Triangle Factory Fire - 100 Year Anniversary

Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This quarter my students and I have been reading historical pieces about what life was like 100 years ago. These pieces have covered information about immigration, tenement living, women's suffrage, unions, strikes, and the factory fire. Along with these historical pieces, we've been reading the historical fiction novel, Uprising by Margaret Haddix Peterson. The fire and the events leading up to it are truly tragic events from the history of the United States. My students and I have really enjoyed learning not only about the historical facts, but also about the life lessons taken from the struggle of those who lived (and died) 100 years ago. To learn more about the Triangle Factory Fire check out this Excellent Website, or watch PBS's American Experience.

Presenting . . .

Me with Short Hair!! I've been planning on cutting my hair off for awhile now. It really comes down to wanting an easy hair cut for summer, especially while I'm in Europe. Anyways, I finally did it and I'm loving it!! Although, not everyone seems to be a fan. Picture the cutest, slightly chubby, 7th grade Hispanic boy. Today he came up to me and asked, "Ms. George, why did you cut your hair? It looks more better when it is long. Don't worry, it will grow back." Thank you, Jose. Thank you, very much.

New Short Hair (Sorry, this lighting is awful).

Old Long Hair

Scripture Study

I've been in a bit of a slump with my scripture study so I decided to buy new scriptures, hoping to give me a fresh start. I've been taking one scripture mastery scripture each day, reading it and marking it in my new set of scriptures. I then have been reading the chapter it is found in, marking anything else of interest. Finally, I've been comparing the chapter's markings and notes in my new set of scriptures with the markings and notes I made in my old set of scriptures. So far, so good. Hopefully, I'm out of my slump for good.

Glee: Original Song

Season 2, Episode 16: Original Song (March 15, 2011)

Best Funny Moment:

I loved all the original songs that didn't make it into regionals. I loved Puck's "Big Ass Heart" and Mercedes "Hell to the No," but my favorite has to go to Santana's original song, "Trouty Mouth." I loved it so much. Over the past several episodes, I've loved all of Santana's hilarious jabs at Sam over his overly large mouth so this song was definitely my favorite funny moment of the episode. Watch it and Enjoy:

Best Serious Moment(s):

Everyone wins - Blaine and Kurt lose at regionals, but finally hook up. I loved Blaine's confession when he finally states, “Kurt, there’s a moment when you say to yourself, ‘Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you forever. You move me, Kurt. And this duet would just be an excuse to spend more time with you.” Loved the openness.

And finally, New Directions win regionals!! I've had the CD containing the original songs for the past week and liked them okay, but seeing them in the context of the episode, endeared them to me. They were a little Rachel-heavy, but there's no arguing, she's got talent.

Best Song:

As I mentioned, I loved all of the kids' original songs, but this week's best performance goes to Kurt's rendition of Blackbird. This has always been one of my favorite Beatles' songs and I loved hearing it as Kurt honored the Warblers' beloved bird, Pavarotti.

Favorite Quotes:

Quinn: Prom queens live, on average, 5 years longer than regular people.

Santana: You blew me off to be with Stubbles McCripple Pants.

Sue: If it isn't Dweedle-Dumb and Dweedle-Fake Boobs.

Santana: Mr. Shue, I wrote another verse of Trouty Mouth.

Sister Mary Constance: That Dalton Academy, is it a gay school or is it just a school that appears gay?

Favorite Dialogue:

Blaine: I think Pavarotti would roll over in his tiny, tiny grave.
Kurt: The placement of which has yet to be determined.

Sam: Wait, what's it called?
Mike: Trouty Mouth

Schue: What’s your favorite song of all time?
Brittany: My Headband.
Santana: Alanis Morissette's You've Ought to Know.
Puck: What's Going On - Marvin Gaye.
Lauren: Puckerman, you're on a roll.
Schue: Okay, and what are all those songs about?
Brittany: Headbands.

Glee Makes Me Gleeful

Each Tuesday night, I sit down with giddy anticipation to watch a new episode of Glee. It makes me laugh so much that I often miss half of the jokes because I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. Because of this, a lot of rewinding is required. Anyways, I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite quotes from the past few episodes:

Season 2, Episode 11: The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle (February 6, 2011)

• Kurt: Blaine and I love football. Well, Blaine loves football. I love scarves.
• Brittany: I don't wanna die yet. At least not until One Tree Hill get canceled.

