The Art of Teaching

I'm a teacher. That is my job. Some days it feels like a job and sometimes it feels like a hobby. Some days, I come home and think to myself....I am changing the world, I am making an impact, this is good. And then there are other days when I come home and think "If today's high schoolers are any reflection of the future of our country, we are in big trouble." But most of the time, I'm somewhere in between and today was an in between day. My kids didn't wow me with their Spanish skills, but they made me laugh and when they can make me laugh, that's a good thing. That's really what relationships are all about. And I think relationship is ultimately what makes a good teacher, not great lesson plans or cool school supplies. (Although, sometimes I'd like to believe its cool school supplies). Well, today first period was making me laugh. First they started playing a game where they went through the alphabet and started naming animals that started with the letters. They were working, they really were, but they were also yelling random animal names. They even had me googling animals that start with an "x". X-ray Fish...there you go. I even learned something new today. Then there was the game where they all said quotes from Finding Nemo. They were lucky that is one of my favorite movies. They were making me laugh...especially the part where they imitated Ellen Degeneres' character.....they were speaking whale. You know the part i'm talking about. Gosh, it was funny. That story had nothing to do with the content I teach, but if you were there you would have laughed too...and sometimes we just need to laugh more, don't you think?

11/18/1999

I remember the day I found out that the bonfire had fallen. I was a sophomore in high school. I remember talking about it at lunch. My friend, Annette, drove to College Station that night to be with her older sister and their friends, because someone they knew was injured. She said that the memorial service was overflowing...standing room only. At that point, I thought I was going to Baylor University. I wasn't really interested in Texas A&M. But I knew a little bit about the traditions. I had never been to a Bonfire, but what I remember most about the incident was the spirit....the spirit of Aggieland as we aggies call it. The spirit of Aggieland was at its strongest November 18, 1999. The Bonfire falling was a terrible thing. However, from that, I (along with many others) were able to see what it really meant to be an Aggie. They came together. They helped eahother. They were strong. And everyone across the nation saw it. I heard (although I can't prove it) but I heard that application rates went up that year. People just wanted to be a part of that spirit that everyone saw after the Bonfire fell.


That was my first experience with Texas A&M. From the outside, I found the spirit of Aggieland really special. And after 2 degrees, I am proud to say that it's everything I saw then and much more.


Thanks and gigem.

ps. The Texas Monthly has a really awesome article on the Bonfire. If you get that magazine, you should read it.

What's in a name?

Snead. When I started dating Brad it seems like such a normal name. People knew how to say it and would attempt it. Oropeza. Now, that is complicated. People always ask "how do I say it?" "Oropeeeeeza" "Is that Spanish?" "I know I'm going to butcher it" "Lauren OOOOO uhhhh."

Well today I come with 2 funny stories about my names...these are true stories of how Snead and Oropeza were used in my classroom. Of course I laughed at them 1) because its funny and 2) because if you can't laugh when high schoolers make fun of you, then you shouldn't be a teacher.

Story #1:

Student1: Bless you.
Me: I didn't sneeze
Student: Yes you did....Sneeead....you know, like sneeze.

Story #2:

Student #1 to Student #2: What do you like better? Oropeza or Snead?
Student #2: Oropeza. I like it. It's like an unusual bug....ohhh look (pointing to the floor) It's an oropeza!

It's just funny. Laugh, because its good for you and because high schoolers are weird.

Say my name, say my name.

If you have it, you should play an all time Destiny Child's Fave....."Say my name." If you don't have it, I know you know it....

So what's all this stuff with this name stuff? I FINALLY changed my name. Friday morning I woke up Laure Oropeza and Friday night I went to bed a new person: Lauren Snead. Well, the same person, just a new name. :)

Thanks and gigem.

9 weeks, but who's counting?

To my Brad,

In the words of Ray LaMontage "You are the best thing....you are the best thing that ever happened to me. "

Love, Lauren

Happy 2 months to us!

8.21.09 seems like so long ago and then at the same time I can't believe the 2 months have gone by so fast!

I have to make this post short. I'm putting in conduct grades (booo) and then getting dressed so Brad and I can go out for wine and tapas (yay) and I don't want to make Brad late (even though I do all the time).

Ok, I must be tired, I have to stop writing in parentheticals.

Nothing has really changed since my last post, except now Brad puts the toilet seat down! Which is awesome. No more falling in! We love being married, love being together, and even when there is a stinky situation, we still love being together.

