Only Two!

 After this post- there will be only two more posts like this left!

That is... until after the summer.

Good news!

 I've re-signed a contract to work at North Shore.

Feels good.

I love it there. 

The kids make me laugh- they make you laugh...

it's a good place.

Speaking of laughing,

here are some of my favorite moments from March.

Enjoy!

10.
This one's not very funny... just shocking.
This is what I deal with on a daily basis.
One of my students is gone A LOT.
She has two kids and is always in trouble with CPS.
She was gone for weeks and weeks.
 When she finally returned she said she'd been out because of Chlamydia.
Yep.
That's an STD if you didn't know.
(I had to look it up- not gonna lie.)
She stayed for a few days and then was gone for weeks and weeks again.
When she finally returned she said she'd been in jail for prostitution.
So sad.
I sometimes just want to bottle these kids up and take them home with me.
Show them what a normal safe life would look like.
Poor thing.

9.
Another sad one...
While girls were dressing out, I had a conversation with some girls still in my classroom.
One was talking about a cut on her leg...
I asked her how it happened.
"A knife cut me while I was sleeping."
"Why were you sleeping with a knife??"
"Ms. B- we sleep with knives under our pillows."
"What the? Why?"
"You never know what can happen in the night."
"Girls that's not normal!"
"Ms. B- we're black."
"Black, white, yellow, red, blue- I don't care! You shouldn't have to sleep with a knife under your pillow! That's not how you should have to live your life..."

Again- I wish I could adopt them all.

8.
Ok let's talk about funnier things!
After returning back from Spring Break and St. Patrick's Day, we had a day where our power went out.
We spent three hours with our 3rd period class sitting in the hallway,
(because there are no emergency lights in my room)
and we chatted.
We were talking about Spring Break and one girl got this really scared/worried look on her face and said that her Spring Break was terrible because of St. Patty's Day.
"I don't like leprechauns, Mrs. Brame. I couldn't watch TV all week because of the leprechauns."
I had to hold back my laughter because she was dead serious.


7.
Teaching a dance combination one day and a student raised her hand...
So we stopped for her, so she could ask her question.
I turned around and listened to the question; which went like this...
"Mrs. Brame- don't old men have worms?"
"Umm... uhh... ehhhh..."
I don't even wanna know where she gets her information.


6.
Best compliment ever...
I wore a yellow shirt-
"Mrs. Brame- you look like sunshine today."
Made my day.

5.
Getting back from Spring Break was hard.
I was torn on what unit to do next.
I wanted to do modern/contemporary but had heard horror stories from other teachers.
I had nightmares.
Oooooh the nightmares....
But I went ahead and started my modern/contemporary/creative dance unit...
(way too many names for such a genre!)
AND they are LOVING it!
I've been so surprised!
They are SO good during my classes; I am astounded.

4.
"Mrs. Brame do you know what an ostrich is?"
"Yes..."
"Isn't it a Spanish flamingo?"
"I don't think so....?"
"No, but isn't an ostrich and a flamingo the same thing?"

You tell me...

3.
It's first period.
First girl walks into class for the day, huffy and out of breath.
"Ms. B- do you have any alcohol?"
"Ummm come again?"

Is this how they all start their day?
No wonder they're crazy.

2.
One day while waiting for the lunch bell to ring, a most interesting conversation arose.
Two girls were talking about drugs...
asking each other when the LEGAL age was to do drugs.
Dumbfounded with mouth hanging open, I had no response.
One of the other students piped up most seriously, "Pretty sure it's 21."

"BAH! GIRLS! It's NEVER legal to do drugs!
Drugs are ILLEGAL!
ALWAYS!"

