celebrating friday

first things first: congrats are in order to Carrie and Michelle, who correctly guessed that my favorite thing about fall is ksu football (see previous post here)! the excitement actually begins to mount well before ksu kicks off their season because i really am a fan of all football and NFL training camp starts before college f-ball, thus satisfying my obsession a few weeks early. Tiff and Casey also mentioned other great things about fall: changing leaves, tea, sleeping in on a nice fall day (although that has to happen on saturdays and sundays for me in the fall...it's up at 5:00 am during the week, ick).

anyway, in celebration of it being friday, and continuing my theme of favorite things, here are some favorite things about my job/school (i'm going to be like one of those mom-bloggers right now, except instead of writing about my kids, it's my school and colleagues and students):

*my principal and colleagues are really pretty darn great. it's amazing to be in a building where everyone really values each other, even if there are differences of opinion as to how things should get done. if you work in schools, you know that just doesn't always happen and collegial dynamics can really make or break a job. also, my principal really loves my kids in particular and is so great with them which makes my job so much easier. my kids can be challenging and i just think that speaks a lot to her character.

*the great thing about working in an urban school is that our "pep band" is really just a big, awesome drum line. i love it. sometime i'll record them for you and post it on my blog so you can hear the awesomeness.

*my idea book. i like to keep a moleskine notebook around so that anytime ANY idea comes to mind i can write

it down. i don't always implement all of my ideas, but it sure does help to have a source of creative, fresh inspirations when my brain-well starts to run dry!

*i really love my students and their parents/grandparents. that does not mean that everything is always peachy...as i said, my kids can be challenging. but, you learn to recognize the hints of progress...like hearing that one of my students wrote an email to apologize to a teacher for cussing him out, or seeing one of my more reluctant students show up at my door to ask for help writing a paper, or getting a student to put his/her cell phone (otherwise known as teenage binkies) away the FIRST time i ask. i know these things seem "small" but they are huge steps for my students.

*my classroom and my great husband who helped me set it up yesterday morning! check out my reading/conference area, the beginnings of my inspiration wall (i don't actually call it that or my students would punch me in the face for being cheesy, but that's what it is), and my desk area.

goodbye to summer/favorite things

i don't think school should start until it is at MOST 99 degrees, as a general rule. mainly that is because i don't think anyone should be required to do ANYTHING when it is 106 degrees outside. however, no one asked for my opinion and school has resumed regardless. i've decided that you probably want to know about my favorite things of summer, so here you go:

*world cup 2010 - the usa team created many exciting moments (there was much screaming, near-pants-peeing, and elevation of heart rates!) and the event was hosted in south africa (who provided a great opening celebration, awesome music, noisy bubuzelas, and a dancing desmond tutu). what more could a person ask for?? favorite player, you might ask? dempsey. he was always bleeding or falling or crashing into something or someone. scrappy.

*daily lap swimming at the outdoor aquatic center in lawrence...ahhhh. first of all, humans feel weightless in water...all together enjoyable feeling. secondly, it's cool in the water and it's not so cool in the not-water. thirdly, i discovered i can still actually get a tan! i thought i had lost my childhood talent for getting really brown and freckly, but not so. fourthly, i just miss swimming. i lived at the pool as a kid. we lived a block away from the city park pool in manhattan. we spent the mornings there for swim lessons, came home for lunch, and rushed back after lunch for the afternoon. it was like an extension of our backyard.

*planting a garden and watching it not die. by far my greatest accomplishment so far in life. i have not tackled anything of consequence yet, like vegetables, but i've managed to keep marigolds, roses, russian sage, lambs ear, hibiscus, and thyme alive for the summer, even despite the drought. i also have a peppermint and avocado plant that are not-quite-dead, but aren't looking great so i'm not holding my breath there.

*reading. my great summer pastime. I managed to read 4 novels, a memoir, a gardening book, 3 or four textbooks, and start a few others. i especially enjoyed finishing the girl with the dragon tattoo series (although i'm hesitant to recommend it because i never know what other people will like, or dislike, and how sensitive people may be to things that i'm not as affected by, so it's awkward...so that's my disclaimer for recommending books, and movies for that matter) and reading brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh. as always, i bought and stockpiled more books than i was able to read in one summer, but i'm holding out great hope that i will accomplish more reading during this school year now that i'm a seasoned veteran and not enduring the stress of a first year teacher. haha.

