jennifer patel

We've sung Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer more times than I would like to admit and again, did not bake one holiday treat, but man oh man was Christmas great. Not only was it our first healthy Christmas, but V had the day off and the break has been glorious. Wishing you all the new year blessings. We're counting ours.

We actually saw Santa before Thanksgiving this year. We went one Sunday morning to run around North East Mall with my Mom. Alex sat on Santa's lap, asked for "movies" and we declined the $30 photo. Yesterday, we went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the twelve days of Christmas display. It's beautiful and it was a perfect day to walk around the Arboretum. As we were trailing around to the different display cases (me calling out names of plants that were just not correct) we walked right past Santa. His security guard said he arrived early. Santa convinced Alex he wanted Batman for Christmas and we took our free photo. Weekend nature + Santa...check. The weather was so perfect yesterday...Why is the weather always so gross and ugly (or freezing) for the Dallas Marathon?

Just put a bird on it! I really love Portlandia. I recently thought of two things I thought might be pinworthy. 1. Alex has been invited to several birthday parties this fall. I remember when we threw him a big party for 2 years old because that was his first birthday here. I went all Pinterest out because I wasn't working and well, why not? I like craftiness. We had a family party for 3 and will probably do the same for 4. We're pretty bad at making birthdays a huge, organized party in this house because that would require planning ahead. We are terrible at planning ahead. Until he specifically asks for friends at his birthday, we're going to keep them family. It's easier. Back to my pinworthy idea... He got a lot of presents from people and we didn't open them during the party. They were put under the table and needless to say, with all the little kids running around and the moving of the presents into a closet where we gave them to him a little o...

The weekends are our precious family time. Every Friday night at bed time, I ask Alex, "guess what tomorrow is?" He now yells, "Saturday!" Saturdays are just understood to be the best day of the week. No matter the weather, we find something fun to do and we ALL sleep...sleep in...long nap sleep...and sleep early to bed, even though it's Saturday. Sleep makes the world go round...cheers!

It's been hard finding a solid chunk of time to sit down and focus! Not to mention a war at work has left me hardly inspired, but I'll be talking about that... never . My Dad had this calendar called the Jackass calendar. The months were different "ass sayings" like, "Get your ass out of bed!" and there was a picture of a donkey standing in a bed frame. "Hauling ass" had a donkey on a wagon-trailer-thing all packed up. All the pictures had a donkey doing something to illustrate the quip. He loved that calendar so much, he just printed out new months and taped them over the original dates every new year. Anyway, I'll never be talking about work, because I could never do it in a professional manner once I break the seal...cut to ass saying, "They canned my ass"...and a picture of a store shelf display of canned donkey. I couldn't find the picture I was looking for. My search containing the word "ass" though...well never...

In an effort to limit Alex's much beloved screen time, we try to play outside most afternoons. We started tracing things with chalk which led to my morbid idea of a crime scene outline. I positioned him in what I thought to be a classic, mangled body position, but forgot to make one arm turn up and one arm turn down. The result? An outline that appeared to be frolicking through a field of daffodils . So we went in another direction and added ice skates to the bottom of his feet. V was thrilled.

I love weddings. It's a day where you get to witness so much love and emotion. We traveled to the tar heel state to see our friends marry in a beautiful ceremony on a perfect afternoon in September. As I watched Alex dance with the flower girl (yes, I sort of made him) I fast forwarded 20ish years, maybe to his wedding, and wondered if I would remember this moment where my heart was overflowing with love for this perfect, little boy. I could have cried (several times) tears of pure happiness for the day. This is a big deal. It takes me a really long time to establish relationships. I am quiet and shy and super awkward and will tell you everything about me out of nervousness, without really telling you anything important. The people who know me best will tell you they've known me at least a decade and probably didn't even know I wanted to be their friend so bad the first 50 times we were together. It takes me a long time to figure things out and be c...

