For Katie!

I make these cookies every Christmas.  They are fattening and delicious.  I am posting this for my fave cousin, Katie! 

Kentucky Sugar Cookies
1c. butter, softened
1c. vegetable oil
1c. granualte sugar
1c. powdered sugar, sifted
2 lg eggs
4 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter and oil at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.  Gradually add sugars, eggs, and vanilla.  BEat well.  Combine flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar.  Add to butter mixture, mixing well.  Drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 9-10 minuttes. 

Semester 1=Wrapped

Yikes! It’s been a while since my last entry.  I blame it on the close of my first semester of teaching!  I cannot believe it is already over!!  As  I have had some time to reflect and RELAX over the last week, I realize just how much I enjoyed this last semester.  Don’t get me wrong, I have had several days of driving home from school, close to tears, wondering why I thought I was capable of teaching these monsters.  But as I was leaving school on the 17^th,  I was saddened to think that I only have one semester left with my kiddos.  I have been truly blessed with the classes  I have this year.  After all of the horror stories I have heard from first year teachers, I feel as if I have gotten off way too easily.  (I am currently knocking on my coffee table as not to jynx this statement.)  With this being said, the last 12 days have been absolutely heavenly!  No discipline to be given, no grading papers, and most importantly-NO one calling me Ms. Hoff!  My goal for next semester is to have more labs in my class.  I will be braving the unthinkable- twenty eight- fifteen year olds with fire and corrosive chemicals.  Wish me luck, folks. 

Last year, my Dad and I made tamales.  We started at 8am.  We ended at 10pm and swore that we would never make tamales again.   For those of you who know my dad even a little bit, he is notorious for swearing that he will NEVER do something again and then given enough time, he will inevitably be doing the same thing he swore off.  This year, we started making tamales at 9am...

  You have to boil the meat for several hours.  Next, the pepper sauce.  You have to first clean and clear out the seeds.  I learned the hard way to use gloves for this task.  Last year, my hands burned for two days.  Boil the peppers and then blend them up in a blender with some other secret ingredients.  After this you make the masa.   This is the easiest part.  Dump some ingredients in a bowl and stir.  When the masa is ready you smear it in the corn husk and then give a precise measurement of meat.  It takes several tries to get the proportions of masa to meat to be just right.  The most difficult part of the process is the rolling of the tamales.  Mine look pretty deformed most of the time, but they taste GREAT!  We made two types this year.  A traditional pork and a chicken cilantro variety.  They are both delicious!  This year we finished by 2pm. It is safe to say that we are getting better since we cut our time in half this year!  While I don’t think that we will be going into business any time soon, this is a day that I hope we will continue forever.   

Christmas was wonderful.  It is as most of you know, my favorite holiday.  We went to our Christmas Eve service as usual.  It was by far the loudest church service I have ever been to.  I am not talking about the volume of the pastor or the singing of hymns, but the children.  They must have been so hyped about Santa coming that they couldn’t control their chatter.  It was as if the entire population of children was speaking in tongues.  Screaming, yelling, and chitchatting all with excitement about CHRISTMAS!!!!  It was the first Christmas Eve Service without our long-time pastor, Pastor Henry, as he retired this year.  While this is my favorite church service all year, there was something lacking with the absence of Pastor Henry’s warm greeting and then his Merry Christmas at the door, always followed with a hug.   We quickly RAN out of the church to prepare for our annual Christmas Eve Open House.  This gathering has become a tradition not missed by our closest friends and grandparents.  Great food and great fellowship makes this evening the merriest place to be on Christmas Eve anywhere in the world.  I was looking around the room and was moved by how happy and festive our house and guests looked.  It is a night looked forward to by all who attend, and provides memories and a tradition that all will remember. 

I have been incredibly blessed in 2010.  It has been a year of a lot of change for me.  As we CRUISE into 2011(yuh yuh yuh) this year, I will look fondly on a year that I have gotten to spend with my family and friends and look forward to what 2011 will bring. 

