My bear

Whoorl wrote a nice piece about her childhood blanket and challenged her readers to write too. I am writing about my favorite childhood stuffed animal. This week we had Staff Appriciation week at school and we each brought in an artifact that represents us. I brought my bear. Almost no one guessed he was mine.

Gotta...getta...GUND He’s my bear. He doesn’t have a name. I always thought it was stupid when people asked his name. He’s a bear, a stuffed toy, why would he have a name?  I know people name their stuffed animals, and in fact, I named other stuffed animals, just not my bear.

My bear I have had my bear since I was about 18 months old. According to my parents we went to Florida to visit Sylvia and Bill that fall. Bill was my dad’s cousin, but they were way older than my parents, so they were more like grandparents. While we were there they had a birthday party for me. I certainly don’t remember it, but I have seen pictures. We were all wearing party hats.

I don’t remember a time not having my bear. He is flat and balding. His tongue is gone and his nose is rubbed off. His eyes are scratched and he has cataracts of clear nail polish from where I tried to fix the scratches. He used to be kind of yellow, but now he is a grayish color. His tag is worn and hard to read.  When I was little and my mom would wash him, I would get mad.  He got all fluffy and not comfortable.  So I would throw him down the stairs and jump on him.

I took my bear with me everywhere.  He went to DC with me in middle school.  He went back and forth to college a dozen times or more.  He always rode outside my bag on planes so he has been through several x-ray machines.  He hasn’t traveled since I graduated, so I guess he needs a trip.  I think he will go in the car with us to Sweet Briar this spring.

He doesn’t have a place of honor or anything.  He still sleeps in my room, but he is buried under extra blankets and PJs to keep him safe from my kitty.  When my husband is away, my bear sleeps on his spot.

He is my bear.

More great inventions – school edition

While the pencil with an attached eraser is really nice, I give my kids eraserless pencils and block erasers. And what is up with the name of the inventor? Hymen Lipman? Really?

  1. Dry erase boards I hate how my hands feel after using the chalkboard. White boards are so much fun to use in class. They come in handy for quick lessons or a list of things they have to do in independent work. We can write in all sorts of colors and they come clean without much mess.
  2. Clipboards What a handy thing for moving around the room.  We use these for paper activities on the floor.  Clipboards also let us take our work to other places in the building.
  3. Crayons Not just for coloring.  I let the kids practice their spelling words in rainbow writing with crayons.  We also use crayons to mark nouns and verbs on papers.  Lately I have been using crayons to mark papers so I can see how many times they needed to make corrections.
  4. Digital projectors I used to teach computer lessons by showing them on my computer.  Now I can project it on the wall and they can see it big and from their seats.
  5. Recess Need I say more?

1858Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

Ways to waste time on a Saturday

I don’t feel like doing much of anything today. I also don’t have much to write about. My life is terribly boring.

  1. weigh in
  2. get breakfast at Dunkin Donuts
  3. read blogs
  4. write blogs
  5. read blogs
  6. play games online
  7. watch TV shows you watched last week, because your husband didn’t see them
  8. fall asleep
  9. wake up
  10. move to other couch
  11. fall asleep
  12. shower
  13. watch your husband rock the world in a play he joined 4 days ago

1976 Nicole Marie born in Bennington, Vermont.

4 Things

Four jobs I’ve had
  1. Recess monitor at arts summer camp.
  2. Cashier at town pool.
  3. Waitress at family conference center.
  4. Educational Technology Specialist
Four movies I can watch over and over
  1. Legally Blonde
  2. Princess Bride
  3. Finding Nemo
  4. Sweet Home Alabama
Four places I’ve lived
  1. Meta Glass 212
  2. Dew 202
  3. Manson 112
  4. Manson 205
Four TV shows I love
  1. Monk
  2. Grey’s
  3. LOST
  4. How I Met Your Mother
Four places I’ve vacationed
  1. Cancun
  2. Star Island
  3. Florida
  4. Scotland
Four of my favorite dishes
  1. Macaroni and Cheese
  2. Prime rib
  3. Thanksgiving dinner
  4. Potatoes, polenta, pesto, asParagus, ham from a Pig
Four sites I visit daily
  1. TVGuide.com
  2. For Better or For Worse
  3. Facebook
  4. Bloglines
Four songs I will stop and sing along with
  1. In Your Eyes
  2. Bohemian Rhapsody
  3. Constantinople/Istanbul
  4. We Didn’t Start the Fire
Four places I would rather be right now
  1. Home in bed
  2. Cancun
  3. Scotland
  4. a massage table

1930Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.

