I'm a part time Title 1 Paraprofessional at Washington Elementary School in Mankato, MN. I work with Kindergarteners and 2nd graders who need extra help in reading and math. This week is Paraprofessional Appreciation Week, and some of the kids have been busy making thank you notes for the Paras that come into their classrooms.
This is just one of the notes I received today. Jessica has maybe said one word out loud to me all year long. She will point to the right answer or write it down, but pretty much never says anything in words. That makes this particular note all the more special to me. I'm the one with the orange hair, by the way.
Click to my Flickr to see the others. Moments like this are why people stay in teaching despite the crappy pay.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Obama's First Dance at the Neighborhood Ball.
I'm sorry...That's just the coolest song ever. I love the fact that Beyonce performed it so wonderfully for the President & First Lady's dance at the Neighborhood Ball last night. He is one smooth dude, and I can't wait to see how this country flourishes under his leadership.
Uber Hubby and I danced to this song at our wedding reception nearly 4 years ago, and it still gets me whenever I hear it. Aretha, that was a nice church hat you wore yesterday, but you've got NOTHING on Etta James.
President Obama, your day has finally arrived. At Last, indeed.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Green Eggs & Ham
Sadly, what you see in this photo is the normal state of my kitchen. I'm the worst housekeeper ever, but somehow Uber Hubby seems to love me anyway, as evidenced by the snazzy (& I'm sure WAY too expensive) diamond stud earrings he snuck around and got me for Christmas. Never mind that we had agreed that our October Wii acquisition was our present to each other...thankfully some guys just don't listen. :-)
Anyway, Gelsey was here for Christmas this year, and one of her gifts was the Paula Deen Kid's Cookbook. It's great because it's got pictures and words in the ingredient list for each recipe, plus there are sections to explain what all the cooking words mean (fold, dice, saute, etc) as well as basic etiquette and table setting. Naturally, she picked the Green Eggs & Ham recipe as her first effort. It helped that it was probably the only one that I actually had all the ingredients for, thanks to the leftover Christmas ham we brought home from dinner at UH's boss' house.
In other news (since I haven't bothered to post in ages)...
I got sick during Thanksgiving week and though I've felt better for quite some time now, shaking the residual cough was hard and I haven't been to the gym since. I knew I needed to get back to it, but my follow up visit with good old Dr. Rath of Mankato Clinic stiffened my resolve. I had been on the verge of being put on Synthroid because of my hypothyroidism, which if left untreated can make weight loss and other things in my life difficult. I thought that's what was making me not lose all that much this past summer despite all the bike riding, but we just redid the bloodwork after waiting a month and now my cholesterol has shot WAY back up and my thyroid is supposedly back within normal limits.
WELL, DAMN... I was thinking the Synthroid would be the answer to a lot of my weight loss problems, but such is not the case for me right now. I have to wait another 6 months before being retested, so in the meantime I have to really get back on the wagon with Seattle Sutton's and I need to get back in the gym. If I don't get this under control, I'll be on cholesterol meds instead of thyroid meds, and to be honest it would be nice to get the weight off without any chemical assistance. I just wish it would happen faster. I also wish the city would plow out the six inches of snow/ice that is blocking the sidewalk across the street so I could more safely run outside, but that's another issue.
Suffice it to say that I really need to get off my behind, and I need to do it SOON. This is NOT some stupid New Year's Resolution that I'm going to break within a month of starting. At this point I'm down about 13 pounds from where I started earlier this year, and while that's a lot less than what I had planned on, at least I haven't slid back all the way to the beginning. I'm also looking forward to Spring, because UH agrees that I can finally get my cargo bike once all the snow is gone!
