Crazy Hair Day

What can I say, I'm a pretty cool teacher.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!

I had the craziest hair of any teacher I saw, and half the kids.

Everyone was jealous.

(thanking Kathleen for the inspiration :)

taking in your jeans: from size 15 to size "fits me"!

I've figured out the secret to getting skinny jeans that don't have to be painted on! Just get them in a size way bigger than you are, and take in the waist!  I got this lovely pair of jeans, my first foray into the world of skinny jeans, at DI a couple weeks ago for a Halloween costume.  They started as a size that is not quite my own, and I'd been wanting to try taking in jeans, so try I did!  I figured, if I messed up, they were only $5 + they were for Halloween.  Also, for those of you curious to try, this is about 1000% easier than it looks, and it only took me about an hour and a half.  I was also skeptical when I first saw a tutorial like this on freshly-picked.com, but it really is very quick and easy.

1. Take a couple of pictures of how the jeans looked originally.  That way, you'll be (more) sure to remember where to add topstitching, etc., back in when you're finished. 

2. Measure how much the waist needs to be taken in.  I decided to take these pants in about 4", so I did 2" from each side.  See that seam straight down the middle in the photo above?  That's the main one we'll be working with.

3. Remove any belt loops that will be in the way.

4. Unpick the waistband from the pants.  (And unpick more than you think you'll need.  I took in 2" per side, but I unpicked closer to 6".) 

5. You want the waistband to be able to lay completely flat, so unpick any topstitching that will be in the way.  (If I hadn't unpicked that bit of topstitching, the waistband would've had a big bump in the middle when I turned it inside out in step 6.)

6. Turn the waistband inside out and fold over where you want to take in the waistband.  You'll be creating a seam here to cut out the extra material, so make sure it lays very flat to avoid creating any weird bubbles or wrongly-sewn folded parts.

7. Take in your 2" (or however much YOUR pants need to be taken in).  If you're like me, this will involve many pins for such a short distance and sewing very slowly. :)  Remember, if you're taking in 2", for example, you only need 1" on each side of the fold you made in step 6.  

8. Tada! Now cut off the extra material.  Leave about 1/2" seam allowance.  Iron that seam allowance open.

9. The top of the actual pants is now bigger than your waistband, so we need to take in a little of the leg so the pants and band will fit together.  Unpick the side seam down to just below the hip pocket. 

10. "Take the front jean piece and pin that in onto the back jean piece."  (quote from freshly-picked)

(See the edge of the black down below? That's the edge of the front jean piece. See the blue edge with scraggly threads behind it?  That's the edge of the back jean piece. So we won't be cutting anything off the front, just the back.)

11. Sew a new seam right on top of your old stitch holes (from the front side - remember, we're not cutting any fabric off the front).

Don't judge me. I never pretended to be able to sew a straight line.

13.  Cut off the excess fabric and finish the newly-cut edges.

14. Reattach the waistband to the pants, and tada!  You've got yourself a new pair of pants that fit!

My Halloween costume featuring the now smaller jeans!
This picture doesn't quite do them justice, especially because of my ridiculous shoes, but I don't really feel like taking a picture right now, and that's the only other one I have.  Also, enjoy that squinty "Are you taking the picture?" face. :)

ahhhhh, milk

Mmmmmmm.

There's nothing like being without it for a couple hours to make you say,

"I am soooo thankful for milk."

thoughts on Halloween

Tonight was my first real giving-out-treats-for-trick-or-treaters experience, and it was every bit as awesome as I always imagined it would be.  I counted how many groups came to the door, and we got 50!  And almost every single time the doorbell rang, I literally became giddy with excitement.  It was so fun :)  Here are some things I thought tonight...

midget Joel

- It really doesn't bother me when older kids come trick-or-treating, as long as they're at least dressed up. We had some kids come who I think are like, 18, and I thought it was fun because they were dressed up and into it, but we also had a group of three 15-ish-year-old girls come who weren't even trying to look dressed up.  They just had plain t-shirts, jeans, and purses.  I wanted to deny them candy.
P.S. Joel (and Carrie if we're neighbors at this point like we should be) - When we turn like, 90, we should go trick-or-treating. I think that would be hilarious to get old people trick-or-treaters, so we should do someone else the favor when we're old. Oh - not as escorts to little kids.  Just as old people.

hipster Alison

- I don't care if you are in my Primary class - you don't visit the same house twice (unless you're really great friends or something, because then it's not just about getting candy out of people).

