GoLean Crunch.....more like GoFart Crunch

So I tried this new cereal today...BIG mistake. This may be TMI but I ate a bowl of this cereal today, ok 2, and all was well...It is quite tasty and definitely is very crunchy but...2:00 pm came rolling around and the fun began! I have had gas from fiber before but this was something else! I thought it was the 4th of july all over again. Explosion after explosion. As dad would put it "violent peristalsis!"

So anywho, needless to say, I will not be purchasing THIS again.

Do NOT eat GoLean Crunch.....I cannot emphasize this enough.

Oh my gosh, I'm freaking out!

Ok...so as some of you may know, my favorite band in the world, Coldplay (these guys so handsomely clad above me) are coming to town THIS saturday. So, I was on my way home from work and I was listening to 101.9 the end and low and behold they were holding an auction for a private piano lesson with Chris Martin himself! So I'm sitting in my car and I hear them say there's only 20 min. left in the auction and it was at $2,000.

So, I start thinking...who in their right mind would pay $2,000 for a piano lesson with Coldplay, right?....wait a sec...I would pay $2,000 to play with Coldplay! Time keeps ticking away and I'm really contemplating "should I do this?" I keep listening to the radio....no one is calling in! I pull over to a gas station and start filling my car up with gas. Five min. left in the auction, i'm still thinking. What have I got to lose, right? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Finally, one minute to go I work up the nerve to call.

So they answer and i'm like "So what's the bid at?" They're like "$2,000". So I say "Ok, I will bid $2,002." Immediately, he's like "whoa, stay on the line." I'm literally freaking out at this point. Suddenly, I hear the radio guys pick up and start talking and they're like "So we've got something interesting going on. I've got Kristen and Lisa on the line and I was in the process of calling Kristen up to congratulate her on winning the Coldplay auction, but with literally 30 seconds left Lisa calls up with a bid at $2,002." At this point I'm like "Oh my gosh I'm on the radio..." He continues, "So I am going to ask you Kristen, are you willing to go higher?" Immediately she's like "I will bid $3,000!" I'm like "DOH!" So he asks me "Ok, it's at $3,000. Lisa are you willing to go higher?" At this point I am so disappointed. Who does this? I was expecting maybe $200 more, but another $1,000?? I hesitate for a while and finally say, "you know, I am such a huge Coldplay fan, but I'm not going to be able to pay $3,000." So here I am, disappointed, listening to Kristen steal away my dream. But then, Parker (the radio guy) comes on the line and is like, "i think I can still get you in to meet Coldplay just because of your effort." I'm like OH MY GOSH! (say it like Sue from SNL)

So end of a long story....Parker took down my number and it seems like my chances of meeting Coldplay are actually pretty good. I don't necessarily get to play with them, but it would still be sooo awesome just to meet them. So now I am constantly sitting by my phone waiting for a call. So, cross your fingers for me and I will definitely keep you posted if I actually will get to meet them!

Old Colony

My Doppelganger?

For those of you unfamiliar with the theory of dopplegangers, it is the idea that for every person there is another person somewhere in the world that is an identical replica of that person only their opposite. If he/she is good than the other is bad and vice versa. Some of you may recall a seinfeld episode where Elaine meets bizarro Jerry, George and Kramer. It's similar to that. So my friend sent me a picture text of this ad and wanted to know when I started doing commercials. I was like, what the crap are you talking about. Then I saw the picture and I had to do a double take. Is that really me?

I started thinking about all of the possibilities. What if this person becomes a really famous actor? I could be his stunt double or maybe even get a segment on a "stars look-a-like episode" of the Maury Pouvich show. Maybe he becomes America's next top model and all of a sudden women mistakenly recognize me and chase me through malls and parking structures. I could dupe the paparazzi into thinking I was him and sell pictures of me on the beach with a gut and having really let myself go. I could drop out of medical school with all of the money I would make. Then I found this tidbit on wikipedia about dopplegangers... "In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an Omen of Death!"

