MMMMondayyyyyyyyyyy -
//woowoo//
So. If you don’t know me that well you should probably know this about me: I like to google things. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. I have this notebook…I call it my research notebook. I write down only the most important and interesting things I research in it. Some of my favorites: how many miles it would be to go from each state capital (in a circle) in the United States … expanding on that, how long it would take and how much money it would cost for gas. Another favorite: things to do in Topeka, Kansas. Mostly the things I research are random thoughts that come into my head. You’d be amazed.
Today I forgot my research notebook at home. Work just isn’t the same without it.
Last weekend was pretty uneventful. Friday night Alisha, Taryn, and I went to THE LODGE. Our most favorite bar in Orlando- the décor much resembles that of a “Wisconsin bar”-Deer on the wall, crappy oldies music, and cheap PBR. Really, what more could a person ask for? Well so, that night was fun, even though no turkeys were drawn on the wall.
Saturday was aweeeeeesome. Jordan took Alisha and me to a Rollins swim meet and basketball game. I miss swimming. If anyone ever wants to race, let me know, we can have a duel meet…me against you. Crazy fact: Florida’s swim teams compete OUTSIDE! Imagine that! It was a little chilly on Saturday and I felt bad for those swimmers. I guess swimmers up north have it good- hot pool areas.
Well, on Sunday there was only one thing to do: Watch the Packer game. Alisha and I went to Gators for the game. That was pretty sweet. Nachos, beer, and a Packer victory, what a good combo. So, Super Bowl XLV will be held on February 6, 2011. It’ll be a good game- Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers. YAY! Go Pack Go!
That’s all I have to report. I’ll have to remember my research notebook tomorrow. Life’s just not the same without it.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Life is Funny.
Why hello good friends… if anyone even reads this…it’s a beautiful Thursday here in Apopka. It’s about 78° and sunny…if only it would stay this warm until the weekend. Alas, it's supposed to rain.
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last written, not because I’m SOOOOOooo busy but I’ve just been slacking lately. Ever have a lazy day? Well, I’ve had a few lazy …weeks.
Tomorrow the kids don’t have school so today we’re going to take it easy. Read a story, write a story, and PLAY OUTSIDE! Yayayyaayy I’m excited for our day.
Last weekend I went disc golfing for the first time ever at a state park down in Orlando. It was sweet. I went with Alisha which was an adventure in itself, he he. We pulled out old CDs that I had stored in my car from high school and hit the road…man that music really brings me back to lots of fond high school memories! Anywho, the course wasn’t too hard and the scenery was beautiful. The park had hiking trails, a lake, a swimming pool, and oh so much more. SIDE NOTE: Surprisingly, Florida has a lot of beautiful nature and a lot of options if you want to spend time outdoors. Alisha and I rented discs from the park and set off on our journey… it went pretty well, we only got the Frisbee stuck in a few trees and Alisha only threw it over the fence once! I’d say my first time disc golfing was a success!
The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy (imagine that), got a lot of cleaning done and read an entire book, a feat I haven’t done in a VERY long time.
Tuesday night Eric Hanson, a friend from when I was little was passing through the Orlando area so he stopped by Apopka for a night. It was very nice to see a friend from home. It made me think about things that I haven’t thought about in a very long time. Funny, it takes a person from home to drop by in order for me to remember what home was. We spent the night talking about what life was…”whatever happened to so-and-so?”, ”where is this person now?”, “who do you think will be at the 10 year class reunion?” “are you going to the ten year class reunion?” it’d be crazy to see what came of everyone! I’ve learned in the past few years that life is very unpredictable and a person could end up anywhere, if they wanted to. In the past few months I’ve also become a firm believer of the phrase “out of site, out of mind”. It was strange to think about Rhinelander and people from Rhinelander, and I guess, Wisconsin in general. It's strange that thoughts about home don't cross my mind until someone from home is at my doorstep in Apopka. Life is funny. It’s funny how fast a person can adapt and come to live an entirely different life than they used to have. You never quite know what's going to happen-life is always surprising me :-)
Eric is road-tripping up the east coast. I am completely jealous. I guess if I really wanted to I could quit my life here and do the same, too bad society doesn’t work like that. Dumb money. My turn will come soon enough or maybe I’ll outgrow the adventure-seeking me. Who knows- like I said, life is funny.
Enough of the philosophical mumbo-jumbo… while Eric was here I took him to Garibaldi, my favorite Mexican restaurant. Randy and Alisha joined us! Like always, the food was delicious. I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat Mexican food from places up north ever again! Living in “Little Mexico” has its perks.
On Wednesday Eric came in and gave a lesson on horticulture. The kids were SO well behaved and showed Mr.Hanson a lot of respect. I was very much impressed with both Eric’s lesson and how well the kids behaved during his visit. It was like I was a proud mother of 23 kids. Shortly after the lesson Eric continued his journey, as did I.
It was a nice day outside so as a treat for behaving so well while Mr.Hanson was here, I took my class to the playground. This is where the most embarrassing moment of my “teaching” career would occur. Brace yourself.
