Promises Made, Promises Broken

Yes, I do love Tiffany...  (For those of you who aren't 80's nerds, then I guess I must point out that teen sensation Tiffany recorded a song with the same lyrics as my blog title.  You should look it up - it's a pretty good song.)

But looking at my last post, I realized I made a promise to not wait as long to type my next blog post.  And, here I am, 18 days later, typing away with a broken promise.

Recently, I've made a few promises that have been broken - by circumstances which are beyond my control.

But, being the prideful worrywart that I am, I am still heartbroken over the fact that my intent does not match the results.

Well, enough about that sad business.  I promised an update, and here ya go (even though it's a few weeks overdue)...

We love our dogs.  Dougie, because who doesn't love a face like his?

 

Jackson, despite the fact the's quite retarded.  We still love him, though...  Even if he sometimes chooses to sleep like this:

Max played more baseball in the time that I've neglected to blog.  Here are some highlights:

My Max is a cute ballplayer...

In one game, he got to play catcher.  He thought that was really cool.  I think he just thought he was important because he got to wear all that gear.

In the next game, he played first base for an inning.  Now, that was something to watch!  He really took his responsibility seriously.  He even got an out at first!

"Good game" lineups are always the cutest and the best.

And baseball isn't baseball unless you play against a buddy and then can hang out with him after the game.

Okay, since I've learned my lesson that sometimes things are beyond my control, I'll try to keep a watch on my promises.

So...  until next time (and who knows when that next time will be!).

Absentee Blogger

Wow - I can't believe I haven't posted anything since March 16. So much has happened that I've overlooked my blogging responsibilities.

So I'll do a rundown of our activities through pictures and videos.

First of all, we finished our basketball season.  We actually were a really good team, only having one loss (our first game, in which the kids had no clue what was happening).  So, the Upward Awards Celebration was held at Agape.  For a long time, Max was the only member of our team present.

The highlight of the awards ceremony was the announcement of our team, accompanied by our team photo on the big screen.  Thankfully, it was a pretty darn good picture of me.

Our next big event was our second annual Spring Has Sprung Deck Party, which was held the weekend before Easter.  This year, we had fewer kids but more activities (go figure).  The kiddos enjoyed dyeing eggs, busting a pinata, decorating scratch-off eggs, tossing rings on the bunny ears, racing in potato sacks, and of course hunting for Easter eggs.

Next up:  Easter weekend.  We traveled to Gillett to stay with my parents.  Saturday afternoon, we went fishing in Trites' Reservoir with the Hauges and Robert Belcher.  I hadn't been "real" fishing since about ten years ago (with Robert), and Max had never been.  So, needless to say, I was quite excited.  After much anticipation, Max caught his first fish.  It was the biggest one of the day!

And, in true Max fashion, he acted like a little girl...  and refused to touch the fish. LOL

We convinced him that he had to kiss his first fish for good luck - otherwise, he'd never catch another fish in his life.  Amazingly, it worked and he puckered up.

Our catch that day wasn't that great, as you can see.  However, the weather was nice, the beer was cold, and the company was awesome.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Easter day was the best Easter I've ever had, hands down.  We did everything so differently than what we've ever done before, and it made all the difference.  We didn't go to church, therefore we didn't dress up.  We enjoyed watching Max find all his baskets (the Easter bunny really should scale things down next year!).  We opted to grill burgers instead of the usual ham and sides spread, which made things easier and more low-key.  We dyed eggs and hunted eggs in the afternoon before leaving for LR.  John's mammaw was with us, which was also quite different yet absolutely wonderful.  Again, I couldn't have asked for a better day.

This week, Max had his kindergarten musical program called "It Sounds a Little Fishy to Me."

Max had a speaking part in the program, and he couldn't have been more excited.  He was a burping whale - perfect casting, right?

Finally, Max had his first baseball game this weekend.  Unlike his other sports this year, I hadn't been to a single practice, so I was really anxious to see him play.

Max had two good hits off the tee (they get three tries from the pitching machine, and he didn't get 'em this time).  He threw a couple of force outs and caught one.  He did a pretty good job for his first game, but this week we're going to work with him on fielding, as about five balls went past him.

