2 Dozen 10 year olds

A couple of weeks ago, my class participated in a school-wide walk-a-thon fundraiser. Each grade level was represented by a color (ours was yellow) and to promote sun safety, everyone wore hats. The kids walked for a half an hour and afterward I got a few goofy class shots.



As you can see, these kids were not enjoying themselves, at all.


Are they thinking about passing their basic math facts? No. Upcoming ITBS testing? No. They are just having fun and being silly.

Some of my favorite moments as a teacher come when I get opportunities to take a small step or two outside of the classroom and appreciate my students in their true form.

I hope I never lose sight of the simple fact that the moment we stop having fun together is the moment I stop reaching them as learners.

I also hope I never get too old to find joy in traipsing around a track on a sunny day wearing a yellow t-shirt and a funny hat with a group of 10 year-olds.


PS - This blog is dedicated to Vicelroy Fizzlebottom, who wholeheartedly believes I have more interesting things to write about than my husband! :)

The Great American Movie Sale

My husband is a movie fanatic. Anyone who has met him or seen "the man room" knows this to be true. His movie taste is not limited to a specific genre, actors/actresses, or even a certain era. Jay's movie collection varies from the AFI top 100 list, to old westerns, to Glitter. (Yes, the one with Mariah Carey). He has enough movies that he on more than one occasion created a rental "system" for friends to borrow his DVDs. Yes, it's a sickness.

About a year ago, Jay proclaimed one night that he decided he should sell the movie collection. But as anyone who knows Jay also knows, he often makes bold statements that he will not follow through on.

...Until this week. Jay has decided to sell the collection, for the most part, in it's entirety.

"So what?" you say. "He's got a few movies."

18 blu-ray, 134 TV show sets, and 548 regular movies for sale to be exact. (This doesn't include the lucky few he decided to keep.) "A lot" doesn't quite do it justice.

But that's not the point of this blog. The purpose for my post is that when Jay came to this decision and shared it with his friends, family, and coworkers they all blamed me! Here are just a few examples of the comments I've heard:

What did Kelsey do to convince you to sell your movies?

Just because you're married doesn't mean you have to sell your soul.

You love her more than your movies?

Is she threatening divorce?


THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA, PEOPLE!!!

I love my husband. I love him with or without all 700+ of his movies. Do you think that we dated for 8 years and I didn't know what I was getting myself into? Give me a little credit!

So maybe he has a little obsessiveness for movies... Big deal. I would never ask him to get rid of that. It's a part of the package - a bonus feature. (Jay just cringed at my lame joke)

Maybe when we said "In sickness and health" they didn't quite mean the kind of sickness where one acquires many many movies, but I think if you look closely, it was heavily implied.

“If One’s good, Two’s Better”

So far I'm not very good at this blogging thing. I haven't felt there has been anything all that eventful enough for me to write about in blog form. Until Monday.

My grandma has always lived by the philosophy,"If one's good, two's better." Jay and I got the crazy inkling that we'd like to test this theory with...dogs.

Yes, most think we are absolutely insane. Others find it perfectly logical. I have to admit I think there are more votes in the first category at this point.

Winnie, a 7 week old cocker spaniel, wandered into our lives Monday night. Okay, it really wasn't that fateful...


I have had the puppy itch lately. Usually my itch can be scratched by simply making a trip to Teske's (the local pet store) or the humane society. Well, after 2 consecutive weekends dragging Jay around the humane society/pet store circuit (5 locations in all), I still wasn't feeling satisfied.

I went to the online QC Times classified ads and saw the cutest face I've seen...since Dottie.

A few phone calls later and a trip to Andalusia, IL (who knows where that is anyway?) and Jay and I are driving home with a puppy in tow.

Yes, we might be crazy, but who could resist this face?

The First Post

“Why, Schmeebs, are you here to bother me today? Why do you deserve a little slice of public internet domain in which to share your freedom of speech on a regular or not so regular basis? And why would anyone choose to read it? Please state your purpose.”

So… I’ve got this husband. (Hmm, that doesn’t quite explain it.)

I’ve got this husband who has a blog. (And?)

I’ve got this husband who has a blog and takes any random event in our life (or thought in his head) and fictionalizes, dramatizes, or hyperbolizes it to the point where someone else might be interested in hearing about it. (Getting there...)

Here enlies my problem, oh great Wizard of Blogz: While the general public would agree that this husband’s blog borders on interesting, who’s to know what’s real and what’s not? Who can tell which tales are fact and which are fiction?

Someone needs to set the record straight. This wasn’t a problem before. This guy was just a boyfriend and then just a fiancé. I could claim him when I wanted to and pretend he wasn’t mine when he did something ridiculous. But now, he’s my husband and I’m legally bound to him “until death do us part.” I can’t allow him to drag my name through the fictional mud any longer.

So there you have it, my blog’s about bringing the truth to my readers. This will not be the best blog ever. It’s a way for me keep in contact with a handful of family and friends who are bored enough to read something I write or look at a picture I post. It’s about telling the world there is some good Schmitz out there. They need to know that not all of us have shiny foreheads.

“Permission granted, and Godspeed, newlywed.”

Today marks the first day of my journey into the wonderful world of blogz.