Yes, clearly I HAVE forgotten about this blog!

The top 19 Reasons Betsy Has Not Posted On This Blog In Exactly Six Months:

1. It's not always possible to pick the "Bets Week Ever" things every week.

2. Lots of things happening with lots of friends - new jobs, new last names, new babies, new area codes - and I wanted to be there supporting all of them!

3. I did battle with a bat! Enough said. {Actually, it was three bats!}

4. Kansas has been taken over by a Secretary of State who is trying to figure-out how to prevent people who weren't born here from reading this blog. I object because my Mother was born in Texas and my sister was born in Missouri.

5. Elections! Exciting Everywhere Else!

6. Trips to see BFFs ... Colorado, Arkansas, Ohio!

7. Afternoon walks with Minnie. We've seen lots of wildlife, and lived to talk about it.

8. KU plays more than one Division 1 sport and they need my support. Sadly, none of the teams play during the Fall.

9. It almost never rained and I was waiting for an old-fashioned rainy day to stay inside and post.

10. New school year with 25 great children ... and none of them read blogs!

11. Georgia has kept me busy.

12. President Obama asked me to do my part and keep the economy going. After a new refrigerator, air conditioner, garbage disposal and car, my 'blogging' engine ran out of fuel.

13. I no longer needed to be studying for my National Board Certification, so used my free time to watch the programs on my DVR.

14. Cooking up a storm!

15. TEAM Tailgate needed a chaperone on too many Saturdays.

16. Unusual weather patterns. It's getting blamed for everything else, why not my lack of new posts on this blog!?!

17. Riting and Rithmetic are full-time responsibilities, even if 'cursive' is going away.

18. Ellen is doing so many things and I want to be there when I can.

19. So, if you read the first letter of each of these 19 Reasons Betsy Has Not Posted To This Blog In Exactly Six Months ... You will get a clue. I. LIKE. TAKING. PICTURES.

Or, go to http://www.theviewacrosstown.com/ and see what I've done in the last 180 days!

My thanks to my "ghostwriter" who is so OCD that he finally sent me this rough draft. Obviously he should have spent more time with his own book project. 

{Thanks, Dad! I guess you don't like the fact that I haven't updated this blog more often. I hope at some point, I'll be back here more regularly!}

Barbie, I love you ... but what happened!?!?

When I was little, I LOVED playing with my Barbies. I dressed them up. I sang to my Barbie & the Rockers cassette tape. I brushed & braided their hair. I made a Barbie mall with my childhood friend, Sarah. I took their heads off to swap bodies and then was very sad when they never went back on the bodies correctly. I had favorite Barbies: Peaches & Cream Barbie, Rocker Barbie, Crystal Barbie, California Barbie, Jewel Secrets Barbie and Tropical Barbie. I played with her canopy bed, shop, Corvette and pool party accessories. I still have most of my Barbies and her clothes in Mom & Dad's basement.

In a recent trip to Target, I found myself strolling through the aisle of dolls and Barbies. I immediately started to oooh & ahhh over the pretty clothes & hair found on current-day Barbies. I also like to look at the fancy Barbies that should really be kept in their boxes. I saw the Happy Birthday, Ken doll and couldn't get over how beautiful her dress was! Mattel also came out with a line of Barbies called Back to Basics Barbies. Her dresses are simple LBDs (little black dress), but you can choose to buy a set of accessories to add to her dress. These dolls are really pretty. Some others in this collection come in simple jeans and a white t-shirt.

I'm okay with all of those dolls. Then, I came across a new line of I Can Be ... Barbies. I thought, "Oh! How nice! Barbie in different jobs to show girls that they can do many different things when they get older." Then, I looked a little closer. You should, too.

Teacher Barbie:

Why is her skirt so short? Why is her shirt ruffly and satin? Does her computer have a picture of herself on it? Oh, and the glasses? Stereotypical image of every teacher. At least Barbie can be beautiful in glasses ... right?

