Summer 2007

Most summers I have too much time on my hands and I usually attempt to see how many consecutive days I can go without human contact and not getting out of my pajamas. However, this summer has been different. It's like this:



The day school was out I packed my bags and left for a week long trip to St. John to see Suzanne. Then I came back and spent every waking minute during the entire week looking for a place to live. Spent a week packing everything I own (which is entirely too much) into boxes to prepare to move. Then a week unpacking boxes in our new apt and moving everything from my classroom to my new school. This week I have spent every day in professional development learning how to teach a Gifted/Talented class. Today is my day off. Next week is full of July 4th activities and a trip to my grandma's house and possibly a trip to Dallas for my grandad's 85th bday party. After that, I have a week full of meetings at my school and Houston Project. Then I leave for the Philippines for 2 weeks. I get back to Houston for a day then leave for VA Beach for a week. 2 days back in Houston and then we start back to school.



So the question is: When am I going to have time for a summer romance? I guess I'll have to wait until summer 2008 for my summer fling. Sad.

I have issues......

So early this morning I woke up with a crazy nightmare. In my dream I was cleaning the fridge and my roommate, Ashley, was there. I was like "I can't get this Parmesan cheese off!" And Ashley was like, "It's not Parmesan cheese; it's feta cheese!" And we continued to argue. Then I woke up. I was really stressed out about the cheese dream. I went to the fridge and the door was open which can only mean one thing......
I must have been sleep-walking!! I haven't done that in a long time. (I don't think.) It's so scary. What if I had gotten in my car and drove somewhere???

Later tonight I was talking to Ashley about it. "We weren't arguing about cleaning the fridge in the middle of last night....were we? Ok, I didn't think so. It must have been just a crazy dream! We don't even have either cheese in the fridge!" And she opened the door and said, "Yes, we do. I bought feta cheese yesterday. Not Parmesan."

There is definitely no Parmesan cheese in the fridge. Only feta. But it's not all over the fridge like in my dream/nightmare.

Shameful

I cheated on my church today. I went to another mega church in Houston. The music was sooo good! The message was pretty good too. I even ran into a coworker. I might have to cheat more often.


Oh, and by the way I am an idiot. I ran into the speaker from last week's Metro. He's my neighbor. So instead of thinking before I spoke, I blurted out. "I heard you speak." He gave me a weird look. So I clarified "At Metro. Last week. I'm Melissa."

Okay, this is what I wanted to say and should have said, "I really enjoyed your message last week at Metro. It was refreshing to hear biblical truth about God's will for our lives. My favorite part was your reference to the game of MASH."

Oh well. I screw everything up.

Airtroductions

This is so bizarre!! So apparently, online dating isn't enough. Now you can "set up" your chance meeting someone on an airplane. Ridiculous.

But yet, why am I tempted to sign up???

Pray, Preach, or Die

We had another meeting last night for our mission trip and there was a comment that stayed with me. Mostly we talked about what we would do when we got there, how much we could pack, and when our flights left, blah blah. But our leader made the comment that we need to be flexible and ready for anything. He said that at any time we should be ready to either pray, preach, or die. How true. We should always be ready to do those 3 things at any moment in our lives. Today I had the opportunity to share what prayer is and explain the holy spirit to someone. I realized when I was doing this, that I tend to explain things like I'm speaking to a little kid. I guess that's just the teacher in me. I need more adult conversations.

So if you are a believer and you are reading this. Remember to always be ready to do those 3 things for the Lord. Pray to Him. Preach about his love. Die for Him.

"but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you"

1 Peter 3:15

Day 3 Francis Bay/ Annaberg Ruins

These are the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins. Annaberg is the remains of one of the 25 sugar factories which were active on St. John. Besides sugar, molasses and rum were also produced by Annaberg. The factory was driven by slave labor until July 1848 when freedom was declared for Danish West Indies Slaves. The name Annaberg means "Anna's Hill" which refers to the infant daughter of William Gottschalk, a plantation owners from St. Thomas. Sugar cane harvesting and processing was backbreaking work.
The soil in the area was very thin and planting was done on hillsides. The hills had to be terraced and the soil fertilized with water, ashes, and dung. The sugar cane had to be then planted and then harvested 12 to 18 months later. Once harvested the cane was brought to the windmill where it was crushed and the juice from it was collected. If there was no wind the cane was crushed on a horse driven mill. After the juice was collected it was then sent to the boiling bench. Roughly three to five hundred gallons of juice could be produced per hour this way
The cane juice was boiled in "coppers" which were heated copper pans. The coppers were heated by fires fueled with dry can stalks. Boiling caused excess water in the juice to evaporate out and impurities could be skimmed off of the top of the pan. The juice was progressively boiled and ladled into smaller and smaller coppers until it was poured off into wooden pans to cool and allow sugar crystals to form. If molasses was desired instead of sugar the juice was removed from the last copper early to prevent sugar crystal formation. The sugar was then placed into barrels called hogsheads which could hold up to 1600 pounds of sugar. Drippings from the wet sugar within the hogsheads were used to produce rum.

