Day 1: More Random Facts About Me Than You Ever Wanted To Know :)

So, I'm horrible at staying up on a blog. Honestly, I don't know why I even have one... (yes I do... Camille, I blame you :) Loves!) But since I do, I might as well use it. To get me going, I decided to do the oh-so-trendy "30 Day Challenge (most recently demonstrated by the oh-so-lovely Lauren!). So here I am with Day 1: Post a picture of yourself along with 15 random facts.




1) I love Harry Potter. I know all sorts of random trivia, have read the books several times each, make a dang good Hermione, and went to a pre-screening or mid-night showing for 7 of the movies. (The above picture is me next to Dan/Emma/Rupert's hand/foot/wand prints at the Chinese Theater)

2) I'm very much a girly-girl (I think it was forced upon me as an only daughter)... shoes :)... (ask me how many pair I have... I MIGHT tell you...), though I've got a crazy tom-boy streak surrounding sports. Particularly NCAA Football/Basketball (NBA as well, though less extreme). I've shocked guys more than once when I've started throwing out stats, theories, etc. And I can build a mean bracket in March.

3) I played a year on a comp team for softball. We won. But I can't stand watching the game! BORING (and baseball... though the atmosphere is fun). I'm more for playing volleyball and basketball... but I did pretty much everything.

4) I'm EXTREMELY competitive.

5) I remember all the small details. Not just what people say, but also what they were wearing, how they were standing... etc. It may have something to do with the fact that I remember things in movie form... as an observer rather than an actor... does that make sense?

6) There is nothing I hate more than losing connections. Because of this, I'm in contact with a lot more people than most of my friends. While it was regular in HS/early college for people to contact me when they had questions about someone else, I STILL have people calling me for people's numbers/current locations, etc. since I always seem to know.

7) There is nothing I love more than making new connections and building new friendships/relationships.

8) I have a hard time believing that anyone likes me as much as I like them... as friends or otherwise. Because of this, I've unintentionally passed up some amazing opportunities which I didn't learn about until later.

9) I don't have a lot of confidence/self-esteem in general.

10) I LOVE to travel and have been in 16 countries and 30 states. I have a goal to go somewhere new (big or small) every year. I started this in 2006 and have so far been successful! ('06-Puerto Vallarta, '07-Study Abroad to Paris+5 other countries, '08-Thailand, '09-doubled up on 4 of my previous European countries and added 6 more, '10-Seattle, '11-Hawaii)

11) Speaking of traveling... and my SA... I have a bit of an obsession with all things French. But you probably already knew that.

12) The arts are my life. Music (singing, piano, flute, guitar... listening... arranging... composing... teaching...), dance (12yrs ballet, swing from Jr. High into college, ballroom from HS into college, teaching after school at the elementary school I teach at). Humanities in general really... the arts, art history, cultural backgrounds, literature... (call me crazy, but I love analyzing a good poem!)

13) I've wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember despite my family trying to convince me to become an engineer or lawyer or SOMETHING (I'm one of those people who really could have gone into anything and done well. Don't hate.). And a mom. But (obviously) that opportunity hasn't arisen yet (I can't decide if teaching makes me more or less baby-hungry?)

14) I started off as an English-Teaching major and sometimes still wish I had done it. I plan on getting my Masters in English with an emphasis in Children's Lit. I want to write a book. And more poetry. (Actually, I have written a picture book. I just haven't done anything with it... confidence, remember? Yeah... I'm scared...)

15) I have the greatest friends and the most wonderful family ever. Seriously. Don't even try to argue. And my two best friends are probably my mom (we had way too much fun this summer) and my youngest brother (15, 6'4" and a crazy teen... yet he and I have this awesome bond and always have!)

Oh... and I'm a TRUE BLUE COUGAR!!! :)

Mother's Day Muffins

So my mom and I saw this muffin tin at IKEA a while back... but we didn't get it.
(I don't know if you can tell, but the muffin cups are tall and skinny... super cute...)

And there are really cute paper cups to go with it.

And since then, my mom has mentioned several time that she wishes she HAD gotten it.

So I bought 2 of them for her for Mother's Day (and cups, of course).

And made muffins for breakfast.

And they were so good, I thought I'd share the recipe :)
(I mixed and matched a few recipes I found online)

Orange Cranberry Muffins
375 degree oven
10-12 minutes**
Yeild: 12

3/4 cups dried cranberries
Juice of one orange
- Put juice and cranberries in a small saucepan. You may want to add just little water if you don't get much juice (liquid should cover about half the berries). Simmer for 5 minutes to rehydrate the cranberries. Remove from heat.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tb orange zest

- Mix together well in a medium bowl and set aside.

2 eggs (at room temperature)
6 oz. cup of Orange yogurt (I used Yoplait's Light Orange Creme)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
- In a small bowl beat eggs well. Add yogurt and oil and mix thoroughly. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until moist. Consistency will be more like an extra sticky cookie dough than a batter.
- Fold in cranberries and separate evenly into lined or greased/floured muffin tins.

3 Tb sugar
2 Tb flour
1 Tb COLD butter
- Cut together with a fork and sprinkle over each muffin.

Cook and ENJOY***!


**Cooking time will vary. Muffins usually take 20-25 minutes to cook. The provided time is when using these tall, skinny muffin tins and a convection oven. Just watch and learn! :)

***As always, best when enjoyed still warm. May be made in advance and frozen. If frozen, thaw overnight then reheat in the oven, covered with tin foil.

Something To Smile About :)

So remember back in High School when Ken Garff decided to be a big name and donate a car to a lucky student?

Yeah... I wasn't that student...

BUT

As a teacher I now know that Ken Garff does more than just cars...

He does bikes!

In fact, my school gets 6 bikes to give to lucky students as part of the "Road To Success" program.

That's a drawing every 6 weeks during the school year
(none of that waiting around until the last week stuff).

There was a drawing today
(okay, the 6 weeks hasn't been perfectly consistent, but that's the general idea)

It also happened to Dr. Seuss' birthday today.

The Mayor came.

The Superintendent came.

They read their favorite Suess books to the kids.
(2 assemblies... I'm not sure what they read to the older bunch, but my chillins got HOP ON POP and MR. BROWN CAN MOO, CAN YOU? Very entertaining, I must say...)

The Mayor mixed up the bike raffle tickets.
(Students earn one each week they read at least 20 mins/day, 5 days/week -- TWO raffle tickets if they read all 7 days)

The Superintendent picked a raffle ticket.

"Do we have Ms. Turner's class here?"
(My kids squeal a bit and all raise their hands)

"This is a girl's name..."
(The girls all sit a little taller... some of them bouncing on their pockets...)

"Is there a C.?"

You should have seen her face.

Priceless.

Complete shock turned to radiant joy as she stands up.

She is visibly SHAKING as she walks to the front.

She can barely contain herself!

They congratulate her, shake her hand, send her back.

She bounces back... waving... with a huge grin.

Then she turns and gives me a big thumbs up :)

It was awesome.

She comes from very, very little.

As in at Christmas when all the kids were getting awesome toys and Gameboys and puppies, C. got a new shirt and a pair of jeans.

And was super excited about it.

Now, she gets to go pick out her new bike.


Even better is that she is an AVID reader. She LOVES books. ESPECIALLY Dr. Seuss.

I can't think of a more worthy recipiant...



But the VERY BEST PART?


It's her birthday today.

Happy Birthday, C!
You'll never forget turning 7 :)