"Bubbly"

My middle school darlings and I had our first choir concert of the year (my first one EVER!) on Thursday night. It was a great success. More on that later (maybe).

Our assistant principal, Mrs. Gohl, got up to welcome everyone to the concert, and told the story of how she and I met and how I got hired. She said, "I met a very happy, bubbly young woman..." Which is an incredibly accurate description of me.

In my 6th grade the next day, we were talking about how the concert had gone. One of my girls raised her hand and said, doubtful, "Was that story Mrs. Gohl told about you true?" I said it was. She looked suprised. I retold the story, clarifying a few details.

I looked back at her and she still looked really puzzled...or concerned. So I questioned her. She said, "But, were you really...all...bubbly?" I said, "Yes...just like I always am, all smiley and happy..."

She said, "Oh! I thought when she said bubbly that it meant that you had, like, bubbles or something all over your face!"

She thought I'd walked into my interview with my face covered in blisters or something.

The whole class then piped in to confess, unabashed, what they thought she had meant by "bubbly":

-Blowing bubbles in Mrs. Gohl's face with those soapy bubbles and "magic wands" kids use
-Chewing gum and blowing and popping bubbles with it
-Fat
-Puffing my cheeks out with air (looking like a blowfish, you know?)
-Gassy

Looks like we need to work on vocabulary next quarter. :)

Can you see why I love my job?

Anne's Alluring Addresses

I love Colorado Springs. It is just a beautiful place. We all know that the text of "America the Beautiful" was written by Katharine Lee Bates, inspired by the view she saw from the top of Pikes Peak (which I can see from my front door. I love this place.).

But what most people don't know, is that she must have been good friends with Anne of Green Gables and convinced the Co Springs government to bring her down here to name the streets. Or at least that's all I can figure out. How else would you get names like:

Nonchalant Cir.
Carefree Cir.
Scenic Cir.
Jubilant Place
Picturesque Dr.
Delighted Cir.
Undimmed Cir.
Blissful Cir.
Splendid Cr.
Hopeful Dr.
Amiable Way
Inspiration Dr.

But my favorites have a story: My very first night here, I went running. I was going up a huge hill (which I soon realized is ALL that Co Springs has--great hill training)--like, it wasn't ending. And I was NOT used to 6000 ft. elevation. I was dying. With perfect timing, I passed a street sign that made me laugh outloud. It was too appropriate. The sign read:

Purgatory Dr.
(Can you imagine living on that street--"Where do you live?" "Purgatory.")

But it gets better--I continued on, and the first street on the downhill had a sign that read:

Deliverance Dr.

Emerging from the depths of middle school

Guess this blogging thing isn't as "me" as it is some other people. I always have these funny or inspiring things to share, and then never get around to sharing them.

But I'm on break now--woo hoo! 2 whole weeks!!! (I'm digging this year-round thing.) So I'll be writing several posts to catch up on the past 3 months or so...as you read them, pretend they're spaced out and posted every 2 weeks, or so, yeah?

Audreyisms on Steamy Shoes

I would feel bad about starting this supposed blog of my life, and then not posting anything for weeks and weeks and weeks.  But when I start to wonder if I should feel bad about it, I come up with a definitive "No!", because I realize that I haven't written, because I've been too busy living real life.

Ok, off the soap box.  I have about 2-dozen sticky notes, along with random things jotted in every notebook I own, of cute things Audrey says that just make me laugh outloud in pure delight  So here are 3 of the latest "Audreyisms", those happy moments in my life that make me smile:

1)  I was at the table working on my homework, and Audrey was hanging around me with.  She saw a spider under the table, and I said, "Get a shoe and kill it!"  So after a really cute 2 or 3 minutes of her hiding out and trying to catch it, she got it.  I said, "Good!  Now go get a Kleenex and pick it up and throw it away."  She gets the Kleenex and comes back.  As she gets back under the table to pick it up, she says, "Ooooh, now it's just a smudge!"  Cute.

2)  Direct quote from dinner last night (eating the bowl of Mac & Cheese I'd made her since she didn't want sesame chicken), very matter-of-factly:  "Um, I need something else to go with my Mac & Cheese, and that involves chocolate milk."

3)  So I went shopping with my friend, Kansas, the other night.  In Belk, we found a shoe clearance sale--the kind I never have the patience or desire for, but that my more shopping-crazy friend is crazy about.  The kind with tables piled high with shoebox madness and crazed shoe vampires (women) surround them.  So I'm sorting through piles of shoes that I'll never buy or care about.  I find a pair of shiny black peak-toe shoes and try them on to show Kansas.

