Olive Garden. Chris met me after work and let me pick the place. Mmmmmmmm, chicken gnocchi....

Blog Update, what?

No, seriously. Somehow I've found myself with a "free" night.

On a Wednesday.

That's in the middle of the week, if you're counting.

So technically, I would't call it a free night. I should use it to get ahead on next week's plans, especially since next Thursday is my evaluation day by our principal. Which means I need an excellent, too-cool-for-school 8th grade-engaging, rocking lesson plan on completing the square. Because nothing says school's fun like completing the square.

Anywhos.

Here's some stuff that's been going on, per my photo stream.


I got to scrapbook over spring break! Just one little page, but I also got to start Project Life (a few months late).

We had house guests for about half an hour. I found these cuties wandering down Greenfield Drive on the Friday of spring break, and I couldn't leave them out on the street to get hit by a car! Animal control came to get them after they'd made themselves at home on our porch.

Jack did not like the houseguests. Sawyer wouldn't even come out to look at them.

 Guy's poker night/girl's craft night at the Holz's.

 Chris getting down and dirt at Becky and Kris Cowen's maternity shoot. We did the shoot in the same spot that we did our engagement pictures in three years ago, so that was cool.

Don't know why this picture is sideways. I turned it right side up in Photo Booth....

This one either. But this is me trying to get a pic of us both before it got too dark in the house. I don't like grainy pictures. Chris doesn't like being interrupted form his Batman game.

We've been really into spicy lemongrass pho lately. Luckily there's a place right down the street.

The days are longer again, thanks to spring. I love seeing light pour in the house at 6:30pm.

This is mine and Sawyer's nap spot.

Crazy kiddos at their maternity shoot.

Believe it or not, we had another houseguest within a week of the last two. This cutie was running around our condo complex. Chris and two other neighbors spent 45 minutes chasing down her brother who was not nearly as friendly.

Ha. They were only traumatized for the first ten minutes. When I checked on them again, they were at the screen getting friendly. They could totally handle it if we got a small dog.

Love him. On Matt, Donna, and James' family shoot/1 year shoot for James. That kid was serious.

Mornings. See Chris' hair in the background?

Trying to grow stuff on our porch this year and being much more successful than last spring. Although my basil and arugula kicked the bucket already, I've managed to grow tons of cilantro, and this spinach is starting to grow.

We saw West Side Story with the family in L.A. this weekend. It wasn't great, but it was a fun outing with our favorite people.

Today. My kids decided my outfit was cute today. So I snapped a picture of it.

Okay, that's enough goofing off for now. Gotta go find something fun to do while teaching how to complete the square.

Three Years Later

We returned to our engagement shoot spot, this time as photographers ourselves. Just over three years ago, we were engaged and standing in front of that old barn. It's been an adventure for sure. :)

Ten on Tuesday

1. It has been almost two months since my last post! Sometimes I lay awake at night and think about the things I would have blogged if I had time.

2. I'm currently taking a break to eat dinner and catch up on other blogs. (It's hard to use InDesign and hold a fork at the same time.) Saw someone else's Ten on Tuesday and thought, "I have enough time to write ten quick things!" So here we are.

3. Today was a difficult day. My first module was pretty bad. Someone threw a stink bomb in another classroom. I had a whiny kid in third module. And in my fifth, I made my first kid cry. To be fair, she cried because she had done something inappropriate and I was letting her know exactly how her actions had affected other people and she was actually taking it seriously, so at least it was kind of a win. But it still wasn't pleasant for me.

4. We just had a weekend off. It was amazing! We sat at home. Chris got an entire engagement session done in two days. I had two full days to work on school stuff.

5. Somewhere in that weekend, we also fit in repotting our succulents (we kind of killed them off...) and I went to Home Depot for this season's attempts at growing things. Got some lettuce, arugula, basil, and some starter seeds that we'll see if I can actually get to grow.

6. Ry came over one of those nights. We made awesome quesadillas and watched Argo. Good movie, but I'm finding I can't handle intense movies very well anymore. I become a stress case throughout the whole thing!

7. Jack has officially learned how to do the "happy dance" on command. His happy dance is the rolling dance he does at the front door whenever one of us comes homes (or Ryan comes over- Ry's special). He's done it since he was a baby, and I've been trying to teach him to do it when I say, "Where's your happy dance?" And. He. Does. Smartest cat ever.

8. Sawyer continues to be pretty.

9. We went kayaking (in February!) last week on our day off. Cool experience, but we were tired! Hopefully I can do a full, real post on it with the pics. We rented a water proof camera to document the experience.

10. And, before I get back to work, what am I currently working on? I mentioned InDesign before... I've started creating my own worksheets and help documents in InDesign and I'm loving how they look. Now instead of searching for the perfect worksheet that covers everything my kids need to know, in the order I want to teach it in, I just make it myself. It's time consuming, but it's also a creative outlet, so it's working for me. Maybe I could be a math textbook designer... how does one get a gig like that?

Saturday

Plotting the succulents while our two babies watch from afar.