In honor of our wine night...

Here's to 2 months!! Cheers!

Happy One Month!

It's been exactly one both. On August 21, Brad and I got married. At times, it seems so long ago, and at other times, I can't believe we are married. I still have those moments, of whoa...I'm married...and my name changed. It has been quite an adventure in the past month, but I will say this..being married has been such a blessing. I've loved it...pretty much every part of it. And I love knowing that at the end of every day no matter what happened or who I saw, I get to see Brad when its all over and I love it. So in honor of being married and changing my name I'd like to share some special newyled moments/suprises in the form of an acrostic.

S- Seat - Brad leaves the toilet seat up and I have fallen in numerous times. He usually knows I've fallen in when he hears me scream. It's not one of my prettier moments. 2 1/2 years of dating, and i've never fallen in the toilet...1 month of being married, and i can't even count how many times i've fallen in. I just don't get it.

N - Nightime - What I love most about being married is that when they day is over, I get to see Brad...every night and every night I cuddle him to death :) We pretty much only sleep on half of our king size bed. (I told him it was too big for us) .People keep telling me that it won't always be like this, but I think it will. :)

E - EA Sports - I never thought marriage life would be this much fun...Thanks to Uncle Ralph, Brad and I play the Wii pretty much every night. The Wii Tennis and now EA Sports' Grand Slam tennis are our favorites. We have had such a blast. I always thought married people read books and went to bed at 8, but it hasn't been like that at all, and I've loved it.

A - Adjustements - I have had to make some adjustments, and for someone who doesn't like change, like me, you would think some things would be hard for me: for example: getting a new name, moving, living with a boy, sharing a bathroom, sharing a bed, sharing a closet, pretty much just sharing (hello, only child) COOKING!, cleaning, trying not to snooze a bajillion times, not leaving my clothes on the floor after I change...Adjustments...we have had to do this. Both of us. But, of course it's worth it :)

D - Devotion - As you know, Brad is such loyal guy. He is completely devoted to me and to God. He is constantly encouarging me to be a better, gentler person and I am so grateful for that role he plays in my life. I'm excited to see where the Lord takes us next.

The Honeymoon

Brad and I in St. Lucia on the best honeymoon ever!!

August 21, 2009

I meant to post so much sooner, but being married is so fun and busy, I just haven't had time. But I did want you to be able to see the pics from the best day ever. :)

The wedding was perfect. It was beautiful. Even more beautiful than I expected. When I walked out on the aisle, I thought to myself, oh my gosh, this is better than I imagined. Walking down that aisle was a completely surreal experience. And the reception was soo fun. All I ever wanted to do at my wedding (besides get married) was dance and I sure did dance :) But really the most important thing was that at the end of the day I got to be married to the most amazing guy ever. Awesome. I hope you enjoy the pictures! Aren't Brad and I cute??

To see Vanessa's pictures go to http://www.photographybyvanessaclients.com/RedCart/ and use "Oropeza" as the password. By the way, if you ever need a photographer in Austin, Vanessa is AWESOME!!!

Enjoy!!!

Honeymoon pics to come.....

11 days until the wedding!!!

Just wanted everyone to be reminded :)

The best of Brad and Lauren.

The movie trailer for my wedding.

Brad and Lauren

Admit it, we're cute!

A walk through the past.

Today we celebrated Grandma Oropeza's 85th birthday. My parents and I took Grandma Becky out to eat and my mom started asking her about her wedding. [Clearly, because what else would we talk about these days? Wedding talk is all we know].

I felt like I was in When Harry Met Sally. You know the part where the old couples talk about how they met. I wish I had had a camera, because that is what it was like. Grandma was so funny. She said that she saw my Grandfather at a church bazaar and he got in an argument with his girlfriend. So, Grandma went up to him and started talking to him. Way to go, grandma! 8 years later, they were married. And the wedding was a whole different story...

Getting married back then was a lot of work. They had the ceremony at 7 am at the church! That's right 7 am! Grandma said it was the only time they could do it at. Then they had to go back and make the food. They got real chickens from Sugarland (because that's where the good chickens were from) , they boiled them, and took the feathers off. Just so they could eat them. I'm so glad we don't have to boil chickens for my wedding. :) They had the reception at the house, so they had cleaned out the house and moved out all the furniture, and the night before the wedding there was no where to sleep. Grandma slept in a chair. She was so cute talking about her wedding story. It will be so fun when Brad and I are 80 and get to share our wedding story with our grandkids:)

The first of many....

