I'm a jei jei...

Ok, not to sound like a broken record but....I'm sorry I'm terrible at posting. To be fair; the past month has been a terrible mash of unstructured snow days and stress about the upcoming school trip to Costa Rica. Also the event which I'm about to reflect on.

About four weeks ago, my parents and J left on a jet plane (reference to the song; I don't actually know what they flew on) to head to China. Two weeks later, they came home with my newest sibling, Zhi Sai, 13 years old.

So here we are, 6 Tiers. My parents have two adult children and two teenagers. (Good luck!) And we all. live. together. (I smell a reality show...) But back to the newly built family. Especially since my blog is half food half new things. I have a new sister! Is there anything bigger in life than that? I mean besides getting married or having my own child?

It's weird, no lie. And it's hard. But I keep trying to remind everyone that we knew it'd be like this. We knew she wouldn't speak English. We knew there are attachment issues with older adopted children. It's easy for me to despair and assume we'll never be able to talk to her...but I remind myself that it's only been 2 weeks. Things will change.

For now, keep praying. That she would learn English quickly. That she would connect with Mom. That she would learn discipline.

Thanks everyone!

Differences

Happy Martin Luther King Day! It seems like everything that's happening in my life today has a common theme, so I'm thinking it's time for a blog post.

MLK Day is one of those things that stays on your calendar and you think, yes, a day off! Or, if you're in college, you think, Why don't I have off? (At least that was my mind at Messiah.) Today, though, is special in a lot of ways. Earlier my parents and Jordan picked up a new member of my family in China, a thirteen year old orphan. They have basically no way to communicate with each other. Awkward turtle in the hotel room? Maybe.

Because I've apparently become a procrastinator in my post-college life, I've popped up Google a few times today for various and a sundry searches, like Why do we keep the thermostat at 68 degrees, hating winter, etc. and saw their image in celebration of today:

Which I love. Here's why. Growing up my school was pretty much 98% white, and I live in an area that is shockingly racially divided by county line. The public schools in my county are super-white, and the public schools across the bridges are super-black. But right over the bridges is also my school, and it looks different from when I went there. I'm not talking about the additional middle school classrooms; I'm talking about the students. This Google image looks like the elementary classes that I teach. And I think it looks the way Martin Luther King imagined it looking. I love that I teach in a school that does that, that brings together kids on both sides of the water.

Moving on, I've been plugging away (in between google searches) on my Philosophy of Special Education paper. Part of our philosophy has to include "fully reflecting on the role and value of individuals with disabilities to society." I came across this article about that very topic. I won't go into it, since it's pretty short and legit and you should all read it, but it got me to thinking about how working and living with people who are different is what makes us grow. This is why I can never live alone; I would be too selfish. I am tickled that as a Spanish teacher I not only teach my kids another language, but how to celebrate and appreciate other cultures besides our own. And that's part of my philosophy on Sp. Ed. That we appreciate the differences around us. That differences force us to think outside of ourselves, and that's always beautiful.

I'm so excited and nervous to welcome a stranger into our family. And I'm excited about the ways that it will stretch me and force me to become more like Jesus. What an amazing thing!

I hope you all celebrate the differences around you and in your life. Even if you share a bathroom with someone who accidentally leaves their stuff all over the place. (I'm making you become a better person Kels!)

2011

Happy New Year! What good would a blog dedicated to new things be without a new years post? It's 2011! When did that happen? Ten years ago I was a high school freshman...yikes! Tan viejo!

Things I'm looking forward to this year:

April: trip back down to the DR to visit my friends and students! Might have to make a post on good old Don't Drink The Water! just for kicks.

May: My best friend is getting MARRIED!

Summer: I'm hoping Natalie # 1 moves herself over to the East Coast so we can get a place together and start the Nat Flat. Also, I'm turning 25. That's a quarter of a century. I'm thinking birthday party?

November: On November 11th in 2001 my friend Jenna and I sat in a Subway marveling over the beauty of the day's date, 11/11/01. We decided to write down where we thought we'd be in ten years on a napkin. I still have that napkin. We're going back to Subway to read what we wrote :)

Resolutions? I don't really have any...but some things I would like to do:
-write more letters to people.
-get my cousin back from Kenya at some point.
-start the Nat Flat as previously stated
-visit friends in Seattle, Chicago, and Michigan. Or one of those.
-complete the requirements for MD teaching certification
-go on a date. Or a few dates. It's been like two years, so I'd be down for more than one.
-find my sister a boyfriend.
-get my motorcycle license

A decent list, si? I could go on. But I think these are reasonable goals/interests.

