This weekend last year I was...

This weekend last year I was bolting around York (England) like someone important with plans to see Paper Planes live in concert. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time. Darn. But we DID get the opportunity to eat a hot dog in a TOASTED baguette. Dont worry, I had two.

Read the story here.

I wish I could entertain you with travel stories and lead you to believe I live a somewhat interesting life but...unfortunately I cant.

Rather I'll be spending this weekend reminding myself how to inhale oxygen and sprawled out along the couch with my feet up (hopefully slippers on) in relaxation since I unintentionally deprived myself of both of those things this week. Teaching is MUCH more time consuming than it looks-or maybe I just love my job too much :)

Happy Weekend!

btw...

I'm wearing my slippers and smiling from ear to ear. This is what the first day of autumn does to me... When I wake up in autumn mornings I sit straight up shoot my arms up above my head in full jazz hands throwing my covers to the floor in the process and squeal for joy! If background music could play like a movie trailer "Wonderful World" by James Morrison would toot right along to my good morning routine. I dance to the kitchen, find my favorite mug (i like mugs) and soak in some flavored hot tea. I enjoy all things autumn...especially pretending Texas actually has one. I am known to wear sweaters when its not quite chilly enough for them and layer with stylish jackets even though they don't sell them this far down south. I cant wait to carve pumpkins and bake pumpkin pie despite the fact I physically cant eat it. Something about the texture. Cant do it.

Its football season and every month has an exciting holiday. Thanksgiving stealing the spot for number one....easily. I LOVE spicy candles and Halloween Oreos.

I adore autumn. I live for 65 degree days like today. I live for love and lifes lookin up...now that its autumn. Dont get it twisted, Yes, Im in love.....but with a season, not a guy.

Go jump in a pile of leaves or build a fort in your living room.

I am so wierd I scare myself

If you were 11 years old and walked into room 307 on Friday you would have seen THIS horrendous creature creepily standing in the corner or swiftly manuevering around the room.

Some were terrified but most wanted to touch my head. I didnt make a noise for the first 10 minutes but creeped around the room staring spookily....aaaand I may or may not have slowly tilted my head when my students and I locked eyes. OMG I loved it!

Is it bad....that I....enjoy...scaring them?

While I would love to just wear a mask for the hell of it, there is a point. I was introducing physical and chemical changes. This is a very important concept they need to know in 6th grade so I wanted to make sure they remember it. Eventually we had a class discussion via overhead projector (no speaking on my part) and concluded that I was still Ms Terry, I just PHYSICALLY CHANGED my appearance. I am still the same underneath, not a completely new "substance" as I would be in a chemical change.

They get to bring their creepy masks to school Thursday and wear them ALL period. Physical changes better be CEMENTED in their precious little brains.

Diana, you complete me

Remember last month when I traveled to NYC for David's wedding and to visit friends? Well I brought along my new friend Diana. She puts out......fantastic photos! (sicko). Can't wait to develop the other rolls. But for now, enjoy!

There are too many! I cant decide.

Ps. I have beautiful friends that are accompanied with beautiful friendships.

LOVE {Caroline, Jennifer, Katelyn, Corey} LOVE

UMMM WHAT?!?!?!

UMM WHAT?!?! I WANT TO BE IN A FLASH MOB SOOOOO BAD!

Kelly's Discovery

my response....

This weekend last year I was...

Galavanting around London for the first time.

Sigh. Wish I was there. In honor of you today we spoke in British accents during class. The kids could hold their own believe it or not but you would think we were still quite miserable. :)

Read last year's blog post here.

Have a beautiful weekend!

The Violinist in the DC Metro

I read this article a couple months back. I just thought about it again today while at home sick watching "The Soloist". Interesting story. Please Read.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Labor Day Weekend

As I mentioned before I saw Traci over the holiday weekend. We took a little video just for fun. Ignore the giant shot of my face that I cant seem to change.

this day eight years ago

As this day eight years ago changed life as we know it now I feel it appropriate to at least post a little smidgin in honor of the events of 9.11.01

Its unbelievable how much time has passed. Of course we all remember where we were and all the emotions felt. In high school I watched the second plane hit and the towers falling LIVE.

Today at 8.46 am, the time the first plane hit the first tower, our school stopped class to have a moment of silence in honor of Patriots Day. My students were 3 the day of the attacks. They had heard of it but didn't really have a clear concept of why or what it looked like. With their questions I found myself covered in goose-bumps, somewhat speechless, with tears in my eyes. They had no idea and for some of them my reaction put everything into perspective. So we stood during our moment of silence and proudly honored our flag with the pledge of allegiance, louder today than we ever had before.

God Bless

also...

I wish I had more energy, more time. I would love to blog about my classroom, how parents night went tonight, the fact that I told my students I worked for the CIA and they STILL believe me, how a student asked if he could play pranks on me and I said "only if I can play them on you", how, for some reason, when I say "BISCUTS" my 8th period responds with "GRAVY" and then STOPS TALKING to listen to directions. I would love to blog about Obama's speech and the RIDICULOUS controversy, or my cute anthroplogie dress, or put up a video from this weekend.

