Duct Tape and Zombies

My students had to write a letter to me about what they carry on a daily basis (based on the book They Things They Carried). Most were pretty serious letters about carrying stress and sadness, etc. I have had many students lose loved ones, so I got letters about the weight of death they carry. Some carry motivation to do well in everything he/she tries. Others carry fear of failure. 

One boy, however, just wrote, "I carry a roll of duct tape. It's important to have in case of a sudden zombie outbreak and if the backpack, which carries all my food, rips, then I can use the duct tape to fix the bag. What's why I carry duct tape."

I can't stop laughing.

It's a good point, one in which Josh would appreciate (not that he believes in Zombies, but Josh firmly believes in a good roll of duct tape). 

Why Teaching is Worth It

Question on an essay test: Why does Tim think that he's a coward? Do you think he is a coward? Explain.

Answer: Ms. Nichols is the greatest teacher ever and should win the teacher of the year award because she is so awesome. She is the hip to the beat, prime to the funk, and fung to the schway.

Nothing Can Stop Him!

The first time I saw Cody, I was filled with compassion for him. Of course, I didn't know his name was Cody, nor did I know anything about him, but I automatically felt sorry for him. 

It was last summer, and Josh and I were peering out Josh's window (we sometimes like to people watch from his second story apartment). Cody was moving into Josh's apartment building, and Cody's parents were helping him. Josh and I watched from the window (not in a creepy way) as Cody maneuvered boxes and tried to help his parents as much as possible. 

After they got Cody all moved in, Cody's parents took him for walk, probably to help Cody become acquainted with his new neighborhood. 

The next weekend when I was at Josh's, we saw Cody being dropped off by his parents to his new home. Cody didn't go inside, though. As he got out of his parents car, he turned the opposite direction of the front door and started walking down the sidewalk straight toward the busy street. His father called, "Cody, turn around. You're going the wrong way." Cody quickly turned around and eventually found his way to the door. His parents yelled goodbye, and Cody went inside. 

My eyes filled with tears as I watched this blind young kid try to find his way. I said a prayer for him, and thanked God for my sight. 

As the months went by, Josh and I would often see Cody out walking to and from school, out with his parents, or walking to the bus station. 

In October, I was in Nebraska for April's wedding, and Josh went to a UNC football game with a friend. At the football game, Josh's friend left to grab a soda at the concession stand, and when she returned to sit with Josh, she had Cody in tow. 

"Josh, this is Cody. Cody, this is Josh." The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together, and Josh called me that day to tell me he had become friends with the blind kid. 

Since that time, Josh, Cody, and I have become very good friends. Every Saturday evening, Josh and I knock on Cody's door and invite him to eat wings with us. Cody is always game for a fun night out, so he is always eager to come along. Josh and I enjoy his company, so we always look forward to spending Saturday evening with Cody. We eat wings, we laugh, we take Cody dancing, Josh helps Cody find a dancing partner, I sometimes dance with Cody, we eat Wendy's together after dancing, we take him home. We have created quite the fun Saturday evening together. 

What is completely amazing to me is that I no longer feel sorry for Cody. What an amazing young man he is! There is no reason to feel sorry for him. He is the most optimistic person I have ever met. He is hilarious. He can eat as much as Josh (and he's at least half the size). He is a straight A student. He is studying to be an Accountant. He lives alone. He irons his clothes (I don't even do that). He makes his own food. He cleans his own apartment. He loves to laugh. He's the first to make fun of Josh. The only thing Cody can't do is drive (and ride a bike). He doesn't complain about his blindness, and he says he knows nothing different since he was born blind (Cody has a twin sister, and as it turns out, his parents both carry the blind gene. He was born blind; his sister was not). He can pretty much do anything he sets his mind to, and there is no reason to feel sorry for him. He has accepted that he is blind, and Josh is happy to narrate what is happening around us. 

Every time I hang out with Cody, I am deeply impressed by him. It takes him nearly twice as long to do anything, including his homework and chores, so Cody has to spend his time wisely every day. I wish you could meet this young guy (he's only 19, but his maturity is far greater). He's become like a little brother to Josh and me. He has also started to come to church with us, so that's awesome, too! We swing by his door on Sunday mornings and the three of us walk the five blocks to church. Sometimes we have Sunday lunch together, and sometimes Cody has too much homework and has to go home. Either way, we enjoy his company. 

Josh decided to help Cody learn to dance, so one evening before heading to The Cactus Canyon, Josh swung Cody around his apartment. It was quite hilarious, and I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. 

Josh is always willing to help Cody find a dancing partner, and most ladies are willing to dance with Cody.  

