Thanks...

Thanksgiving was awesome: a little gorging, a trip to the movie theaters and some Christmas songs. Basically perfect. So here I go - I'm giving my thanks . . .

I'm Thankful For

*Glove/Mittens with finger openings*
These are awesome.
"I'm so cold, let me put on some gloves!"
"But oh no- I have to make a call, how will I dial on my cell phone?"
Ah-ha!!
(and these are not my "man" arms- or Robbie's for that matter- just fyi)

*Leggings (Or as I usually end up pronouncing it: "leggin's")*
I love them. I loved them in third grade with a wide, elastic, Kids Inc. belt and an attached neon splashed skirt-- and I love them now. I have been on the legging bandwagon since they were first building it. So, yeah, I'm thankful they are still in style . . .

*Restful Moments*
Like wrapping up in this T-shirt blanket Andrea made Robbie and I. Or like when I wake up on the couch and see that I have just been snuggling with my youngest sister, the dog AND the cat.
Weird, but warm and cuddly.
*The gym and weight watchers*
Okay, this may sound weird at first, but I really am thankful for these two things in my life. After a mere 26 years (almost 27), I'm finally beginning to figure myself out- and making good healthy habits a life style, not a fad.

*Pledge My Ride*
Tyson, Matt, Chris and Evan- thanks so much! This not only has providing so many essential things for my classroom (like this printer! yes, that's right- I didn't even have a printer until these guys came along!) and also for opening door of opportunity for my students.
AND, the endless
*Generosity of Others*
And if you can believe it, people have even given more to our class. I am so grateful to all the donors that supported the bike ride and the other endeavors to provide supplies to my students. Like the friends and strangers who donated for our class to get some new pencil sharpeners, books and math materials. I mean, look at this awesome reading corner-
it makes you want to read a book on that bean bag, doesn't it??

*My Job*
And speaking of my class and those crazy kids (which I seem to be doing a lot of), I am thankful for my job. I really like where I teach, my colleagues and the kids. It's a very nice thing to honestly say that you love your job. Not that there aren't really tough times- but like everything worthwhile in life, hard work and patience reap the benefits of fulfillment and (hopefully) success.
*A Kind and Helpful Husband*
Robbie may not be perfect- but he's pretty close. He helps me make last minute, double batches of stuffed french toast in the wee hours of the night and takes me out to fun restaurants (even though that is more my thing) and gets up to get me a glass of water when we are both already snuggled on the couch. That's pretty amazing in my book.
*The Girls Club*
My family is full of estrogen. 9 girls, 4 boys (including Mom and Dad)- we have held onto our majority rule from the beginning (as I was the first child). I really love it. I think there is something special about the connection women share with each other- and I'm really glad to have it. Girls Rule. (I thought grilled cheese was "girled cheese" until I was like, eleven.)
(I mean, I still love these guys, too, of course-- and Dad and Ry!)

*Good Parents*
Again, these guys may not be perfect, but they are mine. And I'm thankful for that.
Really, really thankful. They were the first ones to teach me about faith in God, how to ride a bike, drive a car, jump off the high dive and make the perfect mashed potatoes.
Thanks for all that.

Um . . . Amen??

On the Fly

Tomorrow I will be going to Seattle to have Thanksgiving with my in-laws. I am excited to hang out with the Culps and am truly thankful that I have such a wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law. They are so easy going, it makes the whole "in-law" thing a plus, rather than a potential stress.

I feel like my brother Alex (who couldn't say his "r's") when he told Robbie, "Wobbie, I'll never call you my bwother-in-law . . . you're just my bwother. I'm your family and you're in my family".

I'm also thankful that my hard work is paying off and I can pack and wear my skinnier pants (I wouldn't say "skinny" pants, but just skinnier than before) on this holiday trip. I'm not at my total health goal yet, but I'm getting there slowly, but surely. (Slow and steady wins the race? It sucks to be "slow & steady", but I guess the "winning the race" part makes it worth while.)

I feel as if I have a bit more to say, but as the title of this post implies, I am in the midst of packing for Seattle, writing a paper that's due tomorrow, drying my shoes (that were soaked through all the way to my socks in the rain today) and trying to finish up putting away laundry. Even if its on the way out of town and in the midst of a to-do list . . . I am thankful! Even for the little things: like two days off of school, finding new workout songs to pump me up and visiting with friends and an academic advisor that has a sense of humor about a turkey fax.

More to come soon; but for the meantime- Happy Turkey Day! May all your turkeys be juicy, your potatoes mashed and your yams candied.

Festive

I am in grad school for Curriculum & Instruction in Literacy. Maybe I'll be a Literacy Specialist for a school. Maybe I'll get involved with teacher education. Maybe I'll just insist on being called Master Sarah . . . but regardless, I'm in school. I recently changed universities, and so I had to transfer my credits from Chicago State to Grand Canyon University. This entailed a simple fax.

I faxed my credit transfer request from school in the morning. I had a few copies to make for my students (some festive coloring pages, a vocabulary sheet- the norm), so I just went down the office to get everything done at once. I punched in the number and put my pages into the fax. I noticed as it was sending there were 5 pages total. Hmmm . . . That's weird, I thought I was only sending 4 pages.

A copy of a Thanksgiving turkey coloring page had found its way into my fax pages. That's right, the academic records review department at my new school got a fax from me that went something like this: cover page, course list, course descriptions, turkey, more course descriptions. Awesome.

Later I called to confirm that my credit transfer documents had arrived successfully.

"Hello, this is Sarah Culp- I was calling to check on a credit transfer that I sent today."

