Twice in one day!!!!

Thank you Sweet, Sassy, and Always Classy http://mysweetandsouthernlife.blogspot.com/ , for tagging me for The Honest Scrap Award! And at the same time as I was singing your praises!!!!








The rules are...
(1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs for brilliance in content/design
(2) Show the winners and let them know
(3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself



I choose:
1. Danielle http://yelliebabi.blogspot.com/


2. Kristen http://fijifruits.blogspot.com/


3. Kimberly http://kimberlypye.blogspot.com/


4. Ms. George http://msgeorgemsenglishteacher.blogspot.com/


5. Kappa Prep http://kappaprep.blogspot.com/


6. Laura http://teachermuse.blogspot.com/


7. Barbara http://prayingforgrace.blogspot.com/




All seven of these ladies have inspired me through their words and their blogs! Sorry if any of you have already received this award... I'm hoping there are no repeats!


And now, my ten honest things:




1. I have some days where I leave my job and think, "Wow, middle school isn't too bad". I always dreamed of teaching high school so when I do have those days, I wonder how long I'll put off the move to high school and the novels I've always wanted to teach. It isn't a horrible thing but something that throws my plans off a bit.





2. I can't wait to buy a house this year. My hubby and I have been looking on and off since 2005 so the suspense is killing me. We really think this is the year though because of the low house prices, the possible tax credit, and the fact we have a good amount saved up for the down payment. Let's just hope neither of us lose our jobs (darn economy).






3. I have the baby bug! I have two friends who gave birth this past year and I'm starting to think I'm ready! Of course, hubby and I are waiting for a house but who knows!






4. I can't wait to take classes towards my Masters. I'll always love the fresh school supplies, new textbooks, and the adrenaline I feel when I write an essay or take test.







5. I take a nap (almost) every day after work. A guilty pleasure, I know! And its not even a short one. It's usually at least an hour, if not more. Then I wake up, ready to make dinner and do all my teacher stuff.






6. I am obsessed with Dave Matthews. I even got to meet him once! It was such an amazing night. It was the night before my birthday, too. I got to hug him and boy, I didn't want to let go!!!









7. I use Dove body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. I love the stuff, especially the body wash. Smells so good!!





8. I converted to Catholicism in 2007 and am so happy I did. I felt so lost spiritually and now I am so happy I found a home. I got involved right away and now I am a lector and Eucharist minister (I start my training soon!!!!) at my parish.




9. I wear my pearl earrings every day! I love how they dress up a casual outfit but also completes my more dressy stuff. Addicted!!!!




10. My 10 year high school reunion is coming up this fall and I'm a little excited to go. I honestly hated high school and had a crappy experience.... Remind me to tell you my yearbook story. Talk about ruining someone reputation because the wrong profile was put under my picture!





Boy, that was fun!!!! I hope you all enjoyed it and thanks so much for my very first blog award!!!!

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!!!)

I feel....

I feel like a horrible blogger. I barely post anymore and if I do, I feel it lacks substance. I read so many other insightful or entertaining blogs and think, wow if only I could have a blog like that. And then I see blog awards passed around..... I'm not trying to have a pity party. I just wished I could make this blog better! To one day be worthy....

Anyways, enough with the negativity.

Did anyone watch last night's Bachelor!!! OMG :-) I don't want to spoil it for those who recorded it and haven't seen it but I loved the last five minutes. I think Jason made the best decision there! My top three are still in: Jillian, Molly, and Melissa. I'm really rooting for them and I don't think I'm alone. I'm excited to see what the Seattle visit will bring. I feel like they are doing it earlier in the season but perhaps I'm wrong.

Teaching is rocking right now. We started a persuasive writing unit (yikes, teaching writing) but so far, so good. I really thought my low group would have a hard time with it but they did better than both my high and my average classes. I think its because I modified the lesson a bit and gave them the graphic organizer instead of them having to make it themselves. My goal of this unit is to tie it in with the "Our Town" unit we will be finishing next week. Since we've been talking about whether this book should be taught at the middle school level (I didn't read it until high school and even then I don't feel like I truly appreciate like I do now), I want them to try to persuade me whether I should teach it at this level (middle school vs. high school). It's still a work in progress but I would really like to hear what they think and see what they did or didn't get out of it.