- Isn't turning off your porch light the universal signal that you've run out of candy? (Why, yes, I was granted the privilege of running out of candy on Halloween! :)

- [as I'm walking to the door]: "Hey, this is the Spanish teacher's house!" [and, as they walk away]: "What are the chances?" (comic on that topic)

- I am so much more disposed to think kindly of you when you say thank you than when you take my candy and run away.  (Luckily, that was only a couple of kids.)

- One of my Primary kids was so focused on the fact that he was trick-or-treating that, when I said, "Hello, [name]," I think he had no idea who I was. :) Adorable.

- I'm kind of sad that Halloween is over.  It's never been my favorite holiday, but it was a lot more fun with a house for some reason.  I loved it this year. :)

¡¡Happy Halloween!!

Remember?

from Dallas Clayton

This is generally how I feel about work.

I love it,

but I often feel like I have no idea what I'm doing :)

answers

Sometimes Heavenly Father answers prayers in different ways, I remembered today.

For example, sometimes you give up things you really want to do so you can make a SWEET powerpoint for the classes you teach.  You rush around like a maniac trying to get everything done, but when you do, it's awesome.  You get to school on time and open your computer...

and then Powerpoint breaks and won't open.

But that's okay.  You just to decide to open it online instead, which works well...

until an hour later when the Internet in the whole school breaks.  The presentation is open online, but the later slides didn't finish loading when you originally opened it, so everything's fuzzy and unreadable.  And also, you only have half the Halloween songs you found for kids to vote on and sing.

That alllll may have happened to me today.  I said a lot of desperate prayers.  

"Please help me not rather die than go to school tomorrow because I have no idea what to teach."
"Please let me finish on time."
"Please let me find two pieces of clothing that match."
"Please let me get to school on time."
"Please let me get to class on time."
"[Gasp!] I forgot to charge my laptop this morning! Please let it still be turned on. Please let there be an accessible outlet in this first class."
"Please let Powerpoint stop being dumb and open."
"Why is it so fuzzy? Please let it finish loading."
"The Internet's broken!  Please let me think of something to do without using those materials that won't waste today."

I probably said "Please" about 1,000,000 times today.  (I didn't type out the several minutes of prayers that were just "Please" over and over and over.)

And then the end of school came, and I walked out of my last class, which had been really fun.  I thought about my earlier desperate prayers, and then about how Heavenly Father sometimes answers prayers differently than you expect or want.

Sometimes He answers in the way you want...

- I did think of something to teach, and knowing I'd prepared well made me feel so confident going to school today.  Sometimes I'm just nervous and scared the first time I do a lesson, but today I wasn't.  Do you know how often I pray for confidence?

- I finished all my prep work on time!

- I DID find matching clothes!

- My computer WAS still turned on, and there WAS an accessible outlet nearby!

...and sometimes His answers are different than yours.

- Sometimes when you pray to be on time, and you do get there on time, but your host teacher calls you out for being late (even while acknowledging that her clock is five minutes early), it's an answer to prayer when you open your computer and see that, even though she doesn't know it, you actually were early.

- Sometimes Powerpoint won't open when you want it to, but then you can still open the presentation you need online.  And the kids sing the ABC's very well and not rambunctiously while you're trying to figure out what's wrong with your computer.

- Sometimes the presentation won't finish loading, but then you realize that one of them DID load all the way, and the kids really love that one.

- Sometimes the one presentation that did work + the two songs you have are enough to fill the time and not waste it.




And always, at the end of every day (but especially when He saves your booty so many times in just three hours), you say thank you.

The Aristocats

Did you know it's a musical?  As in, a musical that a community theater can put on?

Me, neither.  But it is!  And I forgot to write about it when it happened, but on my birthday this year, I went to see a boy in my Primary class act in "The Aristocats" with the community group and it was adorable.  The oldest child in the group was probably 9-ish, so most of them didn't know the words or dance moves.  Nevertheless, it was awesome and I loved it.  Here's me with my little cat friend.

Please disregard the fact that the angle, etc., make this not the greatest picture for me and instead love how great that cat is. :)

Check out this sweet skirt I made!

The scene: Deseret Industries.  It was a month before my brother's wedding, and I still needed to find some coral and yellow clothing.  The last 1,000 times I'd been shopping, things hadn't gone so well.  This time, I was determined to make it work.  Instead of looking for the right color AND fit AND item of clothing, I would only look for color.  Strategy: Walk along the racks and pick up anything that's either coral or yellow.

