It's Fall Break!!

Hey guys! I'm here for my once-a-quarter blog post. Sad, but true. It's fall break! I'm always so happy to make it to October. Good riddance, first eight weeks of school. Glad that's over with.

Last year during fall break I was at the beach...

This year, well, I'm definitely not at the beach. :( I can't complain, though. I was lucky to travel a lot this summer. The result of being on the go means I'm a little poor in the travel budget right now. Instead of enjoying the nice Florida weather, I'm left behind with the crazy Kentucky weather. Saturday it was so hot and humid here I was miserable. Today I had to bust out my space heater and sweatshirt. Ridiculous.

So what's new? 

Well...

I'm still loving hanging out with this guy. We're fun. And we eat.
A lot. Pure soul mates.

Yes, friends. I am still dating this boy. And I still like him.
A lot. A record? Perhaps. 

My brother moved out of my house in August. Yes, dear brother that I had as a roommate for two years spread his wings, packed up, and moved out on his own. :tear:
The weekend he moved out, I got the itch to redo his bathroom. Boy germs. Yuck. A trip to Lowe's was in order. I got new paint. And, well, we all know that new paint will lead to a complete overhaul. Yeah, I bought all new everything: towel bars, glass wall shelf, faucet, shower rod, shower curtain, rugs, decorative accessories. Everything. It was fun. And a little bit expensive.
That's probably the real reason I don't have Florida money right now.

I love my new faucet. I would love it even more if it were fully functioning right now. The guy below, who will remain nameless but I think you all know who he is, got frustrated and ended up snapping the drain pipe in half tried really hard to finish it up but encountered a little problem. Now a plumber needs to be called. More travel funds. Down the drain.

I was inspired after the Vegas trip to start another blog that would be more devoted to classroom happenings and more school specific things. I did my first little post back in mid-August. Have I written again since? You know the answer. Of course not. 

It is bare bones and so not fancy and there's nothing of substance there yet, but I have good intentions (like always), and you can make me happy by going over to follow me if you want. I need a follower other than myself. 

http://msmarcumsmonkeys.blogspot.com/

And I've had 7 big transactions in my TPT store. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow it down, Sarah. It still excites me all the same.

And in keeping with my purely random fashion, we'll close with this:

Check out these little napkins I found at Wal-Mart.

Of course I had to buy them. In addition to a cart full of other things I didn't need.

Happy Fall!

All Good Things Must Come to An End.

Today is the day. My last official day of summer. Summer is breaking up with me today and it's not mutual. Back to work tomorrow. First day with kids on Thursday. Sigh. It was fun while it lasted. The countdown to May is on.

I met my new crop of kids yesterday. They seem good. Good is good. I like good. One little boy was following me around the room for awhile. He then asked, "Are you nice?" I laughed. What an awesome question. He really wasn't sure. I told him I try to be nice. Then I asked him what he thought about me and my niceness. He said he thinks I'm nice. I told him if he's nice, I'm nice. That's how Ms. Marcum does it.

We're totally switching gears here, but random is my specialty, along with procrastination, so here we go. I was at the doctor the end of last week. The lady doctor variety. Each exam room in my doctors office has a little picture in the light above your table for you to look at and 'take you away to another place', I guess. I've seen many of the scenes in the exam rooms over the years: an underwater ocean scene, a beach, etc. I was in a new room this time.

And this was my scene:

I don't know about you guys, but animal babies staring at me from the sky above (so naturally it was animal heaven) struck me as odd. I don't need a parrot, dog, and kitten looking down upon me with my legs spread for a perfect view of my privacy. Guardian gynecology animals. They saw it all. They saw it ALL.

And you know what else was great about the visit? My doctor about fell off of his spinning stool when he looked at my chart and told me I've gained 12 pounds in the past year. Ouch. He said that made him feel like a failure as a doctor. I told him that was strange. I'm the one that can't put the fork down. Or the bag of chips down. Or the ice cream bars down. Or whatever it may be.
But since he wanted to take full responsibility, I left the office and drove straight to Chick-fil-A.

I'm off to squeeze out the last little drops of summery sunny awesomeness of this day.

Oh my goodness gracious! It's been far too long! I've missed you guys. I've missed writing. I feel like I have 1,276 things to tell you all. There's so much to catch up on.
I had to take a little bit of a mental check out from a lot of "extra" things in my life this past year, blogging being one, sadly. Last school year was a great one--one of my best ever--but it was exhausting. Completely draining. I had no idea how tiring being apart of an inaugural school year would be. Opening a school is no joke. I can't imagine how exhausted my poor principal was all the time.
Plus the students I had last year...mercy. Wore. Me. Out.

