Why I will miss teaching...

(Thanks for introducing this to me, Melissa.)

Although my teaching miracles consisted of reading papers with complex sentences and effective transitions, I can imagine the joy of this chorus teacher. These kids are both beautiful and inspiring. Bravo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tcE4rWovI

How I almost died.

(Okay, so maybe I'm following one of my Mom's tips and making the title seem a little more dramatic than it actually was.)

Let's just say that the following three things don't mix.

Before I left my parents' house yesterday, I went out into my dad's garden to take some fresh vegetables home. I grabbed a huge zucchini and two cucumbers and threw them into a bag in the front passenger seat of my car.

When I was about 30 minutes from Alexandria, I got a little bored/delirious and started playing with the pricky things on the cucumbers. Now, keep in mind, (and this is key) I wasn't looking at what I was touching. As my fingertips glided over the cucumbers, I kept feeling something wet. "Maybe I poked too hard?" I thought. Or "Maybe there's a rotten spot?" I digitally investigated them further to find if there were any imperfections. None. Weird.

In a moment of pure curiosity, I peeked in the bag to see if I had mistakenly spilled my Diet Coke inside. As I turned and twisted the veggies around, I found the hideous imperfection. A sloppy slug!! I shrieked, yelled something I don't remember, and steadied the steering wheel with my left, un-infected hand.

It was touch and go for a while, (keeping my right eye on the fugitive, left eye on the road) but I pulled into my parking lot unscathed.

I think we can learn a lot from this seemingly minor experience.

As strong as the temptation may be to touch/play with produce, keep it out of reach, preferably in the trunk. It's just not worth the risk.

Annie's journal

I wish I could use this as fuel for the blogfire (get it? bonfire=blogfire!), but unfortunately/fortunately, it's nothing but cute. My mom found a random notebook the other day that has one journal entry, written by Annie. It's not dated, but after I sent it to Meg's District to do some further investigation, MD read between the lines and discovered that Annie actually was a freshman in high school at the time. ("I'm playing freshman basketball.")

About halfway through her entry, right after she talks about her teacher, Dr. Evil, she writes, "Ugh, well, my love life kinda hectic. Well, I've liked McKay Coppins for now two years and 6 days haha don't think that's amazing that I knew how long I started liking him New Years at the boyd's." (I can't see why Annie didn't get asked to publish a book of memoirs while in HS.)

For those of you who don't know, McKay and Annie are now married, seven years later (9 years and 171 days after she first started liking him). I can't say I'm not (I know, McKay,...double negative) jealous of their fairytale friendship - best friends tying the knot. I love my husband dearly, but I like kinda wish he like liked me since he was 12, and wrote about it.

Winner gets Justin!

So Justin and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary last night, which we realize is not technically an anniversary. So let me rephrase that, we celebrated our semi-anniversary last night. During dinner, I asked Justin where he wanted to be in the next six months, by January 17th, 2010. His first answer was, "Hopefully still married."

Then today, after seeing Harry Potter, which was amazing by the way, Justin told me his horsecruxes (poor guy, hasn't read that book) would be 1. his t.v. 2. his X-Box 3. my wedding ring.

Should I be worried I may not make it to our real anniversary?

It's on, Mug-Bug.

Please refer to http://megsdistrict.blogspot.com/ for further details...

Another Gem

That last post (and follow-up conversation with my dad reminding me that #5 on that list would be "Compound W heals all warts and blemishes.") reminded me of this special website.

http://amysansweringmachine.com/

I must give credit to Marta for introducing me to it.

Genius.

My mom doesn't want me to blog.

When I told her I was starting a blog, all she said was, "Why?" She thinks that blogging is weird. "Why would you want to write about yourself?", "Why would you want everyone to know everything about you?" Keep in mind this is all coming from the woman who thought it was stupid for grown, mature, married adults to be on Facebook. And now, instead of calling my mom to find out what the latest is, I just read her FB status updates and postings on MY friends' walls, including this post, "Hi, Ang. How are you? Did you know that we're here in St. George for a few months?" (I think Ang and the entire FB world knew my parents moved before I did.) or this update, "Looking forward to changing 99 degree weather in St. George for something a lot cooler in PA" (Didn't know they were moving back). If she ever decides to start a blog, I may have the perfect title: "Sue's Sidenotes: Vital Advice for Life". It would include things like, 1. "Don't date a jerk." 2. "Eat ice; it tastes good." 3. "Embellish stories; they sound better that way." 4. "Be good after I die or I'll come back and haunt you." That last one was a little scary, but other than that, these little gems have been lifesavers for my sisters and me.

I never thought I'd do this...

But I am...(Thanks, Whitney, for inspiring me and letting me know that I can do a "Married" blog without being so "Married". ) Let me just state - my husband and I are not perfect. We rent an apartment that doesn't have a disposal. We don't go on awesome vacations, because we still have awesome student loans. And even though we serve on the Emergency Preparedness Committee in our ward, we probably couldn't survive for more than a week on our canned tuna, corn, and warm water. (Make that two weeks...thanks Mom and Dad for the box of Beef MRE's.) Now, if that doesn't make you want to read, I don't know WHAT will!

I know the title of this blog sounds like some Trekky civilization, but it actually came about when my former students realized they could combine our last names and still make a real word. Brilliant. It was also the only way they could remember my new last name. At least now, if they mess it up, they say "Schin" instead of "Lin", which is much better than when they slipped before ("Schidt" instead of "Schmidt").

I haven't even told Justin that I'm starting a blog. Maybe I'll break it to him when I tell him he's going to be posting on a blog. Maybe we can strike a deal: if he posts, I'll officially change my name. I don't know why it's taken me so long. Maybe because 15 year-olds have a hard time with change, or maybe because I make excuses and am just really lazy. Either way, that's my major goal this summer, along with getting the mail everyday and flossing my teeth at night. No joke. I really want to be consistent with these things.

We'll see how long it lasts.