Chaz's Sleeping

Some of you already know this, but Chaz is an avid sleeper. He could be considered narcoleptic by some. Also, while he is sleeping, he sometimes mumbles about his dreams. If you're lucky, you can actually converse with him and try to understand what he is dreaming. An example:

You're so pretty, you should go to I Can Has Cheezburger and put your face on it.

Yup, that's what my loving husband told me last night as he was drifting off to sleep. I decided to have some fun with this opportunity, and I recorded him talking to me about his dreams. Soon I'll try to post the recordings on here, but for now, I'll just give you a little taste text-style:

K: What about the jack?

C: What? Why are you hitting me?

K: What about the jack?

C: The jack? No, I think they mean a jaguar.

K: Who's jaguar? Is it yours?

C: No! You've seen my car, come on now!

K: What is your car?

C: It's an old, old car. Like 1988 or something.

K: Who's jaguar is it?

C: Justified.

K: It's justified's car? Who is that?

C: He forgot to take his test.

K: Oh, goodnight Chaz.

C: I know, I'm getting there.

That's just a snippet of what went on. What was really funny was I played it back to listen to it last night, and Chaz heard it in his sleep and responded with, "Why do you keep asking me that question? I already told you!"

Turkish

Chaz and I attended Turkish Student Night on campus. My aunt is part of a project that brings 40 Turkish Student Teachers to Iowa to teach in Iowa schools. We've interacted with them a bit (I drove a van for them a few times, and we had a couple students stay at our place for a weekend), so we wanted to go tonight to experience some Turkish culture and say goodbye. As you can imagine, it was sweet. They did some awesome dances, and then we got to eat some amaaaazing food! Yum! My stomach is still super happy from it.

Probably the best part, however, was when Chaz and I walked in (during the awards ceremony that was running late), a bunch of students started yelling, "Mrs. Engelkes!!" They were some students I had last semester. So embarrassing/awesome! Afterwards, they bombarded me and we chatted about what they're doing now, pranks they've pulled on Webb, and, "Are you teaching at Ames next year?" My answer was a mere, "Hopefully!" But we'll see...

It was also sweet to talk to Webb and Schmidt, two teachers I have really missed. Webb informed me that they were reading a book the other day, and he looked down and about seven students had the bookmarks I gave them on my last day and were using them. *sigh* I feel loved! I'm kind of enjoying this "celebrity status," and I may be content to just keep it this way.

But, no, I miss teaching high school too much.

I always wanted a sister....

I just want to give a shout-out today to my new sissy: April. Growing up, I always wanted a sister. Instead, I got two stinky brothers. I love my brothers, this is true, but a sister is different. Well, one of the perks of getting married: I have a new sissy (and a black daddy, but that's another matter)! I love having a sissy, and I know she loves me too because every time I call her she always laughs and says, "You're a nerd." That's sister-talk for, "I love you, you're the best sister ever." Now it's even BETTER having a sister because she has babies which means I have nieces. As you can already tell, I'm obsessed with them. It's amazingly fun because I get the joy of spoiling and loving babies without having to deal with the messes, crying, sleeplessness, etc. etc. WOOHOO!!!

So basically, I love my sister, April, she rocks, and I'm glad that I was made to wait until marriage to get a sister. She's the best.

I want to be genuine.

This is true.

Shows & Showers

Well, I suppose I should relate about my weekend since it was another eventful one.

Friday Chaz and I had a date night. We ate at The Spice (wonderful!) and then attended To Kill A Mockingbird at CY Stephens. My aunt had gotten us tix for Christmas, so we finally got to use them. It was incredibly good. I cried. So did Chaz. Also, we had the most phenomenal server at The Spice (Kara!). She's so good. We were majorly pushed for time (once again, lack of planning), so pretty much we got our food and then had to pack it up in to-go boxes to make it to the show, which we did with no problem.

Saturday was April's shower that I've been planning for a couple of months. The decorations looked SO CUTE! I won't even go into the frustration I had with invitees and group gifts prior to the day, but the shower ended up being super fun. April got a ton of necessities, so she shouldn't have to worry about baby supplies for quite awhile. This is super good as money is tight right now what with Aaliyah in the hospital and Alivia about to be in the hospital. Aaliyah now will maybe get to go home on Wednesday. April will have been in Iowa City for a week and a half. Ugh.