But.
I'm just finishing up a long summer break. Glorious sunshiny summer break. It arrived right on time (before I had a nervous breakdown) and was exactly what I needed. I was drained but am feeling recharged and much more like myself. I'm still not ready to go back to school, but I never really will be, so might as well get this train rolling. I want summer break 12 months a year, but I don't think that's ever going to happen.

So much has happened since my last post in April.

I turned 30. So I'm old now. Honestly, 30 has been fantastic so far. I think 29 was way worse because I had a whole year with 30 looming ahead. I dreaded its coming. But 30 is here now, so that's out of the way. I'm excited about all the great things ahead.

My two best friends had babies, so I'm an Aunt now--twice! I love sweet little Kalyn and Lincoln to pieces. I'm so proud of these babies and their mommas for pushing it real good and bringing them into the world.

I've spent a great deal of the summer living out of a suitcase and traveling. I enjoyed some time in Florida, St. Louis, and Vegas.

I met some fun new people, including some blog friends! Hey y'all!
(I'll post soon on my Vegas trip and the many great ladies that I met while I was there!)

I adopted a new furry friend, a Siamese kitten that I named Juniper. I call her Junie for short. This little kitten is trouble, I tell ya. She is a wild one, but she sure is cute, though. She reminds me of Skippyjon Jones. Daisy still isn't real sure about her. She's kind of missing being the "only child".

So yes, a lot has been going on since my hiatus, but the biggest news of all that I've been withholding from you all is that I have myself a boyfriend now. Yes! You read that correctly. If I could insert fireworks or a parade in this post, I would. I'm pretty happy about it. He's great. I'm great. We're great.
And this is going to be wayyyyyyyyyyy cheesy, but you know how my little blog title is about waiting on the butterflies? Well...I think I've finally found them. Finally! And I'm not one to talk about mushy gushy stuff, so the fact that I'm mentioning it at all says a lot. So, shh! Let's stop talking about it so I don't jinx it.

I just wanted to pop in and let you know I'm still alive. I'm dying to post about Vegas so I will do that very soon in between all the back to school craziness that I'm all up in. I'll talk at you all soon.

Oops. Here It Is.

Guys. What's my deal? I don't even know how to blog anymore. Two months goes by awfully fast...oops.

Today was the last official day of my spring break. That makes me sad all day long. I love time off from work. I love it a little bit too much. But you all know all about that because I mention it every time I have a break from school.
Do you want some good news? I only have 7 weeks (34 more school days to be exact) until I get a whole lotta days off. Summer break is quickly approaching and I am more than ready. I think I'm the most ready I've ever been in my whole life for this summer break. It's been a good school year, but just busy. I'm just ready to chill. While getting tan sitting by the pool.

So, what's new with Sarah? Um, not really a lot of fun and neat things. Just livin' life. You just gotta keep on livin' man, L-I-V-I-N. That's what I've been doing. And it's kinda routine and dull.
I'll give you some recent happenings from the past couple weeks.

Last weekend my parents adopted a couple of corgis. It has been a year since our family corgi Abby, that we had for 13 years, passed away. My parents were finally ready to add some new furry babies to their house.

Meet Max and Ruby! 

They are so fun. These little guys have had a hard little life. They came to KY through a local Corgi Rescue that bought them at an Amish dog auction. They had previously been at an Amish puppy mill in Missouri. The first part of their life is a sad story, but they're quickly becoming spoiled dogs and are enjoying their new digs.

We're having our own little edition of Breaking Amish: Corgi Style. At first I typed Doggie Style, but then felt really awkward about that...that's not what's going on, guys. Anyway. They're seeing everything in our "English world" for the first time. They freaked out the first time we ever turned the TV on. Little Ruby barked and growled at the TV screen for hours. And Max and Ruby want to go to bed as soon as the sun sets. Funny little things.

Hmm. What else can we talk about? The weather? It has been a bit bizarre lately. March was just way too stupid cold. And we had a freak hail storm a couple weeks ago.

This was my sidewalk:

What?

Today we finally had spring-appropriate weather. I was brave and wore short sleeves and sandals. It's time. Next week we have 70+ temps in the forecast all week. I think spring has finally arrived in the Bluegrass State. Finally.

