Samwise.

With the husband gone, and work kind of overwhelming most of the time, I am digging my heels deeper into my world of fantasy.  You know, things you might not want to blog about if you want to keep the few friends you have?  Well, I'm throwing caution to the wind, because I want the world to know that I love Samwise Gamgee.  For some reason he reminds me of my husband (The blonde hair?)  even though I have told him and he gets mad.  

Disclaimer for Nick:  You are far more muscular than S.G. for you only consume 3 meals a day compared to his 7.  He also is the embodiment of Sean Watkins mostly because he did a song called "The House of Tom Bombadil" and so LOTR and Nickel Creek have always been intertwined in my mind.  I also love his faithful, borderline homo, devotion to Frodo and how he says "Sir" always and "Po-ta-toes".  And how he just wants to marry sweet Rosie Cotton.  What can I say?  I love a man with a soft heart and curly blonde hair.  (See, that's not bad Nick).  

Living Things

While sorely, sorely tempted to blog about how I feel sorry for myself... I will not!  Please envision, if you will, the scene from "French Kiss" when Meg Ryan shouts "I will TRIUMPH" ironically while in front of the Arc de triumph.  

In classroom news, our new science unit is living things.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out 80% of the class could figure out that pencils are not living and will not in fact grow when placed in soil and given water.  Some of them are not exactly sure whether gravel will grow into some sort of rocky tree, but I'll give them that.  They are 8.  

I wish pencils would grow.  Isn't that a cool image?  Little tendrils growing out of your pencil?  Maybe the fluorescent bulbs are really jars of lightning bugs?  Maybe a soft spoken angelic teacher instead of the slightly annoyed and talking loudly from her diaphragm teacher that is currently inhabiting the c-room. 

Do you think my kids would behave if I wore a tight bun, tartan dressing gown, and could transfigure myself into a tabby with eyeglass markings?  

Love, Kaley

In other good news, while searching the net, I found this little gem.  

SeaWorld Hype Continues.

Anyone who knows me knows I care about three animals.  I care so much that I have more than one stuffed animal of all the animals I am about to mention.  

My three favorite animals are married into one experience.  

SEAWORLD.  

I just found out that not only does S.W. house the majestic sea cow otherwise known as the manatee, it also has the FLAMINGO.  And to top it all off... Polar Bears!!!!!!! 

And another holy trio has been completed in my life.  If i come home with manatee T-shirts and flamingo flip flops, please don't judge.  My dear husband has quite the task in front of him to control my insane impulse to buy tacky things.  

Love, Kaley

PS My class is raising money to adopt "Chessie" the manatee.  I think I've created a monster. 

A stroll down memory lane.

Today during MSA, as I walked laps around my classroom, I decided to do what I always do when I am bored.  Doodle.  So, I walked around with a paper hidden in my testing manual sketching none other than my manatee poster I got in 5th grade which is now laminated and hung in my classroom.  This got me to thinking, I am really psyched to see the manatees at Sea World when I go visit Nick.  I love manatees.  I can't explain to you this enigma, but I felt some old, deep, heartfelt love resurfacing as I gazed into the round face of Chessie the Manatee.  

I was looking at Facebook and pondering how the "Emo" trend has seemed to go so much further and gotten much more widespread than I ever could have imagined.  I learned of it Jr. year of college from my roommate Sarah Mann.  This led me to search my external hard drive for one particular time when, as emo newborns, Tara and I tried to act emo.  The results are as follows.  

Here is a picture where we straightened Nick's hair to be emo.  Seriously folks, this is like an advertisement not to go to Salisbury University.  Tuition=thousands.  Boredom is free. 

 

But then I was shocked to see what my room looked like back then.  Note the hot red list of celebrities/musicians I had banned because they had annoyed me or my political leanings.  (Still kind of true about me, but at least I don't have a list)  I put up the SU education departments principles of .... I don't know, excellence in education?  How far I have fallen.  Also, our ficus that got maggots!  And all those great frames!!!!  Where did all my flamingo memorabilia go?  How come marriage annihilated every pink possession I own?  And also, I happen to think that princess wand looks snazzy.  Tara, I miss our room back then!  

