jennifer patel

We are already heading into the 5th week of school!   I've gotten in to trying some crafts, and this is something I made for our elementary teacher: She wanted a map and well, she teaches Elementary.  So while this map is not the best for accuracy of scale or important landforms, it is...colorful.  Also, it will teach them the postal abbreviation of all the states.  I got this Cricut machine that cuts out different shapes on paper.  It has blown my mind and opened up this whole door to creativity.  I am no Martha Stewart, but it has been really fun making things.   Close up stitching... So far in our 4 short weeks of school... A male student managed to pee his pants in my classroom (a 7th grader) and I still don't know how I missed it!!  I was sitting at the front of the room teaching the whole time, so you can imagine my embarrassment when the principal was like, "and you never saw anything unusual?!"  Th...

I read blogs every day...but I guess I'm not so good at actually doing my own.   So Happy Summer!!! And now it's over.  Here is a summary of what I did in the last summer of my 20s. 1. In June, I went to on a vacation to San Diego with my friend Sara. The weather was superb.  In fact, I think we've realized we are now getting a little older since that is what we talked about 75% of the time.  "I can't believe I am wearing a sweater at noon!" This was a view from our hotel.  We were on the top floor (not in the pent house) San Diego Zoo day.  I can show this to my kids when polar bears are extinct. It seemed to be baby animal day at the zoo Del Rey Beach (or I guess, Playa del Rey) Old Town.  You can see what I learned from my online photo class (not much!) 2. I hung out with this kid a lot! How cute is he?!  I've nicknamed him "booty" because I like to [gently] kick (maybe I should say tap...) his diaper bu...

I'm kind of into weather (and traffic...) and that being said, this was one of the most gorgeous weekends we've had in a long time!  Sunny and 70s.  Ideal. Like most weekends in the Spring, ours was full!  We celebrated two birthdays and visited some family.  (PS Happy Mother's Day 2 weekends ago!) The best part of the weekend though was getting to spend time with my little cousin, Stefano.  He's not so little anymore and is quickly entering his pre-teen years!  He spent the night with us and we ate ice cream and watched Karate Kid (the new one...no "put him in a body bag, johnny!") He decided he wanted to help bathe the dogs, and before I knew it, he was in the tub, with the dogs, bathing with the dogs.  My dogs HATE bath time with every ounce of their being.  We usually put them in the shower so the drain thing can catch their fur (oops, I forgot that this time...and it all went down the bathtub drain).   The following pictures need s...

How many times did I have to hear about it today?  I get it my sweet, precious, students: you're going to go home after school and get really high...what's new from any other day?!  Did I mention, I work with troubled students?! These guys will be doing what they always do everyday... Not a darn thing!

This past weekend, we celebrated our cousins' (not actual cousins, but I can't follow the Indian lineage, so I call everyone a cousin) baby shower.  She is so sweet and I am so lucky to have her and all the other "cousins" in my life!  They help me get through these large Indian events, where I have no idea what to do, what's going on, what anyone is talking about, or how to dress myself.  It's embarrassing really.  I do know how to say "pani" which means water.  Since that's all I drink, it's one of the only words I can say.  It makes me feel useful to go around to the older women who don't speak English and say "pani?"  Then they smile at me like I'm five years old and say stuff to each other in gujarati which I take as personal affirmation for my efforts.  Story of my life. Despite my own shortcomings, it was a really fun afternoon.  It started with a blessing...followed by games...ended by lunch and cake. This i...

Happy Opening Day 2011! I know it's only the beginning of April and I shouldn't say it, but I will...I am burnt out. We are in the home stretch of school (10 more weeks) and this is when AEP becomes a party—for the kids! One thing that helps get me through the rest of the school year is baseball season. This year, we bought a 20-game package and thinking "only __ more days until the next game" makes the 10 weeks at school go by faster. This opening day, my principal granted me permission to go before I even asked. It was agreed that I would be allowed to take a 1/2 a day and leave at 10:30 (awesome) on opening day which fell on a Friday this year (most awesome). Our ace, CJ Wilson started: I got a chance to meet CJ at spring training this year. There was a short list of questions that I had always wondered and was going to ask if I ever met him, and when the time came...I was kind of a blubbering idiot. All I could wonder was what it must be like to be so good-l...

I've thought about starting a blog for a long time, seeing how I spend large amounts of time reading my favorite blogs. So here goes... If you know me...you know that: 1. I am a big procrastinator (I've been meaning to type this first post for about a week and a half now. "the last year of 20" was supposed to start on my actual birthday starting the last year of 20) 2. I leave personal belongings everywhere (recent examples include car keys on a clothing display, my wallet on restaurant tables, and my cell phone at the grocery store self check out counter) V and I went to Arizona over spring break to visit friends and watch some baseball spring training. This is our third year to do this, so we're feeling pretty "in" about the whole thing. We get autographs, try to talk to players (or in my case, get up to the player and NOT talk to them...) and just hang out in the Arizona sun. So this year, we got a bunch of autographs (yes imagine me in a big grou...