Its 1:15 am and I'm supposed to be working on our invitations, which I am a little, but I'm getting tired. And I have a training at 8 tomorrow so its not really great that I'm up this late. But I wanted to share with the 2 people that read my blog that my Bradley and I got our first wedding gift today!!!! It was actually incredibly exciting for me. It was a griddle! Is everyone this excited about their first gift? There is photographic documentation :) It just made everything feel so real. As if buying a bedroom set and choosing a place to live wasn't real, but the gift made it seem very real. It's coming up. About 2 months!! sooo close!!! I can't believe its so close. Anyway, back to invitations and Happy griddle day!

Today was my dad's birthday too. happy birthday to him!!

5 ways you know you're planning a wedding.....

[as if I needed a reminder]

1. when you can't just say the weather, you can only give the weather in relation to it being a wedding day. For example: "Man, this would be a beautiful day for a wedding." or "I'm so glad my wedding day isn't today."

2. when your mom knows every bridal dress designer ever. She can just look at a dress and say that is such and such designer. It's really a talent that she needs to market.

3. when you know all these random Friday and Saturday dates throughout the next year. This year, Sept 11 falls on a Friday and October 31 falls on a saturday. Who would get married on Halloween?

4. when you can't work at all. I used to consider myself highly productive, now I spend more time surfing the web for wedding ideas than I do actually working.

5. when your dad mentions that he was on theknot.com the other day. true story.

From daily planner to legal notepad

Throughout high school, college, and until last week, I have always used a small planner. You can see the whole week at a glance and each day had about 10 lines. It wasn't tons of room, but it worked. It got me through high school college, and teaching. I carried it everywhere. It even fits in my new cute coach purse. I take it eveywhere. I have to know my schedule and it just worked. But recently, it hasn't been enough room. I was running out of room in my planner! This has never happened to me. I didn't know what to do, so I started adding sticky notes to my planner, which sounds like it would be a good idea, but it really wasn't. There were sticky notes all over the week..."jaclyn's wedding gift" "grocery list" "packing list for Austin." It was actually a big mess. Just yesterday one of my students said "Ms. Oropeza, don't forget to turn in the cell phone." I was like what? He says "I found your sticky note. Don't forget. " They were everywhere, so I had to find an alternate way. And that is how I got to the legal pad....pages and pages of endless lines...Each day is a new page and each day I fill it up with lists and lists of things to do. I feel so accomplished when I cross something off.

I tell Brad that I run a business...well, really I co-run a major business with my mom. I call it the Oropeza-Snead wedding business :) If you've planned a wedding you know its no simple job. and the details are outrageous! I knew 3 flowers before I planned this wedding: roses, peonies, renunculus. Before brad, I only knew roses, and now I have all kinds of info in my head and on legal pads. Call caterer, cake person, musicians, etc...

so whats the big deal with the legal pad? You're probably saying "it's just a legal pad, lauren...stop killing trees." But for me it's symbolic. My life used to be enough to put on a small aggie planner, but now it's bigger...it's expanding... now i have more responsibility...

...and that is how I know I'm growing up....from daily planner to legal pad. In less than 5 months I will be a wife and who knows where i'll go after the legal pad, but I'm excited about what life will bring us.

funny moment of the day.

student 1: ms oropeza, you are always smiling
student 2: yeah, you never get mad
student 3: it's because you're getting married

HAHAH

The Aruba Daily

(disclaimer: I wrote this like a month ago and am just now posting it...oops)

If I could put background music on this posting, I would make you all
listen to N'Sync's "Celebrity." But just the part where they sing
"Celebrity, celebrity"...I can already here Justin Timberlake now....

So celebrities you ask? Why yes, Brad and I have become Arubian
celebrities. Well, only if getting on page 7 of the Aruba Daily makes
you celebrities. But in our eyes it does :)

Remember when we had the greatest engagement ever? Well, the Bucuti
Resort wanted to write an article about us. It was still their
way of marketing to the Arubian public, but still I thought, man
that's cool. Then it took forever to hear back from them so I didn't
even know if they were still going to do it, but they did! What
follows is the true story of Brad and Lauren as it is seen in the
Aruba Daily! So cool! It's like a dream..it doesn't even seem like
real life. The president of the Bucuti Resort basically wrote our love
story and it's so sweet! I can't wait to show little Lawrence and
Bradina our article! :)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! ( You may want to click on it and open it up...it's very small here)

Ice, ice, baby.