Well, I'm off to correct the "Our Town" Act II quizzes from today! I'm pretty sure we'll have no school tomorrow (darn New England snow storms) but just in case, I need to be prepared!

Gosh...

Quick recap:

Holidays were busy but great. Got to see pretty much any and all family members and got lots of cute preppy clothes, teaching books, movies, and a scone pan!!!! My goal of being a housewife is slowly coming true ;-)

Back to school and rocking out "Our Town". Act I quiz is Wednesday so I'm interested to see how the kiddies do. Tomorrow we are going over the study guide summary form they've been working on and then watching the first act.

Went to last Thursday's Bruins game with my hubby, his best friend Jon, and one of my best friend's, Ashley (who happens to be dating Jon). Such a blast and they totally won.

The Bachelor is on tonight!!!! I watched last week's episode and teaser after the show and was shocked. DeAnna!!!!! What is she doing to Jason!?!?!?!?! Ok, freak out over. All I can say is this is the season to watch. Plus, how could you not love Jason! I was so bummed last season when Jason went home broken-hearted and I am so glad he has a second chance :-)

I think that's pretty much it! Have a great week!

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!

Wow... has it been a strange few weeks....

Hi everyone... what a crazy few weeks its been in Pink and Green teacher world. First, I came down with one of the worst colds I ever had the beginning of the month (so bad that I actually called out of school) which then turned into bronchitis in time for my husband and my birthdays (sweet). During this time (last week to this week) New England has been hit with not only a crippling ice storm that has caused power outages and school cancellations (more on that later) but also a snow storm today and possibly twice this upcoming weekend.

DH, Rosie, I were forced from our home because of said ice storm last week which caused/still causing major power outages and lack of heat. We had to stay at my mother's last Friday until Sunday because our power and heat was out. We finally got power back Sunday night but heat was on and off until yesterday. Knock on wood everything is finally working for us here, but there are so many others still suffering.

On that note, I've been out of work since last Friday because of the damage from said ice storm. I guess my school district was hit hard (central MA) and school will out of session until next Monday (22nd) unless the horrible snowstorm they are talking about hits us as well.

So, its been a strange couple of weeks. In the off time, however, I've kept busy. I've Christmas shopped, caught up on laundry, watched "Our Town" so I can use the film along with the play that we are reading in class, and all my correcting I was slacking on since my illness (I'm talking tests from THANKSGIVING!!!!!!)

Back to birthdays... DH and I had a lovely birthdays. He bought me a beautiful diamond journey necklace (the one with seven diamonds that go from small to large in a bit of a curve), took me out to my favorite Japanese restaurant, and to see Four Christmases (which was a cute movie). We also decided to spring on new cellphones so I got the AT&T Quickfire and he got an IPhone. I can't say enough about the Quickfire... I love the keyboard for easy texting and the touch screen is a wonderful addition as well.

Anyways, I'm going to work on some more correcting and then call it a night. Hope all is well with everyone and that you are all enjoying this wonderful Christmas season!!!!

Random...

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
• * Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
• * Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
• * Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
• * Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

• * my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
• * my ability to establish warm connections with people
• * admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
• * my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
• * being unique and being seen as unique by others
• * having aesthetic sensibilities
• * being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

• * experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
• * feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved
• * feeling guilty when I disappoint people
• * feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
• * expecting too much from myself and life
• * fearing being abandoned
• * obsessing over resentments
• * longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

• * have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
• * are very sensitive
• * feel that they don't fit in
• * believe they are missing something that other people have
• * attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
• * become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
• * feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

• * help their children become who they really are
• * support their children's creativity and originality
• * are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
• * are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
• * are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at