Moving Day
Well, I'm considering a move. I may be moving over to blogger. I've had no problems here at tripod. Ever. I just think it's time for a change. You know, the whole "grass is always greener" thing. Check me out!

Well, so I still haven't mastered the whole linking thing.

http://thesmalltownstarlit.blogspot.com

Hola La Nina!
Hmm... Do we have La Nina to thank for this ca-ra-azy weather lately, or shall we chalk it up to good 'ol Oklahoma unpredictability? One week ago it was, like, fifteen degrees and we were out of school for a snow day. By the way, the snow day did not keep me from Ladies Night over at the Big Fancy Casino. We even drove over to the car wash/convenience store/gas station/diner/casino for their $5.00 free play. Today...seventy degrees. How is a girl to plan? I wore a huge sweater today and roasted. People seemed to like the huge orange-ish sweater though. Lots of discussion as to what the color was exactly. I'm going with plain old orange.

Kindergarten has been pretty fun lately. I noticed today that about two lessons a week revolve around food. Hmm... Today was AB, ABB, and ABC patterns with M&Ms. The food. It's what teaching is all about. The Tooth Fairies came today. I know! How exciting is that! I totally know the Tooth Fairies. They are a group of elderly ladies that get together and sew Tooth Fairy pillows for all the Kindergarteners in the county. They come and talk to the kids about healthy eating and read a book about the Tooth Fairy. The kids love it!

Some of the high school kids are caring for a litter of pigs that the mom abandoned. They brought them over to our class to show the kids how they are bottle feeding them. I held one of the little piggies and carried it around so that all of my little ones could pet it. It pissed all over me. Nothing quite like pig pee to top off your afternoon! It seems like every animal I hold feels comfortable enough to just let it all loose. Talk about stink!

I'm getting ready to leave for Ladies Night. Here's hoping I'll win big! I need $500.00. I'm seriously not greedy! I could ask to win a lot more than that. I only need $500.00 to go see Bub for his BIG THREE-OH BASH! Okay, so I'd actually be there about a week before the big day, but we would so celebrate early. Let the Might Buffalo and the Mighty Turtle hear my plea.

Wish me luck!

Oh yeah. I need a name for our dance team. We are the Owls and our colors are red and white. And no, we will not be the Red Hot Hooters. Any submissions on possible names would be greatly appreciated!

Let's All Celebrate
Hand, Hand
Foot, Foot
Hip, Hip
HOORAY!

I am the newest instructor for Great Expectations. Great Expectations is a method of teaching. I have gone to their training since the summer after my first year of teaching. In my opinion, there is no other way to effectively teach. Many times I attended this training I went by myself. It was worth it. I also got to know several people that were involved with the program. I've had a couple of instructors tell me that they had, at different times, submitted my name to intern. Well, for the past three years the intern program was suspended. About a month ago I was looking at their website and saw that they had reopened the internship program. I decided to apply. I had to submit a video of my teaching. It had to be twenty minutes of unedited footage. The day we taped I went over all the guidelines with Mrs. Tina. Teacher Assistant, videographer...she does it all! She was under no circumstance to stop and restart the tape. That would be considered editing. So, what happens? A girl up chucked. Bless her heart, Mrs. Tina never stopped the tape. As I'm just teaching along you hear say "She's sick." Then you see me jump and run across the room with a trash can in hand. Good thing I have lots of readers in my class. I called on a student to go to the front of the room and read to the class. Tina never missed a beat she went directly to the student leaving his chair and followed him to the front of the room to read. Of course you can hear me in the background asking where her ponytail holder went. So anyway...I sent the tape along with about three applications and a written analysis of my video to the powers that be over at Great Expectations. I just mailed it last Saturday. The website said that that would visit the principals if they liked the video. If they liked what the principal had to say they would visit your classroom. If they liked you in your classroom they would recommend you for training. I really wasn't expecting to hear anything for awhile. At 3:00 today the secretary called and said that someone from G.E. was on the phone and did I want her to take a message. Heck no! I had her transfer the call and I ran to the phone. The lady introduced herself as a mentor and said "welcome to the family." HOW COOL IS THAT! I go to training in June and then I will intern for a week with another instructor before they turn me loose on my own. I am so stoked!