After the shower and dinner with my mom, Chaz and I went to see Rachel in Pal Joey at Wartburg. She's so phenomenal, and it was hilarious to watch her parents squirm with all of the sexual references (and Rachel acting as a harlot). Sooooooo entertaining.

Then yesterday was spent Shifting (Shift meeting) and churching. Church was super good, and I was inspired to take more time for myself for reflection, so that's what I'm devoting this week to. I'm excited. We'll see how it goes, and what my outlook is at the end of the week.

(this blog took a considerable turn from my original posting plan: week after week of crappy reflections. when will it end? aren't you glad?)

LMGTFY

I just found this hilarious (well, to me at least) website given to me by David Pogue's oh-so-wonderful technology blog. It's called "Let me google that for you." It's for those times when people ask you questions they could have easily Googled the answers instead of asking you. Mostly, I'm thinking this is applicable to those frustrating teaching moments. All you do is go to http://letmegooglethatforyou.com, type in their question, and then email the URL that appears to the culprit. Then, they click on the link and a video shows their question being slowly typed into the Google box, and then a message appears saying, "Was that so hard?" The idea alone makes me laugh. Now I just need to find someone to send it to.....quick, someone send me a dumb question!

Sicky

I took a quick trip to Iowa City yesterday to visit Aaliyah in the hospital. Yes, the healthy baby niece is sick (Alivia was to have surgery a week and a half ago, but it was postponed to March 9 because of a blood clot she developed). Aaliyah got pneumonia on Saturday which has turned into something else which is too technical for me to remember. So let's just say she isn't breathing on her own and has been in the hospital since Saturday. This means my sister, April, has also been in the hospital. She literally went for a quick doctor visit to Waterloo, and then upon finding out Aaliyah had to be airlifted to Iowa City, drove straight to the hospital do not stop at go, do not collect $100. She still has DVDs she was about to return in her car.

I decided I needed to visit April to prevent her from going crazy alone in the hospital with an unmoving, unresponsive child. I went just in time, too. She was pacing around the room, sing, blurting out random words....she's clearly on the path to insanity. I kept her company, we watched Aaliyah, and then I took her out to eat. It was a good time. The good news is that Aaliyah started moving yesterday because they took her off of the paralyzing drug. Also, she opened her eyes for the first time since they put her under. April was incredibly happy. I was too. They were also able to turn down her vent, so she's doing more breathing on her own. Hopefully, she'll be able to get completely off of it today or tomorrow.

Pray she'll get better soon, and then pray Livie will recover from surgery quickly, so April doesn't spend all of her life in the hospital and can have two healthy baby girls.

Valentine's Weekend

Chaz took me on a weekend getaway to Minneapolis for Valentine's Day. It was to be a trip of exploration, culture and fun. It started out so, but then it took "a turn for the worse," (cue creepy chords from Oregon Trail). You see, Chaz and I are both non-planners. And when two non-planners get married and try to non-plan something fun, disaster is inevitable.

Our trip began with coffee with Al in Owatonna. Delightful. After the quick detour for good conversation with a wonderful friend, we finished the last leg to Minneapolis. On the way, we had to decide what we would do first. Being non-planners we just blurted out something and called it good. We first went to the Global Market in downtown Minneapolis. I had been there before and had a good time, so I knew Chaz probably would too (and it was something he wanted to see). It's basically an international market indoors. What could go wrong? Nothing. We ate fish tacos and tamales, wandered among the booths, and then called it good.

What next?

We decided to check into our hotel, which was a real snazzy, trendy hotel in downtown Minneapolis. This place was happenin! We probably should've just stayed in the hotel, but we were determined to ruin the day somehow. Chaz then tells me he really wants to go to the Walker Art Museum. This is at 4:06. The museum closes at 5 (this is where planning would have helped). We decidee to go anyway and at least check out the sculpture garden. We get lost along the way and ended up at Walker at 5. Being -10 degrees, we decide to walk around anyway and take some pictures. In increasingly bad moods, we returned to the car after a quick walkthrough for the next disappointment.