Season 2, Episode 12: Silly Love Songs (February 8, 2011)

• Rachel [to Santana]: The only job you are going to have is working on a pole!
• Tina [to Santana]: Five minutes ago, you said Mr. Schu belonged in a 12 step program.
  Will: Wait, what?
  Santana: You're addicted to vests.
• Brittany: That's my man and his legs don't work!

Season 2, Episode 13: Comeback (February 15, 2011)

• Sue's journal: I'm committing Sue-icide.
• Sue: I agree with SpongeHair SquareChin.
• Puck: I'm at the end of my Lauren Zizes rope. I need to get into those enormous pants.
• Santana [to Sam]: Despite the fact that your mouth to face ratio is way off, you still somehow manage to be cute.
• Santana [to Sam]: Every time you open your humongous mouth to do an impression or moisten an enormous stamp for a lazy giant, you get one step closer to everyone seeing you're actually a dork.
  
• Santana [to Sam]: I wants on them froggy lips, and I want on them NOW.
• Sue: I hate hospitals, William. That's why I kept voting for those death panels.
• Mike: We need a sugary sweet dose of the Biebs to get us some action again.
• Brittany: I wore a tank top today because I thought it was summer and no one taught me how to read a calendar.

Season 2, Episode 14: Blame it on the Alcohol (February 22, 2011)

• Santana: You know what, a reminder, I own that guppie mouth. Those aerosmith lips belong to me.
• Figgins: And now, performing the hit song Tik and also Tok, by rapper Ke and dollar sign ha, New Directions.
• Brittany: Ke$ha has been a culture icon for weeks.
• Burt: I watched that Brokeback Mountain. From what I gather, something went down in the tent.

Season 2, Episode 15: Sexy (March 8, 2011)

• Holly: Sex. It's just like hugging. Only wetter.
• Brittany: The key is to use your curling iron in the bathtub to keep you from being burnt.
• Puck: I like wooing you, Lauren. Next to dropping my afternoon deuce, it's my second favorite part of my day.
• Holly: My lips are sealed. Just like your legs.
• Lauren: Puckerman, it's your lucky day.
  Puck: You're finally gonna let me motorboat those twins?
• Holly: Just remember, when you have sex with someone, you're having sex with everyone they've had sex with. And everybody's got a random.
• Brittany: This relationship is really confusing for me.
  Santana: Breakfast is confusing for you.
  Brittany: Sometimes it's sweet and sometimes it's salty. Like, what if I have eggs for dinner? What is it?

On a more serious note, I loved the sex talk Burt had with his son, Kurt. That relationship is my absolutely favorite on the show. I loved when he said, "Don’t throw yourself around like you don’t matter. ‘Cause you matter, Kurt." So Good!! Here's a good article about it from EW. The article also contains the clip of "the talk." To read the article, click HERE.

Valentine's Day

On Monday, I received a Valentine from the sweetest boy I know (too bad he's only six).

Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, my fabulous friends took me to The Melting Pot for my birthday. I have the best friends ever and this post is part shout-out to them and part celebration of me. First of all, the shout-outs.

Lesli - Thank you, thank you to Lesli for making the reservations, driving, and paying for the valet. I also appreciate the fact that you wanted to give me a sentimental, heart-felt gift.

Christi - Thank you, thank you to Christi for picking up my portion of the tab. It was much appreciated. Also, thanks for cracking me up the best line I've heard this week, "If it weren't for you, my life would be really boring instead of just sort of boring."

Alina (I love this picture because Alina is using her fondue fork to eat her salad even though her regular fork is right next to her plate. HaHa) - Thank you, thank you to Alina for the perfect gifts. Being my oldest friend, of course, you would know that a bag of black licorice and a book titled, "The Girls' Book of Glamour: A Guide to Being a Goddess," are the perfect gifts for me.

And now, the celebration. We had a ton of fun and ate a lot of delicious food. I love The Melting Pot because you're there for a couple of hours. That gave us a lot of time to laugh. Here are a few more pics:

Me with the book Alina gave me. Seriously, perfect gift. Plus my second favorite line of the week was the inscription, "To Mandys, The Most Glamorous Girl I Know! Heart, Alina" I'm telling you, this girl knows me.

Me & Christi with our delicious vegetables and cheese fondue.
Behold the Power of Cheese.

Lesli & Alina - Two of the Cutest Girls I Know.

