Cat's Out of the Bag

Notice anything different?

Neither do I, not really yet.

Nevertheless, there IS a baby in there - one that will make his or her appearance at the end of September!

My most favorite things about being pregnant:

1) My students' reactions. Their reaction to the news was just as elated, if not more so, than my own family. They ask me every day how le bébé is doing. They want to know how big he/she is and if I'm still feeling sick. They are currently offering endless suggestions of names. Any time they get a bit rowdy, I shut them up real quick by clutching my stomach dramatically and crying out, "your disruption and noise are so stressful on the baby. Since this effects development, if you keep it up, it could be born with only seven toes." 

2) Being pregnant is my excuse for everything - not wanting to go grocery shopping, being late to anything, taking three hour naps after school, eating too many Bagel Bites, and acting crabby. If anyone comments on my generally sluglike lifestyle as of late, response is always something like "Excuse me, I built a brain today. What do YOU have to show for yourself?"

3) Walking into any store and, having lost all interest in buying clothes for myself, making a beeline for the baby department and cooing over all the teeny tiny things. 

4) Last week, I woke up in the middle of the night to find Russell next to me, bathed in the light of the laptop. He'd been up for hours researching the best kinds of jogging strollers and those cute little carriages that attach to the back of a bike.

My most unfavorite things about being pregnant:

1) I am so tired. While I understand that my body is working extra hard to build and sustain a tiny life, it is frustrating to not be able to do normal things during the day because I need a four-hour nap.

2) Intensified aversion to food and smells. It's always sad when Russell makes a special effort and spends a lot of time to make us a good meal, like breakfast burritos, only to result in my gagging at the sight and smell of them, high-tailing it upstairs, and yelling from my bed for him to bring up some pears and cucumbers.

3) Throwing up in terrible places. To name a few: driving in the car on the freeway; in the (luckily) abandoned kitchen of our ward building during a Mutual activity; and worst of all, in my classroom, during first period. Those poor kids.

The Vegas

Three years ago, we took a weekend road trip to Las Vegas with Katie and Daniel.

Just kidding.

It was only three weeks ago, but it feels like forever ago.

I had the best salmon of my life at the Hard Rock Cafe 

I love these people 

We loved the jellyfish at the Mandalay Bay Aquarium

There were three Ross stores on the strip ... Really?

PBR Rock Bar & Grill managed to thrill me by serving me an array of my favorite foods - toast with peanut butter 

and raspberry jelly, fresh fruit, Spaghettios, and water with lemon

 Bellagio awesome water show to Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be A Lady"

I absolutely love these water lilies on the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel lobby

We stayed at Circus Circus (in the weird cheap barracks, not the high rise hotel). The weather was warm and we had such fun swimming, walking the strip, losing $1 to the casinos, and pretending we were high-rollers strolling through the nice hotels.

Out of the Mouths of 14-Year-Olds

Posts without pictures are boring, but posting pictures of your students is illegal and I don't have any anyway.

Here is some hilarious dialogue that has taken place in my classroom in the last little while:

"How do you say poop in French?"

Student: "I left my pencil in ceramics class!"
Me: "Uh oh...do you want to borrow mine?"
Student: "No, mine is a mechanical pencil, it's special. Wait, I have it. No I don't. Yes I do. No I don't."

Me: "Everyone, it's time for the French song of the week."
Student 1 (groaning): "Noooooo. I hate French music."
Student 2: "At least it's better than really boring music like Einstein or Mozart."

Student 1: "Does anyone here drive a minivan?"
Student 2: "Madame Lee drives a minivan."
Student 1: "Who would drive a minivan if they don't have kids?"
Me: "I do not drive a minivan."
Student 2: "Madame Lee, don't deny what you drive."

Me: "How was the rules refresher assembly?"
Student 1: "Boring and stupid."
Me: "What rules were refreshed?"
Student 1: "No drugs and no swearing and no mooning."
Student 2: "What's mooning?"
Student 1: "It's when you pull your pants down so everyone sees your butt cheeks."

