"le va a doler el cuello"

"you'll hurt your neck"
or
"his neck is going to hurt"

I hear this phrase all the time here, and I'm wondering what it is that preoccupies everyone so much with other peoples' necks.

So, I ride the school bus to work every morning with the students.  My interest in the neck-worries started on the bus, where I would hear the bus nanny constantly say, "le va a doler el cuello."  Basically the scenario would be: kid falls asleep; kid's head tilts to one side; nanny wakes the child up telling him not to do that or his neck would hurt; kid inevitably falls asleep in the exact same position.

One day, the bus driver took it upon himself to ensure that all the kids arrived free of neck pain.  He turned around and saw a child sleeping in some awkward position in the front row.  When his attempts at verbally waking the child up weren't working, he tried calling the nanny up to the front of the bus.  It seemed so urgent. The nanny didn't notice at first, so he called and called until she heard him ("Look at Johnny there...le va a doler el cuello!") and came to the poor sleeping child's rescue.

I was just at an event with Daniel and his family; a 70th birthday party extravaganza for someone I don't know.  Daniel's brother was sitting in a chair at our round table that was not directly facing the stage, so he had his head turned to watch.  Of course, mom-in-law says, "turn your chair around, le va a doler el cuello!"

Ok, I get it, nobody likes a crick in their neck.  But I honestly must admit that when I see people sitting/laying/sleeping in an awkward way, my first thought is rarely about how their neck might feel tomorrow.  Apparently here in Honduras, proactive measures are taken to avoid neck pain.  How kind.

I think I'd like to read you...

Lee and Low Books is one of my favorite little publishers of children's books, and I just found out they acquired Children's Book Press... so maybe they're not so little anymore.  The thing that sets them apart is their dedication to publishing culturally authentic books for everyone.  Mexican-American?  Korean-American? Peruvian-Scottish American? They probably have a book for you.

Here are two of their recent award winners that I'd like to take a gander at.

because Mangrove trees are quite familiar to me...
and, ok, I guess like to feed families, too.
And I'd like to know how mangrove trees did that?  

because I love free-verse novels
AND it's won several awards. 

Chickenpox

Chicken Pox or Chickenpox?  I've seen it written both ways. Well...

Chickenpox are not so noticeable on darker-skinned kids, I now realize. 

3C has been attacked by a spreading case of the Chickenpox.  It began with a student who came back to school after a family trip, and realized a few days later that his cousin had given him Chickenpox.  No one realized that he had already exposed the class to the infection (probably because it is contagious before the spots show up), until yesterday, when a student's mother came by to let me know she was going to bring him to the school doctor (yep, our school has a real doctor, and some nurses too) to see if he had bug bites or ... something else.   It turned out not to be bug bites.  Today, two of my boys who commented about "bug bites" yesterday are also home with Chickenpox.  It appears that two fourth graders have it, too.

Anyone seen the movie Contagion yet?  I just saw it, and this situation keeps bringing to mind.

How old were you when you got the Chickenpox?  I think I was a baby.  Most people I know got it really young.  A few of my students say they've had the vaccine... but many have not had either the vaccine or the real infection.   I don't know... I just find it strange.  Maybe they're more sheltered than I was... but to have various third and fourth grade students who have yet to catch it seems odd.

Let me just say that the peace of having 4 students absent from an already not-too-big class is making for some calm days.  We are getting extra great behavior reports from special teachers, too.  I think I'll take some Chickenpox now and again...

3 Months, 9 Days

3 Months and 9 Days

Or, How to Plan a Wedding Fast


It wasn't a shotgun wedding or anything.  We just knew that we wanted to be married, had time-off in the summer, and thought--why wait?  After getting engaged on April 21st, we were married July 30th.  Here's how we made it happen.  (It wasn't even that stressful!)

1. Have your Bridesmaids' dresses made in Honduras.

The whole color scheme of my wedding was ultimately decided 

by the shade of yellow that the designer had available. 
photo by Josh Morris

My sister, along with Daniel's sister and brothers, comprised our wedding party. I was SO fortunate to have my sister in Honduras with me for my last month before summer break. That gave us time to have her fitted with a designer.  Daniel's sister, living here in Honduras, was also able to be fitted with the designer.  This prevented me from having to choose a bridesmaid dress while home in the summer with my other million things to do.  (It was also nice that I could bring the designer a picture of whatever I wanted!)

2. Get a package deal on your vendors.

Photo by Josh Morris

My mom hunted for locations while I was away, and we ended up choosing The Chapel and Tavern in the Garden in Port Orange, Florida.  They had a special promotion going on in July, so we got the use of all four of their buildings (the chapel for the wedding, the Tavern for the reception, an old train for the guys to get ready, and a gorgeous house for the girls to get ready and for Daniel and I to spend the wedding night).  The promotion also included the catering and DJ.  A lot of decisions were made in one.  

