January...brrr

Today, taking the little one to preschool, the temperature was a whopping 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Having to take along a bookbag, boot bag with snow pants, and a heavy coat is quite a load for a little one. However, she's always excited to go to school, so that's good. 

The other little one has a bit of cabin fever, as he's sometimes naughty from being contained inside so much. 

He was excited to visit daddy at work last night while his sister was at dance.

Differing perspectives

Today the kids are discussing differing perspectives, and they have a "unique" blog assignment. The following are their topics:

1. if you were getting ready to go out Saturday night (their own perspective)
2. if you were a superhero, how would you spend your day (superhero perspective)
3. if you were of the opposite gender, how would you get ready for a night out (opposite gender perspective--duh)
4. if you were one of the members of the Griffin family, how would you spend the day (fictional, yet based on reality)
5. if you lived in the 1950's, what would you do on an evening out (their distorted reality of what life was like in the past)
6. if you were a character on Sesame Street, how do you spend your evening (life after hours for fictional characters)

(I forgot to add that they need to elaborate on the topics with at least 100 words for each, which is "ridiculous" until I asked if they would rather have 125 words.)

Saturday Night

• I really don't remember the last time we went out on a Saturday night. Especially now that speech is in full swing, I'm happy to just be able to come home and crash on Saturday night. We have gone to a few ball games. Last weekend my parents visited, so they played with LO, and I actually fixed dinner. Amazing, I know.
  But if I were to go out, I suppose I would shower, get dressed, make an effort with makeup & hair, and go out to eat. If we wanted to get fancy, we might do dinner and a show. Pretty sure we need to do this again soon. Hopefully sometime before prom.
  

Superhero

• I'm already pretty amazing as a regular person, so I'm pretty sure my superhero-ness wouldn't change much. In fact, I'd probably be something like Clark Kent and work a regular job. Now, if I had my choice, I would be like Bruce Wayne and have lots of money so I spent my day as a philanthropist--seriously, how awesome would that be to just spend your days giving away money to people. I would love to have that kind of money. Maybe that would be my super power--just giving away boat loads of money to those who truly needed it.

Opposite Gender

• Well, if I take this from my husband's perspective, I would need an extra hour to get ready. This is the reason why: I would have only about 20 minutes to actually get ready, but the extra time would be to tell my wife that I was getting ready when in all actuality I am downstairs in the man zone playing video games. The game is not important, as long as you can play online and say "at the end of this game I'll get in the shower". In all reality, men usually can get ready quicker than women because they don't have all the extra accoutrements.

Griffin Family

• I would, by gender stereotyping, be Lois because she's the mom. I'm pretty sure I would not do some of the things that she does, as they create craziness for the sake of her character. However, the fact that she cares about her family (for the most part) is probably important. Why she would have married a dumb guy is beyond me. Obviously if I were her, I'd spend my day out of the house so I could be away from the baby that wants to kill me and the obnoxious children; Chris with the psycho monkey in his closet and Meg with all of her odd tendencies. I'd also spend the day away to make money since Peter obviously spends tons on his antics.
  

1950s

• I'd be like a classic poodle skirt girl from the 50's. I'm pretty sure since they didn't have all of the extra hair product and stuff, I'd probably spend my getting ready time inventing things to make my life easier. I think I'd have to learn to iron, since everything back then was nicely pressed. I probably wouldn't have gotten along so well then. However, some of the music was starting to be okay. In fact, many of our influences today got their start back then. They did have pretty good beginnings of socialization then, so going out with friends would be okay.

Sesame Street

• Abby Cadabby would be a great character to be. However, I think she uses her powers at night for different things. I'm not saying she is a "lady of the night" but she practices all of the good tricks, not just the lame-o ones she shows on the program. I'm pretty sure since Sesame Street is pretty small and jam packed with people I would rarely be able to go somewhere without bumping into others from "the street." One definite advantage to being a muppet is you never have to prep yourself, as your predefined stuffed image is already molded. How easy!