I Heart Chocolate
I am so hopelessly addicted to chocolate it's not even funny! I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but my brother is now right up there with Mr. Willy Wonka. He works for a chocolate company. Vere is a new brand of chocolate that is manufactured in Manhattan. It's the real deal. I think it's, like, 75% cocoa. I've never really like dark chocolate so it didn't really appeal to me. At least not at first. Our first week back to school I decided to give up the chocolate. Yeah, right. So then I decided that I would only allow myself the Vere chocolate. It's so rich that I could only eat a little nibble at a time. Perfect, right. I'm not denying myself of the chocolate. I'm eating chocolate that is sugar free and chocked full of antioxidents. And...I'm only eating the tinist of nibbles at a time. That was then! Now, I love the stuff! So I don't just have a fifty-cent a day Milkey Way habit. No! I have a $3.00-6.00 a bite habit! That's right, Bub's chocolate is CRAZY expensive. Well worth it, but CRAZY expensive. Mmmm...the peanut butter brownies are to die for. The little chocolate squares...mmmmm!

So tonight is the Great Night of the Ladies at the Big Fancy Casino. Last week I won a $500.00 drawing. That is, I would have won. HAD I BEEN THERE AT 11:00! I won't be making that mistake again. I'll for sure be staying. All night if I have to. I'm not terribly greedy. I just want enough to go visit the chocolate factory, er, I mean my brother, for spring break. Bub is turning the BIG 3-0 in March. He threatened to spend his birthday in Amsterdam if I don't make it out there. Seriously, Amsterdam. I've seen movies. I know what they do there. I don't want my brother living out the rest of his life in some Amsterdam-ian jail.

Wish me luck tonight!

An Open Letter To Mr. Ray Nagin
Dear readers,
I was extremely disappointed with Mr. Ray Nagin's comments yesterday. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Nagin took the opportunity to spread the very disease that Mr. King worked so hard to dissapate...racism. I feel moved to write an open letter to Mr. Nagin. I realize that he probably won't happen upon this blog to read it, but as soon as I can find an e-mail address for the New Orlean's Mayor's office I intend to forward a copy.
Please read an excerpt of Mr. Nagin's speech. An ABC news story on Mr. Nagin's speech can be found at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1511253

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Mr. Ray Nagin
Mayor, New Orleans


Dear Mr. Nagin,
I am not a resident of New Orleans. Nor am I a resident of Louisiana. I live in Northeastern Oklahoma. While I didn't live through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, I assure you that my heart ached for the men, women, and children that endured that tragedy. As I watched the media accounts of the devastation I knew that I could never comprehend the actual pain that so many people felt. I watched the people of New Orleans crowd into the Super Dome with nothing. I understood that many cases of theft were actually good hearted people trying to survive. How absolutely unbelievable that Americans would find themselves in such a situation. I will not defend how our country's administration responded to your citizens. I found their sluggish response appalling. I did not, until Hurricane Katrina, know of a man named Ray Nagin. I had no interest in the New Orleans city government. However, I was so proud to see your initial media interviews. You were speaking out for the people of your city so well.
Mr. Nagin, just as I was appalled at the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina's victims, I am now appalled at your recent comments. This morning I heard your comments made on Martin Luther King Day. Mr. King gave his life to bring equality to all people. The diversity of New Orleans was one of its greatest attributes. I am sickened by your comments that New Orleans will be a "chocolate city". I wonder what a man like you would say if a white mayor made a national proclamation that his/her city would be a "white city"? I'm sure you would speak out at this obvious display of racism.
Every state in this nation opened its arms to hurricane victims. The citizens of the United States came together to help one another. I don't think the people of Texas only took white people to the Astro Dome. I don't think they took only Hispanic victims. Most people tried to help whoever they could.
I teach Kindergarten. I go to school each day and teach my little children that all people are the same. Our skin may look different, but our hearts are the same. You had such an opportunity to be a great influence on not only the African American youth, but on America's youth. I hope that in the future you will learn to value all the people of New Orleans.

Sincerely,
Small Town Starlit

Thank you for letting me get that out!

Good grief! I haven't blogged in...well, forever! I just haven't felt like it. I have enjoyed reading everyone else's. I bet no one even checks this old abandoned blog anymore.

Sometimes it is better to know nothing. We have this major drama going on at school. I know a little, but not all that much. I so could have had a major scoop, but I decided that ignorance is bliss. I ran to my class to avoid hearing any of the juicy tidbits. My gosh, I must be growing up.

I colored my hair. It's a real auburn-ish color. It kinda takes me back to more of my natural color. I also got a chi iron. I rock with straight hair! I don't mean to sound so sure of myself, but, well, yeah I do mean to sound so sure! I look good with the straight hair. He,he! It's good to have a mother-in-law that is a beautician! I went in last week and told her that I was going to have to do something about the gray. I have tons of gray hair! She told me to have a seat. It didn't cost me a dime! She is great. She also gave me her old chi to use. That saved me, oh, about a hundred dollars.

