Best Picture of Lexi
I was looking at our flickr account an came across this picture of Lexi. I’m guess it’s her eyes that make this picture but it’s now one of my favorites.
50 by 50…still chipping away at the list.
I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago. But several years ago I did make a list of 50 things I wanted to do before I was 50. Since it’s the first of the year, I thought I’d see how far I’ve gotten on the list. Anything in bold is something that I’ve completed.
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50 things I want to do before I’m 50
In no particular order
1. Travel to at least 2 foreign countries I’ve been to Mexico, England, El Salvador and Ethiopia.
2. Become fluent in ASL
3. Finish grad school I didn’t actually finish but I finished all the parts I wanted to get done, so we’ll call it good.
4. Get a second dog
5. Read all the books I own (if this is going to be accomplished I need to a) stop going to the library and b) stop buying books)
6. Hang curtains in my house I’ve got curtains in both the kids’ rooms. Our room is next on the list.
7. Get my dog his CD or CDX title (HAHAHAHA. Speak has joined the Dog Union and has decided that all union breaks will be taken during either training sessions or competitions.)
8. Earn my play therapy certificate
9. Take a pottery class
10. Participate in the 3 day walk for breast cancer (seriously considering signing up this year – need to find someone to walk with me to keep me accountable)
11. Take a photography class
12. Learn to knit (and as an added bonus, I taught myself how to crochet this Christmas)
13. Eat fruit 4 times a week
14. Go to Hawaii – I don’t know if I really want to do this anymore…maybe I should change to “dream vacation”
15. Build a bookshelf (does assembling one from IKEA count?)
16. Learn to play guitar or piano (one step closer to this one…got a piano for Christmas!)
17. Work towards clean water
18. Go camping in Colorado (again)
19. Go horseback riding on the beach (see notes on #14)
20.Take a cooking class
21. Learn self-defense
22. Make a new quilt for our bedroom – I haven’t done our room yet but I’m counting Lexi’s quilt and the quilt for the baby.
23. Help build a Habitat for Humanity house
24. Visit the 5 continents I don’t live on. (I’ve got 2 of the 5 covered. Africa? Check. Europe? Check.)
25. Train a dog to be used for pet therapy (See Dog Union) Although, later on, I may get a dog that would be better at this. There’s also the possibility of puppy raising.
26. Teach my children sign language
27. Stop worrying about money
28. Write letters to friends (instead of e-mailing) on a regular basis – I was so much better at this a couple years ago.
29. Join a book club
30. Go to Disney World
31. Plant and maintain a garden (Maybe I should start small. Something like keeping 1 houseplant alive)
32. Be able to say I never owned a cell phone (I’ve owned 2 since I wrote this list. The responsible parent in me won out.)
33. Finish building my Macquarium (I sold this at a rummage sale)
34. Work as a dog trainer I’ve taught Level 1 & 2, Canine Good Citizen, & Junior Trainers
35. See Kevin’s book for sale at Barnes N Noble
36. Go to Alaska
37. Stop procrastinating I’m getting much better at this.
38. Keep up with my blog (did you see the month of November?)
39. Get 8 hours of sleep a night (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
40.See U2 in concert (again) – we were so close. They are coming to the Twin Cities this summer. Kevin was sick when the tickets went on sale and so we missed our chance. D’oh. Next time around)
41. Go to the Olympics
42. See a show on Broadway (Saw Stomp)
43. Volunteer at the Humane Society
44.Start a Kindergarten program at my daycare I don’t work there anymore. I’m counting this as done because I teach kindergarten.
45.Figure out a way to get that damn Arby’s ovenmit off television I didn’t do it but he’s been gone for a while now.
46. Adopt (Have you met Milo?)
47.Watch less T.V.
48. Continue to own only 1 car We had 2 for about a year, maybe less, but we are back to just 1.
49. See a Red Wings game in Detroit
50.Own a house with a fireplace. Our house has 2.
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Okay, so 21/50 items are completed. And 31/50 years are done. However, I made the list when I was about 26(?) so it’s not a bad ratio.
life | Comment (0)Best Christmas Present
Remember way back when, when I said I wanted a piano? Well, guess what my Christmas present is? Yep. A piano. We started shopping around (we’re looking at used ones), looking for one that will fit nicely in our living room. I’m pretty excited. I think Lexi will enjoy playing piano – or at least enjoy trying – and I’m planning on taking lessons as well.
Anyway, pretty excited about my present.
I think Kevin likes his present as well. This summer I’ll be painting his office.
special occations | Comment (0)Practicing on Milo’s Hair
Christmas Eve I put in coils. They were cuter before I mashed a hat on his head. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before we left.
