Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Crazy Hair

I feel like a lot of my posts lately have been about my students -but here goes another.

Usually I wear my hair straight. However, on mornings when I have less time I will use the diffuser and do my hair curly. Well, I was standing in the hall today talking to a parent when a first grader (in a different class) came to school late. He walked up to me before hanging up his backpack and said...

"Oh man! I didn't know today was crazy hair day!"

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Tagged

I've been tagged by my sister Wendy to write about 6 quirks that I have.



Here are the rules to the Quirks Tag -


  • Link the Person who Tagged you.

  • Mention rules on your blog.

  • Tell about 6 quirks of yours.

  • Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

  • Leave a comment on their blog to let them know.

While reading Wendy's "quirks" I was thinking "What am I going to write about? Wendy and I have all the same quirks and I don't just want to copy them."




So, 6 things about Wendy
1. Apparently we share quirks. Here are the quirks we share...
  • To Do Lists - love making them, LOVE crossing completed items off with a black sharpie marker.
  • "Guess Who I Saw" - one of my FAVORITE games. I'm best at playing it with my mom. We can always figure out the person in minimal guesses,
  • I love using up things, especially things that come in large quantities. Examples - q-tips, vitamins, rice, toilet paper package, Vaseline, etc. I love feeling that accomplishment of working my way through something.

2. She's very good at buying gifts for people. She is always looking well in advance for gifts for people and always gets very thoughtful gifts.

3. She is genuinely interested in other people and their happenings and will always give you a fantastic reaction when you tell her news.


4. She was some how able to get hundreds of people (strangers too) to travel multiple times, an hour and a half, in the snow, up the canyon to Grandpa's cabin for cabin parties. I never understood how so pulled that off.

5. She's very good at planning. She planned the Unforium. She planned the Operation Christmas in the Capitol. And she will one day start planning the Weiler family reunions (similar to the Lambert family reunions). She doesn't know it yet - but she will.

6. She can talk for hours about the same thing. It's amazing.



Now the original "Quirks Blog". I racked my brain to come up with other things so I wouldn't have to copy anything from Wendy. I think I did it so here I go.



FONTS - I love having a variety of fonts, especially in my lesson plans for school. I have downloaded over 350 fonts so I have a huge variety to choose from. I love it when my font goes perfectly with the newsletter theme or worksheet title. Yesterday I was typing up my lessons plans. They were already written in my paper/pencil plan book and there were only 3 days of school to fill in but I spent about 1 1/2 hours adjusting the fonts and sizes so it looked just right.

Does anyone know how to incorporate more fonts onto blogs?


HOT SHOWERS - I like my shower HOT! Not just warm or very warm but hot. I like it so hot that it hurts when you first get in. Sometimes, I have to bring a water bottle into the shower with me to drink to help with the lightheadedness that I get from the heat. When I get out of the shower, my legs are bright red with dots all over them because of the hotness of the shower. I love it.


SUDOKU - I've recently started doing sudoku puzzles on a regular basis. I've found a website that I play on and I justify it as brain exercise. Anyway, on this website there are 10 levels of difficulty. I've worked my way up so now level 6 is my challenge. However, I can't sit down and just play level 6, I have to start at level one and work my way up. Same thing with minesweeper - I can't just start at expert, I have to beat the first two levels before I can move on.


T.V. VOLUME - I don't know why, but I like the TV volume to be on increments of 5. If the TV is on and I don't know what the volume is, I'm fine - but if I watch the volume be set the number either needs to end in a 5 or 0. That just feels right to me. It drives Jonathan crazy because often he thinks the perfect volume level is somewhere in between there.

GET IT DONE - I take after my mom in that I like get things done well in advance. This mostly applies to school. If I know I'm going to have to do something I would rather spend 10 hours at my school completing the project rather than 30 minutes a week until it's done.

Examples:
  • Homework - each week I send home a homework packet for my kids. Rather than spending 15 minutes on Monday during my planning time stapling it all together, I spent my conference weekend stapling packets of homework. It took 2 sessions of conference but now it's done for the year. I love that.
  • Literacy Centers - I am doing something different this year for my literacy centers and needed a lot more centers than I originally had. Each week I introduce a new center to my kids so they have another option as a fast finisher. Instead of getting one center ready each week, I currently have 18 of the 20 centers prepared, in their color-coded labeled tubs, copies made, ready to go for centers (even though I won't be introducing some until March). I'm still working on the last 2.

This obsession I have to finish it right away and not let the project linger really causes me problems sometimes because this year I have 2 parents who come in for an hour each week to help with projects. However, I usually stay late and just get them done because I don't like the thought of an unfinished project lingering for the 3 days until they come.



FALL ASLEEP TO TV - I prefer to fall asleep to the sound of TV. I've been this way ever since I was about 12. The noise sooths me and prevents me from hearing creepy noises at night which make it so I can't fall asleep. However, it must be a show that I am familiar with. Consequently, if I'm going to bed later than normal and am not in the routine of my 10:30 Seinfeld, then I will lay awake for hours searching for a show or info-mercial that I have seen before in order to fall asleep. Now we have a DVD player in our room so if there is nothing on I usually fall asleep to The Office episodes. Once I have a good show, I'll roll over and be asleep in minutes. Jonathan also hates this because he gets hooked on the show and is up for another 1/2 hour watching it where as I am sound asleep.

BONUS - I don't like chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookies.


Those are my quirks.


Ashley, Laurie, Aaron, Stacey, Brianne and Jeff - you're it.