*colorado/buchheister reunion: family, hiking, mountains, biking, swimming, settlers of catan, visiting Carrie, my oldest (as in longest time known) dear friend, and no humidity. enough said.

*grilling. i just like it. i like grilling peaches and eating them with vanilla ice cream. i like grilling corn on the cob. plus, instead of me getting sweaty over a hot stove or boiling water in the kitchen, kirk gets the pleasure of roasting out in the great outdoors while he "mans" the grill.

well, there are a few of my favorite things of summer. i bet you can't guess what my absolute favorite thing of fall is! props to whomever leaves a comment with the correct answer!

eventual bathroom reno

a note before i begin: on monday, i lose my summer freedom and return to school. i think i've done quite a good little job this summer of frequently updating my blog, but my life is about to get stressful and busy, so let me know if you've been reading and i will try my best to keep up with the blogging. also, photographers and f.o.p (friends of photogs), please don't forget about river to well photocompetition! i believe the deadline for entry is coming up in september! ok, onto the renovating...

so eventually, hopefully next summer (fingers crossed!!!), we're going to totally gut the bathroom, rip up floors, tear out yucky plastic shower and awful countertop, demo gross paneled walls and ceiling, and totally renovate the little tiny 6 x 8 ft room. i would like to do this as cheaply as possible and use as many non-new things as possible! i'm going to try looking on craigslist for everything first, but if we can't find what we need, we may need to buy new. we're going to reuse our toilet, we have that light blue cabinet pictured in my previous post for storage, and that's about it! here are some of our finds so far:

1) free bathtub hook-up from kirk's mom! we're going to refinish the inside and strip and paint the outside obviously (unless pink and brown icky paint becomes the trend in the next year!). have any of you ever refinished a clawfoot tub?? we're trying to do this economically, yet professionally, if that's possible. we'll also have to buy the shower curtain ring and shower converter at some point. the tub is only 4.5 ft long which is just about perfect for our tiny bathroom and just long enough to sit in comfortably for the 2 times a year i actually take baths.

2) pedestal sink with faucet from craigslist for $125 total! from what we can tell, if we bought this new we probably would have spent about $60-100 or more for the basin, $60-100 for the pedestal, and no less than $100 for the faucet, so i think that's a good deal!

other things we're looking for: lighting, tile, flooring (unless we find hardwood floors under the yucky laminate), medicine cabinet, fixtures (like towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc). if any of you guys see cool vintage/salvaged/antique options for medicine cabinets, let me know. that could end up being a big expense!

also here's another picture of my cute globe and back issues of magazines purchased from my antique shopping day with tiff. just 'cause i like it.

out on the town with tiff...and antique/junk/thriftstore finds

tiffany and i went antique store shopping and had lunch on friday for a nice little girls day out on the town. i picked up this cute little globe (i think percival approves...he's currently sleeping on the base of it). tiff and i discussed pieces of furniture that we have "issues" with, like no matter how full your house is, or how many of this item you may already have, you can't keep yourself from being pulled toward these pieces anyway. for me, it's antique dressers, chairs, and industrial furniture (file cabinets, metal desks, etc). and bookshelves! but at least the bookshelves serve a purpose for my other "habit." i'm currently having to stack books 2-deep in my over-six-feet-tall bookshelf, not to mention the hundreds of books that i've taken to school so that i can further hide my habit from kirk. hehe. one of the projects that i want to do is turn my big hall closet into a library, as you see here from real simple magazine:

(sorry about the blurry phone-pics...my camera is in the shop being cleaned...let's just pretend that i took these hazy, vintagey-looking photos on purpose! i'm a creative genious!).

anyway, doesn't that library look wonderful?? i told kirk that he might as well get over it, because i'm never going to stop buying

books, and i just don't take enough books to sell back to half price bookstore (love!) to keep up with my habit. and as far as vices go, it could be worse...

anyway, i've had a bit of antique/ junkshop/thriftstore/craigslist luck lately. here are more of my finds:

1. farm table (from locust street marketplace antique store in lawrence) and white enamel lamp shades ($5 each at habitat restore)

2. another pic of the globe (notice it still has USSR on it! and all these wonky colonial names in africa).

