Sickie

Today, I unfortunately had to call sick into work. A sore throat came on last night and I was up most of the night bothering me (and bothering the Boy). I woke up with a nice manly voice, a scraping and aching sore throat, deep cough, and stuff/runny nose. Yay. Even though I'm sick, I am thankful that I haven't been sick for a long time. I was very surprised that I haven't been more sick, especially working with preschoolers. So, I really am grateful for the good health that I have had. Even though I had to miss school, I did get some special cuddle time with the Pocket; she's so lovable! The Boy has been careful not to be too close so he doesn't get sick before midterms, but he has been so sweet in other ways. He surprised me by bringing home my favorite soup, Progresso chicken noodle, Gatorade, and Snack Pack pudding (just like Nonie). What a sweetie. I sure hope that he doesn't get sick.

More Visitors!

This last weekend, we were blessed to have another couple of visitors; Jon's parents! They took the day off on Friday for travel and arrived at our place in the early afternoon. Jon had some special time with them while I was at work. Jon was also able to get his nice watch fixed, which had been on the To-Do-List for um, probably a few years. We can finally check that one off! After work, I met them at Lou Malnati's a great Chicago pizza place just down the road from us! We went here when my family helped move us down here, so it was nice to bring the other side of our family there as well. The pizza is nice and cheesy and garlicy, and you can even add garlic on as an extra topping! After dinner, we had some relaxing time at our home watching the Olympics and chatting.
On Saturday, we decided to go into the city and explore downtown a bit. We parked and walked quite a few blocks to Michigan Ave. There, we saw the famous "Bean" and took in some views of the old city buildings. Unfortunately, Jon and I both forgot to bring the camera, so we have no pictures, sad! On our walk back to the car, we stopped in a Trader Joe's to give the Enger's their first TJ's experience. We also ran into some other fun stores, but thankfully exited without any bags! The one thing we did pick up was a few cups of coffee since it was quite cold and of course windy. The bank temperature said it was 42 degrees, but I know it didn't feel that way. Despite the cold, it was really enjoyable to walk around outside and chat with family while doing so. Saturday night, we were also able to go to church, which we were also excited to share with family. We have really enjoyed our new church and it has been really nice for our family to visit and see where we have been worshiping. After church, we had another relaxing evening eating dinner at home, watching the Olympics, and playing Apples to Apples. I was excited to get to play this game because the Boy doesn't usually like to play games unless they are strategy games. One thing that the Enger family really enjoys, is to play games together, and I am so happy I married into a family like that because I grew up the same way!
Sunday came fast, but we were able to enjoy a nice Sunday brunch at IHOP before Bob and Diane took off. I know Jon loved talking to his parents in person, about his seminary experiences and things he's learned. I can see him growing in a lot of ways and it's really fun! I am so proud of him. :) After saying our good-byes, I somehow managed to take Jon to look at some cute puppies and even pet a few! And again, I didn't bring any home, aren't you proud, dad? I would never buy a puppy from a shop, so I guess that helps me not to pick one up, just "oooo" and "ahhhh" over them. But, we were very happy to come back to our dear little Pocket girl and so was she!
So, thank you Bob and Diane for making the trip to come down and visit us, it was nice to see you. We hope you had fun and we look forward to the next time we meet!

"Valentimes!"

I feel like neither Jon or I are big Valentines people, but still of course like to treat each other. Last year, we also got to celebrate White Day in Korea. White Day is March 14th and the boys give the gifts whereas the girls give gifts on Valentine's. I remember Jon getting me a Coldstone cake, notebook and pen, and curtains to turn our one room into two. This year, we had a nice relaxing day mostly watching the Olympics. In the morning, Jon had a meeting at church and so when he came home, I had breakfast ready for him. His breakfast consisted with heart shaped cinnamon rolls and heart shaped pancakes with sprinkles and strawberries and of course coffee! The cinnamon rolls were unfortunately not homemade as I didn't have time, but they were still pretty tasty!
Those are melted sugar sprinkles in the pretty heart pancakes!

Not quite as pretty as my homemade ones, but still tasty!

After the meeting, Jon brought home some beautiful tulips that are still looking pretty! The rest of the day we cuddled on our comfortable couches and watched speed skating, figure skating, and the luge. I did make a brief breakaway running to Target and then wandering to Puppy Palace to drool over the dogs. Although, I would never buy a dog from a puppy store, it doesn't mean I can't window shop! I saw a pug, two boxers, two shar pei's and many other cute puppies! I tried to convince Jon to come back and look, but he didn't want to. I think he was just glad enough that I didn't bring one home! The Pocket sure could tell that I had pet something other than her, even after washing my hands!
We also received two fun packages from our families, they were nice surprises! I realized the last few years that I have missed being with my family on Valentines because my parents made it a family holiday and there was always lots of love given to each other. So, it was nice to get some fun little gifts and be remembered. Thank you so much for your notes and nice thoughts! Love you all!

