Note to Self.

No matter how hungry you are, never ever again eat banana pudding before running in sunny 80 degree weather. If you saw me looking a little green around P-town today, you know why. Bad idea.

100th Post Part IV

76. I think people should say "Thank you" when you give them a compliment instead of denying it is true.

77. I think people should say "Thank you" when you open the door for them.

78. I have been known to say "Your welcome" (in a rude, not-so-much-under-my-breath-way) when the other person didn't say "Thank you."

79. I always regret doing that.

80. I love having a job that challenges me daily.

81. Except when I hate it.

82. I am a water snob.  Dasani and Aquafina taste like metal.  If I absolutely have to pay for it, I buy only Evian or Fiji.

83. Even Milly drinks only filtered water.

84.  I am trying to be "green" by recycling and not buying bottled water.

85.  The bag I take to the grocery store is more for looks than being "green."  I bought it in Paris, so I get a weekly reminder of our trip when I use it.

86.  I have eaten Food City brand bran flakes every morning for the last three months.  A box lasts for a little over a week and costs only $1.50.  

87.  I go to Wal-Mart and Food City every week for groceries.  Wal-Mart for non-perishables and Food City for fruit, veggies, and meat.

88.  If you see me at Wal-Mart with Toaster Strudels, Little Debbies and Pringles in my cart, know that is Andrew's food.  Most of mine is from Food City.

89.  I can't stand wasting even 10 minutes of class time.  

90.  Even though they might not admit it, I think most of my students appreciate this.

91.  If a student is rude or disrespectful, I make a concerted effort to forgive and forget so they can start fresh the next day.

92.  I wonder if what I do in the short five months I am with them has a lasting impact.

93.  I am thankful for meaningful relationships.  I am almost in tears thinking of how many people I am blessed to walk through life with.

94.  I would be embarrassed to count how many times I have said "I" in my last four posts.

95.  I worry about being narcissistic on my blog, but that is exactly what it is.

96.  Daily I ask God to increase my faith and eliminate my worrying.

97.  I am trying to complain less about things - even driving Big Blue.

98.  I can't wait to go on a date with my husband tonight.

99.  I have spent five minutes trying to decide how to end this four post series, and he is starving, so...

100.  The reason I like series posts is because it increases my stats!  How narcissistic is that?

100th Post Part III

Assuming you are still interested...

51. You know I'm in a great mood if I'm singing while running.

52. It really ain't purty when I sing while I run.

53. I once apologized to somebody who came up behind me while I was trying the whole singing/running combo thing.

54. I go through phases of reading. Sometimes nothing at all. Sometimes three books at once.

55. I think life is too short to make yourself finish a book you don't like.

56. I don't enjoy reading Shakespeare.

57. I feel guilty reading popular best-sellers because I'm an English teacher, and everybody knows we are supposed to only like the classics.

58. I would choose Pat Conroy over Chaucer any day.

59. I love to organize.

60. I clean out closets several times a year.

61. But I only sweep and mop every 2-3 weeks.

62. I still get excited about shopping for school supplies. The binder aisle at Office Max rocks!

63. I wish I was more adventurous. (Seriously, I just said Office Max rocks.)

64. I wish I was more spontaneous.

65. I still wonder how I got so lucky to marry a man that is so dang kind.

66. And good-lookin'. Can I get an amen?

67. I don't know why I sometimes slip into Southern speak when I am writing.

68. I thought the six babies being born in our family would make it easier to wait for starting a family.

69. It didn't.

70. I can't wait to see what our children look like.

71. I wonder if they will have bright blonde hair like Andrew did when he was the cutest kid ever.

72. Or maybe they will look nothing like us.

73. One of our favorite things to do is take road trips because we get to talk for hours.

74. Mostly about what we will name our kids.

75. After four years of discussing it, we still don't agree.

100th Post Part II

And it continues...