Allegedly, they are haunted. I didn't see any ghosts. But I did meet this man who said he was in a Reggae band called "Inner Visions". Then again, maybe he was a ghost.

Francis Bay was nice until it started to rain and the sand fleas came out. Or whatever they were. Apparently, they only come out when it rains.

Day 2 Continued

Went to Cinnamon Bay. So beautiful and peaceful. It was kinda hard to relax at first. I felt like I needed to be doing something at all times. I needed a little detox session before I could relax and enjoy doing nothing. I need to purge all the "bad energy" (i.e. the stress of teaching and entertaining kids.)

Suzanne and Cameron came to play later in the day. I told them how bored I was and they thought I was crazy. They suggested snorkeling. I didn't really understand how sticking your face in the water and looking at the bottom is fun. The water is crystal-clear! You don't need to stick your face in it.
(I was later convinced to try snorkeling, considering my parents bought me brand new snorkeling gear. But that's on Day 4)

"Someone" thought that bringing Shamu to the beach was a super idea and not embarrassing at all. Turns out that filling Shamu with air didn't take as long as emptying Shamu to fit in the car. Hilarity ensued. I had to ride back to the house with "San Diego" in my face. (please refer to Anchorman for that one)

Vacation: Caribbean Style

Day 1

After 14 hours of traveling by planes, automobiles, and boats we finally arrive at our villa. The picture above is of the harbor when we came into St. John that night.

Day 2

We wake up at the crack of dawn which in Houston is 7:15. In St. John dawn is 5:00am. Since everyone was sleeping I decided to take pictures of the villa.

This is the view from the deck of our villa. The white roof is our neighbor.

We had our own pool. This is the view from the deck of the pool. This was the cat that lives at Jasmine. The deck wrapped around the house. I loved it. I could have just stayed at the house the entire week and not even see a beach and been just as happy. But I didn't do that.

The name of our villa was Jasmine. And she was a princess. (Did anyone catch that Disney movie reference?) This is the walkway from the gazebo to the house.

This is the gazebo which overlooks the pool.

This was another walkway from the gazebo to the pool.

To be continued.....

Last Day of School Recap

7:40 students arrive outta control
7:50 morning announcements
8:15 Chad puts glue in veronica's chair to make her stick to it.
8:16 Rodrigo grabs Stephanie's camera and starts taking pictures of himself.
8:17 Stephanie kicks Rodrigo and punches him.
8:18 Stephanie tattles on Rodrigo.
8:19 Rodrigo tattles on Stephanie.
8:20 yell at class that we are all about to sit in silence for the rest of the day
8:30 I make Chad walk to the office carrying the chair that is covered in glue. He cries the entire way.
8:45 talk to Principal about "appropriate punishment" for chad
8:50 decide that chad is to clean all of the chairs for punishment. awesome.
9:10 Kickball game
9:45 Ancillary time....I go to my room and do excessive paperwork.
10:30 eat Popsicles at the track
10:35-11:00 clean up Popsicle mess and break up ice-throwing fights. why???
11:00 go back to homeroom and clean
12:00 start movie
12:30 lunch
12:31 kids are outta control. parents show up and start passing out extra candy that they don't need and cake. why??
12:55 leave lunch early to maintain sanity.
1:00 finish movie
1:45 Rodrigo and Emily get in a fist fight over....nothing!!
2:35 kids leave. praise the LORD!!!

These are some of the notes I received from my students (and my own personal comments):

"Have a great summer. Thanks for the knowledge." (suck-up)

"Dear Ms. McGoldrick
Thank you for teaching me Reading and Social Studies." (as if I had a choice)

"Dear, Ms. McGoldrick
This year has been so much fun because of you. Your the best teacher I've ever had. Thank you for teaching me this year. I'm going to keep working hard when I go back to Japan this summer. I'll never forget my experience at America." (LOVE IT!! He even drew a picture of a baseball player! Best student ever!!!)

"Dear Ms. McGoldrick,
We were very fortunate to have you as Koji's teacher this year. He always told us how nice and patient you were with the kids and your kind disposition towards them. He has learned alot and has nice memories from his 4th grade. Have a wonderful summer!"
(kind disposition? patient? haha! I wish all parents were this nice. It helps that her son is perfect!)

