...well, at least at my house anyway, where we have watched
at least once a day since Monday...I'm not sure I'll last until Halloween. She really likes the songs and Jack Skellington (it's funny to hear an almost two year old pronounce that) and Sally. Frankly, I do too!
Starting next week, I'm going back to a 30-day challenge on Wednesday. Not, having something set to write about in the middle of the week, really does make blogging every day hard...but, for now I'd like to share with you a typical day in the life of Stephanie Hasty, teacher/mother/wife/friend extraordinaire, and for a fun challenge I'm going to do it in 20 steps!
1. Get woken up in the middle of the night, as we have put the tiny tot in her toddler bed and she escapes (I hear this stops...eventually), but for now as if by some CRAZY internal alarm...she wakes up around 2am demanding a drink and saying, "I need to watch Dora". Not cool. 2. Wake-up officially at 6.30ish...check FB, check Goodreads respond if there's time or something pressing...check school email as I don't want to be bombarded by something new on that front as I walk in the building. 3. Shower. 4. Pick out clothes for the kidlet (as Chris does not like to pick out clothes for her). 5. Do the other mundane task that are required before one can leave the house. 6. Drive to school...forgetting that I didn't brush my teeth. This happens often, so often in fact, I have a toothbrush and toothpaste at the school... 7. Brush teeth before school starts and look at the list of task I have created for myself...these are usually grading task, or communication task.
This is my planner...I'd be lost without it...
it's pretty and I got it at BN.
8. Realize that these tasks have nothing to do with what is really going on during the day and make a note to complete the list at a later date...this is how I just now scheduled an orthodonist appointment for this month, although they wanted me to in late July. 9. Teach. 10. Get off track...sometimes on purpose, sometimes due to stress, sometimes it goes unnoticed until too late. 11. Want to nap during conference, instead grade papers, address concerns that I didn't expect to happen when school started. Today's prize winner...the children were out of the building selling ads for the paper, a business in town called to talk to me about how one of them was dressed. We then had to find said student and have a chat. I did this when there were literally 100 other task I should have been doing. 12. Remember a meeting that totally escaped my mind. 13. Remember to write sub plans for a day that I forgot I was going to be gone, as it was not a day I scheduled, but a day that was scheduled for me for PD purposes. 14. Stay at school too late, be the last parent to pick up my kid...again. 15. Think about writing a blog post. 16. Come home and remember that we needed milk, go back out. 17. Get gas...maybe...depending on whether I brought only money for milk. 18. Want to nap, but the kiddo is really happy to see me so we play outside, have a snack, watch Elmo 19. Dinner...tonight it's beans and weenies...I am a master chef. 20. Fall asleep in the front of the television...book/test I'm grading/kid in hand.
Here are my 100 words from Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins p6:
"...arched, ears flattened, stands the ugliest tomcat in the world. 'Buttercup,' I say. Thousands of people are dead, but he has survived and even looks well fed. On what? He can get in and out of the house through a window we always left ajar in the pantry. He must have been eating field mice. I refuse to consider the alternative. I squat down and extend a hand. “Come here, boy.” Not likely. He’s angry at his abandonment. Besides, I’m not offering food, and my ability to provide scraps has always been my main redeeming quality to him."
This meme is hosted by Ruthi at Ruthi Reads! The object is simple: share exactly 100 words from the book you are currently reading, and no spoilers! Be sure to include your book's title, author, and page number in your post. Head over to Ruthi's site and add your link to your book! Happy Reading!
I stumbled upon this series totally by accident. Er...sorta. I was planning on reading the series...really, just closer to the movie after THE REST OF THE WORLD had read them and I could read them alone...sorta.
Mockingjayby Suzanne Collins How I fell into this one: I had asked my friend Kay, via Facebook, if I could borrow her copies while visiting her in Colorado. The day we were to leave, she commented that she had the books on her Kindle and wondered why I didn't borrow it earlier in the week. I said that I didn't know and borrowed the Kindle immediately, as I had to read two books in less than 24 hrs. not counting, sleeping, packing and watching the child time. Just incase you were wondering, I did it.
Reaction: Just incase you don't know the plot, here it is from Goodreads: Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding. Likes
*May contain spoilers* I'm sayin this just incase you've been in a cave for the last few years and have no idea what's going on in the world. This is one of those books that doesn't end perfectly, one of those books that feel like everyone dies and yet, it is real and beautiful and propels the plot along.
As Sherman said, "War is hell" and Collins does not let you forget that. In this book there are no winner, just survivors and people who learn to cope with the losses. Finally...Katniss gets a BACKBONE!!! Dislikes
*Again there may be spoilers* Some of my favorite characters die and there's this scene with genetically altered lizard snake creatures that is just disturbing. I'm not sure how I feel about Gale.
5 Stars
What I thought about the series as a whole?!
I am in love with this series and look forward to talking about it with my students.
even now the world is bleedin' but feelin' just fine all numb
in our castle where we're always free to choose never free enough
to find i wish somethin' would break cuz we're runnin' out of time
and i am overcome i am overcome holy water in my lungs i am overcome
these women in the street pullin' out their hair my master's
in the yard givin' light to the unaware this plastic little place
is just a step amongst the stairs
and i am overcome i am overcome baby holy water in my lungs i am overcome
so drive me out out to that open field turn the ignition off
and spin around your help is here but i'm parked in this open space
blockin' the gates of love
i am overcome i am overcome holy water in my lungs i am overcome
beautiful drowning this beautiful drowning this holy water
this holy water is in my lungs
and i am overcome i am overcome i am overcome i am overcome
Ten years ago on this day I was running late for school, this was not unusual. Because I was running late I did not have time to turn on the TV to watch the news liked I liked to do in the morning. I drove like hell the 5 minutes to the high school and was taking off my cardigan as I ran in the back doors, hoping to slip by everyone unnoticed. The halls were quiet.
