Wednesday, May 1, 2013

THE Storm...

Dear Jon,
Remember that one time we got home from grocery shopping RIGHT as it started raining?
And then remember how that storm turned into the worst storms we'd ever seen?
Remember how the weatherman only predicted a 30% chance of rain?
I tried to be a porch monkey and watch the rainstorm on our balcony... but it was kind of wet.
Remember how you thought I was crazy?
Remember how seconds after I'd come in it started hailing like crazy?
And remember how when we saw our street had become a river, we had to go survey the damages?
Yep... that was a lot of water.
 
Remember how we had plans to go to an outdoor theater that evening?
Yeah... that didn't happen.
Spring has definitely sprung in Houston.
A part of me really loves monsoon season... 
but only when we don't have to drive anywhere or do anything important.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Shine Bright Like a Diamond..

Whenever I think of this story, 
the Rihanna song "Shine Bright Like a Diamond" starts playing over and over in my head.

After a particularly long day about a month ago (in which I wanted to strangle all students),
 one of my students came in to talk to me.
She asked me if I knew what a "Dazzling Diamond" was...
"Is that some type of dance team?"
After guffawing and laughing at my ignorance, she told me that "Dazzling Diamonds" was an award that the top 5% of graduating Seniors in the District give to one of their teachers.
Seeing that I almost NEVER have top 5% students in my class, I didn't feel so dumb after all.
AP kids don't have time for me...
ANYWAY, when she told me that she wanted to give her Dazzling Diamond award to me, I was shocked.
As cliche as this sounds, sometimes I wonder if I'm making a difference even to ONE person.
I know all teachers feel like that every now and then...
it's just nice to be told, "Yeah! You ARE making a difference in my life. Thank you!"
It was a much needed boost of confidence.

Last Thursday we had the "Dazzling Diamond Gala" where awards were presented.
It was a lovely evening filled with laughs, diamonds, and chocolate cake.
What more could you ask for?
She wrote this paragraph for the program...
isn't she sweet?
 
Best chocolate cake of my life.
It was a great evening and I will definitely miss having this girl in my class.
Now if only ALL students were like her...

Friday, April 19, 2013

I Think It's Time!

My goodness-
is it May, yet?
Let me count my gray hairs...
Oh yeah... I have a new patch-
must mean school is almost out and students are CRAZY!
But no worries, 
there are 32 school days left.
But who's counting, right?

10.
It never ceases to amaze me the things that go on at school...
it makes me wonder if other schools are as crazy as mine.
Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier,
I come to school to find that teachers are running around crazy because there is a bat in the school.
Holy chaos.
But kind of funny.

9.
"Mrs. Brame... want to hear me sing the mess outta this sawng?"
.......
Sure.

8.
It still cracks me up how they'll avoid eye contact with me in the halls, or say things to intentionally hurt my feelings.
They try to get a rise out of me but I just throw it back at them.
"Mrs. Brame- I'm SO sick of dance. I'm not taking dance next year."
Thinking I'd argue or beg her to stay I replied,
"Good!"
AND that shut her up real fast.

7.
"Mrs. Brame-a-neesha... when I grow up....
*dramatic pause*
I'm going to be Beyonce."
You follow your dreams girl.

6.
We did a "Broadway Musical" unit and some of the kids did their project on High School Musical.
I couldn't remember Ryan's name (in the movie),
so I described him as the kid wearing the "fedora".
Students: "A-what-a?"
Me: "Fedora- you know those hats?"
Students: "Fedora? Now Ms. B- you KNOW we ain't that smart!"
Shoulda known!

5.
 Another unit was choreographing, and one group made up their dance to a Taylor Swift song.
At the end of their performance I asked students for comments...
to which I got the most serious reply,
"You know... if Taylor Swift EVER finds love,
she'll have no more hits."
Thank you for that.  I was KIND of hoping you had been paying attention to their dance.

4.
Sometimes the custodians get on these power trips because the locker room or bathrooms are left messy.
If they are messy- then the next day the custodians won't put ANY toilet paper or paper towels in the bathroom.
It's awful!
I'm pretty sure that's everyones pet peeve... sit down in the bathroom and discover you have no TP.
It's the worst.