That is all.  

Love, Kaley

Family Portraits

Check out cute photos of my family by checking out Drea's photography blog.  She did a great job!! I'm so excited :)

andreajaephotography.com and select blog.  

Love, Kaley

Operation Parasol

In approximately six months I am moving to California.  Land of fashion firsts.  Remember Hollister.  Maybe those weird head bands Mischa Barton would wear?  Yeah.  How can I live up to the trendiness of Cali when 

#1 I'm not rich

#2  I'm cheap anyway

#3 I lack common fashionista type knowledge

I mean, I want to wear furry boots with my jeans tucked into

them highlighted by a vivacious mini-skirt... but alas, the skill evades me.  My fellow teachers admitted they never wore their dorky school clothes to regular social functions.  Uh oh!  The eternal dilemna!  I surrendered to dork-hood because, let's face it, I'm not fooling N-E-one.  I fessed up, let them think what they will of my cardigan draped shoulders.  

So, what trend could such a fashion novice start in California.  

Parasols! 

That's right.  I'm guarding myself from skin cancer AND being stylish while I'm at it!  You watch. 

 It'll be just like the granny shawl when it came back (I had two, note my knack for picking a one season and slightly embarrassing trend to embrace).  I'll have my 15 minutes of fame.  Or I'll be one of those pictures in a fashion magazine that mercifully blurs my face out of their article on "Fashion Faux- Pas"  

Love, 

Kaley

San Diego

I've found out due to the fact that Nick is in the military that I can go to Sea World for free!!  And Aunty M tells me there are manatees.  Bonus.  Nick told me we can get cheapo tickets to the Zoo and Disney land.  Is it lame to go to Disney land when I have never been to Disney world?  Perhaps I'll boycott both of them. 

 I also found out that last year a man was attacked and killed after a Great White Shark bit his legs OFF of his body in... yeah, you guessed it... Sunny San Diego.  In the past five years approximately three people have been annihilated by this ferocious sea demon.  AKA, Kaley is not getting her pale butt within ten feet of the shoreline.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I might dip a toe in the receding waves, but No More than that I tell you!

While I am sad to leave home, having the husband gone always makes me realize that home is where he is.  If Nick is in San Diego, that is where I want to be.  Not to mention it has been 20-30 degrees warmer than here ever since his arrival.  I miss him.  But alas, there is always iChat.  I also am really jonesing (sp?) after this particular dining room table I found on the NEX website.  

NEX = Navy Exchange.  Tax free suckahs!  And in case you didn't know, the Navy will cause a slow death by acronyms.  NEX, SWO, METOC, OCS, BOQ, CDO, and on and on and on.  So, enjoy these lovely pictures my husband snapped of his 3,000 mile road trip across the USA.  

Also, please enjoy this little video snippet of my emotional state.  That's right.  I'm relating my long distance marriage to a cheesy children's movie starring mice.  Did you expect anything else?

Love, Kaley

Two Quick Things

While Google mapping San Diego, I found out two very fantastic things.  

1.  Sea World in there!  Cool!  I wonder if they have manatees...

2.  Del Mar racetrack is also located there.  Maybe I'll see some of the jockeys from the aptly named Animal Planet reality drama "Jockey's"

Love, Kaley

Book worm

Those who know me know that I am always on the search for a good book.  However, just like with music and tv, I have no imagination and parasitically prey off of my others friends likes/interests.  So goes my incestual relationship with books.  I (gasp!) was a fan of the Twilight books even though they got increasingly hard to swallow as the series went on.  While waiting for yet another delayed southwest flight I picked up the book "The Host" and promptly took off the book jacket so no strangers knew what I was reading.  This book took me at least a week to finish.  Oh, and one day was a snow day so that's even worse.  This means it wasn't very good.  Good/decent books take one-three days to finish.  

