My New Rizzide

Ok, so I told you before how I hate car sales people.  I get so flustered just walking on a car lot because I know I am going to be flocked upon like a lion after a gazelle.  I went to Slidell two weekends ago and went to about 7 lots and had no luck.  I spent the next couple of days looking at every dealership from Mobile, Alabama to Slidell, Louisiana to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Jackson, Mississippi.  By Wednesday, I had it narrowed down to 5 vehicles and was feeling pretty good about all of them.  On Friday, 3 had sold and I was down to two...an 08 Nissan Altima and an 08 Jeep Patriot.  I had an appointment to test drive the Patriot on Saturday morning and I made an appointment to test drive the Altima Friday night.  The sales lady, Dawn,  was pretty good Friday and I was pretty much sold on the Altima.  It gets great gas mileage and is pretty sporty.  But I was still toying with the Patriot.  The SUV is bigger, more cargo room, and according to my mom they are safer.  Well, you know Dawn didn't want me to leave so she let me take the car home for the night!  I had a sudden reality that I am grown up, because they only let grown ups take cars home for the night.  So, I was pretty much in love with it before I made it home.  My mind was made up.  I went back Saturday and signed my life away.  So, here are some pictures of my new car.  The 2008 Nissan Altima.  Oh it's so pretty! But it doesn't have a name yet.  Suggestions???

I think I need a light tint on the windows...thoughts?

Please ignore the dirt...you see where I park and it has been raining...trip to the car wash coming soon!

It has a push button ignition...no keys!!!!  There is also a button on the door handle and as long as my remote is on me, I just push the button and the doors unlock or lock!  It also has a safety feature that if the remote is inside the car and I try to lock the door using the button, it won't lock...no more Pop-A-Lock!

Look NO PLIERS NEEDED! 

For those of you who rode in Streaker, the knobs for the AC were broken and came off so I had to use pliers to change my air settings.

RIP Streaker

Good Ol Steaker.

I bought Streaker in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina drowned my cute Protege.  I have to admit that the last car I wanted to buy was a blue Ford.  Look what I ended up buying a blue Mercury (Ford product)...a lesson in never say never.   Even though this was not my dream car or even a car I remotely wanted, and really wasn't thrilled to purchase, it was the right price and a great deal for that time in my life.  A time when I lost my home, job and the life I had known.  Streaker became a car that I relied on and learned to love.   We have had some good times! 

I don't have too many pictures of Streaker, but here is a pretty good picture of him....right after his first snow!

 

 When I bought Streaker, he only had 24000 miles on him and no one had ever sat in the back seat and the trunk had never been used!  Not too bad for a car that was 8 years old!  Now he is 14 years old and has 124000 miles on him.  This past September, he got sick and broke down on the interstate.  The first (and hopefully last) time I have ever broke down in a car!  Luckily I had Leanne with me to keep me company while her husband Branson came to our rescue!   Since then he ran a constant fever and over Thanksgiving went to the shop again.  My mom kept him and when I came home for Christmas, he was still running fever and was severely dehydrated.  I would give him water and it would disappear.  So back to the shop he went.  Dr. Randy kept him for three weeks trying to figure out what was wrong.  Finally a diagnosis was made.  The fluid from the radiator was going straight into the engine.  As old as Streaker is it is not worth pumping money into to fix.  So I am going to donate Streaker to Bridgehouse (a charity in New Orleans) and will be purchasing a new car on Saturday....gulp.  I have been looking at cars for awhile now and went to some dealerships over the last two weeks.  I have narrowed it down to 5 vehicles and pretty much have it down to two of those.    By the way can I say I HATE car shopping and car salesmen....out of the 8 I have talked to only 1 has been FANTASTIC and unfortunately I will not be 

purchasing a car from him.  

So over the past 5 years, Streaker and I have been from one coast of this country to the other.  We have traveled from the north of this country to the south.  We have been though 20 states and seen many things.  It was the car I drove the first time I drove in snow.  It was the car I drove as I moved across the country.  Good times and bad this car has been great!  

Here are a few pictures of some of the great memories in Streaker and there are so many more that were not photographed!

Fun times with roommates dancing in the car

 lots of room to fit lots of friends!

 beautiful moments from Mother Nature on the windows

 miles of road and open spaces

 Streaker was a great tripod for road trip pictures

 a bed for road trips that begin at 2am on a whim

 driving road where the snow is taller than the car

So good bye Streaker, we have had some great times and some great memories.  Thanks for safely taking me from one end of this country to the other.  Thanks for letting me blare the radio with the windows down and singing at the top of my lungs when I needed to drive.  Thanks for being there so I could help others and make great memories with my friends.  