3. cute light blue metal cabinet (locker-style) with shelves...eventually for our bathroom, once we get around to that project! ($75 craigslist, from a person who turned out to be my friend who moved to tejas...so it at least stayed in the "family")

4. handy red wheel barrow ($10 craigslist...by the way, you would be amazed how many people on craigslist think it's wheel barrel. nope, sorry folks.)

5. the last pic is of my avocado plant that i found growing in my compost pile from a discarded avocado pit! i decided to pot it and see what happens! not really a "thriftstore find" but i was really excited that i caused something to grow without even trying so i decided to post it! ok, i realize that god actually caused it to grow. stop stealing my thunder!

summer reading list and boulder pics

so, i realize that summer is almost over (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) but i still haven't posted about my summer reading.

intriguing quote from the book i'm currently reading (Brideshead Revisted - Evelyn Waugh):

"'Sometimes,' said Julia, 'I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.'"

that really stuck out to me. i think i can identify with that. but that could be entire post on its own.

ok, here's the stack of summer reading:

the first stack are the books i've already read or am in the process of reading. the other two stacks are the books that i still have to read before school starts on august 9! don't think i'm going to make it!

also, here's some pics from our lovely trip to boulder, co for the buchheister family reunion. we have these every 5 years and there are descendants from my grandfather (dale buchheister) and all of his siblings(there were 12 siblings total!!!), so it's kind of a big deal. there were 110 people at the reunion this year, which is fewer than have been at previous reunions, if that gives you an idea. pretty amazing.

1. the ernie buchheisters playing on pearl street

2. hiking with kirk, my sis and bro, and some of the "cousins" (2nd cousins, a few times removed or something)

3. overlooking boulder from the not-quite-but-close-enough-to-the-top

4. theresa, me, and liz (my 1st cousin). theresa cannot be trusted with a gravy boat.

5 and 6. some of the dale buchheisters (not my brother dale, my grandfather dale) including my grandmother mary ruth, dad's brothers john and mike and their families and my family. dad's sister dalene and her family had already left by this point. confusing yet??

i'm really glad for these reunions and love my big family. it makes me sad that we can only all gather every five years but there are just so many of us and it's hard to get together in one place.

new green things

well, we had to buy a new car. kirk was in a little bit of a wreck last week, he's fine, but the car is not.

so, we did a little research (and by we, i mean kirk), narrowed it down to a few cars to test-drive, test-drove (and experienced a very snobby, insulting sales person at one place - she managed to insult my name, my job, and my personality in only a 20 minute time frame!), and today we bought a car (not from the snobby insulting lady). we decided on the prius. makes the most sense for all the driving i have to do, it's super reliable, and it comes highly recommended (thank you, meesh!). so, i can add that to my checklist of green-living changes i've made! get this: the color is called pearly blizzard, or snowy pearls, or something. it's basically white.

in other green news:

*kirk and i are now composting. we have yet to use any of it for our yard, it's not fully decomposed yet. i'm bothered by our "style" as really it's just a big pile of junk behind our garage. i really would rather have a compost bin or some sort of enclosed area. oh well. also, we're learning about what can and can't go into the bin. we eat a tone of citrus fruit, but it's not good to put to much citrus into the heap as it makes the soil very acidic (makes sense). worms don't like acid so they don't do the work they need to do to decompose the compostables. but, coffee grounds are good and we've even been given the "green light" (hahaha) to pilfer big bags of grounds from the alley behind our fave coffee shop (thank you to casey's old establishment and shannon's current). their flowers look way better than mine so hopefully there's something magic in these grounds! if you are a compost-er you should leave a comment with tips, i'm still just an infant.

