blogging

I have done 71 of these silly things and absolutely love writing to whoever is out there reading. I am continually surprised to have people tell me that they read my silly little blog. I wish you would all sign up to be followers or leave me comments. It is amazing to me how calm I feel writing. I love to read other blogs so I guess I should realize that people might enjoy mine.
I have had comments on my writing like, you write about the strangest things, my spelling sucks, always has and your writing if so fun to read. I love all the comments and yes I do have weird things pop in my head to write about. The spelling is usually the lack of glasses on my face. So today is going to be my random thoughts:

Newest book read:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Oh,my this book took me about 6 hours to read and I loved it. For those of you not having read it yet, you will be interested in the fact that it is based in Jackson, Mississippi which is only 80 miles from us here in Hattiesburg.
For my mom and those that know me really well, I am Miss Skeeter, the outcast no one would let into Junior League enough said.

My hope for the week:
Pray our appraisal comes in good on the new home we want to purchase. A person we know got theirs and it was 200,000 off the sale price. Lets just say, lots of people have their homes over priced. The economy sucks all around.


I am missing Glacier Park at the moment. Not sure if I am missing the cool air, the beautiful scenery or the looking for bears and walking up to the gorge. May be it is all of it. YUP that is it.

Am so glad that I have hair, just not thrilled with the current color. Brown, with more grey than I am able to keep colored. I was blond for a long time cause it covered the grey so much easier. Not sure what to do. At the moment the frizz has hit and my hair has a mind of its own. I really wonder what some of these southern women's secret is to look not hot and sweaty in 107 degree heat with 107 percent humidity. Give me a fan

Been watching home and garden tv a great deal. In anticipation on the new home. Yeah, sort of really just watching cause there is not much to do in a one bedroom apartment at the moment.
Things I have learned:
Jeff and I tend to be very plain in our decorating
Neutrals are my go to colors even in my dress. Does that mean I am classic or boring?
I really love green and brown and bringing the outdoors in.
I hate the look and style of furniture that looks so uncomfortable no one would ever sit in it.
I love a comfortable home with lots of room to read. I have more books and paper and scrapbooks than I should.
Our new home will have a new frame that I plan to build that will encompass our 100 signed baseballs. This is my project. I am going to challenge myself to make this item as I am unable to find what I have a vision of.

okay, so that is my rambling for the moment. Happy Monday to all.

Day Trip

Today Jeff, Robyn and I finally took a day trip to another part of our new state.
I had read about Natchez,Mississippi and it's older Antebellum Homes. There was to be many antique stores etc.
The first and best part of any of our trips is the fact that Robyn and I fall asleep in the car right away. This gave Jeff two hours to drive and think. He also listens to ESPN radio and really he loves this part of any trip. Minus my snoring of course.
We get to the Visitor Center and not only is there a pictorial of the area, they offer free coffee and soda. Nice!!!!

We got a map of the area and decided to go to the cemetary first due to the heat and humidity. Robyn thought this was morbid and was not overly enthusiastic. This was the oldest and largest cemetary I have ever been to. The iron works around the graves were amazing. I took photos which you will see above or below depending on if I remember how to down load them. As we drove around, we found graves of unknown soldiers, people from Spain, Ireland, England and more that have immigrated to the area.
One of the neatest was a standing moselium that if you looked through the door, a stain glass window in the back was all aglow.
As we were leaving Robyn said that she would like to look into our heritage more. This was music to Jeff's ears, as he loves history and often comments that the only history he knows so little about is his own. We walked downtown and looked at some stores, but were rather disappointed. The visitor center was very nice and we learned a lot about the area. The mighty Mississippi River was outside the window and it is really a powerful sight.
We then went to a small winery and got a taste test and we got to go and pick some of the Muskidine fruit. We drove home to rain and we were all very glad for our little adventure.
P.S. The antique stores were over priced and Jeff said why would we want a southerners old furniture. I would have to agree. Antiques are really just junk from ones past and if it is not your past does it have value? We watch american pickers weekly and love the show, but part of the fun is that they find the stuff not in stores, but rather on the road, by stopping at unique places. We will have to explore this antiquing thing a bit more... Robyn's take on the antiques, it smells like old people.....