So concludes our blog day full of differing perspectives. Can hardly wait to read what the kiddos have written.

prom invite 2011

Cubes Plum Baby Announcements

Shutterfly has cute baby announcements and Valentine's Day cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Day 8--Celebrate

Even though the weather is crummy outside, and we added another 5 or so inches of snow--hard to tell with drifting--today we're blogging about celebrating.

Everybody has something good going on in their lives; something that will get them to 95 (one of our 8 to great terms).

My personal celebration is that LO likes peas, & tonight we're moving on to carrots. Such a life change over a year ago at this time. Although peas & carrots are better than morning sickness any day.

My professional celebration is that the speech team placed first this past weekend & many of the kids did really well individually.

Day 5--what I would do with a snow day

For those of us not getting snow right now, we wish we were so we could get a snow day. Wishful thinking. Anyway, today's blog topic is to include a picture of yourself from today (taken today in Photo Booth), then respond in your blog what you would do with a snow day.

My answer:

LO & I would stay at home. Maybe when she takes a nap I would take one with her. Mid day and mid week naps are great.

We'd also try some vegetables, as she has taken pretty well to cereal. That's rice cereal, not Frosted Flakes, for those who don't know anything about baby foods.

I'd also actually cook dinner rather than do the rush thing of something quick with hamburger.

Maybe next week...

Day 4 of the challenge

Today's a goal setting day for speaking in class. The kids need to tell me how they will be a Champion Public Speaker (it's from an article we read in class). Then they need to set a 1 week, 1 month, & 1 year.

Day 3

I missed day 2 as I was trying to finalize all of the info for the speech meet. Most of the kids blogged about their life as it related to an infomercial. Some just told us about an infomercial, while some talked about random crap.

Today's topic is to tell the blogging world about the weekend. So, without further ado...

Friday night I was at school until around 7:15 finishing last minute stuff for the Bluejay Invite. Fortunately LO was picked up by Josh around 6:45, so she didn't have to be here more than 45 minutes.

Saturday was spent at school running the Bluejay Invite. My kids did well, with the varsity team finishing 2nd. See all of the results at Speechwire. Hubby made supper, so after I finally was home, I pretty much did nothing Saturday night.

Sunday we went to the farm after church. Was supposed to be a quick trip...but I ended up sitting in the car with LO for over 90 minutes. She was sleeping while I read the paper. Too bad the car had to idle for so long though. Since we didn't get done at the farm until almost 2, we had Chinese for lunch. LO's nap schedule was off, so she was up 3 times last night.

Life is good.

More later.

Day 1 of our new 30 Day Challenge

Today the kids are introduced to the blogging world. Actually, they are introducing themselves to the blogging world. We will have a creative bunch this year, I'm sure.

Can hardly wait to see what the 30 Day Challenge holds in store for this year.

sample oral interpretation for class

Since Kick YouTube is "having technical difficulties" I'm going to try embedding the video here. Guess we'll see if it plays through the filter.

Embarrassing Moment

Today the kids blogged about their most embarrassing moments. So, of course, they requested that I add mine. However, what they really don't realize is at this point in life I'm not really too embarrassed at anything. This is not to say I haven't done plenty to be embarrassed by...I just don't really dwell on it or let it bother me.

Without further ado, the list that follows are a few embarrassing things I have done or that have happened to me. (Note, the list is in no particular order.)

A. When we visited friends in California I was in a driving accident with a driveway marker.

B. Called a friend's girlfriend by the wrong name, of course, unknowingly.

C. Probably other countless things.

I suppose to hear the dumbest/most embarrassing things I have done, you need to ask my husband.

Day 2: How we have changed

Why is it that I create lesson plans, but forget and decide to have blow dryer hair on a day when kids will take pictures and post to their blogs?

Anyway, today's post is how we have changed over the past year. I know most of the high school kids think they haven't changed, but especially those who are freshmen or those who are seniors generally change the most.

As for me, believe it or not, I haven't grown any taller. Also, I've given over some of the cooking reins to my husband, which is huge for both of us. Last night he had made chili. Guess I need to tell him what we're having in the morning or the night before so he can cook. I really enjoy cooking, but during this time of year I'm home so little that to give over the cooking to him is a big deal.