It was a perfect day to be outside- the kids were playing innocently on the jungle-gym, playing touch football, and kicking the soccer ball around. Little did they know their innocence would soon be taken away. We had been outside for about 45 minutes and the kids were getting a little agitated with each other. They were bickering, fighting, and NOT playing touch football so I decided to end our playground time. I announced it to the class and naturally they huddled around me and swarmed me with those little nagging voices that third graders have “Miss Heidi you ruin all the fun” “Miss Heidi can’t we stay out here longer” “Miss Heidi…” “Miss Heidi…” blah blah blah. I was getting overwhelmed by all their nagging and such and kept telling them “I know, I know, I’m a terrible teacher, I take all the fun away, blah blah blah”. I figured they’d stop nagging after a while- but they didn’t, so I had my final comeback- what I meant to say was “Yeah, I know, I’m a FUN SUCKER”, meaning I suck the fun out of things. That’s not what came out. Switch the consonants of the last two words. OOPS. Man I didn’t hear the end of it for the rest of the day and as I turned bright red, I had to run away from them …needless to say they got a little bit more time outside until I could look at them without blushing.
Hopefully they have all already forgotten about how their teacher screamed the f-bomb at them. Sadly, it's more likely than not that in 10 years they will only remember me as the teacher who yelled "fucker" at them. Life is funny.
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last written, not because I’m SOOOOOooo busy but I’ve just been slacking lately. Ever have a lazy day? Well, I’ve had a few lazy …weeks.
Tomorrow the kids don’t have school so today we’re going to take it easy. Read a story, write a story, and PLAY OUTSIDE! Yayayyaayy I’m excited for our day.
Last weekend I went disc golfing for the first time ever at a state park down in Orlando. It was sweet. I went with Alisha which was an adventure in itself, he he. We pulled out old CDs that I had stored in my car from high school and hit the road…man that music really brings me back to lots of fond high school memories! Anywho, the course wasn’t too hard and the scenery was beautiful. The park had hiking trails, a lake, a swimming pool, and oh so much more. SIDE NOTE: Surprisingly, Florida has a lot of beautiful nature and a lot of options if you want to spend time outdoors. Alisha and I rented discs from the park and set off on our journey… it went pretty well, we only got the Frisbee stuck in a few trees and Alisha only threw it over the fence once! I’d say my first time disc golfing was a success!
The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy (imagine that), got a lot of cleaning done and read an entire book, a feat I haven’t done in a VERY long time.
Tuesday night Eric Hanson, a friend from when I was little was passing through the Orlando area so he stopped by Apopka for a night. It was very nice to see a friend from home. It made me think about things that I haven’t thought about in a very long time. Funny, it takes a person from home to drop by in order for me to remember what home was. We spent the night talking about what life was…”whatever happened to so-and-so?”, ”where is this person now?”, “who do you think will be at the 10 year class reunion?” “are you going to the ten year class reunion?” it’d be crazy to see what came of everyone! I’ve learned in the past few years that life is very unpredictable and a person could end up anywhere, if they wanted to. In the past few months I’ve also become a firm believer of the phrase “out of site, out of mind”. It was strange to think about Rhinelander and people from Rhinelander, and I guess, Wisconsin in general. It's strange that thoughts about home don't cross my mind until someone from home is at my doorstep in Apopka. Life is funny. It’s funny how fast a person can adapt and come to live an entirely different life than they used to have. You never quite know what's going to happen-life is always surprising me :-)
Eric is road-tripping up the east coast. I am completely jealous. I guess if I really wanted to I could quit my life here and do the same, too bad society doesn’t work like that. Dumb money. My turn will come soon enough or maybe I’ll outgrow the adventure-seeking me. Who knows- like I said, life is funny.
Enough of the philosophical mumbo-jumbo… while Eric was here I took him to Garibaldi, my favorite Mexican restaurant. Randy and Alisha joined us! Like always, the food was delicious. I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat Mexican food from places up north ever again! Living in “Little Mexico” has its perks.
On Wednesday Eric came in and gave a lesson on horticulture. The kids were SO well behaved and showed Mr.Hanson a lot of respect. I was very much impressed with both Eric’s lesson and how well the kids behaved during his visit. It was like I was a proud mother of 23 kids. Shortly after the lesson Eric continued his journey, as did I.
It was a nice day outside so as a treat for behaving so well while Mr.Hanson was here, I took my class to the playground. This is where the most embarrassing moment of my “teaching” career would occur. Brace yourself.
It was a perfect day to be outside- the kids were playing innocently on the jungle-gym, playing touch football, and kicking the soccer ball around. Little did they know their innocence would soon be taken away. We had been outside for about 45 minutes and the kids were getting a little agitated with each other. They were bickering, fighting, and NOT playing touch football so I decided to end our playground time. I announced it to the class and naturally they huddled around me and swarmed me with those little nagging voices that third graders have “Miss Heidi you ruin all the fun” “Miss Heidi can’t we stay out here longer” “Miss Heidi…” “Miss Heidi…” blah blah blah. I was getting overwhelmed by all their nagging and such and kept telling them “I know, I know, I’m a terrible teacher, I take all the fun away, blah blah blah”. I figured they’d stop nagging after a while- but they didn’t, so I had my final comeback- what I meant to say was “Yeah, I know, I’m a FUN SUCKER”, meaning I suck the fun out of things. That’s not what came out. Switch the consonants of the last two words. OOPS. Man I didn’t hear the end of it for the rest of the day and as I turned bright red, I had to run away from them …needless to say they got a little bit more time outside until I could look at them without blushing.
Hopefully they have all already forgotten about how their teacher screamed the f-bomb at them. Sadly, it's more likely than not that in 10 years they will only remember me as the teacher who yelled "fucker" at them. Life is funny.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
A family reunion in Florida
That vacation went too fast! It was a lot of fun though. A visit from almost the entire family was very refreshing.
My brother, Eric, his wife, Lucy, and their son, Eugene came to Apopka Christmas Eve which was a nice pseudo-surprise. They arrived around dinner time so we set out to find a place to eat a nice Christmas-eve dinner. Our choices were slim but we found a nice Chinese restaurant that Alisha, Randy, and I discovered a while back. It was delicious. After dinner we just came back home and I gave Eugene his present, a dig-a-dino. We spent the rest of the night trying to dig a dinosaur fossil out of a sand box. It was pretty sweet and took us many hours and a whole lot of digging.
On Christmas we decided to go to Cocoa Beach. Eugene loved the waves and we spent our day swimming and collecting beautiful sea-shells. For Christmas dinner we ate at a beach side restaurant, another one of my beach-day traditions with Alisha. We made our way home and were pretty tired after that so we had a popcorn and movie night. I finally watched my first Indiana Jones movie!
On Sunday we went to Dinosaur World in Plant city (towards the western coast of Florida). I absolutely loved that place and I think that Eugene may have enjoyed it a little bit too!
Monday morning was a little crazy as I had to get to the airport to pick up my mom, dad, and grandma. For a morning activity Eugene made a sign for me to take with the airport. His snake drawing skills are amazing.
After picking up my family from the airport, getting the car, and finding our house in Kissimmee we were ready to start the Orlando area adventures. Monday night Eric took the family to a Pirate adventure dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was pretty decent too.
Greta, John, and Olivia didn’t get in until about 11:00 and were sad that they missed the dinner but none-the-less they were also ready to get their vacation underway as soon as they got into Orlando.
Tuesday Eric, Lucy, and Eugene went to Sea World and the rest of the family went on an airboat tour in Kissimmee. Although it was too cold to see any alligators there was still a lot of wildlife roaming around - lots of birds and, surprisingly, cattle.
On Wednesday we ventured to Magic Kingdom, my first DISNEY WORLD experience. It was a little bittersweet because 74,000 other people had the same agenda as my family. The park actually ended up refusing people into the park because it was so crowded. The highlights of Magic Kingdom included Tom Sawyers Island and of course, the Tea Cup ride.
Thursday was spent at Downtown Disney where Eugene had a blast in Lego Land (or whatever it’s called) and we had our last meal with the entire family at the T-Rex restaurant. That place was pretty awesome too! After lunch Eric, Lucy, and Eugene started their long trip back to Kansas ☹
After Eric, Lucy, and Eugene left it was down to my parents, grandma, Greta, John, Olivia and me.
For New Years Eve we went to Sea World. That was probably my second favorite thing we did during vacation. We saw a ton of shows including shows that starred Pirates, shamoo, dolphins, and so much more! We rang in the new year while watching a figure skating show and counting down with fireworks at Sea World. I think this New Year will most definitely be one of the most memorable experiences I will ever have.
On the first day of 2011 my family and I gathered around the TV to watch the Badgers take on TCU. It was a good game but the Badgers just couldn’t take the victory. I love my alma mater regardless!
The weather was a little bit warmer than earlier in the week on Sunday so I took my family to Cocoa Beach (they weren’t here for the first round and frankly, I love the beach so I’ll take any chance). The weather was great and I think everyone enjoyed their time at my favorite place in Florida! After the beach we raced home so we could catch the Packer game. It was pretty good… I think the Packers won, but I was too busy playing with Olivia too really take note… I know, I know, I’m not a true fan.
Monday morning everyone flew back to Wisconsin and I had to get to work that morning. All the drop-offs went smoothly and I made it to work with a few minutes to spare.
So, that’s that, my vacation flew by but it was probably one of my most favorite vacations! It was very nice to see everyone. A little piece of home came to me, which is VERY fortunate for me since I got to escape from the snow and cold cold weather!
This past week was pretty uneventful- however!!! I had written a grant to IBM for new computers and/or money for computer equipment and I got it! Along with 28 computers, that’s right a whole new computer lab for the AFLC! That’s probably the most exciting work related news I have.
Today Alisha, Randy, and I are going hiking at the Wekiva State Park so that should be fun!! Woo woo!
The beach wasn’t warm enough for our pale white skin (it’s only 70degrees today) so we are going to go tanning with the alligators at the springs instead. Wish us luck. Over and out.
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