I checked webmd today. I have severe fatigue. At least that's what I think I have. Apparently I could suffer from any number of serious ailments. The friendly people over there suggested that I see my family doctor sometime in the next two weeks. Ok, so I really think I might just be tired. I don't think I have lukemia, diabetes, HIV, or anything else. Hey! What website is the hands down favorite among hypercondriacs? WEBMD!

Chaddy is going to go 4 wheeling this weekend. I'm going to meet him on Sunday to ride for awhile. I don't know what I'll do this weekend. I'm going to homecoming tomorrow night. My girls perform at halftime. I'm thinking I may have to play some high stakes Indian bingo on Saturday. The Buffalo has been kind lately!

I owe one of Mrs. Coach's readers a great big "I'M SORRY!" I was a little upset that I couldn't post a comment and I took it out on you. Sorry! I did post a comment though. You know the Starlit is the cousin of the Diva. I'm entitled to feel entitled! By the way...you are right that I probably won't set up a blogger identity. Please put comments back for me so that I don't have to steal all the Diva's information. She might get mad and change it all on me! What would I do then? You might get a visit at the free cheese pick up place.

The job I applied for earlier this year has not been filled. Please send professionally successful thoughts my way! This would be a great opportunity for me.

We are having roast tonight. Yummy. I could smell it when I stepped onto the front porch.

I'm totally rambling. I have nothing at all to write about.

This week was spirit week. Which means that I got to dress like a bum all week and not get in trouble. I think I'l dress nicely tomorrow. Or, maybe I'll wear windpants. We'll see.

I hope I still have someone out there who checks this!

A Holiday Recipe
I don't do much baking, but this is a recipe I can really enjoy! I hope you do too. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cake recipe

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila
2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the tequila to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the tequila again, to be sure it is of the highest
quality, pour one cup and drink.

Turn on electric mixer...
Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again.

At this point it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK, try another
cup...just in case.

Turn off the miserer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off the floor...

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers jus! t pry it loose with a
drewscriver.

Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.

Check the tequila.

Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

finally, throw the bowl in the stink, finish the tequila and find someone
to dance with.

Cherry Mistmas!!

Tis the Season
Oh the fun! Oh the joy! Oh the excitement! It's Christmas program night! Okay, now read that again, only this time, your voice should drip with sarcasm. I hate the Christmas program. Don't get me wrong, I love watching my little lovelies up in front of everyone, but good grief, by the time fifth grade sings I'm just tired. You see, Kindergarten performs first. Which is oh, so appropriate. The problem is that then they have to sit quietly through the rest of the program. You try to keep twenty Kindergarten children quiet for an hour. Keep in mind, they're wearing new clothes that they really want to show off. It's not pleasant. Last year I just joined in the fun. I made faces across the room at a little girl in the other Kindergarten class. We made faces and giggled for about twenty minutes. That is until her teacher put her in time out. I felt kinda bad, but then I found another kid to make faces at!

We always decorate for the Christmas program with Christmas trees. Each grade usually hauls over a tree, decorates it, and hauls it back to the classroom the next day. This year someone had the brilliant idea to have each grade make train cars. You guessed it, the idiot with great idea was...me. It sounded like a super plan, that is until we started putting the five foot train cars on the wall. We hung them at the top of the wall so that they could be seen over the merrily singing children. I think it turned out GREAT! However, under the brilliant, wonderful train were the words FAIRLAND OWLS in vinyl tape. So, would the duct tape pull the not-so-sticky vinyl letters off the wall? That was the question posed to us as we were finishing hanging the train. I stressed over those stupid letters all night! Thankfully they did not peel off!

After the program some of us headed over to the benevolent Turtle. I won $20.00 so I got to play for a while. Melissa also won $20.00. Tanya spent $20.00, but won it back before she left. So, we all got to play and it didn't cost us a thing. That's a winning night in my opinion!

Friday night Chaddy and I had dinner with Keith and Alyssa. I had to send my steak back. I hate to do that! Mikes has this delicious peppercorn steak. I mean, DELICIOUS! It is so good dipped in blue cheese dressing. I ordered it medium well. When I got it, it was still bleeding. Eww! They were really nice about taking care of it. One waiter even brought me and Alyssa some sort of tasty treat from the bar. He said it was leftover from a drink he mixed. It was a peach daquairi, I think. Whatever it was, it was good. And, how nice! Keith and I had a little bit of a disagreement at dinner. He said that my mom bought her Jeep from one individual, I said she bought it from someone else. I tried to bet him a thousand dollars, but Alyssa wouldn't let him shake on it. I tried a hundred, fifty, twenty-five...Alyssa never would go for it. I was so sure I was right! We finally bet that if I was right Keith would have to come to Christmas in a dress. If he was right, I would have to come to Christmas in my swimsuit. I was right! Shave those legs! Whoo-hoo! I'm so nice though, I'm not making him pay up.

