I swear Christmas starts earlier every year. At some point they are just going to have to leave the Christmas decorations up all year long. Yesterday in one of my classes someone was actually singing a Christmas Carol - in September! I would have just cast it off as a "weird song stuck in your head" type fluke, but when the teacher asked about it she answered "Time to start getting ready." Now come on!
I refuse to let Christmas take over the fall holidays, particularily Halloween, because that's my favorite. No, not because of all the candy, though that is a nice perk, I just like seeing everyone all dressed up. And since we started doing the dressing up as a family thing last year, I'm even more excited for this year. Though I'm getting a late start on the costumes I think I should be able to get them done - provided I don't do anything but necessary homework and sew for the next month! Well, I do have one little birthday party the first week of October (for Danielle) and a big project actually due on Halloween, but I think I'll be able to swing it. I have the party invites almost done and going out on Monday and I have a great partner for my project and we've already been working on it, so it should be smooth sailing for the most part.
Ok, ok, so I know that some of you are probably interested in what we're actually going to be this year, so here's the Peterson family costume unveiling:
The theme this year is The Wizard of Oz
Cameron: the Scarecrow
Lisa: the Wicked Witch of the West
Abby: Dorthy
Isaac: the TinMan
Danielle: Glenda the Good Witch of the North
Juliana: the Lion
We were going to have Juliana be Toto, but Danielle wants to be a witch, but not a bad, spooky one (spooky's her new word). And since I don't see myself pulling off being a lion quite as well as either of the girls could we'll just have to have a stuffed Toto. But seriously, we're going to be awesome. I'm not so stoked about the green makeup, maybe I'll just have my friend make-up my eyes with lots of green shadows and leave it at that. I do have to do a presentation for the project due that day, so I can't go too overboard!
Well, off to not so excited Saturday activities, meaning cleaning out and sorting upstairs - not fun, but really needs to be done, so I guess that's good. Have a lovely weekend.
The Peterson Family
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Procrastination.....
Yes, I have a paper due tomorrow. Blogging is one of my favorite procrastinating activities. It's easy to do when I'm already on the computer and get bored with whatever I'm working on.
And besides, many people have been asking how Cameron's interview went - I figured this was the easiest way to answer without emailing a ton of people. He said that everything went really well. They asked basic financial aid questions that he was expecting. That's a good sign that they are seriously looking for experienced people. He also said it seemed like somewhere that he would like to work. The commute would be horrendous and of course he would have to get used to seeing students out of dress code (think BYU standards here) as people tend to wear their bathingsuits and tanktops to class - that's just the norm, for any school near a beach I'm sure. But on the plus side that also means that he can have facial hair - while my mother-in-law prefers her son cleanshaven, I prefer a goatee which he could not have working here at BYU. They said that they would be calling everyone back in about 2 weeks, so really about 4 by Hawaii standards - we're a little more laid back around here:)
For those of you that knew I was taking a test last week - I did really well on the parts that I could get my scores on right away. It will be a couple of weeks before I hear back about the last score. The test was the Praxis I - it's an (standardized) education test, I guess to make sure that we're smart enough to be taught to be teachers. It was actually kind of lame, basically like the SATs or ACTs, basic math, reading, and writing. But then upon graduation teachers take the Praxis II in the areas that they want to be certified in, in my case Elementary Education. But upper level teachers can take subject related tests - it's part of the whole No Child Left Behind thing (a HUGE controvertial subject upon educators) and having to have "highly quailfied" teachers. Obviously having qualified teachers is a great thing, however there are other (many) parts of the NCLB program that a lot of people have issue with. Personally I think the ideas involved in the program are great, working towards a great education system in the country, but unfortunately it was written by lawmakers, not necessarily educators, and execution logistics are not as easy as the look on paper. OK, I could talk about this forever, and I'm sure I only know bits and pieces of the much larger picture, so I'll stop now.
