Showing posts with label favorites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favorites. Show all posts

Friday, July 10, 2009

FAVORITE THING


So, I know I said I would do this a lot. I don't want to have to keep to a rigid schedule on blogging. I will pop in with faves when they cross my mind.

Today's favorite has to do with music.

It is so hard to pick favorite music. I have favorite groups....and they are usually my favorite WHEN I'm listening to them. :)

One man (duo) I want to focus on is Gershwin...mostly George, though Ira is involved in this also. George, the younger brother to Ira, was a composer. His pieces are simply wonderful. Ira, was a lyricist. They worked together on many things that are on the below playlist.

Turn up your volume, kick back and listen. These are all great......the ABSOLUTE fave on this list is: Rhapsody in Blue.


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

Friday, June 26, 2009

FAVORITE THING FRIDAY

This is going to be my last FTF!

I'm not mad or anything. I just forget to do it. Every now and again, I'll post a fave, but not under an actual set schedule or anything.

In light of the fast-approach of the holidays, I would like to share one of my favorite sites.


How much do I love it?

I check it on the 25th of every month for the "Rudolph Club Meeting."

I have my own holiday organization notebook....now to organize it.

I can get lost and spend hours on that site. I could, but I don't. It makes me feel very anxious. Because I'm just not organized enough. I do hope that, in time, I will be organized enough (at least where the holidays are concerned), so that I can just follow the monthly reminder and not have my normal meltdown(s) concerning all the stuff I want to do.

SO...in celebration of my FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR (from the opening of the Great State Fair of Texas till January 2nd) I have been working on my own notebook.

I have the printables mostly done (working on that, as we "speak"). I have enough copies of my Christmas card list made. I just need to fill those in. I have gone through last year's cards to see who should, or should not, be scratched off my list. (Yes...gone are the days where I make and send out 125-150 cards when I only receive about 50.) Makes me sad, really. I just love doing cards. I know that not everyone is into cards...and I try to keep that in mind. YOU will get one, but if you used to send us a card and then you just went bat**** crazy on us (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) and stopped sending us holiday greetings, then YOU, my friend, are SCRATCHED OFF MY LIST!!! I have no doubt that there will be some names added to my list as I receive cards and remember that I really do like you, but I gotta get it in control......OK......breathe.....just breathe!

*ahem* (insert embarrassed chuckle here). All that to say that today's FAVORITE THING is the aforementioned website. You can jump around the site to non-holiday things....organizing the home or other holidays. There are ideas for frugal decorating, getting the house cleaned well before the onslaught of guests, gift ideas, ideas and instructions for homemade gifts.....just a lot of fun stuff. I hope you will check it out.

Friday, June 05, 2009

FAVORITE STUFF FRIDAY


OK OK....I know this is late. And I know I didn't do one last week....did I?

Last Friday was our last day of school. I had stuff to do.

Today? Well, I can't really get into all the details, for the sake of my son's pride. Suffice to say a quick checkup at the doctor led to an emergency ultra-sound and possible surgery. However, through the power of prayer, all is well.....I am back to my normal insanity and planning a joint birthday party for tomorrow.

BUT, I wanted to leave you with this:.....this is another favorite post of mine. Please go, read, laugh (at my expense) and share your thoughts. I love you all and will see you Monday, for sure!


MY MOST (one of them) EMBARRASSING MOMENT


What I'm about to tell you is true. It is almost unbelievable. When I tell others, the tears stream from all eyes. These are not tears of sorrow, empathy or pain. They are tears of hysterical, uncontrollable laughter. Yes...it is laughter at my own expense. One would think that laughter such as this might be too hard to face....like I said, it is unbelievable. Embarrassing? YES! So funny, I LOVE to tell this story.
To truly understand this story you need to put yourself into the scene. If you are a teacher or speaker, imagine that you are teaching 30 VERY bright 13 year-olds in an inner-city middle school. The kids are rough. The demographics are not important, but the age is. These kids understand a lot more than we would want them to know. If you are neither a teacher nor speaker, go back in time to a relatively difficult math class; a class in which the teacher is firm, sarcastic, but loved by the kids. Finally....imagine that teacher is pregnant!

The time is approximately 4 years ago. The place is my middle school classroom. The audience, about 30 boys and girls 12 to 13 years of age. The topic, pre-algebra...to be more specific, geometry...even more specific, congruence.