 These two are best buddies. 

I am so happy Liz and Andrew got to know Cody last weekend. They both adored him, as I figured they would. 

Next weekend, Cody is going to come to Littleton with Josh. Andrew is coming, too, and the five of us are going to celebrate Cody because he turns 20 next weekend. We're going to take him to a baseball game and then have a game night and dinner to make his day extra special. I can't wait!

Greeley

Greeley:

• Where my boyfriend lives
• A town that reminds me (happily) of my hometown
• A place that makes me smile
• Holds my two favorite restaurants
• A second home to me

And nothing can beat sharing a piece of "home" with a best friend, so Josh and I invited Liz to join us for a weekend. She's always game for anything, and we both counted down the days until she would come with me to Greeley. Liz and I left on a Saturday afternoon together, complete with stay-the-night clothes, a camera, and anticipation of a fun night ahead. 

Greeley and Josh did not disappoint to entertain. Josh called up two of his buddies, Andrew and Cody, and the five of us were ready to hit the town. 

Stop number one: The Wing Shack, of course! Liz can't come to Greeley without trying out these delicious wings, and she was eager to try them since Josh and I always rave about our favorite hang out spot. 

It's a cute picture, even though it's blurry!

 From left to right: Liz, Andrew, Cody, Josh

 My love

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Stop number two: Once we stuffed ourselves with wings, fries, and beer, we just had to show Liz our favorite dance spot, The Cactus Canyon. Yeee Haw, Cowboy!

 Is that a smile I see on Josh? ;)

 The five of us had such a great time! (And don't mind the picture in the background...we have nothing to do with that!)

 Cheese, Cody!

 Time to show off  your dance moves, Liz.

 Your turn, Andrew. 

 Go Shiloh, it's your birthday. 

And there's that smile, along with some groovy dance moves!

 Geesh, we sure were tired after all that dancing. We had to take a small break after walking out to the car. 

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After a full night of eating and dancing, we HAD to eat again, so we did a quick drive through Wendy's before heading home. The guys came back to Josh's place, and we all hung out for another couple of hours eating pizza and Wendy's (don't judge). 

Liz spent the night, and the next morning, Josh spoiled us with donuts, coffee, and a second breakfast from Country Inn (don't judge). 

Come back again, Liz. We had a blast!

Easter Fun

The final few days of my Spring Break were fabulous as well. After giving blood, Josh and I met the whole crew at Johnny Carino's in Greeley: Shan, Jeff, Case and Siahna came from Littleton, along with Collin, Kate, Carson, Kye, and Corinne who were in Greeley for Easter weekend, as well as Mark and Nancy (Kate's parents), and Mike, Megan, and Elijah (Kate's brother, his wife, and their son).

On Saturday, Josh and I did some shopping, played Frisbee and tossed a baseball at the park, watched a movie, and then met up with Josh's friend, Cody, to have some wings. After wings, we went to The Cactus Canyon for some dancing.

Sunday was Easter. Josh and I went to church, and then Mark and Nancy invited us over for Easter lunch (Shan and Jeff came, too). The entire crew mentioned above had a lovely dinner, and since it was so nice outside, we spent several hours outside playing.

Blood Donation

"Ma,am, I just have a few questions before we start."

Josh and I were giving blood, and I guess there's a huge process to go through before actually pricking your arm and drawing your blood.

Actually, no, I take that back. It's not normally a huge process. Josh was in his private room for less than five minutes, and then he was off to a new chair to get his blood drawn. Easy peasy for Josh.

For me, however, it was a huge process (as most things are with me).

First there was the problem of me getting my ear pierced two days prior. This question/answer session lasted about five minutes. "Where did you get it pierced? What was the name of the studio? Was it a sterile environment? (Dear God, I hope so!) Where on your body did you get pierced? Do you have the number of the place? Where is Kearney?"

I passed that test, and after searching through her notebook, she determined that since I only got my ear pierced, and since it was a sterile environment, I was okay to give blood.

And then there's this little thing my mom passed on to me called Factor V Leiden Mutation. It's a blood disorder. I inherited it. Apparently since I have a blood disorder, that plays a roll in determining if I can donate blood or not. (Had I thought about it prior, I wouldn't have even tried to give blood, but I didn't even think about it until I was walking into the private room for questioning).

After asking me a million questions about Factor V, she left the room for nearly 10 minutes before finally coming back to tell me she thought it was okay to donate since I'd never had any problems with Factor V.

But then she had one more question for me. "I have to ask you this because I'm concerned. Have you been drinking today?"

