the RED cups are here!

there is something about those red cups. it says HOLIDAY to me like no other! a few years back, my mom and i started a fun little tradition...see who could be the first to see the red cups at starbucks and call the other to say "they're here!" i don't remember how it started but it's fun :) my mom beat me this year (because i have massively cut down on my starbucks trips to about once a week) so i knew my chances were slim to catch the cups on the day of their arrival.




We are off to the east coast early saturday morning (rhode island, boston, and maine) and are sooo looking forward to the trip! however, we will certainly miss our family here over thanksgiving.

happy day of thanks everyone!! xo

random photo fun

ok, here's the deal. the order of my pictures got all jacked up and i have no clue why. i was way too tired to do this post in the first place, so i don't even want to think about figuring out which pics go with what and move them all around. so, here's a little game for you...figure out which photos go with which captions! OR just look at the pictures and call it a day. have fun :) ps. some might be correct, but at this point, your guess is as good as mine!

my old student, eric, playing football for SDHS...went to watch him play-he's super good!

so grown up :)

silly brothers. no further comment.

my wonderful sis-in-law with her "frou-frou" drink!

lyndsy's little man, landon

us girls with little landon :)

crimestoppers night time 5k run...with our friend kim, from wilson middle

kim's daughter leah...what a HAM...so beautiful!

matthew's flag football tournament

that kid to the right of matt, patrick #74, is an 8th grader in my class...yep, he TOWERS over me. good thing he's super nice!

team shot

bud and zoe went on a hike with matt's PE class, then came to visit my room! two of my students...anna and marcella, i love these girls!

rehearsing for the big one

At exactly 10 a.m. tomorrow, November 13th, about 5 million people in Southern California will drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture and hold on at the same time. Radio stations and school p.a. systems will play a sound track of rumbling and crashing, along with a man's voice declaring, "If this were the magnitude 7.8 earthquake we're practicing for today, you would be experiencing sudden and intense back-and-forth motions of up to 6 ft. per second. The floor or the ground would jerk sideways out from under you. Look around and imagine." And then, when we get the "All-Clear" bell, we quickly and orderly evacuate outside, and hope there are no gigantic cracks in the earth to speak of.

Join in the fun if you wish. 10am. It's always a good time getting 1,000 middle-schoolers to cooperate with such a task. If you don't want to join in the fun physically, you can just think of us crazy Californians and our San Andreas Fault disaster drill!

where are the weeks going?

While some days seem painfully slow and long, the weeks are flying by! Both matt and I are so busy these days, by the time we get home we just sit and stare at each other... almost too tired to have a conversation. Then there's the lovely, constant conversation that goes something like this: "what do you want to do for dinner tonight?" asks whitney, to which matt replies "oh i don't know, eat it." "Ok, that sounds great....so what do you want to eat for dinner tonight?" I try again. "I don't know, what do you want?" says matt. UGH! Does anyone else have issues with this? It is mostly on nights where we are both getting home from coaching late and don't want to cook anything extravagant, or anything at all.

So, what have we been up to? EVERYTHING!

Matt is still coaching flag football and has actually just started coaching another team...the ladies! He got enough girls who want to play flag football, and has been having fun working with the girls (who are way more fun and less intense, matt says!)

I am winding down my club season (only 2 league games left, and then one final tournament in january). I have also started teaching after school extended day reading 3 days a week, and coaching soccer at Roosevelt also-only one day per week until club ends. I am also busy supporting THREE new teachers in BTSA, which is a lot! I have only ever had one or two.

So, what happened to all that time I was excited to have when I finished my masters degree? No clue, I have such an annoying habit of taking on too much! The extra pay will hopefully be worth the craziness.

I LOVE the holidays...I am sooooo excited they are right around the corner!!!

*random pictures of everything are coming soon.

halloween fun

throughout the night, the following people made their appearances (in no particular order): audrey hepburn (kenz), the escaped prisoner (matthew), disco queen with a sweet fro (deed), sarah palin (mindy), a P-I-M-P (ryan), the flapper (kimberly), garth from wayne's world (dave), the cop (me), vampire (jen), oil refinery worker (jim acting as himself)

we went to dinner at Sushi Deli, where on halloween, you vote on the waiters/waitresses best costume and get entered into a drawing for 100 different giftcards! (fingers crossed...I voted for the lobster, matt voted for darth vader). Then, we met up with more friends at The Office, a local bar in our hood for a couple drinks before calling it a night! fun times.