Word of the Day

Drag the tiles to make one word. When they link together, they are correct. Word Of The Day Puzzle provided by Quote Puzzler.

To find the meaning of the obscure word you just created, go to www.dictionary.com.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Christmas in Antartica

I came across this interesting post about how they celebrated Christmas at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. This LiveJournal entry by one of the participants tells about it. 21 people dressed in Santa and elf costumes took a trip to "The Stellar Axis" and had general fun romping around in -15 weather.
the stellar axis is a giant art piece depicting the 99 brightest stars in the southern hemisphere. blue fiberglass spheres of various yet relative sizes represent the stars - with sirius being the largest. they are arranged as they are in the sky, in forms of constellations as they are when the solstice occurs.
Here are their pictures in Flickr.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Orisinal Games

If you like quick, simple games, try these.

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/


The graphics are excellent and the games take mere seconds to learn. They are deceptively challenging however! Warning: if you have an addictive personality, don't open the link.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Organization, part 2!

Ok, here are the "after" pictures!I really like his little reading nook in the corner there.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Catching Snowflakes Together

Organization!

Daniel did very well this Christmas. And since we don't really have a "play room" the living room and his bedroom are where we store the toys. In an effort to have the living room look less like a disaster area and more like a real room, we went to Wal-Mart this morning in search of something to organize it all. I'll be updating this post tonight to show you what we did!

Ok, here are the shelves and baskets. I'll have you know this was not a put-together system. I found the baskets in the laundry section, and the shelves in furniture, did the math and realized they would work beautifully together! Plus, they go with the decor....green curtains and accent wall, beige walls and couches, chocolate lamp bases.
Here is the "before" of his toys. They're not normally all grouped together like that, I just shoved the front three baskets near each other for the picture. Normally (i.e. not Christmas time) a bunch of them hide under the other end table on the other side of the couch. There are about 4 or 5 small baskets/buckets under the end table in the picture that you can't really see. We do have a wicker toy box in the corner for larger toys, but it overfloweth.
The "after" pictures will come either later tonight, when I finish organizing, or tomorrow! Ok, on second thought, looking at the clock, and gauging my energy levels, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the "after."

Brainteaser

Heather works at a place with thousands of products, some of them very expensive. People take her products without paying for them- as many as they can carry- and then just walk out. All that Heather requests of her customers is that they keep their mouths shut.

Where does Heather work?

(Answer in comments.)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Numa Numa

This is possibly my very favorite youtube video. Apparently it's the second most watched video on there, and I'm wondering how many of you have seen it before. I love his pure unselfconsciousness, and how much fun he is obviously having! Makes me grin every time his hands go up in the air.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on it. Here's a copy of a press release about it, on the maker's own website.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

On The Road Again...

I probably won't get to do a proper post today. We're heading down to the NJ/PA border to see Doug's brother and family for Christmas. I'll be back later tonight, and will do a "real" post tomorrow!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Eve

It's almost 4am Christmas morning, and I have insomnia. So to pass the time while I wait to get tired enough to go back to bed, I'll post some pictures of yesterday.

Daniel and his new airplane.
Taking a ride in his new wagon with Grandma.
You can see his "I'm going to be a big brother" shirt here.Fell asleep just like Mommy does, in the middle of reading a book.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Heather Needs......

Here's a fun game if you're bored. Go to Google, or your favorite search engine, and enter your name and the word "needs" as a phrase. I did "Heather needs" and got these:

"Heather needs men...now!"
"Heather needs two therapists."
"Heather needs to start wearing a brassiere."
....and related to that one....
"Heather needs new boobs."


Somewhat more boring...
"Heather needs a childhood."
"Heather needs Gatorade."

If you do this, post your results in the comments.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Baby Video

One of my all-time favorite baby videos!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

50 Greatest Cartoons

Thanks Fran for pointing this out to me! This is a list of the 50 Greatest Cartoons created by the animation industry in 1994. What's really cool is that the blog that posted the list found links to 44 of the 50 cartoons! I don't think they have my all time favorite one though....it's a Looney Tunes one where Daffy is Robin Hood, and Porky Pig is Friar Tuck. Yay, I found it on the Looney Tunes website!!! Here it is.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hot Air Balloons

I can't think of anything original to post tonight, and I'm very tired from trying to speak all day. (You can't imagine how exhausting it is to try to talk without a voice until you have to do it for 6 hours!)