Kid Doctor Barbie:

Are we not allowed to call them "pediatricians"? I don't know too many doctors that wear pink capri pants and a fitted white coat, but I'll let it fly. At least she's not showing too much skin. However, I don't think her heels are very practical, and I'd like to think that a doctor would carry more equipment with them other than a stethoscope and a big brush.

Doctor Barbie:

This one also seems to be a "kid doctor" ... so I don't know why they are different. For the same price, you get the Barbie and her small patient. The small girl apparently GROWS, but I'm not sure how that happens. Now that I'm comparing this outfit to the "kid doctor" outfit ... I'm suddenly very okay with the pink capris. Doctor Barbie is actually wearing a satin coat, mini-skirt and shiny pink tights with her white heels. VERY impractical. Grrrr.

Lifeguard Barbie:

She gets a free pass for her skimpy outfit for her job since she spends her time by the pool. I didn't notice until I got home and looked at the pictures that her lifeguard chair acts as a catapult so she can dive in to save the swimmers. The description on this link says: Your daughter can play out her dream of being a stylish, heroic lifeguard. Yes! That's just what all girls want to be. Stylish AND a hero!

Snowboarder Barbie:

Her outfit is pretty cute, minus the mesh, see-through shirt she has under the cropped snow jacket. But look! She won some sort of an Olympic medal. Way to go, Barbie!

Pet Vet Barbie:

Again, can't we just call her "veterinarian"? There is another one online called the Kitty Care Vet Barbie. She has more equipment with her, like a slide for the cat to slide from the scale INTO the bathtub. Right. I think this one has the same tights as the Doctor Barbie.

I found many more I Can Be ... Barbies online. Dentist Barbie. Babysitter Barbie. Computer Engineer Barbie (who has a totally cute outfit that I approve of). Chef Barbie. News Anchor Barbie. Ballroom Dancer Barbie. Architect Barbie (I also approve of her cute outfit). And Pizza Chef Barbie.

One of the last Barbies I saw before I left the aisle was this pretty, Princess Barbie. I really liked her. Although, when I took a closer looks, I noticed something about her outfit. She has a pretty ballroom skirt on. And no top. No seriously. Look. She has glitter painted on her top, but that's it. I guess you can't change her clothes ... but you could cover her up with a cute cardigan :)

Enough of my rant. I took these pictures on June 2nd and I just now got around to writing about them. I knew I had something to say about each of the outfits, but this post actually turned into a trip down memory lane. When looking for links for the top of this post, I had a lot of fun remembering all the fun I had with MY Barbies. I played for hours and refused to give them up, even though I haven't played with them for years. Jill was here as I flipped through literally hundreds of pictures online and we talked about which accessories we each had. She had Barbie's Dream Apartment and I had Barbie's Dream Shop. After hours of looking, she said, "I could go to my Mom's house to get my Barbies so you could see them ... and maybe we could play! Ha!"

I appreciate the attempt to open up every occupation to little girls. I just think that there is a long way to go. Slowly but surely, Mattel makes changes to make Barbie more PC for little kids. Her body has changed to be a more realistic shape (so they say) and the names on the dolls are no longer "Blonde Barbie", "Hispanic Barbie" and "Black Barbie". You might find her fictional history interesting ... and definitely read the controversies listed on this page. I learned a lot about the company.

As much as I made fun of some of these Barbies, I hope that she's still around when I have kids. I hope that Ellen wants to play Barbies some day with me and I'll be interested to see how much more she's changed by that time.

I needed this laugh!

Watch this one ...

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And then feel free to waste some time watching the other Walk on the Wild Side videos, especially if you're home sick and can't seem to move off the couch.

This happens on a daily basis!

Look at what I just made:

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Someone in my Twitter PLN (Personal Learning Network) shared a link to Bitstrips that her students had created. They looked like comics and they were fancy. I thought, "There is NO way her second graders created those comics!"