That's what we're calling it. Two years ago, we transplanted this guy to our family...permanently. one of the first care packages we sent the year we waited I didn't even think about it when I signed up for today to go out and observe other middle schools (to make my teaching better and stuff) and since no one else on Earth has to leave their house at 5:30 A.M. to get to school , I got to surprise Alex with his favorite breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes. maybe there was too much chocolate, if you can see it?  To steal words so beautifully fitting for how I feel as his Mom... "You were you, and I was I; we were two before our time. I was yours before I knew, and you have always been mine too." -L. Leav Happy second annual Forever Day!

Jeter's last at bat in Ranger's stadium (Globe Life?  I never call it by the sponsor name) was not great...actually his whole game was not great, but when a legend leaves the sport, everyone is respectful.  Even if he plays for the Yankees. Even I, who have banned myself from v.Yankee games to control cortisol and rage levels, stood with the biggest crowd the stadium has seen since Opening Day to send Jeter off.  It was quiet, and not overdone. Baseball has been bleak this year for the Rangers.  Plagued by injuries, they are just doing their best to make it through the rest of the season. I have been meaning to write advice when going to a game for people who don't go often.  Some insider tips if you will.  Now is a great time to try a game, especially if you've wanted to try taking a child, because tickets are readily available (I've tried to GIVE tickets away this year) and the games are not crowded.  It's like the good ol' days when you could ge...

We brought buddha home in September.  People began telling me that we were supposed to celebrate his "gotcha day".  This is a celebration every year on the day "we got him".  That's weird, right?  The name implies to me more of a kidnapping than an adoption.  (you will live here and you will like it!)  In true social media style, there are even whole Pinterest boards you can browse to get ideas for the yearly party you'll throw your kid. I never remember celebrating my gotcha day.  I didn't even know when it was until I started helping my Mom clean out her house...well very minimal helping as I got distracted by looking at old childhood photos. Kids, it's today.  *29 years ago on July 29, I was "Home At Last" as the back of one of the pictures says. My parents opted not to go to Korea to get me.  They had a social worker fly me over.  I'm not judging them either, as our flight home with A was like being in hell for 14 hours. ...

This summer, I got the recommendation to sign Alex up for swim lessons with my district's swim coach. She runs a summer lesson program out of her backyard and takes kids of all ages, Alex being old enough to be in class without me in the water with him this year. My friend said she was tough, but good and that both of her girls were swimming through her program. Most city run programs are Red Cross Water Safety Instructed. I began teaching the program as a high school swim team member at 15 all the way through college. It's a leveled system where the child is encouraged, but ultimately decides the pace of their movement up the levels. If a child was scared or cried, they would be encouraged, but not made to do whatever it was they didn't want to do. When I looked into Coach W's program, it was not WSI, but all teachers were CPR certified. We showed up on the first day of class ready to go and due to rain the days before, I knew it was going to be freezing. Water ha...

As promised .  The last weeks of school are grueling as everyone, students AND teachers, are just trying to survive with each other while anticipating their best summer ever.  This is why I think we should go year round...so that we get steady and spaced out weeks of no school...so that we don't threaten to cross the line to level: "homicidal" every May. When school and the crazy weekend following ended, I went into solid sleep mode.  I napped with Alex in the afternoons and got him to school late for a solid week because we all slept until almost 9 AM (including Ennis). As I reflected back on the last week of school, it was almost seamless, except for one thing:  On the last day of students in my last class, a student couldn't handle himself and when I had him removed, he called me a "fucking snitch" on his way out as he slammed his chair into his desk.  The end.  That was the last day of students.  It stinks that it ended like that...just puttin...

I saw this movie in Austin one weekend with Aubrey.  I actually loved it.  I know, I know...whatever that says about me... Unfortunately, I meant no humor for what I am about to write, and it is more for my co-workers, as we pay homage to one of our most beloved.  To everyone else on the outside, it might seem overly dramatic, but the message applies to all: Doing right must always triumph over wrong. For anyone that has managed to find me (or let me vent to you), it is not surprising that I have mostly been disgusted with many aspects of my job this year. I initially thought it was because I was adjusting to my first year back in the double role of worker and mom.  But then as the year rolled on, it was apparent that dealing with the rare occasional moody toddler was preferable over dealing with work.  This school year has been a horrific unfolding of events that has undone everything we as educators are trying to teach our stud...

