Burning The Souffle

Come on and SNOW!

Rachel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:06:07 +0000

Tonight, I went out for dinner with my awesome friend (and former roomie) H. Just so you know, I laughed so hard that I almost peed! (And let’s just say that when we lived together, there were a few times when it wasn’t an almost-she is a screech!) We ate our dinner and then decided to do a little shopping. When we got done with our shopping, we walked outside to find that it was SNOWING! BIG, HUGE snowflakes!

However, when I look out my window, it just looks like rain. Bummer. I even walked out onto the balcony of my apartment, but I still couldn’t really tell much. (It has a roof.)

We have had several snow days since I have been teaching, and I have gotten spoiled, I want another snow day.

I think I have the beginnings of a sinus infection, so I could even use this day to go to the doctor and get it checked out.

Anyway, you should all wear your pajamas inside out and do a little snow dance for me.

SnickerSnort*

Rachel — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:37:50 +0000

As many of you know, I am doing my student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom this semester. I looove Kindergarten. Don’t get me wrong, it has it’s challenges, like anything does, but all in all I think this is a pretty awesome age. One of the best parts of being around young children is the privilege of hearing all the things they say. Young children don’t typically have a “filter”-whatever they think is usually whatever they say. Which is why I have an awesome poker face. Here are a few of the cute/funny/precious/precocious things I’ve been privileged enough to overhear lately:

*There are long benches outside of the school, on my way in one cold morning, I run into A:

A: “Hi Miss Rachel!”

Me: “Hey A, whatcha up to?”

A: “I’m waiting for B to get here.”

Me:” Ok, just don’t get too cold out here.” (This was way before school starts, and people are out there with the kids, so she was fine staying out there.)

I carry on and go to the classroom door, which is still locked. I’m standing outside the door with a few other early arrivals, when A comes up.

Me: “Hey A, did you find B?”

A: “NO. She is always late and it’s really pissing me off!”

Me *struggling not to keel over laughing*: “I am sorry that she made you mad, maybe her family is running late this morning.”

The gem of my time spent with them so far has to be what happened today though- This morning, the kids were cutting some stuff out that they had to sequence. I saw one little girl, B, cutting and giving pieces of paper to her friends, but I thought nothing of it since they were obviously supposed to be cutting paper at the time.

Then, we got ready to go to lunch. Fridays are ice cream days, so most of the kids have extra money to buy ice cream with. As we are lining up for lunch, B says she doesn’t have her dollar. J fills in the regular classroom teacher that B did indeed have a dollar, but she had cut it into pieces.

Why?

So everyone could have some money to buy ice cream with.

Yes, she had cut the dollar into smaller strips and given pieces to her friends, so they could buy ice cream.

A lengthy discussion followed about how cutting money turns it into trash.

You have to love it though, her heart was totally in the right place…she just didn’t quite get the concept of “making change.”

Small Pet Peeve

Rachel — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:49:48 +0000

I’ve noticed something in stores lately that kind of gets on my nerves- every skillet, pot, etc seems to be made with that stupid non-stick stuff.

I REALLY hate that stuff.

First of all, if you are cooking ground beef or something in it, you cannot use a fork. HELLO, cooking ground beef without using a fork is a pain and a half. The reason why you cannot use a fork is because that *^%%@@ non-stick stuff will be scratched…guess where the small pieces go- INTO YOUR FOOD!

Now, I’ve eaten some strange things in my life, but I’d rather not make teflon one of them.

Secondly, I actually made the mistake of buying one of those &^^%&% pots a few months ago. Why? Because that was honestly all I could find and I needed a pot to cook with. ( I don’t have a full set of cookware…I have a few different pieces that I’ve pulled together and what I don’t have I steal from my mom, hehe.) So, I cook with the pot a few times…then, one night, I was cooking something that needed to be cooked at like medium-high…not all the way super-high, just medium-high.

The *&((#*# “non-stick” stuff SCORCHED. As in, it melted. Oh boy, look what’s for dinner-chemicals!

I even washed the pot to make sure that it wasn’t just burned cheese or something stuck to the bottom of the pan. Nope, definitely scorched the pot. Yuck. Dinner fail.

Anyway, I have since replaced that pot with a stainless steel one that even has a built in strainer (which I love, you don’t have to mess up a collander). However, I had to search high and low before I finally found it at this kitchen supply store.