Then, I clicked on the Bit Strips website, and within just 5 minutes I had created this comic. If I could do it in just a few minutes ... imagine how much fun my tech-y students would have on this site! I didn't know what to expect when I started, so I just wanted to make something quickly. I didn't know what I was going to have my comic say until I found the trash can clip art. This is one of my biggest pet peeves ... no name papers :(

Even if you aren't a teacher, go check out the site! It's pretty fun!

Worth a watch!

I've liked the band, OK Go, for a while. They became well known with their first music video, "Here It Goes Again" that involved a group of 6 treadmills. I probably watched that video 100 times. I bet you've seen it too!

Last year, they came out with another great video for "This Too Shall Pass" that was based off of a Rube Goldberg Machine. They had to do the entire thing in one take. I can't imagine just how many times it took to get it perfect!

Here is the latest video for "White Knuckles". I couldn't tell you any of the words of the song, and I probably wouldn't recognize it if it were played again, but I was glued to my computer. You'll see why ...

Pretty amazing, huh?

blik for betsy

Maybe you'll remember a post I wrote about the blik decal that Molly, Mom & I put on the Ellen's nursery wall. That was before we even knew Ell's name ... and she was still Lulu to us! :)

Since then (October of 2008), I've wanted to get a blik decal for my condo. It didn't matter where one would go ... because I've got PLENTY of empty walls. That's what happens when you are a single teacher, who can't afford nice decor for your home :)

Over winter break, I started looking at the site, www.whatisblik.com and I found lots of patterns that I liked. Then, I came across the Me, MyShelf & I wall decal. It was exactly what I needed for my loft! If you are looking for any kind of wall art, I HIGHLY suggest checking out the site. These lights, plants & headboards are some of my favorite decals they sell!

Here is a slideshow of the process to put the decal on my loft wall. With the three of us, I'd say it took us about two hours from start to finish.


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What do you think? You likey?

No pictures! No pictures!

Ellen is already aware of the paparazzi ... now that she's famous!

In case you didn't hear, Ellen was the Grand Prize winner of the Kansas City Star's Cutest Costume contest. Say that three times fast. Molly got the call early today and by the time we got home from shopping & running errands, they had already posted the news online!

Check out this screen cap. There is our little salmon sushi roll ... on the front page of the KansasCity.com website! The other winners had some GREAT costumes, too!

Thanks to all of you that voted for her online. I'm not sure how Ellen will top her first Halloween, but I bet Molly already has some idea in the works! :)

Best Sushi In Town???

Okay ... that's not really what we are voting on, but we are voting on who was the Best Dressed Kiddo in KC this Halloween!

Miss Ellen is one of the 166 entries in the latest KC Star contest.

She would LOVE to win and she's begging you for her vote! :)

Here's the scoop:

• She is submission #139 out of 166 of KC's best dressed kids. {You should seriously check out her competition. Some of the pictures are so blurry you can't even tell if it's a pic of a child or a magazine picture! Ellen has a real chance to win!}

• The winner is the photo with the most number of votes. Voting is open from Wednesday, November 4th at 5:00am - Friday, November 6th at 5:00pm CST, once per day. {It's not too late to get a vote in today!}

• You do have to register on the site to vote (wah, wah, wah). Be sure to check the box to not send any unwanted emails. After the contest, you can send an email to privacy at upickem.net to remove your email from their list.

Here are the links you need:

Click here to REGISTER (it took me a while to get my confirmation email ... don't give up! It will come.)

Click here to VOTE!

Checking off the list

This map shows the 24 states that I've visited. I adjusted it from the original 15 I had with the help of Dad. {I think I need some help from family ... am I missing some states? 15 doesn't seem like very many when we did a lot of traveling as a family when we were growing up.}

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Visited 24 states (48%) shown in red.
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?
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I saw this on another blog today & thought it was a cool way to keep track of your travels. There are many other states that I'd like to visit ... most of them in the Northeast.

Do any of my readers have a bottomless bank account that would like to take me on a trip? ;)

It took me about 2 weeks to sit down and write this post

And it is all very ironic.

In 2008, I posted on this blog 369 times. How in the world I did that, I don't know! In half of 2009, I've only come up with 52 posts. I feel like a failure, even though I've stuck to my resolution of posting photos on The View Across Town every day.

I've mentioned before that Twitter has made it more difficult for me to find the time (okay, maybe find the effort) to write a whole post on here. I do feel like I'm a bit crazy to be able to keep up with this blog, the photo blog, Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, my school email, yahoo email, gmail email, school website ... and my offline world! Somehow I do it all, but it still takes time.

Now that I'm following over 200 people on Twitter (many of them now in my PLN - Personal Learning Network), there are MANY links that are tweeted that I click on and then find time to read later. Well, 2 weeks ago, I clicked on two interesting articles about the downfall of blogging due to Twitter's popularity. I finally read them today and realized that these articles could have been written about me ... but I hope that doesn't happen to me. Here they are:

Blogging is Dying and Twitter is to Blame

When the Thrill of Blogging is Gone

Go read them. Not all of you will find them interesting, but seeing as how you are reading my blog (and maybe you've complained to me that I haven't been writing enough), you might find them worth the read.

Some people don't understand Twitter and why you would care to read what people are doing throughout their days. While much of Twitter is people Tweeting with a "Don't u hate using public bathrooms .......", that isn't really the stuff I'm interested in reading. I've found an online network of other educators (4th grade teachers, SPED teachers, autism advocates, technology teachers, principals, etc) that post meaningful links, ideas and suggestions. I've thrown a question out there like, "Suggestions for where to seat a student who talks nonstop to her peers? She's looking for attention." The response is immediate and starts a great discussion between educators.

Don't get me wrong ... I've also shared lots about my daily minutia like, "I guess it's time to actually get out of bed since my schnoodle is growling at me & I am tutoring in just 45 min. Bed, I'll miss you :("

I know that not everyone cares and that is why you don't have to respond to everything that everyone writes. You can quickly skim by it when the Tweets are 140 characters or less! Mom said the other day that she thinks Twitter is narcissistic and is is ridiculous of people on Twitter to think that anyone cares what they are doing throughout the day. Well ... she may be right about part of that. HOWEVER, can't we say that Twitter is just a shortened version of Blogging??? Why do I think that anyone cares about anything that I post? Well, if they don't care, then they don't need to read it. I can tell when people aren't reading or really don't care about what I've posted because there aren't any comments. Days will go by without comments on this blog and even the photo blog. I'm not offended. I can tell that people are still reading.

Anyhoo ... I just wanted to share these articles and to let you all know that I'm still here. I think part of the difficulty in me sitting down and posting is now that I've been taking photos EVERY DAY, I feel the need to share some of those photos and that just takes a little bit longer.

I will try and I hope that if you are interested in what I'm writing, you should comment and let me know. If you hate it, let me know that, too!

Happy Blogging to all ... or maybe just Happy Twittering to those of you that have fallen off the blogging bandwagon with me!

Hey look! There's a hummingbird outside my window!

Check out this Funny or Die video. Our family friend, Tuc Watkins, plays one of the detectives in this video. If you are someone that likes crime dramas on TV like I do, then you will like this. Feel free to vote "Funny" after you watch it :)

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The Sentimentalist - watch more funny videos

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It's a MIRACLE!

I have spent the majority of my 5 years of teaching looking for comfortable, CUTE shoes to wear to work. We all know how I turn into Tipsy Tumbles when I'm wearing my tall heels, so most of the winter, I try and get away with one pair of short heels and athletic shoes.

I'm the Queen of buying "the most comfortable" low-heeled black shoes for work and then deciding that they are no where close to comfortable, (before the bell even rings) the first time I wear them to work. At any given time in my closet, you can see about 3-7 pairs of black shoes just for work. Most of them never get worn because they just aren't comfortable for standing on my feet all day.