"Stephanie, they think a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center", somebody says...all I know is that the person was male.
My friend and I go into my room and turn on the TV, we watch the newscasters frantic to understand what is going on..."Are you sure it was a plane? How does an accident like this happen?," I ask having missed the inital report and not wanting to wait. "Maybe it was an explosion?"
And, as we're talking...those of us who didn't have a class had gathered in my room around the TV waiting for the newscasters to tell us more...I am reminded of The Challenger explosion and tell my colleagues as much, talking about what happened in school when that happened. I talk about how we were all afraid, but we didn't know where to channel that fear. I didn't know that then the newscasters were also at a loss for words and frantically searching for answers, I was only 10. At 25, looking at the television and talking with my friends, I could tell that all the reporters were just as lost as we were and were guessing just as we were and were watching The World Trade Center just as we were, trying to make heads or tails of the situation that they were presenting to us.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," one of my friends said and we all turned to look at the news. And, as if in slow motion we watched as the second plane, by then we knew it couldn't be anything else, flew into the second tower.
We are breathless. We are crying and the school (I can only assume every classroom had the news on) was in panic. Many were worried that Whiteman Airforce Base was next as it had Stealth Bombers and Missouri also has a nuclear reactor. We have students who parents were in lockdown at Fort Leonard Wood and one teacher was frantically trying to get ahold of her husband, as she wasn't going to be allowed on post anytime soon. She thought for sure that we were at war.
The terroist attack on the World Trade Center is the second disaster I have seen live on the news and it is the second disaster that binds me with millions of other people in my nation as we collectively mourn the lives of those who we know are lost, as we mourn lost innocence. I can tell you were I was and what I was doing during both. Later my mom tells me this is how she feels about the assasination of JFK and MLK and I think Oh my gosh my mother has been around for so much and I think I'm not sure that I can do this another time. My heart is hurting.
During that year I will see several students graduate to fight in Operation: Iraqi Freedom, I will listen as we, as a nation, try to make sense of how these attacks (there were two more one on the Pentagon and one thwarted heading to the White House) happened in a nation with such a strong military force and government. As a nation we are shaken, I am shaken as I learn to differeniate between a nation and its criminals and as I learn to teach others to try to do the same. One teacher is reprimanded for playing the Dixie Chicks in her class, a school trip we were going to take to Boston in November is canceled and I revamp my War Fiction Unit to incorporate what is happening as we go to war in March of 2002 .
Later that year, when I think my heart is fine, my friend and I will take a recent graduate to New York City, we'll see Audra McDonald and Hugh Jackman at Carnegie. We'll also go visit the site of The World Trade Center still in devastation with sidewalks torn up and fences surrounding where the buildings use to be. It's eerily quiet and I can hear the other tourists around us sniffling and patting their eyes with tissues and the backs of their hands holding back tears. We're hugging strangers, as we look through the barracade at the humongous hole in the ground. It smells like wet cement and soil. We read signs and notes dedicated to those lost and to those fighting for the cause overseas.
We are overcome.
U2 will bring a crowd to tears when they dedicate "Walk On" to 9/11 during their Elevation Tour, they will do it again during the Superbowl when we are watching their 9/11 Tribute using "Where the Streets Have No Name".
They are so classy, spirtual and patriotic.
Two years ago my aunt, niece, sister and I go to New York, it's late at night when we walk to the construction site of the Memorial to be, my aunt is overcome by the site, as we walk around looking for it. I have to look up on my phone what it looks like now and tell them that we have passed it several times. We settle on a bench overlooking the water. I'm amazed at New York City's ability to heal. We are a nation that perseveres, we are a nation that stands strong.
Saddam Hussein is dead, Osama Bin Ladin is dead, Libya is all but crushed, our war on 'terror' is still raging on. I am sad thinking about the roles that my former students have played in this battle, I am sad for the former student that has been lost in this battle, I am sad for my friends who have fought and who have been changed because of our nations need to insure that the world is free of terror.
I think about the work that has been done, I think about the work still yet to do, I think about the lives that must be dedicated to make sure that freedom stands for everyone. I am divided about my role, I am divided about our agenda in this affair. I am also proud of my nation and I am proud to be an American.
My life in six words
Grading, watching a little Rob Lowe
Since I've read his autobiography, I've had Rob Lowe on the brain all week...just thought I'd watch one of his movies that I haven't seen...ever...oh, and maybe grade some papers, gar!
Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. The full list and linky can be found here. And, here's where I found it.
1. Get woken up in the middle of the night, as we have put the tiny tot in her toddler bed and she escapes (I hear this stops...eventually), but for now as if by some CRAZY internal alarm...she wakes up around 2am demanding a drink and saying, "I need to watch Dora". Not cool.
18. Want to nap, but the kiddo is really happy to see me so we play outside, have a snack, watch Elmo
I stumbled upon this series totally by accident. Er...sorta. I was planning on reading the series...really, just closer to the movie after THE REST OF THE WORLD had read them and I could read them alone...sorta.
