Sweet Tea Run

Yesterday during 1st hour, two of my students came and asked if they could go speak to their counselor. They were finished with their assignment, so I told them that would be okay as long as they brought a note back.

On the way to their counselor, one of the girls had a great idea to make a trip to McDonald's to get sweet tea. They would only be gone for 15 minutes, and on the way back they would swing by their counselor's office to get the note "proving" they had been with Mr. Lewis.

They hopped in the car, and as the driver turned into McDonald's, she was going way too fast and came too close to the light pole. She swerved to miss the light pole, and instead rammed up the curb. At this point, she was out of control and was headed the wrong way with a semi truck coming straight for them. She swerved again to miss the semi and ended up ramming up the opposite curb and up a massive hill. Once the car stopped, it slid down the hill back into oncoming traffic. The tire was flat, her car was undrivable, and they knew they were in big trouble.

The first thing the passenger said was, "Ms. Nichols is going to kill us." (She was right).

From this point, they made a few good decisions:
1). They called me first and confessed what had happened (although, they only told me they had a flat tire, now that she had rammed up a hill and almost hit a semi).
2). They called both parents to tell them what happened.
3). The parents stayed with the car while waiting for the tow truck.
4). They came back to class (in tears) to give me their deepest apologies.

I was so angry I was nearly in tears. I didn't yell, but I told them that I had trusted them and they lied to me. I told me that I am responsible for their safety and that if they had been injured, I would have been responsible for their lives.

They truly were sorry for lying, and I give them props because it would have been easy to try to cover up and not tell me what happened.

Today, they got called into the office by their administrator. He considered suspending them for 1-3 days for lying to me, but in the end (and I thought this was fair), they have to spend their next five lunches doing chores about the school.

They will never be able to leave my room again, and they have learned a very tough lesson. The girl's car is totaled, and she won't be driving for a while.

Nut Job Mom

I have a student. Actually, I have 140 students on a daily basis, but this one particular student is a Nut Job. I can't even blog about her because I'm afraid I'll lose my job, but please believe me when I say she is a Nut Job. Words can't even describe this girl.

And to make matters worse, she is also a lacrosse player and I am her coach. Every day, for hours, I must deal with her, and I really should win an award for keeping my cool.

But this blog is about her mother. Team Mom. Nut Job number one. (In the battle of nature versus nurture, I truly believe nurture wins every time I meet the parents of a crazy student. Like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter).

I get about 5-10 text PER DAY from Nut Job Mom. No joke. And the texts are so poorly worded and punctuated, that it takes every muscle in my brain to figure out what she's trying to say. She often tells me the same thing two or three days in a row.

When I was in NE for my grandpa's funeral, she texted me and the entire team at 1:30 AM. Yep, in the middle of the night. It was the same morning my grandfather died, so when I got the text, I thought it was my mom sending a message that grandpa had passed away. So imagine my heart rate and speed at reaching for the phone.

It was Nut Job Mom, though, and the text said that our Lacrosse game the following day was over an hour away near Colorado Springs and to make sure to leave at least two hours in advance.

THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE INFORMATION. Our game was about 10 minutes away. Our game was at Thunder Ridge High School. She was sending the entire team to Palmer Ridge High School. One word makes a big difference.

There was nothing I could do about it in the middle of the night, and it took me at least an hour to fall back to sleep. At 4:30 AM, I got the phone call that my grandpa had passed away.

That morning, I texted Nut Job Mom and said, "The text you sent in the middle of the night has wrong information. You need to fix this immediately." I then texted my entire team to tell them not to listen to text messages from Nut Job Mom. I received several phone calls from parents, who had also gotten the text, to confirm where the game really was. And I was dealing with this while I was mourning the loss of my grandpa. I was furious at Nut Job Mom.

She eventually texted and said she was sorry for the mistake. It was Mapquest's fault for sending her to Palmer Ridge instead of Thunder Ridge. Riiiightt....

Two nights ago, I received a text from Nut Job Mom at 11:30 PM. It was to inform me, for the third time (not even joking), that her Nut Job Daughter wasn't going to make practice because she was getting her teeth pulled. She also wanted to know what time practice was this week.

(Practice has been from 3:30-5 every single day for the past month. Nothing has changed. Practice will continue to be 3:30-5 until the end of the season).

Once again, I was awakened by her texts, and I had a hard time going back to sleep. I was furious. (I go to bed at 10 PM and wake at 5 AM. Please do not text me after 9:30).

The following morning, I sent her this text: The practice schedule has not changed. Now until the end of the season, we will practice from 3:30-5. The girls all know. I wanted to ask if you could please not text me after 9:30. I wake up at 5 AM, and I have a hard time going back to sleep when you text me at 11:30 PM and 1:30 AM. Thanks for this consideration.

I haven't heard a peep from her since.

