Dinner Tonight

We went to Le Gallo Rosso for dinner tonight. Our salad had a wonderful presentation, and included roasted pine nuts. I had a HUGE lasagna, which was the best I've ever had (I can say this only because I have not had ChiTown Girl's lasagna....soon, maybe I will.) I have enough to make two more meals easy! It has a wonderful atmosphere, and I had a lovely date with HH. I am so glad we are doing restaurant week. Yeah for spring break!

On the Range....The GUN Range....

We rented and shot a .38mm gun. I was VERY afraid, although going to the gun range was my idea. I want to get a handgun and even get my concealed weapons permit. I was not raised around guns, and it is going to take many more exposures for me to feel comforable with shooting. I shot two rounds (10 bullets), and HH shot the rest. Several of the men shooting said that I would be much more suited for a 380, which is a gun commonly used by women, and people who want to carry a concealed weapon.

Another thing I have to work on, once I got it locked on the target, I CLOSED MY EYES every single time I shot.....not a great idea.

Easter Basket Exchange

The Reeses Eggs are already gone....a thing of good taste doesn't last forever. :)

This is Tiffany's husband, commonly known as HH.

On Friday, I had the great pleasure of playing the best Aprril Fool's Day prank ever on my wife.

First, I researched the South Korean village which is closest to the North Korean border. It was called Yeoncheon.

Next, I forged a phony letter from a man named Sun Yan Tsing, an elder of the local church of Yeoncheon, South Korea. The letter said that their pastor had recently died, and that they were looking for a replacement. Sun Yan offered a very good salary and seemed extremely interested in hiring me.

Next, I contacted a friend of mine from college, and enlisted his help with the prank. I sent him the fake e-mail and he made up a fake e-mail address to go with it. Then he sent it back to me, and it showed up in my inbox just as though it had been sent from Korea.

I decided to pretend to want to get this job. I figured that Tiffany would be against the idea, so I decided to enhance the prank with some witnesses.

I called Tiffany's parents, my mother and my brother. I asked them to please pretend to like the idea, and they all agreed.

Finally, I asked my college friend to call the house at 9:00 that night and pretend to be Sun Yan Tsing. He was to talk to us for a while, ask us about our qualifications, offer us the job and request our presence there in two weeks. Then he was to pick his moment to break character and yell "Apri Fool". He loved the idea and set to work on his Korean accent.

Long story short, Tiffany bought the prank. Hook, line and sinker, she bought it. But there was one thin that was rather surprising. She was totally open to the idea of going to South Korea. She showed no reluctance at all to follow God wherever He lead, no matter where that would be. I can't believe what a good wife I have.

Easter Family Time!

HH loved his bunny! He got it before church, and we are going to exchange Easter baskets tonight. My parents got him this shirt and tie for Christmas....he looks so sharp!


The close up is one of my favorite pictures we have taken. :)

Kate is enjoying her first Easter.

Outdoor shot....I LOVE my dress.

Gotta have a silly shot....

Amber, Dad, and myself....

Easter Eats Creations....

I love the colors in this salad. My dad really enjoyed it!

I know that I already posted a picture of the cookie pops, but I really liked my presentation of them!

This was the dish that I was worried about. I had to make the sauce twice. It started with butter and you were supposed to slowly add flour. I got lazy and added a bunch of it at once. It was very lumpy, and I could not get them out. When I did it the second time and was gradual about it, the sauce turned out fine. One thing I will do next time is work on the presentation of this dish. There is a lot of "empty space" on my dish. It needs something (not sure what) to make it appear more full. I just don't want to detract from the "main" dish though. (Side note: My nephew Logan's eyes got so big when he saw the asparagus. It was so cute to see an eleven year old excited about that type of food! His mom has done a few things right!)

Rowdy Friends Tour....

Always the best date: HH! We had dinner with my parents at The Chili Pot. I loved their White Chili. (That has been on the list for some time to conquer.)

