breakfast goodness

Scandinavian Muesli
2 c old fashioned rolled oats
2/3 c rye or wheat flakes
1/3 coarsely chopped almonds
2 tb flaked coconut
1/2 c raisins
2 tb honey
1/2 t vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
1/4 c ground flaxseed

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Spread oats and rye/wheat flakes onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Stir in almonds and coconut; bake until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Turn off the oven. Stir in raisins.

Microwave honey for 10 seconds in a microwave safe bowl. Stir in vanilla and cinnamon and pour over muesli mixture. Stir to coat. Return the mixture to the turned-off warm oven and let cool completely, about 2 hours. Stir in flaxseed.

Store in the refrigerator and it will last for a couple of weeks.

My thoughts (now that I've made it more than once):
*It's DELICIOUS and filling...I mix it with vanilla yogurt.
*The "mix-ins" are sort of up to you...you could use any dried fruit and any amount you want...I liked the raisins so much (they really plump up) that I added more this time...along with about double the coconut.
*I prefer to add flaxseed to it when I eat it...it all sinks to the bottom of the storage container.
*If you can't find rye or wheat flakes, just add more rolled oats.

Enjoy! Especially my little friend who is a vegan for 21 days....no animal products in this recipe! :)

recap of the end

The end of 2009, that is.... My poor little blog hasn't gotten much attention from me this fall/winter at all, so I figured a little recap of all important/not-so-important events was due. 2009 ended by celebrating at dinner with friends, enjoying some bubbly, and just relaxed hanging out. It was nice and calm (minus a somewhat intense game of electronic CatchPhrase) and included nothing close to bottle service, which is always a plus.

On the work side of things, I got to be a part of one of my very favorite things to happen in my 5.5 years at Blue Haze. Our school was selected by the Marines to be a donation location for Toys for Tots. For several weeks families donated toys and the kids knew nothing except that a "plan" was in place one Thursday afternoon. At about 12:30 an announcement was made for everyone to begin heading out to the playground. At 1:00 (on the dot, just in case you thought the military might not be on time), a helicopter flew towards the school, circled the playground twice, and landed on the backstop. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!! I was so thankful and so excited for our students that they got to be a part of something so special. I had chills as they landed and I'm pretty sure I wore a ridiculous grin the rest of the day.
Here are kids lined against the fence and the helicopter coming into view.

A 4-star general along with three other marines (one of whom is the dad of a Blue Haze kiddo) and the pilot walked up to greet everyone.

They shook EVERY kid's hand!!!

My sweet Character Crew kids who helped load all the bagged toys.

Once work/school ended for the break, things got a bit more busy. I left work Friday afternoon, went with Emily to deliver Angel tree gifts a family from school, and dashed to TCU to get my graduation stuff. Then it was time to head to dinner where "the parents" met for the first time. Success x 10! :) Saturday morning was my hooding ceremony nice and early at TCU...thank you, Mother Nature, for bringing the 40 degree weather in just in time for me to be sporting a very NOT windproof purple graduation robe. The hooding ceremony was really neat and special. And while I won't miss being in class until 10:10 at night and doing homework, I will dearly miss the people and professors I spent 2 1/2 years with. We all grew very close and the thought of not seeing them all every week makes me want to keep going to class just because. Graduation was a bit long...which is expected. We went to a delicious dinner that night to celebrate and then headed to a beautiful wedding reception afterwards.

After the weekend was over, I breathed, vegged a little, and then began my last minute Christmas shopping for almost everyone on my list. I will NOT be doing that next year!! The roads were insane and I'm sure I had way too many tacky thoughts in my head about drivers/people than I should've had so close to Santa visiting.

I got all my shopping done, however, and Bobby and I had our Christmas a few days early. In addition to other things, we both managed to get each other nearly the same gift....think we hang out much together?

And even though he will probably kill me for putting this on here, I couldn't resist. Thanks to some boredom and nasty weather in San Antonio, we opted to stay indoors and visited the museum which happened to have a circus exhibit. Now Bobby...I could have posted the video of you doing Super HulaHoop on the wii....

Welcome, 2010!

the best present under the tree...

...when she's not trying to eat it, of course.

let it snow

It might have melted by lunch time, but this is what it looked like when I walked into work this morning:
Score. :)

guest blogger

Bobby told me this story the other day and after I finished my laughing convulsions, I told him it was too bad that he didn't have a blog, because his story was so very blog-worthy. Then I did some more thinking and came up with the idea of a guest blogger, so....here you go:

The other day I went to go visit a client that I had never met at a nursing home. When I arrived the staff told me that my client was a lady in her nineties who had a reputation for being cantankerous. At this point I figured that my boyish charm could get the best of any old lady…this was not the case.

The nurse showed me to my client’s room and then left us to talk. When I introduced myself as her attorney my client immediately started yelling that she didn’t hire an attorney and did not need me. I politely explained that I had been appointed as her attorney and she was more or less stuck with me. My client than proceeded to tell me that there was no way I could be an attorney because I was too young. I could see how to someone in their nineties could see how someone in their late twenties could be too young to do much, so, once again, I politely explained to her that I was her attorney and I was here to help. As you can imagine she did not respond too well to this either.

At this point I figured I may as well proceed and talk to her about why I was there. I started off by trying to just chat with her to figure out how senile she really was. I asked her about her house and she immediately responded by saying”you are just trying to figure out if I know where I live”. That is exactly what I was doing but I wasn’t going to let her know that so I responded that I was trying to get to know her. This apparently set something off with her because she then grabbed an unopened can of Sprite off of her table and hurled it at me. Thank God she was old because her aim was about 3 feet to my right. However, when the Sprite hit the wall it exploded and got all over me! I never thought as a lawyer I would have an old lady hurl things at me…apparently I was wrong.

...and i learned to like shallots (a lot)

Israeli couscous with parsley and shallots
serves 4

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous (I found it in the bulk section at Central Market)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 shallots (about 1/2 pound total), halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook couscous until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain, and transfer to a bowl.
Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add to bowl with couscous. Add parsley and lemon juice, and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

*I enjoyed this with some lime broccoli and sesame shrimp...I cooked Asian, go figure. :)

i wanna feel the sunshine shining down on me and you

yes...still here

Thank goodness for cell phones...otherwise some of you folks might think I had been kidnapped or fallen victim to the swine flu. Neither is true, luckily. Just trying to keep my head above water with the new job and all the scary unknown that it comes with.

I do better with lists, plus seeing as how I have so little time on my computer, I thought I'd run down the last month or so with bullet points. We all know I'm no good at storytelling, anyway.

~As stated above, my new counseling job is kicking my booty. One adjustment is that my time isn't my own anymore...there is always something that comes up that I have to do while in the middle of something else. I'm learning to navigate the ropes semi-on my own because there really is no one to guide you when you're the only counselor in a sea of 730+ small people. I love, love, love doing my guidance lessons! I am getting to know so many of the kiddo's personalities and I'm seeing the growth that happens from grade level to grade level.
~Haven't contracted the swine flu...however, I am in the midst of recovery from a seriously awful sinus infection. I thought my forehead was going to break out of my head while on a flight just last Monday...wouldn't wish that pain on my worst enemy...if I had an enemy, which I don't. :)
~I was on a plane coming back from visiting Ryan-from-the-train in Seattle. We've been friends for almost a good 10 years now. It was a gorgeous trip and it was really good to see him and catch up and shop at all the fun stores! We saw a lot of gorgeous scenery...stuff I don't get to see EVER here in the Lone Star State. Here are some of the pictures from my trip:

~Here are the sweet flowers my sweet Bobby left when I wasn't feeling well (thought I was dying) last week. I came home from work and saw them on the table and of course went into worst-case scenario mode for about 10 seconds before I realized there was no stranger lurking in my apartment trying to lure me with flowers. Turns out Bobby stopped by and dropped them off...which is a much sweeter story than a murderer hiding in my shower. (Do you like my candy corn placemats??)