That can't be good. Do you think you have to see the doppelganger in person or does it work when you see their picture? Anyways, this triggered my memory back to a family outing we had about ten years ago. We went up to deer creek for labor day and while we were on the "beach" there was another kid my age in a similar swimming suit and when he turned around I thought I was looking in the mirror. I think that Sylvia may have actually pointed him out to me. (Do you remember this, Sylvia?) Well, it definitely weirded me out and I still remember it. I can't remember anything particularly bad happening to me after that though.

I searched the internet and found the ad. It's the ad at the top of the page that alternates with another ad, so you may have to wait a second for it to appear. Just click on the title of this post for a link and let me know what you guys think?

So much to say, yet so little time! Since June 2007 I have spent hours on hours and wrote check after check working to get a job with the School District of Philadelphia. I was reading websites, filling out paper work and applications and resumes, taking tests, studying about the schools, neighborhoods, distances, blah, blah, blah, and up until Tuesday none of it has done me an ounce of good. Instead of getting a job with the school district when we moved here I had to spend a year nannying. The next school year I quit to start teaching but still didn't get offered a safe job, so I had to teach preschool for $13.50 an hour.

It was a really complicated process, but to save time I'll just leave it at, I finally got a job with the school district!! The name of the school is H.R. Edmunds and I'm teaching kindergarten!! Technically I should be getting paid a substantial salary at my current preschool job but didn't think they'd ever get around to paying me with the way things have been working there so I gave them an ultimatum. They didn't want to lose me, but weren't willing to cough up the money either, so I gave them my two weeks notice. I'll be really sad to leave my perfect class, but the administration was unorganized and didn't seem to care about the teachers so it isn't going to be that hard to leave. I'm excited to get a lot more paid holidays now, and if I work over the summer to be getting two paychecks.

I went into the school yesterday and had a really good talk with the assistant principal. They're going to let me spend some time in the other K classes and give me some time to get my classroom all set up when I first start next Monday. It will be a week or two until I'm actually teaching, which is nice.

In other news, life here in Philly keeps rolling along. It's weird that we're celebrating holidays for the second time in this city and in this house. It makes it feel like we're actually residents here instead of just visitors.

We were supposed to go to the timeshare for Halloween weekend but then Emma Arnquist (a friend I grew up with) called and told me she wanted to come visit. She enters the MTC on November 19^th so this was the only weekend we could work it in. She came on Thursday night and just left today. Friday I had to work so she just walked around center city all day by herself. She had great timing since that was the day of the Phillies championship parade. She enjoyed the streets of Philly with the other 2 million (literally) Phillies fans. It was a crazy day.

Saturday Emma and I had a girls day at Longwood gardens (it's like the arboretum times ten)

and then a little shopping at Plato's Closet. Today she got to enjoy my ward on a fast/testimony day (which is always a treat) and she even got up and bore her testimony. It was weird to have her here. When I'm hanging out with my friends in Dallas or Utah I feel like a kid (basically I feel my own age) and when I'm here in Philly with all the other couples I feel like a mature, responsible wife. This weekend my two worlds collided and I had to reconcile them together, which made for a unique realization.

On Halloween we had a parade at my school and then a Halloween party complete with a piñata. I dressed up as Miss Swamp from the book Miss Nelson is Missing. I got a few pictures but not any great ones.

My kids love that book and have me read it to them almost every day. I always threaten that if they misbehave I'm going to call Miss Swamp to come in so they are always good because they are so terrified of her. They were so scared of me when they came to school they would cling to their moms and wouldn't come near me until I took off my nose and teeth. Even kids in other classes were running up to their moms at the end of the day and the first thing they told them was "Miss Swamp came to school today!"

That night when I came home Danny and Emma and I went out to eat and then planned to come home and pass out candy while watching The Others. The dinner took so long though that by the time we got home it was too late for trick-or-treaters. Whoops. Now I'm stuck with a lot of cheap dollar store candy. Dang it! It was still a fun Halloween though.

There's much more I could write, but in the interest of time once again I will spare you. :) I love you all! Maretta and Danny