Putting out Fires

Friday night had the most fun with some truly good friends. I met Jenny, Sue, Mindy, Emily, and Mallory at Mi Pueblito's in Shelby for dinner. [Mindy, Sue, and Jenny are sisters..Emily is Sue's daughter and Mallory is Mindy's daughter...I had both Emily and Mallory for two years each - 4th and 5th grade....and I taught school with Mindy, Sue, and Jenny for years. Could those connections be any more complicated?] We laughed and just had a fabulous time together. [I like to consider myself sort of an honorary sister :)]

Jenny [my favorite oldest friend as I call her] had some salsa and let's just say it set me on fire. I didn't realize how hot it was until it was too late [i.e. I put a large chip-full in my mouth. Not cool to go spitting chips and stuff out of your mouth at the dinner table.] It set my mouth on fire! I was telling Craig about it and Gabe overheard our conversation. He looked at me, kind of puzzled, and he said, "So did the fireman have to come and put out the fire?" AND he was serious. "No buddy...I just used water." That seemed to satisfy him [or confuse him terribly considering fire usually involves a fireman] for the time being.

I have been fortunate enough [and VERY blessed] to have a new opportunity in my life [I would elaborate more but considering this is a public blog that may not be the professional thing to do...] and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. So today I was putting out fires all the way there. Cooper had pictures at basketball, Emma had to help do the Pledge of Allegiance at the school board meeting, Molly had Bible study, and Gabe, well he just had to be Gabe...but poor Craig was having to deal with all of it - ALONE! Cooper informed me at 3:25pm as I was jumping back in the car for my adventure that he really needed to be at basketball 30 minutes early. [So is this where I tell you that I clapped my hands, said "Abra-Cadabra", and solved the dilemma?] I start calling around, trying to get my good friend to pick Cooper up, while stopping to meet Craig to change cars, and making sure that I get a diet Sundrop for the ride [Priorities here people....]. I was afraid that she wasn't going to get the message about Cooper so at each stoplight I am sending text messages to various people to make sure she got the word and to Craig to give him the plans. By the time I got to my next adventure it was problem solved! [I know...I'm good...no need to pat me on the back...or send money...unless, of course, you insist] Actually the credit goes to my main squeeze, Mr. Short, for getting the diva dressed to impress and taking the holy terror to a school board meeting! He is awesome :) [He also likes money...big bills are fine] . No, we didn't forget about Molly - she rides with a friend each week. [My parents have crowned her Cinderella because she always has to do the dirty work around here...she so has them snowed...we actually split the dirty work between her and Cooper. Does that make him the little mouse that hangs out with Cinderella?]

So, for the first day of the week, it wasn't a bad one. As always, life as a Shortie is just plain awesome.

Gotta Find the Fun

I am pretty sure this has been the longest short week. I think it's because I've had the sniffle snots [just being honest people...just being honest] and I haven't slept very well. Nothing in particular happened to make it a horrible week...just not the greatest week ever. [Again, stop with the eye rolling about my job as a teacher and having the last week off and blah, blah, blah. I actually have more than one job thank you....] Add to the whole can't breathe out of my nose thing the fact that I am teaching about fossils and rocks the law of superposition. [Don't Google it...it just means that the oldest rocks and most simple fossils are at the bottom while the younger, more complex rocks and fossils are at the top....and we'll have fun, fun, fun til the teacher takes the fossils away....] Oddly enough, with the most boring topic EVER, the kids have had fabulous [and unfortunately not easy to answer] questions. That makes it fun to be a teacher - even if the topics is rocks.

I did learn a lesson today from a wise person. This person told me, after being in my room with one of my classes, that my kids [school kids...I actually have 104 children ♥] seemed like fun. And that got me thinking....you gotta find the fun. That is true. I have to find the fun. Fossils aren't fun [unless you are a paleontologist...or a fossil lover...] but we can make them fun. If I find them fun and I make fossils, rocks, geologic time, and even extinction seem like the greatest science topics EVER then maybe, just maybe the ones that matter will find the fun too. [That's a wake up call people - get a hint.]

And of course, it wouldn't be a Step Away Chubby without a Shortie story. Tonight, after our devotion, Gabe was selected to say the prayer and it went a little something like this:

"Thank you Father (thank you Father), for our food (for our food), many, many blessings (many, many blessings), I would hate to be Stanley (I would hate to be Stanely) A-ah-men (A-ah-men)."

Needless to say the rest of us at the table were hee-hawing [inside our shirts of course]. Craig was the only one that had enough sense to tell him thank you. [And I realized, at that moment, that Gabe watches way too much TV when he is reciting parts of the Geico commercial during his blessing prayer] Bless him...

And tonight was Taco Salad Thursday [doesn't have the same ring as Taco Salad Tuesday but we had Fried Onion Baked Chicken Tuesday...and I'm going to stop now...] so Emma decided that she wanted to try some refried beans. After one taste she decided she didn't like them because they were the insides of the beans with beans mixed up in them. [She does have a point there - never thought about it that way. Just another reason to leave the beans in the bowl. I wish her daddy would forgo the beans sometimes if you get my drift...or smell the drift...]

As always, life as a Short [while really snotty this week] is totally awesome. On the agenda: Find the fun :)