You were a great car!

Field Trips...Gotta Love Them

Our first field trip of the year brought us to the Mississippi Agriculture Museum.  Now we originally planned to go back to Rock A Doodle Ranch as we did last year (which is WAY more age appropriate for kindergarten) but our principal denied us RockADoodle (for completely ridiculous reasons).   We were all bummed, so we scrambled to find somewhere else to go.  Ag Museum it is than!    I really enjoyed it, but the kids we less than excited.  I hope the first grade teachers will get more of a reaction out of them when they go next year, since this is a first grade field trip spot.

We are lined up and ready to go!

Waiting on Mr. Ball's class so we can roll out!

Trevon posing with old tools

Brendon and D'Sonjera say 'de plane, de plane'

Ariana makes friends with the pony

Giving Wilburs cousin some love

Picture with the giant rocking chair

The highlight was they gave us pumpkins as we left!
Cristian and LaNiya showing their loot

Just Call Me Chef

I feel like I have been a baking/cooking fool lately...I have found these two fantastic websites that I keep testing their recipes.  Some are great, others well I should try again - they are still edible and taste great, but they don't look as great as the pictures online.  I also find things I want to try from watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives  and Best Thing I Ever Ate.  These shows don't give recipes but I will go online and find something similar to what they put in the dishes and then tweak the recipe to my liking.  They say if you change 1 ingredient it is a different recipe ...so if I ever do a cookbook (not likely) they will really be my recipes, right?  In reality I am just perfecting theirs...hehe.  :)   

So, here are some of the things I have been up to....

Halloween time brings fun ideas..

cupcakes surrounded with twix or kitkats and topped with m&ms!  

brownie graves

Next I made  roasted Eggplant balls...such a great alternative to meatballs!

 Pillow Cookies anyone?  

What is better than a chocolate chip cookie stuffed with a brownie?  

Nothing!

Bacon Jam on sliders in a puff pastry!

Bacon Jam is FANTASTIC!!!  Sweet and savory!

Christmas brought baking...

Classic sugar cookies (the only thing I took a picture of)

Shortbread

Ooey Gooey Bars

Chocolate Chip and Raspberry bars

Blueberry, white chocolate and caramel oatmeal cookies

Pillow cookies

Oh, I am sad I didn't take a picture of all the baked goods...the boxes we gave to people were so yummy looking with all the goodies in them! 

 I am also sad I didn't take a picture of the Cheesburger Soup we made...

cheesey, burgery, yummy...and so good with fresh lettuce and tomatoes mixed in right before eating!

My mom has also been making homemade bread, mostly artisan bread...last night we had cream of mushroom soup in a homemade bread bowl...yummy!

Finally, an update

Ok yall.....first MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Second, it has been a CRAZY first half of the school year. It has flown by so fast, I just can't believe it is already Christmas break - oh I mean Winter break, blah I hate having to be so PC sometimes. These first 18 weeks have disappeared into thin air...I hope the next 18 do the same! :) But I am wishing life will be a little less hectic... is this possible? I hope so!

At the moment I am completely enjoying the peaceful break with my mom. Christmas morning with the rest of the family was enjoyable and the afternoon has been restful. This next week I am going to enjoy time with some of my best friends in the whole world and with my mom, then it is back to Jackson.

I will have several post about the last few months to catch everyone up!

What should I be?

Halloween...do I want to dress up?  This is the question....


Maybe I should be Dorothy....

what do you think?

Super Stars in my Family

This afternoon I received an email from my cousin Marte in Norway.  She was telling me that the children's book she has been working on is almost done.  She now has an illustrator and they are working together to bring the story alive in pictures!  Her illustrator is using manipulated photographs along with drawings to illustrate the book.  Marte is using people she knows and loves to be the characters in the book.  Her daughter, Tinde, is the main character and her son, Torn, will also appear in the story.  In the email, she said she has a character that is the owner of a kiosk where Tinde will get her breakfast and orange juice in the mornings.  She said the character is happy and always smiling and she said it reminded her of me.  So, she asked if I would like to be in the illustrations!!!  Of course I said YES!  Marte is emailing me pictures of the way I need to pose.  I will get someone to take my pictures and I will email them to her.  They will then cut the photos and paste them in the illustrations.   So cool.   When the book is published in Norway, I will get a copy and scan the pages in so yall can see them. 

Other super stars are in their family as well.  Marte's husband Lars is in a TV commercial for the company he works for...GET ( it is the Norwegian version of Tevo).  

Here is his TV commercial...

Tonights dessert....Easton Corbin!

Wednesday night the 151st Mississippi State Fair opened at 5:00 pm. And guess what? I was there to hear the official countdown to the gates opening...lame I know. I was excited. I was going to my first state fair...ever! Seriously, I have never been to the Mississippi State Fair or any other state fair.

My friend/co-worker, Monica, and I decided to go and have 'fair food' for dinner. Everyone talks about the fair food. I personally was thinking "what's so great about fair food?". I got my answer Wednesday night. We started to walk the midway and looked at all the different vendors (and try to make up our minds). Our first stop was the biscuit booth...yum! Hot buttery homemade biscuits with maple syrup in them! Oh my mouth wants one now! (ok I have to say that I think they also tasted so good because they were FREE!!) Oh I have to tell yall that there was one very interesting booth - the Krispy Kreme donut booth. They were selling donut burgers - imagine a donut, a beef patty, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, topped with another donut. I never saw anyone eat one but I would like to. I can't imagine those flavors all in my mouth at once. OH the beef, it what's for dinner booth had a beef sundae...ummm, I couldn't tell what was on it from the picture, but again not on my menu for the night. So, second stop was the roasted corn booth. Yumm-o! Hot roasted corn on the cob (still in the husk) dipped in melted butter. Ok, my mouth is watering for one of these too. I shouldn't look at the picture anymore. As we were walking we were harassed gross carnies. (ok some weren't too gross, but some were) We took a break from dinner to play Skeeball....
and check out some of the rides...

Then it was time for some more fair food....corn dogs and funnel cake!
Here is a picture of the Italian sausage with all the toppings...it smelled so good, but it looked like heartburn city!
There is a free petting zoo, so we checked that out and then enjoyed the setting sun on the midway!




Then it was DESSERT time! Now, I had an alternative motive to going to the fair this night. The free Easton Corbin concert was what drew me in. I will be honest, the food was pretty good...WAY over priced though. I was disappointed in the rides. Some of the carnies were creepy. People watching was FUN! Will I go back? Maybe if all the girls from work want to go to the Boys II Men concert next week (I saw them in High School), but I will eat before I go, well maybe I will get some more corn (it was the best).

Now, for those of you who don't know who Easton Corbin is, he is a new country singer and is being call 'a young George Strait'. He's pretty much fantastic. The concert was fun. He played for an hour and a half and we were able to get right up by the stage. The lighting was dark and my ancient camera did the best it could! Here is Monica and I before the concert started and some shots of Easton.






Oh also for those who don't know who Easton Corbin is....here is his video to

"A Little More Country Than That"

The Happenings

Ok, sorry it took me awhile to realize that my last post was appearing in webdings...my mom kept telling me and I kept saying, it looks normal to me! and it did on my computer! So, the last post was about mid-term and that was really 4 weeks ago...the first 9 weeks ends next Wednesday! Good news, I lost 9 kids last week and gained 1. Now I am at 27 (which is state limit and in reality still TOO MANY kids in a kindergarten class). I did lose some of my lower ones so now I am only stressing about 9 kids, but we are making improvements! I was truly surprised today as I was giving a 9 weeks test and I was calling out letters for them to write - and one of my low ones got ALL of them! YES! at mid-term he only knew 3 letters! I wanted to do the happy dance.

Tomorrow I have a parent teacher conference about something that I am not happy about. I have twins in my room and this past Friday, they went home and told there mom that Ms. P (my assisstant) and I cursed them out and told them not to tell their mom. Really?!?! I was speechless when my principal called me in to ask me about it. Now let me give you a little history of the twins in the past 8 weeks....2nd week of school they tell their mom that everyone picks on them and no one plays with them - lie - I had the mom come observe and twin #1 was picking on two kids while she was there and during recess they played with most of the kids on the playground....3rd week of school twin #2 tells mom that Ms. P and I won't let him use the bathroom and said we said that we don't care if he pees on himself or not - lie - I explained to the mom that the students have free use of the bathroom in our room throughout the day and we go as a whole group after lunch, we only ask the kids if they can hold it if they ask during carpet time (which is when I am giving whole group lesson and I don't want kids constantly up and down - because if one goes they somehow all need to go) - now, if a kids says they can't hold it, we let them go. I don't want pee or other stuff on my carpet or anywhere in my room - gross- if I wanted to deal with human waste I would have a different profession. Now the lies had stopped until last week when on Wednesday twin #2 went home and told his mom Ms. P called him an a@#hole. Really? When did happen? P and I are together ALL day...if I had heard this I would have said something...so again - lie. Are we seeing a trend here?

I am quite upset about this whole thing. First where do the lies end? They are only getting worse. I don't want to talk to either of them in fear that they will fabricate what I say. I don't even want to give them a high 5 in fear that gets twisted around. So now I am getting to the point where I want as little interaction with them as possible...and they are in my room for 27 more weeks. What do I do?

Here is another problem with this situation. My principal told me to set up a conference with them mom so we can get to the bottom of this... done. When I asked my principal to sit in on the conference for another set of ears and support..her reply "Why don’t you plan to meet. We can strategize about who would be good to sit with you." (Reply taken from email from principal who told me to email time and date of conference to her). Really? is that beating around the bush, why don't you just tell me no? Ok, blow to the stomach taken...you don't support me or care. Not really surprised. Monday I asked the assistant principal...her reply "I really don't want to, find someone else if you can". Seriously? another sucker punch. Ok neither of my administration support P and I in this situation. So I asked the guidance counselor who was more than happy to sit in on the conference. I was talking with a friend about this and she said to call the superintendent and have him sit in on the conference... I would do that but DW (principal) would make my life a living you know what. She is a beast. That is being nice. I really don't want to rock the boat because DW has been known to not give good recommendations to those who do. I want/need a good recommendation because I am not renewing my contract next year. (That's my plan/thought at the moment - nothing set in stone - no final decisions made yet) Maybe not the smartest move in a down economy but I can sub (not in JPS) and move home if need. (My mom might groan a little, but she would be REALLY excited to have me back home- she misses me). I am also starting my move towards my masters... LSU looks like my school of choice (that's Louisiana State University for those not from the South). Leaving this school is a good thing - I am pretty sure - just thinking about it makes me feel a little less stressed. You know it's getting bad when a veteran teacher (20 years) wants to transfer to another school in the district.

So this is my delimma ...feedback?

MidTerm Already!!!????

I don't know where this school year is going, but it is flying out the window already! We have been in school 4 weeks now and mid-term is this coming Friday! I seriously feel like all I have done is give placement test...with 35 kindergarteners this does take forever! Good news on the number of kindergartners I have this year, they will get me down to 27 (state limit) hopefully in the next 2 weeks and not the end of October like last year...well, that is what they are saying, but I won't hold my breath!

Over all this year is going a little better than last year. The kids still TALK so much, it makes me wonder if they open their mouths once they leave the classroom at the end of the day. For some of them, probably not - they are sat down in front of the TV/video games and have no interaction with a live human being until they come to school the next day. After talking with the other kindergarten teachers, as a whole this is the most chatty bunch yet.

This year we have found that the kids don't know:
1) how to write/spell their names (much less know their given name - please if you give your kid a nickname, teach them their given name - I can't call your baby ReRe, NeNe, "D", LeLu, etc - also, spellings...hello throwing some letters together and saying it spells Sam when there is no S, A or M in the spelling, the people at the hospital should have slapped you! For example in Mr. B's class there is a little girl named LeAnna but it is spelled: Lajhadienne ... I am serious as a heartattack.)
2) their alphabet (yes they can sing the song, but can they pick out an A? No!)
3) letter sounds ... how can I teach reading/spelling when they don't know the letter sounds?
4) numbers ...again they can count to 50, 100, etc but do they know what the #1 looks like? I have had this discussion with several parents already, and they just don't believe their baby doesn't know their numbers and letters.

So with these 4 major issues, I am (and the other kindergarten teachers) having to start from the bottom and build the foundation. Unfortunately the pacing guide doesn't factor this in so it is flying through the race and we are still trying to make it to the starting line.

Well, tomorrow is a kid free day, but it is parent/teacher conferences...I would much rather work with the kids. Some of the parents I have this year, oh my. That is all I can say. It should be interesting and I may have some stories to tell.

I will have pictures of my new class for you soon! They really are cute, when they want to be. Thanks for letting me get on my soap box there for a moment!

You know I am ....

a SUPERFAN!!!!


Sara the Saints Superfan!


(click to check me out!)

Did you know I have a dream of standing in the endzone and putting my hands in the air when the field goal is good? Well it is and right now this is as close as I am going to get...but that could change soon, you never know!

Are You Ready For Some Football???

It's that time of year again! Regular season starts tonight...Saints vs Vikings!


WHO DAT!?!?!
Geaux Saints!!!