Things I am thankful for

  1. My parents They have always been there to support me. My mother and I have a really good time together and my dad has done a lot for me.
  2. My sister Even when we don’t get along, it is still great to have her around.
  3. My husband In only 7.5 years together we have been through a lot. He has been supportive and amazing through everything.
  4. My friends How great is it to be an adult and have friends with whom you can act like a kid.
  5. My cat I can’t believe we were going to wait to get a cat.  He is currently the joy of our lives.
  6. Electricity This one is self explanatory.
  7. Heat It may be spring, but it is still snowing in Vermont.
  8. Spring weather I can’t wait to not put on a jacket to leave for school.

1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

6 Days left in March

Seriously, I thought this theme would be easy for me. I thought, heck, I make lists all the time, this will be simple. Nope. I have run out of ideas. I have resorted to stealing them from the web. And honestly, I had this great idea for a list over Easter weekend, but I was away from my computer and didn’t write it down.

Today’s list is:

Days left in March

  • Wednesday, March 26 I have decided to slack off today, so my kids are doing Type to Learn and Professor Fizzwizzle. After work I have to go to the grocery store. The Lord has rehearsal (did I mention he stepped into a part 4 days before opening night?) and I am going to watch TV and go to bed early.
  • Thursday, March 27 Today we have massages for Staff Appreciation Week. Mine is first thing in the morning. I hope the guy isn’t late. In the evening we have rehearsal. I am going to have to step in for T since he will be at the dress rehearsal for his other show. I hope bedtime comes early again.
  • Friday, March 28 Opening night. I won’t be going. I will be going both Saturdays, so I am making other plans tonight. I thought I might get my Sunday Schoolers to go to Hill’s play, but it is getting kind of late for that. Whatever I do, I am not over eating. I have to weigh in on Saturday.
  • Saturday, March 29 Today is m high school best friend’s birthday. She lives a couple hours a way and we don’t talk much any more. She and her husband split up this past year and she is totally starting over with 2 kids. I sent her flowers. I hope she likes them.
  • Sunday, March 30 I am planning to take my Sunday Schoolers to visit a different church today. We’ll see how it goes. I am trying to find ways to get them engaged and involved. Then I have rehearsal. Fortunately it is an afternoon rehearsal. Unfortunately, it is to accomidate my husband’s matinée.
  • Monday, March 31 Today I start Girls on the Run. I haven’t heard from my assistant coach; I don’t have that many registrations; I am totally not prepared. But since it is my 5th year, I should be okay. Then I will be late for an evening rehearsal. But I may get to go to bed early!

1484William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop’s Fables.

Q1 2008 Books

I hope to read 50 books in 2008. Here is what I have read so far:

  1. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes I had never read any Sherlock Holmes, so when I finished everything on my nightstand I grabbed this one off the bookcase. Except for a few words I had to learn, from my husband, it was a pretty good read.
  2. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt I put off reading this for over a year. My mom got it for me at Christmas a year ago. Now that I am teaching Sunday School, I am more into religious stuff. It was a very interesting read. I know it is her fictionalized version of events, but I am sure she did her research on the times, so it was interesting to find out what it was like then.
  3. Angels Fall Just a quick romantic mystery. Pretty well written, good twists.
  4. Prodigal Summer I LOVE Barbara Kingsolver. So far I have enjoyed every one of the books I have read by her. This one took me a lot longer than I expected. It was a little hard to get into, but once I did I really liked it. It was a wonderful combination of 3 tales.
  5. Back Roads Heart-wrenching tale about a young man taking care of his younger sisters.
  6. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia)Having never read the Chronicles of Narnia, I snitched the whole set from my church library and am reading them one after the other. This one was very interesting. I saw the movie on DVD last year, but the book was totally better.
  7. Prince Caspian (Narnia) I liked this one a lot. I love that the kids got to go back. I missed the beavers though, they were some of my favorite characters.
  8. A Mango-Shaped Space For 2 days I took a little break from Narnia, and headed to the world of synesthesia. This well written Young Adult novel told the story of Mia, a 13 year-old middle child with synesthesia. For the first time, she admits to others that she experiences this phenomenon. It has it ups and downs, and I definitely cried. It is a great book for preteens, teens, and parents.
  9. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia) Back on to Narnia. I liked this one best so far. It was a great adventure, with some interesting moments. Although sometimes I feel like he was half-asleep while he was writing and missed some parts.
  10. The Silver Chair (Narnia) Just started this one. Not liking it so much so far, but I have to finish it.

March 24 was the 365th and last day of the year in many European implementations of the Julian calendar.