26. The worst part of my tennis game is the toss of my serve. 

27. I wish I was Australian and could say "Sorry Mate" like Patrick Rafter when this happens.

28. I am not naturally athletic. I have to work really hard at it.

29. I played little league softball and almost got somebody out once.

30. I hate using the flash on my camera.

31. I almost refuse to take pictures inside because I don't know enough about lighting.

32. For every decent picture you see on the blog, I have taken 20 others that had to be deleted.

33. I still haven't figured out how to organize digital photos. I have them on iPhoto, smugmug, and Snapfish and haven't printed hardly any of them in years.

34. I have picture frames displayed in my house that have been empty for 6 months.

35. I haven't cleaned a bathroom in 6 months. It is now Andrew's chore.  Yes, he is that wonderful.

36. I cleaned other people's bathrooms when we first got married. I hope to never to that again.

37. I am for hire for almost anything other than that (house-sitting, dog-sitting, standardized testing).

38. Extra jobs are the only way I get to go shopping because I budget nearly every penny we make.

39. I plan how our money will be spent years before we make it.

40. I just might spend a little too much time planning, thinking and worrying about money.

41. I like to invite people over for the company and because it makes me clean my house.

42. I love when people call me Martha Stewart. Feel free to drop that in a comment sometime.

43. While in college, I allowed myself one piece of 50 cent pumpkin bread from the UT Bakery every Friday.  I have the recipe for it, but it just isn't the same.

44. I only allow myself a latte (made in my Bialetti Mukka Cappuccino Maker, not Starbucks, remember the limited budget) once a week because I don't want to get addicted to caffeine.

45. I allow myself one Bojangles Cajun filet biscuit each week.

46. I like to test my will power.

45. I just read that some people build their identity on things like self-discipline rather than on God. Oops.

46. I get up at 5:15 for my devotional every weekday morning because it is the only way I have ever been consistent with it.

47. Another form of finding my identity in self-discipline? Goodness. I just can't get ahead.

48. When the vocalists in the band at church started rotating and I began singing in the congregation, Andrew told me, "Hey, we sing melody out here."

49. I have sung harmony so long that I have a hard time even hearing the melody anymore.

50. Mischa, the sound guy at church, wouldn't believe this, but I sing REALLY, REALLY loud in the car.

100th Post Part I

Many bloggers list 100 interesting things about themselves in honor of their 100th post.  I won't even pretend to be that interesting, so I am just listing things.  Not interesting things, just things.  And not all at once - this will be a four part series with the fourth post as my 100th.  I'm sure I will regret being such an open book later, but here it goes...  

1. I still sleep with my baby blanket - even when traveling - even on the plane to Paris.

2. Andrew carries me to bed almost every night because I try to stay up until he is ready to go to bed.

3. I fall asleep within seconds as my head hits the pillow every night.

4. I am writing this on the first night I have had trouble sleeping in nearly 10 years.

5. In middle school I had trouble sleeping and would wake my parents up at 2:00 in the morning just to make sure they knew I wasn't asleep.

6. Even though my dad would come sleep on my floor, I don't think this problem was solved until I pulled the old baby blanket out of retirement.

7. I prefer 2nd place over 1st place because you get most of the praise and glory without all the pressure.

8. Example 1: I sing backup, not solos.

9. Example 2: I played number two on the high school tennis team.

10: Example 3: I graduated number 3 in my class.  I didn't want to be Valedictorian or Salutatorian because they had to give speeches, but ironically, I ended up with the title of "Class Speaker."

11. My high school graduation was one of the worst days of my life because I cried while giving a speech in front of thousands of people at Thompson-Boling Arena.

