Indigo Robe

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Mum likes reading, decorating, shopping with the girls, and Starbucks. She also feels funny writing in the 3rd person. Papa (also known as Sparky) is currently looking at me with a blank stare having asked him to add something about himself to the blog. (Now he wants to say something) The only thing he loves more in life than music and Coke is his wife and kids. (Awww...) :) Little Lotte is a genius on the computer and makes me fall over laughing every day with her quick wit. She loves computers and animals. Sweet Pea abandoned her family and moved to Phoenix for work and is now married as of 2/28/06. She is beautiful and smart and the most nurturing person I know. She gave me the greatest gift ever when she made me a grandmother. I am the proud Mum Mum to Andrew Christopher. There are no words to describe the joy of having a grandson!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Right Wing Bloggers Decide for YOU what is newsworthy...

This is apparently a symbol of terrorism or terroristic support....


From CBC news...

Conservative blog says black-and-white scarf is symbol of support for Muslim extremism

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, argued that Ray should not be wearing such a scarf because, they said, it has come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.

The kaffiyeh "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad," Malkin said in her blog last week.

"Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant [and not-so-ignorant]fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."

In the spot, Ray wears the fringed scarf loosely around her neck, while holding an iced coffee and standing in front of trees with pink blossoms.

********

Here is a symbol of prostitution but it is not a prostitute wearing the shoes.

Which leads me to wonder when the right wing bloggers will be attacking said shoes worn by women in America?



This woman in particular - Ann Coulter dressed in the ultimate symbol of prostitution, stiletto heels.

Just sayin'...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Living in a Cave

I've never seen a single episode of Sex and the City...

I've never seen any Star Wars movie...

I've never seen an Indiana Jones movie... (and when the family was talking about the Indy movies, I confused them with Romancing the Stone - which I loved.)

It took me 20 years to see E.T.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Off For The Summer... or rather 6 weeks.

So I've had a bazillion things happen since my last entry.
Nutshell version:

Saw Baby Roo many times! :-)

My sissy came to visit and we had a great time playing SEQUENCE, (had to go out and buy one for us!) and visiting baby Roo and eating yummy crockpot pot roast. VISIT WAS TOO SHORT.

Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea's car was almost stolen today. They were at the mall and parked when apparently Mr. Hugo Garcia decided to try to jimmy the locks with that long metal thingy. FORTUNATELY there were undercover police around! HOW COOL IS THAT?!! They caught the guy and left Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea a note to call the Glendale Police Dept. KUDDOS to them! YES!!!! How incredibly is that!?

And finally - I have a new job! A new school, too! Same district. I have been chasing this job for about 6 years. I was never in the right time at the right place. I had finally released it into the universe. In fact, I was offered a different job on Wed. before school ended and turned it down. Because I turned it down, THIS job became available! It's all tooooo wonderful! I am sooo excited! I will be working with teachers on instructional strategies and assessment of students. More to come...

IN the meantime, I am on summer vacay and have tons of excitement to have time off. I spent yesterday from 9 am to 6 pm cleaning up my old room, packing, and moving things. I am no longer going to be in a classroom so I asked for advice on what to do with my "stuff" and got some great advice. Why keep it in a box? Let someone else use it. By the time I would even think about MAYBE, SLIGHTLY considering going back to the classroom, the "stuff" would be out of date. You always want the new "stuff!" so I left it for the other teachers. It was SO FREEING!!! I allowed myself 6 rubbermaid bins. That is NOTHING compared to what I used to haul around every time I changed classrooms or schools! I love not having all that "stuff" anymore!!!

Now if I can stay out of Home Goods, maybe I can free up myself from my HOME possessions! :-)

Cute baby photos coming soon!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

FOX NEWS - So Slanted...

HERE is the healine on FOX NEWS...


