It's fun to be married to your ESP twin!

I've never felt that I'm psychic or have a sixth-sense in any way.  However, we've been experiencing a few gives-ya-shivers moments of ESP in the Schildgen-O'Keefe household lately.

1) Yesterday we were both grabbing a quick lunch in between cleaning the house (ps we're so DOMESTIC over here!) and both finished our buffalo chicken wraps.  I could tell Dennis was still hungry (standard) and wondered what he would get into next.  As I began washing the dishes, I had the fleeting thought that I should tell him to grab some grapes from the fridge.  As most of these split-second thoughts go, I then rationalized that I didn't want to seem nagging or have him think I was telling him what to do so...I didn't say anything but didn't give it a second thought.  A few seconds later, who's reaching for the grapes?  I said, "That's crazy because I was JUST going to say that!"  He replied, "I knew you were, I knew you were going to tell me to eat grapes instead of chips so I did."  Ok, a) bonus points for following my unspoken directive you charming man and b) we can read each other's minds!!!

2) Later that night we were rediscovering our love for the show 'Scrubs' (awesome, love it) and Dr. Cox was doing one of his sarcastic soliloquys.  I was, again, sub-sub-consciously thinking that that character reminded me of our friend Bill Miller (just because of his wit and delivery) but didn't say it aloud.  Seconds later...Dennis: "Dr. Cox reminds me of Bill Miller."  So close to when I thought it that all I could say for a few minutes was, "I was JUST thinking that.  Oh my gosh Dennis, I was JUST thinking that!  Are you kidding me?!"

Now that I'm typing and re-reading this, I realize it's similar to when you wake from a vivid dream and want to share it with someone else.  Doesn't mean much to them but to you it's so intense!  Sorry if that's what you're getting, but I had to post for posterity.

**In other news: my friends Jess and Leo McNamara are due to have a bebe any day now (due date was June 29) and in the shower the other day (where the best ideas are hatched) it came to me: they are going to name their baby Colleen.  Don't ask me why (fine, ask, partially because they are Irish and told me that it is a semi-unique, two-syllable name) but I have this FEELING that that will be her name!  Psychic, psycho?  You be the judge.

"Hope": A four-letter word upon which we hang our dreams

I have always loved the word hope.  (If that's your name...lucky you!)  But lately I've been wondering how much you can and should rely on hope.  I'm not saying anyone who hopes does so in vain; rather, I'm questioning in which situations you are to hope and when you are to take action.  I vacillate (thank God for spell-check on blogspot!) between accepting that "things will work out the way they are meant to" and believing that "if it is to be, it's up to me."

So now it's a few months later and I'm reflecting on this profound albeit brief post.  I won't say it's been a rough couple of months, but I have definitely had to be introspective about life's twisting and turning pathways when it comes to my career.  This may come as a shock to you, but as a teacher, you don't make that much money.  That being said, there is pretty much nothing else I'd like to fill my days with, so I constantly try to evaluate and reassess the career choices I make.  I want to make sure that while I'm doing something I love, it's also practical and not self-serving (not that teaching is self-serving, just that there are many things one could justify as "something I love" that shouldn't be pursued as a career). 

Teaching at a charter school has been rewarding and felt very authentic, but the pay is still sub-par what I would make at a public school.  I have gone on several interviews and gotten called back for second interviews, but it's tough (hello understatement) every time I get the call that they went in a different direction.  I have become good at not taking it personally but still wonder where the road will take me--and where this will all end.

Until last Monday!  I received a call from a principal in Edina saying that they were excited to bring me on to their team as a 5th grade teacher.

Ideas...for later

I'm full of ideas.  Some are great and some are almost great.  The problem is, I'm afraid when the perfect time comes for me to execute any of them, they'll escape me.  Or someone will beat me to it.

Well, you heard it here first.  The fabulous ideas that I will SOMEDAY put into practice!