Another change for me is I think I'm becoming a gamer--nothing hard core, but I've actually played games on not only the Wii, but also the PS3.

New 30 Day Challenge

2010 Edition of the 30 Day Challenge...I do wonder what this year's kids will create for blogs.

Their first question today is "Why do they think they are blogging, and how do they think they'll benefit?" (and I required a whopping 50 words)

I'm sure some will have an interesting take while others may still question what blogging even is.

So begins another semester

Since I will have my high school kids blogging again, I thought it time to update my own blog. They will be creating these blogs later this week, but in the meantime, I'll post a sample of a short entry on my break time and how I wasted time.

During my break from school at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, I found that I have a tremendous amount of free time. I had plenty of time to play my new video game, Super Mario Brothers. However, I probably spent too much time playing this game, as I had to use lots of 'continues' to keep myself going. Seriously, I'm at 50 continues and counting. Not only did I play Super Mario Brothers, but I also played some Mario Kart and Dr. Mario, a game from when I was a kid. I thought I rocked at Dr. Mario, but I only beat Josh 1 out of every 5 games or so. I am hoping that we have at least one more snow day so I can refresh my skills again.

Boston-Day 2

So...day 2 made me appreciate the road ways in the Midwest. Americans did learn from our pasts. Literally, we made split second decisions when we came to a fork in the road, which, by the way, was every 1/2 mile or so. A few veers to the wrong direction, and we finally ended up at our destinations. We dislike the fact that not all streets are marked--well, the cross streets are marked, but sometimes (when we had no idea where we were) we wanted to know what street we were on (or what street ours had merged into).

Our first stop was to visit my very dear Aunt Eleanor. We attended church with her, then went to Longfellow's Wayside Inn. Wonderful place to visit. Dates back to the 1700's. (Actually, most everything here dates back to the 1700's.) Wayside Inn is fully authentic, which is incredible to think about--old chairs, tables, floors, etc.

Also on the property of Wayside Inn is a working Grist Mill (yes, I bought some cornmeal), a beautiful church, and the Little Red Schoolhouse.

First, the story behind the cornmeal. For our dessert choice, we could have apple pie, sherbet, or this stuff called Indian pudding. Neither Josh nor I would have chosen the latter, but on Aunt Eleanor's request we both tried it. Basically, Indian pudding is a mix of cornmeal & molasses, which are baked together, then a scoop of ice cream is added to the top. Not too bad.

The story behind the Little Red Schoolhouse is interesting. When Henry Ford owned Wayside Inn (he was the last private owner), he moved this schoolhouse in from Sterling (sp), MA. This schoolhouse is where the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb was written. Pretty cool.

Aunt Eleanor did not want to continue the afternoon with us, which is too bad, as we could have used a guide on the roads! But Josh & I continued to Concord, MA and the Old North Bridge, where the shot heard 'round the world was fired. Extremely nice national park here dedicated to the Revolutionary War. We stopped at a few other historical places between Concord and Lexington.

Although we experienced rain throughout most of the day, we couldn't resist walking to the observatory area to view the Old North Bridge and the monuments on either side. Notice the foliage that is just beginning to take color. Such vibrant hues.


Along our journey in historic land, we ran across many famous author hangouts. I guess if a person was writing in the 19th century, this was the place of inspiration. Walden Pond is a recreation area--actually, it's bigger than what we consider a pond at home. Henry David Thoreau has his own street in Concord.
One place we stopped by was Orchard House, where the Alcott family resided. This house is said to be the place where Louisa May Alcott not only wrote Little Women, but also the house she modeled the March house after. Stunning, isn't it?


Finally, our journey of the day ended in a trip back to Boston. We like to call it our collegiate tour of Boston. Actually, we happened upon most of the places by chance. We drove into Cambridge and saw Harvard University. (Fun fact, in the early days, because the water in beer had been purified and regular water could have contaminates, Harvard students were served beer with their breakfast. That little ditty is courtesy of the Duck tour we took Saturday.) Anyway, we drove through Cambridge, saw the exit for Tufts and drove past Boston College's football field. Not too far from our hotel is U Mass. The sailboats are in the waters surrounding the university (also home to the JFK presidential library).