This came in the form of driving around downtown Minneapolis trying to find someplace to walk around/shop. No luck. It was far too cold to walk around, and Chaz was stressed out from driving, so we stayed in the car. Then, we decided to go for dinner, and we desperately needed someplace good to get us out of the foul moods. We took a recommendation from a friend and drove to St. Paul for dinner. When we got to the area, there was absolutely no parking and masses of people as a result of a hockey game. Nice. Needed that. We ended up paying $10 to park 7 blocks away from the restaurant and cried as we walked in the cold. Once at the restaurant, we realized it was not the romantic dinner we were looking for. We waited in line with a million other people, got some "fast Italian food" cafeteria-style (slapped on a plastic plate) and sat at a table surrounded by rambunctious college students. Happy Valentine's Day! The food was mediocre and probably tasted worse than it actually was (as that place is highly acclaimed) due to our mood.

Upon returning to the car after a brisk walk, we drove back to our hotel and collapsed on the bad extremely tired after a depressing evening. Things could still turn up, however. We were invited to a bluegrass show at a local bar by my dear friend Cassie. While tempted to stay and go to sleep, we decided to try to make up for the rest of the day by going. We were not disappointed. I didn't know how it could, but that show made up for the rest of the day. We danced and laughed to amazing bluegrass music by Trampled by Turtles and Two Many Banjos. You have to have real talent to play that kind of music, unlike in other genres. It was incredible! When one of the fathers of a musician joined them on stage to play harmonica, he brought down the place! It was hott! Everyone was dancing because you can't help it to that music!

We ended the trip the next day with a venture to IKEA. How could we go wrong there? Thank you, Chaz, for a wonderful trip despite the downfalls. Thank you Cassie and bluegrass music for lifting our spirits. Thank you Minneapolis for the joy and the pitfalls. This trip was definitely educational. While we may or may not have learned the lesson about planning, we sure learned a lot about each other and our marriage.

At a bluegrass show...

Dear Pink Hair Girl,

Although I like the bubblegum tint to your hair, please refrain from thrusting your hair-sprayed, sticky mess in my face. I appreciate your enthusiasm for the bluegrass music, and we're all joining you in dancing, but I would appreciate your awareness of those around you. Also, no, I do not want your smelly-ass drink all over my clothes. I would prefer to leave this place not smelling like vodka cranberry. So if you would kindly watch your drink while you jerk all over the place to be sure it doesn't spill, I would appreciate it. And so would those around you.

Your friend,
Kate

Another week, another set of papers, another step on the road to bitterness

I began this semester with high hopes and excitement (and a bit of nervousness) about teaching two of my loves: technology and education. I remember posting about how it was so great to be surrounded, once again, by people who were passionate about teaching and excited about the potential of the future.

I have been horribly, horribly let down. I understand that things could change; that this may not be all the potential I see, but I now sympathize with TAs and professors everywhere who must seem as if the future of this country is going down the tubes based on the papers written by their students. I also wonder about where their teachers have failed them. And they have decided they want to teach now?

As an English major, I am horrified by the lack of correctness, shall we say? "All of the grammers and speling was okay on this website." Really? And how would you be a good judge of this? "I enjoyed reading there article. There a really good writer." Hmm...yes, I see.

As a future parent and teacher, I am horrified by the potentially disastrous consequences this could have on my legacy.

I worry of impending bitterness. Maybe it's already onset. Yikes.

Why Teach Tech?

Many of you may not really care much about this, but it's my passion. As a TA, I'm once again surrounded by people passionate about technology and teaching, which is my favorite combination. I hope to renew my sense of why it's important to use technology to teach, and also gain ideas for my future classroom. So far, it's been good. I found a video we watched in lecture especially compelling. Check it out at the link below.


A Vision of K-12 Students Today

If this is an ever-changing world, why do we still teach the way we did 100 years ago?

Meaning to Life

Well, I figured since I hadn't blogged in over a month, I had waited a sufficient amount of time in order to update you on my life (as if any of that really matters).

As I said in my previous blog, my sister-in-law recently adopted twins. These girls basically are the meaning of my life right now. I am, in a word, obsessed.



I love visiting the girls and getting new pictures of them doing the cute new things they do. Aaliyah is now doing "touchdown," but often she does the lazier "half-touchdown" which is still pretty cute. I've also enjoyed hanging out with my sissy and Robert (or Bobby) and the awkward moments we've shared. One time was particularly unfortunate, as I had told Alivia she was, "Nakers," (April was changing her clothes), and Robert had exploded, "WHAT did you call my girl?!?"