People, I embrace fantasy with open arms.  If this book had had a dragon, it might have been decent.  Honestly, nothing bad happened to anyone.  This book is about "souls" who come to earth to prey/live in human bodies.  However, some humans do not let 

the "body snatchers" take their bodies.  So, the soul and human become bffs while the "body snatcher" steals her body.  Which leads to weird human/body snatcher love triangles.  Now, don't get me wrong, I read it all.  It didn't suck.  But it wasn't awesome like Twilight either.  It actually was like all the bad parts of that book put together.  

And while I'm on the subject of dorkiness let me relate a little Harry Potter convo I had with two students earlier this week.  

Student 1 we'll call Herb.  Student 2 I'll call Little Timmy.  

Herb- "Mrs. P, does Harry ever defeat that evil bald guy?" (Herb has a debilitating lisp, by the way)

ME- "Well, do you really want me to ruin the surprise?"

Herb- "Yeah"

Me- "Yes, Harry triumphs over evil"

Herb- "Does Harry marry that girl with curly hair, what's her name?"

Me- "Hermione"

Herb- Insert massacre of Hermione's name here.  

Me "Her-my-oh-nee" (just like the book, tee hee!)

Herb "Huh-mii oh nee"

Little Timmy- "Yeah, when does that girl turn into a wolf?"

Me "What girl? Are you talking about Professor Lupin??"

Little Timmy- "No, the girl, she gets a wolf head"

Me "You mean when Hermione takes Polyjuice potion and turns into Pansy Parkinson's Cat?"

Little Timmy "Yeah I think so"

Herb "What about that guy with the beard?"

Me "Dumbledore"

Herb "Dum ba doow"

Me "Yup"

So I guess what I'm trying to say is my kids don't read and Harry Potter is SO not conducive to children with speech impediments.  

PS I know no one but LP/Aunty M cared about that little dialogue.  Oh well!

Love, Kaley

OK, PS, while I was searching for a picture of Hermione turning into a cat I found some anime pictures of Ron and Hermione making out.  Also, an anime picture of her skirt blowing up in the wind (?!)

Oh, and this little gem:

Kid Quote of the Week

My kids left me with a gem today.  Enjoy.  

"I am addicted to picking my nose!  I am!! I love it!  I can't stop...What?!"

Bum-mer

I promised myself, and members of my family, that I will not post self-pitying entries of me whining about how much I miss Nick.  Just letting you know, it will be hard to keep up my resolve as Nick is leaving tomorrow morning.  I know.  I am hoping my class will buy that I have weepy eyes because of allergies?  

Nick's game plan for the next few months:

Tomorrow: Drive cross country to San Diego, CA

Monday: Check in at base, go to fire fighting school.  Hang out and ride ships around until Mid-May.  

Spring break: Minute chance of flying to CA to see Nick.  

Mid May- Meet ship in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  Twiddle thumbs and do Navy things until ship is commissioned in early fall.  

October- Go through panama canal on USS Dewey to go to CA

November- Arrive (hopefully) in San Diego, meet wife here.

"Anchors Aweigh my boys, Anchors aweighhhhh"

Love, Kaley

Why there should be no dark sarcasm in the classroom.

The following is a real conversation I had with a student.  Here is some background information.  

Our task: Compare and contrast "A New Coat for Anna" and "Pelle's New Suit".  Both stories on how to make clothes from scratch.  You know, wool to yarn to cloth to the weaver.  

Me "So how are Anna and Pelle alike?"

Student "Well, they both have sheep"

Me "Well, no, but they need the sheep for something."

Student "Oh, Fur!"

Me "No, not fur, it starts with a W"

Student "White fur"

Me "No, it's not called fur, but it's like fur.  Feel free to go back and reread"

 (Imagine me with really disappointed face)

Student "I know, Water!"

Me "Oh yeah, I go out in my backyard to get water from my sheep all the time"

Student starts to write 'sheep make water' on Venn Diagram

Me "Noooooooo, WOOL, It's WOOL!!"

Love, Kaley