Tangled DVD Giveaways

Has everyone seen the movie Tangled??? I saw most of it when I was baby-sitting, but I haven't gotten to see the end yet. I can't wait until I can see it! This blog is having a giveaway for the Tangled DVD. So is this blog! Annnd, this blog! Make sure to check them out!

Yellow Sticky Note

I have this yellow sticky note that is stuck to the bulletin board on my desk here at school. It is a note from my mom. I cannot for the life of me remember when she gave it to me or what the story is behind it. But I found it when I was cleaning my room this summer. I almost threw it out, but then I decided to read it to try to remember what it was from. After I read it, I knew I needed to take it back to school with me in the fall. I love to read it when I start to get stressed out. So, since I have nothing else prepared for my blog today since I've been so busy, I thought I'd share this note with you as I know many of you are going through a rough time right now. I'd share a picture of it with you, but I currently don't have a camera (which is killing me, for the record, as I'm sure most of you can imagine, knowing me ). So just imagine it instead. It's written in red pen - typical teacher.

Psalm 18:32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

Leanne, God promises to give us strength to meet challenges, but He doesn't promise to eliminate them. He doesn't leave us alone with them. He is with us, teaches us, and strengthens us to face them.

Early Childhood

As previously mentioned, I have majorly neglected this blog as of late. So I am going to try over the next few days to copy and paste some of my blog entries from my other blog over to this one. So here is one...

I often hear fascinating things in my classes that I want to share with you all, but then I never remember to actually share the info! We learn SO many things that I think, "Every parent needs to know this." I am not really feeling inspired to type much right now as I am rather tired after this week and being sick. But I did want to share one little tidbit before I forget again.

This is super important. Every child should have 1000 books read to them before they enter kindergarten!

Yes, 1000. For some families, that is a breeze. They will read a few thousand before that point. For other families, it's more like a reality check. It doesn't necessarily have to be 1000 different books, but the more variety, the better. If you can get 1000 different books, that is the BEST.

If they don't have that many books read to them before kindergarten, they will likely start out behind everyone else and will be scrambling to try to catch up. Basically, they can't really start to learn to read until they have had those 1000 books read to them. If they haven't before they enter kindergarten, they will have to use the books the teacher reads to them to count towards their 1000 while the other kids will already be zooming onto the next level.

Clearly, 1000 isn't a magic number, and they will suddenly just know how to read. But it's a good estimate to strive for.

Oh, and another thing that seems so common sense...TALK to your child! Hello! It seems like a "duh" statement. But it's so sad to see the kids who don't get daily interaction at home or anywhere else. They come to kindergarten and are totally lost socially. I had several kids in my class over J-term in that situation. They weren't talked to much at home, so they didn't understand how to carry on a conversation or even verbalize their thoughts or feelings. Then that puts them WAY behind in reading since they don't even understand language. It is NEVER too early to carry on conversations. I had one student several years ago in my cadet teaching class whose parents never talked to him. It was the saddest thing. He had no clue how to talk to someone.

Okay, I'll step off my soap-box now. :)

Book Giveaway

I have really been neglecting this blog lately, haven't I? My other blog hasn't been getting a whole lot of love lately, either. I'm just so busy with school right now! But, I came back today to tell you about an exciting giveaway going on right now! Carman is celebrating her 19th birthday by holding a book giveaway! How sweet is that?! Go check out the four books she is giving away!!

CSN Giveaway on icefairy's Treasure Chest

icefairy's Treasure Chest is holding a giveaway right now for a $75 CSN gift card!! I have won two gift cards for CSN and absolutely love that they carry just about everything you can think of! Make sure you don't miss out on entering!

What I Read in 2010

*Copied over from my other blog.

I thought I'd post the list of new books that I read in 2010 for the 50 Book Challenge. I really read waaaaay more than this, but the rest are all my favorite parts of books that I have read before. Or re-reading old books. Or children's books when I'm baby-sitting or teaching, which I don't count. At night, if I am not ready to start a new book, I will often just grab a book I've already read off my shelf and read my favorite parts out of it. So I don't count all of those books. Quite a few of the books I read last year were for my Children's Lit class. I only counted the ones that were chapter books that I read in entirety, though. In total, we had to read 55 books for that class, but many of them were picture books and some of the books on the list I split up with a friend, so those I didn't count. I marked the chapter books that I read for the class in the list.

I have started on the 50 Book Challenge 2011!