So anyway, here are some pretty balloon pictures I took this summer at our local balloon rally. Enjoy.

Shhhhh!

I'm getting laryngitis again. This will be the second time this year. I seem to get it at least once a year while teaching. You've gotta love this though....I went to Wikipedia to see what I could learn about it, and why I seem to get it so often. On their advice section, one of the recommendations is:
Avoid speaking when possible. Speak softly, but do not whisper.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Tell that to my 21 kindergartners.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Spray Paint Art

Well shoot, this video from Google Video won't let me post it directly to my blog. I also don't seem to be able to show you an image from his website, even if I directly link it back. Which sort of kills the visual draw factor that I was counting on.

Anyway, go here to see an amazing video of someone who creates artwork using spray paint. No, I'm not talking about your local graffiti king. I mean real landscapes, etc. So go already!

......
......
......

I just came back from watching his second video.

I want that painting!

Monday, December 18, 2006

How to Market Myself?

Anyone know how I can get my blog to be more well known? I've got my 3 or 4 faithful friends who check either every day or every other day, a few from a message board I post on, and the rest seem to be random hits from Google searches. I've got tags in Technorati, but don't really know where else to list myself. Any ideas?

Mysterious Photo

Have you ever seen this photograph before? Do you have any idea why there is a man sitting on a dead horse who has been staked out in the middle of a road? If you do, contact the Sheboygan Press...they are trying to find out the history behind it. If not, enjoy the speculation of what may have prompted the picture! Perhaps a horse gone mad? A horsi-cide? Your guess is as good as mine...

Here's the whole article.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

PostSecret

Have you ever had a secret, and wished you could just tell someone? Now you can. If you put your secret on a post card, and mail it to the PostSecret site, they may put it up on their blog for the world to see....anonymously. I find it very fascinating to see people's secrets here, and realize that sometimes we're not all that different. Sometimes the secrets make say "Oh, yeah!" and other times they make me want to cry. Go check it out. PostSecret

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Top Ten Most Dangerous Toys

As you're doing your Christmas shopping for the wee ones in your life, keep safety in mind. Here is a list of the 10 most dangerous play things of all time. From the obvious ones like cap gun belt buckles or hot plates to melt rubber on, to the more extreme "Atomic Energy Lab" the list is actually a pretty fun look at the more dangerous toys that have crossed the shelves in the past. Here is an exerpt from the description of a toy that I knew and loved as a child: lawn darts.
Removable parts? Suffocation risk? Lead paint? Pussy hazards compared to the granddaddy of them all. Lawn Darts, or "Jarts," as they were marketed, would never fly in our current ultra-paranoid, safety-helmeted, Dr. Phil toy culture. Lawn darts were massive weighted spears. You threw them. They stuck where they landed. If they happened to land in your skull, well, then you should have moved. During their brief (and generally awesome) reign in 1980s suburbia, Jarts racked up 6,700 injuries and four deaths.
I guess as an only child, this was a fairly safe game! The only danger I had was making sure I didn't spear the cat. Our set is still down in my mom's garage. Perhaps I should not introduce Daniel to the joys of Jarts...

Happy Hanukkah!

The first night of Hanukkah was last night. In honor of that, here is one of my favorite Hanukkah books.
It's a cute story about Baba Brayna, who is so old she is almost blind and deaf. She is getting ready for Chanukkah celebrations, and does not realize that the "rabbi" she has invited in is actually Old Bear. It's a fun, engaging story that children of all religions will enjoy.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Mind Games

I found a fun brain teaser site at www.queendom.com. If you go here, that's the mind games section. Lots of fun stuff to do!

Brain Teaser

Can you make this grammatically correct? You may only add punctuation marks and capital letters. You may not change the order of the words, or add or remove any words.
that that is is that that is not is not is that it it is

Look in the comments for the answer!

It came from the website Hive-Mind Mind Games.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

........

Sorry, nothing to post tonight. I'm feeling really icky, tired, and have a migraine. I've got the day off tomorrow, thankfully, as my babysitter is going to be out of town, and it seemed like as good an excuse as any to call in a personal day. I'm looking forward to sleeping during Daniel's nap! All I've wanted to do all day today was crawl back into bed.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure everyone who is reading my blog now knows the reason why I'm feeling so crappy...I'll be 6 weeks pregnant tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll have something more interesting for you tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Panda Sneezes

Daniel's favorite stuffed animal is his panda. (See a few posts down about the Christmas party, first picture.) He's in bed right now, but I can't wait to show this to him tomorrow!

