We Ran (Walked) To Save the Gorillas 2009

Today, Steve and I went to the Bronx Zoo to walk to save the Gorillas!!! Steve entered us in this event. It was a 5K and he said we could walk. I thought it was 5 miles so I was glad that we were walking - apparently - as a math teacher, I am unaware of how to convert kilometers to miles and it was only 3.2 ish miles. The next 5K we do, we will run. Steve made several comments about my lack of exercise (boo hoo, I work 14 hours a day), and that we were amongst all the old people and families and that we needed to claim a kid to have an excuse for walking. HAHA. It was such a great time - we got to see some animals and had a great time walking - the weather was beautiful. At the end of the "race" they gave out free water, bananas, yogurt, apples, rolls and bagels. I had a banana, water, 2 rolls and half a bagel - I was hungry. I wanted my picture taken with the people who wore Gorilla costumes but Steve told me I should act my age - LOL. I guess that means that I am immature - I work with 12 year olds - what do you expect?

Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to do more of them. I am hoping that we can enter several 5Ks a year and do them together - it is a such a great time and it is always for a good cause.

There were 3,000 people today at the event!

Brendan's Visit

Brendan spent his Spring Break in NYC. Unfortunately, when he arrived I was the sickest I have ever been. He spent his first few days entertaining himself and seeing friends and Aunt Gail. We went out to dinner at Steve and my favorite restaurants on 8th and 5th Ave - Otto - for some amazing pizza ...




On Friday, we went out with Ian to celebrate his friend's birthday in the city at a club called Prana. There was a line to get it and then music was pumpin. Drinks were super expensive so I only had one glass of wine. Ian insisted on getting Brendan more drinks so he enjoyed some mojitos and beer with his friend that joined us. Hallie was there and we got to chat so that was really fun! Steve and I left before Brendan and his friend - don't worry Mom and Dad - I made sure he knew how to get home.



On Sunday, we went to Katz's deli to get the most huge sandwiches I have ever seen and homemade chicken noodle soup. We each got our own chicken soup and we shared a hard salami sandwich - it was massive!!! We really enjoyed eating there and seeing all the pictures on the walls of the famous people who have been. We sat near this couple who have been going every Sunday for over 20 years! Thanks Mom for sending us money to go there!!!

More Pics

At Kenny's concert with Edwin and Suzanne - friends from Binghamton


Baseball game!


On the way to the Brewers vs. Mets game - that is my new hairdo - blonde highlights, short, choppy haircut. What do you think?


Out at Prana - check out the pink shirt I got him and he wore out!


At Cuba restaurant near NYC celebrating Liz's Birthday (Steve's friend from Binghamton)


Playing Wii with his niece, Malaina ... super cute!!!


Crown Candy in STL - soooo good - thanks Mom and Dad!



Ted Drews!!! He loved it - finished the whole thing in about 3 minutes - no joke!


AB Tour - Dad - Steve REALLY likes Bud!!

Steve and Chelsea Through the Lens of Camera

On the AB Brewery Tour in STL


At the Cardinals Stadium over Winter Break


At Kenny's Concert - Last Second Chances is his band - they are really awesome!


At Bryant Park ice rink - we didn't skate - Steve has a thing about stuff on his feet :)


Bowling together for the first time! He beat me ... badly ...


The 1st Snow in NYC!


On our way out to Steve Alexander's Christmas Party! I bought him that shirt!


Enjoying a nightly stroll in NYC


Our finished product - Chicken Parmesan - from scratch - the first meal we made together for others


At Peculiar - Steve's favorite bar near NYU



My mom has wanted to see pictures of Steve and I and all that we do since we have started dating. We tried to get her on Facebook and it just didn't work out ... So, Mom, here are some of our best pics - I can show you the rest in May! Enjoy!

The Weekend of Baseball

This past week has been all sports related. Surprisingly, it has been a blast! I have always been a baseball fan and enjoyed going with my family to Cardinals games whenever we had a chance. I didn't realize how much I truly loved it until this past weekend.

