Day 7

When I think back to being a kid and painting in art class, I remember how my art teacher always said "No eating or drinking around the art... and don't dump over the water cup."

Those rules DEFINITELY didn't apply at Canvas and Cocktails.

Drinking wine + painting = a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday, especially since I have never done anything like this.

I just had to be careful not to dip my paint brush in my wine.... what a tragedy that would be!

Day 7: Go to a wine and painting class.

First things first, get a glass of wine and get the colors for our painting...

and when I said glass I meant bottle... only kidding.

 

After a glass of wine, we were ready to begin painting. There were two ways to go, listen to the teacher or do your own thing. 

 

So it was very clear early on who was type A and who was not....

Type A followed the instructor and listened to her directions of how to paint....

Type B did not follow directions and used their creative juices to flow.

I am type A: listened to the teacher, followed her instructions. Out of 7 of us, only 2 were type A and followed directions.

Me, following directions.

Lauren's painting on left and Chelsea's on the right....so not following directions.

About half-way through they called all the birthday people up on stage to dance. Not sure why they chose the song "YMCA" by the Village People, but that was our song to dance to.

 

After a mid-workshop dance, it was back to finish the job.

 

 

Our final products. Love the differences!

 



 I am once again wowed by my friends. So happy to share one of my "new things projects" and my birthday with them.

 

Thanks to Lauren, Stef, Meghan, Mama Shuff, Chelsea and Tara for a wonderful birthday celebration.



Day 6

Day 6: Bake my grandmother's peanut butter cookie recipe.

It has been well over 20 years since the passing of my grandmother, but my memory of her sticks with me, like it was yesterday. She was a typical grandmother; sweet, loving, affectionate and very giving. My time with her was short, but very, very sweet.

One of my favorite things about her, was she loved to cook and bake. I do not ever remember not liking anything she cooked or baked for me. With my grandmother, it was always about food and love. She amazingly raised 4 boys and 1 girl, so needless to say she was always cooking for a crowd.

I came along later in her life, so by the time I was around 2 or 3 she had mastered baking. I don't exactly remember the day she asked me what my favorite cookie was, but every time I went to California to visit her, on my nightstand was a container of my favorite cookies: peanut butter.

Unfortunately, my grandma Seeley passed away much too early in my life and I was left with only a handful of memories, one of them being the cookies.

As the years passed by, I would think of those times and even share my memories of her with my friends and family. But never once actually baking my grandmother's recipe of my favorite cookie.

A few years ago, my sister, Jean-Marie compiled a book of her recipes and magically the recipe was at my fingertips.

But for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to bake them. I looked at the recipe, toyed with the idea of baking them, but never actually did it.

Until, this morning when Magdiel asked me what my thing for the day was going to be. I hadn't a clue as to what I was going to do.... then the story of the cookies on the nightstand popped into my head. Why don't I make my favorite cookies my grandmother used to make me?! It had been well over 20 years since I had eaten those delicious cookies.

It was decided, I was going to make her cookies...

Now all I needed were the ingredients and a little bit of grandma Seeley inspiration...

After a trip to the grocery store, we had all the ingredients.

 

Recipe book in hand...ready to channel my inner Margaret Seeley.

 

Mixed and ready for the oven.....Here we go!

 

Baked and ready to try...

 

Yep, they are delicious!

 

I wish I could say, my first bite took me back to my time with my grandmother, but it didn't. But they were as delicious as I remember. Not too peanut buttery, but the perfect amount.

 

The best part of baking them was thinking about my grandmother and sharing my stories of her with Magdiel. It was a special moment to finally eat "one of her cookies" so many years later. I hope she was smiling down on me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5

Day 5: Teach Magdiel how to carve a pumpkin

I think it is safe to say most Americans have taken part in some or all Halloween traditions. One of them, carving pumpkins. It is either a tradition you hate or love.
I am one who loves it.
I love the color of pumpkins.
I love the smell of them.
I love digging my hand into pumpkins and pulling out the pulp and seeds.
I love saving the seeds to bake later.
I love the challenge of carving pumpkins, but I mostly love the end result when we can all laugh at our accomplishments and cherish the differences in our pumpkins.

So when I mentioned carving pumpkins to Magdiel, he looked at me with this quizzical face. Of course, I do not know the words for 'carving a pumpkin' in Spanish. So before continuing on with my question of "Have you ever carved a pumpkin?" I first had to visit google translator.

With our language barrier solved, we headed for the grocery store to buy 2 carving kits, 2 pumpkins and a couple of beers (the beers were actually for my brother Kyle, who was our coaxed into being the photographer).

With pumpkins, carving kits and beers nearby, we were ready to begin.

Step 1: Clean out your pumpkin.

Step 2: Drink beer (looks like I am being a great teacher. I am more focused on the beer than my student) OOPS!

Step 3: Tape outline on pumpkin and get to work.....

 

Then work your ass for a final product!!

 

 

Drum roll please......

Our finished project. Magdiel likes to say that his is better. Obviously, the teacher can't focus on her art when she is teaching.

 

 

Magdiel's, on the left, is welcoming all into the house, while mine, on the right is throwing up.

 

Real Classy!!

 

 

Day 4

Day 4: Go see an Improv show

Who knew what kind of ride I was in for? I had absolutely no expectations of what was going to happen. But I became a little nervous it wasn't going to be a great show when we sat down and I looked around.... 20 people in the entire auditorium....including us 5.

