I'm a girl with glasses!

While scrolling through Facebook in the wee small hours of the morning I came across a link from a friend.  Following the link I found this sweet little blog post about a mom wanting to help her little one transition into the wonderful world of glasses.  The poor dear is only 5 years old and is worried about what the other kiddos might say about her new look.  So her wise mom put out a plea for "girls with glasses" to share their pics so her little pumpkin can see a variety of cool girls rocking their specs!  Besides my Blogger profile pic, here are a few others I dug up:

Fall '08: Kicking it outside of Big Ben w/ my friend Debs, a fellow "girl with glasses"

July, '10: My niece, Abby, trying to make me smile this summer (note the smiling mouth she drew and taped on me)

Abby loves wearing my glasses when she gets a chance...

Earthquake?

If you live in Waco and feel the earth shaking, don't worry.  It's not an earthquake.  It's just thousands and thousands of baptists rolling over in their graves because there's dancing on the Baylor campus.  And to Michael Jackson, no less!

For the Monkeys! Finally!!!

"Tell me all your thoughts on..."

...the olympics!

I've watched more summer olympics this year than I have in my whole life. And I'm actually loving it!

I'm officially a Phelps phan!

And I'm in love with the mens gymnastics team, esp Jonathan Horton. I love the sportsmanship they showed and the fact that they graciously accepted scores well below what they earned in some events, and didn't complain when other countries (particularly China) scored higher than they should have (the same could be said for the womens' team as well). I loved how they rallied behind each other and how Horton constantly encouraged his teammates, took every opportunity to speak excitedly to the cameras, and thanked God for getting them on the medal stand. I loved how they didn't blame a teammate for making a mistake; they each knew they could of easily been the one in that position. Most of all, I loved how they joyously celebrated the fact that they won the bronze! Absolutely no disappointment for not medalling higher or for losing the lead they had early on!

Going back to Phelps: I love watching his mom and sisters as they watch him race. His mom is a nervous wreck every single time. And one sister in particular is balling her eyes out before he even finishes the race! And I don't get the feeling that he's arrogant about all his wins (a total of TEN career gold medals so far!!!); it's almost as though he's racing against himself, seeing how far he can push himself and not necessarily overly concerning himself with his other competitors. Granted, I'm positive he knows they're there! But his goal isn't to grind them to dust . . . or since he's a swimmer would that be "feed them to the fish?"

I love the Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh volleyball duo. Specifically the deep friendship and obvious love and concern for each other.

I think it's funny that every time she pulls her goggles down around her eyes before a race begins, Katie Hoff has deep circle lines around her forehead where her goggles had just been. And then she always rubs along the bottom of the goggles as a nervous habit. At least, I think it's Hoff; they all look completely different once those swim caps come off!

The absolute best moment was the mens 400 freestyle relay. Especially after the French were talking crap about demolishing the Americans! This video is British, but even the American commentator was going on and on and ON about how every way he worked it out there was absolutely NO WAY the Americans could win, the French were just too good. Every American (and non-American) needs to see this, even those of you reading who aren't into the Olympics at all (Bird). Seriously. And I'm posting the 4 minute version, not the 8 minute version you could only see on the [be warned] extremely shady site here. I love how in the 8 min version the French guy with the big mouth stays in the water, stunned, for a solid 5 minutes! And oh, how the Americans celebrate! Quick, go watch before You Tube bans the video: TOO LATE! But I replaced it with the longer version:



Eight one-hundreths of a SECOND, people.

Amazing!

Quote of the Week

The conversation that ensues in the car after my complaints of a dozen mosquito bites (no exaggeration!) at my grandma's house:



Great Grandma Mae, age 81: The mosquitos bite me every time I go out to water the yard. I hate mosquitos!

Abby, age 4: I hate Satan.

If ever your child's missing,

check the toy box first . . .

Not for the faint of heart...

This is actually for Brandi. She & Bird hate the little dog magnet one of my coworkers gave to me because it's slightly anatomically correct. So a two weeks ago, after Greta's wedding, Bird got creative with the chocolate icing. It sat on the fridge for over a week until Mom finally noticed it. This is what it ended up looking like:

Hope mom doesn't see this . . .

or else she'll insist we never use cell phones again!



