Everything is amazing, nobody is happy...

the circle of life

I don't blog much about being a teacher. Here are a few reasons why: they're 11 years old so they don't exactly say "cute" things very often, I can't post pictures of them (and I hate posting without pics), and I think people would think it's pretty boring. BUT I may have you all know (all six people that check up on my blog) that I LOVE teaching. And I LOVE this school year. I have 24 students that all have very different backgrounds and most of them not so good backgrounds. Their home lives are not the most ideal but they try their tooshies off and are pretty dang cute. They're my buds. Last week I was teaching a math lesson on patterns and we were discussing patterns that we see in life. One response that was hilarious and quite thought provoking was as follows:

Me: "What are some patterns that you see in life?"

Student 1: "Well, the circle of life."

Me: "What do you mean by that?"

Student 1: "Things, animals, and people are born, they live, they die. This happens over and over like a pattern or something."

Me: "Have you been watching the Lion King lately?"

Student 1: "I go to church." (said in a very flat/"duh" tone)

ice festival in 50 degree weather... sweeet...

Chicago winters are brutal. Beyond brutal... they just hurt. I can't even go out to get the paper (two steps from my doorway) without bundling up like an eskimo or else I just honestly hurt coming back inside. Well the stinkin' groundhog saw his shadow and Chicago said NO WAY and for the past week our weather has been amazing. Saturday was in the fifties and tomorrow (Tuesday) will be in the sixties... what?!? Awesome.. that's all I have to say. Everything is thawing out - including my body. Anyways, we headed downtown for the Ice Fest and fortunately had fun before the "sweltering heat" melted it away. We had our portraits sculpted in ice and bumped into the mayor along the way - what a treat.

Wow! Doesn't it look exactly like us? Ben actually looks like the uni-bomber... creepy...

I got thirsty.

reflection from "the bean" in Millenium Park ( I know I'm an idiot..)

good ol' Mayor Richard M. Daley - the lovely (and corrupt) mayor of Chicago

This is the building and the stairs where Sandra Bullock ran down in the Lakehouse when she realized she had to save Keanu Reeves from dying. We stumbled across it on Saturday. Thrilling... I know...

I don't know if they were going for cheerleaders or young ambassadors...? But I still love it.