The result?

These pants.  

But, after a little picking, sewing, and ironing...

I ended up with this skirt!  It used to be huge pants, and now it's a skirt that fits me well and that I love. Woohoo!  Now I'm working on expanding my professional wardrobe.  Bring on the oversized pants, DI! 

favorite quote from today

This is what I looked like today.

When I walked into today's second grade class, a boy said, 

"You look like you went on vacation.

Or went shopping.

Or like maybe you're still a teenager!"

Last week, I straightened my hair instead of doing it curly.

In the same class, a boy asked me, 

"Is the reason you look different today because you brushed your hair?"

Those kids are so funny. :)

Agua de jamaica

Here's a recipe for those of you interested in trying agua de jamaica (a juice made from dried hibiscus flowers).  Enjoy!

on top of spaghetti

I made homemade spaghetti sauce tonight!

It was very tasty.  I picked the tomatoes from our garden; blanched, peeled and cored them; and cooked them into some taaaasty marinara sauce.  There wasn't tons of extra, since our tomatoes are pretty tiny, but what extra there was will be frozen for another day.  Yum!  

(Sorry I don't have a picture - you'll just have to imagine it.)

Recipe:

A bunch of tomatoes, peeled and cored

1 onion, diced

1 can tomato sauce

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Pour all ingredients into a large pot and boil until thickened.

If your eaters don't like chunky tomatoes, 

pour into a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

the importance of backing up photos

Do it, people.

I have heard a few accounts in the last week or so of people either losing all their pictures or thinking they did.  They always include lines like, "I feel sick to my stomach," "I've been planning on backing them up but just hadn't gotten around to it yet," "I have cried over this several times," and "To lose my photos would be an absolute tragedy."

Burn your pictures onto CD's.  Put them onto flash drives.  Store them online (on shutterfly.com, picasa.com, we use smugmug.com.... there are many options).  Don't delete them off your camera immediately.  Send them to someone else. Putting them on Facebook is better than nothing.

Always keep a couple different forms of your pictures - print and on your computer; on your computer and online; on your camera and computer; print and online; scan your print pictures onto your computer; etc.  My personal routine?  Immediately after I put pictures on my computer from my camera, I upload them to an account on smugmug.com.  If I edit a picture later and want to upload the new version and delete the original, I'll do that.  But I always upload the originals immediately.

I'm serious.  Do it today.  Don't put it off another day.  It honestly doesn't take too long.  If you don't know how, call your son or mom or husband or granddaughter or neighbor who does IT.  Imagine how you would feel if you lost the pictures you currently have.  If you imagine yourself as sad, then back them up.

P.S.  Documents are important, too.

smart

I have always told Joel I never want a smart phone.  That's still true.  However, this video makes me want to get one just so I can get a phone from Solavei for such a great deal.

this week

Having no voice / Having a sore-throaty-cough makes it really hard to teach elementary school.  :(

I hope I get over this quick. 

I'm thankful for the kids who make the talkative ones be quiet since I can't do that very well this week.  :)

"Go and bring in those people now"

There has been a lot of rain in our city this weekend.  As many of you know, there were also some pretty big fires recently.  As a result, there has been tons of flooding and many homes are filled with mud.  Church was let out early today so the Relief Society could make food to send over to the flooded homes and all men over 16 were asked to help clean out those homes.  The man conducting church today reminded us of when Brigham Young stopped conference early to save those of the Martin and Willie handcart companies.

"Many of our brethren and sisters' [homes are filled with mud]... and we must send assistance to them.  That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people.  I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until the next day... I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you..." - Brigham Young

On November 30, those companies arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

"It was Sunday, and again the Saints were gathered in the Tabernacle.  Brigham Young stood before the congregation and said: 'As soon as this meeting is dismissed I want the brethren and sisters to repair to their homes. ... The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to... prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat..." - Gordon B. Hinckley

I am thankful for a husband who did not wait  - for me or anyone else to ask for his help - to change his plans for the evening, put on his work clothes, and go.  I am thankful that sandwiches can be made with tortillas when we're out of bread, and that my family left some deli meat when they were here last month so I could send something other than a cheese sandwich.  But mostly I am thankful to be a member of a church that practices what it teaches, a church that recognizes that when a neighbor's ox is in the mire, it is action and not meetings that will get it out.

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."  - Matthew 22:37-40

"...when ye are in the service of your fellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God." - Mosiah 2:17

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  - Matthew 25:34-40

how to have a good week at work...

For those of you who aren't aware, I got a job! working at a school about two minutes away from my house!  Nice!  It's part-time, which I am sooooo happy about, and I'm teaching Spanish to all the students grades 1-6.  I was pretty nervous to start (this last Monday was my first day) because I've been trained to teach secondary students and I love secondary students, but things have gone well so far!  It's been a lot of fun, and there have only been a couple of tricky classes, classroom management-wise.  I've been making some good friendships with both students and teachers.  Here's an excerpt from my journal last night that I wrote after a great first week...

I've been collecting nice things for when I have hard weeks, and here are a few that I heard this week.  Some were said to me and some I overheard as I was walking down the hallways... All of them made me feel so happy that this is my job :)

"You are so fun."

"I used to never like Spanish, but now I do."

"I think I understand you even better than our normal [English-speaking] teacher!" (Said by an English-speaking girl. This was quite possibly one of the best compliments ever.)

"Who's that?" "That's our new Spanish teacher.  She's really [fun]."  (Okay, I'm making up that adjective because she was walking away and I didn't hear what she said, but this quote came from a girl whose whole face lights up every time she sees me.)

"I love Spanish now. I LOVE SPANISH!"

"Thank you so much. That was an entirely new environment [from last year] [said twice]. *I* even understood some of what you were saying!" (Said by a teacher.)

"Spanish is fun now."

"You're so fun!" (Yes, I know I've already written that. A lot of people have said it this week:) 

"You're better than the last Spanish teacher."

Really.  Pretty much every time I walk through the halls, I get stopped by teachers or students to tell me how much fun Spanish has been and how much they're loving it.  Kids wave and say "Hola" everywhere I go, and teachers are completely backing me in my use of 100% Spanish in the classroom.  In fact, almost every kid in that school is convinced that I don't speak any English, which was my goal.  :)

THIS IS SO AWESOME!  This is completely why I wanted to be a Spanish teacher - to give children an exciting foundation that would make them want to keep studying Spanish.  I didn't ever really think about accomplishing that goal at an elementary level, but since about a month ago, I've realized that it might be even more doable here than at a secondary level because the students are still so excited about learning.  Woohoo!!  

(Although it kind of puts on the pressure for next week's lesson...  I hope people think Spanish is as fun next week!)

I'll be honest.  I don't know if I've ever felt so much that a job and I were perfect for each other.  Everytime I leave school, I'm in a good mood.  It's a constant constant reminder that Heavenly Father has put me in the right place.  I really feel like I (my training, my attitude, the Spirit, I'm not sure what exactly...) was really just exactly what this school needed.  Is that arrogant?  Oh well.  I feel it.  <3 comment-3--="" nbsp="">

start wearing purple, wearing purple

Check out this sweet corn we got from Bountiful Baskets!

Yum!

birds update...

Well, our birds went crazy.

As soon as the babies' eyes opened, the parents went CRAZY and started dive-bombing us every time we were in the yard.  Not only us, either - they attacked other birds, neighborhood kids, my visiting teachers...  And once the babies started flying but before they moved out, they joined the attack team.  For those of you who remember, there were five of them... which makes an attack team of seven crazy birds.

They were adorable at first, but we've decided not to let them back again.  We're taking back the house.

Here are some actual pictures of Joel taking back the house...

Excellent craftsmen, those birds are.

The insides of both nests

The Ultimate Compilation

Just so you all know, Amazon currently has that album on sale for $2.99.  $2.99 for 111 songs!  Mostly oldies.  Some I know, some I will know soon (because I just bought the album with my $3 credit).  That comes to 2¢ per song, for those of you wondering.  Anyway.  You don't have to buy it.  Just know that if you love oldies and have $2.99 to spare, you can.

In the leafy treetops, the birds sing, "Good morning!"

More like, "In the leafy eaves of the porch, the birds sing, 'Get away from my babies!'"

My friend Carrie wrote a blog post recently about birds having babies on her porch and the parents hating her.  Well, guess what - the same thing is happening at our house right now!  We had some birds build a nest outside of our front room window and lay eggs - we knew there were eggs because all of a sudden, the birds hated us - but we were dismayed one day to find the eggs broken all over our porch.  Yes, for some unknown reason (perhaps the eggs were duds?) the parents had pushed their eggs out to sudden destruction.