*i had some sort of creature or fungi attacking my flowers (i know, i just planted them, like, 2 minutes ago) and some of the rose bush leaves were turning yellow as well as something was chewing through my lambs ear leaves and hibiscus leaves. so, a friend (thank you sara p!) recommended spraying the plants with dish soap diluted with water to kill any pests. i reused a washed out stain-remover bottle to make the concoction and sprayed away! i didn't kill my plants (i'll admit, i was a little worried that they would turn brown and wilt immediately...just my luck), so we'll see if it actually works to repel the pests! so, a natural, chemical-free solution in a reused bottle...2 gold stars for me.

a little sports rant

p.s. this is a pre-script (as opposed to a post-script). please, please, check out my previous post about the river to well photo competition and, if you so choose, weigh in on which 3 photos i should submit. ok, the important thing is to please submit your own photos to river to well because the more submissions, the more $ goes toward building wells in south africa, which is really important.

on to sports: like a good little journalist, i frequently abstain from all that i really want to say about sports because i know my "audience." and by audience, i mean the 3 friends that actually check my blog + my mom and dad and sister (to whom i am having to constantly re-email the link to the blog because they always forget that it exists...it's called bookmarking! hello!). anyway, the reality is that i could spend a good amount of time talking about sports. if you were to ask me, at any given time of day, what i'm thinking about, it's probably one of the following: 1) dream team of former ksu football players 2) who i would start this year if i were coach snyder 3) my top 10 sporting events that i would love to attend in my lifetime 4) brett favre and ken griffey, jr (sorry, kirk, but i've had a massive sports crush on them for longer than i've known you, so...) and 5) how awesome it would be if frank martin was a teacher/administrator at my school. i'm sorry, it's who i am. but my "audience," as it were, is mostly family and college friends and a few other friends that are just nice. i feel like maybe these people just wants to read a little mendy-blog, not a sports-blog, so that is why i abstain (did you follow the stream of consciousness???).

anyway, today will be a sports-bloggy day, so if that is not your cup-o-blog, you should probably just.....keep reading because you are my friend and it's the nice thing to do. but you could also have your husband/boyfriend/sporty-wife/dad/sporty-sister read. i don't know, do what you want. i'm kinda funny and i'm cracking myself up right now. hahahaha.

ok, so nick wright (610 sports) was talking on today's "what's right with nick wright" show about the 9 components that make a super bowl-quality football team. if i were actually a good little journalist i would probably do a little research to find out if this is his idea or if he was commenting on someone else's "top 9" but i'm not really a journalist, i'm a teacher, so i did no research. the 9 components i think can also apply to bcs-quality teams in college football. they are as follows:

1. a top 8 QB

2. an above average offensive line

3. a premier running back

4. a reliable and accurate kicker (hello - martin gramatica - ksu football dream team!)

5. a standout secondary player in the defense

6. a standout defensive front 7 player

7. a defensive line that can stop the run

8. a coaching staff with an overall positive effect (not necessarily the same as a "good" coach - more emphasis on the effect of the whole staff on the dynamics of the team... probably "good" coaching is more important for college football purposes since there is so much teaching to be done)

9. a significant home field advantage

so, nick, being a good little journalist, had done the research, and went back over years of super bowl teams and found that, although no team ever had all 9 components, to be in contention they had at least 6 or 7. i'll take his word for it.

this little formula should make it really easy for athletic departments/NFL owners to evaluate their teams and say, "ok, what do we have that's solid? what are we developing? what do we need???" the chiefs, in all their blundering idiocy the past few years, are actually not too far off from having 6 of these 9 components. here's what we have pretty solidly (this is according to nick wright, but i found myself thinking the EXACT same things just before he said them...typical.): running back - jamal charles, kicker - succup (not too shabby), coaching staff - after the changes this off season - definitely a move in the right direction, home field advantage - arrowhead has always had a good fan base, even when they're in the depths of despair. so there's 4 of the 9.