So, in conclusion, I would really appreciate it if all that crap would just go far, far away. I will stick with copper/stainless steel/ cast-iron cookware from here on out. I don’t care if I have to buy 100 million cans of Pam over my lifetime, I am never buying that &^&^&*# non-stick stuff again!

Please

Rachel — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:06:01 +0000

Please keep my best friend Ivy in your thoughts and prayers, because she and her family need them right now…I don’t want to delve into their family life without her permission, but they could really use prayers and good thoughts right now.

I love my friend, and I can’t stand to see her worried or sad.

Ewww

Rachel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:32:59 +0000

Today I am at home for another snow day (this is my fourth one in a row…I am getting sooo spoiled!). I got up a little earlier than I had really intended to, so I decided to watch a little tv before actually getting up and doing anything. As I think I have mentioned before, I have comcast digital cable and I loooove it (no, comcast did NOT pay me to write that….although I would be an awesome spokesperson for them!). What I love the most actually is OnDemand, which lets you pick from a whole bunch of different shows, movies, etc, any time you want.

So there I was, shuffling through different programs, when I came upon a little gem entitled “Duggars-Birds and the Bees”.

Now, pinko that I am, you would assume that I would have no interest in watching the Duggars in any shape, form or fashion. But for some reason I just can’t turn away….it’s like watching a train wreck! (Albeit, a very polite train wreck.)

Anyway, I turn the “birds and the bees” mini-episode on and see that the Duggar dad is going to give his oldest son a talk on the birds and the bees….SHORTLY BEFORE THE OLDEST SON’S WEDDING.

I am sorry, but that is pretty eww to me. Not the fact that his dad gave him a sex talk, but the fact that it was about, oh, I don’t know, 10 years late? I mean, I actually think the poor kid knew next-to-nothing. At one point he even says “I think I kind of understand how it works..” To which his dad says “It’s kind of like legos!” (Note to self: can never, EVER, look at legos in same way again!) I can’t imagine just finding out the basics and then be expected to play the home game…I mean, isn’t that kind of like deciding to go pre-med on your first day of college and being expected to take the MCAT the next day? There are some things that need a little time to sink in, if you know what I mean.

I got the sex talk when I was around 9 or 10 or so….way, way, way before I ever even thought about doing “the deed”. Which, in my own humble opinion, is the way that it should be…before I ever thought about experimenting or anything like that.

Now onto my next issue of snark- the happy couple was ALSO saving their first kiss for one another…oh gag. Now this is definitely something that I think is worthy of a little practice. In case you are curious, I had my first real kiss when I was 14 (which I think is pretty average)….and it was not exactly the foot popping kiss of my dreams either. It was awkward, because HELLO, I was 14, and what is NOT awkward when you are 14? I seem to recall that our teeth mildly hit together…oh, and for a special added bonus, I had braces. Had that happened on my wedding day, I not only would have been mortified, I probably would have been put off kissing for a lifetime.

Don’t worry though, even at the age of 14, I understood that some things take practice, and as a result my teeth have not made contact with any other person’s teeth in years. I also don’t have braces anymore, and am much less awkward…most of the time.

No related posts.

New New New

Rachel — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:59:01 +0000

This has been a week of new things.

My first new thing is that I started student teaching in Kindergarten yesterday. I took two classes last semester all about teaching Kindergarten and Pre-K, in which I was also required to teach Pre-K and Kindergarten.

The verdict on my new teaching digs? I love it. I am already completely crazy about the kids…I think they like me too. Several of them wanted to make sure I would still be there after lunch, several of them gave me hugs, and three little girls invited me to play tangrams with them during center time. I have learned MOST of their names, and they are working on mine. My last name is confusing for kids to say, so I always just request to be called Ms. Rachel. Before this experience I have been Ms. Wachel, Ms. Chelle (one little boy started calling me that and it caught on with the whole class), Ms. Teacher (that was a class of 3 year olds), and various other things. Today though I got a new one- Ms. Racecar. That has got to be the best one ever.

My other new thing for the week is…..bellydancing!

Tonight me and my bff Ivy went to our first bellydancing class. I loved it and cannot wait to go back. I am going to be very sore tomorrow though! It is totally a real workout, and get your mind out of the gutter, totally not skeezy. I love doing workouts that don’t require any equipment. Plus it’s just a lot of fun, so I am going to look forward to going to it instead of dreading it.

