New York City, here I come! Tuesday, Sep 25 2007

I am so excited.  I never travel… ever.  The last real vacation I had was my honeymoon (and I’m about to celebrate my 13th anniversary!) and those Ivan and Katrina evacuations had hotel stays with pools… so I guess you can count those if you want.  So, my only form of travel ever comes in the way of conferences.  Now– most people would groan at the thought of going out of town for a conference and sitting in meetings all day.  But, you’re looking at a bonafide geek here.  C’mon, I have 117 graduate hours for what… it sure doesn’t increase my pay.  So, I’m ecstatic that I got selected to represent the Greater New Orleans Chapter of the National Writing Project at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in NYC.  Woot!

Just a small list of the authors and presenters that I will get to hear…. Johnathon Kozol, Jerry Spinelli, Allen Say, Dave Barry, Lucy Calkins, and Ishmael Beah.  Wow, I am such a lucky lady.  It’s the Wednesday through Sunday before Thanksgiving, so as a bonus I get an extended holiday break! 🙂

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This is why I teach… Thursday, Sep 20 2007

This is an article from the front page of today’s paper. Even with a storm heading our way and the Jena 6 Rally today, this made the front page! This is the school I taught at last year and the student interviewed was one of “my kids.” He is the one who read Looking for Alaska when I recommended it to him (only because a professor had done a book talk on it) and returned it the next day. I thought he was passing on it. Actually, he had finished it in one night. He gave it back and said, “Thanks, that was awesome.” That is why I read it. HIS recommendation. He really was a bookworm. Of my 24 kids, 23 passed to the 9th grade!! I bawled my eyes out when I read the article. Enjoy something positive about education for a change.

Taylor’s (Edward– as he wants to be called) story

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Why I’ve been missing…. Saturday, Aug 18 2007

It’s back to school time. I went back to work on August 8th and we got kids this past Monday (8/13). I must say, I’M EXHAUSTED!!! I forgot how much fourth graders wear you out. That, plus, I’m 36, plus, there are 24 of them (6 of which are special ed), plus one of my two a/c units has been out since Tuesday, plus there are six contact hours a day. What does that equal claass????

One exhausted teacher and way too tired blogger. (I haven’t even opened my laptop for three days prior to this!)

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Friday Feast #23 Friday, Jul 20 2007

Feast One Hundred & Fifty Two

{Featured Flickr Feast by in2jazz}

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?

About a two. I like watching swimming during the Olympics and ice skating and gymnastics during the Olympics…. and soccer every now and then; cause it’s only an hour. 🙂

Soup
If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?

Probably To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s just so fantastic.

Salad
What is your favorite breakfast food?

Cereal.

Main Course
Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.

Read, well it depends on if you’re counting the purchasing of the book I guess… LOL

Dessert
How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?

FOREVER!!! I take Rozerem, plus Advil PM, and I still take hours to fall asleep. What can I say, I have a sleep disorder. I’ve even had a sleep study done. Even once I do get to sleep, I don’t get “good” REM sleep. Ugh!

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Thursday Thirteen #17- 13 things I want to do before school starts Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

School starts back up for teachers on August 8th… that means I have less than a month to do everything I want to do. Chances are looking slim, but anyway….

1. Read the massive stack of books in my To Be Read pile.
2. Start eating healthy. :snicker: …yeah even I had to laugh at that one…
3. Watch the massive pile up of movies I have on my Tivo.
4. Finally get these four movies that I have at home from Netflix watched and sent back so I’m not paying all summer for four movies.
5. Learn to build a nice website for my school so the hubby doesn’t say one more time, “Oh, I can do that for you.”
6. Maybe teach my children to stop talking at decibels only my ears and dogs can hear.
7. Put the wainscoting up in the little one’s bedroom. Not so much for the decor purposes, but more for the easy cleaning purposes.
8. Actually crack open the six new cookbooks I got when I joined The Good Cook book club…
9. Start looking at the curriculum for the new grade level.
10. Go out to eat for the NO Aids Dine For Life Event. (If anyone wants to send in a donation it’s July 19th, go here for info!)
11. Blog more!
12. Drink more!
13. Sleep more!

Get the TT information here.

THE PURPOSE BEHIND THE THURSDAY THIRTEEN:
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well!

See more TT particpants.

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Yeah, like that’s gonna happen… Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

I popped in on Donna over at The Ice Box and she had this little quiz which said she should be vacationing at the beach, so I decided to check out where my ideal vacation spot is. Well, being that I haven’t had a vacation since my honeymoon 12.5 years ago (aside from trips to conventions for work and the occasional evacuation or two *thanks Katrina and Ivan*) I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon, but here are my results.

You Should Spend Your Summer in the Mountains

You’re quiet, introspective, and a great thinker. You need a summer vacation that gets you away from the crowds and the heat. So retreat to the mountains, where you can clear your head.

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

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When did my music become “CLASSIC”???? Monday, Jul 9 2007

So, me and hubby were cruising the channels last night and I stopped when I came across the video for Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon. Come to find out VHI Classics shows the old 120 Minutes from MTV on Sunday nights, 2 episodes back-to-back. I sat there and reveled in the music: The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Sinead O’Connor, (this was the 1989 episode as I pinned it down) and The Replacements, Pearl Jam, INXS (we first thought this must have been a 1986 episode, but then realized it must have been a 1992 episode) and I was in awe. This WAS VH1 Classic… and this was the music of my youth. I could distintinctly remember dancing to the Sinead/MC Lyte remix of Put Your Hands on Me at a club, I remember going to The Cure’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me concert back to back with a Beastie Boys/Run DMC concert in July of 1986. All these memories of my high school and college days were coming back and they were CLASSICS!!! When did I get old? What songs bring back the strongest memories for you?