Now in order to prevent the brain-strain-pain that is hitting some of you (I won't mention any names, but I know who some of you are) I will not get technical and assume you know the term. Granted, you have all heard it, but for some of you, school was a LONG time ago and even if you remember hearing it, you might not have understood it. All that to say that the definition of congruence is basically same size, same shape.

I was always a fun teacher. I did cartwheels up and down the halls, walked across desktops and drew zeros around my room (on the walls in chalk). I allowed candy days as rewards and held lessons in various parts of the school. I was (and am, thanks to my newly renewed license) a good teacher. The parents liked me (most of them, anyway) because I was firm and I pushed rote memorization of multiplication tables. The kids loved me because I brought my life into the classroom. They knew my children. They knew my husband. They knew I could get mad at them for doing the stupid. They knew that I loved them from the bottom of my heart.

Knowing what a good teacher does, I was always on the lookout for good examples. These examples needed to reach out to the children to help them attach to the core of the lesson. It's not enough to read from a book, copy it on paper and hear it from the teacher. A good teacher reaches for ideas and presents concepts in multiple ways in order that he or she may reach every type of learner.

SO, here I am in pre-algebra. This class is an Honor's class for 7th grade. These kids are smart, but some, like me, have a hang-up in geometry. Knowing this, I really worked (and still do) when presenting concepts dealing with geometry. I didn't want to lose anyone. We were learning about congruence. We discussed, made models, measured things...to no avail. I knew I had to cover it again after seeing their first test.

I have them repeat after me over and over again.
me - "What is congruence?"
them -"Same size same shape." (this is done in monotone...I was quite pleasant and chipper.)

me - "What is congruence?"

them - "Same size same shape."

me - "WHAT IS CONGRUENCE?"
them - "SAME SIZE SAME SHAPE!"

Finally, I reach for one more example. I say, "OK, you know when you show up at school wearing the same shirt as your best friend? You are Twinkies." (y'all remember using that term? They understood. So then I say, "For example Brian (NOT his real name, but it was a boy) gets up one day, looks in the mirror and sees his Twinkie."

There it was...it just hung there (no pun intended) in the silence. Nobody moved. Nobody even breathed. They all waited for the reaction of the speaker.

Realizing immediately the faux pas, I tried to recover. I couldn't pretend it didn't happen. I had already turned various shades of red. I couldn't brush it off, because DUDE...the teacher just referred to a....YOU KNOW! So I said, "Hmmmm. THAT didn't sound real good, did it?"

The class burst out laughing. There was a sense of relief as the students were finally able to release the toxins and take in fresh air.

After owning up to this horrible event to some co-teachers, I drove home and chalked it up to an interesting, but successful, lesson taught by one, but learned by all. The next day, I swallowed my pride, walked into my classroom only to find some Twinkies on my desk.

That class, to this day, contained my favorite students of all time. I love them all.

Friday, May 22, 2009

FAVORITE THING FRIDAY


OK, I need to get some housekeeping things done.

First, a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to my friend Lisa over at One Hip Mom (see sidebar) for creating this widget for me. TOO CUTE, don't you think?

Secondly, Mr Linky was causing issues. So, I will no longer use it. If there is anything you want to share, you will simply have to leave a comment. I will continue with MHHM just without the link up.

If you have had trouble getting onto my blog, it is because of Mr Linky. I have, since, removed to problem coding and all should be working well. This past Monday, I had posted on how I was going Six Flags with my hubby and older 3 boys. We had a blast. It was a much-needed and well-deserved day off.

I had posted a teaser about a give-away. I hope to get that up and running SOON...as in the next few days. I *plan* to kick off the actual give-away during Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

OK.....Today is Friday....time for my Favorite Thing.

This is anything that is a favorite...maybe a life-long favorite or maybe just my favorite for the day. Either way, if you have a favorite anything you want to share, leave a comment, please.

THIS favorite will be of NO SURPRISE TO ANYONE who reads at all.

MY FAVORITE SEASON IS.....






wait for it.....






wait for it.....






4th of July.








ROFLMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


I'm so lying!