Consignment Shopping

Every few weeks I like to visit Home Again, a fantastic consignment shop by my school. Today, as I was running errands, I thought I'd stop in and see all their new things. As I was circling the store, I found an awesome stained-glass window that literally took my breath away. I looked at the price and decided I needed to think about it. So, I continued to circle the store, the whole time obsessing over the window. As I walked around, I came across a second window on the other side of the store. This window came from the same person, but had a much lower price on it. When I asked the store clerk, she told me that they were from the same person and that both of them should be marked at the lower price. My reply, "Perfect. I'll take both of them." I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I thought they'd make a great headboard, but I only have one guest room and have already decorated it using windows from the same shop (see HERE). I thought for now I may put one in my bedroom and one in my bathroom. I still have to mull it over. Anyways, without further ado, here they are:

Nintendo Nation

Last week at Sunday dinner, my mom passed around a paper and pencil and asked us to write down what we would be willing to bring for the Super Bowl party. As it was being passed around, the normal things were added to the list: chips/dip, fruit, dessert, tortilla roll-ups, etc. When Zack got the paper and pencil, he added his name to the list and wrote "DS." Well, he wasn't the only one who ended up bringing his DS to the Super Bowl party.

Zack & Louis

Mitch & Zack

All Three Yahoos

Cooking

So, I'm trying to cook more. Those of you who know me well, know I hate to cook. So today I decided to make taco soup. I love soup so I thought this would be an easy no-brainer. It turned out okay, but not that great. It was a little too tomatoey and didn't have enough hamburger in it. This would usually be the time when I would say to myself, "See. You tried to cook. You wasted money and good time on something and it didn't even turn out to be that good. Next time, just order take out." Well, I'm not going to be so easily deterred. Next time, I think I'll double the hamburger. I'll also need to either reduce the tomato paste or the amount of stewed tomatoes. I'm thinking I may get rid of one of them altogether. We'll see.

If you have any good, easy recipes, send them my way so I don't revert to my take out menus.

The West Wing

There are so many things that make The West Wing one of the best TV series of all time, I don't even know where to begin. First, it's smart. Really smart. Second, it's funny. Again, really funny. Third, it's dialogue is fantastic. The dialogue is fast-paced and plays out like a rapid tap dance most of the time - a dance filled with intelligence and wit. Fourth, it's a serious, thought-provoking drama about real-life political issues. Finally, the cast and characters are pure perfection. They deliver the balance of seriousness, intelligence, and humor. I loved these characters. I wanted President Bartlet to actually be the president. Even my father, a lifetime Republican, has often stated that the United States needed a president like Jed Bartlet. If you've never seen the series, put it on your Netflix queue now. There are too many scenes to say which ones are my favorite, but here's a little sampling of some of the best.

Lord John Marbury, Great Britain's Ambassador to the United States, is one of the funniest smaller characters. He only appears in 5 episodes, spread out over seasons 2-6. My favorite thing about him is that he thinks the Chief of Staff's name is Gerald. Even when CJ replaces Leo as the Chief of Staff, he calls her Gerald. In this scene he's commenting on how much he likes the First Lady's breasts.



Ainsley Hayes is also another one of my favorite smaller characters. She's a blond, Republican from the South who comes to work for the White House Counsel. She's only in 12 episodes, spread out from season 2-7, but she makes a big impact. Here she is in her office (also known as the steam trunk distribution room) dancing in a bathrobe after sitting in wet paint.



Ainsley Hayes' first scene. Smart and Very Funny!!



I love Season 4. It's my favorite. This scene is from the episode Red Haven's on Fire. In it, Toby and Charlie make bail after being arrested in a California bar fight.



In this scene, the President learns that Toby and Charlie were arrested in a bar fight. I love this scene because it is filmed entirely in motion. A lot of scenes are filmed this way throughout the series. I love to see them the witty dialogue as they stroll the corridors.



Another scene filmed in motion. I love this dialogue because it rings home. I often say democracy is such a good idea, in theory. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stupid voters.



This is one of my dad's favorite scenes. It's from one of the Thanksgiving episodes (The Indians in the Lobby) where the President calls the Butterball Hotline.



This scene (it's actually several scenes edited into one video) is from my favorite Thanksgiving episode (Shibboleth). In this episode, Charlie is on an endless search for the perfect carving knife. I love the relationship that Charlie and the President have throughout the series. This scene captures a piece of it.



And I saved the best for last. I LOVE this scene. It's from my favorite episode, Privateers.

