Not Me Monday

Not much happening in this neck of the woods, I'm afraid. We've had some rainy, cold days! Supposedly the sun is going to reappear tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

I just returned from the kitchen. Sounds exciting, huh? Well, I feel like a true chef - I've made my own cranberry sauce! From fresh cranberries! And it was so delightfully tart - I can already taste it on juicy turkey...mmmmm

Well, you want the recipe? That is fine and dandy, head over here.

Of course, I would NEVER deviate from the recipe. Nope, not me. And I would never puree and strain out the lovely bits and pieces... no way!

I'll keep you posted! Even if the cranberry sauce doesn't set properly, it will fantastic for dipping as opposed to scooping. I'd never confess to having a back-up either (a can of the jellied stuff isn't in my fridge!) No, not here! ;)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Stay tuned - next week I'm involving my kids! I figure 5 days home, together, will provide plenty of "Not me!s" to go around!

How cool is this?

This is what we got to see land this morning....and then take off with a bunch of our teachers/staff on board!
And admire at recess!

Saturday Sunshine

We had a lot of fun at the park on Saturday afternoon. Just us girls. I would love more afternoons like that, but I think our days of not-cold weather are numbered. It is mid-November after all!

What did you do for fun this weekend?

Not Me Monday

I totally didn't have a Not Me Monday... nope! But here are some thoughts that might have occurred to me, if I had actually had a Not Me Monday.

• I would never take secret pleasure and enjoyment in listening to my daughters' Hannah Montana songs while in the car alone. Nope, would not rock out to Rock Star on the interstate at 70mph. No, only while in the car with the kids....
• I would never consider taking the day off on Thursday and Friday last week just because I'm not feeling well now. I'd use the time to go to the doctor of course, but wouldn't make myself a 5 day weekend (Veteran's Day, Thurs, Fri, etc) just for that.... No, not me!
• I also wouldn't plan my lessons through Thanksgiving so I can have nothing to do daily and can hang out in my pajamas. No, not me. This teacher never stops...

Those are some Not Me Mondays that I'd never do (or at least never admit to!)

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. MckMama has been a little too busy this week though. Her precious baby boy is in Boston having surgery right now. Something I've definitely done today and all last week was pray for them. Go check on them and send them prayers and hugs!

Wordless Wednesday

Include Isaiah and his family in your prayers tonight. Details tomorrow, maybe.

Cool!

You may have noticed that this week Google was helping celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. At the link below, you can see all the logos that were used (different ones in different countries.) Also, there are links for other special days from October and through December that Google has recognized. There are even archives to see!

Very interesting, especially ones celebrating things from other countries. I could see using these to inspire some research projects.

What is your favorite? Can you guess which one is mine?

Enjoy the link! (http://www.google.com/logos/)

Teacher's Day Logo, Poland

Oops...

I really enjoyed NaBloPoMo last year. It got me into a blogging groove. I had the cruise to post about. I completely didn't tune in to the idea this month! So, I've missed 7 days... but from here on out, I'll post daily. Today, a summary of some things going though my brain.

• What makes a good parent?
• What makes an effective parent? (Is there such a thing?)
• What do you do when you are starting to feel like your spouse isn't on the same parenting page anymore?
• How do you deal with an incredibly brilliant kid who has learned to manipulate one parent against the other?

Hopefully in the next few days, I can give my input. I'm really bothered by these questions and the path my brain wants to take...

Have a great Monday! And enjoy what is left of Sunday night too!

Very funny!

The Husband Song

Not me! Monday

This is my first Not Me Monday post. This weekend had several Not Me! moments. For example....

• I would NEVER go camping, arrive late in the evening when it was dark, and then fall and sprain my ankle within 10 minutes of arrival... Nope, not I said the fly!
• I wouldn't dare come home on a Monday afternoon at 4pm and wonder if it was too early for one of these:

Mike's Hard Pomegranate Punch

This might possibly be a savior for some other hard working mama - but not me said the flea.