So those are my new things for the week. I hope all of you out there in blogland will try something new this week too!

Nice to see I haven’t changed…

Rachel — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:12:04 +0000

I found an old post today that made me feel good about myself.

You see, some people change so much that they aren’t at all like who they started out as.

Me? I’ve remained true to my roots.

How do I know?

This is how I know:

My kitchen floor still needs mopping (don’t worry, I mopped up the mess from two years ago), this time because I washed pants with kleenex in the pockets and it shredded and went EVERYWHERE! (My laundry closet is in the kitchen, which is why most of it is on the kitchen floor.)

My washing machine always has green splotches on it because I dribble detergent every time I pour it out.

My living room carpet still has dots in it from where the bottom of the three hole punch accidentally fell off and THOUSANDS of paper dots went EVERYWHERE! I vacuum and vacuum but they still seem to turn up everywhere.

My bathroom wall has a big beige streak on it because my make-up tube got clogged…when I squeezed it, I squeezed SUPER HARD and it flew ALL OVER! Too bad my super paleness didn’t match the shade of the walls. (Also, it is important to remember to use high-gloss paint in the bathroom..the other kind does not wipe clean. Too bad my landlord did not know this before I moved in.)

So yeah…I never will be June Cleaver. I’m more of a Lucy Ricardo. And that is just fine with me.

Flavored Medicine

Rachel — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:52:09 +0000

I just saw a pharmacy commercial advertising those flavor add-ins you can get for your kids medicine.

I had one thought and one thought only:

I had to suffer through years of icky tasting medicine; why shouldn’t they?

If anyone deserves that stuff, it’s adults, for our years of taking medicine that tasted like, well, medicine.

I can remember taking some sort of stuff that was so awful my mom would pinch my nose shut while I opened my mouth reaaaaallllly wide and she sort of just poured the medicine in really quickly, then she would pour a whole bunch of water in my mouth to wash the taste out. Blechhh.

Of course, like every kid, I had the grape-flavored tyelenol and cough syrup. I liked the taste of the cough syrup so much I was willing to fake a little cough every once in awhile so I could have a little nip. (Uh, I’m sure that sends up all sorts of red flags to all the child psychology people out there.)

Actually, that brings up a good point- if it tastes good, kids will want it. Won’t the flavored medicine encourage them to take more than they are supposed to?

Medicine should taste like medicine.

Unless it’s for me.

Maybe the next time I am sick I will ask the pharmacist if they carry margarita flavored medicine.

Andrea’s 5 Quotations Meme

Rachel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:25:42 +0000

I was tagged by the lovely Andrea, author of gathering.dust!

Here are the rules:

Go here and browse through the random quotes until you find five that you feel reflect who you are or what you believe. Repost and tag five friends (if you want).

Here are my five quotes:

1. “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars…Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. “Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.”- George Iles.

3. “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You musn’t lose it.”- Robin Williams

4.” I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”-Mae West

5. “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.”- Marilyn Monroe

I tag whoever else wants to do this!

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Win/Fail: Tuesday Edition

Rachel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:22:41 +0000

The WINS and FAILS of the day are as follows:

WIN- Woke up on time!

FAIL-Woke up every two hours last night because Little Miss M kept making some sort of smacking noise with her mouth.

WIN-Honey Grahams for breakfast- dry, with milk on the side…just the way I like them.

WIN- Got to seminar early.

WIN- Took a walk outside today in the nice weather…the temp hovered around 60 degrees all day. Thank you Tennessee weather!

WIN- Cleaned the shower.

FAIL- Almost asphyxiated self with clorox green works while cleaning said shower.

WIN- Spelled asphyxiated without aid of spell check!

WIN- Apartment smells like fresh sheets, clean air, and the moonlight path wallflower. I wish I could bottle the scent and send it to everyone…you can’t be unhappy when your house smells fab.

WIN- Pasta for dinner with friend C!

WIN- Sushi for supper with Ivy!

WIN-Going to the grocery store and buying ONLY healthy food.

WIN-Taking a shower in a sparkling clean shower.

FAIL-Getting water on the bathroom floor while you take a shower because you didn’t pull the curtain closed all the way.

WIN- Re-reading “Harry Potter” in your bed with freshly washed sheets!

I see a lot more wins than fails here, so I’m going to declare today a pretty damn good day.