Sounding Mighty Good

FF: The I'm Smarter Than I Was Yesterday Edition

Woohoo!! I did all of my week three homework in one day, that means I am much smarter right now than I was yesterday morning. Unfortunately, it also means I'm going to share what I've learned. Mrs. 4's won't care; she's a teacher and all about learning.

And Sara? She's just a smarty, so I'm sure she'll be tolerant of me.


1. Sometimes procrastination pays off. I needed to cancel two doctor appointments this week but forgot and then it was too late to cancel, BUT then the first doctor called to reschedule because she was sick!! THEN I was called and told the second doctor was quitting and we would get to work with a new doctor some time in November. I very calmly agreed to all their schedule changes.

2. This Goethe quote makes me think of blogging...and maybe Facebook:

To know someone here or there with whom you can feel

there is understanding, in spite of distances or thoughts

expressed, can make of this earth a garden.

3. Introverted students prefer quiet study environments. Extroverted students prefer loud study environments.

4. Introverted students adjust to online class settings better than extroverted students do.

5. I am an okay cook and maybe I'll post two recipes I tried. Next week. Here, however, is one for Weight Watchers Pumpkin Soup.

29 oz canned pumpkin

1 Tbs butter

1/2 cup chopped onions

3 Tbs water

14 oz chicken broth

1.5 Tbs Splenda brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbs white Splenda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 Tbs roman cheese for garnish

*Cook onions in butter until soft.

*Add water

*add pumpkin and chicken broth; stir well

*stir in all remaining ingredients except cheese; stir, stir, stir!

*You may add water or skim milk to this the soup

2 points, adequate taste, lots of intestinal bubbles afterward (just perfect for attending #9)

6. Sometimes it's worth the extra $10 to find a costume that an anxious child feels comfortable in.

7. Walmart won't take costumes back after Halloween.

8. I need to buy Woody's cute exercise machine. Checkered????

9. The choirs at my daughter's high school are amazing!

10. We need a new video camera.

11. If one is in the hot tub on a dark, rainy night and there is no other person in the backyard with said person and the dog begins to chase an animal around the yard, said person yelling for Checkered won't even help if he's not home.

The Oopsie Birthday

Once upon a time, a husband had a birthday. For days prior to his birthday, his wife contemplated what she would give to her husband. She was certain that the greater the gift, the more love the husband would feel from her. She decided that since her husband had lost 25 pounds since Labor Day, she would honor his request and buy him some weights. But where would the weights go?

So the wife formed a plan. It was a plan to declutter the basement and open floor space for the new weights. She got her children's approval. She got her homework done in order to free-up time. She nearly killed her back dragging her much-maligned Ab Lounger 2 up the stairs and into the car and to a store which bought it from her. She worked and worked and finally that floor space was clear.

The next stop was to purchase the weight equipment. She found many, many cute machines. She found many, many with cushioned seats and a softer, more feminine side. But she knew the husband just wanted weights.

And that is where the proverbial wheels fell off her plan.

No matter how much additional time she invested flirting talking with the salesmen at the sports stores, she truly had no idea what the husband really wanted. She thought about just buying one of the cuter machines, but she knew that would only mean she would have to bring it back after her husband tried to hide how much he hated it.

Time moved away from her and soon it was time for the family to eat the celebratory birthday dinner. During dinner, the children all began to recall that they each needed emergency school supplies for the next day. At some time, therein, the husband and 7 year old son had an argument about the husband's new age, and the husband learned that he is actually a year YOUNGER than he thought he was.

When, during the eating of the so-so crock-pot Weight Watchers cake, the children asked if it was time to open presents, the wife was forced to admit that there was not a single gift for the husband.

After dinner, the husband and wife went to Walmart to get the necessary school supplies. While there, the guilt-stricken wife bought her husband a belt and two pairs of Walmart jeans.

Amazingly enough, he still seems to love her.

Joy for October 27

My younger sister

Gifted pianist

stellar student

clever doctor

busy mom

loyal military wife

My husband

fixer of all things

helpful neighbor

self-disciplined executive

involved dad

loving husband of a blogger

These two people I love share an October 27th birthday.

Someday we will live close enough to celebrate together.

I promise.

FF: Where IS Caution Headed With These?

Our excursion this week will actually be an experiment to determine if I really am able to post about absolutely nothing. No theme. No pre-thought. No nothing. To assist me, I've joined forces with the most cooperative Mrs. 4's and Sara, who specialize in bloggers just like me.



~Our 9 year old has fallen in love with the theater. He is going to play Winthrop in a local production of "The Music Man" and we have concerns about his ego size. Each time he walks into a rehearsal, dozens of teen-aged girls call out, "Ooh! He's here!!" Our boy then struts into the room. The performance isn't until February and that seems like a very long time for an ego to grow.

~Our daughter, aka a Who in "Seussical the Musical," is not quite so taken with her role. She is to find an "old-fashioned looking dress" for her costume and was told to look at the thrift stores. I haven't yet seen something like this at a thrift store.

~Our 6th grader has a close friend who almost died last week from diabetes. Previously, he had no symptoms and there appears to be no family history, but he carries the gene and then got the flu and strep back-to-back. It is thought that those illnesses and the stress on his body somehow activated that gene and the diabetes. Very frightening.

~I am still a student and have made it through week two of eight. Honestly? I don't mind the hands-on assignment like changing my home page and posting and responding (it's much like blogging :))), but I really am not enjoying having to think (take course objectives from a class I currently teach and classify them according to Bloom's taxonomy.) Blah.

~I found no new and happy Weight Watchers recipes this week. Help?

~Our youngest child has been doing very well in school this year with a teacher he's well-acquainted with and who has a very low-key, highly organized style. But this week, the teacher had the nerve to get sick and call in a substitute. Sometimes just having a substitute come in and change the bathroom rules can absolutely paralyze a child into complete anxiety and inactivity in the classroom. My poor little guy.

~I wish I had the legal right to cut off each middle finger flashed at me. Yesterday, in the dark morning rain, I was partially into a right-hand turn but stopped for a school bus to load. After the stop sign was turned off, I continued my turn only to almost hit another mother who decided to make a left-hand turn right in front of me. Evidently, I didn't accelerate quickly enough for her. She did, of course, flip me off after HER mistake. I am so sick, sick, sick of middle fingers. Such cowardice.

~To end with a happy thought now, I cannot get into Facebook and am worried that maybe my account has been hacked into and messed with. (Yes, I am ending that sentence with a preposition.) So what's happy? I have no choice but to clean my house now.

~So maybe that wasn't a happy ending at all.

Some Days are Happy

I decided to dress casually yesterday for work. Of course, I was latelatelate getting ready, but knew which jeans I would wear. I haven't needed a belt in years, so the only one I could find had a bronze buckle. My jacket had silver buttons, so I spent lots of time fretting over that.

At 10:40 (class begins at 11:00) I was ready with my mixed metals and glanced in the mirror only to see baggy baggy jeans. They were grossly too big. No one in class would even notice my color problem because they would be grimacing at my too big pants. Remember, most of my students are 18 and come to class looking like they are ready for the runway (and not the one at the airport.)

At 10:45 I was admiring the way my smaller jeans actually zip and button now.

At 11:05 I walked into class and was greeted by a chorus of, "You're late!! We were going to leave!!" There was no chalk for the board, the room was freezing, there was loud construction going on right outside the classroom windows, and I had to teach grammar.

BUT I had proof that I had lost weight and that's all that mattered. It was a great day.

You've Been Warned