Kids May Be at Polygamy Ranch
Child Protective Services return to Texas ranch of a polygamist sect amid reports that more children may be living there

THIS SHOULD BE THE HEADLINE NEWS : Come on Fox News, WHAT ARE YOU AFRIAD OF?

Polygamist sect teen who gave birth is adult, Texas CPS says

By TERRI LANGFORD and LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News

Texas Child Protective Services conceded Tuesday that a pregnant teen taken from a polygamists' ranch in West Texas was an adult when she gave birth in San Marcos last month, casting some doubt on the statistics released by the agency that more than 20 underage girls were pregnant or had given birth.

The teenager, 18-year-old Pamela Jeffs, gave birth to a boy on April 29. CPS officials said she was one of 27 girls in a "disputed" minor category who once told CPS they were adults but later indicated they were under 18.

All 27 girls were among 463 children taken from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado on April 4 and 5 after the state insisted all were either sexually or physically abused or at risk of abuse. Three weeks later, the children were scattered to foster care facilities throughout the state.

And now some are claiming to be have been adults all along.

The revelation came at a hearing in San Angelo on Tuesday, when a CPS attorney said a new mother who was in protective custody as a minor was in fact an adult, CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said.

The CPS attorney told state District Judge Barbara Walther that the mother of a healthy boy born in San Marcos weeks after the removals was now considered to be at least 18, and was free to go. It was not clear if she had left her newborn, who is still in state custody.

"We had solid proof, including state-issued documents," said Natalie Malonis, an attorney for the woman.

While some adult women were allowed to remain in foster care with children under the age of 1 year, other mothers were considered to be underage and therefore, foster children, as well as their own children.

CPS officials said they could not say whether there are any other "women" being held in foster care, as was the case with Pamela Jeffs.

Another dispute

Court challenges are coming fast and furious in this widely watched case, the largest child custody proceeding in history.
Two days ago, another disputed minor gave birth, this time in Austin. Her husband, Dan Jessop, has insisted his wife is 22 and that both he and attorneys have tried to prove that to CPS. But his wife remains in a foster home with their newborn, separated from their other children, who are in another facility.

CPS officials say that, while they are looking into that case, there has been no determination that the Austin FLDS mother is an adult.

Jessop and his attorneys filed for a temporary restraining order in Austin, just hours after his new son was born, to prevent CPS officials from keeping the newborn without his mother in foster care and keep the two in Travis County. A judge will hear the case again on Thursday.


Will they be taking Jamie Lynn Spears baby away from her when she gives birth this summer at the age of 16? Has her baby daddy been arrested?

Just sayin'...

Random Act...



Photo from: The Beautiful Heart Foundation, Inc.



I took my sister to the airport early this morning, with a stop at McD's before arriving at school. As I pulled up the window to pay, the cashier told me the truck in front of me had paid for me. I laughed, thinking she was being funny but no, the man in front of us had paid for breakfast for us!

I cannot tell you how this made me feel! I honked twice and waved and he did a friendly wave back and left. (It was all I could do to not get out of my car and tackle the guy with a giant hug!!!) Little L and I spent the whole trip to school discussing ways to pay it forward.

I hope you get to be the recipient of a random act like this and I also hope that you will just make an effort to perform one act of random kindness. You never know who or how you are affecting someone!

Poet Rumi: "Be kind to everyone you meet. Everyone you meet is carrying a burden of some kind."

Monday, May 19, 2008

What Princess Beatrice Actually said....

I'd rather stay in the background at the wedding of my cousin so my hat should be FULL but UTTERLY SHY!




What the milliner heard:

blah, blah, blah.....Full ! of Butterflies !











Princess Beatrice writes:

Note to self:
Bring box next time for butterfly release at cousin's wedding.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Hats Off to Summer!

So there are these three kids in one 4th grade class who are too cool for school and constantly wear their baseball caps INSIDE. Now call me old school but I find this highly disrespectful. Apparently, so does the school because it's in the dress code. For the past three visits to me, they have had to be reminded to remove their hats entering my classroom.

