A Family Visit

This weekend we had a fun time. Rachel, Dora, and I went to Tampa to visit Adam and Vicky.
Dora had a grand old time, so much so that we couldn't get her to take a nap! She was very excited. The trip down there was fine until later in the night. Dora got tired and fussy. We had to stop a few times so that Rachel could nurse her. I cannot drive at night, due to my partial blindness, so it was rather a hard trip during the last hour.  I tried to drive the last 26 miles, and I almost did it. Alas, the rain started, road work barrels and cement side panels were there, and a BIG SEMI truck decided to ride by at that moment. I had a panic attack. Just in time, we came to a sign for a Rest Area, but I couldn't tell if it was open or if the road was clear enough to drive into it. Luckily, the road was open, and I drove right in. Rachel nursed Dora for a while, and then we changed driving positions. She drove the rest of the way! Yea! We got there after 930. We should have been there earlier, but we made it...tired eyes and all.
We had a good time visiting, but the visit was too short. We had to come home Sunday, so we only had one day of a visit. Uncle Adam and Aunt Vicky were very excited to see Dora, and she was very excited to see them.
I have some pictures of the weekend that I will post.
Coming home, we were doing well ... then the weather changed. Dora does  not like rainy weather and atmospheric changes...she proved that by coming a month early when the weather was really bad. Anyway, I could see a little tear coming out of her eye. Then, more tears. She was reaching for me and crying. I felt so bad for her. I finally took her out of the car seat and held her tight. We came into the rain, and Rachel had a really hard time seeing. An hour of that was not fun. She could barely see in front of her. We made it home, though. We decided that we would take the train the next time we ride to Tampa and it is just us. i am no help in the dark or on the interstate, so we need an extra driver.

 Dora and Uncle Adam see each other again after two months away from each other!

 Look at my gifts from Aunt Vicky! I love my new hat and blanket!!

Adam has become quite the Orchid grower! This orchid is one that is still blooming. They have lots of orchids hanging from their orange trees.

 

 

 Hanging out with my Uncle Adam!

 Uncle Adam and Dora!

 Aunt Vicky and Dora!!

 Adam's Passionflower that attracts LOTS of butterflies!!

Aunt Vicky, Uncle Adam, and Dora at Sunday breakfast!!

 

Aunt Vicky, Uncle Adam, Dora, and Mamma at the Four in One Restaurant. We had a Buffalo burger, an Elk burger, a Lamb burger, and a Pulled Pork sandwich. We cut them all in fourths and shared them. That way, we got a taste of ALL of the scrumptious food. See the Cowhide on the back of the booth? They were on all of the booths. It was really good.

 

Another orchid!

 

 The Orchid plants hanging from the orange tree

 more orchid plants...look at those roots!

 Can you see the butterflies on the ground? Look at the lizard watching from the fence.

 I can't believe that I caught these butterflies in flight!

 More butterflies

 Smell the pretty passionflower!

I love being at Uncle Adam and Aunt Vicky's house!

 Let's drive this thing!!

 Dora and Uncle Adam at Picnic Island, which is a nice dog park on the water.

 Sunset on the water

 Rachel, Adam, and Dora at sunset

Sitting in the evening breeze!

 Wadin' in the water!

 Whoa! Look at me!

 Grandma and Dora

 Grandma, Dora, and Uncle Adam

 Look at that smile!

 Grandma, Dora, and Mamma

Grandma Loves Dora!!

 

                                                      Mamma and Dora

                                                       Do you like my new hat?

 Aunt Vicky and Dora

Isn't Dora a cutie pie!!

 

                               We had a terrific Family Visit, though. I wish it had been longer!!

Saturday

Hello everyone,
I haven't taken the time to write a blog lately. I have been writing plenty of other things, though. I have been making edits throughout my dissertation. Simple little edits like, changing "this" proposed study to "the" proposed study....taking out all references to "affect", which is not a qualitative approach....and doing little, picky things like that. When there are around 110 pages of doing little picky things like that, the job is enormous! Anyway, I finally got all of it edited and turned it in again. By the way, my mentor approved the proposal. The committee members added their eyes to the chapters, and they suggested a few things. After all, that is what "extra eyes" are for...when you have been looking at the same pages over, and over, and over again, you miss simple little things. A fresh pair of eyes can catch things that you missed in your 1,000 or more times reading something!  So, when the chapters come back this time, they will be ready to be sent to the School of Education for further approval. This process is rather long, but it will be worth it when I finally finish the degree and have my Ph.D. As they say, if it was easy to get your Ph.D., then everyone would have one!!
Also, they say "a good dissertation is a done dissertation". HA!  So, I have a ways to go yet, but the pathway is paved and clear to go to get this thing done!!!!!!
Rachel and her family came by this morning to take us to the Farmer's Market. Each Saturday, the downtown Forsyth Park has a nice little farmer's market. It was pleasant to walk under the trees and the Spanish moss in downtown Savannah. There were quite a few farmers present. Also, a couple of local bee keepers/honey makers were there. I bought one small bottle of local honey. Supposedly, local honey helps you with your allergies. So, I will check this out and see. We do have a honey store downtown on Broughton Street that makes local honey, but I never get to Broughton Street. Even though my school is downtown and really close to main street, I do not get there. When school is out, I head home!!  I am really enjoying being in a new, nice, clean school building. It surely makes the day a lot nicer and brighter.
So, I went into my dissertation a few minutes ago and added some things by other researchers. One of the things that I needed to put in the chapters was more 'primary' information. So, I purchased seven new books to use. Books are expensive, but I bit the bullet and did it. Kate brought one book to me from her college that really helped. It is a book by an old time philosopher, deeeep stuff, and luckily some things were underlined in pen. Now, you know that no one should underline anything in a library book. BUT someone did in this one, from 1958, and I'm glad they did. It was helpful. I had that book on order from Amazon, with a newer copyright, but the book has the same information. Having the more classical version added bit of oomph to the writing, I think. HAHA!
Well, I will go for now. I might just try some of my honey. We already tried the peaches, the muscodines, and the cantaloupe. They were all great.
Later gators!!
 