Barkley and I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year! 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas

Houston-CAST Conference

On my way to Houston, the past two times, my trip has been delayed due to accidents and resulting traffic.  Apparently, I have terrible luck when driving to the big city.  I also apparently have trouble IN the big city too.  More to come on that later…When I FINALLY arrived, I had dinner with my favorite married couple, Aimee and Trey.  They reminded me that we have warrior dash in exactly one week.  YIKES!  I am actually really nervous since I have not been committing ANY time to training.  I’m a natural athlete, so I’m sure I’ll be just fine, probably even place….HAH… I’ll keep you posted. 

After dinner I made it to Sach’s apartment with NO problem.  In my head I am thinking very highly of myself and am so proud of how capable I was in this huge city!  Thursday morning, I rose at 5:45 AM to make my 4 mile trip to the hotel where I was meeting my other teacher-friends at 7 AM.  I left at 6:15 to give myself plenty of time for unforeseeable obstacles or traffic.  Surprise, country mouse!  At 7:15, I threw my  keys at the valet and huffed into the hotel lobby.  There is NO traffic at 6:30 in the morning, so this was not the source of my frustration.  My frustration stemmed from my absolute lack of navigational skills!  I had google maps on the iphone and my Dad on speaker phone.  I believe it took me roughly 30 miles to reach my destination that was supposed to be 4 miles away!  Most of you know how patient, level-headed, and kind I am when I ‘m stressed.  You’ll also know how I uncharacteristically cursed google maps and screamed at my poor Dad, who was my only saving grace that morning.  Thanks Dad, lesson learned- be more of a planner and figure stuff out ahead of time.  I did make it to my 8:30 session and learned a lot about fun demonstrations/explosions to keep my students interested to listening to me drone on in lecture every day about acids, bases, molarity, stiochiometry, and I can already feel you drifting…  Hence, the need for some excitement in my classroom.  I did not end up getting into any 10:00 sessions because all three I wanted to attend were full.  With 10,000 nerd-o science teachers I suppose this was inevitable.  However, I still hadn’t totally cooled down from my trek that morning, so I stalked down to register for an all day course for Friday.  As I’m standing in line, I hear a familiar voice next to me.  I turn to look and see none other than Dr. H, my freshman Biology teacher from MFHS!!!!!!  Go get ‘em Mustangs!  The back story on this man is classic. Although, now that I am a teacher, I am absolutely horrified at how awfully we treated this poor man.  We mercilessly made fun of him, NEVER paid attention , refused to learn about evolution because of our morality-which we clearly displayed everyday while we tortured this old man.  One day, we all dressed in jeans, black shirts, and pulled our hair into pony tails.  We all switched seats and he NEVER noticed.  He called us by the names on our seating chart.  Needless to say, after we learned his oblivion to our actions in his classroom, we tested his patience to the limit.  I was so taken aback by his presence that I took a picture with him and immediately texted it to all my friends!  Even though he had no idea who I was, it made my entire year to see him.  I am certain now that it was fate that I missed all of my 10:00 sessions. 

I took an all day class for new chemistry teachers on Friday.  I am now armed with tons of cheap and easy experiments for my classes.  I am so excited to see how they like all my new tricks and activities!  (((Special thanks to Sach, Grady and Lucille for letting me stay with them all week.  Also thanks to my RoRo and Uncle Doug for letting me stay and for the yummy breakfast tacos! )))

Bulldog news:  There is a new bully in our family!  My parents surprised my brother Logan with this little English chunk.   He is adorable, but needs a name! 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas

Germs

I have a cold.  This will be the third time I’ve been sick since I started teaching.  I guess my immune system is trying to adapt to all the germs I am subjected to every day.  According to all the vet teachers, I will just catch EVERYTHING this year.  Great…  I know some teachers that shake every student’s hand as they walk into their classroom.  Blech.  I have a strict NO contact with children rule.  Do not touch my pens, my desk, my papers, and especially  do not EVER shake my hand.  Gross.  The closest I will get is the Howie Mandell fist bump.  Geniuses, those germ-a-phobes!    Germs are one of the main reasons I REFUSE to teach children under the age 12 years old.  Last year while subbing kindergarteners, a little darling came up to me and asked to go to the bathroom because her hair was wet.  I learned quickly not to ask small children questions.    “Little angel, why do you need to go to the bathroom?—How I respond to all cute little children that have asked me to go to the bathroom 35,000 times that day.  (I have a LOT of patience. )  Her response, “I sneezed in my hair and got it wet.”  Many of you know I have an extreeeeeeeeeeeeeemely weak gag reflex when it comes to boogers, snot, and anything else that comes from the nasal cavity.  It took everything I had not to puke in the five year old’s face!  Luckily, I don’t have any snotty hair in high school.  I do however have sneezing, coughing, and the sniffles.  I hate when its silent in my room, all you can hear is congestion and upper respiratory infection sounds. 