Education

As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. I played school all day long and after I went to school I continued to play teacher and make my sister play the student and correct papers,write on the chalk board and read books. I love school. I love the smell of the school supply isle at any store. I love the feel of new paper,notebooks with unwritten on pages and pencils that need to be sharpened.
So I have taught in Montana, subbed before I had Ally. In Michigan taught art in a one room school house, in New York lead a group of Brownies, cause I had two babies at this point, in Texas, and in Arizona. Now I am in Mississippi and the term school is taking on new meaning.
I went on more job huntings than one can count this summer. I took "my packet" of resume, recommendations and licenses to every district and school within an hour of Hattiesburg. I was lucky to get three offers for a job on the same day. Here is the rub. I took the one for the most money, I know I should have seen it coming.
I raced home to Arizona to get my teaching stuff. I have one entire side of the garage filled from floor to ceiling with my stuff. I drove for two long days with my daughter Robyn and a dog in 105 heat to get to the job.
I carried box after box to my room, decorated, planned and got down to teaching only to have the worst experience in education in my life. I was yelled at by my supervisor on a daily basis,sat with other teachers in meetings while we were all belittled and told we were no good. I had had enough when I got a note a day about small items like: no names on the bathroom doors,using the word buns, etc. I began to throw up daily and feel horrible.
I was told to make the children walk in a line with no speaking, eat with them and do not talk and make sure that they never behaved like children.
Well, those of you that read this know me well enough that I teach by letting them be children. I let them make mistakes and that was my clue, I had made a mistake.
I quit and have not felt better.
I decided to give subbing a try. Went to the sub training to be told that there were 300 subs on the list, do not expect to work until Dec. or Jan., make sure I dressed in a certain way, make sure the children were not behaving like children and that no one will leave any of the campuses during the day. Kind of came across as JAIL to me.
I came home very depressed and not sure what to do with the fifteen bins in my car that hold only a portion of my school supplies. I do not think that teaching should feel like a prison.
The schools are using words that are on the "big test" daily, they are doing practice pages the look like the "big test", they are having rooms look similar so that the children all see the same things.
Anyone of you feel like screaming yet. I did and I worked out my frustration by lugging and I mean lugging my boxes up 3 flights, 38 stairs today. That is 38 steps up and 38 steps down 12 times. That is 912 steps to think about my decision.
I want to continue to educate, I want to make a difference and I want to find where I fit in the world of achadamia. I want to be a catalyst of change, I want my students to grow and learn and love school like I do.
I just do not know if public education still holds those beliefs. I hope that there is a place in this world where an education is like mine: art, fun, colorful, interactive, and test free....
I am now following my gut. I will teach school and I will do it on my terms, I just have to find the others of you out there that agree with me and my convictions. If you are a parent and you see testing as the only thing that your school is focusing on, say something. Go to your kids schools and complain. We need to get this country to figure this out. Life as a child should be wonderous and school should be where an imagination can sprout and dreams come alive....
Here's to a school year of new crayon smells, clean white paper, and a teacher for each child that thinks testing STinks.

Spelling errors or bad typing

The answer is none of the above. I forgot to put my glasses on when posting the last two posts. I have been fighting the fact that they are now necessary in my daily life and have come to realize in the last week or two especially, that I am not teaching at the moment and cannot blame the tired eyes for the lack of focus.
I was unable to read the directions on the back of a medicine bottle yesterday, unable to read text on a paper for Robyn and needed them to see the computer at the library bookfair with my tutoring buddy Redwan.
So it is official. I am old..................
My eyes are old and I need help.
So today is the first day that I will acknowledge the need for glasses all day. Wish me luck

new home

It is amazing to me how a home can become ones own is a very short time. I was able to go into our new home on two occasions yesterday. First I went by to let the current owners know that we are not stockers, just live in a one bedroom apartment and need some sort of outlet and happiness so we drive by our new home daily. Weird I know.
I was able to speak with the owner and his wife and be in the house for almost two hours. It was amazing that in that time I was able to feel the home. The inspection report came back unbelieveable. Not a thing wrong. I would have guessed this from how maticulas the home is kept and the man is Jeff only about 15 years older. They too have binders for all the manuals etc. See there are others of us out there.
Anyway, I was able to sit in the kitchen and while talking envision how I would make it our home. Later in the evening we were able to go over and see the sunset at the house and talk about some of the systems with the owner,security etc. before they leave for a trip to Illinois to find their new home. As we were driving away the lights were on the house and a full moon was shining. It is going to be a great home......
I was able to get some pictures and I am going to figure out how to scan them to add to this post so be patient....

Time Away

I have been away from my blog for too long. I have spent the summer trying to make our move to Mississippi. I will start by saying,it has been one of the most difficult moves for our family.
I have not blogged for who wants to hear all my frustrations,failures and just plain crankiness about living in a one bedroom "furnished" ya right apartment. Three adults and a dog are getting rather tired of running into each other.
Enough about the negative.
We have made an offer on a home and it has been accepted and we are to close on Oct. 15th. This seems so far off, to all of us. The home is currently owned by a wonderful older couple that have it so sparkling clean and neat that I feel the need to go in and take pictures for it will never be that neat again. The man has been ill so Robyn suggested we make him cookies. I feel that this will be a great idea for I know how I feel about my Arizona home and having to say good bye to it. Maybe it will brighten their day.
Robyn is loving USM and I find that I am drawn there. The campus is alive and I have found a curriculum library in the main library. My love of books drew me there and the lady may be leaving....Can you say job opportunity...
As for a job, I hated the one I took and was ill for two weeks. I knew in my gut it was not right, but did not follow that feeling. Lesson learned.
I am tutoring a boy in the afternoons from Bangladesh. Love this and his mom and dad. The new baby sister is amazingly cute and I feel such reward from this experience.
So my blogging is back and we may actually have a home soon. Yeah!
I do have a question that I would like you to comment on if you would.
Does artwork have to be useful to be considered art????