2011 in a Nutshell

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Blog post (mine), not in stats, but in feeling
Work Life Balance at Its Best
Going to Church
My Home Town
The Most Dangerous Word
Black History

Blog post (you all)
Do You Hope Your Child Will Be Straight?
anything by Thought Catalog
written in 2010, but I read it in 2011 Likeable Schmikable
Masking Our Powers
Embracing Your Natural Hair
although I love Barbies and Disney Princesses and pink and still believe you can be a powerful female and loves these things, anything by Peggy Orenstein

Books Read

The Books in Order:

(Of how much I like them in relation to each other)

1.  Twenty Boy Summer Sarah Ockler

2. An Abundance of Katherines John Green

3. American Gods  Neil Gaiman

4.  Stories I Only Tell My Friends  Rob Lowe

5. The Graduate  Charles Webb

6.  Love Story  Erich Segal

7. Stardust  Neil Gaiman

8. The Devil in the White City  Erik Larson

9. A Visit from the Goon Squad  Jennifer Egan

10. (S)mythology  Jeremy Tarr

11.  Horns  Joe Hill

12. Miss Perrigrine's Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs

13. Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) Sarah Mlynowski

14. Midnight Cowboy James Leo Herlihy

15.  Cinderella Ate My Daughter  Peggy Orenstein

16.  How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf  Molly Harper

17.  Final Friends Book 3: The Graduation  Christopher Pike

18. Readicide Kelly Gallagher

19.  Mockingjay  Suzanne Collins

20.  Alice in Wonderland  Lewis Carroll

21.  Alice I Have Been  Melanie Benjamin

22.  The Lost Symbol  Dan Brown

23.  Maisie Dobbs  Jacqueline Winspear

24.  The Hunger Games  Suzanne Collins

25.   The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf  Molly Harper

26.   Catching Fire  Suzanne Collins

27.   Limitless  Alan Glynn

28.   Comfort Me with Apples  Ruth Reichl

29.   Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

30.   Beastly  Alex Flinn

31.  Prom and Prejudice  Elizabeth Eulberg

32.  Dead is Not an Option  Marlene Perez

33.  Forgive My Fins  Tera Lynn Childs

34.  Sunday at Tiffany’s James Patterson with Gabrielle Charbonnet  

35.   Final Friends Book 1: The Party  Christopher Pike

36.   Final Friends Book 2: The Dance  Christopher Pike

37.   The Heart of the Spring  Laura L. Valenti

38. A Study in Scarlet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

39.   Little Bee  Chris Cleave

40.   The Imperfectionist  Tom Rachman

41.   The Ice Princess  Camilla Lackberg

42.   You Only Live Twice  Ian Fleming

43.   The Apothecary’s Daughter  Julie Klassen

44.   Loving Frank  Nancy Horan

45.   Ragtime  EL Doctorow

46. 22 Things a Woman Must Know If She Loves A Man Who Has Asperger's Syndrome Rudy Simone

47.   One Day  David Nichols

48.   The Story of Stuff  Annie Leonard

49.   Watermelon Man  Herman Raucher

50.   Dr. No Ian Fleming

51.   Wither  Lauren DeStefano

52. Demian  Hermann Hesse

53.   Cowboys and Aliens  Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

54.   Ishmael  Daniel Quinn

55.   Grace is for Sinners  Serena Woods

56.   The 17 Day Diet  Mike Moreno

57. A Repair Kit for Grading Ken O'Connor

58. The Help  Kathryn Stockett

59.   What Did I Do Wrong  Liz Pryor

60. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray

Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway! You can do so here.

Essays Read
All 30, and more really...
1. "Who Do You Think You Are?" Garrison Keillor
2. "The Anger of a Child" Adrienne Rich
3. "The Angel in the House" Virginia Woolf
4. "Learning from Disney and Dickens" John Gardner
5. "Science Fiction: Imaginary Worlds and Real-Life Questions" Noel Perrin 
6. "Talking Black" Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
7. "Life Is Sacred: That's the Easy Part" Ronald Dworkin 
8. "You Have to Know What Your Values Are" Alan Alda 
9. "The Quiet Movement of American Men" Betty Friedan 
10. "Dearest Scottie" F. Scott Fitzgerald 
11. "Life Without Go Go Boots" Barbara Kingsolver
12. "Growing Pains" Michael Thomas Ford
13. America: The Multinational Society by Ishmael Reed
14. Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez
15. What is an American? by J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur
16. The Plastic Pink Flamingo by Jennifer Price
17. The Cult Ethnicity, Good and Bad by Arthur M. Schlesinger
18. Here is New York by E.B. White
19. What Does It Mean to Be an American? Patriotism, Nationalism, and American Identity After 9/11 by Qiong Li and Marilynn B. Brewer
20. What Makes Superman So Darned American? by Gary Engle
21. Scenarios on the Use of Formative Classroom Assessments by Cassandra Erkens
22. Helping Students Understand Assessment by Jan Chappuis
23. Formative and Summative Assessments Defined by Larry Ainesworth
24. Notable Quotables Louis Menand
25. Solipsism by Ander Monson
26. Why We Crave Horror Movies by Steven King
27. Lost in the Kitchen by Dave Barry
28. Home for the Holidays by Chris Radant
29. Inside and Out by Lisa Widenhofer
30. A Winter's Walk by Henry David Thoreau

Personal Events
The Kiddo turned 2 (yes, 2 years old)
U2 in July
2nd Anniversary in July
Um...er...I turned 35
I've been living a life devoted to me, not to my job...that's been pretty awesome...

Reading Challenge
Essay Reading Challenge 2011

Reading Groups
Reading the Chunksters
Lit Muse

Songs from 2011

Adele SetFire To The Rain

Britney Spears Til the World Ends

Bruno Mars It Will Rain

Christina Perri Arms
Christina Perri A Thousand Years
Colbie Caillat Brighter Than the Sun

Gavin DeGraw Not Over You

Feist How Come You Never Go There

Lady Antebellum We Owned the Night

Maroon 5 Moves Like Jagger

OneRepublic Good Life

Toby Keith Made in America

Train HeySoul Sister

Websites
ColourLovers
Facebook
GoodReads
Picnik / Pinterest
Twitter

World Events
Part I
Part II
Oh, come on like I'd know enough about what's going on around me to have my own list!

Last Week in a Nutshell #4

One] The world's longest week began with Promethean Board training in St. Louis. We didn't get back until way late and left at 5.30 in the morning...in the A.M.!!! I gotta tell you though, I love going to these things I learned how to use Twitter with my Promethean (which is like a SMARTboard only better!) and refreshed how to use containers. Not a good way to start the work week though...especially since I had to get up early again on Wednesday for an FTA meeting and we had Parent-Teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday, which made for two 10 hr. days and a very long week, even if we had Friday off!

Two] Lila is Dorothy for Halloween. She has little short fluffy piggy-tails. She looks adorable, I look forward to all the candy she'll be getting...wait, maybe not! I figure I have only a few years of getting to decide what cute adorable outfits she wears for Halloween, must make the most of it!

Three] OK, so I read, in one day, the most beautiful book I've read in a long time. What's even more fun is that it's one of those dreaded banned books! I'll review it and talk more about it later. What I want to talk about is how the author was in Springfield, Missouri talking about its ban at a local high school there and I missed it. I didn't even know! I live an hour away and didn't get a chance to talk to her. Frankly, this is the kind of book I think EVERY teenager should read, it's honest and real and I think that sometimes grown-ups are afraid of these kinds of books, but teenagers know how real they are. Anyway, you should go find Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and read it right now, and then you should read her blog and then you should fall in love with her...yes, I demand you fall in love with her. It's that good!

Four] My lovely cousin, Lynette, has a blog. This blog is lovely and diverse she talks art, she talks restoration, she talks food and recipes, her garden and a little about her life in Texas, her home state. I love her writing voice and I love her pretty, pretty face!

Last Week in a Nutshell #3

One] Last week was my friends' birthday. Another friend of ours hosted a party for her and, with Lila as the floor show how could anyone there not have a good time? We watched "Bolt", watched Lila carry around two dumb bells that each weighed 10 lbs. (she's less than two years old, so that's like 1/3 of her body weight), we watched her 'colorings', ate chocolate ganache covered chocolate cake and my friend opened up tons of lovely presents...wine, Stove Top (her favorite), books and lots and lots and lots of Mountain Dew...and, she says she's trying to quit!