Today, I tried flat twists. They didn’t last because I didn’t put bands in at the end or any styling stuff in his hair. He was in a good mood and I was just playing to see what they would look like. I also discovered that if you sit him directly in the bathroom sink and let him chew on all the toothbrushes within reach he will cooperate for at least 15 minutes.
National Blog Posting Month, not just one month.
In November I signed up for National Blog Posting Month. I assumed it was just for November. Well, apparently, they like to do it all the time. December had a theme of giving. Participants were supposed to blog give someone something everyday and then blog about it. So, I skipped that. Felt kind of cheesy to do something nice for someone just to be able to blog about it at the end of the day.
This months topic is Best. Kind of vauge guidelines but I’m imterpretting it as in “Best of…”. Not sure if I can come up with 31 Bests for the month (and not completely bore the few readers I have) but it’ll be worth a shot. On the upside, it’s an excuse to do a whole pile of lists and we all know how I feel about lists.
NaBloPoMo | Comment (0)2009 Photos: A Year in Review or An excuse to post a ton of photos
Here’s our year. It’s not even close to everything that happened this year but it was a good year.
January
Now that we had our referral and the holidays were over we started to get things ready for Milo’s arrival.
We built new shelves in the closet, put together bunk beds and put up the crib.
Lexi got a much needed hair cut.
And we got ready for her 3rd birthday - she requested a “W” cake for her party. (In case you’re wondering. This year she wants green circle cakes. Nope, no Elmo birthday cakes for us.)
February
We passed court! Milo was officially, legally, 100% ours. We also got his birth certificate and a travel date.
March
We started to get ready for our trip to Ethiopia. We borrowed the three biggest suitcases ever.
Our last photo as a family of 3. About 15 minutes after this was taken we headed off to the airport.
And we were off.
This was the first day we were able to bring Milo back to the Guest House from the Care Center.
And headed back home.
A boy from our travel group. We were all waiting for our connecting flight in DC. He held Milo for a while.
And friends we met at the airport. They went through a different agency but live in St. Paul. Our kids are about 2 months apart in age.
And we are officially a family of 4. Lexi met us at the airport.
April
Lexi decides to sleep on the floor. She did this for several weeks. And she and Kevin did a lot of work for Start Seeing Art.
Our first Easter as a family of 4. And Lexi enjoying being the big sister.
Kevin and I (and the kids but they are always barefoot – we’re lucky if they have pants on) went One Day Without Shoes.
May
I braved it and drove to Green Bay, by myself, with both kids. My sister was there and we took the kids to Bay Beach. Cheapest, greatest summer entertainment for kids under 10. I love this picture because I have the same picture of me at about 3 years old riding the same ride.
Kevin and Lexi wore their Red Wings jerseys to church on Pentecost Sunday. Milo wore his as well.
Kevin’s hair getting longer. In May he challenged people to help him raise $600 for http://www.charitywater.org/. That’s enough clean water for 30 people. If the goal was met by his 30th birthday (a month later) he promised to shave his head. People donated $2300.
He also walked about 2 miles from the Misissippi River to our house carrying the can Lexi is holding above. The can was full and weighted close to 25 lbs. On a daily basis, people without access to clean water carry these cans close to 3 miles for water. It’s mostly women and children who fetch the water.
June
We went to White Robin Farm for a family photo shoot. It was a ton of fun. Lexi helped.
Kevin’s birthday. Before:
And after:
July and August
We took care of 5 kids under 5 for a morning. Two belonged to us and three belonged to a friend. We got out of the house and walked to a park to wear everyone out.
But the best part of the year (after bringing Milo home) was flying to Connecticut and visiting our best friends for close to two weeks. We ate out a lot. We played games. Made a lot of popcorn. And just hung out.
Lexi also sat in on one of Uncle Tim’s lectures at Yale.
We saw Times Square and Tim and Nicole took the kids home and Kevin and I saw Stomp.
We met up with other college friends in Amherst and hung out for the day.
Kevin with two of his college roommates and me with one of my college roommates
August is also the State Fair. This is Lexi being “State Fair People.”
September
Happy birthday to me.
We also got to meet and hang out with Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.tv.
October
Happy 1st birthday, Milo. In case you were wondering, he does like cake and he does like chocolate. Even tried to swipe his sister’s cupcake.
Halloween. I cut the jack-o-lantern, per Lexi’s instructions and she decorated it. Lexi was a Green Princess and Milo was a scarecrow. This year, the costumes were made by me.
November
It was freakishly warm around here in November. This is how warm Lexi had to dress to go rake leaves with her dad.
Milo became extremely mobile, deciding the quickest path from point A to point B was a straight line, no matter what was along that line.