The 12 Pains of Christmas

Go here to listen to my all time favorite Christmas parody song! It's from Bob River's Twisted Christmas. When you click the link, just wait. It will load and play automatically.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell

This is an unusual book review, in that I have not actually read this particular version of the book. Here's the story:

When I was little, I had a Christmas record (yes, an honest to goodness record!) with this story on it. I vividly remember listening to it each Christmas, and loving the story. It's about a little angel boy who comes to heaven, and can't seem to get anything right. His halo is always crooked, he falls head over heels more often than not, and he creates general havoc. He eventually has to go meet with the Angel of Peace (the Singer) to explain himself.
The Littlest Angel removed his halo and breathed upon it heavily, then polished it upon his robe, a procedure which added nothing to that garment's already untidy appearance, and then tiptoed in!

The Singer who was known as the Understanding Angel looked down at the small culprit, and the Littlest Angel instantly tried to make himself invisible by the ingenious process of withdrawing his head into the collar of his robe, very much like a snapping turtle.

At that, the Singer laughed, a jolly, heart-warming sound, and said, "Oh, so you're the one whose been making Heaven so unheavenly! Come here, cherub, and tell me all about it!"

The Littlest Angel looked furtively from beneath his robe. First one eye. And then the other eye.

Suddenly, almost before he knew it, he was perched on the lap of the Understanding Angel, and was explaining how very difficult it was for a boy who suddenly finds himself transformed into an angel. Yes, and no matter what the Archangel said, he's only swung once. Well, twice. Oh, alright, then, he'd swung three times on the Golden Gate. But that was just for something to do!

That was the whole trouble. There wasn't anything for a small angel to do. And he was very homesick.
The Understanding Angel fetches a small box from under the Littlest Angel's bed back home. In this box are all the treasures in the world a boy could save: a butterfly wing, a bit of eggshell, some stones, a scrap from his favorite dog's collar, etc. After having his box again, the Littlest Angel is then transformed to the most model Angel in Heaven.

Soon, it comes time for the child Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. All the Angels work on creating beautiful gifts, but the Littlest Angel can't think of what to give. When the time comes, he eventually decides to give the new baby his very own special box of treasures. He is very afraid that it will be found ugly and worthless, but is amazed to discover that God is so pleased with his gift that he sets it up in the sky as the Star of Bethlehem.

I was thrilled to see that my beloved story was in a picture book, with vibrant oil paintings to accompany it. According to The School Library Journal, "The writing style is rather ornate and full of grandiose words and phrases, but some children will love to hear it read aloud." I agree...it is a delicious book to listen to! The more children are exposed to rich language, the more they will develop their own communication skills. If you want to read the whole text of the story, go here.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Christmas Party

First, the nap before the party. I'm cleaning up lunch, and I hear "Mommy! Tuck!" (That's "stuck" in Daniel-speak.) I go back, and see the little monkey had crawled into the crib to get his lovey, panda and pacifier, but was unable to get himself back out. So what does Mommy do? Does she lovingly help him down? Nope! She says "Hang on a second honey, I'll be right back with the camera!" If you look carefully, you can see a grin behind the pacifier.
Then we had the Shriner's Christmas Party that afternoon. The kids had a blast in the huge empty room beside where we were eating.

Pretending to be asleep.
Playing hide and seek under an unused table.Group maul....errr...hug!Waiting patiently with Grandpa for his name to be called up to Santa.Gimme the loot, you funny guy in a red outfit!Finally, after the party we went to the local light show at the park. This was one of my favorite displays. The horses alternated being on and off, so it looked like they were moving up and down, while the other lights spun around.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Peanut Butter Pie

One of the teachers in my school made this for us the other week, and it's FABULICIOUS! It's surprisingly light and creamy. Don't think about the calories, just enjoy!

1 (15 oz.) pkg. Pillsbury All Ready Pie Crusts

Chocolate Layer
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbs. margarine or butter
2 to 3 tsp. water
1/4 c. powdered sugar

Filling
1 c. margarine or butter
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 c. peanut butter
1 (12 oz.) carton frozen whipped topping, thawed

Topping
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. margarine or butter
2 to 3 tsp. corn syrup

Garnish
1 c. thawed frozen whipped topping
2 Tbsp. chopped peanuts

Heat oven to 450 F. Prepare pie crust according to package directions for unfilled one-crust pie using 9 inch pie pan. (Refrigerate remaining crust for a later use.) Bake at 450 F for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely.

