Author Archives: Elisabeth

About Elisabeth

The joyous and sometimes odd adventures of a former English teacher and her trusty sidekicks, Jared the Hottie Husband and her two Italian Greyhounds, Stinky Stevie and Bonnie Boo. Recently the adorable baby, Princess Evelyn, has joined the clan to shake things up!
Aug20

If you value your life…

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If you value your life…

…Don’t leave it alone with Bonnie.

Case in point:

I was making dinner to bring to a lady from church who recently had a baby. It’s too hot to leave Bonnie and Stevie outside for long periods of time (unfortunately) and so I left them sleeping cutely on the couch. A few minutes later, I heard a crunching sound.

Immediately, as if it were a dirty curse word, I thought, “BONNIE!” And sure enough, she was chewing on one of my favorite pens.

Fortunately, I caught it in time that the pen will still be useable.

Later in the evening, I was cleaning up the house so Jared could return home to a nice, clean place (which makes him very happy). I had put my glasses on the little banister area between our breakfast nook and the family room, so I thought they were safe.

I was so very, very wrong.

Because I was vacuuming, I came too late to save them. Bonnie had jumped up, managed to get the glasses, and brought them back to the couch to happily gnaw away on them for a good fifteen minutes.

This is what was left:

 

What should have been a long, wonderful life was cut tragically short. You didn’t even make it the full year. Hopefully I can get replacements soon so I don’t have to depend on the backup glasses Bonnie also mangled (not as badly).

R.I.P., glasses. R.I.P.

Aug18

Unlikely Friendships

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Unlikely Friendships

I hate being completely alone. One, because my irrational mind hears and sees all sorts of things that aren’t really there but could turn into something you see in a horror movie. Two, because I’ve just gotten used to having my best friend with me the vast majority of the time. Even when he snores at 2:30 in the morning. 😉

The first trip I handled fairly well, and the same with the second. And I know that he’s been planning on this one for a while now, but three business trips in three months after years of NOT having to do those things… I just don’t like it.

Knowing how I was not looking forward to him leaving, Jared bought me a book that he knew would make me smile. He actually gave it to me two days ago, but he knew I would need something to help me through today, and especially tonight. And it is.

I mean, look at that picture right there. If that doesn’t make some part of you go “Awwww….” then there might just be something wrong with you.

This book has forty-seven stories of heartwarming bonds developed across species of animals. Some aren’t too weird, like between baby birds of different species. Others are surprisingly different, such as the lioness and the baby oryx, or the elephant and the stray dog.

Naturally, you can’t forget to include that ALL stories have cute, cuddly pictures involved. It’s just a feel-good book.

So, thank you, Jared, for leaving me a present that you know would help reduce my anxiety while you were gone. Just looking through it again has helped me feel so much happier. Yet again, another one of your thoughtful, simple gestures has become a highlight, the positive thought, for my day.

Aug17

Two completely unrelated but interesting articles

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Two completely unrelated but interesting articles

Since I am a Texas school teacher–don’t judge me– I feel rather obligated to post this first article. I don’t really view my self as radically politically overly involved, but I am concerned when people talk positively about a certain Texan who would have himself be a U.S. President (the same man who is very responsible for hurting the education of thousands of Texas students for his own political gain).

Plus, this article is pretty funny. It starts with “If Rick Perry and George W. Bush had been born in the same family, W would have become known to friends as ‘the smart one.'”

To read “A Tale of Two Texans,” please click here.

On a MUCH more positive note, here is an article on why The Hunger Games is an awesome book for both boys and girls.

Still don’t believe me? Just ask my dad. The same guy who hasn’t read a book “for fun” in a really long time. While he and my mom visited in early August, I convinced him to try the book. Just read the first 70 pages, and if it wasn’t for him, he could put it down, and I wouldn’t pester him to read it ever again.

He didn’t even realize he had passed page 70 until I commented on it the next morning.

(The English teacher in me: 3 — Dad: 0. Why 3? Because in less than two weeks he had finished ALL THREE books in the series. So three points for me. Oh, yeah.)

So, to read up on why The Hunger Games will only be the next Twilight due to popularity, click here!