As for gifts....I got the usual smelly candles, tacky lotions from Walmart, and gift cards (which I LOVE), and makeup!! Are they trying to tell me something?

Dragon Lady

All my students refer to my teaching partner, Christina, as Dragon Lady. They say that she breathes fire when she's angry. Here is a note I picked up today:

"I hate Dragon Lady because she is a b----. I hate her guts and she hates mine. She is very mean thats how she got her name dragon lady. Today we got to sit on a piece of tar. Other kids were talking alot during class. So what happened to all good kids got to go to track expect for me. I hate her so much she doesn't let me go to the....." (note ended when I took it up)

Actually, this might have been more of a diary entry. I still like the "50 things I hate about my teacher"note about me, but this is pretty great too. 5 more days of babysitting.

What the kids are writing about

This is from a note I confiscated from 2 of my best students who had been writing back and forth during my lesson:

"Stop being a M----- F-----"

"Stop being fat"

"Shut your face, n-----."

"You're not black so you can't say the "n" word, you fat piece of s---."

I was really mad when I took it up. Definitely could NOT read it aloud. But then went home and when I was reading it aloud to a friend, I started laughing hysterically.

Confession

Yesterday I had total meltdown. When most girls have a meltdown, they cry. I'm not very good at crying, so instead my pantry is emptied. Fortunately, all I had to eat was health food. I gorged on a box of flaxseed cookies and emptied my fridge of all the sugarfree pudding. I still felt guilty and ran 3.5 miles.

"Miss Walmart"

I'm not really sure what to say.....this is from the Walmart website and best explains it all.

"Teacher of the Year" Awards and Grants
Each year, every Wal-Mart store and SAM'S CLUB selects a local educator as its "Teacher of the Year," based on nominations from members of the community. Each store and club will give the award-winning teacher's school an $1,000 educational grant. The winning teacher receives a Teacher of the Year polo shirt and a Wal-Mart gift card worth $100 to buy classroom supplies. Local winning teachers are also considered for state and national "Teacher of the Year" Awards. Winning State Teachers of the Year receive a $10,000 educational grant for his or her school. State winners are automatically eligible to be chosen as National Teacher of the Year and receive a $25,000 educational grant for his or her school.

The Walmart off Kirkwood at Westheimer has picked me as their Teacher of the Year. My kids went officially "nuts" when the visitors came in. They also each got a box full of goodies. And by goodies I mean school supplies. I can't wait to rock my "Teacher of the Year" Walmart polo tomorrow. You can go to my school's website to read more about it. I'm still not sure whether to feel embarrassed or honored.

"i hate my life"

Gotta love the notes I collected today. I'll just leave you with the best ones:

"I hate my life. I'm not going to have anyone to play with this weekend."

"Is you my real friend?"

How could I forget to mention this??

How could I not mention this......as you know my dad is a pastor. And for the contemporary worship service, he has a punk rock band play. I mean they play christian music, but they tour on the side. They are totally this emo-punk rawk group. So at Easter my dad was dropping names of bands and punk music....as if he knew what he was talking about!! Soooo embarrassing!! See, now this is why he is only introduced to a small group of very close friends who I know won't reject me once they meet him.

It's really not my dad's fault that he likes them. It is the bands fault for letting my dad hang out wtih them. That needs to stop right now.

p.s. The band's name is "Sam's the Hero". They used to be called "Sons of Noah". I think you can download their stuff on itunes just to get a taste of the contemporary service.

How do y'all talk?

I'm stealing this from Emily's blog. Take this Quiz.

My results were "95% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?"

30 more days until......

Field Day

One of the most dreaded days of the year is going to be here in less than 24 hours. This is the day where anything goes. The kids are completely outta control. My star student announced yesterday "I'm going to run like a wild animal on Field Day!" Why? Why me?! Where's the food?

"WTF"

So one of my students ran up to me a couple weeks ago and says, "WTF, Miss McGoldrick?". I blank out. What?! What did you say?! "WTF, Miss McGoldrick?" Ok, so there it was again. Now this kid's parents are both doctors and comes from a good family and I'm thinking where is this coming from? He must not know what this means. So I ask. "Yes, I know what it means. Do you?" I tell him to lower his voice when he's answering being fearful of what he might say. "It means 'Where's The Food?" Oh!! That's what it means! Silly me!

My teaching partner, Tara, and I are both compulsive eaters. Whenever we get stressed, we reach for a snack. So when my celebrity students say and/or do the most obsurd things, we always look at each other and ask "Where's The Food?"

The Office

I absolutely love this show. I can't get enough of it. So excited today is Thursday. If you haven't seen this show....you are missing out!