~And finally, I got to go to this AWESOME concert a few weeks ago!! Taylor put on an amazing show and never stopped moving for the full 2 hours. She walked through the crowd twice, had all kinds of cool set changes, and finished the show by singing with the two opening acts. What a personable lady! I want to go when she comes back in March!!!

did i speak too soon?

Remember how just days ago I showed you pictures of my shiny and organized office?

Remember how I said there is never a dull moment in my new job?

Well, to quote one of my favorite movies, The Little Rascals, "the clouds opened up and God said 'I hate you Alfalfa'!" Although, perhaps that should say Mary instead of Alfalfa.

I walked into the school today and was greeted by one of our secretaries who curled her face up and said "I just sprayed about half a can of Lysol in your office to make the smell go away." Um....come again???

Turns out, the roof and ceiling of Blue Haze Elementary, along with the clouds, opened up this weekend. Score. I'm really, really trying hard to choose my attitude and for that attitude to be a positive one. However, when the overhead lights start crackling due to water contact, there is nasty brown water dripping from the hole in the ceiling all the live-long day, the planner which is your Bible gets ruined, all the paperwork on your desk, including the sole copy of a child's psych. discharge papers are also ruined, and the library books you had laying out for lessons get destroyed, it gets tough. Oh, and did I mention the smell?

The only positive highlight so far is that all my documentation and paperwork for TCU happens to be kept in a hard plastic folder that I just happened to choose because it was purple. God bless plastic.

I might need (just a little) counseling

Ah, yes, I am now 13 days into my new job as counselor to 700+ kiddos. It is...to sum up in a brief phrase...never a dull moment. The days begin and end before I can even realize what's gone on the middle. I am loving getting to meet all the kids. I was asked again and again at staff development if I missed being in the classroom. My answer was always a solid "no." I loved teaching for 5 years, don't get me wrong, but I was/am very excited about a new role and routine. I really didn't think I missed it until I read a book to a class during my first guidance lesson last week. I'm really glad that I will have 1-2 lessons a day. I'll still get to read to kids, teach them, and have the heart and soul conversations I so grew to love. I loved just talking to my kids about life "stuff" way more than I loved teaching them to do subtraction with regrouping. I still get to see all my previous loves and am meeting new little loves everyday. Yay! Here are some highlights/interesting things/tidbits/learning moments from the past couple of weeks:

-I now truly recognize the developmental differences between grade levels. I'm teaching lessons on trustworthiness (for what seems like the rest of my life, but really only 3 more weeks) and the "get it" factor is dramatically different between 3rd and 4th grades.

-Choose a book I really like, because by the time I've read it 6-7 times (6-7 classes per grade level), I want to throw it out the window.

-Contrary to some beliefs, I do not sit in the dark. I refuse to use the overhead bright lights in my office, so instead I have about 4 lamps on at all times. It's much more calm and relaxing.

-Pre-K kids are my new favorite. I spent the mornings with them the first week and quickly bonded with them. I miss them daily now that I'm busier and can't get down to see them as often.

-I have only cried once so far. And not really even at school, but on my way home.

-I listened to a frequent office visitor sing "When Good Girls Go Bad" from his desk in the little room where kids go when they can't quite get it together enough to stay in the classroom.

-Said child also randomly makes dinosaur/monster/not-sure-what shrieking noises, too. (Is it wrong that I actually really like him??)

-I nicknamed a TINY girl "Polly Pocket."

-I have conducted two meetings with parents who want their kids in either speech or special education...um, do they know I have NO idea what I'm doing??

-I didn't realize how much time I spent talking, laughing, and bonding with my 2nd grade team of teachers...that was probably the hardest adjustment so far...and may or may not have contributed to my tears.

-My knee got kissed during a kinder friendship lesson. Ok, creepy.

-I get lots and lots of hugs, which always make me smile.

-I walked back into my office this afternoon to find a kiddo laying on a blanket on my floor.

-I have learned to appreciate all the behind the scenes work my amazing principal and VP's do.

-I get to greet kids every morning and help them out of their cars. Your day can't help but start out great doing that...even if I almost got taken down by a boy who DID not want out of his car and subsequently pulled me in when I tried to get ahold of his arms.

Like I said, never a dull moment!