Awesome Weekend

I had such a great weekend with my parents and brother. I drove right after my class on Saturday, and caught rain the whole time! The charming rain clouds literally followed me all the way to Orlando... but I finally got there with my lovely mother waiting to greet me. She is always the most excited person whenever I arrive anywhere. I mean, there is no other person on this planet who is as excited as her when I walk through the door. I love her for that…second in line is my pops; especially lately. I got a big hug from him, and he waited for me to arrive (which took forever due to rain) for his first beer since he got off chemo and radiation. Man…that beer probably tasted like gold! My brother’s roommate made deep dish pizza, which was incredible I must say. It was just such a wonderful evening.  

Sunday, we went to church in the AM…and it was a really beautiful sermon. I hadn’t been to church in so long, but it was nice to finally go again. I have had a hard time accepting that my dad is sick, and so I think I finally made some kind of peace and I don’t think I’m as angry. Dad’s seemed to accept it, so I think it is high time I do too. After that, we visited my brother’s new sailboat! Which by the way I am veery jealous of. I am though, very very happy for him. He’s dreamed of sailing for too long, and now he gets to.

On Sunday night, we had burgers and many many rum and cokes. Maybe too many, because I got the eye from dad when I went to make another, so I went to get water instead. There was a really big storm that hit…and I mean really big! The wind was ridiculous; I thought a tornado was passing through. I didn’t get to bed too late though, because this morning I was up bright and early ready to head home. It’s always sad when I leave mom and dad, but I know I’ll see them in two weeks when we go to Texas to meet with Dr. Conrad once again. That’s when we really know how well pops is doing. Until then…keeping my fingers crossed.

A wise man once said...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

A CEO asks a teacher: What do you make?

My teacher read this to me in class, and I found it brilliant. Thought I'd share: Enjoy!

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

He argued, "What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers, "Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach."

To emphasize his point he said to another guest; "You’re a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?" Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make?" She paused for a second, then began.

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor."

"I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can"t make them sit for five minutes without an iPod, Game Cube or movie rental." She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table, and continued, "You want to know what I make?"

"I make kids wonder."

"I make them question."

"I make them apologize and mean it."

"I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions."

"I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn’t everything."

"I make them read, read, read."

"I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator."

"I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity."

"I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe."

"I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, one nation under God, because we live in the United States of America."

"I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

Pausing one last time, Bonnie continued, "Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn’t everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?"

"I make a difference."

"What do you make, Mr. CEO?"

- Daily Kos

“Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you're really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I've got a few missing. It's ok though, because I've got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation.So when I meet someone who's an 8-color type.. I'm like, "hey girl, magenta!" and she's like, "oh, you mean purple!" and she goes off on her purple thing, and I'm like, "no - I want magenta!!"

10 Rules for being human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, ‘life’.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The ‘failed’ experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately ‘work’.

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6. ‘There’ is no better a place than ‘here’. When your ‘there’ has become a ‘here’, you will simply obtain another ‘there’ that will again look better than ‘here’.

7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

-Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott, If Life is A Game, These Are The Rules

Kids Explain Science

One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second.

• You can listen to thunder after lightning and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don’t hear it, you got hit, so never mind.
• Talc is found on rocks and on babies.
• Isn’t inertia when something is moving, then it stops moving and keeps moving?
• The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.
• When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions.
• When people run around and around in circles we say they are crazy. When planets do it we say they are orbiting.
• Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.
• While the earth seems to be knowingly keeping its distance from the sun, it is really only centrificating.
• Someday we may discover how to make magnets that can point in any direction.
• South America has cold summers and hot winters, but somehow they still manage.
• Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south.
• A vibration is a motion that cannot make up its mind which way it wants to go.
• There are 26 vitamins in all, but some of the letters are yet to be discovered. Finding them all means living forever.
• There is a tremendous weight pushing down on the center of the Earth because of so much population stomping around up there these days.
• Lime is a green-tasting rock.
• Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils, while others preferred to be oil.
• Genetics explain why you look like your father, and if you don’t why you should.
• Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they’re there.
• Some oxygen molecules help fires burn, while others help make water, so sometimes it’s brother against brother.
• Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the numbers.
• We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.
• To most people, solutions mean finding the answers. But to chemists, solutions are things that are still all mixed up.
• In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H’s as O’s.
• Clouds are high flying fogs.
• I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.
• Clouds just keep circling the earth around and around. And around. There is not much else to do.
• Water vapor gets together in a cloud. When it is big enough to be called a drop, it does.
• Humidity is the experience of looking for air and finding water.
• We keep track of the humidity in the air so we won’t drown when we breathe.
• Rain is often known as soft water, oppositely known as hail.
• Rain is saved up in cloud banks.
• In some rocks you can find the fossil footprints of fishes.
• Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog’s tongue will kill the strongest man.
• The wind is like the air, only pushier.
• A blizzard is when it snows sideways.
• A hurricane is a breeze of a bigly size.
• A monsoon is a French gentleman.
• Thunder is a rich source of loudness.
• Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.
• It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.
• Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime.

Learn from the Kids

1. It's more fun to color outside the lines.

2. If you're gonna draw on the wall, do it behind the couch.

3. Ask why until you understand.

4. Hang on tight.

5. Even if you've been fishing for 3 hours and haven't gotten
anything except poison ivy and a sunburn, you're still better off than the worm.

6. Make up the rules as you go along.

7. It doesn't matter who started it.

8. Ask for sprinkles.

9. If the horse you're drawing looks more like a dog, make it a dog.

10. Save a place in line for your friends.

11. Sometimes you have to take the test before you've finished
studying.

12. If you want a kitten, start out asking for a horse.

13. Just keep banging until someone opens the door.

14. Making your bed is a waste of time.

15. There is no good reason why clothes have to match.

16. Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he absolutely had to.

17. You work so hard pedaling up the hill that you hate to brake on
the way down.

18. You can't ask to start over just because you're losing the game.

19. It is impossible to hide your broccoli in your glass of milk

20. Grown-ups just don't get it

21. The sky doesn't have to be blue; the grass doesn't have to be green