Operation Get A House is coming along quite smoothly. Operation Finish The School Year is not quite as smooth, but still progressing- the past two days were state mandated testing, which was just misery for me and the other teachers because we just had to sit and STARE at the students all day. We couldn’t read, couldn’t work on lesson plans- just monitored the students. Even when they were done at 12:00, I still spent the next 2 1/2 hours trying to keep them semi-quietly entertained without killing each other (and mine was one of the “slow” groups!). Ugh. It was horrible.

Anyways, enough complaining. I had a point I wanted to make. I recently came across this really sad and disturbing video on Youtube: .

Anyways, it just reminded me of how distorted our view of beauty has become. No wonder so many people are ill with anorexia, depression, bulimia. No wonder that using cosmetics and plastic surgery are rising! We are being presented with something that isn’t even real. Whoever these people are who are creating these ads; they are manipulating us into thinking that this look is natural, when clearly it takes lots of professionals, makeup, and photoshopping to get there. And here I was thinking she looked great without the photoshop part…

The thing that I find the saddest of all, is when that was all over, I caught myself thinking, “I wish I could sign up for that sort of treatment!” But really, she was cute when she came in. I’m okay looking the way I am. But society has trained me to think that I want to have the same end result as she had!

Well done, Dove.  Great ad to make us think!

Well, I know I go on spurts of writing and then not writing for a long time, but I’ve been actually really busy– if that’s a good excuse or not…

Anyways- the past weekend or two Jared and I have been meeting with a realtor and house hunting (Jared and I have been looking a lot on our own-more like “window shopping” so we knew what area we wanted and for what prices, etc). This weekend we spent hours actually looking inside houses and doing the walkthrougs and we found two we really liked, and one of those for a really good price….

After dinner, we went back this evening and did another thorough walkthrough with our wonderful and helpful agent, who has definitely been GREAT to work with. Shortly after that, we decided to put in an offer and see where this goes. We’ve been pre-approved and things are looking good on that end, but now we are playing the waiting game.

Keep you updated!

My cousin Ally had this on her blog, and it sounds like it would be fun to try.

The Rules

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me – something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments!

If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along.Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

SO, REMEMBER…Pay It Forward!

*EDIT* Since people seem a bit hesitant about this one, let me explain. First of all, do your best job- really- I’m not THAT crafty; (though, thanks for your vote of confidence, Aunt Linda!) it’s more about giving it a good try. Second, if you are worried about distance, let me do the worrying on that one. As long as I know you in real life and you want to try, I will get you something “crafty”.

SO COME ON PEOPLE, POST! 🙂 That is all.

This is a fun post I saw on my friend Rachel’s site that she stole from somebody else, and now I am completing the stealing cycle! Feel free to steal it from me.

How it works: You google your name, and then the word needs after it. So I googled “Elisabeth needs…” and this is what I came up with:

1. Elisabeth needs a coffee.
I don’t drink coffee. It smells okay in the bookstores, but really, I think if I did end up drinking it, I would be more psycho than I already am!

2. Elisabeth needs a lobotomy.
Ouch! But… hmm…. Do you think that would help with my headaches?

3. Elisabeth needs to have the last word.
Yes, yes I do–but it just so happens to be because I am usually right!

3. Elisabeth needs to go!
This one could be taken in a variety of ways. Like…. do I need to go to the bathroom? Go to the theatre? Go outside? Go away??? I think this one meant the last one… but who knows.

4. Elisabeth needs to wake up and have a severe reality check!
Hmmm. Okay. Time to see my shrink.You know…. most of these are pretty mean. I wonder what Elisabeths have done to get so many angry people at them!

5. Elisabeth needs to move along to something different that fulfills her.
Huh… I thought the teaching thing was going pretty well, myself.

6. Elisabeth needs to email the new excerpts to Mel so she can post them…
Okay. Somebody find me a Mel and some excerpts so she can post them for me!

7. Elisabeth needs to stick to what she knows about: being a Republican and making babies.
Ouch. I am not really a full Republican and I definitely have no intention of having children anytime soon. Thank you.

8. Elisabeth needs ‘cooling off’ time.
After that last comment… well, yes, a little.

9. Elisabeth needs to learn to listen to the views of others rather than presenting the attitude of “I’m always right”.
Okay. Tolerance is always a good thing. I can handle that.

10. Elisabeth needs protection.
I feel threatened now….

( BTW: Most of these were for Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View. Apparently she has A LOT of haters out there. I think it’s a stupid show to begin with… but wow! Poor thing…)

Anyways- Enjoy! Happy googling!

This is just to say….

I just found out I passed ALL MY STUPID TEXAS CERTIFICATION TEACHING TESTS! The English 4-8, the English 8-12 with it’s lame essay, and Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC-12.

Yes, it’s lame that I had to pay about $400 and take 3 additional tests to replace the ONE that worked for Utah. Yes, it’s frustrating that I was sick the day off the 8-12 and P&P EC-12 tests, the two harder ones. But in the end, I still did it!

Take that, Texas!