Do not look for me at Thanksgiving

So Nathan and I just booked a trip to Paris and Rome with our friends Julie and Dennis for this Thanksgiving! I am so excited. I have not been out of the country for a while, I think it was 2003 when we went to Germany. Anyways I am so excited I am going to rent those travel videos by Rick Steves. I was thinking about getting Spanish tapes this summer, but maybe I will change to Italian, although Spanish would come in more handy here in the U.S. It has always been a fantasy of mine to go to a forgien country and be able to communicate with them in their language. It would certainly help dispell the stupid American sterotype that is out there. I have been to Paris twice before so I think I have a pretty good handle on what to see and do. But if you have any pointers about Rome, I'm all ears.

Free at last!

I had my last day of school yesterday! (well for a while anyway) I do have to go back this next week and do some curriculum writing for our 7th and 8th grade general music program. We are going to be moving from a lecture based program to a lecture/activity program. We are going to cover fewer composers and pieces of music, but learn about them more indepth. I will also be teaching summer band starting the week of July 16th, but other than those two things I am going to take some much needed time to recharge. My plans consist mostly of going to the gym, sitting in the sun, napping, and reading for pleasure now that I have no more grad school books to read! Nathan enjoys me on summer break too, I cook a lot more and I take over all the cleaning. So everyone wins when summer comes.

Plants

I have a theory that you should not have kids until you can keep a pet or plants alive for a period of time. I have done no research to prove my theory, but I do think it has merit. Kids certainly take a lot more work than a bonsai tree but it is better than having never tried to keep anything alive first.
I have never had much of a green thumb, although my mom is great at it. Go figure. I wanted to get a puppy, but Nathan said no way, which brought me back to plants. For the last three summers I have tried to keep some flowers alive on my deck in planters without much success. In my defense the first summer was ridiculously hot and my little plants could not take it. Last summer I got them to survive, but they looked pathetic, very twiggy, and not many flowers. This summer I was determined to have pretty flowers. I did some research and found a type that loves tons of afternoon sun and I splurged and bought the expensive Miracle Grow Potting Soil with moisture control. So far my flowers are looking fantastic. I wish I could take all of the credit, but I do think the expensive potting soil helped quite a bit. So if you are having trouble keeping your plants looking good try that stuff out. Just to prove my plants are looking good I took a few pictures of them last night, enjoy.

So many reasons why I do not teach marching band...

As I have mentioned before my 8th grade students this year are a challenge. Getting ready for the parade has been no exception. Everyday kids whine that it is hot and they do not want to march. Once outside I keep having to remind them to keep their instrument at attention, guide left, and move their feet in time. Many of them think the percussion keeping the left left left right left on the snare drum to be just a suggestion. So last week we are marching back in towards the school and up our parking lots long driveway. My low brass are not guiding left as usual and I have had it. I start yelling “guide, look where you are going” just as this statement passes my lips I run into a road sign. Talk about not looking where you are going. I was fine, it took me a few seconds to register what had just happened and then I fell over laughing. Most of the band was oblivious and just keep marching. Only the last two rows of kids actually saw my face make contact with the sign. Even if they did not see it happen everyone knew by the time we were inside, what can I say good new travels fast. In fact a few of the teacher got to see reenactments of it in the hallway after school. I asked one of my kids why did you not tell me I was about to walk into a sign and his reply was, “I was too busy listening to what you were saying Mrs. H” (that was the first time that ever happened.) Just to add insult to injury the sign I hit was a handicapped sign!

Damn birds

A plethora of geese have made a home in the field next to the parking lot at my work. I despise those damn birds and today just furthered my long held hatred. So I took my car to the car wash this past weekend…do we see where the story is headed? Today when I walked out of work my car was coating in a nice shellacking of goose poop. Damn birds

My weekend in pictures

So Friday night we celebrated Nathan's Birthday. I surprised him by organizing an outing to Medieval Times with some friends. He was really surprised and had a great time so I was happy. Then on Saturday I graduated with my Masters in Education. Technically I am not done until the end of June, but everyone walked this weekend. So enjoy the pictures and take care.

The Walk and Work

Nathan and I took part in the March of Dimes Walk today. We could not have asked for nicer weather. I recommend this event to anyone. We raised money for a great cause, over $500 and we got our exercise in for the day. Thank you everyone who donated!

Other than that this past week I had a weird Thursday. I broke my shoe walking into school; I should have taken it as a bad sign. During my first hour class I gave my students a few moments to review their notes before we took our test. As they were quietly looking over their notes I noticed something in the corner, a mouse stuck to a mouse trap! I thought (prayed to God rather) that I could call maintenance down to remove the little bugger before anyone noticed. As I was dialing for maintenance I here a student yell “Oh my God!” Well as you can imagine junior high students will use any distraction to keep from taking a test. You can not come up with a better distraction than a live mouse caught in a trap. I ended the day with my Spring Band Concert. I usually have a very strong opinion about how we perform, but I am pretty vanilla on this one. The kids have definitely played better in the past, but the concert was far from bad. I do not know maybe it was just a very Twilight Zone day.

Work

I was not going to post today. However I was inspired by a few friends who I have not heard from in a while ;) I have been quite busy lately, that does seem to be everyone's story. I was at work until 8:30 for the last two nights. We had a Parent Music Association meeting at my school and then I had a night rehearsal for an upcoming contest. It is hard when you feel like your whole day was eaten by work even if you love what you do.

