Musings on Life and Living

[Note: This has been cross-posted on my Adventures in Substituting blog.] It is shortly after 7 am on 31 December 2010. In just 17 hours, this year will be over. At times it felt like it was just zipping by and at other times it seemed like time would just not move forward. Despite the numerous personal difficulties that I have experienced this year, from not being afforded many opportunities to teach during the end of the last school year, to applying for hundreds and hundreds of full-time teaching positions and only having one interview (that didn't produce anything other than a long early morning drive across the state and back again), to running a business that started failing in 2009 and finally closed this summer, to a few extremely personal trials that some, but not all, are aware of... despite all that, there were good things, too. Some of my highlights of this year has been the many opportunities to teach during the first part of this school year, especially in a new scho...

This is just another DVD wish list (mostly for reference purposes only, but if you feel like gifting one or two, we won't complain). This one is specifically for CG and Stop Motion movies. It is our goal to someday own all of these movies on DVD. Ones we own are crossed off. PIXAR MOVIES Cars 2 Finding Nemo Monsters Inc. DREAMWORKS ANIMATION Antz How to Train Your Dragon How to Train Your Dragon 2 Kung Fu Panda 2 Madagascar 2 Over the Hedge Shark Tale WALT DISNEY ANIMATION (CG) A Christmas Carol Bolt Dinosaur Meet the Robinsons The Wild Tinker Bell (the first one) Valiant BLUE SKY STUDIOS Ice Age Ice Age 2 WARNER BROS. The Polar Express IMAGI ANIMATION STUDIOS Astro Boy Planet 51 TMNT  (CG animated) OTHER STUDIOS 9 (Starz Animation) Barnyard (Omation Animation Studios) Happily N'Ever After (Lionsgate Films) Hoodwinked (The Weinstein Company) Igor ...

Christmas has come and gone, and with it, the joy of trying to find gifts for everyone and making plans to accommodate family and friends near and not-so-near. Our Christmas festivities officially began on Christmas Eve Eve, when we got together with our friends Noah and Cherry to exchange gifts and to watch "The Rocketeer" - a movie that neither Gretch nor Cherry had seen. We made a bunch of chocolate chip cookies for them, and also got a framed print of the first picture we had with Noah and Cherry in Illinois, taken at Jimmy John's. I will refrain from sharing the picture online, if only because I don't know if they want it publicly shared or not (even though Gretch and I agree it is an adorable picture of the two of them!) They gave us a grey and maroon American Eagle hoodie, a nightlight of the Leg Lamp from "A Christmas Story" and a vintage Snoopy Christmas mug from 1958: On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Gretch's family's where we had a wond...

Gretch and I have had to be creative with our Christmas plans this year, due to financial restraints and other issues. However, that hasn't stopped us from finding and/or making presents, doing some decorating, and, of course, baking on Christmas Eve day. So, for those who can't make it to our home and don't go on facebook, here's our Christmas tree, with presents under and around: Yes, that is a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, and yes, that really is what we are using for our tree this year. We decided that the amount of time and effort required to put up our large tree and decorate it with lights, garland, ornaments, etc, was just too much. Also, we really don't have the space in our house without massively rearranging everything. So maybe when we have a bigger place, and kids who want to put the tree up. For now, though, we are happy with our little tree with its single red ball ornament. Is there really any food combination in this world that is better than chocol...

The following is the text of a post I shared on my Adventures in Substituting blog this morning. Since I know that there are many family members and friends who don't regularly check that blog out, I wanted to share it here, as well, since it has much to do with what I've been doing since Gretch started working last week. In the beginning, I didn’t know how to read. This was very frustrating for my mum and my teachers and, if memory serves correctly, for me. My mother, being the brilliant, wonderful, amazing mother that she is, realised that whatever the school was doing wasn’t helping. So she dug through her boxes, and she found what she needed. McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader for Young Children: I don’t remember what the reader actually looked like, and it is quite possible that the versions were much more recent than those shown but, nonetheless, Mum taught me how to read in a very brief period of time by guiding me through McGuffey’s reader. For this I shall be eternally gratef...

Gretch and I traveled to Washington this to celebrate my dad's 63rd birthday. His birthday is actually on Tuesday, but my brother Abram and his fiancee, Jen, were coming down this weekend to see my brother Aaron's daughter in a play on Friday, and they are going to Minnesota for Christmas, so it was decided that we would celebrate Dad's birthday a little bit early. (Which really isn't that early, seeing as we typically celebrate birthdays on the Sunday before the actual day. Unless it was for my birthday--those Sundays quite often coincided with the Super Bowl and, let's be honest: nobody wants to celebrate a birthday in competition with the Super Bowl. Not even people like my family members who, with few exceptions, have little to no interest in professional American football.) We spent Friday afternoon at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Peoria with Jen and Ariana and looked at books for an hour. (Have I mentioned yet that I am a voracious and unabashed bibliophi...