A pedicure is on my agenda for tomorrow so that my feet are looking pretty for all the sandals I'm going to bust out to wear to work next week. That makes me SO excited. My sandals have been calling to me. Pleading for me to wear them and toss the boots and flats to the back of the closet. I've heard your call, dear sandals. I have answered.

Hmm. What else? I don't know if I've told you all (probably not since I haven't really been around on my blog much in the past year), but my two bestest friends are pregnant with their first babies. I have been so excited about it. I get to be "Aunt Sarah" twice this year! 2013 is a big year!

Below is a picture of Alison. We have been friends through the ages and will remain friends until the end of time. Her little girl will be arriving THIS MONTH! Just a few more weeks. April is the best month of all to be born, says the April birthday girl (me!). We have the best birthstone. Can't deny that.

I love touching bellies that have babies growing inside of them. I can't resist it. I don't go up to strangers and rub bellies. I only do it to people that I know are cool with it. 

And feeling a baby kick is one of the coolest things in this lifetime.

(Ashley, I don't think we have a picture like this yet. I looked through my phone and did not see one that exists. This makes me sad and we must fix it.)

Well, children, I just wanted to drop in and let you all know that I am still here and I'm still breathing. Sometimes it's heavy breathing when it involves having to walk a greater distance than from my couch to the kitchen.

Be back soon-ish. ;-) 

Bachelor Business.

I'm going to write this post real quick-like before I head to bed. I'm exhausted. This has been one rough week so far. And my nights! My nights have been so full. I've had not one, but TWO nights in a row of Bachelor watching/live tweeting. I'm not allowed to text or tweet the rest of the night. Not until I get the feeling back in the tip of my index finger. It's numb from overuse.

Let's see. Where do we even start? I guess we'll start with Monday night.

The relay race/goat milking challenge:
First of all, one of the girls saw the goats and asked if they were dogs. I almost turned the TV off right then because I couldn't believe someone would say something so idiotic.

Second, is there a man I would chug goats milk for? No one. I can think of no one. Is there a man I would chug cows milk for? Again, no one.

Bruno Mars would catch a grenade, throw his hand on a blade, jump in front of a train, take a bullet through his brain for you, but I won't even drink milk for you.

Tierra sneaking onto the Blue and Red Team date:
My main question: Why was Tierra wearing one of the blue teams plaid shirts? Answer: She either stole a shirt from one of the girls dirty clothes piles or she slept with someone that worked for wardrobe on the show. I wouldn't put either scenario past her.

Tierra's forehead dent:
It's getting bigger. And angrier. I think it's growing teeth. Does she have to feed it at night? Her forehead is still my biggest concern.

Monday nights show was boring in comparison to tonight. So, onto bigger and more dramatic things: Tuesday!

I'm just going to list some of my random thoughts from tonight. Here we go.

That snow bus? Do I have any Canadian readers? Educate me on this snow bus! That thing is a monster. And I want to drive one.

Catherine said she hasn't had hot chocolate since she was 4. Where do they find these girls?

And Catherine's story was sad about how she lost her friend when she was 12 (I'm not downplaying that at all. I'm not a monster), but the way she was setting it up, I really thought it was going to end with her being raped or assaulted. Did any of you feel that way? No?

All of the dates this season have been horrible. Rock climbing? No. Polar Bear Plunge? Absolutely not. I would have kicked myself off the show.

I'm like Selma. I'm also a "warm-weather people".

Tierra really has been down and out with injuries three times. And Sean has fallen for it each and every time. He's got good people perception. Really good perception.

Two new words have been added to the English language thanks to this season. Tierrable and Tierrorist. A big thanks to all of Sean's girlfriends!

Tierra always says she deserves a rose. She was that student in school that felt she should be rewarded for complying and following general expectations. We all know what kind of student she was. A teacher's worst nightmare, that's what.

And Sarah's breakup? I felt so bad for her. Sean made it worse by breaking up with her in private and then making her walk back into the room full of girls to break the news to them. That's just embarrassing. Just do it the old-fashioned, "tactful" way, Sean, by not giving her a rose during the rose ceremony.

And let's talk about Sarah for a minute. I'm intrigued by her. She needs her own show. Maybe on TLC. I have so many questions for her. Like, how do you put on your ring? Does she use her teeth to do it? How does your hair and makeup look SO much better than mine ever will? And I am not making fun of her at all. I seriously want to know. I'm impressed with all that she can do. I have a very curious mind and have a collection of 574 questions ready to unload on her about living life with one arm.