In small saucepan over low heat, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon margarine with 2 teaspoons water, stirring constantly until smooth. Blend in powdered sugar until smooth. Add additional water if necessary for desired spreading consistency. Spread mixture over bottom and up sides of cooled crust. Refrigerate.

In medium saucepan, combine 1 cup margarine and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat until margarine is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. Refrigerate 10 minutes. In large bowl, beat peanut butter and brown sugar mixture at low speed until blended. Beat 1 minute at medium-high speed. Add 12 oz. whipped topping; beat 1 additional minute at low speed or until mixture is smooth and creamy. Pour over chocolate layer. Refrigerate.

In small saucepan over low heat, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon margarine with 2 teaspoons milk and corn syrup, stirring constantly until smooth. Add additional milk if necessary for desired spreading consistency. Spoon and gently spread topping mixture evenly over filling . Refrigerate at least 2 hours to set topping.* Garnish with whipped topping and peanuts. Store in refrigerator. 10 to 12 servings.

TIP:
*For ease in serving, use sharp knife to score chocolate topping into serving pieces before topping is completely set. To serve, use sharp knife dipped in warm water to cut through scored lines.

NUTRITION INFORMATION
1/12 of recipe
CALORIES 630
PROTIEN 8g
CARB. 48g
FIBER 3g
FAT 47g
POLYUNS. 10g
SATURAT. 17g
CHOLESTEROL 5mg
SODIUM 420mg
POTASSIUM 310mg

DIETARY EXCHANGES: 2 starch, 1 fruit, 9 fat.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Found!

Found Magazine

Have you ever seen a scrap of paper on the ground and picked it up out of curiosity? Well, that's what this website is all about. It posts one "found" item each day, notes, doodles, odd lists, cards, photographs, or anything else interesting. It sometimes leaves you with more questions than answers, but it's always intriguing.

Found in a cookbook purchased at an antique store.

Found in an elevator.

Found three days after the Boston Marathon.

Friday, December 08, 2006

A New Meaning to "Going Out to Shoot"

Check this out! It's a vintage Leica Gun with 400mm Telyt lens.
(It's a camera, not a gun, just to clarify!)

It will be up for auction next month as part of the Tamarkin Photographica Rare Camera Auction.

There is also this:

"KMZ Russia produces the PhotoSniper series of Zenit SLRs with Tair 300mm Telephoto lenses mounted on rifle stocks."

Thanks to my new favorite blog directory Boing Boing for pointing these out!

Does a Smaller Class Size Really Matter? YES!

Our school's resource center sends out a weekly email with links to various articles related to education. I found this one from the Chicago Sun-Times to be particularly interesting. It discusses current research into the impact class size can have on student learning. 15 students seems to be the optimum size, however most schools have about 22 students per class.

I have had personal experience with this in the past two years. Last year, I had 16 students. It was my smallest class ever. It was bliss. Working at center time was a breeze, because it was easy to monitor 4 groups of 4 children each. The students were on task a majority of the time, and were able to be very independent in their work. This year, I have 21 students. You wouldn't think 5 more makes a difference, but it does. Center time is more about putting out fires and trying to help several students simultaneously while the others are either working or goofing off than about the students being self motivated.

Story time, writing time, and math time are all different too. With a smaller class, I could get into better discussions about a story, as there were fewer who were whispering to their neighbors, or staring off into space. They could all concentrate on sounding out the words in their journals because the general noise level was less. During math I could spot help the students who needed it without holding the rest of the class up. I also noticed a difference with the end of the year reading levels for last year's group. They were about a level higher than previous years.

So smaller classes are great, yes. The problem is money.

Shrinking all kindergarten classes by one student would cost $2.3 million; reducing them to 15 kids would cost about $18 million; and trimming all K-3 classes to 15 would cost about $173 million, CPS officials estimate. "For class size reduction to make a difference, you'd have to reduce class size to levels that are so small that most school districts cannot afford it,'' said Thomas Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

"Districts can get more for their money by improving teacher quality.''
However, my rebuttal to that is the fact that teacher quality can be directly improved by reducing class size, because a smaller class means he/she can teach more effectively, without needing any special "training." I'm also realistic though, and know that the bottom line is often what matters. All I can do is hope our local population shrinks again, if I want a class of only 16 children.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer


























We just read Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in class today. It's the original poem written by Robert L. May and warmly illustrated by David Wenzel. The poem was created in 1939 as part of an advertising campaign for Montgomery Ward. I would say it's best for 5 year olds at a minimum, 6, 7 and 8 year olds would get the most enjoyment out of it. The only reason I say this is because it is a little lengthy. That being said, however, my class sat through it all without squirming, so they were definitely drawn into the story! We sang the song afterwards, and then made reindeer out of their hands and feet. (If you ever want to make one, trace the foot for the head, trace the hands for the antlers. Draw or glue wiggle eyes, draw a mouth, and add a red glitter nose!)