Alivia has surgery Feb. 3 to open up a suture in her brain that has closed. We're hoping that this alleviates some problems she's been having. A precious gift from God, she is so sweet, and we pray she continues to develop well after the surgery.

In other life, TA-ing for 201 has been an....adventure? Grading is not something I looked forward to, but my life will pretty much be consumed with for the semester. Being corrupted by the entourage has been....awesome. They have already managed to convince me (or force) to join Twitter, so if you aren't on it, JUMP ON IT! In awkward situations, I looked up "caterpillar" in Google Images and came up with an inappropriate image. Talk about your bad days! I laughed at myself because that's all you can really do. It was a good lesson in narrowing searches and teaching how to search for reliable content. Whoops.

I have also enjoyed my time reading. I recently finished reading The World According to Garp and found it interesting, entertaining, frustrating, and depressing. Basically, a roller-coaster. I would recommend it, however. I also just started reading Moo by Jane Smiley. This is one I am indulging in because it was written with some of Iowa State in mind. I've found it interesting thus far, and it's funny because I can really see the campus as I read. Also, a professor told me a story from the English Department a long time ago, and it appears in the book. I have a long list yet to read, and I plan to keep adding to it. If you have suggestions/recommendations, let me know!

Seasonal Joys

So I began writing a blog a couple of days ago, but I decided against posting it. It was pretty angsty-sounding. Yep, annoying students struck again. So instead, I'll write a little bit more of a happy one.

Instead of my angry, angsty blog, I'll list things I am thankful for/joyful about this season:

Being 1 1/2 weeks away from finishing my current college career.
My happy decorations in my happy apartment.
Lights on houses.
Lights in houses.
A wonderful semester at an amazing student teaching placement.
Students that keep my life interesting (the little shats).
A husband who loves me even when I'm difficult.
Friends that care about me even when I'm distant.
Stories that I can share over and over (pretty much daily occurrences at school).
Coffee dates with friends.
Cider and wassail.
Music that warms my heart and soul.
Wonderful co-workers that treat me well even though I'm an underling student teacher.
Being part of the teacher Holiday Pals exchange.
A potential job for next year at my dream school.
And if not....going on an overseas adventure.
Laughter and jokes and smiles and hugs.
A friendly neighborhood with friendly neighbors.
A close family that supports me.
Getting through tough financial times without even really realizing it.
The homeless woman by Wal-Mart teaching me the meaning of giving and noticing the un-noticed.
Friends overseas that I miss with all my heart but think of often.
My Shiftmates who love and support each other through all.
And my soon-to-be nieces (see picture).


As you can see, many things bring me so much joy, and I'm thankful for that. What a beautiful season!

Gross

I'm sick today. Yuck. Felt fine last night, but this morning I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose and it's gotten progressively worse throughout the day. There's nothing more frustrating and difficult than trying to teach while you're sick. Students ask questions and it's hard to form coherent responses. I felt bad that I was snippy with them, especially when they asked frustrating questions or just began blowing off assignments. I'm sorry you don't like the book I chose for you to read, too bad! You've only read 15 pages, how the heck do you know if you hate the book already?? Read it and get the points! I also had to throw down during one period. I made students take out their books, sit down, and read for the last 10 minutes of class. They complied, which I was glad about. Maybe that's how I'll have to run things for the rest of Lit Circle times. I don't like it, but that may be how it has to be. I hope the rest of the week is better.

Crazy Kids

I received my first love letter at school today. It started with:

"Dear Sexiest English Teacher..."

Wonderful. It went on to say all sorts of awkward things (I watch you as you grade my papers.....), and then informed me that today is "Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable Day." Thanks. You succeeded. I found it after 3rd period, and then read it aloud to 4th period. What concerned me at the end was, "More to come..." What does that mean? Weird. I'm nervous.

I also had a student call me "Mama E" today.
Student A: "Hey, Mrs. E?"
Student B: "No, it's MAMA E!"
What does that mean? I have no idea. I informed them I am not a mama and do not intend to be a mama for a very long time. These students crack me up. Even during the frustrating days, there's always something that brightens my time here. Fridays always seem best of all because everyone is in such a great mood. Teachers and students alike are so looking forward to the weekend that nothing can dampen spirits. AP went well, Perspectives went well. Beautiful.

