Nest Egg

Each state in the US has been scored based on average retirement savings. Follow the link to see an interesting pattern. It seems most states that are above average are typically considered "Blue" States. hmmmmm

http://www.agedwards.com/public/content/sc/invedu/nest_egg_savings/savings_results.html

vs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states

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Ta Da!!!!

Two links that were brought to our attention by Big Al:

www.tadalist.com is a free web service for keeping many to do lists. Very simple and cool

www.pollstar.com
allows you to search for when and where your favorite band is playing or upcoming concerts (and I mean all of them) in your city.

Know any cool links? Share!

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How come Long weekends are still short?

Thank you Veterans! True Seattle it rained most of the weekend off and on. (mostly on). Chris' close college buddy Al visited. He was the famous reader from our wedding. We had a fantastic time hanging out around town.

The tide is at an all time low so we went to the beach at the lowest tide time and checked out all the cool sea creatures. One proud dad caught a crab and was holding it for his son to check out. No surprise he was pinched within moments. He squealed louder than the kid :)

Then off to the annual NW Folklife Festival. Tons of live folk music and crafts and especially prime people watching. We ate lunch at Pyramid brewery so we didn't get to partake in the yummy smelling international flavors being offered.

Sunday was another fun relaxing day enjoying the beer and wine in Woodinville. Sunday night Becky and I met for dinner. It was quite a moment for me as it was my first official time trying sushi! She helped pick things that are pretty tame and it was cool to experience such a celebrated part of Seattle. We had spicy tuna, some kind of Ahi roll, and a salmon roll. It turned out I liked the spicy tuna best.

We caught up and talked about summer plans. B is signed up for a triatholon and comtemplating the STP bike ride (Seattle to Portland). It is 200 miles and you can do it in one or two days. We - Chris, B and I - are in on a trail course 10k race the end of June.

Chris and Al went to see Rev Co and Ministry play. You can find out what they thought of the concert from Chris (or Al) They met up with us at Becky's and had us laughing! So right as Chris drives Al to the airport the skies are clearing up and it is just beautiful out. Despite the gloomy weather Al claims he in for another visit someday. With that, anyone interested in checking out the very laid back, very damp, yet amazing northwest give us a call or email. We'd love to see ya.

Graduation Speech

Family friend, Robin, was chosen to give the following speech at her high school senior awards assembly. She has Down's Syndrome and her speech is inspirational. Her plans are to study to become a library assistant at the community college next year.

This 18 year old truly understands the word accomplishment. Please take a minute and check it out.

http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/~dewolf/robin/Robin_GradSpeech.wmv

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Mrs. Mirecki has left the building!

Today was my meeting with the principal. It lasted nearly an hour and went quite well. She agreed to write a reference letter for me as well. It was unfortunate that my first meeting with the principal was to resign. I am happy that I remained open and honest with her about why I am leaving. She is a really sweet and understanding person.

I filled out the paperwork to ask for a leave of absence instead of resigning. She said most of the time it is approved. Guess there is a shortage of math teachers or something. ;)


Thank you friends and family that listened all these years to be whine. You have been great and I owe you big time. Now I just have to figure out a way to make a living doing something other than teach. hmmmm

Much love,
Lisa

Ramen is our main meal as of Labor Day

OK!! I told my mentor and dept chair and have a morning meeting with my principal (that's right I've been called down to the principal's office!). This is the last year in the near future that I will be teaching. It was a good 7 years with many ups and downs but it is time to hang up my chalk and try something new.

There are several reasons listed below in the best order I can put them in: (understand the order changes daily)
1) Pay. I wanted to live in Seattle, which has a higher cost of living than Chicago. In order to move here I took a HUGE pay cut.
2) Questionable respect for teachers. If only all members of society could be like my wonderful Aunt Susan. Not only is she volunteer of the year, she actually has her sons' teachers over for dinner every year!! Now, I do not expect dinner but a thank you from a parent or student more often than once a year would be nice. Again the pay factors in here also.
3) Teenagers. Need I say more here really? They have their good days and definitely their bad days and it is hard to ride on their roller coaster. It is a tough job to grade papers and give them bad news. :(
4) Sadly, math... it is a very challenging subject for people. Some days I truly feel like a jailer holding the students captive and forcing them to learn math one painful day after the next.