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Six Word Memoir Contest

Want to win an iPod? Think you can tell your life story in only six words? Then check out this contest! The Six Word Memoir Contest presented by SMITH and Twitter. SMITH is a magazine that "celebrates the art of storytelling." I'm honestly not sure what Twitter is exactly. But hey, a free iPod! That's worth being creative!

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Night Before Christmas, Jan Brett

Time to start reviewing Christmas books! I'll start with a traditional story. Everyone knows the poem by Clement C. Moore. Here it is told alongside Jan Brett's intricate illustrations. As I said in my author review of her in November, she pays great attention to detail in her drawings, even to the point of studying actual reindeer to depict them accurately. The book is a visual wonder. As with any of my reviews, click on the book and it will take you right to that item in www.barnesandnoble.com.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Elyse Sewell's LiveJournal, My Guilty Pleasure

One of my favorite blogs to visit is Elyse Sewell's over on LiveJournal. She was one of the runners up on the first season of America's Next Top Model, which I actually never saw. She currently is living and modelling in Hong Kong. A friend linked me to one of her entries one day, and from the first words about some HUGE spiders in Australia, I was hooked. I won't scar you for life by showing you her pictures of the spiders, but here is what she wrote:
These pictures do little to show the scale of the grotesque mutant spiders that were dangling en masse from every web-suitable surface in Brisbane, Australia. Did I misread Leviticus? I thought Jesus expressly forbid any beast that walketh upon the ground with an open circulatory system to grow to the size of Yao Ming. These spiders were obviously sent from Lucifer himself.
She cracks me up! Her journal is interesting in so many ways. She takes great pictures (including some really nice macros of local odd foods she finds), and she writes not only about modelling but about the many interesting countries she's been to. She is a brilliant writer, who often makes me literally laugh out loud. Go. Enjoy. http://elysesewell.livejournal.com/

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Snowflakes!


Thanks to Nancy, over at Journey Woman, I have a new time waster! Go make your own beautiful snowflake, and know that you are not only procrastinating from whatever real work you need to be doing right now, you are also donating to a good cause. Click my flake to go!

Storm Pictures

We had a pretty severe storm Friday afternoon. I saw it as a good opportunity to take some pictures.

This is a little creek that runs near our house...before and after. Sorry about the fuzziness of the after shot, I didn't bring my tripod, and it was getting quite dark. A person's knee does not the most stable tripod make...
















A creek that joins the first one, on the other side of the road.
















The rain was literally pouring in sheets down my sliding glass door outside the dining room.
Finally, some amazing clouds after the storm. The light was very eerie, kind of reddish but clear. We live on top of a hill. That's my neighbor's house in the first picture, and our storage barn in the second picture.

Blogger Help

For anyone who is struggling to post today, I went to the Help section, and found the "Group Help" which is just message boards for bloggers. Go here to find out the latest info on what's been happening. If you clear your cache (go to Tools, then to Internet Options, and where it says Temporary Internet Files, you press Delete Internet Files) it should clear up the problems. Of course, now I don't have the energy to do my big photo post, but I will later tonight!

Of course, my problem of not being able to post comments hasn't been solved yet....I have no visual verification letters to type.

Oops, no I probably won't later tonight, as tonight is Bunco Night!

What Kind of Reader Are You?

Since I STILL can't post my great pics.....













From What Kind of Reader Are You? http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_kind_of_reader_are_you

(I can't wait until they fix blogger. Sorry I can't figure out how to make the link clickable. You should see what I had to do to get that one picture up.)

Friday, December 01, 2006

Grrrrrrrrrr.

I had a great post in my head, with a bunch of pictures I wanted to show you of the storm we had today. Blogger is having problems, and my handy dandy little "add image" button is gone, along with all the other composing tools.

I'll have to do it tomorrow. Sorry.