fiesta mexicana!

my two dear friends, erica & sandy shared a birthday on thursday. we decided it was only natural to have a combined shindig, the likes of which will never be seen again in these parts. it was the social event of the season, with everyone bringing their finest mexican cuisine...

there was happy rancherito music, pinata bashing (no birthday girls were hurt in the making of this photograph)...

LOTS of people...



delightful costumes...

good old fashioned fun times with the alcohol (sangria's a classic mexican drink! no party's a party without it!)
and even better old fashioned quality time with friends.

(look, we're hair twins!)






dave (in the middle) was the photographer for the evening -- he took all these super quality shots -- what a guy, that guy.

here's the cutest of all for the grand finale -- don't we look festive?!

it was the funnest party in the history of parties. now that it's over, i find myself wandering around aimlessly, feeling like i'm supposed to be making lists and planning things...
maybe i'll make a list of things i could make a list of so i feel some sense of purpose.

hmm.

OR maybe i'll just try to enjoy this blessedly empty day, void of all responsibilities, full of pretty sunshine and new jeans.

yes!!

(this is me saying, 'yes!' in my empty classroom, not me trying to be a paint-throwing super-hero -- in case you weren't sure what's going on here...)

my grades are recorded, my classroom furniture is moved out to the hall, the kids are on their buses, i'm finished for the year!
it's a good feeling.

we had a little tragedy in the bus lane to cap off the year. the school superintendent crashed into one of the students -- his big black pickup truck went on top of her hood almost!! she was an emotional wreck, not to mention the state her car was in. nothing like getting the summer off to an exciting start.

i'm going home to that exciting summer now. (hopefully in one piece! last week a truck rear-ended the truck directly behind me in a long line of cars behind a loading bus... there's bad driving juju going around.)

sorry 'bout all you blokes still in school. i'll mourn with you who mourn if you'll rejoice with me who rejoiceth...

luxurious locks

just look how long and luscious that erica's hair's getting to be!
in keeping with the prior post, here's a 'before' to remind you of how far we've come...

short hair or long, erica's still just going to be beautiful, but i'm so proud of her perseverance in growing it out. she's a trooper, that girl!
here's an even longer ago 'before' just so you know that i can truly identify with the whole process...

it seems that shorter hair also makes noses more prominent.

and one more 'after'...
soon we will be like the lady on the shampoo commercial with her rope of hair tied to the back of a truck, pulling it down the road with its strength and longness.

the classroom makeover

here are the promised pictures of the finished classroom mural project!
in case you forgot what my classroom looked like, let me give you the 'before' pictures first...

i had all my classes paint this particular mural as a project at the end of my first year teaching here.

lovely rolling hills, pleasant, colorfully peaceful...

any time we've discussed what could be painted next, the only enthusiastic idea i ever heard was to take gallons of paint and throw them wildly at the walls, creating a mass mayhem of colorfulness. while that idea appealed to the creative side of me, it definitely did not appeal to the neat-freak, organized, structured side of me.
so i came up with this compromise -- a mural of people looking like they're throwing paint at the walls and each other while they're at it.
somehow it ended up looking vaguely like a hippie van which doesn't help my frequent assertion that i do NOT, in fact, smoke pot. somehow being the art teacher comes with some unfortunate assumptions :-)

one student came in shortly after getting started with the painting and said, 'oh great, rainbows and black people, what are we trying to say here?'
while i love gay people and any/every race just as much as the next guy, i promise this wasn't a political statement!
although that would be more in keeping with the history of mural painting as a whole. today i'm having them do a little worksheet on murals and diego rivera. they're going to be thrilled. they'll wish we were still painting.


we cast shadows of different students on the walls and traced around them... this one is me, looking powerful and super-hero-esque.


it was fun while it lasted. praise god it's over. i can now recover from my stress-induced zits in peace.

if you were curious about why nick would have shaven his beard in the first place, go on over to tim's blog for the rest of the story...

yuck.

the beardless wonder

nick shaved his beard!! it completely threw me for a loop -- he seemed like a total stranger. it took me quite a while to get used to the new look. i was a-feared of him for a little bit there... but with time and perseverance (and a bandana bandito look) i finally got used to his new face.

here's us trying out the closed mouth look -- can we help it that we're always so excited?!
i said if he stays shaved then we'd have to start dating all over again from the beginning... he'll be growing that beard back out, no worries. he likes a beard better, as do i -- pretty convenient, eh?

a rainy day traffic jam

have you ever found yourself wondering, 'what could i possibly do in this tedious traffic jam to bide the time?'? well think no more. all you need is a travel-size camera and you're good to go! who'd've known there were so many interesting things waiting to be photographed, right there outside of my window?!

my favorite grocery store greenhouse, for one...

construction workers doing manly things... these two just finished carrying a gigantic drill bit over to the back of that truck. they must be very strong. here they're talking about how manly they feel.

my question is, what more can there honestly be?

the long line of cars is always an endless source of entertainment...

somehow i feel like i'm only seeing part of the rivery beauty... i need a big truck to see over the rails.

there's nothing like being one car too late for zipping through the yellow light...


i did indeed make it home eventually. the only problem with this amusement option is that it'll probably only be fun once.
chinese fire drill probably wouldn't be too great with just one person...
i'll keep my thinking cap on.

my chaos theory

i am so incredibly tired.

we're rounding out the last week of school here -- 1/2 day on monday is our last -- and i don't know if i'll make it through, folks.
the last week is usually characterized by antsy kids, long award assemblies, last-minute grading and furniture moving out to the hall.

on top of all that miscellaneous i thought it'd be fun to add a giant classroom mural painting project as the final hurrah.