Today was the AR assembly and I was there to relieve the classroom teacher and take them back to my PAWS classroom. In the not so straight (as in more crooked than Lombard Street) that I am straightening out, I see three hats. Sighhhhhhh. Actually, it was more like grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I take the hats off the heads of the boys in front of their teacher. She just stood there. I explained that the hats were now mine until I decided to give them back. She blinked a few times. I thought about checking for a pulse from her to see if she was actually still breathing but turned my attention back to the class. The teacher look is all it took to get the class in a straight line.

As we returned to my room, I had the hat offenders get out a sheet of paper and a pencil. Now I am TOTALLY and COMPLETELY against the old "write 50 times I will not wear my hat in the classroom" writing. I believe writing as a punishment (repetitive writing with no real meaning) is wrong. However, I do believe in the power of words and thus a letter is NOT punishment but time to reflect and process, as well as apologize to the person you are writing to. I decided to use the objective: I can write persuasive text and had the boys write me a letter to convince me to give them back their hats.

Here are the letters: (All spelling is correct) (SIC) <---- took me years to figure out what that meant.

Dear Mrs. Berdine (strike one - I am not Mrs. Berdine although they often confuse me with the Art teacher)
I am rilly sorry for wering my hat. If you don't like this letter you can take the hat. I wont wher the hat inside. I would only wher it outside. When we got inside I would take it off. I feel Bad for whering the hat inside. I hope this letter convisis you to give the hat back. Sinserly (name inserted) :-) <---- yes, he really put the smiley face! Actually two of them one after his first name and once after his last name.

Um... No.

Letter #2

I (insert name here, including official middle initial!) promise to take off my hat inside the room because it's disrespectful and wrong. I can and will stop leaving my hat on inside a room or classroom. Now I truly know why it's wrong and just unexepdible. I really just can't feel if my hat is on or off because I always wear my hat and it gets like it's not there when it really is on. I'm very sorry and I feel bad for this bad behavior and it's wrong I understand very much but it's a very bad habit for me to wear my hat everywhere and it's hard for me so stop as soon as I walk in a building but when I don't I just wave off and forget to take off my hat i'm so sorry. I hate me for always forgeting simple. things like not even remembering to take off my hat when I walk into a building. I fail to do this every single time I walk into a room and I hate having that bad habit all of the time. Sometimes I can't stand this habit myself. It's bad and it can ruin my life at times to me because you I've warn a hat for 3 years now in a row. I can't stand this habit at all. But you can probably understand I hope that no one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. Scincerly, (insert name here)

Um... I've inserted enough guilt into this kid. He can have his hat back.

Letter # 3

Mrs. ********,
I'm sorry I wore my hat indoors. Ocasionaly I can't feel when my hat is on. I do not mean to disrespect you or the campus or anyone on it. I highly respect the campus, but it always feels like home, and I wear my hat at home. My parents don't mind and Mrs. R (his classroom teacher) isn't very strict about hats. Again, I am sorry for pushing your buttons. (I'VE NEVER USED THIS PHRASE IN CLASS!!!!!) And the campus for that matter. I don't have a reason other than I need that hat.
Sincerely, (insert name here) :-) (<------- another smiley face!!!!)

Um.... you can have the hat back.

They didn't sit together to write the letters so I thought it was hysterical that they all claim to not "feel" the hat on their heads.


Better yet... next time they wear their baseball hats in class, I will make them give me their hat and let them wear this one:







Ok.. maybe that's going a little too far...
I'm off to search for chocolate! Only 3 and a half days till summmmmmmerrrrrr!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Creating Activists







Today was the annual egg drop at our school. I had 5th grade for about 30 minutes before we were going outside to watch the 3rd graders have their eggs thrown off the roof.




I thought it would be fun to have the 5th graders make posters supporting the egg drop.





But really, how does one support an egg drop?

Go eggs? Don't break?