12. My life has been pretty smooth-sailing because I can call graduation one of the worst days of my life.

13. I am not good at relaxing.

14. I am really good at stressing out.

15. I hate feeling like a day has been wasted.

16. I write new to-do lists daily. 

17. I list more tasks than could possibly be done in one day.

18. I can't resist chocolate raspberry truffle from Bruster's.

19. Or any kind of bread from anywhere.

20. I get myself so worked up in dreams that sometimes I wake up crying.

21. I dream about my future children.

22. And snakes.

23. More so the snakes than the children.

24. After training for the half-marathon, I wonder if my knees and hips will ever be the same.

25. I officially gave up on running only to decide two months later to run another half-marathon.

Vocabulary Lesson

I did a little role reversal with one of my classes on Friday and let them teach me some new vocabulary. (Only school-appropriate vocabulary of course!)  I'm not sure if they are trying to make me cool - wait, I mean fly - or if they just need some fodder to make fun of me in the hallways.  Either way, it made for an interesting class.  Here are my new favorite words:

• coolin - a verb that replaces the now uncool "chillin"
• chillax - a verb that combines the words chill and relax
• nest - a noun denoting your home, a synonym for your crib
• bird - a noun that means your mother (obviously, if your home is your nest, your mother is your bird - quite logical really)
• jockin - I remember liking this word, but I have since forgotten the definition.  Looks like I'm going to need a review tomorrow.
• uber nast - an adjective indicating that something is really fly (as in Mrs. McAffry is going to be uber nast if she learns how to use all of these words.)

At the end of class, I gave them their homework assignment: to chillax in their nest with their bird.  Apparently it is totally unfly to use too many words in one sentence.  I'm learning a lot this semester - and not only new vocabulary words.  It took a little longer to get these relationships off the ground, but we are making progress!  

Poor Milly

Wait a minute...what is dat up dere?

Yes, poor Milly, you will be ingesting this arsenal of medicine.

Our almost 6-year-old Yorkipoo has had horrible skin allergies since she was about 2-years-old. Every few months we take a trip to the vet to stock up on medicine for her.  This usually includes steroids, antibiotics, flea medicine, ear medicine, allergy shots, medicated shampoo, and gel caps to squeeze on the latest hypoallergenic food available.  We, ummm I'm sorry, Andrew takes her to the groomer every other week to try to keep her in good shape.  We, okay usually Andrew, also gives her baths about once a week.  My goal tomorrow is to make an Excel spreadsheet to chart all the medicine she is on.  It gets so complicated.  Prednisone twice a day, then once a day, then every other day for 21 days. 1/4 tablet of Simplicef once a day.  Baths twice a week.  Ears every other day.  Allergy shots once a week.  Flea medicine every three weeks.  Heartworm once a month.  I hope I, okay, okay, Andrew, can stay on top of all this!  Thanks honey!

All those wondering why we don't have kids yet, we can barely keep up with taking care of our 7 pound dog!  By the way, after just one day of steroids she already feels about a pound heavier.  I hate the way she acts when she is on them.  She has big bug eyes, is bloated and lethargic.  We are doing everything we can to get her back to normal - even depleting our almost complete Christmas budget!  

If you don't quite get the Christmas gift you were expecting, just know this sweet thing is getting better!  Isn't she worth it? 

Roofball!

Per Barty's request...

Notes from English Class

But Mrs. McAffry, we're teenagers and everybody knows you can't trust teenagers. 

• This was the comment when I told my sophomores they had 25 minutes to discuss The Grapes of Wrath completely on their own.  I wasn't sure I could sit silently at my desk without making any comments, but I did it.  They wowed me as always with their interpretations.  

Mrs. McAffry, my brother got out of jail today!

• My first comment: Congratulations!
• My second comment: Should I be worried?
• My third comment: Do I need to put an extra lock on my doors?

Class, what is an example of informal diction?  Response: What's crackin'?

• I always stand at the door to greet my students as they enter my class, and the day after they taught me this new phrase, I tested it out.  They all did a double take and gave me some pretty funny looks as their totally uncool English teacher asked each of her 32 students "What's crackin'?"  After about the fifteenth time, I began hoping it wasn't anything offensive.  

My life went downhill at six.

• If this kid leaves my classroom in December still thinking there is no hope, I will have failed.