1) For when I become a mom: a blog called "Don't Bite the Boob that Feeds."  Sure it's a little gross but I think most moms will get it.  I got the idea at a baby shower the other day when two of my friends, Tara and Bobbi, were breast-feeding their kids.  Bobbi was modest and kept herself covered up while Tara (on her third child and just so Tara) kept saying, "Boobs are flying, sorry if you see it."  For the record, either way is fine with me and breast-feeding in public doesn't bother me in the least.

2) For when I become tech-savvy: Pinterest's counterpart called "BoreDumb."  It will be marketed as a site to house all things dumb and boring.  I don't think it will draw much traffic, because if it starts becoming funny it will defeat the purpose.  I like the fact that it is a Catch-22.  Where does the phrase Catch-22 come from?

3) Text-back: a feature that allows a pre-set text to do just that to eager communicators who text or call you during a time when you can't respond.  A movie, a meeting, the bathroom.  Never mind--I think in the time since I've come up with that idea and now people have accepted all of these venues as appropriate places to use a cell phone.

4) A women's golf clothing line: called 'My Fairway Lady.'

Here's to the Kids!

I was cleaning out old papers recently and came across a notebook I haven't been able to throw away.  It's from my first year of teaching (5th grade at Garcia Elementary in Phoenix) and has every painstaking detail that went into every (sometimes painful) day.  Your first year of teaching in your own classroom is an experience that I'm not sure is quite like any other.  While you're surrounded by anywhere from 15 to 30 people all day each day, it can feel pretty lonely at times.

But maybe this is for another post.

The reason I jumped on my blog was because I couldn't throw away this notebook without sending this little poem I wrote, while in the throes of teaching, to the archives.  I still think it's pretty sweet...even if it shows my 22-year-old self naivete...


For anyone who ever thought being a teacher was "easy" with summers off and work days that "end" at 3 pm, I'd just like to say:

Here's to the kids who make work worth it,
The kids who keep us coming back for more.

Here's to the kids who forget their homework...
           their lunch money...
                  their phone number...
...but remember what you wore the first day of school,
The sticker you forgot to put on their chart,
The fact that you said they could get the lunch cards
               Three weeks ago.

Here's to the kids who get As
The kids who get Fs
The kids who get IT--finally!

Here's to the kids whose eyes give them away:
I'm happy
I'm bored
I'm scared.

Here's to the kid who says "It's not fair,"
Who says "I don't get it"
Who says "Why?"

Here's to the kids who come when you wish they would go,
Who go when you wish they could stay,
And who a little piece of who they are
With you.  Always.

Awww...with each subsequent year of teaching I think I get a little mistier as I read this!

What's in (or not in) a name?

Ok, so it's not an original line....but I figured you might be wondering about my sign-off.  Molly (not Mary).  My "official" name is Mary, but the name I go by is Molly.  Now, in my opinion (and practically everyone else's too) these two names are far enough away from each other to be TWO SEPARATE NAMES.  Ahem, Mom and Dad.  If you are confused, you're not the first.  Read on to clear up the confusion...

I am the oldest in my family.  My parents decided that if I was a girl they wanted to call me Molly (actually my mom decided that; my dad got shot down with Shannon and Kelly.  I always thought those were pretty names though...) but really name me Mary. ??  Apparently Mary was the "official, saint's name" that they wanted me to have, but they preferred Molly.  Whatever, it's just a couple of names right?!

Wrong.  It was embarrassing in pre-school (I think we still have a pic of me on my first day wearing a "Mary" nametag all day.  I was too scared to tell them it wasn't my name), still embarrassing in middle- and high-school ("Katie?"  "Here"  "Mary?"  "Here, but I prefer to be called Molly" "Haha--Mary!"), a hassle as I entered the working world of paychecks and official forms ("We can't cash this check for you Ms. O'Keefe--it is made out to 'Molly'), and a downright identity crisis today.  See, I recently got married and decided to keep my last name.  Now if someone unwittingly writes me a check or fills out something for me, it's likely the person does not exist.  Molly Schildgen isn't even a real person!  So here I type, Mary O'Keefe, asking that age-old question Billy Shakespeare lit in all our minds: "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?"  Will a blogger by any other name blog as sweetly?

Yes she will...read on and I'll prove it.