Chai tea ice cream

I made up a recipe today for Chai tea ice cream, and I'm pretty proud of it for two reasons. 1) It actually tastes how it was supposed to taste, and 2) I am a recipe follower. I break out in hives when I try to deviate from my recipe card. Today I stepped out on a limb and made something that wasn't written out for me. :) For any other ice cream enthusiasts that might be out there, it goes like this:

Put a cinnamon stick and black tea bag in 1/2 cup of water, and bring it to a boil. Remove it from the heat and let it sit 5min. Remove the cinnamon stick and tea bag, add 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom. Bring it to a simmer (don't let it boil). Remove from heat. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Cool for 30min. Put it in the refrigerator until it is cooled. Put it in the ice cream maker and let the ice cream maker do it's thing. Taste test several times. Don't share. Hide in the garage and eat a bowl as big as your head. Destroy the evidence.

Wedding Pictures

I'm only going to share a handful of pictures right now because there's so many to choose from, and I can't make any more decisions. These are all courtesy of my great friend, Jessica, who is quickly becoming a popular and stellar photographer. You should check her out at jessharveyphotography.com
Thanks so much, Jess, for capturing so many great memories for Ross and me and for our families!!!! You are a rockstar. ;)

August 7th, 2010

Gettin' purdy.


Walking "the gauntlet."


Saying our "I do's" and our "Yeah, man's"....Ross


Relief. We did it.


The Boys.


The Girls.


The Parents.

Watch your words

I don't always think before I speak. Shame on me. It could get me into big trouble one day sooner than later.
I was teaching PE yesterday (go figure), and I had my class outside doing some conditioning on the track. My aide was helping me by passing out straws to the students each time the crossed the finish line (to keep track of the # of laps they completed). One of the freshman boys was being really obnoxious as he approached us, and slowed his jog down to something less than a crawl. My aide had to wait and wait and wait for him to cross the line so he could hand him his straw. Jokingly, on my part, I told my aide to "give him his straw and punch him too for being annoying." I say stuff like that all the time and probably shouldn't, but nobody has ever taken me seriously before. Until yesterday. No sooner were the words out of my mouth, than my aide turned around and punched the kid in the back. Just like that!
"Whoa! I wasn't serious!" I said.
"Huh, huh, huh." He laughed.
The kid kept running.
The end.

Sympathy cravings

My co-star is pregnant with baby #2. We went through her first pregnancy together, and I feel obligated to continue the tradition with this one. I am here to support her in whatever means necessary. And if that means eating lots of chocolate, pumpkin ice cream, Oreos, and apple crisp, well, I'm prepared to make that sacrifice. That's what friends are for.

A good sign, it's going to be a bad night

I'm working on recruiting runners for Willamette. I've decided to cash in my chips for tonight. You know it's going to be a lesson in futility when you encourage your first recruit to go to Linfield instead of WU (they have a great nursing program, and that's what she was looking for - I was just being honest). The second one (who responded to my initial e-mail with a "Dear Mr. Wright") starts out our phone conversation by saying, "Yeah, so I looked at your list of majors, and there was really nothing for me there." We have forty-nine pretty broad majors, but great, okay. I'll save you some time, count my losses, and wish you well.
I think I'll be more productive with my time tonight and fold some clothes, write thank you cards, or wash the mound of dishes sitting on my counter. Phone calls aren't my thing anyway.
But for all of you who have stuck with me and read this, I'll leave you with something better than a bad blog post:

*Precious photo courtesy of jessharveyphotography.com

The Nutty Professor

In case I haven't told the world already, I got hired this fall to be an adjunct professor for my alma mater. I'm just teaching one class a week on PE Methods. It's kind of cool getting to work with college students who are in school by choice. They're a little more motivated and focused than your average high school student. The problem with this class is that a) I'm teaching elementary PE methods and have never worked in an elementary PE classroom and b) I'm learning a lot about how wrong we are currently doing things in our PE program at McKay.
It kind of bums me out to research information on good teaching practices at the elementary level and discover "how not to do it" is how we are doing it at the high school. Ha! My biggest pet peeve (outside of all the swearing they do) is when kids ask "Why can't we just play ____enter alternative activity here_____? Nobody likes this game." It makes me kick and scream and pull my hair. Then I read the other day, that at the high school level, activities should be student driven. If they love b-ball, they should have an option of a b-ball class because proficiency in activities that they enjoy is what will keep them active in the future. Doh and Duh. Too bad that will take restructuring our entire department. Maybe, just maybe we can start moving that direction because our kids are fat. They need to move. And they hate pickleball. I hate it too.
Amen.

Powder Puff

At my school, homecoming week is kicked off with an eagerly anticipated Junior vs. Senior Powder Puff flag football game. One of my favorite quotes so far this year came from own of my senior girls participating in the game. She was trying to explain to another PE student the position she was playing. So she asked me, "Ms. Wright (we haven't gotten the whole name change thing down yet), what is that position that sounds like lemon or lime or something."
I took a second, tried not to laugh, laughed anyway, and said, "Lineman?"
"That's it!"

Sometimes teenagers are way more entertaining than we give them credit for.