Now I should probably add" No judging" to the list of things to try for a day, but I couldn't help it. It usually doesn't look good from a newbies perspective when there aren't very many people in the building. But everyone looked so excited, so I thought, here we go.

Ok, ok, ok, there is the age old saying "don't judge a book by its cover". I wasn't judging.... oh who are we kidding, of course I was.

But 5 minutes in, my cheeks hurt so bad I was physically holding them to prevent my face from laughing more.
I was doubled over at times laughing so hard at the silliest skits. But of course part of the fun was to look over at Magdiel, Stef, Meghan and her mom and to see them laughing. Honestly, there is nothing better than to see your friends truly happy.

If there is anything I get out of this project, I hope to continue to see my friends and family enjoying the ride along with me.

Thanks Meghan and Mama Shuffelton, Stef and Magdiel for a wonderful evening of laughter. Day 4 complete.

Day 3

Day 3: Video tapped formal observation in my classroom.

As most of you know, I work at a charter school in northeast Denver. I won't go into the grimy details of my everyday life. But needless to say, they have high expectations and a workload that has me working from 6:30 a.m to 7:30 p.m.... every night.

Today, was my first formal observation as a teacher. 4 years into teaching and I have never had a principal videotape me.

 

I have had my mother videotape me in Honduras. I have had countless people walk in and out of my room (I swear my classroom is the 7-11 of the school), I taught in a classroom with a half-built wall where everyone heard me teach. But never actually had a formal observation, complete with video.

 

Luckily, all of my other exposures of people in and out of my classroom made me much more comfortable with a video camera pointed at me.

 

But all went well...or so I feel. I still have post-conference with my principal to breakdown the video. I guess that's when the real nerves will kick in. Until then, the magic continues inside the classroom, helping my students day in and day out. 





But each day I grow more and more attached to my class. They are a handful and I am forced to dig deep at times to remember why I am teaching them. But I heard the best thing I could have ever heard today. The special education teacher (we call her an interventionist, but for my non-education people that might confuse you), said to me, "Wow, Kate, you have the most challenging class, but of all the teachers at this school, I think you handle them the best."

Hands down best compliment. I have a tough bunch and her words kept me afloat today.

Glad to have her at my school. :)

It is my hope that I can upload my teaching video for all you folks who have 50 minutes to kill to watch me in action teaching.

Check back in a day or two when I have access to that video. Otherwise stay tuned for day 4.

Day 2

Day 2: Help the People of (Myanmar) Burma

As you can imagine, I have had the fortune of having amazing and inspiration friends in my life. One of them, Joshua Montoya, just so happens to exude positivity and inspiration.

He is currently working on a project called the Forgotten Foundation, which helps refugee families of Burma who have fled to Thailand, due to an ongoing civil war in their country. This truly saddening story of a civil war greatly impacted Josh and his friends to take action and help these people. In an effort to bring education and help to these refugees, they started a foundation. It has been amazing to hear about how Josh and his friends have traveled back and forth to Thailand to bring awareness and help to these refugees. They have helped give the Karen people running water, they have built a school and they are bringing awareness to the awful civil war in Burma.

Day 2: Donate to the Forgotten Foundation, to not only help my friend Josh bring awareness to this awful war, but help the people of Burma have a life they so deserve.

Congratulations!
You're a backer of The Forgotten (Documentary of the Karen People) by Joshua Montoya

Check out their story... maybe even join the bandwagon and donate.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshuamontoya/the-forgotten-documentary-of-the-karen-people

Thanks Josh for being an inspiration. I wish you the best of luck.

Day 1

Hello 29!!! 
It is officially project time, 1 new thing a day for 365 days. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was in Vegas with some of my best friends chatting about this project.

There might have been drinks and wigs happening while this conversation took place.... but at no time did that affect my decision to take on this adventure. ;)

So flash forward a year and a half later and I am as ready as I can be to slowly say good-bye to my 20's and hello to my 30's!

I asked many of my friends and family for recommendations of new ideas, projects, and activities that I could do over the next year. I thankfully received a great number and I can't wait to share my adventures with you over the next year.

So let the games begin....

Day 1: Put date plans in my boyfriends hands. (My idea....since I was told numerous times by my family how controlling and bossy I am. Hey I can't help it, I am a teacher. I have to be controlling 8 hours out of my day. Sorry if it spills over into my personal life).

I, therefore, relinquished all control to mi amor. First decision he had to make, where to go for dinner. He went for an American classic, The Cheesecake Factory, where the menu is 10 pages long. It was quite funny watching him squirm trying to make a decision for what I would eat for dinner. But luckily he knew, I wouldn't put up a fuss if he ordered chicken.

Successful dinner order, check.
Next decision, dessert or no dessert? Who goes to the Cheesecake Factory and doesn't order cheesecake? Now I didn't say a word but maybe my eyes said, "Order the cheesecake or walk home!"

Look who ordered us cheesecake. ;)

We drank coffee, ate cheesecake and enjoyed each others company... and I wasn't bossy or controlling. Mission accomplished. 

I had a wonderful birthday. It was filled with a mountain of homemade cards from my students, hugs, wonderful well wishes and it was all topped off by a control free dinner and dessert. 

If you ask me, 29 is off to a great start.