Proposal

Whew! Three extensions later, one total year of inactivity, several quarters of personal issues with not writing, and....My proposal has been approved by my mentor!!  Now, it is off to the committee for their perusal. More edits will be coming my way, but this giant milestone is finally completed!

Now, maybe I can take a breath and relax for a few days!

School pics

The first week of school is almost finished, and I finally remembered to take some pictures of my new classroom. I have the walls and bulletin boards up, and the room is arranged okay. I hope the pictures show a little of how pretty and nice our new building is. We are all very proud of our new building, and we hope it will make a world of difference to our students. I'm just going to put them all on here, and I can describe each one.

My new, fancy desk! It is an L shaped desk that is fixed for a computer on one side. Fancy smancy! I have a little student desk at the edge of it for extra things that I use during the day and a book shelf at one end. The printer is on top of the bookshelf! Do you like my flowers and my little ballerina mouse? I have a flowery cloth over my 'new' file cabinet. See, everything is new!

 

 This is a view from the back to the front. See my promethean board??  How about that! I also have have two, new, clean dry erase boards!!

This is one of my bulletin boards. I made this ladybug a while back, when I did a unit on life cyces. I ordered real ladybugs for the children to study, too. The ladybug has pipe cleaner legs and antennae, cut out paper for eyes and spots, etc. This board has lots of postive thoughts on it, too.

This wall is my Multiple Intelligences section. There are nine intelligences, as described by Howard Gardner. We all have more than one way of being smart!!

The Cat in the Hat is peeking out to say he is spying good behavior!!

The door to the bathrooms - YES - I have bathrooms!! Whoo HOo!!
Yertle the Turtle is reminding the children to stay clean and neat. Now, I wonder why he is on the door to the bathroom? hmmmmm....

You can also see my Bloom's Taxonomy of Critical Thought wall here. I put it here for the children to see as they go out of the room (door on the right).

My CABINET!! I've never had one of these, and now I have TWO! Fox in Socks tells us he loves research and technology. My Diversity sign is one of my favorite ones. We are all different, you know! Right by the door, I put the choices poster. This poster gives the students something to think about on their way to other places.

I made this butterfly the same year that I made the ladybug, when we were studying life cycles. We had real caterpillars to feed and watch grow. The children loved watching their very own caterpillar spin its chrysalis. Even more fun was watching the butterflies come out of their chrysalis.  This butterfly is poster paper, pipe cleaners, and tissue paper. This wall also has positive thoughts.

Cubbies!! I actually have real cubbies that are built into the wall. This section that you see is my art center. The students will come around here when they are working on projects and things like that. The second cabinet is here, in the bottom corner of this picture. HEY! I actually have a sinck, too. I forgot to take a picture, though. It is on the right hand side, but it is not shown here.
Do you see my fish?

This wall is the Williams' Taxonomy of Creative Thinking wall. You cannot see the first one. It is Original Thinking.

This table is my writing center. Next to the table, I have a bookshelf with two litte ballerinas and an elephant. Over the bookshelf, you see Horton Hears Good Readers! How about my having two nice windows with blinds!!

Here is a picture of the bookshelf by my desk. Now, you can see the little ballerina mouse and my flowers. I have a window by my desk, too!

I took this picture so that you can see my nice dry erase boards and the posters. How do you like the star?

This picture shows the promethean board. I have a real hookup to it over by my desk. This board is connected to my computer, and I can show all sorts of things on it. There is a projector thingy in the ceiling that is connected to the computer, too. It is really a neat teaching tool, and this is something that I have never had before!!

This picture is another view of my posters and my other stars.

I am showing you the whole view of my nice, clean, wonderful, teaching boards!!

Yes, I am very proud of my new classroom. In my more than thirty years of being an educator, I have never, ever had a nice classroom. I have worked in portables, small closets, the library, rooms off of the library, the gym, and even outside, etc. I am very excited to be in such a nice work environment, and I am especially happy that this next generation of children is being able to attend school in such a nice place. Ahhh....