"Yes, I received it."

" . . . Did you receive my turkey, also?"

"Yes-- I did."

Again . . . awesome.

And here she is:

Dog World

I'm not a dog person. I'm not a cat person. I really am "whatevs" either way. It's not that I don't like animals, I do. I'll curl up on the couch with my sister's dog or spend time playing with my family's new kitten . . . but I'm also equally as happy to give them back to their respective owners at the end of the day. I am 100% not interested in picking up an animal's poop, arranging for dog sitting or having my couch clawed up (or paying for "de-clawing"). I like animals, just not that much. I figure if I'm going to pay for shots and doctor appointments and clean up poop . . . I'll just have a kid.

However, I did have a cat growing up, who I love very much. I got her when I was 8 and she is still alive! (Happily living with my parents.) She's about 10,000 in cat years now, so obviously, I can take care of a pet- I just have decided I don't want to. Ever again. Ever. I also happen to live in a total "dog in sweater vest" neighborhood, so that just fuels the fire.

So, with all that background knowledge of my feelings on pet owning- I think that what I have to say is still just a as valid . . . and what I have to say is: "What the heck??"

This is just a friendly neighborhood dog bakery near my place.

That's right- a dog bakery.

That's a bit extreme in my opinion.

And EXcuse me, but do we really need suggies for dogs? I wanted this to be a gag gift SO badly.

But alas, I fear that someone has already bought this as a Bar Mitzvah gift for their pup.

And this lady is just plain crazy. I caught her out of the corner of my eye one night.

Could it be true? Did I really see what I thought I saw?

YES- I did!

A crazy baby carriage full of dogs!

And not for sale . . . when I walked up to paparazzi this lady she was all weird like,

"oh, don't steal any of my 500 puppies that are spilling out of my old-time baby carriage."

She was definitely just out of an evening stroll with her dog-mobile.

What is going on? It's too much dog for me.

HalloWEENIE

I absolutely l-o-v-e Halloween! It might be my favorite holiday . . .

I just love dressing up, decorating and listening to Thriller

(who doesn't? WHO?)

We had a little "shrunken head" apple cider

(it's kind of hard to see, but my friend Kristal roasted apples in

the oven with little faces carved to look like a tiny, creepy heads)

I made a "dirt" grave yard

And some creepy buck-eye eyeballs

Robbie and I did end up rockin' the Clark Kent and Lois Lane

You know my love affair with couples costumes, so this was an essential notch in my belt!

We even had enough Halloween fun to pull out some secondary costumes:

Robbie as the ref and Coby as the football player

I pulled out my good ol' witch costume

. . . including the awesome striped socks I always try to work into something every year

On top of it all, we live right in the mix of boys town, so we got to experience "Gay Halloween" first had- which is amazing. The whole street was blocked off in front of a popular gay bar/club that is a couple blocks away (where we have seen many a live, nearly naked man dancing in the window). I don't know how many of you caught the 30 Rock Halloween episode, but it's true!

Halloween, Eels and Bigfoot

Okay, not to talk about my students 24/7, but they have been pretty hilarious lately. One thing about teaching is that you have to have a sense humor to keep your sanity.

Exhibit A:

I looove Halloween, so I played it up quite a bit in my class. I read spooky stories and went the whole 9 yards: lights off, a creepy flashlight under my chin, scratchy voice and jumping out to scare the kids once the tension was high. They ate it up. Then we wrote scary stories, which the kids also loved- some a little too much. This story was too gross for school, but the kid was SO dang proud of his "scary" writing, I couldn't burst his bubble too much. He sincerely thought I would love this literary masterpiece (see below):

This lovely story obviously involves someone's head being chopped off by a half man-half pig. (Your typical scary, Halloween story.) The student was very excited to hear what I thought of his story.

"It was pretty gory!" I told him.

"What's gory mean? . . . Does that mean really spooky?"

"Yeah . . . more like lots of blood and guts."

Thinking this was the best compliment ever, and with a huge smile: "Oh yeah! It was gory."

Exhibit B:

Our new science unit is on measuring time. They students made a chart about what they wanted to know and thought they knew about time, and then wrote about how school would be different if we didn't have clocks. Then, they were to draw a picture of what comes to their mind when they think of time. Grading the science journals, I came across the following:

(The speech balloon says: "stuff fun". I have no idea what to make of this.)

Exhibit C:

Another interesting entry in a science student journal was when I asked kids to sketch the Vinegar Eels we observed under microscopes. Apparently, even though the Eels look like tiny worms wriggling around, this student decided to sketch this (and provide random finger prints all over, just in case further identification was needed):

Exhibit D:

And staying with the science theme, this little delight is from when we used different objects to attempt to magnify a newspaper clipping (to see what kind of objects/characteristics will work as magnifiers). The students were suppose to draw the objects we experimented with: cylinder, cube, sphere, and phallic symbol:

And last, but not least . . . from our wonderful field trip to Starved Rock we find this little gem. We toured a lock and damn, went to a one room school house, visited historical Native American sites, hikes some forest trails, and . . .

BYU Twins

BYU may be having a rough season, but check out Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

snuggled into the oversized chair:

You can totally tell that Robbie and Rex (yes, like a T-Rex) are father and son

(especially when they dress like complete twins).

Funny story: the first time I met Robbie (at BYU) his dad was also in town for the weekend, but I hadn't met him yet. We both went to a student congregation, so almost everyone at church was in their 20's. When I saw Rex at church, I was like- there are some ooold people here! . . . then it just turned out to be my future father-in-law.