The Greatest Show on Earth!

The WHAT:

The WHO:

Sara, Emma Frost, Jamie Walker, and ME

The WHY:

 The Ring Master

Contortionists being spun high in the air

He was holding on to two straps on his wrists.

She was holding a strap he was holding with his teeth.

The blur is from how fast they were spinning.

Tiger tamer... not nearly as cool as you'd think.

Contortionists... exactly as cool as you'd think.

Who knows what their technical job title was, but they were rockin' awesome. Pretty sure they have muscles visible that I didn't know existed.

"The Mighty Meetal!"

He's the one you can't really see laying on his back. He's holding up 1,257 pounds. Or some such number like that.

Seven motorcyclists going in two directions- vertically and horizontally- in a very small metal sphere. Definitely gasp-worthy.

Trapeze Artists. Again- just as cool as you've always imagined. Tight rope walkers? Not necessarily as cool as you've imagined... and that's why they didn't merit a picture.

Just like in Thoroughly Modern Millie...

Classic. The whole thing was perfect- right down to the trained elephants. Here they're spinning, but they also all came out holding trunk to tail- just like in Dumbo and Jungle Book. Way to go Disney!

Best Part? 

Smiling and laughing (and getting as excited as little kids) 

Beautiful Moments

Some things just make life better. For example:

Favorite recipes for comfort foods that brighten absolutely ANY day or night. Thanks Janna for THE Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever! (milk chocolate, of course)

Coming home to an absolutely delicious dinner after a grueling day at work. Sara made this and it was a perfect combination of lightness and fulfilling-ness. The broccoli on top surprisingly made it double delicious.

Unexpected kindnesses... I broke down in front of one of my supervisors as he was critiquing me after school. (Was he harsh? Definitely. Still... when did I get so danged emotional? I used to be so collected and content...) Anyway, afterwards he brought me one of his perfect peaches- that he was saving for dinner for himself. Unexpected, thoughtful, kind. 

Lastly, I wish I could put up a picture of some of the sunsets I've been seeing. As I drive home from work I see the sunset reflected on the east mountains and oh my... beautiful. Yesterday the moon was sitting so poised between the mountains and brewing storm clouds. It was beautiful and I get to see images like that on the way home from work. A beautiful little moment at the end of a long, long day.

P.S. I just realized this was 3/4 about food. Apparently I need to do something besides work, read, and cook/eat. haha Too bad! Love it. :)

Something to do late at night.

I've been spending long hours at school, so when I finally get home I'm all for doing anything but correcting vocabulary packets, student writing, or mentally sweating from trying to think of a way to motivate a few unmotivatable students. The choice for tonight was a new book, "Surviving the Applewhites."

Jake is a 13 year old delinquent from the city who has run out of foster families and has thus moved to the North Carolina country to the Applewhite family farm and their home school, the only place left that will take him. E.D. is the only Applewhite who is his age and who isn't all artsy-shmartsy and flighty. The story is about a change of heart in both characters and follows fun and rolling events to help make it all believable and heart warming.
The story won the Newbery Award and definitely deserves it. It's at a seventh grade level in ideas, plot and vocabulary, but the morals and themes are beautiful to think about. All of us are needed in our own special ways and there's such value in finding something in life that you're both good at and passionate about. It's an easy read- it took me only a few hours to get through. I'd definitely recommend it if you happen to have time.. I know, I know... you're already thinking that only single, SLC teachers have time to read books for pleasure. It's quite the life, I know! :)

Leapin' Lizards!

We started leaps today in dance.... you definitely should wish you were here. As a class, we all said that "a leap is from one foot to the other" many times. We then began and most of the students proceeded to hop... with one knee up in a jerking deer-hitting-a-fence-post type of movement, almost moving backwards. After most students were moving forwards and getting from one foot to the other, I noticed one student watching me. She asked, "How come ours don't look like yours?" (I was doing really tiny leaps- more walking with a little air time- just fyi) I told her my legs were straight and toes were pointed, and demonstrated the difference it made. The class listened, and... that's when they went back to hopping jerkily... Toes pointed? Yes! Legs straight? Trying. Leap vs. hop? Not a chance. Hilarious? Absolutely!
Pretty sure we're going to stick with working on leaps for the next couple weeks. When are we going to start turning, you ask? Maybe second semester. :)

Camper vs. Leader (Apparently I'm growing up)

Between my junior and senior year in high school, I went to Freedom Academy at Camp Williams where we learned all about leadership, facing our fears, teamwork, patriotism... all those great values. Anyway, I remember the rappel tower looked SO HIGH when I was 17 and surrounded by my peers. I was terrified as I went up those stairs and looked down through the grating to see how high 45 feet looked.

Today, I chaperoned the 9th graders to... yes! Camp Williams. It was the opening activity for the year for our Ambassador program- a mix of social leadership and student government (-ish). Anyway, I ended up at the rappel tower belaying for the afternoon. Can I just say that 45 feet isn't nearly as high as it seemed 8 years ago? Also, being a participant who is expected to be a little nervous is vastly different from being the leader who is expected to be outgoing, fearless, and the general cheerleader. Vastly different! It's much more fun to me, but also much more exhausting. One student took almost twenty minutes to come down, as well as multiple individual pump-up sessions, conversations to get her mind off of it, lots and lots and lots of encouragement, my going down next to her and a National Guard guy joking around with her on the way down. I even started chants and cheering as a group and eventually had to convince my group to just walk away and leave her with the adults to come down. (Followed by a whole lot of praise when she finally made the venture). Wow... who knew that teen psychology was going to be part of my training? And who knew that I'd be loving it this much? Even with the frustration of mispronouncing 30% of their names. :)