So I decided that the world is sorely missing those people who are not afraid to stand up for something, even if it goes against the wind of tradition. I explained what a silent protest is and told the students to come up with posters that were respectfully against the egg drop that was about to take place.








These 5th graders were SOOOOO creative! I am buying them popsicles next week as a treat as long as no one protests the treatment of popsicle sticks!

Friday, May 09, 2008

TMI

I had a conversation with a 5th grader this morning. He was excessively talking in class and had written a note home to the parents to let them know of his behavior. He was to have them sign it and return it to me this morning.

Me: Do you have your letter?

Him: Yes, here it is. My dad signed a separate sheet of paper though because I forgot to take home the letter last night.

Me: How can I believe that he knows about the content of the letter when he didn't sign it?

Him: I told him about it. I really did! I just had him sign this blank piece of paper because I forgot the letter.

Me: Well one time in 2nd grade I got an F on a paper that my dad was supposed to sign and I just added an extra line and made it look like an A and handed it to my dad to sign. He never knew I got the F.

Him: THAT'S BRILLIANT!!!!!!

Me: (on the inside) oops.

Me: Have your dad sign the actually letter tonight.

Him: Ok, I willllllllll.

Monday, May 05, 2008

TOP TEN WAYS TO KNOW THE MAGIC IS GONE...

A weekend trip to Disneyland has exhausted me. It was fun the first day, the day when it wasn't crowded and my energy was still intact, not having yet walked 459 miles for 16 hours. (All while enjoying the hot sun beating down, enjoying no less than seven $3.00 bottles of water.)

Anywho... I know Little L loves it and so we took her for her birthday but that doesn't mean I can't list the things that have changed in the last 12 or so years that we have been going.

You know the magic is gone when....

10. Trash, trash everywhere nor anyone to pick it up. It used to be that you didn't see a tiny speck of trash ANYWHERE. Now, it's everywhere. Literally everywhere. So sad.

9. Sticky tables, benches, etc. etc. I don't think they have hosed down or cleaned things in a very long time. And don't even get me started on the restrooms. I've seen cleaner truck stop bathrooms!

8. Year of a Million Dreams? We have been there at least 6 times since this started, mostly 3 days each time and have yet to win a dream.

7. The employees don't smile or even acknowledge your presence, for the most part.

6. Apathetic employees - I saw some punk throw their plastic soda bottle at the ride on Pinnochio. It was lying right next to the track and could cause expensive damage. As we got into the car, I mentioned it to the ride operator who mumbled something I couldn't hear. At the end of the ride, the bottle was still there, close as ever to rolling under the car tracks. So I told the end of the line ride operator and he at least said, "Thank you." but didn't go over to get the bottle.

5. Lack of healthy food choices. Everything is fried. Everything. Fried can be good. But occasionally I want a nice baked potato, thank you very much.

4. Canceled fireworks. Wind conditions, my goat.

3. Same old stuff. Same parade, same costumes, same songs, same dances, same, same, same.

2. RUDE PEOPLE. Pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming, running, vandalizing, cutting, spilling, etc.

There is actually a TIE for the #1 loss of magic:

1. A. First bug sighting ever. As we were leaving Main Street, there was a giant roach in front of one of the stores. Everyone was shocked to see it, too. We always commented that you never see bugs in Disneyland but there he was.

1. B. The windows of Pinnochio are beautiful. Stained glass and real lead patterns. Some gansta - wannabe took something sharp and carved their gang name in the window, complete with the correct calligraphic formation of the letters. So. Sad.

I am looking forward to a trip to the Grand Canyon to see towering ponderosa pine trees, beautifully layered rock formations, and feel the breeze on my face as I watch the sun set over giant, dormant volcanoes.

The highlight of the weekend was seeing Baby Roo. He is looking sooooo alert and happy. He is filling out so wonderfully and his little personality is just sparkling.

Photos to be uploaded tonight!