Chelsea Salomone

This morning I was doing my usual blog stalking, enjoying a cup of green tea and my first day of spring break when I came across Jalei's latest post. I gasped in disbelief. Is it really possible?!?!

You know, it's a wonder I even have a job. I am clearly SO productive on my time off. I should get paid for this kind of stuff.

Why would we want to have kids when our friends have the cutest kids we can play with, send on their way, and get our full eight hours to ten hours of r.e.m.?! I absolutely adore all our friends' kids.

Here is the new picture Alison sent me of Colten. I'm excited to get together with her over Spring Break and see how much the little man has grown in person. He looks SO much like Thomas. Aren't those little pants the cutest??Here are some pictures of Rendee's little girl Rylee. I can't believe she's already 4 months old. She is adorable with big cheeks and pretty blue eyes. I got to spend all afternoon before open house with them. Oh my gosh-I don't know how Rendee does it!! It must be SO hard having a small baby. Just being with them for five hours wiped me out!! Here I am feeding her a bottle before open house- sweet girl would not stop crying. How do I make it quit?? Scary!!Rylee is so cute, and I love her little outfit! I did tell Rendee though, you need to get a bow on girlfriend's head ASAP.
She e-mailed me this picture when she got home!! Much better. Rylee obviously feels a lot better about her self now.

Dang it. I really wanted A&M to win. Nick & I handled the upset in an unusually adult-like manner, so I was glad about that. Well except for the one picture (see below) that Nick e-mailed me this morning at work, but it was to be expected.

A friend of mine sent me an interesting e-mail earlier this week asking my opinion about Obama's new plan for incentive based pay for teachers. Generally speaking, I am not in favor of it. Before you get all worked up, teacher friends, here are my reasons why.

a) I am not in favor of incentive pay that is based solely on student achievement. First of all, I think this would create a battle among teachers on a team to get the "high kids." Or- the middle to low kids who are capable of more growth in areas. I think a more valid system would test students at the beginning of the year and various points during the school year to measure progress.

I think a teacher's training, evaluation ratings, staff development hours and some sort of school-wide goals should also be considered. Also, I think there would have to be some type of student work portfolio included because some kids just don't test well. Bottom line.

b) I think this would create a lot of stress on special education services because teachers would just be dying to get kids who can't keep up with their peers "labeled" or out of their classroom completely.

c) This puts MORE emphasis on testing. And testing before the test to be sure we're ready to test.

d) We all know we didn't go into teaching for the money. Yeah, a little more would be nice, and I realize most peoples' salaries are based, to an extend, on merit. I just think teaching kids shouldn't be all about that. I don't sell knowledge.

e) The main reason I don't think traditional incentive based pay for teachers is a good idea is because I think it fosters too much competition between teammates. I really think that certain teachers would be less willing to share their "wow" lessons with others. Eventhough teachers wouldn't be directly competing with each other, so to speak, I think it would create an atmosphere of "me looking out for me." And too much talk about who makes how much.

f) Like Nick says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." There are some kids that no matter what you do, they just aren't going to get there. I don't want my salary riding on that.

Again, just my opinion. What are your thoughts, especially those of you outside of the teaching field?

Tonight is a big night at our house! Tech plays A&M in the Big 12 tournament. After much consideration, Nick and I have decided to go together, with no one else, to BWW to watch the game.

Fern on Saturday night

I am SO happy it's the weekend!! Nick and I went to yoga this morning and are just spending the day being lazy and getting some stuff done around the house. Tonight we're going over to Lisa & Ryan's for dinner, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them and Addyson.

I am almost finished with Financial Peace. I have really enjoyed reading this book so far. It has also given Nick and I a lot to talk about, and it makes me feel really good because for the most part, we are doing things like the book says you should. I feel like I understand a lot of the basics more than I did before I read the book, and I get where Nick is coming from in regards to our money better. We have even started watching Dave Ramsey's show on Fox news together.

Last night I read the chapter on buying only bargains and negotiating, and I wanted to get some advice from you guys. I need help! Badly.

Dave talks about the importance of never paying full price for anything and never impulse buying. He says that anytime you want to purchase something, you have to be patient and spend the time looking for the best price out there.

I know that is something I definitely need to improve upon- patience is a virtue and something I am lacking a great deal of. The rumor that all teachers are patient is a lie. I am definitely not a patient person.

Dave talks about learning how to negotiate with people when you want to buy something, and as I was reading this, I started to wonder- is it really possible to negotiate everyday purchases? Do people do that? I mean, obviously when you buy a house or a car or other big purchases there is going to be a lot of negotiating. But Dave's making it sound like every purchase should be negotiated. This is something I'm really not comfortable with, and I don't know exactly where you can and can't negotiate.

For example, I know that most nail places around here charge $28 for a pedicure. So is it appropriate to ask for a lower price, given that is the going rate? Or golf lessons- my golf instructor charges a flat rate per hour and has a lot of clients- is it appropriate to try and negotiate that rate with her? What about when you buy things on websites such as Etsy? I buy a lot of invitations and stationary online- should I be e-mailing them and asking for a lower price or I am going to be told exactly where I can shove that lower price?

Okay, I know that you can't go up to the check out counter at Albertson's and say, "Look I'm only going to give you 25 cents for this onion." without the cashier laughing in your face, but do people negotiate at say, clothing stores? Or if I wanted to buy a set of sheets such as these really badly, what would be the most affordable way to get them or something similar? I need some advice!

I don't shop at overly expensive stores or anything, but I get really frustrated (the old lack of patience perhaps) when I go in stores like Ross and TJ Maxx because I can't ever find ANYTHING! It makes me so mad because the only thing I can find for $4 is like.. a white t-shirt with a hole in it. Then Andrea or Natalie will go to that same store and find a cute necklace, gold peep toe heels and a black jacket for $4. Maybe I just don't have an eye for bargains or something.

Teach me your ways. Exactly how and where do you, personally, get good prices on things?

Today when I came home from school I had a package from Colorado. Rhonda sent me homemade peanut brittle (my favorite!!) and a card that says "When the goin' gets tough, the tough eat peanut brittle." How sweet is that?!?!

My dad was in town last week for my grandma's birthday, and I guess he um... picked up on the fact that I've been really unhappy with my job. Well, it probably had something to do with the ear full I gave him or possibly the fact that when Nick picked him up from the airport and brought him to our house, I was sitting in the backyard drinking a Bud Lite lime at 4:30 p.m. staring at the weeds in a dismal haze. It was that kind of day. It's been that kind of year.

It's just everything I talked about in this post. I feel all of those things so strongly, and it makes me feel really sad and lost because I have ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher. Plus the fact that we have new administration at my school this year so a lot has changed from last year. I'm not saying anything bad about the new administration, things are just different. And sometimes when philosophies and ways of doing things change, it's better to find a place where you can find ones similar to your own.

Needless to say, it's led to many-a-night of Nick and I staying up until after midnight talking and me crying my eyes out. I feel like I've hit a dead end in many ways. I've thought about starting a new career, but my heart is still in education. I love kids, and I don't know what else I would want to do.

And let me just say, thank goodness for my class! It's no coincidence with everything else going on that I really do have the best kids this year. I lucked out, and I love them so much- they are just so funny! Today one of my students Austin walked into math singing, "I can feeeeeel it coming in the air tonight. Oh lord. I've been waiting for this moment all my life. Oh lord." Nothing like a little Phil Collins to kick off your day! I laughed so hard. When I asked him how he knew that song, he told me, "I know all that music. My mom was at her prime in the 80s." I laughed and laughed and laughed!! Her prime?!?!

a) The Bachelor: I'll keep this simple.

Let's say that hypothetically, The Bachelor were a car dealership. That would make our host Chris Harrison a used car salesman. Last night's episode was the equivalent of Chris trying to sell us a 1988 Ford Pinto...crappy and I'm not buying it. (Witty and clever, if I may say so myself!)

I am going to keep my faith in humanity and think this whole thing was scripted like Reality Steve predicted. I am choosing not to believe that someone would actually end an engagment on national TV. My seven year relationship with The Bachelor has officially ended.

b) I got a fortune cookie in Pei Wei last summer that said: Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness. I thought that was real clever because it has the name of my school in it and everything, so I taped it to the monitor on my classroom computer before school started this year.

It is time to take some action-I need to LOVE my job again. And it is my intention to get back to that. I told my principal and vice principal on Friday that I won't be returning next year. Friday was the start of teacher transfers, so we'll see what happens!

We had a nice, relaxing weekend. On Friday night Nick and I went to yoga and cooked dinner. Yesterday morning we went to yoga again and then Andrea and Chris came to spend the day with us. I think this is such a cute picture of Nick, Andrea & Lexi (who is trying her best not to be jealous that her dad is sitting by another girl)!!

Jenny was in town from Austin because she and Natalie ran a half marathon Saturday morning! So on Saturday night the four of us went to Fort Worth to meet Jenny, Nat & David for dinner and to go out.

This morning I decided to make Ebelskivers (e-bull-ski-vurs). I have talked about them before, but I wanted to write about them again and include some pictures because they're so good and very unusual.

First of all, if you want to make Ebelskivers you need to buy a pan. I bought this one last spring with a gift card, but this one is a lot cheaper. Last time I made them I used a recipe, but I found it to be a lot easier to just buy this mix at Williams-Sonoma. Then, all you have to do is add eggs, butter and your filling. I used Nutella today- I love Nutella on anything! Last time I made these I used fresh blueberries.
It's important (I found out last time I made them!) to separate your eggs. Then, you whisk the egg whites until they are stiff- almost like a meringue.

Every time I make Ebelskivers I think of Andrea and I making them for the first time at that infamous Mother's Day brunch! These would also be pretty to serve at a shower.

My family and Nick's family always eat a big breakfast on Christmas morning. One day when Nick and I have little kids running around and Christmas morning is at our house, I think these would be fun to serve. Hopefully our kids will come up with a simpler name for them than Ebelskivers.