My date for the night....my daddy!

HH's date for the night....my mom.

A shot at the stage. We actually moved further away from the stage because we could sit down and enjoy the music. Hank Williams Jr. really does have some musical talent. The crowd was a bit too much for me though.

Happy Easter!!!

Spring Break Has Began!!!

I was in the mood for sugar cereal the other day. Looking at the advertising on this...come on now? An excellent source of Vitamin D? Why are we allowing advertisers to dupe us like this? I know it is a bad choice, and I need to admit when I buy something like this....I don't need to justify it.

I forgot what Jerry said he was in this picture, but again, had to stop and take a picture of him. Yes, my WHOLE classroom is this organized. OCD, yes please!

This is a small portion of the Cookie Pops that I made last night as a "test batch." HH tried one out last night so we could make sure they were ok. He liked them a lot. He said not to tell people they had a part of a Milky Way in them, it was a pleasant surprise. I will take the test batch to two of our neighbors soon.

I am going to vent about school, which I have tried not to do on this blog. I generally save the school venting for two of my best teacher friends and HH. (Oh some of you would delight in hearing his thoughts about some of my school stuff!) There is a woman on my team who only has ELEVEN students. I have been given three of her students, and my other two team members have also been given students from her room. Anytime a new student comes into my building, they will never go into her class, but only ours. She is a nice person, but she cannot teach....and reducing her class size to eleven has done NOTHING to help matters. This is her eleventh year with our district. She has an extensive professional (presenting, coaching, etc.)resume, but when it comes to teaching.....bomb.

So this post comes after one frustration after another from her this year. At least one day she sends a kid over into my room because they are misbehaving, and another one to "word process" in my room. (She uses all four computers in her room, two in my neighbors room, and one in my room so she only has to "teach" four kids for a decent portion of the day.) She gets help from the BD teacher, our behavior coach, and the security guard at least once a day.

She has been inviting her former students who are now in my room to fun things that she has in her room. (She is a master at not teaching.) She asks the KIDS and not me, so when I have to be mean and say no, they get mad at me. Well, yesterday was the worst for this. She starts having a party at noon yesterday (school ends at 3:45). She has this fried chicken buffet for her class. Of course my kids wanted to come over, and we are doing a Social Studies lesson. When I explained to William why he couldn't go, he started to cry. Jyail didn't cry, but was really sulking. This goes on for the better part of Social Studies. Heck, if I could go eat fried chicken instead of teach, I would!

I finally took the boys up to the Principal's office. I needed him to explain to them why they couldn't go. He apologized to them about this adult problem, and gave them a pretty good explanation (at this point they are both crying). Putting myself in their shoes, I can see why they were so upset. I asked the principal to take care of this matter to make sure this didn't happen again, and he said he would. (He is beyond frustrated with her.) On the way back, I pointed out ten different classes where students were working, and how that is really what all the students should be doing this early in the day, even on the last day before spring break.

When I was telling my husband about this last night I commented on how it is people like her that thinks we need sweeping teaching pay reform, etc. What really needs to happen is that each school needs to be allowed to get rid of five of their worst teachers. I mean fire them, revoke their teaching license, and we would see some dramatic reform in our classrooms. It is the dead weight teachers that have others trying to make a two year academic gain with so many students in their classroom, or having extra kids always in their room because their colleagues can never handle ANY discipline issue.

Ok, I'm going to stop there, because I could really go on and on...but I am stepping off my soap box.

Cooking Class

Last night we made.....

Biscuits

Sausage Gravy

Poached Eggs

Quiche Lorraine

Omelets

I burned some of my bacon and had to start over with that part. (I HATE the grease popping up, and when at home I have HH to make it for me when a recipe calls for it.)

One of my classmates said that I had, "My own special way" when it came to using the knife. I still stink at knife skills....time will improve this right?

Spring break begins at 4:00 PM!!!