But then!  A new couple moved in!  They built a nest in front of our front door and also laid eggs!  AND THEN THE EGGS HATCHED!  We now have the most adorable things happening all the time outside our front window, and we love to watch it.  The parents hate us.  In fact, when we went on a walk last night, they followed us for a full block screaming at us to leave their babies alone.  Anyway.  For your and my viewing pleasure, I took some videos.  Now you can see just how cute they are!  I have included only the most action-packed scenes.

At about :45, Joel walked into the front yard.  You can hear the mom and dad scolding him for it for a couple of seconds.  It went on a lot longer in real life.

Why, yes, at 1:00, that is a piece of poop scooting out!

1:55 is one of my most favorite parts, when he snuggles up and puts his arm around his brother.

Can anyone contest that seeing tiny little baby birds stretching out their cute skinny necks and gigantic beaks to be fed by their mommy/daddy is not one of the cutest things in the world?

I love these little birds living on our porch.  Sadly, their constant scolding and poop are both annoying enough that we probably will not let them live there again.  But I love them for now :)

Strawberry Days

There exists in a nearby city a fun little festival called Strawberry Days.

(Yes, this sign says "Straberry Days" instead of "Strawberry Days,"

but I didn't create it, and it was the best I could find.

You're just going to have to deal with it.)

I've heard that, every year, they give out free strawberries and cream,

but this year I learned that the cream is magical. 

Naturally, we decided to check it out.

On a pleasantly cool Tuesday evening, 

J, M, and I headed out to get some free strawberries and magic cream!

and also enjoy the free concert in the park.

The event started at 7:30, and we arrived around 8:00.

The band performing the free concert in the park was none other than The Beach Boys!

Just kidding.

They were probably about the same age, though,

only this group was performing other artists' music.

They were decent, but not worth the trip.  

No, we had come for the strawberries and cream.

Let's be honest - I was pretty much there for the cream.

There were approximately 1,000,000 people there, 

and as we followed the crowds to the strawberries and cream line,

we passed many people enjoying their magic dessert.

Then we got in line.

Only it turned out not to be the line for free strawberries and cream.

Unfortunately, it was the line for watching the crew clean off the tables,

for sadly,

all the strawberries and magic were gone.

After half an hour.

Wouldn't you think that a city that apparently produces enough strawberries to host a festival named after them would have enough that they'd last half an hour? Perhaps 45 minutes?

Alas. 

So we chose to skip out on the free concert and head over for some ice cream,

since it's probably close to magic cream.

J and I recently discovered a Maggie Moo's by our house

(and I loooooove Maggie Moo's, partly for nostalgic reasons and partly because it's delicious),

and that's where we went to satisfy our craving for magic.

When we arrived, we saw this taped to the door:

Was everything conspiring to keep us from achieving magical status?!

It was really quite disappointing.

I love Maggie Moo's.  Aside from the fact that I wanted ice cream, I was also really sad that this business I'd been so excited to see wasn't actually there.

We ended up settling on Coldstone, where I discovered Oatmeal Cookie Batter ice cream.

Although it was no magic cream,

it was still pretty good.

And it was a fun night spent adventuring with my husband and brother.

We'll probably try again next year. :)

"In my pretty garden the flowers are nodding"

Did I mention we also have a flower garden?

Well, we have many of them, but as of now, 

all but one are filled with waaaaaaay too much dirt and/or weeds.  

But here's a picture of the one that has actual flowers in it :)

These bloomed last week! Aren't they so beautiful!

Close-up

We also have several rose bushes that are doing really well.  You can see them a tiny bit in these pictures, but I guess I should take a few of them by themselves so you can see how pretty they are. 

"I tippy tippy toe through my garden..."

We have a garden!

We chose to do a raised bed, since our dirt stinks.  Sometime in the future we'll have multiple raised beds, but for now, this is it.  The pot has an onion plant in it that started growing on the kitchen counter.  It's an experiment!  So above is a picture of our garden when we first planted it...

...and here it is now!  As you can see, our corn is getting nice and big, and the onion became two and had to be split up and transplanted.  All the other plants are still tiny and hard to see in this picture :)  We planted onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, and corn.

transplanting onions

A close-up of some other plants. This picture is about a week old, and several of these have  doubled in size.

We planted a bunch of little onions, so when I was thinning them out, I decided to bring some inside to grow green onions.

And now, for your viewing pleasure:

updates...

So, student teaching got pretty crazy... and I decided I had too much to worry about without adding blogging to the list.  I'm feeling more relaxed now, though, so I thought I'd pick it up again :)

I'm halfway done with my practicum!  My minor is Teaching English as a Second Language, and I have to do a practicum (like a mini, much more stress-free student teaching) in order to finish.  At first I was assigned to a school an hour away from home, but when the lady in charge found out where I lived, she graciously reassigned me to a school twelve minutes from our house.  Awesome!  And it's worked out pretty perfectly.  It's a little different from what I'm used to - it's a summer school program, so it's more relaxed + the program is two 3-week blocks, so starting tomorrow, I have a new mentor teacher and a brand new batch of kids - but I've really enjoyed it.  Almost every student is there because he/she failed during the normal school year, so I expected them to be a little rough around the edges, but they're pretty endearing :)

So in exactly three weeks, I'll be ready to officially graduate!  Woohoo!

also

Oh yeah - by the way,

We bought a house!

Whaaaaaat!

"First Steps" - Dallas Clayton

Cast open your windows

and look out into the world.

Throw open your doors -

those neighbors are your neighbors.

Those people are your people

waiting to have questions asked

and answered,

waiting to be found out, 

and turned upside down,

and impressed.

Waiting for you,

waiting alone

behind shuttered windows.

I read this poem tonight on Dallas Clayton's blog, and it impressed me.  Because we just moved, J and I don't know anyone yet.  Sometimes when I'm home, I see headlights or the flash of the sun on a car driving by, and I secretly hope it's a neighbor bringing us cookies or welcoming us to the neighborhood.  Then my mind asks, "If someone was going to come, why would they wait two months?" and the car always passes by.  Then today I read that poem.  This is what it said to me:

You're waiting in your home for someone to come meet you.

You're waiting for someone to care,

to ask you about you,

and to let you tell them.

You clean the house so you can invite someone over

"someday"

Or so the person who knocks will see a clean living room when you open the door.

Across the street,

she's waiting in her home for someone to come meet her.

She's waiting for someone to care,

to ask her about her,

and to let her tell.

She cleans the house so she can invite someone over

"someday"

Or so the person who comes will see a clean living room when she opens the door.

So "cast open your windows

and look out into the world.

Throw open your doors - 

those neighbors are your neighbors.

Those people are your people...

Waiting for you..."

And they need a friend, too.

overheard

I spent some time weeding and watering the yard today, and here are some gems I overheard as the neighborhood kids walked home from school and played at the playground...

Boy 1: BYU stinks!
Boy 2: BYU is AWESOME!
(repeat)

All boys: 1, 2, 3, not it!
(repeated x1,000,000 so quickly I'm not sure what "it" had to do - maybe say "1, 2, 3" the next time?)

Boy: I'M A PUPPY DOWG!

Boy: Hey, sweet! I found a rotten corn dog over here!

Girl: Partly because I'm your sister and I... (unintelligible)
Boy: (unintelligible)
Girl: Well, daddy long legs are poisonous.  You can ask someone you trust even more - Dad.
Boy: Don't snap talk at me.
Girl: I AM NOT SNAP TALKING AT YOU! YOU SNAP TALKED AT ME FIRST! [At this point they were right in front of me, and I can't imagine her ever being able to scream any louder.]
Boy: Fine.
Girl: Do you know what you just did?  That was snap talking, when you said "Fine."
Boy: (sigh)
Girl: That was snap talking.
Continue snap talking examples.  Fade out.


As you can see, I live in a neighborhood with some awesome kids, some of whom don't know what snap talking is.  (Although I have to admit, I'd never heard the phrase before today.)  The corn dog boy's excitement even made me want to go over and see that tasty food!  I'm also proud of the BYU boy.

(And Girl, if your brother was snap talking at you because he didn't believe that daddy longlegs spiders are poisonous, then I'm afraid to inform you that he is in the right here.  The idea that they are the most poisonous* spiders in the world but have mouths too tiny to bite humans is, in fact, false.)



*Also, Girl, it may interest you to know that poisonous ≠ venomous, and spiders who kill by biting fall into the latter category.  ( ≠ ladder)

My dad, my dad's the smartest guy around

I'll never be too old to call my dad first when the toilet breaks.