Blessings in Disguise

2012 Reading List

2012-01-05T18:26:00.016-05:00

My favorite picture of Charlotte this past year!

I almost couldn't sign in to my own blog! It has been over 12 months!

But I was inspired by all of the blogs I have been reading about book lists. Sarah and Andrew are reading 50 books each this year so she has a post about that. I also found this one and this one! So I decided to make a list of my own. Well two lists really. The first one is a list of the books I read in 2011. ( well the ones I remember anyway!). And the second is the list of what I plan to read in 2012. I may have to update the list occasionally.

2011 Books

The Help
The Hunger Games Trilogy
Kisses for Katie
Organized Simplicity
Jesus Calling
Still Alice

Mudbound

2012 Books

Jesus Calling
Same Kind of Different As Me
Happiness Project
Grace for the Good Girl
Start Something that Matters

In Spite of Everything

The Paris Wife

Home Comforts

The Dry Grass of August

The Waiting Place

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Something Flannery O'Connor

Delta Wedding

As I Lay Dying

The Lift

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T21:58:00.003-05:00

This beautiful little girl had a great Christmas!

Her latest trick is to fake laugh to make you laugh! Precious.

That is a peacock feather on her head. So cute.

Grammy, you are as bad as momma with that camera.

Her new baby doll.

Matt and his new puppy, Duke.

Here's hoping 2011 will be as good as 2010.

"Oh, We Need a Little Christmas!"

2010-12-14T20:40:00.005-05:00

Eating pears!

Reading Are You My Mother?

Absorbed in her book!!

Cereal!

Not pictures again?

There is a learning curve to gingerbread cookies. On my first attempt, I wanted to give up!!

But by the end, they looked okay...

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons.

It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Dr. Seuss

Blogging Block

2010-12-08T10:46:00.003-05:00

The McAffry family's Thanksgiving picture!

Because I seem to be having a huge blogging writer's block , and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon, I thought I would quote others for a while and see if the inspiration hits!!
And maybe a I'll throw in a picture or two of Charlotte along the way!! ; )

Here is today's Christmas quote...

“But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round… as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” — A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Gratitude

2010-10-17T21:01:00.003-04:00

What a beautiful fall day in East Tennessee, I would rather be here than anywhere else on earth.

This afternoon as I was rocking Charlotte to sleep, I was literally overcome with gratitude. I am so grateful to God for giving me this feeling of absolute contentment. With David alseep in the recliner, my children in the next room watching football together, and Charlotte in my arms, I know I have everything I have ever wanted. Everyone is happy and healthy and I just wanted to soak in the moment.

Here are some pictures of Charlotte from this afternoon. She is growing so fast.

It,s been a good fall break. Yesterday, David and I went to Nashville for a little shopping and a little Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Here is a picture of the pineapple upside down carrot cake that I made for dessert today. It was a hit. If you are interested, here is the recipe. I used raisins in place of the pecans.

Awesome Day!

2010-09-26T22:17:00.006-04:00

Isn't she perfect, seriously??

Watching the Colts play with Grammy and Big Cole!!

I love that sweet face! I live for her smiles!

Stretching...

First bath at Grammy's.

Nothing better than a sweet smelling clean baby!

Today was a wonderful day around here. We got to keep Charlotte for the whole day while Sarah was at a bridal show. She was such a good girl. We loved it. She was so much fun and everything she does is precious, I could watch her for hours. It was great bonding time for the three of us.

Doesn't she look all comfy and cozy?

We had so much fun it wore her out!

For more picture of our big day check out my smugmug!!

It was also Matt's 25th birthday. How time flies. I feel like it was just yesterday that he was my baby. I love him so much. He is such a good boy with a good heart. I am so proud of the man he is.

The Latest Pictures

2010-08-15T21:34:00.005-04:00

We pretty much all can't get enough of her!

She is so alert lately!!

She loves her Big Cole.

Sarah caving in to the flower pressure but we all think she looks better without anything!!

How could you improve on this face unadorned?

Peace baby!

I love all of her expressions!

The best part of my week.

Charlotte's first day at church!

There are more pictures at my smugmug!!

Happy Birthdays!!

2010-08-08T19:34:00.003-04:00

Today we had Mama Ese's 89th birthday and Charlotte's 2 week birthday! For some reason I am having a blog block lately. Hopefully when school starts next week I will have more to write about.

Check out my smug mug account if you want to see pictures of Charlotte. I am posting them at least a couple of times a week.

In case you are missing my "healthy" food pictures, here is one of our suppers from last week. It is a copy of the cheese dip appetizer that we get at Don Pablo's. It was really good!!

Tomorrow I am back at it at school. And as usual I am inspired and excited. Although this year I am sad that I will have less time with Charlotte. I will just have to make the most of the time we have together!

Charlotte Mae

2010-07-29T21:01:00.009-04:00

I have tried three times to put into words how my life changed this week. I have concluded that there are no words.

So here are a few pictures!

Meet my new granddaughter Charlotte Mae McAffry. I love her more than I ever imagined possible already.

Let the Countdown Begin-I Am Ready!!!

2010-07-05T18:11:00.005-04:00

This week I decided to tackle making bibs and burp cloths myself. We have seen some really cute ones in stores but they are really expensive. So Sarah and I spent an afternoon at several fabric stores picking out material!

I am having so much fun!

Here are a few pictures...

Burp cloth (2 of them, folded in half)

Close up!

Bib

Close up!

I also went out to Target this week to pick up a few things that I still needed (relative term!) to keep at my house.

I dare you to find one unnecessary item in this picture.

These were a bargain at Walmart! Two dollars a piece. TWO DOLLARS a piece I said. Who could resist these...

Or these?

Or this...

Or this????

I can barely contain my excitement. I am so ready to meet Charlotte. We have a lot of rocking, reading, bonding and cuddling to do!

Perfect Saturday with Friends

2010-06-26T23:22:00.006-04:00

We have not seen our friends Laura and Terry in over a year! It had been way too long and we had lots of catching up to do! I think these pictures speak for themselves! We could not stop laughing all day. What fun. We all needed it!

Tomorrow we have rented a pontoon boat for the day on Norris lake! We are all looking forward to that! I am sure I will share CAREFULLY selected pictures from that as well.

I have missed my friend!

Note to self: Don't chew gum while being photographed!

Me trying unsuccessfully to take pictures like Sarah!!!

Decorating Blogs

2010-06-18T23:14:00.004-04:00

If you will notice on the right of my blog, I have some added some new links. They are all decorating blogs that I have recently become obsessed with. David doesn't know about these because he never reads this blog. But he is not happy with the results because of my renewed interest in decorating. When I assumed that we would only be in this house a few years, I stopped buying new things for the house.

But since it looks like we may be here for a little longer that originally planned, I have been shopping for bargains! These people who write the blogs are so talented. I have already gotten lots of ideas.

Here is the one I am currently drooling over...definitely NOT a bargain. But dream-worthy nonetheless.

And I could not believe this decorator named Sarah who has my same draperies!!

Here is another great idea. Using these decorative wrapping paper sheets as frameable art! Great idea!

I am enjoying piddling around the house. Today I cleaned all of the baseboards, cleaned off David's dresser, washed several loads of clothes, and organized my pantry!! I am having so much fun! On tomorrow's schedule: fill up new bookcase, rearrange the 2nd guest room, hang new pictures in the bonus room and iron!!!

I am learning how to use my new camera, so there is a picture shortage right now. But you can be sure I will be a pro by the time Charlotte arrives!!

Sometimes It is Just the Little Things...

2010-05-26T20:30:00.003-04:00

the hydrangea bushes in my front yard!!

Aren't they gorgeous?

Summer Reading List

2010-05-23T14:51:00.014-04:00

Yay!! School is out for the summer...well almost anyway. Just a few administrative days left. And I have a lot to get done, but it is that planning, organizing kind of work that I really enjoy!

But as I gear up for an eventful summer, I am making my to-do list and reading list.

The to-do list might be a little boring to read but here is some of it...

Clean the baseboards
Stain the deck
Iron that huge pile of clothes
Purge, purge, purge
DON'T buy a new car
Scan all my pictures into smugmug
Shop for some wall decor
Plan my reading curriculum for next year
Study my weather unit, so I will know a little more than my students next year
Finish cross-stitching Matt's baby sampler!!

One of the things I look most forward to in the summer are days of reading. Here is a sampling of what I have planned

Lunch in Paris

So Long Insecurity

The Help

(yes, I have already read this once, but it's that good!)

A Car Seat in My Convertible

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

The Carolinas, Georgia and the South

South of Broad

Feathers From My Nest

The Christian Grandma's Idea Book

Eudora Welty Collection

Really though, all of the above books and chores are just to keep me busy until Charlotte gets here!!

My Son, the College Graduate!

2010-05-04T21:40:00.010-04:00

I am not sure why just the idea of writing this post makes me so emotional but it does.

Actually if I really think about it, there are several reasons.

1. It has taken Matt 6 years to get through college and there were times I wasn't sure it would really happen, so you can imagine my tears of joy!

2. Life has not always been easy for him, both from mistakes of his own making and from things completely out of his control. But I can honestly say that today he is happier than I have seen him since he was six years old, in his neon pink bike shorts, riding his big wheel in the driveway. Nothing like a happy child to make a mom cry!

3. He is my youngest child. So with every "first" in Sarah's life I was there to celebrate and encourage, and with Matt I dreaded each one. He is my last child to graduate and will soon be my last to leave home. Honestly, where have the years gone? Again the tears!

4. I am so proud of the man he is. He is a loyal friend, a hard worker, and he loves to help others.

5. That whole mother/son thing, well lets just say it is alive and well around my house.

He keeps me sane. He calms me. He understands me. I value his judgement. I love him.

Love this face!

Congratulations Mattie!

"Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory."

"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. If you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes." Walter Schirra Sr.

(P.S. Thank you Sarah for the pictures!)

Heartbreaking

2010-04-28T18:09:00.004-04:00

This is one of my favorite blogs to read. She is a new doctor and writes so movingly. It can be heartbreaking beyond words, as this particular post is, but sometimes it is a needed jolt into reality. Reading this has me sitting here stunned. Maybe it is because our family is so anxiously awaiting Charlotte's arrival that it struck me so hard. Or maybe anyone would feel the same after reading it. What do you think?

EVERY child deserves to be loved and cherished.

Charlotte's room!

2010-04-14T22:37:00.004-04:00

Thanks to this guy and Andrew, Charlotte now has the beginning of a nursery at our house.

I know what you are thinking...but I have been very careful not to go overboard buying things for our house. But for a total of around $150, I have a gently used Jenny Lind crib and changing table and some beautiful Pottery Barn bedding!!! Perfect!!

The room needs lots of work to be ready, but we just had to go ahead and set up the crib and changing table. What do you think?? I absolutely love it!! So shabby chic!! I hope Charlotte likes it!!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2010-04-08T20:08:00.007-04:00

Just a quick post to remember two funnies that happened today in class.

1. I had a young man raise his hand to ask if he could please move because the person he was sitting beside was "pesternizing" him.

2. After playing TCAP review games today where the prize for getting the most correct answers was a fun-size Snickers bar, and after watching so many students sell their soul by cheating to win that fun-size bar, I proceeded to give a lecture!

(The background is that we were all standing in a circle with individual dry-erase boards, I asked the questions, they wrote the answers, and if they were correct they continued to stand, and if they were incorrect they sat down.)

I explained I was so proud of the students that would write an incorrect answer and just quietly sit down. And how disappointed I was in those I saw looking at others boards for the correct answer, or those who were waiting to see another board once I asked them to hold the boards up and quickly jotting an answer down. I explained how they were sacrificing their integrity for a bite of chocolate! Etc. (I can go on and on sometimes!)

What was so funny was that I must have struck several nerves because we had several attacks of consciences! What happened next were about 10 confessionals!! Some I had never seen cheating and would never have guessed that they had cheated!!

But I laughed so hard when after one confession implicated two other students in a group cheating ring, one of the other students yelled out

"Way to go D., you let the bat out of the cave!"

(More background is that I have a book of idioms and I try to see how many I can fit in to my speaking, have the students point them out, and then we read about the origin of them.
So this student thought he was using the idiom--letting the cat out of the bag!!!!)

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This was the first batch with ham!

And finally what would a post from me be without a fattening Pioneer Woman recipe and picture...so here is tonight's supper...along with a salad!!!

This was the second batch with hot pepper cheese!

Was there ever any doubt?

2010-03-23T19:11:00.004-04:00

I may or may not have added another ladle of gravy to my plate after I took the picture!

If you read my blog and Pioneer Woman's blog, (and by that I guess I mean Sarah!), as soon as you saw this on her cooking section you knew I was having it for supper soon!

It just so happened that I had all of the ingredients and not much else in the pantry! So supper it was! I did use Lawry's seasoning on the potatoes and they were too salty. But other than that I would highly recommend this meal. The gravy is delicious!

Here is the recipe...

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THREE MORE DAYS 'TIL SPRING BREAK!!

Her Glow and Mine

2010-03-04T20:15:00.009-05:00

I stole her picture. Hope she doesn't mind!

I remember like it was yesterday the day she was born. In fact it really does seem like just yesterday. When I held her for the first time, I had never seen anything so beautiful. She had a perfectly shaped head and the cutest nose. Of course I was in love immediately.

But she was even more beautiful the day she started to school. So grown up. We had spent hours in the days before preparing the perfect outfit, even down to brand new tennis shoes! And her hair. That gorgeous thick mane of hair. It was french-braided from one side of her head to the other. Perfect.

When she ran for homecoming queen in high school she found the perfect dress. It was her usual style. Classic and timeless. Her hair was pulled back simply and beautifully. She looked so mature. She was a vision on the field with her classmates. I was sure that must have been her most beautiful day.

The preparation for her prom turned into a fiasco. The dress we spent hundreds on was thrown in the garbage. At the last minute she wore a dress I had bought on clearance for $20. It made no difference. The hairstyle we paid to have done, looked fake and she was not happy with it. So she took it down and wore it natural. Again, she was simply and perfectly herself. She had never looked happier or more radiant.