Life continues.....to be amazing!

So....I'm a hypocrite.

I complain about friends abroad not blogging often enough, but I, on the other hand, blog even less than them. I suppose I forget that news from here is probably just as welcome to them as news from abroad is to me. So I'll share the road life is taking me on right now:

Student teaching is phenomenal (which I let everyone know whenever I talk to them). Yes, there are frustrating days when the students annoy me so much I want to throw things at them, and I can only sigh and say, "We're just not having a good day, are we?" To which they'll vehemently deny and say it's a great day. Right. It's great that I want to pound your head on the desk until I get through to you without having to repeat instructions 500 times.

Besides those days, it's a tremendous joy to have students excitedly walk in the room and banter with me about not doing any work and can we please have a free day? Most exciting recently was that I decided to do a Comic Life project with my students. This is something I have looked forward to all year, and was something I was determined to do. (Dennis, it's nice to have the CTLT around for these sorts of things) I borrowed laptops and digital cameras from the CTLT (told my teacher I have the hookup), and had students storyboard, take pictures, and create a comic alternate ending to Of Mice and Men. Not to brag, but they LOVED the project. I can't tell you how many students told me it was the best project ever after they complained the first day, "This is NOT cool, Mrs. E, WHY do we have to write an alternate ending?" The rest of the time all I heard was, "Mrs. E, this is the best project ever!" "Mrs. E, we were talking about this project at lunch and how we couldn't wait to work on it." Yeah, that's right....juniors excited about a school project. I win.

Along with Perspectives, I'm now teaching AP for the month of November. This is providing a much bigger challenge instruction-wise. I spend a lot more time planning for the class, and I need to be sure it's relevant, rigorous, and something that's interesting. This week I'm starting an advertising analysis project that I think will be really interesting, challenging, and a great way for students to work on analysis skills. I could share stories about my first week with AP, but it might just frustrate me, and I may sound bitter, so I'll refrain. I do enjoy the challenge, however, and I'm excited to get to know these students as well as I know my Perspectives students.

In other happy news: a woman in the English Department gave verbal notice that she's retiring this year, so that means a position will be open next fall for my dream job. She's also vying for me to replace her, which would be amazing. She may even put in a good word for me to the principal, which would be even amazing-er. Chaz and I still don't know what we're doing next year. We keep putting off talking about it, saying that we have plenty of time. However, my student teaching is almost over (difficult to believe), so we should at least talk about it. We want to travel and teach abroad so much, but at the same time, this is my dream job that is opening up, so maybe we should take that for a year or two, let me get experience, and then travel. BUT the longer we put off traveling, the more unlikely that it will happen. We just have a lot to mull over in the next few months. Once again, I'll put off discussion of that issue.

So yes, life continues...

Politically Jaded

I know I'm not the only citizen of the United States that feels this way, but I am completely jaded by the political system in this country. I have no idea what I'm going to do on November 4. This year seemed to be a year of promise politically. It seemed as if we would finally have an exciting, promising race between two candidates offering change. While there has been plenty of excitement, it seems almost as if I am watching a circus instead of deciding who will best run our country. I had really hoped that if anyone could break the normal process of slandering, namecalling, and dragging through the mud race we call politics, it would be Obama and McCain. I believed (naively, I guess) that this race would be run differently. Unfortunately, this race has been worse than normal, which has led to my jaded feeling. There are false accusations and lies coming from both sides (it started in the McCain camp, but Obama is responding to it also).

And it's not only with the presidential race that I am frustrated. Corruption and deceit goes all the way down to the county level (as I know is not surprising). But again, it's frustrating. It seems to me that elections are nothing more than digging up the tiniest, most meaningless piece of dirt on the opposing candidate spinning it, and splashing it from here to kingdom come for all to see what a mean, dirty, low-down person that candidate is. It's eye-opening actually. When it happens to people you know, you realize how much spin is really placed on facts to get the desired outcome. The person could be a complete saint, and people could still find dirt to spin. It leaves me with a hopeless feeling, actually.

My mom recently said to me, "If we cannot trust any of our news sources to provide us with accurate, fair information, who can we trust? Just ourselves?" Yes, I believe that's so. It's frustrating that it takes so much work to dig up truth, but it is worth it when we can decide for ourselves who will best represent our needs and desires in the government.

