Is marriage giving me the sense of humor of a teenage boy?

Network apologizes for mocking town name

By STEPHANIE REITZ
Associated Press Writer

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- A cable sports network says it no longer will make Athol the butt of its jokes.

Hee Hee Hee...  or as the internetites say ROTFLMAO.  

I'm sorry, but if you live in a town that is spelled "Athol", even if it supposed to be pronounced "ATH'-awl," you need to get a sense of humor and join in the fun.  And if you are a cable sports network making a funny, albeit crude joke, you shouldn't apologize just because some people have no sense of humor.  

Also, Susanah Whipps, the only town selectman to say that they shouldn't complain to the network would totally get my vote if I lived there.  Her comment was that she was much more concerned about the vandals who added a r to the beginning and an e to to the end of the town signs to change the town name to rat hole.

Hee, Hee, "Athol"... such a funny name.  It reminds me of a time when some friends and I went on a long driving trip and every time we saw a dam, someone would point and shout out "DAM!" as loudly as possible, jut because they could.

PS I have a feeling that before I was married I would not have found this nearly as funny, but being under the constant influence of boy humor does things to a girl.

Tag I'm it

My dear friend Anne tagged me with a meme a while ago, and I am finally getting around to completing it (see bad habit #2)

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. B. Each player answers the questions about themselves. C. At the end of the game the player tags 5 people, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Ten Years Ago…
I was a first year teacher. I was the fifth teacher of the year for a group of seventh and eight graders who could have driven Satan himself out of hell. At lunch, I would close my classroom door, turn off the lights and cry. Fortunately, I found a high school job the next year, and things got progressively better from there.

Five things on my to-do-list today
1. Finish six weeks grades
2. Do some laundry
3. Clean the house
4. Prepare our lesson for primary
5. Finish the next level of Guitar Hero III

Snacks I enjoy
Pizzas made from tortillas, chocolate, Milky Way Easter Bunnies, fruit snacks

What I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
Start my own business that helped disadvantaged people learn new skills and get a better life. Buy a house with a huge game room and a home movie theater, and then buy all the houses around it and give one to each of our family members.

Three of my bad habits
1. Biting my nails
2. Procrastinating
3. Leaving stuff in the car

Five places I have lived
1. San Pedro, CA
2. Provo, UT
3. Duluth ,Mn
4. Fairfax, VA
5. Forney, TX

Five jobs I have had
1. Movie theater usher
2. Eddie Bauer Salesperson
3. Bombay Company Salesperson
4. English Teacher
5. Economics Teacher

Five things people don’t know about me:
1. I teach economics, but I have never actually taken a formal economics class. I am mostly self-taught through books and a few workshops.
2. Almost every month I convince myself that I am pregnant because I feel slightly nauseous, or my pants don’t fit, or my b**bs feel tender, or I have a symptom that could possibly be a symptom of preganancy, and I am sad when it turns out not to be true.
3. When I was eight, I was in a singing and dancing group and during the Christmas recital I felt sick, ran off the stage and threw up in Santa’s bag.
4. I think that if I weren’t Mormon I would be a heroin addict, because I absolutely love getting pain shots. It’s the best part of being in the hospital.
5. I’m working on starting a tutoring business so that when we finally have a baby I will be able to work from home.

I think most everyone I know has done this meme or one that is fairly similar.  If you haven't done one yet, consider yourself tagged.

The one where Tammy rambles incessantly about her job

     I don't know if it is like this in other jobs, but it is exhausting to be the best teacher you can be.  Most of you know that after years of teaching English, I started teaching Economics when I moved to Texas.

     I didn't plan to teach Economics, it was just the only job I could find.  Turns out, that was the luckiest break of my life (besides my cute husband, of course).

     I love teaching Economics.  I teach only seniors, it is a one semester class, it is not tested on any standardized test, it is required to graduate, and it is immediately applicable to the lives of every one of my students.  Plus, NO ESSAYS!

    Anyway, last year was my learning year.  I had a steep learning curve, because I had to teach regular and AP Econ.  Plus, I was super sick for a lot of that time.  This year has been my time to really experiment and have fun with the subject.  We started a new semester about four weeks ago and in that time we have:

• Conducted a trading game to illustrate the point that through free trade everyone benefits.
• Created link and smile factories to make our own PPF graphs
• Simulated a small economy where business and households bought and sold resources in order to better understand the circular flow model.  Businesses won if they had the most $, households won if they had the most stuff.
  
• Held a donut auction to learn about Demand
  
• Used Playdough to create various products and learn about Supply
  
• Created a Candy Price Index to understand how the CPI is made
• Used Playdough to learn about GDP
• Plus a bunch of smaller, mini-activities

     Before you go thinking that I am the Greenspan of HS economics, I should say that I didn't invent any of the above activities, I just spent many hours finding and implementing them.  I've also been really focused on having a high energy level in class, which basically involves me putting on a song and dance show about half the time. ("Now class, which way does the demand line shift when demand decreases?" Off key singing "To the left, to the left, everything you own in the box to the left.  No Junior, I'm not having a seizure, that's just my ultra cool dance moves")

     The thing is, it is so easy to assign book work, definitions and worksheets, but trying to have at least one fun activity planned for every day of school is exhausting.  I feel like I am running from 8:30-3:45 every day.  Yet, even as I complain about feeling so tired, I love feeling like I am really doing my best and making an impact on my students.

     Of course, I still have students who think that Economics is the most confusing and boring subject in the world, but I know that I have reached at least a few of them. 

     So this brings me to tonight.  I am soooo tired.  I just want to go to dinner at the Thompson's (thanks Camille!), watch LOST, and go to bed.  My question is, since I've been such a good girl lately, would it be so bad to assign some bookwork and take a break tomorrow?  Or do I need to do the right thing and conduct a simulated Silver Market so we can see how prices are set at equilibrium?

Three Wonderful Years

1,577,846.3 minutes

94,670,777.9 seconds

Already a lifetime of memories

Yet just a moment of the eternities

Three years since

A first date

A first kiss

Two souls touched,

and knew

they belonged together.

Tommy Boy!

The games we play

      Games anyone? 

If you know anything about us, you probably know that we love games, board games, video games, mind games.. oh wait, scratch the last one.  This is a picture of our game shelf in the garage.

Some of our favorite games are 

Settlers of Catan

Apples to Apples

Scrabble (my favorite because I always win)

Risk (Spencer's favorite because he always wins)

Games we don't have but hope to eventually buy

Blockus

Uno Attack

Knights and Cities of Catan

What are your favorite games, and can we come to your house and play them? 

No, seriously, invite us over to play games!  We are really fun, I promise!  And I promise that if I am totally kicking your trash in a game, I will get a few questions wrong on purpose, not so that you will actually win, but at least you won't be totally trounced by my superior game playing skills!

DATE NIGHT!

Our special place!

Where price is no limit..

and entertainment abounds!

Seriously?  Why do we always end up in Walmart on Saturday night?  And why do we always spend too much money there?  Is it an addiction?  Or are we finally becoming true Texans?