My favorite season is CHRISTMAS. A countdown can be found to the right. Memorial Day marks 7 months until THE day. We are only 4 months from the start of the season. I pulled out my holiday binder yesterday. I'll start work on it, soon. :)


Friday, May 15, 2009

FAVORITE THING FRIDAY

Hey, y'all. New idea....don't know if it will be a good one, but giving it a try.

I'm going to post a favorite on Friday. I'm sure there is some meme out there doing this, but since I don't know of anyone in particular, I will take credit for this myself. LOL.

Anything goes on this...I might post a favorite recipe, article of clothing, color....whatever. Today, I'm going to repost my favorite post. This is from November of 2007. Some of my older readers will remember this. The rest of you? Well...just another peek into how I think.

If you have a favorite you want to share, put it in my comment section.

Peace!



OK....we have a mouse.

That alone is enough for a full post, but I feel you might get some sick enjoyment from my suffering, so here I go talking about trauma.

We first suspected a mouse....heck, we KNEW there was a mouse when my hubby saw it. It ran from the hallway into the boys' bathroom into a gap between the baseboard and tile. I immediately jumped into action and scoured the bathroom. I mean...EWWWW! My babies are in there. I needed the hard stuff. So I started to reach for the Clorox.

Alas, my tried and true cleaning friend is not allowed in my house because we have a septic system. It seems that Clorox eats whatever does not need to be eaten in a septic system. Next cleaning buddy on my list...Lysol!

SO, with tons of liquid Lysol, hot water and soap, I scrubbed every surface of that bathroom. I then wiped down every surface with Clorox wipes :)

I had pushed red pepper into the crack, in hopes that the critter would go away. He did...right into MY bathroom. Now that, my friends, is SERIOUS!!!! My hubby left just hours after seeing this fanged monster run into and disappear from my bathroom. He, being the great white hunter, had to go sight in his guns for his trip to hunt REAL game. Meanwhile, I was contemplating moving!

I had a phone call to make. When we have to make phone calls, and we are the only parent in the house, we have to go through a little ritual that allows us to hear and speak clearly on the phone. We make sure the door to the outside is locked (with the chain), then we lock ourselves in the master bedroom. Since kids follow that far and bang on the door, whilst yelling "OPEN THE DOOOOOOOOR!" we go into the back bathroom and shut THAT door. We sit on the throne (lid down) and have our conversation.

SO, here I go. I begin dialing. I get through the first 3 numbers, check the chain, dial and walk, lock the door, dial and walk, shut the door, finish dialing, sit down, something catches my eye......

Now keep in mind that there is NO WAY you can understand how I feel, or my surprise, to see this furry beast spring into a spasmodic fury to jump over the edge of the tub, that he somehow got himself trapped in. My first reaction, naturally, was to scream and run out. It wasn't a dainty little squeak that some might mistake for a small, ladylike sneeze. It was a scream! The words "blood" and "curdle" can come into play here. The audience that is outside the door yelling "OPEN THE DOOOOOOOOR!" starts yelling "WHA'S WRONG, MOM MOM? OPEN THE DOOOOOOOOR!"

I hang up on whomever might have been on the phone and call my hubby. Remember, he is at a gun range...about 1 hour away.

"YOU HAVE TO COME HOME!"

"I can't. I just got here. What's wrong?"

"YOU HAVE TO COME HOME!" (tears were added...not for sympathy, but from hysterics.)

Needless to say, he did NOT come home. It was now up to me to defend my home and my family from this small, yet potent killer carrying goodness knows what kind of disease and germs. AND...HE POOPED IN MY TUB!

First....plug the drain. I don't know how the vermin got into my tub. Can it come up the pipes? Well, it can get down. I grabbed the toilet brush to knock it closed. This caused further craziness from "Mickey" as he tried to jump over...no doubt to run up my leg and head straight for my jugular! I could see the menacing look of a cold-blooded killer.

I briefly thought of burning down the house. Not a good idea.

I did think of turning the trashcan over in hopes of trapping him, but I was afraid that in that fraction of a second, in which I correct my aim, that he would catapult up my arm and claw my eyeballs out...sucking out the juice, thus rendering me blind, and as I'm crying out and bumping into walls blindly, this murderous infestation runs after my innocent babies...hoping to gnaw off their pinkie toes and taking it to his nest for some sort of sacrifice that they consume, all the while thanking their big-eared gods for allowing such a successful coup!

