the current state of girls

as a junior high school teacher, I consider myself an insider into the minds of adolescent girls. well, not really an insider....just someone who spends insane amounts of time eavesdropping on conversations (and stopping the conversations) on boys, shopping, and other girls. I'm someone who picks up notes and scans it for drug use and sex and then tosses it. I used to not read notes, because I just didn't want to know. Now, I feel like if I don't know and don't do something, then I'm letting them down. which is dumb, I know. I've had girls come to me in tears over all kinds of things. sex. abuse. sexual abuse. It is awkward. It is uncomfortable. It is sad. It makes you mad. It is a little too weird for me. I think back to when I was thirteen and I was not this knowledable, yet ignorant.

Okay, so I'm going to school you on pre-teen girls. They're not like they used to be. When I was growing up, promiscuity was not the norm. In fact, most of my friends were not sexually active in high school, let alone junior high (I think I knew two girls who did in junior high). My parents used scare tactics to ensure that I would not have sex. And while I do not promote scare tactics, they actually worked. My dad was quick to point out that the thoughts expressed by rappers in their songs were actually true. The saddest part is that most of the girls don't respect themselves or their body. The issue isn't even them having sex, but with whom and how many. I just feel as though our generation of girls has this high level of disconnect. I think this entire generation does. There isn't really even a desire for a loving relationship.

Don't even get me started on Pregnancy and STDs. These girls are so uneducated and miseducated. I am all for sex ed. in schools. It's fine for the basics. Let's be honest those kids don't take those videos seriously. They're cheesy and gross. The kids are laughing the entire time. The real talks need to happen at home. Parents need to not only educate their kids on the inner workings of the body, contraceptives, etc. They also need to tell their children to respect their bodies. I don't think this conversation happens enough. I think our kids feel as though they want to give away their bodies, rather than preserve it. Kids are curious about sex and if parents don't talk to them, they are going to get wrong information. I'm not saying they won't have sex, but maybe, just maybe they'll enter healthy, monogamous sexual relationships later in life, rather than fumbling around with three or four guys at once at a young age. I also think a frank discussion needs to be had by all about what happens if a child (because 16 is a child no matter if you're a mom or not) get pregnant. I think many families don't talk to their kids about what happens if one chooses to raise the baby, give it up for adoption or have an abortion. They need to know what it looks like in all scenarios, how their religion and culture feels about it, and finally how the parents feel about it. The only exposure to pregnancy and teen parenthood they have is 16 & Pregnant on MTV. Let's be honest: the girls are spoiled brats who have it SOOOO easy! It's not accurate and I feel it actually encourages teen pregnancy or makes it seem okay.

Lastly, if you want to gain insight into the minds of teenage girls. I highly recommend two movies. The Babysitters and Towelhead. Both will make you extremely uncomfortable. But this is pretty much how it is. curious and detached basically sums up my report on the current state of girls. they are curious and they are detached.

goals and headaches

Okay, so Mr. Soup and I were really close to closing on May 3rd (almost check on that goal)....it's been pushed back. It's not a big deal, just an annoyance. We have everything set, but they need a month's worth of Mr. Soup's new pay stubs in his new position, so we have to wait on that. I just don't want to extend the closing date any longer....grrr....I hate not being in control and I feel like I'm losing control right now, you know? I just want the keys, damnit. Everything is going to be okay though. I have to have faith. God would not lead us this far and then close the door on it and if He did, there is good reason for it. I will not lie though...I'd be bummed. I absolutely love our new home.

So, Friday was my student-teacher's last day. It was always a goal of mine to have a student-teacher. I loved my student-teaching experience and I wanted to share that with someone. check on that goal. I don't pretend to know everything about teaching (especially not in the days of high-stakes testing), but I feel I do a pretty good job day in and day out. I think most students will say that my classroom is a lot of fun. However, I am pretty firm in my expecations. I expect my students to work hard and to treat each other with respect. Kids know that in Mrs. Soup's class if you act up, I will call you out or call your mama! In fact, I sometimes reference my students' moms in class. Here's an example: Little Joey is talking to his neighbor and drawing instead of working on an assignment. "Joey, I wonder what Tammy would think of these drawings and the fact that you have done none of your assignment, but talked to JEsse the entire time." Yeah, I know. I'm mean, but it works. Having a student-teacher reaffirmed for me that I do have good classroom management and that I strive to be fair.