then, we are close, but not quite there, on a few components: defense - brandon flowers? can he be that standout secondary guy? not sure. not no. but not yes either. and we drafted eric berry with the #5 pick this year, so there are high hopes, but he's not proven and he'll take some time to learn. i still think glenn dorsey could be the real thing on our D-line, he just had a little "issue" with the coaches last year and didn't get much early playing time. but when he did, he definitely stood out on defensive (in a good way). and then jackson is another defensive end. so, it's like, we could be ALMOST there with the secondary and defensive line standouts, but not quite there. once we're "there," that 6 of the 9.

finally, the major holes? offensive line and QB. those are two pretty major holes, if you ask me. i'm going to make the case that you have to have at least one of these two to be successful. i don't think your "6" components can be without both a QB and an O-line. so, in that regard, i don't think this little "6 of the 9" formula holds up, i guess. i mean, we've seen good, hall-of-fame QBs look hideous because they're constantly on their backs or running out of the pocket when that's not a strength (oh, my dear b favre, i hate to say it, but it's so true). and we've seen O-lines holding up the pocket all day long and QBs that can't make decisions or have no arm or throw flat or have bad footwork or crap for timing or whatever, so it doesn't really matter how much time they have. they could have all the time in the world and they're still eric crouch (oooh. little nebraska dig. hehe.) or jamarcus russell. it's just a heckuva lot of pressure on either of those 2 components if the other one stinks.

so, i guess i'm saying that the chiefs could have their 6 components, but i still don't see them being able to compete with the ravens/vikings/saints/colts for the duration of the season and throughout the playoffs, as long as they don't have either a good QB or a better O-line. truthfully, i think that O-line component should probably be worth two points. let's just go ahead and make it a 10-component list. if you have that O-line component, then you could get by with an average to above average QB (sorry, still not eric or jamarcus...they're the worst!). maybe matt cassel could look like a top 8 QB with the right O-line. but for now, this pairing doesn't do much for me and it sure doesn't do much for the chiefs trying to move forward. for this year, i guess we're going to have to hope that the addition of charlie weiss on the coaching staff will result in a huge (no pun intended), miraculous improvement in one or the other, or else we're going to be only a few shades of red and obnoxious-yellow different from last year's debacle of a team.

there's my rambling rant. i'll try to get back to flowers, decorating, gardening, reading, photos, and other mendy-bloggy things so that i don't lose my few friend-readers that i have out of sheer sports-talk induced coma boredom.

calling all photographers! or friends of photographers! or i'm-not-a-pro-but-i-think-i-take-good-photos photographers!

i'm back from boulder, co and trying to catch up with my classwork (pics to come later this week...of boulder, not of my classwork). but, i'm taking a break from that to announce that it's time for the 2nd annual river to well photography competition! my buddy, ken, started this competition after we ventured to south africa in 2008. the competition is a blend of his passion for photography and his passion for africa. the proceeds go toward building wells in south african villages. check out the website to see last year's winners (including my honorable mention shot seen here ), find out more about the village where this year's well will be built, and to submit your own pics for the competition.

here are some of the shots i'm thinking of submitting this year, but can't decide. if you do read my blog, weigh in as to which shots you like best. first, there's this lovely graffiti shot from my trip to nyc last year on the right side of my blog here...i like it, but it seems kind of...already done, i guess. i feel like it's the cool thing to do, maybe. i don't want to be too cool, you know.

here are a few shots from a trip to chicago; this is the chicago tribune building (beautiful!). the color shot is the original + a little bit of editing to clean it up. the b & w is also cool, though...you decide.

here's a shot of my friend, ashley, laying out some sparkly lights. also have it in b & w. not sure if others get my point of view when i take shadow-y shots. i like them. but some people are like, "what?? i can't see what's going on here! why didn't you use flash!?" so, maybe it's just my personal taste.

here's another shot from south africa, the mother sitting in the doorway to escape the heat of the sun. i felt so lucky to get this shot, these are usually the types that i notice and try to capture but i'm too late!

here's a cool shot of the pier at coney island...lots of fun angles that i think make the picture interesting.

ok, so you guys weigh in...i'm too indecisive and biased because these are some of my "favorites." i'll probably submit three photos, so i need to narrow it down!

