Home Decor

I recently put these up in my bedroom. I bought the fabric-covered memo board about a year ago, but didn't quite know how I wanted to hang it or what I wanted to hang with it. I finally decided to add ribbon to the top corners and hang it from a decorative hook. The entire project cost me 12 dollars: 8 dollars for the memo board, 1 dollar for the extra ribbon, and 3 dollars for the decorative hook. I decided to pair it with this wall hanging, which I made. Yep, that's right - I made it. It was super easy. It's just four coasters and some ribbon. I glued the coasters directly from the ribbon and tied a bow on top. This project cost a total of 10 dollars: 8 dollars for the coasters and 2 dollars for the ribbon. Not bad, huh?

At a distance

I also put this shelf up in my bathroom. I've had the shelf for three years. My fabulous hairdresser, Dean, gave it to me as a house-warming present. I knew I wanted to hang it in my bathroom, but I hadn't done it yet because I kept thinking I was going to paint my bathroom. I finally just decided to put it up. I had the ceramic shoe in my bedroom, but decided it would look better here. I recently bought these picture frames from Gardner Village. I think they look great on the shelf, but they'd look great anywhere. Aren't they fantastic?!

At a distance.

Dinosaur Museum

I recently went to the Dinosaur Museum with Zack and Mitch. The museum has a huge terradactyl hanging from the ceiling. When Zack saw it, he pointed at it and it exclaimed, "Look! Look! A flyoctagon." That's right, a flyoctagon. The terradactyl has gone from a flapasaurus to a flyoctagon.

October Pictures

Here are a few Halloween/October pics:

Mitch & Me at the Dinosaur Museum.
I'm sad it turned out so blurry.

Zack, Mitch, & Me.
Mitch was not very happy.

Jackie & Me carving pumpkins.

Zack with all of our pumpkins.
Mine is the pumpkin on the bottom left.

Zack, Mitch, & Me on Halloween night.

School Stuff

School is going great this year. The school year is already one-fourth over. I'm trying to shake things up and do new things this year. Tomorrow we are going to start reading the historical fiction novel Fever 1793. I've never taught this book, but I'm really excited to teach it. The historical time period for the novel is Philadelphia's Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. To prepare my students to read it, we spent last week studying the non-fiction book An American Plague. I had my students Jigsaw this book. A Jigsaw is when students read a part of a book and then share their part with the class. This way, students only need to read a short section, but they get all the info in the book. The Jigsaw went very well and my students seem excited to start the novel.

Another new thing I'm trying are on-line quizzes on my wikispaces. My students took one quiz in class last week and it went really well. I'm going to start assigning the upcoming quizzes as homework. We'll see if that goes as well. To see my wikispaces, click HERE. Their upcoming quiz is under the label, "An American Plague."

Election 2008

I was thrilled with how the 2008 Presidential Election turned out. As an Obama supporter, I was obviously happy with his win, but I was also happy to see the old John McCain I knew and loved. The 2008 campaign was painful to watch as John McCain sold himself to the people who had a hand in taking him down 8 years ago (the right wing nuts of the Republican party). It has been incredibly sad for me to see how far John McCain has fallen since 2000. I had supported him in the 2000 primary, and if he had won, I had planned to vote for him over Al Gore in the general election (sorry, Nicholas). Unfortunately (for our entire nation), he did not win the primary and we've been stuck with 8 years of Bozo Bush.

It was a breath of fresh air to see his concession speech on election night. Why couldn't he have been more like that during the campaign? He appeared gracious, strong, and honorable once again. If you want to read his full speech, click HERE. If not, here are a few of my favorite sections:

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Although McCain's speech was inspiring, it was nothing compared with Obama's speech (To read it, click HERE). I was so inspired by his call "a new spirit of service." Here are some of my favorite sections:

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Loved it!! Loved that both McCain and Obama called for Americans to come together. It resonated with me so much. I'm really hopeful and excited for the change I think is coming.