Nursery Thoughts

So... I spent my morning making my Christmas list so that I can give it to mom when she asks me instead of saying I don't know for weeks and then pissing her off (like I do every other year)! I only found a handful of things that I want for me. What I really want is a baby nursery! So... I am spending a lot of time trying to find one I like. I find myself leaning towards the greens. (Works well since the walls are already green and yellow.) They may need to be repainted but at least green will go nicely over green! I realized after about an hour that I really should be doing this once I know what I am having on Tuesday. But the good thing is that most of what I like will work either way! The Riley is one of my top favorites! The only things that makes me nervous is the sheet is the dark checker board and you are not supposed to have the blanket in there which is the prettiest part! So, this will look a lot darker with the sheet showing and no blanket over it. I would have to go with white sheets. I really hope they sell the white with the lime pattern on it... but I haven't seen that yet! And... the room would need painting (But I think this will be the case no matter what we pick!) My other favorite ones are Pop Monkey and Giggles. Love those! We have a safari animal theme in there already from Austin so I would have to see if the boarder would match the Pop Monkey... but those little monkeys they have on the wall are so cute! Giggles is just like Pop Monkey minus the monkey part! I do love Monkeys! I did make myself look for some girl prints since you all seem to think it is a girl and the only ones I could get myself to like were Carter Flowers or Bunny Meadow. (I am not a pink person!!) I have a handmade quilt (Wall hanging) that is pink with white squares that use to hang in my room. The squares have nursery rhymes stitched into it and it is a family heirloom. It is almost 100 years old! I would love to build a room around that for a girl but I do not want one that is so pink! I think it would go with Carter Flowers since that has a quilt look to it and it had pink in it. (But we would have to go easy on the flowers and butterflies!) I would most likely go with that if I was told it was a girl. I did however LOVE this one since it is lime and has the pink so I could use the wall hanging!!! I also think it would look better on an oak crib, I don't like it on the white crib. But I HATE the price! What do you think?

Poll

Well... we were tied for several days there but "girl" has taken the lead! We have a week left in voting!! Regan, Brittney and "Gus" all say the voted girl... what did you vote?

4 points

That is all that separates me from a National Boards teacher! I missed it by 4 points! I knew I would not pass on the first try since only 37% of teacher do. But to put in so much effort and come so close, it kills me! On the other hand I am trying to remember to be thankful it was so close because it should make my retake a little easier! I have signed up to redo one of the essays. The good thing about that is I can have people proof it and I can work with a coach while writing. The bad thing is that it is going to be another long process! I will send it in around April 15th and then have to wait until next fall for the scores.

I had to pick my lowest writing score to redo and it was the hardest one for me... hence the lowest score. So, redoing that one scares me! It also scares me that I do not have a safety net this time. I can't say "well, if I don't pass I can always redo something." this time! Now it is more like "if I don't pass this time... I have to start the WHOLE process over again!" So the pressure is worrying me. But, I don't have to do much better. Last time I got a 2.00 on this paper. This time, I only need a 2.25 and I get to focus on this one all on its own and I have some feedback on what I did wrong. So it should not be hard to make it better... even if it is just a little better for that extra .25!

I will just feel really stupid if I miss it because I still couldn't figure this essay out! This is the one that most of the teacher I have talked to have either done the worst on or did as their retake. But... I am going to at least try my hardest. I am going to use every resorces I have and I am going to work my pregnant bottom off on it! Then, if it doesn't happen the next time around I will know I did everything I could and it was just not meant for me to pass. Failure is hard... but you learn more from it!

It's time to vote!!

In the upper right hand corner I have added a poll. We will be finding out the gender of our new little baby on December 2nd. So... for two weeks I will be taking a poll to see what you think we are having! Once you have voted, leave us a comment and tell us what you voted for. That way we know what you think and who is playing along! (And who gets bragging rights for getting it right!) Have fun!!!

Grandpa

Today marks three years without Grandpa. I miss you Grandpa!! I remember coming to visit you in Utah and "serving" drinks to everyone and you would "tip" me. I remember you pulling my brother and me out of the snow with a broom. It was so deep out there we could not get back in the house. I remember you rescuing me out of the tree in front of my house in Virginia. I was too scared to climb down on my own!

My Week Away

I left last Sunday and drove myself 5 1/2 hours to Cullowhee NC. I was at a conference there until Thursday. This conference was all about how to write and publish books for children. The downside was that I want to publish picture books and there was not a whole lot of talk about that... it was mostly about how to write novels. I am secretly glad that I heard all about writing novels because the idea scares me... I am a little more interested in it now. We met two great authors who were our presenters this week. Joyce Moyer Hostetter who gave us copies of her novels Healing Water and Blue. She has also just published a novel called Comfort which is the sequel to Blue. I will be starting Healing Water this morning! (I really want to read Blue first but then I know I will have to run out and get Comfort as soon as I am done and I would hate to ignore Healing Water!) We also met Carol Baldwin who gave us a copy of her book called Teaching the Story Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8. I am excited to play with these lessons a little bit so that I can use them in my first grade class! These ladies have great ideas and wonderful in site into the world of writing and getting published.


Amazingly I left with LESS of a need to get published. I will still try, but at this time my driving force is to share my life stories and the stories in my head with my family and the kids in my class. The good news is I can do that with or without being published. We learned how to make our own books called altered books and I am excited to hand make books that I can then put my stories in... wouldn't that be fun to pass down to my family.