Or maybe I should be planning lessons, or editing a wedding video, or taking defensive driving or cleaning my room or making dinner other than a can of corn. Or maybe I should be doing just about everything BUT blogging right now including sleep.

I wish I had more energy, more time.

Goodnight

IM FAMOUS

well...sorta. kinda. not really. not even close.

BUT we can pretend!

Most of you know of my unhealthy obsession with Paper Planes. Their new cd came out on itunes last week and I held a blog contest which was a success! Well, "la rockstar" informed me of a little shout out from their record company. They posted a link to my blog on their website here.

You can download the sweet jams from itunes here and then tell me how much you love them here. Feed these starving souls...or at least buy them some drinks.

Brilliant. Cheers boys :)

Traci Beth Rutledge

This weekend Mom, Dad and I drove to OK city to see Traci. My aunt also flew in from Oregon and brought my grandmother down. Alex was all that was missing. :( We spent the entire weekend with Traci. It was a very emotional weekend, but it was much needed. Traci won't be able to walk but still has full use of her arms and will be able to lead a fully functional life! YAY!

Prayers are still needed as she begins to accept her new life and the obstacles that are yet to come.

Traci was in high spirits, crackin' jokes and everything. She doesnt have much of an appetite but was able to sit up in her wheelchair for most of the morning Sunday without her blood pressure dropping! YAHOO!

Lora and I decorated her room with posters of sexy RPatz to cheer her up. She has the most well loved room in that hospital. Visitors are still constantly dropping by, a sure sign of how much of an impact Traci has made on peoples' lives.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate you!

Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a fantastic day off from laboring and a relaxing three-day weekend. I traveled to OK City to see dearest Traci Beth. Shes lookin better! I'll update tomorrow with that.

 But for now...I am celebrating James Morrison. I listened to him for most of my 6 hour trip back to Austin today. 

Here are some pics I took when Kelly and I went to see him in May. He is INCREDIBLE live!

What a pretty boy, that James.

But tomorrow is back to work. Better hit the hay.

simply beautiful

simple. beautiful. simply beautiful

"England Shmingland"

I have had some heavy thoughts on my mind lately. Im not really a fan of publicly posting long, boring, pictureless posts of my deepest thoughts, but I DO enjoy writing and I haven't been doing enough of it. And since only 18 people admit to reading this rubbish of mine, I feel safe posting more rubbish :)

Im going through a pre-quarter life crisis. I moved to Austin February 14th, the day of love, to escape heartbreak from the "man" I loved to start a new life. This to many is no secret. I now love everything about Austin. I love the city, I love the lakes, I love the hills. I LOVE my job. Moving away from Dallas and College Station burying the last 7 years of memories, for me, was the best decision I ever made. 

But thats not really the point of this post. I have no doubt in my mind that Austin is where I need to be right now. I have met fantastic people and work in a supportive school with loving and well-behaved (for the most part) students. I truly could not ask for anything better.  But is there something better?

Maybe its the fact that the one year mark since I left for England just recently passed that has it on the forefront of my mind. Or Maybe its the fact that I felt closer to God in England than I did the entire 4 years I was engulfed, saturated in a, what felt like, 40,000 member "Christianity Competition" during college at Texas A&M. Or maybe its the fact that I am intrigued by England's school system and see faults in the US school system daily. Or maybe its the facebook messages and emails that I STILL receive DAILY from my students in England. 

Either way England has been heavily on my mind for months.  I loved being able to wear coats in England. I loved being able to take public transportation anywhere and everywhere. I loved being surrounded by culture and that other cultures were so close by. I loved that it is common to be bilingual. I loved that they have a NATIONAL FUNDRAISER with Pudsey Bear for Children in Need.  I love  that, as a whole, the British people seem to be more educated on world wide events and happenings. 
Embarrassing confession: When I moved there I still thought the Prime Minister was Tony Blair. But thats more than some people!
I do LOVE USA...alot...alot, alot. I am PROUD to be an American, BUT I cant help myself but to dream of exploration beyond Texas, beyond America. 

So this morning I woke up and made Twinings, my English Breakfast Tea, for the first time since I have been back. I poured in some milk and dazzled it with some sugar sipping it slowly to savor every sip. I even brought an extra tea bag to school for a second cup. I turned up James Morrison and happily danced around my empty classroom until the bell rang at 8:13.  And after an almost half hour chat, Damien, "La Rockstar", and all his English-ness (what are you? english? british? united kingdomian? half french?) also has me dreaming of  exploring England.

I have been praying about this and ask for your prayers as I continuously fight the battle of my goals and path versus the goals and path God has already decided on.




Hope this wasnt too mushy gushy for ya. Ill be back to posting meaningless, nonsense posts tomorrow. Just thought Id throw ya a curve ball

Until next time, Good Night

Bye Bye Billy

My Billy Boy is leaving today. He is headed to Denver to become important and go to grad school. 

For those of you who dont know, Billz is my bestest guy friend in the whole wide world. He can be stubborn and selfish and Im the only one that doesn't put up with his crap yet still loves him anyway.

BILLZ I will miss your stubborn, flakey-ness. 
(And all the wonderful things in between)

Enjoy your new adventure! 

Sunday phone dates. YAHOO!