Kidisms

Besides the last Obama comment, I had a few funny comments from my kids that I also wanted to share.
1. One of my funny kids was waiting for the bathroom and chanting, "Barack Obama, lives in a log cabin!" Now, although he's confusing some presidents, he is retaining information at least...
2. Another student asked me today, "Is Barack Obama George Washington's son? That's right, right?" I replied, "Do you mean they were both president? That they had the same job?" He looked confused and then kind of forcefully said, "Oh, yeah..."

My personal favorite of the week is this last one.
3. One student came up to me today and said, "I made a Wii character for you and I put lots of freckles on your face and you played 5 baseball games and you won them all, but only because I was playing your character." I then asked her if I hit the ball lots of times and she said, yes. This is great since I never can hit a baseball in real life. This was hilarious to me! I can't believe she made a video game character based on me and then had me play in the game.

Oh, Obama...

This week, my unit is focused around U.S. presidents because of Monday's holiday. In the block area, I taped on several pictures on blocks including the White House, a Lincoln-like cabin, Washington, Lincoln, Clinton, and Obama. I chose these four for various reasons, but of course living in Chicago and that he is our current president, I included Obama. At the block carpet, I had these blocks out as well as some plastic people. One of my kids was playing by himself on the block carpet and didn't know that I was watching him. I listened as he played with the Obama block and two policemen and he said, "Hey, Obama, we're going to take you in, to the police station. You've been bad." He continued to keep playing, but I'm not sure what else he was saying. I laughed about it and later he said to me, "My dad doesn't like Obama." I wanted to understand a bit more, "Oh really, why is that?" He said, "My dad says that he steals money and he's a bad man." I really tried hard to keep my laughter in, but it's so funny what kids share with their teachers. Parents really have no idea what their kids retain and then choose to innocently share with others.

Sweet Tooth Pocket

This morning, Jon and I were getting up and ready to go and Jon looked into the 2nd bedroom and discovered some things left behind from the Pocket: a Tootsie Roll Pop and a wrapper.
The Evidence.
I called the Pocket into the room and asked her what she did and why. I think what happened is that when I left her out for the afternoon part of the day, she discovered Jon's big bag of candy from Christmas. She sat down on the floor next to me and we discussed why we shouldn't eat suckers.
The culprit. Talking to the Pocket about her bad behavior.

The Pocket trying to divert the questions.

Later, Jon came in and consoled her because she was
hanging her head and putting her tail between her legs
feeling guilty. The candy bag is now put away for good!

Blast From The Past

I made a huge discovery this weekend while grocery shopping, I mean big. When I was little, I always wanted the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting. I would probably have eaten it straight out of the tub if I could. But, my mom was a good mom and kept me eating healthy things and makes her own homemade frosting, yum (really, thank you, mom)! But, I remember being jealous of a friend that had the Rainbow Chip frosting and how I loved the little chips, they were so tasty. So, since I am a grown-up, I have been looking for the last few years when I pass by the frosting aisle. I thought, "Now that I'm a grown-up, I can buy it for myself!" I don't know if they temporarily stopped making it or if the stores I went to didn't carry it. But, I have never seen it until this weekend! I got so excited, I probably jumped up and down in the aisle. Plus, it was on sale! I did get one tub, I don't know when I'll use it because I usually make my own frosting, but for some special occasion or comfort food day, I'm sure!

Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique

The Pocket visited our Disney version of the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique today (without the glitter and hot pink accents). A few weeks ago, she had to face trimmed, but I felt she needed a little update. After days of Jon pleading not to trim her face and fluffy butt fur, he finally gave in and I brought out the scissors. I don't think the Pocket was very excited about her trip to the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique, though. She certainly did a good job and didn't nip, she only tried to scurry away from me and hide herself behind the toilet. I definitely didn't spend much time or was even very particular when cutting her hair, but just tried to get some of it cut in a timely fashion. You can see for yourself how good she's being in the video and pictures!

Notice Molly is in a headlock between my
knees. You can't escape now, my pretty!

Getting started.

I don't really know what happened here, but I think
Molly just got tired of me grabbing her face and standing
up/trying to run away, so she collapsed on the floor.
Cutting her face hair got much more difficult at this stage.

חלה Challah Day!

