Mr. Clinton says...

Another HUGE congratulations to Chandle, who has gotten in to the Clinton School of Public Service. You're amazing, Chandle! Go over here to read her acceptance letter. Congrats!!

A very happy Mothers' Day to my mama!! I can't go 2 days without talking to her on the phone or I start to go into withdrawal a little bit. She always keeps cheese dip, salsa, and pickles stocked in her fridge because she loves me, and she knows I go straight for the Clausins when I go to her house. She shares my love of reality TV, and she taught me how to knit. She also has made an imaginary radius around Little Rock that I am not allowed to move out of permanently. You're the best, ma! Love you dearly!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

Friday and Saturday I went camping with a whole bunch of Jeremy's friends. We went to Lake Ouachita (Brady Mtn) and took a couple of boats. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a blast- I went tubing backwards. It was purty sweet, I won't lie. We claimed the best island around and built camp, fighting off the pirates that tried to steal our booty. Aaaaargh.
Tips for making a really huge fire:
Step 1: send the men into the woods to carry back the biggest trees they can find and carry. Be sure to notice the cup in hand.

Step 2 for fire: Wedge the tree between two other trees and push with all your might to break it into firewood. This requires a lot of brute strength, but don't worry- we had a-plenty of it.
A side note: there really were girls on this trip too, although they appear in none of the photos.

Step 3 to making a huge fire: hold hands and balance on the tree to break it. Yup, that'll work just right.

After a day full of boating and tubing, we went to the Brady Mtn. Restaurant, where we gorged ourselves on catfish and other fried goodies. It was also nice to have a toilet that wasn't a tree stump. That night we (when I say "we" I mean not me, but the men folk) made a huge bonfire that wanted to burn my face off. It was awesome- the picture doesn't do it justice.

What do you do when you break the keg bin when loading it into the boat? Well, of course, you dig a hole for it on the beach! Now THAT's ingenuity, right there.

Question of the day...

What's a good yearbook message for someone you like?

What about someone you're not going to miss too much over the summer...? Not that I don't love all my students equally! They're little blessings from above. Each and every one of 'em.

I'm asking because I'm about to have to sign 120 of my students' yearbooks. What do you think...?

Dear so and so 8th grader-

It's been great teaching you these past (#) years. Good luck in all that you do! -Miss Ross

Dear so and so 7th grader-

It's been great teaching you this year! Good luck in 8th grade! -Miss Ross

That's all I got. I'm having writers' block. Dang.

The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!

Harry: Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing.
Navin: Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73--Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity--your name in print--that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.

Not the new phone book... but the new yearbook's in! Yeehaw! Talk about spontaneous publicity. Talk about infamy. Talk about notoriety! Big time. Ahh... the fruits of my labor for months and months. EVERY word typed and picture inserted into those pages was done by yours truly. I'm fantastic.
News: Jeremy's coming home tonight (probably). Hoorah! Tomorrow is Field Day. I will be in the sun all day with the junior high kids at the park, watching them run relays, telling them they're not fast enough, and enjoying games of toss the chicken (into a ring- it's a very complicated and precise game). Other games we play in addition to regular (aka "boring") track and field type stuff: discus with a trash can lid, javelin with a pool noodle, leap frog, rock paper scissors, and a jr. high-wide bubble-blowing contest. It's one of the best days of the year. A bonus: I get to be a team "captain" and cheer (or booooo) my team on to victory. Or complete obliteration. My team has lost every year. Badly. I think the PE teacher stacks the teams in his favor.

Fiesta, fiesta!

Today is pinata project day!! Of course, it's raining buckets out there, and they have to walk their hard work out to the trailer, but they're surviving. They turned out SO well this year, I just had to share. Love, love, love them! These are just a few of my personal favorites. I'm a proud teacha today.

12 days left!!

My Life: Plan B, Ammendment I

The latest: next year I am going to teach gifted and talented here at CLS (the program is called CLUE for you non-CLSers). It's going to be a lot more work, but it is going to be definitely worth it. I will get to work with the so-called gifted kiddies, and I will get to come up with all sorts of fun projects, brain teasers, and field trips to do with them. I'm going to have to do a lot of curriculum development, but it's fun stuff. I'll get to show my creative side and all that neato-ness. So, the new plan for my life:
1. Spanish (I'll keep teaching that half a day)
2. CLUE (the other half of the day)
3. volleyball in the fall
4. webmaster for school possibly (I know, right?)
5. yearbook computer guru
6. GRAD SCHOOL Spring semester
Whew... I'm getting worn out already. But it's going to be a lot of fun. Go to this website and check out some lateral thinking puzzles for funsies!

And now...

For your (odd) viewing pleasure: Look at Lola go!! Prepare to be hypnotized and mesmorized. 1983 was a strange year.

The Ross Girls

My weekend was, once again, very good. Friday I went to Senor Tequila's with the teachers to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (I AM the Spanish teacher, it would be wrong to not participate). Then I went bowling with Katie, Jared, and Annie. THEN I went to the Fountain (add Matt and Karl to the mix). Saturday, I went to Melissa's house to celebrate my mama's birthday (I THINK this is the last one for a while, right?). Melissa and I (well, mostly Melissa, but see the next post) cooked dinner for her, and it was fabulouso. Then I went to 7th St. to watch Annie get a tattoo. Kristen should have pictures soon on her blog... I really really want one, but I just don't know of one that deserves that sort of committment from me at this point in time. My parents would not be happy. My mom is probably gritting her teeth right now as she reads this. :) Love you, Mom!
I have discovered that I have an addiction. To Felicity. It is getting out of hand. Why does the WB have to be so dang brilliant?? I lurve it.

