Because you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your.... brother?

Or, something like that...

Somewhere in the area of February 1992, my parents sat down for a serious conversation with their 8 year old daughter. It began a little something like this...

Parents: Leigh, what is the 1 thing you want more than
anything in the world?

Leigh: A trampoline??!

Well, as you may or may not know, my parents never got me that trampoline. (Convincing them that a Super Nintendo would improve my hand/eye coordination was hard enough. Arguing for a toy that could potentially result in a broken skull was a battle I would never win..) They were, however, announcing to me that, in just a few short months, I would be a big sister. (There were times I would have argued that the trampoline might have been a wiser investment... When my precious little brother ate my deoderant, for instance... But those are stories for another day.) Eighteen years later, and although there were times in my somewhat over-dramatic childhood when I was convinced my parents brought him into this world as some kind of cruel and unusual means to fulfill their need for my family to be a constant source of embarrassment for me, their sweet and innocent daughter, I can now honestly announce that I'm glad they didn't give me that trampline.

All joking aside, this school year has been a year full of nostalgia, as every event is Dallas' "last" something, and today is no exception. This evening, my 18 year old baby brother, along with many of his friends who my family and I have watched grow from 5 year old boys to 18 year old men (?), will embark on their last-first, of hopefully many, playoff basketball games as the East Chambers High School Runnin' Bucs. Sometimes I wish we could go back to the days of spending Saturday mornings at the EC Junior High gym watching him and his fellow 8 year old teammates struggle to get the basketball into that 8 ft. high goal, but I would never trade the relationship and bond that we have today.

So, here's to you, my amazing brother and best friend. I am so incredibly proud to be known as "Dallas' big sister", and can't wait to see all of the awesome things that lie ahead. After all, as our very own Mary Poppins (aka Mom) always says, you and I are the only people in the world who have our same blood! ;)

Have a super day, Cyberspace!

and, GO BUCS!!

Just a little ditty to bring me back into the blogging game

or Yes, my students really do say my name before ever. single. thing. they say

So, my lovely friend Sally recently posted in her blog that her friend's blog is one of her favorites. That being said, I need to get on the ball to regain my spot on her list... take that friend! ha (Just kidding, Sal, I'm sure your friend is lovely.)

Anyway, since we've established in my previous blogs that I'm an awful blogger who doesn't deserve a URL, I'll skip over that topic today. Instead, we shall discuss funny things my kids have told me in class... usually when we're talking about something else... because, as Bill Cosby so eloquently pointed out, kids do, in fact, say the darndest things.

Situation #1:
Child: Ms. Gibson?
Me: Does this have anything to do with Charlotte's Web?
Child: No- I just wanted to ask you if you're rich?
Me: We're not talking about that right now, but no, I'm not. Why?
Child: Because, you're always wearing so much BLING!

Situation #2:
I'm standing across the parking lot from one of our kindergarteners and his mom.
Child: MS. GIBSON!
Me: Hi, (insert child's name)!
Child: I didn't know you *dwove a wace cah! (*drove a race car)

Situation #3:
Child: Ms. Gibson, where do you live?
Me: In Winnie.
Child: You live with your parents!?
Me: No- I live by myself.
Child: I was about to say, you're too old to live with your parents. You live by yourself, though!?
Me: Well, yeah. Who else would I live with?
Child: You don't even have a boyfriend???
Me: No, and even if I did I wouldn't live with him.
Child: That's weird, Ms. Gibson.

Ok, that's enough for now. Don't want to give you too much too soon.

Have a super day in cyber space, my friends. And don't look for me to be online this weekend, as my stupid *&*%%$#%$&*& wireless internet hasn't worked in a week. Blast you, Windstream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace out.

Posting someone else's blog as my own...

but, not really, because I wrote it.

In lieu of my own original blog post, I will be posting my own "guest blog" from my dear, wonderful friend SALLY MITZNER's blog.

http://themitzners.blogspot.com/2010/03/guest-blogger-leigh-gibson.html

Enjoy! :)

Why my job is better than yours

...or, 10 reasons you should be jealous of me.

Let me begin my post by saying how much I really and sincerely love my job. I adore my students, even when I kinda don't... I get to "put on a show" every day while trying to make multiplication/TAKS Test prep/Complete Subjects and Predicates fun... Kids really do, as Cosby says, say the darnedest things... I get the satisfaction of, on sporatic occasions, seeing the proverbial light bulb go off in a student who just couldn't seem to "get it"...