In other news, I am going to Houston tomorrow!  We have a science conference, and I am pretty excited.  Nerdy as it may sound, it will be nice to learn some new techniques and be around people who like science.  It should be a nice change from hanging around kids that disdain chemistry.  Although, we had a test today, and I am pleasantly surprised and pretty excited about the grades so far!  A lot of As and Bs.  Is it too naïve to think that I am finally getting through to them!??  I probably should look in to how they cheated… haha. 

Barkley news:  I got in touch with Barkley’s mom’s owner and she is coming into heat in two weeks, and drum roll please…………..she will be having PUPPIES, hopefully around April they will be ready to go home!  I will be saving all that I can to get a Barkley K. Ruffington II.

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas

The Official Beginning of the Holiday Season!

                Halloween 2010 has come and gone, but that means that the countdown to my favorite time of the year has begun!!  It is supposed to cool down this week and my pumpkin cravings have been kicked into overdrive.  Time to start surfing Food Network for delicious pumpkin recipes.  My all time favorite treat has to be my Mom’s pumpkin cheesecake!    I saw the first Christmas commercials of the season today-made my heart SO happy! 

                I am being observed at school tomorrow.  First, by my field advisor from my Alternative Certification Program and then by my principal for my first official PDAS Evaluation.   PDAS is how the state evaluates me.  I am pretty nervous, but always good to get feedback, right?  Today I had a bunch of students stay after for my tutorials, and they described the study session as awesome and fun!  I was pretty excited to say the least.  I’ve never heard anyone say that studying chemistry was awesome or fun or even interesting for that matter.  Thursday I get to go to a training in Waco, so it will be nice to reverse the roles and be taught rather than teach. 

My brick pictures!  Thanks Mom and Dad!! 

Good to be an AGGIE this weekend!  We beat the hell outta tech and the t-sips got beat by BAYLOR!  I had an absolute blast in College Station this weekend.  There is something about game day on campus, you can feel the spirit in the air!  We had great tickets to the awesome game thanks to Katy’s parents and had the best time hanging with all of my girls.  I also got to see my cousin LaLa!  We never stop laughing when we’re together, and this weekend was no exception.  My RoRo has always called us the gold-dust twins…we still have no idea why.  I feel like all I did was EAT this weekend!  My food count for Saturday…happy meal for lunch, free chick-fil-a chicken sammich at the tailgate, corndog at the game, nachos at Bodega, and Taco Bell to finish the night.  It makes me sick just to recap. 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas

Working for the Weekend

Working for the weekend is a phrase I never really understood until this year.  It is not that I don’t like my job, but M-F 7:00 am to about 7:00 pm I am thinking about chemistry, and lesson plans, and omg what am I going to do to help these kids pass the dreaded TAKS?!?  My blissfully student-free Saturdays and Sundays are usually spent with the fam back in Marble.  However, once a month, my best friends all get together for GIRLS WEEKEND!    Time spent with these girls is always a blast and there is never a shortage of laughter or memories!  This Halloween weekend we are all gathering in College Station to watch the Aggies BTHO ttu.  Well….we’ll play it by ear, but it will be great to get back to Aggieland for the weekend.  Planned stops in C-Stat:  Wings, Potato Shack, Laynes, Mi Cocina, Fish Daddy’s, NG, Callaway House, Kyle Field, Rosenthal Meat Store, and Koldus.  My parents bought me a brick for graduation on campus, and I love seeing it in person.   I have a lot of restaurants on that list.  Can you tell that I miss the food? 

