Thursday, March 20, 2008
my school made the news!
check this out - the second half of this clip from fox news is about my school.
never mind that they got most of the information wrong - their source was a parent, and they didn’t bother to contact the school or the district. as far as the school and the police department are concerned, there has been no gang activity and the threats were instead of students who wanted to fight each other (they think it might be a race thing). the enhanced security -did- include a helicopter surveillance team watching the students leave campus on tuesday, which happened to be my first day back to work. so exciting, huh?!! we’ve had the PD on campus to ensure that nothing more happens, so actually, it’s all been rather calm here at school. but the way you hear fox news talk about it makes it sound all dramatic and dangerous!!!
ooooh!!! the dangers of public school!!! was this why i always attended a small private academy? hahahhahahah…
i guess that coming from such a sheltered background makes it feel that much more gangster being on the news =)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
going back to work
because of my recent bout of pleurisy and pneumonia, and the 3 rounds of antibiotics i had to take (plus the visit to urgent care when the pleurisy set in - who knew it’d hurt so bad?!?!), i haven’t been going to work. i’ve been on a regimen of antibiotics, a ton of water every day, and a LOT of rest. meaning mostly i lay in bed awake watching tv shows on my computer, dozing off multiple times throughout the day.
but that 3rd round of antibiotics finally did its job and as of thursday, i actually started feeling better. and friday was the first day that i noticed that my breathing was clear - both inhaling and exhaling. yes, i still cough, and it’s still productive. but i feel like my lungs have totally cleared up, and 3 days later at my doctor’s appointment on monday, my doc agreed with me and we decided i’m good to go back to work.
well… after being home for so long it’s really gonna be a challenge to get back and be in charge of my classroom, but i’m up, i’ve had breakfast, and about to finish my second cup of water. i’ll bring a slew of fruits with me and i’m gonna go tackle that classroom! i need to show ‘em who’s boss! (especially after finding out that 2 girls escaped through the window behind my desk during the class that had 2 teachers in it) yup… i need to go there and expect them to behave now that i’m back!
pray for me PLEASE!!!!!
Friday, March 14, 2008
hot'n spicy barbecue chips! mmmm.....
ok, so, if you’ve talked with me recently, you know i’ve been home for the last 3 weeks sick with pneumonia and pleurisy. i’ve been bored outta my mind, and i’ve spent a good amount of time on the internet. i’ve also cleaned out my entire room and closet and some other stuff around the house, but that’s besides the point.
basically, i’ve had A LOT of time on my hands. i’m finishing up my 3rd or 4th week of being home and i’m SOOO sick of it!
well… the following story made marlene and rita laugh -at- me, but i don’t care! i love chips! =)
anyways, there was this new flavor of chips i saw in stater bros in october - the flavor was hot & spicy barbecue! yum!
well, i was looking for it later and couldn’t find it, and after going to several stater bros. and several other stores i realized that no one was carrying them anymore. well, given the amount of time i had on my hands, i finally made it over to the lay’s website to see if they still created the chip, and they do! and according to their website, this chip had been sold in the past month in the stater bros. across the street from my house!
what?!??! how had i missed it? so i decided to let my fingers do the walking and i dialed the stater bros. “excuse me, do you know if you happen to have lay’s hot’n spicy barbecue chips for sale? the website says you have it but i just want to know if it’s on the shelf before i go there.” the lady informed me that they don’t have it on their shelves but i can call the district office to see if they plan on shipping in more of that flavor.
so i called the stater brothers warehouse - “excuse me, i was wondering if you plan on carrying lay’s hot’n spicy barbecue chips, and at which store can i buy them?” well, the guy in charge of the ordering the chips told me that as soon as they got some in stock, he’d send some over to the store near my house (apparently it’s store #55) and that he’d have the manager call me to let me know when they put it on the shelves. i laughed at myself thinking that they were gonna make a phone call to me to let me know when “my chips” had arrived, but still, it was a better option than me driving around to every store hoping to find them there.
well, it’s a good thing i didn’t waste any time driving around because i got a phone call from frito lay a few days later. apparently they don’t carry that flavor in our distribution warehouse (which covers all of southern california and a bit more). i guess it didn’t do so well in their test run so they’re keeping it in the other markets that enjoyed it. i was disappointed but realizing that the chip was still out there, even if it was far far away out there, and not in southern california, i asked him several more questions: “can i order it straight from another warehouse?” nope, they don’t ship, especially over the rockies, because the bags might pop. “which markets do sell this chip?” he didn’t know, he could only tell me which flavors his distribution center carries. there were several other questions but basically, no, these chips are no longer available to me. not in any way possible. darn it.
