Gobble, Gobble

A teacher at my school did a really cute Thanksgiving turkey project. I decided to do it with the girls and their friends yesterday. I must admit that the ones done at my school were more professionally looking, but I think Michelle, Ella, Bryce, Sylas and Kodi did a nice job.

We had to improvise a little. I thought I had brown construction paper, but I didn't. So they had to color the construction paper brown (or blue, as Brycie did, or multi-colored like Michelle). I didn't have a pattern for the turkey's head and my hand drawn ones didn't look very much like a turkey's head. (Sylas informed me that it looked more like "that red thing they have" --the waddle). But the kids had fun and each of their turkeys has personality!

tres meses

Gabrielle is now 3 months old (yesterday). She is getting so big and strong. I can't believe how fast time is going. She is now trying very hard to sit up on her own. She can't yet, but if you put her in her car seat without the buckles, she sure tries to pull herself up. Here's a couple of shots of her efforts to sit up.

Look how far she is able to pull herself up! She is so strong.

At three months, she smiles and coos all the time. If you say "hola" slowly she imitates the shape of your mouth like she will echo it back to you. She laughs more and more often. She still laughs the most for Alfredo, but I have some success at getting her to laugh now. She loves her hands. She loves to suck on her fingers and just stare at her hands. She still sleeps curled on her side.

We love our sweet Gabrielle! She brings so much joy to our home!

(Funny side note: Since Ella was sick on Monday, I stayed home from work yesterday. I took Ella and Gabrielle with me to take Michelle to school and then we stopped at my school to finish up lesson plans for my sub. One of the teachers saw Gabrielle and told me how beautiful my girls are. She said I'm so good at making babies that I should have at least a dozen more. :) She said, "Anyone who can have a baby on a couch should have a housefull." LOL!)

kindergarten drama

Michelle talks a lot about all of her friends at school. (I'm thrilled because that was one of my concerns about not sending her to the neighborhood school. Would she make friends? Would she be happy?) She has mentioned her friends from after school program quite a bit: Sergio, Brenda and Donna. Yesterday her after school teacher told me that Michelle thinks Sergio is cute. Brenda overheard and said that Michelle always sits by Sergio and that they like each other.

Today I asked Michelle about Sergio. She said, "He is SOO mean. He is not my friend any more. He is not cute." I asked what he did. She said that he said something mean about Brenda and Donna's mom (they are sisters). So Brenda was sad. Michelle told the teacher and told Sergio not to be mean. So her 5 year old crush is over. . . . At least for today.

TTA: Flat Stanley and Lottery

This week's TTA is to write about your latest reads. I haven't done TTA for awhile, but I have a few minutes tonight and as you all know I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read. So this TTA appealed to me. So I thought I would share two.

The first one is Flat Stanley. I just read this to my class at school. It is a clever little book about a boy who has a bulletin board fall on him. He isn't hurt but he is flattened. So he has several adventures while flat. Including being mailed to California in an envelope to go on a vacation with his friend. My class really enjoyed this book. Now we are doing a Flat Stanley project. Each child has drawn a Flat Stanley. Now they are writing a letter about what happened to him and how he wants to travel around the world and have some adventures. We will mail their Flat Stanleys to various people around the country/world and ask them to send a postcard back telling briefly what Stanley does there. My class is very excited. We will post these postcards on a bulletin board with a map and track where he goes. It will help them learn letter writing as well as a little about geography and different places.

If any of my friends out there in other locales would be interested in participating, let me know. I'd love to send a Flat Stanley off to you. All you have to do is send a postcard back. Also, for my several friends that homeschool, this might be a fun project for you to do with your kids. There is even an official Flat Stanley Project that you can participate in. I'm not doing the official one, but it looks cool too.

For myself, the book I finished most recently was Lottery. It is about a man who is slow. He wins the lottery and his selfish extended family wants his money. They are trying to figure out how to take it from him. While he is slow intellectually, he is wise in many ways. He knows what is really important. And he becomes partner in a business and has many great ideas that help the business become more successful. There are some really touching moments. Small warning: There is profanity in this book. The main character's best friend swears a lot and the main character tells you about his swearing. Yet because of the way it is written, in the rambling mind of someone who is slow, the swearing didn't seem as offensive as it usually would.

Right now I am reading an autobiography for my book club. It is called German Boy by Wolfgang W.E. Samuel. I'm only about 50 pages in, but I like his writing style. I think I will really enjoy this book.

