good-bye auntie roo

we'll miss you

tadoodles

Walking down the Crayola aisle at the store these days is almost intimidating. Last time we were at Target I found it hard to resist - and bought Bree some Tadoodles Crayon Buddies and a giant coloring book. (Don't worry Aunt Mindi - I promise not to limit her to coloring books. She will have opportunities to create on blank canvas as well. Maybe she can come over and help you paint the hacienda. :) )

The Tadoodles have a triangle shaped crayon in them and are easy for her to hold and work with. Still tempting to put in her mouth, though, so I have to watch. Luckily, they wash off of fabric and walls pretty easily - we've already tested them.

Bree would only use the blue. She refused the green and pink.

"This is sewious!"

For a few weeks now, Dan has been telling me about this show that he and Bree love to watch together called The Wonder Pets. She still isn't really too into the television, doesn't want to sit still long enough to watch it, but when this show starts she gets really excited and pays it some attention. And Dan seems to LOVE it. He even walks around the house singing the theme song.

So using that wonderful DVR invention I recorded the show this week so I could see what it was all about. Last night after Bree was in bed we put it on and sat watching it, the two of us. (Poor baby - she wasn't quite asleep and was probably wondering why we were having fun without her! She was tired though and didn't complain.)

It's cute! Linny, Tuck, and Ming-Ming work together (teamwork!) to save animals in trouble. Little Ming-Ming is a baby duck and has a speech impediment that is just adorable. "This is sewious!" she says when the call comes in from an animal who needs help. Wonder Pets has a new fan!

a bird and a book

In class yesterday, I decided it was time to challenge my students a little more. We are doing an activity that involves creative thinking and trying to come up with ideas. I asked for two nouns from the class and was given "bird" and "book." I then told the students to think about how these two things are alike.

me: "Think about how a bird and a book are alike. Close your eyes and just think. I will be thinking also."

me: (in my head) "Crap! How are they alike? I can only think of one thing, that they both start with B. What else? What else..."

me: "Okay. Raise your hand if you thought of something. Remember, you must begin by saying 'They both...' "

second grade girl: "They both are a thing."

second grade boy: "They both have spines."

Wow. I was floored. They both have spines? The rest of our list was fairly predictable. The both have bodies, they both do something, they both have color, they both can make noises.

But they both have spines? Genius.

welcome to holland

Our school services special needs students, and I often have a special needs child in my class. This year is no exception. Today I was handed a portfolio that the student's mother put together about her daughter. I was especially touched by an article on the first page:

Welcome to Holland
Author: Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.

It's like this...
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go.

Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy! All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for awhile and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandt.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say,"Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss. But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you my never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland.

perception test

I didn't do too well on this perception test the first time around.

What about you?

recommended

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow - Laurie Halse Anderson gracefully and artfully took a difficult subject and turned it into a wonderful novel. I have had this book sitting on my bookshelf for a long time now, but was a little anxious about reading it because I knew it was about a young girl who experiences something dreadful at an end-of-summer party. She calls 911, and soon finds that her old friends won't talk to her anymore and people she doesn't know hate her as well. She enters high school at this time (as if that isn't hard enough.)

The author tackled this subject with just the right amount of humor to off-set the difficult parts. I found myself completely engrossed in the high school character Melinda and finished this book in no time. I also felt like I knew many of the other characters in the book. Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, said something I liked so much that I dog-eared the page, "Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag. The next time you work on your trees, don't think about trees. Think about love or hate or joy or rage-- whatever makes you feel something."

I felt like I could relate to Melinda's speechlessness. Anderson's writing style drew me in completely and the ending was satisfying. I highly recommend this book!

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book has been getting a lot of attention, and now that I am finished with it I am glad that I took the time to read it! It is the story of Jacob Jankowski, a man who, through a string of bad luck, finds himself a part of a traveling circus. I have never been to a circus, and even after reading this book I'm not sure I would want to see a circus, but I found the description of this depression-era circus enthralling. Times were so different then, and it wasn't all that long ago.

I will say that this book does contain scenes which include violence towards animals, and I found that very difficult. (which is why I only gave it four stars) It was integral to the story line, and the story is worthwhile to read. In the paperback copy of the book I read the author shared how much of the story came from actual research. I'll never think of Thomas Edison the same way.

I really enjoyed the following quote from the first chapter:

"When you are five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties, you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties, something strange starts to happen. It is a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm--you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you are not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it."

— Sara Gruen



View all my reviews.

chatting with Bree

When we got home this evening, Bree and I walked to the mailbox. There were robins in the yard, and I pointed and said, "Look, Bree! Look at the birds."

She pointed, and as clear as a bell said, "Duck!"

Again, "Duck!"

She has a rubber ducky, a toy duck, and there are pictures of yellow ducks in her books and on her puzzle that we talk about. None of them look like robins. How did she know that the two are related?

My daughter fascinates me. A child's mind is an amazing thing.

one hundred things

I'm having blogger's block. I don't seem to have much to say right now. Maybe it is because school started and I'm busy and tired? So, I am going to work on something I saw on Marika's blog awhile back that I thought was cool. (This has been a work in progress, it has taken awhile...)

One Hundred Things About Me

01. i teach 02. i love margaritas 03. i like to smell my daughter's head, especially after i've washed her hair with lavendar baby shampoo 04. i watch reality television 05. sleep is terribly important to me 06. i think i spend too much time on the computer 07. i hate the new laptop i was given at work and the fact that i have to lock it up every night 08. japan is the place i've visited where i felt most out of my element 09. australia is where i felt the closest to home, despite physically being the farthest away 10. i love fresh tulips in my house 11. i wish i could be funny/witty 12. i love to hear my daughter laugh 13. i used to quilt 14. my husband tells me i am beautiful 15. i wish i could go to the gym more 16. i try to always mean what i say 17. i could be a librarian 18. i hate it when my toes are not polished 19. i think life without chocolate would be very, very hard 20. my birthstone is opal, but i've broken or lost every opal i've owned 21. i think dragonflies are cool 22. my husband helps me lighten up 23. i hate driving on icy roads 24. i had a happy childhood 25. i want to travel to peru and see macchu picchu 26. i hate cancer 27. i never change my earrings 28. my worst quality is being envious of others 29. instead i want to remember to be grateful 30. i am a wimp on a ski slope 31. i want to learn more 32. my mom is one of my best friends 33. i don't like raw oysters, but my husband loves them 34. i appreciate the relationships i build with my students 35. i can't remember numbers 36. i believe we are defined by our choices 37. my friends are important to me 38. reading is my escape 39. i wear a lot of blue 40. i need to have jaw surgery and i'm scared 41. i try to see the best in people 42. i used to scrapbook 43. i want to go camping 44. the grass in my yard is losing a battle to the weeds 45. i don't enjoy cooking but i wish i did 46. i spent a week with grizzly bears in alaska 47. i love the smell of lilacs and peonies 48. i miss weeada, anne, richelle, jonie and lisa, friends who live far away 49. sometimes i wonder if i will ever move away 50. i don't mind doing dishes but i hate cleaning the floor 51. i want to love more 52. i find great satisfaction is supporting kids to be better readers and to love reading 53. i am embarrased by the fact that i do not know how to drive a stick shift 54. i love the color of the sky after the sun has set behind the mountains and it is almost, but not quite, dark out 55. i tend to get my feelings hurt easily 56. i LOVE summer vacation 57. i think my dad is smart 58. i am proud to say that my daughter already loves books and reading together 59. i enjoy working with the people at my school 60. i have climbed the sydney harbour bridge 61. yankee boy basin and the town of ouray are my favorite colorado destinations 62. my mother-in-law is awesome 63. i think sushi is yummy 64. i like my short hair cut 65. i get frustrated by people who judge others just because they're different 66. i hate diabetes 67. i have seasonal allergies 68. i have never been to a disney theme park 69. when we get to page 69 in class, i am always glad i teach second grade! 70. i love nature and being outdoors 71. i would love to write a book, but don't know what it would be about 72. i would like to see florida or another state in the south 73. it is fun watching my little brother as an uncle 74. i get angry when my husband doesn't shovel the driveway after it snows 75. i enjoy going out to eat 76. i would like to go out to a movie more often 76. i was born in 1976 77. i want to laugh more 78. i have to be careful about the money i spend 79. i need to make time in my life for more exercise 80. i absolutely hate "watermelon flavored" candy 81. i do not like candles, lotions, etc that smell like food (except for vanilla) 82. i have been fortunate to work for more good principals than bad ones 83. on snow days, i love to make and EAT chocolate chip cookies 84. i love how you can see the aspens change in the mountains in the fall from where i live 85. my pets are driving me crazy 86. texas hold 'em is fun and addicting 87. my daughter has changed my life in countless, wonderful ways 88. my girlfriends are all amazing, loving, talented women 89. i used to journal 90. my husband is a wonderful cook 91. i believe literacy is the key to unlocking doors for a successful future and believe everyone should have this gift 92. i enjoy doing yoga 93. i wish i could speak spanish 94. i love rainstorms 95. i will never forget seeing millions of stars in Tazmania (very little light pollution there) 96. i enjoyed being pregnant 97. i try to stay positive 98. i sing in the car 99. my daughter and i both love to eat fresh raspberries 100. my favorite tv show right now is Lost