Well, I have a meeting to be off to. Love going back to school on weekday nights! Booooo.

Deck the clothes!

I'M BACK! My dwindling number of readers I'm sure are thrilled. I'm a little excited about this post though. In the past year, someone let me know about New Dress a Day, which has been my new favorite blog to read. Marisa goes to thrift stores and yard sales and finds cheap and mostly ugly pieces of clothing, which she then alters and wears.

I'm a fairly decent sewer (hooray, I have a feminine quality!), and an excellent cheap spender. Unfortunately I have no time. Enter Christmas Break to my rescue! Let's back up. For some reason my mother decided to offer me a heinously colored "dress" (sack) from the 80s:

(FYI, I'm wearing pants under it...I'm not pregnant as it appears.) So this pale pink stretchy knit fabric apparently passed as socially acceptable wear back in the day. Ew. I was going to pitch it, or sleep in it, when my inner creativity starting working.
New Dress a Day made me think that perhaps I could
venture into the land of fabric dying, which I've never done. With my sister's support I headed out to Michael's, and bought some Cherry Red RIT dye.(If you try this, use stainless steel...trust me on this one.)

I did some snipping and hacking and sewing...and Voile! I created my Christmas Eve dress:

(I am, obviously, on the right.) Again not pregnant...maybe it's just the fabric. Remind me to suck in my stomach for pictures.

Tre cute, no? I had a good time, and I feel very resourceful!

Hope ya'll (who am I kidding, "all"?) had a fantastic Christmas! Here's to a happy 2011!!

PS on 1/20/11: I got a better picture of the dress:

Feliz Navidad...

If another one of my students asks me if we can sing "Feliz Navidad" I'm going to scream. There ARE other Christmas songs in Spanish! I would like to present one of my favorites, introduced to me by Brewer, entitled "Mi burrito sabanero". This doesn't actually mean "my tasty burrito" as you might be inclined to think it does. It means "My little grasslands donkey." Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!



Lyrics (and hence why this is a Christmas song) can be found here.

Embarrassed...

I'm aware that I'm heinously overdue for an update, but I'm up to my overly-mascara'ed eyelashes in Christmas shopping stress. I seriously don't remember being this overwhelmed last year. It was like a couple orders online, bam, done. All the presents were at my house waiting for me when I finally got home after my 24-hour adventure from Santiago to Miami to Charlotte to BWI due to Snowmageddon Part Uno. Just remembering that little venture makes me want to change my clothes and take a shower. Yuck.

Anyway, maybe once I have a better handle on Christmas shopping I can add something interesting on here? Perhaps?

Couple random thoughts:
1) I seriously need to start my Christmas shopping in early November next year.
2) The commercialization and amount of people in the stores overwhelms me.
3) I do not want to even think about looking at my credit card bill.
4) Avatar: The Last Airbender was way better than Avatar. I don't care what the critics say.
5) Tonight I opted for movie by myself in my house instead of going out. Am I 40??
6) I am ridiculously excited for Ravens vs. Pit-of-hell's burgh tomorrow. And Jets vs Patriots Monday! Big weekend for football!

Fall fruit

Words cannot express how cold it is. It's interesting; in the back of my head this past year I knew in theory it was cold up here, but I'm not sure my skin registered it. And now, it's a rude awakening. One which is only going to get worse, seeing as it's only November.

There are two silver linings to the weather getting colder and days getting shorter. One is pumpkin, which I could discuss ad nauseam, but I won't.

The other is one of my favorite fruits: pomegranates! I wish these things were available year round, but alas, only in the fall. They're super tasty and super healthy. One of the girls at my old job thought they looked gross on the inside, but she was kind of a bitter negative person anyway. And had clearly never eaten a pomegranate.

Granted, they take a looong time to peel and whatnot, but the reward is big. They have a huge amount of antioxidants, as well as potassium, and vitamins B and C. It's also low in calories and sugar.

If you haven't tasted one, give it a shot! If you have, let this post remind you of the pom wonders and inspire you to pick a few up the next time you're at the grocery store.