Me: "Out of all the French teens we read about, pick one that you'd like to hang out with and get to know better."
Student: "They're all lame!"

Student: "What else should I say in my letter to a soldier?"
Me: "Things about you. Talk about your interests. How about I like math and spaghetti?"
Student: "I don't like spaghetti!"
Me: "Well, what do you like then?"
Student: "Spaghetti's okay..."

Student: "How do you say your mom in French?"
Me: "Ta mere."
Student: How do you say is so fat?"
Me: "No."
Student: "Please?"

Me: "How was Reality Town?"
Student: "It wasn't even a town. It was a bunch of lame booths in the gym, so ghetto."

Student 1 (reading off his hand): "Hey everybody, there's a party tonight at _______ South _______ West in Sandy."
Student 2: "That's my address."
Student 1 (laughing hysterically): "The funny part is that there's actually no party, and I said your address."

Me: "My first CD I bought was the Tarzan soundtrack."
Student 1: "Waste of money!"
Me: "I listened to it all the time, and it cost me twelve hard-earned dollars."
Student 1: "Twelve dollars back then is probably like a hundred dollars now."

Me: "How was the perfect attendance party? I heard you guys got donuts!"
Student 1: "Yeah, but they were the same donuts we got at the maturation class last year, so they remind me of that."
Student 2: "Nobody wants crappy maturation donuts."

Me: "Okay, everyone, please put the textbooks away carefully on the shelf...don't just chuck them."
Student: "Everyone, chuck the books!"

I Hate Eating Healthy

My fourth period class got over and the students raced out the door, eager for their lunch break.

I, however, took my time gathering my things and locking my door. With a heavy heart, I made my way down to the faculty lounge, where I knew my lunch was waiting for me.

Spinach salad. With chopped strawberries and cucumbers in it. And strawberry vinaigrette dressing.

One of my 2012 goals is to eat better - I'm sure everyone has this goal, but I'm also sure mine is the only one that is subheaded with the following plea to myself: Stop eating so many Pizza Lunchables. They will kill you.

So at the grocery store, I spent more time in the produce section and filled up on fresh food. Then I brought it home and even woke up early to make my lunch ahead of time.

But. What it doesn't say on the bag is that spinach actually tastes terrible and won't fill you up at all. No one ever finds themselves craving leaves. I resented every bite of my brachiosaurus lunch and would take the sodium-filled over-processed Lunchable any day, simply because of its ability to cheer rather than to depress.

I hate healthy eating. No matter how hard you try, every bite makes you more irritable and wish that you had just gone with a Domino's pizza or a Carl's Jr. hamburger instead.

Hoot Owl

Today, 6:05 am...

Me: "Russ, I don't feel like getting up today. I am so tired and I have a weird headache behind my eyes, like when I look from side to side or up and down it hurts."

Russ: (an angered bear awoken from his slumber): "Why in the world then are you whizzing your eyes around like a hoot owl!?"

1, 2, 3

Happy 2012! Here's what the Lees have been doing:

AUBREY

1. Teaching French reflexive verbs and excited to hit the halfway mark of the school year

2. Going to Young Women activities

3. Catching the flu from my students and throwing up in hallway trash cans while weird students watch

RUSSELL

1. Starting a new semester of school

2. Reading Machiavell, Hobbes, and Nietzsche

2. Adding a French minor which delights his wife

BOTH

1. Going to the new museum of natural history at the U

 

2. Making Oreo truffles, keeping resolutions better than we did in 2011, swaddling Sammy in blankets and then laughing at his little face peeking out, and having dance parties

 3. Taking weird self portraits in our church parking lot because I'm excited that it finally snowed
(and that I found this Dior skirt at D.I. for $5)

I Loved 2011

School. Teaching. Family. Travel. Friends. Hikes. Adventures. Weddings. Haircuts. Twenty-four. Twenty-six.

Paris. Geneva. Yellowstone. Santa Fe. Island Park. Los Angeles. Bear Lake. Las Vegas.

2011 was so good to us.