Using hubby's piece of advice, I managed to toss the trap in the tub, obviously hoping he would get hungry with all of the physical exertion he was suffering from. With tear-streaked cheeks and trembling fingers, I lock the door. (STOP LAUGHING! I'm not stupid. I know that the snake bait can't get out the door....I had to lock out the boys.)

A few hours later, I'm calm. The boys keep excitedly asking about the mouse. My hubby finally makes it home. He gives me a little peck, says, "Hello" and is immediately sent to the holding center for this monster with fleas. He comes out and says, "No mouse" to which I calmly reply, "We have to move."

DH was nice enough to clean out my tub and reset the trap. That night, I am awakened by a loud SNAP! I wake up hubby. (How can he be sleeping, anyway? This thing knows where we live. He has probably studied us and knows where we sleep, as well as the best time to rid us of life and limb.) NOTHING! Ooooooo, the sly little devil!

We finally got one. However, my hubby has informed me that where there is one, there are probably others. SO, you won't mind if I get the bleach, right? I tried to get him to get the traps up while he's gone. He left them out. He told me to get some gloves and a bag and just go from floor to sack, throwing away the trap which contains the victim. WHATEVER!

I think it will be worth a couple of bucks for one of my kids, dressed in a body condom, of course, to dispose of it properly.

If "Mickey" does have a family...they are going DOWN!!!!!!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

MAGIC 8


One of my friends, Lisa, tagged me with this fun little meme.

The Magic 8

8 T.V. Shows I watch:


(I don't have TIME to watch 8 T.V. shows!)
1. Martha Stewart
2. The Unit
3. Everyday Food
4. Everyday Baking
5. Cook's Country
6.
7.
8.

8 Favorite Restaurants:


1. Chipotle
2. Olive Garden
3. Chick-fil-A
4. Red Lobster
5. Texas de Brazil
6. My place (with MY cooking)
7.
8.

8 Things that happened today:


(It's 5:04 p.m. Please know that a LOT more than 8 things have happened.)
1. Got all cleaned up and "purtied"
2. Broke up a fight
3. Cooked blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs
4. Took a nap
5. Helped hubby get ready for his next tour *wink wink nudge nudge*
6. Broke up another fight
7. Worked on Christmas cards
8. Cleaned up the living room

8 Things I look forward to:


1. Christmas!
2. The February issue of our local magazine (I'm featured cook...cool huh?)
3. TSO concert
4. Getting #3's ear fixed
5. Another day with my kids
6. Another day with my hubby
7. Getting my eyes fixed

8. The birthday bash in February

8 Things I wish:


1. That I could go through the surgeries that #3 will eventually need
2. That I was a better housekeeper
3. That I had a laundry maid
4. That I wasn't so freakin' scared to get my eyes done
5. That my hubby wasn't gone for 18 days per month
6. That one of my "friend's" would write to me before I have to "kick her to the curb"
7. "Cotton was a monkey"
8. My house was always clean

8 People I Tag:

Alicia

LeAnne

Claudia

Paula

Erica

Andrea

Les

Ly

Sunday, November 09, 2008

CHRISTMAS


This is the first, of MANY posts about Christmas. Well, I guess it's not technically the first...not even for this year.

Anyway, two things I wanted to tell you about.

First, if you haven't noticed, I have added a playlist....I have a few of my favorite Christmas songs. This isn't, by any means, a complete list. But these are songs I often find myself singing throughout the year.

Also, for a bit of Christmas fun, go here. Now, if you are much more versed in Christmas trivia than I, please don't brag to me.....I haven't completed the stinkin' thing yet. If YOU complete it...and do so within about 6 tries, I will accuse you of cheating until the day I die. :)

So anyway...have fun. And stay aware of the calendar. We are SLAP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOLIDAYS!

I'm fairly alarmed here. (Heh...that's another line we use....from Jurassic Park.)




ETA:

I finally completed (successfully) the Christmas Quiz. I am now in their Hall of Fame. I won't tell you how many attempts (or how many times I missed it in the last question), but it was fewer than you ;) LOL!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

TSO

If I have my playlist on, then pause it before you play these videos. I go see these guys every year. They are so great. You may think you have never heard of them, but you have. If you do know who they are, you NEED to see them in concert. So good!