Why I puffy heart love high school students

I love my job. I love teaching high school students. The hormones, the sweaty palms, the need to fit in. The ridiculous sense of humor, the desire to stand apart and be unique just like everyone else. The different groups, the kids who try so hard to be different…and the kids who try so hard to be the same. The puppy love, the heartache (I don’t love that so much). The goofy jokes, the practical jokes. The surprising conversations and the days where everything seems to go wrong, but then ends up being just right. Andy commented a few weeks ago about my love of tv shows that deal with the school experience—namely Glee and Friday Night Lights. He thinks that they are too extreme and dramatic in their portrayal of high school. He can’t believe that students actually have lives like they are on tv….and to some extent, I agree. But I see the moments of truth in them.

I see the boy with no father, trying to help his mother and do the best he can to make her proud and to get more from life, like Finn on Glee.

I can see the girl who feels stifled by her small town and the reputation of her parents, like Julie on Friday Night Lights.

I see the boy who wants desperately to have a better life, but keeps getting dragged into trouble, like Vince on FNL.

Or the girl who wants so much to be perfect that she alienates those around her, like Rachel on Glee.

The struggles with weight, with eating disorders, with suicidal thoughts. Those are real.

Some of the relationships between parents, the torment of relationships with the opposite sex, the struggles with teen pregnancy and the fallout of sex in high school. I see all of that. Every day.

The bad decision that hurts your reputation. The hateful bullying. The power of friendship. The fight for status. All of that is real. Basically, as overly dramatic as teenage life seems on television…I think it might be worse in real life. Because in real life, things don’t always end nicely. There is no one hour limit to the drama and the pain.

At the same time, I don’t think television can accurately portray the depth of relationship in high school either. The girl who goes out of her way to stand up for someone else. The brother who fiercely loves his sister and will spring to action if she is hurt (even if she’s the only one who doesn’t know it). The care and the concern for one another when something is wrong. The rally around in the midst of personal tragedy. TV can only cover so much of that. I can even see where my kids care about their teachers. They want to help them when something is wrong. They know when something is off, and they want to help out in any way they can.

But my favorite part? As much as Mr. Schuster and Principal Taylor have relationships with students and help them, the real life is better. I can see the kids who want to change. Who want to do better. They are real, physical bodies in my classroom, asking for more. More out of life, out of themselves, out of their futures. For every heartbreaking story in the classroom (and there are many…so, so many), I cling to the hope that there will be successes.

I love the hormones, the crazy ideas, and the passion of high school students. I cannot begin to imagine having a different job. As long as I am working, I want it to be right where I’m at.

a lot of times when two people like that get together, it can be explosive.

So. Two weeks is up. And I can finally tell/show you all what happened at our house that fateful Friday night in July.

It started with this.

Then there was this:

And finally, it ended up like this.

Actually, that picture was taken before I took the razor to his head.

So. Yeah. Andy shaved his head. And it was pretty ugly for awhile. But, since I've been out of town so much, I missed a lot of the really bad days. It looks much better now.

I'll try to get some pictures this weekend at the wedding so you can see it now.

Oh...and I just realized that two weeks from today, I will be teaching my first full day with students, and I have nothing in my classroom set up. I need to buy a lot of stuff for my room next week....and get it most of the way set up.

Sweet Summertime

*******Sorry about the formatting....I promise I put spaces between the paragraphs....but they won't appear right now************
These past few days have been sort of boring. I've spent a lot of my time here (yes, that is the living room floor):

Working on this:

But seriously...how cute is that binder? Did your English teacher's lesson plans come in a sweet green binder? I have a whopping six days fully planned (we start school on a Friday) and the next nine almost fully planned. Clearly, this is going to be my first year teaching. Real teachers probably haven't started looking at stuff yet--they are still recovering from last year!

Anyway, in an effort to keep things a little interesting around here, I think I'd share some of my favorite recipes for summer cooking. First, I have to say that the word cooking is used lightly here. I prefer not to turn the oven on when it's hot outside. I had it on for something a few weeks ago, and it raised the temperature of the whole house by two degrees. Or at least that's what the thermostat said. I would be perfectly content eating frosting from the jar and some fruit or salad all summer long. That other person that lives here tends to disagree. So we compromise.

Our meal plan for the week looks something like this:

Sunday: Grilled chicken (marinaded in a Lawry's 30 min. marinade or Italian salad dressing)

Vegetable of some sort (Broccoli or green beans)

Monday: Fish (Grilled in foil, with lemon, salt, pepper)

Instant brown rice

Tuesday:Pork chops with pizzaiola sauce (grilled pork chops, sauce is onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil, a pinch of red pepper flakes, can of diced tomatoes added and cooked together)

Wednesday: Something easy....last night it was a frittata with turkey bacon, green onion, and eggs

Thursday: Chicken stir fry--chicken cooked in Italian salad dressing, tossed with frozen stir fry vegetables and soy sauce, on top of brown rice

Friday: Hamburgers made with Williams-Sonoma hamburger seasoning on the grill, some sort of grilled vegetable (I like zucchini the best)

Saturday: Whatever I can throw together with what's left in the kitchen

Did I mention that Andy does the grilling? And that I hate cleaning up the kitchen? On nights when we don't use the grill, sometimes we use the crockpot too. Anything to avoid heating up the kitchen.

And any night of the week, we like to end with an iced vanilla coffee.

I usually just use leftover cold coffee from the morning...or if there's none, I just make a new pot and cool it. Then I pour the coffee into a glass with ice cubes. I fill the glass about halfway with coffee. Then I pour a few glugs of vanilla syrup in. I have been using this:

Which I picked up at World Market the last time I was at my parents house. But it's almost gone and I don't really like the brands they sell in town....so I'm going to make my own based on a recipe I found the other day (make a simple syrup: boil one cup water, one cup sugar, add 2 t. vanilla extract). Then I fill the cup the rest of the way up with milk, stir and enjoy.