the girls that made my morning

 

my lovely friend and fellow girl scout mom, miss bridget is volunteering at the school today. she just sent me a picture text that made my morning- a photo of my scouts voluntarily gathered together around a picnic table enjoying their lunches. smiles.

hot for teacher

apologies about the title, i just couldn't help myself. but it's true. brian is a teacher. a part-time ROP/adult ed auto shop teacher. the king of the comfort zone successfully jumped through a million hoops to get his vocational teaching credential and then jumped through a few million more to land a job.

collecting letters of recommendation was one of the more enjoyable parts of the journey. brian has a fabulous teacher/customer/uncle who, as luck would have it, doesn't share his last name. because i could never speak to my husbands qualities as eloquently as uncle bill, here is an exert from the kindest, most genuine letter of recommendation i have ever had the pleasure of reading:

Over the course of my 34 year teaching career, I know what it takes to teach young men and women who want to learn to work with their hands in addition to their minds. Brian is the ideal sort of person to teach auto shop. He combines a comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter with years of real world experience. This gives him instant credibility with students. He can genuinely say “been there, done that”. Brian has serviced all of my vehicles for the past several years. In short, he knows his stuff when it comes to auto repair. Whether the job was big or small, he completed all repairs quickly, professionally, and correctly.

In addition to his knowledge, he is an honest man. At at time when the public seems wary of price gouging and false repairs, Brian stands as a beacon of honesty. My associations with him over the years have proven him to be a man of both honor and integrity. This extends into his private life as well as I know his wife and children and know the way he treats them. He is a solid family man. In addition to teaching students about cars, he will teach them about the value of honesty and solid life relationships by his own example.

Brian has the personality that makes him a natural teacher. He is patient, keeps a cool head, and knows how to make complex tasks easy to understand for even the rawest novice. He is fun-loving but commands order and respect. These are the things that will be required to reach some of these students.

i second that.

trouble pants goes to school

i will not lie. i have dreamed about this moment for a long time. it's been a calming thought through many a storm. it's okay, don't worry, only x number of years until they're all in school.

brian and i were supposed to drop levi off and go out to breakfast to celebrate this tiny sliver of three hour, two day a week freedom. but apparently it's not very fun to celebrate with someone who can't stop sobbing. literally, for more than an hour.

but this isn't about me, is it? this was trouble's milestone. and unlike his mother, he handled it with dignity. he marched up to school swinging his lighting mcqueen lunch box, guided us to his classroom, and hung it in his cubby like an old pro. he is attending the same school as miley did (the one with all the alarms) and was excited to finally get his chance to stay and play.

three hours later, he emerged from class proudly displaying a smiley face sticker on the toe of his new chucks. 4 weeks later, the shoes no longer look new but the sticker is still there. levi would be happy if every day were a school day and if every school day were a share day. and as far as i know, he hasn't done any major damage to anyone/thing in class (knock on a big piece of wood).

my final act of rebellion

all that being said, man, i love those girls

this is a post about what i loved about facebook and why i had to quit (and its not because my sister outed me). disclaimer: this is not a judgment on fb users. this is about why it doesn't work for me. you see, i am an all or nothing kind of a gal. moderation has never been my specialty. it was all, and now it needs to be nothing.

i loved- competing against my aunt in addicting fb games, keeping tabs on my cousins, uploading mobile photos, rekindling old friendships, and nourishing new ones. i really did.

but i hit rock bottom walking through target the other day- i saw a cute dress and literally thought to myself 'like button.' my linguistics professor recently defined 'cliche' as 'an excuse not to think for yourself.' omg, then what does that make my overused fb acronyms!?

and i'm just too white bread already: i live in a planned community, author a blog, lead a girl scout troop, and spend my free time gluing giant googly eyes on kindergarten handprint crabs. i need a bit of nonconformity to maintain my sanity (as always, using that term very loosely). since tiff and brian pulled rank, forbid me to pierce my nose, tattoo my foot, or grow dreadlocks, i will delete my facebook account in my final act of rebellion.

as part of my detoxing process, i plan to give my husband that waste-of-money, addictive-as-all-getout smart phone of mine. but you'll never take my texting. i'll hide that full keyboard under my arm and run away screaming like trouble pants with a chocolate bar.

i'm going to publish before i loose my gusto. i've lost too much gusto already.