A few days ago, I decided that Saturday would be Challah Day. For those of you who are not familiar with Challah, it is a traditional Jewish bread usually used for the three Sabbath meals as well as holidays. Challah is a braided bread that commemorates the manna that fell from heaven for the Israelites in the desert. It is usually made with made with many eggs, flour, water, a sugar, and yeast. Raisins are usually added for holidays and then braided. There are a few variations as I've discovered, but I feel like I went with a pretty traditional Jewish recipe.

The last few weekends, I have spent Saturday baking and cooking and it seems thinking of my Nona. Today, I thought about her in a few ways while baking. First, while I was breaking my eggs, I remembered baking with her and telling me how so many people waste the white part by not scooping it out with their finger. So, she showed me how much extra you get out rather than throwing the shell out fast before you make a mess with the dripping whites. The second thing I thought about is when I was kneading this double recipe of dough. I used to hear stories of how she used to make many loaves a week, obviously by hand, for her family. And boy, Nona must've had the strongest forearms and hands, I can't imagine kneading dough everyday for that long. I thought that my arms were strong enough to knead some silly dough, but it was harder than I thought it would be. I also discovered it'd be helpful to have a stool for me to stand on because my counter seems a bit too high for me.
Here are a few pics of the process.

Pre-knead.

Post-knead and after the first rise. Notice the fruit bag
from Dominick's, no plastic wrap so I improvised and
then covered the top of the bowl with tin foil.

After the second rise.

Braiding the first loaf.

Almost done, the first one was well, not as pretty.

Towards of the end of the first loaf cooking, I
realized I had made a mistake. I hadn't let it rise
the third and final time. oops. I was worried that
it would be ruined and be a waste of ingredients.

The outcome of the first one despite the lack of one last
raising. It is supposed to be brownish on the top
because of the egg/honey glazing brushed
on before baking. It gives it a sweet and
crunch top while the middle is soft. Yum!

Thankfully, the first one wasn't too bad! I cut the bread and
brought a piece up to Jon to be my guinea pig. Besides
it being a little fluffy and more dense than I would
have wanted it to, it turned out quite well.

I have the other one in the freezer braided, just
ready to raise one more time (if I remember) in
a week or two. You can tell I did not put raisins in
this one, but the other one tasted surprisingly good
with them, that I might have to squish some in the top.
Tata little loaf! Until next time!

Dear Santa...

For those of you who are on Facebook, might have read this already, but for those of you who are not, I thought I'd share my new favorite kid quote from yesterday.
Yesterday, we were just starting lunch in my classroom and the kids were washing their hands and grabbing their plates. As they were doing so, one of my fun girls from Romania came up to me, gave me a big hug and said, "Ms. Anika, do you have kids?" I replied, "Well, no, but I do have all of you crazy kids!" She said, "Oh (as if my answer didn't phase her at all). Well, do you want kids someday?" I of course said, "Yes, someday." She replied very seriously, "Well, maybe you can ask Santa for a kid and he'll bring you one!" She said this, gave me another hug and ran off. I laughed so hard! What a funny thought from a five year old. I love how children at that age think, they have such interesting and fun ideas.

Pocket's Home Day Spa!

Several family members and friends have commented on Pocket's fluffy mane of well, fluff. Some have said, "Why can't she seeeee!" or "What a sad looking thing, why don't you cut her hair?!" Well, after several months of people saying this, I did! Well, kinda. I really only trimmed her face and back end a bit. First, I enticed her into the bathroom by promising treats and a nice baffers. She ran away once, but I soon found her and carried her to the tub and plopped her in. Needless to say, she was not too happy to be there. Also, I've realized that it was easier when we only had a shower to put her in in Korea and I just got wet with her. But, this time I stayed out of the tub and it was much harder, sigh. I really should have taken a picture of her in the bathtub because she was the most homely thing I've ever seen; like she looked like a dog that had lived on the streets in a monsoon her whole life. Literally. If someone had walked in at that moment, they probably would have wondered why I had a big dust bunny in the tub, why it was moving, and why hadn't I taken care of that ugly old thing already! Sigh, now I really wish I would've taken a picture, maybe next time! For now, you'll have to do with the before and after pictures.

Before:

Although Jon did puff up her face for the picture, I have
to say as a dog mother, this thing looks gross!



After:

What do you think?! I do have to say that I don't think I did too bad of a job (especially if you are aware of my childhood adventure of 'Crew-Cut-Barbie...)! I didn't take too long cutting it precisely, but it works for her with all her fluff left over. Much cuter, wouldn't you say, you can actually tell that she has eyes. It's a wonder how she still has them after running into several things the last few weeks such as doors, hinges, walls, and other various things.