Well, I need to get back to work so that I can go to bed sometime in the near (very distant near) future - how's that for an oxymoron?
And besides, many people have been asking how Cameron's interview went - I figured this was the easiest way to answer without emailing a ton of people. He said that everything went really well. They asked basic financial aid questions that he was expecting. That's a good sign that they are seriously looking for experienced people. He also said it seemed like somewhere that he would like to work. The commute would be horrendous and of course he would have to get used to seeing students out of dress code (think BYU standards here) as people tend to wear their bathingsuits and tanktops to class - that's just the norm, for any school near a beach I'm sure. But on the plus side that also means that he can have facial hair - while my mother-in-law prefers her son cleanshaven, I prefer a goatee which he could not have working here at BYU. They said that they would be calling everyone back in about 2 weeks, so really about 4 by Hawaii standards - we're a little more laid back around here:)
For those of you that knew I was taking a test last week - I did really well on the parts that I could get my scores on right away. It will be a couple of weeks before I hear back about the last score. The test was the Praxis I - it's an (standardized) education test, I guess to make sure that we're smart enough to be taught to be teachers. It was actually kind of lame, basically like the SATs or ACTs, basic math, reading, and writing. But then upon graduation teachers take the Praxis II in the areas that they want to be certified in, in my case Elementary Education. But upper level teachers can take subject related tests - it's part of the whole No Child Left Behind thing (a HUGE controvertial subject upon educators) and having to have "highly quailfied" teachers. Obviously having qualified teachers is a great thing, however there are other (many) parts of the NCLB program that a lot of people have issue with. Personally I think the ideas involved in the program are great, working towards a great education system in the country, but unfortunately it was written by lawmakers, not necessarily educators, and execution logistics are not as easy as the look on paper. OK, I could talk about this forever, and I'm sure I only know bits and pieces of the much larger picture, so I'll stop now.
Well, I need to get back to work so that I can go to bed sometime in the near (very distant near) future - how's that for an oxymoron?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Obama or McCain?
Election day is ever approaching and seriously, I just don't pay attention to politics at all (except for my friend Liz's blog, because she's a political maniac). I figure I'd better get somewhat informed because I am after all registered, and I would much rather not vote than be an uninformed voter. Anywho - I was reading a post on my neice Ami's blog about the "Match-o-Matic" quiz on ABC's website and checked it out. It was pretty fun - you get quotes on a topic and pick the one you most agree with and in the end it will tally up who your ideas are more matched up with. Obviously I can't base my voting on an internet quiz game, but it's a start, right?
If you're interested click here to play.
If you're interested click here to play.
Friday, September 19, 2008
I've been Tagged.
I've been a total slacker once again, but school, and PTCO and kids and life, are keeping me busy. And I did add anouther post on my class blog about technology. If you want to check that out see the last post I made (read, I'm too lazy to add a link to this one). Anyway, I haven't posted in a while and I can't even remember the last time I posted totally useless trivia about myself and my friend Teri tagged me; since this is a fun one and definately falls in the the totally useless trivia catagory, I thought I would play along.
Five things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. About to celebrating a 5 month wedding anniversary.
2. Enjoying the sweet life of a dual income and no children yet.
3. Working for a high profile commercial real estate broker.
4. Learning to cope without a dishwasher (this seems to be a reoccuring event in my life)
5. Driving a car with a tape (one of Cameron's) stuck in the deck, so that was all I could listen to (over and over and over again) if I wanted music playing. At least it was a decent mix, but to this day I couldn't list the songs on it, but when I hear one I still have flashbacks of driving that car.
Five things on my to do list today:
1. Send some family pics to my sis-in-law who is patiently waiting for me to find a decent one with Cameron and I in it.
2. "Supervise" my children cleaning their room (read - getting frustrated, giving up, and just doing it myself in the end).