One goal that I will have to put an uncheck next to is buying a new car. I planned to buy one in May 2011, but after Mr. Soup and I crunched numbers, it's just not possible. I don't have enough saved for a new car and I want to keep my payments under $300 a month. Since we desperately need a seven-seater SUV or crossover, we're looking at payments $350 and up. Even with a car two or three years old, we'd spend a pretty penny. So, i'm going to continue to save. I have a good amount saved now, but I plan to double it and maybe buy a new car in 2012 or 2013. It will be nice not to have a car payment for three years. With the extra money we're saving, we can afford to splurge and have the dogs stay at the Pet Lodge (they love it there! they are the most popular dogs there) when we take trips to Kansas.

Goals...Mr. Soup and I are back on track for eating healthy and losing weight the healthy way. We both increased our work-outs, cut our calorie intake. We've been making lots of smoothies for breakfast. I feel a lot better about how my body is changing. Even in the past week, I've noticed subtle, yet inspiring changes. I hope that after TAKS, I can devote even more time to the gym.

a little late...

the day I married my soulmate

3.21.2009

Happy Anniversary

life with the campbells

okay, so I'm procrastinating. I don't wanna help Mr. Soup with his paper and I don't want to pack.....
Okay, so a lot has happened since I last updated our family blog. We are no longer newlyweds as we hit the one year mark on March 21st, 2010. It really feels good to have hit that mark. Our first year of marriage was unbelievable. I think if you asked me a year ago what I knew about my husband it would differ drastically from what I know about him now. We have been so blessed to have found each other and to spend our first year of marriage together successfully. That doesn't mean we haven't gone through our share of problems this year. I think we both did not realize how much of a toll his graduate school would take on both of us. I think this semester will be the most difficult semester because of his research class. But he'll be done with his master's in December 2010!
And being happy in marriage is great....until you start gaining the love-weight. Yep. I've packed on ten pounds....eek. Mr. Soup has gained some weight too! So today I started back on my calorie counting. This is what I did three years ago and I lost 20 pounds. I hope to lose the same amount. I did really good today and stayed under 1200 calories. I just need to maintain that at all times. I ate horribly at Easter and this past weekend, but I put it all behind me and I'm moving on to a new me!
Abby had her tonsillectomy. The surgery went well and so did her recovery. We're hopeful that the surgery will prevent her from getting sick as often and missing as much school as she has in the past. We are looking forward to her visiting us again this summer!
Okay, so the big news is that we are under contract for our first home! A month ago we started looking for homes and after visitng 8 homes we found the one. Well actually we found two, but one turned out to be the one. I am really proud to say that we stayed under our pre-approval price and we found a house that one of us could afford on our own, so that if one of us lost our jobs or decided to stay home we could. We also recieved some help with the down payment from a Texas teacher bond program and some generous family members. So, our out of pocket contribution has been minimal which is nice. We will also qualify for the first-time home-buyer tax credit since we went under contract before April 30th. That being said, homebuying has been somewhat stressful. Mr. Soup and I are learning so much about homebuying and about each other. some good...some bad....but overall it renewed my faith in us as a team. I feel like we work so well together and even though it's scary at times, I know I can lean on him for support.
okay, so back to the house....We really wanted to live near my school, but we actually found a home near where we live now, but in a different city. The city still has good schools (and even if I want, I can send the kiddos to my school district) and our home is near a dog park. Our house is around the corner from my gynocologist and a hospital...a sign? Our home was built in 1973, but the woman who owned it (a former teacher) kept it in really good condition. We have four decent sized bedrooms, two car garage, a fenced backyard, a fenced sideyard, two living areas and two dining areas. Our kitchen has been updated nicely and our master bedroom is very spacious! So, it is definitely a home in which we can stay for a while. We really lucked out on it. After seeing some duds and some nice ones out of our price range, I figured we were doomed. I love our new home. I'll post some pics once we are closer to closing. I do not want to jinx anything yet....