I'm All About Goals

I love to make "to do" lists and set goals. What can I say, I'm a goal oriented person. Six weeks ago, I set a very lofty goal. And when I say lofty, I mean time intensive. The goal - Watch all 7 seasons of The West Wing between Thanksgiving week and the New Year. That's a lot of TV. How much TV, you may be asking? Well, 154 episodes, or approximately 6,930 hours of TV. Now you may be thinking, Impossible, but I beg to differ. All goals require planning. As you may recall, "A goal without a plan is just a wish." So, I made a plan. I divided up my 6,930 hours of TV. Over a 6 week period, it was approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes of TV a day. Now, that doesn't seem too outrageous. Now to be realistic, there were going to be some days I wouldn't be able to watch any TV, but there were also going to be some days were I would watch more than my allotted 2 hours and 45 minutes, especially since I only worked 3 out of the 6 weeks. Well, I'm proud to report my goal is complete. I just completed the series finale. And what can I say, I love The West Wing. In the next few days, I will be posting on why it's one of the best TV series ever. Stay Tuned.

Christmas Chimes

My Grandma broke out the Christmas Chimes again this year. Just like last year, the kids were interested in them for half-a-second, but us adults played and played some more. Here we are trying to perfect our craft:

Here's one more with the kids and the adults making some sweet Christmas tunes:

Christmas Time

My Fantastic Family

Me and Amelia in our matching PJs.

Amelia in her Christmas PJs and a cute bow.

My only Christmas Present

Me & Megan in the big chair.

Me & Jackies in the big chair.

Sleep Over

On the night before Thanksgiving, I had Zack and Mitch sleep over. Zack has slept over tons of times, but I'd never had Mitch stay the night. Luckily, everything went well. I didn't take very many pictures, but here are two of us making train cupcakes.

I love this pouty face of Mitch. I told him he couldn't eat any more Good & Plenty. They're his favorite. He calls them the Spicey Candies.

Zack wanted to use my camera so he took this picture of me and Mitch.

Day Dreamer or Liar

Yesterday when Jeanine and her family came over for dinner, Mitch was wearing sunglasses. My mom noticed them and asked Mitch about them. The conversation went a little like this:

My Mom: Mitch, it's dark outside. Why are you wearing sunglasses?

Mitch: 'Cause we went to the beach today.

My Mom: You went to the beach today? (said with surprise and raised eyebrows).

Mitch: Yeah. And a crab bit my toe!!

He then pointed at his toe, became distracted by toys, and ran into the toy room. My mom and I looked at each other and laughed. Later on at dinner, I thought I'd bring the topic up again. This time, the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Mitch, did you go anywhere fun today? Like the Beach?

Mitch: Yeah, I went to the beach and a crab bit my toe.

Me: A crab bit your toe? Were you swimming in the water?

Mitch: No, I was just looking for sea shells and I found one this big. (stretches his hands as wide as they go).

So you decide, Day Dreamer or Liar?

Halloween

Me as Rosie the Riveter.

Amelia as a Gnome, or as we like to call her, "Gnomelia."

Me with an angry Gnome.

Me & the Fruit Loops . . .
I mean, a vampire and a jedi.

Pumkins & Pizza

On Friday night my family held our annual Pumpkins & Pizza night. It's pretty self-explanatory, but we ate pizza and carved pumpkins. Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

Me & a couple of Fruit Loops with the carved pumpkins.

Louis & Mindy

Carlos, busy at work.

Zack & Jeanine (seriously, what's up with Zackie's face)

Me & Mitch goofing around.
We finished our pumpkins before anyone else did
so we were taking silly pictures. What a goofy face.

My pumpkin & Mitch's pumpkin

Of course, we had D-Backs Pumpkins.
Louis' pumpkin & my dad's pumpkin.

Carlos' pumpkin.
This one of Michael Meyers is my favorite.

Dougie's pumpkin of Stewie is my second fav.

All of the pumpkins. We're quite the family of artists.

Potty Training Tale

Mitch is almost potty trained. He's been going on the potty for several months now, but still needs a little assistance now and then. Today everyone was at my mom and dad's house carving pumpkins. Mitch had to go pee so my mom went to help him. He went pee and grabbed a little toilet paper to wipe the last few drops. After doing so, my mom told him to throw the toilet paper into the toilet. He replied, "I have to wipe my nose first." My mom screamed "Noooooo!" and tried to grab the toilet paper from his hand, but too late. He had already wiped his nose with urine laced toilet paper. The funny thing is, he didn't seem to understand why it was a big deal.

Book Club

So I joined a book club and I love it!! I know it may seem odd that I'm so excited to spend my free evenings discussing books. I do it all day long, after all. The big difference is that my book club is with adults and we read books written for adults. This past week we read "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay. Two thumbs up - I highly recommend it. Next on our list - "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks.