Substitution Idea

While browsing in the substitution part of a cookbook, Ryan found this:

If you don't have: one whole egg
Use: two egg yolks

????

For all the moms out there

Name Etiquette

Ryan and I have been having a disagreement over the etiquette of names.
It all started when Ryan got sucked into listening to a long, impassioned sales pitch from a mall kiosk carnie. Me, never interested in facial products sold out of middle of the walk-way kiosks, kept moving to find another window to look in. (I might also add that I would rather be left alone in EVERY store unless I have a specific question begging an answer). The man pitching to Ryan asks, "What is your wife's name?" When Ryan tells him, the man turns and calls to me (I am 15-20 feet away) "Kari, come here." I was irritated and refused to have anything to do with the visit.
Ryan thinks I over-reacted. I think that no one has the right to use my name unless they have been introduced in some manner. I considered his actions rude and past the point of pushy. He was using my name as if we were friends and not just passing strangers.
Ryan did tell him my opinions on his actions and why it offended me. Any thoughts on proper etiquette? I say it is rude to use someone's first name until you are properly introduced--either by yourself or another person.

Happy Halloween!

Not all Halloween shirts are appropriate for teaching middle school. This one helped me teach body parts a little better than I hoped last year.

This is what Ryan should have done with his Audi

An Amazing Acomplishment

Question of the Week

A student from school came walking out of the boy's bathroom while I was walking down the hall the other day.
"Miss Enge, I have a problem, " he said as he stuck out his razzberry-blue colored tongue.
I queried, "You've been eating blue candy?"
"No. My pen exploded in my mouth. Will I die?"

DMN Weekly Favorite

I saw this Sunday a week ago and have been meaning to comment on it since. This is an amazing phenomenon in a society. It is still boggling my mind that it wasn't a hidden transition, and it was so accepted (at least how this article presents it).
Enjoy!
Dallas Morning News_As Albanian women have gained liberties, the need for female heirs to live as males has dwindled...

Finally

We DID buy a camera, but have been lax with sharing our shots from our past few months. We have been pretty busy and have had company and projects going on at our house.

In March, my sister-n-law, her mom and our niece came to visit. We went to the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens. In the second pictures, you might be missing the 7th monkey hiding behind Michele.

We went out to Colorado over Spring Break. Ryan's family always amazes me at their cohesiveness. Here is a part of the clan in our family outing to the 'zeum. We also got to meet our newest nephew and watch him learn to limbo...

We started a small tiling project in our laundry room. Notice the new tile, ceiling (no more popcorn!), baseboards, and color! We also redid our downstairs bathroom. We like it.

Summer

But only for one day and only for me. I had the perfect summer day, sleeping in, going to lunch with friends, napping and reading through an afternoon thunderstorm.
Staff development for summer school is tomorrow, so my rest is short-lived.
What is your perfect summer day?

Spelling is Important

One of my kids, while working on a story, wrote that his mom didn't like his teacher because the teacher was "funny."
I pulled out the bilingual dictionary, looked up what I thought he meant, and asked if that was the word he was looking for. Yes, he was looking for funny. "But Miss, that is what I wrote."
I had him look carefully at the spelling of his "funny" and he realized he had inadvertantly replaced the u in funny with a nice a.
Our bilingual dictionary stopped just short of that slang word, so I had to show him the word instead.
And yes, fannies are funny, but fanny teachers are the best kind.

A Thought

O Magazine has a feature of "A Million Ways to Save the World." This comment was in this month's issue:

"Our culture has vastly overvalued the lives of the rich and famous. Our children no longer hunger to be good citizens, but merely well-known ones. In our misguided quest for heros, we've made fame the most coveted virtue. But when our heroes cease to do heroic things, and we still venerate them, where does that leave our culture? It is time to restore balance. Let's boycott celebrity and celebrate instead all the unnamed warriors trying to make a positive impact on our daily lives."

--Lynn Nottage

Call your neighbors and rejoice...

Ryan and I have posted NO pictures for quite a while for a simple reason: our camera has been missing. We have called all houses where we visited for the past few months, searched through bags, pockets, drawers, cars, desks, dark corners and even under the bed. Repeatedly. This weekend we were heading up to Colorado to see Alyssa and the boys and decided that we would HAVE to have one, so off to Best Buy we trotted. Twenty minutes later, I reached into the bag I went through at least 3 times...and pulled out...the missing camera. That same day we found our theater guest passes that we had also been frantically looking for.
Colordado was nice, seeing Alyssa, Barry and the boys, meeting up with the cousins so we could go to the 'zeum and look at dinosaurs and dying easter eggs fun colors. Now that we have a camera, we can post pics again. Soon.

The Right Tool for the Job

Ryan found his about 2:30 Tuesday night when trying to get partially dried grout out of "natural stone markings" in our new tile.
Thankfully we have a well-stocked 24-hour Wal-Mart close by. (Emily cover your eyes).

Free Play for kids

A friend passed this article along. Since we are about the only kid-free couple we know, maybe a few of you would like it. :-) I notice a coorelation between t.v. watching/wii playing/video game addiction and a decline in imaginative activities with the kids I teach.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

Sayings from the Fridge

While visiting friends of ours this week we found a quote on their fridge. When asked what it was, the mom replied that these are things she cannot believe she has had to say to her son.

"You play the piano with your fingers not your bottom."

Ryan and I can still giggle about this as we are not yet in need of making such statements. Our day will come.

In Sickness "or" In Health

Ryan said he wished he knew when we got married that our vows said "and." He's had a wife who has been out of commission for most of the past three weeks and he's been my knight.
Ryan has been travelling with his new job. Getting to see a bit more of the world than the President George Bush Turnpike every day. He's been to to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. And to Florida and Atlanta. His job is challenging him, which for him makes it interesting.
This year has already started off fast. Hard to believe it is already February. Anyone with resolutions they have stuck out this far?