I ate like a queen and never did dishes! They did not even give you the chance to get hungry! They fed you every 2 1/2 hours! I also made amazing friends and I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard! We have also already set up a reunion weekend. We are going to get together on a Sunday in January to share our writing and reconnect. We will stay the night and hang out all day on Monday. I am so excited! If there are any NC teachers out there... you have to go to NCCAT! It is amazing!

November 10th

Today is a wonderful day for one reason. It is the day my brother was born. Happy birthday to my little brother... who is so much bigger (ok... and cooler) than me!

Today is also a sad day. This day marks three years we have been without my Granny. I miss you, love you and think of you often! I remember your fried chicken and rice with gravy! I remember watching Neil Dimond Live with you one day when I was sick! (I only did it because I loved you!) I remember reading your Enquirer magazine and talking about all the crazy stuff that was inside! I think of you often since I have so many of your things... like your pots and your mixer. I remember when I was a kid my grandparents always slept in separat rooms since my grandfather snored so loudly. When I would visit them I got to sleep with Granny in her big bed with the electric blanket... I slept so well those nights! Love you Gran!

My Mountain Adventure!

I am so excited to be going to NCCAT (North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching) this week! They have all kinds of different seminars with all kids of exciting things to do. There are two locations here in NC one is in the mountains (where I will be going tomorrow) and the other is in the Outer Banks. I would have loved to do one at the Outer Banks but I picked my seminar based on this topic and it was only offered in the mountains!

To be accepted for this program you have to submit an essay on why you want to be a part of the seminar week and they pick people from those essays. Several years ago I saw a seminar called "Is there a Children's Book In You?" being offered and I really wanted to go because I have always loved children's books and thought it would be something I would love to do as a hobby. I have written a few things in the past and I get such a kick out of reading the stories to my class and getting their feed back. My favorite part is when I tell them that I wrote it... they just can't believe it. I feel like it is my little way of showing them that they can do it too if they want to! (And that is how they feel!) I looked at the application so many years ago and quickly gave up when I saw that you had to submit an essay. (I know that it does not make any sense that I would give up on going to a writing seminar over having to write a tiny little essay about why I want to go.) But, I have a learning disability in writing that was finally diagnosed in high school and therefore am very worried about my writing and sharing it when I know it is going to be critiqued.

The turning point for me was when I did my National Boards! That is all writing and it is a process that ALL teachers fear! Only 37% of teachers pass the Boards on their first try and it is like having a second job while teaching and being a mom. TONS OF WORK!! I always swore I would never do it because of my writing disability (the whole thing is writing!) You write 4 papers and then several essays on the spot at a computer assessment center and all of your work is shipped around the country for 8 months with many many people reading it, picking it apart, analyzing it and grading it. It honestly scared the SHIT out of me! But... that is ususally why I do things. IF you pass... you get a 12% raise and at that time the county was paying for me to try it. So what did I have to lose? Besides my sanity!? If I had gone for my Masters (which would have taken me longer to get, I would get less in the way of a raise and I would have to pay back student loans, but actually getting my Masters would have been more of a sure thing.) I decided to try for the Boards and see what happens! I get the results in 2 weeks from today... not excited about that! I am sure I will end up retaking something and the whole nightmare will start over for the next 5 months! But I digress....

I figured since I could suck it up and write for the Boards... I could surely write the tiny little essay that the NCCATs wanted. So I did. It took me all of 5 minutes and I was excepted within the week! I have been waiting for at least 6 months for my seminar date to get here and it finally is! I leave tomorrow!!

I am a little nervous but excited about the trip. It is a 4 hour and 56 minute drive. I am not vy good at driving. Car rides put me to sleep faster than anything else! My family often refurs to me as the princess because I sit in the back and let everyone else drive... trust me... it is for their own good! This will be the longest trip I have ever taken by myself and therefore the longest trip I have ever driven by myself. My mom really wanted me to partner up with some of the other people going and ride with them but people are coming from all over the state and it would have taken an extra hour to meet up with any of the ones that are closes to me! Plus... deep down here is another thing I am scared of doing... which is exactly why I want to do it!

I hear great things about the NCCAT experiance! I get MY OWN room and bathroom!!! There is no tv so I need to see if my computer plays dvds! But I think I will be going right to bed once I get to my room each night anyway! They have cooks there that cook each meal for you and I heard they are out of this world! (We all know I love to eat!)

I will have missed the fall colors in the mountains (which I am very upset about) but I love going to the mountains during the fall. That crisp air is just remarkable! And the peace and stillness you get in the mountains is unatainable anywhere else. I am a beach girl by choice so I am glad this seminar is in the mountains because I typically would not send myself there if I had a week to myself!

And last but not least I am very very excited about the courses themselves! We are going to talk about everything you ever wanted to know about writing children's books and getting them published! I can not wait to hear everything they have to say and challange myself as a writer to see what I can come up with! And to do this while meeting fellow educators from all over the state... I AM READY TO GO NOW!

(Just wish my hubby and son could come with me!)

Thank you to all of those that read to the end of my long winded excitement! I can not wait to tell you what this week was like. Who knows... maybe since blogging is writing, I might get to update you while I am there!

P.S. This program is largely funded by donation... so if you have large gobs of money and would like to support this program and educators please go here to donate! :-)