Go check out some other Not Me Mondays over at MckMama's blog. She created this and it sure is fun... especially if you are like me and haven't done anything! :)

Your Opinions Please

Haven't done this before! I'm working on deciding what my "Meet the Teacher" outfit will be. Please tell me what you like the best!

Option 1: Red jacket with red, black and white dress

Option 2: Red jacket with navy tank and khaki skirt
Option 3: Red Jacket with navy tank and skirtI'll see if I can add a poll to the right side. Otherwise, cast your vote in the comments :)

Decision must be made by August 20th! Thanks for your input!

Busy Days

We've gotten back into a routine now, after 2 weeks at the beach. Those were wonderful, idyllic weeks... I've got a lot of pictures to share.

For now, we've got a bunch of things to do. I'm in my final week of freedom. Erin is going to the eye doctor tomorrow. We are going bowling and having a pizza dinner on Thursday. Sunday we are going to make try #2 to go to the water park. And that finishes my summer!

Next week I'll be in staff development all week. I'm very excited about this, as I got to choose my classes. I'll be learning about EOG strategies, Content area writing, Formative Assessment, and Quest Atlantis. Then I have a Friday and Monday free to do whatever (which means NOTHING!) and Tuesday starts my meetings.

The girls have until 8/25... lucky ducks!

I'll admit, I'm curious...

“Curious people are interesting people, I wonder why that is.” Bill Maher

I've been checking my stat tracker frequently and have noticed a large number of hits from one place. The IP resolves to Riverside, California. I'm talking 12 hits in 12 days - multiple hits per day not one per day. Veeeerrrry interesting! C'mon! Who are you? I'm dying to know what you are looking at or looking for on my blog. Satisfy my curiousity please.

C'mon, how can you deny this sweet puppy dog face? (Nope, not my puppy but it sure is cute!)

Getting Started

Now that school is finished I can get started on my sample unit. I'm really excited - I've got some good ideas. I'm using for inspiration a theme and unit I had trouble teaching this year. I wish I could have found some easy resources for it - it is encouraging me to do a great job on this. If nothing else, I'll have these ideas to use next year!

School is out! Hip Hip Hooray! Enjoy your summer!

Exciting Opportunity

I've been given an exciting opportunity. I'm going to be able to submit a sample unit to a major educational publisher. If accepted, I'll be hired to do freelance writing for them! I'm SO excited! This is exactly the thing I like to do - I'm always making things to use in my classroom. Now, perhaps I'll get paid for them. It would be nice to have a little extra cash to go into the "Beth Fund!"

Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted on the status of the unit - but no details! Keep your fingers crossed!

Very cool tool

I'm thinking about a change in hairstyle this summer. I found this cool site at iVillage:
http://beauty.ivillage.com/hair/hairstylefinder
You can upload your own photo and play around with it. I've done myself and will now do both the girls - I'd like to see what they look like without bangs. I foresee many wasted hours here. :)
Have fun y'all!

Sing it with me now....

Rain, rain, go away.
Come again some other day.

Seriously, there are 3rd graders (and lots of other kids and teachers) who need recess! We were supposed to have a baseball game tonight (our first) but it got rained out. No phone call, just unrelenting rain. Drizzle, sprinkle, downpour, we've seen it all tonight.

And in looking at the forecast, there isn't any change for the rest of the week. *mighty groan*

Hopefully it will clear up before the next field trip on June 4th. That already got rained out once. Pray!

Progress

The first night went ok! Of course, Keith came home not happy about the job, but that is ok too. The second night was fun all around. The girls and I hung out until LATE at a friend's house, playing Wii and eating pizza. We arrived home about 10:45 and Keith came home about 11:35. The girls were ecstatic of course. And Keith was much happier - says the job isn't so bad and he will definitely stay. At least until after we go to the beach :) He works again tonight but has the whole day to spend with the girls.

