Thumb Thursdays

So since I'm in "I want to write more in this blog" kick, I came up with a way to at least make sure I would have a reason to write more in this thing. Thus the idea of thumb Thursday.... My way of sharing with you what is thumbs up and thumbs down in my life this particular week.

Thumbs up:

• A huge pink and green thumbs up to my swap partner Sweet, Sassy, and Always Classy http://mysweetandsouthernlife.blogspot.com/ for her amazing gifts I received in the mail just yesterday from our Pink swap through Kappa Prep's blog! All I can say is this girl went above and beyond. I can't find my digital camera right now (yikes!!!) but when I do, I need to put up pictures. First, a wicked cute white basket with pink and white cloth inside, a beautiful pink and green picture frame which will look uber cute on my desk at school, pink and green tissues, nail file, pink heart coasters, a cupcake-decorated spatula, pink kitchen towels, a cute pink mini book on pampering yourself, a pink heart container filled with pink Hershey kisses (yum!!!), a adorable pink heart with sequins and beads on it, and it the list goes on from there. Thank you so much!!!! You are the sweetest and most generous lady! Everything was wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a pink ribbon (how cute!!!!)
• Winning one of Kappa Prep's skirts on ebay! Pictures to follow once it comes it. Its a cute silk spring skirt so I'm looking forward to getting it in time for spring (which we all know will take forever in New England).
• Having an awesome teaching day today! We are getting ready for the Our Town test tomorrow so today we played a review game which went so well. I had 4 rows set up with 6 chairs in each row. The front seat gets a dry erase board and has to answer the question asked (I had 5 categories to choose from, one for each act, people, and potpourri). If the person gets it right, they get up and return to the back of the row while everyone moves up a seat. If you get it wrong, you have to stay until you get an answer right. Not only is it holding everyone accountable (which can be tough when you are doing any time of team games) but I can also use it for informal assessment. The students loved it and I can't wait to try it with my next unit! We also talked about themes in Our Town and I had the class split up into four groups (I choose four themes for this unit) and using their notes and the book, they had to come up with a moment from the play that is an example of this theme. Each group had a different color marker and I had poster paper around the room with a different theme on it so they had to walk around the room, see what others wrote, and come up with a completely different example. Again, it went so well and they did a wonderful job. After the groups finished, we went around the room to share what we wrote and how the example they choose showed the theme. They really did a great job sharing and explaining.

Thumbs down:

• Things in three: I've had three wakes or funerals in the last 10 days so that has been a huge bummer. My oldest friend's mother passed away last week from a short but courageous fight with cancer at the age of 51, my best friend's grandmother passed away yesterday, and finally another of my closest friend's father passed away Monday. Its been a pretty sad week and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.

Honestly, its been a good week overall. I feel very grateful for the wonderful things that came my way but also for the reminder that life is short so we have to appreciate life while we still have time (like Our Town tries to teach us!!!)

Last minute Christmas suggestion?!?!?!

So I'm trying to think of a last minute Christmas idea for a relative and I thought some sort of Catholic daily devotional publication could be a great idea. The only problem is there are so many to choose from. I decided on three that I like based on their website but I'm looking for advice from my fellow Catholic readers...

My Daily Visitor
http://www.osv.com/MDVNav/MyDailyVisitorHomePage/tabid/440/Default.aspx

The Word Among Us
http://wau.org/

Living Faith
http://www.livingfaith.com/

I personally have subscribed to The Word Among Us but found it dry at times and not as inspirational as I hoped (just to give you an indication, I really enjoy the Little Blue Books Advent devotions from the Diocese of Saginaw http://www.littlebooks.org/ ).

Anyways, I know its late in the game so I'm not expecting lots of feedback, but any would be appreciated!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness;Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God;It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgivingAnd His courts with praise.Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good;His lovingkindness is everlastingAnd His faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100:1-5

Signs...

It's funny how things happen for a reason. This past weekend I had a bit of a relapse in terms of my worrying... I had issues with worrying too much back in hs and college (another story for another day). Well this weekend I felt overwhelmed so I wrote them all down on a piece of paper just to get them out of my head. Of few of them would be:

• Paying for grad school
• Choosing a grad program
• Passing GRE and GRE Lit tests
• Choosing a career path (middle school vs. high school teaching)
• And a few other embarrassing ones

Dougie is always wonderful about my worries. He lets me sound them out to him and then he helps me cross them off by either giving me advice or telling how its something I can't help so why worry about it.

Today after my long day at school, I decided to make myself a nice hot cup of tea. I usually pull out the good loose leaf stuff but today I felt like a plain cup of tea. So I pulled the only kind I have in the house.... my scriptural tea with a bible verse on every tag. This was mine...

"Be anxious for nothing...let your requests be known to God" Philippians 4:6

Its so nice having those types of signs from up above :-)

First, please take a look at this blog I came across about readers:

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2008/01/have_you_praised_a_reader_toda.html

Second, today I ventured in a giant teacher store and I had a blast. It's called Teacher's Pet and its located on the Lawrence/ North Andover line and I've wanted to go there since I was a little girl. It was a bit overwhelming since its a huge place (I'm talking bigger than Dave and our apartment combined twice). I picked up a few literature guides for Macbeth and Animal Farm since I'll be teaching them this semester and had them place an order for Brave New World. These guides are going to be very helpful this semester. They include vocabulary, discussion questions, activities, paper topics, quizzes and/or tests, and anything else you might need.

Anyway, diving into Merchant of Venice. I can't believe I have to finish teaching it next week!!!!

Third weekend of the month...

Just got back from adoration.... what a great feeling it is. To spend one hour with Jesus, to give back in some small way for all he has done for you. What a gift!

I've been having a tough month... two deaths between middle of December and January, school up in the air, friendships in peril, health concerns... Just a lot to deal with.

I almost didn't go to adoration this weekend. There wasn't a sign up sheet last week and I didn't go out of my way to find out about the hours available. It was today, while I was making my toast that I thought, Hey, I should go to adoration. Literally, five minutes later, Anna (the lady who coordinates the hours for adoration) calls my cell phone. She wanted to see if I was interesting in signing up for an adoration hour. How amazing is that? Ask and you shall receive!

And you know what, I actually feel better. I poured my heart out and laid my troubles at Jesus' feet. I know he will lead me down the right path. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart". I may not like the outcome, but I know that things happen for a reason and that He wouldn't give me anything I couldn't handle.

What a wonderful gift our faith has...

I heart bulldogs

When I feel down in the dumps, I like watching a funny movie or a funny youtube video to lift my spirits. Today I wanted to post a video I watch from time to time that really makes me smile. I do want to warn my readers (all three of you) that this video is from a late night talk show so its not for our younger viewers.

Keys to a better life

Everyone knows that I am obsessed with commericals. I've been known to "shhh" a room just for a 30 second spot, especially if it is school or puppy related. Last night (and the past couple of nights), I've noticed these awesome commericals that are based on things like friendship, marriage, compassion, and many others. Here are a few spots that are my favorite: