What I'm Loving Sunday

iPhone 4s

I'm not sure how I made it without this phone for so long. It's pretty amazing. Everything I need is right at my fingertips. What? You want to go running? There's an app for that! The Couch to 5K app on this phone is waaay better than the one I was using on the android. Then I track it with Run Keeper as well which tracks my mileage for the month. My whole iTunes library is in it so I can listen to whatever music I want - or stream Pandora. My calendar syncs to my iCal so I can see what's going on when I wake up each morning. I need a system upgrade on my MacBook, and then iCloud will stream music and photos from each device to the other wirelessly over wifi. Life is good with the new phone! Oh, and Siri - haven't used her much, but I did ask her if Hektor should buy an iPhone for his upgrade. She said, "I have found 4 Apple Stores in your area." Love it.


Unsweetened Iced Green Tea

I'm sure you've all had this at some point or another. I was thinking that I wouldn't like it when I was on my way to meet friends today (since I can't have any sweetener), but it was really good - tastes kinda minty. I guess it's because I haven't really had any sweetener anytime in the past month, but if I keep my sugar in check, this will be a refreshing beverage for the summer!

www.meetup.com

Anyone familiar with meetup? I was kinda nervous going to my first event last summer, but everyone I've met in the group I most frequent is so great. Here's how it works: you go to meetup.com and surf around looking for a group that suits your interests. There's groups for everything - knitting - movies - dinners - bars - sporting events - you name it, it's there! (and if your interest isn't, you can create your own group!) When you find a group you like, you request membership with them. Then, events are posted and you RSVP to attend. In the one I use the most, we have monthly dinners at new restaurants, a book club group that meets monthly,  events to go out dancing, see theater shows, bike riding, dance and yoga classes, craft stuff....anything is game! (So excited to find friends who love The Bachelor - we're going to watch them together starting next month!) This has been a great way to meet new friends in my area and make Chicago finally feel like home.

Inspiring colleagues to use authentic literacy practices

As you know if you've been reading my blog, my kids have been participating in book clubs for the past two weeks and I've been loving their progress. One of the teachers on my team - the Social Studies teacher, Mr. Smith - came in to see them the other day and is now going to do some literature circles with a historical fiction novel. I'm so excited and can't wait for him to get a taste of some great learning in his classroom centered around literacy!

Draw Something

Draw something is an app for the phone (not sure if it goes Android or not) but you get a word, have to draw it, and then whomever you're playing with (friends or random opponents) guesses what it is. Now, my drawings are definitely not as good as this Elvis drawing, but I'm pretty good. It's a nice addition to Words with Friends which I play before I go to sleep sometimes. 

and....what I'm hating:
Dumb Shits on Draw Something

I have this one random opponent who never draws - she writes the words. Every time she just writes it. We've done X Games, Tin Tin...a buch others that slip my mind. The thing is, there's no way to chat with the other player - like on some scrabble apps you can also text the opponent - and I don't know how to end the game with her, so I pass every time she writes the word, and when I get a chance to draw, I write things like, "don't write words" or "draw pictures only." Doesn't matter - she still replies with a word on the DRAW Something app. So. Dumb.

and so I leave you on a positive note, one more thing I'm loving:

Inside Jokes

One of my favorite things about my relationships is the inside jokes I have with each of my friends...

with Katie, there's tons, but a few are YT, GTA (shortened from GTABOD) and IHTP in the SB. Stupid acronyms that mean stuff to only us that we can laugh about.

with Anita, it's when she gets all hyped up about...well, anything really, and I look at her, smile, and say, "Whoa now, you okay?" to which she replies with a laugh and chills out. She's never mad, but just gets super animated and needs to take it down a notch.

and with the bf, so many little things, like calling each other Dud from a stupid story I told him months ago. Little things like this make me super happy.

Have a great week! My last free moments before work belong to some overdue reading.....