Celebrating What's Right with the World

On Sunday evening I had a meeting at the church for leaders of the youth in our stake. As part of the training, we watched a video put out by National Geographic called "Celebrating What's Right with the World." It was so inspiring! Apparently that is National Geographic's motto. The narrator of the film said that working as a photographer for N.G. he learned "I won't see it until I believe it." In other words if he believed he'd find beautiful landscapes and wonderful people they would be there.

He said, "Vision controls our perception and perception becomes our reality.... When the vision is clear then passion and creativity are there."

There were a million cool things he said. I'm going to share a few of my favorites in as close to his exact words as I can. My thoughts are in parentheses.

Speaking of meeting and photographing people: "I would see the light. Not the light that shines on us but that shines from within us." (Do we stop and see that light in others? in ourselves? do we recognize all the good around us? the media focusses so heavily on the negative that it is easy to forget how much GOOD there is).

"It [what is right in the world] was always there if I was open enough to see it."

"What's here [right in front of me] to celebrate?... By celebrating what's right we find answers to solve what is wrong."

(I often dislike change. It feels scary so these next thoughts resounded in my heart.) "A change curve is a possibility curve. The times of most change always hold the most possibility."

"Don't be the best in the world...but the best for the world."

"The power of vision is extraordinary."

(This video reminded me that despite the poor economy, the crime in the world, the uncertainty, the negativity all around us, there is much to be grateful for. It is a beautiful world we live in and there is so much that is good. We CHOOSE what to pay attention to and what to notice. We can choose to see the bad or the good. It is both there for us. But whatever we believe in, that is what we will see. If we believe it, we will see it. I am going to try to remember to see the good, the uplifting, the inspiring. Like my beautiful children. Like the growth that my students make and NOT some of their low test scores. Like the smiles that greet me each day from children that have come from all over the world to Salt Lake and are in my classroom. Like the fact that I have a roof over my head, sufficient food to eat, clothing to wear. It is enough. It is more than enough. We are so blessed!)

****** This video was far more inspiring than just my few clips can do justice. I was thinking, "I have to buy this video. Unfortunately, they told us that it costs $800. But the good news is that you can see it online. It is about 20 minutes but I hope that won't dissuade you from going to watch it. (I know it probably would me if I hadn't already seen it, but I promise that if you ever need a lift or want to be inspired this will do it!) Anyway, check it out. If you want to. http://www.celebratetraining.com/

silly things my kids say

10/20: This morning when I asked Ella what she wanted for breakfast, her response was "mocos" (Spanish word for boogers... I don't know if I spelled it right.)

10/20: My girls were obviously being silly this morning because when I asked Michelle what she wanted for breakfast (I don't usually ask, but I'm off and there was no hurry to go anywhere this morning), Michelle, who is totally into spelling right now and who spells real words and made up words said," I want to eat h - e - l. What is that Mommy?" I said, "What do you think it spells?" She said she didn't know and I said it was just a made up word, but it made me laugh.

8/11: When Michelle came to the hospital to see me, she climbed on the bed and asked if there was another baby in my tummy. I said no. She said, "Then why is your tummy so big still?"

8/11: (This one was told to me by Janene): As they drove to the hospital, Ella kept saying to herself...We're going to see Gabielle, no Danielle. i think we named her Gabielle or was it Danielle. Danielle? Gabielle? ... (By the way, this isn't a spelling error...it's how Ella pronounces Gabrielle, without the r.)

8/31: My sister asked Michelle, "Why don't you give me a kiss?" Michelle did and then responded, "Why don't you give me money?"

September and October Reads

Before I Wake ...good book, this book reminded me a lot of Keeping Faith, lots of connections between the two

Blue Bloods by Melissa Delacruz ...vampire book, fun read

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali ... a book for my book club. I didn't always agree with her opinions but it was an interesting insight into Somali and Islamic culture and her own life experiences. It led to a great discussion in my book club.

It's a Mall World After All (children's, cute for tweens) kind of cheesy but quick and fun

Keeping Faith by Jodi Piccoult

Masquerade by Melissa Delacruz ...sequel to Blue Bloods

Surprise Packages

The Zookeeper's Wife...story about a zookeeper and his wife in Warsaw during WWII who hid Jews and others in the zoo to protect them from the Nazi's

Whatever You Do, Don't Run .... a safari guide in Botswana shares some of his adventures living in Africa and leading safaris. I couldn't put this one down

Don't Cry Wolf by Clair Poulson... I read a fair amount of LDS fiction (mostly suspense and mysteries) as my fun, stress relieving reads in between my more serious reads

**I probably read a couple of others books too. But as I didn't have my computer working for awhile, I probably forgot to record them.