3. Know People.  

photo by Josh Morris
I LOVE my bouquet!!!! 

 My florist has been my neighbor my whole life and she's awesome.  I just showed her my (pinterest) collection of flowers I liked and said, "make something I'd like"... and she totally succeeded! She has also worked with the Chapel in the Garden lots of times and so she knew of things I would need/not need--things I would have never considered. This is her : www.pinkflamingoatpetals.com/

My friend, Mandi, just happened to e-mail me the week I was stressing about finding a photographer while in Honduras, and said that her husband was doing some wedding photography.  I saw some of his work, liked it, (he even speaks Spanish!) and bam--another decision made fast! This is him:  Morris Media

4. Make your own invitations.

Ok, So I guess this part probably doesn't belong in a list of how to do things FAST.  We spent a while designing our invitations, choosing a printer, and then correcting the mistake that made them print without cropping everything off, but we think it was worth it.  Without tons of planning time, I think wedding details can tend to get too "off the rack" (read: from Michaels or Target).  You know... I wanted to just be married, and many times that meant saying, "the heck with it" and going with an easy version of something I would have otherwise made (because I'm a make-it-yourself kind of girl).  However, when it comes to paper... I'm hesitant to give away that kind of responsibility. 

Which is why I also made my programs.
My good-with-computers hubby designed the image.

AND I painted some rocks as table numbers and decorations.
I guess that's not paper... but it's crafty, nonetheless.
(If you check out my post about how he proposed, you'll understand the rock thing.)

5. Seek assistance.  

Get those talented friends to work!  

My friend, Rachel, painted my fingerprint tree guestbook.

My wonderful sister made my little cake and cupcakes!

My mother grew tons of succulents after I decided on them as my favors.
I made the little paper flags that served as guests' escort cards.
And my mom, sister and I spent one evening stamping, tying,
and gluing the little tags to the pots.
They said "T & D" and "Let Love Grow" 

6. Go dress shopping your first day back in the U.S. and do not return home without one.

Ok, so this picture was actually taken the day after the wedding... but it seems
 that I never acquired any pictures from dress-shopping day.

I looked at dresses in Honduras, but they were all too pricey (being imported) and nothing I really fancied.  I considered having my dress made, but, never having tried on a dress style I loved, I didn't even know what to ask for.  Plus, the time crunch would have been stressful.  So, on my very first day home, my mom, sister, and best friend, Mackenzie, went to some local dress stores.  Fortunately, we found my dress in town and got a great seamstress to alter the heck out of it since I didn't have time to order one in my size.  

6. Be a teacher. 

This is just a little something that made the short engagement possible. Having a month and a half prior to the wedding to do nothing but wedding stuff is a very helpful bonus.  

7. Pick a great guy.

a Josh Morris photo

The most important of all--choose a man who can help without needing to be told what to do, who knows how to calm you down when you feel overwhelmed, and who cries when he sees you walking down the aisle, letting you know that it was all so worth it! 

Why DO Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears?

This is the book we have been reading and acting out this week at school: 

THIS is an idea of the disgusting creature that, very literally, buzzed in my ears all night last night.  

Is that considered ironic?  Well, regardless... it was terribly annoying.  

But it left me wondering... why DO mosquitoes buzz in our ears?  I mean, I'm sure we've all been there.  You are rudely awoken by the annoying noise and swat it away, only to have it return less than a minute later.  So next time you pull the sheet up over your head, but then you can't breathe and have to position the sheet just so in order to cover everything except your nose.    If you're lucky enough to fall back asleep that way, the sheet will inevitably slide off and you will be re-awoken by the buzzing once more.  

I googled the question to see what I could find out about the buzzing mystery.  (It took some creative rewording to get past the children's book results.)  A lot of message board type sites offered answers like, "they buzz everywhere, you just hear it by your ears because your ears can hear,"  or other uninspired responses like, "They just do it to annoy you."  

I did find one promising answer.  I can't guarantee their credibility, but I'll share what they have to say anyways.  It's from a site called www.lifeslittlemysteries.com

________________________________

"The commitment a mother bears her children, biological imperative though it may be, can produce some astounding behavior. Fathers, take note. Not one of the 3,000 known species of mosquitoes features a male willing to dine on blood for his kids.

In most species the female requires a meal of blood to aid in egg production, in addition to her usual diet of nectar.

To find victims, the mother-to-be follows cues like our body heat, moisture and carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, the carbon dioxide we exhale attracts the insect to our heads, where they fly around looking for a tasty spot.

The telltale buzz that precedes the poke of her proboscis is not some guttural pre-meal grace, but rather the high-pitched whine of rapidly-beating wings."

________________________________

Who knows what the truth may be.  Perhaps, as the African Folktale suggests, the mosquitoes really are just buzzing around to ask, "is everyone still angry at me?"  As the story goes, when they ask that question, the always get an honest answer..."SPLAT!"