The following is a true story of a conversation that happened in my class. And proof that high schoolers are hilarious!

Student: Mrs. O, are you married?
Me: Not yet
Student: oh, are you engaged?
me: yes.
Student: how long?
me: about 1 and 1/2 months
Student: Oh, that make sense, because I never saw your ice before.


HAHA ....ice....he said ice. In case you don't know it's kind of like bling or "jewelry" for those of you who are old school.

Just wanted to share how funny these kids are.

We are going private.....

I am going to privatize my blog. You know how there are so many creepy people out there. But for all you non-creepy people, I still want you to read about my life! So for all my 4 readers...send me your email address and you will be on my special list. Email me: loropeza@gmail.com

And....there is lots I want to share with you so don't delay.... :)

Thanks and gigem'

The Engagement

When I set out to write this blog Thursday night it turned into a 5 page documentary about Lauren and Brad. It is a very sweet piece of work if I should say so myself, however I can’t imagine that the average blog reader would want to read that much about our lives. I mean I can name a few people that would (my parents, Brittany Kay, etc) , but I know you have lives of your own too. So instead of “Brad and Lauren: uncut and unplugged” (which may be available upon request) I bring you…

Brad and Lauren: The proposal of a lifetime (The abridged version)

So here goes…..

Brad’s extended family takes a trip about once a year and for Christmas break all 17 of us went to Aruba. Yes, I know. 17? Yeah. Isn’t it cool how a family that big goes on vacas together and wants to be together. It’s a cool deal. They’re a neat family. So anyway, Monday, Dec 29 we flew out to Aruba. Our flight left Austin at 5 am. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that we slept like 3 hours. That and a few other factors made me a grouchy little Lauren, but I’ll spare you the ugly details. So, we got there, had dinner and just hung out around the hotel. We were exhausted and Brad and I talked on the beach until late that night. While we were walking back to our room Brad said “you’re going to hate me, but I made sunrise breakfast reservations. Do you still want to go?” Of course I said yes. Three of my fave things: Sunrises, breakfast, and Brad. So even though I hadn’t slept, I wanted to get up and besides about a week before I had told Brad that I wanted to do this. Little did I know that he had already planned it. :) So we get up at 5:30 and our reservations were at 6 am at the Bucuti Resort. We walked up and the hostess says “are you here for a romantic breakfast on the beach?” Brad said yes. Wow, I thought. So we got taken to this private hut on the beach. It was dark and no one was there and there were rose pedals on the floor. Well done, Brad, well done I thought. And even then I didn’t know he was proposing. He does sweet things like that. I mean, just this morning he had flowers delivered to my classroom for my birthday. He had a janitor sign off on them and place them on my desk. He’s sweet like that. So back to the story…we sit down, they bring us menus. It’s very romantic. We take pictures and look at everything and at one point I turn around and there’s Mr. Wayne Snead (Brad’s dad) trying to get behind a bush. I turn to Brad and say “Uhhh is that you’re dad” I don’t know how Brad did it but somehow I still wasn’t convinced that he was going to propose. I really thought he hadn’t been ring shopping and I knew he wouldn’t do it without my parents. So then we just had small talk and he tries to tell me all these sweet things. And then at one point he says “ I know my dad is in the bush, but I’m going to do it anyway” and he pulls a ring out of his pocket. Bradley Wayne has a ring! I couldn’t believe it. So he says other things…like I love your family and you and I want to give you a home and …Lauren Elise Oropeza, will you marry me? I cried some more and said yes and cried some more. We talked some more and hugged. Then he said I could turn around and as I did my parents were walking towards me. I couldn’t believe it. Hello…we are in Aruba….another country! I cried a lot more. Have you ever seen Hope Floats?There’s a part in there where she’s really happy and she says “My cup overfloweth” That’s how I felt. My cup overfloweth. I couldn’t begin to express how I felt and how grateful I was that my parents were there. That meant the world to me. My parents, his parents and Brad and I all had breakfast together and celebrated. And then both families vacationed together for the rest of the week.

And that’s how Lauren and Brad became engaged. I tried to make it as abridged as possible, but you know how I am.

Here are some pictures. Wear glasses when you see the ring. It’s a bright shiny beauty.