We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. Every year Joanna and I buy the kids matching Christmas PJ’s and insist on a picture. This year, 3 really excited kids would not sit still so every picture is just a big ball of stripes.
December
Kevin tried to teach Lexi to ice skate. She wasn’t a fan.
We went to Kevin’s parents’ house for Christmas. Lexi insisted we take this picture after church.
And of course, present opening.
And seeing Papa’s pigeons.
And hanging out with second cousins. Emelia and Milo were the newest second cousins this year. Emelia is 9 months in this picture and Milo is 14 months.
We got back from Kansas to discover there was a lot of shoveling to do.
And on to next year. Here’s to 2010.
family, friends, things that make me happy, uncategorized | Comments (2)Teacher Meme
This has been sitting in my inbox for a while. And since it’s 12:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep, I’ll play.
I am a good teacher because I hold my class to high expectations. Everyone can learn and everyone is expected to learn. Everyone in the class may not learn at the same rate or even learn the same concepts but I promise by the end of the school year everyone will have learned something.
If I weren’t a teacher, I would be a librarian. Specifically a Children’s Librarian in a public library. I love the idea of helping kids discover new worlds in books. And I love the smell of libraries.
My teaching style is just me. I can’t subscribe to one philosophy of teaching. I’ve got 20 students in my class that all learn and respond a different way. I need to do what works for each of them. I will say this. My co-teacher and I are the “mean” kindergarten teachers. We don’t fall for the crying your way out of it and we give the office and other teaching staff strict instructions not to baby our students. Because let me tell you, kindergarteners know how to work the system.
My classroom is loud. Well, what do you think happens when you put 16-20 5-year-olds in one room. It’s loud and to the untrained eye looks very chaotic but it’s organized chaos. I can get their attention at the drop of a hat. They know the rules and routines because of the consistency and are pretty much self-sufficent.
My lesson plans are hahahahahahaha. I have a general outline most the time I prefer to “wing-it”. I’ll have a great idea for a lesson plan, start to teach and a student will ask a question, which prompts another question and another and pretty soon my lesson on snow becomes a lesson on how the solar system works.
One of my teaching goals is to make sure every student in my class has a voice. I don’t want any student looking back and thinking they were never given a chance to share their ideas.
The toughest part of teaching is explaining to people why teaching kindergarten is not an easy job. If you think you can make it as a kindergarten teacher I will gladly let you come and teach my class for a day while I sit at my desk, smile and shake my head.
The thing I love most about teaching is summer vacation. You thought I was going to say my students, didn’t you? I do love my students. But just when you are completely fed up with your class and can’t take it anymore, summer vacation begins. And by the time it’s over I miss my classroom. I miss the kids and I want to be back.
The most important thing I’ve learned since I started teaching is First you work on classroom expectations, then you work on academics. Spend the first 3-6 weeks focusing only on behavior. Model everything. Work with your students to create expectations for the classroom. Build a community. Once that is established the academics come easy. You can now focus your energy on teaching and not worrying about who’s poking who with a pencil.
education | Comment (0)It’s a raffle for water.
For every $5 you donate here (use the big yellow button that says “donate”) you will get a chance to win all of this.
Most of it is from Starbucks and a few things are from water4 christmas or charity:water.
You’ll get one water 4 christmas tote bag, one water 4 christmas water bottle, one copy of The House at Sugar Beach (about Liberia), two cute Starbucks Mugs, two cute Starbucks tumblers, an assortment of Starbucks candies and cookies, two Starbucks charms from Rwanda, Starbucks Mocha powder, African themed Memory game, cute tote from the Starbucks Africa collection, Africa trivia game, the official charity:water bracelet and a surprise that’s not listed.
Seriously, that is a pile of loot for $5. For every $5 you donate, your name will be entered in the drawing.
Oh, and there will be a new coffee & water box every day this week. And if you win shipping is free.
So, go play.
P.S. After you donate, leave a comment here with the number of tickets you bought…and be honest. She gets a print out of who donated.
causes, things that make me happy | Comment (0)St. Nicholas
Stockings are hung.
Small gifts purchased and wrapped.
Fun treats ready to go.
Kids sleeping, excited for St. Nick’s Day tomorrow.
My family grew up celebrating this holiday. When we lived in Milwaukee not many people had heard of it…in fact kids at school didn’t believe me when on December 6 I would tell them that St. Nick came to my house the night before. My mom had quite a few phone calls from parents asking what this crazy holiday was. When we moved to Green Bay (a very Catholic city), everyone knew about St. Nick’s Day.
For me, it was always sort of the kick-off to Christmas.
special occations | Comment (1)