Well, Sunday I decided to give it one more go on for comfortable black shoes. I found these at Target and loved that I immediately thought they were cute and then when I tried them on, I was pleasantly surprised! Isn't it fun to shuffle around in Target shoes when they are tied together? I always feel like such a fool!
Anyhoo, these Merona flats are like athletic shoes, but look a bit fancier. The rubber soles aren't too bulky & the elastic straps don't pinch on your feet. Normally shoes rub on the backs of my heels and that's when I immediately take them off. These only hurt a bit at the very end of the day, but I also spend my entire day on my feet! I HIGHLY recommend these shoes if you are looking for something for work or just to run around town in! I did buy them a 1/2 size smaller than I normally do, just FYI. If I had more money, I would think about going back to get the white & green pair of Mary Janes and the tan & gold pair of ballet flats!

I can't wait to see how they look with some of my skirts & dresses when it gets nice enough for skirts & dresses for work! :)

Etsy shoppers pick a favorite team!

I got an idea last fall to make some earrings that were college-themed after I was tired of only finding cheesy (sorry KU fans, you know it's true!) Jayhawk earrings. Well, I think it's interesting to see how many views these pair of earrings have each had.

Check out the KU Jayhawks vs. the MU Tigers vs. the KSU Wildcats earrings! Clearly there are more Jayhawk fans! :) Let me know if you see something you like. You should be able to click on the descriptions to get to each item on my Etsy page!

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk ... good luck in tonight's game!

KU Earrings - 59 views

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, Go KU - Beaded Earrings

by betsyonetsy

KU Earrings - 40 views

Beak 'Em, Hawks - KU Jayhawks Beaded Earrings

by betsyonetsy

MU Earrings - 1 view

MU Mizzou Tigers - Black and Gold Beaded Earrings

by betsyonetsy

KSU Earrings - 7 views

Kansas State Wildcats - Purple Beaded Earrings

by betsyonetsy

Old Man Stewart - Shakes his fist at ???

Molly told me she was angry that I hadn't been posting to this blog every day! Since I've quit posting daily on this blog & started posting daily on The View Across Town, I don't know how I ever wrote a whole post each day!?! Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with one good picture to share, let alone something to write that someone might actually want to read.

Well, I've figured out what has made me feel the need to post less on this blog.

Twitter.

That's right, I'm Tweeting. It was just 7 short months ago that I didn't know about Twitter and what it was for, and now I'm hooked! It's basically a shorter (much shorter) way of blogging to let people know what you are doing. You only have 140 characters to share, so that is always a challenge.

I'm now following some friends from high school and college, friends from here, blogging friends, celebs and other random people that I found I have things in common with them!

Here is Jon Stewart "raising his fist" at Twitter last night! Pretty darn funny!

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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

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If any of you are interested in Tweeting, just let me know. I can now show you how and get you hooked. I'm off to read all the updates that people posted today while I was at work. Some of us can't Tweet all the time! :)

The fashion police were out last night!

After watching the Oscars last night and doing my own version of playing fashion police, I was super excited to hear & read what the media had to say today!

This morning on The Today Show, Meredith & Al did a piece on the Oscars. I thought it was strange that they chose Al to be on the red carpet doing interviews. He chose Heidi Klum's dress as his favorite. Lemme guess why! ;)

Tonight I just sat down to read the Project Rungay. Of couse, they did their own recaps of the Oscar fashion last night and I just about spit my water out when I read the following about Beyonce & her ridiculous dress!


Beyonce in who the hell knows? Probably her mother with the glue gun again.



Lorenzo spent all night putting the pictures together for this post and writing little notes under them. Under these pictures, he offered the following:

"This is offensive."

That about sums it up. This dress is a hate crime.