That being said,

MY SPRING BREAK BEGINS AT 12:27 P.M. TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In honor of this joyous, joyous occasion, I have compiled a list of things I may do while all of my dear, sweet, non-teacher friends are sitting in their offices/cubes... Here, friends, is something for you to read during your lunch break:

1. Sleep late. Ride my bike around Winnie while narrowly avoiding large (and small) dogs; because, unlike in Austin, people in the country like to let their animals roam free and without collars.

2. Sleep late. Finish the 4 books I've started this school year but have yet to finish due to my extreme ADD when it comes to reading... unless, of course, it's Twilight or Jen Lancaster, in which case I will close myself up in my room and read and read until I'm finished.

3. Sleep late. Meet my parents/friends for lunch and talk about what the "other people" are doing... or make fun of my non-teacher friends/family who have to go back to work after our lunch-o-fun. (I promise to at least change out of my pajamas/sweats so as not to rub it in too much.... but I may tell you that I just changed so that I may rub it in a little...)

4. Sleep late. Art. Because I need to and I rarely have time after school. And because I need to make that dolla-dolla bill off of all this stuff I've had framed but haven't shown to anyone.

5. Sleep late. Go to museums and mingle with the other teachers who are bringing their own children, or with the desperate housewives who are trying to figure out what to do with their kids now that they, too, are on spring break.

6. Sleep late. Go to the beach. I figure I live pretty close to it, and drive almost all the way down there for work every day anyway, so I might as well. Plus, I've had a little bit of a hankering to go for a while.

7. Sleep late. Clean out my downstairs storage closet. No, it doesn't sound fun... but it needs to be done. (This should make you feel better, office friends. Be glad you're not cleaning out a storage closet right now...)

8. Sleep late. Take a nap. You know, because spring break is exhausting...

9. Sleep late. Play tennis with Whitney. Because I figure that, since she is the most awesome Tennis Pro to ever live, and since she's practically Venus Williams, I should probably take advantage and brush up on my skills.

10. Sleep late. Watch daytime television. Because I wonder what the ladies of The View are up to these days...

There you have it, folks-- ten things I will be doing next week while you're at work. I hope you thoroughly enjoy your week, because I know I will be enjoying mine.... sleeping late.

My brain is too tired for a witty title...

So, since it has been eversolong since my last post, I have decided to take the bull by the horns and blog it up a bit while I do my best job fighting sleep (I've really become quite good at it). In lieu of a super long blog describing every detail of the past month(s) of my life, I have decided to once again go the "list" route. So, here you go:

1. Sarah, Whitney, Melissa and I have recently taken up cake decorating. If you interpret "cake decorating" as meaning that we paid for a class at Hobby Lobby, went twice, and decided we already knew enough to open our own bakery. Below is a picture of the cakes we decorated for the East Chambers FCA bake sale benefiting Haiti.

And now you all understand why we believe we don't even need classes anymore...

2. Keeping with the tradition of the majority of the other posts on my blog, I will not leave out mention of Twilight. While I know it was a few months ago, the New Moon premier did come and go without mention on my blog. So, albeit late, here are my kudos to New Moon.


Yes, we are all in our mid-late twenties. Yes, we are aware that the movie is about high schoolers. Yes, that is a question mark after "Team Jacob" on Sarah's shirt. Yes, we feel like our obsession is justified by the fact that Robert Pattinson is close to our age and not 17 (or 100something) years old like the incredibly dreamy vampire he plays in the movies. Yes, we will be making shirts for the Eclipse premier this summer.

3. Speaking of obsession, another one of mine is textsfromlastnight.com. I'm not sure why I find this website so funny, aside from the fact that I always find inappropriate things hilarious, but I find myself checking it every day, without fail, and laughing out loud. It is for this reason that I only allow myself to check it at home so that I may avoid the embarrassment of having random people witness me laughing alone at my computer.

4. My beautiful bundle of furry orange joy is still just as rambunctious and fiery as ever! He recently took a liking to the Jersey Shore when he realized that their Affliction tees would wear nicely with his name emblazoned across his collar in rhinestones. (Yes, his name really is on his collar in rhinestones... as if a cat named Basquiat could wear anything different) Now that he has finally identified with his guido brotheren, I swear I see him fist-pumping every night out of the corner of my eye.... saying something along the lines of "the beat hits you, and then you have to hit it back...".