Anyway, Gelsey was here for Christmas this year, and one of her gifts was the Paula Deen Kid's Cookbook. It's great because it's got pictures and words in the ingredient list for each recipe, plus there are sections to explain what all the cooking words mean (fold, dice, saute, etc) as well as basic etiquette and table setting. Naturally, she picked the Green Eggs & Ham recipe as her first effort. It helped that it was probably the only one that I actually had all the ingredients for, thanks to the leftover Christmas ham we brought home from dinner at UH's boss' house.
In other news (since I haven't bothered to post in ages)...
I got sick during Thanksgiving week and though I've felt better for quite some time now, shaking the residual cough was hard and I haven't been to the gym since. I knew I needed to get back to it, but my follow up visit with good old Dr. Rath of Mankato Clinic stiffened my resolve. I had been on the verge of being put on Synthroid because of my hypothyroidism, which if left untreated can make weight loss and other things in my life difficult. I thought that's what was making me not lose all that much this past summer despite all the bike riding, but we just redid the bloodwork after waiting a month and now my cholesterol has shot WAY back up and my thyroid is supposedly back within normal limits.
WELL, DAMN... I was thinking the Synthroid would be the answer to a lot of my weight loss problems, but such is not the case for me right now. I have to wait another 6 months before being retested, so in the meantime I have to really get back on the wagon with Seattle Sutton's and I need to get back in the gym. If I don't get this under control, I'll be on cholesterol meds instead of thyroid meds, and to be honest it would be nice to get the weight off without any chemical assistance. I just wish it would happen faster. I also wish the city would plow out the six inches of snow/ice that is blocking the sidewalk across the street so I could more safely run outside, but that's another issue.
Suffice it to say that I really need to get off my behind, and I need to do it SOON. This is NOT some stupid New Year's Resolution that I'm going to break within a month of starting. At this point I'm down about 13 pounds from where I started earlier this year, and while that's a lot less than what I had planned on, at least I haven't slid back all the way to the beginning. I'm also looking forward to Spring, because UH agrees that I can finally get my cargo bike once all the snow is gone!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
First ever Hoover Family Christmas Tree
I resisted many people's efforts to draw me into the Christmas spirit for quite awhile. First, I simply REFUSE to have anything to do with it until after Thanksgiving. One holiday at a time, people. I will occasionally do a little advance Christmas gift shopping if time, opportunity, and inspiration strike simultaneously (I once did it all at a craft festival one September), but that's as far as it goes.
We're staying in Mankato this year, marking the first time since I was a little kid that I haven't traveled to see family at Christmas time. It was Uber Hubby's mother's turn to have us this year, but budgetary constraints prevailed. It's just too expensive to spend Christmas in New York City this year, between air fares for multiple people, hotels, etc. I refuse to go someplace like that and worry over every dime I'm spending, so we're going to wait until we're in a better place financially, then do it up right. So...UH's daughter arrives from Tacoma on the 20th, at which point we will pick out the personalized family ornament for this year. She isn't always around to help out with that, so we're also waiting to hang the rest of them until she arrives.
As you can see by the photo though, the rest of the tree is all done. Mitzi, you can show this to Mom to prove that her Christmas box arrived intact and that nothing has been unwrapped in appropriately. We've never had our own tree before, because we've always been traveling and thus never felt like bothering. It took some engineering creativity to get the topper to stay up without flopping over, but on the whole I think it looks very nice, don't you?
We're staying in Mankato this year, marking the first time since I was a little kid that I haven't traveled to see family at Christmas time. It was Uber Hubby's mother's turn to have us this year, but budgetary constraints prevailed. It's just too expensive to spend Christmas in New York City this year, between air fares for multiple people, hotels, etc. I refuse to go someplace like that and worry over every dime I'm spending, so we're going to wait until we're in a better place financially, then do it up right. So...UH's daughter arrives from Tacoma on the 20th, at which point we will pick out the personalized family ornament for this year. She isn't always around to help out with that, so we're also waiting to hang the rest of them until she arrives.