Saturday Tanya and I headed to Branson to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. How GREAT was that show! We got a little worried when there were only about eight rows of people. Two rows were from Claremore First Baptist Church. They had the guy in the audience before the show asking everyone where they're from. I hate that! "Where are you folks from? Deluth. Really. My cousin's wife's brother has a friend in Deluth. Small world, huh. Thanks for coming to see us today." What we did not hate was Mr. Joseph's abdominal area. Hello! My bet is that boy has never eaten a carb! Seriously, you can't eat carbs and look like that! Now, his face...not so much to look at. In fact, you kinda wanted to just look away. The abs. Another story completely.

We went to the outlet mall and to eat afterward. We ate at the Silver Dollar City end of the strip. I thought we could just drive straight out past SDC and get back on the highway home. If you can, I missed the exit. We drove all the way around Table Rock Lake. We had to stop at a gas station with bars on the windows for directions.

We were about thirty minutes from home when Chaddy called. Boston was sick. She was puking everywhere. Great. When I got home I found that she really wasn't puking. She was coughing really nasty puddles of phlem. Ugh! Coughing with dogs can mean something serious though so I layed in the living room with her all night. I stayed up all night and all day yesterday. She never wheezed or seemed to have trouble breathing so I didn't make the after hours vet call. I took her in this morning though. She has bronchitus, treachitus, and larengitus. I totally misspelled all of those. I know. She got an antibiotic shot, an antiinflamitory, and antibiotics to take for ten days. She is also supposed to take an over the counter cough suppressant. The vet said I need to test the turkey allergy theory with Jersey. I'm supposed to give her about half of what I gave her last time to see if she has any reaction.

Today is our anniversary. We've been married for seven years. I am so lucky to have found Chad. I cannot imagine living my life with anyone else. He knows me so well. Our first two and a half years we lived in a monopoly house. It was less than six hundred square feet. We had no money. Ever. I was driving back and forth to school in Pittsburg. The first winter we were married we made the coolest snow man in our yard. We also made an igloo. I remember when we bought the house we're in now. We had no idea what we were doing. I was just thrilled to have a hallway and closet. We've been to Orlando, New York City, Cancun, Colorado. We've gone camping and hiking too many times to count. We are eachother's best friend. Of course we fight sometimes, but we know that we can count on eachother no matter what.

Turkey Drama At The Starlit's
Last night I polished off the last of the Thanksgiving turkey. I don't mind leftovers. In fact, I've eaten holiday leftovers for at least one meal everyday since Thanksgiving. So, last night was the last of the bird. I ate all but one last piece. I did what is commonly done in our house, I split the last bite between Boston and Jersey. For those of you who may not know...Boston and Jersey are our dog children. They gobbled up their little bites. About fifteen minutes later Jersey threw up. It happens. I didn't think much of it until she walked over to me as I'm cleaning it and her little face is swollen. I had never seen a dog's face swollen. It wasn't too bad though. Chaddy came in about ten minutes later. He freaked out. I ran in to see what was going on and couldn't believe that my dog looked like she did. Her face was huge. She's a lab mix but looked a little shar-pei. She was so swollen. I held ice packs on her while Chaddy whizzed around the internet. I couldn't get a hold of my vet so I tried the next best thing. The former president of the local Animal Welfare Society, our very own Brady's Mom. UGh! She wasn't home. I left what probably sounded like a frantic message for her to call me. I tried the vet again and he was home. He told me that she either got stung or she had an allergy to turkey. I won't be giving her any turkey again to test that one out. He told me that it probably wasn't life threatening. We were to give her human doses of benedryl and call if she had any trouble breathing. Chaddy ran out for the benedryl. By the time he got home she had hives all over her. We slept (well, not really) with her in between us so that we would know if she struggled with breathing. She threw up a total of five times. Twice was in our bed. Yes, I had to change sheets twice in the middle of the night. This morning she seemed fine. No swelling. No hives. She did throw up again tonight, but I think she's probably alright.

People keep telling me I need a baby. I already have a baby. I have two. They just have four legs.

One more whine!

*I can't access blogs from work. I would do a much better job of posting if I could do it from work.