3. Sending up good thoughts and prayers while Cameron goes to his job interview at the University of Hawaii.
4. Dishes, dishes, and then probably some more dishes!
5. LAUNDRY - I know, it sounds like a thrilling day for me!
Five snacks I enjoy:
1. York Peppermit Patties - the little ones, cause the big ones don't have enough chocolate!
2. Otterpops (Walmart has these really tasty ones....)
3. Cherrios with craisens
4. Haagendaaz Mint Chocolate ice cream
5. Haagendaaz Pineapple Coconut ice cream
Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy a house here in Hawaii - oh wait, that would use up all the money (no joke).... but if I still had some left over I would:
2. Built a nice apartment/Suite on that house and persuade my grandma to come live with us in paradise.
3. Pay someone else to cook, clean and do laundry so I can scrapbook all day.
4. OK, maybe I should do something a little more responsible, like add to my kid's college funds.
5. Put some away for a grand rainy day adventure in a few years when the kids are all old enough to enjoy it.
Five places I've lived:
I've live WAY more than 5 places, so I guess I'll choose my favorites.
5. Ann Arbor, Michigan
3.Trumbull, Connecticut
4. Fort Wayne, Indiana
2. Orem, Utah
1. Laie, Hawaii
Five jobs I've had:
1. Custodial Services at the library at BYU-Provo
2. Waitress at the Tiffin Room in ZCMI - when there was still a Tiffin Room and still a ZCMI.
3. Front Dest Manager at Inn on the Creek
4. Accounting at the Utah National Parks Council office of the Boy Scouts of America
5. Mom - my favorite, and the hardest.
OK, so there are rules and I'm supposed to tag other people - I don't really like to do that part, so I'll just so what I've done before and leave it open for anyone who reads that wants to participate. If you do play though, leave me a comment so I know where to look!
Five things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. About to celebrating a 5 month wedding anniversary.
2. Enjoying the sweet life of a dual income and no children yet.
3. Working for a high profile commercial real estate broker.
4. Learning to cope without a dishwasher (this seems to be a reoccuring event in my life)
5. Driving a car with a tape (one of Cameron's) stuck in the deck, so that was all I could listen to (over and over and over again) if I wanted music playing. At least it was a decent mix, but to this day I couldn't list the songs on it, but when I hear one I still have flashbacks of driving that car.
Five things on my to do list today:
1. Send some family pics to my sis-in-law who is patiently waiting for me to find a decent one with Cameron and I in it.
2. "Supervise" my children cleaning their room (read - getting frustrated, giving up, and just doing it myself in the end).
3. Sending up good thoughts and prayers while Cameron goes to his job interview at the University of Hawaii.
4. Dishes, dishes, and then probably some more dishes!
5. LAUNDRY - I know, it sounds like a thrilling day for me!
Five snacks I enjoy:
1. York Peppermit Patties - the little ones, cause the big ones don't have enough chocolate!
2. Otterpops (Walmart has these really tasty ones....)
3. Cherrios with craisens
4. Haagendaaz Mint Chocolate ice cream
5. Haagendaaz Pineapple Coconut ice cream
Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy a house here in Hawaii - oh wait, that would use up all the money (no joke).... but if I still had some left over I would:
2. Built a nice apartment/Suite on that house and persuade my grandma to come live with us in paradise.
3. Pay someone else to cook, clean and do laundry so I can scrapbook all day.
4. OK, maybe I should do something a little more responsible, like add to my kid's college funds.
5. Put some away for a grand rainy day adventure in a few years when the kids are all old enough to enjoy it.
Five places I've lived:
I've live WAY more than 5 places, so I guess I'll choose my favorites.