1.
Ok this one isn't MY story but it is SOOO hilarious I just had to share.
One of my friends teaches in a neighboring school district, with similar students.
Her first day of school she was taking roll and saw the name "Gonorrhea".
Shocked and confused, she asked the girl how her name was supposed to be pronounced.
"It's Ga-nora."
"Ooohh... how'd your parents come up with that name?"
"Well  my mom saw it on her medical records at the hospital and thought it sounded cute."
Super cute :)

And here are the stinkers sweethearts that make my days so fun.

They did a Broadway unit and had to dress up in character...

thought I'd share.

There was West Side Story, Grease, Chicago, A Chorus Line and The Music Man.

 2nd Period

 3rd Period

 4th Period

 6th Period

7th Period

 

THE Houston Rodeo

Once again- the biggest livestock and rodeo show made it's way to Houston.

Mmmm hmmm.

20 days of pure rodeo/carnival fun.

Of course- we only went on one of those days... which meant it was ONE day of pure rodeo/carnival fun AND 19 days of miserable traffic.

But the one day of fun made up for it!

I was reading some stats on the rodeo and they estimated about 2.5 million people to hit up the rodeo this year. 

125,000 people every night?

Phew!

Glad we could be 2 of those 2.5 million.

Here are some pics of our adventures.

Thankfully we live pretty close to the rodeo- SO we walk.

Saves us from the nightmare parking traffic and we don't have to pay to park! Wahoo!

 Carnival

 Our attempts at being cowgirls :)

Some day I'll have real boots...

 Turkey leg!

Fried foods stand

Fried Reeses and fried Moon Pie!

Mmmmm!

It's good for your heart, too.

No really.

It is.

Inside at the main event...

Fireworks before the concert

AND the concert... Oooohhh the concert.

We don't really go to the rodeo for the concert (although they bring in some pretty big names)...

we just go for the rodeo.

Neither Jon or I are huge country fans.

Ok that's putting it mildly for Jon.

He hates country.

With a passion.

Especially the lyrics of country songs.

It's all about trucks breaking down and losing their dog and/or wife (according to Jon).

He just hates it.

So they bring out this singer, Chris Young... 

we didn't know who he was.

And his opening song is...

"Save water, drink beer".

I thought Jon was going to get up and leave right then!

I really almost lost him.

BUT he survived... almost fell asleep... but survived :)

Here are a few of our favorite moments :)

Between fried foods, kids being dragged by calves, and bulls stepping on cowboys-

I'd say it was a successful rodeo.

The End.

The Best Week Evah

We have an addiction.

It's traveling.

But when you think of everything in the world that you COULD be addicted to...

Traveling (and chocolate) aren't so bad, huh?

Anyway- we spent our Spring Break on a cruise.

Best 10 pounds of weight gained ever.

Best sunburns ever.

Best snorkeling ever.

Best 7 days ever.

Instead of inundating the blog with hundreds of pictures-

we made a little movie.

I think it will tell the story better anyway.
Enjoy!

Spring Break Cruise from amelia brame on Vimeo.

Watch out world! He's 28!

Weekend birthdays are the way to roll!

We celebrated Friday, Saturday AND Sunday.

What a lucky guy.

All Jon wanted for his birthday was a Rock Band Party.

It'd been a while since the last one- and he was YEARNING for another.

It wasn't too hard to make happen when we have such WONDERFUL friends who showed up!

Thanks guys!

It was a blast.

Saturday we celebrated by spending ALL day at a Drill Team Competition hosted by my school.

It was a 5 am to 9 pm day.

Too long.

And Jon tagged along as "Official Bouncer".

I'm sure this was his favorite birthday present, by far.

And today (his official date of birth) we opened presents before church.

We're too cheap for wrapping paper...

but throwing blankets over presents works just as well.

 I'll spare you from the underwear present picture and skip straight to things that really matter.

Like unwrapping gift #1...

 A crock pot! Yay!

(Our other crock pot was a mess and had seen better days...)

 Snorkel gear...

 And what's this big box?

 A boogie board!

He is definitely ready for the beach!

 And some wishes from our favoritest little red head :)

Happy Birthday Jon!