Overheard

At the class officer election assembly, the following questions were asked and the following answers were given.

Q: If you had to be a breakfast cereal, what would you be and why?
A: Captain Crunch.  Because he drives a sick boat!  Hello?  He's a pirate!

Pirate Crunch??

Q: If you had to be an animal, what would you be and why?
A: A flamingo, because I've always wanted to be a flamingo dancer!

Flamingo

Flamenco Dancer

Flamingo Dancer???

To be fair, these kids were being asked questions on the spot.  Still these were just too funny not to share!

Confession

VIA

After years of denial, I'm afraid its time I come out in the open. Not only was I keeping it from everyone I know, I was afraid to even admit it to myself.

The truth is friends, I . . . am a morning person!

Someone said that to me in college, "You're so lucky you're a morning person."  "No, I'm not," and I didn't even know I was lying.  But who was I kidding?  I was the first person to show up at a 7am meeting and I was dressed in a pink skirt with my hair done and I was in a great mood.  All the signs were there.

A few weeks ago I was talking with my students about how excited I was to sleep in until 8 and they informed me that was not sleeping in.  And here's the clincher: In my heart of heart I really feel like sleeping in until 8 is wasting a good part of the day.

I don't leap out of bed at 5:30 am, but once I'm showered and dressed its really not so bad to be up.  Its actually kind of nice.  In an ideal world, I could wake up at 7 in the summer and 8 in the winter.

My name is Kimberly Thomas, and I am a morning person.

Call it what you will. . .

OCD, Perfectionist, Insane Person.  Call it what you will, but I have a problem.  I cannot deal with papers that have those rough spiral bound notebook edges.  I try telling my students that they cannot turn papers in if they have been torn out of a spiral bound notebook, and that I will return them with out a score, but my students have eight teachers, how can they be expected to remember that?  Because I'm certain they aren't doing it to annoy me. . . right?  Its just that they make the papers stick together and they don't lay flat, pretty much a teacher's worst nightmare.  (Just me??)

So I accept them, and I try, really try, not to let it bother me.  But somehow, with out thinking, I find myself tearing off the perforated edges most notebook paper has.  Before I know it, I've wasted 30 minutes of my grading time ripping those tiny edges off. 

What happened to good old fashioned college ruled loose leaf anyway? 

(And for my next post I'll be sharing all of my fab photo skills. Because you know these pics are HOT)

What's For Dinner

Sometimes I get stuck in a dinner rut and keep turning to the same four meals over and over.  I'll change the side dish and hope that Adam thinks its something new, but seriously, who am I kidding?  Add to that the fact that I haven't had a kitchen in four months, and I wasn't even in a rut!  I was totally out of the game!  Since we got our kitchen up and running about a week ago, I sat down on Monday and really hammered out five dinner ideas.  I'll share if you share. . . deal? (Now, if I was a real blogger, I would have taken pictures of my own dinners.  Sorry, you'll have to live with the pics from the internets)

Ceasar Spaghetti 

Do you love Ceasar salad?  I totally do!!  I got this recipe from Rachael Ray on Dr. Oz, and made it over the summer and it was "eh".  But it had so many ingredients that I love, I decided to give it another try and YUM!  I think the key was not to skimp on any of the ingredients, especially the anchovies.  When the recipe said 6 anchovies, I added 8.  It really gave the sauce more flavor (but don't worry, it wasn't a fishy flavor!!  It really tasted like ceasar!)

Chicken Picatta and Lemon Quinoa

This is seriously my favorite dinner EVER.  I try not to make it every week, but I probably do make it once a month.  My husband hasn't complained so that is a good sign.  For the quinoa I just make it like normal, but use chicken or veg broth instead of water and add in the juice of half a lemon.  And what ever herbs I feel like. 

Spaghetti Squash and Herbs

Ever since Adam discovered spaghetti squash in his Biggest Loser cookbook (he's not large, just loves the show!) he's been buying me one almost every week!  This was good, but not as good as when Adam made me spaghetti squash and avocado pesto.  I really should have made some grilled chicken or something more substaintial as a side dish, but I didn't want to go over board with the chicken this week!

Roast Chicken and Vegetables

I linked the recipe that I used, but I didn't like it.  The recipe doesn't call for veg, but I put in potatoes, carrots and onions, and they just tasted like they had been boiled in wine.  BORING.  So next time I'm going with more of a dry roast, probably with the old onion soup mix standard.

Vegan Shepherds Pie

This was good, but I'll probably put more spices or some fresh herbs when I make this again.  The sweet potato on top was a MUST.  I chopped, boiled and mashed one sweet potato and spread it on top of our filling.  This is one of the most health meals EVER.  Seriously ever. 
So spill it, what is your favorite (healthy?) dinner idea?

Picture Me

So I was thinking the other day about how I don't have a lot of pictures of myself on this blog.  I guess pictures personalize a person's writing.  But lately I have gotten unphotogenic.  Or else its true what they say about baby girls taking their mom's beauty. . . In any case the answer to this problem is a picture that is so bad its almost cute again, you know?  So here it is:

We're so happy is spring!!

Just Ask (or Government Jobs at Their Most Efficient)

There is an application that all high school clubs must submit each year if they want to be a school recognized club.  It requires that I answer about 8 questions and submit 7 permission slips from parents giving consent for their child to participate in the club.  I totally see why its important for clubs.  But FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America) is not a club.  Its a CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization).  If my friend stopped doing the Harry Potter club, no big deal.  But if I stopped doing FCCLA I would probably get in trouble. 

Sure, we might join in during club week.  When asked, we might explain that we're a club centered on the family.  But really, we're totally different.   We're a national organization. 

And so, this application seems. . . dumb. . . to me.  Why do I have to apply for something that I have to do.  Seriously, have no choice. 

But no one questions it.  For years we've just been doing it, jumping through hoops that no one has time to jump through.  Asking for permission to continue doing my job.  I hate it.

So today I asked, "Do I really have to do this?"  The answer?  Yes, but only the questions.  You can skip the permission slips. 

I never do things that don't make sense to me.  It always pays to ask. 

PS I got a call into a head guy* at the district office to see if I can get out of the question part for the future.  Baby steps here.

*official title