Thursday, January 28, 2010

One of those days...

I started student teaching last week and have found it rather exhausting! Every morning I am up before 5:30 just so I can get out the door in time to drive forty five minutes to Spotsylvania High School. I find myself thinking about my lessons, activities, and students constantly and all at the most random times. When I wake up, in the shower, when I am driving (which is a lot), before I go to bed, when I lie awake at night, etc.

So yesterday on my way to class, I was drinking my breakfast shake made from our Magic Bullet at home. I got all the way to the bottom of the glass when I realized the reason it was so hard to get through the straw was because the rubber gasket got sucked into the blade and chopped up into my drink. I know this because there was a half inch section that didn’t get fully mutilated right next to the strawberry at the bottom. Hope rubber gets out okay!

I taught my classes and then stayed for their eighth grade recruitment night until 8:00 pm. We had a table set up with some displays of class work and what we do within our classes trying to encourage them to enroll. Lucy even was on exhibit and, if I do say so myself, was the crowd pleaser. It made for a long day and those of you who know me understand that I get frequent migraines – yesterday was one of those days… I got home and gave Lucy a bath and have to admit I went to bed – yes, it was 9:30 but I went to bed! Paul made it home a little after 10 pm and he pretty much crashed as soon as he got home too.

This morning I awoke at my lovely 5:30 and still with a migraine. I drove to school thinking once again about my classes for today and how to connect certain students to the material. I was just thinking away, and came up with a good idea, when all of a sudden I look up and see that I JUST missed my exit. For those of you who know about VA, you know that to travel anywhere you have to take the Interstate and then take a highway to your destination. Not at all like the west coast! The next exit was 8 miles away and there was no way that I could take that exit and back track to the school – even my GPS in the car said so! So that cost me 16 miles of unwanted driving this morning and made me just a little late (not for my class, just for the teacher contract time).

Yes, I cried and then I realized that I needed to slow down. These last few weeks have been so hectic and I haven’t had the best relationship with my savior. I am not saying that God gave me one of those days just to make me stop and realize that I was forgetting about Him (I don’t know His plans), but it definitely made slow down and think about what other things I need to be thinking about.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Food for thought...or not!


Only 35 percent of the edible beef produced annually in the United States is ever actually consumed – the rest is discarded as waste. (National Cattlemen's Beef Association)



Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Eww...Chewy!


Random fact for today...

The first duct (or 'duck') tape, created for the U.S. military during World War II, could be boiled and eaten as an emergency ration.


Friday, January 8, 2010

This day in history...


Fun fact for you...January 8, 1790 George Washington gave his first State of the Union Address in New York City. For those of you ambitious, read on.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which now presents itself of congratulating you on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs. The recent accession of the important state of north Carolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received), the rising credit and respectability of our country, the general and increasing good will toward the government of the Union, and the concord, peace, and plenty with which we are blessed are circumstances auspicious in an eminent degree to our national prosperity.

In resuming your consultations for the general good you can not but derive encouragement from the reflection that the measures of the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope. Still further to realize their expectations and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed within our reach will in the course of the present important session call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness, and wisdom.

Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is on e of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangements which may be made respecting it it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.

There was reason to hope that the pacific measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations, but you will perceive from the information contained in the papers which I shall direct to be laid before you (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.

The interests of the United States require that our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty in that respect in the manner which circumstances may render most conducive to the public good, and to this end that the compensation to be made to the persons who may be employed should, according to the nature of their appointments, be defined by law, and a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs.

Various considerations also render it expedient that the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.

Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.

The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home, and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the post-office and post-roads.

Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.

To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways - by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness - cherishing the first, avoiding the last - and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.

Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I saw with peculiar pleasure at the close of the last session the resolution entered into by you expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision for the support of the public credit is a matter of high importance to the national honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I entirely concur; and to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly with the end I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other branch of the legislature.

It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and interests of the United States are so obviously so deeply concerned, and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, respectively, such papers and estimates as regard the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the Union which it is my duty to afford.

The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed, and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Updates!!

Wow! It has been a very long time since I have updated my blog. Paul, Lucy, and I have been having so much fun with our two week break! We picked up our little Lucy on December 18 in WV and have been having so much fun with her ever since. She is about twelve pounds right now and is continuing to grow as she is 10 1/2 weeks old. We are so happy with her and although it is different having a puppy to train, she is doing wonderfully picking up new skills and being potty trained (I say that and she will have an accident tonight...). :)

Paul surprised me with a trip to New York before Christmas. We were able to spend three days there - which was the first time both of us had been there - and experience some of New York's sights. We went to the Phantom of the Opera and Paul had purchased pretty much the best seats in the theater - it was amazing! At one point I cried because I was just so happy and thrilled taking it in! :) If you ever are in NY and have the chance to catch a show on Broadway, DO IT!!! AMAZING!! We also went to Serendipity's for a late dinner, which is the same restaurant from the movie "Serendipity". There was so much to take in; as Paul said it was sensory overload! It is really funny how much you recognize from the news, movies, and such as New York is featured in many arenas.

Christmas was spent with Paul's Aunt and Uncle and two cousins in Fredericksburg, VA. They are such gracious and loving people as they opened their home to us and we felt like we belonged. We had fun playing games, watching movies, and of course eating! Paul's cousin J (for sake of confidentiality we will say J) turned 14 on Christmas Eve so we celebrated accordingly. We played Paintball with him on New Year's Eve Eve and I had many welts to prove it. Let's just say that Paul doesn't play fair and will shoot you in the back after he gets out because you sniped him! ;) Love you honey...

All in all, a great holiday season and we survived Blizzard 09 here in Virginia with our two feet of snow. Here are some pictures to get a glimpse of what we have been up to...as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!!
At the Statue of Liberty Island with Manhattan at our backs. So cold!!
It was so impressive to see her in person. We spent hours there and got the audio headsets to learn all about it. For instance, did you know she is only two penny's thick?
Rockerfeller Center where the Ice Skating rink is below us. So neat!
Time Square after a full day out site seeing and then the Phantom of the Opera performance.
Our little puppy Lucy!!
Paul with Lucy!
Forgot to post a picture of us at the USMC ball in November...so here it is!! This was one of those "hurry, hold the camera because it is freezing in the parking garage so we can take the picture and drive back to Stafford" pictures. :)
Lucy as of Saturday with Paul - she LOVES Paul the best!
One more picture with little Lucy on New Years day!
Christmas Day at family's house in Fredericksburg. Lucy busy opening Grandma Ruth's gift.