More tomorrow (unless it's too late after the baseball game).

Boston-Day 1 (the first full day)

On our first full day we decided to partake in all that downtown Boston has to offer. But first we made a stop at the Sam Adams brewery.






The brewery tour was informational, plus they gave us free glasses and beer. Not too bad for a free tour. We did send some people postcards from Sam Adams.




Following this we hopped back on the T line (Boston's subway) and rode to the downtown area.

We started on the Freedom Trail walk, which is easy to do, as the sidewalks are literally painted red for people to follow. We ventured off the trail a few times, but ended up back in Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. This is the place of places in Boston. We could have purchased anything there. But before we did too much shopping we stopped to eat at the Cheers location. Actually, we accidentally found Cheers the restaurant, as we saw Cheers the store first.


Yes, we bought some Cheers ware...





As we followed more of the Freedom Trail around town, Josh asked two Boston Police officers to pose for a picture. He now has pictures from just about everywhere we have visited.

The officers were helping to block off an area for the Mayor's Cup, which was some sort of bike race or ride around City Hall.



Boston Square Garden--this one's for you Timaree! Home of the Celtics and the Bruins. I think there was a Bruins' preseason game tonight. Not sure though.

We traveled on all sides of the Garden, as we took a Duck tour around town & into the Charles River.


So this Duck tour was literally in a WWII Duck like those that would have been used on the beaches of Normandy. Pretty amazing that this oversized mass of a machine could not only drive but also float.

Josh was able to get some fabulous skyline pictures from the river tour.

We finished off our evening on the North Side, seeing Revere's house and the Old North Church. After walking around Boston's version of Italy, we decided to partake in Italian cuisine. I had this scrumptious chicken & eggplant dish--it had some Italian name that I couldn't pronounce, but it was awesome.

Caught the subway to bring us back to our hotel, which is near U Mass. By the way, the guy driving our tour said within 40 miles of Boston, over 50 4-year colleges are available. That's a lot!

Tomorrow, on to Wayside Inn, and possibly Lexington and Concord. Weather is supposed to be rainy, so this may hamper some of our plans.

One month later

Since it's been one month since my last post, now is the time. This week has been crazy, but what week isn't? Take for instance next week...we have a school wide (teachers & students) community service day on Thursday, then parent teacher conferences that afternoon/evening.

But...

The big news is--next week we'll be traveling. Josh & I will be visiting an aunt and doing some in general sightseeing. We leave on Friday REALLY early. I plan to post pics of the places we visit for everyone who cares to keep tabs on us.

Back to School

Actually, this is day 3 of back to school...day 3 with kids. I have a student staying after school already, so I'm taking the time to update my blog.

This semester I'm teaching computer applications to 9th graders, which is a challenge, as I'm constantly learning new things myself. I also have 7th grade speech again, which I swear will push me over the brink! I'm loving my reading class--sophomores who, for the most part, actually like to read. I end my day with junior high. I just have to keep the right frame of mind for junior high at the end of the day.

Looking forward to reading class this year (well, who doesn't mind 20 minutes of uninterrupted reading time?!). But we are adding the 8 to Great program in every Wednesday. With fun kids, the program should be great!

Need to get back to my little gent who is visiting me after school.

Tulsa girls' trip--day 1

We spent most of the day traveling on Thursday. Believe it or not, driving through Kansas & Oklahoma is pretty much like driving through Nebraska, except Oklahoma has red dirt.

One stop along the long drive was in Wichita where we stopped at the Museum of World Treasures. This started as a private collection & has amassed into a collection from 2600 B.C. to modern day. It really covers a lot of material. Could have spent a lot longer there.

The attached pics are from the museum. They actually had a full sized t-rex that the little kids liked.

Birthday surprise

Since I'll be on a girls' trip on my birthday, Josh made a romantic meal for me tonight. This was a HUGE deal! He made Chicken Parmesan, we had a dry red wine (my favorite!), candles, a lace tablecloth, and soft music in the background. The evening was truly magnificent.

No the photo isn't our back yard, but we did recently visit Sioux Falls.