Granted, it's a hoax, but I don't think that would matter to her!

I emerge . . .

as Jan Brady!

You Are Jan Brady

Brainy and a little introverted, you tend to think life is a lot worse than it actually is. And while you may think you're a little goofy looking, most people consider you to be a major babe.

What Brady Are You?

Beautiful

This is one of my all time favorite worship songs from Vineyard UK.



My friend Sarah talked about walking down the aisle to this song -- the bridesmaids will come down as the song is starting and then when it picks up at 2:43 the doors will open and there she'll be! But since she didn't do it, I might still her idea! I would have to fly my friend Marcus in to play guitar and sing it, of course (listen to "Hit Me" if you link to his space). And Tirzah can play the djembe.

Ok, true, I'm not planning my wedding yet (or even a date, for that matter), but I just wanted to call dibs on the song and the musicians! HA!

What Your Latte Says About You

You don't treat yourself very often. You find that indulging doesn't jibe with your very disciplined life. You can be quite silly at times, but you know when to buckle down and be serious. You have a good deal of energy, but you pace yourself. You never burn out too fast. You're addicted to caffeine. There's no denying it. You are responsible, mature, and truly an adult. You're occasionally playful, but you find it hard to be carefree. You are deep and thoughtful, but you are never withdrawn.

What Does Your Latte Say About You?

I don't know about the "very disciplined life" bit, OR that I'm "truly an adult." I just thought this looked fun!

Mental Note To Self

Give yourself a few minutes for your food to digest before running off to play Skee Ball at Dave & Busters.

There was much fun to be had, but my tummy felt a bit funny after chowing down on one of their GINORMOUS salads. And the Mario Kart II arcade game was soooo much better than the Game Cube version! Then I hit the jackpot at that claw game that no one ever wins. You know, the one where you give your money in hopes that the flimsy claw will grab that cute stuffed dog that's actually weighted down so no one can ever claim it for him/herself?

Anywho, one of the bins was full of Houston sports paraphernalia and I thought I'd try for a plush Astros baseball . . . I ended up with a Texans football instead! So I tried again . . . up came TWO more things -- an Astros ball (not the one I was aiming for the first time) and an unexpected plastic Rockets pennant that was under the baseball; it's suction cup got hooked by the claw! I played a few more times (ok, maybe way more than "a few more times;" I can see now how gambling addictions develop) and I ended up with TWO MORE prizes; which included the original Astros baseball I was going for the first time! They're all official sports merchandise, so worth a pretty penny, and well worth the multiple swipes of my game card!



After my success Becca gave it a go and won a few prizes herself. Around that time some of the employers/bouncers started congregating around an employees door just to our left. Then I REALLY felt like a gambler who was being suspected of counting cards because the winning streak was too good to be true! Shortly thereafter we decided to stop being greedy and move on while we were ahead.

If I were a good auntie I would pass some of it along to my nephews. OR I could save it for birthdays and/or stocking stuffers. We'll see . . .

Morbid and a bit disturbing...

My thoughts, as they came to me while I read, are included in italics...

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Debbie!

1. It takes a lobster approximately 7 years to grow to be Debbie.
2. If every star in the Milky Way was a grain of salt they would fill Debbie.
3. Debbie can remain conscious for fifteen to twenty seconds after being decapitated. (Um, not something I hope will EVER be tested!)
4. Debbie can use only about ten percent of her brain. (Should I be offended?)
5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find Debbie. (Ok, this is the VERY disturbing part.)
6. You should always store Debbie in an airtight container in the fridge. (I assume that would come AFTER the decapitation . . .)
7. Pacman was originally called Debbieman.
8. The porpoise is second to Debbie as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
9. If you toss Debbie 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom! (Sounds painful. And again, should I be offended? They're basically saying I have a big, fat head!)
10. About 100 people choke to death on Debbie each year. (I'm left speechless . . .)

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Via Debs and Blest and The Thinklings!

This is deeply disturbing . . .

Which Lost Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

This is the response I get from saying I'm faithful, I do well under stress, I hold a momentary grudge, I get along great with my family, I enjoy reading, I'd fight dirty, and I would make the best of things if I was stranded on a desert island???? What's up wit dat?! Maybe it's cause I said I'm a republican . . .

Out of the 4300+ people who have taken the quiz, I'm like 2% of them . . . yipee . . .



Ok, Brandi just took the quiz:

Which Lost Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

She was happy with her results, of course. She wasn't the one voted most likely to be a manipulative psycho!

Ain't it SAD?

Of course I couldn't let Single Awareness Day come and go with no mention of it. I was actually just browsing old posts from February of '05 and '06 and had to laugh at Tirzah and my old V-Day posts (is that grammatically correct?). Of course my fav will always be the SAD survival guide for single girls. It's great! And not that far-fetched, actually.

So I have a confession: I'm actually not a V-Day hater anymore. I don't know if I ever was. Maybe it's easier not to hate it since I'm out of college? Or maybe since I've been teaching my students fill that void with their flowers and cards and chocolates? Or maybe, just maybe, I'm actually content in my singleness??? I dunno.

Receiving gifts is definitely my top love language. Last year I raked in the gifts with my kids! Esp the flowers! Not so much this year. And that's after weeks of me telling my kids how much I love flowers and that's what I wanted for V-Day. I was quite bitter that the mom who works at a FLOWER SHOP bought me a memo cube.

I know, I know, I sound horribly selfish and ungrateful, don't I? Well, the truth is I am horribly selfish and ungrateful at times.

Anywho, I love my kids and I know they love me. They were so excited about the day and making cards for each other. We had a good day. And the best was when my Spanish kids came over to deliver cards they each made for me. One little boy, Alex, I've known since he was 3 and in his card he wrote, "Ms. Gayle, yuo are my favorite tichr." Awww!!! All the cards are cute and I hope to scan and post some. Eventually. Maybe.

Oh, I almost forgot! I did get a bouquet of a dozen red roses . . . torn from the page of an advert! HILARIOUS! And rather witty for the quiet LEP 5-year-old Ashley!

New Glasses

I got new contacts too, but no use taking a pic w/ those on -- it's just me w/o glasses!

I just have to say

I'M SO BUMMED I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WERE TWO NEW EPISODES OF CHUCK TONIGHT!!!

Thankfully, I got home in time to watch the second episode, but I missed the first. So sad!

Saturday Morning Funnies

So I'm at work. On a Saturday. Yipee.

But the funniest thing just happened. We did a short group writing. It was predominately girls speaking up, so here's what they had to say:

I have a dog.
Her name is Sophie.
She likes to play.
She plays with girls.
She does not like boys.

I thought it was cute, but didn't know how the 11 boys in the room felt about it.

One boy, Noel, just finished his story and brought it over for me to staple. He had the cutest dog drawn on the back cover -- it took up the whole page and it had an over-sized head. On the inside he changed the story up a bit:

I have a dog.
Her name is Sophie.
She likes to play.
She plays with boy.
She does not like girl.

How clever is he?! Then he drew a picture of a little boy and a dog with a frisbee in its mouth!

After I started typing this another student finished and brought me her book. She kept the story the same but decided to add captions to her illustrations. For the last sentence, "She does not like boys," she drew a little dog and a boy. The boy is asking the dog, "Can I play with you?" And the dog responds, "No." (But she actually spelled it n-o-w -- she's only 6, for crying out loud!)

Unfortunately, the two star students aren't my regular students. And quite frankly they're so smart, I don't really know why they're in Saturday Tutorials. Oh well. They gave me a laugh.

Told ya so!

Here's the stack of books by my bed:



I'm bummed that I haven't been able to read since SATURDAY! My holidays spoiled me!

New Look!

Yes, it's true, I decided to change things up a bit here. Okay, maybe A LOT since I even changed the blog's name and all. I kept the addy the same cause I didn't want to change it and suddenly nobody's able to link over (Perhaps Bird, you can help me work that out?) I got bored with the old and impatiently wanted a fresh start, however I didn't want to lose all my old posts. Anywho, so far so good. What do u think???