What will I miss??? Easy.
vacation days, the kids, and fellow teachers that never cease to have a good sense of humor about students.

I am feeling alive yet scared and hopeful that taking this risk will pay off and help me find whatever it is I'm looking for. Wish me luck!

Reason #238: Subs

Remember having a substitute teacher in high school? Maybe not cuz you would see the sub and sneak out. Well, naturally it was often the mission of students to make the sub's life a living hell.

From a teacher's perspective getting a good sub that can handle tough classes is prized. I have found such a sub this year that the students love that gets the plans I leave accomplished and we're all happy.

I called in sick Wednesday and couldn't find her special sub number. Without this number I had to leave things to chance. Well, the sub was "mean and disrespectful." "She treated us like we were stupid." This was what my very best student told me afterschool with noone else around. Needlesstosay the students gave this sub a royal run for her money. arg.

Now I am put in the position of giving a lecture to mostly soon-to-be grads. When do students learn to stop pushing back during classes and just shut up and try and learn?

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore and Larry David's wife, Laurie, and others teamed up to make this documentary that I believe kicked off Sundance film festival. It is being released May 24th (next week)

here's an article from the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012502230.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

Love,
Lisa

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85 DEGREES!!!

Yesterday was a scorcher! We had a record breaking 85 degree high. We are quite spoiled with cool days and zero humidity most days. This was quite a shock to me after less than a year living here.

It definitely doesn't help that my non-ac classroom faces south and has two tiny little windows. The students would literally walk in, sit down and droop to near sleep status immediately.
The only ray of sunshine is I will no longer need to turn off the lights, turn on the overhead, and speak in a soft monotone voice to lull the students to sleep instead of crazy pre-summer mayhem.

This kind of weather makes me long for a bbq and an ice cold beer!
Cheers!!!

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Happy Mother's Day

This blog is naturally for Mom. I love you and miss you!!!!

This blog is also to explain our blog title "Your Mom Called."
Many many many years ago in college my friends and I would tell your mom jokes like they were going out of style. Eventually it led to friend and roomie CC and I making up and singing the dorkiest song about Your Mom. "Your Mama says you're ugly! And you know it's true!" It always just made me giggle - not sure why. I guess it was my equivalent of a good fart sound making someone giggle.

We grew more sophisticated and sneaky with our your mom jokes. CC would come in from class and ask if anyone called. I'd say, "oh yeah your mom called and left a message." She would naturally say, "what'd she say?" I'd respond with the straightest face I could muster, "You're ugly!" TEE HEE!!!
Since, we have annoyed the shit out of loved ones with our your mom called line. Fortunate coworkers have also had the pleasure of knowing their mom called.

When I open my cell phone it greets me with the message "Your Mom." I haven't stopped making your mom jokes. No, don't be silly. They continue to amuse me. In fact, my students slip them in every once in awhile and I have trouble continuing with class cuz I usually laugh so hard.

Know any good your mom jokes? BRING IT ON!

They are usually situational in which someone asks a question and the punchline answer is Your mom. Like someone walks in the room and says,
"ooh who stunk up the room?"
answer -- "Your mom!"



Your Mom Called

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Fun Friday

Happy Friday! This has to be the first Friday in a long time where I woke up and actually had that, "YEAH it's Friday" feeling! Previous Fridays I wasn't in a bad mood per se but it just felt like any other day.

