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.

i am the world's worst blogger...

...ever.

this is SO me...

we had a guest come to speak at our church a few weeks ago, isaac anderson, that gave a talk that was SO me that by the end i couldn't help but cry because it was so good to know that i'm not the only one that has the same neuroses. anyway, here's a link to the talk. it's about the idea that god made a decision to come near to me, and he continually makes that decision again and again. it's so good. anyway, it's about a half hour talk, but so worth it. if for nothing else it's a window into my mind. isaac starts talking at the 5:10 point.

isaac anderson - god is near

kirk came to school with me last thursday to help me fix breakfast for my students and their families. we fixed pancakes, french toast, and bacon. it was a good time. kirk got to see a little window into my day. he says my students are very "energetic." we had a good turn out of families: 2 moms, a grandma, godfather and his grandson, aunt, and a case manager from the mental health center! here's a really sweet email i received from one of my students the next day:

"good morning just wonted to say thanks agin for breakfast this morning. and to tall you that my mom says thanx to. i wonted to say have a good weekend and a Marry Christmas and thanx for leting me talk to you when i needed to and for being so suppurtiv and for being a nice teacher to not just me to every 1 so Marry Christmas and t alk to you latter."

so, even though i'm TIRED and so ready for this break, this is what reminds me that i love my job!

in other news: i have been so looking forward to this break, partly to get a jump start on getting back in shape, starting to run again, hopefully getting back into the habit, etc. well, on day 1 of my break i'm playing indoor soccer and i step on the ball, turn my ankle and can't even WALK! to make matters worse, we didn't have any subs for the game, so i kept playing, on one foot. i was such a worthless team member! so, here's a pic of the ankle. the picture really doesn't do it justice. it's very purple and swollen. i think god has a sick sense of humor, thwarting my ambitious plans of getting back into shape over break. but really, who tries to get in shape BEFORE new years???

finals

remember in college, when we would stay up all night to "study" for finals... really we were just watching movies, eating junk food, and cracking the occasional text book. how i miss those days. i just submitted my final project for one of my graduate classes and it was 25 pages long. ick. i'm tired of sitting and typing. and i think i have a callous on my right index finger from using the touchpad on my laptop. it feels good to be done. now i can party. yeah, who am i kidding?? i'll probably fall asleep on the couch by 8:00 tonight! ha!

5 work days until christmas break! woop woop!

good day today

i know i've been a crappy blogger, but i don't think i've ever been this busy in my life! i think i've lost some of my multi-tasking capabilities because i used to be able to handle a lot of different things all at once and now i'm just WEARY. but anyway, today warranted a blog post because it was a good day.

my students read today for 10 whole minutes, completely SILENT. they only complained for a minute and then i set the oven timer and told them that i would let the timer run while they read. but if they talked or stopped reading i would stop the timer and they would just cut into their free time the longer it took to get back to reading. it totally worked. this may not seem like an accomplishment but i assure you, it is.

secondly, i have gotten 3 new students in the past 2 weeks. two of the three came from alternate "facilities" and let's just say that the transition back into a "normal" school should not be expected to go completely smoothly. one of the kids has been in and out of several different schools, foster homes, jail, running away from foster homes, and hasn't been in school for almost a year. he is really far behind as far as credits go and that's discouraging to go into classes with students that are several years younger than him and still not understand what's going on because he's been out of the school "habits" for a year. day one this kid tells me he's probably just going to drop out and if he wasn't in school he'd just be on the streets doing "illegal stuff." i didn't even see this kid for the first few days that he was supposed to be at school because instead of going to classes he decided to wander the halls all day to avoid class. i finally caught up with him one day and he ended up sitting with me and venting for an hour about how frustrating it is to try to get ahead with so much stacked up against him. the next day, he came to my class. ok, fast forward 2 weeks to today. he went to ALL of his classes today! by the end of the day he got frustrated in his last class and walked out but instead of walking the halls he came to me. i called his teacher to let her know he was with me and he ended up working with me on his science classwork. we learned the difference between power and work and how to find them using equations. we looked up Usain Bolt online and talked about how if Ms. Hutson raced Usain Bolt in the 100 meter dash that we would do the same amount of work (force x distance) even if i took WAY more time to finish. but since the equation for power factors in time (P = work/time), who would be more powerful? "Quit playin, Ms. Hutson. Bolt mo' powerful." i need you guys to understand how much i hate science, but i taught this kid some science today. i don't think Usain Bolt taught anyone science today.

anyway, i've gotten to where i can joke with this kid but also lay down the law when i need to. i gave him a stern look and gave him a little "mom" lecture about his girlfriend and school and whether he should drop out and get his GED...etc. then i stopped and said, "you know what? i'm not going to tell you what to do. if you want to talk to me, you're more than welcome, but i don't want you to feel like i'm in your business." he said, "Ms. Hutson, i like talkin' to you. people always trying to get me to talk to counselors, but i say, 'man, i need to talk to Ms. Hutson! don't need no counselors!'" later i heard him telling another student, "Ms. Hutson my savior, man. it weren't for her, i wouldn't be doing NOTHIN." that was huge. it was a good day.