Steve spent the whole weekend breathing and living baseball. He attended all the Brewers games in NY. We went to the game together on Sunday. The new Mets field - Citi Field - is spectacular (of course it doesn't compare to STL). We had seats up high - which I love - because you can see everything. The Brewers won 4-2. We got to see some great plays and we had so much fun together talking baseball and doing our own commentary. I have a major crush on Ryan Braun #8 from the Brewers - he is smoking hot and he hits homeruns. We had great hotdogs - in NY they only serve brown mustard - yuck.

At the game I came up with a field trip idea for my 6th graders - I am going to take them to a day game and they will calculate different stats for 5 players from one team and as a class we will create a frequency table and histogram from the players batting averages. It is going to be SWEET. I have also talked with the science, history, ELA, and PE teachers - they will teach force and hitting a bat in science, the history of the game in history, they will read a story about baseball in ELA, they will be taught the rules of the game in PE and in Enrichment with me they are going to learn about good sportsmanship. In our 2A period I teach with Mr. C and he played baseball in college - he is going to share his experience playing in college. I am going to rock out with this trip!

NOTE: I have TONS of pictures to post - Brendan's visit, Steve and I, baseball pics, Philly, etc.

Spring Break Thoughts

I am on Spring Break from teaching this week. It started off with Passover dinner at Aunt Gail's and Uncle Jeff's house. Then I spent the day in LI on Friday with Aunt Gail and got to spend some time with Hallie (Ian's GF) - she is wonderful! We had a blast at lunch and we brought Ian and his co-workers coffee and got a tour of Frito-Lay, which was really cool. If I worked in a factory I would want to be the person who does the specific packaging - sorry Ian - I forgot what that was called. This past weekend, Steve and I stayed in all weekend, which was actually really, really nice. I cleaned my room and went through my things and got rid of some clothes that either a) don't fit b) I don't like or c) are not appropriate for a teacher to be wearing anymore. On Monday I had a dentist appointment which went very well. Kathy (Aunt Gail's close friend and co-worker) printed out my "pockets report" and we mailed it via snail mail to my mom - she is a bit obsessive about teeth haha. I hope she puts it on the refrigerator like a report card (hint hint Mom). I spent the day with Aunt Gail and got some pants and a shirt hemmed/taken in. Today, I am supposed to be doing work for my school, for Grad School and for grades and for data collection. UG. I SO do NOT want to do any of it. I did a little work just now. I am thinking of taking a break. I set aside today and tomorrow to do work and then that was my cut off. What I HAVE to get done is not too bad really, it's just the idea of doing work over the break. This is Spring Break (a supposed and very true real break for teachers). Tomorrow, I am having coffee/lunch with Christina and I am very excited to see her since it has been way too long. Tonight, Steve and I are doing laundry at a laundromat - no more laundry at Aunt Gail's Laundromat!!! haha, I know she is going to be so sad!!! LOL. On Thursday, I will head to the TFA to do some printing and photocopying. I have a meeting at Lehman College on Thursday for my school to start planning the Summer Bridge course for our incoming 9th graders. On Friday, I will go to LI to spend time with Aunt Gail and to see Erica and Hallie. Steve is going to the Mets vs. Brewers game on Friday night with Kenny and staying in Queens - so I will stay in LI. On Saturday he is taking Kenny, Bryan and Adam to the Mets vs. Brewers game as a "thank you" for letting me stay with you gift. On Saturday night, I am going to the Nutty Irishman with Hallie/Ian and their friends and coincidentally for Erica's BF, Giuseppe's Birthday. So that will be great. Steve may or may not join me, depends on how tired he is from the whole day of drinking at the baseball game. On Sunday, we are going to the Mets vs. Brewers game, which I am stoked about. It will be interesting to see how he is at a game. All I know is the screaming and cheering and low blows he makes at the tv when we watch at home. HAHA.

Wow, this was a long blog - I highly doubt anyone wants to hear my week plan but it was good to write it down - now, I just have to get to it ... haha ... I will in a little bit. I need a snack.

P.S. Aunt Gail - Steve's high score is I think over 300,000 ... we both suck.

