Student Evals

Today was Matthew's last day of student teaching. I know, where has the time gone?? Anyway, he came home with his students' evaluations of him, what he did well and what he could do better. Oh my goodness I laughed so hard at some of them:

"Okay dude. You were good. I mean sometimes you were boring. But other than that, sir, you were way good!" Thanks, I think...

"More food!!!! And you should give me an A even though I don't deserve it! JK your awesome don't change I'll miss you :)"  That last part in there reminds me of the generic stuff you write in people's yearbooks. And actually, two other people said he should have brought food and candy...?


"Well I didn't want to shoot myself in your class so your doing great." How's that for a ringing endorsement?

"Say your name more cause I just called you sir."  This one was really weird to me. How do you not know your teacher's name?

"I thought you were a great teacher, fun and you let us call you coach." Apparently a lot of kids really did call him coach. I'm just now finding out about this. I feel like this is one of those stories that should have been shared during daily 'tell me about your day' storytime. I feel so out of the loop.

"You could improve your jokes."


And, the last thing that we learned from these evaluations was that most high school students do not know the difference between "your" and "you're".

favorite things

Eight months old is a good stage for Natalie. She is doing things that I absolutely love right now.

She will crawl around and follow me as I walk around the house. If I go in the bedroom and leave her in the living room, she starts coming back to see me. If I'm walking back and forth, putting things away or something, she tries to follow me and just ends up going in a circle. Pretty funny. If I'm doing the dishes, she crawls up, comes in between my legs and then turns up and smiles at me. Or, she grabs hold of my pants and pulls herself up to standing behind me. She's not necessarily wanting to be held, she just wants to be near me. I love it.

Also, she has been so happy lately. Or, more accurately, her happy times are really, really happy. She has started to laugh uncontrollably when we are playing with her. It is the cutest, most adorable thing in the world.

And she loves sucking on our noses. I laugh so hard every time she does it. haha.

crazy exciting stuff

Guys. My entire family comes in to town today. My brother is done with his mission Wednesday. (Side note: he's serving in Salt Lake). We basically get to spend all week with him. I'm so incredibly stoked I cannot wait. I've been counting the days for the past six weeks. My family is all staying in our little apartment. Needless to say, it will be quite cozy. I can't wait to see Jonathan. I'm so excited!!

10 months later, I think I can finally tell this story

First of all, I want to say thank you for everyone's ideas about money-saving techniques. There were a lot of really good ideas that Matthew and I took note of. Now, on to today's story about being in the hospital at 7 months pregnant for the dumbest two days of my life.

If, perchance, you have diabetes and are pregnant, and have a decently high blood sugar when you are at a doctor's appointment, and the doctor wants you to check in to the hospital because she is so worried and wants to get your blood sugar down, and that hospital is the one that is 5 minutes from our house... don't think, don't blink, just waddle away as fast as your 7 month pregnant body can take you. You know what the regimen was at the hospital to bring my BG down and in control? The nurse would use a glucometer to check my blood before and after meals. Yeah, the same thing I do at home. I was so annoyed, and I hated every single minute of it.

One of the worst moments was when one nurse was in the room and was checking my blood and noticed that I had an insulin pump. And then she said something to the effect of "Oh this is really different that you are in here. Usually we don't have people like this. Usually when girls go on the insulin pump, their blood sugars aren't really a problem any more."


Right, because going on a pump definitely solves all your problems (eye roll). Totally misinformed. Very insulting in the moment.  I think the reason that this rubbed me the wrong was was that I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to keep everything as good as possible, and she made me feel like I was weird or doing something wrong. In actuality I was really doing quite good overall. So, like I was saying earlier, before you get to this point, WADDLE AWAY!!!

bumblebee

I'm not usually behind the times this much, I mean Halloween was almost a whole week ago. I'm a stay at home mom with only one relatively easy baby and lots of free time, c'mon get your act together woman! Actually, the reason this is a bit late is because the pictures we took of her on Halloween just didn't turn out super awesome, so I made us dress her up again today so we could take better pictures. I know, I know, was that really necessary, but you will never get your baby's first Halloween back and we needed a picture with a real smile!

 

She is so stinkin' adorable. I can't even handle it.

October Food

Happy first day of November!

Chicken Noodle Soup: How have I never made chicken noodle soup before? It is 143% better than anything from a can, very easy, and wonderfully comforting.(Source: very loosely based from Pioneer Woman)

Challah: By far the prettiest loaf of bread I have ever made. Also, very scrumptious. Similar to brioche, a richer loaf of bread that makes excellent French toast. (Source: Annie's Eats)

Hummus, Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwich: Ohhhhhhh baby. This was definitely one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever had. Probably in the top three. The crisped ciabatta roll (instead of the pizza crust suggested in the link, definitely a good choice) paired with creamy hummus, chicken, red pepper, swiss cheese and onions… oh baby. It was a party in my mouth. I loved this so much. Here is a tutorial for making roasted red peppers.(Source: Panini Happy)

Jerk Chicken Chili: A fun, slightly different take on chicken chili, although neither Matthew or I were super impressed with it.. (Source: Smells Like Home)

Honey and Sweet Potato Rolls These were excellent, did not taste overpoweringly like sweet potato (actually, not really at all), were easy to make, and each roll gives you approximately 33% of your daily vitamin A. There you go. (Source: How Sweet It Is)

Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Frosting: So. Dang. Good. Oh. My. Gosh. (Source: Macaroni and Cheesecake)

Creamy Cauliflower Soup: Despite that the title says “creamy”, this is a very healthy recipe, as the creaminess comes from plain greek yogurt (okay, in the recipe link it comes from a potato, but I skipped that and just added yogurt at the end… yum). It wasn’t at all bland, had a nice combination of flavors, and there were no leftovers. (Source: Annie's Eats)

Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere (or Cheddar) Biscuits: So the recipe uses gruyere cheese, but yeah right that’s like the most expensive cheese in the store, let’s stick to some sharp cheddar, which worked out great. I loved that the tomato mixture was just the right amount of juicy, but didn’t take away the flakiness of the biscuits. I’m excited to make this again… (Source: Annie's Eats)

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes: These tasted a lot like those mini donuts you get at the fair or wherever… you bake the donuts in muffin tins and then roll in butter and sugar and they are soft and moist and sugary and delicious. (Source: Pennies on a Platter)

Pumpkin Applesauce: Apparently we went on a pumpkin kick for a while…This was very simple, just pumpkin puree mixed with some just made applesauce (sans sugar). I really love freshly made, warm applesauce and the pumpkin just made it a fun fall side. (Source: Pennies on a Platter)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes: These may be too good to really be counted as a breakfast item, as they almost taste like something you would eat for dessert, totally in a good way. You have a pumpkin pancake with a cinnamon swirl cooked in, topped with cream cheese icing… Matthew said ‘you can make these anytime you want!’, which I think about sums it up. (Source: Recipe Girl)

This actually was a little bit of a slower month for making new stuff since there were two weeks in there where I was actually really, really busy. Especially when you consider that the hummus/red pepper sandwich, cauliflower soup and tomato cobber dishes were all things I made for myself for lunch, since Matthew would definitely not touch any of them. Oh well, I sure enjoyed them all by myself :)

Matthew’s favorites: Donut Holes, Pumpkin Pancakes and Sweet Potato Rolls

My favorites: Hummus/Red Pepper Sandwich, Tomato Cobbler, and Pumpkin Pancakes