50 Book Challenge 2010

1. Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury

2. Butterfly Trees by Gail Gaymer Martin

3. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

4. Every Storm by Lori Wick

5. Bundles of Joy by Robin Lee Hatcher

6. A Match Made in Texas by Arlene James

7. In Search of Love by Christine Lynxwiler

8. Patchwork and Politics by Christine Lynxwiler

9. Through the Fire by Christine Lynxwiler

10. Longing for Home by Christine Lynxwiler

11. Katie’s Redemption by Patricia Davids

12. Red Like Crimson by Janice Thompson

13. What’s Cooking? By Gail Sattler

14. White Like Snow by Janice Thompson

15. Groom in Training by Gail Gaymer Martin

16. This Child is Mine by Mildred Colvin

17. The Baby Bond by Linda Goodnight

18. Military Daddy by Patricia Davids

19. Sweet, Sugared Love by Pamela Griffin

20. The Summer Girl by Andrea Boeshaar

21. Heartland Wedding by Renee Ryan

22. The Christmas Journey by Winnie Griggs

23. Flash Flood by Diann Mills

24. Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury

25. Wife Wanted in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad

26. The Pastor Takes a Wife by Anna Schmidt

27. The Holiday Husband by Annie Jones

28. The Christmas Letter by Brenda Minton

29. The Wedding Wagon by Cathy Marie Hake

30. A Bride for the Preacher by Sally Laity

31. A Valentine’s Wish by Betsy St. Amant

32. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (for Children's Lit)

33. Cowboy for Keeps by Debra Clopton

34. The Carpenter’s Wife by Lenora Worth

35. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (for Children's Lit)

36. White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick

37. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple by Kathryn Lasky (for Children's Lit)

38. A Promise Made by Janet Lee Barton

39. A Place Called Home by Janet Lee Barton

40. Making Amends by Janet Lee Barton

41. The Cinderella List by Judy Baer

42. The Marriage Mission by Pam Andrews

43. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (for Children's Lit)

44. How Sweet It Is by Alice J. Wisler

45. A Home of Her Own by Cathleen Connors

46. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (for Children's Lit)

47. The Butterfly Jar by Jeff Moss (for Children's Lit)

48. The Surrender Tree & Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (for Children's Lit)

49. The Giver by Lois Lowry (for Children's Lit)

50. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (for Children's Lit)

51. Heart and Soul by Jillian Hart

52. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (for Children's Lit)

53. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (for Children's Lit)

54. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (for Children's Lit)

55. True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (for Children's Lit)

56. Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White (for Children's Lit)

57. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (for Children's Lit)

58. Lasso Her Heart by Anna Schmidt

59. The Marine’s Baby by Deb Kastner

60. Blind-Date Bride by Jillian Hart

61. Yuletide Cowboy by Debra Clopton

62. The Wedding Garden by Linda Goodnight

63. We Are the Ship:The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (for Children's Lit)

64. The Soldier’s Holiday Vow by Jillian Hart

65. The Sound of Sleigh Bells by Cindy Woodsmall

66. The Doctor's Blessing by Patricia Davids

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Did you read anything great in 2010?

In Which I Rant

This is copied over from my main blog on Xanga. I apologize if the formatting is off because of that. I'm sorry that this isn't a very good post. But I realized that I hadn't put any "real" blog posts up over here for awhile, so I figured it was time. And most of my normal blog posts on my other blog lately have included pictures, which I don't post over on this site. So I couldn't use those posts. Confused yet? Sorry, I'll just let you read now...

This might not be pretty. I just want to get this off my chest. If you are looking for something happy to read to brighten your Monday, this probably isn't it. Sorry.

I feel nasty, cruddy, horrible, rotten, terrible, crap-crap-crap-crap-crappy...you get the picture. To say that I feel bad is an extreme understatement. It turns out that I am extremely allergic to something in the B's house. That is the family we house-sit for. (Remember- we dog/bird/house-sat for them for a month a year ago??) So we have been house/dog/bird/kid-sitting for them since Thursday. For whatever reason, I was not affected in such a way when we were there for a month. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was in the summer that time?? Dad is wondering if their house is moldy and since the air conditioning isn't on right now (obviously), that is why I have reacted in such a way. It's to the point that I can't go back in their house. My dear, loving, caring, amazing, compassionate sister has taken over full-time for me. We were splitting duties. No more. Well, I'll have her for a short period of time this afternoon after she gets off the bus and until Jen gets home. But that is IT. I can't take it anymore.