Steve's First Passover

NOTE: Per Steve's request, I will no longer be writing in 3rd person because it is obvious that I am writing this blog. ~Chelsea

On Thursday, Steve attended his first Passover Dinner and Sedar. He left work early at 3:30 p.m. to be sure to get to Aunt Gail's on time. There was a lot of traffic, so, he was later than expected which was fine because the other Trugmans were also in traffic. The chocolate mousse turned out great and I was able to transport it from Harlem to Long Island without any problems. The dinner began when everyone arrived - Aunt Gail, Uncle Jeff, Bryan, Ian, Hallie, me, Steve, Aunt Sue, Uncle Alan, Michael, Caroline, Mike H., and his son, Kevin. We all sat around the table and began reading. Everyone read, except for Kevin - he's only 10. Steve did an incredible job reading especially because his passages were full of names and places and hard Jew words. He even wore a yamaka!!! I am so disappointed that my camera was out of batteries because I wanted a picture of that so badly!!! Dinner was super delicious - turkey, brisket, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, kugel, etc. Steve even tried gafeltafish - SICK!!! The night was really fun with a lot of talking and jokes and just good times. The evening was over around 9:30. The other Trugmans stuck around til late and Costa came over and it was such a great time!

I stayed the night at Aunt Gails and she made matzo-bry in the morning and I had chocolate mousse too and she had the flourless chocolate cake.

The Big Move and other stuff ...

This past week Steve has moved into Chelsea's apartment in Harlem. Justin has sadly gone home and then he is off to Louisiana to start his 2 year commitment with Teach For America. It was quite an ordeal getting all of Steve's stuff to Harlem ... multiple trips up the 4 flights of stairs and a visit to his storage closet. Chelsea is "spring cleaning" to get rid of some of her stuff to make room for more of Steve's stuff. Steve is really happy to finally have a place to play his video games and watch baseball ALL THE TIME. He is also excited to be able to wake up and eat breakfast while watching the news and traffic reports. :)

This is the last week of school for Chelsea before Spring Break starts. The kids are absolutely ridiculous and super hyper/ADD. She had to call several parents already this week about their kids singing, dancing, making inappropriate comments, being disruptive, not doing anything etc. One student in particular, D, (Chelsea will only be referring to students by letter symbols and those letters do not correlate to their names necessarily) finds it just hilarious to thrust his pelvic region all the time while dancing around the classroom. Another student is constantly disrespectful and just doesn't know when to stop or be quiet, she always has something to say no matter if not one person is listening to her. Ms. Tracy (Chelsea's co-teacher for their special ed class) also found a gold-wrapped condom being passed around during Social Studies on Monday. The student, B, said she found it from her older brother, who also attends BECA ... AWESOME. On a lighter and more touching note, one of the students, A, has really been trying much harder and has really been making progress this quarter with his reading skills. Although he is a 6th grader, he reads at a 1st grade level. He has a real aptitude for drawing and loves to get new things to use to draw - pencils, pens, colored pencils, etc. BECA has been hosting a Book Fair since Monday and he was seen eyeing a Drawing Dragons Book Kit (complete with new pencils and drawing utensils and sketch book). There was only one Drawing Dragons Book Kit available. And, it is $15. A cannot afford this and neither can his parents. Almost all of the 6th grade teachers got together and bought it for him. When Ms. Belz took class 601 (A is in this class) to the Book Fair during Math today, he was so disappointed when he saw it was gone. "Ms. Belz, where is the Dragon book? It was here yesterday! I saw it!" - A. "A, someone must have bought it after you were here. I am sorry sweetie" - Ms. Belz. It was so hard to lie to him and keep his sadness going, but Chelsea cannot wait to give it to him tomorrow - he is going to FREAK OUT. In the kids words, Chelsea can imagine him saying, "Miss, you OD!, stop beastin' wit me!"" (OD = over dose, or out of control; beastin' = messing, fooling around with). And, for future reference, Chelsea is not "Ms. Belz", she is just "Miss", as are all of the other teachers at BECA, regardless if they are married or not.

Steven has signed up for MLB.com's MLBTV where he can watch his beloved Milwaukee Brewers play every single game on his laptop. He is overjoyed for this season and to go to some games - in NY and Philly.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! We will posting updates on our lives, our jobs, our outtings and vacations and anything else that comes up! We hope to post at least once a week (hopefully more) with pictures and videos!!! Any suggestions are welcome!!! A big thanks to Amy Morgan for the inspiration (haha) to create this!! It truly is a great way to keep everyone updated!!!