I'm going to lounge around until lunch time (which is fast approaching) and then drag them all out to practice baseball (if it isn't raining.) I hope you all enjoy the long weekend with your families!

Celebrate!

There is much to celebrate - stolen items recovered, testing over, and Keith got a job!! Yay! He is working his first shift right now, he won't be home until 11:30. We'll see how it goes, it sounds promising - the boss already ok'd the 2 weeks off to go to the beach in July. *whew* But I'll probably take the kids to Atlanta by myself for the 4th of July.

Time to go, the girls and I are going to bed early tonight. I expect some tears, as certain people are missing their Daddy. The first reaction was, "Well who will brush my teeth and tuck me in tonight??" How pitiful is that?

It isn't that time but....

I found this and it is too cute. I'll post it now and use it again when De-Lurking Day comes around again (January 10, 2010?)

Post and tell me what your plans are for the summer. Anything good?

Totally Cool

I found a couple new websites I plan to use this summer. They look
really good! Here are the links:
http://www.test4free.com/assessfam.asp
http://www.mindsprinting.com/msfree/

The first is reading stuff. The second is math and reading. Both
the girls have completed assessments on both websites and they seem
fairly accurate. I think the math was off somewhat for my youngest,
but that is fine. The second website lets parents "Fast Track"
skills that come up as a lesson but that aren't needed.

We ought to have lots of fun with these this summer! Who needs to
buy workbooks?

Summer Plans

We are busy making summer plans. The girls want to go to the waterpark, I'm looking forward to the beach, DH wants the beach as well. We're also planning to visit my parents over 4th of July weekend, as my mom is running in a race.

We're also going to "do school" as the girls say. They have learned so much this year and I don't want them to backslide. We'll read a lot and go to the library once a week. The girls have asked to have "flip-a-cards" at home! How funny is that! Considering they haven't flipped a single card ALL YEAR!

Which reminds me, DH and I would like to get them something special for this accomplishment - any ideas? We can't decide what would be appropriate! We never dreamed they'd do it, even though they have talked about it all year. Ideas needed please!

On that note, I'm off to eat chocolate and vegetate. Catch you later!

Sincere Apologies

Dear Readers,
It has come to my attention that certain things posted on this blog were inappropriate. I apologize if you were offended or hurt by them. I have made every effort to remove the offensive items from my blog. Please notify me by leaving a comment if you find other offensive items.

Again, please accept my apologies. It won't happen again.

Yours,
Beth

Happy Birthday, Baby!

No words tonight, too sick. Enjoy pictures instead.

There are no words to describe this beauty.

Sunday Night




Monday Morning

What's Yummy?

This is a question Katy would go around and ask when she was very tiny. She'd walk around with a notepad and writing instrument (always changed!) and pretend to take your order. Then she'd disappear off to her play kitchen and cook up the opposite of what we asked for.

I can now answer, without any doubt, that STEAK is yummy! We had the most wonderful steaks tonight. I'll describe the process while the pictures download off the camera.

I've had a hankering for a nice chunk of red meat for a while. Today at Wild-Mart I picked up a family pack of eye of round steaks. 6 nice size steaks for $10. Not bad - works out to 2 dinners and 2 lunches (with the left overs). We could probably have made 3 dinners.

Here is my process: Alton Brown, Steak Your Claim.

You should know by now that I'm going to turn to Alton on this. He teaches so well! I watched his episode on YouTube of the same name. And basically followed his instructions exactly, keeping in mind that I wasn't cooking an inch thick rib eye - my steaks were just between a half to three-quarters of an inch thick.

I had DH dig the cast iron skillet out of the camping box and reseasoned it while the steaks marinated. Alton didn't do this, but I felt like it. I read a few recipes and felt *gasp* that I liked Paula Deen's idea of using bourbon (whiskey leftover from New Year's!) with some fresh cracked black peppercorns, kosher salt, sugar, and some various other spices (chili power, paprika, and X leftover from the last BBQ rub chicken I did.)

The skillet went into a 500 degree oven while it preheated. The steaks came out of the fridge and I trimmed the edges of the tough membrane on them. They came to room temp just as the oven reached 500. I pulled out the skillet and set it on a high burner. When it started smoking, I turned the heat to medium high and laid the steaks in. I seared them for about 30 seconds on the first side then flipped them. The 2nd side got about 20 seconds then the whole thing went into the oven (which I turned down to 450). I let them go about 2 to 3 minutes on the first side, then flipped them. oooooo Boy did they look good. I let them go barely another 3 minutes then pulled them to temp. They were perfect - just over 150 which is on the well side of medium. They went on a plate with the pan juices to rest. Just look at this:



Oh, hurt me mama! DH whipped up some onions-and-mushrooms for his steak as well as some mashed potatoes for everyone. And then we feasted. I didn't get a shot of the whole feast, but here is another, wholly gratuitious shot of my sliced steak.


Of course, the kids wouldn't touch it. And I didn't argue or force them. Heaven forbid they discover how delicious it was!

Another Tag. This one is neat too.

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. On shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Tag a bunch of friends.
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Chrome (Trace Adkins)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Songs About Me (Trace Adkins)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Picture to Burn (Taylor Swift)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Suds in the Bucket (Sara Evans)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
I Wanna Talk About Me (Toby Keith)

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Boondocks (Little Big Town)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Leave the Pieces (The Wreckers)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Hot Mama (Trace Adkins) (Am laughing so hard here! Rule 3!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Mockingbird (Toby Keith)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Lot of Leavin' Left To Do (Dierks Bentley)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
I Got My Game On (Trace Adkins)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Arlington (Trace Adkins)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Perfect (Sara Evans)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Little Bit of Life (Craig Morgan)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Rough and Ready (Trace Adkins)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Ladies Love Country Boys (Trace Adkins)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Honkytonk Badonkadonk (Trace Adkins)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Settlin' (Sugarland)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Sunshine and Summertime (Faith Hill) (Too perfect!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
International Harvester (Craig Morgan)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Holler Back (The Lost Trailers)

If you're reading this, I tag you!

Tagged. Twice. They're Long. Sorry.

Here are the rules - post this list on your profile (in Notes) replacing my answers with yours.

Tag people to do the same thing.

If I tagged YOU, it's because I want to know more about YOU!

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Nope.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
about 2 weeks ago. check the countdown in my sidebar.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
no

4. FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
turkey.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
2 girls

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
absolutely.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
see #6

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
unfortunately, yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
heck no.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
coco puffs

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
nope

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
vanilla with chocolate sauce

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE
body language/attitude

15. RED OR PINK?
pink

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF
My hair, sometimes. Other times, my skin quality.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
ummmmmm, no one

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
sure.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
no shoes :)
pale blue plaid pj pants.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
food network.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
pink is good

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
chocolate

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Lois.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
sure.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
none of them.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown.

28. EYE COLOR?
brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
yup.

30. FAVORITE FOOD
see #10, 23 (chocolate)

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
happy.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
don't have a clue, would rather read a book.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
beige

34. Summer or winter?
summer.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
kisses if chocolate :)

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
duh?

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
doh?

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Edge of Darkness by Cherry Adair

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Dell logo

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
TV? I was sleeping.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
daughters loving each other and not fighting, SILENCE!

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES
Beatles.

44.DO YOU HAVE ADHD?
Sometimes I wonder, but no.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Sleep anywhere, anytime.

46 WHERE WERE U BORN?
Lubbock, TX

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Anyone

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
IRC Chat Room

==================================================================
And Another!

1.YOUR REAL NAME:
(If you are on Facebook with me, you know this already. If not, too bad for you.)

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and fathers middle names)
Leonette Louis

3.NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Leon William

4.STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
BowEl (oh lordy!)