March Craftness

I thought I'd add some of the paperie stuff I worked on while watching basketball today. One is an anniversary card for Mr. Soup. I had some cool Mexican themed paper for his card, but since we didn't get to go to Mexico I opted for the orange and blue fish (his favorite colors). I like the lone orange fish because I feel like he picked me out of a sea of blue fish! I put the star on the back because it was kind of a running theme in our wedding, plus we have stars all over our apartment as decorations. The card I made Abby is a get well card. She had her tonsillectomy on Wednesday and since there is snow in KS, we won't get to see her this weekend =(

Last night Mr. Soup and I met with the realtor. We narrowed down an area and we are going to start looking at houses next weekend. I have a favorite and Mr. Soup has a favorite. My favorite is a little small, but it is completely update. Brand new carpet, floors, new cabinets and brand new bathrooms. Mr. Soup's is a little dated, but it's huge and has a pool. Both homes have 4 bedrooms and a tall fence (those are our two must haves), so we'll see what happens.

MARCH MADNESS

This is my favorite time of year! I absolutely love college basketball. One of the reasons why we had our wedding in March last year was not only because we met in the spring, but because of my love of basketball. I love that each year we'll wedding anniversary and basketball season during the same time. I filled out my bracket today and entered in a few pools! Mr. Soup was really excited that UNT made it, but I have a feeling that K-State will pound them. Nevertheless, I'm sharing in his excitement.
March Madness extends a little bit further than just basketball in our household. Last year we were preparing to marry. We had the craziness of tying up last minute details, getting our marriage license and hosting friends and family in our city. This year we will spend our one year anniversary on the road. We still plan to eat our cake and drink some wine when we return. Abby will have a tonsilectomy tomorrow, so Mr. Soup and I are going to drive to Kansas this weekend to see her. I wish we could've been there for the actual surgery or that she could've had it done here, but it was all very last minute. I know she'll be fine, but surgeries are a big deal, especially for a little girl. I'm glad we'll be able to spend some time with her afterwards.
I paid off my car! I mailed in a big ole' check (I paid it off a few months early) a few weeks ago!
Mr. Soup and I finally got preapproved. We were really lagging on getting all the paperwork ready, but we finally did and got preapproved a week later. We got $10,000 more than we pre-qualified for and we meet with our realtor this week. We've already found some homes that we'd like to see. It all seems surreal, but I know it will feel very real, very soon.
So the madness in our house started very early in March, but we are very excited about it!

One Year Anniversary Trip

So, Mr. Soup and I just got back from our one year anniversary trip. It was a trip of extreme highs and lows. I'll start with the lows first:

When we arrived in Galveston, we filled up my car at a local Exxon station. We were approached by a guy who wanted to sell us a parking spot at his lot which was conveniently located next to the Exxon (excellent marketing). He told us that the cruise ship had not even come in due to the fog. We ended up going with his parking company (he was ten dollars cheaper than the port parking and Murad talked him down an extra five dollars). He and his workers took us to the port and told of us some places where we could kill time. We expected the delay to be a couple of hours and we quickly got bored walking the Strand, so we went to the port to check in. After waiting for four hours, we were told that the cruise ship would not come in until Friday and we would now be going on a 3 day cruise to nowhere....yep....nowhere. We planned to go on a four day cruise with one stop because it was our first cruise and we didn't want to be stuck on a 7 day cruise if it sucked. However, I wish we would've done a cruise with two stops, so that we could at least go somewhere. So, we went and got a hotel room. Luckily Mr. Soup brought his mac, so we were able to watch tons of movies to kill time. And we were very lucky to have met the discount parking guy. He arranged for rooms to be held at the Howard Johnson for the people who parked at his lot. Most of the hotels shot up their prices to $100, but we got ours for $60. Not bad. Plus, Mr. Soup is going to be reimbursed for the day we lost on the cruise. We just won't get the money for three weeks. We also got 20% off on our next cruise and we received some on board benefits. It wasn't too bad, but Carnival could've done a lot more!