Anyway, the main purpose of this blog is to give a big shout out to Jake! He tells me he actually checks our blog. Yo wat up Jake! I can't tell if people are out there reading this. Do I really care? Not too much honestly, but it makes me slightly self-conscious about how often I should bother blogging. If you are out there reading and feel like checking in to say "Hey" I'd love it! No pressure though really.

So the other day we stopped for groceries. yeah yeah zzzzzz We were buying some beer so the cashier carded me. She entered my bday into the register and proclaimed, "awe you don't look 27. I excitedly beamed back, "awe you're sweet but I'm really 31" (and mentally also grimmaced at the poor math skills and the fact that I felt oddly compelled to tell her the truth as if she needed to know)

This put her over the edge! She was like, "OMG you totally don't look 31! You are 31?! WOW you really don't look at all 31! I hope I look as good as you when I'm 31!" uh I get it I'm an old fart to you. thanks. digging a hole.

Well, fortunately this girl was a RIOT! She tells me how fabulous my skin is and that her Asian cousin has "fake tan orange skin and bleach blond hair." Quite a picture. She then continues to tell me about how to remove spray-on tans. I was laughing and crying all at the same time.

Just goes to show it's all perspective... this high school student comes in to class and turns 17 tomorrow. Another student yells, "WOW you'll be 17?! Already!? Wow... I mean." the birthday girl was like, "Thanks I'm not THAT old!" All perspective. There's always someone younger :)

ooh gotta run have a great weeeeekend!
Lisa

Chris' Birthday!

Yep, Chris turned 31 yesterday! The weather was awesome - 65 and sunny. After school we took Abbey for a hike and then grabbed dinner. Very relaxing, almost felt like the weekend!

He had a nice long chat with his sister Marcy and I pretended to set up the last week of our trip to Italy in August. We are going for three weeks. We need to decide a city to hang out in for two days before ending in Venice. Maybe I'll leave those two days up in the air and see where the road takes us when we get there. That's an idea... btw - nothing got planned.

Things are winding down at school. Washington schools start after Labor Day which means end late June. Try June 22! YIKES!

Today I somehow got roped into playing in the student-faculty soccer game. ummm hello I've played 5 games what up?? I told them I would strictly be a sub (and I don't mean permanent sub!) A couple students in my class asked me if I'm playing - hard to say no to students ya know.
Love and hugs
Lisa

Happy May Day

In loving memory of Jeni's hilarious mother and my honorary Grandma, MR (Mary Roberts), Happy May Day to all!

Where did the weekend go?

Friday I picked my Dad and Jeni (Step-Mom) up at the airport. After they checked in and relaxed a bit we grabbed dinner at an Asian Bistro by Becky's place.

There's no shortage of fabulous Asian restaurants in Seattle. Chris and I are completely addicted to a couple Thai places within walking distance! YUMMY... Is curry really that bad for you? Please say the coconut milk is the good kind of fat like avocado (avocados are ok right?) I don't care cuz I'm never ever giving up curry or guac! Chris mostly likes ordering as hot as he can handle it.

Anyhow, Friday we had a 9pm soccer game. The other team rolled us up and smoked us. It sucked. It was kind of fun I guess, in a "won't it be fun when the game is over?" kind of way. ok ya got me it wasn't that bad but it's fun to exaggerate.
Chris and I both took hard falls and got some scrapes. I was trying to stop the ball and tripped myself. yeah the only thing smooth about that was my volleyball roll move and all the dust on my ass. Chris thinks he bruised a rib. I'm enjoying trying to make him laugh.

Saturday was rainy so we did Seattle stuff and hung out. It was a super relaxing day. Sunday we went to the Ballard Locks and then the Fremont Market and had dinner at our place. I enjoyed the visit and was glad I didn't have to take them to the airport cuz I would've cried for sure. I miss family even though I love being here.

Oh one last thing, this is mostly for Brian W. and his parents. We finally bought a couch! We have to be the two pickiest individuals on the planet. I won't bore you with the details but we love it and there's plenty of room for anyone to crash!

L