On a funny note, I was standing on the sidelines watching the game, and I heard Max's voice from the field.  Singing.  "867-5309."  Yes, that's my boy.

Okay, we're caught up now.  I hope I never have to do that again.  LOL

Hope everyone has a great week, and I'll be posting soon (that's a promise, not a threat!).  :)

My Hero

This morning my 8th grade students and I are completing videos for a Bon Jovi contest on the Animoto website.  Here is my entry... Enjoy!



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Everybody Hurts... Sometimes

You know, I've been connected to a lot of hurting this past year or so.  Not all situations have been something that directly affected my immediate family, but all are things that have weighed on my heart and soul:  the declining health and eventual passing of John's grandfather, the enormous responsibility of moving his grandmother to a nursing home, the tragic loss of a seventh-grade student, the unexpected death of a close friend's father, the heartbreaking end of a few marriages, the difficult loss of many friends' jobs, and the sudden illness and death of my former students' father.

Regardless of whether or not these incidents involved my family, all of this hurt has really weighed on me.  I really haven't admitted it until today, but I've been in a slump lately.  I wouldn't say that I'm depressed, but I definitely haven't been my usual self.  All this hurt has really gotten to me.  I guess you could say that it has made me be more aware of my own mortality.  You could say without a doubt that it has contributed to another step in my maturity.

So...  what am I to do?  I know I'll face difficult days, decisions, and deaths in the days, months, and years to come.  That can't be helped, so I must accept the fact that I won't be placed in a situation that I can't handle.  However, in the meantime, I guess I must enjoy my life's blessings on a daily basis:  my family and my friends, my health and my home, my job and my joys.

I need to delight in Max's growth into a young man, and sometimes I need to put down the camera and join in the action.  I need to never take for granted John's friendship, and I need to sustain the spark that brought us together when we were still in our teens.  I need to keep my family and friends close at heart if not close in miles, making sure that I tell them how important they are in my life.  I need to strive to let my students know how much they mean to me, how proud I am of their accomplishments no matter how big or small, and how dedicated I am to their success in and out of the classroom.

And as for myself, I need to focus on my personal goals, my dreams, my bucket list.  I need to remember who I am and what I want for myself in life...   And then I need to go and get it.

Basically, I need to live, love, and laugh as much as possible.  And I need to have faith that my presence on this Earth has meaning...  And that I am doing everything in my power to accomplish that meaning.

Laced Up and Coughed Out

After somewhat medicating but largely ignoring Max's sore throat pleas for a few days, the game changed when my throat started hurting on Monday. I finally went to the doctor yesterday, and he diagnosed me with a bacterial infection. So, for the first time in two years, I'm at home sick.

Yuck.

Even though I had a doctor's note to stay home from school, I returned yesterday after my office visit to finish out the day. I tried to find someone to sub my last class, but it didn't exactly happen... I so persevered until the last bell. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap after getting home, and just a few minutes after waking up I was greeted by tornado sirens in our neighborhood.

Great.

As soon as we heard the sirens and saw the radar maps on TV, John and I both immediately reached for our socks - without even talking to each other. Great minds think alike! Both of us knew that if anything happened, we didn't want to be caught without shoes. So we laced up, gathered Max and the dogs in the hallway, and hunkered down for a bit. Poor Max was really scared, so I had to constantly reassure him that things would be fine. The weather passed and nothing terrible happened, so my promise worked out all right.

Thankfully.

This morning, I dropped Max off at school and picked up my horse pills and cough syrup. Now I'm on the couch, wrapped up in my hoodie and a blanket. Time to do some planning for our 2nd Annual Spring Has Sprung Deck Party, brainstorming for my Summer at the Academy classes, and packing for our trip to Greenville this weekend. Funny that being at home sick doesn't necessarily mean that the work stops!

Reality.

Blogging in the Classroom

Today, I am teaching a blogging workshop for PA teachers.  Instead of killing a tree, I decided that I'd create a blog post with links to all the helpful articles that I'll use in the workshop.


So...  here they are!

Wikipedia's Entry for "Blog" 

Wikipedia's Entry for "Edublog"

"How to Blog" by Farhad Manjoo
     a great article about blogging as a hobby

Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom
     an article outlining ways to use blogs in the classroom

Technorati
     a blog search engine

Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating
     a comprehensive list of wonderful educational blogs

Top 100 Education Blogs
     a list from 2006 (so some links may no longer work)


Now that you have the general idea about blogs and how they are used in the classroom, it's time to create your own!

Blogger

Getting Started Guide

What is Following?

How Do I Leave Comments on a Blog?

How Do I Moderate Comments on My Blog?


Got a blog?  Wanna make it fancy?  Check out these links!

The Cutest Blog on the Block
Hot Bliggity Blog
Blogaroozer
Blog Blings
     websites with free blog backgrounds

Best Embeds for Educational Wikis and Blogs
     a great list of items to embed in your blog - see examples below...

I created an aMap - what a GREAT tool for teaching critical thinking! 



I also created a glog, which can be embedded on a blog or can be a stand-alone tech project for your students!

Anne Frank Glog

Here's an example of a Google Document - which could be used to create an online quiz for students to complete.



I created an online poll from the website Poll Everywhere - check it out!

Get a free sms student response system at Poll Everywhere

I found this Venn Diagram on ClassTools.net, which offers customizable diagrams and games to customize and embed in your blog.

Click here for full screen version

At MyStudiyo, you can create one-of-a-kind quizzes, like the one below:




I could go on and on with embeddable objects to use in your blog... As you can see, the sky's the limit!

Have fun blogging!

Confessions of a Bibliophile

Getting back in the swing of things after our snow days has really kept me busy since my last blog update. Sorry for the lapse in posts, but I guess with only four followers I didn't keep a bunch of people on pins and needles during my hiatus. :)

Over the past couple of weekends, we (John, Max, Breta, and I) have established a Saturday ritual that I really enjoy. Our morning starts off with Max's basketball game, usually at 9:00. He has really improved since he started in January, now scoring an average of over 5 points a game! After his game, the four of us go somewhere together for lunch. A couple of Saturdays ago, we went to Ozark Mountain Smokehouse - YUM! Finally, after lunch we go junktiquing - to yard sales, estate sales, and antique malls. It's so much fun, and I really couldn't imagine a better way to spend time with my three favorite people.

Yesterday, we stopped at a Sale by Nancy (the BEST in Little Rock estate sale companies) off Reservoir. The house was crammed full of treasures, but of course I really have an eagle eye for one thing: books. The older, the better. I prefer dictionaries, composition books, and literary classics, but as long as it's an old book I'm grabbing it to take a look. Yesterday, I found a few keepers: a 1915 edition of Tennyson's Idylls of the King, a Webster's Elementary School Dictionary from 1901, and a 1943 textbook entitled Writing Short Stories.

In my search through the cluttered bookshelves at the sale, I found a really damaged book that, from the looks of it, promised to be quite old.  Indeed it was, as it was printed in 1844.  I called Breta over to look at it, lamenting the fact that it was missing the cover and in such bad repair.  I was just amazed to think that this book before me was printed before the Civil War, and I began to imagine the people who had come in contact with its pages.

I also uncovered a novel which really caught me off-guard.  The spine of the book from 1883 included the title - The Dove in the Eagle's Nest - and the author, a Miss Yonge.  That's what initially piqued my interest.  No first name?  Well, I do understand that fem lib really hadn't come into fruition yet.  So I flipped to the title page to find out more about the mysterious female author; however, it failed to provide me with any additional information, as the author's name was glaringly absent!  The title page merely said, "The Dove in the Eagle's Nest by the Author of The Heir of Redclyffe.  I can only imagine the struggles of Miss Yonge to have her novel printed - only for her name to be omitted, except on the book's spine!

Today, when I was on my way home from church, I went down Reservoir to pick up Max after spending the night with John's mom.  Of course, what caught my eye?  The Sale by Nancy sign!  So I veered off course for a quick trip to the sale, just to see what books were left unsold and waiting for me - at 50% off.  I snagged another dictionary, a 1912 book called Democracy Today, and a few old novels.

When I got home to smuggle in my purchases, I got to thinking about that 1844 book from the day before and how I would have bought it if it would have been in better condition.  I then thought about my own collection of books, and I wondered the age of my oldest book.  After flipping through a few, I found the answer:  a 1814 edition of The Vicar of Wakefield:  A Tale by Oliver Goldsmith, M.D.  1814... the year Napoleon was sent to exile at Elba.  1814... the year of the Treaty of Ghent, which was signed to end the War of 1812.  1814...  the year Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry," which later became "The Star Spangled Banner."  1814... the year Jane Austen wrote Mansfield Park.  1814... the year Harriett Beecher Stowe was born.  Pretty amazing, if you just stop to think about it.

When I receive a new old book, the first thing I do after checking the copyright date is flip through the pages.  Sometimes a reader from long ago left a bookmark stuck within the pages.  Instead of an actual bookmark, the placeholder may be a newspaper clipping, a scrap of paper, a family photograph, or a keepsake of some sort.  After finding a treasure within the pages of a book, I carefully return it to the same page it marked.  If a pagemarker remained in place for its reader for fifty or more years, who am I to intrude?

After flipping through the pages, I then like to look at the front and back of the book for writing.  Many of the books I own are not "clean," as they have the owners' names written in them.  I can tell the books that were used in school, as they are filled with doodles and drawings.  One of my favorite finds is from a few weeks ago:  a book in which the owner kept a list of all her favorite songs, ranging from "At the Hop," to "Lonely Teardrops."

And I guess that leads me to what I enjoy most about collecting these old books:  I really feel that I am carrying on the previous owners' love of these books by buying these treasures and displaying them in my home.  So, despite John's strongest protests, I'll keep on buying books and placing them throughout my house.  They're more than just a stack of random books placed on a shelf by an interior designer.  These historic treasures cover the bookshelves in my living room - from top to bottom.  They fill the antique secretary in my front hallway.  They are a piece of history, and their worn covers and yellowed pages make me happy.  I just hope someone will cherish them as much as I do after I'm gone.

And, with that, I'll leave you with an inscription from one of my cherished antique books:  

"My Dear - 

A gentle reminder of the days that are past, and a calling to mind the bright prospect of coming ones.

From - A Friend."

Take Flight

Again, yay for snow. Because I received the call last night that school was closed (way to go, PA), I was able to sleep until 8:30. I was quite refreshed and ready to start the day. John had made plans on Monday with our next-door-neighbor Jill to take the kids sledding, so I texted her to make sure everything was a go. I had to drag John out of bed, and finally by 10:00 we were off in Jill's amazing kick-ass Honda Pilot... which according to her could "drive up a tree."  I would probably put money on that statement - we only slid once.

GMD was pretty clear, so we were concerned about whether our previous sledding spot by the fire station would have acceptable sledding conditions. We saw quite soon that we had nothing to fear!

After a while sledding there, we decided to find greener pastures whiter snow and steeper hills, so we ventured off to the PA parking lots.  I will give credit where credit is due - it was John's idea.  GREAT IDEA, JOHN!!!

 

 

 

 

We spent almost three hours slipping, sliding, and flying down all sorts of hills and inclines.  Even the adults got in on the sledding action!

In Max's six short years of life, he has not seen snow like this.  Therefore, he is a sledding newbie, so to speak.  However, this lack of experience did not stop him from being a daredevil on the sled.  Particularly amazing was his penchance for sledding down stairs.  His antics were such a hit that I had to make a movie montage for your viewing pleasure:




Click here if video doesn't work!

An EXCELLENT day was had by all, and now we're preparing to return to school tomorrow.  However, we only have two days, and then we have a four-day winter-break weekend.  Again, yay for snow!

Video Montage Monday

Today has been simply marvelous.  We didn't go sledding like during the last winter weather experience, but we enjoyed the heck out of our day at home.  Our DirecTV signal was out for the majority of the day, even though John cleaned the snow off the satellite, so I spent most of the day with Max on the couch.  We worked together to create a few montages of the pictures from January's ice storm.

Max picked out the music for this one which ended up being quite fitting:




And another one, which at over twelve minutes is too long for YouTube, so here's the link to the video on my FaceBook account:



Click here if video above doesn't work!

Finally, as I was looking through my old YouTube videos, I remembered a dream I had recently about one of them.  I dreamed that John woke me up one morning to tell me that one of my home videos was an Internet sensation, having over 100,000 views.  LOL!  So, here it is...  a video from September 2009:



I hope everyone has enjoyed their day and is snuggled up with the ones you love most. :)

Snow Day!

This morning at 5:30 I did the running man all around my living room in my pajamas.  That can only mean one thing:  SNOW DAY!

Since I'm wide awake and excited, I thought I'd take the time to post some pictures from our last day out of school.

 

Max in front of our beautifully snow-covered house.

  

I love pictures where I have captured Max mid-laugh.

  

My little snow angel was mad because there was more ice than snow.

  

 I don't know what Dougie was going for, but he jumped right into Max's face!  He's gotten SO big!

 

 

John took us to a dead-end street by the Shackleford fire station... with a hill perfect for sledding!

After riding down once with John, Max was brave enough to go by himself - even from the very TOP of the hill!

This is one of a few videos of Max sledding.  He had a blast!

John enjoys the snow days just as much as Max does! :)

I can't wait to take more pictures and video today...  YAY for a snow day!  Time for another dance in my pj's before looking in the freezer for something to throw in the crock pot for supper.  Enjoy the day, everyone! :)

Balls and Boogers

So I've been busy.  What's new?  LOL

One big thing in the Gorman household recently is basketball.  Max plays for the Polar Bears team in the Upward kindergarten league.  John and I have actually switched roles from football season:  I'm now the assistant coach, and he's a cheerleader/photographer/videographer.  He's good at cheering, not so good with my camera, therefore resulting in the following:

And this:

However, not all the pictures were awful.  Here's one of *some* of our players listening to the gameplan:

And another of Max dealing with a serious defender...

One of Max sans defender:

Here's a pretty good action shot:

So John didn't last very long with the camera - by halftime he was on the sidelines, and the camera was in the car.  I'm really going to have to teach him better, huh?

Coaching is going well, and I'm getting a lot of much-needed exercise chasing basketballs and kids during our hour-long practices.  Speaking of practices, I somehow managed to forget today's practice... we ALL did, actually.  We were just sitting at home, watching Hulk Hogan's Suburban Commando.  LOL  Oh well, I guess that's why I'm only the assistant coach.

One other big deal as of late is conjunctivitis.  That's right - pink eye.  Max came home from school on Wednesday with weepy eyes and yucky eye boogers in not one but TWO eyes.  So he got to stay home from school for the rest of the week, and both John and I were constantly haunted by the threat of catching the stank eye as well.

Here's a picture of my poor, pathetic pink-eyed boy after I basically pried his eyes open on the first morning:

One last thing and I'm outta here...  This morning, as Max and I were getting ready for school, I asked him if he was ready to go back to class and see his friends.  His reply?  "Aww yeah!  I can't wait to tell them that I had pink eye and got to stay at home and play video games with Daddy all day!" LOL

I Come in Peace...

I don't know why it has taken me this long to blog.  Oh, well... Here I am.

I also don't know any way to do this other than to just start in on a summary of what my family has been up to recently.  But, the way I write, a description of our past couple of months could take forever.  And I still have to feed my brood (leftover pizza sounds good) and do some schoolwork (I'm starting a new unit - more about that later).  So, to make things easy, I'll make a list.

1. ACTION.  December was pretty crazy, as Max's birthday is Dec. 16 and our wedding anniversary is Dec. 28.  We Gormans like to stay busy in the month of December! ;)  So, we were movin' and groovin' all month long.
   
   
2. SEMESTER EXAMS.  First time teaching a class means first time testing.  Which to a perfectionist means all-new handouts, worksheets, and tests.  Well, JJ Morley doesn't call me the Form Queen for nothing.  I live for creating school stuff in Word, especially new tests.  However, this means a lot of LATE nights.  Thanks to Facebook, my kids realized that they weren't the only ones up all night cramming.
   
   
3. PUKE.  The day after school was out, John, Max, and I took off for Galveston, Texas, for our cruise.  When we got Max up that morning, he was complaining of his stomach hurting.  However, the unsympathetic parents that we are, we chalked it up to his excitement about the trip.  Boy, were we wrong!  We hadn't made it to K-Mart, and Max had already puked.  But, we decided to keep on keepin' on.  Therefore, we made puke stops at Malvern (complete with a clothes change) and Arkadelphia (with a stop at Walmart for medicine, paper towels, and Lysol wipes).  My favorite part of this vomitous trip was John coming close to becoming a sympathy puker on the Interstate outside of Malvern.  Good times.  LOL.
   
   (Note:  I've already diverted from my original plan of making a list to avoid typing too much.  Crap.  I've gotta stay focused and brief.  Sorry for the departure from this goal, especially when it was a paragraph all about puking.)
   
   
4. CRUISE.  So, we went on a cruise.  Long story short, we did not like it.  For more information on our reasons behind that decision, check out John's status from the day of our drive home.  However, we were very thankful for the getaway and the time spent together - just the three of us.  Max particularly enjoyed swimming - on the boat, at Doctor's Cave Beach in Jamaica, and in Stingray City at Grand Cayman.  Yes, we swam with stingrays.  It was pretty darn cool.  And, John was able to visit his motherland:  Hell, Cayman Islands.  Next time we go somewhere tropical, we will arrive on a plane and stay at a resort.
   
   
5. PUKE.  Why must I return to this topic, you say?  Well, because Max decided to share his virus with John and me.  I was sick on December 22, and John was sick on Christmas Eve.  This had NOTHING to do with our disdain for cruises, but it certainly put a damper on our trip.
   
   
6. ANNIVERSARY.  John and I have been married for seven years, and on our anniversary we sent Max to stay with Nana.  To celebrate, we sat at home and watched movies from Blockbuster.  haha.  Romantic, right?  We talked about going out to eat, but we were so sick of eating out that we decided to just stay at home.  However, John did agree to watch two chick flicks back-to-back:  The Proposal and The Ugly Truth.
   
   
7. MOVIE REVIEW.  In my opinion, The Proposal was pretty funny, and The Ugly Truth was a disappointment.  However, Gerard Butler is still hotter than Ryan Reynolds.  The accent puts him over the top.  Please note that I put this as a separate list item because I didn't feel right judging a guy's hotness in a paragraph about my seven-year wedding anniversary. LOL.
   
   
8. GRANDPARENTS.  In addition to Nana keeping Max for two days after we returned from our cruise, my parents also volunteered to take Max to Gillett for a few days over New Year's.  Yay for grandparents - I don't know what we would do without them.
   
   
9. DOGSITTER.  In addition to awesome grandparents, the Gormans also have a pretty awesome dogsitter named Breta Hauge.  She is the best dog/housesitter in the land because she loves my dogs (Dougie the most, although Betsy and Jackson are growing on her) and takes care of my house so well.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but I seriously don't know what we'd do without her either.
   
   
10. NEW YEAR'S EVE.  NYE was spent in Memphis with our good friends Tammy, Josh, Byron, and Brandi.  The night consisted of free beer in the hotel lobby, a ride in a nitrous-boosted Town and Country courtesy of Mark Cuban, wings and trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings, a heart-stopping/laughter-inducing taxi ride to Beale, three pretty boring hours in a crammed bar with a crappy band, a near-fight with a 65-something white guy, and a taxi drive home with a rather angry black cab driver.  Oh, yeah, and we saw the guitar drop (suddenly), the confetti fall (somewhat), and the fireworks explode (weakly).  Oh, well...  We've been there, done that...  And won't do it again.
    
    
11. LIBERTY BOWL.  We went, we cheered, we froze, we left at the beginning of the fourth quarter to beat traffic.  Go Hogs, RIP Tusk, thank goodness we didn't get hypothermia or frostbite.
    
    
12. SCHOOL.  School started back.  I wasn't ready.  So I didn't give homework during the first week.  Yes, I must be the most awesome teacher alive.
    
    
13. COON SUPPER.  We went home to Gillett to attend another Coon Supper.  Dogsitter extraordinaire Breta rode with us in the trek to our hometown.  Newly employed Yolanda (yay!) beat me to my own house and hung out with my family for a bit, and high school best friend Rachel arrived to a blast from the past - having to come upstairs to tell me to hurry up and finish getting ready.  LOL  Rachel got the BEST rib ever (and I was jealous), Yolanda flirted with a lip-syncher, Breta took pictures with the State Troopers, I piled a bunch of stickers on the back of Rachel's shirt, and we all laughed at Miss Arkansas.  After the Coon Supper, I hung out with my favorite Hauges.  However, the BEST part of the night was when Rachel tracked us down at Breta's house to call us names for plastering her shirt with stickers without her knowing.  As my Granny would say, "A good time was had by all."
    
    
14. CHRISTMAS.  Because we were cruising over the holidays, my family had to wait until after New Year's to have our family Christmas.  So, we gathered together in the afternoon to open presents, which was in my opinion a great thing.  Not only did I have more time to get presents together for everyone, but I was able to buy some things at the half-price after-Christmas sales.  Max got a lot of cool stuff, including a camo jacket from my parents.  I got a Snuggie (finally!), some old books, and a pair of awesome pajama pants (story below).  John got a Razorback drink cooler for the deck that my parents are custom-making (it's still in the works).  All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas-after-Christmas.
    
    
15. PAJAMA PANTS.  So, when John and I shopped at Gordman's (the first and only time), John picked out a pair of fuzzy pj pants with frogs all over them.  I love frogs, so they were perfect.  However, they were an XL.  So we went back to the rack, only to find that those were the ONLY pair of that style left.  I carried them around the store for at least thirty minutes, only to set them down at the last minute because I decided I really didn't need them (what woman comes to that realization when she's shopping, anyway?).  So, which pajama pants did my parents buy me for Christmas?  You guessed it:  the XL froggy pants.  Awesomeness.  I guess that means I was DESTINED to own these pants.  Yes, I said these, as I am wearing them as I speak type.
    
    
16. WWF.  World Wrestling Federation?  No, they are now the WWE.  World Wildlife Fund?  Nope, guess again.  Words With Friends?  BINGO.  And, not surprisingly, I'm hooked on this WWF, the most wonderful iPhone app of all time.  Over the last week or so, my friend Meg and I have logged almost five games.  I had one fantabulous game against her, but otherwise she dominates me.  However, her margin of victory over me hasn't been near the amount that I beat John in our first game:  416 to 228.  He resigned at the tail-end of the game and vowed never to play me again, but in checking the score I saw that he just made a move in our rematch.  So, game on, Johnny-boy...  And, Meg, if you EVER start another game with a word like latrine, I may resort to cheating. ;)
    
    
17. WWII.  I am starting a new unit that I'm tentatively calling "Children at War."  It encapsulates the study of WWII/Holocaust as well as more contemporary wars.  We'll be reading such works as "The Diary of Anne Frank" (the play, not the actual diary), Zlata's Diary, and The Little Prince, as well as various primary sources from kids who experienced the horrors of war firsthand.  I'm SUPER excited about it and am working very hard to make it an excellent learning experience for my kiddos.  Actually, I've even started a blog for them so that we can discuss different readings, topics, and assignments.  Any way that we can be cool dorks is good with me.  I sure hope the kids like it.
    
    
18. SORRY SLIDERS.  So, Max got this game for Christmas that he's wanted for two years - thanks to the shameless attacks on the simple minds of children that we call commercials during early-morning cartoons.  Overjoyed, he has asked us every night to play it with him.  Is it bad that I'm too busy?  Is it horrible that I just don't want to clean off the junk on the kitchen table?  Is it terrible that I make promises to play another night, and then rescind my promises?  Is it bad parenting that I JUST DON'T WANT TO PLAY SORRY SLIDERS?  LOL.  We'll play it this weekend, Max...  I promise.

And, that's it.  My list items quickly became tomes, and for that all I can say is that if you really, truly know me, you're not at all surprised.  Heck, you probably don't have to know me that well at all to know that I'm a rambler.  Oh well, to know me is to love me.  Right?  Or, just let me believe that so I can go to sleep peacefully each night.

Maybe, just maybe, if I keep up with my blog on a more regular basis, I won't have posts of 1,873 words.  Yes, my inner dork copied and pasted this entry into Word to do a word count. *sheesh*