We are working on Ionic and Covalent Bonding in school.  I’m having a really tough time convincing my students that chemistry is fun and interesting!  How could you not be sitting at the edge of your seats in anticipation for the next lesson in Ionic and Covalent Bonding?  My kids look at me as if I’m teaching them in Japanese.  Barkley gives me the same look when I don’t put any goodies in his food bowl. Utter disgust mixed with confusion. 

I am slowly coming out of the first two phases of your first year.  The first being “idealism” and the second being “survival”.  They say that this stage of your first year is called the “disillusionment phase”.  Scary.  I am feeling better to know that most first year teachers go through this phase though.   I question myself everyday...  Am I failing them as a teacher?  Should I be doing this?  Do they respond to what I am teaching?  Is failing assignments normal?  What can I do to help them?  Why do they think this is boring?  What if they all fail the TAKS?  What can I do to be the best teacher possible?  Am I getting through to them?  Are they learning?  Crap, are they even listening?   My students are ready for a break too.  I can see that they are overworked and beginning to become burnt out.  Bad combination.  Upside?  Friday is snack day at school.  All the teachers make Halloween goodies and leave them in the workroom. 

Caramel Puffs-treat that I am making!

Golden Meatloaf news:  Barks is still refusing to eat dog food without any people food in it.  I strongly believe this is due to his GRANDPA!  My dad makes two sandwiches at lunch time.  He eats one himself and then tosses the other to the bulldog.  Barkley does not enjoy Lampasas much because he misses Jet and Meg.  He does enjoy going on walks and barking at the guineas in the neighborhood.  We have a flock of guineas here.  There is about 12 of them and they just hang out in people’s yards.  Barkley does not like it when they are in his yard.  My 30 pound guard dog. 

 Happy Halloween!! 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives blogged.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas



First post: Welcome to my life as a first year teacher!

In early August, Barks and I (loaded with a trailer full of furniture that my family graciously donated to me and my best friends, Jessica and Travis for muscle) headed to the big city: Lampasas, TX.  I found out in July that I would be teaching tenth grade chemistry.  Crazy, right?  Especially since I had to take organic chemistry twice and biochemistry four times!  Oops.  Thanks Mom and Dad for all those tuition dollars- I promise I tried REALLY hard in those classes-it was seriously the professor!   Lampasas is a small town that feels even smaller.  Everybody knows your name and your business, and is willing to tell anyone who asks!  People here are great though.  The teachers at my school have all been extremely helpful, and are incredibly kind and always willing to listen or give much needed advice.  My mom graduated from LHS a few years ago, so I have big shoes to fill in this town.  Most everyone remembers her, but everyone ALWAYS remember Gram and Pap.  They were just as popular in Lampasas as they are in Marble. 

It is now the 9^th week of school.  I can hardly believe it.  At the same time, I find myself counting down the days until Thanksgiving break.  (28 days)  However, I am FINALLY finding my groove in school and things are starting to slow down, so I wanted to keep a blog to remember my first year.  Today, I had a student leave me a note on my desk.  My students think I am the most evil teacher to walk the halls of Lampasas High School, so I was expecting a hatred filled letter telling me how I was ruining her life.  I was extremely surprised to find what this sweet girl had to say.  She wrote me a letter thanking me for my work and telling me how much she enjoyed me as a teacher.  She apologized for the “people who treated me like crap” and told me how much she was learning in my class.  Made Ms. Hoff cry-cry!   After the hell-week I had last week, I really needed some small sign that I was getting through to these little teenage turds!! 

Out of school, I am finding paying for bills, insurance, cable, internship fees, and groceries leaving my bank account EXHAUSTED.  The advice from my dad, “Court, it never stops.”  Haha Thanks DAD!  In all seriousness, a very special thanks to my family and friends for getting me to this point in my life.  Mom, Dad- couldn’t have ever done it without you.  Thanks for all you do.  Love you. 

Still new to the blogging world, so cut me some slack on my first few boring entries. 

This is the true story of a bulldog and a teacher, picked to live together and have their lives taped.  Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. 
The Real World Lampasas