in theory it sounds good -- keeps my kids busy up until the last day without any projects for me to grade and hand back before they leave. not only that, but it keeps them engaged in something fun that they'll actually want to be doing.
in practicality it's a nightmare!! there's paint everywhere. my classroom is trashed. choraling 110 amateur painters is an exhaustingly long chore. getting them to clean up after themselves every day is a constant struggle. keeping each of them painting all class long is hopeless.
supervising may sound like a pansy job, but truth be told, it's really really tiring. i've been wondering if something's wrong with me the last few days -- i haven't wanted to do anything when i get home except eat and sleep. today i've finally decided i'm just not used to the stress of dealing with this project all day long.

to keep my kids motivated, i told them that if they get it done before school's over, we'll have a wear-clothes-you-can-paint-on day and we'll all paint on each other's clothes. :-)
i'm sure they each have a few options -- it seems every single class finds me helping someone scrub paint out of their shirt. aprons, while functional, don't always match their outfit for the day. turns out, neither does gray paint... or pink or green or yellow.

i'll make sure to share pictures of the finished product. it's going to be pretty fun. sometimes the most chaos turns into the coolest end result. as my momma always says, "if it's worth doin', it's worth doin' right!"

i think is worth doin'. i'm working on the "doin' it right" part. it just might kill me, but at least i'll leave a long labor-intensive legacy for the next generation of blue eye art students to enjoy.

colony collapse disorder!!

after so recently discovering the sweet goodness of honey, you can imagine the dismay i felt at learning of this tragic phenomenon!!
not being a news-watcher myself, i've come to hear of these sad tidings only recently while i'm sure all of you have already been informed.
the question is, what are we going to do about it?!

maybe we could each start our own bee colony and treat the bee as an endangered species, then regift it to the farmers of america. maybe then we just might survive this potentially devastating syndrome. we might suffer from another syndrome as a result -- going-crazy-itis from having a bee colony in our houses... a step up from senioritis anyway.

let me know if you have any better ideas. in the meantime, enjoy your honey, fruit and nuts -- they might be all gone soon!

senioritis gluteus maximitis

today is the last day for the seniors here at blue eye. they're finally moving on into the big world. here are some samples of their er... endearing... last remarks.
aren't they just adorable?
hmm.

i'm anticipating classes without them for the last week of school! senioritis is a real disease. self-induced for sure, but definitely real.

in case you weren't lured by the phrase 'high jinks' to go check out casey's cinco de mayo post, let this picture do the luring.
cool?
i think so.

'...generally God calls us to a way, not a place. He calls us to live a certain life...'
josh longbrake's dad

i've often felt that idea, but never really articulated it. all sorts of people seem to think god tells you what to do or not do specifically, especially when there's a big decision to be made.
as for me, i can honestly say that i've never felt god calling me in any one direction. i know there are people who claim he leads them in this way -- i can't speak from that perspective. i just know that from where i'm sitting, i always feel more called to a way of living, regardless of what decision i make. obviously, i'm going to factor in the 10 commandments and miscellaneous parables jesus gave out, but that's like the foundation to me. the living, active, breathing stuff of life comes in seeing a decision to be made, asking god for wisdom and discernment in that decision, taking time to hear from my heart -- if i really want to do it or not, and how much -- then just going for it and living in a way that glorifies god through that decision.

it changes the question from 'what does god want me to do?' to 'what way does god want me to live in whatever i do?'
that question fits much better.


in other news, if you want to read about the cinco de mayo high jinks we had, go see casey's blog for the story.


and in even other news, i almost broke my pelvis today, and i just have to say that i'll never take my bum for granted again.

so let it be written, so let it be done.

field trip

last week a few of the tried and true students who were managing to pass all their classes, get their work done ahead of time, and pluck a feather from a golden eagle came on the prestigious art field trip to the c of o gallery. there were about 20 potentials, but only 7 passed all criteria and successfully passed to the next level. personally i'm glad there were less kids -- easier to handle, more fun activities like back-of-the-bus bouncing...

we made our traditional sonic stop to get them all fat and happy before having to fill out art worksheets... i'm not a sonic addict, despite evidence to the contrary. believe it or not, i've only been there twice in the last year. both times just happen to be this month!

despite it actually being school work, they enjoyed the exhibit, touring the classrooms, checking out college level artwork in progress, etc.


after their academic requirements were satisfactorily met, we went for a little walk around campus and played on the lookout cliffs for a bit. it was a cloudy day, but had been raining non-stop, so we were glad to at least not be rained on.

then back to the bus and dreary school...

like they say, time flies when you're having fun!
we had fun.
time flew.

and now just two more weeks of school!

commencing operation mural painting. i'll keep you posted.

high school projects

here are the latest in finished products we've got going on in these here parts.
my art 1 students have been painting self-portraits, focusing on shapes of value and proportion -- getting everything in the right place and making it the right size...
autumn's is by far the best out of the bunch. she has a good deal of natural artistic talent and she puts it to good use.

jayme has talent as well, but doesn't put it to as much good use. he still turned out a nice self-portrait though.

debra is also extremely talented, but she hates this painting saying it makes her look like she's dying. it's true, she does look a wee bit sickly.

my art 2-4 classes have been working on clay projects this semester. these are pinch pots -- they make two little pinch pots then join them together to make a sphere. they then had to make their sphere into something creative.



another assignment they had was to create a slab pot with a lid of some sort...




for months and months of labor with over 100 students it seems a paltry collection of good pieces...
but alas, such is the way of high school art.
i just keep reminding myself it's not about the product, it's about the process. and it's about the relationships that are built along the way. they're what lasts.