15 days of school left!!!! Holla!

The saga of the cake

For my mom's birthday, Melissa and I decided we would make her dinner. She would just have to show up. I volunteered to make the cake. My mom loves German chocolate cake, so I thought that would be just perfect. Little did I know...
This cake has about twelve billion steps, which is fine, because believe or not, I do like to bake. I just don't do it that often. So that wasn't the problem, the problem was my dang oven. I had baked the cake for the allotted 25 minutes, did the fork test (it came out clean), and cooled the cakes on a rack for 10 minutes before tumping it over so it would come out of the pans. When I did this, I saw the cake was completely raw on the underside. Looked like puddin'. So I spew an intense string of curse words, my roommate thinks I'm being attacked, and I call my ma. She tells me to put it back in the oven. I did the same exact thing THREE more times before the stupid cake was finally done. I overcooked it by about 30 minutes before it wasn't cake batter any more.
I don't know how Leah does it.
PS, it turned out delicious. :)

Another very happy birthday!

Hap- hap- happy birthday to Miss Kat, who is joining the "we're entering our mid-twenties" club!! Don't worry, there are many more charter members than yourself, Kat. :) Much, much, much love to you! This picture makes me laugh- I can only imagine we're either saying, "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!" or "Heeeeeeeeeey!" Hope you have a great day, neighbor! Let's go get some margaritas! Love you!

She's so Chandle-ous!

Happy birthday to one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Miss Chandle!!!! Reasons I love Chandle (no particular order):
1. She will wear a penguin costume to a lawyer Halloween party and not think twice about it.
2. We had the best dang days ever in Mansard apartments, despite the fact that those were some crappy, crappy apartments.
3. We had a bucket of candy.
4. Dawson's Creek breaks in between classes (when we actually had TBS).
5. She would MAKE me (gee, it was so hard to do) skip Astronomy class.
6. Our bikes got stolen from outside our apartment. We share a bond.
7. One time, she made me a hat out of newspaper and spray paint just so I could be Left Eye from TLC for Halloween.
8. We like to dance around to Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Burn One Down (Ben Harper) and video tape it (that should be on youtube).
9. Her daily uniform for months was either a.)overalls OR b.)her Brooklyn sweatshrit.
10. For her birthday we went to Siloam Springs to shoot each other with paintballs and go four-wheelin'. I got shot in the leg. At a very close range.
11. She always, always makes me laugh. Always. And she can always cheer me up.
12. She is saving the world, starting with New Orleans.
13. I get to be her maid of honor. Maid of AWESOME.
14. Ahhh... Saturday afternoons at either a.)La Hacienda or b.)the Greek restaurant, followed by Starstruck Video.
15. Sometimes there are just no words. :) I love my Chandle. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

Appreciate me!

Much to my surprise, it turns out it is Teacher Appreciation Week. That means that Monday I got flowers (and four really nice plants which I will probably end up killing cause that's what I do), Tuesday was pen/pencil day (I will never be without again), and today the PTA will watch our kids during lunch and let us eat in peace (some sort of catered meal... mmmm!). There are more things to come, I just don't know what they are. I have decided that I am going to take my personal day on Friday since I only get one and they don't roll over to next year. I can't believe I have 3 weeks of school left and still haven't taken it! Word.
So it's Hump Day, which means that I really only have one more day of work left, and 18 days of school left (13 with the 8th graders)!! Does anyone know of a good and NOT boring part-time job in Little Rock...? I suppose it's time.

Alright, smartie pants. Go to this website and take a grammar quiz. I got a 10 out of 10 on that one. What about you??

Interesting enough...

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 6/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Math and science are so not my thing. How did you do...??

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 8/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

I'm a little surprised, actually. I'm a genius! Just kidding. That's a C. Unacceptable.

Here I go, here I go, here I go again...

My weekend= really, really good. Friday I got to eat some El Porton cheese dip (first time since Lent and my vow of poverty), then we went to Karl and Kat's house. From time to time, when all of us get together, we act completely insane. We sing very loudly in the front lawn and scare the neighbors (or entertain, who knows?). Something strange also happens to girls when the cameras start to come out. All of the boys had our cameras and were taking our pictures prom-style. And we just posed. That's why we'll probably all have quasi-similar pictures on our all our blogs. But I got them on there first. Cause I go to work at an ungoldy hour. Ha, ha, ha. I win. Perhaps I'm over-compensating for the lack of real pictures lately. But here they come...
PS, I'm in love with Brooke and Jenny. Come to the Rock more often!
Saturday was Spring Fling (RAINED a crap load). That night, Jeremy and I met up with Kat, Karl, and Brooke at the Fountain. Very fun. Sunday, I did not move from my station on the couch. Late nights + 25 years old = tired Elizabeth.

AND.... a very happy birthday to Blake!! Love and miss you!!

Something strange also happens to girls when you put us in a group and throw Salt N Pepa in the mix.

G funk, step to this, I dare you. Funk... on a whole new level. The rhythm is the bass and the bass is the treble.

Have a good week! 20 days of school left for me!!