I was shocked. No, I had most certainly NOT been drinking. Josh had been at school, and I had slept in, cleaned his apartment, gone to the grocery store, made lunch, eaten lunch when Josh got home, and played on the computer. Not an ounce of alcohol had been consumed, and the fact that she was asking such a question threw me for such a loop, that I could barely answer her.

"Do I smell like alcohol?!?!"

"Well, yes you do, and I'm very concerned about you. You could get very sick, you could pass out, your blood is much thinner when you're drinking, and I can't possibly take your blood if you've been drinking."

"I have not been drinking. I assure you. You can ask my boyfriend." (And then I made a mental note to NEVER wear my perfume again because that's the only logical reason I could find as to why I smelled like alcohol.)

I could tell she didn't believe me. She stared at me. I could see her trying to process whether she should take my blood or send me home. I stared back without blinking. I was offended. I was shocked. I was a little bit angry.

Finally she said, "I need you to promise me you're not going to pass out."

"I promise I won't pass out." (But in my head I was thinking, I don't know if that's a good promise to make. I had never given blood before, so I wasn't sure how my body was going to react.)

After 20 minutes in my private room, I was finally deemed acceptable to donate blood, despite my piercing, my blood disorder, and the suspicion of me drinking. By the time I got to the blood donation chair, Josh was already done giving blood.

She hooked me up, and the blood starting oozing out of my arm. I felt fine. She hovered over my like a mother with a newborn baby. She asked over a dozen times if I felt okay.

When it was all said and done, she told Josh to take very good care of me and to watch me carefully. She helped me stand up. She held my arm as I walked to the door (I felt perfectly fine, by the way). She asked me again if I felt okay. I assured her I was fine. She studied me. She let go of my arm. Josh and I left, each missing a pint of blood.

As we walked to the car, I told Josh the story. He said, "That explains why she was hovering over you and asking you so many questions. No one cared about me, but she sure did watch you carefully."

I'm still a bit offended about it, but at least Josh and I did our Civic Duty :) And I found out I'm O Positive.

Back to School

On Thursday of Spring Break, I attended school with Carson and Kyler. What a neat experience to join their classes and see what they do every day.

I spent the first two hours with Kye in his 1st grade class. They worked with nouns, fractions, money, time, and addition and subtraction. Kye was the first one to get his work done and then quickly went to doodling in his notebook. His teacher praised him for his hard work.

The sentence on the board said, "I see a beautiful ________ on the ground." They had to fill in a noun. One boy, who shyly showed me his paper, wrote, "I see a beautiful girl on the ground." I happened to be sitting on the ground, and he blushed, smiled and looked away when I read it. Too cute!

Kye had a perfect paper, and I was so proud to be his aunt. It was so interesting to watch an elementary teacher do her thing, and I was very impressed with his teacher. After their first hour in class, I followed Kye to P.E.

I knew he would excel here, as he's very athletic. Sure enough, Kye made sure to beat everyone in all their competitions. He led stretches, he ran harder than anyone else, and when it came time to doing chin ups, he was thriving to be the best.

The first time doing his chin up (they have to hold their chin on the bar as long as possible), Kye did it for 14 seconds. He was quite proud of himself until the next boy outdid him with 22 seconds. Kye quickly got back in line to re-try. When it was his turn again, Kye held on and held on. He was shaking. You could tell he wanted to quit, but he just HAD to beat 22 seconds. When he heard the teacher say 27 seconds, Kye let go and whispered, "YES!" He then bragged to his friends that he got 27 seconds, which was longer than anyone else.
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After PE, I found Carson in 3rd grade and spent two hours with him (it was his birthday, so he was getting special attention from everyone). Carson was super well behaved and on task at all times. He is a hard worker and really takes pride in doing really great work. I first went to art class with Carson. They watched a video that demonstrated how to draw certain animals. Carson watched the video will full attention, and then replicated each animal on his own piece of paper. He is quite the artist, and I was super impressed with his work. Even his peers kept wanting to look at Carson's paper to see how well he was doing.

After art, we went back to the classroom where Carson took a spelling test. He got 20/20. They then worked on vowels and consonants for some time, and Carson got every sentence correct. Not once was he off task.

It was then time for reading. The class was broken in to three smaller groups with a different teacher, and we went into the library to read a book about tornadoes. Each student had to read out loud and then answer questions about the section of reading.

It was then lunch time and time for me to leave. Carson begged me to stay longer (so cute he even wanted me there in the first place). I had a lunch date with mom and dad, though, so I said my goodbyes and left.

Such a great day with two amazing young guys.