Her wedding day, six years ago, was a fairy tale day. The weather was gorgeous. The location perfect. And her dress was the one she had dreamed of. But as before, she could have worn anything, it didn't matter. She was marrying her perfect guy, surrounded by her family and friends, and her beauty on the outside came from within. I have one picture from that day that is my favorite because joy is written all over her face. Surely no other bride has ever been as beautiful.

But it all pales in comparison to the beauty I see on her face today. She truly has the glow of impending motherhood. Maybe she already has an idea of how her life is soon to change forever. My prayer is that her children bring to her life as much fulfillment, sense of purpose, and pure joy as they have brought to mine.

Thanks for letting me come along for the ride. It's already been everything I anticipated and more.

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2010-03-02T20:27:00.006-05:00

Today was a busy one at PMS. It was packed full of activity! We had grade level meetings, PLC meetings and I had the Science club for my advanced students after school.

The funniest thing happened as we were conducting an experiment. We were in the science lab and I was explaining the procedure to them. I started by showing them the equipment they would use. I told them they would have to share one stopwatch between all six groups because when I went to Wal-mart to purchase them, they cost $9.00 each. Since I was personally footing the bill for this little activity, buying six of them would have been a little steep! Before I could finish telling them this, all 12 of them had whipped out their cell phones, flipped them open and punched in the STOPWATCH FUNCTION!!!!!

I couldn't believe it! One girl said jokingly--"Mrs. Cole, nine dollars? You're a loser!!"

I sure felt like one!
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I also have a sweet story.

We are spending one half of our plan time one day a week with some of our struggling kids. It is sometimes an inconvenience and usually I would rather be doing something else. But today something happened that made it all worth the time.

Today in class we took a quiz that I had spent our last meeting preparing the kids for ahead of time. A couple of them did better than they usually would, but one made a 100! He was thrilled. He called me over and said, with the biggest grin on his face, " Mrs. Cole, I finally know what it is like to be one of the smart kids!"
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It was a good day!

The Circle of Life

2010-02-16T19:52:00.031-05:00

This post by Pioneer Woman was beautiful. It brought back so many memories of the two grandmothers and one great-grandmother that I have had in my life. Especially now that I am going to be a grandmother myself, it makes me really want to be deliberate about the kind of grandmother I want to be and the memories I want to make with my grandchildren. This post made me think about that. It is powerful.

I have had special relationships with all three of them, yet they were all very different women and taught me different things.

Mamaw Dunn

The homemaker and cook in me comes from my Mamaw Dunn. She always had a beautiful home and enjoyed taking care of it. She loved to cook and always tried new recipes when we came to visit. She was never to busy to let me or my cousins help prepare meals. I especially loved her turkey and dressing, coke floats, and scrambled eggs. I see her kitchen in my mind just like I was in it yesterday. Every detail, from her recipe box and metal canisters that always sat on the counter to the aluminum cups and the paper bag that she used to dry and reuse paper towels! She was a gracious hostess and I remember years of bridge club luncheons at her house. I learned how to set a table, how to cut a steak and table manners in general from her.

She was also a devoted wife. I only aspire to be the wife that she was. Taking care of my grandfather was always the priority in her life. As I grew older I enjoyed watching the dynamics of their relationship. They shared so much playfulness. My grandfather would tease her constantly and it amused her so. He could make her laugh like no one else. They brought so much joy to each other's lives.

Thank you Mamaw for the part of me that is you. I miss you so.

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Mama Ese

The part of me that is a decorator and seamstress, I owe to Mama Ese. I am so lucky that she just lives down the street so I can still ask her advice when I need it! She has lived many places in her life, but I was always able to spend time in the summer with her. We would have projects each year. One year I would learn to sew a pair of shorts and the next I would learn to knit. The needlecraft that stuck for me though was counted crossstitch. I have spent hours and hours of my life enjoying this hobby and I owe it to Mama Ese.

In the many homes that she has had, she was constantly changing things up. Whether it was hanging literally hundreds of pictures on her walls or finding just the right spot for the chest she picked up from the neighbors garbage, she was always decorating her home. Probably the only person not happy with this particular inherited trait of mine is David, because the gene I did not get was the one that involves shopping in thrift stores!

Another quality of Mama Ese that I hope to embody is her devotion to family. Even when I was very young I can remember seeing her help out those members of our family that were down on their luck. She would send them a little money each month or clothes that she had picked up at the Goodwill store. Each act in and of itself may not have been significant, but cumulatively they were life-changing. I am sure it meant a lot to the family she helped. But I know it made a lasting impression on this little girl who was watching.

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Mayme

I am not sure that I have words to describe the relationship I shared with my great-grandmother Mayme. There was a closeness, a bond and a connection I cannot explain. I can't attribute it to our similarities, because I don't know what they are. I only know that the memories I have with her are some of my most precious. One of the earliest memories I have is being a very small child and having her put me to bed at night. She would lie down beside me and sing "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" . I slept on a small bed in the dining room, under a quilt, with the air conditioner in the window blowing on me. It was the BEST sleep ever!

Everytime we moved when I was young she would come and stay to help us get settled. If my brother or I had the mumps or the chicken pox, she would come and take care of us.

She was so precious to me. I grew up always hearing her say she would not live to see me graduate high school. Yet she was there. Then she said she would not live to see me get married. And she was there. When I was pregnant with Sarah, she was not well, but she was so worried about me. As it was time for me to give birth, she entered the hospital. We talked on the phone a few times and she was still worried about me. Then I went to the hospital myself and was preoccupied for a few days giving birth. On my first day home with my first baby, my dad had to share the news that Mayme had passed away. She lived long enough to know that I was okay and her great-great-granddaughter was okay. She asked someone to go to the gift shop to buy us a gift and then she was gone. I could not even travel to her funeral. There was no closure for me and I was heartbroken.

A few nights later I was asleep in my bed alone (David was at work). Sarah was in the bassinet next to me. I awoke to see Mayme standing over the bassinet looking at my baby. A feeling of such peace and calm came over me. She looked at the baby, looked at me, smiled and then she was gone. I can see it as clearly today as I did 26 years ago. Was she really there? Was it a dream? My imagination? Too much pain medicine? The Circle of Life? Whatever it was, to me it was evidence of a love (or is it Love) that transends this world.

So as she always used to say to me- Mayme, I love you the most.

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So I guess the purpose of this post is that I want to be intentional about the kind of grandmother I am and the kind of memories I make with my grandchildren. All of my grandmothers lived in other states while I was growing up. A trip to grandmother's house was so thrilling. You got to pack a suitcase and travel for hours. Oh, the excitement as we got closer and closer to that Osceola water tower. You had to fit a lot of fun into a week or two. At least for now, for this grandchild, I will live just around the corner. Will that make for a different kind of relationship, a more daily relationship? I intend to make sure it is just as thrilling to go to this Grammy's house!

Sofia, Bella and I. I'm a natural, don't you think??

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2010-02-15T20:22:00.005-05:00

Me--(fussing at the kids for not raising their hand for permission to talk)

"Do you ever wonder what makes some kids sit patiently and do what they are supposed to do and others blurt out answers and talk when they are not supposed to?"

Student--(with perfect timing and a dry sense of humor)

"Medication??"

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I walked by a student with a small bottle of lead spread all over his desk and a mechanical pencil in ten pieces. I just gave him a strange look and he said...

" I have OCD."

Taking a chance I asked him what that meant and he said...

" Obsessive Cleaning Disorder!"

25 Random Things That Make Me Happy 2010 Edition

2010-01-30T22:26:00.007-05:00

1. Vaseline Clinical Therapy Body Lotion
2. a pregnant daughter
3. 24 6th graders that ALL did their homework
4. a few days in a row without a headache
5. homemade bacon-cheddar potato skins
6. all of us laughing together
7. a son with 12 weeks until college graduation
8. contentment
9. a paid off car still under warranty
10. Tea Forte Gold Ceylon tea on ice
11. apples with peanut butter and raisins
12. the promise of the future
13. organic orange juice
14. a new season of 24
15. spring is just around the corner
16. always-good books
17. fried pickles from Zaxbys
18. Google calendar
19. the library's online hold program
20. a weekend in Atlanta
21. ahhh...a foot rub
22. my deck-have I mentioned that before?
23. my small group
24. eucalyptus essential oil
25. a night in with the hubby

A History

2010-01-21T20:50:00.018-05:00

Today I read an article on the Internet that listed the 7 car companies that are either already obsolete or will soon be. One of them was American Motors Corporation. The picture that accompanied AMC was the Pacer. It brought back so many memories because it was my second car; not my first one but the first one I picked out. So I decided to write a retrospective on the many cars I have owned. Some good, some great, and some horrible mistakes!

Mine was white!

This is my first car. It was a hand-me-down from my mom. Granted it was not much to look at but I was one of the first of my friends to have a car of my own and it made me very popular! I drove car loads to dances, ballgames, everywhere!

Actual color!

Believe it or not, I actually picked this car out! It was very comfortable, and mine was this very color!! David called it my "lunar rover." And you could see it from one end of Powell to the other!

Not the prettiest...
Next was another hand-me-down. It was a Ford Granada. Silver. It had been my step-mothers and she was getting a new car. My dad felt sorry for me because I was pregnant with Sarah and it was the summer, it was hot, and I had no air conditioning. I will always appreciate that gift!

I loved this car!!

This car was one of my all time favorites. Just after Sarah was born we splurged and got our first brand new car. It was loaded and I loved it. The cloth seats were plaid! It would have lasted us a while except that we did not really know about putting oil in the car...and it blew a rod or something like that. Expensive lesson!

In 1988, I graduated from UT and the first thing I did-before I even got a job was to buy this new car I had seen advertised. It was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. It was not however very dependable. It broke down on me twice. So we promptly got rid of it!

My neighbor said it looked like a hearse!

This began my affection for the minivan! I owned two of these. I kept each one about 2 years! First a gray one and then a powder blue one! They sure were convenient for hauling around kids and sports equipment.

Another van. This time a bright green Ford Aerostar. I remember driving it for the first time and looking in the rear view mirror and being amazed at how long it was. We took some great vacations in it.

The last van I had was a great car as well. It was a brand new Ford Windstar. It was a pretty champagne color and very comfortable. We took a trip to the Outer Banks when it was a few months old and on the way home bought a styrofoam cooler full of fresh shrimp to take home with us. It was packed in ice so we left it in the car the last night and when we got up the next morning, we discovered the cooler had a home in it and shrimp juice had leaked out. It was filling up the holes in the floorboard and had soaked the carpet. We had parked it with the back end higher than the front so it spread from the back to the front. There was a puddle under the accelerator. That smell never left. Another big mistake!

So as soon as I could I got rid of it. I wanted a Land Rover and so I got a Land Rover. BIGGEST mistake. It was used and it had all kinds of maintenance issues. And it costs a lot to work on a Land Rover. We bought it from a used car lot and traded in the Windstar. The problem was that the used car lot never paid off the Windstar. So several months later we heard from Ford Motor Credit that we were in trouble for being behind on our loan. It took YEARS to get our credit fixed after that!

Well, I guess you can see a pattern here. Years of bad decisions in the car department. So this time I decided to be practical. I got a Toyota Camry. It was nice and new, but I just saw myself as a SUV kind of girl so off we went to the KIA dealer and...

bought a brand new loaded Sorento. That was 61/2 years ago and I still love it. It was the smartest car decision we had made. It has a 100,000 mile warranty and we are still 10,000 miles away from that.

I must admit I am starting to get the itch to buy again. Maybe looking back will remind me of the bad choices and help me to appreciate driving my PAID FOR car!!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2010-01-14T21:00:00.006-05:00

It has been interesting in Mrs. Cole's science class this week! This first little story should be entitled
"Why I DON"T Love Sixth Graders Everyday!"

On Monday the cookie cart came around to my room (a little moneymaking project of the CDC classes.) The student who was selling them asked if I wanted a free cookie.

Me: "No thank you. I really do want one but I am on a diet."

Smart-mouthed-student-I-no-longer-like (while laughing out loud): "YOU are on a diet? HaHa, you don't LOOK like you are on a diet!"

Lovely-just lovely...
___________________________________

Random questions that kids ask right in the middle of a lecture on waves and wind currents (granted-maybe not the most compelling subject matter)

1. Mrs. Cole, did you know that if you don't ever fart you will burst into flame? (He then proceded to tell me all I ever wanted to know about methane gas.)

2. Mrs. Cole, did you know that if you squeeze your chin skin and then poke it it hurts?

3. Mrs. Cole, is jello a liquid or a solid? I have just always wondered that...

I could not make this stuff up folks!
__________________________________

And this is a sad one...

Today we got a new student. I am giving a chapter test tomorrow and we were reviewing in class today. So I told her she, of course would not have to take the test tomorrow. Instead of reviewing with us today I asked if she wanted to use one of the computers in my room and browse one of the science websites I have bookmarked.

She replied: "I don't know how to get on a computer. We have never had one."

Sometimes someone else's reality just hits me in the face.

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-01T23:13:00.005-05:00

I don't have any cute stories to tell, but I have decided to write more posts this year to document my experiences and feelings. I hope to use this blog more like a scrapbook since my memory seems to going fast! Also I am hoping to purchase a better camera as so I can keep memories and pictures in one place!

So this Christmas break was a good one. Can any break be bad? I did a little bit of organizing, a little cooking, a little reading and a lot of relaxing.

Sarah and I spent one day looking for baby supplies. Cribs, changing tables, strollers, car seats and lots more. We walked into Babies R Us for the first time and were overwhelmed! It was really fun though. We also ate lunch at Calhouns. Sarah has had a rough time these last few weeks with nausea and fatigue, but the cornbread muffins at Calhouns seemed to do the trick for a few hours at least! Sharing the experience of my only daughter's pregnancy is such a joy!

And Matt being home for a few weeks has been fun as well. Not that I see him much, but when our paths do cross we have had some great conversations. It is also a special time in his life. As he is soon to graduate, there is a lot of excitement in his future. Where will he find a job? Will he move out soon or wait a little while? I have enjoyed cooking for him and even doing his laundry. I think it is my last hurrah at truly having a child living at home and I am not in any hurry to let go of that.

Today David and I went to one of our favorite pizza restaurants. I Love NY Pizza is off the beaten path, but totally worth the drive. We also drove to Townsend and visited the Apple Barn. I love holidays and the extra time we have together without the stress of our jobs (expecially Davids!).

I wish everyone who reads this a wonderful 2010 filled with love, happiness and giving. It sure looks like it is going to be an eventful year for the Cole family. Bring it on!

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-12-14T21:26:00.006-05:00

I should have known that this week would be prime for "Why I Love 6th Graders" material. And sure enough today I came home with two funnies. Again remember that sometimes funny in the classroom may not translate to funny on the blog...but I still want to record them for posterity!

Funny #1

Tomorrow is a big chapter test so today we are playing a quiz review game. One young lady in the room kept raising her hand super fast and getting the question right. A few of the guys sitting around her were getting frustrated. (What is it about the male genetic make up and competitiveness? I seriously had to give a lecture on being a good sport and not a sore loser. I explained that it was just a review game and there were NO PRIZES OR TROPHIES TO BE WON!) But anyway one of the boys said-

"What's that word when you can predict whats gonna happen in the future because I think Abby is like that...PSYCHO?!!"

I said, "I think you mean PSYCHIC."

______________________________________

Funny #2

In my reading class, I am reading the book The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler aloud to them. They seem to be enjoying it. So today as I am reading this passage...

Interest in the marble piece arises from the unusual circumstances attending its acquisition by the museum and from the belief that it may be the work of the Italian Renaissance master, Michelangelo. If...

Before I could say another word, Dalton gasped and said excitedly,

" Oh...Oh...isn't that one of the Ninja Turtles?"

Condescendingly I said,

"No, dear, he was a famous Italian painter"

To which he replied smugly,

"Artist by day, turtle by night, REMEMBER??"

Oh that boy makes me laugh every day.

One day he wanted to giggle at my pronunciation of the planet URanus. I told him to grow up that he was a sixth grader now. He said-it's okay Mrs. Cole, I still laugh when someone says duty or duties. So I giggled a little and he said- Go ahead and embrace your inner child Mrs. Cole!

I am Going to be a Grandmother!!!

2009-12-01T21:56:00.005-05:00

The proud parents-to-be!!

I have not wanted to blog about this most exciting time because I just don't have the words to describe the excitement and joy I am feeling...No. Really. I can not put it into words! I feel like the third phase of my life is about to begin. And I am ready for it!!

If you are interested in keeping up with the play by play...and who isn't...you can check out Sarah's blog here.

http://scmcaffry.blogspot.com/2009/12/we-have-heartbeat.html

The due date is July 28. I will have just a week or so before I have to go back to work. Ugh! I am already dreading that! Sarah and Andrew will probably be glad to be rid of me. Ha!

And if you are interested in seeing my reaction and you haven't already check this out!!

http://scmcaffry.blogspot.com/2009/11/big-news.html

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2009-11-09T20:56:00.002-05:00

For some reason I have been in a blog slump lately. Just nothing happening that seems "blog worthy!!"

I am loving my kids more everyday, however!

Here is one sweet little exchange from today that brought a tear to my eye!!

Student: " Mrs. Cole, are you coming to the band concert tomorrow night?"

Me: "I am not sure, but I am going to try."

Student: "If you do, can you keep your eyes on me?"

Some days I just know I am EXACTLY where I need to be.

My New Favorite Thing

2009-10-19T21:34:00.008-04:00

The tea is as good as the picture looks!

Unfortunately you can only purchase this tea online at the tea forte website. Do NOT try it unless you want to become addicted. It is really that good. At first I just treated myself to it every once in a while. Now I cannot go back to drinking the regular bought-in-the-store tea bags.

It is all about the experience I guess. You have to have the fancy pitcher as well as the tea bags! I am having a hard time justifying the expense, but I truly have cut back on so many other things.....

And I do wait until they have a special buy-one-get-one-free offer to stock up. Whatever. Sometimes it is just the little things that make me happy.

Tonight, for instance, on a totally random Monday night, for a good hour I had my whole family together in the kitchen for some wonderful conversation. It reminded me of the title of the book I am reading. The Gift of an Ordinary Day.

It was and it was.

The Gift of an Ordinary Day

2009-10-16T22:24:00.006-04:00

I have found another great book. This is a memoir of a woman about my age, although her kids are several years younger than mine. But it it beautifully written.

From the publisher's website:

The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition-boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town. It is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers–holding on, letting go.
Poised on the threshold between family life as she’s always known it and her older son’s departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all.
The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women’s hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.

Here is just a sample of the touching things she had to say. The things that spoke to me. And I am only in the first chapter!!!!

“The small choices we make each day, the doors we open and close, determine the lives that we lead."

“And grace is what I need these days, as I endeavor to stop viewing the world through the needs of my children and to attend more conscientiously to my own. I guess I never quite anticipated that after all these years of family life, I’d still be on the learning curve, would still be trying to figure out how to be a mother, even as I come to the end of one of the great cycles of human existence, raising young children to become compassionate, self-sufficient adults."

“A heart full of love. That is the constant, the only thing that’s never changed, the only thing that never will. Love is the infinite, durable strand that’s woven itself through all the days and nights of our shared past and that will wind its way, uninterrupted, through our unknowable futures, no matter how much life separates us, no matter where my son’s (children's) journeys may ultimately lead them.”

"It’s easy, given the times we live in and the implicit messages we absorb each day, to equate a good life with having a lot and doing a lot. So it’s also easy to fall into believing that our children, if they are to succeed in life, need to be terrific at everything, and that it’s up to us to make sure that they are– to keep them on track through tougher course loads, more activities, more competitive sports, more summer programs. But in all our well-intentioned efforts to do the right thing for our teenage children, we may be failing to provide them with something that is truly essential– the time and space they need to wake up to themselves, to grow acquainted with their own innate gifts, to dream their dreams and discover their true natures."

_____________________

I checked this book out of the library, but I am seriously considering making a trip to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to purchase this one!

Wow, I can hardly wait to get to chapter 2!!

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-10-10T23:08:00.006-04:00

This has been one of the most stressful two weeks that I can remember since I have been teaching. It is really hard to put my finger on why that is. Just more on my plate I guess. I am staying late at school and bringing even more work at home than ever. I hope it will prove beneficial by the end of the year.

This week I took all of my classes to the brand new Mac computer lab. We learned how to access their textbook online so they do not have to take it home. We learned how to use a TCAP test prep website called Study Island. And we learned how to use the Knox County website SchoolFusion. Students can see all of their grades online. They can even look at each teacher's individual assignments and see what they have turned in, what they are missing and exactly what their average is. They learned how to send me messages as well. So Friday when I came home and opened my email, I found 38 messages! Here are some examples....

1. You rock!
2. Heeeeyyyyyy!!!!!!!
3. You are awesome MOST of the time! jk,hahaha

and my very favorite...
4. Hi mrs.cole you rock please bring my grade up from a F to a A

Also this week I lost the teacher's edition of my textbook. I had two copies, one at home and one at school. The one at school, I never took out of the classroom. And one day last week someone wanted to borrow it and I said out loud--

"You can't use my book, it has all of the answers in it!"

And now it is gone. So I have told everyone I am giving a $10.00 reward to get it back. But the funniest thing happened when I was talking to them about looking for it. I explained that it always stayed on my front table or the back table and it never went anywhere else. I said I had looked everywhere though. In all the cabinets and shelves....

and out of the blue one of my students said "Did you look in your snack closet?"

SNACK CLOSET? What exactly do you mean by that??

This closet?

Why.... this is my storage closet.

Or maybe not....

I guess they must see me go in and out of here several times a day. I make my iced tea in here, grab a small piece of chocolate when I need it or even fix my lunch!!!

They just totally crack me up and they don't even mean to!

____________________________________

Also one little girl ripped my heart out yesterday. She is a tiny little girl. She looks about 8 years old and sounds like she is 5! She came to my desk and asked if she could call home to get some Advil. I said yes-do you have a headache? She said- as she started to tear up- Yes, my granny died a few months ago and I just haven't felt good ever since then. I said- Could I give you a hug? And she grinned a little bit and said- Yes. Love her!

It's just that good

2009-09-27T15:07:00.003-04:00

I read this blog regularly and have linked to it before. This post just really moved me. If you have time read it.

http://6yearmed.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-care.html

Thanks.

Getting Out of the House

2009-09-22T19:40:00.008-04:00

Hot Springs Resort and Spa

Okay so the resort and spa part might be stretching it a little, but the mineral hot tub was enjoyable! We had decided that we were going to get out of the house this weekend and go somewhere. I had seen an article in Southern Living and in the newspaper about this place, so we decided to give it a try!! It was $25 dollars for an hour. I was trying to cure David's bad hip! He said it did not work; at least not in one session!! The trip over was a beautiful drive through Pisgah National Forest. I caught up on three days of newspapers and some catalogs as well.

After our hot tub soak, we stopped at the Smoky Mountain Diner for a delicious hamburger and fries lunch.

This is what it looked like from the outside...

And this is the gorgeous view from our booth!!

On the way home we had good reception for WIVK to listen to the UT-Florida game. The first half was so good that we were dying to get to a television. So......

we stopped at the Chop House next to Bass Pro Shops in Sevierville and sat in a booth at the bar and ate again!!! We had perfect seats for the not so perfect third quarter of the ballgame.

____________________________________

This was supper tonight. I thought it turned out pretty good. I am trying to use up the food I have on hand before payday and this is what I came up with. Actually Ina came up with. Here is the recipe I used. It was her Omelette for Two.

One thing I have got to learn-to remember that the handle to the skillet is very hot when it has been in the oven!!

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-09-15T19:42:00.008-04:00

Don't get too excited...just read the story!!

I really don't have favorite students.

I mean it.

Teachers really should not have favorite students.

But if I did have favorite students...my favorite students would be the ones that can make me laugh.

____________________

So today in my 7th period class....(which means I have been saying and doing the same thing four times already) I was giving a quiz.

So I told the students to complete the quiz and when they finish simply to turn it over on their desks and wait for everyone to finish.

Then I procede to walk around and observe while they are working on the quiz. As I am walking, 3 different students ask what they are supposed to do with the quiz. With each one I get a little more frustrated.

But I told the whole class each time again what to do. So that makes 4 times now.

When the 4th student asked what to do with the quiz, I started to lose it. I tried to breathe in, but I let out a small frustrated scream....

And as I did that, I just happen to be walking by the desk of the student who makes me laugh and I hear, softly, quietly, under his breath....

"Am I seeing a... retirement??"

Oh my goodness is that class lucky to have him in it!!

P.S. I also updated the link to my class website, not that you are interested!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2009-09-08T21:10:00.003-04:00

Let this be fair warning to you..... I predict a banner year for "Why I Love Sixth Graders" blog posts!!!!!

Today we began our unit on ecology. I always get very excited about this unit because I get to include my Planet Earth DVD collection in the curriculum!!!! So I began our first chapter by discussing biotic and abiotic factors. It is always a little discouraging when two out of four classes have several students that are shocked to discover that plants are INDEED ACTUAL LIVING THINGS.

Hello-does your father not cut the grass because it grows? Did you not just see me water the plants in my room because they need nutrients?? Okay, so I have my work cut out for me.

The funny thing that happened today though involved my stupidity!!

I wanted to incorporate my lovely new SmartBoard into my lesson, so I drew the outline of a pond on the board and asked each student to think of something that they would find in the pond ecosystem. Then they had to come to the board and write the name of the item they thought of in green if it was biotic and in red if it was abiotic.

So as they are writing I am trying to guide some of their choices because I want to be sure there are some nonliving things such as water, dirt, sunlight, etc. Anyway, finally each student had written their choices and I was complementing them on how well they had done, when someone raised their hand and questioned one of the choices on the board.

As I had watched each student write their selections on the board, I totally missed one boy who had written...MERMAID!!!

Too rich you say??

2009-09-05T21:02:00.008-04:00

Luke Stocker, my new favorite player.

He was going to be my favorite player last year but it didn't quite work out. I think I'll try again!! 63-7? Are you kidding me? That was so much fun to watch. Although, I must admit that after about 50 points or so I start to feel sorry for the other team. Obviously I have never been a coach. Come to think of it I have never been a part of an athletic team of any kind ever!!!

What a great day!! With the game on at noon, we decided on appetizers for lunch/game time. There are no pictures of this but trust me it was fattening, spicy and rich. We had Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies and Pioneer Woman's Chili Con Queso Dip Revved Up!

Sarah came by for a little while and ate with us while Andrew was at the game.

When I invited her to have Pioneer Woman's Grilled Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce with us for supper, she politely declined saying that was probably a little too much rich food in one day.

WHAT?? Is there a such thing?

Looking at this plate and knowing what I feel like right now......evidently there is.

Increased Rigor!!!

2009-09-02T22:29:00.007-04:00

You may or may not have heard about the American Diploma Project. It is a movement to increase the standards in education to make sure that every high school graduate is prepared for college and a career. Tennessee is one of the 35 states that has joined this project.

Here is a good overview of Tennessee's plan. It is something that is definitely necessary to help our country stay competitive internationally, but personally it has made my job much tougher! Here is an example....

These are the State Performance Indicators that I am required to teach to 11 year olds and I have 7 days alotted in my pacing guide!!

SPI 0607.T/E.2 Evaluate a protocol to determine if the engineering design process was successfully applied.

SPI 0607.T/E.3 Distinguish between the intended benefits and the unintended consequences of a new technology.

SPI 0607.T/E.4 Differentiate between adaptive and assistive bioengineered products

SPI 0607.Inq.1 Design a simple experimental procedure with an identified control and appropriate variables.

SPI 0607.Inq.2 Select tools and procedures needed to conduct a moderately complex experiment.

SPI 0607.Inq.3 Interpret and translate data into a table, graph, or diagram.

SPI 0607.Inq.4 Draw a conclusion that establishes a cause and effect relationship supported by evidence.

SPI 0607.T/E.1 Identify the tools and procedures needed to test the design features of a prototype.

SPI 0607.Inq.5 Identify a faulty interpretation of data that is due to bias or experimental error.

SPI 0607.Inq.3 Interpret and translate data into a table, graph, or diagram.

SPI 0607.Inq.5 Identify a faulty interpretation of data that is due to bias or experimental error.

SPI 0607.T/E.2 Evaluate a protocol to determine if the engineering design process was successfully applied.

SPI 0607.Inq.2 Select tools and procedures needed to conduct a moderately complex experiment.

SPI 0607.T/E.1 Identify the tools and procedures needed to test the design features of a prototype.

I have been overwhelmed with some of these concepts considering at this stage of the game, I can't even get them to remember to bring their books to class!!

Let's just say I am looking forward to a long weekend.

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-08-31T22:29:00.006-04:00

I have been a little overwhelmed at work the past two weeks, hence the neglect of my blog!

Luckily one of my students came through the other day with a "funny!"

For the first time, brand new sixth graders were given the privilege of lockers at PMS. Which was fine except for the fact that they had to learn how to manage combinations locks! You would not believe how difficult some found this to be.

One student in particular was having a hard time. So I told him to write down the directions and take it with him during the day, and if he had free time, to practice opening his lock. So at the end of the day he came to see me. He was really frustrated. He had not been very successful.

So as the buses were being called during dismissal, and I was standing out in the hall, he passed me and said...

"I left a note on your desk."

I went back in to find this....

I guess he thought I could tutor him over the phone!

Sometimes it's the little things...and the big things.

2009-08-16T17:01:00.006-04:00

This is the fabric I bought at Wal-mart to go on the bulletin board behind my desk. It makes me happy!

These are three of the Planet Earth posters I also bought at Wal-mart that are on each side of the entrance to my room. They make me VERY happy!

Seriously don't they make you happy too? I just hope I can make the kids appreciate them as well. They have a history of destroying most everything I have. Those are just a few of the little things that are making me excited about tomorrow. Here are some of the big things...

This is my new desk. I will soon have a new desktop computer and a new laptop. Hopefully this week. They are in the building. We are just waiting on technical stuff!

These are my gorgeous new lab tables. They are arranged for group work. Let's hope I continue to be motivated to do hands-on inquiry-based activities. It takes more planning, but I truly believe kids retain more when they are actively involved in their own learning. In fact, I know it, because I have witnessed it! Also notice my lovely windows. Those babies were in high demand and mine are much appreciated. I will not let a day go by without being thankful for them. RAIN OR SHINE!!

The nice shelves and cabinets are only found in the science classrooms. So again, how lucky am I? See my 20 year collection of National Geographics? I had a substitute once who told my students that they were pornography. Can you believe that? And no those are not stuffed animals on top of the shelves. They are "models of endangered species", thank you very much!

This is the demonstration table at one end of the classroom with running water, AGAIN specific to science rooms. At the other end of the classroom will be my Smartboard. It should be installed next week as well. It is an interactive board the kids will love. The lab tables are situated so that the students will be able to look in either direction.

Last but not least, this is the stack of paperwork that I left on my desk Friday afternoon! I brought one home just as big. Now that my room is all set up, I guess I need to turn my attention to lesson plans and what I am actually going to teach those young'uns!

I hope you enjoyed the tour. It is going to be a good year.

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad

2009-08-09T19:40:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow on our first day back to school we are having a cookout. I decided to use what I had on hand and make this salad. I (what I mean by that is really David) grew the tomatoes. I (really me!) grew the basil. And I bought the fresh mozarella this week. Isn't it pretty?

Have I mentioned before how much I have enjoyed my tomatoes this summer? Maybe 1 or 20 times!!!

On the menu for this week:

Stuffed poblano peppers

Barbeque shrimp

Crabcakes

I will try to take pictures if they all materialize!!

One Last Project and One Last Day of Fun!

2009-08-03T17:33:00.004-04:00

I have a narrow wall in my kitchen and I had been wanting to make it into a chalkboard for a long time. David was not thrilled with the idea, but I was sure that I would like it. So I went to Lowe's and got the supplies last week and got busy.

I decided to make it magnetic as well so that took three coats of a magnetic paint first. Then one coat of the chalkboard paint. It did not take long. The three coats of magnetic paint had to dry 30 minutes between each one. The main thing you have to be careful of is that you keep the paint stirred up while you are working so the magnetic particles stay mixed up.

Then I let that dry overnight and painted the chalkboard paint the next morning. What do you think? I really like it.

The white square is a magnet.

And on Friday afternoon we dodged the rain and took dad's fishing boat out on Norris for a little ride! It was almost 5:30 before we got in the water but we rode around for an hour, stopped at Twin Cove marina for a little supper, and then rode around for another hour. It was a great evening. Thanks Dad.

I am pretty sure it just cemented in David's mind that as soon as Matt is out of college we are getting a boat of our own....

The dam...

While we were at Laura and Terry's last week, she served us this delicious cake. It is Giada's cornmeal and rosemary cake. I am pretty sure I ate more than half of it myself. Really. So when we got home I had to try it for myself. This is a recipe that I would never have picked out on my own. But trust me it is delicious. The sauce on the side is made of balsamic vinegar and sugar. Trust me it is YUMMY!!

And tomorrow I am back to work.

I have to be at a data team meeting in south Knoxville at 8:00 a.m. and them a leadership team meeting for the rest of the week at PMS.

With a new classroom, new lab, new computers and new textbooks though, I am really excited.

I am "fired up about some learnin" as our principal says!!

Florida, Friends and Fun

2009-07-30T22:48:00.008-04:00

I had to start the post with this picture. It is Terry's Erkyl impression. We see it frequently!!

So as a last minute summer vacation we flew to Orlando to visit our dear friends, Laura and Terry. We got up Saturday morning and drove to Mosquito Bay at New Smyrna Beach to kayak. We had so much fun. We shared the water with at least two dolphins! It was amazing. I wish I had pictures of them or even pictures of us in the kayaks, but I was afraid to take the camera with me in case I capsized!

This is the bay that we kayaked in. The first thing I saw in the water were those little snakey fishey things. I tried to look up exactly what they are but I could not find them. I just knew that I did not want to swim with them.!

This is the pier.

This is JB's Fish Camp where we ate when we finished! Good fried shrimp and crab balls!

Laura and I after the kayaking adventure.

After we ate, we drove to the beach to walk a little.

I still cannot wear any makeup because of the eye infections. So I am not loving the pictures of me! I don't know what I am going to do yet about starting school next week...

Yikes this one is even worse! But it was a beautiful beach.

Great picture!

On Sunday we took the boat to a lake and enjoyed a great picnic and boat ride.

Terry, David and Tank (or Scooby)

Thanks Laura and Terry for the perfect getaway weekend! The food was great. The accomodations were luxurious. But most of all relaxing and catching up with dear friends was priceless. Now it is your turn!! How about a ballgame in the fall??

BLT's again....

2009-07-23T23:23:00.004-04:00

My favorite supper of the summer!!

I just wanted to say that we had the BLT's again tonight and I took a much better picture than the on from my last post. So I thought I would share!

Isn't She Lovely

2009-07-23T16:07:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we harvested our first big tomato from our little garden. I have been waiting and watching for weeks for those big green things to turn red already! It was huge and the taste did not disappoint. It has been years since I had tasted a tomato like the ones I remembered from Mayme's house each summer. We would slice one on a plate, salt and pepper it, and it was a meal.

The flavor is just not replicated in the ones you buy in the grocery today. Okay, enough about the tomato already.

So for supper last night I bought some thick sliced bacon and some texas toast bread. I made some herbed mayonnaise. And we had the best BLT sandwiches I can remember having!

Guess what we are having again tonight?? Maybe with a slice of cheddar?

I know the picture is not in focus. I need Sarah around to take my food pictures! I realized in the middle of my meal that I wanted to post about the sandwich and I had already eaten half of it! So I stopped, got my camera, and started taking pictures.

I could not get it to focus. I tried and tried. Different distances. Different lighting. Nothing worked. Finally David asked me to please come back to the table and finish my meal!!

July 18th, really??

2009-07-18T14:07:00.004-04:00

It is 2:00 p.m. on July 18th and the temperature outside is 74 degrees outside! All of my windows are open and there is a cool breeze blowing in. I am a happy camper!

This was the sunset from my deck last night. My camera does not do it justice. But it was gorgeous.

I have bread rising in the kitchen to try and make homemade hamburger buns.

I am trying to complete another summer project, which is to put all of our old family VHS and Super8 tapes on DVD. This has taken me days to even get it going, but I feel like it is 1992 again. It has been so much fun-reliving some of our families best memories. Vacations to Disney, Savannah and Wrightsville beach. Football games, cheerleading, basketball, school events and seemingly endless musicals, chorus and choir programs. Just wait until I make the rest of the family sit and watch them with me!!!

It just doesn't get much better than this!!!!

Not so Fast!

2009-07-10T10:29:00.007-04:00

I have found a new best book of the year!! As much as I loved The Help, the very next book I read topped it!

It is called Sarah's Key. I read it in 3 days, it was that good. It was about the Vel d' Hiv' roundup of Jews in Paris in 1942. I had never heard of it before. I cried and cheered while reading this book. I LOVED IT! I think I will need to buy it as well!

Here is a summary...

And the book I am beginning today looks REALLLLY good.

Here IT is....

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg.

Here is the first chapter of the book...

I think for the summer this blog has turned into ...here is what I eat and here is what I read!!

But I am enjoying the down time!

My mind is starting to switch gears into thinking about "Why I Love Sixth Graders" again though. I have gotten out my new textbook and started to do some preliminary planning. I am reading some of my science journals and thinking of new classroom management plans! This is a constant struggle for me. I want just the right discipline policy so that I can have order and structure without having to be "mean"!!!! Is there such a thing? I am still looking.

I am currently thinking of having a worksheet that is "extra" science work that I just hand out when they are not following classroom rules. They will already know what to do and I will not have to take class time to explain it. It will just be due the next day. How does that sound? That way it is not just busy work, they will just be putting in extra time on whatever we are studying at the time.

But wait it is only July 10. I am trying my best to not be counting down the days yet.

Food again!

2009-07-06T08:43:00.006-04:00

Our fourth weekend was very quiet. David was winding down from his vacation. If you could call it a vacation! He had and still has many projects going. Not surprising at all, I guess. But he wanted to relax and I was find with that. The kids were out of town so we were super low key!

We actually ate alot. And surprise I have pictures.

This first plate is actually breakfast in bed from my wonderful husband! I guess he was just tired of waiting on me every morning to eat. Since he is awake each day before 6 a.m. and lets just say I am not.....he decided to wake me up with food!! It was great.

There is a beef patty in there somewhere!!

Next was our delicious bacon-smoked cheddar-jalapeno burger. If that sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen....well it probably is. We have got to do better on our healthy food repertoire!!

The Help

2009-07-04T19:27:00.002-04:00

I just finished this book and it was the best book I have read so far this year! I have not been able to put it down for three days! And with the weather we have been having this week, it has been perfect to sit outside on the swing and read all day!!

Here is a link to the synopsis of the book if anyone is interested. I would highly recommend it!!

It totally delves into the relationships of white families and black domestics in Mississippi in the early 60's. This is so interesting to me because it is the exact era I was born into. And I remember my family having "help" coming in daily. I have always been curious about those relationships. In the book some of the relationships are good and some are horrible. Some families treated the help as family and some treated them nearly like slaves.

So fascinating to read.

Three Cheese Potato Gratin

2009-06-25T17:13:00.002-04:00

What diet??

I got this recipe from the Deen Brothers cook book Ya'll Come Eat. It has so many wonderful recipes in it!

This gratin has red potatoes, half and half, gruyere, cheddar and parmsean cheeses in it. How can it not be delicious!!

I am making the bacon wrapped chicken breasts with chili-cheese sauce from the same book as we speak. I will add a picture of them if they turn out well!!

What the Heck??

2009-06-24T16:04:00.004-04:00

The original title of my blog was Random Rants and Ramblings. This post will most definitely fit under that heading. I feel a little ranting coming on....so bear with me!

What is up lately with all of these (mostly) Republican conservative politicians? It seems like every week another governor or senator on the conservative Christian side of the aisle is admitting to an affair. Let me rephrase that...

THEY ARE FORCED TO ADMIT IT. They are calling press conferences to cry and beg for the forgiveness of their families and their constituents ONLY AFTER THEY ARE CAUGHT.

Take for instance the South Carolina governor this week who tried to lie and say he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail! Only when that ruse fell through did he admit the truth.

A senator from Nevada was in the same trouble very recently.

When I was on the Internet doing a little fact checking for this post, I found a South Park clip that totally goes along with what I am talking about but it is also TOTALLY inappropriate!!
Hilarious but inappropriate!

I guess it really makes politicians look bad, but more importantly I am afraid it makes Christians look bad! At least to people on the outside looking in. These guys stand up and loudly judge others and spout their moral beliefs to everyone. What is that saying "Character is who you are when no one is looking"

It just seems like the ultimate hypocrisy.

He who lives in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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And what about Jon and Kate Gosselin? I saw a poll that said 62% of America has taken Jon's side. I may be totally wrong but from the show I watched, he was the one "excited about his new life." And she was the one wanting to save the marriage. Granted she messed up in huge ways, but at least she wants to stay and try to keep a family together. He is ready to cut his losses and start over. It seems like those adorable 8 children are a good enough reason to try at least one more time....
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This post may not make any sense, but isn't that part of the definition of a rant....

Follow me.......

2009-06-16T13:04:00.003-04:00

This has been a great week. My nieces and great nieces are here from Denver. I am enjoying every minute of it. I am soaking up every second of baby love that I can.

As usual I am leaving the picture taking up to Sarah. And as usual she is doing an outstanding job of it! So if you are interested in what the Cole family has been up to this week....follow me to her blog.

The Stress of Summer Reading

2009-06-05T00:01:00.003-04:00

I currently have 6 books checked out from the library, 2 books waiting for me on my Kindle, and no less than 4 books that I own waiting in my "magazine basket." Trying to decide which one to read first and which ones can wait is driving me crazy. I usually try to read the library books first because there is a time constraint on them.

I just finished reading the book Still Alice. I had checked it out once, but it freaked me out so I took it back without reading it. It is about a woman my age afflicted with early onset Alzheimers and with my bad memory problems it was hitting a little too close to home. But I kept thinking about it and decided to overcome my fears and try again!! So I checked it out and read it. And it really was a great book. It was written from Alice's perspective and towards the end of it she would call one of her daughters "the actress" and the other one "the mother of that cute little girl." It was absolutely heartbreaking. But a book I would definitely recommend.

Talk about confronting fears....

Next I tried to read a book called The Sweet By and By. My other irrational fear involves nursing homes. I have an extreme phobia concerning them. I will not go into detail here, but take my word for it I have nightmares. Often. Bad ones.

To make a long story short, I gave up on this book. I saw no reason to torture myself. Others may love it but I could not take it. It with a began in a nursing home at a Christmas party with cheap decorations, a spelling bee game that no one could play and old ladies hiding liquor in their wheelchairs! Here is a review from Southern Living that made me want to read it. It still may be a good book, just not for me!

Now for the book I am reading now....

All the Living is definitely a winner. No fears or phobias. Just great southern literature at it's finest! I read a review and it sounded so good I had a hard time waiting until I could get it at the library. But it came this week and it was just what the doctor ordered. A book that I cannot put down. I am loving it. If southern fiction is a genre that you like you MUST read this. I will hasten to say that I am only 1/4 of the way through it though so I cannot vouch for the ending yet!

And here are a few more books that I have checked out.

This one is self-explanitory!!

This is a new biography that I have heard is good.

This book has a lot of people talking. I am excited to read this. Here is a summary...

I LOVE SUMMER!!!

Getaway to the ATL

2009-05-31T18:11:00.005-04:00

So it is Sunday afternoon and I am already lonely!!

And I was in Atlanta all day yesterday and today. Oh brother, something tells me I am in for a long week......

I have lots of projects planned....

getting the upstairs ready for the girls to come next week

all of the ironing....(seriously hours worth!)

scrubbing my wood floors

painting my bedroom (shhhhh, David doesn't know and would not approve)

a little cross-stitch (would you believe I am trying to finish a baby sampler for Matt?!!...yes...I know he is 23 years old. I am a little behind.

three books from the library

countless magazines

4 movies borrowed from Michelle next door

But something tells me I am still going to be lonely.
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Here is a quick recap of our 36 hour shopping, eating tour of Atlanta-

We left here at 8 on Saturday morning. Matt drove the whole way. Just like David. I don't know if they are just very chivalrous or they both think I am a terrible driver. Either way, it does not matter to me because I hate to drive. I was going to make the trip by myself and I am so glad I did not have to.

This was a sign on the corner outside of the outlets. Can you read it? Matt thought is was suspicious!

We got to the North Georgia Premium Outlets about 12 and hit the ground running. Pottery Barn outlet, Restoration Hardware outlet, Williams-Sonoma outlet. Let's just say I was in retail heaven! But I tried to be conscious of Matt's tolerance level so we also found him some shorts, work clothes and swim trunks.

We left there about 4 and checked in to our room at the Hyatt Place in Alpharetta, that I booked online for $52 a night. A pretty good bargain if I do say so myself!!

Next we went to SmokeJack BBQ in downtown Alpharetta. We ate beef brisket and beer-battered grouper. Delish.

And we were not finished. We hopped on over to the NorthPoint mall and Barnes and Noble before we went back to the room to watch the NBA playoff game, the NHL playoff game, Numbers and Josh Groban in concert. No- I mean all at the same time. Matt kept the remote in his hand and flipped and flipped and flipped. I said nothing.

I guess I have David trained. He does not do that. IF David reads this he will have just another example of things I tolerate from the son but not from the father!!! You moms understand, right??

So today we slept in and got up eager for Mexican for breakfast! Well we ate at 11 but I guess you could say it was breakfast because it was our first meal. Pappasito's!! Yummy. I think Matt liked it as much as I did. I had beef fajitas and poblano shrimp. Matt had chicken fajitas. And we both had about 25 flour tortillas! Filling. Yes they were.

Sensing I was seriously close to Matt's shopping and bonding-time-with-Mom limit, we hurried to Ballards Backroom and Nordstrom's (for the free Clinique gift!). (CHECK OUT THE ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS BAG!)

And then I took a short nap in the car and we were home.

(Oh I almost forgot the funny thing that happened on the way home. Since Matt did all the driving, he picked out the music. Sometimes we listened to country, sometimes we listened to worship music, but occasionally we tuned in to the rock stations. I am not a big fan. But as I was listening to one song, I THOUGHT I heard the artist say "stab your mom, shoot your dad"!

I said, "Did he just say stab your mom, shoot your dad?"

Matt laughed and said "No, he said, "Tell your mom, tell your dad!!" I guess I was a little paranoid!!)

Well, I was home. Matt is badly in need of some male socializing, so he is playing poker with friends.

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-05-22T21:27:00.002-04:00

The Final 2008-2009 edition!!!!!!!!

So after moving day yesterday, we had a half-day for students today.

No structure, no plans, no classes. Just 3 long hours with my homeroom kids.

And remember I moved EVERYTHING out of my classroom yesterday and the kids are not allowed to inhabit the new classroom this school year. So what did that mean for me?????

It meant that today I had 15 kids show up.

And I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in my room. NO desks for them to sit in. NO tv for them to watch. No books for them to look at. NOTHING.........

So for three hours I had 15 kids, an empty room and a ball!!!! Let's just say I had to get very creative. I had nothing left to hold over their heads. Grades were turned in. I could not threaten to hold them out of yearbook signing or the end of the year dance. Nothing. I had no leverage. Scary.

My sole bargaining chip was 4 Mr. Gatti's free child's buffet coupons.

So I said--OK guys, at the end of the day, all who have been cooperative with me will pick a number and the 4 closest will get a coupon. Lame, maybe. But when it's all you got, it's all you got.

My little country boy tried to entertain me by telling me a story of how he went "cow tipping" yesterday. I thought I might know what cow tipping was, but I asked anyway. In his very country twang, he said--

"It's when you get two of your friends together and you run at a cow and try to tip it over!"

Bayley that sounds awful, I said. How could you do that? Haven't I taught you to be kinder to animals??

"I ain't gonna do it again," he says. "I felt bad, so after that I saved an eagle!"

No I don't know what he meant. I didn't even ask.

You know I have said many times that I love my job. And I do. And I have said how I will miss them this summer. And I will. But today at noon, when it was time for them to load buses and get in their cars to go home, I was so glad to see each and every one of them walk---er, I mean run screaming out of my door!

Moving Day!!!!

2009-05-20T21:56:00.004-04:00

Finally today we started moving into our new classrooms!! I am beyond thrilled with everything. I snuck in this morning and took a few pictures just before the movers started moving my stuff over. Is it not beautiful??

(I am using a different computer and cannot figure out how to rearrange the pictures so they are out of order...)

These first two pictures are of the 6th grade lab. Three science teachers will share this room and reserve it for lab activities. I am loving this!!

This is a huge closet that Coach Hawkins and I will share. It will have shelves soon!!

This is my classroom. This is the front demonstration table. And the closet door.

My gorgeous windows. We had to fight for the rooms with windows. I am SOOOO happy to have windows.

These wonderful shelves and cabinets are only in the science rooms. I am loving them.

It is a great day at Powell Middle!!!

Tomorrow is the talent show and an in-school dance. Friday is a half day for students. And then we are home free!!!

Shaun Groves

2009-05-15T21:42:00.002-04:00

I read Shaun Groves blog everyday.

And this entry is so profound, I just had to link to it.

I think all of our churches could be used more efficiently. The building should be occupied and put to use for the community daily and nightly.....girl scouts, boy scouts, exercise classes, AA meetings, feeding the hungry, etc.

Meeting the needs of people, right?

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-08T22:27:00.006-04:00

My cup overfloweth is the phrase that comes to mind when I see this picture.

First of all let me say thanks to Sarah for my new blog header. I love the colors! Doesn't it look great? She took the picture as well!

On this Mother's Day I guess I am feeling a little introspective.

I am thankful every single day for my children.

I have said before they have been my life's purpose. I am proud of the adults they have become. I could spend hours listing their many attributes, but I am most proud of their hearts. They care about others and it shows in everything they do. How they treat their friends, their family, and even people they do not know.

And if anyone knows their hearts it is me. I am an expert on my kids. I have seen them at their best and I have seen them at their worst. I have watched them make mistakes, some little and some big. I have cheered from the sidelines at their successes and accomplishments. And there have been quite a few of those!

What I am trying to say is that they are just good people.

Thank you Sarah and Matt for making me feel like the luckiest mom in the world.

I am so happy now when something good happens in their lives and I am the first or second person they call to share it with. Just the other day Matt found out he made an A on an exam. When he called to tell me, I was thrilled that he wanted me to share in his excitement.

And on Friday I got a text from Sarah after she and Rachel had given Steven his car. The text said "Just gave Steven his car!" It meant so much that she wanted me to share that special moment with her.

Happiness is....being surrounded by your children.

When I try to write a post like this I get so frustrated because I am not an eloquent writer. I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. Especially when I try to write about something as important as how much my kids mean to me. I guess there are no words.

But I love to read the words of others. I usually think--YES!! That is EXACTLY what I feel.

Here are some examples.....

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

While we try to teach our children all about life,Our children teach us what life is all about.~Angela Schwindt

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. ~Robert Fulghum

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give. ~P.D. James

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again"

Random musings...

2009-05-04T19:41:00.009-04:00

As I was standing in the Vera Bradley store this afternoon, I heard a teenage girl on her cellphone with someone saying, "I didn't know if you would want to spend $15.00 JUST for Mother's Day!"

YIKES!!!

(Don't worry I kept my mouth shut!)

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In my reading class we occasionally have DEAR time. That stands for Drop Everything And Read. I have one sweet boy who religiously (no pun intended) reads his bible and works on a bible study. He is so neat and meticulous with it. He has a check off sheet and as he finishes each selection he diligently marks it read and moves to the next one.

For someone like me who struggles with the discipline of a daily devotion time, he is truly an inspiration!

Today I asked him if I could take a picture of his check-off page. I am sure he thought I was crazy!!

I know it is a little blurry, but notice the check marks to the left of each line.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job??

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And finally I spent literally all day Saturday making Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon rolls.

As you can see from the first picture, I was not sure they were going to be successful.

Even the second picture still looks a little iffy!!

But when they came out of the oven I was pleased!!

Although I am not sure they were worth a day of my life!

The Chicken or the Egg

2009-04-26T19:12:00.005-04:00

Today was my pseudo field trip to see the Disney Earth movie. What started out being 75 students attending ended up being 15 or so!! But we had a great time. A couple of students brought their whole families.

On that note, I had an interesting observation: The two families that attended today came with two of my VERY brightest students. I mean probably out of 100 students these would be the very two that I could pick out as extremely gifted. Did I accidentally perform a scientific experiment?

Do families that place a priority on family time produce bright children? Or do bright children simply enjoy spending time with their families?? Was it just a coincidence?? Who knows.....but it was interesting none the less.

I think it is along the same lines of when you have a parent night at school, the honors classes are full of parents, and the parents of the students in the lower classes are absent. And those students are the ones who ESPECIALLY need their parents to be involved.

Oh if only we could find the answer to that problem.

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On a lighter note...

Here is my project for the day. I have wanted these urns forever. I think they look pretty good. The red geraniums remind me of Mamaw Dunn.

Happy Earth Day!!

2009-04-22T21:24:00.007-04:00

In class today I tried to make a big deal about Earth Day. We watched a clip from a Planet Earth video and read a couple of articles about global warming and habitat destruction. I also showed the trailer of the new Disney Nature movie that opens today.

My family knows that I am completely obsessed with the Planet Earth dvds. They have changed the way I feel about the planet on which I live. I see it differently now. Dramatic, I know. But true. Nature is awesome. And God created it all. I don't know how you can see a flower that has a 6 inch deep hole in it full of nectar that is only found in one particular place on the planet, and in that same particular place there is a small bird that has a 6 inch beak made to reach into that flower, and not KNOW THERE IS A GOD.

All through this school year my classes have watched the dvds because they fit in with my curriculum. The students love them as much as I do.

But I was still surprised today when I told them that I was planning to go to the theater this Sunday afternoon to see the movie and I asked if anyone wanted to meet me there. In each and every class EVERYONE of them raised their hands. I could have cried. They share my love of Planet Earth. I know they all will not be able to be there, but I am still hoping to have a crowd.

Too Funny

2009-04-17T12:30:00.001-04:00

I seem to not have much to blog about lately, so I will share another blog that I found with you. This was so funny....

Son

2009-04-14T22:25:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite bloggers 6YearMed posted this today and it totally got me.

A Beautiful Spring Weekend

2009-04-05T20:40:00.007-04:00

There is not much better than enjoying a great weekend like we just had here in East Tennessee. I spent yesterday pretty much drugged because of a headache, so I wanted to make the most out of today.

By making the most of today, I mean here is where I spent most of it....

And here is what David means by making the most of a great spring weekend....

He aerated, mowed, planted, and seeded the yard. He took my car and got new tires. You get the idea.

Here are some more pictures that just make me happy!

I love flowers.

I love having cut flowers or at least something that is blooming in the house.

I love watching my herbs sprout out of the dirt!!

This one even made it through the winter indoors. That never happens around here!

Reading again!

2009-04-01T21:21:00.008-04:00

I am reading a new book that has me hooked. I don't know why I feel the need to share these books with you but I do!!

The name of it is The Little Giant of Aberdeen County. I am only on page 74 and I am in LOVE with Truly already!

Summary: When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places. -- Grand Central Publishing

The writing is beautiful. Here is an example.

As Truly begins school, her teacher sends a note to her father explaining that she has to go to the doctor for shots and a physical. He hates doctors because his wife died in childbirth. He is looking at his daughter and he says "Not a lick of your mother in you."

She thinks:

After one of my father's harangues, I always felt like one of our sour-smelling, holey dishrags thrown in the corner of the sink. I thought about the X-ray glasses advertised on the back of the cereal box we'd bought last week. Right then, I wished my father could have put them on. Then maybe he would have seen that I was more like my mother than it appeared.

The town doctor is the only person in town that is kind to her. He says things to her like, "pretty is as pretty does." I guess you just have to be reading it, but can you imagine how good that would sound to someone who has always been told that they are ugly and therefore worthless?

I think I want to share that quote tomorrow with my sixth grade girls.....

Pretty is as pretty does!!

It's Here!

2009-03-26T22:40:00.003-04:00

My new chair that is!

The color is more buttery yellow than it looks in the picture.

It was not due to arrive until the middle of May, so I was surprised to get a call yesterday saying it was ready to be picked up! I was a little nervous because I chose the chair from a picture and the fabric from a swatch about 4x6 inches big!

The good news is that I love it. Really it's great news since I was going to be stuck with it regardless of how I felt!

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Tonight Sarah and I made Ina Garten's chocolate orange cake. My part was almost a disaster, but in the end I think it was saved. Here is a picture! We really won't know until we cut it tomorrow night.

Happy Birthday Eudora!

2009-03-25T16:45:00.013-04:00

Eudora Welty

At the risk of boring you.....

I really am fascinated with Eudora Welty, and this April 13 would be her 100th birthday. So I think that deserves a post!! I first became enamored with her when I took an American Literature course at UT and was required to watch an interview she had done. I was mesmerized by her. I don't know why, I just loved listening to the way she talked and especially listening to what she had to say. This carried over into loving her writing. I identified with her for whatever reason. So now I am forcing her on you!!

Here is a clip I found on youtube. See if you are as taken with her voice and meek, humble demeaner as I was. I tried to download it but it must have been to long because it would not work. Go ahead take a look at it.

Here are some of the events that are scheduled in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi to celebrate the centennial of her birth.

Oh, if only I could attend one of these...

March 24: The Eudora Welty House induction into the Southern Literary Trail.
March 28: “Heirloom Plants in Garden Design”-Belhaven College and Welty Garden.
April 11-July 5: The Mississippi opening of the remounting of Welty’s 1936 Lugene photography exhibit -Mississippi Museum of Art
April 13: Welty’s hundredth birthday celebration at the Eudora Welty House.
April 14-19, 22-26: New Stage Theatre presents The Ponder Heart.
April 16-18: Joint meeting of the Southern Literary Festival and The Eudora Welty Society.
April 17: Concert featuring Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kate Campbell, Caroline Herring, and Claire Holley at Belhaven College.
April 18: “Adoring Eudora” performed by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra at Thalia Mara Hall.
October: Premiere of Welty’s Mississippi “State Fair” painting at the Mississippi Museum of Art

There is a new book that has just been published. It is called Occasions: Selected Writings. Here is what a review says:

Capping the new Welty offerings is Occasions: Selected Writings, a collection of lesser-known short works that appeared in books, magazines, journals, and newspapers. Topics range from Charles Dickens’s eggnog recipe (“It was ladled from the punch bowl into the punch cups and silver goblets, and had to be eaten with a spoon. It stood up in peaks. It was rich, creamy and strong”) to a scathing letter to the editor of the New York Times Book Review in defense of Reynolds Price that packs the wallop and crackle of a summer lightning storm.

Needless to say I have ordered it already! I cannot wait to get it! Nerd that I am.

This is a great article on Welty, written by her friend and fellow southern writer Reynolds Price. It is found in the southern magazine Garden and Gun. It is a very insightful article about the private Eudora that you rarely get a glimpse of.

I also found out while I was googling Eudora Welty that the April issue of the Smithsonian magazine has an article about Welty's photography. I have not received mine yet, but now I will be eagerly waiting! I just missed an exhibit of her photography in New York, it closed in February.

Thanks for letting me share!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2009-03-23T20:03:00.004-04:00

I will warn you up front that this may not translate on paper, but today was one of those days where things began slowly going down hill and before I knew it, I had totally lost control of the class.

This was the first day back after spring break. I came in this morning cold, with no plans. So I quickly planned the week before the kids came into homeroom.

So at 8:05, ready or not, here they came. I was glad to see them. I had missed MOST of them. I enjoyed listening to their vacation stories....

"Hilton Head is an old folks beach"

" I wrecked my bike twice!"

"The girl I liked that lived down the street moved to California."

My grandmother bought me all 4 Twilight books!"

"I got run over by a golf cart"

I do not even want to know how that happens.

______________________________

So anyway I am trying to teach them about refraction and lenses. I am tired and not in the mood, (they are not either by the way)! So I am reviewing convex mirrors and I ask them to describe the shape. [This is the shape..(...]. It is curved outward. So I have some smarty pants tell me the shape was like santa claus and he makes his hands form santa's fat belly. So everyone laughs at that.

I have to admit though that he is right.

Then I ask what the bending of light is called and another kid shouts out "REFLACTION" instead of refraction. It really was funny!

Then I begin to discuss convex lenses and I pass out magnifying glasses to each kid to let them see and feel a convex lens. As I think I am beginning to get control back, my student with the VERY country accent raises his hand and seriously asks...

" Mrs. Cole, did you know if you put one of them thangs (magnifying glass) up to the sun you could burn up an aint (ant)?

I completely lost it!! Too funny!

IS IT REALLY ONLY MONDAY??

Read this

2009-03-19T16:31:00.003-04:00

I don't have much to say today. I am playing catch up and spring cleaning like MAD!!

But I read this today and it just made me weep. (In case you don't know this is a blog from a young doctor). I just wanted to share it. It made me so thankful for the health of my family. After reading this and hearing about the sudden death of Natasha Richardson, I feel the need to remind everyone (or the few that are reading this, at least!) to tell their families how much they love each other and not take one single moment for granted.

_______________

Along those same lines I found a book at the Anthropologie store in NYC that I thought would make a wonderful baby gift, so I bought two! It is called 101 Things You Should Do Before Your Kids Leave Home. It starts out saying:

Eighteen years, maybe twenty: that's about all the time you will have to prepare your kids to be happy, responsible, independent, peace-loving citizens of the world into which they were born.....It has chapters with titles like:

Thank A Soldier
Hug Your Kids Until They Let Go
Conquer A Mountain
Dance Together in the Ocean Waves
Pick Up Trash in the Park
Read a Classic Novel Together
Work Together in a Soup Kitchen
Tell the Family Stories

I just love the idea of this book. I wish someone has shared these ideas with me. Time goes by so fast. You cannot go back and make up the time you spent washing dishes and cleaning when you should have been reading and playing with your children!

CAN SOMEONE FIND ME A SOAPBOX?

Anyway as I said at the beginning...since there are no children here at the moment, I am going to finish my cleaning!

Follow me!!

2009-03-16T08:47:00.002-04:00

Since there is no use in us both blogging about the same experiences, and she writes better AND takes better pictures than I do......

follow me to Sarah's blog.

And by the way,

My wedding was in 1982. The Commodores were the bomb!

I WAS only 20 years old.

And my wedding WAS classy!!!!!!!! :)

New York City Itinerary

2009-03-13T19:30:00.003-04:00

While we are gone, Sarah and I are going to be blogging together...either that or I am going to just cut and paste hers to mine!!!

So for today, follow me here for our itinerary!!

Memory Believes

2009-03-10T20:50:00.006-04:00

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.” William Faulkner from "A Light in August"

I stumbled upon this quote about a week ago and it has STUCK in my mind ever since. Probably because I am still trying to process it and wrap my brain around it. I happen to have this book but have not read it. So I got it out to try to put the quote in some kind of context to see if it would shed some light on it's meaning. That was a mistake. It is the first line in the sixth chapter, and as I continued reading, I was even more confused! Faulkner is CONFUSING!!

So I googled the quote to see if I could find some commentary that would help. I did find this quote that made some sense to me....

"Memory happens in the heart, I think. And our hearts think faster than our minds. Our hearts remember what is true before our minds can pull the facts from the files."

I was thinking something like----Our past tells us what is true. What happens now cannot override what we know to be real because we have already lived it.

Whatever.

Was it not Faulkner as well who said "The past isn't dead; it isn't even past." It is sort of like that.

I do love to read beautiful prose though and that is some pretty stuff!

_______________________________

Ok and to completely change the subject:

Last night David was working on his Wesley House board "business" on the computer in the office. He had been in there a while and I could hear him typing up a storm! So I decided to check on him. So I walked in and asked him how he was doing.

He said he was almost finished, but he was writing a note on facebook to thank his friends that left him birthday greetings.

So as I watched him, he was going to town, typing very fast with only his two index fingers! It looked so funny. I think he can type like 50 words a minute with just those two fingers!!!

So I looked at what he was writing on facebook and here is what it said...

"Thanks for the happy birthday wishes, I would write more but Sheila is making fun of my TWO PECKER method of typing."

YIKES!

I told him to delete that ASAP. That what he meant to say was the "hunt and peck" method!!!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2009-03-02T21:45:00.002-05:00

Today in class, I was trying to prepare my students for a test tomorrow on rather difficult subject matter, waves. As I am trying to give them advice on how to prepare for the test, I noticed that some where looking out the window, a few were slumped back in their desks not paying attention, one was working on his math homework....

You get the picture. So I proceeded to lose my cool! I don't know what posessed me to go into the "long-term-future" speech, but I did it anyway.

So I tried to talk to them about what they wanted to do with their lives.

I KNOW-I KNOW-They are sixth graders. But I asked them...

What do you want to do when you get older?

Yes I did. I said that and I deserved what I got.

So the first kid said, "I want to be Batman"

The second one said, "I am going to be a pro baseball player."

But when the third one said "My grandfather says there is not going to be a future anyway."

Well....I knew I was beaten. And just for today, in that one class, I gave up.

Hilarious

2009-02-26T23:27:00.003-05:00

You may have already seen this, but it makes me laugh so hard I could not resist posting it here! In case you have not, it is a kid on the way home from the dentist still feeling the effects of the drugs!!

Why I Love Sixth Graders

2009-02-25T22:39:00.005-05:00

Believe it or not today in class I actually had a student convince me he had been bitten by a shark in Myrtle Beach two years ago. We were discussing headaches and other miscellaneous ailments, when out of the blue he said, "Well, I got bit by a shark when I was ten." He said it so matter-of-factly, that I almost did not hear him. I asked him to repeat it and he did. I said there was no way. And he said, "Yes it is true. Parker was there. He saw it."

Parker is another student in the same class. Maybe clue number one that I was being had! But Parker chimed in right on cue that yes he was there. They were on a trip with their baseball team.

At this point I was in shock. Logan showed me his knee and wrapped around it was indeed a huge violent looking scar. My hand was over my mouth and I could hardly speak. I was sitting in the room with someone that had been bitten by a shark!!

The entire room was listening. I asked how it felt. Was he scared? Did he see it? How deep was the water? He had answers for it all. He said he, Parker and his older brother were in the water, waist deep, throwing a football. And all of a sudden he felt pain.....

Then his brother began to carry him out of the water. He said he went to the hospital. I asked if he went in an ambulance. At the same time that he said he rode in a car, Parker nodded his head that yes, he had gone in an ambulance. Hmmmm. I began to have my doubts.

It's about time you say?

Are you guys lying?

They denied it.

So I went next door to ask MaryAnn. She did not know either, but a girl in her class who overheard me said--

"Mrs. Cole, he had a dirt bike wreck!"

I marched right back in my room and called him a little LIAR!! Oh, yes I did. The entire room was hysterical. I cannot believe I am so gullible.

Or maybe I can. I was 100% fooled.

If the names of these two guys look familiar it is because they were the subjects of this post as well.

_____________

I just have to put a link to this sweet story. I don't know what it is about posts about families and little kids but they really get to me.

I Love My Son

2009-02-22T14:33:00.009-05:00

Mattie

I have always known this, but today, especially, I feel the need to say it again....

My son is one of the kindest, most caring and loving men I have ever known. And if you are lucky enough to call him family or friend, you are lucky indeed.

Odds and Ends

2009-02-19T22:44:00.009-05:00

Several random things on my mind today:

1. This post from 6 year Med really has me thinking.

2. Our small group watched a Nooma video of Rob Bell's last night called "Open." I LOVE just about everything he says. Those Nooma videos are only about 15 minutes long, but they make me want to listen to them about 3 or 4 times in a row to try and grasp all of what he is saying. But last night one thing he said has been haunting my thoughts--to paraphrase he said...

Don't ask God to feed the hungry if your food is plentiful.

That line hit me like a hammer right between the eyes. I am not sure what to do with it yet. But does it seem like God is trying to tell me something?

3. When David walked Sarah out to her car last night, (yes she thinks it is scary at night around our house!) he came back in, sat down and said " I love being a dad." Just out of the blue. But it is so true. Being parents to Sarah and Matt has been the greatest blessing of our lives-NO DOUBT. Then I read this post by Boo Mama. SO SWEET. And I realized that yes I miss even this!!

4. And on a much lighter note today in one of my classes a student asked me if I had ever put lemon juice on my hair. I remarked that I was so old I had tried just about everything on my hair two or three times at least. One sweet girl spoke up quickly and said that I was not old I was "barely over half way!!" Yikes. Not sure I wanted to think of it that way!! I do realize 47 and 47 equal 94.....but I come from a long line of healthy vibrant women who live well into their 90's!! Amen and amen!

Lists

2009-02-18T21:23:00.005-05:00

I have always been a person who loves lists. I love to collect lists. I love to make lists of my own. Most of all I love to check off lists!

I have kept a copy of the "Twenty-five Classic American Novels" for years, determined to read all 25 of them. (I am not even close by the way!)

I have a list of the "Fifty Most Listened to Love Songs" for whatever reason!

I always watched "VH-1's Top 100 Videos of All Times". Why I do not know. I guess because "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake was usually there somewhere and I could never get enough of that song.

If a magazine has an article that has anything like the "Favorite Beauty Products of 2009" or "Ten Household Items You Cannot Do Without", I buy it for sure.

So when I saw Pioneer Woman's post today that said she made the Time magazine list of the "Top 25 Blogs" I was thrilled. For her yes, but mostly because I had a new list to explore. So I have spent much of the evening doing just that. For any of you who enjoy blogs you should check some of them out. There is something for everyone.

Here are just a few that I found interesting. You can thank me later!

There is a blog called Lifehacker that "is a "Hints from Heloise" for the digital age; it's all about doing more with what you already have. There are tips on brewing the best possible coffee without spending more money, making simple low-cost crock pot dinners, and improving your resume." It looks interesting.

Then there is Metafilter. It is a blog that is a "ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge — the latest findings on string theory and evolutionary biology share space with fond remembrances of the TV show Charlie's Angels and rumors of a new Spinal Tap album."

Next is "Got2BeGreen a blog devoted to highlighting ideas and products that are friendly not only to the planet but to your budget."

And Zen Habits. This blog is supposed to "excel at offering specific strategies to improve and simplify your life." How could that not be a great one!

The Official Google Blog is for getting the most out of the "Google search engine that's on almost everybody's computer, and the blog is full of helpful tips."

Seth Godin's blog made the list. I am not that interested in his subject matter but apparently thousands are.

"Deadspin is a blog for the sports fan who loves the game but realizes that there's plenty of action happening off the field." This is my kind of sports blog. I think reading about the sports personalities are actually more interesting than reading about games and scores!

The only education-related blog that made the list is a blog called Detention Slip. It is awful! It compiles all of the bad things you hear about schools in one place. You know, all of the stories you might read in the National Enquirer--wonderful!

There are many political blogs on the list. There are blogs that have to do with food, music and film. Here is the link again if you want to check out any of those!

If none of this is even remotely of interest to you I am sorry. I just felt the need to share!

Valentine's Day 2009

2009-02-15T17:42:00.002-05:00

We actually celebrated Valentine's Day on Monday by eating out at Downtown Grill and Brewery. The food there is always great and we both enjoy going downtown. The plan was to go to Mast General as well, where David was going to buy me a new pair of shoes for the New York trip. Well, we were hungry, so we ate first and when we walked to Mast they were already closed!

So we tried again on Saturday morning. They were open, but no luck on finding shoes. I ended up finding the ones I wanted online and ordered them.

Next, we went to OP Jenkins, my ABSOLUTE favorite furniture store. I am looking for a chair and ottoman for a corner of my family room. I am looking for a chair like this or this. So of course I found one exactly like I wanted as soon as I walked in. I asked the price and needless to say it was a little (okay a lot) out of my price range. So I am planning to go to Direct Buy sometime this week and get what I want. You get so much more for your money here but you have to spend hours looking through catalogs and picking out fabric. Then you wait for 8 weeks of so for it to be made and THEN you go pick it up! Oh well, that is a small price to pay to get what you want at a price you can afford!!

Finally, we went to the Fresh Market to buy food for supper. I love that place. I wanted to have a fondue meal. The problem was I did not have a fondue pot. So I first had to spend 30 dollars on that. Then $70 dollars on the ingredients. So much for a cheaper night in!! That special cheese for the fondue, gruyere and emmentaler, is quite expensive. But it was very tasty!!

Here are the pictures......

Steak bites from Pioneer Woman, sauteed shrimp with no recipe, and roasted fingerling potatoes

Basic cheese fondue with white wine, gruyere and emmentaler cheese

Pears, pineapple, pretzels and strawberries for the dessert

Chocolate orange fondue with dark chocolate, Grand Marnier, and cream! YUM!

Bacon and Cheddar Scones

2009-02-11T20:15:00.009-05:00

I need one of those fancy scone cutters with the fluted edges!
Honestly I could have made them look better, but I was more

interested in getting them in the oven so I could eat them!

I am definitely not the Pioneer Woman. I am not even Sarah with her new flash. So my picture might not look like much, but I did cook me some mean bacon cheddar scones tonight. I bought the cookbook that Sarah has by the Pastry Queen because I loved it so much. This recipe makes quite a few scones and since they are best piping hot right out of the oven, I divided the dough into thirds and froze two/thirds for later!! You should try them!!

P.S. While this doesn't rate it's own "Why I Love 6th Graders" post, today on the way back from lunch, ( my most informative conversational time apparently) I had a young man ask me an interesting question. Here is his exact quote I believe.....

"Mrs. Cole, what does douche bag mean? I asked the health teacher and she said she did not know, so I thought I would ask the science teacher!!!!!!"

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-02-08T20:24:00.016-05:00

I love this picture of my dad getting out of the water.

My dad is 66 years old today. I thought about doing a post of my favorite memories, but all I kept thinking about were times like...

1. The time he wanted to "show" me the snake he caught in his pigeon coop and he chased me with it and I had to lock myself in my room for hours. (Yes he had a pigeon coop in the backyard! That is a whole 'nother story!)

2. The time I was too scared to jump off of the roof of the houseboat, so after watching me stand there looking down at the water for what seemed like hours, he decided to show me how "easy" it was. As he jumped off, he slipped on the wet roof and almost hit his head on the way into the water. We all thought he was dead for sure!

3. The time he had several of us transfixed on one of his many impromptu zoology lessons; this one was on bryozoans. He was explaining that they were actually marine animals that usually lived in colonies...etc. etc. It was really interesting. We had all never heard of them before. And just as he had us intently spellbound, he took a huge bite out of it! We were totally grossed out!!

This is an actual bryozoan. YUCK!!!!!

A great family day on the boat.

But seriously, it is no coincidence that so many of my favorite memories of my dad happened on a houseboat on the river. It is because that is where he loves to be. He always has. One of my favorite memories was the three week vacation we took on our houseboat when I was about 14. The plan was to travel from our home in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to our grandparents home on the Mississippi river in Osceola, Arkansas. But when we got to the mouth of the Mississippi in Cairo, Illinois and saw the power of that awesome body of water, my dad wisely decided that our small one engine boat would probably not safely navigate the river alongside the barges. So we turned around and just had a relaxing fun adventure! It was a trip of a lifetime and I will always have great memories of that trip.

Another favorite time with my dad is the period of time following Sarah's birth. He was such a proud grandfather. At the age of 39 if you can believe that!! He was always taking pictures of Sarah or loving on her. I just enjoyed watching my dad and my daughter become close.

This was my family on my graduation day. I would not

have made it withou the help of all of them!

The last memory I will mention is a saved note that my dad wrote me. You see the value of an education is one of the most important things that he instilled in me. He paid for all of my first degree from UT, even after I was married and on my own. I realized even then that many of my friends were having to pay for their tuition on their own. Their parents said things like...I had to pay for my education and my kids will have to pay for theirs. I knew I was lucky. The note I saved did not say anything special on the surface, but to me it meant everything. It said...

"Here is your check for school expenses. Hope you have a good quarter. I'm real proud of you for wanting bad enough to get an education, and will be 10 times that proud when you achieve that goal. There may be more obstacles and bumps to get over, but you've come too far to turn back now! So glad we can help in this way." Love you, Daddy

In that note I heard encouragement, pride, and even a willingness to spend money for this purpose.

So without my dad's help and guidance, I might not have the career I have today. So for that and all of the other good memories I thank him today on his special day.

I love you, daddy.

Finally a Productive Snow Day!

2009-02-03T19:47:00.009-05:00

I decided last night that if we did not have school today, I was going to make good use of the day and get some things done that had been on my list for quite some time. So this morning when I discovered we were out, I showered early and ran to Wal-mart, excited about the prospects that lay ahead!

I had been concerned about our photo albums and loose pictures because they were scattered all over the house. How would we save them in case of a fire? And when I need to find that one particular picture where do I look? So I bought three big plastic tubs and put ALL of the photo albums and pictures in one place. Now I can rest easier at night!

Much better , don't you think?

Then I tackled the office. I had not moved the desk back to its right position when I took the Christmas tree down and there were books, stacks of papers, and miscellaneous STUFF in multiple piles all over the floor. This job did not take long. It was mainly filing paid bills and putting things away in their places.

The first before picture of the office. Notice all of the junk piled up in the floor!

And oh how I HATE computer wires. I have never found a solution that works to hide them.

Ahhh, much better.

Try not to notice all of the cords that are bunched up under the right side of the desk. I am trying not to!

The bonus room was the challenge of the day. It is my general catch-all room because it does not have a specific purpose. I had been collecting things in there for the big rummage sale Sarah is having, so I decided to carry all of that stuff down two flights of stairs to the basement to store until the spring. And I had been storing all of my card-making supplies in the basement so I carried all of that UP two flights of stairs!! I ironed the clothes that were on the bed and found places for most of the stuff that was sitting out on the tables. After about 2 hours upstairs, I felt like I had accomplished alot.

The first before picture might not look so bad......

but this room was a disaster!

This is my card-making table. Maybe I will get re-inspired!

I think I could even relax in this room now!

Ok I have to be honest, some of the clothes that I did not get ironed are thrown in the closet for the picture. But since we have a second snow day maybe I will even get those done!

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-01-29T14:01:00.006-05:00

I took up this note today when the students were supposed to be doing their homework. I could not figure what it was so I asked.

Of course... it was sketches of tatoos that they plan to get when they are 18. Here are some of the ideas that were on the paper. I think some show some real imagination. I marked out the last names to protect the "innocent" or "arrogant" as it were!

You can take the dog
out of the fight, but you
can't take the fight out
of the dog!

You can take the playa
out of the game, but you
can't take the game
out of the playa!

Parker: Space Cowboy-
Why So Serious?

And my personal favorite:

Logan AKA "Gangster of Love"
He Not just a Maginet,
He a Chick Maginet

But all is not hopeless because they also had this one!

You just gotta love them. They make me smile. They make me laugh. They make my day!

Laura's 50th Surprise Party!

2009-01-27T20:36:00.008-05:00

Laura and I at the END of a long night. She still looks great but I looked MUCH better a few hours before!! (Sarah, I promise the scarf was tied better earlier!)

David and I traveled to Mt. Dora, Florida on Friday afternoon for a surprise birthday party for my friend Laura. For anyone who doesn't know the background of this story is pretty interesting.

Laura and I met while in school at UT in the summer of 2002. We were both in the Lyndhurst program getting our masters to become teachers. We became fast friends and let's just say we helped each other out during some trials in each of our lives. I personally do not know what I would have done without her. That God put her in my life at that precise time when I needed her was truly a miracle. And I have treasured her friendship ever since.

Anyway, David had a good friend at UPS named Terry. He decided that they (Terry and Laura) would be a good match and wanted to fix them up. So we all four went out together. They have been a couple ever since, getting married a couple of years later. We have had so many great times together.

But back to this past weekend.....

This was the moment Terry led Laura into the pavilion where we were all waiting to yell surprise. It is also the moment she realized she had been had!

This was the picture that was on the invitations and on each table as the centerpiece. She was thrilled. We all wore pink cat-eye glasses for most of the evening!

This was the moment the DJ announced that Terry dedicated the Rod Stewart song "Forever Young" to Laura.

Terry has not been well himself for the past few months, but he pulled this surprise party off without a hitch. He really showed me how much he loves her. Laura has had some bad luck in her life and on their wedding day, I asked Terry to please be good to her and take care of her. He has lived up to the promises he made to me and I could not be happier for them. They both deserve some happiness!

I was thrilled to be able to share this special day with my friend.

Snow Day!!

2009-01-21T08:08:00.004-05:00

I know, I know. It wasn't much snow, but we teachers live for snow days, so it was enough!

This is what it looked like pretty much all day Monday.

Another Pioneer Woman Recipe Success

2009-01-13T19:31:00.004-05:00

Tonight I tried Pioneer Woman's current recipe for steak bites. They were absolutely delicious and I wholeheartedly recommend them!! Here is a picture before they were quickly eaten.

Her picture looks so much better than mine, but they were delicious!

Why I Love 6th Graders

2009-01-10T16:41:00.011-05:00

If it is okay with the three of you that read this blog I am going to quit numbering my "Why I Love 6th Graders" posts. If today is any indication, I for see many more of them in the future and "Why I Love 6th Graders #35684" is going to be hard to keep up with!

In fact here are several just from Friday. It was a good day.....

1. M, is a wonderful girl in my homeroom. She is a little bit obsessive-compulsive, maybe even a little OCD and she loves to organize and clean things. In other words, she is a girl after my own heart and one of my favorites!

So a few days ago, she comes up to my desk and asks me if there is anything she can do to help me (just another thing I love about 6th graders!) So I think for a minute and remember that I want to move my large collection of National Geographic magazines from the bottom shelf to the top shelf so they will be more accessible to the students. I ask her to move the magazines to the top and the papers that are on the top to the bottom.

Simple enough, or so I thought.

There were about 25 or so stacks like this on the floor

( I keep forgetting to have my camera on hand, so I am using my phone, hence the not-so-good picture quality, sorry)

But three days later, I still had stacks and stacks of magazines all around my desk. I could hardly move my chair back and every time I got up I almost slid on one. But I was patient because after all--she is helping me, right? So Friday I couldn't take it anymore and I asked M if we could get this project finished today. I explained that although I appreciated her trying to put them in what I assumed was chronological order by date, you know,

1998-January, February, March, etc.