Two] I don't need to tell all of you that this is Lila's first obsessive movie...I think it's a little strange, but shouldn't have expected anything less as Chris loves (I mean loves!) this movie and many years ago we scoured the country side looking for it (only to have it burn in a fire) and then Wal-Mart started carrying it. I'm afraid that since this movie encompasses elements of Christmas and Halloween I'll be watching it way past its expiration date. However, it was soooo cute last evening when Jack was singing his lament and she was singing most of the words and doing some of the actions. I'm pretty sure her daddy was beaming...his eyes may have even been a little misty.

Three] My mother loves, loves, loves Johnny Mathis. I think that he, along with a handful of Westerns, is what she took with her from her childhood. It seemed that everytime he was in Branson she was somewhere else, doing something else, but not this year! My sister that she lives with and I have conspired to bring her here to watch Johnny Mathis in concert at The Mansion in November. This has got to be the first concert my mother's been to since Johnny Rivers (what's with the Johnnys, Mother?) was at Dog Patch USA. Woot!

Four] Audrey's Spot for Recipe Tips and Hints is a pretty delicious (every pun intended!) blog where she talks about food and recipes. She makes tasty treats that you can actually serve to your family and probably already have most of the ingredients for in your pantry. She is brave enough to post pictures, that she claims are sub par, of the food she makes and tells you who in her family liked what foods and why. She talks about what recipes work and don't work for her, she post lots of non-dairy ones like this Spinach Broccoli Casserole and she is kind enough to post lovely comments to my blog!

Last Week in a Nutshell #2

One] It was the first full week of school and, golly, I'm still exhausted. I am enjoying my new students. I'm not sure that I'm enjoying this new schedule yet. I got the dates wrong on one of my calendars, thought Friday was a Black Day (thank goodness I prepare ahead and, well...NEVER leave my room otherwise I would've been lost!) and I'm just sooooo tired. The new schedule goes like this: all my classes Monday, Tuesday and Friday, Blocks 1, 2, 5, 6 on Wednesday and Blocks 3, 4, 7, 8 on Thursday (this is to help accommodate the Tech school)...it just leaves me confused. I hate change.

Two] I finally got to talk to my friend who moved to Nashville, I called her during school on my planning period. Just incase you were wondering...I called mostly to gossip and catch-up and, yes, I used my planning period to do that! Now, if only I could find sometime to finish our conversation! You know you don't really realize how much you miss talking to someone until you actually get to talk to them!

Three] Christopher took the family out to dinner on Friday. The tiny person was mostly on good behavior. Hanging out without a plan was really nice and Haruno's is always a good time, especially if you like sushi. Family time is also always a good time, especially when your husband let's you eat and plays with the kid by making paper airplanes and coloring with the crayons in your purse.

Four] I've been reading this blog Ricochet for a little bit. I enjoy reading this blog because it's nice to see that other teachers have the same problems with parents, kids, administrators that I do. If only I'd thought of being anonymous and writing a blog about school...how theraputic!

The last week in a nutshell

One] Home Town Nazareth Where Jesus Was A Kid was the theme for Vacation Bible School. My friend Kate and I had a lot of fun hanging out with a bunch of 3rd and 4th graders. It's nice because they're about 1/2 our height, they are intimated by us just because, they laugh at our corny jokes and love playing outside and learning about Jesus as a kiddo. Dinner with them was loads of fun and getting to know them was even more fun.

Two] Last night we hung out at La Mexican Kitchen, not my favorite restaurant in the world even if they do have margaritas for a $1.50. Kay was smart enough to reserve their banquet room and we just ate and let the kiddos run wild. Up there I'm reading "Sally the Seahorse" to Miss Lila.

Three] Summer School started and, as usual, it's been rewarding but tiring (never do VBS, have an almost 2 year old and start Summer School all in the same week, boy, oh boy!). The students know that summer is their last chance to get credit and they are always so fun to talk to and teach. Summer school always revives me and after the year I've had it's nice to hang out with them in shorts, in air conditioning, without worrying about test scores, without contact from 'helicopter parents' and administrators lurking about handing out demerits.

Four] I found an awesome blog on Wordpress (and started following it...yes, I've a Wordpress blog, no it is not active)...seriously, read it now you will not be disappointed. Anyway, it's called Rosiesays and is about everything wonderful and feminine and feminist and on point and irreverent. It is my new obsession!