Adult braces...oh the horror!

I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned yesterday. While I came away with a good report, (no cavaties! yea!) apparantly that is not good enough. "You have nice teeth," my dentist said, "if we could juuuuuuust pull that top tooth down.....and those bottom ones are all over the place....I'd love to get an orthodontists hands on that!"

Oh dear. Talk about a self-esteem boost.

And while I would love for my teeth to look like this, adult braces are just, well....kind of embarrassing.

I mean it's one thing for a child to have braces. It's accepted, it's normal. But say you are attending a presentation for work. Perhaps you are sitting in a conference room full of people, perhaps the presentation is on, oh I don't know, employee benefits. So the insurance representative in his fancy suit walks up front to make his presentation, and you notice a flash of metal. You're going to take a second look, right? So for the rest of the presentation you just sit there and try not to stare at his brace face, and in the process totally forget to listen to what he is saying. Anyway, all this to say that I find adult braces to be somewhat...distracting.

Why does everything need to be perfect anyway? While I am completely aware that I have a snaggle tooth, (pictured below) I like to think it gives me character. Besides the fact that a drinking straw fits perfectly in that little space between the snaggle and my bottom teeth.

And sometimes I think it's kind of cute when people have a few wayward teeth. Gives their mouth a little bit of personality. Perhaps a little bit endearing, even. I don't know...should I continue to embrace the snaggle? Or would enduring the embarrassment of adult braces for a couple of years be worth it in the end? Let me know what ya'll think!

Dogs are people too

This past weekend I babysat my dog-neice, Darby. She is the BEST dog, very sweet and well-behaved. I took care of her for a few months when she was just a wee pup and she looked like this...

Isn't she cute? She lives with my sister now, but I still get her on the weekends sometimes when Alina is away...

"Mom where are we going? I hope it's Aunt Adriel's house!!!"

"YESSSSSS!!!! It is Aunt Adriel's house!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!"

This is also her expression when she learns she is going to the dogpark, or anywhere, for that matter! I love her expression here-such exuberance! We went to the dogpark on Sunday and she had a blast! She loves playing fetch and she is always the fastest dog in the park! Seriously, this dog runs like a deer!

I think we may have worn her out. Kris looks a little sleepy too...hah! Anyway, I had a lot of fun playing with her this weekend. Animals add so much enjoyment to life, don't you think? I totally understand why people with pets tend to live longer. Animals are so funny and great stress relievers! It's always been interesting to me how much animals seem to understand us. I took her to a friends house on Saturday night and she kept looking at me as if to ask if she was allowed to sit on the furniture. So cute! I pointed to a chair and she hopped right up! I think Darby thinks she is actually a human. At night she even slept with her head on my pillow. hah! Silly girl! Now if only she and Cooper could learn to get along...poor cat sat on the kitchen table the ENTIRE time Darby was over. Oh well...maybe next weekend they will become friends! :)

A Winter Haiku

Winter continues.

The street is covered in white.

Scrape the ice and drive.

Confessions: Unedited

I have a confession to make:

I am a snob.

Let me paint last night's picture for you so you will better understand where this (shocking!) confession is coming from.

I left work yesterday afternoon just in time to drive the hour it takes me to get to Murfreesboro, where I am taking a night class in order to get my teaching certification. I fought the usual battle of trying to find a decent parking spot, (I lost) walked ten minutes in the FREEZING cold to get to my building, and arrived, flushed, to class.

Then I remembered-students would be teaching the class today. The assignment was to teach something from your content area (math, music, etc.) using either a debate or a method called jigsaw, which is basically where students are put into groups to learn something, then are re-shuffled into new groups where they teach each other what they learned in their first group.

So the first guy, a P.E. major, saunters up front to "teach" his lesson. Now I don't want to stereotype people, but in my past school experience, the coaches I had were not the best teachers. I recall a high school geography class taught by one of our football coaches where all we did was color pictures of the continents and students were wildly out of control. I remember shoes flying through the air and a girl screaming at her boyfriend, "I hate you John!" while John, obviously unphased by her angry display, reassured the rest of the class by repeating ever so nonchalantly, "She don't mean that. She don't mean that." So anyway, this P.E. major saunters up front to teach, and in typical coach fashion, he is clearly unprepared. He introduces his debate topic-something to do with football, and sets us loose. Well, we talked and talked about football. Why people get so passionate about this sport I'll never know. Finally we stated our points and that was that. Nice teaching job, eh?

The next girl, an art major, was more much prepared. She had a powerpoint presentation, art supplies for us to make a mini-project with, pictures, and handouts. And so the night continued. Over the course of the next three hours I had to get in groups twelve different times, often through embarrassing ways such as "make the sound of the animal on your card to find your group members," where I learned about things like instrument families, physical education teaching methods (snore) etc., until finally it was the last girls turn to go. And man was her topic a doozy-German. So I tweeted my way to my first group (Yep, the picture on my card was a bird. Hey at least I wasn't a sheep. Baaa!). And this is the part where my being a snob comes in. I looked down at my handout. "Congregate the following verbs," the instructions said.