I agreed with Tom & Lorenzo on a few of their favorite dresses: Tina Fey, Natalie Portman & Anne Hathaway! I did NOT agree with their thoughts on Jessica Biel and Tilda Swinton, I didn't like either of their dresses. Be sure to go check out what they have to say!

Leave Leukemia & Lymphoma in the dust!

I need to ask a favor of my readers ... I need to you help my good friends, Mitzi & Jill. They are on their way to completing a large goal and they'll be doing a lot of good for charity along the way.

This summer, in June, Mitz & Jilly will be running in the Seattle Marathon! I don't even like to drive 26.2 miles in my car ... but they will be RUNNING the whole 26.2! Last October, the two of them ran the Kansas City half-marathon and it motivated them to train for a whole one. I was cheering my girls on from the virtual side-lines because for the KC race, I was helping Ashley & Drew celebrate their BIG day! I hope to be able to cheer them on in person this summer! That is the goal I'm setting for myself.

They are training for the run with Team In Training, which is a division of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. They will be working to raise $4,100 each to help fight these blood cancers. If they raise that amount, they will be able to fly & stay with the team to be fully prepared for the big run. The great thing is that most of their raised money goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Here are a few facts about Leukemia & Lymphoma and TNT for those of you that aren't familiar:

• This group has been around for 21 years!
• TNT is the world's largest endurance sports training program, providing coaching and support for people to cross the finish line at marathons, half marathons, triathlons and 100-mile cycling events.
  
• Since it started, over 360,000 participants have raised more than $850 million for lifesaving cancer research and to help blood cancer patients live longer, better lives.
• Every 5 minutes, someone new is diagnosed with Leukemia or Lymphoma. Every 10 minutes, someone dies from one of these blood diseases.
  

Here is how you can help to make a difference!

Mitzi is running for our good friend, Andrew Naylor, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma a few years ago. He had a difficult battle and now thanks to research & treatment options, he now has a clean bill of health. Jill is running for the team's honor patient, Greg Kutey, a local husband & father three kids who is fighting his own battle.

Here are the links to the girls' websites where you can make a donation. Any amount helps! Both girls were asking for donations of just $14 today in honor of Valentine's Day. Of course, you can donate more than that if you'd like. If you look at their pages, you can see that the girls are well on their way to making a difference in the fight toward ending these blood cancers! Every dollar makes a difference!

Mitzi's Team In Training Site: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnrseatl09/mpetersaay

Jill's Team In Training Site: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnrseatl09/jchittum

I've been told that if the girls surpass their total goal of $8,200 ... they'll take me with them as a traveling member of the Campaign Committee. After all ... they'll need some someone to take pictures, blog about the run, and encourage them to eat more pasta (as if any of us needed an excuse to do that)!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any donations to them ... I want to do what I can to support the girls to show them how proud I am of their hard work!

I give this girl an "A" for her report on Kittens!

I saw this on BoingBoing, and couldn't stop laughing! It even made me forget about the fact that my head feels like it's going to explode!

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The whole video is like one big LOLcat!

You wanna know about me?

A bunch of my friends who blog were posting in response to the blog "tagging" that was going around. You are supposed to write 6 things about you that others may not know about. Both Jill and Heather tagged me and Mitzi and Kat posted their unknown facts. At the time that I was tagged, I couldn't come up with 6 things about me.

Lately on Facebook, a bunch of my friends have been doing the same thing, but this time it was 25 random facts about yourself. Well, last night, I finally sat down and came up with my 25. I thought this would make up for not completing the post from earlier this year.

Here they are for those of you that aren't on Facebook with me!

In no particular order:

1. I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies. Have zero desire to see any of them.

2. I realized last night that one of my biggest pet peeves is having to shop for anything (groceries, shoes, clothes, random crap) with a coat on. If I have a shopping cart, then that is a bit better since I can take it off and not have to hold it.

3. I would eat ice cream for every meal, every day if it didn't make my ass grow exponentially larger. The only flavors I don't like are anything that tastes even a little bit like coffee. I'm not fooled easily by tiramisu or mocha flavors ... they have coffee taste in them, too!