If you missed part I , well, you didn't miss much. A major player in our former hood was our across the street neighbor, Brenda...God rest her soul. Seriously, she's dead. Brenda was a middle aged woman who was very concerned about the neighborhood and all the people living in it.  She would come over to talk about said neighbors whenever we were outside (or not) and at night, she left her front door open, letting the light of her living room shine through her screen door.  For whatever it was worth, she was always giving me the low down on the residents of our street.  "The woman who lives there is a spoiled, Daddy's girl." (Who also let her dog poop in people's front yards) "Could Steve feed anymore feral cats?  We're in a disagreement over yard maintenance." "I don't get my SS check until next week, can I borrow $5 for bread?"  Okay, this one is not gossip, and the $5 was not for bread...it was for cigarettes.  And it...

Alex's school might or might not know that, yes...he has an attentive Mom. I have to be at school by 6:30 AM, but try to be there by 6ish so I can sit in my dark classroom, with only lamp light, and softly cry before anyone else arrives. This means that I do not take Alex to school; I don't even see him before I leave the house. He is only enrolled in a half day program since all the learning is done before lunch.  So Tina picks him up every afternoon and puts him to sleep/teaches him Spanish until I get home in the afternoons.  This means that I do not pick Alex up from school. Since he only goes half days, he gets the summary sheets of their day and announcements of upcoming events the next day because they put them in the kids' cubbies in the afternoons.  Sometimes these sheets make it home, sometimes they don't. This means, Alex does not bring show-and-tell themes, have his parents bring items for parties and other sign ups, and is not wearing t...

I never want to meet J. Franco by the way... Only said because I am the queen of jinxes.  Maybe my birth mother was cursed on the highest mountain right before I was born.  I bet you never knew I was born on a mountain top. If you are my friend on FB, you might remember a time (probably one of the only times) where I actually tried to post smack about sports (other than baseball).  I said: "After what happened to the best team in The Big XII yesterday... I hope the Boomin'Sooners have prepared themselves. This might be just the post you need to win, but probably not. #SECsuperiority" -1/2/14 It turns out, it was the post that allowed OU to win.  I was like, really Alabama?!  You couldn't follow through with one thing for the little ol' Aggies?  A-holes.  And I am an A-hole for even trying to talk about something I don't even care that much about (sorry, Association OFS). I had to post something great to distract people from stupidity so I r...

I like these . As a teacher, how could I not? I was reading some writing samples my district required my students to write and here are some highlight excerpts that entertained me.  It is typed exactly how it is written. Not as entertaining as the link above...I guess I just know the critters who wrote this stuff so it's extra entertaining to me... 8th Grade Who do you feel is the most important person you've studied in US History and why? "George Washington was the first president of the United States they also use to fight for the taxes of the whiskey rebellion because people did not want to pay no more taxes for whiskey.  After World War I the taxes ended and there was no more slaves either.  People were happy that slavery and taxes ended..." How do citizens in a democracy participate in their government? "You have to follow the rules or you will be locked in a cell every time you go and break the law.  It's actually better that their is laws ...

About 2 weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled across One Direction's Story of my Life music video.  I am being completely serious when I say it was accidental, but I would like not to explain how it happened.  Anyway, at that time, it seemed to catch me off guard and I found myself kind of blurry eyed at the end.  It seems like a concept I could have come up with. (Freezing memories in time (photography)...it's beautiful.  *Vivek just threatened to punch me out...) Then, last last Friday night , Alex and I had a mom (yes, we are pronouncing mom in full now...no more ba (ma))/son date night.  We ran some errands, ate at Chick-fil-a, and ended the night at frozen yogurt store (No idea what it's actually called).  It's our favorite place in the world and Alex rushes through the doors like he's storming though the paper signs held up for football players to run through on Friday night games.  Like a presidential candidate, he waves and smiles to all the ...