Sean obviously likes a sad back story and an insecure and needy girl. But if you have one arm, that's not sad enough. He will dump you.

Sean took Desiree on a date in a tent. He finds out she used to live in a tent. That date just got a little awkward.

The most romantic words a woman could ever hope for a man to say: "I knew you six were the six for me." Oh, Sean. Swoon. I'm so glad you love me and your five other girlfriends.

I could go on and on and on and on. I'll stop. I hit some of the high points.

I will close with this. Like I said, Sean obviously loves a sad story. He'll give you a rose if you tell him one, or if you cry in front of him, or if you act unstable. The girls this season are pros. They all have a sob story this season. Growing up in a tent, a tree crushing your best friend, living with one arm, having a boyfriend that died, etc, etc, etc.
I've really been thinking of what my back story would be. Do I have one? Do I have a sob story? A moment in my life that defines why I am the way I am? I mean, there was one time I didn't get a My Little Pony I wanted...does that count?

#teamsnowday

You know how there are those little poems and things saying teachers aren't just teachers but they're also nurses, counselors, psychologists, detectives, party planners, comedians and whatever else. Well, I'm adding one to the list. We're also meteorologists. We keep our little eyes to the sky all winter long. We squeal over weather texts. Keep eyes glued to the TV for school closings. Watch radar during faculty meetings (yeah, I was totally doing that today). And then we speculate all night about if and when school will be closed.

All this weather talk is happening because we just had half an inch of snow dumped on our little city. Yes. Dumped. That is pure accumulation. We have green and white yards. Breathtaking.

I love how excited teachers get about snow days. We're big kids and we never outgrow the excitement of a snow day.

When we were dismissed from our faculty meeting at 5:00, my principal told us we better not go home and do any snow dances tonight. And then she looked right at me because everybody at school knows I'm the biggest snow lover in the land. I just gave her a smirk and she yelled, "Marcum!" and then I stood up and said, "Well, I'll see all of you on Monday!" And then anarchy followed with excited teacher chatter of snow day possibilities and a long weekend.

I've spent the evening group messaging with my teaching teammates and tweeting with my other teacher friends about the weather. We even had our own hashtags going: #teamsnowday and #supporttheteachers. They're probably trending on Twitter right now. Probably.

And even if the roads are fine in the morning, the wind chill will be around 0 in the morning. We should probably be on the safe side and stay home. For the sake of the kids that stand outside waiting on the bus. Let's do it for them. #teambusriders

Tonight on the local news, they shared that some of the county bus drivers are used as weather spotters to go out and drive some of the routes in the county to check road conditions and relay back to the superintendent and transportation director. I've got a lot of new BFFs to make. Gonna start buttering up to some bus drivers and giving them gifts. #teambusdrivers

Around these parts, a lot of people do some snow day rituals. Wearing your pajamas inside out, flushing ice cubs down the toilet, and sleeping with a spoon under your pillow are some of the things people do. I'm doing them all tonight. And I'm not taking my chances with just one spoon. That's just too risky. #teamspoonsundermypillow

I might need to go get a chiropractic adjustment afterwards, but, it might be well worth it if it gets me a snow day.

Jokes going to be on me when my butt has to get up and go to the school house tomorrow. Even so, it's so much fun to get excited over the thought of a surprise day off. #teamjokesonSarah

Do you have any snow day rituals? Share them so I can add some more to my collection.

Forgotten Leftovers, Snow Day, and The Bachelor Rehash.

You know what's really awful? Cleaning out the refrigerator. Especially when you come across a surprise. Something that was once delicious, but you forgot about it. It kept getting pushed to the back of the fridge. And it's no longer delicious. And it might smell really bad. You don't know because you're not going to open it up and smell it. Not on your life, buddy. And you'd rather throw away your tupperware or dish than to risk seeing it or smelling it for fear of barfing all over your kitchen.

It's also awful when you come across that surprise-something and you're too afraid to take care of it. So you go find your brother and tell him that it's time for him to "be a man" and go clean out the scary thing in the fridge. And if that doesn't work you resort to bribing. But you don't have to bribe because your brother loves you.

I just needed to get that off my mind.

So. What's new? Thanks for all the comments and suggestions about ways that I can fancy up my lunch routine. Lunch has gotten a little more exciting. I'm probably making all the other teachers so jealous in the lounge. I mean, nobody has come up and said anything about how delicious looking my new cuisines look. They're probably just embarrassed. I'm sure I'm causing a lot of jealous feelings, though.