Oh did I mention that two of my former students (they still attend my school, but they are now in 8th grade) were on our cruise? Nice, huh! Actually it wasn't that bad. Even though they were only a floor above us, I hardly saw them and they didn't see me in a swimsuit which was my biggest concern. They are good kids, but sometimes you just want to get away!

Mr. Soup forgot his wallet at the hotel the day we actually were going to board. Luckily, the cleaning lady found it. Our wonderful parking people came to pick us up, took us to the hotel and then turned around and brought us back to the port. They seriously were the NICEST people. They were also hilarious too!

The Carnival embarking and disembarking process could be a little more organized.

The food could've been a little better.

The drinks could be a little cheaper and stronger or at least free!

Everyone who works on the Carnival Cruise ship is not American. I don't know why this bothered me, but it did. I pictured a modern day slave ship going to various countries and convincing these foreigners to come work for them for $5.00/hr. And those people really do work all the time. Our room was cleaned twice a day. We had one waiter at the pool in the afternoon and then saw him working the late night shift at the night club. I do hope they are adequately compensated, but I have a feeling they are not....

Okay, so the highs:

Uninterupted Soup time! I love spending time with my husband. We always have so much fun together no matter what we do! The roadtrip was fun and even though we sat on the floor of a port terminal for five hours.

We went to the pool all three days. Now those of you who know my husband know he doesn't drink. Prior to the cruise, I've drank with him a total of three times: Once when KU won some football bowl (he took a crimson and blue shot with me, Christina and the owner of some bar), once at our rehearsal dinner tasting (he had wine) and at our wedding (not sure what he had that night). However, we drank from the time we got up until we went to bed. I know, I know, I shouldn't encourage his drinking, but I did! We went to the pool and ordered drinks all three days. We drank at dinner, we drank at karaoke and we drank at the night club. We had a blast! All the drinking made for late mornings, but we still enjoyed our afternoons. Carnival had comped us for lunch and dinner on the day we didn't board, so our on-board alcohol hall bill was $0. However, since we weren't going to stop in Mexico and buy souvenirs, we decided to use that money to buy more drinks. So we did end up with a balance, but it was sooo worth it!

We also played a few sports and by that I mean ping-pong and miniature golf. Mr. Soup beat me three times in ping-pong, but I beat him in miniature golf! All those summers of junior golf paid off!

We also made some great friends on this trip. We had a formal dinner each night with assigned seating. Luckily, we were seated with some awesome people. We met two girls from Houston who were a lot of fun, a couple from Katy (Houston) and a couple from WICHITA! We had a lot of fun eating dinner with them each night. Mr. Soup and the guys thought it was fun to order a dinner as a dessert. They would eat lobster for dinner and instead of ordering dessert, they'd order a steak dinner. No, I'm not kidding. It was a little embarrassing, but I'm glad my husband wasn't the one who iniated it, but he sure did enjoy doing it! We went out at night with the couple from Wichita and the two girls from Houston. Since we have 20% off from Carnival, we may try to take a trip together next spring or summer. In fact, we are going to Wichita this weekend and we're going to hang out with the couple when we go down there. I'm very excited! I love meeting new people, especially randomly!

The night life was the best part of the cruise. My favorite of course was karaoke. I didn't sing. I would've but we had late dining and we never made it in time to get our names on the list. However, I absolutely loved the DJ. He was my favorite person on this trip. He was very flamboyant, but hilarious. He loved hip-hop music and wanted every karaoke singer to make it clap! We ended up drinking with him one of the nights at the club. He told us he loved BET! ha!

The comedian was hilarious! We saw him at the opening night show and at his own comedy show. The variety show wasn't that great. In fact, it was pretty cheesy.

I really like the night club. I loved being able to just DANCE! I danced with Mr. Soup, but it was also fun to hang out with girls and dance to songs that were popular when I was in college. I don't go out and just dance enough, so this was perfect for me.

So that's our trip in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm leaving some things out. I think what made this trip memorable were the ups and downs, spending QT with my man and meeting some great people on the way!