Um...doesn't she mean conjugate? Surely if you are a language major you know the difference between conjugate and congregate, right? I mean how would one congregate verbs anyway? Write them down and put them in a pile so they can hang out together? Or should I put them down on a church pew somewhere so that they are part of the congregation? Teacher...I don't get it.

I smugly slashed through the word "congregate" and wrote "conjugate" above it-I get some sort of strange satisfaction from editing other people's work-before I noticed the next error. She had typed "backer" for baker. Oh dear. But you know what? Even then, I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I know how it is when you are typing things in a rush and words get misspelled or overlooked. That is UNTIL another classmate pointed out her "backer" mistake and she said to her friend, "Why didn't you point that out when you proofread this for me?"

So not only did she read over it, but she had her friend, another aspiring teacher, read over it as well. And neither one picked up on either of those two mistakes?! If this is the future of America's teachers...well...I'm glad I don't have any children. It looks like homeschooling could be in my future someday...

So yes, I am somewhat of a snob when it comes to judging other people's teaching styles and editing their papers. But when it came time to comment on how each student did, I was very kind. After all, they will be judging me when I go to teach next week...eefs!

Oh and just in case you were wondering, these are the sentences my group came up with to share with the class:

"Ich mag ringsherum schlafen."
"Ich trinke Bier für das Geld."

Look it up if you really wanna know.

update on natalie's butterflies!

I just want to say a big THANKS to everyone who donated money to help my neice Natalie raise money for the people in Haiti. I just totaled up all your donations and I am SO excited! And the grand total is...drum roll please... $395.00! Just from you guys! Not sure exactly what this puts her total up to but I know before I started collecting money she had about $1500...so I'm guessing with your donations added she is somewhere around the $2,000 mark. Once again, it's so amazing what children can inspire us to do with their fearlessness. You all have been so generous and I am so touched. I know it's all going to a great cause. There is still so much need in Haiti and these donations are going to help out so many people!
I'm sending the last few checks out today, and the butterflies should be coming in by the end of this week! So you should be getting yours soon! I can't wait! :)
Side note: Did you know that butterflies symbolize eternal life? Pretty cool, huh!

My new office pet

This is my desk. Doesn't it look nice? You'd never guess what's under it...

Mice! Yes my story 'tis true, I saw one today. It ran through the lobby and behind my desk it did stay.

So I placed by the door my lunch apple core. In hopes that to it he'll run...

Cause sharing my desk sure ain't fun!

But seriously folks, I've been sitting cross-legged in my chair all day for fear that the mouse will run over my toes, causing me to scream in a most embarrassing and unprofessional manner. Now I've always been an avid-animal lover, but even I have my limits!

yoga time with the sis

My sister recently decided to become a yoga instructor. This is her (second from the left) posing with some of her students at her first yoga retreat in Costa Rica. Don't you wish you were there?! I know I do.

Before she taught any official classes, she used me as her "guinea pig" student. Here are some of the things I learned:

Some sort of wacky pose with a "bind" (meaning my arms are twisted around my body in unnatural ways until my hands reach each other). Please excuse the sweat-it's no walk in the park folks!

The same pose. I can't quite get my head to touch the floor, which is the goal I think.

Scary, afraid-my-neck-is-gonna-snap-and-leave-me-paralysized pose. Alina was mad when I was able to do this pose on my first try. She can't even get her knees to touch the floor yet! Guess all those years of sticking my butt up in the air while watching tv as a child payed off. hah!

Before Alina left for her retreat, she came over to give my roommates and I a practice lesson. As she walked around the room, giving encouraging comments like, "Good, Brittany," in her sweet little teacher voice, I couldn't help but notice I hadn't gotten quite the same treatment in my solo lesson. Instead, it was more like, "Adriel, why can't you do this!" as she pushed my already over-stretched leg up in the air an inch further. Oh well, guess that's what sisters are for! I did miss her teaching while she was away. My roommates and I had to resort to doing yoga videos with Elise Gulan at home in her absence, and it just wasn't quite the same. I'm determined to be as good as Elise and Alina someday though. Those girls are such powerhouses!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Happy practicing!

Namaste!

Butterflies for Haiti

My adorable neice, Natalie, has come up with a brilliant idea to help raise money for people in Haiti. She is making butterflies out of coffee filters and other materials in exchange for donations. Each one says, "Pray for Haiti," and they are so pretty! (Photos taken by her beautiful mother, Rachel).

If anyone is interested in making a donation, you can write a check out to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and 100% of the donation goes to Haiti. I will send the checks to her and she will mail me back one of her butterflies for you! You can read more about it by clicking on the link to the article below. As of today she has raised over $1500! It's amazing what a 6-year-old can accomplish! Just let me know if anyone is interested!

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jan/26/wings-and-a-prayer/