Nut Job Daughter said to me yesterday, "My mom has some questions she wanted me to ask you...."

At least I only have to deal with one Nut Job now.

Love

ODE

On my drive home from Greeley to Littleton last weekend, I received an email from Josh.

Subject:
ODE to my lady!

Message:

A short haired brunette, she was just my style.

I kept trying to catch her eye, and she gave me a smile.

I told her she should dance, then she took me as a partner.

If I had only known then that the dance was just a  starter.

Three years later I am still trying to catch her eye.

And am reminded everyday that I must be the luckiest guy.

Love ya Shiloh Baby!

This is my favorite thing ever! He's so sweet, and he can write! 

Cookies and Dresses

Liz came over for dinner last night, my first guest in our new house (other than my family, who has yet to see the finished product). Liz got to see the finished product, that which I have been working so hard on for the past two weeks in the hour or so a night that I am home before I go to bed.

I came from Lacrosse practice, and she came from the gym, but dinner was ready when we both arrived thanks to this thing called a crock-pot. And boy was dinner delicious, but that's not the point.

After dinner, Liz tried on her bridesmaid dress while I put cookies in the oven. I had never seen the bridesmaid dress tried on with the slip the girls are wearing underneath (because the dress is kind of short, and the slip adds some length), so Liz was kind enough to bring it so I could see the whole piece together.

I approve. It's cute!

While she had the dress on, I told her she should come upstairs with me so she could hold a bouquet to see what it looked it with the dress.

Then Liz suggested I hold my dress up to her dress to see how it looked together.

I did one better and put the dress on :)

I mean, come on, I couldn't help it. A reason to put my dress on? Sure, sign me up!

So there we stood, she in her bridesmaid dress, me in my wedding dress. We were admiring ourselves in the mirror when I smelled the cookies.

"Oh no, the cookies!!!" I went running downstairs with one orange shoe and one teal shoe (because we were deciding the best look) with Liz in toe.

I yelled to Liz, "I have to be careful. I CANNOT spill anything on my dress." Liz offered to take the cookies out of the oven.

There we stood in the kitchen, one soon-to-be-bride and one soon-to-be-bridesmaid, with a pan of burnt cookies.

All we needed to do was make a bucket of popcorn to eat while watching a movie in our dresses, and we'd be just like Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe on Friends.

Luckily, no one knocked on my door in that moment. THAT would be embarrassing.

Distracted

At the end of every lacrosse practice, Coach Everett pulls the girls into a large group and gives them a speech. Yesterday was no exception, and I found myself in the back of the group.

Coach Everett began his speech, and I found myself looking at my engagement ring. The lights were hitting it just right, and it was sparkling. I was staring at my ring, thinking how beautiful it is and how much I love it. I was thinking that Josh did such a wonderful job picking it out on his own. I was thinking about our upcoming wedding day. I was thinking how wonderfully sparkly it was as the lights hit it.

"Coach Nichols, anything to add?"

A girl nudged me and said, "Coach Nichols, Everett is talking to you."

I glanced up, and the entire group of 46 girls was looking at me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"Do you have anything to add to what I just said?"

(I have no idea what Coach Everett said).

"Nope, I'm good. You said it well. Good job, girls."

I whispered to the girl who had nudged me, "I have no idea what he said. I was admiring my ring."

Spicy Blueberry Bagel

Josh and I were able to gather a few people to help us move this past weekend. My parents arrived, his parents arrived, my sister arrived with Jeff and kids, and Josh's best friend and best man arrived, along with his girlfriend. (We so appreciate the help! Thank you to everyone who helped us move in just a few hours).

I stopped at Panera to get bagels for the crew, so when Josh woke up Saturday morning, he headed straight for breakfast. He chose a blueberry bagel, found cream cheese in the fridge, and proceeded to eat breakfast while I got ready for the day.

A few bites into Josh's bagel, he started to inspect it. He said to me, "Are you sure this is blueberry? It's spicy."

I looked at him like he was a complete goof ball. "Of course that's blueberry, and it is not spicy. Why in the world would the bagel be spicy?"

"I don't know, but I swear it's spicy. It tastes like jalapenos. Seriously, taste it."

"Josh, the only reason it might be spicy is because it was sitting by an everything bagel or something. I promise, it's all in your head. It's a blueberry bagel, so just eat it."

He took another bite. "I swear this tastes like jalapenos."

And then it hit me. I have jalapeno cream cheese in my fridge (man, I just love jalapenos so much!). He had smeared jalapeno cream cheese on his blueberry bagel, which explained why it was spicy.

"Who in the world buy jalapeno cream cheese? Why do they even make such a thing?"

I was cracking up. He wasn't too amused. I threw his bagel away and made him a new one with regular cream cheese. I also suggested to him he read labels before using anything in my fridge, as there's bound to be spice in almost everything I eat!