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Friday Feast #23 Friday, Jul 6 2007

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Five

The feast is on vacation this week, so I pulled one that I didn’t complete from March 16th, 2007

Appetizer
Name two things that made you smile this week.

Surfing crappy videos on youtube with my classmates, when my almost three yr old called me her best fwiend

Soup
Fill in the blank: Don’t you hate it when people drive in *your* way?

Salad
When you can’t go to sleep, what is your personal remedy to help yourself drift into Lullabyland?

Ummm, Rozerem?

Main Course
What is something about which you’ve always wondered but have not yet found a good answer?

How people can fall asleep at the drop of a hat (see salad.)

Dessert
What is your favorite pasta dish?

Crawfish Roban from Semolina

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Manic Monday #5- Independence Monday, Jul 2 2007

 

Independence

 

I learned about independence at an early age. Being an only child I was alone a lot. No cousins around, no kids my age, I mostly hung out with the adults. So, I was the kind of kid that sat around reading books and listening to music that the adults liked. When my parents split and my mom got back into the dating scene, I learned to be even more independent. Her boyfriend, when I was 15, lived in Baton Rouge. So, my mom would leave on Friday night to go visit him and leave me with 20 bucks to help myself to pizza and such. If I wasn’t such a “good girl” I would have had parties and invited people over to hang out. But, no, what did I do? I ordered a pizza on Friday night, ate sunflower seeds and drank Coke while staying up late reading books. Just leaves me to wonder, what gave me such a strong independent spirit?? What did you do as a child that was independent?

 

Visit MO at It’s a Blog Eat Blog World!

 

 

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You know you’re envious… and no I don’t have room Monday, Jun 25 2007

They announced the lineup for the Voodoo Music Experience this weekend. I haven’t been in probably five or six years, but let me tell you, I KNOW where I will be on October 26, 27, & 28!!! If you can make it into NOLA, this is the time to do it. Tickets for all three days (WITH in and out privileges) are going on sale this weekend for $100. Now, where today can you see a lineup like this for a mere $33.33 a day??

Visit the lineup here and salivate along with me…

Stumble It!

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Wordless Wednesday #16- Back When I Was Young… Wednesday, Jun 13 2007

 

Writing these last two weeks about old memories made me drag this one out…. can you figure out which one I am?  Any NOLA people out there recognize this haunt?

See other WW participants here.

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Spring has sprung! Friday, Mar 30 2007

My butterfly iris bloomed this morning!  I just love these.  They are my favorite… well next to my agapanthus. 🙂

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150 Experiences Monday, Mar 26 2007

I borrowed this from Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies. Try it and see how boring you are…

150 Questions

I am semi-boring (82/150 or 56%):

150 Questions
The Bold Ones Are The Ones I Have Done.

1. Dyed your hair
2. Been a DJ
3. Climbed a mountain. (a hill, does that count???)
4. Been arrested
5. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (No inkling to)
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said “I love you” and meant it
9. Taught yourself an art from scratch (cross-stitching)
10. Done a striptease

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People suck. Wednesday, Mar 14 2007

More to follow.

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What I did on my Winter Vacation (or… what I did while I was bored out of my mind recouperating) Sunday, Jan 7 2007

You know, I like to pride myself on being a lazy type. Sure, I get things done when I want to; but I can veg out with the best of them. My late mother-in-law, bless her soul, even commented once on how lazy I was and I couldn’t help but thinking; wait a minute, you’ve been a SAHM your entire life, never learned to drive, had people take you everywhere… and I’M the lazy one? (I am sooo not saying that SAHM’s are lazy! Believe me, my year of sabbatical taught me that!) But, when your youngest child is 33 and you make that comment we’re talking different different circumstances. Anyway, that comment got to me, in a really bad way. I mean, I am 35 (very, very, very close to 36 years old), I have three children, a marriage that is almost 12 years old. I work 7:30-5:15 CLOCK HOURS a day as a teacher, then come home for more teacher work along with kids and two dogs, three cats, making sure the hamster is still alive, and a husband to pay attention to. I have a Masters Degree, plus 30 hours and am registered for 6 hours in the Spring. I have worked full time since I was 17 years old, 25 hours a week since 16. So, when it comes to my day/days off, or God forbid, a surgery recoup that is supposed to be a 6 week time and here I sit at 3w3d, I want to relax. Man, I swear I didn’t mean for this to be a rant, sorry guys.

So, for what I did in the 3w3d since I took my “vacation” from work. I go back tomorrow for half-days for this week. The following week my doc is going to let me go back full time.

I read. A LOT. I read six books, even in my drugged state, ya gotta love that Percocet.

I am now just over halfway with the Plum series. I read, Four, Five, Six, and Seven by Evanovich. I started Eight today.

I also finished J.A. Jance’s Dead Wrong. I got it last summer but never got around to it. It was worth the wait. I love Joanna Brady.

Then, I finally got around to reading Kim Edward’s Memory Keeper’s Daughter. It was FANTASTIC!

Then to the T.V. and Movies…. Sheesh.

I’ve watched just about every episode of Monk that was on, including the marathon on New Year’s Day. I realize more and more as I watch the show that I’m a Monk.

I’ve taken to the Junk Brothers, they do some pretty neat stuff and they’re also pretty nice to look at. I caught up on all the other stuff I’ve been saving up in my Tivo.

Movies:

• Devil Wears Prada
• The Break-Up
• Friends with Money
• Click
• Fun with Dick and Jane
• The West Wing, the Final Episode
• When a Stranger Calls
• 11:14
• Just Like Heaven
• Prime
• The Family Stone
• Hitch

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