5.DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Pink Polar Bear

6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
Kay Lubbock

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Blue Root Beer

8.FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Elen

9.STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Vanilla Chocolate Chip

10.SKANK NAME: (1st pet's name, street you grew up on)
Tigger Spring Day

11.GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of first name plus 'izzle')
Eliizzle

12. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, then the name of one of your pets)
black tigger

13. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
**Chocolate (no fav. perfume)

Random Bits of Blog-Worthiness

Not much happening around here.

Katy is having her tubes put in on Tuesday so hopefully no more ear infections, ever.

I had a cute girl chat me up in the bus rider line Friday after school. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Sit criss cross please, I don't want to trip on your feet.
Girl: What is that? (points to my clothes)
Me: That is a sash, see I'm using it as a belt. (Friday was "Go Red" day and I was wearing a red shirt and belt.)
Girl: Cool! I like that. You've got real fashion sense!
Me: Thanks! I wish I'd had some red shoes to wear too.
Girl: Yes! That would have looked GREAT!

This conversation just made me crack up! She was so, so serious the whole time!

Big new about Katy coming tomorrow - I must get the camera cord back from a certain someone first!

Happy Monday everyone!

Here I go again

falling off into the "Blog-muda Triangle." Sorry, as always there has been a lot going on at home, school, and with friends. The home the usual but the friend stuff is hard. I can't blog about it since it isn't happening to me.

I can find an exact date but now (or recently) it is National De-Lurking Week. I have a dilemma. How can you ask readers to de-lurk when you haven't got any readers?

For future posterity, de-lurk now please :) If not for me, then for my future readers who will say, "Boy, she sure didn't have a "following" early on, did she?" And for this cute graphic:

Very Cool

Wish I could sing like her, I'd do it daily :)

A Tease

Here are a few photos of our delicious ham. A fully illustrated guide to making it will come tomorrow.



There are PLENTY of leftovers. Any ideas?!?!

Ham I am

I'm making a ham for our New Year's Day feast. I've tried in the past. One was ok, the other was yucky. Hopefully, this year's will be different - I'm using Alton Brown's recipe!

Here it is - I'll post tomorrow with my results and photos along the way. I'll twitter today about how this goes... fingers crossed here!

City Ham

1 city style (brined) ham, hock end *Important note at the end!*
1/4 cup brown mustard
2 cups dark brown sugar
1-ounce bourbon (poured into a spritz bottle)
2 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

Heat oven to 250 degrees F.

Remove ham from bag, rinse and drain thoroughly. Place ham, cut side down, in a roasting pan. Using a small paring knife or clean utility knife set to the smallest blade setting, score the ham from bottom to top, spiraling clockwise as you cut. (If you're using a paring knife, be careful to only cut through the skin and first few layers of fat). Rotate the ham after each cut so that the scores are no more than 2-inches across. Once you've made it all the way around, move the knife to the other hand and repeat, spiraling counter clockwise. The aim is to create a diamond pattern all over the ham. (Don't worry too much about precision here.)

Tent the ham with heavy duty foil, insert a thermometer, and cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature at the deepest part of the meat registers 130 degrees F.

Remove and use tongs to pull away the diamonds of skin and any sheets of fat that come off with them.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Dab dry with paper towels, then brush on a liberal coat of mustard, using either a basting brush or a clean paint brush (clean as in never-touched paint). Sprinkle on brown sugar, packing loosely as you go until the ham is coated. Spritz this layer lightly with bourbon, then loosely pack on as much of the crushed cookies as you can.

Insert the thermometer (don't use the old hole) and return to the oven (uncovered). Cook until interior temperature reaches 140 degrees F, approximately 1 hour.

Let the roast rest for 1/2 hour before carving.

*Cook's note: A city ham is basically any brined ham that's packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked "ready to cook", "partially cooked" or "ready to serve". Better city hams are also labeled "ham in natural juices".