As you can see by the photo though, the rest of the tree is all done. Mitzi, you can show this to Mom to prove that her Christmas box arrived intact and that nothing has been unwrapped in appropriately. We've never had our own tree before, because we've always been traveling and thus never felt like bothering. It took some engineering creativity to get the topper to stay up without flopping over, but on the whole I think it looks very nice, don't you?
Sunday, November 23, 2008
My husband almost had to fight a chick.
Wow...I've never gone 2 whole weeks without posting. Oh well. Anyway...
So UberHubby went up to St Michael with me for last night's Hot Flash hockey game. We won 2-1 by the way, thanks to ME scoring the game winning goal by simply being in the right place at the right time. There was the usual scrum in front of the net, somehow one of their defensemen ended up laying there next to the goalie trying to freeze the puck, which only the goalie is allowed to do. If she'd been smart, she would have knocked the puck as far away as possible when she had to move her hand off of it, but thankfully for me she didn't. I was standing there next to her, positive that the ref was going to blow the whistle at any second, but instead I noticed that he was just staring down at the ice. I looked down, & lo and behold there was the puck, just laying next to the goalie's foot, nobody being the wiser because they all thought it was underneath her somewhere. Since the ref seemed to be waiting for something to happen, I decided to oblige him by poking my stick in there and shoving the puck into the net.
GAME WINNING GOAL FOR ME! It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.
Mass drama ensued...As the ref skated over to report my number to the scorekeeper, the opposing team's coach started an argument with him and ended up getting ejected. I didn't hear all of it, but according to UH (who had graciously agreed to be our volunteer time clock dude) he was screaming at the ref for not blowing the whistle and stopping play (which he would only have had to do if the goalie had actually had control of the puck). At one point I believe their coach actually threatened to meet the ref out in the parking lot, presumably to settle the matter with a 5th grade style fistfight.
This is the bargain basement C3 division of an all women's recreational hockey league, people. Many (if not most) of our players are well over 30 and none of us are headed for the Olympics anytime soon. We're out there for some good fun and exercise. USA Hockey hands out stickers that say "Relax, it's just a game" for a reason, but apparently this guy didn't get the memo.
The drama didn't end there, however. In the locker room, I found out that their goalie had also threatened to meet one of our players out in the parking lot. See a pattern here? I'm headed up the hallway to meet UH, come across their coaches and goalie discussing the play, and the goalie says she had no idea where the puck was. I stopped and told her exactly what had happened, and when confronted with the facts they acted all innocent and nice and then lied to my face about what the argument with the ref was all about. Whatever, people. I moved on up the hallway, found UH, and left the building. THEN he tells me that while he was waiting, he witnessed one of their angry players dropping F-bombs left and right within earshot of small children. He spoke up and said it was unacceptable to speak that way when kids were around, and she turned on him and said "What? You wanna take this outside?" The kids' mom was also a member of their team, and clearly jumped into contention for Mother of the Year by saying "They're my kids, I think it's ok." Excuse me? You think it's cool to drop F-bombs in front of your small ones? Really?
So...Grand total of at least 3 people from this team threatened various people with parking lot ass beatings. Clearly the attitude flows downhill from the coach, who was also overheard berating his players on the bench for making mistakes out on the ice. This is not the NHL, dude...Get a grip. I like my coach's style much better. When we make mistakes (not if...This IS C3, after all), he finds a way to tell us how to think and do better on the ice without cutting us down. Thanks, Doug.
Still, I think UH is contemplating whether or not he should have let Angry F-Bomb Chick punch him, so then he could have sued her for enough money to wipe out our credit card debt and pay for another European cycling trip. Tough choice, I know.
So UberHubby went up to St Michael with me for last night's Hot Flash hockey game. We won 2-1 by the way, thanks to ME scoring the game winning goal by simply being in the right place at the right time. There was the usual scrum in front of the net, somehow one of their defensemen ended up laying there next to the goalie trying to freeze the puck, which only the goalie is allowed to do. If she'd been smart, she would have knocked the puck as far away as possible when she had to move her hand off of it, but thankfully for me she didn't. I was standing there next to her, positive that the ref was going to blow the whistle at any second, but instead I noticed that he was just staring down at the ice. I looked down, & lo and behold there was the puck, just laying next to the goalie's foot, nobody being the wiser because they all thought it was underneath her somewhere. Since the ref seemed to be waiting for something to happen, I decided to oblige him by poking my stick in there and shoving the puck into the net.
GAME WINNING GOAL FOR ME! It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.Mass drama ensued...As the ref skated over to report my number to the scorekeeper, the opposing team's coach started an argument with him and ended up getting ejected. I didn't hear all of it, but according to UH (who had graciously agreed to be our volunteer time clock dude) he was screaming at the ref for not blowing the whistle and stopping play (which he would only have had to do if the goalie had actually had control of the puck). At one point I believe their coach actually threatened to meet the ref out in the parking lot, presumably to settle the matter with a 5th grade style fistfight.
This is the bargain basement C3 division of an all women's recreational hockey league, people. Many (if not most) of our players are well over 30 and none of us are headed for the Olympics anytime soon. We're out there for some good fun and exercise. USA Hockey hands out stickers that say "Relax, it's just a game" for a reason, but apparently this guy didn't get the memo.
The drama didn't end there, however. In the locker room, I found out that their goalie had also threatened to meet one of our players out in the parking lot. See a pattern here? I'm headed up the hallway to meet UH, come across their coaches and goalie discussing the play, and the goalie says she had no idea where the puck was. I stopped and told her exactly what had happened, and when confronted with the facts they acted all innocent and nice and then lied to my face about what the argument with the ref was all about. Whatever, people. I moved on up the hallway, found UH, and left the building. THEN he tells me that while he was waiting, he witnessed one of their angry players dropping F-bombs left and right within earshot of small children. He spoke up and said it was unacceptable to speak that way when kids were around, and she turned on him and said "What? You wanna take this outside?" The kids' mom was also a member of their team, and clearly jumped into contention for Mother of the Year by saying "They're my kids, I think it's ok." Excuse me? You think it's cool to drop F-bombs in front of your small ones? Really?
So...Grand total of at least 3 people from this team threatened various people with parking lot ass beatings. Clearly the attitude flows downhill from the coach, who was also overheard berating his players on the bench for making mistakes out on the ice. This is not the NHL, dude...Get a grip. I like my coach's style much better. When we make mistakes (not if...This IS C3, after all), he finds a way to tell us how to think and do better on the ice without cutting us down. Thanks, Doug.
Still, I think UH is contemplating whether or not he should have let Angry F-Bomb Chick punch him, so then he could have sued her for enough money to wipe out our credit card debt and pay for another European cycling trip. Tough choice, I know.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
She shoots, she SCORES!
Woo Hoo! Game 3 of the Hot Flash season tonight, and we won 11-0. I scored once and had two assists, so it was a red letter day for me. Honestly, I'm happy as long as I get at least one goal each season, and then the rest (if there is any) is just gravy. I'm trying not to dwell on the other 3 really good shots that just barely missed.
Hockey is such fun.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
First Cold Weather Run of the Season
It had to be done sometime, right? Believe it or not, I actually PREFER for it to be cold outside when I run. I just get soooo hot otherwise, and that just sucks. Today was a bit on the windy side (22 mph winds made a wind chill of 19), but once I got out there and got going it really wasn't that bad. On the upside, I was able to warm up indoors using our new Wii system. Nothing like a little Wii Tennis to get the juices flowing, right? On the downside, as I was running down Monks Blvd (which has a nice, wide shoulder once the sidewalk runs out), some jerk purposely swerved his car towards me in a deliberate effort to scare the crap out of me, coming within just a few inches of snuffing me out for good. Good news, my friend....Karma is a bitch, and now she knows your name. I hope you get what's coming to you.
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