"I had a late night of fist-pumping, Mom. Time for GTL: Gym Tan Laundry."

5. I had the dubious honor of designing the Gibson Family Christmas Card this year. While my dad has complained every day since about the "extra lines" on his face, I think it turned out pretty good:
On that note, my computer battery is about to die and I don't feel like going all the way downstairs to get the charger. It is my hope that this blog has fed your Leighville hunger for the time being and, as always, I do have good intentions of making my posts more frequent... but my good intentions as far as blogs are concerned obviously hold no weight, so do with that what you will.

Jen Lancaster is my hero... but you already knew that.

Hello, all!

I know I haven't written in a while (I'm sorry!), but educating the youth of America is a very time consuming task; thus, my blog has been resting warmly on the back burner for the past few months. All of that will change soon, though, as in 2 short days I will begin my much anticipated CHRISTMAS BREAK!! Until then, I leave you with Jen Lancasters blog entry from December 10 on www.jennsylvania.com. She's hilarious, and no blog I could write about the whole Tiger Woods fiasco could hold a candle to her comedic genius. Click the link and Enjoy!

www.jennsylvania.com/jennsylvania/2009/12/swing-and-a-miss.html

Winnie... and I ain't talkin' about the Pooh...

So, after much urging (see: griping) from my friends, I have once again decided to join the wide world o' blogging. It has been a while, and I can assure you that eversomuch has happened in my time away... so much that I may not even be able to contain all of the excitement that is my life into one blog post. I hope you're reading with bated breath, because this is going to be a wild ride...

For starters, I am now officially a resident of Winnie, Texas, U.S.A....... again. It is with little surprise that I proudly report that not much has changed in my 7 years away. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I have made frequent visits to my lovely hometown of rice and southern hospitality, or maybe it truly hasn't changed much at all; regardless, I am pleased to report that it is still the small, humid, flat utopia it has always been (give or take a fast food joint or 2, and with the added bonus of my friends and me being of legal age to finally get into Al-T's bar... for when you wanna go where everybody knows your name). All joking aside, it is truly great to be once again surrounded by the people I love and who, mostly, love me back.... and most of all to have the added comfort of knowing that, when I don't know what I'm doing, someone else will.

On another note, I had a minor surgery on my scalp a month or so ago when my dermatologist diagnosed me with the curse of the ginger kid: Basal Cell Carcinoma (cue the horror movie music). While I did feel some (but not much) anxiety over the whole ordeal, it was really more of a pain in my neck... err, head. Seriously, though, I had a terrible headache for about 3 days, and had to put this really thick, neosporin-esque junk on my head that made my hair look oily, forcing me to cover my head with a plethora of scarves and hats for roughly a week... or two. I know what you're thinking: "Wow, that sounds awful... I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Leigh!" Well, my friends, you haven't even heard the worst of it. The day of my surgery, as they were prepping me for the whole ordeal, (and after the nurse stabbed each of my 2 arms approximately 6 times with a needle while trying to find a vein for the I.V.... seriously) I heard the 4 words that would change my life forever: "Please remove all piercings." (because they had just created so many new ones in my already bruised and bleeding arms...) So, with much reluctance, and as I watched the past 7 years of my life whiz by, I removed my belly ring. It was a bittersweet moment and, while I could easily have replaced it after surgery, I have come to terms with the fact that I am now an adult (in theory) and it was probably time to remove it anyway. (Side note: My dad had absolutely NO complaints about the belly ring travesty, and is sitting pretty in the knowledge that I would never get it repierced based soley on the fact that the original piercing experience was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life). So, that's that.

I know I said I had a ridiculously exciting life to blog about, but that was just a prank I pulled on you because I really don't. I just love to draw people in to my blog with a really exciting cliff hanger, and then leave them with nothing. Just like The Hills, except less flesh colored facial hair and staring off into space. One really great thing to report, though, is that Chelsea and I went through Jason Gardner's Facebook today and "liked" everything on his wall all the way back to 2007. Yes, we think we're funny.... scratch "funny", replace with "hilarious".

That's about it, folks. Until next time...