Who knows? With potential presidents like Perry out there, the dystopian world of The Hunger Games might be closer than we realize. Maybe these two articles were not wholly as unrelated as I originally thought…

And for heaven’s sake, if you haven’t already, go buy The Hunger Games and read it ASAP!

 

Aug17

Some people think I’m responsible!

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Some people think I’m responsible!

Yeah. I said that! (Or wrote it, actually… but we won’t nitpick about it.)

So, this week has been moving along way too quickly. Between trying to get my room ready and trying to get my curriculum ready, I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. There’s always so much to do to get ready for a new school year!  But that’s not very positive to say, so I won’t go into that.

Anyway, I was asked to be a team lead this year.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, essentially in middle school, we have “teams”. Up until this year, each team had 1 science teacher, 1 social studies teacher, 2 language arts teachers, and 2 math teachers. Teams would then share the same students between them and could talk about best ways to help the same students, etc. (The two LA and math teachers were there because SS and science would switch off every other day with the kids for a 90 min period, where math and LA got the kids every day for 90 minutes.) This all changed thanks to Gov. Perry and state budget cuts. (Yet another thing I will try to refrain from going into detail about here.)

This year, a team ‘should’ be 1 science, 1 social studies, 1 LA, and 1 math, all for 50 minute periods, and seventh grade ‘should’ have two separate teams. Due to weirdness and scheduling problems, we are the seventh grade super team. Before the scheduling issues came up, I was asked to be the head of one of the two teams, meaning that I would be in charge of meetings, reminders, keeping consistent policies, passing along information, etc. But when the scheduling wouldn’t work out, I figured it wouldn’t happen.

But my principal did want me to still participate with the campus leadership team stuff over the summer, so I did. And this past week, as I was talking to the awesome girl I work with who was our team lead for most of last year and would be again this year, she mentioned that she was trying to talk to the principal about doing a co-team-lead sort of thing. Or that I could have it all, because she didn’t think she could do it all on her own. So I opted to co-lead (because I didn’t want all that solely on my shoulders, either!).

Today, in talking to one of the assistant principals about a unrelated subject, she paid me a nice compliment by saying that this year, the principals put a lot of thought into choosing who they would like to be leading the teams, where the previous year was more just trying to fill positions. She continued saying that I and ______ were chosen because of our dedication to our students and coworkers, along with how we’ve handled ourselves and situations last year. And that was really a nice thing to know. (Especially because this AP is usually very stoic and doesn’t throw around compliments freely. She then mentioned that since we were both “mild-mannered” people, we needed to stay firm to what we both felt were best teaching practices for our kids and impart that to team as well. lol.)

So, despite all the times when I feel like I am putting it all out there and nobody has noticed or cared, they were watching. And I was making a difference and a positive impression, and it wasn’t just a random happenstance or lack of other choices that put me there.

With all that said, being purposefully chosen for a position like this is a very nice thought indeed.

Aug16

New things!

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New things!

So, you might have noticed that my blog looks different. That was intentional. 🙂 It involved a lot of behind the scenes updating of my blog that my awesome tech guy (AKA: my husband) had to help out with. A lot. Because he’s just awesome like that.

I’m also going to be working on a new tradition for my blog. I’m going to try to have a daily post on something that makes me happy, or that I am grateful for, or that is good in my life. (Once school gets up and running next week, we might want to shoot for 4-5 times a week…) I have been struggling a lot with my happiness level for several reasons, many of which are fairly personal and probably shouldn’t be known to all the world at this point in time. And to help balance that out, I want to focus on the good things, because I know that I have so many wonderful things in my life that I need to focus on and be grateful for.

So, without much more ado, here is my first happy thing post.

(Sorry if it’s a little blurry- it’s hard to take a picture of yourself!)

I finally got my hair done! It’s been well over a year. I wasn’t too adventurous today, but I really like the color. And I am grateful that I can do silly little things like this to help boost my self esteem, especially before a major anxiety (good and bad anxiety) causing event, like starting school again next week.

Here’s to the simple joy of a good haircut and color! 🙂