Last Random on My Own!

1.  That's right.  Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee, host of the Random Dozen will be back with a whole new set of questions for us to answer next week!   WOO-HOO! 

2.  My students are all accounted for.  I was a little sad that a couple of them had moved to other states, and I didn't get to tell them goodbye.   I always hope that I had an impact on their lives, and that they won't forget about me years from now.

3.  Yesterday was the first time I got to use the "I'm not a football mom...I don't have to go to a football related event if I don't want to" card.  Well, guess what?  I didn't wanna, and I didn't.  It was the first time an inter-team scrimmage was held.  I had no desire to sit out in the hot bleachers to see someone elses' kids playing on the field.  I've done my time and now I'm done.  The band is in charge of the concession stand, and my services weren't needed (prayer of thanks inserted here).  YS had to go because the band was playing, and die-hard high school football fan husband just wanted to go.  (insert nice quiet time alone in the cool house here)  

4.  Thursday is a day off.  Yes, after just 3 days of school, we get a day off due to elections.  The county schools are used as voting places, so there's no school.  Yee-Haw!  I'm planning on going to Daily Mass, grocery store, meeting friends for lunch at a new Mexican place in town (insert one margarita in here), and relaxing.  Should be a good day.

5.  MS started a new job since lifeguarding is pretty much over: he's a waiter in a restaurant.  I think it's good for him to work in the food industry:  he'll have an appreciation to how hard servers work and how crappy customers can treat them.  Good life lesson.  The owners of the restaurant are tough:  they expect a lot out of their employees.

6.  Every now and then Sister Ann Marie at Franciscan Life posts a video from youtube with positive thoughts.  The one I watched yesterday had a couple of lines from a song by Joyce Marie that really struck me.  And, since we've just started a new school year, these are words to live by:

"Your gift of free will allows you to choose.
You are the master of your attitude."
from the song Uplifted and Inspired

Thank you, Sister Ann Marie!

7.  This is a total random number of random things that I'm doing today, so just go with it!
I have to share this commercial with y'all.  I saw it for the first time a few nights ago.  It's the funniest commercial I've seen in a while!

One Day Down

Well, one school day down, 179 to go!  Seriously, though, today was a really good day.  It was so good to see the kids.  One of the first students I saw was a 2nd grader who had always had long hair.  She came in with the cutest haircut!  It looked so adorable on her.  

I got to school at 7:00 today, and was met by the principal in the parking lot. I told him that I learned to get there early on the first day so I could get a parking space.  It only took 3 years, but I had a prime  parking space!  When I got into my room, I realized that I had been so traumatized by the first day of school that I had forgotten my lunch box...which not only had my lunch in it, but also my breakfast.  I called MS around 7:40 and asked him to bring it to me.  Of course, I figured he had gone back to sleep after he talked to me, so I didn't have a lot of hope that he'd get there before lunch.  But, around 9:30-10:00, in he came!  Mark that down in the pro column for having kids that are in college!

I tracked down my kids, figured out which Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade students needed to be rescreened, and managed to get a letter out to the teachers about scheduling.  It was a busy, full day.  The best part is that I'm actually excited about being back to work!

31 more Mondays!  (We don't have school on a lot of Mondays this year, so the Mondays we aren't in school don't count!)

Meet Me on Monday & Mexican Trifle

It's time for "Meet Me on Monday", hosted by Java.  Here's her description:

"Blogging is a funny thing...we tell our most intimate thoughts for all to read and yet most of the time I find myself sitting and wondering, "who is this person!?"  I know them...but yet I don't know them!  I want to know who the person is behind all those words so I thought of a great way for all of us to "meet" each other!

Every Sunday I will post five get to know you questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we can all learn a little more about each and every one of us!!"


1. What is your favorite holiday?
Thanksgiving...hands down.  You get together with family, eat, watch some football, drink some wine/beer, and you don't have the stress of having to buy presents!
 
2. What color clothing do you wear the most?
Blue.  I didn't notice I wore a lot of blue until one of my students (a long time ago) asked me if my favorite color was blue because that's all I wore!  Since then, I've been trying to branch out to different colors, but blue is my "go to" color!
 
3. What is your heritage?
German.  That's it, just German.  Although my maternal grandfather immigrated from the corner where the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia meet, they spoke German and were considered Austrian.  My daddy spoke German in the home growing up and my mom's family only spoke German when they didn't want her to know what was being said.  Unfortunately, that was not passed on to us.
 
4. What is your middle name?
Patricia
 
5. What is your favorite cookie?
White Chocolate Macadamia...the bigger the better!

If you want to participate in Meet Me on Monday, go over to Java's and link up!

And, since I told a few people I would post this recipe on Friday (but I was way to busy to put it in a post), I figured I'd better go ahead and post it.  It's really easy, and very, very good!

Mexican Trifle Bowl Salad

Cornbread
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix plus ingredients to make per box
1 (4 oz) can green chilies undrained
1 clove garlic
Mix together and bake in baker for 20 minutes at 400

Salad Layers

15 oz pinto beans
15 oz. whole kernel corn
1 large tomato (or salsa)
1 green or red pepper
1 medium onion (opt.)
2 cups shredded cheese
6-8 pieces bacon fried crisp or 2 cups cooked chicken or ground beef (I used 2 packages of the Tyson chicken-Southwestern Style)

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 package dried Ranch Dressing mix
Mix and set aside

Layer 1/2 of crumbled corn bread on the bottom of the trifle bowl.
Add in layers 1/2 each of pinto beans, corn, tomato (or salsa), pepper, onion, mean, dressing, and cheese.
Repeat layers.
Keeps well and can be made ahead.