Uh-Oh!

The Randy's basketball team is now 3-3. They have lost fairly badly in the last three games.
They have off for a week, and had a practice on Monday. Saturday is their next game, so maybe they can turn things around.

One can only hope!

Getting old

You know, all the advice out there to stay healthy and exercise is a crock. I exercise more than anyone I know, I watch what I eat (right down to counting EVERY calorie I put in my body), and what do I get? Sprains, tears, colds, you name it. I pulled or tore my right calf two weeks ago dancing in church. I couldn't walk for three days and then it was sore for 3 more. I am finally going back out today to try and run 2 or 3 very slow miles. Luckily, I am not in training for any races right now.

Now, if I wasn't so active, maybe I wouldn't hurt myself, but I would be more overweight, probably borderline diabetic, and everything else. It seems like I can't win!

Well, out I go - the wind is blowing at about 30-40 mph right now and the temperature has dropped to 35 degrees. The price of health!

A bonfire to burn my running clothes!

A New Wave Monster Movie

I don't post much, partly because I don't take many pictures during the week (even with my iphone with me all the time). But I get around to it on the weekends.

Last weekend we went to see the movie, "Cloverfield". If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil its great moments. But it is an innovative movie that actually allows you to be a part of the action. The movie is shot from a handheld video camera and you get to see what regular people might do if a monster was attacking their city/town. For the most part, I would have reacted just the way the actor in the movie did - running, screaming, totally nuts! If the Godzilla movies had been told from the eyewitness point of view, they might have been completely terrifying and still on the video market.

Having been a life long fan of the Japanese Godzilla movies, I hate to say it but move over Godzilla, there's a new monster in town!

Stumble!

Well, the Randy's basketball team finally lost a game. They are now 3 - 1. We think they lost because it is hard for middle school boys to get up so early on Saturday!

A Blessing

I have written before about the Dance Ministry in my church - we are called the Tribe of Judah. Our church had a Praise Bowl this week - a Praise Bowl as we define it is thanking God for all He has done in 2007 and claiming the things He will do for us in 2008. Our dance ministry danced along with 4 choirs, a puppet show and 2 other dance ministries. The highlight of the evening was another praise group called the Circle of Love. They are a dance ministry with the youngest member being 54 years old! The ages range from 54 (and she is the director of the group) to 96!!!!!! Whenever our dance ministry has practice and a member complains about not being able to do a move or something being too hard, we say to them, "96!"

You are never too old to praise the Lord!

A New Semester

Being a teacher educator has its pros and cons. I love the freedom to pick and create the course I teach and seeing new teachers begin their journey toward becoming professionals. I love the freedom to make my own schedule and choose what I want to do and when. I also like meetings - funny, huh? Some days that is the work of the day - attend meetings and make plans for future.

What I don't like about it is you are always responsible for everything - even if you don't know or feel that you are responsible! I am finally learning not to leave anything to chance and make sure I find out all the info I need (such as making sure all my students have all their paperwork in order and turned in). And though I lie having the freedom to make my own choices, sometimes that is a burden particularly when it comes to being aggressive in getting additional consulting work or extra funding. Which brings me to my final dislike - the money. I do understand that as a professor you are not working a 9-5 job, and that is great. But, come on! Having a PhD should count for something!!

I am pretty loaded with work this semester - I am working with 5 intern teachers (all math interns which is great!), I have 20 students in a new introduction to education class, 12 students in Children's Literature (which believe it or not I like teaching), and the seminar for student intern teachers to prepare them to complete an action research project before the end of the semester. So it should be very interesting - I hope to make it through unscathed and learn the names of all my students!

Rolling along!

Well, the LS Lakers won their second basketball game on Saturday. It was a nail biter right down to the last few seconds! The team was dong fairly well, with both teams almost even at the end of the half. But in the 3rd quarter, well, let's just say the team had some scoring issues - like being down 11 points by the end of the 3rd quarter!! Since these games rarely go over 40 points, we thought we were done. But those kids wanted to win, and win they did!! They came back and won by 3: 35 - 32!

This just goes to show you that kids can overcome many obstacles if we only tell them they can and let them try!!!!

Basketball 2008

Basketball season has begun. Last night the Randy's team won their first game 21-20. What a close one! They have another game on Saturday - we can only hope that their defensive play keeps them in the game! Champ is #8 - getting ready to defend!

The Eiffel Tower Saga

We finally started working in the Eiffel Tower. And of course nothing is going smoothly. I originally tried to count how many steps there were. The book lists about 150. then we realized that each group of steps is repeated! So there are 300 steps to complete for this thing!
(sorry the pictures aren't so clear. don't know what happened with the camera)

We had gotten to step 30 the second time and put the work away for the night. the next day while I was getting ready to take the dog out for a walk, I knocked our camera bag over onto the Tower. The entire thing collasped! I had to rebuild it all over!


This is the Tower with the first 60 steps - the second time!!


More trouble - if you look carefully at the picture, you may notice that one of the sections is not complete. that is because there were missing pieces from the box! and the missing piece are not your standard everyday LEGO pieces, no that would be too easy. They are specially shaped ones in particular colors. We were able to find a few of the missing pieces from some other LEGO projects. But the pieces here we don't have. I have to get up to the LEGO store in NJ to see if I can find them. We can't continue building until we get the missing piece. Cari, can you help???