5. Ann Arbor, Michigan
3.Trumbull, Connecticut
4. Fort Wayne, Indiana
2. Orem, Utah
1. Laie, Hawaii
Five jobs I've had:
1. Custodial Services at the library at BYU-Provo
2. Waitress at the Tiffin Room in ZCMI - when there was still a Tiffin Room and still a ZCMI.
3. Front Dest Manager at Inn on the Creek
4. Accounting at the Utah National Parks Council office of the Boy Scouts of America
5. Mom - my favorite, and the hardest.
OK, so there are rules and I'm supposed to tag other people - I don't really like to do that part, so I'll just so what I've done before and leave it open for anyone who reads that wants to participate. If you do play though, leave me a comment so I know where to look!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Down by the Bay
As I was preparing my Nursery lesson for tomorrow, "I can be kind to animals" I came across some silly animal rhymes that inspired the kids to come up with new verses for the song "Down by the Bay". The first time we heard this song we were in Connecticut visiting Grandma and Grandpa Lambarth. I believe it was in the fall of 2005, because Danielle wasn't quite one yet if I remember corrently. Anyway, Grandma had rented some kids songs CDs from the library to listen to in the car. For those of you who are not familiar with this song, I believe it is on one of the Raffi albums (who turned out to be huge a big favorite with my kids). So here's how it goes:
Down by the bay,
Where the watermelon grows
Back to my home I dare not go
For if I do my mother would say:
Have you ever seen a (fill in the blank)
Down by the bay.
So the fill-in-the-blank part is a silly animal rhyme. Some of the ones in the real song are:
Whale with a polka-dot tail?
Moose kissing a goose?
Fly wearing a tie?
Llama eating pajamas?
So here are some new ones that we've come up with (well, the ones that aren't too crazy to be repeated in print):
giraffe taking a bath
pig wearing a wig
sheep falling asleep
hen counting to ten
cat wearing a hat
mouse sewing a blouse
beetle threading a needle
bear without any hair
bunny eating some honey
fish making a wish
shark playing in the park
cow saying meow
OK, the possibilities really are endless - it doesn't have to be animals. It's really a fun song. I was thinking it would be fun to do with names, but my kid's don't really have easily rhymable names. And as I'm thinking about it I'm only coming up with rhymes for two of my nephews and they aren't so nice (puke and lice). So maybe that ways is not so go to go. But you get the idea.
Oh, and by the way - click on the Raffi link above and it will take you to Rhapsody's website where you can listen to his music for free. There's like 280+ of his songs there.
Down by the bay,
Where the watermelon grows
Back to my home I dare not go
For if I do my mother would say:
Have you ever seen a (fill in the blank)
Down by the bay.
So the fill-in-the-blank part is a silly animal rhyme. Some of the ones in the real song are:
Whale with a polka-dot tail?
Moose kissing a goose?
Fly wearing a tie?
Llama eating pajamas?
So here are some new ones that we've come up with (well, the ones that aren't too crazy to be repeated in print):
giraffe taking a bath
pig wearing a wig
sheep falling asleep
hen counting to ten
cat wearing a hat
mouse sewing a blouse
beetle threading a needle
bear without any hair
bunny eating some honey
fish making a wish
shark playing in the park
cow saying meow
OK, the possibilities really are endless - it doesn't have to be animals. It's really a fun song. I was thinking it would be fun to do with names, but my kid's don't really have easily rhymable names. And as I'm thinking about it I'm only coming up with rhymes for two of my nephews and they aren't so nice (puke and lice). So maybe that ways is not so go to go. But you get the idea.
Oh, and by the way - click on the Raffi link above and it will take you to Rhapsody's website where you can listen to his music for free. There's like 280+ of his songs there.
Friday, September 12, 2008
What ever happened to the PTA?
Well, I'm once again slacking, as my little sis reminded me the other day. Life is starting to get crazy, but seriously, I'm on the computer enough that I should be able to at least give a quick update more than once a week.
This week has been pretty busy.
I attended my first PTCO meeting - that's what they call it here: Parent Teacher Community Organization. It it changing everywhere, or is it just here? I think it's better actually, to include the whole community, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue quite so nicely. Anyway, I went, and through the course of several conversations and meetings ended up being the treasurer. So that's a new adventure to look forward to. We have a HUGE fall festival coming up in a couple of weeks, one of the biggest fund raisers of the year, so it's been a little stressful, but they are so short on vollunteers. So far I'm not doing, or being in charge, of anything stressful, so that's good.
Abby was named as a Super Citizen in her class for the month of August. The ceremony was today - the usual hoop-la, but you have to see it to believe it. Mom and Dad L can atest, it's quite the event as they were here a year and a half ago for Abby's first ceremony when we had no clue what was going on. Here are a couple of pics:
Cameron FINALLY heard back from Univ. of Hawaii and has a job interview there next week on Friday.
Incidentally, I will also be going to UH next week, on Wednesday, to take the Praxis I exam to get into the School of Education here at BYU-Hawaii.
Danielle is giving a talk on Sunday - I forget the topic right this second, but this is her first talk in Primary, so hopefully that will go well.
Isaac is quickly learning to read, and this week as been able to read his homework books to me instead of the other way around.
Poor Juliana has been sick with something most of this last week. She has a fever and a runny nose and always wants to be held. And she hasn't been sleeping real great because of all that. She's been in better spirits today, but she still has a slight fever, but hopefully that means she's on the mend.
Well, I guess that's it for now. Though I was just realizing that I need to get going on Halloween costumes soon. We haven't even figured out what we're going to be. Anyone have any suggestions for 6 related costumes? I would love to hear them.
Speaking of suggestions, the same sister who so nicely mentioned my lack of posts lately, is in the process of potty-training her little boy and she is getting desparate for potty solutions. So if you have some advise, methods, ideas that you could pass on to her, I'm sure she would appreciate it. You can visit her blog here and leave a comment.
Oh, and if anyone is interested, I had to start a blog about technology in the classroom for a class of the same name, so if you're interested in reading more of my mundane thoughts and, like me, wonder if 3 conputers is really enough for one household, check it out here.
Happy weekend everyone:)
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What a response!
Apparently I just need to post really gross/creepy things on my blog to get lots of comments! I'm glad to hear from you all - I didn't even know some of you read my blog! I felt so loved this morning when I opened my email.
While the ants haven't made a reapperance in the bathroom, I did find a new line of a completely different type of ant along the kitchen counter this morning. That one was sprayed without documentation. While it was a decent line of many ants, it just paled in comparison to yesterday's discovery.
And I have to say I'm surprised that no one mentioned my particularly lovely cockroach picture that I linked to my post yesterday - it's a good one! If you missed it, you should click on it, if only to get a friendly hello from a gross critter. (Jess, the boys would LOVE it if you haven't already clicked on it!)
Well, I don't really have anything special to post today, but building off of my Distopic Society post - I did actually find a stray dried spaghetti noodle on the wall the other day when I was scrubbing the kitchen floor. (I know, amazing that I was actually cleaning for floor, but it needed to be done.) So here it is in all it's noodle glory.
Have a happy Thursday!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
We've been invaded!
I wouldn't normally share video of my bathroom with the general public (not that anyone who doesn't know me ever stops by) but I just had to share this.
Ants are just part of the life here in Hawaii, just as are cockroaches, cane spiders, centipedes, geckos, and other creepy crawlies, good and bad. Doesn't that just make you want to move here? Well, we've always been plagued by these teeny ants, they show up in the weirdest places of the house. And they are super annoying when you get one on you as they are so tiny that they are hard to find, but yet they tickle like crazy. Since we live in an apartment building that is as old as sin I don't think that there is any way to even begin to actually eliminate them, but I do my part to kill off the populations that I come across. As I did to this one shortly after I taped this. This is BY FAR the most ants I've seen in one place - who knows what they were doing?
Luckily my children are not scared off or freaked out by ants, as Isaac went to use the bathroom and found the millions of little critters. He even thought it was pretty cool. What boy wouldn't?
After a little research online I think that I've identified them as ghost ants. Here's a little more info from the Ant Institute (didn't know there was such a place) if you're so inclined.
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