(FYI: I recently learned about factcheck.org. This site is a nonpartisan site dedicated to checking all of the facts (hence the name) in articles, ads, speeches, etc. etc. to ensure validity. If you need a place to go to get truth, check it out to get the facts.)

My Husband

Since Chaz complained that in my last blog, I wrote more about student teaching than about him, I promised him that my next blog would be all about him. So here goes...

Chaz....is a crazy. Which is part of the reason I married him, of course! He makes life fun, and sometimes frustrating...but mostly fun. I enjoy driving him crazy (whoo whoo!), and he enjoys qualifying everything I complain about him. I love the adventures we stumble upon. Last weekend, we went to a barn party thrown by a bunch of hippies. It was amazing! There was food, food, food, dancing, and great live music. What a find! Then last night we went for a walk (which we haven't done very often) and discovered that Main Street was having a music wonderthon (my words)! In front of a bunch of stores on Main Street, a diverse variety of musicians were playing. One of my co-workers played the dulcimer, and it was incredible! There were classical violins, bluegrass bands, rock bands, folk bands, etc. etc.

We love to experience life, and I just hope we can do more of that instead of falling into a slump. It's also been a joy to struggle with money. The past month God has blessed us tenfold. We were really concerned about money because Chaz hadn't gotten paid since June, and his next payday was September. God brought us through it, however, and it almost seems as if money worries weren't a huge issue. He just got paid this morning, so we are incredibly thankful! I love that my man is pretty good with money. He's teaching me budgeting and fiscal responsibility (there's a $10 word for you!).

Besides the frustrations and worries that do occur (and will continue to occur for the rest of our lives together), I just think that it's wonderful to go to bed with the one I will love forever. And once we get an actual mattress (instead of sleeping on an air mattress, which we have for the past two months), hopefully our bed won't break. THAT would be a blessing.

And I know this is mushy...I'll redeem myself next blog.

Updates

At the behest of Kel, I'll write an update...haha! I have such a double standard when it comes to this sort of thing because I'm always reading everyone else's blog and requesting updates, but I'm so horrible at doing the same thing. Mainly because I feel that my life is insignificant compared to the amazing things my friends are doing (Korea...helloooooo!). But I do have exciting things going on in my life: learning about married life, and student teaching.

Married life is great, but tough. It's waaaaaaaaaaay different living with a boy. Ugh. haha! No, but Chaz is good to live with. He helps a lot with keeping things clean and doing the dishes...which we do a lot of since we don't have a dishwasher. Now that we're both teaching, it's hard to be connected since we're so busy. We still try to take time for ourselves, though, and when we do, it's good.

Student teaching is phenomenal, but challenging. The students are amazing, and I know now more than ever that this is what I was made to do. Things will start to pick up work-wise, however, as I'll start to take over at least one of the classes. I'm a bit nervous as this means I'll have to plan things myself, but really excited by all of the possibilities open to me. Oh, and Kel, there are two Chinese girls in my classes, and they're incredibly adorable! I'm sure you know how much I love them! Yes, I love teaching, and each day I see the value in investing in the future generation. A lot of these students just need to know that someone does care about them, and that they can succeed as long as they try. I love watching them come out of their shells and learn to be honest and open with those around them. I only hope that I can instill some life lessons in them, if not the love of reading and the joy in self-expression through writing.

Back Again

Chaz and I are back in Ames after three weeks of adventures. The end of our honeymoon consisted of visiting Andy and Ashley in Denver and staying a couple of days in Omaha with Papa Chuck. It was good to spend time with him, and I know he was glad to have visitors. We went to the Omaha Zoo, which was sweet, and enjoyed losing to Papa Chuck playing pool and eating amazing tenderloins. We spent Saturday walking around downtown Omaha and managed to find some good deals while shopping, and then headed back to Ames. It was good to get back and see everyone, and even better that we finally got to see Batman: Dark Knight. Incredible! I cannot describe how amazing I thought this movie was, especially Heath Ledger's performance, except to say that I would definitely definitely see it again and again.

So now it's back to the real world: bouncing between two different places, beginning to pack, finding a place to store stuff as well as ourselves until we can move into our apartment, and trying to relax a bit more until we begin school. Time to begin our life together.