he then thanked me for being a loyal customer and offered to send me some chips as a thank you from frito-lay. i ended up ordering ruffles kc masterpiece barbecue because those ones always cost twice the price as the lays barbecue. after giving him my address, he told me he’d send a whole box over!
whoa!!! whole box of chips for me!! and free!! well… at the price of my dignity, because i’d participated in this mad goose chase all over a flavor of chips. apparently i’m the only person i know who would do something as absurd as that =) but like i said, i have a lot of time on my hands. and it was better than driving to every single store in the area to see if they had the chip. and i got a whole box -free-!
oh, who am i trying to convince. it doesn’t matter cuz i LOVE free things and i LOVE chips, so i’m happy happy =)
coolio, right?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
how to be rich
i’ve been reading many personal finance blogs recently and i’ve come narrow down what they say into two basic tenets:
1. keep your expenses to a minimum and be happy with what you have
2. re-invest your expendable income so that it grows into more money
reading these blogs has taken a lot of time recently because they not only provide many detailed tips and information on investing and how to be more frugal with my money, but most of their daily posts provide links to other related blog posts that i find fascinating as well. most of the time the posts i like the most are how to make a cost-effective, simple, and healthy meal. however, i’ve noticed that even though i haven’t started any formal adoption of their techniques, i am definitely making smarter decisions about what i buy - and i can pretty much avoid most impulse purchases because i get the daily reminder that each dollar i save now can be so much more after invested.
i also like how they provide tips on saving money on the necessities and to be happy with what you have. i’ve never been one to buy the latest and greatest but it’s always nice to hear tips that can help me save even more money. even if you aren’t investing every saved penny, it’s still a good idea. the less you spend on daily living expenses, the more you have to spend on yourself now (or later when you retire). i have more money for my hobbies because i’m spending less on my daily living. it’s a great incentive to not make that impulse splurge when shopping - i just tell myself i have to put it on my wants list and come back later for it, or else i won’t be able to buy that new snowboard =D
one of my favorite blogs is “get rich slowly” (thanks jay for showing this one to me!). he also has a related blog called “get fit slowly”. it’s not a get-rich quick scheme, but rather a lifestyle that encourages healthy living/spending habits.
here are some of the related articles that i’ve found in the past few days that i thought other people might be interested in.
million dollar journey is the blog of a guy who did a guest post on get rich slowly about how he went from $40,000 of debt to having $285,000 in five years.
time banks is a good way to volunteer your time and earn “time hours” which you can redeem for goods/services you need without paying for them. in the article i read, the girl received 2 tickets to a $75 show which was 2 hours long, so it used 4 of her time bank hours to pay for it. there’s none near me in southern california, but there is one in nebraska! i thought laura and les might be interested because they do alot of community things out there.
urghh… there were a buncha other articles that i wanted to share but i already closed the tabs. oh well… i’m sure i’ll find more stuff later than can help us all save money =)
Monday, March 10, 2008
my power color is gold!
thanks to i don’t know for this link
|
Your Power Color Is Gold |
 At Your Highest: You are engrossed in passions that mentally stimulate you.
At Your Lowest:
In Love:
How You’re Attractive:
Your Eternal Question:
|
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
my camote had kids
a little bit over a week ago my dad cut my camote plant and put the slips into water to grow some roots, and this is what it looked like then
today, since the roots were getting quite long, i decided to plant some of the cuttings into soil. jill got me some cups and i’m actually excited that they’re clear plastic because i’ll be able to watch the roots grow when they hit the edges of the cup!
this is what the leaves looked like before i started planted them. as you can see, my shovel is that plastic spoon =)
here’s another leaf that was growing a great set of roots
and here’s my 5 little daughter plants sitting in their cups
a little pic of them up close before i put them on the sill
and here’s the mother plant and her 5 li’l uns sitting on the sill. on the far right you can see another camote sitting in water growing roots. i’m waiting for some of the shoots to grow above the water before i actually plant this next one
hopefully they’ll start growing pretty soon… i’m not sure if what i did was right because a website says “The sweet potato plants (slips) are transplanted into the rows at a depth of 3 inches with no less than 2 plant nodes in the ground and leaving at least 2 leaves or more above the ground." i didn’t have room to leave 2 leaves above the ground because my dad cut all the nodes apart. and the leaves actually look a little bit wilted right now, ever since i’ve taken ‘em outta the water. but, hopefully it’ll soon be time to transplant them outside! then i can start eating camote =) oh yeah!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
sample sale loot
so i went to this sample sale and made off with a buttload of stuff! basically everything in the warehouse was either 5 or 10 bucks. and it was all good quality stuff! only problem was finding the right size for me =)
i ended up with a wetsuit, a rash guard, 9 tees, 3 jackets (the brown one is reversible), 3 sweatshirts (the green one is reversible), and 2 purses. i know, i know, it’s alot of stuff, but i got an unbelievable discount on all this stuff!! really really really unbelievable!! oh yeah!
i love gettin’ loot =)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
i'm in so much pain
it hurts to breathe deep and it hurts to breath lying down. i got semi-comfortable in a reclining position and then it hurt so bad i started crying, and then of course i couldn’t breathe when i was crying, and that i felt like i was suffocating cuz i couldn’t breathe without it hurting. i dunno how i’m gonna go to sleep…
oh my gosh i’m in SOOOOO MUCH PAIN!!!!!!!!!!
damn this illness =(
Monday, February 25, 2008
camote shoots
ok, so marlene thinks i’m funny for writing about my camote plant. and for counting all the leaves every day! hahahah… i guess that is funny, but still, i’m so excited that a plant of mine is finally growing!
it finally fell over, since it is supposed to be a vine. i don’t have any pictures of it sprawled on the table, since it didn’t fit in the windowsill anymore now that it was growing horizontally. i knew it was about time to make some cuttings and see if i could grow any roots on them. i really wasn’t gutsy enough to cut my only growing plant, and when my dad came over to visit on friday, he did the honors. he cut 12 of the leaves off and soaked them in water so they could grow roots.
here is what the plant looks like now, more bushy than tall. those are all the smaller sprouts still left on it. and right next to it, you can see the ramekin with all the leaves soaking.
wanna see the new roots growing on some of the cuttings? i’m sure you do. and yes, i do check each cutting for roots every day. i dunno if i’m obsessive about this plant or if i’m just excited that things are growing in my care =)
anyways, here’s a pic of one of the shoots with the tiny roots growing out of it
what? you can’t see it, you say? oh, lemme try to zoom in:
and an even better close-up:
i think these will make some good plants some day =)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
i lost 7 pounds and i have the week off work
and you’d think i’d be happy about it, but i’m not, really. the only reason i’ve lost weight and got time off work is cuz this is my 3rd week of being sick. OMG how the heck am i gonna kick this in the butt?
it’s pretty much viral and i’m just gonna have to live with it till my immune system decides to kick in and do something about it, which is why my doctor prescribed rest for the week. but i can’t believe i haven’t had a fever in the past 3 weeks, even when i had the chills. isn’t that weird? has my body just decided not to fight it at all? sheesh…
i also can’t believe that i went to maria’s to try to tempt myself to eat and did not enjoy my burrito one bit!
i REALLY must be sick…
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
go camote go!!!
it’s hard to believe that i was so happy with this growth
and that i was so happy a week later when it ‘spurted’ to this height
but oh my gosh look at what it looks like now!!!
the main stem has 15 open leaves!!! that’s right, i count the leaves every day! when i come home or down the stairs, i say, “hello, plant!!” and then i count the leaves. leaf 11 opened up last monday, 12 on tuesday, 13 on wednesday, then it took till today to open up 14 and 15.
isn’t she purrrrty?
there’s two and a half other shoots coming out of the potato but none of them are tall. they’ll make healthy plants though. and someday real soon, i’m gonna cut the top 8 leaves or so off of the tall shoot and make some cuttings. i’ll have lots of mini plants! =) i’m sooo excited!
i so need to be better at posting
so mostly, i’ve just been puttering around on the internet lately, mostly because of my bum ankle, and also partly because i caught a cold or something like it, except 1 symptom at a time! i tend to get sick in stages - this time, it was sniffly and congested first, which resulted in a major headache on tuesday. i got the chills sans fever afterwards, and i couldn’t stay warm, even though i was wearing an undershirt, long sleeve shirt, thermal shirt, t-shirt, and sweatshirt, long johns, warmups, and 2 pairs of socks - and lying in bed under two comforters! you’d think i’da been toasty warm but i wasn’t. bleh. stupid sickness. and then finally that went away but in came the coughing - mostly dry, unproductive, and tearing up my throat! i’ve caved (from only using natural remedies) and i’m taking any medicine which pertains to my one symptom at a time, so that means i’m on tussin. much better to use medicine than lose all my larynx due to a cough! seriously? i can swear it’s torn back there! it hurts to swallow!