I started feeling this way Thursday evening. Funny, that's when we started house sitting. I could feel my chest tightening up before I fell asleep that night. Then in the middle of the night, I woke up coughing really hard. I just thought, "Ohhhhh no." Grrr. Then it got worse and worse as Friday went on. I started my breathing treatments up that day. I was so frustrated because I had finally gotten to the point on Thursday that I was actually getting back to normal! It was obviously short-lived. That night I felt miserable by about 7:45 and told Jen I was going to bed. She looked at me like I had grown 2 heads! I NEVER, I repeat NEVER go to bed anywhere NEAR that early. I usually get to bed sometime after midnight. I can't tell you the last time I was in bed before 10:00. To be in bed before 11:00 is a miracle. I just couldn't take the pain anymore. So I started the process of getting ready for bed, in between talking to Mom on the phone about my condition, and got to bed around 8:45. Then I read til 9:30 and fell asleep for TWELVE HOURS!!!! Craziness! I felt somewhat better when I got up. Not nearly so crappy-ish. But then it just got worse and worse as the day wore on. I wasn't very good company. I was very subdued at Dad's Upwards basketball game. I just wasn't in the mood for cheering and being around people. Lol.

Then Saturday night around 7:45 again, I had just had it. I can't tell you the last time I had very so crappy. My head felt like it was about 5 times its usual size, my ear had been aching like crazy all day, the left side of my nose/septum and throat had been burning all day, my sinuses were so congested, my head felt like I had just gotten off a merry-go-round or a rollercoaster. It just wasn't fun. So I once again said I was heading to bed. Ridiculous. Jen went and called Mom to come get me, but they were at a dinner at church. So I sat on the floor and stared at the wall for awhile (don't I lead an exciting life?!) until I could move. Then I took my boat-load of meds (the good thing about being sick all your life is you know what meds to start up when any symptom occurs) and packed all my stuff up so I could leave once Mom and Dad were done at church. At one point, I really just felt like going to the ER to be put out of my misery. Dad decided to come and get me "because he'd rather just come get me himself in the first place than to have to come dig me out of a snow bank". Gee, thanks Dad. (Did I mention we got a huge dumping of snow yesterday? Well we did. Again.)

I was feeling slightly better by the time we got home. But not much. I just kinda fell into the house, told my mom good night, and went to my room. She followed me and told me I should probably bathe to get the allergens off of me. At least someone had their head on straight! So I did. Then I went to bed. I woke up on my own Sunday morning around 8:30 and felt even worse than before...if that's possible! I just kinda groaned when I woke up. Mom took one look at me and asked if I really wanted to go to church. Lol. She said, "You sound NASTY." I said, "Yeah, I feel nasty, too." So she told me to stay home. And so I spent the rest of the day in bed for the most part. (I am actually writing this Sunday night.)

I have to keep stopping whatever I'm doing to lay down because I'm just so miserable. I haven't been this sick since....I don't know, maybe high school? I have the INSANE sinus pressure that is so bad that it makes my entire face hurt. To the point that even my jaw and teeth hurt from all the pressure. Ridiculous. And the lovely, hacking-up-a-lung-from-deep-inside-you coughing. It's just wonderful over here.

And I am tired of people telling me, "Oh I know how you feel. I have allergies, too." NO, you don't. (And I am not, by any means, saying this to ANY of you. It's to people who don't read this. Don't worry. ) They say, "Oh, I have allergies, too. They really stink." Uhhhh, yeah. I'm pretty sure that I'm not referring to your "get stuffed up, runny nose, sinus headache" allergies. Nuh-uh. I wish. People just don't understand that when my allergies get flared up it is NOT a good thing. It sends me into a sickness fit for a crazy amount of time. For example, all it took was one bike ride. One. One day when there was junk flying in the air for an hour or so to make me sick for SIX MONTHS when I was a senior in high school. That's not your average allergies, folks. And then it goes down into my lungs and gets all complicated. Ugh. This shouldn't be happening after two sinus surgeries. I'm sick of it all. I'm tired of the pressure, pain, and all that stuff. Tired of sneezing. Tired of blowing my nose. I just want it to end.

And now I think I will end this whine fest. Sorry for this. :) I need to call my doctor. And they had BETTER do something for me. Not like before Christmas when they kept ignoring me until I had gotten really, really bad. Grrr... Oops, I said I was done ranting, didn't I? Sorry.

Happy a happy Monday, folks!