4. The only award I've ever won was a pretty big one. I went to summer camp for 7 summers in Texas. At the end of every summer, they give an award to the camper that lives up to the camps "ideals". Well, this little girl from Overland Park won it my last year. It's called the Ideal Waldemar Girl award. Was a big deal for the day I got it and once you get back to Kansas, it has lost it's meaning :)

5. I have "totaled" two cars from hydroplaning. Once the first week of college and the second time about 4 summers later in Kansas City.

6. I would stay at my job forever if I didn't have to leave for family OR getting the boot from my job. My building staff seems more like a family than a bunch of colleagues.

7. My favorite place to be in the entire world is on top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy. The views are amazing!!

8. I only want daughters. Not really, but I'm such a girlie, girl ... that I get excited about being able to buy ruffly & pink baby clothes. I've already decided that because I only want daughters, and two of them ... I'll get 2 boys and then "try" for a girl and get another boy! :)

9. Since I graduated from KU in 2003, I've moved 7 times: House in Lawrence TO Mom & Dad's TO apartment on Quivira TO Mom & Dad's TO Jenny's TO Molly & Erik's TO my condo!

10. I bought a condo this last summer ALL BY MYSELF! I had a great Realtor (thanks!) and great family & friends (thanks!) to help me talk through all my worries and reassure me that I would find another place when the first condo fell through. BUT ... I'm proud that I did this basically on my own. It was one of the things I've done that I'm proudest of.

11. I know I'm crafty and I think I'm pretty good when it comes to most crafty activities. I do get frustrated though, when I realize that a new skill isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

12. I've lived in Overland Park almost all my life. I have no desire to move.

13. When I used to play M.A.S.H. when I was in elementary school, I always chose a VW Bug as one of my dream cars. Now that I have a Bug, I love it. It has never driven to a place further than Lawrence and my friends say it smells like Crayons. Hmmm ...

14. I HATE putting away laundry. It is my least favorite chore. I would rather just wear all the clean clothes out of the basket until they are all dirty again.

15. I have 20-27 kids each year in my class. It isn't in my contract or my teacher's manuals, but I work hard to teach them manners, how to admit when they've done something wrong and how to be kind to other students that are different than themselves. Teaching those skills is what makes me most proud.

16. I bought Minnie as a 25th birthday present to myself. It was the best thing I've ever done! She's made my life so much better and I love to see her waiting for me to greet her when I walk in the door. [Don't think I'm crazy. Those of you that are dog people will understand.]

17. I became Aunt Betsy on December 3rd of this year. Emilie said it best when she said that "Aunt" was her favorite title so far!

18. I'm almost debt free. Well ... minus the condo I just bought. :) Just a bit more on an old credit card and a little more on my student loans. My goal is to be finished with both by the time the next school year starts in August!

19. I'm TERRIFIED of speaking in front of large groups of people. Yes, I'm a teacher who doesn't like to speak in front of others. Doesn't make sense. The absolute worst possible scenario for me would be if I were forced to do karaoke!

20. I have started 2 blogs in the past 2 years. Please check them out: www.thebetsweekever.blogspot.com AND www.theviewacrosstown.blogspot.com

21. If I weren't a teacher, I would love to be a photographer ... or a professional gift wrapper! :)

22. I've never driven myself to the airport. Thanks, Dad!

23. My haircut = $40. Minnie's haircut = $40. She gets her hair cut more often than I do, sad but true.

24. I used to be obsessed with celebrity gossip. I lived for the day when my US Weekly arrived in my mailbox, and I spent every night catching up on the celeb smut on OhNoTheyDidn't. I don't have time for that anymore ... canceled my US subscription and rarely get on ONTD.

25. I have a damn good memory. I remember exact conversations that I've had with people all the way back to elementary school.


Feel free to share any random facts about yourselves!