Monday Funnies!

For those of you who don't know already, 1/2 of Footloose was filmed at my high school!
For those of you who are still undecided about next week's election.

Just because I think these are funny. These are photos my students put together with photoshop for our newspaper!

Second-Born Syndrome Vindication

According to the "Does Birth Order Matter," article in the new BYU Today magazine the second child recieves 20-30 minutes less attention per day than the oldest child, which adds up to approximately 3,000 less hours of energy parents put into their second child. In fact "Firstborns generally get more and better education, score higher on tests, and end up with jobs that pay more." pp 26

Read it, it's interesting, especially to those of us who are the second child!

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2288

Interestinly they don't offer any suggestions really on how to change it, and says coming from an LDS family doesn't really make a difference in these statistics. I guess just being aware of it will help all us pay more attention to our current/future second children!

Put your foot down.

I hate confrontation, and I pride myself on being fairly adaptable, and so often I make do with a situation without fixing it. I know this is masking itself as a good trait, but really I am having to learn to put my foot down. Sometimes if you don't put your foot down, the other person has no idea you have a problem. And no one has Experanza ESP, often not even me!

I finally had to go in to the administration at my school and demand, in fact tell them, "I'm at the end of my rope on this one," about a computer problem in my room. I had asked nicely on several occasions for the problem to please be fixed, (it has to do with the functionability of my journalism computers and hence our ability to put out a good newspaper), and it was never fixed! I sent e-mails, and in a smile-y matter discussed on a number of occasions. But I finally had to say, it is the middle of October, fix-it-for-me-now. I couldn't do the confrontation thing without a million, "I'm sorry for complaining about this...." type phrases, but it got the job done.

This morning an administration came in and fixed the problem and said I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was such a big deal, I thought you were making due, you never really complained about it. Hmph. Well, at least it is fixed, and I am learning to put my foot down, although the graceful part of that will have to come later. I should fiqure out a way to complain nicely before I am at the end of my rope!

And then you remember the Good Times.

Journalism Field Trip to the Dreaded Grove, 2008. I endorse wholesome recreational activities! One of my students got us in free to the Dreaded Grove--not too scary, but really a lot of fun. Nothing like running away from scary clowns to bond you together! :D

Reinvent yourself; do hard things.

I read all of your blogs and see all of the wonderful things you have, husbands and babies and I am so excited for you all! Kind of jealous it's true--I want to be doing what you all are doing! I know you would say, oh, there are advantages of being single, and I am sure there are, but I long for those relationships that we are told have the potential to bring us the greatest joy in life.

I can't say anything terribly interesting is happening right now. I have been playing with some cute boys lately, but nothing interesting to report there. I teach 151 crazy teenagers and it has its daily challenges, but that is what I like about teaching--my life needs a good challenge now and then.

I will have to say in this report about my terribly interesting life :D that I have been trying to do some hard things lately to help me re-invent myself. When my ward went to a ropes course for fhe I tried all the crazy things and dared myself to do them, even if it meant screaming for everyone to hear. I climbed Mt. Timpanogos today for the first time--even though it was snowing and 20 degrees. I have always wanted to climb Timp and have just never done it knowing it would be a huge challenge for me. I have been working on taking up running for the last couple of years, and although a 10k is all I have run, it is something to help me stay healthy. I have daily challenges with work, running the school newspaper, being the PR person for our high school and going through the constant evaluations "new-ish" teachers have to go through. I am working always on trying to make myself more avaliabe and open to the idea of dating someone seriously which is a challenge for me, and I am trying really hard to understand and like football. So there you have it. Me currently--working on me.

The Tool-Test

Now, I don’t believe in holding guys to the standard of “tests” that they don’t know they are being put to, or necessarily holding them to expectations they don’t know you have set for them, or judging them on one single incident, but…with all of those disclaimers, I will have to say that it is food for thought when you ask multiple guy-friends if they can help you screw something together (i.e. a vacuum) and it takes you 2 weeks and multiple solicitations, and you finally try one more guy, and he comes over after one solicitation, saying he can come anytime you need him, with a borrowed screwdriver. I’m not saying this guy is better than anyone of the other guys, but it is just interesting to see which one of your friends will drop what they are doing to help you when you really need it. And then he asked if there was anything else we needed fixing! Good guy.