I got my first snow day of the school year on Friday! Technically we didn't have snow. No snow at all. But we had ice. That'll work for me! I woke up at 4:30 Friday morning with as much excitement as a young child would have on Christmas morning. I assumed we'd be off school, but the official call hadn't been made yet. I turned on the local news station to watch our "Polar Report". I watched intently for my three favorite little words. My three favorite words are not "I love you" or "Sonic Happy Hour". No, no. My favorite three words are "Warren County Closed". That is the signal that I get a free ticket to stay home all day. My day off was a great day. It was a jam-packed day. I only got three naps in. I decided to shower for the day around 4:30 p.m. and then went to dinner. Taxing day. Just grueling.

I haven't blogged about our new season of The Bachelor yet. I need to talk about it with you guys. If you follow my Twitter feed, you've heard me talk about Sean and his Bad Girls Club. You've heard me talk about it too much. My favorite Monday activity is to watch The Bachelor and live tweet it. So fun.

Here are some of the high points:

Let's start with Selma's rock climbing adventure date.

The camera loves Selma, but not just the camera--the camera men also love Selma. That camera went down Selma's tank top, zoomed in on her yoga pants butt, and shot up her nostrils. I feel like we all know Selma. Really well. I was just relieved she didn't have any hanging boogers.
I feel like Sean's focus throughout the whole show was of Selma. In her yoga pants. Climbing that rock. That's where his mind was.

Her yoga pants and cleavage and clean nostrils won her that rose.

Next. Amanda.

Was she an injury faker like Tierra's falling down the stairs incident? Do you think she really busted her jaw as bad as she claimed? I've seen one too many chin-fall accidents. If you bust your chin that hard on the ground, it's going to split. As in blood everywhere. There was no blood. Not even a scratch. Or a bruise. Did she really get hurt? Oh, I'm sure she did. I'm sure it was painful to fall and she probably knocked her jaw out of whack a little bit. Was she overly dramatic about it? Yes. She's on The Bachelor.

Next. Tierra.

And I could write a book just about this one.

First off, and I mention this in a tweet every week, we've got to talk about her forehead dent. I need the back story on that.

And she looks so familiar. I think she resembles a Spears. She could be the sister of Britney and Jamie Lynn.

Tierra

Long lost sister Britney Spears.

Little sis Jamie Lynn.

Do you see it? I sure as heck do. Triplets.

Anyway. Back to that forehead dent. I really want to know how she got a dent in the middle of her forehead. And why does it seem to become more prominent with each passing show? The angrier and more dramatic she gets, the deeper the dent becomes. It's making me nervous. Maybe that's why she fell down the stairs. It threw her balance off.

And when she made the comment about how she didn't want to be bashed over the head with a hammer. (Which screams psychotic and unstable to talk about bashing people over heads with hammers) But, sorry, Tierra. Too late. Someone already did. You have a dented forehead. Probably from a hammer.

You know, when you look at a hammer claw, there are two points. Strangely Tierra's dent has two indentions...OMG. Was she bashed over the head with a hammer? Was she trying to tell us something tonight? A cry for help? I'm really getting scared now, guys.

{Disclaimer: And if there is anyone reading this that doesn't know me or 

my humor by now, please know I'm being totally stupid.}

And the fact that Tierra said being on The Bachelor was "torture" during her whole crying "I wanna go home" bit. Please. If being on The Bachelor is torture, I want to sign up. Spending six weeks without working while living in a mansion while lounging by the pool, wearing fancy dresses, getting roses, going on dates with one guy and 15 girls that you hate...sounds like an absolute dream to me. 

Next. Leslie.

The fact that she said "holy moly" not once but TWICE during the first minute of her date segment sealed her fate. She isn't getting a rose. And she had the worst date: the date where the guy dresses the girl up. Makes her feel like a million bucks--only because he knows he's going to dump her later. "Can I have my necklace back?"

And one lesson you always learn from The Bachelor: when a girl says they're "drama free" or they aren't interested in "drama" or they're not "one of those girls"...they are liars. Liars. They love drama. They're going to name their first born child Drama. 

I'll leave you with a few questions to answer for me:

1. Are you watching this season?

2. Give me your best story on how Tierra got her forehead dent. I'm serious. We need to figure this out.

3. Speaking of seasons, do you hate winter as much as I do?

Think hard. Answer well.