planting

so, i realize that late june, early july is just about the WORST time to start planting flowers, but... well i did it anyway. i only have time to work on my yard during the summer and i spent the first month of summer stewing about what to plant and where and how would i avoid killing everything???? here's some pics of what i planted in the front little flower bed:

the lavender-looking plant is called russian sage...i really wanted to do a mix of lavender and thyme, but it's too late to find lavender anywhere and it can be rather persnickety so probably not a good idea for this fearful gardner. i planted about a bazillion marigolds because they are supposed to keep mosquitos at bay. ironically, i didn't think about the fact that peat moss (which we mixed in with the soil) attracts flies (because it's basically poo), so... one pest avoided, an infestation of the other. i'll learn. next time, i'll just mix sand into the soil. i think the roses are knock-out roses, but not sure. the tag said "easy-care" roses, which i'm pretty certain is not the latin name. hehe. they look like knock-out roses, right? and knock-out roses are very easy to care for.

leaving for boulder, co tomorrow so my friend shannon will be watching after the boys (cecil and percival) and the flowers. thanks, shannon!

i'm back!

i've decided to take a cue from my friend, shannon d, and choose 15 random things to tell you all (you all...wishfully thinking that i still have some friends that occasionally check my blog to see if i'm still living) about my life in the months since i've fallen off the blog-wagon (hahahaha).

1. percival had a near-death experience but is back to his thriving percival-self minus a functioning tail. whew! kirk says he looks like snuffleupagus because his tail just kind of hangs. very sad.

2. i successfully survived my first year of teaching!

3. i am OBSESSED with the world cup. i've been watching as many games as possible and trying to pretend that i'm studying while i watch. i had to do a case study and conduct observations for an hour for one of my classes in an area of interest, so i decided to observe spain vs. portugal! i kept a stats sheet and wrote a research question about whether cristiano ronaldo is a "selfish" player. my hypothesis was that he would take more shots and have fewer assists than anyone else on his team. my hypotheses were correct.

4. i've "run" almost everyday since summer began. and by run i mean shuffle. me running + humidity = me not really running, per se.

5. i have not made much of a dent in my summer reading stack.

6. i planted flowers! and they are still living! mostly. i'll post pics soon!

7. i think i may have broken my finger in, like, march or february. it involved trying to carry too much to my car on my way to work at 6:00 am (ick), dropping things, trying to catch things, and jamming my finger in the process. so, i can't fit my rings on my finger anymore. sad. and it's still hard to grip things with my finger. i know i should go to my chiropractor to get it fixed, but now i'm just afraid he's going to have to re-break things which makes me want to vomit.

8. i'm getting a new camera! i don't know when, but i'm excited!

9. i have this problem when i run that my calves start to get really tight and then it starts to spread down to my achilles tendon area and across to my shins and it just becomes horrendously painful! i don't know what is going on. any runners out there, please tell me what to do! i've tried stretching better, using those band-y things to stretch my calves, eating potassium sources before or after the run, warming up for longer, altering my stride, new shoes, icing my shins, massage (ouch, that really hurt! having my shins massaged is NOT fun)...

10. i'm not losing any seniors this year, and i'm gaining something like 7 freshman! that's a whole lot of freshman! teachers, you know what i'm saying.

11. i'm getting a new classroom next year. it's bigger, which is good.

12. i had about 13 zillion things that i was saving for summer to do, or plan, or re-work, or fix, or whatever, and summer is just FLYING by. how does that happen?!?

13. resource books i've found very useful lately: garden anywhere by alys fowler, national geographic photography field guide, voices of protest by i can't remember who (for teaching), no time to garden by anne swithinbank, and runner's world complete book of running.

14. i have an antique dresser sitting in my basement waiting to be sanded and painted! as soon as that project is complete i'll post pics. trying to decide what direction to go with new hardware for the drawer pulls. the dresser is a short 2-drawer with a curved front. i'm painting it a bright, glossy yellow. suggestions for hardware??

15. i have been strangely silent on all things football, basketball, etc. and the formerly-big-12-but-still-called-big-12. mostly because i don't even know what to say. i hate texas now more than ever. they have quite a little dictatorship going. sassy move, nebraska. sassy.