So my night rehearsal last night was a mixed bag. It was an 1 1/2 hours long and it some ways it flew by. I made the mother of all lesson plans to prepare for it. I had the other band director and my principal, a former band director, act as mock judges at our rehearsal during the school day. I also recorded our run through for analasis. So between the comments and the recording I came up with five pages of corrections! We certainly did not get through them all, but we did start making some nice headway. On the flipside my group this year has maturity issues so anything that is different or special they have trouble handling and I had a ton of chatty cathy's last night. I was exhausted when it was over. We have our big contest this Saturday and then our concert next Thursday, April 26th. You are all more than welcome to come. My mom was not interested in coming until I told her I have a trash can ensemble playing. She is one weird cookie. I never know what she will like.

Youngblood Brass Band

Last night we went to see Youngblood Brass Band. They were fantastic. They are a New Orleans Style brass band, but they are very different. Instead of favoring jazz they favor hip hop. I know it sounds weird a hip-hop brass band, but it was great. They played about 15 songs in total and about 5 of them featured a rapper. I was not the biggest fan of the rap part, although it was Nathan's favorite part. Most of their songs were just instrumental. They played with such intensity and power it was infectious. I have a seen a few brass bands now and this one has something special. We will definately see them again.

March of Dimes

On April 29th Nathan and I are going to be walking for the March of Dimes. This is a great organization that helps prevent birth defects in babies. Visit the site http://www.walkamerica.org/jenhaselhorst to sponsor us! Thanks for thinking about it!

I finished!

I wish I could say I finished grad school, but I still have a few more months on that one. I did however finish this big research project I have been working on for months, three weeks ahead of time I might add! I am so happy I would break out into dance if I had not just thrown my back out at the gym this morning. I promise I will dance once I am feeling better. In the mean time feel free to ask me anything you want to know about nonverbal communication in the instrumental music classroom. Yippie I finished my research paper!

I love Sun Shine!

We just got back from San Diego last night. We had a great time. The weather was mid-sixties and sunny most of the time. It was pretty windy, which we were told was very unusual. We will just have to go back some other time and check it out for ourselves. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Here is a picture of Nathan and I our first night in San Diego. We actually forgot our camera for most of that first day. In my opinion the weather was nicest that first day we spent down by the harbor. I could have sat there watching the waves and enjoying the sun forever. This picture is at a jazz club/restaurant called Croce's. The music was great and so was the food.

This is a shot of the San Diego sky line from the bridge to Coranado Island. The famous Coranado Hotel is where they filmed the movie Some Like It Hot. We learned a lot about San Diego by taking a guided tour bus. This tour was nice because you could get off at every stop walk around and then catch the next bus once you were done looking around.

Here is Nathan and I just taking a break from walking around Balboa Park. Balboa Park has seven different museums as well as the zoo! The park is huge and many of its buildings were constructed for two different World Fairs in the early twentieth century.

This was one of my favorite pictures we took at the zoo. The San Diego Zoo is by far the biggest and nicest Zoo I have ever been too. Don't the hippos look so cute cuddling one another!

Here is our reenactment of the hippo picture.

We have lots more pictures and stories to share about our trip including how I found out I get seasick. Yuck! We will tell you all about it next time we see each other or maybe I will do a part two to this post.

I am trying to get a little culture

So I just bought season tickets to the CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra for all you uncultured people.) I love going to hear the CSO and I usually go once maybe twice a season. I never thought about buying season tickets until I started looking at prices. I bought a five concert series for about what it would cost to go to three concert if you bought the tickets separately. So all and all it is not a bad deal. They also have a new mini-series thing you can buy. Three concerts for under $50. I would have bought that one except it is all Baroque music and I am really more of a Romantic and Contemporary fan.

Ethnic celebrations

I was discussing what to do for St. Patrick’s Day with a friend and she told me she does not celebrate St. Patty’s Day because she is not Irish. I said everyone is Irish on St. Patty’s Day and besides she should not be bitter because her people have Casmir Pulaski Day. In my opinion St. Patty’s Day kicks Casmir’s butt, but I digress. Anyways it got me to thinking that I am only a quarter Irish-American. So what about my three quarter German- American heritage? Do the German-Americans have a day? Well it turns out we do according to Wikipedia.

Steuben Day is held September 17, celebrating Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who arrived in the United States as a volunteer offering his services to General George Washington, and is generally considered the German-American event of the year. Participants march, dance, and play music.

Steuben Day is celebrated in Chicago, Illinois in early September with a parade and a country fair serving German food, with music, costumes and other items, and in New York City on September 17 with a parade and Oktoberfest-style beer tent complete with food and live music in Central Park. This celebration was incorporated into the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

I vividly remember the parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but I had no idea Chicago had this big celebration. Has anyone ever been? I am totally going this year! First I will celebrate my birthday and then the next weekend Steuben Day, who is with me?!?

San Diego, anyone?

My husband and I are planning a trip to San Diego. Does anyone have any suggestions of places to go, things to do, food to eat? Currently we are planning a trip to the zoo and a whale watching cruise. I am so looking forward to some warm weather!

blogger trouble

It has been forever since I posted but it is not my fault! When ever I try to log on to dash board it will not take me to the sign in page. So how am I blogging now you ask? Well Julie, my good buddy, is allowing me to post from her computer. Now I think it is my my browser rather than a problem with my account.

So what is new with me? I decided I needed to read a classic. So I bought Dante's Divine Comedy last night. Other than that I am really into New Orleans style brass band music. Well I should go and hang out with everybody. Take care and I hope to be blogging regularly soon.

I hate this new version of blogger

Snow Day!

Wisdom Teeth

I am getting my Wisdom Teeth pulled tomorrow! I am nervous about it so please keep your finger crossed for me.

Life is all about ass

Life is all about ass;
your either covering it,
laughing it off,
kicking it
kissing it,
busting it,
trying to get a piece if it,
behaving like one or
you live with one!