1999-January, February, March, etc.

that they were just going to get messed up again.

She interrupts me to say that no, she is not putting them in chronological order at all, she is putting them in alphabetical order.

Alphabetical order? I ask...how do you alphabetize them when they all say N-A-T-I-O-N-I-A-L G-E-O-G-R-A-P-H-I-C?

"Oh, Mrs.Cole," she says, "I am putting them in alphabetical order by the TITLE OF THE FIRST ARTICLE ."

so, of course, this was in the R stack for REAL, because obviously you skip the "the"!

I just wonder what the thought process was.......

2. Later that morning in my 6th period science class, I had a student come up to my desk right in the middle of a quiz on the movements of the sun, earth and moon. He leaned in and so not to disturb anyone, quietly asked me, "Mrs. Cole, if there is a blue butted monkey, do you think there is also a yell0w butted one?"

Again, the thought process must be interesting.

3. In my last period class, I finished the lesson 5 minutes before it was time to dismiss class, so to kill time I asked...

Is anyone doing anything fun or cool this weekend?

One girl says- I am going to Greeneville for a soccer tournament. Great!

Another says-I am going to church. Good!

A boy says- I am going to Camp Ba-yo-ca. Wonderful!

Another says- I am just being myself and that is cool! ( He likes himself alot!) Hmmmm!

One girl says- I am going to Sevierville to the new waterpark! It'll be cold!

And one girl yells out- I am going to a cage fight! Whaaaaaa?

A cage fight, I ask horrified

"What," she says, " I just like to watch fights in cages!"

Yikes. I am still trying to process my thoughts on this one!

Peer Tutoring

2009-01-08T19:38:00.004-05:00

Don't they look like they are having fun?

Okay maybe they were not so much!

Excuse the pictures. They were taken with my Blackberry and are a little blurry

I am trying something new for the next two weeks in class. We are two thirds of the way through the curriculum and so I am stopping for a little review.

Each day I am giving a mini-quiz on just one topic. You either know it or you don't. If you get the answer correct you get a 100 and if you don't your grade is "needs more work!" Then I matched up those who made 100's with the one's who needed more work. And they spent the rest of the class teaching and learning the concept. It was a little noisy at times, but it was fun to watch. So tomorrow those who needed more work today will get another opportunity to take the quiz and make a 100.

This is a different way to teach for me. It is hard to give up the control and let the students take over themselves. But research says that they learn more when they take ownership of their own learning. So we will see.

Why I Love 6th Graders #9 and #10

2009-01-06T19:47:00.011-05:00

earrings made of vegetable ivory

#9. One of my students visited the rain forest in Costa Rica over Christmas break. She brought me these beautiful earrings. They made me so happy. Not that she brought me a gift, but that she spent 10 minutes telling me why she just had to get them for me and how she knew I would love them. She said she remembered the Planet Earth videos we had watched and the elephants we saw swimming. She reminded me that we discussed the fact that they are endangered, that they are killed by poachers for the ivory in their tusks and then left to die. So when she found earrings that were made of vegetable ivory as a substitute for elephant ivory she was thrilled. She then proceeded to tell me about a bird and an ant that have a mutualistic relationship high up in the trees of the rain forest. They had been on a tour and the tour guide was impressed that she knew the word mutualistic! A success story!!

#10. I was having a discussion with my reading class about some of the special moments from their Christmas break, getting a little discouraged as I listened to one after another simply give their seemingly unending list of gifts they had received. New phones, dirt bikes, clothes, Coach purses, etc. I tried to steer them in another direction by asking them what gifts they had given to others. After one young lady, who had an especially long list of gifts that she had received, said she had bought nothing for her family because she did not want to --WASTE HER OWN MONEY--I was especially disheartened. How was I ever going to get through to them?? The very next to answer was a student who's mother had died last year. When I asked him about his special moment, he said it was when his brother opened the bow and arrow that he had given him because "he smiled and I almost never see him smile anymore." Now that was a moment.

This is Tough

2009-01-02T03:06:00.003-05:00

It is 3:05 A.M, and I am trying to find the best way to say that Maggie has gone to live with another family. There is not a best way. I am sad, I am mad at myself, and I am disappointed. She was such a sweet puppy. She needed so much attention and she was going to need even more. I could not imagine how everything was going to work with David and I both gone all day.

I cannot believe that at 46 years of age I did not know myself any better. David tried to tell me, but I did not listen. I am not going to make excuses. I am not happy with myself AT ALL. I have learned from it.

I found an ad for a family that was looking for a female labradoodle puppy to be a companion for their female labradoodle. They have a fenced in yard and they did not want Maggie's crate because they said she would sleep with them!

I am actually looking forward to getting back to my routine of school and being busy again. I am not looking forward to explaining to 100 12-year-olds why I don't have Maggie anymore. I guess I will try to use it as a "teachable moment." One that I will be listening to myself.

Maggie Update

2008-12-21T22:11:00.003-05:00

***Because of the cold weather in the midwest, Maggie is now scheduled to arrive in Knoxville at 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday. No one is allowed to ask David how I reacted to this news. Let's just say I am not proud of myself. Okay?

Twenty-Five Years Ago Today...

2008-12-18T15:17:00.042-05:00

...Sarah was born.

Today is Sarah's twenty-fifth birthday and since I have already given her her birthday/ Christmas present I thought maybe a blog post would be a good idea! How about the twenty-five reasons I am the luckiest mom in the world. Lets see, this should be the easiest thing I have ever written.....

1. When she was young......wait, she was never young.

2. Other than having the worst cases of chicken pox and mono that the doctors had ever seen, she has never given her father or I a moments worry.

3. If I close my eyes and visualize her when she was a little girl, I picture her sucking her fingers and holding her blanket.

4. For her senior trip she wanted to go to New York with her mom. How lucky am I?

5. She made me this video for Mother's Day. I loved it.

6. She gave me a wonderful son-in-law.

7. I learned more from her than I ever taught her.

8. She has always helped me mother her little brother! (Remember these are my favorite things not Matt's!)

9. She has given us the cutest "granddog."

10. Her singing during worship on Sundays makes me SO proud.

11. She has such style and her hair always looks good ( especially when she has just has it cut and colored!!) (HaHa!)

12. She is always giving us lessons on frugality.

13. She ran a half-marathon with half the oxygen of a normal person.

14. Her baking is the perfect complement to my savory cooking.

15. She cracks me up. I mean I think she is one of the funniest people I know. I will always remember-Major Appleblack-I can't feel my face-and -I just don't know how to play!!

16. She inspires me to read literature not just best sellers. I am still trying to tackle The Grapes of Wrath.
17. She actually wore all of those jumpers that I made her for every holiday!

18. She has NEVER disappointed me.

19. One day she will be a great mother to the most perfect children! ( My grandchildren of course!)

20. She loves her students and works tirelessly to inspire them.

21. She has the most compassionate heart and she puts it to use.

22. We are so lucky that they just live around the corner. And I think they always will because she gets mad if WE even talk about moving out of Powell.

23. I can always count on an honest answer or opinion from her.

24. I never had to help her with her homework!!

25. I may have been a child myself when she was born, but I was smart enough to realize that I had found my purpose in life.

The best day of her life!

Here are some other pictures I could not resist!!

Senior Picture

Six months-so happy!!

First day of kindergarten-I was so proud of her hair!

Graduation (otherwise known as the worst day of her life!)

Her only foray into softball!

Random Thoughts and Loose Ends

2008-12-17T21:07:00.007-05:00

Maggie

Neither I nor anyone else has come up with a name any better than "Maggie" so it looks like it will probably stick. She is beginning to look like a Maggie to me anyway. We are still on for picking her up from the airport on Sunday. This is a new picture her breeder sent me because I begged for a more current one. But did she have to send one of her out in the snow? She needs to be here beside me cuddling on her new blanket-and quickly. Please pray that the weather is warm in Springfield, Missouri on Sunday so she can be flown. I am getting impatient. And she has a vet appointment on Monday!!

Let's just say I am not recommending the book " The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle" to anyone. I think I liked the book. I might even have loved the book. Parts of it will stay with me forever, but lets also say it was not all wrapped up in a pretty bow at the end!! Reading about the relationship between the boy and his dogs though-- that was beautifully written.

My students adopted an Angel Tree child for Christmas. It was such a blessing for me to watch them get excited deciding what to buy, how much money they needed, encouraging each other, and finally wrapping the presents. Hearing them discuss whether to get boxers or briefs was hilarious. The boy we were buying for (who is 13) asked for a discman. Most of my students did not even know what a discman was. When I explained it to them, they insisted that we should have a goal of at least donating enough money to get an Ipod Shuffle. In the end we had enough to purchase an Ipod Nano 8G and a $15 dollar Itunes gift card. And that was in addition to clothing, shoes, board games, a basketball and a football. I am so proud of them and their willingness to help a fellow student. I hope on Christmas Day when they are opening their own presents, they will think of the young man somewhere in Powell, listening to an Ipod with a smile on his face.

I am a Planet Earth fanatic. I have watched the whole 7 DVD series too many times to count. Now this I highly recommend! Each video is astounding. After watching, I will never think of God's Earth the same again. I have just about memorized them. My students have seen them in bits and pieces when we study ecology. So imagine my excitement when I discovered that there is a game that goes along with the DVDs. This is just screaming for marathon family night!!!

Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas to Me!!

2008-12-13T21:20:00.004-05:00

"Maggie"

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this will be in my stocking on Christmas Eve. Well, actually next Sunday! The check is in the mail so to speak and we are planning on picking Maggie up from the airport on the 21st. That will give me two entire weeks to spend with her uninterrupted before I have to go back to work.

Words cannot explain how excited I am! Really. No really. I am serious. To all of you doubters of mine, I promise! Just you wait and see.

I spent my day today at all of the pet superstores in town. Perusing the aisles for beds, collars, leashes, chew toys, brushes, shampoo, potty pads.....I could go on and on.

I did not find a bed that I was satisfied with so I think I will order one online.

Maggie is the name she was given. I would like to change it but I have heard it is bad luck. I am not a superstitious person, but anybody have thoughts on that either way? If you think I should change it, any ideas?

I am looking forward to having her to snuggle with us on the couch, take walks with me, greet me at the door and follow me all over the house everywhere I go!!

Why I Love 6th Graders #8

2008-12-10T14:34:00.004-05:00

Incident #1

Today a student comes up to my desk and leans in to ask me a question...

"Mrs. Cole,-BURP-The definition of comet is this long. Do we have to write the whole thing?"

(He burped loudly in my face and never missed a beat. So I proceeded with lecture # 237 on the inappropriateness of burping loudly in your teacher's face and then not even apologizing for it.)

His excuse...."Well, I didn't plan on doing it."

Because...that makes it okay I guess.

Incident #2

"Mrs. Cole, guess what the good news is? I don't have lice!"

Thank you UPS!!

2008-12-09T18:27:00.003-05:00

Matt yesterday

Matt today

Matt is working as a driver helper for the holidays while he is on his break from school. And that UPS policy of a clean-shaven face snuck up on all of us! I actually felt sorry for him. He had worked so hard (or not!) to let it get long for ski season and now just before ski season it is gone. Do I like it better gone? Oh, you betcha I do. 1000 percent!

Now I Am Scared

2008-12-06T23:29:00.005-05:00

Yes, I AM still reading this book. What's the problem?

I am three-quarters of the way through The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I cannot put it down. I am loving this book. Why am I scared? It is because I keep reading blogs and reviews by others who have read this story and some of the things they are saying have me a teensy bit anxious. Like this...

"Plenty of people hated it and I suggest you read those reactions - but be prepared for spoilers if you do. People who hated the book ranted about how upset they were after reading this book, went into depressions that lasted for days and...well, you have to read those reviews to get a sense of how creatively some people can write about books they hate."

Let me just say, I love books with wonderfully happy endings. I am not feeling those vibes from this review. The reviews on Amazon.com for the book are almost evenly divided between those who loved the book and those who hated it. To find out where I end up.....stay tuned!

Why I Love 6th Graders #7

2008-12-05T13:57:00.004-05:00

"Mrs. Cole, You wanna know something weird?"

I don't know, do I?

"I had a bump right here for three years (pointing to just under his nose), and yesterday I just scratched it off! It was a three-year-old bugger!"

_________

Seriously folks, it is just the way we roll in middle school.

_________

On the other hand, these wonderful kids have brought in so many gifts and almost $200 dollars for the angel tree child we are sponsoring as an area. They have asked if they can give their own Ipods and their own basketballs. Some are giving money everyday. Others I have asked to not give any more because they KEEP bringing in their own money. It is always the biggest blessing to me to watch them enjoy helping someone in need. It is extra special to them because they know it is a student from their own school. Most of the kids learn about compassion at home, but I feel it is my responsibility to teach it to those who do not. They have such giving hearts. And I love them all.

Thanksgiving Menu

2008-11-29T11:39:00.005-05:00

In all of the commotion to get dinner on the table, I completely forgot to take a single picture of the food!! And my turkey sure was pretty!! It should have been because I spent about 36 hours preparing it. I bought a 16 pound fresh (not frozen) Butterball turkey. I brined it for 24 hours in Pioneer Woman's homemade turkey brine. I bought the brineing bags from Williams-Sonoma. Then I used Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Roast Turkey recipe. The brine makes the turkey so tender and juicy and the butter mixture under the skin and on top makes it crisp, flavorful and beautiful! The lemons and thyme in the butter rub add so much flavor to the bird. I know, I know....TMI on the turkey......but it was good.

Anyway, here's what was on the menu.

Appetizers

Cheese Straws

Spinach-Artichoke Pinwheels

Main Course

Turkey

Dressing

Gravy

Deviled Eggs

Cranberry-Orange Salad

Green Beans

Creamed Potatoes

Broccoli Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Cream Corm

Cloverleaf Rolls

Desserts

Pumpkin Roulade

Chocolate Pie

Apple Tart