Reflection

The Master's program I am in is amazing...it has been an unbelievable amount of work but I feel prepared to teach diverse groups of students in a time of change and growth for my profession. One thing I have been asked to do over and over again is reflect. What did I learn? How does that learning relate to my pedagogy? How will it make me a better teacher? What have I learned from the mistakes I made? What will I change in the future? Why did I make the choices I did? Why do it that way? How did I accommodate my lessons so they were accessible to all of my students? Why? Why? Why?

Reflection has become almost a reflex. Why am I doing this? Why not do that instead? I find myself asking this question over and over again regarding my entire life...not just in my professional milieu. I am finding that it can be an unsettling and unnerving habit.

I am growing and changing and stretching beyond anything I thought myself capable of. It is exhilarating and frightening all at once...because I am scared of outgrowing the comfort zone I have lived in for so long.

If not this then what?

Best. Dad. Ever.

Oh Deer!

I have so many questions about the sign I took a picture of yesterday at an intersection outside of Shelton, Washington...

Who would steal a deer?

Who would miss a deer?

Who is it that expects a deer to be returned to them?

WTF is so special about THIS deer? On the same trip I got pictures of a Mama deer casually grazing in someone's front yard. Deer are EVERYWHERE in this area, why don't the missing their deer people just get a new deer? A younger deer? A better deer?

Deer me, I just don't understand.

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Supreme Cuteness

Counting Down

10 days until the end of the quarter and the end of my first full year of grad school...

4 weeks and 5 days until I go to Vegas with BFF Cousin...

5 weeks and 3 days until I go to Australia with Marvelous Mom to visit Scientist Genius Brother and his FIANCEE!!!! Yup, that's right, he FINALLY popped the question! She said yes and the wedding planning is ON!

3 more papers to write and then I can relax.

I Love Gingers

I'm not a creepy old lady at all. Nope. Not me. Never.

From allposters

*sigh*

Found

Why do THEY get a box of adorableness dropped off at their door step and I DON'T? The world is just not fair. The absolute indifference of the camel to adorable baby bears is hysterical.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day

Now if you'll excuse me I have some chocolate bunnies to decapitate.

Better and Better

I've got walking pneumonia.

AWESOME!

On the plus side a good dose of antibiotics will get me back up and at 'em. Yay for modern medicine!

Holy Snowman!

Cool Books

I Call Bullshit

There is no possible way this is right because I am Never. Wrong. Just ask Husband.

*snirk*

Dying of Cute

see more Daily Squee

Things I've Learned Recently

The threat of No. Christmas. Gifts. is more effective on teenagers who ask for expensive things and have seen you return gifts already purchased.

Said threatened teenagers can clean/pick up/organize around the house much more effectively than they let on during the rest of the year.

Teeny-tiny puppies are harder to potty train than golden-retriever sized puppies.

It is possible to tire out a golden retriever after all - you just need a teeny tiny puppy to play with her.

Being self-employed really sucks when you ARE the boss and can't just ask for time off.

Internet shopping is the best invention ever. Bar none. Full stop.

Research and development funding would be better spent on developing everything the Jetson's have in their house than on sending us to Mars.

Some puppies eat their own poop - I will never be the same after finding out this particular little tidbit.

Whatever the electricity worker guys that fix our power when it goes out make is not enough, they all deserve a raise and a pony.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Whoop it Up!!!

Spelling Simpleton

I am a good speller. A friend of mine claims that spelling knowledge is contained in an optional lobe of the brain - some people have it and some people don't. Luckily for my k-12 career, I got the spelling lobe. (I didn't get the foreign language one but hey, you can't have everything.)

But there are some words that my brain has decided it will not allow me to learn the correct spelling of.

No matter how many times I write it, say it, spell it out loud, or tattoo it on to my forehead, I will always have to correct the word 'restaurant'. (Red underline just now, I spelled it wrong.) It's a stupid word that should be spelled 'resterant' and whoever decided on the spelling is obviously a mental miget. Er, midget.

As I grow older however, my spelling lobe seems to be shrinking. Or shriveling. Or melting. Because I am LOSING WORDS.

Now I can't spell 'refrigerator' or 'vacuum' correctly the first time. And for the love of GOD I misspelled 'friend' the other day. 'FRIEND'. WTF?

We're not going to talk about 'miget' up there. It'll be our little secret.

So is it only me? Am I the only one with road blocks going up left and right in my grey matter? Do I have brain bugs eating the few brain cells I have left?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go spend some quality time with Messieurs' Merriam and Webster.

Apropos of Nothing

Did you know a group of owls is called a Parliament? I sure didn't.

Tired

I want to tell you about daughter's family birthday party that she missed because she got horrendously sick.

I want to tell you about how she got her nose pierced for her sweet 16 gift from Husband and I.

I want to tell you about how she pulled the stud out of her nose by accident and by the time I got home it had closed up so now instead of a nose piercing she has a tiny scab on her nose.

I want to tell you about the amazing sweet 16 celebration daughter had with her friends after she got well.

I want to tell you about a lot of things.

I want to show you a shitload of pictures.

But I'm very very tired. School, kids, housework, Grandmother, and the eleventy-bazillion things I have on my plate are wearing my ass out.

I want to tell you about a lot of things. One of these days I will.

For the Star Wars Nerd in Your Life

Boba Fett Sneakers - I shit you not.

see more If Shoes Could Kill

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?

KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.

PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

TIMOTHY LEARY: Because that’s the only trip the establishment would let it take.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

ANDERSEN CONSULTING: Deregulation of the chicken’s side of the road was threatening its dominant market position. The chicken was faced with significant challenges to create and develop the competencies required for the newly competitive market. Andersen Consulting, in a partnering relationship with the client, helped the chicken by rethinking its physical distribution strategy and implementation processes. Using the Poultry Integration Model (PIM) , Andersen helped the chicken use its skills, methodologies, knowledge, capital and experiences to align the chicken’s people, processes and technology in support of its overall strategy within a Program Management framework. Andersen Consulting convened a diverse cross-spectrum of road analysts and best chickens along with Andersen consultants with deep skills in the transportation industry to engage in a two-day itinerary of meetings in order to leverage their personal knowledge capital, both tacit and explicit, and to enable them to synergize with each other in order to achieve the implicit goals in delivering and successfully architecting and implementing an enterprise-wide value framework across the continuum of poultry cross-median processes. The meeting was held in a park-like setting, enabling and creating an impactful environment which was strategically based, industry-focused, and built upon a consistent, clear, and unified market message and aligned with the chicken’s mission, vision, and core values. This was conducive towards the creation of a total business integration solution. Andersen Consulting helped the chicken change to become more successful.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crosses the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross the road? I mean, why doesn’t anyone ever think to ask, what the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?

FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released the new Chicken Office 2010, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your cheque book.

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Rather, it is, “Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?”

DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross the roads.

EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends on your frame of reference.

BUDDHA: Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road … it transcended it.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?

I got this from Frogdancer, my favorite teaching frog!