And they were hot.

I fell in love with them.  Like I've never fallen in love with shoes before.  And I'd just tried on the most perfect LBD (Little Black Dress) that I was trying to convince myself not to buy.  And they'd go PERFECT with it.

I look at the price written on the box:  $81.99.  Surely that couldn't be the clearance price.  The clearance sale was for 50-75% off.  If these puppies were 75% off, I could totally justify spending $20 on a pair of shoes that hot.  If they were $40...that'd be stretching it.

I take the shoes up to the counter and ask for a price.  Yeah, that's the CLEARANCE price.  Original price:  $165.

Dude.  Seriously?  They're shoes.

But they're HOT shoes.

Next morning at breakfast, I'm sitting across the table from Audrey eating Captain Crunch (hey, it's spring break!) and telling Kellie about my shopping excursion from the night before.  Here's how it went:

Lori:  I found the hot-HOT-HOTTEST shoes at Belk.

Audrey:  How hot were they?

Hmmm....I stopped to ponder how to say this.  I didn't think my sister would want me to teach my niece words like "beyond sexy" or something like that, so...

Lori:  Like, 120 degrees hot!

Audrey:  (making an "eww!" face)  Ewwwgh!  (that's her squealing sound for either disgust or disbelief)

Things I Learned from a 4-year-old Princess: Chapter 3

Some random 4-year-old Princess Proverbs I gathered while playing "house"...or "doctor"...which inevitably turns in to either "sneaky" or a trip to outer space or a shoot-up-the-bad-guys game:

-Bad guys never take good care of flowers.

-They hate sounds that make them die.

-A recipe for some potion if you're fighting bad guys:

"Add salt and peppermints.

Cool it with hot flowers.

Freeze the ice from Lori's room.  (It is frigid in there.  I love my space heater!)

In the 1980's, you'll need to find a sign of 1980."

Then, you "dip it in felicity" and "He will reveal in the ocean forever and forever."

Sounds messy to me.  But it should do the trick.

But never, ever, ever trust bad guys with your flower garden while you're on vacation.

Things I Learned from a 4-year-old Princess: Chapter 2

I have yellow teeth.

One of my eyes is glaringly larger than the other.

It is yet to be determined if I am pretty.

Bu--I have the darned COOLEST snow scraper that you could ever dream of having!

I "love" (?) kids...

Of Pancakes and Pluckers

To bring everyone up to date:  I moved 2 weeks ago to Huntsville, Alabama.  All I have left in order to finish my undergrad degree in music education is to do my semester of student teaching.  As I have a somewhat (understatement) adventurous spirit and definitely feel like I have gotten quite a full "northern colorado experience", and as you can really student teach anywhere, I decided to come out to Alabama and do it here.

Why Alabama?!?  (I knew that was coming.)  My older sister and her family live here, so I'm staying with them.  Upcoming features to look forward to in my blog:  Things I Learned from a 4-year-old Princess.  I have some great ones already, don't worry.  Let me introduce the cast of characters for that series:  Kellie, my older sister--The Mom.  Scott, her husband--The Dad.  (Who recently revived my mac, whose new hard drive I named "Lazarus"--Thank You!)  Audrey, my adorable, blond, 4-year-old niece.  And Ian Holland, born this morning at 7:33 am.  :)

Just 2 funnies from the normalities of life today (look for upcoming episodes of the "Things I Learned..." series):

Whenever Audrey is bored or cranky or just doesn't want to do something, she'll get this obnoxious whiny voice and say, "I'm SOOOOOooooOOOOooo tired!"  Tonight, on the way to the hospital to say goodnight to her mom, she was sitting in the backseat and made some comment about being tired.  I got ready for the whiny "soooooooo tired" comment, but instead she said very matter-of-factly, "I'm as tired as a pancake!"

???

Things I Learned from a 4-year-old Princess, Chapter 1:  Pancakes are very, very sleepy.

Other funny:  Scott was showing me the 3 1/2 page form they have to fill out and give to the state to get Ian's birth certificate.  Apparently there are several glaring typo's and grammatical mistakes (welkome too Alabama), but this was the part that we liked best.  One of the questions, honest to goodness, said the following:

What was your occupation during this pregnancy?  for example, cashier, bank teller, chicken plucker, nurse, attorney, etc.