3.
Student 1: "Mrs. Brame your room is SOOOO cold!"
Me: "Sorry- can't do anything about it!"
Student 1: "But I'm cold-blooded so it's especially cold to me!"
Student 2: "I'm cold-blooded, too!"
Me: "I'm pretty sure neither of you are cold- blooded... as that would make you a reptile, amphibian, fish, insect or arachnid."
Students: "No Miss, we are. Feel how cold I am."
WHAT ARE WE TEACHING THESE KIDS IN SCHOOL?!
I swear I learned that in 5th grade...

2.
There's a former student who choreographs a lot for the drill team and I've heard her name in passing as "Ty"... 
WELL I have a student in MY class who's name is Ty'Desha and she was telling me about her sister... who just happens to be the a fore mentioned girl.
Me: "You're Ty's sister?"
Ty' Desha: "Yep I am. Her full name is Ty' Eesha."
Me: "Hold up. Your name is Ty'Deesha and her name is Ty'Eesha?"
Ty'Desha: "Yep, and my little sister's name is Ty'Keesha."
Me: "You're joking right?"
Ty'Desha: "Nope.."
Sometimes I wonder what goes through people's heads as they name those little babies in the hospital.

1.
My stereo is on a rolling cart and I was pushing it down the hallway with my class.
We had just been in the auditorium and were coming back into the classroom.
As I was pushing my stereo into class, one of my students stopped suddenly and I ran over her foot!
I apologized profusely.
She was ok- but continued to milk it for all it was worth.
We still had some time in class so I asked them to run the dance one more time.
Student: "Aghhhh Mrs. Brame I can't dance because you RAN-DED over my foot!"
Me: "I what? I don't understand poor grammar."
Student: "RAN-DED!"
Me: "Try again..."
Student: "Ok fine! I can't dance because you RUNT over my foot!"
BAHAhahaha... I give up.

We Run so We Can Eat Icecream...

Last Saturday we ran the Blue Bell 5K
(why yes, it WAS the same day as the YW fundraiser...
sometimes we I get a little over ambitious)
I've been wanting to get back into running shape for some time now; because of health issues I had to stop for a while SO I thought the best thing to do would be to sign up for a race!
But not just any race...
I searched and searched for a good one- and friends from church suggested the "Blue Bell Run". 
Why?
Because Blue Bell is only the best ice cream ever AND after the race, you get all-you-can-eat Blue Bell ice cream!
Well- I was sold.
Not only was I sold, but JON was sold too!
(And he loathes running)
So we woke up super early and made the drive to Brenham, TX.
 And it was quite the beautiful drive!
The fog was soooo cool!
#yesmyiphonetookthispic
 We passed by the Blue Bell Creamery Factory in the wee hours of the morning...
 Ready to run!
 The kids ran their 1 mile race first, and they immediately started handing out ice cream...
for the KIDS.
But this BIG kid got in line and ate some ice cream before we even started our race.
He was quite literally ONLY there for the ice cream.
 A lot of runners!
 Here we go! 
Still smiling...
our goal was to get under 30 minutes.
Yeah, yeah- I know we're slow.
But Jon hates running and I hadn't been able to train very well (again due to physical problems) so we did what we could.
 And we made it!
29:35
25 seconds to spare, hahaha.
We were so dead.
We had forgotten that Brenham is quite "hillier" than Houston.
But really... most places have more hills than Houston!
 And so we ate...
 And ate...
 And ate some more!
With only one minor casualty... my lip!
That strawberry popsicle was SOO cold that I when put my lips on it,  it tore the skin RIGHT off my lips.
Sound painful?
Oh it was!
 Solution?
Eat more ice cream....
 This Blue Bell truck had an unlimited supply of ice cream bars, and they were delicious!
We consumed 12 bars total and counted it a win-win all around.
Thanks Blue Bell for the best 5K EVER!!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

It's Over!

That's right.
The single event that causes me many gray hairs, is over.
The YW Camp Fundraiser.
Geez, what a night!
We have a LOT of girls wanting to go to Girls Camp this year...
and our girls camp is SOOOO expensive.
(Because it's glamour camp, affectionately known as "glamp")
Over $200 per girl.
But they're worth it.
Some of the girls even performed a talent during the dinner.
We worked hard and did our best...
and now the stress is over!
 What would we do without Jon as our photo-bomber?
 Girls Camp 2013- here we come!