anyways, this post wasn’t intended to be a post about my sickness but apparently that’s what’s been running my life recently. what i did wanna post about was all the other stuff on my mind, such as the state of education in california (and much more specifically, my school), and my thoughts on religion, which are heavy and plentiful.
but…
i don’t know if that’s a good idea.
first of all… i might say too much about the education system, or i might say things too specifically. so i have to make sure to not reference anyone or any situation and if i can’t tell the whole story, what’s the fun in that? suffice it to say that many times, i feel that the education system does its best to make it difficult to educate our students. maybe i’ll say more on that later, or maybe i’ll just keep my mouth shut. i don’t know yet, so we’ll see.
secondly, the religion issue is a touchy situation, even within my head. i have thoughts and concerns and questions and doubts, but they’re safe in my brain. i can ruminate the thoughts and churn ‘em around and not worry if i think something that could be *gasp* sacrilegious. but if i write something (esp. while i’m just questioning), it makes me feel like i’m anti- everything i grew up learning. which i really don’t think i am, or at least part of me is hoping that i’m wrong somewhere and that it will all make sense again. however, i think that’s probably the part that bugs me the most. it’s not so much what i believe now more than the fact that i’ve lost my naivete about the institution which raised me. i will always be an adventist through culture and upbringing, but part of me knows that i’ve lost part of that. no matter how much i might believe what they teach, even, i think i still will never be the good little adventist girl i used to be. and like the sentimental fool i am, that really makes me sad. so much so that i don’t really wanna admit it and broadcast it to the world. -sigh- anyways… that’s why i’ve refrained from doing a religion post. though i think it might be nearly time to write about the events that brought me to where i am/am not today.
so in all actuality, i think it might be easier to just post about my camote plant. but i thought i’d provide some actual blog content before everyone thinks this is only a gardening blog!
eh. i don’t feel like saying much more so be prepared for some pictures of my plant soon!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
you can uncook an egg?
this article fascinated me (thanks for the link, woot!) - it probably appealed to the nerd in me who appreciates chemical reactions -and- loves to cook.
of course, the idea of uncooking an egg (or perfectly cooking an egg at 55 degrees for 3 hours?!?!) is rather fascinating to most people…
"But what really intrigues me, of course, is exactly how he managed to unboil an egg. He explains that when an egg is cooked, the protein molecules unroll themselves, link up and enclose the water molecules. In order to ‘uncook’ the egg, you need to detach the protein molecules from each other. By adding a product like sodium borohydride, the egg becomes liquid within three hours. For those who want to try it at home, vitamin C also does the trick.” read the rest of the article here
i am SO gonna put a boiled egg in vitamin C!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
i just found out i'm gonna have 2 more nieces or nephews!
so.... my cousin joy is pregnant, and she messaged me on facebook to tell me i was going to have 2 more nieces or nephews.
twins!! no way!!
except she didn’t say who was pregnant or having kids or anything at all except that there’d be 2 more puens soon, so for the last few days i’ve been speculating as to whether or not she was pregnant, or if her sister was pregnant, or maybe even mark, or something. and i just found out today that it is indeed joy who’ll have some kids soon. very soon. it’s too cool.
and it’s like, the 6th month or something. i am -way- outta the loop. i blame my brother for not keeping me informed! ha! =)
but isn’t that nifty? i always thought twins would be the coollest thing ever, either to grow up with a twin or be a mom with twin kids, and now i find out my cousin’s having some! congratulations to her!
Friday, January 25, 2008
hanging out with my nephews
i stopped by the mupas household this afternoon and spent an hour with my nephews, who never cease to entertain me =)
a few of my favorite memories from today:
the warm reception from griffin
griffin: opens door “oh. it’s you.” closes door
connor (having too much fun, apparently): “i’m not gonna play with you anymore today! i’m not gonna do anything with you! i won’t even marry you!!”
and just so i wouldn’t think i wasn’t wanted around, cole was there to offer me all his food, even his jello jiggler when he realized he was given the last one and i didn’t have any. he read his veggietale book to me - and he has his narration down pat, inflection and all. it was really adorable.
cole (when i was preparing to leave): “you’re gonna spend the night, right? you can’t leave yet!”
i told him he could read to me next week.